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President Biden to Sign Foreign Aid, TikTok Bill; Supreme Court to Hear Emergency Abortion Care Arguments; Strong Winds, Hail, Possible Tornadoes from Texas to Oklahoma. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 24, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

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KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, April 24. Right now on CNN this morning, President Biden about to sign a foreign aid bill that will provide billions in aid to America's allies.

[06:01:00]

Donald Trump, waiting to find out if the judge in his hush money trial will find him in contempt of court.

And the Biden administration fighting before the Supreme Court to preserve abortion rights.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at Chicago, because it looks lovely there on this Wednesday morning.

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

President Biden will sign a $95 foreign aid package that has critical U.S. allies breathing a sigh of relief. The Senate overwhelmingly passing the measure, which provides needed funding to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We tell our allies, we stand with you. We tell our adversaries, don't mess with us. We tell the world the United States will do everything to safeguard democracy and our way of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Also included in the bill, the forced sale, effectively a ban, on TikTok. President Biden has said that he plans to sign the bill today.

Shortly after the vote, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, whose been one of Kyiv's strongest advocates in Washington, offered this stark assessment of why many in his party had turned on Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): 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: "Where he should have been all along, interviewing Vladimir Putin."

Let's bring in our panel: Ron Brownstein, senior editor at "The Atlantic"; Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign; and Faiz Shakir, who is advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders. Welcome all.

Ron --

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson, Mitch McConnell.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HUNT: Walk into a bar. Question mark.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Who's missing in that sentence? Donald Trump.

I mean, sure. Tucker Carlson ended up where he should have been, interviewing Vladimir Putin. But Mitch McConnell is kind of punching down and kind of ignoring the elephant, I guess, party in the room, which is Donald Trump and Donald Trump's demonization of Ukraine.

His resistance to this --

HUNT: Although Trump in the end, I mean --

BROWNSTEIN: In the end -- in the end, he was hands-off. But certainly, his opposition -- you know, it was interesting.

I think it was Eric Schmidt, the senator from Missouri, who pointed out on the first vote, when the Senate -- when a majority of Senate Republicans voted against this, as a standalone, that virtually everyone elected to the Senate, Republican elected Senate after 2018 voted against it, right?

Basically, the Republicans in the Trump era. Yes, are -- are, you know, dubious of America's traditional role. There is still, obviously, a piece of the Republican Party that is supportive of that.

But the direction of the party in the Trump era is towards skepticism about America as kind of the Reaganite leader of the free world. And that, I think, adds to the pressure of those center-right suburban Republican voters who have felt more and more marginalized in the Trump era.

HUNT: Matt Gorman, I mean, to -- just to pick up on Ron's point there, is this an inevitable shift? Because there is this possibility that we just continue going down that. Mitch McConnell's on his way out, right?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HUNT: Now, that said, Mike Johnson, also a Trumpian, you know, a Republican in the Trump mold, started getting intelligence briefings and said, Oh, wait, we need to do this.

MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I think about 50 or so of those 112 Republicans in the House that voted against this were part of the vote no but hope yes kind of caucus, if you will.

I think for a really true test on where this stood, at least in the House, look to that Marjorie Taylor Greene amendment that would have zeroed out all Ukrainian had about 71 people. I think it's a fairly accurate prediction.

[06:05:05]

But I think, like most things in the Trump era, it didn't fundamentally flip everything on its head. It accelerated changes that were already coming. We saw sort of this bubble up ten years ago with Syria. Remember the Rand Paul wing of the party. That was where this came up.

This has been percolating and bubbling ever since the end of Iraq or so, the Bush years. This is where the rubber hits the road.

HUNT: It's been kind of a theme in American history, right?

BROWNSTEIN: That's a -- look, famously, the battle between the isolationists and the internationalist wings of the Republican Party was settled in 1952 when Dwight Eisenhower beat isolationist Robert Taft for the nomination.

And over the next 60 years, in every Republican presidential administration, the internationalist forces dominated. Even when Trump was elected, there was still that kind of history and muscle memory that influenced his own administration. And there was a lot of resistance to his criticism of NATO and his kind of pulling back on that traditional role.

And I think with Mike Johnson, you did see more of that kind of resurface than you might have expected in this fight (ph). But overall, the general trajectory is that that part of the party is receding; the isolationist, Trumpian nationalist J.D. Vance part is ascending.

And if you are -- just under like, in polling by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, just under half of Republicans, Republican voters say they support an aggressive role for America in the world. They are now the minority. And they have to face the reality that on most issues, the party is going to continue to evolve away, not toward -- for them.

GORMAN: I thought it was interesting. Jonathan Martin in "Politico," a really richly reported piece about --

HUNT: Yes. GORMAN: -- how --

HUNT: We have that.

GORMAN: Yes, exactly. And it was about how Mike Johnson lobbied Trump, so to speak, and how the Republicans lobbied Trump to -- I agree with you. You could have killed this bill if you wanted to. To stand the silence. It was an interesting piece.

It was essentially saying, you know, President Trump, but if you are elected and you let them sack Kyiv, you will enter office in chaos in Europe. And it was obviously convincing.

HUNT: Well, in that -- in that piece, Jonathan Martin at "Politico" also writes about foreign leaders who were lobbying Donald Trump. The British foreign prime minister, David Cameron, he writes, also made the Palm Beach pilgrimage. He went down to Mar-a-Lago and underscored that Europe actually was making this financial commitment, and they had made a commitment to Ukraine.

They say it's -- he writes, "It was also no coincidence Cameron and foreign ministers of Germany and Italy cut a video" -- good way to talk to Trump -- "from the G-7 foreign ministers conference last week where they emphasized this need."

And as significant the Polish President Duda made his own well-timed trek to see Trump, this time at Trump Tower Manhattan, used a lengthy Wednesday dinner last night to discuss Europe doing more for Ukraine and Putin's expansionist appetites.

So Faiz, I mean, this clearly that also demonstrates that these leaders are preparing for Donald Trump to potentially be elected again. But this bill also included aid for Israel, which is contentious on the Democratic side. What do you see here?

FAIZ SHAKIR, ADVISOR TO SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, that's right. Senator Sanders, for whom I've, you know, managed his presidential campaign, voted against this and specifically because of Israel. I mean, the U.S.-Israel relationship, I think, is one of the most struggling points right now, because I think most of -- I think a vast majority of Democrats within the Democratic Party are wanting some accountability for Netanyahu's actions.

And now, when you have the wanton killing of what, 30,000-plus civilians in Gaza without any sense of, is there accountability when you go over the line from an American government?

Now, we've -- now that President Biden has gotten the funding, I think a lot of progressives, a lot of people within the Democratic Party who are going to say, OK, so you've got the funding now. It doesn't have to flow without condition. What are you going to do to institute some conditions? Use that as leverage.

That -- this is now that point, for President Biden to show, Hey, yes, I got money in my pocket to give to you with some strings attached and change in the behavior of Israel. BROWNSTEIN: You know, there's a day on the calendar circled, May 8,

which is the day that the Biden administration has to report to Congress whether Israel is using the arms we are sending in accordance with international law.

And also whether they are impeding the flow not only of aid directly from the U.S., but from international organizations, that we support interests.

That was part of an earlier deal with Senate Democrats who opposed unconditional aid. The administration is going to have to certify, and that would be another flashpoint on the kind of conditions Faiz was talking about.

HUNT: Very interesting.

All right. Coming up next here, the Biden administration going before the Supreme Court to fight for abortion rights.

Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson about to lead a congressional delegation to Columbia University and our five things you can't miss, including this eerie orange haze over Greece.

What is that? We'll find out.

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[06:14:08]

HUNT: Welcome back. In just a few hours, another monumental abortion case goes before the Supreme Court. The Justice Department will argue that federal law requires hospitals to offer abortions, if necessary, to stabilize women who are experiencing medical emergencies, even in states that ban the procedure.

The Biden administration is challenging one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country in Idaho.

President Biden was in Florida yesterday, a state that's about to start enforcing its own six-week abortion ban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For 50 years, the court ruled that there was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy. But two years ago, that was taken away. Let's be real clear.

There's one person responsible for this nightmare, and he's acknowledged, and he brags about it. Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. The panel's back, and CNN legal analyst, former deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Department of Justice, Elliot Williams, is also here.

[06:15:08]

Elliott, good morning.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Thanks for being here. What are we going to see from the Supreme Court today?

WILLIAMS: Who knows? Well, OK, big picture --

HUNT: Let's explain what's before the court.

WILLIAMS: Sure, what's before the court. There is a law named EMTALA. What it does is requires hospitals that receive federal funding to provide emergency care to anyone that comes in or divert those people to another facility that can.

Now, the question is that sometimes abortions are -- can be regarded as emergency care. Now, you say that word, and immediately, the political maelstrom starts.

Idaho has a law focusing on the life of the fetus, or as they say, the un- --the not-yet-born child and has said that the Biden administration is attempting to shoehorn abortions into state law that doesn't require it.

What this all means is the quagmire that has opened up since Dobbs. And forget whether Dobbs ended abortion, didn't end abortion, or sort of -- what it did was usher in an era of uncertainty around the country, where now you have this patchwork of state and federal laws that aren't going to be in conflict with each other. And you're going to keep seeing challenges like this.

HUNT: Yes. So Ron Brownstein, I mean, this kind of goes to this idea -- and I'm just going to bring in some personal experience here as, you know, you move through your life as a woman, you need different things from your health care.

I happen to be at the stage of life where a lot of people are trying to have children. And I have spoken with friends who are hesitant to travel to states with laws like this. Because if they experience -- and these are, again, very wanted children in the case of the people that I'm talking about, if you go to Florida and you have a medical emergency because something happens in your pregnancy -- and look, these things happen. And in these situations, they're tragic. This is kind of what they're considering, right?

Like if I go to Idaho and I'm pregnant and I have an emergency, are they going to help me?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HUNT: Or not?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, I mean, we are living through this enormous divergence and rights depending on where you live. Abortion is, like, one component of it. Like, we are seeing, I think, a greater divergence in our society among the states than we have at any point since Jim Crow.

And it involves more states, by roughly half the states, are rolling back abortion rights, rolling back voting rights, a lot of LGBTQ issues, school censorship, and book bans.

And this is one of the first cases reaching the Supreme Court that will address -- that will give us a signal of how they are going to deal with this, this whole broad change in American life they ushered in.

You know, they kind of triggered the divergence on abortion by rescinding the national constitutional right under Roe. But all of these other issues are working their way through the courts, kind of on a conveyor belt toward the Supreme Court.

And the question of whether they are going to allow the red states to undertake this really fundamental remaking of the American rights landscape. This is going to be, I think, one of the first signals of it.

WILLIAMS: One -- one more thing. It's not -- and to be clear about the -- the specific issue here, the Idaho law refers to the death of the mother. That's sort of intervening for emergency care to save the -- for the death of the mother.

HUNT: So wait. There's a question about whether they save life there?

WILLIAMS: There's the ambiguity, as well. What about a circumstance, in a certain sense, in which a mother's life is not in danger?

However, she is bleeding or faces infertility, or some other major health concern that's not for the -- for the life of the mother. There's a -- there's a host of other medical complications that could be caused by pregnancy and could be rectified by having an abortion. And that's where the fight between the federal government and the state of Idaho is right now.

HUNT: Yes. And can I just say that allowing something bad to happen to you -- I mean the number of unintended consequences is just enormous. And we already have so many mothers -- the maternal mortality rate in this country is a travesty. Anyway --

BROWNSTEIN: Highest -- highest in the states that ban abortion, too.

HUNT: That's an interesting factor.

All right. Elliott, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Coming up next here, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, on his way to the campus of Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian protesters are still camped out.

Plus, our five things you've got to see a gator hiding in a plane's landing gear. Oh, my goodness. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:38]

HUNT: Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning.

Here's the latest scene at Columbia University. A big encampment of demonstrators protesting, seen here from the air. The university just extended the deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to remove the tents that you see there. Negotiations are now extended another 48 hours.

A kidnapping suspect arrested after a Ring doorbell camera captured him grabbing a woman and dragging her into a car in Oregon. Police say the suspect and the victim knew each other and that this was not a random attack.

Oklahoma authorities have busted a fake Amazon van packed with weed. Law enforcement found 246 pounds of marijuana in the van after tracking it to, and across, state lines in Missouri.

A ten-foot-long alligator hiding in a jet's landing gear had to be removed from the tarmac of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. After a brief struggle, wildlife officers were able to safely remove the gator. My God, that thing is huge. OK.

Officials in Greece issuing a health warning after huge clouds of orange dust covered the city. It's coming from the African Sahara and sweeping across the Mediterranean.

Residents say that the orange haze dust clouds make Athens look like a Mars colony. Wow.

[06:25:05]

All right. Back here in the U.S., severe storm threats on the horizon from Texas to Oklahoma. And there's fire danger ramping up in the Southwest.

Our Weatherman van Dam tracking all of it for us. Derek, good morning. What are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Kasie.

The reality here is that the threat for severe weather will only become more dangerous as the week progresses. So today, we're focusing our attention across West Central Texas between Lubbock and Midland. You can see that slight risk of severe storms this afternoon. Main threats here, large hail, damaging winds.

But what you'll see in just a moment is how this expands and coverage and impacts a larger population density as we progress through this week.

In the meantime, we have a cold front that's impacting the East Coast, so prepare yourself. New York, Boston to D.C. You've got a soggy start to your Wednesday. That will impact your travel plans.

But as promised, here's the expanding severe weather threat. For tomorrow, enhanced risk includes Dodge City, just West of Oklahoma City.

This is an area that the storm prediction center has highlighted for the potential for some strong tornadoes. That shifts Eastward. Only a slight risk on Friday.

But something we need to keep in mind with this many days and lead time, Des Moines all the way to Dallas include -- including Springfield, Missouri. It could be very active, lots of rain. So there's also a flash flood component to this weather system as it evolves over the next few days -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Our Weatherman van Dam. Derek, thank you very much for that. I'll see you tomorrow.

VAN DAM: Have a great day.

HUNT: Coming up next here, House Speaker Mike Johnson got foreign aid passed and kept his job against the odds.

Plus, the state that just authorized teachers and staff to be armed in schools.

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