Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Today, U.S. Officials to Press Mexico for Border Help; Israeli Military Chief Says, War to Last for Many Months; Trump's Court Schedule Collides With Key Election Dates. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 27, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: CNN This Morning starts right now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we are just hours away from a critical meeting set to take place in Mexico City, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas among those who will meet with Mexico's president and their counterparts. The goal in hand, come up with a new agreement to help ease pressure on the U.S. southern border.

HARLOW: And there's CNN reporting this morning that the two U.S. cabinet officials will turn up the pressure on their Mexican counterparts to play a bigger role in driving down border crossings. The mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, calls President Biden's handling of the migrant crisis unacceptable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROLANDO SALINAS, EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: this is unacceptable. 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)

HARLOW: Right now, 11,000 migrants are waiting in shelters and camps on the Mexican side of the border with hopes of crossing into the U.S.

MATTINGLY: We start off with CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who broke the news, Priscilla, of today's meeting, join us now with more reporting from what's going on inside the White House in advance of these talks. What's the administration looking for in these meetings?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well Phil, this is an urgent moment and it's telling who is going down to Mexico to mark that. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas coming with specific requests from Mexico to drive down the numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

That includes, according to officials, moving migrants south who are on Mexico's northern border, also controlling railways, which are often used by migrants to quickly get to the U.S. southern border, and also providing incentives, like visas, to keep migrants from journeying to the U.S. southern border to begin with.

Now, border towns here in the United States have been growing restless as they have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have been arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. And that has put more pressure on President Biden to do more to try to manage the situation. And that is what he is looking to Mexico to help with.

And the U.S. has historically done this. They have leaned on Mexico in moments of crisis to help them with the numbers at the U.S. southern border. They're hoping now that with these asks, they can at least get some relief to these border towns and to the country as a whole.

HARLOW: What would that relief look like in terms of what could be quickly implemented to make a meaningful difference there?

ALVAREZ: Well, many of these requests could be done fairly quickly and help in the near term. The question, Poppy and Phil, is can they help in the long-term. Oftentimes, Mexico will help immediately, but they too are limited in their capacity. So, they can only do so much for so long. And so oftentimes, we'll see those numbers go down for a little bit and then go back up again.

So, that is the challenge for the U.S. and Mexico in this moment, is what can they draw up to help them for months to come and not only provide relief for the few weeks to come.

MATTINGLY: All right. Priscilla Alvarez live for us in the north lawn, thank you.

HARLOW: Also this morning, Israel's military chief reiterating the war against Hamas will likely continue for many months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERZI HALEVI, CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: There are no magic solutions. There are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization, only determined and persistent fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Just last night, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, sat down with senior U.S. officials to talk about a more targeted phase of the war in Gaza with fewer civilian casualties.

The humanitarian crisis, though, persists and gets worse by the day. And the Hamas-controlled health ministry says now nearly 21,000 people have been killed there so far.

Will Ripley joins us live again this morning from Tel Aviv. Good morning to you.

So, if that is, in fact, what is going to happen months and months of warfare, we'll see if it is changed, if it is more targeted, but what will that look like on the ground then in Gaza for the people there?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy and Phil. Yes, it's going to be crucial to find out exactly how those months will play out. And we got some insight from a White House official breaking down that meeting at the White House between close confidant of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer.

Let me just take you through the bullet points here this morning. One, they're going to be talking about the transition of the war, focusing on the high-value Hamas targets as opposed to these massive kind of bombing campaigns that have caused a lot of destruction and killed thousands of Hamas militants, also, improving the humanitarian situation inside Gaza, minimizing the harm to civilians. That will be crucial. Planning for the release of the remaining hostages, securing the release of 100-plus Israelis still believe to be alive and in captivity is crucial, along with finding out what it's going to look like after the conflict.

[07:05:03]

What is a post-conflict Gaza going to look like? Who is going to govern the Gaza Strip?

Those are the key questions. They're not all answered yet. We haven't heard publicly about Israel's plan yet for what Gaza is going to look like afterwards, how the Israelis are going to achieve the three things that they say are necessary for peace to happen in this region, at least in terms of the Israel Gaza-situation. That would be demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, de-radicalizing the entire Palestinian people and destroying Hamas. Those were the words in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Poppy and Phil.

MATTINGLY: very unclear how all three of those actually get done, particularly in the near term. Speaking of the near term, Will, Israel has announced it's going to stop automatically granting visas to U.N. workers. Do we know what that would mean in a practical sense?

RIPLEY: Well, what it's going to mean is that it's going to be much harder for the United Nations to get people in to staff U.N. run schools, U.N. hospitals, all of the various organizations and NGOs that work under the umbrella of the United Nations in Gaza that have been crucial to getting in aid, supplies and other assistance for the people of Gaza. They're not going to have their visas automatically approved, as they have in the past. It's going to be a much more time consuming, case-by-case process. Bureaucratic delays could back up the process of visa applications for U.N. workers for weeks or even months or even longer.

And that is because Israel says they believe the United Nations is biased against Israel, and they accuse U.N. staffers who are operating inside Gaza, who are broadcasting pictures of the situation there, of essentially trying to turn the world against Israel. And so from the Israeli point of view, they don't want to make it any easier for them to get in and see the situation. Of course, critics might argue that that is not only cutting off Gazans from necessary help from the United Nations, but also some sort of government imposed censorship to try to silence the voices that are raising the alarm about the situation, the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground in Gaza right now.

HARLOW: Right, because a lot of that aid comes through those U.N. people and devices, things that are already set up. So, Will, thanks very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, also this morning, Donald Trump on Truth Social sharing a word cloud about himself, with some of the most prominent words being revenge and dictatorship. The word cloud is part of a survey where a thousand voters, thousand likely voters, were asked what Trump wants out of a second term. It comes after Trump's social media Christmas rants attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith and President Biden.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now. Kristen, I see the slight grin on your face because we're talking about a word cloud that's mostly nonsensical and has limited impact on anything, but it's also exactly what Trump would want people to be talking about right now, which I assume is why he posted it, or is there a deeper strategy and meaning here?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Phil, I'm sorry to disappoint you that I don't believe that there is a deeper strategy and meaning here. And I will note we had to actually dig to find out where this word cloud came from because he just posted the actual picture. He didn't post a link to any article.

But here, I want to break this down into three parts. First, let's look at the biggest word on there, which is revenge. Donald Trump does believe that this campaign is about revenge, and he has said so out loud. He has said that if he won a second term, he would weaponize the Justice Department to go against his political enemies. So, that is part of his campaign messaging.

The second part of this is trolling. This is exactly what he wants people to be talking about. He knows the word dictatorship. And if it comes from him, will spin the media up, will spin Democrats up, as well as those anti-Trump Republicans.

But the one thing to pay attention to here is, yes, he continues to say, dictatorship, dictator. He uses these tongue and cheek remarks, saying, I'm only going to be a dictator on day one. But the thing to point out is that Donald Trump himself and his allies outside of his campaign are working towards a second administration that would consolidate power under an executive, giving the president and the White House an enormous amount of power and an unprecedented amount of power, which is how this conversation all started. And that is a very real thing that is happening.

Now, the third part of this is that Donald Trump does have a base that eats this up. It's not just the dictatorship part. But if you look at the other big words that are around the same size, power, economy, he likes to look strong, and he believes that his voters want a fighter. And that is why he is posting something like this.

Now, one thing I do want to point out is that they had the same questions for a second Biden term. The words were a little different. They were nothing, economy, peace and power.

HARLOW: Okay, interesting. Before you go, why is Vivek Ramaswamy pulling T.V. ads in Iowa 19 days before the caucus, and also Trump is saying he's sure Vivek will endorse him? So, you got to think, is he planning for some sort of spot in a Trump cabinet if Trump wins?

HOLMES: Well, look, that's been the big question. Vivek has been very careful. He has not gone against the former president in anyway.

[07:10:01]

And I know, from talking to senior advisers, that there are members of Vivek's team who talk to members of Trump's team and that Vivek himself has met with the former president.

Obviously, it is too early to talk about a potential cabinet. We know that Vivek himself is saying that sending money on T.V. is an old, antiquated way of advertising. But as we know, it is still a way of advertising that works. And, generally, when someone stop spending money, that has a meaning or a ripple effect for their campaign. However, whether or not he's going to endorse, of course, remains a big question. But Donald Trump himself seems sure of it.

MATTINGLY: Yes, two things can both be true. His points about ROI and T.V. spend are accurate. It also means he probably doesn't have any money left. So, we'll have to see how that plays out.

Kristen Holmes, we appreciate you, as always. Thank you.

HOLMES: Thank you.

HARLOW: As the former president works to score an early 2024 victory or victories in early primary states, his campaign schedule is a tight one. We'll break down the legal cases that clash right with the primary calendar ahead.

MATTINGLY: And buy now, pay later, hopefully. The concerns being raised about the popular payment method. We'll have more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Donald Trump set to have a very busy 2024 as his legal cases clash with the primary calendar. Right now, we are waiting on three big legal moves after the request was rejected by the Supreme Court. Special Counsel Jack Smith is waiting for an appeals court to decide whether Trump has any immunity from federal prosecution for alleged crimes committed while he was in office.

MATTINGLY: There's also the ruling from Colorado that removed Trump from the primary ballot because of the Constitution's ban on insurrectionists holding public office. Trump says he'll file an appeal. He hasn't yet. When, we don't know. And Maine's secretary of state says she'll decide this week if Trump will be removed from their ballot as well.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig joins us now. Elie, let's kind of try and walk through this to the extent we can. We're a couple of days away from January. What does that month look like for Trump?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, let's enjoy these quiet few days between Christmas and New Year's, because when January hits, look out. Yes. Let's start with the first item on the docket, which is the criminal case, federal criminal case brought by Jack Smith relating to 2020 elections subversion against Donald Trump.

Now, we remember Donald Trump claimed that he's immune, meaning he can't be prosecuted because the conduct has to do with his official job as president. Now, Trump lost that argument here at the trial court level, the district court.

Jack Smith then, looking to expedite, hurry things up, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case directly to skip this middle level. But in a somewhat surprising ruling on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court said, no, you're going to have to go through the normal channels, meaning the next stop is the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then potentially the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, the good news for Jack Smith is the Court of Appeals has ordered a mega expedited schedule. The arguments in that case are going to be on Tuesday, January 9th. I think it's very likely that the Court of Appeals will rule by the end of January.

Now, the problem for Jack Smith is then DOJ -- then Donald Trump can ask for what's called an en banc review. That takes a few weeks. Then he can ask the Supreme Court to take the case. That takes months.

The trial date here is March 4th. I think that's very much in jeopardy. But that's the first thing to watch for in January.

HARLOW: What about the 14th Amendment in Colorado? I mean, he said he's going to appeal what the Colorado Supreme Court decided that he can't be on the ballot. When and how long will that take, that deal (ph)?

HONIG: So, again, the calendar is key here. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled by a 4-3 ruling. He engaged in insurrection. He's disqualified from the ballot. Next stop almost certainly will be the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump hasn't formally filed yet.

Now, let's look at the calendar here. This ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, they put it on hold, a stay, as we would call it, until January 4th. And that's a crucial date, because the next day, January 5th, is when Colorado prints up its primary ballots. Meaning, as long as Trump goes to the Supreme Court -- he doesn't have to win, just goes to the Supreme Court, everything is on hold. Trump will be on the ballot if he goes to the Supreme Court for the primary, but then the Supreme Court is going to have to decide the bigger issue, which will be for the general itself.

MATTINGLY: Can I just ask, why hasn't he appealed yet?

HARLOW: That's exactly what I was thinking.

HONIG: I think he's trying to wait to the last possible moment.

HARLOW: Why?

HONIG: It's been his strategy here. Just wait. If you have 30 days, file on day 29.5.

MATTINGLY: All right. Well, talk to me about civil cases.

HONIG: Civil cases, let's not forget, we have the civil fraud trial happening here in Manhattan. Closing arguments will be on January 11th. And the E. Jean Carroll trial is scheduled to start January 16th. If you're thinking, didn't we already have that? Yes, Trump was found liable for $5 million. This is a second trial relating to additional statements that he made. Trump is trying to get this one put on hold by the Court of Appeals.

But let's look at the overall calendar here, just to see how it all fits together with the political end of it. Okay, first of all, there is a debate hosted by CNN on January 10th. The Iowa caucus will be January 15th. The New Hampshire caucus will be January 23rd. I'm told those are very important. I'm not a political guy, but those are big, big political events overlapping with all this, the Colorado date, January 4th, the immunity argument, January 9th, the E. Jean Carroll trial begins on the 16th, and the civil fraud trial, we will have closing arguments on January 11th.

That's it, though, very nice and open schedule.

MATTINGLY: Does John King know you have all these fancy buttons? I don't know where this came from, but I'm a little unsettled by it. It looks very cool, and I don't like that.

HONIG: Our producers have developed all these new tools and I'm running wild with them. We're going to need them in January.

HARLOW: We have print out for our office. We want to print that. I'm going to ask this for the month ahead. Okay. Elie, thank you.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy, I appreciate it.

Well, an Indiana man spent six days, including Christmas, trapped under a bridge in his mangled truck. How he was found and survived, that's next.

HARLOW: And an actor from the Academy Award-winning movie, Parasite, has been found dead this morning. What we're learning about alleged blackmail and a drug investigation.

[07:20:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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. So, that was working in this individual's favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That individual, a man who was alive after truly a miraculous story of survival, found alive after being pinned inside his mangled truck for six days. Officials say 27 year old Matthew Reum was trapped below a bridge on I-94 just east of Portage, Indiana. He swerved off the highway, landed in a deep ravine where no one could see his truck until nearly a week later when two men were fishing, looking for fishing holes and they saw something shiny.

Here to explain all of it, Danny Freeman. Good morning. What a Christmas miracle. What happened?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's one of these stories where I feel like miracle gets tossed around. This is not hyperbole. This is not overstated. This could have ended so, so differently.

It all started yesterday afternoon. These two men, Mario Garcia and his son-in-law, Nivardo Delatorre, they were in Portage, Indiana, about 40 miles southeast of Chicago.

[07:25:05]

They were just going, trying to find a spot to go fishing day after Christmas, wanted to cast a few lines.

And it was 3:45 in the afternoon, so, you know, it might be starting to get dark out. They see something shiny, not even a car. They see something shiny and say, oh, let's go check it out and see what it is. It turns out it's a Dodge Ram truck that is wedged, as you saw underneath that bridge right there.

Mario, the older gentleman, he goes up to the truck, pushes the airbag away, sees what he thinks is a lifeless body, then touches his shoulder just to reach out to the man. And the man wakes up, turns around and starts talking to him.

Well, I mean, it was such a surprise. The man, 27 year old, as you said, Matthew Reum, had been out there since last Wednesday, just a tremendous story. They were able to extricate him as you saw from that car.

Take a listen to Mario, one of the men who found him, just an incredible man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO GARCIA, RESCUED DRIVER TRAPPED FOR DAYS: We were getting to the fishing hole and the truck was a little distance, but it was more like a mangled -- you couldn't tell it was a truck or not, but it caught our curiosity. And I walked over the first and he followed me and we went up to it and I looked inside and moved the white airbag, and 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. And he was very happy to see us, like he was really -- like I never seen a relief like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Amazing.

FREEMAN: I mean, just -- again, to see the car, to go up, to check on the man himself, unbelievable.

They still, at this point, probably don't know what caused the actual crash, but police said that the man their, Reum, survived by drinking rainwater for almost a week. Again, a truly miraculous story here.

HARLOW: Wow. And I'm sure his family is so relieved as well. Danny, thank you very much. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Well, Christmas is over and the bills that Santa didn't pick up our due -- does Santa pick up bills? I don't know that Santa. There are concerns about the level of debt Americans are racking up, however, especially the booming popularity of buy now, pay later services.

CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn joins us now. Let's start with what is buy now, pay later for those who don't utilize it?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN CONSUMER REPORTER: Yes, Phil. We've really seen this blow up the last few years. Say you're buying a new Peloton. You can get it right away and your pay in installments using buy now, pay later, typically for installments, the payments are interest-free, so very appealing to consumers, and you're not going to get hit with a credit check. So, you get the Peloton right away and your pay in for installments usually over about six weeks.

We've seen it explode, this is on Cyber Monday, up 43 percent from a year ago. And at first, buy now, pay later was for big ticket items, the Pelotons, the couches. But we've seen it expand for people buying groceries, everyday essentials, which could be a warning sign.

MATTINGLY: So, as it's expanded, what's the population of buyers that's actually utilized?

MEYERSOHN: Younger Americans particularly people under the age of 35, Millennials, Gen Z. So, 49 percent of buy now, pay later users are under the age of 34. We're also seeing lower income folks flock to buy now, pay later, so people who may be financially strapped, vulnerable Americans are using buy now, pay later more.

MATTINGLY: So, if you plan, the terms seem good, but what are the potential concerns here? MEYERSOHN: So, a lot of concerns from economists and from consumer protection advocates. So, you take out a buy now, pay later installment. People are worried you're going to overspend on it. And if you miss payments, you could get hit with late fees. So, you're racking up debt, and you miss another late payment, racking up even more debt.

And something to be aware of is that most of these companies like Affirm and Klarna, the buy now, pay later companies, they're not reported to the credit bureaus. And so that means there could be a financial risk, a broader financial risk to the system that we aren't aware of.

MATTINGLY: Well, that's really interesting. Nathaniel Meyersohn, fascinating stuff, thank you.

HARLOW: So, oil prices up a little bit, 2 percent in the last 24 hours, gas prices up slightly in Florida and a couple other states. Are the attacks on ships in the Red Sea impacting all of that? They certainly could. Ahead, what our next guest says the Biden administration should do about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]