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More Testimony in Combs Trial; King Charles Speaks in Canada; Yoona Sperling-Milner is Interviewed about Federal Contracts Canceled with Harvard; Trump Threatens Funding in California. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 28, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:26]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. And thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It is half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

Ukraine's president meeting with Germany's chancellor today as he looks to shore up support with European allies. And overnight on the war front, Russian officials claim Ukraine launched an aerial attack on Moscow. The city's mayor said at least 26 drones were shot down.

A final boarding call for free bags on Southwest starting today. If you're booking a flight on that airline, the first bag is going to cost you $35, and the second, $45. Southwest had offered free checked bags for about 60 years.

And in just a few hours, jurors in the Sean Combs trial are expected to hear from members of the L.A. police and fire departments. They helped in the investigation involving Kid Cudi's Porsche that they say was set on fire. Jurors heard testimony from one of Diddy's ex assistants about allegations involving Kid Cudi. Capricorn Clark claims that while working for Combs, he had kidnaped her, forced her to go with him to get revenge against Cudi. She says it happened in 2011 after he found out his on again, off again girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, was dating Cudi. She says, quote, "Puff came and got me with a gun and took me to Cudi's house to kill him."

Joining me now to discuss this testimony, defense and trial attorney Misty Marris.

Welcome back, Misty.

You know, I -- the -- Capricorn Clark was supposed to be this pivotal witness for the prosecution because she could shed light on the idea of Diddy's business empire and him using it to create -- to conduct criminal acts.

[06:35:04]

So, did the prosecution get there? MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: Yes, good morning, Audie.

So, they -- they did get some critical testimony out there. And that's because of the racketeering conspiracy charge. It requires proving that there are underlying crimes being committed, called predicate crimes. It's basically, what are Combs and his co-conspirators crimes they are committing in furtherance of a criminal enterprise? And in the indictment there are, what, two acts of kidnaping. And those two acts of kidnaping came out in Capricorn Clark's testimony, one in 2004, when jewelry was stolen and she was brought to a building in lower Manhattan and underwent a five day lie detector test with one of Combs' security guards named Uncle Paulie (ph), who said, if you lie, we're going to throw you into the East River, and also in 2011, as you laid out, when she was forced to go to Combs' house to confront Kid Cudi when he was in a relationship with Cassie Ventura. So, those two acts of kidnaping are part of the prosecution's argument that crimes are being committed by Combs in conjunction with co-conspirators.

So, that's really critical to the RICO conspiracy part of this case. And we're beginning to see that formulate. It's been -- you know, we're in week three now, but really Kid Cudi, and now Capricorn Clark, are witnesses where we see how the prosecution is bringing that case to the jury.

CORNISH: Can we talk about the defense? Because I understand that the defense team is actually trying to get some of the testimony from Kid Cudi thrown out. What's the plan here? What are we looking at?

MARRIS: So, the defense argued that some of what Kid Cudi had said was really just opinion, that there was no evidence that Combs was actually involved in this arson incident where Kid Cudi's car, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into his car. And that is, again, part of this racketeering conspiracy portion of the charge. Arson is another predicate crime that's in the indictment. And prosecutors are seeking to link to Combs and other co-conspirators.

Now, what the defense is argued is that a lot of what Kid Cudi testified to, that Combs was responsible for the arson, that's completely speculative. That it's really not appropriate evidence. It serves as inappropriate character evidence, meaning evidence that tends to show that Combs has a bad character. That's not allowed against the defendant.

So, because it was so conclusory, they're looking to have it struck. But as a trial lawyer myself, whenever the jury has heard something, you really can't unring the bell. Whether it's struck or not, the jury knows what they heard.

And so, really, what the defense attorneys are doing is also preserving appellate issues, where they will go back and say that this testimony should not have been admitted. So, in any case, you're seeing the defense work on a dual track, not only trying to raise reasonable doubt, of course, but also preserving appellate issues if, in fact, the defendant is convicted.

CORNISH: Of course we talked about more witnesses who are going to be on the stand this week, including some investigators, first responders.

Misty Marris, thank you so much for this update. Appreciate it.

MARRIS: Thank you.

CORNISH: And if you can't get enough of the Diddy trial, check out the CNN podcast hosted by my friend Laura Coates. It's called "Trial by Jury." New episodes are out almost every day. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, turning to this. King Charles giving a subtle rebuke to President Trump while making a rare appearance before Canada's parliament, as the president threatens to annex the country and make it the 51st state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING CHARLES: Today, Canada faces another critical moment. Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination and freedom are values which Canadians hold dear, and ones which the government is determined to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, to be clear, this is the first time in nearly 50 years that a monarch delivered the parliamentary address. It's a show of support for Canada.

And the group chat is back to talk more.

Now, obviously, we don't care about monarchies that much here in the U.S., but what do you think is significant about King Charles kind of showing up here with all the medals, to make these very specific comments?

JONATHAN ALLEN, SENIOR NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, NBC NEWS: Well, let me start with where you started. I don't think Americans want to hear a lecture from a British monarch.

CORNISH: Well, it wasn't for the U.S. It was for the Canadian parliament. What are you talking about?

ALLEN: I -- well, but it -- it is -- but it is for us. No, but we're talk -- we're talking about here.

CORNISH: Yes.

ALLEN: He knows that there's a national audience.

Two hundred and fifty years ago we told British kings that they could keep their views on freedom to themselves because they weren't so good, right?

[06:40:03]

So, I -- let's start with that for like the American audience. CORNISH: Yes.

ALLEN: But what is he trying to do? I think he's trying to reassure Canada that the relationship with the U.K. is strong. Look, there's not going to be a war between the U.K. or Europe and the United States over Canada. The United States isn't going to --

CORNISH: I don't think that, but I also think we never thought the U.S. would talk about annexing the -- Canada. Is -- is that -- am I the only one who was shocked by this turn of events?

HYMA MOORE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO DNC CHAIR JAIME HARRISON: No, I -- no, I -- I think you're right. I think the king's like, hands off, President Trump.

But two things I'm interested in seeing coming up. He's -- he's invited, the president, President Trump, to come to see him. So, we'll see how that goes. And will he come to America next year for our anniversary? I don't know. So, I want to see, over the next year, what the relationship between Donald Trump and the president -- I'm sorry, and the king looks like, because it could get really interesting over the next couple months.

CORNISH: Yes. I mean, let's pretend I have a theme of the show for today, and it's your friends and allies, right? Talking about Germany. Talking about Canada. Talking about King Charles. You know, Trump claims that Canada is actually considering becoming the 51st state, posting on Truth Social, "I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System," which is a proposal, "that it would cost $61 billion if they remain a separate but unequal nation, but will cost $0 if they become our cherished 51st state. They're considering the offer."

I'm sure we will probably need to fact check that soon (ph).

Kristen, you were sort of shaking your head earlier.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes We're not annexing Canada. It's not a thing that's going to happen. We can -- we -- it's not going to happen.

CORNISH: What is -- why am I reading Truth Social posts then?

ANDERSON: But I -- but Canada does benefit from being within the general defense umbrella of being a next door neighbor to the United States. And so that's not incorrect that Canada benefits by being our -- our next door neighbor.

I think the king of it all is really interesting because Donald Trump famously, really, really enjoys the pomp and circumstance.

CORNISH: Yes.

ANDERSON: He loves a state visit to London, getting the dinner at Buckingham Palace. He loves all of that. So, I think in some interesting way, this could be meaningful to at

least get Trump to like knock off some of this.

CORNISH: Yes, because he cares about pageantry, right?

ANDERSON: Because he does -- and he cares about the king liking him.

MOORE: Yes, and validation.

ALLEN: We also benefit from Canada in that we have this huge buffer, this huge physical buffer. We have two oceans, the east, the west, the Atlantic, the Pacific. We've got Mexico is an ally that's a buffer. We've got Canada that's a buffer. So, it's not just a one way thing where Canada benefits from us.

CORNISH: Yes.

ALLEN: We also -- and I didn't -- I'm not suggesting, Kristen, that that's what you're saying, but -- but we also benefit from that huge physical barrier.

CORNISH: No, totally.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: Part of the reason I talk about this is because, why are we talking about this? Like every time I have to read a Truth Social post or something, it's just like, I don't -- maybe you can tell me someday what's floating in the ether that makes this a persistent talking point beyond distraction.

ANDERSON: I mean, I -- look, I think Donald Trump probably views the world in some ways like a little bit of a monopoly board, right? Like, where can I put a hotel? But that doesn't mean -- we're not going to annex Canada.

CORNISH: OK. OK. So, put down my monocle. This --

ANDESON: I feel -- look, you can replay this clip the day that we do and say, look what a moron Kristen was, although I think at that point we'll have other bigger fish to fry.

CORNISH: Yes, we'll have --

ALLEN: I'll check -- check in with you. We can -- we can (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: The group chat will be very different then, OK.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: Please stick around. We've got a lot more to talk about.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about a case of kidnaping and torture and crypto because another person is behind bars in connection with the abduction of an Italian bitcoin trader in New York. Plus, we're also going to talk with one Harvard student who has a

simple message to the Trump administration, come at me, bro.

More from the group chat.

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[06:47:52]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN GARER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT I don't know fully what the motivations are, but I do know that there are people who are fighting a cultural battle. I don't know if that is what is driving the administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, that was Harvard's president defending his school from yet another new threat from President Trump. This time it's about a cut all federal ties with the university. So, the General Services Administration actually sent a letter recommending that agencies terminate any federal contracts with Harvard. The remaining deals are about worth $100 million.

So, you also have more than $2 billion in research grants, which have already been canceled, and an attempt to ban foreign students from enrolling there. The moves are being met with defiance by many on campus, including our next guest, whose recent op-ed in "The Harvard Crimson" is titled "Come At Me, Bro." Opinion writer Yona Sperling Milner joins me now.

Yona, thanks for being here.

And I -- I feel like I need to explain the come at me bro bit, which is that you did this -- this satire directed at the education secretary, Linda McMahon, who, of course, is involved with the WWE in her past. And you wrote, "in my Jewish name, you and your entourage have destroyed research on cancer and heart disease, threatened to essentially deport my friends, and tried to increase Harvard's tax burden 15-fold. Stop it. Put that down. Let's settle this like biological women: Knock-down, TKO, cage match." Can you talk about why you're leaning into that particular history, because it's definitely a vibe shift from what we're hearing from Harvard's president.

YONA SPERLING-MILNER, OPINION WRITER, "HARVARD CRIMSON": Oh, yes.

So, I think it's clear to me at least that the Trump administration cutting funding from Harvard's ability to do critical research does not directly combat anti-Semitism. It doesn't even directly counter DEI, which is another one of the stated reasons. And instead, it's about this highly visible process of basically punching Harvard in the face and trying to bring this really powerful and really symbolic institution to heel.

And I think it's just sort of unnecessary that in this very, very symbolic battle between these two giants, that so many other things seem (ph) to be caught in the crossfire. My international friends, and again all this critical research.

[06:50:03]

So instead, what if it was just one on one, me and Linda McMahon, both of us wearing those like sparkly sequined unitards and just punching each other in the face.

CORNISH: Yona, I'm scared of you right now. So, I appreciate that -- that pitch.

I -- I want to put something to you, though, because we heard from Harvard's president. He was talking to NPR. They also asked him this question about anti-Semitism at Harvard, right, which is the thrust of so much of the Trump administration's arguments. And the president said the main -- the president of Harvard said, well, "the main manifestation of anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias that we've grappled with has to do with social exclusion. It has to do with shunning. If a student sits down at a dining room table and they have good conversations with students who don't know them, other students find out that student is Israeli, if they refuse to continue to speak to them, we have a serious problem that we need to address."

I wanted to put that to you because it's so specific, right? It's giving an example about student life. I don't think you represent all American Jews on campus, but what do you think when you hear that?

SPERLING-MILNER: You know, that strikes me as very, very true, because the ADL has research that shows that the most educated Americans are actually the least likely to harbor anti-Semitic sentiments. And instead, I think the phenomenon we're seeing on campus is that students just don't know how to deal with people they disagree with. And they've been terrible for so long to conservatives on campus. And now, in a very visible way, they've been terrible to Zionists and to Jewish students on campus. And this inability to parse like, OK, I disagree with you, but you're still a human being and I'm going to treat you like a mensch is, I think, what's really driving a lot of the problems that we've been seeing on campus.

CORNISH: We heard from one of your fellow students that they felt like this -- they were being used essentially as poker chips in this battle. I want to understand, can you reconcile these two things? One, this concern you've raised about intolerance on campus, but, two, the way the administration is focusing on it, because in the middle are just regular students. And I haven't heard from your alumni to defend you.

SPERLING-MILNER: Right. I think it's very tricky for me at least to figure out how these external pressures are impacting the serious internal work that our elite universities really do have to do. Because, on the one hand, some might argue that without this kick in the butt nobody was ever going to do anything. But on the other hand, it's very, very difficult to critique yourself and to improve yourself when you're actually defending yourself from all these outside influences who say that you're x and y. And, well, yes, you're a little x and you're a little y, but not all to the extent that they're saying. And it's not really clear that what the Trump administration is doing is helping so much as making this process much, much harder.

CORNISH: And for students, is the lesson of the last few years you can and should speak out, or that maybe not so much, that that's a privilege, not a right?

SPERLING-MILNER: You know, I think it's really interesting. I think the pendulum has been swinging for a few years now in a direction of more speech on campus. I think that might be in part the work of fire (ph), but in part just like things reached a breaking point and people realized that the way that speech was on campus was simply -- could not continue. And I've been really impressed, both in my couple of years on the editorial board in "The Crimson" and just in my day to day conversations with students, that people really are willing to engage in difficult conversations, much more than they were two years ago.

CORNISH: Yona Sperling-Milner, opinion writer at "The Harvard Crimson," who will probably have my job in three to four years, thank you for being here.

SPERLING-MILNER: Thanks so much, Audie.

CORNISH: It's 52 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup.

Chaotic scenes at the first day of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza. These images showing thousands of people rushing to get food as Israeli troops fired warning shots. Palestinian health officials say one person was killed in the chaos, 48 others confirmed wounded. They did not give more details.

A second suspect has turned himself in in this -- surrounding the alleged kidnaping and torture of a cryptocurrency trader. Prosecutors say the victim was held hostage in an apartment in Manhattan for weeks but managed to escape. Another suspect, who was arrested on Friday, will be in court today. The police report said they wanted the password to the victim's bitcoin wallet, which had millions of dollars in it.

And then there's this. SpaceX launched its ninth test flight of its megarocket. It did not go as planned. The company says it lost contact with it. And then here's how they described what happened. A rapid, unscheduled disassembly. Or in layman's terms, it fell apart. But this test did go farther in flight than the ones from earlier this year.

And snakes on a plane, fiction. Birds on a plane, real. Delta passengers in Minneapolis had to deal with two stowaway pigeons flying back and forth. Some even tried to catch it in a jacket. Eventually, the birds were safely removed from the plane.

[06:55:04]

And President Trump says he'll stop federal dollars from going to California if it allows a transgender athlete to participate in an upcoming track and field event. The group that oversees school sports there is allowing more biological female student athletes to also compete. And here's what California's governor said about the issue back in March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you say no men in female sports?

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Well, I -- I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Group chat is back.

We're going to talk about this, although I feel like I need to process all the things I just said in the last few minutes between the snakes and Harvard and that -- the rocket coming apart, disassembling, which is going to be my new code name.

ANDERSON: (INAUDIBLE) disassembling.

CORNISH: Yes, that's what I'm going to use.

Can we talk about how a place like California politically reconciles with this kind of policy push? We've talked a lot about Democrats and trans athletes and this issue.

Kristen, I always come to you first because you talk to people about it.

MOORE: Yes.

ANDERSON: Yes. I mean this is one of those issues where there are lots of things where if you say, Donald Trump did x, Democratic voters go, no, thank you, I don't want any part of it. But actually, this is one of those issues that I even find majorities of Democrats going, you know, I think we may have gone too far. I worry about young biological female athletes and the effect on them. And so this is the sort of thing -- that's why you see somebody like Gavin Newsom sitting across the table from a conservative influencer like Charlie Kirk going, you know, you might have a point.

MOORE: Yes. Look, I don't think it's really about the sports. I do think, to your point, what we learned over the last election, I think people care more about it than we thought, Democrats thought. And it's not just about sports. It's about kids. It's about a right for parents to allow their kids to identify, you know, with their gender. And so, I don't know, I think Gavin Newsom, who probably wants to be president, I think he's made clear moves to distance himself from that and the Democratic Party, and I think he represents a lot of people, not only in California, but around the country.

CORNISH: The other thing that's interesting is, I think it's all the execution sometimes.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: Like, how far are you willing to go to enforce these things? What is going to be involved with parents, kids and coaches and saying, well, what is your gender? You need to start sending us information about your menstruation, et cetera. We see how far this can go in like state level legislation.

Jonathan, when you hear this discussion, especially when it's about federal purse strings, right, like being able to leverage policy through money, what are you thinking about the approach?

ALLEN: I mean, look, I think the Trump administration learned from past Democratic administrations that said, if you're not going to play by the rules we want you to play by to various states then we're going to cut off your funding. I think the Democrats were more limited in what they've done in the past, and both parties have done it some. I mean there was a -- the -- the good example is transportation. Louisiana for a long time wouldn't raise its drinking age to 21. And the federal government cut off federal funds for transportation there.

But when you look at Gavin Newsom, he watched Kamala Harris run for president from California with California values on this issue, where there was video of her saying that she thought that transgender prisoners who were illegal immigrants should get state funding to have transgender surgeries.

CORNISH: Right. And in answering, I think it was an advocacy group, right --

ALLEN: Yes.

CORNISH: Was saying, what do you think of these things?

ALLEN: Right. But there's video of her saying, if you're Gavin Newsom, you want to run for president, like, you just watched this movie play and your own party said -- said to Kamala Harris, don't worry about it. Her campaign, don't worry about it. The data show that this isn't an effective ad. And I'm here to tell you, for the millions of Americans watching football games and watching that ad and watching the World Series, men, women, regardless of race, regardless of religion, they looked at that and said, that's not what, you know, what the mainstream values are. And so, if you're Newsom, you're trying to get yourself as far away from that as possible.

CORNISH: OK, you guys, I want to leave us some time to talk about what you're keeping an eye on. And I want to start with you, Hyma.

MOORE: Great. So, I'm a very deep internet. So, a popular streamer, Kai Cenat, just launched this new sort of online thing called Streaming University, where he's teaching content creators how to be better streamers. But I think the greater point is here, a lot of particularly gen z, they're -- they're consuming media differently. It's authentic. It's more direct. It's minute by minute. And so, I'm really interested to see how this is going to permeate through society over the next couple months.

CORNISH: Streaming University, an option if you can't get into Harvard.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: OK. Go ahead, Jonathan.

ALLEN: I'm going to go real quick. There's -- on the front page of "The New York Times."

CORNISH: Citizens may feel migrant aid cuts.

ALLEN: And this is what I want to say. If you play us versus them politics, and Donald Trump definitely does that, there is a point, and we're going to see this here with citizens maybe feeling migrant aid cuts, where some of the downstream effects of the policies start affecting people that are part of the U.S., and you start losing bits of your coalition. And it's something that they got to watch out for.

[07:00:04]

CORNISH: Kristen, last word to you.

ANDERSON: When a bar fight breaks out, a child's game is often to blame. Apparently gen z, which I've always thought of as nostalgic for the '90s, are really into the 1970s these days, and Uno is all the rage. And apparently this now warrants "The Wall Street Journal" saying, hey, the kids are actually getting perhaps a little too violent at their game night.

CORNISH: Which feels just right for our politics.

You guys, thank you so much for waking up with me. Thank you for waking up with us. We know there's a lot of places you can spend your time. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.