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Civilians Killed in Gaza; President Biden and Donald Trump Both Visit Border; Interview With Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 29, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:43]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Dueling visits to the border. With the election just months away, President Biden and former President Trump are heading to Texas on the same day, only miles apart. As immigration emerges as the top issue on the minds of voters, this could be one of the most important days in the presidential campaign so far.

Plus: Can he claim immunity? The Supreme Court agreeing to take up Donald Trump's claim that he should be shielded from prosecution over anything he did while in office. Ahead, how the courts have seemingly given Trump an assist, as he tries to delay, delay, delay.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And coming under fire while waiting for food.More than 100 killed in Gaza as aid trucks were delivering badly needed resources. Now there are countering claims over exactly what happened and whether this latest incident could derail cease-fire talks.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Today could be a defining moment for one of the defining issues of the 2024 campaign, and that is the crisis at America's southern border.

Both President Biden and former President Trump are on their way to Texas to visit border cities and receive briefings from officials, Trump set to arrive a few minutes from now, Biden here just in the next hour.

And, of course, it's not either of their first trips to the border. Here in recent weeks, Trump has ramped up his often-ugly immigration rhetoric. And, last night, he promised to round up and deport unprecedented numbers of immigrants if elected.

As for Biden, he's seeking to go on offense and weighing some new executive actions after Republicans in Congress blocked a bipartisan bill to address the crisis.

Kristen Holmes is an Eagle Pass awaiting Trump's arrival. Priscilla Alvarez is in Brownsville ahead of the president.

Priscilla, to you first. This marks a shift in the White House approach. Tell us what they're thinking here.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is. It's an extraordinary move for a White House that has distanced itself from border security, and one that sources tell me when it came up within the walls of the White House would ultimately be some intense conversations about the issues at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the White House and campaign officials see this as an opportunity now, especially after the failed Senate border bill. That was a bill that included some of the toughest border security measures in recent memories. And while Republicans worked on it, they ended up backing away from it at the encouragement of former President Donald Trump.

So, President Biden is coming here today to hammer Republicans on that point and make the argument that it is the Republicans who carry the responsibility for not securing the border because they walked away from a deal that would have offered solutions.

And that is what campaign officials and White House officials are banking on, that voters will make the connection between this potential solution and Republicans walking away from it. And it comes, of course, at a critical time.

We're in a presidential election, and we're seeing in polls that Americans are starting to rank immigration as one of the most important issues. So President Biden, while he's been dogged by this over the course of his administration, is now trying to turn the tables on Republicans and seize on the issue, trying to take advantage of it in this moment where border crossings are low and when Republicans have indicated that they don't want to move forward on a measure that was agreed to in a bipartisan manner between the Senate and the White House.

KEILAR: And who's the president meeting with, Priscilla?

ALVAREZ: The president is going to meet with Border Patrol agents, front-line personnel, as well as with local leaders.

We do not know if he's going to see migrants. He's going to be at the Border Patrol facility behind me. This is a sector that is not as busy as other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border. It ranks the fifth among all of them. So there hasn't been a surge here, as there have been in the past.

It's also a place along the border that has robust infrastructure after seeing crisis under the Trump administration. But, still, the president plans to make his argument on Republicans here.

Take a listen to what White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previewed when it came to his visit later today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The folks who are getting in the way here are Republicans. They are getting in the way. And they are doing it because of what Donald Trump is telling them to do for their own -- for his own political gain.

[13:05:08]

And so this is where we are right now. So the president's going to take it directly to the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So, again, the president going to work to try to make the connection between this potential solution in the Senate border bill and the Republicans who walked away from it.

KEILAR: All right, Priscilla, thank you.

Kristen, on the eve of Trump's visit, he has vowed mass deportations if reelected. Tell us what he's been saying.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And this is not something that's new.

Donald Trump used this kind of rhetoric to take him to the White House in 2016. It's part of what helped him get elected, and it's something that he's continued to say in 2024. He has asked -- called for mass deportations. He said he was going to round up migrants.

And this is part of his campaign strategy. He wants a general election against President Joe Biden to be about immigration. There's a reason that he's in Eagle Pass today. This is not the area where the most migrants are crossing, but this is the most politically charged area. This is really the epicenter of the standoff between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over who is in charge of border security.

Abbott, who is likely going to be here with Trump today, who has endorsed Donald Trump, has used state resources to put razor wire on buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande River, put them on train cars all lined along the border here. And Donald Trump is going to tour those areas.

He's going to talk to the National Guard. He's going to be briefed on the situation, and he's going to deliver remarks. And, as you noted, we heard a preview of those remarks yesterday. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As president, I will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history to remove Joe Biden's illegals and murderers, because that's what many of them are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And Donald Trump using rhetoric, again, that is not surprising. He has always used this sort of fear-stoking rhetoric when it comes to immigration.

And, right now, his team does see an opportunity to continue to double down on this topic. As you heard Priscilla say, we are in an election year. And that polling suggests that voters are very, very concerned about immigration. So expect him to continue talking about that, as well as linking immigration to a spate of recent crimes -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Kristen Holmes, live for us there on the border, thank you for that.

So what will these two political rivals actually encounter when they get to the border and they talk to folks?

Let us talk now to someone who's been on the ground doing just that for months, CNN's Rosa Flores.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, let me show you what former President Donald Trump is going to see here in Eagle Pass.

This is Shelby Park. You can see a lot of the militarized vehicles, the Humvee that's behind me. This is the biggest stage when it comes to the border issue, when it comes to the fight between the state of Texas and the federal government as to who should be enforcing border security.

Now, I want you to look beyond this fence, because this is going to give you an idea of what President Trump is actually going to see near the stage where we're expecting him to actually speak. You can see that there's a lot of equipment, more fencing, more razor wire, more militarized equipment.

This is where he's going to be touring. He's going to be able to see the Rio Grande, some of the razor wire on the Rio Grande, and shipping containers that form a border wall along the river. Now, this is where the border buoys also are. That's another big fight between the federal government and the state of Texas.

They're just downriver. Some of the razor wire on here, that's where the legal battle is happening also between the federal government and the state. Now, a lot of the people here from Eagle Pass have opinions about the president stopping by. Some of them are for his visit. Others are against.

A community group had a press conference today about their thoughts. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSIE FUENTES, EAGLE PASS RESIDENT: Mr. Trump, change your ways, because what you're doing is, you're hurting the people that need the most help.

Our community, if you were to study the demographics, it's not easy. It's not easy being on the border. And this unwanted attention, this unwanted militarization of our community is unwelcome. You are not welcome. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, President Biden is also here in the state of Texas, but he is downriver in Brownsville, Texas.

What he's going to see is much different than what you see here. This looks very militarized. This area has been taken over by the state of Texas. Border Patrol is not allowed to patrol in this area, so it's going to be very different what President Biden is going to be seen and what former President Trump is going to see behind me -- Brianna.

[13:10:03]

KEILAR: All right, Rosa Flores, thank you for that -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss the issues at the border now with a Democrat who represents a border district, actually one that's right between where we're going to see President Biden and Trump later today.

Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar joins us now.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): Thank you.

SANCHEZ: This is Biden's first visit -- of course.

This is Biden's first visit to the border in over a year, a year that, as you know, saw record-shattering numbers of migrant crossings. And you were calling on the White House to be more aggressive on this well before we got to that point.

Do you think the White House and Democrats generally should have done more and focused more on immigration sooner?

CUELLAR: Absolutely.

We should have been talking about immigration. Why should Democrats cede the narrative to the Republicans? Why should we do that? We live at the border. We want to see strong border security, but still be respectful of immigrant rights.

We can do both at the same time, but I'm glad that the president and other Democrats are starting to shift to the middle, where most of the voters are at, but, more importantly, where border communities are at.

SANCHEZ: You were describing a shift by the White House, and I think that that is fair. We have seen a change in how the White House has put forward policy, from enacting executive actions on broad humanitarian parole, to now, apparently, according to sources, considering actions that would severely limit asylum, actions that are very reminiscent of former President Donald Trump.

I'm curious how you feel about the potential for those executive actions to move forward. CUELLAR: Well, I think the president is -- President Biden will do an

executive order that will follow the law, and not just do it for political reasons.

Now, there will be some people that don't believe that he should do that, that we should have open borders. We don't want to have open borders, but the president can take certain actions. Some of it, of course -- a lot of it, should I say, will need a lot of congressional funding and maybe change some of the authorities.

But there are some things he can do right now that can stop the flow of people. For example, in December, they talked to the Mexican government, where we were getting 10,000, 12,000 people a day. Now it's been cut in half. What happened? We didn't build new border wall. We didn't add new Border Patrol. We didn't add any new technology.

What happened was, we worked with Mexico to do its part in the southern border with Guatemala. So there are a lot of things that the president can do. Sure, there will be legal challenges, of course, but I think he needs to take some legal action. But Congress needs to fund more judges, more asylum officers, new Border Patrol technology that will help the president do his job.

SANCHEZ: The question of what happens in Congress, we will get to in a moment.

But I'm curious about what you say to critics that would say that this White House is only focused on this because there's an election a few months away, and they see it as a liability.

CUELLAR: Well, again, I can't go into the mind as to why the White House is doing this, but some of us have been calling for this for many years.

And I'm glad that the White House and other Democrats are starting to understand that we have got to address the issue. We're all looking at the same polls.

SANCHEZ: Right.

CUELLAR: We're all looking at the same polls, and we know this is a liability to Democrats and the president, unless the president starts acting like he is now.

And I want to make sure he continues moving to the center.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, you alluded to ceding the narrative to Republicans.

I want to talk about that narrative. Here are some recent comments from former President Donald Trump on immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they have done. The crime is going to be tremendous. They're coming from prisons. They're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They're terrorists.

Hannibal Lecter is coming in, lots of them. We're taking in murderers and drug lords. We're taking in people that are very, very sick with diseases that will be spread all over our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Congressman, you well know that just about all of that is totally detached from reality.

But when Donald Trump and other Republicans point to specific cases of alleged heinous acts by undocumented migrants, like we saw recently with Laken Riley in Georgia and New York and other places, do you think that your party has done a good enough job to pierce through that perception that Trump and others have fostered about immigrants?

CUELLAR: Well, that's exactly the point that I made at the very beginning.

We cannot cede the narrative to Republicans or the former president, where all they do is, they keep saying things that don't match reality. But if they keep repeating it over and over and over again, then that's the only narrative that people are going to hear.

[13:15:04]

And this is why it's so important that Democrats go into the issue, talk about border security. And if they're able to do that, then I think we will have a more balanced conversation when it comes to border security. Strong border security, but still balance the rights of immigrants.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Henry Cuellar, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate it, sir.

CUELLAR: Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: The Supreme Court agrees to take up Donald Trump's immunity claim, but not until April. What that means for his election subversion trial and the chance that it actually happens before November's election.

And shutdown almost averted. Lawmakers set to vote moments from now on a deal that would avoid a partial government shutdown on Friday at midnight. The speaker, though, is facing some serious backlash from his own party. Remember, it was this kind of deal that cost Kevin McCarthy his job. We're following the latest.

But first: killed while waiting for food in Gaza. More than 100 Palestinians are dead, many trampled and run over, some of them shot after Israeli Defense Forces opened fire on civilians gathering around food aid trucks. The impact this may have on cease-fire negotiations -- our conversation just moments away.

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[13:20:44]

SANCHEZ: This afternoon, we're following a horrific incident out of Gaza, vulnerable citizens caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Hamas war.

We should warn you, some of the images you're about to see are graphic. This is what it looked like on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire as people were waiting for food from aid trucks. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says that more than 100 were killed and nearly 800 were injured.

CNN is unable to independently confirm those numbers.

KEILAR: A local journalist on the scene says that most of the deaths came from the chaos that erupted after Israeli soldiers started shooting, which led to trampling as the aid trucks were trying to escape.

But an IDF spokesperson contradicted eyewitness accounts, saying there were two separate deadly incidents involving aid trucks. The Israeli government says the incident is under review. President Biden says he's also looking into what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: You know what happened in Gaza City. More than 100 civilians were killed.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have just -- we're checking that out right now. There are two competing versions of what happened. I don't have an answer yet.

QUESTION: Are you worried that that will complicate those negotiations?

BIDEN: I know it will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Clarissa Ward is following the latest developments for us.

Clarissa, what more are you hearing about this from the IDF and from eyewitness accounts?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, there's two different versions of the story, essentially, Brianna.

The IDF is saying that these were two separate incidents, that the convoy of roughly 30 trucks came under, not attack, but under mass looting by individuals, desperate individuals in Northern Gaza, as those 30 trucks passed through, that then precipitated some kind of a stampede. They described drivers of the trucks potentially having run people over in the melee. But that's a very different scene than what we heard described from

eyewitnesses on the ground, who say that, essentially, Israeli forces opened fire after the truck was sort of set upon by these people who were looting.

I think, at the end of the day, what this underscores and what you hear from aid agencies again and again is that this is a kind of tragedy that has been predicted and warned about for weeks and months because of the nature of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, because of the fact that you have hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine.

And so now there is real urgency as to how to better implement the distribution of aid in Gaza to avoid events like this taking place again and to avoid what the U.N. has called a full-blown famine just one step away if this issue doesn't get resolved.

SANCHEZ: And, Clarissa, Hamas is now warning that this incident could impact cease-fire talks. What are you hearing about that?

WARD: Well, Hamas has come forward and they have said that this does complicate things.

We have also heard President Biden acknowledging that it complicates things. We know that he's made phone calls to the leaders of Egypt, to the leaders of Qatar who are actively involved in these negotiations. But I would say, at the same time, there is a sense that, while it may complicate the ongoing negotiations for a deal, it does put more urgency and more impetus on the need for some kind of a cease-fire.

And this is something, Boris, when you talk to any aid officials who have spent time on the ground in Gaza, they will say it is just not possible to distribute the amount of aid that's needed to the scale and scope of the desperation of the many people, the more than two million people who are living there, without some kind of a cease- fire.

What aid agencies really want to see is some kind of a heads-up before that cease-fire would come into place, so that they could be ready to move those trucks in. Important for our viewers to remember, before October 7, 500 trucks a day would go into Gaza. And that was without a catastrophe.

At the best of times in the past few months, it's been maybe 250 trucks a day. Four days last week, there were just 10 or fewer trucks a day. So that obviously is not a sustainable situation. And there's a real fear that we will see more tragic incidents like what took place this morning if this does not get rectified or resolved soon.

[13:25:11]

KEILAR: And this grim milestone, Clarissa, 30,000 death toll, is now where we are.

I mean, it's almost unfathomable the scale of the casualties there in Gaza. Is that also driving home the need for there to be a change here and a respite for civilians?

WARD: Well, I think we're seeing it clearly from the White House, we're seeing it also in the U.K. that this policy of publicly supporting Israel and privately applying pressure has not really succeeded in the way that officials would have liked to see, that the pressure to stop killing to at least mitigate the deaths of civilians, to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip, none of it seems to be translating.

And we still hear Prime Minister Netanyahu talking about the importance of going into Rafah for the IDF, even though we have heard outrage and condemnation across the board from various governments, but also from aid officials, who are warning of an absolute Armageddon-like situation if that goes ahead as potentially planned.

So it does seem like there is a lot of pressure on Biden both domestically, politically, but also internationally, in terms of the reputation of America globally. It remains to be seen, though, how exactly this will be resolved or dealt with.

SANCHEZ: Our Clarissa Ward reporting on the situation in Gaza.

Thank you so much, Clarissa.

Next: Firefighters in Texas are now facing the largest wildfire in that state's history, and it is only expected to get bigger. We're going to have a live report.

KEILAR: And the Justice Department has now opened an investigation into that emergency door blowout on a Boeing jet back in January. What this is going to mean.

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