Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump, Biden Hold Dueling Rallies In Battleground Georgia; Biden's Remarks Interrupted By Protesters Demanding Gaza Ceasefire; Biden Says He Has Some Red Lines With Israel; Biden Holds Rally In Battleground Georgia; Gov. Wes Moore (D) Maryland Discusses About What He Expects To Hear From President Biden On Campaign; Trump Election Subversion Case Fuels High-Profile Race For D.A.; Gang Leader Warns of "Civil War" Unless Haiti's PM Resigns. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired March 09, 2024 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.
The Trump-Biden rematch is now set and tonight, it is Georgia on their minds. Right now, you're looking at live pictures there. President Biden addressing supporters in Atlanta, President Trump taking the stage. This is the second day in a row that President Biden has visited a swing state that helped deliver him the presidency in 2020. You can see both of them there now speaking to crowds, as this campaign is fully underway for the election in 2024.
The Biden campaign is saying that the president or vice president will visit every single battleground state over the next few weeks as they ramp up their re-election pitch, and just about an hour down the road in the northwest Georgia city of Rome, you can see right there President Donald -- former President Donald Trump is speaking to supporters. It is Trump's first visit to the crucial battleground states since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee and taking over the Republican National Committee.
We are monitoring both of these events as both the candidates are on stage. We start with Steve Contorno, who is in Rome, Georgia at that Trump rally.
So Steve, Donald Trump just taking the stage. We're also learning that Trump met today with the parents of Laken Riley. What do we know about that meeting?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Alex, just before President Donald Trump took the stage, he held a meeting backstage, we are told with the parents who are here today at this event. Now, he has spoken to them by the phone before, but tonight they are here.
We are not sure if they're going to come out with the former president, his advisers aren't clear on that. But we do know that they gave permission for the campaign to use a picture of her on a poster that is being distributed tonight, to people in the audience, and it includes her photo and the phrase "Say her name." So this is a continuation of the confrontation and immigration politics that we saw at the State of the Union where they had President Biden and some of Donald Trump supporters in the Congress clashing during that speech over immigration and over Laken Riley's death, and clearly that is continuing tonight.
This is a window into how President Trump is going to campaign over the next eight months. This is not only a message that they hope resonates here in Georgia, but in other swing states.
Now, obviously in this room, it is a message that is well-received and likely in this area of the state as well. This is a party statement that is represented in Congress by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a very conservative firebrand Republican for whether or not that message sways the voters that will decide this election in the Atlanta suburbs. Well, that remains to be seen.
And talking to Republican strategists here, they remain worried that Trump is incredibly divisive, especially when it comes to re- litigating the 2020 election and whether he can avoid that on the campaign trail will remain something to be seen, and so far in his first appearance as presumptive nominee, we have seen little change from him.
He came out tonight to speak to the Jan 6 choir of individuals who were arrested for their role in the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol. That is something he did throughout the campaign when he was running for the nomination. Well, now, he is the presumptive nominee, and still coming out with that same music.
MARQUARDT: And just moments ago, we saw staff at that rally handing out the portrait of Laken Riley to supporters there.
Steve, of course, one of the many legal troubles and cases that the former president is facing is in Georgia, he's been trying to make hay of them politically fundraising off of them. To what extent do you think he is going to be addressing his trial in Georgia?
CONTORNO: Well, quite a bit, Alex. I mean, there are many people here who are wearing the mugshot on their shirts. Obviously, this is something that he has talked about quite a bit, not just in Georgia, but in many of the states. So yes, he will be definitely be talking about Fani Willis here, the district attorney of Fulton County, the prosecutor, and you know, that is something that obviously gets his base going, but he has had trouble in Georgia in every election since his 2020 loss.
The candidates he has supported have lost, the Republicans who have spoken out against the election fraud rhetoric that he uses, they have been victorious. So it'll be interesting to see whether or not he continued harp on what happened in 2020 hurts him here in Georgia, where people a lot of people are actually sick of that message -- Alex.
MARQUARDT: All right, Steve Contorno in Rome, Georgia, thanks very much. Let's discuss this with my panel. CNN's Mark Preston and Larry Sabato, who is the director of the Center for politics at the University of Virginia.
Mark, I want to start with that moment, just there that we saw at the rally, those portraits of Laken Riley. There is an undocumented immigrant who has been charged with her murder. What do you make of Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene at the State of the Union and other Republicans making this a rallying call and really such a focal point on the campaign trail.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's certainly not the first time that we've seen this in politics. We only have to go back to 1988 where we had this really famous situation where Willie Horton was a convicted murderer in Massachusetts. He was furloughed, he was allowed out for the weekend and when he did so, he ended up raping somebody, creating assault and there was armed robbery.
[18:05:08]
What the George HW Bush campaign was able to effectively do is to paint the Massachusetts governor, Michael Dukakis, who was supportive of this furlough program to look soft-on-crime.
So that is exactly what you're seeing right there. You're seeing a double-edged sword right there that the Biden campaign is going to have to face -- trouble at the border and the crime that may be associated with it.
Now, we do know that the crime associated with it isn't necessarily any higher than any other kind of crime statistics throughout the country, but the fact of the matter is, is that Trump is effectively making this an issue as are Republicans.
MARQUARDT: Larry, what do you make of the fact that they are making this an issue? This comes down to security at the border, and it was essentially Trump who singlehandedly torpedoed a bill that would have, as Democrats have repeatedly said, impose some of the strictest security and the harshest measures at the border that we've ever seen?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, that's exactly what the Democratic response should be. There is no question that immigration in the border are the weaknesses, one of the principal weaknesses, at least for Joe Biden and the Democrats, but they were recently given a gift, an unfortunate gift, an ugly gift, but a gift nonetheless, politically, when almost singlehandedly, Donald Trump sunk that reform bill that had been bipartisan, where a number of very conservative Republicans in the Senate in particular had worked on it, and who, by the way, are personally unhappy about what Trump did.
They may not speak out publicly. But that's how they feel. What a great gift to Biden, because now he can say we had a solution. I worked hard on a solution. We brought both parties together just like Americans want and Donald Trump killed it because he wanted a campaign issue. He didn't want to solve the problem. That happens to be the truth, which adds to the impressiveness of the issue.
MARQUARDT: All right, Larry and Mark, I want to ask you to stay with me as we go to Priscilla Alvarez. She is in Atlanta. She is covering the president.
Priscilla, President Biden just wrapping up his remarks there in Atlanta. What did he have to say?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, he laid out his domestic accomplishments, he ticked through a number of key issues for voters this election cycle, including reproductive rights, the economy, voting rights, and above all, kicking off his remarks with democracy.
This has been the theme of his campaign, protecting democracy, and he acknowledged that former President Donald Trump was just up the road 60 miles from here and talked about the former president's coziness with authoritarians and really stressed that he is going to protect democracy.
And I have to tell you, Alex, in talking to voters in the crowd, just before the president took the stage, this was clearly top of mind for them, as well. And all of them had really been excited about what they had seen at the State of the Union Thursday, and this was a president that got on stage and clearly tried to capitalize on that moment.
He invoked the State of the Union, the crowd erupted into cheers, clearly excited by what they had seen. But there was also realities that the president faces that still we're here today, and that is that the president sought to navigate this complicated political landscape when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war.
Just minutes into his speech, he was interrupted by a protester who was calling -- who said "Genocide Joe." Take a listen to the clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to say thank you.
PROTESTER: You are just Genocide Joe killing the thousands of Palestinians.
BIDEN: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Wait, wait, wait.
(CROWD shouting.)
(CROWD chanting "Four more years.")
BIDEN: Look, thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALVAREZ: Now, you heard there, of course, the chants of "four more years," but the reality that the president and his campaign still faces is that there are fractures within the coalition. That's an example of one, so it is incumbent on the president, according to Democratic strategists, to shore up that diverse coalition and make sure they show up for the polls in November. That is really going to be the uphill battle here in Georgia where there aren't those key statewide races that before bolstered voter turnout. The voter turnout is going to hinge on enthusiasm for President Joe Biden.
And of course, Alex, is this to say that President Biden only narrowly won 2020. What he tried to do today here was energize the crowd to come out and vote for him again, to launch another Democratic win in the state in November of this year.
MARQUARDT: All right. Priscilla Alvarez traveling with the president in Atlanta, Georgia.
I want to bring our panel back in, Larry Sabato and Mark Preston.
Mark, what do you make of how the president and the campaign are handling these hecklers? I mean, broadly the administration is stepping up its criticism of Israel, but it's clear that so many of his supporters are saying that he hasn't gone far enough.
[18:10:08]
PRESTON: Right, and he was also very clear in an interview today where he said that he is not going to abandon Israel. He stands with Israel.
Look, the problem for the Biden campaign over the next few months is not that necessarily that he is going to lose support from Muslims and Palestinians, who are upset about what is happening right now in Gaza.
The real concern is when that starts to spread. And we saw that a little bit in these past primaries where we saw younger voters who are, you know, catching on to that same message we're in now they are upset by what is happening now over in Gaza, and even progressives as well.
So when it goes beyond that and it spreads, that's what the real problem is for the Biden campaign.
MARQUARDT: And Larry, specifically on Georgia, you know, this is a state that he won in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes. We've seen support slipping particularly among Black voters in Georgia. It is such a close race there in that all important swing state, so what's going to determine who wins Georgia this year?
SABATO: National trends as much as a local or state trends. We've got a long way to go. Eight months of campaigning, eight months of issues. There could be, we all hope, a solid ceasefire in the Middle East. There could be we all hope, release of hostages there. You don't know what's going to happen in any of those big situations.
But there will also be other developments. It's true that right now, this may be benefiting Donald Trump, but I think that is one of the reasons why Biden was stressing democracy.
Just -- I think it was last night, Donald Trump had dinner at Mar-a- Lago with Viktor Orban, the authoritarian from Hungary. Look at the good things he said about Vladimir Putin and attacking NATO and the dictators in North Korea and China and a couple in South America, and I could go on and on.
It's a real issue and it is affects everybody, not just college- educated suburbanites.
So there are some issues that favor one side, there are some issues that favor the other side and a lot is going to change between now and November 5th.
MARQUARDT: Mark, that meeting with Orban who is essentially synonymous with autocracy in Europe.
PRESTON: Right.
MARQUARDT: Why does Trump think that that's going to help them here?
PRESTON: Well, it's not even just Trump. I mean, it is the Republican Party as we know it. It's the MAGA part of the Republican Party. They have embraced it.
The Conservative Political Action Conference now has grown, CPAC has grown to where now they go overseas, and these American political consultants are overseas hosting these political conferences with these authoritarian dictators.
Look, the fact of the matter is, that is somebody that Trump looks up to. We saw him talk about it with Vladimir Putin. He continues to do so. He seems to gravitate towards those who are autocrats or dare I say dictators.
And you know, that's where he feels most comfortable with.
MARQUARDT: Saying the quiet part loud that people who have a firmer control, dictatorial tendencies in their country, those are the ones that he respects.
I want to play a little bit of a new campaign ad that the Biden campaign is out with. The president joking about his age. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Look, I'm not a young guy. That's no secret. But here's the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.
Look, I'm very young, energetic and handsome. What am I doing this for?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Now, we've heard plenty of pundits say that this is how Biden needs to address the issue, do it with humor, but then we saw the Trump campaign respond pretty quickly with a video of their own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: Look, I am not a young guy. That's no secret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Larry, do you think that that is the right approach by the Biden campaign and what do you make of the response?
SABATO: Well, that's exactly what we're going to expect for the next eight months. You're going to have a lot of tit-for-tat and including that issue of age and ability to serve another four years.
But in a sense, both candidates are kind of vulnerable on parts of that and both candidates have made public gaffes that will be used over and over.
But on Biden's ad, I saw that early this morning. I thought it was incredibly effective. And yes, self-deprecating humor is not used nearly enough in politics.
The two best at it who really used it well were John F. Kennedy, a Democrat and Ronald Reagan, a Republican. And while I don't think anybody would say Donald Trump is good at self-deprecating humor, Joe Biden might want to focus on those two prior presidents, JFK and Reagan, because that's the right approach. It doesn't completely answer the attack, but it at least gives people a chuckle and they might move on to the substantive issues that we're in the Biden ad.
Everybody is skipping over the substantive part in which he listed the accomplishments, very serious accomplishments of his administration. It is a great way to package the tough stuff the good stuff with some humor.
[18:15:16]
MARQUARDT: Well as you note, eight months ago, and we can expect a lot more of both these kinds of things in the coming months.
Mark Preston and Larry Sabato, thanks to you both very much.
Israeli airstrikes in Southern Gaza are continuing tonight as hope all but dwindles for a pause in the fighting before the start of Ramadan, that is due to begin tomorrow night, and the people of Gaza remain caught in the middle.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:18]
MARQUARDT: New tonight, Biden is speaking out about his red lines with Israel. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Israel, I'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there's no red line I want to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them. They don't have -- but those red lines that if he crosses, he cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Now this comes as at least eight people have been killed in a new Israeli airstrike on buildings in Central Gaza, that's according to Palestinian Health officials, as well as people on the ground.
US officials had been hoping to broker a ceasefire deal, a pause in the fighting, which would include the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. They wanted that to be in place before Ramadan, which begins tomorrow night.
But so far, Biden says that is unlikely to happen.
In Gaza, the humanitarian crisis is deepening with the United Nations warning that four out of five households do not have safe drinking water.
In response to these worsening conditions, the White House is now saying that the US will join other nations to send humanitarian aid through a maritime corridor that would be from Cyprus to Gaza by ship and the US is saying they will build a floating pier and a causeway onto the coastline of Gaza.
Let's talk more about this with former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Democratic strategist, Joel Rubin, who is here with me.
Joel, thanks so much for joining us. We got a bit of a peek behind the curtain with a hot mic moment when President Joe Biden was speaking after the State of the Union about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I told him, Bibi, don't repeat this. I said, Bibi, you and I are going to have a "come to Jesus" moment.
AIDE: Sir, just, you're on a hot mic.
BIDEN: I'm on a hot mic here. Good. That was good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: So Joel there, the president talking about needing a come to Jesus moment with Netanyahu. He is now talking about red lines. He didn't detail them, but what does that tell you about how he is feeling about the Israeli leadership and Prime Minister Netanyahu right now.
JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE AND DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, Alex.
Well, clearly, the president is incredibly frustrated. He has been consistently behind the scenes, telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that he wants Israel to have a credible plan for the day after and to take care of civilian life, and it is obvious that the president doesn't see that happening.
And so I think what he's getting at now, and he's been pushing it publicly -- I've got to tell you, Alex, I've never seen before an American president, be so publicly tough on Israel in a venue like the State of the Union, that was unique.
And he's making it clear that he has been supportive of Israeli security as it should be, but that Prime Minister Netanyahu has to be responsive, and he doesn't feel like the prime minister has been enough.
MARQUARDT: But we have seen former presidents, Republican presidents, including President Reagan be critical of Israel, and you know, scale back American support for Israel.
So we're hearing this increased pressure, but how do you expect the president to ramp that up and to deal with what we saw tonight, which is this dissatisfaction among the political base over his support for Israel?
RUBIN: Yes. No, it's an incredibly difficult balancing act and what the president is doing is laying out a vision for how to get to an endpoint and that endpoint in his mind is a two-state solution, but to get there means a temporary ceasefire, it means integrating a Palestinian leadership into running Gaza, bringing in the international community, having to deal where the hostages are released for increased humanitarian assistance to the Gazan people, all of that wrapped together. That's the vision. That's what he's trying to get across to the Israeli leadership, and the Israeli people who by the way, deeply disapprove of Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership.
He's at 15 percent Polling, he knows it. The number two, essentially, in his government, Benny Gantz, the member of his War Cabinet was here in Washington. It very much upset Prime Minister Netanyahu and it should have because there are alternatives to him, and I think the president and his team are very smart in laying out a vision that provides for long term peace and security while still supporting Israel overall, as a key ally.
MARQUARDT: But where Netanyahu and the majority of Israelis are on the same page is aid for Gaza and the reluctance to send more aid into Gaza, which Israelis accuse Hamas of stealing a lot of.
So Israel has been reluctant to open up more border crossings to allow that aid in which the US has been calling for. What do you make of the US now being forced to airdrop aid and build this pier, which could take months and a thousand US troops?
What does that say about the lack of sway essentially that the US has currently with Israel?
[18:25:02] RUBIN: Well, I think it says what we saw from the president right there on the floor of the House, which is he is frustrated. He is not getting through to Prime Minister Netanyahu, what he believes needs to be done regarding aid to the Palestinians.
And there is a deep concern as well, that this starving of the Palestinians is in some way being used as leverage to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, to come for a deal. That's not the way this should be conducted.
The president, unfortunately, from a humanitarian perspective, doesn't have a lot of cards to play, so he is putting our forces and our assets straight into the field.
And I have to say, to add to this, this needs to be embarrassing for the Israeli Defense Forces, to have the American military have to go into a country, to a territory that Israel controls, and provide aid to those civilians that Israel itself should be supporting and feeding.
That's a real sign of discomfort, and, frankly, disappointment in the Israeli Defense Forces.
MARQUARDT: You would think the US might have more cards to play given the extraordinary level of military aid that the US has sent to Israel over the years, but President Biden warned in the past few days, that if there were not a ceasefire, a deal in place by Ramadan, things could be very, very dangerous. Ramadan is believed to start tomorrow night and it doesn't look like that deal is going to be in place.
What do you think could happen during this this Holy Month?
RUBIN: Well, a couple of things to look out for. First is a provocateur, Itamar Ben-Gvir in the Israeli Cabinet, calling for preventing Palestinians, for example, from going to Haram al-Sharif, to the religious site of the Temple Mount. That needs to be stopped.
But I do you think negotiations are going to continue. There is no expiration date for these negotiations. The hostages need to be released. Hamas needs to agree to their release, so that's going to continue. But will the spoilers, will Hamas potentially try to set on fire the West Bank and will Ben-Gvir try to create the dynamics on the Temple Mount that could lead to more violence? Could that undermine such negotiations? That's really what we have to watch out for.
MARQUARDT: That's certainly a calculation that many think Hamas is making that it's actually in their benefit to inflame things further, draw more in the West Bank and beyond.
RUBIN: That's the tinderbox we're living in right now.
MARQUARDT: Joel Rubin, thank you so much for your thoughts, and I appreciate it.
And coming up next, we are speaking with Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore about Biden's campaign strategy as the general election ramps up today in the key battleground state of Georgia. We'll be back with the governor in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:31:57]
MARQUARDT: We just heard from President Joe Biden in Georgia, it's his latest battleground stop after Thursday's fiery State of the Union address, which they believe gave him a jolt of momentum. The President and his campaign are aggressively trying to reclaim the narrative on a range of flashpoints, including inflation, immigration, individual freedom, and yes, Biden's age, tackling that issue head on in a new ad.
Maryland Democratic governor, Wes Moore was at that speech just now and is joining us.
Governor, thank you so much for being with us this evening. As the president campaigns in these crucial states, these key battleground states, what more do you want to hear from him?
GOV. WES MOORE (D) MARYLAND: Well, I think we want to hear exactly what he's already presenting. We want to show that under his leadership, there's been real momentum and real progress. We're looking at 14 million new jobs that have been created, a 3.8 percent unemployment rate, inflation that we've finally been able to curb. And you're watching a real focus on work, wages and wealth for all Americans and not just some.
He's presenting not just the facts about what's happened in his first term, but a real vision about what we can hope for. And I can tell you, as a governor, as the only African-American governor in this country, I can tell you the impact that we've been able to see in our communities far and wide throughout the state of Maryland and across the country are real. And that's why I'm so excited to be out here campaigning for the president.
MARQUARDT: Governor, in the speech today and also at the State of the Union, there was this overarching theme of democracy and the threat to democracy by the former president. Do you think that that message is landing when there are so many more issues that are perhaps more directly relevant to the daily lives of the people who President Biden hopes will come out for him?
MOORE: Well, I think it's important to be able to talk about freedoms and not just things like economic freedoms. And that means how are we creating pathways for people to be able to have real measurement of economic mobility and own more than they owe and pass something off to their children besides debt. But it also is important to talk about social freedoms, reproductive health and reproductive freedoms.
And when we're talking about patriotism, that does matter. In the president, we have a person who's devoted his life to public service, a person who's devoted his life to supporting others, a person who's devoted his life to being able to make sure that all of our neighbors are protected. And truthfully, he's running against somebody who the only freedom he's talking about is his own. The only future that he's talking about is his own future.
So I do think it's important for the President to be able to highlight the importance of freedoms inside these moments and how it's necessary for us to have a leader, a president and a commander in chief who's going to fight for our freedoms instead of a commander in chief and a president who's going to spend his whole time fighting for his own.
MARQUARDT: We also have the former president in Georgia. He just wrapped up a rally in Rome, Georgia. And during that event, he brought up the death of Laken Riley, who was also mentioned by the President in the State of the Union.
[18:35:00]
Laken was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant. This is what President Biden said just - President Trump, rather - former President Trump said just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We share your grief. Thank you, darling. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. I know how tough it is. It's so tough.
We vowed to keep Laken's memory alive for as long as we are here on this Earth and we take comfort that she is now home with God in heaven. And I want to thank you and thank you for being here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: And Governor, of course, we saw Marjorie Taylor Greene with the say her name pin at the State of the Union. What do you make of the Trump campaign making this a focal point? This looks like something that they're going to continue to bring up.
MOORE: Well, I think the President said it during the State of the Union. As a father who's lost his child, I think the President understands the pain and he's leading with a sense of not just sympathy, but a real sense of empathy. This is personal for the President. And I think it's why the President has been so sincere about making sure that we have to get real border reform and real immigration reform inside of our country. The President worked with Republicans, conservative Republicans, on putting together a border bill that was eventually killed by the State of the Union by the Speaker of the House and other members and extreme members of the Republican Party.
And so I think the president understands how important it is. And as a governor, I can tell you how important it is that we get a Congress that is willing to act on this, because we as chief executives in our own states end up dealing with the consequences of it.
MARQUARDT: But it does not seem like Democrats so far are able to dismantle moments like this by simply saying Donald Trump almost single handedly torpedoed a border bill. MOORE: Well, and what you just said is exactly the truth. There was a bill. There was a deal. A deal that the President negotiated between both Democrats and Republicans in the Congress. And the people who voted against it, they didn't vote against it because they were trying to think about everyone in the country. They were thinking about one person. They had an audience of one. And that one was Donald Trump. That's why they killed the deal.
And so when people are looking at the fact that we do not have a border deal done, there's one person to blame for that and that person is Donald Trump.
MARQUARDT: And yet Republicans continue to bash the President and Democrats on the border. And I expect - we can expect to see more of that.
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, thank you so much for your time this evening.
MOORE: Which is really unfortunate. No, thank you. And I'm saying it's really unfortunate because that's the thing that the American people dislike the most. It's we need to get something done and that's why the president is trying and working so hard. We're trying to work with Congress to get a deal done. We have to get a deal done.
MARQUARDT: All right. Thank you so much for joining us, Governor.
MOORE: Thank you.
MARQUARDT: And we will have much news - much more news straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:42:43]
MARQUARDT: The career of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could be on the line. The prosecutor leading the election subversion case against Donald Trump in Georgia is facing serious pressure on two fronts, on the legal side, she's waiting to find out if the judge will disqualify her from the Trump case over allegations of a conflict of interest. And now on the political side, two challengers are mounting campaigns to take her job.
CNN's Rafael Romo is in Atlanta tracking this story.
So Rafael, some re-election year pressure for Willis emerging.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right, Alex. She certainly has a lot on her plate. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is currently overseeing multiple high-profile cases in Atlanta, including a racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and allies. She faces the prospect of being disqualified from the case and she's also being investigated by a Georgia Senate committee.
And now, as you mentioned, it's become clear that she's going to face at least two challengers in her quest to win re-election in November. Christian Wise Smith, a former Fulton County prosecutor and Atlanta solicitor, announced Friday that he plans to challenge the incumbent in the Democratic primary to be held on May 21st. Smith is a progressive Democrat.
Smith says he is not fully committed to running yet, but has already filed paperwork to be able to run. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIAN WISE SMITH, (D) FORMER FULTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Right now, we're just weighing our options, man. And this was a necessary step to put our hat in the ring should we decide to do that. And then y'all will be the first to know once we make that call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: And, Alex, on the Republican side, Courtney Kramer, who served in the office of the White House Counsel during the Trump administration, criticized the way Willis has run the office of the Fulton County District Attorney. This is how she explained it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COURTNEY KRAMER, (R) FORMERLY WORKED IN THE OFFICE OF THE WH COUNSEL: What I've seen happen right now in the office of District Attorney under Fani Willis has been a complete disgrace. It's been a mockery of the legal profession.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: What happens now? Well, a judge is expected to rule within the next week whether Fani Willis should be removed from prosecuting the racketeering case against Trump due to allegations of a conflict of interest from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Both deny any wrongdoing.
[18:45:03]
And Alex, listen to this, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who's presiding over the election interference case, is also facing two challenges in May. Whoever wins the election in November has their work cut out for them. The next Fulton County District Attorney may also have to take to completion the sprawling racketeering case against Trump and more than a dozen of his allies stemming from their actions, as you know, Alex, following the 2020 election here in Georgia. Now back to you.
MARQUARDT: So many twists and turns in that case.
Rafael Romo in Atlanta, thanks very much.
Months of bloody violence and chaos in Haiti is only getting worse as gangs continue their months-long rampage in the country's capital, putting children especially in extreme danger. We'll hear their stories next. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[18:50:26]
MARQUARDT: Violence is spiraling out of control in Haiti and a prominent gang leader is warning of civil war unless Haiti's Prime Minister resigns.
But CNN's David Culver, just back from Haiti, reports that the situation on the ground is already very dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign language).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On an abandoned airfield turned makeshift campsite, we step into this cramped space, the Cadeau (ph) family's home. Lying on her family's only bed, we meet 8 year old Wojina Cadeau (ph) looking at us with eyes that have seen the torment and suffering that is engulfing Haiti.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (on camera): Do you remember where you were when the bullet hit you, when you got shot?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): With her 4 year old sister keeping close watch, Wojina (ph), tells me she was playing with friends when they were caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout. She and her friends hid, but not quickly enough, a bullet tearing through her back and out her abdomen. Her dad, frustrated by life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (on camera): And he says they've been here about a year and a half. Before that, they were in their own home, but they said because of the gang violence, it was overtaken. Their home was burned down. So here they are hoping to have found what would have been a safe refuge. But he says not even this is safe.
Feel better. Okay?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): Chaos now grips much of Haiti, especially the capital, Port-au-Prince. For the first time, a Haitian security source tells us rival gangs are now working together, launching a wide scale series of attacks against the government, going after the airport, police stations and prisons. The terrible toll of the violence felt nearly everywhere. Even here behind the high walls of Kizito family's home for children. Run by Sister Paesie, the rules here posted on the wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (on camera): This shelter must be friends.
SISTER PAESIE PHILIPPE, FOUNDER, FAMILIE KIZITO: They must be friends. They must get along with each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): Getting along, that's the challenge here. Sister Paesie 's lived in Port-au-Prince for 25 years. The last five of which she's dedicated to creating safe spaces for children. Many of those here orphaned, because of the deadly gang violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILIPPE: I never could have thought that things could become worse, but it did. It did. It did. Year after year, more corruption, more violence, more weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): This place is now at capacity and then some. The children keep coming, she tells me. Sister says, she also gets prayer requests from those you might not expect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILIPPE: Sister, pray for us. Don't you see we are in danger? Pray for us. I'm hearing that every day from the gang members. Yes.
CULVER (on camera): The gang members are asking you to pray for them?
PHILIPPE: Yes. Yes. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): Some of the gang members themselves, just kids. This 14 year old says he was recruited at 11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): "I can't go to school," he tells me, wishing he could escape the gang's control. "I watched so many people get killed, and then I have to set their bodies on fire," he says.
Outside of Haiti's capital, it's more often the antigovernment protests rather than the gangs paralyzing cities. In Jeremie, we drive with members of the World Food Programme to a local school. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN-MARTIN BAUER, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME COUNTRY DIRECTOR: Now these kids have not been in school since early January, and they'll tell you why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): The Catholic priest who runs it shows us around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (on camera): Just noticing on the chalkboard here, the last date, January 11th. It's the last time kids were actually inside this classroom. Since it's been empty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): Violent protests erupted in January, making it too dangerous for the school's 234 students to travel to. For the staff here, it's heartbreaking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (on camera): Do you think about them in what's been now more than a month that they haven't been here? Do you think about their situation?
FATHER LOUIS JEAN ANTOINE, FOUNDER, ST. JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: It's very sad for them, for us also, because I know --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): He knows it's about more than missing out on an education.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTOINE: I know they are at home. They are hungry. They have nothing. They are children. They have to eat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CULVER (voice over): Hunger is what drove this young teen to go out at night alone in gang controlled territory last year, hoping to find food. Instead, she tells us she was attacked and raped, giving birth in January to a baby boy, the son of a likely gang member, she thinks.
[18:55:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign language).
(END VIDEO CLIP) CULVER (voice over): "I can't abandon him," she tells me. "My mother struggled a lot with me, so I have to do the same for him, even if it is a child raising another child," she says.
Children bearing the brunt of a broken country that is spiraling further into chaos with each passing day.
David Culver, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:00:02]
MARQUARDT: You are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Alex Marquardt.
