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Mayor Eric Adams Speaks About Protests; Greene Will Force Speaker Vote; DOJ Plans To Reschedule Marijuana. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 01, 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]

LAUREN BOOK (D), FLORIDA STATE SENATOR: They know that the legislature has gone too far.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: State Senator, I'm so sorry to interrupt.

BOOK: They know the legislature has gone too far.

BOLDUAN: State Senator, I'm sorry for the delay in our audio.

BOOK: That's OK.

BOLDUAN: And I'm so sorry to also interrupt. Thank you so much for your time. We have to run now. We have breaking news I have to get to. Here back - thank you so much, Senator.

Back in New York, Eric - Mayor Eric Adams now speaking at a press conference about the violence and the arrests that have played out on Columbia University and beyond. Let's listen.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK: That happens in the city of this capacity, magnitude. And you have to be a well-organized professional operation to deal with all of those encounters. And I just want to thank Commissioner Caban, the chief of department, Maddrey, Chief Chell, Commissioner Daughtry, First Deputy Commissioner Kinsella (ph), and the entire operation. And specifically I just really want to thank Commissioner Weiner. She was the one that was monitoring the situation when I first started seeing the protests take place in the city. It just did not fit right. I saw similar indicators from the Black Lives Matters march when it was brought to my attention that there were those who came to the city to disrupt our city. And she was able - through her team, was able to conduct an investigation. And what I feared was actually materialized and actualized by those who were on the ground.

And I know that there are those who are attempting to say, well, the majority of people may have been students. You don't have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this is about. And so if we want to play the rogue (ph) police, you could do so. I want to play the New York City Police, where we're going to protect our city from those who are attempting to do what is happening globally. There is a movement to radicalize young people and I'm not going to wait until it's done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it. This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children. And I'm not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.

So, the men and women of the New York City Police Department should be proud of yourself, at the request of Columbia University. After speaking with them throughout the week, at their request, and their acknowledgement that outside agitators were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement, at their requests we went in a conducted an operation to allow Columbia University to remove those who have turned the peaceful protests into a place where anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli attitudes were pervasive.

Approximately 300 people were arrested at Columbia and City College. We are (INAUDIBLE) arrest to distinguish between who were actual students and who were not supposed to on the ground. And we pointed out yesterday, these external actors, with a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos, not to peacefully protest, but create chaos.

If you were at City College and you saw the bottles, the garbage cans, the other items that were thrown at police officers, those police officers showed a great level of discipline to not allow this to evolved to an out of control situation. As we pointed out yesterday, they are attempting to disrupt our city, and we are not going to permit it to happen. And we're proud to say they have been removed from the campus.

The NYPD's precision policing insured that the operation was organized, calm, and that there were no injuries or violent clashes. And to be clear, this is not our analysis of what took place last night. National independent journalists acknowledged what the police department did yesterday, and they were on the ground to see it.

And I want to be clear that we will continue to continue to use this level of professionalism. And we saw the intersectionality of all the things we have been working on. Drones allowed us to do a complete analysis of the Hamilton building and the location. We were able to know how to precisely go in and conduct the operation, making sure the encryption (ph) of our radios, because they were not able to monitor and hear our deployment tactics, it allowed us to have the element of surprise that we went on the ground.

[09:35:06]

Training, with our CRT team, precisionly (ph) knowing how to go in and conduct a professional operation. We didn't wake up and executed a plan. This is a plan that has been put in place since January 2022 when we understood our police department had to be prepared for uncertainties like this. And so to request and receive in writing could not have been clearer.

But those who broke into the building did include students. It was led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university. They needed - the school needed the NYPD's assistance to clear Hamilton Hall and the encampments outside. A dual operation on the grounds that took place successfully. Clearing the tents, taking back and reclaiming Hamilton Hall.

And we said from the beginning that students have a right to protest. And free speech is the cornerstone of our society. But as our major concern, we knew and we saw that there were those who were never concerned about free speech. They were concerned about chaos. It was about external actors hijacking peaceful protest and influence students to escalate.

There's nothing peaceful about barricading buildings, destroying property, or dismantling security cameras. We cannot allow what should be a lawful protest to turn into a violent spectacle that saves and serves no purpose, as I said.

There's no place for acts of hate in our city. We made that clear. That's from anti-Semitism to Islamophobia, or anti-Seikism (ph) and other communities, as an AAPI community, we have been consistent, there's no place for hate in this city. And I wanted to continue to commend the professionalism of the police department and to think Columbia University. It was a tough decision. We understood that. But with the very clear evidence of their observation, and the clear evidence from our intelligence division that they understood it was time to move and the action had to end. And we brought it to a peaceful conclusion.

And we're going to continue to coordinate with Columbia, as we have it from the start, in all of our academic institutions to find a peaceful middle of allowing our young people to protests -

BOLDUAN: All right, we're listening there to New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, giving more detail about the police activity. We've seen - shown you the video as they moved in to clear out Hamilton Hall at Columbia University overnight. Importantly, he said, while the people who were occupying, who were vandalizing that academic hall occluded students, he - the mayor says it was led by individuals who are not affiliated with a university, not concerned about free speech, but concerned about chaos. External actors he calls them.

Sara is at Columbia and has been standing by and listening into this as well.

Eric Adams is putting his foot down, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Yes, and I think over and over and over again the message that he was sending was clear. He was very much talking about these external actors, as he put it. People who were there, were not affiliated with the university, who he seems to be blaming for creating the chaos on campus. He said these were peaceful protests that were influenced by outside professional protesters and chaos agents, and that they are the ones that were instrumental in the next phase of this protests, which went from tents on campus to inside - breaking into a building on campus, Hamilton Hall, just there behind me.

He thanked the police officers for going in and was very clear that the university requested them, as they must do. They requested them partly because they said the breaking in of Hamilton Hall was a clear violation of a peaceful protests, and that they believed external actor were involved in helping that happen. In other words, it was their plan as opposed to the plan of the peaceful, protesting students who have been on campus for two weeks decrying the war in Gaza, calling for a ceasefire and calling for the university to divest from any business that does business with Israel.

And so what you're hearing from the mayor is a lot of blame on external actors. I have been hearing from protests and faculty members, the mayor said there were no injuries and that he praised the police department for going in. They really did go in, Kate, in sort of this shock and awe type of maneuver where you had dozens of officers coming in at all different angles, through windows, breaking open doors to get into Hamilton Hall.

[09:40:05]

He said they were using drones as well to get a real picture of Hamilton Hall so that they knew exactly what was going on and where to enter.

And then they had, you know, dozens the people that they pulled out of Hamilton Hall and arrested. We have heard from professors who were at the area where they are letting students out at this hour who have said there were some injuries. They don't know - not saying exactly how they were caused, but there were injuries. People had lacerations and bruises. But that those injuries were not treated by EMS or police, that they were treated outside once they got done with being let out from arrest.

But, you know, the scene on college campuses, Kate, all over this country has become very tense. Here, the encampment, gone. The students in Hamilton Hall, arrested. The campus surrounded by a heavy police presence and barricades. But in Wisconsin, you know, we've been watching that. And in Wisconsin you have police on campus trying to get rid of the encampment there. You have police now on campus at UCLA after violent clashes broke out with pro-Israeli protesters going on the offensive against pro-Palestinian protesters inside the encampment. We are watching this happen across campuses. It is as if the war has come home. The ideology being fought between students on either side of the aisle. And as you heard from the mayor, some external forces trying to make their presence made as well.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And the mayor even saying that there is a movement to radicalize young people. And he said that's what they were going into remove, to remove those people that were not affiliated with the university as part of what was happening at Columbia, right behind you.

Sara is going to - is still there. We're going to get back to Sara.

Mayor Adams is continuing with his press conference. And here we're going to have much more on all of this after a break, including what, as Sara mentioned, what is - what is playing out at the University of Wisconsin Madison right now where we saw police moving in to disassemble an encampment, a tent encampment there, after, I believe, the school had said that it was in violation of state law, and then police moved in.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:46:28]

BOLDUAN: We have more breaking news in. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is moving forward and will force a vote to oust Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Let's get over to CNN's Manu Raju. He's on Capitol Hill with this new reporting.

And, Manu, you were just at this press conference. What did she say?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, she made clear that she plans to call for this vote next week. Of course any one Republican member, or Democratic member, could call for a vote to oust a sitting House speaker. And she plans to do that next week.

But there's much difference than what we saw last fall in which Kevin McCarthy became the first ever speaker of the House to be ousted by the - by his own colleagues. At that point, all Democrats joined with eight Republicans to kick out Kevin McCarthy. This time, much different, because Democratic leaders are saying that they plan to essentially vote to kill this resolution to oust Mike Johnson as speaker. And I most Republicans plan to join it. So, this will overwhelmingly fail.

But Greene says that she wants to put Republicans and Democrats on record about where they stand on this key issue as she railed Mike Johnson's dealmaking to keep the government open, to move forward on this surveillance law, and to fund - to provide aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, all of which she contended was a, quote, betrayal of Republicans. But - so she made clear that she plans to force this vote.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We cannot let people down again. We cannot fail President Trump. Next week I am going to be calling this motion to vacate. Absolutely calling it. I can't wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again having supported a Republican speaker, a Christian conservative. I think that will play well. I'm excited about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, this could happen pretty quickly next week as the day that she plans to actually offer this resolution on the House floor, then the Republican leadership could call to essentially vote to kill this immediately. And that's likely what will happen.

Other question will be, how many Republicans ultimately join her. Right now there are only three Republicans, including her, who have publicly come out in support of her effort to oust Mike Johnson. Also one person who has not been in favor of moving ahead, former President Donald Trump. I pressed her about why she's going forward this with Donald Trump's opposition apparently to this effort. She contended that Mike Johnson is not advancing the Trump agenda and defended her support for the former president.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Which is so interesting because I remember a previous conversation you had where she was pretty evasive about whether Donald Trump was supporting her efforts as she was moving towards this - towards this motion to vacate.

It's good to see you, Manu. Thank you so much for bringing us that breaking news.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right, we've been watching protests around the country. I think we have live pictures from Wisconsin, where the most recent round of clashes have taken place between law enforcement and protesters on the campus, that's the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

And we just heard from New York City Mayor Eric Adams on the operation overnight at Columbia University where police moved into retake Hamilton Hall, which was a building - a campus building which had been seized by protesters. Mayor Adam says there have been 300 arrests. He said they are sorting through now how many of the arrests were students or what he called outside agitators. He did say a number were from outside the university, as in not students. And he said that the people who led this seizure of Hamilton Hall, the takeover of Hamilton Hall, the ones who lead it and divided it were not students.

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He also said there were no reported injuries overnight from the operation. And he said that there are still police on the grounds of Columbia and they were invited it.

With us now, Juliette Kayyem, our national security analysts right now.

Juliette, I think you were listening to Mayor Eric Adams as well. Interesting to hear him distinguish between the outside agitators and the student protesters. I imagine there is an element of that which is political for him.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, absolutely. I've been in conversations with people at Columbia. I know people who are working for Columbia. I - and I - part of what he says is accurate there and we're going to see that in the arrest numbers. We saw them earlier. People unaffiliated with the school will - will - are arrested. They were there and part of that is what kind of access controls can these colleges and universities provide to ensure that the lawful student protests are able to go on.

I do worry, however, that we're - this narrative of the outsider is a bit of a crutch. We - colleges and universities will be ill-prepared to do what they need to do, which is include, allow lawful protest if they think it's just a bunch of outsiders. Let's be realistic here. There's a group of students who lawfully and legitimately, in terms of the First Amendment, have things to protest against their colleges and universities. And us old people, who aren't used to this, we - you know, it's been a long time since we've seen these kinds of protests, dilute ourselves and dilute our planning and maybe aren't listening to what these students want. I have defended the right to protest. I do not defend and do think there is appropriate police action when that protest turns to unlawful behavior. And I also think, fortunately, what we're seeing is not really clashes. I think even Madison, Wisconsin, looks kind of hectic, but it actually looks like crowds are just moving in different directions depending on the control that the police want. And students who are willing to be arrested will be arrested as they continue to break the law. But I have been pushing back -

BERMAN: Juliette, I don't want to -

KAYYEM: Go ahead.

BERMAN: I don't want to interrupt you, Juliette, but I think on your - if you can see, and I'm not sure you have a monitor to watch this -

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: You can see the University of Wisconsin Madison live right now.

KAYYEM: I can.

BERMAN: And you can see the law enforcement with their shields up, their riot shields up, forming a line there and pushing back.

KAYYEM: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: And it does appear that the two sides are pushing up against each other right now.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: There's more literal pushing and shoving than we've seen in some time.

KAYYEM: Yes. And that - and part of that is, that will hopefully de- escalate. Police know how to do this when they're pushed. They're just standing a line and that's a - you know, this is - this is - you know, as I said to you, John, yesterday, these - none of these things are ideal. I'm just looking at this from the perspective of what could be your worst case scenario. As a parent of college kids, any parent watching this, anyone who remembers Kent State, the interaction of student protests with law enforcement can turn violent. We don't want this. Whatever our viewpoints are about either the protesters or the counter protestors. So, we are seeing attempts to de-escalate this kind of energy and disruptions that we're seeing. And as I said, students who are acting unlawfully, who are not following time and place restrictions, ought to get arrested, and they will be arrested. What we saw yesterday, and what we've seen elsewhere, is, lots of students don't want to get arrested, and with appropriate crowd controls and the appropriate use of law enforcement, which I generally think it should be limited, and I think we have - are beginning to see that now as compared to two weeks ago, we can de-escalate.

I want to say this again, the word de-escalate is the responsibility of leadership. I know there's lots of energy and lots of complaints about what's happened with these student protests, what they're protesting, whether they're scaring other students, that's - that is legitimate debate. But the responsibility of institutions and leadership and law enforcement is what they've been trained for, which is to try to de-escalate these situations, protect students who feel intimidated, Jewish students or otherwise, as well as protesters. A failure to do that we saw this morning at UCLA.

And I think that's important to remind folks that we can de-escalate and that responsibility - I'm not calling them kids, but one has to believe that those of us who are several decades older have better judgment than others and also know how to de-escalate a very heated situation.

[09:55:04]

And I think it's important that we keep our heads through this very difficult time and utilize law enforcement, public safety, leadership techniques of de-escalation that we know work. And we are seeing them work in the colleges and universities that we aren't covering, which is good.

BERMAN: All right, Juliette Kayyem, thank you for watching this along side us.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

BERMAN: We have our eye on this situation at Madison and on campuses around the country. Our coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, we have a live look at the markets about a half an hour into the trading day. You can see it's mixed right now. Why? Investors are really on the edge of their seat at this moment waiting to hear from the Fed for what the Fed says about interest rates. I don't think anyone is expecting the Fed to cut rates this time. That had been the expectation over the last several months, but that has gone away.

Now, what investors are looking for is what the Fed will say about what they will do about interest rates in the future. Will there still be cuts going forward? Might they even hit the possibility of raising rates if inflation remains suborn. So, stay with us all day. We'll bring you the Fed news as it develops.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also this, the Biden administration is moving now to change federal policy on marijuana. The biggest shift in more than 50 years. Two officials confirmed to CNN, the DEA is planning to re-classify marijuana as a lower-risk drug.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now.

Sanjay, one thing we all know so well is you have done so much reporting in this area around cannabis. I mean, what, you have seven documentaries on this very topic. What are you learning about this proposed change when it comes to marijuana?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's potentially a big deal. It's not done yet. But in October of 2022, the White House asked HHS to say - to review whether or not cannabis could be rescheduled. It is now going to the DEA. They still got to go through this formal rulemaking process. But it's happening in a way that we have not seen before.

Really quick, Kate, schedule one, which is what cannabis is now, basically means the things you see on the screen there, no accepted medical use, which we know is not true, high potential for abuse. There is potential for abuse, but look what they're comparing it to, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, for example. What scheduled three means, and you can - and you can see not only what the criteria are, but also some other examples, less potential for abuse and also acknowledging this idea that there is medicinal benefits there, more in line with Tylenol, with codeine, buprenorphine, ketamine, things like that.

You know, Kate, I got to say, we have been reporting on this for a while. Charlotte Figi, you may remember her, a young girl with intractable seizures, she tried everything and nothing worked. And then she tried CBD oil and got benefit. We've known for some time that there can be medicinal use for it. And I think the legislation and starting to catch up.

[10:00:00]

BOLDUAN: It really is. And what a - ah, what a - that beautiful soul that you became so close with, her and her family.

GUPTA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And the beautiful life that she -- that she was able to