The Art of the Deal?
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It is Tuesday, May 13th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. The art of the deal, a live look right now. President Trump getting the royal treatment in Saudi Arabia, of course, as he kicks off his trip to the Middle East with a big goal in mind, new business. Plus, tariffs under threat, how an obscure court could bring the trade war to an abrupt halt. Also, nearly a decade after she was tied up and held at gunpoint, Kim Kardashian set to tell her story in court.

And first there was quiet quitting. Now it's conscious unbossing. The latest work trend that could change the dynamics of the office as we know it. It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. You were looking at live pictures out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting with diplomats at the Royal Palace at this hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in for Adi Kornish today. Nice to have you with us.

We do begin with President Trump's arrival in Saudi Arabia this morning. This, of course, is the first major international trip of his second term. His target, partnerships and business deals. The president, as you see there, meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They do plan to sign agreements. We're told the details, though, a bit thin at the moment. Overshadowing this trip, of course, is that $400 million plane that Qatar's royal family reportedly offered to the president.

As a businessman, some people may look at this and say, have you ever been given a gift worth millions of dollars and then not received any? It's not a gift to me. It's a gift to the Department of Defense.

Well, that gift is raising serious legal and ethical questions and also sparking pushback from members of the president's own party. Senator Shelley Moore Capito saying she'd be checking for bugs. Senator John Kennedy questions the legality of it. Senator Josh Hawley says it would be better if Air Force One were a quote big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America.

LET'S BRING IN OUR GROUP CHAT. SO NICE TO HAVE ALL OF YOU HERE. THIS IS THE FIRST FOREIGN TRIP FOR THE PRESIDENT'S SECOND TERM.

Starting off in Saudi Arabia, and yet Phil, I'm gonna start this with you, as we look at everything that is coming into play now, these pictures, a big royal welcome, we've got a big purple carpet, this plane is really going to dominate and certainly dominated the conversation ahead of this trip.

How damaging is that to potential deals? - I think what it does actually is it frames this entire trip. If you watch what's been going on right now, when you came on air, President Trump and Mohammed bin Salman were talking to Travis Klonick, the co-founder of Uber. We have seen a steady line of not just top officials from both sides, but also from CEOs, executives, the most wealthy US business people in America are in this delegation on this trip with the sole purpose and drive towards making deals.

This is a transactional presidency. This is a presidency that has made very clear that top line numbers, $7 trillion in domestic investment has been the key behind the scenes that people like Howard Lutnick have been pushing CEOs to try and reach in the lead up to this. Now they're pushing that into the Middle East as well. The plane certainly looks

As Republicans are saying, probably like that's not what's supposed to happen. And yet I think that's going to be the through line of what we see over the course of these kind of three country swing in the next couple of days. So when you say through line, we look at that plane, the through line, Ashley, in some ways being. So what am I getting here? There is an art of a deal, right? There's a give and there's a take. Is that really the message the U.S. should be sending right now?

Well, no, but I think this has been a complete interest of his from the beginning. I mean, obviously, he's put a huge emphasis on the Middle East, and I think he's going to continue to, and not just for deal reasons, but also for diplomatic reasons. But I'm not convinced. We have to remember this president is the best president to have us all divert, like look at another area when something else is going on over here.

I'm not convinced this plane thing is real. I am convinced that he's floating this because he's really, really mad right now that the Air Force One plane has not been done in eight years. And is this more of a little bit of a threat? But you're right. I mean, it's taking the air out of the room. I'm just it's kind of like I'm running for a third term to get out of signal gate conversation. I mean, this is what we're talking about. Maybe I don't want to talk about the

fact that the China deal isn't really a deal, right? Or you had to pull back on tariffs to the point of things being ready earlier. The security concerns, the legal issues, the ethical concerns, just to make this plane sort of ready, if you will, and secure would take a number of years in and of itself. Chuck, when we look at the pushback we've seen, again, not just from Republicans, but from Democrats,

There is a call for ethics investigations, right? A letter to the GAO from Congressman Richie Torres that Axios was reporting on. They're going to look into this. What does any of that do? Even if you have the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, people saying, yeah, we should look into this. And?

Normally, not just one thing with Donald Trump is enough. It's one thing and the next thing and the next thing. And I think he does that, to my sister's point, on purpose sometimes. But on this one, it's kind of people understand big, giant airplanes from foreign countries. They may not understand what the CBO is or what the Office of Budget Management does, but they understand a big airplane that comes from another country. The first thing that an old country boy like me would say is like, I wonder if they could put bugs in something like that.

'cause it seemed like they could listen to everything that we're saying. It's something very elementary as the elementary part of this newscast this morning. But seriously, when you think about what Democrats are talking about, it's just one another thing. And I think a lot of this foreign trip. If you look at who's there right now, and that's what we were talking about in the green room, it looks like everybody is there from this White House. Is there anybody left here in DC? The entire cabinets there practically there are a lot of people for the administration. There are a number of business leaders. As you point out, Elon Musk supposed to be there. The head of Nvidia as well. This is also in the delegation. I mean, no idea why, but.

Just in case. He's the SolarCity guy, so maybe it's for the solar reasons. But in terms of all of that, when you look at to the point of is this a distraction, Chuck, what do you think it's distracting from? There's a big budget going on right now where they're talking about cutting $16 billion out of Medicaid. That's just one thing, but there's so many other things on top of that thing.

Phil, what are you watching for to come out of this meeting? When you talked about the through line, we talked about the deals. We know there's supposed to be an agreement. But what specifically are we anticipating is going to be connected to those big zeros? So you will see a lot of pledges for investment. There's no question about that. The U.S. businessmen that are over there, there's also a Saudi business delegation that is

In every stop on this trip, there are explicit efforts and have been a lot of groundwork laid in advance of this trip to set up for trillions, not billions, trillions of dollars in commitments. They know how important that is to the president, these foreign leaders, and they plan to give him that or put that on the table.

I think what's more important is this is not just a purely transactional business dollars and cents. This is a diplomatic effort. This is now kind of the linchpin part of the president's diplomatic strategy. If you look at everything that's been going on in the world in the Middle East, but also with China, with Syria, with kind of across the board, Mohammed bin Salman is a critical, essential player. Qatar is a critical, essential player. The UAE, critical, essential players. They have been very quiet.

in this part of the world over the course of the first 125 days of the Trump presidency. Behind the scenes, they have not. And I think the kind of full scale of what's happening right now and how the center stage of the entire diplomatic universe is where the president is, that's going to be what to watch. Really quick on that point. Of course, the president is not going to Israel. This has come up, right? We saw with the release of Adon Alexander that that was basically a deal where Israel was not part of it. The fact that

I don't know what you want to refer to it as, but this change in the relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and frankly the importance when you look at this trip, what does that tell you about the focus moving forward?

Well, I think, I mean, listen, we're going to be friends with Israel forever. Obviously, Netanyahu has his own issues at home and abroad. But I think that they know exactly what we're doing in the Middle East. And I think that the president showing the world that he's putting his arms around this part of the country

the world and part of the region is something that's very telling. But the one thing I want to say to go back at, which I know you'll appreciate on this, is CFIUS. One of the things that's supposed to be announced this trip is the CFIUS is the foreign investment in the United States. It's a huge process, foreign investment. There's supposed to be a deal with the three in the region that it's going to be easier. He's going to make it easier for those three countries to make foreign investment in the United States. That's huge in regards to a national security perspective. Yeah. Checked you out my last word.

I think that keep your eye on the ball. He wants you to be watching him over there. What's going on right here is making a lot of news in Congress this week. There's so much news coming out of the Congress right now, and he's overseas. We're being inundated with news. We are. Well, it's a good thing that that's what we're here to talk about is news. So there will be no shortage. So stay with us for more on that. So to come here on CNN this morning, the last known living American hostage freed from Hamas captivity, the emotional moment Adan Alexander was reunited with his family.

Plus, how deputies finally managed to distract two kids playing with a loaded gun. And the Trump administration closing off the U.S. to nearly all refugees except for one key group. Why the president is fast-tracking white South Africans. White South Africans? That's the only group we're opening? What? You already have one! What? What?

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14 minutes past the hour now. Here's your morning roundup. What a moment. The emotional video. That is the moment, of course, the last known living American hosta in Gaza was reunited with his family. That hug. Nothing like that for his mom and for him. 21 year old Don Alexander is free after being held by Hamas for more than 19 months.

Deputies in Albuquerque disarming two children, seven and nine years old, who are playing with a loaded gun. So this is police drone video. You can actually hear on the video the deputies urging the kids to put those guns down. One of the boys even pulled the trigger. The weapon, thankfully, malfunctioned. Eventually, officers fired a non-lethal round in an effort to distract them so they could then come in and grab the gun, police say, belongs to the boy's father.

some major setbacks for the morning commute in the Baltimore area today. A seven alarm fire halting service on several train lines, including Amtrak service into Washington D. C. Crews have been working to put out the fire at a vacant mattress warehouse for nearly 12 hours. Now you can see in some of this video here from the citizen app, you can see that heavy smoke. No word yet on what caused the blaze.

And the Dallas Mavericks celebrating a win in the NBA draft lottery, scoring the first overall pick next month. The Mavs managed to win despite having a less than 2% chance to get that number one spot. Wonder how Cooper Flagg feels about Texas. Still to come here on CNN this morning, Kim Kardashian said to testify in Paris against the men suspected of robbing her at gunpoint nearly a decade ago. Plus, there was quiet quitting. Now the next generation of workers may be consciously unbossing.

We're going to break that down. Plus, we are continuing to monitor President Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Saudi's crown prince. We'll take a closer look at this crucial visit to the Middle East coming up.

Going off script here with a look at the future of work, especially when it comes to Gen Z. What's in? More freedom, more control over their time, a better work-life balance, if you will. Out? The headache and stress of leadership roles. A little something that's being achieved by consciously unbossing. Joining me now to explain is Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer for Culture Partners. Jessica, good to have you here with us. So consciously unbossing. This is I don't want to talk to my boss or deal with my boss or I don't want to be a boss.

I don't want to be a boss. I am opting out of the whole management leadership track and I've decided to do something differently with my time. I think a lot of people have figured out that the command and control approach to leadership is not working. And so they're saying it's just not for

It's a conscious decision though, right? So it's purpose-driven. And I don't want your viewers to get intellectually lazy now and think, oh, this is because Gen Z is lazy and they don't wanna work. And that's not it because there are also leaders who are choosing to stay in their leadership position but to do leadership differently, to not be viewed as the boss but to do a sort of decentralized leadership approach that perhaps resonates more with people today.

So maybe it resonates more because, look, I'm with you. I think probably we may all jump to or many of us jump to the, well, this sounds lazy. Nobody wants to work. They don't want to step up. They don't want to work hard. But maybe there is something to be learned here, right, that there's a better way to do things. But can you actually operate, especially in this environment where we are going to see a major gap in leadership in the coming years just because of the aging population? Can you operate without true leadership? I mean, it's lovely to all be friends, but someone's got to make a decision.

Yeah, absolutely. But you're seeing a lot of headlines right now about companies who are cutting out all of the middle management in their organizations with the advent of AI. We have more corporate transparency than we ever have before. So the key question for CEOs right now is how do I have decentralized leadership, but also make sure that accountability stays strong? Accountability is the holy grail for corporations.

We need to have accountability at all levels, but most people don't want to take accountability because we only hold people accountable when something goes wrong, right? And so we need to rethink the way we approach accountability and make it positive accountability, which means how can I reframe this so that it's more about making a personal choice to focus on what I can control to take the steps necessary to drive key results instead of who's at fault here. So part of that is also, I would imagine,

looking at better engaging, especially younger employees, not only in their daily job, but getting them to reengage and invest in the idea of the future of this company and wanting to be a part of it. Yeah, absolutely. So you have to create clarity, alignment and accountability around your purpose, your strategy and your culture to get results. That is the key. And doing all of those things is hard. Being a great leader is hard. I think a lot of young people today have seen bad leaders and thought,

I don't want to do it. It's too hard to do it right. You see so many people sending out inauthentic messages. For example, we're going to be AI first, but people first. And then people see that they realize it's not really true. They feel like leaders are corporate shills and it's hard to get right. It is a very delicate balancing act. And so some people saying, you know what, I don't want to work that hard. I'm OK with that. I've made that choice in my career. It wasn't laziness. It was just my energy going in a different direction.

There you go. Energy going in a different direction. Jessica, appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks so much. So to come here on CNN this morning, President Trump's crucial trip to the Middle East underway at this moment. He's greeting big tech CEOs with Saudi Arabia's crown prince at this hour, what the president hopes to accomplish during this visit. Plus, the budget battle divide, why some members of the president's own party are not on board with his big, beautiful bill.

And will Eric and Lyle Menendez see freedom after 30 years in prison? Good Tuesday morning. Just about half past the hour now. I'm Erica Hill in for Adi Cornish. Thanks for being with me. Here's what's happening right now. President Trump is in Saudi Arabia where he's meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He arrived there just a few hours ago. Plenty of pomp and circumstance to greet the president. He also plans to speak today at a U.S.-Saudi investment forum. We'll talk a little bit more about his trip ahead here.

Right now, are President Trump's tariffs unconstitutional? The levies getting their first big test today in a little-known court in Manhattan, the Court of International Trade, said to hear arguments on whether the president actually has the power to impose those tariffs.

And a short time from now, Kim Kardashian will face the people accused of tying her up with duct tape and plastic ties, robbing her at gunpoint. She's set to testify in a Paris court against the so-called Grandpa Gang. They're accused of stealing millions of dollars in jewelry from her nearly nine years ago. We are, of course, closely following the first major international trip of President Trump's second term. Moments ago, he and the Saudi crown prince are meeting with a long lineup of powerful business leaders, including Elon Musk.

It's being built as an opportunity to really strengthen the ties, of course, with three key Middle Eastern allies, while also demonstrating, the president hopes, his deal-making skills on the world stage. The New York Times putting it this way, President Trump will tour the Gulf this week in search of one thing above all else, business deals, planes, nuclear power, artificial intelligence investments, arms, anything that puts a signature on the bottom of a page.

He will also make his way to Qatar and to the UAE on this trip. Josh Rogin joins me now. He's the lead global security analyst for The Washington Post Intelligence. Josh, good to see you. As always, we look at this, that idea that this trip is really about enhancing the president's image as a dealmaker. What do you anticipate those deals will look like for him?

Well, Erica, the president has two sets of deals in mind. One category is Saudi investments in the United States. This is part of President Trump's drive to get every country in the world to invest in manufacturing in the U.S.

He wants $1 trillion worth of investment. They'll announce hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment. How much of that actually happens is another story. And then the other side of these deals are the dozens of U.S. executives that he's bringing to Saudi Arabia to do business in Saudi Arabia. That includes Elon Musk, but also the CEOs of NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, you name it. They'll all be there, all the tech people.

executives, all the tech titans, because they want to do deals in Saudi Arabia that involve AI, data storage, cloud computing, energy, Bitcoin, all of that stuff. So that's a big agenda. And again, we'll see how much he can actually get done and then how much of that actually happens after he...

after he leaves. How much does he need in terms of a real win? Right. And I say that in the context of coming off of this sort of agreement with China. Right. Which is being billed as one thing, not not surprisingly by the White House, something else by China and a number of other folks. How does he what does he need in terms of a concrete win, a concrete deal to show?

Right. Well, I think, you know, as we saw with the China deal, there are sort of there's sort of a short term effect and a long term effect. Even though there was no real trade deal with China, the fact that they de-escalated from the maximalist tariffs made the markets happy.

uh in the long term it probably won't pan out the way that they say it will same thing with the gulf deals if they announce a bunch of things the markets will be happy the stocks of these companies will go up for a while but if they don't pan out over the long run then it won't really be a win after all but in this world in this news cycle as you know erica uh

One day of news is probably the most that anyone can expect out of any trip. So I think for Trump, that's how he thinks of it as a short term win. And we'll worry about the long term later. Yeah. I mean, one day you're lucky if you get an hour sometimes, Josh, let's be honest here. Is there also a lesson for other countries in looking at.

Yes, there will be a lot of focus on these next few days on this trip. But looking at even how China played out, what is the lesson that other countries are getting in terms of making those deals with the U.S.?

Right. I think if I were any country in the world and looking at the China negotiation, the lesson would be just to don't give in to Trump, just wait. And eventually they'll fold because that's exactly what Xi Jinping did. He just stood his ground and he just waited for the pressure on the U.S. economy to bring the Trump administration to him. And essentially the Trump administration folded. So if I were any other government in the world, that would be the lesson is, uh,

Trump will threaten a bunch of stuff, and then if you just wait long enough, if the pain's high enough, he'll fold. Now, the lesson for the Gulf trip is a little different. The lesson for the Gulf trip, as we're seeing, is just throw a bunch of money at Trump and his family and his friends and the businessmen that he has in tow. And the fact that President Trump is accepting a $400 million deal

jet as a gift from the royal family of Qatar kind of shows that's a signal to every country that if they want to get in good with Trump, just give him something very shiny and expensive. Again, that's not necessarily legal. It's not necessarily ethical, but that's the clear message that I think the Gulf trip is showing at least so far. Yeah. Some interesting strategies at play. That's for sure. Josh, good to talk to you as always. Thank you.

Well, the president just may be getting his one big beautiful bill to pay for his agenda if House Republicans can get it across the finish line. The key word there, of course, is if. The bill delivers on several of President Trump's campaign promises, including scrapping federal taxes on tips, overtime pay and car loan interest. Not everyone that was on board. There is some real division amongst Republicans.

I don't want to be mean. And I think any time it looks like we're actually hurting people, that's going to piss off the American population. And if you piss them off, they're probably not going to vote for you. My colleagues who do not want to address that are burying their head in the sand and already trying to worry about elections next year when the best way to win elections is to actually deliver. We have to address Medicaid.

My colleagues who are saying that they won't touch it are the same colleagues, by the way, who want their salt caps increased. What do you say to Chip Roy? Boo-hoo on that. Here you go. Boo-hoo on that from recovering Congressman Nick Lillet at the end there, who reiterated his dislike of the bill on X, saying he is still a, and I am quoting, hell no. The group chat is back. Chuck, I can see you out of the corner of my eye just nodding along as we heard from all.

all of those lawmakers there. You're just plotting the next commercial in your head. - You know what Democrats like is this Republican on Republican crime that I'm watching. I was just sitting back eating my popcorn. Now look, there's a lot of differences between not only the Republican caucus, but the Democratic caucus. I will remind everybody here, I'm the campaign guy, there are 14 congressional seats right now that Democrats sit in that Donald Trump won. So there's some uneasiness on our side of the board as well, 'cause there's a lot of marginal seats where lots of folks are looking. These New York and California Republicans

are in some of the highest Democratic seats out there. You talk about this local salt tax and all the things that are going on with them against my good old friend from Texas, Chip Roy. You have way too juxtaposed, if I use that word right, to what you're looking at here.

- I think he did. We're gonna give him a yes on that one, right? - Yes, I think he did. - Consensus. How much of a struggle is this then for Republicans at this point? - Listen, it's tough. I mean, we were talking about this in the break. First of all, we have to remember these guys are negotiating in public what they're trying, you know, they're trying to take positions that will be beneficial to their districts.

But what's shocking to me is, in a good and bad way, listen, they're trying to take on really, really hard issues, especially with entitlement. I think everyone agrees it's a horrible, horrible spending issue for the government. But House Republicans are walking the plank on taking this vote. And whether you agree or not with the Medicaid work requirements that they're putting in, we don't need to go into all the details, the message that you're going to have, which you should as a Democrat consultant, is no.

Republicans, yep, cut Medicaid. We don't like people. Every time I make another commercial with them taking grandma in her wheelchair and just pushing her off the cliff. Right. Oof. He's not kidding. That was an actual commercial during Paul Ryan days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you make one? But also, you know, in the group chat in the break, bringing people behind the scenes here, you were also making a note, Phil, that this is, there is so much here that is politically tone deaf, that

that's being missed. And that's one of the reasons that we're also in this moment is trying to push things through, trying to do what the president wants, you know, at the top of the list there, but ignoring everything else that is happening and ignoring what people are saying. Yeah. And also, you know, it's getting rough when Monteragio is not wearing a tie on Capitol Hill. I just want to point out that was unsettling for me. I wasn't sure just how difficult. We're in it now if Raji is not wearing a tie.

I think what people need to understand, you step back and you realize the president has a lot of red lines that his administration's meat clear has to be in the big beautiful bill. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, deductions for car loans. These are things that cost a lot of money.

There are priorities that both Senate Republicans and House Republicans have on their own that they are trying to squeeze in to this big, beautiful bill. This bill is going to cost a lot of money as is because you're extending those 2017 tax cuts while including the president's must-have red line items on taxes as well. And you're trying to squeeze this all into a procedural process that is very, very difficult.

At the start, if everything was going great and all 220 Republicans in the House and 53 Republicans in the Senate were in complete and total alignment on everything, it was going to be hard. That obviously is not the case, which makes it extremely difficult. The one thing that everybody has to keep in mind is the view inside the White House has long been they ain't got no other choice.

whatever we come up with everybody's gonna have to vote yes because if you vote no you're killing the cornerstone of the president's agenda and the only thing you can take to voters at the midterms democrats are probably saying hey either way you want to go we're happy to take that we think we can win on it no matter what you do you speaking of our friend manu raju who's following your lead apparently without a tie i also just want to play another moment that he had in speaking with i believe it's with senator rand paul i want to take a massive automatic tax increase off the table but

without returning to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending, I don't see any way I can support more tax cuts and more deficit spending. We should not be increasing deficit. So Ron Johnson there. We know there are a minimal number of votes that can be lost here. What do the next few days, hours look like?

Well, first of all, I would hate to be on the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee today because they're going to be up all night. So that's they're going to get these probably through committee. They go to a procedural thing called Rules Committee on Monday. I don't want to go to in the details. And then they're trying to they're going to try to vote on this on Tuesday. And then everyone goes home for Memorial Day. You come back and you try to do in the Senate. But with Ron Johnson there, you've Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, Rand Paul that are president.

pretty big budget hawks. Rand Paul's never going to vote for this bill, no matter what. So you lose one vote off the top. And then you've got the Murkowski-Collins on the moderate side and McConnell on the moderate side. It's going to be very difficult. Very difficult. I mean, it's tight. It's certainly not the...

Not the most. We see it all the time, frankly. It is such a tight window. Right. That has been, you know, even if it's been moved a little bit, but you're up against this clock, which, again, to Phil's point, I mean, this is you might as well be serving up the Democrats on a silver platter at this point. And it's the only time you really ever see anything happen in Washington is around deadlines. And these folks cannot put a schedule together to save their life, to get things done. They're marking up this week. We've been talking about it for those of us in D.C. and talking about this for months. They keep saying we're going to.

because the margins are so thin and then within the Republican Congress you have all these different ideological thinking patterns that are just opposite of each other so they're really thinking that they can rely on a few of those Democrats I just talked about to quote-unquote bail them out and I don't think they'll be there this time. Not sure they'll be there. We're going to take a quick break.

you know you want you want to have a rules committee I actually as you started talking about that thinking Mattingly behind me here is living going there okay just like Sisyphus you want me to talk about this reconciliation in general your credit parliamentarian to your credit how many times over the last several years have I said to you thank God for your notes Phil Mattingly sends a mean note

to the entire CNN news department. You and three other people. Mapping it out. Appreciation. I paid them and you're welcome. Still to come here on CNN this morning, it is day two in the trial against Sean Diddy Combs, the key witness. His former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, expected to take the stand today. That's ahead. Plus, how the CEO of a major airline is now trying to convince you it's safe to fly. More from the group chat app.

Freak offs, baby oil, domestic violence. All of these being addressed during the federal sex trafficking trial of rap mogul Sean Diddy Combs on day one. This morning, everyone will return to that courtroom. The first witnesses to take the stand on Monday were counting very graphic, explicit details at times. One of them saying that Diddy paid him to have sex with his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, on several occasions. And also saying that at times the witness says that he saw Diddy abusing Ventura.

I do want to warn you, this next video is disturbing. It was played in court. You may have seen it here after it was published by CNN last year. This is a 2016 hotel incident. You see Sean Combs in the towel there dragging, beating Ventura in a hallway. His lawyers have called that video indefensible. But they say it shows domestic violence, not the sex trafficking charges which Combs is facing at trial. The court artist summed up the defense's arguments so far. Take a listen.

They are saying this was domestic abuse. This was ugly. This was unconscionable. This was unforgivable. But it wasn't what he's being charged with here. This isn't what he's on trial for. And, you know, maybe it will just be a bump, but it's, you know, it's a pretty dang memorable bump.

Joining me now, Imran Ansari, trial attorney and former prosecutor. He represented Harvey Weinstein in numerous civil lawsuits. Imran, when we look at this, as we just heard from the sketch room artist there, and as I've heard from a number of attorneys over the last several hours, this is what you need to do as a defense, right? You are going to lean into this video. It is uncomfortable. It is explicit. But leaning into those moments and making the case, this is not why my client is on trial.

That being said, how much does that linger? How much will all of that stay with this jury even after just day one? Well, I think that's the theme from the defense standpoint that's going to have to carry two summations and ultimately when the jury deliberates. And when you have ugly facts and evidence like that video from a defense standpoint, you have to embrace it and then differentiate it from the actual charges and crimes

uh... that uh... that your client is charged with and that's what we see the defense team for diddy doing here you can't escape that video it's really hard to watch it's ugly uh... but it's going to be something that they're going to have to contend with throughout the course of the trial and the strategy saying that this is domestic violence not sex trafficking is something that they're going to have to push until the final day before that jury they've all you know there's also the

not just that, yes, this is domestic violence, it's not what we're here for, but also that these are consulting, consenting adults rather. When Cassie Ventura takes the stand, how do you anticipate that questioning will go from the defense side, given that they're saying, look, you were a willing participant here.

It's going, well, they're going to have to treat Cassie Ventura very gently on cross-examination. I expect the prosecution is going to put her before that jury. She's going to have a very compelling set of facts to testify to before that jury. And we're going to see that video played. And we're going to probably see that video played time and time again. We saw that with the George Floyd video in the trial yesterday.

against Derek Chauvin. And I think we're going to see that here in this case. It's an ugly piece of evidence, but it's powerful for the prosecution. When you have Cassie Ventura on the stand, the defense is going to have to look at that witness and treat her gently. You don't want to put the jury off with cross-examination. But then again, they're going to have to do the job they have to do for Diddy from a defense standpoint.

And that is get out that this was all consensual. She knew exactly what she was getting into in terms of these sexual encounters and that it is not a crime. The prosecution, on the other hand, is going to be telling the jury another set of facts.

As we are watching that, also another case in Paris today. Kim Kardashian said to take the stand. She's going to testify about the time that she was the victim of an armed robbery in Paris. This was nearly a decade ago. She spoke out with David Letterman on his Netflix show. Take a listen. Before he ducted my eyes because that was the last thing, he...

I saw he found my whole jewelry box and like held it up like, aha, you know, like we got it. But I kept on looking at the concierge because I didn't know who he was. And I'm like, what is happening? Are we going to die? Just tell them I have children. Like I have babies. I have a husband. I have a family. Like I have to get home. Tell them take anything. I'll never say like I saw them like take everything.

So you hear her talking about it there. It's fascinating. You know, our colleague in Paris, Saskia Vandorn, has done some great reporting on this leading up to the trial. And it is really interesting the reaction that there was in France versus the reaction in some ways that there was in the U.S. at the time when this happened. What are you anticipating out of this trial?

I mean, this is a serious incident. And we see Kim Kardashian is easily to associate with her with some lighter subjects. But what happened to her in Paris, the allegations against, I think, these 10 defendants there, it's a pretty serious crime with her being essentially banished

and them stealing thousands, if not millions, worth of material from her. So I think it's going to be interesting to see her take the stand in France. Of course, she's going to be translating or testifying there with a translator, but she's taking it seriously. She's flying back there. She's a willing witness for the prosecution there, and she wants to see justice. She said that

time and time again. It's been a traumatic experience for her. So I think she's going to be taking the stand and telling the court exactly what happened to her. And it was a serious incident. Imran Ansari, good to have you here this morning. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

52 minutes, almost 53 past the hour now. Here's your morning roundup today. The Menendez brothers facing the possibility of freedom after seven months of hearings and court filings. A two day resentencing hearing will begin. Lyle and Eric Menendez are both serving life sentences for killing their parents in 1989. This is just one of several avenues, of course, in their bid for freedom. Their attorneys are also pursuing a new trial.

For the first time, Taiwan is testing a U.S.-supplied rocket system like the one Ukraine has used against Russia. Taiwan could use this to hit targets in China if there is a war between the two. Taiwan has faced military pressure from China as Taiwan has rejected its sovereignty claims on the island.

United Airlines CEO says it is absolutely safe to fly. That's after, of course, a series of air traffic control issues has led to major delays and cancellations at Newark Airport. In an effort to help ease some of those problems, United cut about 35 flights in and out of Newark. 50 white South Africans granted refugee status by the Trump administration are now on U.S. soil.

Thank you, Mr. Trump. The administration expediting their processing as refugees for alleged discrimination. We've been forgotten. It's very hard for us to travel. It's very hard for us to get visas. So to suddenly hear that a country like the United States is offering us refugee status was a really big deal. And I was so excited. I felt so relieved. It just felt like a lifeline.

The president of South Africa, though, strongly rejects with the claims of why they need this refugee status.

Those people who have fled are not being persecuted, they are not being hounded, they are not being treated badly and they are leaving ostensibly because they don't want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country in accordance with our constitution.

So all of this, of course, comes as the White House has suspended refugee resettlement for pretty much everybody else, including people fleeing famine and war. The group chat is back. It is remarkable, right? So remember on Inauguration Day, the changes that were made. Look at my notes here. In terms of refugees, there's been a real pushback, right, for fast-tracking these white South Africans, especially because, as we heard there, there are also some questions about the claims of what they're actually fleeing and what they experienced.

and yet what's not happening for, say, Afghans who helped the U.S. or even their family members. Phil, what are you hearing in terms of the political calculus here? Is there any?

Not that I can find. I think what's so striking is the split screen yesterday of announcing publicly that they are taking away temporary protected status for Afghans. The same exact day that they pretty much the only proactive effort they've made to welcome refugees or to ease the process for refugees coming into the country is for these individuals. The president making very clear yesterday at his press conference that or in his remarks to the press, this isn't about race. This isn't about what they look like, their height, their weight, anything like that.

It's impossible to make that distinction when this is very much a focus and fascination fixation for right-wing individuals. Members of his administration, before they came into office, have been among those individuals. And the fact of the matter is that the president is announcing in public that this is a genocide, something that historically takes months of bureaucratic infighting to decide over that declination. And he's just saying it out loud when there's not necessarily explicit evidence that that's the case. Right.

I'm not really sure how else to frame it other than it doesn't really track with any other logic. - It also typically takes months, if not years, to vet refugees, right, before they are brought to the US. Another important point, there was always a way of doing things. It's fascinating to me too that you have the Episcopal Church coming out and saying after nearly 40 years of partnering, of working with the government to help resettle refugees, whether it's housing help, helping with jobs, they're essentially saying we're out at this moment.

How do you spin that if you're a Republican? You say, well, we don't want you anyway. I mean, it sends a very big message. And I do. Yes, it does. And, you know, he's been having this issue with South Africa since he came to office. Obviously, there's many that believe it's because Elon's in his ear. We don't know. I don't know that. However, the thing that's kind of near and dear to my heart, especially since the Bush days, is, you know, we spent a lot of time with women and girls in Afghanistan and the Taliban coming back.

obviously as they are now. And the women and girls especially, not that I don't care about the men, but I mean that's a really big statement that they're not going to have a refugee status in our country anymore, or asylum. So that to me is the most bothersome out of all of that.

The system is broken. People in Congress on both parties have been spineless to fix it for a long time. Take it from a Latino, from immigrant family. My firm, as everybody knows, is run by two immigrants. Like the immigration system, the refugee system, the asylum system, like we've just put bandaid over bandaid and not really looked at trying to fix it in its totality. So you get all these one offs and then you have no system to what Phil been talking about to where it's just a bunch of chaos. Yeah, absolutely. And here we are. I don't know if chaos is what you're all keeping an eye on.

today. How about that transition? But let's go down the line. Thank you. Thanks. I learned from you, Mattingly. We've been talking a lot. We've been talking a lot about the plane from Qatar, the potential new Air Force One. When it comes to these types of issues, the Trump crypto meme coin, dollar sign, all caps, Trump.

The dinner that had been offered, which is essentially a quid pro quo dinner if you invest money in a Trump entity, totally walled off in private from things. The deadline was yesterday. The vast majority of the people in the 220 finalists had wallets that were foreign-based. We talk about conflicts of interest and how this is all playing out. Keep an eye on that. Yeah, we'll keep an eye on that. Chuck?

I'm keeping an eye on this budget and can we raise some money to put some safety rails on aircraft carriers? A hundred million dollars worth of two airplanes have just slid off the deck of the boat into the ocean. Now I pay taxes. Elon Musk, if you want to get to Doge and save some money, just put some rails on the side of the boat so we quit losing our planes over the side. You might get some bipartisan buy-in on that. You just might. They have to be strong rails.

So for us nerdy Washington people, what's happening in the House this week and next is like the Super Bowl of politics. So I will definitely be watching the drama. You and Phil are nerds. All we all talk about is the committees and stuff. The water's warm. Come in here. I don't know if I could understand that. I see. This is like the John Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, like, I don't understand how any of this works. No, yes, you do.

Like a fox. Like a fox. I know this game. Tester used to do it, too. I know it. You know what's it. Don't even try that with me, Chuck. He sure does. Don't be fooled by the lack of a tie. Thank you all. Thanks to the group chat. Thanks to all of you for waking up with us this morning. I'm Erica Hill in for Audie Cornish. Stay tuned. CNN News Central starts right now. This week on The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish.

Christine Emba. She's a contributing writer for The New York Times and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. People are joining more traditionalist denominations or churches. Like, they're going for the hard stuff. The Pew Research Center reports that the decline of Christianity in the U.S. has slowed, maybe even leveled off. And that's thanks mainly to young people. But there are lots of questions about what's driving this trend and whether it will last.

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.