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WH: U.S. "Actively Facilitating" Exit Of Americans From Sudan; Gov. Ron DeSantis In Japan To Talk Trade With Prime Minister; Delivery Driver Abducted, Sexually Assaulted In Florida. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 24, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:20]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A swift military operation in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Almost a hundred people evacuated in less than an hour. We have new details about the mission to get U.S. diplomats out of Sudan. And now the White House must decide how to help the thousands of other Americans still trapped in a war zone.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, the aviators are hitting the trail again. President Biden expected to launch his reelection bid tomorrow. That means he'll have about 19 months to tell voters about his accomplishments from term one, as well as his ability to keep going well into his 80s.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And Ron DeSantis hasn't thrown his hat into the ring yet, but his travel itinerary indicates otherwise. The Florida Governor discussing trade with the Japanese Prime Minister, and this is just his first stop. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: The U.S. says it is actively helping Americans get out of Sudan as violence in that country continues to intensify. It comes after U.S. Special Forces pulled off a daring rescue operation, safely getting embassy staff out of the capital city of Khartoum.

Now, this is a photo of Secretary of State Antony Blinken watching the tense operation unfold. Okay, maybe it's not a photo of Antony Blinken. There it is. The U.S. government estimates that 16,000 Americans remain in Sudan, many who are dual citizens.

We've also learned the number who want to leave the country is in the dozens.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now live from the Pentagon. And Oren, the U.S. is essentially saying that a large scale operation to evacuate those U.S. citizens is untenable. It's simply unsafe.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Especially given the current security situation in Sudan, which is certainly moving in the wrong direction. What was supposed to be a 72-hour ceasefire led to first violations of the ceasefire. And now from the reports, we're seeing smoke over the city. The

ceasefire has effectively fallen apart. The question is, what can the U.S. do now for the American citizens who are there and how many want to get out. There is a big difference here. Though there are 16,000 or more U.S. citizens in the country, many of them dual nationals, the administration keeps saying it only has a signal from somewhere between dozens of hundreds or hundreds who are looking to leave the country in terms of what the U.S. is putting in place.

The Pentagon said just a short time ago, there is 24/7 surveillance overhead from drones, as well as a Navy ship that is already off the coast of Sudan and another headed that way in terms of being able to get people different places or get the medical help should they get to Port Sudan.

In terms of getting in again, right now that seems to be off the table. Here is National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We are actively facilitating the departure of American citizens who want to leave Sudan as the State Department has been urging them to do for years. We have deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to support land evacuation routes, which Americans are using and we're moving naval assets within the region to provide support.

This tragic violence has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It is unconscionable. It must stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: The U.S. has also set up what it's calling a de- confliction cell in Stuttgart, Germany. That's where U.S.-Africa Command is based. That will allow the U.S. to talk to some of the other countries and perhaps - perhaps, Boris - figure out a way that if there's a convoy or a flight for another country to get some U.S. citizens on that flight.

That still remains to be seen. This is still in the very early stages, Boris, of trying to figure out how this works now that the evacuation is over.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a clear indication that conditions in Sudan are rapidly deteriorating.

Oren Liebermann from the Pentagon, thank you so much. Brianna.

KEILAR: And Boris with us now to discuss this growing crisis in Sudan, we have CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kimberly Dozier.

So tell us what are the obstacles, Kim, of a civilian evacuation, because you have Secretary Blinken saying that there are dozens of Americans who do want to get out. KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's the same situation

faced by Brits, French, et cetera. The problem is you've got two rival generals who have turned the capitol and much of the country into their own personal battleground. There aren't particular sort of lines of fighting and then safe zones. Ceasefires keep breaking down.

So you would almost need, like we had in Afghanistan when everything was falling apart, military forces on the ground to go in and grab people and get them out.

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That's why since we don't have that, in the interim, the advice is shelter in your homes until one of these ceasefires holds and then we'll try to advise you how to get out. The problem is internet, phone service, everything is either getting knocked out or is in and out. So it's really hard to communicate with people who are under threat as to what is a safe way to exit the country, even if the U.S. does get a warship to a port like France is doing right now.

KEILAR: Do you think the U.S. government, the State Department, should have anticipated this?

DOZIER: I don't think anyone anticipated how quickly this fell apart. For months, you've had U.S. and European diplomats trying to get these two generals to go back to the original agreement of civilian rule, even as the friction between the two of them and their various collections of forces increased. This is one of these things, where, when it all falls apart really suddenly, there's almost no way to plan for it.

KEILAR: As you see all these diplomatic entities from different countries just getting out of dodge here, what is the effect going to be on the ground there in Sudan?

DOZIER: Well, you have something like 45 million Sudanese who are left in the middle of what will surely now be intensified fighting between the army and the RSF, the militia faction fighting it. And you also have, according to the U.N., something like a third of the country was already in need of aid.

There have been a number of conflicts all around Sudan and there's a refugee population in the country from that. Plus, when you talk about the recent ravages of the farms by drought, et cetera, and now you have the aid agencies leaving the people who can deliver that aid. So the situation only gets more dire.

KEILAR: And you have Sudan borders, so many nations, and you have refugees fleeing Sudan to all directions here. What type of humanitarian crisis or crises are we talking about?

DOZIER: You could have a cascade of crises that stretches across other borders. It's going to be hard to deliver aid. The other part that could happen is that these two generals also have different supporters within the region. The main army general incharge has strong ties with Egypt, the head of the RSF militia has strong ties with the Libyan warlord Haftar.

So you could see going forward military aid fighters coming through from some of these disparate factions only supercharging the violence and creating a massive refugee situation of Sudanese fleeing the country searching for safety.

KEILAR: All right. Kim, thank you so much for putting all of this into perspective. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, in just a few minutes, President Biden will host the so-called "Tennessee Three" at the White House to discuss gun control. The trio of Democrats, you may remember, landed in national headlines after Republicans in that state moved to strip them of their seats because they had protested on the floor there for stronger gun laws.

Two of the lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, they did briefly lose their jobs. But now all three are back in the chamber and their calls for major legislative action on guns have only gotten louder.

CNN's Phil Mattingly live at the White House. And Phil, certainly for these lawmakers, they were out of their jobs very briefly. They have a much larger voice, it seems, in the state and nationally. Tell us what the White House's view of this is. What do they hope to gain by meeting with these Tennessee Democrats?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jim, I think to some degree, White House officials want to be able to utilize that voice, to kind of track with that voice, to push what they know, at least on a national level, has become extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, when it comes to moving further legislation on guns.

And I think when you talk to White House officials, to some degree, the President wants to show his appreciation both for what these lawmakers did on the floor that got two of them expelled, their process and how they've kind of utilized grassroots movement behind them in the days and weeks since, but also to discuss their views on how to continue moving forward on an issue that particularly with Republicans in control of the House has no real prospects of moving forward in Congress.

Now, our colleague, Abby Phillip, sat down with the lawmakers yesterday. And one of them, Justin Jones, made clear they have asked for the President. Take a listen.

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REP. JUSTIN JONES (D-TN): I think that we need emergency response because we're facing a crisis situation. And that in states like ours, we need help from our national leaders, because we're in a state where the only action that our colleagues took in response to mass shooting in Nashville was to expel the two youngest black lawmakers and then to pass a law to protect gun manufacturers. That's how - what they passed this session.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [15:10:00]

MATTINGLY: Now, Jim, what he's referencing there is the President signing off on a public health emergency. It's something that doesn't seem to be in the cards. The President has said he's basically run out of options at this point in time.

But the President has been extremely supportive of these lawmakers, very clearly wanted to meet with them. Said at the time in a statement: "Rather than debating the merits of the issue, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence and expel the duly elected representatives of the people of Tennessee."

Probably a point he's going to make once again when reporters are let into the room. But more than anything else, trying to find some way to utilize the movement that has kind of embraced this group of lawmakers to try and push forward an issue that still remains rather attractive on the national level, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. And the numbers haven't changed, right, in Republican majority in the Tennessee House and Republican majority in the House in Washington. Those are the facts. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is in Japan. The first stop in a week-long trip overseas. Today he met with the Prime Minister of Japan and exchanged views on regional affairs. DeSantis is considered a possible GOP presidential candidate.

But take a listen to what he told reporters today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, polls show you falling behind Trump. Any thoughts on that?

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: I'm not a candidate. So, we'll see if and when that changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: A new NBC poll shows that DeSantis is trailing former President Donald Trump in a race for 2024. But the poll also shows that voters do not want to see President Trump or President Biden run again.

Let's bring in CNN's Steve Contorno, who's live in St. Petersburg, Florida for us. Steve, walk us through the goals that DeSantis has on this foreign trip, because he may say that he's not a candidate for president right now, but this has the trappings of a potential presidential trip.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes. That's right, Boris. On paper, his office is officially calling this an international trade mission. And Florida is a large state with a big global economy. So there is a lot to be done on that front. And he is meeting with dignitaries in businesses in Japan, then he'll move on to South Korea before going to Israel and the United Kingdom as well.

But the subtext to all this as well is that there is this presidential race that he is laying the groundwork for, and he really has not had an opportunity to step out onto the international stage yet. This is going to be - this is really his first chance to visit many of these countries. He's only ever gone to Israel as an elected official.

And he tried to sort of tap into international issues a couple of weeks ago when he was asked about Ukraine. He received a lot of blowback for calling it a territorial dispute, had to walk that back and then sort of pivoted all over again. So this is his opportunity to sort of get some international exposure.

However, he is - it's coming at a time when he is facing some significant headwinds back home. You mentioned that poll. That also comes just as Donald Trump last week unveiled a whole bunch of endorsements, including many from DeSantis' home state of Florida, where we saw 11 House Republicans now have endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024 over Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis has also been facing some criticism from Trump's allies as well as Democrats back home for his extensive travel. We've seen him all over the country lately, even as Florida faced a pretty big natural disaster. We had torrential rain in South Florida. There was flooding. There was a gas shortage and DeSantis has not talked about that very often, leading to one of Donald Trump's top allies, his son, Don Jr., to tweet this out last week.

"Fort Lauderdale is underwater and DeSantis is campaigning in Ohio right now instead of taking care of people in his state."

So Boris, even as he is trying to turn the page a little bit by going to this other countries, there are still some questions back home as to his viability in the presidential race if he were to jump in.

SANCHEZ: Yes. He may not be a presidential candidate officially, but he's certainly being treated like one, especially by Trump folks.

Steve Contorno, thank you so much for that. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Coming up, police say a DoorDash driver had to be rescued by her family after someone kidnapped her on the job. We have the details.

Plus, can public officials block their critics online? The Supreme Court is going to decide.

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SANCHEZ: A harrowing story to share with you out of Tampa where police say a DoorDash driver was rescued by her family after being kidnapped and sexually assaulted while trying to make a delivery.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is covering this disturbing story. Carlos, tell us what happened. How did her family know where she was?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, it's an incredible story out of Tampa. So according to authorities there, this DoorDash delivery, a woman, she was making this food delivery and that's when according to police, the 38-year-old suspect here who has been identified as Joseph Killins, he forced this woman back into her car and then drove her six miles away. And that's where we're told that he sexually assaulted her.

Now, Boris, what makes this particularly of interest, at least according to some of the details that we've learned, is that the victim was wearing headphones, according to police. She was talking to a girlfriend at the time when she was making this delivery.

And according to authorities, the girlfriend was able to essentially piece together that something was going terribly wrong. At which point, according to authorities, the girlfriend calls the victim's family members who then call police.

But the story doesn't end just there. Because according to authorities in Tampa, the family was able to track the victim's cell phone and so they showed up to where she was being held. It's at that point that investigators say that this 38-year-old man shot one of the family members.

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We're told that the family member that was shot is doing okay, as well as DoorDash employee.

Now, police, they do not get a break in this case until the following day, because they're able to piece together a robbery that had taken place with another person to the initial crime. And that's when they finally make an arrest in this case.

Now, DoorDash, as you can imagine, has offered a great deal of resources to this employee. And they released a statement that read in part: "We are appalled by this heinous and abhorrent crime. No one should ever have to endure something as horrific as this and we're here to support the Dasher in any way that we can."

Again, Boris, the good news at this hour is that both victims that were hurt in this are doing okay. And the 38-year-old has been arrested and he's facing a number of charges, including armed kidnapping and sexual assault.

SANCHEZ: Yikes. We're glad that those folks are expected to be okay.

Carlos Suarez, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Can public officials block critics from commenting on their social media accounts? It is really a complex question that the Supreme Court has now agreed to take up. And if it sounds kind of familiar, it also came up when former President Donald Trump tried to block critics from his Twitter account.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is here with me on this.

Okay. Walk us through what the court is considering in this case.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So as you mentioned, Brianna, this is an issue that the Supreme Court has sidestepped previously. But what they'll hear next term, beginning sometime in October, are two questions that ask this basic - or sorry, two cases that ask this question: Do public officials violate the First Amendment when they block people from their personal social media accounts that they might use to communicate government businesses?

So at handle will be two cases, one from Southern California, where school board members, two of them actually blocked two parents from their Twitter and Facebook accounts after those parents had posted things criticizing these two school board members. In that particular case, the Ninth Circuit here said that the board members' blocking of the parents comments did constitute government action, and then that violated the First Amendment. So that was one case.

Then there's a second case out of Michigan involving the city manager of Port Huron, Michigan. He had a Facebook profile page that a resident in that city posted on repeatedly criticizing the COVID policies of that particular town. The city manager then blocked that user.

Interestingly, this was a different outcome than the Ninth Circuit. The Sixth Circuit said that because the city manager was operating only in his personal capacity, he did not violate the First Amendment as it came to his government duties.

So there's really a circuit split here. That's why the Supreme Court has taken up this case.

KEILAR: Yes. So something to work out clearly and they haven't dealt - the Supreme Court specifically with this issue. But have they dealt with social media anywhere close to this sphere?

SCHNEIDER: There have been a number of cases that have come possibly before the Supreme Court, but they were able to punt on a few of these issues, including that 2021 case where the former president had blocked users from his Twitter account. They didn't end up deciding the case, because at the point where it came to them, Donald Trump was a former president, so they were able to say, okay, it's no longer applicable. It's moot.

However, in that case, Justice Clarence Thomas talked a little bit about the fact that pretty soon the Supreme Court wouldn't be able to dodge this issue. He said that that case and likely others highlight: "The principal legal difficulty that surrounds digital platforms - namely that applying old doctrines to new digital platforms is rarely straightforward."

He continued to say, "We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms." So that's exactly what they'll take up next term. I mean, it begs this

question, because it's a little bit of blurred lines. It's personal social media accounts that government officials are operating and they often post government related policy issues on those pages. So the question is: Are they acting in their personal capacity? Are they acting in their government capacity? It's something the Supreme Court will finally wade into starting in the fall.

KEILAR: Yes. And maybe both.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

KEILAR: Jessica Schneider, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. Coming up next, the most magical place on earth just announced another round, sadly, of layoffs.

Plus, Hunter Biden is fighting back. He's calling for investigations into some Republicans investigating him. We're going to have more on that new strategy right after this.

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[15:29:17]

SCIUTTO: The top story we are following today, Sudan under siege. As the U.S. says it is actively trying to help get remaining Americans out of the country. This follows a huge rescue operation by U.S. Special Forces that evacuated U.S. embassy staff and their families overnight on Sunday.

The State Department released this photo of Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he watched the mission unfold from the White House. The U.S. government estimates, though, that 16,000 Americans remain in the country. None of them - many of them dual citizens - officials say the number of Americans wanting to leave remains, just in, the dozens.

[15:30:00]

The Biden administration says there are no plans for a large scale U.S.-led evacuation operation for now. We'll continue to monitor. Boris?