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CNN This Morning
Trump Attacks Judge's Family After Warning Not To Endanger People; Nashville Officers Who Responded To Deadly School Shooting Speak Out; Clashes Erupt Between Police And Palestinians At Jerusalem Holy Site. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 05, 2023 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:25]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The judge overseeing Trump's case here in New York warned both sides of counsel yesterday to, quote, "...refrain from making comments or engaging in conduct that has the potential to incite violence or jeopardize the safety of any individuals."
Of course, it was about six hours later that Trump was on stage at Mar-a-Lago during that speech when he personally attacked the judge, saying this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And this is where we are right now. I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump- hating wife and family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Joining us now is CNN senior political analyst, and senior editor at The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein.
Obviously, Ron, we should fact-check what Trump said there. He is making this claim --
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC (via Webex by Cisco): Yes.
COLLINS: -- he's a Trump-hating judge. That has to do with this judge also overseeing the case of Allen Weisselberg who worked for Trump at the Trump Organization just to give context to that.
But I was really struck by how yesterday the judge's warning was not just to Trump about the attacks that he had been making; he was also telling counsel on both sides -- you know, also talking about witnesses who have been very vocal, i.e. Michael Cohen.
But what do you make of Trump getting on stage right after -- going after the judge the way he did? BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well look, I mean, it's hard to keep Trump within the bounds of any kind of norms that we saw throughout his presidency, whether they're political norms, legal norms, or in this case, norms of the courtroom.
Look, he's flirting with danger. He is behaving in a way that is both possible to draw the ire of the judge but also to reinforce many of the doubts about him among Independent and swing voters. I mean, that, Kaitlan, is the kind of conundrum Republicans are in as this proceeds. I mean, there's no question that this indictment and the prospect of further indictments is strengthening inside the Republican primary.
But simultaneously it may be weakening him as a general election candidate if he wins that nomination. It's kind of the worst of all worlds for the Republicans who want the party to move on beyond Trump. They are watching a kind of a rally around the flag effect, but they are also seeing both in these underlying charges and in his response to them the exact kind of behavior that has made it so hard for the party among swing voters -- even many of those attracted to his policies.
By the way, what you saw again last night in Wisconsin with the devastating reform court performance for Republicans in those key suburban areas that have already been trending away for the party under Trump.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. You were talking about -- in the break we were talking about -- you mentioned John Bolton and you mentioned Mitt Romney.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
LEMON: You wanted to say -- speaking of people who are -- yes.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. Did you see what he said yesterday? He -- you know, Romney, who voted to impeach Trump and has not hidden --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COLLINS: -- his feelings about him, said "Trump's character and conduct make him unfit for office. [But] even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda."
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I mean, I think -- I think this is going to be a critical question going forward. What are we watching now?
Essentially, the entire Republican Party, including those running against him, and the House majority in very kind of concrete ways by demanding testimony and documents kind of unprecedented reached into an investigation. The entire party is rallying around him and saying that this is unfair, this is political, this is a witch hunt. And in some ways it's an easy target.
It's the district attorney in Manhattan -- a very Democratic jurisdiction. And it is a case involving facts that are -- that are several years old.
[05:35:04]
The question is have they painted themselves into a corner where they now have to do this each time Trump faces further potential indictments, which could be as many as three more indictments before anybody votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, for between the Georgia investigation and the two from the federal special counsel. Or can someone like Mitt Romney with this statement kind of giving himself the foundation to have a different reaction to the later potential indictment --
HARLOW: I --
BROWNSTEIN: -- by saying look, I was against this but this is more serious.
COLLINS: Right.
BROWNSTEIN: I don't know which way it's going to go but it has I think huge consequences for Trump and the Republican primary. Because if the party feels -- if the other candidates feel like they have to give him this unreserved support each time he faces a further potential indictment it is going to be very hard for any of them to get past him in the race that's developing.
HARLOW: I read the Romney statement as doing exactly what you just laid out because the second half of it he says that this sets a dangerous precedent -- a prosecutorial overreach.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
HARLOW: And he goes on to say that it sets a precedent for criminalizing political opponents. You know, he has no interest in defending Trump because he loves Trump, as Kaitlan pointed out, right? I mean, he -- look, he says in this statement he's unfit -- Trump's unfit for office. But he's worried more broadly because of this case, this way.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I mean, they -- the judge set a date for them returning to court in December. It is highly -- you know, it is highly possible that by December this is the least of Donald Trump's legal troubles and it is the least of what we are discussing in terms of the legal matters that may influence his future politically and otherwise.
I mean, the other -- the other cases that are kind of moving down the tracks on him are not only more consequential overall but really go to the heart of the question that Donald Trump has posed in American politics for eight years. Is he the leader of a kind of legitimate political movement or is he a closet authoritarian figure who is a genuine threat to American democracy?
I mean, those cases are more at the heart of the core issue really that surrounds Trump than this. And if any of those other indictments materialize between now and November, I think this case will obviously be remembered as the answer to kind of a trivia contest -- you know, what was the first criminal indictment brought against a sitting president? But I think those cases I think move very quickly and take the spotlight and become the first tier question of his political and legal future.
HARLOW: Yes.
COLLINS: First indictment but maybe not the last.
LEMON: Good to see you, Ron --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
LEMON: -- as always.
BROWNSTEIN: Good seeing you guys.
COLLINS: Thanks, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Thanks for having me.
HARLOW: All right.
Well, we do want to focus and shine a light on just the heroic officers who stopped that attacker in Nashville at the elementary school shooting breaking their silence. Those officers are now speaking and telling their harrowing story about what really happened inside those doors.
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[05:42:44]
LEMON: For the first time we're hearing from the police officers who took decisive action and stopped the shooter inside a private Nashville elementary school last week. The attack at the Covenant School ended with three 9-year-old students and three adults losing their lives.
CNN's Isabel Rosales breaks down exactly what these officers saw and heard on that day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COMMANDER DAYTON WHEELER, MIDTOWN HILLS PRECINCT: March 27 is a day that I will never forget.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fourteen minutes of terror inside The Covenant School coming to an end --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go!
ROSALES (voice-over): -- at the hands of Metropolitan Nashville police officers.
OFFICER REX ENGELBERT, RESPONDED TO DEADLY SHOOTING AT THE COVENANT SCHOOL: I really had no business being where I was. ROSALES (voice-over): Officer Rex Engelbert says it was by chance he was near the school outside his precinct when the first 911 call came in.
ENGELBERT: You can call it fate or God, or whatever you want, but there -- I can't count on both my hands the irregularities that put me in that position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Metro Police!
ROSALES (voice-over): Blaring alarms and chaos. Engelbert's body camera capturing the moments a group of five officers raced down hallways decorated with children's artwork.
WHEELER: And we began to receive gunfire from a second-floor window as officers were inside searching for that individual.
ROSALES (voice-over): Door-to-door --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Door. Door. With me.
ROSALES (voice-over): -- this is their desperate search for a shooter armed with three guns and showing no signs of stopping. Along the way grim discoveries.
SGT. JEFF MATHES, RESPONDED TO DEADLY SHOOTING AT THE COVENANT SCHOOL: All of us stepped over a victim. I, to this day, don't know how I did that morally, but training is what kicked in.
ROSALES (voice-over): They followed their senses -- an acrid odor.
MATHES: The smell of gunpowder was in the air.
ROSALES (voice-over): Then a chilling sound.
(Gunshots)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard another shot and that's what told us that the shooter was to our right.
(Gunshots)
MATHES: Once we got near the shooter, the shooter was neutralized.
[05:45:00]
ROSALES (voice-over): Investigators say Audrey Hale fired 152 rounds from start to finish, killing three innocent children and three school employees. The violence horrifying the nation and following these officers home.
MATHES: There's obviously been loss of sleep. Children hugged more than normal.
ROSALES (voice-over): Just over a week since the shooting, officers seizing from the home of the shooter a suicide note, weapons, ammo, several journals, and yearbooks from The Covenant School.
As investigators continue to determine a motive for the attack, described as calculated and planned, the young survivors of this mass shooting are leaning on their faith.
CHIEF JOHN DRAKE, METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE: They believe that their classmate is going to heaven. That they are in a better place and they're not hurting. The ones that was hurting the most was us.
ROSALES (voice-over): Isabel Rosales, CNN, Nashville.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Wow -- those officers.
COLLINS: It must be hard to speak about this, too.
HARLOW: Of course.
All right. Well, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy set to hold a high- stakes meeting with the president of Taiwan. What China is saying about all of that ahead.
COLLINS: Plus, clashes are underway between Israeli police and Palestinians at a holy site in Jerusalem. We are live on the ground with the dramatic images you're seeing here, next.
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[05:50:23]
HARLOW: Well, overnight, violent clashes erupted as Israeli forces entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City. At least 12 people were injured. And the video is really stunning. Israeli police say they moved in after young Palestinians barricaded themselves inside armed with stones and firecrackers. This was amidst hundreds of worshippers.
Fear of more violence is a big concern as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover overlap.
Our Hadas Gold is live in Jerusalem with a lot more. I mean, every day it just seems to get even more elevated -- the tension.
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, dramatic scenes last night at the holy sites you can see behind me. So over on this side is the Golden Dome of the Rock that is so recognizable as a symbol of Jerusalem. But over my right shoulder with that black rooftop -- that's actually the al-Aqsa Mosque and that's where these events took place.
As you were noting, we saw dramatic video of Israeli police essentially raiding the mosque. They say that they had to go in there because youths were barricading themselves in there and that they threw firecrackers at them.
I want to read you part of the Israeli police statement. They say, "Several law-breaking youths and masked agitators brought into the mosque fireworks, sticks, and stones. When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators."
Now, police say they detained 350 people. That's a massive amount of people. The Palestinian Red Crescent says 12 were injured, three of them transferred to the hospital. Police say at least one of their officers were injured as well.
Now, condemnations have been raining in because while it has been a tense time, as you have noted, clashes were somewhat expected. I think the aggressive nature of what we saw overnight -- that was a bit unexpected. We're hearing condemnations from the Jordanians, from Saudi Arabia, from the Egyptians, all condemning this because just Israeli police entering the mosque is considered as very provocative and offensive. But then to see them engage in the way that they did, making arrests -- arresting people on the floor of the mosque -- that raises it to a new level.
Now, the Palestinian authorities also condemning what happened. I'll read to you from the prime minister saying, "What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshippers. Israel does not want to learn from history, that al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians and for all Arabs and Muslims, and that storming it sparked a revolution against the occupation."
Now, overnight, after this took place, it seems as though Hamas -- the militant group that runs Gaza -- responded with nine rockets fired toward Israel. No injuries caused. The Israeli military responding with airstrikes against what it says were Hamas targets.
Although it's a tense calm right now there are fears that this could easily spiral into something even bigger -- guys.
HARLOW: Yes. Hadas Gold, thank you very much for that reporting.
LEMON: The Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Brussels, Belgium this morning for the final day of bilateral meetings with his NATO counterparts. Finland officially joined NATO on Tuesday -- a strategic defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Blinken called it a historic occasion and also said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is maybe the one thing we can thank Mr. Putin for. Because he, once again here, has precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia's aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, Sweden also wants to join NATO but its admission into the military alliance has been stalled by Turkey and Hungary.
COLLINS: All right. This morning we are tracking all the latest developments after a defiant former President Trump railed against the criminal charges that he pleaded not guilty to here in New York yesterday. We'll give you the latest of what he said last night, including his attacks on the judge that he was before yesterday. That's next.
Plus, a large and extremely dangerous tornado hit Missouri overnight. Millions -- right now, millions of people are under severe weather threats. Stay with us.
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[05:58:37]
COLLINS: All right. Iowa basketball legend Caitlin Clark is pushing back on the criticism that LSU forward Angel Reese got -- who, of course, was her National Championship opponent -- saying she doesn't think that she deserves the criticism. Clark responded to a question about Reese's "you can't see me" gesture that she did during the face- off -- a gesture Clark, herself, had made earlier on in the tournament.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAITLIN CLARK, GUARD, IOWA HAWKEYES: She should never be criticized for what she did. You know, I'm just one that competes and she competed. So I think everybody knew there was going to be a little trash talk in the entire tournament. It's not just me and Angel. So, you know, I don't think she should be criticized, like I said.
LSU deserves it. They played so well. And like I said, I'm a big fan of hers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A classy response from Caitlin Clark there.
Also during that interview she rejected first lady Jill Biden's invitation for Iowa to come to the White House, saying nope, it was only LSU that earned that visit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARK: I don't think runner-ups usually go to the White House. I think LSU should enjoy that moment for them -- and congratulations, obviously. They deserve to go there. Maybe I could to the White House on different terms, though. But I think that's for LSU.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And after --
HARLOW: Yes, good for her.
COLLINS: -- Joe Biden made those comments they kind of walked it back at the White House saying no, it's just LSU that's going to come --
LEMON: I --
COLLINS: -- and not Iowa.
LEMON: What a classy response. And actually --
HARLOW: On both fronts.
LEMON: -- right on point -- tone, everything. And doing the whole thing. Isn't that what sports -- isn't that what you do? You taunt your opponent. It doesn't -- it's probably --
HARLOW: That's what she's saying.
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: There's trash talk through the tournament -- not just us.
LEMON: They probably see each other after and hug it out or something, or have a drink -- or do whatever they do. But that was like you're on the court, you know?
COLLINS: Yes. If you --
