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Biden Speaks During Visit to Site of Baltimore Bridge Disaster; Burglary Tourist Target Upscale U.S. Homes; Eclipse Sparks Enthusiasm for Science in the U.S. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... the same exact thing. Commit to stay. And to the customers who use this port, we're coming back. We're coming back soon.

Folks, finally, we're going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible. And we're going to do so with union labor and American steel.

For simple reasons, they're the best workers in the world, and that's not hyperbole. Every day, over 30,000 vehicles traveled across this bridge. And I was one of those people.

I commuted every day from Delaware for 36 years to Washington, D.C., back and forth, and about one-fourth of that time by automobile. I've been to every part of this port.

Folks, we now face a question no American should ever have to ask. How will I get to work? How will I go to school? How will I get to a hospital? Response and response, everyone, including Congress, should be asking only one question, and they're going to be asked a question by your delegation. How can we help? How can we solve that problem?

My administration is committed, absolutely committed, to ensuring that the parties responsible for this strategy pay to repair the damage and be held accountable to the fullest extent the law will allow. But I also want to be clear, we will support Maryland and Baltimore every step of the way to help you rebuild and maintain all the business and commerce that's here now.

As the governor can tell you, within hours, at the Maryland request, we approved $60 million in emergency federal funding. I fully intend, I fully intend, as the governor knows, to have the federal government cover the cost of rebuilding this entire bridge. All of it. All of it.

As we've done in other parts of the country in similar circumstances. While I stand here, I call on Congress to authorize this effort as soon as possible.

Let me close with this. This port is over 300 years old. As a matter of fact, as I said, my great-great-grandfather worked here as a waterman in this bay. This port is older than our republic, and it's been through tough, tough times before. During the War of 1812, a young Marylander named Francis Scott Key, to

whom the bridge is named after, sat in a boat in this very harbor, and he watched -- he watched the British troops launch an attack after attack on American forces. But as the dawn broke, we saw the American flag still flying.

Baltimore was still standing, and our nation, as he wrote in the Star- Spangled Banner, had made it through a perilous fight.

Folks, this is going to take time. But Governor Moore, Senator Cardin, Senator Van Hollen, Congresswoman Mfume, Mayor Scott, County Executive Johnny O., and others are going to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as possible.

And, folks, we're determined to come back even stronger. We're the only nation that's gone through every crisis that we've had. We've come out stronger than we went in, and we're going to do it here as well.

And once more, to make this perilous challenge. This perilous challenge. You know, because we're the United States of America, there's nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.

Think about that. Remember who we are. We're the United States of America. Nothing is beyond our capacity. May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops, our first responders, and all those who gave their soul. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: That was President Biden speaking in Baltimore, talking about the long road to rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge and helping the city to heal after the tragedy. The President started by noting a message that was sent by one of the construction workers on the bridge to a girlfriend shortly before it collapsed. The President connecting that grief and loss that families are feeling to loss that he has had in his own personal life, saying, I've been there, the profound deaths of loss.

But he repeated a refrain that we've heard from the President before when he's had to connect with folks who are grieving, saying that a day will come when a smile will come to your mouth before tears come to your eyes.

The President also thanked officials on the ground there and said he'd look forward to the entire channel being reopened by the end of May.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And some pressure that he's putting on Congress as he's expecting them to pick up the tab, sort of maybe in the interim, as they do expect to recoup some payment from whoever is deemed responsible for this.

But at the same time, he's saying Congress really needs to step up, and he's sending them a message. And next, you mentioned the family members and those who died.

[15:35:00] The President is going to be meeting with the families of those loved ones who passed away when the bridge collapsed. We're going to keep an eye on the President's visit there to Baltimore, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: There are still no arrests in one of the biggest burglaries in the history of Los Angeles.

[15:40:00]

For the last four days, the FBI and the LAPD have been looking for the thieves who broke into a cash storage facility and ran off with $30 million in cash.

Investigators believe the suspects were sophisticated and could have had some inside knowledge of this site, considering they didn't set off a single alarm. Though this is not the only high-dollar heist that's baffling police, authorities are seeing a new trend in so- called burglary tourism, where thieves enter the U.S. on visa waivers and head out with millions. Josh Campbell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Home burglaries.

CAROL STARR, BURGLARY VICTIM: They hit the jackpot.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): From coast to coast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see that the entire place had been trashed.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): But these aren't your typical thieves.

JEFF STARR, BURGLARY VICTIM: We've heard now they use drones.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): And their alleged crimes even have nations pointing fingers.

TODD SPITZER, (R) ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I got a letter of apology from the Chilean ambassador.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): But it all starts much closer to home, with lives changed forever.

C. STARR: You don't feel safe in your own home anymore.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Carol and Jeff Starr thought their jewelry was secure, locked up in a safe in their Orange County, California home.

C. STARR: My mother wanted to leave a legacy through jewelry, and she bought some beautiful antique jewelry, museum-quality jewelry.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): But thieves are believed to have stalked the neighborhood, waited for the family to leave, and got away with $8 million in heirloom jewelry and other items.

J. STARR: They broke through a window in the upper bedroom and came through that window and then immediately started working. Once they found the safe, started working on the safe.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Police say the break-in is part of a sophisticated ring of thieves who arrive from South America, often from Chile, prosecutors say, where it's easy to get a tourist visa waiver to the U.S., then join with others in a coordinated effort to scout and break into homes.

SPITZER: They lie in wait in these ghillie suits so they remain camouflaged while they're watching the behaviors of the homeowners when they come and go. They have Wi-Fi jammers to stop the alarm company from being notified.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Hundreds of wealthy homes targeted, authorities say, from Scottsdale, Arizona to Raleigh, North Carolina, and Nassau County, New York, recent arrests have highlighted a nationwide issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we have to be willing to start asking some hard questions of our federal government.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): The so-called burglary tourists have law enforcement demanding change to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which allows up to 90-day visits to the U.S. from certain countries, including Chile, which Spitzer says is not providing the required background checks on its citizens.

SPITZER: Well, if we don't know the criminal background of these individuals, then we can't tell the judge anything or represent anything about the background, which means the person's released on no bail and they never come back again to answer for the charges.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Spitzer claims another Chilean suspect was out on bail when he broke into this Dana Point, California, home in July.

RAMA SUNDAR, BURGLARY VICTIM: This is the window the burglar came through.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): The Sundar family built their dream home, now rebuilding their peace of mind.

SUNDAR: We want to move away from here and I don't feel very secure at all.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): They say for a problem so well-known to public officials, it's time to put an end to these crimes.

SUNDAR: I want to know what these politicians are doing up there. They're supposed to help us.

Because I want a politician to go through this experience and he may feel exactly as I feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Josh Campbell for that report. Now, Chilean officials did not respond to CNN's request for comment, but we did receive a statement from DHS indicating that they have expressed the urgency of this issue with the Chilean government. Here's part of that statement.

DHS says, quote: Chilean officials have responded by improving operational cooperation with DHS offices in efforts to detect, deter, and prevent travel to the United States by known criminal actors.

DHS adds that once new changes are fully implemented, the U.S. will have to access -- better access, rather, to traveler background information.

Still ahead, the big day is almost here. We've been talking about it almost for weeks now. Monday's total solar eclipse will be a wonder to witness. And up next, Bill Nye, the science guy, will join us live to talk about the excitement ahead of the eclipse, the cool science of it all, and a recent photo shoot he had. It's going to get steamy in CNN NEWS CENTRAL in just moments.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Monday's Solar Eclipse will be an event you do not want to miss. It's the perfect time to come together, get your kids and yourself excited about science.

KEILAR: Yes, you could talk all day about how pumped up we are for this celestial event. We're going to be anchoring a special coverage starting at noon from Indianapolis.

But for some insight on just how cool this will be, let's turn to our next guest, who you know. He is the CEO of the Planetary Society. You know him likely as Bill Nye, the science guy. All right, Bill, to those who say they don't have the time, maybe they're thinking of skipping this phenomenon, you have a message. What do you say?

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: Don't skip it. And yes, you have the time. First of all, if you're in the path of totality, and you're in Indianapolis, you're talking about three minutes. Could probably squeeze that in.

[15:50:00]

But it goes on for some time before and after that. You watch the moon come in front of the sun. And what makes it spectacular is it's a total eclipse.

You know, in October, we had an annular eclipse. Annular is Latin for ring. There was a ring of light around the moon because the moon's orbit isn't quite round.

It's a little bit elliptical. And so this time, the moon will be close enough to Indianapolis to make it completely dark. Even if it's cloudy, it will be completely dark. And it will turn to night like that.

SANCHEZ: So we understand you're going to be watching from Texas where there will be totality. We also know that there are going to be rockets and all kinds of science experiments unfolding as the eclipse is happening. What would you say are the biggest science lessons we can learn from a total eclipse?

NYE: Well, the biggest science lesson for me is the extraordinary accuracy with which astronomers are able to predict these events and where that's going to get dark and where it's going to be in a shadow and not quite dark and so on. It's remarkable.

You know, if you had a psychic or a tarot card reader or somebody who could make predictions with this kind of accuracy, I would presume that she or he would be rich, but that is not the case.

But astronomers understand the movement of the earth and sun with such precision that we can determine the path of totality within a hundredth of a second. Recently, that was decided that some of the calculations on the diameter of the sun were off a little, little, little bit. And so if you're on the very edge of the path of totality, be sure to get all the way in, be sure to get all the way in those calculations.

If the map you're looking at turns out to be off by a kilometer, a couple thousand feet, then that's how accurately they can determine it. You know, between you and a freeway exit, they can determine how dark it's going to be. It's really something.

KEILAR: Yes, no, it's amazing. And what do you think people should be? I don't, you tell me, I mean, maybe as they're going into this experience, should they have something in mind or do you think they should just go in without any sort of expectation? Is it more a spiritual experience? Is it a scientific experience? How can they go forward with it?

NYE: So for many of us, a science experience and a spiritual experience are closely related, that humans can understand the motion of these objects and see this remarkable effect is fantastic. But I will say two things to everybody about this.

First of all, getting into totality is worth it. If you have to drive an hour or two, you know, most of us live in the Eastern time zone. And so this will go right through the Eastern time zone.

If you can get in the path totality, it's worth it. The other thing, human nature being what it is, we just want to stare at the sun, even if it's cloudy, you just want to stare up there. So be sure to have these glasses.

Now, these are eclipse glasses. You can look straight at the sum of them, even though they're paper and mylar plastic, they are about 100,000 times darker than sunglasses. Sunglasses will not do it, but it's not the thing. You got to have the real deal. These are available from our website at planetary.org. Of course, everyone watching is a member. Of course you all are, planetary.org/eclipse. And also, I was in a hardware store yesterday and they were selling them in a hardware store.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Smart.

KEILAR: We have ours. We're ready.

SANCHEZ: We do. We've got ours. ISO compliant, I hope.

Quickly, Bill, I saw you did a cover for Time Out magazine.

NYE: International Standards Organization, yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I saw you did the cover of Time Out magazine. I had asked for these pictures to get put on, but apparently it would cost CNN like thousands of dollars and we could get sued if we don't pay the photographer who took them, so we don't want to get in trouble. But these are some pictures, man. You look outstanding.

And I know last time we had you on, we talked about doing a calendar. I'm wondering if I get the pieces in place, what kind of cut would you give Brianna and I to put out a Bill Nye calendar with steamy images like the ones you did for Time Out magazine?

NYE: So, I don't know. Sure, sure. I don't want to promise you royalties, but I'm sure with the success of my calendar, your careers, you know, the tide raises all ships. Am I right, people?

SANCHEZ: It does.

NYE: So yes, we'll work on the calendar. Everybody, it was fun.

[15:55:00]

Time Out contacted me about doing these things and they show up with these extraordinary outfits, what the young people call street wear.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

NYE: And I got into it. You know, I went as, I had a chip on my shoulder. I got an attitude about people who are not into science. Like, I got a problem with them. Cause I'll give, you know, do you want a problem?

SANCHEZ: No, no sir.

NYE: Cause I'll give you a problem, all right?

SANCHEZ: No, sir. Absolutely not.

NYE: Like that. It was like that. I'm kidding everyone.

SANCHEZ: Nobody should mess with Bill Nye.

NYE: But it was fun. And don't miss the eclipse on Monday. It's the next one's not for 20 and a half years or so. And I hope to be here for that one, but there's no guarantee. And it's just a fantastic event. You'll hear, it'll be night. Birds will chirp. Crickets will crick. And generally there's a little bit of a breeze created by the cool air next to the warm air. And it's fantastic.

KEILAR: It's going to be great Bill. And we cannot wait to experience it and check in with you after. And we thank you for your time today. Thank you so, so much. We're out of time unfortunately. We're going to be right back.

NYE: Thank you Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: For those flocking to the path of totality, Monday's Eclipse will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

[16:00:00]

And as a memento, a tattoo studio, a tattoo studio near Cleveland, Ohio, is offering customers several dozen Eclipse-themed designs to commemorate the celestial event.

KEILAR: Yes, Lorain County sits in the center of the zone of totality, and the studio's owner says she just wanted something to commemorate, she wanted something to do there to commemorate the event. She says it's something positive that we can all be a part of.

You can be a part of it, too. We'll be in Indianapolis in the path for Eclipse across America, starting at 1:00. You can also see it on Max.

Maybe we'll get tattoos of the sun and the moon. Maybe that would happen.

SANCHEZ: Quite the tease.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END