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Congress Getting Closer to Vote on Revoking Russia's Trade Status; U.S Officials Bracing for Record-Breaking Surge of Migrants; Biden Weighs Releasing 1 Million Barrels of Oil a Day to Lower Gas Prices. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 31, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:01]

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: Congress appears to be inching closer to voting on whether to revoke Russia's trade status with the U.S. GOP Senator Rand Paul now says he's in agreement with the deal reached with Democrats to modify how sanctions can be imposed under the bill, but, and this is an important but, there are still ongoing talks with other senators to finalize the deal.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Yes, Rand Paul (INAUDIBLE) for some time.

CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill. So, Manu, when and what will this do exactly?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would revoke Russia's trade status with the United States as well as with Belarus, in addition to imposing sanctions, allowing the U.S. to impose sanctions on individuals violating the so-called Magnitsky Act, but they don't have deal yet to get to a final passage, even though this is universally supported on Capitol Hill, because there are two ways to get to a vote in the United States Senate. You can have an agreement of all 100 senators on a scheduled vote, or the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, could take procedural steps to schedule a vote.

Schumer has opted not to do the latter because of concerns it could eat up valuable floor time. They're dealing with nominations and other issues and said they've had to negotiate. Now that Rand Paul has gotten some changes to the bill, they have narrowed that the human right -- that language about sanctions, he was concerned it was too broad. Now, a number of other senators want their own changes to the bill. So, those negotiations are continuing to take place.

And assuming they get an agreement, once they get an agreement, then it can move through the Senate but then they have to go back to the House for final passage before it could get to the president's desk. So, despite 424 votes in the House, the president supporting this and their desire to speak in one voice, cracking down on Russia to try to punish Russia, the Senate still squabbling, still not a deal, still questioned about when this will ultimately pass. HILL: Well, as we wait, Republican Senator Kevin Cramer is now suggesting that Putin should expose any dirt he has on President Biden following up on some comments from the former president. How's that going down on the Hill?

RAJU: Yes. The number of Republicans doing a lot of what they did during the Trump era, when the former president, then the president at the time, would say something controversial, many would either defend what the president said, President Trump was saying or simply not respond or say they hadn't seen his comments. And in this case, Senator Kevin Cramer suggested that Vladimir Putin should reveal dirt on the Bidens, even though he said didn't believe that he would. Listen.

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SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Well, I don't know if he has dirt on Biden. If he does, he should reveal it. But he is a war criminal, so I don't expect he's right now thinking about ways that he can, you know, reveal other information, if, in fact, he has it. I don't know of any that he has, so I don't know what the president might be talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, we went on to ask him further about what really he actually meant, that he should reveal dirt. He either repeated that line. He said he's not going to also focus on what the former president is doing, instead focusing on what the current president is doing.

And just moments ago, I asked Senator Chuck Grassley, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he's investigating Hunter Biden himself. I asked him about whether Trump's comments were appropriate that Putin should release dirt on the Bidens. He did not want to comment. He said he's going to focus on his own investigation. Guys?

SCIUTTO: Manu Raju on the Hill, thanks so much.

Let's speak now to CNN Politics Reporter and Editor at Large Chris Cillizza, also the author of The Point Newsletter.

So, fact is one party has, in effect, normalized foreign interference in the election. Trump asked for it in 2016. He said his personal lawyer to speak with a Russian-connected politician in 2020. He's asked for it again. And you have a GOP senator there saying, hey, this war criminal, it's fine. I want to play what Mike Quigley said about this just a short time ago on our broadcast and get your reaction. Have a listen.

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REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): It's something that has to be first and top of our agenda. Yesterday, I addressed the House and I talked about useful idiots.

[10:35:02]

There are lot of members from the conservative right, not just elected officials, who are saying things that are being used, as you know, on Russian media to help their cause. They're helping Ukraine fight -- they're helping Russia fight against our ally, Ukraine. They have to be held to account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So, you see it both on election interference and on parroting Russian talking points on Ukraine. Are there any consequences for this or is this the new normal?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR AT LARGE: No, there aren't any consequences for this. I hate to say it. I mean, I wish I could say, yes, there are, but I think the last five years have proven there aren't. We're defining normal downward. Donald Trump did that for four years. He said he did things, from foreign policy to domestic policy to just interpersonal relationships, that would get, forget another president, another politician potentially kicked out of office, and yet the enabling continues.

For me, Jim, I think both of these things are important. I don't think we can ignore what Donald Trump said and did, which is, again, as you pointed out, like he did in 2016. Remember, he said, if you've got Hillary Clinton emails, Russia, release them, we want to see them, right on the eve of the Democratic Convention. He does that again.

But I think what's worse, more concerning, is the Kevin Cramer stuff. Because Donald Trump being Donald Trump should be acknowledged, it's dangerous, he's the potential 2024 nominee. We can't ignore it. The fact that a Republican senator would say, like, yes, that makes sense to me, in the midst of -- we haven't even talked about, in the midst of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, led and engineered by Vladimir Putin, that strikes me as even more concerning because it's yet more evidence that the Republican Party is just going to cede to whatever Donald Trump says or does no matter how outside of the norm of political thinking and operations.

SCIUTTO: Well, what Putin says, Erica, or what Putin says.

HILL: Right. And we know too, speaking of what Putin says, we know too that some of these comments, right, are being picked up and used by Russian state media. And that doesn't really seem -- even that doesn't seem to generate the concern that you would hope it would, Chris.

CILLIZZA: No, Erica. I think part of the problem there is that this is a party that is beholden and, in many cases, afraid of its own base. This party is afraid that the Republican base will turn against them in the way it did against Jeff Flake, in the way it's done against a number of people, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, people who have gone against, spoken up against what they believe to be Donald Trump's excesses.

And so, unfortunately, that relatively narrow scope, is this good or is this bad for me politically, they don't see the wider picture here, which is this is playing into a geopolitics that is bad for America. Forget bad for you, forget bad for your party, bad for America. It's so narrowly focused on, what's good for me, is this going to make -- people like Donald Trump, therefore, whatever Donald Trump says, I'm going to back. Well, wait a minute. It has implications well beyond North Dakota, Kevin Cramer's case, or these other states. It has impacts on the global stage. And they're just either not seeing it or choosing not to see it.

HILL: Yes. It's the larger implications, but even if it's just about their constituents, even they're being ignored too, because, as you point out, it's about getting reelected. Chris Cillizza, always good to have you on, I appreciate it, my friend. Thank you.

Well, the Biden administration is bracing for a massive wave of migrants at the southern border as some Trump-era pandemic restrictions are set to expire. Are DHS officials ready? That's ahead.

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SCIUTTO: The Biden administration is now planning to end a Trump-era restriction on the U.S.-Mexico border, which could then lead to a major influx of migrants there. The restriction is known as Title 42, it was imposed at the start of the pandemic. It blocks migrants from entering the U.S. under the auspices of a health emergency. That may now change.

HILL: CNN's Rosa Flores went to the southern border in Texas where officials are preparing for thousands of immigrants to try to enter the country.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Five-year-old Allison was from Colombia. She wants to be a doctor.

She is one of more than 140 migrants who, in the span of 30 minutes, were dropped off by border patrol at this Del Rio respite center. This month, border patrol has dropped off more than 4,400 migrants, says Tiffany Burrow, the director here, more than twice the number in January.

TIFFANY BURROW, DIRECTOR, VAL VERDE BORDER HUMANITARIAN COALITION: I would say the 4,400 is a drop in the bucket.

FLORES: These are migrants processed and allowed into the U.S. despite title 42, the pandemic public health rule, which allows border patrol to swiftly return some migrants, mostly to Mexico, without the opportunity to seek asylum. Burrow is bracing for an even bigger surge when the Biden administration lifts Title 42, DHS officials preparing for up to 18,000 migrants to attempt to enter the U.S. a day.

Are you prepared for Title 42 to lift?

BURROW: I don't think anyone can truly be prepared.

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FLORES: In the past two years, 1.7 million migrants have been expelled under the Trump-era rule. This week, the CDC is set to decide if the order is necessary. If you ask the Val Verde county sheriff --

SHERIFF JOE FRANK MARTINEZ, VAL VERDE COUNTY, TEXAS: I mean, wish they would extend it.

FLORES: He points to the more than 15,000 migrants who he says camped under a bridge here in September of last year waiting for immigration authorities to process them.

MARTINEZ: Last year, we called it a crisis. This year, we see the same thing here in Del Rio. You know, it's going to be a disaster.

FLORES: Here in the Del Rio sector, border patrol has encountered more than 150,000 migrants this fiscal year, a 215 percent increase compared to the same time last year.

Allison shows us the Rio Grande waist deep when she crossed with her mom and her baby brother.

Were you scared? She was a little scared.

The Biden administration is facing pressure from all sides, immigration advocates and Democrats who say, there is no health basis for keeping the Trump-era rule, and from Republicans who have been pushing for Biden's plan to secure the border when Title 42 expires.

The sheriff says migrants are waiting just across the Rio Grande in Acuna, Mexico, for Title 42 to end.

How big are those groups that are in Acuna?

MARTINEZ: They weren't able to give me a number. I know that there's people walking up and down the streets everywhere.

FLORES: The Del Rio border patrol chief taking to social media to show how large groups of migrants are trying to cross into the U.S. Customs and border protection in del Rio saying some migrant- processing facilities have reached capacity.

Your message to the Biden administration?

MARTINEZ: It's time to execute a plan. If they've got a plan, let's start executing it.

FLORES: Are you doing okay? As for Allison and migrants like her who make a stop at this respite center, it's back on buses, this time taking their dreams to destinations across America.

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FLORES (on camera): According to a federal law enforcement official, up to 60,000 people are in the northern part of Mexico waiting for Title 42 to lift, which now we know the Biden administration is expected to do on May 23rd. Meanwhile, DHS is preparing for three different scenarios, the most extreme of those scenarios has agents encountering up to 18,000 people a day and holding space for up to 30,000.

And, Jim, CBP is already deploying, ramping up resources. They deployed 400 agents from other parts of the country here to the southern border with Mexico. Jim?

SCIUTTO: It's going to be big to watch. Rosa Flores on the border there, thank you so much.

Tapping into the oil reserves, the Biden administration now considering a plan to release about a million barrels of oil per day. What will that do to ease gas prices, to affect the oil markets? We'll have a look.

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HILL: President Biden set to announce later today a million barrels of oil will be released each day from the emergency reserves for some time moving forward, all part of an effort to lower the sky high gas prices.

Now, we should hear more details about that when the president speaks from the White House this afternoon, but we do have a little bit of information we can share with you now. CNN's Matt Egan with us.

So, to be clear, this is -- yes, this could have a small impact, right, small, but also has a really important psychological impact because this is a million barrels a day for, what, six months?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Right. Add it up, we're talking about 180 million barrels of oil. This is a really big deal. One energy analyst that I just talked called it the mother of all releases of emergency oil.

We have a chart up on the screen. The previous record for releases was 50 million barrels that was set just four months ago. This is more than triple that. It's also well more than the 30 million that was announced in early March as this war began.

Where is this oil coming from? The federal government has this strategic petroleum reserve, it's emergency stockpile of oil. And it's designed specifically for emergencies, like natural disasters, hurricanes, or a war like this. And the goal is to try to cushion the shock that has been caused by the sideline with the Russian energy.

Now, we did see a reaction with the oil market immediately. Oil prices went down last night, as reports came out about this. Oil prices have bounced back a bit but they're still down about 4 percent on the day.

Everyone wants to know what is this going to do to gas prices? So, it's not going to make gas cheap again but it could help. A veteran energy analyst, Tom Kloza, he told me that before this was announced, he was worried that the national average was going to go up to $4.75 a gallon in the United States this summer. Now, he sees the national average topping out at $4.50.

Now, that's not low, but it is lower than it could be, of course.

HILL: Because a quarter is better, right? You want it to be a quarter lower.

EGAN: Exactly. But I would caution though that this is not a permanent solution. I mean, this is not a bottomless pit of oil. There are limits here. In fact, this 180 million barrel release, that equals about a third of the total oil in the SPR. And so, at some point, that's going to either have to be refilled, which increases demand, or it's not refilled and that leaves less ammo for the next emergency.

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HILL: So, we'll see. We will see how this plays out. Matt, I appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

EGAN: Thank you.

HILL: Thanks to all of you for joining us today. I'm Erica Hill.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks as well.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan will start right after a short break.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN AT THIS HOUR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

We begin with breaking news on the war in Ukraine.