Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Children Left Without Parents After Immigration Raids; U.S. Mass Shootings; Hong Kong Protests; Dangerous Weather; Italy's Political Crisis; The Climate Crisis; Three-Day Sit-In Begins at Hong Kong Airport; Official: Trump Unhappy with Media Coverage; NRA Chief Tells Trump to Reject Gun Restrictions; Russia Vladimir Putin Marks 20 Years In Power; Pilot Son Flies Remains Of Veteran Father Home Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 09, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. We appreciate you joining us. I'm Natalie Allen. This is "CNN Newsroom." Coming up here is terrified children with nowhere to go after their first day of school, after their parents are rounded up in large-scale immigration raids in the state of Mississippi.
We are tracking a powerful typhoon. It has already battered parts of Japan and now headed for China. And new details about President Trump's trip to Texas, he went to an El Paso hospital to visit with victims of the mass shooting, but most did not want to meet him, and he could not resist playing politics.
Thank you again for joining us. Federal officials are calling it a record-setting operation. Six hundred eighty people rounded up in a massive government sweep on suspicion they were in the U.S. illegally. The operation was so meticulous. Investigators spent months collecting evidence from undercover informants. The 680 people working at jobs in a food processing plant in Mississippi were detained, interrogated, and taken away.
And while this was happening, their children were at daycare or attending the first day of school, unaware their parents might not come home. Authorities say more than half the people grabbed in the raids. Three hundred seventy-seven are still in custody. Released or not, all of them are scared about what is next. The stability they once knew, it's gone and their traumatized children are caught in the middle.
For more about it, here is CNN's Dianne Gallagher.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, can I just see my mother please?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Parents taken away on buses, separated from their children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Her mom is the only one she has. That's her guardian.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): In immigration raids across Mississippi on Wednesday.
MAGDALENA GOMEZ GREGORIO, FATHER DETAINED BY ICE: I need my dad by me. My dad did not do anything. He is not a criminal.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Many children left behind in schools and daycares. One gym in a nearby town offering to house and feed children who were separated from their parents.
JORDAN BARNES, CLEAR CREEK BOOT CAMP OWNER: I understand the law and how everything works and everything has a system, but everybody needs to hold the kids first and foremost in their minds.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Today, anxious family members are trying to locate their loved ones who were arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a website that we were told, that we could find anyone who has been processed and detained. I haven't been found a single person.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): One woman telling CNN her husband, who has a heart condition, was arrested, leaving her and their 5-year-old son with no one to help them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): He asked me for his dad, where he is, and I tell him he's not here. I told him they took him, and he starts to cry because he needs him.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): A total of 680 detentions at seven food processing plants across six cities in Mississippi. Officials are calling it the largest single state immigration enforcement operation ever in the U.S.
MIKE HURST, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI: While we are a nation of immigrants, more than that, we are first and foremost a nation of laws.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): The raids on the heels of the El Paso shooting where Latinos were purposely targeted also came on the first day of school for those children. An ICE official telling CNN they did consider the impact on children and work with school administrators, adding "this was planned for months, well before El Paso. We did this under past presidents. This is business as usual for us."
(CRYING)
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Some detainees were released overnight with ankle monitor like this. As White House officials tell CNN, ICE is scrambling to reunite some parents with their children because of childcare issues, many of whom were placed with volunteers and strangers.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: Community leaders in Mississippi were horrified by the federal government's actions, but the acting director of ICE, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the raids send a message to other migrants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW ALBENCE, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: As our intelligence information shows, many of the people illegally crossing the border are economic migrants. And cases such as this help reduce the magnet created by illegal employment is easily obtained.
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI: It is a gross display of humanity to me as a parent, as a father of two young girls, to imagine children arriving after their first day of school to a condition where their parents are gone from their lives. I think that we truly have to question where the soul of our nation is at this point in time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Let's talk more about this with Elliot Williams.
[02:04:59] He is former assistant director at ICE, the federal agency that enforces U.S. immigration laws. Mr. Williams, thanks so much for being with us.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ICE: Hi, there.
ALLEN: First, I want to get your reaction to what we have seen occur in Mississippi, this round up of parents. It began on the first day of school. This will be any parents' worst fear. No is there for their child when they were rounded up by authorities. What's your reaction?
WILLIAMS: It's poor timing. And again, ICE has a tremendous amount of discretion over when and how to conduct enforcement operations. And what they chose to do is pursue the strategy that they have for the last two plus years of letting fear drive and dictate their immigration enforcement strategy.
Let's be clear. If they were building a criminal case and we can talk about that a little bit, but what they said they were doing was building a criminal case against the employer, they do not need to arrest 600 plus people in order to do that. They could have audited their records or done it in a sort of less disruptive way.
ALLEN: Right. Yeah, if the goal was to crack down on illegal employment, why not target the employers?
WILLIAMS: Yeah. And the way you do that is you essentially just sent a letter to the employer saying, please turn over all of your employment documentation, what's in the United States called I-9 form, the verification forms, and then ICE could have looked those forms over and decide whether to bring a case. There's no reason to apprehend 600 individuals. And frankly, you know, during the Obama administration, after about maybe April of 2009, the Obama administration stopped this type of enforcement action because it's just not that affective, if you're goal truly is cracking down on illegal employment.
ALLEN: Yes. So it all comes down to what immigration officers can do legally versus what they ought to do as effective policy. What would effective policy look like?
WILLIAMS: You know, I hesitate to go directly after the Trump administration, but what they are doing is a policy and pattern generally of making people afraid to be in the United States. And when you go start knocking on the doors of chicken processing plants --
ALLEN: Processing plant.
WILLIAMS: -- and rounding everybody up, that's just not effective policy. What we need in the United States is a vast and broad rethinking of how we approach immigration. But this enforcement only approach driven by fear and demonizing immigrants which seemed to have been President Trump's approach is really working.
ALLEN: I want to talk about another case as well. An Iraqi national who had lived in the U.S. since he was an infant, he died shortly after being deported to Iraq as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. His name was Jimmy Aldaoud. He was 41. He died from complications of diabetes. His attorney said he had a long criminal record, according to his attorney, due to severe mental issues.
He was deported in June to Iraq where he had no family, no contacts. He didn't speak the language. He had been born in a refugee camp in Greece. His family came here legally. Why would he be deported to a country where he had never lived?
WILLIAMS: Well, because he wasn't -- you know, he was unlawfully present in the United States. It's almost like one of those optical illusions where you either see the face or the base. And I think what most people would see is an individual with severe mental illness who didn't know the country he has been moved to.
What immigration enforcement in the United States saw was a criminal. They saw an individual who had a criminal background. And if you look at the articles on this, they just weren't hearing the arguments that A, he should not have been removed to a place he did not know, and B, that he was actually ill. It seemed that he had, I guess, insulin issues but also some serious mental health concerns.
So this wasn't much of a humanitarian -- they have discretion to decide not to remove him to the country. They could've said that they weren't going to proceed with it. That happens all the time. They just chose to go ahead with it.
ALLEN: Right. He reportedly ended up in Najaf, where there is no Chaldean Catholic community of which he is a member. Of course, he didn't speak Arabic and apparently ran out of insulin. If the Trump administration continues to deport vulnerable people, what policy interest of the United States does this serve?
WILLIAMS: I think -- again, let's just get back to what we talked about earlier, a frightening people from being in the United States. Again, I used the word "discretion" a few times. Not just individual officers, but the government writ large has vast discretionary authority to decide who to carry out the law against.
Again, I will acknowledge that he was unlawfully present in the United States but that does not mean that he had to be a target for removal, you know, deportation out of the United States. It is a choice. Every officer, every president, every secretary of Homeland Security, makes the choice of how they wish to enforce their laws.
[02:09:59] If this -- if this is the face of immigration enforcement, then we are failing as a country, I think.
ALLEN: Do you think it will continue?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely, it will continue. Again, it's -- what the -- I am hesitant to get into Obama versus Trump. That's always a dangerous game to play. This is an unproductive game to play. But what the Obama administration did for the final six years of the administration was attempt to put in guardrails and limitations on the kinds of people who would be removed from the country.
So for instance, children who had been their entire lives would not be targets for removal or deportation if they were in school or in the military or something like that. You're not seeing that in the current administration. If someone is unlawfully present and they get a hold of him, they're subject to deportation removal. That's a very broad approach to enforcing immigration law when we put it that way.
ALLEN: Well, certainly both of these cases will continue to be discussed. We appreciate your insights. Elliot Williams, thanks so much for being with us.
WILLIAMS: Thank you.
ALLEN: The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio had people on alert across the United States. That was the case on Thursday at a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri. An armed man in his 20s was detained by an off-duty firefighter and then arrested by police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE LUCAS, LIEUTENANT, SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI POLICE: I mean, all we know is the fact that he walked in here heavily armed with body armor on in military fatigues and caused a great amount of panic inside the store. So, he certainly have the capability and the potential to harm people. And then obviously what has happened in Texas and Dayton and all that kind of stuff in the last seven days, that's on everybody's minds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Again, the off-duty firefighter that moved in certainly helped the situation. No shots were fired. No one was injured there.
We are learning new details about the investigation into the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Our Ed Lavandera has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mother of the El Paso Walmart gunman called police in Allen, Texas because she was concerned that her son owned an AK-type of firearm. Lawyers for the gunman's family say the call was made in the weeks before the massacre that killed 22 people and wounded 27 others.
Police in the Dallas suburb where Patrick Crusius lived say they have no documentation of the call from the mother, who lawyers say did not give them her or her son's names. The lawyers also say the mother was worried about her son's maturity to handle the weapon, but that he was not showing volatile or erratic behavior.
El Paso Police say it will take another 20 days for forensic teams to finish processing the crime scene at the Walmart, where the parking lot has turned into an emotional gathering spot for residents to share in their grief.
GREG ALLEN, CHIEF, EL PASO POLICE DEPARTMENT: The scene is being screened off. I don't want to get gory here but the scene is picking up human remains actually there.
(GUNFIRE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Dayton gunman's past is equally troubling with a history of violence going back to high school. A friend and former classmate of the gunman's sister recounts a night where Connor Betts was physically and verbally abusive to her and his sister, Meghan, who was shot and killed by her brother along with eight others.
Another friend of Connor Betts tells CNN that they would visit the local shooting range together. He knew he owned an AR-150-type gun but did not think he would do anything violent with it. But he was wrong. The 911 calls from the night of the shooting showed just how violent he was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Do not go outside! Stay inside. We ran inside. We're barricading the door.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): There were shots and everybody laid down. And I don't know where my friends are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: CNN's Ed Lavandera reporting there. The first funerals are taking place for Mexican victims of the El Paso shooting. At least eight Mexican nationals were among the 22 people killed at the Walmart. Elsa Mendoza de la Mora was a teacher and elementary school director, according to CNN station KTSM. And Ivan Manzano leaves behind a wife and two children. He worked at a radio station, where his colleagues described him as a very good father.
Officials in Mexico are requesting any U.S. intelligence on white supremacist threats or plots targeting Mexican citizens. Meanwhile, one Democrat hoping to win the White House in 2020 is trying to mend fences after the El Paso shooting. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Juarez.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beto O'Rourke has arrived in Juarez, Mexico and has been greeted by a crush of media, much more than on the U.S. side of the border.
[02:15:05] Mexicans are very eager to meeting with someone who is running for president and hearing the message that no matter what side of the border you live on, you deserve respect and protection, and that what happened in Walmart just miles away from where we are was not right and that the Mexican victims need to be counted as well.
He was really the first U.S. politician to come over here and expressed sympathy since the shooting. He has been greeted warmly by Mexicans. He had a meeting with Mexican government officials here, and then attending a funeral of one of the victims.
Elsa Mendoza de la Mora is expected to be buried today. She was a teacher who was gunned down in Juarez, Mexico shooting. She crossed the border to buy school supplies. Beto O'Rourke said that what happened to everyone in El Paso was a tragedy no matter what side of the border you come from.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Juarez.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: And now to President Trump, reportedly unhappy with media coverage of his response to the shootings. And here's a glimpse of what you didn't see when he visited El Paso.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Awesome crowd.
MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.
D. TRUMP: We had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had, like, 400 people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: More bragging, less consoling from the United States president. We will have that story, next. Plus, a powerful typhoon hammering parts of Japan, now it threatens other countries in the region including China. The very latest forecast for you as "CNN Newsroom" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Hong Kong is bracing for the 10th straight weekend of pro- democracy protests. It has already started with a three-day demonstration happening right now at the city's international airport. That is one of the world's busiest.
Authorities say only departing passengers with travel documents will be allowed into the terminal to minimize the potential for disruption. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan are among the countries issuing travel warning for Hong Kong because of the massive protests that continue to sweep the city.
China has issued a red typhoon alert as a powerful storm heads towards it eastern coast.
[02:19:59] Typhoon Lekima has already been blamed for four injuries in a chain of southern Japanese islands. It briefly strengthened into a super typhoon when it made landfall there, but it has since weakened. Still, the storm pauses a huge threat to the region.
Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is following it closely. It went up. Now, it has come back down. What is the latest, Derek?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: We are about 12 hours away from those greatest threats, impacting the Zhejiang Province across Eastern China. Those threats include excess rainfall, leading to flash flooding and even landslides. Remember, there are mountainous regions in that part of China.
Damaging wind gusts will lead to widespread electrical failures. And also, air, road, and rail travel will be severely impacted just by the nature of this typhoon as it moves in.
As Natalie discussed, the storm did strengthen. At its strongest, it was a super typhoon. That means 240 kilometer per hour sustained winds. And that was directly as it moves over the Ryukyu Islands, the southern island chain in the Okinawa prefecture just south of the mainland of Japan.
But it made an incredible beeline just around one of the small islands that are located in the Ryukyu area. That was just incredible. We don't normally see something like that, unless -- but it still clocked a wind gust of 168 kilometers per hour. We have already experienced rainfall totals in excess of 266 millimeters.
So what's next? Well, we have 12 hours before it reaches the east coast of China. But look at this path. It brings it over Shanghai. That is the biggest city in China, an economic hub for the world and economic center of the country. Of course, we don't want to see a typhoon move over Shanghai, but it looks more and more likely that they will feel the impacts of a strong storm.
You can see the projected path. And the population density, 26 million people call this home. They are going to feel the impacts of maybe 100 kilometer per hour wind gusts and also excessive rainfall. They're used to these types of storms in this part of the world.
They are heavily fortified for this type of weather, but that does not mean it won't cause disruptions and delays, especially for travellers coming in and out of the east coast of China. So, it is something we will monitor very closely. Natalie?
ALLEN: All right, Derek, thank you. We turn now to Italy where Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini says the country's governing coalition is effectively dead. Salvini, whose far-right League party is in a coalition with the Five Star Movement, says the only way forward is to hold new elections. But Italy's prime minister is pushing back, saying Salvini needs to explain to voters why he wants to take such a risky move as bringing down the government.
The latest climate crisis, humans are on a collision course with nature. They are chewing through the planet at an unsustainable rate. But a healthier could help. The U.N.'s climate change panel says eating less meat and reducing food waste would reduce carbon emissions and spare more land for nature. Some experts are even advocating for a largely vegetarian planet. Even so, researchers warn we've already damaged too much land as it stands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIE MASSON-DELMOTTE, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHARGE: We humans affect more than 70 percent of ice-free land. A quarter of this land is degraded. The way we produce food and what we eat contributes to the loss of nature and ecosystems and declining biodiversity. Today, 500 million people live in areas that experience desertification. People living in already degraded or desertified areas are increasingly negatively affected by climate change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: According to the U.N. report, agriculture and food production are major contributors to global warming. Food wastes produces between eight and ten percent of global emissions and livestock produces nearly 15 percent. Raising animals is so unsustainable because it requires so many resources. Farmers are already feeling the impact of the climate crisis, as CNN's Bill Weir reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUSTIN JORDAN, IOWA FARMER: We have a very, very wet spring and --
BILL WEIR, CNN JOURNALIST AND ANCHOR: Too much rain to plant.
JORDAN: -- too much rain to plant.
WEIR (voice-over): Justin Jordan is among the millions of American farmers living on an emotional rollercoaster that only seems to go down.
JORDAN: So this corn is almost two feet shorter than it normally is.
WEIR (voice-over): Thanks to a bizarre spring. He's looking at a 30 percent drop in yield.
JORDAN: Helplessness and stress is what it kind of feels like.
WEIR: Yeah.
JORDAN: But you just do what you can with what you have to work with.
[02:25:00] WEIR (voice-over): At least he has a crop. Too many farmers lost everything to epic floods. And even the lucky ones are losing sleep over fear of an early frost and trade wars and the highest farm debt in a generation. And on top of it all comes the latest alarming report from the IPCC, which finds the growing food from India to Iowa will only get harder as the climate gets harsher.
EUGENE TAKLE, IOWA STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY: We are going to see by current mid-century, my current projections that our number of days above 90 degrees is going to rise from about 17 days per year above 90 degrees (INAUDIBLE). That will be up more like 50 to 70.
WEIR (voice-over): The report finds that about three quarters of the earth's ice-free surface has been paved, plowed or deforested. Great for economies, horrible for nature's cycles. With all the diesel and fertilizer used to grow with the modern meal, they say agriculture is to blame for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.
Here's the good news. Right now, every corn plant in this field is pulling carbon out of the sky and putting it into the ground. With the right amount of innovation and financial motivation, a smart farmer can leave it there and still feed the world. Iowa could be one giant carbon sink, and unlike miners and drillers, they don't have to change careers in order to help save life as we know it.
JORDAN: Just listen to all the birds, too. Something you don't hear when you walked out in the cornfield. I mean, there's just so much more -- like I said, it is not only the plant biodiversity, but the wildlife.
WEIR: It's life.
JORDAN: Exactly.
WEIR (voice-over): Justin takes advantage of a federal program that pays him to let part of his field go wild, which brings higher yields in the long term. Over in Nebraska, Brandon Hannicod (ph) is trying out (INAUDIBLE) science funded by Bill Gates that uses bacteria instead of synthetic fertilizer, the stuff that creates ocean dead zones and red tides.
ERNIE SANDERS, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, PIVOT BIO: That's all a petroleum-based kind of products, industry that we live in. And the more we can move to a more natural, bacterial-based, I think that is better for all of us.
WEIR (voice-over): And even some Conservatives like Ray Gaesser are joining this green revolution, even though the Republican refuses to blame a warming planet entirely on human habits.
So how do you feel about big members of your party, even the president, casting doubt and skepticism into whether or not humans can't even help stop this?
RAY GAESSER, IOWA FARMER: I think it is more about not having severe regulations. I think one size fits all regulation really does not fit agriculture anywhere.
WEIR (voice-over): Like many Republican neighbors, he still embraces wind energy, cover crops, and soil conservation.
GAESSER: As we farm a little bit differently, as we sequester nutrients and carbon, you knowk, we are doing the right thing. That is what it is about, trying to do the right thing. We all want to do that.
WEIR: Absolutely.
GAESSER: And it should not be political.
WEIR: Amen, brother.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Bill, we are on the climate beat for us. Donald Trump complaining he is not getting enough credit for being consoler in chief. Just ahead, what he said behind the scenes during his visit to a hospital in El Paso.
Also, India defending a controversial move on Kashmir that is escalating tensions with Pakistan. We will have to latest on the disputed region just ahead here.
[02:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Natalie Allen, let's update you on our top news this hour.
Protesters are holding a sit in at Hong Kong International Airport. Look at the scene there. They plan to occupy the space for three days. Authorities say only departing passengers with travel documents will be allowed into the terminal to minimize the potential for disruption. We're keeping a close eye on this situation.
Nearly 700 people have been forcibly removed from their jobs in the State of Mississippi on suspicion they were in the U.S., illegally. The raids happened Wednesday, the first day of school and many young children were traumatized to discover their parents were gone. Of the 680 people rounded up, authorities say 377 are still in custody.
Parts of China are bracing for a powerful storm, expected to make landfall in the coming hours. China's national meteorological center has issued a red typhoon alert as, Lekima, the storm's name, approaches. The typhoon has already caused injuries and power outages in a chain of southern Japanese islands.
It hasn't even been a week since 31 people were killed in the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and already, President Donald Trump is apparently more concerned with media coverage of his handling of the crisis than he is with addressing the growing calls for gun control.
For more about it, here's CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Some of President Trump's own aides are conceding his visits to two cities in mourning, didn't go as planned after new video shows him bragging about crowd sizes while at a hospital in El Paso.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We met with also the doctors and nurses, the medical staff.
COLLINS: The White House stopped reporters and their cameras from capturing the president's visit. But new cellphone video shows Trump praising medical staff before turning the conversation to himself.
TRUMP: I was here three months ago, we made a speech, and we had -- what was the name of the arena? That place --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: El Paso Coliseum?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: It was packed, right? The judge is a respected guy. What was the name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: Oh good! Come here, man. That was some -- that was some crowd. And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had, like, 400 people in a parking lot. They said his crowd was wonderful.
COLLINS: The president bragging about how many people attended his February rally, where he boasted of booting undocumented immigrants from the country.
TRUMP: They go into our country. The good news is we have great law enforcement and many of these people, we know where they are, and we're going to get them the hell out.
COLLINS: The president still owes the city of El Paso over half a million dollars in unpaid fees for police use and public safety costs for that trip. CNN has learned that Trump lashed out at his staff for keeping the cameras away during his visits to two hospitals, complaining he wasn't getting enough credit, though aides said it was out of respect for the patients.
None of those eight patients at the Texas hospital Trump, visited, agreed to meet with him, CNN has confirmed, while two who had been discharged, did return for his visit, the president's trip now being followed about new questions on what's next for gun control. Trump has told aides and lawmakers he's open to endorsing extensive background checks.
TRUMP: I think background checks are important. I don't want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people.
COLLINS: It's a position he has taken before, but never followed through on.
TRUMP: We're going to be very strong on background checks. We'll be doing very strong background checks.
We certainly have to strengthen background checks. Everybody agrees with that.
We really -- I think, it'll have the support of the NRA, having to do with background checks, very strong background checks.
COLLINS: New reporting might explain why.
TRUMP: There's no bigger fan of the Second Amendment than me. There's no bigger fan of the NRA.
[02:35:02] COLLINS: CNN has learned that the president has spoken with NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre, several times in recent days. And LaPierre warned Trump, his supporters in deep red areas, don't want expanded background checks. The NRA spent more than $30 million to get Trump elected in 2016, according to financial records, and has swayed him on gun control in the past.
TRUMP: They're very close to, I'm very close to them.
COLLINS: And despite demands, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won't bring senators back to Washington during their August recess.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): If we did that, we'd just have people scoring points and nothing would happen.
COLLINS: Now, sources tell CNN that the president continued to fume about the coverage to those trips to El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio were receiving, as he was on his flight back to Washington. Some of that, he's blaming, in part, on aides, but also arguing that enough people were not defending him, and instead, his critics were getting all of the airtime.
Now, that comes as the president is continuing to have conversations with the Republican lawmakers and NRA officials as those growing calls from Democrats and some of the president's critics for more restrictive gun measures continue. Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: And again, the head of the gun lobby, the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, issued a statement late Thursday, about the growing calls for gun reform.
t says, in part, the inconvenient truth is this, the proposals being discussed by many would not have prevented the horrific tragedies in El Paso and Dayton. Worse, they would make millions of law-abiding Americans less safe and less able to defend themselves and their loved ones.
Let's talk about all of this Steven Erlanger, chief diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, Steven, we appreciate you joining us. He is in Brussels for us.
First of all, that response from the NRA, that's pretty standard fair, coming from that organization, but Congress, including Republican leader McConnell, is talking about legislation to try and prevent these continued massacres. But it didn't happen after Sandy Hook or Las Vegas or Parkland, will they stand up to the gun lobby? What do you expect now?
STEVEN ERLANGER, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES (via Skype): Well, that's the $30 million question, which is, as you said, with the amount of money the NRA gave Donald Trump last time. So, this has been a scandal in American life for a really long time. President Trump has talked off and on about the need for background checks, but then as we have seen, never followed through.
Polling seems to indicate that even Republicans want something done now. So, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump may actually, this time, push through a bipartisan bill that's already passed the House, calling for more background checks. But it's also true, as Mr. LaPierre said, that it is unlikely, so far, as we know that background checks would've stopped these two shooters in Dayton and in El Paso.
But, they are still considered a very useful tool to keep big weapons out of the hands of unsuitable people. So, it is looking like they might go through, this time, in some form, but you never know with this Congress and this president, because everything becomes partisan.
ALLEN: Yes, he's doing background checks, red flag laws will be part of the debate, according to McConnell. Is part of this, maybe, special attention to maybe taking action due to the infighting at the NRA? Are they losing some clout at this point?
ERLANGER: Well, there seemed to be, I mean, they are divided. They still are a massively important lobbying group with a lot of fervent and well-armed people behind them. But, I think their clout is being diminished, you can tell that from the tone of Mr. LaPierre's conversations, and his statements, he seems very nervous this time that the NRA might actually lose one.
ALLEN: I want to pivot to another topic involving President Trump, Steven, he tweeted that the country's number two intelligence official, Sue Gordon and veteran of more than 30 years, would resign. White House officials had indicated Mr. Trump will prefer to have a political loyalist in that role. What's behind this move, because it goes against normal protocol.
ERLANGER: Well, it's a fairly new job, this director of National Intelligence, and Dan Coats, who was a senator and former ambassador to Germany, was considered to have done it very well, but Mr. Trump demands loyalty, top to bottom, and the intelligence community doesn't always tell him what he wants to hear.
[02:40:16] And Sue Gordon, by all accounts, a long-standing professional of more than 30 years was next in line for the job, but clearly Mr. Trump was uncomfortable with her and seems to want someone who is going to adjust intelligence more to his liking. I don't the whole reasons behind it.
One had the impression that he and Ms. Gordon got on fine, but Mr. Trump, as we know, from many, many events in the past, wants people he has picked to feel loyal to him, personally, and he doesn't really trust the, sort of, civil service very much.
ALLEN: Steven Erlanger, thank you for joining us, we always appreciate your insights, thanks.
ERLANGER: Thanks, Natalie.
ALLEN: Well, fears are rising in the volatile Kashmir region over a potential new confrontation. We'll have Pakistan's response to India's controversial move in Kashmir. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Tensions are escalating between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan's military warns of a strong response if India takes military action in the area, this comes after New Delhi decided to strip Indian-controlled Kashmir of its autonomous status.
We have two reports about this developing issue. Sophia Saifi reports on the issue from Islamabad, Pakistan. But, first, here's Nikhil Kumar from New Delhi, India.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: This will make things better for Kashmir, is that in a nutshell was the message from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Thursday night, days after his government move to tighten its grip on Indian-controlled Kashmir.
On Monday, Modi's government took away the reasons special status under the Indian constitution, thereby stripping it of the power to set many of its own laws. It also downgraded Jammu and Kashmir State, which includes Indian-controlled Kashmir to a union territory.
This means that it will effectively be run directly by New Delhi. Indian states have much more power to direct their internal affairs. Speaking in Hindi, Modi defended all of this by claiming that the downgrade was only temporary. He said, local elections would be held "soon", and said that changes would bring about development, and health, and terrorism.
He even made a direct appeal to Bollywood. Asking filmmakers to consider the mountains and valleys of what is one of the world's most heavily militarized regions as settings for future projects.
Here is the thing. Even as he spoke to justify these steps, we're still waiting to get a full picture of what ordinary Kashmiri think of all this. The reason? The Modi government has placed the territory under a massive security crackdown.
Today's communications have been down and prominent local politicians have been arrested. Now, Kashmir is always on a finely balanced (INAUDIBLE). The territory is divided between Indian and Pakistani controlled sections. Both countries claim it in its entirety.
And Pakistan has been very critical of India's decisions. Islamabad has scaled back its diplomatic ties with New Delhi. Pakistan's army has also said it was willing to "Go to any extent to fight the new Indian policies."
It's all raised the geopolitical temperature here in South Asia. As people fare, the New Delhi's moves could ultimately lead to another confrontation between these two nuclear-armed drivers. Nikhil Kumar, CNN, New Delhi.
[02:46:24] SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Sophia Saifi in Islamabad where the Pakistani government is on a diplomatic offensive as a reaction to India's decision to withdraw Article 370.
Now, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has made multiple phone calls over the past 24 hours to various leaders around the world. He's also presided over a special joint session of Parliament where the country's leaders condemned India's actions in a special resolution.
Now, in that session of parliament, Prime Minister Imran Khan also accused Indian Prime Minister Modi of attempting ethnic cleansing. He said that through this act, Prime Minister Modi is going to attempt to change the demographics of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Now, at the same time, Pakistan's foreign minister has said that any military offensive is right now not on the table. And that diplomacy is going to be Pakistan's first line of defense.
We also spoke about Afghanistan and how the fragile peace talks and Pakistan's involvement in them with the Taliban in Afghanistan could be jeopardized by India's actions in Kashmir.
Now, in this -- at the same time this morning, we have seen thousands of protesters take to the streets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the capital city of Muzaffarabad. This included university students, women, and children, as well as various families.
Now, what's happening is, a lot of -- a lot of these people have been living under the shadow of heavy shelling across along the line of control, which is Pakistan's volatile border with India. And what we're also hearing is that a lot of those people in Pakistan administered Kashmir have families on the other side. And because of the ongoing communications blackout on the India side, they have not been able to hear back to what's happening on their families -- and that with their families, and their loved ones.
While the blackout continues, that sense of uncertainty will continue, their faith will continue to be unknown.
ALLEN: A U.S. Air Force pilot who died in Vietnam, finally makes it to his final resting place. And someone very special was flying the plane that brought him home. We'll have that story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:50:24] ALLEN: A major anniversary in Moscow for one of the most powerful and polarizing figures in the world. 20 years ago today, Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia. President Boris Yeltsin appointed the little-known KGB spy and politician as the nation's prime minister.
Since then, Vladimir Putin has gone on to not only dominate Russian politics but also assert himself on the global stage. Here is CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A final goodbye from the embattled and fatigued Boris Yeltsin. His successor, Vladimir Putin, designated by Yeltsin on August 9th, 1999 immediately laid out his ambitious plans.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): I've always said and will continue to say that the Russian state must be strong.
PLEITGEN: But Putin's presidency got off to a rocky start. He was heavily criticized for his handling of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000, which killed all those on board. Putin didn't immediately return from his holiday to manage the crisis.
He escalated the brutal war in Chechen. Eventually, crushing the breakaway Republic's rebellion at an immense human and material cost. And Putin cracked down on terrorism.
PUTIN: We'll whack them in the outcomes.
PLEITGEN: More than 330 hostages were killed when Moscow special forces raided a school taken hostage by extremists in Beslan, southern Russia in 2004.
Meanwhile, Russia's economy and overall stability started improving. Thanks in part to high international oil prices. Boosting the president's popularity.
After finishing two terms, Putin had reached the limit under Russia's Constitution. His solution, he swapped jobs with his Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for four years.
Medvedev then changed the Constitution, extending the terms from four years to six before Putin's return to the presidency. Vladimir Putin was re-elected to his third term as president in 2012.
But not all Russians were happy. Massive protests engulfed the streets of Moscow. Russian authorities crushing the opposition movement despite international condemnation.
Vladimir Putin's second stint as president has been defined by confrontation with the West. In 2014, after an uprising unseated the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine, the Kremlin invaded Crimea, later annexing the peninsula.
Russia is also accused of fueling and aiding the uprising in eastern Ukraine which has led to thousands of deaths. And the downing of a commercial airliner killing everyone onboard.
International investigators blame a missile fired from Russian military equipment for the tragedy, the Kremlin has remained defiant.
PUTIN: We think there is no proof. Everything that was presented shows nothing. We have our own version. But unfortunately, nobody wants to listen to us.
PLEITGEN: Russian forces are supporting Syrian President Bashar al- Assad, against the rebellion in the Middle Eastern nation. Western countries saying Russia's heavy bombardment and frequent targeting of civilian areas amount to war crimes.
And Putin's Russia is accused of directly meddling in Western nations affairs. Including a broad effort aimed at swaying the U.S. presidential election in 2016 in favor of now-President Donald Trump.
Putin denying he meddled but acknowledging he wanted Donald Trump to win.
PUTIN: Because he was talking about normalizing U.S.-Russia relations.
PLEITGEN: But normalizing relations seems out of the question after Britain accused Russia of using chemical weapons to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018. Russia once again dismissing the evidence.
20 years after taking power, Vladimir Putin maintains a strong grip on the presidency having largely marginalized Russia's opposition. But international sanctions and isolation along with a weak economy has sent his popularity into a nosedive, as some Russians have grown weary of their long-standing leader.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:54:55] ALLEN: And we turn now to the emotional homecoming of a U.S. Air Force pilot. He went missing in action after his jet was shot down more than 50 years ago. On Thursday, his remains were flown home to his final resting place by his own son.
J.D. Miles at affiliate KTVT has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
J.D. MILES, NEWS REPORTER, KTVT: It happened at Dallas Love Field Airport in January 1967. Bryan Knight remembers it like yesterday.
BRYAN KNIGHT, PILOT, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: It was a really surreal experience for a little kid.
MILES: Knight was only 5-years-old when his father Roy departed Love Field for Vietnam, and the family said goodbye.
KNIGHT: We are walking back to the car, my mother was just sobbing. And it just -- that scared me.
MILES: Colonel Knight was an Air Force combat pilot. He was shot down in Laos just four months later and presumed dead.
KNIGHT: At that point, you have to as a family figure out how to heal.
MILES: Brian followed his father's footsteps into the Air Force, and now flies as a captain for Southwest Airlines. 52 years of wondering about his father's fate ended in June.
KNIGHT: They had been searching in my dad's crash site area, and they said, "We did find human remains."
MILES: When the remains of the serviceman were identified and arrived in California on Wednesday, it made perfect sense who should have the honor of flying the casket back home.
KNIGHT: I would like to be the one to bring him back to Love Field.
MILES: A water cannon salute welcome the flight from Oakland, carrying passengers who had no idea about their captain's touching tribute to his father until they arrived.
KNIGHT: It's going to be a phenomenal experience for me, you know. I think I'm going to feel very close to him during the flight. You know, you can't imagine what an honor that is for a son to be able to do that for his father.
MILES: Relatives watched along with airport and airline employees as the flag-draped casket was carried off the plane with military honors. It's an absolutely amazing story. It's warm and heavy on the heart at the same time.
KNIGHT: Colonel Knight could be among the last fallen Vietnam heroes for North Texas to come back home. If so, this was a fitting final homecoming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: How utterly touching. Thanks for joining us this hour. I'm Natalie Allen. Follow me @AllenCNN. But I'll be back with more news in just a moment. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] ALLEN: Fear and uncertainty as hundreds of undocumented workers are rounded up in a record-setting immigration sweep in the United States.
