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Police Say Texas Woman Shot And Killed By Boyfriend Over Her Getting An Abortion; Reporting Indicates Influx Of Migrants At U.S. Southern Border Smaller Than Anticipated After End Of Title 42; Ceasefire Reportedly Agreed To Between Israeli And Palestinians Forces In Gaza Strip; House Republicans Continue Expanding Investigation Into President Biden's Son Hunter Biden; Congressional Staffers Are Meeting To Find Deal On Raising U.S. Debt Ceiling; Daniel Penny, Who Held Homeless Street Performer Jordan Neely In Fatal Chokehold, Out On Bail; Florida Governor And Possible Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Desantis Holds Event In Iowa; Issues Of Homelessness, Crime, And Drug Use In San Francisco, California, Examined. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired May 13, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:55]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Alex Marquardt in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with a murder investigation in Dallas, Texas, where police say that a Texas woman was shot and killed by her boyfriend over an abortion. Twenty-six-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez was shot in the head the day after she returned from Colorado where she went for an abortion, according to the arrest warrant.

CNN's Isabel Rosales joins me now with more. Isabel, there was an active warrant from a previous incident involving this couple. What more do you know?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alex, court documents detail a history of violence directed against Gabriella Gonzalez. Gabriella Gonzalez told police, according to an arrest warrant, that she had told police multiple times that she was beaten up by Harold Thompson.

During the time of the shooting, there was an active family violence strangulation warrant against Thompson that had to do with a March incident, and according to that arrest warrant, Thompson said to police that Gabriella Gonzalez was pregnant with his child during that incident.

So let's go back to Wednesday. That is when Dallas police got a 911 call. They rushed to a parking lot and there on the ground they discovered 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez shot and killed. They looked at the surveillance footage, and in that footage they found Harold Thompson walking with Gonzalez shortly before the deadly shooting. And in that footage they also saw him attempting to try to put her in

a chokehold. She shrugged that off. That is when Thompson pulled out a gun and shot her. When she hit the ground, he continued to shoot at Gonzalez.

Let's go back to the arrest warrant. In it, police detail, quote, "further investigation revealed that Gonzalez went to Colorado to get an abortion and returned the night before. It is believed that the suspect was the father of the child. The suspect did not want the complainant to get an abortion."

Court documents show that Thompson has refused to give a statement. He has been charged with murder and assault of a household member. A judge has denied him bond for both of those offenses. He is to be appointed a public defender. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Isabel Rosales, thank you very much for that reporting.

Now to new warnings stemming from the end of the U.S. immigration policy known as Title 42. In a new court filing, a senior Border Patrol official projects up to 14,000 migrants could try to enter the U.S. per day in the coming weeks, which could strain already overcrowded border facilities.

But that surge has not yet happened. Instead, authorities say that the long lines of migrants have mostly vanished at many border crossings. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in El Paso, Texas. Polo, what are you seeing?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Alex, there's what is almost guaranteed that we'll be seeing in the future, and there's also what's still kind of up in the air. Let's start on that point, and you briefly touched on it, which is what is projected to be up to 14,000 encounters a day, according to a senior federal official in some of those recently filed documents.

That would be a significant uptick from the average 9,000 encounters that we're experiencing right now. So we'll have to see exactly whether or not that message coming from the Biden administration resonates for migrant groups on the other side of the border to see if they will weigh all their options to see if they will risk it and cross illegally into the United States and to see what that means for border communities like El Paso.

And then the other question, though, is what we are probably likely to see in those communities some thousands of miles from here, places like Denver, places like New York City that many of the migrant groups here tell us continue to be some of the most popular destinations for those asylum seekers that are processed and then released subject to the eventual outcome of their asylum proceedings.

And that really is what's going to be the shared focus here, not only what's happening and what will happen on the border, but also what we may see in places like New York City that have sheltered well over 60,000 asylum seekers in the last year alone. And that's led to a really rocky relationship between New York City officials and some of the neighboring communities. [14:05:05]

As we've reported before, Mayor Eric Adams now coming up with these programs and these proposals to shuttle some asylum seekers that volunteer to take part in this program to neighboring communities. So this is really a constantly evolving situation. But for now, the situation on the border, at least in this part of the border, it is certainly not the chaotic scene that officials were afraid would happen in the days following the lifting of Title 42, Alex.

MARQUARDT: A very fluid and very challenging situation. Polo Sandoval in El Paso, thank you very much for all of your reporting.

Now, some of these migrants have waited months for a chance to enter the United States. CNN's Gustavo Valdes is on the Mexican side of the border and filed this report.

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GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We heard a lot of things prior to the end of Title 42, but one thing we did not expect was this -- an empty border. This is Gate 42 between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. This is the place from which many migrants cross into the U.S. They were lined up up until Thursday when Title 42 ended, and we saw hundreds of them just waiting to be processed by Border Patrol.

But Friday morning and all day we saw the last group of migrants being taken into custody, a few other migrants were rushing in, trying to talk to the National Guardsmen, the state troopers, and the immigration agents who were in this place to see if they would let them cross through this fencing, but they were not successful.

And as you can see now, there is nobody risking to get into the United States. What we heard from the migrants yesterday in particular was that they did try to be here before the end of Title 42, knowing that the new policies could result on a faster deportation with severe consequences. So perhaps the message is getting through to the migrants who are thinking about going into the United States and just enforcing existing laws is working.

However, we know that there are still hundreds of migrants coming north. We have reporters in Central America who are following more migrants coming up. The Mexican government still estimates that there are thousands of migrants in this country trying for the opportunity -- waiting for the opportunity to get into the United States.

The question now is, are they going to continue coming to places like this to turn themselves in to Border Patrol, or are they going to risk going through places more remote and avoid detention?

Gustavo Valdes, CNN, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: Thanks to Gustavo Valdes for that report. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is defending its response to the

situation at the border amid fierce criticism from many congressional Republicans. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House. Arlette, what are officials there saying?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alex, the White House has pushed back on the political criticism and some of the legal challenges the administration is facing in the wake of the lifting of Title 42.

Top officials throughout the Biden administration, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have acknowledged that this is going to be a challenging time. But ultimately, they believe that some of the planning that they've put in place will help as more migrants come to the U.S. amid the lifting of Title 42.

Now, President Biden has faced political pressure from both sides of the aisle. There have been Democrats within his own party who have warned that they believe that the administration has not sufficiently prepared for the lifting of Title 42.

The president has also faced criticism from Republicans who have tried to highlight this moment as a political vulnerability for President Biden. One of those lawmakers, Pete Sessions, the congressman from Texas, compared the scenes that are playing out down at the border to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the White House forcefully pushed back on that idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: I think it's just incorrigible to compare what we're trying to do with safe and effective pathways coming in through the border to what happened with Afghanistan. It is not at all the same situation.

And the footage that you just showed demonstrates that it's not chaos down there at the border, at least not right now. We're doing everything we can to strike a right balance here between providing legal pathways into the country but enforcement of our border laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, in addition to those political critiques, the administration has been grappling with multiple legal challenges. Chief among them is a case down in the state of Florida where a federal judge blocked the administration's plan to release migrants from CBP custody without set court dates. This is something that previous administrations have done to try to ease some of the capacity issues at these facilities.

[14:10:00]

That plan is now on hold for two weeks, and the Justice Department has requested a stay of that judge's order. That is just one of the tools that the administration has been trying to use in the wake of the lifting of Title 42. But there are certainly numerous challenges facing this administration on an issue that really could be a political liability for President Biden, especially heading into that 2024 campaign.

MARQUARDT: Arlette Saenz on the north lawn of the White House, thank you very much.

Coming up, a cease-fire has just been agreed to between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. We will go live to Jerusalem.

And House Republicans continue to expand their investigations into Hunter Biden, the son of the president. A closer look at the allegations and the legal fights that he's facing. That's next.

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MARQUARDT: And this just in, a cease-fire has reportedly been agreed to between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the militant group in Gaza. CNN's Ben Wedeman is live for us in Jerusalem. Ben, what more do we know?

[14:00:08]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We understand from the Egyptian delegation in Gaza that the cease-fire will go into effect at 10:00 p.m. local, that is in 45 minutes. Israel has yet to comment on this. We understand that the basic points of this cease-fire is that there will be a ceasing of the fire from both sides, an end to the targeting of civilians, and also an end to hitting, rathe striking of houses.

This is somewhat different from the initial demands being put out by Islamic Jihad, which included an end to assassinations of their leaders, a return of the body of Khader Adnan who was that leader of Islamic Jihad's political wing who last week died as a result of a hunger strike in Israeli prison. And so that's what we know at this point.

I must stress the Israelis have yet to comment on this, but certainly this comes after five days of intense barrages of missiles out of Gaza and Israeli air strikes on Gaza, and today, of course, the main fatalities were two Palestinians from Gaza -- or rather one Palestinian from Gaza who had a work permit who was injured in Israel as a result of one of those rockets.

But as I said, that's what we know so far. The cease-fire in theory will go into effect in 43-and-a-half minutes. But we will have to see when that time comes if that is actually the case. Alex?

MARQUARDT: And important, as you note, that the Israelis have not yet commented. But Ben, this is a rather abrupt about-face, a bit of a surprise -- correct me if I'm wrong -- because, as you said, the fighting was rather intense, and we had just heard that the cease-fire was, quote -- or a potential cease-fire was on ice. WEDEMAN: Welcome to the Middle East, Alex. There are always

surprises. And when things seem like they're going far to the left, they change direction rather quickly. We knew that the Egyptians all along were involved as they always are in these crises in trying to cease the fire, trying to bring the two sides, obviously not into direct communications, but to send messages back and forth and to make these things happen.

So in a sense, it's gone as far as it can go. Neither side can keep this up for too long. Islamic Jihad has only so many commanders it can have assassinated, so many rockets it can fire. Israel can only take so much of the paralysis of the southern part of the country.

So it does look like there will be a cease-fire, but I must add I have been coming here every year for years now when there has been blowups like this, and a year later it happens again, Alex.

MARQUARDT: And that is why we are so lucky to have you on the ground, Ben Wedeman. No one knows this conflict better than you. Ben Wedeman in our bureau in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

And coming up, the clock is ticking in Washington as lawmakers work overtime to try and hammer out a deal to avoid an unprecedented debt default. Where talks stand right now, that's after the break.

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[14:22:50]

MARQUARDT: On Capitol Hill, House Republicans continue to expand their investigation into President Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Attorneys for an IRS whistleblower who alleges there is political interference at the Justice Department in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation, met with congressional investigators last week.

Republicans are investigating allegations that Hunter Biden made -- that he made, rather, millions of dollars from foreign companies simply because his last name is Biden. Joining me to talk more about this is Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor and a former independent counsel. Michael, thank you so much for joining us today.

What do you make, now, of this IRS investigator alleging political interference at the Justice Department? Do you think that Republicans need to present evidence instead of just allegations?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It's always a good thing, isn't it, to have evidence instead of allegations? The FBI doesn't credit this whistleblower yet. They say they're unsubstantiated allegations.

And so I think we're in a better position to wait and see whether this is not a disgruntled employee with a political agenda versus a person who has real substantive information.

Until that time, Alex, I just don't think it's responsible for us to speculate. The House Republicans can because they're politicians. But you and I, we should wait for the evidence to come forward.

MARQUARDT: And, Michael, so far federal prosecutors have not brought charges against Hunter Biden, so what does it tell you that after such a long investigation that so far no charges have yet been brought?

ZELDIN: Well, it could be that these are complicated transactions that they're trying to put together to make a proper determination, like a case against former President Trump. You want to bring a case against the son of the president of the United States carefully and not informed by politics.

But it seems here that what the prosecutors are trying to decide is whether the conduct alleged, failure to pay taxes and possible tax fraud, really should be settled criminally or more appropriately with civil fines and penalties. I think they're trying to figure that out.

[14:25:03]

And then similarly, he is possibly going to be charged with what they call a lie in buy, where you lie on a form in order to buy a gun. Those cases are often not brought criminally, also, unless the weapon is used in the course of a commission of a crime. And so I think they've got tough charging decisions both evidentially and in terms of politics.

MARQUARDT: And in terms of these allegations that members of the Biden family made money simply because of their family name, this is a charge being levelled by House Republicans that they made millions in payments from foreign entities in new bank records. What do you make, how substantive are these allegations?

ZELDIN: Well, I think that people have been profiting off of their family and politics since the republic was created. We saw it with Billy Carter and Hugh Rodham and Roger Clinton. The list goes on and on.

The question here is, is Hunter Biden anything different than any of those guys, including Jared Kushner, who has a $2 billion deal with the Saudis when he left his job in the White House? Or is there some national security implications to what Hunter Biden is alleged to have done, which makes this case more serious?

If it's just the type of profiting off of your family, then if people were serious about this, the House Republicans and Democrats would pass stricter disclosure laws that would apply to all people, including former President Trump. But I don't know that they have that as their agenda as much as just politics and smears and allegations without facts.

MARQUARDT: And there are also Senate Republicans who failed to find direct evidence of corruption in Hunter Biden's specific activity in Ukraine. That was during a 2020 report.

Then this week a House report found no evidence of wrongdoing by the president despite a much-hyped press conference where they claimed that they would hold the president accountable. So to your point, how high is the bar to file charges against Hunter Biden?

ZELDIN: Well, it is no higher than it is as to you and me as a legal matter, but it does have the political implications because he's the president's son. So I would think that the prosecutor in Delaware who is looking at these cases, who is a Trump holdover, has to make a decision of, is this type of case the type of case that we would ordinarily bring?

Because you don't want to set a bar to Hunter Biden that's different and more substantial than it would be to the average person, because he is, in many respects as a matter of criminal prosecution, the average person. So you don't want to have two types of standards here.

MARQUARDT: And that is certainly an effort that -- or a point that the attorney general has been trying to ram home, that he would be no different than anybody else. Michael Zeldin, thank you so much for all of your thoughts today.

ZELDIN: Thanks, Alex.

MARQUARDT: The clock is ticking as leaders in Washington scramble to avoid an unprecedented debt default. And now the Congressional Budget Office is echoing a warning about serious risk if the federal government defaults within the first two weeks of next month, of June.

Now, there are only four days when House and Senate lawmakers are scheduled to be in D.C. together between now and the June 1st deadline. I want to bring in CNN Capitol Hill reporter Alayna Treene for more details. Alayna, how much progress have negotiations made?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: There's been some progress. They're in the same room and sitting down together, which is a sign of progress after months of not seeing that. But really this is the fourth straight day, Alex, that negotiations have continued among senior staff for congressional leaders and the White House as they continue to try and hash out a deal to raise the nation's debt.

And these talks also come as a meeting between President Biden and the top four leaders on Capitol Hill was canceled on Friday as they struggle to find a path forward. And really these negotiations really start to come together in the past few days.

And normally a deal like this takes months to come together, but really the reality is that Congress doesn't have months. They are less than 20 days away from June 1st. That is the deadline the Treasury Department has set for when the government could default on its debt. The Congressional Budget Office also released a report on Friday backing up the Treasury Department's timeline here and saying that a default is likely within the first two weeks of June.

We did hear from President Biden this afternoon. He said that talks are moving along and that we should know more in the coming days. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any update on the debt ceiling talks, Mr. President?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll know more in the next two days. Did you ask me something? Is that what you asked?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are debt ceiling talks going?

BIDEN: I think they're moving along. It's hard to tell. We've not reached the crunch point yet. But there's real discussion about some changes we all could make, but we're not there yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How confident are you that a debt deal will be made before June 1st?

BIDEN: Has to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: "Has to be," Alex, is what the president just said there, that there has to be a deal by June 1st. And I can say from my conversations with Republicans and Democrats alike that there's a lot of anxiety among leaders on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as they try to sort out whether they can make a deal by then or not.

MARQUARDT: And a lot of anxiety in the markets as well about what may happen. Alayna Treene, thank you very much.

TREENE: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Still to come, the ex-marine accused of holding this man, Jordan Neely, in a fatal chokehold has now surrendered to police. The charges he's facing and what's next in this case, that's just ahead.

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[14:35:06]

MARQUARDT: Earlier today North Carolina's Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a controversial abortion bill. The Republican-backed legislation bans most abortions after 12 weeks and adds new restrictions in North Carolina. The governor's veto now sets up a likely override effort from the legislature's Republican supermajority.

Under current state law abortions are legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. A drop to 12 weeks would be significant but less restrictive than other Republican-led states that enacted six-week or near total bans on the procedure.

A New York man who held a homeless street performer in a deadly chokehold on the subway is now out on bail. Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Penny surrendered to police on Friday morning. That's him there. He's charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely. That was last week. CNN's Athena Jones has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daniel Penny, surrendering to face criminal charges in the death of homeless street performer Jordan Neely.

THOMAS KENNIFF, DANIEL PENNY'S ATTORNEY: He did so voluntarily and with the sort of dignity and integrity that is characteristic of his history of service to this grateful nation.

JONES: The 24-year-old former Marine, seen in a widely circulated video holding Neely in a chokehold for several minutes on a New York subway on May 1st, now stands accused of second-degree manslaughter for recklessly causing his death.

The Manhattan district attorney's office bringing the charge after numerous witness interviews, a review of photo and video footage, and discussions with the medical examiner. The prosecutor telling the court witnesses observed Neely making threats and scaring passengers, adding Penny approached Neely from behind and placed him in a chokehold, taking him to the ground.

When the train arrived at the next stop, Penny continued to hold Neely in the chokehold for several minutes. Two other men helping to restrain his arms. At some point Mr. Neely stopped moving. The defendant continued to hold Mr. Neely for a period and then released him.

Penny's lawyers argue he risked his own life and safety to protect himself and fellow New Yorkers, resulting in the unintended and unforeseen death of Mr. Neely, adding they're confident Penny will be absolved of any wrongdoing once all the facts are known. Lawyers for the Neely family hailing Penny's arrest.

LENNON EDWARDS, NEELY FAMILY ATTORNEY: We're closer now to justice than we were a week ago, because Daniel Penny has been arrested.

JONES: Even as they argued he should be charged with murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was no attack. Mr. Neely did not attack anyone, he did not touch anyone, he did not hit anyone. But he was choked to death, and that can't stand. That can't be what we represent.

JONES: Neely's killing sparked days of demonstrations in New York City, with protesters demanding Penny's arrest. Meanwhile, a legal defense fund set up by Penny supporters had raised more than $400,000 by Friday afternoon. Now prosecutors must prove their case.

Before being released, Daniel Penny was ordered to turn over any passports he has, and he'll have to ask permission from New York state if he wants to leave the state. His next court date is set for July 17th, and Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: Thanks to Athena for that report.

And coming up, it is a showdown in Iowa. Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hitting the campaign trail. Their message to voters, that's just ahead.

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[14:43:17]

MARQUARDT: Welcome back. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took the stage in Sioux Center, Iowa, this afternoon, holding the first of two campaign-style events there today. Keep in mind, he has yet to officially announce a run for the Republican presidential nomination, but he's clearly dropping hints that he could soon join the race.

CNN's Steve Contorno is in Sioux Center, Iowa, for us. Steve, what has been the focus of his message today?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Alex, much of his message is similar to what we've heard him say in speeches he's delivered across the country. He's talked a lot about being a governor that gets things done. He's really focused on his record and his recent legislative accomplishments, his fight with Disney, the cultural battles he has waged in Florida. But there was a little bit of a hint of a nod toward the future political fight ahead and 2024 toward the end of his speech. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: If we make 2024 election a referendum on Joe Biden and his failures, and if we provide a positive alternative for the future of this country, Republicans will win across the board. If we do not do that, if we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again, and I think it will be very difficult to recover from that defeat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, there was no mention of Trump in those remarks, as you noticed. However there was clear references to the battles that Trump has harped on over the last few months. He continues to talk about 2020, past elections. DeSantis, though, wants to look ahead.

And of course, Trump himself is also in the hawk eye state today. He is holding his own rally in Des Moines where he will address thousands of supporters and get them pumped and ready for that battle ahead as well.

[14:45:09]

MARQUARDT: Steve, as you said, no mention of Trump. So what is the strategy there? What's the thinking?

CONTORNO: Yes, I think at this point in the cycle, Alex, he really wants to focus on his accomplishments and say that if he were to get in this race, he's going against Biden and he is going to do so running on his record.

However, Donald Trump is trying to get him into the mud, and he is consistently attacking the governor over and over and over again. Obviously, we saw it at the town hall earlier this week. DeSantis, though, is continuing to avoid that.

In fact, as he was leaving this event today, I tried to get him to weigh in on one of those attacks. Trump has repeatedly brought up the fact that DeSantis as a Congressman voted against ethanol subsidies here. That's a huge issue. But DeSantis jumped in an SUV without answering the question, Alex.

MARQUARDT: He might want to focus on Biden, but he's got to get through Trump first. Steve Contorno in Sioux Center, Iowa, thank you very much.

Still to come, crime, drugs, and unaffordability, those are just some of the recent headlines coming out about San Francisco. So what happened to the California city? CNN gets the whole story, and we'll have a preview just ahead.

But first, in the United States, nearly 1.5 million children have a parent who is serving time. And this week's CNN Hero knows firsthand the challenges that come with having a parent in prison. Meet Yasmine Arrington.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

YASMINE ARRINGTON, CNN HERO: What we're ultimately doing is ensuring that young people who have incarcerated parents are overcoming systemic barriers and also changing the trajectory of not only their lives, but their family's lives, and breaking the stereotypes and the stigma around having an incarcerated parent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting ready for graduation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations. I'm so excited.

ARRINGTON: What keeps me going is that proud mama effect, to see our scholars just achieve and accomplish, and over time gain a sense of healthy confidence. just a little bit of support can go a very, very long way. It really is a snowball effect.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: And to find out how Yasmine has supported more than 80 scholars working toward their college degrees, head on over to CNNheroes.com. And while you're there, nominate your hero.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: We turn now to San Francisco, California, a city that has been in the headlines lately for crime, unaffordability, and its conditions in its streets. According to one recent survey, San Francisco residents feel less safe now than at any point since 1996, and that's according to the city's own controller's office. This week on "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper," CNN's Sara Sidner heads back to the Bay Area, a place she once called home, to find out what happened to San Francisco. Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So when I first laid eyes on San Francisco, I was enchanted. From where I am right now, driving over the Bay Bridge, and it looked like someone had taken an enormous vat of fog and just continuously poured it over the hills, like dry ice being poured over a perfectly sculpted city on a stage.

And then you get down into the city and you meet these glorious human characters, and you get to experience the microclimates and the terrifyingly steep hills that make the city an adventure.

Then there's the glorious bridges that sit in the Bay and welcome you into the shining city on a hill. The endlessly diverse neighborhoods from Chinatown to the Mission to the Italian enclave of North Beach to the pristine Presidio which gives the city its lungs, and down to the Pacific that rests below, inviting you in, and then biting your skin with its ice cold touch.

This city was endlessly magic, and I loved this city, I mean truly loved the city, and I still do. It's just that it hurts to see what's happened to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crisis of homelessness in America has reached a shocking level in San Francisco.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The drugs attract them, the no punishment kind of attitude, and then the resources make them want to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The video showing a group of kids getting off a Muni bus as they try to navigate their way through an entire block of open drug use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoplifting in San Francisco, it's forcing stores to close, and the thieves, some of the most brazen you will see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mobs of looters storming and ransacking high-end stores in the San Francisco area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unprovoked attacks on elderly Asians in San Francisco.

[14:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One elderly man was violently pushed to the ground, and he died. Why are people feeling empowered that they can do this with impunity?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crime, staffing shortages, and police response times are all getting worse. What will it take for the city to change?

(END VIDEO TAPE) MARQUARDT: And joining us now to talk more about her whole story, in- depth report on what happened to San Francisco, is none other than CNN anchor Sara Sidner. Sara, I'm so glad that you're doing this. Like you, this is a city that I love, that is fascinating, that the nuanced and complex. But lately we have been hearing a lot more about high- profile crimes in the city. Is crime actually higher in San Francisco?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When you talk about those high-profile crimes, usually we're talking about murder, and just recently you saw the stabbing death of the Cash App founder, Bob Lee. When you look at murder itself, when you look at homicide itself, San Francisco's numbers compared to other cities of its size are really low.

They had 56 murders between 2021 for that year, and then 2022 the same number. Look at Indianapolis, Indiana. They had four times that number of homicides. You look at Jacksonville, Florida, they had almost three times the number of homicides. So violent crime and particularly homicides are low in San Francisco.

The issue is that people are running into things like aggression on the streets from people who have mental illness, or people who are doing drugs openly in the street, doing things like heroin or taking fentanyl in the streets, and they can't avoid it. San Francisco's only seven by seven square miles, as you know, and so it's really quite hard to avoid.

And you have the other thing that happened, which of course was COVID. But unlike other cities, San Francisco has had a much harder time recovering from that. And so it's hard to avoid some of the issues.

And I can tell you the number one thing I hear every time I go to the city is watch where you park your car. If you're going to drive, watch where you park your car, because almost everyone that I know that lives there or that has visited there, including, by the way, the mayor of the city, has had their car broken into.

So people are just leaving their windows down or their leaving signs on the window saying, it's open, don't break the window, there's nothing inside. So that really aggravates, as you might imagine, the residents.

MARQUARDT: Yes, it happened to our colleague Kyung Lah as well. She did an amazing thread on Twitter about her incident, and it happened extremely quickly. But Sara, you have obviously -- you've obviously visited many times and lived there yourself. You've spoken to residents all over that city. So if crime is, as you say, lower, then to what do you attribute that feeling that many people have of being unsafe?

SIDNER: Because certain things are in your face. If you just take things like your car being stolen or your car being broken into, those are everyday things that really make your life very, very miserable. And so you cannot, as I said earlier, get away from some of the things that are extremely aggravating, but also can be really scary in the city. And it is in your face partly because a lot of the homeless tents that

sprung up in 2020 during the pandemic, during the emergency of the pandemic, and when you look at that, there were more deaths by drug overdoses than there were COVID deaths in San Francisco.

And some people will say, look, we really dealt with COVID well. But then you had this other thing happen where, and you're seeing pictures now, of the tent cities that sprung up. Then the city got involved and said, OK, we're going to make little squares, and you see those little squares there, and we're going to have a certain number of tents and this is going to be a place where you can be at this point in time. That has been cleared out.

But I can tell you, we talked to so many people, Alex. We talked to the mayor. We talked to the ex-mayor, a mayor that is known as The Mayor Willie Brown, one of the most famous mayors of San Francisco. But we also talked to residents who are housed and people who consider themselves residents who are unhoused.

And they told us with candor what was going on in the streets. And one on the things we heard over and over and over again is that they came to San Francisco from out of town because they knew the drugs were cheap and they knew it was easier to live on the streets there, and there were services that were available to them.

And so there's a lot of talk about policy here. We talked to mothers whose sons, they have been searching for years for them out on the streets who got addicted to drugs at a young age. But it's so available, and that is what is hard for those who live in the city and have watched the city in some ways deteriorate, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Then you have this -- it's such an interesting city because you have everything that you're describing on the streets, but at the same time you have this extraordinary level of wealth that has arrived because of Silicon Valley and all the tech companies. Sara Sidner, I'm sure it's a fascinating report. Can't wait to see it.

Thank you so much for joining us today.