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It is Friday, May 16th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Somebody's going to be taking the credit for this. You remember, press. This guy did it.
President Trump's moves in the Middle East, big business deals, no peace pacts, at least not yet. As he heads home, was it a success? Then, freak-offs and baby oil, that's what we've heard so much about. But there's a charge against Sean Diddy Combs that could cost him his whole empire if he's convicted. And... People's roofs are getting blown off, houses are collapsing. Multiple tornadoes sweep through the Midwest, flattening homes. The risk is not over yet.
And this, everyone is talking about it, Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordan Hudson. What started as tabloid fodder now turning into something bigger.
It is 6:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House as President Trump prepares to head home from the Middle East. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. Now, President Donald Trump is about to depart that trip to the Middle East. He just arrived at the airport in Abu Dhabi where he's going to board Air Force One, and that's going to end his three-country tour. He started his final day with another business roundtable.
where he touted the future investment deals he signed this week. They'll say, I did that. And everyone will say, but somebody's going to be cutting a ribbon. Well, we're going to be finished long before that. Somebody's going to be taking the credit for this. You remember, press, this guy did it.
So the president seemed to feel right at home. He was greeting royal families and business leaders across the region. He also made a flurry of announcements, which in some cases upended decades of U.S. foreign policy. I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone. I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness. We'd like to see if we could solve the Iran problem.
in an intelligent way as opposed to a brutal way. Far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice.
Joining me now in the group chat, Isaac Dover, CNN senior reporter, Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at The Daily Signal, and Antoine Seawright, Democratic strategist. Welcome, you guys. Happy Friday. Okay, this trip has wrapped up, and it's got a couple deals, right? Like, at least in memorandum, military cooperation agreement, $600 billion investment.
when it comes to Syria vowing to lift US sanctions, which obviously is a major reversal of the last decade or so. And then this Boeing order with Qatar. So we have talked so much about Trump using deals as his foreign policy in places where it feels uncomfortable. Ukraine, minerals deal, Gaza, resorts. But here it feels like maybe it worked.
Well, we don't truly know yet. We have announcements of deals. I think we have a long tradition in American foreign policy and in Donald Trump's presidency of things being announced that don't actually come to be. We'll see.
but there's a lot of money that's being talked about, a lot of investment. It could lead to a lot of jobs and a lot of economic development. Yeah, you know, I want to play a clip of him from earlier in the week when he was basically setting the table for like, here's how I want to approach things in terms of leadership in the Middle East and sort of how the U.S. looks at it.
Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos, where it exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence.
it feels like all these years after 9 11 we have arrived right at a very different position for the us we certainly have and and for the republican party and a republican president to say that is is certainly a break from the past and so i think regardless of where you are in the political spectrum hopefully you will want peace in the middle east i mean after thousands of years of fighting what donald trump is trying to do here is significant now
As Isaac said, I mean, this is going to need to materialize over the course of the coming months. There's a lot of work to do. Obviously, Israel's a key component here, and they weren't involved in some of these conversations that were taking place, Adi. And so a somewhat risky move on the part of Trump.
but at the end of the day it could really play out well in his favor. But I think even seeing how it plays against things that he's said already. Now, this week he says we're going to have a freedom zone in Gaza. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I don't know that he's made clear what that means. A couple months ago he was talking about America taking over Gaza.
Well, that's the challenge with Trump. He speaks in the headline. And so we very seldom get details about what it actually means. And as we say down south, the devil is often in the details. And sometimes when we find out the details and how it impacts this country, our country, and from a long-term perspective, it does not work out on our behalf. And then we spend decades and years trying to redo in a more healthy way what Donald Trump
has undone in many ways. What's interesting about that point is he also did some deals around AI. And there are some people who are saying, well, wait a second, are you kind of giving away the store here in terms of an industry that the U.S. is trying to grow? The other thing I want to mention is the idea that the Arab nations had something to gain here, right? They want to be involved
in whatever Iran deal comes next. Do you think this has laid the groundwork for any of that? - Well, we don't know. The challenge is with this trip, and I think all of the things we're learning about this trip is he's making this about Donald Trump.
not about the United States of America. And I think that's where you get, in many cases, Republicans quietly saying, wait a minute, let's slow down. We don't know if that will work. And then Democrats, you give them an opportunity to really highlight the challenges of the Trump presidency. When it comes to Iran, I think one of the important things is that
moving quickly and we know that every day that passes Iran is getting closer to building those nuclear weapons and so we want to have quick resolution to that issue. I think the other thing is there are implications here for Russia and Ukraine because if you bring down the cost of oil that takes away some leverage that Vladimir Putin then has in terms of bringing in more resources to Russia. Yeah, never mind that they are also trying to outfox and outmaneuver China in the region which previously had this kind of
We're actually looking at the airport in Abu Dhabi right now because the president is expected to be heading home. Group chat, stay with me. We're going to keep an eye on that door. And we've also got a lot to talk about coming up on CNN this morning. Peace talks, as we mentioned today, between Russia and Ukraine, why President Trump doesn't think anything will come of it.
A date has been set when the Menendez brothers could find out if they will walk free. And what's the plan to fix delays and cancellations at Newark? This problem is so big, the FAA and the airlines are having to meet for three days straight. The Denver airport was recently hit with an outage and some pilots couldn't contact air traffic control for six minutes. Meanwhile, Newark airport was like, six minutes? Please call us when you hit six days. She's made up her mind.
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Today, star witness Cassie Ventura will face another day of cross-examination by Sean Diddy Combs' legal team. She was on the stand for more than five hours yesterday answering questions about their texts, their sexual relationship, and jealousies. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the key takeaways from her testimony.
Each character and each actor that came into the project brought their own thing to the table. A 21-year-old Cassie Ventura in 2008 promoting the film Step Up 2. Oh my gosh, it was an overwhelming experience but exciting all at the same time. During day one of cross-examination, she was asked about her budding relationship and emails with Sean Combs from that same year. When Combs said, "I love you, I miss you, can't wait to hold you,"
Ventura responded, I'm a very lucky woman. I miss you so much. I'd fly wherever you needed me. The defense building its case that Ventura was a willing participant and enjoyed the so-called freak offs or long drug fueled sex sessions involving male escorts, she says, were orchestrated by Combs.
In 2009, when Combs messaged asking if she wanted to freak off, Ventura replied, I'm always ready to freak off, lol. I just want it to be uncontrollable, Ventura said, referring to sex with the escort. I can't wait. That's why I want to see, Combs responded. Later that year, when Combs emailed, I want to be nasty for you, Ventura replied, in order for me to be more open with the
Things we do in bed, I need to feel safe, like home.
This is my husband and this is the only man that will ever have this aggressive sexual side of me. When asked by the defense if this showed open communication between the two, Ventura said, I would say. But the prosecution says this video from 2016 showing Combs assaulting Ventura as she says she tried to flee a freak off proves the relationship devolved into abuse and control.
Still, a year after that assault, the defense noted Ventura sent this to Combs in 2017. I love our freak-offs when we both want it.
Ventura saying on the stand that the text was just words at that point, echoing her previous testimony of feeling trapped and afraid of Combs' rages. The defense also argued that jealousy played a role in the volatile relationship, with Ventura writing, I'm nervous that I'm just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off of, and that's it.
I just miss Kim, y'all. You know what I'm saying? Combs' time with the late Kim Porter, the mother of four of his children, and other women also came up. Ventura testifying, she has some jealousy of Miss Porter because Combs would spend holidays with her even though they had split up. Their fights over infidelity were a little scary, she said.
In 2011, she dated rapper Kid Cudi while on a break from Combs. "I thought it would be way too dangerous to tell him about that," she said. But Combs lunged at her, she says, after finding Kid Cudi's name in her phone during a freak-off, which still went on during breaks in their relationship because "it was a job," Ventura said.
Now, there was actually a heated moment in court when the judge reprimanded the defense essentially for taking too long with their cross-examination. The judge said that there was a prearrangement of sorts that Cassie Ventura would be done with her testimony by end of this week. The reason? Well, she's pregnant, and she's very pregnant. Cassie Ventura can literally go into labor any day now. So the judge said that by end of day Friday,
cross-examination and redirect from the prosecution has to be wrapped up. Now, Combs' defense said she is the most critical witness and this is a very important case. Their client, of course, is facing life in prison if convicted. Back to you.
Thanks so much, Elizabeth. And we're going to be keeping an eye on this. Of course, we're going to be talking more about some of the legal issues at play. Now, straight ahead on CNN this morning, what will the Supreme Court decide? The conservative justice that could be the key vote when it comes to the court's ability to limit the president's power. Plus, they're the new it couple of the moment. But has all the talk about Bill Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordan Hudson, become too much of a distraction?
And we're monitoring New Jersey transit workers on strike right now. They hit the picket line overnight, snarling morning commutes for hundreds of thousands of people. Every piece of Bill Belichick business goes through her. It's still age-wise a little creepy, but in college football, old Bill needs this. Bill Belichick's yums. I am not here to yuck any of them.
Okay, I want to go off script for a moment and dig deeper into what you just heard there, because why? 73-year-old Bill Belichick, of course, one of the most storied coaches in football history, and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Jordan Hudson. It's not like we haven't seen a relationship like this before. I don't totally get why it's generating so much interest in the sports world, but I do know it was kicked off by this CBS interview.
Never been too worried about what everybody else thinks. Just try to do what I feel like is best for me and what's right. How did you guys meet? Not talking about this. No? No. So the college football season starts in a few months, and now there are questions about how involved she might be in his new coaching gig at UNC. That's, you know, really off to the side. It's a personal relationship, and she doesn't have anything to do with UNC football.
Okay, is it just tabloid fodder or are there legitimate concerns about professional boundaries, public perception? I know the person to help me figure it out, a CNN contributor, Carrie Champion, who woke up super early to talk to us here on CNN this morning. Okay, so...
People have this perception of the coach as like stoic and dominating and here is this relationship somehow rocking that perception. Why? Why has it been so easy?
Well, I think for so long, Bill Belichick, anybody who knows anything about his coaching legacy and or his time with the New England Patriots knows he's a very stoic, serious coach. And his legacy, for lack of a better word for me to use here, was already written in stone in so many ways. So the reason why people are so concerned, I think, and fascinated, obviously, the 50 year age difference is significant.
pretty significant but the way in which bill belichick is comporting himself now than what we've actually seen over the history of his career is very different he's there's pictures of him frolicking he's on the beach he's doing yoga he's joining social media um and this this girlfriend of his um seems to have um control over how he is moving in a space that seems just so
rare to her, but yet familiar to him. This is the guy that told Tom Brady, we don't need you anymore, Tom. And now this young 22, three, four year old, we're all guessing, um, has in some way worked her way into his life and seems to be controlling him. And it's just fascinating for us to see in real time. Yeah. I mean, she's, she's 24. She's an adult. Um,
Is there some sexism at play here? I mean, there's something strange about this kind of like, what's the girlfriend up to? And all this like internet sleuthing about who she is and her intentions. Like he is a grown man, right? He's like at another level of his career.
- You're absolutely correct. You speak very, so much truth. It is truly none of our business, but Bill has, and as has Jordan, made it our business when we see her everywhere he is when it comes to his job. He's now the head coach at UNC and she's on the football field with him.
And some were hearing reports that they were like, can she not be in the facility? And then he comes out and says, well, that's just not true. He's starting to insert himself, herself into his professional life. So now it's become conversation. And you mentioned her age. Yes, she probably is 24. There have been reports of different ages because people don't really know. So and they've been very strict about how they met their business, not ours. But now people are saying that are close to Bill and within his camp. These are all just reported reports.
that they're concerned about him because they've never seen him act this way before. It's a May-December romance, but it really truly is impacting his coaching. I don't want to say his legacy. I'm going too far. But for a man who considers himself the most private, and we didn't know much about him for the better part of 40 years, we're all thinking in the sport world, how is this happening to Bill Belichick of all people? And again, you're right, Adi. It's
his prerogative, it's her prerogative. They can do whatever they want. But now it's starting to bleed over into his professional career. So that's why these questions are being asked. He's getting tips from players. Gronk, of course, who played for Bill Belichick, told people there is only one way to stop all this chatter. Bill has to produce. And I'm going to be tuning in and I want to see him win some games because if he wins some games, he'll shut everyone up. Not wrong. Yeah.
- Listen, this story is still evolving. If anything is true from what I am hearing, Pablo Tori, who works at, he's a really good friend of mine, a colleague, he is known for getting to the bottom of things. And Pablo Tori is reporting that he's hearing that UNC feels very, very unsafe with what's going on. They didn't pay for Bill Belichick and Jordan. They paid for Bill Belichick, put your head down, do your job.
June will be a date that everyone is looking for because there are real stories about perhaps will he even finish the year if she is so, so implanted in his workspace. People are concerned. She's there. She's making decisions. She's suggesting what he does, who he should talk to, how he should do media. All of that is a little disturbing for someone who just appeared on the scene and a man who's controlled his career for the better part of, for what we have seen, himself for all of this time.
All right, Carrie, thanks for explaining it. I'm still like, what? Leave this man alone. Carrie Champion, host of Naked Sports with Carrie Champion. Thank you for being with us.
Next on CNN this morning, say goodbye to some rollbacks for now. Walmart is getting ready to raise prices. So when is it going to hit your wallet? Plus, President Trump wrapping up his trip to the Middle East. But is there a conflict of interest for his AG over that luxury jet offer from Qatar? We'll discuss that and more when we lawyer up with Elliott Williams.
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This was a scary sight. This was a rain-wrapped tornado. I was coming towards Juneau at the time. I could not see it.
The Midwest rocked by tornadoes, leaving behind major damage in some small towns. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's 33 minutes past the hour, and here's what's happening right now. At least nine tornadoes reported in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trees are splintered. Roofs are ripped off. Thankfully, there are no major injuries reported. The risk, however, is not over. That same storm system now shifting to the south.
And today, Cassie Ventura is back on the stand to testify against her ex-boyfriend Sean Combs. Cross-examination will pick back up in just a few hours. The judge expects her testimony to wrap up today. President Trump is on Air Force One right now after his first major overseas trip of his second term. This morning, he met with business leaders in Abu Dhabi after his three-country tour.
Any moment now, Russia and Ukraine will sit down for talks in Turkey to try and end the war. Overnight, both countries accused each other of launching drone attacks. Neither president is there. Instead, they sent smaller delegations. I decided to send out delegation to Istanbul, but not all of them. The head of state security service and the chief of staff won't be there. The delegation will be led by the defense minister.
All right, so what's the state of play? President Trump doesn't think, doesn't agree with what Zelensky has to say. Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay? President Trump said he plans to meet with Putin as soon as they can set it up. Joining me to discuss is CNN correspondent Claire Sebastian. Claire, help us understand what's happening here.
Yeah, good morning, Woody. This is a real flurry of diplomacy that we're seeing today in Istanbul. We've already had two key meetings take place, the U.S., Ukraine and Turkey, this morning. And we understand that a meeting between the U.S. and Russia just wrapped up. This, though, was on a pretty low level. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Putin,
Medinsky, who is a presidential adviser and former culture minister, meeting with the State Department's director of policy planning, Michael Anton. So certainly not with Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, who we know to be here and who took part in the meeting earlier today. The next big event we think will be the sort of banner event of the day, the first direct talks between Russia
and Ukraine in three years but expectations are low to zero for any progress here not least because of the level of delegation that Russia in particular has sent this former culture minister and presidential advisor one of 10 deputy foreign ministers one of seven deputy defense ministers the head of the GRU its military intelligence agency none of these are cabinet level
None of them are decision makers. Ukraine is sending its defense minister, but it's making it clear that should not be read as a concession to Russia in any way. So I think the big question is, what will the U.S. do out of this? Will there be some kind of Trump-Putin meeting? The Kremlin this morning not ruling out that President Putin cryptically, it said, could have an international phone call this evening. So we don't know what to read into on that yet, but watching very closely. That's Claire Sebastian in Istanbul. Thank you so much.
So what will the Supreme Court decide when it comes to President Trump's plans to end birthright citizenship? Well, it's not so simple. So this case could have a lasting impact, not just on immigration policy, but in determining how far federal courts can go in checking any president, including Trump. So the key question, are lower courts too frequently shutting down President Trump's policies with too little review?
Your argument seems to turn our justice system, in my view at least, into a catch-me-if-you-can kind of regime from the standpoint where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people's rights. What do you say, though, to the suggestion, General, that in this particular case, those patchwork problems for, frankly, the government, as well as for plaintiffs, justify...
broader relief. Group chat is back to discuss. I'm just going to open it wide. Like, was there any, no, I mean, what's true? Because there's two issues, right? There's the birthright citizenship issue with lots of people are just like, this is a non-starter. Why are they pushing this, et cetera? And then there's this issue of
what is the process for challenging any given administration? What did you guys hear that struck you? Well, there's a conservative majority on the court, so there's always the possibility that those justices could decide that those who enter the country illegally are not automatically entitled to becoming U.S. citizens by their birth here. But the bigger issue, as you alluded to, Adi, is this question of nationwide injunctions. It wasn't long ago, just a few months ago, in fact, that the Biden administration
DOJ under Merrick Garland went to the Supreme Court and said that they wanted to put it into these nationwide injunctions. It is frustrating to presidents both on the Republican and Democrat side, but more so President Trump. But what I hear the justices actually arguing, the justices were saying, okay, well then what's the alternative?
Is it a class action suit? What's the system here? I think the two biggest takeaways I've seen so far is one, how the rule of law will prevail. And I think that's a big question. But two, I think justices are looking for a pathway to rule on the 14th Amendment. This conversation around this particular issue is not new to the high court. I think every president perhaps has had some sort of battle with this. But from a political standpoint, this is right where Donald Trump wants to be, arguing a very key issue
centerpiece for his political platform, every single time he's ran for president. And so at some point, he's gonna turn to make this a political issue and put pressure on this Supreme Court that's his majority. - Speaking of pressure, people are paying attention to Amy Coney Barrett, right? Because she's someone that they've determined maybe isn't as reliable as they had hoped. I don't think that's the case yet.
But here's a moment between Justice Barrett and Elena Kagan and the Solicitor General, of course, arguing for the government. And here's the line of questioning. There are all kinds of abuses of nationwide injunctions. But I think that the question that this case presents is that if one thinks that it's quite clear that the EO is illegal, how does one get to that result? In what time frame?
on your set of rules without the possibility of a nationwide injunction? On this case and on many similar cases, the appropriate way to do it is for there to be multiple lower courts considering it. Ultimately, this court decides the merits in a nationwide binding precedent. You have a complete inversion of that.
through the nationwide injunctions with the district. So, General Sauer, are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying there's no way to do this expeditiously? If there were a class appropriate for class certification, you concede that that could resolve the question quickly? Yes, absolutely. You concede it?
I'm going to translate a little. There's been this conversation about whether there can be kind of class action lawsuits, and that's the way people can get relief rather than going to a judge in any particular state. But it's the tone, right? Let's pretend we don't know the words, but the tone of her jumping in and saying, are you really going to do that? What did you hear in these moments? I would say that from years of watching or listening to Supreme Court proceedings and trying to guess where they're going, we should all learn that it's a tricky game.
uh... any coney barrett was put on supreme court by donald trump she as a uh... has a pretty strong record of voting in the way that one would expect a trump nominee to vote uh... and decisions she has
diverged a little bit, but not in this way that seems to me to validate this idea that she has completely left the Trump side. Or to your point, Antoine, that it's really about political pressure in a way, right? Saying like, hey, are you doing what you said you would do? All right, group chat, stick around. We've got a lot more to discuss, including the economy. For instance, for decades, Walmart's entire brand has centered around one thing,
We're rolling back prices, oh, I know I have a plan. Okay, we went back in the Wayback Machine for that, but the issue is low prices. Now the world's biggest retailer warning customers and stockholders that the president's tariffs may be changing that. We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible.
But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.
That warning from Walmart's CEO comes as we wait for another key economic report today on consumer sentiment. Now, for more on this, we are joined by Alison Morrow, senior writer for CNN Business. Alison, welcome back. First of all, what do you make of Walmart being the people to come out and say this? It makes sense to me because the low prices were undergirded by cheap products. But how much of a surprise is it to hear from the CEO?
I'm not sure if it's a huge surprise, but it shouldn't be a surprise because when you put tariffs on virtually all goods coming into the United States, that's going to cause prices to go up. I mean, it's really Econ 101. We warned that it was going to happen. Economists warned it was going to happen. And even Trump himself has said that the tariffs may cause some pain.
Whether that pain lasts or is more enduring, we'll have to see. But, you know, if Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, is hurting and saying we're going to raise prices and go against our fundamental business model of low prices, then everyone's hurting. I have to bring up the fact that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been suggesting something else for the last few days. Here's what he had to say.
So we do expect a 10% baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future. But don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays. The businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff. Alison, do we have a sense that consumers buy this argument? I don't think even consumers who didn't study economics buy this argument. You don't need a degree in economics to know that a tax...
A business can't absorb all of that tax. A tariff is a tax paid to the U.S. government. So the money has to come from somewhere and it either is going to come from the business, which we're already seeing in the early stages of this. Businesses are absorbing some of those costs as they try to figure out what their pricing strategy is going to be and how they're going to work around this. But also the consumer is going to bear some of the burden. And it's a question of how much and for how long.
And for today, we're going to find out in a few hours what they feel about it. Alison Morrow, senior writer for CNN Business, thank you for joining us. Still ahead on CNN this morning, did a former FBI director threaten the president? Why members of the administration are now calling for the arrest of James Comey? Plus, another day of meeting over the problems plaguing Newark's airport. Could a solution be on the way? And we'll have more from the group chat after this.
Coming up today, Cassie Ventura will once again take the stand for cross-examination in the case against her ex-boyfriend, rap mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Now, she was pressed on text messages she sent him about loving their freak-offs. She responded by saying, I would say that loving freak-offs were just words at that point. Ventura's lawyer spoke about her testimony outside court.
All right, because it's Friday, it's time to lawyer up with Elliott Williams. He's CNN's legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, and my friend, I guess, in crime. I want to start with this testimony because there's a...
People are making a big deal out of these texts, the timeline of these texts. But what's confusing for me is that the actual charges that I see from the Justice Department, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, racketeering conspiracy,
So why are we hearing about this woman's text messages from her early 20s? Well, it's a credibility question. It's, you know, the defense is attacking the extent to which she might have willingly or voluntarily participated in some of the acts with Sean Combs. Meaning you can't traffic some person if X. Who says they love something. Now, let me tell you a secret, Audie. She might have loved freak-offs.
That doesn't mean that she wasn't at some point coerced or forced or threatened into behaving in a way. We should step back because it's not just about the sex. To your point, it's racketeering. It's a series of criminal events under a big umbrella of Sean Cohn's running an enterprise that involves sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and tampering and so on. This is a big indictment, but certainly the defense here is trying to undermine her testimony with these text messages. It happens all the time.
But those two things can be true. Someone can have expressed support for something, but also have been forced to do it at another point. All right. And last one, last one. And that's the essence of coercion. People, you know, when controlled or pushed or forced often say things like that.
- Yeah, and we know they're also putting her on the stand fairly early because of her pregnancy. So there will be more witnesses who speak to this other issue, right? The enterprise, the world he controlled around him and how he did that. - Absolutely. - Maybe? - No, absolutely. - Okay. I wanna talk about something else just off of the president's trip. He's on the way back. But this issue of this jet as a gift from the Qatari's, here's why I wanted to bring it up because some lawyers at the Department of Justice
you know, say basically, we've cleared this. It's fine. There's this legal memo out there by Attorney General Pam Bondi endorsing it. She also has a background, though, in lobbying for some of these countries in the region. Can you talk about why this is more controversial than it looks? Yeah, absolutely. For her. For her. I mean, she...
was a foreign registered lobbyist for the Qatar government in a past life. Now, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked about this, led by Dick Durbin, asked about this at the time, saying, will you recuse if the Qatari government comes up at any point? She did not commit to recusing, but committed to consult with the career officials at DOJ if Qatar ever came up. Well, guess what? A lot of career officials at DOJ have been forced
fired since she took the job. So no one really, at least in the allegation to the Senate Judiciary Committee, really was a check on this and really questioning whether this was proper.
Lobbying for foreign governments is perfectly legal. She registered when she did it, but it always smells kind of weird when people do. One last thing. I want to mention David Souter, the former Supreme Court justice. He passed away this week at the age of 85. Joan Piskupic writes that Souter's record as a Republican appointee who turned left generated plenty of resentment and the mantra, no more Souters. Can you talk about how his legacy shapes not only the court, but like the process of choosing who ends up on it?
Oh, I think his legacy is a pivotal moment in the history of the Supreme Court because he really is the last surprise justice I think we will see in our lifetimes. He was appointed by a Republican president and also was put on to replace an unabashed liberal in William Brennan, whom he preceded. Now,
He ended up being a reliable liberal or at least left-leaning voice on the court despite having been a Republican his whole life. But at the time didn't have a paper trail. Didn't have a paper trail. Didn't have the speeches, didn't have the articles. And folks in New Hampshire where he was from assured President Bush, Father Bush, that
he'd be fine. He's one of us. He's okay. Well, he clearly was not. That will never, ever happen again. Right now, the court is so, or at least confirmations of the court are so polarized that, you know, when we talk about the court, there's the conservatives and the liberals, and they're kind of reliable in where they came from. It's just not going to happen again. And that I really do think was the big shift in modern history when that happened. All right, Elliot, as always, we tackle a lot in these minutes. Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.
Okay, it is now 53 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. The FAA meeting again today with major airlines. This is the third day in a row for those meetings and they're talking about all the problems at Newark's airport. The delays, the cancellations, blamed on air traffic control issues and runway construction. The Wall Street Journal spoke to one controller at Newark. I mean, it's an adrenaline rush and you have to, you play God because you cannot fail. You cannot make a mistake.
There are also equipment outages. CBS News obtained this video showing the moment the screens and air traffic control went blank and then came back online. And the Menendez brothers now have a parole hearing set for June 13th. It was originally scheduled as a clemency hearing, but a judge resentenced them this week, making them eligible for parole. The board has 120 days after the hearing to decide whether Eric and Lyle Menendez should go free.
Well, there's a new fastest growing city in the U.S., and it's a place you may not know, Princeton, Texas. It's a suburb of Dallas, and since 2020, it's doubled in size. That's according to the U.S. Census data. Texas is booming. It has four cities in the top five of the list.
And the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, says that former FBI director James Comey should be put in jail for an Instagram post he shared. So take a look at this and the now deleted photo that Comey posted. You can see a shell formation making out the numbers 86,
and 47. Now, some claim the 86 could refer to getting rid of something, and the 47 could be referring to President Trump as in the 47th president, but Comey says he didn't realize some people would associate violence with those numbers and that it never occurred to him. That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make, certainly within this context.
but especially coming from a guy who's the former director of the FBI, a guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of 86.
Now, either way you look at it, the post has become a flashpoint in an already heated political environment. The group chat is back to discuss. This is me literally looking at stones in the sand now and trying to define some sort of motivation. The Kristi Noem
Homeland Secretary wrote on Twitter that the administration is investigating the threat and will respond appropriately. Kash Patel saying the current FBI will provide all necessary support. This feels like a lot, but I want you guys to check me.
Two weeks ago, I was in New Hampshire with J.B. Pritzker, and he called for mass demonstrations and said, Republicans shouldn't know a moment's peace. I tweeted a video of that, and very quickly, people like Donald Trump Jr. and others said that this was calling for another assassination of the president. We're going a little bit far, it would seem like, with some of this stuff. On the other hand, the political...
rhetoric has obviously gotten more and more violent over time. Even Donald Trump, right? This was him last November. To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don't mind that so much because I don't mind, I don't mind. There's a question of how much we're just putting these violent thoughts into the ether. It's not that I think they're not violent, but I also think, like,
Comey is probably the least effectual sort of political voice in the space right now for Democrats or Republicans. What is the threat here? Well, I'm not an offender of James Comey by any chance. See? He said, "That's what I'm saying." By any chance. But what I will say is that it's easy for someone to find a boogeyman to be a distraction. Both Patel and the secretary have a need to have distractions
because of the challenges they're facing in their current roles. And so I think this is just one example of what they're willing to do. And quite frankly, I don't think Republicans need to lecture America about threats and violence because they have their history of that. - Or, yeah, Robbins is beneath them.
the reason that I think you saw the reaction among so many Republicans and conservatives is because of the assassination attempts on President Trump last year and the belief that those have not been fully investigated. We still have some unanswered questions that there's a, there's a perception and a belief that many in the news media just simply didn't give it the attention because it was against Donald Trump versus someone else. But the sea rocks in the sand. It feels goofy. The whole thing is, is goofy. I don't know why he posted it to be.
- Yeah, like it just is-- - When I worked in a restaurant as a waiter at one point, we would talk about 86ing the specials, right? Like it's not always like shooting something, right? Now you can interpret it that way and certainly with the assassination attempt there, it changes all of it.
It is definitely trying to make this an issue. Okay. It's a distraction. Lightning round on what you're keeping an eye on. Antoine? The budget and whether or not Republicans will be able to pass it. The devil's in the details. Whether we'll be able to pass it because they're upside down when it comes to public opinion on every single element. We talk about $200 billion tax cuts for the wealthy.
uh... millions of americans were going to uh... you have to watch to see if republicans will downhill for and whether trouble when yeah from yeah i think i had a pope leo's inaugural mass vice president vance and secretary of state ruby i will be there and to our last comment the pope came out this weekend said let's tone down the rhetoric it's so maybe some lessons to learn absolutely as they were seeing a lot of renewed attention to joe biden's uh... cognitive state that i have a good question that i really need a half
And I think that one of the things that this may lead to is thinking about Donald Trump's cognitive state, which has always been a question that has been bat around. Just a couple hours ago, he was talking about
one of the buildings, a stadium in Queens, and he said, oh, is that where the Olympics are going to be? He's talking about the World Cup. There are these little things. Or when he had the moment where he said that the tattoos were real. But it's creating a dynamic right now for older politicians that becomes an issue. Well, we'll see if it develops in that direction. I'm curious, too. I want to thank you to the group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish, and CNN News Central starts right now.
This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. The rise of buy now, pay later services or BNPLs. The idea is this. Instead of using traditional credit or debit to pay for your new sweater or TV or even your DoorDash order, you can break it up. And sometimes those payments happen every few weeks, sometimes once a month. And it's clear we're not sure how to feel about it. Is this a dangerous fad or a smarter, healthier form of credit?
Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.