Trump Verdict Watch, Alito Won't Recuse, Family Carjacked
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Join me for the latest trends and innovations, making investing in the Middle East more attractive. Marketplace Middle East, Saturday on CNN. This is CNN. More people get their news from CNN than any other news source. It's Thursday, May 30th right now on CNN This Morning Verdict Watch. The Trump hush money jury back to work today and asking for another look at some key evidence. Plus.

Justice Samuel Alito defiant, refusing to recuse himself from January 6th related cases. And... I threw my hands up, I'm like, hey, hey, hey, hey. And he just pulled me down. A family carjacked in their own driveway and it's all caught on a doorbell camera. That's terrifying. And Elon Musk, White House advisor, what might happen if Donald Trump wins in November?

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. Live look at New York City on this Thursday morning. Pretty cloudy there as those jurors get underway with their work. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It is wonderful to have you with us. Jury deliberations about to resume in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial. And we're getting a better feel for what those seven men and five women are focusing on and how the former president may be preparing or maybe he's just preparing his

supporters for a bad outcome after deliberating for more than four hours on Wednesday the jury is now reviewing four pieces of testimony they requested Michael Cohen and National Enquirer chief David Packers descriptions up and August 2015 Trump Tower meeting Packers phone call with Trump in June 2016 about former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and Packers testimony about not finalizing Trump's payment to the National Enquirer's parent company for McDougal's life rights

Jurors also asked to re-hear a portion of Judge Marchand's instructions. Trump seemed to be trying to lower expectations about the pending verdict. Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged. It's a disgrace. And I mean that. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we'll see. We'll see how we do.

Okay, joining me now to discuss former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst, L.A. Williams, Tara Palmieri, is senior political correspondent for Puck, Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Guys, Mother Teresa, we've hit Mother Teresa territory with this president. I mean, they're also, you know, hammering this in a memo out this morning from

at chris la savita and susie wiles which tells me this is a kind of a focused political strategy more than uh... a legal one and but ellie let's start with what we are going to go in here from the jury later on today are here in court the jury is going to rehearse it's a in court later today the threat that seems to tie these things together for me

Donald Trump's involvement and knowledge of what went on. And it's great of you to say the "for me" portion of that because there are things that lawyers might focus on and things that the viewing public that's not lawyers might focus on. And as a smart consumer of news, you know, that's an important question for you to ask. No, it's absolutely the question of intent. And back to this August 2015 meeting. To be clear,

Donald Trump is charged with falsifying business records in the first degree, which requires falsifying business records to conceal or aid in another crime. That other crime here either being campaign law violations or tax violations. In order to prove any of that, you have to prove that Donald Trump was at the center of it, knew it, put it in motion, or actually, you know,

engaged in the act himself. This August 2015 meeting is critical to that for prosecutors because there, Donald Trump is said to have spoken with Michael Cohen, his former fixer and lawyer, and David Pecker from the National Enquirer, where they sort of hatched the scheme as prosecutors allege.

You've got to put Donald Trump in the room. That's the room that allegedly he was in. And it's clear that jurors are focusing in either direction, to be clear. It's not necessarily that they're leaning toward convicting him, but they just want to know what happened in there. And it was quite telling that they asked about that specific moment. Yeah, no, I thought it was really interesting. Tara Palmieri, this Mother Teresa situation, I mean, they seem to be, I mean,

I mean look, they may be right that none of this actually matters, right? That's the argument that they're making here. This does seem like a classic as, you know, if we were going into a debate and I was playing the role of classic political reporter, I would say, "Oh, they're lowering expectations. They're saying he's gonna do terrible when actually he's gonna," you know, so that they can say at the other side that it's all fine.

Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, it's exactly what you do. You set expectations. This verdict is like winning or losing a debate. This is a milestone in a political campaign. Sure, it's nothing like we've ever seen before. But yeah, whether he wins or loses, that will have a lot to do with how this campaign moves forward. If he has an acquittal, it will be a huge day for Donald Trump, as we know. If he doesn't,

You know, it'll be interesting to see what happens six months from now. I mean, it's a long time between now and when voters go out to vote and whether it's on their top list of priorities that one of the candidates is a convicted felon or perhaps was charged on a number of counts, but not on but acquitted on others. I think, you know, the jury's clearly taking their time. They're taking this seriously. Thirty four counts is a lot. I covered the John Edwards trial and there were only six.

It was very similar to this trial. It was a six week trial and the jury deliberated for two weeks. And in the end, they had a mistrial on five counts and declared him not guilty on one. And it took them two weeks to get down to that. It's,

There's a lot hanging on it, especially when it's political people. And he wasn't even a candidate. He didn't move past the primary. So I just think we could see them deliberating for a while. They understand the gravity of this. And it's a lot of material to get through. I can't tell you how many people have texted already, texted me saying, oh my gosh, four hours. Why are they taking so long? And oh my god, they're still learning where the bathroom is in the building, let alone

how they want to decide. Juries can deliberate for, like you said, days, weeks. Yeah. And I remember we were all just waiting for them to come up with a decision. They go back to the judge and they were just every day, another question, another concern, another. And then the judge was like, okay, you have to come back and tell us. And it ended up being a hung trial. So I just don't think it's going to be that clear cut. I don't think they're that partisan. I think they're not just sitting there being like, let's just nail them to the wall. Great.

two weeks who hope you already yeah I'm not ready to get a good one have I done oh my god I don't have a match my office right here in yeah I think a lot a lot of his vamping but no look I think when we talked about kind of setting the table I had the exact same thought as you Casey it reminded me of the debate many of lowering expectations and look I think I've been

Pretty consistent with this. I think that no matter what happens at the end of the day, it's not going to move many voters in large either way, pro or con. It might give the Biden campaign a talking point, but that's about it.

But look, I think, too, one of the things that I'm keeping my eye on as well is, look, if the jury is having trouble with these instructions, then so is the general public. I think in a lot of respects, the jury pool is often the voting base. So if they're having trouble really understanding and digging in on exactly what they need to come up with, translating that to the voting public in a political campaign is going to be even tougher.

But do you think like a conviction, I mean, it's a relatively simple message. Yeah, it's a relatively simple message, but it's a matter of will it actually move votes? And I think according to Poll Live's scene, it really doesn't move votes either way. And same thing with it was acquittal. It wasn't all of a sudden Biden voters are going to go back to Trump. People tend to be in their camps.

If they move, I think it'll be on things like the economy, immigration, and abortion, anything. Anybody who might be swayed by, well, you know, when he was charged with a crime, you know, I was still in his camp, but a jury convicted him, therefore, oh my God, it's all over. People knew what they were getting. It might actually matter, though, in the margins. Because if this race is actually decided by a very small group of voters in battleground states that haven't somehow made up their minds,

already about two people who have already been in office, which is the other thing about all of this, then maybe this will move them. They may just feel like this is not something they want to be. They feel like integrity is important to them. So I think it could sway a few voters, and that could be what matters. Today's swing voters are the most interesting people in all of America because, hey, I don't know how you landed there. You know what you're getting. I know. All right, coming up next here.

With your vote in 2024, we're going to make Donald Trump a loser again. President Biden and his vice president launching their push to try to win over black voters. Plus, Justice Alito refusing to recuse and continuing to blame his wife for the upside down flag. And what was he thinking? A man with a suspended license appears in virtual court from his car. That is one of five things you've got to see this morning.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Justice Samuel Alito says he will not recuse himself from cases involving the January 6th attack or the 2020 election over reporting he flew flags associated with the Stop the Steal movement on two of his properties.

In a rare letter to lawmakers, Alito blamed his wife repeatedly. He wrote the following things, quote, my wife did fly that flag, quote, my wife was solely responsible, quote, my wife is fond of flying flags, quote, I asked my wife to take it down, end quote. Panel's back. How would this go over in any of your households? I guess happy wife, happy life doesn't really apply in the Alito household. We've thrown that out. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting. But more to the point, and let's just go back to what the rules say. And a judge ought to recuse under the Supreme Court's own ethical guidance, which they put out, including Justice Alito in 2023, a justice should recuse from a case in any matter in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

by the public. Now, we're setting aside what anybody believes about the pine tree flag or the upside down flag. - That's 'cause we don't have Scott Jennings here to fight with you about this today. - No, but that's, Scott and I disagreed on this. - Maybe Matt can jump in in a minute. - But here's the thing, regardless of what you think of the flag or the symbolism behind either, he's acknowledged that they're political symbols and that he knew they were up in front of his house, right?

that his wife accidentally hung up the flag. It was a political symbol and one that was associated with a certain political movement in the country. Right there, if that entity has matters before the Supreme Court, it's something he ought to recuse.

Congressman Raskin in his op-ed, he wrote an interesting one in the New York Times. - Yeah, yeah, no, in fact, let's put that up here. So this is Congressman Jamie Raskin, who's a lawyer, a constitutional lawyer, writing this, quote, "Everyone assumes nothing can be done "about the recusal situation because the highest court "in the land has the lowest ethical standards. "No binding ethics code or process "outside of personal reflection.

The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion, the Constitution, specifically the Due Process Clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality. So that would be a pretty aggressive remedy. In general, in our government, there's always a remedy. There's always a solution. But often it's sort of out there and buried deep in the Constitution. It would be very hard to implement.

So who knows? I have a hard time believing that you'd ever get Congress to do that. Why I brought him up, the clearest line for the point I'm making here is he says, quoting John Roberts, judges are like umpires, which is what John Roberts said in his confirmation hearing, John Roberts, the Chief Justice. But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams was flying in the yard of the umpire's house. Do we have Angel Hernandez be ruled?

I'm glad he's fired. But anyway, but no, look, I think this whole thing is ridiculous because especially too, as of last week, the appeal to heaven flag was flying outside the conservative bastion of the San Francisco City Hall. So I think like that whole thing is just ridiculous on its face. And look, I take Elliot's point. I do. But I think what's become incentivized is you have members of Congress who I think have a pretty big,

big incentive to say they feel a reasonable kind of standard because down the line there is a political goal which is they want to see recusal but more importantly what they want is they want cases involving Trump whatever entity kind of they are on either side on

to win. And so I think that's what this is. And you saw it yesterday too with this Rolling Stone article going after who Jesse Barrett, husband of Amy Coney Barrett, who his clients are. They're trying to set this standard where

sowing doubt intentionally, I think, in people's minds to create this kind of doubt so that way down the line, if rulings don't go their way, they can kind of appeal to this sense of well. Let me just, there's- I mean, that does not seem to be limited to Democrats. I'm sorry, Casey. No, go ahead. What I would say, not limited to Democrats, but more to the point, a justice's spouse's clients would never be grounds for recusal unless the justice had spoken out in that way. You know, I think just

you know, we're getting lost in this question of what we think of the right versus the left in this country. And if it were a don't tread on me flag, another apolitical symbol from the American Revolution, no one would doubt that that was a political symbol. And the point is, the justice was flying political symbols in front of his house, whether we like him or not.

Well, and I think-- It's grounds for recusal. Tara, the bottom line too is that increasingly, I mean, 50% of people think that politics motivates justices, while 49% say, well, they're mainly motivated by the law. I mean, it does feel like the court has moved from umpire to something else. Right. I mean, we're supposed to believe they're just like us. They have domestic issues.

throwing his wife under the bus, et cetera. But at the end of the day, they don't follow their own ethics rules. And it seems like they've become almost infallible. And that's the problem. You hear about Alito and his flags. But then there was Harlan Crowe, who was taking--

offering major gifts to another justice. And even just the fact that they can decide whenever they want to retire from the court, whether they're in good health or not. I think people are just starting to lose trust in that process. And of course, the overturning of Roe versus Wade was a major moment in this country when people felt like the justice took away one of their rights. Yeah. All right. Coming up next here, Biden and Trump rolling out the red carpet for celebrity endorsements. Does it make any difference? Plus...

Oh my god, carjacked in their own driveway. One of the five things you have to see this morning. Alright, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you gotta see this morning. Body cam footage of golfer Scottie Scheffler in the back of a police car during the PGA Championship. You're right, I should have stopped. I did get a little bit impatient because I'm quite late for my tee time. I'm quite late for my tee time. Scheffler was arrested trying to drive around the scene of a car crash. All of the charges have been dropped.

A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted for the fifth time since December, spewing more lava near some towns there. Officials say they had to cut power in the area as a precautionary measure. And... I threw my hands up. I'm like, hey, hey, hey, hey. And he just pulled me down. Terrifying video out of Mississippi. A woman and her three children and two grandchildren were carjacked in the driveway of their own home. Police in Jackson say they've identified two people of interest. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Fast-moving flames spotted in south central Arizona. A wildfire there has grown to 450 acres. Power was shut off. Very little of it has been contained. And I don't know what you want to file this under. A Michigan man charged with driving with a suspended license attended his pretrial hearing via a video call live from his car. Are you driving?

Ashley, I'm pulling into my doctor's office. This is a driving license suspended. That is correct, Your Honor. He doesn't have a license. He's suspended and he's just driving. Defending is to turn himself into the Washington County Jail by 6 p.m. today. Failure to turn himself in will result in a bench warrant with no bond. Oh, my God.

Is he just realizing that what he's done there? That's pretty awesome. That is called a confession in the law. You have admitted to the thing you are accused of doing. So probably a happy prosecutor right there. Oh my God. All right. Coming up next, new DNA testing on a piece of evidence approved by the judge in the murder case against Scott Peterson and First Lady Jill Biden hitting the trail for her husband. I believe that Americans are going to choose good over evil.

And then Trump tells you he's the greatest president. I love this one. He says he's the greatest president for black people in the history of America, including more than Abraham Lincoln. I mean, can you fathom that? We're in the head. Like I said, I think he injected too much of that bleach in his skin. I think it affected his brain.

President Biden criticizing former President Trump during a trip to Philadelphia yesterday. He was working to appeal to black voters. His attacks come as the President Biden sees a slip in support among black Americans, especially black men, a critical group he won over in 2020. If black Americans had stormed, think about this. What do you think would happen if black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don't think he'd be talking about pardons. He's that landlord who denies housing applications because of the color of your skin.

OK. Matt Gorman, I have to say, I heard some of this and thought-- I see it as a little bit of an acknowledgment that there is a legit slip with black Americans and his support. Absolutely. I mean, we're seeing now the De Niro press conference, that debate kind of gambit to push Trump towards an earlier debate. This-- they're fighting on Trump's-- sorry, fighting on Democratic turf, fighting over black men, really, where, look,

You saw the rally in the South Bronx, and look, I don't think all of a sudden New York will be in play all of a sudden, but I think it was a signal that the Trump campaign is going to compete for Latino voters, African American men, and look, they have a lot of economic concerns. And I thought it was interesting, he didn't talk about the economic stuff. It was a lot of kind of, it was democracy, kind of, you know, stuff he could have kind of brought up before. Trump's going to talk about the economy. They have to be ready for that.

One, I mean, Elliot, like this, Donald Trump's history on this, and actually Tara, I should throw this to you too, considering how much reporting you've done in New York, like the Central Park Five, right? I mean, the way that he has engaged on this, and yet here we are.

Why? Well, it's funny. Right on my notes were Central Park Five, which are three words that sort of ring very powerfully for black people to this day, but particularly about Donald Trump, just based on everything that that scenario where these five men were accused of

a pretty horrific sexual assault that ultimately they all were exonerated for. And then Donald Trump egged on at the time. Taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty for them. And I think black people, for the most part, remember that. Another point sort of lost in all this is affirmative action as well, which even in light of America's conflicted

position and relationship with race-based preferences, black people feel strongly about it. And Donald Trump was behind putting three justices on the court that ultimately overturned it. These are the kinds of things that do stick in black folks' minds. But to Matt's point, something's clearly not clicking, particularly with young black men, brown men as well, that's resonating with Trump that isn't landing for Biden. Donald Trump, of course, has talked about this

He has used his mugshot to try to argue that that's part of why he appeals to black voters. Watch I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time and a lot of people said that that's why the black people like because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against and they actually viewed me as I'm being discriminated against the mugshot we've all seen the mugshot and

You know who embraced it more than anybody else? The black population. It's incredible. You see black people walking around with my mugshot. Okay, so I won't lie. I've never seen him, black people, walking around with Donald Trump's mugshot. But that's what he's claiming. And again, this...

I find it a little bit head-spinning, Tara. I know, but then at the same time, thousands of people came out to this Bronx rally last Friday. And I've heard from, you know, I wasn't there, but I just had a guest on my podcast. And she's a reporter that was there, and she said people were wearing the shirts with the mugshot. Well, they were wearing the mugshot. I don't know that they were necessarily African-Americans, but that they were wearing this mugshot. And I do remember, like, Trump had this hip-hop moment. I don't know if you guys remember that.

And he was actually polling, and I know this from talking to Trump advisors, that he looks back at the time when he was on The Apprentice and he was very popular with African-American voters. So while, yes, people from New York remember Central Park Five and that was a really big thing, there's a whole other part of the population, African-American population, that probably does not remember it the same way that we do. A reporter, and to add to that point, a reporter who was there, uh,

at the rally had said that you also had, Bronx is also heavily Latino today as well. And there are Latino folks, yeah, or just straight up from wherever wearing shirts and shouting like, send them back, deport, which was sort of this real life.

And it was a message that was entirely on the economy and on migration, which has been an issue that has hit that population in New York. There's a lot of resentment from the migrants that were shipped up from Texas and Florida by Rhonda Sanderson, Greg Abbott, hundreds of thousands of migrants coming to New York City. And a lot of these people are saying, why are they being housed in hotels on the Upper West Side and getting assistance from the state?

- They say, you know, I can't, I had to come here legally, I had to go through all these hoops, I didn't get handouts, and you're right, they're in the Roosevelt Hotel, you know, getting whatever from the state, you're absolutely right. And look, it's an economic message, and I think, you know, we talked about this a little bit before, look, The Apprentice was the number one show on television, we can't overestimate that. Back when that meant something, really did mean something.

So Trump was defined in another way to Tara's point. And also too, the Trump presidency, you had record low unemployment for Latinos and African Americans. So they also were able to kind of compare where they were then to where they are now. And I think the economic message, I think Democrats would be mistaken if they just kind of go and be like, come on, I'm saying this colloquially, come on, okay, every four years,

you know, African-Americans time to vote for us. Like they have to make a case on this proactively. They can't just expect folks to be there. I also just think it shows that the Democrats are realizing that they cannot just make this a choice between Biden and Trump and assume that people will choose Biden. That actually voters are doing exactly what they do in before, you know, a reelection. They're actually making it a referendum on the incumbent.

They're not doing what they hoped. They were hoping from the beginning, if we just sit back and let Trump be Trump, it will repel voters. It's just not happening. Perhaps it's the noise, the Trump amnesia, maybe things will change. But clearly they've changed their strategy. They've become more aggressive. They have surrogates out there willing to punch him straight in the face. Biden's finally doing it.

And they're- You're talking about Robert De Niro too. Yeah, Robert De Niro, his own wife, you know, was on The View, just like you teased earlier. And they're willing to attack Trump the way that he attacks his political rivals. And I think this is-

We're getting into a very aggressive slugfest of a campaign season that we haven't fully seen the extent of yet. Well, look, I'm not going to lie. This is the thing that a lot of Democrats have been badgering behind the scenes to get the Biden campaign to do more of. And look, speaking of this, the Biden campaign is, as Tara was just talking about, bringing out his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, more and more frequently. She has been in some instances more willing to go after Trump than

than her husband. Although again, Biden is ramping up the attacks as well. She appeared on The View yesterday and here's what she said. This election is not about age because like you're saying, I mean, Donald Trump's gonna be what, 78? 78, yeah. And Joe's 81. They're basically the same age. Right, right. So, but it's about character.

This election is about character. So you have two choices. You have my husband, Joe, who you all know who has integrity. He's strong. He's steady. As time goes on and as people start to focus a little bit more about what's at stake and start to become educated on the issues and the differences between the two men, I believe that Americans are going to choose good over evil.

I mean, Tara, I think part of why they have her going out is because she is that much more forceful oftentimes than her husband is. Oh, she's a great communicator. I think she's like their best asset, really. And she makes the case about their age better than he does. Like, he's an older man. Was he supposed to say, like, I'm young and hip? Like, they make jokes about it, right? That's their way of deflecting. But she's able to articulate it for him without him having to say, like, look how, you know, he's trying to appear in a way that he doesn't.

And yeah, she's really, she's feisty. You know, she's his, she's his attack dog. And like, everyone needs that. Robert De Niro also acted that way. I don't know that he's as effective as a communicator as Jill Biden was. And that's a, you know, I think they need to have her out on the trail more. To your punch in the face point, Joe Biden punching someone in the face lands very differently than Jill Biden punching someone in the face, you know? And, um,

It's almost, you know, it's like the standup comic in the 1980s who used to have a puppet that would say offensive jokes. You'll hear him say it, but, you know, coming out of me, it's something totally different. And it just lands harder coming from Jill Biden. You don't expect it. He needs to be doing more of those interviews.

I mean, let's face it, one of the biggest, I think probably the biggest, is his age, right? And the perception that he's just not up to it. He's lost a step, right? And so while that is great, having Joe Biden be that surrogate for you, he needs to be doing those things and making that case. Let me pause you because this was not in an interview, but there was a moment that's been very widely circulated yesterday where he was, it's an odd setting. It's a little hard to hear the question.

We will be able to hear the question in the clip. You can see Joe Biden struggle to hear the question. Watch this. President Biden, will you be serving your full four-year term or handing over power to Vice President Harris?

- Pretty sharp words, but-- - Sharp words, but it's not something that is an affirmative case, right? It's a deflection. And I think, look, also, the more reps he does getting those questions, the better he will be. We have this kind of a lot of times with our bosses that when we deal with politicians, if you don't do a lot of interviews, when you get tougher questions, you won't be as sharp.

batting practice in the cage, right? So the more interviews he does, the better he'll be. He needs to be better on that answer and start making the case himself, not relying on Jill or on Robert De Niro. All right, coming up next here, could Elon Musk join Donald Trump in the White House if the former president wins in November? Plus, celebrities backing political candidates, a century-old tradition. Even Sinatra did it his way. Much more than I did it.

My way. All right, 46 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. A California judge ruling that a piece of evidence in the murder case against Scott Peterson will get new DNA testing. Peterson's attempt to get a new trial comes roughly two decades after he was first convicted of murdering his wife, Lacey Peterson, and his unborn son.

Prosecutors say they are investigating new claims against Harvey Weinstein that could lead to a new indictment. The news coming ahead of Weinstein's retrial after the New York Court of Appeals voted that some witness testimony should not have been allowed. A new Louisiana law makes it a crime to come within 25 feet of a police officer while they are engaged in law enforcement duties, but only after the officer orders the person to stay back. Critics argue that the measure will hinder the public's ability to film officers to try to hold them accountable.

And football fans in the nation's capital are hating the new name of their NFL team. A Washington Post poll finds nearly six in ten Commanders fans do not like the name. Two years after the change, only 16 percent said keep it.

No NFL team has ever changed the name three times in decades without changing regions. I mean, I got to say, I get why they changed the name in the first place. But like, I mean, I was at an event where they were handing out free gear and I looked at it and I didn't recognize anybody. It's benign. There's no history. They need something that connects a little more to the city. I've thought about what would the solution have been, right? And it's a rhetorical question. It's not to you, but it's given all the baggage around the old name, what would

could or would they have done that people would have embraced? And I don't know what the answer is. But not this. It's a palate cleanser. I think they'll come up with a new name. I think it kind of cleanses it out a little bit. Okay. All right. Let's turn out of this. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it.

We've seen it before. That was Robert De Niro, of course, stumping for Biden. And we had Oprah stumping for then-Senator Obama back in 2008. There was Clint Eastwood's infamous empty chair speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Celebrities pitching candidates. Want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that.

But in the hyper-divisive political climate that we are now seeing, many celebrities are apparently wary of getting involved in politics now. CNN White House correspondent Priscilla Alvarez joins us now to discuss her new reporting on this. Priscilla, what are you learning?

Well, Casey, by all accounts, it's going to be a close race. And for that reason, celebrity endorsements may hold outsized influence. That's what multiple strategists are telling me. But it could be even riskier. And there is some trepidation given the highly polarized political landscape, which also includes the Israel Hamas war. I mean, take Mariah Carey, for example, who simply with a stop at the White House last December got a flurry of criticism.

in her comments on Instagram. That's just an example of the type of response that some celebrities, according to consultants, are wary of. But as you were laying out there, historically, Hollywood has rallied around Democratic candidates and the Biden campaign has clearly acquired some star power. You played Robert De Niro earlier. There's a June fundraiser that has been planned that's going to include Julia Roberts and George Clooney. And this helps them

rake in a lot of cash, as we saw when Biden held a fundraiser in New York City. But more endorsements are expected between the Democratic National Convention and Election Day. That's what campaign officials tell me. And the timing really is everything. They say that closer to Election Day is when it matters so they can reach voters that are otherwise hard to reach. And one senior advisor telling me that people know who Biden is, but they need these celebrities to help get their message out. The question is how many of them are actually going to show up. Okay,

Casey? All right, Priscilla Alvarez for us at the White House. Priscilla, thank you. And Hollywood endorsements do go back quite a while. Watch. Come on and vote for Kennedy. For Kennedy. And we'll come out with a wide open country in my eyes. And these dreams. Look for change tomorrow. Everybody sing. Come on.

And that is why I'm with her. If you're ready for freedom, make some noise.

All right. So that obviously a parade of celebrities endorsing political candidates. I have always come from the school that this doesn't really matter at all. Perhaps Taylor Swift might move some people. I don't know. What do you think, Tara? Yeah, I mean, that was the thinking in 2020 that Taylor Swift's endorsement of Joe Biden may have activated some younger voters to actually go out and vote. But I do think that celebrities are aware that Donald Trump, they came out pretty forcefully against him in 2016, and he still won 2020.

He still won a very sizable amount of the popular vote. Basically half the country still voted for them. And I do think ultimately they probably feel like this is also their careers and they're not sure if they're willing to put their names out on the line anymore to fight against this person that clearly half of the country is still behind. And it impacts them if you're trying to sell records. And it's just such a divisive, polarizing time.

that people just like, you know, country music stars, they don't want to go out against Donald Trump because they know so many of their listeners and followers are also supportive of him. I think it was easier around the time of Barack Obama because he was like truly a transformational figure. He was almost like a celebrity himself. It didn't feel quite as polarizing. But this time around with Trump in the mix,

I think celebrities are just like we tried in 2016. We said we were moving to Canada in 2017. We didn't. You know, 2020, they came out, but now they're probably just like. You've seen a lot of this. You've seen a lot of this too with corporations, the same sort of calculus, right? They realize that after the 2020 years, once you tap in as a political actor, there's no tapping out. And you can pick.

aside, but what you can't do is you can't pick and choose. Once you're in, you are in. And I think celebrities, corporate people who don't have an incentive to play kind of in the political game are realizing the downside is a lot, lot bigger than the upside is with this. And it's also just a different world than it was 10 or 20 years ago. This is...

arguably Donald Trump, the first celebrity president. Even Ronald Reagan had been governor of California twice prior to running for the presidency, and people just saw him differently, right? There's a different power to celebrity and...

I it just the world the world is different than it was before I'm and to your point it's almost Michael Jordan Tara saying that republicans by sneakers to he was never going to inflame I you know up a subset of the country then wanted to stay out I mean Harvard University now is that they're saying we're not gonna yeah I'm gonna do this I think that the other thing is to what we see is again when you do a celebrity's put campaigns corporation there's a different incentive structure let's pretend hypothetically that the nearest is over the line in that press conference

And we were kind of going after him, the Biden campaign, to step back. De Niro has zero incentive, zero, to refrain back, yet Biden does. So you're dealing with a different set of kind of incentives there where...

When you deal with celebrities, you have to be very, very careful how you do it. - This is exactly what we were talking about a couple segments ago though with surrogates where Jill Biden can punch in a way that people just don't expect of Joe Biden or just don't want from him. I mean, they do, but I mean, we say, you know, and sorry, sorry. - She can go to topics he can't either. - She can go to topics he can't, right. - Yeah, and I think the celebrities, they are,

they're uncomfortable and I don't know that they necessarily even want their brand aligned with Biden. I was talking to some people though who are trying to create content for him that makes him appear younger, fun. Like remember when Obama did Between Two Firms with Funny or Die? And that was like a viral video that millennials were really into and that was like the key voting base at the time. And they're trying to create this content for Gen Z to get into Biden, but I think celebrities see it too.

It's just not their brand. And they can try to create content around Biden that makes him seem younger and cooler and appealing to Gen Z. But if you put him next to a celebrity, is that really going to change it? And how does that impact the celebrity, too? They're increasingly caring so much about their own brands. And being canceled, who knows anymore? If they align with Trump, they can get canceled. If they align with Biden, they can have a whole subset that cancels them. They're safer just staying at home.

The apotheosis of that was really during the Obama years. You're absolutely right. Obama wasn't as awkward as Biden or a lot of Republicans, too, in dealing with these celebrities. There's harm-- He sees himself as one of them. I mean, yeah, content creator-in-chief now on Netflix, right? But there is harm if you come off as awkward in this sort of thing. It's better off not to do it. Yeah. There could be retribution, too, if Trump is truly going to go after his enemies.

That's another part of it. There is that as well. All right. We've been talking about celebrity endorsements. Let's add to this list. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump has had discussions with Elon Musk to become a White House advisor if he wins in November. The exact role they report remains unclear.

It doesn't really come as a huge surprise that he's courting the billionaire. Musk's social media presence has definitely skewed Trumpian in recent years. In March, Musk posted this on his platform, quote, there's either a red wave in November or America is doomed. Imagine four more years of this getting worse. Tara, I mean, it seems very clear Elon Musk is aligned with Donald Trump at this point, although he has been a little bit...

Like there was reporting that they were meeting and then they were some distance from that. Now it's clear something else is going on. What is kind of underlying this? And is there, I mean, we're talking about risk to celebrities. Is there any risk to Elon to do this? - I mean, he's already taken so many risks already. The way that he's managed Twitter, he's made a lot of enemies.

But there is certainly like this sort of red pilling in Silicon Valley and they are coming around and courting Trump openly. You know, we did some reporting at Puck about this. David Sachs hosted an event for Donald Trump. He's a billionaire in Silicon Valley. He hosts the All In podcast, very popular in the Silicon Valley set. And they're all sort of like

opening their homes, having him come in, and they're willing to fed him. Back in 2020, they didn't want anything to do with him. His brand was way too toxic. And now he's being welcomed in San Francisco. I mean, this is kind of unheard of. Trump was...

never campaigns there, never even goes there for fundraisers. And I don't think it's so much about Trump as it is that they're unhappy with Joe Biden. And it's happening on the fringes. I'm not saying it's all of Silicon Valley, but it is happening on the fringes. And they're talking about like, what do they call it? Woke mind virus. That's their phraseology. Yeah, exactly. So they find Trump as more appealing. But I

The egos, I mean, getting Elon Musk and Donald Trump in a room together, like, I don't think Elon Musk is going to Mar-a-Lago. If you want to get Trump out of Mar-a-Lago, that's pretty hard as well. But the one thing that will bring him out is money, and he's pretty desperate for it. So I could see him being willing to dangle this advisory role like he's been doing with a lot of other donors. Right. Well, that's a big part of this, right? Like, how much money can he get from these people at these events? All right. I will leave you with this. Big news for panda lovers.

The mood is tense. I have been on some serious, serious reports, but nothing quite like this.

Two new giant pandas will be coming to the Smithsonian's National Zoo right here in Washington, D.C. The zoo announced yesterday a pair of two-year-old pandas will arrive by the end of this year through a partnership with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. There was a bit of panda drama last year when the last pandas at the National Zoo were taken back by China. First Lady Jill Biden releasing this tongue-in-cheek video of the behind-the-scenes panda diplomacy at the White House.

Okay, so let's get to it. Formal dinner or barbecue on the South Lawn? I don't think you want them on the South Lawn. What about a tire? Well, they're pretty partial to black and white. Black tie it is then. What's on the menu? Any dietary restrictions? Well, they're strict vegetarians. Any special greetings they use? They're pretty shy until you get to know them. If they're really nervous, they might honk, so that's something you have to watch out for. Honk? I'm sorry, I feel like I'm missing something. Who's coming?

I'm definitely missing something there. But Elliot, this is, I'm sorry, I was so sad when the pandas left Washington and my son was too, and now we're going to get to see them again. So a couple of things. One, that is why Jill Biden is a very effective surrogate on political issues because she's humanizing on issues like pandas. You know, we did one of our kids' birthday parties at the National Zoo several years ago. Oh, I didn't know you could do that. You can do that. You might have told me that. Pre-COVID, but I think you can do it again now. And there's just amazing animals in that. And

the conservation behind having them at the National Zoo because of how much trouble they have reproducing, they have a very limited diet. I forgot you were a panda expert. I'm so happy you're here. CNN chief panda analyst, Elliott Williams. But the efforts that humans have done with respect to bringing conservation and understanding how pandas live is very important. It's great having them at the National Zoo. Well, I'm thrilled anyway. All right. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your time today.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. CNN News Central starts right now. I'm Oprah Winfrey, and I am delighted to introduce you to my podcast, Super Soul Conversations. You can listen to some of the most universal, powerful life lessons. I hope these conversations will help illuminate your path to all that you've been meaning to be and all that you were meant to be.

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