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Trump Responds to Raid on Giuliani; India Faces Pandemic Horrors; U.S. Probing Mysterious Attack; U.S. Economy Soars in First Quarter; Story of Late Night. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 29, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think, Olivia?

OLIVIA NUZZI, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "NEW YORK MAGAZINE": Well, I imagine that Donald Trump is watching this unfurl and thinking, what if I'm next. He, obviously, the former president, is the focus himself of some investigations in New York and elsewhere. And I think that, you know, cocooned in Mar-a-Lago, this is something that has been on his mind for a while now. And as the circle gets closer and closer, and as investigators seem to be getting people who are close to -- genuinely close to him, like Rudy Giuliani, I imagine it's making him quite nervous.

And, also, Rudy is someone he's had an extremely long relationship with. In the White House, he was often defined by these different loyalty fights and Donald Trump has a very long memory. And Rudy Giuliani was always someone in his good graces because he stuck by him after the famous "Access Hollywood" tape. Rudy was out there spinning for him on TV. He stuck by his side. And he supported him and wanted him to stay in the race when others were telling him to get out.

So he remembers that. So I imagine that there is a lot of fear and cynicism and concern for himself. But he's also, you know, known Rudy a long time and I imagine on some level feels that, as a friend, it's terrifying to watch this happen to him as well.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that would be a first because loyalty is a one-way street with Trump. Second of all, I mean, you know, despite all that, he still couldn't summon more than the Trumpian Madlibs of something's, you know, something terrible that no one's ever seen before and sad. I mean, you know, that is still his response.

Loyalty is a one-way street. Rudy Giuliani, for all his loyalty to Trump, never got a cabinet position, never got a high office. So I wouldn't overstate that beyond the impulse that Trump has to recite a couple of loyalties (ph).

NUZZI: He does not seem to hold it against him. He does not seem to hold it against him that he helped get him impeached the first time, which is pretty incredible.

AVLON: No, no, he -- he -- I -- I completely agree with you on that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I was going to -- I was going to say, I mean, they had two impeachments between them.

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean, what more could you want as friends?

AVLON: It's a bonding experience, John. (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Olivia, John, thank you very much for that.

NUZZI: Thank you.

BERMAN: A desperate humanitarian crisis right now in India. Overwhelming numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. CNN is on the scene with a live report, next.

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[08:36:16]

BERMAN: The horror of the pandemic reaching new highs in India. We have new records in terms of daily cases and deaths there. The government reported a global record of nearly 380,000 new cases in a single day record of 3,600 new deaths. The actual number is believed to be even higher.

CNN's Sam Kiley live in Delhi with much more.

Sam, give us a sense of what you're seeing there.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I am in the same crematorium I spoke to you from about two hours ago. And there's been no let-up in the number of bodies that are being brought in and being put on fires, cremated, given their last rites, attended on occasion by no member of the family, not even friends. I spoke to one gentleman a bit earlier today who said that he was here to say farewell to a friend and had organized his cremation because -- excuse me -- every other member of the family was dangerously ill with COVID, including the children.

Now, as you say, the official figures for India are pretty terrifying. But they may well be underestimated by a tune of at least 100 percent. Some people are saying -- some analysts in the World Health Organization have said 20 or 30 times the numbers of people declared may have had the infection of COVID, may have it. And, clearly the death toll is soaring.

Now, in these crematoria, every day they're burning about 600 bodies. This crematorium itself is burning about 120 people a day. They are treated with as much care and respect as is possible under the circumstances. And the circumstances are that the public health system and the crematorial system, the system for deal with the dead, is getting overwhelmed. The dead here have to queue the final indignity. They have to queue here at the crematorium, sometimes for hours, while their friends or family or representatives take a ticket, like you would in a bank, and wait for a teller to see you. That ticket gets you to here, your final resting place where you'll be burned and then tomorrow morning, the ashes are collected once they've cooled down and handed on to families. But many of these families have no real capability to deal with it because in all probability, as we've been hearing from people here, they are also infected with the virus.

The government is getting help, though, John. The United States pledging $100 million worth of aid. Very importantly also the raw materials that had been embargoed inside the United States are now being released back to India so they can continue to make vaccines to cope with this. But it's far little -- far too little, far too late, John.

And going back, really, most of the people here are blaming, frankly, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, who has done very little to advance vaccination and allowed political campaigning and Hindu mass festivals to become mass spreader events. And this, tragically, in the old- fashioned sense of the word of tragedy, is the result, John.

BERMAN: Sam, once again, it's overwhelming what you're showing us. I can't imagine what it is like for you and your team emotionally to be surrounded by this, physically I know it's probably hard to catch your breath with everything that's going on around you. And what I want to know, Sam, is there any reason to believe the situation in Delhi is getting better? What direction do you think this is headed? Could it get even worse?

KILEY: I think the certainty, John, is that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[08:40:02]

Things will be improved by the flood of foreign aid that's coming in, in terms of the oxygen cylinders, especially to create enough oxygen to get to patients. People here have been trying to find it on the black market, getting it on street corners. There have been rows of vehicles we've filmed here with pipes going from cylinders into the back of the car to treat people gasping for breath. It's as though this whole capital city has got collective asthma. Everybody seems to be gasping for breath.

But it will get better, but not until all of that comes online and not until they get on with their vaccination program, which has been extended now to people from 18 and above for May the 1st. But there isn't enough vaccine to go around. Not at all, John.

BERMAN: Sam Kiley, please, you and your team talk care of yourselves. We appreciate your reporting.

Thank you.

KEILAR: Federal investigators probing at least two incidents on U.S. soil that seem similar to those mysterious invisible attacks on dozens of U.S. personnel abroad. These are attacks that cause symptoms known as Havana syndrome. And one of these new attacks happened near the White House here in Washington.

We have CNN intelligence reporter Katie Bo Williams, who is here with us.

And, look, before we get to this news, let's talk about what happened in Havana. Just remind everyone what we're dealing with here.

KATIE BO WILLIAMS, CNN INTELLIGENCE REPORTER: Yes. So this all dates back to kind of late 2016, early 2017 when we had diplomatic and intelligence personnel in Cuba and then later in Moscow and other places around the globe reporting this weird constellation of symptoms. They were getting headaches. They were getting nausea. They were dizzy. Some of them were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. And the problem was nobody seemed to really know what was causing this. Was this some kind of directed energy attack by a foreign adversary? And, if so, how were they doing it? And a lot of those questions remain outstanding.

BERMAN: All right, fast forward. It's one thing when that's happening in Havana and Moscow. But now you've got new reporting that it might be happening here, down the street, here in Washington.

WILLIAMS: Yes, so -- yes, so what we have learned is that in November of 2020, there was a White House -- a national security council official who was afflicted with some of the same sort of constellation of symptoms while on White House grounds last year, which, obviously, as you say, is very unnerving because it is the heart of American government. But similar to these other attacks -- or these other incidents, I should say, there's still this sense of, OK, something happened, but we don't know exactly -- they don't know exactly what.

KEILAR: And who? Who would be behind this?

WILLIAMS: So, from the intelligence professionals that I've talked to, the most likely culprit, if we can sort of establish that these are, in fact, attacks, the most likely culprit is Russia, possibly China. But it's one of these sort of sophisticated, large nation states that the United States is so worried about right now.

BERMAN: I have to say, if this is all happening, right, this is a huge deal. It's sort of an attack on the United States and the capital of the United States. I know The Hill has been briefed here. I mean how certain are they about all of this?

WILLIAMS: I -- the bottom line is not at all other than they're sure that something happened. There is still this sort of high level of uncertainty within the intelligence community about what exactly is causing this, who is doing it and even how real some of these symptoms are and which ones can really be traced to some kind of weapon.

And to that point, there's been some debate inside government about whether or not some of these case were being taken seriously enough. You've seen at least one official who was forced to retire because of these injuries come out and say the CIA didn't take care of me because they didn't believe my injuries were real.

BERMAN: I've got to say, we've got a lot more to learn here. In the meantime, I think we just have to wait and see.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BERMAN: Terrific reporting, though. Katie Bo Williams, thanks so much. Nice to meet you.

Just in to CNN, a brand-new snapshot of the U.S. economy. What it says about the U.S. recovery from the pandemic.

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[08:47:48]

KEILAR: Just in, we have some new data on just how much the economy recovered here in the first quarter.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans has the latest GDP report.

What does it say, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brianna, it's recovering and strongly. And this is what you want to see, 6.4 percent growth in the economy, adding on to a couple of quarters now of a rebound.

Right here, this is that coronavirus recession. This was the worst quarter we've seen since the Great Depression and last year was an awful year because of what happened there. But you're seeing the economy come back. It's because of stimulus. It's because of reopenings and it's because of rehirings so you're starting to see a lot of recovery here.

This is what last year looks like. We're hoping now that this year you're going to see something like five, six, even 7 percent growth for the year. And that would be one of the best years in recent memory.

Let's talk about jobs here because we also got the jobless claims number. Really important there. Look at the trend. That's super important, Brianna. The trend here is what you want to see. Still too many people filing for unemployment benefits every single week. Still hundreds of thousands, 553,000 in the most recent week. But the trend is your friend in economic figures and it's going in the right direction.

Brianna.

KEILAR: We do like seeing that.

Very happy Thursday to you, Christine. Thank you.

ROMANS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Here's what else to watch today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ON SCREEN TEXT: 10:10 a.m. ET, Biden departs White House for Georgia.

1:25 p.m. ET, Biden meets with former President Carter.

2:55 p.m. ET, VP Kamala Harris speaks in Baltimore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:53:23]

BERMAN: For the past six decades, late night television has grown from a shot in the dark experiment to a thriving cultural phenomenon. Now the new CNN Original Series, "The Story of Late Night," examines how late night TV not only keeps us laughing, but shapes how we see the world.

Joining us now is Bill Carter. He's a CNN media analyst and the executive producer of "The Story of Late Night."

No one on earth knows more about late night than you, Bill Carter, it's safe to say.

So how did this happen? I mean how did it go from a place to tell jokes after hours to this shared societal experience?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, basically, I think Johnny Carson changed it into a nightly commentary on the news with his monologue. And Johnny didn't take a point of view on things. But as, you know, time changed a lot of things. Jon Stewart came along with an obvious commentary about the news. David Letterman got more outspoken. And now, you know, especially in the last year or two years with the election and Donald Trump, things were very much out there. I mean people commenting on what was going on became very much a part of late night.

KEILAR: And if you asked someone, who's your favorite, I mean they're going to have a strong opinion here. Who do you think is the greatest of all time?

CARTER: Well, you have to say Carson is the greatest because he was on there for 30 years and he dominated television. I mean he had huge audiences. When he had the staged marriage of the singer, Tiny Tim, 40 million people watched that show. It's unimaginable to think about that. That's bigger than the population of Poland. And they -- and they -- they're all watching one late-night show.

BERMAN: I do know you stiffed Chevy Chase there.

I have to let you go here, but just put that in perspective again here, how big of a deal was Johnny Carson compared to where we are now?

[08:55:00] CARTER: He was the biggest star on television. There's no doubt about it. I mean, you know, everybody of every kind of walk of life, from, you know, entertainment, to sports, to news, politics, they appeared on that show. That show dominated television for, you know, basically three decades. And, you know, nobody could really challenge him. And now you have a vast array of similar shows with very talented guys. It's just very hard to assemble that kind of audience anymore, especially because the technology has changed and they're streaming and people can watch the shows in the morning. So it's not a specific time period anymore.

KEILAR: Bill, thank you so much. We love talking with you about this.

And the all-new CNN Original Series "The Story of Late Night" will premiere Sunday at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

BERMAN: All right, time now for "The Good Stuff."

In a rare, bipartisan moment, President Biden going off script to ad lib some personal gratitude for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the year after then-Vice President Biden lost his 46-year- old son to brain cancer. McConnell called on the Senate to rename a bill aimed to accelerate cancer research after Beau Biden. So the president took a moment last night to thank him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll still never forget when we passed the cancer proposal in the last year I was vice president.

I'll never forget you standing, Mitch, and saying, name it after my deceased son. It meant a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: McConnell had said it would be fitting to name the bill after someone who would be proud of the then presiding officer.

It was nice to see that. It wasn't scripted. And I wonder what McConnell was thinking at the time.

KEILAR: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, a lot going on today. Our coverage continues right after this.

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[09:00:00]