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Today: Biden To Sign $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package; Awaiting Judge's Ruling On Whether Trump Violated Gag Order; Security Officials Warn Of Disinformation Ahead Of Election. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 24, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a live look at -- it looks like the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland on this Wednesday morning. Good morning. Thank you for being up with us. I'm Kasie Hunt.
President Biden is set to sign a long-awaited foreign aid package today. It passed with bipartisan support in the Senate last night. Forty-eight Democrats and 31 Republicans backing the bill. It includes $95 billion in much-needed assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted his gratitude on the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying, "This vote reinforces America's role as a beacon of democracy and the leader of the free world."
Yesterday, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn't hold back in explaining why he believes it took so long to get the bill to the president's desk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: What took so long to get some of these other eight Republicans persuaded to your position?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, that's a good question. You already know the answer. I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson who, in my opinion, ended up where he should have been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Mitch McConnell unleashed.
Joining me to discuss, Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tia, he says -- Mitch McConnell does not always say in public what he really thinks --
TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah.
HUNT: -- about this kind of stuff. I was -- I was surprised he was willing to go there. And he went on to say that this was part of what convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans to kind of hold up this aid.
What does this say to you?
MITHCELL: So, number one, I think it says to us that Mitch McConnell is taking the gloves off a little bit more as he kind of looks at the end of this tenure in Washington. I think he's getting fed up and he's trying to speak out as something that he considers as part of his legacy.
But I also think there's been a lot of talk about what members of Congress were saying as far as the rhetoric and how that changed as they received these high-level intelligence briefings about Ukraine. And so, I think --
HUNT: You're talking about Speaker Johnson, in particular.
MITCHELL: Yes, Speaker Johnson.
But I think if we're listening to Mitch McConnell, perhaps some of these Senate Republicans as well -- you know, there's one thing to be influenced kind of in the far-right sphere of media, but it's another thing to actually do the process of governing and sitting in those briefings and hearing what's actually happening on the ground that perhaps challenged some of the rhetoric they were hearing kind of from the echo chamber that -- you know, the far-right echo chamber that's insulated. And so, to me, I think that also had an impact.
You saw members of both parties in both chambers saying we've got to respond to what the experts are telling us when it comes to foreign aid.
HUNT: Yeah. I mean -- and Johnson, in particular, and the way he sort of framed -- because he obviously was elevated from back-bencher --
MITCHELL: Right.
HUNT: -- all the way to speaker, kind of learning exactly what was going on really changing the game here.
The other thing that this does, Tia, is set up a ban on TikTok.
MITCHELL: Right.
HUNT: ByteDance, under this bill, will now have nine months, basically, to divest TikTok. We obviously expect a number of legal challenges. But this is set up to be a significant political issue.
MITCHELL: Yeah, and it's interesting. You know, of course, a lot of what we've been focusing on is the foreign aid, but I think as that kind of gets settled there will be a lot of conversation about what the legislation regarding TikTok -- how that's going to proceed. Because we know that TikTok-ByteDance has lawyered up, lobbied up, and it doesn't look like they're going to just take this lying down. So there could be a lot of litigation.
And, quite frankly, I think there's going to be continued conversation in Washington. Now, they've got a lot of things that they need to do right away. But I think there is a wide issue to be discussed that goes beyond TikTok, but I think TikTok is an easy kind of -- it's an easy social media app to focus on because it is China-owned. But it remains to be seen if this is actually going to become law because, again, we expect legal challenges.
HUNT: Yeah, a number of legal challenges.
Let's talk, though, for a second about Donald Trump in all of this. Because back in 2020, he signed an executive order banning TikTok --
MITCHELL: Um-hum.
HUNT: -- right -- that was held up in the court. So just, like, to be clear about that.
But then he put this up on his social media platform overnight. "Just so everyone knows, especially the young people," he writes, "Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok. He is the one pushing it to close and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party." He calls it "election interference."
So there's a lot in here, right?
MITCHELL: Yeah, yeah.
HUNT: Trump is -- has this vendetta against Meta -- Facebook -- for how they dealt with him. But the reality is, like -- I mean, and yes, he'll be correct that Biden is planning to sign this. However, Trump also tried to do the same thing.
[05:35:00]
MITCHELL: Yeah.
HUNT: What changed?
MITCHELL: Well, again, TikTok-ByteDance lawyered up and lobbied up, and part of that lobbying in a messaging campaign, if you will, has been reaching out not just to those in office now but we know there's been outreach to Donald Trump. And it looks like that may have had some impact.
But also, we know that Donald Trump has often been squishy on policy. And so, this -- what -- is just one example of many examples of him saying one thing and then later saying something completely different.
And it's not just -- I think the lobbying and the -- and the personal interactions he's had with people connected to TikTok has an impact. But I also think the fact that TikTok is now even more popular than it was when he was in office.
It's popular among young voters. There is concern that a ban on TikTok could have a negative impact on President Joe Biden just because of the sheer popularity of the app. And I think Trump wants to take advantage of that by, again, saying hey, young people, if you don't want your TikTok taken away from you, blame Joe Biden.
And so -- and it does put Biden in a weird position. Biden's campaign is on TikTok but yet, he's willing to sign the legislation leading to a potential ban.
So, on one hand, Trump is not necessarily being --
HUNT: Yeah.
MITCHELL: -- telling the whole story about his evolution on TikTok. But on the other hand, it's politics. It's something where his opponent is vulnerable on, so you get the attacks.
HUNT: Par for the course, so to speak.
MITCHELL: Um-hum.
HUNT: All right, Tia Mitchell. Tia, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
All right. Today, we are also awaiting a gag order ruling from the judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial after tensions boiled over in court on Tuesday. Judge Juan Merchan warning the defense team that they're "losing all credibility with the court" at a hearing to determine whether Trump violated an order preventing him from publicly discussing witnesses. Witnesses like Michael Cohen, who is his former fixer.
That's exactly what Trump did in an interview with CNN affiliate WPBI, which was taped just before the hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Michael Cohen is a convicted liar and he's got no credibility whatsoever. He was a lawyer and you rely on your lawyers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Also in the spotlight, the prosecution's first witness, David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. In his testimony, he described under oath the catch and kill scheme, saying that he would look for negative stories about Trump, buy the rights, and then bury them. Stories like the one about former adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Joining me now, trial attorney and former assistant D.A., host and legal analyst for the Law & Crime Network, Imran Ansari. Imran, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here.
IMRAN ANSARI, FORMER PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, HOST AND LEGAL ANALYST, LAW & CRIME NETWORK (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.
HUNT: Let's start with the gag order hearing because this, of course -- the judge has not said what he's going to do one way or the other here, but Trump is continuing to go out and make these kinds of comments.
The "losing all credibility" remark that he made -- what do you make of that?
ANSARI: Well, I think the judge isn't buying the defense's explanations as to Donald Trump's social media posts. And it's sort of a thumbing the nose at the court by Donald Trump and I think Judge Merchan is seeing that.
We saw the hearing go forward. We saw it not go so well for the defense there. And I think we're going to see Judge Merchan sanction Donald Trump. Whether he reserves that decision for later in the trial or enforces it later in the trial or after the trial, that remains to be seen. But I do think that given the repeated violations by Donald Trump, the sort of tone and tenor in the court and the comments by Judge Merchan, that we're heading towards a sanction based on those violations of the gag order here.
HUNT: Very interesting.
So what did you feel like you learned from the court hearing yesterday? It certainly was an interesting time machine that took me back to the time I spent covering Donald Trump's campaign in 2015 and '16, and then his administration starting in 2017. I mean, the cast of characters was back. The information was sordid -- the porn stars, Playboy bunnies, a love child that wasn't. You kind of had everything here.
But we did learn some new information about what actually transpired and then, clearly, the prosecution is going to try to show that this means that a crime was committed.
What were you -- what perked up your ears yesterday?
ANSARI: Well, I think it was an effective setting the stage by the prosecution. You're calling David Pecker. He's one of the less controversial witnesses in terms of you're not calling Michael Cohen first. The prosecution wants to sort of set the stage for the jury, get the evidence out there about the catch and kill scenario. Introduce the players, like Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, and get the framework of what's going to support later those charges of falsification of business records.
[05:40:16]
You have David Pecker coming in and testifying -- sort of light- hearted in the way he was testifying to the jury there. And setting the stage for the jury. The prosecution asking those foundational questions. You're getting an idea of the framework of what was going on during the campaign and Donald Trump and his fixer sort of around him making sure that those stories were killed before they reached the public ears. And I think that's going to build on the prosecution case.
But also, we're going to see how the defense handles this on cross- examination because David Pecker is a witness who was sort of complicit in this. He's turned state's witness and I think that's going to be some ammo for the defense to cross-examine him about his testimony.
HUNT: All right, Imran Ansari for us on all of this. Imran, thanks very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate your time.
ANSARI: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, a new organization aimed at fighting disinformation. We're going to be joined by the former Homeland Security official who is back in the public eye to lead it.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Clip from Milwaukee Bucks-Indiana Pacers NBA Playoff game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The Bucks trying to hold off the Pacers without their big man. Our Bleacher Report's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:45:57]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEJANDRO MAJORKAS, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: The fact is that disinformation that creates a threat to the security of the homeland is our responsibility to address. I believe that this working group that gathers together -- gathers together best practices, makes sure that our work is coordinated consistent with those best practices, that we're safeguarding the right of free speech, that we're safeguarding civil liberties, I think is an extraordinarily important endeavor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, that was Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, nearly two years ago, defending his agency's efforts to combat disinformation with what was then a newly established disinformation board. But if you blinked, you might have missed it because just three weeks after that board was announced, DHS was forced to abandon the initiative after an intense backlash.
The woman who once ran that board, though, is returning to her promise to root out harmful content, excuse me, online. Nina Jankowicz is the former director of the DHS's Disinformation Governance Board and she joins me now. She's now the co-founder and CEO of the new American Sunlight Project. Nina, thanks very much for being here.
NINA JANKOWICZ, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, AMERICAN SUNLIGHT PROJECT: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: I want to dig into -- you have this new organization. You are planning to try to resume this work. It has become a central piece of our political arguments --
JANKOWICZ: Yeah.
HUNT: -- right? What is disinformation and what isn't disinformation? What is free speech? What is quashing free speech? The fight itself has become political.
JANKOWICZ: Yeah.
HUNT: How do you view that in your work that you are unrolling today?
JANKOWICZ: Yeah. Well, I think it's really unfortunate, right, because disinformation is not something that knows a political party. It comes for people on all sides of the political spectrum. It can upset lives.
And frankly, right now, we see this fight against disinformation researchers. We see this fight against social media platforms doing content moderation. And we see it empowered by Congress and people who are powerful people -- Elon Musk, et cetera.
And what does that do? That makes our nation less safe. We are in a point where we're about to head into an inflection point ahead of the election. We've got supercharging AI. We've got foreign threats, right? Our foreign adversaries are looking at our domestic polarization and thanking their lucky stars that they have so much material to work with.
And in the meantime, disinformation researchers -- people who are working on this threat -- the canaries in the coal mine -- they're being snuffed out by our very own members of Congress. And so, I think we're in a -- there's a dereliction of duty going on, basically.
HUNT: We have seen some evidence that the Republican Party and certainly, the sort of -- what I would guess refer to as the Reagan -- the Reagan throwback wing, at this point, of the Republican Party -- that they are starting to understand the depths of influence from foreign actors, including Russia --
JANKOWICZ: Yeah.
HUNT: -- that was almost -- it became very difficult for them to talk about it when Trump was in office because he saw it as an assault on him.
But you had Mitch McConnell talking just yesterday --
JANKOWICZ: Yeah.
HUNT: -- about Tucker Carlson going to interview Vladimir Putin and saying that was almost where he expected him to be. The cover of the New York Post had "Moscow Marjorie" on there, talking about Russian disinformation.
What are you doing in your group to try to include those kinds of voices to try and reach kind of the broadest and appeal to the broadest set of people here?
JANKOWICZ: Yeah. So we're a bipartisan group. We represent people on both sides of the political spectrum.
And I, in my career -- although the right would prefer everybody forget about that -- I've worked with Republicans. I've worked with Democrats. I've worked across the aisle. And I'd say to anybody who cares about this issue, come to us. We're a big tent here.
Frankly, we're going to expose and investigate every link in the causal chain of disinformation. And I think we're going to make the case to Americans who care about this issue that, frankly, it is something that is important to our democracy and our national security. And it doesn't matter what your political party is -- disinformation's ultimate victim is democracy.
[05:50:00]
HUNT: What did you learn from the experience that you had with this DHS board?
JANKOWICZ: Ahh, I could make a lot of funny comments, but I would just say there's a couple of things that make me really worried for our country.
One, the fact that they went after somebody just for doing their job. It's not like I was a Senate-confirmed appointee. I was -- I was the GS-15, right? I was somebody -- just a normal person going --
HUNT: A civil servant --
JANKOWICZ: Yeah -- going --
HUNT: -- for people who don't know that language -- yeah.
JANKOWICZ: -- going to work every day, right, in my area of expertise. And the vitriol that came after me in my personal life, that's really disturbing.
And so, I want to return that sort of civility. I want to return that humanity to our politics and remind people that online actions have consequences, right? That it's not just mean words on the internet. I got death threats and things like that, and that's really, really disturbing.
But I would also say that, in general, we need a lot more transparency in initiatives like this. I did not agree with how DHS rolled out the board.
And so, what we're doing with the American Sunlight Project is really looking at open-source investigations -- transparent, accessible work. And in all the work that we do, we're going to try to make it so that anybody can understand it. A lot of the stuff is technical We want to bring it back to the people.
HUNT: Yeah. I was -- I was going to say I absolutely -- the death threats, the personal vitriol is something that we have seen just absolutely invade our politics and it's awful no matter where it's coming from.
But you did mention that you disagreed with the rollout. I mean --
JANKOWICZ: Yeah.
HUNT: -- do you understand -- or how do you understand, I should say, the distinction between the government doing something like this -- a board inside the Department of Homeland Security and a group like the one you're going to found now?
JANKOWICZ: Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, the board was widely lied about, right? People said that it was going to be administrative truth and decide what was true or false on the internet. That's nonsense. It wasn't going to do that, as you heard the secretary saying in that old clip, which kind of gives me the willies when I look at it now.
HUNT: I like that.
JANKOWICZ: It was about coordinating best practices within the department. I didn't have any power to decide what was true or false online, nor as Tucker Carlson said, did I have the power to send men with guns to the homes of Americans with whom I disagreed. At the time, I was 37 weeks pregnant and I was just trying to do my job, right?
HUNT: Yes, and trying to get up every day.
JANKOWICZ: Exactly.
HUNT: I have been there.
JANKOWICZ: Yeah, doing that backwards and in heels.
HUNT: Yeah.
JANKOWICZ: But what we are doing is very different I think, right? We're still bringing people together. We're coordinating, but we're shining a light on some of the informational harms that have infected our information ecosystem right now.
I think the government has a role to play here and that coordinating role is one that I hope a future administration can still play. It's one that needs to be done, frankly, from what I've seen in my short time in government. We need a little bit more coordination and communication between different entities. But I would say we're on the outside of that and there is a huge role for civil society to play in curing this informational ecosystem right now.
HUNT: All right, Nina Jankowicz. Thank you very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate -- JANKOWICZ: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: -- your time.
All right, time now for sports. The Dallas Mavericks take away home- court advantage from the L.A. Clippers as they even up their NBA Playoff series.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning, Kasie.
So the road teams finally able to break through last night in the NBA Playoffs. Through Monday, the home teams -- they were 11-0, but the Pacers and the Mavs were finally able to stop that streak.
Now, Kawhi Leonard returning for the Clippers last night. He scored 15 in 35 minutes in his first game since March 31.
Now, this was a tight game late. Under two to go, Luka Doncic here -- he's going to come through in the clutch -- the step-back three. Luka, game-high 32. He was all pumped up.
The Mavs win 96-93 to even that series at a game apiece.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUKA DONCIC, GUARD, DALLAS MAVERICKS: We had to make -- and it's the second game, you know. The first game wasn't our best game so we had to come out here and prove that we can play with them. The Playoffs is different. I'm out here enjoying playing basketball. That's fun, man. That's what I do. That's what I want to do my whole life. So I just enjoy doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right. Now, the Pacers, meanwhile, also evening their series with the Bucks. Pascal Siakam pouring in 37 points in this one. Indiana pulling away in the fourth to win 125-108.
Now, after the game, Tyrese Haliburton, who was born about 90 miles from Milwaukee in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, said his younger brother was called a racial slur by a fan while sitting in the stands during game one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYRESE HALIBURTON, GUARD, INDIANA PACERS: My little brother, in the stands the other day, was called the "N" word. And so, like, it was important for us as a family, like, to just address that. And that was important for us to talk about because that just didn't -- that didn't sit right with anybody in our -- you know, in our family. And so, it's just very important to have my family here right now. And my little brother has handled that the right way.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: Yeah. The Pacers will host the Bucks in game three on Friday.
Now, one home team was able to protect their home floor last night, and that was the Timberwolves. Jaden McDaniels with 25 points for Minnesota and also played some lockdown B (PH). The Timberwolves would win 105-93.
Not good for the Suns. They've never won a playoff series after falling behind 2-0.
[05:55:00]
Now, we have another Playoff double-header coming up tonight on our sister channel TNT. You've got the Heat and the Celtics getting things started at 7:00 Eastern, followed by the Pelicans and Thunder at 9:30.
And returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, game two between the Panthers and the Lightning with the score tied late in the second period. Check out Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. An incredible save here. He dives with the action to his back to stop the shot with his forearm -- just incredible.
Now, this one would go to overtime. And Carter Verhaeghe -- he would end it, scoring his fifth career playoff overtime winner. That's the third most ever.
The Panthers win 3-2 and lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 now. Game three is going to be tomorrow night in Tampa.
All right. And finally, Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani making his first visit to Nationals Park and, well, he had a great D.C. debut. Ohtani blasting a 450-foot home run into that second deck in the right field. This was his sixth homer of the season and it was the hardest-hit one of his career. Exit velocity was 118.7 miles per hour.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying after it, Kasie, only a few guys can hit a ball like that.
The Dodgers won that game 4-1.
And, you know, Kasie, we were wondering how would Ohtani handle all that off-the-field stuff that was going on. Well, quite well. He's got the best batting average in baseball and hitting balls like that.
HUNT: Yeah. Lucky for all of us, man. It's so much fun to watch him play.
Andy, thank you.
SCHOLES: Yeah, right.
HUNT: Really appreciate it. See you soon.
All right. Coming up next here, the Supreme Court just hours away from hearing arguments over one state's near-total ban on abortions, even in cases of medical emergencies.
Plus, Donald Trump apparently violating a gag order while a judge decides whether to hold him in contempt for doing just that.
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