Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Slow Moving Systems To Bring Storms To The Southeast; The Fed's Favorite Inflation Measure Cooled Again In March; Russian Missile And Drone Attack In Ukraine Kills 23 People; New York City Mayor Eric Adams Wants FEMA To Stop Giving Money To Cities Using Funds To Send Migrants To New York City; Navarro Cheerleader Accuses Coach From Netflix Cheer Series Of Attempting To Keep Sexual Assault Claim Quiet; E. Jean Carroll Sues Trump For Battery And Defamation. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired April 29, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:25]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: You made it, you made it to Saturday, April 29. Always my favorite day of the week. Good to have you along. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN This Morning.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: I thought the time has been flying. It's almost the middle of the year and the weather is finally warming up.

BLACKWELL: I know.

WALKER: Full weather.

BLACKWELL: And then for a full day.

WALKER: Yes, I know.

BLACKWELL: Right because it starts cool and it gets warmed. It gets cooled again. We're settling in folks.

WALKER: We are. Well, thank you so much for spending a part of your Saturday morning with us here is what we're watching this morning. More than 20 million people are facing the threat of severe storms again today after parts of the South, were pelted with baseball sized hail this week where we could see those storms fire up today and the main threats we're watching out for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The president can no longer ignore by not negotiating.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We are still waiting for House Republicans to produce a budget. They produced a ransom note.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: Democrats and Republicans spar over the debt limit will this week's passage of a Republican plan forced the White House to negotiate spending cuts we'll discuss.

WALKER: At least 23 people are dead after Russia unleashed a deadly attack on Ukrainian civilians Friday. Our CNN team is live at the scene where rescue efforts continue this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you what a lot of people said. They said that they only really realized what a big deal this was when they left the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And new never before seen pictures from inside the Situation Room the day U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, the iconic photos just a hit on CNN This Morning.

WALKER: We begin with the severe weather threat taking aim at the Southeast this weekend. The biggest concern, large hail strong gusting winds and even the possibility of tornadoes for people all across the Gulf Coast of Florida. The South has already been hit by several rounds of strong storms this week. Last night, people in Texas saw golf ball sized hail and hurricane force winds.

BLACKWELL: And in Florida take a look at this video. This is a waterspout just north of Miami and lingered there for a few minutes never came ashore. And in the Midwest in California the threat today is continued flooding after all that snowpack. Melted rivers are now cresting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL (voiceover): Flood watches across parts of California Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Park Service has closed Yosemite National Park until at least Wednesday. They feel the Merced River could rise to flood stage this weekend and potentially submerged some roads and critical infrastructure.

Beyond tourism, heavy flooding could put billions of dollars of California's crops at risk. State representatives are already pushing for disaster relief package to combat those potential losses.

Today, the southeast is bracing for more severe weather. Areas of Alabama to Central Florida could see damaging winds along with possible hail and maybe isolated tornadoes, strong winds and golf ball sized hail pelted the central part of Texas Friday before the storms moved east.

And in the Midwest, the river gauges along the Mississippi are in major flood stage. The river is expected to crest in Iowa from Dubuque to Davenport by Monday and water levels there are already high local businesses are trying to get ahead of the expected floods. But the rising waters have already taken a toll on that community. CLAUDIA ANDER, BUSINESS OWNER: We're looking at with lost revenue, lost wages clean up, you're looking at what, $50,000, you know, $75,000 losing, you know, and money and, you know, having to retrain people if somebody left I mean, it's just, it's catastrophe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACWELL: Let's focus on the southeast now where more than 20 million people are in the path of even more severe weather today.

WALKER: Meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us now. Allison, take us through the biggest threats.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so we take a look at what the storms have done in the last 24 hours. We did have one tornado report that was actually in Florida. But look at this over 80 hail reports, two of which were bigger than baseball's, again just to go to show you the size of some of that hail that we experienced across Texas yesterday.

For today, we've got a couple of different systems here. We've got some rain across areas of the Great Lakes, the Mid Atlantic, and then obviously the showers and thunderstorms across the southeast, that's going to be in two separate waves that we're dealing with today.

[06:05:04]

But the threats themselves remain the same. We're still looking at damaging winds, the potential for large hail, and even some isolated tornadoes. The greatest threat will be here in this yellow shaded area. But anywhere you see even the green color, you still have the potential for some of those strong to severe thunderstorms, not only today, but the threat does also shift East further into tomorrow.

Now here's a look, there's that first wave that begins to come through followed by the secondary wave. There's not really much time in between, but there will be some especially if you have to get out maybe run a few errands today, there will be at least some period of time in which this is going to be a little bit clearer. So it's not going to be a washout from start to finish per se.

Further to the north. We also have the potential for some rain showers and some pretty heavy rain across states like New York and especially into Pennsylvania.

Now the severe threat not as high in the northeast, but there is still the flood threat. We're just talking about two separate areas. So today the main threat for flooding is going to be in the southeast where the bulk of those severe thunderstorms are located.

But then once we get into Sunday, the best chance for flooding actually occurs across portions of the Northeast, in the south and even in the north. You're talking about a difference of here, maybe about two to four inches of rain for both of those areas. Also, the potential for some more severe storms along the coast tomorrow. BLACKWELL: Allison Chinchar, watching it all for us. Thank you so much. There are more signs the Federal Reserve's work to curb inflation is making an impact.

WALKER: Yes, the Feds preferred consumer inflation gauge cold again in March. CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Victor, Amara, that's right, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the so called PCE, rose 0.1 percent from February to March and 4.2 percent on an annual basis. That's the smallest annual gain in almost two years.

Inflation is still higher than the Feds preferred 2 percent target but clearly it is retreating from the worst inflation of last summer. It's more evidence that nine rate hikes from the Fed are working. The Fed has jacked up its target interest rate from near zero to closer to 5 percent, raising borrowing costs and a bid to take the froth out of a roaring economy.

And indeed, the economy appears to be downshifting. At the start of the year, first quarter GDP grew just 1.1 percent. That's less than expected and slowing from late last year. The government reporting consumer spending notably is still growing at a decent clip. But business investment faltered.

Companies are grappling with higher costs, higher interest rates and persistent recession warnings but also they're paying higher wages. The Labor Department, Friday, reported compensation rose in the first quarter at a faster pace than inflation notable there. Victor and Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Christine Romans. Thank you. No negotiation. That is the White House's message to House Republicans as the U.S. inches closer to an unprecedented default on the federal debt. It comes as after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week muscled through a massive bill that raises the nation's debt limit in exchange for deep reductions in spending. Many of those cuts aimed squarely at big parts of President Biden's domestic agenda.

Let's get some analysis now from CNN political commentator and spectrum news political anchor Errol Louis. Good morning to Errol. Good to see you. So, President Biden has been challenging Republicans to show him a plan on the debt ceiling and Kevin McCarthy did on Wednesday. Here's how speaker Kevin McCarthy, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: The president can no longer ignore by not negotiating. Senator Schumer, if he thinks he's got a plan, put it on the floor, see if you can pass it, and then we can go to conference, but now the president can no longer put this economy in jeopardy. We lifted the debt limit. We've sent it to the Senate. We've done our job. The only body in here this done there's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: All right. So look, it is a big win for McCarthy. Right. But it also raises the pressure now on President Biden. So where can things go from here, especially as we're seeing that this standoff is only intensifying?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Amara. I think that there's going to be some conversation for sure that was always going to happen. But for Speaker McCarthy to barely get this done, they've been promising it since the beginning of the year, and they finally got it done. Here we are at the end of April.

It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to -- go into a strong negotiation posture once they do sit down with the White House. You got to be clear, when you look at this, what they're talking about doing is cutting $3.6 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. That's hundreds of billions of dollars every year. And then once you add in the factor that many of the Republican House members have said there'll be no cuts to military, to defense spending.

[06:10:00]

You start looking at really, really deep cuts in things like housing vouchers, aid for children, requirements or tightening requirements to kick people off the rolls for health and housing and other basic needs. It's going to be a real dogfight if that's what they choose to do.

And what the President has said over and over again, is that he doesn't want to necessarily have that fight. If you want to talk about spending, let's talk about spending. But let's not threaten to destroy the credit rating of the United States as a means of achieving those objectives.

WALKER: Yes, obviously refusing to negotiate until you know, after the House passes a clean debt bill, and we heard from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling our Manu Raju, look, he's comfortable with President Biden staying the course. And he said that Kevin McCarthy's position is untenable. But at what point does President Biden's position become untenable?

LOUIS: Well, you know, it'll depend on whether the public blames the White House or the House Republicans for the standoff that seems to be emerging. It's not clear what's going to happen. We've been through this nine times, though.

You know, if you go back to the original fight in 2011, where then- Vice President Joe Biden was one of the key negotiators. I think the consensus among Democrats is that they gave away too much back during that fight with the Tea Party Republicans, because what followed was a decade's worth of painful automatic cuts to really important programs, that were really the whole purpose that many Democrats got into public service for. So, I don't think Joe Biden is going to want to repeat that history. And he's made clear that he's not even going to start that conversation until he absolutely has to. Will the public blame him for it, you know, fighting for low income programs, entitlement programs, for making sure that people don't get kicked off of TANF or off of their food stamps, their SNAP program? I think that's a fight he wants to have, frankly, as he runs for reelection.

WALKER: Yes. And speaking of reelection, so you have President Biden this weekend. He's focused on fundraising for 2024. And he's bringing together I think, more than 150 of his biggest donors at a hotel in the nation's capitol.

Look, some Democrats obviously aren't very excited about President Biden running again. But how do you think -- what's your read on President Biden's donors? In 2020, his campaign raised more than a billion dollars. Do you think he's going to get anywhere near that this time around?

LOUIS: Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, the party in power has a lot of gifts and goodies to give away. And the big donors are very well aware of it. I think that's why they are going to be writing great big checks, and I don't think Biden's going to have any problems raising every dollar that he needs for a really well funded reelection effort.

WALKER: Errol Louis, appreciate your time and so great to see you in studio. Thanks so much.

BLACKWELL: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he is in it to win it. He's shooting back at skeptics who say his campaign to challenge President Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot. Listen to what he told CNN as Michael Smerconish would ask you about being labeled a fringe candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR, "SMERCONISH": The New York Times then reporting on your announcement said this, Mr. Kennedy, is the latest in a history of fringe presidential aspirants from both parties who run to bring attention to a cause or to themselves. Do you embrace that label fringe?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm not running to bring attention to a particular cause. I'm running because I believe I'm going to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: But Kennedy is best known lately as an anti-vaccine activist. Watch Michael Smerconish today at 9:00 Eastern for the full interview.

Coming up. It is one of the deadliest attacks in months, at least 23 people are dead including children after a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Ukraine. Our CNN team is there with the latest. WALKER: Plus, it was a dramatic week in court as E. Jean Carroll returned to the stand in the civil lawsuit against Donald Trump stemming from allegations of rape. We're going to break down the case and talk about whether the defense made a major miscalculation during cross examination.

BLACKWELL: And more of these never-before-seen photos from inside the White House on the day Osama bin Laden was killed. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:32]

WALKER: The death toll from a Russian missile strike in Ukraine is expected to rise as search crews dig through the rubble of an apartment building. The attack happened on Friday as many people were sleeping.

BLACKWELL: This is the deadliest known single strike on civilians since January. CNN International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson arrived on scene shortly after the attack. He's there at the side still in Uman, Ukraine. Nic, is this still a search and rescue mission trying to find potential survivors or has this moved on to recovery.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is really about recovery. And we know a few more details of some of the people who've died and this missile strike 23 people, five of them children, three of those girls, an eight-year-old, an 11-year-old and a 14-year- old and the two boys one was one and a half years old, the other 16.

But let me step out of the way so David can give you a better picture of the firefighters are still combing through the wreckage there.

Our team here has been speaking to the daughter of the man who lives in that apartment that's completely disappeared destroyed. Believe it or not, the man living in that apartment survived. However, we do know from talking to people around here that they believe that there are still bodies of at least two more children up there and officials are saying there are a number have people here that are still unaccounted for.

[06:20:02]

More than 109 people lived in these apartments here. That was the number of registered. They're not quite clear how many people inside. But there are people still unaccounted for. But it is at this stage about recovery. There's a police DNA team here.

The work is slow, it's hard. It's dangerous for the firefighters, each new floor they get to clear they have to be careful that when they go in the fire doesn't restart. So it's painstaking. But they've said and they've been at this for over 30 hours now that they will keep going until they have cleared the whole building.

WALKER: Nic, I know as you were saying, you were there. As soon as the strike happened, you were there as they were pulling out the bodies from the rubble. It makes you wonder, you know, what is Russia's strategic gain by hitting civilian targets like this and apartment building?

ROBERTSON: It's really interesting to talk to people today. There's an amazing sort of human humanitarian effort and support for the people that have lost everything in their apartments or support for the families who've lost loved ones.

There are schoolgirls here in school nearby, sorting out clothing to give to families who have lost everything here. There's police psychologists on site. There's a huge amount of support. Everyone we talked to here, when I asked them, what does this make you feel about the war on Russia? They don't say it with anger and bitterness. But it's what are they doing? This is -- they're not really our neighbors they call us brothers. This is only making the Ukrainians want to fight harder, dig deeper, be stronger. This is not winning Russia's aims to defeat this nation.

BLACKWELL: As has been the case since the start of this war more than a year ago. Nic Robertson, there for is on scene of this missile strike. Thank you so much.

Let's go to Sudan now, where the situation is growing more desperate, the fighting between Sudan's armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that continues food and water now in short supply across the country.

WALKER: More than 50,000 people have escaped to neighboring Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. CNN Correspondent Larry Madowo is on a ship that departed from the port in Jeddah Saudi Arabia headed to Port Sudan to pick up refugees if they can even make it to Port Sudan. He's joining us live. Larry, what's the update now on these evacuation efforts?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We just got off that for that shipper a little bit, because we have a big commercial ship that just landed here. And it's got more than 1,800 people came on this commercial ship was just chartered by the Saudi government from several dozen countries, mostly European, Asian and African countries have their coming here. And where they will get some support, get some food, hotel accommodation, and a couple of days until they're sent off to wherever it is that are coming from.

Honestly, the kinds of diplomatic support that they expect when they hear it. If Fads (ph) could come over to the other side, you see a lot of different representatives of embassies. I see a Swedish flag, an Australian flag, a Canadian flag. There's people from the U.S. Embassy over here. So for the Saudi state, they have evacuated almost 5,000 people from 96 different nations, only a tiny percentage of them are actually Saudis, the rest of them come from all over the world.

And they're doing the shadow service back and forth between here in Jeddah and Port Sudan on the Red Sea, because it seems to the closest way and Saudi Arabia is a key diplomatic player in Sudan.

BLACKWELL: Larry, get us up to speed on the fighting between the armed forces and the RSF. There was this agreement to an extension of a ceasefire. But there is still chaos in the Capitol and beyond. What's the latest thing?

MADOWO: This is maybe the sixth or the seventh ceasefire, Victor, that we've seen quickly fall apart, both sides agree to it the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces. And then a short while later, they could come up with a statement to say no, they violated defense or they started shooting at us or they were bombing our position that we had to defend ourselves. So this is the same trend we've seen over the past 15 days. This is the 15th day of the fighting 500 people already dead. And this back and forth keeps going the blame game.

So even this latest fighting, we're still seeing some people trapped in heavily populated residential areas in Khartoum in the next city of Omdurman and then the West Darfur. So this is a conflict that is dragging on. And that's why so many nations are pulling out the citizens.

The U.K., for instance, says it's ending its evacuation effort of citizens today because it expects a renewed risk of violence and fighting but also this limited demand. They've managed to pull out most of the citizens out of the country.

WALKER: Terrifying situation for the civilians there. Larry Madowo, thank you for your reporting.

And later this morning, we will talk to an American teacher who made it out of Sudan. She is now back home on American soil. She's going to talk to us about her harrowing journey and what it took to get out. You could watch interview right here at 8:00 a.m. Eastern

[06:25:02]

BLACKWELL: It was a dramatic week of testimony E. Jean Carroll took the stand in her defamation case and detailed allegations of rape against Donald Trump. How damaging was her testimony and did the defense's aggressive line of questioning impact this case?

(COMMERCIAL RBEAK)

WALKER: All right, I look now at some of the other top stories this hour. A new report says some Federal Aviation Administration engineers recommended grounding the Boeing 737 Max in March 2019 after a second fatal crash, but the FAA initially overrode those warning waiting for more detailed data and did not make the call until three days later. The Max was eventually grounded for nearly two years following the deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

[06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: New York Mayor Eric Adams wants FEMA to stop giving money to cities that use the funds to send migrants to his city. That's according to a city official. A source tells CNN that DHS has spoken with the mayor and his team several times. More than 50,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York since last Spring. Some of them bused to the northeast by Republican governors from

southern states. And now, the U.S. is bracing for a further influx of migrants after the COVID-era border restriction known as Title 42 expires next month.

WALKER: A former cheerleader is accusing Monica Aldama; the head coach and the star of the Netflix series "Cheer" of discouraging her from reporting a sexual assault. The lawsuit claims a former member of the Navarro College cheerleading squad was sexually assaulted in her dorm room in 2021 by a male member of the Cheer squad.

She accuses the Texas college, Aldama and college administrators of failing to take action against the perpetrator. Aldama told "Entertainment Weekly", the allegations are false and that she is quote, "heartbroken".

BLACKWELL: E. Jean Carroll faced aggressive questioning and a civil trial against former President Trump. Now, Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he raped her in 1996 and then defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations. Let's bring in CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.

Joey, always good to have you on a Saturday morning. Let me start with this line of questioning here from Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina. Our Kara Scannell reports from inside the courtroom that Tacopina questioned Carroll about every detail of the alleged rape. Why she says her tights didn't rip, why she didn't scream or did she hold her purse for the entire alleged attack.

What is the risk/reward calculation when you question an alleged rape victim in that way to that detail?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Victor, good morning to you. That's the critical question, right? Because on the one hand, you have to if you're defending it, you want to get out the truth. The reality is, is that cross-examination in legal circles is known as the search for the truth. And so, you have to probe, you have to question, you have to make an assessment as to whether there are inconsistencies, you have to make an assessment as to whether there are any motivations.

On the other hand, however, you have to assess who the person you're speaking to is. Are they sympathetic? Can your questioning, if overly aggressive not resonate with the jury? At the end of the day, Victor, that is your target audience. The jurists who are watching and evaluating, and so, I guess, ultimately, we'll see whether or not the questions were effective.

But yes, she did ask as to whether she screamed in-between, did she see a customer and did in fact say anything? Were there any medical records? Et cetera. So, you have to be careful with respect to tone and comportment. Every lawyer does it differently. At the end of the day, you have to assess your jury and make a decision as to what risk or reward there is with respect to how you ask the questions in tone, in temperament and in comportment. BLACKWELL: So let's talk about thresholds here. And this is a civil

defamation case, right? So the threshold here is based on the preponderance of evidence, meaning more likely than not. However, in order to believe that Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll, they have to believe that he raped her, which is a crime, which if this were a criminal case, this would be based on the threshold of beyond a reasonable doubt.

So how does one balance that? I mean, is any of this -- I hope I'm not fumbling this question. Is any of this held to a higher threshold because we are talking at the core about a crime, when really the actual case is about defamation?

JACKSON: So, to circle back, here's the essence of it. What you're saying in a civil case essentially, unlike a criminal case, is the battery relates to a touching without consent, right?

BLACKWELL: Yes --

JACKSON: In the event that you established that you were touched without consent, you don't have to establish the rape, you have to establish -- although that's her allegation, that there was an unlawful touching. Number two, you have to establish that there was defamation. What is that? A defamatory remark by the president, which in essence impaired or impugned your reputation and character.

And so, that is what you're looking at. Now, the distinction between criminal and civil is significant. You mentioned one of them. The significance of the burden of proof. In a criminal case, in order to establish that a jury to make a finding, you have to establish that very high standard beyond a reasonable doubt.

Here when we talk about the preponderance of the evidence, what that means in English, is it a little more likely than not, that this occurred? And so, that's what you're looking at. You're still -- excuse me, in a situation that's civil, have to have the jury in a federal court be unanimous. There are nine jurors. They're anonymous.

[06:35:00]

We don't know who they are for obvious reasons, and they have to conclude that all of them together, right? Collectively, that this happened. And so, that's what we're looking at in order for a find to be made for her, that there was battery and defamation.

BLACKWELL: So, on the question of whether Donald Trump would appear or testify in this case, Judge Kaplan gave Tacopina the deadline of yesterday to declare, whether the former president would appear in court, mostly because of security concerns that a former president's testimony would cause. There's no definitive answer on that. No final answer. Do you think it behooves him at all to show up in that courtroom?

JACKSON: I think it does not for many reasons, right? I mean, obviously, the security issue, you mentioned the circus that it would cause. It may be a major distraction with respect to the defense. And quite frankly, I think what they are relying upon, meaning, the Trump team are what you saw on a cross-examination. The inconsistencies if any, with respect to her testimony, whether or not she reported, and are there good reasons for that?

Whether or not she encountered any customers, and did she say anything to them? When did she report it? Why so late? They're relying upon that and not Mr. Trump's testimony. I think we're going to see, moving forward, Victor, a couple of recent outcry witnesses. What are they? People she told this to when it happened or about the time that it happened.

We'll see testimony from them. We'll see the "Access Hollywood" report, we'll see other victims who Mr. Trump allegedly battered as well who will testify, that hey, this happened to me. So, ultimately, we'll see what occurs. I don't anticipate that the former president will take the stand.

BLACKWELL: All right, trial was dragged on, court was -- rather on Friday, testimony resumes on Monday. Joey Jackson, we'll watch it. Thank you.

WALKER: Still ahead, it was an extraordinary day in U.S. history. Now never-before-seen photos are showing what went on behind the scenes at the White House the day Osama bin Laden was killed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Newly released photos from May 1st, 2011, offer us a look at the planning and the tension at the White House the day Osama bin Laden was killed.

WALKER: The photos were obtained by "The Washington Post" via a Freedom of Information Act request. And CNN's Brian Todd takes a look at that extraordinary moment in American history.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A never-before-seen image depicting the intensity and drama during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Then President Obama and Vice President Biden in the White House Situation Room, tension visible on their faces, pressing Defense Secretary Bob Gates. One of several newly-published pictures from inside the White House on that momentous day, May 1st, 2011.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They all knew, look, if this thing goes wrong, al Qaeda fights back, special operations people are captured or killed, bin Laden isn't there, the Pakistani military gets involved, there are a lot of things that could go wrong.

TODD: These pictures just obtained by "The Washington Post" from the Obama Presidential Library from a Freedom of Information Act request. Previously, this was the image the public knew best from that day, Obama along with Biden, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and other top aides, watching the bin Laden raid in real-time, Clinton's hand over her mouth.

CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen believes, this was around the time the Navy SEALs helicopter clipped a wall and was damaged in hard landing. Bergen interviewed President Obama and all the key players in the room for the CNN documentary "WE GOT HIM".

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's here where we observed, for example, that one of the helicopters got damaged in the landing.

BERGEN: And what were you thinking?

OBAMA: I was thinking that, this is not an ideal start.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: And that your heart was in your throat the whole time you were in there. I've never spent a more stressful 30-plus minutes in my life.

TODD: The newly released pictures show Obama watching intently, asking questions. When word came that the raid was successful, Obama is photographed shaking hands with Gates. Other photos depict the president making calls to give the news to former President George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and calls to other world leaders.

Other images show the president and his team working on the speech he would give to the nation late that night, as they could hear a crowd gathering outside the White House. In one of the newly released photos, Biden and then Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen show White House photographer Pete Souza, the rosary beads they'd had wrapped around their fingers during the bin Laden raid.

(on camera): What sense do they give you of just the relief afterward?

BERGEN: I'll tell you what a lot of people said. They said that they only really realized what a big deal this was when they left the White House. Suddenly, they hear these cheers, and that's when people said, you know, like -- some people said I started crying.

(CROWD CHANTING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: On those phone calls that President Obama made to tell other world leaders about the bin Laden raid, according to Obama's memoir, when he told then Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, about it, Zardari's reply was, quote, "whatever the fallout, it's very good news", end quote. That despite the public backlash from the Pakistani government at the time, expressing serious displeasure with the raid. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: Brian Todd with the reporting there, and the new photos. Thank you for that. All right, the Memphis Grizzlies, they did it. They poked the Bear, you know, they -- one of the players called LeBron James old.

WALKER: What? If he's old, what are we? What am I? BLACKWELL: I'm not calling him old. But last night, LeBron showed just

what a 38-year-old can do --

WALKER: That's right --

BLACKWELL: Carolyn Manno is with us with all of the NBA playoff highlights next.

[06:45:00]

And this should be fun to watch, it's one of the biggest nights in the nation's capital. President Biden and host Roy Hord Jr. headline the White House Correspondents Dinner live, that's tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: LeBron James and the Lakers opened up a can on the Grizzlies in the NBA Playoffs last night.

WALKER: He sure did. Carolyn Manno is here -- yes, that is what you get for calling LeBron old, right?

(LAUGHTER)

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I know you guys have been chatting the trash talk. And you know what? It was a pretty bad performance game 5 on 1, say for LeBron, but he's a superstar, and he vowed that he'd be better in game six. He's a man of his word. That's exactly what he did.

I mean, he came out absolutely on fire in front of this crowd, which was -- everybody was there, Jack Nicholson was there, Larry David was there. It was star-studded.

[06:50:00]

And he made seven of his first eight shots on the night punctuated by that right there, a monster slam late in the first half. LeBron had 16 points in the first half, that's one more than his total for all of game five for a little context there. So he would finish with 22 for the game as the Lakers put the pedal down in the second half, winning by 40 to close out their first Playoff series at home in 11 years.

So, the Lakers will face the winner of the King's Warrior series, which has been so entertaining, that one coming down to a winner take- all game 7 tomorrow afternoon in Sacramento after losing three straight, the Kings bouncing back in a huge way against the defending NBA champ. Sacramento built a double-digit lead in the second quarter, the warriors never even sniffed it, they didn't even get within 5 for the rest of the games.

The Kings win 118-99. So the Playoffs continuing tonight on our sister channel "TNT", the top-seeded Denver Nuggets hosting the Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant. That's going to be a very compelling series as well. As the NFL draft enters its final day, this week's difference maker features Arizona Cardinals' lineman Kelvin Beachum. He is a man on a mission using his off-season to help communities in Zambia, to building wells and providing access to safe drinking water. And he told our Andy Scholes why this is so important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELVIN BEACHUM, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, ARIZONA CARDINALS: Water is essential. You know, when you think about water, you think about what people have to go through currently in Lusaka to go and get water, you realize just the hardships that they have to endure on an everyday basis, the women, and how far they have to walk to be able to go and get water even though the water isn't safe drinking water.

So you just realize how hard things are. You realize how hard it is to have a child there, and being able to have a child in a facility that doesn't have access to water. So, the thing is, on these trips, I want to be able to go and listen, not taking resources and just throwing them to an individual, but like understanding what their challenges are, why they're having those challenges, and what they actually need. And then based off of that, we've been able to develop a plan that we can go and execute on.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So you helped do three wells there so far. Are there any plans to go back?

BEACHUM: We'll be going back for sure. Any time we put dollars somewhere, we choose to invest capital or deploy capital somewhere, we want to make sure that it is long-term and sustainable. So you know that you're not just putting something there and leaving it and it's going to be, you know, needed to be fixed in two to three years. But you know, this is something that can last for 20, 30, 40 years.

SCHOLES: So you were a seventh-round pick, number 248 in the 2012 draft, sixth to last. You are the only seventh round pick still playing in the NFL from that 2012 draft. What do you say to the guys that are just hoping to hear their name called? What advice do you have for them?

BEACHUM: Never forget the day, never forget that weekend, never forget how you feel, never forget the anguish and the anxiety and the nervousness that you put in that weekend. Never forget the excitement that you put in that weekend and find a way to harness it and keep it throughout your career, because that's what's going to be the driving force behind just how much you love the game and how much you want to go out and prove so many different people wrong.

You know, just embrace it all, everything that comes with it, embrace it all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Wonderful stuff there from our colleague Andy Scholes. Beachum and charity World Vision aiming to help 800,000 people in Zambia get access to clean water by 2025. And he's very intentional with his off- season time. Beachum like you said, he invests capital where he thinks that really matters, and he went to Africa and it changed him, guys. And you can see --

WALKER: Yes --

MANNO: The fruit of that right there.

WALKER: I love how he said that he goes there to listen to the people first instead of first, just throwing resources at them. It's really meaningful. Carolyn Manno, thank you very much. Well, damaging winds, hail and possible tornados this morning. More than 20 million people are facing the threat of severe weather. We're going to have the latest forecast when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: A woman in Virginia adopted a 40-pound cat, 4-0.

WALKER: Oh, wow.

BLACKWELL: She's planning to go on a weight loss journey with the cat.

WALKER: CNN's Jeanne Moos has more on the feline who's being called a gloriously gluttonous cat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No wonder the cat got my tongue.

KAY FORD, OWNS A 40-POUND CAT: Yes, this is patches.

MOOS: A nearly 40-pound cat just got a new owner, and together they're going on a weight loss program.

FORD: Well, we're going to do it together, although the vet pointed out to me that I don't need to lose 50 percent of my body weight. He does.

MOOS: Patches was surrendered by his previous owner to Richmond, Virginia Animal Care and Control, the biggest cat the shelter ever encountered. They put him up for adoption, describing his body as "gloriously gluttonous". Kay Ford won the right to take Patches home, it took two to carry his cage after writing that she wanted to go on a weight loss journey with him.

(on camera): Is he heavy on your lap?

FORD: The blood circulation hasn't been cut off yet. He's actually kind of comfy.

MOOS (voice-over): Wrote one fan on Patches' Facebook page, "I desperately want to put my face in his belly." Others have created memes like the meownalisa(ph). After the first week --

FORD: Oh, thank you -- MOOS: Kay and Patches had bonded. So what if he can't fit through the

door to the cat bed, he will eventually.

FORD: It's OK, honey, I'm not laughing at you.

MOOS: The first operation in operation lose weight was a trip to the vet. Patches is already slimming down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weigh 38.8 --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's awesome.

MOOS: Tests indicates there's nothing wrong that diet and exercise won't fix.