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Today, U.S. Special Envoy to Meet With Putin in Moscow; Judge Blocks Order on Proof of Citizenship for Voter Registration; Today, Former Congressman George Santos to Be Sentenced. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 25, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as the U.S. continues to press for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

[06:30:05]

Russia's foreign minister says his country is ready to reach a peace deal and that talks with the U.S. are moving in the right direction.

Now, President Trump says he's not happy with Putin and is urging him to stop the escalated attacks on Ukraine. This comes after one of the deadliest strikes on Kyiv since last summer. Ukraine says at least 12 people were killed and 90 others injured. President Trump says things will happen if the strikes continue, but he did not specify what that would be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Why are you not putting more pressure on Russia? I know a lot of Europeans --

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Putting a lot of pressure -- you don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia. They're dealing. You have no idea what pressure I'm putting on Russia. We're putting a lot of pressure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us live from London, CNN's Chief International Security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh. Good morning, Nick.

First, I want to talk about expectations, this conversation with Steve Witkoff potentially a face-to-face with Putin today. What's expected.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, look, it is clear that this peace deal seems to be evolving on Wednesday in London, a downgraded meeting with meant to have the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Ruby at it, but end up having lower level officials. That seems according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to have developed a document that went Donald Trump and may well clearly be part of Witkoff's discussions with Putin later on today. And indeed we heard from Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, the idea that they want to reach a deal, just certain things need to be fine-tuned in a recent interview. So, an issue here, really, that the nature of this process, Witkoff going to see the Russians, separate discussions with the Ukrainians and the Americans, makes it by nature very time consuming. It was spent to be about speeding this up. But, ultimately, they're now exchanging documents, trying to find a middle ground.

Is it likely that today we'll hear in Moscow a sudden solution is found? I don't think so. There's a lot of a gulf between what the Ukrainians will accept and what the Russians want.

The pressure that Trump says he's putting on Moscow, unclear. He went on to say that the concession Russia's making is they're not taking all of Ukraine. Well, that isn't something militarily likely at this point.

Audrie, I should point out, you know, hour by hour, day by day, the violence continues. Two nights ago, we had 12 now killed in a rather remarkable barrage of missile strikes across Ukraine by Russia. Three killed overnight recently as well. This is the daily way in which Ukrainians endure Russian aggression at the moment.

But also on the flip side now, you know, we heard that Donald Trump said, Vladimir, stop, as a result of those missile strikes. On the flip side, now Russian authorities saying that a senior Russian general, the deputy chief of the main operational director, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, has been killed in an explosion, what seems to be outside of his home. Some video circulating there showing a car detonating very close to that particular general, and what looks like, I think it's fair, to say a targeted killing here.

I'm sure many fingers will point in a particular direction for that, and it may, in turn, add to the notion that peace is hard while this level of violence continues.

So much of Russia's missiles hitting civilians, I should point out here, this particular killing appears to have killed Moskalik alone by himself. So, a lot still to be learned about that incident in Moscow.

But the timing of it with Witkoff arriving, I'm sure, bound to potentially upset an atmosphere that Donald Trump has hoped will be conducive to an imminent agreement. He said he had a deadline just yesterday, but he didn't say what it was. And I think that's kind of key.

CORNISH: And it's clearly a very fragile situation.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

So, a federal judge blocking key parts of a Trump executive order that would expand the requirement for proof of citizenship for voter registration. The judge said, according to the constitution, the executive branch can't do this. She says, only the states and Congress can regulate federal elections.

Group chat is back to talk about this. For you, Isaac, what was notable about this moment? EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, it's kicking it to Congress. And in Congress, you have the SAVE Act being debated. The SAVE Act is a law that would change a lot of what the requirements are to be able to vote. It's the one that it's a bad I.D. and the questions about --

CORNISH: But it's also part of the --

DOVERE: -- women who, whether they've changed their names and how that would read (ph). And, look, what we know is that there is an effort to some would say secure the election, some would say to limit the number of people who are voting, but to change how voting has been done in this country.

CORNISH: And that this also perceived of so much what we call conspiracy theories, but also because of the last ten years post COVID. There has been such a wild ride of voting regulation at the states in Congress because of the pandemic, then changing those rules.

[06:35:04]

Antjuan, what do you make of the judge stepping in here, though, and saying, look, it is a Congress thing, it is state's thing?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I'm glad the rule of law prevailed and I'm glad this judge stepped up to solidify what most Americans know to be true about how we conduct business in this country when it comes to election. And I'm so thankful that Democratic groups stepped up to the plate to file this lawsuit. Otherwise, we would've been going down a very dangerous path in terms of trying to rewrite the playbook when it comes to elections.

Voter suppression has become an electoral strategy for Republicans since the 2008 election, historic election of President Obama. We've seen election after election, they try at the state level and the federal level to limit how many people and who can participate.

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE DAILY SIGNAL: I would just say, and let's not forget that it was Nancy Pelosi who wanted to federalize elections with HR1 when she was in charge of the house. So, it's not that Democrats haven't tried a strategy of their own on this.

When it comes to the SAVE act, I think it's a common sense proposal that overwhelmingly Republicans have supported. Only four House Democrats voted for that bill. You would need seven Democratic senators to support that, to get it across the finish line into President Trump's desk. That's a high hurdle for Republicans to achieve. However, I hope they continue to put the pressure on.

CORNISH: For me, every one of these cases is a point in a constellation that is about power. Is this Congress' thing? Is this the president's thing? And the president has been so aggressive about expanding executive power.

DOVERE: But it's also a situation where we just don't have a lot of examples ever of voter fraud. We have a lot of talk of voter fraud and a lot of attention to voter fraud and all these laws that are meant to, or executive orders also that are meant to address voter fraud. And yet, what is definitely the case is it is a question of who gets to vote and how they get to vote.

All right, this conversation is going to continue, as you mentioned with The Save Act and other things going on in states.

Going off script for a second, because, heads up, Mother's Day is in two weeks. Don't be that person that has to buy supermarket carnations at the last minute. Isaac, is that you? No?

DOVERE: No. I mean, I thought I going off script was going to be about buying the fire fest for.

CORNISH: Oh, okay. No, it's actually about a new book that is a celebration of motherhood. It's out right now by Tina Knowles. She's the mom two Grammy winners, Solange and Beyonce. And thanks to her style or social media savvy, internet mother to the rest of us. She has a memoir out now called Matriarch.

And our very own Sarah Sidner, who I am jealous of, got to talk to her about it. Sara, obviously this has been kind of a cultural event, partly because I would say that Beyonce is famously private, Tina Knowles, way more revealing on social media, et cetera. So, what does she talk about in the memoir?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Look, it really is the story of black Americans, the descendants of slaves. It's the story of America but seen through her eyes and her family's eyes. And it's deeply personal, but it is very much also about the matriarchs of the family.

And she goes back several generations. Her great grandmother was a slave, her grandmother born to a slave. Her mother, she talks about her extensively and how she sort of lived in fear for her children because Tina Knowles grew up in segregated Galveston, Texas, and you know the history there. But she talks about how her family embraced things that back then were shunned. People were ostracized because of the way that some of her family members were. And I want you to hear how she talks about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TINA KNOWLES, AUTHOR, MATRIARCH, A MEMOIR: I imagine my great, great grandmother who was a slave sewing and making people look great because my mom always said to me and my nephew, you know, if you can make beautiful clothes for people, you'll -- people will always love you. They won't be mean to you. They'll be nice to you. And, you know, my nephew was gay, so, and kind of ostracized sometimes, but my mom was like, that will save your life. You'll never be broke. And people will always like you, because you can sew.

SIDNER: You talk about -- that's Johnny, right?

KNOWLES: That's Johnny.

SIDNER: Is it the same Johnny that Beyonce is singing about? KNOWLES: Oh, absolutely.

SIDNER: I just -- I put that together when I read the book, but I was hoping I was right.

KNOWLES: Yes.

SIDNER: Your family did not ostracize him?

KNOWLES: No, my family didn't at all.

SIDNER: You were cool with gay before gay was cool?

KNOWLES: We didn't know it. Like we were progressive in that his mother, that was her favorite child. So, because we treated him well, other people knew they had to treat him well. Plus it was a bunch of us.

SIDNER: Yes.

KNOWLES: So, if you fought one, you had to fight the crew. So, that protected him a lot too.

SIDNER: And he -- how important was he to the family and the aesthetic of the family?

KNOWLES: He was the nucleus really, of the family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And anyone who was a Beyonce fan knows about Uncle Johnny because she's saying, Uncle Johnny made my dress, on the Renaissance album.

[06:40:03]

And so I was just enthralled in that part of the story in a time when, you know, segregation was very much in place. And you and I both know well, you know, people who came out as gay at that time could very well be killed just for being who they are.

So, it was fascinating to sort of hear these different stories that existed with in her family, as well as she gives you the timing of all of this, so what is happening kind of in the world as well. It is a really wonderful book, Audie.

CORNISH: Yes. And it's unusual because I think that people are interested in, you know, her revelations about her breast cancer battle and her revelations about her marriage with Matthew Knowles, who famously had been the early manager to Destiny's Child. But she kind of took a different route, like really leaning into the matriarch part of this and getting into the history.

SIDNER: Yes. And she does get into, you know, how her troubled marriage. Eventually, she leaves it. And she -- part of that was the catalyst for her writing this book. But the big catalyst for her writing this book was that she said, you know what, I realize how important our history was. And, you know, the name Beyonce is actually a last name.

And one of the reasons why Tina Knowles chose it is because she's like, there will be no more Beyonces. I want to make sure this name continues, and, boy, will it.

CORNISH: Yes. And, of course, all the other young women that she mothered and mentored outside of that family I think for a generation of pop fans, they have a lot to thank Tina Knowles for. And CNN's Sara Sedner, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SIDNER: It's true. Let me just tell you one more tip.

CORNISH: Oh, please do.

SIDNER: She sewed so many of their outfits when Destiny's Child was --

CORNISH: Famously, yes.

SIDNER: The Survivor outfits, like she tells the whole story. We've got much more on all of that, a little bit about Beyonce as well coming up in the next 8:00, a couple hours.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, Sara, getting the Tina outfits is the point. I appreciate your investigative reporting on this. Thank you.

Still to come on CNN This Morning, does the name Kitara Ravache ring a bell? No? What about George Santos? The former congressman is set to be sentenced today. Elliot Williams will join me to dig into the week's biggest legal stories,

And Eva Longoria is back with an all new culinary adventure. She explores the vibrant and daring cuisine of Spain one bite at a time.

Eva Longoria, Searching for Spain, premieres Sunday at 9:00 P.M. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

FMR. REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life.

Hey, club condo. It's your favorite Kitara. After 18 years in the closet, George Santos pulled me back out.

I'm not a fraud, I'm not a cartoon character.

I knew you were trouble when you walked in.

FMR. SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UTH): He's an embarrassment to our party. He's an embarrassment to the United States Congress. SANTOS: It's reprehensible that the senator would say such a thing to me in the demeaning way. He said it wasn't very Mormon of him. That's what I can tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Okay. You might be wondering why we're showing a montage of former New York Congressman George Santos, although you might not. He's really good tape, right? He faces his sentencing hearing today on federal fraud charges.

So, I'm bringing in my friend, CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams, because, honestly, you helped me figure out all things legal. And what surprised me in this case is that it's looking like the Justice Department wants a seven-year prison sentence to remind people he's not going to prison for hanging out in Rio. It was fraud that he was accused of against voters and like taking their money.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. He's not going to jail for being a drag queen or any of that. It's taking people's money and defrauding them, campaign donors as well. And seven years, you and I were talking just before this.

CORNISH: Yes. I couldn't tell. Is that long, short, like --

WILLIAMS: It's a federal offense. It's fraud. And even though he has accepted responsibility, which is something that judges consider in deciding how much to give someone, he's gone on these social media tweet storms calling the Justice Department a cabal of pedophiles based on the nature of the people he defrauded, based on his knowledge of the of the offense, based on --

CORNISH: Yet, here he is on Matt Gaetz. You may remember Matt Gaetz. He has a show on OANN and Santos spoke to him about why he thinks the reason is prosecutors would want this sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTOS: I have the perspective of always looking at the glass half full, and they look at that as arrogance and as petulance instead of just me being me. And they used that against me at every opportunity in an unprecedented move. They did it in a filing. I never thought that my Twitter posts would end up in federal court filings like they did last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Fun fact, your Twitter posts can end up in a federal filing.

CORNISH: Don't tweet through it.

WILLIAMS: Don't tweet through it, and also don't post through it also, but also don't attack your prosecutors when your acceptance of the responsibility of your crimes is a factor that'll be considered. Also, by being an elected official and abusing a position of responsibility, that's something a court can consider too. I think he's getting a fairly substantial sentence based on all that.

CORNISH: I have another big story, because like everyone I know is talking about this. Shannon Sharpe, the ESPN commentator, he's now facing a $50 million lawsuit in Nevada. The woman who claimed the suit, who filed the suit, says that the NFL player sexually assaulted and threatened her multiple times. He is actually stepping away from ESPN and he released this statement. It said, I will be devoting this time to my family and responding and dealing with false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.

ESPN weighed in, got to add this, this is a serious allegation and we agree with Shannon's decision to step away.

[06:50:04]

Put this in context for me, Elliot, because this is not a criminal case.

WILLIAMS: Yes. And that's a lower -- there's a lower --

CORNISH: It's a civil suit.

WILLIAMS: It's a civil suit. One party is suing another for intentional and fiction of emotional distress and other things.

Now, it's a lower standard for getting into court with a criminal with a civil suit. You're merely saying, hey, court, I believe it is more likely than not that this action happened and it happened to me.

Now, this is exceptionally messy. There's text messages, videos or audio recordings.

CORNISH: He's also critical of the lawyer who's representing the plaintiff in the suit, who I didn't know. Can you tell me about it?

WILLIAMS: It's the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the suit, also representing Jay-Z, also representing the accuse,r Jay-Z's accuse,. Diddy's accuser Deshaun Watson, another football players' accuser.

Shannon Sharpe has made the argument that this is an individual who has a business of shaking down, and as he says it, strong black men. And so that's coming up here.

You know, you're seeing a -- I'm not going to say he said. She said that's. It's sort of a cheap way of putting it, but competing allegations about a relationship that certainly started consensual, both parties agreed.

CORNISH: In another era we would just call this a Me oo case.

Yes, it's Complicated. CORNISH: All right. I want to talk about two things related to the Justice Department. Yes, first, federal prosecutors in New York inadvertently made this filing that like undermined their case in New York. It was a case about the congestion pricing, which is not what we're going to talk about now.

But then, the Department of Transportation in the Trump administration, basically yanked them off the case and accused them of legal malpractice. And then in the meantime you had DOJ attorneys having their credibility called into question by judges in another case.

And I guess I want to talk about that. Like we have seen judges here and their finger wagging at attorneys for the Trump administration and there has been speculation in the legal community being put in a bad position or are they actually not good?

WILLIAMS: Once again, the Trump administration has a has a point, Too Point and where they push it a little bit far.

Now, of course, any presidential administration is entitled to have people that can carry out their vision or mission. The presidency changes every four years and the tone of the work that gets done shifts, that's fine. However, anytime an attorney steps into court and makes a statement that either he knows to be not supported by law, a case that he thinks he or she thinks they can't win or, is actually a falsehood. They actually risk their law license.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And so these attorneys are being put in a position of saying, wait a second, my client, the government, has not prepared me for this and has actually put me in a position of making untruths on the court. So, they're breaking from the government there Now, There's a little bit of gray area because the administration can say, wait, just like, no, you're just disagreeing with our position. But in a few of these instances, certainly in the Kilmar Abrego case, the Because immigration matter, the attorney went into court and said, I am not prepared to make this statement because if I do, I will not be making an accurate statement on the court.

They could, and depending on statements they make. The lawyers could. Now of course, the parties could, whether that's the government or the agencies or the agency head. But certainly a lawyer who is found to have made an untruth when sworn in the court could risk their license.

CORNISH: Yes. It's a strange place be though in between your boss and basically potential defendants.

Anyway, Elliot, thank you. You always make sense of things. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you being here this morning.

It's 53 minutes past, the hour morning roundup time. Some of the stories I want you to know as you get your day going.

The Vatican giving people more time to pay their respects to the late Pope Francis. St. Peters Basilica closed for just one hour last night. The funeral is going to be held tomorrow morning.

And a suspect has been arrested in connection to the wildfire still spreading across Southern New Jersey. That's now 50 percent contained.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRADLEY BILLHIMER, OCEAN COUNTY PROSECUTOR: The first charge is aggravated arson. That's a second degree crime punishable by up to ten years in prison. The second charge is just a straight arson. That's a third degree crime punishable by three to five years in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Authorities say the 19-year-old suspect set some wooden pallets on fire and then left before it was out.

Michelle Obama is explaining why she notably skipped President Trump's inauguration. In a new episode of her podcast, the former first lady said the reason was pretty simple.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: I'm here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me. And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right or that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me.

[06:55:00]

That was a hard thing for me to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: She also did not attend former President Jimmy Carter's funeral, and both absences ended up sparking divorce rumors, another thing that she denies.

As the Democratic Party looks to exit the political wilderness in D.C., they're facing angry voters back home demanding they do more. One Democratic congresswoman last night faced booze and heckling over her support for a Republican bill that would change voter laws.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARIE GLUESENKAMP (D-WA): You know, 84 percent of Americans support voter I.D. That's the reality. (BLEEP).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, everybody. Hang on. Let's better to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stick up for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now Democratic Senator Elisisa Slotkin of Michigan is looking at ways to turn that anger into action. Politco reports that Slotkin is now laying out her war plan for Democrats in a new series of speeches, arguing her party is perceived as weak and woke.

Group chat is back to take on weak and woke. First of all, everyone having town halls, it never turns out the way they want. Narrator -- like people are not turning out to support you. But what was interesting about that moment is she was saying, and we had been just talking about this voter legislation, Antjuan. She was saying people support voter I.D. laws, like and then backlash immediately.

Why is this such a struggle to have this conversation with constituents right now?

SEAWATER: Well, I think that's reflective of the diversity of our party and the diversity of the people showing up at these town halls. We don't know where the boos came from in the town hall, where they fall on the progressive side, the modern side or the conservative side. What we do know is that it's easier to be angry than it is informed.

And there are --

CORNISH: It's easier to be angry than it is informed.

SEAWATER: That was true in the 2024.

CORNISH: I hear your mentor, Jim Clyburn, in that moment. It just popped out, Yes.

SEAWATER: Yes, and I'm shooting this election. But different members, frontline members, have different constituency. They have the answer to in a general election. And I think you'll see that on display as these town halls continue throughout the country.

CORNISH: I like you using the word frontline, which in political speak is like the people who actually live in those rare districts that aren't gerrymandered to hell, and actually maybe a chance that you don't know the outcome.

Isaac, I want to talk to you because Slotkin coming out with this weak and woke thing. To me, what's notable about it's yet another person putting forth a roadmap, right? Like someone's got to do it. And so we have a series of speeches coming.

Can you talk about this ongoing conversation even around woke?

DOVERE: There's a lot of talk about. What is the Democratic Party doing to (INAUDIBLE)?

There is not a Democratic Party that's figuring it. There are a lot of Democrats who are trying to figure out what this is.

CORNISH: Oh, that's a good point. Yes.

DOVERE: And so that's what you see. You see Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their tour around things have a very different view of things than Elissa Slotkin, senator for Michigan, does. All sorts of things, Chris Murphy has been going around doing things. He was in North Carolina yesterday with Maxwell Frost. And there's a full range of things. J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, is going to be in New Hampshire this weekend, by the way, like starting some of that stuff up.

CORNISH: Yes. It's giving pre-Trump Republican vibes when there used to be like ten people on stage running for president, right, on the Republican side.

DOVERE: (INAUDIBLE) people who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. So, we'll see if we can answer that.

CORNISH: Graphics team, get it ready.

BLUEY: You also have this debate between the chair and the vice chair of the DNC about whether to go after, you know, individuals.

DOVERE: So, some of that is kind of --- is overwhelming. David Hogg is a notable person. He's done a lot of things since he was part of the Parkland shooting. But he's talking about spending $20 million in primaries in 2026.

$20 million is a -- it is less than 1 percent of the amount of money.

CORNISH: But it's who it's against.

SEAWATER: That is a distraction for our party. I think what's important for us to be united in all fronts and we have to -- voters do not trust us as a brand right now. That's been true in some of the CNN poll. And so we need to be unified on all fronts and certainly in officer of the DNC does not need to position himself in that kind of posture.

CORNISH: Okay. Let's talk about what we're keeping an eye on ahead of this weekend. For me, it's the White House Correspondents' Dinner where there is no comedian, and I'm curious about what I'll be sitting through. But, Isaac, tell me --

DOVERE: It'll be shorter.

CORNISH: Yes, it better be. Tell me with our short time left.

DOVERE: President Trump is headed to the Vatican for the pope's funeral course. I think it'll be interesting to see what the dynamics are, the other world leaders are with President Trump there, and also whether President Biden, former President Biden, who had a very deep relationship with Pope Francis, will be there and what that looks like if he is.

CORNISH: Nice. Rob Bluey?

BLUEY: I'm watching the NFL draft. Shedeur Sanders. Dione Sanders' son, was passed over in round one. So, where will he go? Which team will pick him? And as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I'm certainly hoping that we'll land a quarterback.

CORNISH: That makes sense now. I know more about you. SEAWATER: It's Correspondents' Weekend. No president, no comedian, no entertainment. I'm looking to see what the D.C. bubble media has to say and what the fallout will be.

CORNISH: They have to say.

[07:00:00]

I think he mean -- yes, I was about to say, a lot to drink. Prepare.

Thanks to the group chat. Thank you all for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. We've got more news ahead.

CNN News Central starts right now.