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Trump Arrives in Qatar After Historic Meeting with Syria's President; Trump Wants to Make a Deal with Iran to Wind Down Nuclear Program; Cassie Ventura Begins Day 2 of Testimony in Combs Trial; Interview with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA): Senate Democrats Vote to Require Human Rights Report on El Salvador. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired May 14, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MICHAEL MCCORMICK, ASSOC, PROFESSOR AND PROGRAM COORDINATOR, EMBRY- RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY: Yes, it can actually be both things, Sara. What we've seen at Newark is that two of the most critical tools to provide air traffic control, that is radar for situational awareness and communications for executing the air traffic controller's plan, went out unpredictably, fortunately for short periods of times.

What can happen in that instance is that controllers will scramble to come up with alternate communication to re-establish it with the aircraft. At the same time, you can stop all the departures, hold them on the ground. The other air traffic control facilities can go into an airborne holding pattern and then re-establish a communication with the aircraft in the Newark approach control area.

So there are protocols in place that can handle this and can maintain safety. On top of that, by throttling back the number of arrivals at Newark, it mitigates the risk of something actually occurring that's unsafe. So in fact, you can have it both ways.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe this is one of the few situations where you actually can. Michael, it's great to have you. Love to have you back when we hear more of what's coming out of the FAA and more about this big overhaul of the air traffic control system as we learn more about that. I appreciate your time.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just moments ago, President Trump landed in Qatar on a plane he hopes to upgrade soon. He was apparently up most of the night defending his plan to accept the gift of a luxury jet. Some of the strongest backlash, notably coming from Republicans.

We are standing by for new testimony in the federal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs, the prosecution's star witness, Cassie Ventura, on the stand shortly after her shocking and emotional testimony.

And a new book reveals that former President Biden was unable to recognize George Clooney when they met at a campaign fundraiser thrown by George Clooney. Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS

CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, some of the breaking news this morning. Moments ago, President Trump touched down in Qatar, the country that, yes, is offering to give the president of the United States a $400 million plane, he says, Trump says, as a gift that he's looking to use as Air Force One.

He is in Doha now. It is the second stop on his four-day sweep through the Middle East. On the flight over from Saudi Arabia, the president spoke with reporters. We played some of that for you last hour.

He also, during the chat with reporters on the plane, he talked about the possibility of traveling to Turkey for a potential and could be important high stakes meeting potentially between Ukraine's president and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here's what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He would like me to be there, and that's a possibility if we could end the war I'd be thinking about it. So we have a very full situation now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it to save a lot of lives and come back. But yes I think they're thinking about something. I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that does seem to be some of the latest reporting unclear who will be -- who could be going over to Turkey and the part of Russia. So stand by for more news on that.

Before he left Saudi Arabia, the president, there was a historic meeting that the president took part in, Trump coming face to face and shaking hands with the new president of Syria after President Trump made the announcement that he will be lifting sanctions, long-held sanctions on that country. A decision being that was applauded in the room, a decision that inspired celebration in the streets of Damascus, firing off fireworks even on the news.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now with much more on this. What else did you hear from the president on the flight over, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think the two main things are really what the president said, of course, about the meeting potentially in Turkey with President Putin potentially being there. And of course, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said he would.

But then also, I think this news with Syria is just pretty remarkable. And first of all, the meeting between President Donald Trump and Syria's new president is the highest level meeting they've had since the Assad regime was toppled at the end of last year. And the fact that the president yesterday met with Syria's new president and said that they would be lifting sanctions. [08:05:00]

I mean, this is a huge deal for Syria, of course, which has really been struggling for years now due to the economic strain from the United States and others that they have placed on their government. So as you mentioned, they've been celebrating that news.

But I also found it very interesting what the president said on Air Force One when describing his viewpoint of how that meeting went with Syria's president. He essentially said that he was a great, young, attractive, tough guy. He said he has a strong past. I would note that Syria's president, al-Sharaa, had previously been part of a, you know, militant group referred to in English as the Victory Front, which had pledged allegiance in the past to al-Qaeda. But in 2016, he shifted gears and kind of backed away from the terror group.

But just to have the president using that type of rhetoric and language to describe him, it's pretty remarkable.

But look, one of the things that the president also said about Syria is that he would like them to eventually join the Abraham Accords, of course, something that they worked on during the first Trump administration to normalize diplomatic relationships between Arab nations and Israel.

If Syria were actually to join that, that would be really, you know, striking a huge development. And to see that the president is really pushing on this, we heard him say similar things about wanting Saudi Arabia to join those accords yesterday. It's very clear that he's really trying to strengthen the U.S. relationship with his -- these Middle East partners. But Syria, of course, a very big change from what we've had in the past.

BOLDUAN: Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Much more to come from the president's visit in Qatar today -- John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now, David Sanger, CNN political and national security analyst. David, great to see you.

And Kate and Alayna were talking about the president's comments on maybe going to Turkey to get involved in the negotiations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You've got a fascinating piece in The New York Times which says that U.S. allies and adversaries, to an extent, are getting wise on President Trump's negotiating style. What do you mean?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, what we've seen, John, is that the president goes and makes a maximalist demand. Think about the tariff demands. Then he gets involved in a negotiation because of the crisis it's created.

And some other adversaries and allies have come to the conclusion that he will back down. The question is, how do you manage him to go do that? Well, the Chinese decided to ignore the president's advice, which was don't try to match these tariffs. They matched them. They waited for about five weeks as the economic impact on that sort of settled in on the U.S., the stock markets, the prospect of inflation or empty shelves at Walmart. And then they came and basically won a major reduction down to 30 percent, a 90-day negotiating period. And they gave up almost nothing in return.

BERMAN: What does Vladimir Putin see in this? As again, we are talking about these talks, which will happen to some extent in Turkey.

SANGER: Right, and you know, I think here for the president, the key question is, when does he intervene? Usually you bring a president in as a closer, and I'm sure he would want to get involved chiefly if Putin shows up in Turkey. And Putin has not yet said whether he will do so, but this would be a way for the two to meet.

Putin recognizes that the relationship between the president and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has been a pretty terrible one. And the result is that I think he believes he can peel the president away because the president's real goal here is a normalized relationship with Russia.

But to do that, he needs some agreement over Ukraine. I don't think he cares that much about the details of it. And that's what worries Zelenskyy, which is that the president may say, well, give up the land. You don't need security guarantees. Our economic engagement with you will be enough of a security guarantee that Putin won't continue through the rest of Ukraine. I'm not sure that's right.

BERMAN: David, again, on this trip, there's been some really fascinating language used in negotiations that are involving the U.S. and Iran. What do you see here? And what does, again, Iran see in the president's negotiating style?

SANGER: So the Iranians are beginning to float, at least publicly, John, an idea for the nuclear program that we hadn't really heard before. We've gotten bits and pieces, which is, let's do an energy joint venture. The United States, maybe Saudi Arabia will become part of this joint venture, and we'll all work on nuclear and energy issues together.

[08:10:00]

Now, of course, what the Iranians want to do is avoid having to take apart, to dismantle the incredibly large infrastructure they have built that would enable them to have a pathway to a bomb. And the U.S. position has been they've got to give it all up. And I think what the Iranians are trying to do is play to President Trump's desire to have investments, have access to Iranian oil and so forth, as a way of keeping that infrastructure. And the question is going to be, how big a risk do you want to take? And could you get the Israelis to go along?

Or would the Israelis say dismantlement means dismantlement?

BERMAN: Yes, language the likes of which we have not heard. And the Iranians may be playing to President Trump's desire to make not just deals, but financial deals. We'll see where this goes next.

David Sanger, great to see you again. The article was fantastic.

Tears, drugs and guns, emotional testimony from the star witness in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs. We're standing by as this new day of testimony is set to get underway.

And the Trump administration announces plans to tap border patrol agents to fan out nationwide in their deportation efforts.

Kim Kardashian delivering a surprising message directly to one of her accused robbers as she takes the stand in court.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, after hours on the stand giving emotional and graphic testimony, Cassie Ventura is back on the stand today. Prosecutors will continue with their line of questioning with Ventura, who is seen as prosecution's star witness, really, against her ex- boyfriend, Sean Diddy Combs, in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial that he faces. Ventura is the woman, you'll remember, that is seen -- that Combs is seen attacking in that hotel surveillance video from 2016.

Yesterday, she said the attack came after she actually tried to leave one of the drug-fueled sexual encounters with male prostitutes orchestrated by Combs and leave one of those sessions early.

CNN anchor and chief legal analyst, Laura Coates, is outside the courthouse with much more. And your take on this is always important, Laura, because what is everyone preparing for now with Cassie Ventura heading back on the stand after what we heard yesterday?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: We heard explosive testimony yesterday. Everyone was waiting to figure out what the prosecution's star witness would say after not seeing him for six and a half years, being in a relationship with him for over a decade, where she claims that he violently abused her, exploited her sexually. It got graphic at times, talking about the sexual humiliation she experienced during these so-called freak-offs.

She went in detail, sometimes lurid, sometimes graphic, sometimes emotional, about her feelings towards a man she called Sean, a man the public knew as Diddy and Puffy. And this witness is supposed to be the linchpin for the prosecution to bridge the gap between the Diddy the world knows and the prosecution's theory of who he really is, a racketeer, a sex trafficker, and somebody who engaged in domestic violence. And remember, they've already owned domestic violence.

And the multiple viewings of that video that you referenced has driven the point home. But yesterday was really about putting a face to the enterprise of that racketeering. Who were the security guards? Who were the trusted assistants? Who were the high-level executives working for him who facilitated, allegedly, these criminal interactions?

And they even had the pictures of different male escorts that were used in these sexual exploits. But now the idea of Cassie Ventura being the one to voice this, to hear what she has to say.

You know, she walked down that center aisle, head straight looking at that witness stand, walking by the man that she says humiliated and abused her. They never really made eye contact, she looked away from him. And today we're going to hear more from her about that video, about the way in which she claims that the actual employees of the various businesses facilitated these moments.

And then we might hear a cross-examination. And that is the moment everyone is waiting for. How will the defense address somebody who is visibly pregnant, who will garner perhaps the optics of sympathy in that vein in and of itself, where the jurors might conflate the Cassie of 19 years old and 22 years old with the 30-something-year-old woman that she is today?

Will they treat her with the derision of a defense counsel or with the kid gloves of a strategic attack? This is all the things we're waiting for.

BOLDUAN: And on that note, Laura, I thought it was fascinating to learn that the defense had actually tried to get the judge to modify kind of how the proceedings were going in order to essentially hide that she was pregnant, asking that she be seated before the jury was brought in. How often does that happen?

COATES: Oh, what a moment. First of all, it is in every single trial that they're going to have strategies about how the jurors are going to view the witnesses. But here we were left wondering just the first day before opening statements about, well -- after opening statements, about how a witness was going to first be introduced to a jury.

They said, Marc Agnifilo, the lead counsel, they wanted to have every witness already sitting before the jury came in. When she walked in visibly pregnant, weeks away from giving birth, we saw why.

BOLDUAN: And obviously the judge did not go along with that because you did see that as you described as she entered and walked down that center aisle.

[08:20:00]

Laura Coates is there. Thank you so much, Laura. It's good to see you.

Coming up still for us, new revelations this morning. President Biden did not appear to recognize George Clooney, one of the most recognizable men in the world, at a fundraiser ahead of the 2024 election. And Clooney and Biden have known each other for years, and Clooney was hosting that fundraiser. This is some of the latest reporting coming from the upcoming book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, much more on that this morning.

And HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is headed to Capitol Hill to testify before lawmakers amid the massive cuts to the nation's public health agencies that he's putting in place right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning the Trump administration is getting ready to deploy hundreds more federal agents to arrest undocumented immigrants. That is according to two sources familiar with the planning. Part of the push includes sending Border Patrol agents nationwide. Those agents will also get help from the National Guard.

Let's get right to seeing this.

[08:25:00]

Priscilla Alvarez out in front as always on this. What are you learning -- Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is a move to overcome some of the logistical hurdles that have dogged multiple administrations when it comes to immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States. That now includes tapping U.S. Border Patrol.

Now, viewers may think of Border Patrol as only along U.S. borders. They are, however, also stationed across the country and they do have the ability to conduct immigration enforcement nationwide.

So this is a move by the administration to fan them out across the country as soon as this week. In some ways, John, it is also telling of the way the White House views the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border right now. With crossings having plummeted, it appears to have freed up some resources so that they can use some of those agents to do what the president promised to do, which is to ramp up interior arrests and also deportations.

And that really is the bottom line here. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is under tremendous pressure to provide results, to ramp up arrests, to do deportations, but they are just so limited in the resources and personnel. So officials have had to look across the federal government to try to find ways to ramp that up.

Now, in addition to that, I am told that State National Guard in states where governors are amenable will be providing what's known as force protection. They will not be arresting anyone so much as being there in a supporting way. We'll see what that looks like when it happens.

And lastly, John, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons are both going to be on Capitol Hill today testifying before different committees, so we'll see if they tease out more of these plans and what help they'll be asking Congress for along the way.

BERMAN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for sharing this reporting. We will pay close attention to those hearings -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is the Democratic senator from Virginia, Senator Tim Kaine. And Senator, let's stick on immigration for a moment, actually, because you and other top Democrats are are forcing a vote this week on legislation to essentially require the administration to put out a report that would detail steps that it is taking to ensure compliance with the court orders we've seen when it comes to deportations to El Salvador. What is this going to do?

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Kate, you're right. We just want the administration to follow the law. And so there is a privileged motion, which means even a single senator can file it and you'll be guaranteed a vote that will require the administration within 30 days to produce a human rights report on El Salvador, including the conditions of the prison to which American residents are being sent. And the efforts that the Trump administration are taking, if any, to comply with the unanimous Supreme Court order in the Garcia case.

This is something that the State Department will have to produce within 30 days or security assistance, all security assistance to El Salvador will be cut off. We're expecting the vote later this week. It's a simple majority. And I'm saying to all my colleagues, if we're going to allow a president to cut a secret deal with a dictator to deport folks to prisons in that country, we at least ought to ask basic questions about whether folks being deported there from the United States are given fundamental due process.

BOLDUAN: But I mean, Senator, just following your line of thinking, if you think that the president is not following the law now, what makes you think that the president, the administration would follow the law if this became law?

KAINE: Well, I'm not sure that this will force the president to follow the law, but automatically, if the administration doesn't produce the human rights report, all security assistance to El Salvador is cut off. And that probably includes the very funding the president is using to pay El Salvador for this. So this imposes a consequence on El Salvador.

If the report is produced, the Senate can then take up in a privileged vote whether or not to terminate security assistance to El Salvador.

So this is about the Trump administration, but it's also letting El Salvador know if you collude with the president in violating Americans' constitutional rights, don't think we're going to forget it. In fact, there will be a serious consequence to it.

BOLDUAN: And also could put Republicans in the Senate in a position of -- putting them -- facing a tough vote if they think that is a tough vote, which is part of what happens in the Senate.

Let's talk about something else, because you are on all relevant --

KAINE: Why wouldn't they want a human rights report? Why wouldn't they want a human rights report?

BOLDUAN: At the same time, they don't want to be -- a lot of people know -- Republicans, you know, don't want to be seen as doing something that would anger President Trump. But I do need to move on because you are on all relevant committees,

so we have too many topics here.

But HHS Secretary RFK Jr., he's going to be testifying before one of your committees this afternoon. This is the first time since his confirmation hearings. And since then, just some of the things that have happened.

[08:30:00]