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Judge Says Trump Trial Opening Statements Could Begin Monday; Seven Jurors Seated In Trump Trial; Man Charged With Uber Driver's Murder; Olympic Uniforms Spark Controversy. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 17, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN HOST: That Biden is working for the middle class while Trump is on the side of the wealthy.

Take a listen to a bit of his argument just yesterday here in Scranton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I look at the economy, I don't see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago, I see it through the eyes of Scranton.

And trickle-down economics failed the middle class. It failed America. And the truth is, Donald Trump embodies that failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now the president has often turned to his hometown of Scranton to really vouch for his middle-class roots. But this argument also comes at a time when the president has a real vulnerability when it comes to the economy, with many Americans still holding pessimistic views about their own personal financial states, and also the president's handling of economic issues.

Now, he is making this argument in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, a state that he won back in 2020 and that he's looking to hold onto as this is part of that critical blue wall that Democrats want to see Biden win in November. That includes Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania is one of those states that Biden has probably frequented the most this campaign cycle. And it comes as polling has shown a very close contest between him and Trump, with both men vying for the state, and specifically the working class voters here.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Arlette Saenz in Scranton this morning. President Biden on his way to Pittsburgh. Thanks very much, Arlette.

Kate.

KATE BIDEN, CNN ANCHOR: Seven jurors down, five more to go. By all accounts this morning, Donald Trump's historic criminal trial is moving along quickly. After two days, more than half the jury has been seated, and the judge says opening statements could begin on Monday.

Also this morning, Donald Trump is sounding off on social media about the jury selection process. This is after he was scolded by the judge in court yesterday. The judge saying this at one point, I will not have any jurors intimidated, speaking to Donald Trump.

CNN's Zachary Cohen has much more. He's joining us now.

Zach, what is Donald Trump saying this morning?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate, Donald Trump using his time outside the courtroom to criticize the process of selecting a jury, the one that he participated in for hours yesterday and resulted in seven jurors being seated in his criminal trial. And Donal Trump posting on Truth Social, and complaining about the standard practice for choosing a jury in - or for a criminal defendant who was charged with the crimes that Trump is charged with. But each side in this case gets ten strikes and it allows the attorneys to disqualify a potential juror for any reason they want. But Donald Trump believes that he should have more opportunities to disqualify jurors. He writes, "I thought strikes were supposed to be limited when we are picking our jury. I was then told we only had ten, not nearly enough when we were purposely given the second worst venue in the country." He goes on to repeat similar criticisms about election interference and how this trial is essentially a political sham and one that's using -- or targeting his re-election campaign for president. Of course, that is not the case here.

And, of course, Trump is being treated like any other criminal defendant again who is charged with the kind of crimes that he's charged with here. He is taking issue with that. And his lawyers have also tried to make that argument in court, that this - this case is different than any other case. Obviously, prosecutors arguing the opposite.

But again, the jury selection process will pick up again tomorrow. We will - they will continue to try to fill those last five jury slots and then pick six - around six alternates to serve. And the judge was optimistic that opening statements could take place as soon as Monday, of course suggesting that timeline and shrugging in court yesterday. So, we'll have to see if that timing sticks.

But the case in the trial is moving forward despite Donald Trump's concerns and criticism of the process for selecting a jury.

And, Zach, tell us what we know about the jury, but also to reinforce the point, both sides knew about the ten strikes going in, right?

COHEN: Absolutely. Again, that's standard for any trial dealing with the defendant who is charged with the kind of crimes that Donald Trump is charged with. His lawyers - Donald Trump's lawyers in this case are very good lawyers and they absolutely knew going in. But it sounds like Donald Trump is saying that he just learned about that.

But still, he - that will not affect the fact that seven jurors have already been seated in this trial. And it's a diverse groups so far. It's made up of four men and three women. Five have college degrees or some sort of higher level education than that. There's two lawyers even on the panel so far.

One of the interesting - one of the foremen is a - the foreperson is actually originally from Ireland and works in sales. It's an interesting cross section of the kind of people in Manhattan, the jury of Donald Trump's peers.

Another one, juror number four, is described as an older Puerto Rican man who's married with adult children. He was asked about his hobbies and he said, quote, "I guess my hobby is my family." He also called Trump fascinating and mysterious. So, a little bit of a pro-Trump - at least an interest in Donald Trump's history and what Donald Trump has been saying publicly.

And lastly, the fifth juror is described as a young black woman who teaches the English language. And she's a unicorn juror in a lot of ways. She's the only one of the 18 questioned yesterday who said that she had no idea that Donald Trump was charged in other criminal cases outside of the one in New York.

[09:35:00]

So, again, a diverse group who will be charged with issuing an impartial and fair verdict in this case once the trial gets going.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Zach Cohen, thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, former U.S. assistant attorney for the Southern District of New York and former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman. Also trial consultant mediator Molly Murphy.

Nick, I just want to start with you.

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: Sure.

BERMAN: That post that Donald Trump just had is a little bit absurd right there. I mean he knew.

AKERMAN: Of course he knows.

BERMAN: He knew that the -

AKERMAN: That's what every - every defendant who goes into that courthouse has ten peremptory challenges, meaning they can remove jurors for whatever reason they choose, as long as it's not based on some discriminatory racial basis.

BERMAN: OK, and this is awfully close, by the way, to talking about jurors here. So, he may be walking pretty close to the fine line here on the gag order.

But be that as it may, I mean, is there one side that you think feels any better about the seven jurors who have been seated so far? AKERMAN: If I were the district attorney, I'd feel pretty good. What hasn't really been reported is that the district attorney is using social media to check out these jurors. And they need it for two reasons. One, they want to make sure that none of the jurors are members of the Trump cult. You're certainly going to find that out through their social media posts. And secondly, they want to make sure that they get somebody who is a normal person that doesn't feel isolated from society, that's not going to be iconoclastic and decide to hang this jury. That is the biggest threat that the DA's office has to be concerned about. And right now, based on who's been picked, I think they're in good shape.

BERMAN: Just to be clear, that defense is also going through social media very carefully to make sure there are no warning signs there.

And, Molly, to that end, what makes a juror - in a vacuum, right? We're not going to name names here or anything else, but what makes a juror more favorable looking to the prosecution and then the defense?

MOLLY MURPHY, TRIAL CONSULTANT AND MEDIATOR: Well, it has, you know, the reason for voir dire, which is a French term to speak the truth, is really paying attention to the nuances of what they're saying and the follow-up questions.

So, for the prosecution, they - they certainly are looking for people who are embracing the justice system, who believes in the justice system, who certainly believes that nobody is above the law, and vice versa Trump is being prosecuted in his mind and is trying the case in the cameras right now rather than in the courtroom. So, I think there's really a very difficult balancing act that the prosecution is dealing with, as well as the fact that Trump's team is trying the case outside the courtroom and inside the courtroom.

BERMAN: My friend, Alisyn Camerota, is obsessed with body language, in all things, but particularly in a courtroom when people are being asked questions. So, if you're in the voir dire process, you're asking these jurors things. What are you looking at in terms of their body language and how they answer?

MURPHY: That's a great question. Our thought process is really what drives our body language and drives our facial expressions. So, we may say one thing, but our body and face is saying another. So, we're really looking for, again, what are they saying? Is it true? And that's where, again, follow-up questions come in of, they see the body saying one thing to what they just said, and then they have to probe deeper to see, where's the truth of it? Because we have also implied biases. And again, that's where body language really comes in handy to really pay attention because implied biases we have or saying what we believe but unconsciously we have a different set of beliefs.

BERMAN: So, Nick, two notable things have been going on inside this courtroom really both days. The first day, Maggie Haberman and others noted that Donald Trump appeared to nod off and fall asleep. And then there were people in the courtroom yesterday who said that a few times his eyes were shut and he appeared to be snapping back and forth like that. So, what's the risk in that for him? And then also the judge issued a really stern warning at one point because Trump was muttering something during the voir dire process.

AKERMAN: Right.

BERMAN: Basically said, I will not lead jurors be intimidated here. So, talk to us about his behavior.

AKERMAN: Well, first of all, his behavior in the courtroom is not going to be very helpful in terms of the jurors not keeping awake. But politically it's devastating. Going out, calling his opponent sleepy joe when he's falling asleep in one of the most important trials ever in his life speaks volumes.

Secondly, how the judge is handling this is quite amazing. If you look at the order to show cause that he signed on the district attorney's motion to have Trump held in contempt, when does he have Donald Trump showing up for that motion?

[09:40:08]

It's a week from Wednesday when there's no court. So, this was a day that Donald Trump thought he would have free time to go out and campaign. Instead, he's going to be sitting in court again next Wednesday answering for his behavior in terms of what he's said about various individuals on social media.

So, the judge is really attuned to keeping on top of this and holding Trump's feet to the fire.

BERMAN: And keeping things going. Seven jurors selected already. They're on target right now to begin this case, opening statements, maybe on Monday.

AKERMAN: Oh, absolutely.

BERMAN: Nick Akerman, Molly Murphy, thank you so much for being with us.

So, an 81-year-old man is out on bond this morning after being charged with the murder of an Uber driver. Police say scammers targeted both of them.

And then a costume born of patriarchal forces. Women on U.S. Olympic teams are calling out Nike for designing uniforms they say are too revealing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:32]

BOLDUAN: An Uber driver is dead. An 81-year-old man is now charged with her murder. And police say it may have been a terrible, tragic mistake because of a scammer. Part of the terrifying encounter was caught on the driver's dash camera.

CNN's Danny Freeman has much more on this.

The more I've read about it, the sadder this becomes, Danny. What happened?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, and it's one of those stories that truly hits so many different people for so many different reasons. But like you said in the beginning, the main question that police have at this point is who is the person or persons who led these two strangers together ultimately in this deadly conflict.

Here's what we do know. We know that William Brock, the 81-year-old man, he says that he was receiving calls from a scammer who was saying that his nephew was in jail and that Brock needed to withdraw $12,000 in cash to bail him out of jail. None of that is true according to investigators.

And though I will say that investigators said Brock, though, when he initially got this call, he became hesitant. He was resistant to comply with this scammer's demand. Well, it was at that point that Brock says the scammer started to threatened both his life and his nephew's life.

Meanwhile, at the same time, police say that Loletha Hall, she was driving Uber, as she normally does, and she got a call on Uber from either the same scammer or police believe in accomplice to go pick up a package at Mr. Brock's home. And then that's when this violent and deadly encounter happened.

And we have that dashcam video from Ms. Hall's car. You can see Loletha Hall, she gets out, tries to inquire about a package. Nothing else. And Mr. Brock, when he - in his words, fearful for his life, holds her at gunpoint. They walk around the car a few times and he ultimately shoots Ms. Hall multiple times. She died later at the hospital.

And, Kate, just to give a little insight into what Mr. Brock was thinking at that moment. I want you to listen to some of the 911 call that came just after this shooting.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DISPATCHER: Why did you do that?

BROCK: Because I was threatened that she was gonna come and kill me.

DISPATCHER: She threatened to kill you?

BROCK: No, it was the guy on the phone that's been trying to get money out of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, one thing I'll note, Kate, it's very important, you see it on the video, and the investigators say it as well, Ms. Hall made no threats, no assaults, no demands other than, as I said, just asked for the package that the Uber app told her to go get. Investigators say that because she posed no threat at any time to Mr. Brock, that's part of the reason why he has been charged with murder. Like you said, he pleaded not guilty. Also out on bond.

But, yes, a horrible story. Just so tragic. And, you know, your heart bleeds for - for Ms. Hall and her family there.

BOLDUAN: I mean that poor woman and her family. I can't even begin.

Danny, thank you very much. We'll continue to follow this one.

John.

BERMAN: All right, shifting gears here, "wait, my hoo haa is going to be out." Those aren't my words because I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to say that on TV. Those are the words of one female athlete expressing concern and outrage over Nike's revealing Team USA uniforms for the 2024 Olympic games. We're not even allowed to show them right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:28]

BOLDUAN: We are officially 100 days out from the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. And Nike's new outfit design for the U.S. women's track and field team is raising the question, smart design or a sexist distraction.

Carolyn Manno has much more on this.

Carolyn, what are the athletes saying?

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, if you think about women first competing in the Olympic games back in 1900, when female athletes made up only 2 percent of the field, at that time the women who took part in tennis, for example, had to wear long skirts that covered their ankles and long sleeves. So, women's sportswear is ever evolving.

And Paris actually marks the first time in Olympic history that there's going to be gender parity on the field of play. Same number of women competing as men.

Now, despite that, Team USA and Nike have found themselves at the center of this firestorm over one of their the track and field uniforms for female athletes. The high cut design, which was unveiled last week, has been criticized as being revealing and skimpy and sexist. It doesn't look great in the photo. In fact, former USA track and field athlete Lauren Fleshman wrote in an Instagram post, "women's kits should be in service to performance, mentally and physically. If this outfit was truly beneficial to physical performance, men would wear it."

Now, Nike told CNN in a statement that the leotard design is one of multiple options available, including compression shorts, full length body suits. Katie Moon, who's a Nike sponsored world and Olympic pole vault champion has defended this kit. She actually said, "what was shown on the mannequin was concerning and warranted the response that it received. I absolutely love people defending women, but we have at least 20 different combinations of a uniform to compete in with all the tops and bottoms available to us."

[09:55:12]

So, this is just the latest in a long line of controversy around women's Olympic uniforms, ranging from very small bikinis on beach volleyball teams, white shorts for soccer players. And Nike's going to continue to have to navigate this, even though there are a lot of options available than the initial photo indicated.

And just quickly for you, Kate, I do want to mention, within the hour, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durrant headlining a star-studded USA basketball team for the upcoming games. The group has seven players with ten Olympic gold metals combined. This is a stacked roster. Training camp going to start in early July. This is going to be the first games for Steph. Durrant could win four gold medals and become the first man to do that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Fascinating. Carolyn, great to see you. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Two Celtics. Two Boston Celtics on that.

BOLDUAN: Is that how you say two?

BERMAN: Two - two Boston Celtics on that. Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday.

BOLDUAN: I don't really know what to do with you.

And John Berman, after his tease, is going to leave that uniform conspiracy and controversy alone.

BERMAN: We have a playoff tease.

BOLDUAN: We do?

BERMAN: The four-way race for the last playoff spot in the east. Every team still has a chance to make the playoffs with one game left to play in the regular season.

BOLDUAN: Does that include the Celtics?

BERMAN: No, the Celtics are like the number one seed. Shame on you.

BOLDUAN: I knew that. I knew that.

BERMAN: Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta is up next.

BOLDUAN: He's never mad at me except for right now.

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