Another Deadly Night in Ukraine
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It's Tuesday, May 27th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Another deadly night in Ukraine. Tensions surge after President Trump's comments about Russia's leader going, quote, absolutely crazy. Is Vladimir Putin sending a message? Plus, the Senate gears up to take on the president's agenda. But how are the proposed Medicaid cuts going over with their constituents back home?

And three more inmates who busted out of a New Orleans jail have been arrested. Where they were found and the frantic search for the two still on the run. Then later, President Biden's legacy under the microscope as a new book details his decline. One of the co-authors is here to discuss.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at New York City. Good morning, everybody. I'm Ani Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. We're going to begin this hour with a story out of Ukraine. That's where Russian strikes overnight are putting potential peace talks in jeopardy.

At least two people are dead, 16 others wounded after Russia launched aerial attacks across Ukraine, as Ukraine also intercepted several Russian drones. Now, this comes just two days after President Trump had some choice words for Vladimir Putin following Russia's attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Trump saying Putin has, quote, gone absolutely crazy, then saying this a few hours later.

I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people. We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities. I don't like it at all.

And the Kremlin has since responded to those comments, calling it an emotional overload. CNN's Claire Sebastian joins me now from London. Claire, other world leaders are starting to weigh in. What are you hearing?

Yeah, we're hearing that from the European leaders they are resurfacing calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine, reiterating their support for Ukraine. We even heard from the German chancellor on Monday who said that Ukraine no longer had any restrictions on using long range Western missiles in Russia. That we understand is not a new policy, but certainly hearing him voice that not only shows that this new German chancellor is willing to risk Russian red lines to show just how much

He supports Ukraine, but also raises speculation that German long-range missiles with a range much longer than the US and British missiles that Ukraine has already been supplied with might be in play. Certainly, Chancellor Merz has made it clear that he's in favor of that. So that's what we're hearing from the Europeans. The Kremlin, though, in the face of those comments from Trump, absolutely crazy.

maintaining a very calm exterior, perhaps in part to disprove the absolutely crazy allegation. The Kremlin, as you noted on Monday, saying that this was emotional overload of everyone, so not specifically even naming Trump. And again, this morning we've heard from Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, saying the US and Russia cannot agree on everything. He said, but there is a political will to continue working together. So I think, look, despite those comments, despite the fact that we've seen Trump's frustration bubble over a number of times,

towards Putin in recent weeks. The Kremlin is still relatively confident here, relatively emboldened because while there's been a lot of talk out of Washington, there hasn't actually been any action yet. No new sanctions have been put in place. And the Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked about this publicly in those congressional hearings last week, saying that the calculation is still

that not putting more sanctions on Russia is the best way to keep Russia at the table. And secondly, that same Truth Social post on Monday that described Putin as absolutely crazy also criticized President Zelensky of Ukraine, saying that everything that comes out of his mouth

causes problems. So I think the Kremlin is probably holding out some hope that that relationship, the breakdown of which of course led to the suspension of US military aid temporarily in March, is also still on unsteady ground and are continuing, I think, to do just enough to try to keep the US engaged and keep that promised reset in relations on the table without, of course, compromising in its pursuit of its goals in Ukraine, where we see a significant escalation.

That's Claire Sebastian in London. Thank you for that update. Coming up on CNN this morning, a car rams into a crowd celebrating Liverpool's soccer team. Why police say this wasn't an act of terrorism. Plus, Diddy returns to the courtroom with another person from his inner circle set to take the stand. And President Trump front and center on Memorial Day, honoring the fallen, taking digs at his political opponents and even working the World Cup in there too.

We have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years and now look what I have. I have everything.

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So with Congress on recess following House passage of the president's tax and policy bill, it's now up to the Senate to take the next step. But the sweeping changes to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, they're actually meeting a lot of resistance from some in the Republican Party. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he stands by the changes being made to the program, for instance, adding work requirements.

We are the party that supports human dignity, and we find purpose and dignity in our work. It's good for the individuals involved. It's good for their community. It's good for society at large. I'll go into any town hall anywhere in America, my district or otherwise, and explain this, and everyone nods in agreement and understands it. So the Democrats are trying to twist the facts. They're trying to put out misinformation because they're going to vote against this.

The problem is it's not just Democrats who say they're going to vote against this. So take conservative Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. He's digging in, saying he opposes any cuts to Medicaid. He says the bill goes far beyond the work requirements promoted by the House Speaker.

Over 20% of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of children, are on Medicaid. And, Manu, they're not on Medicaid because they want to be. They're on Medicaid because they cannot afford health insurance in the private market. But we're not talking here about just work requirements. The House goes much, much, much further than that. This is real Medicaid benefit cuts. I can't support that. No Republican should support that. We're the party of the working class, Manu. We need to act like it.

Then there are moderate Republican senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. They've also signaled opposition to the bill over Medicaid cuts, which could lead to hospitals closing. So joining me now in the group chat, Jerusalem Dempsis, contributing writer at The Atlantic, Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior advisor on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns, and Ashley Davis,

former White House official under George W. Bush. So we wanted to talk about this because the Medicaid expansion and its reach into red states has sort of flipped the politics on this, right? Like I never thought I would see Josh Hawley of Missouri saying actually no, under no circumstances.

Do you know anything about the whole thing about work requirements? I'm under the impression from research a long time ago that it doesn't actually do anything but kind of push people off the programs. Yeah, I mean it's a great talking point. Everyone believes that if you're able-bodied and able to work that you should work and not just receive government benefits. But Arkansas has tried this. We have experiments of other states looking into what happens when you require Medicaid recipients to work.

And the real thing is that you kick off 18,000 people off the rolls, but there are no positive employment effects. And the reason for that is because most people on Medicaid are either elderly or children, they're working already, or they're disabled. The very small number of people who are not employed are not going to be--

the program becomes way too difficult for them to manage. If they're also asked to fill out all this paperwork, verify employment, also it's not always in their control, right? Like if you're working as a server, if you don't get the hours, that's not something that you can prevent losing your health insurance over. So if the point is to kick you off and save money, good. If the point is for these people to suddenly start working, evidence is not there. Okay.

- Okay, I just had to set that up 'cause I don't know about you, I feel like I heard this before. Like if you think back to even the Clinton years, you mentioned Arkansas where it was like, we are going to reform these programs and put people back to work, Chuck.

Look, there's a big difference for all of you who remember schoolhouse rock. The Senate is much different than the House when we say, well, now it's going to go to the Senate. It just went through the House way two different things. The first thing you should know at home is that these folks get elected every six years and there's a whole bunch of them who are not up for election right now who aren't up for election in four years. They don't feel the pressure that a congressman feels who's constantly having to run for reelection. And that's why you see what you see from Josh Hawley, Murkowski,

And for the senators who are up this year already, North Carolina. That doesn't mean they don't feel pressure though. It's just you're saying that- Re-election pressure is that one specific pressure. Exactly. Yeah, Ashley, what do you think here in this conversation? Well, first of all, you're 100% right. And also everyone's negotiating publicly right now on TV, the bill, just like the- To the camera. Right, exactly.

But Medicaid is a really tough issue for Republicans. I think both Republicans and Democrats agree that entitlement reform needs to happen. It's just so difficult to do. They've never not agreed on that. Exactly. But no one can do it, right? Is money going to be around when we're old enough? And Chuck's salivating right now because Republicans did take that vote. In the dark of the night. And it's going to help him. I think

It was early morning hours, okay? You missed that day. But, you know, if the Senate doesn't include Medicaid cuts, it's going to be all blamed on... There is no math there, basically. All right, before we go, I want to play one more thing. David Sachs, who, I had to double check this, President Trump's AI and crypto czar, seem to be the people who know what's going on, said this on his podcast regarding the Medicaid portion of the bill.

Bill cuts $880 billion for Medicaid over a decade, which is something that already is politically tough and controversial. It imposes work requirements for able-bodied adults. This is similar to what Bill Clinton did back in 1996 with welfare reform, basically saying that you can't be a layabout and get welfare. So these are relatively tough things to do politically. It's like, do I want to see even more cuts? Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so that's the word from the crypto community, which we know from the recent dinner, as has the president's ear. Group chat, stay with me. We've got lots to talk about. Still ahead on CNN this morning, the big reaction to the new book on Joe Biden's decline. One of the co-authors is here live. Next, the manhunt for those escaped inmates from a New Orleans jail, how officers finally caught up with three more of them. And good morning, Philly, a beautiful shot as the sun rises over the city.

No, like most people in America, I am most looking forward to reading a book. But when? When?

Okay, that time is now. That book is here. And I want to go off script to discuss it. Original Sin not only brings to light revealing new details about President Biden's decline in his final months in office, but it's also sparking a fierce reaction. You've got critics pointing out what they describe as the media's failure to cover up the story sooner, for example. It's like O.J. Simpson's If I Did It book. Like, I thought it was ridiculous and just...

Quite frankly, I think it's like journalistic malfeasance. The evidence of his diminished mental capacity, subject of your book, of course, I wish had been published a year earlier because everybody saw it. Everybody saw what was happening.

Joining me now to discuss is the book's co-author, Alex Thompson, who's also a national political correspondent at Axios, also a member of the group chat. Welcome back. Okay, so I want to talk about some of the response to this and some of the pointed critique. So one is that it's just like anonymous sources like crazy. You don't totally know what their motivations are. You don't totally understand what they want to get out of this, especially after the fact of the election. How have you come to think about why people wouldn't speak on the record?

Well, the reason people didn't speak on the record before is because they were scared of helping Trump and the reason they didn't speak on the record, a lot of them, I mean, we do have some people on the record, but the reason some people didn't speak on the record afterward is because there was still fear of retaliation by the former president's camp.

But I think your point about anonymous sources is right on. And that's the reason why we talked to over 200 people. Because if we were relying even on 50 or even 100, I think we were always worried about people having motives and told you so's. And so that's why we like-- in just the course of from November 6 to January 31, we talked to over 200 people because we wanted to make sure that we got as complete a story as possible.

All right. I want to talk about the day-to-day of how the White House was run, according to your reporting. You talk about this ever smaller, tight-knit group of people who that I think one of the quotes said that he was kind of a senior member of the board. How is this different from the traditional gatekeeping around any president?

Well, and this is, it's a great question because this is how some people sort of tricked themselves into thinking this is okay.

Right. But in retrospect, they were like the level of gatekeeping was extraordinary. And so what would happen is even like cabinet secretaries or top senior aides that in most White Houses would see the president regularly or would be part of a decision making process. Essentially, they would only be part of the process with those senior aides, the Politburo, as some people call them. So they never quite made it up to the president. All right. What about foreign leaders then?

Well, so we have one foreign leader, ex-foreign leader in the book that basically says that when they met with Biden, they saw the diminishment over the first two years. And they saw that former Secretary of State Tony Blinken would have to remind him of certain things, keep him on topic. And this foreign leader thought he was not up for the task of running for re-election and was surprised that he did. You mentioned Blinken.

also thinking of Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg. There are a lot of people out of that administration. We haven't really heard them talk about what has happened. Do you think that they will be asked this question way more, especially for those who have 2028 ambitions? I mean, I think they should be. I mean, Kamala Harris,

uh you know was the chief what basically went out there and became one of the biggest validators of joe biden's uh both like cognitive and physical health after the robert hur report but as a vice president i mean is that's kind of part of the job right some of the loyalty there well this is this is actually sort of the push-pull that was in the case in top and

I think in every political job in Washington, which is what is your loyalty to the principal or to the larger institution? And usually those are the same thing. But I think in this case, a lot of people within the Biden administration felt that there should have been more loyalty to the larger cause in the institution, the White House, the Constitution, rather than just to Joe Biden.

Right now we have the country's oldest president. And right now we have an administration that is not really all that forthcoming about his health. That's understating it. We don't know almost anything about Donald Trump's health. I wrote a story in 2023 about how little he had disclosed. He was older on his inauguration day than Joe Biden was on his.

and we we don't know very much and i i also think that his and his physical report the one the medical summary they put out uh raises a lot of questions about how candid they are being uh with donald trump you just look at some some of the statistics in there and um the the thing about the the reason why we wrote this book me and jake tapper wrote this book is because uh it's not just about joe biden and that there have been cover-ups of presidential health

going back to George Washington. Right. And there will be another one without any sort of forcing mechanism to mandate required disclosures. Yeah. Well, there is a forcing mechanism to leave office, right? Nobody tried to invoke that. But the reason why I'm asking this is because the implications going forward for reporting. You guys have taken a lot of hits for like

when this has come forward, how it's come forward, what's the point of it coming forward now? What lessons are there for political reporters going into the next administration where it is only more combative in terms of getting information? - Well, I'd say in terms of the timing, I understand the critique. I had been very aggressive in reporting on this particular topic.

you know, and Jake, you know, had been just an aggressive Biden reporter in general. You guys have become proxies for the bigger media conversation, right? That's why people are coming after this. And I understand, but the fact is that the Biden people, a lot of the people, were not willing to be candid. I mean, people that I... But I'm saying going forward, how should political reporters think about this stuff? In your mind, when you think of the lessons to be learned, is it...

"Hey, come out with your reporting as soon as you can, maybe more will come out." Is it, "Hey, like what is it when you have an inner circle in the White House that is reluctant, combative, reticent?" I mean, I think the reminder is that every White House, no matter which party is capable of lying, capable of deception, actually I think almost basically every White House lies. The degrees vary. But I think keeping that skepticism of power, I think is like an important lesson to keep in mind.

All right, Alex, thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate your time. I appreciate it. All right, you, of course, can get a copy of Original Sin. It is out now. Coming up on CNN this morning, the Sean Combs trial set to resume. A former assistant who once reportedly dubbed Diddy the devil is about to take the stand. Plus, is Vladimir Putin testing Trump? And if so, is President Trump flunking?

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Good morning everyone, I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN This Morning. It is 31 minutes past the hour and here's what's happening right now.

Dozens of people are injured after a car plowed through a parade celebrating Liverpool Football Club. A man was arrested at the scene. Police are calling this an isolated incident. They're not investigating it as an act of terrorism. And in just a few hours, court resumes in the trial against music mogul Sean Combs after a four-day weekend. Today, Diddy's former director of marketing and members of the LAPD are expected to take the stand.

And Russia continues its bombardment on Ukraine. At least two people are dead and over dozens of others injured after several aerial attacks all across the country. Ukraine says they intercepted 43 drones overnight, while Russia claims to have shot down 99 Ukrainian drones.

These latest attacks come just days after President Trump called Vladimir Putin absolutely crazy after Russia launched one of its largest air assaults on record against Ukraine. The Kremlin downplaying Trump's comments, but it does leave the question about what the global fallout will be now that we're seeing a shift in Trump's relationship with Putin.

This morning's latest CNN analysis by Stephen Collinson hits on that issue. He writes, quote, when it comes to ending the war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump's statements and social media posts have become meaningless. Receding chances for a ceasefire and peace deal soon will depend instead on whether he finally finds the steel to reinforce his rhetorical lashing of President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin is betting that he won't. Joining me now to discuss this, CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier. Welcome back. You're always helpful in explaining this. So I think for the longest time there were doubts about whether Putin was serious. How have you come to look at it? Is he playing Trump? Is he just doing his regular stalling for time? Is the Kremlin mocking the White House at this point?

- Well, the Kremlin official who said that Trump was just getting emotional with his tweet over the weekend, that's definitely mocking him. When you ask Ukrainians and Europeans, why won't Trump do something that might anger Putin?

the only conclusion they can come to is that he must be afraid, that he's afraid of Putin's nuclear weapon capability the same way Biden was afraid and risk-averse of taking any action. What they're looking for is, Germany just lifted its limits on long-range weapons. It said to Ukraine, you can use our Taurus missiles to hit

Russian command and control nodes inside Russia, Russian security lines. - Which was a very big deal. It was a big deal when the US did it, right? Under the Biden administration, because it was a sign of escalation. - In a limited fashion. - In a limited fashion. But I think it's significant because at the time, I think Putin and Russia, their take was, if a nuclear power gives you guys the ability to send missiles over here, we're gonna take that as a threat and act of war. - But what Trump hasn't done is

go ahead with more sanctions. Go ahead with something that's a little bit more than symbolic, more than the six some odd tweets that he's done angrily at Putin. - You can't tweet your way through peace talks? - That's not stopping Putin. - No, okay, and Senator Grassley of Iowa, he posted this yesterday on X saying, "I've had enough of Putin killing innocent people. "President Trump, take action, at least sanctions." Trump's saying he's considering it.

Now, I wasn't clear whether we were sanctioned out when it came to Russia. Like, have we reached the max point? Is there more to be done? What would it look like? What the Lindsey Graham bill would do would sanction India,

China, anyone, Europe, anyone who's still buying oil from Russia, oil, uranium, et cetera. So it wouldn't sanction Russia as much as you could sanction the people that are still relying on Russia's supplies because any money going into Russia feeds into the war machine. Still,

Russia finds way around a lot of these sanctions. Sanctions are painful for about six months. Has the tariff situation made it worse? The U.S. tariffs around the world? I mean, it's sort of forced everyone to go looking for other partners. It has, but I mean more in terms of informal trading or China, North Korea, etc., providing avenues for Russia to import, etc. But

the symbolism would be enough to, I just visited Ukrainian troops close to the front, and they are watching everything that Trump says. And on Ukrainian message boards where they post news of the latest things that Trump has said, like the tweet over the weekend, there were a bunch of emojis of people, you know, with their flames, angry faces, heads exploding, because they're like, why doesn't he get that no matter what,

Putin promises him every night we're getting sirens, missiles, something like a thousand missiles and drones were fired over the weekend. One of the most vicious assaults since the start of the 2022 full invasion. And at the front, there are Russian troops gathering that look like they're preparing for a summer offensive, trying to break through in places like this. A summer offensive. A summer offensive while the weather permits.

And on the front line, they're doing this drone back and forth. Each one makes better and better drones. And then the other has to try to outwit them. And the troops I spoke to said, look, if you would just keep supplying us weapons, we're not asking you to die for us. Please tell Trump we're willing to fight. And, you know, that's the message that Zelensky keeps giving. But

Trump gets angry that Zelensky is trying to call him on his silence and inadequacy when it comes to stopping Putin. But I appreciate you saying that it's not Zelensky on his own just being a big personality. There are people on the front lines who their lives are at stake in this situation. All right, Kim Dozier, thank you. As always, Kim is our global affairs analyst.

Okay, so why? That's the question authorities in Liverpool, England are trying to answer this morning after a driver plowed their car into a parade for the city's football club. Hundreds of soccer fans had filled the streets Monday when a gray minivan drove into the crowd, left dozens of people hurt. Police say they've arrested a man believed to be the driver. Authorities have also ruled out terrorism. Liverpool City Council leaders said in a post on X the situation, quote,

has cast a very dark shadow over what had been a joyous day. CNN's Nick Robertson joins us live from the scene. Nick, can you tell us the latest on the investigation? Yeah, forensic teams are still working in the street behind me, behind that large police truck, and I just step out of the way. There is an inflated forensics tent, if you will, and that tent is erected over that vehicle, a people carrier, Ford Galaxy as it's known here, people carrier vehicle.

that careened down the street. Hundreds of thousands of Liverpool soccer fans were out celebrating their Premier League win. It's the second time they'd won. The last time they won was during the COVID era, the era they hadn't been able to come out. This was a huge deal for this soccer mad city to come out and celebrate their team's victory. And it did turn to an awful tragedy when this incident happened. I spoke with

the Liverpool City Regional Mayor Steve Rotherham just about an hour ago here and I asked him what's coming next in this investigation.

"The police will conclude their investigation shortly and then of course this road will be opened and then they'll make a statement or there'll be a press conference in which they will ensure that all the facts are known and it's not for people on social media to be speculating what happened. The police are the only people who have all of that information at hand and they're the people that we should trust."

And the very latest information was given last night by the ambulance service, by the police, by the fire service. The ambulance service saying that there were 27 people injured taken to hospital, 20 people injured treated in the street. Four of those

injured and taken to hospital, seriously injured. One of those seriously injured is a child, four other children, four children total injured. It's still not clear what caused this. The forensic team's just watching them here, carrying another bag of possible evidence there.

back into the scene. So this is still an active situation here as the police try to figure out what caused this 53-year-old white British male from this area to drive into the crowd. That's Nick Robertson reporting from Liverpool today. Thank you.

Now, on a day when many Americans were honoring fallen heroes, President Trump went on an angry tirade against his political rivals and perceived enemies, lashing out on Truth Social, wishing to begin a happy Memorial Day to, quote, the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country. A few hours later, he delivered more traditional remarks at Arlington National Cemetery, paying tribute to all who have made the ultimate sacrifice, managing still to get in a few digs.

Their valor gave us the freest, greatest, and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth. A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through. The group chat is back. You know what's harder? Being in a war. Which is what we were supposed to be talking about on that day.

Who wants to start in the group chat? This is one of those things where you just post the link and just let emojis happen. Can I start with one thing very basic? I've been dealing with politicians and Memorial Day for a long time. I work for VoteVets, a great veterans organization. And the first thing for all of you politicians out there, Memorial Day is a day to remember fallen heroes. You never, ever are supposed to say happy Memorial Day to anyone. For all of you folks out there thinking about how you should actually post about Memorial Day, it's a day of remembrance of folks who actually had the ultimate sacrifice. And not maybe make yourselves the hero.

Right. In the story. Usually I'm not so strident, but it's just sort of like, this is why we can't have nice things. No, it's a... I mean, it's tough. I don't really have anything to say except that, you know, it's...

I think that's probably not the right thing. Hard to imagine anyone else replicating is Trump's ability to both brag about how great the country's doing in a speech while also reflecting back and saying, well, all the bad things that are happening are because of Joe Biden's fault. And you wonder if this two-step is something that he does in his speech at the top where he talks about, oh, it's a great time to be here in the United States. Things are going great. But also, we went through this terrible four years.

And I wonder how long can that actually go on for with Trump? I mean, for the next, how many speeches can he say? Well, I mean, with this conversation about Biden's health for a very long time, frankly. Yeah, you're exactly right, though. And I think everyone would agree. The president loves our country and he loves our military. And that I think if he would have stuck to that message, because I don't think there's anyone Republican or Democrat independent that believes he doesn't.

So he should have probably stepped to that message. I want to mention one more thing. Military parade. It's going to be the 250th anniversary of the army. That is coming up. Also falls on Trump's birthday. So here is his plan for that. We're going to have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years. In some ways, I'm glad I missed that second term where it was because I wouldn't be your president.

For that most important of all, in addition, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years and now look what I have. I have everything. Amazing the way things work out.

that anniversary will be significant. And now it's gonna have different connotations. - Absolutely, and putting a political lens on everything like I normally do, there's a midterm elections coming up. And let me say this, is that most folks, most regular folks are out there just trying to figure out how to make it every day. This is not gonna be the centerpiece of why they love or hate either one of the parties, but folks that are tuned in, folks that watch this every day, who understand the meaning of what 250 years should mean to our great country, they're gonna show up in midterms because they show up in every midterm.

low information folks that are working. They don't always show up to vote, the ones who aren't tuned in. That's why I think this has a really- I guess my question is, can these events be seen as patriotic moments of unification if this is how they're framed? Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to have that feeling in this country regardless because you have a president who at speeches where you're supposed to just kind of be

anyone could be doing it, a Republican, a Democrat. The speech was basically the same for presidents for year to year. But with him, it's clearly political. He even says at the top of his speech, I'm not going to get into all that. I was referencing politics. But then he immediately gets into it because he can't really help himself. And if that's the same thing. He only knows grievance because that's what got him elected. That's his safe place. But people want the celebratory, patriotic moments. They do want them.

And we live in Washington. I mean, we've seen some of these military celebrations before. Not this one, but they're really amazing just to watch. But listen, no matter what he does, he's going to get criticized. He obviously doesn't help himself all the time.

But I mean, hopefully it does bring the country together. Hopefully it is patriotic. - For anybody who's ever been to a baseball game or a football game, when those jets fly over after the national anthem, it moves everybody. - Well, this is coming up in a few weeks, so you guys stay right here. There's a lot more to talk about next on CNN This Morning as graduation week begins.

The president has a new plan for the grant money at Harvard, who he wants those billions of dollars to go to instead. Plus the shove scene around the world, why France's president is dismissing this viral clip. More from the group chat after this.

In just a few hours, the trial for rap mogul Sean Diddy Combs resumes in New York. Jurors got a four-day break from the case over the Memorial Day weekend, with week three of the trial starting today. On the stand, we're expected to hear from a former employee in Combs' company, Capricorn Clark, a former executive on his record label. We'll also hear from members of the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments,

Joining me now to discuss Elise Adamson, a former federal prosecutor and host of the At Least You Heard It Here podcast, best name for a podcast. Okay, so last week we were talking a lot about rapper Kid Cudi and the arson charge against Sean Combs because of the allegations that Combs had his car firebombed, Molotov cocktail, you decide. Today we're now gonna have Capricorn Clark

Who is this person and why are they important to the prosecution in their attempt to prove that Combs was leading a criminal enterprise? Yeah, I think Capricorn Clark is a potentially very significant witness. As you just said, she was an employee of Combs.

And remember, there is a RICO charged here. We were just talking. We want to remind folks that this is a RICO case at the end of the day. And to prove RICO, they have to prove that Combs was acting as part of a corrupt enterprise and that he was directing employees and associates. And there was some kind of it's a RICO conspiracy. So there was some kind of agreement to commit this pattern of racketeering activities.

And up to this point, we hadn't heard a lot about these employees in Combs' sphere of influence. Capricorn Clark could change that. We had low-level employees before, but now she is the individual who allegedly drove Combs to Kid Cudi's house during that break-in in December of 2022. - And Kid Cudi actually mentioned this. He said Clark called him and described the call this way.

He talked about this on the stand. He said she was very scared, sounded like she was on the verge of tears. He went on to say Clark had called him to say, quote, that Sean Combs and an affiliate were in my house and she was in a car and she was forced to go along with them over there.

Yeah. Now, it's interesting. That's her testimony. Yes, exactly. The force aspect of it, because, of course, for an agreement, you need to be doing this voluntarily. They need to be part of the enterprise. And so we need to hear more about this. What do you mean you were forced now? Interestingly enough, in September of 2024, the government filed a detention memo to keep Sean Combs in jail. You may recall this. There was a little bit more color about this incident, this break-in incident there. It alleged that

Combs had taken somebody by gunpoint to gain access to Cuddy's house. So, you know, it would be interesting to hear from Clark. Who is that person held by gunpoint? Is that why she felt scared? When did she agree to do this? Because they need to be participating. So we're in the week where we're going to hear less about freak-offs, right, and more like police reports, the fire department. Like, it's going to be less sort of explosive pop culture and more of this nitty-gritty at this point when we talk about the LAPD testifying.

Yeah, I think so. I think you're going to be hearing the building blocks of the case. The testimony we heard before was necessary because it set the stage. It explained the crimes that are being charged. But now prosecutors need to connect those dots. And you're absolutely right, Adi. They've got to enter in the nitty gritty. They've got to enter in the police reports, these break-ins, the arson. And they're going to have to find ways to start tying up this RICO. It's more than just

the offenses. It's the means of committing these offenses. It is actually proving the corrupt enterprise.

exciting for the jury, but very necessary for the prosecution. Okay. Elise, thank you so much for talking with us about this. I know you will be back. Unfortunately, Elise, former federal prosecutor, host of the At Least You Heard It Here podcast. Also want to note, CNN Audio has a podcast out this hosted by our own Laura Coates. Diddy by jury. Thanks so much. So it is now 53 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Three more inmates who busted out of that New Orleans jail have been arrested. Police say one was caught sitting on a bench in Baton Rouge and another two were captured after a high speed chase over 300 miles away in Texas. In addition, police arrested six more people Monday accused of helping them. Two inmates are still on the run.

And is this a shove? This video going viral showing French President Emmanuel Macron's wife pushing his face away as they were getting off a plane in Vietnam. It sparked a lot of speculation online. Macron addressed it saying they were joking and teasing.

Superstar WNBA player Kaitlyn Clark out for at least two weeks with a quad injury. The Indiana Fever announced she will miss at least four games, including two commissioners cups games.

And President Trump escalating his fight with Harvard on Truth Social. He says he's considering taking $3 billion of grant money from the university and, quote, giving it to trade schools all across our land. The president has been railing against the Ivy League school for weeks now. In the latest move, his administration banned the university from enrolling international students, nearly 30 percent of the student body.

We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which we're probably not going to be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. I'm not going to have a problem with foreign students. But it shouldn't be 31%. It's too much because we have Americans that want to go there and to other places. And they can't go there because you have 31% foreign.

The group chat is back. All right, you guys, one thing I want to ask about this and his targeting of universities is a lot of people are aligning this with his targeting of any other kind of independent entities, whether they be boards, whether they be law firms. Congressman Jamie Raskin, he's a Democrat, of course. He explained why he thinks Trump is targeting universities.

This is what authoritarians do all over the world. You can look at Orban in Hungary, Putin in Russia. They go after the press. They go after the universities. They go after law firms. They go after civil society. Anybody who conceivably could present any obstacle to their total domination of society. Ashley, can I start with you? Yeah, I was just thinking, I usually don't agree with him, with Jamie Raskin. I would say that...

Harvard's fighting back and Trump's gonna continue to go after them the more they fight back. And I think that some of the other universities that have been in the crosshairs of Republicans in general, Columbia, Penn, MIT, you can go through the list,

they have been having discussions with the president and the escalation of the tension has gone down but this is going to go tit for tat for ever as long as harvard fights back i mean i don't agree with raskin what's surprising is that they're talking with the president they're not talking with each other that's very authoritarian the idea that in order to avoid the president of the united states doing potentially unlawful actions just clearly retaliatory actions based on cultural disagreements or political disagreements that you should

to avoid punishment from the president, I mean, that's authoritarian. I think that is actually argument. You're saying pre-capitulates when people may say you're having an honest discussion to see what could happen differently. Remember what he's going after, anti-Semitism. Sorry, is it anti-Semitic to send Israeli students back to Israel rather than studying in America? I don't know. I'll say this, is that the whole fight is stupid, but it's a great...

fight for him politically. Again, there's nothing that says elite privilege more than Harvard, and that's just not taking a side on this. Why are Democrats struggling so much to counter it? And I understand. One thing about talking about authoritarianism, very real concern, especially with certain actions.

Also, Anne, Democrats have been talking so long about him as a threat to democracy, I feel like maybe it's becoming noise to the public. - Let's start with most Americans don't know what authoritarianism is. - Right. - All right, and we have lost connection. - So what's an effective counter? You're about to go into midterms. How do you talk about this? - The rich against the poor.

the elites against the non-elites. We've quit talking to working people and that's why we've lost the connection that we used to have with them when I joined this party. We gotta go back to the basics and admit we've done some things wrong, but say we wanna recenter this party around workers and the good things about working families. Trade school's conversation is so good to everybody else. And I'm a big proponent of trade school. That's good for him. No, there's a lot of people talking about the trade school thing.

I think in the short term, yes, it can be politically helpful to say, to pretend like this money is, oh, instead of Harvard, it's going to go to these trade schools when we know this is not actually a real trade-off. But in the long term, there are actual legitimate consequences for everyday Americans.

Reducing innovation, reducing scientific breakthroughs, when you see fewer medical trials and people who have cancer are not able to access those trials, they're not able to access new services, that's gonna have real serious impact on people's lives. So while people may not really resonate with talk about democracy and authoritarianism, when it becomes very concrete, when it becomes very clear that these impacts are gonna have real harms on their children's lives and the ability to flourish, that's gonna be a problem. - I think often about JD Vance,

and some others quoting Nixon saying the universities are the enemy. And it feels very much like conservatives and Republicans have finally reached the point where they could kind of make good on that approach. Yeah, and remember what made Elise Stefanik go viral initially was her attack on the college presidents over some of this elitism and anti-Semitism. So, I mean, there

There is a base there. There is. What will be interesting to see is over time whether the anti-Semitism conversation gets decoupled from this debate because it's so broad. The attacks are so broad. The remedies that they're offering are so broad. The Republicans this week kicked 13 million people off of health care and they're going to be the working class party? That's part of it. I can't say it right. Group chat, thank you for waking up with us.

And thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now. Take a journey with your favorite stars to their favorite places in the new CNN original series, My Happy Place. Join Alan Cumming, Taraji P. Henson, Simu Liu, and more. A new episode of My Happy Place premieres Sunday at 10 on CNN.