Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Mexico Sees Migrant Surge At Its Southern Border; Cassidy Hutchinson Reveals Final Days Of Chaotic Trump White House; Experts: Strong El Nino Forecast For This Winter; 75,000 Health Care Workers Threaten Walkout If No Union Deal. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 26, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:34]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Cities along the southern border are struggling to keep up with a growing surge of migrants.

El Paso is buying an old middle school and turning it into an emergency shelter. The mayor saying that his city is at a breaking point, housing more than 7,000 migrants in just the last 10 days.

Although encounters in El Paso have dropped by about a third since Mexico pledged to deport migrants from its northern border cities.

The influx is adding to a huge backlog in the court system. More than 2.6 million cases are now waiting to be heard.

The migration to the U.S. is also overwhelming Mexico southern border with Guatemala.

CNN's David Culver is there for us.

David, tell us what the situation is there?

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: You really feel a massive surge here in southern Mexico, Brianna. I'm at a border that most might not associate with the migrant crisis.

It's the one we wanted to come to because it's indicative of what's coming north towards the U.S. in particular.

We're at the border, as you point out, Mexico, and just over this riser here, Guatemala. Now this has become, despite the official crossing, which is just a few hundred feet downriver, the real crossing point.

You see here, makeshift rafts there are innertubes that have planks of wood strewn across them. And this is where migrants are bought from Guatemala, dropped off.

They pay $150 per person. They go to unload and come to the Mexican side. Then the shore. This is what this has become. You see the kids here. This has become a

little encampment of sorts. You've got tents for those immigrants, enough to have one.

You've got clothes hanging up, fires where people are cooking. And it's become an ecosystem of folks waiting out to see where they can move from here to Tapachula. It's not a massive city. It's certainly bringing a huge strain to Tapachula.

And that's a place where, in this crowd, in particular, that we're with throughout the day, in particular yesterday, they're waiting to get processed.

They're trying to go through, claim asylum in Mexico which is a requirement should they want to claim asylum to the U.S.

[14:35:00]

They have to have to do a third party first, like Mexico. They're trying to do that or get transit documents to buy some time here in Mexico, get themselves sorted.

On average, they're spending a month to four months here, making their way where the vast majority of them, Brianna, tell me they want to be, Brianna, and that's the U.S.

There's a determination that they've gone through so much already and will continue.

I'll show you here as you can see here, there's more migrants coming across, on this portion. This is all day, on a raft. They go back and forth.

It shows it's a nonstop movement. This surge that we sometimes, we determine by the numbers that we're seeing at the U.S. southern border. You may stop it there, you may slow it there. It's continuing, it's nonstop.

That's what we're seeing throughout the day and even into the night, Brianna, here on the Mexico side of the border with Guatemala just over my shoulder.

KEILAR: It is a fascinating look there in Ciudad Hidalgo.

David Culver, thank you so much for that report.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're learning new details about the final days of the Trump presidency in a revealing new book written by former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson. More on that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:31] SANCHEZ: Former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, is speaking out about the final days of the Trump presidency in her all new tell-all memoir entitled "Enough."

KEILAR: And she paints this really chaotic picture of what was going on inside the Oval in the days leading up to the Capitol Hill insurrection, even more so than she previously disclosed in pretty shocking televised testimony before the January 6th Committee last summer.

CNN's Jake Tapper gives us an inside look at some of the revelations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna, Boris, Cassidy Hutchinson was the star witness at the January 6th hearings last year.

Now she's back on the scene with the book telling her story from her childhood to the courageous testimony last summer, including all of the years when she was loyal to the man she's now warning the country about, Donald Trump.

(voice-over): It was just last summer that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, became a star witness in the January 6th committee's hearing.

And in her new book, "Enough", Hutchinson paints the closing days of the Trump White House as even more chaotic and lawless than described in that shocking testimony.

Quote, "Cass, if I can get through this job and manage to keep Trump out of jail, I'll have done a good job.", Meadows tells her.

It's a front-row seat to madness.

At a mask-free Trump rally during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Former Presidential candidate, Herman Cain, contracted the virus and later died.

"We killed Herman Cain", Meadows tells her. But this does not change the White House's mask policy.

In fact, during a visit to an N-95 manufacturing plant, Hutchinson advises President Trump to remove his mask because his bronzer is smearing it.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Time and again --

TAPPER: At one point on the 2020 campaign trail, Meadows asks Hutchinson if she would take a bullet for President Trump. "Yes, sure", she responds, "but could it be to the leg?" "I would do anything to get him reelected", Meadows tells her.

And after the election, in the wild scramble to overturn its results, Hutchinson says Meadows was constantly burning documents in the chief of staff's fireplace and at one point leaked classified documents to far right-wing media figures.

Meadows constantly reassures his boss that he will work to overturn the election that Trump clearly lost.

Quote, "I was irritated that Mark gave the president false hope", Hutchinson writes. "Of course, that's what the president wanted to hear, but he was damaging the country by concocting false rationales."

This is a theme in the book.

Soon-to-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe both expressed concern to Hutchinson about the President erratically acknowledging he lost, then backtracking and saying he didn't.

Both men blame Meadows, but it's Trump who is most erratic.

After the US. Supreme Court refuses to take up the nonsensical lawsuit filed by Texas to overturn states that Biden won, Trump pushes Meadows.

Quote, "Why didn't we make more calls? We needed to do more. We can't let this stand", unquote.

Trump continues in a statement that could have legal ramifications, quote, "I don't want people to know we lost Mark. This is embarrassing."

When multiple lawsuits and attempts to overturn the election do not come to fruition, January 6th becomes the failsafe.

(CHANTING)

TAPPER: Much of Hutchinson's stories about that day were part of her congressional testimony.

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS: I overheard the President say something to the effect of, I don't F'ing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing MAGs away.

TAPPER: But in her book, Hutchinson reveals for the first time that she was groped by Rudy Giuliani backstage.

Quote, "He moves toward me like a wolf closing in on its prey", she writes, saying, "He put his hand up her skirt."

Giuliani denied this happened.

But even the horrors of January 6th were not enough for Hutchinson to resign. She stayed on with President Trump through the end of his term and sought to get a job with him post-presidency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The witness will please stand and raise her right hand. TAPPER: When she was called to testify before the January 6th

committee, Trump-funded attorney, Stefan Passantino, told her to, quote, "downplay her role as strictly administrative. She was an assistant, nothing more."

Passantino says he did not advise her to mislead the committee, and Hutchinson says she was never told to lie to the committee.

Quote, "I don't want you to perjure yourself", Passantino insisted.

Quote, "But 'I don't recall,' this isn't perjury," she says he told her.

[14:45:03]

Another time Hutchinson says Passantino tells her, quote, "We just want to protect the President".

Jobs are dangled and then withdrawn from Hutchinson as she begins to cooperate with the committee. She is ultimately shut out of and then demonized by Trump World altogether.

The rest and her courageous testimony are history.

(on camera): A spokesperson from Mark Meadows vehemently denies the allegations made against him.

The spokesperson saying the burning in the fireplace was an absurd mischaracterization, not at all what it was about, they claim. It was newspapers to get the fire going. It had nothing to do with documents.

He also denies leaking classified documents to the right-wing media figures. He calls it a completely ridiculous mischaracterization, claiming the documents were declassified.

In regard to the "we killed Herman Cain," comment," Meadows' spokesperson says it is, quote, "offensive to suggest this was Meadows' initial reaction."

And that in the days after Cain's death, he was, quote, "expressing exasperation that the media would blame the president for Mr. Cain's death. Very different," unquote -- Brianna, Boris?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thank you, Jake Tapper, for breaking that down.

You'll see and hear more on this book on "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper. He's got an interview with Cassidy Hutchinson airing today at 4:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to other headlines we're watching this hour.

A popular Iraqi blogger with hundreds of thousands of followers has been shot and killed in Baghdad. The person, who also went by the name Noor Bi-am (ph), had faced online abuse and was accused of being gay and transgender. Noor denied that in interviews.

Police say that they have opened a criminal investigation into this. Armed groups in Iraq have been accused of targeting LGBTQ people.

Also, JPMorgan Chase will pay the U.S. Virgin Islands $75 million after settling a lawsuit tied to Jeffrey Epstein. Chase is not conceding any liability over allegations that the bank helped facilitate and benefit from Epstein's sex crimes.

He had a private island in the territory, you'll probably recall. Funds from the settlement will go toward victims' support programs and measures to help combat human trafficking.

And a Russian court has rejected Alexei Navalny's appeal against his 19-year prison sentence for extremism. Navalny appearing in a Moscow court today by video link after the prosecutor asked the hearing be moved behind closed doors. Supporters say Navalny is being punished for criticizing Vladimir Putin.

Believe it or not, winter is coming. We'll explain how El Nino will make this year feel a lot different than previous years. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:05]

SANCHEZ: Your mind may be on the start of fall and leaf cleanup, but you should be warned an El Nino winter is on the way, and with it, some pretty drastic changes.

Here's CNN's Derek Van Dam with what you need to know.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Well, I think, Boris, it's fair to say that some people along the eastern seaboard felt robbed of a proper winter this year, but I think this winter could make up for it.

May be retribution in the cards here. And it's also thanks to our friends El Nino, which is the equatorial warming of the waters along the eastern Pacific Ocean.

And this changes the jet stream dynamics that drive the systems from the west coast to the east coast, basically taking the subtropical jet stream and pushing it further south, amplifying it, and allowing those winter storms impact the southern tier of the U.S. and along the eastern seaboard, as well.

To conjure up one of my favorite max shows "Winter Is Coming." Take a look at this image from Boston in 2015. We all remember the classic winters. That weather pattern I was showing you on our augmented reality map really lines up nicely with the Climate Prediction Center's winter forecast.

They're calling for above normal precipitation favoring much of the eastern seaboard during the core of the winter season as the storm track is favored during this type of El Nino setup.

What about temperatures? Well, climatologists look to previous winter, where we had strong El Ninos building just like this season, and they compare and contrast December, January and February.

And you'll notice that the warmer temperatures are generally confined to the northern tier of our country. That's the above-average winter temperatures and that aligns well with the Climate Prediction Center's winter temperature outlook.

You can see above-average temperatures for the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes and northern New England, with equal chances of above or below average temperatures across the Deep South.

So this is something that we'll continue to monitor, but El Nino may favor a more winter-like pattern along the eastern seaboard -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Derek Van Dam, thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: More than 75,000 health care workers from across the country could be putting down medical instruments and picking up picket signs. One key issue, chronic staffing shortages.

An emergency room worker tells CNN he is so busy on his shift that he can walk as many as 40,000 steps on any given day, according to his Apple watch.

CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howard, is following the story for us from Atlanta.

Jacqueline, tell us what these workers are demanding.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, these workers are affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. They say they want better pay. And they want the company to address ongoing staffing shortages. They're burned out and overwhelmed.

And one registered nurse spoke at a town hall last week. She's not affiliated with the same institution. But she did say this burnout is seen across the medical community and overworked staff can raise risks for patients.

[14:55:05]

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL TANZI, REGISTERED NURSE ON STRIKE: If you're overburdened and if you're overworked, the chances that you'll make a mistake are greater. We no longer want to be complicit in not having the right things to take care of our patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOWARD: Now, Brianna, Kaiser Permanente did say in a statement last week that they already have hired more staff and they would hire more in the future and there are negotiations and bargaining sessions happening between the union and the company. So we'll wait to see what happens -- Brianna?

KEILAR: The risk of burnout here feels especially hard to ignore especially when you are looking at this new study that was released today that shows health care workers have a significantly higher risk of suicide when you compare them to those who don't work in the health care industry.

HOWARD: Yes. It's really disturbing to see. But this study found that overall health care workers have a 32 percent increased risk of suicide compared to people who do not work in the health care community.

So to address this, researchers say we do have to look at workplace conditions and making sure that health care workers have access to mental health services.

So this is an ongoing concern that we're seeing, Brianna. Definitely something that people are continuing to talk about.

KEILAR: Yes. They're doing such important work and they need the resources they need to continue to do that in a way that, you know, they can be healthy themselves.

Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

HOWARD: That's right.

KEILAR: We do appreciate it.

And a reminder that if you or someone you know is struggling, please dial 988, the Suicide and Crisis Hotline. Always important to know.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still to come, Joe Biden becomes the first sitting president to join a picket line in support of the auto workers striking against the Big Three. We'll take you live to Michigan, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)