Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Students Grapple with College Applications; Apple Watch Banned in U.S.; Weather and Climate Stories of 2023; Fred Upton is Interviewed about Trump's Remarks; Law Enforcement Sound Alarm over Migrant Surge. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 26, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Education committee is asking the university, among other things, to provide how they've handled instances of plagiarism in the past when it comes to students and other faculty because they essentially want to compare - want to see if they're holding their students to the same account that they're holding their president. And that deadline, again, this Friday.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Omar, thanks for the reporting on both fronts. Appreciate it.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Of course.

HARLOW: Six months since the Supreme Court struck gown affirmative action in college admissions, students and colleges, as Omar was just referring to, they're grappling with this change. It was an historic decision. It reversed decades of precedent. It ended the ability of post-secondary institutions to consider race or ethnicity as one of many factors in creating diversity on college campuses.

Our Gabe Cohen joins us from Washington, D.C.

You know, it's interesting, on the heels of Harvard having a 17 percent decline in applications this year, all schools are going to have to now deal with a new, you know, post-affirmative action world.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, that's right. And what it's done is take the college process, which has already been a bit mysterious and nuanced and it's added this new layer for students of color who are now debating how to address racial identity in their applications, which they are still allowed to do. But as a result of that uncertainty, the students I spoke with are taking starkly different approaches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNIJAH RUSSELL, APPLYING TO COLLEGE: Hi, Brown. My name is Lynijah and I am a black girl in STEM.

COHEN (voice over): That's Lynijah Russell's application video for Brown University. She's among the millions of students applying to college six months after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, navigating how and even whether to include race in their pitch for admission.

COHEN: What was your reaction to the decision?

RUSSELL: At first I was a little scared. I thought it was a bit unfair. It made me doubt myself a little bit, like, are my numbers good enough.

COHEN: You actually took some schools off your list?

RUSSELL: I thought - I felt like getting into some of those schools were almost impossible.

COHEN (voice over): But when she sat down to write her college essays, she decided it was more important than ever to discuss race as part of her life experience.

RUSSELL: I believe it made me emphasize that I was black a bit more than I probably would have.

I started expressing myself more through my photos, my hairstyles.

COHEN (voice over): Her main essay is about growing up in a rough part of Baltimore.

RUSSELL: The thing that's important to me is my identity, who I am as a person, and race is a big part of that.

COHEN: You think schools are still looking for that diversity?

RUSSELL: Yes.

TRACY RAMOS, CO-FOUNDER, COLLEGE BOUND PARENTING: Do not ignore such a crucial part of your identity.

COHEN (voice over): College advisors, like Tracy Ramos, are encouraging black students not to shy away from race in their applications, especially in their essays.

RAMOS: It paints a holistic picture of who you are.

COHEN: Do you think without boxes to check it's even more important to write about these issues?

RAMOS: I do. A lot of the elite colleges are looking for ways to identify these students. The key piece of advice is, make it easy for the colleges to know all of who you are.

COHEN (voice over): Many schools have added questions to their applications so students can discuss their life experience and how they'd add to campus diversity.

SEAN MANLEY, APPLYING TO COLLEGE: As a student-athlete, vice president of the Black Student Union and vice president of the National Society of Black Engineers --

COHEN (voice over): Sean Manley's essays captured his unique experience as a black student in rural Maryland.

MANLEY: I was scared at first that they wouldn't be able to see my race and see all the challenges that come with it. I'm very proud of like who I am, and it's a very important part of why I'm here.

COHEN: Do you think it will put you in a better spot?

MANLEY: I don't know if writing it in my essay is good or bad yet because we're kind of like the experiment class.

COHEN (voice over): The Supreme Court decision has added a new level of stress to an already stressful college application process for students like Sean and Lynijah. Experts expect historically black colleges will see higher enrollment and more applications, and some students are taking a very different approach.

COHEN: You took race out of most of your essays?

HARMONY MOORE, APPLYING TO COLLEGE: Yes.

COHEN (voice over): Harmony Moore rewrote her essays about being a black student at mostly white Houston school.

COHEN: Why did you feel that was necessary?

MOORE: I didn't want to have the admissions -- wrong admissions officer read it and then they all of a sudden, like, don't want to let me into their school because they feel like I'm trying to like push my race on them. I think I stand out, like, on my own, like, with my extracurriculars and with my honors that I've received. I don't want to just like have the same exact same story as hundreds of other black students.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: And another student told me she's looking at each college individually and only writing about her racial identity for the schools that she believes are more progressive, which, again, Poppy, speaks to the calculations that these students are making right now.

But I do think it is important to note that the head of the National Association for College Admission Counseling told me, students of color right now don't need to write about trauma or adversity to get into college, but they also should not feel deterred by the Supreme Court decision, which is something that they're hearing from a lot of students.

[08:35:02]

Poppy and Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Gabe Cohen, really interesting piece, thank you.

Well, if you wanted a brand-new Apple watch for Christmas and didn't find one under your tree, you might be out of luck. Why Apple has to pull its newest model Apple watches from the shelves starting today.

HARLOW: And a nightmare before Christmas. A six-year-old boy flying by himself ends up on the wrong flight. The family's reaction and what the airline is saying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, this morning, Spirit Airlines is apologizing after an unaccompanied six-year-old boy from Philadelphia, you see him there, was on his way to visit his grandmother in Fort Myers, Florida, on Christmas Day and he was placed on the wrong flight, a flight to Orlando instead. The boy's grandmother, Maria Ramos, says fear took over when Spirit staff told her that little Casper was nowhere in sight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA RAMOS, GRANDMOTHER: They told me, no, he's not on this flight. He missed his flight. I said, no, he could not miss his flight because I have the checking tag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Ramos said she drove to Orlando to pick up her grandson after she got a call from him. Spirit has offered to reimburse her for the drive but all she wants is answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA RAMOS, GRANDMOTHER: How did that happen? Did they get him off the plane? Did the flight attendant after mom handle him with paperwork, did she let him go by himself?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Spirit has issued a statement saying, quote, "the child was always under the care and supervision of a Spirit team member and as soon as we discovered the error, we took immediate steps to communicate with the family and reconnect them.

[08:40:06]

We apologize to the family for this experience."

The airline also says it's conducting an internal investigation.

HARLOW: It was very scary.

All right, if you did not get an Apple watch for Christmas, or maybe you wanted to buy one today, you're not going to be able to find at least the latest version on the shelves at Apple. It's because the Trade Commission has ruled that Apple's newest version of the watch violates a patent registered to another company. President Biden had until the end of Christmas Day to overturn that ruling. He did not.

CNN's Rahel Solomon joins us with more here. What's this patent dispute over?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is really about the technology that reads blood oxygen levels, right? It's a light-based technology that a California-based company says, hey, wait a minute, that's our technology, and accuses Apple of essentially infringing on their patent. So, the companies have been back and forth and we can show you on your screen just sort of what models this applies to. The companies have been back and forth about this issue for years.

Fast forward to late October. That's when the U.S., as you said, International Trade Commission, stepped in and essentially sided with that California-based company, Masimo. And so that ruling takes effect today because the Biden administration did not intervene here.

So, what this means is that, if you're looking for one of those models, one of those newer models of the Apple watch, if you're trying to get it directly from Apple, you might have a hard time. You can, however, get it from some of the other retailers who may still have it on their shelves until they run out.

Now, the impact to Apple, which is, of course, is the big question, it's a huge, massive company, may not be as much as you think. I spoke to Dan Ives within the hour. He's been covering this stock for the last 15 years or so. And I asked him, hey, what is the impact to Apple? And he said it's not significant. He said, "we estimate it to be $200 million to $300 million in lost revenue." He called it more of a PR black eye than a financial black eye. $200 million to $300 million. Listen, still a lot of money but not a lot of money for Apple. But he said this is more about the optics. It's not a good look when you're accused of essentially stealing someone else's technology. So, this is more of a PR issue for them right now.

MATTINGLY: Fascinating.

HARLOW: Yes.

MATTINGLY: This is fascinating. and the Biden administration could have stepped in. They chose not to step in.

SOLOMON: They did not.

MATTINGLY: We'll see what happens going forward Rahel Solomon, thank you, as always.

HARLOW: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, there's been no shortage of extreme weather events this year from deadly wildfires that ravaged parts of Hawaii back in August, to Hurricane Idalia that brought flooding and widespread damage across the southeast. The power of mother nature, it has been on full display. CNN's Bill Weir now with the top 10 climate stories from 2023.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Starting our list at number ten, the water whiplash that became a signature of 2023 in the American west.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What you're seeing here is an attempt to try to get ahead of the storm that continues to pound California.

WEIR (voice over): After years of megadrought, rivers in the sky unloaded on California, turning dust bowls into raging floods that took at least 20 lives and filled the mountains with record snow, but not enough to end the drought.

At number nine is COP28 in Dubai.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allow me please to declare the meeting adjourned.

WEIR (voice over): Where the world came together and for the first time in three decades of climate talks agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. Over 130 nations were hoping for a more ambitious phase- out of oil, gas, and coal, but petrol states like Saudi Arabia would not agree. Scientists warn to meet the ambition of the Paris Accord, planet heating pollution must be cut by more than 40 percent by 2030, a rate four times faster than the current pace.

At number eight, the Mediterranean storm Daniel blasted parts of Greece with over an inch of rain an hour on its way to drowning thousands of people in Libya.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everywhere you turn, it's apocalyptic scenes here.

WEIR (voice over): Entire neighborhoods in Derna were washed into the sea. A tragedy that scientists say was 50 times more likely on an overheated planet.

At number seven, over a dozen young people successfully sued the state of Montana for ignoring their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by developing fossil fuels. For the dozens of states and cities taking big oil companies to court for their role in climate change, it was a key win.

Number six is the summer of smoke brought by a record-shattering scale of Canadian wildfires. An area the size of Missouri burned north of the border.

WEIR: If you get any glimpse of the sun at all on these surreal days, it's this apocalyptic glowing ball in the sky.

WEIR (voice over): American air quality in some cities was the worst in generations, closing schools and filling emergency rooms.

Number five is the ocean water around Florida reaching hot tub temperatures of nearly 100 degrees in July, bringing devastating new levels of coral bleaching to the cradles of Caribbean sea life.

[08:45:07]

That warmer water is also jet fuel for hurricanes.

And at number four, rapid intensification became a watch word phrase in 2023.

WEIR: Well, the water has come up and over that seawall and we're getting sprayed every minute or so.

WEIR (voice over): Storms like Idalia in Florida's big bend, Otis in the east Pacific, and Hilary in southern California showed us how modern storms are getting stronger and faster.

At number three, Phoenix, Arizona, gave us a new definition of heatwave with 31 straight days at or over 110 degrees. Temperatures hot enough to kill cactus plants. Also took the lives of at least 100 people. A grim new record. That is just one facet of a warmer globe.

At number two, earth's record temperature, the highest in 120,000 years. A few days in 2023 were a full 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. And if that becomes the new average, science warn of cascading collapse.

And at number one, the Maui wildfires.

WEIR: We're just pulling into Lahaina now. Just getting our first glimpse at this town after hearing these nightmare stories. And it is worse than you can imagine.

WEIR (voice over): Generations of water theft, invasive grasses and recent drought created the fuel. Downed power lines are suspected of providing the spark. And hurricane winds fanned the flames until most of beloved Lahaina was turned to ash. With around 100 souls lost, it is the deadliest fire in modern U.S. history and the battle over how best to build has just begun.

Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Our thanks to Bill for that.

Well, Donald Trump spent the holiday weekend on social media posting attacks against anyone he considers his enemy. We'll get former Republican Congressman Fred Upton's reaction to that and a lot more.

MATTINGLY: And, right now, thousands of migrants are walking from southern Mexico to the U.S. border, where authorities have been slammed by a week's long surge in migrant encounters. We're going to be live at the U.S./Mexico border, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:46]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Donald Trump spent the holidays on social media this weekend going

after President Biden, going after special counsel Jack Smith, and many others. He declared that, quote, "of course" he has presidential immunity from key charges against him. The former president continued his attacks on immigrants. This all comes just days after Trump defended recent comments that people entering the country illegally were, quote, "poisoning the blood of America." Comments that have been compared to Hitler's rhetoric.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I know nothing about Hitler. I'm not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood. He didn't say it the way I said it either, by the way. It's a very different kind of a statement. What I'm saying when I talk about people coming into our country is they are destroying our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: With us now, Republican and former congressman from Michigan, Fred Upton, who insists that I call him Fred, but I just can't.

So, Congressman Upton, thank you for joining us. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

I'm so struck by this new polling out of Iowa, if I can ask you about another Midwestern state for a moment, because it's rhetoric like this that has likely caucus goers in Iowa, Republicans, more likely to support Trump, 42 percent, 43 percent more likely to support him when he says things like immigrants are poisoning the blood of America or the radical left thugs are like vermin. Another quote from Trump. What does that tell you about your party right now?

FRED UPTON (R), FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, he's appealing to the base. And that base is not going to go away. I mean it's sort of like -- I think it was Axelrod who said early on that folks prefer the real thing versus DeSantis, which was the light Trump. And so he's appealing to the base, but it really hurts with moderates. It really hurts with, you know, swing voters for sure.

And, you know, I can remember when I was in the congress, and I retired earlier this year, that so many people said, you know, I like what he's doing on the economy, but why doesn't he just end -- drop his cell phone into a bucket of water with some of these tweets? So, it shows that he's not going away. He's doing the same type of nasty, you know, name calling that he did during his four years in office that really hurt him in the '20 election.

Man, if he had done a couple of things right, if he hadn't gone after John McCain, maybe he would have won Arizona. If he hadn't gone against John Lewis, maybe he would have won Georgia. If he hadn't gone against John Dingell, trashing him, maybe he would have won Michigan again, even though the vote difference was 150,000 votes versus when he had won it back four years before. So, he's not going away. And, you know, you look at the rhetoric, he's

telling people to go to hell that don't agree with him, it -- the base loves it, particularly in Iowa, let's face it. It's not real good in other places. Probably doesn't help him in New Hampshire is my guess.

HARLOW: Yes, I mean, that's an interesting point about New Hampshire.

Can we talk about your effort, the no Labels effort, trying to create a unity ticket backed by No Labels. It would run against Trump and Biden if that is the general matchup in 2024. Where are you on that and when are you deciding if you actually get in and who the candidate is?

UPTON: Well, our goal right now is to get on the ballot. We're trying it provide voters a choice. If it is Biden and Trump again, we want to provide a unity ticket or what would otherwise be called a bipartisan ticket. We really have to wait until Super Tuesday to see to really determine if it's going to be Biden and Trump for sure.

So, in the meantime, we're on 12 ballots already. We're active, I think, in 27, a number of states that we can't start until next year in terms of collecting the signatures. You know, every state has a different standard to get on the ballot. So, Ross Perot did it. We're way ahead of where he was, you know, 30 years later. And we're excited about where we are. But we really had to wait until Super Tuesday to determine if it's going to be Biden and Trump. Seventy percent of the American public don't want a rematch between these two for pick the reason, and we want to provide voters a choice. And it's been an exciting challenge for us and, you know, we'll -- but the candidates themselves would run the campaign.

[06:55:03]

We're just trying to get things started.

HARLOW: Right. The important leg work of trying to get them on the ballot.

You've got critics in this. Among them, a vocal critic is President Obama's former deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina. I know you saw his op-ed in "Politico." Let me just read our viewers part of the argument he's making against what you're doing. Quote, "the idea that a unity ticket featuring a Republican and a Democrat could somehow produce a nominee with a clear path to victory is worse than political fiction. The group behind it, No Labels, is pushing a dangerous lie that would serve to put Trump back in the White House." He's calling it dangerous lie, Congressman. I wonder what you want to say in response.

UPTON: Well, a couple of things. You know, the polls -- and we've seen this for month now, the polls show if it's one-on-one, Trump is going to beat Biden. And we're trying to provide voters a choice. You know, that's what a democracy's about.

Now, DCCC and the RNC, they're both against what we're doing. They like the game the way that it is, just the two of them in a one-on-one match. But we see this dysfunction. We see all the problems back -- back in Washington. I mean they can't do a budget. We're looking at another shutdown in a couple of weeks with no action there. It's time to see a little bit of a difference, and that would be a Republican and a Democrat working together. And why not let voters have that choice?

HARLOW: Tell - tell -

UPTON: And we - our polling shows that 70 percent of the American public don't want to see another rematch between these two.

HARLOW: But if you don't know who the candidate is going to be yet, how can you be so sure they won't pull from Biden? I mean Messina points out, go back to '68 and George Wallace, or look at Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, they didn't go on to win a single state.

UPTON: Well, remember, Perot, at one point, was at 30 percent. And that was in the summer. We have until August, actually, to pull out -- early August, if we decide not to run with the ticket that's in place. So, we're months ahead of where Perot was. Perot got on all 50 states and he got up to 30 percent. We have to wait until Super Tuesday -

HARLOW: He didn't win any of them.

UPTON: Well, I know. Remember, he pulled out.

HARLOW: Right.

UPTON: But it's different.

HARLOW: Right.

UPTON: Thirty years (INAUDIBLE). I mean you didn't have - you know, I was with President Bush when Ross Perot actually called to say that he was - he was going to run. We know that, in fact, we can win some states. And we'd be in it to win it. I mean we - we had a long time here, but the American public is, frankly, disgusted with what they see today.

HARLOW: In it to win it.

Fred Upton, former Republican congressman, thanks very much for being with us and Merry Christmas.

UPTON: You, too.

HARLOW: Talk to you soon.

MATTINGLY: Well, new warnings this morning along the U.S./Mexico border. Local law enforcement sounding the alarm that it does not have the manpower for the expected surge of migrants trekking as part of a caravan from southern Mexico to the U.S.

HARLOW: This comes right ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's arrival for a meeting with Mexico's president.

Let's go to our Rosa Flores. She's live right on the border there in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The migrants are certainly continuing, and I wonder what you're seeing and hearing on the ground this morning.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, we just saw a small group of migrants cross into the U.S., and they're being taken for processing by U.S. immigration authorities.

But what we're also learning is more about what's driving this surge. And it's not just the cartels or your run of the mill smuggler. It's actually pseudo legitimate travel agencies abroad that a CBP official says that the agency is cracking down on. They say that these agencies are promising individuals travel to the United States but instead they are connecting them to smugglers south of the border. Now, one of the nationalities that's being targeted is the Senegalese, which makes this video that I'm about to show you make a lot of sense.

We recently took this video in Arizona. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: I work for CNN. And I'm wondering where you're from. What country you're from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senegal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senegal.

FLORES: Senegal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

FLORES: Senegal?

Senegal?

Senegal?

Everybody from Senegal?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, that same CBP official says that these groups, these smugglers, are smuggling about 500 to 1,000 people at one time to very remote areas of Arizona, which, of course, creates a logistical nightmare for U.S. Border Patrol agents who then have to transport them to processing facilities.

But back here in Eagle Pass, you can see behind me that the scene has changed since last week. We're not seeing 1,000 or more than 1,000 migrants behind me waiting to be transported for immigration processing. A senior CBP official telling me that while the scene has changed, the agency is not out of the woods yet. We've learned from non-profit organizations all along the border that hundreds of migrants are being transported to those areas from Eagle Pass to decompress. [09:00:04]

We learned from Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley that last week officials were transporting about 350 migrants per day. And, Poppy and Phil, the organization there tells me that now they're receiving about 550 per day. That just gives you a sense of the number of migrants who continue to pour into the U.S. southern border.

MATTINGLY: Rosa Flores, great reporting. Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks, Rosa.

Thanks for joining us. Tomorrow we'll see you right back here tomorrow.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.