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Man Rescued From Wrecked Truck; Antony Blinken in Mexico; Michigan Keeps Trump on Ballot; New Special Counsel Filing Against Trump. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 27, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:56]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: This just in: a new filing from special counsel Jack Smith, what he is now asking of a judge in order to stop Donald Trump from turning the courtroom into a political platform.

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Plus, it's New York's biggest celebration, New Year's Eve just a couple of days away. But with an uptick in protest over the conflict in the Middle East, authorities putting some new strategies in place. How they plan to try and keep revelers safe.

BOLDUAN: Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, except for one North Carolina toddler and a Christmas morning surprise his parents never saw coming, every single present opened while everyone was asleep. His adorable excuse. His parents join us.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. John Berman is on the night shift today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: This morning, we're following two big legal developments in Donald Trump's world.

Justice Department officials just filed a motion with the court arguing Trump should be prevented from sowing disinformation during his federal election subversion trial that is scheduled to begin in March.

But, first, a key decision in the effort to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot across the nation this morning. Michigan Supreme Court rejected the attempt in the crucial battleground state. Trump moments ago praised the decision in a post on TRUTH Social, commending the justices for what he said was strongly and rightfully denying what he called a desperate Democrat attempt to oust him.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has more on the story.

Eight days ago, I think, the Supreme Court in Colorado ruled actually to bar Donald Trump from their ballot in that state. Give us some sense of what the Supreme Court said in the Michigan case.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Sara. Two very different outcomes between Colorado and Michigan. Remember in Colorado they held a trial. It was a week long. There were witnesses, evidence, cross-examination. Very different situation in Michigan. When this case was filed, there was one hearing and then it was dismissed on procedural grounds, and that was the decision today from the Michigan Supreme Court, to uphold that decision to dismiss this case for procedural reasons.

They did not reach the critical questions about January 6 and whether Donald Trump engaged in the insurrection and is disqualified from office. So, look, the Michigan Supreme Court, their decision was really just a few sentences long. It was not signed. But one of the justices did write about her rationale.

And I will read it to you here. She said -- quote -- "I would affirm the court of appeals ruling on this issue, which still allows the appellants to renew their legal efforts as to the Michigan general election later in 2024 should Trump become the Republican nominee for president."

That's a critical distinction. If Trump wins the nomination, these challengers can refile their lawsuit. This decision today only applies to the primary not the general. And it sounds like that might be exactly what the challengers want to do.

Here's another statement from Mark Brewer, one of the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs in this case. And he said: "The court's decision is disappointing, but we will continue at a later stage to seek to uphold this critical constitutional provision that's designed to protect our republic."

Sara, as you said, Trump has described these cases as a ridiculous joke that is trying to beat him in the courts because they can't beat him in the polls. But the people that have filed these cases have said that they are just trying to enforce a provision from after the Civil War that was a serious attempt to block insurrectionists from running the country.

So, big win for Trump in Michigan. This is how it has gone in other states too where similar cases have been filed. But, as you mentioned, the Colorado -- that's sort of the outlier here, where this succeeded. But, as we say, every time we talk, Sara, everyone's expecting that the U.S. Supreme Court will probably get the final word.

SIDNER: That's right, Marshall, because when you have states differing in their rulings, the Supreme Court often weighs in.

[11:05:00]

Marshall Cohen, thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: Now to the new move by special counsel Jack Smith this morning asking a judge to protect the court ahead of his election subversion trial and make sure Donald Trump essentially doesn't turn it into a political circus.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more on this. She's joining us now.

Katelyn, what is Jack Smith asking for here?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Kate, Jack Smith wants to cut out all of the political arguments that Donald Trump makes out on the campaign trail from the courtroom for whenever he is before a jury.

Now, one thing about this, that case is on pause right now, the case in federal court where Donald Trump is said to be tried right now in March. There are appeals ongoing, but that doesn't mean that the Justice Department is sitting back and doing nothing. They continue to make court filings about what they want to happen in that case.

And the court filing that came in today says a couple things. They want the judge to say Trump can't argue that he was being politically persecuted. That's why he is going to be on trial. They don't want him to be able to put or suggest disinformation about the 2020 election, suggest that he believed that the election was stolen from him, that shouldn't be something before the jury, the Justice Department says at this time.

They also say that Trump's team should not be able to blame law enforcement or foreign actors or secret agents for what happened on January 6. Here's a quote from the filing.

They say: "A bank robber cannot defend himself by blaming the bank security guard for failing to stop him. A fraud defendant cannot complain to the jury that his victims should have known better than to fall for his schemes. And the defendant, Donald Trump, cannot argue that law enforcement should have prevented the violence he caused and obstruction he intended on January 6."

So this is the key sketching out of the Justice Department of what they want the trial to look like and what they want Trump not to be able to argue when it does go before a jury. We're going to have to see when the judge weighs in on this, when that is even possible, and also what the judge ultimately says here.

BOLDUAN: Now, I think this filing is really interesting in how they lay it out and what he's asking for, because it seems to get to some of what you would assume is in the Trump defense, that he really did believe that the election was stolen and that's why he moved the direction he -- this is really interesting.

It's good to see you, Katelyn. Thanks for laying it out for us.

SIDNER: Any minute now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Mexico with a direct message from the White House, essentially, help the U.S. curb the unprecedented migrant surge.

Right now, 11,000 migrants just waiting across the border in Mexico to come into the United States, 3,800 in Tijuana, another 7,000 near Texas' southern tip. There are scenes of long lines at cross points. You see them there as a caravan of migrants with roughly 3,000 people are trekking north. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us from the White House.

In the next 15 or 20 minutes, we understand that Blinken will be there in Mexico. What is it that they're hoping to get out of the leadership of Mexico?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, they want more help, and that's what the U.S. does in moments of crisis. They lean on Mexico to get them to help them drive down the number of border crossings into the United States.

And the urgency is quite clear here, given who it is that's doing the meeting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas meeting with the Mexican president, as well as some members of his Cabinet.

Now, officials tell me that some of the requests that they're going to bring to the table include, for example, moving migrants who are on the northern border, as you just mentioned, south to decongest that area, controlling the railways, which migrants often use to move quickly to the U.S. Southern border, as well as providing incentives like visas for migrants to remain in Mexico and not continue to the U.S. Southern border.

All of this is an extension of a call between the president and the Mexican president last week, where both agreed that additional enforcement is needed. Now, over the last few days, we have seen the number of crossings drop just a bit.

I spoke to a Homeland Security official this morning who told me on yesterday -- or yesterday there were around 6,000 apprehensions on the U.S. Southern border. Compare that to earlier this month, when they were surpassing 10,000. So that provides some relief, but officials are still bracing for what the next few days hold, because they're chalking this up in part to the holidays.

Now, the U.S., the president trying to get Mexico to do more here, so that they can provide that relief to border towns that have felt overwhelmed and are getting restless as they grapple with this ongoing surge.

And, Sara, just to underscore how difficult this has been really from the beginning, in January, the president was in Mexico meeting with his counterpart to talk about tackling record migration. We're now at the end of the year,. The two of them are still trying to get ahold of this.

SIDNER: There is so much that has to be done at this point in time, but there is a true crisis that is present on the border. We will see what happens with these meetings.

[11:10:02]

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for all of your reporting on this.

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein.

It's good to see you, Ron.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, these new court moves today -- let's start with the new court moves that we're talking about at the top of this hour out of Michigan, and then the special counsel, what the special counsel is asking of a judge ahead of the federal election subversion trial.

The calendar -- it just kind of reminds us that the calendar is a mess when you look at it alongside the political calendar. But how much of a mess do you think this makes of the primary as we're staring down the new year?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the biggest implication is, can the legal system handle a challenge of the magnitude of a former president with almost infinite political and financial resources being accused of a litany of crimes and bring this to any kind of conclusion before the general election?

I mean, clearly, Donald Trump throughout his career has viewed delay as a weapon in the legal system. And he is very, very clearly trying to avoid a situation where he is on trial with a jury of his peers before he faces the voters in November of 2024.

And I think the Supreme Court has to be aware of that. They live in the real world. And they have a decision to make whether or not they're going to be complicit in that.

And you can see that the potential outlines of how they might resolve this, especially in light of some of the rulings like Michigan, where you could see a kind of informal horse-trading on the court, in which Trump is allowed to appear on the ballot, but voters -- but his claims of immunity are stripped away and voters are given the information before the election of whether he has been judged guilty by a jury of his peers on some of these very serious charges.

BOLDUAN: So interesting.

Let's talk about some of the issues that are really popping up right now.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Priscilla was just talking about the Biden administration's focus on immigration and border security.

The reality -- I will put it this way and you tell me if you feel the same way. The reality is, the political kind of center of gravity on the issue of border security, it's moved to the right as these border crossings surge. You can see -- I see that in how Democrats are talking about it these days, including Chuck Schumer saying that Republicans see that Democrats are serious about border security.

What does this mean for Joe Biden and Democrats this time around, when we're looking into the general election? I mean, this is a motivating issue for Republicans always. What is this going to mean now?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

Yes, well, clearly you're right. I mean, the center of gravity has moved toward the right on immigration -- on immigration since Biden took office. But that really is not that unusual a pattern. I mean, I have been writing about immigration since Prop 187 in California in the early 1990s.

Polling has been very consistent that Americans have two big values. They do -- they do want the rule of law to be upheld. They want an orderly process at the border, but they also want humane and realistic policies. And the pattern has been really for decades that whichever side is in power, the needle shifts toward the other point of view.

I mean, when Trump was in office, there was a lot of resistance to many of the things he did to try to control the border, particularly separating kids from families, from their parents at the border itself. Now Biden has come in and there is enormous dissatisfaction with the level of pressure on the border and the way he has managed it.

And there -- thus in this kind of pendulum swing that we have seen really for decades, there's more tolerance for ideas that Trump has espoused, particularly building the wall. But it's important to note that Trump is pushing the envelope way beyond where he was even when he was in office.

I mean, he's talking about mass door-to-door deportation, interment camps, military action against Mexico, maybe restoring family separation, an expanded ban on -- a religious test on immigration. And we will have to see, if he is the nominee, whether the swing of the pendulum goes so far as to include tolerance for all of that, particularly in the states that matter like Arizona and Nevada.

BOLDUAN: And someone who does not speak in those is hyperbolic terms, as we know that Donald Trump does, is one of his top contenders, Nikki Haley. She's back in New Hampshire today.

She just released a new ad prominently featuring the New Hampshire governor, who she's received the endorsement of, the popular governor of New Hampshire. I want to play just a bit of it for everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): She's a leader who builds people up. She's a live free and die Republican who understands fiscal responsibility and individual liberty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Ron, what do you see in this pitch to voters? What does it tell you?

BROWNSTEIN: I see the opportunity and limitations of Nikki Haley's campaign condensed into 30 seconds. [11:15:01]

I mean, the ad is engaging, it's infectious, it's enthusiastic, and it's also a missed opportunity. I mean, Chris Sununu is the most prominent surrogate that Nikki Haley has and is probably going to have at any point in this process. And they go through 30 seconds there without making any direct reference to the guy who's 50 points ahead of everybody in the Republican primary, Donald Trump.

There are indirect and oblique comparisons with him. I mean, you can kind of imply what she is saying about a new generation -- or what he is saying about a new generation, leaving chaos and drama behind, but she does not make a direct case against Donald Trump. And that ultimately, I think, kind of is symbolic of her overall campaign.

She could do well in New Hampshire, but largely on the votes of the independents. Even polling showing her surging there still shows her way behind among more Republican partisans. Eventually, if she is going to become a true threat to Donald Trump -- and I do think she can emerge after New Hampshire as the principal alternative -- but if she's going to become a true threat, she is going to have to make a stronger case against him to people who are now at least inclined toward voting for him.

And that ad, again, is a missed opportunity to do so. It kind of suggests that she is only willing to go so far in criticizing him at this point, which is raising the question by Chris Christie and some of his advisers, is she really angling -- is she really trying to beat him? Or is she angling for something else, vice president, secretary of state, 2028 viability?

We go forward, but somewhat of a missed opportunity, even as it is a very engaging ad.

BOLDUAN: And, after New Hampshire, it only gets more challenging, because then it's South Carolina, her home state, and Donald Trump is doing very well in that state right now.

It's good to see you, Ron. Thanks for coming in.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks. Happy holidays, yes.

BOLDUAN: You too.

SIDNER: It's a great discussion.

All right, still ahead, he was trapped in his wrecked truck for nearly one week, and no one heard his screams for help. Then a couple of fishermen happened to notice something shiny, and, you guys, a real Christmas miracle. Ahead, we will talk about it.

New worries also about New Year's Eve in Times Square. You see them preparing for 2024 there with all the lights and the bustle. Why the city's mayor, though, is concerned about possible protests and the security concerns there. Also, it's usually parents surprising their children on Christmas

morning. That's the norm, but two parents in North Carolina got a shock of their own from their toddler at 3:00 a.m. How they saved Christmas after their baby decided that they were going to unwrap pretty much every single present under the tree.

We will talk to the parents coming up.

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[11:22:03]

BOLDUAN: This morning, New York City is preparing for the big show New Year's Eve in Times Square, installing the official 2024 marquee lights in Times Square you see right there just yesterday.

But with the big crowds comes security concerns always. And New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that recent protests have actually heightened concerns about this year's festivities.

CNN's Mark Morales has more on this. He's joining us now.

What are they doing this time and this year?

MARK MORALES, LAW ENFORCEMENT CNN REPORTER: Right.

And this is really about the concerns that we're dealing with here. And the main concern are these protests. We have been seeing them since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. So they have been happening in New York City. And police -- and officials yesterday gave us some numbers for the first time.

They're looking at almost 500 protests that have happened in the city since this whole thing began in October.

BOLDUAN: Oh, really? Wow.

MORALES: Yes. And it's -- they have an estimate of over 160,000 demonstrators that have been at these at these demonstrations.

And there is precedent that's been set here. If you remember, during the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting, police had to make several arrests of demonstrators that came down.

BOLDUAN: During the Thanksgiving Day Parade too, yes.

MORALES: Right, yes, and during Thanksgiving as well. So there is precedent set. There are -- and they anticipate that this is going to happen again this year.

But two main ways they're going to combat this is, it's going to be more technology than they have used before, new strategies that they're going to do. And the strategy really is about how they're going to be deploying police officers,the idea being they don't want to take one officer, deploy to an incident, and now that incident is vulnerable. So it's about having the right amount of officers, not too little, not too many.

BOLDUAN: It's really -- it is interesting. And it does -- because you -- also the balance of, you want to allow protesting, but not disruption, especially -- this is such a unique event too. I mean, it's so many people in one area in Times Square. There's always security concerns around this.

MORALES: Right. Right. Because of the nature of what it is, the heightened threat level of security always goes up.

But when you talk to law enforcement officials, they always say the same thing about New Year's Eve. That's like the safest place you could possibly be, with so much law enforcement, so much FBI, so much people.

BOLDUAN: It's so true. That is so true. It's good to see you, Mark.

MORALES: Good seeing you.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in.

SIDNER: It's a miracle of survival made by two fishermen who helped a man who didn't have much hope left. They discovered a mangled truck with a driver who'd been trapped inside for nearly a week.

Indiana police say the truck crashed off the highway and rolled under a bridge out of sight. No one could see it. They say, because of the dropping temperature and his injuries, the 27-year-old driver likely would not have survived another night. And yet he was discovered by these two fishermen.

CNN's Danny Freeman is following the story.

First of all, do we know how he's doing now after being discovered by these fishermen?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, we're getting a little bit more information.

It seems at this point that he has sustained a tremendous amount of injuries, as you can imagine, but he is alive and he is in the hospital and on his road to recovery for the moment, so, again, a miracle, as you say, though. You have a picture right there.

[11:25:03]

Matt Reum this is the 27-year-old whose life was basically saved by these two fishermen. This all started yesterday afternoon, Sara. Mario Garcia and his son-in-law, Nivardo Delatorre, they were in Portage, Indiana, which is about 40 miles southeast of Chicago. They were going -- scouting fishing locations.

Day after Christmas. Want to go fishing, it wasn't too cold out. And then Mario, the older one there, he happened to see something shiny underneath the bridge. He didn't even know what it was initially. Then they got down there. They realized that this was a truck that was very, very badly wrecked.

Mario pulled back the airbag of the truck and realized that there was a body there. He thought it was a lifeless body. He put his hand on the body. And, all of a sudden, Matt Reum, now we know, came to life basically and started talking to him.

This man, Matt Reum, had been in that mangled truck since last Wednesday. First responders were then able to finally rescue him. But just take a listen to what Mario, one of those two men, those two fishermen to respond, take a listen to how they described the moment seeing Matt there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO GARCIA, FISHERMAN: We were getting to the fishing hole, and the truck was a little distance, but it was more like a mangled -- you couldn't tell it was a truck or not, but it caught our curiosity.

And I walked over there first. Then he followed me. And we went up to it. And I looked inside and moved the white airbag, and he -- there was a body in there. And I went to touch it, and he turned around. And that just -- it almost killed me there, because it was kind of shocking.

And he was very happy to see us. Like, he was really -- like, I never seen a relief like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Again, Sara, just truly incredible.

One thing I also want to add. Mario and his son-in-law, Nivardo, they said they stayed by Matt's side during the entire process of excavating him. Police are still unsure exactly what caused the crash, but they said that the way he was able to survive was by drinking rainwater, again, just an incredible story in this Christmas season -- Sara.

SIDNER: It makes me believe in humans again, you know? Sometimes, we lose faith. That was so lovely.

Danny Freeman, thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: Coming up still for us, U.S. forces intercepting missiles and drones in the Red Sea launched by one Iran-backed group.

And one day before that, President Biden orders a retaliatory strike against another Iran-backed militant group, this time in Iraq, two days, one very good example of the growing threat of the Israel-Hamas war spilling over to become a broader regional conflict.

More on that next.

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