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U.S. Braces for Migrant Surge; Biden Faces Pressure over Title 42; Missing American Student Found; Musk Suspends Journalists on Twitter; Congress Passes Stopgap Bill. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

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Thanks for joining us this morning and CNN "NEWSROOM" starts right now.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Have a great weekend, everyone.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

A lot of news to cover this morning, so let's get started.

First, and this is new, breaking this morning, the father of a student, a U.S. student, who's been missing in France for the past two weeks tells CNN, just a short time ago, that his son, Kenny DeLand, Jr., is alive and that he's spoken to him. We are following the developments of this story very closely. What happened here? We're going to be live in France in just a moment.

Also this morning, the situation growing more complicated at the U.S. southern border. Overnight, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Biden administration's bid to end the so-called remain in Mexico program. This in addition to the scheduled end next week of Title 42. It's causing border towns to brace for a crush of migrants this weekend. CNN will be live once again at the border.

Plus, another development in the last 24 hours. Twitter has suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists from the nation's top news organizations, including this one. Accounts that have covered Elon Musk aggressively in recent weeks. Those accounts now suspended. Why?

First, we begin at the southern border. CNN's Ed Lavandera in downtown El Paso.

I wonder, Ed, what kind of preparations you're seeing there.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, once again, dozens of migrants sleeping on the streets because the shelters here in this city simply overwhelmed. You can see many of the migrants just buried under blankets because the temperatures here have been so painfully frigid at night, into the low 30s over the course of the last week.

And, you know, there are a bunch of different reasons for why this is happening. Shelter space is very limited, but there are also a number of migrants who are traveling in family groups and they get released at different points. So, these areas around bus stations have been kind of like the central gathering points and they don't want to stray too far away from that so that they can be reunited as quickly as possible.

But it is causing a great deal of concern here, Jim, because the mayor of El Paso is now saying that if Title 42 is lifted next Wednesday, December 21st, that's the date that everybody is looking toward, that right now the number of migrants that have been coming into El Paso is about 2,500 per day, the mayor here fears that that number could reach 5,000 people per day, which would be a very difficult situation to handle.

Of course, many of these migrants not necessarily staying here in the El Paso area. It's a transportation logistical issue. You know, they're waiting for buses or flights to reach family members or sponsors in other parts of the country. We've talked to migrants who are traveling to Nevada, all the way to Connecticut. You know, so there's a wide array of places where many of these people are going. But it does take some time and shelter -- people who have been running the shelters say that there are more people coming in than they can get moved out. So that becomes kind of the logistical nightmare that cities along the border could very well be facing next week.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Ed, I wonder, who do people there in El Paso blame for this? This has been a consistent problem for a number of years. There are legislative fixes, right, but progress on The Hill consistently stalled in terms of some sort of bipartisan agreement to adjust the rules, the laws. Who do folks there hold responsible?

LAVANDERA: Well, I think, you know, there's a lot of realization that people here realize that this is a legislative congressional issue, federal issue that needs to be resolved. But, you know, I have found in my years of reporting from border communities is that the intensity over this issue is far more muted here in border communities simply because it's an issue that they've been dealing with their entire lives. It's not -- it's not something that is foreign to them. This has happened before. They've seen it before. You know, perhaps this is a little bit different. But the overall sense that you get from talking to people around these communities is that they've seen this before. It's something they're very much used to. SCIUTTO: Ed Lavandera, there on the board, thanks so much.

Senior White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond with the president this morning in Wilmington, Delaware.

Jeremy, what is the administration doing then to prepare for the end of Title 42 next week? That, of course, the pandemic era policy that allowed them to hold people out of the country due to pandemic concerns. So, what are they doing expecting a surge?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, listen, the administration is preparing for that anticipated surge of migrants coming to the southern border after that policy is set to end next week.

[09:05:06]

An internal DHS memo this week outlined that there will likely be increased, quote, migration flows into the U.S. immediately following the end of this pandemic era policy. And so the Biden administration is outlining the ways in which they are preparing for that expected increase. They are surging additional personnel to the border, increasing transportation, they've hired 1,000 additional border patrol processing coordinators and added 2,500 contractors and personnel from other government agencies to help with this processing. They say that as a result they've been able to increase the processing efficiency, taking 30 percent less time processing migrants at the border compared to last year.

You're also seeing some of these other steps here, including targeting smugglers and bolstering non-profit capacity. They also have increased the amount of soft-sided temporary facilities that they have to increase their capacity to hold more migrants at the border and also increasing busing capacity, for example, as well so that one facility isn't more overwhelmed than any others.

But there's no question that this will be a test, a major test for the administration next week. I asked the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, just yesterday, you know, what is the administration's estimate of how many people could actually come to the border next week? She would not provide an estimate, but she insisted that the administration is, quote, focused and prepared.

But the bottom line here, Jim, is that regardless of what they do, the administration says what needs to happen is Congress. Congress needs to act to change the immigration rules in this country, that that is ultimately the true problem. But right now, of course, given the dynamics on Capitol Hill, there is no indication that that's going to happen anytime soon.

SCIUTTO: And hasn't been for a number of years. Just not the politics behind it for either party.

Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.

New this morning, a positive update to a story we've been following closely. In just the last hour, CNN has confirmed that an American student, pictured there, who went missing in France more than two weeks ago, is alive. It's a relief.

CNN correspondent Melissa Bell, she's been following this story.

So, Melissa, it was Kenny DeLand Jr.'s father who confirmed this to CNN this morning. Do we know anything more, first of all, about his son's safety, health now, but also what led to his going missing?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was 17 days that Ken DeLand Sr. remained without any news of his son, Jim. He happened to be speaking to CNN producer Saskya Vandoorne this morning really for a long time and for the first time sort of broke down crying, explaining how this was simply too much, it had gone on for too long. He wasn't sleeping with no news. You can only imagine how he felt when the news came through, finally the good news.

Now, since then he's confirmed to us that he has spoken to his son, although we still don't have an explanation, Jim, as to where he was or why contact was severed to begin with. We do know that he had been seen on the 3rd of December sort of an hour to the south of where he had been studying, and then nothing at all until this morning.

We've reached out to the prosecutor here in France who opened that missing person's investigation, who's confirmed that Kenny DeLand Jr. has been found and that he's in Spain. So, he crossed that border. We don't know why. We don't know the circumstances. A good news story this Friday morning, Jim, but with a lot of questions still unanswered.

SCIUTTO: No question. A lot of resources put into searching for him in these last 17 days.

Melissa Bell, thanks so much.

All right, now to Elon Musk. He has suspended a number of journalists from top news organizations, including this one, after claiming that they violated Twitter's new doxxing policy by sharing the live location of his private yet. Hours after the decision, Musk entered a Twitter space hosted by "Buzzfeed News" tech reporter Katie Notopoulos. He had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO, TWITTER: There is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists' simple journalists and regular people. Everyone's going to be treated the same. They're not special because you're a journalist. You're just - you're a Twitter - you're - you're a citizen. So, no special treatment. You dox - you dox, you get suspended. End of story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Musk abruptly left the Twitter space after further questions were asked of him. "Axios" media reporter and CNN media analyst Sara Fischer joins me now. So, Sara, I'm trying to find out where the consistency is here. It was

only about ten days ago that Musk tweeted, my commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk. That's changed. He now says it's a direct risk to him and his family. He calls this doxxing. What changed, and is there a consistent policy here?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, Jim, there's definitely not a consistent policy. And I think that's what's causing ultimately these tensions between Elon Musk and journalists.

I think what's changed is that reporters are starting to push back on a lot of Elon Musk's ad hoc policies. They're putting more pressure on him to answer questions about what he's doing with Twitter, and that's been frustrating him.

[09:10:04]

Of course, this isn't the first time he's had a run-in with the mainstream press. He said for a long time that he thinks that citizen journalism, you know, regular everyday people, should have their voices elevated just the same as the mainstream press, sort of implying that, you know, traditional outlets, ones like CNN, "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times," outlets that had reporters suspended last night, don't always tell the full side of the story. That's his claim, of course.

SCIUTTO: Well, there's another issue here because as he is shutting down journalist accounts and folks who, we should note, have criticized him at times, he has re-platformed white supremacist accounts, a whole host of people who have shared not just disinformation but also made horrible attacks on people, espoused offensive views.

Does Twitter, does Musk have an answer to how they reconcile those seemingly contradictory positions?

FISCHER: No. And when he was pressed about it last night on that Twitter space that you referenced, he seemed completely caught off guard. He didn't want to address and answer those questions.

You know, one of the discrepancies that Drew Harwell, a "Washington Post" reporter that was suspended last night, pushed Musk on was, why are you banning me for doxxing, I didn't even post your address.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISCHER: I posted a link to an account that you, you know, didn't even have on the platform. And, really, the tension comes from the fact that you're kicking journalists off for something you call doxxing, which I wouldn't really suggest that that was doxxing, but you're bringing those other accounts on that you just said.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISHER: It seems like there's absolutely no method to the madness here.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Flight information considered by many public information.

Sara Fischer, thanks so much.

FISCHER: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next, a CNN exclusive interview with top Democratic leaders in Congress over Chinese food. Hear what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi think about Biden running again in 2024. Our Jamie Gangel conducted that interview.

Plus, an overnight barrage, yet one more, of missile attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. The military, Ukrainian military says Russia fired some 76 missiles, damaging nine power facilities. Remember these attacks are aimed at punishing the Ukrainian people.

And later, police in Moscow, Idaho, are still trying to find a white Hyundai Elantra that was near the scene where those four college students were murdered. The only problem, there are some 22,000 registered cars just like that one. Details on how they are trying to narrow it down and the pattern that is now emerging from the police tip line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:43]

SCIUTTO: Today, President Biden expected to sign a short-term funding bill, averting a government shutdown for now, at least another week, as congressional negotiators still try to hammer out that long-term funding agreement.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is up on Capitol Hill.

So, Lauren, the Senate did pass the National Defense Authorization Act last night. Now, it's slightly different because neither Republicans or Democrats want to be on the hook for not giving the Defense Department money. But does that agreement there on bipartisan terms give any sort of signal as to whether they can come to a full year government funding package?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what it is a signal of is some of that holiday magic that happens around here on Capitol Hill when lawmakers want to get back home for Christmas and for the holidays. So, we do expect that they are going to be able to pass this larger spending deal.

But, of course, there is a little bit of heartburn in the House of Representatives. You've already started to see a lot of conservatives urging Mitch McConnell to block this larger package in the Senate where they have ten votes, the Democrats are going to need to move this across the finish line.

Of course, we also have rank and file Republicans in the Senate, like Senator Lindsey Graham, who is going to support this larger package, telling reporters yesterday that, you know, House Republicans can't even pick a speaker, how are they going to fund the government next year when they get back into office and have power in the House of Representatives. So, it gives you a little sense of the dynamic at play here.

At the end of the day, we will have not seen any top line for this larger omnibus package. We also haven't seen any details about what this package is going to include. But aides on both sides of the aisle still very confident that they're going to get there. And I do think, like you mentioned at the top, that that larger defense bill is a good sign that lawmakers are feeling like they're in the holiday spirit and they want to get back home soon.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and they don't want to miss their flights. A powerful motivator.

Lauren Fox, thanks so much.

All right, now turning to a CNN exclusive.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, they sat down with our Jamie Gangel for their first ever joint sit- down interview. That conversation spanned a number of topics, including a key one. Well, former President Trump, the future of the Democratic Party, but also their thoughts on President Biden's 2024 bid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're stepping aside. Do you think President Biden should step aside for a younger generation?

NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I think President Biden has done an excellent job as president of the United States. I hope that he does seek re- election.

GANGEL: You think he should run again?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Look, a lot of people -- yes, he's done an excellent, excellent job. And if he runs, I'm going to support him all the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: No better place for a political interview than over Chinese food.

CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash joins me now to talk about this this morning.

I mean, listen, pretty strong endorsements from Schumer and Pelosi there. And had we been talking two months ago -- and I think we were talking two months ago about this -- that the Democratic Party was, at a minimum, tenuous about a Biden 2024 bid. Midterm elections seemed to have changed that. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it is even more

interesting to hear it come from Nancy Pelosi, which is, obviously, the way that our colleague, Jamie Gangel, asked her the question, because she is in her early '80s. She's a bit older than Joe Biden. She's stepping down. If they won the majority, the Democrats, I'm not so sure that she would be stepping down.

[09:20:03]

SCIUTTO: Yes, for sure.

BASH: So, it's -- it really speaks to -- you're right, the change in the feeling about the president among Democrats. I wouldn't call it a sea change, though. When it comes to his policies, when it comes to his accomplishments, sure. There is still real concern about the fact that he's 80 years old.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: I know it seems to anger him and it's understandable that it does because he says that he feels like he's up for it, but that is part of the conversation. And that is the -- what he's going to have to prove to the American people, both in a campaign and, of course, after that if he -- if he -- or in the last two years of his - of his term, I should say.

SCIUTTO: On that 80 age issue, I had heard that Dr. Jill Biden was going to be the one, if anyone, who would say, you know what, time to move on. But our Kate Bennett, our colleague Kate Bennett's reporting is that she's on board now.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: So is that effectively, at least in terms of the decision- making, is that effectively removed as a decisive issue?

BASH: That seems to be the strongest signal yet that the -- I plan to run comments from the president will quickly, in the new year, turn into, I am running.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: Maybe, you know, the State of the Union Address is usually the end of January, beginning of February.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: Wouldn't be surprising if it was sometime around that. Maybe after that.

SCIUTTO: That's right. It's coming soon.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: All right, you sat down with the New Hampshire governor, Governor Chris Sununu. A moderate Republican. Granted one of few who publicly will come out and say Trump should not be the future of the Republican Party. I wonder, I mean, listen, a lot of folks say that privately. A lot more say it privately. Publicly is different. Did he convey to you how he plans to make that a reality?

BASH: He's working on it. He's working on it already. And what I try to do in this series is take the people who we know from hard-hitting interviews that you do, that we all do, and sort of top of the news and get behind what really makes them tick and who they are.

We know that he is somebody who has been very outspoken at times about the fact that he thinks that Donald Trump is wrong headed, more so now, and you'll see that in the interview. But the other thing that he told me was that he almost died last year, which I didn't realize he had a health scare that was that serious.

Listen to him describe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): I thought I had Covid, and I was just exhausted all day for about a week. And then I thought, yes, the holiday weekend of Labor Day of '21 is coming up, I better go and just get checked out. And, sure enough, they -- I had been bleeding inside all week. I had a bleeding ulcer. I only had about a third of my blood levels the way that they should be. And they had to start the transfusions immediately. And, again, I thought I had the flu or Covid. The next thing I know, I got four transfusions over a period of 24 hours.

They saved me. It was great. But it was --

BASH: Saved you like --

SUNUNU: Yes. Well, if - if -- they said, ultimately, you probably just would have fallen asleep and not woken up and you would have never known because you -- I was - I was bleeding out essentially.

So, it was kind of scary because, you know, I'm 47, I like to consider myself like 26, but I am 47 and I'm getting older.

BASH: But 47 is young to have a health scare like that.

SUNUNU: It is. It is. And so you've got to manage your stress. Everybody does, right?

BASH: I was just going to say, you know what ulcers tend to be from, right?

SUNUNU: Yes, I know. I know. It's - it's -- look, it's a stressful job. And we had just come through the Covid pandemic.

BASH: Yes.

SUNUNU: And I think we did great 24/7.

BASH: So, it affected you physically? SUNUNU: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And you saw we were in the woods there. One of the things that he likes to do is hike. He actually, as a young man after graduating from college, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. It took him five months.

But it - so, talking about what happened to him, again, just last year, it really seems to have put things into perspective for him. And it begs the question of whether or not he wants to run for higher office, leave his beloved New Hampshire.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: And, boy, does he love New Hampshire, he says, even to a fault. But he's very committed to trying to redirect his party, the Republican Party, which he is very candid about being totally off course right now.

SCIUTTO: Those moments could be life changing, right?

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Well, Dana Bash, thanks so much. And for all of you, please don't miss the full CNN special "Being Chris Sununu." It's going to start tonight at 10:00, of course, only on CNN.

Still ahead, more explosions rocking Ukraine as a Ukrainian official says 76 missiles -- Russia fired 76 missiles at cities across the country today. That's just so far. We're going to take you live to Kyiv where people rushed to underground train stations to take shelter. There are some pictures of them there. It's a horrible, horrible situation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:34]

SCIUTTO: Russia still raining missiles down on Ukraine, including this morning. Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv among the targets. Ukrainian officials say preliminary data from the attacks suggest that Russia fired some 76 missiles into the country. The missiles killed two people, but they're also damaging critical infrastructure, which then impacts civilians' lives.

In response, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine tweeted, quote, Ukraine will prevail.

[09:30:01]

Noting that emergency repair equipment from the U.S. and the west has now arrived there.

CNN's senior international correspondent Will Ripley joins us now from Kyiv.