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Trump, Biden Pitch Clashing Messages At Border; Today: Biden To Address Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza; Iranians Vote In Major Election. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 01, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. southern border has taken center stage in the 2024 presidential race as President Biden and his likely November opponent Donald Trump spire over the migrant crisis. Both of them traveled to the border Thursday in separate visits. President Biden slamming Trump for torpedoing a bipartisan border security bill for political purposes.

He invited the former president to collaborate on a new legislative solution. And Trump blaming Biden for recent crimes allegedly committed by migrants. He also continued to spew baseless conspiracy theories.

[11:35:01]

Joining us now. Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of Texas. His district includes Brownsville. He accompanied President Biden in his trip there yesterday.

Thanks so much, Congressman, for joining us. As you know, President Biden, he reached out directly to Trump over the border issue. Let me play a little clip of what President Biden said yesterday. Listen to this.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I understand my predecessor is in Eagle Pass today. So, here's what I would say to Mr. Trump. Instead of playing politics with this issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill.

We can do it together. You know and I know it's the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen. So, instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Congressman, why do you think the president is making this direct appeal to Trump?

REP. VICENTE GONZALEZ (D-TX): Yes. Well, that's a good message to former President Trump because he's the person that's talking to Republican members of the House to block this bill from going on the floor. They want to -- they want chaos on the border that they can continue to campaign on into November.

I had been one of the members that have been the most critical on the border with both administrations. And I support this bill because it addresses a lot of the critical issues that are impacting the country -- across the country with a mass migration that we're receiving on our southern border. And we would have been able to have 3000 -- 4000 more asylum officers, over a hundred new immigration judges to process these claims faster and be able to remove folks who don't qualify under the asylum laws now.

We would have had 1100 new agents on the ground. These are all great proposals that will help fix and alleviate the problem on our southern border.

BLITZER: But as you know, Congressman, President Biden, he's also calling for the lawmakers to take up this bipartisan border legislation, to bring it back up. Why is he pushing for a bill Republicans have already said is dead in the water?

GONZALEZ: Well, maybe because he's feeling the pressure from the American people. At the end of the day, like, two-thirds of Americans support that bill and want it to go to the floor. They know we need resources on the border.

I've been talking about this for three years now. We need more agents. We need more immigration judges.

We need more asylum officers. We need better technology. We can fix this border problem.

And we have proposals. I've been pushing for the Safe Zone Act, which creates safe zones in Guatemala and Panama and Colombia and places thousands of miles away from our southern border where migrants can process their claim at that juncture. And it removes cartels out of the equation. It takes the pressure off our southern border.

But the border problem is not a Democratic or Republican problem. It's an American problem that requires bipartisan solutions. And we need everyone at the table, including Donald Trump's allies.

BLITZER: As you know, Congressman, there's been a few recent polls, which show that voters say immigration is the most important issue facing the country right now. So, here's the question. Was it a mistake for the Biden administration to wait three years to take this issue head-on?

GONZALEZ: Well, I think the critical bill that we have on the floor right now, we didn't have a bipartisan agreement like that in the last three years. And the efforts -- I mean, we could have always done more. I've been talking about this for three years. I said the same thing under the Trump administration. And that -- you know, we're not going to rip children from mother's arms and separate families and caged children the way the Trump administration did. But we are going to bring law and order to the southern border.

BLITZER: We need to talk about an issue in Texas right now, your state. Texas is appealing a decision from a federal judge to block a controversial immigration law in your state that would allow state law enforcement agents to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. What's your reaction to that?

GONZALEZ: Well, clearly, it's an unconstitutional bill that was passed under Governor Abbott. And this is just a continuation of Abbott's political theater that he's using the southern border for. He's invested over $10 billion in building walls and bringing National Guard people -- troops and creating buoys and barbed wire and it has not curbed migration to Texas Southern border.

He has squandered a monumental amount of taxpayer dollars that could have been used for our public schools or taking care of senior citizens or our veterans here in Texas. And instead, he's playing politics with the southern border and at no avail of bringing any real solutions. Migrants continue to come in high numbers to the state of Texas, and he has not been able to slow that migration down. So, what he does on the southern border is for no other reason than to showcase that to the country.

[11:40:04]

We don't know if he's trying to run for vice president or he just -- you know kissing up to the former president or of what exactly his ideas are. I know he's feeding a lot of red meat to his base. And I would support it if it had real results because I'm for curbing migration on our southern border. But what the president -- what the governor has done has killed Texas National Guardsmen, has killed women and children on the southern border, and has caused a tremendous amount of resources.

BLITZER: Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, thanks so much for joining us.

GONZALEZ: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Meanwhile, there's growing international outrage now and calls for an investigation after more than a hundred people in Gaza were killed waiting for food. Still ahead. What we know about the hundreds of people who were also injured? And we'll take a closer look at the conflicting explanations of how this all happened.

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[11:45:30]

BLITZER: Only moments ago, we learned that President Biden is expected to publicly address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Those remarks should be coming later this afternoon over at the White House. And they come a day after hundreds of civilians were caught in a barrage of gunfire around a convoy of aid trucks in Gaza City. I want to warn our viewers right now, the video you're about to see is disturbing.

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BLITZER: There are conflicting versions of the events leading up to this truly horrific scene that reportedly claimed more than a hundred lives. CNN is unable to independently confirm the death toll. But outrage over the incident is growing, and there are growing calls for an independent inquiry.

Joining us now from Tel Aviv is CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, what does this mean for the ongoing ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, talks that supposedly were going to result in the release of more hostages?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, and it also comes as we had been hearing that there were reports of progress over the course of the last week. But we know that events like this can impact those negotiations -- can complicate those negotiations. In fact, President Biden yesterday saying himself that he believes that it definitely will complicate those negotiations. A senior member of Hamas also saying that they will not allow these negotiations to be what he described as cover for what he said are Israel's crimes against the Palestinians.

But what we are also hearing today, Wolf, are these growing calls for an investigation. The French and the German Foreign Ministers both calling for thorough investigations into what happened yesterday. The United States also making clear that they have more questions about what happened.

There are, of course, those conflicting timelines as it relates to when the gunfire broke out between what eyewitnesses on the grounds have told us and what the Israeli military claims yesterday. But what's also still not clear is why Israeli troops opened fire. They have only said so far that it was because of threatening behavior by individuals who they say approached their forces.

But what this is certainly doing, Wolf, is that it's shining a spotlight on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In particular, in northern Gaza. We know that over the course of the last month, aid going into Gaza, declined by half at a time when the humanitarian need was only growing.

We know that that is partly due to the fact that there are these stringent inspections of aid trucks going into Gaza. There is a need -- a clear need for more border crossings to be opened, in particular in northern Gaza, according to humanitarian aid officials. And we also know that there is a lack of security for these aid trucks in particular after U.S. officials said that Hamas -- police -- that police officers in Gaza who are ultimately run by the Hamas government there that they were being targeted by the Israeli military. And so, all of those factors combining to result in what we saw yesterday. You see -- when you see these hundreds of people massing around these trucks, it is because of how dire the need for food and essential services has become. The World Food Program is now warning that more than half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine.

And we are also, Wolf, getting incredibly sad and growing reports of children dying of dehydration and malnutrition. Just today, the Palestinian Ministry of Health saying that four more children in northern Gaza died as a result of dehydration and malnutrition, bringing the total number of children just in the past week in northern Gaza who have died of those causes to a total of 10 now, Wolf.

BLITZER: It's a horrific situation indeed. Jeremy Diamond reporting for us from Tel Aviv, thank you very much.

Other news we're following. Polls are now open in Iran. But voter turnout is expected to be at a record low for today's elections. We're going to explain why.

CNN is live in Tehran. Our Fred Pleitgen is standing by. Stay with us. We'll go to Fred in Tehran when we come back.

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[11:53:58]

BLITZER: Iranians head to the polls today in an election that could strengthen conservatives' grip on power across the country. Voters are choosing members of the legislature and the so-called Assembly of Experts. That's the body that appoints the Supreme Leader.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran for us and was there as the supreme leader was the first person to vote. Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Supreme Leader is traditionally the first person to cast his ballot in Iranian elections and he has been urging the population here to come out and vote to ensure that there's high participation.

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BLITZER: And Fred Pleitgen is joining us live now from Tehran. So, Fred, explain what's at stake today.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. Well, there certainly is a lot at stake with these parliamentary elections. I'm actually inside a polling station right now.

You can see right here. There's two ballot boxes behind me. One of them, as you were mentioning, for the Assembly of Experts election, which of course, is the body that elects the Supreme Leader. So, that alone if the Conservatives managed to strengthen their grip on that body certainly could mean a lot for this country going forward.

[11:55:05]

Because, of course, the Supreme Leader is the main authority here in this country, and his word is what essentially counts here in Iran. That other ballot box is for the Iranian parliament. Now, one of the things that the authorities here are looking at is the voter turnout.

You mentioned before that some believe that it could be at a record low. Well, right now, we've already seen the voting hours here extended for the second time. They've now been extended by another two hours because the authorities say that so many people still want to cast their ballot.

In that body as well, in the Parliament, it looks as though the Conservatives are going to get stronger. One of the things that the Supreme Leader said earlier today is that he believes that a high voter turnout is very important, not just as a signal internally in Iran but he also said, to Iran's enemies. Of course, the biggest enemy of Iran is the United States.

We've seen some confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, especially in the wake of Israel's operation against Hamas in Gaza. So, the Iranians certainly looking to strengthen their political system with this vote, Wolf.

BLITZER: Fred Pleitgen in Tehran for us. Fred, thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. I'll be back later tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern in the "SITUATION ROOM." Right here, Monday morning, 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

Stay with CNN. "INSIDE POLITICS" with Dana Bash starts right after a very short break.

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