Transcripts For CNNW The 20240703

President biden felt the nation needed a wakeup call when it came to democracy. And on one man he thinks s his biggest threat. The lead starts right now. Put partisanship aside and put country first. I say we must, and we will. Joe bidens message today using the storied political legacy of john mccain to make his case against threats to democracy and donald trump. In a state where team trump pulled out all the stops and some cyber ninjas to steel the vote. And one House Republican aide described the first Impeachment Hearing, one witness saying Current Evidence does not support articles of impeachment. Was anything achieved for the House Republican cause today. And americas Mental Health crisis. Some of the best minds coming together today to figure out why so many especially Young Americans are so unhappy and what we can do to fix it. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Starting with breaking news. Moments ago President Biden wrapped up a speech in arizona about a red state with a warning to country one the very center of his 2024 reelection pitch. And ive always been clear. Democracy is not a partisan issue. Its an american issue. And theres something dangerous happening in america now. Theres an Extremist Movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The maga movement. Ext extremist exercising carried out. The late nst in a series of Steak Attacks on donald trump and sources say many senior democrats calling for the president to spend more time directly attacks trump in an effort to energize both voters and donors. The party means republicaning free and fair elections. Accepting the outcome win or lose. It means you cant love your country only when you win. [ applause ] democracy means rejecting repudiated Political Violence regardless of party. Such violence is never, never, Never Acceptable in america. Its undemocratic. [ applause ] it must never be normalized to advance political power. Also notable, both time and the location of todays address. President biden delivered his remarks just hours after the republican president ial candidate and while republicans on capitol hill hold their first hearing in their Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden and the location, arizona, one of the five Battleground States at the center of trumps efforts to overturn the election in 2020. Also the home of the late republican senator john mccain, and by honoring mccain today officials tell cnn President Biden was hoping to remind voters of an earlier era of bipartisanship and loyalty to the u. S. Constitution. Ive come to honor Mccain Institute and library because they are a home of a proud republican who put his country first. Our commitment should be no less, democracy should unite americans regardless of political affiliation. Bring in kristen holmes. An important reason for the speech. Trump early as this week signaling he would challenge the 2024 Election Results if he doesnt win. He definitely describes him not winning as an indication that things are rigged or unfair. Thats right, jake. I want to be clear here. Donald trump, the things biden is saying hes done, hes saying them as well. Essentially said if reelected he wants to completely overhaul the government and upend the Democratic Institutions as we know them. That starts with these elections. Its not just 2020 as you mention ed fact election denial led to insurrection on capitol hill and its also 2024 and still not said he would accept those Election Results in 2024. Will you commit to accepting the results of the election regardless of the outcome . If i think its an honest election, i would be honored to. They rigged the president ial election of 2020, and were not going allow them to rig the president s election of 2024. We will win bigger and better than ever before. [ applause ] they rigged the president ial election in 2020, and were not going to allow them to rig the president ial election in 2024. And what was striking to me about what biden was talking about is that, again, these are things donald trump has said on the record. He has said them on his social page and said them in speeches, but biden was amplifying that. Look where we are now versus when trump was running for president the first time or in office. Has a much smaller platform. Not on twitter. Not all speeches are covered. Essentially theres a chance that theres a section of americans who dont actually know what donald trump has been saying since he left office. I want to go through some of these. Called for chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff mark milley to be executed. Wants to bring the Department Of Justice underneath the Executive Rig getting rid of the deep state allowing him to weaponize the Department Of Justice against his enemies. Making it political. He also said recently that if reelecteds the media would be covered, would be scrutinized. Why should people get airwaves for no reason and pay a big price for coverage and talked openly reinstate schedule f essentially allowing him to easily fire government employees, replace them with lo loyalists. Something donald trump wants to do, really a platform of the Republican Party. Preparing for a Republican Administration in 2025 and one of their key components. Try to get rid of these, bureaucratic employees with governmental job protections. Replace them with loyalists essentially going along with whatever the president wanted. Thanks so much. Discuss. R ron brownstein. Battle for democracy successful message in 2020 for joe biden. Talking about the soul of america. Didnt particularly know the extent donald trump would try to subvert actual democracy at the time. In the 2022 midterms a lot of people thought there was going to be a red wave. Didnt happen. In part because of what happened in 2020. Do you think its still a winning message for democrats, at least in the margins where it were make a difference . In places such as arizona . First thing has to be said all reasons kristen said and many others dealing with an unprecedented situation at least since the civil war. Dominant figure in one of our major parties is not committed to democracy in the way that we have understood it as a country. Probably could go back to john calhoun and the Democratic Party in the south before the civil war to the last time you could say that. Democracy was a surprise, surprised people extent to which is was a valuable issue for democrats in 22. Whats changed since trump anded by werent last on the ballot today. More concerns about age and inflation hurting biden. And you have abortion and insurrection hurting trump. When all of those combine, likely outcome is that bidens coalition will probably tilt further upscale. Talking about before. Inflation and the as you saw in trumps meg this week will make it harder for him to match his 2020 numbers among voters around the middle income feeling squeezed. Motor concerned about these institutions, democracy, abortion rights, hope to do even better than he did in 2020. And yet polls show that joe biden is really under water when it comes to approval on the economy, approval on immigration and the border. When it comes to approval in almost every realm. Hes facing really i think some of the worst polling for an incumbent president since jimmy carter. Do you think this will be enough . Absolutely. The other group really hears about this is young voters actually. They care deeply. People are still concerned about democracy. They understand that a weak democracy is bad for the economy. It is bad for their own pocketbooks. I think the other thing, though, i want to point out that the president was trying to do. Again, he was talking about that maga theme. Right . Sort of, again, we saw in 2022 kind of separating out theres an extremist part of the Republican Party and there are moderate republicans, which in places like arizona. Independents who did vote for him last time and are still very concerned about our democracy. I would argue obviously polling, been a little all over the place. Statebystate polls show slightly different picture than national polls, but also part of the speech is to get democratic voters, start to get us revved up. Debates. The debates. Quite frankly, most democrats arent paying close attention because we dont have to. Dont have a contested primary. Before its really a headtohead polls will be all over the place. Scott jennings here a second ago, david. A point he made was, this influences just 1 or 20 p of republicans in pennsylvania or arizona or michigan, wisconsin, where look at 2022 results, really did have a in those places, those states and commonwealths, election liars lost. Right. Interestingly, ron points out. Going to be Low Er Merion and montgomery county, pennsylvania. How much are excited about the biden message and ticket . How many show up and turn out versus come back in scranton, wilkesbarre, suburbs, blare county, altoona, trump outperformed in pennsylvania wildly. Right . Thats the question. Both things may happen. Likely both things happen. Biden overwhelming likelihood i think is that biden is going to need people in 24 who feel hes not delivering for their interest, vote for him anyway thinking he better represents their values than trump. All states, five key states, democrats won seven of the nine senate and governor races. In all of those states at least 75 of the people said, the economy in negative terms. Able to get people to make that leap. Could be harder in a president ial race, but a precedent here. Argue one other thing happening. Seeing it among some members in my own family conservative military folks, voted for trump first time. Get them back. Wont worry. Actually not going to vote. Therapy not going to vote for biden but if its trump just not going to vote. Thats the other challenge republicans may have this time. People may not vote for biden. May just not vote at all. John king talked about this. 50,000 to 75,000 people in all of these states. A huge universe a small thing. Four, five states. Also say 2016. I know. Listen, i was there. There on the ground. 45,000. I was saying. Lets not count out cornel west, impact on the party. Running a green party ticket. Jill stein, 3 of the vote. An articulate and smart, savvy guy on fox news. Out there. Had him on. Yeah. Saying hes going interesting to see if that peels off any. Not great for democrats and in the Current Administration as well. Very interesting. Ton turn off the tv and go home . Very tough race. A point made a lot of stuff President Biden is talking about is just facts in terms of what donald trump is saying. Like maybe describe them differently. But basically donald trump is not making any bones about what he wants to do in another term. As i said. We are in a situation we have not been in before as a country. We have the dominant figure in one of our major parties is running, has not only behaved in a way in the past but promising more of the same in the future of challenges in the basic pillars of american democracy. Accepting Election Results. Peaceful transfer of power . Yeah. Hanging former chairman of joint chief of staff. Revoking licences of networks of networks that criticize you. Not every voter is going to say, this is the decisive people worried about understandably affording necessities of life and may be people think donald trump was better for the economy than joe biden. 22 showed up reduction is few that says, who is better for my interests . Winning hand in america politics, its no longer true. One other point. In arizona i think a lot of democrats maybe you maybe not. Not sure. Worried that katie hobbs, the then, attorney general. Secretary of state. Secretary of state. Was not running the most aggressive Kacharismatic Campai and still won. Run against a more charismatic less hinged candidate more election denying candidate in kari lake because of enough republicans like, i dont want this nonsense. Right. Exhaustion. It is. Something you teased top of the show. Americans are depressed. In their own lives. Americans are feeling this a lot. If donald trump were to stop looking in the Rearview Mirror and start independence, the economy. People that are affecting folks saying we can do better. A different race. Well, if my aunt were my uncle everyone stay with me. Back to the panel. Going to the capitol next republicans rolled out witnesses after witnesses in their first Impeachment Inquiry trying to tie President Biden to the sleaze and corruption allege are there with biden Family Members and associates. Were they successful . Plus, another f bomb thrown in a testy exchange. That does nothing to solve the bigger problem. The government headed for a shutdown in less than three days. Stay with us. In just overtwo days. Look at that 2 days 7 hours 38 seconds, u. S. Government could shut down, if the house and senate are unable to come to agreement how to und the u. S. Government. What happens in wholly functional societies meaning millions of americans lose paychecks after tomorrow. Members of congress dont worry about them, though. They still continue to receive theirs. Of course. Much of the current stalemate lies at the feet of House Republicans, because they are divided. They cant even pass a shortterm bill. One that includes Border Security or pass the Senate Approved bipartisan bill, which doesnt have border funding but keeps the government open to midnovember. Despite the financial emergency it puts the country into House Republicans found time, do not worry, folks to hold the first hearing of their Impeachment Hearing for President Biden, which just ended after about six hour with announcement of the chairman House Oversight plans to subpoena bank records of hunter biden, the president s son and james biden, the president s brother later today. Republicans raisingble of the same as yet unproven allegations that President Biden himself personally financially benefited from hunters business dealings, but but and cnn reports republicans own Witnesses Today undercut the premise of this Impeachment Inquiry. Reporter House Republicans putting forth plenty of bombast. Would have reached to the ceiling. Reporter democrats noted, no new evidence. Whats missing despite years of investigation is the smoking gun that connecting joe biden to his never do well sons corruption. Reporter as the gop convened its first hearing in impeachment into president joe biden. Whether lunches, phone calls, white house meetings or official foreign trips, hunter biden cashed in by arranging access to joe biden, the family brand. Reporter republicans kicking off an Impeachment Inquiry set to explore whether joe biden performed any official acts, traded access or offered the perception of ax in exchange for money from foreign interests to either him or his family. Also on the gop agenda, whether Joe Biden Meddled In Investigations Into hunter biden. But the gop has not uncovered any proof joe biden benefited from his son Hunter Bidens Overseas Business deals or intervened in Hunter Bidens criminal prosecution. In your testimony today are you presenting any firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the president of the United States . No, im not. Reporter even as republicans tried to drive home claims of biden family corruption. Hunter biden referred to access to his father as keys to his family asset. Those words will hunt hunter biden and his family forever. Reporter their own witnesses failed to back them up noted operating on allegation rather than hard facts. I do not believe the Current Evidence to support an impeachment. Some an inquiry has to establish. Not here to suggest there was corruption, fodder or wrongdoing. My opinion, more information needs to be gathered before i would make such an assessment. Reporter a hearing grew testy. Speaking about no evidence. Trying to introduce evidence. Youve already had your share of evidence. Reporter democrats ultimately slammed colleagues for pressing ahead with an Impeachment Inquiry amid a looming Government Shutdown. Incredible Holding A Sham Hearing two days before the government will shut down. Reporter these republican Witnesses Today, clearly they thought there were questions to be asked, jake, by these members of congress, but the members walk into this as if they already have the answers already the facts. That wasnt the case. Republican lawmakers watching this play out, other republican aides did not think it went particularly well. One senior gop aide an unmitigated disaster pointing to witnesses who couldnt even back up the core premise what a number of these republican lawmakers are saying. One said joe biden took a bribe. That was an unproven anonymous allegation. Reporter a lot of those unproven allegations sort of come from the republican lawmakers mouth and not backed up by the facts. See facts and evidence. If thats exists, lets see it. Reporter wasnt coming from these Witnesses Today. Well see. Sara murray, thanks. Dysfunction among House Republicans on the Government Spending issue is getting uglier. Some republican on republican violence. Sources tell cnn the words scumbag and f off, except not f off was said. On capitol hill today manu raju, f off, logan roy said that on succession on hbo. Were cable but an Afternoon Show like families watch, the kids watching. Keep the kids allowing them to watch, a civics lesson of sorts. What led to a member of congress telling matt gaetz to f off . Reporter a lot of tension between matt gaetz and much of the house gop. Particularly speaker of the house. Gaetz for a while continuing to wield the government in the cusp of potentially shutting down this weekend. Gaetz believes mccarthys allies have been bashing him. Hes been paying conservative influencers to bash gaetz on social media, and what gaetz confronted mccarthy over in a closed d closeddoor meeting this morning. Accused the speaker being behind this saying he would not waste his time or money or matt gaetz and money transferred over to the goppest to take back house majority. Focusing on that. Then some members in the room rumbled, overheard by others saying that gaetz should f off calling him a scumbag and the like. Went back and forth. Jake, this is coloring the debate right now with the house gop how to fund the government. Were told the chairman of the House Oversight committee, james comer, is talking now. Lets dip into that and hear what he has to say. As if it was a text message a. Ha. Congressman ocasiocortez using, paying your staff, manipulating not including the full conversation of the conversation between hunter biden and al imony and Child Support and going back to january. Congressman critical of congressman schiff, visuals displayed putting things in Text Messages that werent Text Messages, displaying things that werent context. Whats your response . I dont know. I have to look and see. I dont know exactly what happened with the text but ill certainly find out. And in 2019 a lot of people joe biden was just implementing policy the day it all developed. How do you, for those people look, just found that email jim jordan mentioned in the Closing Statement that said the actual position from the Obama State Department was that he was going a good job. Congratulations on the great work youre doing and why well continue the investigation. Had a great hearing. Established basis for Impeachment Inquiry. The objective. We did that. Presenteds the evidence, many of you, i dont know what more evidence you need. I mean you know, what did the bidens do for thes 20 million . Thats the question. You may not like the evidence and you may be selling that theres no evidence but let me assure you the American People arent buying what youre selling and want to know what did this family do to get 20 million and what level of involvement did joe biden have . Thats why we will continue this Impeachment Inquiry. A great hearing today. Got to go to the floor for house votes. Thank you all. All right. That was the chairman of the house over Sight Eddie James Comer taking questions from reporters after his committee hearing. This was the first hearing for the impeachment inquiriy into President Biden. Obviously a lot of questions about what the republicans on the committee referred to as biden family and associates, which does not include President Biden, but biden family and associates and the money that they have raised from various business dealings, some of which may be questionable. Some may not be. Lets go back to manu raju. Manu, at this point, the question remains, is there anything tying direct evidence that any of this money went to President Biden when he was Vice President or when he was a private citizen or when president . So far there have been allegations and rumors but i have not seen any evidence, like, in terms of, like, a bank statement. In terms of anything other than hearsay. Even this fbi statement of somebody, a credible fbi source hearing the head of burisma said he gave money in what sounds like a shady transfer of funds, that was to bidens, two different bidens, but i dont know which bidens there were. There are a lot of bidens running around here. Reporter yeah. Trying to establish that. Right, jake . Trying to say the money that went to hunter biden actually benefited joe biden. Thats been their challenge all along throughout this investigation. Coming up with the proof to show that joe biden personally benefited financially by Hunter Bidens business dealings. Theyve gotten evidence showing wire transfers to the Biden Family Home. Theres not clear whether this is actually something that the former, the current president and former Vice President benefited from any way financially. This is all hunter biden himself. Or whether joe biden took official action while serving as Vice President to help out his son in business dealings. Something they even tried to prove all along throughout this investigation. Something that they acknowledge they still dont have the definitive evidence of yet. So, jake, theres still even among republicans questions that they have about whether they can actually prove that joe biden acted any corrupt way. You can hear from the chairman there. He believes the president did, believes this and plans to press ahead for subpoenas for Hunter Bidens Business Records that could potentially end um in court if hunter biden does comply or not able to get that Key Information here. Jake, thats the challenge all along for republicans. Tieing it directly to joe biden. Tying Hunter Bidens actions to joe biden. Something theyve not been able to find definitive evidence of just yet. We should note on that issue of wire transfers from china to the Biden Family Home. One during the republican, sorry, during the president s debates, then vice President Biden denied that his son got a penny from china. And that was not true. And, two we know that hunter biden was actually living with his parents during this period that the money was transferred to the Biden Family Home in delaware and we know that from these same republicans. That told us this in, a couple years ago. They disclosed this through their oversight investigations. Reporter yeah. Look, theres also questions about what joe biden did with, while hunter biden was meeting with foreign, some of these foreign business associates. We heard there was testimony from Hunter Bidens Associate Devon Archer who came before the Committee Said about 20 interactions of joe biden talking with some of hunter biden of business associates. That same witness said no actual business discussed in that meeting. It was more niceties and talking about the weather and the like. Thats the challenge all along to try to show some action that joe biden took beyond just this interaction that maybe questionable but no evidence from that testimony at least that joe biden was involved with Hunter Bidens efforts. Moon anu raju. Thanks so much. Discuss with the panel. David, House Oversight committee, their responsibility to investigate things of import to the American People. I mean, theres a lot of import to the American People. I personally wish there were more investigations whether democrats or republicans in charge of congress with the pharmaceutical industry, what theyve done in terms of the opioid epidemic, seems to me of much more importance and whats going on with fentanyl in this country. Tens of thousands of americans dies than this. But be that as it may, theres about to be a Government Shutdown because House Republicans cant even agree on a bill that wont pass the senate. Absolutely. What do you think of the timing of all this . Sucks, obviously. Right . Can say that in the afternoon. Oh, yeah. Fine. Say that in the afternoon. Say anything want. Just trying to get look, its sad that were at this point. Right . Because, look i dont agree with Congressman Gaetz on many things. Right . The congressman has basic responsibilities. Pass the budget. Pass 13 appropriations bills. Stay, do your work. Basic stuff. What the American People expect. You hire somebody, hire an electrician to fix your broken light, they fix your light. Hire a congressman expect them to go to d. C. And legislate. This should be getting done whether democrats or republicans are in charge. Going away for the weekend, not grinding the grind from day one, you know, everything should be focused at this point trying to get a solution. I think unfortunately the speakers in a spot where got a small handful of people just intransigent. No whatter what he says, does, or giving them, hold their breath until they turn blue. Go back to districts and beat their chests. He has options . The speaker. He wont be speakerif he ultimately there has to be a deal to reopen the government harks to go through a Democratic Senate and president. He could, and as you say, a portion of the caucus going back to becamor and ryan speakership, do whatever they can to advance their agenda. In the end mccarthy has to make a deal democrats will accept so he can do that now and not go through the performative exercise of saying with House Republican moderates and democrats . Yeah. Then loses his speakership. He might or might not. The thing, probably losing his speakership either way. Does anybody really think Kevin Mccarthy will be speaker a month from now . Do you think going to be speaker, no other option. It goes to talk to you about this. You know, really, this is a game that republicans have played over and over and over again. I wont disagree. 1991, 2020, 2023. In common . Gop controlled house had to shut down the government. At least in previous shutdowns about something. Right . 2013 about the fact people wanted to get rid of obamacare. Im not so sure what this is about. Ukraine, smatterings of all different majority of republicans support ukraine. They do. The problem, whats coming out, foul language. Matt gaetz and Kevin Mccarthy. Talk about it. Drama behind closed door, gaetz leading the charge. To oust him and just the fly in the ointment on any sort of deal. Gaetz confronted Mccarthy Whether mccarthys allies were paying conservative influencers to bash gaetz in social media posts. Mccarthy reportedly responded he would not waste his time or money on gaetz. I probably believe that that exchange occurred. Make a little more flowery language as you alluded to. Look, no love lost between the two. Clearly. If youre matt gaetz if i got to talk to matt gaetz id say, whats your option . Pull the thread here, whats your plan, matt gaetz . End of the day how do you advance the cause of the American People . Matt gaetz wants to run for governor in florida. Posturing to be the next tough guy but how is he helping const constituents, americans . Not putting forth a solution. Three things id like to accomplish and then ill vote for you no clear message through coming heres our principle about why were holdings this ultimately thats going to be bad for the Republican Party. Why we get a black eye every time. Thank you to our panel. More than half of all Senate Democrats gone on the record saying they would like their colleague, senator bobmo menend, Democrat Of Jersey to resign. He addressed members of the party Behind Closed Doors. How that meeting went. Thats next. Here in the bay, s and all of our stuff where we want to go. But, our cars cant take us e with unpaid tolls. Vehicles with overdue, unpaid tolls may not be able to renew their registration until outstanding balances are paid. Payment assistance is available. Visit bayareafastrak. Org ase so go pay your unpaid tolls y and keep your wheels on the and were back with our politics lead way dusting of our money lead. Costco says once ounce gold bars are flying off the shelves. Senator menendez bars not weighing him down at all. At least not in public this af afternoon. Re will not resign even though 30 fellow democrats asked him to do just that. He was indicted by the Justice Department again, this scathing indictment alleges sweeping corruption, bribes, most notely menendez secretly aided the government of egypt. Those bribes came in the form of those aformer mentioned gold bars, cold, hard cash and a mercedes convertible. Cnns Melanie Zanoma is on capitol hill. Not the Senate Foreign relations chairman anymore. Right . Reporter right. Only temporary. Only temporarily stepping down as chairmanning tr that committee. Ben cardin has taken over. Next in line. Ben cardin hasnt said whether he is comfortable with menendez continuing to serve on the panel or receiving classified briefings given the nature of the allegations against him. Listen to what cardin told reporters earlier today. The primary issue that i think we have to take up. Depending what happens today and what his decisions are, which i dont know, but i think there are some questions that have to be answered. Reporter now, menendez had an opportunity to address members Behind Closed Doors and told he was not going to resign. Defended his record on egypt and said not getting into the nittygritty about his charges and gold bars. Didnt want to preview his Legal Defense strategy and that prosecutors have long been after him and hes been unfairly targeted. Not everyone was buying the argument. Senators leaving that room said their minds are not changed and continue to say he should step down from his post. Melanie i say as a philadelphian, we in pennsylvania tend to give a little guff to our friends across the river in new jersey, but the feud between pennsylvania senator fetterman a and menendez from emergency is far beyond that. Reporter fetterman the very first senator to come out and call for menendez resignation. Very vocal and outspoken. Interestingly, fetterman did not attend the closeddoor meeting today Wheremondsm Menendez was speaking. Honorable thing to do, he said, step down. Manu raju said he disappointed in one of the senators vocally critical of him and everyone in the room interpreted him as a shot at fetterman. Melanie on capitol hill. Thanks. Families trekking miles through the jungle. Then going on jammed packed vans. Joining migrants on their desperate journey. Thats next. In our world lead, mexicos president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will invite officials from about ten countries to come and discuss migration flows and to present a proposal of his own to try to address the crisis. But he did not give any specifics. This does come as mexico has promised to try to slow the surge of migrants crossing its southern border with guatemala and continuing north into the United States. Cnns david culver is, as you know, along the mexicanguatemalan border in the south of mexico where migrants are determined to continue their dangerous journey north. Reporter they stick together throughout. No one left behind. From falls to steep climbs. A lot of young children. Some of them are just basically being carried up. Reporter to dead ends. We started to go the wrong way for the moment. Now theyre backtracking a little bit. Reporter setback after setback. Hes saying that they paid, were promised another pickup on The Other Side, but it seems like that driver just took off with their money. Reporter this just part of a days journey for these migrants, a day that started not here in Southern Mexico but across the suchiate river in guatemala. With passports stamped we take the official land crossing. Stepping into a vibrant tecunaman. In the shadow of the towns square we meet two venezuelan families traveling as one. They say theyre ready to cross. Reporter they welcome us to join. [ speaking in a nonenglish language ] seven years old. Reporter a 15minute stroll to the river after 18 grueling days on the road. Jamilero rodriguez tells me its been costly. She says going through the jungle is like dealing with the mafia. She says you have to pay in order to leave. They had to pay 250 a person. Reporter as they arrive at the river, another expense. The crossing. Meanwhile, we go back to the mexico side using the official entry and hop onto a raft. Were waiting for the two families that we met to make their way across. And theyre about to board a raft and meet us in the middle as they cross illegally to mexico. Their raft drifts over the border and we meet again in mexico. Hes saying theyre headed to the land of opportunity. Reporter Migrant Children scramble to help tug them to shore. They step off and into ciudad de hidalgo, a small border town. It allows for just a small moment of joy, if only for the kids. Their goal Tornths Tapachula to get mexican transit documents. They learn its not as close as theyd hoped. 20 miles. Nocturnally an hours drive. But theres a catch. Is that your van . Oh. Theyre getting on right now. Reporter because they never entered mexico legally they need to avoid the multiple migration checkpoints. Otherwise the mexican drivers could be accused of smuggling. Every crevice of the van filled. Then theyre off. On the road for only about ten minutes. We watch as they pull over just before the first checkpoint. Everyone out. They walk the direction they think theyre supposed to head. You can tell theyre basically just trying to figure out their way as they go. They have no real guide. They were told some general instructions and now theyre just trying to figure it out. Reporter weaving through brush and high grass. Up and down hills. They skirt around the first migration checkpoint. But on The Other Side the same driver who they paid to wait for them has taken off. So theyre trying to figure out if they can get another van or they keep walking. Looks like for now theyre just going to keep walking. Reporter a few minutes pass. Another van pulls up. 15 minutes later another stop, another checkpoint walkaround. 30 minutes after that yet another. This one takes them on a bridge directly over the migration checkpoint. Back on the van they go. Before sunset they make it to tapachula. Relieved . Sure. Also overwhelmed thinking about the unknowns ahead but determined to keep moving north. Smiling and waving. Well see you later, they tell us. You notice its not a goodbye, jake. Its a well see you later. Theyre determined to get to the u. S. Side. When they get to tapachula the reason theyre so keen to get here, from 20 miles or so from where we are, the actual Border Crossing is they want to join this line. This is where a lot of the folks are trying to get some of the documentation, their transit documents, even if they can claim asylum here in mexico. That would then help them to not worry about being here illegally. They dont have to then dodge those migration checkpoints. One other thing thats worth noting is that as weve been out here for the past few days weve noticed just how lax a lot of the enforcement is from the migration perspective. Youve got a lot of these illegal crossings happening right in front of mexican officials and even with the checkpoints its really not all that strict. Cnns david culver near the mexicanguatemalan border. Thank you so much. Great work. You were supposed to get something substantive out of this. Take a look. Theres a i cut i loaded up on you wanted a Gas Tax Increase im sorry, what . Could anyone make out any of that . The second republican debate, where candidates got a Primetime Opportunity to make their best case to undecided voters. How to make sense of where the candidates stand right now with less than four months to go before the first actual contest in the 2024 race. Thats next. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. This hour the new lawsuit facing the fbi over the only unsolved hijacking in u. S. Aviation history. Whateverap