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New Book: Biden Didn't Recognize George Clooney At 2024 Fundraiser; Combs' Ex-Girlfriend Cassie Ventura Takes Stand In His Trial; White South Africans Granted Refugee Status By Trump Admin. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 13, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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


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[12:30:43]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Just in to CNN, a new Biden bombshell in the blockbuster book out next week from our Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios. This is brand new. Then President Biden did not recognize movie star George Clooney. At a June 2024 fundraiser, Clooney was co- hosting.

In the new book, "Original Sin", President Biden's decline, its cover- up, and his disastrous choice to run again, which is coming out next Tuesday. Jake and Alex write, "'You know George', the assisting aide told the president, gently reminding him who was in front of him. 'Yes, yes', the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fundraiser. 'Thank you for being here'.

"It was obvious to most everyone standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was."

My panel is back to discuss this rather remarkable revelation. This fundraiser got a lot of attention at the time because of how Biden reacted and being supposedly escorted off the stage by Obama. But at the time, the Biden people were saying, he's fine, he's fine. The media is overdoing it and people are jumping on him for no reason. But apparently he was not fine.

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: He was not. And there's an emerging consensus among Democrats. Not when it helps them through this story, exactly. But from the book excerpts, from talking to Democrats, it's that, yes, Biden in 2020 was able to do the job. And Republicans cried wolf and said he couldn't. They said he'd need a drug test before he went. You remember that whole news cycle.

RAJU: Oh yes.

WEIGEL: That he was going to collapse. Because he didn't collapse, Biden was fine through 2022. And then it's 2023, 2024 when he seemed to age very quickly. That's an anecdote -- or I guess an observation that comes up from everyone that they quote, that we saw him at this point, then we saw him again, he was not the same guy. He aged 50 years in a year, things of that nature.

And that's important because that means there was not a four-year conspiracy to cover up his age. There was a much shorter, once it was too late to pick a new nominee, conspiracy. And I'm saying conspiracy, but I should probably see if the book says that word --

RAJU: Yes.

WEIGEL: -- before I use it again.

RAJU: Well, that's a -- it could be an apt word.

WEIGEL: Yes.

SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well, that's right. I mean, look, this is a, you know, really interesting and I think important new excerpt that just came out. I think it's in The New Yorker, actually. But the point about -- there are two separate issues. So one is the physical capacity of Joe Biden, which we all -- this is a -- you know, is it a cover up? We saw a lot of that with our own eyes.

Then there's the question -- and I'll be interested to see the full reporting as it's laid out in the book. Then there's the question of the president's capacity to do the job itself, which is not, by the way, dependent on whether you're walking or using a wheelchair if it came to that.

So there is the physical capacity. Then there's the question of what was the president like behind the scenes as he processed information, as he undertook this very difficult job.

But to your point, Dave, there is then the political question. And I actually think it's a very good title for the book, "Original Sin", because the "Original Sin" that's being referred to here is Biden's decision to run again for another term in office in the fall of 2022, after those midterm elections.

And from my perspective, it's always been a little bit of a kind of a false flag debate about, you know, his capacity in 2023, because the real issue was the political judgment, the hubris implied in asking the American people to re-elect him.

He would be 86 years old at the end of that next term. You didn't need to have proof, some great cover up to understand this was an act of great political misjudgment and hubris. Separate from the question --

WEIGEL: Yes.

GLASSER: -- that I'm interested in about his capacity.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I agree with Susan. I think what's going to be more revelatory is if his capacity and decision making in the job was compromised. Was there national security issues, for instance, at any point? And I'm confident in our colleague Jake Tapper, you know, to get to the bottom of what occurred here.

But I think that that is more significant, especially in the context of all that is currently happening today with the Trump administration regarding the Constitution as a suggested manual disappearing folks. There's a really high bar, I think, in recalling that history. But there also is, I think, some soul searching that's going to happen in the Democratic Party as a result of this.

RAJU: Yes.

MCKEND: And a real --

RAJU: A lot of questions being asked about why didn't you say something?

MCKEND: Right.

RAJU: You were meeting with them.

MCKEND: And we'll --

RAJU: You're defending his appearance. I mean, I remember Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, they put out a statement rebutting that Wall Street Journal story at the time, suggesting that behind closed doors, he was not the same person. They said, oh, he's fine. He's fine. He's fine. Well, he wasn't fine.

[12:35:02]

MCKEND: And it's not only about Biden, right? There's going to be a continued conversation now about other elders in the Democratic Party really needing to step aside.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I also think it'll be interesting for the book to dive into the moments in between, right? This George Clooney moment we kind of knew about because George Clooney wrote an op-ed about it. So it was a focal point at the time. And then, you know, the conversation kind of went away.

But to your point, Dave, a lot of people would say, you know, he was fine. And then all of a sudden he wasn't fine. Well, what were the aides who were with him on a daily basis thinking and doing as that slow progression presumably happened?

RAJU: Before you jump in, this isn't how well Joe and Jill Biden. They were on The View last Thursday and they were still defending the president's condition.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your response to these allegations or are these sources wrong?

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are wrong. There's nothing to sustain that. We went to work and we got it done. And, you know, one of the things that -- well -- JILL BIDEN, FORMER FIRST LADY: Well, and Alyssa (ph), you know, one of

the things I think is that the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us. And they didn't see how hard Joe worked every single day.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: I mean, do you think that by the Democrats are going to pay for an apparent cover up here?

WEIGEL: No, they've already started to adjust. So, for example, in 2028, there are tiers of Democratic candidates and you can already separate the ones who said, like Nancy Pelosi said, that the media is lying about this or said some version of, well, both candidates are old. There were Democrats who were being careful about how they discuss his age.

There are also Democrats unlearning this lesson of the Biden years. The Democrats did not talk themselves for Biden, which was the president's personal appearance. Persuasive power ability to do an interview is not that important. That actually you can go around the media.

You don't need to give a press conference every day. You don't need to give these long Oval Office Q&A's. Actually, it's bad that Trump does that. That's kind of a Democratic discourse. Remember Michael Bennett saying, if you elect me, you want to think about me for weeks. And they're starting to unlearn that, too.

And Biden's is not part of that conversation. How many things did they learn to not cover up, but to build a kind of exoskeleton around Biden's weaknesses that a younger Democrat just won't have to have to deal with?

GLASSER: You know, I know we're on inside politics. Maybe it's wrong for me to say, but I'm going to say it anyways. Like, I don't think this is a story about the 2020 presidential election. OK? This is a story about a decision that would have had real serious impacts on the country, regardless of the electoral impact, right?

Joe Biden, it wasn't that the question was whether, you know, it was a good idea for him to run or not. It was a man aging before our eyes. And, you know, do you age in a linear, progressive note? We've all had fathers, grandfathers. We understand you might have a bad day and a bad meeting.

And I've interviewed senior officials who have told me, you know, very upsetting stories about bad meetings that Joe Biden had before that debate. But the question really comes down to not about the electoral things like it was a terrible judgment on Joe Biden's part. The idea that he could serve the American people as president until he was 86 years old.

RAJU: Yes. And as they write in their book, they say "It was not a straight line of decline. He had good days and bad".

GLASSER: Yes.

RAJU: We do have to go to a break. There's a lot more to discuss. There's a lot more news, of course, in this book that we will see. And more to discuss in the weeks ahead about this controversy.

All right. Well, coming up next, we're going inside the courtroom as Sean "Diddy" Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, has started her testimony.

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[12:43:10]

RAJU: We're going to take a quick break from politics because it's been an explosive day in Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial with Cassie Ventura taking the stand. Ventura is Combs' ex-girlfriend and the woman he's seen attacking in a hotel surveillance video from 2016.

Now the music mogul has pleaded not guilty to five counts, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. But if convicted, he could face life in prison.

Joining me now is CNN Anchor and Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates, who has been inside the courtroom. So walk us through, Laura, what Cassie's testimony has been so far today.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: This has been the moment everyone's been waiting for. How will the prosecution use this star witness to bridge the gap between the public perception of Sean "Diddy" Combs and the person they say was a racketeer and a sexual trafficker?

Well, number one, she walked into that courtroom very visibly pregnant, wearing a form-fitting brown dress with the mock neck visibly on display as a pregnant woman, took off her trench coat, laid it on the back of the witness stand, and sat positioned to speak.

Diddy was sitting back in the chair away from the table for the first time that we've seen him, and they begin to talk about their relationship. Unlike the words Diddy or Puffy or what everyone knows, she referred to him exclusively as Sean, described how they began to meet each other as a label of the Bad Boy record, how she signed on for a 10-album deal, described herself as sexually inexperienced and naive.

She even talked about the first moment he introduced, at the age of 22 years old, three years after their first meeting, about freak-offs, these days-long drug-fueled sexual encounters that included non- consensual sex, as alleged by the prosecution. When they raised it, she said, oh, her stomach dropped.

[12:45:02]

She was nervous. She felt confused and a sense of responsibility because she loved him. She went on to say that she had no idea and didn't know what no would turn into, describing on a superficial basis what violence looked like in their relationship.

She told that he was a polarizing yet charming individual that she wanted to please. And then the blackmail material they talked about, these filmed encounters that was going to be a subject of so much of the testimony, and what would come next was a description of how he controlled her financially and through her livelihood, all while Diddy looked on.

For the first time, Manu, we saw him animated, passing notes to his counsel, looking back and forth. And again, I waited for the moment. Would they make eye contact? As the jurors passed by Cassie Ventura, she looked down, oftentimes holding her pregnant belly as if to touch the areas where a baby was presumably kicking. And as far as Diddy and her, when they walked by each other, they never looked at one another.

RAJU: Wow. Laura, what do we expect next in the trial today?

COATES: You know, what's going to come next this afternoon when they reconvene, just in a few moments, we're on a quick lunch break, and this judge says he wants it to be quick, only about 30 minutes or so, and then she is back on the stand. It will be an 8 to 10-week trial, but for her, likely several days of testimony.

We're going to hear more from her and get more involved into these so- called freak-offs, drug use, control, all of the aspects the prosecution wants to show the jury as these five felony charges are looming overhead of Sean "Diddy" Combs.

RAJU: All right, Laura Coates, outside the courtroom in Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial. Thank you for that report and the details from inside the courtroom.

We'll be back with more news.

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[12:51:17]

RAJU: Today, a group of 59 white South African refugees are stateside. They are the first group to be granted refugee status by the Trump administration after President Trump halted all resettlements as part of his day one actions. Now, the administration claims they're facing discrimination and violence at home, which the South African government strongly denies.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: President Trump went so far to say there's a genocide taking place, though there's no evidence of that. And also yesterday, the administration said it's ending a program that allowed thousands of Afghan refugees to resettle in the U.S. That means they can be deported.

Our smart panels -- our reporters are back. Susan, Trump said that. What do you make of Trump's statement there, and is there any basis in reality of it?

GLASSER: I mean, it's -- no. The short answer is no, Manu. There is a law. There are questions and issues about how South Africa has carried it out. In the scheme of things, it's this painful juxtaposition, I think, that you're seeing.

You know, is the Trump administration turning essentially to a racialized policy, calling it immigration, when in fact what they're actually doing is stopping the flow of political refugees seeking asylum in this country. I'm particularly struck by the timing.

I mean, what a painful juxtaposition between the people that Trump's administration are now revoking temporary protected status for, are Afghans who assisted the American two-decade-long presence in Afghanistan, either working with the U.S. military --

RAJU: Right.

GLASSER: -- working with non-profit groups. These are people in many cases who may now face the risk of being sent back to the Taliban government in Afghanistan, their lives being placed at risk. We guaranteed their safety.

RAJU: Why is this so important to the Trump administration, the white South Africans coming back? I mean, is it a Elon Musk of it all? I mean, it was so important that Christopher Landau, the Deputy Secretary of State, actually was there waiting for their arrival just yesterday.

ATWOOD: The Deputy Secretary of State did not need to be there waiting for their arrival, right? When refugees come into the United States, it's not typical for the number two person at the State Department to go there. The fact that he was, to your point, demonstrates how much they want to put emphasis on this.

And I do think it's a political and cultural tool for them to tap into, you know, the -- what Republicans are thinking about racism in America, and they're tapping into that here. But I also think if you just take a step back, what whiplash --

RAJU: Yes.

ATWOOD: -- for the world to be going through right now. Last year, in 2024, there were over 100,000 refugees that were accepted into the United States. And this year, only 59 of them, and all of them are white South Africans.

MCKEND: I mean, this is what white nationalism looks like. And they have long telegraphed that this is what the desire is for this country to look like. Now, the racism in our immigration system predates the Trump administration. Black immigrants face higher denial rates historically, but this is just amplified in this moment.

And when they use language like, well, these folks, they are going to be more culturally aligned with the way that we live here in America, I think that that's really clear, and we should not contort ourselves to think otherwise.

RAJU: You've written about some of this, about how this is an issue on the right.

WEIGEL: For a very long-standing issue. I mean, 20 years ago, the idea on the right that when Nelson Mandela died, there'd be some sort of white genocide, literal genocide of people being killed in the streets, was very prevalent on the far-right online.

[12:55:05]

This was not dreamed of, that the president would be taking status away from Haitians, from other people who've been let in the country, and giving it to white South Africans. This is a (INAUDIBLE) -- a president who's not going to run again, who's very comfortable doing something that would engender a backlash, and undoes decades of American foreign policy towards South Africa.

This is an enormous shift from a president. Remember, he ran on bringing Juneteenth and making it a holiday in 2020. That's not how he's governing right now. He's very comfortable saying some Americans assimilate better, and saying in the same sentence that yes, they happen to be white.

RAJU: Yes. He's very, as we've seen so far, he's very comfortable doing things, regardless of the reaction from even someone in his own party. He may not be so comfortable.

All right, great discussion, guys. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after this quick break.

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