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Donald Trump Set to Host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Mar-a-Lago; Intense State of the Nation Address, Biden Criticizes Trump and GOP; United Flight Loses Tire During Takeoff; In E. Jean Carroll Case, Trump Will Challenge $83M Ruling. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 08, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Just one day after President Biden warned that democracy is on the ballot, Donald Trump is set to host an authoritarian down in Florida. The former president invited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to his Mar-a-Lago estate today. He's repeatedly praised the leader for his hardline policies and inflammatory rhetoric.

CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes joins me now. Kristen, what do we expect to see today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's really unclear what we're actually going to see today. We talked to Trump's team, a senior advisor, telling me that this was a social meeting. By that, they meant a friendly meeting with no agenda.

Now, of course, it's hard to believe that with a man like Orban and a man like Trump, that there is absolutely no agenda, but that's what they're telling us today. They said they might put pictures out, they might even put a readout out, but the one thing to really note here is that this cannot be an official meeting because Donald Trump is not currently a world leader.

So, he has no obligations to report any part of his conversation with the Hungarian Prime Minister. The other thing to point out here is that the White House did not issue a formal invitation to Orban. And on top of that, they -- Orban did not reach out for any sort of meeting with anyone on the Biden administration.

This is significant because Donald Trump is not only the former president, but also, he is the presumptive Republican nominee. He could be president again, and it gives you kind of an idea of where he might align himself with world leaders if he were to be reelected into office. It's not that surprising. Donald Trump has always said that he admires these authoritarian leaders. In fact, of Orban, he said when three or two, some people don't like him because he is too strong. Nice to have a strong man in control of a country.

But the two of them, in addition to just keeping praise on one another, they also seem to be almost drawing from the same political playbook. I want to play for you what they've both said on immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIKTOR ORBAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER: We stopped illegal migration. We have actually built that wall and we stopped illegal migration.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had the strongest border in history. We built 500 miles of wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Very similar policy there on immigration. They have also aligned on various other things. Both of them have said that the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened if Donald Trump was in the White House, something Donald Trump obviously loves to hear from Viktor Orban. They've also aligned on attacking the free press.

Again, we will wait to see, to talk to people who are in the meeting, to see if there is a readout and make sure we report that out, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you very much.

Joining me now for more on this, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Ian, great to see you this morning.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: Hey.

ACOSTA: You know, a lot of Americans might be scratching their heads and saying, OK, he's meeting with the leader of Hungary. What's the big deal? What is the significance of this meeting for the viewers at home who are trying to sort this one out?

BREMMER: Well, I mean, of all of the countries around the world thinking about whether there might or might not be a Trump presidency in short order, the Europeans, the principal allies of the United States in the world today are the ones that are most concerned.

They are worried that Trump will be too close to Russia, too willing to throw President Zelenskyy and the defense of Ukraine under the bus, and uncommitted to the European Union and NATO. There is one European leader that is on the other side of that argument, of every one of those arguments, and that is Viktor Orban in Hungary.

He's the one leader in Europe that consistently has said that he has a more Russian model for his own country's governance, a nationalist model, not a democratic model. He -- he's the one that has said that he doesn't want to provide additional economic support for the fight against the Russia has in Ukraine.

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And he also has been the most Euro skeptic. of leaders among the E.U. members. So, no surprise that Orban, in this regard, is most interested to warm up to Donald Trump. ACOSTA: Yes, and Ian -- I mean, Viktor Orban has sort of become a, kind of, darling of the far right. If Vladimir Putin is not part of the conversation, a lot of folks on the far right are praising Viktor Orban. They had a CPAC conference, if I'm not mistaken, in Hungary at one point over the last couple of years. Tucker Carlson went out there and so on, and Trump has been praising Viktor Orban out on the campaign trail. What -- what's that all about?

BREMMER: Well, look, I think the danger here is that Trump has said on many occasions that when he becomes president, he's going to end the war in Ukraine in one day. And you wonder, why would it take him so long? I mean, he's obviously a very capable guy. But more seriously, this is someone who would be pushing Zelenskyy very hard to accept a partition, accept Ukrainian occupation from the Russians of their land. And also, you know, basically get a ceasefire for that.

Now, if that happens, many American allies will strongly oppose Trump and will align with the Ukrainians, but not Viktor Orban. His policy would be let's normalize with Russia. Let's start trading with them again. It's only hurting our economy. Let's work with the Americans. And when Orban does that, that becomes more attractive for other leaders.

Robert Fico from Slovakia would tilt in that direction. Maybe Meloni, the prime minister of Italy. And certainly, populist opposition movements that support Trump, like for example, those of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in France pulling above that of Macron today.

In other words, you know, this is -- Orban is the leverage point that would allow a Trump-led United States to drive a wedge into Europe and into NATO. It's potentially an existential crisis in 2025 for those allies. I'm not trying to panic anyone. When I look at other countries around the world, I look at America's Asian allies, for example, Mexico, Canada, India, the Gulf States, they don't face these kinds of crises from a Trump presidency. But the Europeans really do, especially given the nature of the war in Ukraine which isn't going so well right now.

That's also probably a part of why Biden decided to lead his State of the Union speech last night with Ukraine, forcing all of the Republicans that support his policy and don't support Trump to stand up and applaud. And we even saw applause from Speaker Johnson in response to those comments last night. And that was an important moment for the president.

ACOSTA: Yes, I thought that was important as well. When you saw the house speaker, sort of, politely clapping, you know, on this issue of whether or not Ukraine should get more aid. I mean, that was, perhaps a slight indication of maybe where that negotiation process is headed.

Ian, I also wanted to ask you about, the president stressing that democracy is on the ballot. That was a key focus of his speech last night. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very same time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes, Ian, what did you make of that part of the speech? And I guess also when the President was talking about January 6th, there was sort of a muted response coming from the Republican side of the aisle. Many of those members of Congress voted to overturn election results last time around, so perhaps that's to be expected. But I mean, this was not a full throated, you know, everybody was on their feet cheering the president --

BREMMER: No, no.

ACOSTA: -- as he was saying, let's save democracy.

BREMMER: Of course not. I mean, look, it's powerful, but it's also divisive. And the reason it's divisive is because Trump supporters support Trump in part, and maybe in large part because they believe that democracy does not work for them. That the representative democracy that's being touted by President Biden and by elites, and not just in the political space, but also in the media space corporates, bankers, you name it. That these are people that are promoting democracy for their own interests, their own self-interest. And that they want someone like Trump to break that system, to attack those people, because otherwise what's in it for them?

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So, the idea that you're defending democracy, if large percentages of your population don't believe in that democracy anymore, don't accept the legitimacy of those political institutions, and we see that in survey results time and time again in the United States, people don't trust their Congress, the Supreme Court, the executive, the media, the church.

I mean, all of these core institutions that are, sort of, foundational to why the United States is the superpower it is today, to why the U.S. was founded well before it had a lot of power. That's why Trump is so successful. Trump doesn't speak to the division. He's a symptom of it. He's taking advantage of the fact that so many people don't buy that part of Biden's speech.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, it's going to be quite the contrast from what we saw last night --

BREMMER: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- with Trump and Viktor Orban later today. We'll be watching that as well. I know you will as well. Ian Bremmer, thanks so much for your time this morning. Really appreciate it. BREMMER: See you. Yes, yes.

ACOSTA: All right. In the meantime, pretty sure this is not supposed to happen. A United Airlines flight loses a tire during takeoff. Where that tire ended up and how it's a miracle nobody got hurt here, that's next.

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[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: This just in, Donald Trump has filed notice that he will appeal the $83.3 million judgment in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.

CNN Correspondent Kara Scannell joins me now with the latest. Kara, there's more to it than just that. It sounds like he's posted a very large bond as well. What's going on?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, with just the deadline right around the corner, Donald Trump has now posted a bond for $91.3 million, that's to cover the judgment of $83.3 million in the E. Jean Carroll case. The district court's rules are that they require about 110 percent of the bond because this will stay the judgment, meaning that E. Jean Carroll can't take the money until the appeal is done, so they always want a little extra security.

So, Donald Trump has made the bond in this case. There have been big questions about how he would come up with this money. There are more -- there's more information coming into the docket that we're still going through. But he has made the deadline to post this bond. You know, meeting the $91.3 million that the court requires.

You know, this is now, of course, comes as he is also facing a very significant bond of $454 million in the New York civil fraud case. He is required to post that by March 25th. There have been questions about how he would come up with the money. So, we're seeing that he made this first deadline, which is the smaller amount of money. But the big question remains, will he make that next deadline?

Now, he has asked an appeals court in the civil fraud case to allow him to not post that bond until the appeal is over. The court is expected to issue a decision by the end of this month, also, though that is when the deadline is. So, that could be another judgment that comes down to the wire and whether Donald Trump can make it.

But for now, he has met the deadline. He has posted the bond in the E. Jean Carroll case. And he has said he is going to appeal the judgment and he's asking the judge to not allow Carroll to collect this money so he can appeal that a standard practice that's expected to be approved.

The only question would be if there are any issues with this bond. But again, it is now in the judge's hands, but Trump has made this deadline, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Very interesting. Kara Scannell, thank you very much.

Now, to a very troubling mid-air scare. A United Airlines flight made an emergency landing after a wheel fell off mid-flight. Have you seen this video? If you haven't, take a look. Just moments after the flight took off from San Francisco, you can see one of the tires, there it is right there, on this Boeing 777, simply falling off the plane mid-air. The massive tire landed in a nearby parking lot, crashing into multiple cars. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

CNN Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean, joins me now to talk about this. Pete, we're not supposed to have tires falling off of planes.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, tires pop, Jim. They catch fire, occasionally. Rarely ever do they fall from the sky and onto the ground from a commercial airliner. This was the scene yesterday at San Francisco International Airport, 11:35 a.m. Pacific Time. This 777 going to Osaka in Japan.

And here on the bottom of the plane, this is the left main landing gear, you can see the tire there has separated from this set of six wheels. Pretty alarming. And this was caught initially by Plane Spotters who were doing a live stream on this on YouTube.

You can see the tire fall to the ground. Apparently, it bounced a little bit and then into the employee lot there at SFO. That is the tire roped off by the police there in the employee lot. It caused a fair amount of damage to cars on the ground. Each one of these tires weighs about 265 pounds. That doesn't include the weight of the wheel hub. You can see it, it looks like it hit the fence there, then it hit that Toyota Corolla there, then it ultimately hit a Tesla.

Air traffic control was really the first one to notice this. And I want you to listen to the radio transmissions they made to other airplanes telling them to abort their landings. And that they had to clean up the runway. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sam 151, go around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go around, Sam 151.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sam 151 heavy thanks. The last departure lost the wheel on departure so we're going to have to shut the runway down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you guys know where that tire went?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, so, it's probably going to be a few minutes for you guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Three of the missing tire. OK. So, one of the issues here and one of the big questions the FAA will ask is how did this happen? Was this a maintenance induced issue?

[10:50:00]

Maybe because this airplane flew in 24 hours before from Paris, there's a maintenance phase for United Airlines there in San Francisco. Was this something that simply broke? That may be the simplest answer. Unlikely that this was a Boeing induced issue, though. This plane wasn't really new, like we saw in the 737 MAX 9 door plug blowout back on January 5th. This was an airplane built 22 years ago.

United Airlines says, they will do anything they can for the customers who are on board this plane, about 250 of them. Also, anything it can for the people who had their cars destroyed by this. Imagine getting the phone call from the police saying that your car was destroyed by a tire from the air. Hope United gives them some points or maybe some status, at least, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, I hope that's in their auto insurance policy. That's a unique one. And I --

MUNTEAN: I know, yes.

ACOSTA: -- the other thing, Pete, is that we're lucky that nobody was hurt on the ground. I mean, that could have just been totally catastrophic --

MUNTEAN: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- had it landed somewhere else.

MUNTEAN: And when you think about the force -- I mean, these wheels take a lot of punishment.

ACOSTA: Yes.

MUNTEAN: And they hit the ground with a fair amount of G and also, they're really heavy. So, you're right. It is very lucky that no one was there in the employee lot. We heard from somebody in the employee lot who was right around the corner and pulled up when this just happened, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Pete Muntean, thank you very much.

We'll be right back.

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ACOSTA: Making history on this International Women's Day, Nora Al Matrooshi has officially become the first ever female Arab astronaut. After two years of hard work, she graduated from NASA training this week. Al Matrooshi is a mechanical engineer and one of two candidates selected by her home country, the United Arab Emirates, to enroll in the NASA program. She and her nine fellow graduates are now eligible for flight assignments, and we wish them Godspeed. And we wish all of you a great weekend. Thanks very much for joining me this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of "Newsroom" with Wolf Blitzer starts after a short break. Have a great weekend.

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