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Erin Burnett Outfront
NYPD Gears Up For Trump Trial, 3 Days Away; O.J. Simpson Dead At 76 After Cancer Battle; Marjorie Taylor Greene Undeterred, Pushes To Expel Speaker. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired April 11, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:37]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news: we have exclusive new details about New York City at this hour preparing for the first criminal trial of a former president. This as the presidents legal team is zeroing in on what may be their only hope.
Plus, O.J. Simpson's longtime manager is OUTFRONT. He has 70 hours of footage of his former client and he's going to share the details of their very last conversation just before Simpson die.
And real life castaways. Tonight, you're going to hear from the pilots who found three sailors who had been trapped in a tiny remote island, found only because they spelled the word "help" out of palm tree leaves.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight: bracing for Trump. We have exclusive details this hour into the preparations that are right now being made for Trump's first criminal trial, starting in just three days, cameras, drones, bomb-sniffing dogs, barricades, federal and New York City officials have been calling on every resource they have for what will be an unprecedented several weeks.
And in a moment, we're going to take you inside the NYPD's joint operation center where officials are combing oversensitive intelligence ahead of Trump's appearance in the courtroom. That courtroom will be one of the most secure rooms in all of New York. Inside, a former president and a jury of 12 men and women who will ultimately decide his guilt or innocence.
And that jury may bail Trump out. And this is important to consider because you don't usually hear this part of it, but think about it this way. It is a criminal trial, and in that case, juries must be unanimous. So putting it another way, one juror is enough to prevent a guilty verdict. So, you know, you hear Trump complaining about can't get a fair trial in Manhattan. Well, actually, no, the odds may be in Trump's favor, just looking at the politics of it. Our Harry Enten crunched the numbers. Joe Biden won 87 percent of the
vote in Manhattan in 2020, there are 12 jurors. So if you do the math, that means there's about an 80 percent chance that at least one juror of that 12 is friendly to Trump or is even a Trump supporter, assuming that that jury pool is reflective of Manhattan's electorate.
And that one is all Trump needs, just one supporter to sink the government's case into a payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 election. The whole trial is about whether that payment was made to influence the election. And tonight Trump unleashed once again on the judge in the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was recently informed that another corrupt, a New York judge, Juan Marshawn, gagged me. That's gagged, like you can't talk, but he gagged me with respect to a case that everyone including the D.A. felt should never have been brought.
This judge should be recused, and case should be thrown out. He's totally conflicted. There's never been a judge more conflicted than this one. There has virtually never been anything like it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, you can say all those things and the judge, as a judge should, remains quiet and above it.
Brynn Gingras is outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan where jury selection will begin on Monday morning.
And, Brynn, you have done extensive reporting here. What are you learning from your sources about the security preparations underway for this unprecedented moment?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, it will be a robust security package. How is continually described to us, it's one that has been practiced and discussed for the last couple of months.
Now, listen, this courthouse here behind me, it handles hundreds of cases daily, but this is a trial like no other. It's expected to last six to eight weeks. So law enforcement really on a state, local, and federal level, needs to have this delicate balance of protecting the public, the former president, while also allowing business as usual.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS (voice-over): The crush of media, protesters and supporters, and the complicated task of protecting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who is also the defendant.
This whole area is going to look very different come Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. I mean, obviously, a lot of area, Brynn, is going to be frozen for the arrival of the ex-president. GINGRAS: Outside Manhattan's criminal court. This is where Donald Trumps trial kicks off Monday. Police are preparing for what even they describe as an unprecedented several weeks.
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Is there any difference from your standpoint on the ground now that Trump is the presumptive nominee rather than a past president?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's why I'm saying obviously going to wrap -- ratchet it up.
GINGRAS: That means the building will be wrapped in a security blanket of cameras, uniformed officers, drones, bomb sniffing dogs and barricades.
CHIEF JOHN HART, NYPD INTELLIGENCE & COUNTERRORISM BUREAU: This is just a small sample of what's available.
GINGRAS: CNN was given a look inside the NYPD's joint operation center, an intelligence and visual hub for the NYPD and its law enforcement partners.
HART: It's a big challenge. It's a lot of moving parts and the attention of the nation and often the world will be on New York City for this entire event.
GINGRAS: This is the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president in history. But Donald Trump has been in and out of courtrooms for the past year.
HART: This really is just a continuation of what occurred when he was on the civil trials.
GINGRAS: Giving law enforcement a head start on how to prepare and what to expect. It includes being nimble in responding to immediate threats.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We got word of that bomb threat this morning.
GINGRAS: Since Trump's indictments, law enforcement says threats against judges, district attorneys, and others have become almost expected.
HART: We're going to be looking at the threat picture on a constant basis -- social media, you know, scrubbing, just listening to people making calls or making threats online.
GINGRAS: How do you handle that?
HART: We want to find the basis of the threat. Is it real? Is it an online warrior? Is it -- you know, what kind of extra security preparations do we have to take?
GINGRAS: It includes also protecting jurors. We're told those picked could possibly be treated the same as jurors in Trump's civil trial against E. Jean Carroll. They may be driven in daily from a secret location for their safety.
And moving Trump, who likely will spend most of his nights at Trump Tower will be a calculated choreography between the NYPD and Secret Service who have triggered more robust security plans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this unprecedented? Yeah, it is. And that's why we've ratcheted up to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch everybody goes home safe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS (on camera): All right. Let me take you inside the courthouse to that 15th floor. That's where the trial is going to take place. It's going to be shut down to the general public come Monday, the elevator, the former president uses will also be frozen.
Inside that court room, Trump will sit at the defense table. Behind him will be Secret Service and in addition to that, there will also be court officers sitting in pews to create a protective barrier between Trump and the general public -- Erin.
BURNETT: It's really incredible to think about it.
All right, thank you so much, Brynn.
With all that reporting, let's go now to our legal analyst, Ryan Goodman, and Mark O'Mara, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
So thanks so much to both of you.
Ryan, you heard Brynn in the massive security, all this reporting that she has done and on Monday, you've got 500 jurors who are going to parade and like they do every Monday. But they're going to go through all of this, right? They're going to be well aware of this moment that they are walking into.
Does that have an impact?
RYAN GOODMAN, JUST SECURITY CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: I think it must. It's just the gravity of the situation, the enormity of the situation that I would think impresses upon them the historical moment. And then if they do end up serving on the jury, that they have a task to perform of applying the law to the facts and it's such a more solemn experience and the of this security presence, I think gives them an even deeper sense of it. That one hopes that then they perform their duties as they're supposed to jurors, exactly. BURNETT: So, Mark, you know, in the 500 that are going to walk in, right, you're only going to end up with 12 ultimately who are going to be the decision-makers and you have been involved with so many jury selections in high-profile, high-stakes criminal cases. Trumps team -- their goal, right, is to get at least one person on that jury. Just one is all they need right to raise a question. And I just shared Harry Enten's math just, you know, if you -- if you're going to say that these decisions are made in politics, which, of course, Ryan is saying we all hope that they aren't, if people are going to do their duty as citizens, but even looking at it from that perspective on Manhattan voter rolls, you've got an 80 percent chance that there'll be one juror on that panel who will be a Trump supporter are favorable to Trump.
So what is the defense looking for? How difficult is this going to be for them?
MARK O'MARA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, actually, I think it's going to be quite easy for the defense from that perspective, because you're right. They have to get somebody on that panel and we as defense attorneys don't like talking about moving for a hung jury, right? We want an acquittal, but a harsh reality is that political harsh reality is he does not want a conviction before the election and a hung jury will put this case off another couple of three months, potentially.
So, yes, the defense team is going to be looking for that sympathy jury, that somebody who is really to listen to Trump, willing to like Trump before they even walk into a corner. And you're right, 20 percent of the people, even in Manhattan like him. But nationwide, we know there's a greater percentage of people that have a sympathy and empathy for Trump. And that's what they're going to be playing towards
BURNETT: And, you know, Ryan, in that context, Trump post that video today, I played a clip of it rarely against the gag order from the judge, which it may be surprising to a lot of people watching, it was to me, he's allowed to do that.
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GOODMAN: Yeah.
BURNETT: The gag order actually, saying he can't -- he can't intimidate witnesses and you can't do that to family members of the judge, but the judge himself is not included in that. So we're going to see a lot more of this, right? We're going to see a lot more of this as he tries to, you know, inject this uncertainty and poison into the atmosphere around this judge.
So, the jury has been told not to watch. There's no jury in New York -- there's no one who hasn't turned on local news or something and seeing some part of this, how do you get around that?
GOODMAN: It's very difficult to get around it. It almost another example is just being a New Yorker getting in the backseat of a taxi that starts out with television news, local news. And this is going to be the biggest news around.
BURNETT: And it's going to be the jury selection in the Trump criminal trial, right?
GOODMAN: Yeah. Exactly. And also, jurors have families and juries have jurors have friends and
colleagues, and this will be a part of the information environment in which everybody is kind of stewing. So that idea that these kinds of statements by former President Trump don't reach the jurors one way or another is hard to believe, and that might in fact be part of his strategy could you are his strategy might be just the general public, but this is an indirect effect.
BURNETT: It certainly is.
I mean, Mark, I know you believe that Trumps team could actually play into the comments that he's been making about the judge to help him at the trial, walk us through that.
O'MARA: So I think they have to and they have such great environment within which to do it, because look, either he is an arrogant person who's ignoring the law and the processes, or he is so innocent and he is so upset with being falsely accused that he has to present themselves like that. And quite honestly, if you look at it through that lens, then the defense can lean into it, right?
They can say, you've -- to the extent you've heard him, because let's face it as was just said, there is nobody in this panel who has not heard about this case. And for that matter, has not made some previous position about. We're not trying to get people who haven't heard, they've been hiding in a corner somewhere. But we want people who will acknowledge what they've heard about it.
And the defense can play into that by saying you've heard my client -- my client. You've heard them complain about the process. You've heard him complain about the judge. Are you okay with somebody who believes he is so innocent that he has to speak out? What a great defense question to present.
BURNETT: And I'm glad we have you because we -- you get -- you get a real insight into their worldview because you've done these crucial defense cases.
Thanks very much to both of you.
And next, I'm going to speak to O.J. Simpson's longtime manager. He had a roller coaster relationship with Simpson over decades. And tonight, he's good to tell you about it, sharing some of the 70 hours of videos he filmed of Simpson and the details of their last conversation just before Simpson died.
Plus, we have new video just into OUTFRONT from the southern border. This video that we've just gotten is a group of migrants crossing into California, evading Mexican authorities, right before our cameras.
Our David Culver is there. He saw it. He's live in Tijuana, after this.
And breaking news, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tonight says she will go ahead with trying to oust Mike Johnson, even if Trump backs Johnson and she's just speaking to our Manu Raju. We're going to bring that to you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BURNETT: Breaking news, a family of Ron Goldman who was murdered along with Nicole Brown Simpson, speaking out for the first time on the death of O.J. Simpson, saying moments ago, and I, quote, the news of Ron's killer passing away as a mixed bag of complicated emotions and reminds us that the journey through grief is not linear. The hope for true accountability has ended.
Simpson was acquitted for murdering Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson in 1995 criminally, part of a spectacular downfall and football superstar.
Tom Foreman covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He was there. He sat in that courtroom and begins our coverage tonight OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police believe that that O.J. Simpson is in that car.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two hours over 60 miles, almost 30 years ago, the low speed pursuit of an American icon became an American sensation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were leaving their homes and their work and where they were, and they were racing to these its overpasses.
FOREMAN: And when the white Broncos stopped for O.J. Simpson to face murder charges over the killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and Ronald Goldman, the country was hooked.
CARI CHAMPION, SPORTS BROADCASTER: And that was our first introduction into reality TV, and what it looked like, and we were obsessed.
FOREMAN: Simpson was a superstar, a Heisman trophy winner in college. One of the most dazzling running backs in NFL history, for many Black families, in particular, a runaway success
O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Nobody does it better than Hertz.
FOREMAN: Juice was a beloved celebrity in commercials and movies.
And yet his role as defendant eclipsed everything else, through 11 months of court proceedings and nonstop media coverage, the nation was captivated by daily debates over DNA evidence, police procedure, and dramatic moments made for TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
FOREMAN: When the verdict came down --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not guilty of the crime of murder.
FOREMAN: By one estimate, 150 million people watched live, many splitting along racial lines over whether the ruling was just or just wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just unfair.
FOREMAN: A massive civil suit by the victims' families did not go as well for Simpson and he was ordered to pay tens of millions in damages. He lost his house and Heisman, but kept hundreds of thousands and pension funds.
FRED GOLDMAN, FATHER OF RON GOLDMAN: Our family is grateful for a verdict of responsibility which is all we ever wanted.
FOREMAN: Simpson had future legal problems, too. In 2007, he was arrested after an armed robbery involving sports memorabilia he said was his.
SIMPSON: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody and I didn't know I was doing anything illegal.
FOREMAN: He wound up convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison.
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He was paroled in 2017 and through it all, he maintained his innocence in the murders that changed his life and American society, too.
SIMPSON: Right now, I'm at a point in my life where I want to do is spend time with my -- as much time as I can with my children and my friends. And I've done my time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: You know, Tom, it just brings back so many memories for those of us who remember where we were in those moments, a verdict of the Bronco, and you were there in that courtroom through so much of this. We've got video a video of you.
You know, I can it's obvious who it is. You were covering the O.J. Simpson trial from beginning to end. Tom, what stands out to you the most from all those months that you spend in court?
FOREMAN: You know, Erin, as those months went by, I didn't spend a lot of time in the courtroom itself. I spent a lot of time covering everything around that, in all the analysis outside.
One of the things I was really struck by was how early you could see this divergence happening, where parts of the community, in large part the Black community, was saying, yes, you have to be suspect of police evidence. You have to be suspect of prosecutors. Yes. We're listening to what the defense has to say.
And many people in the white community the opposite. Were like, well, no, you trust the authorities. They have a case here. They're pursuing it. You could see that happening for months before you got to the verdict. So the response after the verdict was really no surprise.
BURNETT: It was really amazing. You know, we remember that white Bronco chase. I remember where I was watching that with a group of people. CNN's Larry King was on the air at the time and you see him here. The entire country glued to the TV, watching all this play out in real time. I mean, really, it changed this particular moment is a part of now American history, cultural society.
Did you have any inkling at that moment you'd be spending the next 16 months of your life covering this case? And what do you remember about that white Bronco chase?
FOREMAN: What I remember most of all about the white Bronco, remember we weren't really in cell phone time at that point. People were picking up landlines and calling everyone saying turn on your TV. This astonishing thing is happening.
And we're watching this slow motion chase down the road and we'd seen many car chases in L.A. They were publicized at various times, but nothing like this. And everyone saying O.J.'s in that car.
I'm telling you, Erin, people who didn't live through it, who didn't see O.J. play football like I did back in his day when he's in the NFL, it's hard to understand what a gigantic figure he was. So very, very high to fall so very, very low.
BURNETT: It is absolutely incredible. And as you say, one of the things even then that stood out was just this odd -- is sort of suspended nature of it and how slowly it seemed to move.
All right. Tom Foreman, thank you very much.
FOREMAN: You're welcome.
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Norman Fardo. He was O.J. Simpson's longtime manager. And has more than 70 hours of tapes of O.J. during the time that they spent together traveling the country.
And, Norman, I really appreciate your time tonight. You know, as we think about this and historical figure that he was, you've noted since 1999, you were part of his inner circle for years. And I know you say there were a lot of different O.J.s.
What do you mean by that?
NORMAN FARDO, O.J. SIMPSON'S FORMER MANAGER: O.J. was like a chameleon. He would change from one O.J. to the next. He'd be, you know, like a thug O.J. to a business O.J. You couldn't tell when he's going to switch.
I don't know if he meant to do it all the time, but he did. He would fit into any environment he was at. If there's a bunch of high rollers, he'd fit right in. If there was a bunch of people, you know, pimps, he fit right in. It was just -- it was amazing to watch the different O.J.s appeared. BURNETT: He did post a video in February. So, very recently here, very proximate to his death. And I just wanted to play it for you. Here it is, Norman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMPSON: My health is good. I mean, obviously, I'm dealing with some issues, but I think I'm just about over it and I'll be back on that golf course, hopefully, in a couple of weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As I mentioned, that was just February, and I know you talked to him very recently, much more recently than that Norman.
Was that conversation like and how did he sound?
FARDO: He sounded -- he sounded like O.J., just not quite as, you know -- I could tell he was damaged by his voice. But at the same token, it was time I think for us to get together and talk for a few minutes. We had a very roller coaster relation I guess you would call.
He got extremely angry with me when I -- when I was doing that movie "Who Killed Nicole", he didn't like that at all.
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He didn't like me contacting the other (INAUDIBLE) the night of the murders. So he stopped talking to me.
I don't know you anymore, and erased me. That's what O.J. does. When he's done with somebody, he'd just erase them, but then, you know, we got back together and I think he just wanted to -- he knew what was happening to him and he didn't want to leave in bad terms, that's all I could think of.
BURNETT: I mean, you mentioned, obviously, you did in your -- in your work at the time 2013, right? You implicated him in the murder. Did -- was this last call, I guess it sounds like what you're saying, was it a reconciliation after that? I mean, did -- did you get the sense that it was --
FARDO: Yes.
BURNETT: I don't want to use the word apology. You tell me what it was like, a goodbye?
FARDO: He's just saying (ph) he wanted to put it all into past and I did, too. So, let's just put it to past, call it a day and we both agreed to that. And then we just talked happy talk about the things we have done because sometimes the person when he gets real sick wants to hear happy thoughts.
BURNETT: You have recorded I know more than 70 hours of tapes of the time you spent together, Norman. As I said, you spent a lot of time together and you knew him and all these different chameleon O.J.s as you said. And at one point of the tapes that you shared with us, there's a song playing about O.J., and in this song, its about O.J. having killed his ex-wife. He's on your tape listening along.
So, here's some of that.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BURNETT: Do you remember anything about that moment as you were rolling on him with that song playing?
FARDO: Yeah, I thought it was fascinating. I thought that was fascinating to watch his expression because its very rare, you get the expressions from somebody who's actually being called the murder on, and then saying in with them. That's why -- that's why I put it on -- I don't know if I mentioned it, but ojtapes.com is where I put all the putting them up there. They got to think the public needs to see the different faces of O.J. and maybe they could take a little bit from the tapes that I did.
I thought it was really strange that he was singing with that.
BURNETT: Yeah
FARDO: But that's just me. I mean, I don't know if you look at his expressions. He's getting into the song. No ice cream melting and all the whole nine yards.
BURNETT: How could you even looking at him though in that moment --
FARDO: And like I said, a lot of faces of O.J. Simpson.
BURNETT: Yeah, react to that? I mean, knowing that at that point, you come to the conclusion that you implicated him, that, you know, in the murders that he could sit there and sing along with that song. Could you ever understand the psychology of that given how well you knew him?
FARDO: We kind of -- I take it because in his mind, he didn't do it because he didn't actually do the murders. And O.J., not a great guy, not -- he thought even -- he's not that nice of a guy. He's not a bad guy. He's just -- is he a murderer? That's the question everybody has asked himself.
And the only way to do that is actually to watch him, watch him matter, listen to him. He'll tell you everything. It took me 20 years of investigative work to figure out what happened.
It wasn't something you're going to learn overnight. So there's too many smoke and mirrors out there right now.
BURNETT: Well, Norman, now, you've had a chance over all these -- these decades to think about it, to study it, and you have that conversation with him just recently. What do you think he leaves behind? I mean, for lack of a better word, what's O.J. Simpson's legacy? FARDO: He's going to leave behind a mystery that everybody is going
to wonder, something that people would talk about probably forever. They're teaching in schools. I mean, that's why I'm on tour now. The schools want me to speak. They want me to talk about what all happened.
So that's what I'm doing right now because people still want to know what happened that night. And they'll never know. Nothing is there (ph).
BURNETT: Well, Norman, I really appreciate your taking the time to speak with me and to share some of this. Thank you.
FARDO: I appreciate you having me on your show. Thank you.
BURNETT: Can't keep watching -- can't stop watching that video of him singing along to the song about him killing her.
Well, coming up on CNN, Laura Coates has a special hour at 11:00 on the life and death of O.J. Simpson. You're going to want to tune into that.
And next, we have newbie video just into OUTFRONT of migrants evading Mexican authorities, illegally crossing into California. This -- we just got this video. Our David Culver is there, saw it. We're going to take you live to Tijuana Mexico to see exactly how they did it.
And breaking news, new images just into OUTFRONT of the sailors who were rescued after being stranded on a remote island.
[19:30:01]
They spelled the world "help" on the sand and a coast guard commander will be speaking out about the rescue for the first time OUTFRONT.
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BURNETT: Tonight, we have new video just in to two OUTFRONT. This is video from the southern border. We have a drone there and it captured a group of migrants illegally crossing into California and heading towards U.S. border patrol officers. They were able to evade Mexican authorities who say they're ramping up enforcement on their side of the border, to keep migrants from reaching the U.S.
So, our David Culver is OUTFRONT there at the border in Tijuana, Mexico.
And, David, it was you and your team who captured this video of these migrants as they were crossing the border, what did you see? How did they do it?
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Erin. Yeah. We're here with migration officials from the Mexican side and we've been spending the past couple of days trying to get a better sense of these revamped efforts to try to stop folks from illegally crossing. And it's interesting because having covered the border now for several months and going back even more than a year, it's the toughest level of enforcement I have seen at the U.S.-Mexico border, and it's coming from the Mexico side right now.
And the video that you pointed out, we were there with Mexican officials as they were showing us some of the vulnerable spots on the wall.
[19:35:02]
And that answer your question is how many of these migrants are still getting through? They'll either, as you can even see behind me, use portions of the wall and have equipment to cut out little squares and usually they're doing that with smugglers who are backed by cartels and able to get in, or you can even see up here on this portion of the wall, there's markings higher up and there's a lot of them.
They have made these ladders that essentially they'll throw up and then they'll scale up the wall and continue down the other side.
Now, when they get to the other side of this one here, they're on us territory, but there's yet another wall in this portion that keeps him from entering the U.S. right away. So they have to be processed. And many of them are trying to get those claims for asylum process by U.S. officials, Erin.
BURNETT: It is amazing, David, what you're showing us, what you're seeing in plain sight, the markings, the places to throw the ladders up, just seeing it so tangibly. And these crossings -- I mean, obviously, you've got -- you know, the United States has a crisis on its hands.
But what's fascinating from what sounds like what you're saying is it's Mexican authorities who are taking action, that residents in Mexico are increasingly frustrated with the migration crisis as well. So what are you seeing on that?
CULVER: So we were hearing that and we wanted to see it firsthand, Erin, and that's why we came down here and wanted to spend some time with Mexican officials and to see what they have put together as far as these new efforts is quite striking because it is in many places along the border much more than you'd see from the U.S. side as far as law enforcement presence.
As far as what residents think, and I'm going to show you where we are because this gives a bit of a better context. This is actually a neighborhood here if you pan this is private community to backs up right to the U.S.-Mexico border.
And it's interesting because we've been in touch with residents on the U.S. side and they're angry and they have shared with us over the past several months that they have these migrants coming through their property and that is frustrating them, the same type of frustration is felt here on the Mexico side and communities like this, this is actually a private wall are dealing with smugglers who will come through and they'll drop off groups of migrants in areas like this. And then even in this portion, you can see they have pulled back some
of the barbed wire on this private cement wall and they use that then to climb over the actual border wall. And so what has now been the result?
Well, the folks in this community have petitioned their states governor of Baja, California, who in turn has had the Mexican national guard and we saw this just a couple of hours ago, patrolling neighborhoods like this one.
So, you have to imagine that, Erin, you have in your own community national guard member, at least here on the Mexico side, now coming through and setting up camp in some places to patrol.
And tomorrow, we're going to have much more on some of the remote camps that Mexican officials have deployed to and set up an infrastructure, and we're going to show you that exclusively when we join you 24 hours from now.
BURNETT: Wow, it is absolutely incredible and just so amazing when you see them actually just walking through the scrub there. I just said that instability, that uncertainty that is so pervasive and permeating both sides of the border from what you're showing.
All right. David Culver, thank you.
David mentioned and he will have that exclusive report front tomorrow, that rare look at the conditions on the ground at some of those remote sections of the border wall where he's going to take you tomorrow and you don't want to miss that. So we'll see you tomorrow, David.
CULVER: Thanks.
BURNETT: All right. And I want to go now to the Democratic congressman from New York, Tom Suozzi. He's on the House Homeland Security Committee. He won the special election to replace Congressman George Santos in large part because of his focus on border security.
Which you are incredibly focused on, Congressman Suozzi.
So you heard David Culver's report, and I don't know if you could see the return, but it is incredibly powerful to look at the wall and see the markings where the ladders are thrown up, where the barbed wires pulled back.
The context here, Congressman, we've got a new "Axios" poll tonight that finds 42 percent of Latino adults in America support a wall or offense on the U.S.-Mexico border. And that is not just maybe larger than then many listening may expect. It's also up 12 points in the past three years.
Should President Biden be hearing this as a blaring wake-up call?
REP. TOM SOUZZI (D-NY): Absolutely. This is a problem that the American people are concerned about. And I've always said that the best elected official, the best politician is the one who says what the people are thinking already, and the people of the United States of America where they are the Republicans, independents are Democrats are concerned about the border. They're concerned about what they see on your show tonight, what they see as chaos.
And, you know, a wall is not going to solve it by itself, but listen, make it part of the solution. Let's get a bipartisan solution like the Senate bill that was negotiated by James Lankford, one of the most honest, ethical conservative Republicans in the Senate, along with the Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Kyrsten Gillibrand -- Sinema. Let's use that bipartisan compromise and let's push it forward.
[19:40:00]
BURNETT: Well, part of the reason that this is hitting such a chord, there are many reasons, but is also the fear of -- the fear of the unknown. What is coming across the border, okay? And the former national intelligence director James Clapper, I recently had a conversation with him, Congressman, he told me that his quote, very concerned about terrorists exploiting the southern border. He said it was in his words, a serious national security concern.
In that context today, the FBI Director Chris Wray warned about his growing concern, and I want to use his words directly about the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall. Now in that Congress hall, concert hall at Crocus, 144 people were killed.
What more do you know about Chris Wray's warning?
SOUZZI: I know that people are concerned. People are worried. That uncertainty of what's going to happen because of this open border is making people worried. And we have to recognize that people said to me during my campaign, and even now, oh, the border, the border, the border, that's a Republican issue.
No, it's not. It's an American issue and we must address it.
Now, the president has started addressing it much more. He talked about in the beginning of his administration. Now he's talking about it more. I'm hoping he'll take some unilateral action and we can force a bipartisan compromise because we had a deal on the table that was endorsed by "The Wall Street Journal", the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, even the Border Patrol Union president was a big Trumper endorsed the deal and President Trump swooped in and said, oh, I don't want to give Biden a victory. I want to run on the chaos.
Well, that's unacceptable. Let's make a deal. Let's actually address this very real problem.
BURNETT: All right. You just, as I mentioned, obviously, your House Homeland Security, you did also just returned from Ukraine. And so I'm sure that what we heard today from the American General Chris Cavoli, who happens to be the head of the U.S. European Command and the supreme allied commander of NATO, stood out to you. I mean, it stopped me in my tracks.
It -- he said, Russia's military -- again, I want to quote from directly -- has grown back to what they were before the war began.
I mean, that's incredible, Congressman. We've been hearing about the decimation of the military, their inability to provide for, their inability to mobilize, mass death of Russians on the front lines. And now we're hearing there back to the way they were before the war began.
Congressman, it's shocking. I mean, this seems to be proof, at least of the efficacy, the perhaps even the failure of U.S. sanctions to say the very least.
SOUZZI: The sanctions have to be enforced more strongly, but we need to recognize Russia is conscripting more soldiers. They're building more weapons plants. Ukraine has done a fantastic job fighting back. But right now, they're running out of ammunition.
And we need to help them. As you heard, the Japanese prime minister say today, this is important for all democracies throughout the world. And there was happily surprised to see how much bipartisan support there was for the prime minister of Japan's comments about the need to fund Ukraine and to support Ukraine.
That support is in the United States Congress, we need Speaker Johnson to put it on the floor. Stop letting Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other extremists block him. Let's get this on the floor. I promise it will pass.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman Suozzi, I very much appreciate your time and you just mentioned Speaker Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. We do have breaking news because Marjorie Taylor Greene has just spoken to our Manu Raju moments ago, and she's updated him about her plans to oust the Speaker Mike Johnson, even if he has Trumps support. So Manu has a breaking details there.
Plus, we have more breaking news because for the first time tonight, you're going to hear from a coast guard commander who spotted the word "help" on that sand of a remote island leading to the rescue of three sailors. We also have new pictures of their rescue this hour for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:58]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene not backing down, just telling our Manu Raju that she is going to keep trying to expel Speaker Mike Johnson even if former President Trump supports Johnson. Tomorrow, of course, Johnson and Trump are supposed to meet at Mar-a-Lago to discuss what they are calling, quote, election integrity.
Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT with the breaking details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I think that motion to vacate is also being supported by quite a few members in our conference. That said, that's an internal House issue with our elected speaker of the House, totally two separate issues. Hopefully, I have that -- they have a great meeting tomorrow.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the middle of the most precarious moment of his rookie speakership.
REP. SCOTT PERRY (R-PA): I think the sword hangs over Mike Johnson's neck.
SERFATY: Speaker Johnson making the trip to Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to appear side-by-side with former President Trump and talk about what the speakers office is billing as election integrity.
The pivotal meeting coming as Speaker Johnson is fighting for his political life from a challenge from Trump's close ally, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
GREENE: I absolutely love President Trump. I have a great relationship with him.
SERFATY: Marjorie Taylor Greene escalating her threats against the speaker to oust him.
GREENE: The current speaker of the House we have right now is getting rolled in every single meeting. He is negotiating from weakness.
SERFATY: Only intensifying the thorny intraparty relationships that Johnson and Trump are attempting to navigate. They may appear together tomorrow, with stakes high for their party in an election year.
GREENE: Mike Johnson, he's literally turned into Mitch McConnell's twin and worse. He's a Democrat.
SERFATY: Sources tell CNN that amid Greene's threat, allies of Johnson have asked Trump to either publicly support the speaker or at least stay out of it all together.
And sources close to Johnson don't dispute the timing of the visit, potentially only helping Johnson: Though this was a pre-planned event. This is not inconvenient for us. It's convenient for us, acknowledging the speaker's appearance with Trump is beneficial for them right now.
The meeting coming only two days after Trump dealt Speaker Johnson an embarrassing blow, defying Johnson and Republican leadership, Trump urging House Republicans to kill the reauthorization of the controversial surveillance law, FISA, leading to its failure on a procedural vote.
Despite this, Johnson and Trump have been slowly growing their relationship, since Johnson surprised ascent to the gavel.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yesterday, nobody was thinking of Mike, and then we put out of the word and now, he's the speaker of the House.
SERFATY: Johnson, an election denier -- REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The Constitution was
clearly violated in the 2020 election.
SERFATY: -- has visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, at least twice and endorsed him in November.
JOHNSON: I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress.
SERFATY: Johnson's predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was even closer to Trump.
[19:50:01]
FORMER REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I think the president has done a tremendous job.
SERFATY: When Trump personally helped him get elected speaker, it was then Marjorie Taylor Greene, who stepped in, fielding calls from Trump to help sway McCarthy's opposers.
REPORTER: Mr. Speaker --
SERFATY: A mere four months later, it was Trump, however, that declined saving his job when McCarthy was faced with his own rebellion from his right flank,a feat Johnson is hoping to avoid.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY (on camera): And these interrupt the dynamics in this threat to Speaker Johnson providing quite the backdrop going into tomorrows meeting. A source close this speaker tells me tonight that they would of course, welcome anything that President Trump wants to say in support of Speaker Johnson. But they're not aware even at this late hour, how much or how little he will get into it that he is the one that ultimately decides -- Erin.
BURNETT: Sunlen, thank you very much.
And next, we do have breaking news. We've just gotten some new images of the three sailors who were rescued after being stranded on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. And we're hearing for the first time on one of the pilots who found them after he saw all the word "help" spelled out on the beach.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news, and this breaking news is a miraculous story that we are happy to report.
OUTFRONT has just spoken to a Coast Guard pilot responsible for the rescue of three fishermen on remote island in the Pacific Ocean. They made this help sign out of palm leaves after their boat hit a coral reef and starting to taking on water. And they took shelter on this extremely small, uninhabited island. So a Coast Guard plane goes out flying hoping against hope, searching
for the men literally spots the plea for help spelled out and that pilot is speaking out now to OUTFRONT tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. CMDR. KEITH ARNOLD, U.S. COAST GUARD: We could see it from a couple of thousand feet up in the air. We noticed the island first and then on the first circle, we were able to see the help sign, later able to tell that it was made up palm fronds.
[19:55:05]
We were able to establish communications with them via hand-held radio. They all confirm that they were thirsty and hadn't had water for awhile, but that they were able to receive the survival kit from the Navy P8 that responded from Kadena, Japan.
And so they said it their medical condition was good and they didn't require anything else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's amazing. And Commander Arnold and his team rescued them. The men had lived on the island for more than a week surviving off coconuts and what little water they could get.
And in another incredible twist, when the Coast Guard reached the island, they've learned the three men were surprised to hear that one of the rescuers who came along actually speaking in their local language even more surprised to learn that the three fishermen and that rescuer were related, distant cousins, an incredible story
And now tonight, payback. Former President Trump is determined to address his personal grievances and punish his political enemies if he's reelected. And we've got new reporting from CNN's Phil Mattingly and Phil is going to show you exactly who Trump is going after, what he plans to do and how.
Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a disgrace. This is a third world country.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just days before Donald Trump becomes the first former president to go on criminal trial --
TRUMP: It's all coming out of the DOJ. A thing like this has never happened before.
MATTINGLY: His unyielding and fact-challenged rhetorical defense on the campaign trail obscured a stark reality.
TRUMP: These radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement.
MATTINGLY: What he alleges is the exact authority Trump plans to claim in a second term, according to a CNN review of campaign policy proposals and conversations with advisers and allies. The threats level of his opponents --
TRUMP: I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden.
MATTINGLY: Ready to be acted out if voters return him to the Oval Office. As one Washington Republican who talks to the Trump campaign framed it, Democrats hit first we are going to hit back harder.
When confronted with the lack of any evidence of White House involvement, Republican said: That's what he believes. That's what his people believe. And unlike last time, this is his party now.
And many voters don't seem to mind. Trump has repeatedly attacked prosecutors and judges, their families, their relationships, former officials and his political opponents.
He called for former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney and the rest of the January 6 committee to be jail. He's even floated execution to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The guy accused the president of being on cocaine last week and nobody even blinked, one Biden campaign official said when asked about Trump's strength in the polls.
After all, this animating feature of Trump's 2016 campaign --
CROWD: Lock her up, lock her up.
MATTINGLY: -- never actually came to fruition. And though Trump's affinity for vengeance existed long before that first campaign --
TRUMP: If given the opportunity, I will get even with some people that were disloyal to me.
MATTINGLY: -- and was often raised in his first term.
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: One of my favorite preoccupations during my time as national security adviser was counting how many times Trump said John Kerry should be prosecuted.
MATTINGLY: It ran headlong into advisors, Congress, and the courts loath to bend to his will.
TRUMP: I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution, I am your retribution.
MATTINGLY: This time is different. Four indictments and 88 felony charges have sharpened Trump's privately raised desire for revenge. TRUMP: If they do this and they've already done it. But if they want
to follow through on this -- yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse.
MATTINGLY: Congressional Republicans who pushed back on Trump are gone or on their way out, almost always replaced by loyalists who owe their election to Trump's endorsement. Federal courts blocked or forced withdrawal of an unprecedented number of Trump rules. They are now stocked with hundreds of young and sharply conservative Trump appointees.
At the same moment, Trump and his advisers embrace a maximalist theory on his presidential authority.
The advisers who blocked Trump's wishes, replaced by Trump devotees --
TRUMP: I put great people in, but I also put people that I made a mistake with.
MATTINGLY: -- performed the backbone of expansive policy proposals targeting Justice Department, national security and intelligence officials, laying the groundwork to terminate career government officials deemed insufficiently loyal.
TRUMP: We need to make it much easier to fire rogue bureaucrats who are deliberately undermining democracy.
MATTINGLY: And with Trump escalating his rhetorical warfare and advance of his trial next week on charges brought by the New York district attorney, it should be noted, there's a policy proposal for that, too.
TRUMP: I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical D.A. and A.G. in America for their illegal, racist, and reverse enforcement of the law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (on camera): Erin, I think the point here is this, there's no question next week Donald Trump faces the highest stakes legal challenge of his career. But if he survives that first criminal trial and any other that occurs over the course of the coming eight months and wins reelection, he will enter the Oval Office emboldened personally and with more power than we've seen probably in decades from a president and a team who are not hiding this. They're making very clear what they want to do, how they want to do it, and that their supporters want them to deliver, Erin.
BURNETT: It's incredible. They say, listen to what someone tells you.
All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much and thanks to all of you.
It's time for Anderson.
