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Jury Selection Begins Tomorrow In Sean "Diddy" Combs Criminal Trial; Trump Says "I Don't Know" When Asked If He Has To Uphold Constitution; Major Delays At Newark Airport Roll Into 7th Straight Day; Final Preparations For The Conclave; IRS In Turmoil As It Awaits Confirmation Of Trump's Agency Nominee; Government To Begin Collecting Defaulted Fed Loan Payment Tomorrow; Meeting MAGA Media At The White House; Thirty National Weather Service Offices Have No Chief Meteorologist. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 04, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. Tomorrow, the criminal trial of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs begins as jury selection gets underway. Combs is facing multiple charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all civil allegations against him. If convicted on all criminal counts, he could face life in prison.

CNN's Alli Rosenbloom has been covering this case.

Alli, what can we expect as things get underway this week?

ALLI ROSENBLOOM, CNN ENTERTAINMENT WRITER: Hi, Fredricka. Well, Combs who's been held at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn since his arrest last year, his lawyers and the prosecutors will all report to a downtown Manhattan courtroom tomorrow for the start of jury selection. The opening statements are set to begin on May 12th, and the trial, per federal court rules, it won't be televised.

And we also learned that Combs will be able to wear his plain clothes and trade in his prison jumpsuit for the duration of the trial.

WHITFIELD: Walk us through the charges and who might testify.

ROSENBLOOM: Yes, so he is facing five counts, one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex -- two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. And at the center of the government's case is the so- called freak offs, which are, they describe as these drug fueled sex parties that they allege Combs coerced at least three women into sex acts, which at times involved male prostitutes.

Combs has like, as you said, denied all of these allegations and he's pleaded not guilty. And if he is convicted on all counts, he is facing life in prison. And I also want to read a statement that his team released last week. The most recent denial from his camp. These are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends who are involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life defined by consent, not coercion.

WHITFIELD: So how did this civil lawsuits potentially factor into Sean Combs' federal case?

ROSENBLOOM: So he is facing mounting civil lawsuits. There are dozens of them. And they're separate from this criminal trial. He has also denied those allegations. And in fact, the judge recently ruled that most of the evidence as it pertains to previous allegations of sexual assault will not be allowed or considered at this trial.

WHITFIELD: OK. And we saw that among those who are witnesses, at least one was named Cassie Ventura. She was the subject of the surveillance video that the world saw, you know, shockingly not long ago. Do we know anything more about the other people on the list?

ROSENBLOOM: We know that three of the four victims -- alleged victims who are set to testify that the government has indicated will be testifying at trial were allowed by the judge to testify under pseudonyms. One may use a real name. We'll see what happens at trial. But, yes, Cassie Ventura, Combs's ex-girlfriend, she will be using her real name. And as you know, back in 2023, she had filed a civil lawsuit against Combs, which was very quickly settled.

And she was seen in that video that CNN was first to report, which the judge also ruled the evidence of which will be allowed to be shown at trial. So the jury will see that footage.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alli Rosenbloom, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

ROSENBLOOM: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And of course, you can read more of Alli's reporting on CNN.com.

All right. And now to newly released excerpts of an interview in which President Trump says he doesn't know if he needs to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The extraordinary comment came during this exchange with NBC's "Meet the Press" anchor Kristen Welker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.

WELKER: Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?

TRUMP: I don't know, I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: During the interview, the president also said he would not rule out using military force to take Greenland, but said it was highly unlikely, his words, that he would use the military to annex Canada.

For more, let's bring in CNN's Alayna Treene in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Alayna, what more can you tell us about these comments and if the White House has any further comments about his comments?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, you played a clip there of the president and Kristen Welker of NBC talking about whether or not he would uphold the Constitution when it relates to some of what the Supreme Court has asked him to do in immigration cases.

[16:05:07]

But the Constitution came up again at a moment when Welker was asking him, you know, about how many allies have been saying that perhaps the president should run in 2028. We've seen people associated with the president, working for the president, joking about a third term run, and really he kind of talked about it in the most detail I've heard yet ever since being sworn into office. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But this is not something I'm looking to do. I'm looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican, to carry it forward.

WELKER: Who do you see as your successor, Mr. President?

TRUMP: Well, it's far too early to say that. But, you know, I do have a vice president and typically would be, and JD is doing a fantastic job.

WELKER: He would be at the top of the list?

TRUMP: It could very well be. I don't want to get involved in that. I think he's a fantastic, brilliant guy. Marco is great. There's a lot of them that are great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, Fred, this was notable for a number of reasons. One, of course, is him saying that running for a third term is not something he wants to do, despite him kind of dancing around that question in the past. And then also the conversation about who will succeed him, I think was very notable, because I remind you earlier, just a couple of weeks or months ago, the president sat for an interview with FOX News and he was asked a very similar question.

He kind of shut it down, saying he does not want to talk about it. And part of that is because when I talk to top White House officials, they say they really want this period, particularly his first two years of his second term, to be focused all on Trump. They recognize that after the midterm elections, likely the conversation is going to begin switching to who is going to succeed him, who is actually running in the Republican spot for 2028.

And so they want this time to be about the president. But as you heard, he brought up JD Vance, his vice president, as a potential heir apparent. I would note that that's really was the goal for when the president chose him to be his running mate. One of the key qualities that the president saw in Vance was that he thought he could help carry on the MAGA torch moving forward, but I found it very interesting as well that he brought up Marco Rubio.

He actually brought up Rubio more than once during that interview and saying he could see him potentially as the future of the party, not something that you've heard from many other Trump advisers and other Trump allies. And it's notable, of course, given how much power really the president has given Rubio over the last several months, how much he's really come to rely on him to handle some of the most serious parts of his second term.

We saw that, you know, pretty emblematic this week after he named Rubio to a fourth major position, now naming him an interim National Security adviser -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

All right. A shortage of air traffic controllers is causing major delays at Newark Airport for the seventh day in a row. The FAA has a ground delay in place until midnight and wait times keep getting longer. The CEO for United Airlines said on Friday that the issues came from a combination of technology failures and controllers walking off the job.

CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman is following all this from Newark Liberty International Airport.

So, Leigh, I bet you people are very frustrated.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, people are extremely frustrated about this situation. We actually just spoke with one woman who's trying to make it home to Canada, and they just told her flights canceled. She was in tears because she needs to make it home to her children and also work tomorrow. She had to pay $1,000 to get another flight out of LaGuardia. So people here are very, very frustrated.

And every time we check, it seems like the number of delays and cancellations keeps on rising. At this point, just today, Fred, 349 flights have been delayed, 116 have been canceled. And these are impacting real people. Another couple that we talked to said that their flight has been delayed three hours. They're just hoping to make it home tonight. But they said they're also concerned about that staffing shortage when it comes to these air traffic controllers.

Listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALDINE WALLACE, DELAYED TRAVELER: They have the most critical job for our safety. And so if they are understaffed and the people that are covering are going to be overtired because they are doing longer shifts, as a flier, that's making me feel very nervous actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: So you hear it from them. They're nervous. They're concerned about this shortage. It's a 3,000-person shortage across the entire nation for the airspace. For Newark that's controlled by a facility in Philadelphia, 20 percent of their air traffic controllers walked off the job stating issues like burnout, this crisis when it comes to the number of staff that they have, and also equipment failures and safety issues as well at that facility.

[16:10:02]

So this is a growing problem. We don't know when this ground delay is going to stop here at Newark Airport, but people here are getting more and more frustrated by it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Leigh Waldman at Newark Airport, thanks so much.

All right. Still to come, CNN is learning National Weather Service staffing is in dire shape just weeks before hurricane season begins. The potential impacts to critical forecasts. Plus, as the period, the official period of mourning for Pope Francis comes to an end, we'll take you inside the final preparations ahead of the conclave. And later, some of the newest members of the White House Press Corps have a Trump friendly tilt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You guys also consider releasing the president's fitness plan? He actually looks healthier than ever before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:27]

WHITFIELD: As the nine-day official mourning period for Pope Francis ends today, the conclave is set to begin on Wednesday. The 133 voting members of the College of Cardinals will meet behind closed doors to make a historic choice. They will vote on the successor to Pope Francis.

CNN's Christopher Lamb has more on how the conclave works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here in the Vatican, where preparations are underway for the forthcoming conclave. Now, I'm very near to the Sistine Chapel, and there they are preparing the tables and the chimney for the conclave. The chimney, of course, is where the white or black smoke will billow out when a Pope has been elected, or if there hasn't been a decision, black smoke will come out of the chimney.

Now, we've just been inside the Vatican museums and we've heard about some of the history of the conclave. It was Alexander VI who was the first Pope in the 15th century to have been elected in the Sistine Chapel, and it's in his apartments that cardinals for many conclaves used to stay. And we were told that cardinals used to sleep in some dormitory style arrangements. They'd have to live, sleep and eat in these quite cramped rooms very close to the Sistine Chapel until 1978, when John Paul II was elected and he decided to build the Casa Santa Marta, which is where the cardinals will stay today.

Now, not all conclaves have taken place in the Vatican. They took place in different parts of Italy, including one in Viterbo, which lasted 18 months. I imagine the cardinals are hoping they can make their decision in a little bit quicker time than that one. But preparations are feverishly underway for this 2025 conclave.

Christopher Lamb, CNN, Vatican.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Christopher.

All right. Coming up, if your student loans are in default, tomorrow the U.S. government says it's time to pay up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:44]

WHITFIELD: A small area along the Texas coast that is home to Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to be the newest town in the state. Voters this weekend supported a measure to make that area its own municipality and call it Starbase. For the past decade, SpaceX has used the area to develop its rockets and flight system designed to eventually take people to Mars. Starbase has fewer than 300 voters, and the vast majority of them are SpaceX employees. Once the vote is certified, a judge will sign off on the change and make it official.

All right. Since Trump took office earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service has been churning through acting leaders as the agency waits for the president's full-time commissioner nominee to undergo a Senate confirmation hearing.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has details on the growing turmoil surrounding the IRS as it waits for new leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It's been five months since President Donald Trump announced that he wants former congressman Billy Long to run the IRS. In that time, the beleaguered tax collection agency has churned through five separate commissioners. A Senate confirmation hearing is expected by the end of this month, but current and former IRS officials have noticed that the Republican-run Senate is seemingly taking its time with Long, and they're concerned that the slow process has left the IRS adrift.

Trump allies hope the agency will benefit from Long's gregarious public persona and his strong relationships on Capitol Hill. He once proposed abolishing the IRS and is closely aligned with Trump's vision to significantly slim down the workforce.

Now, Senate Democrats have lined up to oppose Long. They're concerned about his past work promoting a COVID-era tax credit for small businesses that even the IRS now says has been plagued by massive fraud. Long has not been accused of wrongdoing, but Democrats say he went too far touting the program. Take a listen to what he said in this 2023 podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY LONG, TRUMP NOMINEE TO LEAD IRS: It's a no brainer that folks get involved and let us help them get their recovery from the IRS. So we went back in March of '21, made another tax law change with eight amendments, and now virtually everyone qualifies. Not everyone, but the cases we look at, if they don't qualify, we do not tell them they do, and we do not try and get them through the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: There are also questions from ethics experts about Long's finances. After Trump announced Long's nomination in December, his defunct 2022 Senate campaign started getting donations from people who have pending interests at the IRS. The influx of cash meant that Long could finally pay himself back for a $130,000 loan that he gave to his campaign years ago.

Now, in response to all of this, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said Long's confirmation continues to be a top priority for the Trump administration. And she said, quote, the confirmation process for nominees is robust and we are working through the process in a responsible manner and through regular order.

Marshall Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[16:25:05]

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, CNN meets with some of the newest members of the White House Press Corps. What sets them apart from the old guard?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Starting tomorrow, the Education Department will resume collections on federal student loans in default.

[16:30:04]

That includes loans with non-payments of 270 days or more. The agency could soon garnish wages for potentially millions of student borrowers. And this puts an end to a pandemic-era pause on college loan payments, which began about five years ago.

CNN Correspondent Julia Benbrook is joining us right now with more details on this. So Julia, what do you do if you are in default?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Department of Education will resume sending defaulted student loans to collections on Monday. And this comes as the department announced that it would end that pandemic-era pause that began roughly five years ago now.

The Trump administration has been working aggressively to roll back some of former President Joe Biden's policies, including those focused on student loan forgiveness. They've also been working to dismantle the Department of Education, the very department that we're talking about now. And here's what Education Secretary Linda McMahon said about the decision to end the pause. She said, quote, "American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies."

The Biden administration misled borrowers. The executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear. In a news release, the department said that more than five million borrowers are in default, and that number could rise over the next few months.

In fact, the department also says that there are four million additional borrowers in the late-stage delinquency, which occurs after 90 days without payment. The Education Department's Office of Student Aid will soon restart the Treasury Offset program and begin the process of collecting debts by garnishing federal and state payments, such as tax returns or Social Security benefits.

Now, the Education Department has urged borrowers in default to contact the Student Aid Office's default resolution group and take action by making a monthly payment, enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan or signing up for loan rehabilitation.

And it's important to note, Fred, that this is a particularly challenging time for these borrowers as Trump's tariff plans have rattled global markets and the U.S. economy. Experts do tell our team that inflation could amplify the hardships that these borrowers are feeling.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thank you so much. All right, let's talk further about all of this and how to navigate this. Jessica Roy is with us. She's a Personal Finance Columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Jessica, great to see you.

JESSICA ROY, PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Hi.

WHITFIELD: So what do borrowers need to know ahead of this deadline if they are among those who, you know, that was nine million who are default on their loans?

ROY: It's a lot of people, yeah.

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

ROY: You know, the main thing is you need to figure out how much you owe and how you owe it. You know, at this point, you can't just say, well, I think that'll all work itself out. The number one thing that the people I spoke to for my article said people should do is log on to their student loan portal, log on, check with their borrower, make sure your home address, phone number and email address are permanent. A lot of people moved during the pandemic. A lot of those things changed.

Make sure that if your lender is trying to reach you, that they know how to get a hold of you. And from there, yeah, see what you owe, see how you owe it. If you were on an income-based repayment plan before, it might not automatically go back into effect. You might need to recertify for it. So that's something you can check.

WHITFIELD: We heard Julia mentioned that there were kind of loan rehabilitation options. To what degree? How does someone look into that?

ROY: I think your lender's website is going to be a great place to start with that. You actually have a lot of options. There are income- based repayment plans, which take a look at what your income is right now and say you can pay this percentage of that as opposed to, you know, a set minimum payment on the balance.

There's also forbearance. So right now, student loans have been deferred, which means they are not accruing interest and not requiring payments. Forbearance would say you get a break on those payments, but you still begin to accrue interest on them.

There's also consolidation. If you have multiple loans, you can consolidate them down into one payment per month, which might be easier for people to logistically handle. And then you can also look into refinancing where you can see if you're eligible for a different interest rate on your loans.

WHITFIELD: So borrowers in default, I mean, they're facing some really serious consequences if they are not able to, you know, make a payment soon. I mean that their wages or that any kind of, you know, tax returns would be garnished. I mean, that's a pretty serious matter. So what's your best recommendation on a lot of them to either avert that, get ahead of that or find out, you know, where they're going to find shortages?

ROY: Yeah, default and collections are really, really serious. And if your debt gets sent to collections, that goes on to your credit report and that can impact your ability to get an apartment, a mortgage, a car loan, even some employers check that. So you really want to take whatever steps you can to stay out of collections.

[16:35:05]

In terms of what people can do to avoid that, I think definitely taking that first step of logging onto your lender's portal and seeing what you owe. And from there, I think once you figure out what the best payment is for you, what's manageable for you, a lot of it comes back to basics. You know, take a hard look at your spending. This is a really, really challenging time to ask a lot of people to do that. There have been so many ups and downs in the stock market lately and inflation has made everything feel so expensive.

So I'm really sympathetic to people who don't like hearing this advice, but it's time to, you know, buckle down and figure out how you can make those payments because getting sent to collections is really one of the worst things that can happen to your personal finances.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, so dire. All right, so, you know, students right now are considering, you know, what colleges perhaps they want to attend this fall. They had plans, but now they're seeing that they're going to have to make some adjustments.

So what's your recommendation to them about those who wanted to apply for loans or seeing what happens when you can't pay your loans now? What's the best advice?

ROY: You know, everything is so in flux right now with student loans and pretty much every other part of the economy. The Republicans just announced a plan the other day that would overhaul the federal student loan system. It would get rid of some of those rehabilitation and income driven repayment options, and it would change how loan forgiveness works for certain types of public service workers.

So I think students really have to follow the news and see what the latest information is. I think the Trump administration is planning some pretty major changes to how funding for colleges works.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jessica Roy, glad we had you. Thank you so much.

ROY: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, I'm quoting now, it's like driving down the road with bald tires. New concerns from meteorologists about how cuts and vacancies have decimated the National Weather Service just weeks away now from the start of hurricane season.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:43]

WHITFIELD: All right, there's a new vibe in the White House press briefing room since President Trump took office in January. Several correspondents now represent media outlets with a MAGA tilt. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan met with some to get their take on the access and their roles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is my first time in here.

NATALIE WINTERS, STEVE BANNON'S WAR ROOM: Well, you're only probably with the most controversial White House Correspondents.

CARA CASTRONUOVA, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, LINDELLTV: I'm actually really good at yelling because I used to be a ring announcer.

WINTERS: We're all biased, right? We just wear our bias, which I think is a pejorative term to begin with, on our sleeves.

BRIAN GLENN, REAL AMERICA'S VOICE: I mean, there's no doubt about it. I'm pro-Trump. The questions I ask, in my opinion, are going to help highlight the good things that he's doing for America.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): These are White House correspondents like you've never seen before. They're part of the Trump administration's push to bring so-called new media into the White House.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have an individual in our new media seat today.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Cara Castronuova is White House Correspondent for Lindell TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to mypillow.com. We have two things (ph) at Lindell TV.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Yes. That Lindell TV.

LEAVITT: Boys will be boys and --

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The new media outlets have full access to the White House Briefing Room where they ask questions like this.

CASTRONUOVA: Will you guys also consider releasing the president's fitness plan? He actually looks healthier than ever before. Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy? And is he eating less McDonald's?

LEAVITT: I can't confirm. The president is in very good shape.

GLENN: Why don't you wear a suit?

(LAUGH)

GLENN: Why don't you wear a suit? You're at the highest level in this country's office.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): And the characterization, what you were doing asking Zelenskyy that question that you were trolling?

GLENN: I'm not a troll. I never have been. That was a legitimate question that I just wanted to ask. It didn't mean to get everyone fired up like they did. O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Right now, the Briefing Room, the seats are big networks upfront. You're hoping that that will be rearranged. That outlets like yourself might have a more prominent seat here?

WINTERS: Definitely. If it were up to me, I'd kick a lot of these outlets out. I view my role here more as sort of reporting on not so much the White House, but really the media.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Natalie Winters is White House Correspondent for Steve Bannon's Show "War Room."

WINTERS: Our bias is not to be sycophants for President Trump; our bias is for our audience which is the working class of America, the people who want to put this country first.

O'SULLIVAN: If Trump messes up, will you guys call it out?

WINTERS: Yeah. And we have, I think time and time again, particularly on the immigration. We are not for stapling green cards to diplomats.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): We met the new media correspondents on the day Trump announced tariffs that could upend the world economic order. As other news outlets reported on the tanking stock market, on Bannon TV, they celebrated.

WINTERS: This is the first day where a sitting president put America's working class first and it's a glorious day to be standing here at the White House and to be able to say that and bring that to you.

O'SULLIVAN: Have the "traditional reporters" that are here been hostile to you at all? Have they been talking to you (ph)?

WINTERS: Well, I think they know better than to come after Natalie Winters and the War Room posse. But it's the looks, the eye rolls, the conversations that I overhear.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): They're adjusting to life as part of the White House Press Corps. These big tents here is where you have CNN, ABC --

CASTRONUOVA: Right.

O'SULLIVAN: -- the networks, and you guys are kind of off the side here.

(CROSSTALK)

CASTRONUOVA: So we're kind of off to the side, which is what a lot of alternate media is doing right now.

[16:45:02]

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): From the protocols --

CASTRONUOVA: There were times at the beginning, when we're standing kind of here, not realizing we're in people's shots. O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): -- to the snack selection.

CASTRONUOVA: The vending machine is full of junk food and I'm a big MAHA person. I almost ate a beef Slim Gym yesterday. I was desperate.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you consider yourself a journalist?

WINTERS: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Tell me.

WINTERS: Seems like you took a little --

(LAUGH)

WINTERS: -- pause to process that.

O'SULLIVAN: No, but -- I mean --

GLENN: But I think we all should have a seat at the table. I really do. And if you -- the very first week she did the new media, it was Axios. And Axios, by no stretch of imagination, is a conservative --

O'SULLIVAN: Sure.

GLENN: -- new media.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But while not all new media here are MAGA media, a lot of them are more cheerleading President Trump than challenging him.

O'SULLIVAN: You are a Trump fan, right?

CASTRONUOVA: Yes, I'm definitely a supporter of President Trump.

O'SULLIVAN: So, will you be able to hold them to account then?

CASTRONUOVA: I would -- I will be able to hold a hundred percent, him to account.

O'SULLIVAN: Is there anything so far in this administration you've disagreed with?

CASTRONUOVA: I'm not going to -- let me put some thought into that for a second. I'm just overwhelmed, like just overwhelmed with how well I perceive things to be going.

O'SULLIVAN: But to the people, and I'm sure you see this online every single day, who say you don't deserve to be here because you're not a real journalist. What's your response to them?

CASTRONUOVA: Well, I'm pretty sure the group of people in there spent what was it, four years covering for someone who was essentially dead, and that's being charitable in my description of him, a president by the name of Joe Biden. So to all those people who are apoplectic over having new media voices, you guys failed and that's why we're here. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, a Georgia man behind bars for 43 days, accused of trying to abduct a child at a Walmart. The store surveillance video that his lawyer says proves he's innocent, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:30]

WHITFIELD: All right, new video into CNN revealing an interaction between a Georgia man shopping at a Walmart and a mother who accused him of trying to take her two-year-old son. The incident happened in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth back in March, and at the time, Caroline Miller told CNN affiliate WSB that a tug of war ensued when Mahendra Patel moved to grab her son. Now, Patel's attorney says surveillance footage from inside the store tells a very different story. CNN's Nick Valencia has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mahendra Patel walked into a Georgia Walmart looking for Tylenol. What happened next would land him in police custody and charged with trying to kidnap a two-year-old boy. Surveillance video from March 18th shows Patel encountering mother of two, Caroline Miller, seen here on a motorized scooter.

Patel asks Miller if she knows where the Tylenol is. Then, as the cart moves, Patel appears to reach towards Miller's lap and briefly takes something into his arms. It's here that Miller claims Patel put both hands on her boy and grabbed him out of her lap.

In an incident report compiled by Walmart, Miller, quote, "quickly grabbed the child back." Patel doesn't deny he grabbed the boy, but says he was trying to help the child from falling after Miller, according to Patel's attorney, clipped the corner of a display with her scooter. A grand jury indicted Patel on charges of attempted kidnapping, simple assault, and battery.

Patel's attorney said he's been needlessly held in jail without bond for more than 40 days. CNN has reached out to the district attorney's office and the police department, but has not heard back. Miller declined to comment. A bond hearing is scheduled for Patel on May 6th.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

All right, with less than a month away from the start of a busy hurricane season, current and former meteorologists with the National Weather Service tell CNN that staffing cuts have left the nation's forecasting agency in tatters and it could endanger lives. Five former National Weather Service directors warning the American people in an open letter, quote, "NWS staff will have an impossible task to continue its current level of services. Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life," end quote.

With me now to discuss is retired Meteorologist Gary Szatkowski. Gary, great to see you. So how concerned are you given the cuts that this administration made to the National Weather Service?

GARY SZATKOWSKI, FORMER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGIST: Good afternoon. Yes, I'm very concerned. You've heard some of the language there that you just repeated. And yes, this is a level of staff cuts that I never saw. I worked for the Weather Service for over 35 years and this is a level of staffing cuts that's unprecedented. And yes, I don't believe that the Weather Service can properly carry out its mission with this level of staffing cuts.

At some point in time, during some very active weather situation, people are going to get overwhelmed or the system's not going to work correctly, but the end result will be, you know, undesirable. It won't be as good as we could have delivered.

WHITFIELD: It's somewhere in the realm of 10% staffing cuts. Some who willingly left, retired, some who were fired. 30 of the service's 122 weather forecast offices are lacking their most experienced official known as the meteorologist in charge.

[16:55:15]

A former NOAA administrator said, and I'm quoting this now, "not having a permanent meteorologist in charge is like having a substitute pilot on the airplane," end quote. So what does this loss mean for day-to-day operations at these remaining offices?

SZATKOWSKI: Yes, I was a meteorologist in charge at the Mount Holly, New Jersey office, which is near Philadelphia for the last 19 years of my weather service career. So yeah, the job, you're responsible for everything basically that goes on at the weather office during high impact weather situations. A lot of times that means you're briefing emergency managers, you're briefing senior government officials.

Many more than one time, I would be talking to a governor of a state along with their senior staff talking about what was going to impact New Jersey or Pennsylvania or Delaware. So it's a job that gets very, very busy whenever there's active weather and you're responsible for keeping an eye on everything as well. So you're making sure the operations staff has what they need, that the technical staff that does things like prepare the Doppler radar has the resources they need.

When you don't have that position filled, you're basically asking other members of the management team to step up and do those things. And when the weather is getting very active, it's very hard to keep up with that when you're missing key partners or key components rather of the office staff.

WHITFIELD: So back to the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins in 27 days, is expected to be a really active season. What kind of gaps in notifications possibly are you anticipating as a result of these cuts?

SZATKOWSKI: Again, with the staffing, the challenge would be one, just getting the office properly staffed during an active weather event like an approaching hurricane. It literally is all hands-on deck. And if you have fewer people, you can't get everything done the way you'd want to and the way you were able to do previously.

So that may mean some delays in getting updated forecast information out. That may mean that you have to turn down a request for a briefing by, say, a governor or a senior emergency management for a state at the time they're requesting because you're already booked and you don't have anyone else to step up and cover. So you're going to have to readjust.

It just, again, when you don't have the people you need to do the job, you're going to have to start doing triage. And that means you don't do things that you'd like to do with nearly the priority that you can't. How it'll manifest itself, it really depends on the circumstance.

Another challenge could be a Doppler radar goes down sort of in the heat of battle and it'll be because maintenance wasn't able to get everything done that they wanted to get done. So the details may vary, but again, it'll be a level of service that's degraded from what we've seen previously.

WHITFIELD: All right. Gary Szatkowski, thank you so much. Appreciate your expertise on all of this.

SZATKOWSKI: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right. Tonight on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and his team journey deep into Brazil's Amazon region and document once isolated indigenous communities which are now getting internet access for the very first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: The thing that has changed our world forever is now seeping across this vast, vital expanse that has kept us all alive for as long. The internet is coming to here, the Amazon, the forest that gives the world breath. And to the indigenous communities that have for centuries called this splendid isolation their only home. And the slow wind-up river provides a rare vanishing glimpse of a world before the internet, of a people who have never been online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Be sure to tune in to the new episode of The Whole Story, The Wired Rainforest, airing tonight 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The Newsroom continues with Jessica Dean right now.