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The Situation Room

Deportation Controversy Intensifies; President Biden Speaks Out; CDC Issues Report on Autism. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 16, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:09]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: As the courts and the Trump administration clash over the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his supporters here in the United States are vowing to bring him home.

So let's discuss this with Michael Coleman. He is the general president of the SMART Union, which Abrego Garcia is a member of.

So I want to ask. You have been in touch with his family.

MICHAEL COLEMAN, PRESIDENT, SMART UNION: Yes.

BROWN: Obviously, this is a very tough time for them. We had the wife on our show.

But the attorney general just this morning said flatly that the administration will not move to bring him home. She called him a guy from El Salvador who's part of one of the most violent gangs in our country. What is your response to that?

COLEMAN: Well, I just heard that myself just a little bit ago.

My response is, I'm heartbroken. I'm angry. There's been no proof provided that he's part of MS-13. This administration has had multiple chances to provide proof in court, and they have failed to do so, that he's part of any gang, or now I hear that there's now calling him a terrorist.

BROWN: Yes, you heard the president of El Salvador call him that...

COLEMAN: Yes.

BROWN: ... say, I can't smuggle in terrorists, after Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said that the U.S. could facilitate by sending a plane.

But the administration maintains that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, without providing the evidence to support that. He and his attorney are denying that. Are you certain he's not a member of the gang?

COLEMAN: I am almost 100 percent certain that he is not.

BROWN: What gives you that certainty?

COLEMAN: Well, we have done our own check. We have talked to people that know him, and we have no indication that he's part of MS-13 at all.

BROWN: And tell us more about that check. So you have talked to people who know him, and they say -- they say what?

COLEMAN: They say he's a good man. We have talked to the employer that he works for. They say he's an outstanding employee. They would love to have him back should he be returned back to the United States.

And we have had zero indication. And I go back to my earlier statement, which is, they have had plenty of chances to provide proof. All we hear is that they say he is. You have to give this man due process. And they haven't done it.

BROWN: Why do you think this is striking a chord with so many people right now?

COLEMAN: I think people are afraid about what possibly this could mean when the administration says, well, we're powerless now that he's in another country.

Well, what does that actually mean moving forward? I know the labor movement in general sees one of their fellow brothers in a notoriously heinous situation in that prison. And it has people upset, scared. And that's why I think it's gaining so much steam.

BROWN: And, as I mentioned earlier, you have been in touch with Mr. Abrego Garcia's wife and family. How is your union supporting them during this time?

COLEMAN: We're doing everything we can. We're following the lead of the family's attorneys. We're supporting.

And just the other day, we delivered cases of diapers to her. She doesn't even know everything that she does need. We're trying to keep their health insurance alive for them while he's detained. And, really, we're just working our way through anything we can do to help the family.

BROWN: Because now she's a single mom. She has three kids. I know her youngest is with him, who has intellectual disabilities.

COLEMAN: Exactly.

BROWN: And you talk about the health insurance?

COLEMAN: Yes.

BROWN: That, because he was deported, that might be at risk?

COLEMAN: It is at risk because he's no longer at work.

BROWN: OK. COLEMAN: So we have to be creative in how we can provide health care to the family.

BROWN: What else do you want to say? What is your message that you haven't already said?

COLEMAN: My message echoes everything that -- with the panels before me, that we just want due process.

Due process is a pillar that this country was -- one of the pillars this country was founded on. It's actually one of the things that does actually make America great. Our union is founded on due process. We want our brother Kilmar to come back and get his due process, be reunited with his family, and let the courts take care of it from there.

BROWN: And if he was brought back, given that due process, and the decision was he should be sent back to El Salvador because whatever the findings are or to another country, would you accept that, if that's what a judge...

COLEMAN: If the courts found that he should be sent back for whatever reason, if there's information out there that has not yet been provided, we would certainly accept what the court orders.

[11:35:05]

BROWN: You just want that due process.

Michael Coleman, thank you for coming on.

COLEMAN: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: Excellent work. Thank you very much for helping that family, that his wife was here with us. And it's heartbreaking, the little kids. She's a U.S. citizen. The kids are U.S. citizens. And he wants to just simply come back to Maryland, where he's lived now for years.

Thanks very much...

(CROSSTALK)

COLEMAN: And thank you for having me on.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BROWN: Yes. They have been asking, when is he going to come home?

BLITZER: I know.

BROWN: But we heard today that the administration...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is now there trying to get him to come home and see what he can do. Let's hope it works out.

All right, just ahead: Joe Biden is going after the Trump administration in his first public remarks since leaving the White House, but are Democrats welcoming the former president back into the fold?

We will discuss that and more with CNN's Van Jones. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:27]

BLITZER: Joe Biden is calling out Donald Trump for the first time since leaving the White House.

In a speech to disability rights advocates yesterday, the former president blasted the Trump administration for taking a -- quote -- "hatchet" to Social Security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Got to ask yourself, why is this happening? Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?

Well, they're following that old line from tech start-ups. The quote is, move fast, break things. Well, they're certainly breaking things. They're shooting first and aiming later. And, as a result, there's a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now is CNN political commentator and former Obama administration official Van Jones.

Van, thanks so much for coming in.

It's the first time we have heard from former President Biden in months. What did you think, first of all, of his speech? And why do you think he is choosing to speak out now?

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, when I first heard he was going to speak, I kind of groaned, like, oh, my goodness, why do we want to hear from Joe Biden?

I'm glad I watched the speech. I would encourage people to actually watch the speech. The train crash at the end was so bad, you forget, how did this guy ever become president? It was vintage Joe Biden. He was talking about the actual pain and suffering of everyday people who right now are not getting their Social Security checks on time.

The delays are terrible. It's only going to ultimately help the people who want the big tax breaks for the wealthy. So I think he did a really strong job. And I think Democrats would be smart to listen to Biden, how he deals with the human impact of Social Security being on the chopping block, talking about people with disabilities, people who can't buy food without it, people who can't wait three, four, five days, let alone three or four or five weeks.

One missed check is a catastrophe. We're not talking about it in these human terms that Biden was talking about it. And I thought it was helpful. I was surprised, relieved, and happy that it was such an effective speech.

BLITZER: Former President Biden certainly didn't hold back when criticizing President Trump. I want to play another clip. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much -- done so much damage and so much destruction. It's kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Some very strong words from the former president.

But do Democrats, you think, want to see and hear from former President Biden right now?

JONES: You know, I don't think there's probably a huge demand in the marketplace to hear from him.

Frankly, we have three former Democratic presidents that are still with us, President Clinton, President Obama, and President Biden. Probably, if you ask the average Democrat, they'd probably rather hear from the first two, rather than Biden.

But what I would say is this. I think we sometimes talk about this stuff in such abstract terms. We're talking about trade issues and stock market issues and what is going to rally and tariffs in China. And we just forget there's a bunch of people sitting around kitchen tables who are up at night who just don't know how they're going to be able to make it through from day to day.

And that Joe Biden approach, I think Democrats could learn a lot from. He was tough on Trump. He was much tougher on the outcome of Trump's policies. And that empathy that Joe Biden is famous for being on display, I think sometimes we have gotten so spun around, we get these ping-pong balls bouncing off our forehead every day from more and more bad news, we sometimes forget the human element.

And Joe Biden doesn't forget that. And I think that's helpful and welcome.

BLITZER: The great actor George Clooney sat down with my colleague Jake Tapper and addressed the controversial "New York Times" op-ed he wrote last year urging then-President Biden to drop his reelection bid. Here's what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Well, I don't know if it was brave. It was a civic duty, because I found that people on my side of the street -- I'm a Democrat. I was a Democrat in Kentucky, so I get it.

When I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth, I thought that was time to...

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Are people still mad at you for that?

CLOONEY: Some people, sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How do you think history will remember what Clooney did?

[11:45:00]

JONES: Listen, there's some people, whether you're talking about a David Axelrod, who on our air very early said that Biden probably shouldn't be doing this, or you're talking about a George Clooney, who -- look, I'm a California Democrat.

That -- it's -- we invented the color blue. We're blue on top of blue, wrapped up in blue and deep fried in blue. For someone like a George Clooney to come out and say that a sitting U.S. president should step down took tremendous courage in his context.

And I think he's going to be and already is respected for it. And we need more courage like that. We need people who will to challenge their own party. If a George Clooney or David Axelrod is willing to do that in Democratic Party, then there should be people doing that more in the Republican Party.

But, listen, I can't wait to see the interview, because George Clooney is somebody who has been not just a great actor, but he's been a great American for a long time. And Jake Tapper having a conversation with him, I think is a huge deal.

BLITZER: Yes, that interview is going to air later on Jake's program, "THE LEAD," 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

James Carville, as you know, Van, has a new op-ed in "The New York Times" entitled "How to Turn Trump's Economic Chaos Against Him."

And he writes -- and I'm quoting him now -- "The path to stabilizing and strengthening the country starts when Democrats can take back the economic narrative from the Republican Party and persuade the majority of Americans to close the book on the Trump chaos."

Is this the right strategy, you think, for Democrats?

JONES: Yes, look, it's certainly -- one-half of the scissor is to just, listen, you guys have the House, you have got the Senate, you have got the White House, you have got the Supreme Court, you have got this MAGAsphere of communications, you have got billionaires in your Cabinet, you have got Elon Musk.

So any pain anybody is feeling in the United States, if you're sitting on a white hot stove, the person with their hand on the dial for the heat you're experiencing is a guy named Donald Trump. If you're not happy, that's the guy to blame.

So half the scissors is just making sure that people understand they own it lock, stock, and barrel. The other half, though, is making sure people understand that we got the message as Democrats. We were defending a broken status quo that nobody liked and offending half the country, calling everybody racist and sexist and transphobic every 20 seconds, and that did not work.

And so people have to understand that we get it, that we want to focus on commonsense economic issues and progress. Ezra Klein has a great book out called "Abundance," how Democrats could be a party of builders again.

And that -- when you put the two together, you can have chaos from Trump and crazy stuff from Trump, or you can have real progress, we can have flourishing cities, we can have an economy that works for everybody from Democrats, that's when you start looking at a 2026 midterm election that should be a wipeout for the Republicans.

BLITZER: And it's still the economy, stupid, as they say.

JONES: Yes.

BLITZER: Van Jones, thank you very, very much.

JONES: Yes, sir. Thank you.

BLITZER: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:39]

BLITZER: New this morning, the rate of autism among U.S. children is increasing, this according to a recently released Centers for Disease Control, CDC, study.

However, experts have largely attributed this trend to improve screening and greater awareness for the condition. About one in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from one in 36 in 2020 and up from one in 150 in 2000, according to the report published Tuesday.

BROWN: And just moments ago, Wolf, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy addressed this troubling trend, but took issue with the notion that better screenings are at the center of a rise in cases. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: One of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this is this ideology that this -- that the autism diagnosis, that the autism prevalence increases, that the relentless increases are simply artifacts of better diagnosis, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: For more, we are joined by CNN's Jacqueline Howard.

Jacqueline, you read the report. Tell us more about it.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, Pamela and Wolf, in this report, the researchers do point to better screening, better diagnoses around autism as playing a role in why we are seeing a higher autism rate.

But, as we just heard from RFK Jr. there, there's this debate going on around that. It's also interesting that the Department of Human Health -- Human -- excuse me -- the Department of Health and Human Services has described this as an autism epidemic.

But there's a debate around that as well, with the CEO of the Autism Society of America just telling our colleague Boris Sanchez yesterday that he does not agree with that definition of an epidemic around autism.

So we are seeing these debates emerge. Here's the CEO of the Autism Society of America speaking to that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER BANKS, CEO, AUTISM SOCIETY OF AMERICA: The statements that we have seen this administration make are harmful.

So, let me be clear. Autism is not a chronic disease. It's a lifelong developmental condition. It's not an epidemic, nor should it be compared to the COVID pandemic. And using language like that perpetuates falsehoods, stigmas, and stereotypes. Autism is not linked to vaccines. And health policies should be rooted in science.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:55:16]

HOWARD: So, Wolf and Pamela, it is interesting that RFK Jr. seems to be highlighting autism as a focus of the department. So it will be interesting to see what happens moving forward in this discussion.

BROWN: Yes. And it was really interesting that that report noted that rates really varied widely based on gender, race and geographic areas, so a lot of questions still to be answered.

Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

HOWARD: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Important new report, indeed.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN. We will see you back here tomorrow and every weekday morning for our expanded two-hour SITUATION ROOM 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" is next right after a short break.