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CNN This Morning

New York Trial for Trump's Hush Money Continues Soon; Gag Order Does Not Prohibit Him from Testifying, Says Trump; To Unseat Speaker Johnson, Greene Pledged to Compel Vote; Democrats Pledge to Support the Speaker as GOP Blasts Greene's Action; Interview with Energy and Commerce Committee and Progressive Caucus Deputy Whip Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI); University of Michigan Graduating Ceremony Momentarily Interrupted by Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators; Game Seven, Stars Defeat the Golden Knights; Cavaliers Defeat Magic in Game Seven Thanks to Donovan Mitchell; Closest Finish in NASCAR Cup Series History Achieved by Larson; Three-Horse Picture Finish Gives Mystik Dan the Kentucky Derby Victory. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 06, 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 AND CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: All right. 5:00 a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at the monument on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Donald Trump's hush money trial about to resume in New York City. On Friday, with Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks took the stand. Through her testimony, prosecutors showed jurors the transcript of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that almost upended Trump's run for the White House.

Before cross-examination, Hicks started to cry and appeared to become overwhelmed. And she finished her testimony after a brief break. After court on Friday, Trump tried to clear up the lie that he had told the day before, which was that his gag order prohibited him from testifying in the trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will the gag order stop you from testifying?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, it won't stop me from testifying, but the gag order is not to testify. The gag order stops me from talking about people and responding when they say things about me. We have people saying things about me and I'm not allowed to respond. So, this judge is taking away my constitutional right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now to discuss this, Former January 6th Investigative Counsel, Marcus Childress. Marcus, good morning. MARCUS CHILDRESS, FORMER JANUARY 6 INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL: Morning.

HUNT: Thanks so much for being here. So, this was pretty remarkable. It's -- let's, kind of, walk through Friday quickly before we look ahead to what we're going to see this week because for anyone that is just, you know, tuning in after the weekend, she started to cry at the start of cross-examination, but it seems to be related to the end of her testimony when the prosecutors were questioning her. And kind of how she had characterized what Donald Trump was focused on, talking about and doing in this time. What did she say there and how do you think her testimony is going to potentially impact the case?

CHILDRESS: Like, from the very beginning, the prosecutors have said this is about the conspiracy to influence the election and the cover up. And I think by the end of her testimony, Hope Hicks knew that she had provided evidence consistent about influencing the 2016 election.

If you go to the piece where she ended, it was actually about after "The New York Times" posted the article about Michael Cohen paying the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. And Hope Hicks said that the former president said that Michael Cohen was doing it to look out for him, to protect the president. And we know that Michael Cohen wouldn't have paid that amount of money without the former president telling him to do so.

And so, she kind of almost showed that he was lying to her in that moment, and I'm sure she became overwhelmed. That's her former boss. Someone that gave her a start in this industry. And so, she probably, at that moment realized that she was providing evidence about the conspiracy, and also about the fact that the president -- former president, is not necessarily someone who tells the truth all the time.

HUNT: Really? None of us knew that before. But yes, no, you're right. I mean, and it's hard to overstate, yes, she was his boss, but how close that they actually were.

CHILDRESS: Right.

HUNT: I mean, you couldn't cover Donald Trump in 2015 and '16 without seeing and speaking with Hope Hicks.

CHILDRESS: And she was there pursuant to a subpoena, right? She wasn't there on her own free will. So, I'm sure there was a lot of emotions going on at that moment.

HUNT: So, let's talk about what happens next here because we're looking ahead to see who the prosecutors may put on the stand next. It could be Michael Cohen, although it also sounds like it's possible he'll be the final witness in the trial, we'll have to see. But Stormy Daniels still has yet to take the stand. I mean, what do you expect the next move to be from the prosecutors and why?

CHILDRESS: I think it will be a Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen kind of combo that comes up soon. I don't think Michael Cohen will be last because you don't want to end on someone who's going to get bruised the way he's going to get bruised on a cross-examination.

So, I think we're going to have Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, maybe someone inside the campaign, or Michael Cohen talk about the conspiracy as well as start -- to start talking about the cover up, the fraudulent business records. And then I think we'll see at the end some from the Trump organization or probably financial folks who can talk about how the records were made fraudulent or how they were falsified.

But I don't think we're going to end on Michael Cohen because he is going to take a bruising in his cross-examination. But he can corroborate a lot of what David Pecker, Keith Davis, and others have already said. So, it's kind of in a good place for him to testify soon because we've already heard a lot of the facts he's going to talk about.

HUNT: So, let's talk then about what Stormy Daniels could offer on the stand. I mean, she obviously was -- fully understands, from her perspective, what happened between her and Donald Trump. How things played out with Keith Davidson, her lawyer. How do you expect them to approach her? And what's -- if you're the defense, if you're cross- examining Stormy Daniels, where are you pushing her?

CHILDRESS: So, I think what she shows is what she understood the contract or the hush money to be about? Was it about embarrassing Donald Trump the family man or stopping the story from coming out before the election? And she can talk about what her -- maybe not what her attorney told you. That's attorney-client privilege. But I'm sure she can talk about what she thought that this contract was about.

Like, if I'm the defense, I'm going to talk about -- I'm going to push her on, look, it would have been embarrassing for his family to find out about an affair. It would have been embarrassing for Melania, for Barron.

HUNT: Yes.

[05:35:00]

CHILDRESS: I think you just make it all about Trump the family man. And get her to admit that, yes, that would have been embarrassing for him to have these facts come out. But really and truly, the defense has kind of been -- kind of tough on their cross-examinations here because it is pretty overwhelming evidence that this was about the election and about having these stories not come out after the "Access Hollywood" tape.

Which is why the testimony from Friday and playing that tape live was so damning for the Trump defense because there was a panic within the campaign after the "Access Hollywood" tapes and they did not want the Stormy Daniels story to come out after that. And so, it's kind of hard to cross-examine someone on that fact. I don't know.

HUNT: Yes. So, the other thing we're waiting for is the gag order, and when Donald Trump had said earlier -- he said last week that the gag order was preventing him from testifying in the trial at all, which was not true. So, there has been this question looming over, like, whether Donald Trump's going to take the stand in his own defense. We just want to show you, kind of -- here's the evolution of what he's had to say about that. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would have no problem testifying. I didn't do anything wrong.

I'm testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there's no case. They have no case.

Well, I would if it's necessary. Right now, I don't know if you heard about today. Today was just incredible. People are saying, the experts, I'm talking about legal scholars and experts. They're saying, what kind of a case is this? There is no case.

Well, I'm not allowed to testify. I'm under a gag order, I guess. I can't even testify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, of course, then he went on to say what we showed at the top, which is that, it's not actually about the gag order.

CHILDRESS: Right.

HUNT: Will he testify or not?

CHILDRESS: He's not going to testify. He's -- I mean -- I guess there's -- you can never say never. I highly doubt it though. It would be a cross-examination that a prosecutor would dream of if the former president were to take the stand. And I say that not being sarcastic, it's just that he has made so many public statements. He has made so many tweets that you're able to just to cross-examine what his state of mind was at the time that this conspiracy was going on, after the conspiracy, his character for truthfulness.

I mean, it could be days of cross-examination the way that would be. One of the more humiliating things for the former president. And so, if I were the prosecution I would try to bait him in a way to try to testify. I would hope he would testify, but he's not testifying.

HUNT: All right. Marcus Childress for us. Marcus --

CHILDRESS: Thank you.

HUNT: -- thank you. I really appreciate it.

All right. We're going to get another dramatic showdown on Capitol Hill this week, or we expect one anyway, as Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has vowed to force a floor vote to try to remove the House Speaker, Mike Johnson.

It's a move that Democrats say won't work because they plan to help Johnson. But Greene plans to forge ahead. She does not, we should note, have the blessing of Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I'm the biggest supporter of President Trump, and that's why I proudly wear this MAGA hat. I fight for his agenda every single day. And that's why I'm fighting here against my own Republican conference to fight harder against the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now is Capitol Hill reporter from Axios, Juliegrace Brufke. Juliegrace, good morning to you.

JULIEGRACE BRUFKE, CAPITOL HILL REPORTER, AXIOS: Good morning.

HUNT: Thanks so much for being here. So, why is she doing this?

BRUFKE: She's arguing that his handling of appropriations of FISA, of Ukraine funding without border are her big reasons there --

HUNT: Yes, sure. I mean, there's also --

BRUFKE: She's also --

HUNT: -- officially plenty of policy reasons, but this is like a national stage political play. What's in it? I mean, there's got to be something in it for her.

BRUFKE: She's also a strong ally of Kevin McCarthy, so I think there's kind of still some allegiance there. But, I mean, I think she's definitely kind of got some wrath from her entire conference right now. There's a ton of people pushing back, including people within Trump world who kind of feel like this is going to hinder their chances of picking up seats and could hurt him up the ballot. Just -- he's got his trial going on.

There's enough chaos that we've seen -- I mean, like an unprecedented amount of chaos, this Congress. It's been a wild ride thus far. And they're kind of trying to look to project that they can legislate before November, which another motion to vacate, and I mean, Democrats will bail him out this time. But I mean, there's people who are saying if she keeps bringing these up, that they want concessions out of Republicans and they want their bills on the floor. So, how long they keep saving him is kind of a lingering question there, which is kind of a predicament.

HUNT: Yes, for sure. The Trump -- let me dig into the Trump old question, then I want to play a little bit of Hakeem Jeffries. But you say that there are people in Trump world who don't want her to do this. What does your reporting say about other Trump allies on the Hill and how they're pressuring her?

BRUFKE: Yes, I mean, I've spoken to Matt Gaetz. And he said that he timed his motion to vacate, not in an election year. It didn't -- you speak to the rest of the eight that voted to oust McCarthy there, and they're kind of in the same boat with the timing.

They're in a ton of legislative priorities. They're going to need to fund the government, but outside of what's likely going to be a CR, there's not a -- ton of major things left for them to do where they, kind of, just want to bring the fight to next year and try and kind of figure out whether or not they keep him in place, which a lot of them are saying they don't want to. Or, kind of, pick a new candidate to challenge him for leader or speaker.

HUNT: Right. So, here's how Hakeem Jeffries has defended his decision or explained his decision around his conference agreeing to help get Speaker Johnson out of this jam. Watch.

[05:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): In our view would traditionally be let the other side work its own mess out. But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing at that moment might be for us to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, it is an unusual decision for a party, for the Democrats to decide, OK, fine, we're going to save the Republicans from their own mess.

BRUFKE: I've spoken to people in that orbit, and they trust him more than they trusted McCarthy, and they agreed with his decision to bring Ukraine funding to the floor. So, right now, they feel like they kind of have a good working relationship with him, despite maybe not disagreeing with a large portion of his policy decisions.

Now, if they bail him out, I've talked to a lot of Republicans that kind of feel like they lose some leverage in future negotiations, including appropriations. So, it's kind -- some -- I've talked to a lot of people that kind of feel like the Freedom Caucus members that are pushing back against him are kind of undermining themselves and they really need rules changes next year to avoid some of this chaos.

HUNT: All right. Juliegrace Brufke for us this morning. Juliegrace, thank you. Really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up next, a game seven thriller means there won't be a repeat champion in the NHL.

Plus, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell is here and she'll join us live. Coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get them out of here. Go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're ruining our graduation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: All right. Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly interrupting the University of Michigan's commencement ceremony. It's on Saturday at the big house before they were removed by police. The demonstration remained peaceful, but of course the fear of escalating disruptions continues to dog universities as commencement season gets underway after weeks of intense and sometimes violent clashes on college campuses.

Joining me now is the is Michigan's Democratic congresswoman, Debbie Dingell. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being here.

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI), ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE AND PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS DEPUTY WHIP: Kasie, it's good to see you.

HUNT: This seems like a very brief thing that happened at the university of Michigan that was handled in a pretty straight forward manner. But this is, of course, something that I know you have been very personally involved with -- talking about in your home state as it is an incredibly emotional issue. What is your view of how colleges have -- the job that they have been doing handling this at places like Columbia and UCLA?

DINGELL: I think it's extremely difficult for every college campus. And the fact of the matter, I talk to everybody. I talk to the Jewish students, I talk to the pro-Palestinian students, and I pay a lot of attention to the people that are coming in from the outside trying to stir up people.

I think it -- I think many people feel like there's nothing that you're going to do that's going to be right. Freedom of speech does matter. When does freedom of speech cross the line? What do we do about the hate that we are seeing just encouraged by people from the outside? I'm opposed to antisemitism. I am opposed to Islamophobia. Jewish students are scared on some campuses. Arab-American Muslim students are scared. They're both experiencing it.

I think -- I know at Michigan, there are a whole lot of people in all of the communities. The Jewish community, the American community, trying to keep it calm, let the kids be heard. But, you know, there are a lot of questions we've got to start to deal with, too. When does -- you know, freedom of speech matters in this country.

Things that you and I took for granted when we were in school. All those liberties are at risk right now, but when does it cross the line? When does language -- you know, I believe in protecting freedom of speech. There's some really awful phrases that intimidate people. How do we have the discussion -- just a calm discussion? When's it OK and when's it not OK? HUNT: Yes. Your Democratic colleague in Congress. Senator John Fetterman has been particularly vocal in his kind of pro-Israel comments. And he framed it this way late last week. Watch what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, if you want to play with that fire, you better own that fire. Like Nader. You know, like, hey, congratulations, dude. If you are willing to walk away or to actually vote for someone else, you are going to throw your vote away and you are on the Trump train, and you better watch out for the wreck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Of course, talking to Democratic voters who would otherwise support President Biden except for this issue. I mean, is he right?

DINGELL: I'm not going to take the Fetterman style right now. I'm talking to a lot of people. What I'm hoping is, you know, I've been with some of my black ministers, I've met with a lot of the faith- based groups, we need to have a lot of discussions. There are a lot of raw feelings, and I mean raw feelings. I do talk to everybody. I don't sleep at night.

The Jewish community is hurting. They hear phrases. I mean, last Sunday night, there was a parade through downtown Ann Arbor, and I had members of the Jewish community on the phone crying, telling me these people wanted to kill them. I was on with leaders of the Arab-American community, and they say that word doesn't mean that to me.

I talked to people for six months about, who are you going to vote for? I'm not going to play it out on TV. I'm going to have real conversations with members of the community and we have to do it that way. So, we understand what the consequences are in November.

HUNT: Well, and the proof that you don't sleep at night also, and the fact that you're here at this hour after taking a late flight home, which we're very grateful for.

[05:50:00]

Let's -- I want to turn to Donald Trump and his search for a vice president has been very under well -- very well underway. But it does tie into this bigger picture question about the acceptance of election results. And Tim Scott, the Senator from South Carolina, who is on the VP shortlist was pressed repeatedly over the weekend about whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election. It's becoming something of a litmus test for these potential VP nominees. Here was Senator Scott.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND SATURDAY TODAY CO-ANCHOR: Well, Senator, will you commit to accepting the election results of 2024? Bottom line. SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Well, at the end of the day, the 47th

president of the United States will be President Donald Trump, and I'm excited to give back to low inflation, low unemployment and --

WELKER: Wait, wait. Senator, yes or no, yes or no, will you accept the election results of 2024 no matter who wins?

SCOTT: That is my statement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Senator Scott saying this as, of course, Donald Trump himself giving interviews, not saying that there will -- or excuse me, saying that there will not be political violence if the election is fair, right? And he has said that he is confident he will win. He says, in response to these political violence questions, well, if I win and it's all fair, there will not be any political violence. It's raising the specter of that possibility if, in fact, Biden wins the election and Trump does not accept it. What do you think the country is in store for?

DINGELL: I'm very worried about this election. I would come from a time that we had confidence in -- we need to have confidence in our government, in institutions. And we really -- look, I worked for Al Gore. I chaired his campaign. I remember that election. But we accepted the election results and the consequences that were with it.

We now have Republican leaders saying, hey, if we don't win, we're not going to accept it. What we saw on January 6th could just be a precursor to things that we could see around the country. I want to remind people, when I said people don't belong at the state capitol with assault weapons, which they were in Michigan prior to January 6th, I had men outside my home on the street, so they weren't on private property, with assault weapons.

We need to worry about the kind of authoritarian government that this country could be looking for if people are not willing to say, I trust the institutions, I believe it will be an honest election.

HUNT: Yes. All right. Congresswoman, we're going to see you again at the top of the hour. Thanks so much for being here.

All right. Time now for sports. There will be a new Stanley Cup champion this year after the Stars dethrone the Golden Knights in a game seven thriller. Carolyn Manno has this morning's bleacher report. Carolyn, good morning.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kasie. Yes, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, except for the Stanley Cup. The defending NHL champs have been eliminated from the playoffs. The Golden Knights beat the Stars in the Western Conference final last season on the way to the title.

So, Dallas hoping for some ice-cold revenge here, and they got it just 44 seconds into the third period. The Stars' fourth line forward Radek Faksa, who missed the previous four games with injury sent a backhander from the circle right past Vegas goaltender Adin Hill for what ended up being a serious clinching goal.

For Faksa, this one was especially meaningful. His team advances to face the Avalanche while he also got to make good on a promise to his two-year-old son, Elliot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADEK FAKSA, DALLAS STARS CENTER: Actually, after every pregame skate, I play with my son, a little mini stick hockey and I promised him I will score a goal tonight. And I'm glad I did, you know. So, I'm so excited to show him the video of the goal in the morning and I'm so happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. That's awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now he's going to be asking you for --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: How sweet is that? In the NBA, the Cavs and Magic also playing a decisive game seven in their first round series. The home team had won each of the home games so far in this series in Orlando. It looked like they were going to flip the script going up by 18 at one point in the second quarter, but Donovan Mitchell let a second half surge for the Cavs. He scored 17 in the third quarter alone and finished with a game high 39. So, Cleveland goes on to win 106 to 94. Remarkably, it's their first playoff series win without LeBron James since 1993. They're going to play Boston in the second round. Game one is on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONOVAN MITCHELL, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS GUARD: I mean, so much respect to them. This wasn't easy. It's a lot of hard work put in, you know, so I've got to get them credit. But the biggest thing is like, we got down early. You know, stay level headed, you know, continue, you know, to push. Continue to believe in what you do. And then the third quarter trying to set that tone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Two more Playoff games coming up tonight on our sister channel TNT. The Pacers and Knicks get their series started 7:30 Eastern, and then at 10:00. The defending NBA champion Nuggets is going to try to even their series with Minnesota.

An exciting race ending with the closest finish in NASCAR Cup series history. Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher trading paint all the way to the checkered flag. And at the end, it was Larson edging past by 1/1,000th of a second. Both teams initially celebrating the win for several moments before Larson's win was actually confirmed. But this will be a very busy month for him on Memorial Day weekend.

[05:55:00] Larson is going to race in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 double for 1,100 miles of driving in one day.

And that was not the only photo finish of the weekend, Kasie, the Kentucky Derby where Mystic Dan won the closest three-way finish since 1947. Larson actually referenced both after his win. He said, Kentucky Derby, yes, hold my beer. But this was so exciting, especially, commemorating a century and a half, Kasie, of the greatest race in America in terms of horse racing. And it was exciting. Did you watch?

HUNT: Of course, no, it's the greatest two minutes of sports. I would never miss it.

MANNO: Yes.

HUNT: And yet this photo it was just -- it was incredible. It's one of the most fun derbies to watch in a really, really long time. So, Carolyn Manno, Carolyn, thank you. I really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up next here, Donald Trump accusing the Biden administration of using the tactics of Nazi Germany.

Plus, devastating flooding in Texas takes the life of a four-year-old boy.

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