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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Zelenskyy Arrives In Turkey Ahead Of Possible Russia Talks; Trump Meeting With U.S. Troops In Doha, Qatar; Defense To Cross- Examine Combs' Ex-Girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 15, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:32:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

The Ukrainian president arrived in Ankara, Turkey minutes ago ahead of what could be the first direct talks with Russia in more than three years. A source tells CNN that Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make a decision about these negotiations after meeting with the Turkish president. Now, the Kremlin has already confirmed President Vladimir Putin will not attend the talks and it's unclear at this point if they're even going to happen at all.

Let's get to CNN's Fred Pleitgen who has been covering the run-up to the advertised talks. He is with us this morning from Moscow. Fred, what does it mean that Putin is not going to Turkey?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly means that Vladimir Putin himself, right now, is in control of the process and certainly has very much signaled that he is not going to be pressured into any sort of 30-day direct ceasefire that, of course, the Ukrainians and some European nations were demanding and for a while the Trump administration was demanding as well. And certainly also not going to be pressured into direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

If we recall that it was on very early Sunday -- I was actually in the room -- when Vladimir Putin said that he wanted those talks to happen in Istanbul on May 15 -- direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. That is was then Volodymyr Zelenskyy grasped the initiative and said he would be there and called on Vladimir Putin to be there as well.

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, of course, jumped on that bandwagon a little bit and said that he might be coming as well.

And we've since then seen pretty much radio silence from the Russians until late last night when they announced that there would be this delegation that was going led by Vladimir Medinsky who is a senior Kremlin aide. He's actually the same person who led the last direct talks between and Russia and Ukraine that also happened in Istanbul in 2022. Those, of course, were broken off unsuccessfully. But the fact of the matter is that Vladimir Putin is not coming to Istanbul. And as you pointed out, right now it seems as though it's the Ukrainians that are somewhat under pressure to decide whether or not these talks are going to go forward. The Russians are saying their delegation is in Istanbul. The spokesman for Russia's foreign ministry has come out and said that the Russian negotiators are on the ground and they're ready to work. The Kremlin has said that the duration of these talks depends on how much progress is made.

But there's, of course, a second thing Rahel that's also very important, and that is that key demand that U.S. President Trump put forward that the Ukrainians agreed to -- and that is that 30-day ceasefire -- appears to have sort of gone by the wayside for the moment as right now the world is waiting to see whether or not these negotiations start -- which, of course, the Russians say are aimed towards a broader peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia and certainly not towards a quick ceasefire, Rahel.

SOLOMON: OK. That's our Fred Pleitgen reporting for us in Moscow. Fred, thank you.

I'm going to take you back now. President Trump speaking to troops -- or about to speak to troops as he takes the stage at the Al Udeid Air Base. Let's just watch and listen for moment.

[05:35:00]

(Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" playing)

SOLOMON: As we await the president, who is about to speak, just sort of level set we've seen thus far. Some of the opening acts we've seen and heard from Theo Von a short time ago. We had some live pictures up. You saw him taking selfies with folks there.

The largest installation base -- military installation base in the region. Hugely significant as our Jeff Zeleny has pointed out in the last 10-20 years or so.

After the president greets the troops there, we do expect what's been billed as a campaign-style rally. Of course, we will bring you those comments just as soon as the president approaches the podium.

But for now we're going to take a quick break. We will be right back.

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SOLOMON: All right, let's take you back to the president speaking live now at the Al Udeid Air base. Let's listen together.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today we can all relax and be at ease and we're going to have a little fun. I have nothing else to do so let's have a little fun, right?

(Applause)

So I'm thrilled to be here with the men and women who embody American strength and pride -- the warriors of the United States Armed Forces. It's an amazing group of people.

You are without a doubt the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. That's the way it is. I said it last night. I said it's strong. We have the strongest military in the world. It's not even a contest.

We have the best equipment. Nobody has equipment like us. Nobody has the planes or the missiles, or anything else.

And as your commander in chief I'm here to say that America's military will soon be bigger, better, stronger, and more powerful than ever before.

We just did a budget. The budget was the highest by far -- over a trillion dollars. It's a lot. It's a lot of stuff and hopefully, it's peace through strength. Hopefully, we don't have to use it because if you use it, I feel sorry for the other guy. But we don't want to have to use it.

I want to recognize a true warrior and that's the secretary of defense. They put him through hell -- the radical left did. And he's incredible, you know. He went to the best schools. He did the best stuff. He's a smart guy and he's a great guy.

[05:40:05]

And I just listened to his words standing backstage when he was speaking and he really has it right on the peg. Pete Hegseth -- he's going to be great. You're going to love this guy. You're going to love him.

(Applause)

And I also want to influence -- I want to influence you to clap for a man who is a great influencer. In fact, my son Barron said Dad, you've got to do an interview with somebody I hadn't heard of, but my son knew very well. He knows everyone. He said, Dad -- this is before the election. You know, we won in a landslide in case you hadn't known. But he said, "Dad, you've got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von." I said, "Who the hell is Theo Von?" He said, "Dad, he's such a big guy. You've got to do an interview." So he knew all the names. I didn't know the names.

And where is Theo? He's around here someplace, I think. Theo, thank you very much.

(Applause)

Thank you.

That's Barron. You know Barron. He said you got to do it there. We had a good time, right? We had a good time. We had like 270 million people that listened. So you know what? I think Barron was right.

Thank you for being here, Theo -- appreciate it. Well also, Lee Greenwood, right from the beginning that song went on. And, you know, that song was a successful song, but we made it most number one. We made that song -- it's the top of the list of that type of song. That's a pretty big -- I don't want to go into the list because you'll get upset with me if I do -- like, the National Anthem and things is like -- and it became unbelievable.

And I was saying you could get Elvis or anybody else to do a song. There's nothing -- that was my intro song right from the beginning because as you know, we won three elections, OK, and some people want us to do a fourth. I don't know. We'll have to think about that.

You saw the new -- the new hat. The hottest hat is -- it says, "Trump 2028." We're driving the left crazy when you see that hat. We didn't need that hat.

But it was -- it's been an amazing period of time. And when Lee Greenwood did that song it went -- from the first day I came out and played it, it was a great song, but we didn't know. And then I did a second time, a third time.

And that was 968 rallies ago. Can you believe that? We did 968 rallies. There's another hat that says "968." I said, "What the hell does that mean?" That's the number of rallies. I said, "You have to be kidding."

But from the very beginning we played Lee's song, and it was the walk- on. And then for the last inauguration I had every -- all of the big singers, they wanted to do a song for me, and they wanted to have me walk on to their song. And my people were like oh, that would be nice. That would be nice.

And when I heard about it, we were all set. We had a lot of them. And I heard about it, and I said, "I'm not switch -- are you kidding me? I'm not switching." So we stick with Lee.

But there's -- nobody could have done better than Lee and he's been so loyal and so great, and it's been really about nine years of that stuff.

And, you know, we had really -- honestly, we had three unbelievable campaigns and it's been -- it's been an honor. And there's nobody been stronger than the military in terms of backing us -- nobody -- so I just want to thank you all very much. A great honor. Thank you very much.

(Applause)

And also with us today is a -- really a great talent and somebody who is one of the most popular television hosts in history. He still looks young to me, but he's been doing it a long time. But he's an incredible man. He always seems to take my side and therefore I like him even more. But he has a -- he has common sense. We talk about common sense all the time.

But he's one of the biggest in the history of television -- the great Sean Hannity. He's here someplace. Sean, stand up wherever you are.

(Applause)

Thank you, Sean. Thank you. Where is he? Thank you, Sean.

SOLOMON: All right. We've just been listening to the U.S. President Donald Trump there speaking to troops at the Al Udeid Air Base. It's the largest installation in the region, housing some 10,000 troops.

Just a few takeaways from what we heard there from the president falsely claiming that he won three elections -- he won two -- but also saying some people want us to do a fourth -- I don't know about that -- despite recently telling "MEET THE PRESS" that he was not considering running again.

He talked about Pete Hegseth, his secretary of defense. He said the radical left put him through hell -- I assume alluding to the Signal- gate scandal.

[05:45:00]

He talked about Theo Von, the podcaster who has been sort of warming him up and warming up troops there. He said, in fact, Barron Trump, his son, told him before the election that he should do an interview with Theo Von.

Again, we're going to continue to keep one eye on the president's comments but in the meantime, we'll take a short break. We'll be right back.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back.

I want to take you back to Qatar where President Trump is still speaking to troops at the Al Udeid Air Base. Let's listen together.

[05:50:00]

TRUMP: We also have the 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron known as "Mighty Ocho." Where are the Ochos? We don't want to fight with them. All of you are the tip of the spear. You're the finest we have anywhere in the world you're the finest we have. You're the finest anyone has in the fight against the enemies of civilization. You're the people that are defeating chaos and combatting terror.

SOLOMON: OK, we'll continue to keep one eye on that.

In the meantime, in the coming hours today, defense attorneys will get their chance to question the former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs in his racketeering and sex trafficking trial.

During her second day of testimony Cassie Ventura described how she suffered injuries and other medical issues from Combs' assaults.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the details. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cassie Ventura, the government's star witness in their case against Sean "Diddy" Combs will be back on the witness stand on Thursday and Combs' attorneys will have their first chance to cross-examine her.

Ventura finished a second emotional day of testimony on Wednesday where she testified about the physical violence she said she sustained at Combs' hand. The jury saw numerous photos -- images of bruises, swollen lips, black eyes that Ventura said Combs had given her sometimes because she was just sleeping instead of packing for a trip.

She also testified that Combs had attempted to blackmail her, threatening to release images and videos of the freak offs to the public if she didn't stick with what he wanted her to do. She testified at the trial saying, "I felt trapped."

Ventura also said that she became addicted to opiates in order to escape the freak offs and the violence that she sustained with Combs. And she said years after they broke up she became suicidal and when she became -- she became -- when she had flashbacks of her experiences with Combs.

She said she was testifying at the trial because "What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong. I'm here to do the right thing."

The cross-examination will start first thing Thursday morning.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right, let's get to defense attorney Misty Marris who joins us now from here in New York. Misty, great to have you this morning.

Look, you're a defense attorney. You understand strategy. When the defense gets it chance today to cross-examine Cassie what are you going to be watching for?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: What I'm going to be watching for is the electronic footprint. Remember that Cassie and Combs were in a relationship for 10-plus years.

And we know from pretrial conference -- and especially yesterday there were conferences between the defense and the prosecution before they went into the courtroom deciding what was going to be fodder for cross-examination and what the scope of the cross-examination of Cassie would be.

And one of the things that was discussed was text messages. And from the defense perspective I anticipate they will use text messages contemporaneous -- so, at the time -- to try and show the state of mind of Cassie and Combs. This is something they foreshadowed in their opening statement. And the purpose will be to try and undercut this idea of coercion --

which, by the way, in the testimony, hearing about the violence and control. That was chilling testimony. And they're going to try and say that in these instances with respect to the freak offs there was consent, at least with -- from Combs' perspective.

So we know that the text messages are going to be central to the defense cross-examination today, so I'm going to be watching for the content of those.

SOLOMON: Yeah, and play both sides for me here. I mean, just thinking about -- I mean, as you -- as you pointed out, the testimony here has at times been really difficult I think for most. It's been chilling.

But what about the evidence so far from the prosecution? How are they doing from your point of view?

MARRIS: I think the prosecution did an excellent job and here is why. The critical element of force, fraud, and coercion is what needs to be established in order to get the sex trafficking statutes. The requirements are that it's commercial sex through force, fraud, and -- through force, fraud, and coercion. And so that's really central to the case.

And what the prosecution has done is use that 2016 video from the Intercontinental, which the jury has now seen I believe about eight times. And they've used that to show what happens -- and this all came out in Cassie's direct testimony -- when she was not compliant. This is when she left a freak off early. And the result is the horrific beating that we saw in that video.

Now, they've taken that and they've extrapolated that and said this is indicative of a larger pattern of violence, of blackmail, of coercion. And her testimony, which Kara set out -- you know, the picture that they saw -- black eye, gash on the head, bruises. Testimony about being stomped. It becomes all the more believable when you see that video. That's on tape and the jury sees it with their own eyes.

So the whole point -- establish this power dynamic when you're talking about consent versus coercion in the framework of all of those horrific beatings, not allowing her to go her own way. Controlling every aspect of her life. Is there really any world where she's consenting?

[05:55:10]

And that's really what the prosecution has tried to get ahead of -- some of what they know will come out during that defense cross- examination.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And we should say the extended version of that interaction of the surveillance video that all of us have seen has been released and you see the interactions with the hotel employees and you kind of have a sort of fuller picture of how it all happened.

Misty Marris, we'll have to leave it here but appreciate you waking up early to be with us this morning. Thank you.

MARRIS: Thank you.

SOLOMON: And thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. That will do it for us. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts after a quick break.

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