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Columbia: Clear Encampment By 2 p.m. Today Or Face Suspension; Emory Faculty To Begin No-Confidence Vote Today On President; Colleges Struggle To Regain Control Of Campuses As Protests Grow; Rising Tensions As Protesters Refuse To Leave Colleges Across U.S.; CNN Poll: 55 Percent Look Back At Trump's Presidency As A Success; Hunter Biden's Legal Team Sends Letter To Fox News Demanding Retraction, Threatening To Sue Over Photos. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 29, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, campus clashes. The Biden administration is struggling to respond to tense pro-Palestinian protests. They're growing and getting uglier with police stepping up arrests, and in some cases devolving from war protests to blatant displays of Jewish hate.

Plus, Hunter Biden versus Fox News. We have new reporting on a stepped-up strategy by Hunter Biden to fight back against his critics. This time, Fox News. The president's son is accusing that network of defaming him and violating revenge porn laws. You're going to hear those details first, right here this hour.

And Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels and Hope Hicks. They're all expected to testify at Donald Trump's hush money trial, but who will the prosecution called next? We're going to tell you what to expect when court resumes tomorrow.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

First step the kids are not all right. I'm talking about so many children, students on college campuses across the U.S., some are peacefully protesting Israel's retaliatory war against Hamas terrorists. Some have been pepper straight -- sprayed, arrested and suspended when protests got out of control.

And many on campuses, their anti-Israel sentiment is blurring into antisemitism, with far too many Jewish students hearing things like, calls for another October 7 massacre, seeing signs for a quote, final solution. And they are scared for their safety. Moments ago, Columbia University notified protesters that, if they don't leave their encampment by 2 p.m., that's just under two hours from now. They will face suspension.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has been reporting extensively from Colombia. Omar, what's happening now?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, right now we're awaiting that 2 p.m. deadline where the university has given students the chance to voluntarily leave the encampment or face suspension at the very least in eligibility to finish the semester on good standing, unless they leave and sign on that they will follow the university's policies.

Now of course, this is one of the most concrete steps we've seen from the university. After this morning, the university president put out a statement saying, negotiations between the student protesters and the university failed to reach an agreement after they started last week, which means as the university made it clear, the university will not divest from Israel, which of course, was one of the central components of why this encampment actually started here.

That said, the university did announced they will invest in healthcare and education in Gaza. But also, they said that while they have tried to foster an environment of constructive dialogue and protests on the campus, that many Jewish students just have not felt safe, at the very least, not welcomed.

And it's a dynamic university president called tragic and we're seeing that dynamic play out even in a new lawsuit that was filed by an anonymous Jewish student who alleged that the campus has now become too dangerous to provide Jewish students the education they signed on to receiving. In particular pointing to the decision to go to hybrid learning as safety was listed as a priority by the university.

Now, back to that deadline that I was mentioning 2 p.m., of course, local time quickly approaches. And now suspended student group or previously suspended pro-Palestinian student group is encouraging students to actually show up at noon to protect the encampment as they have described, they're telling students not to sign on to anything.

And that of course, will be the question of what happens next because the student -- the university has given this deadline. Obviously, there may be some -- there may be some students that actually sign on but for those that don't, we have yet to find out what the university will take as far as next steps there, Dana, as graduation is just a little more than two weeks away.

BASH: Yeah. SJP, a group that is -- has been as you said suspended from many universities, not -- and it is because they're not just pro- Palestinians, they have made some very blatantly antisemitic charges and that's why they were suspended.

[12:05:00]

Thank you so much for that, Omar. Appreciate it. I want to go south now to Emory University in Atlanta where faculty is pushing a vote of no confidence in the school's president after more than a dozen pro- Palestinian protesters were arrested last week.

CNN's Nick Valencia is there. Nick, you have been on campus. What is the sentiment? What is the status of those protests and the arrests at this hour?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Hey there, Dana. It's worry -- you know, sort of celebratory scene here right now, much different from what we saw last Thursday, which was the site of a ceasefire demonstration that turned violent. 28 people were violently arrested. 20 of them were affiliated with the university, including a prominent economics professor (Audio Gap) and 27 others, they spent the night in the DeKalb County jail were bonded out on Friday afternoon.

But what happened here and those dramatic scenes, those violent arrest by Georgia state patrol and Atlanta police officers has led to a sort of reckoning here on campus. The tenured faculty held the meeting last week to push forward a no confidence vote against the university president here -- President Fenves. Those ballots now will make their way to the rest of the faculty here at the College of Arts and Sciences. And that referendum will be tallied up on Wednesday.

But another thing that's happening here since really October 7, is that Jewish students have expressed their concern about their (Audio Gap) caught up with two Jewish law students who talked to us about those safety concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AVITAL KESSLER-GODIN, JEWISH LAW STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: When these people are chanting -- excuse my language, in unison -- Zionist on the quad lawn of Emory University and I have to stand by and hear that. And we're told that we don't belong on campus.

ALYSSA ACHIRON, JEWISH LAW STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I believe everyone has a right to protest. The problem is when it becomes threatening, like holding up signs that say Jews are Nazis and things of that. So, is not at all peaceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: So, more action expected here today. But just very quickly, I spoke to one of those that was arrested, and I asked her about that their safety concern (Audio Gap)

BASH: All right, we're obviously having some connection issues with Nick, who is there out and about inside the protests. But we appreciate that important report from Nick Valencia. Now let's come into the studio with my all-star panel today, CNN's Kristen Holmes, CNN's Manu Raju, and Laura Barron-Lopez of the PBS NewsHour.

Let's just kind of look and talk about all of this that is happening in picture. I mean, we have seen protests pop up here and there over the last six months. But this is different. And this is expanded, and this is caused -- and this -- to bring it back to Inside Politics. And what it means politically. This is causing a major headache, and it's a very, very nuanced -- difficult thing to navigate for the president and for other Democrats.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. No question about it. The question is, what does the president decide to do? Eventually, he's going to have to be more head -- addresses, more head on that he has at this moment, particularly this continues to grow. We'll see what happens in the summertime. That was when college students will go back home for break, while the build-in the summertime we get around the conventions. And then the fall.

If they were still in this -- the heat of this war and we're still things have not changed. How much does it grow as we head into November elections? The question ultimately to is the impact that says, will have course electorally on the president. There was a poll last week from Harvard, suggesting he was low on the list of issues, driving concerns of younger voters, the economy, ranking high. The new CNN poll showing the economic issues are really what is driving a lot of the concerns by younger voters.

But ultimately how much more this has become a voting issue. And the president and this party is going to have to realize that these are -- this part of this coalition. And if they're upset with his handling of this, that could be a big problem in November.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: That poll as well as one today from CBS that shows that a number of young voters who want President Biden to take a different position towards Israel, still plan on voting for him at similar rates to the larger youth vote.

And I was just in Michigan and that's essentially kind of what I found on the ground, too. I spoke to a number of young voters, some of whom -- their campuses had encampments that were launching when I was there last week. And yes, there was one voter who was uncommitted, who said that she voted for President Biden in 2020 and that she was decided that she wasn't going to vote for him again in 2024.

But a number of the other young voters that I spoke to said that other issues, democracy, economy, abortion were things that they were thinking about heading into November.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: She was going to vote for Trump or if she just wasn't --

BARRON-LOPEZ: She wasn't going to vote for Trump. So --

BASH: She has been in Michigan. She has RFK Jr., isn't that --

BARRON-LOPEZ: She does. She didn't say she would vote for RFK Jr. either. But she was leaving the door open to a protest vote that could end up for RFK or just not voting.

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BASH: I just want to put up on the screen part of what you were talking about -- actually, the two points that you made. We have here to show in polls. And this is CNN's new poll that asks about President Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war by age. 81 percent disapprove. I mean, that's pretty overwhelming when it comes to the 18 to 34-year-olds.

But the second point you made, Laura, about how people prioritize the war versus other issues that are driving their votes. I mean, it's pretty far down 26 percent versus all of these other of course, starting with the economy and protecting the democracy exactly what you said.

What are you hearing from the Trump campaign about whether they think there is any way to capitalize this -- on this? Because it's hard to imagine these young people saying, I think that Donald Trump is going to be different, but maybe I'm wrong.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I mean, the young voters that CNN has talked to have essentially said that, if they actually know what the issue is that they wouldn't vote at all. Or we had some voters said, they would vote for Biden. One or two in one of the recent conversations that we had with voters said that they might vote for Trump. But I think they know the actual issue that's not something that they're going for.

However, the Trump campaign is trying to take advantage of this. In Michigan, they barely have a ground game, but they already have people reaching out to Arab American communities, trying to create relationships with them, whether or not they're going to be successful. The overarching issue here is, does that take any votes away from Biden in critical swing states?

RAJU: Yeah.

HOLMES: These are votes that Biden cannot afford to lose. So, whether or not, you know, this is a huge issue. Neither one of these sides believe they can forfeit any votes at this time.

BASH: And the question is whether or not when these Arab American voters in Michigan, let's say, after the Biden campaign gets to them. Following the Trump campaigns' outrage, saying, remember he's the one who's going to put a Muslim ban in, whether or not that's going to --

RAJU: I mean, that's probably why like Trump is not articulating a vision of what he would do with the war. What is Trump's --

BASH: What's difference --

RAJU: Yeah. What is Trump's policy? I mean, he did --

BASH: In the war.

RAJU: In the war, right. He did post on social media and all protests, maybe that doesn't go over well with those voters who were protesting right.

BASH: Manu, I want to get your thoughts on Senator Bernie Sanders, who was on State of the Union with me yesterday. He's obviously sort of the godfather of the progressive movement right now on so many issues, you know, social issues, healthcare issues, education issues. And on this issue, he is trying to inject something that has been lost, which is nuance into it, not calling for -- not calling a genocide, not saying some of the things, not showing up at the protests. But he is upset about "Bibi" Netanyahu and is upset about antisemitism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT): Do I doubt for a moment that antisemitism exists that is growing in the United States, that is -- that exists among some people in the protest movement, of course. But here is the reality. Right now, what Netanyahu's right-wing extremist and racist government is doing, is unprecedented in the modern history of warfare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, it's a fascinating interview. But he's not only the godfather of the progressive movement, he's also a very shrewd politician. He knows full well that these voters, they need to elect Joe Biden. He tries -- as he tries to raise concerns about Biden's policy, warn him about it, raise concerns about military aid. He's also trying to portray Donald Trump is a real threat to those voters who have concerns about what's happening in Israel.

So, that's why he's playing -- he his walking bit of a fine line because all those folks who are protesting, look up to him to essentially the charge, but he is not leading charge when it comes to these protests.

BASH: Not in the way that they are. And again, he's trying to inject some much-needed nuance into this. Saturday night, Colin Jost, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, like most good comedy and most satire does, really leaned into a reality in this race. And that is what our new poll showed, which is an effectively -- statistically, even though all of this is happening, it is still tied.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN JOST, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" COMEDIAN: So, let me see if I can summarize where this race stands at this moment. The Republican candidate for president owes half a billion in fines for bank fraud and is currently spending his days, farting himself awake during a porn star hush money trial and the race is tied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARRON-LOPEZ: No. I mean, it is striking when you list out all the things, and he didn't even list all of the felony counts that the former president is facing when he made that joke. But, you know, right now, I think the dynamic is could very well change a lot between now and November.

[12:15:00]

You see that President Biden is doing well still with white voters that he received in 2020. His numbers are kind of holding steady. Former President Donald Trump seems to be gaining a bit with working class black and brown voters. But the question is, how hard is that support? Or is it very soft?

BASH: And Kristen, the question is what put to our respondents in our latest poll, whether Trump's presidency was a success? 55 percent say yes. 41 percent saying no. HOLMES: Well, and this is something that I found on the campaign trail as well, just talking to Trump supporters. You know this idea that in 2020, you know, they often say that the election was rigged. But the counterpoint to that, which many of them have agreed to is maybe the election wasn't rigged, which obviously, we know it wasn't. But maybe people were just exhausted by what they saw for four years under a Donald Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Now they've gotten rest. Now they feel with the economy is one of the top priorities. Immigration is one of the top priorities that maybe things were better under Donald Trump. But again, this is actually consistent with what we see over time is that people have a more favorable view of an administration just happens that this guy's running again.

BASH: Yes, he is. Everybody standby. Up next, Hunter Biden versus Fox News. We have brand new reporting about Hunter Biden demand for a retraction from the right-wing network. And later it might have been a murder, political suicide. Kristi Noem defends and explain shooting a puppy. Did it already doom her VP prospects?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

BASH: Now, first on CNN report. Hunter Biden's new strategy to push back against the years long onslaught of attacks against him by conservative media. Lawyers for Hunter Biden are telling Fox News to correct the record on bribery allegations made by a discredited FBI informant or face a defamation lawsuit.

CNN obtained a cease and desist letter sent to Fox last week. In it, Biden's legal team points to Fox hosts like Maria Bartiromo, continuing to push claims that Hunter Biden and his father took bribes from Alexander Smirnov, even after Smirnov was indicted for lying to the FBI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX HOST (voice over): Cheryl, you know, the issue around this charge against Smirnov is that it may very well stop other whistleblowers from coming forward. This is an intimidation tactic, threaten this guy with 25 years in prison because he told the -- he told the Oversight Committee that Burisma paid Biden and Hunter -- Joe Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million apiece.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Biden's team also accuses Fox News of illegally profiting off of fictionalized show streaming on Fox Nation called quote, the trial of Hunter Biden and violating revenge porn laws, because that show quote, unlawfully published and continues to publish intimate images of Mr. Biden depicting him in the news. CNN has reached out to Fox News for comment. Here with me now is CNN senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez. Thank you for coming in. So, let's just talk big picture about the strategy here. For years, Hunter Biden really didn't say anything for lots of reasons, but the biggest reason is because his father's political team didn't want to. They just wanted to kind of ignore it. And what happened was it continued to snowball, snowball, snowball, snowball, and for lots of reasons the strategy has shifted now and he's pushing back.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: He's pushing back very strongly. And look, one of the things that he's also done is, have you seen you see how he is tussled with the Republicans in Congress. Showing up to their hearing, demanding that they do a public hearing, and then over time -- finally negotiating for him to come in and do a private deposition.

So, you've seen him sort of fight back after a period where, you know, especially the White House and the president's advisors would have preferred Hunter to just stay quiet, and just not give more oxygen to some of these allegations.

Now, for the -- for that part of the strategy, you know, comes from the fact that, despite what the Republicans have been promising, you know, they've yet to really produce any evidence that they said existed to show that there was some kind of conspiracy -- bribery conspiracy involving the president of the United States.

BASH: Right.

PEREZ: You know, it's a far different matter for you to talk about some of the things that Hunter Biden was into, which Hunter Biden method now admits were not well thought out.

BASH: Right. And well, in this particular case, it's interesting because it's about him and not his father.

PEREZ: Right.

BASH: It's alleging that Fox News just flat out defamed him. And also, people at Fox, these allegations are they were involved in frankly, a conspiracy to continue to push things that they allegedly knew were not true. This is part of the letter from Biden's -- Hunter Biden's legal team.

[12:25:00]

Mr. Parnas outlined the -- this is Lev Parnas, the conspiracy formed in early 2019 between and among Giuliani and a group of political and media professionals known as the BLT team to spread known misinformation and a false narrative about Biden's corruption, which they knew was baseless in order to manipulate the public.

I mean, that -- again, I should just underline. This is a letter to Fox effectively, a shot across the bow. If you don't do this, we might sue. So, first on the defamation. You've covered these kinds of allegations for years. Is it -- it's hard to prove company was -- PEREZ: There is a -- there is a lot of protection for Fox News and all that other news organizations. You have to remember that a lot of these allegations are coming from members of Congress in produced reports. So, I think for Fox, it's going to -- there's going to be, I think, a lot of protection because they're reporting on the news.

BASH: The other question that I mentioned and that is part of this letter, is the fact that they have this fake -- I wouldn't call it documentary. It's like a scripted something. I don't even know what to call, it's fictionalized. But using some direct quotes, and apparently in this hour is that is streaming on Fox's channel used intimate, unauthorized photos of Hunter Biden.

The unlawful publication of these intimate images cannot be said to have been made for legitimate public purpose, where the miniseries featuring a mock trial is not accurately reporting on newsworthy events, but rather, is a fictionalized trial of a nonexistent case against Mr. Biden.

PEREZ: That's a much stronger --

BASH: Well, Gawker -- remember, I mean this is kind of based on the Gawker case with Hulk Hogan that destroyed Gawker.

PEREZ: Right, exactly. And I think, you know, a person is entitled to control their own image. If Hunter Biden has not been out there publishing pictures -- intimate pictures of himself, then Fox News should not be doing this based on a laptop or images that are on the internet somewhere. And that's -- I think, their argument here.

And I think that's a much stronger argument because I don't think he has ever shared these things himself for a long time. He claimed that the laptop wasn't his or would not acknowledge it. Now he's saying that this is his personal data that was -- that was either stolen or manipulated.

BASH: And we do know from the dominion case that -- and Fox News, I mean, we'll see if they -- how their strategy goes forward.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Because what -- if this does become a lawsuit, then it's open to discovery, and everybody gets to see all of the emails and everything that went behind this.

PEREZ: Right. I will say it's interesting that the -- that the law -- the law firm representing Hunter Biden has included these images, some of these images in the -- in their letter and that's, you know, a different way to go.

BASH: Thank you so much, Evan. Thanks for breaking it down and putting in context. Appreciate it. Coming up back in court. The Trump hush money case will resume tomorrow morning rather. We could hear from star witness Michael Cohen as soon as tomorrow.

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