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U.S. Officials Warn Texas-Mexico Border Near Breaking Point Amid Record Migrant Crossings; Video Reveals Maine Officials Were Concerned Over Gunman's Weapons; Baltimore On Pace to End Nearly Decade-Long Homicide Streak; President Biden Speaks After Call with PM Netanyahu. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 23, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: The woman was the only person in the car and is recovering. Pretty striking video.

All right. A new hour starts now.

(MUSIC)

JIMENEZ: Thanks for joining me, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Some officials are warning the southern border is near a breaking point, with thousands of migrants waiting to be processed. CNN is learning that federal authorities are reporting a seven-day average of more than 9,600 migrant encounters at the border this month, which is among the highest ever recorded.

So, joining me now is Rafael Romo on the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Rafael, what are you seeing there today?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, the arrival of immigrants here at the Eagle Pass border is constant. Over the last few hours, we have seen how group after group of migrants get here, and that doesn't stop at night, either. After the immigrants surrender to U.S. border patrol agents at the border, they are brought here to this holding area behind me, where they have to wait to be processed.

Just yesterday, Customs and Border Protection released the numbers of what they call encounters with immigrants with Border Patrol agents. For the month of November, there were 191,113 apprehensions along the border, and that number rises to more than 242,000, nearly a quarter of a million people, if we add those who seek asylum at ports of entry. As high as those numbers seem, Omar, officials say they're lower as compared to the same period last year.

Congressman Tony Gonzales, a Republican who represents two-thirds of the Texas border with Mexico says, help from the federal government here at the border is desperately needed, especially considering that those in charge of protecting the border are stretched very, very thin. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): They're exhausted. We're all exhausted. This crisis has spiraled way out of control and we're at the point of no return. That is where we're at, the point of no return. So, while -- the time to act is now. More people are still coming and there's more people in the pipeline.

And I suspect Christmas will be worse than today, and New Year's will be worse than today. We're going the absolute wrong direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And, Omar, Gonzales told CNN that in the Del Rio sector alone, which includes border cities like El Paso, and Eagle Pass, where we are, 4,000 immigrants are arriving daily. We mentioned before, a daily average of 9,600, but that's across the southwest border. And he's asking the federal government for help providing deportation flights. Gonzalez also says that there's a great need to increase the number of immigration judges here at the border so that people with legitimate cases of asylum can get the help they need, while those who do not qualify can be deported quickly.

Meanwhile, immigration activists are demanding a more humane treatment for the people arriving here daily, but both groups agree in one point, Omar, that the situation here at the border is unsustainable.

Now, back to you.

JIMENEZ: And I think everyone looks at the situation there. They see the numbers of people. They see the people on camera, just the scenes at the border here. But based on what you've seen and your reporting, what's driving this?

ROMO: Omar, I remember working on a documentary about the reasons why migrants from Central America and South America come to the United States, and the number one reason was seeking a better opportunity, but many people were also fleeing violence. And guess what?

Those conditions are now even worse than what they were ten years ago. So people keep coming. There is virtually -- other than the fact that they have to cross jungles and difficult terrains, no government is making a real effort to stop any of them throughout the trek, the perilous trek that they need to take through Central America and Mexico. That's partly the reason why Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said earlier, yesterday, as a matter of fact, that he's going to meet with top American officials on Wednesday in Mexico City to discuss the situation, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Rafael Romo, thank you for your reporting, as always.

I want to turn now to the White House, where the Biden administration is contending with renewed focus from the president's opponents on the crisis at the border.

So, joining me to discuss is CNN senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, you've been with us all afternoon. What is the administration's plan to counter former president's -- former President Trump's harsh border rhetoric that we've seen even more significantly and consistently in recent weeks?

KEVIN LIPAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, you have seen them seize on it almost immediately, particularly when you heard former President Trump last weekend talk about immigrants poisoning the blood of the nation.

[15:05:02]

You heard from President Biden's campaign saying that it was parroting Adolf Hitler, and you even heard from President Biden himself both behind closed doors and in some of his events this week really saying that this echoes the worst of Nazi-era Germany.

So, you do see President Biden starting to sharpen his argument against President Trump, and we do expect him to do that as this campaign ramps up in the early months of next year. We just heard from his campaign manager in a memo at the end of last week talking about how the campaign does plan to put this at the center of his re- election argument, this argument that President Trump would essentially mean an existential threat to democracy. That's something that President Biden has been talking about consistently, even since he was running for president in 2020. But you can certainly expect him to make that argument going forward, particularly in this area of immigration, under which he is under so much pressure to do something to curb the flow of migrants at the southern border.

And in the end, President Biden really is under pressure from both sides on this, from Republicans, and even some Democrats, particularly mayors, governors who want him to do more to curb the flow of migrants, but also on the other side, from progressives, immigration advocates, who do worry about some of these changes that are being talked to the immigration system, are reminiscent of some of the most restrictive policies that were in place under President Trump.

So in the end here, President Biden is facing something of an intractable issue, and when you talk to officials, the say it is on Congress to make the changes that are necessary to fix a broken system, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, Kevin Liptak, thank you so much.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a contentious new law that will allow local officers to arrest migrants to cross the Texas-Mexico border legally.

So here for analysis on the southern border crisis is CNN opinion writer and attorney Raul Reyes.

So, Raul, the president of Mexico is set to meet with Secretary of State Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas in Mexico City this week. What can Mexico do to help ease the numbers we're seeing at the border, if anything, at this point?

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: Well, there is a great deal that Mexico can do to help with us our border situation. The question is whether Mexico agrees to do so. Because, look, the people who are arriving currently at our southern border, they are no longer majority from Mexico. They are people from primarily Central and South America, and they also include people from Cuba, from the Middle East, from all around the world.

So when the United States talks about removing all of these individuals, Mexico is really not under any type of legal obligation to take them. And it's up to their secretary of state and their president whether they want to do so. Mexico already said they are not willing to take back any deportees from the United States who are deported under Texas' new SB4, Governor Abbott's new immigration law that applies just for Texas.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, and, you know, it's a good point that a lot of these migrants are not originating in Mexico. We've seen them from all over the world. But specifically we've seen higher numbers than maybe we've ever seen at the Darien gap, Colombia to panama, where a lot of migrants come from, especially when they're coming through South America. What can be done at the source of where these migrants are coming from to stem the tide so it doesn't come to a head at the U.S./Mexico southern border?

REYES: Well, there are things that could be done if you're looking at what we call the push factors, the factors that lead people to flee their countries of origin, such as more investment in those nations, helping them provide a more secure, stable, civil society. But these are long-term solutions.

And what we're seeing through different administrations is that our Congress is really not willing to invest in those types of solutions. For example, right now, I think President Biden, his approval level on immigration is just 23 percent. That means about two-thirds of the American public does not like the way he's handling immigration, but ultimately any long-term solution would have to come from Congress.

There's only so much the president on his own can do. So, for example, in an ideal world, maybe it might be a nice thing to have something equivalent to a Marshall Plan for Central America or certain countries in Latin America, but that can only come from Congress. What we've seen is that the political will is not there.

On the Republican side, to be very blunt terms, immigration is an issue that they can weaponize. When the border is in chaos, that works for them because it could potentially help them oust President Biden. And on the Democratic side, we see Democrats, even the White House sort of hesitant to approach this issue because they are wary of perhaps offending middle of the road swing voters, they're also wary of different constituencies such as Latino voters, the immigrant rights community and progressives.

[15:10:07] So, politically, the will is not just there in this country, and quite frankly, it hasn't been there in a long time. The last time we had a major overhaul of our immigration system was 20 years ago. A lot has changed and it's likely going to get worse and we don't really see that change in sight unfortunately.

JIMENEZ: And a lot of those immigration talks, at least on the congressional side of things, is now locked up and funding for Ukraine and funding for Israel and part of what is going to be a pretty big fight once Congress gets back in early January.

I want to shift to Texas state policy for a second, because you argued in a new piece this week that Texas Governor Greg Abbott's new border bill that makes entering Texas illegally a state crime faces legal and logistical hurdles. So, explain that a little bit. Why is the policy -- the distance between the policy and what is reality is going to be maybe so wide right now?

REYES: Right. Well, the distance, when we look at it from a legal perspective. When Governor Abbott is coming up with his statewide immigration policy, but under our Constitution, under the supremacy clause, any state law that conflicts with federal law must give way. And we have federal law, we have international treaties, we have treaties through the U.N. that allow all persons to come through our border into the country and claim their lawful right of asylum.

So, on top of that, we have over 100 years of Supreme Court precedent that says immigration is the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. So that's, like, the legal problems. But then logistically, this Texas law allows, for example, local state law enforcement to arrest people they think might be in Texas illegally or without authorization. But it doesn't provide them with any mechanisms or guidelines on how to identify these people.

So in a state that's 40 percent Latino, in a state where 70 percent of the people are foreign born, that opens the door for racial profiling. How are state officers not trained in asylum law or immigration law, how are they supposed to decide and evaluate someone's immigration status? By the color of their skin? Whether they speak Spanish? Whether they speak with an accent?

That's why we're seeing so many Latino groups and immigrant rights groups come forward not just on behalf of undocumented people or asylum seekers, but they're saying that this law could have enormous consequences for anyone who is Latino or even looks Latino in the state of Texas. The law doesn't take effect until March. And I think, although we don't know its impact, we do know that so far, Governor Abbott has spent, I think, $20 million as part of this Operation Lone Star over the last two, three years.

So far, it has had no discernible impact on illegal immigration. We do know it's going to cost the state of Texas a lot of money to arrest people, detain people, house them, give them medical care while their cases are adjudicated, because if Texas arrests them, they would be in the custody of Texas. They would be in the custody of Texas. So it's a big bill for the taxpayers in Texas, and going forward the one thing that's a certainty, is that there will be -- there already are lawsuits from the ACLU and other groups. But we're going to see a lot of legal challenges for this law before it is slated to take effect on March 5th.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, there's a lot still to be worked out, it appears, that may play out through the courts right now.

Raul Reyes, thank you so much for being with us.

REYES: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

All right. Still ahead, newly released dash cam video shows law enforcement in Maine was aware of concerns over the Lewiston mass shooter's mental health and access to firearms more than a month before his attack.

And Baltimore is turning a corner on crime as the city is on track to record the fewest number of homicides in nearly a decade. What's behind the dramatic improvement in crime? The mayor joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:19]

JIMENEZ: We're learning new details about what officials knew before the deadly mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Police there released new dash cam footage from a month before the October massacre, indicating law enforcement was aware of the gunman's mental health before he killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a restaurant. The shooter, Robert Card, was found dead two days later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after an intense manhunt.

CNN's Polo Sandoval joins me now with the latest.

So, Polo, what more are you learning about this video?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Omar, to be clear for viewers, most of what Maine authorities were aware of leading up to that shooting in late October, CNN has reported. The difference is this never-before-seen dash cam video that's been released by the sheriff's office. It puts you quite literally in the driver's seat of one of the sheriff's deputies that was before the shooting that was conducting a welfare check on the shooting suspect here, Robert Card, as you recalled. I'm going to show you a portion of that video in a few moments.

You can't really see much because it's censored, but you can clearly hear the conversation the sheriff has with Army Reserved Captain Jeremy Reamer.

To remind viewers, it was before the shooting that Card's family expressed concerns that his mental health had declined and that he was armed. Shortly after that, that's when the Army Reserves reached out to authorities, since Card served under the reserves, with similar concerns, asking for a welfare check to be done. That's where this video picks up. You will be able to hear the army reserve captain basically telling the responding officer what he believed was the status of the weapons in Card's possession.

Listen in.

[15:20:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JEREMY REAMER: In terms of all the weapons, this is kind of how it went down as far as I know. There was no real court order to take his weapons or anything like that. So, what was required was when he went to the institution over there, they -- part of the thing is -- which I wasn't even a part of, mind you, they didn't keep me in the loop because of HIPAA, but the family was supposed to take care of all the weapons and move it.

Obviously, I lived in New Hampshire, so I was unable to obviously verify any of it. So as far as I know, his weapons, I was told his weapons have been moved out to a family member's place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.

REAMER: Whether he was access to those, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: You see the video there was dated September 16th. I had an opportunity to listen to the rest of it, and in it you can actually hear Captain Reamer say, quote, I don't think this is going to get any better, referring to the suspect's condition here, Omar.

Obviously, that was certainly foretelling of what will happen just over a month later when card would go on his shooting rampage, shooting and killing 18 people, injuring 13 others. You were on the ground covering the subsequent investigation. You can imagine listening to this video being released by authorities will certainly prompt even more questions for those families. CNN has reached out to not just card's family, but also the captain as welfare comment -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. And as we understand, the last of the patients that were hospitalized have now been released as well.

Polo Sandoval, thank you so much for your reporting.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Meanwhile, another major American city that at times is known for its gun violence and high murder rate is showing signs of reversing what's been a troubling streak. For the first time in nearly a decade, the city of Baltimore is on pace to have fewer than 300 homicides this year. So far, there have been about 257 in the city. 2014 was the last time the city had fewer than 300 homicides in any given year.

So, with me to talk more about this is Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore where I used to be a local reporter. At that time you were city councilman, Brandon Scott.

So great to see you.

And, you know, I started -- it was right after the death of Freddie Gray, it was right as charges were announced against those officers. And I learned there was a time when Baltimore was consistently under 300 homicides in a year, because all I had personally known of the city, a lot of it stemming from the 2015 year, was a city that was over that number. That was my norm.

But why are we seeing such a drop, do you think?

MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT (D), MARYLAND: Omar, we have to think about what we're talking about. We did have those years where we were under, but also in the '90s we had years we were above. That's what pushed me into public office, is growing up in a city where violence was so overbearing.

But when you think about what we did, coming in the city -- when I took office, had been stuck between 300 and 350 since 2015, and we were able to do something that hadn't been done before. I created the first ever comprehensive violence reduction plan for Baltimore City, bringing everybody together but also putting the emphasis on the ecosystem, creating a community violence intervention ecosystem, treating violence like a public health crisis, focusing police are those who are most at risk of being a victim and a perpetrator of violence through the group violence reduction strategy, bringing in all of our partners between our federal partners, our state's attorney, our U.S. attorney, but most importantly, the community.

And that's how we're doing it and doing it the right way because as you alluded to, we also, as you know, were under a consent degree for our police department and our partners at the DOJ and our consent decree monitors are saying that, wow, violence is down right now in Baltimore, our legal arrests are down, and this, Omar, will be the single largest drop on record in homicides from one year to the next in Baltimore city.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, you mentioned the consent decree, because it's not just you as a city, places like Chicago and Minneapolis have been under decrees, because at one point or another, the Justice Department found officers engaged in a pattern of violating people's rights. But you mentioned -- the consent decree monitor in November wrote that the number of arrests lacking probable cause in their sample made a drop from 10.4 percent in 2019 to now 4 percent two years later when they examined their sample in 2021, after essentially new training went into effect.

So what do you think has gone right when you look at some of that new arrest training and revised policy that we've seen there?

SCOTT: Well, it's showing that we can do this the right way, that we don't have to do it. This is very personal. As a young Black man who grew up in Baltimore in the '90s and 2000s, who was consistently put in handcuffs and sat on the curb simply for being Black and breathing in West Baltimore. For us now to go around and show people a different way, that we can police in our neighborhoods, we can reduce violence by 20 percent, homicides being reduced 20 percent, and not have to do it in the way that caused us to get into a consent decree -- arresting people for no reason, arresting people simply because they were struggling with addiction.

[15:25:14]

This is showing not just here in Baltimore, but across the United States, that you can reduce crime and violence in a city, but you don't have to overly criminalize a community and you can police in the right way, a constitutional way.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, and let's talk about how to reduce violence in some of those ways, because, obviously, Baltimore is not the only city that deals with gun violence. Countrywide, we've seen almost 650 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the National Gun Violence Archives, some in Baltimore. But the one to comes to mind was from July this year, it was supposed to be a block party. Two people were killed, 28 others injured.

And in the aftermath of that, you talked about the ease of access to guns in this country, and why you think that's contributing significantly to the violence issues in our cities, including like what happened in July.

So what do you think needs to change in regards to access to guns that you think will make a meaningful difference here?

SCOTT: Omar, we have seized 2,700 guns off the streets of Baltimore this year. And we know every year, 60 percent or more of them come from other states. We need the folks in Congress to pass meaningful, sensible gun regulation laws in our country, right? They should outright ban ghost guns. No teenager should be able to sit on their computer at home in some state and order a gun and put it together.

But also, (INAUDIBLE). This is why myself and Everytown for Gun Safety in the city of Baltimore are actually suing our partners in the ATF because they're prevented from providing information. I can't know as the mayor of my city where the guns that my police officers that work for me, that are under my command, where those weapons come from.

And we know, if you've been to Brooklyn and Baltimore, you know how much of a struggle it is for them to get to the other side of town. You know those people that we're arresting with those guns didn't go to Georgia or Alabama or California or Texas or Florida or Ohio to purchase those guns.

We need to be able to go after everybody in the chain. The person that pulled the trigger, the person that trafficked that weapon, and sometimes the manufacturer and the store if they are willingly selling to people and helping fuel violence by giving guns to people that they know shouldn't have them in the first place. JIMENEZ: And the last thing I want to ask you is something I actually

talked with the previous mayor of Chicago about this, because obviously they have their own issues with gun violence. Sometimes it's hard to line up what you're seeing in the numbers with what people actually feel on the ground.

And so, yes, we're talking about, you know, around a 20 percent reduction year-over-year, which is great. But how do you make people feel safer, after what's been almost a decade of, in many cases, people not feeling safe walking down the street?

SCOTT: Well, I think this -- the beauty of how we're doing it. We're also doing it with the community. We were very gracious to have the support of President Biden and his team, allowing us to invest $50 million into community violence intervention work, partnering with groups like ERS (ph). So, when the community itself is out, helping to reduce violence as well, they are (INAUDIBLE) and people feel it.

But we also have to constantly be doing more community policing, being out in the community, investing on the front end. This is why we're putting historic levels of investment into recreation and parks and programming for our young people, so that we're doing it at both ends, that we're offering opportunities for people to change their life through our violence reduction strategy, and if they don't, we will bring the full weight of law enforcement on them.

We have to do it all. There is no silver bullet to reducing gun violence. This is why we're doing it in a comprehensive way in Baltimore, and why this way is the most sustainable for us moving forward.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, and Mayor Brandon Scott, I know you know this, but we've all been talking numbers. These are obviously individual lives of people we've been talking with.

SCOTT: Yes, they are.

JIMENEZ: And one is too many.

Mayor Brandon Scott, thank you so much.

SCOTT: Thank you very much.

JIMENEZ: All right. This just in to CNN, President Biden just spoke to cameras on his way to Camp David. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: -- Netanyahu, sir, Netanyahu, sir -- did you tell him not to strike Hamas in a preemptive strike?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a long talk with Netanyahu today and it was a private conversation.

REPORTER: About the economy, sir, what's your outlook on the economy next year?

BIDEN: All good. Take a look. Report it the right way.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

BIDEN: I can't think of one.

REPORTER: Mr. President, did you ask for a cease-fire today?

[15:30:01]

BIDEN: I had a private conversation. I did not ask for a cease-fire.

(INAUDIBLE)

BIDEN: We're going to continue to work with Africa to build infrastructure and to grow their commerce, a billion people, a billion people. Merry Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: All right, so joining me now is CNN senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak.

So, Kevin, one, it's always sometimes hard to hear when you're out in those environments. But we did hear him say that he had a private conversation with Netanyahu, he -- they did not -- he did not ask for a cease-fire in any way.

What's your reaction to what we heard and the manner in which we heard it there?

LIPTAK: Yeah, and he didn't disclose the details of that conversation, but he did say that it was a long run. In fact, it was their 17th conversation since the terror attacks on October 7th. But it was their first call in about two weeks.

And when you think about what has happened in that span with this parade of officials, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, all travel to go Israel to sort of continue discussions and accelerate discussions about Israel potentially shifting to a different phase of this war, a lower intensity phase of this war, I think you can read between the lines that that is something that these two men would have talked about.

And certainly President Biden is someone who does believe that conversations and recommendations and advice are best offered to the Israelis privately, that they feel like they will have more effect that way. But certainly, President Biden through his advisers and through his aides has signaled that his patience for this level of war, the level of civilian casualties, the humanitarian disaster you're seeing unfold in Gaza, is not limitless.

And so, when he says that he had a long conversation with his Israeli counterpart, I think you can kind of read between the lines, as they discuss this eventual shifting down of the intensity of the war in Gaza. I do think it's notable that in its own readout, Israel said that Netanyahu made clear that Israel would continue the war until all of its goals have been achieved.

And so, certainly, Netanyahu has his own viewpoint on this. But they were able to discuss this in these days before the Christmas holiday -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. Well, look, we learn as much as we can with as little as given at a time at points.

Kevin Liptak, thank you so much as -- for your reporting.

All right. Still ahead, a heartwarming reunion exclusive to CNN. A young woman who survived the October 7th attack at the Nova Music Festival reconnects with the man who rescued her. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:54]

JIMENEZ: The White House says President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. It was their 17th call since the war erupted on October 7th. Gaza's Hamas controlled health ministry meanwhile says more than 200 people have been killed in the last 24 hours alone, pushing the death toll well over 20,000 since October 7th.

Now, on Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution calling for urgent steps to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the enclave, and today marks 11 weeks since that horrific Hamas attack in Israel. One young woman who survived at the Nova Music Festival returned to the scene to meet the man who rescued her.

CNN's Will Ripley has this exclusive report from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Looking at that cloud of smoke, what does that trigger for you?

NATALIE SANANDAJI, NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL SURVIVOR: It's the same smoke, it definitely reminds me of those noises that bring me back to that day.

RIPLEY (voice-over): In southern Israel, you don't need a map to know you are near Gaza.

Why are you here? Why do you want to go back?

SANANDAJI: Sorry.

RIPLEY: That loud boom outgoing artillery near our car, rattling native New Yorker Natalie Sanandaji.

RIPLEY: Tell me what that made you feel like just now?

SANANDAJI: I got scared, like we were being shot at it. I'm fine

RIPLEY: The last time she was on this road, Natalie was running for her life. Just after sunrise on Saturday October 7th, rocket interceptions seen from the dance floor at the Nova Music Festival. Hamas militants killed more than 350 people, mostly young, mostly Jewish, mostly unarmed.

SANANDAJI: I feel so lucky that I made it out, that I got out alive. I feel that it is my duty to be that voice for all those who were not as lucky as me.

RIPLEY: That sense of duty is why she is returning to Israel for the first time since the attacks.

SANANDAJI: Just seeing all these faces, and knowing people that loved these faces.

RIPLEY: Faces of friends who never made it home.

SANANDAJI: Oh my gosh! (Inaudible)

It's so crazy, I was dancing right next to them. It's so hard to see how many of them there are.

RIPLEY: And it could've been you.

SANANDAJI: Yeah.

RIPLEY: The music festival campsite now a place where families come to grieve. Rockets in the sky, gunshots on the ground. All she could do was run. Many took cover in bathrooms, bomb shelters, ditches. Most of them ended up dead. Four hours of running, exhausted, dehydrated. Natalie collapsed.

SANANDAJI: I never thought that I would really just sit down and accept my fate.

RIPLEY: Too tired to run as a truck came closer.

SANANDAJI: We had nowhere to run to, like where are we going to get up and run to, like this is a terrorist coming to kill us like that is it. Kind of like that one, yeah.

RIPLEY: The man behind the wheel not a terrorist, from a nearby village. Natalie never got his name. She only tracked him down a few days ago. It is why she has come back, to thank him. They are about to meet for the first time since that day.

[15:40:03]

The man fighting back tears, Moshe Sati, an Israeli father of four who left home and drove directly into danger, not once or twice, more than ten trips to and from the music festival site.

SANANDAJI: It's very nice to meet you.

MOSHE SATI, NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL RESCUER: Likewise. I said we are in it together. Come inside.

RIPLEY: You live so close to this. But, where you prepared fully for what you saw on October 7th?

SATI (through translator): Things like this, you can't forget. I will never forget what I saw. It is very, very tough.

RIPLEY: Haunted by the horrors he saw, hardened by the lives he saved.

SANANDAJI: So many people were saved in this truck.

RIPLEY: Natalie, one of well over 100 people he packed into his pickup and drove to safety.

SANANDAJI: This truck saved so many lives, and like -- it just looks like an average truck. But like, I stood right there in that corner. If it wasn't for him, I truly don't think I would have been here today.

RIPLEY: One bright chapter on a very dark day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Wow. Will Ripley, thank you for that reporting.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:40]

JIMENEZ: The holidays are in full swing. If you're watching from home, you might be with a lot of family through the New Year. And some of that family might be sniffling and coughing all over the place. The CDC is urging everyone to get the latest vaccines against respiratory illnesses. The agency issued a health advisory last week on the urgent need for updated vaccine coverage.

So I'm joined by primary care physician and public health specialist, Dr. Saju Mathew, for more.

So, Doctor, we finally have vaccines to protect against the flu, COVID-19, and RSV. But these days it can be tough to know what's behind a cough, the flu, COVID, even allergies. How should we proceed if we're unsure, especially around a lot of family?

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: It's always a dilemma, Omar, especially as a primary care doctor when you're seeing a lot of patients with a cough. Here is one good rule of thumb. If all of a sudden you feel like a ton of bricks hit you, high fevers, body aches, almost always that is probably the flu. With COVID-19, and with the cold, your symptoms are gradual in onset.

As people get together at multiple households, it's really good to find out which virus you might have, because treatments are different. If you're high risk for COVID, you can get Paxlovid. If you have the flu, you can get a medication called Tamiflu that decreases the number of days you're sick.

JIMENEZ: Now, look, I want to switch gears a little bit now, but obviously, the respiratory illnesses are going to be prevalent throughout the holiday period. But switching gears, the FDA this week said it sees thousands of counterfeit Ozempic units from U.S. drug supply chain, and we've heard a lot about, this year about Ozempic, because of the injectable weight loss drug's popularity. But they can be expensive.

How concerned are you that patients may try these options, especially after we all eat a good bit through the holidays, and that potentially they could be at risk?

MATHEW: Yeah, very concerned. I get so many requests, probably about ten calls every day, on patients wanting Ozempic or a medication like that. Listen, Omar, for the person that's morbidly obese, Ozempic can do wonders.

But it's very expensive, it's a thousand dollars for people who want to use it as a weight loss medication. We have to pick the right patient, and you need to be under the guidance of a physician because there are so many different clinics that are opening up promising patients a tremendous amount of weight loss, but you don't know, are you truly getting the product that you should be on.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, it's a reason some are saying to double-check what you're getting to make sure that it's the right thing here.

We've got to leave it there. All incredibly important points.

Dr. Saju Mathew, thank you so much.

MATHEW: Yeah, merry Christmas, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Merry Christmas.

All right, coming up, the incredible moment a man in San Diego is rescued after being stuck in a hole along a cliff edge for three days. We're going to explain, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:11]

JIMENEZ: A day of mourning today in the Czech Republic after its deadliest peacetime mass shooting. Czech President -- the Czech president was seen there attending mass earlier to commemorate victims of the Charles University shooting after a gunman killed 14 people on Thursday and wounded 25 others.

Here's CNN's Melissa Bell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Czech police continue to look for a motive in the gruesome killing that left 14 people dead in Prague. The police also releasing body cam footage this Friday which really shows the initial first moments when first responders arrived inside Charles University, showing also the classrooms in which so many of the victims were found.

You can see those initial scenes of triage on the part of first responder. In the end, 14 people lost their lives, many of them were students, a couple of them staff members, before the gunman turned the gun on himself. What we've been hearing from police, as well, is that their swift response. They say given the weapons the young man had and ammunition he had on him, they believe it could have been far worse than it was. And it was that swift response by police that allowed it to -- the motive who prompted this young man with no criminal record and legal access to firearms since he had a permit to act in the way that he did.

We've been hearing also from the country's interior minister speaking of the fact the country had already been looking to tighten its gun laws. Whether or not that would have made a difference, he said, it was too soon to say. It is now a day of national mourning that the country will look ahead to on Saturday as it remembers those who lost their lives so tragically on Thursday afternoon.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Thank you, Melissa, for that reporting.

Now, back here in the United States, I want to show a rescue scene that really almost appears to be pulled out of a Hollywood movie script.

[15:55:07]

The San Diego emergency crew rescued a man who was trapped inside of a cliff side crevice for about three days. I can't imagine three hours. First responders arrived at the scene Friday after a group of teenagers heard him asking for help.

It took 20 hours to extract him. The rising tide and possibility of drowning was also a major concern for first responders. The man was taken to an area hospital for further evaluation. Wow.

And this is even more of a wow. A husband and wife just made history by traveling more than 18,000 miles from the North to the South Pole. Chris and Julie Ramsey used a specialized electric car and a transportable car battery charger for their grueling ten-month journey. The couple drove through the Arctic, Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Central and South America after flying on a plane to Antarctica.

The Ramseys kept going, driving more than 700 miles to reach the South Pole. Chris and Julie said their adventure was meant to raise awareness on climate change and promote the use of electric cars. No word on if they got to see Santa, but that's as close as you're going to be able to get. I'm Omar Jimenez. Thanks for sticking with me, everybody.

CNN NEWSROOM with Jim Acosta starts in just a moment.