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Trump Holds Rally in Colorado as he Spreads False Claims of Migrant Gangs Taking Over Aurora; Climate Change's Impact on National Security; Thousands of National Guard Troops Deployed For Storm Recovery; Just Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 11, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Betting on immigration. Next hour, former President Donald Trump is speaking in Aurora, Colorado, a town that he has claimed for weeks has been overrun by Venezuelan gangs. We've got the facts on what's really happening there.

Plus, two devastating hurricanes in the last two weeks underlining the threat of climate change. Scientists say, it's fueling stronger storms, but is it also weakening our national security? We'll talk about that.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And a new warning from the federal government ordering from so called online pharmacies could kill you. We're going to show you how to not get scammed as we follow these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here at CNN News Central.

KEILAR: After weeks of spreading disinformation about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora, Colorado, former President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in the very same Denver suburb. So why is Trump campaigning in a solidly blue state like Colorado with just 25 days to go until Election Day? It appears he's using it to amplify his immigration message.

The former President has repeatedly argued that Colorado has become a, quote, "war zone" because of an influx of violent Venezuelan gang members, even as the city's own mayor and city council has pushed back against those claims. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us in Aurora, Colorado.

Kristen, tell us more about the strategy, the thinking behind this event from the Trump campaign.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, I want to start by talking about some poll numbers that we saw from the Wall Street Journal looks at who would handle this extra question to prospective voters who would handle immigration better. And you see those numbers there with 52% of people saying that Donald Trump would handle immigration better. That is why you are hearing him amplifying this rhetoric, some of it untrue, as you have noted, but he's going to continue doing so until we head into November. And I was just sent this by a senior campaign official who said that

today, he's going to be heaving. Donald Trump announced something called Operation Aurora, which would essentially remove migrant members of the very dangerous transnational Venezuelan gang.

And excuse me for reading down, they just sent this to me. Again, this has been Aurora, the center of this disinformation campaign that we have seen about migrants in the United States. You can see that Donald Trump is going to continue to reamplify that messaging when he is here today. We've already seen it by some of those speakers speaking before him. That is in addition to the enormous amount of backlash that he has gotten from local officials on the ground here. As you mentioned, the mayor, the governor, saying that is not what's happening here, that this has been grossly exaggerated on the ground.

And this trip today, amidst this backlash, comes as he is facing criticism from local officials in Detroit for what he said there yesterday while he was on the ground, essentially saying the entire country in a derogatory way would turn into Detroit if Kamala Harris was president.

Now, one of the things that Kamala Harris is now doing, and we have this first on CNN as an exclusive, is now responding in an ad that's going to air in Michigan, responding to his comments in Detroit. Take a listen.

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MAN #1: And so what Donald Trump doesn't understand or care to learn is that when he said --

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our whole country will end up like Detroit if she's your president.

MAN #1: -- that he should be so goddamn lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, this is part of a $370 million ad by that's going to air over the weekend in Detroit, including at the Detroit Lions game and Detroit Tigers game over the weekend. And I do want to quickly say, I got this statement clarifying Donald Trump's remarks. This is from the campaign. They said, like many Americans, President Trump remembers when Detroit was lauded as the gold standard for auto manufacturing. Success, success and revolutionize the industry. Detroit has suffered from globalist policies championed by Kamala Harris that have shipped manufacturing overseas.

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Detroit's population has dropped. Going to continue going here, as President Trump emphasized in his speech, his policies will usher in a new era of economic success and stability for Detroit. Clearly, they're trying to clean up after those remarks. There has been a lot of backlash from the state of Michigan, which unlike the state of Colorado, is a swing state and is a state where they need voters to turn out in November.

KEILAR: Yeah. As you said, I wouldn't say it was a strategy. That is the quote from Kristen Holmes there in Aurora with Donald Trump. Thank you for that report. So as former President Trump is getting set to rally there, here's a reminder of some of his misleading claims about Venezuelan gangs taking over the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I don't know if anybody got to see Aurora. I mean, they're taking over the city. They're taking over apartment complexes. You look at Aurora in Colorado, they are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. But I am angry about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora, Colorado and illegal Haitians. They go in and the governor there in Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, the governor is petrified. He doesn't know what to do.

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SANCHEZ: CNN Senior Reporter Daniel Dale joins us now live to fact check this. Daniel, there are a lot of factors at play here. There are condemned apartment buildings that a slumlord said a gang had taken over, and that's kind of the origin of this. Then you have local lawmakers who amplify those claims and then walk them back. And then you have Trump who's just taken it to a thousand.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. So this is another one of these cases where former President Trump has taken a kernel of truth and spun it into something not even resembling reality anymore. So it is true, there is a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua that has significantly increased its presence in the U.S. under Biden and Harris. So that's right, it does have a presence in Aurora, Colorado and elsewhere. And it has caused some problems in some apartment buildings in that city.

What is not true is that this gang has done anything even close to taken over the city. The Aurora Police Department said last month they had identified 10 known Tren de Aragua members, 10 in the city. They'd arrested eight of them. Even if there are more, they had not yet identified. This is not like some sort of occupying paramilitary force. It's also not true that this gang is in charge of any apartment buildings. The republican mayor of Aurora, former Congressman Mike Kaufman, initially seemed to fuel some of these flames. He went on Fox News, kind of endorsed the claims of a takeover.

He quickly walked that back, saying that he now agreed with the interim police chief that gangs were not actually in charge of any of these buildings where they'd cause some issues. And then he's gotten more and more forceful in the intervening weeks. So after Trump made a claim in the September presidential debate suggesting that this gang had taken over the city, taken over apart by complexes, Kaufman issued a joint statement, again, a Republican, with a republican member of council saying, please understand that the issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or large proportions of it.

TDA, Tren de Aragua, has not taken over the city. Its presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months.

SANCHEZ: We should also point out quickly that the accusation that what happened in those videos that went viral came from a landlord who is now being sued by the city for keeping these homes in horrible condition. They're effectively slums. And so that claim that they're overrun by gangs isn't exactly accurate either.

DALE: Yeah. So after this video went viral showing men with a big gun barging into an apartment unit, claims started spreading. You know, the gang has taken over the city, the buildings. Many of the tenants of this building came out. They actually held a press conference saying, hold on. The issues in this building long precede any gang members here. Yes, we have some gang members. They're not in charge. The actual issue is the landlord not doing repairs, not getting rid of pests and so on and so forth. I did reach out to the landlord has not responded.

I will also note that since this all blew up, the police have focused on these buildings and on this issue of this gang. And the Associated Press went back and talked to many of the residents. They said more than a dozen residents in the past week said that the threat had ebbed, it had quieted. They spoke to a resident saying, it's quiet. We can work. The gang members have gone. So Trump is suggesting, like, you know, Harris is doing nothing, the city, the governor is doing nothing. We need to send in the feds, send in Homeland Security to deal with this issue. By all accounts on the ground, this is being dealt with by the local police, by the local authorities. Things seem to be all right.

SANCHEZ: Daniel Dale, thank you so much for that fact check. We want to discuss with Democratic Congressman from Colorado, Jason Crow. He represents the city of Aurora. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. As we noted, Aurora's mayor and a city council person were largely behind the amplification of those exaggerated claims from that landlord, claims that they have since walked back. But as Daniel pointed out, there have been reported incidents at several apartment complexes in the area. Have any of those been directly tied to Venezuelan gangs?

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JASON CROW, UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thanks for having me. And first of all, I need to say something really clearly here at the outset. Aurora is not Trump country. Colorado is not Trump country. We are a community that takes pride in our diversity. We are a community of immigrants and refugees. Nearly one in five of my constituents were born outside of the United States. And we are proud of that heritage, of that diversity. It makes us stronger. It makes us more vibrant of a community. And we will push back vehemently on anybody that tries to demonize or set us against ourselves.

And also, to set the record straight, there has been no takeover by transnational or foreign gangs, period. No apartment complexes, no blocks, no parts of the city that has been resoundingly repudiated by federal law enforcement, by local law enforcement, by local city leaders. It has been made up by Donald Trump and his acolytes. It is simply not true.

SANCHEZ: So Congressman, there was a Denver Gazette report from last month that has been repeated by local officials pointing to authorities linking at least 10 people to Tren de Aragua, that Venezuelan gang. Eight of them have been arrested. What would you say is the prevalence of this gang in Aurora?

CROW: I've spoken with federal law enforcement, and it's actually the FBI that's responsible for transnational gangs anywhere in the country. The FBI here in Colorado actually manages and oversees the Metro gang task force that deals with transnational gang issues. What they have told me is that it is minimal. It is isolated. It's been corroborated by the Aurora Police Department. And there have been a very small handful of these gang members who have been identified, and almost all of them have been arrested. And there's no tie. I want to be really clear, there's been no tie and connection made between those members who have been identified and arrested. And actually, law enforcement is doing their job. They're responsible for this. And they are doing their job. And they're responding to these very isolated incidents.

No connection between that and this viral video. In fact, all the evidence we've seen shows that this viral video is not associated with a Venezuelan gang at all, that it's a street crime or local gang. So this has been twisted. This has been contorted. And the reason it's been twisted and contorted is because Donald Trump wants to demonize immigrants. He wants to demonize immigrants to perpetuate his myth about immigrants and refugees, to divide our country against each other. And he doesn't want us talking about the fact that he's going to gut healthcare, that he's going to gut gun violence prevention, that he's going to give tax breaks for billionaires and the wealthiest Americans, and he's going to do so on the backs of the American middle class.

SANCHEZ: To sort of paraphrase Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, in talking about a different situation with immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, their argument would be that they are amplifying these stories, these exaggerations, making up the story, as J.D. Vance said, on those clips that went viral and on the idea that Haitians are eating dogs and cats to push the narrative that there's a migrant invasion to bring attention to what they see as a crisis. The Denver area has struggled with an influx of 40,000 migrants from the southern border. And there are residents that feel the strain of that. Do you see how, while exaggerated and out of context, that message might resonate with some of your constituents, with some Coloradans?

CROW: Well, first of all, let's talk about the constant lies here. And then I want to address the broader immigration issue. First of all, the Trump campaign, Senator Vance, Donald Trump just lie about pretty much everything. They lie about immigrants in Ohio. They lie about immigrants and refugees in Colorado. They've been lying about the response to the hurricanes in the southeast United States and creating these myths and these lies about Abbas (ph) response, which is just not remotely true and has been repudiated by Republican governors and everybody else in that region. They just lie because they know that their ideas, that their policies are resoundingly unpopular with the American people. So they have to make these things up. And then on the immigration issue, there was an opportunity for us to address the border issue. And everybody I talked to says our immigration system is broken, something I believe, I know that we need to have border security. There was a bipartisan effort in the United States Congress to do that that had been negotiated for the better part of this past year or last year. And we were getting ready to vote on that, a generational opportunity to provide a pathway to citizenship and permanent residency, to provide legal pathways, to create a more secure border and address the crisis at the border. We had that opportunity.

Donald Trump picked up the phone, he called his minions in Congress, and they tanked the deal. There were 68 votes in the Senate to pass it. We could have passed it in the House. He tanked it because he would rather run on a problem than solve a problem. And that's where we are.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Jason Crow, appreciate you joining us and sharing your perspective.

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CROW: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, active search and rescue still underway in parts of Florida right now as officials are warning people to get out with water levels only expected to rise in the coming days.

Plus, how destructive storms like Milton and Helene are also creating new national security concerns stemming from climate change. And the DEA out with an urgent new warning about buying prescription drugs online and how to make sure you don't get scammed or put your health at risk.

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KEILAR: It has been nearly 48 hours since Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. And search and rescue efforts are still underway in the Tampa Bay area as the statewide death toll is now up to 16. First responders are scrambling to find people who are trapped in homes and buildings on Florida's west coast. And that includes a 91- year-old woman who was carried out. You see her here of her home earlier today.

SANCHEZ: She seems to be in good spirits and very difficult conditions.

KEILAR: That's right.

SANCHEZ: One of many scenes that we've seen across the state. There's also this new video of rescuers helping people escape their flooded home. You can see them wading through murky, knee-deep water using a yellow rope to guide them to safety. The sheriff in Hillsborough County is warning residents living near the Alafia River to get out now because water levels are expected to continue rising. CNN's Isabel Rosales has been on the front lines of the rescue efforts for the last few days. She's currently on board a vessel apparently seeking to help folks out.

Isabel, what's the situation now?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris, yeah, the Alafia River is about a mile out from here. And look at all of this flooding that they experienced days after Milton passed through to show that these folks are not out of the woods yet in the Tampa Bay area. I mean, just insane. They're used to flooding by the Alafia River. But I spoke with many neighbors here who told me they had never seen anything like this, this far out. You can see mailboxes right here, the water reaching the mailboxes, other areas even further away.

And if you can see right behind me, this is how we're seeing people getting around, right, relying on their own personal boats, kayaks, canoes, to bring stuff from inside of their homes back onto dry land and to figure out what their next steps will be. I can hear a rooster. I've seen animals, you know, up in the dryness of the homes. But again, islands surrounded by water.

I did speak with a couple, Ralph and Tina Genito, who we caught up with as they went in their home. One of these airboats on standby waiting for them from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and Fire and Rescue waiting on them as they put their belongings in trash bags. Listen.

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RALPH GENITO, VALRICO RESIDENT, HOME DAMAGED BY MILTON: it's surreal. It's just -- you see it on the news of other people. You feel for them. You know, I've seen it when it was flooded over here, the -- and Debbie, you know, they felt for. It's unbelievable. I mean, I know it's some terrible things, but I got to start all over again, you know? I just -- everything I had there is no good. Thank God I have flood insurance, but it's going to be a long time before we can come back.

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ROSALES: Yeah. And I caught up with them after they were back on dry land. They're going to a nearby shelter and to figure out, you know, where do they go from here? Where are they going to sleep from the foreseeable future? What's going to happen next week? These are the questions that people have.

Look over that way. You see that? That's a Bayfront health bus. You can see that in some areas, it gets deeper and deeper, all reaching to the windows. And in fact, earlier today, I saw it even higher.

Now, I spoke with our CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam who says that unfortunately the Alafia River, this is not over. It's expected to crest at midnight tonight. So the levels should be rising here until midnight. And that's expected to reach 25 and a half feet. That is not the record of the Alafia River, which is around 28 feet. But still major flood stage still deeply impactful to the people who live here. Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: What a scene that you are showing us. Isabel Rosales, thank you for that report from Hillsborough County, Florida.

More than 10,000 National Guardsmen are helping with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Helene and Milton. MacDill Air Force Base in the Tampa Bay area managed to dodge a bullet as that critical military base avoided disastrous flooding and damage from Milton. But the impact of these two catastrophic hurricanes in just two weeks is underscoring the threat of climate change as a national security issue. It just released analysis by a network of scientists at the World Weather Attribution says the data shows Hurricane Milton's rain and wind was supercharged by global warming due to fossil fuel pollution.

And joining us now to discuss is Sherri Goodman. She is the secretary general of the International Military Council on Climate and Security. She has also the author of a brand new book called Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Threat to Global Security.

Sherri, thanks so much for joining us in studio. We appreciate it.

SHERRI GOODMAN, SECRETARY GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL MILITARY COUNCIL ON CLIMATE AND SECURITY: Pleasure to be with you, Brianna.

KEILAR: So we know that we see, I mean, you just saw Isabel's report there. The cities, these homes, these businesses are vulnerable in these coastal areas and even in the non-coastal areas like North Carolina, which really opened our eyes.

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The same is the case with military bases, whether it is MacDill or other ones. How is climate change impacting them?

GOODMAN: Well, first, all your viewers should know that our military is there and ready, as you said, to help support our emergency first responders in this horrible storm. So our military is there for the American people. And that's important for everyone to know.

But secondly, our military bases have also been either in or close to the eye of various storms, just the ones that just occurred. And so they also are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the sea level rise, the warming of the oceans, the hotter temperatures. And so people had to evacuate. Airplanes have to fly off, ships steam away to get away from the storm. And military families are also affected.

KEILAR: Yeah, they're very much impacted. And they're thinking, obviously, what does the future going to look like? Do they need to adapt? You also, as you mentioned, yes, the military is there to help, but they've increasingly been there to help when you look at disaster relief. You can see climate change and you talk about this in your book, in the personnel hours of military and how it's being allocated to whether it is wildland firefighting or it is things like hurricanes. How does that affect the main mission? And what does that require for supporting the military?

GOODMAN: Well, it means today that our military is called up 10 times more frequently to fight wildfires, and respond to floods, and turns the light back on, and help in the rescue of hurricanes, as we've seen. So this has become part of today's modern military to be ready to respond to climate change effects here at home and also as part of the growing demand for these services overseas because people's lives are threatened, our allies and partners, and these storms affect us in geostrategically important regions from the Indo-Pacific, now, into the Arctic.

KEILAR: Politically, the debate over climate change is in this area. Does it exist or does it not exist, which is sort of perplexing. It also extends to the use of fossil fuels by the military. This can be a sometimes controversial topic. And I think one of the most arresting points in your book has to do with the true cost, both in money, taxpayer money, and in lives, when it comes to having a military that is reliant on fossil fuels, reliant on gasoline. Tell us about that.

GOODMAN: Well, yes, the true cost of -- we call it the fully burdened cost of fuel is more like $400 a gallon rather than what we actually see at the pump. And that's because of the logistics of moving fuel to the front. And we learned that the hard way in the -- in Iraq and Afghanistan when our military was convoying fuel to the front and then subject to deadly improvised explosive device attacks, causing fatalities to our soldiers and marines.

So now, there is a move to accelerate into the energy transition to find alternatives to those long logistics supply lines, better different fuels, electrification, better batteries, and ways to reduce the loss of lives, and also to save money, and also to give us more military effectiveness in a new era.

KEILAR: Where are the obstacles when it comes maybe to policymakers or to politics, when it comes to making people understand that actually combating climate change and having stable national security that they really go hand in hand?

GOODMAN: Well, that's why for almost 20 years, the military has recognized climate change as a threat multiplier and has been moving forward to change its energy systems. It doesn't happen overnight. The technologies are important. The support -- how we buy that is also important. And the support from Congress is indeed also important as well.

But I am pleased at the progress the military is making today to move towards net zero military bases, putting microgrids at many military bases as a way to improve both our energy security and to reduce reliance in the long run on carbon fuels.

KEILAR: Well, Sherri, the book is great. It's called Threat Multiplier and it's also a quick read. You're quite a good storyteller. So thank you so much for talking with us about it. It's more pertinent than ever. GOODMAN: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And ahead, we have some brand new polling that shows just how tight the race is between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, just weeks until Election Day, especially in pivotal battleground states.

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