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Judges in Multiple Cases Reject Donald Trump's Legal Teams' Motions to Dismiss or Delay Cases; Donald Trump Legal Team in Georgia Election Trial May Ask for Gag Order against Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis; Israeli Defense Forces Concludes Strikes on World Central Kitchen Aid Workers Resulted from Mistaken Identity; IDF: Israel Unit Carried Out Strike Mistook Bag for Weapon; Holdout Voters Mar Trump's Big Win in Wisconsin. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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. I went for the hat, John. But let me, let me, let me talk back to you. Hold on. Hold on. All right, back to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I always go for the chaps. Rosa Flores, thank you, partner. Great to see you this morning, multiple props to you and your team for being there. We appreciate you. Someone does.

Be sure to catch CNN's special coverage of the eclipse across the country. Our coverage starts at 1:00 p.m. eastern, or you can stream it on Max.

We've got a lot of developments in our major stories. CNN NEWS CENTRAL, the next hour, starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rejected and denied, the not one, but two new legal setbacks for Donald Trump today.

A grave mistake, the IDF releasing its initial findings into what led to this strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza -- mistaken identification and now military officers dismissed.

And cashing in on the solar eclipse, how cities in the path of totality are preparing for the big boost from this rare solar event.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner in John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, former President Donald Trump dealing with a cascade of major legal blows. Judges in two of his criminal cases rejecting his efforts to get those cases thrown out. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing Trump's theory that he had the authority to take classified documents when he left the White House. And in the Georgia election interference case, the judge rejected Trump's argument that the First Amendment protected his efforts to overturn the election.

This all comes after earlier this week the judge overseeing Trump's hush money case in New York also denied his attempt at delaying the start of the trial set to begin just 10 days from now on April 15.

And adding to Trump's legal woes, the New York attorney general is now questioning whether the $175 million bond he posted in his civil fraud case is financially sound.

Joining us now, senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz. Katelyn, it appears these cases have to go forward now, correct?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Sara, that is what the judges are doing here. Donald Trump's team has made a lot of arguments to dismiss or deny these criminal cases against him, have them dismissed or delayed, excuse me. And in the three rulings that we've gotten this week, the judges have said, no, no, no to the Trump arguments.

In the Mar-a-Lago case, Judge Cannon refused to dismiss it on the grounds that Trump had argued he had the ability under the Presidential Records Act to claim documents as his own, take them out of the White House. She said that's not a reason for me to get rid of this entire indictment against you.

In the Georgia case related to the 2020 election, Judge McAfee said he wasn't going to dismiss it on First Amendment grounds. He said that the defense just hasn't presented any authority that allows Donald Trump to have the speech and conduct that he has and say it was protected political speech. That was what the judge's words were there.

And then in the hush money trial still set to go forward in 10 days, Judge Merchan refused to delay it on the grounds of presidential immunity.

But as Trump is making all these arguments, as the judges are denying those arguments, his team is carving out little silver linings for him to have when the trials take place. In the Mar-a-Lago documents case and the hush money case, both of those the judges have said maybe these issues could come back later and we could talk about them at a later date. Judge Cannon specifically saying this could be something that could come up again, this Presidential Records Act issue and Donald Trump's claims about personal records.

SIDNER: What's going on in Trump's civil fraud case at this point? Are there new developments there?

POLANTZ: There's going to be a hearing in April 22nd. He has lost that case. He's appealing, and he had to post the bond to hold off the New York attorney general's office from starting to seize his assets, or collecting. He has gotten that bond, but the A.G., they want to make sure that that money is there and that he's posting the bond appropriately. So there is going to be a hearing before the judge in that case to check out the arrangement that Donald Trump has with his underwriter, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, make sure that that money has been posted or he has it as collateral for $175 million. So in the case that if he does lose appeals, the New York A.G.'s office can go in and find the money that Trump says he has.

[08:05:04]

SIDNER: All right, Katelyn Polantz, lots of developments. Thank you for keeping those all straight for us this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Donald Trump and his allies may push to try a new legal strategy in Georgia, a gag order against Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis. CNN's Sara Murray is with us now. A, great to see you, Sara. B, what are you learning?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, look, we saw when the judge decided that not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from this case. He did have some sharp comments about the remarks she's made publicly about the case. He all but invited defendants in the case to ask him for a gag order, but pointed out that was not the question before him at this time.

So this is something Trump allies and their attorneys have been discussing. Should we go forward and ask this judge for a gag order against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and part of their concern is that Willis is continuing to speak publicly about the case. She's running for reelection at the same time she's presiding over the prosecution of this case. And in a number of instances, she has made some race-related remarks, including remarks that drew this rebuke from the judge. Take a listen to what she said just last week, as well as the original comments that caught the eye of the judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Recently, they tell me they don't like me to talk about race. Well, I'm going to talk about it anyway. The truth, there's some challenges that come to being black.

They're playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I've been doing almost 30 now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: There are plenty of defendants in this case who are not comfortable with what Fani Willis is saying about them publicly, but what they don't want is they don't want this to boomerang back around on them. So they don't want to go before the judge, ask for a gag order and say, you know what, have the judge say, look, none of you can talk because we've seen a number of defendants, Donald Trump, of course, Rudy Giuliani, his former attorney, David Shafer, the former Republican Party chairman in Georgia, all tweeting, sharing their feelings on social media about Fani Willis, about the case. Defendants still want the ability to do that. They also don't want to undercut this appeal that they're trying to bring forward to still have Fani Willis kicked off the case. So we'll see what they decide to do, John.

BERMAN: Yes, a little bit of a be careful what you ask for here. Any sense of when they would want to get this done by, Sara?

MURRAY: I think that they want to see, a lot of the attorneys want to see if the appeals court will take up this question about disqualifying Fani Willis. If they continue to hit a dead end at that front. I think that they may talk more seriously about whether to ask for a gag order, John.

BERMAN: All right, watching all these steps as they progress. Sara Murray again, great to see you. Thanks so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So the IDF just this morning has released its initial findings into what happened that led to that strike that killed World Central Kitchen aid workers. The report calling it a grave mistake. We have more on this and the reaction to it.

And former President Trump has the Republican nomination been locked in, of course. Why then are so many Republican voters still checking the box for Nikki Haley? Republican governor, and the man who campaigned probably hardest for Nikki Haley, is our guest.

And a new survey is shining a spotlight on how unhappy the nation's teachers are right now. Why they're optimism about the public education system is so down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:56]

BERMAN: All right, just a short time ago, the results of the Israeli investigation into the airstrike that killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza, it blames mistaken identification and poor decision-making and admits it should never have happened. The IDF fired two commanders who conducted the strike. World Central Kitchen is demanding an independent investigation, claiming the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure. Secretary of State Antony Blinken making similar comments.

Let's go right to CNN's Nic Robertson from Jerusalem. Nic, you've had a chance to go through this report. Give us the details.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. What the IDF is saying that there was a misidentification by its forces of vehicles involved and a misclassification of the events. And the way that they break it down in this initial report is to say that the IDF initially spotted what they thought was a gunman on an aid truck. So just to be clear, the aid truck, the vehicles carrying the aid, they're the big wagons carrying the aid. Then they look carefully, and they thought they saw another gunman, Hamas gunman, they decided, on another of those aid trucks.

Now after that, the trucks went to the warehouse. The IDF saw vehicles, the SUVs carrying the World Central Kitchen aid workers. The IDF didn't know they were they aid workers at that moment. They saw these three SUVs leaving that warehouse.

Now, the IDF says that they thought that the Hamas gunman were inside those vehicles, and this was the mistaken identity or mistaken misunderstanding. And that's why they targeted those vehicles. Now, we've separately heard outside of that report from the IDF, who were saying that they now believe that they thought they saw some things slung over the shoulder of one of the people, the aid workers, inside one of those SUVs. And harrowing and grueling it is, another detail that the IDF has released, when they targeted the first of those SUVs, there were survivors and they got out and managed to get in the second SUV, which was then targeted.

[08:15:00]

So all in all, the picture we have from the IDF leaves a lot of questions, not least that they thought that they did identify two gunmen, yet shot up three vehicles.

What the World Central Kitchen is saying is that it is clear that they were World Central Kitchen were following the protocols. They accept and acknowledge that the IDF has taken responsibility, that the World Central Kitchen was doing everything that they should have been doing, and accept that there has been disciplinary action by the IDF and say that's a step.

But still say these outrageous killings, this report is cold comfort for that. Indeed, they say that the IDF has supplied them with video to support this report, but the World Central Kitchen say there is nothing they've seen in that video that substantiates what the IDF has put down in the report.

We have not seen that video. So of course, a lot more questions out there, and of course that gets to the importance of independent investigation versus an immediate investigation. Independent would be outside of the IDF's chain of command.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nic, I think this could be confusing to some people watching this. Israel has taken responsibility. They said it was a mistake. They have fired people who were involved, yet separately they also seem to be trying to explain how it happened, how those were mistakes were made. Is that some kind of a justification?

ROBERTSON: You know, what we've seen with the IDF, and this is not singular to the IDF, but often when there are investigations and reports of very sensitive issues, of very critical issues, the initial report which is what we've just talked about here gives some very thin bare bones, which is a misidentification, misclassification.

Then, you get a few more details that come out. One of those details is that they thought they saw some things slung over the shoulder of one of the people inside one of those SUVs.

Now, the IDF is also saying that because it was nighttime, this is outside of the report, because it was nighttime, they couldn't identify these vehicles as World Central Kitchen vehicles, even though World Central Kitchen says that they were coordinating with the IDF.

So yes, there are separate details that are now trickling out that if you will, sort of not muddy the water, but add a level of, okay, here are some reasons why this happened, and the IDF are very clear, this was a grave mistake.

It did happen, they say, outside the protocols of the IDF chain of command. They have disciplined people. They are taking responsibility, but then the dripping out of other details that are not in the report that can lead to a little bit of confusion in some peoples' minds.

BERMAN: Well, thank you for helping us clarify it all, Nic, the bottom line here is those vehicles were carrying aid workers. Aid workers who tragically seem, some of whom have survived the first strike, and then were gunned down running to another car. Just horrible details there.

Nic Robertson, thank you very much for that -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So President Biden's new pitch to try and win over voters who supported Nikki Haley. Could it work? Or is he spitting into the wind?

And get ready to hunker down, friends. The Atlantic hurricane season has not started and it is already shaping up to be one for the books.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:28]

BOLDUAN: A Republican warning for Donald Trump. He is already the presumptive nominee and he may have lapped the non-existent Republican field in Wisconsin this week for that primary, but his now former rivals are still a thorn in his side.

Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley all receiving votes in Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin. All told, more than 100,000 voters in that state, in that Republican primary voted for someone other than Donald Trump.

In fact, take a look at this map. Nikki Haley has gotten more than 10 percent of the vote in 11 of 14 states and primaries that have occurred after since she dropped out at the beginning of March.

And President Biden's team sees opportunity there, releasing a new ad in several battleground states, talking directly to Haley voters.

Joining us right now is the Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu. He was a top surrogate and top supporter for Nikki Haley during her campaign.

It is good to see you, Governor. Thank you for coming in.

Those numbers --

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: More than 10 percent of the vote in 11 of 14 states after she dropped out. That says what to you?

SUNUNU: It says that people want to understand their responsibility to go vote and they are going to vote for who they want to vote for. It really doesn't have an impact on what is going to happen in the general election and I appreciate that the Biden folks think that there is an avenue there to go court those voters. Very few of them are truly Never Trumpers.

Ron DeSantis voters that voted in all of those primaries as well are not necessarily Never Trumpers. Most of the Nikki voters are not Never Trumpers.

So I appreciate the idea that there is a path here to kind of get some of those Nikki Haley voters to come over, but that's not likely the case.

[08:25:01]

Also, if I may, in a lot of those states, you do have also Independents voting, right? A lot of those Independents can vote. Those are open primaries in a lot of those states, so that could account for a lot of the ten to fifteen percent that you're seeing.

BOLDUAN: Because Biden is -- here are the states that he is releasing -- the Biden campaign is releasing these ads in. It is Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and it basically -- it highlights directly how Trump has said that he doesn't want the support of Haley voters.

You do not think -- Biden doesn't need all of them. Biden needs some of them to help his chances in these key states. You do not think they're going to buy what he is selling?

SUNUNU: No. No, not what he is selling.

Look, if an individual wants to walk away from Trump and vote for Biden, they are going to make that decision, and by the way, in October. They're not making it in March, April, and May of this year. That's not going to happen and a lot of things are going to change throughout the campaign.

I do believe at some point, Trump will pivot. Not that he is going to come cater to Haley voters. He doesn't really need to do that, but will pivot more to the general election type of messaging that Independents --

BOLDUAN: Wait. No way. No way. Don't use the word pivot. We did that since 2016 that he is going to pivot. It is not in his nature to pivot.

There are few certainties in politics. Donald Trump not pivoting is one of them.

SUNUNU: But the message -- look, you're absolutely right. His brashness, his approach and his style won't pivot, but his campaign, his messaging on that campaign will pivot to where it needs to be to minimize some of the effects that you saw in 2022, whether it be on a woman's right to choose or the abortion issue, which did not fair too well for Republicans. I am not saying he is going to pivot his philosophy, but their

approach and where they go after it, I absolutely believe that because it is the smart thing to do and he does want to win.

But also understand, a lot of this campaign is going to happen in the courtroom, right? Every time he is in a courtroom now, he is -- he kind of plays himself as the victim. His poll numbers go up.

There are so many other factors that are kind of going to come in here, but believes me, most Republicans that vote in the Republican primary are going to end up voting for Donald Trump because it is not about Trump, it is about a Republican administration, it is about a GOP administration. It is about changing the political culture in Washington, and it is about the fact that Biden, while a lot of folks might have voted for him as this moderate is clearly no moderate. He is clearly being controlled by these extremists, and that is driving a political culture that nobody wants to see in America.

So that's where Biden is really blowing it. It isn't we are all for Trump. It is, we want a political change and voting for him and that type of administration puts more opportunity in the seats of individuals, or states, or communities as opposed to this, one size fits all we are going to tell you how you should live your life mentality that the Democrats have been giving us.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about one of the issues you brought up and one of the issues that is a big issue in the election so far and will be in November, which is abortion rights.

Donald Trump is teasing this week that he is going to be making an announcement, a statement about his -- what has been a confusing stance on abortion policy. He is going to make that announcement next week. Standby to standby if that happens, we've seen this before, but he has been toying with supporting a 15-week federal ban. Is that a winner in your mind?

SUNUNU: No. No. And look, if I were advising former President Trump, I'd tell him, why are you touching the abortion issue at all? It never really works out well.

BOLDUAN: He doesn't have to.

SUNUNU: In terms of a policy, America might not mind a 15-week ban, but it is not a winner politically for him and his goal right now should be focusing on winning in November, if that's his real plan.

So no, I wouldn't be touching that. I can't wait to see what he is actually going to say because it could really backfire on him and other Republicans.

See, I am more concerned about Republicans down-ballot. The next Republican governor I want to take my seat or to win congressional seats or to win mayoral seats or even school board seats. But what he says at the top of the ticket really kind of defines us and not always for the best, as a lot of us have learned.

So I am a little concerned about where he is going to go with that.

While 15 or 16 weeks might be palatable to the American people, it is not what people are going to charge into the polls on, on the Republican ticket's behalf.

So my advice would be, stay away from something that you don't need to. What do they say? Don't dig up a snake to kill it, right? It is not going to work. It is not going to work to your benefit.

BOLDUAN: I mean, how -- this many months to go and it being such a central issue, it is almost impossible to think that he couldn't come out, wouldn't be forced to come out with a stance on it.

Before I let you go, you have said that -- and you've made clear that even though you don't like the guy, you will vote for Trump over Biden in November being with what you just kind of got at because you say at least you get a Republican administration if you vote for Donald Trump.

If Trump loses the election, what do you think is going to be the main reason?

SUNUNU: I am sorry, the main --

BOLDUAN: The main reason he loses if he loses?

SUNUNU: If Trump -- well, because people don't want to go back to that type of attitude, right? It wasn't enough to switch -- they weren't enough -- they were willing to accept the political culture and the elitism of the Democratic Party, telling people how to live their lives over the brashness and negativity and all of the hurtful things and the attitude, if you will, that Donald Trump brings to the table. I mean, that's it.

Unfortunately, it is not about policy on either side. It is not about really, you know, debt -- managing the debt or controlling the border or inflation. Those are real issues that people care about, but those are the issues that are bubbling to the top a little bit, but at the end of the day, if Trump doesn't cross the finish line, it is because America wants to at least have some sense of going forward and not reliving the past.

[08:30:34]