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Major American Colleges Rocked By Protesters Over Israel-Hamas War; Any Moment: Judge May Rule On Whether Trump Violated Gag Order; Large Protest Underway At University Of Southern California. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 24, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Hamas in recent negotiations, and the Qataris who host the political leadership of Hamas in their gulf state have expressed deep frustration that Hamas did not accept the latest offer of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange and ceasefire.

The most important thing that could happen in the next couple of days before any assault on Rafah would be the release of hostages by Hamas and a ceasefire as a result. That would allow for more humanitarian aid to be distributed in Gaza. That would provide relief to families like Hersh's parents who have suffered so much. And that would allow for some positive path forward in the region as we continue to try in advance negotiations between the Saudi kingdom and Israel about a broader regional plan for peace.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Senator Chris Coons, we certainly do appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us today.

COONS: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we're continuing to look at those pictures out of Austin, Texas. This is the UT Austin campus, UT at Austin campus, where you see state troopers and protesters. This is, as we understand it from a student journalist on the scene, by far the biggest sort of -- I don't want to call it an altercation, but the biggest police presence and a bit of a standoff between troopers who have been on motorcycles and there you see on horseback and students protesting Israel's war in Gaza since they began months ago. We're going to continue to keep an eye on this. And we'll be right back. Stay with CNN.

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[14:36:21]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news to CNN. We are monitoring major protests at the University of Texas at Austin. This is -- it looks like -- again, these are live pictures coming in, so we're interpreting them as they happen. We understand that students were set to demonstrate a pro-Palestinian protest of March. And as they arrived on scene, law enforcement was there in large numbers. We've heard reports of multiple arrests. This just one of many scenes that have been playing out in colleges

all over the country. Protests brought about over the Israel-Hamas war.

In the next hour, House Speaker Mike Johnson is going to speak from Columbia University in New York City, calling on that school's president to resign.

KEILAR: We have reporters on campus at Columbia and at Brown in Providence, Rhode Island. Let's go first to Isabel Rosales, who is at Brown, where an encampment was recently formed. Tell us about the scene there, Isabel?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, Boris, you are looking at this pro-Palestinian encampment right now on the main green of Brown's campus, where these just over 20 tents went up just early this morning. We've heard over 100 students here right now gathered, singing, chanting from Columbia to Brown. We will not let Gaza down.

And I do also want to point out this building right here. That is the administrative building. So they could see from these windows as this encampment continues to grow here, those chants as well.

And from some of the organizers that we've spoken to, they have two big demands, and that is for the university to divest and break apart any ties to any companies dealing with the Israeli government. And the second is for them to drop charges against 41 students who were arrested back in December for a sit-in.

I do also want to play for you now a video we took here in the last hour showing these students gathered in a circle. And you can see university police accompanying school, a school employee, and they have a machine and they're scanning IDs one by one by one, scanning IDs. These students do face disciplinary action.

I spoke with organizers just a couple of hours ago, one of which is a Jewish student. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFI ASH, JEWESH STUDENT AT BROWN UNIVERSITY: Our liberation is intertwined. Our safety is intertwined. By standing up for Palestinian liberation, I understand that I am, in fact, standing up for Jewish safety. These are fundamentally core values that must be intertwined. And we've said it again and again. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. And I'm really proud to be a Jew standing in coalition with so many other students on campus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Now, the school put out an email just yesterday saying that the encampment is not an arrestable offense, but it is against school policy and stating that if this escalates to the point where they need to remove the encampment, they could bring police on campus to assist with that. And students could face a serious of a charge here academically as expulsion. Guys. SANCHEZ: Isabel, thank you so much for that report. Let's bring in Omar Jimenez, who's been tracking the protests at Columbia University. Omar, what is it like today?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so today we are in the eighth day of the encampment led protests here at Columbia University, and we're waiting to be House Speaker Mike Johnson to arrive here on campus where we do expect him to call for the resignation of Columbia's president.

Just to give you an idea of what it looks like here. So behind me, that crowd is -- there's a few students here, student organizers that are giving essentially a bit of a press conference. We're in front of the Butler Library, which is essentially the main library here.

[14:40:00]

This behind me is the encampment. You can see sort of the checkpoint that they have set up before essentially to enter into it. There's a community guideline set up there. There's also a posters reminding people what they are fighting for. Among that bottom line, they want Columbia University to divest from companies that profit from Israel. And so that has been the core message that they have been preaching over the course of this.

But one of the major aspects that we've been watching is that in the initial few days of this encampment, the President called in the New York Police Department to clear out the encampment. It enraged some, prompted some criticism from faculty and from students. And then last night, there was a midnight deadline to reach an agreement for students and the administration to find a way to clear out the encampments.

That deadline came and went. Hours later, the university -- a university spokesperson came out and said they had made progress pushing that deadline out another 48 hours. But the proposed penalty, if they did not reach an agreement, was essentially that they were going to have to find alternative ways to clear out that encampment.

So obviously, that is a bit of a warning sign for some of the students. But they say they are not leaving until their demands are met. And of course, we are in this eighth day, last day of classes set for Monday and finals the week after that. So clearly a situation to keep an eye on, especially over the next 48 hours.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And as we're set to hear from House Speaker Johnson in the next hour or so, Omar Jimenez, Isabel Rosales, thank you both so much.

We do have some images coming from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, pro-Palestinian protests there erupting into violence with, it appears, several people, at least one person there being dragged away by police.

We understand the reports indicate there are several arrests on campus. Again, scenes like this, immense tension playing out on campuses all over the United States.

We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back on "CNN News Central."

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[14:46:36]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news into CNN, moments of extreme tension in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. This at a pro- Palestine protest. We understand that there were several arrests there. You can see that demonstrators are face-to-face with police. Who apparently responded to a demonstration on campus.

There's pushing and shoving. And this echoes what we've seen in many campuses across the country. This afternoon at the University of Texas at Austin. In earlier days at NYU, at Columbia University as well. It's part of the reason that a congressional delegation including House Speaker Mike Johnson are headed up to Columbia University this afternoon to make a statement.

Specifically about the anti-Semitism that has been present at some of these demonstrations. We're going to keep an eye on the situation. Not only at USC but across campuses across the country, and bring you the latest as we get it.

We should note that at any moment, the judge that's overseeing Donald Trump's hush money trial, could rule on whether the former president violated a court-imposed gag order. In a heated hearing yesterday, prosecutors argued that Trump violated the order by attacking witnesses and jurors multiple times on social media.

Now after the gag order hearing. Trump's longtime friend and former "National Enquirer" publisher David Pecker testified about a 2015 Trump Tower meeting with both Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen, where Pecker agreed to run positive stories about Trump and run negative stories about his political rivals.

Joining us now to discuss his former Trump White House lawyer and CNN Legal Commentator Jim Schultz.

Jim thanks so much for being with us. Let's start where we left off in court yesterday. And what we're set to pick up tomorrow. And that's testimony from David Pecker. Prosecutors zeroed in on questions about the arrangement between Trump and the publisher and the intent behind it, partly because their case relies on making a clear argument to the jury that Pecker tried to help Trump for political purposes, not personal ones. That gets to the core of the alleged conspiracy. I'm wondering how well you think prosecutors did in illustrating that for the jury?

JAMES SCHULTZ, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: Well a couple of things. One, it was -- they made clear that there was this idea that the "National Enquirer" was going in. Pecker were going to push out negative stories like you said, and kill the bad ones, right, about Trump. But that in and of itself does not, you know, constitute a crime. And I think what was important in those discussions is, while there was this initial meeting with Trump. Remember again this is a business records case. At the end of the day who was responsible for recording those business records.

And it was very clear that on a go forward basis, that Pecker was to deal with Cohen on these issues. Other than the McDougal issue, there was no testimony that -- that Donald Trump had any -- had much contact if any with Pecker relative to the kind of the deals that are central to this case. So I think we need to see more from that discussion.

And I really think what's going to happen is, the issue at hand is going to be really determined by the testimony of Michael Cohen. And will the jury believe that testimony given kind of this public vendetta he has against his former boss.

[14:50:09]

SANCHEZ: That is an open question, whether the credibility of Michael Cohen before a jury is going to be something that will land with them. Jim, we have to cut the conversation short because we're monitoring breaking news. We do appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us.

SCHULTZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. We're going to take a quick break. As we monitor these protests erupting on college campuses all over the United States. Stay with "CNN News Central."

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SANCHEZ: Breaking news to CNN, we want to take you straight to the USC Los Angeles campus because the protests there, these pro -Palestinian protests, have become increasingly tense.

[14:55:10]

We saw moments ago police officers in difficult situations with protesters. There were moments of violence where people were tossed around. It's hard to keep track of exactly what's going on because the situation is chaotic there and our cameras unfortunately are unable to capture the expanse of the scene there.

KEILAR: That's right, but there is quite a standoff here between protesters and police. So let's bring in Nick Watt. He is at the protest at USC. Nick, tell us what you're seeing. Tell us how it got to this point?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, about half an hour ago, it was a pretty peaceful protest. There were speakers, they -- there were people who had picked tents on a small portion of a quadrangle, and then public safety officers from USC moved in to try to remove those tents, and it very quickly got very ugly.

Those officers were surrounded by protesters swearing at them, cheering them. It then became physical with pushing and shoving between those public safety officers and the protesters. So right now the situation is -- one person has been arrested. He is

currently in a squad car which is being surrounded by protesters who will not let that squad car leave.

Meanwhile, on the park where the tents were, where they were told to move the tents, those protesters are now marching, carrying their tents. So they are not breaking any university ordinance by having tents pitch. That is what's going on right now. It is very tense, as I say, it got very tense, very, very fast.

Back to you guys.

KEILAR: All right, Nick, if you can stay there for us, we are -- if you can stand by, we're going to continue to monitor this at the University of Southern California, the USC campus there in Los Angeles, where a large protest is underway. And you see police and protesters having a bit of a standoff there. We will be right back. Stay with CNN.

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