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Pro-Palestinian Protests Shake College Campuses; Trump's Hush Money Trial Resumes Tomorrow; Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) On V.P. Harris' Economic Opportunity Tour. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 29, 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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[05:30:50]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a live look at New York City on this Monday morning. A beautiful sunrise there. Good morning to you. Thank you so much for waking up with us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Pro-Palestinian protests spreading to more college campuses across the country. Overnight, students at Virginia Tech and Cal Poly Humboldt were urged to leave campus. And at UCLA, CNN witnessed multiple confrontations between two protest groups after a security barrier meant to keep them apart was breached.

Sen. Bernie Sanders defending the protests on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Do I doubt for a moment that antisemitism exists and is growing in the United States that is part -- that exists among some people in the protest movement, of course. But here is the reality. Right now, what Netanyahu's right-wing extremist and racist government is doing is unprecedented in the modern history of warfare. Right now, we are looking at the possibility of mass starvation and famine in Gaza. When you make those charges, that is not antisemitic. That is a reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, with me now, White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Catherine Lucey. And congressional reporter with Axios, Steven Neukam. Good morning to you both.

STEPHEN NEUKAM, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Good morning.

HUNT: Thank you so much for being here.

Catherine, let me start with you and this -- sort of, the new polling that we have here into CNN, which shows that this is pretty dramatic for Biden. This is the approval of Biden's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. And if you look at that only 19 percent of people ages 18 to 34 approve of it. This is challenging for him. I will also say it's not necessarily -- and this is what the White House will say when you talk to them -- the top-of-mind issue for voters, right? Twenty-six percent say it's extremely important versus 65 percent on the economy, 58 percent on protecting democracy, et cetera.

But that said -- I mean, what's happening on these college campuses is really kind of crystalizing the issue right now for the administration.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes, it is a top-of-mind issue for some young voters --

HUNT: Right.

LUCEY: -- which -- where this is the biggest problem. And you are hearing this a lot from the protests as you go into states like Michigan and Wisconsin where there are big universities. And it doesn't take that many of those voters to decide to stay home. I mean, it's real concern if the campaign is less that these younger voters will necessarily go to Trump on this issue but that they must just decide not to vote or vote third-party.

And, I mean, we've seen before -- Wisconsin, for example, is a state that turns on a really small number of votes. So that is a -- that is a real issue for them.

HUNT: Yeah, Michigan as well as another one.

Stephen, what do you hear from members of Congress? I mean, obviously, we heard Bernie Sanders there, well-known as a progressive kind of anti-war voice. He did use the word "racist" to apply to --

NEUKAM: Um-hum.

HUNT: -- Israel, which I think stuck out to me a little bit. But this has also become very emotional, like, inside the Democratic Party with people on either side of this.

I mean, what are you picking up in the halls?

NEUKAM: Sure. I think the important thing to remember is that in the background, sort of percolating behind this dialogue about the protests, is deep Democratic frustrations about Netanyahu's government and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. So there's balancing act, right, for a lot of Democrats against trying to confront the protests and what's going on on college campuses, but also the reality that they are very deeply frustrated with the situation in Gaza and Israel's plans moving forward.

HUNT: Yeah.

Catherine, you obviously mentioned that this is a very important issue for young voters -- true. But another important -- issue that's important to them and that the Biden administration hopes may take precedence is abortion rights, which I know you wrote about recently in The Wall Street Journal. And you say that "Biden, who was once reluctant to talk about abortion, is not sharing the microphone with women in battleground states."

This was the subject of a joke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend where comedian Colin Jost basically said well, the 81-year-old Catholic is the one backing abortion rights here as compared to Donald Trump who, of course, is a New Yorker with a slightly different profile on this issue earlier in his career, anyway.

But you did a lot of reporting here about kind of how the campaign is approaching this right now. What did you learn?

[05:35:00]

LUCEY: Yeah. So, the story really looked closely at some of the surrogates that they're tapping to talk about this issue. Obviously, Biden is talking about it more. He was in Florida last week on this and we're going to hear from him.

But one key thing they are doing is they are reaching out to and working with women who are telling stories of what they say are really sort of tragic pregnancy situations in states with really restrictive abortion laws. And you've seen some of them talk about this.

There was an ad that came out with one woman talking about what happened when she had a non-viable pregnancy late in her pregnancy in -- at about 18 weeks, in Texas, and then couldn't immediately get induction abortion, and kind of what that -- what that experience was like. That's an ad they put out.

They've been out campaigning individually. They're out at Biden with events.

And the way the campaign really sees this is it's a way to humanize this story. It's very personal. It seems women talking about really harrowing, difficult things to try and explain what their experience has been like in state's where these restrictions are happening. And they see this as way to bring home to voters what happens in states with these kinds of laws.

HUNT: Yeah. Well, and this, Stephen, quickly, is not something that -- I mean, for a lot of Republicans who -- the places where the majority is going to be decided --

NEUKAM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- swing districts, right, this is something that, frankly, now Republicans are the ones that don't want to talk about it.

NEUKAM: Yeah. Well, the problem is that many of them, in many cases, have been on record for decades being pro-restriction of abortion rights. And obviously, that conversation is changing, especially in places like Arizona and Texas as well. So, yeah, it's a tough line to walk. HUNT: When you're on that sort of life begins at conception bill. When Roe versus Wade stood there were not any political consequences to that. But now it's defining it in opposition, sometimes in these tragic cases to the life of the mother -- the place to be.

Wall Street Journal reporter Catherine Lucey, Axios' Stephen Neukam, thank you guys both very much. I really appreciate it.

All right, there is -- court is not in session today in Donald Trump's hush money trial. On Friday, the defense finished its cross- examination of the former tabloid publisher David Pecker.

Things wrapped up with banker Gary Farro on the stand. He's going to continue testimony when the trial resumes tomorrow. He is expected to walk the jury through the paperwork tied to a home equity line of credit that Michael Cohen took out on his personal property to front the hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Even with the brief break in the trial, the former president's legal proceedings were a hot topic during the weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN JOST, COMEDIAN: But before we begin tonight, can we just acknowledge how refreshing it is to see a President of the United States at an event that doesn't begin with a bailiff saying "all rise."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining me now to discuss, former January 6 investigative counsel, Marcus Childress. Marcus, good morning.

MARCUS CHILDRESS, FORMER JANUARY 6 INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL: Good morning.

HUNT: Great to see you.

So what are -- let's just kind of set the stage here. I mean, what did we learn from the testimony that we saw last week from David Pecker? And, kind of, what is the next turn of the screw here?

CHILDRESS: David Pecker was an incredible witness, in my opinion, for the prosecution because he established a timeline for the entire conspiracy going back to the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting all the way through 2017 when Trump was in the White House. So he established the catch and kill scheme. He establishes the payments to Karen McDougal and the doorman. He talks about why he was uncomfortable making a payment to Stormy Daniels because she was a porn star.

And then establishes that Michael Cohen, in December, comes to him -- to David Pecker and says hey, I hope that the boss pays me, right? And then David Pecker went to Trump and talked about paying Michael Cohen.

So he establishes a lot of key facts in a way that now, Michael Cohen and others will be filling in that timeline rather than relying on Michael Cohen to establish an entire timeline.

HUNT: Because as we've discussed, Cohen has a series of credibility issues at hand --

CHILDRESS: Yes.

HUNT: -- so a big part of it just making sure other people are going to corroborate what he has to say.

I mean, this -- the banker that is now on the stand. I think it's interesting to me because it established, like, how significant of an issue this was for Cohen and, by extension, Trump. I mean, taking out a home equity line of credit on your own house to try and make this problem go away, it seems like a very significant move on Cohen's part.

CHILDRESS: And you win these cases in the paperwork because it establishes that timeline even further. Now you have dates with documents signed by the bank that fill in that timeline even more.

Speaking of dates, October 7 of 2016 is when the "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" tape came out. And we know that AMI first alerted the Trump campaign or Michael Cohen, in particular, on about October 10, of the Stormy Daniels case. And this is important because the testimony, I think, is going to show that the Trump campaign started panicking after the "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" tapes. Then you have this new meeting with Stormy Daniels on October 10.

And I expect that this bank official is going to talk about Michael Cohen taking out a home equity line between October 10 and probably, October 27 when the payment was ultimately made to Stormy Daniels.

So this is important to show that it wasn't because -- the payment wasn't because Donald Trump was embarrassed about Stormy Daniels but more so because he was worried about the hit to the campaign. And this is important for proving the falsification of business records from a misdemeanor to that felony charge, which is really important for Alvin Bragg's team.

[05:40:09]

HUNT: Yeah, really, really interesting.

Let's talk briefly about the gag order as well. Bill Barr, the former attorney general, had this to say about it -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL, BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I personally think the gag order could be too broad here and -- but I think Trump's -- and I've said this before. I think Trump basically has the kind of personality that he's always testing the limit. He's always going further and further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Something we've experienced here as -- covering him in Washington.

What is your sense of how the judge is going to decide on this? And do you see a distinction between anonymous people that are part of this case -- the jury -- you know, family members of the court staff and Michael Cohen, who clearly has a very large public profile?

CHILDRESS: I mean, I think the judge is going to take his time and make a ruling as long as Donald Trump's words are not materially impacting witnesses that are taking a stand or jurors expressing fear.

Look, I've seen firsthand the fear that Donald Trump's words on social media can cause the witnesses coming to testify, and so the court can't take this lightly, contrary to what Mr. Barr just said.

But I think the court is going to take its time because they know that Donald Trump is going to appeal whatever ruling comes down in this case, including every order that the court submits. And so, I think the judge is really going to try to be patient -- to extend this ruling out as long as he can and only act when he necessarily has to -- when he has the record that's bulletproofed to make this decision because he's knows Donald Trump will appeal it.

HUNT: Indeed.

All right, Marcus Childress for us this morning. Marcus --

CHILDRESS: Thank you.

HUNT: -- always great to have you.

CHILDRESS: Thanks.

HUNT: Thanks for being here.

All right. Coming up next, how Vice President Harris is trying to mobilize Black voters ahead of the November election. And the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves is (INAUDIBLE) the court after a player crashes into him. The Bleacher Report is next.

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[05:46:15

HUNT: Welcome back.

Vice President Kamala Harris kicking off a multistate tour spotlighting the White House's efforts to grow economic opportunities for minority voters. She is starting in swing states with large Black populations. Her first stop is today in Atlanta, then she's headed to Detroit next week.

Joining me now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford. He is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congressman, thanks so much for being here.

REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): Thank you. HUNT: So, obviously, there has been a lot of focus in the media about -- on Black voters, particularly the Black men who seem to be showing that they're more interested in Donald Trump than they were previously and that there is potentially some shift there.

How do you explain that, and how do your efforts -- how are they targeted at trying to fix that?

HORSFORD: Well, as a Black man and as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus representing 60 members and a third of the U.S. population collectively, we're not interested in Donald Trump. We're interested in economic prosperity, wealth, opportunities in our families and in our communities, like in any other community.

And that's why we're really excited to be joining forces with the vice president today as we kick off this economic opportunities tour to really center the people in a conversation about how we grow full economic participation that is inclusive, particularly at a time when there are forces trying to take away or roll back our freedoms, our rights, and our opportunities to even grow economically in this country.

HUNT: Yeah.

Are you happy with how President Biden has prioritized Black voters? There was some discontent in the initial years of his administration.

HORSFORD: Well, look, what I know is we have passed historic legislation -- Democrats in Congress, along with President Biden and Vice President Harris -- on issues pertaining to forgiving student debt, economic growth in job creation, lowest unemployment for Black Americans. An explosion in entrepreneurship where Black women, in particular, and Latinas are starting businesses at the highest clip ever.

And so, those are the record achievements. What we have to do is center the people in the policies that we're advancing and really to make sure that they're connected to these resources. And that's what this economic opportunities tour that we're joining forces with the vice president is all about.

HUNT: Yeah.

We're seeing this explosion of protests on college campuses. It's something that's become very divisive inside the Democratic caucus itself.

How have you experienced that, especially as it has been -- you know, Bernie Sanders was on with my colleague Dana Bash. He said the Israel government's policies toward Gaza are racist. I'm curious if you agree with that.

HORSFORD: Well, my position is Israel has the right to defend itself. It also matters how it goes about doing that. And that is why we have worked hard to make sure that we not only pass the foreign aid package, which leader Jeffries made sure that there were the Democratic votes in the House to do that, but also the humanitarian aid and the resources to help get our hostages out and to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. That should be our focus.

And students have the right to protest but we actually need to get to a resolution and towards a two-state solution going forward for peace.

HUNT: What would you say to the students on this campus who are angry at the Biden administration considering they are going to have a choice in the fall between Joe Biden and Donald Trump?

HORSFORD: Well, what we need to look at is the fact that under Donald Trump's administration there were failures in addressing some of the systemic issues that contributed to where we are today.

[05:50:05]

Netanyahu also has a lot of responsibility for the intelligence failure. I'm a member of the Armed Services Committee. There are things that could and should have been done before October 7. We are here where we are. We need to reach peace and a resolution that, again, protects Israel but also protects those innocent people in Gaza.

HUNT: Yeah.

So you also -- in addition to being on the Armed Services Committee, you are in a front-line district. You're in the Las Vegas area and a big swatch of Nevada. But it's going to be districts like yours that determine whether Democrats can hang onto the seats that they have and then potentially take back the majority in the House.

How confident are you that Democrats can take back the House this fall?

HORSFORD: I'm very bullish. Leader Jeffries will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, but it will be because we are putting the interests of people over politics. In every major vote, House Democrats have put the American people first when it comes to the economy, when it comes to lowering costs in health care, in energy. The implementation of all the historic bills from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the CHIPS and science law, to the bipartisan safer communities law.

It's Democrats who have led but we've led by focusing on the people for the people, and that's why the people will put us back in the majority come January 2025.

HUNT: How much of it do you think is about the Republican -- well, failure to at least be able to kind of keep their house in order, I guess, I would say.

HORSFORD: You know, for me, it's less about them and it really is more about the people. And that's why even this economic opportunities tour is so important because we do get distracted. There's a lot of focus on where are Black voters? Where are Black men? Where we are is we want full economic participation. We want to

address housing costs. We want to lower the cost of rent. We want to have opportunities to own homes, not just to be the renters. We want to be the owners, not -- and the creators of wealth, not just those who consume it.

That's this economic opportunities tour and this is just the beginning. This is part of a much larger effort along with our economic prosperity and wealth agenda that's being led by -- 100 percent of the members of the CBC are co-sponsors of this agenda going forward -- 100 percent. That's 60 members representing a third of the U.S. population.

When we uplift Black America we actually uplift all of America.

HUNT: Yeah, absolutely.

All right, Congressman Horsford. Thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate your time.

All right, time now for sports. The Timberwolves sweep the Suns to win their first Playoff Series in 20 years.

Carolyn Manno has more Playoff action in this morning's Bleacher Report. Carolyn, good morning.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kasie.

The Timberwolves have a lot to howl about this morning, if you will. I mean, they're the first team to advance to the second round of the NBA Playoffs.

Anthony Edwards put on another show in last night's game four. He was absolutely incredible. He dropped 40 points, grabbed, nine rebounds, and dished out six assists in the 122-116 win.

And afterwards, the 22-year-old made it known that he will be reminding his Team USA teammate Kevin Durant about this sweep.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY EDWARDS, GUARD, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: I've got the utmost respect for K.D., man. Like, he comes in and competes every night. I've watched every last one of this -- one of his games since I've been about five. So I love that guy, man, and I'm excited to play with him this summer, man, and talk a little trash and let him know I sent him home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: He's never afraid to talk a little bit of trash. I like it, though.

Minnesota had to play the final two minutes of the game without Chris Finch. Look at this. Minnesota's head coach ruptured his right patellar tendon in a collision with Mike Conley. Right now, it's unclear whether he's going to be available to coach game one of the second round. But just a really unfortunate injury there.

Meantime, Knicks star Jalen Brunson was a one-man wrecking crew again the Sixers in Philadelphia. He was brilliant. He dropped a franchise playoff record 47 points in New York's 97-92 win. They had a huge fourth quarter. They now lead the series three games to one and could win it back in New York on Tuesday.

Brunson was asked if the accomplishment is something that he's going to bask in now or if he's going to save it for later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JALEN BRUNSON, GUARD, NEW YORK KNICKS: Back when I retire. Seriously, this is -- it's great right now. It helped us get a win. But it's not going to do anything for us going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: We expect nothing less from Jalen Brunson. His work ethic is second to none.

The Pacers have the Bucks on the brink of elimination following a 126- 113 win to make the series 3-1. Indiana drained 22 threes, breaking the team's playoff record. Myles Turner leading the way there. He has seven of them in his 29-point performance. Even heard his name chanted by fans, Kasie, who once thought that he should be traded from the team. Fans can be fickle like that.

[05:55:00]

And the Clippers game dangerously close to an all-time collapse against the Mavericks. L.A. up 31 in the first half but Dallas stormed back to take the lead on a Kyrie Irving layup with 2:15 left in the game. James Harden and Paul George, who each scored 33 points, came up really clutch, too, to save their team as L.A. rallies back to win 116-111 and tie the series at two.

So, three more playoff games on the schedule tonight. The Celtics and Heat getting things started at 7:30 on our sister network TNT. Then it's Thunder-Pelicans at 8:30 followed by Lakers-Nuggets at 10:00.

And in the NHL Playoffs, the New York Rangers moving on to the second round in the East after breaking out the brooms on the road against the Washington Capitals. Artemi Panarin scoring the go-ahead goal in the third period and adding an assist in the 4-2 win. New York the first team to advance out of the first round in the NHL Playoffs thanks in large part to the play of their goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, by the way, who has been outstanding. But the reward for that is a few days off while they await the winner of the Hurricanes-Islanders series, and he will take the rest at this time of year.

And there is nothing, Kasie, quite like playoff hockey and chugging beer out of a catfish. This is actually Ally Walker. She's an actress -- if you know "SONS OF ANARCHY." I didn't watch the series but I'm certainly familiar with her.

This has become a tradition at Nashville Predators games over the years. It's true fandom. I wouldn't do it, would you?

HUNT: Absolutely not.

MANNO: Yeah. It doesn't seem --

HUNT: No.

MANNO: It doesn't seem sanitary. And also, her team blew a 3-1 lead in the final three minutes of regulation and lost in overtime. So, a fantastic effort to try to get things going but ended up being a loss all around.

HUNT: I mean, I'm not a person that typically, like, chugs beer period -- even out of the can.

MANNO: Yeah.

HUNT: But that -- oh my God. I can't

MANNO: I cannot watch.

HUNT: It's way too early for that.

All right, Carolyn, thank you --

MANNO: I cannot watch.

HUNT: -- very much.

Coming up next here, more universities calling in police to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters. Plus, Sen. Lindsey Graham's prediction about how the Supreme Court will rule on presidential immunity.

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