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Inside Politics

AG Bondi: Mistakenly Deported Men "Not Coming Back to Our Country"; Democrats Walk Careful Line in Talking About El Salvador Deportations; Senator Van Hollen in El Salvador to Push for Abrego Garcia's Release; Judge Finds Probable Cause to Hold Trump Admin Contempt; Mayor Adams Announces New Funding for Universal "3-K". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 16, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on "Inside Politics", mission improbable right now, a Maryland Senator is in El Salvador attempting to free a man who was living in his state and according to a court filing, was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison there, this as the Trump Administration and the President of El Salvador say, there is no chance, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is coming back.

Plus, two New York City Mayors one interview. This hour, I'll speak to Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio about an issue bringing them together, and other issues causing some controversy. And stick to a quiet retirement that's a quote from a close Biden ally. Some of them say that they want the former president to do just that.

We'll break down the 46 presidents first public speech since leaving office. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and "Inside Politics". We start with a defiant message from the Trump Administration just hours after a federal judge gave them two weeks to prove they're working to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Listen to what the attorney general said this morning about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That's the end of the story. If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none, but he's from El Salvador. He's in El Salvador, and that's where the president plans on keeping him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, until his deportation of Abrego Garcia was living and working in Maryland with his wife and children, who are American citizens. The state's senior senator, Democrat Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador today to advocate for his release. CNN's Lauren Fox is following all of these developments, Lauren. LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Dana, I mean, at its most basic level, a United States Senators job is to protect their constituents in their districts. Obviously, he has been in touch with the wife of Abrego Garcia, and he says that he is committed to getting him back to the United States, getting him back to the state of Maryland.

He just posted a new video a few moments ago. Here is what Van Hollen said his mission is today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (R-MD): I hope to meet with some high-level government officials from El Salvador, as I have said before the goal of my visit is to talk to people here about the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I told his wife and his family. I would do everything possible to bring him home. And we're going to keep working at this until we're successful. I also hope to have the chance to meet with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And lawmakers back in Washington are also trying to get more visibility on this man's release. There are two House members, Representative Robert Garcia, as well as Representative Maxwell Frost, who sent a letter to the Oversight Chairman James Comer requesting an official CODEL to go down to El Salvador to visit this prison, writing in the letter, a congressional delegation would allow committee members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia as well as others held at the maximum-security facility.

Now, one thing to keep a close eye on is when lawmakers return next week, Dana, I expect that this will largely get louder and louder in terms of growth -- the growing sound of people wanting you know Mr. Abrego Garcia to come home. But obviously this has just been playing out in court over a period of time, lawmakers have been back in their districts. We'll be waiting to see whether or not Van Hollen meets with some of those officials later today.

BASH: Yeah, it would be surprising if he did, but we will see. Lauren, thank you so much for that reporting, and I am joined here by some amazing reporters. CNN's Jeff Zeleny, CNN's Isaac Dovere, Nia-Malika Henderson of Bloomberg and CNN and CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. I do want to start on.

We're going to get to the substance of what happened with the judge, but just on the politics of Chris Van Hollen going down there. And the very real debate inside the Democratic Party about how much to push on this and the way in which they should push.

[12:05:00]

And the focus that many people think that they need to keep on the economy, which they believe is going to be the driving factor in getting the house back if they do so in 2026. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is essential question, and I think you have to start answering with this premise. This is a fight the Trump Administration, President Trump wants to have. And that's why it is a bit of a challenging one for Democrats, not only because they are the party out of power.

Quite literally, Senator Van Hollen going there, he's not likely to have high level meetings, as you said. I mean, we saw the President of El Salvador in the Oval Office just two days ago. That is, spoke -- But I think the bottom line to this is the Trump Administration has had many, many, many challenges, on the economy, on tariffs.

They want to have an immigration fight, not necessarily this one. I don't recall in the campaign last year, the president talking about deporting a 29-year-old father from Maryland. I mean, the specifics weren't known, but the broader contours of this. People voted for Trump on immigration.

So, Democrats, in some respects, are falling into this, but you have to stand up for the rule of law.

BASH: Yeah.

ZELENY: You can't ignore it. So, this is one of those unknown factors here, but Democrats that I speak to are a little bit nervous by being completely sucked into this debate.

BASH: Right, which is why the wording and the language that you're hearing from the White House, from the Trump Administration, more broadly, from their allies on conservative media. I mean, you can see it on their screens. They're calling him a terrorist. There's no evidence that we have seen to suggest that he is that.

But that is how they're trying to keep public opinion on their side. You do have some who are not elected officials, aside from Chris Van Hollen, he's not making the case that I'm about to show you. But you do have some saying, OK, the economy is great and fine, but this is existential.

This is, as you said about the rule of law, Jon Favreau, who is a co- host of a very popular podcast "Pod Save America", he made the following argument about this time and place and this particular issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON FAVREAU, HOST OF POD SAVE AMERICA: This is all finally breaking through. It's getting more coverage. More people are paying attention. More elected Democrats are speaking up. Some are even planning a trip to El Salvador to bring this man home. More conservative pundits and legal scholars are speaking up.

Even Joe Rogan thinks it's bullshit. It is not a time to stay quiet, because this is much bigger than immigration or deportation policy. This is about whether we live in a free country where our rights are protected or a police state where none of us are safe. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Listen and you saw Chris Murphy making a similar video on X, essentially saying, this is about due process. Could the president come for you and deport you, which listen in that meeting with the El Salvadorian President, he did suggest he could.

He wanted to put homegrown criminals, as he called them in, and send them to a place like El Salvador. It is still a tricky issue for Democrats to try to break it down. One of the issues too, is that Americans don't often believe that kind of rhetoric, right, that this is a slippery slope, and that the American President could come for you.

They didn't really believe that rhetoric during the campaign, when there was all this talk about democracy nearing its end. So, Democrats really have a choice to make here. Do they want to be so wedded to this particular person? Because you can see what Donald Trump is doing here, right?

Democrats are spending all of this time on this gentleman who was in the country illegally, when you in your communities are fighting fentanyl and fighting crime and all those sorts of things. So, it's a very easy trap, and the issue that Donald Trump does well on so far is immigration. His approval ratings, yes, are high on immigration.

They're low on the economy, which is why you have some Democrats saying that's what they should be --

BASH: Let me just add one data point, and I know you want to get in on you said his members are high in immigration.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

BASH: This is from Pew, and it the question is whether or not undocumented immigrants should be deported, which was, of course, a big talking point during his campaign. When it comes to married to U.S. citizens, which is the case of Garcia, 78 percent say no, shouldn't be deported. I mean, that's a huge percentage.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: And that's a huge percentage at the outset of this discussion essentially. We're only a couple of days into talking about this particular man. And as you said, President Trump said he's going to do more of this, and what he calls homegrown people, American citizens, talking about that he would potentially remove to prisons in El Salvador. He's encouraging the president there to build more.

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The question that Democrats have is, can they with the larger context of things that have happened in the Trump Administration so far that people are saying, oh, I couldn't believe that this would happen, whether now it plugs in a different way in the slippery slope.

BASH: Yeah.

DOVERE: And can they say that this is not about just this man that the Trump Administration is trying to tar in all of its ways, and some of it factually, some of it not, some of it without evidence. Or do they say this is about due process?

BASH: Right.

DOVERE: When you have J.D. Vance tweeting yesterday, what process is due to this man? The answer of what process is due, is due process.

BASH: Right.

DOVERE: Under the Constitution.

BASH: Well, and none of that is going to be ending anytime soon. And this is the key, and this is what I want you to speak to, Priscilla, because you're just so all over the policy and the legal fights here, and the judge, the original judge in the District Court, had a hearing yesterday, and she was not happy.

She said she gave them two weeks to give her some answers, and she said, I do need evidence in this regard, because to date, what the record shows is nothing has been done.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this has really been a theme of the hearings before this federal judge, because each time she has asked questions over multiple hearings to the Justice Department, she has been stone wall. They have not answered her question.

Sometimes very bluntly, saying that no, they do not have more evidence to provide on any matter. And in fact, the Oval Office mean that we've been talking about here did come up in the hearing yesterday where the Justice Department said, well, look what the Salvadoran President said yesterday, sort of saying that that put the end to this whole ordeal.

And she said, no, there needs to be record in this court. The documents need to be filed in this court. And I will say two things on the point of evidence and due process. I have been following this case for days, and the Justice Department has had multiple opportunities to provide more evidence to the court as to why this man is tied to MS 13, why they're saying he has connections to human trafficking -- and they haven't done that, and they have had the opportunity not to do that.

BASH: They have not done that.

ALVAREZ: They have not done that. The other part of this is, when you strip it all down, it is, yes, a matter of due process. But this is also, I have been covering immigration for many years, what happened in March was people suddenly disappeared from the U.S. immigration system. I have never seen that where people literally had no idea where their relatives were.

So, this, in many ways, has -- is a case about one person that reflects what happened to so many others and could happen to so many others to come. We're also seeing this with the students and the visa revocations, there is a level of uncertainty here that I think is starting to create a little bit more concern and hesitation.

You saw it with Joe Rogan. If this starts to look sloppy, then what? And we don't know the answer to that yet, but that is what they have been -- that has been part of the concern here is it's not just a matter about this man and his due process and you know, this administrative error, but it's what it reflects when we're only in the first, not even 100 days yet, in how this agenda rolls out from here on out.

BASH: Glad you brought that up. Everybody standby, because coming up we do have some breaking news about one of these legal cases challenging the president's deportations. Paula Reid will be here with the latest.

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BASH: The breaking news right now, a judge says there is probable cause to hold the Trump Administration in contempt. This is in regards to the case of deporting Venezuelan migrants despite that judge's order in his court to turn the plane around. CNN Chief Legal Correspondent, Paula Reid joins me now. Paula, what exactly is the judge saying?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, Dana, this is huge. We've been waiting for this opinion. Now the judge here is still deciding punishment and the next steps. He is giving the Justice Department a chance to weigh in here. But this case, this question has, as you know, become a political flash point.

President Trump has repeatedly attacked this judge, James Boasberg, even calling for him to be impeached. Much of this started last month, on March 15, the president had invoked the Aliens Enemies Act to facilitate deportations of Venezuelan migrants the government alleges were affiliated with a gang.

Litigation commenced over the weekend, and these planes that were already carrying migrants were eventually grounded. But then, when the judge ordered these to be flown back to the United States, they continued from Honduras, where they had stopped, on to El Salvador. Now the judge has suggested that this was a deliberate attempt to defy his order.

But Justice Department lawyers and sources I have spoken with disagree. They believe that a district court judge did not have jurisdiction over the acts of the administration once they are in international territory. Now I want to read some quotes from this opinion.

The judge says, as this opinion will detail, the court ultimately determines that the government's actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its order sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt. The court does not reach such a conclusion lightly or hastily.

Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory. The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders, especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it.

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Now there is a little chance that the Justice Department is going to deviate from its belief that, again, district court judges cannot dictate what they do once they are in either international skies or on the ground, which is what happened here. These planes landed in Honduras. But this is notable because here you have a federal judge holding the administration in contempt. As for several months, Dana, we've been talking about our concerns about whether the administration would at any point, intentionally defy a court order.

BASH: Yeah. Really remarkable stuff. Paula, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. Appreciate it. Coming up two Mayors of New York City, the current mayor and his predecessor, I'll speak with Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio after a short break.

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BASH: A big announcement this morning for New York City children and their parents. Mayor Eric Adams is declaring now permanent funding for the city's ground breaking early education for children programming. It includes universal preschool for three-year-olds, or what's known as 3-K.

Some may remember when this program began in 2017 it was championed by then Mayor Bill de Blasio. Joining me now for a joint interview are Mayor Eric Adams and Former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thank you both for being here. Mayor Adams, I'll start with you. How will this city wide 3-K funding impact New Yorkers?

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NYC, NY): Well, it is so important, and this is what government is about. It's a continuation of receiving the baton for excellent programs that deal with the foundational issues, and something that Mayor de Blasio had a vision for, and something he shared with me at the beginning of my administration.

And what we're saying, in essence, we're going to make it a permanent part of government early childhood education, and this is just crucial for a real strong foundation for young people as they as they move forward.

BASH: And Mayor de Blasio, as we just heard from Mayor Adams, this was your sort of signature issue. It was your key goal. How do you view the announcement today.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), FORMER MAYOR OF NYC: Well, Dana, what Mayor Adams is doing is even more important given the backdrop of what we're seeing in Washington right now. You know, with the federal government shutting down the department education and defunding our children, our families, you know, New York City is going the exact opposite direction, thank God, and saying we're going to actually double down on early child education.

So, to think about this, that every three-year-old in New York City will have that start, that strong start in life, that ability to really reach their potential, and it's for free for their families in a city that you know has an affordability challenge, this is a big, big deal.

And I particularly commend the mayor, because, you know, given what's happening in Washington, he could say, oh, we just can't afford it right now, but he's actually making it a priority and making it permanent funding that's great for the families of this city.

BASH: Mayor Adams, I want to talk about another policy issue on your plate, and that is immigration. Yesterday, the New York City Council sued you over allowing ICE agents at Rikers Island prison. The City Council Speaker accused you of fulfilling your quote end of the bargain for special treatment that he meaning you received from the Trump Administration.

She's accusing you of a quid pro quo, following through with a promise to allow ICE at Rikers in exchange for the Trump Administration dropping the corruption charges against you, which, of course, happened. What's your response?

ADAMS: Well, sad and unfortunate, particularly, that's the same speaker that removed two of her members off the budget negotiation committee because they did not endorse her. That's the type of hypocrisy you're hearing. I swore in federal court. There was no quid pro quo. I was very clear.

If you go back and look at my position on public safety and those who break the law, document or undocumented, it is consistent. It has not changed. It was the same under President Biden. It's the same under this administration. And when you hear people state that we should not collaborate with our federal authorities, ICE, HSI, FBI, postal service.

That is just wrong. Public safety is the foundation those who commit violent crimes after they serve their time. I've been clear from the beginning, they should be deported from our country, and I continue to stand by that, and the courts will work out the outcome of this.

BASH: Let me just follow up on what you said about you swearing an oath that you didn't partake in a quid pro quo. It seems as though the judge, in dismissing the charges against you, which he did a couple of weeks ago, suggested he didn't buy it. He said there is no way to compel the government to prosecute a case in circumstances like those presented here.

But he also wrote, quote, everything here smacks of a bargain dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions. ADAMS: Well, it was the judge that told me to raise my right hand, and he asked me very specific questions. I answer those, and as we read through his statement, we should focus on two areas, because it's the foundation of our American judicial system. Eric is proven his innocence until proven guilty, and these charges are dismissed, not to come back. He made the determination to do with prejudice. That was his determination and his call.

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