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New Polls Show Razor-Thin Margins In Presidential Race; Major Legal Blows To Trump's Efforts To Get Criminal Cases Thrown Out; Israel: Aid To Start Moving Through Erez Crossing Into Gaza Sunday. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:32:30]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: On our radar this morning, John Eastman, Donald Trump's former lawyer and the architect of efforts to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election, wants the judge to delay taking away his California law license so he can make money to pay for mounting legal bills.

He still wants to represent Republican Congressmembers Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene in a political speech battle. They are suing two California cities that canceled their political events.

Now, Eastman was forbidden from practicing law in the state after a judge recommended he be disbarred because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Eastman is, of course, also one of the defendants alongside President Trump in the Georgia election subversion case.

Angelina Jolie is accusing ex-husband Brad Pitt of a history of physical abuse in new legal documents. Jolie filed a motion yesterday as part of Pitt's 2022 lawsuit over the French winery that they once owned together. The filing alleges in part that Pitt was so concerned over his misconduct that he wrecked a deal to buy her stake in that winery all because she refused to sign an NDA. CNN has reached out to Pitt's representative for comment on the allegations.

In Florida, a construction worker was killed when a crane broke off a building and fell onto a Fort Lauderdale bridge crushing two cars. Look at those pictures there. Three people were also hurt in that collapse there. The driver of one of those cars said this is about his most frightening close call.

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MARK CEREZIN, DRIVER OF CAR CRUSHED BY FALLEN CRANE: I was driving and I felt a compression. I looked up and I saw the blue structure coming down and I slammed on my brakes. It sheared off the front of my Tesla -- the car -- and all the airbags went off. And I'm very, very lucky to be alive. So that's it. I saw the structure after it hit my car bounce in the air and then land on the car next to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You could see his car right there -- wow.

Officials say the bridge will remain closed indefinitely until repairs are completed -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New polls this morning that paint a bit of a different picture of the presidential race than we have seen lately. A new poll from Marist and NPR puts President Biden up two points over Donald Trump, and Marquette has the president ahead by four.

With us now, Republican strategist Rina Shah, and Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who was just the subject of a New York Times profile titled "Many Democrats Are Worried Trump Will Beat Biden. This One Isn't." I think we have a picture of that headline somewhere. There you go. There it is.

[07:35:08]

Simon, thanks so much. I want to start with you because the crux of a --

SIMON ROSENBERG, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- a lot of this profile from Adam Nagourney -- which was terrific, by the way -- is you say --

ROSENBERG: Right.

BERMAN: -- don't believe the polls. All those polls that have said Donald Trump was ahead of President Biden, don't believe them. Does that mean you don't believe these new ones that show Biden ahead either?

ROSENBERG: (Laughing). It's a great question, John -- no. I think -- listen, here's how I see the election right now. Joe Biden is a good president. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong and winning elections all across the country. And the Republicans have Trump, who is the ugliest political thing that we've ever seen in modern American history.

And I think that when we push all these things forward as we get deeper into the general election, I think there's a quiet confidence with Democrats that as voters wake up and start paying attention that things will improve for us. And that's exactly what we're seeing in these recent round of polls, right?

There's no question that Trump, two months ago, had a slight advantage. That's no longer true. Biden -- there are now 16 national polls taken since the end of February that have Biden ahead more than have Trump ahead.

And so, we feel good about where we are. We have a lot of work to do. But at the beginning of this general election, I would much rather be us than them as we head towards November. BERMAN: Well, Rina, I will note The Wall Street Journal -- not to be overly focused on polls -- just had a poll of seven swing states. Trump was ahead in six out of the seven. And inside that poll you also saw some weakness in the Democratic coalition among Black and Latino voters. Young voters upset about the situation in Gaza.

So what is or isn't Simon seeing right there?

RINA SHAH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I would say the polls that I'm seeing are right where they ought to be right now because let's not forget Republicans are going in as the underdogs here. So that slight advantage we see in certain places is not unnatural to me but it's why, right? And what we're seeing with the trendlines changes, certainly with younger Black men or of middle age also tipping to be a little bit more conservative and right-leaning.

And then also, the foreign conflicts really impacting that Gen Z sentiment. And let's not forget who delivered the White House for Biden-Harris. It was Gen Z.

So, of course, both parties are going to try to turn out their bases. But when you're looking at the Republican side, what throughline are they really going to follow? That's the question for me because I'm not seeing exactly where the strategy is right now. I'm seeing a by- the-week shift. This week, it's talking abortion, which I disagree with. I think the Trump campaign would be better off to, again, keep going on the economy and the border. But unsurprising to me where we sit right now.

BERMAN: How much of a problem is Gaza, Simon, for the Democratic Party and for President Biden, specifically?

ROSENBERG: So far, there's not a lot of data showing that there's been a big backlash. I know people talk about this but there isn't really a lot of data.

The party is very unified behind Biden. I mean, just look in the last week. We've seen Obama, and Clinton, and Bernie Sanders rallying behind their president. We just saw No-Labels crash. Dean Phillips and Robert Kennedy tried to challenge Biden in the primary and failed. Joe Biden -- I've been doing this for over 30 years. Joe Biden -- the party is very unified behind Joe behind.

Look, we have work to do. I'm being Pollyannaish here. I mean, we're not every -- we're not exactly where we want to be and there are going to be challenges along the way. And I think the Israel-Gaza issue is a challenge and not a threat to Joe Biden.

It's like any challenge in a campaign. You've to manage it and he's going to manage it well. I think he has. I think he's been very aggressive in trying to make tees (PH). Look what he's done with Bibi, right? He's broken with Bibi. He's put pressure on them. He's negotiated a ceasefire. So I think this is going to be one of the issues in a broad campaign.

But I feel very good about where we are right now, particularly in the last few weeks. There's no question that the elect -- that polling is moving in our direction. We're raising much more money than they are. We're unified. On the Republican side, what we're seeing is an unprecedented dumpster fire. And so, I'm comfortable about where we are --

BERMAN: He is --

ROSENBERG: -- in this election right now.

BERMAN: So, Simon just brought up RFK Jr. -- Robert Kennedy Jr. His campaign had a fundraising email out yesterday that they then had to retract. This is what it initially said.

"Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government. This is the reality that every American citizen faces -- from Edward Snowden to Julian Assange, to the January 6 activists sitting in a Washington, D.C. jail cell stripped of their constitutional liberties."

SHAH: Hmm.

BERMAN: So they were saying January 6 activists -- not rioters, not insurrectionists -- who are being stripped of their liberties.

The campaign then retracted this email. They said the statement was in error and it doesn't reflect Kennedy's views. It was a new marketing contractor. It slipped through the normal approval process. "Anybody who violated the law on January 6 should be subject to appropriate criminal and/or civil penalties."

Mistake or not, what does this tell you about where RFK is running?

SHAH: Well, it tells me that Kennedy-Shanahan ticket has not yet figured out what kind of candidacy they want to be today. Are they going to try to appeal to Trump's voters or Biden's voters? And it seems that also shifts by the day. Because they're seeing what most political strategists see, is that the political winds can change at any moment because of the complications, largely on Trump's side.

[07:40:08]

I don't disagree that the Democrats are looking pretty unified. There are some pretty deep fractures within the Republican Party that are not entirely visible but have made their way out to the surface seen through these primaries, of course, with Nikki Haley's emergence and making it as far as she did.

Now, those numbers -- look, they should trouble Republicans on the Trump team. But what the Republicans know right now is that the money is a problem. Where are they going to redirect it to play in expensive states like Florida where we just saw the Florida Supreme Court do something so unusual with abortion and really hand it to Republicans for their unusual actions?

But are they going to fight RFK Jr., too, who again, we can just guess who's he going to be today? That's the challenge here, John. BERMAN: Look, there are some big fundraisers coming up -- the Trump campaign does. So we'll see how much they bring in.

Rina, great to see you. Simon, great to see you in person after reading that terrific profile. Thank you so much for being with us.

ROSENBERG: Thank you, John. Thanks so much.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

We will soon be getting a look at the latest monthly jobs report and another read on the state of the jobs market right now. We're also less than two hours away from the opening bell. And it's been a brutal week for investors. Stocks tumbled yesterday. Oil prices are surging. And the Dow is on track for its worst week in over a year.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now. What are the, sort of -- the smart minds -- those who, sort of, overlook this -- what are they expecting in this next jobs report? Yes, we had a bad week on Wall Street but, in general, the economy has been doing quite well, correct?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes. The economy looks really, really strong. Maybe almost too strong for the perspective of investors and that could be one of the reasons why markets have pulled back.

But it wasn't long ago we were talking about the Dow at 40,000 --

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: -- potentially. And it turns out we have to get back down to 39,000 before we go to 40,000 because that's what's happened.

As you mentioned, a brutal week for the market, down every day so far this week. As you mentioned, worst week on track for -- in over a year. And yesterday was particularly bad. Markets started up --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- and totally reversed course, down 530 points. Worst day in more than a year.

Now, what's going on? I few things.

One is there are some concerns about what the Fed is going to do next and whether or not the Fed is going to be able to cut interest rates. Because again, the economy doesn't really look like it needs interest rate cuts. Also, because inflation has not cooled off quite enough yet. In fact, one Fed official yesterday said if inflation does not continue cooling they might not cut interest rates at all. That spooked investors.

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: Another issue, oil prices are jumping. That, of course, is only going to aggravate inflation.

And lastly, in some ways, we were kind of overdue for a pullback, right? Markets have been on fire. They can't go straight up forever.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: Despite these losses, the S&P 500 is still up 26 percent over the last 12 months and that's pretty good.

Now, the big focus today, jobs. The expectation is 200,000 jobs added. That would be a cooldown from the prior month but still really strong. The unemployment rate expected to tick down from 3.9 to 3.8 percent -- 8. -- 3.8 percent. This would mark, Sara, 26 straight months below four percent. We haven't seen anything like that in half a century.

SIDNER: The economy is cooking.

EGAN: It is.

SIDNER: There is no doubt about it.

Matt Egan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump denied twice. Judges in two of his criminal cases rejecting his latest attempts to get those charges tossed out.

Joining us right now to talk about this is former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti. He's also the host of "It's Complicated" -- the "It's Complicated" podcast. It's good to see, Renato.

So these are a pair of kind of major legal setbacks for Donald Trump, at least for the moment. The judges in the Georgia case and the classified documents case both rejected Trump's attempt to have those cases thrown out. And earlier this week, the judge in the New York hush money case rejected another of Trump's attempts to delay that trial until the Supreme Court rules on his immunity claim.

So the theme of the week seems to be for a variety of reasons, Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution. So the ends how -- would you describe -- for Trump on the legal front?

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, HOST, "IT'S COMPLICATED" PODCAST (via Webex by Cisco): Well, look, I think those motion denials were expected, Kate. When you're trying to delay many of your motions aren't going to be winners. And at this stage of the proceedings, a motion to dismiss is very, very unlikely to succeed for any defendant.

I think for Trump, he has to be happy with the Mar-a-Lago case right now and where Judge Cannon is. He -- she may be favorably inclined towards him. But the bottom line is he is staring down the barrel of a criminal trial that's set to begin this month in Manhattan and that can't be a comfortable place for any presidential candidate to be or really anyone who is facing a criminal trial.

BOLDUAN: But in the classified documents case, I wanted to ask you, Judge Cannon agreed with the special counsel in part and it seems for now, but also hit back at the special counsel for the special counsel's demand for the finalization of jury instructions kind of before they would dig into trial defenses and evidence.

[07:45:03]

The way Cannon wrote about that demand was that it was unprecedented and unjust.

You think this is important. Tell me why.

MARIOTTI: So, what Judge Cannon did was very unusual. Usually, jury instructions are something that is decided right around the time of the trial and the judge decides what the law is and then just -- the parties propose what the jury instructions are. Here, she was actually hinting that -- and asked the parties to come up with jury instructions for essentially, the argument that the Presidential Records Act gives Donald Trump unfettered authority to just take and keep classified documents. That would essentially immunize him. I mean, it's not tech -- he's not technically immunized but essentially, if that was presented to the jury that was the law, it would be very hard for the jury to not acquit him.

What Jack Smith is afraid of is if this happens in the middle of the trial he couldn't appeal. Trump could be found not guilty. There would be no appeal. And that would obviously be a very significant result, to put it mildly. Jack Smith decided -- asked her to make that decision now. There's no -- there's no reason to wait until trial. She refused to do that.

She's calling that unprecedented. The reason it's unprecedented for a prosecutor to ask a judge to rule at this time is because the judge usually doesn't tip their hand this early, suggesting that they are going to rule in an erroneous fashion.

BOLDUAN: So interesting.

Good to see you, Renato. Thanks for jumping on -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, some of the good stuff this morning.

A real-life homeward-bound story spanning half the country. The Houman family in San Diego lost their dog Mishka in July of last year. Dad and husband Mehrad thinks that the dog wandered away from the job site to look for his wife.

Months later, just before Easter, the family was shocked to get a call from Harper Woods, Michigan just outside Detroit, more than 2,300 miles away from home. The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society shared the news. A family there found Mishka, got her scanned from a microchip, and put in touch with her humans. There were -- oh, my goodness -- so cute. They were already in

Minneapolis for the holiday so they just drove to pick her up. If only dogs could talk, the stories Mishka could tell. How did she get that far?

BOLDUAN: That's exact --

SIDNER: Look how cute.

BOLDUAN: Number one, a very cute dog, so this makes it even more special.

SIDNER: Oh.

BOLDUAN: But how did the dog get from point A to point B?

SIDNER: I feel like there was a ride involved.

BOLDUAN: Like --

SIDNER: I feel like there was a ride involved.

BOLDUAN: There's a backstory. There is a scary cat involved. And there's got to be a train as well. Definitely a planes, trains, automobiles.

I'm told -- I'm told by a reliable source in my ear from the control room what you saw on your screen right there was not the actual route that the dog took.

SIDNER: It was more direct.

BOLDUAN: It was a little more direct. He's very -- he's very directly aware because that is a ridiculous path for that dog to be taking.

SIDNER: What a cutie.

BOLDUAN: We spent a good amount of time on that today.

SIDNER: Yeah, we did.

BOLDUAN: OK. I just want to stay at that.

All right. So let's go to this. They're telling me to wrap by showing me the coming up.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: OK. It is known as the Cowboy Capital of the United States. How one Texas town is going all out for the eclipse.

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[07:52:57]

SIDNER: For months, Northern Gaza has been almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid. But Sunday, a crucial aid route is expected to reopen. Israeli officials say aid will start moving through the Erez border crossing into Northern Gaza on Sunday for the first time since the October 7 attack by Hamas. Israel announced it would reopen the crossing hours after Thursday's tense phone call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

UNICEF says civilians in Gaza are facing crisis levels of food insecurity. Children there are malnourished and starving.

Joining me now is Josh Rogin, columnist for The Washington Post. You have an op-ed out in the Post just about how awful things are humanitarily in Gaza.

What might this opening at the -- of the Erez border do?

JOSH ROGIN, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST (via Webex by Cisco): Well, good morning.

You know, 1.1 million people in northern and central Gaza are facing catastrophic food insecurity. Thirty percent of children under the age of two have acute malnutrition. Famine is imminent, according to the U.N.

And the problem actually, Sara, is not enough crossings. One more crossing is only useful if the Israeli government, also in conjunction, changes the arbitrary and onerous inspection process. I mean, there re thousands of trucks sitting at the crossings that are opening right now waiting to get in and can't because of a process that, according to my reporting, turns back things like dates if they have pits in them. Sleeping bags if they're the color green. Scissors if they're in a medical kit.

So we can say that if the Israeli government upholds this promise to open up another crossing in another port that would give them an opportunity to bring more -- allow more aid into Northern Gaza. But the truth is that this is a systemic problem, according to every aid organization on the ground, that goes far beyond. Because once you've got half of the population of Gaza facing famine, one crossing and one more port is simply not going to be enough. It's a drop in an ocean of need.

[07:55:11]

SIDNER: You're saying the bottleneck is really being created by this sort of process of trying to inspect and then send the aid in. And it's just -- and arbitrarily. There are things on a list, correct, that are approved. Have all those things been let in from your reporting or are those also being sort of looked at --

ROGIN: Right. So the --

SIDNER: -- and parsed through?

ROGIN: It's really, Sara, a perfect storm of horrible conditions that have -- that could lead to manmade famine in 2024 where you have a million people starving to death for no other reason that the aid can't get in.

Now, why can't the aid get in? Yes, it's a combination of the barriers put in place by the Israeli government. A combination of that, plus a lot of the safety concerns as we saw with the death -- the killing of the seven World Central Kitchen workers. Those who did get in still don't always make it. Two hundred aid workers killed since the war began, 95 journalists, and 30,000 other innocent people.

So I think if you look at the situation in Gaza it's not just one thing but what the aid groups point to is a pattern of inspections that leads them to believe -- and I think there's a lot of evidence for this -- that the Israeli government is not doing what it says already, which is that they say that they're letting enough aid go through and that the process is working. The process is not working. When you have million people on the brink of famine it's clear that the process is not working.

And there's also a long record of the Israeli government not fulfilling these promises. These ports should have been opened months ago, according to the U.S. government.

So I just think we have to be realistic about the fact that it takes many, many things to go wrong for two million people to be starving to death when there's no shortage of food. And to -- for -- to just say oh well, we're going to open one port and then we're going to open one more crossing and that should be fine I think woefully underestimates the severity of the catastrophic situation, which is it affects not only for the Gazans but for the Israelis, for the region, and for us as the guarantors of a world where things like manmade famines are not supposed to happen. And how can we point to other countries of the world where food is being denied from people in a war zone and have any credibility if we -- if the United States stands by and watches an ally implement these kinds of policies on the people of Gaza today?

SIDNER: And as you mentioned, the aid agencies are saying this would be a manmade famine. And so, that just shouldn't be happening in the country today.

Josh Rogin, thank you so much.

ROGIN: Exactly.

SIDNER: And thank you for writing that op-ed. It was very interesting -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, if you are into Western role play and astronomy, have I got the place for you. A place known as the Cowboy Capital of the World that also happens to be smack in the middle of the zone of totality for the solar eclipse Monday with some of the best viewing in the country, Bandera, Texas.

CNN's Rosa Flores is there. Yippee Ki-Yay, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, I don't think I can see you. Can you see me? Can you see me?

BERMAN: Yeah, I can.

FLORES: I don't think I can see you -- wait. I thought we were experiencing totality in Bandera, Texas. Welcome to the Cowboy Capital of the World, John. This place is going to experience more than four minutes of totality and it is the buzz around town. There are people from all over the world that are coming to this little, tiny town in the middle of the Hill Country. And let me tell you, they're going to love it.

Wait, am I wearing a hat? I didn't even know I was wearing a hat because when you walk into this town things just appear -- a hat, a duster, a belt, some boots. Maybe a horse. Every now and then you might see one in the background.

But look, people are worried about the weather, John. So I had a little conversation with some locals. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: I hear that it might storm in Bandera.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no.

HOPE SINQUEFIELD, WATCHING ECLIPSE IN BANDERA, TEXAS: It's going to be a beautiful day. It's going to be a clear day. It's going to be beautiful.

FLORES: But I checked on my phone and it said it might storm.

SINQUEFIELD: Nah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no.

FLORES: Are we -- are we doing positive thinking about this?

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: There is so much positive thinking here right now because they're really hoping that the weather is nice.

But not even positive thinking will get you the merchandise like my t- shirt, John, that I'm wearing because those are flying off the shelf. We have some video of it. There's several iconic Bandera eclipse t- shirts. I already snagged one. I snagged one for my husband to make sure he had one.

John, you might want to come join me. I don't know if you're ready for the full Texas experience because when you walk into town you're going to get two choices, John -- big hair or a hat. You know the saying here in Texas: the bigger the hair, the closer to Jesus. I went for the hat.