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Twenty-Five Mexican National Guard Members Killed In Cartel Violence; Former ICE Attorney Calls Training "Deficient" And " Broken"; House Speaker Denies Jackson Family Request For U.S. Capitol Honor; Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 24, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:15]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on "CNN This Morning." It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

The Northeast still digging out from historic snowstorm which buried some areas of more than three feet of snow.

On Monday, more snow could be on the way. A quick hitting storm is forecast to sweep across the region overnight tonight bringing a couple more inches of snow.

And former U.K. ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, now released on bail. He was arrested Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office and at the growing Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

He is accused of sharing sensitive information with convicted sex offender, Epstein. This is the second Epstein related arrest in the U.K. after former Prince Andrew.

And today marks four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. This morning, a new plea from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to President Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I want him to stay on our side.

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CORNISH: President Zelenskyy says, Ukrainians are exhausted by the conflict, but giving in to Putin's demands is simply not an option.

And the situation in Mexico is still uncertain after Sunday's killing of cartel leader, El Mencho. The violent response to his death seen across the country as cartel gang members burned dozens of cars, gas stations and businesses.

Even the typically peaceful tourist destinations were targeted forcing travelers to shelter in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TANIA KIDSTON, CANADIAN TOURIST IN MEXICO: We were hungry yesterday. We had no food yesterday. Nothing. Nothing was open. It was a terrifying day yesterday.

My daughter saw the cartel light a car on fire right in front of us. There was fire all around us. It was -- it was terrifying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now is Will Carlos, national correspondent for "USA Today." He had been there vacationing in Mexico.

And I understand you and your family are sort of hunkered down right on the outskirts of town. What are things looking like now as the government says that they've been able to curb some of the violence?

WILL CARLESS, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Well, of course, it's still very early in the morning here, so it's difficult to tell what today is going to bring.

But yesterday, things had already calmed down significantly. We're actually just north of Puerto Vallarta where you're seeing those images of the -- of the cars burning and everything. That's where we have to go today. We have to go through that city to the airport. We're getting an escort to take us to the airport.

But if yesterday is anything to go by, then hopefully things have started to calm down significantly. A lot of the businesses were open and things -- you know, things seemed a little bit more peaceful. We didn't see any more sort of new fires. So we're hoping it's going to be fairly calm on our ride to the airport today.

CORNISH: Now, at this point, I am reading that the death toll is 25 in terms of Mexican National Guard members who've been killed in this operation related to this cartel leader.

One of the things I noticed following you online is you were trying to tamp down misinformation. What are some of the misconceptions you are seeing playing out?

CARLESS: Well, for example, yesterday, I was getting some dinner and a -- the lady who ran the restaurant took me aside because she'd seen my videos and she said, oh, you're the news guy, you know.

Like she said, can you tell people, you know, although there are people who are being killed, there are people who are, you know, involved in this -- in this battle between the drug cartels and the government?

She -- she said, look, even in the cases where they set buses on fire, for example, they did tell the people to get out first. They told them to go away. So, there's things like that to start with.

This is not just indiscriminate violence towards tourists or even towards Mexican nationals. I think that's -- that's one thing.

[06:35:06]

The other thing, you know, I was saying reports that the airports sort were all shut down, that Puerto Vallarta was under complete lockdown. I mean, that was -- that never true as far as I can ascertain.

There were some flights that were cancelled. Certainly, there were streets that were blocked in Puerto Vallarta, but it's not as if the entire city's on lockdown.

So, I think it's just important to, you know, for people to check their sources, especially before spreading things.

I mean, I saw, you know, Elon Musk, for example, spreading the news that a Costco was on fire in Puerto Vallarta, that -- that, as far as I can tell, wasn't true. There were some cars that have been set on fire near to a Costco.

So, I think just sharing, being very careful before you share news, being careful before -- very careful before you -- you trust things.

Even videos these days with A.I. video. I think that's -- that's kind of the main message I want to get across.

CORNISH: OK. Well, Will Carless, I admire your calm in the middle of this. And I hope you are able to get back home.

CARLESS: Thank you. Yes. We'll -- we'll -- we'll see. We should be on a plane in a few hours, hopefully.

CORNISH: OK. Best of luck.

I want to turn to something else. A former ICE lawyer blowing the whistle on what he says is the deficient, effective, and broken training given to new recruits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN SCHWANK, FORMER ICE LAWYER: ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution. And they were attempting to cloak it in secrecy by demanding that I lie about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Ryan Schwank served as an ICE lawyer since 2021, but quit just over a week ago.

Yesterday, he told House Democrats he's troubled by changes he's witnessed. He says in the last year, ICE has shortened training for cadets in an effort to add more than 10,000 new officers to its ranks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHWANK: For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584-hour program, classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention, and the limits of officer's authority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The group chat is back. One of the things he also said is this means there's a bunch of people graduating who actually don't have a grasp of the law in general.

And the reason why I wanted to play this today is because this is not vibes. This is not what ICE doing seems kind of bad. This is someone being very specific about an issue people have cared about, which is are the people flooding the streets trained properly.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. And it's an example of Congress actually doing its job to kind of elevate these questions. This issue was a massive one in Minnesota over the last few months.

People were worried that an ideological force was taking to the streets rather than a law enforcement force. And that, I think, is what has caused a lot of the problems.

And you do wonder if, for example, there's a Democratic president that comes along after President Trump. Are you going to see a complete wholesale clearing out of an agency like ICE because it's got now this reputation?

CORNISH: Yes. I want to ask over here for you. This isn't something Republicans are like signing on to, right? This is like Democrats holding this forum for it to be public information.

And we spoke earlier about Leavitt saying you're not paying attention to the people who have been infected by -- affected by the violence of immigrants.

So, what happens when someone speaks out this specifically and this explicitly?

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, look, I'm sitting here saying that's fantastic.

I think we should have more of this back and forth in this examination of what is happening with ICE, because I think Stephen's right that you have another administration come in. There's going to be this political backlash. We don't do anything in the middle with common sense anymore in the United States.

CORNISH: Let me -- let V jump in there here.

V. SPEHAR, DIGITAL JOURNALIST AND CREATOR, UNDER THE DESK NEWS: There's not really a middle to what's going on.

DUBKE: There's a middle to this.

SPEHAR: There's not a middle toward what's going on. DUBKE: There -- there absolutely is a middle to this.

SPEHAR: You have ICE who is coming out and this -- they drop the training down to like 47 days to honor the 47th president. They're doing very silly things. They spend more time covering their faces than they do doing arms training.

We have local and state police officers back the blue baby, but then we send out ICE --

DUBKE: No. But they --

SPEHAR: -- people to interfere with crime.

DUBKE: It's -- OK. Two -- two points on this in terms of the middle ground. One, we do have a border that is effectively shut down. We have stopped the stream of illegal immigration --

SPEHAR: OK. So, what does the border have to do with the streets of Minneapolis?

DUBKE: -- in the country. And the second thing -- the second thing is sanctuary cities. We have ICE out there doing jobs that they shouldn't be doing because we've got United States cities whose leaders have said don't participate in the federal -- in -- in -- in -- in applying the federal law.

CORNISH: So you're worried about the education issue. I understand what you're saying. It often comes back to sanctuary cities when people talk about it.

DUBKE: Yes, it should.

CORNISH: ICE is now one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies our country has ever seen, which means the people rushing out into the street. I want them trained and I want them trained in my constitutional rights.

[06:40:14]

SPEHAR: Right.

CORNISH: I also want the sanctuary city thing, but like can I also want these guys to do their job legally and safely where no U.S. citizens are killed in the process?

DUBKE: And where I am making the comment about common sense is that while, let's just all of that being true, we -- they are not -- we now have DHS shutdown. That is the one part of the government that shut down. Though --

CORNISH: That we should say DHS is continuing because ISIS funding is through 2029.

DUBKE: Exactly, right.

CORNISH: But yes. OK.

DUBKE: So, all of this -- all of this argument about shutting down DHS so that we can get ICE under control is a ridiculous argument from the Democrats right now because ISIS actually funded.

So, while --

CORNISH: But well, obviously --

(CROSSTALK)

DUBKE: Audie, I will give you --

CORNISH: Yes.

DUBKE: -- everything you just said --

CORNISH: But --

DUBKE: -- but we're not effectively doing anything about it with the partial shutdown that we have with DHS.

SPEHAR: ICE is not effective in their mission. They're literally going door to door and pulling out (INAUDIBLE) out of nurseries. Like where -- where is the -- the ratio of ICE agents on the street to arrest the violent criminals?

A lot of the times when they get a violent criminal, it's because they've already been in prison and they've been handed over.

DUBKE: Again, I'm going to come back to that. We're not really having an honest conversation about this because we're going from one extreme to the other extreme.

CORNISH: Yes. I appreciate that because the thing you're pointing out that I appreciate is there is no real guardrail, accountability, or oversight.

SPEHAR: Yes.

CORNISH: I don't necessarily want to be covering just a Democratic forum on this thing. I would like that to be bipartisan.

DUBKE: I -- I would like that too.

CORNISH: And I don't think you have that or I have that.

DUBKE: No. I don't think the American people have that right now.

CORNISH: OK. You guys stay with me because if you missed any of that conversation, know that we are a podcast. Maybe you want to share it. Just check it out. Q.R. code now. Find it here. Just kidding. It's actually here. "CNN This Morning" is available anywhere you get your podcasts.

It's actually -- it's actually here. Sorry. Next on "CNN This Morning," the family of the Reverend Jesse Jackson invited to the attend -- to attend the State of the Union. This is just a week after they were told he would not be honored at the Capitol.

I'm going to talk to his son, Congressman Jonathan Jackson, after the break.

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I'm like you. I know better than you, you know. I'm a --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: California's governor facing backlash this morning after those comments to a predominantly black crowd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:45:03]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jesse was a piece of work. I want to tell you that. He was a piece of work, but he was a good man.

He was a real -- he was a real hero. And I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson. All right. He was a good man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Those were President Trump's remarks for the late Reverend Jesse Jackson during a White House event last week.

Tonight, ahead of the State of the Union, House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is extending his own honor to Jackson's family.

In a new statement, Jeffries said, "It is also my honor to invite the family of the late Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. to attend the State of the Union Address. Reverend Jackson was a transformative political figure and a trailblazer extraordinaire who fought to make America live up to its promise of a thriving, multi-racial democracy."

Joining the group chat, Congressman Jonathan Jackson, Democrat from Illinois and the son of the late Reverend Jesse Jackson.

So to begin, I'm sorry for your loss, but it has been amazing to hear even this president saying something kind about the late Jesse Jackson.

Can you talk about memorial plans or sort of what is in -- available to the public to pay their respects?

REP. JONATHAN JACKSON (D-IL): Sure. Well, the events are public this coming Thursday and Friday, our (INAUDIBLE) State in Chicago at our Rainbow PUSH headquarters, 930 East 50th Street Chicago, Illinois. Then we're going to take a caravan, the state of South Carolina.

I want to thank Governor McMaster who's offered the South Carolina Legislature for honoring my father with a state capital open memorial.

CORNISH: Yes.

JACKSON: And so we're going to drive down in a caravan, come back to Chicago, and then eulogize him next week, Friday and Saturday.

CORNISH: Can you confirm this that the House Speaker was asked about their being availability of the U.S. capital and declining to have a similar tribute there?

JACKSON: Yes. He said that they have different Rosa Parks and John Lewis. And I think maybe Billy Graham, but as a procedure, they tried to stop offering that. And so they put a limit on it. And so he says he just couldn't get to that point. And that will probably be one of the regrets of his life, but they tried not to extend that honor.

CORNISH: Did he say that one of his regrets?

JACKSON: Yes.

CORNISH: Really?

JACKSON: That's what we believe in so. I wanted to say, don't need to make another mistake, that -- and I was -- a very uncomfortable position for me just advocating for my father.

It's not that my father was a transformative political figure. And so I didn't want to belabor that. My father's done his earthly work and so he deserves his rest. And I thought it'd been good for the nation, and -- but history will judge that.

CORNISH: You're going to be going to the State of the Union. A bunch of your colleagues are not. Are they smart to boycott?

[06:50:02]

JACKSON: I think people have to respond to the constituents that they serve. I've gone to the inauguration in -- in January 20th of last year.

CORNISH: This is a long list. So, I just let -- let people see this year.

JACKSON: I went to the inauguration January 20th. I thought it was an obligation last year. I'm the co-chair of National Prayer Breakfast. I thought that was an obligation.

But everyone has to do what they think is in their best interest, what's good for their constituents. But I believe at this level, we're supposed to be representatives. We should be on the field at all times.

I think that's the strongest statement personally. Although I respect all the decisions in this regard that my constituents make. I think people responding to their basis.

But I believe in the basis that I serve tells me to be in the room. And that's what we're elected to do.

CORNISH: OK. I want you to stay with me, talk about going into another room. This is the story of the remarks of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

So he was speaking -- you're laughing already. He was speaking in Atlanta with Mayor Andre Dickens. It's part of the book tour. And critics are calling the following comments racist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you. I'm like you. I'm no better than you. You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy.

And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940. But literally, a 960 SAT guy.

I cannot -- you've -- you've never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be.

You know, my dyslexia -- I haven't overcome dyslexia. I'm living with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. I wanted to play the lengthier thing because what we've been seeing are comments like this. Tim Scott saying, "Black Americans are not your low bar. We've built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled, outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. It's ridiculous."

JACKSON: Wow. Even a broken clock can be twice -- can be right twice. And so I would like to be affiliated with those comments of Mr. Senator Tim Scott.

No, I think we need to raise the bar. I respect Governor Gavin Newsom --

CORNISH: So, do you think what Newsome said was inappropriate or racist?

JACKSON: I think so.

CORNISH: Where on the spectrum are you? JACKSON: Just -- and it -- it was inappropriate. It wasn't racist in that regard. I thought he was trying to make a connection. People that have challenges, we all have challenges. So, I would not hold that against him.

I don't believe that's Governor Newsom's heart. I think he might have been in the moment and it was a joke. We can all have a joke that goes off the rail. I don't think that was his immediate aim.

But he was saying, in my perspective, people that are coming from disinvested communities don't have the proper resources that there is hope. And he was trying to make the audience connection and didn't quite get there. But Gavin Newsom is going to do great in the future as well.

CORNISH: Well, I want to ask, Nicki Minaj saying his way of bonding with black people is to tell them how stupid he is and that he can't read. That was the most blunt assessment. Is that your read?

SPEHAR: I -- I think that whether he was directing it towards marginalized communities or not, this -- this divide between people like Gavin Newsome who come from wealth, come from education, and what he perceives as the working class is that he sees that we can sort of align on not being educated or not reading.

But in fact, the working class kids --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Yes. Common ground. Yes.

SPEHAR: -- were typically tutoring you guys who were constantly getting a pass. The working class kids were working at our parents' dry cleaners or restaurants or wherever while also taking studies on.

We didn't have the -- the affordability to say, oh, well, we'll get passed along anyway. And then you want to come back later while I'm working a job. I don't remember my SAT scores because they were not consequential to my scope of life.

CORNISH: Yes. And to -- and to your point, as he's talking about this in his book, he's also talking about how many schools he went to and like how many -- you know, kind of how many chances he got.

SPEHAR: It's more of a reminder of like, yes, I remember, buddy. I remember it. Now, I'm working class and you continue to get this like fall up platform. So

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Like we won't ask you your SAT scores --

DUBKE: No, I just -- I just --

SPEHAR: Or about my dyslexia. CORNISH: Don't all politicians have to do this little dance? I should ask you, where you are trying to bond with communities that you may not actually have that much in common with.

DUBKE: That's what sports are for.

CORNISH: Yes.

DUBKE: I mean, let's be --

CORNISH: Go Bills.

DUBKE: Let's be clear about this. Go Bills. I mean, let's be very clear about this. Who remembers their SAT scores? That is somebody who is way overthinking and projecting.

CORNISH: OK.

DUBKE: And I mean --

CORNISH: So this -- the mayor says, that wasn't an attack on anyone. It was a moment of vulnerability about his own journey.

And then this line struck me. This is Atlanta. We don't need anyone to tell us when to be offended. What do you think of that? Because in online there are a lot of people that are like, black people, what do you think? This seems really bad.

[06:55:01]

JACKSON: Yes. Well, this is like a -- a hair trigger moment. It's actually ridiculous. I think it's blown way out of proportion.

If they want to talk about race and vulnerability, talk about the 400, 000 (INAUDIBLE) who lost their jobs.

CORNISH: But would you say that if it was a Republican?

JACKSON: Yes. I mean, whether Republican blacks are like out of their mind. They're insane in so many levels. And I would say that absolutely.

Anytime you have your civil rights being attacked, you're voting rights of 40,000 black women, they have lost their jobs, who disrespect to the black community.

And all these top-tier governor -- government officials, it's been a concerted attack on the African-American community, culminating with the removing of statues and memorabilia within our African American History Museum.

That museum is only nine years old. Who goes and takes things out of the museum? Most people go into the museum and they're sleeping, they're tired. So, why are the same people that fought for blacks not to be able to read are now taking things out of the museum? They're also hurting their own community. How do you understand the African-American History Month if you don't understand blacks' contribution to American history?

How do you understand Reverend -- Reverend Fee that created Berea College with Dr. Carter G. Woodson came from -- they went on --

CORNISH: Yes.

JACKSON: -- to take the African-American?

You don't understand the abolitionist struggle. You don't see the heroes in your own community and culture. You don't understand the Thaddeus Stevens. You don't understand Charles Sumner. You don't understand all the great whites in American history because you're attacking the African-American history.

So let's (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: So that is a good question. I hear this. This is -- these kinds of kerfuffles are a cover for Republican policies that have actively harmed the black community in the last couple of weeks. That's what I'm seeing when I look at black Twitter. This is not me telling you that.

And when I look at Trump's coalition, I've been tracking the coalition, where is its approval ratings. Latino voters, in February of '25, 41 percent. Now that's down to 22 percent.

Black voters, 28 percent. Just 28 percent who approves of his job approval, but we know those numbers matter because black men voted for Trump. We saw that movement, down to 21 percent.

So, are we looking at an administration that has to gin up energy around this coalition?

JACKSON: Yes. Well, I would say as far as black men, we've had some disappointments in the Democratic Party. And so there were some people that might have made it a knee-jerk reaction.

But it was three strikes that was passed under the Democratic administration that disproportionately hurt the African-American community.

We've not been as vocal and particularly advocating for that constituency in the African-American male community.

So, I believe in a citizen restoration act, if you've gone and paid your debt to society, your vote and your right to vote should be fully restored.

CORNISH: But are you hearing on the ground, black male voters who said, you know, I gave Trump a -- a chance. I'm really happy I did. Kamala is a (INAUDIBLE), whatever their thing was that they were upset with, who, where are they now?

JACKSON: Well, there was a high level of mass incarceration in California that some black men that were disproportionately targeted in California had some long-term feelings about.

And there was also some things that Trump did that was rather incredible. He went down into the jails when Kim Kardashian helped to get a grandmother released. That was the first time convicted offender. He went to the --

CORNISH: So they're still happy?

JACKSON: Well, no. But I'm saying is that putting attention on those that have been lost and left behind, he has an uncanny ability to do some things like on pardons. You know, every time you release one person on a pardon, people can see a level of humanity and sympathy in them.

Now, he does a lot of things that I totally absolutely disagree with. But anytime he shows any attention to people that have been incarcerated and shows -- that's the level of compassion we've not seen on the Democrats.

President Biden can pardon his son, but then pardon all the other people some that had the same issues and conditions. So people are like having a level of hope. And so I think that's the connection.

African-American men overwhelmingly voted for president --

CORNISH: Yes. For Harris.

JACKSON: For Harris. Yes. So there was white women and white men that we have to focus on. What -- why were they voting against their own interests as laborers

when President Biden fought to them?

CORNISH: Yes. Stephen, looks like you want to jump in.

JACKSON: Jump in.

COLLINSON: Yes. I just think this coming from a governor is probably going to stick. And I think it's the reason why -- it -- it's always going to be brought up when they're on the debate stage or whatever, right?

CORNISH: Like it's his carton of milk price.

COLLINSON: Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: And I think that it's a -- we've seen a couple of cringe- worthy moments from potential Democratic presidential candidates. It's perhaps an advert for not getting out there too early and creating these situations. Maybe the potential candidates that are perhaps keeping a little bit more quiet right now are doing the right thing because you can say something early in your campaign, which comes back to haunt you over and over again.

And we even saw that with President Biden back in 2008, for example.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: He wasn't president then, obviously, but he was running against Barack Obama. So, this is pretty sensitive stuff.

JACKSON: Well, I would add to that, as opposed to campaigning in the black community, people in the Democratic and Republican all have a connection with the black community.

Stop whistle, stopping-- stop driving past us. Sit down and talk with us in season, out of season. Stop looking us as a political pawn and just ask me --

CORNISH: Yes.

JACKSON: -- for your vote and the overt solicitation. Come back and have a relationship.

CORNISH: And it's part of the legacy of the Reverend, I think, right? That it's not a seasonal vote to be pursued.

I want to thank you guys for talking with us about all of this today. There's a lot going on. And, of course, there's going to be the State of the Union Address. So, I hope we can hear from you after.

If you are going to be listening tonight, it's going to be on tonight on CNN and the CNN app.

In the meantime, thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish and the headlines are next.