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Biden Admin Releases Plan For When Title 42 Ends Next Week; New Episodes Of "Harry & Meghan" Explore Split From Royal Family; Sources: Jill Biden "All In" For 2nd Run At The White House. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 15, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: And further south, the tornado threat persists. Parts of Central Florida right now remain under a tornado watch. And in Louisiana, where there is a state of emergency, residents in one town say they barely escaped last night storm alive.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It shook us and knocked us down, but then when I walked over, I've seen all the damage on the street. I just can't believe. This happened like eight seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just had a whole bunch of booming against the wall and then as I'm running out, my brother, he runs in front of me, and then as we're running, we just hear a whole bunch of boom and then everything like we hit a roof lifting and he's lifted off his feet and he grabbed on to the doorframe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when I heard, I thought it was an explosion and then my mama told me to get down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Listening to that little kid and what that night must have been like for him. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the nor'easter. So Jennifer, when will it hit?

GRAY: Well, we're already starting to see snow across portions of the Northeast, interior sections of the Mid-Atlantic. We're still seeing severe storms across portions of Central Florida as well. We still have a tornado threat across Central Florida. It's cleared out for Tampa and Orlando, but now making its way down to the south, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach will be next.

So that threat will be winding down as we go throughout the day. Here is the snow. You can see the big cities are all rain: D.C., Philly, New York, you're in on the rain, I-95 corridor is clear of the snow. But we're looking at snow across interior sections and the biggest threat with this is really the ice.

We're going to see icy conditions across this region. We've already had ice accumulation of more than a quarter of an inch, so this will definitely create some travel problems in this area as well as potential power outages when you talk about the snow weigh - or the ice, rather, weighing down on those power lines.

So winter storm warnings are in effect across interior sections of the Northeast and New England, Boston, New York, Philly, D.C. all out of it, but that ice warning as well. So going forward in time, we're going to see the snow develop or continue, I should say, across northern Pennsylvania, Upstate New York. That's going to continue throughout the overnight hours, just a miserable cold rain for the I- 95 corridor and then that snow will finally lift to the north and get out of here by tomorrow, Victor and Bianna. But we do have windy and cold conditions across the Northeast and New England.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Day after day the storm system causing more problems and now it's moved east. Jennifer Gray, thank you.

The Biden administration is bracing for a crisis on the border and just released a plan for when the Trump era immigration policy Title 42 comes to an end next week. Now, part of the plan includes sending more resources to the border, also imposing consequences for illegal entry.

GOLODRYGA: But right now communities across the southern border are already overwhelmed. Thousands of migrants are streaming into cities like El Paso, Texas, where resources are already strained. Just last hour, the Mayor addressed the need for more help from the federal government and beyond.

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MAYOR OSCAR LEESER, (D) EL PASO, TX: Funding and sheltering is not the answer. It's a band aid to a really a bigger problem and it's really important for us should we continue to work with our federal governments to see how they can come up with a permanent solution.

It's something that we're going to have to work with the U.N. and other countries to work through a situation that, again, is bigger than El Paso and now it's become bigger than the United States.

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GOLODRYGA: I mean, that's quite significant to hear him say this is bigger than something the U.S. can handle alone. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from the Mexican side of the border.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are on the banks of the Rio Grande in Juarez, Mexico. And this is the area where we have seen for days now the surge of migrants arriving by some estimates about 2,500 people a day and you can see scenes like this playing out constantly.

This is a family from Honduras that I just spoke to and they are crossing the river here along that rocky path that has been created by migrants. And essentially what they're going to do is as they arrive in the United States, just now setting foot over there, they will then stand in this long line of people that you can see out here into the distance, hundreds of yards long. And this is the process that migrants are going through as they're essentially turning themselves into Border Patrol agents right here just on the other side of the river. And you can see here as people have lined up and they have been here overnight in frigid temperatures, 30 degrees, and they're at the edge of the border wall with the barbed wire on the U.S. side where it comes to an end.

There are a number of Border Patrol agents in a chain linked fence essentially calling up small groups of migrants at a time. And from there, they are then escorted to a Border Patrol processing facility several hundred yards away.

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And that is the process that will determine whether or not they get immediately expelled and deported out of the U.S. or if they will be given the paperwork needed to continue going through the immigration process while they wait for that in the United States. But all of these people are essentially waiting for that very unclear as to what might happen.

I just spoke with a gentleman who was from Venezuela who had some Colombian friends who crossed over yesterday and they have already been deported. So a great deal of uncertainty for all of these people and also a great deal of uncertainty for what this scene will look like next week when Title 42 expires. That's the public health rule that essentially allowed the U.S. government to immediately expel large numbers of migrants crossing into the U.S. It was a pandemic era public health policy that was created.

And the concern is that once that is possibly lifted next week that the scenes here of migrants arriving at the border will just be even greater numbers than what we're seeing right now.

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GOLODRYGA: I mean, that is the concern, that once that is lifted that you're going to have just more and more scores of people coming and trying to cross the border. Of course, we'll continue to be covering all of this for you. Our thanks to Ed Lavandera.

Well, the Royal revelations keep coming, but the palace is keeping quiet about the latest installment of the docu series Harry & Meghan. Netflix released the final three episodes overnight and they go deep on why the prince and his wife felt forced to leave their duties in the British monarchy, splitting from the Royal Family in 2020.

BLACKWELL: CNN Royal Correspondent Max Foster reports on the bombshells including death threats, suicidal thoughts and accusations of family jealousy.

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MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: What she said to me was, it's like this fish who's like swimming perfectly, powerful, it's on the right current, then one day this little organism comes in.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The second installment has landed, Harry and Meghan's Netflix docu series latest drop could prove to be a lot more explosive than the last time round.

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MEGHAN: And the entire thing goes, what is that? What is it doing here? It doesn't look like us. It doesn't move like us. We don't like it, get it off of us.

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FOSTER (voice over): While the piece starts with fond recollections of their wedding, it goes on to accusations that the institution became jealous of the couple during that triumphant tour of Australia in 2018.

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PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: The issue is when someone who's marrying in who should be a supporting act is then stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than the person who was born to do this. That upsets people, it shifts the balance.

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FOSTER (voice over): For Meghan, her claims of jealousy, media intrusion, lack of protection from the palace, even leaking of negative stories was too much. The stress of the coverage, she says, triggering a miscarriage and even suicidal thoughts.

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MEGHAN: All of this will stop if I'm not here and that was the scariest thing about it, is it was such clear thinking.

DORIA RAGLAND, MEGHAN MARKLE'S MOTHER: I remember her telling me that that she had wanted to take her own life and really broke my heart.

HARRY: I was devastated. I knew that she was struggling. We were both struggling, but I never thought that it would get to that stage. And the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER (voice over): And late 2019, Harry says conversations were leaked between him and his father about Meghan and Harry taking reduced roles and leaving the U.S. In early 2020, they issued their own statement laying out their plans, which culminated in a family row of the Queen's Sandringham Estate between Harry, William, Charles and the Queen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRY: It was terrifying to have my brother screaming, shouting at me and my father say things that simply weren't true and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.

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FOSTER (voice over): A year later, ahead of their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, a story leaked that Meghan had bullied her palace staff.

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HARRY: To see this institutional gaslighting that happens is - that is extraordinary and that's why everything that's happened to us was always going to happen to us, because if you speak truth to power, that's how they respond.

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FOSTER (voice over): Harry speaking out for his wife but also his mother, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace say they won't be responding to the Netflix series instead, senior Royals will continue with their planned public engagements.

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BLACKWELL: Max Foster joins us now. Also here, Emily Nash, Royal Editor of HELLO Magazine. Max, let me start with you. After the Queen's death, there was that joint appearance with the princes and their wives and people were wondering if this was a moment for reconciliation.

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If there were any avenues open then, does this series close those off?

FOSTER: I think it does, because Harry has betrayed so many competencies which William and Charles wouldn't have liked to see happened. For example, that conversation at Sandringham, that was a deeply private affair. I don't think William will feel he's got the competence to speak to Harry without those sorts of stories leaking and I think that Harry is very aware of that as well, frankly.

When we saw them out and about around the Queen's funeral, just ahead of the Queen's funeral, there was a lot of hope that that was a reconciliation. But to be fair to both sides, they were telling me that this was them coming together for the Queen at a time when the whole nation should be unified.

I don't - didn't get any sense that behind the scenes, they were coming together and certainly later on that week, the - it's pretty clear. And Emily, I'm sure, will confirm this as well, that the two sides weren't really speaking, because they were very discoordinated during that whole week.

So I don't think they ever really came together. I think that was a hope for many people and that hope will certainly be dashed by this documentary.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And Harry has a book coming out as well.

Emily, just objectively watching this, it is kind of difficult to be objective, because you don't have the other side. You don't have the Royals defending themselves or giving their side of the story and it does seem uncomfortable to watch all of this play out within a family. I mean, it's an institution, but it's also a family.

I'm just curious, from your perspective, was there any other way for - that they could have gone about doing this? I'm not denying any of the emotions, the feelings, the accusations made by Harry and Meghan, but to do so, so publicly and knowing that they made so much money off of this, what is your take?

EMILY NASH, ROYAL EDITOR, HELLO MAGAZINE: Look, I think certainly the Royal Family would have much preferred for things being resolved within the family and not in the public arena like this. It makes them incredibly uncomfortable watching everyone.

And while there is sympathy for Harry and Meghan in everything they've been through, they are talking about how their lives have been plastered over the newspapers. This is exactly now what's happening to the rest of the family and they are not in a position to respond to everything that's being said.

So I think that you have sympathy for everyone involved. It's not what anyone would like for their own family to be going through. And you do have to remember, at the end of the day, these are just human beings, they may be very, very famous, but they are going to be hurting behind the scenes as well.

BLACKWELL: Max, reconcile for us now, King Charles, who has historically wanted to modernize the Royal Family, modernize the British monarchy with what they describe as the rejection of literally the future of the monarchy, when you hear Duchess Meghan talk about the analogy of the fish swimming along and this new organism.

FOSTER: So I think she was embraced and I think if they were to speak as Emily says they're not speaking, I think they would argue that they did defend Meghan and they did do as much as they could to promote her within the family and give her a senior role and embrace her.

I think, Harry talks about this, ultimately, it's a hierarchy. I mean, the institution wouldn't exist without a hierarchy. Charles will always be senior to William, will always be senior to Harry and that, I think, is something that Meghan, in particular, struggled with. Because she felt that when there were decisions, they would lean towards the more senior Royals, but that is what happens in an institution and she felt, and Harry felt that they weren't putting the people in the institution first. They're putting the institution first.

I think, frankly, that is often what happens in a monarchy, but it wouldn't exist without that and they just weren't willing to compromise on that. GOLODRYGA: Nevertheless, Netflix says that they've never seen the viewership like this in terms of any of their series that they've released thus far. So clearly, a lot of people are interested in this family dynamic. Max Foster, Emily Nash, thank you.

Well, sources close to First Lady, Jill Biden, say she is all in for a second run for the White House. We'll have details up next.

BLACKWELL: And the mother of one of the Idaho college students murdered is now speaking and claims she's been kept in the dark about the investigation. That's ahead.

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GOLODRYGA: Sources close to First Lady Jill Biden, tell CNN that she is now all-in for her husband's 2024 reelection campaign. The President, we should note, has yet to officially announce anything.

BLACKWELL: CNN White House Correspondent Kate Bennett is with us now. So you note that this is a huge shift from her position just a few months ago. What are your sources telling you?

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, she's always said she's on board for a second term. You don't go into the White House for first term thinking there won't be a second one so, of course. But the last few weeks have really made an impact on the First Lady, just a series of wins for the president have sort of shifted her from, all right, let's figure this out to, okay, I'm all in.

From the midterm election results to the uptick in the economy slightly and Brittney Griner even, all these sort of baseline wins for the president have made her more reassured about a successful outcome for 2024. And that's important to the First Lady.

Now, she is very much like her predecessors, looking down the road of that legacy of the president and has had concerns people tell me about him, always being the oldest president, the octogenarian in office and she doesn't necessarily want that to be the first sentence of every story about Joe Biden in the history books.

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And so, of course, there is a little bit of concern there that that's the story. Hunter Biden clearly will be another target should 2024 happen again - happen. And this is something that the First Lady keeps her eye on. So she's sort of looking at it holistically and feels at this point that she is really strongly feeling that 2024 is going to happen in a big way for her and her family and her husband, and that she is, like I was told, all in on this.

I will also say the East Wing is saying she was always all in on it, but the shift here is that she's very much bit vocalizing. This is something that she stands behind her husband and they want to do.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll see when the announcement is made one way or the other. Kate Bennett, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: CNN Political Commentator Bakari Sellers is a former South Carolina State Representative and Doug Heye is a Republican Strategist, the former Communications Director for the RNC.

So Bakari, this isn't really that much of a surprise and it does seem to be sort of the next step to finally hearing from the president himself, making it official that he will, in fact, run for reelection. Once that does happen, do you expect to see any other Democrats stand in his way?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So first, I want to just back up a little bit and say this is somewhat of a surprise, because you do know that the only people really that the President will listen to when making a decision are his sister, Valerie Biden-Owens, his wife, of course, Jill, and maybe Anita Dunn and a few others.

And by having his wife fully invested and onboard with him running for reelection, you can pretty much guarantee that his words will be, yes, I'm running for President of the United States. Will somebody else challenge him - I mean, I'm not naive, I do believe he'll get a challenge, many people will support the President of the United States, but probably get a challenge from the left, someone who thinks that maybe he's not progressive enough or whatever they may say, from the Bernie Sanders' wing of the party.

I don't think that challenge is going to go anywhere, but the President has to be prepared to run a full campaign. At 80 some odd years old, he has to be prepared to maybe have a primary but definitely not have a COVID abbreviated general election and that's daunting for someone of any age.

BLACKWELL: What's interesting is the latest CNN poll that just came out is that 72 percent of the people who want someone other than Joe Biden, they don't have a specific person in mind. They just say someone else which actually might support the president in making the announcement because there is no singular strong alternative right now.

Doug, let me come to you. The latest polls show that on the Republican side, we just had two come out, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, that show that Republicans prefer Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, above the former President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in 2024. Does that change at all? Do those numbers shift based on whether or not the President runs for reelection?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No, I don't think they do. Republicans are focused on themselves, first and foremost, on what they'll do. And what we've seen clearly over the past few months is Donald Trump, though he still makes headlines or at least tries to with the bizarre NFT announcement today, tries to make news. What we're seeing is that he's fading in the mind of a lot of Republican voters.

They may still like Donald Trump, but he's not front of mind for them like a Ron DeSantis is or a lot of the Republicans who actually did have successful campaigns either this time or in previous cycles, we're looking at running. They want a new generation of Republicans and that's not Donald Trump.

GOLODRYGA: Doug, can I just stick with you and ask you what's going on in terms of your party's leadership right now, because it does seem to be at sort of a crisis moment where you have Kevin McCarthy now with our reporting, at CNN's reporting, that the more moderate Republicans in the House are trying to perhaps they offered the carrot option and now they're going for the stick option for some of the ultra conservatives in the party that simply don't want him in leadership once Republicans take over the House.

Also concerns within the party about just how much power in the standing that McConnell has in the Senate among Republicans. What do you make of all this?

HEYE: Look, it's very interesting in the House right now. We often hear that the Republican moderates are going to flex their muscles. It seems every six months, there's an issue comes up where moderates are starting to talk about flexing their muscle and quite often they don't even know where the gym is, but this time they're organized, they're active. Congressman Dave Joyce is supporting an OT - or excuse me, an OK button that he's wearing that says - means only Kevin.

So moderates are in this for a long fight and they're going after the Freedom Caucus part of the Republican Conference in a way that they usually talk about but don't do. This is a pretty significant development and bodes well for Kevin as this very difficult process moves forward.

BLACKWELL: Do you think they could come up with maybe a more robust phrase for themselves other than OK?

GOLODRYGA: OK goes a long way though.

BLACKWELL: Okay. Okay.

Bakari, let me come to you and the expiration of the Title 42 at the border, that's coming in a few days. You've already got this surge that Ed Lavandera showed us, the long line there at El Paso.

[15:25:06]

How much of a political problem is this for the President?

SELLERS: No, it's a political problem for everybody in Washington, D.C. I mean, Americans want the border fixed, they want a bipartisan solution to that. And I think that the President is going to - and the Vice President for that matter, are going to flex their muscles to piggyback on what Doug was talking about earlier in finding the gym and put together a bipartisan coalition.

The problem is that there's going to be so much gamesmanship on both sides as we go towards 2024, that I'm not sure anything will get done. I'm not that old, but I do remember the Gang of Eight and how they came forward with some bipartisan immigration for portfolio in plan and policy proposal that was pooh-poohed and they were nearly run out of the United States Senate.

I anticipate seeing something else like that come forward with individuals on both sides of the aisle, because that's what it's going to take - put together a comprehensive plan for our immigration problem. Is it a problem? Yes. Does the White House identify it as a problem? Yes. Is there the political will encouraged in Washington, D.C. to tackle that problem? I don't know.

GOLODRYGA: So, Doug, let me ask you that because clearly the border has been and will continue to be the focal point here of criticism from Republicans against this administration. That's fair, they're in power and so they received a lot of the attention and criticism.

That having been said, it takes two to tango here. Their previous focus was on the economy. Inflation is still very high, but a lot of other things, gas prices are down, unemployment remains low and inflation looks like it's heading in the right direction by polling. So will Republicans come to seem some sort of middle ground with Democrats on the issue of the border?

HEYE: I think most likely not. What we've seen is immigration is a difficult issue regardless of who's in power. But what we've seen is when you have all democratic control, we don't see large scale legislation on immigration. When Republicans are solely in control, we don't see it either.

So in divided government, it's going to be even more difficult. There's obviously legislation right now that spearheaded by Thom Tillis from North Carolina, my home state, and Kyrsten Sinema who's no stranger to headlines these days. And they've put a good faith effort forward, but it doesn't appear that that's moving in the Senate and that becomes much harder come January.

BLACKWELL: Doug Heye, Bakari Sellers, thank you both.

HEYE: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station springs a significant leak. What we know about it next.

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