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Stormy Daniels Back on Witness Stand Today; Biden Warns Netanyahu Against Major Rafah Invasion; 9M+ Under Tornado Watch for Parts of GA, TN, NC. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 09, 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 Thursday, May 9. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --

[06:01:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: he may not accept the outcome of the election? I promise you he won't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden predicting challenges from Donald Trump, if he loses again in November. We're going to have much more from that CNN exclusive interview ahead.

Trump's lawyers ready to escalate their attacks on Stormy Daniels when she takes the stand again in just a few hours.

And RFK Jr. claiming part of his brain was eaten by a worm. Yes, this is a real story this morning.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. Here is a live look at New York City where Stormy Daniels will be back on the stand today.

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

Donald Trump's hush money trial resumes in just a few hours with Stormy Daniels back on the stand. A source telling CNN that Trump's lawyers are planning a longer and more forceful cross-examination to help protect Trump's reputation after Daniels raise the possibility their alleged sexual encounter in 2006 wasn't entirely consensual.

Our Brynn Gingras is outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan this morning with the latest.

Brynn, what do you expect today?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Listen, Kasie, this is why the defense attorneys asked for, you know, this trial to be over with, asking the judge basically to rule, because of what Stormy Daniels was testifying to. Of course, that was denied. But we know that the defense attorneys were about 90 minutes into their cross-examination on Tuesday when we last had court. And they still had more to go. They weren't expecting to have a long cross- examination, but like you just said, after her testimony on direct, and basically, they said it's going to take a little bit while longer.

Because they want to restore the president [SIC] -- former president's credibility. They want to make sure they address the fact that they believe Stormy Daniels was insinuating to jurors that this was not a consensual relationship. So there's a little bit more to go with Stormy Daniels on the stand.

And of course, after the defense is done, then we're going to see redirect from the prosecutors.

Now listen, while she was on the stand, you know, there were some really bombshell moments. Really, people were sort of taken aback by everything that she was saying.

She was feisty when the defense was starting to question her. With a break in the court, let's see how she is on the stand today. Does she seem more composed? Is the president [SIC] more in tune into what she is saying, as he was seen sort of keeping his eyes closed, as we have seen him in the past with other -- with other witnesses.

So yes, that's what we're expecting today and, you know, we don't know if she'll finish on the stand today. It could be a long day of testimony from her again. And it's unclear who, again, is up next.

But certainly, we are waiting -- waiting here to see.

HUNT: All right. Brynn Gingras for us. Thank you very much for that.

All right. Our panel's here. Federal prosecutor Elliot Williams; Molly Ball, senior political correspondent at "The Wall Street Journal"; former Trump administration official Shermichael Singleton; and Meghan Hays, former special assistant to President Trump [SIC].

So let's just kind of take a minute to recap where we were. President Biden -- excuse me. Let's recap where we were in this trial, what we heard from Stormy Daniels.

There's no cameras in court, of course. But it's the retelling of an incident that Daniels disclosed to Anderson Cooper in a 2018 interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM ACTRESS AND DIRECTOR: It started off all about him, just talking about himself. And he's like, have you seen my new magazine?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: He was showing you his own picture on the cover of the magazine?

DANIELS: Right. And so it's like does this -- does this normally work for you? And he looked very taken -- taken aback, like he didn't really understand what I was saying. I was just, you know, Talking about yourself normally work?

And I was like, Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it. So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little. And he had underwear on and stuff. And I just gave him a couple swats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:05]

HUNT: OK. So Elliot Williams, maybe it's a little too early for this. A couple of swats. But --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: When is it not too early for that? At least a better --

HUNT: Exactly. I know.

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: But this change in strategy from Trump, because what we -- what she expanded on in that -- from that story that she told Anderson back in 2018, was this idea that she kind of felt threatened, right?

She acknowledged in the testimony that, yes, it was consensual. She didn't say no. But she talked about how there was this level of fear. She talked about blacking out, despite a lack of alcohol and drugs.

And this seems to have motivated the Trump team to say, Hey, we've got to do something here to defend Donald Trump's reputation. They're going to do a longer cross-examination. Is that smart?

WILLIAMS: It's risky for them to do it. So the whole point of cross- examination is it always needs to stay within the scope of the direct examination. You just attack a witness, based on things that you heard in the prior examination.

Now, usually cross-examinations tend to be shorter than direct examination. You keep it tight, you know, punchy like you've seen on television -- yes-no questions, leading questions -- and then get out of there.

The more you have a witness on the stand, even when you have something like this where there's a contradiction, you run the risk of, No. 1, opening up something that isn't great for your own side.

And No. 2 -- and this is far more acute here -- appearing to bully and badger the witness.

And it's not clear, regardless of what we may say watching this from the outside, it's not clear how the jury is reacting to her. And an attorney sort of being seen as pushing too hard, fighting too hard with a witness can really backfire.

So in many respects, yes, it's probably worth a few questions to clean it up, but then get out of there, because they have plenty of time to make arguments about what she says later on in trial.

HUNT: Yes. Shermichael Singleton, was it a mistake for the judge to let all this come out into the courtroom?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think so. This is salacious fodder, if you will. What does this have to do with the case? Where is the smoking gun here? That yes, it's embarrassing to Donald Trump. It sounds bad. All the headlines, all the magazines that have been printed were talking about it.

But what does this have to do with the alleged crime that they're alleging the president, former president, committed.

I think this feeds into his argument of being persecuted. I think it feeds into his argument these are a bunch of New York Democrats coming after me, because they don't like me.

And I'm not saying that -- that's an accurate argument or not.

HUNT: That's also what Meghan thinks, too. Like, do you agree?

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN/DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: But don't --

HUNT: Meghan, by the way, is with -- the former assistant to Biden, not Trump. That's my mistake. Go ahead.

HAYS: Don't you think, though, that this is going -- because he said that this affair never happened. And so this is just pointing out that he's lying?

Like she's giving very explicit details to point out to people that, like, he is actually lying. And if he's lying about this, what else is he lying about?

SINGLETON: If there's anyone out there who believes Donald Trump is an honest person, I have a bridge to sell you. No one believes that.

HAYS: But that is totally fair. But in the court of law and a jury, they have to go on the facts. They're supposed to be impartial here and be giving him a fair trial.

So I think that they are doing what they need to be doing. I mean, you are an expert at this. I definitely am not, but I feel like that is why they are asking these details.

Do I think it's salacious? Yes. Do I think it's unnecessary? Yes. But we are sitting on the outside. We are not in that jury box.

WILLIAMS: Really quickly. It is -- whether they had a liaison, whether you call it romantic, sexual, whatever else, is a central fact at trial. You have to establish that there was some kind of relationship and that the Trump campaign -- or pardon me, that the Trump Organization tried to suppress it from voters. That's fine. Right?

The question is how much detail you need to provide about that. And were the prosecution just to say, did you have sex with that man, Mr. Trump, she could say yes. No further questions.

Then the Trump team could put on a witness that denied it. And now you have an equal dispute of facts, right?

HUNT: Right.

WILLIAMS: You have to get some, like, additional details out there on the record that makes it harder for the defense to rebut.

But again, Shermichael, I'm totally with you. Once you start getting into the realm of he had Pert Plus --

SINGLETON: Spanking him with a magazine.

WILLIAMS: Spanking him. And he had Pert Plus but not -- but Old Spice in his -- it's just there were extra details. I don't know how the jury's going to see it.

HUNT: Molly, quick last word to you.

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, it's obviously -- as Elliott was saying, it's a different case for the jury than it is for the public. And that's part of the problem for Trump, is there's a public audience, and there's the jury audience.

Obviously, if they didn't believe that this had been somewhat damaging, they wouldn't be planning to go on the attack and try to restore his reputation. They obviously feel that, for the audience both inside and outside the courtroom, this testimony was somewhat damaging.

HUNT: Yes.

BALL: Of course, it's salacious. And I think people are tired of a lot of this that -- that's so many years old. But it's also a reminder to the public of a lot of stuff that they haven't heard about in a while.

HUNT: Yes, for sure. I -- I had really stored this all in the very far reaches of my brain, wasn't expecting to have to relive it again, but here we are, all doing it together.

All right. Coming up next, President Biden warning he'll cut off weapons shipments to Israel, if they invade Rafah's most populated areas.

Plus, clashes in Tel Aviv between police and hostage families. This is one of the five things you have to see this morning.

[06:10:03]

And a terrifying night in Tennessee. At least two people killed by tornadoes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HUNT: Welcome back. President Biden making headlines in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with CNN, warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there will be consequences if he orders a major invasion of Rafah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've made it clear that, if they go into Rafah -- they haven't gone in Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah.

[06:15:08]

I've made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet they're not going to get our support if, in fact, they go on these population centers. We're not walking away from Israel's security. We're walking away from Israel's ability to wage war in those areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Molly Ball, this is a remarkable moment for President Biden. I mean, this was the first time an American president has done anything along these lines in terms of Israel. How do you see the significance of this?

It's already rippling across Israel. Ben-Gvir, the national security Itamar Ben -- Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir went on X this morning and said, "Hamas hearts Joe Biden."

I mean, this is new territory.

BALL: Yes, it's clearly a breaking point in the already very, very frayed relationship, right, between Biden and Netanyahu, between the U.S. and Israel.

And it tells you just how little he feels he's able to communicate with Bibi in private, right? This is a message that I think the U.S. and the president have repeatedly tried to convey to the Israelis privately and it clearly has not been successful.

And so they've taken this -- this quite extreme step to say, even though this -- you know, these weapons have been authorized by Congress, we're going to put a pause on them, because we've told you not to do this.

You know, the president is, in sort of an impossible situation here, where he's already getting a lot of criticism, even from some Democrats who are strongly pro-Israel.

At the same time, he's not getting any credit politically from the many on the left who feel he's been too accommodating to Israel.

And -- and I -- and so the whole question for him is just what are the results of this conflict? How does this end up? I think that's where everything is going to -- what it hangs on. HUNT: Yes. Meghan Hays, and this is a significant policy shift. Do you

think he's going to get credit for it with the progressive left? And is it worth the risk that he is taking in terms of the U.S. relationship with Israel?

And look, the reality is there's a wide swath of the Democratic Party who are supportive of Israel and who are not on the same side as these campus protesters.

HAYS: So I'm not sure he's going to get credit with the progressives. I'm not sure it's also a major policy shift. I think he's been saying for a long time, there'll be consequences. I think just detailing out what those consequences are more broadly now is what he's doing.

But I do think that he -- he genuinely cares about human life. And he knows that there's an issue in -- in Gaza. And he's trying to protect more human life. And he is saying we are not going to be complicit in you killing more people.

So it's not necessarily a policy shift. I think this is where he has -- he's being more empathetic. And he's showing that.

And I also -- I disagree a little bit, that he doesn't, you know, say to Netanyahu what he's doing. I think that they are having a lot of private conversations. But I think he's now telling the American public that these are the conversations we are having, and we are going to hold them accountable.

SINGLETON: This is a bit of a political conundrum for the president. Last night I did a --

HUNT: A bit. Understatement.

SINGLETON: I did a focus group with some Jewish students last night to understand their experiences on this. And I'm not complete with the data, the qualitative data yet. But just to go over some of the things I heard.

One Jewish student last week, she said she was given a Jewish flag by a campus organization, and other students snatched the flag, spit on her, and called her a dirty Jew.

Another Jewish student talked about how an anthropology professor wanted him to do a project talking about how the Palestinians were the real victims, and Israel was committing genocide. And she said, Well, I'm Jewish. I lost family during October 7.

And the professor said, Well, if you don't write the paper, you're going to fail the class.

These students on -- these Jewish students are experiencing very terrible things. You have one student said, I wish I could just leave. I didn't come to college for this.

And so I understand no one wants innocent lives to be lost, what about the Jewish students who are having to traverse through college campuses, afraid of their lives, hiding their star of David because they don't know if someone's going to physically or verbally assault them?

So these are very real things that I think the president, he's spoken a little bit on it, but he needs to be more direct and more firm. Some of these universities, Kasie, need to also do a better job protecting those Jewish students, because many of them are afraid.

HUNT: Yes, we -- it's fascinating perspective. Thank you very much for bringing that to us today.

All right, coming on up next here, RFK Jr. claiming a worm ate part of his brain. That is apparently a thing. We will talk about it.

Plus why this could be a much more difficult day on the stand for Stormy Daniels.

And the Olympic torch at the plane arriving on French soil, 79 days before the Paris games begin.

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[06:23:44]

HUNT: All right, 23 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.

Hostage families clashing with Israeli police in Tel Aviv. Two people were arrested after protestors pushed against barriers and confronted officers. Two of those officers were slightly injured along with the sister of one of the hostages.

A Boeing FedEx cargo plane landing on its nose in Istanbul after its front wheels failed to deploy. You can see billowing smoke as it scrapes the runway. Nobody was injured.

Thousands of fans welcoming the Olympic flame's arrival in the port of Marseille on Wednesday. It starts a 68-day journey across France in the leadup to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good! And that's when you should go get them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: -- Jalen Brunson scoring 24 of his 29 points in the second half to lead the New York Knicks to a 130-121 victory over the Indiana Pacers in game two of their semifinal match-up.

The Knicks now leading the series two games to none.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just heard it. It was a roar. That's all it was, was a roar. And it's gone. We have farm animals, and we don't know where nothing's at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A twister tearing through parts of Tennessee, killing two people in Maury County and injuring several others. Heavy rains triggering flash floods, leaving widespread damage, and blocking roads just South of Nashville.

[06:25:11]

And in weather, those severe storms are shifting East this morning into the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. A tornado watch has now been issued for more than 9 million people in parts of Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar tracking all of it for us.

Allison, good morning. What are you seeing

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

We've got a couple of tornado watches out there, so let's kind of break it down because they've got different timelines to them. The one further to the West that includes most of Alabama and areas of Mississippi, that one is valid until 10 a.m. Central Time today.

The newer one, this is the one that includes the bulk of Georgia, including Atlanta, Macon and even Augusta. That one is valid until 1 p.m. Eastern Time this afternoon.

And it's all because of this main line of storms that's sliding through. We've got several severe thunderstorm warnings active at this moment. That's what those orange boxes are. And this line is going to slowly make its way South and Eastward in the coming hours.

It's not just severe potential, but also flooding. All of these red boxes you see here are flash flood warnings, including a flash flood emergency that is just North of Nashville where they've had four to seven inches of rain that has already fallen, and we're still adding more rain on top of that.

There will also be the continued threat for severe storms. That's why we have the tornado watches in effect. But essentially, all of this area you see here has the potential for some large to very large hail, possibly baseball-size.

We can also see some damaging winds and, yes, even a few tornadoes. And the tornadoes would likely just add to the already very high tornado count we have. Just in the last 24 hours, we've had 13 tornado reports, 160 wind reports, and 180 hail reports.

And that overall number is because of a very long stretch of days that we have had with tornado reports. We are now up to 323 total tornado reports since April 25th, Kasie. So it's been a very long time since we've had a break.

But the good news is, I think once we get to this weekend, we will finally start to see a lot of that severe weather calm back down.

HUNT: All right. Hoping for that. Allison Chinchar for us. Allison, thanks very much.

Coming up next here, RFK Jr. claiming a worm ate part of his brain. That is a real sentence.

Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson survived Marjorie Taylor Greene's attempt to throw him out.

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