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White House Addresses Border Crisis; Paul Ryan Grills IRS Commissioner; Terror Groups Recruits on YouTube; Military Advisers Head to Iraq; World Cup Fever Sweeping U.S.
Aired June 20, 2014 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don Lemon in for Carol today. Bottom of the hour, White House addressing the border crisis head on today.
Vice President Joe Biden is in Guatemala right now, holding high-level meetings to discuss a massive surge in children crossing from Mexico into the United States. In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security chief, Jeh Johnson, is in Texas, along with several high- ranking officials visiting border protection facilities to see firsthand what is being done about this crisis.
I want to go to Ed Lavandera now. He is in Dallas.
So, Ed, hello to you. Let's start with Jeh Johnson in Texas. What does this added White House attention mean with this crisis at the border?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, probably the optics of it is that it's a serious problem and one that's not going to go away any time soon. And also is important to get the message out there, especially in that's part of -- probably what Vice President Joe Biden is doing in Central America is starting to spread that word that -- and urging parents not to send their kids up north in hopes of, you know, whether or not they are trying to take advantage of some sort of amnesty or whatever they might have in mind is getting that message out there, that this is not a smart move.
In fact, the chief of the Homeland Security Department just last week was talking about that and trying to get that message sent out as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAE JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: A processing center is no place for your child. Putting your child in the hands of a criminal smuggling organization is not safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Don, it's a serious situation. They had predicted or Border Patrol officials have predicted that as many as 60,000 unaccompanied children might be making their way to the United States. That estimate has been bumped up to 90,000 for this year so it's definitely what the administration is calling a humanitarian crisis and one that doesn't show any signs of slowing down for now so a great deal of attention beginning to be paid to it.
LEMON: All right. Ed Lavandera, I want you to stick around. We're going to have a conversation and I think you may be able to help us out with this because the Vice President Biden extending his trip to Latin America. He's in Guatemala today as Ed and I have been discussing. And he is meeting with the president of the country and among the influx of young people at the U.S.-Mexico border, many of them are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Michelle Kosinski following the story for us in the White House. Rosa Flores is with us in New York, has done great reporting on the story in Honduras.
So, Michelle, let's start with you before I get to everyone else and Rosa, to be specific. What can we expect, Michelle, to hear from the vice president?
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't think any big announcement is going to come out of this, but I think this shows just how important this has been for the administration, and they have been wanting to publicly show that they are getting out in front of this problem, especially if those numbers are going to keep growing, but the goal of the vice president today is to meet with the president of Guatemala, also top officials from Honduras and El Salvador, like you mentioned.
And what they want to do is just talk about the problem, get it out there on the table and also address these rumors that we've been hearing about in Latin America. Number one is that if you are an unaccompanied minor and you make it to the U.S., that you're going to be able to stay. That is not true. In fact all of these kids then have to be put into deportation proceedings which also requires legal representation and housing. That's become a huge expense for the U.S.
The other rumor is that soon there's going to be some kind of immigration reform and the border is going to be tight, going to close, so now is your chance to try to make it across -- Don.
LEMON: Rosa Flores, you know, you have spent quite a bit of time lately in Central America. What's the motivation here? What's driving these immigrants north to the U.S.? Give us some background.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, what I kept on hearing on the ground was first of all the violence and I'll give you a quick anecdote. I talked to families in these neighborhoods in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and they tell me here is what we face. So you're at home, all of a sudden dozens of men run inside your home, and these are gang members, they hold you at gunpoint. And they take everything that you have. If you say anything, they will kill you.
And so they go from neighborhood and -- to neighborhood terrorizing people and also giving kids an ultimatum. You either join the gang or you die. And then there's also extreme poverty. For example, in Honduras, 65 percent of the people there are in poverty and then there's one more thing and that is to reunite with their families in the United States. And very quickly, Don, I talk to a Honduran official yesterday who
tells me that in the past few days, a baby, months old, was reunited with her mother in the United States. Now, this baby was brought here by a coyote and dropped off in the United States. So it's those types of stories that we keep on hearing and like Michelle was saying, there's this rumor, and what -- from what I heard on the ground, these are coyotes who make a lot of people by smuggling people into the United States, that are disseminating these rumors, telling people all you have to do is get to the border and then you will gain access to the U.S. And of course, like she said, that is not the case.
LEMON: Ed, what's the sense there? You heard Michelle talking about the legal challenges, dealing with this with red tape, how much it would cost, and so many people coming over the border now. What's the sense there on the border and people think, do they think that these people should be sent back? Do they want to integrate them into their communities? What's it like on the ground there?
LAVANDERA: You know, I think it's one of those points of contention that there are a lot of people, especially along the border, who might feel sympathy for a lot of these folks, but you know, this is an incredibly dangerous trek that a lot of these kids and I don't think we can put too fine a point on this, but for people, even for adults to be smuggled from Central America through Mexico, it's an incredibly dangerous plight. And imagine doing that if you are someone under the age of 18 in the hands of some of these people.
So there's -- you know, I think along some of these border communities, a great deal of sympathy, also I think in some corners, you might be raising a lot of sympathy and wondering, you know, why in the world would someone put their child through that kind of dangerous experience.
LEMON: Ed in Texas, Rosa Flores in New York and also Michelle Kosinski at the White House, I appreciate all of your reporting. Thank you very much. We'll see you throughout the day here on CNN.
Meantime, Congress getting worked up over the IRS scandal that claims political foes were targeted. We're going to go back live to Capitol Hill next. It is very contentious and we're going to let you in on some of it. Specifically, Representative Paul Ryan on the House floor. Unbelievable. Don't go away. You want to hear this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: There is a contentious hearing going on on Capitol Hill that involves the IRS and the former director, Lois Lerner, and her e- mails, what happened to them, was she actually targeting Tea Party people and conservatives.
Dana Bash now on Capitol Hill with the very latest, of course in Washington with the very latest.
So, Dana, what's going on? Paul Ryan -- you know, I misspoke before the break, I said he was on the House floor. He's actually in those hearings. Paul Ryan is not a happy man today. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, he's not at
all, and he is one of the many Republicans during this hearing grilling the IRS commissioner and the issue is that on Friday Congress found out that over two years of e-mails that Lois Lerner had on her hard drive are gone. That's what the IRS says and now we've learned from the IRS commissioner that the hard drive was actually recycled and destroyed. So there's no way for Congress to go in and check to make sure that they -- that that's actually the case. So that's the backdrop here. Listen to what happened with Paul Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: Sitting here listening to this testimony, I just -- I don't believe it. That's your problem. Nobody believes you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on now.
RYAN: The Internal Revenue Service comes to Congress a couple of years ago and misleads us and says no targeting is occurring. Then it says it was a few rogue agents in Cincinnati, then it said it was also on progressives. All of those things have been proven untrue.
This committee sent a criminal referral of possible criminal wrongdoing just a month ago to the Justice Department. We've heard nothing. You'd bury in a 27-page letter to the Senate, asking for them to conclude the investigation, that you've lost Lois Lerner's e- mails during the time in question because of a hard drive crash.
Monday, our investigators asked your agency whether any other hard drives crashed and we learn that six other hard drives of the people we're investigating were involved. You didn't tell us that.
JOHN KOSKINEN, IRS COMMISSIONER: We told you on Monday.
RYAN: On Monday.
KOSKINEN: And what did you do with the --
RYAN: Because we asked you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And he does have a point. He has several points, does he not?
BASH: Yes. Several points, but one thing that I want to say just again to put this in a little bit of context is that, number one, Paul Ryan is certainly a well-known Republican, but he's a policy wonk. He doesn't usually play the role of partisan attack dog and the fact that he was so worked up, and he said something that every American can relate to. Why can the IRS demand American taxpayers save seven years of tax records and they can't save six months of e-mails?
LEMON: Right.
BASH: And then -- and then number two, while he was doing that, you probably heard a Democrat say, come on now. This has become so incredibly contentious. A Democrat apologizing to the witness for being badgered, for -- at being, in the words of one, inquisition for saying that Republicans are determined to have -- make this a conspiracy. One of the Democrats even very sarcastically asked if he was responsible for hiding the president's birth certificate and things like that. You know, bringing up other Republican conspiracies from -- in the eyes of Democrats.
But just big picture here, Don. Here's what's important to keep in mind. The IRS scandal, we did story after story after story, when this first broke, it's really died down as we get closer to the election. The fact that these e-mails were destroyed and that Congress is -- Republicans are so mad about it, has brought it back up to the fore, and made it much more of an issue again.
LEMON: Certainly has and more to come. I'm sure.
Dana, thank you. Keep an eye on that. We'll get back to you.
Still to come here on CNN, as violence rages on in Iraq, both sides need new blood and terrorists are using social media to call for help from Muslims in the West. Their latest strategy, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: As 300 American special ops prepare to advise Iraqi troops, the Iraqi military is calling for reinforcements of its own. Retired Iraqi military technicians and officers are being asked to reenlist. They are urgently needed to maintain and repair military aircrafts and tanks as terrorists inch closer to the capital city.
And the Iraqi military isn't the only group asking for back up. The terror group ISIS is recruiting supporters across the globe using YouTube. They're targeting Western Muslims and asking them to join the fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the land of jihad and the land of Hayat, the land of living. We have brothers from Bangladesh, from Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia, in U.K. Nothing has gathered us except to make Allah's soldiers with the Hayas. That's all we've came from.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Our senior international correspondent is Nic Robertson and he has more now from Baghdad -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, we've talked all along about this strategy, the strong military strategy that ISIS has had in Iraq and in Syria from the beginning, that fast move towards Baghdad. Well, that military acumen is now being matched by their social media outreach, the new slickly produced videos, some of the conversations are in English, really trying to outreach to a much broader global community. It's going to -- trying to bounce, get some bounce off this high-
profile assault that they have had in Iraq and enhance that by reaching out across a number of social media platforms.
This is their strategy to draw in more fighters, more recruits and more money as well. And now they've taken control of this chemical storage facility. It was where Saddam Hussein created chemical weapons. It was the birthplace of his biological weapons industry. Weapons that were used against Iran in the 1980s, eight-year, 1980s war with Iran. During the early 90s, '91, the site was bombed.
In the mid 90s, U.N. weapons inspectors went there, sealed off and tried to make safe these chemical weapons. I was there with U.N. weapons inspectors in 2002. And what we saw at that time indicated that those weapon systems were rusting, they were lying around, we understand, from the State Department that they are not militarily useful but dangerous. One of dangers too is the would-be ISIS fighters, four most senior members from Saddam Hussein's army may well be acquainted with the storage facility, those weapons systems themselves, it remains a concern -- Don.
LEMON: Thank you, Nic.
And joining me now to talk about all of this is a former retired Marine Major General Tom Wilkerson, Tara Maller is a research fellow at the New America Foundation, Jay Newton-Small, a political correspondent for TIME magazine.
Good morning to all of you.
Jay, first up to you. Is the president's plan the right move?
JAY NEWTON-SMALL, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, the president doesn't really have a lot of good options here. There's about zero support from America to send any kind of troops back in, even 300, a lot of people were very upset about. There just isn't a lot of appetite to reengage. There's a lot of problems here at home that Americans want to focus on, still after 10 years of war over there.
LEMON: Major General, what's the difference between these special ops advisers and troops on the ground? Because most Americans see this, you said you're sending people over, that they're -- it's actually troops on the ground going.
MAJOR GENERAL TOM WILKERSON, CEO AND PUBLISHER, U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE: I think the main difference is where they're going to be located and also when you talk about boots on the ground, when you're speaking to a military person, usually you are going to talk about a combat unit, something on the order of an army brigade with supporting arms and all the things that are necessary for it to sustain itself in a combat region.
What the president has done is appears to be kind of slicing the middle of it down. He sends our version of the 300 Spartans who are supposed to go over there and help reverse things. But one thing your viewers might would probably be most interested to know what's the goal from all of this?
LEMON: Right.
WILKERSON: Is it about the away game in Iraq or is it more about the home game here at home?
LEMON: Yes. So it's a sort of -- it's a hybrid situation so to speak. You said he's splitting the difference. Quickly before I get to Tara, Major General, is it the right move?
WILKERSON: I think it -- he's between a rock and a hard place and it's the only move. And when you ask is it the right move, you got to look again and say what's the goal?
LEMON: Yes.
WILKERSON: If the goal is to get status quo ante with a strong Iraqi state, including everyone, hold your breath.
LEMON: Yes. Yes. Iraq and a hard place. No pun intended.
Tara, you know, the violence spreading in Iraq is a lot different than what we have seen over the past few years? Why is that?
TARA MALLER, RESEARCH FELLOW, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: It's very different. We've never seen violence to the levels we're seeing now. And we've never seen insurgent groups hold territory like we've seen then do in Mosul and to create -- and now towards Baghdad. Does that mean they're going to be able to go forth towards Baghdad and hold Baghdad? No, I actually don't think that will be the case for Baghdad but it is significantly different in terms of the strength of the group, the financial capabilities of the group, and the fact that now you have a raging war on the border over the border in Syria.
So what we're seeing now is a perfect storm of violence, the potential for a safe haven in parts of Iraq, and you have problems because of weaponry and people flowing over the border from Syria. So I do think it's very different from what we've seen in the last couple of years. I don't necessarily think that means they're going to be successful in being able to overtake or overrun Baghdad. But they might be able to cause some problems there.
LEMON: And the ramifications this time around may be even more dire because of what's going on in Syria and what have you in the Middle East. So it's going to be interesting to watch.
I appreciate all of you. Tom Wilkerson, Tara Maller and also Jay Newton-Small, thank you very much.
And later today, CNN's Kate Bolduan will sit down with President Barack Obama for a one-on-one interview and she's going to ask him about the plan to send special ops into Iraq. We're going to bring you that conversation later today and on Monday on "NEW DAY". Make sure you tune in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: U.S. soccer fans anxiously awaiting Sunday's match against Portugal. Round two in fighting the death group -- the Group of Death, I should say. ESPN and Univision are hoping to top the 16 million viewer mark who viewers who watched last Monday's game.
So are U.S. fans actually getting on the world record, world soccer bandwagon, I should say, or is this fair weather fandom?
Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whoever says the United States doesn't have a case of football fever hasn't been to Chicago.
CROWD: USA. USA.
CARROLL: Or New York.
(CHEERING)
CARROLL (on-camera): How does this compare celebrating here to celebrating, I don't know, in Australia or anywhere else?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're representing our country, we're here. World Cup. Walla (ph), let's go, Aussies.
CARROLL: Once again making our way through the Australian NYC bar here in New York City, it's packed. We can still make our way through here, down to the bar. We're not going to get a drink.
(Voice-over): In this place, on this day Americans -- actually just about everyone here -- is an Aussie. Unless, of course, you're Dutch.
(On-camera): Anyone rooting for the Netherlands in here? Anyone? I see some orange over there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will win.
CARROLL: You think so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CARROLL: If you do win, make sure you make a quick exit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes. We will.
CARROLL (voice-over): Early disappointment for Australia but celebrations catching on in Miami. Chile's fans rejoicing after scoring against Spain off to Los Angeles. A goalie save brining Mexico to its feet. And in Kansas City cheers for Team USA. A record 16 million viewers tuned in for Monday's match against Ghana. The U.S. team still a long shot but still in the hunt.
World Cup frenzy lighting up social media. 4.9 million tweets worldwide. Watch as tweets rippled across the United States before and then after Team USA's winning goal. The hashtag #worldcup on Instagram going viral with more than 2.3 million posts.
In the end, it doesn't matter if it's the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, it's game on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Don, as you know, there are a lot of Italian Americans right here in New York City, so in just about an hour from now, when Italy takes on Costa Rica, that's going to happen at noon, you can imagine a lot of TV sets here are going to be tuned in for that -- Don.
LEMON: Anyone rooting for the Netherlands? Bueller, Bueller, Bueller. Hey, Jason, stick around. I want you to talk to John Berman with me. As with everything, the World Cup has some haters crawling out of the woodwork.
CARROLL: Yes.
LEMON: And for those of you who are already sick of soccer and just want your old Sports Center and Twitter feeds back, John Berman had this message for you. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR, AT THIS HOUR: Like billions of people, I love the World Cup. And like millions of people, I enjoy tweeting about the World Cup. So imagine my outrage when people on Twitter complained that they are sick of reading tweets about the World Cup. There's even an app now that lets you block all World Cup tweets.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, AT THIS HOUR: No way. Come on.
BERMAN: Really? You'd rather read tweets about the grilled cheese someone had for lunch or the cable anchor who's too conservative or too liberal or both too conservative and too liberal. You'd rather see that than tweets about a beautiful game played by beautiful people. Let's face it, they are hot. They play in front of beautiful fans in a beautiful country.
PEREIRA: I don't think she's playing soccer.
BERMAN: Now even if the answer to that question is yes, even if you don't want to read about that, you're missing a huge opportunity. Do you know how easy it is to infuriate Europeans? Just call the game soccer instead of football or football or futbol. Watch this.
Soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer. You hear that? That's the sound of 1800 Dutch people throwing wooden shoes at the TV.
PEREIRA: No.
BERMAN: Or 500 Brits grunting at a language they claim to be English. All right. You can call me when you win a game, Beckham.
Why would you pass up the chance to ridicule these people on Twitter? Why would you pass up the chance to share these experiences?
So for all of you who don't want to be part of this, who don't want to play in this great social conversation, why don't you just lock the doors, shut the windows and play with yourselves.
PEREIRA: At Johnberman on Twitter. Beefydubs, I have no part of this. I can't defend you. I cannot defend you on that one. You are on your own, my friend.
(END)
