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Talks Begin Between Russia and Ukraine; Supreme Court Weighs Arguments on Citizenship; Trump Immigration Policy Faces Supreme Court; Walmart Announces Price Increases; Ventura Back on Stand; Comey Under Fire for Instagram Post. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 16, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:24]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a scary sight. This is a rain-wrapped tornado. I was coming through -- coming towards Juno at the time. I could not see it.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: The Midwest rocked by tornadoes, leaving behind major damage in some small towns.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's 33 minutes past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

At least nine tornadoes reported in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trees are splintered. Roofs are ripped off. Thankfully, there are no major injuries reported. The risk, however, is not over. That same storm system now shifting to the south.

And today, Cassie Ventura is back on the stand to testify against her ex-boyfriend, Sean Combs. Cross examination will pick back up in just a few hours. The judge expects her testimony to wrap up today.

President Trump is on Air Force One right now after his first major overseas trip of his second term. This morning, he met with business leaders in Abu Dhabi after his three-country tour.

Any moment now, Russia and Ukraine will sit down for talks in Turkey to try and end the war. Overnight, both countries accused each other of launching drone attacks. Neither president is there. Instead, they sent smaller delegations.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul, but not all of them. The head of state security service and the chief of staff won't be there. The delegation will be led by the defense minister.

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CORNISH: All right, so what's the state of play? President Trump doesn't think -- doesn't agree with what Zelenskyy has to say.

[06:35:06]

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK?

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CORNISH: President Trump said he plans to meet with Putin as soon as they can set it up.

Joining me to discuss is CNN correspondent Clare Sebastian.

Clare, help us understand what's happening here.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Audie.

This is a real flurry of diplomacy that we're seeing today in Istanbul. We've already had two key meetings take place, the U.S., Ukraine and Turkey this morning. And we understand that a meeting between the U.S. and Russia just wrapped up.

This, though, was on a pretty low level. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, who is a presidential adviser and former culture minister meeting with the State Department's director of policy planning, Michael Anton. So, certainly not with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, who we know to be here and who took part in the meeting earlier today.

The next big event, we think, will be the sort of banner event of the day, the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years. But expectations are low to zero for any progress here, not least because of the level of delegation that Russia, in particular, has sent, this former culture minister and presidential adviser, one of ten deputy foreign ministers, one of seven deputy defense ministers, the head of the GRU, its military intelligence agency. None of these are cabinet level officials. None of them are decision makers.

Ukraine is sending its defense minister, but it's making it clear that is not -- that should not be read as a concession to Russia in any way.

So, I think the big question is, what will the U.S. do out of this? Will there be some kind of Trump-Putin meeting. The Kremlin, this morning, not ruling out that President Putin, cryptically, it said, could have an international phone call this evening. So, we don't know what to read into on that yet, but watching very closely.

CORNISH: That's Clare Sebastian in Istanbul. Thank you so much.

So, what will the Supreme Court decide when it comes to President Trump's plans to end birthright citizenship? Well, it's not so simple. So, this case could have a lasting impact, not just on immigration policy, but in determining how far federal courts can go in checking any president, including Trump. So, the key question, are lower courts too frequently shutting down President Trump's policies with too little review?

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JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT: Your argument seems to turn our justice system, in my view at least, into a catch me if you can kind of regime from the standpoint where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people's rights.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH, SUPREME COURT: What do you say, though, to the suggestion, General, that in this particular case, those patchwork problems for, frankly, the government, as well as for plaintiffs, justify broader relief.

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CORNISH: Group chat is back to discuss.

I'm just going to open it wide. Like, was there any -- no, I mean, what struck -- because there's two issues, right? There's the birthright citizenship issue with lots of people are just like, this is a nonstarter, why are they pushing this, et cetera. And then there's this issue of, what is the process for challenging any given administration? What -- what did you guys hear that struck you?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Well, there -- there's a conservative majority on the court. So, there's always the possibility that those justices could decide that those who enter the country illegally are not automatically entitled to becoming U.S. citizens by their birth here.

But the bigger issue, as you alluded to, Audie, is this question of nationwide injunctions. It wasn't long ago, just a few months ago, in fact, that the Biden DOJ under Merrick Garland went to the Supreme Court and said that they wanted to put an end to these nationwide injunctions. It is in -- it has frustrated presidents, both on the Republican and Democrat side. But, more so, for President Trump.

CORNISH: But what I hear the justices actually arguing, the justices were saying, OK, well, then what's the alternative? Is it a class action suit? Is it a -- like, what's the system here?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think what's -- the two biggest takeaways I've seen so far is, one, how the rule of law will prevail. And I think that's a big question. But two, I think justices are looking for a pathway to rule on the 14th Amendment. This conversation around this particular issue is not new to the high court. I think every president perhaps has had some sort of battle with this.

But from a political standpoint, this is right where Donald Trump wants to be, arguing a very key centerpiece for his political platform every single time he's ran for president. And so, at some point, he's going to turn to make this a political issue and put pressure on this Supreme Court that's his majority.

CORNISH: Right.

Speaking of pressure, people are paying attention to Amy Coney Barrett, right, because she's someone that they've determined maybe isn't as reliable as they had hoped. I -- I don't think that's the case yet.

But here's a moment between Justice Barrett and Elena Kagan and the solicitor general, of course, arguing for the government. And -- and here's the line of questioning.

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JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN, SUPREME COURT: There are all kinds of abuses of nationwide injunctions, but I think that the question that this case presents is that if one thinks that it's quite clear that the EO is illegal, how does one get to that result, in what time frame, on your set of rules, without the possibility of a nationwide injunction?

[06:40:09]

D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: On this case, and in many similar cases, the appropriate way to do it is for there to be multiple lower courts considering it.

Ultimately, this court decides the merits in a nationwide binding precedent. You have a complete inversion of that through the nationwide injunctions where the district courts --

KAGAN: Let's say --

JUSTICE AMY CONEY BARRETT, SUPREME COURT: So, General Sauer, are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying there's no way to do this expeditiously?

SAUER: And it just --

BARRETT: If there were a class appropriate for a class certification, you concede that that could resolve the question quickly?

SAUER: Yes, absolutely.

BARRETT: You concede --

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CORNISH: I'm going to translate a little. There's been this conversation about whether there can be kind of class action lawsuits. And -- and that's the way people can get relief, rather than going to a judge in any particular state.

But it's the tone, right? Let's pretend we don't know the words, but the tone of her jumping in and saying, are you really going to do that? What did you hear in these moments?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I will say that from years of watching or listening to Supreme Court proceedings --

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: And trying to guess where they're going, we should all learn that it's -- it's a tricky game.

Amy Coney Barrett was put on the Supreme Court by Donald Trump. She is a -- has a pretty strong record of voting in the way that one would expect a Trump nominee to vote on decisions. She has diverged a little bit --

CORNISH: Yes, but --

DOVERE: But not in this -- this way that gets her -- that seems to me to -- to validate this idea that she is completely left the Trump side.

CORNISH: Right. Or to your point, Antjuan, that it's really about political pressure in a way, right? Saying, like, hey, are you doing what you said you would do?

All right, group chat, stick around. We've got a lot more to discuss, including the economy. For instance, for decades, Walmart's entire brand has centered around one thing.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): We're rolling back prices all over the place.

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CORNISH: OK, we went back in the way back machine for that. But the issue is low prices. Now, the world's biggest retailer warning customers and stockholders that the president's tariffs may be changing that.

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DOUG MCMILLION, CEO, WALMART: We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.

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CORNISH: That warning from Walmart's CEO comes as we wait for another key economic report today on consumer sentiment.

Now, for more on this, we are joined by Allison Morrow, senior writer for CNN Business.

Allison, welcome back.

First of all, what do you make of Walmart being the people to come out and say this? It makes sense to me because the low prices were undergirded by cheap products. But how much of a surprise is it to hear from the CEO?

ALLISON MORROW, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR WRITER: I'm not sure if it's a huge surprise, but it shouldn't be a surprise because when you put tariffs on virtually all goods coming into the United States, that's going to cause prices to go up. I mean it's really Econ 101. We warned that it was going to happen. Economists warned it was going to happen. And even Trump himself has said that the tariffs may cause some pain.

Whether that pain lasts or is more enduring, we'll have to see. But, you know, if Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, is hurting and saying, we're going to raise prices and go against our fundamental business model of low prices, then everyone's hurting.

CORNISH: I have to bring up the fact that secretary -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been suggesting something else for the last few days. Here's what he had to say.

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HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: So, we do expect a 10 percent baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future. But don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays.

The businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff.

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CORNISH: Allison, do we have a sense that consumers buy this argument?

MORROW: I don't think even consumers who didn't study economics buy this argument. You don't need a degree in economics to know that a tax -- a business can't absorb all of that tax. A tariff is a tax paid to the U.S. government. So, the money has to come from somewhere. And either it's going to come from the business, which we're already seeing, you know, in the early stages of this, businesses are absorbing some of those costs as they try to figure out what their pricing strategy is going to be and how they're going to work around this. But also the consumer is going to bear some of the burden. And it's a question of how much and for how long.

CORNISH: And for today we're going to find out in a few hours what they feel about it.

Allison Morrow, senior writer for CNN Business, thank you for joining us.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, did a former FBI director threaten the president? Why members of the administration are now calling for the arrest of James Comey. Plus, another day of meeting over the problems plaguing Newark's airport. Could a solution be on the way?

[06:45:01]

And we'll have more from the group chat after this.

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CORNISH: Coming up today, Cassie Ventura will once again take the stand for cross examination in the case against her ex-boyfriend, rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. Now she was pressed on text messages she sent him about loving their freak offs. She responded by saying, "I would say that loving freak offs were just words at that point."

Ventura's lawyer spoke about her testimony outside court.

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DOUG WIGDOR, LAWYER FOR CASSIE VENTURA: The facts are the facts. She's telling them as they are, her truth. And they are what they are. This is not a typical cross-examination. There's -- there's no -- there's no issues with her credibility.

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CORNISH: All right, because it's Friday, it's time to lawyer up with Elliot Williams. He's CNN's legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, and my friend, I guess, in crime.

I want to start with this testimony --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

[06:50:03]

CORNISH: Because there's a -- people are making a big deal out of these texts.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: The timeline of these texts. But what's confusing for me is that the actual charges that I see from the Justice Department, sex trafficking --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: Forced labor, kidnaping, racketeering conspiracy. So, why are we hearing about this woman's text messages from her early 20s?

WILLIAMS: Well, it's a credibility question. It's, you know, the defense is attacking the extent to which she might have willingly or voluntarily participated in some of the acts with Sean Combs.

CORNISH: Meaning, you can't traffic some person, his ex.

WILLIAMS: Who says they love something.

CORNISH: OK.

WILLIAMS: Now, let me tell you a secret, Audie. She might have loved freak offs. That doesn't mean that she wasn't, at some point, coerced, or forced, or threatened into behaving in a way.

We should step back because it's not just about the sex. To your point, it's racketeering. It's a series of criminal events under a big umbrella of -- of Sean Combs running an enterprise that involves sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and tampering and so on. This is a big indictment.

But certainly the defense here is trying to undermine her testimony with these text messages. It happens all the time. But those two things can be true. Someone can have expressed support for something, but also have been forced to do it at another point.

CORNISH: All right, I want to --

WILLIAMS: And -- and, last one, last one.

CORNISH: No, no, please do.

WILLIAMS: And -- and that's -- that's the essence of coercion. People, you know, when controlled, or pushed, or forced, often say things like that. So, it cuts both ways.

CORNISH: Yes. And we -- we know they're also putting her on the stand fairly early because of her pregnancy.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: So, there will be more witnesses who speak to this other issue, right, the enterprise, the world he controlled around him --

WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

CORNISH: And how he did that.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

CORNISH: Maybe?

WILLIAMS: No, absolutely.

CORNISH: OK.

I want to talk about something else. Just off of the president's trip. He's on the way back. But this issue of this jet as a gift from -- from the Qataris. Here's why I wanted to bring it up. Because some lawyers at the Department of Justice, you know, say, basically, we've cleared this. It's fine. There's this legal memo out there by Attorney General Pam Bondi endorsing it. She also has a background, though, in lobbying for some of the countries in the region.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: Can you talk about why this is more like controversial than it looks?

WILLIAMS: Yes, absolutely.

CORNISH: For her.

WILLIAMS: For her.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: I mean, she -- she was a foreign registered lobbyist for the Qatar government. In a past life. Now, Democrats on the committee, led by Dick -- on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked about this, led by Dick Durbin, asked about this at the time, saying, will you recuse if the Qatari -- Qatari government comes up at any point? She did not commit to recusing, but committed to consult with the career officials at DOJ if Qatar ever came up.

Well, guess what, a lot of career officials at DOJ have been fired since she took the job. So, no one really, at least in the allegation of the Senate Judiciary Committee --

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Really was a check on this and really questioning whether this was proper.

Look, lobbying for foreign governments is perfectly legal. She registered when she did it. But it always smells kind of weird when people do.

CORNISH: One last thing. I want to mention David Souter, the former Supreme Court justice. He passed away this week at the age of 85. Joan Biskupic writes that "Souter's record as a Republican appointee who turned left generated plenty of resentment and the mantra of 'no more Souters'."

Can you talk about how his legacy shapes, not only the court, but like the process of choosing who ends up on it?

WILLIAMS: Oh, I think his legacy is a pivotal moment in the history of the Supreme Court, because he really is the last surprise justice I think we will see in our lifetimes.

CORNISH: Right.

WILLIAMS: He was appointed by a Republican president and also was put on to replace an unabashed liberal in William Brennan, who -- whom he preceded.

Now, he ended up being a reliable liberal, or at least left leaning voice on the court, despite having been a Republican his whole.

CORNISH: Yes, but at the time didn't have a paper trail. WILLIAMS: He didn't have a paper trail. Didn't have the speeches.

Didn't have the articles. And folks in New Hampshire, where he was from, assured President Bush, father Bush, that he'd be fine. He's one of us. He's OK. Well, he clearly was not.

That will never, ever happen again. Right now the court is -- is so -- or at least confirmations of the court are so polarized --

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: That, you know, when we talk about the court, there's the conservatives and the liberals, and they're kind of reliable in where they came from. It's just not going to happen again. And that, I really do think, was the big shift in modern history when that happened.

CORNISH: All right, Elliot, as always, we tackle a lot in these minutes. Thank you so much for being here.

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Audie.

CORNISH: Appreciate it.

OK, it is now 53 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

The FAA meeting again today with major airlines. This is the third day in a row for those meetings. And they're talking about all the problems at Newark's airport. The delays, the cancellations blamed on air traffic control issues and runway construction. "The Wall Street Journal" spoke to one controller at Newark.

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JONATHAN STEWART, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I mean, it's an adrenaline rush. And you have to -- you play God because you cannot fail. You cannot make a mistake.

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CORNISH: There also equipment outages. CBC News obtained this video showing the moment the screens in air traffic control went blank and then came back online.

[06:55:04]

And the Menendez brothers now have a parole hearing set for June 13th. It was originally scheduled as a clemency hearing, but a judge resentenced them this week, making them eligible for parole. The board has 120 days after the hearing to decide whether Erik and Lyle Menendez should go free.

Well, there's a new, fastest growing city in the U.S., and it's a place you may not know, Princeton, Texas. It's a suburb of Dallas. And since 2020, it's doubled in size. That's according to the U.S. census data. Texas is booming. It has four cities in the top five of the list. And the director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, says that former FBI Director James Comey should be put in jail for an Instagram post he shared. So, take a look at this and the now deleted photo that Comey posted. You can see a shell formation, making out the numbers 86 and 47. Now, some claim the 86 could refer to getting rid of something and the 47 could be referring to President Trump, as in the 47th president. But Comey says he didn't realize some people would associate violence with those numbers, and that it never occurred to him.

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TULSI GABBARD, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make, certainly within this context, but especially coming from a guy who's the former director of the FBI. A guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of 86.

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CORNISH: Now, either way you look at it, the post has become a flashpoint in an already heated political environment.

The group chat is back to discuss.

This is me literally looking at stones in the sand now and trying to divine some sort of motivation. The -- Kristi Noem, homeland secretary, wrote on Twitter that the administration is investigating the threat and will respond appropriately. Kash Patel saying the current FBI will provide all necessary support.

This feels like a lot, but I want you guys to check me.

DOVERE: I -- I -- two weeks ago I was in New Hampshire with JB Pritzker and he called for mass demonstrations and said Republicans shouldn't know a moments peace. I tweeted a video of that, and very quickly people like Donald Trump Jr. and others said that this was calling for another assassination of the president.

We're going a little bit far, it would seem like, with some of this stuff. On the other hand, like the -- the political rhetoric has obviously gotten more and more violent over time. Even Donald Trump, right? This was him last November. To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don't mind that so much because I don't mind, I don't mind. There's a question of how much we're just putting these violent thoughts into the ether.

CORNISH: Yes. It's not that I think they're not violent, but I also think, like Comey is probably the least effectual sort of political voice in the space right now for Democrats or Republicans. What is the threat here?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, I'm not a defender of James Comey by any --

CORNISH: See. SEAWRIGHT: By -- by -- by any -- by any chance.

CORNISH: Exactly what I'm saying.

SEAWRIGHT: But what I will say is that it's easy for someone to find a boogeyman to be a distraction. Both Patel and the -- the secretary have a need to have distractions to -- to deal -- because of the challenges they're facing in their current roles. And so I think this is just one example of what they're willing to do. And, quite frankly, I don't think Republicans need to lecture America about threats and violence because they have their history of that.

CORNISH: Or -- yes, Rob, is this beneath them?

BLUEY: The -- the reason that I think you saw the reaction among so many Republicans and conservatives --

CORNISH: Yes.

BLUEY: Is because of the assassination attempts on President Trump last year, and the belief that those have not been fully investigated, we still have some unanswered questions that there's a -- there's a perception and a belief that many in the news media just simply didn't give it the attention because it was against Donald Trump versus someone else.

CORNISH: Yes. But to see rocks in the sand. It feels goofy.

BLUEY: The whole thing is -- is goofy. I don't know why Comey posted it to begin with.

CORNISH: Now, look, you know -- yes, like it just is --

DOVERE: When I -- I worked in a restaurant as a waiter. At one point we would talk about 86-ing the specials, right? Like, it's not always like shooting something, right? Now, you can interpret it that way. And certainly with the assassination attempt there, it changes all of it.

It -- it is -- it's definitely trying to make this an issue and --

CORNISH: OK.

DOVERE: Right.

SEAWRIGHT: It's a distraction.

CORNISH: Lightning round on what you're keeping an eye on.

Antjuan.

SEAWRIGHT: The budget, and whether or not Republicans will be able to pass it.

CORNISH: Yes, what's in it. Yes. SEAWRIGHT: The devil's in the details. Whether we'll be able to pass it because they're upside down when it comes to public opinion on every single element. When you talk about $200 billion tax cuts for the wealthy, millions of Americans will go uninsured. You have to watch and see if Republicans will downhill for it and whether Trump will weigh in.

CORNISH: OK. Yes.

Rob.

BLUEY: Yes, I'm keeping an eye on Pope Leo's inaugural mass.

CORNISH: Oh, yes.

BLUEY: Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio will be there. And to our last comment, the pope came out this week and said, let's tone down the rhetoric. So, maybe some lessons to learn.

CORNISH: Absolutely.

Isaac.

DOVERE: We're seeing a lot of renewed attention to Joe Biden's cognitive state.

CORNISH: We are. Of course, the book by our colleague.

DOVERE: I mean goo questions that are -- indeed.

CORNISH: Yes.

[07:00:00]

DOVERE: And I think that one of the things that -- that may -- that this may lead to is thinking about Donald Trump's cognitive state, which has always been a question that has bat -- been batted around. Just a couple of hours ago he was talking about the -- one of the buildings that -- the -- a stadium in Queens. And he said, oh, is that where the Olympics are going to be? I think he's talking about the World Cup. There are these little things. Or we have in the moment where he said that the tattoos on the -- were real.

CORNISH: Yes. But it's creating a dynamic right now for older politicians.

DOVERE: These are -- these are questions that are fair to ask of any president, for sure.

CORNISH: It becomes an issue.

Well, we'll see if it develops in that direction.

DOVERE: Yes.

CORNISH: I'm curious too. I want to thank you to the group chat. Thank you for waking up with

us. I'm Audie Cornish, and "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.