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CNN International: Haiti's Prime Minister Resigns Amid Collapse Of Law & Order; Special Counsel Robert Hur To Testify On Capitol Hill; Ship Carrying Aid To Gaza Leaves Cyprus Port; Israeli Officials: Ground Incursion Into Rafah Not Imminent; Dozens Injured In Sudden Drop On LATAM Flight; Polls Open In Battleground State Of Georgia; Trump Weighs In On TikTok Ahead Of House Vote; Nepali Families Trapped In A Spiral Debt; IDF: Dual U.S. Citizen Itay Chen Killed October 7th; U.S. Consumer Inflation Rises In February To 3.2 Percent. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired March 12, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Thank you. I really appreciate you coming on and explaining and talking through your story with us. Appreciate it.
Kate?
KAT BOLDUAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Also on our radar this hour, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which rates cars and SUVs for safety, essentially says driver beware when it comes to self-driving car systems.
The lack the driving assistant system by Lexus is the only one of 14 --
AMARA WALKER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello everyone and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is CNN Newsroom.
Just ahead, Haiti's Prime Minister announces his resignation after weeks of violence. Will it stop the chaos? U.S. Special Counsel Robert Hur is about to testify on Capitol Hill after describing President Biden as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
And Donald Trump against TikTok or is he for TikTok? The former president might have changed his mind about the Chinese owned app.
Haiti's prime minister is stepping down as the country descends into lawless chaos. Ariel Henry says he will stay on until a new government can be formed. Regional leaders met in Jamaica on Monday to discuss a framework for the political transition. Henry has shown little ability to control the gangs that are running rampant in Port-au-Prince.
The last straw may have been an attack on a prison earlier this month that resulted in the escape of 3,500 inmates. Henri pleaded for peace as he announced his resignation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIEL HENRY, OUTGOING HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): My government will leave immediately after the inauguration of the council. We will be a caretaker government until they name a prime minister and a new cabinet.
Haiti needs peace. Haiti needs stability.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Well, Patrick Oppmann has been tracking the story for us. He's now joining us live from Havana, Cuba. So the Haitian prime minister's resignation, his announcement obviously comes after he was facing a lot of international pressure to do so. I guess the question is, what happens next? I mean, will the violence subside as a result?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Amara. And, yes, pressure from inside of Haiti, of course, and from outside, most importantly from the United States, which up until now had backed Ariel Henry. But, you know, over the last week, as we've seen the violence spiral out of control that has prevented Henry from returning to his own country, it became clear talking to U.S. diplomats, that he could not continue in his position, that he did not have --
WALKER: All right. Apologies. It looks like we lost our Patrick Oppmann there in Havana. But appreciate him.
All right. In the coming hours, Special Counsel Robert Hur will face House lawmakers about his explosive report on President Joe Biden last month. Now, Hur investigated the president's handling of classified documents, and in his report, he concluded that Biden did mishandle material, but he chose not to prosecute him.
The report speculated that a jury would regard Mr. Biden as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, and that would make them unlikely to convict him. The White House says it will fact check Robert Hur's testimony as he speaks.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joining us now from the White House with the story. Hi there, Priscilla. So tell us more about the White House planning to do this real-time fact check during the hearing.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. They're preparing their rapid response operation here at the White House to essentially fact check this as it happens. And, first and foremost, make the case and remind people that the conclusion of this investigation by Robert Hur, they found that there was no case and no charges that were brought.
And we have gotten a glimpse of the special counsel's opening remarks for this hearing that's going to take place in a couple hours. And it's clear that the president's memory is going to be front and center, and this has been a sensitive issue for the White House. And one that they have taken issue with at least the way it's portrayed in this report since the very beginning. Recall that even though the special counsel said that no charges were brought, the White House pushed back against this substance and motivation of this report, including the president himself, who was visibly irritated by the way he was characterized in a press conference in February, especially the mention that he forgot when his son died.
Now, since then, allies of the president and the White House have pointed fingers between the legal team and the communications team, essentially saying that they -- there were missteps here, including, for example, when the president was questioned. He was questioned last October when there -- he was also working or grappling with the Middle East crisis after that October 7th attack in Israel.
But, of course, the -- this is an election year. This is all happening within the context of the election year and the campaign. And President Biden has been having to grapple with the voter concerns about his age. And polls show this is a top concern among voters.
[08:05:13]
The campaign is trying to defuse those concerns by putting out an ad over the weekend where they acknowledge the president's age and essentially trying to make the argument that while the president is not young, he doesn't hold on to old ideas the way the former president does.
So, clearly, the White House is aware and the campaign is aware that this issue isn't going away any time soon, but the concern for a day like today is that it will remind voters of the president's age and really question his mental acuity, something that they hope to get passed after last Thursday's State of the Union. Amara?
WALKER: Yes. Priscilla, do you mind talking a little bit more about that in this new ad and, you know, I guess, especially since the State of the Union address, I mean, Biden is really leaning into his age instead of, I guess, defending it. What's the strategy here?
ALVAREZ: Well, the president has tested out multiple lines on his age, going back to fundraisers over the last few months, joking about it, saying that he's not young or saying that he's 40 times two. But the State of the Union was an opportunity to reach many voters, probably the biggest audience that he will reach until November.
And in his remarks, he showed a fiery side and he went back and forth with Republicans who heckled him in the crowd. And the takeaway from the State of the Union was that he was fully capable of taking the second term, that according to voters who I spoke with on the ground in Atlanta, Georgia, where he held a rally over the weekend.
And so they've been trying to build on that momentum as the president continues to hit the trail. But it's moments like today when memory and age are part of the dialogue and our front and center in a congressional hearing that really bring this issue back to the forefront for the campaign when they're trying to diffuse those voter concerns.
Of course, it's March, it's a long road until November. But anticipate that Congressional Republicans will be attacking President Biden on all of these fronts today. And the White House is preparing its response operation to combat those claims.
WALKER: Priscilla Alvarez at the White House for us. Thank you very much.
Now, CNN has gotten an exclusive look at the transcript of the hearings that preceded that explosive report. And in it, President Biden told jokes and shared lengthy, detailed stories from his long political career.
Robert Hur and his investigators grilled Biden over two days last October. And according to the transcript, Biden's memory occasionally got foggy like when he appeared not to remember of the year his son Beau passed away. He also told the special counsel he did not know or couldn't remember how his staff handled sensitive documents.
All right, let's go back to our top story. The resignation of the Haitian prime minister as chaos continues to reign there. Patrick Oppmann has been tracking this story and he is back up live again from Havana, Cuba. So, of course, the big question is, will his resignation make things worse or better?
OPPMANN: You know, it can only make things better because things have gotten to a point where there is effectively no government in Haiti. Ariel Henry has not been able to return to his own country, which really says all there is to know. And we are talking about the prime minister who was never actually elected by the people.
Haiti has not held election now -- an election now, and in some eight years and Henry came to power after the assassination of the former president. So what happens now? Transitional council would be named. And they themselves would then name a new prime minister is on our understanding.
The timing of this is going to be very fluid because, of course, the politics in Haiti are so fraught. The gangs essentially are linked to many of the political parties in Haiti. And so that has been a driver of the violence, trying to get Henri out.
But as well, trying to prevent the arrival of this force from Kenya, about 1,000 soldiers. The United States is contributing a massive 300 million to this effort to bring in this force from Kenya. Other countries say they will contribute troops as well to try to stabilize Haiti.
Certainly, for the gangs and the political parties that are involved with drug trafficking in Haiti, that represents a threat, and that is why they have risen up to try to not only prevent Henri from returning to Haiti, but to keep this force from arriving.
So you have a political process now beginning, this transitional council a new leadership for Haiti. Henri eventually stepping down if he follows through on what he says. But how will that will actually stabilize Haiti? That remains to be seen. Whether or not troops can be brought in to help the outgunned and outmanned Haitian police force.
But for the 300,000 Haitians now that have had to flee inside their country from the gang violence, of course, help needs to arrive.
[08:10:08]
Now, food is running short. People are essentially are at the mercy of these very violent, very deadly gangs that have essentially been rampaging unchecked over the last week.
WALKER: A Haiti, a country without a president, a legislature, and now no prime minister. Remarkable situation there.
Patrick Oppmann in Havana, thank you very much.
A charity ship loaded with nearly 200 tons of food aid to Gaza has left Cyprus. The vessel is towing a large barge packed with pallets of food including rice, flour, beans, lentils, and canned meat.
As Israel continues to restrict aid via land crossings, countries are now trying to get aid in through air and sea routes. A top Gaza health official says the ground aid entering northern Gaza is very small and not enough for anyone. While the U.N. warns famine is imminent in the besieged Palestinian enclave if aid does not increase exponentially.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking the developments from Abu Dhabi. She's joining us now live. Hi there, Paula. I mean, we've been waiting to see this aid ship leave port. It's finally happened. What more can you tell us?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara. This was just a couple of hours ago that we saw this ship finally leave Cyprus. It was supposed to be yesterday, but it was postponed. We heard for practical issues. They're now resolved and it is on its way to Gaza.
Now, we heard from World Central Kitchen that they believe they have something like half a million meals on board to be able to take to Gaza itself. They also have their own contractors and team on the ground on a Gaza beach right now. They're not telling anybody the exact location for security reasons, but they are working nonstop to build a pier, a makeshift pier so that the goods can come to shore.
Now, they said once that's happened, they will load them onto trucks and they will then take them to northern Gaza, the area which has had the least amount of help and support over recent months, the area where the U.N. says that many are on the brink of famine.
This particular shipment is it had the UAE, Cyprus, Spain involved, but we're hearing that many countries are also saying that they want to be involved with the next maritime drop. This may be the first, but they say it will not be the last. And it really shows the frustration and desperation of many countries trying to get aid through and trying to navigate Israeli checks and checkpoints.
Amara?
WALKER: And as you know, Jordan's Queen Rania, she's been especially vocal condemning the situation in no uncertain terms in Gaza. She says the hunger is a manmade disaster, an Israeli-made disaster. She's been speaking with CNN. Tell us more about what she's been saying, Paula.
HANCOCKS: Yes, I think Queen Rania really vocalized what many people in the region and potentially around the world are feeling at this point, seeing the level of suffering, particularly of children and the level of dehydration and malnutrition.
This is what she said to CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH, JORDAN: This has been a slow motion mass murder of children five months in the making. Children who were thriving and healthy just months ago are wasting away in front of their parents. No, starvation is a very slow, cruel and painful death.
Your muscles shrink, your immune system shuts down, your organs give out. Imagine being a parent, having to go through that, witness your child going through that and not being able to do anything to help. It is absolutely shameful, outrageous, and entirely predictable what's happening in Gaza today because it was deliberate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: Really highlighting there the devastation of what is happening on the ground, in particular because not enough humanitarian aid has been getting through since October, since after the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. Now, we know that there used to be some 500 trucks a day that would get into Gaza and that was not during a humanitarian crisis.
We have figures showing that there is an average of 94 that have been getting through every single day since that time. So a fraction of what needs to access this area. And then, of course, there is the difficulty of transport once inside Gaza and distribution in a safe and fair manner as well.
One of the reasons we are seeing these airdrops, which have been highly criticized, but the airdrops continuing from many countries, including the United States, just trying to get as much as possible into the areas that need it, which is effectively everywhere, but in particular northern Gaza. Amara?
[08:15:11]
WALKER: And, you know, as the world and really the Palestinians are bracing for what will be a ground invasion of Rafah. This is the southern part of Gaza. And Israel is saying that the -- or U.S. officials are saying that it's not yet imminent. Do we know where the talks stand for the hostages and a potential ceasefire?
HANCOCKS: Well, there's certainly been no breakthrough. As far as we know, we've certainly heard from Hamas, there is no ongoing talks at this point. There's no Israeli delegation that's traveled to have these conversations. So, it is likely there are conversations ongoing, but the official delegations as far as we know, are not meeting at this point.
And we don't have an official day or date of when they might start to talk once again. There are some very key differences between what Hamas wants and what Israel wants. Hamas has said it wants a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which Israel has said is unacceptable because we've heard time and time again from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, that even if it was postponed for a temporary ceasefire, he still wants his military to carry out this military -- this launch on Rafah, the area in the Southern part of the Gaza Strip where more than 1 million people are sheltering at this point, but where Israel says is the last bastion of Hamas.
Amara?
WALKER: Paula Hancocks, thank you very much. Live for us there from Abu Dhabi.
A U.S. national security report has assessed that Benjamin Netanyahu's viability as Israeli Prime Minister may be in jeopardy, citing the Israeli people's growing distrust of him over his handling of the war with Hamas.
The report says this, "Netanyahu's viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy."
The Biden administration has been pushing Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and warned that a military operation in Rafah would be, quote, "a red line."
Authorities in New Zealand are investigating what is being described as a sudden drop on a LATAM Airlines flight that injured dozens of passengers on Monday. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was headed from Sydney to Auckland when it suffered what the airline is calling a technical event, adding that the plane experienced a strong shake.
CNN's Marc Stewart has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ambulances waited on the tarmac at the Auckland airport on Monday to help the injured on board a Boeing 787 just in from Sydney. Pictures from inside the jet show some of those injuries after passengers on LATAM Airlines Flight 800 were suddenly thrown around inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it felt like, you know, when you are in a roller coaster and you just go like this, that sensation.
STEWART (voice-over): LATAM Airlines calling what happened a technical event in a statement, but did not elaborate. A description prompting more questions from the safety analyst.
DAVID SOUCIE, FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Had it been a mechanical failure, they would have called it a mechanical failure and they would have turned around and gone back or they would have gone to a maintenance base. But that's not what they did. They said it was a technical event. So I just wish we had more information right now as to what happened here.
STEWART (voice-over): Uncertain moments for the passengers aboard.
BRIAN JOKAT, LA800 PASSENGER: The plane basically stopped, like it almost -- the best way to describe it is it just -- it's dropped out of the air.
STEWART (voice-over): Approximately 50 people were treated for injuries, adults and children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a two and a half year old sleeping on the seat next to us on the other side. He went up in the air and landed on the ground. But his mother was nursing a one year old, so she couldn't control both.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the back row. The girl in front of my girlfriend, she was pretty much on the roof of the cabin. The girl next to me hit her head on the cabin.
STEWART (voice-over): This isn't the only recent attention getting case involving a Boeing jet. On Monday, a Boeing 777 300 operated by United, heading to San Francisco, was rerouted back to Sydney for an emergency landing due to a maintenance issue.
Earlier this year, a door plug on a 737 MAX blew out mid-flight. As for the passengers on this flight, a sense of relief to be back on the ground.
JOKAT: So we had about 45 minutes to fly to get to Auckland. So we hit the ground, we landed, everyone applauded, and then they said, right. Everyone sit tight, we're going to get the injured off the plane first.
STEWART (voice-over): Investigators in New Zealand have seized the plane's black boxes. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder may hold the explanation to this latest scary mishap aboard a Boeing passenger plane.
Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:20:11]
WALKER: All right, still to come, Super Tuesday, take two sort of. Voters in four U.S. states cast their ballots today in what could make Joe Biden and Donald Trump their party's official nominees.
And House Republicans are coming after TikTok, but one man seemingly stands in their way, the leader of their party. What this means for the social media platform, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: It's not quite Super Tuesday part two, but it's close. By the end of tonight, Joe Biden and Donald Trump will likely clinch their party's nominations for U.S. president. Primary elections are taking place today in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington, and the Northern Mariana Islands as well as a GOP caucus in Hawaii.
Both men are likely to win enough delegates to cross the threshold needed to represent their respective parties in November's general election. Nikki Haley, of course, won't be taking part this time after she suspended her campaign last week.
Larry Sabato is joining us. He is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He is joining me live from Charlottesville. Larry, always great to see you.
All right, so tell me more about what you will be watching for today. If both Trump and Biden are expected to be their party's nominee, what's the significance of today?
LARRY SABATO, DIR., CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, it's a formality. We already know the party nominees and it's inevitable, but formalities matter in politics, this one in particular. You mentioned correctly, there are four states involved, the Northern Marianas Islands, God bless them, but they have no electoral votes.
So we don't pay much attention to that vote. They have some delegates to the convention, but that's it. Washington State and Hawaii are automatically Democratic in November. Mississippi is automatically Republican. So the only state that really matters for this election is Georgia. And that's why President Biden and former President Trump were both in Georgia this past weekend.
Every vote there matters. Fewer than 12,000 votes separated. Biden, the winner from Trump, the loser in Georgia in 2020. And it's going to be close again. Impossible to project this early, but it will be close.
WALKER: All those votes will matter. What about the Special Counsel Robert Hur's testimony. Robert Hur, for those of you who may not recall, he is a special counsel who investigated President Biden on his mishandling of classified documents and last month decided that he would not be pursuing any charges.
But, of course, the big political bombshell was his highlighting of Biden's memory issues. How important is his testimony going to be?
[08:25:01]
SABATO: As usual, you need a split screen to watch congressional hearings. You're going to have the Republicans repeat probably a thousand times the excerpt from Hur's report that said, this is an elderly man with a poor memory, which many Democrats are furious about. They thought it went over the top and is contradicted by some of the evidence that is presented in his report.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are going to focus like a laser on this section of Hur's report that says President Biden is not being indicted. There's no criminality there. And by the way, President Trump has plenty of criminality and he has been indicted for these very same offenses.
So both sides will point to the parts of the report that support them. Partisans will take away from it whatever supports their candidate. And then we'll move on to the next issue.
WALKER: OK. But in your opinion, what's the reality here? And I ask you this because, you know, we did get a glimpse into Robert Hur's opening statements that he will expectedly read today. And his argument is that, well, first of all, we expect him to go on the defensive saying that Biden's memory issues were pertinent to why he decided not to pursue charges.
I mean, could it be that even in an election year, the special counsel was simply doing his job?
SABATO: Sure. That's what the Republicans are going to contend. That's what the special counsel, the former Special Counsel Hur will will contend. But Democrats will point to the fact that Hur while he's respected on both sides is a Republican. And in a way, he was balancing what he was saying because he knew the Republicans in Congress would not be happy that he wasn't bringing charges against Biden.
So in some strange way, this balanced the fact that he wasn't indicting Biden. So again, it's going to be partisan. Your interpretation of this is partisan. There's always that prism in front of you through which all information comes. You see and hear what you want to, depending on whether you're a Democrat or Republican.
WALKER: OK, so we'll also be looking out for, you know, how much Hur makes this distinction between Trump and, you know, him being indicted for his mishandling of classified documents versus Biden, who was basically exonerated.
Obviously, there's a very big difference between the way the two men handle these documents, first of all, with Trump refusing to turn them over. And of course, there had to be search warrants and searches of his properties. Will the voters even care?
SABATO: That is a great question. I've wondered that from the beginning. Do people really care about this? I don't want to go back on my statement that Democrats will care and Republicans won't. But for the most part, that's how people will react.
Do I think it's the most serious charge lodged against Trump? Not in the public's eyes. I mean, you can certainly say careless treatment, sloppy treatment of classified documents about very sensitive matters affect the country's national security. That ought to matter.
But compared to the scandals that are being outlined against Trump, I don't think this is high up on the public's radar screen.
WALKER: Well, and of course, if some supporters or slash voters, you know, don't care much about January 6th and those federal charges against Trump, why would they care about these classified documents and how he allegedly --
SABATO: Yes.
WALKER: -- mishandled them, right? Larry Sabato, it's always great to see you. Thank you very much.
SABATO: Thank you so much, Amara.
Coming up, birds of a feather flock together, as the old saying goes. So what does that say about Donald Trump and Hungary's leader, Viktor Orban? We have a special report after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:31:08]
WALKER: All right, let's take a closer look now at one of the day's top stories. CNN has gotten an exclusive look at the transcripts of the special prosecutor's interview with President Joe Biden. Now, Robert Hur led an investigation into Mr. Biden's handling of classified documents.
The interviews show the president telling old political stories and at times showing moments of foggy memory and at one point forgetting what year his son Beau had died.
Our Evan Perez broke the story. He's joining us now with a closer look at what is in that transcript. Hi there, Evan. Tell us more about what stood out to you in this interview.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Amara, this was an interview that lasted over -- it went over two days. It was about five hours. It was negotiated ahead of time between the president's attorneys and the Special Counsel Robert Hur.
And what comes across in the transcript is, you know, obviously he doesn't remember how documents got from his vice presidential residence, for instance, to a home that he rented in Virginia, to his home in Delaware, or a private office at the University of Pennsylvania.
He said he left a lot of the details of handling of classified information, returning them to their rightful place. He left that to his aides. And so that's one of the things that I think goes through all of the transcript.
Now, the big one that you pointed out is the one where he doesn't remember his -- the year that his son, Beau Biden died. It's clear that Joe Biden brings it up in the interview, and he says specifically the month and day, May 30th. And then someone in the room says it was 2015.
And so, that's one of the big things that I think you're going to hear a lot at the hearing that is happening in the next hour here in Washington, a discussion about exactly the relevance of his memory and why that should be something that I think everybody goes away from this hearing and this report from. Amara?
WALKER: Yes. So between the hearing and of course this transcript that you just kind of laid out for us, the highlights and lowlights of how damaging could this be?
PEREZ: Look, I think the damage has already been done because this report from Rob Hur, it was 388 pages, and it describes that, why Rob Hur decided not to bring charges against the president, right? He said that he couldn't -- he didn't find enough evidence to bring criminal charges, which would have to show that he willfully and knowingly took these documents.
Again over and over in these 250 pages of this transcript, you get the sense that the president just didn't pay attention to this detail. He said, you know, I'm not a very organized person in one of the interactions with the prosecutors. So I think the damage has already been done. And today, we're going to see how Rob Hur defends the use of some of that language.
WALKER: All right, Evan Perez, thank you very much live for us there on Capitol Hill. Appreciate it.
All right, now to a CNN exclusive, a former employee at Donald Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, is speaking out about the classified documents case for the first time. Refer to in court documents as Trump Employee 5, Brian Butler worked at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years.
He told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that he unwittingly helped load boxes of secret intelligence documents onto the former president's private plane in June of 2022. And he added that he doesn't think Trump should be elected president again.
The U.S. House of Representatives is pressing ahead with a vote on the future of TikTok in the United States. On Wednesday, lawmakers will consider a bill that would effectively ban the social media platform in the U.S. unless it parts ways with its Chinese parent company. The only problem? Well, former President Donald Trump.
He says getting rid of the app would benefit Facebook. When he was president, however, Trump supported calls to ban the app.
[08:35:06]
CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now live from Washington. Hi there, Alayna. What's going on here? Why is Trump now backing off the ban that he once supported?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, it is a strange reversal, and he expressed a lot of skepticism about this bill that would, as you mentioned, Amara, either force the sale of TikTok away from ByteDance, it's Chinese parent company, or to be banned.
And as you mentioned as well, Donald Trump was very much against having TikTok be owned by ByteDance and have these ties to China while in office. So there are a lot of questions about why he's sort of changing his mind now. And when I talk to Donald Trump's senior advisers, there's a couple of reasons they bring this up.
One is that they said he's not completely reversing his position, that it's more skepticism over this potential bill. And part of it is because he really is afraid that if TikTok is potentially banned in the United States, that its users will migrate to Facebook. And Facebook is something that Donald Trump has criticized repeatedly over the past several years.
He is not a fan of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. He believes that Facebook played a role in influencing the 2020 election. There are questions of whether that is true or not. And I also think it's worth remembering as well that in 2016, Facebook actually very much helped Donald Trump.
And so, he has a very strange relationship with that social media platform. But the other part of this is political. Donald Trump recognizes that if Facebook were to be banned or something were to change and users across the country were to feel the effects, they would blame Joe Biden and that's what he wants.
He recognizes young voters, especially our huge fan of the app. It is widely popular here in this country with young voters. And that's a demographic that Donald Trump recognizes he needs to peel away from Joe Biden in order to be more successful in a general election rematch in November.
And I do just want to give some context as well about the timing of these comments. He actually first made this or showed the skepticism last week on Truth Social and it came after he had a meeting with a man named Jeff Yass, excuse me. He is a huge Republican megadonor. He has a major stake in TikTok, roughly $33 billion. And Donald Trump met with him at Mar-a-Lago last week as he continues to hunt for donors.
So there's question of whether that could have had some influence on where these comments are coming from. Donald Trump himself said that he did not discuss TikTok with Yass, but there are questions of whether it may have come up or if he is trying to, you know, show this skepticism to appease Yass.
So, I think there's a lot of questions of whether or not this -- his rhetoric around this potential bill could impact its passage. But from our conversations with Republicans on the Hill, they believe that they can move forward with this bill and have it be successful, at least in the House.
There are questions of whether or not it could pass in the Senate. Amara?
WALKER: All right, very interesting timeline there. Alayna Treene, thank you very much. Hungary's prime minister says that if Donald Trump becomes president again, he will bring the war in Ukraine to an end by cutting off funding to Kyiv. Now, Trump hosted Viktor Orban at Mar-a-Lago last week.
Brian Todd has more on why the meeting is significant and what it says about Trump's image abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a classic Trumpian embrace of a strongman. At Mar-a-Lago, the former president hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and he heaped praise on Orban's style of leadership in videos posted on Orban's Instagram account.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He said this is the way it's going to be and that's the end of it, right? He's the boss. I think now he's a great leader, a fantastic leader in Europe and all over the world. I respect him.
TODD: Do people respect Viktor Orban?
JACOB HEILBRUNN, AUTHOR, "AMERICA LAST THE RIGHT'S CENTURY-LONG ROMANCE WITH FOREIGN DICTATORS": They do not. In fact, Viktor Orban is one of the most vilified leaders inside the European Union. He's the complete outlier.
TODD (voice-over): The far-right Orban's stifling of opposition and the press and eroding of democracy has led many observers to label him an autocrat, which some analysts say makes him a kindred spirit with the former president.
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Trump has seemingly never met a dictator he doesn't like and not just like but he seeks to emulate, which is the scariest thing of all.
TODD (voice-over): Trump openly praised Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, last year calling Xi brilliant in an interview and saying this about him while he was in office.
TRUMP: President Xi is a friend of mine.
TODD (voice-over): There was Trump's almost comical courtship of the brutal North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, during the period when Trump was trying to strike a nuclear deal with Kim. Trump once displaying a Kim letter in an oversized envelope and often bragging about their correspondence.
TRUMP: And then we fell in love, OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. We fell in love.
TODD (voice-over): In his new book, "The Return of Great Powers," CNN's Jim Sciutto quotes top former Trump White House aides describing Trump's admiration for dictators.
[08:40:04] Retired General John Kelly, who served as Trump's White House chief of staff, told Sciutto that Trump praised Adolf Hitler. Kelly saying, quote, "He said, 'Well, but Hitler did some good things.'" "I said, 'Well, what?'" "And he said, 'Well, Hitler rebuilt the economy.'" "I said, 'Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.'"
In 2021, a spokeswoman for Trump denied that he had praised Hitler, but another former Trump cabinet member said this to CNN.
MASK ESPER, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Clearly, he has a pre-election for leaders whom he proceeds to be strong. And that's just how he breaks the world down and breaks things down between strong and weak.
TODD (voice-over): One analyst worries about how Trump, with the endorsement of hard line Republican conservatives, is now campaigning on ideas of establishing almost dictatorial powers in the White House.
HEILBRUNN: He fetishizes the strong man, and that's the blueprint, crush the media and establish his own rule over the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (on-camera): Analyst Jacob Heilbrunn points out there's another major concern regarding Trump's affinity for dictators if he gets elected to a second term, the very real possibility that he'll purge agencies like the Justice Department, the FBI and the CIA, of competent people who he perceives to be his enemies. A classic dictator move.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
WALKER: Brian, thank you. More news after the break.
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WALKER: The Russian defense ministry says at least 60 Ukrainian soldiers were killed earlier Tuesday in what it claims was an attempt to fight their way into Russian territory through the region of Belgorod. The soldiers were killed on the Ukrainian side of the border. Moscow says the attack was launched from three directions and claims Ukraine suffered significant military losses.
Police in Romania have detained the online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan over U.K. charges of sex offenses allegedly committed in Britain. Last year, the two men spent three months in police custody and were then placed under house arrest over allegations of the sexual abuse of seven women, which they denied.
Accusations they denied, as I said, the pair are also waiting for a separate trial in Romania on charges of sexual exploitation.
For generations, thousands of low caste families in Nepal have been trapped in a form of bondage. They have been forced to borrow money from landlords at illegal, extremely high rates of interest, keeping them stuck in a cycle of debt. Well now the CNN Freedom Project is shining a light on their situation.
Matthew Chance has their stories from Nepal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A heavy fog hangs over southeastern Nepal.
Phuletiya Saday is here early every morning tilling the fields and tending the livestock that's not his own. Saday will see none of the fruits born from his sweat. His work is going to pay off a debt, first taken generations ago.
[08:45:07]
PHULETIYA SADAY, BONDED LABORER (through translator): The practice started during the time of our forefathers. My grandfather and my father continued it. And I have also been continuing it. I was told I had to work because my father and forefathers had not paid back what they had taken from the landlord.
CHANCE (voice-over): Saday is a member of the Dalit community -- a specific group of people known as the Harawa-Charawa, the words translate roughly into English as tiller and cattle herder.
The ILO estimates there are more than 100,000 Harawa-Charawa across Nepal. And it's not just men working to pay off the loans.
CHANCE: Well, we've come to this village in southeastern Nepal where basically everyone is Harawa-Charawa. You can see that the buildings are made out of bamboo, covered in mud and people's handprints they put on the wall as decoration.
But it's also, of course, incredibly poor. And everyone here is essentially in debt to a local landowner. And they have to work night and day, seven days a week just to pay off that loan and to survive.
KOSHILA SADAY, BONDED LABORER (through translator): We are bonded to work for our landlord. The whole family's working for the landlord. We work for him and our children also work for him. We also want for our children to get proper education and for them to be able to earn and take care of themselves.
CHANCE (voice-over): A London based NGO called the Freedom Fund, has been working with the Harawa-Charawa for more than a decade. They've helped the community organize and advocate for their rights.
In 2022, the Harawa-Charawa received a major victory. Nepal's prime minister announcing the liberation of the Harawa-Charawa people. It marks the first time the government formally acknowledged the issue of bonded labor affecting them.
Still, despite the declarations, progress has been slow.
LEGENDRA SADAY, GENERAL SECRETARY, NATIONAL HARAWA-CHARAWA RIGHTS FORUM (through translator): From the day the government announced our freedom, we have been facing more serious problems. People like us now have nowhere to go to look for work and we are compelled to go back to the landlord to ask for work. When we go there, asking for work, the landlords now chase us away with sticks.
CHANCE: Well, we've just come down the road from the village at the house of the landowner and we're going to try and have a word with him about this Harawa-Charawa bonded labor practice.
Hello, sir. Namaste. Are you the owner? What do you say to those who accused you and people like you, landowners in this area of basically being slave owners, of using and exploiting these people for your benefit?
You don't agree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.
CHANCE: Why? That's what you're doing.
KRISHNA DEV YADAV, LANDOWNER (through translator): I tell them to go back home and stay there. I encourage them to go home. And their children will provide them medicine and that they will take good care of you. But didn't go. They say they'll die if they go home. So what can I do?
They are staying here on their own will. They have no pressure whatsoever to continue to stay with me and work for me.
CHANCE (voice-over): But for Phuletiya and Koshila it's a dilemma. Their concern, like that of so many parents around the world, has less to do with their own future than their children's.
Their hope is that with education and organization, the debt that should have been worked off generations ago will be shouldered by the next.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Nepal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: All right. And don't forget to join us this Thursday for My Freedom Day. It's a daylong student driven event to raise awareness of modern day slavery.
All right, we want to take you to some breaking news just into CNN, Israel has just announced the death of a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen thought to have been held in Gaza. The IDF says Itay Chen was killed on October 7th. He is said to be at least the fourth dual U.S. citizen whose body is being held in Gaza.
Five other dual U.S.-Israeli citizens are thought to be held alive in Gaza.
More after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:51:16]
WALKER: The U.S. consumer prices report for February is just out and inflation ticked slightly higher to 3.2%. A reminder that the job of bringing inflation down remains a bumpy process. Stocks on Wall Street start trading next hour.
And for now, here's how futures are reacting to the numbers. Fed watchers are saying don't expect to see an interest rate cut at next week's Fed meeting.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joining us now to break down the numbers. Hi there, Vanessa. So what's the big picture for inflation in the U.S.?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: The big picture here is it's a bumpy road to get to that 2 percent target that the Federal Reserve is looking for. So on an annual basis, prices increasing just a little bit to 3.2 percent. On a monthly basis in February, prices ticking up to 0.4%, but that's the largest increase we've seen since September.
Leading the way, though, on these price increases is shelter and gas, accounting for 60 percent of the monthly increase in February. So if you break it down, you have shelter rising 0.4 percent in February. Gas prices though, rising 3.8 percent.
Some good news for Americans, though, food prices stayed flat at zero. So that's good news. If you're going to the grocery store, you're probably not going to see volatile price changes there. But gasoline, you know, in the last couple of months, we've seen it go from 307 a gallon to 340 a gallon.
That is largely because of seasonal changes. Gas prices tend to move higher as you head into the spring months and summer months. But, of course, for everyday Americans, that's uncomfortable. No one wants to pay more for anything, let alone gas prices as people start to hit the road as the warmer months get going.
But this is a pain point for the president, President Biden. No doubt. He has been relentless on encouraging Americans to realize that prices really have come down from the highs that we saw in 2022 when inflation was over 9%. But we haven't cracked the code to get below 3 percent.
We're at 3.2 percent annually, according to this report. The president in other ways has tried to minimize the pain of prices on Americans by creating a task force to go after companies who are engaging in something called shrinkflation.
He's also tried to crack down on junk fees. So fee extra fees that Americans are paying every single month. In terms of the Federal Reserve, Amara, the Federal Reserve is going to be looking at this closely. They have indicated that this would be a bumpy road to cool inflation.
Obviously not the report that they want to see. You want to see prices going down, not up. But some encouraging news, slivers of hope on the food front, but really gasoline prices pushing this report up in February, Amara.
WALKER: OK. So then what does that mean when the Fed meets next week?
YURKEVICH: Yes, it's going to be a toss-up. It's really 50 50. I mean, it's either that they're going to leave rates in place, which is probably the likelihood. So no change. People on Wall Street. A lot of Americans are hoping for a cut because a cut then means that mortgage rates could cool, student loan payment interest rates would cool.
But based on this report, I think they want to see probably a little more progress. There's another report called PCE that the Fed really likes to look at. That's the Prices for Consumers Expenditures. They're going to be looking at that report as well.
But, you know, they said from the beginning it's going to be bumpy. And here are the bumps in the road. Inflation ticking higher in February. Ticking higher on the annual rate. So for everyday Americans, it's sort of a little bit frustrating, but the Fed's still working to try to get these prices down for Americans, Amara.
[08:55:04]
WALKER: All right, fingers crossed. I guess that's all you can do for now. Thank you so much, Vanessa Yurkevich.
And breaking news, we mentioned earlier, Israel has just announced the death of a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen thought to have been held in Gaza. The IDF says Itay Chen was killed on October 7th. He is said to be at least the fourth dual U.S. citizen whose body is being held in Gaza.
Five other dual U.S.-Israeli citizens are still thought to be held alive in Gaza. And, of course, we will continue to bring you developments as they come in.
And that is our time. Thank you so much for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Amara Walker. Connect the World with Becky Anderson is up next.
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