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Iran: President, Foreign Minister Killed In Helicopter Crash; Today: Michael Cohen Returns To Witness Stand; Xander Schauffele Wins PGA Championship. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 20, 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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[05:31:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Five-thirty a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

We're going to go back now to our breaking news. The Iranian government says there will be no chaos -- their words -- following the death of their president and foreign minister. Both have been confirmed killed in a helicopter crash in the northern part of the country. The country's vice president now the interim president, and he held and extraordinary meeting this morning with the legislative and judiciary branches of government there.

CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem is here with me now. Juliette, good morning to you.

This obviously --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.

HUNT: -- comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region. How do you think this impacts all of the various forces at play here, including what has been an escalating set of tensions between Israel and Iran that, of course, ties in with what's going on here in the U.S.?

KAYYEM: Well, I think Iran's desire to quickly both acknowledge the death of the president and then put in the vice president suggests that they don't want turmoil out of this -- they also lost their foreign minister -- and that's for a couple of reasons. One, of course, is the tensions in Israel and their support of Hamas and then also, Hezbollah. But also their support of the Yemen terrorists -- based terrorist -- the Houthis, who are causing havoc in the Suez Canal.

So, basically, the way to read from the U.S. perspective is their foreign policy is not changing whatsoever. That this will be a consistent trajectory for Iran for the foreseeable future and not to anticipate any changes, any awakenings, any liberalization. It's going to be the status quo.

I think the only variable for me, looking at it from the U.S. perspective, is the cause of the crash. They - the Iranians have been leaning very forward on the weather, which is good. I mean, there's been no state-sponsored conspiracy theories about the cause of the crash. Everyone seems to be acknowledging it was weather -- fog, rain related -- and that is good. If there was any suspicion that there was some nefarious activity, that would be the scenario that would make me very nervous.

HUNT: So speaking of that, we actually heard from the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who importance here is that he is a member of the Gang of Eight, which receives --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- particularly high-level intelligence briefings from the U.S. government.

Here's what Schumer had to say yesterday about whether or not foul play was suspected. He said it was not -- watch.

KAYYEM: Yeah -- yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Now, on Iran, this is on -- as you know, there was a helicopter crash, OK, and this is late news. OK, so I've just spoken to the intelligence authorities. At this point, there is no evidence of foul play. It looks like an accident. It was very bad, foggy weather in northwest Iran where the copter crasher. So it looks like an accident but it's still being fully investigated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, clearly, showing that to just illustrate that --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- what U.S. intelligence is picking up right now is what you indicated.

But to that broader point, I mean, it does seem noteworthy, and it almost ties your two points together -- this idea that they want to show nothing's going to change -- they're stable --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- to acknowledge that it was weather here instead of trying to --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- insinuate something more nefarious.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. That strikes me as good from the Iranian perspective and suggests that they needed to get that storyline out very quickly because it's probably factual. We know this because there were two other helicopters who said that they lost that helicopter. Presumably, there were eyewitness accounts of what happened to the helicopter that had Raisi on it.

And then also -- you know, look, the European Union and other countries were supportive of helping Iran find the helicopter. This was key so that the transition could be announced. But also, look, part of this consistency -- the stability aspect -- is because of their own internal domestic unrest.

[05:35:10]

I have to say Raisi was the president. He's a horrible, horrible human being. Anyone who knows the history of his -- of not just his attacks on sort of popular protests and the -- and the women who were protesting a year ago, but well before that he became famous as a judge who basically executed everyone. Like, his history is horrible. And I think that what the Iranian leadership wants to show to people is that brutality, that clamp-down on Iranian unrest will continue.

So this is as much about their -- what they're saying to the outside world as what they're saying to their own population.

HUNT: Yeah, really remarkable. And I think -- look, the people that we've heard from in the wake of this announcement -- there's a statement from Hamas, a statement from Hezbollah --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- a statement from Russia kind of underscores who in the world --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- is viewing this in this tragic way.

Juliette Kayyem for us. Juliette, very grateful to have your perspective this morning. Thank you very much.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, our other news today.

Michael Cohen back on the witness stand for more cross-examination in Donald Trump's hush money trial. Last week, Trump's lawyers zeroed in on Cohen's conflicting accounts of a key phone call that happened back in 2016. Previously, Cohen had testified he spoke with Trump to "discuss the Stormy Daniels matter."

On Thursday, Trump attorney Todd Blanche revealed text messages from just minutes before that call revealing that Cohen was concerned about a teenager who had been prank calling him.

Trump's lawyer pressed Cohen, saying, "When you testified on Tuesday that you had a specific recollection that you called Keith Schiller and he passed the phone to President Trump, you finalized the deal with Stormy Daniels and you said, 'We're going to move forward.' And he said, 'yes' because you kept him informed all the time. That was your testimony, right?" Cohen said, "That's correct." And Blanche responded, "That was a lie!"

Joining me now, criminal defense attorney Andrew Kerchasky. Andrew, good morning to you.

Here's what CNN's Stephen Collinson, our kind of big-picture painter here, writes about what we're going to see and what we are see today. "Defense lawyers say," he says, "they expect to complete their bruising cross-examination of Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and enforcer, on Monday morning. Prosecutors will then use their second chance to question Cohen to try patch up any doubts the ex-president's team may have sown in the minds of jurors about his version of events."

My question for you is what does the prosecution need to do when they get their chance to try to kind of repair some of this damage?

ANDREW CHERKASKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR (via Skype): Well, I think that Michael Cohen's testimony obviously is very damaging to the prosecution in terms of the cross-examination that took place with all of these pieces that came out.

But what the prosecution needs to do is focus on that which is corroborated. That's what they need to do in their closing argument. They need to piece apart everything that Michael Cohen said that has somebody else who said the same thing. And that way they can show that those things, they'll claim, are not lies or not fabrications. The things that are uncorroborated, I think they have a lot of difficulties with.

HUNT: So, Andrew, one piece of this conversation that we've kind of been consumed with over the weekend is this question about whether or not Donald Trump is going to testify in his own defense. He seems to want to say, yes, he will. The overwhelming consensus from basically every lawyer that has come through this studio in the course of the past weeks of covering this trial has said that would be a terrible idea.

What say you, and what do you think he's going to do?

CHERKASKY: Well, he doesn't need to testify, and I think that the attorneys are advising him have to talk about why. And I think that it's because what he's already had to say is out. So the ideas of his defense that this was because he wanted to protect his image or protect his family -- those are statements that have already come out. That's exactly what I tell my clients when they're debating whether to testify.

Juries want to hear from the defendant. But if the defendant's statements or their version of events is already something that was put forth before them, there's no need to engage in the extra risk of a brutal cross-examination. So, here, where Donald Trump's statement were brought out many different ways by the prosecution themselves, often to help the prosecution, there's also ways in which that would help the defense. So I don't think he needs to testify because he's already been heard by the jury.

HUNT: Where do you think this case stands overall in terms of proving that a felony was committed? Because there does seem to be a pile of information about records and the potential falsification of the records, but I just think it's worth repeating, as we have. But they also have to show that there was a reason for doing that that was also a crime, which in this New York case is defrauding the voters of New York.

[05:40:10]

How well do you think the prosecution has made this case because we do expect Michael Cohen to be their last witness?

CHERKASKY: Well, when we say defrauding the voters of New York, they have to prove some sort of underlying secondary crime took place. Now, Michael Cohen actually, I thought, did a good job of putting forward that he was engaging in additional criminal acts and knew that the president was -- or that the president knew that he was kind of part of Michael Cohen's coverup. The real problem for the prosecution is more on the misdemeanor in my estimation. I think that focus on the idea of the underlying element of whether the business record entry of it being a legal expense, that has to be wrong or fraudulent in its own right.

So there's many different elements both on the underlying misdemeanor, the fraud itself, and -- the escalating fraud itself, as well as the idea that Michael Cohen's escalating fraud or his crime is part of what Donald Trump was bringing into that.

So there's a really big pile of elements that all have to come together. I think the defense is going to pick apart each. The prosecution certainly has their arguments. Judge Merchan is likely to get a motion from the defense to dismiss, saying that there are certain elements for which there was no evidence produced. Now, it's not likely Judge Merchan will grant that, but we have -- that -- all of that is going to start to unravel here in the next few days.

HUNT: All right, Andrew Cherkasky for us on this Monday morning. Andrew, thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate it.

CHERKASKY: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, Iran's president and foreign minister dead in a helicopter crash. How this will impact tensions in the region.

Plus, the NBA champs dethroned. Our Bleacher Report's ahead.

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[05:46:07]

HUNT: Welcome back. We're going to turn back now to our breaking news.

Overnight, Iran confirmed its president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash. Reaction has been coming in from Iran's allies in the region, including Lebanon. They have announced three days of mourning there.

CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton with me now. Cedric, good morning to you. Very grateful to have you here.

What are the ramifications of Raisi's death across a region that has been extraordinarily tense in recent months?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.) (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning, Kasie.

Well, I think those ramifications are going to be many and varied. So the big aspect of this is Raisi was a very aggressive person not only domestically within Iran but also from a foreign policy standpoint. He -- although normally, the president doesn't have as much foreign policy responsibility in Iran, he did take on a lot of that. And he was able to, in essence, along with the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei -- he was able to really manifest Iranian power within the Persian Gulf region and also beyond, including the relationship with Hamas, with the Houthis, and certainly with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

And so, the aspects that we're having to deal with here is, in essence, the what comes next part of it. And it really, I think, stands to reason that based on the way the Iranian government is set up and the ideological bent of all the different players within Iran, it seems as if the Iranians are going to probably going to have a similar kind of approach to foreign policy.

But there's one glimmer of hope, if you will, in that the U.S. and the Iranians have had some discussions through intermediaries in Oman that were confirmed just very recently with the idea of producing tensions in the region.

So, yes, Iran is on the move within certain aspects of the foreign policy tapestry, if you will, in the Middle East. But on the other side of it is they are trying to tamp down some of the excesses of what -- you know, what they've done they have done in the past. So the hope is that will continue but whether or not it does, of course, depends on how the Iranians perceive this accident. Do they see it as an accident or do they see it as something else?

HUNT: Right. Well -- and it does seem as though they -- that is the narrative that they are sticking with right now. And actually, I'm interested, Colonel, in understanding a little bit more of -- about how this could happen. And I know you have retired from the Air Force.

The helicopter that they were flying -- obviously, the weather is very bad -- but what kind of helicopter was it? Why might it have been more prone to crash than helicopters that, say, our military flies? LEIGHTON: Yes. So we actually do fly and have flown in the past a similar helicopter to this in the military. It's very similar in design and it's basically based on the Huey helicopters that were used as far back as Vietnam. This is a Bell 212, which was designed back in the 1960s and it is in operation -- was in operation in both civilian and military uses from the Vietnam era into the present. Now, production of this particular variant stopped in the late '90s.

But the Iranians basically inherited this helicopter from the time of the Shah -- so before the 1979 revolution. And as a result of that, the spare parts that would be necessary to maintain a helicopter like this were probably limited because of sanctions that Iran has been under over quite a -- really, decades. So they weren't able to maintain this particular helicopter. They had -- that's I think the supposition that we have.

[05:50:17]

And a big part of it is that the Iranians really lack the kind of avionics that we have on modern helicopters, both military and civilian. So the ability for their radar systems to discern mountains and other terrain features may have been limited. And given the weather that existed at that particular moment in time when this crash occurred, that could have significantly impacted the ability of the pilot to fly this helicopter.

HUNT: Yeah, really remarkable. A decades old helicopter without enough parts for the president of the country.

Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, always grateful to have you. Thank you very much.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Kasie.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports. Golf's second Major of the year comes down to the last shot on the last hole.

Carolyn Manno has this morning's Bleacher Report. Carolyn, good morning.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Kasie.

Xander Schauffele had long been the highest-ranked player without a Major title to his name, but not anymore after winning the PGA Championship in dramatic style. Like you said, the tournament coming down to the very last hole here when Schauffele needed a birdie to avoid a playoff.

So his tee shot actually landed right on the lip of a fairway bunker, which put him in a really precarious spot. It actually forced him to stand in the sand for a really awkward second shot. But the Olympic gold medalist coming up clutch and knocking the ball just off the green and the fairway. And then from there draining a six-foot putt to secure the milestone win, finishing 21 under for the tournament, the lowest total at a Major Championship in golf history, edging out Bryson DeChambeau by just one shot to claim the Wanamaker Trophy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XANDER SCHAUFFELE, 2024 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER: I've become very patient not knocking off any wins in the last couple of years. The people that are closest to me know how stubborn I can be. So winning is -- winning -- I said it earlier. It is a result -- I mean, this is awesome. It's super sweet. I just kept telling myself I need to earn this -- earn this and be in the moment, and I was able to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Meantime the tops women's golfer doing what she does best. Nelly Korda celebrating for the sixth time in her last seven starts yesterday. The one-stroke victory making her the first LPGA Tour golfer to win six or more times in a season since 2013.

The NBA is going to crown the new champion this year. The Timberwolves pulling off the largest game-seven comeback in quarter century, rallying from a 20-point deficit. Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels scoring 23 points each in a thrilling 98-90 win to lift Minnesota to the franchise's first Western Conference Finals in 20 years.

So, Minnesota will now face Luka Doncic and the Mavericks. That begins on Wednesday.

The Pacers making some history of their own, beating the Knicks in a game-seven here in New York. Indiana setting a playoff record by shooting 67.1 percent from the field in the 130-109 win. And New York, who was already just decimated by injuries, lost their star, Jalen Brunson, in the second half of this game to a broken hand. Tyrese Haliburton leading the way -- 26 points -- for an Indiana team that had all its starters score at least 17.

This was the first day in NBA history that two road teams won a game seven. How about that?

And the Pacers will now face the top-seeded Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. That's starts tomorrow night.

And lastly for you this morning, Kasie, tensions flaring after NASCAR's All-Star Race Saturday night. Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ending the evening in a physical altercation. You can see Stenhouse throwing the first punch. This was on pit road. Both teams trying to separate the pair.

The two drivers made contact with one another early in the race. That ultimately led to Busch pushing Stenhouse into the wall and ending his night.

Joey Logano ended up winning. But things getting very fiery at the end after the race. Just crazy video.

HUNT: Yikes, yikes, not great.

Carolyn, can we talk about the Knicks for a second? MANNO: I know.

HUNT: I've got a lot of disappointed friends. What happened there?

MANNO: A lot of disappointed friends and a lot of people that really shelled out for high-priced tickets to watch this team go. A lot of people are saying they were run into the ground. But, you know, you have to think about what they were able to do with Julius Randle. It's just -- it's remarkable that they made it this far. I think ultimately, they ran out of gas. The Pacers had so much more depth.

But I know, it's a bummer. I live here in Manhattan and I was pulling for them, too. Jalen Brunson had an incredible season. What a player. What a group.

HUNT: He sure did.

All right, Carolyn. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up next here, Michael Cohen back in the hotseat in a matter of hours as lawyers for Donald Trump try to tear him down even more.

Plus, breaking news this morning. The president of Iran killed in a helicopter crash. We'll bring you the latest developments ahead.

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[05:59:20]

HUNT: It's Monday, May 20. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, breaking news out of Iran. President Ebrahim Raisi killed in a helicopter crash. New developments ahead.

Michael Cohen returning to the stand. Lawyers for Donald Trump trying to continue to discredit him.

And attempts to refloat the cargo ship that collided with the Key Bridge in Baltimore are underway right now.

All right, 6:00 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Wonderful to have you with us. It is just before 6:00 a.m. here on the East Coast.

And we're going to start with breaking news out of Iran this morning.