President Obama Offering Show of Solidarity With Mexico; Maersk Crew Home at Last; President Obama Discusses Mexico Drug and Border Issues
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, April 16th, two years since the Virginia Tech shootings. Here are the top stories we're following for you in the CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama heading south of the border this hour. Mexico's bloody drug war and illegal immigration top his agenda. The crew of the Maersk Alabama is back on American soil today after a dangerous encounter with pirates. Fear of new regulation from the Obama administration sparks a run on guns and ammo. We visit the lock and load in Tyler, Texas. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama offering a show of solidarity with Mexico and the drug war next door. Right now, Mr. Obama is heading to Mexico, where he will meet with President Felipe Calderon. Topping their agenda, the deadly violence along the U.S./Mexican border fueled by the flow of drugs and guns. President Obama has vowed support for President Calderon in his battle against the drug cartels. The president left Andrews Air Force Base last hour on his way to Mexico. From there, he heads to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas. White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux with us live from Mexico City, ahead of the president's arrival there. Suzanne, good to see you, as always. As we take a look again at some of these pictures of the president leaving for Mexico, you know, the words of former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, probably worth noting here. We've got a bit of a full screen we've prepared here. Garza's Web site, you will find a letter to the president. In the letter he writes, "Mr. President, you should view Mexico as your gateway to the Americas, a perfect bridge, both north and south. Take this opportunity to draw on the key regional insights that President Calderon can offer." My question to you, Suzanne, will the president use the European model for this trip, do as much listening as talking?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Tony. We've been talking to White House aides who say that one of the things that he's really going to do is he's trying to set a different kind of tone between the United States and Latin America. You may recall during the campaign, as a candidate, he slammed President Bush for really neglecting this region and neglecting the leaders here. So he really wants to reengage. One of the things that he's doing, Tony, very unique, about 15 publications and newspapers across Latin America. We're talking Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, all of these different papers have an op-ed from the president today. And just a couple of things he says. He talks about overcoming shared challenges, a sense of common purpose. He talks about putting the debates of the past in the past, and he also says that in advance of the summit, we have to begin to move in a new direction. So that is really the fundamental challenge of this president. That is why he is here, going to be here in Mexico. That is why he is going to the summit, really, as you know, we've heard before, to press that reset button and to really distinguish himself from President Bush, who he believes neglected them after September 11th.</s>HARRIS: Let me touch on another area here, Suzanne. One of the things the president is likely to hear from the Mexican president is that, look, we need help from America in curbing the demand for drugs. I'm wondering if he is going to hear that message loud and clear. We know that the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is speaking on that topic.</s>MALVEAUX: Well, there are a couple things that you're going to hear from him, and really what he's trying to do is demonstrate support and respect for the Mexican president on this score, because it is a huge problem both for the United States and Mexico. Even the homeland security secretary traveling ahead of him. She is here, and she was talking about it early this morning. And what he is going to emphasize is what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said when she was here just a couple of weeks ago, and that is that it's a shared responsibility and blame when it comes to this drug problem. I want you to take a listen, Tony, to what Hillary Clinton said.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Obviously our demand for drugs is what motivates these drug gangs. I mean, if they didn't think they were going to make a bunch of money across the border, they'd go into another line of work.</s>HARRIS: Yes. That makes sense.</s>MALVEAUX: And so we've actually heard, Tony -- go ahead.</s>HARRIS: No, no, no. I was going to say that listening to the sound bite, that makes a lot of sense. You go ahead, Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: Yes. I mean, we've heard that there's now this border czar, a new position that they have created to help deal with the drug violence. We've heard from the president talking about more money for federal agents. Clearly, they're trying to take some sort of responsibility for this very big problem. There's quite a bit of fear here that this is going to become a national security threat, if it hasn't already, on the U.S. side as well -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: And one more quick one for you, Suzanne. Are we likely to hear anything from the president on immigration reform? And I guess the question is, is he likely to go any further than maybe restating his support for comprehensive immigration reform?</s>MALVEAUX: Actually, Tony, he's kicking the can forward on that one. This is a political win for him. This is not something that he has to do right now, but he's simply saying that within a year or so, he believes that Congress will come along, that they've got those votes for comprehensive immigration reform, and it's not something that President Bush was able to do. He believes that he can do it. But one of the things he's going to be talking about is trade, energy, really trying to broaden the agenda, if you will, with Mexico and say, look, you're a real key player here, we value you, but the drug war really is going to be the top issue.</s>HARRIS: Yes, it sounds like it. All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us, ahead of the president's stop in Mexico City for us. Suzanne, appreciate it. Thank you. President Obama sat down for an exclusive interview with our colleague Juan Carlos Lopez of CNN en Espanol. The president talked about U.S. efforts to help Mexico win the drug war.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My budget has actually sought to increase by about 50 percent the amount of money that we're spending. We are already moving forward on, for example, Black Hawk helicopters to be sent to Mexico to help in the fight against the drug cartels. So I want to put as much additional resources as we can into this effort. I think Mexico's been very serious about dealing with the problem. There are a number of Central American countries who are going to need our assistance as well. And my commitment is to make sure that the United States, working in a multilateral fashion, with all the countries in the region, are finally putting an end to the power and strength of these drug cartels.</s>HARRIS: Juan Carlos Lopez joins us live at the bottom of the hour. And we will bring you more of his exclusive interview with President Obama. And in about 20 minutes or so, the former U.S. ambassador -- we mentioned him earlier -- the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza. I'll ask him about the many challenges facing President Obama on his trip today. Sea Captain Richard Phillips is finally on dry land. He arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, today aboard the USS Bainbridge. That's the Navy missile destroyer that helped rescue him from Somali pirates. A charter plane will bring Phillips back to the United States to reunite with his crew and his family. No word yet on when that will happen. Phillips offered himself as a hostage to ensure the safety of the his crew, you may remember. He was held captive aboard the lifeboat for five days before being freed Sunday by Navy SEAL snipers. Phillips' crew is eagerly awaiting his arrival in the United States. The Maersk Alabama crew got big cheers as they arrived back on U.S. soil overnight. The crew landed at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. They're now at an area hotel. Our Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence joins us from outside that hotel. And what a sight. Great pictures there, Chris.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Tony. It's the pictures that a lot of friends and family have been waiting to see for a week now as all this played out. I can tell you also that a defense official told me there's been a charter plane waiting to take Captain Phillips back here to the United States, a similar plane to the one that his crew took to get back here. Leading images like this that you're seeing right now, friends, family, finally reuniting with this crew. A lot of them said that, you know, for a while they just did not know how this was going to turn out, with the pirates armed on board, pirates having shot at them as they boarded the ship. One of the -- the brother of the third mate of the ship talked about what it was like to have their loved ones come back.</s>ROBERT VAUGHAN, BROTHER OF COLIN WRIGHT, MAERSK 3RD MATE: Oh, we're very happy to see him coming off the plane. It was just -- I hadn't seen him in a little while, and anxious to get the story from what happened. And it was very, very emotional. Good to see him. Glad that he was healthy and everyone came out of this. It was the best possible solution. Everything worked out great.</s>LAWRENCE: OK. Big picture, the ultimate goal is not to have to have reunions like this. Last year, there were about 120 pirate attacks in this part of the world. This year, already 80. So the numbers are going up. But to give it some perspective, even if those numbers hold for the rest of the year, you're still talking about maybe one percent of the total ship that's go through this area. That's still -- the U.S. is taking this very seriously. Tomorrow there's going to be a meeting between officials from the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, intelligence officials, trying to come up with a way to stop American ships from being hijacked in the future.</s>HARRIS: There he is, our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, for us. Chris, appreciate it. Thank you. Good to see you. Keeping an eye on your money, new reports could offer new clues about where the economy is headed.