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Soon: Jury Instructions To Begin In Hush Money Trial; Robert De Niro Blasts Trump Outside Courthouse; Growing Outrage Over Deadly Rafah Tent Camp Strike; Nearly 30M People Face Severe Storm Threat In Rockies, Texas. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 29, 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 Wednesday, May 29.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Twelve men and women in a Manhattan courtroom about to begin deliberating whether the 45th president of the United States is a criminal.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The actor Robert De Niro raging against Trump outside the courthouse and tangling with his supporters.

Plus, did Israel cross President Biden's red line in Rafah? The White House announces their decision.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at New York City where those deliberations are set to begin today.

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

Those 12 New Yorkers are about to undertake the task of deciding whether former President Donald Trump is a felon.

In just a few hours, Judge Juan Merchan will deliver jury instructions and then deliberations will begin. So, in theory, we could have a verdict as soon as today.

Yesterday, closing arguments in Trump's hush money trial began with the defense focused on tearing down the credibility of Michael Cohen, calling him the MVP of liars, the human embodiment of reasonable doubt, and the GLOAT, standing for the greatest liar of all time.

Prosecutors pushed back, arguing that there was plenty of corroboration for Cohen's testimony, both from documents and the testimony of others, particularly former tabloid publisher David Pecker, and while the legal drama unfolded inside the courtroom, the political drama played out on the streets of Lower Manhattan. Trump's supporters and critics sparred outside with the actor Robert De Niro playing the role of attack dog against the former president.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HUNT: There you go.

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

Shelby, good morning. Thank you so much for being here.

SHELBY TALCOTT, REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Good morning.

HUNT: The De Niro scene outside pretty remarkable. The -- obviously, the Biden campaign decided they were going to bring him in to do this.

Let's listen to a little bit more of what Nero had to say outside the courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DE NIRO: I love this city. I don't want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and eventually, he could destroy the world. I owe the city a lot and that's why it's so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street, because he doesn't belong in my city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: What's your -- what do you make of, first of all, De Niro said, but second of all, the Biden decision -- a Biden campaign decision to do this after letting this trial kind of unfold while basically trying to wash their hands of it.

TALCOTT: Yeah, this has been really interesting development because for so long the Biden campaign has avoided directly are really indirectly talking about any of the trials. Now, when I talked to Trump campaign officials, they maintained that this had nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump was inside the courthouse, that it was the simple fact that all of the media was gathered in this location, so they decided to come to them.

I do, of course, believed that there it is, right. There is a reason that they were outside of the courtroom, even though the majority of what we heard was actually about January 6 and argument that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But it's notable because it represents a sort of shift in how the Biden campaign is thinking as this trial winds down.

We've also heard that Joe Biden himself might be addressing the trial after wraps from the White House. And so, there is a shift going on and I think that is in part because the Biden campaign has seen that their poll numbers are struggling, that they need to do something different. But it also is the fact that for better or for worse, this trial has taken up a lot of oxygen and all of that oxygen is going to Trump and it's been very difficult for the Biden campaign to really get through.

HUNT: And, Shelby, how -- what's your reporting on how the Trump campaign is looking at how this is unfolded?

[05:05:04]

Because -- I mean, it's my understanding, you know, they've been doing play their own internal polling to see how it's been impacting things. And they do seem to be very cognizant of the media attention.

TALCOTT: Of course, when I talked to Trump campaign officials, they have maintained throughout this entire thing and really throughout all of the legal issues that he's had that all press is good press. Now, whether or not you believe that is one thing, but it is true so that he is on the primetime shows. He is on every podcast, he is being talked about a lot.

And what's interesting is so far this trial hasn't really made waves in the polling. Voters don't seem to have tuned in. Now that could change if he is found guilty. And so, we will see if he is indeed found guilty, if the Trump campaign changes their strategy.

But so far, they viewed this as we're going to say that this is all politically motivated. It worked for us in the primary and it is working for us so far in the general election. So why change when we haven't really seen any major negative effects?

HUNT: So, we saw that the closing arguments wrap up yesterday. Steinglass, the prosecutor, had the last word, with the jury and he said, quote, you have to put aside the distractions, the press, the politics, the noise, focus on the evidence and the logical inference that can be drawn from the evidence. Use your common sense.

What is your sense of where the Trump campaign thinks that this is ultimately going to fall? Because I've seen in that they may think their best-case is a hung jury.

TALCOTT: Yeah. They are preparing for every scenario, right? A few weeks ago, I reported that they were preparing for Donald Trump to pitch potentially be in jail for those gag order violations. There certainly preparing for that very possible reality now, as well, and they're -- they're preparing for it in terms of how do they message that. But they're also preparing for a hung jury and how they message that.

And so I think if you -- depending on who you talk to in Trump's orbit, you'll hear different things. Some people think that the case is so weak that there's no chance that you'll get convicted. Other people are saying honestly, I have no idea. And so, it's really interesting to talk to these folks over the past few weeks and months, because there is such a varying degree as to what's going to happen in the next few days.

HUNT: I mean, look, anybody that tells you they know what the jury think is thinking right now, it doesn't --

TALCOTT: Yeah.

HUNT: It is black smoke, all right.

Shelby, thank you very much for being here this morning.

All right. Ahead here, the White House announcing whether Israel's deadly attack on a refugee camp in Rafah crossed President Biden's red line. Plus, widespread devastation station as flooding and severe storms target Texas again.

And golfer Scottie Scheffler's police assault case heads to court today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:20]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

Israel facing global condemnation for the deadly attack on a camp for displaced families in Rafah that had been designated by Israel as a safe zone. That hasn't stopped the carnage. Just a short distance from where Sunday's strike took place, another camp was hit, killing at least eight people.

New CNN reporting shows the munitions used in Sundays attack were American made, but the White House says this doesn't cross President Biden's red line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How does his is not violate the red line the president laid out?

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: We don't want to see a major ground operation. We haven't seen that at this point.

As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to. It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So we can remind you where the presidents said his red line is. This was him speaking with CNN's Erin Burnett less than a month ago. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem. We're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability respond to attacks like -- came out of Middle East recently, but it's -- it's just wrong. We're not going to -- we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells use that have been used --

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Artillery shells as well?

BIDEN: Yeah. Artillery shells.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now, CNN international anchor Max Foster.

Max, good morning to you.

So it seems like what the White House is saying here is that the red line in question is a full-scale invasion of Rafah. This does not amount to that. What do you see here in terms of basically the credibility of that assessment based on what we're seeing on the ground in Rafah?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're different parts of this. We've got the tanks that have going in to Rafah. So that suggests the ground invasion. But as you say, not a major ground invasion which is what the White House clarified yesterday. President Biden in that clip, you just said it was just going into Rafah, so some clarity, if you like, on the red line there.

And then there's this other red line which is the civilian casualties in Gaza, and particularly this encampment where we had multiple civilian deaths and only two Hamas members as were -- that we're aware off in the Israelis that were killed as a result of that. So, lots of civilian -- civilian casualties as expected in Rafah from a targeted operation. But one where there was clearly some sort of intelligence failure because the Israeli suggesting there was a Hamas weapons depot there, which is what caused the wider fire that took in the civilians.

[05:15:06]

But, of course, it needs an investigation. But as the White House said yesterday as well, very difficult to do during a war.

HUNT: Right. So, Max, what do you see as the next move here? We've obviously seen more European countries recognizing Palestine. There have been developments around the International Criminal Court for handing down these indictments or expected, I should say, to hand down this warrant -- for Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel.

Just in terms of the continued isolation, it seems that Israel is facing not from the United States, but from other Western countries.

FOSTER: Yeah, what we've had big demonstrations in Europe yesterday against what Israel is doing is saying isn't self-defense when so many people are dying but also this growing narrative, which is an issue for all of Israel's allies that they are complicit in war crimes effectively. And that speaks to your point that you made there about are investigation into these U.S. weapons were used in that attack on that tented area. So that's an issue.

I think immediately the implications or what happens Security Council today when there'll be discussing a ceasefire, yet again. And all eyes really on the U.S.

If these were American weapons, surely they have some responsibility here is the argument about those that want them to go for a ceasefire. But whether or not there is a ceasefire, moving been there before, haven't we, you know, the security council hasn't called for a ceasefire, but it does put the spotlight on the U.S. at the U.N., and its role here and exactly where that red line is because it -- you know, it's very difficult to see right now.

HUNT: Right. Well, and it's also -- I mean, the sort of conditions of war that there's the argument that this lit up potentially munitions that were stored near civilians. It's definitely a difficult I set of realities to grapple with.

Max Foster, thanks very much as always. I really appreciate it.

All right. Ahead here, a new challenge in getting aid to Gazans after a U.S. built floating dock broke apart.

Plus, why Donald Trump can say anything he wants to in his classified documents case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:48]

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

A request from special counsel Jack Smith to gag Donald Trump and his classified documents case has been denied. Judge Aileen Cannon scolding prosecutors for not speaking with defense lawyers first before they made the gag order request.

In Gaza, a floating pier built by the U.S. military has been badly damaged by rough seas. The pier is being used to help transport humanitarian supplies into the region. Official say, it could take more than a week to fix it.

Prosecutors in Louisville calling a hearing for this afternoon in golfer Scottie Scheffler's felony assault case. Scheffler was arrested earlier this month for allegedly assaulting a police officer while attempting to drive into the Valhalla Golf Club for the PGA Championship.

Nearly 30 million people facing severe storm threats today, mostly in the Rockies and Texas where another person died Tuesday when a house under construction collapsed on him. Hurricane-force winds, torrential rains also flooded roadways near Dallas.

Our meteorologist Elisa Raffa tracking all of it for us.

Elisa, good morning. What are you seeing?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

It's been a busy stretch of a couple of days overnight. We had hail in parts of Colorado near Denver, that there's still much of it that fell. It looks like snow. This is not snow lining the streets but a bunch of hail pallets.

You can see flooding, rains as well in some of the streets of Colorado. And again, all of that piled up to the side. That is all hail. Just incredible to see such intense storms.

Yesterday in Texas, we had wins upwards of 80 to 95 miles per hour. The Colony, Texas, 95 mile per hour wind gust, straight-line winds blew through the city. That's still has nearly 500,000 customers. I have 1 million people without power this morning as power crews work to restore power. Here's a look at a couple of those storms this morning that are sitting in parts of Texas.

There's some severe, meaning we're just finding some heavy rain at times in some lightning not really finding the wind gust this morning, but we could continue to find maybe some damaging winds and large hail and an isolated case, not nearly as bad as yesterday, over parts of Texas from Shreveport, back down into Houston. We'll find that level two out of five flight, slight rest for rapid city, back down towards Denver in the high plains.

As we go through the day today, again, a couple plus dorms possible, but not as destructive as yesterday, going into tomorrow, we could find additional storms blowing over the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle. And then that can organize into some damaging winds as we wake up Thursday morning as this the multi-day severe threat continues tomorrow from a Texas into Oklahoma, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Elisa Raffa for us -- Elisa, thanks very much.

All right. Ahead here, 12 jurors about to begin deliberating whether the 45th president of the United States committed a crime.

Plus, two Capitol police officers and an Oscar winning actor speaking for the White House outside the court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: They stood there and fought for us, for you. For you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, 5:28 a.m. here on the East Coast, 2:28 out West. Live look at New York City. It's the summer because the sun is up there. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you

with us.

Jury instructions get underway in just a few hours in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial. And after that, deliberations will begin.

That means in the coming days, well find out if the former president will be a convicted felon ahead of Election Day. Closing arguments began with the defense going after Michael Cohen, one of the prosecution's star witnesses, really the star witness.

Attorney Todd Blanche telling the jury, quote, his words cannot be trusted. He came in here, he raised his right hand and he lied to each of you repeatedly.

[05:30:00]