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Soon, Michael Cohen Back on the Stand for Day 2 of Testimony; Blinken Meets With President Zelenskyy in Kyiv; How Cracking Down on Immigration Could Impact the Economy. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 14, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Let's say that he does not plan to prosecute at this point.

[07:00:02]

Take electors, voting machine, conspiracy theories, and now there are three Bobs? I guess anything goes. I mean, this is a new level.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: ChatGPT can't come up with that political strategy. I'm just saying, you need an actual human being to come up with the Bob strategy. No ChatGPT, even if it sounds like Scarlett, it's not coming up with that genius. I'm just saying.

HUNT: Definitely dirty tricks. All right, well, this has been fun. Thanks to the real Scott Jennings and the A.I. Scott Jennings for making an appearance today. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Cohen back on the stand. Donald Trump's one-time fixer, now courtroom foe, has already testified for more than five hours. And the real fireworks of cross-examination could begin today.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ukraine meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyu at a crucial moment in the war as Ukraine loses ground, but new U.S. weapons arriving now on the frontlines.

Also, this, those are explosives bringing down pieces of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Plus, new body camera footage offering a glimpse into the panic and confusion on the night of that deadly disaster.

I'm Sarah Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning from outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. We have reached the white hot center of the criminal case against Donald Trump. For the very first time, someone has testified in this case that they witnessed Donald Trump committing the acts he is facing 34 charges for. That person is Michael Cohen, who testified for the first time that Donald Trump knew of the hush money payment scheme to cover up Stormy Daniels' story about a sexual tryst some 15, 20 years ago.

Remember, Donald Trump is charged with falsifying documents to cover up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, all to influence the 2016 election. And yesterday, at the very end of the day, we got testimony about those documents. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former fixer, testified he was at a meeting with Trump and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, and he testified to this.

The question, did Mr. Weisselberg state in front of Mr. Trump that you were going to receive $420,000 over the course of 12 months? Michael Cohen said yes. Question, what, if anything, did Mr. Trump say at the time? Answer, he approved it. And he also said this is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.

One more question, did Mr. Weisselberg say in front of you, Mr. Trump, that those monthly payments would be a retainer for legal services? Michael Cohen says yes. He testified that Donald Trump approved of the scheme. That testimony ended yesterday. Today, though, perhaps even more importantly, we are set for the cross-examination. That could begin in the next couple of hours.

With me, CNN's Brynn Gingras, who has been in and out of this court for the last four weeks, this is such an important moment.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, because Michael Cohen did exactly what the prosecution needed him to do. He tied everything together so far and he implicated the former president in this payment scheme. And he did it in a very cool and collected way, right, the opposite of what jurors have been hearing about him, which other witnesses have said he's a jerk. And he was very calm walking through everything that he did on behalf of the president, according to him.

Now, he said that he would always look for the president's approval. He would seek it. He wanted him to be happy with him. And he basically walked through the chaos that was happening after the Access Hollywood tape came out and when Stormy Daniels story was sort of being, you know, pushed around to kind of get payment for.

So, let me give you another example. You had a great one there, but another one where he says this. He stated to me that he had spoken to some friends. Some individuals, very smart people, and that it's $130,000. You're a billionaire. Just pay it. There was no reason to keep this thing out there. So, do it. And he's expressed to me, just do it. Go meet up with Weisselberg and figure this whole thing out.

Obviously, that was right before what you discussed, how those three men went into a room, discussed how these payments were going to be figured out over a long time, discuss a position for Michael Cohen within the White House just to get those payments actually legit. And then that's where we end today. We're going to hear about what happened inside that oval Office Room, which we have been waiting for from the prosecution.

[07:05:04]

And then, of course, it's the defense's turn.

BERMAN: How much more is the prosecution say they have? A few hours, yes?

GINGRAS: A few hours. He was on the stand for about five hours and they have a few hours to go. And then, of course, it's going to be the defense's turn. Which is, like Kate said, it's going to be fireworks. They're going to go after his credibility. They are going to talk about the fact that he's a convicted felon and that he has a vengeance, that he has, you know, books and podcasts that all are about Donald Trump. And that is certainly going to come out today.

BERMAN: Todd Blanche expected to conduct the cross examination for the Trump defense team and, again, promised it to be very, very aggressive.

Brynn Gingras, thank you so much for that.

And Donald Trump still in Trump Tower uptown right now. He'll be here within an hour or so. He's mixing in some campaigning while he is up here in New York, including a fundraising event when many were many of his potential. V.P. running mate selections will be there, perhaps jockeying for the job.

CNN's Steve Contorno has got some details on that. Steve, what are you learning?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes, John. And, first, Vivek Ramaswamy, one of those potential V.P. contenders, will be joining Trump at the courthouse today. He is expected to meet Trump at Trump Tower and then join the motorcade, becoming the latest in this rotation of Republicans who are making the trip to Manhattan in a show of support for the former president.

He's not the first potential vice presidential candidate to do that. Yesterday, we saw Senator J.D. Vance there from Ohio when he spoke to reporters afterwards. He pushed back against the assertion that Trump might be sleeping in the courtroom. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH): I think that luckily the president's supporters should know that he's actually in great spirits despite the circumstances of this. He should be out on the campaign trail, but, of course, he's here with this trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, as you said, John, the V.P. auditions will continue tonight in Manhattan, where Trump will hold a fundraiser, and a bunch of these potential contenders are going to be speaking there. That includes a list of people that are Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the Florida representative, Byron Donalds, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and then Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty and Florida Senator Rick Scott will be there as well, John.

BERMAN: All right. Steve Contorno for us covering the Trump fundraising event later.

Sara, I'm going to go back to you. Remember, we now have testimony that Donald Trump knew about the hush money payments, approved the hush money payments, and knew and approved about the scheme to document them as legal services. That is what the cross-examination will try to upend when it starts a little bit later today, Sara.

SINDER: It's going to be an explosive kind of day there in court. No doubt, we'll be watching all of the details as we go further here, John. We'll get back to you in just a bit.

But, first, breaking overnight, Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ukraine bringing news that a new round of U.S. weapons is arriving at a very crucial moment in the war against Russia.

Also in Baltimore, explosions do the job. The collapse bridge has been from on top of that cargo ship. And now, we're getting a never before seen look at the moments after the disaster from police body camera.

Also, golfers capture this video of a possible tornado bearing down on a golf course, and, yes, there were people playing. Check this out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, Secretary of State Tony Blinken has landed in Ukraine. He's meeting with top officials in Ukraine, including, as you see there, President Zelenskyy, to reassure Kyiv U.S. support remains firm.

Now, this is Blinken's first time back in Ukraine since Congress finally approved the long-debated military aid package, just as also Russia is making a new and surprising push into Ukraine on multiple fronts, with Ukraine suffering some new setbacks there.

CNN's Kylie Attwood is at the State Department. She's got much more on this. Kylie, what have we heard from the secretary of state?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, he said this morning in his meetings that that latest U.S. weapons assistance that, as, of course, we know, Kate, has been long delayed is now on its way to Ukraine. Some of those pieces of weaponry are actually already on the front lines.

And the secretary said that he believes that that weapons assistance will have a crucial impact on the battlefield for the Ukrainians. He also reiterated that the United States wants to see Ukraine have victory here, but he admitted that this is a challenging time for the Ukrainians.

As we know, the Russians have been having some advances in the northeastern part of Ukraine that has been highly concerning for the Ukrainians. And, of course, the collective support of countries that are supporting Ukraine.

And the secretary of state acknowledged that there is going to be potentially a long road ahead. He met with the president of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy, who was gracious for this new support, but he was also very clear in saying that Ukraine needs more, particularly when it comes to air defense.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The biggest deficit for us. I think that the biggest problem, yes, and we need -- really, we need today two Patriots for Kharkiv, for Kharkiv region, because the people are under attack, civilians and workers (ph), everybody, they are under Russian missile.

[07:15:10]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, he also went on to talk about how important it is to have the secretary of state visiting. And we should note that Blinken is actually going to be delivering a speech today that focuses on a prosperous democracy in Ukraine. He's also going to be meeting not just with Ukrainian government officials, but with civil society and members of the private sector in Ukraine.

So, this is a really fulsome trip for him coming at that critical challenging moment that Ukraine currently faces more than two years into this conflict. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Kylie. Thank you so much. We're going to be tracking. We've been seeing some live pictures. You've seen the kind of camera moving around trying to follow the secretary of state as he's moving throughout Kyiv. We're going to continue to follow his movements and Kylie is all over it for us. Thank you, Kylie.

So, Donald Trump promised a nationwide crackdown on immigration if he wins the White House again has economists now warning that this move could backfire on the U.S. economy? We have details on that.

And how trustworthy is Michael Cohen as a witness? There are numbers. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: Donald Trump is promising to crack down on immigration if voters put him back in office. But many economists agree the immigrant surge actually helped pump up the U. S. economy.

CNN's Matt Egan has been talking to experts for us this morning. What is the potential impact of Donald Trump's mass deportation that he's promised if he gets into office? MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, it's easy to see how Trump's immigration plan could backfire on the U.S. economy. Now, let's set aside for the moment the real moral and legal issues here. Here's the economic problem. Businesses, they need more workers. They've got unfilled jobs, and there aren't enough workers here in America to fill those jobs.

Now, here's why economists are warning that Trump's immigration plan could worsen the worker shortage, right? I mean, businesses would lose some of the workers they have, and they have trouble getting new ones, that could boost wages and inflation and force the Fed to keep interest rates high for even longer. And that's something, of course, that would impact everyone.

Listen to Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi explain this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY'S: My sense is, you know, President Trump's policies are inflationary, right? It's higher tariffs. It's deportation for immigration. You know, I think these things are going to lead to higher prices for American consumers.

If he follows through and starts deporting a significant amount of immigrants, that's going to be very difficult on businesses and it's going to cause them to raise wages and prices for the goods and services that they're producing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, Sara, there are, of course, some caveats here. First, we obviously don't know if Trump is going to win. If he wins, we don't know if he's actually going to pursue these immigration plans. Plus, these immigration proposals, they would surely face legal challenges.

But we do know there has been a spike of immigration in recent years. The CBO estimates that last year alone, there were the U.S. experience net immigration 3.3 million people, that is more than triple the annual average before COVID. And this spike, this has created a real strain for some cities and states have been scrambling to feed, house, educate asylum seekers.

But as you alluded to, there actually has been an economic positive, right? Economists say that this spike in immigrants has actually helped to fill open jobs, keeping a lid on wages and inflation. And it's actually boosted the U.S. economy. And so economists say that those have actually been positives.

Now, we've reached out to the Trump campaign, and they've essentially doubled down when asked about this criticism. A Trump campaign spokesperson claims without evidence that President Biden, quote, let in millions of undocumented immigrants and vowed that Trump will deport them and, quote, re-implement his America First pro-growth, pro-job agenda to uplift all Americans.

Sara, here's the ironic part. Frustration over high inflation, that could very well return Trump to the White House. And yet economists say that Trump's economic proposals, they wouldn't fix inflation. They could actually make inflation worse.

SIDNER: It's really interesting because immigration is the top priority, it has been for a while, for voters, for the first time in decades. So very interesting to see what could happen potentially.

Matt Egan, thank you so much.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Coming up, expected grilling at court in Donald Trump's criminal trial. Cross-examination with former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen could start this morning. This is after Cohen spilled the beans during direct examination, saying Trump knew all about the hush money transactions to keep the voting public from knowing.

Ellen DeGeneres says she has one more stand up special for you, and she promises to have some laughs about the controversial end of her talk show. We'll discuss all of that, coming up.

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[07:25:00]

BOLDUAN: So, we are standing by right now this morning for Michael Cohen to retake the stand in the criminal trial of his former boss, Donald Trump.

Michael Cohen is the key to the Trump case for the prosecution. And so far, Cohen has laid out a lot of things. How Trump directed him, he says, to make the hush money payment, and then explained that Trump signed off on the reimbursement plan.

He's already testified for more than five hours, and Cohen will continue to face questions from prosecutors this morning, which also means the real fireworks are still yet to come. Donald Trump's legal team could begin what's expected to be a savage cross-examination later today.

In the meantime, CNN's Harry Enten has been taking a look at how Americans view Michael Cohen and his credibility. He is here.

Let's say, the caveat up top rather than at the bottom, which is public polling is interesting and important. The only polling that matters when it comes to this criminal trial is --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Those 12 jurors.

BOLDUAN: Those 12 jurors.

ENTEN: And I do not have a poll on them. And, hopefully, you'll be not so savage to me during this particular segment. The other thing I should --

BOLDUAN: That would be unusual. ENTEN: That would be unusual, exactly right. I should also point out that this polling was taken before the trial took place. I think it's sort of gives you an illustration that we're sort of an immovable force versus an unstoppable object.

And look here, believe is/would be honest, just 47 percent of Americans believe that Michael Cohen's trial testimony would, in fact, be honest compared to 48 percent right nearby who say, no, it wouldn't.

[07:30:07]

But, of course, he's going up against Donald Trump's word.