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CNN This Morning

Blinken, Mexican President to Meet Amid Migrant Surge; Israeli Military Chief: War to Last 'for Many Months'; 'Parasite' Actor Lee Sun-Kyun Found Dead in Car; Blizzard, Ice Make Travel Treacherous in Central U.S. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 27, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: We'll see. I'm excited about it, though.

[06:00:03]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: OK. Andy -- Andy, that is terrifying. But just for a second, I'm just glad that the Sixers don't have to have the designation of the worst losing streak. That -- that's at least the one bright side.

SCHOLES: Well, they do have the overall one, but it spanned two seasons. They lost two at the end of one, and then they lost, I think it was 27 to start the next. So the Pistons are going for that one, too.

FREEMAN: Don't worry. They've got a tough schedule.

SCHOLES: Exactly.

FREEMAN: Andy, thanks so much for it. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you all for joining us at home. I'm Danny Freeman. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. So glad you're with us. It is Wednesday, December 27. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York.

And a big focus on the Southern border today. Top Biden officials are headed to Mexico to confront the crisis at the border, but more migrants are headed North. New this morning: the message the White House will deliver.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Also, battle on the Red Sea. The U.S. Navy stops a ten-hour assault against commercial ships. But fears are growing that American troops could end up on the frontlines of a much wider conflict in the Middle East.

And new overnight, a star of the Oscar-winning film "Parasite" is found dead. The investigation he faced while he said he was being blackmailed.

CNN THIS MORNING starts now. HARLOW: We begin with the crisis at the Southern border, where

President Biden is sending some of his highest-ranking officials as the largest migrant caravan since June of 2022 leaves Southern Mexico, hoping to reach the United States.

That caravan includes 6,000 migrants, and its leaders carrying a banner reading "Exodus from Poverty."

Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall will all meet with their Mexican counterparts in Mexico City to try to reach an agreement to try to stem the tide of migrants into the United States.

MATTINGLY: Now, the critical meeting comes after President Biden's call with Mexico's president last week, when they agreed more enforcement at the border is needed.

Meanwhile, there are more than 11,000 migrants still waiting in shelters and camps on the Mexican side of the border as U.S. Border Patrol officials say they are just overwhelmed by processing migrants.

The mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, telling CNN last night that Biden's handling in the situation is, quote, "unacceptable."

[06:02:31]

MAYOR ROLANDO SALINAS, EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: Our city here in Eagle Pass, we've been getting slammed with 2,000 to 3,000 people a day. And it's just an unfair, unethical situation, what's going on here in Eagle Pass. We feel ignored by the federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: We begin this morning with CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, live for us at the White House. Priscilla, you have new reporting on what the administration is looking to ask for in these meetings. What are the expectations?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil and Poppy, President Biden is ending the year the way he started it, working with his Mexican counterpart to try and manage the record migration in the Western hemisphere.

And the urgency of the moment is clear by who is heading down to Mexico today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and homeland security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, all going down to meet with the Mexican president and members of his cabinet as thousands of migrants move North.

Now, these officials are going down with asks, and officials tell me that they include the following: moving migrants South, those being migrants that are at the Northern border now.

Also, controlling railways, which are often used by migrants to more quickly get to the U.S. Southern border. And also providing incentives for them not to journey to the border to

begin with. Like, for example, visas. Now, as you heard there from the Eagle Pass mayor, border towns are growing restless and placing more pressure on the Biden administration to do more on this.

And this is a step that the administration is taking to try to provide some relief. And the U.S. has historically leaned on Mexico in moments like this to stem the flow, but whether they can get a grasp on the unprecedented surge is still unclear.

HARLOW: Priscilla, what's your read? I mean, you've covered the border. You've covered the White House. What's your read on what can actually get done? Not just optics of all these high-ranking people meeting to talk about a crisis; what can actually be implemented soon?

ALVAREZ: Poppy, these are asks that I have seen from the U.S. before. They have pressed Mexico to take these steps, and Mexico has done so. And when that happens, we do see some reprieve on the U.S. Southern border.

But the key questions are how long can Mexico sustain that when they have limited capacity themselves? This is record migration across the Western Hemisphere. That can't be under -- overstated.

And so this is what officials are contending with. And they may be able to get these outcomes in the short term, but the long term is still a steep, steep challenge for both countries.

[06:05:02]

HARLOW: No question about it. Appreciate your reporting, Priscilla, very much. We'll get back to you soon.

MATTINGLY: Well, new overnight, Israeli's military chief says the war against Hamas is likely to go on for many months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERZI HALEVI, CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): The war will go on for many months. There are no magic solutions. There are no short cuts in dismantling a terrorist organization. Only determined and persistent fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The IDF is continuing to use ground, air and naval forces for what it claims are terror targets in Gaza. The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says more than 21,000 people have been killed.

HARLOW: Meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close confidant, Ron Dermer, met with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, yesterday and the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, to discuss a more targeted phase of the war, with fewer civilian casualties.

Will Ripley joins us again this morning, live from Tel Aviv. Well, the humanitarian situation gets worse and worse every day. We're talking about now upwards of 20,000 civilians killed, according to the Hamas- controlled Health Ministry.

What is the reality on the ground versus whatever this next phase of the war is going to be?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, keep in mind, you also have more than double that number, according to the same Health Ministry, injured, 55,000 plus. And you have a handful, literally a handful of hospitals that are still operating.

So there are probably tens of thousands, if not more, people who are either sitting in hospitals unable to get treatment or they're just not even bothering to go, and they are just having to endure these horrific conditions right now.

This is what the World Health Organization has been warning about. And now you have a growing number of countries around the world, France the latest one overnight, to say that it is now seriously concerned about the fact that, you know, the prime minister, the defense minister, all these Israeli officials are signaling that the war is going to last for many more months.

But in that meeting at the White House, we've got that key Netanyahu confidant, Ron Dermer, a White House official telling CNN that they did talk about, among other things, the transition of this war, focusing on high-value Hamas targets like Yahya Sinwar or his brother, Muhammad Sinwar, improving the humanitarian situation.

And another topic that they discussed: minimizing harm to civilians. That is really crucial right now, along with securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. More than 100 of them believed to still be alive.

But again, they're also going to plan, they say, for post-conflict Gaza. And this is the crucial question that, at least publicly, we haven't heard a particularly great answer to from Israeli officials. What is their plan after they achieve their military objectives? How do they help Gaza rebuild and become prosperous and stable and not just create another whole other generation of people with so much hatred, after experiencing this relentless bombardment, that it's just a whole new crop of terrorists and another attack waiting to happen down the road: If not Hamas, then some other organization.

MATTINGLY: Yes, so many questions in the long term. Well, a question about the near term, though. I'm struck by a headline this morning that Israel will stop granting admission for U.N. officials, except on a case-by-case basis.

Do you have any sense as to why and what the practical effect of that will be?

RIPLEY: Well, look, Israel has really been frustrated that the United Nations, in their view, is biased against them in this whole process. Remember, there was that U.N. resolution that was passed last week. The U.S. abstained from voting. But the U.S. had vetoed a previous resolution, because the wording, in

Israel's view and a view that was shared by the United States, was simply unfair. No language to condemn Hamas for starting this whole thing back on October 7, that attack that killed 1,200 Israelis that has now triggered this war, approaching its 80th day.

MATTINGLY: All right. Will Ripley, live for us in Tel Aviv. Thank you.

HARLOW: And joining us now, politics reporter at "Semafor," Shelby Talcott; CNN political analyst and historian, Leah Wright Rigueur. And CNN political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings. Great to have you guys. Appreciate it.

Let's actually start on these key meetings that are happening in Mexico with migration.

You heard Priscilla's reporting. You know, high-level officials have had these meetings before. There's a little bit of relief at the border and then things go back to where they are.

Starting with you in terms of what Biden needs to do here to not completely infuriate the progressive base, but also get something done here, how difficult of a task is that for him?

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HISTORIAN: It's a herculean difficult task, in large part because what Biden has to do right now is show extreme decisiveness.

And part of showing extreme decisiveness may mean making a compromise with Republicans, because remember, all of this is tied to funding for Ukraine and for other things that Biden wants to get across and that are really necessary for him to say that he's had a successful agenda as president of the United States.

But again, that does mean compromise, and in this case, Republicans have been pushing for much more -- or much harder and severe consequences with regard to immigration, with regard to the migrant crisis, and with regard just to acknowledging the situation at the border.

[06:10:06]

Progressives, liberals, don't want that. They don't want, I think, the kind of hardline stance that we've come to expect from Republicans. They want an intervention that is, I think, humanitarian, that is -- that is peaceful, and that acknowledges the right of mobility for people in crisis.

HARLOW: Let's listen to one of those. Here is Senator Padilla, talking about President Biden and immigration. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): If he does go too far in the Trump direction, when it comes to this, it's going to be felt at the ballot box next year, no doubt. And so not to say we don't have anything to do at the border. I get

it. We do. But we're going to be thoughtful and smart about it and not just reactionary to Trump's wish list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That's what he's up against.

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, "SEMAFOR": Yes. And I think that's actually part of why Trump's team sees this as a potential political win for them, is because they recognize how tense of a situation this is for President Biden with the progressive base, and they understand that it's extremely precarious and, basically, anything that Biden is going to end up doing is going to frustrate a portion of his base.

So Trump's team is really honing in on this immigration and border aspect, just as he did in '16. They see it as a political win; they see it as an opportunity.

MATTINGLY: Scott, the political incentives for President Biden to strike a deal here, I think are pretty clear. I think his team acknowledges that privately.

Do those same incentives, are they clear for Republicans? If you're a Republican and you know you're winning this issue in poll after poll after poll, you know, this is your weak spot for the administration. Why would you agree to anything?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it would be unusual for the Republicans to have so much leverage in a fight this big that's been such a motivating issue for the Republican Party in so long. And so why wouldn't you take advantage of it?

Republicans have been screaming about this issue, and they've got the American people behind them. Huge majorities of the American people see the border as a real crisis. They think that Joe Biden has failed on it.

And so if you were ever going to get most of what you want in divided government, now would be the time.

And so I do think there's a lot of Republican constituents out there who don't want to see this drag on. They'd love to see a solution today. They'd love to see Republicans get most, if not all, of HR-2, which is the House immigration bill.

So I -- I think that it's been lingering for so long. And the chance to score one here, for the conservatives, is too great, in my opinion, to let it go.

And I think that, if I were Joe Biden, I'd be up on Capitol Hill on my hands and knees, begging for anything to sign here, because failure to do so is going to drag him. This is one of his biggest political problems, is the failure at the border.

The video we're showing this morning, do you think the American people look at that and say, "Looks good; looks fine to me"? Of course -- it's not just his base he ought to be worried about. It's the bulk of the American people.

HARLOW: And that doesn't even include the caravan of 6,000 that is on its way that we were just talking about, Scott.

You think, Leah, the biggest political beneficial of this crisis at the border in the 2024 GOP primary is Nikki Haley, and I wonder why.

RIGUEUR: Absolutely. So you know, one of the things that we have to talk about is that the American people, yes, they do want something decisive. They do want policy at the border.

But it's not necessarily the -- the policy that we -- we're seeing touted by somebody like Donald Trump.

With somebody like Nikki Haley, she can step in and she can say, I am calm, I'm collected. I am non-chaotic. I see that there is a crisis at the border. And I can benefit from this, because I have solutions. And I have solutions that are in the vein of conservatism.

But also, to anybody watching, anyone who's independent, anybody who is perhaps liberal but, you know, maybe feels deeply uncomfortable with the policies that Donald Trump and the rhetoric that Donald Trump is proposing, she can step in in that moment and say, I have the presidential viewpoint.

And I think this is the kind of thing that she's been using when she's been campaigning across the country. And we've also really seen her step it up in advertising, especially in areas like New Hampshire, where instead of, you know, where she's become the frontrunner for the Republican primary and sees herself really -- or is building herself up as a direct contrast, not just to Joe Biden and this idea of decisiveness. But also to Donald Trump, right?

MATTINGLY: Yes. It's a really good point, and it's only 19 days until Iowa, which we're going to get into a little bit later with all of you guys, so stick around, Scott, Shelby and Leah. We'll be back in a couple minutes.

HARLOW: Donald Trump had made it clear what another term would look like. His supporters have some choice words to describe it. We'll have that ahead.

MATTINGLY: And overnight, a star from the barrier-breaking South Korean film "Parasite" is found dead in his car. The police probe he faced just days ago. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:41]

MATTINGLY: This morning, we're following the sudden death of a South Korean actor from the Oscar-winning movie "Parasite." Lee Sun-Kyun was found dead in his car this morning in Seoul. He was just 48 years old. HARLOW: Investigators covered up his car and cordoned off the area. We

are learning that Lee was questioned as recently as last week about a drug probe. He says he was being blackmailed.

Our colleague, Hanako Montgomery, is live for us in Hong Kong with more. Very sad developments, obviously, in this story. Do we have any more details?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Poppy.

So the death, the sudden death of Lee Sun-Kyun has really been shocking to many of his fans across the world. You know, as you mentioned, he was very well-known within the United States and globally for his film in, you know, "Parasite."

But what South Korean police have confirmed to CNN is that they presume his death to be a suicide. But what we also know is that he was currently being investigated by the authorities for alleged illegal drug use.

And now, this investigation has been ongoing since October of this year. And he was questioned by the police three times. Most recently, on December 23 when he was questioned for 19 hours. He was released on Christmas Eve.

Now, it's important to note that throughout this investigation, Lee's drug tests have all come back negative, and he has denied ever knowingly taking any drugs. He said that, instead, he was tricked and then subsequently blackmailed. He has filed a lawsuit against this alleged blackmailer.

[06:20:10]

Now, on social media, there has been an outpouring of grief and tribute to the actor. You know, as we mentioned, internationally, he was very well-known for "Parasite," which won four Oscars in 2020, including Best Picture. And it went down in Oscar history as the first non-English language film to win that award.

But domestically, he was also a household name. He had a career that spanned two decades and starred in a number of TV shows and movies. And according to local police, there will be a small and quietly held funeral for his bereaved family members and colleagues.

MATTINGLY: For people are waking up and reading this story, trying to get their head around what exactly happened here, can you explain just how strict drug laws are in South Korea?

MONTGOMERY: Yes, so in South Korea, if you are caught using drugs, the sentence can really vary from six months to even 14 years if you are a repeated offender.

I do want to clarify that Lee wasn't convicted of drug use. He was being investigated. So it is unclear whether they would find him guilty or not.

But in a very heavy sentence, it can be 14 years in prison.

Now, South Korean citizens can also be sent to prison if they use drugs abroad, not just within the country, but abroad. And you know, for celebrities in the past, they've had to retire from stardom. They have had their contracts canceled or, you know, movies releases -- movie releases withheld, because they were found guilty of using drugs.

HARLOW: Hanako Montgomery, a very sad story. Our thoughts with his family this morning. Thanks very much for the reporting.

MATTINGLY: Well, a rare battlefield admission on the front lines of Ukraine. What the country's top general says it needs.

HARLOW: And wait until you see this story coming up. A man survives inside a mangled truck for six days. He might not have made it if two fishermen didn't see something shiny under a bridge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO GARICA, RESCUED DRIVER TRAPPED FOR DAYS: And I looked inside and moved the white air bag. And he -- there was a body in there. And I went to touch it, and he turned around. And I just -- it almost killed me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:15]

MATTINGLY: This morning, 270 miles of road are closed across Nebraska after a powerful blizzard dropped more than a foot of snow. Seventy- five mile-per-hour winds created white-out conditions across the plains on Tuesday.

From blizzard warnings to blinding wind, and a foot or more of snow in South Dakota.

Meteorologist Derek van Dam is tracking all of us for it -- tracking all of this for us. Derek, what are we looking at right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK. So that same storm system, Phil, is moving to the East Coast, but it's certainly too warm for that to fall in the form of snow.

Ahead of it, though, we've got a lot of fog. So it's kind of a murky start to your day along many of the East Coast cities. Here's a live look.

There's East River. There's the Brooklyn Bridge. A bit of low clouds settling in. But if you look towards Long Island, right now, Islip is at about a tenth of a mile of visibility. More the same for Providence and Farmingdale, just blanketing this low cloud. And that is why we have fog. Dense fog advisory, due about 11 a.m. So do keep that in mind if you're traveling. This is all in advance of the rain that will shift in.

If you haven't received it already, it's about to fall from the sky in New York, Philadelphia. D.C. already raining. Boston just a few more hours, and you'll start to see that light rain.

It really picks up in intensity overnight tonight and then into your morning hours on Thursday. A little bit of light snow towards the West. That's part of the storm system that brought the blizzard conditions across the plains yesterday and the day before.

But again, too warm to rain -- or to snow, I should say, along the East Coast. So I-95 will be a wet commute.

Now, when you put this all into perspective, we think about the millions of people that are traveling this week. Look out. Potential delays from LaGuardia Northward towards Boston Logan -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Plenty of rain. Still no snow. Derek, we're counting on you. Thank you.

VAN DAM: I'll try to deliver next week.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy.

HARLOW: You feel like your children are as upset as my children?

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: This is not a white Christmas.

MATTINGLY: Yes, no one likes rain.

HARLOW: No one likes rain. Come, snow.

New this morning, wait until you see this story. An Indiana man surviving for nearly a week inside of his mangled truck after a crash. He is found, miraculously, by two curious fishermen.

Officials say 27-year-old Matthew Reum was severely injured, but he is alive after being pinned inside his vehicle and unable to reach his cellphone to call anyone for help.

MATTINGLY: A vehicle crashed below a bridge on I-94, just East of Portage, and landed in a spot where no one could see it. But luckily for Reum, two men who were scouting fish saw something shiny that caught their attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARICA: Couldn't have thought it was a truck, but it caught our curiosity. And I looked inside and moved the white airbag, and he -- there was a body in there. And I went to touch it, and he turned around. And that just -- it almost killed me there, because it was kind of shocking.

SGT. GLEN FIFIELD, INDIANA STATE POLICE: Quite frankly, it's a miracle that he's alive in this weather. We've been lucky enough here this Christmas season that our temperatures have been, as you all know, above normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, get this, Reum said he survived by drinking rainwater throughout the time he was in there. He's now in a hospital. No word on his condition. But we will keep you updated.

HARLOW: Hoping for the best for him.

The U.S. fending off attacks by Iranian-backed groups for ten hours in the Red Sea. Inside the effort to stop a wider war in the region.

MATTINGLY: And why Vivek Ramaswamy calls TV ad spending, quote, "idiotic" as his campaign pulls the plug and makes a pivot. Stay with us.

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