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Biden Announces Sweeping Executive Action On Immigration; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) Discusses About Her Take On President Biden New Executive Action On The Border; Photos Of Drugs Found On Hunter Biden's Laptop Shown In Court. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 04, 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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[15:00:12]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: We are following breaking news this afternoon. President Biden taking major steps to stem the flow of migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally with a sweeping new executive action set to take effect in just hours at midnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I'm moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border. Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that's the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that's broken, fixed.

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DEAN: Now, the measure would shut off asylum access to migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully once daily encounters hit a threshold of 2,500. It would also allow authorities to turn away migrants to Mexico or their origin country. Unaccompanied minors would be exempt.

Now, this is the same authority former President Donald Trump tried to use while in office. President Biden's announcement comes today, just weeks before his first debate with his Republican rival. Today's move is President Biden's most aggressive crackdown yet on illegal immigration. It's an issue that has long been one of his biggest political vulnerabilities, and it's also a top concern for voters going into November.

And for more on that, let's bring in CNN's Harry Enten.

Harry, just how important is this immigration issue to American voters?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: It's massively important, Jessica. Massively important. So I just want to create sort of a timeline for you, a trend line of how different we are in the American electorate now versus where we were four years ago, so immigration is the nation's top problem.

You know, last time around was when Biden was facing off against Trump, just 1 percent - just 1 percent of Americans said it was the top problem back in May of 2020. That ranked, get this, 15th on the list of most important problems, according to the American public.

Look at where we are today in May of 2024, 18 percent. My goodness gracious, what a jump from May of 2020, 18 percent of Americans said that immigration or something within that realm is the nation's top problem. That ranks second.

So a clear movement from 15th to second in terms of the nation's top problems. It's not much of a surprise, Jessica, that President Biden feels like he has to make a move on this right now.

DEAN: And even more to that point, Harry, who do Americans trust on the issue of immigration more?

ENTEN: Yes, so take a look at this question. Again, the trend line here is so telling: "Would Biden or Trump do a better job on border security/immigration?"

You go back four years ago to June of 2020. Joe Biden held it within the margin of error, but still a slight lead at plus one point over Donald Trump on the issue of border security and immigration. Take a look now at May of 2024. Look at this movement in Donald Trump's direction.

Now he is trusted on the issue of border security and immigration versus Joe Biden by a 27-point margin. That is nearly a 30 point jump. You know, there have been a lot of issues that have been moving in the former president's direction during the course of this campaign. But I can't really find a single issue that has moved more towards Donald Trump versus four years ago than this particular issue.

Again, when you're dealing with something that's now one of the nation's top problems, according to the American public, and an issue that's moving very much towards the former president, you can definitely see why the current president, Joe Biden, felt like he needed to act because at this particular point, the issue of border security and immigration is truly hurting Joe Biden's reelection chances.

DEAN: Mm-hmm. And the last question just - is there any sign of backlash against Republicans from immigrant communities for their stance on immigration? What does that look like?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, I think there are a lot of Democrats who have been hoping that the rhetoric that what they see as harsh rhetoric against immigrant communities might cause a backlash, might cause immigrant voters perhaps to shift over towards the Democratic column. That has not been happening.

In fact, this is one of the wildest sort of poll numbers that I have seen who U.S. voters born outside the country prefer for president. So that could be folks who were born in Mexico, could be folks who were born in France. It could basically be anybody outside the United States.

But look at this, you might expect this to be a Democratic-leaning group. Uh-uh. Not at least according to an average of our last two polls. What do we see? We see Donald Trump at 47 percent, Joe Biden at 44 percent. Again, that's a close contest. But compare that to four years ago, when Joe Biden had a clear advantage among this group. It just sort of shows you how the issue of immigration has moved wildly against the current president, very much in the direction of the former president, no matter which way you look at it.

DEAN: Yes. And it gives so much context around the politics of this decision today. Harry Enten, thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

[15:05:07]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And joining us now to talk more about this, we have Mark Preston, our CNN Senior Political Analyst.

I wonder how you think, Mark, you know, we see the polls there - how do you think this is going to play politically for an issue that has been a vulnerability for Biden?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I think it's certainly the Biden folks are hoping that this becomes a stopgap measure, that they can at least start stop some of the bleeding, the political bleeding that they're feeling across the country. Because, you know, this is an issue that while it's felt urgently along the border, what we found out over the past couple of months is that we're seeing that these migrants are ending up in cities all around the country and there are mayors all across the country who just can't handle this influx of immigration right now.

DEAN: And Mark, there's already pushback from some progressives on the left. That was expected. I'm sure the Biden campaign, the Biden administration knew that would happen. But this is aimed, again, at the politics of this, not aimed at those - that part of his coalition. This is aimed at moderate voters, probably.

PRESTON: No question about that. And it is pretty - it is expected to see the more progressive wing of the party come out and issue these harsh declarations about why he decided to do this. What is interesting, though, is that you see some Democrats who are running who live in border states, Ruben Gallego, you know, put out a statement. And of course, he's in a tough race or will be considered to be in a tough race with Kari Lake out in Arizona. And he said, look, a good step forward, but we need to do more.

And of course, that's what has to happen on immigration. I remember immigration going back to show my age here in 1994 - or excuse me, back to 2004. And, you know, John McCain, Ted Kennedy, you know, George W. Bush almost got through, didn't get through. I mean, this is an issue that, you know, it's not going to be solved overnight, but there needs to be a step forward.

KEILAR: Yes. That issue would be considered so liberal right now, the way they had approached it, their proposal. It's really stunning here.

You know, I wonder what you think. We just talked to the ACLU, and they successfully sued President Trump. And we asked, are you going to sue Biden on the same grounds. They're going to do that. I wonder, and maybe it's hard to know, but how is that going to play if they are successful? If it really just draws that comparison and says, yes, these two things really are similar, these approaches.

PRESTON: Look, if you oversee coalitions for the Biden-Harris campaign right now, you have a very difficult job because you're trying to keep this progressive coalition underneath the big tent. We're all in it together. Let's get through to November.

But to your point, going into summer right now, where you're going to have a very influential wing of your party with some very influential voices criticizing you, not helpful to this campaign.

DEAN: And so looking forward, who do you - where do you think this ultimately lands? Did Biden have any other choice but to do something before this debate, before we get too far close into the fall?

PRESTON: You know, it's interesting because there is a lot of talk. Is he doing it before the debate? Is he doing it before the debate?

DEAN: Yes.

PRESTON: I think regardless of the debate happening in a few weeks, he had to do something. Again, we're not only seeing this along the border where these border cities are becoming influxed with migrants. We're seeing it all across the country right now and having their own problems. He had to do something. Again, is it the right thing to do? I'll let others decide, but something had to be done.

KEILAR: Sort of separately, but similar in terms of a political issue, Biden, at least kind of privately, although he knew it would be reported, has referred to Trump as a convicted felon.

PRESTON: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) ...

KEILAR: And I think the big question is, you know, is that going to happen in the debate? Is he going to start bringing that out in public? What do you think is going to happen?

PRESTON: Not only convicted felon, but just in the past week, right, I looked back to see some of the things that he said. Just in the past couple of days, he said that Donald Trump snapped. He described Donald Trump as being unhinged.

Last week, he said when Donald Trump attacked the jury that it was reckless and dangerous, clearly trying to cement it in people's brains that maybe Donald Trump, you know, isn't playing with a full deck, so to speak, much like Donald Trump's doing the same thing to Joe Biden. DEAN: Yes. And we've seen those ads. I mean, I think about that Robert De Niro ad that came out in the last couple of weeks where it really kind of crystallized that message you're talking about, and it shows the pictures of him maybe not looking his best, President Trump, and describing him as unhinged.

PRESTON: Politics is dirty ...

DEAN: Yes.

PRESTON: ... that's for sure.

KEILAR: Yes.

DEAN: Yes.

KEILAR: They're both going to, I think, lobbying - be lobbying some of these attacks.

Mark, thank you. Great to have you, as always.

PRESTON: Thanks so much.

KEILAR: And we are following a big story off of The Hill. Attorney General Merrick Garland has now been under intense questioning for about five hours. He's been defending the Justice Department as it faces a regular onslaught of false claims that it was being weaponized against former President Trump. Garland went before the House Judiciary Committee, debunking other conspiracy theories like the DOJ controlling the recent criminal conviction of the former president.

[15:10:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented, and they are unfounded. These attacks have not, and they will not, influence our decision making. I will not be intimidated, and the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence, and we will not back down from defending democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Republicans on the committee are trying to hold Garland in contempt for not turning over the audio recordings of President Biden's interviews with special counsel Robert Hur.

Joining me now is a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington State. She is the chair as well of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Congresswoman, I do want to discuss this hearing with the Attorney General here in just a moment. First, though, I would like to talk to you about this other breaking news we're following, which is the President's executive action on the border. You told CNN earlier, basically, that you - or pardon me, you told the - you told CNN earlier that you were disappointed that the President has sort of gone into the same frame as Donald Trump at a time where you think there should be a distinction between Trump and Joe Biden. Do you see a distinction with this new policy announcement?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): You know, Brianna, I think it's very complicated, right? Because what the President is doing, and I have been clear with the White House for months, that this is not the right way to go, because, A, it's not going to solve the situation at the border. The only way to do that is to actually create more legal pathways to modernize our immigration system, to make sure we are getting resources for immigration judges and asylum officers and border patrol folks.

Those are the kinds of things that would actually make a difference. Just doing enforcement only and shutting down the border, as Donald Trump did, this is the same section of immigration law that Donald Trump used when he shut down the border, is not going to work, because it doesn't get at the root causes of any of why people are coming. And it is deeply disappointing, because we have obligations in both our domestic laws and our international treaty requirements that require us to be able to allow people to seek asylum.

And what the President's executive order does is it caps asylum and says you can only seek asylum if you come through the CBP ONE app or if you're a walk-up to the port of entry. And it really takes away that ability for people to seek asylum between ports of entry, which is, again, against our domestic laws and against international treaty obligations.

So it's not going to get us more Republicans coming over to our side. As you can see, Republicans are just criticizing the President anyway for everything that he's doing, even though it is Republicans that are blocking the ability for us to have real progress and it is going to alienate our base, who is, frankly, just exhausted by constantly seeing immigrants being put up as a political football and attacked in the way that Donald Trump and extreme mega-Republicans have.

KEILAR: Well, so let me ask you about this. The - so the part where he was announcing the 4,300 new asylum officers and additional U.S. citizenship and immigration services staff to facilitate timely and fair decisions, that's a quote I'm reading from what he said. It sounds like that's part of what you're talking about.

JAYAPAL: Well, that is - you know, that part is important. We passed that in our appropriations bill. There was no reason to do an executive order for that part, because we had some money in there in the appropriations bill. Obviously, that must be what they're using, because there's no other legislation that we've passed around that.

The second most conservative Republican senator drafted a piece of legislation that ended up being bipartisan in the Senate that would have required more resources to go into those kinds of things, and Republicans said no. So the President didn't need to do an executive order to assign more asylum officers. He could have done that on its own without the harsh enforcement of shutting down the border. KEILAR: So I do want to ask you now about the Attorney General's hearing. Merrick Garland told the committee he's worried about the possibility of a terror attack after October 7th. This is some of the strongest comments that we've heard so far from top law enforcement officials. What are your concerns?

JAYAPAL: Well, you know, I think Republicans just continue to use this hearing as a way to essentially be the campaign arm for Donald Trump in Congress.

[15:15:09]

And to try to distract people from the fact that the former president was convicted on 34 counts, still has other cases that are before us, and the reality is that he and Republicans are continuing to attack the justice system, and they accuse Merrick Garland of all kinds of things today, but obviously the 34 guilty counts for the former president was not under the Department of Justice. That was New York State, and the Attorney General tried to make that clear over and over and over again.

The questions that I have for the Attorney General are really about some of the terrible things that the former president is saying on Truth Social, the threats, the intimidation, the violence sometimes that he reposts or encourages on Truth Social against President Biden, against judges. That is really my concern is that the politicization of the justice system is what the former president seems to be intending to do, and it is very dangerous for our country.

KEILAR: There are three of your Republican House colleagues who are seeking a meeting with Attorney General Garland. They're accusing the DOJ of excessively sentencing January 6th defendants. What is your response to that?

JAYAPAL: It is stunning to me that we could have seen an insurrection as we saw on January 6th. I was in that chamber, Brianna. I remember exactly what happened there, how we all feared that we might never get out of there alive, and that this was such a deep attack on our democracy, and the fact on our democracy. And the fact that we now have members of Congress, Republican members of Congress, who are trying to say that those people should not be held accountable for what they did for perpetrating this kind of an incursion on our democracy is stunning to me, and it just shows how dangerous a situation we're in and why we need a Department of Justice that is absolutely and thoroughly dedicated to holding everybody accountable. And nobody is above the law, not the former president, if he incites an insurrection, and not the people who charged the Capitol that day in the worst assault on the United States Capitol since the early 1900s.

I think we have to be very clear that this is a massive problem, and Republicans are trying to undermine democracy at the most fundamental level. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thank you so much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

JAYAPAL: Thank you. KEILAR: And still to come, the infamous laptop is in the courtroom. Prosecutors introducing Hunter Biden's laptop as evidence. We'll have the latest on the President's son's trial on felony gun charges.

Plus, the official start of summer is still weeks away, but parts of the U.S. are already baking in triple-digit heat.

And later, wages are up, but a new study finds CEO pay is shot up even higher. We have those stories and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:22:46]

DEAN: Just moments ago, prosecutors in Hunter Biden's federal gun trial showed the jury these photos they found on Hunter's electronic devices, all of this coming after they introduced his - into evidence his infamous laptop that he left at a Delaware repair shop back in 2019. Republicans have repeatedly used its salacious contents to attack both Hunter Biden and the President in the years since.

CNN's Paula Reid is joining us now from outside court in Delaware. Paula, what more can you tell us about those photos we were just looking at?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jess, right now prosecutors are introducing evidence from Hunter Biden's various electronic devices, including that infamous laptop. The kinds of evidence they're showing the jury include those photos of drugs, including crack that he was addicted to at the time, also text messages with someone he was buying drugs from. They also introduced bank records that show that around the time he purchased this firearm, Hunter Biden was withdrawing hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a day.

Now, in the course of today's presentation by prosecutors, they have an FBI agent on the stand, and she's helping them introduce this evidence. But it was interesting, the first witness we really heard from was Hunter Biden himself, because the first piece of evidence they introduced was a large portion of the audio version of his memoir, which he personally narrates. They played while I was in court, they played over an hour worth of clips from that book, and Hunter Biden sat there attentively listening to himself tell the story of how he descended into addiction. And they focused specifically on the time between the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2019. Of course, that is around the time when he purchased this firearm at the center of this case.

Now, it's unclear if they're going to get to another witness today, because, of course, the defense attorneys will also have a chance to cross-examine this FBI agent. It was unclear how much time they'll take, because the purpose is not really to hear her testimony, but to have her help in getting in all this critical evidence.

DEAN: Yes. And, Paula, you mentioned that audio that they played, and it was a part from his autobiography where he talks about his spiral into his addiction to crack cocaine. Why do you think that particular piece is significant, and also the playing of the audio?

[15:25:01]

REID: So that is significant, particularly the dates that he is discussing in terms of the addiction, because they allege here that he purchased a firearm and lied on the form when he said he was not a user of or addicted to illegal drug. So they're using the memoir to bolster their case, showing, look, you can hear Hunter Biden, in his own words, talk about the depths of his addiction that he was experiencing around the time he purchased this firearm. That's the purpose of it.

Now, just look, it could go the other way. It could also engender some sympathy. We know that the majority of the potential jurors in this case said that they or someone they know have experienced addiction. So this is something that can also garner a lot of sympathy, potentially, for the defendant hearing his story in his own words.

DEAN: All right, Paula Reid with the latest outside the court in Wilmington, Delaware. Thanks so much.

And I want to talk more about this with former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers, who's joining us now. Jennifer, thanks so much for being here. We just heard from Paula about the laptop being introduced as evidence. That, of course, has been talked about for so many years now by Republicans in a lot of cases used to attack Hunter Biden and his father. How significant is it that that laptop has now been introduced into evidence?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jessica, it's about the evidence that's on it, of course, the prosecutors are putting in. And it contains, as has been said, some really salacious pictures of drug use and other things that are going to be embarrassing to Hunter Biden, but also help prosecutors prove their case. But it's not just that. It's a lot of communications as well, text messages, emails and other communications where Hunter Biden is talking about his drug use at the relevant time.

So it has a lot of important evidence for prosecutors to put it in. And there have, of course, been arguments about what should stay out and what should come in. And the judge is taking steps to redact some pictures and so on. I mean, if it's just for shock value, of course, it's not coming in. It has to be relevant as well. But it's a it's a good sized part of the prosecution's case here.

DEAN: Right. And they're also using his own words from his memoir in him saying he's reading his autobiography. Why is that significant? And it's probably also worth noting he's not planning to take the stand. So this may be the time that jurors actually feel like they hear from him.

RODGERS: It's so interesting, because any time a jury gets to hear the defendant's voice when he or she doesn't testify, it's very powerful. Usually it would be in the form of a wiretap evidence or other recorded evidence. So usually it's the defendant saying things that they wouldn't want anyone else to hear, right, that directly implicates them in the criminal behavior. Here, this also implicates him in the criminal behavior, but not in the same way. This is a book, of course, that he voluntarily wrote and that he decided to narrate himself as an audio book.

So I agree with Paula, It could cut both ways. Of course, it has evidence that the prosecutors want to get in around the timing of the drug use. But there he is in his own words talking about his struggle. And, you know, I think that for the sake of completeness, if the defense wants to put other portions in, if they're relevant at all, the judge will probably let them do so.

So they may get a lot of information from Hunter Biden in his own words so that he doesn't have to testify in a way. He may get out this notion of his struggle in a way that is sympathetic to the jurors without having to take the stand and subject himself to cross- examination. So it might actually be good for him, too, as well.

DEAN: Yes, it'll be interesting to see, especially knowing that some of those jury members have said they do have family members who have suffered from and dealt with addiction.

Jennifer Rodgers, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

A heat dome out west will send temperatures into the triple digits, which could fuel fires already burning there and potentially ignite even more. We have that story for you next.