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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

China and U.S. Agree to Drastically Slash Tariffs for 90 Days; First Afrikaners with Refugee Status Arrive in U.S.; First Witness Called on Day One of Testimony, Sean Diddy Combs Trial. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 13, 2025 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: And Ukraine as well as the Hamas war with Israel have really changed the stability in the Middle East and in Europe and around the world. But this trip really offers the president the opportunity to notch a few economic wins. He's expected to highlight major investment from these countries and also highlight deepening partnerships with these countries -- Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Betsy Klein, live for us there in Riyadh. Betsy, thank you.

China's president is speaking out for the first time about that temporary trade war truce between China and the U.S. Xi Jinping said that quote, unity and cooperation among nations is indispensable, and then issued some pointed remarks about bullying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): There are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars. Bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: His comments come a day after the U.S. and China agreed to drastically de-escalate their punishing trade war. The U.S. will slash sky-high 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports to 30 percent, and China will knock down its 125 percent levy on American goods to just 10 percent, but only for 90 days, meaning this isn't exactly a permanent solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not looking to hurt China. China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest, and they were very happy to be able to do something with us, and the relationship is very, very good. I'll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If a longer-term deal is not reached with China at the end of these 90 days, can the American people expect those tariffs to go back up to 145 percent? TRUMP: No, but they would go up substantially higher. You know, at 145, you're really decoupling, because nobody's going to buy. But they can go -- they got very high because of additional tariffs I applied during the course because of fentanyl and other things.

But, no, but they'd go substantially higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And the trade war pause, or truce, brought huge relief to global markets on Monday. Let's see how they're faring right now. I think taking a bit of a breather, as opposed to Monday's performance.

Asian markets are looking to close lower -- well, mixed, actually. Nikkei higher. The Hang Seng is what I'm thinking about here, 1.9 percent. Shanghai and Seoul up fractionally. For the Seoul-Shanghai, about, let's call it, two-tenths of a percent rounding up.

And taking a look at the markets in Europe, higher across the board, but marginal. The FTSE and the DAX basically flat, CAC 40 in France up about, let's call it, one-tenth of a percent at this point.

And taking a look at U.S. pre-markets at 4:32 on a Tuesday morning, all off between about two-tenths of a percent for the Dow to about four-tenths of a percent for the Nasdaq, the S&P just in between there.

Meantime, President Trump's tariffs are still expected to cost U.S. households thousands of dollars. Researchers at Yale University say that a typical middleclass family can expect to pay more than $2,200 every year that the tariffs continue due to higher prices for many goods. In the short term, experts say that some of the biggest hikes will be seen for items including computers and other electronics, clothing and leather goods like shoes and handbags.

All right, in other news this morning, 59 white South Africans arrived in the U.S. Monday, the first ever to be granted refugee status. The Trump administration expedited their processing, claiming that they were the victims of discrimination while still refusing to accept people trying to escape war and famine from other countries. President Trump is again claiming without evidence that white South African farmers are facing genocide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing that's taking place and farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they're white or black, they are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Not the president of South Africa disagrees, saying that Afrikaners who left for the U.S. quote, do not fit the definition of a refugee. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: Those people who have fled are not being persecuted, they are not being, you know, hounded, they are not being treated badly and they are leaving ostensibly because they don't want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country in accordance with our Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:35:00]

SOLOMON: Not many Afrikaners are angry over new law which allows the South African government to redistribute property and farmland without compensation in some cases. Officials have framed it as a way to right the wrongs of apartheid, which ended in South Africa more than 30 years ago. Currently, Black South Africa make up more than 80 percent of the country's population but own just 4 percent of private land.

All right, still ahead, coercion or consent? That is the key question posed to a federal jury on day one of the criminal trial of Sean Diddy Combs, who faces charges of sex trafficking, and stay with us. We'll be right back.

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[04:40:04]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SOLOMON: We have some breaking news just into CNN. French actor Gerard Depardieu has been convicted of sexual assault. The actor has been found guilty in both cases he was facing charges in. Two women say that Depardieu sexually assaulted them on a movie set in 2021. We will continue to follow the story. Of course, bring you updates as they come into us here at CNN.

Meantime, a second day of testimony will begin in New York in the coming hours in the federal criminal trial of rapper Sean Diddy Combs. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts, including sex trafficking.

Music mogul denies coercing women into days long sex parties known as freak offs, where victims say that they were physically abused. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even before singer and model Cassie Ventura testifies against 55-year- old Sean Combs, her former boyfriend of more than a decade. She was front and center in the prosecution's opening statement as they described how Combs forced her to participate in his drug fueled freak offs, saying half of every week Cassie was in a dark hotel room high and awake for days performing sex act she did not want to on male escorts. Prosecutors allege Combs used his power and fame as a leading hip hop artist who sexually abused women from 2004 to 2024, including Ventura and a Jane Doe witness who will testify.

Prosecutors said that on one occasion, Combs forced a male escort to urinate in Ventura's mouth until she felt like she was choking.

One of the first prosecution witnesses to take the stand, a man paid to have sex with Ventura said that another time Ventura seemed drugged, slumped over half on the couch, half off the couch. As Combs told him, I don't think this is going to happen today.

It was Ventura seen on this surveillance video first published by CNN being kicked and dragged by Combs in a Los Angeles hotel, the prosecution says after one of the alleged freak offs in 2016.

If Cassie didn't do what the defendant wanted, the consequences were severe, the prosecution said.

Combs's attorney countered calling the video overwhelming evidence of domestic violence. He's charged with running a criminal enterprise, she said, domestic violence is not sex trafficking.

The defense calling the couple's relationship complicated and that Ventura was uncontrollably jealous of Combs is infidelity.

SEAN DIDDY COMBS: I was in a dark place.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Six years after the hotel incident, Combs thanks Cassie on stage at the 2022 BET Awards.

COMBS: Also Cassie for holding me down in the dark times, love.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): That speech called out the following year in Ventura is 2023 civil suit against Combs, For Miss Ventura, the dark times were those she spent trapped by Mr. Combs in a cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking.

Combs denied the allegations and the case was quickly settled with no admission of wrongdoing.

In opening statements, his attorney portrayed the civil suit as a cash grab.

How many millions of reasons does the witness have to lie?

Many of Ventura's civil allegations are expected to come out in the criminal trial, like when Ventura was on a break from Combs and began a flirtatious relationship with an actor whom CNN has now learned is Michael B. Jordan. In her suit, she alleges Combs called the actor and threatened him.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges he faces, including racketeering conspiracy, transportation to engage in prostitution and sex trafficking. WAGMEISTER: Now, before court even began, I had a source tell me that the overarching theme of Combs's defense strategy is going to be that all of these relationships were consensual, consensual being the key word.

Now, I want to read you directly from my notebook from inside the courtroom. His defense attorney, during opening statements today, said that the witnesses are capable, strong adult women.

So they are essentially going to say these women had the agency to make their own choices, even if these relationships were toxic. Therefore, Combs should not be held criminally liable. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right, our thanks to Elizabeth Wagmeister.

We're joined now by CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. He is a criminal defense attorney and a former prosecutor. Joey, we know you have been working around the clock, providing us with analysis, so we appreciate you being up early to be with us this morning. They've already had two witnesses on the stand. Things moving quickly here. Your takeaways from day one.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Rahel. Good to be with you. So a number of takeaways.

[04:45:00]

Obviously, we know that any trial is a battle of the narratives. And, of course, we know it's a prosecution's position that he built a criminal enterprise, according to them, and he used those around him to enable him and to otherwise satisfy his sexual desires.

The essence of the prosecution's case is that he exerted control over those who were in his inner circle, especially the victims we'll hear testifying. You hear Cassie, his long term relationship, so that he could have these freak off, so that he could otherwise use his power, prestige for criminality in this enterprise to traffic in terms of engaging in sex trafficking and, of course, to engage in prostitution.

We know they started off -- that is the prosecution with a bang with regard to that videotape, which does show significantly bad behavior on his part. Prosecution playing that, and I think they did so, Rahel, in order to dirty him up right at the outset to say this is who he is. This is what he did. This is what he's all about.

And so if that sticks with the jurors in terms of his conduct, what he was doing, the beating he was giving her, and they are able, prosecutors, to show that this is the essence of what he was doing to everyone that, of course, it gives them the higher ground.

From the defense's perspective, I think the takeaway is that, hey, you know, we're not going to justify that behavior, but it certainly doesn't show, says the defense that he was engaging in a racketeering in an organization such that he would be a criminal. Did he really build this empire to satisfy his sexual pleasures? Or did he do it because he's a music mogul and was building his brand?

Furthermore, while the videotape again played extensively on the first day certainly is problematic, the defense says, it does not show that he's a criminal. It shows that this was a one time despicable behavior that doesn't go to establish prostitution, sex trafficking nor any other criminality.

And so that battle of the narratives I think will continue with Cassie's testimony today. And I think that how the jury grapples with what she says and whether she did have agency, she did have control. She did and was able to consent. That'll go a long way to establish whether he is guilty or, of course, not guilty in the eyes of that jury.

SOLOMON: Yes, and Joey, I want to play for you something that the sketch artist who was in that courtroom said last night sort of echoes a lot of what you just said about the defense POV here. This was on "LAURA COATES LIVE." Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His lawyers have done a good job. They, you know, he's pretty unfazed, Mr. Diddy, because they are saying this was domestic abuse. This was ugly. This was unconscionable. This was unforgivable, but it wasn't what he's being charged with here. This isn't what he's on trial for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And Joey, one thing the sketch artist also said is that it was really hard to read P. Diddy's face. She called him stoic.

I'm curious how you read that. And if you see this the same way as a sketch artist in terms of how they're laying out this case in the strategy behind it.

JACKSON: So in terms of that, Rahel, you have to, if you're the defense, embrace the tape. They had made the defense lawyers efforts to keep it away from the jury. The judge said no. So now that that tape is in now, you have to explain it. And I think the way they did that was to say, Hey, look at what he's doing. We're not here to justify it.

Any word you could imagine in terms of it being horrific, you could accept and we all could accept that shows domestic violence. What it does not show the defense needs to embrace, and has done so, is that he was running an enterprise for purposes of being a mobster, a racketeer, a person engaging in all this illegality.

This is a domestic violence tape. And guess what? Ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to assess domestic violence. We're here to assess sex trafficking, prostitution and whether he was running a criminal enterprise.

And I think the issue for the prosecution, although, yes, playing it initially, Rahel does dirty him up, does establish he's a bad guy. But do you run the risk of desensitizing the jurors to it because you're showing it over and over and over again.

So I think the theme for the defense will be that, hey, tapes, horrible, terrible thing. He was engaged in long term relationships with all of these women who, if they wanted to, did not have to consent. And in fact, we heard from the first witnesses in the case with respect to whether or not Cassie was a full participant, whether she was enjoying the experience, whether she was on board with it and whether she was pushing back at all. And early indications from the defense's cross examination is that she was simply on board with what was occurring.

And so we'll see when that cross examination continues today, whether the defense continues to elicit consent, consent, consent, prosecution, fraud, duress and certainly controlled by Diddy. That is really the battle that we're going to enter into and be in, quite frankly, for weeks to come.

[04:50:00]

SOLOMON: And that'll be the question that they will try to get to with Cassie today when she is expected to take the stand. Joey Jackson, again, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you.

JACKSON: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

SOLOMON: All right, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back and against all the odds, the Dallas Mavericks have secured the top overall pick in next month's NBA draft. Dallas had just a 1.8 percent chance of receiving the first pick. Those are the fourth lowest odds since the lottery began 40 years ago. It's also the first time that the Mavericks have won the lottery.

[04:55:00]

They are widely expected to pick Duke University star forward Cooper Flagg, who emerged as one of the best players in college basketball last season as a freshman. The draft will be held on June 25th and 26th right here in New York.

Meantime, in the NFL, the full schedule for the upcoming season comes out on Wednesday, but we already know some of the highlights. Defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Well, they will kick things off against their bitter, bitter rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. That's happening in the opener on Thursday, September 4th, right in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia.

The Eagles have another big divisional game in week 16. That's when they visit the Washington Commanders in a rematch of last season's NFC championship. That will be part of a special Saturday doubleheader on December 20th. It goes without saying, but here on this show, we say it early, we say it often, go Birds.

And that's going to do it for this hour of EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. The news continues after this quick break.

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