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Trump's Classified Documents Case Delayed; Daniels Detailed Encounter with Trump; Tornadoes Tear Through Michigan; Biden to Announce Microsoft Investment. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED EL MASRY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY STUDENT: And it just - they took it all away because the mayor is about to meet Capitol Hill today. And they were going to ask her about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, John, you heard him mentioned there that D.C.'s mayor and police chief are expected to be on Capitol Hill a little later today, taking questions from the House Oversight Committee.

So, obviously, the tone of that committee hearing is likely to change here.

But I'm also hearing this morning from a source with knowledge of the conversation between police and the university who tells me that GW was not notified about the plans to clear the camp until about 1:30 a.m. this morning when their police chief got a call from MPD. So, a lot of questions there as to how this played out.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Gabe Cohen in Washington, thank you very much.

We're getting new developments just in on the legal issues surrounding Donald Trump. Let's get to it right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A day off from court for Donald Trump, and he might need it after the contentious and sometimes explicit testimony coming from Stormy Daniels. She's back on the stand tomorrow. But what impact, what she's already said, is already having?

New airstrikes overnight in Gaza, as the U.S. hits pause on a shipment of bombs to Israel. CNN's new reporting on the concerns driving that decision.

And now Michigan has been hit by a string of tornadoes, tearing through homes, even a FedEx facility, a FedEx building that, for a time, trapped workers inside. There's more severe weather coming today. I'm Kate Baldwin, with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS

CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, delayed indefinitely and explicit testimony. The two major headlines Donald Trump facing this morning as he spends time out of court and off the campaign trail. One of these, a huge win. The other, infuriating him, as Stormy Daniels took the stand and detailed the alleged affair and payment at the center of Trump's criminal charges.

First, though, the classified documents case in Florida now postponed most likely until after the election. Why? Because the judge has decided that it is going to be on hold indefinitely.

CNN's Evan Perez is leading us off.

Evan, this trial was supposed to start this very month. What is the judge saying as to why this is delayed for so long or indefinitely as we know right now?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, look, I think the May 20th trial date was always a bit of a fiction when you look at the slow pace that the judge has taken with this case. In this case Judge Aileen Cannon is now saying that there's too many pretrial motions for her to go through. There's eight of them that are pending. And she's now scheduled proceedings through - essentially take us through July, which really makes it almost impossible for us to get this trial date back on track and certainly before the election. Of course, that's been the goal of the former president, which is to delay this trial, to make sure it doesn't happen before the November election.

Now, a couple of things that the judge cited as her reasoning. She said that obviously these are - these are issued - these national security issues were - present novel and difficult questions. She also said that there is going to be these two hearings. One of them - both of them, rather, in late June. There were kind of longshot items, including this motion right Donald Trump that challenges the appointment of Jack Smith as unconstitutional or as illegal. And so we now have those hearings on the calendar. A big win for the former president for sure.

Sara.

SIDNER: Wow. There is so much going on. So many trials. But May 20th would have been almost impossible because this trial is still going as well.

PEREZ: Right.

SIDNER: But to have it hold indefinitely is exactly what the Trump folks wanted, Donald Trump himself as well.

Evan Perez, thank you so much. I appreciate your reporting this morning.

PEREZ: Sure.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: So, what will Stormy Daniels say next? She will be back on the witness stand tomorrow morning after she told jurors a lot in the criminal trial against Donald Trump. He is accused of falsifying documents to cover up hush money payments to Daniels, all to influence the 2016 election.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is with us this morning.

Brynn, one wonders what the jurors have on the top of their minds today as they have a day off from court.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Maybe reviewing their notes, John, because we were told they were taking pages and pages of notes during Stormy Daniels' testimony. And you said it, she said a lot. So much that even the former president was caught, you know, audibly swearing by the judge, who had to tell his attorneys to sort of control him to not make any sort of head shakes or saying anything while she was testifying.

[09:05:06]

But, yes, she went into, for the prosecution, the entire story. How she met the former president. How she reached an NDA. All leading up to, of course, what's at the center of this case, the hush money payment.

And she went into so much detail that, you know, even - bringing her leg up at one point to demonstrate how the former president looked when they had their encounter in 2006, that even the judge was basically objecting to what she was saying. So, there was a lot there.

But, of course, it was important for the prosecution because, remember, the former president has denied, denied, denied that this affair even happened.

On the defense side, listen, they attacked her. You know, they attacked her credibility. They attacked her motivations. They pointed out the fact that at one point she didn't want her story out there, and then the next minute, when he became president, she did want her story out there. So, there was a lot there for the cross-examination, which, of course, is going to continue tomorrow.

I want you actually see some of that cross-examination - or here some of it, rather, where she really was honest about her opinions about the former president, saying - from Susan Necheles, the defense attorney, "am I correct that you hate President Trump?" And Stormy Daniels said, "yes." And she said, "you want him to go to jail?" And she said, "I want him to be held accountable."

So, you could see there was a lot of emotion, a lot of drama that was inside that courtroom.

Another thing to point out, the defense, at one point, asked for a mistrial based on her testimony, basically saying you can't unring the bell of what she was testifying to and really making the argument that this is a documents case, so why is she getting into so much sorted detail? The judge denied that mistrial.

And, again, she's going to be back on the stand tomorrow. So, we're all hear more - we will hear more, John.

BERMAN: Yes, there will be a cross-examine and we - cross-examination. More of that. We do understand the prosecution will redirect also.

GINGRAS: Yes.

BERMAN: Brynn Gingras, thanks so much for being with us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, joining us right now to talk about this, CNN's senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig, and CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers.

Jennifer, you note - you've also noted that the defense did well when it came to Stormy Daniels' testimony. What do you see?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, a couple of things. One, the defense's job generally is too muddy things up and the prosecutors job is to keep things clean and clear. And there was a lot of muddying yesterday on the stand.

And the second thing is, they got a lot of points. You know, they are going to look, like prosecutors due, to pull things out from different witnesses to put together their closing arguments. They got her to say she hated Donald Trump. She owes him over half a million dollars. Her story, while largely consistent in broad strokes, has shifted over time with the details. So, they've got a lot to work with here.

BOLDUAN: I want to talk about that owing of half a million dollars in a second, Elie, but do you - did prosecutors go too far in delving into the details of the alleged sexual encounter? I mean was the - do you think the motion for a mistrial was - was founded?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, I think that, yes, prosecutors went too far in the details they elicited. I think, yes, it was the right move by Donald Trump's team to ask for a mistrial. And I think, yes, it was the right move by Judge Merchan to deny the mistrial. This doesn't quite rise to the level where you have to stop the trial and declare it over.

But, Kate, if we think about this strategically, prosecutors have stressed to the jury throughout this case, they've stressed to the public in their public statements, this is not a case about sex. This is a case about business records. Falsifying business records. It's our bread and butter here at the DA's office. It's what we do all the time. We do it to ensure business integrity.

OK, why then did prosecutors go into so much extraneous detail about the sexual encounter to the point where Judge Merchan sustained numerous objections. He found that the questions were inappropriate. And I have to say this also, Kate, prosecutors took some cheap shots yesterday in their examination of Stormy Daniels because for the first time ever they elicited from Stormy Daniels a suggestion that this sexual encounter may not have been consensual. She said she blacked out. She said, I'm not saying he drugged me. She said he was imposing. He was large. He was blocking my access to the door. That's way beyond the scope of anything she said before. And it's way beyond the scope of anything the judge was willing to allow.

BOLDUAN: Jennifer, what do you - with what has happened and where things left off, where do you think things pick up when cross- examination continues tomorrow?

RODGERS: I think we're going to see more about her motivations, this extortion point they're trying to make. I don't think that they're going to go into detail on the inconsistencies of the actual sexual encounter, even though they have some ammunition there. And it's sort of for the reason that Elie suggested. I don't think they want to get back into that and kind of balloon this thought of, there may not have been consensual sex here, or even just the embarrassment of the episode. So, they probably will actually not do all they could do on that front, but more about the motivations for sure.

And also about the connections. You know, prosecutors are going to stand up and say, all these people told you about how important it was to him to keep this story under wraps.

[09:10:02]

David Pecker, Keith Davidson, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels. There are connections among all those people. Keith Davidson is her lawyer. She has, you know, all these conversations with Michael Cohen. So, they're going to say, it's not as if they didn't have an opportunity to kind of get their stories together.

BOLDUAN: And, Elie, about that $500,000. One focus of cross was the outcome of this - it had to do with the defamation case between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. And Stormy Daniels, in cross, she did confirm that she owes Trump something like $500,000 in legal fees.

Let me read one exchange with Necheles. Necheles saying, while - "now, while you've been refusing to pay President Trump the money that you owe him, you've also been making money by claiming that you had sex with President Trump, right?" Stormy Daniels says, "are you talking about the book?" Yes." "And you've been making money by claiming you had sex with Donald Trump for more than a decade, right?" Daniel says, "I have not been paid for interviews in the United States, if that's what you mean." Necheles says, "well, that was not my question. My question was, you've been making money by claiming to have had sex with President Trump for more than a decade." "I have been making money by telling my story about what happened to me." "And that story, in essence, is that you say you had sex with President Trump." "Yes." "And that story has made you a lot of money, right?" It has also cost me a lot of money."

Why is this relevant in your mind?

HONIG: Well, the defense is arguing that Stormy Daniels has a financial stake in this case. First of all, on a separate case, she owes him, as you said, about a half million dollars. She sued Donald Trump for defamation. A federal court threw it out and said, now you owe Donald Trump his attorneys fees. And she said, I am going to go to the grave before I ever pay that money. She's defying a court order.

Now, she said previously that that lawsuit was the product of bad advice from Michael Avenatti, who's now in prison for other reasons. She hasn't quite said that on the stand. I think that's something I would want to go back to if I was the prosecution here. That's how this all came about.

And to the point of the excerpt you just read, Kate, Stormy Daniels has a financial interest in the outcome of this case. If this is a conviction, she sells more books. She's written books. She says she's working on two more. She gets on more podcasts. She gets more downloads. If this case results in a not guilty verdict or a hung jury, then the market on the Stormy Daniels enterprise goes down. There's just no way around that.

So, she has a financial interest in this case. So too will we see Michael Cohen has an even stronger one, and that's fair game for both sides to bring up.

BOLDUAN: Fair game. And quite a game we are watching play out.

It's good to see you, Elie, thank you so much.

Jennifer, it's always great to see you. Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead this hour, President Biden heading to the swing state of Wisconsin. What he is touting while in town to try and entice swing voters.

And "The New York Times," the stunning revelation found in a deposition they say concerning presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. What he said doctors found that literally ate part of his brain.

Also, millions of people across the United States facing another round of severe weather threats, including the potential of tornadoes, after these devastating tornadoes hit parts of Michigan.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is there for us.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're live in Portage, Michigan, where two tornadoes struck within the course of an hour-and-a-half, including this FedEx facility behind me, trapping over 50 people. We'll be live on the ground.

Plus, an outlook for today's tornado threats across the country, coming up after the break.

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[09:18:15]

BERMAN: Tornadoes wreaking havoc across four counties in Michigan. At one point 50 workers were trapped inside that FedEx facility behind me right there. This was the 13th consecutive day of tornado reports across the country. The severe weather is expected to continue today. Tens of millions of Americans could see potential tornadoes, giant hail, powerful wind gusts.

Let's get to CNN's Derek Van Dam, who is in Michigan outside that FedEx facility I was talking about.

What's in store, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I mean, if this forecast holds, John, we are talking about two consecutive weeks of one tornado at least impact the U.S. Talk about severe weather fatigue.

Here in Michigan annually we average about 12 tornadoes. We've already experienced eight so far this season. And several of them were yesterday, causing the damage that you see over my right-hand shoulder.

Let me give you a unique aerial perspective from our mass (ph) cam, our satellite truck, that shows you the extent of the damage, where the 50 employees were initially trapped but have been rescued with only minor injuries. That is just really a drop in the bucket of the destruction here in Kalamazoo and Union County, just to my south and east. Mobile home parks were destroyed. Fifteen to 20 injuries, minor injuries, disbursed to local various hospitals.

The storm threat here has diminished. But look, it is going to ramp up in other parts of the country today. So, I want to show you that threat right now, which is starting to blossom, explode in severe weather potential. Look at this. We've got a new severe thunderstorm watch across central Missouri. This is valid until 2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, so 3:00 p.m. Eastern. But look at the threat as it moves and takes advantage of the environment later today.

[09:20:01]

We've got a bullseye between St. Louis and Nashville. This is an area that the Storm Prediction Center has highlighted a level four of five for severe weather, including the most dangerous tornadoes, that's EF- 2 or strong, 111 mile per hour winds, giant size hail.

By the way, John, yesterday we had four inch size hail here in the state of Michigan, my home state. That is near record sized hail for the Wolverine state. So that's saying something.

Back to you.

BERMAN: That's big. And that is a big area right now in the danger zone.

Derek Van Dam, thanks so much for being there and keeping us posted.

VAN DAM: All right

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, President Biden is headed back to the battleground state of Wisconsin. While there, he's set to announce a new $3.3 billion investment coming from Microsoft. The company's president joined us last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD SMITH, VICE CHAIR AND PRESIDENT, MICROSOFT: And that's why we're investing, not just in this massive build-out, money we'll spend just between now and the end of 2026, but training of workers, especially with people who are leading manufacturing companies, co-innovating with them, so they can put AI to work to ensure that American manufacturing is globally competitive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now, Microsoft's project is going to sit on the - some of the same land were another company broke ground during Trump's - Donald Trump's administration. Back then, Donald Trump celebrated that project as going to be the eighth wonder of the world. That did not happen. The project failed. And today, President Biden is expected to directly blame Trump for that failure.

Now, Microsoft's investment does also give Joe Biden a chance to tout job creation in a critical battleground state, but will that be enough to sway some of the state's swing voters?

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE FLANNERY, OWNER, APPLE HOLLER: It's a mess, man.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ZELENY (voice over): Dave Flannery is talking about the state of American politics.

FLANNERY: It's a mess.

ZELENY: How does it get fixed?

FLANNERY: I wish I knew.

ZELENY (voice over): Flannery has a ringside seat to the noisy presidential race from his quiet orchard in battleground Wisconsin.

President Biden will be just miles away Wednesday when he returns to the state for his fourth visit this year.

FLANNERY: A lot of construction going on. Several thousand jobs are - are - that are going to be created over there during the construction process.

ZELENY (voice over): The president is touting his economic agenda. It's an open question whether any projects will ease anxieties of small business owners like Flannery.

ZELENY: So, this is the top of it?

ZELENY (voice over): Who debated if he should add a new building on his Apple Holler farms.

FLANNERY: Things are really uncertain. Not knowing what's going to happen with interest rates and what's going to happen with the whole economy.

ZELENY (voice over): Wisconsin is an essential piece of Biden's re- election roadmap.

MAUREEN GLYNN, WISCONSIN VOTER: Yes, I hope that people will look to reason, integrity, character of our national leader, and vote appropriately.

ZELENY: In your view, which way is that?

GLYNN: Biden. He's old. So what.

ZELENY (voice over): Maureen Glynn and her husband Dennis worry and wonder why the Biden-Trump rematch seems so bitterly tight.

GLYNN: I just think that people have forgotten how chaotic it was when Trump was president.

I feel a lot better now that we've had almost four years of Biden. It's not great, but it's better.

ZELENY (voice over): Biden is visiting Racine, home to one of 46 Democratic offices across the state. A key piece of his coalition is black voters, some of whom don't see how they benefit from his economic plan.

JAVONNA LUE, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: As they see the prices rise with Biden, they think Trump made the economy better and Biden is making it worse.

ZELENY (voice over): Javonna Lue and Kyle Johnson are community organizers. They say the president must address his challenge with young voters who question his foreign policy and more.

KYLE JOHNSON, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: What I want is something to vote for, not vote against.

LUE: Yes.

JOHNSON: You know, we hear a lot of, you know, what is - what is the other guy going to do? What is Trump going to do? What happens if he wins? I understand that. You know, I think a lot of us understand the stakes. ZELENY (voice over): A the Cozy Nook Farm, Tom Oberhaus finally recalls Trump's policies, but is far from his biggest admirer.

TOM OBERHAUS, OWNER, COZY NOOK FARM: It's more Trump's mouth that we're not happy with.

ZELENY (voice over): Or Biden's biggest critic.

OBERHAUS: Once he was elected president, I was, yes, he's our president. I, you know, support him.

ZELENY (voice over): He believes the country deserves better.

OBERHAUS: I think we need a new constitutional amendment that says, if you're 70 or over, you can't run for national office. And, you know, we're like, oh, I can't be on the local clock (ph) board but I can be president of the United States?

ZELENY (voice over): Back at the orchard, Flannery worries neither side will cool the rising tensions.

FLANNERY: I consider myself an independent.

ZELENY: Is your vote up for grabs in November?

FLANNERY: If I - at this point in time I would say no. But November is a long ways away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (on camera): And you could hear from Dave Flannery, the orchard owner there, not wanting to say who he is voting for.

Kate, we encounter a lot of voters like that, particularly business owners, who say they want to do business with people on both sides.

[09:25:02]

This is a very closely divided state, as we know. But as President Biden makes his way here to Wisconsin, he left the White House just a few moments ago, one of the topics of debate here is job creation versus inflation. Are average voters, are average Wisconsinites going to see the achievements of the Biden administration? That, of course, is their burden. There is no doubt that $3.3 billion investment just south of Milwaukee here is going to go a long ways to spurring the economy.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jeff, great to see you. Thanks for that.

Look, you see Air Force One here preparing for President Biden to arrive and to head to Wisconsin.

Sara. SIDNER: All right, coming up for you, the U.S. has pressed pause on a shipment of bombs to Israel. Ahead, what officials say was their main concern that caused the pause to happen.

And the widely popular social media site TikTok trying to keep it presence in America. It's now suing to try and block the new U.S. law that could force a nationwide ban of the popular app. That is an historic legal battle that could follow. We'll talk all about it coming up.

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