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Migrant Surge May Have Peaked; U.S. Border Encounters Down; Four Russian Aircraft Downed over Russia; Victims' Families Sue Social Media; Degrees Awarded to Slain Students. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 15, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:46]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: An unexpected slowdown at the border, but will it last? DHS says it's too early to know. That's not stopping immigration politics, though, from heating up once again. Hours ago, a new bus of migrants arrived at the vice president's residence.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Four Russian aircraft down inside Russian territory. What this tells us about what the Ukrainians can do now and in a much discussed spring offensive.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The travel forecast is in. More than 42 million Americans will be on the move this Memorial Day. Are the roads and airlines ready?

These major stories and more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, there's a surprising quiet at the southern border as federal officials report a dramatic drop in border crossings, which is the opposite of what so many had predicted would happen after Title 42 ended. They warned it would be chaotic for a while, remember? Well, instead, this was the scene in El Paso over the weekend, no lines, no crowds, no chaos.

Just before the policy lifted, border encounters were topping 10,000 each day. That is now down to just over 4,000. Still, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says that it is too early to know if the migrant surge has peaked. Border facilities and shelters are already struggling to keep up with the record high number of people coming through.

And in the midst of this, the political posturing continues, of course. Last night, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent another bus of migrants to be dropped off outside of the vice president's residence in Washington, D.C.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live in El Paso, CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House.

Arlette, what are you hearing from the administration right now as everyone is trying to figure out what really is going on at the border now? ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, President

Biden said that the situation at the border is going better than expected after he himself had warned that things could be chaotic down there for quite some time.

This comes after the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted that there has been a drop in the number of border encounters since the lifting of Title 42. If you take a look at the numbers, from Saturday there are 4,200 border encounters, Friday that figure was at 6,300 compared to just before Title 42 lifted when they were seeing about daily encounters around 10,000.

But ultimately the administration is crediting their plans and the messaging that they've sent to migrants as part of the reason that they've seen these lower border encounter numbers.

Take a listen to what Secretary Mayorkas had to say yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have communicated very clearly a vitally important message to the individuals who are thinking of arriving at our southern border. There is a lawful, safe and orderly way to arrive in the United States that is through the pathways that President Biden has expanded in an unprecedented way and then there's a consequence if one does not use those lawful pathways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the administration has faced political criticism from Democrats and Republicans who have said that they've been insufficiently prepared for the lifting of Title 42. The White House and administration has pushed back on that saying that they have put these plans and protocols into place.

The White House and administration is also facing legal challenges since the lifting of Title 42. Chief among those is a federal judge down in Texas which blocked their plan to release migrants from CBP facilities without set court dates. That is something that is currently on pause. The Justice Department is planning to appeal that. And that is one of the tools that they would be using to try to ease overcrowding and capacity concerns at these facilities. So, that is just one of the many legal challenges that is playing out as the White House and administration is grappling with the lifting of Title 42.

For now they are breathing a sigh of relief as those border encounters have gone down.

BOLDUAN: IT's good to see you, Arlette. Thank you for that perspective from the White House for us.

Let's go to the border now.

[09:05:00]

That's where Polo Sandoval, he's in El Paso for us this morning. Polo, what's the reality there today?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Kate, much of the migrant presence, at least here in the border city of El Paso, has to do with those who actually surrendered to federal authorities in the days leading up to the expiration of Title 42. They are many of the folks who are currently filling the shelters that are at capacity and, in many cases, as you'll see behind me, are basically spilling on to the streets of El Paso.

Now, I can't show you these pictures without extremely important context. The number of people that we saw sleep just outside of a shelter under these white Red Cross blankets, it is dramatically lower when you compare it to the number of people that our colleagues Ed Lavandera and Rosa Flores witnessed a week ago when we did see that record number of apprehensions nearing 10,000 a day all along the border. However, those numbers have significantly decreased.

But I show you these pictures because it does go to the other side - sort of the other side of this story, which is the shelters, certainly the DHS processing facilities, they are either at or near capacity. I spoke to one shelter official this morning who says they still have to turn away some of the families that show up at their doorstep.

However, this 50 percent decrease that the DHS secretary spoke about over the weekend, it certainly is going to offer an opportunity for DHS officials and city authorities alike an opportunity to sort of get their head back up above water, to try to keep up with the demand to process individuals and then for the NGOs, for the non-profits, to be able to provide those services for these asylum seekers while in border cities temporarily.

I spoke to some of these individuals a little while ago, Kate. One of them in particular, he's getting ready to get on a bus and then head over to Denver in the next day or two. So, in the meantime, he's waiting on this sidewalk because a friend of his is still in detention, hasn't been processed and released yet. So that's why we're still seeing people -- a limited number of people on the streets, but many, many more inside of shelters. These are folks that are caught in a sort of limbo. They've been processed by federal authorities. They want to make it to Washington, to Philadelphia, to Denver, certainly New York, but they don't know when that's going to happen.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Polo, it's great to have you there. Have the perspective on the ground.

We're going to speak to the mayor of Denver later about what that means there. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting with leaders across Europe hoping to bolster support ahead of this highly anticipated spring offensive. Zelenskyy met with the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, this morning following meetings with the leaders of Germany, France and Italy.

Now, this follows a remarkable 24 hours that might have seen the downing of four Russian aircraft in one single day. Now, it happened inside Russia, in Russian territory, right here in the Bryansk region. You can see, this is Ukraine. This is Russia.

The details of this are murky, but one Russian media outlet said that there were four different aircraft involved -- this is what we're looking at here -- two Russian jets, the SU-34 and the SU-35, and two Russian military helicopters, the MI-8.

With us now is CNN military analyst, and retired Army general, James "Spider" Marks.

General, thanks so much for being with us.

We have video that might show one of these helicopters being shot down. It really is remarkable imagery.

If, in fact, Spider, four aircraft in one day, in one region, what would that tell you? How significant?

MAJ. GEN. SPIDER MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it's very significant, John.

And, again, thank you for having me today.

What that tells you is the Ukrainian forces clearly have a very robust now increasingly sophisticated air defense capability, ground launch capability to go after and across the Russian border, so to go after Russian targets and across into Russian air space. That's very significant. If the Ukrainians want to be able to achieve this level of operational success on the ground -- again, bear in mind what we've seen to date is incredible creative tactical successes by the Ukrainians. If you want to increase that, tie those tactical successes together, force the Russian's hand, force them back, you've got to strike deep into Russia, you've got to go after military targets, not civilian targets, not villages, go after those areas that are now currently in sanctuary and put those military Russian forces under the fire of Ukrainian forces. This is a great example.

BERMAN: I just want people to get one more look at this in case they haven't seen it. Again, this is video that purports to show one of these helicopters apparently being struck inside Bryansk.

You were talking about these strikes that are happening inside Russian territory. We have a map here of some of the sites where there have apparently been strikes on Russian holdings.

Now, Spider, there was also a report this weekend from "The Washington Post," and intelligence from months ago was suggesting that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, he wanted to target even deeper inside Russia, even maybe take some Russian territory on the ground.

[09:10:07]

How is this, these strikes, how is this different from what "The Washington Post" said Zelenskyy might have been asking for months ago?

MARKS: So, let's see if we can square these two. If, as you've described on the map, those strikes are going after military targets, fair game, makes perfect sense, keeps the Russian forces off balance, which is exactly what you want to do. If, in fact, any of these strikes are going after civilian targets or could there -- there could be some collateral damage, or there could be the pushing of Ukrainian forces on the ground into Russia, that's -- that's a form of escalation that's not essential at this point.

What Zelenskyy and his forces need to be able to do is as described is to decrease the amount of Russian forces that can assemble, can refit and then be pushed across the border into Ukraine. If you can do that and disrupt that, you've really taken the - you've taken the initiative out of the hands of Russian forces.

BERMAN: So, again, we continue to hear about this fighting that's been going on for 11 months now in the eastern city of Bakhmut. And the Ukrainians are claiming some success at taking back small amounts, small amounts of territory.

Spider, is this the spring offensive or when will we see the spring offensive? President Zelenskyy says it's coming soon.

MARKS: Yes, I think what we're seeing right now, this - this is the beginning stage of a larger offensive we must hope. We have to assume. And the -- the key thing in my mind is, let's stop talking if we're in the - if we're the Ukrainians, let's stop talking about the spring offensive. Let's get about the business of the spring offensive.

And it's not a shot from the canon. It's not like a bunch of forces are suddenly going to surge and have these great sweeping motions in the vicinity of Bakhmut or elsewhere. What you're seeing right now are the initial phases. That's where you strip the enemy's ability to see you, you strip his eyes away, you then conduct your own reconnaissance, you feel your way to where the advantage can be and then you load up with fires, you amass your forces and you begin a penetration. That's how it has to take place. So that is not an immediate kind of a launch. That is a very gradual, a very aggressive and a smart use of intelligence (INAUDIBLE) to achieve that type of success.

BERMAN: Retired General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, always a pleasure to see you. Thanks so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: One year after their relatives were murdered in a racist mass shooting at a grocery store, family members of Buffalo shooting victims are going after social media companies. Why they say companies like Facebook and 4chan are responsible for the radicalization of the gunman.

Plus, Memphis Grizzly player Ja Morant suspended after a video surfaces that appears to show him holding a gun just two months after he posted another video while holding a gun. And, a dangerous and possibly deadly defect has the National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration calling for a recall of 67 million air bag inflaters, but the company that makes them is pushing back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:36]

BERMAN: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is calling for an immediate recall of 67 million air bag inflaters due to what they see as a dangerous defect. The Tennessee company called ARC Automotive makes that component but says the recommended recall of 67 million parts is premature. So, GM is recalling nearly 1 million vehicles voluntarily. You can see the cars that they are recalling right there. It covers vehicles made from 2014 through 2017.

A 19-year-old and a 20-year-old have been killed, and five other teenagers injured, in a shooting in Yuma, Arizona. Police say they responded to calls of shots fired just before 11:00 Saturday night but they have not made any arrests or released a suspected motive.

So, is former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry thinking about another presidential run? In an interview on CNN, Perry said there is, quote, a lot of time before any decision would need to be made, but he wouldn't rule it out. Perry unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in 2012 and 2016.

Sara.

SIDNER: This morning the families of three of the black victims targeted and killed in the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store last May are suing several social media companies. It is the first of its kind wrongful death lawsuit. The suit alleges the platforms like Meta, Snapchat, Discord and YouTube helped radicalize the teenage gunman who shot and killed ten people that day, all of them black. It says the social media sites promoted racist, anti- Semitic and white supremacist propaganda.

Here's our -- CNN's Omar Jimenez joining us now.

Can you give me a sense of the arguments that the attorneys for the families are making?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for starters, as you laid out, they're alleging these social media companies contributed to the radicalization of the shooter who shot and killed ten in Buffalo about a year ago today. And partly by saying the shooter wasn't raised by a racist family, as far as - as far as we know did not have any previous interactions with black people. But the suit says specifically, the shooter explicitly acknowledged the racist, anti-Semitic and violence promoting material he encountered on social media caused his radicalization, motivated him to commit racial violence and provided the training, equipment and expertise to plan and implement the massacre of May 14, 2022.

But it's not just that. It's also about how this live stream, because that's what this shooter did in the initial stages of it.

[09:20:02]

About how it spread from first on Twitch, to then 4chan, to Reddit, to Meta or Facebook. And the lawsuit alleges the platforms earned ad revenue potentially from hosting and potentially even amplifying this content. And so they are trying to hold some of these companies accountable.

SIDNER: It's really interesting because it's a first of its kind.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

SIDNER: And you can see this sort of happening again if there is another incident, and there have been other incidents like this.

Let me ask you about what the companies, though, are saying. These are a lot of companies that have huge platforms.

JIMENEZ: Of course. Huge platforms and a lot of content to try and keep track of. And in sum all of them are basically saying, we've invested in technology to help identify and remove extremist posts, particularly when it comes to violence. And so those are companies like Meta, Facebook, YouTube, you name it. But Snapchat, in particular, said that, we deliberately designed Snapchat differently from traditional social media platforms and don't allow unvetted content to go viral or be algorithmically promoted. Instead, we vet all content before it can reach a large audience, which helps protect against the discovery of potentially harmful or dangerous content.

But, again, we're talking about a lot of content. And that algorithm, of course, is the main crux of this lawsuit is, was the algorithm that this shooter was trapped in, so to speak, basically pushing him to --

SIDNER: Feeding him.

JIMENEZ: Potentially feeding -- feeding whatever dark thought he had until it became something that was front of mind. And, of course, it's a, as you said, a first of its kind.

SIDNER: It's really interesting, Omar. Thank you. I know you'll be following this and we'll come back to you as it progresses. Appreciate it.

And next hour we will speak to an attorney representing those families in the case.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So it was an emotional weekend at the University of Idaho. Hundreds of students celebrated their graduation and also honored the lives of four of their fellow students, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. They were remembered for their strength and their inspiration. And all of them this weekend were awarded posthumous degrees and certificates. They were murdered exactly six months ago. CNN's Gary Tuchman was there for this weekend, he joins us now from Moscow, Idaho.

Gary, what was it like there this weekend?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a cascade of emotions, Kate. It was a wonderful and appropriate decision by the University of Idaho to honor all four of these students. Two of them were seniors. They should have been on the ground at the football stadium getting their degrees with 1,500 fellow students. They were not. So, what was done was, those two seniors were awarded posthumous bachelors degrees. They weren't honorary degrees, they were actual degrees they earned.

One of the degrees went to the family of Maddie Mogen. Maddie would have been 22 years old a week from Thursday. Her family tells us when she was a little girl she loved to sing and dance and she loved animals. But as the years went on, she developed a love for business. She was in the business school here, majoring in marketing, wanted to be an entrepreneur. She graduated cum laude. Her mother, her mother's husband and her father accepted her diploma.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By the virtue of the authority vested in me by the board of regents of the University of Idaho, I hereby confer upon Madison Mae Mogen posthumous degree earned in testimony whereof her family will receive the diploma of the University of Idaho.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: There were two ceremonies, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, depending on what school or college you were in. In the afternoon ceremony, a diploma was given to the family of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves. Kaylee got a bachelor's degree in general studies.

Then the two underclassman who were killed, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, they received certificates which recognized the credits they'd received on the path to their bachelor's degree. Xana's major was marketing. Ethan's was sports and tourism management.

I do want to mention, there was a fifth honor given. That was an unrelated situation, but tragic. Guadalupe Ruiz was killed in a car accident. She received a bachelor's degree in criminology.

We spent time with the Mogen family, Maddie Mogen's parents and grandparents. It was really hard for them to be at the ceremony this weekend, seeing all the students on the football field and not their girl. But I can tell you that they were very appreciative for what the university did and they were so very proud.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I can only imagine kind of the range of emotion that these families and all of the students and all of the staff at the University of Idaho are feeling on a day like - on a weekend like this.

It's good to see you, Gary. Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: Former President Trump canceled an appearance in Iowa this weekend, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was there with a warning to his fellow Republicans.

[09:25:01]

And we have important new information before you hit the road for Memorial Day weekend. The type of forecast we have not seen in years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning, AAA has released travel predictions for Memorial Day weekend. It expects 42.3 million Americans to travel 50 miles or more from home. U.S. airports are likely to be busier than they were in 2019. That was, of course, before the pandemic.

[09:29:59]

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is counting the cars at this moment at an overpass in Washington, D.C.

Pete, there are a lot of people who are going to travel, and I suppose that's good.