Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Poll: 50 Percent Of Americans Believe Guilty Verdict Was Correct; Today: Jury Selection In Hunter Biden Federal Gun Case; Biden Urges Israel To Stand Firm On Ceasefire Proposal. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 03, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:33]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just about to hit -- there it is -- 5:30 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at Capitol Hill on this beautiful June morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

A majority of Americans believe the guilty verdict in Donald Trump's hush money trial was correct. In a new ABC News poll, 50 percent say the jury got it right, 27 percent say they got it wrong, and 23 percent said they don't know. And 49 percent believe that the former president should end his reelection bid because of the conviction.

It is not clear, though, how much the verdict is moving the needle, if at all.

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu told me yesterday he's still voting for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Do you find it troubling at all?

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Well look, I don't want my nominee to be a -- to be conceited of anything, of course. And I worked as hard as anybody, other than maybe Nikki Haley, of course, to make sure he wasn't the nominee because I think we had a lot of -- a lot better choices, but he is going to be the Republican nominee of the party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now, Semafor politics reporter Shelby Talcott.

Shelby, the funny thing is the part of that that stood out to me was that he was willing to say, like, hey, this is not great. That he is a convicted felon which, like, most Republicans aren't even willing to say. They're all kind of all in on this political argument. But, you know, I think Sununu was also trying to make it -- in that conversation, we had the argument that at the end of the day, this may galvanize Republicans more than verdicts in some of the other cases would, and that potentially actually could help Donald Trump.

SHELBY TALCOTT, REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yeah, and I think that's absolutely right. Typically, when we see things happen to Donald Trump, a) his first reaction is to say this is politically motivated, but b) Republicans buy into it.

I remember when Ron DeSantis was still running against Donald Trump and shortly before he dropped out, he said in an interview that he thought all of the legal indictments against Donald Trump really solidified his support among the party, and that's exactly what happened. We've seen it happen time and time again. So I do think it's fair to argue that this conviction could very well mean that more Republicans end up voting for him.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, The Wall Street Journal editorial page writes about this today. They say, "Many Republicans we talk to are now more likely to vote for Mr. Trump after watching how Democrats have politicized the law to target a presidential opponent. They worry that a vote for Mr. Biden would vindicate this Democratic campaign by lawfare."

There is also some polling from Reuters. Now, I just want to emphasize a lot of these numbers we're getting in are pretty preliminary. But they did ask how the conviction would impact votes, pre- versus post- verdict. Now, pre-trial, 49 percent said they would vote -- this is, again, among Republican voters. Pre-trial, they would vote, 49 percent. Post-conviction, 66 percent. I mean, that does seem to underscore this point.

And Mitt Romney has this great quote, too. He told his biographer in The Atlantic that, "Democrats think they can put out the Trump fire with oxygen. It is political malpractice." It's a very interesting way to think about it.

TALCOTT: Yeah. And remember, in the 24 hours after Donald Trump was convicted, his campaign said that they raised -- what was it, almost $35 million from small donors. And that --

HUNT: And that number has gone up considerably since -- Yes.

TALCOTT: Yes, and that's a big number just in that 24-hour mark.

And so, again, it goes back to this argument that Republicans rally around Donald Trump in a way that we really haven't seen with any other politician. I liken it to almost a fan base that he has, and we haven't seen that in history before.

And so, as you said, these are -- these are very preliminary numbers and the race is long. And so that's, I guess, my only counter argument to this data is does this -- does this die down in the next five months? Do voters sort of forget about it? Do the poll numbers go back to normal or do they flip more for Biden? We don't know yet. But certainly, if the -- if the -- if the -- if it was tomorrow --

HUNT: Um-hum.

TALCOTT: -- I think more voters -- more Republicans would turn out for Donald Trump.

HUNT: You know, I'm glad that you brought up the history of it.

[05:35:00]

Peter Baker, who is a longtime chronicler of American presidents, writes in The New York Times this morning about the history of it. And he says that if Donald Trump wins the election, it will -- it means he will have survived two impeachments, four criminal indictments, civil judgments for sexual abuse and business fraud, and a felony conviction. Now, he warns given that, in an additional -- in another Trump White House, it would be hard to imagine what institutional deterrents could discourage abuses or excesses.

It sets a remarkable stage.

TALCOTT: It does, but I wonder if anybody else besides Donald Trump would be able to weather a storm like this, right? Again, he has this sort of hold over the Republican Party and over a faction of the American people that we really have never seen, and I'm not convinced that we would see it again. And so, that's the sort of big question mark is will there be a politician post-Donald Trump that has such a -- such a fan base sort of baked into his support?

HUNT: All right.

Semafor's Shelby Talcott. Shelby, very grateful to have you this morning. I really appreciate it.

All right. Also today, Hunter Biden goes on trial for felony gun charges in Delaware. His father, the President of the United States, plans to spend most of the day in Wilmington where jury selection will get underway.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER (voice-over): The son of the sitting president on trial in another criminal case with big political implications.

HUNTER BIDEN, PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S SON: They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction.

POLANTZ (voice-over): Hunter Biden's addiction and purchase of a gun in October 2018 is at the heart of this case. The Justice Department accusing him of lying on gun purchasing forms that required him to attest he wasn't addicted to drugs.

A special counsel brought the case last year after a prior deal fell apart in dramatic fashion at his plea hearing.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm here today to announce the appointment of David Weiss as a special counsel. POLANTZ (voice-over): On Monday, jury selection begins -- potentially, a challenging task -- in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Federal prosecutors plan to highly a part of his memoir where he writes about struggling with drug addiction around the time he bought the gun.

H. BIDEN: I had returned that fall of 2018 after my most recent relapse in California, with the hope of getting clean through a new therapy and reconciling with Hallie. Neither happened.

POLANTZ (voice-over): And they have evidence from the week of the gun purchase. Hunter Biden texting he was "waiting for a dealer" and "sleeping on a car smoking crack."

The trial also may feature testimony from the women in Hunter Biden's life -- his ex-wife, his brother's widow, and a woman he pays child support to. Prosecutors say the women witnessed his drug addiction.

While Joe Biden continues to seek reelection, the president has avoided commenting directly on the prosecution of his son.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm very proud of my son.

POLANTZ (voice-over): Yet, the trial is likely to dredge up more Republican attacks on the Bidens, including about a laptop containing embarrassing messages and images that prosecutors have obtained.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): The Biden crime family sold out America and the American people have had enough.

POLANTZ (voice-over): Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings as part of an impeachment probe of President Biden that's come up short.

H. BIDEN: MAGA Republicans have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family, and my friends.

POLANTZ (voice-over): After his trial on felony gun charges ends, Hunter Biden is set to face a second one in federal court in California on tax charges.

POLANTZ: Now, Hunter Biden's defense team at the gun trial -- they're likely going to try to sow doubt around whether he believed he was an addict and about how the special counsel conducted parts of its investigation. He has denied all wrongdoing in both of the cases he faced.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNT: Our Katelyn Polantz there. Thank you for that report.

CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers joins me now. Jennifer, good morning. Thank you so much for being here. So we did see the judge overseeing this trial deal Hunter Biden's

defense a couple of setbacks yesterday. They blocked one of their expert witnesses and they're excluding some evidence that the president's son hoped to use.

What do you make of those rulings, and how do they set the stage for jury selection to begin today?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, NYU LAW SCHOOL, LECTURER IN LAW, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, those are tough rulings for the defense and listen, they'll just have to roll with it.

But, of course, it will be an appellate issue, particularly the ruling about not allowing them to put in this physical form and argue that there's a -- there's a different ink on it. That the person who supposedly looked at his I.D. didn't put the -- put the information on the form at the time of the sale. That's something they could have used to argue that there were problems with other parts of the form when they recorded his statements about his status, for example.

[05:40:00]

So that's what the ruling is. They're not going to be able to use that at trial, but it certainly will be an issue that they will tee up for appeal. And frankly, you can see all of his best arguments are now going to be appeal arguments.

The facts of this case are pretty straightforward and I don't expect them to have a lot of problems once the trial starts. The issue is going to be some of these arguments around selective prosecution, for example, and the constitutionality of the statute itself. These are ripe for appeal. And so, I would say his chances on appeal are pretty solid. But the trial is going to be a challenge for the defense.

HUNT: So you -- it sounds to me like you think that a conviction may be likely here.

RODGERS: I do. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. You make a false statement on a form. They have the form. They have the statements that he has made elsewhere in his book and, of course, witnesses who will come forward saying he was, in fact, an addict at the time. That he possessed the gun at the time. It's not going to be much more complicated than that.

HUNT: And then when you say that he could have some arguments on appeal in terms of the decision to bring this case, do you see politics here? I mean, this is one of these situations where obviously, it's the first time a sitting president's son has gone on trial.

What's happening with Donald Trump is overlaying all of that. There is increasing chatter and -- well, much more than chatter from Republicans who are saying that we can't trust the justice system at all.

Are the -- do you expect Hunter Biden's team to try to make a case that this was a political prosecution?

RODGERS: So the problem with that is that the selective prosecution argument -- you know, they say it's political. I believe that it is political. But the legal argument for making the selective prosecution claim is that he's not being treated the same as other people similarly situated.

So what you're looking at is not so much that the Republicans are calling for his head; it's that an addict who had a gun for 11 days didn't do anything bad with it. Didn't hurt anybody. Didn't threaten anybody. And a person who is no longer an addict -- the public policy suggests that person should be diverted, right? Should not be charged with a felony offense.

And so you will not find other pieces on these facts where someone has to go to trial on this. So that's really the legal argument, but that argument has been excluded, so it's a legal argument, right? So it's for pretrial and it's for appeal.

I do not expect the judge will allow them to argue that he has been selected out, if you will, for prosecution here. That will be something that the judge will exclude. They'll still try to get it in and the jury will -- you know, they'll understand what the argument is and if they want to nullify it, they can, of course. But it's not going to be something the judge is going to allow them to explicitly argue.

HUNT: All right, Jennifer Rodgers for us this morning. Jennifer, thanks very much. I appreciate your time.

All right. Coming up next, President Biden calling for an end to the war in Gaza and sending a message to the Israelis. Plus, Simone Biles shattering records. The Bleacher Report's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:47:35]

HUNT: Welcome back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. BIDEN: Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7. It's one of the Israelis' main objectives in this war. It's time for this war to end and for the day after to begin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden urging Israel to stick with its latest ceasefire proposal despite likely pushback from some members of Israeli leadership. We're already seeing that happen.

The White House sounding confident that the Israelis have sufficiently degraded Hamas' capabilities and their leverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: Military speaking, Hamas is in no position to conduct another attack like October 7. Now, we're also not saying that Hamas has been wiped off the face of the map.

We've not said that Hamas has no military capabilities. We've not said that they don't still represent a viable threat to the Israeli people. Of course, they do. But they don't have the military capabilities to do what they did on the seventh of October.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now, former deputy assistant Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, Joel Rubin. Joel, good morning to you.

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Good morning, Kasie.

HUNT: So you have been in touch over the course of this rollout and the president's speech on Friday with administration officials about kind of their behind-the-scenes thinking here. Obviously, we had seen that horrible attack -- the tragedy at the refugee camp --

RUBIN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- with the fire that has helped galvanize some of this.

What was being the administration deciding to roll this out right now and the pressure that they're now putting on Israel?

RUBIN: Yeah, Kasie. This is clearly a moment where the president sees a window of opportunity in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas through Egypt and Qatar and says look, if I am going to lean in, this is the time publicly to go out and say we need to end this war. We need to have the hostage exchange. We're not getting there in the private negotiations.

And I think the White House recognizes that Israel is sufficiently degraded Hamas' military capability to a point where because they cannot launch another October 7 attack, there is credibility to say it's time to pivot to a ceasefire that gets the hostages out and that rebuilds Gaza in a direction that prevents any resurgence of Hamas.

And I -- the White House -- they feel very bullish about this. They have Israeli backing for this even though there's going to be a debate inside Israel. The question now is what will Hamas do? Will they agree to this as well?

HUNT: Very interesting. I mean, how do you see -- you say that they are confident that they have Israeli backing?

RUBIN: Yes.

HUNT: I mean, I know Ben-Gvir, a member of the war cabinet on the right, came out and said look, the government is going to fall apart if you do this. Netanyahu was more circumspect, obviously.

[05:50:00]

RUBIN: Right.

HUNT: I mean, what do we hear from both of them here, and how does that dynamic play?

RUBIN: Well, my understanding of this is that the war cabinet supports this overall vision -- the Israel war cabinet -- meaning the decision-making body inside of Israel's government that decides war policy, and that includes Prime Minister Netanyahu. So there's going to be a lot of hemming and hawing -- a lot of pushback, clearly, from the far right.

But now, from the opposition leader Yair Lapid -- he's not in the government but he does sit in Knesset and has a large number of seats behind him. He said that he'll provide a soft cushion for the government if the right-wing bolts.

So there's a lot of political dynamics. Lapid is making the pitch that hey, we've got to get the hostages out. I support the American plan. And that's a very strong vote of approval that gives some space to Netanyahu.

HUNT: Is there, do you think, pressure on Netanyahu in that way from the Israeli public toward figuring out a way to extricate from this?

RUBIN: Yeah. Look, the Israeli public is, rightly, very hostile towards Hamas and supports the overall military effort. It also strongly backs President Biden's support, likes his vision, and wants the hostages out.

HUNT: Yeah.

RUBIN: So there's a lot of different dynamics happening.

If there's -- and there have been very aggressive protests in the streets in Tel Aviv over the weekend, in fact, thanking President Biden and asking President Biden to help Israel get these hostages out.

So if there's a plan with strong American backing -- we are the glue here and I want to really emphasize this. We are the essential player in this -- not just for the ceasefire but for the day after. And if we're walking hand-to-glove with the Israelis, that's going to help them, in the public, move forward in support of this idea.

HUNT: All right, Joel Rubin for us this morning. Joel, I'm always grateful to have you.

RUBIN: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: Thank you very much for your time.

All right, time now for sports. Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles adds another title to her impressive resume as she continues her journey to a third Olympic Games.

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

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The greatest gymnast of all time, Kasie, has done it again. Biles dominated the competition as the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, winning the all-around title for a record-extending ninth time. The four-time Olympic gold medalist turning in the top cumulative scores in the four events: balance beam, floor exercise, vault, and uneven bars. Biles finishing almost six points ahead of silver medalist Skye Blakely.

So the 27-year-old returned to competitive gymnastics last year after she experienced the twisties famously at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, forcing her to withdraw from several events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, MOST DECORATED GYMNAST IN HISTORY: Today, it's just getting out here and getting comfortable and confident in my gymnastics and hopefully, going to Olympic trials and making that next step towards Paris. So I couldn't be more proud of how I'm doing this time in the year and just gaining that confidence over and over and getting myself back in front of a crowd and just doing what I do in practice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: The U.S. Women's Olympics Gymnastics Team will be chosen later this month at the trials in Minneapolis. Biles looking to become the first American woman since Dominique Dawes, back in 2000, to make three Olympic teams in her career.

The Edmonton Oilers with a 3-2 series lead over the Stars, looking to clinch a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2006. Their fans were out -- they were ready -- and so was the team's superstar Connor McDavid. The deke -- the forehand backhand in less than five minutes and just like that, they were on the board.

And before the first period even ended, Zach Hyman firing one off from the slot to extend the lead to two. So, Dallas trying to figure out something to turn the tide, dominating large parts of the second and third periods, making it 2-1 on a late Mason Marchment goal. He scored the game-winner in game three.

But this around, the Oilers would survive the onslaught, thanks in large part to their goalie, Stuart Skinner. So Edmonton booking their ticket to meet the Florida Panthers in the final.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNOR MCDAVID, CENTER, EDMONTON OILERS: It feels like a dream, honestly. It was a crazy one tonight. Not our best effort, but we hung in there and found a way to get a win. It still was great. Everybody played great. We just hung in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: And just days after the school closed its doors for good, Birmingham-Southern College's run for a national championship comes to a heartbreaking end at the Division III College World Series. The Panthers losing in the bottom of the ninth inning to Wisconsin- Whitewater on a walk-off solo shot.

After the game, the team's coach told reporters that there is, in fact, crying in baseball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAN WEISBERG, HEAD COACH, BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN: I told the guys before we left Birmingham that I had a genuine peace about this final chapter. And whenever we either won it, there are going to be extreme tears of happiness. But if we lost, I would not have any tears of sorrow. I'm sure in the next couple of days there will be a lot of crying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Birmingham-Southern shut down last Friday, Kasie, after 168 years because of financial difficulties. We talked about it last week. Their community rallying around them. They had a GoFundMe page. It was a magical sort of punctuation to the school's closing but said to see it end this way.

[05:55:07]

HUNT: See -- it is. But you know what? These are the kind of tears we allow in baseball, right?

MANNO: Yeah.

HUNT: It's about the big picture.

All right, Carolyn. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Coming up next here, just-convicted Donald Trump says his supporters have a breaking point. What does he mean by that? Plus, Hunter Biden about to become the first child of a sitting president to go on trial.

(COMMERCIAL)

HUNT: It's Monday, June 3. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, at a certain point, there's a breaking point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)