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Wolf

Dozens Injured in Commuter Train Crash; Homeland Security Fight; ISIS Kidnaps More Christians; GOP Regroups on Homeland Budget Impasse

Aired February 24, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

We begin with breaking news. Thanks very much for joining us. Let's get right to the breaking news. Just north of Los Angeles, California where several cars on a commuter train flipped over after the train hit a truck. Right now, we're hearing that there are no, repeat no, fatalities but dozens of people are injured and they are being treated.

Joining us now, our own Paul Vercammen. He's near Oxnard, California, not far away from Los Angeles. So, what kind of truck did the train hit? What do we know about what happened -- what happened to the driver, Paul?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, I'm at the scene right now. And what happened to the driver, they now are backing away from saying that this was a tractor-trailer truck. They said it was some sort of a possible service truck. That was separated in the collision with this commuter train. Wolf, the driver, according to Ventura County fire, fled the scene and was taken into custody about a mile away. Uncertain, right now, if he had any injuries.

You were talking about this collision and the injuries. From what we understand in talking to the fire department, four were immediate or critical. They had to be transported to a nearby hospital. There were nine others who were delayed, treated right there on seen at the triage unit that they had set up. Those moderate or delayed injuries ranging from broken bones, to fractures, to severe cuts, to head trauma. And then, there were 15 other people who suffered minor injuries. The fire officials here are stressing that they think it was somewhat of a miracle that, so far, there have been no fatalities. And, of course, those four with immediate or critical injuries, not out of the woods yet.

Firefighters also reckoning with on scene a serious fire. Diesel fuel everywhere. Some of it possibly coming from that truck that was separated. And as you look at the scene, the Metrolink cars did not crumple up on themselves or break open. They stayed intact. This may have reduced the total amount of injuries. They had put a lot of safety and impact measures in place after that horrific Chatsworth accident. This train, according to officials here, is what they would call a pusher. If you look at the video or the aerial pictures, you'll see that the engine is in the back, so it was moving this train toward Los Angeles. One estimate is it was about a mile or two miles from the last stop. This is not a place where it's going to exceedingly fast. One estimate, it was going 50 or 60 miles per hour when it collided with this truck, Wolf.

You can see the mangled wreckage here as well of the truck that it hit, separated in two spots. The main part of the truck completely burned up in that fire and then the trailer flipped over and lying on its side.

As I'm eyeballing this, and this is not easy, but it looks like there were five cars sort of detached and you can see, clearly, two of them are laying on their side. And we should also note, they took 51 people in all off the train. And 23 of them were looked over and considered uninjured. They were put on a nearby bus and all of these people will, of course, be interviewed to see if they can shed any light on why this happened here in Oxnard. Very, very rural area right through here, well-known for its agri business. You might want to call this one of America's strawberry baskets. Literally, in fields nearby, you could see people working in getting all the produce together. And that's why there's a lot of these type of trucks, Wolf, in this area.

BLITZER: Was that truck in the intersection there where the rails were, the truck was just stopped in the middle of an intersection? Is that the suspicion, Paul?

VERCAMMEN: Exactly, Wolf. They believe that somehow this truck got stopped on the tracks in this very busy intersection. And, you know, if you eyeball it from right here, the markings are there. Rail crossing, the red flashing lights. There are crossing guards. There are signs, do not stop on track. So, somehow, someway this truck got through there right here at Fifth Street and Rice in Oxnard and was on the track. One report from Ventura County fire is the engineer was able to try to slam on, you know, some sort of brakes and minimize the impact. Perhaps that helping to save countless lives in this collision.

BLITZER: And, for some reason, the driver of that truck simply ran away. He was picked up, as you point out, about a mile or so from this intersection. Stand by, Paul.

Joining us on the phone is the fire investigator for the city of Oxnard, Joe Garces. Joe, thanks very much for joining us. What can you tell us about the cause of this horrific train crash?

JOSEPH GARCES, FIRE INVESTIGATOR, CITY OF OXNARD: Like Paul was saying, we have five cars total that were derailed. Three are on their side. And, as Paul was saying, they are all intact. What we have heard from the initial reports from the Oxnard Police Department, the lead investigating agency right now, is that the driver was unfamiliar with the area. He's a produce service out of Yuma, Arizona. He drove onto the tracks, mistaking the wide tracks for the turn onto the next highway. So, he drove approximately 50 yards on the track where he then got stuck. The driver is being cooperative. He was taken to one of the local hospitals for -- just to be looked over. And he -- at this time, he is not under arrest or in police custody. But the investigation is continuing.

BLITZER: And we -- I assume, when the train hit that truck, that Metrolink train, when it hit the truck, he was already out of the truck, right? He was not in the truck upon impact?

GARCES: Yes, that is true. He had left the truck and when he saw that the train was coming, he had, according to him, he had fled the area.

BLITZER: Did he explain why he fled the scene?

GARCES: At this time, no, we don't have that information. But he has been extremely cooperative. He is not suspected of being under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. And he's being tended to at a local hospital.

BLITZER: Joe, this occurred about 5:30 a.m. Pacific time, your time. So, I assume it was still dark outside and so maybe this driver was simply confused about that intersection. Is that the suspicion?

GARCES: Yes, that is the suspicion. From where he made the right- hand turn, it's -- the controlled crossing arms, he turned around the first one and didn't go around the second onto the main highway.

BLITZER: So, clearly something has to be done to fix this to make sure there's no more confusion down the road. I know you're not in charge of the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, but if there was a blunder like this, assuming it was simply a blunder at 5:30 in the morning while it's still dark, you got to do better -- the Metrolink, the rails, they got to do a better job making sure that this doesn't happen again. I think you'll agree with me.

GARCES: Well, I can't speak to that. You know, like you said, that is for engineers and traffic control to figure those things out. But what we do know is that he did admit to turning actually onto the tracks in the mistake that he thought he was turning onto the road. So, that's where we're at right now with that.

BLITZER: Yes. And fortunately, Joe, just want to repeat, no fatalities but a lot of injuries.

GARCES: Yes. Zero fatalities and the four critically injured were taken to our local trauma center at Ventura, California. And I know, at this point, one has been admitted to the ICU, and we're waiting for further update on the conditions of the remaining critical.

BLITZER: All right. Joe Garces with the city of Oxnard Fire Department. Good luck to you. Thanks very much for all the help. We appreciate it. Good luck to all the folks out there in Oxnard in California, just outside of Los Angeles.

We'll get back to this story as new information comes in. But up next, there's a huge fight here in Washington, D.C. over the funding of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A lot is at stake if they don't get the money funded by the end of this week. The Department of Homeland Security will at least partially be forced to shut down. We'll be joined by two members of the House of Representatives, in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The clock is ticking here in Washington, D.C. On Friday, funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security technically runs out. Senate Republicans failed to get a bill through that would have kept the money flowing but that's because they tied the funding to a measure that would negate President Obama's executive order on immigration reform. Here's the California Democratic Senator, Barbara Boxer, on the Senate floor just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: This is what this party, the grand old party, the GOP, this is what they have brought. But they can get out of it in five minutes. Speaker Boehner can pass a funding bill. It'll pass in a heartbeat. Send it over here. We'll pass it. We'll turn to immigration and have it out on that subject. I think it's worthy of a debate. But you don't hold an important funding bill hostage to that debate. It is ridiculous, unnecessary, destructive and cruel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now, most observers believe what's called a clean bill is the only thing that will clear the Senate, given the Democrats opposition to linking any measure to immigration. But it may not necessarily get done by the deadline which is this Friday.

Joining us now from Capitol Hill, two members of the House of Representatives, Wisconsin Republican Congressman Sean Duffy, Michigan Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee. Congressman, to both of you, thanks very much for joining us. My assumption is -- Sean Duffy, my assumption is, and I could be wildly optimistic, that by Friday midnight, even earlier, the Senate will pass what's called a clean bill. It will go to the House of Representatives without any direct attachment to immigration, what the president wants to do on immigration reform. What will happen in the House of Representatives?

REP. SEAN DUFFY, R-WISCONSIN: First of all, Wolf, you're an optimist. I'm not sure that is going to happen.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we may have a -- well, as I mentioned yesterday, we -- the President does intend to veto this piece of legislation and --

BLITZER: Hold on --

EARNEST: -- any drama or fanfare or delay --

BLITZER: -- hold on one second. I guess we got a technical issue. Hold on, I think that was Josh Earnest or something that we got a technical issue. Let me start again. Sean Duffy, assuming it passes a clean bill in the Senate, what's going to happen in the House of Representatives? DUFFY: What we're going to do, Wolf, is something that's very simple.

We're going to say, you know what? Let's fund the security of our homeland, make sure all the money is there to make sure Al Qaeda or Russia or China, no one can come and attack us here. What we're not going to fund though is something that has nothing to do with Homeland Security which is the president's executive overreach. So, when I heard Barbara Boxer make comments or Democrats make comments that we're not passing a clean bill, or even you mentioned that, the fact is we actually are passing a clean bill that funds Homeland Security until the end of -- until the end of the fiscal year which is the right thing to do. What I don't understand is why Democrats are saying we have to have the funding of the president's executive overreach in exchange for funding the Homeland Security. That does not make sense. The President, 22 times, said he couldn't do this. The courts have agreed he can't do it. And in our --

BLITZER: All right.

DUFFY: -- funding package, we didn't give him the money for executive amnesty.

BLITZER: All right, Congressman Kildee, explain why you disagree with the -- with your Republican colleague.

REP. DAN KILDEE (D), MICHIGAN: Well, I don't think it's proper for the Congress to use the appropriations process, use the essential funding to an important division of federal government in order to exact from either the president or Democrats in Congress that which they are not willing to submit to the legislative process. A simple fix would be to fund homeland security, as Congressman Duffy said, fund that essential service and then bring to the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate comprehensive immigration reform. Let's deal with the question of immigration, but let's deal with it in its own context. And I think if we want to talk about overreach, overreach is using a threat of the shutdown of an important set of government responsibilities in order to exact concessions from the president or from Democrats in Congress. That, to me, is not acceptable.

BLITZER: All right, let - let -- let me get back to the -

DUFFY: Well -

BLITZER: Hold on a second. Let me get back to the original question. Congressman Duffy, if - if - and I know you think it's optimistic, but let's say the Senate does pass what's called a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. If it comes without immigration attached to it, what will happen in the House of Representatives? Will you vote under those circumstances to keep the Department of Homeland Security running?

DUFFY: Listen, I've already voted once to keep the Department of Homeland Security running and I'll vote again to keep the Department of Homeland Security running. But I - I'm not going to vote to fund the president's executive amnesty. I don't think that's right and --

BLITZER: But there won't be any mention - but there -- in this new legislation, assuming it gets to you, there won't be any mention whatsoever of homeland security -- of immigration, which, as you also know, is under judicial review right now. It's -- for all practical purposes, it's stopped.

DUFFY: True. That could - that could come into play in our conference. But we have to understand that the House, per our Constitution, has the power of the purse. And so we have no obligation to fund executive amnesty that comes from the president or none of the - or any of the president's wishes that come out of the White House. We have the power of the purse and those duly elected members of the Congress should hash that out.

Now, we would both agree, we need to get immigration reform done. But we are not going to fund the president's executive amnesty, but we are going to fund Homeland Security. And I think that's a very important distinction. And I think what's going to be hard for Democrats and Mr. Kildee as well is, how do they say we're going to shut down Homeland Security, funding very important agencies, in exchange for saying we're not going to allow the children to come here for executive amnesty.

BLITZER: All right, go ahead. Congressman Kildee, go ahead.

KILDEE: Well, obviously - obviously that's not the position that the Democrats or the president is taking. Look, we can fund Homeland Security. We can do it today. We can do it this afternoon with a clean bill that does not try to direct the president or legislate that which the Congress ought to legislate, and that is immigration policy. This is not about funding his executive order. This is about funding an essential function of government. And then Congress should legislate on these big questions of immigration policy. But for whatever reason, we have not seen the speaker bring comprehensive immigration reform, that which passed the Senate in the last Congress, to the floor of the House.

DUFFY: And I believe we should do that, Wolf, but just note that we didn't bring it up in the last Congress and we won a historic majority in the House and we won control of the Senate. So -

KILDEE: So you have that majority. Bring it up now.

DUFFY: And I think we should. But the larger view is, let's make sure we keep Homeland Security funded. We can have this debate about immigration a little -- further down the road when we have more time. But don't hold Homeland Security hostage because you want to fund executive amnesty.

BLITZER: Right. We've got to end it, congressmen, and it's a good discussion. But for all practical purposes, Congressman Duffy, what the president wants to do with these 4 million or 5 million illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, right now, that's not happening because a Texas federal judge says it has to be put on hold. They're going to seek some reviews. They're going to the Fifth District Circuit Court in New Orleans. But for all practical purposes, the president isn't able, at least for the time being, to do what you want to do. Isn't it more important, though, to keep the Department of Homeland Security going rather than making a -- taking a principled position, if you will?

DUFFY: But - but -- but, Wolf, that could buy us some short time what's happened in the courts. But, again, we have taken the right position, which is fund homeland security. We just need Democrats to come over and do that with us and save the debate on immigration for a later date. Don't hold the state of the country hostage for - (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: Well, all right, we've got - guys, we've got to leave - we've got to leave it there.

KILDEE: All right.

DUFFY: OK.

BLITZER: But I know - I know where you guys stand. I know what's going to happen supposedly in the House of Representatives if the Senate does pass this clean bill. Nobody wants to see the Department of Homeland Security shut down. The deadline is Friday at midnight.

Guys, good luck to both of you. Good luck to everyone up on Capitol Hill because lots at stake for American homeland security right now. It's a critically important issue. Appreciate both of you spending a few moments with us. Thank you very much.

KILDEE: Thanks, Wolf.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BLITZER: ISIS has reportedly kidnapped another group of Christians, including women and children. We're going live to the Middle East. We're going to hear the terrifying account of what happened to these Christian civilians.

Also, the United States has been sending millions of dollars in weapons to Iraq, including machine guns, mine-resistant vehicles. How will they be used in the fight against ISIS? We have new information. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Disturbing information coming in to CNN. It appears ISIS militants have now abducted another group of Christians. A monitoring group says 90 Syrian Christians, including women and children, were taken from two villages in the northeastern province of Syria. Meanwhile, police in Spain say they've arrested four people suspected of recruiting for ISIS. They're accusing them of having meetings with potential recruits and showing them ISIS videos.

Meantime, the new U.S. secretary of defense, Ash Carter, he's back from his trip to the Middle East where he convened an anti-ISIS war council meeting in Kuwait. Only moments ago, the president of the United States, President Obama, welcomed the amir of Qatar to the White House and they spoke to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also had an opportunity to discuss a wide range of other areas where there's significant turmoil, Libya, Yemen. And I think had a significant meeting of the minds in our shared belief that the more that we can work with all the countries in the region to try to find political solutions to problems, the more that we can reduce sectarian tensions in the regions and isolate violent extremists, the more effective we can be.

And we also had a very useful discussion around Iran and the negotiations that are currently taking place to try to reduce the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Those negotiations are ongoing. I gave the amir an update and assured him that our goal here is to be able to verify that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon and that we will continue to press Iran on some of its other actions in the region that often have a destabilizing effect, recognizing however that we would greatly prefer to be able to resolve many of these issues diplomatically. And I know that Doha shares the same view.

So, overall, I want to say that this was an excellent conversation and I think his highness has a deeper understanding of the United States' concerns around these issues and our interests. I emphasized to him that ultimately what the United States wants to see for all of the Middle East and all of North Africa is circumstances in which peace and security prevail and that people, particularly young people, have the opportunity to learn, to get educated and to succeed in this modern economy.

Qatar is an extraordinary example of that, partly because it's been blessed by natural resources, but also because it's made good decisions about how to develop its economy. And hopefully that kind of prosperity can be spread more widely in the years to come. And I look forward to being a partner with Qatar and making that happen.

So, your highness, thank you very much. Welcome.

TAMIN BINI HAMAD AL THANI, AMIR OF QATAR: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

OBAMA: Hold on a second.

AL THANI: In Arabic or English or -

OBAMA: Any way (INAUDIBLE).

AL THANI: Any way. Mr. President, thank you very much for having me in the White House. I'm very happy to be here. I'm not going to repeat what you said, Mr. President, but things that I really want to say is how important the relation between Qatar and the United States of America and how to develop this strategic relations that we have. You mentioned that we have a strong relationship in military and security and also we have an excellent relation in education as well and other things as well.

As we mentioned before that we are investing in this country. We believe in the economy of this country and the future of this country. So this is something very important as well for us.

We are all concerned of what's going on in our region. You mentioned the countries that we spoke about. Yes, we are concerned about it. We're concerned as well about the terror groups in our region. We -- I think we all share the same view. The reason why those terrorist group are growing in our - in our - in our region, and we have to make sure that to solve this problem we're all fighting terrorism and it's a must is to make sure that the reason why this happened doesn't happen again because it happened a few years ago and it's happening again now.

We mentioned about the situation in Palestine and about the peace process and what is the best for Palestine and it is one of - it is the important subject in the Middle East. And we have to find a solution for Palestine. And I'm happy to learn and to hear from you, Mr. President, that you're committed to finding this peace process and the peace process in Palestine.

And I don't want to take - you know, you mentioned everything, Mr. President, so thank you very much. I'm very happy to be here, sir.

OBAMA: Thank you so much.

AL THANI: Thank you.

OBAMA: Thank you, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Paul (ph).

Thank you, Paul.

OBAMA: Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

OBAMA: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got your (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, so there you see it, the president of the United States, the amir of Qatar, in the Oval Office at the White House. Obviously both pleased by their meeting. The president earlier also said the United States and Qatar have, in his words, a very strong security relationship. He mentioned the fact that Qatar hosts a lot of U.S. military personnel at two military bases in Qatar. We've heard that many times before. So this is a very important relationship between the United States and Qatar.

There's new information coming in. Syrian Christians have now been kidnapped by ISIS. We have new information on that. We'll take a quick break. Full analysis of what we just heard and a lot more news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)