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Trump Says "I Don't Know" If He Needs to Uphold the Constitution; Staffing Shortage Causes Historic Delays at Newark Airport; Trump Considers Stephen Miller for National Security Adviser; Court to Hear Arguments on Trump's Alien Enemies Act Case; Jury Selection Underway in Sean "Diddy" Combs Trial; Israel Releases New Plan for War in Gaza; Netanyahu Vows Retaliation for Houthi-Fired Missile Attack. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 05, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:40]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, quote, "I don't know." That's President Trumps response in whether he needs to uphold the Constitution just 105 days after he took an oath to preserve, protect and defend it. But notably, he emphasized, he will, quote, "obviously follow" what the Supreme Court says on his deportation policies.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Airport mayhem, More cancellations and more delays in Newark as a myriad of issues plagues one of the nation's busiest airports.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

President Trump is unleashing a new stream of headlines. More tariffs, possibly new trade deals, and maybe even making nice with China. But his most shocking if not alarming comments came on the U.S. Constitution and whether he has the power to ignore it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.

WELKER: Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?

TRUMP: I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It was just over 100 days ago that Donald Trump said something much different about this foundation of the U.S. government in taking his sworn oath of office. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And will to the best of my ability.

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Preserve, protect and defend.

TRUMP: Preserve, protect and defend.

ROBERTS: The Constitution of the United States.

TRUMP: The Constitution of the United States.

ROBERTS: So help me God.

TRUMP: So help me God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We have a lot to cover in our senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak is joining us right now to break it down.

Kevin, what are you hearing this morning from the administration?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, this was quite a revealing exchange by the president in that interview. And officials do say that the president is frustrated that the pace of deportations is not going more quickly, that it continues to be caught up in the legal system. But the president saying there that he isn't sure whether migrants should be afforded due process despite the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and saying that he isn't sure whether he is required to uphold the Constitution despite that oath he took more than 100 days ago.

Of course, the president here trying to make clear that if these migrants were afforded the due process, that he could be potentially facing millions and millions of trials before they are removed from the United States. Left unsaid there is how exactly the administration would ascertain one, whether they are undocumented migrants or whether they're criminals if they're not afforded this due process that is included in the Constitution there.

And so, clearly, the president testing the bounds of his executive authority here. Of course, immigration is one of a number of issues that has been caught up in the court system. The president clearly here saying that he's willing to defy the courts if it means that these deportations can happen more quickly, Wolf.

BLITZER: And, Kevin, the president also announced a new tariff this weekend. What can you tell us about that?

LIPTAK: Yes, and this is an interesting one. The president saying that he will now put 100 percent tariff on movies that, as he puts it, are coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. He says, we want movies made in America again. It's not precisely clear whether this includes all foreign language movies that are shown, for instance, in arthouse cinemas, whether it includes foreign productions on streaming services or whether it includes all movies that include some aspect of production that are outside of the United States. Because movies a lot like cars include various components that are produced in different countries.

And a lot of cases, you know, if a movie is scripted in the U.S., cast in the U.S., it might be shot outside of the U.S., in part because a number of other countries include some tax incentives for production of motion pictures. And so the president here is identifying a real issue.

[10:05:01]

You know, talk to anyone in Los Angeles they do say that a lot of the jobs associated with the motion picture industry have dried up in part because it's cost prohibitive to shoot movies in California. President here clearly trying to remedy this issue as part of this broader effort to move production of all kinds of goods and services back to the United States. The president says he does think that new trade deals could be announced this week as part of his effort to reorient global trade, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Kevin Liptak over at the White House, thanks very much.

And, Pamela, this is personal for me because when I was in "Mission Impossible Fallout," the film.

BROWN: Right.

BLITZER: They flew me to London for my scene, to film my scene in London. So if Trump gets his way, you couldn't do that anymore. You got to film everything in the United States.

BROWN: Right, which a lot of people in Hollywood and elsewhere would applaud, right? Not going overseas and having that money be here in the United States, which is what he's doing. But as Kevin pointed out, there's a lot of practical issues with this that would need to be worked out. But interesting. Only you can say that, Wolf, right? I was in "Mission Impossible," I have to fly to London.

BLITZER: There are a few other actors in "Mission Impossible." They all flew to London for that.

BROWN: That's right. That's right.

BLITZER: I was in "James Bond Skyfall," too.

BROWN: How many movies have you been?

BLITZER: A lot.

BROWN: OK. There you go, folks.

BLITZER: Yes. BROWN: All right. Happening now, more cancellations and delays this

morning at New Jersey's Newark Airport due to a massive staffing shortage. More than a third of inbound and outbound flights were delayed yesterday, and over 10 percent canceled. And there doesn't appear to be any relief in sight.

Joining us now is CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean.

So these staffing issues clearly causing this ripple effect here. How bad is it, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now Newark tops the charts for delays and cancellations nationwide. Just check FlightAware 170 flights in and out of Newark delayed, 107 canceled.

These issues at Newark are not really new, though. We've been reporting on this for seven now going on eight days. And last Monday this really started as equipment issues at the facility responsible for flights, the radar facility that controls flights in and out of Newark. But then that cascaded into staffing shortages. And this is now the eighth day that the FAA is anticipating these FAA imposed delays because of air traffic control, staffing shortages.

I want to just back up here because this is something that has been going on for some time, and the FAA actually moved the facility responsible for flights in and out of Newark from Long Island to Philadelphia. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just visited that facility only days ago and he said the big priority now is fixing the equipment problems that have persisted there for some time.

I want you to listen now to what he said. He said the controllers are angry and they have a right to be angry about the problems that still persist and plague Newark Liberty International Airport. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They're frustrated. They're angry about having to use this old equipment. And they should be. They should be angry. Are they doing their job? Yes. I told them that help is on the way. I told them that President Trump understands the equipment they're using and is fully on board to have a brand new system for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: This has earned a lot of ire from the CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby. He said that the airline is having to cancel and delay flights in mass because of this. Remember, Newark is a huge hub for United Airlines, not only for transcontinental flights but also Trans- Atlantic and international destinations and beyond. He said that 20 percent of the air traffic control staff at that radar facility responsible for Newark walked out early last week, and now these problems have continued cascading, and the airline is canceling 35 round trips per day. That means 70 individual flights.

As for how long this will last, still not really clear right now from the FAA. They've not really given us a timeline on when they could essentially make it so that these issues will end, although Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the first place to get these new fixes from the Trump administration when it comes to air traffic control equipment will be this facility responsible for Newark in Philadelphia.

He says, though, it's not an overnight fix, this could take years, although the plan is to not kick it down the road to another administration, he says.

BROWN: Yes. And 20 percent walking out, I mean, that's not a small number, especially when you're dealing with staffing shortages.

Thanks so much, Pete Muntean. Wolf?

BLITZER: Excellent report. Thank you from me, too.

President Trump says he will name a permanent National Security adviser within six months. And at the top of his list, his very influential and powerful senior White House adviser, Stephen Miller. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Stephen Miller is at the top of the totem pole. I mean, I think he sort of indirectly already has that job. You understand? Because he has a lot to say about a lot of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All this comes after President Trump removed Mike Waltz as his National Security adviser. The president says he will nominate Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Let's go live right now to CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood. She's joining us from the State Department.

[10:10:01]

Kylie, Miller is a very powerful voice in the domestic policy area of the Trump administration and now that could extend to foreign policy as well. Tell us about that.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. When it comes to the domestic policy, Miller has a very active role, particularly on immigration. There's some overlap there with foreign policy. But if he were to become the National Security adviser, that would be a dramatic pivot to focus primarily on foreign policy.

We'll have to watch and see how this all plays out because we've also been told by U.S. officials that if Trump likes Secretary of State Marco Rubio serving as an interim basis as National Security adviser, perhaps he keeps him there and makes it more of a permanent situation. That is yet to be determined. But there are questions about how Rubio is going to be doing both of these roles. I'm told that today he's meeting with NSC staff, according to a senior State Department official. He's going to be splitting his time between the White House and the State Department.

That's something he's been doing for quite some time now. He knows that being at the White House is really important. So he has put an emphasis on doing that. But how this all settles out now that he's going to be leading the National Security Council is yet to be determined. And over the weekend, President Trump did downplay the ouster of Mike Waltz, effectively trying to make the case that he is getting elevated, though we know that Trump doesn't really care so much about ambassador to the United Nations.

Just listen to what Trump said on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He was fine and where he is, he'll do a good job. I don't consider that. I didn't lose confidence in him. Why did I lose confidence? He's going to the United Nations. To me, I think it's personally, if I had a choice for myself of doing, I'd rather have that job than the other. He didn't resign. He didn't resign. I just moved him. There's no resignation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: And as you said earlier, Trump said yesterday that the next six months are going to be critical for him determining who is going to be in the role of National Security adviser permanently. We'll watch and wait to see how all these dynamics play out, Wolf, Pam.

BLITZER: All right, Kylie Atwood, reporting for us. Kylie, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Wolf, just hours from now, a Trump appointed federal judge in Pennsylvania will hear arguments over the administration's attempts to send Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

So let's go live now to CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz for the latest.

Walk us through, Katelyn, what could be at stake in this hearing?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf and Pamela, this is just another hearing, but an important one this afternoon in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, about how the administration continues to want to use the Alien Enemies Act to remove Venezuelan migrants and send them to El Salvador.

Why in Pennsylvania? Well, because that's where the hub is for the northeast, for ICE immigration facilities. And there was one man who was in that hub that in April, he was going to be part of that second round of migrants that the administration was going to send out of the country. So not only is this about the use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove migrants who are being held in central Pennsylvania at a high ice hub that serves the northeast when people are detained, but it also is about this one person. Another judge, looking at the administration, wanting to use the Alien Enemies Act without giving these types of people more proceedings on whether they can be removed under this act and whether they are even Tren de Aragua, which is what the administration wants to say.

The big question I'm looking for is if this is going to be building momentum against Trump. This is a Trump appointee on the bench here in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. What will she say? What will another judge say about the administration using this act, a wartime power? Back to you.

BROWN: We shall see. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much, Wolf?

BLITZER: And happening now, jury selection is underway in the federal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He rejected a plea deal. If found guilty, Combs could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison.

CNN's Leigh Waldman is joining us live outside the courthouse in New York.

Leigh, how long are we expecting this part of the trial to last?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, good to be with you. We expect the jury selection process to take roughly a week. It's an ambitious schedule here. Hundreds of potential jurors will face questions from both the defense as well as prosecutors to determine if they have any bias against the defendant, Sean "Diddy" Combs, or any of the charges that he's facing here.

The judge, if he determines that they do, in fact, have bias, he can then dismiss them. After that process once we get to about 45 potential jurors, then each of the prosecutors and defense can use what we call peremptory strikes to eliminate certain jurors.

[10:15:06]

They're hoping to fill that jury box with people who will view their case in favor of their case. They're looking to get 12 jurors with a number of alternates as well. They're looking to question if the jurors have any bias against the music industry as a whole, against sex with multiple partners and as well as drugs as well.

Now, Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the federal counts that he is facing. They're trying to determine if anyone has strong views towards Combs himself.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right. Leigh Waldman reporting in New York. Thank you. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Still ahead right here in THE SITUATION ROOM, scrambling for solutions. The Education Department is collecting student loans in default after a five-year pause. What this means for millions of borrowers already behind on repayments? BLITZER: And next, what Israel's proposed expansion into Gaza

potentially could mean for aid efforts? We're live in Jerusalem with the latest.

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:34]

BLITZER: Happening now, Israel approving a plan to expand its occupation of various territory in Gaza. One Israeli official calling it the conquest of territory and remaining there. Tens of thousands of military Israeli reservists are now being called up to put the plan in place.

BROWN: So let's go live now to CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond.

There are two parts to this plan, Jeremy. Walk us through it.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right. This will mark a very significant expansion of the Israeli military's operations in the Gaza Strip, if indeed it is carried out. And that's exactly what the Israeli security cabinet approved yesterday, mobilizing tens of thousands of additional Israeli reservists for a plan that will involve conquering, as this one Israeli official said, Gazan territory and remaining in those areas, which is a change from previous Israeli military ground operations in Gaza, where we've seen Israeli forces move into a certain area, clear the area of Hamas militants, leaving that area, only to then see Hamas return to those very same locations.

And so this plan would involve Israeli troops remaining in an area, but it also potentially sets up the long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip for months or perhaps even years. As that is happening, the Israeli government and the United States are also working jointly on a new plan to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, but one that would very much be on Israel's terms. The specific details of this plan are still being formed, but what is clear is that it would involve Israel choosing where that aid is being distributed, not allowing the aid to be distributed freely through humanitarian organizations, and certainly not allowing the aid to be distributed in areas where they are going to be carrying out these military operations.

And that's why we've seen a rejection of this plan so far from the United Nations and many of the humanitarian groups on the ground who say that humanitarian aid should not be distributed in this manner, but that Israel should open those crossings to avert what could be imminent starvation in the Gaza Strip in a matter of days.

BROWN: Also, Jeremy, we should ask you about these Houthi rebels in Yemen firing that rocket yesterday that landed just outside Israel's main airport near Tel Aviv. What is Israel saying about that attack?

DIAMOND: Yes, that ballistic missile attack shut down Tel Aviv's airport for about an hour yesterday. And you can see from the images of this crater just how disastrous and deadly this could have been had it struck the airport itself or some other populated area in the Tel Aviv region. These missiles that the Houthis have been firing regularly at Israel have largely been intercepted almost entirely by Israel's air defense systems. But this one made it through.

And now the question is, how will Israel respond? We have heard the Israeli prime minister yesterday saying that Israel will respond at a time and place of its choosing. Recently, it's been the United States that's been striking the Houthis in Yemen, not Israeli forces themselves. But this could change that equation. And the other question is whether Israel will take action against Iran, whom Israel blames for these attacks.

The Houthis are indeed, at a minimum, sponsored by -- funded by the Iranian regime. And both President Trump and the Israeli prime minister have said that they hold Iran directly responsible for these Houthi attacks.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: Yes, I keep wondering, Pamela, what happened to Israel's Iron Dome supposed to prevent that kind of missile from reaching Ben Gurion Airport right outside of Tel Aviv.

BROWN: Yes, that's absolutely right. That's a fair point.

BLITZER: Yes. All right. We'll continue to watch all of that.

Jon Finer is with us. The former principal deputy national security adviser during the Biden administration, former chief of staff and director of policy planning at the State Department as well.

What's your reaction, first of all, to what's going on in Gaza and these reports that Israel's planning on expanding, potentially its occupation of various parts of Gaza, especially in the north?

JON FINER, FORMER BIDEN PRINCIPAL DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, Wolf, look, I think the president actually had the right instinct coming into the administration, which is to try to bring about an end to the war, a ceasefire that would allow the hostages to return home, humanitarian assistance to flow into Gaza. And I think to the incoming administration's credit, the president, Steve Witkoff and others, they worked very closely with our administration when we were on the way out to actually get a deal like that in place.

That still is the best operative plan to try to ease the situation in Gaza and bring the hostages home.

[10:25:04]

They have been working on that pretty intensively, but it got bogged down, in part because Hamas clearly didn't want to release at least some of the hostages. Now, I worry a bit that the administration's attention is shifting to other theaters and other places, as opposed to staying focused on trying to get that deal back in place, which I think would be a lot better outcome than ramping up and escalating the war.

BLITZER: How surprised were you that this Houthi missile actually reached Ben Gurion Airport and landed right near there?

FINER: Yes, well, look, the Houthis have significant capabilities. This is a problem that's bedeviled not just this administration, but ours, quite candidly, why we took significant military strikes against Houthi targets to try to reduce this threat. They do have long range missiles. Israel obviously has robust missile defenses, but no missile defense is perfect. And I, you know, I think the administration is taking the right approach by trying to increase the level of activity against the Houthis.

The challenge, though, we had this challenge, they will have this challenge. It is hard to find good, viable Houthi targets. Our intel is not perfect when it comes to Yemen. We shifted our administration resources to try to develop better targets. Hopefully they'll be able to take advantage of that, but this attack shows that we're not there yet.

BLITZER: Because we always were assuming that Israel's Iron Dome, the Arrow Anti-Ballistic missile system, the various air defense systems that Israel has would prevent this from happening.

FINE: Look, they've got Iron Dome for short range rockets from places like Lebanon and Gaza and even the West Bank on occasion. They've got, as you said, Arrow and Patriot missile systems for the long range ballistic missiles. These are the best systems available anywhere on earth. But they are never perfect. And you know, Israel suffered two significant ballistic missile attacks during the Biden administration, hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran, Israel and the United States and some other countries teamed up, collaborated and actually defeated those attacks. But that was never a foregone conclusion.

BLITZER: Are the Houthis getting these newer missiles from Iran or from Russia?

FINER: Certainly they get a lot of help from Iran. Tons of help and have over a period of many years. And they have developed now an indigenous capability to actually produce these things. That is some of what we and I think the Trump administration are trying to target. But it is a cat and mouse game. They move there things around.

BLITZER: So should we all brace, Jon, for an Israeli retaliatory strike against targets in Iran right now? That's what some of the Israeli leadership is threatening.

FINER: That's what the Israelis have said they're going to look at doing. You know, I don't want to get ahead and try to make predictions. It's very hard to know in a situation like this. But they have said they're going to retaliate, and I think we can expect them to do something.

BLITZER: Against Iran, not just the Houthis.

FINER: Could be. BLITZER: Yes, I suspect they will as well. Let me ask you also about

Russia's war in Ukraine that's ongoing. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was asked about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine. This is what he said. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They wanted to provoke us so that we made mistakes. There has been no need to use those weapons you just talked about, and I hope it won't be required. We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So when you listen to that, what do you think?

FINER: Look, Russia has saber rattled, spoken about the possibility of using nuclear weapons almost throughout this conflict from the very beginning. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take it seriously. In fact, if you're sitting in a position of responsibility in the administration, you really have no choice but to take this seriously.

Even if it's a low probability event, it's such high consequence. They have to plan against it and try to prevent it from happening, and consider what options are available to you if they actually go ahead with that. But the one thing I think that's really important is we never saw evidence of Russia actually making operational moves in the direction of using these weapons. I suspect the administration isn't seeing that now. If you see that, that's the real sign of alarm.

BLITZER: Pamela has a question.

BROWN: Yes. I just had a question for you, last week, former National Security advisor Mike Waltz was pictured using Signal to message a number of administration officials during a cabinet meeting. Obviously, we don't know what those messages were, but of course, there was the Signal gate scandal where they were sharing more details about Yemen strikes.

The White House says Signal is in government phones and that the messages are archived. When you were on the National Security Council, did you use Signal?

FINER: Signal has been widely used, I think, by people across the government for things like logistical coordination, about meeting times and travel plans. It's also occasionally used for people to communicate with foreign counterparts, because we sometimes don't have secure technology that connects us with, for example, foreign diplomats who we need to speak to. But what it's not ever used for, in my experience, is the passing of sensitive operational details about, for example, military action. And so that's what I think distinguishes the use that you're talking about from how it was used in the previous administration.

BROWN: And is it your understanding that it was all archived, all the messages?

FINER: That is my understanding.

BROWN: That you are using on Signal? OK.

BLITZER: Interesting. Before I let you go, Jon, a final question. You were a -- were, key word were a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by former President Biden. But you have since been removed in recent days by President Trump, together with others, including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Susan Rice and a whole bunch of others who were named by President Biden to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council.

What's your reaction to that?

FINER: Yes, look, on some level, it's hard for me to complain too much about this.

[10:30:00]