Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump Found Guilty On All 34 Felony Counts, Sentencing On July 11; International Reaction To Trump Guilty Verdict; Severe Storm Threat In Central U.S., Lower MS Valley. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 31, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:38]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, May 31.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't do a thing wrong. I'm a very innocent man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Guilty on all 34 counts, Donald Trump calling his hush money trial rigged, and insisting the only verdict he cares about is the one that's handed down on November 5th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I did my job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg speaking out and praising the jury after that the historic conviction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DONALD TRUMP'S LAWYER: As soon as we can appeal, we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And Donald Trump's lawyer vowing to fight the verdicts and the possibility of jail time for the former president.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here in Washington. A live look at New York City where Donald Trump is waking up a convicted felon this morning.

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

For the first time in U.S. history, a former president is a convicted felon. The jury in Donald Trump's New York hush money trial, finding him guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records. The verdict follows nearly 12 hours of deliberations over two days, sentencing is scheduled for July 11.

Here was Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAGG: While this defendant maybe unlike any other in American history we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law, and doing so without fear or favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: One of Trump's attorneys, Todd Blanche, talking to CNN last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DONALD TRUMP'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If the word of Michael Cohen was not accepted at all, then you could not have convicted President Trump, and the jury convicted. So at the end of the day, they looked past what we thought were fatal flaws in Mr. Cohen's story and his past and they reach a guilty verdict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. We have a very strong panel at this 5:00 a.m. hour to discuss. Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu is here, CNN Politics White House reporter, Stephen Collinson, and CNN political commentators Maria Cardona and Shermichael Singleton join us here.

Stephen, let me start with you.

You are the person who here at CNN paints a big picture of where we are as a country. Yesterday was an incredibly consequential day. Now, we are on the day after the first day of the new version of this presidential campaign, which promises to be one of the most, if not the most consonant in American history.

Where do we go from here?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think this is a somber of moment because this is unprecedented national occurrence, as you say, in us history. On the one hand, you good argue that the system worked. The fundamental principle that led to the founding of the United States was that no one is above the law, not even the richest, most powerful person and the legal system when through his process and worked.

The problem here is that Donald Trump and most of his Republicans borders have reacted to this by launching new attacks on the rule of law. And that is going to take us down a very volatile road in the middle of an election, in a country that is deeply polarized, and we're going to see justice -- Trump attacked the integrity of the electoral system in 2020. We're going to seem to see the same thing happen right now to the legal system.

HUT: Shermichael Singleton, we're already seeing Republicans rally -- I mean, honestly, they are kind of falling all over themselves to rally behind Donald Trump here on this. There have been suggestions from some in the right-wing media, from some elected officials of using state attorneys, generals, offices to go after Democrats for example.

And as Stephen notes, there has been a systematic undermining. We saw President Trump do this -- former President Trump do this with the 2020 election results, and now do it with the court system.

You are the Republican sitting at this table, I know you once worked for Trump, although you were fired from the Trump administration after you were willing to criticize him.

[05:05:02]

What is your view of how this verdict is going to affect the results of the election in terms of is it going to galvanize Donald Trump supporters? And what do you think the overall impact is on the undermining of faith in the system?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So let me answer the second question first. I am concerned that a lot of Republicans, to the point that you two raised are going to look at the judicial system and say we can't trust it. It's not fair. This was a witch hunt. This was a persecution.

That is troubling because in the past, we've also have come to the conclusion that though the system isn't completely perfect, for the most part, it tries to be as fair and balanced and as objective as its possible based on the facts. That troubles me a lot consider now divided the country already has, I think this is only going to make things worse.

To answer the first question, I think that Republicans are going to dig in. You saw last night WinRed shut down because so many individuals are --

HUNT: The Republican fundraising platform, yeah.

SINGLETON: -- shut down with so many people were attempting to raise money.

But I also think that this galvanizes Democrats to President Biden to look at it on the flip side. My question here, Kasie, is what happens with the people in the middle? Some independence swing voters who would kind of say, well, maybe were looking at Trump because we're unhappy about the economy, are unhappy about immigration, are those voters, that small percentage, they suddenly going to say, I'm willing to still vote for the former president despite these things, I'm not necessarily certain on that at this point.

HUNT: Maria?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I agree with Shermichael. I think that is where the big question is, but I also think that where Republicans are really concerns because they're seeing the same polls that we've been seeing. If you are to believe the polls and I don't know but we can at this point because we are in unchartered waters. We don't really know.

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: Let's say that.

CARDONA: Right. I mean, we don't -- we don't really know what effect this is going to have. But we have seen in poll after poll after poll, that there is some shift anywhere between 2 percent to 7 percent to 15 percent of Trump's supporters saying that they would at least have pause and many of them saying that they would flip their support if Donald Trump is convicted. And the other thing that I think we need to take the look at is while lots of Republicans, the majority who support elected officials, who support and to your point, Kasie, they're coming to his help right there helping him saying that this is a witch hunt, the majority of voters don't believe that this was a witch hunt and believed that these were legitimate cases.

This one in particular, even as people say, its the weakest one, but it was a legitimate case being brought against the president. So I think all of those things are things that we have to keep in mind.

HUNT: Shan Wu, the next major date that we need to watch for. I mean, there's -- there's a debate right here on CNN on June 27th. I don't want overlook that, but Trump's going to be sentenced on July 11th. There is going to be a request to delay that.

How likely do you think its going to be? Because right now, that's set to happen before the Republican National Convention. Do you think its possible we're going to see a delay, and what are the factors that the judge here is weighing in terms of deciding whether or not to send since Donald Trump to jail time?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think the requests for delay is not likely to succeed. If there's something very specific on that day that there's just logistic with his campaign and such, I think the judge will cut him some slack.

But -- and the idea that they might be put off past the convention or even later, that's just not going to happen. This judge has been very good about really trying to maintain this case on an even keel the way they normally would be done, despite who the defendant is. So I don't think that attack is going to work here.

With regards the sentencing factors. The New York state sentencing is a little bit different than the federal one. The federal has this very complex scientific matrix. Wider discretion on a judge's part here, Trump's a first-time offender, not likely. He's going to send him to jail for a long time under these statutes.

But the one random factor to think about is the gag order violations, which judge didn't really address during in trial. That's going to factor in, even though Trump's a first-time offender. Also, he's a first-time offender who has several other pending cases. So it's not as though here's a completely clean criminal history right now. All that's going to be factored in.

HUNT: Stephen, last word?

COLLINSON: Yeah. My understanding is that the gag order stays in place. So if there are more infringements that could make Trump the put him in even more trouble, right?

WU: Yeah, it's a little bit unusual usually the gag order is protecting the integrity of the trial, but I think here right now, they're still concerned, obviously, about the jurors' security. So that's --

HUNT: The stakes could not be higher.

WU: Yeah.

HUNT: All right. Our panel is going to stick around.

Coming up next here, Trump guilty verdict making headlines around the world. We're going to bring you the international reaction with our Max Foster in London this morning.

Plus, President Biden paving the way for Ukraine to long launch attacks on Russian soil.

[05:10:00]

And a redo for Boeing. A countdown to a second attempt to get astronauts into space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

We have seen reaction to former President Trump's guilty verdict from Republicans, Democrats, plenty of pundits here in the United States, but it is making headlines way past Washington. The former president appeared on the front pages of newspapers and tabloids around the world.

Joining me now from London is CNN international anchor Max Foster.

Max, good morning at what are we seeing in reaction?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Well, those papers here in the U.K., here in Europe came in quite late.

[05:15:02] So the verdict was about 10:00 London time, for example. So I think the papers were pretty surprised by the scale of this verdict across the board. And so, guilty really is that overriding headline across Europe. And today, they're trying to sort of decompress it a bit more to see what it means.

In terms of allied countries, countries like the UK, prime ministers, ministers, they're not really saying very much because they don't want to get involved in all of this until after the election, probably when they know who's going to be the prime minister. But there are certain countries, Italy, for example, with a very strong right wing where we have been hearing from the government.

So, the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who's seen as a right winger, said solidarity and full support for Donald Trump, victim of judicial harassment and a process of political nature. In Italy, we're sadly familiar with a weaponization of the justice system by the left.

So it really depends on where you sit in terms of his narrative. If you're bought into it, like many other right-wing are your supporting Donald Trump. If you just want to get on with whoever is the U.S. president, you're probably staying quiet.

HUNT: Max, we noticed some reporting from our teams in China where, of course, they were waking up to this verdict given in the time difference. And I think it's important to note just how heavy social media censorship is in China before we talk about how this was being discussed on these major platforms. They write here in the CNN story: For months, Chinese propagandists have attempted to use Trump's indictments to strengthen Beijing's narrative of the United States and decline, citing the months-long legal battle is a prime example of polarization and dysfunction of American politics.

And then look at these comments: Trump's supporters hurry up and mobilize, storm the capitol. Comrade nation builder Trump should not be fighting alone.

I think it's just worth noting that if the Chinese communist party wanted to take these down, they certainly could. What do they, what does this tell you?

FOSTER: Well, exactly, they're allowing it to bubble up and this is part of this campaign to show that America is declining, China is -- in decline. China is strong, and I think the powers that be have decided that Donald Trump is very good for that narrative and ultimately, you know, having a good relationship with Donald Trump in future, showing support for him. Perhaps they put their eggs in that basket, but it really is this idea that America is in decline, and how Donald Trump promotes that. So they're allowing the narrative to continue and they are seeing it as a stitch up, like many of his supporters see it as.

Of course, there will be many people in China who absolutely horrified by this verdict and what it says about America. But as you'll suggesting, we're not seeing so many of those comments online, but, you know, literally it was the top trending topic on Weibo yesterday, more than 120 million views by the afternoon.

HUNT: Yeah, I mean, it -- heard round the world.

Max Foster, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Always grateful to have you.

All right. Coming up next here, Donald Trump waking up a convicted felon. One of his former attorneys ways in on the verdict.

And there is some other news in the world today. President Biden giving Ukraine permission to use U.S. munitions to strike inside Russia.

There is a caveat. We'll tell you about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:49]

HUNT: All right. Twenty-two minutes past the hour.

Here's your morning roundup of other stories.

President Biden allowing Ukraine to use American aid weapons to strike inside Russian territory, breaking a longstanding U.S. policy, but they can only be used for counter-fire and defense just over the border and close to Kharkiv.

Two people killed, including a police officer and three others injured after a shootout in an apartment in Minneapolis Thursday. The shooter was also killed. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.

Boeing gearing up for another Starliner launch tomorrow to the International Space Station, the first with two astronauts, the last attempt with scrubbed May 6, just before liftoff.

And severe storm threats this morning for the central U.S. and Lower Mississippi Valley. We've got record-breaking heat in the forecast for Texas and Florida.

Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar tracking all that for us.

Allison, good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And good morning.

Yes, another day, another round of showers. Those today the focus is really going to be over Texas, portions of Oklahoma, as well as Louisiana. And we begin already with some showers and thunderstorms on the radar. You've got a cluster of storms over here across portions of eastern Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas, and then another line down to the south.

This is the one that's pushed through Dallas already heading into Austin and will eventually make its way down into Houston. You've got a severe thunderstorm watch here in effect until 11:00 a.m. Central Time this morning. We've also got a line of thunderstorms now starting to slide through New Orleans and continued to spread a little bit farther to the east.

A couple of severe thunderstorm warnings here is that line makes its way in towards Austin, looking at some gusty winds and also the potential for some hail today.

The other concern too, is going to be flooding. You've got some flash flood warnings and effect around the Waco area. And then again, just the overall watch for a lot of these locations, one to three inches is expected today. I know one to three inches doesn't sound like all that much, but the thing you have to understand, there's a lot of these places have had days and days of rain. So, even one to two inches is just going to exacerbate some of the flooding concerns in these areas.

Here's a look at the severe risk for today. Again, you can see it swings along four to the gulf coast and then back up through some of the high plains there. Large hail, you're talking golf ball size or even larger potentially today, those damaging wind gusts up around 70 to 80 miles I was per hour.

[05:25:02]

And yes, even the potential for a tornado or two cannot be ruled out in some of these areas. As we go through the morning hours, you'll see that main line slides farther south, hitting Houston by later on this morning, and then continues to progress eastward by later on this evening. And then Saturday morning, Kasie, some folks say around Nashville could be waking up to some showers and thunderstorms.

HUNT: Allison Chinchar for us this morning, Allison, thank you very much.

All right. Just ahead here --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Reaction from outside the New York courthouse where the historic guilty verdict was delivered.

Plus, a former Trump attorney breaks down the former president's legal strategy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)