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Bronny James In Stable Condition After Cardiac Arrest; Grand Jury Doesn't Appear To Be Meeting Today As Possible Indictment Looms; DOJ Sues Texas Over Refusal to Remove Floating Border Wall; Interview With Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 25, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:59]

JIM SCIUTTO CNN HOST: Collapsed on the court. LeBron James' 18-year- old son, Bronny is now in stable condition after suffering cardiac arrest during basketball practice. We're going to bring you the very latest on what we're learning about the young star's health.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And, "They threw rocks at us," what a group of migrants is telling CNN about how they were treated by the Texas National Guard as the legal showdown escalates between the Justice Department and the state of Texas over floating water barriers.

SCIUTTO: And a massive amount of material: Officials have wrapped up the search of the home of the Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect after literally digging in the backyard for clues. The latest on what they have found just ahead.

We are following these major developing stories and many more coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We begin though with Bronny James now in stable condition after suffering cardiac arrest. This happened while the 18-year-old son of LeBron James was practicing yesterday.

The family said that medical staff were able to treat the young basketball star, take him to the hospital where he is now out of the ICU where he was originally, and in stable condition.

The 11th ranked college recruit in the nation committed to Southern California just back in May.

CNN's Natasha Chen joins us now from outside the athletic facility at USC.

Natasha, what do we know? What's the latest on his condition and how this happened?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, there are not a lot of details coming out of the James' family or out of USC, but what we do know is that this happened here at the Galen Center behind me where the basketball team practices yesterday morning, around the nine, ten o'clock hour. There was a call about an unconscious player, and we know from a

statement from the James family that Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest, that the USC medical staff were able to treat him right away, take him to a hospital, where as you said, now he is out of the ICU in stable condition, so that is good news.

The heart of the James' family statement, I want to read to you here. It says: "LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes."

Now the James family was just seen in public about two weeks ago at the ESPY Awards where James was receiving an award, standing up there with his children that he called his greatest blessing, and he specifically referenced his two sons saying how proud he is of these two young men standing there on their own basketball journey.

LeBron James saying that no matter how far they choose to go, "They are not cheating this game and that inspires me."

This is actually the second time in about a year that USC staff here have had to jump into action like this. Just last July, forward Vince Iwuchukwu also had a cardiac arrest right here in the same place also during a practice. In that situation, he took about half a year or more to recover, and wasn't actually cleared to play again until this January.

So the fact that we're hearing about Bronny James now being out of the ICU and stable is good news. We will be tracking this to find out more about his recovery process -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. We only wish him and his family the best. Natasha Chen, thanks so much.

Joining me now, "USA Today" sports columnist and CNN sports analyst, Christine Brennan.

It's hard to think of a more famous and talented really professional athlete's child than Bronny James, right?

I mean, we've seen it before, but boy, Bronny James from a very young age, we knew he was good, and now, this has happened here. Just a horrible moment for the family.

Tell us what you've been hearing.

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CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Jim, yes absolutely. You described it well.

We've watched Bronny grow up in front of our eyes as we watched his dad grow up in front of our eyes.

LeBron is 38. He is 20 years older than his son and we have watched them both grow up. And so in many ways, they're ours. You know, we have a feeling and a spirit, a kindred spirit with them that might not occur with other athletes.

And with LeBron saying that he would like to stick around long enough so that he could play with his son or sons, Bronny being the older of the two, Jim, I think that really, you know, that hits home because so many people can think of their son or daughter.

We know Tiger Woods has talked about his two kids playing sports, his son playing golf, his daughter playing other sports, and they want -- you know, he wants to be able to play with them.

And so I think it's the same thing with LeBron, which makes this all the more poignant and meaningful for so many millions of Americans today.

SCIUTTO: Tell us about LeBron's relationship with his sons, too, right? I mean, he talks about his family all the time. Clearly dedicated, I mean, he did something that I can only imagine as a kid. You know, he coached AAU team. I mean, imagine you show up at the gym, you know, as a 14-year-old and there's LeBron James coaching your team.

I mean, this was quite -- I mean, he is a family man, but man, basketball at the center of it.

BRENNAN: Right. Well, LeBron, there were so many paths that LeBron could have taken himself, being so young, so famous, cover of "Sports Illustrated," going right to the pros out of high school from Akron, Ohio, and the path he took was perfect.

You know, he's never been in trouble. He's never -- we've never heard stories about him. The worst thing that LeBron himself may have done is say he wanted to take his talents to South Beach, which is nothing in the scheme of behavior problems or issues that we've seen, certainly from other athletes over the years, especially those athletes who have so much happen so soon in their lives.

LeBron got it. He understood he needed to have adults around him, he understood he was a role model for Northern Ohio, for the NBA. He has such a presence about him, such intelligence, and such poise, and he has passed that on to his kids, his two sons, and then his daughter, with his wife, of course, and he has understood the meaning of sport, the meaning of role models, the understanding that you're going to be watched as young kids.

He has instilled all of that on his two boys in particular, of course, his daughter is younger, and that's what we've seen.

And so I think that's why there is such a -- you know, a sense of, wow, you know, LeBron loves to be a dad. He loves to be a pro- basketball player, but he really loves being a dad, as you said, coaching his sons, also just being there to cheer them on.

SCIUTTO: Well, goodness, let's hope he and his wife and the whole family gets good news, more good news soon on his recovery.

Christine Brennan, thanks for coming on.

BRENNAN: Jim, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Boris --

SANCHEZ: Another big story we're tracking today, could we see a third indictment of former President Donald Trump today?

The federal grand jury who could vote on the indictment does not appear to be meeting, yet, we are closely watching activity around the federal courthouse in Washington.

It comes as special counsel, Jack Smith continues taking steps in the investigation. Former New York City Police Commissioner and Trump ally, Bernie Kerik just turned over thousands of pages of records. He, alongside former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani led the Trump campaign's probe into false claims of voter fraud.

National security reporter, Zach Cohen joins us now.

Zach, as we watch for activity from the grand jury, what can you tell us about other developments in the special counsel's investigation?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes. Boris, even as we keep a close eye on this grand jury, there is a lot of activity that's still happening behind the scenes. Prosecutors, as you mentioned, just received hundreds of new documents from Bernie Kerik, who was acting really as an investigator on behalf of Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney at the time and Kerik's job was really just to find any evidence that could back up these baseless claims of widespread voter fraud that we know Trump and his allies, including Giuliani were pushing at the time.

And what these documents show is really the baselessness of the claims themselves. They really provide no concrete evidence of anything that Trump and his legal team were pushing at the time including in their lawsuits at the time. So interesting new evidence there.

It remains to be unclear how this will fit into the investigation itself. We know Trump has already been told he is a target in the probe. So we want to keep an eye on that.

And we're also learning new details about another avenue that Jack Smith is exploring. He has been asking witnesses about a February 2020 Oval Office meeting. This meeting happened months before, you know, December 2020 Oval Office meeting where these ideas like seizing voting machines were pitched, right?

SANCHEZ: Right.

COHEN: But in this February meeting, Trump was listening to his top national security officials and they were talking about how they were going to protect the 2020 election and Trump was apparently so impressed that he wanted them to hold a press conference so he could take credit for the work they were doing. So obviously a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud and you

know, claims like Venezuela was hacking voting machines that he was pushing just a few months later.

[15:10:07]

But really an interesting contrast there, and interesting that prosecutors have been asking witnesses about it.

SANCHEZ: We will see how it all fits into the big picture.

Zachary Cohen, thanks so much for the reporting.

Let's talk more about this with Renato Mariotti. He's a former federal prosecutor.

Renato, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. The grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election does not appear that they are meeting today. There has been little activity to indicate that they are at the federal courthouse. What do you read into that?

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, I think that, for example, some of the more recent evidence that has come up, obviously is giving Jack Smith some additional work to do.

You know, for example, Kerik was acting as an investigator and I think we just heard a moment ago, there's a lot of documents that he collected as part of that effort. Even if he found absolutely nothing, and I'm not surprised, given that they claims that Trump made were baseless. You know, his -- you know, the documents, he found, his statements, what he was communicating to Rudy Giuliani and ultimately what Giuliani was communicating to Trump tells prosecutors what was Trump's state of mind at the time.

It will help disprove claims that he had a genuine belief that the election didn't go, or that it did go his way, that he had actually won. It goes to disprove claims that he had an actual legitimate case to be made in the court, so very important evidence.

And obviously, in a case like this, Smith wants to make sure he gets it right.

SANCHEZ: And to that question of Trump's state of mind, how does that February 2020 meeting at the White House about election security fit into that? When Donald Trump was considering having his administration officials hold a press conference to talk about the greatness of election security, the great steps they had taken to secure the presidential election in the United States?

MARIOTTI: Yes, it is an interesting, interesting question. I mean, I think that to the extent to which Trump wanted to go out and make false statements to the public, you know, if that is, in fact, what the import of this is, in other words, if Smith can have as testimony, I'm sure he does, from people at the meeting, if, for example, Trump was going to be making claims to the public that were contrary to what he was being told privately, I think that would be an argument that he understood what the truth was, and that he was willing to lie to everyone.

And even though lying to the public, in and of itself is not a crime, can be evidence of his state of mind, and is the sort of thing that jurors are going to find persuasive when they're considering whether or not Trump had a genuine belief regarding the election.

SANCHEZ: Renato Mariotti, as always, thanks for sharing your perspective.

MARIOTTI: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Jim --

SCIUTTO: Coming up, we take you live to the border where the legal battle over floating water barriers is escalating, and we are learning more about the treatment there of some migrants.

Plus, Trevor Reed, an American freed from Russia in a prisoner swap was just wounded while fighting against Russia in Ukraine. We're going to have the latest on his condition just ahead.

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SANCHEZ: A standoff over the border. Texas is refusing to remove its floating barriers in the Rio Grande even as the federal government moves forward with a lawsuit.

Governor Greg Abbott is vowing to fight the Biden administration in court over the barrier meant to deter migrants. It's about a thousand feet long and it is anchored to the bottom of the waterway.

The Justice Department says it's not only dangerous, but also illegal.

CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us in Eagle Pass, Texas near the border.

So Rosa, what is going on, on the ground there today?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me show you around and set the scene for you. The property that I'm on belongs to the Urbina family. They have about 352 acres and take a look at the access gates they have towards the river. They are blocked off, they are barricaded.

They say that it's by the state of Texas,. You can see the concertina wire, the berm of dirt. And as we pan over towards the river, you'll see two sets of concertina wire and beyond that, Boris, you'll see the border buoys. These are the buoys that are at the center of this legal showdown between the US DOJ and the state of Texas.

The US DOJ alleging that the state of Texas deployed these buoys unlawfully saying that they deployed the buoys without obtaining the proper permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, and that there could be diplomatic issues here with Mexico.

Mexico's top diplomat complaining to Washington saying that this violates two international treaties between these two countries. And Mexico also suggesting that they might investigate this to make sure that these buoys are on US soil and not on Mexican soil.

Now, Governor Greg Abbott digging in his heels saying that Texas has sovereign authority to deploy these buoys, to keep these buoys where they are, to stop illegal immigration.

But here is the thing, it is not stopping illegal immigration. We have video of migrants who have been skirting this buoy, walking along the concertina wire, and the US DOJ's filing also addresses humanitarian concerns.

Now take a look at this video because we were on the property yesterday when a pregnant woman was being rendered aid. We talked to the property owners, the Urbina's, they tell us that they witnessed this.

There was a woman who was on the river, on that second strand of concertina wire, who needed help and the Urbina's tell us that they -- that law enforcement had to cut these two layers of concertina wire, then they had to cut the chain link fence to bring the woman to an ambulance to provide aid.

[15:20:10]

Now, Boris, those are the concerns that both the property owners here in Eagle Pass tell us that they're concerned about because they've seen migrants die on their property. They want the dying to stop.

And the point that they make is that whether it's the border buoys or it is the concertina wire, all of this is not stopping the flow of migration.

And so while the US DOJ and Texas duke it out in court, the problem here continues. So the big question is, why? Why continue with this controversy when it's really not stopping the problem -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Rosa Flores, thank you for painting that picture for us -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, a number of recent developments along the border, you still have that standoff between Texas and DOJ over the floating barrier, but you also have reports from CNN about guards posted along the border and the way they've been treating some of the migrants, cases of the migrants being pushed back in the water, told not to give them drinking water in what is really scorching heat.

Lots to discuss now with Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas. He's a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us today.

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): It's a pleasure being here with you. SCIUTTO: So first, to some of these reports we're hearing about

treatment of migrants at the border, not getting water, being denied water. Also, in some cases, we've been told pushed back into the water.

Have you seen cases like this before? And what's your reaction to hearing them?

CUELLAR: Well, you know, I think what they're doing is they're trying to -- the state is trying to show strong border security, but you don't show strong border security by treating people in a way that's just not the way we treat people with dignity. It kind of reminds me of the prior president where he would divide the mothers from the kids.

So let's not confuse -- I ask the state not to confuse strong border security, with treating people the way the allegations are. Again, they're allegations, and we have to look at it.

I mean, they're trying different things, and I can tell you this that, look, let's put one thing in perspective. Texas has a 1,241 mile border. The buoys are only about a thousand feet. That's less than a quarter of a mile. So I think what the governor is trying to do is just do something symbolic, because if you have 1,241 miles, and you've got a thousand feet of buoys, that kind of tells you what the big picture is.

SCIUTTO: There's a court case today, and we did a factcheck yesterday on the number of encounters at the border actually being down some 30%, including since the expiration of Title -- or the lifting rather of Title 42. One of the reasons for that many credit is this Biden policy that has turned folks away who went through third countries.

Now you have a judge who has overturned that policy. What's your reaction to that court decision? I mean, do you think that policy was the right way to go? What impact do you think it'll have?

CUELLAR: Yes. If you look at the reasons why the numbers have gone down, they have gone down because of two things. One, Mexico at one time, had about 140,000 National Guard and other people at their southern border with Guatemala. The second thing were the policies that the Biden administration imposed, where they were saying, hey, we are going to provide you incentives to come in the right way. But we're going to provide disincentives for not coming to the right way.

And I support the policy, and in fact, I've been asking the administration to do this for the last two years. Since they implemented the policies and Mexico has done a little bit more, the numbers have gone down by 30 percent. In fact, last month, we have about 99,000 -- a little over 99,000, which is the lowest since February of 2021. You know, the first month that President Biden has been there.

So again, it's knowing how to do border security in a way that you still treat the migrants with respect and dignity. SCIUTTO: We've just learned that the DOJ is going to appeal that court

decision, but in previous decisions by this judge, the appeals court has actually approved his decisions here.

Without this piece of the administration policy that turns away folks who have come through or come from another country other than Mexico, do you envision then another inflow -- a larger influx, an increase in encounters at the southern border?

CUELLAR: Well, we don't know. We know that was a piece of the Biden policy that has been -- that has worked well. And look, I support the third country transition, you know, the work that they're doing, because think about it, if you're coming in, let's say, from the Middle East or from Africa or somewhere and then you go through Europe and then you fly over here.

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You know, if you're trying to get away from credible fear, you got away from credible fear. When you pass a European country or you go into some country that's outside the US. Now, if they want to come to the US, that's one thing, but if you're claiming credible fear, you're passing countries where your fear is gone, and that's why this transit country policy is something that I've supported, and I hope that the -- and probably, it will go up to the Supreme Court and I hope that the Supreme Court will look at this favorably.

SCIUTTO: We'll be watching.

Congressman Cuellar, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon.

CUELLAR: Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Boris --

SANCHEZ: He was detained in Russia for nearly three years before being freed in a prisoner swap last year. Now, US Marine veteran Trevor Reed has been wounded while fighting against Russia in Ukraine.

And later, almost 70 years after his murder, Emmett Till and his mother are being honored with a national monument. Stay with us. We're back in just moments.

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