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Supreme Court To Hear Trump's Immunity Claim In April; Illinois Judge Removes Trump From State Ballot; Putin: West Is Trying To "Bring Trouble To Our Homes"; 1M+ Acres Scorched In Texas & Oklahoma, 1 Death. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 29, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:37]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, February 29th. Happy Leap Year.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

The Supreme Court agrees to hear Donald Trump's absolute immunity arguments, throwing his 2024 trial schedule into turmoil.

Plus, yet another legal challenge for Trump. An Illinois judge booting the former president off that state's ballot. We'll look at that.

And a deal to keep the federal government open is going to get -- have a vote in a matter of hours. Still, the threat of a shutdown looms.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the United States Supreme Court, the center of it all this morning.

Good morning. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

We're going to start there. The Supreme Court agreeing to decide whether or not former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for the actions he took on and leading up to January 6th. It's a move that the court made that plays right into Donald Trump's deflect and delay strategy. And it really is a big win for the former president who's doing everything legally possible to push his trial dates past the November election.

The justices are going to hear arguments in late April on this, a ruling not expected until late June. Meanwhile, in Illinois judge has removed Trump from that state's ballot based on the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist ban. The former president's legal team has a narrow window to appeal the decision. The Supreme Courts already considering whether states have the right to remove a candidate from the ballot.

Joining us now to discuss all of this is White House reporter Catherine Lucey.

Catherine, good morning to you. It's great to be here in studio with you. CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, nice to be in-person.

HUNT: For sure.

So this decision by the Supreme Court is in many ways a gift to Donald Trump because it really does delay the start date for this trial really late in the summer, we expect.

How is the Trump team viewing this? How is the Biden team viewing this? What are you hearing from your sources?

LUCEY: I mean, this certainly, as you said, it plays right into Trumps strategy, which always has been trying to delay all of this as much as possible. It means that the earliest probably if this were to go forward, we late summer at that point, the Republican convention has already happened. Early voting starts in some states in September, right? So, it really pushes this right into the general election season.

So this is, you know, what Trump's team is looking for. They want to keep pushing these things off as much as possible. The Biden folks, they want to draw contrast between themselves and Trump. You see them doing this very aggressively now, trying to show his -- what they argue is his leadership compared to Trump's chaos.

They're going to continue doing that. These trials remain in the news, you know, whether or not they're moving forward -- you know, the legal chaos surrounding him is there. So, they're going to continue doing that regardless.

HUNT: Right.

So the Justice Department has a policy generally not to interfere in presidential elections. I mean, that's -- it's usually considered in the context of deciding to indict someone or not, right? And there is obviously a lot of criticism of James Comey around this back in 2016. If we're looking at a Labor Day trial in the Jack Smith case, what do they do?

LUCEY: I don't -- I think we are such uncharted territory on everything here, Kasie.

HUNT: No, it's a really good point.

LUCEY: Like the number of trials stacked up, the number of different proceedings, state courts, federal, et cetera.

So I think well have to see how that plays out, but, I mean, you're right. It's just -- we've never seen anything like this before and how it impacts -- I mean, to pull it back, how it impacts voters, how voters see this. We do see in polling that there is a difference for some voters depending on whether this is a trial versus a conviction, you know? So that's why they are trying to keep pushing all of this stuff off.

HUNT: Right. I mean, innocent until proven guilty, right?

So the president, the former president, put this on social media last night. He says without presidential immunity, a president will not, president will not be able to properly function or make the decisions in the best interest of the United States. Presidents will always be concerned and paralyzed by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office.

I mean, to just talk about the arguments here for a second. I mean, again, were in unprecedented territory. The Supreme Court is now going to have to decide, okay, our president's immune and potentially under what circumstances, the D.C. Circuit was pretty clear in how they decided this.

[05:05:03]

We should underscore this is Trump appealing that decision. I mean, they called him citizen Trump, right? And in those arguments, the prospect was raised that a president could try to use American military resources to try to assassinate a political rival, right?

I mean, the potential examples here are pretty stark. How do they thread the needle here? I mean, it does seem like they're going to have to make -- if they're going to give him any immunity from prosecution, they're going to have to make a distinction somewhere.

Unchartered territory, that's where we are.

(CROSSTALK)

LUCEY: I mean, I do think, you know, we've seen lower courts ruling this. They've been pretty clear. We have to see how the Supreme Court views. We haven't really seen them in a space like this before. So we have to, we're going to have to see how this plays out.

Oh, I hate to keep saying unchartered territory but it is so outside the realm of anything we've seen.

HUNT: No.

LUCEY: But it does -- I think also it puts them between this and the other -- the Colorado -- the other case you've (ph) mentioned.

HUNT: Yeah.

LUCEY: The Colorado case about whether or not he can start from the ballot. It just puts the court in the center of the election in a way we haven't really seen, what, since 2000, right? It puts -- it puts them in the middle of this campaign.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, to certain extent, I was a little bit surprised, honestly, because when we were covering the arguments around this live, there seemed to be this or I should say, when we were covering the live arguments around the ballot cases, right, because the court is also involved in deciding is it started in Colorado. We're now seeing kind of expand Illinois did this yesterday. The court heard arguments about, okay, should Donald Trump be kicked

off the ballot under the insurrectionist ban. They seem very inclined to decide to keep him on the ballot, right, to tell states you can't do this. He's not necessarily been convicted of anything yet, et cetera.

And then the flip side of that was going to be -- well, they could have just denied hearing this immunity thing altogether. They could have led the D.C. circuit courts stand and that would sort of kind of split the difference because you're right, like the court itself is honestly facing a crisis of confidence if you look at the numbers of people who trust it.

Do you think -- how do you think that is going to play into our politics overall, if it starts to feel to Americans as those Supreme Court has decided the election.

LUCEY: And Americans don't want to see that, right? And you're right, polling shows less confidence in the court than in past eras in America, and just less confidence in systems. I think broadly. And so you do potentially have a situation where people don't feel competent in results and we know that can have real consequences.

HUNT: Yeah, for sure.

All right. Catherine Lucey -- Catherine, thank you very much, being with us this morning.

LUCEY: Thank you.

HUNT: I really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, replacing Mitch McConnell. The top Republicans in line to be the party's next Senate leader.

Plus, wildfires in Texas out of control, burning over 100 miles of power lines.

And Vladimir Putin speaks to Russia's parliament. What he's saying about the war in Ukraine, up next.

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[05:12:29]

HUNT: A live look. This is going on in Moscow. Right now, Vladimir Putin speaking before the Russian parliament this morning. But his nation engulf in a war of his own making, Putin kicking off his address by telling the Russian people that the West is trying to bring trouble to our homes and make us weaker.

Joining me now, CNN international anchor Max Foster.

Max, good morning. Always wonderful to see you.

So what do we heard so far from Putin?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What I think its interesting just seeing him. He doesn't always hold these addresses. He tends to get up there and speak to the nation as it were when he has something to say and he's got a lot to say. It's got a lot of momentum behind him, of course, in Ukraine, these pushing frontlines forward. So just seeing that sort of confidence I think is quite symbolic.

General themes coming out there. One of them essentially, his usual one, that America basically needs to get over itself. It doesn't rule the world anymore.

I did pick out a couple of things which I thought were interesting. He's saying that Russia needs to strengthen its Western border referring to how Sweden and Finland joined NATO. So he sees that as a defensive move. That's how he's spinning it anyway.

He says concerns about Russia attacking Europe, all the thoughts of total ravings of lunatics.

The other one, Kasie, I know you've been talking about this recently. This idea that Russia thinking about putting nukes into space, saying these are planted stories by the U.S. He actually criticized the U.S. for blocking Russian proposals, which included a draft treaty on preventing weapons in outer space, that they prepared as early as 2008.

So he's essentially suggesting that the U.S. actually, you know, isn't saying no to nukes in space, and projecting onto Russia is false, but, you know, these are just obviously Putin's words.

HUNT: Right. I mean, we do and I will say like the headline in the "FT" is about leaked files that Russia set a low bar for the use of tactical nuclear weapon. I just want to note this is what I'm looking at here at CNN's reporting, you might, you might have better idea than I do about where we actually stand on this.

But -- I mean, I do think from often from our perspective and from the perspective of Republicans, Democrats, I talked to here in Washington -- I mean, I don't think there's a view that what Putin says is credible, right? But like the point is that he's trying to send a certain message. But I'm interested, Max, we understand a lot of how he talks and he does he can speak in English.

[05:15:00]

This is obviously for a Russian audience.

How is he balancing the optics of this in terms of the audience that he's talking to for something like this?

FOSTER: Well, he doesn't have to balance all that much because most of the Russian media just tell his story, didn't they, a lot of the independent media has gone away, so they're not sitting there with critical analysis of it, and you've got all of his people listening to him there, including religious leaders. I -- the conversation in Washington, I think it doesn't change, does it? Because as long as he's repeating the same lines is he would say that I didn't think it really does change the conversation much, but in terms of Russia is just about over the long term building his momentum as a tough guy, a winning tough guy, the one taking on the West.

He talks a lot actually about the BRICS countries which were traditionally the developing nations who worked together as a group, saying that they've got this massive cart, the world economy now. And that's all speaking to the same thing is compare -- it's more powerful than the G8. Therefore, you know, the West is becoming weaker. He's on the winning side. That's the entire narrative.

HUNT: Right. Weak versus strong. I mean, it sounds like someone else that I cover here in the United States.

Max Foster live for us in London -- Max, thank you as always. I really appreciate it

FOSTER: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7th, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry. That number underscores a horrific months-long ordeal for the Palestinian people. Israel's airstrikes have displaced nearly the entire population and created a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Israel estimates about 10,000 Hamas fighters have been killed since October 7th. More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed during Hamas's attacks on that day. And more than 250 were kidnapped and taken hostage in Gaza.

All right, up next here, wildfires in Texas turning deadly, destroying homes and almost every direction.

Plus, Hunter Biden on Capitol Hill scolding Republicans for trying to impeach his father.

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[05:21:26]

HUNT: All right. Twenty minutes past the hour.

Live look at New York City as we start your morning round-up there. Because yesterday, a judge in New York ruled Donald Trump must pay the full $454 million in his civil fraud trial or secure a bond while he appeals fuels the verdict. The judge also lifted a ban on loans Trump can get in New York.

Texas executed convicted killer Ivan Cantu by lethal injection on Wednesday, despite his claims of innocence in the murder of his cousin and his cousin's fiance.

And Hunter Biden insisting again that his father was never involved in his business dealings. He testified Wednesday before two Republican- led House committees involved in the president's impeachment inquiry.

All right. Wildfires have now burned more than a million acres in Texas and Oklahoma. At least one person was killed, an elderly woman. The fire scorched homes, forced evacuations and triggered reactions like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE SETLIFF, FRITCH RESIDENT: It's kind of helpless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So difficult. The Smokehouse Creek Fire has charged at least 850,000 acres in Texas. It's the second largest fire in the state's history, and it's still only 3 percent contained. Up in northwest Oklahoma, more than 31,000 acres burned with dry air heat and winds fanning the flames, more than 100 miles of power lines are going to have to be rebuilt in the Texas panhandle alone.

Our weatherman Van Dam joins us now to talk more about this.

Derek, what are we looking at here?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Kasie.

Unfortunately, time is running out for firefighters and cruise on the ground to actually take advantage of the relatively calm and more ideal weather conditions compared to what's coming this weekend. We do think that fire weather behavior will become a little more challenging as we head into the weekend. And I'll show you why.

First and foremost, this is mind-boggling, at least as a meteorologist to watch how quickly this fire erupted and spread. This as a spit sped up time-lapse satellite imagery of the hotspots within this fire. As it stands over 850,000 acres charged so far just from that one fire, the Smokehouse Creek Fire in the panhandle, Hutchinson County and eastward. That is roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island.

Can you imagine having that burn through your community, your neighborhood? Very, very impactful. So what does the weather have in store? Will conditions get better? Will they get worse? Well, I alluded to the potential of fire behavior this weekend.

We do have some precipitation heading towards the Texas panel and handled right now a rain-snow mix, depending on where you're located. But most of our computer models only put a trace if nothing at all, for the greater Amarillo region and points to the north and east. What's more concerning for me is the fact that the temperatures are going to warm. We're going to see the relative humidity drop, and were going to notice the winds pick up those, that is really the accommodation. We do not want to see as we head into the weekend with a 3 percent contained fire and over 850,000 acres of the landscape already burned.

Here's the relative humidity map. Notice the shades of brown starting to enter into the western portions of Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle. That is dry air and it has all being fueled by a large storm that's moving into the West Coast.

By the way, were going to be measuring feet of snow across the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges this weekend? Yeah, that's incredible. Well, could bury homes, could bury cars. This is a very impactful storm for the Lake Tahoe region.

[05:25:01]

HUNT: All right. Be careful out there.

Our weatherman Van Dam, Derek, thank you very much.

VAN DAM: All right.

HUNT: All right. Up next here, Donald Trump gets a big boost from the Supreme Court. Can the special counsel possible put him on trial before the November election?

Plus, a judge in Illinois booting Trump off the ballot. And former president's next move, that's ahead.

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HUNT: All right. We've got a live look at the Washington Monument, just from before the bottom of the hour here, 5:29 on the East Coast.

Good morning. Thanks for being up early with us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Former President Trump's immunity claims, heading to the nation's highest court. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether Trump can claim immunity in special counsel Jack Smith's election subversion case.

[05:30:00]