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CNN This Morning
Trump 'OK' with Going to Jail, Warns of 'Breaking Point'; Today: Jury Selection for Hunter Biden Trial; Severe Storm Threat Across Central Plains. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 03, 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 Monday, June 3. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[06:00:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, at a certain point, there's a breaking point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump claims he's fine with going to jail, but he says his supporters may not be.
Plus, Hunter Biden about to become the first child of a sitting president to go on trial.
And people in Texas waiting for daybreak to assess the damage after two tornadoes touched down like last night.
And an historic election in Mexico. A woman has become president there for the first time ever.
Six a.m. here in Washington. A live look at New York City on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Former President Donald Trump will be sentenced for his crimes on July 11, just days before he's set to be nominated for president at the Republican National Convention.
In an interview with FOX over the weekend, Trump claimed he's just fine with going to jail. But in one of the most volatile divided moments in modern history, here's what he said about how his supporters might react.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I don't know that the public would stand it, you know? I don't -- I'm not sure the public would stand for it. With a --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A house arrest or --
D. TRUMP: I think -- I think it will be tough for the public to take. You know, at a certain point, there's a breaking point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: "There's a breaking point," he says.
I spoke to Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff about those comments over the weekend. Here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): This is clearly Donald Trump, once again, inciting violence, potential violence when he is sentenced.
We see this pattern over and over again, where Donald Trump communicates with his base supporters, making it pretty clear what he wants to see. And then his enablers try to explain it away. This is another dangerous appeal to violence, and it is yet another reason why Americans are going to decide they don't want a convicted felon in the Oval Office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Our panel's here. Let's bring in former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams. Scott Jennings. He's a CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George Bush, W. Bush. And CNN Politics White House reporter Stephen Collinson is here.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Stephen Collinson, I want to start on the big picture here, because I really do want to spend some time with what Donald Trump had to say about his supporters potentially having a, quote, unquote, "breaking point."
I mean, we are seeing our politics become incredibly just incendiary. And, you know, I think the -- what immediately came to my mind and what Schiff was referencing, in part, was what Donald Trump said in the debate back in 2020, which was that his supporters should stand back and stand by.
Let's -- let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me --
CHRIS WALLACE, JOURNALIST: White supremacists and right --
D. TRUMP: -- a name. Who'd you like me to condemn?
WALLACE: White supremacists and right --
BIDEN: Proud Boys.
D. TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So he says directly, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."
So then let's look at what happens at the Capitol on January 6th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, just be aware, be advised, there's probably about 300 Proud Boys. They're marching Eastbound. In this 400 block of -- kind of Independence, actually own the Mall towards the United States Capitol.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose streets?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose streets?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our streets!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And we also had a Proud Boy tell the January 6th Committee that membership grew, quote, unquote, "exponentially" after Donald Trump made those "stand back and standby" comments in that debate.
I set this up this way to show that the words that Donald Trump uses have consequences in the real world. What do you see here?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think you're right to bring up that comparison. This is what Donald Trump does. He says things which can be interpreted multiple ways to -- to various audiences.
Remember, he was quite constrained in that FOX News interview by the fact he's still under a gag order in the New York case. So he's choosing where he's making his inflammatory comments.
And in the light of what happened on January the 6th, every time the former president says something like this, you look at it in a different way.
Having said that, Trump made some similar remarks heading into the trial and during the trial. He was complaining there weren't enough people outside, enough supporters outside.
So you do have to question whether he still retains that power of mobilization to get his supporters out on the streets. A lot of them are in jail who responded to that call the first time. They've gone through --
HUNT: Some of the most --
COLLINSON: -- a legal process.
HUNT: -- aggressive ones.
COLLINSON: But at the same time, at a time when tensions are so fraught running into this sentencing ahead of the convention, it -- all it takes is one person to interpret that as a call to action. And that's what's dangerous.
[06:05:10]
Scott, I also did ask Lara Trump about this, about what her father-in- law meant when I talked to her on "STATE OF THE UNION" yesterday. Let's just watch what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARA TRUMP, RNC CO-CHAIR: Well, they're going to do what they've done from the beginning, which is remain calm and protest at the ballot box on November 5.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So she's trying to turn down the temperature on this. What is your read on this? I mean, look, you had -- you worked for Mitch McConnell for many years. I mean, you know how he feels about what happened on January 6. Obviously, he has sort of come around and tried to make his peace with Trump at this point to -- we don't -- we don't have to dig into the details of that, necessarily.
But how big of a risk do you think it is for the president to be out here making comments like this?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think first of all, people would be pretty angry if they try to throw Donald Trump in jail. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, it's a -- it was a misdemeanor paperwork crime contorted into felonies.
If they try to throw him into jail on the eve of his convention, as he's leading Joe Biden in -- I mean, you can see why people will be angry.
That having been said, look how they reacted to the trial. He got convicted, and they got so mad that they went and donated $200 [SIC] million online to his campaign, or whatever it was. And so nothing has happened.
I thought Lara Trump's comments there were appropriate. But make no mistake. Republicans are very unhappy, very united in their unhappiness. But I don't believe there would be violence and riots. I do believe there would be an uptick in political activism. And we're already seeing that.
HUNT: "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page is making this argument this morning under the headline, "Why Republicans Hate the Trump Verdict."
And they quote Mitt Romney, Elliot. And they say, "Bragg may have won the battle for now, but he may have lost the political war." And this is the part of it that I actually thought was particularly interesting: "Democrats think they can put out the Trump fire with oxygen. It is political malpractice."
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Put out the Trump fire with oxygen, meaning by fueling it more and making it worse. I mean, it's an interesting same argument.
You know, I don't know if we're going to go back into debating the merits of the case and so on. It's -- look, it's not a misdemeanor. It was a felony.
Now, the former president will have every opportunity to challenge that on appeal, and he's going to. Even if sentenced to jail time in August right before the -- he's not going to jail before the convention. That's not going to happen.
HUNT: Right.
WILLIAMS: He has the right to challenge that.
HUNT: Can you give us a sense of whether you think a jail sentence is appropriate in this case? I mean --
WILLIAMS: The law allows it. Now --
HUNT: Does that -- does that mean that it happens in most cases like this?
WILLIAMS: Probably not. Probably not. There are several reasons why. I think, No. 1, it doesn't have a criminal history.
No. 2, most people sentenced for a Class E felony in New York, which is what that -- are more likely to get probation or community service or something like that.
Now, it still has a four-year statutory maximum, so you could go to jail for four years per count. Probably not going to happen. And moreover, his conduct, certainly, post-conviction -- still mouthing off, still talking -- could work against him.
But I think on balance, he's probably not ending up in jail.
JENNINGS: Can I offer a counterargument?
WILLIAMS: Sure. JENNINGS: The core argument in this case was that he committed campaign finance violations that were so egregious that he -- that the New York state prosecutors were forced to charge him with these 34 felonies.
So if you actually believe that it was bad enough to charge him with the felonies, which carry the jail time, and you believe that it might have actually overturned the outcome of a presidential election, if that's not something you would put someone in jail for, then what is?
I used to -- I'm like you. I used to think --
HUNT: You were trying to make this argument last time --
JENNINGS: I used to think -- there are negatives for Donald Trump in jail. But -- but now that I think it through and I hear, you know, so what was motivating the case in the first place, they might. They might.
WILLIAMS: Sure. The judge still has to be able to justify his sentence. Like, he has to put on the record why he sentencing a particular defendant to a particular amount of jail time. Right?
And -- and if it's so far out of line with how other people charged with the same felony, the circumstances they've served, it'll be overturned.
So this idea that the judge has this broad latitude to be reckless and just throw Donald Trump in jail.
JENNINGS: Why would it be reckless, though?
WILLIAMS: What do you mean, why would it be reckless?
HUNT: Didn't you just say earlier why it would be reckless to throw Donald Trump in jail?
JENNINGS: I'm trying to put myself in --
HUNT: In a very combustible political moment.
JENNINGS: I know, but that's -- but that's different than applying the law. If you -- look, we're a nation of laws. The people of New York elected a legislature. They put these punishments in and --
HUNT: I'm very confused how you are the one that is arguing that Donald Trump should be thrown in jail. I get what you're trying to do, I think. What is it exactly?
JENNINGS: I'm -- I'm trying to -- I'm trying to put myself in their shoes, which is to understand their motivations. And the motivations of bringing this case to me would also motivate, possibly, someone there to try to throw him in jail.
[06:10:03] I'm not arguing that any of this is a good idea. I'm just saying I used to think like what you're saying. Oh, they're never going to do it, but now --
WILLIAMS: It's not that they're never going to do it. It's the law doesn't necessarily support a big jail sentence. And even if the judge wants to throw him in jail --
JENNINGS: How about a little one?
HUNT: The argument is presaged on the idea that the whole system is out. You are -- you are basically saying when you make this argument, well, the system was out to get him. Why don't they get them all the way?
And this, at the end of the day, is a judge who has to make an independent judgment. So I just --
WILLIAMS: Supported in law and supported -- right. An independent judgment supported by every other person who has come before. And you like --
JENNINGS: It's an unusual situation. It's not unusual if the president is on trial, but it's an unusual situation for local prosecutors to be arguing that we tried a case because we think this guy might have stolen an election.
HUNT: Prosecutors are going to say, Put him behind bars, but that doesn't mean the judge is going to do it.
All right. We've got to go on.
Next, Donald Trump rewriting history. What he claims he never said about Hillary Clinton. We'll roll that tape.
Plus, a key setback for Hunter Biden just ahead of jury selection.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(FIRE CRACKLING)
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HUNT: Fourteen thousand acres burning in California. One of the five things you have to see this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:53]
HUNT: All right, jury selection in Hunter Biden's federal gun trial is set to begin this morning in Delaware. The judge overseeing the trial dealt the defense two setbacks yesterday by blocking one of their expert witnesses and excluding a key evidence -- key piece of evidence that the president's son had hoped to use.
Much like Donald Trump's conviction last week, this too, a first for America. Never before has the child of a sitting president gone on trial.
I asked Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, an ally of the president, about the Hunter Biden case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: You, of course, have said the public should respect this verdict against Donald Trump. Should the public also respect the verdict against Hunter Biden, regardless of what it is?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the president himself will respect the verdict. The anchor of our Constitution is the fact that ordinary citizens get to decide how the rule of law was applied to even the most powerful in our country. That's something we should be proud of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Our panel is back. Elliot Williams, let me give this one to you. I was talking to someone earlier, who -- Jennifer Rodgers, who seemed to think that this was actually potentially a likely conviction, in no small part because there does seem to be quite a bit of public evidence around the reality that Hunter Biden was addicted in 2018.
Some of it from him. This was from his audio book. This was in 2018. And again, he filled out this form where he got this gun where he had to testify that he was not addicted to drugs in the year 2018. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Now, of course, stipulating all addiction is a very difficult thing to battle. At the end of the day, this is at the heart of this case.
WILLIAMS: Yes, it's interesting seeing low-level charges that aren't commonly prosecuted based on intimate, embarrassing, sensitive, and often sexual conduct being brought by a prosecutor and a judge, that are of the different party of the person.
Wait a second. That's not Donald Trump's trial. That's Hunter Biden's trial.
And my point is, yes, no, it is a likely conviction on account of this particular section of the law and what they have evidence here. And just, you know, to be clear, I have prosecuted this type of gun
possession statute. Now, certainly not for addiction; mostly for felon in possession, which is another under the same section of the law.
Now it's a likely conviction, I think, based on what seems to be public. Now, everything as we saw in the Donald Trump trial, as well. It all depends on how credible the jury finds the witnesses, how strong they find the evidence. Does the defendant testify? Which would probably be a bad idea here, as well.
But publicly again, based on what's in the record and based on how simple these possession statutes are, yes. I think you'd get a conviction here.
JENNINGS: I'm more worried about Joe Biden's behavior here, actually. I mean, he was riding bikes with Hunter Biden yesterday. Hunter Biden.
HUNT: He is his son.
JENNINGS: I know. And he met with Hallie Biden last week, Joe Biden did, who's a witness and who helped Hunter Biden, I guess, admittedly, get rid of the gun in the trash can by the school.
I mean, there's a lot of talk about, you know, respecting the judicial system. And I don't, you know, try to put my thumb on the scale of the -- I mean, he has been adjacent to Hunter Biden.
I recognize they're related. But this man is on trial for a gun charge this week and tax evasion in the future. And yet, he gets to fly around on Air Force One, hang out at Camp David, sleep on the couch at the White House. I mean, what signal -- what signal does it send to the rest of the government?
HUNT: Well, what would you do if it's your kid, Scott? I mean --
JENNINGS: I understand, but I'm not the president of the United States, and I don't have the Justice Department tucked right underneath me. And so I get it.
I'm fully sensitive to the point you're making. He is different than every other American. He's the president. He sits at the top of our -- of our law enforcement system. And he's influential.
I mean, when -- I assume people are watching him for his movements.
HUNT: Well, we will continue to cover this trial as it unfolds. Jury selection begins today.
Coming up next here, what Donald Trump says about the idea of political revenge after his conviction.
Plus, a massive funnel cloud forming in Northern Texas. It's one of five things you have to see this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:24:19]
HUNT: Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Five things you've got to see this morning.
Storm chasers captured this incredible footage of a tornado touching down in the Texas Panhandle near Silverton on Sunday, tossing out dust and debris.
Only minor damage is being reported at this point. My gosh.
To Atlanta, where a massive water main break sent water into the air at this street corner. Parts of Atlanta's downtown were without water. And a major hospital was forced to transfer patients. They're still working on fixing it.
China's lunar probe successfully landing on the Moon. It's one of the country's most ambitious space exploration missions. And its goal is to return samples from the far side of the Moon back to Earth.
[06:25:02]
Heavy rain causing massive flooding in Southern Germany. Reuter's is reporting that several thousand people have been forced to leave their homes. And a firefighter has died trying to rescue people trapped by floodwaters.
The Corral Fire burning more than 14,000 acres in San Joaquin County, California, forcing residents in its path to evacuate. By late Sunday, the fire was 50 percent contained.
The cause is still under investigation.
Time now for weather. More severe storm threats on the way for the central U.S. this morning, affecting millions from Texas to Wisconsin. Our Weatherman Van Dam joins us now.
Derek, good morning to you. This has just been relentless. What are we going to see today?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes so. Severe storms and our ongoing wildfire threat across San Juaquin County. This is the Corral Fire, and you can see the charred landscape across this particular area.
And you know what? This is a byproduct of a very wet spring and winter. So above-average precipitation. Now we're heading into the dryer months. The taps have been turned off, and that vegetation that grew so abundantly has now started to dry out. And that's a recipe for fire.
And the Corral Fire, the good news here is that the containment has certainly gone up from yesterday. But it's all part of the bigger problem here, because the temperatures are really starting to skyrocket. We have excessive heat warnings and watches.
Vegas, the mercury in the thermometer, by later this week could reach 120 degrees. So several U.S. cities, particularly across the state of California, could reach record high temperatures. You could see triple-digit heat from Phoenix to Vegas, Palm Springs, all the way to El Paso.
And of course, riding that heat bubble is our severe weather threat today from Chicago all the way to Dallas, once again -- Kasie.
HUNT: All right. Our Weatherman van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. I really appreciate it.
Coming up next year, Democratic allies urging President Biden to lean into Donald Trump's felony conviction.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLILP)
L. TRUMP: he doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point. And --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The Republican Party versus Republican Larry Hogan. We'll have more from my interview yesterday with the RNC chair, ahead.
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[06:30:00]
