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CNN This Morning

Now: Blinken In Kyiv To Reaffirm U.S. Support For Ukraine; Today: Michael Cohen Back On Stand In Hush Money Case; Today: Biden To Announce Tariff Hikes On Chinese Imports. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 14, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:39]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, May 14th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Michael Cohen could face cross-examination today. Trump's lawyers trying to convince jury that Cohen can't be trusted.

Plus, President Biden about to hit Beijing with major tariff hikes on electric vehicles and other exports from China.

And will this controlled blast be enough to free a trapped cargo ship from what's left of Baltimore's collapsed Key Bridge?

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here in Washington. A live look at New York City where all the action goes down today in the Manhattan courtroom.

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

We do want to start with this developing story. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken landing a short time ago in Kyiv, where he just met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It is his fourth visits since the war began, but his first since U.S. military aid resumed. Zelenskyy thanked President Biden, Congress and the American people for passing the $400 million in additional funding for his country.

In an interview, Sunday, Blinken acknowledged the delay in getting aid to Ukraine has been costly, but he also tried to send this strong signal of U.S. support to Ukrainians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a challenging moment. We are not going anywhere.

And neither are more than some 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine. That will continue, and if Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine, outlast its supporters, he's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now live from Berlin. Fred, good morning to you.

So this supplemental funding was on top of the $61 billion funding package from last month, where are the weapons now? Where does Ukraine stand against Russia, right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kasie, and good morning.

Yeah, right now for the Ukraine, it's pretty difficult on the battlefield especially in the northeast of the country, but also in the eastern regions is, well, where we really are seeing a big Russian push, the Russian certainly have drastically increased the number of soldiers that they have around Ukraine and are also using some of those weapons more effectively because the Ukrainians, for a very long time didn't have a lot of those weapons from the United States.

Now, it's quite interesting because I was listening into what Secretary of State Blinken was saying earlier today. He said that right now, some of the weapons that the U.S. is now giving to Ukraine are already in-country and more are on the way. He said. So certainly some of that artillery ammunition which the Ukrainian say they definitely lead very badly, has already arrived in Ukraine.

But there's other things that the Ukrainians are saying. They also need desperately as well and that they need quickly, air defense missiles being one of them, air defense systems, are being another one of them, not just in the towns and cities to keep those sales, but also on the battlefield as well as the Russians, much more effective now at using their Air Force, Kasie.

HUNT: Right. So what message do you think in particular Blinken consent with this visit?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think it's really important message. First of all, to the Russians that the U.S. is back right now, giving weapons to Ukraine stands behind Ukraine. I think that's one of the reasons why he also came there to make that abundantly clear, but then also of course, Ukrainians themselves, that the U.S. is backing, that the U.S. is now going to deliver a lot of aid. And I think two things are very important about out all that.

First of all, Secretary of State Blinken's presence in itself and her meeting with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But then also the U.S. saying that on top of some of the weapons that have been pledged last week, that there's another aid package that is on the way, showing that now, the U.S. is trying to make up for some of the time that was lost in the past, getting weapons to Ukraine I think right now, especially in terms of ammunition, the U.S. is going to try and send as much as possible in a very short period of time, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Fled Pleitgen, starting us off from Berlin, Fred, thanks very much. We're grateful for your reporting.

All right. Let's come back home now, turning to New York. In just a few hours, Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial will resume. Trump's ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, set to retake the stand prosecutors continue questioning Cohen. He sat for an explosive day of testimony yesterday, putting Trump at the center of the scheme to pay off Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election, and made it clear that this payment was not just about Trump's image with his family.

[05:05:06]

When asked about the timing of the payment, Cohen said this, quote, continue to -- Cohen said this, quote, continued to delay, delay the execution of the data documents, continue the delay of execution of funding because after the election, it wouldn't matter, according to Mr. Trump. Today, Trump's attorneys likely going to get the chance to cross-examine Cohen. He is -- Trump has denied all the allegations. He calls the entire case of form of election interference. And of course complains that it is taken him off the campaign trail.

There were a number of Republican lawmakers who joined Trump at the courthouse on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH): Does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen says? I don't think that they should and I actually think that his testimony is going to hurt with any reasonable double juror, and hopefully we have a few of those.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: It's worth noting Trump currently under a gag order. Those lawmakers, of course, not bound by any of those limits.

Joining me now to discuss, "Semafor" politics reporter Shelby Talcott.

Shelby, good morning to you.

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEFAMOR: Good morning.

HUNT: So we had some explosive stuff yesterday from Cohen particularly around what, he had to say about Melania Trump and whether or not Trump cared whether she learned about what happened with Stormy Daniels.

TALCOTT: Yeah. This -- this was really interesting to me because obviously the emphasis was not on how Melania Trump and his family would handle this these allegations.

It was how it would affect him publicly and his presidential campaign. And so I thought that was notable. And the other thing of course Chris, that was notable was when Michael Cohen testified about this alleged meeting that he had with Donald Trump just days before he took office where according to Cohen, Donald Trump approved this -- this hush money scheme. So the question now is, do the juries -- does the jury end up buying these allegations?

And we've seen how the prosecution has tried to not just rely only on Michael Cohen's testimony, but at every step of the way when available, they've used documents. They've used text messages to try to backup those allegations.

HUNT: Yeah. And, of course, that potentially we're going to start to see the key test today as perhaps Michael Cohen will start to come under cross-examination.

So, Shelby, you wrote this week about the parade of supporters it's now turned into that's coming to the courtroom. You said this, and this is of course, about his choice for vice president in part. Trump likes to treat his veep-stake as a reality show production with all the jostling for his approval and speculation about strategy that comes with it, with his public encouragement, candidates have spent weeks vying for his attention with joint appearances, Sunday show interviews, and ostentatious displays of affection.

His Manhattan trial seems like an obvious way to score points in that context, one that may be especially notable to Trump. And, of course, we heard from J.D. Vance there who is one of the people on that list.

Think we're going to see more of them.

TALCOTT: Absolutely. Vivek Ramaswamy is going to be at the courtroom today. I was told that Tim Scott's team has had conversations about him showing up to the courthouse, not true that will be this week, but at some point.

And really, Rick Scott, who showed up at the courthouse last week and is not on the VP list, but that's sort of sparked this latest effort from Trump allies and VP hopefuls to not only go on the Sunday shows and not only be deployed throughout the week to defend Donald Trump when he is under a gag order, right? As you said, they can say whatever they want. He can't.

But now, they've taken it a step further and they're showing up for him in-person, which is something that he has complained about in the past when this trial first started. He privately grumbled that not enough people were showing up behind him and now we've seen him sort of add onto his entourage each day that this trial continues.

HUNT: And we saw them sort of standing behind him in a row, Eric Trump, et cetera. I mean, were starting to ask this question about how voters might process a conviction.

And my, my colleague, Stephen Collinson writes, quote, it's too early to assess how voters might process a conviction or acquittal, or whether damaging new revelations about Trump's conduct will sway an electorate now numb to scandals that would have doomed a normal candidate years ago. But fresh "New York Times"-Siena polls show Trump leading President Biden, and multiple swing states and underscore his very real hopes of a non-consecutive second term.

These are the first kind of polls that we saw in swing states as this trial was ongoing and they seem to basically show the status quo.

TALCOTT: Yeah, and I do want to note like you just -- you never know, right, if Donald Trump is convicted, who knows if things change, we've seen polls which indicate that if he did end up getting convicted, it would change minds.

But as this -- as this piece notes, historically, Donald Trump has been immune to all of these sort of allegations that would have brought down a normal politician.

[05:10:09]

And at the same time, voters do seem far more concerned of kitchen table issues, of the economy, of the cost of gas. So will they be willing to overlook something like this? And sort of hold their nose and vote, or are they so fed up with Joe Biden that people just don't show up for the election?

But it's been really interesting to see these poles and how this trial, which under any normal circumstance would do a presidential candidate, has made no impact.

HUNT: I think maybe we are just living in the new normal right.

All right. Shelby Talcott for us, Shelby, thank you very pretty much.

All right. Just ahead here, President Biden, hiking tariffs on electric cars from China.

Plus, the U.S. says Israeli troop movements suggests the military could launch full-scale incursion into Rafah at any moment.

And heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires threatening air quality in U.S. cities.

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[05:15:31]

HUNT: All right. This just in, President Biden is set to announce new tariffs on some Chinese imports today. He is trying to stop China from undercutting U.S. companies and manufacturing jobs. But the tariffs aimed at electric vehicles, steel and aluminum, semiconductors, battery components, solar cells, some critical minerals, and some medical products and they plan to implement them over the next two years.

This ranges from 100 percent for electric vehicles to 50 percent for solar components, 25 percent for all those other sectors.

CNN's Max Foster joins us now from London.

Max, good morning to you.

This is very -- a very interesting move from the Biden administration, almost echoing the Trump years, quite frankly. But one of the key ones here, this new tariff quadruples the 25 percent tariff on electric vehicles to 100 percent. I mean, we have not seen Chinese EVs become a huge part of the U.S. market at the moment. But I know this is something that has really played out in Europe. I know it's something that Elon Musk, for example, is very focused on.

What do you see going on here?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONANL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously car industries to place like U.S., Germany, hugely important, and they need to be protected? I think if you look across these tariffs, this is really about clean energy, which is ill see a huge growing area of world economy. China is really trying to own it and what the Americans would say is that its because they are undercutting U.S. manufacturers --

HUNT: They're making it cheaper, basically, like they're making the cars so cheaply that it's really hard for the American companies to compete on price, it seems.

FOSTER: Yeah, these -- these are Chinese commercial businesses. They might argue that were setting our own prices, but the argument is the Chinese government is putting pressure on them to undercut U.S. carmakers.

But not just in the U.S. So it's also in the Chinese market where American companies are really struggling to compete when some Chinese electric cars are being sold for $10,000, for example. So this is what they're trying to battle and they're trying to do it in a way that protects U.S. manufacturers. They're not squeezed out of the market as it were.

So it's a big challenge, but it's across all of clean energy effectively. So it's a bold move. And as you say, it does reflect what Donald Trump did it. But then you also have to look at the reaction from China when Donald Trump's slapped a load of tariffs on Chinese imports. So China in returns slap tariffs on $100 billion worth of U.S. exports to China. And the Brookings Institute, so that actually impacted nearly 300,000 American jobs. So it does come up price.

HUNT: No, it does, and it is interesting, you point this out, the -- there's a car called the Seagull that the "AP" says it drives well as put together with craftsmanship that rivals U.S. made electric vehicles, that cost three times as much. And they note that it sells for $12,000 in China. There's a shorter-range version that's under $10,000.

We've seen some price competition on EVs here. Tesla dropped its prices. Chevrolet is trying to make something that's more affordable because -- I mean, honestly, I think one of the biggest barriers here to widespread adoption of these vehicles in the is the price of them. It's just -- it is interesting to me that they are trying to protect these American companies in this way.

Max, do you get the sense that this is something that get European regulators are also going to be looking at. Are we going to see kind of widespread a global push-back against the Chinese in this -- in this market?

FOSTER: Yeah, I mean, it takes the power of America really to lead on this, doesn't it? Because this is an economic relationship. There are countries within Europe who utterly depend on Chinese -- on the Chinese trading relationship there are companies in Germany, for example, that do rely on selling lots of China. So it's a big thing to try to go up against them.

But when you have the power of America leaving the front, then I think its more likely that European countries or would do the same perhaps in concert with the U.S., is the only way you're really going to be or to take on the Chinese who are effectively saying we're going to give up some profits for now in order to dominate the entire global industry. And at that point, we can push prices up.

I think that's probably what economists in America worried about.

HUNT: Yeah, I'm interested to see how Volkswagen, for example, response to this.

Max Foster for us in London -- Max, always grateful to have you on every topic under the sun. We can cover -- we cover it all here. Thank you.

FOSTER: I'm here for you, Kasie.

HUNT: I really appreciate it.

FOSTER: All right.

Just ahead here, more of Donald Trump's allies expected to join him outside the courthouse or at the courthouse for his New York hush money trial.

Plus, Governor Kristi Noem has been banned from entering parts of her own state. What's that about?

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HUNT: All right. Twenty-four minutes past the hour. Here's the morning roundup.

Authorities using explosives to free the cargo ship that the collided with Baltimore's Key Bridge in Baltimore and collapsed it. They are hoping to refloat the ship this week and reopen the shipping channel by the end of the month.

[05:25:06]

At least 14 people were killed and dozens more injured after an enormous billboard fell on them during a thunderstorm in India's financial capital, Mumbai. The billboard collapsed on the homes and a gas station next to a busy road, trapping dozens of victims.

And two more indigenous tribes banning South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem from entering their tribal land. The bans follow remarks from Noem alleging the tribal leaders are, quote, benefiting from cartels, end quote.

One tribal chairman calls Noem's comments baseless, and deeply offensive.

All right. Dozens of wildfires are burning across Canada right now. Take a look, after heavy smoke has drifted south across the border. There are now air quality alerts in at least four states from Montana, and Minnesota.

We're also looking at severe weather in the South. A woman was killed after a tree fell on her mobile home in Louisiana. That's the second death in the area from storms on Monday.

Our meteorologists Elisa Raffa tracking all of it.

Elisa, good morning to you. What are you seeing?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

Another busy night with a plethora of storm reports, at least a dozen tornadoes reporter along the gulf coast, and then even up into Oklahoma and Arkansas. We have a tornado watch in effect along the Florida panhandle, parts of southern Georgia until 9:00 this morning for an additional round of storms, that is packing a punch.

We have severe thunderstorm warning there, where that line of storms could pack a punch with some gusts up to 70 miles per hour, all of this progressing east as we go through the morning.

And what's been an incredibly active severe weather seasons since January 1st, we've had more than 700 reported tornadoes when typically today, it would be over five hundred, so just incredibly busy storm season so far.

Here's the risk for today. You see that yellow slight risks there from Tallahassee down towards Tampa, where we could have damaging winds a couple more tornadoes possible, and some large hail. We all signed the threat for some flooding as well.

We've have found a good four to six inches of rain has really dumb from Baton Rouge rude over towards Panama City. And that could continue as we go through the day today in an area that's already inundated -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Elisa Raffa for us, Elisa, thank you very much.

Coming up next year, five hours of testimony in the books, more on the way today. How much damage is Michael Cohen inflicting on Donald Trump club?

Plus, lawmakers set to release what they call a roadmap for regulating artificial intelligence. We'll bring you that.

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