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Trump Media Stock Rebounds; Johnson Moves Ahead with Foreign Aid; Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is Interviewed about Foreign Aid; FBI on Alert for Threats to Jewish Community; Arizona Keeps Abortion Ban Repeal in Play; Arrests Made in Toronto Heist. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 18, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:33:24]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A look at Trump Tower, waiting for the motorcade to head to lower Manhattan, where the historic criminal trial of a former president will begin day three with 96 jurors up for grabs.

All right, let us move on now to some business news for Donald Trump. It's up, it's down, it's up again. After two weeks of a really rough start, some better news for investors and Donald Trump's media stock. The corporate owner of Truth Social rebounded by almost 16 percent Wednesday. But Trump Media is still down dramatically from where it started trading last month.

CNN's Matt Egan is with us.

I know that they said they were going to start this streaming service, but that didn't help it. What's the difference? What happened?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMY REPORTER: Well, Sara, this stock is so volatile, it's incredible. And it's really because its being valued in the billions of dollars despite the fact that it generated less than a million dollars in revenue at the end of last year. It's amazing.

Look at this stock chart. So, yes, it bounced yesterday, but you almost can't see. You need a microscope to see that rebound because it's down dramatically. It peaked at $66 a share, all the way down to $26.

Now, that means that some people - I mean there are real people out there who bought this stock at the peak.

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: They have now lost two-thirds - almost two-thirds of their investment if they bought at the top.

Why is it down? Well, first off, the spike never really made sense. Secondly, the streaming announcement did not go over well. We know a lot of established media companies, like Disney, they're losing money in streaming. The company also said they might be selling tens of millions of dollars of additional shares.

[08:35:01]

No matter the reason, look at this. The value of Donald Trump's stake, at the peak it was $5.2 billion. Now down to $2.1 billion. This drop- off in just a matter of weeks was enough to have Donald Trump taken off the Bloomberg list of the 500 richest people on the planet.

SIDNER: What's really interesting about this, as you look at this, I mean I guess the biggest question to me is, how did it ever get valued at this? And what happens when you see this massive drop here?

EGAN: Right. Well, it is amazing that it ever got valued as high as it did, right? It doesn't really make sense.

One way to look at stocks and kind of compare them is to take the price, relative to how much in sales they generate. So, look at this, social media companies, on average, ten times sales. That's their valuation. We're talking about Meta and Pinterest and Rumble. Trump Media, though, 1,200 times sales. That is a sky high valuation that really doesn't make any sense.

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: And so Professor Jay Ritter (ph), he told me that despite the crash in this stock price, it's still grossly overvalued.

Now, at last check, this stock down 3 percent premarket. This volatile is going to continue. Stay tuned, Sara.

SIDNER: There is a real warning to investors here to pay attention to all of this.

EGAN: There is.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Matt Egan. Appreciate it.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning we are watching the U.S. House very closely to see if there are any signs on the job stability for House Speaker Mike Johnson. He very clearly put his job on the line by moving a bill for aid to Ukraine. Some members of his own party threatening to oust him.

Hang on one second. That, of course, is Donald Trump leaving Trump Tower right now. You just saw him walking across the sidewalk, getting into the SUV now. It's a lovely shot of a bus.

Trump will be heading down to the courthouse where he faces the New York criminal trial. Of course, jury selection will continue. A jury expected to be seated by the end of the week. We're watching closely how much progress is made today.

We're also watching closely about a social media post that Trump made about the jury. How the judge reacts to that, some of our legal analysts have suggested that it crossed the line on the gag order. So, stand by for that.

In the meantime, stand by for job security for House Speaker Mike Johnson as well.

With me now, CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Enten.

Now, we talked about how thin the majority is for the speaker.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: There are other ways to look at just how non unanimous the support has been among Republicans for Mike Johnson in the House this Congress.

ENTEN: Yes, you know, a dysfunctional House, right? So, let's take a look here.

These are how often the House majority wins party-line votes when the vast majority of one party votes one way and the vast majority of another - the other party votes the other way. For Republicans in 2023, the Republican side won just 67 percent of the time. That is extremely unusual. You look at the Dems in 2022, when they controlled it, they won 91 percent of the time. This 67 percent is the lowest winning percentage for majority party in over 40 years. The fact is, Mike Johnson or Kevin McCarthy really didn't have much control of his caucus. And I think that is something that we're seeing right now, right, with Marjorie Taylor Greene and them threatening to try and oust him once again.

BERMAN: The last several decades you've seen this pushing close toward 100 there. Sixty-seven is quite low.

And this affects how much legislation actually gets passed.

ENTEN: That's exactly right, John. You know, take a look here, bills and resolutions signed into law through this point in congresses since 1973. The prior low was 100. That was a decade ago, right? Look at the lowest-ever. It's this Congress at just 47. Less than half the level of the prior low. The fact is Congress is not getting anything done. Republicans try and put something on the floor. They can't get it passed. When they actually do get it passed, the Senate won't pass it because it's a Democratic Senate. Joe Biden won't sign a law because he's a Democrat, obviously. So, the fact is, this dysfunction has resulted in a Congress that, simply put, isn't getting anything done.

BERMAN: I will say, there are some, and I don't mean this disparagingly, it's just a fact, there are members, particularly of the Republican Party, who don't want Congress to do stuff. They are, to an extent, anti-government.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. And it seems to be working very, very well for them because the fact is they're able to disrupt their own conference and it disrupts the work of the House of Representatives and Congress as a whole.

BERMAN: So, this has been a history-making Congress, particularly when it does come to the speaker?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, yesterday we spoke about the fact there had never been three speakers, and maybe we'll get that if Republicans oust Mike Johnson. But time without a speaker mid-session, the prior record, which was 200 years ago, was two days. We've already had three weeks during this Congress, mid-session, where there hasn't been a speaker. If we get let's say even more days, if they asked Mike Johnson, there's no plan put in place, this number will climb even higher.

This Congress has been historic for many reasons, and most of them are not really good. They show the dysfunction.

BERMAN: One of the reasons why they appointed a speaker right away is because stuff can't happen at all with no speaker.

ENTEN: Correct.

BERMAN: So, 21 days without a speaker means 21 days where the House is doing basically zero.

ENTEN: Which is what they've been doing this entire time basically.

[08:40:00]

BERMAN: What do the American people think about Congress? How does this effect overall approval?

ENTEN: Yes, it's not just that they're not doing anything. It turns out that people are recognizing this. So, this is disapproval of Congress, right, 78 percent. Now, we always say, you know, Congress isn't doing a lot, but this 78 percent is way up from 66 percent last year, 66 percent in 2022. You go back to April of 2021, it was 58 percent. This 78 percent is abnormally high. In fact, it's the highest since 2015.

So, yes, the American folks are paying attention and they're seeing that Congress isn't doing anything. They see the House in dysfunction and they are registering their disapproval of it.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, great to see you. Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Great to see you, my friend.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead, did Donald Trump violate the gag order with a post on social media last night? We're looking at that as we track him heading to court, what could be the last day of jury selection if they're able to get a few more jurors.

All right, was it an inside job? Police say they have cracked the case of a massive gold heist. We'll explain coming up.

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[08:45:29]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In a few hours the House Rules Committee is going to meet to consider the $95 billion package of aid bills to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Now, this is a committee that's really key to getting anything to - getting anything to the floor. It's the gatekeeper. It sets the rules on the vote. A bill has to pass through Rules before it can get a vote on the floor.

All leading up to the promised House floor votes on Saturday. A promise that has the right flank of the House Republican conference threatening to oust the Republican House speaker.

Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida. He sits on House Oversight and the Foreign Affairs Committees.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much, Congressman.

You're going to vote on Saturday on these foreign aid bills said Mike - says Mike Johnson. But when it comes to Ukraine, it's been stalled so long. The pleading from Ukraine has turned into rationing ammunition on the battlefield.

So, what is the message Ukraine should take from what's happening now?

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ, (D-FL): Well, thanks, Kate. Thanks for having me.

Look, it's better late than never, obviously. I mean there was a chance that what was going on over the last couple of months because of the politics of this on the other side of the aisle that this may not have happened at all. And so, yes, look, it is behind, right? Ukraine has lost ground because we have delayed, because of the politics of my colleagues across the aisle. But Speaker Johnson now has decided to move. As Hakeem Jeffries, my leader, said, this is a Chamberlain or Churchill moment. And it looks like Leader Jeffries is going to help potentially Mike Johnson make this a Churchill moment for all Americans. Because that's really where we are. We can't let the Freedom Caucus, the chaos caucus, the folks that literally want to see the world burn, the isolationists who would literally let Putin take Europe and would let the ayatollah in Iran take Israel. That's what they would let happen if they got - if they got their way.

And so, you know, we are the democracy in the world. We are the greatest country ever on the planet. It's our time to lead in the 118th Congress. And I think Democrats and Republicans are going to take that together.

BOLDUAN: Related to this is what happened in committee yesterday with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She went off about neo-Nazis in Ukraine, raising concern about what's now widely considered misinformation and also was how Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine in the first place. He was rooting out - rooting out Nazis in Ukraine is what he said.

You responded to her in committee. I want to play for everyone a little bit of what you said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOSKOWITZ: Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler. The only people who know about Nazis and Hitler are the 10 million people and their families who lost their loved ones. Generations of people who were wiped out.

It is enough of this disgusting behavior using Nazis as propaganda. You want to talk about Nazis? Get yourself over to the Holocaust Museum. You go see what Nazis did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think is going on there with Marjorie Taylor Greene taking time in committee, in a committee hearing, to push this?

MOSKOWITZ: Yes, I don't think there's a psychologist in the world that knows what's going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene. I mean we're going to have to study that for generations.

I mean it's just out of control. And what I don't - what was getting frustrating to me is that other people - her members, other members - her - her Republican colleagues who know this stuff is lunacy sit there like, oh, that's just like another normal day. No, no, we've got to stop this nonsense. You go talk to Jewish families. You go talk to Russian families. You go talk to, you know, other families that were killed by the Nazis. Ten million people were killed by the Nazis, right? They set up a Dewey Decimal System of death by putting numbers on peoples arms and then, you know, bringing them into concentration camps and the gas chambers and the ovens. No one is doing that in Ukraine. It's ridiculous, OK.

And so the idea that we were just going to sit there and let her tell people, oh, the reason we shouldn't help Ukraine is because there - there are Nazis. Garbage, right? That's coming right out in the mouth of Putin.

And so, look, at someone who's grandmother was part of the Kinder transport out of Germany as a child. She was put on a train in Berlin and sent off to the U.K., which saved her life, I just wasn't going to sit there and stand for that. Of all people, Marjorie Taylor Greene, right? Trust me, the Jewish community does not want her to be our spokesperson.

BOLDUAN: Greene is threatening Speaker Johnson with possibly moving to remove him from the chair over bringing Ukraine aid to the floor.

[08:50:03]

You've said that you would help stop that effort. You would help keep Johnson in the job. Have you heard from Democratic Leader Jeffries on this? Is this what it's going to come to, do you think? MOSKOWITZ: Well, first, I mean, look, you know, based on what Marjorie Taylor Greene's been doing, that's why today I filed in an amendment, it's in the system, which would name her Congress' special envoy to Putin. So that way she can - we can just make it official, quite - quite frankly.

You know, as far as the motion to vacate, you know, I'm going to a caucus meeting at 9:00. I'm going to listen to what Hakeem Jeffries says. I think as you saw, the caucus has the utmost respect for our leader, which is why he's able to keep the entire caucus together. I mean he's been tremendous. This doesn't happen without his leadership.

But, look, I have said this before, and I will say it again, there is not a circumstance where I sit in the people's House and allow Marjorie Taylor Greene to throw the world into chaos and to embolden China, to embolden Russia, by letting her garbage stop us from standing by our allies. What would the message be to the world, not just Ukraine and Israel, all of our allies, they will look at us now as not dependable. They will say, democracy is on the decline. Democrats are not going to stand for that. I imagine I'm going to hear something like that from Hakeem Jeffries today.

BOLDUAN: And there you're going to have a special caucus meetings to talk about this for sure, among other things.

Congressman, thanks for coming on. Jared Moskowitz.

MOSKOWITZ: Thank you. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

A disturbing assessment from FBI Director Christopher Wray this morning. Federal law enforcement are on a high alert right now for any potential threats to the American Jewish community ahead of the start of Passover on Monday. Threats were already elevated before the October 7th terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, but the number of FBI hate crimes, those cases tripled in the wake of the attack and the ongoing war in Gaza.

CNN's Josh Campbell is joining me now.

Josh, what are you learning about these threats?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, a really stark warning from the director of the FBI yesterday. He was speaking to the Secure Community Network. That is a consortium of Jewish community officials, security professionals, that essentially work together to share information about threats that they're seeing. We've, obviously, been reporting on a number of threats that have spiked across the country involving the Jewish community, both real threats, as well as a series of hoax threats to Jewish institutions.

And Wray told this group that particularly ahead of Passover, the FBI is certainly on alert. He said that throughout his law enforcement career he can't think of a time when so many different types of threats were elevated all at once. And as you mentioned, you know, after that October 7th Hamas attack, Wray said that threats to the Jewish community were already elevated. But after that, the FBI ended open - ended up opening three times more cases involving threats to Jewish Americans and Jewish interests here in the United States. And so you can certainly see just how serious the bureau was taking that. He says that they continue to investigate with, quote, "full force." That force including thousands of FBI agents, analysts, professional staff, as well as task force officers that are on alert around the world.

Now, interestingly, Wray also said that they're not just focused on a lone wolf attacks and home grown threads, but since October 7th they've seen what he described as a rogues gallery of threats from overseas as well, from foreign terrorist organizations. He also made reference to last weekend's attack on Israel by Iran using missiles, using drones, saying that the FBI has been particularly concerned about the threat posed by Iran, that they have uncovered plots here in the United States to assassinate the U.S. official, to assassinate U.S. journalists. And so certainly something very concerning. He said that as we go into Passover and even beyond, he's warning the Jewish community, law enforcement across the country to be vigilant, to be on alert, particularly concerning Iran, both any type of attacks from Iran, but also proxy groups that may also stem from some of these recent threats. So, certainly a very serious threat. You have thousands of law enforcement officials across the country on alert, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, that's quite a number of hate crime cases tripled since October 7th.

Josh Campbell, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, major developments in the battle over reproductive rights in Arizona. Remember, the supreme court there, the state supreme court, cleared the way for a Civil War era near total ban on abortion. It is a ban that many Republicans around the country say should be lifted, but Republican leaders in the state house or maneuvering to keep the band in place, even though there has been some movement to repeal in the state senate.

With us now, senior political correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal," Molly Ball.

And what's so important about Arizona, at this very moment, Molly, is that advocates of reproductive rights say, look, there are those, including Donald Trump, who say leave decision on abortion up to the states. This is what's happening in the state of Arizona right now when it's being left with that decision.

[08:55:05]

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Exactly. And, of course, Arizona is a major battleground state. In fact, this is the most severe abortion restriction of any battleground state. And you can see how it's dividing the Republican Party in these repeated scenes of chaos that we've seen in the Arizona legislature where some Republicans want to repeal that 1864 law which bans almost all abortions except those that threatened the life of the mother. And some Republicans very much want to keep it in place. The party has historically been pro-life, but now we have, you know, the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, saying that this law goes too far and should be repealed. The Republican candidate for Senate, Kari Lake, actually getting in there and calling legislators, trying to get them to repeal the law. Clearly seeing it as a political threat to her candidacy and to Republicans in Arizona.

BERMAN: We keep putting up on the screen that the Arizona State Senate has kept the repeal in play. That doesn't matter if the Republican house speaker in the Arizona House continues to block it. And as far as I can tell, he continues to say that he will, that he will not let it become law.

What kind of a bind does that put someone like Donald Trump in, who's trying to suggest that he's finding some middle ground on abortion?

BALL: I think it absolutely puts him in a bind because, as you said, it shows the consequences of this state's rights position he has taken. What you are going to get with that, and certainty what we've seen in a lot of states, especially red states, especially in the south, is these near-total bans on abortion. In Florida, you know, a six-week ban, which advocates - abortion rights advocates call nearly a total abortion ban. And so, you know, states are going to take those types of positions. You're not going to get a sort of moderate, compromise position out of a lot of states if you leave it up to them. What you're going to get is this extreme patchwork where in some states abortion is banned almost completely and in other states anything goes. You know, in a lot of blue states, access to abortion has been dramatically expanded since the fall of Roe.

So, you know, if this remains - and what - what Arizona Republicans, what some of them are advocating now, is to put some kind of competing amendment on the ballot. We expect that there will be a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Arizona this fall that would ask voters whether they want to basically reinstate Roe and have abortion legal up to the point of viability. Republicans considering putting competing amendments on the ballot that would offer voters a choice of a more restrictive abortion law. But it has thrown the state into chaos and it has really, I think, activated likely a lot of voters who see their rights under threat now.

BERMAN: Yes. And, again, the story this morning, powerful Republicans in the house in Arizona blocking measures to repeal this near-total ban on abortion there.

Molly Ball, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Gold, guns, cash. Six people are now arrested after a multimillion-dollar heist at Toronto's international airport last year. And police say it was an inside job and are issuing more rest warrants.

CNN's Paula Newton has the very latest. She's joining us now.

Paula, what are you learning about this?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Kate, look, they say you can't make this up. Actually, you can make it up. It's been made up a lot in movies. This actually happened police alleged.

I want you to look at some surveillance video right now. This is the point in time where police alleged two Air Canada employees, pointing again to what they say was an inside job, lifted a cargo container containing millions of dollars in gold bars and currency.

What happened next? They took it into a transport truck and then police lost the tail. They could not find this gold or the currency for months.

But this is where the plot gets interesting. Right now six suspects under arrest, three still at large, and police are saying that what they did is they lifted this cargo container using phony shipment documents, actually printed from inside the Air Canada facility. And, Kate, police admitted that one of the suspects, whose now still at large from Air Canada, actually gave them a tour of the warehouse facility while they were investigating this.

Needless to say, the trail had gone somewhat cold for a few months, and that's where we take the story to Pennsylvania and the arrest of Durarte King-Mclean. He was in a rental car. A state trooper stopped him for some traffic violations. Inside they found 65 firearms, which police alleged that Mr. King-Mclean was trying to smuggle into Canada.

Now, to piece this all together, Kate, police say that what happened is that that - those gold bars were then melted down. They've only recovered, in fact, about 90 - well, actually about $70,000 worth of the gold. It was all melted down. And, in fact, sold for cash.

[09:00:02]

What happened with that cash? It was then funneled into an elaborate gun smuggling operation.

And, Kate, this really points to.