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Mexican Troop Deployment Falling Short of Promise; Couple Demands Officers Be Fired Over Incident; Vatican Considers Allowing Married Men to Become Priests; Iran to Cut Back on Nuclear Commitments; Egypt's Mohamed Morsi Dies during Trial; Polls: Trump Lagging, Five Democratic Candidates Leading. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired June 18, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, thanks for joining us. I'm John Vause you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Ahead this hour the steady drumbeat to war, the U.S. deploys troops to the Middle East, Iran warns a confrontation is coming and says it will increase its power with low-grade nuclear fuel, moving one step closer to a nuclear weapon.
Plus when they're good they're very, very good. When they are bad, they just don't exist. The very Trumping way to deal with polls that show the U.S. president is in big trouble ahead of the 2020 election.
Also this hour, the Catholic Church may soon allow a small number of married men to become priests.
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VAUSE: At this hour 1,000 U.S. troops are preparing for the next U.S. mission to deter Iran from hostile acts, the Pentagon has just announced that troops, spyplanes and missile defense assets will be headed to the Middle East.
This all stems from Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. blames Iran; Iran says the U.S. is setting the stage for war. Barbara Starr begin our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Newly declassified images of what the Pentagon says was an Iranian attack on two oil tankers last week. One extraordinarily clear image taken from a U.S. Navy helicopter overhead shows an Iranian Revolutionary Guard boat moments after those on board removed an unexploded mine from one tanker according to the Pentagon.
More images of the leftover mine and a hole in the hull from additional blasts, the Pentagon acknowledged two things: they are not sure all the damage was caused by mines and the case against the Iranians still will have its doubters.
Iran's ambassador warned his country and the U.S. are headed for a possible showdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID BAEIDINEJAD, IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.K.: Unfortunately, we are headed towards a confrontation, which is very serious for everyone the region.
STARR (voice-over): In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the ambassador is saying that Iran is not responsible for the attack that left two oil tankers damaged last week.
BAEIDINEJAD: I don't know about the strategy of the U.S. on this. But I am sure that this is a scenario that some people are very forcefully working on it, that they would drag the United States into a confrontation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR (voice-over): President Trump's national security team now discussing sending more military force to the region.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States is considering a full range of options, we briefed the president a couple of times and we will continue to keep him updated. We are confident that we can take a set of actions that can restore deterrence, which is our mission set.
STARR (voice-over): A decision could be made soon that will send additional U.S. warships, fighter jets and Patriot missile defenses.
POMPEO: Obviously we need to make contingency plans, should the attention deteriorate.
STARR (voice-over): Iran's response to the escalate tension: it will bust through a limit in the nuclear deal on how much low-grade uranium it can have for non-weapons purposes.
We will pass through a limit on the nuclear deal about how much low grade uranium we can have for non weapons purposes.
BEHROUZ KAMALVANDI, IRAN'S ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: It is a matter of only hours and not even days.
STARR (voice-over): Iran hopes that the threat will break Europe's will to go along with tough U.S. economic sanctions imposed after President Trump broke from the nuclear deal.
ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: This is a far cry from the 90 percent enrichment rate that you would need for a bomb but it is a very strong signal from Tehran that the deal could be put under some pressure.
STARR: Another major worry, Iran's conventional weapons are getting better. Its missiles have improved guidance, improved precision and improved targeting -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For more now we are joined by Trita Parsi, the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council.
So, Trita, good to see you, thank you for being with us.
TRITA PARSI, FOUNDER, NATIONAL IRANIAN AMERICAN COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: If the Iranian ambassador in London is right and it seems that the U.S. and Iran are heading into a confrontation, how is this decision by Tehran to increase the low-grade nuclear stockpile do anything but increase the likelihood of a confrontation?
PARSI: The fact that they're now increasing is actually very worrisome, this is a very bad development but it is not a surprising development. For more than a year now the Trump administration has walked out of the deal, violated it and perhaps most importantly punished countries for adhering to the deal while reimposing all sanctions on Iran.
So was quite clear that at some point the Iranians would leave it as well because if they are not getting any of the economic benefits that they were promised, they are likely going to walk out.
But here is the small opportunity that exists here. The Iranians are sending a signal to Europeans, saying --
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PARSI: -- you are obligated to provide those economic benefits and continue to trade with Iran under this nuclear deal.
If you're not going to do it, then Iran will walk out of it because it is getting nothing out of this deal. If you restart your trade with Iran, then Iran will return into the deal because the issue is very easily reversible.
The question is, are the European willing to defy Trump's sanctions and restart their trade with Iran?
VAUSE: The U.S. State Department is actually calling on Tehran to honor its commitment to the 2015 nuclear, the irony was not lost on many and that included Iran's ambassador to the U.K.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAEIDINEJAD: It is very funny that the United States and this administration, which has characterized the JCPOA as the worst agreement in the history, now they are expecting that Iran will be fully committed with this agreement.
If it is a funny agreement, if it is the worst deal ever made in history, how come you expect Iran will be fully committed to this agreement?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: While the U.S. president may deride the deal, the U.K., China, France, Russia and Germany are still committed; maybe they are not adhering to it because of the secondary sanctions coming from the U.S.
But is this an attempt to essentially to widen the divisions between those other countries, the P5 and the United States, the divisions, which, to be fair, were first created by Donald Trump?
PARSI: Actually I don't think so because the risk here is they actually may reduce those divisions. I think this is Iran saying look, they have been inside the deal for more than a year without getting any of the benefits.
If the Europeans are so afraid of the United States and its economic punishments of the U.S. against Europeans, then there is no reason for the Iranians to stay, either. So they are essentially saying if they're going to be in, others have to be in.
Yes, the Europeans are still speaking nice words about the deal but they are not adhering to the economic obligations that they have, which is to make sure that this trade is actually functioning and it's going in both directions.
So no one has the expectation that the Iranians will stay in this forever. They were just hoping that the Iranians will stay in the deal without any benefits or at least until Donald Trump leaves the White House.
But it is unclear whether he will leave the White House next year or whether he'll be there for another five or six years. So this is a crisis that is ultimately coming around because Trump has pulled out of the deal and the Europeans have, unfortunately, said some great things and have the right political signals.
But when push came to shove, they all adhere to the blackmail that the Trump administration has put on them by threatening to sanction them if they traded with Iran.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to have the U.S. State Department described Tehran's announcement of the increases in its low-grade nuclear stockpile.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN ORTAGUS, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We would say to the international community that we should not yield to nuclear extortion by the Iranian regime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Here's Republican senator Tom Cotton speaking about the attacks on the two oil tankers which the U.S. blamed Iran for. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): These unprovoked attacks on commercial shipping warrant a retaliatory military strike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Now the Pentagon have released new images that are proof Iran was behind the attacks. There are now 1,000 extra U.S. troops heading to the region.
How is all this being heard by the people of Iran?
Because this steady drumbeat, building the case for confrontation or war is reminiscent of the days leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
PARSI: Absolutely. Back then, everything was done, regardless whatever Saddam Hussein did or not, the agenda for war would be going forward. And with people like Tom Cotton and others who have worked so hard to start a war with Iran for the last 5-6 years, this is a fantastic opportunity they have.
And they are doing everything they can without any evidence that the Iranians were behind it, trying to pin it on the Iranians in order to further the war agenda. I think people in Iran are really stuck. They don't like the current government, they have a tremendous amount of problems with the current government.
But at the same time, they are seeing a U.S. administration taking its cues from Saudi Arabia and Israel, who also want the United States to go to war with Iran because they want the United States to restore a balance of power in the Middle East that is more reminiscent of what existed prior to 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq.
So they are stuck between an administration in the U.S. that wants was and a government in Iran that has been repressive of their civil rights.
VAUSE: There also seems to be a feedback loop between the U.S. president and FOX News. At 11:49 am U.S. Eastern time, Trump tweeted, "Iran to defy Uranium Stockpile Limits."
The exact same wording from a segment on FOX which had gone to air --
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VAUSE: -- just minutes earlier. And that segment dealt with some potential for a U.S. limited strike on Iran. The Iranians would not respond in a significant way.
The hardliners now, having the upper hand in Tehran, are they likely to allow any U.S. strike, regardless of limited it may be, to go unanswered?
PARSI: On the contrary. This is actually a line that both the Saudis and Israelis have been making to Washington for quite some time, essentially saying that Iran is no different from Syria. You can strike it; it won't have the guts to respond.
We actually know that is not true because just two weeks ago when there was a ratcheting up of tensions the U.S. intelligence itself ticked off that as U.S. warships were headed to the Middle East, Iran started to put some of the missiles on boats and move them around, appearing as if they were either trying to protect those missiles or preparing for counterstrikes.
So the idea that this will just be a limited strike and the Iranians will not respond seems extremely unlikely. But this is how you sell a big war. You pretend that you are selling a small war because that is much more digestible, just something that perhaps Trump could agree to.
If you actually try to say, look, let's have a big war, not only would the American public be strongly against it, I personally think that Donald Trump himself would not be in favor of it.
VAUSE: It is a good point to end on, Trita. Yes, if you want a big war, you have to start with a small one, I guess. Thanks for being with us.
PARSI: Thanks so much for having me.
VAUSE: The first Democratically elected president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, has died of a heart attack in court while on trial for espionage. After a making a 5-minute statement, saying that he was the country's legitimate leader, according to "The New York Times," the 67-year-old returned to the cage and collapsed and fell unconscious. He was dead on arrival at the hospital.
According to his lawyer, Morsi had not been allowed to see his legal team or his family while being held in solitary confinement. Morsi was the first freely elected president in Arab history, at the peak of the Arab Spring, with many hoping that his election would represent a break from the past of autocrats and dictators and corrupt governments. For more now on his legacy, here is CNN's Hala Gorani.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mohamed Morsi burst onto Egypt's stage after winning the presidential election, the country's first civilian and Islamist president.
The Muslim Brotherhood thrust Morsi into the presidential role after the Election Commission disqualified their first choice, Khairat el- Shater, dubbing Morsi, "the spare tire."
Morsi was born in August 1951, in Egypt's northern Sharqia Governorate. He graduated with a Ph.D. in material engineering from the University of Southern California in the United States.
His first foray into politics came as a parliamentarian in 2000. In January 2011, the country entered a new age. Millions of Egyptians demanded President Hosni Mubarak step down. The then-banned Brotherhood, reluctant at first, eventually joined the protests.
Security forces arrested Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on January 28th. He escaped in a nationwide jailbreak two days later. The
following turbulent two years witnessed a new constitution and parliament dominated by the Brotherhood. Morsi became Egypt's first democratically elected president in June 2012.
But the new president inherited the country's many problems: rolling blackouts and gas shortages plagued his presidency, his blunders making him fodder for critics. Late-night comedian Bassem Youssef constantly lampooned the president.
Despite several international gaffes, he'd be widely praised for negotiating a ceasefire to Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza in 2012. But it marked the beginning of the end of his presidency. He issued a constitutional declaration giving him pharaonic-like powers.
Protestors rebelled and many were killed outside the presidential palace. It tested his already-tense relationship with the judiciary and military.
Morsi would replace long-serving defense minister Hussein Tantawi with General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi. The struggling economy and perceived Islamist threat to Egypt's identity gave birth to the Tamarod, or rebel campaign.
On June 30th, 2013, on his first anniversary as president, millions of Egyptians gathered to denounce their leader. The writing was in the sky.
Egypt's future president, el-Sisi, the chief of the Armed Forces, ousted Morsi on July 3rd, following a controversial but --
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GORANI (voice-over): -- popular coup by the military.
It ushered one of the deadliest summers in Egypt's history. Security forces would clear camps of protesting Morsi supporters, killing hundreds of people. The next time we'd see then-ex President Morsi would be in a cage.
Despite definitely dismissing the court's legitimacy, a judge still sentenced him to death for his 2011 prison escape.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Hala Gorani reporting there on the death of the former Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi.
Still to come, digging in with his reelection campaign, the official launch just hours away. President Trump refusing to acknowledge his poll numbers. Plus human rights activists are warning any increase in troops along
Mexico's southern border could be more harm than good, we will explain later this hour.
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VAUSE: It was meant to be a it was meant to be a celebration for NBA champions Toronto Raptors. But then gunfire rang out in the huge crowds that had gathered to mark the Raptors' win over Golden State Warriors.
Altogether, four suffered non-life threatening injuries. Police arrested three people in two separate incidents connected to the shooting.
Donald Trump officially launches his reelection campaign Tuesday night. It comes with fresh attacks on the news media. He is calling poll numbers, internal poll numbers, showing him behind Democrats, in more than a key dozen states, as fake. Even though his campaign admitted they were real. Kaitlan Collins has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: You're fired.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Today President Trump is reviving his old catchphrase and purging his polling team after unflattering internal poll numbers leaked.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: But even your own polls show you are behind right now, don't they?
TRUMP: No, my polls show that I'm winning everywhere.
COLLINS (voice-over): The president is cutting ties with three pollsters, including two who were part of his 2016 campaign and another who works for the polling company founded by Kellyanne Conway. The campaign downplayed the polls at the time but never denied them until Trump was infuriated by the coverage.
TRUMP: Nobody showed you those polls because those polls don't exist, George. Those polls don't exist.
To -- hold it off for a little while. Just call Brad on the phone and I want to ask him that question, OK.
COLLINS (voice-over): The Brad he's referring to is campaign manager Brad Parscale. Sources said the president erupted on several campaign officials after the embarrassing numbers leaked and instructed them --
[00:20:00] COLLINS (voice-over): -- to get him new polls, his fixation ramping up in recent days as he tweeted that, "Only Fake Polls show us behind the Motley Crew."
The president is also firing back at "The New York Times" after it reported that the U.S. is escalating cyber attacks on Russian power grids as part warning and part preparation.
But one of the most stunning details is what the president wasn't told. According to "The Times," Defense and intelligence officials were hesitant to go into detail with him about the move out of fear he might overrule it or tell foreign officials, like he did in 2017, when Trump boasted about classified intelligence in an Oval Office meeting with Russian diplomats.
TRUMP: It's a fantastic --
COLLINS (voice-over): One thing not allowed in the Oval Office, coughing.
TRUMP: Let's do that over. He's coughing in the middle of my answer.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, OK.
TRUMP: I don't like that, you know.
COLLINS (voice-over): Trump interrupting his interview with ABC News to scold his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, for coughing while he was speaking.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your chief of staff.
TRUMP: If you're going to cough, please leave the room.
MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'll shut up. And I'll come over here.
TRUMP: You just can't do it.
MULVANEY: Sorry, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: OK.
Do you want to do that a little differently then?
COLLINS: Now back to the president's poll numbers, one person lamented the fact that lately the campaign seems more focused on containing the leaks than on the president's bad numbers in states that he is going to need to win in 2020.
That's something the campaign is hoping to change, as the president goes to Orlando Florida to officially relaunch his election bid -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining, us now, Daniel Dale, CNN reporter in Washington.
Daniel, welcome.
DANIEL DALE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much.
VAUSE: Back in December, a newly discovered Sicilian life form -- a wormlike amphibian which lives almost entirely underground, away from the real world, has very limited eyesight, was officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi. Back then it was because of the U.S. president's refusal to believe in climate change.
Possibly, it, seems Dermophis donaldtrumpi may have a relative out there, Malisnetium (ph) donaldtrumpi, a refusal to acknowledge bad news. Because it's not just the internal polling bad news, it's bad polling news anywhere. Here is Donald Trump on FOX last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX HOST: Mr. President, they say, like Ronald Reagan to this point, like Bush 43 at this point, you are trailing a lot of these battleground states as you --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: It's incorrect polling. It's incorrect.
KILMEADE: So what do you --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You, know this says a lot about the Trump reelection campaign and how it will operate in the coming months.
DALE: It. Does you, know the campaign professionals are dealing with what they call a principal, the candidate, that doesn't want to hear anything that is suggesting he's less than beloved. That is a challenge for professionals, who may want to change their strategy or tactics in response to data that show the president is not beloved.
And so it's a constant struggle for people working for Trump to balance the management of his ego with the communication of information they need to right the ship if they are going to.
Were these numbers leaked?
As a last-ditch effort to get the president to pay attention?
DALE: I don't know personally. They weren't leaked to me. I think that is possible. But I think there are other possible motivations. So I wouldn't want to guess.
VAUSE: As we get to the internal polls, they show Donald Trump in trouble in more than a dozen states, over the weekend. He fired three pollsters for leaking the opinion poll data, which he said didn't exist. And according to our reporting, privately, a person familiar with the
situation told CNN that the dismissals were less to do with the quality of the polls that about pacifying the president. Which may explain why the three people who were fired, seem to have nothing to the polling. But the person who did it is actually still on the job. It means, clearly there is a disconnect.
DALE: Right. So Trump doesn't want to be embarrassed and we know he has been on an internal rampage about leakers for most of his tenure as president. And I think he sees the leaks coming from his campaign as a betrayal, more than his White House.
He knows there are hundreds of people in the administration. Doesn't know where they're coming. From but when it's his small campaign team, he takes that especially hard. And I don't know if there was an edict to get rid of anyone or if people working under him simply thought that's what needs to be done. But they did it.
VAUSE: The former vice president, Joe, Biden Democrat running for the nomination, he is looking at these polls. And it's telling a difference story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I plan on campaigning in the South. If I'm your nominee, I plan on winning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, believe it or not. And I believe we can win Texas and Florida. If you look at the polling data now. It's a, marathon it's a long way off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's a big call by Biden. He is running on this --
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VAUSE: -- electability first. And policies, seem to be a distant second.
There was a FOX News poll showing he is not the only Democrat who can beat Trump. That is a good lead for Biden. Then if you look at the numbers, there's a lot of electability to go around.
How much harm does this poll do to the Biden campaign?
The fact he says he's the one that can beat Trump.
DALE: Well, I think as long as he has by far the biggest lead over Trump in these polls, then he can safely make this electability argument. I think for a lot of Democratic voters, people who vote in the Democratic primary, they are just not willing to take the chance that their chosen candidate will lose to Trump. Above all they want this president gone.
And so if we see consistently polls where several Democrats are just slightly beating Trump but Biden way out ahead of Trump then I think for many voters it would be a compelling argument. He will say, look, you could take a risk with all these other people. Maybe they will beat him, maybe they won't, whereas you choose, me you know I can win Texas. And I can maybe win South Carolina and I'm going to carry Michigan, Wisconsin and all those states we need to win. So I think for, now at, least, he still has that argument on his side.
VAUSE: Interesting. Pete Buttigieg just made the. Cut if he was to win the White House, he would be the youngest president in history. And the first openly gay. But he believes, not the first gay president.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND, IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People will elect the person who will make the best president. And we have had excellent presidents who have been young. We have had excellent presidents who have been liberal. I would imagine we've probably had excellent presidents who were gay. We just didn't know which ones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You believe that we've had a gay commander in chief?
BUTTIGIEG: Statistically it's almost certain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reflecting your reading of history, like do you believe you know who they were?
BUTTIGIEG: My gaydar doesn't even work that well on the present, let alone retroactively.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know. Is this another example of how Buttigieg is almost always tone and pitch perfect answering questions, which potentially could have been a problem?
DALE: Yes, I think. So he's very smooth. He is fluent. He mixes seriousness and eloquence with humor very well. He seems smart and relatable at the same.
I think the question for him is about electability and experience. He tries to say that his experience, his superior experience. He's been in the Midwest, in the military, run a small city. I think for many voters, running a small city in Indiana is still not sufficient qualification for being president. I think they are still voters who worry about the electability of even a very charming gay man, so he has hurdles as well as talents.
VAUSE: It's not like he has his own reality TV show or anything.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: Daniel, good to see you, thank you.
DALE: Thank you.
VAUSE: For hundreds of, years church doctrine has prevented Catholic priests from getting married. But now the Vatican is considering the smallest of exceptions. And we will explain why after a break.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
[00:30:36] The U.S. sending 1,000 additional troops and military assets to the Middle East. This comes after Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. says these images show Iran is responsible, but Iran denies that, accusing the U.S. of pushing a narrative that could lead to confrontation.
The first Democratically-elected president of Egypt has died of a heart attack. Sixty-seven-year-old Mohamed Morsy collapsed in court after making a five-minute-long statement. He's on trial for espionage. Amnesty International and the Muslim Brotherhood are calling for an investigation into his death.
U.S. President Donald Trump telling supporters that polls showing him trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden aren't real. His team fired several pollsters, whose early results in key swing states showed the president badly lagging. Sources say Trump has been angry for days about the internal polls, which were leaked last week.
Mexico has deployed about 3,000 of a promised 6,000 troops to its southern border. Mexican officials said troop levels would be increased as part of a deal with the Trump administration to slow the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. and, in turn, avoiding a blanket 5 percent American tariffs on all Mexican imports.
Here's CNN, Michael Holmes, reporting from Tapachula, not far from Mexico's border with Guatemala.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Mexican government initially said 6,000 troops and police would be in place along the southern border with Guatemala by Tuesday to deal with the migrant crisis. But at a news conference Monday, a government spokesman said that won't happen.
MAXIMILIANO REYES ZUNIGA, MEXICO UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE (through translator): I think that finishing this week, there should be approximately 50 percent of those 6,000 assigned.
HOLMES: Still, activity has increased in the last 24 to 48 hours. Here, entire truckloads of migrants found in the state of Veracruz. Also, more checkpoints, roadblocks, and a growing number of detentions.
But, here at a packed human rights center in Tapachula, those in charge say this isn't a job for soldiers not trained to deal with women and children who are fleeing with their lives.
(on camera): Are troops the answer? Is the military the answer? SALVA LACRUZ, FRAY MATIAS DE CORDOVA HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER: No.
Because they need protection. They don't need more violence, more detention and being deported, sent back again to the violence in their countries.
HOLMES: So you think it will make it worse?
LACRUZ: Yes. I'm sure about it.
HOLMES (voice-over): Salva Lacruz says the center he runs has seen more migrants in the past five months than the previous three years combined. And what people are fleeing in their home countries is worse than dodging troops to get here.
LACRUZ: The situation we have here is people hiding away from violence and trying to save their lives. Because if they don't leave their countries, they will die. They will be killed.
HOLMES: Mexico's government says it is unable to cope alone, needing international help, including from the U.S.
ZUNIGA (through translator): Without a doubt, the U.S. will have to invest. Because the Latin American migration phenomenon is not exclusive to one country. And all those involved should be doing this.
HOLMES (on camera): The migrants come from many countries. But the vast majority come from right there, Guatemala. More than 210,000 apprehended at the U.S. border in the eight months to May. And this is one of the ways they got there. Jump on a pontoon, go from there to Mexico. A dollar a head, and you're there.
(voice-over): There are dozens more crossing points. A porous, nearly thousand-kilometer border. And human rights groups say migrants will take more remote and potentially more dangerous routes to avoid security forces. But while the reasons they left in the first place remain, they will still come.
Michael Holmes, Tapachula, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: An update now on a story which has received a lot of attention over the past few days.
Police in Phoenix, Arizona, have released surveillance video they say shows a young girl walking out of a store with a doll her family did not pay for. Officers responded to a shoplifting call in what some say -- some? -- was overly aggressive manner. The surveillance video also appears to show the girl's father about to take a pair of underwear.
CNN's Sara Sidner has more now on the officers' reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands up.
Get your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands up.
I'm going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) put a cap right in your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) head.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Then you see another officer moving in, his gun raised, using the "F" word. That's the beginning of the video. We don't know how long this went on before the bystanders began recording, but the video goes on to show Ames on the ground and another officer asking pregnant mother Iesha Harper if she's OK.
Soon after, another officer runs up and curses at her for not putting her hands up. Harper argues and curses back, saying she couldn't, because she was holding a baby. The officer tries to grab the toddler. The children begin wailing.
Then an officer -- you see him there -- uses a leg sweep on her fiance, Ames, who is already cuffed against a patrol car. The family says they feared for their lives over an accusation of shoplifting underwear and a doll.
In the police report, the officers say Ames admitted to shoplifting the underwear and driving on a suspended license. Police also wrote that Harper said her daughter took the doll, unbeknownst to her. But the family is disputing some of the details.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN's Sara Sidner with that update. And we should note, the couple is demanding the officers be fired, and they're also suing the city for $10 million in damages.
Artist, designer, socialite. Gloria Vanderbilt has died, aged 95. The heiress to a railroad fortune first made headlines as a young child with relatives waging a custody fight. After several marriages, she became a writer, actress, fashion designer, who earned hundreds of millions on her own, most notably with an iconic brand of jeans.
We'll have much more on the life of this Renaissance woman in a tribute from her son, CNN's Anderson Cooper. That's next hour here on CNN NEWSROOM.
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[00:38:44] VAUSE: The Vatican considering a return to the tradition of allowing priests to marry. Nowhere in the New Testament does it require a priest to be celibate. And for the first 1,000 years of the church, priests were married; they had families.
But as CNN's Delia Gallagher reports from Rome, there will be a limited number of priests who may be allowed to be married.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In what would be a significant change for the Catholic priesthood, the Vatican has announced that they are considering the question of allowing married man to become priests. This would be in the specific area of the Amazon region, in South America, which is currently undergoing a shortage of priests.
And the Vatican has just published the agenda for a meeting which will discuss this amongst other proposals to take place here at the Vatican in October.
To be clear, the proposal is not about allowing current Catholic priests to marry. It is about allowing respected elders of the community, the Vatican says, who may already be married and have families, to be ordained priests in order to say mass and support the Catholic communities in the Amazon region who are currently without priests.
To be sure, if the proposal were to go through -- and Pope Francis would have to sign off on it -- it would represent an important change for the Catholic priesthood. And it would also open up the possibility in other parts of the world that married men could be ordained priests if there is a shortage of priests in that area.
Also on the agenda for the October meeting is the question of the role of women in the Catholic Church in the Amazon. The agenda does not go into detail about what that might look like, so we'll have to wait for the October meeting to see how those discussions unfold.
They will also be discussing environmental issues in the Amazon, such as deforestation and support for indigenous people. Indeed, the Vatican said today that some 20 indigenous people from the Amazon will be joining Pope Francis, as well as representatives from the Catholic church in the region at the Vatican in October.
Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.
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VAUSE: Finally here, be warned. The germaphobe in chief does not appreciate coughing in the Oval Office. Here's Jeanne Moos to explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you have to wipe your nose, don't wipe it near this guy.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm also very much of a germaphobe.
MOOS: And if you cough during an interview --
TRUMP: But at some point, I hope they get it, because it's a fantastic financial statement.
MOOS: -- prepare to be thrown out like a used Kleenex. TRUMP: And let's do that over. He's coughing in the middle of my
answer.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Yes.
TRUMP: I don't like that. You know.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your chief of staff.
TRUMP: If you're going to cough, please leave a room.
MOOS: Not some intern, but acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
On the bright side, Kim Jong-un would have had him killed.
A former campaign staffer told "The Washington Post" it's something they're warned not to do.
JOHN KASICH (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF OHIO: Well, thou shalt not cough.
MOOS: Imagine how Hillary would fare.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: (COUGHS) Could I get some lozenge or something?
(COUGHS) I'll be right --
(COUGHS) Every time I think about Trump, I get allergic.
MOOS (on camera): A lot of people kept (COUGHS) coughing up a coughing conspiracy theory.
(voice-over): That Mulvaney was trying to signal Trump to shut up about his financial statements.
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": This is my theory.
WHOOPEE GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": Right.
BEHAR: I think he was going, "(COUGHS) Don't talk about how you're broke. (COUGHS)"
MOOS: Anthony Scaramucci tells of the time he had a sore throat while meeting with President Trump aboard Air Force One. The president banished him to the sick bay for a shot.
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: There I am, traveling on the most famous plane in the world. My pants are down, and I'm taking a shot of penicillin like I was in the second grade.
MOOS: The ban on coughing left some wondering, "Sniffing OK, though?"
TRUMP: (SNIFFING)
MOOS: Trump has a tendency to order things out. TRUMP: Get this thing out of here, will you?
MOOS: From teleprompters. To crying babies.
TRUMP: You can get the baby out of here.
TRUMP: But at least he's no Caligula.
MALCOLM MCDOWELL, ACTOR: What is it?
MOOS: When a young man's coughing irritated him, off with his head.
MCDOWELL: I've cured his cough.
MOOS: Will President Trump keep his head the next time someone coughs?
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
MCDOWELL: Take it away. It looks horrible.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Take it away.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.
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[00:45:06] (WORLD SPORT)
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