Nearly 100 people were arrested after protesters gathered at Trump Tower in Manhattan Thursday to denounce the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained by ICE over his involvement with pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University. The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, began shortly after noon when demonstrators dressed in red shirts that read “Not in our Name” and “Jews Say Stop Arming Israel,” crammed into the Tower’s iconic golden lobby. #CNN #News
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00:00Officials have arrested nearly a hundred people after a crowd of protesters stormed the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City
00:06They're demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil a Palestinian activist a graduate student at NYU or rather at Columbia University
00:14He is at risk of being deported after he helped lead protests against the war in Gaza at the University last year
00:21Homeland Security officials have accused Khalil of being a Hamas
00:25Sympathizer let's go right now out lot outside live at Trump Tower with CNN's Omar Jimenez who is on the scene Omar
00:32Give us the latest
00:35Yeah, so Boris about a hundred people were arrested as part of this protest that took place inside Trump Tower
00:43Behind me on multiple levels two different levels of that main sort of lobby entrance
00:48To the tower here as we understand from police and they were protesting on behalf of
00:53Mahmoud Khalil Jewish Voice for Peace was the group that was leading
00:57These protests particular protests that we saw when we first got to the scene
01:01We saw dozens of protesters in zip ties being loaded onto buses
01:05Where they were taken to central booking as we understand from New York police
01:09But the chance that we heard from supporters that even gathered on the outside of some of these
01:14Barriers that police put in place to keep crowds sort of at bay where things like fight Nazis not students and protesting on behalf
01:22Again of Khalil who is still being held in ice custody as those legal proceedings play out as well
01:28We spoke to one of the organizers of Jewish Voice for Peace about why they wanted to come out here and to them
01:33They said they wanted they did not want the First Amendment and trenched on which is what they believe
01:38Khalil was doing over the course of leading some of the protests we saw out of Columbia University
01:42But also they wanted to show solidarity
01:45from the Jewish people as well as those were the words that one of the organizers told me as we spoke to her as
01:51Some of her protesters were being loaded onto these buses
01:55There were no violent incidents in regards to the arrest themselves once they were taken into police custody
02:00There did not seem to be any resistance. We did not hear of any resistance from police as well
02:05But definitely a protest that grew to over a hundred as we understand from both organizers and police took place inside
02:12Trump Tower
02:13Organized in just a matter of hours and happened very quickly as we understand from a law enforcement source
02:19The protesters initially walked into the building
02:22With jackets on and then when they undid their jackets that revealed the red shirts that represented the Jewish Voice for Peace
02:29But again a protest that resulted in about a hundred arrests. No serious charges expected outside of things like trespassing
02:36Of that nature, but again a moment where organizers tell us they wanted their voices to be heard in support of Mahmoud Khalil
02:44Omar Jimenez live for us in Manhattan. Thank you so much Omar Brianna joining us now CNN senior national security analyst Juliet Kayyem
02:52So Juliet over 120 people entering Trump Tower a law enforcement official telling CNN at the height of this
03:00Tell us a little bit about that security setup there now that it's not Trump's official residence
03:06Yeah, so it I'm surprised by this I would have assumed that just given the public nature of Trump's commercial activities
03:13It would be very difficult to have a hundred people come. It was clearly a secretively planned
03:21protest and they they were arrested as they should be they trespassed but they were also non-violent and
03:29This country has a long tradition of non-violent protests. We'll see
03:33What happens in the courtroom or what what's decided about them? I have no doubt that there will be increased
03:43Surveillance and security around Trump's commercial
03:48Entities and this is this is the interesting thing about Trump without getting into whether he should or shouldn't do it
03:54One and we saw this with Elon Musk with the Tesla's because
03:58Because they've broken down the distinction between their public roles and their private
04:05commercialization monetization rules
04:07You are seeing these protests touch them in their commercial space
04:12We saw this with Elon Musk and attacks on Tesla as well as now this protest Donald Trump cannot close down Trump Tower
04:19It's a commercial space. It's a residential space
04:21And so they are sort of dealing with I think in some ways the consequences of of that merger of monetization and and
04:30Policy and the First Amendment. So these arrests charging people with obstructing government administration for failing to move
04:39When the dispersal order came because the location is private property and in certain cases resisting arrest
04:46Those charges will I mean it's going to depend on on each individual and what they did at the moment
04:53So there's there's recordings. There's going to be police reports
04:56Do they have past criminal activity for some of these people? It may be a fine
05:02Community service, you know a guilty plea and and nothing much happens to them
05:07So it's going to depend on on each individual and what they did at the moment
05:12So there's a you know, a guilty plea and and nothing much happens
05:15I have no doubt Donald Trump will ratchet it up at least publicly in his
05:21Criticism of this kind of activity. The interesting thing about this is this was organized by a Jewish group
05:29So the narrative of well, you know sort of pro-hamas
05:35Palestine, you know pro-palestinian equals pro-hamas
05:39Arabs that that is often used and it was was used in Mahmoud's case Khalil's case is is harder to make against Jewish organizations
05:50I have no doubt that that's why they did it because there's great diversity within the Jewish American population about what's going on
05:57Divisions amongst them and I think that's a that's a very important part of this narrative of who it was organized by and why
06:08All right, Juliette I am thank you so much for taking us through that
06:13And actually what do you expect?
06:16Moving forward as we heard these obviously the security folks who were there had called for additional units
06:24Do you think that's probably something they're going to have in place temporarily for a while?
06:30Yes, I think so. I think I think as this case in particular touches on you know
06:35New York specifically because it's Columbia and a very animated community in New York amongst amongst this sort of I would say the Israeli and
06:47Constituencies they could there's a there's diversity within those constituencies as I was saying is going to get played out in New York
06:54And that's where a number of Trump's properties are
06:58And this is this is a difficult issue for the NYPD because of the commercial demands of Trump Towers
07:05He needs them to be open. You can't close them. I mean those are as you know
07:09Those are retail spaces on the top on variety of floors or people come in and out and and that's that's a commercial part of it
07:17And it is we've never dealt with this before because we never had a president who had commercial activities
07:27Consistent with or parallel with his
07:31His political position president of the United States or an Elon Musk case the selling of Tesla's that merger is is a challenge for public safety
07:41Because you know people commercialization is open. You can't close it down
07:46But we do need to protect people within the towers and protect the rights of those who want to go into these places or buy a Tesla or whatever else
07:55And I think we're not quite built for that. I think there'll be more aggressive behavior security by the NYPD around Trump properties
08:05But this I just to take a step back. There's a long tradition of protests
08:10There's a long tradition of arrest and trespass around that. It sounds like that's what happened. We're not hearing about violence
08:17We're not hearing about terrorism. This is not, you know, burning cars or looting or anything
08:22This is a First Amendment activity that was a trespass
08:28There should be a punishment that will be determined on a case by case basis
08:33But I don't think that this is not one of those things where it's like domestic terrorism or anything like that
08:38Though I doubt though I highly believe that Donald Trump wants to increase the focus around this arrest for reasons that have almost nothing to do with anti-Semitism or or even immigration at this stage