Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Texas Places New Razor Wire Despite Threat Of Feds Removing It; Jury Selection Resumes In Trial Against Mother Of Shooter; Sources: UAW Expected To Endorse President Biden; Biden Team Moves 2 Senior WH Aides To Reelection Campaign. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 24, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:19]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Texas is doubling down on its border policies by placing more razor wire at the southern border. Despite getting the green light to remove it, the feds have yet to take any steps to do so.

We have CNN Rosa Florez who is in Eagle Pass.

Rosa, you saw the new razor wire going up. What is the latest?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it's actually right behind me. This is some of the anti-climb fence and the razor wire that the state of Texas is putting up right by these containers.

But I want to set the scene for you here in Shelby Park. This is the area that was taken over by the state of Texas. And Border Patrol is not allowed to be in this area. They were kicked out by Texas.

And here is the scene that's unfolding. I want you to look beyond these layers of razor wire because you will see a couple that is sitting right on the banks of the Rio Grande.

I talked to them. These are two individuals from Venezuela -- (INAUDIBLE) -- in 2019. They started protesting against the Maduro regime and they said that that feel they had to flee their country because they would either be either kidnapped or killed if they stayed there.

They tell me they have been here for two days. They have not eaten. They have not had water until a few hours ago when Texas National Guard gave them water, is what they tell me.

But this is the standoff that we are seeing. The people caught in the middle are migrants.

These two individuals simply want to turn themselves into immigration authorities but Border Patrol is not here. To be clear, the international boundary is in the middle of this river, the Rio Grande.

These two individuals are technically in U.S. territory and under federal law and policy. They should be apprehended and they should be processed through normal immigration processing. But right now, they are sitting there. They are having to wait.

Vanessa -- it's Kevin and Vanessa. Vanessa, the woman, she showed us some of the cuts that she has on her legs. She has difficulty walking. She cut herself with the razor wire. So they are stuck there.

And what we are learning from a law enforcement source, Brianna, that I just talked to is that the federal government does not plan to have an immediate mass removal of all of this razor wire along the U.S.- Mexico border that was deployed by the state of Texas.

This law enforcement source telling me that Border Patrol agents will cut the wire as needed for operational purposes and in the case of an emergency.

But the other thing that this law enforcement source points out is that this Shelby Park area is a separate issue.

Because it's been taken over by Texas. And the latest we know about that is that DHS has sent a letter to Texas and this is the second demand letter asking the state of Texas to give Border Patrol access.

In other words, if Border Patrol was here, Brianna, they would be able to apprehend these individuals, process them through the normal immigration processing. But instead, they are having to wait here, without food, without water.

And Texas authorities don't appear to do anything with them either. They are just letting them sit there on the banks of the Rio Grande -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. It looks like the river is moving there pretty well as well.

Rosa Flores there in Eagle Pass, thank you for that report.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour.

A man in New York convicted of fatally shooting a woman who mistakenly ended up on his driveway plans to appeal. The jury took just two hours to find Kevin Moynihan guilty in the murder of Kalin Gillis.

She was a passenger in her boyfriend's SUV when they pulled into the wrong driveway. Moynihan came out with a shotgun and claimed the shooting was an accident. He now faces 25 years to life in prison. Prosecutors saying they will seek the maximum sentence.

[13:35:05]

Also, a new round of storms is causing dangerous flooding in parts of the south. Up to seven inches of rain fell in Texas yesterday, turning this underpass into a lake. More heavy rain is expected to drench the area again today. Flash

flood warnings now expanding through Louisiana and into Mississippi.

And a record-breaking 21 million Americans enrolled in Obamacare this year. That's five million more than last year. The White House is touting the increase as a sign of the health care plans success. It, of course, comes as former President Trump is vowing to repeal the program if he is elected.

Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, jury selection is underway in the case of Jennifer Crumbley. Her son is serving a life sentence for a school shooting. And now a jury has to decide whether she should be held responsible for her son's actions. We're going to discuss with a local sheriff when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:25]

KEILAR: More than two years after a shooter murdered four students in a Michigan high school, a court will soon decide if his mother will also be held accountable.

Today, jury selection picks up for a second day in the trial against Jennifer Crumbley. Her son is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the mass shooting at Oxford High back in 2021.

Jennifer Crumbley is now asking the judge to force her son and his psychiatrist to testify in her defense.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following this case for us.

Jean, what charges is Jennifer Crumbley facing and what is next here?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's homicide. It's that she caused the death of the students that her son alone pulled the trigger on the gun because of her gross negligence.

That she knew that he had mental issues, that she allowed her husband to go and get a gun, purchasing it on Black Friday. That she went target shooting with him. And then he took it to school.

She was called to school, along with her husband, because of drawings of a gun and bullets and blood saying my life is useless. And a short time after that was the mass shooting.

So the exposure here is 15 years in prison. And its four counts because there were four students that were murdered, so that would be 60 years that potentially she's facing.

Here's the issue now. You see, Ethan Crumbley had texted his friend. He was a loner, stayed in his bedroom all the time.

Used to text his friend thousands of texts, text his friend that, I tell my mom and dad that I've got mental issues, I need help. I tell my dad, take me to a doctor, and he says to me, just take a pill and suck it up, and my mother laughs.

Well, we heard this testimony during a hearing as to what his sentence should be, life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

And the psychiatrist testified that Ethan Crumbley told her, in meetings with him in the jail, that he lied to his friend about telling his parents about this and having his father say take a pill and his mother laughing.

Well, those texts are coming into this trial. And the defense has no defense to it. And now they know that he denied it to the psychiatrist.

So they are asking for all those medical records to become part of the trial, to have Ethan testify during their trial. Because she and her husband are both charge but her trial goes first.

And the appellate attorneys representing Ethan Crumbley are saying, no, this is privileged, we are doing an appeal of his sentence and you shall not have this.

But it's yet to be determined because Ethan holds the privilege, meaning Ethan can make the decision whether he's going to testify at his mother's trial.

KEILAR: That's really interesting. A matter of what could be good for him is bad for her, and vice versa here.

Jean Casarez, we will be watching this, obviously, pretty intently. Thank you.

Boris?

CASAREZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We want to get some perspective from someone who knows this case well. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard joins us now. He was part of the investigation into the Oxford High School shooting.

Sir, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

Prosecutors are accusing the parents of letting Ethan, at 15, have access to the gun that he used for ignoring warning signs that Jean Casarez walked us through. Now they are facing those four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

I'm wondering, based on what you found during the investigation, do you think there is enough there to convict them?

MICHAEL BOUCHARD, SHERIFF, OAKLAND COUNTY, MI: Yes, I certainly think there was a nexus that is connecting to the parents on a number of levels.

So much so that while the shooting was actually in progress, one of the parents called our central dispatch center and said that they thought their child was the shooter. It turned out to be, in fact, one of the parents of Ethan.

So it's not a surprise to them on that day. And it shouldn't have been a surprise preceding that day that they needed to engage on a much more deep level.

They had gone to the school or heard about different events at the school on two consecutive days. And yet, they didn't intervene in a way that I think would have been more appropriate.

SANCHEZ: Sheriff, I'm also curious to get your perspective on what came after the incident, because you and other law enforcement officers had to search for them for hours when they skipped their arraignment.

Do you think that perhaps should have been more charges?

BOUCHARD: Well, they said that they were hiding for their own personal safety, which I doubt on a lot of levels.

[13:45:02]

You know, they went to access their banks and they were very close to an international border. So certainly, that tells me that there was other things going on in their mind in terms of culpability that they thought, and they were already in the potential to be into the wind.

SANCHEZ: Yes. I also want to get your thought on whether you think this case could set a precedent that the parents of a child who commits murder could also be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

We see a lot of school shootings, sadly, in this country. Do you think that this would potentially open up cases moving forward?

BOUCHARD: Yes, absolutely. I think you have to have that nexus and, obviously, gross negligence. I think that is here.

Ultimately, what charge is applicable is up to the prosecutor but I certainly think it was appropriate to bring charges based on the totality of what was going on, what the parents did or did not do.

On the day of the shooting, they refused to take the child home. We weren't brought into that meeting, tragically. But that should have been an intervention moment if the parents were engaged.

(INAUDIBLE). And if my first thought -- (INAUDIBLE) -- that's got to be an inclination, I think, to the average person looking at this and say, they kind of knew things were off the track.

SANCHEZ: Yes, sure. But I don't want to lose site of the fact that four people were killed at Oxford High School. How would you say the community is doing now two years later watching all of this unfold with this family in court.

BOUCHARD: They are having a tough time with it. I mean, all of the community is, beyond the extended community. And those in the Oxford school district and have been very scared.

And our whole agency has been affected by it. You know, a couple of people couldn't come back to work. So it's a very traumatic event when you lose kids in a situation like this, in a situation that we believe probably had a path to prevention.

SANCHEZ: Sheriff Michael Bouchard, we have to leave the conversation there but thanks for sharing your perspective with us.

BOUCHARD: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So President Biden is expected to speak in just minutes. We are learning that he is expected to pick up a key endorsement this afternoon. We will bring you his remarks as they happen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:14]

SANCHEZ: We are expecting a big moment this afternoon for President Biden. Sources tell CNN that he is about to officially be endorsed by the United Auto Workers, one of the biggest labor unions in the country.

KEILAR: Yes, and we're watching here, as you can see. At any moment, the president will be addressing the UAW at their annual conference.

And this is coming on the heels of his victory as a write-in Democratic candidate in New Hampshire. He wasn't actually on the ballot there.

CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House now.

M.J., what more can you tell us about what we're expecting?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Brianna, sources confirmed to me and Jeff Zeleny earlier today that the UAW is expected to give its endorsement to President Joe Biden. And this would be a significant and sizable political endorsement as far as political endorsements go, as you said.

It comes at a really important and critical moment in the 2024 election. We saw last night President Biden's campaign effectively saying the primaries were over, that they are full steam ahead into the general election with Donald Trump as his target.

This has been sort of an important endorsement to watch because this is a base, this is a group of the population, a segment of the population that both President Biden and former President Trump have really been going after.

These are two candidates really vying to be the candidate that is the candidate of the working class. And with former President Trump, in particular, we have seen how he

has gone after some of these union members and union voters. This has been a part of his strategy, too, that we have seen playing out.

Particularly in the Midwest, as his campaign has wanted to go after voters, and that includes voters who had previously supported Democrats who feel like they're sort of disaffected and have been overlooked by the Democratic party.

On the other side, we have President Biden who frequently describes himself as being the most pro-union president that the country has ever had.

We saw, in particular last year, you might remember, he took the rare step as a sitting president in joining members of the union who were striking, who were part of a strike, actually joining them on the picket line.

There are different ways in which we have seen both President Biden and former President Trump, again, going after similar segments of the voting population.

This is the kind of political lines and the political battles we are expected to see come into much more clarity, I think, as we move forward with, again, what the Biden campaigned insists is the start of the general election.

SANCHEZ: M.J., on that note about focusing on the general election, there are some transitions that we are learning about among the Biden team. He is sending two of his senior White House aides to work on the campaign, right?

[13:55:06]

LEE: Yes. These are two of some of the most senior folks currently working in the West Wing. In the coming weeks, we are told both Jennifer Dillon and Mike Donilon are expected to move over full-time to the campaign.

These are folks who have been very much involved in some of the big local decisions as it is. But the fact that these moves will take place officially it once again signals that, for the Biden campaigned yesterday, they really did turn the page and turn the corner into what they say is the beginning of the general election for them.

KEILAR: So it begins.

M.J. Lee, thank you so much for that report.

Nikki Haley not backing down, certainly not giving up at this point. Even announcing a new big ad buy in her home state of South Carolina this morning despite former President Trump's win in New Hampshire and the RNC chair saying she does not see a path forward for Haley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)