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WH Deflects After Johnson Says He's Been Asking To Meet With Biden On Border, National Security "For Weeks"; House GOP Narrowly Impeaches DHS Secy. Mayorkas; Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) Discusses About Chiefs' Parade Shooting And Bipartisan Deal For Border Protection; Shots Fired At Kansas City Super Bowl Parade. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 14, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The Republican Party's shrinking House majority getting even tighter as Democrats flip the vacancy left by George Santos, what the House Speaker is now saying about that loss.

Plus, the families of Israeli hostages slamming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling his decision to stay away from negotiations a death sentence for their loved ones, what Netanyahu is now demanding from Hamas.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And six years later, the parents of those killed or injured in the Parkland, Florida high school shooting are still making their push for any kind of action on Capitol Hill.

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

SANCHEZ: Today, House Speaker Mike Johnson made it clear that he wants a meeting with President Biden to discuss the border and National Security. The White House, let's say they're noncommittal on the prospects for that sit down. The two leaders are at an impasse on how to handle the border crisis at home and two key allies engaged in wars abroad.

And Speaker Johnson is not budging. He's on his way to blocking a second bipartisan Senate bill targeting some of those issues. But he doesn't have much wiggle room. He already has a historically narrow Republican majority, and it shrunk by one last night.

CNN's Melanie Zanona is live for us on Capitol Hill.

So, Melanie, what are Republicans saying about New York's third district and this flip back to the Democrats?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes. Well, there's a real divide in the GOP right now. I would say there's a mix of finger pointing and a mix of downplaying as Mike - Speaker Mike Johnson said behind closed doors this morning and in front of a press conference earlier today that this was a Biden-won district. There's always going to be an uphill battle for them. Republicans were also heavily outspent by Democrats in the race and the Republican candidate, Mazi Pilip, had way less name recognition in the area because Tom Suozzi, the Democratic candidate who won, had represented the area for many decades in Congress before.

But no doubt, no matter what the reasons were for Republicans losing this race, this puts Democrats one step closer to winning the majority in November. And it also is going to decrease the already razor thin majority in the House. Now, that doesn't matter as much for these big bipartisan, massive legislative priorities like funding the government. That's something that's going to take Democrats and Republicans anyway. But it does matter when Republicans want to pass messaging items that are key to their agenda.

Remember, they had to jam through the America's impeachment articles last night before this special election. So there are serious questions right now about whether they can achieve other priorities like impeaching President Biden.

SANCHEZ: Melanie, on the question of impeaching, just hours before that special election loss, House Republicans impeached the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas and they did so with only one vote. Do we know what happens next? How the Senate is planning to handle this?

ZANONA: Yes. So this will go over to the Senate. We're told that the trial technically would begin the week of February 26th. But we're being told that Democrats are not going to spend a lot of time on this. They haven't exactly said how they're going to handle it, but they can dismiss the trial at the beginning with just a simple majority. So even Republicans over in the Senate said there's just not an appetite to impeach Mayorkas. There's no expectation that this is ultimately going to end in a conviction. So it largely was a messaging exercise here in the House, but one that Republican leadership over in the House felt important enough to try to get this through, like I said, before the special election last night, because they knew they were potentially about to lose one more vote.

SANCHEZ: Melanie Zanona, live for us on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much, Melanie. Brianna?

KEILAR: While House Republicans moved to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border, they refused to move on a bipartisan agreement that would have provided billions to federal agencies that are struggling to confront a record migration surge. One key agency that was desperate for those funds is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, facing a massive budget crunch. ICE has now drafted a plan to slash detention capacity and release thousands of migrants.

We have CNN's Priscilla Alvarez tracking all of this for us. Tell us about this contingency plan here.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, this is what happens when there aren't funds.

[15:05:02]

This is the consequence that Homeland Security officials have been warning about. This is a scenario that they're facing a $700 million deficit, and to accommodate for that, they're considering slashing detention facilities, which mean that immigrants who are in detention could be released.

Now, ICE has found themselves in this type of situation before, where they simply do not have enough money, and so they'll reprogram funds from other parts of the department, say, from Coast Guard or from TSA or from FEMA or if they're going to move money within their own agency to try to make up for this deficit.

But this is a situation that they haven't found themselves in before, because we haven't seen this volume of migrants before, so all of it means that they may have to slash detention facilities. One of the pricier items in their budget. The other is deportation flights, but that's something they don't want to touch because that's the consequence for migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

So this is what Homeland Security officials, again, have been raising alarm about and what White House officials have worried about if they didn't get that border funding. This was $14 billion in border security funding that the White House had asked for.

Of that, $7.6 billion was for ICE. It's a huge amount. And without it, they just are scrambling to find a solution. And I will also add that I asked a spokesperson about this, and they said, "Without adequate funding for CBP, ICE, and USCIS," those are three immigration-related agencies, "the Department will have to reprogram or pull resources from other efforts."

So this is just something that they're bracing for. They don't want to have to go down this route, but without the additional funds, they may not have a choice.

KEILAR: The White House had warned about consequences, so they saw some of this coming. But I wonder if there was - is there an alternative way to shore up ICE? Is this the only way to manage this issue?

ALVAREZ: When you talk to sources about this, as I have, they'll say, we can reprogram, we can pull from these different parts of the Department of Homeland Security. That's not ideal either, because all of them have critical missions. So they don't necessarily want to take money from Coast Guard or TSA or FEMA, especially on the cusp of a hurricane season.

And so all of that is what they're considering. But when those run up short and they don't want to pull from these missions, it means what can we do as an agency to cut funds? And in this contingency plan, that means cut back on detention capacity, which is, again, a super pricey budget item for this agency.

And again, it comes back to, Republicans say they want to secure the border. The White House says they want the same thing. At the end of the day, at this point in time, it's money and resources that will do it. And without that, we're back in - at square one and that's what everyone's worried about.

KEILAR: Priscilla, thank you so much for taking us through that. We appreciate it. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss the situation at the border and much more with Republican congressman, Mark Alford of Missouri. He currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, as I was preparing for our interview today, I realized that you were a Chiefs fan and I was going to congratulate you on the Super Bowl win. I know that you may have considered going to the parade, but I do have some sad news to share with you. It appears that there were shots fired at the parade. CNN has just confirmed that shots were fired at the parade celebrating the Chiefs' win in Kansas City. We're taking a live look at what the scene looks like right now. It appears that folks are moving out of the way.

Congressman, do you know anything about this shooting? Is there any information that you've come across that you can share with us?

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): No, Boris, that's the first I heard of it. If you're looking at the stadium there, that is Union Station in downtown Kansas City, a very historic place. We gathered there in 2015 for the celebration - victory celebration for the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series. I was there last year sitting on the third row as we celebrated the Chiefs' victory in Super Bowl LVII.

It is very sad to know that Stacey Graves, the chief of police there who is fairly new, is now having to respond. It looks like in some active duty situation right now, it looks like they're going now below ground there. There are some tunnels and some basement areas under Union Station. I don't want to speculate on what's going on there, but this was a fear that I had, and I know that law enforcement, the FBI, they have spent over a million dollars this year, went from $750,000 last year on security up to $1 million now to try to secure this, I believe, a two-mile route that the players, other dignitaries, I was actually in the parade last year along with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Of course, we had nothing to do with the Super Bowl victory, but we were delighted to be there cheering on our Kansas City Chiefs. This is not good news for Kansas City. Hopefully, there is no one who has died because of this shooting, but I know it's very disheartening. We should be able to come together in situations like this and celebrate victories, not have to deal with a shooting.

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SANCHEZ: No question about that, Congressman. We're going to keep an eye on the situation there. It appears that law enforcement is responding to the situation. No clarity yet on whether anyone has been hurt. Again, we'll stay on top of this story and bring you the very latest as we get it. Congressman, thank you for sharing that perspective with us. I do want to pivot to the conversation about the southern border. I'm

curious to get your reaction to this news that ICE has drafted plans to release thousands of migrants, hoping to erase this enormous budget shortfall, some $700 million. This would lead to decreased detention capacity by more than 10,000 beds. I'm wondering if Republicans have any plans to get additional funding for the border soon in a form that actually has a chance of passing the Senate.

ALFORD: Well, look, I know that the Senate just down the hall here does not like our Border Security Act, H.R. 2, that we sent over back in May. It's been sitting on Chuck Schumer's desk. It does provide money for Border Patrol. It does provide to bringing back the Remain in Mexico policy.

I believe that this is a childish act on the part of the President of the United States, a tit-for-tat, if you will. We impeached Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday in the House. I know it was a close vote. I know the Senate probably will not convict him and remove him from office. But it was a clear signal. And this president has been a failure when it comes to border security issues. With a wink and a nod, he's welcomed more than eight and a half million illegal aliens into our nation, 20,000 Chinese nationals, young men who have come across our secure border or unsecure border since October of last year.

This is a crisis. This is a humanitarian crisis. And to now play games, a game of chicken with the American people - look, if you don't have the money to detain these people, don't let them come in to begin with, simple.

SANCHEZ: It's very hard to do that with a border as large as the one between the United States and Mexico. There has to be some capacity to catch people once they've entered. And part of ICE's job isn't to patrol the border. It's actually to deal with undocumented migrants once they are caught in the United States, in the interior.

Notably, that deal that was brokered by Sen. James Lankford that the White House worked on and endorsed, it would have gotten over $7 billion in supplemental funding to ICE. It would have also made criteria for asylum much more strenuous to qualify for, would have expedited deportations. I'm wondering, why not support that bill if it also didn't get Democrats any of the concessions that they'd asked for years?

ALFORD: Because, Boris, I'm a freshman here. This is the way this place works. They load up things that they know that we will not vote for in hopes that we will cave in. We are not caving in this time. This ...

SANCHEZ: But Congressman, what's in this bill ...

ALFORD: ... bill ...

SANCHEZ: ... that you wouldn't vote for?

ALFORD: ... let me finish, Boris. This bill that the Senate passed provided a trigger that we were going to let 5,000 illegal aliens into our nation before it triggers on an average - a day for - average out for a week before we secure the border. The president has every means necessary right now to secure the border. Let's do it.

SANCHEZ: That's not exactly what the bill ...

ALFORD: Quit talking about it and do it.

SANCHEZ: That's not exactly what the bill did. The bill enforced policy on the border. As I said, it made asylum more difficult to qualify for. It increased funding exponentially for Border Patrol, et cetera. It was actually endorsed by the Border Patrol Union. What it did was have this failsafe where if crossings reached a certain point, then legally the White House could shut down the border.

On that last point, though, about Biden ...

ALFORD: The White House can do it now, Boris. They don't need Congress to ...

SANCHEZ: But, sir ...

ALFORD: ... it's - this is not a game of pretty please and mother may I. Secure the border, Mr. President. Do it now. You have the authority. Our nation is at risk.

SANCHEZ: But, sir, the White House doesn't control the purse strings, Congress does. So he can't just throw money at ICE. And even when former President Donald Trump tried to, declaring a national emergency to get money for the border wall, that got thrown into a messy legal battle and ultimately it was rejected. So President Biden can't just send money to ICE for more detention beds.

ALFORD: Well, Boris, I think we are conflating two issues, as you pointed out at the beginning of this particular segment on this topic, is that ICE really has nothing to do with Border Patrol. Border Patrol is supposed to be stopping illegal immigrants from crossing into our sovereign nation. ICE picks this person up or detains them after they go through the process.

We were there three weeks ago with the Speaker of the House. It is a nine-step process. It takes approximately 36 hours and they process 1,500 people on average a day in the Del Rio sector and release 80- to 85 percent of them into the interior of America.

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The rest, others, they detain and now ICE is going to release these people into America? It is not a game of chicken that the American people should have to endure ...

SANCHEZ: Sure.

ALFORD: ... from their own president of the United States.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Mark Alford, I wish we had more time, but we do want to focus on the shooting that's been reported in your home state of Missouri. I look forward to picking up the conversation with you in the future, though, sir.

ALFORD: Thank you. And if I can help on this shooting story, let me know. I anchored the news there for 35 years and my heart is very much with Kansas City right now.

SANCHEZ: We'll certainly be in touch, sir. Thank you so much.

We want to go to CNN's Josh Campbell, who's been tracking the situation there.

Josh, again, we're looking at live images. Earlier, it appeared that law enforcement was moving folks around in a certain area, but it's really hard to discern exactly what's happening just based on the images that we're seeing. What are you hearing from law enforcement sources about what happened there?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris. So there was this clearing process, obviously, that took place after these shots rang out, officers trying to get this large group of people who had been gathered for the celebration out of the area. We're just hearing from authorities coming in just now that it appears as though at least two people have been taken into custody.

It's worth pointing out right now, though, no indication of any victims. Police said that they were working to gather information. So, again, we just want to caution - it's still too early to determine whether reports of shots fired here actually were related to the celebration or whether this was just happening nearby. But nevertheless, you can imagine the amount of panic and chaos that that would cause, because you have a large group of people, obviously, in this era of mass shootings. Any type of large gathering would be a lucrative target for someone who is intent on causing harm.

We know that during the celebration, there was a massive law enforcement presence that was there, even without them suspecting any potential threat. That's just how it goes this day and age when you have these large gatherings. But as soon as those shots rang out, we're told that authorities started getting people to safety, started clearing out that area. Again, it appears that two people have been taken into custody. No further details about that, whether they were targeting anyone specifically, whether they were engaged in some type of gunfire with each other.

But again, we're still waiting to determine what the actual nature of the victims are there. Currently, their state and obviously investigators continue their investigation, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Josh. So we've actually just confirmed from officials on the ground that there have been multiple victims reported as a result of this shooting. Obviously the story is still developing and it's unclear exactly what happened here, Josh. And you touched on this a moment ago, but I was hoping you could expand on what it's like for law enforcement to keep an eye on a crowd of this size.

We were just speaking to Congressman Mark Alford, who's been to one of these parades and he talked about funding for security at one of these events being well over a million dollars. What goes into the planning and the surveillance of a crowd of that size?

CAMPBELL: Yes, Boris. And as you mentioned, details are coming in very quickly minute by minute here, again, trying to determine what the actual injuries are involved here with these multiple victims, but to the security preparations, I mean, obviously we talked long about the Super Bowl game itself, something like that, a national event had a host of law enforcement resources, but even the aftermath where you have teams that are celebrating and this isn't just involving the National Football League, but any type of large gathering, you're going to see police planning.

We know that at this particular event, there was fencing that was up. You had obviously this large law enforcement presence. There were medical units that were staged in and around the area, all of that precautionary.

But of course, very important if you do happen to have some type of critical life event where you do need to call in first responders in order to help people. And they essentially approach this in a layered approach. You have the close in security, obviously around the team itself, and you have to ensure the security of the attendees, but also setting up a perimeter and ensuring that you have those resources that are looking outward for any possible threats that may be trying to come in.

Again, too soon to tell who this individual or individuals were that were involved in the shooting, whether this was anything that was specifically targeted towards that crowd, that obviously a major question when you have a large gathering. But the good news, if there's any good news in this, is that when you have a large event, law enforcement plans accordingly and has those resources on hand and we see some of these images coming in from our affiliates that authorities spring into action quite quickly, Boris.

KEILAR: Yes, we're seeing that there are so many people who had been enjoying the parade and it was wrapping up all of the festivities and the rally there outside of Union Station in Kansas City and then obviously a lot of chaos that ensued here.

I do want to bring in Charles Ramsey, who is on the phone with us.

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Charles, as you see some of these pictures and we're getting in this preliminary information that two people are in custody and several have been injured, at least several have been injured. What are you seeing here and what questions do you have?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, these are the kinds of things that you always are concerned about whenever you have a large gathering like that. And that is someone who brings a gun. There's a dispute of some kind, shots fired because you have so many people there. The odds of innocent people being struck is pretty high.

Again, it's just one of the unfortunate realities that we have in our society today with guns and violent crime that takes place and it's a shame. I mean, that - I was watching the event on television. It was a great celebration. And then it had to be ruined by this incident.

So it's too early to tell right now exactly everything that's going on. But obviously, apparently they have someone in custody. Hopefully there are no fatalities or serious injuries.

SANCHEZ: We also have with us Ed Davis. He's a former Boston Police Commissioner.

Ed, walk us through what it's like for law enforcement when responding to a scene like this where there are so many people.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Right. It's extremely chaotic. And as Chuck said, unfortunately, these days, you never know when two groups of people are going to run into each other and have shots break out like this.

When the police initially get to the scene, their responsibility is to look for the shooter. And it sounds like there are some people in custody, so they may have been able to gather up the threats really quickly. But whether it's the shooter or someone associated with him that has been arrested, their responsibility is to stop the shooting from occurring, secure the area. And then most importantly or I shouldn't say most importantly, it's actually a secondary concern, but it's extremely high importance is to render first aid and get medical personnel in there as quickly as possible to save as many lives as they can.

KEILAR: And so we see in some of the pictures, Ed, police moving there into Union Station, some of them congregating outside of the area as they appear to be paying attention to something. I don't know what you might be gleaning from some of these images that we may not be picking up. What are you seeing?

DAVIS: Well, because of the chaos that surrounds these things, you don't know where the bad guy is. And you really have to point to or keep an eye on everything that's moving so that you can stop any threats that are occurring. So your head has to be on a swivel in a case like this, because you don't really know - with all those people there, you don't know - it's hard to sort of sort out the bad guys from the good guys and other people could be showing up. That's the problem.

Apparently, in this case, there had been an earlier shooting a few blocks away. Two people were shot. Is this a retaliatory shooting for that incident? We see that happen quite a bit. Or is this a totally different incident where two groups of people have guns? It's hard to say at this early point, but the police have to be aware of everything and be very quick to move when a threat presents itself.

SANCHEZ: We are, of course, monitoring the situation in Kansas City, Missouri, where shots have been fired at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade. This is after winning the Super Bowl. We understand from our Josh Campbell that two suspects have been detained, multiple victims reported. We don't know the degree of their injuries or whether they may even be deceased. We're going to stay on top of this story, but we're going to squeeze in a quick break to regroup. We'll bring you the very latest as soon as we come back.

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KEILAR: All right. We are watching a developing story out of Kansas City, Missouri, where two armed people are in custody after a shooting broke out at the end of the parade - the end of the celebration for the victory celebration for the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. This happened as festivities there were wrapping up, but certainly a ton of people still in the area and police who had been there providing security, mobilizing very quickly. Multiple victims in this shooting, we are being told of at this point and again with two armed people in custody.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it is obviously still a developing situation as we're starting to hear from folks that are on the ground there about what they experienced. We do have a panel of experts in responding to a situation like this.

We want to bring in Steve Moore. He's former FBI, also a senior law enforcement analyst for CNN.

Steve, when you hear about this kind of situation, this sort of setting, what details stand out to you about what we're learning specifically about two people being detained, both of them armed?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think the first thing - excuse me - that stands out to me is the people were taken into custody alive, which kind of indicates to me - well, at least that is not customary. That is not usual when you find somebody who's an active shooter, a terrorist, something like that. They do not want to be taken alive and they have a weapon to make sure that they don't get taken alive. So that's one thing.

It's - I'm not saying it's - that's not the case, but it lobbies towards another type of shooting.