Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Trump Brands Migrant Crisis 'Biden's Border Bloodbath'; Trump Claims 'Suburban Housewives' Like Him; Palestinian-American Doctor Walks Out of White House Meeting; 35+ Million Along East Coast Under Severe Weather Threat. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired April 03, 2024 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, April 3, right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[06:00:50]
Donald Trump on the road and seemingly on a rampage, denigrating migrants, bashing President Biden, railing against what he calls rogue judges.
A deadly earthquake devastating Taiwan. Officials now worried about powerful aftershocks doing even more damage.
And dangerous storms in America's heartland, tearing apart homes and lives.
All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at Capitol Hill on this misty Wednesday morning. We're halfway through the week.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Biden's border bloodbath. That is new immigration branding from former President Donald Trump, who was back on the campaign trail yesterday in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump, who we should note was the first president to disrupt the hallowed American democratic tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, making this claim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm here tonight to declare that Joe Biden's border bloodbath. Remember they used the name bloodbath. I was talking about something entirely different, but this is a border bloodbath. Ends the day I take the oath of office.
If we don't win, this may be the last election our country ever has. And there could be truth to it. That's where we're going, because Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. He's the threat to democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: He's the threat to democracy. The bloodbath language, of course, came from Donald Trump's mouth when he warned about the consequences for the auto industry and the country if he were to lose the election.
Let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line. And you're not going to be able to sell those guys. If I get elected.
Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole -- that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK. Our panel's here. Let's bring in Toluse Olorunnipa, the White House bureau chief for "The Washington Post"; Republican strategist Matt Gorman; and Karen Finney. She is former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Good morning to all of you on that cheery note.
Matt Gorman, let me start with you because look, this is a thing that Donald Trump does regularly; tries to basically take some criticism of him, flip it around on its head, use it to his own advantage.
He's also trying to do that. He's doing that in both places, right? Both a bloodbath language and trying to say Joe Biden is a threat to democracy.
We've got two kind of things going on. One, an issue, immigration, where Republicans do have strength. But two, them trying to, you know, flip this messaging about democracy on its head. Like, swing voters do not buy that, we see in the polling.
What do you make of how he was campaigning yesterday and whether he is in the space that he needs to be if they -- the space his campaign advisers want him to be. Let me put it that way.
MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's clearly working. I mean, you saw "The Wall Street Journal" showing, what is it, a five out of six or six out of seven swing states, he has a lead above 2 or so percent.
HUNT: Yes, we can actually show everybody that.
GORMAN: Yes. So I mean, look, it is working. And look -- and this is a tactic we've seen for decades in politics, right? Take a weakness or perceived weakness, try and turn it against your opponent; turn it into a strength. And so I think that's what he's doing here. And we saw this in 2022, as well.
Democracy is kind of a broad bucket. You know, it's kind of of what I view, and I think a lot of other folks view, as not solely owned by one party or the other. It is when someone -- when usually the base of our party feels so strongly about where the country is going, that the threat of the country can end.
HUNT: Yes. I get where you're going with that.
GORMAN: Yes.
HUNT: But I guess the -- I just keep coming back to January 6 --
GORMAN: Yes.
HUNT: -- and the actual transfer of power.
GORMAN: My point is that when we look, and we see democracy as one of the top issues. It's not all Democrats. It is not all coming from the left point of view. I cannot tell you how many people you come across an Iowa, New Hampshire, who also look at democracy or the country possibly ending from the other side of the view.
HUNT: So that's -- that's who he's talking to?
GORMAN: That's what is my point.
[06:05:00]
HUNT: OK. Go ahead, Karen.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's trying to co-opt it with -- with those people.
But at the same time, I mean, the polling does show that, and even when you get underneath just the top lines, voters trust Democrats more on this issue. Because they -- they do see Trump as someone who is working to ,
Democrats more on this issue, because they, they do see Trump as someone who is working to undermine many layers of our democracy.
The other thing I want to just point out about immigration is that, first of all, I'm a little skeptical of public polls. I come by it honestly. If they all were true, I would be in the middle of a second Hillary Clinton term, which we're not. So --
HUNT: Fair enough
FINNEY: And, you know, reproductive freedom would not have been a winning issue in 2022.
But when you get underneath the hood and you ask people why they're upset about immigration, they don't actually blame Biden. They actually blame Republicans. They have gotten the message that Republicans were the ones who walked away from a deal; doesn't mean they're happy about it.
But I think we saw a similar thing in 2022, where people were saying, yes, the economy is a top issue, but you had to go deeper and say, why? So I think we always have to remember that the polling is the what, but the why is where the campaigns are run.
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF, "THE WASHINGTON POST": You listen to the rhetoric coming from both sides. It's clear that they are both seeing this as a base election. They want to rally up their base by, for lack of a better word, scaring them.
You hear President Biden talk about how democracy is on the ballot. If Trump wins, democracy could potentially go by the wayside. You hear Trump using similar language while also calling for a bloodbath if he doesn't win the election.
And so they're trying to rally their base by focusing on the negatives of the other side, as opposed to talking about why people should vote for them in the first place.
HUNT: Sure.
OLORUNNIPA: It's clear that they think that this is a base election.
HUNT: Although I will say that, you know, the Biden administration's willingness to go as conservative as they did in that border compromise that Republicans sank does say that Democrats acknowledge the sort of vulnerability they have in immigration.
I also want to show you something else that the former president said on the campaign trail yesterday about, quote unquote, "suburban housewives." Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, the suburban housewives actually like Donald Trump. You know why? Because I'm the one that's going to keep them safe. They -- they like to say, Well, the suburban housewives, I don't know. I think I do great with the suburban housewives, because they want to remain safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So let's just say up front that, you know, the polling shows that the, quote unquote, "suburban housewives" -- women in the suburbs of America --definitely seem to have a problem with Donald Trump. If you ask Mitch McConnell, that's why they keep losing Senate elections in key states like Georgia.
But Karen, I will say that his point about women voters being concerned about crime is something that's Celinda Lake, who is a Biden pollster, she had this to say it in "Politico" yesterday.
She said, quote, "Voters are definitely feeling crime is increasing. And I think you have a combination of increased shootings, increased media coverage of crime, increased petty crime, post-COVID, that is really unnerving to voters, particularly women voters."
She is actually saying the same thing as Donald Trump. They both right?
FINNEY: Yes. I may have talked to her about this.
Look, I think part -- when we sit here in Washington, D.C., you know -- and this was something that Rudy Giuliani did very well when he first became mayor of New York City.
What did he do? He got rid of -- he focused on petty crime, because immediately if you feel --
HUNT: Broken windows. The broken window theory.
FINNEY: Right. But also the squeegee guys and panhandling, things that just when you're walking down the street make you feel safer.
I mean, the murder rates are down, but the -- but it feels more -- like if you can't go into a CVS without everything being, you know, behind the -- you know, in a cupboard where you have to get someone to open it, you're going to feel less safe.
So I think that that's where the rubber is meeting the road. And that's bigger than whether president can handle. That's about mayors. That's about, you know, policing on the streets. It's about -- I mean, there's about a lot more things.
GORMAN: It's a bipartisan issue. Look, I'll be honest. I'm getting the heck out of D.C. I'm moving to Virginia. And it was broader than purely crime. It is also looking at what people pay in rent. What people pay in cost of living and looking at the return on their services.
And I think that is -- it's a little bit more of a technical argument, but it's one nonetheless, I think -- that I think people look at, too.
HUNT: Yes. Well, I mean, I think that -- that Celinda really gets at the point here, that it is the perception of what's going on. Because obviously, we can note that crime is down across the country.
It is up here in Washington, D.C.
GORMAN: Yes.
HUNT: We see that -- it being up in New York. You have, you know, young -- young adult children living in those cities, you're worried about them. It's something that I clearly, we've got everyone agreeing. This is something that's going to drive the conversation.
All right. Let's go now to this. Overnight, a powerful earthquake shakes Taiwan. Buildings collapse, hillsides give way. People are reportedly trapped. We'll bring you that.
Plus, tornadoes and flooding lash the South and Midwest, with millions facing severe storms right now.
And a Palestinian-American doctor walks out of a meeting at the White House as President Biden faces growing pressure over the the war in Gaza.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:14:24]
HUNT: Welcome back.
The Biden administration is facing mounting anger over its handling of the Israel-Hamas war. A Muslim iftar dinner at the White House had to be canceled and replaced with a policy discussion, because the invited attendees did not feel comfortable breaking bread while over a million Palestinians are starving in Gaza.
Both President Biden and Vice President Harris were in attendance.
One Palestinian-American doctor walked out before the meeting ended. Here's his reasoning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. THAER AHMAD, WALKED OUT OF WHITE HOUSE MEETING: We are not satisfied with what has taken place. There has been no concrete steps.
But keep in mind, we're very concerned about the people that are over in the Gaza Strip, that are in Palestine right now, who are not just starving, but are facing the threat of a looming Rafah invasion.
[06:15:07]
And so I was able to share that with the president and let him know that, out of respect for my community, out of respect for all of the people who have suffered and who have been killed in the process, I need to walk out of the meeting. And I want to walk out with decision- makers and let them know what it feels like for walk out with decision-makers and let them know what it feels like for somebody to say something and then walk away from them and not hear them out and not hear their response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining the panel, CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein.
Betsy, this really kind of a crystallization of the anger that Palestinians, Americans, and supporters, many young people in the U.S., feel towards the administration around this issue. What was the White House reaction and the behind-the-scenes texture here?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So we are in the middle of Ramadan. It is the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. And every year, the Biden administration has done something to commemorate that, last year, hosting 350 people for a celebratory reception.
Obviously, this year, there is this feeling that they couldn't have that kind of a celebration. They needed to scale it back. And they ended up having plans for an iftar dinner to break the fast with a small group of Muslim community leaders.
And it became clear to the White House in the course of my reporting with my colleague, Alex Marquardt and Kahlil Abdallah, that there just wasn't an appetite to have a dinner, to break bread at the White House when so many people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation.
And so the White House canceled that plan to have the iftar dinner and scaled it back instead to have this much smaller listening session with the president, the vice president, the national security advisor, and other top officials.
And it just -- it didn't go as planned. As you mentioned, I spoke with Dr. Thaer Ahmad. He is a Palestinian-American doctor from Chicago. He has spent time in Gaza, one of the hospitals that's been the target of Israel's.
And he really described in great detail that devastation that he has witnessed: the patients he has taken care of who are dying, who are injured, and also who are displaced.
And he made clear at the end of that that he felt, out of respect for his Palestinian-American community -- He was the only Palestinian- American invited -- that he needed to leave and walk out of the meeting.
And President Biden told him he understood. I understand why you're doing this. And before he left, he handed him a letter from an 8-year- old orphaned girl in Rafah, really encouraging him to help Israel -- encourage Israel to stop its planned invasion of that area.
And I think the moment just underscores -- we've seen that there is this political pressure on the president, but also there is now -- it's a real raw and emotional moment of tension between these communities.
HUNT: Well, and Toluse, I mean, one thing we know about President Biden is that he is often most affected and impacted by these personal moments; because he doesn't get to have as many of them as a normal person would.
OLORUNNIPA: Yes, that's one of the --
HUNT: A non-president would.
OLORUNNIPA: That's one of the challenges in his response to the situation in Gaza. A lot of Palestinian-Americans have said President Biden is known for empathy. He's known for being able to connect with people and -- and they haven't felt that when he's responded.
He's shown a lot of empathy toward the people of Israel and how they were impacted by what happened on October 7, but not as much about the Palestinian-Americans.
Now, yesterday, the president put out a statement saying he was outraged by what happened to the volunteers for World Central Kitchen who are killed by an Israeli strike. And so we are starting to see more of that from the president.
And I think these moments where he's being directly told about the situation on the ground, and how people are starving, and how people are being impacted by what Israel has done over the past six months, that is starting to have an impact and we're starting to see it in the rhetoric from the president, as well.
HUNT: Yes. Betsy, I mean, were you struck by the language in that statement that they put out in the -- in response to the killing of the World Central Kitchen employees?
KLEIN: Absolutely. I mean, it marked an escalation.
But they've also called this a humanitarian catastrophe, a crisis. We've seen this White House really lean in on that language in recent weeks and months.
I mean, that started, really, with Vice President Harris at the Edmund Pettus Bridge last month, where she really -- she discussed, you know, in great detail how, you know, people are starving. They are eating animal feed or nothing at all.
HUNT: All right. Betsy Klein, thank you very much for your reporting. I really appreciate having you.
All right. Coming up here. Donald Trump's rallies taking on a religious tone. We're going to talk about how Christianity is coming out on the campaign trail.
Plus, right now in Taiwan, a desperate search for survivors after a massive earthquake and a number of landslides.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:23:43]
HUNT: All right. 23 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.
At least nine people are dead after Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years. The 7.4 magnitude quake also collapsed dozens of buildings, and dozens of people remain trapped.
A Ukrainian long-range drone slams into Russia's -- one of Russia's biggest and most important oil refineries. And the impact, caught on video.
It is the furthest inside Russia that Ukraine has attacked since the war began.
Turkish authorities arresting eight people in connection with a nightclub fire in Istanbul that left 29 people dead. The suspects include the club's business manager.
A SpaceX rocket launch leaving a glittering streak of light across the Southern California skyline last night. The Falcon 9 launch is sending 22 Starlink satellites into low earth orbit.
A severe storm system leaving a trail of damage across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. Kentucky's governor declaring a state of emergency after homes were destroyed by tornadoes sweeping through the state.
Yikes, that looks tough.
And to continue with that, right now, more than 35 million people are under severe weather threat as that storm system pushes toward the East Coast.
[06:25:04]
Let's get straight to our meteorologist, Elisa Raffa.
Elisa, good morning. What should people be watching out for today?
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're still going to find that threat for damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes. But on top of that, we also have some winter alerts in effect with this system.
Here's a look at the damage from the overnight. We've got at least 14 reported tornadoes from Illinois down into Tennessee, Kentucky, even Alabama and Georgia this morning. Wind reports, as well, gusts up to 90 to 100 miles per hour.
We still have tornado watches in effect this morning all the way down to the Florida Panhandle through parts of this afternoon as we continue to find this line of storms that compact the damaging winds and the spin-up tornadoes.
You can see we have a couple of tornado warnings right now in parts of Southern in Georgia, where we can still see these spin-ups.
The storm, though, stretches all the way up to the Great Lakes and then into the Northeast. You've got heavy rain moving into Philadelphia and New York, snow swirling back into Chicago. It's a multi hazard storm.
This severe Threat continues today. damaging winds, large hail, isolated tornadoes possible from D.C. down to Tampa.
You could see as the storm system continues to swirl, it will pack some winds that could really gust in the Upper Peninsula there of the Great Lakes. And that can pump some blizzard conditions possible with the snow.
Again, heavy rain going into New England.
Here's a look at the winter alerts from this. Winter storm warnings stretching into Maine for about five to 15 inches of snow. There's that blizzard warning, where we could have that snow coupled with some very gusty winds.
HUNT: Happy spring. All right. Elisa Raffa, thank you. I really appreciate it. Coming up next here, a new order from a judge in Trump's classified
documents case. Why the special counsel calls it fundamentally flawed.
Plus, what President Biden now says about the attack that killed aid workers from the World Central Kitchen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
