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IDF Takes Control of Palestinian Side of Rafah Crossing; Trump Advisers: Gov. Kristi Noem Not on His VP Shortlist; GOP's Geoff Duncan on Why He's Voting for Biden, not Trump. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 07, 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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[08:31:32]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the Rafah crossing on the Gaza side is now in Israeli military hands. Overnight IDF troops captured the critical entry point taking it out of Palestinian control. Airstrikes this morning are coming fast and furious which is inflaming tensions as ceasefire negotiations resume today.

With me now a CNN Military Analyst retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. So nice to -- to speak to you this morning. Thank you for being here.

Let's just take a look at kind of what Rafah looks like right now. This is where across Rafah there's eastern Rafah which they told people to evacuate from. More than a million people who have been in Rafah sheltering trying to get out of the way of danger.

How does -- how does Israel maneuver this incursion here and avoid killing scores of innocent Palestinians? You look at just the denseness of the situation there with so many people in harm's way potentially.

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's very challenging, Sara. What we're talking about right now are two brigades of the Israeli Defense Forces, the Givati Brigade and the -- what they call the 401st Iron Tracks Brigade. Those are both brigades with -- with Merkava tanks, mechanized vehicles, artillery pieces. But this is a limited counter-insurgency operation in east Rafah and it is really tough combat in the cities.

That's why they dropped the leaflet yesterday saying to all the Palestinian or the Gazan residents that were in east Rafah to get out of there, to go to the Al-Mawasi camps and to western Rafah.

They found a lot of intelligence. The Israeli Defense Forces found a lot of intelligence of significant number of Hamas terrorists in east Rafah. So far during the operations, my reports early this morning say that they've uncovered multiple shafts into the tunnel complexes. They had mortar firing positions, specifically the ones that fired on the Rafah crossing point -- uh, excuse me from Rafah to the Kerem Shalom crossing point the other day. They killed four Israeli soldiers. So the intelligence is what's driving the operations. But as you see the films that are showing right now with tanks and armored personnel carriers going through a lot of the areas with housing and construction, it's very difficult. As an armor guy, I'll tell you it's tough to conduct combat in the cities like that because you don't know where the enemy is, where the sniper positions are, where you're going to be fired on.

SIDNER: Yeah. And you have so many civilians all sort of bundled together in such a small, small space. I do want to ask you about aid. Rafah is one of the checkpoints where aid has been coming through and there already wasn't enough aid coming in. Is this going to shrink that further as you look here at what's happening there?

HERTLING: There may be a little bit of a stall, Sara. This is interesting because the timing is fascinating what's going on? Yes, Rafah is one of the crossing points, so is the other one in that area of operations. But both of those have also been hives of terrorist activity, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

About in three or four days, you're going to see that Navy ship that set the RORO passages, the roll-on/roll-off capabilities off the Mediterranean Sea.

So there will be other inputs to the humanitarian assistance provided by the Army, the Navy and the U.S. Air Force based on that ship that we've been tracking for the last several weeks.

[08:35:04]

It's now almost operational, and that will get up to 150 trucks per day into the Gaza Strip, which will be significant.

SIDNER: You're talking about the pier that the Marines are building and trying

to bring aid in from that part of Gaza as well.

Lieutenant Mark Hertling, thank you so much for explaining all of that. It's a complicated situation. The ceasefire deal not been made yet, but it is still in the process. Talks are still happening and will resume today. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially been sworn in for an historic fifth term in office. Putin won 87% of the vote in the country's March presidential election, according to the country's election commission. An election victory that was seen really by the world is a foregone conclusion, with most of his political opponents either dead, jailed, exiled or barred from running. The Russian president faced no credible challenge and is now the country's longest serving leader since Joseph Stalin. Putin will now rule until at least 2030.

The Phi Delta Theta fraternity has revoked the membership of one person following the confrontation between pro-Palestinian protesters and a large group of counter protesters at Ole Miss.

Videos of the heated exchange and incident, it went viral last week. One clip, especially showing a group of mostly white students yelling at a black student who was part of the pro-Palestinian protests. And also in the video people seen making what appeared to be racist gestures at her.

And in a statement, the fraternity said this. "After reviewing the incident, it was determined that the individual's behavior was unacceptable. The action in question was offensive outside the bounds of this discourse and contradictory to our values."

Now, the fraternity has not identified who that person was that was removed and CNN has also not been not been able to identify any of the counter protesters in the video.

House Speaker Mike Johnson still holding on to his job today. He is expected to meet with Republican congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been threatening for weeks to force a vote to oust him. The two met yesterday meeting again today.

This is as frustrations continue growing within Republican ranks in the House, especially mostly against what Green is trying to do here, not against what Johnson's been doing.

Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to point to the speaker's move to allow a vote on foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel that had bipartisan support as a source of her main frustration. House Democrats have made clear they will help save Johnson's job if it comes to that, which is rare to say the least.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate. The "Veepstakes" in full swing here. The betting odds are rising for Trump's VP contenders like Governor Doug Burgum or Senator Tim Scott, perhaps. And our own Harry Enten, no, he's not in the running, but he has been running the numbers, however, on Governor Kristi Noem. She, of course, in the spotlight for her book, which has all of this sort of devastating language about how she shot her dog and a goat as well.

Harry joining me now. Just how much of a hit has she taken? And she's still out there promoting this book that has all this information.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I don't know what the heck she's thinking. I ain't buying that book.

All right, let's take a look here. Noem's chances of becoming the GOP VP nominee. You go back to April 25th, just before this book started hitting the wires. She was an 18% chance becoming the GOP VP nominee. That's pretty high up, given how many different options there are. Look at where she's dropped, 5% on May 1. 3% today. 3%, that is a drop of 15 points. Her chances have been sliced.

Look at this. But what is this? 5-6? I mean, my goodness gracious. Basically, this book, for all intents and purposes, while, of course, we don't know exactly what Donald Trump is thinking, but at least by the betting markets, have basically ended her chance to be Donald Trump's VP nominee.

SIDNER: And we should be clear, this is the betting market. This is not Donald Trump. He can make his own decision.

ENTEN: Correct.

SIDNER: He may make the decision that doesn't go along with this. But this does tell you something right about how people feel about dogs in America?

ENTEN: Yeah, if there's one thing I know, there are a lot of things that divide Americans, but there is one thing among a few that unites them, and that is the likability of dogs. All right, 88% of Americans like dogs. 74% of Americans like dog a lot.

I would compare that to a very favorable rating. I dare say they love dogs. I know I'm part of that group. You can see me right --

SIDNER: Oh, that's you.

ENTEN: That's me. That's me and my childhood dog, Cody, right over there. Is that not adorable? I think I was like five there. And then you get 14% who like dogs a little bit. I don't know exactly who belongs in that. But the fact is, 88% of Americans like dogs. And Kristi Noem was going up against that. I'm not exactly sure what the heck she was thinking.

[08:40:10]

SIDNER: And telling the story as well. Doing it is one thing, and also just sort of bragging about it in the book. We will have to see, but we're seeing what's happening in the betting markets. Where does this leave, though, the race for Trump's vice president?

ENTEN: Yeah, I don't know who's going to be Trump's VP nominee, but I think there are a bunch of favorites here. And you can sort of notice none of these guys are above 20%, which sort of leaves it. It's an open race, right? But I think Tim Scott is sort of the nominal frontrunner at a 19% chance. Doug Burgum at a 17% chance. J.D. Vance at 13%. Marco Rubio, of course, has those residency issues at 9%. This is a wide-open race.

Yes, I would say if I was, you know, putting my thumb on the scale, it would either be Tim Scott or Doug Burgum. But the fact of the matter is, we're just going to have to wait and see because this is just going to be like "The Apprentice," right? Apprentice VP nominee edition.

We don't know what's going to happen. There's still a lot of things to develop here. But the bottom line is, Donald Trump had a really easy time becoming the presidential nominee. One of these folks are going to have a very difficult time to become the VP nominee. It's a wide- open race. SIDNER: There's a lot of choices. If you were a betting man, you're saying these are the two, obviously, with the highest numbers. But it's Donald Trump's choice in the end. So we will have to wait and see.

ENTEN: We will have to wait and see.

SIDNER: Harry Enten, thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate?

BOLDUAN: The betting markets and the VP stakes. Joining us right now, a former Senior Campaign and Transition Aide to Donald Trump, Bryan Lanza. It's good to see you, Bryan. And also CNN Political Commentator and former White House Communications Director for President Biden, Kate Bedingfield. Thanks for joining us, Kate.

Bryan, what do you think of just looking at that last slide that Harry and Sara were talking about in terms of the betting markets where people think Donald Trump will pick in terms of VP?

Tim Scott has something of an edge. What do you think of Tim Scott as VP? And what do you think Trump's running mate this time should bring to the campaign, geographically, demographically, or in terms of ideology?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: First of all, thank you for having me. Listen, I would say, as you try to analyze who President Trump wants as a VP candidate, you have to understand, President Trump is sort of the ultimate executive producer of the show. He's the star. He's the director. So he's not going to pick anybody that outshines him.

And so when you look at those circumstances, you're not going to have somebody like Sarah Palin who's going to come in, suck up a lot of oxygen, and just sort of leave, you know, President Trump behind.

So when you look at, you know, the governor, when you look at Senator Tim Scott, they're certainly in a strong position, A, to bring value to the campaign, whether it's economic value or whether it's votes. But they also do the most important thing. They don't outshine President Trump.

And I've always felt that, you know, Pence, you know, Vice President Pence did a good job of hitting the -- the high notes of the conservative base without outshining President Trump. And I think that's what we're going to be looking, what we'll see again.

BOLDUAN: Real quick, Bryan, I'm not sure if you are a betting man. But if you are a betting man, do you think there is any chance that Kristi Noem is the VP running -- is the running mate?

LANZA: You know, I think it's -- if I'm a betting man, it's safe to say that she shot herself in the foot, given her propensity to shoot things. But I don't see it happening.

BOLDUAN: There's also a difference, Kate. I think we all can agree. You may not even like dogs, but you also may be opposed to shooting puppies. Just saying.

Kate, what do you think the Biden -- what do you think the Biden campaign view is of Trump's running mate this time around? The level of importance, the level of impact they think it could have on the race and the competition for votes in key battleground states?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, well, for the Biden campaign, presumably whoever Donald Trump picks is going to be somebody who's going to underscore the things that, you know, they would argue are the most problematic for the country, because we know Donald Trump wants somebody who's loyal. He wants somebody who's going to toe his line. He wants somebody who's going to go out and defend even the most outrageous, egregious and sometimes even potentially criminal things that Donald Trump says.

So, you know, no matter who he picks out of this field, you're going to have somebody who is going to be out of step with where most voters are on abortion. You're going to have somebody who presumably is going to double down, triple down, quadruple down on the threats to democracy that you see Trump out, you know, continuing to events.

So I think for the Biden campaign, you know, they sort of take a view of, all right, you know, Trump will pick from this cavalcade of folks who are falling all over themselves right now to, you know, to underscore some of the most problematic things about Donald Trump's candidacy.

And so for the Biden campaign, that will be an opportunity. That will be another person who will just sort of underscore where, you know, where Trump is in terms of relative to -- to the electorate.

BOLDUAN: Bryan, former Georgia Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan has now announced that he is going to be voting for Joe Biden in November, not for Trump, not for the Republican presumptive nominee. His argument is that Trump has disqualified himself in conduct and character. He spoke with John Berman just last hour. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEOFF DUNCAN (R), FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GENERAL: Well, enough is enough. Donald Trump is not our future. He's not our president. And now looking back, he certainly wasn't our past. Donald Trump's a fake Republican. He's proven that over and over and over again. He simply wants the position of president to be powerful. And he's willing to lie, cheat, and steal for it.

[08:45:08]

And if we're going to fix this party and go forward, the party that is conservative but not crazy and angry, we've got to do it without Donald Trump. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Bryan, you say Duncan's take is irrelevant to Republicans voters. Tell me why.

LANZA: Well, yeah, just like in 2016, you always had those key words, some of those sort of leadership Republicans, establishment Republicans that were like, we're never going to support President Trump. And what we learned in the end, that their voices didn't matter. Even when they had the state of Utah to try to competitively draw votes away from Trump, to try to sort of stop that type of electoral college gain there, they had no impact.

And so what we've seen over the years, sort of these anti-Trump Republicans, and at the end of the day, they've had very little impact in moving the needle with respect to independent voters, with respect to swing states. And Georgia is a swing state today. And what we're seeing is President Trump has a significant lead in Georgia, in spite of Geoff Duncan's, you know, op-ed or his feelings.

So I think at this point, the voters have just made the decision that his -- Duncan's voice is just not the voice of the Republican Party and not relevant to the conversation.

BOLDUAN: And Kate, what do you think of this?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think if you look at Donald Trump's numbers throughout the Republican primary, you see that in fact, there is a significant slice of the Republican electorate that agrees with Geoff Duncan, or at least that says, we don't want Donald Trump. I mean, you know, you look at Pennsylvania, 150,000 Republicans came out and voted for Nikki Haley.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Do you know -- I just thought of this, Kate, I'm sorry to interrupt. Would you want Geoff Duncan, I don't know, campaigning with Joe Biden? Would you want Joe Biden to ask Geoff Duncan to campaign with him?

BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, I would, absolutely. Because I think what the Biden campaign needs to do is to build as broad a coalition as possible. And a piece of that coalition are disaffected Republicans -- you know, disaffected Republicans who don't want to see Donald Trump be president.

I mean, at the end of the day, if somebody is out making a forceful case about the threat that they believe that Donald Trump poses to democracy, I mean, that's a really core argument that the Biden campaign is building on. And so having somebody out there who is going to make that case from a Republican perspective is powerful. It reminds people that, you know, what Donald Trump is espousing is out of touch with where voters are, is dangerous, is, you know, perhaps uniquely dangerous.

So, yes, look, I think the Biden campaign wants to build as broad a coalition as possible. And if Geoff Duncan is willing to come out and talk about why Donald Trump shouldn't be president, the Biden campaign should welcome that. Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Kate, it's good to see you. Bryan, it's good to see you. It's been too long. Thanks, guys.

LANZA: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

SIDNER: All right, we're doing some frivolous stuff now, Kate, so stick around.

BOLDUAN: Not frivolous.

SIDNER: It -- I mean --

BOLDUAN: This is fashion, is art, not frivolous.

SIDNER: All right, it's not -- it's frivolous to me.

BOLDUAN: There, you can have two thoughts in your head. The world is burning up and it's good to see art.

SIDNER: You're right. This is interesting. I mean, it's fashion. It's called Sleeping Beauty's Reawaken Fashion. This is the Met Gala last night. A-list celebrities in full force.

You saw J.Lo with that dress for the exclusive Met Gala in New York. It does raise money for the Met. That is the good news.

This year's dress code was the Garden of Time and florals were on full display on this year's green, not red carpet. Musicians, designers, actors, influencers showed off their bold and sometimes outrageous outfits.

Also seen a crowd. There were protests, a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters marching near the gala, but police prevented the demonstrators from disrupting and getting into the event.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister joins us now. Elizabeth, you know, I'm looking at, whoa, Demi Moore, you go, girl. That is quite the outfit. Look, there's Mr. Bloom. Tell us where the looks stood out. The best ones of the night?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: OK, and I am with Kate. You know, this is important stuff, Sara. We've got to lighten up the mood every now and then.

So Zendaya, who of course is the biggest fashionista in Hollywood at the moment. She was one of the night's co-chairs along with Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny. Well, she surprised on the red carpet with not one, but two looks, Sara.

So the first look that Zendaya walked out in was from Mason Margiela. It was adorned with grapes and butterflies, because what else would we expect from her? Going with the garden theme.

And then she surprised with a new look, which was a vintage Givenchy corseted look with a vintage Alexander McQueen big, huge hat that was a floral bouquet.

All right, now everybody is talking about Kim Kardashian, not because she has newish blonde hair, Sara, but because she had this impossibly cinched waist. People are trying to figure out how that waist happened.

And also they're trying to figure out why she wore a sweater on top. The internet is divided. Some people love it, and some people not so much, Sara.

[08:50:04]

OK, now one of the other looks we're going to go to is Cardi B, who wins the prize of the night for having the biggest dress. I'm trying to figure out how she was able to even walk in this. There it is, we see it.

The answer is none of these stars could actually walk up the steps. They all arrived in sprinter vans because their gowns were so big. And there we see Cardi with this massive organza cascading gown.

All right, now taking a bit of a different approach is Doja Cat, who showed up in nothing but a wet t-shirt. So the Met Gala turned into a wet t-shirt contest. But of course, she won this contest and she always does it up. Last year, she painted her body red and wore 30,000 crystals on her body. This year, a wet t-shirt.

Now, one of the most creative looks went to the singer Tyla, who showed up in a gown that was made out of sand. There it is. It's this sculptural structure dress. If you zoom in, that's made out of three different types of sand. And of course, she also had to be carried up the stairs.

SIDNER: Yeah, I watched that happen. I did see a clip where, see, I like frivolous, where they lift her up and put her on the stairs. And then Cardi B had, like, what, seven or eight people just to spread out her dress. These looks amazing. I would never fit into any of them. But thank you so much, Elizabeth Wagmeister for --

WAGMEISTER: Yeah. Sara, next time, we'll dress up more on theme for this, right?

SIDNER: All right, we'll try it. All right, Kate?

BOLDUAN: How can anyone fit into what Kim Kardashian was wearing? Look, it's not frivolous. We can have two thoughts in our head. We're going to talk about the series. The world is a horrible place, but still --

SIDNER: You've got beauty and fashion.

BOLDUAN: There is fashion and beauty and pieces of art that are fashion. And I do not know how Kim Kardashian was breathing.

SIDNER: That is a medical concern.

BOLDUAN: Right. But we do have some news for you. Now we know what that now deleted Donald Trump Truth Social post was likely about. Just in, prosecutors are expecting to call Stormy Daniels to the stand today. What her testimony could mean for the hush money trial that's all about the documents related to money paid to her. We'll be back.

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[08:56:30]

BOLDUAN: In just a few hours, President Biden will be delivering a keynote address on Capitol Hill to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The President is expected to speak to the atrocities of October 7th as part of his remarks and also issue a clarion call of sorts to fight against the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States. The timing of his speech is noteworthy, of course, for everything we're talking about and is critically in the news.

Ceasefire talks are resuming today between Israel and Hamas. Just as we have watched pro-Palestinian protesting golfing universities across the United States over what is playing out in Gaza.

Joining me right now is Democratic congressman from New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer. It's good to see you, congressman. What do you want to hear from --

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: -- President Biden in this speech today?

GOTTHEIMER: I think it's critically important, Kate, that he speaks with a clear voice, which he has been about the surge in anti-Semitism in this country and how we have to do everything we can to make sure we stop it in all forms of hate. And I think given what -- if you look at the ADL's numbers last year, there were 8000 incidents, 5000 antisemitic incidents after October 7th. A tenth of those actually in the state of New Jersey, my home state. So it is an alarming problem around the country.

We're obviously seeing it on college campuses with people screaming pro-Hamas chants and kill the Zionists. And I think we have used this moment, and I'm sure the President will as a teaching moment to the country of how we need to stand up to all forms of discrimination, hate and hate against any religion on against anyone of any backgrounds. And I think that's hopefully what comes across today.

BOLDUAN: You've been put. You've been so outspoken, pushing for campuses to do more to get a handle on the protests that we've been seeing and also to do more to fight against what we're talking about antisemitism.

Your bill passed last week gets -- the house last week gets -- gets to this very issue. Yesterday, Columbia announced its canceling commencement. Do you think campuses are getting a better handle on all of this? Should these schools be canceling their graduation ceremonies?

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, that's deeply disappointing. I was really upset that Columbia did that for the students, right? I mean, what the whole point of college and as be able to study to go to the library, take exams and be able to do all the things that all students should be able to do regardless of the religion and then to take graduation away from them.

These are the same students who missed their high school graduation because of covid, right? So I, you know, I was -- I was really upset that they took that step.

You don't want to back down to people who take over buildings and are causing, you know, campus unrest and putting people -- putting the safety at risk of other students. To me, that's unacceptable. That's the line we need to draw. If you look at what President Biden said last week, he said there's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.

And I think that's the key here, right? In all these college campuses, we all support the First Amendment and speaking out strongly of your views, even when we don't agree. But how you do it matters. Causing violence and intimidating other students and actually preventing kids from go to class is unacceptable. Same with actually, I believe, supporting Hamas, which is a foreign terrorist organization, which still has Americans hostage. As you know, five living Americans still killed 44 Americans, sees America as their number one in the West is their number one enemy.

And I think hopefully today the President will make clear that Hamas, a terrorist organization, is no friend of the United States, obviously is no friend of Israel and continues to have Americans hostage today.

[09:00:02]

BOLDUAN: We know that ceasefire and hostage release talks are resuming after what was really complicated and confusing yesterday.