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De Niro Slams Trump; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed about the China Threat; Trump Leans into Outlaw Image. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 29, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:55]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DE NIRO, AMERICAN ACTOR: When Trump ran into 2016, it was like a joke. This buffoon running for president. No, never could happen. We've forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren't taken seriously.

And I don't mean to scare you. No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it. That's over. That's done.

If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: The Biden campaign bringing in actor Robert de Niro for a press conference outside of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial yesterday. He slammed the former president as a loser and a clown bent on destroying American democracy.

But he didn't just say those things at the microphones that the Biden campaign presumably was expecting. He also clashed with Trump supporters outside the courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DE NIRO, AMERICAN ACTOR: They're traitors? You got - I don't know. I don't even know how to deal with you, my friend. I don't even know how to deal with you.

Take that stupid (INAUDIBLE) hat off. You're a bunch of clowns. When you see this guy get elected, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. The panel's back.

We're joined by Isaac Dovere, who covers President Biden for us in great depth.

Isaac, this was a very interesting decision on a number of levels. What went into it? And what has the reaction been in the White House considering the scenes that came out of New York yesterday?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The big issue that Joe Biden has had for his entire presidency, and certainly for this campaign, is how to break through. And here we are talking about what Robert de Niro said about Donald Trump in front of the courthouse yesterday.

HUNT: Yes, although in fairness, we're not really talking about what he said at the microphones. We're more talking about -

DOVERE: Yes, but - but what I -

HUNT: Words we can't even play on television.

DOVERE: I think that what - what is going on here is that it's not just about getting through to undecided voters. There's also an enthusiasm problem where the Biden campaign knows that they have with their voters. And for whatever else might have been said about what de Niro said yesterday, he did channel a lot of that energy that like Biden friendly or Democratic tweeters or those people want, right?

HUNT: Democratic tweeters.

DOVERE: Like, that's it. What he's saying at the microphones is what they are all, you know, mashing into their keyboards. And there is something about having that said in such a public, forceful way by obviously an identifiable guy, obviously someone who is known to many Americans as a tough guy, even though he played a tough guy many times.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: OK. So, Democratic, you know, lefty Twitter is on fire, probably, over that. But what about swing voters in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania that the Biden campaign particularly - like who - who do they need and how does that work for them? And I'm curious about that.

DOVERE: They need a lot of people.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

DOVERE: They need their -

WILLIAMS: Fair.

DOVERE: Their voters, right? And then you - you have -

WILLIAMS: OK.

[06:35:03]

DOVERE: And then if you look at the polls, they need -

WILLIAMS: The answer is yes. DOVERE: They need more people than they have currently -

WILLIAMS: Right.

DOVERE: If he is going to win a second term. And - so I - but I do think it's both those things going on, right? More people are aware that something happened yesterday in New York than would have been if de Niro hadn't been there.

To Matt's point earlier in the show, if Quentin Fulks, the Biden deputy campaign manager, had done the press conference, or Michael Tyler, who is the communications director, who introduced Robert de Niro, we would not be doing a segment on Michael Tyler's comments on the microphones with de Niro.

WILLIAMS: If it - even if - even if it wasn't f-you, f-you? It's ((INAUDIBLE) -

DOVERE: I mean, I think -

WILLIAMS: That would be - that's a pretty - a way for a campaign manager to go viral. But, point taken.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He went - he went full "Goodfellas" in a way.

WILLIAMS: (INAUDIBLE). Nice.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But to Isaac's pointed, it's not - it's not even necessarily the swing voters. That's not sort of the intention behind bringing in de Niro.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: It's sort of the concern around the voters that may actually - that may not want to vote for Trump, but are between Biden and staying home, right? When you have somebody going out like this, sort of the thinking by the campaign is, if we can have somebody that speaks to sort of the passion that we want people to be feeling now, can we build that enthusiasm and will that be the thing that moves people to sort of, you know, actually go vote?

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: It kind of extended the point I made before. Celebrity, bringing them into political campaigns, is such a double-edged sword. I was sitting in Romney headquarters when Clint Eastwood was talking to the empty chair.

HUNT: Oh, I remember that.

GORMAN: Right, you remember that?

HUNT: I was at the convention, yes.

GORMAN: Yes. Right before Mitt Romney went on. And if you - and you remember, nobody really want to tell Clint what to say. It was like, whoa, what -

HUNT: But yet they were like afraid of him.

GORMAN: They were afraid of him, right? It - look, celebrities don't have the same incentive structure that politicians or surrogates do, right? They are playing a completely different ballgame. And if your objectives line up, God bless you, go to town. But always - not always does it happen.

HUNT: Yes.

So, Jason Miller, of course, was out there. He's the Trump campaign spokesman. They rebutted this de Niro situation in basically real time. Here's what he said. Here's the argument he made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: So, the Biden folks have finally done it. After months of saying that politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump.

And the best that Biden can do is roll out a washed up actor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, I mean, Isaac, it did kind of give the Trump team an opening on this. Do they - did they calculate that was a risk that they were willing to take?

DOVERE: Because now they're going to claim that politics was part of this trial whereas they didn't the day before yesterday? I mean it - it - this is part of the - the back-and-forth, blah, blah, that happens on a lot of these things in a campaign.

And, of course, this - what matters in this trial right now is what the jury is about to do. And we'll see what that is, what that verdict is, and then how it's received by the American public.

But at one point -

HUNT: Yes, I mean, do they think the verdict is going to change anything?

DOVERE: Well, we'll see. Look, I think that one of the problems that you hear from a lot of concerned Democrats right now is that there have been many moments so far where we have been told either - the reporters told privately by campaign officials, or they've sort of said it publicly, that this is the turning point for the campaign. This is when the dynamics are about to shift. This is when people are going to focus in and plug in and that's going to benefit Joe Biden.

HUNT: OK.

DOVERE: And so far every time has come and gone.

HUNT: Right.

DOVERE: And this may be a different moment. But, if so, it will be the change from all these other moments that we've had so far that were supposed to be.

HUNT: Well, and "Politico" put out - let's put the "Politico" headline up on the screen. This from - from yesterday about Democrats freaking out basically. There it is, "Dems in full-blown freakout over Biden."

Now this is, in some ways, a perennial situation with Democrats.

DOVERE: Yes.

HUNT: Elliot, you used to work for them. You understand the - as well as Isaac. I mean this is - we joke about it here, but this is how they put it. They say, quote, "you don't want to be that guy who's on the record saying we're doomed or the campaign's bad or Biden's making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy, said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely. But Biden stubbornly poor polling in the stakes of the election are creating the freakout. This isn't, oh God, Mitt Romney might become president. It's, Oh, my God, democracy might end."

And I have - I mean I have to say that I feel that from sources that they are freaking out about the state of the campaign. Is this just another cycle of that or -

DOVERE: I mean Democrats in full-blown freakout over fill in the blank every day of the week, every week of the year, always.

But, yes, the stakes of this election are high. We have this weird confluence of people feeling like they don't want to talk about the election and are tuned out from it and that we will be living in a different country if Joe Biden is president or if Donald Trump is president. There are two different countries. There are two different futures for America.

[06:40:01]

You can choose which one you want, but it is a really important election. And it's one that people feel like you can't lose. I - multiple people that I've talked to, voters on the - have said to me, I just wish we could have an election where it didn't feel like everything was on the line. We've had that in 2016, in 2020, now again in 2024. But I would say each time it's - there's been a truth to it.

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE). Last thought.

KANNO-YOUNGS: You were saying that this might be the moment that the Biden campaign sees sort of a shift. I feel like we've been hearing, over the past year, time and time again, this is going to be the moment where the contrast is clear.

DOVERE: Totally.

KANNO-YOUNGS: This is going to be the moment when the contrast is clear. That's kind of part of the big concern among Democrats here.

HUNT: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: You have one candidate in a trial, another candidate focused on governing, and so far that contrasts still hasn't become clear, at least when it comes to polling for voters.

DOVERE: Or it's become clear and voters don't care.

HUNT: Right. Yes. Also possible.

All right, ahead here, what Nikki Haley wrote on an artillery shell during her visit to Israel.

Plus, Democratic Senator Chris Coons joins us live from Taiwan, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:31]

HUNT: All right, 44 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales declaring victory over his primary opponent in Texas. CNN reporting he is leading with 97 percent of the votes counted.

Two former FBI officials reaching a tentative settlement with the Justice Department after alleging their privacy was violated. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had their text messages released, providing political fodder for Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.

Nikki Haley signing artillery shells with the words "finish them" on her visit to Israel, on the same day an Israeli airstrike killed 45 Palestinians in Rafah. The photos posted to social media by Israel's former ambassador to the U.N.

Major League Baseball integrating Nego League statistics into its records book - its record books, excuse me. That means Josh Gibson replaces Ty Cobb as the game's all-time leading hitter, and Babe Ruth as the best slugger ever.

Elliot, it's cool to see these guys finally getting their due.

WILLIAMS: It really is. And, you know, my hot take as a Yankee fan, well, it's going to be critical - it's going to be critical - pit's going to be critical, it's that we revere folks like Babe Ruth, who never played against black players. And there's something to be said for just having a more, let's say, holistic look at success in baseball and just look at Josh Gibson. He also, more interestingly, he replaces Barry Bonds for slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging, which is sort of MLK's dream, the idea that one black man can replace another who has fallen in disgrace, right?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes. Yes. WILLIAMS: Like, you know, we've finally - finally arrived when a man can implode as a black person in a steroids scandal and be replaced by other black hero.

KANNO-YOUNGS: My less hot take as a Red Sox fan -

WILLIAMS: Oh, God.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Look, we celebrate Jackie Robinson in every baseball stadium in America, right?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But we don't recognize his season for the Kansas City Monarchs. You know, in a way this is about continuing to remember history and celebrate history even for one of our sports leagues here.

HUNT: Yes, now we will.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HUNT: All right, right now Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware is in Taiwan, part of a by partisan congressional trip to Asia. Coons has long challenged China's economic policies and its position on human rights, stressing the need for a sustained American strategy for dealing with China.

Joining me now live from Taipei is Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also Co-Chair of President Biden's reelection campaign.

Senator, I'm very grateful to have you. Thanks for being here.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Good morning, Kasie. Great to be on with you.

HUNT: So, Senator, we saw China encircle Taiwan in military drills in the last week or so. It was a set of images that were a bit stunning, quite honestly. What did you make of the decision to do -- their decision to do that? And what message do you want to send to China with the trip that you're on?

COONS: Well, I'm part of a bipartisan and bicameral delegation that's here in Taipei. There's a House delegation and a Senate delegation. And I think all of us are here to deliver a message of support for Taiwan. They just had a free and fair election. We met with the new president, President Lai, who's just been inaugurated, as well as his new defense minister, foreign minister.

And the message that we sent in Congress by appropriating several billion dollars of support for our partners and our allies in the Indo-Pacific is reinforced by having a group of senators and a group of House members come here to Taiwan and meet with their new elected leadership.

The PRC sent ships and planes all around the island, as you just said, Kasie, in a show of force to intimidate the people of Taiwan. And we're trying to counterbalance that with a show of support.

HUNT: So, sir, how -- how high do you believe the risk of escalation in Taiwan is right at this moment? How close are we to a potentially hot conflict there?

COONS: Well, the risk is high if we don't deliver.

SIRI: How high do you believe the risk of escalation?

HUNT: My apologies, sir. That was Siri interrupting us.

COONS: Always listening, always on, your friend Siri.

HUNT: Go ahead.

COONS: Sorry. I think the risk of escalation is high if we don't provide effective deterrence, if we don't help show that there is a better path forward for the PRC in this region.

[06:50:05]

And as we discussed today in every one of our meetings, the leaders here in Taiwan and the leaders in the PRC, principally Xi Jinping, are watching Russia's aggression against Ukraine and what the consequences are.

If Russia succeeds in overrunning Ukraine and in crushing their resistance to Russian aggression, I think, and everyone we met with today here thinks, that that will teach Xi Jinping that he can successfully overrun Taiwan by force. So I think that was always in the backdrop as we were debating the important supplemental appropriations bill that the Congress just passed and President Biden just signed into law.

If we show determination, if we show that other countries in this region that are democracies are also determined to support Ukraine and support Taiwan, I think we have a solid chance of deflecting the possibility of open aggression by the PRC.

HUNT: On another foreign policy issue, the White House yesterday said that they do not believe that Israel has crossed the president's red line in Rafah, even as, you know, we've reported that American munitions have been linked to some of those tragic strikes that killed Gazans in a refugee camp that was supposed to be a safe zone outside Gaza. Do you think that the red line has been crossed?

COONS: Well, I think that's a determination President Biden must make, and apparently according to spokespeople has made, that this most recent incident did not cross the generally shared view that a large- scale invasion of Rafah without allowing for civilians to relocate is an unacceptable use of American weaponry against a legitimate target, Hamas and Hamas fighters.

If I understand correctly, and I've been on travel, Kasie, but Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly said that this was a tragic mistake and was launching an investigation of the targeting. There were legitimate targets to Hamas senior operatives, but there were too many civilian deaths in this incident as I understand it from the reporting that I've seen.

Kasie, it just reminds all of us that there are both ongoing legitimate targets for Israel in Gaza, the Hamas fighters who are still holding dozens and dozens of hostages and continuing to launch rockets at Israel, and over a million innocent civilians in the way that Israel has an obligation to allow to move and to provide humanitarian assistance. My concern here principally, Kasie, is that there just aren't enough routes for humanitarian assistance to get in. There's too much suffering and there needs to be a change in direction here if Israel is ultimately going to be successful.

HUNT: Senator, let me ask you to put your campaign co-chairman hat on for just a second. We saw the Biden campaign in the form of Robert De Niro show up outside the courthouse yesterday in Lower Manhattan, which resulted in a number of profanities, a confrontation between De Niro and some Trump supporters.

My question for you is, do you think that it's smart for the Biden campaign to be outside the courthouse talking politics? The Trump campaign criticism is that shows that the trial is political. On the flip side, I'm curious, do you think that the Biden campaign should be even more aggressive than that they've been considering the state of the polls?

COONS: Well, I haven't thought about this much, Kasie, but I'll say this. For the last three weeks, literally 24/7, it's been the only thing that's been covered on this network. So I appreciate the chance to talk about Taiwan. I appreciate the chance to talk about other foreign policy concerns, the war in Gaza. But I suspect that Robert De Niro, who's a New Yorker, went to the trial in part because there's so much press there. If you look at the image you've got up on the TV right now, there are more microphones there than there are in the entire island nation of Taiwan. So I suspect he's there because you're there.

HUNT: Well, I appreciate you coming on to talk about any number of topics. And I hope you -- you do see that we are -- we have a broader lens here in the morning. I am very grateful to you and your colleague for taking the time to talk -- out of your trip to talk to us about this.

Senator Coons, thank you very much.

COONS: Thanks, Kasie. Great to be on with you.

HUNT: Thank you.

All right, let's turn now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing - one thing I want to say. One thing I want to say, they're always going to whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures. Trump is going to shout the wins for all of us. Make America great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:02]

HUNT: All right, as he prepares for a verdict to come down in his hush money trial, Donald Trump is increasingly aligning himself, "The New York Times" writes, with convicted criminals and those also facing criminal charges.

In just the past week, Trump has rallied alongside Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, two rappers accused of conspiracy to commit murder. Trump has also pledged to commute the sentence of internet drug dealer Ross Ulbricht and appeared backstage with the rapper Afroman, who has admitted to punching a woman. And as he leans into what "The New York Times" calls his outlaw image, he is, of course, also hawking his own mug shot merch. This despite branding himself repeatedly in the past as the law and order candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Protect them from being destroyed by the radical-left for taking strong actions on crime. We're going to protect our police.

Crime is rampant all over the place.

We have to go back to being a country of law and order.

We are going to be very tough on crime.

We have to bring in the death penalty if we want to stop the infestation of drugs coming into our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I will say, Matt Gorman, it is a bit of a contradictory set of messages.

GORMAN: You know, it's one of those things where I think, at least with a mug shot, it's your - you have a weakness. It's out there. Turn it into a strength.

And I think what you saw there, at least, was a couple of kind of constituencies coming into play and how they're kind of try at least to be brought into the Trump tent. You saw Ross Ulbricht, Afroman. I can't believe I just said Afroman on a natural program.

HUNT: I mean -

GORMAN: It's - I know.

WILLIAMS: Well, now you need a reference to, because I got high right now (ph). GORMAN: It's - I'll - yes.

WILLIAMS: I was going to vote for Trump, but then I got high maybe. I don't know.

GORMAN: I mean isn't - isn't (INAUDIBLE). Afroman got some libertarian votes, but he's trying to get some of the libertarian vote.

WILLIAMS: There you go.

GORMAN: You have also - I mean the south Bronx rally was, I think, a large part about, I think, a broader (INAUDIBLE) to minority voters that they're going to really compete for them.

So, in a way, these kind of moves over the last week is a coagulation of the Trump campaign trying to get a lot of people into the tent from different areas that might haven't been talked to yet.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes, but it - it is an apparent contradiction here. I mean I remember, you know, after the protests and rioting in Portland in 2020, and immediately the message from the Trump campaign was about law and order and sort of portraying Biden as sort of a leader that would oversee disorder and chaos.

HUNT: It does seem to depend on which side you're on.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right. Right. But at the same time, I mean, on the given day, you might hear the Trump campaign attack the Biden campaign over crime. Crime is declining. You might hear him frame himself as a law and order president, at the same time also praise January 6th defendants, right?

So, we have these sort of two sides here, and they are at conflict with one another.

WILLIAMS: What's -- oh.

DOVERE: And it's not - the answer is what you said, Kasie, which is, if you are a supporter of Donald Trump, whether it - however you got there, then he will say good things about you. He will invite you on stage. It happened with Ron DeSantis. It happened with these two rappers. And not - and that's the only thing that they really have in common, right?

But it - I do think it is hard to say that you're the party of law and order, you're the candidate of law and order, when you're standing on stage with people who are charged in a conspiracy to commit multiple murders, when you are standing up at rallies and saluting people who rioted at the Capitol on January 6th and attacked police officers. When you did all these things, it does mean that you are a party of law and order when it suits you. By the way, when he is sitting in a criminal trial in Manhattan right now.

HUNT: Right.

WILLIAMS: You know, it's interesting. Something is clicking with black and brown men and Donald Trump, at least as the polling suggests now that - that they are at least intrigued by him in a way they haven't been in past elections. Now, I've read that the idea of Trump being on trial resonates with black people and that's - and that's ludicrous. But, still, some - something messaging wise isn't working for Joe Biden and is working for Donald Trump when it comes, particularly to black and brown men, black and brown people generally, but black and brown men. And I don't know if it's -

HUNT: What do you think? Why do you think that is?

KANNO-YOUNGS: That's - that's a real concern. I don't know if when you talk to sort of Democrats and campaign officials if the - on the Biden side is - if the concern is about black men swinging over to Trump as much again as it is about a lack of enthusiasm and staying home.

WILLIAMS: Stay home, yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Also, I think when we talk about sort of conversations around - around voters and demographics, it's important to note that's not a monolith. There's a generational divide too.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And a bit more of a lack of enthusiasm around younger black men too. So -

DOVERE: And Kamala Harris has spent a lot of time trying to think about this and trying to do stuff about it. what she said in a bunch of meetings, I reported this, is that she says she doesn't think that they're going to lose to Donald Trump with black men, but they're going to lose maybe to the couch.

HUNT: Yes.

DOVERE: And that's where - that's to your point, Elliot.

HUNT: Yes.

All right, very interesting.

And now I will leave you with this. Do you remember this? It's a double-decker airplane seat prototypes that launched 1,000 memes last year. The design was widely panned. It seems very cramped. Also safety and accessibility concerns. It made a lot of people wonder if the designer had ever actually flown on an airplane.

[07:00:06]

The designer behind them is actually back and now there is a luxury twist that has more room. Seats that can go fully horizontal. But the vision behind the new first-class version of the design remains the same, removing the overhead locker to create two levels of airplane seating in one cabin with one passenger seated directly below another. It's like a whole new version of, you know, the guy that lives in the apartment banging the room to get them to be quiet. All right, on that note, thanks to you guys. I appreciate you being here. Thanks to all of you for watching. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.