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Closing Arguments to Be Delivered in Hush Money Trial; Trump Posts Angry Memorial Day Post; Severe Storm Threat for Southern Plains. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 28, 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 Tuesday, May 28. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, closing arguments set to begin in Donald Trump's hush money trial. Defense lawyers preparing to try to tear down the credibility of the prosecution's star witness.

[06:00:42]

Displaced Gazans burned alive by an Israeli attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the killings a, quote, "tragic error."

And deadly storms spawning tornadoes. At least 23 people killed in five states during a dangerous and destructive holiday weekend.

And North Korea's attempt to launch another spy satellite into orbit, ending shortly after lift-off in a fiery explosion.

Plus, a Trump-Oprah ticket? If you turn back the clock, apparently, it wasn't that far-fetched.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, FORMER HOST, CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE": You have a vice- presidential candidate in mind? You --

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oprah. I love Oprah. Oprah would always be my first choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington there's a live look at New York City on this pretty historic day, in that town, honestly.

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

Twelve jurors soon to decide whether a former U.S. president is a criminal. Closing arguments are set to begin this morning in Donald Trump's hush money trial. The jury could get the case by tomorrow after hearing instructions from the judge.

CNN has learned that Trump's lawyers intend to focus once again on the credibility of Michael Cohen, who is the only witness whose testimony directly links the former president to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, and of course, to the alleged cover- up.

Trump, as we've come to expect, trying to insist the whole proceeding is unfair, posting this, quote, "WHY IS THE CORPORATE [SIC] GOVERNMENT ALLOWED TO MAKE THE FINAL ARGUMENT IN THE CASE AGAINST ME? WHY CAN'T THE DEFENSE GO LAST. BIG ADVANTAGE, VERY UNFAIR, WITCH HUNT! DJT."

One of Trump's lawyers from his civil case attacking the judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALINA HABBA, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: I have zero confidence in the fact that this person, who should not be sitting on the bench right now, will do the right thing and give jury instructions that are in an appropriate manner without any persuasion towards the prosecution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Panel's here, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams; David Frum, staff writer for "The Atlantic"; former RNC communications director Doug Heye; and former White House coms director Kate Bedingfield. Welcome all. Thank you so much for being here.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

HUNT: Elliot, can we just start with a technical thing, because it's what he's complaining about, which is that the defense gets to go first or has to go first here. What's up with that?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He's just misinformed. It's a common practice for the prosecution to go, defense to follow them, the prosecution to come back with a rebuttal. I think he wants a fight --

HUNT: Right. But he's saying the defense is going to go first and then the prosecution.

WILLIAMS: So that -- in New York cases, that's often how they do it.

HUNT: All right.

WILLIAMS: Either way, the prosecution would typically get the last word, whether in the form of a rebuttal or --

HUNT: Oh, I see what you're saying. OK.

WILLIAMS: -- simply going after the defense, because it's their burden and they are ultimately responding to the arguments that the defense brings. Typically, the prosecution will go -- will go last.

But it's another half-truth by the former president about the legal system that plants chum in the water for his supporters, and people get whipped up, believing that the system is stacked against him.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, and David Frum, isn't that really what we're talking about, big picture here? We're going to, probably this week, find out if there's going to be a conviction in this case.

And the question we've been asking the entire time is, will it matter? And if he's acquitted or if there's a hung jury, does that potentially matter even more because of the lack of faith that he is trying to engender in the system?

DAVID FRUM, SENIOR WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": His lawyers look like they're doing a normal kind of defense, trying to cast doubt on the key witness. You can't trust this person. You worked for Donald Trump. Would you trust somebody who worked for Donald Trump? Obviously, if you -- if you work with Donald Trump, you're a liar and a crook. Why would anyone trust someone who worked for Donald Trump? That's going to be the -- the defense sum-up.

But Donald Trump himself is on the next move, which is getting ready to be convicted, getting ready to be -- it's a first. We've had the first African-American president.

HUNT: I don't know if Donald wants to be in this --

FRUM: We have a first -- we've had the first female vice president. At last the criminal American community will at last have a representative in high office.

WILLIAMS: It's a great day for diversity.

FRUM: It's a great day -- it's a great day for the criminal American community.

And so he's getting ready to teach his supporters that being a criminal should be no bar to being president.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, Doug Heye, as our resident Republican at the table. I mean, David, I should -- I -- you know. You -- you count, too.

[06:05:06]

FRUM: I'm a registered Republican. I voted in the D.C. primary.

HUNT: But Doug, I mean, does this -- I mean, this is but the latest institution that Donald Trump is tearing down -- right, the court system -- For his own kind of political gain. And it does seem as though -- it doesn't seem to me, I guess, that this is going to fundamentally change the dynamics of the election either way. Maybe a conviction does.

But it does seem like people, if anything, this trial and that -- the contents of this trial are things that pushed people into their respective camps further.

What is your view of that question?

HEYE: Not everybody is in those camps, and there's a subset of voters out there. They're the undecided voters. They don't like Donald Trump, and they don't like Joe Biden. A conviction may matter to those voters. Maybe not all of them, but 20 percent or 40 percent. Pretty soon you start talking real numbers. Because if you're showing

polling about Robert F. Kennedy or Cornell West or whomever, you're talking about a pocket of voters in Dearborn, Michigan, or a pocket of voters in Tempe, Arizona, or Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Those voters matter, if there's a conviction.

If not, Donald Trump's going to go on his grand acquittal/exoneration tour. And we know what that show's going to look like.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, we -- and have seen polling I mean, voters have repeatedly been asked, if he is convicted, would that influence your vote? And we've seen even a fairly significant share of Republicans throughout the Republican primary process said a conviction would matter to them.

Now, I tend to believe, for the most part, this trial, one way or the other is not going to be determinative in the election. You know, and I think you've seen the Biden campaign keep a sort of hands-off approach, which I think, you know, if there is a hung jury, will benefit them, right? Because they have not gone all in on the idea that, you know, Trump's criminality in this case is somehow central, you know, to Joe Biden's being reelected.

And so I think they've kind of bought themselves some space here. If there is a hung jury and Trump will -- which we know Trump will certainly, you know, parade out and say, I was wronged. And see, you know, this -- I've been exonerated.

And you know, so I think the Biden campaign has -- has been smart in kind of buying themselves some space here. But you know, it's going to be interesting. No question.

HUNT: Well, there were some questions raised about what Biden will do -- the Biden team will do in the wake of a verdict.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

HUNT: And what should they do? What do you think they will -- like, how do you think they're going to approach it at that point?

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. So look, I think they -- this trial is part of the broader picture that they're painting about Trump. Like this is not, you know, whether he is found guilty or not in this particular case. The ins and outs of this particular case don't have an impact on people's day-to-day lives, right?

But it's part of a broader picture of Trump as somebody who only cares about himself, who -- who himself has gone out and said that this campaign is about getting retribution for this kind of thing and for being wronged.

And so I think, you know, they -- I don't think that they should adjust their strategy and start zeroing in on Trump's criminality. I think to most people, which is also sort of a crazy thing to say, right? Like the former president's, you know, criminal trial doesn't feel relevant. But to most people the truth is, politically, it doesn't. And so I think they need to stay focused on their case about the economy, democracy, chaos, and not allow the outcome here to change their strategy.

FRUM: Well, the Biden camp, it's a very big and very baggy coalition. And the president's problem is he has to corral two separate groups of voters.

He has to bring back some the least committed voters, some of the least well-informed. He has big trouble with people who get the overwhelming preponderance of their news from social media, who never read any news at all --

HUNT: yes.

FRUM: -- who just know what's on TikTok. And he has to -- and they respond to a very bread-and-butter message.

At the same time, he's dealing with the people, like me, who voted -- who voted for Republicans in primaries, but who don't -- find Donald Trump, unacceptable, who are highly committed voters, and who don't like most of his agenda but look at him as -- as the firefighter in charge of putting out this particular fire before we can go back to our normal voting patterns.

HEYE: And politically there's one -- there's one group of people who really matter and are looking forward to this verdict. They're called fundraisers. Whether you're Republican or Democrat, you're going to raise a lot of money this week.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, and to your point, David, I mean, the voters who are following this closely are also following it closely and don't need Joe Biden to be driving the message --

HEYE: Right.

BEDINGFIELD: -- to -- you know, to absorb what's happening here. So fair enough.

All right. Ahead here, the White House assessing whether Israel crossed a red line in Rafah.

Plus, new fallout from Justice Samuel Alito's upside-down flag controversy.

And a million-dollar yacht sinks off of the Florida coast. That is one of five things you've got to see this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:14:09] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gratitude to our fallen heroes; gratitude to the families left behind; and gratitude to the brave souls who continue to uphold the flame of liberty all across our country and around the world.

We will never, ever, ever stop working for to make a more perfect union, which they lived and wish they died for.

God bless the fallen. May God bless their families, and may God protect our troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden spending his Memorial Day as most U.S. presidents do: honoring our fallen service members at Arlington National Cemetery.

His predecessor went in a different direction yesterday, Donald Trump posting this on Truth Social: "Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country."

He then goes on to trash the New York judge that presided over a pair of civil defamation cases involving the writer E. Jean Carroll.

And David Frum, I mean, look, this is not the first time that Donald Trump has done something like this. If you want to flash all the way back to 2017, he visited Arlington National Cemetery with John Kelly, who was then his chief of staff. And of course, Kelly's son was -- is a fallen Marine officer.

And reportedly, Trump turned to Kelly and said, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

FRUM: Once upon a time in this country, there were three TV channels, and they competed for their third -- one-third plus the audience. And they all were bland and inoffensive and tried not to upset anybody.

And then came cable, and you create all these little channels that said, we can upset a lot of people if we can get just a few.

So I think the thing to understand about -- Joe Biden is doing what the big channels used to do. He's speaking to all Americans in ways that offend nobody. And Donald Trump has this -- his tick has always been, I'm going after the people who don't like the rules. I'm going after those who, you know, don't like the ceremonies, don't care, don't think it speaks to them. And who just are looking for this channel for aggression. And that's what he was doing.

I mean, he woke up on that morning feeling full of rage and bile, and he expressed it. And there are rate -- rage-filled bilious people in this country to whom that speaks. We hope not enough, and we hope most people are inspired by the message of honor and duty and sacrifice. And those broad American things that this current president, like every president but one, has all -- has always spoken to.

WILLIAMS: So, and it presents the question, are we past the point in America, in the American experiment where America actually wants that -- the Walter Cronkite evening news, right? Let's take this out of the news discussion, generally. That sort of

vitriol seems to fly with people right now. And it's not just in terms of their news consumption. Social media is another place where people -- sort of anger sells.

And I just wonder, you know -- to your point, David, I do just wonder if -- why something is resonating in the anger that Trump is pushing.

BEDINGFIELD: I do think, though, that there's -- so I would normally agree with you, and I certainly think that he is trying to -- he's channeling anger in a way that is connecting with people. And there's a lot that we need to understand about that.

I do think, though, when you are -- on a day when you're celebrating fallen soldiers, who most people in this country have a family tie to, or a friend, and he takes it and makes it about him. He's like -- you know, he's like the guy in your -- in your friend group who turns everything to him. And it's obnoxious, and it gets old.

And so I think there's an element of tapping into anger that is -- certainly, he -- it resonates with people. But on a day that, when even people who are as bought into the Trump dogma as possible would say is about honoring people who have sacrificed for this country that we all love. Taking it and making it about him and his personal grievances, I just -- I believe -- maybe I'm like Frum. And maybe I'm an old soul like Walter Cronkite.

WILLIAMS: I'll say this --

BEDINGFIELD: But I just don't believe that that's what people want in their leadership.

HUNT: Count me as an old soul.

BEDINGFIELD: I just don't believe it. I don't believe that.

WILLIAMS: When you woke up yesterday morning, though, when you said what is Donald Trump going to tweet today, you probably could have predicted that that's exactly the message that was going to come out. It's sort of why are we, in any way, shocked at this?

BEDINGFIELD: Because that's who he is. And the more people see this, this is -- this is the Biden campaign's entire theory of the case, right?

The more people see this over the next five months, the more they're going to say, I don't want this guy who only talks about himself back in my life.

FRUM: If and when this is all over, I think the epitaph will be that line I've quoted before on the show from the novel, "The Long Goodbye": "You talk too damn much, and too damn much of it is about you."

HUNT: Yes. All right. That's a good note to end on.

Still to come here, residents of Texas and Oklahoma bracing for dangerous storms again today.

Plus terrifying moments as a Cessna crash lands on the tarmac. It's one of five things we think you have to see this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:15]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

Forty-seven million people in the Southern Plains under severe storm threats, the brunt of it expected in Texas and Oklahoma again. Violent storms and tornadoes ripped across multiple states this weekend, killing 23.

In Texas, seven people died. The town of Valley View especially hard hit. Another eight people were killed in Arkansas, the worst damage in the Northwest part of the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tried to make it to the hallway. That's the most central part of our house, and that's when we realized we didn't have a roof.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar tracking the latest system for us. Allison, what are you seeing?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Kasie.

So it's an entirely new system, but it's really going to impact a lot of the same places that were hit just over the holiday weekend. And we're talking king about most of the Southern Plains.

You can see right here, this is going to be the target point for the day today. We've already got severe thunderstorm watches in effect, basically just South of Oklahoma City. And then that goes through Dallas. That's -- we've had some additional counties added in just the last hour, because this is where the most active storms are.

You can see a tremendous amount of lightning that is headed into Dallas. We could potentially get some power outages from some of these storms. We've got some very strong lines of thunderstorms.

You can see several severe thunderstorm warnings in effect, as well. Those very, very gusty winds also could lead to some power outages.

Now as we go through the rest of the day, more of that line is going to fill in, especially after lunchtime. That's going to continue into the evening hours. You can see then it really starts to form a little bit of a line there, once we get to around sunset tonight. So that secondary round coming back into Dallas, eventually into Houston during the overnight and into the very early morning hours. So overall, the biggest concern is going to be hail and damaging

winds. But we can't rule out the potential for a tornado again, as well, today.

HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us. Allison, thank you very much.

[06:25:00]

All right, 24 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.

A storm chaser capturing this impressive footage of a massive funnel cloud churning and gaining momentum in Southern Missouri on Sunday. It turned into a tornado right in front of his camera.

They say any landing you walk away from is a good landing. That was the case when a plane was forced to crash-land in Sydney, Australia, after losing power. The two passengers escaped uninjured.

A rocket carrying a suspected North Korean spy satellite exploding just after launch. This is the second time in six months North Korea has failed to successfully get the satellite into orbit.

An 80-foot yacht sinking after hitting an object in Florida. Two people were rescued following the incident. Yikes. It's still not clear what exactly the yacht struck.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little bit daunting. I just knew that I had to relax and go with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. Dairy lovers in Gloucestershire, England, chasing wheels of cheddar cheese down treacherous terrain yesterday in the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll.

This event has been going on since at least 1826, raising so many questions about our collective wisdom as a species. Still kind of amazing.

All right, coming up next here, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling Sunday's deadly Rafah airstrike a tragic error. Did it cross President Biden's red line?

Plus, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel thanking doctors and his family after his son undergoes successful heart surgery.

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