Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Senate Rejects Bipartisan Border Bill Again; DNC, Biden Campaign To Paint Trump's VP Contenders As Extreme; Today: Trump Holds Bronx Rally To Court Black & Hispanic Voters; Israeli War Cabinet Directs Negotiating Team To Resume Talks; Leader Of Turks And Caicos Slams U.S. Lawmakers As Five Americans Detained On Ammo Charges. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 23, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:51]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The border bill battle is reignited on Capitol Hill. Democrats forcing a second vote on an immigration bill that already stalled once and moments ago Republicans blocked it. Both sides know it's going to be a potent issue for voters come November.

Plus, on the Hill, it's all about immigration, but in the Bronx, the focus is going to be on the economy as Donald Trump tries to win over voters in an overwhelmingly Democratic district one day after getting a boost from one of his biggest critics.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: But President Biden has some new ads blasting Trump and his own relationship with a group of voters that could be the key to winning the White House in November.

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

Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez and we do have some breaking news coming to us from Capitol Hill.

The Senate just rejected a bipartisan border bill for the second time this year. The first time it happened, you'll remember, was in February after former President Trump directed Republicans to kill the bill so that he could keep the border as a campaign issue.

SANCHEZ: The legislation would have been landmark border reform that would have included restricting border crossings. Let's get to CNN Anchor and Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju.

So, Manu, walk us through what happened today.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, in fact, this bill did worse than it did back in February. At that time in February, it failed on a 49 to 50 vote. Just moments ago, it failed on a 43 to 50 vote. It needed 60 to advance in the United States Senate. Some of the Republicans who had previously backed it were not supportive of it this time, including Sen. James Lankford. And there were three additional Democratic no votes, including senators Cory Booker, Laphonza Butler and also Kyrsten Sinema, who's an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, who also cut this bipartisan border security deal after months of painstaking negotiations.

And it failed initially in February because Donald Trump, before it was even released, came out and gets - urged Republicans to kill it. Republicans on the Hill said it did not go far enough. This time, Sinema and others rejected it because they believed Democrats were using it for political reasons, to try to deflect blame for what's happening on the border onto Republicans.

Now, undoubtedly, this is going to be a top-tier issue for some of those Democrats in key Senate races. That is a question I put today to the top chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. Asked him how this will play in November with those key vulnerable Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): I think you have to look at Republicans as basically being very hypocritical and are hypocrites. They just want to use this as a campaign issue, but they're not willing to actually debate these issues and vote on these issues, which is necessary for us to make sure we have a secured border.

SEN. JON TESTER (D-MT): Did they forget who told them to vote against a perfectly good border security bill that would've secured the border for political reasons? Really?

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): There's no real interest in getting this bill done. He knows that he would have work to do in the House. He is bleeding votes because of the failure at the border, and he's using this as a shiny object to make people think that he's really trying to get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, this bill would've overhauled asylum laws, also empowered the Homeland Security Department to essentially turn away migrants at the southern border after migrant crossings reached a certain threshold. Republicans said it simply did not go far enough, and that was one argument why the Speaker of the House came out against it.

But underlying all of this, of course, is the politics. Immigration, such a key issue, one that Donald Trump has been railing on, campaigning against, and one in which Joe Biden has been underwater on over the months and months of this campaign season. Why Democrats have moved, actually, to the Republican position in a lot of ways on this bill, but Republicans did not want to give Joe Biden a victory here. And this time, Democrats want to try to turn the issue back against Republicans, but as a result, nothing getting done here.

[15:05:02]

This issue of immigration, so complicated, has just dogged Capitol Hill for years and years and years, and particularly in this campaign season, this compromise going nowhere, demonstrated by today's vote, which fared out worse for Democrats than it did back in February, guys.

SANCHEZ: Yes, at this point, a generational issue, decades of inaction from Congress.

Manu Raju from Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

So Donald Trump has yet to even announce his vice presidential pick yet, but the Biden campaign and the DNC are already going on the attack. Their plan is to spotlight some of the candidates on their policies in new ads by using a powerful weapon, their own words.

KEILAR: Yes, that one always works. And Trump has long been auditioning candidates, he's testing their loyalties, testing their messaging as well. CNN's Kayla Tausche is live for us from the White House.

Kayla, how does this strategy fit into Biden's broader re-election message?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we're seeing the very first glimmers of what this messaging strategy is going to look like with the rapid response release that was just blasted by the DNC on behalf of the Biden campaign, slamming Republicans for voting against that bipartisan border bill that Manu was just referencing, calling them MAGA minions, and suggesting that they only voted that way against the bill because Donald Trump, Biden's GOP opponent, told them to.

Now, as far as the broader re-election message, so far, President Biden has tried to establish a contrast between what he believes are the rights and benefits that Donald Trump would take away from voters and focusing on the rights and benefits that he says his campaign or his next administration would maintain or restore. Among those four categories that they're going to be focusing on, the 2020 election, abortion, healthcare and benefits for working families.

Now, admittedly, there are still several contenders for Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate. So the challenge for the Biden campaign and the DNC is that this messaging could get quite messy, which is why they're not planning exactly at this point in the nascent stages of this effort to be cherry-picking specific individuals, words and positions, instead to be painting them as a group together with broad- brush strokes.

Although as it evolves and as the field narrows, we could see the DNC taking out billboards or paid media in states or on the road where any of these candidates or lawmakers are going to be. So it's still in its very early stages, but it's quite clear that DNC is going on attack and trying to highlight these differences, all, of course, culminating in the selection of Trump's VP and the eventual debate between that person and current vice president, Kamala Harris, guys.

KEILAR: All right. Kayla, thank you so much for that report.

Kayla Tausche, live for us from the White House.

And happening today, former President Trump is heading to one of the most Democratic counties in the nation. The former president will be holding a rally in the South Bronx, in the borough of the Bronx, in the South Bronx, where he's expected to attack President Biden's record on the economy as part of a push to win over black and Hispanic voters.

SANCHEZ: We have to point out, this is a county that Biden won by nearly 290,000 votes in 2020, by even more in 2016, Democrats won that district. CNN's Kristen Holmes is in the Bronx for us.

Kristen, what is the strategy for the Trump campaign in choosing what is a Democratic stronghold?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, two things can be true at once. One, we know that Donald Trump and his campaign believe that they see an opening with minority voters, particularly black and Hispanic men, and the polling supports that. We've seen time and time again a shift towards Republicans and towards Donald Trump, something Democrats have been increasingly concerned about.

Now, why they have chosen one of the most blue counties in all of New York? Well, the other part of this that is true is that Donald Trump was supposed to still be in court as of the planning for this rally. They were looking for different kinds of events around the state to keep him occupied on the campaign trail while he was set to be in court Monday, Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays.

Now, of course, now we know that court has wrapped on Tuesday, but he did come back to do this rally. And I will tell you, the reaction that we have seen from voters here, from residents here, has been completely mixed. There was a large line of people who said they were excited. I talked to one voter who said that they voted for Biden last time around, but they didn't feel like they had anything to lose. They could vote for Donald Trump this time. We also talked to somebody who said that Donald Trump didn't belong in the Bronx and he should get the F out.

So it's been a complete mixed reaction, but there is still a long line of people here who want to hear what Donald Trump has to say.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us from the Bronx. Thank you so much.

KEILAR: It's going to be an interesting one. We have CNN Political Director, David Chalian, with us to discuss this.

Okay. It's not the first time we've seen Trump do something, although it's kind of been a smaller commitment on his part, like going to a bodega or something like that. Here he is in the Bronx. What do you think about this?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, again, I think as Kristen rightly noted, the geographic component of this largely due to his team thinking he was going to have to be in court. [15:10:00]

But trying to make lemonade out of lemons here and that is, hey, we do want to make a strategic case here and a play for black and Hispanic voters. We do see an opening here. There's clearly some softening of support in these groups for Joe Biden. And so let's go to a place where that is a dominant demographic and make the case.

So whether or not it is well-received, you heard Kristen saying that she got mixed reaction there, is a whole other matter. But I think, you know, whether it's in the Bronx today, which again, I don't think Bronx County is going to be a battleground county here, but Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, I mean, we can go to all these places where it will potentially make a difference.

And so, you know, working this kind of message out, I think it's a wise decision of the Trump campaign.

SANCHEZ: The Biden campaign is taking that softening that you're describing seriously. They put out an ad before this rally, ahead of the rally, showing comments that Trump has made in the past about African-Americans. Specifically, they cite his calling for executions of The Central Park Five, the birther controversy, his comments around that racist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.

I spoke in the last hour to Bryan Lanza, someone who had worked on a Trump campaign back in 2016. He essentially said that the past doesn't really matter. He tried to equivocate some comments, took them out of context that President Biden had made in the '80s. And he essentially said, this is about the future. This isn't about comments that were made in the past. How big are those comments going to play?

CHALIAN: Well, I think if you're supporting Trump and you're trying to respond to that ad, you do want to make it about the future, not the past, because the past may not look so good. I mean, listen, I think the Biden team here can't give an inch, right? So the fact that there is this potential opening, because guys, we're talking margins here, right?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

CHALIAN: I'm not suggesting Donald Trump is going to win the African- American vote or win the Hispanic vote necessarily.

KEILAR: Right.

CHALIAN: But it's all about margins in these close elections. And so the Biden campaign is, I would say rightly, just as right for Trump to go and make the case, they got to make sure they try to slam that door of potential opportunity for Trump and aggressively make the case that he's not a real advocate for these communities. And so they're doing their attempt at that.

KEILAR: If - yes, because - listen, in November, if Biden loses, and part of it is because these voting blocs did not come out for him the way they did in the last election, we'll be looking back at this as one of the moments. It's important to remember that.

Let's talk a little bit about Nikki Haley, right? Because, I mean, what did she call Trump? Unhinged. She called him unqualified. She had all kinds of adjectives for him, and now she has endorsed him.

I mean, politicians are flexible, we know that. But still, this was quite a turnaround from her rhetoric before.

CHALIAN: No doubt about it. And dramatically so, because she was talking in many cases as the primary was heating up about his fitness for the office, a little different than some sort of past critiques that you would see within a primary field. Nonetheless, she did tell Dana Bash in January in New Hampshire, you know, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, they're equally bad. That is not what she said yesterday.

She said, Joe Biden is a catastrophe, and Donald Trump is less than perfect on some of these issues that I care about. So her calculation and her assessment of these candidates moved. She announced that she's going to vote for him, which I think should surprise nobody, because Nikki Haley wants a future in Republican Party politics. And as this primary season that she just lost out in to Donald Trump proved, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party, and she understood to have a future in that party, she was going to have to sort of land in this place.

SANCHEZ: Potentially another run for the White House for her in the future.

CHALIAN: Potentially.

SANCHEZ: We know that the Biden campaign hosted a call with Haley supporters in eight different states last night. What do they need to do to keep those Republicans and independent voters from shifting to Trump - some of those Republicans from going home so to speak?

CHALIAN: Yes. So we know if you look inside these primaries, some of them were closed, available only to Republicans voting, but Nikki Haley did really well also where there were open primaries, independent. So these suburban independent voters, Biden would be talking to them even if Nikki Haley wasn't a factor. But the fact that they showed in the context of the primary that they are Trump- resistant is an opening to the Biden campaign to say, we should be in communication with you guys.

I don't think Nikki Haley's saying, I'm voting for Donald Trump means that those people are walled off from potentially being open to a conversation with Joe Biden and supporting Joe Biden.

But remember, Joe Biden doesn't need all of them ...

SANCHEZ: Right.

CHALIAN: ... he needs a slice of them. And that - so, again, if they weren't doing it, I would say it's sort of political malpractice.

KEILAR: Yes, it's all about the margins. CHALIAN: All about the margins.

KEILAR: As David Chalian keeps reminding us. Thank you so much for that.

CHALIAN: Sure. Thank you, guys.

KEILAR: So ahead, Israel's negotiating team told to resume ceasefire and hostage talks as pressure on the Netanyahu government continues to mount.

Plus, Norfolk Southern will be forking over hundreds of millions of dollars to settle that lawsuit over its toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

SANCHEZ: And if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's hating crazy high fees on top of ticket prices.

[15:15:06]

Now the DOJ is trying to do something about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:32]

KEILAR: Israel's war cabinet has now directed the country's negotiating team to resume talks in an effort to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. No word on when negotiations are going to begin again. But just yesterday, the families of seven female Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas released graphic footage of their abductions.

SANCHEZ: The families are hoping to pile the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet to make progress on bringing hostages home.

[15:20:00]

Let's take you now live to Jerusalem with CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, these talks have been stalled over several weeks now. How likely is it that we'll see some progress?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very difficult to tell at this stage, Boris. I mean, we have watched these talks start and stop so many times now, so many times where it seems that we were on the precipice of a deal between Israel and Hamas, and then those talks falling apart again. Most recently, just over two weeks ago, when there was that Egyptian framework on the table, which Israel had tacitly agreed to, Hamas then saying that they had agreed to a framework. But it turned out both of those frameworks were actually very different from one another, and the obstacles between Israel and Hamas were not able to be overcome.

But last night, the Israeli war cabinet convening once again, this time directing those - the Israeli negotiating team led by the Mossad director David Barnea to resume negotiations and to go into those talks with an expanded mandate. It's not clear exactly what has changed in terms of what Israel is willing to agree to at this stage versus last time around.

We know, of course, that the principal sticking point between these two sides still remains Hamas' demand that Israel agree to an end to the war altogether in order to even get to a first phase of an agreement that could see several dozen hostages released. There's no question, though, that there is increased pressure in Israel for the Israeli government to agree to a deal.

Yesterday, of course, we saw the family of five of those female Israeli soldiers who were taken captive on October 7th release that graphic, and really very difficult to watch footage, the fear in their eyes that that was palpable as you watch that footage. That footage released in order to try and put more pressure on the Israeli government.

So we will just have to wait and see when exactly those talks resume and whether or not it takes us to a different place.

KEILAR: Yes, just horrific pictures from that video there. And Jeremy, the Israeli military says dozens of aid trucks have now gotten into Gaza from that temporary pier that the U.S. installed. The outstanding question is, has that actually gotten to the people who need it? What can you tell us?

DIAMOND: Yes. And not only that, but when we talk about dozens, we're actually just talking about just over two dozen trucks, 27 aid trucks that entered Gaza through that floating pier yesterday, according to the Israeli military. That's far short of the 90 aid trucks per day that the U.S. military had expected to be able to very quickly ramp up to, well short of the 150 kind of optimal capacity that they are hoping to get to at some point.

And a lot of that has to do with security conditions on the ground, according to humanitarian aid groups. And there's also the question, of course, of those land crossings. The Israeli military says that yesterday, 281 trucks got through Kerem Shalom and Erez crossing. That's the crossing going into the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

But there's a lot of dispute over those numbers and also humanitarian aid agencies saying that even if those trucks are getting through the security checks and onto the other side of the border, that doesn't mean they're necessarily able to collect them and to move that aid to their warehouses and ultimately distribute them. And that's because of the security conditions, because of the Israeli military's ramped up military activity very close to those crossings, active battles with Hamas militants. And also, of course, the fact that that Rafah border crossing has been closed now for over three weeks. Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us from Jerusalem.

Thank you so much, Jeremy. Still to come, a tragedy at a presidential campaign rally in Mexico.

Nine people were killed there, more than 70 hurt after strong winds caused the stage to suddenly collapse. Video on social media shows the stage's giant screen and metal structure coming apart, sending politicians on the stage and supporters in the crowd running for safety.

KEILAR: Rescue operations went on late into the night to save people who were trapped. One witness told reporters he'd never in his life experienced such a dramatic change in weather conditions.

The leader of Turks and Caicos is defending his country after a U.S. lawmaker accused the island of targeting Americans. On Monday, a group of bipartisan lawmakers traveled to the island. They were pressing for the release of five Americans who've been held on ammunition charges. They say they were met with resistance and were unable to convince island officials to free the suspects.

One of those lawmakers, Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania then accused island officials of specifically targeting U.S. citizens.

SANCHEZ: This morning, the island's premier called those accusations, quote, "diabolic falsehoods" and defended his country, listen.

[15:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WASHINGTON MISICK, TURKS AND CAICOS PREMIER: We do not target U.S. citizens or any other nationality and contrary statements - any contrary statements are without merit. Our independent justice system upholds the rights and freedoms of all individuals, regardless of nationality, whilst maintaining the security and integrity of our islands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The five Americans have been arrested in recent months, each of them facing at least 12 years in prison. Three of the defendants have already pleaded guilty. A fourth is due in court next week. And a fifth remains in custody. A court date for him is scheduled in July.

KEILAR: And if you have bought a concert or maybe a sports ticket over the past few years or weeks, in my case, you know it's not cheap and the feds say that is no accident. It is very expensive if, say, you want to go see Alanis Morissette.

Now, anyways, ahead, the potentially groundbreaking new lawsuit against Ticketmaster's parent company.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)