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Sean "Diddy" Combs Arrested In New York After Grand Jury Indictment; Trump, Vance Blame Democrats' Rhetoric For Apparent Assassination Attempt; White House Touts Another Month Of Low Border Crossings. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 17, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE AND TRIAL ATTORNEY (via Skype): The reason that I think we're going to see the sex trafficking allegations -- that we're going to see that in the indictment is not only because we've seen a lot of civil lawsuits, which speak to sexual abuse and alleged sexual abuse, but because of the involvement of Homeland Security. In general, that is the agency that would be investigating these types of crimes.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: How much detail -- just remind folks when the indictment is unsealed, how much detail will people be able to learn about what the allegations are and the charges he's facing?

MARRIS: We're likely to hear some factual aversions, meaning there's going to be some allegations which are -- which are -- what the prosecution is going to say are the evidence and the facts. So that's going to tell the story. We're likely to hear the basis for why these charges are actually being brought.

So there is some strategy. An indictment doesn't have to set forth every single thing that prosecutors know, but it does have to set forth enough to justify bringing the particular criminal charge. Therefore, we're likely to hear some of the what the underlying evidence -- specifically, what was learned from those raids. What did that reveal?

We're going to learn about the basis for these particular charges and I would suspect a lot of that is going to be electronic footprint. Remember, during these raids, phones were seized. Computers were likely seized. So that's going to provide a lot of evidence relating to what these charges are in the underlying case.

BOLDUAN: He was arrested yesterday. His attorney says he is looking forward to clearing his name. First, let's figure out what he is charged with. And we'll follow this --

MARRIS: Correct.

BOLDUAN: -- all throughout the day.

Misty, thank you very much -- John. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This morning we're getting new details about the movements of the suspect arrested in this second apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

With us this morning, CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow.

Jonathan, this is the map of the golf course. Let me push in a little bit on the area of interest here. You can see this is the location -- the approximate location of where the suspect was with the gun. And then we learned yesterday that he was in this area, broadly here and maybe just across the street here, for about 12 full hours.

What's the significance of that, and what's the significance of trying to figure out whether it was actually right here in the shrubs or in this broader area for that timeframe?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT (via Skype): Well, what we know John is that this suspect had ample time find the right location to launch his attack. Twelve hours is an astronomical amount of time for an assassin to really conduct pre-attack surveillance, understand the movements of people in the vicinity, understand where local law enforcement may be driving by. They can see where the Secret Service may be setting up in advance of Donald Trump's arrival to the golf course.

So this would-be assassin actually had the advantage of time to really look for this attack location. And that's really disturbing when we think about the threat environment that surrounds former President Trump.

BERMAN: A few more things that we seem to know at this point. Again, I just blank it out. This is the location of the suspect. Donald Trump was up around here on the fifth hold. And we were told yesterday that the shooter didn't get any shots off and didn't have a line of sight on Donald Trump either.

You talk about setting up -- having the ability to set up for 12 hours, and that's of concern to the Secret Service. Well, then, what could they possibly do to prevent that? Again, here is the broader golf course. Here is all these main streets. This is Summit, this is South Congress right by. I mean, would the Secret Service have to shut down the area for a day before the former president wants to play golf?

WACKROW: Well, John, I think this actually speaks to a -- you know, the broader question of what does the Secret Service do moving forward because of this specific event.

Now, I look at this and I think that two things are mutually inclusive in the context of the Secret Service in this event.

One, the protective model that we always talk about, which is this proactive model by the shift, working around the protectee -- that worked on Sunday. We saw that. We saw the close protection agents quickly remove the former president into safe area once the threat was identified by agents who were specifically positioned in advance of the former president, working along the fringes of the fairway.

Their role was specifically to look for this type of threat. That was a success, full stop. The agents did a great job on that day, but there needs to be further refinement.

And to your point and your question, what needs to be done is based on the Iranian threat that is still facing the former president, plus domestic threat issues that persist, the model around the former president needs to change.

[07:35:05]

They need to create greater distance -- standoff distance from potential threats to the former president at all times regardless of his location, whether that's at Mar-a-Lago, while he's playing golf, or even in New York City. No matter where he travels, they have to start pushing out the perimeter and securing those concentric rings of protection around him further to eliminate or reduce the type of risk that he is facing right now.

BERMAN: Again, you bring a good point here. Again, this is where Donald Trump was. This is the approximate location of the shooter. Trump was on the fifth hole. This is kind of by the sixth hole. The agents were moving ahead of Donald Trump as he golfed.

Jonathan, those in the Secret Service and those in the press who have covered candidates or presidents know this is what's called an OTR -- an off-the-record stop for Donald Trump. It wasn't on his schedule, technically, that he was going to go golf on Sunday. When you have OTRs that gives, I think, the Secret Service an advantage because people don't know usually where a candidate is going to be.

But Donald Trump golfing on a Sunday at his club isn't really as OTR as OTR is supposed to be, is it?

WACKROW: Exactly, no. When you -- when you have his name embossed in gold on the -- on the entry sign you know he's going there at one point in time. A would-be attacked -- all they have to do is just wait.

The pattern of behavior of the former president, especially when it comes to golf in certain areas, it's not really a true OTR. The element of surprise is gone. You know if he doesn't have anything on this schedule on a Sunday he's most likely going to go to the club or play golf at that club.

So again, I think this is where the further refinement of the protective model for Donald Trump, not as just a former president but Donald Trump as an individual who is facing this astronomical threat environment -- that needs to change, and they have to recalibrate how they're dealing with these OTRs. Because there is no element of surprise when you go to a location that he owns. That is eliminated.

So -- and I think that's what the acting director was trying to state yesterday is that change in protective methodologies.

BERMAN: Jonathan Wackrow, thanks so much for helping us understand all of this. Appreciate it -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail today and his campaigning is very clear. He and his running mate will be in Michigan at separate events and both, despite their own history of inflammatory rhetoric, are blaming Democrats' rhetoric for the assassination attempt -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I'd say that's pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone done the rhetoric.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And Trump posted on Truth Social that rhetoric from Democrats has "taken politics in our country to a whole new level of hatred, abuse, and distrust."

With us now, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director, Doug Heye. Doug, thank you so much for being here.

We heard from J.D. Vance calling --

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Right.

SIDNER: -- on the left to tone down rhetoric. He did ratchet up his own, though. He has promised to tone it down.

Do you think that that's actually going to happen here?

HEYE: I think we're in the midst of a tough campaign that's going to be very close and our rhetoric is probably going to match that. We also know, and we've learned this over the years, that Donald Trump doesn't pivot, and he doesn't ratchet down rhetoric.

But the problem that we have, Sara, with political violence in our country and political rhetoric in our country predates Donald Trump. And I think there's been a real move to put everything on his shoulders. And he deserves some of that weight but not all of it.

I worked at the Republican National Committee the morning that Gabby Giffords was shot. I went into my office and had a conference call with colleagues about how are we going to be responsible in this moment.

Several years later at a baseball practice, Rodney Davis, former Republican member of Congress, stood in the hallways of the Capitol in his baseball cleats talking to Brianna Keilar about taking down the hate.

And what we've seen is the hate is not taken down. When an alleged comedian posts a picture of Donald Trump decapitated -- and she's going to be at Carnegie Hall later this fall -- it tells you that rhetoric is seen as acceptable.

When people were telling -- when Maxine Waters, a Democratic member of Congress, says get in the Trump people's faces, what do we expect to happen?

The point is it's incumbent on all of us -- Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz -- all of us -- every Republican and Democratic member of Congress to take this rhetoric down because somebody is going to get hurt. And as we've seen, somebody's being shot at.

SIDNER: Yeah. I wish that the Republicans and the Democrats would both do the same thing and not go after each other with such -- with disgusting, sometimes, rhetoric.

And speaking of which, you mentioned some of the Democrats and some of the things that they have said. Here are some of the things that Donald Trump has said about his rivals.

[07:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, Communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor.

...is a radical left, Marxist, Communist fascist.

She's a Marxist, Communist, fascist, socialist.

She has to say because she's a Marxist, she's a fascist.

She's a Marxist, Communist, fascist person, which is -- she is a fascist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: When he was -- initially, when he was shot, there was this whole -- from his campaign, a whole idea that he would -- he's a changed man. He said he was a changed man. And yet, this rhetoric has continued to go.

What do you do from here? Where do you go from here?

HEYE: Well, one, he's 78 years old. I don't think you change a lot when you've had 78 years of experience. I don't like that rhetoric at all, and I don't think politically, it's all that smart either. But again -- and my Democratic friends get mad when we use this term -- when we look at what both sides do it's a problem here.

Everything we hear -- and I say this as a Republican who has never supported Donald Trump -- everything we hear about Donald Trump is this is going to be the end of democracy and the end of women's rights. And people react to that language as well. And we've seen this again, Sara, over the years. Should Donald Trump use more responsible language? Absolutely, as should Democrats, as should everyday American citizens. And that's a cultural problem as well. This isn't just politics. We see this infecting -- and I mean infecting our entire discourse throughout this country and it's why somebody is going to get hurt, and that's the problem.

SIDNER: Yeah. And when you say infecting the entire country, you have Elon Musk also weighing in with a tweet. And you're seeing this all across social media -- all kinds of reactions to this. Elon Musk saying, "And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala." He has since that down. But he has so many followers -- millions and millions -- tens of millions of followers watching him.

What do you say to the rest of us? Because the candidates -- obviously, this is during a campaign. Things get rough and the rhetoric, as you said, may not stop. What about -- well, how should the rest of us be responding to what we see?

HEYE: Well, I think one, we respond with shock, and we respond, hopefully, with responsibility.

So when Donald -- when this happened this weekend, some people's reaction was to make this another joke time to make fun of Donald Trump. And look, again, I don't support Donald Trump. I'm not going to vote for him. I'll probably write in somebody this time, as I did last time.

But the rhetoric about joking about somebody's assassination or attempted assassination, which is now a yearslong thing, is a problem. It's a sickness within our democracy. And that is something that affects all of us and we all have to do better.

SIDNER: Doug Heye, it's always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much -- appreciate it -- Kate.

HEYE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump and his children are rolling out a new business venture they say they have in the works, putting their names behind a cryptocurrency project now.

CNN's Steve Contorno is in Florida tracking the details on this. And Steve, what is going on here? And what conflicts does this represent considering -- does this present considering Trump's status currently, which is the Republican nominee for president?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Kate. Most presidential candidates try to convince voters that they are eliminating potential conflicts of interest. Here, Donald Trump is creating one potential conflict just 50 days before the election.

Now, the details on this new venture are vague but we know it will be called World Liberty Financial. It is a cryptocurrency business and the intention, at least partly, is to give access to capital for people who have been turned down by traditional banks.

And the concerns are three-fold.

One is that Donald Trump, if he is elected president, will be in charge of creating a whole suite of new regulations to put guardrails on this growing industry in the cryptocurrency space. If those guardrails that he has put out there -- a bunch of policy ideas that would help this industry grow and that are very receptive to cryptocurrency -- those policies potentially help this business.

There is also the concern of what happens if this business runs afoul of regulatory rules that already exist. He would be in charge of essentially regulating a business that he and his children are intimately involved with.

There's also the concern about scams. There have already been quite a bit of fraud and hacks related to this industry already. And even with Trump's new business, World Liberty Financial, there have been people who are creating fake Twitter accounts, fake websites, trying to draw people who are attracted to Trump, the celebrity, getting into this space and scam them.

In fact, World Liberty Financial's social media accounts -- it has a warning on it that says, "Beware of scams because this is already happening at such an alarming rate."

Donald Trump, himself, was someone who once though that cryptocurrency was a scam. He said that Bitcoin was not real money, and he had encouraged people not to get involved with it. But he has changed his tune and now he is being critical of the current administration and how they are approaching cryptocurrency.

[07:45:10]

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But they've been very hostile toward crypto -- toward all of it -- and extremely hostile like nobody can believe. Nobody even understands why. My attitude is different.

If we don't it, China is going to it. China's doing it anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are.

TRUMP: But if we don't do it, we're not going to be the biggest, and we have to be the biggest and the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, we asked Trump's campaign about these potential conflicts, and they did not answer questions about that. But as far as this new business coming just 50 days before an election and whether it would distract Trump from the presidential campaign, his campaign says that he has "outworked Vice President Harris so far, and that will continue."

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Steve, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, state troopers are sweeping schools in Springfield, Ohio after threats were made following the false claims by Trump and J.D. Vance that migrants there are eating pets.

And Amazon workers will now be required to come into the office in person five days a week. We've got new details on how they are responding to this. Spoiler alert: not well.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:35]

SIDNER: This morning, new fallout from the baseless claims former President Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance made about Haitian immigrants eating family pets and geese in Springfield, Ohio.

Beginning today, state troopers are sweeping all 17 Springfield, Ohio schools after schools received threats tied to those false claims. Yesterday you saw there two elementary schools evacuated because of threats, and colleges as well.

The mayor had this to say to warn that Trump's campaign might be planning a visit to his city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB RUE, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO: It would be extremely difficult if either one of the candidates came to our community right now. And I would discourage if I had the opportunity just because this is not a time to campaign in our community at the national level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The mayor discouraging Trump from being there.

With us now, Brynn Gingras. Tell me more about the actions that they're having to take, the state included --

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- because of this false rhetoric.

GINGRAS: I mean, the amount of anxiety that it's causing this community and the amount of resources that it's taking to deal with all of these threats. The governor is saying 33 bomb threats just within this last week based off of these claims which we know, of course, as J.D. Vance has doubled down multiple times on.

And that is a serious amount of resources that are now needing to be moved to these schools, like you just pointed out to basically do sweeps of these schools before the kids can go in. And then they are going to have to -- these state troopers that are being sent there by the governor have to stay there while they're in school and then also be a part of dismissal. Now that's just the under -- the younger kids, I should say.

As far as colleges are concerned, they -- two universities have had a number of threats coming about bomb threats and also about possibly shooting up campuses relating to Haitian immigrants, Haitian students. And so those schools had to go virtual. Two universities so far in that area.

So the governor is actually talking about where these threats are coming from, so let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): These threats have all been hoaxes. None of them have panned out. We have people, unfortunately, overseas who are taking these actions. Some of them are coming from one particular country. We think that this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Not surprising there. Now, he wouldn't elaborate which country he's talking about. He doesn't want to encourage that behavior, he said.

But this is very serious. As we know, of course, local officials also getting threats of their own. And so we're going to see how this goes on.

But it snowballs. There are then local people -- local law enforcement members that we have seen also kind of making claims as well, feeling open to make these kind of claims.

For example, this Portage County sheriff -- his name is Bruce Zuchowski -- went onto his Facebook page. This is a public official who is -- serves the county that's probably about 2 1/2 hours away from Springfield.

SIDNER: Um-hum.

GINGRAS: But essentially made these claims about people who support Harris to basically write down addresses so that we know where to send these immigrants when they come into town.

So, I mean, really volatile stuff happening and not stopping.

SIDNER: It's interesting. Governor DeWine is a Republican and --

GINGRAS: Yeah, of course.

SIDNER: -- and it should be noted. And there is a lot of talk about rhetoric right now --

GINGRAS: Yeah. SIDNER: -- especially from the Trump campaign and from Vance's team and the Republicans. And then you hear what this rhetoric has done -- their rhetoric has done to this town. It's rich.

GINGRAS: It's rich and it encourages other people to make similar comments.

SIDNER: Of course.

GINGRAS: You know, just like this sheriff.

SIDNER: Unbelievable.

All right, thank you so much, Brynn.

GINGRAS: All right.

SIDNER: Great reporting -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a judge has rejected Mark Meadows' effort to move the election subversion case against him in Arizona out of state court and into federal court. It's the second time now that Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff has failed in this quest. Meadows is also facing similar charges in Georgia. Moving the case to federal court could have made it easier for Meadows to get the whole thing dismissed.

So, some passengers on a Delta Airlines flight are recovering right now from injuries sustained what the airline is calling a pressurization issue mid-flight Monday. The issues causing passengers to suffer bloody noses and even burst eardrums.

They were on their way from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I looked over at my husband and he had both of his hands over his ears. And you needed to clear your ears, but it wasn't working.

[07:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It felt like somebody was stabbing me in the ear. I grabbed my ear, and I pulled my hand back and there was blood on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The flight was forced to turn back to Salt Lake, understandably. Delta has now apologized for the problems and the FAA is now investigating.

Amazon is telling corporate workers it is time to come back to the office five days a week. That is set to start in January. Since last year, they have been working on a hybrid schedule, which meant coming in three days a week. Some employees have pushed back on the return- to-office decision, but Amazon's CEO says this should help workers "invent, collaborate, and be connected."

That's how I'd describe us -- invent, collaborate, and be connected every morning.

BERMAN: Collaboration, invention -- I love it. I love it. And we're going to come in every day. We're going to start coming in five days a week also.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I might go hybrid but --

BERMAN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- TBD.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning -- over here -- over here -- CNN has learned the U.S. military has been scaling back the size of aid packages in recent months over concerns of shrinking inventory. The shift comes as fears grow about American, by the way, combat readiness and manufacturers play catchup from the large demand from Russia's war on Ukraine.

Let's get right to CNN's Natasha Bertrand for the latest on this. Natasha, what are you learning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. So look, last week the Pentagon revealed that it still has about $6 billion worth of funds to spend on weapons and equipment taken directly from DOD stockpiles and sent to Ukraine.

Now, the reason why they have all of this excess money that is actually set to expire at the end of September when the fiscal year ends is because these aid packages that the Pentagon has been sending to Ukraine over the last several months have been smaller than usual. They haven't wanted to spend all of the money that Congress gave them in that supplemental back in the spring over the last several months because they simply don't have the excess supply on the shelves that they are willing to part with at this point to provide to the Ukrainians.

And this is really an issue, of course, of production capacity. The U.S. has tried to ramp up its production of 155-milimeter ammunition over the last several months and year to try to meet the demand by the Ukrainians in this very protracted war of attrition against the Russians.

They are also trying to ramp up the supply of Patriot batteries. But this is a long process and ramping up that production is going to take years rather than months. And it's not going to be an immediate backfill of the U.S. stocks that the Pentagon would feel comfortable with at this point.

And so the issue now is a question of military readiness. Of course, the U.S. does not want to dip into its stockpiles too much to the point where it might actually affect the U.S.'s own ability, of course, to be prepared for conflict. And so now we're learning that, of course, the Pentagon, as a result, has been sending a bit less supply to Ukraine because they are trying to preserve their own stockpiles.

Now, this is obviously having an impact on the battlefield in Ukraine itself. President Zelenskyy saying that stuff is not arriving fast enough. And, of course, time is of the essence with winter fast approaching, John.

BERMAN: A lot of challenges.

All right, Natasha Bertrand. Thank you so much for that reporting -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So the White House is touting another month of a lower number of illegal border crossings at the southern border with Mexico. Biden administration officials saying his recent executive action cracking down on asylum claim access is the reason behind the drop, and that border crossings have now dropped to 2020 levels.

The issue of immigration remains very clearly a top issue for voters. And also, very clearly, Donald Trump has led -- has made this a cornerstone of his campaign and has shown in the polls that he has remained leading on this issue.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is tracking this for us from the White House. So, Arlette, what are you hearing in terms of the latest numbers from the White House?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the Biden administration is using this latest data point to argue that the Biden administration's policies at the U.S. southern border are starting to make an impact. These latest figure show that border encounters at the U.S. southern border sat at around 58,000 last month, and that was a slight uptick from the July figures, but it is far lower than the record highs that were hit back in December. And it puts those figures at their lowest point since September of 2020 when former President Donald Trump was in office.

Now, Biden administration officials are citing the executive action that Biden took in June, which largely barred migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border for the reason for this dramatic drop in encounters.

It comes at a time when immigration remains a top concern for voters heading into November's election. The issue of immigration has long been a politically vexing issue for the Biden administration throughout the four years that they have been in office.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly seized on the border and immigration as an issue in this campaign, trying to portray not just Biden but now his current opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, as mishandling policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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