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Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) is Interviewed on Immigration; Plane Slams into Hanger in Texas; Closing Arguments in SEAL's Court Martial; Japan Restarts Whaling. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 01, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:33:08] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: In hours, funeral services will be held for the migrant father and daughter from El Salvador who died trying to seek a better life in America. This image of them, always difficult to see, on the banks of the Rio Grande River ignited uproar last week over the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

Also today, a handful of lawmakers will soon tour several controversy detention centers in El Paso and Clint, Texas. The question is, what are the conditions actually like inside those buildings.

Joining me now is one of the leaders of the today's tour, Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of Texas. She represents El Paso. She's a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): Good morning. Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: So I want to ask you just about, you're going to tour this facility later this morning. CNN, I should note, we were granted access last week and were only shown well-lit areas where kids have toothbrushes, et cetera. Of course there have been accounts that show that's not the case for many of these migrants here.

What will you be allowed to see today and are you confident that you're going to see what the actual conditions are for these migrant children?

ESCOBAR: Jim, the reality at many of these facilities is that the conditions change day to day. And because, as members of Congress, we don't have the ability, even with our oversight obligation, to just drop in and present ourselves unannounced, it's hard to know exactly what the conditions are on any given day. So we have to plan ahead. We have to request to be allowed access inside.

What I'm hoping is, is that my colleagues and I will be able to see everything. I'm very curious about certain areas that my own staff was not granted access to when they toured. We are members of Congress. We should be granted that access. We will have leadership from CBP with us. And I think that it's very important that all of us understand the -- number one, for the needs of each facility, but also in terms of who's to be held responsible for the conditions of many of these facilities.

[09:35:20] SCIUTTO: So, there's the question of the conditions. That is one. But there's also the question of the numbers along the border. And in May of this year, these -- these are the latest figures, 132,887 people apprehended between -- just between ports of entry. You see the increase there of more than 30,000 in one month. And I'm curious, I know you want to address the conditions so these children are not held, well, like prisoners in effect here. Actually, in some cases, worse than the conditions prisoners face here. But how do you address this issue of the numbers of people coming across the border?

ESCOBAR: Yes. Yes. The fact of the matter, Jim, is that it's going to take tremendous leadership by all leaders of nations in this hemisphere. We are -- we're seizing -- we're seeing actually a seasonal decrease in the numbers. We're also seeing, I think, I suspect, a dramatic decrease because of what Mexico is doing. We don't know if that's the case yet. Time will tell.

But the truth of the matter is, until we address the root causes of the migration patterns that we've been seeing now for five years, then we're not going to change things. This could potentially be our new normal. It's what I have told my community, El Paso. We have been on the front lines. We have been seeing the dramatic numbers increase.

The other challenge is, if we don't have an agency, which is a very well-funded agency, the Department of Homeland Security, that is able to adapt and shift its mode of operations, then we're always going to be seeing a crisis. We should be able to tell what the patterns are in advance. We've seen them, as I mentioned, for five years. We should be able to adapt. We need leadership that's able to do that for us. But we've got to get to the root cause or things will not change.

SCIUTTO: OK, let me ask you, though, about the politics, because, of course they -- they influence the policy here. Democrats, by bigger and bigger numbers, we'll put the numbers up on the screen, even Democrats increasingly see the situation at the border as a crisis. From January of this year to April, you see from 7 percent of Democrats thinking so to 24 percent. Larger figures in the public from 24 to 35 percent.

So voters are seeing this as a crisis as well. And I -- and I wonder if that is influencing the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's position on things like money at the border. What is your view? Are your constituents shifting in the way they see this as less a Trump problem and more a national security problem for the U.S.?

ESCOBAR: That's a very good question. I can tell you definitely in my district, whereas a year ago we were seeing health care as the number one issue for my constituents, immigration has now essentially flipped that. So health care is the number one issue for my -- I mean immigration is now the number one issue for my constituents.

And it is because it's in the news all the time. The conditions are in the news. The situation is in the news. The visuals -- you know some really just incredibly tragic photos that we've seen are in the news, which is good. The United States needs to see what is happening. Americans need to see what is happening.

But I will tell you, the Congress approved a supplemental package in February. So it's not accurate for anyone to believe that we haven't been trying to fund it, deal with it, address it, and that we just did it recently with this second supplemental. This is the second supplemental in the same fiscal year of emergency funding.

What -- what I think is important for the public to know and for Americans to understand, yes, this has been a challenge. These large numbers are a challenge for our agents, for our communities, for our agencies, for the federal government. But what turns it into a crisis, Jim, is the way that we treat these migrant families. When you -- when you put that many individuals -- especially children, especially vulnerable folks -- in one concrete cell, of course it's going to be inhumane and horrific and a crisis.

Because this administration is determined to jail and incarcerate and detain as many people as possible, that's why we have this crisis. We have alternatives to detention. We have other programs that are effective that have proven to work but that this administration has chosen not to use. That's why there's a crisis.

SCIUTTO: Well, congressman, can't -- please let us know what you see inside those facilities. We want to know what you find there as you bear witness.

ESCOBAR: I will

SCIUTTO: And you're always welcome back on the broadcast.

[09:40:09] Congresswoman Escobar, thank you very much.

ESCOBAR: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: A fiery plane crash moments after takeoff leaving no survivors. Investigators hope that video will help them peace together exactly what happened and what caused this crash.

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SCIUTTO: This morning, federal safety investigators are combing through the wreckage of a deadly plane crash in Texas. They're trying to figure out why the private plane slammed into an airport hangar and burst into flames just moments after takeoff, killing all 10 people on board. It happened Sunday morning, just north of Dallas, in the community of Addison.

[09:45:00] CNN's Scott McLean is live there with the latest.

What are we learning, Scott?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. And, remember, this happened about a week and a half after a very similar plane crash in Hawaii killed 11 people also just after takeoff. In this case here in Addison, the plane veered off again shortly after takeoff into this hangar. You can still see what looks to be either heat damage or perhaps water damage and some missing windows in that hangar. There's obviously a lot more damage that we cannot see from here.

Now, there was just a plane and a helicopter inside the hangar at the time. Thankfully no people. The fire department is also just a couple hundred yards away, so the response was fairly immediate. And we don't know anything about the victims at this point other than two of them were crew members and there were eight passengers on board. All of them were headed towards St. Petersburg.

This type of plane was a Beechcraft Super King Airplane 350, which is probably the type of jet that you think of when you think about a private jet. CNN safety analyst David Soucie says this jet is incredibly reliable. It has a good safety record as well.

As for a black box inside of that aircraft, if it was used as a charter, it should have a black box. It's required to have one. But if it was used simply for private use, it may not have one.

So the investigation is continuing. They expect a preliminary report out in the next two weeks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Scott McLean, good to have you on the story. Thanks very much.

Closing arguments are expected to begin in just a few hours in the court martial of a decorated Navy SEAL accused of war crimes, including murder. Eddie Gallagher is accused of stabbing an injured ISIS fighter to death while deployed in Iraq in 2017, and of pressuring fellow Navy SEALs not to turn him in. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Nick has been following the trail from San Diego for us.

The key issue here was that there was a witness who claimed that he actually delivered the fatal blow as a sort of mercy killing here. How was this likely to affect the case?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it could totally blow this case apart, Jim. As you mentioned, we had heard two SEALs take the stand and say that they saw Eddie Gallagher stab this young ISIS detainee in the throat. And then this other SEAL who was testifying under immunity got on the stand and said, Eddie Gallagher didn't kill him, I did. I put my finger over his trach tube to kill him because I knew he was going to die and I didn't want to leave him behind where he might be tortured by more troops, from not the U.S. side, but Iraqi troops coming through.

And, listen, this has been a very hard case to prosecute, partially because it happened in a war zone. And as the forensic psychologist said, you know, he couldn't even determine a cause of death because there's no body, there's no autopsy.

Now, Jim, even if Eddie Gallagher is convicted, there is a good chance the president might pardon him. The president has hinted at that. He said, listen, we train these people to kill, and then sometimes we treat them very unfairly.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, soldiers have to follow the law as well.

Nick Watt, thanks very much.

International outcries, commercial whale hunting resumes in Japan, this for the first time in 30 years.

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[09:52:43] SCIUTTO: After a 30-year ban, fishermen off the coast of Japan are once again hunting whales for money. Today, fishermen harpooned two minke whales, their first -- the first whales killed as part of a commercial hunt since 1986. As you might imagine, Japan's return to whaling has been controversial.

Ivan Watson joins us now.

So, Ivan, this hunt condemned by conservation groups, some governments. Is the minke whale endangered? What are the rules? Are there limits? How does this work?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The minke whale is the smallest of the great whales, Jim, but also the most abundant, though there's some concerns about the population that lives around Japan. But what we saw was a ceremony sending off this whaling fleet from this port. A lot of congratulations. People are delighted that support the whaling industry in Japan. And several hours later, the whaling boats came back, one by one, carrying the carcasses of these two minke whales that had been harpooned.

Japan had been part of the International Whaling Commission which has banned commercial whaling since 1986. Norway and Iceland refused to adhere to that ban. They kept hunting. Japan kept killing hundreds of whales a year under a special permit under what they called scientific research. Last year they said, we're not going to do that anymore. Now we're going to start commercial whaling in our own waters.

Some of this doesn't make sense, though. The Japanese defend this saying that this is their culture, it's their tradition, it's an island nation, we need it for food. But per capita, according to government statistics, the Japanese only eat on the average a couple tablespoons of whale meat a year.

So what is driving this? Well, there seems to be a whale lobby in this country and it's quite powerful and the people I've been talking to are hoping young Japanese may start eating whale meat again in the future. The quota is for the whale hunters to kill 227 whales in the next six months.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Ivan Watson on the story. Thanks very much.

[09:54:50] A political cartoonist is now looking for work just days after this controversial drawing of President Trump went viral. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:59:40] SCIUTTO: A Canadian cartoonist says that he lost his job after creating an illustration of President Trump golfing around the bodies of two drowned migrants. Michael de Adder cartoon. In it, the president asks, do you mind if I play through. This refers to a father and his 23 month old daughter who drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande River to get into the United States. De Adder says that technically he was not fired because he was a freelancer, not an employee. His former publishing company says it is incorrect to suggest.

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