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Trump's Attempt to Postpone Criminal Trial in New York Denied by Judge; Amid Gag Order, Trump Comments About New York Judge's Family; Rep. Greene: House Speaker Johnson is a "Damn Fool"; 2024 Total Solar Eclipse; Weather Prediction for Total Solar Eclipse on Monday. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 04, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Another legal setback for Former President Donald Trump. Judge Juan Merchan is dying his -- denying his latest motion to further delay the upcoming Hush Money trial for Trump in New York. That means if things go ahead as scheduled, we could see the first criminal trial of a former president in less than two weeks. Trump was hoping to push the trial date until after the Supreme Court decides whether he has immunity.

Former Federal Prosecutor Shan Wu joins me now. Shan, I mean, they have been trying every -- try to pull every rabbit out of the hat that they can, a card under their sleeve and so on, but it sounds like they are running out of tricks.

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think they are. I think, the last remaining hope they have is for Trump to somehow goad the judge into being so angry that there's an outburst. Maybe that will help him on appeal. Maybe he could again try and get some kind of delay. Saying the judge now is very biased.

But Merchan has kept his cool. I mean, he's expanded the gag order to stop attacks on his daughter. I think they could go further. But this is not a judge -- he's very experienced. He's not a judge who's going to lose his cool.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, to that point, yesterday Trump shared three articles about the judge, his daughter, and his wife. The judge may be fair game.

[10:35:00]

His family is covered by the gag order. I mean --

WU: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- doesn't that mean because here's the question I have is, is Trump trying to goad one of these judges to say, OK, that's it. You're going to the slammer for a couple of days. And then that's a whole delay mechanism then. And so, the judges are kind of faced with the prospect where they can't really enforce their own gag order because it may delay the trial that they're supposed to be presiding over, if that makes any sense.

WU: Well, they can enforce it. Remember way back when Judge Engoron laid some, sort of, slap on the wrist fines.

ACOSTA: Right.

WU: They can start to do that to enforce it, but the step of putting him in jail, I mean, I think you're completely right. They're very loath to do that. And also, I think, for a judge of Merchan's experience, he wants to get this to trial now. Everything's ready to go. And he's not going to get sidetracked by making some action like, you know, putting Trump in jail for a few days.

ACOSTA: Yes, and Judge Merchan said in his ruling that Trump waited too long to ask for this delay and that it's a last-minute nature. Asking just two weeks before the trial raises quote -- and we could put this on screen if we have it, "Real questions about the sincerity and actual purpose of the motion. Test the court's credulity." I mean, that's -- you know, that's kind of fiery stuff from a judge -- judges' standpoint, I suppose.

WU: It is. And particularly because it's not a bench trial. Merchan's going to, sort of, like wall off his views from the jury. The jury is not going to hear any of that. But it's certainly a loud and clear signal to Trump's team that, hey, you know, the judge is saying he sees through what we are doing here in terms of our shenanigans for delay.

ACOSTA: And Shan, I did want to ask you about the documents case in Jack Smith. I mean, being pretty feisty and going after Judge Aileen Cannon down in Florida in terms of her jury instructions and, kind of, buying into Trump's premise that, you know, he can do whatever he wants with documents and so on. Do you think that, Jack Smith is sort of laying the groundwork for having the judge removed from that case? Do you foresee that kind of thing coming? And I have to think if -- one thing that has to be floating in the back of their mind is, like, if they do that, that's going to delay that case --

WU: Yes, that will --

ACOSTA: -- until kingdom come.

WU: Right. Exactly. And a lot of the talk we have about everyone calling for her to be removed, we're forgetting the fact that that would cause a delay too. He is laying the groundwork for that. I mean, I think first it would be what's called the writ of mandamus, directing her on a very specific issue. It's a very dangerous situation for Smith, not just because the jury instructions are slanted towards Trump.

If he doesn't get this resolved before she starts the trial, double jeopardy attaches. And now they've got the situation where they can't win on that instruction, they won't be able to appeal an acquittal. He's got to get this resolved before the trial starts so he can have a chance of fixing her wrong legal ruling on this.

ACOSTA: Yes, I was going to say -- I mean, does Jack Smith have a point? Can he get a fair trial with this judge, do you think? Can he poke and prod to, sort of, maybe affect her behavior without getting her thrown off the case?

WU: I think he can.

ACOSTA: Yes.

WU: I think he can. And just to give both sides for a moment, I mean, Cannon may be displaying more her lack of experience and being in over her head than necessarily her bias. I mean, there's an argument to say she put these instructions out there to say you guys fight it out now so we don't deal with this at trial.

But when you look at the picture of all the motions she hasn't resolved yet, she still can't set a trial date. It's 50-50 whether it's bias or it's incompetence. Either way, it's a problem.

ACOSTA: Either way, that's not good.

WU: Yes, right.

ACOSTA: All right. Shan Wu, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up, "A damn fool and a liar", those are direct quotes. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't mincing words when it comes to House Speaker Mike Johnson and the efforts to oust him next.

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ACOSTA: Up on Capitol Hill, Congress is still in recess, and already House Speaker Mike Johnson is promising to take action on Ukraine once lawmakers return next week. But far right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is doubling down on her warning that more funding to the war-torn nation could cost him his job.

CNN's Lauren Fox joins me now. Lauren, I mean, I guess some of this is whether -- you know, is this performative? Is she just using some rhetoric here? Is she just saying this to the -- kind of, give Mike Johnson the willies, or might this actually happen?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well --

ACOSTA: We don't know.

FOX: -- certainly, it is having an effect, right? Because any one member is going to have outsized influence in a Congress with such a narrow majority. And she's really not saying, specifically, when, how, she will bring this. She's just keeping this threat out there, keeping it alive. In fact, yesterday, Manu, in a conversation with her, pressed her if, you know, Johnson does X, Y, or Z, is that enough to trigger you? And she said, I'm not going to draw a red line, but I'm not not drawing a red line either.

And I think that that is certainly playing into this sense that she does have a lot of power in this situation. And Johnson has been trying behind the scenes to talk to members to come up with some kind of compromise to try and not anger some of those hard right members.

And the reality is it may not matter what he does. It may not matter if he structures Ukraine aid as a loan. It may not matter if he creates some kind of lend lease program because people like Marjorie Taylor Greene are where they are. Here's what she told our colleague, Manu Raju.

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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I'm going to tell you right now, funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that you can do. People are fed up with Republicans that say one thing and turn around and literally join the flock and just continue the same old crap everybody's tired of. And here, Mike Johnson has -- he's literally turned into Mitch McConnell's twin and worse."

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So, behind the scenes, one of the other options that Republicans have not taken off the table is this idea of splitting up Ukraine aid and Israel aid into two separate bills. The thinking being maybe they would lose some Democratic votes on the Israel aid component, they could pass it with Republican votes, and then on the Ukraine aid, they would depend on Democratic votes.

But Marjorie Taylor Greene is signaling here that if he moves forward with a bill that gets a lot of Democratic votes, that would be a problem for him.

ACOSTA: Yes, and I guess some people forget, I mean, she did have a little bit of influence, didn't she, when Kevin McCarthy was the Speaker. Does -- I wonder if some of this is because she feels a little iced out with Mike Johnson? That was another question that I had. And could she try to force a vote on the speaker, and would the speaker, at that point, need Democrat support to keep his job?

FOX: Yes, I mean, there's a lot of hypotheticals right now.

ACOSTA: Yes, yes.

FOX: We don't know the answer, in part because we don't know what Mike Johnson is willing to do when it comes to Ukraine aid. Certainly, Democrats have been signaling that maybe they would help him if he did the right thing on Ukraine. But what the right thing is, what that looks like, I think that's a huge question right now.

ACOSTA: All right. Lauren Fox, we'll be watching. Thank you very much.

Coming up, we're tracking the forecast for Monday's solar eclipse. Tom Foreman is here with us. We're going to talk about whether the clouds might ruin this spectacular moment and what we can do to get ready. That's next.

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ACOSTA: A spectacular celestial show is just four days away. The moon will blot out the face of the sun for a total solar eclipse that will cross the continental United States on Monday.

Joining me now at the magic wall is CNN's Tom Foreman with a closer look at the path of totality. What a -- that's a great way of describing it. Tom, where's it going to start? Where's it going? Will it end? I suppose it will end.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At some point it will.

ACOSTA: It has to end.

FOREMAN: So, who's going to see it? About 32 million people, plus maybe 20 million or so more who join in. So, roughly a Beyonce concert, and it's going to last for three and a half to four minutes. When you see the totality, it's really a short period of time, but what an amazing thing to see.

And look at all the people who actually will live in the path. It cuts right through the middle of the country, starting down here in Texas, going all the way up through Indiana and then through New York and Burlington and ending up in Maine Here, where I understand some commemorative pots are already being made.

ACOSTA: Wow.

FOREMAN: Now, I don't know that to be true. But there should be because it's a remarkable thing. Think about it, Jim. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, which is about four times as wide as the earth. The only reason this works is because the sun is so far away that it appears about the same size of the moon and it can block it out. We don't know that this happens anywhere else in the universe. It probably does, but it's a really unique relationship and the moon's getting further away by a few centimeters every year. It's not going to happen forever. So, get it while you can.

ACOSTA: Get it while you can, absolutely. And Tom, for those of us who are lucky enough to be in the path of the eclipse, let's talk about what you should and should not do. And we do have a visual reference as to what you should not do. I know you have something, but there -- you should not do this, apparently, you should not look up at the eclipse, don't do that.

FOREMAN: No.

ACOSTA: That will damage your eyes.

FOREMAN: That is not -- that is --

ACOSTA: Apparently, the president of the United States did it some years ago.

FOREMAN: Yes, that is not a thing to do.

ACOSTA: Don't do that.

FOREMAN: If you're going to look at it, you have to have protective eyewear, and look specifically for this number. I'm going to leave that just for a moment. If you want to grab a screen picture or something, you have to have at least this rating on your eclipse glasses. Make sure they're not scratched or wrinkled or anything that would let those harmful rays get in and damage your eyes.

Likewise, don't try to look through a camera, telescope, binocular, sunglasses without other filters already in place on those because those can just concentrate the light and they can still damage your eyes. This is something we've known for a long time. We've known this almost since, Anaxagoras, this Greek philosopher, explained eclipses for the first time about 2,700 years ago.

ACOSTA: Amazing.

FOREMAN: So, we've known it a long time. Don't do it. Keep your eyes for looking at your dog, your children, the final four. Things that brighten your day, Jim.

ACOSTA: Very good. All right. Yes. Always listen to Tom Foreman, he's our president here in the newsroom. Tom, thank you very much.

So, what role could weather play in Monday's solar eclipse? CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa joins me now from the Weather Center. I imagine a lot of folks are going to be trying to drive to the path of this thing so they get the totality -- the path of totality is we were talking about it with Tom a few moments ago. But the weather might have other plans. I can't -- they're all going to blame you. I'm sorry, Elisa, you're going to be in big trouble when this happens.

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, waiting for the phone calls. But what's wild about this is climate-wise, our climatology tells us that this area of the country would be sunny in April and this area of the country would be cloudy, and it actually is really flat for the forecast so far. It looks like a storm will develop over parts of the southern plains, a severe risk probable too later on in the afternoon.

So, the chances of some rain are pretty high from Texas to Louisiana up through Arkansas and even going into some of the Great Lakes states there. You can see where we got some clouds and rain developing. A weak storm tries to develop here. We also will have some rain up in the Northern Plains as well. You'll have a partial solar eclipse there.

So, the clouds might block that view for us. It might not be as crisp and clear as you want. For now, it looks like up in New England, we'll have the best view there, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. We're going to keep our eyes on that path of totality. And in the meantime, you have got your eyes on the early hurricane season predictions that is coming up. It's just a couple of months away. What do they show?

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RAFFA: Yes, we actually got our first update of the season today and it is an active one. It is the most active forecast that the scientists at Colorado State University have ever issued. 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes, five of which could be major category three or stronger hurricanes, all way above average. We're looking at a 62 percent chance of landfall along the U.S. coastline from Maine down to Texas, and again, that is above average.

Part of the reason is we have a La Nina ocean circulation. What that will do is push the jet stream north, which is our path of storminess. This leaves the wind shear decreasing or kind of that wind energy upstairs in the atmosphere, hurricanes hate that. So, without that around, that opens up a path for more storms to develop. The climate factor of this two is our oceans are much warmer than they used to be, that's more fuel for those hurricanes.

ACOSTA: All right. Elisa, thank you very much for that warning. And a quick programming note, CNN will have live coverage of these solar eclipses that you should not look into with your bare eyes. On Monday, starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN or stream it on Max.

And before we go, in Los Angeles, we want to tell you about this story. Burglars made off with up to $30 million, one of the biggest heists in the city's history. Police tell the "L.A. Times", the thieves stole the cash from a money storage facility in the San Fernando Valley on early Sunday night. The crew reportedly broke through the roof to get to the vault, but how they avoided the alarm system remains a mystery. Police believe they are dealing with an experienced team of burglars who knew how to gain access to the cash unnoticed, and the FBI is investigating.

Thanks very much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of NEWSROOM with Wolf Blitzer starts after a short break. Have a great day.

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