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2024 U.S. Election; Super Tuesday, March 5, Will Feature GOP Races in 15 States; Before Super Tuesday, Trump and Haley on the Campaign Trail; Haley Boasts Victory Over Biden in the NYT Poll Which Shows Greater Margin Than Trump; Battle for the White House Tied, According to CNN Survey; In Four Different Cases, Trump Charged with 91 Felonies; Orban Due to Visit Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida Home; Jill Biden Ramping Up Husband's Re-Election Campaign, Fiercely Criticized Donald Trump; Israel-Hamas War; U.S. Begins Aid Drops Into Gaza; Organizations Claim Trucks are Better to Deliver Aid to Gaza; U.S. Official: Israel "Basically Accepted" Ceasefire Deal; Death Toll at Gaza Aid Site Risen to 118 people, According to Gaza Health Ministry; U.S. Investigators Looking Into Derailment Involving Three Trains in Eastern Pennsylvania; Sierra Nevadas Devastated by Winter Storm; Two People Die, Millions of acres Burned by Texas Smokehouse Creek Wildfire; Biden Urges Trump to Back Bipartisan Border Legislation; First Time in Mexico, A Woman Could Become President; Children Killed in Odessa Strike; Russia's War on Ukraine. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired March 03, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

Donald Trump racking up more wins in the fight to be the Republican presidential candidate, but Nikki Haley has new poll numbers to help her make the case ahead of the critical Super Tuesday contest.

The U.S. begins aid drops into Gaza but it's nowhere enough to meet the enormous need. Details. Plus, what we know about the efforts at a ceasefire and hostage deal before Ramadan.

And travel nightmares in California as the state gets hit with a late winter storm.

Super Tuesday voting in the U.S. gets underway in a little more than 48 hours with presidential nominating contests in more than a dozen states. 865 delegates are up for grabs for Republicans. It takes more than 112 delegates to win their presidential nomination, and a strong showing by Donald Trump could make his lead almost insurmountable.

Trump racked up more wins on Saturday. He claimed nearly 85 percent of the vote in Idaho's Republican caucuses compared to just over 13 percent for rival Nikki Haley. Missouri's Republicans also held caucuses on Saturday. Trump commanded a whopping 100 percent of that vote. Trump now has 247 delegates compared to Haley's 24. CNN's Steve Contorno has more.

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STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Former President Donald Trump held rallies on Saturday in North Carolina and here in Virginia, two states that will vote on Super Tuesday. But even though their primaries are right around the corner, Former President Trump was mostly looking ahead to a likely general election with President Biden. He spoke especially about his recent trip to the border and what he saw.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Biden's conduct on our border is, by any definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America. You know, he talks about democracy. He is a danger to democracy. He is.

Number one, he goes after his political opponent, which nobody's ever done in this country. They do it in third world countries very well. They do it. But they're not going to succeed with us. They're not going to succeed. It's making us stronger. It's making us stronger.

Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations.

CONTORNO: Meanwhile, Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on the campaign trail as well in North Carolina. Continuing to make the case that she would be more electable than President Trump in a general election, pointing to a new poll that showed her with a 10- point lead over President Biden.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think there's another "New York Times" poll that shows us. I think Donald Trump squeaks by and we win by 10 points. If you look at the Hispanic numbers in that, it's off the charts. It's double digits. We continue to make ground.

CONTORNO: Trump on Saturday also adding to his delegate lead over Nikki Haley. CNN projects that he has won all 32 delegates in the Idaho caucuses, all 54 delegates in the Missouri caucuses, and at a Michigan convention held on Saturday, 39 more delegates were awarded to President Trump. His total now at 247, well on his way to the 1,215 he will need to secure the nomination. Of course, many of those delegates will be awarded on Tuesday.

Steve Contorno, CNN, Richmond, Virginia.

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BRUNHUBER: Now, we want to tell you more about that "New York Times" and Siena College poll Steve mentioned a moment ago, it surveyed 980 registered voters during the last week of February and the results were concerning for President Biden.

Only 18 percent of respondents thought that they have personally benefited from Biden's policies. Meanwhile, 40 percent of respondents say they did personally benefit from Trump's policies. Still, a CNN poll of polls shows the race for president a tossup at the moment. The most recent numbers in a general election match-up continue to show no clear winner between the two, with Trump at 48 percent and Biden at 46 percent.

Now, Trump is trying to turn his focus to the general election campaign. And President Biden, during a stop in North Carolina, the former president called himself a dissident and made a series of false claims about the multiple legal issues he's involved in. Here he is.

[04:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor. I'm being indicted for you, I am. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I stand before you today. Not only is your past and hopefully future president, but as a proud political dissident, and as a public enemy of a rogue regime. This is a rogue and dangerous machine --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, Trump is currently facing dozens of criminal charges in four different cases. There are election interference cases at a federal level. And in Georgia, he's also been indicted for his handling of classified documents, and proceedings get under way later this month in his New York hush money case.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is cozying up to autocratic leaders like Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban is due to visit Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida home, this week. "Atlantic" writer Tom Nichols spoke to CNN about that earlier, and he says, other European leaders are taking note. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM NICHOLS, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC AND AUTHOR, "OUR WORST ENEMY" THE ASSAULT FROM WITHIN ON MODERN DEMOCRACY": I think we're already hearing it from European leaders that they fully expect that if Trump is elected that NATO will be on the chopping block. The Russians will be able to do, in Trump's words, whatever the hell they want. That their security will be endangered, which means eventually our security will be endangered.

Unlike Americans, I think the Europeans are actually listening to Trump and taking him seriously and believing what he says about what he's going to do. I think in the United States we have a normalcy bias. We just, sort of, wave it away and say nothing could ever really get that bad. Things can't change that fast.

This time around -- I mean, Trump got really close to some of this the last time around. This time around, he has people around him who have figured out how to, you know, work the levers and turn the knobs, and that's going to be incredibly dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: U.S. First Lady Jill Biden is ramping up her role in her husband's re-election campaign. She went on a three-day tour of key battleground states, launching Women for Biden-Harris Coalition. In Atlanta on Friday, she fiercely criticized Former President Donald Trump, warning that he could be a threat to women if he returns to the White House. She said Trump has, "Spent a lifetime tearing us down and devaluing our existence."

But the First Lady was interrupted several times by pro-Palestine protesters while campaigning in Arizona on Saturday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free Palestine. Free Palestine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: While protestors were interrupting the first lady, the first U.S. airdrop of aid was on the ground in Gaza. Three American C- 130s dropped 66 bundles of food over Gaza on Saturday. But President Biden says, the amount of aid going into Gaza is not nearly enough.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is due to meet with Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz on Monday. Now, it comes as a U.S. official tells CNN that Israel has, "Basically accepted a six-week ceasefire and a hostage release proposal in Gaza." Now, negotiators are waiting for Hamas to agree to a, "Defined category of vulnerable hostages."

On Saturday, Gaza's Ministry of Health said, at least 11 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, a refugee camp next to a maternity hospital. Israel says it was targeting Islamic Jihad terrorists and terror infrastructure. That group is now urging attacks on checkpoints in the West Bank and Jerusalem during Ramadan. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman also calling on Palestinians to block roads used by Israeli settlers.

CNN's Paula Hancock says more on what's happening in Gaza.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are expecting more aid airdrops over Gaza in the coming days. This, after what we saw Saturday, the U.S. and the Royal Jordanian Air Force dropping aid along the coastlines of Gaza.

Now, the U.S. said that they dropped 66 bundles, that was 38,000 meals. No water or medical supplies in this airdrop. But they say that they did consider it successful as they were monitoring the area afterwards and said that they saw civilians come out to take the aid and then distribute it.

Now, Jordan and the UAE have already been doing airdrops over recent days, and we know that other countries are considering whether this is the way to try and get desperately needed aid into the some of the hardest hit areas off Gaza.

But we are hearing from some humanitarian aid groups that this is not the ideal way to try and get the aid in. They say -- in fact, one called it a band aid measure to try and help those desperately in need. Of course, once the aid lands in Gaza, there is no organized distribution. There is no control over who gets this aid. And there's no guarantee that it will get to those who desperately need it.

[04:10:00]

What we're hearing from humanitarian aid groups and the U.N. agencies, and we've been hearing this for months, is that Israel needs to lift restrictions on what gets into Gaza, restrictions at the crossings, and restrictions of transporting the aid around the Gaza Strip once it is inside.

We heard also from U.S. President Joe Biden saying that he was going to insist to Israel that they had to allow more humanitarian aid to get in. There is also questions as to why other crossings between Israel and Gaza have not been opened, in particular one that is closer to Gaza City and Northern Gaza which is an area where very little aid has managed to get through.

Now, one thing that all humanitarian aid groups agree is that a ceasefire would allow them to get humanitarian aid into where it is needed. Now, we have heard from a senior Biden administration official that the six-week ceasefire has basically been agreed by Israel at this point. But we do also know, we heard from Qatari officials this week that there are still details to be hammered out. We've heard from Israel that they want a list of hostages from Hamas and also which are alive and which are not now.

Now, we understand from this senior Biden administration official that effectively the ball is in Hamas's court. They're waiting for Hamas to respond. We're also hearing from two sources familiar with the negotiations that these negotiations will continue in Cairo.

So, we are expecting representatives from the U.S., Israel, Hamas and Egypt to be talking in Cairo. Although we don't have an exact timing of that. Israel and Hamas obviously not talking directly but in separate rooms, we understand, from these sources. So, there is some hope that a ceasefire, no matter how temporary, may be in the offing in coming days.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The death toll from that tragedy and aid convoy in Northern Gaza Thursday has risen to 118, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Now, this IDF video from the scene showed a huge crowd of desperate people swarming an aid convoy in Gaza City. Witnesses say, Israeli forces opened fire, hitting civilians and sending the crowd into a panic. Many trampled or run over by the aid trucks. Doctors reported dozens of dead and wounded with bullet wounds. The Israeli military has a different version of events, saying its forces fired warning shots to disperse the crowd and criticized any reports of deliberately targeting civilians. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKEPERSON (through translator): We had secured this operation. This humanitarian operation was carried out by us. The claim that we attacked the convoy and injured people deliberately is baseless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The U.N. Security Council issued a compromise statement on Saturday, expressing deep concern over the incident. The U.S. objected to earlier versions of the statement.

All right. I want to bring in Noa Landau, who's a Deputy Editor-In- Chief of the "Haaretz" newspaper, and she joins us now from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for being here with us. So, the deaths surrounding the aid truck delivery in Northern Gaza, just the latest flashpoint. But this one has really resonated internationally because so many died who were there just to get food. Do you have any faith that the Israeli investigation will be fair?

NOA LANDAU, DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, HAARETZ: Well, Kim, thank you for having me. Obviously, the pictures that we saw from that incident were horrible. And, yes, there are, you know, different claims on who actually caused the deaths. But it's clear to everyone that the main reason that this happened is because of the situation where we're in right now. Where there is no ruling force in Gaza because of the war. And because Israel's -- one of Israel's main goals is to weaken Hamas and destroy all of its infrastructure.

So, obviously, the chaos that we're now seeing is part of that wider framework. I'm sure the army will investigate. I can tell you, you know, a hundred percent that all the internal investigations are, you know, objective investigations. Of course, this is true, you know, to any country investigating or any, you know, authority investigating itself. But still the bigger picture is that the problem is the current political wider situation in Gaza.

BRUNHUBER: Let's talk about the wider situation then. You've argued that this incident just highlights the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to end the war now. You say before Gaza becomes Somalia, what do you mean by that?

LANDAU: So, this is from our latest editorial, actually, calling to end the war now.

[04:15:00]

And well, you know, we're seeing what once -- I think it was Kissinger who once said that Israel doesn't have a foreign policy, only a domestic one. And on the domestic political level, the -- what happened recently now in Gaza doesn't seem to change a lot in the wider picture, but on the other end, we are seeing more and more Israelis taking the streets, just like last night, for example. Calling for a political solution, for a political deal. We are seeing more and more Israeli voices claiming that there should be a political solution.

And today, we're actually seeing that the negotiations between Hamas and Israel are resuming in Cairo, under much more international and internal pressure to end, or at least pause this war.

BRUNHUBER: In the meantime, the need is obviously so great. The U.S. now is airlifting aid in, but many are asking why can't the U.S. just use its influence to force Israel to allow more aid in via the front door, in trucks?

LANDAU: So, as I said, we are seeing more internal and, of course, much more international pressure to do exactly that, and also move forward with the political solution rather than the military one. But we still have to remember that in terms of the Israeli point of view, there are still three main goals for this war, which is to -- we can or destroy Hamas infrastructure and freeing the hostages, which is the main one. And this is, of course, you know, what the negotiations are about. And also, a vaguer goal, which is preventing any threat from Gaza in the long-term.

So, while -- you know, we are discussing the question of humanitarian aid, the question whether the whole war will stop or hold, at least, depends on how the Israeli government could convince also the Israeli public that these goals are met.

BRUNHUBER: Beyond the effects on Israel and Gaza, this is having a spillover effect on domestic politics here in the U.S. In an election year, you've argued that the war in Gaza is, I'll quote you here, " Enfeebling Biden there, there by bolstering Trump. Why is that? And what choices does Biden truly have here?

LANDAU: Well, I think any American or any other, you know, person following what we saw in the primaries in Michigan saw that the question of the war in Gaza was pretty intense during these primaries. And what happened is that we saw more and more criticism towards Biden on this specific issue of his here in the Middle East. So, Gaza is becoming more and more of an issue, not only, you know, for the Israel and the Middle East and for Palestinians, but also for Americans and their internal elections.

And, while the Gaza question is weakening, maybe, Biden internally in his own party, it could actually strengthen Donald Trump.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there, but really appreciate getting your analysis. Noa Landau, thank you so much.

LANDAU: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Thousands of Israelis have completed a four-day march, demanding the release of hostages still in Gaza. It began at the site of the Nova Music Festival where Hamas militants killed more than 360 people on October 7th and they ended in Jerusalem. Families of hostages, former hostages and survivors of the October 7th attacks all joined the massive demonstration. Israeli officials believe more than 130 people are still being held captive in Gaza, including two children. 99 of the hostages are still believed to be alive.

And pro-Palestinian demonstrators forced the Canadian Prime Minister to cancel his evening plans with his Italian counterpart on Saturday. Justin Trudeau was expected to attend a reception at an art gallery in Toronto with Giorgia Meloni, who's visiting Canada.

Well, they never made it as demonstrators blocked attendees from entering the building. The protesters accused Trudeau of funding genocide in Gaza and demanded an end to what they called the Siege of Palestine. Red paint was sprayed on the museum's doors along with stickers of Palestinian flags.

All right. Still ahead, the devastation grows from those massive wildfires raging across the Texas Panhandle. We'll have the latest.

And later, nature is hitting California hard with the winter blast. We'll look at the blizzard conditions bringing several feet of snow to the area and shutting down a major interstate. That's all coming up, please stay with us.

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[04:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: U.S. investigators are looking into a derailment involving three trains in Eastern Pennsylvania. Our preliminary investigation indicates one freight train struck another that was sitting on the same track near Allentown. Well, that caused two locomotives to roll over and some cars to derail onto a separate track before they were hit by a third train heading in the opposite direction.

Investigators say there are no injuries and no hazardous materials were spilled, but there was a fuel leak that reportedly has been contained. The train's operator, Norfolk Southern, was involved in a derailment that led to a massive chemical fire in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.

A late winter storm is slamming California. It's forced Interstate 80 to close for more than a day, and the interstate will remain closed until further notice. Blizzard conditions have reduced visibility on roads, taken down power lines, and created hurricane force winds, in some places topping 100 miles per hour. And look at this, employees at the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort woke up Saturday morning to snow piled up against the door.

CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa has more on what the west can expect in the hours and days ahead.

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ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Impacts from this winter storm are extreme. The weather service using words like dangerous and life- threatening to describe some of these impacts. Look at all these deep purples in the Sierra Nevadas.

[04:25:00]

That's where we're looking at impossible travel from heavy snow and gusty winds that is not only making visibility tough to see, but it's even knocking out some power, whiteout conditions, damaging winds from those gusts and extremely heavy snowfall rates. We're talking up to four inches of snow per hour.

Some of these snowfall totals just through Saturday are measured in feet. We're talking 27 inches from Homewood Mountain, and we're finding some totals already over 40 inches, 42 inches in King Vale, California. Soda Springs nearing 40 inches. So, just incredible to see the feet of snow already falling, and these blizzard warnings continue through a decent chunk of Sunday. So, expecting additional feet on top of that.

And you can see that, too, where all that moisture comes in off the Pacific. You've got the rain showers along the coast. But once we hit some of that colder air in the higher elevations, you get that snow machine to keep pumping as we go through the day on Sunday. Additional snow likely as we go into Monday as well.

Now, we're looking at totals possible up to 12 feet, locally, in some of the highest elevations over 5,000 to 6,000 feet. So, some of those highest peaks up to 12 feet of snow. But even in some of the lower elevations, we're still measuring that snow three to four to five feet. So, just really incredible.

And it's coming with wind gusts that have been just incredible. Over 100 miles per hour, 114 mile per hour wind gusts that has been reported at Mammoth Mountain in California. Some gusts nearing 150 miles per hour near Alpine Meadows. So, this wind, that's where you get the damaging part of it, and you get the wide out conditions and the blizzard conditions as well.

Now, we can continue to find these gusts upwards of 50 to 60 miles per hour in California as we go through Sunday. Now, but the storm is so impactful that those wind gusts are spreading inland into the Central Plains where we're looking at wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour. Possible from Albuquerque, Amarillo, and then up into the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Now, a couple of those gusty winds with incredibly dry air, that's where that fire danger is continuing. You've got relative humidity values that are down to 20 percent or lower as we go through the next day or so. So, that's keeping that fire danger elevated as we go through Sunday because we have the strong winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour.

We have temperatures that are much above average and we have dry air with those relative humidity values pretty low. Plus, we already have ground conditions that are already dry, burn scars where we had the biggest fire in Texas history over the last couple of days. Burning over a million acres of land. Here's a look at these temperatures. I mean, soaring into the 70s and 80s, a good 10 to 15 degrees above average. So again, those dew point values that are so low with the temperature is so high that's making that air just incredibly dry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: People in the Texas Panhandle are paying close attention to those dry conditions and high winds. At least two people have died in the wildfire so far. Hundreds of structures have been destroyed. One man who escaped the flames described what he and his neighbor went through. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY WILLIAMS, FRITCH, TEXAS RESIDENT: It came this way really fast. And the authorities were trying to evacuate everybody. And smoke was everywhere. He just barely got out. He only had the shirt on his back and his dogs. He lost everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, there are actually a number of wildfires burning in the Texas Panhandle. The largest, the Smokehouse Creek fire, has scorched more than 1 million acres in Texas and more than 30,000 acres in neighboring Oklahoma. Utility officials say, they will need to rebuild more than 100 miles of power lines.

All right. Up next, the road to the White House apparently goes straight through the border.

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TRUMP: Biden's conduct on our border is, by any definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump is focusing his sights and attacks on Joe Biden using border security to prime his path to re-election, that's coming up. Stay with us.

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[04:30:00]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Nikki Haley were on the campaign trail Saturday, ahead of Super Tuesday contest just days away. Trump scored overwhelming victories in Republican caucuses in Idaho and Missouri on Saturday. During his campaign stops, he mostly ignored Haley and focused his attacks on President Biden. Meanwhile, Haley touted a new poll that suggested she could beat Biden by a wider margin than the survey gave Trump. 15 states will hold GOP nominating contests on March 5th, or Super Tuesday as it's known. 865 delegates are up for grabs that day. Trump now has 247 delegates compared to Haley's 24. 1,215 are needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination.

U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump is looking past Super Tuesday and straight to the general election in November. He spent much of his campaign rally on Saturday, going after President Biden and his immigration policy. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Biden's conduct on our border is, by any definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America. Let's face it, this country is a mess. We got 15, 16 million people came in, and they came in from prisons and jails. They came in from mental institutions and insane asylums. They're terrorists. They're drug dealers. We are really going to be a very different country. We have to have it stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, those comments follow the former president's trip to the U.S.-Mexico border last week as he makes border security a central part of his re-election bid. Biden was also at the southern border this week, just 300 miles away from Trump. He called on his likely 2024 opponent to join him and support the bipartisan border package stalled in Congress to end the border turmoil.

Now, immigration remains a contentious issue throughout the U.S., not just the border states. A bill passed by the Georgia Statehouse will allow police to arrest anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Interest in toughening the state's immigration laws has picked up steam after the killings of nursing student Lakin Riley on the University of Georgia campus 11 days ago.

The 22-year-old nursing student was laid to rest Friday. However, critics of the bill believe it targets immigrants, forcing them to leave in fear.

[04:35:00]

Campaigning in Mexico's presidential election has begun. The field includes two candidates, one of whom could become the nation's first female president. Now, ahead of this summer's election, candidates are pledging to cut down on widespread corruption and deal with a rampant crime problem.

CNN's Gabriela Frias is in Mexico City with a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIELA FRIAS, CNN ANCHOR: For the first time in Mexico, a woman could become president next June when the biggest election in the country's history takes place. The presidential campaigns officially just launched. Senator Xochitl Galvez, the underdog opposition coalition candidate, held an event in the violence torn central state of Zacatecas right after midnight. Centering her message and her campaign on her strategy to combat violence and insecurity. Promising to bring back peace to its citizens.

Galvez, a computer engineer and entrepreneur, described her security strategy as one of bravery, heart, and mind. One where hugs for criminals will be over. A play on President Lopez Obrador's phrase, hugs, not bullets, when describing his government strategy. Using public resources to tackle social challenges at the root of the problem.

Galvez, who leads a main opposition alliance, also called for a new chapter of bilateral cooperation with the United States to combat what she called a common enemy.

Meantime, Claudia Sheinbaum, the candidate of the governing Morena coalition, held her campaign launch Friday afternoon at the Zocalo, the main square in Mexico City. The capital she governed until she stepped down to run for president.

Sheinbaum, a chemical engineer, called the coming election a historic choice. Between continuing the transformation that President Lopez Obrador started or allowing corruption practices to come back. Sheinbaum presented 100 goals to accomplish what she described as the Mexican humanism. Unique in the world, she said.

A third presidential contender, Congressman Jorge Alvarez Maynez from Movimiento Ciudadano or Citizens Movement launched his presidential bid from the state of Jalisco. The first one to be governed by his political party, and one torn by violence from competing drug cartels.

Mexico's general election will take place on June 2nd. For the first time, all 32 of Mexico's states will hold elections for local seats as well. Analysts expect three months of very intense and polarizing political campaigning across the country with a high risk of political violence in some cases. Around 100 million people are called to cast ballots for more than 20, 000 posts across the country. Millions of Mexicans abroad are also expected to take part in the process. There is no re-election in Mexico. President Lopez Obrador's term ends in October.

Gabriela Frias, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And joining me now to talk more about the upcoming elections is Carin Zissis, the editor-in-chief of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas Online site. Thank you so much for being here with us. So, you've been covering elections in Mexico for years now. So first, how unusual and significant is it for Mexico that the two leading candidates are women?

CARIN ZISSIS EDITOR-IN CHIEF, AMERICAS SOCIETY, COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS ONLINE: Well, it is extraordinary and there's a lot of excitement around the fact that there are two leading women. Two candidates who are women leading. Now, Mexico does have certain parity laws in place that have meant that Mexico has become a leader in terms of women's representation in politics.

So, you have gender parity in Congress. You have a woman -- the head of the Central Bank, head of both houses of Congress. So, we are seeing very broad representation by women, but this is -- this would be the first time that we would have a woman president in Mexico.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, and all of this, as you laid out a certain example to many other nations, at least specifically on that. So, take us through the two candidates briefly. I mean, how do they differ?

ZISSIS: Well, the interesting thing about Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez is that they actually have a few interesting things in common. They're close in age, 60 and 61. They both get into politics around the same time, around 2000 when the country was transitioning to democracy. And they both have STEM backgrounds. They both have science and engineering and that -- those types of backgrounds.

So, some interesting similarities. But beyond that, there are some big differences. Claudia Sheinbaum is seen as the success for -- successor for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is a very popular and populist president in place, and she's promised to continue with his policies. Some of that has included -- includes ideas like reforming the judiciary. Reform -- reforming the electoral agency.

And on the other side, Xochitl Galvez has warned that some of those types of moves actually will weaken Mexico's democracy, weaken its institutions.

[04:40:00]

And during a recent trip to Washington, she warned the Biden administration, actually, to take a closer look at concerns around democracy in Mexico.

BRUNHUBER: All right. So, you brought up the Biden administration. The U.S.-Mexico border, obviously, a huge flashpoint and no more so than during an election year here in the U.S. So, what might that mean, specifically, on immigration and cooperation with Mexico? Who would be more amenable to play ball with either President Biden or a President Trump?

ZISSIS: We've seen that the AMLO administration has worked closely with the White House, with both Donald Trump and with Joe Biden. We can assume that an incoming president would try to -- we're not -- it's not really clear that Claudia Sheinbaum would be able to have the same sort of warm relationship that we saw in the case of -- when Trump was president. AMLO and Trump had a surprisingly close relationship.

But generally, there's been a lot of bilateral cooperation. We'll see that that could potentially try to -- they'll try to continue with that. One thing to bear in mind though is that Claudia Sheinbaum, she just held an event in Ciudad Juarez, near the border. And she was very clear that the

Mexican -- Mexico will not be a subordinate to the United States. It seek -- will seek to be a partner.

And for Mexico, it has a lot of its own domestic issues that voters back at home are very concerned about. Violence and crime are the top concerns for voters in the election, and they're going to be looking for -- like, candidates are going to be looking, and the next president will be looking for the U.S. government to do its part also in stemming the flow of guns into Mexico which arm those organized crime groups. And more than 70 percent of illicit guns seized in Mexico can be traced back to the United States. So, we're going to see a, sort of, a push and pull between both sides.

BRUNHUBER: And we heard in that report coming into this, there is a high risk of political violence. I mean, what form do you expect that to take? Who will be the targets? I mean, what are you expecting to see?

ZISSIS: Yes, sadly, we have seen some examples of attacks on candidates already. And in recent years, organized crime groups using attacks on officials and candidates as a means to really show that they could potentially try to have an impact on particularly local election results.

So, it is definitely a concern in this election and something that we're hearing a lot of conversation and concern about. Sadly, there's been a history of political violence in Mexico, but we are -- that will be something that we're going to be seeing discussed.

BRUNHUBER: Right.

ZISSIS: Certainly, in this election.

BRUNHUBER: Lots on the line for -- obviously, for Mexico, but also here in the U.S. Really appreciate you breaking that down for us. Carin Zissis, thank you so much.

ZISSIS: Thank you for having me on. It was a pleasure to be with you.

BRUNHUBER: Regulations (ph) are urging Alabama Supreme Court to reconsider their ruling that frozen embryos are illegally children. Those groups represent the defendants of the original lawsuits. They filed briefs asking the court to rehear the case.

Now, it isn't typical for the court to reconsider rulings, but this case is anything but typical. It's thrown families into turmoil. Several reproductive health care systems in the state have since paused IVF treatments for patients for fear that they could be held criminally liable for wrongful death. And the ruling sparked new fears that other states may declare embryos children and limit the ability of families to pursue fertility treatments.

All right. A heartbreaking story from the Ukrainian City of Odessa. Emergency workers find the bodies of several children in the rubble of a bombed-out building. That story is ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BRUNHUBER: We're getting word of new Russian missile strikes in Eastern Ukraine. Officials say, the missiles hit two towns, wounding five people. We're also learning that emergency workers have recovered a third young child killed in a drone strike in Odessa. They say, this latest casualty is a baby, believed to be less than one years old, pulled from the rubble of a residential building, hit overnight Friday into Saturday. At least 10 people were killed there.

Nick Paton Walsh has more.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Another night of airstrikes targeting Odessa, so frequent, at the moment, and so often deadly towards civilians. Particularly troubling, numbers amongst the rising death toll here. Particularly, Timofey (ph), a four-month-old boy, and Mark, a toddler who would have turned three on Sunday.

Hard to tell often if this is the purposeful attack against civilian apartment blocks, like the ones that were hit over that night or whether this is a mistake by the Russians who think they're hitting something else or if they simply just don't care. But it's deeply frequent, deeply troubling, as you just heard, then claiming the lives of the very youngest.

It's also potentially a sign of what Ukraine says is one of the first things that will suffer because of a lack of Western aid, and that's air defenses. Now, Russia is also fielding huge amounts of drones and aviation bombs at the moment. They seem to have a huge supply of those. And it comes too amongst troubling signs on the front line, particularly around the east near where I'm standing, in the town of Avdiivka where Russia took that town about three weeks ago now, Ukraine withdrawing from it.

But since then, they've been able to apply intense pressure, moving forwards and taking some of the villages to the west of that, three confirmed that we know of. But the area that Ukraine essentially declared its new defensive line now appears to be under intense pressure from Russian assaults.

Some geolocated drone footage suggesting, in fact, that one of the most important villages that Ukraine thought it would hold onto to defend that front line, Orlivka, may now be partially under Russian control, or at least destroyed beyond any kind of recognition. This is troubling because it suggests Ukraine is not necessarily in control of its defensive back lines, and it may suggest greater Russian momentum that is being discussed publicly by Ukrainian officials.

Also, to the new commander of Ukraine's forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, for the second time, berated some of his commanders for poor tactics. Saying that they had the staffing, the equipment that they needed, but they simply hadn't done their job. And so, now he needed to send advisers in, or in some cases make personnel changes.

Stark comments, frankly, in the middle of a pitched battle from the key commander here in Ukraine. New to the job after his replacement was taken out by President Zelenskyy. The second time that Mr. Syrskyi has indeed suggested that his commanders are not up to the job in this area. And it comes amid signs that Russia is really on the front foot here on the front lines with territory changing hands.

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Potentially stark weeks or months ahead here for Ukraine as western munitions and aid dries up fast and they begin to see what that really means on the battlefield.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.

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BRUNHUBER: The ongoing violence in Haiti intensified on Saturday as hundreds of prisoners escaped from the national penitentiary in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The breakout occurred after fighting erupted, a law enforcement source says. Multiple sources tell CNN this latest surge of violence and unrest, which began on Thursday, is unprecedented in recent years.

Spanish police say, they have busted an alleged counterfeit ring operating across Europe. Police stormed this business in Barcelona, Saturday, arresting more than a dozen people. They're accused of producing more than a million euros worth of counterfeit currency. Authorities say, the fake banknotes were high quality, even managed to fool some automatic payment machines. The group's suspected of passing the phony euros throughout Spain, Greece, France and Italy.

We'll be right back.

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BRUNHUBER: Basketball star LeBron James can add another milestone to his record setting career, affectionately known as King James. He's now the first NBA player to score 40,000 career points.

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The L.A. Lakers star reached that mark during Saturday's game against the Denver Nuggets. Notching the historic basket on a left-handed layup in the second quarter. He's been the league's all-star, all-time leading scorer since last season.

Well, it was a remarkable day at the racetrack for NASCAR driver Rajah Caruth. On Friday, the team Chevy driver won his first career truck series race in Las Vegas. And the 21-year-old became only the third black driver to win a NASCAR National Series. He joins Hall of Famer Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace. Ruth, a native of Washington, D. C., is a graduate of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program.

Well, the Formula 1 season is finally here, and one driver is starting strong. Red Bull's Max Verstappen coasted to victory in Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday. The three-time world champion continued team Red Bull's dominance in the Middle East after having one of the most commanding seasons ever last year. The F1 season continues next weekend with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

And Red Bull's victory comes just two days after team Principal Christian Horner found himself at the center of another controversy. On Thursday, an alleged leaked messages were distributed anonymously to members of the F1 community. Horner denied allegations of wrongdoing on Friday, and CNN has been unable to corroborate the authenticity of the messages.

Horner's denial came after he was cleared in a separate investigation of inappropriate behavior towards a member of the racing team. He denied the allegations. Before Saturday's race, Horner was joined by and held hands with his wife, Geri Halliwell, the former Spice Girl.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more "CNN Newsroom" in just a moment. Please do stay with us.

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