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CNN This Morning

Frontier Airlines Jet Bound For LAX Hits Person On Runway; CDC Teams Will Meet Americans On Hantavirus-Stricken Ship; Russia Holds Downsized Victory Day Parade; Virginia Supreme Court Blocks Democrat Congressional Map; U.S. Awaits Iran's Response To Proposal To End War. U.S. Awaits Iran's Response to Proposal to End War Despite Exchange of Fire; Search Resumes for Hikers Killed After Volcano Erupts in Indonesia; Inmates Say They were Punished for Speaking Out About Epstein Accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired May 09, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:33]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is 6:00 a.m. Eastern. And welcome to CNN This Morning. We begin with breaking news this morning.

Passengers are forced to evacuate a Frontier Airlines jet after it hit a person on the Runway during takeoff. We'll have more on that coming up.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's impossible for them to determine now anything as far as where and how long we'll be isolated in a facility versus home isolation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Health officials will be waiting when a cruise ship carrying people stricken with hantavirus docks in the Canary Islands. We're live with the latest, including what people on board are dealing with.

And Democrats are vowing to ramp up their redistricting efforts after courts dealt two bruising blows this week. And now another state is trying to change its maps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody was happy about her being there. You know, one we had, we all felt like we were being punished for her being there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Plus this inmate housed in the same facility as Ghislaine Maxwell say they were punished for speaking out about her being there. We have that exclusive CNN reporting ahead on CNN This Morning.

It is Saturday, May 9th. And thank you so much for joining us this morning. I'm Danny Freeman in for Victor Blackwell. We begin with breaking news out of Denver International Airport where officials there say a Frontier Airlines jet hit a person as it was taking off at about 11:19 p.m. local time. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4345, we're stopping on the Runway. We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4345, I see that. Southwest Frontier 4345, I'm going to be rolling the trucks now. Can you the know the souls on board and fuel remaining?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 4345. We have 231 souls on board. We have 21,320 pounds of fuel on board. There was an individual walking across the Runway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we are rolling the trucks down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got smoke in the aircraft. We're going to evacuate on the Runway.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FREEMAN: OK. So the plane was preparing to take off for Los Angeles when you heard it hit the person. The airport says there was a brief engine fire and everyone on board was evacuated using slides. Thankfully no one on board was hurt. We don't know the condition of the person hit or even why that person was on the Runway. The NTSB has been called to the scene to investigate.

To this story now, Centers for Disease Control staffers are on their way to the Canary Islands. They'll meet with American passengers on the MV Hondius as soon as it docks, hopefully tomorrow morning.

Health officials are racing to contain an outbreak of hantavirus on board. The virus is usually spread via rodents, but the six confirmed cases and two probable cases are of the Andi strain of the virus. Still the hantavirus strain that can transfer from person to person. Now those on board the ship say staffers are diligently investigating to figure out just what happened. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEPHEN KORNFELD, ABOARD HANTAVIRUS-HIT CRUISE SHIP: We were appropriately distanced, but they were wearing masks. And we all went through an interview process about contacts and our health and how we're feeling. Our temperature was taken, our medications were reviewed, and that's kind of helping them piece together what happened and to help them predict what might happen in the future based on exposures.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FREEMAN: The ship is slated to dock at the port of Grenadier. 10 Arrive tomorrow morning if the weather holds up. And after the CDC staffers conduct risk assessments on the American passengers, they'll fly to Nebraska on a charter flight and they'll be in quarantine at the National Quarantine Unit. There's joining me now From Tenerife is CNN's Melissa Bell.

Melissa, tell us, what are you learning this morning?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the southern tip of Tenerife where we expect that ship to dock probably in the next 14 to 15 hours when you consider how far away it still is and the speed at which it's moving. But of course, as you said, the weather conditions are an issue. The weather's been turning a little bit. They expect it to worsen into Tuesday.

And that's why you're going to have this very short window for these people to be brought off this ship.

[06:05:03]

And there's a number of complicating factors, Danny, not least the fact that the local elected officials, the president of the Canary Islands, has been in conversations with authorities in Madrid, these are Spanish islands, about the sort of modalities for this disembarkation process.

And what they've agreed really to calm the local people here is that the ship will not actually dock here along that dock. It's going to be anchored just offshore and it is on the ship itself.

You heard there from the doctor a moment ago that screening process has already been ongoing on board. But then there'll be another one here. When the ship arrives whilst the passengers are still on it, then it's going to start, begin this sort of very slightly complicated operation where speedboats, as we understand it, will come up alongside the ship and take groups of nationals to their waiting plane at the airport, which is not very far away.

The idea is to really ensure that there is no contact possible between anyone on the ship and anyone here on Tenerife.

From there, then these flights, specially chartered flights, including the one that will take the Americans all the way to Nebraska, that have bio containment units, the kind of planes that were used during COVID times, will then take all of these people back to their destiny, home destinations. There are 23 nationalities on board and then what you see are very different approaches to how they should be contained and monitored.

For instance, the Spanish citizens, and there are about 14 of them, 13 passengers plus one crew member, will go straight to Madrid and be put in a military hospital. They won't have any right to any visitors. They'll be there for at least seven days, monitored morning, noon and night to take their temperatures and to see the state of their health. The Brits, on the other hand, will be heading to the United Kingdom

and will be encouraged to self-isolate for 45 days. That's how long they're asking them to isolate from the rest of society and even their loved ones.

So it's a very different process according to where you're going. But still it is here, we expect sometime overnight, 1, 2, 3:00 a.m. that the ship will finally dock and this nightmare will be over at least. Danny.

FREEMAN: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you so much for that update. A lot of moving parts in the coming hours for sure. Joining me now is Dr. Abraar Karan. He's an infectious disease specialist with Stanford University.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us early to break down the intensity of what we're seeing out there. Let's start here, if that's all right. Just because so many of us nowadays naturally tense up when we hear news of a dangerous virus.

As of now, though, what is the risk of this hantavirus spreading widely in your view?

DR. ABRAAR KARAN, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Thanks so much for having me. Overall, the risk is quite low and I'll break down why. So fundamentally, the people that were confirmed cases at this point are either -- unfortunately have either passed away or are in medical care. And the people that were exposed to them are roughly the ones that we know of from the ship are undergoing a protocol where we know where they are, who they are, where they're going to be isolated or quarantined as a more correct term. The bigger risk is actually the people that had left the ship in earlier in April because some of those people may actually have been exposed to someone that was contagious at that time. And I do know that the WHO and other entities have contacted those people, but those are people that have already gone back to their home states here in the United States across various places. And to my knowledge, they are quarantining and there is contact with them. But the overall risk, I would say, is still quite low. FREEMAN: Doctor, the confirmed cases of the virus on board, as we understand, have been this Andi strain. Can you tell me what's different about this specific strain of hantavirus? KARAN: Absolutely. So Andi species is essentially found in South America and it is the only hantavirus species that transmits between people after that initial spillover from rodent into the first case. And we have a very well documented outbreak. New England Journal of Medicine, 2018, 2019. And in that it shows the transmission pattern between the people that were contagious and those they infected. And the reality is in that outbreak there were one or two, actually three total cases that had very significant onward spread in close, crowded settings, including a birthday party, including at the funeral of one of the cases where they infected between five and 10 people each. But the vast majority of people will only infect those who are there in very close extended contact with. FREEMAN: Doctor, I'm curious. So, Melissa Bell was describing that there's going to be almost a ballet of sorts of different countries taking different actions when that ship docks likely tomorrow. Does the difference in any of the ways that these countries are handling these people give you any pause? KARAN: It does, and I did actually anticipate this may be the case. [06:10:02] Because when you have a virus that has a long incubation period, meaning the time from when you're exposed to when your symptoms actually develop, that means that those people are potentially at risk of starting to become contagious at some point. And if you look closely at that study, the patients were anywhere from

nine days to up to 40 days. Now, the WHO recommends having 42 days of quarantine to monitor symptoms. Now, how closely you do it is going to be really important because as you imagine, if you leave it up to people and they have the option of just leaving to go to the grocery store, do other things, and they don't take the severity of this in full, then there are risks there. So I would expect, and I would say what's most important is to have very close monitoring the way that the people who are returning to the United States are going to have when they're going to to go to the biocontainment unit in Nebraska. So I do want to emphasize that there is a risk if you don't take this

seriously and just leave it up to people to figure it out, that is not going to work. FREEMAN: Doctor, I only have about 20 seconds left. Can you just illustrate to our viewers just how rare it is to see an outbreak of hantavirus like this?

KARAN: It's exceptionally rare. I mean, the last well documented one was what, about five years, six years ago now. And also the fact that they this happened to start on the cruise ship, it actually helped us in a way because it allowed us to quickly detect that an outbreak was actually happening. If this person returned to a big city and not a cruise ship, it may not even have been detected for much longer. But overall, quite rare to see this.

FREEMAN: Wow. That's the first perspective that happening on a cruise ship might have actually helped us in terms of any potential containment. Dr. Abraar Karan --

KARAN: Yes.

FREEMAN: -- thank you so much for getting up early and for breaking all that down with us. I really do appreciate it.

KARAN: Thanks so much.

FREEMAN: All right, coming up, a major blow to Democrats in the redistricting fight in Virginia. The state Supreme Court avoided the Democrats attempt to redraw the congressional maps. So coming up next, we're going to tell you the impact this could have ahead the midterms.

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[06:16:48]

FREEMAN: New this morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin is presiding over a scaled back Victory Day military parade. This year there are no tanks or heavy artillery, a departure from the usual show of force. This year's parade will only feature troops marching in a military flyover. Russia is citing security threats as the reason for the pared back event. It comes as a three-day ceasefire with Ukraine begins today.

And Canvas the system used by millions of students is back up and running after a cyber attack knocked it offline on Thursday. The platform is used by more than 30 million people in 8,000 schools and universities globally. The disruption forced some schools to push back deadlines and final exams.

The FBI is advising students to wait for guidance from their school about what exactly to do next. They're also warning people to be wary of scammers claiming to have access to their personal data.

And the Pentagon released newly declassified files on UFO sightings, some never seen before. The documents span decades, including reports from military pilots, troops and even NASA missions.

Now officials say the files include photos, videos and firsthand accounts, some with fewer redactions than ever before. The government plans to keep rolling out more as it pushes for more transparency on what it calls unidentified aerial phenomena.

The Virginia Supreme Court blocked a Democratic plan yesterday to redraw congressional maps that voters approved last month. Now justices ruled the process violated the state constitution. The plan could have given Democrats up to four more seats and Democrats say they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Well, here's what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN. We're exploring all options legislative in the state Supreme Court and as it relates to federal court based on an unprecedented decision to overturn the will of more than 3 million Virginia voters. Rep. Ben Cline, one of the Virginia Republicans whose districts was targeted, wrote, quote, this is the correct decision and it was always going to end up this way.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has more on where this redistricting battle now stands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Danny, the Virginia State Supreme Court delivered a major blow to Democrats as they've waged this redistricting battle that was first started by President Donald Trump heading into the midterm elections. Virginia Supreme Court blocked the Democratic drawn congressional maps that were approved by voters in a referendum in late April. That map could have potentially netted the Democratic Party an additional four House seats from Virginia.

But the state Supreme Court ruled that the creation of the referendum violated the state's constitution. There is a clause in the constitution that requires that the General Assembly vote two times on any proposed constitutional amendment that they are sending to voters with a general election intervening in between. Republicans argued that the General Assembly's first vote on this

matter in mid-October was taking place while there was already a general election underway, including in the state's governor's race. And the state Supreme Court went ahead and sided with those arguments.

[06:20:03]

Now, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that they will pursue every avenue possible to try to overturn this ruling from the state Supreme Court. But it's unclear whether Democrats will have success on that front. Now, big picture here, this is a major setback for Democrats heading into the midterm elections.

Democrats and Republicans have been engaged in this nationwide redistricting battle that President Trump first started in the state of Texas. And the way that this has shaken out so far, Republicans appear to have an eight seat advantage in the redistricting fight. There's a potential that could expand even more. And that is because a number of states, Republican led states in the south have said that they are considering pursuing redrawing the congressional maps before November, that includes Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama.

Tennessee had already moved forward with that. That stems from a Supreme Court ruling just last week where they had invalidated a majority minority district in the state of Louisiana. So right now, Democrats have a very steep hill to climb as they try to claw their way back to the majority in November.

Democrats still feel that the political sentiment in this country is on their side at this moment. They want to tap into that frustration with President Donald Trump and also the economy. But every single congressional seat will matter in this midterm race in November. And right now, it does appear that at least on the redistricting front, Republicans have the upper hand. Danny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Arlette Saenz, thank you for that reporting. Coming up next, a CNN exclusive. Inmates alleged preferential treatment for Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell while she was at a minimum security prison camp in Texas.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she had a visitation, she would get to -- they closed the chapel and the indoor rec and allowed her to use that building for her personal visits.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

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[06:26:37]

FREEMAN: This morning, the U.S. is waiting to hear back from Iran on a proposal to end the war. President Trump had previously said he expected a response by last night. Yesterday, a U.S. fighter jet fired on two Iranian-flagged tankers, disabling them.

U.S. Central Command released the video and Central Command claimed the vessels had breached the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. In the meantime, a ceasefire between the two countries is still in place. Joining me now to discuss is Jasmine El-Gamal. She's a former Middle East advisor to the Department of Defense.

And Jasmine is also the founder and CEO of Averos Strategies. Jasmine, good morning. Let's start here. The U.S. had been waiting for that response sometime Friday from Tehran about some sort of agreement to end the war.

Friday came and gone. Does it seem like there is a willingness on both sides at this point to actually come to an agreement on ending the war?

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FORMER MIDDLE EAST ADVISOR, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Good morning, Danny. Thank you for having me. Well, obviously the two sides want to end this war. They're both really feeling the heat and the pressure in different ways.

Iran from the economic sense and then in the U.S. of course, President Trump is feeling the heat with the midterm elections coming up and rising discontent within the American public about the war. But the problem is the diplomacy and the language that's being used. It's easy to see that President Trump is frustrated.

But every time there seems to be some sort of progress in these talks, if it doesn't go as quickly as the president wants, he starts making these really bombastic statements and threats publicly, the latest of which you just saw a couple of days ago, which then caused the Iranians to entrench their position even further. So that's something that's causing a glitch in moving these negotiations forward.

But I will tell you that should the two parties find a way back to the negotiating table, they do want to end the war. But the issues on the negotiating table are still very much difficult, positions on which the two sides are pretty far apart still.

FREEMAN: Well, I'll get to the negotiating table in a moment, but just before we even get there, the U.S. has said the ceasefire is still in place, and yet that's all, despite both sides trading strikes late this week. Is this cease fire actually holding in your eyes?

EL-GAMAL: Look, I mean, it's hard to call it a ceasefire when obviously you see attacks on the UAE, attacks on Iranian ships. But the reason they -- the reason I think it's positive that the two sides are still calling it a ceasefire, at least, is because it does give us an indication that they don't necessarily want to revert back to a real escalation between the two sides.

But this is the sort of, you know, President Trump going back and forth between wanting to move talks forward and then feeling frustrated and then making these statements that are not helpful. This is something that's causing a little bit of a strain between the two sides, and mediators are having a really hard time getting both sides to tone down their public statements so that the talks can start in earnest.

FREEMAN: All right, so let's get back to those talks then. Now, Iran's nuclear enrichment program, obviously, that's been one of the key sticking points here. Jasmine, from your perspective, is there a realistic compromise on this so difficult issue where both sides could walk away claiming some sort of a win?

[06:30:02]

EL-GAMAL: Look, I'll tell you, the short answer to that is yes. And I say that because the Iranians have negotiated over their nuclear program before when I was at the Pentagon during the Obama administration, and my colleagues were working on the JCPOA, that proved that Iran had a willingness to negotiate over the details of its program.

It's not a red line for them. They do want the U.S. to acknowledge that Iran has the right to enrich nuclear material, but they don't necessarily -- they're not wedded to actually doing so. We knew from the Iran -- from the Omani Foreign Minister just before this current war started, that Iran was coming to the table with some concessions that he felt they hadn't made before even during the Obama administration.

So, that's not what worries me. What worries me is that I think the Iranian position has shifted since this war, when they found out that they could hold the Strait of Hormuz, and that they have this leverage that they didn't necessarily have before, they are now going to be negotiating in their minds more from a position of strength than they did before.

And the U.S. still seems to think that they have the upper hand over Iran, and that's why you're seeing this mismatch in the expectations between the two sides. So, I think that the Americans are going to have to come into this with an updated understanding of where the Iranians are, how far they can push them in order for these talks to gain steam this time around.

FREEMAN: Yes, and again, the theme that we keep hearing is, which side can hold out at this point for longer? Jasmine El-Gamal, thank you --

EL-GAMAL: Thanks --

FREEMAN: So much as always for sharing your insight, I really do appreciate it.

EL-GAMAL: Thanks.

FREEMAN: All right, new this morning. Rescue crews in Indonesia have resumed their search for the bodies of three hikers killed after a volcanic eruption. Mount Dukono erupted as 20 people were climbing it on Friday and 17 surviving climbers were rescued near the crater of the mountain on Friday.

They told authorities that three people died in the blast. One hundred rescuers, military and police personnel are now working on that search and recovery operation. We now turn to a CNN exclusive. Inmates who were serving time alongside Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell say they were punished for speaking out about her.

Maxwell, you might remember, was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, just days after she was interviewed by the Justice Department. Well, CNN's MJ Lee spoke with some of those inmates who served time with Maxwell.

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Danny, we are hearing for the first time from inmates who served time with Ghislaine Maxwell, and they say they were punished after speaking out about her.

The context here, of course, is that last Summer, Maxwell was suddenly transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, which was puzzling since a convicted child sex-offender is not typically allowed to serve time at a minimum-security facility like that.

Plus, adding to the intrigue at the time was that this came right after Maxwell had this very unusual two-day interview with the deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche. Now, Julie Howell was one inmate at Bryan who was really upset about all of this.

She says she consulted the inmate's handbook, which said she could talk to media, and she decided to respond to a reporter at the Telegraph who had reached out. This is a part of what Julie told me in her first interview since her prison sentence recently ended.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE HOWELL, FORMER INMATE, BRYAN PRISON CAMP: And so, I was a little -- I guess -- I don't use the word lightly. It was like a trigger because of, you know, my experience with my daughter being trafficked, and just knowing all of the research I had done that the camps are supposed to be for non-violent offenders.

I was very upset about her being moved. I said, you know, I had spoken to other inmates, nobody was happy about her being there. You know, one, we had -- we all felt like we were being punished for her being there, and then given her crime, she shouldn't be there per BOP policies and procedures. And so, it just -- it was very unfair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: A BOP spokesperson told CNN that the bureau doesn't discuss details related to specific inmates. They did say that the BOP is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, impartiality and professionalism in the operations of its facilities.

They said that inmates can communicate with members of the media, but with prior approval. Though, one prison expert I spoke with said that it is absolutely not typical for an inmate to be punished for speaking to a reporter. The DOJ and lawyers for Maxwell also did not respond to requests for comment. Danny?

FREEMAN: MJ Lee, thank you so much for that reporting. Coming up, will cameras be allowed at the trial of the man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk?

[06:35:00]

We have the new ruling from a judge and its impact on the case. That and much more coming up, next.

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FREEMAN: A Utah judge ruled Friday that cameras will be allowed in the courtroom for the trial of Tyler Robinson; the man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk during a Turning Point USA event last September.

[06:40:00]

Robinson has not entered pleas for the charges he faces, and his preliminary hearing has been delayed until July 6th. Joining me now is CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. Joey, let's start right here. What do you make of this ruling to allow cameras in the courtroom?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Danny, good to be with you. I think it was certainly something that was anticipated. Remember that under Utah law, there's a presumption that there should be transparency in that -- the courtroom should be public and open.

In fact, interestingly enough, and 47 states in the United States that essentially is the case. And so, in order to really establish that the balancing test requires it to be banned, you really have to show such extreme prejudice.

And when I say balancing test, Danny, look on the one side, you certainly want to ensure a fair trial. Trial should be covered fairly; you don't want sensationalism. You don't want any issue that would impair the right of a person, particularly who is facing the death penalty, to have their rights impaired.

At the same time, the public has a right to know what's happening, and transparency in many ways argues for things to be done fairly, things to be done above board. And there are certainly restrictions as well that the judge imposed, right?

You're not going to see the defendant in shackles. He's entitled to the presumption of innocence. That's important. You're not going to really see papers up close on the desk or hear the conversations between him and his lawyers. That's very important.

And of course, the jurors in that type of thing will not be shown. So, I think if you could put restrictive elements into it, which allow for the public's interest to be satisfied, and generally court proceedings are open, right?

I think that, that actually would allow for the fairness of a trial, not allow for the trial to be unfair. So, I think it's a ruling that's predicated upon the law, predicated upon the specific facts. And I think it's one that would certainly maintain his interest while at the same time allowing the public to be involved, as they should in a public proceeding.

FREEMAN: Just very quickly on that story before we move on, is there any other way, though, that the court could ensure the jury pool would not be tainted by the public display of this trial so far, or at least, getting -- even the processes before any trial started.

JACKSON: So, what happens then is that, listen, you know, we're in a society now that is so dialed in with regard to everything. You have social media, a plenty -- people are on it every day. People are watching their TVs.

And so, when you really select a trial, the standard is not whether you've heard about the case, or even whether you have an opinion about the case, that's not the standard. The standard -- when you select the jurors, they'll be 12.

This is an aggravated murder case, meaning again, he faces the death penalty. The standard is, can you put that aside and evaluate the evidence on what you see in the courtroom? What you hear in the courtroom, what you observe, know and understand in the courtroom.

If you're a juror, not necessarily have you heard things? You know what happened to Charlie Kirk. What do you think about Charlie Kirk? What do you think about Turning Point USA, which he was obviously intricately involved with?

What do you think about his wife? That's not it. Can you put that aside, sir, or ma'am, and evaluate this case on the merits of the witnesses before you? That's it. If you say you can, then you have a good chance of being selected, in the event you can't, then you're disqualified as of right.

It's called a challenge for cause. And so, I think that cameras can be, and apparently, 47 other states believe also an important component without violating a defendant's cherished right, to be clear, on having a fair, impartial trial, and the jurors ultimately getting it right from what they see in court.

FREEMAN: Joey, I want to turn to another case. The White House Correspondents Dinner shooting suspect's lawyers, they want to disqualify U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche from the case, because they were at the dinner and presumably also potential targets of the accused shooter here.

Jeanine Pirro told CNN; she is not planning on recusing herself from the case. I just wanted your perspective. Do you see that as a mistake?

JACKSON: So, Danny, I think that the defense certainly has an issue, right? That they're going to really bring to the court. And obviously, they found -- they filed a motion in that regard. Now, what is the issue?

The issue is not whether you like Jeanine Pirro, whether you like Todd Blanche, people have opinions aplenty about everything in the world. The issue is whether the fact that they are essentially victims, number one, and number two, witnesses, whether that would in any way allow them to make decisions or incentivize them to make decisions that are not on the merits, right?

When a person is divorced and disconnected from a case, doesn't mean they don't have an opinion. But the fact that you're there, even if it's -- Miss Pirro noted, you're one of 2,500, 2,600, however many people were there.

Yes, that's true, but because you're calling the shots on the case, and because it was so personally connected to you, and you were a victim, can you do that properly?

[06:45:00]

So, I think they certainly have an issue, I think the judge, Danny, will want to hear more evidence and information. And in the event that the defense can establish a conflict of interest in any way that prejudices the actual defendant's rights in this case, I think that the judge will act accordingly.

But we're not there yet. We'll see what other issues come up as a result of them being there and being victims and being witnesses.

FREEMAN: Yes, well, so that's going to be a fascinating case to watch as it plays out. Joey Jackson, as always, thank you so much for getting up early and sharing your expertise, appreciate it.

JACKSON: Absolutely, thanks, Danny.

FREEMAN: All right, coming up next in sports, San Antonio's 7-foot star makes history leading the Spurs to a win in the Western Conference semifinals, Andy Scholes, he's got the highlights coming up next.

And also, tomorrow, Fareed Zakaria looks at the power of the presidency. It's been super-sized under President Trump, but long before he entered the Oval Office, it had been growing and growing. So, what would the founding fathers say?

"THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY: A FAREED ZAKARIA SPECIAL" airs tomorrow at 8:00 on CNN and the next day on the CNN app. Stay with us.

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[06:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(HAILS FALLING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Check that out. That right there, that's hail, large hail falling outside a home near New Orleans. And this right here, this is a view of a steady stream of rain and hail falling in another neighborhood in Louisiana.

It's on track to be a soggy weekend across the southeast this weekend. Meteorologist Chris Warren has that forecast this morning. Chris, you're tracking storms, but they're coming, as I understand it at a much-needed time, right?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, isn't that always the tricky thing? You need what you get, but you don't always like the way you get it. So, getting the rain in the form of thunderstorms, possibly damaging in some areas, more likely to see the stronger storms here.

Meanwhile, some sizzle that feels more like Summer time across parts of the west. A lot of lightning right now showing up with the storms. Some are strong enough to produce some damaging winds, possibly, some large hail early on.

But later, as the day wears on, this is where the focus is going to be this evening and into tonight for the large hail. Damaging winds -- can't rule out a tornado either. Here you go. By 9 O'clock or 8:30 or 9:00 here in Oklahoma, and that's going to drop to the south.

And then more storms firing again for tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, it's now going to go from Dallas-Fort Worth, all the way down to San Antonio. Then a push, eventually push into east Texas. So, the rain that we're seeing here across the south, it's going to come in some cases what feels like buckets absolutely being dropped from the skies.

There's some big-time rain here along the i-10 Corridor may be just too much for some of the drainage systems to handle. So, the excessive rainfall risk is here today, and again, could see more scenes like we were looking at just a few moments ago in New Orleans with rain also over to the Panhandle.

But that being said, when you look at all of the rain that is on the way, it's happening in some areas where there is plenty of severe, also extreme, and then the exceptional drought, that's the highest intensity, the highest form of drought where wildfires still a concern with this kind of dry conditions throughout the southeast. So, Danny, any little bit helps, but again, some of it may be coming with a bit of a headache.

FREEMAN: Yes, we want people to stay safe, but get the water that they need --

WARREN: Right --

FREEMAN: In this drought. All right, Chris Warren, good to see you. Thanks so much, appreciate it. Sports now. Victor Wembanyama coming up with an all-time great performance to power the Spurs past the Timberwolves in game three. CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes joins us now. Andy, Wemby, out of this world.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Danny, are we sure Wemby was not in those UFO files that were just released? I mean, his nickname is the alien. And at 7-foot-5, I mean, he does things that are just absolutely ridiculous. And Wemby, had it going all game long in Minnesota last night. In the

fourth quarter, watch this. Off the miss, Wemby just tips it around to himself and puts it in, the Spurs were up by 8 at that point, and then later with Rudy Gobert on him, former defensive player of the year, Wemby, with the Hakeem Olajuwon moves, spins, hits the fadeaway.

I mean, that's unstoppable. Next time, down, look at, Wemby, from way downtown hits the three. He finished with 39 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. He joins Hakeem, Shaq and Kareem as the only guys to ever put up those kinds of numbers in a playoff game.

Spurs take game three 115 to 108 to take a 2-1 lead in the Series, and here was Wemby after the win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: I think we haven't done anything yet. I think we showed some strength, you know, during this game, some relentlessness. But we got to prove -- we still got to prove to ourselves that we can sustain that.

Sometimes it feels like being in a more hostile environment, in a harder environment, forces us to step up our game and be on our criteria even more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, the Knicks meanwhile are now just a win away from a trip back to the conference finals. New York's defense was just stellar once again in this one. Then when it came to the fourth quarter, Mr. Clutch Jalen Brunson bringing home the win, hits this three to make it a 9-point game with 7 minutes to go.

Knicks went on a 13-2 run in the fourth quarter to really put the game away. They would win 108 to 94. No team in the NBA has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, so, not looking good for Philly. Now, not as fun of a night for the Yankees in Milwaukee.

And that's because they were facing Jacob Misiorowski, the Brewers ace throwing absolute heat last night.

[06:55:00]

Misiorowski threw 10 pitches of at least 103 miles per hour. He had three pitches go 103.6, which is the highest velocity any pitcher has reached since Statcast started tracking in 2008. Misiorowski struck out 11 in 6 dominant innings, Brewers beat the Yankees in that one, 6- 0.

Elsewhere, will the Cubs ever lose again? The Cubbies beat the Rangers 7 to 1 last night for their 10th win in a row. We are only in early May, but this is already the second time this season the Cubs have won 10 in a row.

It's the first time they've had two such streaks in a season since 1935. And you know, Danny, this has been a very interesting baseball season thus far. Only four American league teams have winning records. Meanwhile, all five teams in the NL Central Division have winning records.

I'm -- certainly, that's something we probably haven't seen in a very long time when it comes to, you know, early May baseball.

FREEMAN: Meanwhile, I love the -- I love the problem for the Cubs, is like, oh my God, they're winning too much. Meanwhile, I'm like, will my Mets ever win ten in a row ever again?

(LAUGHTER)

FREEMAN: It's my question. Unbelievable, all right, Andy Scholes --

SCHOLES: All right --

FREEMAN: Thank you so much for all of that, very cool day in sports. All right, and thank you all for joining us, I'll be back again in about an hour for more CNN THIS MORNING, "TABLE FOR FIVE" up next.

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