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Trump: "I Will Gladly Become A Modern-Day Nelson Mandela"; Today: Yellen Briefing On U.S.-China Economic Relations; Tiny Maine Town Draws Huge Crowds For Solar Eclipse. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 08, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:57]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: A live look at the New York skyline on this Monday morning. Somewhere in there, the Yankees game has been delayed because of the eclipse. Thanks for waking up with us this morning. I'm Kasie Hunt.
Donald Trump is comparing himself to Nelson Mandela again. Over the weekend, the former president posted this to Truth Social about the judge presiding over his criminal hush money trial. Quote, "If this partisan hack," he says, "wants to put me in the clink for speaking the open and obvious truth, I will gladly become a modern-day Nelson Mandela. It will be my great honor."
That, of course, refers to Judge Juan Merchan and his gag order that prevents Trump from speaking out about witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, and court staff, as well as family members of the court and the Manhattan district attorney.
His trial set to begin next week.
Joining me now, Associated Press White House reporter Seung Min Kim. Seung Min, good morning. Wonderful to have you.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: So this is not the first time. We can show back in October what Donald Trump had to say about Mandela -- watch.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you want to challenge the result of an election they hound you. Look what happened this weekend with two good people. They hound them and they scare them and they -- but we don't get scared. We don't get scared. I'll tell you what, I don't mind being Nelson Mandela because I'm doing it for a reason.
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HUNT: He's doing it for a reason.
KIM: Well, he's doing it for a political reason in that -- in that he is trying to make himself the victim of all of his legal proceedings. And that is what he has consistently done since he has faced all of these criminal indictments across four cases.
In terms of a strategy, in the primaries, it's something that's worked for him. He has made himself kind of the victim of these legal challenges or these legal issues, and he makes his legal challenges about the people that -- his supporters -- his base. And that's what he is continuing to do here in just continuously sort of outlandish ways.
HUNT: Right. The argument is they are victimizing you when they victimize me --
KIM: Right.
HUNT: -- is what he's trying to say.
And, yes, let's just be clear. I mean, what was Nelson Mandela put in jail for? To end an apartheid system that literally --
KIM: Right.
HUNT: -- divided races from each other.
KIM: Right, right. And Donald Trump, as we know, is someone who has constantly stoked these racial divisions in the country through his rhetoric.
HUNT: Right.
So let's talk briefly about something else that occurred over the weekend, which was Congressman Turner -- Chairman Turner -- Congressman Turner spoke to Jake Tapper over the weekend about Russian propaganda and whether some of that was making its way into rhetoric being used here in America by Republicans.
Here's what Turner said -- watch.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Congressman McCaul made a comment this week about what he says sounds like Russian propaganda from some conservative media and why it's so difficult to explain to Republican voters why supporting Ukraine is important.
He told Julia Ioffe, quote, "I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base." He singled out primetime shows on conservative channels.
[05:35:02] Do you agree with him, and how big is this problem?
REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): Oh, it's absolutely true.
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HUNT: "It's absolutely true," he says.
What do you make of that?
KIM: Right. Well, I think what people -- what Republicans, like Mike McCaul and Mike Turner, are trying to make -- the point that they're trying to make is that the reason this conflict began is Russia invaded an autonomous country. That Russia invaded Ukraine and that's why it's so critical for the United States and other allies around the world to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
And that is not what you're hearing from a growing segment of Republicans -- not just those who might -- who may watch Fox News or an isolated part of the Republican Party, but many of their elected representatives in Congress. And that's one of the reasons why it's been so difficult to get that Ukraine aid package across the finish line in the House.
Now, we know Speaker Johnson is mulling several different options. I do think it does sort of weigh on him -- this idea of helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia. But he just really has to weave this kind of -- kind of go -- you know, figure out this political puzzle in the House that doesn't make him lose his leadership position if he does bring it up for a vote.
HUNT: What's your sense of -- I mean, he seems to have indicated a willingness to do this -- to try to put this Ukraine aid on the floor? Do you think, at this point, that that's the most likely scenario?
KIM: It's hard to tell. I mean, the fact that he's floating various different options of what he could get in exchange, whether it's lifting that LNG pause that the Biden administration has put on or turning --
HUNT: That's liquid natural gas, right?
KIM: Yes, yes, yes. Thank you for the explanation.
HUNT: Oh --
KIM: It's early in the morning. And -- or changing Ukraine aid -- parts of that aid into a loan, which is something that the former president -- former President Donald Trump, himself, has proposed.
But the problem is I'm not sure those little -- you know, those little wins that he could get could sway enough of his conference who are just adamantly opposed to the concept of aiding Ukraine altogether -- people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and a growing faction of that conference. I'm not sure what he could get in return that kind of saves his political -- saves his political position if he does -- again, if he does bring it up for a vote.
HUNT: Well, especially when the answer is that he's going to need support from Democrats to actually get it done, right?
KIM: Right, right.
HUNT: You can't put poison pills in there that Democrats -- they're going to lose in Democratic votes.
KIM: Right, right. He needs -- you know, he -- the Democrats have significant leverage here. I'm looking at this sort of more or less test vote that when speaker -- when Kevin McCarthy was speaker in terms of a little bit of additional assistance to Ukraine. I believe it got only 107 House Republican votes at that time. So that leaves, basically, the passage of Ukraine aid in the House Democrats' hands.
And again, as you say, if Johnson tries to extract something in turn, if it's really small, Democrats can say fine. But if not, then Democrats would say why are we helping you here when we have the power?
HUNT: Right, because they do.
KIM: Yes.
HUNT: All right, Seung Min Kim. Seung Min, thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate it.
KIM: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right, Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen held a news conference today. She wraps up her four-day visit to China. This is Yellen's second China trip that included meetings with the Chinese premier and senior economic and finance officials, though the visit did not result in any major breakthroughs. The world's two largest economies did agree to hold intensive exchanges on more balanced economic growth. It's not clear when and where talks might take place.
Our Marc Short (sic) -- Marc Stewart, excuse me, live in Beijing with more. Marc, good morning to you. You just had a chance to question the Treasury secretary. What did she tell you?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kasie. Good morning.
As you know from your spot in Washington, there is this intersection between economics and politics and China that Sec. Yellen is having to confront. It's a very full menu. Just a few weeks ago, we had all this controversy involving TikTok. There is concern that Chinese EVs could perhaps collect data on American streets. It's a very long list and it is drawing skepticism as well as suspicion from Washington, from Main Street, as well as from Wall Street.
And I asked the secretary if this is all warranted and what a path forward could perhaps look like. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANET YELLEN, SECRETARY, U.S. TREASURY: I've tried in our conversations to make clear that this is a reason for caution on the part of American firms about doing business here. I think on each side we need to be as transparent as we can about our national security concerns and how the actions we take relate to resolving those concerns.
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STEWART: And these concerns over national security and how they relate to the economic side of things are a big deal. The secretary acknowledged she had difficult conversations with her Chinese counterparts, including concerns -- claims over purported support by Chinese firms for Russia's effort in Ukraine.
[05:40:08]
Kasie, this is a very long list of issues. They also talked about anti-corruption efforts, about moves by China to perhaps flood the market with products. But she did seem encouraged, indicating that perhaps more talks would happen as soon as next week. We'll have to watch.
HUNT: All right, Marc Stewart for us. Marc, thank you very much. I really appreciate your reporting.
Coming up next here, crowds flocking to a tiny town in Maine that finds itself directly in the path of totality. Plus, Caitlin Clark's three-word farewell to her fans after her final college game.
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[05:45:10]
HUNT: The Super Bowl of celestial events is here today. Later today, millions of Americans are going to gaze up at the sky together with, of course, the protection of glasses, to witness the solar eclipse. Get those glasses ready. The next time you'll be able to experience a total solar eclipse across the contiguous United States -- it'll be 2044. I don't even want to calculate how old I'm going to be by that time.
If you want the full eclipse experience you'll have to be within the path of totality. One of those places to do that is Houlton, Maine where crowds have been gathering all weekend.
And joining us now is Jane Torres. She is executive director at the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce.
Jane, first of all, I'm so jealous you're going to get a chance to see this because of where you are. Give us a sense of how excitement has been building in your town through the weekend.
JANE TORRES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREATER HOULTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, HOULTON, MAINE (via Webex by Cisco): We are beyond excited. You know, when we started on this path -- we'll call it the path -- 2 1/2 years ago, we really -- we really didn't even dare to hope that we would have weather like this. And the sky is blue and the crowds are actually beginning to form and it's only a quarter of five -- quarter of six in the morning, excuse me. But we are -- we are so excited to have everybody come to our town.
HUNT: So you're a town of about 6,000 people and I'm told that you're expecting, according to the Bangor Daily News, 40,000 visitors. There was an amusing headline about a neighboring town of yours in Maine in The New York Times with somebody questioning where are the bathrooms for all of those people.
How did your town prepare, and are you ready to handle that many people?
TORRES: I think we are. We're slightly terrified but I think we can do this. This is -- this is a -- this is -- we have pretty much hit on everything from safety to porta-potties, places to park, shuttle buses. Everybody in the town has pulled together to make this happen.
HUNT: Do you have any -- like, can you give me some numbers? Like, how many porta-potties did you have to bring in?
TORRES: Well, we brought in 100 and now we're beginning to think we should have brought in another 100. But, you know, hindsight.
HUNT: Hindsight of 20/20.
TORRES: We think -- we think we're OK.
HUNT: For sure.
So what is the weather supposed to be like today? You said it's been nice through the weekend.
TORRES: Actually, the weather has been cold. It's been snowy. It has been really kind of grim. And yesterday, it started to turn in the afternoon and people started to come out. And we're looking at 55 to 60 degrees and absolutely clear skies.
HUNT: Amazing.
So, have you seen a total solar eclipse before in your lifetime?
TORRES: I think when I was about six. I remember doing something with a milk carton but I don't remember actually being allowed outside to see it. So this is going to be really exciting.
HUNT: Yeah.
So what have you done in terms of preparing with your own family? I mean, do you guys have a spot to watch it, where did you get your glasses, etc. cetera?
TORRES: The committee. So we have this committee that we formed 2 1/2 years ago. And we actually ordered 60,000 pairs of glasses and we are down to about, I'm going to say 1,000 left. So we hope everybody brings some. We do have some available for people but we assume that a lot of people have already had them.
But my family came to visit me from New Hampshire and I haven't seen much of them because for three days, we've been planning this whole thing and organizing it, and I've had to be on site the whole time. But hopefully, we'll all be together today. They'll come to the historic downtown and that's where I'll be.
HUNT: I was going to say you said that you've been on-site kind of preparing. What does it actually look like in your town? Like, what are the best eclipse-watching places? What have you set up?
TORRES: We have five star parks. We have the airport. We have a -- we have a really very nice international airport but we do have a lot of jets coming in -- private jets. We are at capacity at nine private jets. But we do know a lot of smaller planes will fly in. That's a very big star park.
We -- you're looking at Market Square right now. That is -- that's a really good star park. It's not quite as big as everything -- every other place but it is -- it's kind of the coveted spot just because of the picture opportunity and the -- and the -- it's just gorgeous down there. We have a beautiful town. So we have a community park. We have -- we've really spread out across the town.
And we have parking areas all around the town of Houlton. So we hope to have -- we actually have buses that will be shuttling people from these parking lots into the different areas and those will be going -- I think they start at nine and they'll be going throughout the day.
HUNT: A major logistics challenge.
[05:50:00]
So you say you're at capacity with nine private jets. I mean, what do you know about the folks that are flying their private jets in?
TORRES: We don't know anything. It will be interesting to see who ends up in our small town.
HUNT: We'll have to -- I'm sure that there will be people tracking these tail numbers. But I'm really interested in this story because I don't know why it didn't occur to me before that if you have a private jet obviously you would fly it into the path of totality because what else would you use your private jet for today?
TORRES: Yeah. Well, we heard stories about people turning around. They were headed to Texas and they said no, that's not the place to be because of the weather. So lo and behold, here's Houlton, Maine -- little Houlton, Maine.
This is definitely our -- well, we have some documentarians here that are documenting what a small town does and how everything comes together for an eclipse event like this or any event like this. This is the biggest thing we've ever seen. So they're here and they're calling the documentary "A Moment in the Sun" and it is so true. This is our moment. HUNT: That's so amazing. Congratulations to Houlton and I hope
everything goes smoothly. I know since you've spent so many years planning this event that it will go great. And thank you very much for kicking it off today with us. I really appreciate it, Jane.
TORRES: Oh, thanks for having me, and come visit Houlton sometime.
HUNT: I would love to. We love Maine so I will -- I will definitely think about it next time we're up your way. Thanks again.
And get those viewing glasses ready. This is a rare opportunity that won't come around for two decades. You can join us here at CNN for special live coverage of the "ECLIPSE ACROSS AMERICA." We start today at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. You can also stream it on Max.
All right, time now for sports. South Carolina's women's basketball team caps an undefeated season with a national championship, and they took their revenge against Caitlin Clark and Iowa along the way.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, you're back. Good morning. Good to see you.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie. Good to see you.
Yesterday, we had the best player in Caitlin Clark versus the best team in South Carolina for the championship. And in the end, it was the Gamecocks completing just the 10th undefeated season in D1 history. But that wasn't easy.
Caitlin Clark -- she came out just on fire in this game. She scored 18 points in the first quarter. But then Raven Johnson would just put the locks on Clark. She held Clark to just 12 points the rest of the way. And Kamilla Cardoso -- what can you say about her? Just dominant down low for South Carolina. She had 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.
The Gamecocks would win 87-75 and claim their second title in three years.
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DAWN STALEY, HEAD COACH, SOUTH CAROLINA: They weren't going to be denied. So I am -- I mean, I'm so incredibly happy for our players. It doesn't always end like you want it to end, much like last year, but my freshies are at the top of my -- at the top of my heart because they wanted this. And I hope we can erase whatever pain they had last year, experiencing not being able to finish it here.
So I'm just super proud of where I work. I'm super proud of our fans. I mean, it's awesome -- it's awesome. It's unbelievable.
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SCHOLES: Yeah, you see coach Dawn Staley there very emotional after the game. And in a really cool moment, she took time to recognize what Caitlin
Clark did for women's college basketball in her career.
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STALEY: I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a -- she carried a heavy load for our sport and it just is not going to stop here on a collegiate tour but when she is the number-one pick in the WNBA draft. She's going to -- she's going to lift that league up as well. So, Caitlin Clark, if you're out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game and we appreciate you.
CAITLIN CLARK, NCAA DIVISION 1 ALL-TIME LEADING SCORER: When I think about women's basketball going forward obviously it's just going to continue to grow, whether it's at the WNBA level or whether it's at the college level. Like, everybody sees it, everybody knows. Everybody sees the viewership numbers. When you're given an opportunity, women's sports just kind of thrives, and I think that's been the coolest part for me on this journey.
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SCHOLES: All right. Now, on the men's side, we've got an old-school big man matchup tonight in the title game. Seven-foot-four Zach Edey and Purdue taking on seven-foot-two Donovan Clingan and UConn. This is the first matchup between seven-footers in the title game since Ewing versus Olajuwon in 1983, and it's the first between two guys over seven-foot-two.
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MATT PAINTER, HEAD COACH, PURDUE: Clingan is really good. Like, he changes the game defensively. But offensively, he's a good player, too. But he's just going to keep coming. He's going to be a fabulous player. He's got 15 to 20 years in front of him.
DAN HURLEY, HEAD COACH, UCONN: He understands the challenges that he's dealing with, with Zach Edey. It's just a -- it's a unique matchup. It's going to be a heck of a challenge for our front court, for our guards, and for our whole team because it's going to have to take a team effort to try to slow them down a little bit.
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SCHOLES: And UConn trying to become the first team to win back-to- back men's titles since Florida back in 2007.
[05:55:05]
Pregame coverage starts tonight at 7:00 Eastern on our sister network TBS. Tip-off, 9:20.
All right -- and finally, a huge move in the college coaching ranks. According to multiple reports, John Calipari is leaving Kentucky after 15 years to become the new coach at SEC rival Arkansas. Calipari won a national title back in 2012 but has just one NCAA tournament win in the last four years. Arkansas hasn't reached the Final Four since losing the 1995 title game.
So, Kasie, big move there. And I'm sure one Razorback fans are pretty excited about, hoping that Calipari can elevate their men's basketball program.
HUNT: Yeah, for real -- big deal down there.
All right, Andy, thank you very much.
SCHOLES: All right.
HUNT: I hope you've been enjoying the basketball the past few weeks. See you tomorrow.
Coming up next here, closing the financial gap -- Donald Trump's record-setting fundraising haul. Plus, emergency landing. A Boeing 737 losing an engine cover on takeoff. And here's one for your eclipse playlist.
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LEN, ROCK DUO: Singing "Steal My Sunshine."
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HUNT: Later today, the moon steals our sunshine when it blocks out the sun.
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LEN, ROCK DUO: Singing "Steal My Sunshine."
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