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Supreme Court Rejects Trademark of "Trump Too Small" Phrase; Supreme Court Allows Mifepristone to Stay on the Market; Trump Meets with House Republicans on Capitol Hill; No Reason for Concern Says Kremlin; House Judiciary Hold Hearing on Hush Money Trial; Interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 13, 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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[10:30:00]

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: But I want to talk about another case we've been watching for. It is commonly referred to as "Trump Too Small." This is about a lawyer activist who wanted to trademark the phrase "Trump Too Small." Now, this is a reference to a crude remark in a 2016 debate that was made about the size of now Former President Trump's hands. And this activist put this slogan on t-shirts and mugs, and he wanted to trademark it. But the federal trademark office has limits on your ability to trademark anything related to a notable living person.

Now, he argued that this was a violation of his First Amendment right. But the Supreme Court has disagreed. They have rejected this. And during oral arguments, some of the justices pointed out the fact that nobody's stopping you from making your t-shirts or your mugs. And under some state laws, if you are the person doing this consistently, you even have some protections. Not exactly what you would get if you had trademark, but look, nobody's stopping you from making your merchandise. So, here, they rejected this claim. But this is one that a lot of folks have been watching.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Paula. Thank you. And I do want to go to Steve Vladeck, who's here with me in the studio, along with Gloria Borger to talk about the rest of the Supreme Court action today, the significant ruling on mifepristone.

Is it too cynical to think that the Supreme Court took a pragmatic approach today to sort of, you know, respond in a way, kind of respond to all of the criticism that the court has been taking?

STEVE VLADECK, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, you know, Jim, I don't think it's too cynical. I think the real story that is going to start to emerge from today's decisions, probably from some we're getting tomorrow or next week is the Supreme Court is as conservative as we've seen in our lifetimes. But there's a lower court that's even more conservative. I mean, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, has issued a series of opinions in the mifepristone case, in the domestic violence gun case about administrative law that really have tried to push the Supreme Court even further to the right.

What I read in this unanimous rejection in the mifepristone case today is the Supreme Court saying, slow down Fifth Circuit. You know, we're not going there. We're not ready to go there yet. We're not going to blow up decades of jurisprudence across dozens of fields just because you think we have the votes.

ACOSTA: Well, I mean, this goes to what a lot of abortion rights supporters were predicting after the overturning of Dobbs, that there would be sort of a rush to the courthouses. OK. We're going to go after mifepristone and now we're going after emergency health care in Idaho. And so, I mean, this is what the Supreme Court has wrought here.

VLADECK: And I think -- I mean, it's worth reminding folks that it was Justice Kavanaugh who wrote a concurring opinion in Dobbs that said, you know, we're sending abortion back to the states. We're getting out of this abortion business.

ACOSTA: Yes.

VLADECK: And it's a bit ironic that he writes the majority opinion today because they're not done. They still have this Idaho emergency abortion case that we expect them to decide in the next two weeks. I think there are legitimate concerns that if Former President Trump is re-elected this fall, there's going to be more aggressive efforts at the federal level to enforce this old statute, the Comstock Act, in ways that would further limit access to abortions, even in states that have fairly permissive regimes.

And so, I think, you know, today is a bit of a sort of half a step into the post Dobbs space, where the court's not going to let any old lawsuit come into the courts to challenge available procedures for abortions in other states, but where the court is also not going to be out of the business at all, where the court is going to have to figure out who are the right plaintiffs, what are the right cases, and how much are we really going to let individual states decide versus having uniform federal rules.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So, you reap what you sow, and you do the Dobbs decision, and you just don't wipe your hands of it and say, well, that's it. And --

ACOSTA: They made more work for themselves.

BORGER: And they've made more work for themselves, and they'll be dealing with this for years and years.

VLADECK: And I think what we're going to see -- what we're seeing already, is that there really are going to be two very different legal regimes in this country. There's going to be access to abortion in states that have tried to make it broadly available, where today's ruling is going to allow that to continue. You're not going to have a judge in Amarillo, Texas, shutting down nationwide access to mifepristone. But on the other side of the coin, the Idaho case is about access to abortion in states with restrictive abortion laws. And, you know, given the way that the court has acted in that case already, given the way the oral argument went, I think it's likely the court's going to uphold the Idaho law in that case. And so, I think we're going to see further pressure on individuals in states that have such restrictive regimes to travel to states that don't. That's, I think, the world we're going to live in, at least so long as this is left up to the states.

ACOSTA: All right. Fascinating discussion. All the implications that I think some considered and some did not consider coming to pass. So, we're dealing with grappling with today. Thank you both very much. We're going to take a quick break. Be back on the other side. Stay with us.

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[10:35:00]

ACOSTA: Breaking news right now. Donald Trump is meeting with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill for the first time since sending a mob of his supporters on January 6th at the Capitol. The former president arrived at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington the last hour. Today, he will be trailed by a mobile billboard from the DNC playing this 11-minute video on loop of the January 6th attack.

Let's go back to Kristen Holmes, Lauren Fox, they're up on the Hill with the latest. Kristen, let me go to you first. Help us out. What are we hearing behind closed doors there?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, Donald Trump seems to have moved on from policy or at least be going back and forth from some policy and instead, be holding court with these Republican lawmakers. Just some of what he has talked about. At one point, he talked about Nancy Pelosi's daughter and said that this daughter once told him that he and Nancy would have a great romance in another life per one member.

[10:40:00]

He also went on to discuss the Wisconsin judicial race. At one point, he was attacking another Republican congressman, California congressman, who had voted to impeach him, saying that he never loved him anyway.

Now, the significant things that he has talked about, he has touched on abortion. We know that this is a very sensitive issue for Republicans, and Donald Trump has not believed that Republicans have handled it well. He believes that that is why they lost so many races in 2022, that Republicans have gone too extreme on the issue.

But, Jim, I will remind you that this was painted as a meeting where Donald Trump could really lay out his policy proposals, talk about how he was campaigning, talk about his strategy to beat Joe Biden, talk about uniting the party, and really get into what might be down the pike for a 2025 agenda. It seems, other than the abortion comments, that most of this has been Donald Trump freewheeling in a meeting where he feels very comfortable with lawmakers, as you said, very different than what this was lined out to be.

ACOSTA: Yes. Lauren and a huge departure from -- I mean, a lot of criticism, heated criticism coming from inside the party from people like Kevin McCarthy right after January 6th. But, Lauren, what other tidbits are we getting from inside the room? Apparently, he made some reference to Taylor Swift. Am I right about that? What's going on there?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Donald Trump is really corralling from one issue to the next, Jim. It's very clear that despite the fact that, like Kristen said, this was supposed to be a policy discussion, you know, it opened with members singing happy birthday to the former president because his birthday is just right around the corner. And it's clear that this is sort of a cheerleading moment for Donald Trump.

Yes, as you noted, there are some Republicans who were vocally criticizing him after the January 6th insurrection. Many of those Republicans are not doing so in the same way anymore. In fact, Donald Trump's sort of boasting in this meeting that most of those members aren't even around anymore. That, obviously, the people who have survived in the Republican Party are the people who are backing him.

You know, he did talk about abortion. He did remind Republicans that they should not be afraid of the issue, that they should talk about how now this is up to states, which is always what the Republican Party wanted this issue to be decided by.

ACOSTA: All right. Kristen, Lauren. And I will note from our Melanie Zanona, who was in the room and sending some of these tidbits out, apparently, the former president made reference to Hannibal Lecter. And said, nice guy "he even had a friend over for dinner." So, we've seen Trump out on the campaign trail praising Hannibal Lecter. Apparently, he did it again this morning. Not sure we fully understand the context of that. But thanks to both of you, appreciate it.

Coming up "no reason for concern." That's what the Kremlin is saying about its military exercises in Cuba. But is that just Russian spin? More on that, next.

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ACOSTA: Right now, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on what they're calling Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's political persecution -- or prosecution, I should say, with Former President Donald Trump. Let's discuss that now with one of the committee members, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California.

Congressman, I guess I did want to ask you about Trump's visit up on Capitol Hill, but your response to this hearing on Alvin Bragg and obviously on the hush money case. There was an item in Politico this morning that said that Trump was so furious about his verdict that he called the house speaker and said, I want you to do something about this. REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Yes. The house speaker runs a law firm. They only have one client, but it's a pretty big firm, and they work every day on behalf of that client, Donald Trump. And that's at the cost of everything that your viewers probably care about, keeping their kids safe from gun violence and their schools, you know, making sure corporations aren't gouging you on your gas and your groceries, lowering your health care costs. None of that's being addressed. But we are going to bring in eventually a district attorney who presided over a local case and question that verdict.

And at the same time, by the way, Jim, these guys were praising the verdict in Delaware, were a jury of Hunter Biden's peers found him guilty. And so, it's really about Donald Trump's choices, though, right? Donald Trump chose to live in Manhattan. He had a jury of his peers that -- a jury that he picked decided, you know, his fate. And that jury decided 34 times that he is guilty. So, that's 408 straight times that they said guilty. And now, they're going to seek, you know, to undermine what Donald Trump's neighbors had to say about his criminality.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask you about what's taking place just a stone's throw from where you are right now. The former president meeting with Republican lawmakers. He's meeting with House Republicans right now. Will meet with Senate Republicans later on this afternoon. A handful of Senate Republicans are not going to that meeting. They're saying they have scheduling conflicts. What's your response to seeing the former president up on Capitol, apparently the first time since January 6th that we know of?

SWALWELL: MAGA Republicans right now, rather than legislating in this building, are hanging out with a felon. A felon who wants to be president. A felon who, if he is president, as an ordinary citizen would be denied a security clearance. As an ordinary citizen would be denied entry into the military that he would preside over. As an ordinary citizen is not allowed to carry a weapon and would oversee, you know, millions of law enforcement officers who can.

[10:50:00]

Is not allowed to visit nearly 40 countries, which seems pretty important when you are kind of the lead country in NATO and many other organizations. And again, is running this me, me, me campaign where if president, he's going to carry out a revenge tour rather than focus on priorities.

So, Democrats, what's important for us, is we have to show we're going to choose families over felons. We prefer verdicts over vengeance. And when it comes to what matters to you, we're going to choose people over politics.

ACOSTA: And I don't know if you saw this, but the former president's campaign put out a fundraising e-mail yesterday, we highlighted it on this program, that says haul out the guillotine, and talking about vengeance and getting back at Trump's perceived enemies and so on. Did you see that? What was your response to that? SWALWELL: Yes. Well, as someone who's had a lot of those death threats aimed at me and my colleagues, we're not going to be intimidated, but we do prefer voting over violence. And that type of rhetoric shows the losing streak that Donald Trump is on. His best day was in November 2016, and he has been a serial loser since. He lost the House in 2018. He lost the White House and the Senate. We kept the House in 2020. In 2022, that big red wave that was supposed to come did not come.

In fact, we added a seat in the Senate and most of the candidates he endorsed last year, whether it was referenda in Ohio or the Kentucky governor's race or in Virginia, Democrats won. He's on a losing streak. He doesn't have the votes. So, he's choosing violence. And that's what this upcoming election is very much going to be about. Who do we prefer a person of character or a person who has felony conviction but lacks any moral conviction?

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

SWALWELL: My pleasure. Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. In the meantime, widening tensions between Russia and the U.S. as President Vladimir Putin flexes his military might just 100 miles from Florida. Right now, a convoy of Russian naval ships is docked in the Havana harbor for drills with Cuba, it includes a warship and a nuclear-powered submarine. But Russia, Cuba, and the Pentagon all downplaying how significant this is.

Joining us now as seen as Patrick Oppmann, our man in Havana, Patrick, if everybody is downplaying this, why did the Russians send this armada -- it almost looks like an armada to Havana?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORREPONDENT: Well, let me show you a little bit of that armada, because, yes, it's true what Cubans say, that other militaries send ships and friendly visits, but not like this. There has never been a nuclear submarine, I'm told, docked in the port of Havana, as you have behind me there, the submarine Kazan, really just a breathtaking sight when it came in to the harbor yesterday to see such a massive weapon of war.

To the other side -- on the other side of the pier, that is the Gorshkov, Jim. And I should highlight this because this is one of the most modern ships the Russian navy, Vladimir Putin, has. And let me tell you a little bit about this. It can send hypersonic missiles. It has tested hypersonic missiles. Those fly at a speed of about 6,000 miles per hour. It's not believed that the U.S. has any weapon system that can counter those hypersonic missiles.

Jim, you have a point of reference. I'm in Nevada, you're in Washington, D.C. You're only a little bit over a thousand miles away from where I am right now. So, while these are a peaceful visit, we are told they have left the nuclear warheads at home. The Cuban Ministry of Defense says the vehicles -- the vessels behind me are anything but peaceful. Vladimir Putin is sending a message. He's sending it very publicly. And they've been put not in a secret military port here in Cuba, but in one of the most visible places there is, right in front of our offices, which makes it very convenient. So, certainly, a message -- in Washington, they're watching this very, very closely.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Patrick, as the son of a Cuban refugee who came to this country right before the Cuban Missile Crisis, I mean, I just kind of wonder what the reception is in Havana, and what do folks think? Are we seeing echoes of all of that, echoes of that chapter in our history? Or do folks just sort of shrug their shoulders and say, OK, the Russians are in town?

OPPMANN: You know, it's interesting because certainly the Russians have come here throughout the years, sometimes secretly, sometimes more publicly, but never like this before. And certainly, among certain -- you know, a certain class of Cubans, there's a nostalgia for the way the economy was better under the Russians.

Let's face it, most Cubans have relatives in Florida. Most Cubans receive remittances from those relatives. They follow U.S. music, U.S. baseball. There is an affinity, a much greater affinity with a country that is closer to them. So, for many, many Cubans that I know, they look at this and they feel it's a return to the not so great days of the past.

ACOSTA: Interesting. All right. Patrick Oppmann, we'll stay in touch with you. Fascinating developments there in Havana. Always appreciate your coverage, your reporting. Thanks so much.

[10:55:00]

And finally, today, before we go, one fan at the Cincinnati Reds- Cleveland Guardians game took getting his 15 seconds of fame to the extreme or in this case, 19 seconds. Take a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

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ACOSTA: Yes, the runner is certainly out there. It was a show stealing moment, an impressive backflip, a brief chase, and then a taser takedown by a police officer. A photographer there captured the moment in stunning fashion. Take a look at this shot right here. We had a chyron built that said tase me out to the ballgame, but we're not showing that right now.

The look on the fan, the determination of the officer, it says it all. It's unclear why the fan isn't wearing shoes. According to our affiliate, WCPO, the 19-year-old college sophomore -- of course, it's a college sophomore, was later arrested and charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing official business. Probably got a talking to from his parents too. All right. Thanks a lot for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of "Newsroom with Wolf Blitzer" starts after a short break. Play ball. Have a great day.

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