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Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Use Military Funds To Build Border Wall; Rep. Elijah Cummings Fires Back Following Trump Twitter Attack; Senate Reports Russia Targeted All 50 States In 2016 Election; Police In Canada Narrow Search For Teen Murder Suspects; House Democrats Continue Investigations; U.S. Citizen Released After Three Weeks In ICE Custody; Trump Lobbied To Review $10B Contract Bid Involving Amazon; Students Say Juul Employee Told Them Vaping Is "Totally Safe"; U.S. Water Polo Players Hurt In Nightclub Collapse. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired July 27, 2019 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for being with me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. President Trump is on a victory lap now that the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared a way for him to use billions of dollars in military funds to fund some construction on a border wall. The ruling allows the White House to use $2.5 billion while a lower court battle continues over whether Trump had the authority to divert the Pentagon money.

You'll remember this started right after the government shutdown when President Trump declared a national emergency in order to get those government funds. CNN's Sarah Westwood is at the White House with how the president is reacting to the decision. Sarah.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right Fred, and President Trump is of course declaring victory after the Supreme Court decision yesterday. He took to twitter last night writing, "Wow, big victory on the wall, the United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows southern border wall to proceed.

Big win for border security and the rule of law." Now this was a narrow 5-4 decision that split along ideological lines with the conservative majority writing that they didn't really believe that the challengers to the president's efforts to use the Pentagon money had the legal right to do so.

So that may give you some indication of how the Supreme Court will rule when the case ultimately comes back to it. But keep in mind, Fred, that this could be a temporary win for President Trump because the Supreme Court's ruling only that President Trump can use that $2.5 billion while this lawsuit continues to work its way through the lower courts, not that the Trump Administration is ultimately correct in its efforts to try to reprogram this military funding. So the ultimate verdict, Fred, is still to be seen but clearly a big win for this administration.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then the president took time, you know, to tweet out a pretty nasty attack on a member of Congress on twitter, and this time he targeted the House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, writing this, you know, "Cummings' district is a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place."

And, of course, now Sarah, Congressman Elijah Woods, -- I mean Elijah Cummings has responded. What's he saying?

WESTWOOD: That's right, Fred, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee hitting back at president Trump's attack this morning, writing on twitter, "Mr. President I go home to my district daily. Each morning I wake up and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch but it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents."

Now this could be rooted in the fact that Cummings as the chairman of the Oversight Committee last week grilled acting head of DHS, Kevin McAleenan on the conditions at camps along the southern border and right before the president sent this tweet on Fox and Friends, the president's favorite morning program, there was a segment about some of the dilapidated buildings in parts of Baltimore. Of course we should note that Cummings' district, very diverse. It encompasses all kinds of locales - urban ones, rural ones, affluent ones, so the president's attack, not accurate and drawing a lot of criticism, Fred, for the racial notes in that attack.

WHITFIELD: OK. That, of course and Elijah Cummings has been vociferous, you know, in his pursuit to investigate the financial dealings of the president and this is clearly the president expressing he's not happy. All right, Sarah Westwood, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

So as President Trump openly feuds with House Democrats, the calls for his impeachment are growing louder and after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's testimony this week, there are now 101 House Democrats onboard for an impeachment inquiry. CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill with how this divide among Democrats is playing out.

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major step forward for House Democrats as they decide whether to impeach President Donald Trump. In a new lawsuit, the House Judiciary Committee told a federal judge it needs secret grand jury information gathered by Robert Mueller because articles of impeachment are under consideration as part of its investigation although no final determination has been made.

After weeks of intense Democratic debate about next steps to fight the president, Chairman Jerry Nadler and members of his committee said their probe is essentially the same as a formal impeachment inquiry.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

RAJU: You're saying there's no difference between what you're doing now and an impeachment inquiry, correct?

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: In effect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an impeachment investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're now crossing a threshold with the filing...

(END VIDEO)

RAJU: Nadler told reporters the only difference is that his committee's investigation is broader than an impeachment inquiry but acknowledged the end result could be the same.

NADLER: Were are going to see what remedies we could recommend including the possibility of articles of impeachment; we're not limited to that but that's very much the possibility as a result of what we're doing.

RAJU: The development comes amid a growing Democratic divide over how to move forward and the aftermath of Mueller's appearance before the house in which he testified about alleged crimes committed by the president but failed to deliver the commanding performance that many Democrats were hoping for.

After the hearing Speaker Nancy Pelosi renewed her push to fight the White House in court. But in what allies see as a shift, she's sounding open to the possibility of impeachment.

RAJU: Some of your Democratic colleagues believe you're simply trying to run out the clock on impeachment.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: No, I'm not trying to run out the clock. Let's get sophisticated about this, OK? OK.

RAJU: But how long do you think these court fights will take?

PELOSI: We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed. Not one day sooner. Their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage so I'm willing to take whatever heat there is there to say, when we - when we - the decision will be made in a timely fashion. This isn't endless.

RAJU: Democrats have increasingly voiced concerns that the window is closing on launching an impeachment proceeding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would certainly like to see us move more expeditiously.

RAJU: The House Judiciary Committee said it also may file a lawsuit as soon as next week to try and force former White House counsel Don McGahn to cooperate with its probe into potential obstruction of justice after President Trump instructed McGahn not to comply with its subpoena. For weeks, sources say Nadler has privately argued to Pelosi their hand in court would be strengthened if they launched a formal impeachment probe but publically he stood by her side.

(BEGIN VIDEO) RAJU: Could there be a point though, Mr. Chairman, where you break from the Speaker and you announce publicly your support for impeachment?

NADLER: We may decide to recommend articles of impeachment at some point, we may not. It remains to be seen and there's no point speculating on whether the Speaker or anybody else will agree with our decision at that point.

(END VIDEO)

RAJU: Now one thing the speaker has not been saying in recent days is that it's essentially fruitless for the Democratic-led House to move forward with impeachment proceedings because if they were to approve it, it would die in the Republican-led Senate. She had actually been saying that for weeks but essentially has dropped that message in the last several days. Also I'm told that new language in the lawsuit saying the House Judiciary Committee is considering moving forward with articles of impeachment, I'm told the Speaker signed off on that language. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

WHITFIELD: All right. Congress now in August session, back September 9th. But still there's a lot to talk about and there still could be lots of action even in those more than 40 days so with me now White House Correspondent for "The Atlantic," Elaina Plott and Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University and CNN political analyst.

Good to see you both.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good afternoon.

WHITFIELD: All right, so in this very long recess, you know, the pressure that many of these members of Congress will feel will be palpable and, you know, Julian what do you mean when you write that they will be getting an earful from people and the decision about whether to impeach or not really could be changed based on what they hear from constituents.

ZELIZER: Well there's a lot of talk about what investigation will entail and can the public be educated from congressional hearings. But a lot of what also happens is still back in the district and members are now going back to their districts and I think Speaker Pelosi is watching what happens, they're watching what happens and if moderate Democrats or Democrats who are not yet openly for impeachment hear a lot of feedback from activists, from constituents, that could have an impact that statements from Washington can't have. If they're silent, I still think come September you'll have more investigation but we'll be a long way from impeachment.

WHITFIELD: So Elaina, Speaker Pelosi says getting more information is vital you know despite this growing number of Dems on board with impeachment. Does the caucus still seem in step, however, with her caution?

ELAINA PLOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE ATLANTIC": They really don't have a choice, Fred. But what you hear from sources in the Democratic caucus is they don't feel that Speaker Pelosi can continue squaring this idea that, you know, President Trump is a threat to the fabric of American democracy. He has committed multiple crimes and yet we're not going to impeach.

So at a certain point there's frustration building within the caucus that she has to choose one or the other and I think what you're going to see over August recess is exact as Julian pointed out, you're going to have constituents pressuring their members to say you've got to choose one and how are we going to move forward.

WHITFIELD: YES, so, Julian, how long can these, you know, two very different states, you know, of being continue?

ZELIZER: Well, there's no timetable. I mean even discussions of that is somewhat artificial. It's more just a political calculation and so the big calendar issue that's hanging over, this is the election and the deeper we get into the debates and more importantly the caucuses and primaries, more Democrats will be less willing to invest in this anymore and they'll want to turn their attention to other issues. Ultimately it's about the speaker's decision here.

If she does not put her force behind this and use the "impeachment" word with certainty, I don't think it's going to happen regardless of what Congressman Nadler is saying and so that's what the timetable is, it's about politics.

WHITFIELD: And so Elaina, is the president kind of using this uncertainty if you want to call it that, to his advantage, particularly on the campaign trail?

PLOTT: Well, of course he is because the problem that Democrats made in their calculation of bringing on Mueller, is that to testify would have to suggest that what was in his report already wasn't enough to indict the president, in a sense, that they actually needed...

WHITFIELD: Although those Dems argue...

PLOTT: ...expound on it, to have...

WHITFIELD: Yes, except those Dems argued that it's not that they necessarily want him to say more, it's just that the general, you know, consensus was Americans were not reading the report and they needed to hear the report as opposed to counting on Americans to read it.

PLOTT: And - and -- and unfortunately that just didn't happen, as Mueller told them ahead of the hearing, I'm not going to read straight from this report, I'm not going to be a prop in any way. So even at a performance level, it just wasn't what they were hoping for. So to the extent that Donald Trump can go on the trail and say this was supposed to be the clarion call for an impeachment translated by Robert Mueller, that just didn't happen.

WHITFIELD: Yes, OK, and now you've got the Supreme Court ruling, very favorable to the president, even though it isn't complete, but it does open up the window for the president to use military money to help begin on building a wall, and, Julian, this certainly is going to revive his mantra that was very familiar in 2016, he can now say it with different kind of certainty on the 2020 trail.

ZELIZER: That's true. It's a temporary victory but it's one that will matter. He is a president who loves and relishes symbols. That's how he sends his message out. They're often about race but they're sometimes about walls. And so now he can move forward. He can say he's building it. He'll claim the Supreme Court has basically sided with him and Democrats were wrong. It's also a loss if this will stick for Congressional power because this is a real big power reach for the executive branch. And at least right now the courts have said move forward.

WHITFIELD: Yes, All right, Julian Zelizer, Elaina Plott, thanks so much to both you. Good to see you.

PLOTT: Thanks, Fred.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, Robert Mueller gave a dire warning about threats to the U.S. election system right now but is anyone in Congress listening. Plus, police ramp up the search for two teenaged border suspects in Canada. Why they believe some unwitting people may actually be helping these accused killers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

WHITFIELD: A damning new Senate report says all 50 states were the target of cyber attacks in the 2016 elections, and it is warning the same thing is going to happen in 2020. The bipartisan report follows this exchange during Robert Mueller's testimony this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WILL HURD (R-TX): Do you have find evidence that suggests they'll try to do this again?

ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: It wasn't a single attempt. They're doing it as we sit here, and they expect to do it during the next campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The heavily redacted report says states should have backup paper ballots in 2020 and there should be better communication with the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette Kayyem is former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. Anthony Ferrante is a former FBI Special Agent and he also served as Director for Cyber Incident Response to the National Security Council from 2015 until 2017. All right, good to see you both. So the Senate just blocked two separate bills that would have ramped up election security. So, Juliette, is this not a five-alarm fire that is burning and needs attention?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Absolutely, it is. It's quite remarkable what Senate Majority Leader McConnell is doing. If you actually look at the statutes, most of the language is pretty aspirational. It urges states to share information, share information with the Department of Homeland Security, provides training and resources.

The one piece of it that clearly is what McConnell is worried about is that it requires anyone who is part of a campaign, if they are approached or share information with a foreign entity, they have to disclose that to federal authorities. So, in other words, if like what happened in 2016, the Russians approached the campaign, you're supposed to tell the FBI. McConnell clearly doesn't look that.

And, look, I believe at this the only reason why McConnell is doing this is because he believes that Trump cannot win without the Russians' help. There's just -- there's no rational explanation except for, in 2020, he believes, Trump will be stronger with the Russians' help.

WHITFIELD: And that seems to be the kind of conventional wisdom. But, Anthony, you're shaking your head. No?

ANTHONY FERRANTE, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Yes. It's just baffling to me. I mean, this is just a great example of our government leaders not having an imagination, not having -- not fully appreciating the threat that we're facing. To deny these states this funding is just laughable to me. I mean, what we're telling them is you are OK, you are well funded and well positioned to defend yourself from the Russian government, which is just laughable to me.

I've spent the last two-and-a-half years meeting with dozens of state officials talking about this very issue and every state that I meet says to me, we need help. We're not getting the help we need from the federal government. We need financial resources and technical resources to shore up our systems, and this just laughable to me.

[12:20:04]

WHITFIELD: Yes, more than laughable, it's frightening, Juliette. So what are states to do when they hear that they may not be able to rely on, you know, federal assistance?

KAYYEM: Well, let me give a little bit of the half glass full there. Lots of states have been fully aware of their vulnerabilities, have been trying to close them. Second, they've been looking at redundancies, like paper. So if you're on electronic system, you would also have paper. They're doing training and incident response. So if something does happen the day, they would be well aware of it and disclose it. But, you know, just to Anthony's point, this is like telling states that you're under physical threat from the Russians. The Russians are going to attack you literally, physically attack you and you're fine on your own, right? We would never do that. But because the Republicans are not viewing this as a national security threat but as a political issue, honestly, that's how they view it, they are not helping the states.

WHITFIELD: So, Anthony, what kind of recourse will states have? I mean, you know, this is a colossal undertaking, you know, especially since so many have eliminated the whole paper ballot, they thought electronics was more economical and now to, you know, have that as backup, what are the recommendations?

FERRANTE: I mean, it's a tough topic, really, because the way these elections are run, each state is going to do them differently, how they see fit, right? States are very adamant. I know what our voters want. And so we are going to give them what our voters want, and that's great, as they should.

The issue we have is that this threat is ongoing. As Special Counsel Mueller said during his testimony, the Russians are probing our systems at this very moment. They're doing it. We're talking about defending yourself from a nation state.

And what's more is now that the Russians have proven that it can be done, now, there are going to be many other nation states that try to do the exact same thing. You cannot underestimate this threat.

WHITFIELD: Julie, where do you see this going?

KAYYEM: So, I mean, I think that there's going to be shining (ph) aspect to this. I mean, I know whatever the political discussion is about Mueller, I thought he was quite effective in laying out what volume one said about the Trump campaign and the Russians. I mean, essentially said it was beyond disturbing, the connections with WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. You follow the one-two punch, the next day, of course, being the Senate Intel report.

And I think in some way that there's just going to just have to be a very strong discussion by Democrats that essentially just gets to do you think, right, talking to the Russians is okay. I think that that's the only salvage that they have right now given that McConnell is sort of, you know, intent on having the Russians assist or at least be -- having the states be vulnerable for Trump in 2020.

WHITFIELD: So, Anthony, do you see that, you know, Russia or even other countries have the ability, you know, to hack and to actually change vote counts?

FERRANTE: Absolutely. They've already demonstrated it. I mean, the report highlights what took place in the State of Illinois' systems. The report specifically walks through about how the voter registration rolls were exfiltrated, were pulled from the state systems. If they were exfiltrated, that means they could be manipulated, okay? So -- and that's just one piece of the whole election ecosystem, from voters registering to vote, to casting their vote on Election Day to actually reporting votes, and that's exactly what the report said that these adversaries, they exploited the seams of this ecosystem and how these systems work together. And so we're absolutely vulnerable to these threats.

WHITFIELD: Anthony Ferrante, Juliette Kayyem, thanks to both of you, I appreciate it.

All right, coming up next, a chilling murder spree in the far reaches of Canada. Police now say they'll go door-to-door to track down the teenage killers alleged to be responsible. More on the investigation coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

WHITFIELD: Police in Canada are intensifying their search for two teens suspected of killing three people. Authorities are going door- to-door in rural North Manitoba after the pair were spotted there. Police also believe the two may have changed their appearance.

They initially thought the teens were missing after their car was found burning on the side of the highway. But now investigators say they are prime suspects in the killings and should be considered armed dangerous. CNN's Polo Sandoval is tracking the story for us.

So, Polo, what more are you learning?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we can put ourselves in the position of those roughly 1,200 people who call Gillam, Manitoba home. They are the ones who have essentially been caught in the middle here as Canadian police continue to aggressively pursue these two individuals that were last seen in and around this tiny town here, which would have been on Monday when their vehicle was discovered.

And this search continues to intensify all weekend long. Police will be going door-to-door in that community not only as a way to reassure those residents but also to try to track down any leads since they haven't turned any significant ones. So there's that.

Meanwhile, the terrain in and around the area, Fred, this is almost as north as you can go here. It's extremely remote, extremely rural. You walk out of any building, according to what we've heard from residents, and you're surrounded by the woods or wetlands or both. So as you're about to hear from one of the members of the community here, in his opinion, it would certainly take an incredible amount of experience and equipment to try to survive the elements alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS CHAMPAGNE, GILLAM RESIDENT: It's nasty. I worked out there. I did some diamond drilling there 25, 30 years ago. And, you know, if the bears don't get them, the bugs will. They're going to be wet and cold now, probably a little bit desperate, if they're still alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: If they're still alive. That certainly is also a question that authorities are asking themselves right now.

We should mention that authorities during their most latest release of information, not only released this brand new surveillance video that was shot apparently about six days ago, but they also are saying that they believe that a resident in Gillam may have unknowingly assisted these two at some point in the last few days, not knowing who they were that they were wanted. This could have potentially been some assistance on the side of the road.

[12:30:00]

So they are releasing this video hoping that someone somewhere may have recognized them and could step forward to provide a crucial clue because n the meantime, Fred, the residents of this tiny community are basically not only afraid according to what we've heard from the -- one of the officials there, but it's also the not knowing whether or not they're still on the town. That continues to concern -- to worry them.

WHITFIELD: Right. All right, Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Eight people are dead this morning after back-to-back earthquakes hitting the northern Philippines. The U.S. Geological Survey says a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck in Batanes province, then about 20 minutes later, a second earthquake hit the same area. Some homes were reduced to rubble, and a church sustained damage to its facade and steeple. No tsunami warnings have been issued.

A new video of the San Diego Coast Guard chasing down suspected drug smugglers. In the video, the suspects were seen throwing large bags from their high-speed boat. The Coast Guard says, in all, 2,300 pounds of cocaine seized in this chase. The hall made up part of the 26,000 pounds of drugs. The Coast Guard cutter "steadfast" offloaded yesterday. The Coast Guard says an estimated $350 million worth of cocaine was seized between late June and mid-July off the coast of Mexico and Central and South Americas.

All right, coming up, with just days ago before the CNN debates, candidates are not slowing down on the campaign trail, where they are making their marks today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:15] WHITFIELD: A U.S. teen has been released after about three weeks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. CNN's Nick Valencia talked to him about his harrowing experience.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Francisco Galicia is home at last but the reminders of his detention are never far away. Sitting in his South Texas home, the 18-year-old American says what he went through should never have happened even if immigration officials alleged he's partly to blame.

(on camera) Immigration officials say that there was confusion about your status because there was conflicting documents. Do you think that this was about the documents or do you think that this was about something else?

FRANCISCO GALICIA, DETAINED U.S. CITIZEN (through translator): They thought they were superior. They looked at us with such distaste. I think it was like a certain type of racism.

VALENCIA (voice-over): For three weeks, he slept on the concrete with nearly 70 others who were doing the same.

They didn't even treat you like human beings.

GALICIA: No.

VALENCIA (voice-over): He survived off baloney sandwiches and says every three to four days he was given a wet wipe to clean himself.

(on camera) You didn't shower at all.

GALICIA: No, not for 23 days.

VALENCIA (on camera): You didn't shower for 23 days?

GALICIA (through translator): For 23 days, it was a bad diet. I lost nearly 30 pounds.

VALENCIA (voice-over): In his 27 days in custody, Galicia said no one ever believed he was American. At one point, tired of trying to explain himself, he considered self-deporting to Mexico.

(on camera) They just messed with your mind. How? Explain.

GALICIA (through translator): The truth, threatening me that they were going to press charges, charges for falsifying documents, the whole time insulting me that how could I not know where I was from?

VALENCIA (voice-over): This all started on June 27th when Galicia along with his brother and two friends left their home in Edinburgh and headed north. They were stopped at a checkpoint in Falfurrias about a hundred miles north of the border while on their way to Ranger College in Central Texas for a soccer camp. Galicia who was born in the U.S. but grew up in Mexico was carrying documents proving he was an American but he also carried a tourist visa that mistakenly listed his birth country as Mexico.

"This individual provided conflicting reports regarding the status of citizenship after being apprehended. Situations including conflicting reports from the individual and multiple birth certificates can and should take more time to verify." CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a joint statement, Wednesday.

Galicia thinks border agents would have believed he was American if not for his broken English.

(on camera) There are going to people that watch this interview and say that you live in the United States, you're an American, you should be speaking English. What do you -- you smile. What do you say to these people?

GALICIA (through translator): I don't speak English but I'm going to learn it. And I'll speak it later.

VALENCIA (on camera): Is this more of a reason to learn English now?

GALICIA (through translator): I have to learn it to talk to everyone and everyone so the next time this happens, they'll believe me.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Somehow, he's able to laugh about his time in custody which he said ended after media picked up his story. But just a few days removed from detention, he spends a lot of time thinking about those who aren't as lucky.

(on camera) Our president talks about how there's a lot of bad actors, a lot of people that are here to do harm among those that are coming to this country, but you're telling me you felt more scared being in the presence of the ICE and the officials are immigration officials than you did with the migrants. When you were there, how many of the migrants would you say were here to do harm to the United States?

GALICIA (through translator): None. None wanted to come to do harm. All came in search for a better future.

VALENCIA (voice-over): After being locked up with them, he now considers some of them friends. He keeps a handful of phone numbers on tiny pieces of paper he received from those friends while in the facility. He's calling families in Central America to tell them their loved ones are still alive.

GALICIA (through translator): To see the suffering of other people, it made me understand many things. One can live his life here in a certain way while others suffer.

VALENCIA (on camera): You speak for them now.

GALICIA (through translator): Yes. I mean, I try to because they can't talk. I'm like their eyes and ears from there inside.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Walking outside, Galicia says the air to him smells fresher than before. Things look and feel different, too, and so does he. Even though he lives on the border, prior to his detention, he never paid attention to the migrant crisis. Now he's lived it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Nick Valencia reporting from McAllen, Texas. All right, still ahead, Amazon's bid for a $10 billion government contract may have hit a speed bump. Is President Trump playing favorites with the national security implications on the line?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:43:58] WHITFIELD: All right. We may now know why President Trump seems willing to weigh in on Amazon's chances at winning a $10 billion government contract. And his long-time personal rival with the company's founder, Jeff Bezos, may have something to do with it.

CNN's Michael Warren joins me now with his exclusive reporting. So break it down for us, Michael. What's at issue here?

MICHAEL WARREN, CNN REPORTER: That's right. There's a -- CNN is reporting that the president in recent days has seen a document prepared by one of Amazon's rival, the tech company Oracle. This document essentially suggests a conspiracy theory at the Pentagon to grease the wheels for Amazon to get this $10 billion 10-year cloud computing contract.

Now we should note that there's so far been no evidence that suggests any conflicts of interest have affected this contract, but the -- what's interesting is this document. It's a sort of a flow chart that shows a lot of photographs of former Pentagon officials, Amazon employees and even includes former defense secretary Jim Mattis.

The president has seen this.

[12:45:00] We do not know exactly how it got to the White House. Oracle executives tell me that it did not come directly from Oracle's offices here in Washington D.C. The White House so far has not responded to request for comments.

WHITFIELD: All right, so politics is not supposed to interfere, you know, with any kind of government contracting, you know, process. The president surely is not supposed to be directly involved. So does this now present a new problem?

WARREN: Well, it's not unusual for companies to try to lobby the decision-makers in Washington, it sort of the way things go here. But what is unusual is this direct appeal to the president using a flow chart, a sort of a visual aid that really does appeal directly to the president's own way of taking in information.

Now the president can't simply wave his hand and make this contract go away or delay it or somehow deny it to Amazon but this is putting a lot of pressure on the new secretary of defense who does have that decision-making process. The president simply saying that he's going to take a look at it. Mark Esper, the new defense secretary has also said he's going to take a look at it, there's a lot of pressure going on here. That's certainly unusual.

WHITFIELD: And I guess what makes it unusual, too, is that the president has this, you know, relationship, you know, this nemesis relationship, you know, with the Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. WARREN: That's right. And of course, a lot of the folks who are trying to lobby the president and lobby the administration to reconsider this contract are using that to reach the president. The president earlier this week tweeted out a Fox News video from -- a clip from the network of a story that referred to this as the Bezos bailout. This is definitely an attempt by people who want to stop this contract from going through to use that sort of personal animosity the president has for Bezos and for Amazon.

WHITFIELD: All right, Michael Warren, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right, still to come, as vaping reaches new levels of use among teens in the U.S., Congress is looking at how one company may have targeted children, some as young as third grade to start using their products. More, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:56] WHITFIELD: Newly released documents reveal the e-cigarette company Juul spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund youth programming. And two teens who testified before Congress say a Juul representative told their ninth-grade classroom the e-cigarette was totally safe.

CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We face an entire generation of kids addicted to nicotine who are human guinea pigs for the Juul experiment overall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many of Juul's tactics seem to be right out of the big tobacco playbook.

JAMES MONSEES, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER JUUL LABS: We never wanted any non-nicotine user, and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juul hasn't provided satisfactory --

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've seen passionate exchanges between tobacco opponents, Juul executives, and members of Congress at a two-day congressional hearing on Juul's role in the youth vaping epidemic. But perhaps the most surprising exchange came from high schoolers who revealed that Juul had sent a representative to their classroom last year. And that teachers were asked to leave the room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the presenter call, Juul, quote-unquote, totally safe more than once?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What impact did those, quote-unquote, totally safe comments have on your classmates, some of whom may have already started vaping?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For my classmates who are already vaping, it was a sigh of relief because now they were able to vape without any concern.

GUPTA (voice-over): We asked Juul about this and they said presentations to students were made as part of a short-lived Education and Youth Prevention Program which was ended in September 2018. The company says its purpose which was to educate youth on the dangers of nicotine addiction was clearly misconstrued. The company also said it has taken actions to prevent youth vaping, like scaling back its social media accounts, platforms that critic say had particular appeal among teenagers.

But according to one expert who testified, that was too little too late.

DR. ROBERT JACKLER, STANFORD RESEARCH INTO THE IMPACT OF TOBACCO ADVERTISING: You would have thought that hashtag posting would decline but in fact, it surged.

GUPTA (voice-over): Surged in part because the hashtag itself gained a kind of social currency even after the brand had largely exited social media. Jackler and others say this video should scare anyone. Normalizing the use of these devices even in a young toddler.

JACKLER: We've seen lots of outrageous postings on hashtag Juul. It's remarkable the lack of boundaries many posters have.

GUPTA (voice-over): For its part, Juul says it agrees. These posts by other users are a serious problem and have gotten more than 30,000 of them taken down. But with more than half a million posts still tagged on Instagram alone, Jackler's new research shows that still hasn't stopped Juul's online popularity.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up, several teen USA athletes injured when a balcony collapses at a night club in South Korea. Details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:35] WHITFIELD: Checking your top stories right now. As the border battle continues, the U.S. has signed a deal with Guatemala that will make it harder for some migrants to claim asylum in the U.S. President Trump announced the agreement from the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are now at a point where we are -- we just get along and they're doing what we've asked them to do, and I think it's going to be a great thing for Guatemala. They don't want these problems either. So we're able to get this done and we got it done fairly quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Guatemala has yet to reveal the details of the agreement that the president speaks of, but the president is saying Guatemala would give asylum to anyone who claims it as they move through that country on their way to the U.S. Then if the migrant claims asylum in the U.S., they can be returned to Guatemala.

Washington police have arrested a 17-year-old who they say -- who they believed was part of a group of teenagers caught on camera attacking two men outside a hotel. Police say as many as 10 teens took part in the beating earlier this month. The suspects, some as young as 13, are seen punching, kicking, and even spitting on one of the victims. While police are still investigating, they say the beating might have been a case of mistaken identity.

A championship celebration quickly turned to chaos for the U.S. water polo team. Last night, four players from the men's and women's national teams were injured when a balcony at a night club in South Korea collapsed. Two South Koreans died.

Here is CNN Sports Correspondent, Vince Cellini.

VINCE CELLINI, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the teams were actually celebrating. In the city of Gwangju, the women's team had just won the gold medal in the FINA World Championships involving various water sports. It happened around 2:30 a.m. Local Time, the balcony floor at the back of the Coyote Ugly club collapsed crushing down on others. One witness saying it fell some 15 feet or more. Around 370 people were in the club, two people died, both of whom were from South Korea.

U.S. women's water polo team player Kaleigh Gilchrist on the left suffered a laceration to her leg. She needed surgery. Her teammate Paige Hauschild along with men's water polo players Johnny Hooper and Ben Hallock were also hurt.

USA Water Polo put out a statement this morning saying, "All athletes are accounted for." And offering well wishes to everyone involved.

Back to you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Vince.

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