Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Announces Candidacy for President at Massachusetts Rally; Caravan Awaits at Eagle Pass, Texas, to Cross Border. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired February 09, 2019 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: The mill owners also owned city government and city government declared martial law and called in the militia. Some strikers died in violent clashes with the police.
Understand it was a hard fight. Families that were already going to bed hungry had to make do with even less. They were cold. They were under attack but they stuck together and they won. Higher wages, overtime pay, everybody back at work, and those workers did more than improve their own lives, they changed America.
Within weeks, more than a quarter of a million textile workers throughout New England got raises. Within months, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to mass a minimum wage law. And today there are no children working in factories. We have a national minimum wage and national workers safety laws. Workers get paid overtime and we now have a 40-hour week.
That's right. That's right. Because of the workers right here in Lawrence and across the country, we have weekends.
(APPLAUSE)
The story of Lawrence is a story about how real change happens in America. It is a story about power, our power when we fight together.
(APPLAUSE)
Today, millions and millions and millions of American families are also struggling to survive in a system that's been rigged; rigged by the wealthy and the well connected. Hard-working people are up against a small group that holds far too much power, not just in our economy, but also in our democracy.
(APPLAUSE)
Like the women of Lawrence, we are here to say enough is enough.
(APPLAUSE)
We are here to take on a fight that will shape our lives, our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives just as surely as the fight that began in these streets more than a century ago.
(APPLAUSE) Because the man in the White House is not the cause of what is broken, he is just the latest and most extreme symptom of what's gone wrong in America, a product of a rigged system that props up the rich and powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else.
(APPLAUSE)
So once he's gone, we can't pretend that none of this ever happened. It won't be enough to just undo the terrible acts of this administration. We can't afford just to tinker around the edges of a tax credit here, a regulation there. Our fight is for big structural change.
(APPLAUSE)
This is the fight of our lives; the fight to build an America where dreams are possible and America that works for everyone. And that is why I stand here today to declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
[12:05:00]
The truth is, I've been in this fight for a long time. I grew up in Oklahoma, on the ragged edge of the middle class. Now, when my daddy had a heart attack, my family nearly tumbled over the financial cliff but we didn't. My mother, who was 50 years old and had never worked outside the home, walked to sears and got a minimum wage job answering the phones. That job saved our house and it saved our family. I ended up in a commuter college that cost $50 a semester...
(LAUGHTER)
... but think about it, that is how the daughter of a janitor managed to become a public school teacher, a law professor and a United States Senator.
(APPLAUSE)
I believe in an America of opportunity.
(APPLAUSE)
I've spent most of my life studying what happens to families like mine. Families caught in the squeeze. Families that go broke and what I found is that year after year, the path to economic security had gotten tougher and rockier for working families and even tougher and even rockier for people of color. I also found this wasn't an accident. It wasn't inevitable. No. Over the years, America's middle class has been deliberately hollowed out and families of color have been systemically discriminated against and denied their chance to build some security.
(APPLAUSE) Now it started very quietly. The richest and most powerful people in America, they were rich. I mean, really rich, but they wanted to be even richer and they didn't care who got hurt. So every year, bit by bit, they lobbied Washington and paid off politicians to tilt the system just a little more in their direction and year by year, bit by bit, more of the wealth and opportunity went to the people at the very top. And that is how today in the richest country in the history of the world, tens of millions of people are struggling to get by.
Since the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation, wages in America have barely budged, but the cost of housing has gone up nearly two-thirds. The cost of college has nearly tripled. and 40% of Americans couldn't find $400 to cover an emergency. That is millions of hard working people in this country whose lives would be turned upside down if the transmission fell out of the car or somebody got sick and missed a week at work. The middle class squeeze is real and millions of families can barely breathe. It is not right.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANTS: It's not right. It's not right. It's not right. It's not right.
WARREN: Now, this disaster has touched every community in America and for communities of color that have stared down structural racism for generations, the disaster has hit even harder. Take home ownership. The number one way that middle class families build welling in the our country. Back in 1960, it was legal to discriminate against families of color and the gap between white homeownership and black home ownership rates was 27 percentage points.
[12:10:00]
That's a lot.
Over time we changed the law to prohibit that kind of discrimination and the gap began to close. But today the home ownership gap between black and white families is 30 percentage point; bigger than it was in 2960 when housing discrimination was actually legal.
Race matters and we need to say so.
(APPLAUSE)
And we can't be blind to the fact that the roles in our country have been rigged against other people for a long time. Women, LGBTQ Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, immigrants, people with disabilities, and we need to call it out.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANT: Call it out. Call it out. Call it out. Call it out.
WARREN: But over the course of a generation, the rules of our economy have gotten rigged so far in favor of the rich and powerful that everyone else is at risk of being left behind. Listen to this. In the 1940s, 90 percent of all kids were destined to do better than their parents. By the 1980s, the odds slipped to 50/50, and now we could be the first generation in American history where more kids do worse than their parents. And meanwhile, the rich and powerful seem to break the rules and pay no price, no matter what they did. They grow richer and more powerful. Bailouts for bankers that cheat. Tax cuts for companies that scam. Subsidies for corporations that pollute. That's what a rigged system looks like. Too little accountability for the rich. too little opportunity for everyone else.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANTS: Stop this (inaudible).
WARREN: Now when I talk about t his stuff, someone screams, class warfare. Well let me tell you something. These same rich guys have been waging class warfare against hard-working people for decades. I say it's time to fight back.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANT: Fight back. Fight back. Fight back.
WARREN: To protect their economic advantages, the rich and powerful have rigged our political systems as well. they bought off and bullied politicians in both parties to make sure that Washington is always on their side. Some of them have even tried to buy their way into public office. So today our government works just great, great, for oil companies, defense contractors, great for private prisons, great for Wall Street banks and hedge funds; it's just not working for anyone else.
(APPLAUSE)
And when it comes to climate change, our very existence is at stake but Washington refuses to lift a finger without permission from the fossil fuel companies. That's dangerous and it's wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
And it isn't just climate change. Look at any other major issue in America. Gun violence, student loan debt, the crushing cost of health care, mistreatment of our veterans, a broken criminal justice system, an immigration system that lacks common sense, and under this administration, lacks a conscience.
(APPLAUSE)
Overwhelming majorities of Americans want action. Huge crowds march on Washington demanding change. Letters, phone calls, protests, but nothing happens. Nothing. Why. Because if you don't have money and you don't have connections, Washington doesn't want to hear from you. When government works only for the wealthy and the well connected, that is corruption plain and simple and we need to call it out.
(CROWD CHEERS) Corruption is a cancer on our democracy and we will get rid of it only with strong medicine with real structural reform. Our fight is to change the rules so that our government, our economy, and our democracy work for everyone. I want to be crystal clear about exactly what I mean when I say that.
First, we need to change the rules to clean up Washington, end the corruption.
(APPLAUSE)
Now we all know the Trump Administration is the most corrupt in living memory but even after Trump is gone, it won't do just to do a better job of running a broken system. We need to take power in Washington away from the wealthy and well-connected and put it back in the hands of the people where it belongs.
(APPLAUSE)
That is why I have proposed the strongest and most comprehensive anti- corruption laws since Watergate.
(APPLAUSE) Let me just give you some examples. Just some examples. Shut down the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington.
(APPLAUSE)
End lobbying as we know it.
(APPLAUSE)
And while we're at it, ban foreign governments from hiring lobbyists in Washington.
(APPLAUSE)
Make justices of the United States Supreme Court follow a basic code of ethics.
(APPLAUSE)
Ban members of Congress from trading stocks. How's that not already illegal?
(APPLAUSE)
Oh, and just one more, make every single candidate for federal office put their taxes online. I've done it.
(APPLAUSE)
So that's one. Root out corruption in Washington. Now two, change the worlds to put more economic power in the hands of the American people - workers in small businesses. Middle class families and people of color who have been shut out of their chance to build wealth for generations. And again, that requires real structural change. Right know, giant corporations in America have too much power and they just roll right over everyone else. We need to put power back in the hands of workers.
(APPLAUSE)
Make it quick and easy to join a union. Unions built America's middle class. Unions will rebuild America's middle class. Make American companies accountable for their actions. Raise wages by putting workers in those corporate board rooms where the real decisions are made.
(APPLAUSE)
Break up monopolies when they choke off competition. Take on Wall Street banks so the big banks can never again threaten the security of our economy. When giant corporations and their leaders cheat their customers, stomp out their competitors and rob their workers, let's prosecute them.
(APPLAUSE)
One more thing. I'm tired of hearing we can't afford to make real invests in child care, college and Medicare one more thing. I'm tired of hearing we can't afford to make real investments in child care, college and Medicare for all.
[12:20:00]
(APPLAUSE)
I'm tired of it. I'm tired of hearing that we can't afford to make investments in things that create economic opportunities for families. I'm tired of hearing that we can't afford to make investments in things like housing and opioid treatment - cant' afford to address things like rural neglect or the legacy of racial discrimination. I'm tired of hearing what we can't afford because it's just not true.
(APPLAUSE)
We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Of course we can afford these investments.
(APPLAUSE)
But we need a government that makes different choices. Choices that reflect our values. Stop handing out enormous tax giveaways to rich people and giant corporations.
(APPLAUSE)
Stop refusing to invest in our children.
(APPLAUSE)
Stop stalling on spending money - real money -- on infrastructure and clean energy in a green new deal. (APPLAUSE)
Start asking the people who have gained the most from our country to pay their fair share.
(APPLAUSE)
And that including real tax reform in this country. Reforms that close loopholes and give aways to the people at the top and an ultramillionaire's tax to make sure that rich people start doing their part for the country that made them rich.
(APPLAUSE)
OK, so that's one. Clean up Washington. That's two, change the roles in our economy. And now three, change the rules to strengthen our democracy.
(APPLAUSE) And that starts with a Constitutional amendment to protect the right of every American citizen to vote and have that vote counted.
(APPLAUSE) Oh, that's just the beginning. Overturn every single voter suppression rule that racist politicians use to steal votes from people of color.
(APPLAUSE)
Outlaw partisan gerrymandering by democrats or republicans and overturn Citizens United. Our democracy is not for sale.
(APPLAUSE)
By the way, by the way, if we truly believe that, then we also need to end the unwritten rule of politics that says that anyone who wants to run for office has to start by sucking up to a bunch of rich donors on Wall Street and powerful insiders in Washington. So, I'm opting out of that rule. I'm not taking a dime of PAC money in this campaign,
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANTS: (inaudible).
There's more. I'm not taking a single check from a federal lobbyist. I'm not taking applications from billionaires who want to run a super pac on my behalf. And I challenge every other candidate who asks for your vote in this primary to say exactly the same thing.
[12:25:00]
(APPLAUSE)
So it's not just elections. Real democracy requires equal justice under law. It's not equal justice when a kid with an ounce of pot can get thrown in jail while a bank executive who launderS money for a drug cartel can get a bonus. We need reform. (APPLAUSE)
It's not equal justice when for the exact same crimes African- Americans are more likely than whites to be arrested, more likely to be charged, more likely to be convicted and more likely to be sentenced. Yes, we need criminal justice reform and we need it now.
(APPLAUSE)
And one more thing we need to do to strengthen our democracy. We must not allow those with power to weaponize hatred and bigotry to divide us.
(APPLAUSE)
More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Montgomery and warned us about the danger of division. He talked about how bigotry and race baiting are used to keep black Americans divided from white Americans so that rich Americans can keep picking all their pockets. That playbook has been around forever. Whether it's white people against black people, straight people against gay people, middle class families against new immigrant families, the story is the same. The rich and powerful use fear to divide us. We're done with that.
(APPLAUSE)
Bigotry has no place notice Oval Office.
(APPLAUSE)
This is who we are. We come from different backgrounds, different religions, different languages, different experiences. We have different dreams. We are passionate about different issues. We feel the urgency of this moment in different ways. But today - today -- we come together, ready to raise our voices together, until this fight is won.
(APPLAUSE)
Our movement won't be divided by our differences, it will be united by the values we share.
(APPLAUSE)
We all want a country where everyone, not just the wealthy, everyone, can take care of their families. We all want a country where every American, not just the ones who hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers, everyone can participate in democracy; a country where every child can dream big and reach for real opportunity and we are in the fight to build an America that works for everyone.
(APPLAUSE)
So look, I get it. I get it. This won't be easy. Now there are a lot of people out there with money and power and armies of lobbyists and lawyers. People who are prepared to spend more money than you and I could ever dream of to stop us from making any of these solutions a reality. People who will say it's extreme or radical to demand an America where every family has some economic security and every kid has a real opportunity to succeed and I say to them, get ready, because change is coming faster than you think.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD CHANT: Change is coming. Change is coming. Change is coming. Change is coming.
(APPLAUSE)
WARREN: Look, this kind of fundamental change will be hard. A lot of people including some of our friends will tell us it's going to be so hard, it isn't even worth trying. But we will not give up.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to tell you one last story. When I was home with my first baby, I got this notion that I would go to law school. Now, it was a crazy idea, but I persisted. And it took me some time but eventually I figured out the admissions test and the applications and I worked out how to pay my tuition and I mapped out the 45-minute commute to the campus. And weeks out, weeks out, I had just one thing left on my check list. Child care.
My daughter Amelia was nearly 2 years old and I looked for child care. I looked everywhere. I struck out over and over and over. So we're down to the weekend before law school was supposed to start. And I finally found this small place with a cheerful teacher and a nice little play area and nothing smelled funny. And I could afford it. But the place would only take children who were dependably potty trained. So I looked over at Amelia. She was happily pulling toys off the shelf. Her diaper barely covered by her pink stretchy pants.
Dependably potty trained. I now had five days to dependably potty train an almost 2-year-old. All I can say is I stand before you today courtesy of three bags of M&Ms and a cooperative toddler.
(APPLAUSE)
Since that day, I've never let anyone tell me that anything is too hard.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, how they have tried. People said it would be too hard to build an agency that would stop big banks from cheating Americans on mortgages and credit cards. But we got organized, we fought back, we persisted and now that consumer agency has forced these banks to refund nearly $12 billion directly to people they cheated. Yes.
(APPLAUSE)
And when republicans tried to sabotage the agency, I came back here to Massachusetts and then ran against one of them. Now, no woman had ever won a Senate seat in Massachusetts and people said it would be too hard for me to get elected, but we organized, we fought back, we persisted and now I'm the Senior Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
(APPLAUSE)
So no, I'm not afraid of a fight, not even a hard fight. When the women of Everett Mill walked out from of their machines and out into that cold January air all those years ago, they knew it wouldn't be easy. They also knew what was at stake for themselves and their families. They weren't going to let anyone tell them it was too hard.
(APPLAUSE)
Doubters told the abolitionists, it's too hard. Skeptics told the suffragettes it's too hard. Cynics told the trust busters it's too hard. Naysayers told the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement it's just too hard. But they all - all kep right on going and they changed the history of America.
(APPLAUSE)
Sure, they'll be plenty of doubters and cowards and arm chair critics this time around. But we learned a long time ago you don't get what you don't fight for.
(APPLAUSE)
We're in this fight for our lives, for our children, for our planet, for our futures and we will not turn back.
[12:35:00]
My daddy ended up as a janitor, but his little girl got the chance to be a public school teacher, a college professor, a United States Senator and a candidate for President of the United States.
CROWD CHANTS: Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren!
WARREN: I am grateful all the way to my bones, grateful and determined. So here's the promise I make to you today. I will fight my heart out so that every kid in America can have the same opportunity I had, a fighting chance to build something real. I will never give up on you or on your children and their future. I am in this fight all the way. Okay.
CROWD CHANTS: Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren!
OK, it's a long wait to election day, but our fight starts here and it starts with every one of you. It starts with your decision to get involved right now. So join us on ElizabethWarren.com. Help us organize. Volunteer. Pitch in 5 bucks. We need everyone in this fight. Everyone.
(APPLAUSE) The textile workers here in Lawrence more than 100 years ago won their fight because they refused to be divided. Today, we gather on those same streets, ready to stand united again. This is our moment in history. The moment we're called to. This is our moment to dream big, fight hard and win. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
WHITFIELD: All right from Lawrence, Massachusetts, making it official, you heard Senator - Senator Elizabeth Warren there saying dream bit, fight hard and win. She is joining the fight for the White House 2020. Quoting her now she says she's not afraid of a fight, not even a hard fight and she is joining ago crowded democratic field already.
Let's go to MJ Lee who was at that event. Huge crowd there and she made it very clear what she will be fighting for, she will be fighting to keep the powerful, hold them accountable and she also said they would be thinking of children across America, fighting for them and their possibilities to dream and deal big.
MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. It's very loud here because Elizabeth Warren has just finished her speech. She has officially announced that she is running for President of the United States. If you were listening closely to the speech, you may have lost count of the number of times she used the word "fight." I can tell you this is going be to the backbone of her candidacy and her campaign; this fundamental idea that when the people company together, they can fight against corruption and a rigged system that doesn't work for the people.
Now what she said is there is a rigged system that props up the rich and the powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else. Again, this is going to be the driving force of the 2020 campaign that just officially began today. Now if you were listening to her speech, we basically got a driving force of the 2020 campaign that just officially began today. Now if you were listening to her speech, we basically got a blueprint of all of the policy positions that she's going to be talking about over the next year or so. Her anti-corruption bill - we very much expected to be a top priority for Senator Warren. She also talked about taking on Wall Street. Obviously, another issue she has worked on for many years. She talked about support for Medicare for all, for the Green New Deal and her proposal to tax the rich the details of which we got just last month.
Now as for whether Senator Warren talked about President Trump much, by my count, she only said the word Trump just twice. This was at the moment in her speech when she was talking about the fact she believes the Trump Administration has been one of the most corrupt in living memory. However, do not be mistaken. She very much laid out in the speech even if she didn't mention him by name very much, the reason that she believes she is the best candidate to take on President Trump. This was a speech that was not just taking on President Trump and the
administration on policy but also taking on the president when it comes to character. She says bigotry has no place in the Oval Office. No obviously this is going to be such a big factor going forward for the 2020 democratic race. These various candidates are now going to be fighting for and making the case for why they believe they're the strongest candidate to take on the President of the United States and Elizabeth Warren behind me just made the case to the country as formally a presidential candidate.
WHITFIELD: And MJ, she got a lot of applause there. She not only, you know, gave a litany of policy ideas, she gave a bigger scope as well talking about being a fighter, holding the powerful accountable. And quoting her now saying "race matters and we need to say so." Give me an idea of who was in the audience. It really looks like a kaleidoscope of people.
LEE: Obviously it is very cold here. When she actually took the stage she thanked everyone for coming out despite the cold weather. It is subfreezing temperatures here right now. I can tell you, having spoken to a couple people before Elizabeth Warren took the stage, not everyone here is necessarily decided they're going to be supporting Elizabeth Warren. Nevertheless, they wanted to come out here because the democratic primary is just getting started and they're interested to hear what she has to say.
And in terms of just the message of fighting Trump, I again want to stress that this was not just about Elizabeth Warren laying out her policy proposals and making the case to the country on the different policy positions that she is going to be standing for. This is very much draw ago contrast between herself and the President of the United States. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, M.J. Lee, thank you so much there from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Joining me now to talk further about this, "Boston Globe" political reporter, Liz Goodwin; Democratic strategist and CNN Political Commentator Hilary Rosen; and republican strategist and CNN Political Commentator Kevin Madden. Good to see you all. Liz, let me begin with you. Well, you know, Elizabeth Warren didn't necessarily mention the name Trump alot, she did talk about this president, this administration.
She said, I'm quoting now, "he's not the cause of what's broken, he's just the latest symptom," quoting her now, "kicking dirt and everyone else." That seemed to be her primary mantra as she laid out, you know, three different directions she would be taking as a candidate but particularly of corruption, you know, trying to hold the powerful accountable.
LIZ GOODWIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Yes, this anti- corruption bill, she talks about it a lot on the stump. It's usually her biggest applause line when she says let's just have a lifetime ban on lawmakers lobbying, clean up Washington, all that stuff is resonating I think in some ways more than the Wall Street part of her platform. And I think it's also helping her because one big challenge for
Senator Warren is if Senator Sanders decides to get into this race as well, they're kind of in the same progressive lane. The billionaires and the millionaires and all that and I think Warren has a little bit out outflanked Bernie on anticorruption in particular because he doesn't have like the same comprehensive plan that she unveiled last year. So that's something she's - she's certainly talking about a lot when she's out on the campaign trail.
WHITFIELD: Hilary, how do you see that she has distinguished herself from the field of candidates who have already thrown their hat or are considering to throw their hat into the ring.
HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think she did a couple of important things and I have to say I was really impressed with this speech. She essentially, if I'm Bernie Sanders, I'm packing my bags and going back to Vermont because she's taken my lane, she's done it effectively and with a lot more charm and a record in the Senate and in her career that Bernie Sanders didn't have.
[12:45:00]
He talks that same game but she actually demonstrated that she's done some things like with the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Secondly, she didn't attack other democrats - really, really important. Because if democrats are going to be successful in this primary, the thing I am most worried about is whether we can draw effective contrasts about the things that bring us together and unite us against Donald Trump and she focused on that. She talked a lot about race. She talked a lot about changing the rules.
And I think for democrats, Donald Trump won last campaign by breaking the rules. That's what he did. He did it in the democratic primary and then he did it in the general. The things we thought were unacceptable all of a sudden became acceptable in the campaign. Democrats are sort of tired of playing nice. Her focusing on changing the system, breaking the rules, I think is a good message.
WHITFIELD: And Kevin, how did you see what we just all witnessed? How does this allow her to distinguish herself?
KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I agree with Hilary. I thought the focus on the corruption message was a good one because I think it's probably the one issue that every democrat has agreed on. This is an administration that has the control and they need to take the fight to the administration on that particular issue. I think where Elizabeth Warren becomes a little more problematic is in this message which does resonate inside the democratic primary, the haves and the have nots and the widening income gap and the people versus the powerful, that is a strong message but one of the big problems is that the way that Elizabeth Warren litigates it does oftentimes go from being pro-worker to sounding very anti-business or punitive against the wage payers who help wage eveners all around the country.
So I think that is -- the big risk is that the democratic party gets pulled very far left and their profile's increasingly defined by Elizabeth Warren in a way that makes it more problematic for them in the general election when they're trying to appeal to a much broader center of the American electorate.
WHITFIELD: Perhaps she is a viable threat because the Trump/Pence re- election campaign actually released a statement about Elizabeth Warren before she even took to the podium there, before she even spoke. Preemptively saying this, "Elizabeth Warren has already been exposed as a fraud by the Native Americans. She impersonated and disrespected to advance her professional career. And the people of Massachusetts she deceived to get elected. The American people will reject her dishonest campaign and Socialist ideas like the Green New Deal that will raise taxes, kill jobs, crush America's middle class." So Hilary, is that an indicator the White House believes she is a viable threat?
ROSEN: Look, I think that we have four really strong impressive women running in the democratic primary and the republicans don't know how -- how to deal with this. Between Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren and tomorrow Amy Klobuchar. This is going to be an exciting primary. It's going to energize the democratic base and I think the republicans are just going to start throwing dirt against the wall to see what sticks. My fervent hope and, you know, if Joe Biden enters the race, same for Joe Biden. My fervent hope is democrats do not fall into the trap of attacking each other and we keep the focus on changing the rules and beating Donald Trump.
MADDEN: That's right, real quick. I would disagree. I think the Trump Campaign wants Elizabeth Warren. They're going to need, in order to win in 2020...
WHITFIELD: They want a fight just like Elizabeth Warren said, she is a fighter.
MADDEN: They want to activate their base and then they want to have somebody they believe is sort of cancels out some of the big middle. Elizabeth Warren, you have a lot never Trumpers out there, people who are republicans who said they would never vote for Donald Trump. The only person that they might - the only thing that might make them pull the lever for Donald Trump is the idea that Elizabeth Warren could become president. She will unite the Republican Party in a way -- I think they want to engage her.
ROSEN: I think the republicans will end up saying that about anybody that runs by the way.
WHITFIELD: And so far, she is the only one that the Trump campaign commented about. We do know the White House adviser, you know, Kellyanne Conway did make a comment about, you know, Cory Booker. but, you know -- about him sounding like a Hallmark card. But this is the first statement from the re-election campaign signaling out a particular democrat. Thanks to all of you, I appreciate it -- Liz Goodwin, Hilary Rosen, Kevin Madden.
MADDEN: Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:00]
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. U.S. military, border patrol agents and local authorities are beefing up their presence in Eagle Pass, Texas, a town that borders Mexico. Some 1,800 migrants in Mexico are waiting to cross the U.S. border there to seek asylum. Most of the caravan is from Central America. Authorities want to prevent a mass rush into the U.S. Here's our Martin Savidge.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I want to give you a bit of the lay of the land here at Eagle Pass and show you where the concern is. These vehicles are parked on what is actually a park and part of a golf course. They're facing into Mexico.
You've got a combination of customs and border protection as well as the Texas State troopers here. There were a lot more of them earlier in the day; it's thinned out a little bit. Then in the background you can see one of the two bridges that are the ports of entry that connect the United States and Mexico here that pass over the Rio Grande River which is essentially the border between these two countries.
Something else that's new today though is over on the other side of the border and you can see perhaps clearly just one vehicle, but there had been more, we believe those to be the Mexican federal police. They're a new addition today apparently since the U.S. is showing a show of force on its side of the border, the Mexican authorities are showing they're doing the same thing.
It shows you that there is a kind of standoff that is going here. It's because of the immigrant caravan. That caravan is said to be about 1,800 or maybe 2,000 people, Central Americans mostly, being housed in a warehouse, or factory-like facility, just across the border in Mexico.
The concern is there could be some type of rush across the bridges there; they're fortifying them. They're adding concertina wire, they're also adding containers to slow or prevent any kind of mass rush of the crowd coming across. There are other security measures that are being implanted as well.
However, there's also the sense coming there's greater cooperation with Mexican authorities, certainly between the two communities but also on the higher level and whether that's because there's a new administration installed in Mexico and no one will clearly say. They will only say that Mexico is controlling this caravan much more than they have never other recent one. It could be a reason why there is at least some hope that this will be resolved peacefully. It's just going to take a lot of time. Martin savage, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.
WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We start with breaking news, the 2020 race for president is growing bigger by the day. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren just officially threw her name into the mix last hour.
