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cover of episode Trump's Fate, De Niro's Take, Plane Blown From Gate

Trump's Fate, De Niro's Take, Plane Blown From Gate

2024/5/29
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The episode opens with the news of the jury deliberating on Donald Trump's fate in his hush money trial. Political analysts discuss the potential impact of a guilty verdict on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, considering his unwavering support base and the opinions of voters like Dennis Quaid. The segment also covers reactions to Robert De Niro's fiery appearance outside the courthouse, where he called Trump supporters "clowns" and expressed support for a guilty verdict.

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Voters 50 and over have the power to decide elections. So candidates who want to win need to talk about the issues they care about. Learn more from our latest polling in Pennsylvania at aarp.org slash PA polling. Overnight, Duncan's pumpkin spice coffee has sent folks into a cozy craze. I'm Lauren LaTulip reporting live from home in my hand-knit turtleneck that my Nana made me. Mmm, cinnamony. The home with Duncan is where you want to be.

It's Wednesday, May 29th. Right now on CNN This Morning, 12 Manhattan jurors about to begin deciding the fate of a former president. Will it impact the future of the country? Plus... Take that stupid f*cking hat off. Take that stupid f*cking hat off. You're a bunch of clowns. Robert De Niro taking on Trump and tangling with his supporters outside the Manhattan courthouse.

And hurricane force winds pushing an American Airlines 737 completely away from the gate with no one at the helm. And the best of America's pastime finally getting their dues, Major League Baseball shaking up the all-time record books. 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at New York City, the town that is going to

Start deliberating Donald Trump's fate here later on this morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. The arguments have been made and now it's time for 12 ordinary people from Manhattan to decide whether or not Donald Trump is a criminal, a decision that might shake up the race for president or might not.

it was a long and often tedious day for the jury on wednesday the defense went on for nearly three hours and the prosecution nearly five hours trump's attorney tearing into star witness michael cohen telling jurors he's quote the human embodiment of reasonable doubt literally he lied to you repeatedly he lied many many many times before you even met him have you guys heard of a goat like goat the greatest of all time michael

Michael Cohen is the gloat. He is literally the greatest liar of all time. The prosecution getting the last word telling jurors, quote, we didn't choose Michael Cohen to be our witness. We didn't pick him up at the witness store. The defendant chose Michael Cohen as his fixer because he was willing to lie and cheat on his behalf. The prosecution insisting the evidence against Donald Trump is, quote, literally overwhelming.

But I will say it was what went on outside the courthouse that turned heads yesterday and underscored just how tense things are in this election year and how explosive this verdict could be. Stupid f***ing hat off. Take that stupid f***ing hat off. You're a bunch of clowns. When you see this guy get elected, f*** you. You're a moot b***h. You pedophile. You're a moot b***h.

So much bleeping. It is...

blowing out my eardrums. Our panelists here, Elliot Williams, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst, New York Times White House correspondent, Zolan Kano-Youngs, and Matt Gorman, former senior advisor for Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Gentlemen, wonderful to have you this morning. Elliot, quite a scene outside the courthouse. That was loud. Maybe it's just the volume I have in my earpiece, but it was pretty loud. No, it was quite a scene outside the courthouse. And it's interesting in that it was the first overt time

that the Biden campaign or the Biden camp, if you want to call it that, played, fought back politically. You know, and I leave it to the political folks to sort of unpack the wisdom thereof. It did bring yet another spectacle of sort of chaos to the street outside in front of the courthouse. But that was there already. I don't know if the injection of Robert De Niro really changed that all that much. Yeah, I mean, look, it was a quintessentially New York scene, right? I mean, naturally, it's...

all over the front page of the New York Post, et cetera. But look, I mean, I think my big picture question here as we head into these jury deliberations, Zola and Amat, is whether or not it's going to change any votes. And our Gary Tuchman went and talked to some voters in Georgia. I just want to show you, it speaks for itself. Watch.

If Donald Trump is found guilty, do any of you who say you're ready to vote for Donald Trump, would you consider switching to Joe Biden? Raise your hands. No consideration, even if he's found guilty. Other hand, if he's found not guilty, any of you voting for Joe Biden, would you then possibly consider Donald Trump? All right, everyone's sticking with the candidates they have right now.

No changes, Matt Gorman. It's entertaining at least. But no, that's kind of where I expected things to net out. And regarding De Niro, I mean, I've said this kind of repeatedly when you saw Republican members of Congress or politicians go up there. That's where the cameras are. And I think the Biden campaign essentially admitted this yesterday. So if you want to break through, you want to reach...

If Mohammed can't go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed. So there you go. And one of the other things too, politically, this tells me, it was the first scrappy move we've seen from the Biden campaign in a while. There was, I think, a pretty good piece, I believe in the New York Times, really saying that the Biden, a couple weeks ago, they're saying that the Biden campaign is acting like it's winning, but it's not. This was one of the first acknowledgements that's like, you know, we need to do something a little different. We need to think through, we can't play all conservative politics.

with a small c we have to be a little bit scrappy this is one of those times

Yeah, I mean, I still, I think when you look at a focus group like that, it's somewhat why you can still expect the Biden campaign to focus on abortion and democracy even more, regardless of what happens with this trial, really. They're also, even with the De Niro appearance yesterday, there is still really just a cautious approach when it comes to this trial or really any of the legal proceedings for Donald Trump when it comes to the Biden campaign.

They are very concerned as well as other Democrats about sort of pouring fuel on the fire when it comes to Donald Trump's claims, false claims that Biden has sort of directed prosecutors to investigate Donald Trump. And they fear that sort of comments

about the trial will sort of feed into that. I mean, and it's interesting, there was even caution yesterday with De Niro's appearance. He kind of went off script when at the end of those remarks, he said that yes, he did believe that Donald Trump should go to jail. The Biden campaign, I think to your point, more so was looking for that sort of New York moment of having him there. No way. - You know, it's interesting you say this caution about being seen as fueling the fire

And this is a long, maybe not just Joe Biden, Democrats generally. You have to respect the system and the norms of government and courts and their integrity and so on. Well, the fire has got a lot of fuel on it to begin with, whether it's outside the courtroom, inside the courtroom, or how people talk and think about this case. And so it's almost a recognition of the reality that there is politics swirling all around this. And they're sort of unilaterally disarming by not campaigning at the scene of the

of the trial of the crime, I guess. And you know what? That's the double-edged sword of bringing a guy like De Niro out. You're going to have those moments where you're going to have to take your piece out because there's so many bleeps. But no disrespect to Quinton Fulks, who's a deputy campaign manager, kind of one of the main spokespeople. You're not going to get that type of coverage with Quinton Fulks. You can't get it with De Niro. So one thing that we keep kind of going back to over and over and over again is whether or not any of this is going to move anything. I mean, we saw that with the

the voters there and there was an a reference in court yesterday to Donald Trump being able to shoot people on Fifth Avenue with the prosecutor saying he shouldn't be able to shoot I people on at Fifth Avenue I'm this is a a poll just just bear with me but it's it's Dennis Quaid you may remember from a number of well-known at films a tiny appears Morgan about why he supports Donald Trump and its I don't telling watch

He just makes sense. I was ready not to vote for Trump until what I saw is more than politics. I see a weaponization of our justice system and a challenge to our Constitution. Trump is the most investigated person probably in the history of the world. And they haven't been able to really get him. People might call him an a**hole, but he's my a**hole.

Matt Gorman, that line right there. That last line. Yeah, I mean, I can tell you, I've heard some version of that with Traveling the Country with Tim Scott, Jeb Bush. Like, this is, I could have heard that in 2015 and not been surprised. I'm still not surprised. He might be an a-hole, but he's my a-hole. Yeah, and look, I think one of the things you see is there is a large, I would say not insignificant amount of people who say, look, I don't necessarily like Donald Trump as a person, not the nicest guy, tweets, blah, blah, blah, blah. But,

I look at Biden and I don't think he can run the government. And I also want to be able to afford groceries, afford gas, and buy a home. And I think there's a lot of people like that. That was not really that surprising to me, that line. Because everybody who watches CNN this morning with Casey Hunt watches it every single morning, people should know that yesterday we talked about this very point and this notion of the power of celebrity and diversity.

divorcing the man from the idea of the man. And this was in the context of a Trump Oprah ticket, right? And what you're hearing a little bit of from Dennis Quaid there is talking about Trump's celebrity far more than Trump the politician. It's just sort of the idea and the aura around this person. And that seems to almost intoxicate people. - Yeah, I found the tribalism of it

People forget, he had the number one show in TV for how many years? Think about that in the context now. It's like Jim Parsons running for president. That is a well-known thing that you can't really duplicate before you even get into politics. All right, coming up next here, Donald Trump's family showing up at court to support him, although a couple of them were missing. Plus...

Lawmakers in Taiwan nearly coming to blows. We'll tell you why. Plus, Senator Chris Coons live from Taiwan on how to best handle China's aggression.

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.

We understand that this is a political persecution. They bring in Robert De Niro who was shot down, but apparently he needs attention because it's been a while since he's cranked out a good movie. They're sitting there, they're laughing, they're giggling. This was their moment. This is how they embarrass Donald Trump. This is legal lawfare. This was never a case about protecting the citizens of the city of New York. This is a case about politics, pure and simple.

So members of the Trump family coming to the defense of the former president after yesterday's closing arguments. That was Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and his wife, Lara. They have been seen in the courtroom throughout the criminal hush money trial. There was

Of course, a continued notable absence. The former first lady, there has been no sign of Melania standing by her man in public. Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, who played key roles in the Trump White House, have not journeyed to lower Manhattan for the trial either. Zolan, I can't say that this is surprising to me, the Melania, not surprising.

showing up considering the topic at hand. Do you think it hurts Donald Trump in any way? Does it matter? Well, I mean, look, legally this is to the jury at this point, so I'm not sure if it doesn't really matter there. But politically, look,

My colleague Katie Rogers wrote about this dynamic a couple months ago and wrote a book on First Ladyship. And what she was saying is that Melania has always seen this as Donald Trump's, this trial as Donald Trump's issue, not hers. That being said, it obviously has made her angry at times going back to January 2018 when reports of this hush money payment were still being revealed.

And one thing that I think you should watch is will this impact the public support Melania Trump has for Donald Trump moving forward as the campaign rolls on? We've seen at times when there's been tension or disapproval that Melania has had signs of showing public disapproval of Donald Trump, going back to something completely different, but even with the border and wearing a shirt that showed some disapproval. So, you know, that could be something to see, you know.

Could the outcome of this trial impact whether or not Melania Trump shows up at campaign events or shows up with Donald Trump moving forward on the campaign trail and shows public support? - Do you think that impacts it? - What I'm interested at, what was notable to me was I think this is more a little bit of a preview of what we would see, who we would see or maybe who we wouldn't see as active in a Trump White House. You saw those three folks there. Lara Trump's kind of co-running the RNC. Don Jr. and Eric have always kind of been out there.

Ivanka and Jared have kind of kept their distance from the campaign. And there's a tense we could be the White House too. I also think maybe Melania too, if he was to go back in the White House, should be first lady again. Maybe it wouldn't be as active as a role as it was the first time around. - Yeah. - I just feel like we get hung up a lot on guilty versus not guilty, what happens if he's convicted.

and isn't, and that's perfectly fine, forgetting that this is a married couple. And whether he's convicted or not, there is still this cloud of, did he sleep with a porn star? Did he pay off? Well, he did pay off a porn star. The question is, did the relationship happen and so on? And I would think setting aside whether he's convicted or not, I would think a spouse would probably take issue with some of the behavior. Um,

She has. And so this whole question of, well, she'll start appearing with him on the campaign trail if he's acquitted, just sort of, well, the underlying problem is still there. Anyway. Yes, although it doesn't seem as though voters really seem to. Although, I don't know, he's won an election since 2016. He may be on track to win the next one. We will see. Coming up, more 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.

More on Robert De Niro's fiery appearance outside the Trump trial. And gone with the wind? It's one of our five things you have to see today. All right, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Hurricane-force winds blowing an American Airlines 737 right out of its gate at Dallas Airport Tuesday. Officials say no one was on board the plane. Thank goodness.

It's getting a little heated in Taiwan's parliament. Take a look at lawmakers screaming and shoving each other around. It's all over a controversial reform bill that grants new oversight powers to them. And... Another successful liftoff for SpaceX, launching its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit. It's part of a new Earth observation mission. It's a collaboration with Europe and Japan.

Well, that's not terrifying or anything.

Severe storms, meanwhile, turning this Dallas roadway into a river, submerging vehicles and leaving drivers stranded last night. Winds brought down trees and power lines across the region. More than half a million customers in the state still in the dark this morning. And to that end, almost 30 million people under severe storm threats today concentrated in the Rockies, but also across central and south Texas. Let's get to our meteorologist, Elisa Rafa. Elisa, good morning. What can we expect to see?

Good morning. We're going to continue to find some cases of damaging winds and large hail today. Look at the hail overnight in parts of Colorado just north of Denver. I mean it looks like it snowed. This is hail, blanket of white that you could shovel and plow. You can see in some of this video here that we have some flooding rains as well that have brought some of the

So you can see the roadway just totally flooded and then all of that plowed up to the side. That is hail, not snow. Just incredible to see. Winds yesterday in parts of Dallas were upwards of 80 miles per hour. Parts of Texas, 95 mile per hour wind gusts in the colony, Texas, 80 miles per hour for parts of Texas. And that has knocked out power still about half a million people in the dark this morning as power crews try to get that power back.

on. Here's a look at radar right now. We do have a couple of storms with some lighter showers and rumbles of thunder from Houston down towards Corpus Christi. Nothing severe right now, but as we go into the afternoon, we might find an isolated storm with damaging winds and large hail. Not as destructive as it was yesterday, but we still have to keep an eye out for some storms to develop from Shreveport back down towards Houston.

you've got a greater chance of severe weather from Rapid City to Denver. So we'll find these showers and storms that could possibly ignite as we go through the day today. Going into tomorrow, some of those again could ignite from the panhandles of Texas into Oklahoma. So something that we'll have to watch out for as we go through our Thursday. Casey? All right, Elisa Rafa for us. Elisa, thank you very much.

All right, just ahead here is Donald Trump intentionally embracing an outlaw image, plus Oscar winner Robert De Niro tangling with a mega crowd. Take that stupid hat off. Take that stupid hat off. You're a bunch of clowns. When Trump ran in 2016, it was like a joke. This buffoon running for president. No, never could happen. We'd forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns

who weren't taken seriously. I don't mean to scare you. No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it. That's over. That's done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave.

The Biden campaign bringing in actor Robert De Niro for a press conference outside of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial yesterday. He slammed the former president as a loser and a clown bent on destroying American democracy. But he didn't just say those things at the microphones that the Biden campaign presumably was expecting. He also clashed with Trump supporters outside the courthouse. They're traitors.

I don't even know how to deal with you, my friend. I don't even know how to deal with you. Take that stupid hat off. You're a bunch of clowns. When you see this guy get elected, you.

Okay, panels back. We're joined by Isaac DuVernay, who covers President Biden for us in great depth. Isaac, this was a very interesting decision on a number of levels. What went into it? And what has the reaction been in the White House considering the scenes that came out of New York yesterday? The big issue that Joe Biden has had for his entire presidency and certainly for this campaign is how to break through.

And here we are talking about what Robert De Niro said about Donald Trump in front of the courthouse yesterday. Although in fairness, we're not really talking about what he said at the microphones. We're more talking about words we can't even play on television. What is going on here is that it's not just about getting through to undecided voters. There's also an enthusiasm problem that the Biden campaign knows that they have with their voters. And I

for whatever else might have been said about what De Niro said yesterday, it did channel a lot of that energy that like Biden friendly or Democratic tweeters or those people want. Like that's it. What he's saying at the microphones is what they are all mashing into their keyboards. And there is something about having that

said in such a public, forceful way by obviously an identifiable guy, obviously someone who is known to many Americans as a tough guy, even though he played a tough guy many times. So Democratic, you know, lefty Twitter is on fire probably over that. But what about swing voters in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania that the Biden campaign particularly, like who, who

Who do they need and how does that work for them? I'm curious about that. - They need a lot of people. They need their voters, right? You look at the polls, they need more people than they have currently if he is going to win a second term. But I do think it's both those things going on.

More people are aware that something happened yesterday in New York than would have been if De Niro hadn't been there. To Matt's point earlier in the show, if Quentin Fulks, the Biden deputy campaign manager, had done the press conference, or Michael Tyler, who is the communications director, who introduced Robert De Niro, we would not be doing a segment on Michael Tyler's comments in the microphones. We did it with De Niro. Even if it wasn't F-U, F-U. I mean, I think... That would be...

- Pretty good way for a campaign manager to go viral, but point taken. - He went full Goodfellas in a way. But to Isaac's point, it's not even necessarily the swing voters. That's not sort of the intention behind bringing Ed De Niro. It's sort of the concern around the voters that may actually, that may not want to vote for Trump, but are between Biden and staying home, right? When you have somebody going out like this, sort of the thinking by the campaign is,

if we can have somebody that speaks to sort of the passion that we want people to be feeling now can we build that enthusiasm and will that be the thing that moves people to sort of you know actually go vote. To kind of extend on the point I made before celebrities bringing them into political campaigns is such a double edged sword. I was sitting in Romney headquarters when Clint Eastwood was talking to the empty chair. Oh I remember that. I was at the convention. Yeah right before Mitt Romney went on and he remembered nobody really wanted to tell Clint what to say. It was like whoa. But they were like a

You're a little afraid of him, right? Look, celebrities don't have the same incentive structure that politicians or surrogates do, right? They are playing a completely different ballgame. If your objectives line up, God bless you, go to town. But always, not always, does it happen. Yeah, so Jason Miller, of course, was out there. He's the Trump campaign spokesman. They rebutted this De Niro situation in basically real time. Here's what he said. Here's the argument he made. So the Biden folks have finally done it.

after months of saying that politics had nothing to do with this trial. They showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump. And the best that Biden can do is roll out a washed up actor. So, I mean, Isaac, it did kind of

give the Trump team an opening on this? Did they calculate that was a risk that they were willing to take? - Because now they're going to claim that politics was part of this trial, whereas they didn't the day before yesterday. I mean, this is part of the back and forth, blah, blah, that happens on a lot of these things in a campaign. And of course, what matters in this trial right now is what the jury is about to do. And we'll see what that is, what that verdict is, and then how it's received by the American public.

But at one point... Do you think the verdict's going to change anything? Well, we'll see. Look, I think that one of the problems that you hear from a lot of concerned Democrats right now is that there have been many moments so far

where we have been told, either the reporters told privately by campaign officials, or they've sort of said it publicly, that this is the turning point for the campaign. This is when the dynamics are about to shift. This is when people are going to focus in and plug in, and that's going to benefit Joe Biden. And so far, every time has come and gone.

and this may be the a different moment but if so it will be the change from all these other moments that we've had so far that we're supposed to be well and Politico put out let's put the political headline up on the screen this from from yesterday about Democrats freaking out basically there it is Dems in full-blown freak out

over biden now this is in some ways a perennial situation with democrats elliott you used to work for them you understand the as well as isaac i mean this is we joke about it here um but this is how they put it they say quote you don't want to be that guy who's on the record saying we're doomed or the campaign's bad or biden's making mistakes nobody wants to be that guy said a democratic operative in close touch with the white house granted anonymity to speak freely but

But Biden's stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election are creating the freak out. This isn't, oh God, Mitt Romney might become president. It's, oh my God, democracy might end. And I have to say that I feel that from sources, that they are freaking out about the state of the campaign. Is this just another cycle of that? Or...

I mean, Democrats in full-blown freak out over fill-in-the-blank every day of the week, every week of the year, always. But yes, the stakes of this election are high. We have this...

weird confluence of people feeling like they don't want to talk about the election or tuned out from it and that we will be living in a different country if Joe Biden is president or if Donald Trump is president. There are two different countries and two different futures for America. And you can choose which one you want, but it is a really important election. And it's one that

people feel like you can't lose. Multiple people that I've talked to, voters have said to me, I just wish we could have an election where it didn't feel like everything was on the line. We've had that in 2016, in 2020, now again in 2024.

But I would say each time there's been a truth to it. You were saying that this might be the moment that the Biden campaign sees sort of a shift. I feel like we've been hearing over the past year, time and time again, this is going to be the moment when the contrast is clear. This is going to be the moment when the contrast is clear. That's kind of part of the big concern among Democrats here. You have one candidate in a trial, another candidate focused on governing. And so far, that contrast still hasn't become clear, at least when it comes to polling for voters. Or it's become clear and voters don't care. Right.

Right. Yes. Also possible. All right. Ahead here, what Nikki Haley wrote on an artillery shell during her visit to Israel. Plus, Democratic Senator Chris Coons joins us live from Taiwan. Up next. All right. 44 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez declaring victory over his primary opponent in Texas. CNN reporting he is leading with 97 percent of the votes counted.

Two former FBI officials reaching a tentative settlement with the Justice Department after alleging their privacy was violated. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had their text messages released, providing political fodder for Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.

Nikki Haley signing artillery shells with the words "Finish them" on her visit to Israel on the same day an Israeli airstrike killed 45 Palestinians in Rafah. The photos posted to social media by Israel's former ambassador to the UN.

Major League Baseball integrating Negro League statistics into its records book, its record books, excuse me, that means Josh Gibson replaces Ty Cobb as the game's all-time leading hitter and Babe Ruth.

as the best slugger ever. Elliot, it's cool to see these guys finally getting their due. It really is. And my hot take as a Yankee fan-- Oh, no. Well, it's going to be critical. It's going to be critical. It's going to be critical. It's that we revere folks like Babe Ruth, who never played against black players. And there's something to be said for--

just having a more, let's say, holistic look at success in baseball and just look at Josh Gibson. He also, more interestingly, he replaces Barry Bonds for slugging percentage and on baseball slugging, which is sort of MLK's dream, the idea that one black man can replace another who has fallen in disgrace, right? Yeah.

You know, we finally arrived when a man can implode as a black person in a steroid scandal and be replaced by another black hero. My last hot take as a Red Sox fan. Oh, God. Look, we celebrate Jackie Robinson in every baseball stadium in America, right? But we don't recognize his season for the Kansas City Monarchs. In a way, this is about continuing to remember history and celebrate history even for one of our sports leagues here. Yeah, now we will.

All right. Right now, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware is in Taiwan, part of a bipartisan congressional trip to Asia. Coons has long challenged China's economic policies and its position on human rights, stressing the need for a sustained American strategy for dealing with China. Joining me now live from Taipei is Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also co-chair of President Biden's reelection campaign. Senator, I'm very grateful to have you. Thanks for being here. Good morning, Casey. Great to be on with you.

So, Senator, we saw China encircle Taiwan in military drills in the last week or so. It was a set of images that were a bit stunning, quite honestly. What did you make of the decision to do, their decision to do that? And what message do you want to send to China with the trip that you're on?

Well, I'm part of a bipartisan and bicameral delegation that's here in Taipei. There's a House delegation and a Senate delegation. And I think all of us are here to deliver a message of support for Taiwan. They just had a free and fair election. We met with the new president, President Lai, who's just been inaugurated, as well as his new defense minister, foreign minister,

And the message that we sent in Congress by appropriating several billion dollars of support for our partners and our allies in the Indo-Pacific is reinforced by having a group of senators and a group of House members come here to Taiwan and meet with their new elected leadership.

The PRC sent ships and planes all around the island, as you just said, Casey, in a show of force to intimidate the people of Taiwan. And we're trying to counterbalance that with a show of support. - So, sir, how high do you believe the risk of escalation in Taiwan is right at this moment? How close are we to a potentially hot conflict there?

Well, the risk is high if we don't deliver. For how high do you believe the risk of... My apologies, sir. That was Siri interrupting us. Always listening, always on. Your friend, Siri.

- Go ahead. - Sorry. I think the risk of escalation is high if we don't provide effective deterrence, if we don't help show that there is a better path forward for the PRC in this region. And as we discussed today in every one of our meetings, the leaders here in Taiwan and the leaders in the PRC, principally Xi Jinping, are watching Russia's aggression against Ukraine and what the consequences are.

If Russia succeeds in overrunning Ukraine and in crushing their resistance to Russian aggression, I think, and everyone we met with today here thinks, that that will teach Xi Jinping that he can successfully overrun Taiwan by force. So I think that was always in the backdrop as we were debating the important supplemental appropriations bill that

The Congress just passed and President Biden just signed into law. If we show determination, if we show that other countries in this region that are democracies are also determined to support Ukraine and support Taiwan, I think we have a solid chance of deflecting the possibility of open aggression by the PRC.

On another foreign policy issue, the White House yesterday said that they do not believe that Israel has crossed the president's red line in Rafah, even as we've reported that American munitions have been linked to some of those tragic strikes that killed Gazans in a refugee camp that was supposed to be a safe zone outside Gaza. Do you think that the red line has been crossed?

Well, I think that's a determination President Biden must make. And apparently, according to his spokespeople, has made that this most recent incident did not cross the generally shared view that a large scale invasion of Rafah without allowing for civilians to relocate is an unacceptable use of American weaponry against a legitimate target, Hamas and Hamas fighters.

If I understand correctly, and I've been on travel, Casey, but Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly said that this was a tragic mistake and was launching an investigation of the targeting. There were legitimate targets to Hamas senior operatives, but there were too many civilian deaths in this incident, as I understand it from the reporting that I've seen. Casey, it just reminds all of us

that there are both ongoing legitimate targets for Israel in Gaza, the Hamas, fighters who are still holding dozens and dozens of hostages and continuing to launch rockets at Israel,

and over a million innocent civilians in the way that Israel has an obligation to allow to move and to provide humanitarian assistance. My concern here principally, Casey, is that there just aren't enough routes for humanitarian assistance to get in. There's too much suffering and there needs to be a change in direction here if Israel is ultimately going to be successful.

Senator, let me ask you to put your campaign co-chairman hat on for just a second. We saw the Biden campaign in the form of Robert De Niro show up outside the courthouse yesterday in lower Manhattan, which resulted in a number of profanities and confrontation between De Niro and some Trump supporters. My question for you is, do you think that it's smart for the Biden campaign

to be outside the courthouse talking politics. The Trump campaign criticism is that shows that the trial is political. On the flip side, I'm curious, do you think that the Biden campaign should be even more aggressive than that they've been considering the state of the polls? - Well, I haven't thought about this much, Casey, but I'll say this, for the last three weeks,

literally 24/7. It's been the only thing that's been covered on this network. So I appreciate the chance to talk about Taiwan. I appreciate the chance to talk about other foreign policy concerns, the war in Gaza.

But I suspect that Robert De Niro, who's a New Yorker, went to the trial in part because there's so much press there. If you look at the image you've got up on the TV right now, there are more microphones there than there are in the entire island nation of Taiwan. So I suspect he's there because you're there.

Well, I appreciate you coming on to talk about any number of topics. And I hope you do see that we are we have a broader lens here in the morning. I am very grateful to you and your colleagues for taking the time to talk out of your trip to talk to us about this. Senator Coons, thank you very much. Thanks, Casey. Great to be out with you. Thank you. All right. Let's turn out of this. One thing one thing I want to say, one thing I want to say.

They always gonna whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures. Trump gonna shout the wins for all of us. Make America great again. Alright, as he prepares for a verdict to come down in his hush money trial, Donald Trump is increasingly aligning himself, the New York Times writes, with convicted criminals and those also facing criminal charges. In just the past week, Trump has rallied alongside Chef G and Sleepy Halo, two rappers accused of conspiracy to commit murder,

Trump has also pledged to commute the sentence of internet drug dealer Ross Ulbricht and appeared backstage with the rapper Afro Man who has admitted to punching a woman. And as he leans into what the New York Times calls his outlaw image, he is of course also hawking his own mugshot merch. This despite branding himself repeatedly in the past as the law and order candidate.

Protect them from being destroyed by the radical left for taking strong actions on crime. We're going to protect our police. Crime is rampant all over the place. We have to go back to being a country of law and order. We are going to be very tough on crime. We have to bring in the death penalty if we want to stop the infestation of drugs coming into our country.

I will say, Matt Gorman, it is a bit of a contradictory set of messages. You know, it's one of those things where I think, at least with the mugshot, if you have a weakness, it's out there, turn it into a strength. I think what you saw there, at least, was a couple of kind of constituencies coming into play and how they're kind of trying at least to be brought into the Trump tent. You saw Ross Ulbrich, Afro Man. I can't believe I just said Afro Man, a national program. I know. Well, now you need a reference to Because I Got High.

I'll vote for Trump, but then I got high, maybe? I don't know. I mean, isn't Afro Man got some Libertarian votes? But he's trying to get the Libertarian vote. There you go. You have also, I mean, the South Bronx rally was a large part about, I think, a broader significant minority voters that they're going to really compete for them. So in a way, these kind of moves over the last week is a coagulation of the Trump campaign trying to get a lot of people into the tent from different areas that might not have been talked to yet. Yeah, but...

It is an apparent contradiction here. I mean, I remember, you know, after the protests and rioting in Portland in 2020 and immediately the message from the Trump campaign was about law and order and sort of portraying Biden as sort of a leader that would oversee disorder and chaos. It does seem to depend on which side you're on. Right, right. But at the same time, I mean, on the given day, you might hear...

The Trump campaign attacked the Biden campaign over crime. Crime is declining. You might hear him frame himself as a law and order president, at the same time also praise January 6th defendants, right? So we have these sort of two sides here, and they are at conflict with one another. It's not...

The answer is what you said, Casey, which is if you are a supporter of Donald Trump, however you got there, then he will say good things about you. He will invite you on stage. It happened with Ron DeSantis. It happened with these two rappers. And that's the only thing that they really have in common. But I do think it is hard to say that you're the party of law and order, you're the candidate of law and order, when you're standing on stage with people who are

charged in a conspiracy to commit multiple murders, when you are standing up at rallies and saluting people who rioted at the Capitol on January 6 and attacked police officers. When you did all these things, it does mean that you are a party of law and order when it suits you. By the way, when he is sitting in a criminal trial in Manhattan right now.

Yeah, it's interesting. Something is clicking with black and brown men and Donald Trump, at least as the polling suggests now, that they are at least intrigued by him in a way they haven't been in past elections. Now, I've read that...

the idea of Trump being on trial resonates with black people and that's ludicrous. But still something messaging wise isn't working for Joe Biden and is working for Donald Trump when it comes, particularly to black and brown men, black and brown people generally, but-

black and brown man what do you think that's that's a real concern I don't know if when you talk to sort of Democrats and campaign for safe that on the buying side is if the concern is about black and swinging over to Trump as much again as it is about a lack of enthusiasm and staying home also I think when we talk about sort of conversations around around voters and demographics

it's important to note that's not a monolith there's a generational divide to you and a bit more lack of enthusiasm around younger black men to so Kamala Harris has spent a lot of time trying to think about this and try to do stuff about it what she said in a bunch of meetings that reported this is that she says she doesn't think that they're going to lose to Donald Trump with black men but they're going to lose maybe to the couch and that's where that's your point Elliot

All right, very interesting. And now I will leave you with this. Do you remember this? It's a double-decker airplane seat prototype that launched 1,000 memes last year. The design was widely panned. It seems very cramped, also safety and accessibility concerns. It made a lot of people wonder,

If the designer had ever actually flown on an airplane, the designer behind them is actually back. And now there is a luxury twist that has more room, seats that can go fully horizontal. But the vision behind the new first class version of the design remains the same, removing the overhead locker to create two levels of airplane seating in one cabin with one passenger seated directly below another.

It's like a whole new version of, you know, the guy that lives in the apartment. You bang in the room, get them to be quiet. All right. On that note, thanks to you guys. I appreciate you being here. Thanks to all of you for watching. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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