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Source: Migrant Flight To Guantanamo Bay Expected Today; El Salvador Offers To House Violent U.S. Criminals And Deportees; RFK Jr's HHS Nomination Passes Key Senate Committee Vote; Soon, Senate Committee Votes On Tulsi Gabbard's DNI Nomination; Divers Return To Frigid Potomac River To Recover Wreckage, Remains; Investigators Review New Information In Plane-Helicopter Crash; Waffle House Adds 50 Cent Surcharge On Every Egg It Sells; 2.2B Gallons Of Water Released From CA Lakes On Trump's Orders. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 04, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:31:38]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today, a military flight carrying migrants is expected to land in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after President Trump's memo directing the federal government to prepare the U.S. naval base to house tens of thousands of migrants.

But now, attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon are scrambling to figure out if this is even legal.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is on this story for us.

Tell us about the concerns of legality here.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is something that the attorneys are reviewing within the federal government. Essentially, can you pluck someone out of the United States who is on U.S. soil and take them to Guantanamo Bay to then be repatriated to their origin country?

When the Migrant Operations Center, which is on the base, has been used before, it has been used to interdict -- or rather to have and hold those who are interdicted at sea. So they never actually touch U.S. soil.

So this is something that is completely unprecedented. And it is what the attorneys have been reviewing.

But, Brianna, in the last couple of minutes, I did learn more details about this flight. A Homeland Security official telling me it's about nine to 10 people. They describe them as having criminal records, who will be transported today to Guantanamo Bay.

Again, all of this is part of this broader effort by the Trump administration to ramp up their detention space, because that is a hurdle that they're already facing as they arrest migrants in the interior of the United States. And the idea and the planning is to set up various tent facilities, again near the Migrant Operations Center, to house people before they're repatriated.

There are still so many questions here as to whether they have any legal services that they could reach while they're there. How long can they be held there? And can they be held there at all, particularly after they have been put on U.S. soil? And immigration law applies to those within the United States.

So there's still a lot that needs to be worked out here. But sources I've been talking to say the planning is well underway. The tents are going up. And as the flight shows today, this is very much something that they are putting in motion.

KEILAR: And you also have Secretary of State Rubio championing a deal that he struck with El Salvador. Tell us about this.

ALVAREZ: This has been an agreement that has been in the works for some time now. The Trump administration and the officials I've spoken with say El Salvador is one of their closest allies in Latin America. They plan to lean on them a lot, not only for agreements like this.

But also to broaden out in Latin America to strike even more agreements. And this, in particular, would be sending criminals from other countries that are in the United States and deporting them to El Salvador. They see this as a deterrent.

The big question, however, is that the El Salvadoran president also said that U.S. citizens could be part of this. Well, you can't deport a U.S. citizen. So there's still questions, a lot of questions that are concerning legal experts on that front.

But certainly, this type of agreement of sending other nationalities, this is something Trump officials came into office wanting to strike. It appears that they have done so, and they want to continue to do so in Latin America.

KEILAR: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for the report.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: One of President Trump's most controversial cabinet picks is now one step closer to being confirmed. Today, the Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines, 14 to 13, advancing Robert F. Kennedy Jr's nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Another critical vote is just minutes away. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for director of National Intelligence, is also trying to clear a Senate committee hurdle.

[13:35:05]

CNN's Lauren Fox is standing by for us on Capitol Hill. And, Lauren, just last week, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a

physician, said that he was struggling with Kennedy's nomination over his stance on vaccines. Obviously, something changed his mind.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, he had a lot of conversations, and he made clear in his statement earlier today, as well as a long speech on the floor of the United States Senate, just how he got to yes.

He really credits Vice President J.D. Vance with helping him get to yes. He also says he was able to get several promises from the administration, serious commitments, he said, about what exactly was going to transpire at HHS in the months ahead.

Including getting quarterly hearings if he wanted them from RFK Jr as the chairman of the Health Committee. He also said that there were assurances he was getting that the CDC's Web site would not take down any information guiding parents that there was no link between autism and vaccines.

But this was what he said on the floor, trying to explain just how he got to yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): This is the context that informed me when considering RFK as the nominee to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

It was a decision I studied exhaustively, I took very seriously. And as I said I would, I spoke with Mr. Kennedy not once, but multiple times over the weekend, including this morning.

We had in-depth conversations about the medical literature, about the science behind the safety of vaccines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, like you mentioned, in just a short time, we expect the Senate Intelligence Committee to hold their vote on whether or not to advance Tulsi Gabbard as the director of National Intelligence.

Right now, we have heard from all of the Republicans on that committee. We do expect her to get confirmed and advanced to the United States Senate floor.

Again, I talked to Todd Young, a Republican who had been on the fence just about 24 hours ago, who said that J.D. Vance had a big role in helping him get to yes, as well -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: But it appears the vice president and his input clearly having Republicans fall in line.

Lauren Fox, live for us on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

Still ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, that cheap breakfast at Waffle House may be getting a tad more expensive. And it's all because of one ingredient.

We'll be right back.

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[13:41:42]

KEILAR: Salvage teams on the Potomac River are removing more wreckage from the deadly collision between an Army -- between an American Airlines jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter.

A very large piece of the plane was pulled from the river this morning. The bodies of victims still missing are believed to be trapped within the wreckage of both aircraft. Investigators say the entire recovery process could take more than a week.

Today, the NTSB released this video showing the plane's flight data recorder being processed for expert analysis.

CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, has the latest on the investigation from nearby Reagan National Airport.

Tell us what you're learning, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It is slow, arduous work, Brianna. And the crews, the salvage crews have been out there on the floating crane off in the distance in the Potomac River today.

Today, they recovered a very large section of fuselage from American Airlines flight 5342. You can clearly see the passenger cabin windows, a reminder of the human toll of this crash, 67 people in total dead.

We know that goal today from salvage crews was to recover the cockpit of American 5342. And that will hold some really key clues, especially as they take those pieces to a hangar here at Reagan National Airport.

And the NTSB essentially begins lining up those parts to see if the structure of the plane and the helicopter itself may have contributed to this crash and may have built in a few blind spots here.

We were expecting a bit of an update from the NTSB about what is in the data and voice recorder of combined function onboard the Blackhawk helicopter. Now that is still a mystery.

And the NTSB says in a tweet that it needs additional information to verify data points from the Blackhawk.

I want you to listen now to what NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, told me just yesterday in an exclusive interview. She said, "That is very manual work right now that investigators are doing to line up the timestamps on the data recorder from the Blackhawk to the timestamps of the data recorder on the American Airlines jet."

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: Every piece of information is critical to the investigation. And so -- the NTSB is about transparency. So when we can provide that, I think that will be helpful to provide some additional context and what we're looking at in this investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Flights are taking off and landing here again at Reagan National Airport. In fact, they're using the approach today that was originally the approach that American flight 5342 was lined up on. And then the plane was told by the control tower to switch to runway 33 here. That runway is closed.

We know from American Airlines, in a memo sent out to all of its employees yesterday, that it is welcome news, according to American, that the helicopter corridor that was in use here is at least temporarily closed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

American also said in that memo that it will work with the new administration and leaders in Congress to make sure that aviation is safer.

[13:44:54]

We've also learned from the NTSB they've recovered the logbooks of the pilots of both aircraft. They're going to essentially look at the records of their flights and their training and create a more detailed look at what the pilots were doing in the days leading up to this crash.

A lot of key clues here, Brianna, but the bottom line is way too soon to pin this on any one particular cause.

KEILAR: And so often it's a complex set of causes.

Pete Muntean, thank you for the latest from Reagan National Airport. We do appreciate it.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

People and businesses across the U.S. taking part in the so-called day without immigrants. Some of these videos are from southern California, showing thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets yesterday, many protesting President Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration.

The movement is designed to show the importance of immigrants in the U.S. and decry the presidents mass deportation plan.

Meantime, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, fists we're flying in court when the family of a murder victim attacked the man accused of killing her. Watch this.

Police tell our affiliate, KOAT, that the uncle of the victim jumped over the courtroom gate and lunged at the defendant. A second man joined him, prompting the suspects father to intervene. The two men accused of starting the brawl are now both charged with felonies.

And the NFL says it is standing by its diversity efforts, despite many others in the political and business worlds ditching theirs. Commissioner Roger Goodell says he believes diversity programs have benefited the league.

He says, quote, "We think we're better when we get different perspectives, people with different backgrounds, whether they're women or men or people of color."

Brianna?

KEILAR: Waffle House customers are getting hit with a new surcharge. They'll now be paying $0.50 extra per egg because of the rising costs of eggs.

Waffle House say the surcharge is temporary, let's hope. But the egg shortage behind the extra fee driven by the bird flu outbreak appears to have no end in sight.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here to explain.

Eggs! Is nothing sacred here, Vanessa? Tell us what's going on.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Waffle House did not want to have to do this, but they had to do this. They simply could not absorb the rising cost of eggs because of egg shortages because of this avian flu.

So they are adding a surcharge $0.50 per egg ordered at Waffle Houses across the country. And 2,100 locations are going to be impacted by this.

Now, this is important because this is something they say that they are hoping is temporary, but who knows? That is a big question.

There are Waffle Houses across the country and they serve about 272 million eggs every single year. That's their top-selling item. It doubles waffles. So they're selling more eggs than waffles every single year.

The company said that they wanted to target it - target just this one item instead of raising prices across the menu, because they do hope to be able to take this surcharge off.

And, Brianna, this is all because of that avian flu. It has wreaked havoc on egg-laying birds. About 17 million killed in November and December alone. Huge spike during those two months. And now we're seeing the ripple effect.

Bad news on the way, though. The USDA is projecting that there's going to be a 20 percent increase in egg prices this year just because, Brianna, it takes about nine months to rebuild those lost flocks. So egg prices right now, holding steady at about $4:14, a dozen on

average nationwide. Here in New York, I found some eggs for about $10 for a dozen. That's almost a dollar an egg, Brianna.

So egg prices, going higher and going -- going higher throughout the year, unfortunately, as well -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, those yolks are liquid gold, literally, it appears.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you.

[13:48:54]

President Trump ordering the release of billions of gallons of water from dams in California, saying that it was needed to fight fires. Experts say, instead of helping, the move has basically wasted a precious resource just months before the state's farmers will need it most.

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[13:53:36]

SANCHEZ: So 2.2 billion gallons of precious water released from California dams on President Trump's orders may wind up going to waste. Still, he celebrated the move in a post on Truth Social, declaring, quote, "Water is flowing in California."

But experts say the release provides zero benefit to wildfire-ravaged southern California, since the water is not actually going to go to Los Angeles.

Let's get the details from CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir.

Bill, what is the reasoning behind this release if, ultimately, it's not going to the areas that need it most?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, I think he just showed us the reason is that Truth Social post. It seems that the president was doing this to flex his federal power over California politicians he claims are messing up the water.

Trump has, on the campaign trail going back to his first term, explained California water with almost a childlike ignorance. And what is most staggering is that people at the Army Corps of Engineers in California, who know better, had to follow his command.

He's talked about this giant faucet that holds water from Canada and the Pacific Northwest. There's no such thing.

This water will end up in the Central Valley, farm country hundreds of miles, an entire mountain range away from Los Angeles, where the fires are now fully contained anyway. So this defies logic on every level.

[13:55:03] But the -- but the warning lights for the rest of America is that the Army Corps of Engineers is following these orders. And it doesn't seem like there's anybody there to tell him this is not going to do anybody any good.

It's going to waste two billion gallons of water that could be used later in the spring and summer when there's actual crops to water and when there's usually drought and we need that water, every drop of it is accounted for.

SANCHEZ: Bill Weir, thank you so much for that update.

Just minutes from now, Tulsi Gabbard will face a critical Senate committee vote. Will Trump's controversial pick to be the director of National Intelligence have the support to be confirmed? We'll -- we'll be live with the latest.

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