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Ventura Returns to the Stand; Trump Heads Back to the U.S.; Russia and Ukraine Wrap up Peace Talks; Commuter Nightmare in New York; Newark Controller Details Job Trauma. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 16, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00]

BILLY PORTER, ACTOR AND SINGER: A departure from the mainland and yet you feel like you're in like the hippest, coolest spot in, like, New York or L.A. or London, you know, like any one of those places. It's like, oh, how did they get all of this so far away from civilization? That's like -- that -- that has been my place to go. I always go there first.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Billy Porter, it is wonderful to meet you. Thank you for coming in and -- and sharing your happy place with us. We really appreciate it.

And be sure to tune in to the new episode of "My Happy Place." It airs this Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, moments from now, Cassie Ventura back on the stand for cross-examination in the sex trafficking case against Sean Combs. Prosecutors say her testimony needs to finish today because she could give birth as soon as this weekend.

Breaking just a short time ago, President Trump says the U.S. may be close to a new nuclear deal with Iran, after he ripped up the original one during his first administration.

And a commuting nightmare for hundreds of thousands. New Jersey Transit engineers go on strike. What's that mean for the commute?

Sara is out today. I'm john Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Any moment now Cassie Ventura returns to the stands. She's faced more than five hours of intense cross-examination yesterday, and she will face more today from the defense attorneys for her ex- boyfriend, Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Over the last three days, she has testified about their abusive, violent relationship in sometimes painfully graphic detail. Today, she's expected -- today is expected to be her final day on the stand because prosecutors say she could give birth as soon as this weekend.

Yesterday, lawyers for Combs used her own words to try to make their argument, confronting her with text messages that she'd sent to him during their relationship, including messages showing her expressing desire for the drug-fueled sexual encounters she previously testified that Combs forced her or coerced her into. Also, messages showing her love for him, like this one from 2008, where she put -- she wrote, "I'm a very lucky woman. I miss you so much. I'd fly wherever you needed me whenever."

Joining us right now is CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers.

Let's start with yesterday and then move into the -- into the today. What did you think of the -- of cross-examination? How did it go? How effective was it?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, they made some small points. They collected some tidbits of evidence, like what you mentioned, that they'll later use to weave together their story that she wasn't coerced and, in fact, it was voluntary. She was there, you know, doing it voluntarily. But there were no bombshells.

BOLDUAN: OK.

RODGERS: I really do think the defense needs to undercut her more significantly because she's so central to their case. And she was so compelling on direct examination, talking about how she viewed those encounters. So, I think they need to do more. So, I'm waiting to see today if there's more of a bombshell.

BOLDUAN: What -- obviously not knowing the evidence at hand, but what -- when you say more, if -- to be more -- to kind of land the plane, if you will, is it being more aggressive with her in questioning, or what do they -- what more -- what could the more be?

RODGERS: They need something so that the jury says, wait a minute, maybe it's different than we thought. You know, maybe actually she is exaggerating because of the money, because of, you know, some other motive to get back at him, something.

You know, remember, and this is what makes prosecutors nervous, Cassie Ventura and Sean Combs were together for a long time, right? He knows a lot more about her than the prosecutors do and her own lawyers do. So, what, over those ten years, can he use, and his team use, to try to get her to admit something, right, or to undercut her credibility or the story that she's told? So, prosecutors, I think, are still on the edge of their seats waiting to see if something like that, a surprise to them, comes out today.

BOLDUAN: One thing that was also a focus in cross-exam yesterday was drug -- their drug use, their collect -- they used drugs -- you know, they abused opioids -- opiates together for a long period of time. Cassie even saying at one point he overdosed on painkillers. And the way they -- she described how he would be violent when on drugs. What are -- what is the defense team trying to lay out there?

RODGERS: Well, a couple of things. I think they're trying to excuse his behavior a little bit. I mean this video of the -- the hotel hallway is so incredibly damaging to him. BOLDUAN: Yes.

RODGERS: You know, not necessarily all of it going directly to the elements of the crimes, but just generally, right, that he's a bad person. So, I think they're trying to excuse --

BOLDUAN: He was bad when he was on drugs. That's not necessarily means he's going -- he's -- he's committed these crimes.

[09:05:01]

RODGERS: Right. They're trying to kind of undercut that narrative a little bit. And then also, you know, if they're both on drugs all the time and their, you know, minds are addled from that, how much would he have known that she didn't want to participate? She now says she didn't want to participate. But was that even what was happening at the time if she was on drugs all the time, right? So, I think they're just trying to kind of undercut her very strong statements that this wasn't what she wanted to do, and that that should have been clear to him in some way.

BOLDUAN: So, as a former federal prosecutor, what is the approach and how important is redirect then when you're talking about, this is the prosecution's key star witness?

RODGERS: It depends on how effective cross is, right? So, the most effective redirect in the world is to stand up and say, I have no further questions for this witness, right?

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

RODGERS: If they haven't made any direct hits, then you don't need to rehabilitate her. So, the shorter it is, the better for prosecutors, I would say. So, you know, only if they score some hits will they really need to -- to do more in redirect. And I again think the defense needs to be more aggressive. This is really their shot here. I think they need to try to undermine her any way they can. And then we'll see how they score and if the prosecutors feel like they need to repair the damage.

BOLDUAN: It will be really interesting to see if there is a -- a change in approach today, as they will be getting underway shortly.

It's great to see you. Thank you so much.

RODGERS: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning, President Trump is now on his way back home from his four day trip to the Middle East. But before leaving, he appeared to confirm a pretty major development. He says Iran has received a U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal.

Also breaking, the first direct peace talks in three years between Russia and Ukraine. They wrapped up just a short time ago in Turkey. Not in attendance, Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or U.S. president, President Trump. He says he plans on meeting with Vladimir Putin soon, and that's where real progress will be made.

Let's get right to the White House. CNN's Kristen Holmes is there.

Good morning.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, that's right, this week of wheeling and dealing in the Middle East is over and now that focus is on peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. And Donald Trump himself had been floating this idea that he might go and somehow serve as mediator between Putin and Zelenskyy should they both decide to go. Of course, that became more evident that he was not going to be doing that as we saw Putin backing out of these negotiations, or at least rejecting this offer to sit in on them. So, there are really low expectations from the U.S. on what's going to come out of here.

But Donald Trump himself says he's holding out hope he can still have these direct conversations with Vladimir Putin.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's time for us to just do it. I said, you know, they all said Putin was going and Zelenskyy was going. And I said, if I don't go, I guarantee Putin's not going. And he didn't go. And I -- I understand that.

REPORTER: When do you think you'll meet the president?

TRUMP: As soon as we can set it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He also said that maybe he would have a call with Putin. He spoke to reporters on the plane once they got on their way back to the U.S. He also said that he thought that they could solve it together, but maybe not. But at least then they would know.

I mean, one thing that we know is happening here, particularly with the United States, is that they don't want the administration to in any way look like Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of them. They want to look strong in these negotiations, which, of course, is why Donald Trump appeared to have waited until it was clear Putin wasn't going to say that he also would not be attending those talks.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Kristen Holmes, great to have you back on in the morning after a very important assignment. Thank you very much.

All right, with us now, Jill Dougherty, our CNN contributor and former Moscow bureau chief.

And, Jill, I want to read you a couple very early readouts that we just got from these fairly low level Ukrainian Russian meetings. First, we were told that Ukrainians only spoke to the Russians through an interpreter, which is always interesting because Russia is widely spoken in Ukraine. And the second -- second thing hear from a Ukrainian source with knowledge of the negotiations, they said, the Russian delegation did not have any mandate to make important decisions. They're not ready to decide anything meaningful to end the war. Those are the latest tidbits. What's your read on them?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm not surprised. I mean, language is really a factor here because Ukrainians, yes, some of them speak Russian, but fewer and fewer are speaking Russian because they're speaking Ukrainian, which is a different, though, related language. So, it's a political statement to speak Ukrainian.

And then the fact that they didn't get very far, and that that delegation from Russia wasn't that high up and couldn't make decisions. Also very predictable, because we know that almost deliberately they didn't send the foreign minister. They sent, you know, these are competent people, but they are not very high up in the ranking. So, I think both of those are predictable. But then you have to go back to President Trump, who basically said nothing much is going to happen in Istanbul until Vladimir Putin and I meet and talk.

[09:10:05]

BERMAN: Talk to me more about that and why that statement has implications, not just on the meetings that just took place, but also on the broader situation here and how it's being viewed in Europe.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, I think it's really important. You know, right now I'm in Tallinn, Estonia, and that is one of the countries you'd have to say right on the front line with Russia. And it's a security conference. So, believe me, everybody here is talking about exactly this issue.

But I think, you know, if you look at these discussions, I don't really believe that Putin, even if he meets President Trump, which probably will happen, that he will necessarily change his mind because he's not just looking at Ukraine. You know, Ukraine is a very important issue. But I think Putin's ultimate objective is what he was talking about way back at the beginning when Russia invaded Ukraine, which is a very big picture. It's not only, you know, Ukraine can never join NATO, it's that you get rid of, you push NATO out of eastern Europe, push them out of this region and go back to like 1991. And that, of course, is never going to happen. But that literally is one of the demands of Vladimir Putin. So, he's got a long-term objective.

And I do believe that President Trump doesn't quite comprehend that demand that Putin is making. It's very big. He wants to literally define security in Europe, or lack of security, which it would be.

BERMAN: Yes, and, again, you are, right now, in a country that's on the front lines of this sort of rhetorical and physical resistance to Russia. What's the view from there on whether there has been a back and forth swing on how the Americans are behaving? You know, President Trump, for the first time, had words that were construed by some as a little bit tougher on Vladimir Putin. Even J.D. Vance did. But now President Trump is going back to saying that he wants to powwow with Putin. So, was it a little bit of a -- of like a tennis match from the European perspective?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I mean, it is confusing. And I think that that's probably due to -- to both President Trump, who has been kind of back and forth and back and forth, but also Vladimir Putin. You know, you kind of shake it up, get a lot of confusion in the situation, and it works for him to temporize, you know, to think, well, I can get a better deal. Let's see what happens.

But I think the mood here, John, is that people obviously, since they were invaded and taken over by the Soviet Union in 1940, it is a -- it's a difficult relationship with Russia. That said, if you ask what they think about President Trump, I think they're worried. They are worried that President Trump ultimately may just kind of walk away and say, look, I tried. These parties can't get it together. I'm out of here. And it's in the hands of the Europeans.

So, that is a concern because even though the Europeans are rallying and they're rallying actually quite quickly with more sanctions, giving more money. By the way, Estonia itself is giving -- is going to be giving 5.4 percent of its GDP, which is a lot more than the United States does, to its own defense, which is for NATO. So, they're -- they're very serious about it.

But I do think the one phrase that I did hear over and over again was, Estonia was right. And Estonia, meaning not only Estonia, but a lot of people in this region, Estonia was right in 2022 when they said that Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine. And they would argue, you know, people weren't paying attention. But, of course, now everybody understands that that's precisely what happened.

BERMAN: Yes, this is no game for Estonia. This is no deal, per se. This is life and death.

Jill Dougherty, thank you for being there. Thank you for joining us this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead still for us, no trains are running along one of the nation's largest, busiest commuter rail services. Workers on strike. More than 350,000 riders now across the state of New Jersey now left scrambling.

And what really happened when screens went blank and the Newark air traffic control tower. One of the controllers on duty that day is speaking out for the first time.

And they lost nearly everything. Now, community leaders in Altadena, California, are asking for the state's help to step in to help keep their community intact after those devastating wildfires.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:29]

BOLDUAN: Some of the breaking news this morning, a travel nightmare for hundreds of thousands of commuters in the New York metro area. New Jersey Transit, the nation's third largest commuter rail, shut down. Engineers went on strike at midnight after contract negotiations fell apart. It's the first statewide transit strike in New Jersey in more than 40 years. The union and New Jersey Transit, they're at odds over pay raises.

Let's get to CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. She's at New York's Penn Station this morning.

Vanessa, what's the latest there?

[09:20:01]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, normally you would have thousands of commuters coming out of Penn Station having taken New Jersey Transit commuter trains. But that is not happening this morning, One hundred thousand commuters now impacted by this strike after the union that represents engineers, these are the people who drive the trains, could not come to an agreement with New Jersey Transit late last night. This strike starting early this morning.

I want to bring you around here. This is a group of engineers that have been out since early this morning. And here with us today we have Mark Wallace. He's the president of the union representing these engineers.

Mark, why were you not able to make an agreement last night?

MARK WALLACE, PRESIDENT, BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS AND TRAINMEN (BLET): Well, New Jersey Transit, at 9:50, they chose to walk away from the table. So, we had -- we had slid a proposal across the table, and New Jersey Transit chose to get up and leave.

YURKEVICH: What are you asking for and what did they not meet you on your demands?

WALLACE: So, the engineers are asking for equal pay. They make $10 less an hour than all of the other engineers in the region. They're the lowest paid engineers in commuter service in the nation. And we're asking for equal pay.

YURKEVICH: What is equal pay?

WALLACE: Equal pay is -- they're $10 behind. And so -- and they know that. They go to work with these other engineers on the platform every day, and they know that they're paid less than they are to do the same work. YURKEVICH: New Jersey Transit has said that if they meet you where you

want to be with the pay, it would cost them $100 million because they would have to pay other union members that they negotiate with the same amount of pay, and that would raise costs for commuters.

WALLACE: Yes. Well, New Jersey Transit chooses to use their money in different -- different ways. We haven't had a pay raise in over six years. So, these locomotive engineers (INAUDIBLE) during Covid. They didn't have a pay raise during the worst inflationary period in my history. And they chose to spend money, $500 million, on an office building. They spent $53 million on furnishings for that office building. They continue to pay $40,000 a month for parking for their employees. They've got money to spend, they just choose not to spend it on the locomotive engineers.

YURKEVICH: And just quickly, when are you going to go back to negotiate?

WALLACE: We'll -- we're open to negotiate any time. They walked away from the table. We're here today. They're trying to blame the union. We're here today because they left the table at 9:50 last night. The deadline was 12:01 a.m. And they forced our engineers out by walking away.

YURKEVICH: Thank you so, Mark --

WALLACE: Thank you.

YURKEVICH: Thank you so much, Mark.

So, guys, New Jersey Transit saying that they are putting contingency plans in place. They're going to provide some bus service to make up for the trains going out of service because of this strike. But it's not enough to make up for all the 100,000 commuters that rely on New Jersey Transit.

Also, cancellations for this weekend's Shakira concert in terms of transit going back and forth. And if this drags on into next week, this is going to impact that popular Beyonce concert. A lot of concert goers rely on New Jersey Transit to get to and from these shows. But as you heard from Mark, they're willing to get back to the table. Just waiting for that to happen.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Vanessa, thank you so much for being there. Appreciate the reporting.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, a veteran Newark air traffic controller is speaking out for the first time after the communications blackout last month. He says it was like playing 3-D chess at 250 miles an hour. Jonathan Stewart supervises the facility in Philadelphia that handles flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, and is one of five traffic controllers now on trauma leave after the incident in April.

Let's get right to CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean for the latest on this.

Got a lot to say.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a big development here, John, after I spoke to a controller in Newark air traffic and approach control facility. At the time of this first meltdown, 18 days ago, that case brought all of the equipment and staffing problems there to light. And he told me at the time that losing radar and radio is about the worst possible thing that can happen to you on the job. Five controllers took trauma leave because of that incident, leading to the FAA imposing these rolling flight delays. More than a thousand Newark flights canceled. And now there's this new reporting by "The Journal" that says the controller they spoke to experienced a near miss a few days after this saga began on May 4th.

In his interview, controller Jonathan Stewart said he averted a collision when two planes were pointed head on. He also took an apparent stand against United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. Newark's a huge United hub. And after that first Newark systems blackout, Kirby said controllers walked out on the job. The controller I spoke to said that was a gross misclassification.

And I want you to listen now to this new controller who told "The Journal" that Newark workers love their job but are simply stressed to the limit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN STEWART, Newark AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: To say that someone would basically game the system and take trauma leave when they were not traumatized is insulting at best. And -- and just, quite frankly, misinformed. No way, shape or form was that what happened. Nobody walked off the job of their own free will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: One more interesting detail here. Stewart said because of the blackouts, he did not have faith in his radar scopes, so he resorted to writing down flight numbers in a notebook.

We reached out to the FAA and NTSB about that near collision he describes in this new interview with "The Journal."

John.

[09:25:03]

BERMAN: Got to say, those are some pretty harrowing details he's reporting there.

Pete Muntean, thank you for your reporting on this.

Kate. BOLDUAN: Coming up, why one West Point professor resigned due to

President Trump's DE&I initiatives.

And a wild discovery at Harvard. Why a document purchased for just $27 could actually be worth $20 million.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, cadets at the U.S. military academy at West Point are taking the last of their final exams. Next week, President Trump will give the commencement address to the class of 2025. School officials have had a lot on their plates trying to conform to the president's executive actions and orders on diversity and Defense Department directives for the military.

[09:30:07]

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar joins us.