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Trump Era Border Policy Called Title 42 Set to Expire in One Week Possibly Leading to Further Influx of Migrants at U.S. Southern Border; Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) Interviewed on Biden Administration Immigration Policy and Border Communities being Overwhelmed by Migrants; Tornado Devastates Parts of Louisiana; Embattled Councilman Refused To Resign Over Racist Remarks, Wife: U.S. Journalist Grant Wahl Died Of Aortic Aneurysm In Qatar. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:20]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We are halfway of through the week. Halfway through. It is Wednesday, December 14th. Welcome, everyone. We have a lot to get to this morning, so we have to catch you up immediately on the five things that you need to know today, right now.

The framework of a budget deal that funds the federal government for a full year has bipartisan support in Congress, but Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, they're at odds over the breakthrough. McCarthy, the House minority leader, says that he is a hell no on a one-year agreement, but the measure is expected to pass.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: A tornado barreled across northern Louisiana overnight killing a child. Now a search is underway for the mother who is also missing this morning. At least 20 people have been injured when this twister just ripped through a mobile home park in Farmerville. We'll show you the scene in just a moment.

Thirteen for thirteen, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says all 13 attack drones launched by Russia against Kyiv today were shot down. And this comes as the Pope is suggesting all of us buy fewer Christmas presents and instead donate to Ukraine.

LEMON: This morning, the so-called crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried remains in a jail in the Bahamas. His bond denied with the judge calling him a flight risk. In court on Tuesday, an attorney for Bankman-Fried claimed his client has long suffered from depression, insomnia, and attention deficit disorder. Back here in the U.S., Bankman-Fried he has been indicted on eight criminal charges.

HARLOW: The last semifinal match of the World Cup kicks off this afternoon. Reigning champion France will take on underdog Morocco for the chance to play Argentina in the final on Sunday.

LEMON: So this morning, officials on high alert at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration is sending more agents to El Paso, Texas, over the concerns about the recent migrant surge there. This as a Trump era policy called Title 42 is set to expire a week from today. Nineteen GOP led states are asking a federal appeals court to keep Title 42 in place, which allowed the U.S. to quickly expel asylum seekers at the border. El Paso's city manager saying they are at a breaking point.

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MARIO D'AGOSTINO, EL PASO DEPUTY CITY MANAGER: Title 42 going away with the numbers we're seeing today is a true emergency for the community. It's a federal crisis that's happening within the border of El Paso.

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LEMON: So let's get straight to CNN's Ed Lavandera live for us in El Paso, Texas, I should say. Ed, good morning to you. You have been on the ground live in El Paso. What are you seeing there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as the city manager there alluded to, there's a great deal of concern about what is going to happen next week if Title 42 is officially lifted. Right now, over the last few days what we have seen is about an average of 2,500 migrants crossing the border into the El Paso area. This is separate from the issue of Title 42. And what we are hearing from officials here in El Paso is that shelters are overcapacity, the processing centers with the Border Patrol are also overcapacity as well. So that is raising a great deal of concern about what is going to happen next week? And city officials here are sounding the alarm.

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PETER SVARZBEIAN, CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE, EL PASO: What we need to do here, I think, is much more than what we're doing at this point. We need people to step up. We need to stop pointing fingers, we need to work together, we need to collaborate, and we need to make sure that we keep folks that are passing through our neighborhood safe, also keeping our communities safe as well.

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LAVANDERA: And, Don, the Biden administration is predicting that if Title 42 is lifted, there could be as many as 9,000 to 14,000 people crossing the U.S. southern border next week. That is what they are preparing for. Officials, DHS officials said yesterday they are sending more agents here as well as 1,000 processing officers that will help handle the number of people that are coming across the border. But there is a growing sense of concern about what is going to unfold next week, Don.

LEMON: Ed, where exactly are these migrants looking to go, and where would they go after being deported?

LAVANDERA: It's interesting. We were in a shelter last night, and so there are a number of people because of Title 42 who are being expelled and immediately returned back to Mexico. But there are people who are given processing papers and court dates, immigration court dates to appear several months from now.

[08:05:00]

We spoke with a number of people who told us they have been traveling to or planning to travel to places like Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York. So they're actually spending very little time here in border communities, moving on to other destinations where they might already have family members or friends who have already set up or established some sort of roots. So that's what we're hearing a lot from the migrants that we've spoken to.

LEMON: Ed Lavandera in El Paso, Texas, for us this morning. Thank you, Ed. Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A bipartisan group of lawmakers, on this subject, are now urging President Biden to extend Title 42. They warn that lifting it next week will result in a complete loss of operational control over the southern border, and they believe it will have a profoundly negative impact on these border communities. One of the lawmakers who represents those communities is Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar. He represents a southwest border district and joins us now. Congressman, if Title 42 ends as scheduled, how much more difficult does managing the migrant crisis become, do you believe?

REP. HENRY CUELLAR, (D-TX): Communities are going to be overwhelmed, not only in El Paso. We've seen that in the past with Rio Grande Valley, we've seen it in Eagle Pass, Del Rio. They're going to be overwhelmed. There's just not enough shelters and border processing centers to handle the large numbers of people.

And what Border Patrol is doing, it's almost like whack-a-mole in the sense that if there's a surge in the valley, they'll move people down there. If there's more people crossing, let's say, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, they'll move agents over there. Now they're moving agents to El Paso. So this is not the way to secure the border.

We can do two things at the same time. We can provide a compassionate way of treating the immigrants that are trying to come in. But at the same time we have to secure the border, because the only thing that the Border Patrol is doing is processing a lot of them to come into the U.S. and then returning some of them under Title 42. If Title 42 goes away, this is going to just open up large numbers of people coming to border communities.

COLLINS: And do you think the Biden administration understands that sense of urgency?

CUELLAR: You know, I don't think they do, or if they do, they just have a very different perspective. Look, it's OK to listen to immigration activists. It's OK to do that. That's one perspective. But who is listening to the men and women in green and blue? And more importantly, who is listening to our border communities. I live in Laredo, Texas, I live on the border. And again, I don't just go visit there. I know and I talk to the mayors, county judges, commissioners, landowners, other folks there, and nobody is listening, or should I say, the administration is not listening to them. It's about time that they pay attention to border communities.

COLLINS: Would it help if they placed new limits on asylum seekers?

CUELLAR: Well, it's not a matter of putting limits on asylum seekers. It's how you process those asylum seekers. If you put 100 people in front of an immigration judge -- and, by the way, the immigration courts are overwhelmed. There's a backlog of 1.9 million cases, that's years, years in the future before they can really have their day in court.

But what we're looking at is, if you put is 100 people in front of an immigration judge, 88 to 90 percent are going to be rejected. So why are we not doing this? Why are we not saying that there's an asylum seeker coming in from another country and they pass a third country? And I've been talking about this for about four, five years where they can seek asylum somewhere else. Why is the U.S. the only place that they can get away from persecution? There's a lot of countries on the way over here that they can ask for that. Or if they can do it in an orderly process, ask for asylum in one of our consulates or embassies abroad. It's got to be orderly.

What you've seen in El Paso, what you saw in Eagle Pass, Del Rio, what you've seen in the valley, I don't call that orderly, and I don't understand why the administration doesn't understand that. I want to be constructive. I want to work with them to enjoy this issue.

COLLINS: And Congressman, you saw DHS Secretary Mayorkas at the border. Do you think it would help if President Biden himself came to the El Paso, came to the border to see this firsthand?

CUELLAR: Yes, absolutely. I think -- I don't know why they keep avoiding the border and saying there's other things more important than investing in the border. If there's a crisis, show up. Just shows up. I think part of the battle is if he just shows up and says I will be working on this, just showing up at the border would send a strong signal to the communities that he's there, he cares about the border communities. Just show up. It doesn't take much to just show up at the border.

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COLLINS: And Congressman, while we have you this morning before we let go, Sam Bankman-Fried, as you've seen, has been indicted on several criminal charges. It's raising questions about the political donations he's made. I believe he's donated to you. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can you tell me --

CUELLAR: I think you're incorrect on that. I think you're not correct. As far as I know, they have not donated to me. I don't even know who the person is.

COLLINS: OK, I'm so glad you cleared that up, because we've been looking at the donations he's made. "Puck" has reported that he had donated to you. Do you want to see fellow Democrats and Republicans that he donated to all return those donations or donate them to charities, like we've seen some do?

CUELLAR: Yes, I think they should return it to charity.

COLLINS: Congressman, thank you so much on two very important topics this morning. Thanks for joining us.

CUELLAR: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: Kaitlan, great interview.

All right, a deadly and destructive tornado tore through northern Louisiana last night. Officials outside the Shreveport say one child was killed. That child's mother is still missing this morning after the tornado struck Caddo Parish. At least 20 people were injured when the tornado moved through a mobile home park in Farmerville.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got in the shower, like I said, and all of a sudden by the time we got hunkered down here, it was gone, the roof was gone. They always say you hear a train coming. Well, this was a big train come through here.

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HARLOW: CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us live this morning. And when you joined us at the beginning of the program, the sun was not up. Now it is and you see a whole lot more.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Poppy, we are seeing some of the devastating and simply heartbreaking damage that was left behind by these devastating tornadoes here in northern Louisiana. You're just seeing really a small drop in the bucket, because we are still not permitted to go to the mobile home park that was directly hit behind me here.

But we're in Union Parish. This is just northwest of Monroe, Louisiana, and you can see just some of the memories left over of children's toys, typical shrapnel, the tops of roofs and buildings, electrical wires. You name it. This is what we would typically season within a devastating tornado. But what you're not seeing behind me because of our restrictions within this particular area is the impacted mobile home community that's behind me.

And we talked to some eyewitnesses who gave us some firsthand accounts. They came across some individuals this morning who literally were confused walking out of the woods, talking about how their mobile home was swept into the woods and just being completely disoriented after this tornado struck just moments after that particular devastating and terrifying thing for them to take place.

There are cadaver dogs and search and rescue operations that are still ongoing here, as is typical with any kind of tornado damage that we would see across the country. But the National Weather Service is en route to come here and assess how powerful the winds were in this Union Parish tornado that has left the path of destruction that you see directly behind me. Poppy?

HARLOW: Derek Van Dam, thank you for being there. We're thinking of everyone there, of course, this morning.

LEMON: And in just a split second, everything is gone. Their lives will change forever.

COLLINS: And I hate when they hit overnight because it makes it that much harder to get to safety.

This morning, an L.A. city council meeting elected into chaos as the public outcry for one members to step down has been growing over racist remarks that he and other members made about a colleague's black child.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His residents demanded his resignation, his colleagues have demanded his resignation, the president of the United States has demanded his resignation, and his own hubris is the only thing that's keeping him in office.

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[08:15:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, you have been warned repeatedly that you behavior of yelling in the council chambers and disrupting the meeting is not permitted per council rule 12. If you continue, you will be asked to leave.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): I mean, look, that is a Los Angeles City Council meeting erupting in chaos as calls for the resignation of embattled council member Kevin de Leon grow. So, he has refused to step down after he was caught on a leaked tape with other council members making racist remarks about a young Black child of one of his colleagues. The other council members who participated in that meeting have either resigned or are leaving. De Leon is under renewed scrutiny after he was caught on camera getting into a physical altercation with a community activist during a holiday event.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan, De Leon defended his decision not to resign. Here's part of it.

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KEVIN DE LEON, COUNCIL MEMBER, LOS ANGELES CITY: In a democracy, the voters make the decision, not folks who are in the peanut gallery or political pundits or even my own colleagues. You know, tens of millions of Americans go to work every single day with folks that they don't like. But you know what they do every morning? They get up and they go to work. And they don't have the luxury perhaps that some folks do when they want to walk out.

I'm here to do the business of my constituents. And that's what I've worked for tirelessly. That's what I'm going to continue to do.

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LEMON: Fascinating interview. We want to talk more about it now. There she is -- his interview with CNN anchor Kate Bolduan joining us here, and as well, CNN anchor and correspondent Audie Cornish. So, I'm so glad to have both of you on. So, listen, this back and forth, this is craziness that's happening. He said that he took it out of context, that remark, and you showed him the evidence.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, there's a whole lot that went into this entire thing, right? This all started in October when this league tape came out. And we went -- and then -- and I brought it up to him. And he said that the media had been taking it out of context. And as anyone would, we played it in context.

But my big takeaway, the reason I wanted to speak with Kevin de Leon, is there were kind of two questions which is what were you thinking and what are you thinking now? Like, what are you going to do about it now? Because at the end of the day, this may be a city council, this may be -- some people might think this is a local issue, but it's like the second largest city in America and a city like so many others that has huge issues.

I mean, homelessness -- and this is something that Kevin spoke to me about, but huge issues that need to be addressed. And I'm curious to know, how much the council members -- the council -- how well the council is actually working when essentially, it's locked up because every time they get together, there are protests, De Leon didn't show up for 60 days, then he shows up. And the way LZ Granderson put it to me is the city is essentially been held hostage because of how this all played out.

I mean, he said, it's up to the voters to decide my political future. And he says tens of millions of Americans go to work every single day with folks that they don't like, which it may be true that people don't like the folks that they work with, but there is a real question of how well these people are actually working to do the people's business at this point.

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LEMON: Yes.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I mean, I think two things that are interesting about that interview is one, we're in the post-shame period for politicians, so there is a school of thought that says you kind of ride it out, you know, no matter how bad it seems like it gets because there's sort of evidence, let's just say, at the highest levels that that can be done. And so, there's a different thinking than before that you should just get out, right?

BOLDUAN: And different reactions from the other --

CORNISH: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: -- people who were caught on the tape having this racist conversation. Some of the council members resigned, and he is definitely not.

CORNISH: Exactly.

LEMON: Do you think he should resign?

CORNISH: I think that there's a broader context about Latino power in the city about who has the power in sort of the different groups who are jockeying for power on the council and in the city itself, which is why this thing that seems tiny, right, like some people saying some racist or inappropriate things, some fighting, it seems really goofball. But it's really about who is in control of this city, who can have the airport in their district, who can have the jobs there. And that's why it seems so tightly held and why people are so passionate about it.

BOLDUAN: That was one of the questions that I don't really feel that there was fully an answer to, which was, what were you -- he has apologized and says that he's trying to make amends to try to move forward and do the -- do the people's business. But what is the mistake that he is apologizing for? Was that the language which he seems to allude to, though he says it was taken out of context and he was not trying to make fun of the young black son of one of the council members? Or was it the entire purpose of the conversation, which was caught on tape, which was the Latino Democrats coming together to try to work the redistricting --

CORNISH: In their favor.

BOLDUAN: -- system in their favor, and to dilute --

CORNISH: And expressing resentments.

BOLDUAN: And to dilute the power of Black voters in the process. That is not answered.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And in your interview, what you just said there in about politicians riding it out, he didn't even seem to acknowledge what he actually said. He said, you know, I wish I'd stood up, I wish I had more constructive conversations. And you said, you compare to a young Black child to a luxury handbag.

CORNISH: Yes. That's key to the non-apology. You'll see this very frequently. Never repeat the words that you are on tape doing. We've seen this in many other contexts. Always kind of just ride above it and talk about how it's really the voters' decisions, X, Y, and Z. Someone write a book on this because it's definitely a sort of new way of thinking in political PR and crisis management of how to get through it. BOLDUAN: The only -- do we -- I mean, I don't know what other piece of sound that we have pulled, but there's more from the conversation, if you guys want to run it, of kind of that part of it when he believes he's taken out of context --

LEMON: Yes, he said -- basically, he's just saying that it was an artful way of criticizing a fellow.

CORNISH: There's no good way to compare a kid to a purse, so it's sort of hard to make that work. Do you know what I mean? Like, there's just no scenario where that works, but he tried it.

BOLDUAN: The reason this is also really interesting is there's not -- there's really nothing that the council can do. The council censured him. They've kind of taken away some of his power on the committee. But it also gets back to his -- he said, it does get back to the voters to decide. There's a recall effort underway. It's expensive. It's going to take time. They need to get some 20,000 votes from his district to sign on to move this forward.

His term is through December of 2024. So, there's a lot of time in between, obviously, now and then. At its most basic, it is kind of a study, as you're saying, Audie, in how to react to a crisis. But when you are the continued center of the crisis --

CORNISH: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- he had said we need to get up and go to work. But is he doing the work to try to make amends in order to do the people's business? Again, they get to figure it out.

COLLINS: Teaching politicians can be a very lucrative business so don't go into it though, because we like you having you here. Kate Bolduan, Audie Cornish, thank you both for joining us.

CORNISH: Thanks for having us. Good morning.

COLLINS: You're watching Kate just a few hours from now on "AT THIS HOUR" at 11:00 a.m.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, sports journalist Grant Wahl's sudden recent tragic death shocked all of us, shocked everyone, shocked the sports world. The 49-year-old died Friday after collapsing while covering the World Cup in Qatar. The circumstances around his death still unclear. And now, his widow, Dr. Celine Gounder is remembering her husband and revealing how he died. Listen to her.

[08:25:04]

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CELINE GOUNDER, WIDOW OF GRANT WAHL: I think for him, soccer was more than just a sport. It was this thing that connected people around the world. There's so much about the culture, the politics of sport -- of soccer. To him, it was a way of really understanding people and where they were coming from. I want people to remember him as this kind, generous person who was

really dedicated to social justice. You know, I think that's another aspect of soccer that was really important to him that, you know, promoting the women's game. You know, the recent statements he had made about LGBT rights. That was -- that was Grant. That was Grant.

So, he had an autopsy done here in New York by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, and it showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which means what --OK.

GOUNDER: So, aorta, that's the big blood vessel that comes out of your heart, sort of the trunk of all the blood vessels. And an aneurysm is a ballooning of the blood vessel wall. And so, it's weak. And it's just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years. And for whatever reason, it happened at this point in time.

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HARLOW: Let's bring in CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It is -- he's on set. I mean, just her to have the strength to come on and just speak about her beloved husband --

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARLOW: Can you help us understand what happened to him now that she has told the world?

GUPTA: Yes, it's so sad. And, you know, Grant Wahl is one of these people who I also would communicate with from time to time via Twitter. And he was just -- I got so many texts about him. But what Celine, who was a Medical Contributor to CNN as well, what she was talking about was the major blood vessel called the aorta, lives the heart. And that then gives off tributaries to all these other organs in the body.

Sometimes that blood vessel itself -- I don't know if we have an image of it -- but it can actually start to weaken. It's made up of all these layers, and some of the layers are weakened. So, it actually, instead of being sort of -- you see that sort of in the middle of the screen, that candy cane looking structure, instead of being normal sort of contour, like that will actually start to get a balloon -- become the shape of a balloon. And that balloon is weaker. As the wall sort of distend, the walls become weaker as well. And with time, it can rupture. Meaning, that those walls can actually break apart or you can get blood that actually dissects through the walls of the aorta. Either way, it can be a catastrophic problem.

I will say that it's pretty unusual. It typically happens in people who are older. And there's really not some sort of way that he probably knew that he had this unless he was -- had a family history or was being screened for some reason, it is likely he didn't know this. From what I understand, he was having -- he thought it they were upper respiratory symptoms. He thought he had bronchitis.

And sometimes that ballooning can become so large, it can actually start to push on other things in that part of your body in your chest.

LEMON: Doctor?

GUPTA: So, people may develop cough or weakness of voice and things like that. And it's a totally different problem.

LEMON: Before we run out of time, I just -- I just want to -- I want to make sure you get this into people at home who are watching. And I keep looking at the picture of Celine and Grant that's playing. It's just devastating. Is there anything -- can you go to the doctor? Can you -- is there a checkup? Is there -- is there any way to know about something like this?

GUPTA: There is. I mean, you can be screened for this sort of thing, you know, with imaging tests and things like that. But the thing is that it's so rare that it's not recommended that people go out and get screened. About 20 percent of the time, there is a family history. So, if you have family history of this, then that's something that you should potentially get checked out. And you can do that with imaging tests.

I will point out -- you know, one thing -- one of the first stories I covered here at CNN back in 2003 was actually the story of John Ritter dying. He was 54 years old. Remember John Ritter? And he basically had the same problem. He was a few years older than Grant is now, but basically the same problem. They thought it was a heart attack. Initially, they weren't sure. It ended up being an aortic aneurysm that had dissected, similar to what saline was describing. Again, that's rare. So, screening tests are not recommended across the board. But, you know, obviously, these sad, sad stories like this do happen.

LEMON: Thank you. Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it. And I know Celine watches us. She texts. So, we're thinking about you. So, we're so, so sorry.

COLLINS: Absolutely.

It's hard to believe but it has been 10 years since Sandy Hook. Up next, we're going to talk to a survivor. She hid in a coat closet with 17 of her little classmates. She's now 17 years old. And she says she lost her childhood that day.

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