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Appeals Court Denies Trump Attempt To Delay Hush Money Trial; Netanyahu: Date Set For Israel's Rafah Invasion; Multi-Day Severe Storm Threat Across The South. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 09, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:38]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, April 9th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

An appeals court denies Donald Trump's latest attempts to delay the start of his hush money trial.

Israel's prime minister claiming the date is set for the invasion of Rafah. Is Benjamin Netanyahu bluffing?

And two in a row for UConn. The Huskies taking home another men's NCAA title.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at downtown Nashville.

We've got some news there for Morgan Wallen. Not great news, honestly.

It's a pretty shot early, early on this Tuesday morning.

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

Special counsel Jack Smith is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject former President Trump's claims of immunity and to deny the former president any opportunity to delay his federal election subversion trial. Smith told the court in a filing, quote: The Framers never endorsed criminal immunity for a former president and all presidents from the founding to the modern era have known that after leaving office, they faced potential criminal liability for official acts.

Meanwhile, a New York state appeals court denying Donald Trumps latest attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial. The former president petition the court to postpone the trial, claiming that a change of venue was needed because he couldn't get a fair trial in New York. That has been shot down for now.

Trump's legal team also filed a petition objecting the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Marshawn, arguments on that are expected today and jury selection is set to begin on Monday.

Joining me now is Michelle Price, national political reporter for "The Associated Press".

Michelle, good morning.

MICHELLE PRICE, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Good morning.

HUNT: Thank you so much for being here.

So let's start there with jury selection coming up here in the hush money trial on Monday, we expect. They keep attempting to try to delay this, but it does seem at this point like we are going to see the first former president of the United States actually go on trial here.

What do we know about how that's going to play out?

PRICE: We did -- I mean, again, this -- we've seen President Trump in court a few -- for President Trump in court a few times, but we've got to remember how a momentous this will be on Monday. He will be on criminal trial. This will still be very unprecedented.

As far as jury selection, you know, by president for President Trump's lawyers have argued that he can't get a fair shake in Manhattan, that the city would be biased against him and the prosecutors here argued that the publicity in this case has all been at Donald Trumps own postings and attention he has is ginned up for this trial.

The folks who they're hoping to find to seat this jury, that they're going to be asked to basically set aside their views and just judge on the facts of the case. And that they -- the district attorneys offices, they have data shows when people say they're willing to set that aside and that they can impartially judge this case.

HUNT: Yeah. It's a tricky reality when Donald Trump is a former president who is also so ubiquitous in New York culture. We've got to look yesterday at the jury selection questionnaire. It was put out by the courts and some of the questions that they're asking what kind of media do you read? Where do you get your news? That list of some of the papers and this organization is on that list.

They're asked whether anyone's ever worked for Trump company, whether they've ever been to a Trump rally, whether they've ever supported QAnon, the Proud Boys or Antifa.

There's also a fun one that asks whether they've ever listened to Michael Cohen's podcast or the podcast from New York prosecutor.

What do these questions tell you about what they're looking for? I mean, it looks like they're looking for political activity here or political information that is coming into these jurors. But also misinformation and some of those are sources of mis -- QAnon is a conspiracy theory. If you're getting your information from random Internet posters who said they have a secret theory of everything, there may be a question about whether you could be an impartial juror in this case, about what the government is presenting to you.

HUNT: Let's talk for a second about the Supreme Court and immunity. Let's just remind everyone what Donald Trump said earlier this year about why he believes immunity is required. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But you have to have a guaranteed immunity for president, otherwise, the president is not going to be able to function.

[05:05:03]

They're not going to move -- Harry Truman would not have done -- Harry Truman would not have done Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

You know, you have to allow a president to do his job. They'll make decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So the special counsel, Jack Smith, directly disagrees. He writes, quote: The effective functioning of the presidency does not require that a former president be immune from accountability for these alleged violations of federal criminal law. To the contrary, a bedrock principle of our constitutional order is that no person is above the law, including the president.

What are the stakes here?

PRICE: I mean, this -- this is all these cases that he's facing. This is everything underpinning these cases and it's also just a fundamental question. Mission as special prosecutor Jack Smith lays out there about America that no one is above the law. This is kind of a given in our political system and this would be really tested with the Supreme Court when it takes up these arguments two weeks.

HUNT: What are you looking for from the court because again, were going to hear these arguments and as you know, that they're set for the week after Donald Trump is set to go on trial in his first criminal trial, we do sometimes get a sense of which way the court is going on these when we get a chance to hear that. This one seems like a real toss up sitting here and thinking about it.

PRICE: Yeah, I think some of the questions would we would want to listen for if the justices are asking questions about where does that immunity stop? Is it total immunity is what, what is it actions taken as president? Is it after leaving office?

Could it affect the documents case? Could it affect the January 6 case? Could it even affect this case in Manhattan that has nothing to do with his time in office, but he has tried to delay the Manhattan trial over the looming Supreme Court case.

The question is about what kind of scenarios are they asking about? Where does this end? One of his attorneys was arguing earlier that that the immunity would cover him if he -- if a president ordered the assassination of a political rival, they weren't even willing to put a limit on that.

If we see the justices probing in that line of area will make it to sense of where they see this ending or if they are inclined to agree with Donald Trumps lawyers.

HUNT: Yeah, very interesting.

All right. Michelle Price -- Michelle, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Really appreciate it.

PRICE: Thanks for having me.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the date is set for Israel's invasion of Rafah.

Plus, the FBI arrests a man who allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and planned attacks on Idaho churches.

And Mike Johnson, the House speaker, about to confront the most serious threat yet to his job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:05]

HUNT: Welcome back.

The date is set. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the start of Israel's invasion of Rafah is officially scheduled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Today, I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We are constantly working to achieve our goals and the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen. There is a date.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. CNN's Max Foster joins me now with more.

Max, good morning. Always wonderful to see you.

I got to be honest. That sounds like a political campaign video.

Is he bluffing here? Is that -- I mean, is it a military time? What do you -- what do you make of this?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think bluffing is the right word, but it could be buying time, getting it because he's under this severe pressure from the right wing of his of his coalition, who are threatening to topple him if he doesn't go into Rafah. So he's setting a date.

At the same time, America saying, you can't go into Rafah if didn't have a plan to protect civilians. That seems pretty impulse -- possible this point, the area of pressure, of course, is that Israelis generally just want the hostages out and he hasn't got a deal on getting hostages out. So he's facing pressure from every corner and he's trying to deal with them as best he can it seems.

But under the current plan, it does look as though he does plan to go into Rafah. He's just got to balance what the Americans and the right of his party are asking of him

HUNT: So, Max when Hamas says on the hostage question that the latest proposal does not meet their demands. They're not saying no here. This is obviously one piece of what Netanyahu is looking for. He talked about the hostages in that video. He's coming under a lot of pressure at home to do something here. Where do these talks stand?

FOSTER: Well, you know, this strange position that Hamas is in obviously being absolutely pummeled physically, but actually a very strong negotiating position because they know that Netanyahu needs a deal because the public rightfully what Israeli hostages out, its been so many months and they're desperate to see that happen.

He needs to deliver it, but they are the ones who are able to deliver it. There are, you know, they haven't agreed to a deal. That's the point here are whether or not they will eventually or not. And there are certain things that, you know, Netanyahu can't agree to in a moment, which one of which is getting, you know, Israeli troops, Israelis out of Gaza, the end of all of this.

So they're in a -- they're in a strong position. And as long as they don't say yes, he's -- you know, they're able to string this out, but then this is why right -- Israeli right, those are far-right parties are saying the only option, the only way of getting Israeli hostages out is actually to finally take out her mass.

And if the remaining Hamas members are in Rafah, that's why Netanyahu has to go in.

HUNT: So, Max, switching gears for a second. David Cameron, your foreign secretary, was here in the U.S. meeting with former President Donald Trump down in Mar-a-Lago.

What -- why did this meeting take place? And what do we know about what was said?

FOSTER: Well, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall? I don't know if you remember. When was it? 2019. I was just looking it up. I'm trying to remember what it was.

But Donald Trump only got the nomination for the Republican presidential nomination because of his protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic intervention. That's what David Cameron said. This is not how to endear yourself to someone who may be president. So he's going over there what were here -- we haven't been given any details really about this meeting. We haven't even how it confirm that is happening, but all the UK press these very linked with saying it did happen from Cameron side, saying this is about big international matters.

But I think part of it has to be this guy might get in to the White House and might have to rebuild some bridges here. And we'll see how Donald Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

FOSTER: Yeah, Donald Trump does change his mind on people, doesn't he, if they change their mind on him, I guess.

HUNT: Yeah. No, it does happen.

Max, what is your sense of how the British government overall is preparing for the possibility of a potential Trump administration because obviously its going to be different from when there were obviously a lot of comparisons between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. And that era has passed us by.

What is your sense of how it might work under the current situation?

FOSTER: I think there is concern because so much chaos in terms of his international policy before. But I think, you know, there is this wider view looking back on his last presidency, there are many positive things to say about it in terms of economy. And, you know, I think there is a view here that he was quite a peaceful president as well, ultimately.

So, he's trying to figure out what he's going to do. So separating what he says from his actual policy and his actual actions. So NATO is the big one I'm sure that's going to come up with Cameron's -- it would have come up in Cameron's meeting and I'm sure Cameron will be going in saying, I'm pushing really hard to get those countries who aren't putting much money into NATO, to put money into NATO, so trying to find a common ground and not to get too distracted by a lot of his rhetoric. I think that's the way they're going into this one.

HUNT: Always the challenge, isn't it?

Max Foster for us in London -- Max, always great to have you. Thanks so much.

All right. Coming up next here, Arizona's Supreme Court about to decide whether the states abortion ban can remain in place.

Plus, a ruling in lawsuits against 32 European countries accused of failing to respond to the climate crisis.

And before we go to break, take a look -- incredible satellite images from NASA and NOAA showing them moons shadow moving across North America's path of totality.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:35] HUNT: All right. Twenty-two minutes past the hour.

Here's your morning roundup.

An 18-year-old from Idaho arrested and accused of plotting to kill churchgoers in his town in the name of ISIS. Alexandra Mercurio charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He's in custody and has not entered a plea.

The governor of Missouri denying clemency for death row inmate Brian Dorsey, who set to be executed by lethal injection tonight. Advocates hoped last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court can save his life.

Arizona Supreme Courts set to rule on abortion access, six justices have two choices allow legal abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy or ban nearly all abortions under a law from the civil war era.

All right. Time now for weather. More than 30 million people in the South are under severe storm threats today and that includes flooding, strong winds, possible hail, even tornadoes from Texas to Mississippi.

Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking this system for us.

Allison, good morning

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning.

We have lots of talk about today we've already had some stormed that began yesterday, continuing to see those spread eastward. Right now, you can see some strong storms making the way in the eastern portion of Dallas. We've also got very heavy rain across will rock report and then stretching all the way over into Birmingham, Alabama.

We have several flash flood warnings already ongoing this morning just because of the sheer amount of rain at some of these areas have already seen. You can see those two orange spots right there on the map indicating at least four to six inches has already fallen in just the last 24 hours. And we anticipate even more.

That's why there's a very broad flash flood threat for today, not just for the areas you saw in those boxes, but really you can see all of these areas here. They have the potential for flooding today just because of the amount of rain that is expected today, that's one of one-third -- one of many threats that we are expecting today, not just the flood think, but also the potential for some severe storms. This includes the potential for very strong damaging winds, tornadoes, and even very large hail.

Yesterday, we had reports of baseball size hail that again will be possible for today for all of these areas you see here shaded, not just in the orange, but even the yellow and green areas have the potential for that so severe storms as we go through the rest of the day. Now, here's a look taking it forward again, you can see that all of that rain and storms are going to continue to spread eastward, not just today, but also into tomorrow where we have an even more enhanced threat tomorrow going up to a moderate risk, also, including the same threat of damaging winds tornadoes, and hail.

[05:25:04]

HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us -- Allison, thanks very much for that. See you soon.

All right. Up next, Congress back from its break. The first-order business for the House might cost the speaker his job.

Plus, two in a row for the UConn Huskies. Highlights in the "Bleacher Report", ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: A live look at the Jefferson Memorial here in Washington, D.C., on this Tuesday morning. Good morning to you. Thanks for being up with us.

Congress back here in this.