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Trump Tax Returns Demand Latest; Trump Mulls Dumping Detained Immigrants into Sanctuary Cities; Democrats Defend Rep. Omar, Rip Trump Over 9/11 Controversy; Cory Booker Hosts Hometown Kickoff Campaign Rally in Newark; Ex-Pop Benedict Blames 1960s and Liberals for Pedophile Priests; Ex-Pope Benedict Blames the 1960s and Liberals for Pedophile Priests; Senators Push Bipartisan Bills Protecting Native American Women; Trump's DHS Purge Raises Alarms About Homeland Security; Tiger Woods in the Hunt Heading Into Third Round; Million At Risk of Tornadoes, Large Hail, and Damaging Winds. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired April 13, 2019 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SANJAY GUPTA, NEUROSURGEON: And the other way, too - you've got to heal the mind to be able to heal the body.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: I love it.

GUPTA: Yes.

[12:00:00]

WHITFIELD: We're going to be watching all of that. I can't wait to see the other as you go all over the world right? You're in Italy, you're in Poland.

GUPTA: Yes, Italy, Turkey...

WHITFIELD: Bolivia.

GUPTA: ... Norway, Bolivia. I think you'll love this.

WHITFIELD: Fantastic.

GUPTA: And you're a tri-athlete, I think you will love this.

WHITFIELD: I can't wait. I'm ready for the journey. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always good to see you. Thank you so much.

GUPTA: Thank you too.

WHITFIELD: And of course you don't want to miss the premiere of "Chasing Life" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, tonight at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

Hello again everyone and welcome. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We are following breaking news. The clock is ticking on a new deadline for the IRS to turn over President Trump's tax returns. House democrats sent another letter to the agency demanding the documents in ten days now. The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal says he's within his rights on this request, but Trump and his allies have taken a defiant stand saying democrats will never see those tax returns. CNN politics Congressional reporter, Lauren Fox is following this for us. So the back and forth is just the beginning, isn't it?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right. We expect a prolonged court fight but we're not quite there yet. Richard Neal sending a letter again asking for the administration to turn over six years of the president's tax returns, that's both personal returns and business returns. And in this latest request, Richard Neal said quote, "I am aware that concerns have been raised regarding my request and the authority of the committee. Those concerns lack merit." He then goes on to say, quote, "I expect a reply from the IRS by 5:00 p.m. on April 23, 2019. Please know that if you fail to comply, your failure will be interpreted as a denial of my request," and that is, of course, very important language here because as they sort of lay the groundwork in their preparations to go to court, that's essentially they're looking for a refusal from the administration.

Then next steps on Capitol Hill could include a subpoena or they could go right to suing the Trump Admnistration for these documents. But all of that is still up in the air. Very clearly, Richard Neal, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has been setting the groundwork to go to court. He knew this entire time that this was going to be a long court battle and while he was getting pressure from the liberals on his committee to try to make this request faster, you know there's been a couple of months now on Capitol Hill where liberals have been demanding these answers from the administration. But Richard Neal waited to make his request until earlier this month. Obviously he is trying to set a ground for exactly what he wants so that when they go to court, he's ready to go. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Lauren Fox, thank you so much.

All right House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slamming President Trump for tweeting edited excerepts of a speech by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar when she referenced 9/11. Trump's tweet which we will not show includes video of the burning Twin Towers and Trump is seizing on four words out of Omar's 20 minute remarks when she said "some people did something." Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

OMAR: Far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of being a second class citizen and frankly, I'm tired of it and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CARE was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.

(END VIDEO)

WHITFIELD: The backlash to her comments were swift. "The New York Post" had this cover criticizing her remarks. Democrats coming to Omar's defense saying her words were taken out of context and have condemned Trump's tweet as disgraceful and wrong. And one quick fact here C.A.R.E., the organization was not founded after 9/11 it was actually founded in 1994. CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood is following all of this for us. So what more is Speaker Pelosi saying in defense of Omar? SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, Speaker Pelosi became just the latest democrat to lineup in support of Congresswoman Omar after President Trump shared that provocative clip of just part of her remarks on his twitter feed. Speaker Pelosi writing in part this morning, "The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The president shouldn't use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack."

And of course, this comes after Congresswoman Omar has received death threats. One man was charged for threatening her life after many of her previous comments have come under scrutiny. Democrats arguing that President Trump could be inciting violence against her while republicans have argued that Congresswoman Omar may have minimized the threat of terrorism through her comments of President Trump, Fred, continuing this pattern that he has of seizing on comments from one democrat to try to paint the entire Democratic Party as extreme.

[12:05:00]

WHITFIELD: And then Sarah, on this Trump is being accused of playing, you know, revenge politics going against his own administration officials.

Trump says he does want to release immigrant detainees into sanctuary cities to spite Democrats, and it's something he's seriously considering. So he's even calling out states by name. Tell us more.

WESTWOOD: That's right, Fred. President Trump signaling some aggressive shifts in his immigration policy. And he has said that his administration is seriously considering this plan to bus migrants to sanctuary cities for release because Customs and Border Protection is saying their facilities at the border are at capacity. They're overrun.

He said he was considering doing that just hours after White House officials have said repeatedly that this idea about the sanctuary cities was something that had come up informally during a meeting and then had been dismissed. President Trump obviously thought the opposite. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are looking at the possibility -- strongly looking at it, to be honest with you.

California is -- certainly is always saying, oh, we want more people, and they want more people in their sanctuary cities. Well, we'll give them more people. We can give them a lot. We can give them an unlimited supply, and let's see if they're so happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Well, this dramatic plan comes amid a massive reorganization at the Department of Homeland Security, starting all the way at the top with the Homeland Security Secretary now been replaced in an acting capacity moving down the chain. President Trump clearly trying to take a more aggressive stance when it comes to what he is increasingly describing as the crisis on the southern border, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sarah Westwood, thank you so much for that, appreciate it.

All right, joining me now, White House correspondent for Reuters Jeff Mason, CNN political analyst Lisa Lerer, and CNN national security and legal analyst Susan Hennessey. Good to see all of you.

All right, so, Lisa, you first. You know, these attacks on Congresswoman Omar, you know, play right into the President's base. You know, how important is this for the President? Or does he feel that this is so important heading into the election cycle?

LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I do think we're seeing the President take a lot of steps that are pushing the norms of the presidency, whether that's butting up against potential legal challenges like some of his moves on immigration or, you know, just sort of pushing the bounds of what was considered polite and civil in Washington, particularly with a congresswoman who has already received death threats.

And I do think a lot of these moves are designed to motivate pieces of his base. We are -- he -- it is clear we know that his re-election is on his mind. And when it comes to Congresswoman Omar, of course, I'm sure many of your viewers remember that part of what sparked a lot of interest in her were his -- her comments that were perceived by many as anti-Semitic.

The President believes that he can pull more Jewish voters over to his side. And also, a lot of that is really about the Evangelical vote, which is a strong part of his base. They care deeply about Israel. This is a way to remind those voters that he is, you know, as he would like to be, looking out for them or their interests.

WHITFIELD: But, Susan, what about, you know, the imagery? I mean, in this video -- we're not airing it out of, you know, respect and deference to so many impacted by, you know, 9/11. But then, why is there not, I guess, a fallout or criticism of the President for even using those images, weaponizing those images as he also tries, you know, to demonize a member of Congress?

SUSAN HENNESSEY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND LEGAL ANALYST: Right. I mean, I think it is very difficult to actually genuinely believe that this kind of response is motivated by, you know, a real sense of wanting to honor the victims and the memory of the 9/11 attacks, right? Using these images in this way is, itself, quite irreverent and sacrilegious.

Of course, the President himself has a long history of pretty offensive comments regarding 9/11 even in the early days, sort of gloating about now having the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. You know, stating falsehood that he saw Muslims celebrating immediately afterward. So I do think that his response makes even more clear that this really

isn't about genuine outrage at Congresswoman Omar's comments. This is really about sort of attempting to use a bad faith argument to attempt to stoke -- to further stoke some of those internal divisions within the Democratic Party.

WHITFIELD: And, Jeff, you know, Congresswoman Omar, you know, she quoted a line from President George W. Bush saying, you know, the people and the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon and then, you know, asked if he was downplaying the attack in that statement and, you know, what if he were a Muslim.

[12:09:59] You know, so how detrimental is this, you know, controversy for Omar? Or, you know, does it really kind of backfire for the President?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Well, it's hard to answer that question, Fred. I mean, it's certainly possible that it would backfire for both.

Although, for President Trump, it's -- if we look at his history from the time that he began as a candidate to now in the middle of his presidency, many of the things that he says that people consider outrageous, that people consider offensive don't end up backfiring, at least not with his political base.

And I think Lisa is right there to say that he has his eyes and his head focused on that going into 2020. And you see that both on the immigration issue as well as this issue in terms of stoking some racial divisions and some divisions -- his desire to perhaps gain some more -- or some more Jewish votes and to create some divisions in the Democratic Party there.

I think that's all -- I mean, it's hard ever to guess what's going on in President Trump's head, or anyone's head for that matter, but the evidence suggests that that's part of what he's thinking.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, Lisa, turning to the, you know, President's latest immigration move, he says the administration is strongly considering bussing undocumented migrants into sanctuary cities outside of political retribution. So what does the President gain from this, particularly when the White House already said, no, that's not a consideration?

LERER: Well, look, it's really hard to see this move as anything but a political stunt. The President's major goal, the thing he ran on, was coming down on undocumented immigrants coming into the United States, you know, taking a more hardline approach to immigration.

And this move would actually make it harder for authorities to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants because they would go to sanctuary cities. Of course, it also would cost a huge amount of money to figure out the transportation logistics to get these people all over the country.

So from a policy standpoint, this really does not make a lot of sense, which is why you see people in the administration saying, you know, generally, without their name attached, that this is not something that they're actively considering.

But clearly, the President believes that it does make sense politically. And part of that, I think, is he needs to find a way to make good on this promise he made, that he will take steps on immigration or at least to find a reason why he hasn't made good.

And the reason perhaps could be the courts or it could be Congress. So you do feel like he's setting up this fight to argue this -- you know, to make the political argument that he's being stymied by forces beyond his control but he's fighting hard.

WHITFIELD: So this is how Senator Mazie Hirono, you know, characterized this entire situation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: One, he doesn't think immigrants are human beings; and, two, he doesn't have to apply the law with regard to his treatment of them. There's a level of uncaring cruelty to the President that is off the charts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So, Susan, doesn't the President need to grow this base? And this "us versus them," I mean, why does that promise to allow him to gain more traction heading into a possible second term?

HENNESSEY: I mean, clearly, this is the President's strategy, right? Not really attempting to grow his base but sort of doubling down on energizing his base to turn out and, frankly, exhausting the other side.

I do think that this is an example of the fact that the President is not really putting forward a tenable policy proposal. So presuming that his base is genuinely concerned about immigration enforcement, concerned -- border security is a concern that's actually shared by both parties.

And so instead of actually sort of moving forward with sensible policies or even controversial policies that are aimed at the border, you know, Trump is, instead, essentially preferencing (ph) kind of trolling the other side, putting out this outlandish ideas that actually wouldn't just sort of help solve the problem but would exacerbate the issue and make things worse, further overburden immigration enforcement, you know.

And there is always sort of an element of cruelty, right? The idea here that these individuals, you know, their human lives, are essentially political pawns. You know, the President has sort of mocked the idea of people sort of raising genuine asylum claims and that the United States is obligated under international law to hear and grant asylum requests.

And so particularly to take these very, very vulnerable populations and act as though moving them into areas with the intention -- I assume it's sort of embedded in that -- of overburdening the resources of those locations, you know, it is cruel. And it's also pretty profoundly irresponsible.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, Jeff, it had been reported that the President, you know, really put in charge of his whole immigration policy, you know, his senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller. So is Stephen Miller driving this train, or is it at the direction of the President?

MASON: Well, the President never likes to give the impression that anyone aside from him is driving the train and he'll correct you if you ask him something like that directly, but I think, yes.

[12:15:02] I mean, I think Stephen Miller is the hardline adviser behind immigration and many of the other policies that President Trump is pursuing. He is the one who is -- certainly one of the main drivers and one of the people who have the President's ear.

WHITFIELD: Jeff Mason, Lisa Lerer, Susan Hennessey, thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.

All right, still ahead, Senator Cory Booker expected to take the stage in just a few moments. The 2020 presidential candidate is carrying out a kick-off rally in Newark, New Jersey. We'll take you there live.

And later, Pope Benedict is breaking his silence, speaking about the child sex abuse scandal dogging the Catholic Church. Who he says is to blame, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:14:57] WHITFIELD: All right, at any moment, we are awaiting New Jersey Senator Cory Booker at his presidential campaign kick-off rally in Newark. Booker is expected to take the stage about an hour from now, and CNN political reporter Rebecca Buck joins me now from Newark.

So, Rebecca, he's been on the campaign trail doing lots of town halls in primary states, and now this is kind of his first, you know, meeting with the masses right there on home territory, at least in New Jersey there at Newark.

REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. So this was supposed to be a big hometown kick off for Cory Booker, sort of a jump-start to the second phase of his campaign here in the second quarter. But I have to tell you, looking at the crowd here behind me, it looks like it might be more of a false start for Booker.

Now, the program is just kicking off. They're running almost an hour behind here today. But Newark police tell CNN that they were estimating the crowd could be as big as 10,000 people here today. And I don't know if you can see in the host behind me, but there clearly are some empty spaces in front of the stage, and the crowd is nowhere near that 10,000 people mark. So it begs the question, is this going to be a, you know, sign of a

lack of support for Booker? Surely, we've seen in polling that his numbers have been in the low single digits. His team spoke with reporters this week, and his campaign manager said they deliberately tried to build up slowly, methodically. They want to be able to peak at the right moment in this race.

But the question is, do they need a breakthrough moment sooner rather than later to show that they're a serious force in this campaign with such a big, crowded competitive field with other ascending candidates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend? Does Cory Booker need to have a moment?

So they were hoping that this rally today was going to be a moment for their campaign, a moment in the spotlight to keep them in the conversation. Unfortunately, though, it looks like the conversation is going to be about the lackluster crowd. It's still early. People could still fill in, but certainly not meeting expectations here today so far.

WHITFIELD: And then, Rebecca, does it say something about home field disadvantage, meaning everybody in your, you know, neighborhood and your town feel like they already know you so they don't turn out as a result?

BUCK: I mean, you know, they've actually been touting this as a hometown advantage. Cory Booker posted on Instagram with that caption earlier today. And he's been promoting this rally throughout the week on social media and in local media here in the tristate area as well.

And you think back to Kamala Harris' rally in Oakland at the beginning of her campaign which drew roughly 20,000 people. And Beto O'Rourke's more recently, his kick-off launch in El Paso and then in Austin after that. That drew also hundreds and thousands of people in those locations.

So you would expect for a former mayor of Newark -- Cory Booker was mayor here for two terms. He is a hometown boy done good, so to speak, and he still lives here in Newark, New Jersey. You would expect a much bigger crowd, frankly, for a former mayor here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rebecca Buck, thank you so much, in Newark. And of course, we'll be attending that rally with you as soon as it happens.

All right. Up next, former Pope Benedict the 16th is pointing the finger at who he believes caused the child sex abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church for decades, and it's not who you might expect. Details right after this.

[12:23:26] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Former Pope Benedict the 16th is breaking his silence on the child sex abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church. In an 11- page letter, Benedict claims the crisis was caused in part by the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the liberalization of the church's moral teaching.

He's writing, in part, among the freedoms that the revolution of 1968 sought to fight for was this all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms. The mental collapse was also linked to a propensity for violence.

That is why sex films were no longer allowed on airplanes because violence would break out among the small community of passengers. And since the clothing of that time equally provoked aggression, school principals also made attempts at introducing school uniforms with a view to facilitating a climate of learning. Part of the physiognomy of the revolution of '68 was that pedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate.

I want to bring in Mitchell Garabedian. He is an attorney who has been representing clergy sexual abuse victims for -- around the world for decades now. His work is so noteworthy that he was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the 2015 film, "Spotlight."

Mitchell, good to have you.

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS: Good day, happy to be here.

WHITFIELD: So your reaction to this letter, this 11-page letter, what are your thoughts?

GARABEDIAN: I have a lot of thoughts. First of all, it's absolute nonsense to think that the sexual revolution in the 1960s caused an acceptance of pedophilia. That has been found nowhere. It doesn't exist. And it shows you how out of touch the Catholic Church is with regard to the structural problem, the internal problem, they have with pedophilia.

The Pope's statement is a slap in the face to many victims. The Pope's statement doesn't explain how tens of thousands of children were sexually abused by priests while supervisors allowed it to happen before the 1960s.

[12:30:07] The Pope's statement doesn't explain how tens of thousands of children were sexually abused by priests while supervisors allowed it to happen before the 1960s. The Pope's statement doesn't explain how in -- after 2002 when a U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops put norms in place for the safety and protection of children allowed children to be -- continue to be sexually abused.

I mean, the abuse is still going on. Victims are still coming to me now who were abused after 2002. For instance, in Haiti, I represented 133 victims most of whom are sexually abused after 2002 in a Jesuit- run school or supervised school by the Jesuits, Fairfield University, and Order of Malta.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So --

GARABEDIAN: What's interesting --

WHITFIELD: Yes, go ahead.

GARABEDIAN: What's interesting is the letter frames the problem in such a light that it portrays the vic -- the church as the victim. Because of the sexual revolution, clergy sexual abuse occurred. That's basically what the Pope is saying. And he's also blaming the children.

What you said in your -- what you just read states that because of the way children dressed --

WHITFIELD: Right.

GARABEDIAN: -- high schoolers. The way children --

WHITFIELD: Because they brought it on themselves essentially.

GARABEDIAN: -- dressed. They caused it. They provoked it.

WHITFIELD: So here -- you know that Pope Benedict is going to be 92 next month. You know, he has been on the property at the Vatican for, you know, the last 10 years. He writes this letter and apparently this letter gets the approval from Pope Francis and even, you know, his assistant or administrator or secretary, Pope Benedict's secretary. Why do you believe anyone thought this was beneficial for this letter to get out? And how would this benefit the Catholic Church which has collectively been saying they're trying to get to the bottom of where this is a new day and they're trying to get to the bottom of healing?

GARABEDIAN: Well, to put it into context, first of all, there's a major battle going on within the Catholic Church between the conservatives led by Pope Francis -- I mean, excuse me, the conservatives led by Pope Benedict and the liberals led by Pope Francis. And the conservatives, the ultra-conservatives are speaking out through Pope Benedict right now. But the whole mindset is symptomatic of how out of touch the Catholic churches with regard to the problem of clergy sexual abuse. They just don't want to get it, they don't care.

The letter doesn't make any sense. It's an embarrassment and it's shameful.

WHITFIELD: You see it as a real setback. And then how about for, you know, all of these people that you've represented, people who have been abused, who, you know, have been traumatized over the years growing up with sharing their experiences and now to read a letter like this in this kind of tone?

GARABEDIAN: It's a re-victimization. Many victims don't want anything to do with the church anymore because of the attitude of the church and this letter just reinforces that feeling. But many victims -- clergy sexual abuse victims who want to get back into the church now feel as though they're being insulted and re-victimized and they possibly -- their desire to get back into the church has been greatly reduced because of a letter like this. The letter just makes no sense but it's typical of the Catholic Church to portray themselves as the victims, to blame the children for the pedophilia, and to blame society. And it's just continuing on. It's indicative of how empty the Catholic Church is with regard to protecting children, how little it cares about protecting children within the Catholic Church.

WHITFIELD: And you see that, you know -- and if this letter is also, you know, a product of -- or representation of what you just mentioned, the real dual between the conservative and the liberal and Francis represents the more liberal, do you believe that the release of this letter was really done behind the Pope's back, that he wouldn't -- while he may have read it, he wouldn't possibly have endorsed these kinds of writings or to publicize this kind of point of view from Pope Benedict?

GARABEDIAN: Well, it's politics. Right now you have two presidents within the Catholic Church, and one president in office is Pope Francis and citing one opinion. And another president is Pope Benedict, and he's retired but speaking out. He's being active. And this is just what the Catholic Church doesn't want because it creates more confusion.

And don't get me wrong, Pope Francis hasn't made any advances with regard to pedophilia within the Catholic Church, but this letter is even a greater setback for the Catholic Church.

[12:35:03] WHITFIELD: Mitchell Garabedian, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

GARABEDIAN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, it's a shocking statistic. Native American women, far more likely to be murdered than people in other demographics. What members of Congress are doing about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's a startling statistic which until now has not gotten a lot of attention. Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered in some areas of the U.S. than the rest of the population. That's a stunning revelation according to a new study by the Department of Justice. The crisis was highlighted in the 2017 film "Wind River" which ended with this chilling statement. "While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exists for Native American women."

[12:40:00] But a new bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill is hoping to change that. Here now is CNN's Scott McLean.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TINA RUSSELL, NIECE DISAPPEARED IN 2009: Right. This is right before she disappeared.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten years ago, Alyssa McLemore called 911 and said she needed help. Moments later the line went dead. No one has heard from her since.

Police in Kent, Washington still have an open investigation but clues are scarce.

RUSSELL: How do you move on? We can't. I can't move on.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The mystery of what happened to this Native American woman has tortured her family and there are countless other unsolved cases like this across the country.

RUSSELL: And I want her picture to go on this one too.

MCLEAN (voice-over): An invisible crisis, Native American women murdered or missing with few answers and little attention. In some places, Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the rest of the population according to one federally-funded study. One estimate based on national crime data pegs the number of missing Native women and girls at more than 5,700 in 2016 alone. Reliable data is near impossible to combat.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): What are we missing here? What's happening with our Native women that they are being victimized to the extent and to the level that they are?

MCLEAN (voice-over): Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is now pushing two bipartisan bills. One bill aims to get improved data collection on missing and murdered Native women.

ROXANNE WHITE, COUSIN DISAPPEARED IN OCTOBER: It hardly gets talked about.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Activists like Roxanne White trying to raise awareness of missing women like McLemore and her own cousin, Rosenda Strong who disappeared from the Yakama Reservation in Washington last October. Her family thinks she was killed but there have still been no arrests.

WHITE: The tribes are like the wild, Wild West. And we essentially don't have any protection.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Tribal police have declined to comment. Senator Murkowski says many women disappear from remote reservations. Some of which lack even a single police officer. Other times cases get lost in a confusing web of jurisdictional conflicts between tribal, local, and state police. She also worries that some victims are simply discounted by police because of their race or involvement in prostitution.

MURKOWSKI: Which makes no sense whatsoever and it doesn't mean that that -- that we should give up or that the system should not work to investigate to find out where that woman has gone.

MCLEAN (voice-over): That is what the McLemore family believes happened to Alyssa. At 21, she was caring for a young daughter and a dying mother. A year before she disappeared, she was picked up by police for prostitution. RUSSELL: I just kind of feel like they wrote her off as a prostitute and they probably think that, you know, she didn't have a family.

MCLEAN (voice-over): And Kent police say they don't discriminate. A new law may not help McLemore but it might finally help solve the crisis of missing and murdered Native women and bring some much-needed closure to their families.

RUSSELL: We're not going to stop looking for her, we're not going to say, give up.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Scott McLean, CNN, Kent, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And coming up, a massive leadership upheaval at the Homeland Security Department and the Secret Service. How could this affect Americans and the president's security? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:38] WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

President Trump's purge of leaders at the Department of Homeland Security this week has alarmed Democrats as well as several of his Republican supporters. Several top officials were fired, resigned, or are expected to go soon. The shake-up leaves vacancies at the top of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service.

Some lawmakers and experts worry the department cannot function properly if the departures continue. The president denies he's cleaning house at DHS and dismissed talk of elevating controversial aide and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller into the secretary role. Trump says the departures are not a big deal because he is calling the shots when it comes to immigration and Homeland Security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever thought about naming Stephen Miller the DHS secretary?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, Stephen Miller is an excellent guy. He's a wonderful person. People don't know him. He's a wonder -- been with me from the beginning. He's a brilliant man and frankly, there's only one person that's running it. You know who that is? It's me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Let's bring in former Secret Service agent under President Obama, Jonathan Wackrow. Good to see you.

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Nice to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, so the president says, you know, he's the one in charge of DHS so how potentially worrisome is that? WACKROW: Listen, I would hope that the president is being a little bit hyperbolic there and that he is not, you know, assuming that he is in charge of the Department of Homeland Security. Listen, the Department of Homeland Security has a very wide spectrum of responsibilities that the president's not thinking about in this instance.

The president is really solely focussed on immigration right now. He's directing his attention, he's directing the media's attention to this crisis on the southern border. How do we resolve that? He's trying to focus on all of those resources. Unfortunately, that creates a greater risk throughout the rest of the Department of Homeland Security and the mandates that they have to execute on every single day.

WHITFIELD: What kind of risks?

WACKROW: Well, listen, there's a -- when you start looking at -- you know, let's just put immigration aside for a moment, there's the strategic planning that's necessary by FEMA to, you know, prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. You and I have talked about this time and time again, the risk of, you know, cyber intrusion into our country. You know, DHS has cybersecurity and critical infrastructure division that's focused on monitoring and mitigating the risk of cybersecurity.

[12:50:04] There's also regulatory components of the department that are necessary every single day. There's law enforcement functions that are beyond immigration with, you know, the U.S. Secret Service as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. So there's a big responsibility that this department has and, you know, not focusing on or not adhering to the entire spectrum of responsibility is an inherent risk.

WHITFIELD: How does having, you know, acting directors, acting secretaries, acting, you know, deputy secretaries, how does that hamper the missions of security?

WACKROW: Well, listen, it actually hampers it significantly. Listen, I always liken that, you know, the position of an acting sort of like a substitute teacher, right? The -- an acting secretary actually does have pretty much the exact same, you know, responsibilities and authority that a confirmed secretary would have, but they're temporary in nature. So people aren't really, you know, focusing on what they're doing, they're almost just a place holder for those 210 days that they can be in office. They don't provide the long term strategy, the strategic planning that a department like the Department of Homeland Security actually needs in its necessity to move forward against, you know, with all the components that it has.

So, I think there is a big risk of having not only an acting, you know, secretary, but different components that are -- that have someone in charge that is in an acting capacity.

WHITFIELD: Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much.

WACKROW: Thank you. I appreciate it. WHITFIELD: Still ahead, will the weather be more of a factor as the top golfers in the world enter round three of the Masters. We're live in Augusta, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:01] WHITFIELD: OK, the third round of the Masters is underway in Augusta, and Tiger Woods is in the hunt at the Masters. The four- time Masters champion sits one shot back of the leaders heading into the weekend. But it's the scare that Tiger had on the course, Friday that left so many fans holding their breath.

CNN Sports Correspondent Andy Scholes joining me live from Augusta. And you took it all in stripe but take us back to that moment.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, of all the golfers for this to happen to (INAUDIBLE) of course it happens to Tiger Woods as he's making a run for his first major since 2008. And the security guard who slipped into Tiger, he actually spoke with GOLF.com and said, you know, luckily Tiger ended up birding the hole. It happened on 14, now Tiger had a crazy good shot. But you see that security guard slipped and ran into Tiger. Luckily he was OK, made a birdie on that hole.

Then on 15, Tiger, the long birdie pot there and give us that patented Tiger fist pump. After the round yesterday, Tiger did talk about that scary moment on 14 and being just one shot off the lead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, TIED FOR 6TH PLACE (-6) ENTERING THIRD ROUND: It happens. You know, I've been run over by (INAUDIBLE) before and it's all good. You know, it feels good to be back in contention in a major championship. This is my third in a row. I put myself there so -- look at that board. We're all bunched together.

Look at myself and Phil, you know, we're on the older side and we understand how to play this golf course and it's -- it is advantageous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, if you look at that star-studded leaderboard, I mean, it's the first time ever at any major that five guys that have all won a major before share a lead after any round. Nine guys at the top at the leaderboard separated by just one shot, that's the most in Masters history after 36 alls. And Adam Scott who won the Masters back in 2013, he's one of the guys at the top of the leaderboard right now and he said he's never seen anything like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SCOTT, TIED FOR 1ST PLACE (-7) ENTERING PLAY SATURDAY: This is really stacked. I think it's going to be an incredible weekend no matter what happens now. There are so many great players with a chance. As a golf fan, I like it. As a player, I'd rather be like six in front or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And there's so much excitement for today. Tiger, Fredricka, tees off at 2:05 Eastern. I tell you what, with him in contention there's just like an electric atmosphere out here in Augusta. I actually saw two fans hugging each other after Tiger hit the birdie pot on 15 yesterday. That's how so much joy he brings to all the fans in the gallery.

WHITFIELD: It is amazing to see. I mean, the crowds that just follow him. Even, you know, at this point in his career, and he's been around for a very long time, but he still has tremendous fans, you know, tremendous fanbase.

Hey -- so what about the weather there? I mean, it's in the forecast. You know, are people little nervous about, you know, the threatening weather or what?

SCHOLES: Yes. We've got pop-up thunderstorms right now, Fredricka. Luckily none of it -- none of them have hit the course yet this afternoon. So we should be fine today. Tomorrow is the issue, tomorrow afternoon, severe thunderstorms in the forecast. And we could have our first Masters Monday since 1983 but fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

WHITFIELD: OK, get it through. Today, let's start with that. All right, Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

WHITFIELD: All right, nearly 40 million people from Texas to Alabama are under some kind of severe storm threat today. And we're talking the possibility of life-threatening tornadoes, damaging winds, baseball-sized hail.

CNN Meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is tracking this dangerous -- potentially dangerous storm system.

IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Fredricka, good to see you. We're past potential an hour to potentially and all of what you said there has now been confirmed with this incredible storm system here. I want to focus in, we have a tornado watch that has now been issued just a few minutes ago. This includes Eastern Texas and into Louisiana.

But furthermore, getting into some of the storms, we're going to do local forecasting here because I think it is worth it with this particular storm as we zoom in into Franklin, Texas. Check out the wording from the National Weather Service with this storm that continues moving off to the north and east. A confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado has already produced significant damage.

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