Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Two Judges Reject Trump's Bid to Dismiss Criminal Charges; Soon: IDF Releases Report On Strike That Killed Aid Workers; Nor'easter Slams New England, Thousands Without Power. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 05, 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 Friday, April 5th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Two legal setbacks for Donald Trump. Attempts by the former prime president to have two criminal cases thrown out both rejected by the judges.

Israel approving measures to increase aid entering Gaza after President Biden's warning to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

And counting down to the solar eclipse. What you need to do to get the very best view.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here in Washington. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Friday morning.

Good morning, everyone. We made it. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to be with you.

First, we are following a developing story out of Israel. The IDF is expected to release the findings of its initial investigation into the Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy. That strike killed seven aid workers and prompted international outrage, including a stark warning from President Biden to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel's tactics in Gaza. We'll bring you the latest on that report as soon as it is released.

In the meantime, two big legal setbacks for Donald Trump. A judge in Georgia rejecting Trumps claim that his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election was protected under free speech, writing, quote, the defense has not presented nor is the court able to find any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech. The defendants motions based on First Amendment grounds are denied.

And in Florida, a Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon ruling against the former president's request to dismiss the classified documents case. She writes the motions denied because, quote, the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pretrial basis to dismiss, end quote.

Trump also facing charges in a criminal hush money case in New York that begins later on this month.

Joining me now "Axios" national politics reporter, Sophia Cai.

Sophia, good morning to you. Thanks so much for being here on this Friday.

Let's sort of dig in to these two motions here setting a Trump on a course to be facing trial for sure in the New York case. It is much less clear in the Florida case how this is going to go, but there has been increasing pressure on the judge there, Aileen Cannon from special counsel Jack Smith to keep this moving when she hasn't.

SOPHIA CAI, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. So I mean, the Trump lawyers have this tactic. It's a delay tactic. They have a lot of unusual motions to dismiss. And yesterday was assigned that the judges in both cases have started to move through them. In Georgia, we have the judge saying the motion to dismiss was denied because First Amendment defense doesn't work when it is about speech that is in furtherance of a crime.

And in the second case, you have the judge saying, look, this argument about the Presidential Records Act that could be something that it can be brought up by Trump at trial, but not pretrial.

And so, you know, you have two losses for Trump on one day and to your point, there could still be a trial in motion before and we don't know if it will be before, but before or after.

HUNT: And I should've been more clear that the cases where we have changes here are the Georgia case and the Florida case, the New York case just happens to be the one that's most likely to go to trial before the election. This is how Donald Trump somewhat predictably has been reacting to this on his platform, Truth Social.

He writes: Deranged special counsel Jack Smith, since he has a long record of failure as a prosecutor, including a unanimous decision against him in the Supreme Court. If we could show this, yeah, that will be great.

He says, of course, he ties this to Biden by the end. He also notes that Judge Aileen Cannon, he calls her highly respected. He, of course, let's be clear, appointed Aileen Cannon. Meanwhile, he calls Smith a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending.

So, this, of course, is pretty par for the course for Trump. Now we should note he is attacking Jack Smith, who there's no current gag order that would prevent anything along those lines. What do you see here in this statement for Trump, obviously politicizing the judge in each of these instances?

CAI: Yes. So the judge -- Judge Cannon is a judge that he appointed.

[05:05:01]

And so, we saw him there calling her highly respected. That's also in some ways putting pressure on her. We know that she's left open her interpretation of the Presidential Records Act.

She's telling Jack Smith -- no, I don't have to tell you what I think about the presidential records act as it applies to this case, right now. And so, we have Trump really weighing in on both judges personally in a very political manner.

HUNT: Sophia, let's touch on President Biden and what we're learning this developing story. We have this morning about possibly learning more from the Israelis about what happened with the World Central Kitchen attack and the death of those seven aid workers.

We have -- we've been talking about yesterday about how the president was personally outrage. We hadn't seen policy changes from the U.S. government. It does seem like he at least convinced Netanyahu to open crossings to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

How significant is that?

CAI: It's pretty significant. It's the first time that we've seen President Biden come anything close to a red line telling Netanyahu that something needs to be done. Otherwise, there will be consequences.

Now, remember yesterday, Biden didn't say what those consequences would be. He just made clear that us policy would be determined on if we saw any kind of immediate action. And that's why you saw a couple hours later at the Israelis that they would be opening that port for humanitarian aid.

And that was followed up by another statement by the Biden NSC saying, look, we will see if what will happen with the poor and other immediate actions securing the safety of humanitarian workers. And again reiterating that U.S. policy on the U.S., that Israel Gaza war would be based on whether or not there would be immediate actions.

HUNT: The impact of personal conversations on President Biden. We've discussed at some length. He revealed -- according to reporting to a group of Muslim Americans and others that Joe Biden, his wife, has been telling him to and this war he is coming under increasing pressure from former Obama aides, for example, on Twitter.

How is that do you think impacting the policy that we are seeing the U.S. government put out, because the one hand you have the presence saying, I personally feel this way. On the other hand, you have people like John Kirby and Jake Sullivan basically saying, you know, and others in the national security establishment putting out anonymously like look, our policy hasn't changed.

CAI: So, the key is how Biden feels. I mean, he can send people like Kamala Harris, to call ceasefire. He finally called for himself. That is what matters. I think the opinion of Joe Biden and other family members is something that's very important to him. So that weighs heavily, but even politically domestically, you have a lot of people close to him, people who are concerned about his political feature telling him that there are Americans who were very concerned that what's happening in Palestine.

And so, but ultimately, right -- I mean, he likes to say the buck stops with him. People can be telling him all of these other things, but it really is up to him how he handles it and it really begs the question, what would have happened if Biden had been more forceful as he was yesterday and did it have to take U.S. aid workers dying for Biden get to that position.

HUNT: All right. Sophia Cai for us this morning -- Sophia, thank you. I really appreciate it.

All right. Just ahead here, a massive snowstorm cutting power to thousands from Wisconsin to Maine.

Plus, President Biden warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the suffering of civilians in Gaza.

And this developing story that we are following, the IDF just minutes away from telling the world what went wrong when World Central Kitchen workers were killed in Gaza.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:27]

HUNT: All right. A developing story this morning, we are apparently just minutes away from the IDF releasing its initial report on the Israeli airstrikes that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen.

Let's get to CNN's Max Foster, who's live for us in London.

Max, good morning. Always wonderful to have you.

So this report has been promised a by the Israelis. It's just days after the strike. What does it say to you about the investigation and how it's being handled that this is happening. So quickly that they are putting such a focus on it. It seems like there is a clear recognition that they need to answer for this.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I think that, you know, that's the right interpretation, isn't it? They have accepted the failures here and they're acting on it and they've come up with this report and obviously, a lot of the families in bold here, would desperately like to know more detail. Some of them have actually accused the IDF of targeting the convoy, which, of course, the Israelis have utterly denied, but they point to the way they were marked these vehicles, the way they were apart from each other, and that also informed the Israelis that they were actually going to take that route.

So lots of questions they may be able to clear up, but as the Americans have been calling for, they want to independent report, so do the families, so does the charity. They want an independent report, so I don't think this is going to conclude anything for them. They're going to look on this as tinge from an Israeli perspective. And they want an independent investigation into this.

They also want some accountability someone needs to take responsibility for this.

[05:15:02]

This is perhaps where the IDF can suggest some names, but who was responsible for what was a massive failure from all points of view.

HUNT: Yeah. So, Max, we've learned from our reporting that Netanyahu acknowledged in his phone call with Biden yesterday that they what are responsible -- the Israelis are responsible for, what happened and so much of this of course, is sharpening everyone's attention because of Jose Andres and kind of the figure that he cuts on the international stage as someone who has done so much good for so many people.

And it has crystallized in many ways the ongoing devastation, of course but in this particular tragedy, it's really focused world attention. I just want to show you, just remind everyone how Jose Andres has been talking about this in an international media. Here's what we heard from him this week. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEF JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: This was not just bad luck situation where, oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place or, not. This was over 1.5, 1.8 kilometers with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of. That that's very clear who we are and what we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A logo that we are very proud of, he says.

At what impact has Andres, the man had on this, and how has it snowballed internationally?

FOSTER: Well, we've learned a lot more about the work they've been doing, which has been crucial and heroic and they can't do that work right now. And then were seeing these pictures of famine and not enough aid is getting in. And he speaks very eloquently. And he's very frank and he's been through an utter tragedy.

So, certainly, his interviews of really resonated. I think one of the other elements has come out of this is Israeli allies supplying weapons and whether or not they are complicit in a lot of this, because here in the U.K., for example, three former Supreme Court justices and 600 other legal experts have written to the prime minister saying Britain needs to stop supplying arms to Israel because there's a suggestion that this could be seen as genocide under international law. Then, we also had this call being made between Biden and Netanyahu

yesterday, where you get the sense that Biden was suggesting that support for the war could be reduced and less Israel changes its strategy. And, of course, the primary former support away from the diplomatic that the U.S. offers Israel is the weaponry.

So I think lots of being questioned, the questions being asked and pressure on capitals now about how they are supplying weapons to Israel when instance like this can happen.

HUNT: So, Max, we have this just in to CNN. Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, who's in Brussels, just making comments, calling for an independent investigation into the World Central Kitchen attack by the Israelis. This, of course, comes as we are awaiting the IDF, the Israeli investigation the initial findings to be released here in just minutes.

Watch what Secretary Blinken said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's also critical that we see an independent, thorough and fully publicized investigation into the killing of the World Central Kitchen team who were performing heroic work under the most difficult circumstances and tried to get assistance to people who so desperately needed.

So we're looking to see that investigated patient, we're looking to see a public accounting and we're looking to see accountability in its wake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Pretty strong statement there, Max.

FOSTER: Yeah, so accountability is who's responsible for this that might come out the IDF report, but he's also laying the groundwork for this, not being enough, is he saying we want a full independent report. You're going to get that from the IDF. So, really sort of couching this report when it comes out that there are some caveats here. You know, this has been investigated by the people accused of carrying out what happened on Monday.

HUNT: Right. It's, of course, important for us to understand who the Israelis think and how they -- the Israelis think that this happened. I mean, that's an important part of making sure something like this doesn't happen again. But also, as you say, very important to underscore that's very different from an independent investigation into what actually happened.

Max Foster for us in London -- Max, always grateful to have you. Have a great weekend.

FOSTER: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Up next counting down to the eclipse, where you need to be for your perfect view.

Plus, the popular streaming service that won't let you share passwords anymore. If you watch Bluey, you're going to want to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:18]

HUNT: All right. Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Here's your morning round up.

The Army Corps of Engineers says they plan to reopen the port of Baltimore by the end of May. Cargo ships have been forced to reroute since the deadly Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last month.

A federal judge ruling U.S. Customs and Border Protection can no longer hold migrant children in open-air camps. The order says they need to be moved to safer and more sanitary facilities.

Disney Plus cracking down on password sharing. The company's streaming service will begin enforcing the ban in June in some countries and more broadly in September bid to boost their sign-ups.

[05:25:01]

All right. Now, weather cleanup is underway after a spring nor'easter slammed New England yesterday, more than 350,000 customers in Maine and New Hampshire experiencing power outages after high winds and heavy snow blasted the region.

Let's get straight to our meteorologist Elisa Raffa.

Elisa, good morning. What are these folks dealing with?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They're still waking up in the dark with more than 400,000 customers without power, most of them up in Maine and New Hampshire, 350,000 people they are waking up in the dark this morning and they've lost power yesterday because we have this gusty wind that's been whipping around with the snow.

It's snow showers are still lingering there this morning. Couple of snow showers in Boston Toronto, even Cleveland there as well. Most of the winter storm warnings have been allowed to expire because they're not going to get that much more snow. But there's already a lot of snow on the ground and we were looking at feet of snow that's already on the ground from yesterday and parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, some of these totals have been 24 inches up in some communities in Vermont, 20 inches New Hampshire, Massachusetts eight inches.

So it's been pretty snowy start to April up there. You could see the gusty winds could still work their way through New England as we go through the day today, though they should be less than yesterday. All of this is swirling in some colder air behind it. So we're actually also waking up to some fries alerts from Missouri over into Kentucky.

HUNT: All right. Elisa Raffa for us -- Elisa, thank you very much.

All right. Coming up here, Donald Trump's striking it out twice and his bids to get two of his cases tossed.

Plus, the latest on our developing story, Israel expected to release the findings of its own investigation into the IDF strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza.

We are live in Jerusalem with the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)