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CNN This Morning
Biden Discusses Hostage Deal, Rafah Invasion in Call with Netanyahu; Colleges Struggle To Contain Widening Pro-Palestinian Protests; Trump, Biden Roasted at White House Correspondents' Dinner; Severe Storm and Flood Threat Diminishes for Monday. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2024 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Monday, April 29. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, protests spreading across college campuses as more schools turn to the police to crack down.
[06:01:30]
Plus --
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a grown man running against a six-year-old.
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HUNT: President Biden getting under Donald Trump's skin a little bit, it seems, with his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
And a state of emergency in Oklahoma. Four people killed by tornadoes with millions more now facing potentially deadly storms.
All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at the White House. Now the sun comes up in time for the top of 6 a.m.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We begin with colleges across the country struggling to contain increasingly violent campus protests.
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(CHANTING)
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HUNT: At UCLA on Sunday, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters breached a barrier that was set up between them, and they clashed, with several fights breaking out. There were no arrests reported.
Similar scenes of chaos on Sunday from coast to coast, protesters clashing with police as more schools turn to law enforcement to try to regain control of their campuses.
And this, of course, is an ongoing issue for President Biden. A new CNN poll indicating just how unhappy people are with his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Seven out of ten Americans disapprove.
And when you dig into that polling by age, it gets more problematic for the president. Eight out of ten Americans aged 18 to 34 disapprove. And losing younger voters in November would be difficult to overcome for the president.
And of course, the White House is paying attention.
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JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: Now the president knows that there are very strong feelings, Georgia, about the war in Gaza. He understands that. He respects that. And as he has said many times, we certainly respect the right of peaceful protest.
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HUNT: On Sunday, President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Their conversation was focused on negotiations for a hostage deal. And the potential invasion of Rafah.
Our panel's here: former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams; Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign; and former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. Good morning to you all.
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.
HUNT: It's great to have you.
Kate, I'm going to have to start with you here.
BEDINGFIELD: Good.
HUNT: I will say that, when I talk to folks at the White House, what they'll say back when confronted with all of this is that this issue, while clearly very emotional, is not usually listed for most people at the top of the list in terms of what they are concerned about.
When you see these scenes spreading across the country, how do you see the challenge for the White House? And what should they be doing to approach this?
BEDINGFIELD: Yes, I mean, look, it is -- excuse me. It is an issue for them, because this election is going to be very close. We know that. So any issue that is destabilizing to the Democratic base --
HUNT: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: -- is inherently problematic for the Biden campaign. I will say, though, you know, they certainly talk about, you know,
this isn't an issue that's at the top of -- of the minds of most Americans.
And I think there is some truth to that in the sense that, you know, these images obviously are -- can be very startling. And there's clearly passion on both sides.
But they're also happening on college campuses, largely on elite college campuses in the country. And so, you know, it is a slice of the country where you're getting, you know, I would say probably outsized media attention for what's going on on these college campuses. It is not impacting the day-to-day lives of the average American voter across the country.
Again, that does not mean that it's not an issue. That doesn't mean that it isn't -- that the protests aren't worthy in the sense that there are legitimate -- there's a legitimate when the crisis happening in the Middle East.
[06:05:00]
It is hard to see how even a crisis in the Middle East becomes the predominant driver in an election in November.
So -- so I think what the Biden team has to do is --
HUNT: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: -- is you know, he --President Biden has to continue to express concern and has to continue to push the Israeli government to get humanitarian aid in. He's got to be clear that he feels and understands the pain that these people are dealing with.
But I do think there's some truth to the idea that this is not going to be the sole driver of the election in November.
HUNT: So the other -- obviously, the particularly nasty side of these protests is the antisemitism that we are seeing crop up at some of them.
This was John Fetterman, actually, on News Nation. This is something he has been very focused on and spoken very -- pretty directly and sharply about. Watch his latest.
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SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): It's very clear that there is a very -- germ of -- of antisemitism in all of these protests, you know. And then sometimes it flares up.
Of course, it's a great American value to -- to protest, but I don't believe living in a pup tent for Hamas is really helpful.
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HUNT: I mean, Matt Gorman, "a pup tent for Hamas." That's quite -- I mean --
MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks, John. No, but -- no, you know what it is? I think you see this sometimes, to where it contributes to a sense of there's a burden on the people being kind of against (ph).
So what I'll say about it, essentially, is this. People are paying $70,000 a year to go to these elite institutions, very good institutions.
And yet, they're the ones getting, a lot of times, these threats.
And so I think what you're seeing is a little bit of a pushback on -- there's a right to protest. It's a right to speak your mind, certainly. But certainly not to be threatened against and to be paying a handsome sum -- amount of money to do it, as well.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And I think that $70,000 point is a big one because of the fact that this is all tied to, quote, unquote, "the elites" in America, right?
When you have kids that are protesting, it's an easy target on these campuses. If you notice, it started at the Ivy League.
GORMAN: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Columbia University, Harvard, and so on. And in many respects, it's a -- it's a great political issue because of the fact that university presidents don't have a ton of options here for what they can do.
They can technically start kicking kids out, but that starts getting dangerous when you start wading into how to police speech and so on.
And so it is a winner (ph) and is going to continue to be.
HUNT: Yes, here I'm going to steal this out from under your notepad.
WILLIAMS: Sorry.
HUNT: No, you're fine, because it makes your point here. So "The New York Post," which of course, is often trying to take the anti-elite --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: -- tack, says, "Harvard Has Fallen," right? They have -- it's a Palestinian flag flying where they say a U.S. flag normally has.
I mean, it sort of -- it encapsulates there, like, exactly what you're saying.
WILLIAMS: And no disrespect to any other universities. If it were Lafayette University, it would not make the cover of "The New York Post" --
HUNT: Exactly.
WILLIAMS: -- with that.
HUNT: Exactly. And this is the -- kind of the point I was making earlier. I mean, this is -- you know, you're looking at the most elite institutions, which are -- you know, have a storied history of protests that has driven social change. And you know.
But ultimately, for the average person around the country, are they concerned -- are they thinking about what's happening on the campus at Columbia or Harvard? They're not.
And so I just think there is a -- precisely because we're talking about these elite institutions that, you know, command media attention from a lot of people in the media who attended those institutions.
BEDINGFIELD: I was going to say --
HUNT: And let's remember that there's a higher percentage of people --
BEDINGFIELD: Exactly.
HUNT: -- in elite spaces who have attended these universities.
BEDINGFIELD: Exactly, exactly. It's a -- you know, it's -- it's not a diluted pool. There's -- there's some intense personal interest there, too.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here --
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COLIN JOST, HOST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER: 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"?
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HUNT: The presidential election, front and center at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. We'll show you more moments from that, coming up next.
Plus SpaceX's latest launch and the critical payload on board.
And deadly tornadoes rip through America's heartland. We're assessing damage in Oklahoma.
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[06:13:39]
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BIDEN: The 2024 election is in full swing. And yes, age is an issue. I'm a grown man running against a six-year-old. Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president actually endorses me.
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HUNT: President Biden roasting Donald Trump over the weekend at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Journalists, celebrities, and politicians all gathering in D.C. for what Colin -- host Colin Jost referred to as nerd prom. It's an old- school nickname for the event.
The "SNL" star was the headliner, and he did make some jokes at both Donald Trump and Joe Biden's expense.
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JOST: I would like to point out, it's after 10 p.m. Sleepy Joe is still awake, while Donald Trump has spent the past week falling asleep in court every morning.
My "Weekend Update" co-anchor, Michael Che, was going to join me here tonight. But in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my black support.
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HUNT: Panel is back with us. Full disclosure, I was at the dinner there.
Elliot, what --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: What do you make of that joke, actually?
WILLIAMS: It's -- people don't realize it's a historically really tough gig to -- to work that room. Because when you think about when stand-up comics come up, it's not intimate. They're not close to the stage.
[06:15:06]
You have -- half of the audience really doesn't sort of want to laugh, because as journalists, Will I appear partisan if I bust out laughing at a joke at Joe Biden's or Donald Trump's expense? And, you know, with an air of stuffiness in the room, to some extent, too.
And I think he did relatively well. That was a good joke, regardless of the partisan bent of it. I mean, the simple fact is race is an underlying factor in the presidential campaign. And he sort of skewered it.
HUNT: Yes.
GORMAN: Journalists, celebrities, politicians, three people that can -- three groups of people that --
WILLIAMS: What could go wrong?
GORMAN: -- America loves. Finally, in a room, in black tie.
BEDINGFIELD: Three groups that are really good at laughing at themselves.
GORMAN: Oh, yes.
HUNT: Yes, right. Speaking of elites.
I will say, Kate, the president's speech was actually a little bit more political than we often hear from presidents, in that he sort of took the end of the speech to make a rather serious point about the contrast between the president and his reelection, and Donald Trump in terms of democracy.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: And kind of what is at stake in this election. There were some critics who say that, you know, that was -- that was too much for that venue.
But when you do consider Donald Trump never went to the Correspondents' Dinner, and you know, he calls the free press the enemy of the people, right?
If you -- critics of Donald Trump will look at autocratic tendencies and say that the press has a lot to do with that.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: What do you make of the fact that the president took that serious tone at the end of his speech last night?
BEDINGFIELD: Well, he had an opportunity. And I think, you know, you had a room full of 2,600 people, the vast majority of journalists who are covering the presidential race from Washington and New York. So he had a captive audience.
I think he almost -- almost had a responsibility, in some ways, to talk about the stakes and to really kind of lay out what he views as sort of the -- the fundamental and existential question of this race, which is, you know, are we -- is our democracy going to continue on? Next year, are we going to be able to have a White House Correspondents' Dinner, where a comedian can get up and joke and make jokes at the president's expense?
And you know, it's a funny night, but that's --
HUNT: It did occur all through the Trump administration.
GORMAN: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: They did, they did, but you know -- I think you've heard -- you've heard Donald Trump use all sorts of incredibly threatening language. And you also, those -- those correspondence dinners all happened prior to January 6.
And so I think there's a -- you know, there's a seriousness there. So I think what President Biden was doing was taking the opportunity, with all of those people in the room, to say, yes, this is -- you know, there are jokes. And let's have a fun night, but there are real stakes here.
WILLIAMS: One thing I was really struck by at the end, and I don't know if we have the clip of it, but Colin Jost ended with a sort of speech about his grandfather --
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: -- who was a Staten Island fireman, and just building to the crescendo of saying that, "My grandfather supported you, Mr. President, because you're a decent man."
And it was -- it was an interesting point, because it's -- look, it's sort of a partisan point sort of in front of --
HUNT: Well, it's become one.
WILLIAMS: But that's the -- that's the point, right? And it's sort of -- he's speaking about an individual's character. But in an audience and in the middle of a presidential campaign, it has an air of partisanship. But it's actually just speaking about character.
And where is the point at which simply stating facts about candidates veers into the world of being a political point?
HUNT: Well, I have to say I was thinking, actually, Elliot, your kids are of the age where you might have to do this, just figuring out how to talk to your kids about the trial that Trump is on.
WILLIAMS: Right.
HUNT: I'm sorry. Like, I don't want you to read it. Like, I was talking to -- to a friend who said, Oh, I was really hoping that my seven-year-old didn't ask me like, Dad, what's hush money? Like, Dad, was a porn star, right?
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: Like that's kind of the character question.
GORMAN: I mean, look, let's go back. The White House Correspondents' Dinner, in many ways, gave rise of the modern era of Trump in 2011 with Obama --
HUNT: And they played that at the dinner on Saturday.
GORMAN: Yes. OK.
HUNT: For the crowd, yes. GORMAN: I didn't realize that.
HUNT: They did.
GORMAN: But as we know, Trump was there. He was guest at a table, being kind of mocked to his face by Obama and whoever the comedian was -- I forget -- at the time.
And look, I think some -- it's a little bit revisionist history. I don't think a dinner making fun of was the thing that actually was a lynchpin that got him in the race. Because if you remember, he didn't run in '12. He ran in, obviously, '15 and '16.
But, you know, Trump has -- the White House Correspondents' Dinner and Trump always has that kind of special weird connection, for that exact reason. The same night that they were going through the Osama bin Laden raid.
HUNT: I mean, I -- I was in the room for that. I actually spoke -- spent some time speaking to Donald Trump on the way to my table. And then we could all see, honestly, his hair was what you can see.
And, you know, I'll be honest with you, Matt, I take your point. There were other things that made him run. But every time I underestimate, like, the human things that make people do what they do. I mean, I think that that joke really stuck with Trump. And --
GORMAN: I think it allowed him a level of control. Because if you remember, in '12, he first wanted to be a debate moderator.
HUNT: Oh.
GORMAN: Remember that?
HUNT: Yes, I forgot that.
GORMAN: And then he ran. So he wanted more of control over the process.
HUNT: Very interesting. All right. Coming up next here, a deadly outbreak of tornadoes across Oklahoma, with more states facing severe weather right now.
Plus, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham telling CNN he's willing to help President Biden on a key issue.
[06:20:06]
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): This would be an historic agreement building on the Abraham Accords. And I'd like to see it happen.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:25:06]
HUNT: All right, 24 minutes past the hour, five things you've got to see this morning.
Student protesters at Harvard raising three Palestinian flags over a university building near their encampment on campus. This image taken by "The Harvard Crimson" shows the flags before they were removed by officials.
Aerial images of flooding in Kenya after a dam burst following heavy rainfall. Over 100 people have been killed, with scores more missing a search and rescue efforts continue.
And --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one. Ignition and liftoff. Go Falcon, go Starlink.
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HUNT: Successful launch for SpaceX from Florida's Cape Canaveral Sunday evening. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites to provide Internet to millions around the world. Very cool.
Captured on tape: the moment Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mike Conley collided with his own head coach.
A team spokesperson telling CNN that coach Chris Finch ruptured a tendon in his knee during this. Yikes. But that he's in great spirits.
And at least four people, including a baby, are dead following a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma. The National Weather Service confirming at least 22 tornadoes hit the state on Saturday, with nearly 140 reported across the central U.S. since Thursday.
And the violent storms continued in the central U.S. Sunday with tornado records set throughout the weekend. Are we going to see more today? Let's get straight to our meteorologist, Derek van Dam.
Derek, good morning to you. What are folks in the heartland looking at?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, first, Kasie, I want you to see this imagery coming from Sulphur, Oklahoma. This is what 136-mile- per-hour winds is capable of doing.
Look at this overturned United States postal truck. Look at those cinder blocks, complete walls tossed over like they were toys snapped, sides of buildings. You can see roofs completely taken off of homes.
This, unfortunately, caused 30 injuries and one fatality in this area. And get this: they had two large and extremely dangerous tornadoes coincide into Sulphur, Oklahoma in less than one hour. This is all Saturday night.
And of course, you can imagine the fear that that struck into the community here as that continued, with one initial tornado causing this damage and a secondary tornado bearing in on the same area.
That particular day, there were the most tornado warnings in a single day from the Norman, Oklahoma city weather office. That's a significant statement, because this is Tornado Alley. This is where we get the most tornadoes in the country.
And in fact, when you start issuing that many tornado warnings, you know it's been active. A hundred and thirty-seven all weekend. We are nearing the average to date. And there is still more strong storms ongoing across the Deep South as we speak -- Kasie.
HUNT: All right. We'll have to watch out for those. Derek van Dam. Derek, thank you very much.
VAN DAM: All right.
HUNT: Coming up next here, Senator Lindsey Graham telling CNN what he thinks of Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity.
Plus, Trump and Ron DeSantis meeting for the first time since the Florida governor dropped out of the race.
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