all right. top of the hour. good morning, everyone. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. president trump is threatening to close the border permanently if need be to prevent more scenes like we saw yesterday. >> hundreds of central american migrants stuck in mexico rose up, facing u.s. border officers who held them off for the most part with tear gas. we learned on cnn's "new day" that dozens of protesters did manage to enter the united states and were promptly arrested. border patrol agents were hit by projectiles thrown by immigrants, we heard. what is the situation there now as the sun rises this morning,

miguel? >> reporter: yeah. it is back to business as usual. this is a very busy foot passageway, bridge into the u.s. thousands of residents of tijuana use this to go to school or work in the u.s. and then return in the evening. to have that porder upset like that is a huge problem for them. all of this started when there was a demonstration, a protest for the migrants. this caravan of migrants we've been covering now for several weeks now. they came to this area. they're staying in a sports stadium about four miles from here. they came up to this area, about 500 of them broke off and moved in this direction toward the u.s. border. you can see that car bridge there. they went under that bridge and others like it and then moved to the u.s. border in different areas. border patrol saying that in some places where they had older walls, they were able to get through some of those barriers

but were not able to get through the final barrier. that's when border agents used tear gas canisters and pepper bullets or pepper balls to keep them back, saying they were able to hold them back. 42 arrested. mexico now saying if others engage in this sort of behavior and try to cross illegally that they will be deported as well. back to you guys. >> miguel marquez, thank you very much. let's go to the other side of the border. nick watt has been in san diego. enormous deployment of resources there. a lot of attention focused. this morning, the morning after, in effect. do border control agents have control? >> reporter: yes. i mean, listen, they said they were going to keep this border closed until the situation had calmed down and until they had regained control. that was about four hours that the pedestrian crossings were closed, maybe five or six for the vehicle lanes. what they say happened was these

migrants came to the border, trying to cross through the north and southbound vehicle lanes on foot. as miguel was just saying, tried to cross over some of this fencing. they are replacing a lot of this fencing east and west of the crossing. that work is not yet finished. these migrants apparently also threw rocks. three agents were hit but they were wearing tactical gear so they were not injured. this place was completely locked down. there was a roadblock about two miles north of the border. let's hear a little bit of what rodney scott from the cvp had to say earlier this morning. >> when the threat is to our personnel or to protect others, you have to do what you've got to do. what i find unconcionable is that people would intentionally take children into this situation. what we saw over and over again yesterday was that the group, the caravan as we call them, would push women and children toward the front and then begin basically rocking our agents.

>> reporter: now most of the 42 people that they say were arrested were adult males but there were women and children amongst that group, as we just heard rodney scott say. the cvp was prepared for this. they knew there was going to be some sort of demonstration, protest. extra personnel were put on the border. normally about 100,000 people cross this border every day. yesterday four to six hours, this border completely closed down. huge cvp presence. helicopters up in the air. they regained control of the situation. listen, this is what president trump said last week he was going to do. he said on thursday, listen, if we feel the border is out of control, if we feel there's a danger of our officers being hurt, then we will close down the border. yesterday, tear gas was used and also i hear from the cvp that they fired pepper balls to deter these migrants, to push them back and to protect themselves. jim and poppy, back to you. >> nick watt, important

reporting. thank you for being there. cnn commentator, president trump's former director of legislative affairs, mark short. we know this has been and will continue to be a big focus for the president. it's a rallying cry to his base to say things like we may shut the border. does he weaken his case when he makes comments like that? the economic consequences on trade would be devastating. the state department came out and said 1.7 billion in goods and services cross the border every day. why does he throw that out there? >> poppy, i think that the economic consequences would be severe. i also don't underestimate the president here. he has promised since his 2016 campaign that he's going to do what's necessary to make sure that the southern border is secure. can you watch, you can see the images on screen and know it's anarchy at the border, a lawless situation and the president is going to continue to do what he

needs to do to make sure that the border is safe. >> anarchy? >> yes. >> yes, there was a moment today -- yesterday, rather, when they rushed the border, some made it across and were quickly arrested. >> i don't question the confidence of our border patrol agents. our laws are so absolutely confusing, we're creating this problem. your commentators were talking about asiylum threats and peopl wanting to file asylum in our country. that's what our country has always been about but do you realize we went from 5,000 claims at the border to over 100,000 this year? the reason for that is because human traffickers know if you claim asylum, you'll be given freedom into our country and set aside years of legal process. >> why is the administration making it harder to say you have to go through ports of entry to

seek asylum. is that not then encouraging others to -- yes, it's illegal -- but thinking if i don't come into a port of entry -- many of them have gotten stuck there, i won't be able to seek asylum? >> quite the contrary. a lot of the commentary says that the president is denying asylum. he's not. he's saying go to ports of entry. don't go there. go to a point of entry as should be required by law. >> you have the issue at the border. you also have the issue of undocumented immigrants here in the u.s. we had on a former official. he made the point that in the early 2000s, and now you have 10 to 15 million and companies employing them and they're not facing penalties for this. you talk about a few dozen

managed to get through the border and quickly arrested. how are you going to penalize companies? is that not the kind of pressure point, right, to get at that issue? >> that depends, jim. the reality is that the government has done a poor job in equipping people to make sure that companies can have the right tools and resources. right now in many cases you're prosecuting private employers when people come up with false identification. is that the job of an employer, to determine if it's false or true identification or not? so we have a broken system across the board. >> the question is, you have a democratically controlled congress. president wants this border wall funding. a thousand proposals for immigration reform, bipartisan proposals and one element of which is this guest worker program so you can get to businesses the immigrants they need to do this kind of work in a process that doesn't incentivize, right, illegal

crossing at the border. is the president willing to deal? >> yes. >> on that with a comprehensive solution to the problem? >> yes, he is, swrim. my first introduction to mike pence, chief of staff for kay billy hutchnson to provide more resources -- >> where is it? why don't we hear about that? >> 3.97% unemployment. if you go back and look at it he says i want more workers because i know where our economy is. yes, he's willing to deal on that. he also says he wants real border security and there's no compromise in providing real border security. >> there's been money offered by democrats. >> they voted in 2006 for a secure fence act. the same resources -- >> it's different, we know that. >> they want something on daca. >> very similar proposals, what the border patrol has offered with the current wall funding. very much is. >> the test will be to see if both sides are willing to give. >> or the government shuts down.

>> and they're willing to pay that price for the government shutdo shutdown. >> a dire warning on climate change and its impact on the u.s. economy buried on the friday after thanksgiving. we'll discuss that. also in russia now, ukrainian crews on board these three ukrainian vessels on their way to ukrainian port, russia has seized them n just minutes united nations security council will meet to discuss the escalating conflict. also a deadly shooting thanksgiving day at a mall in alabama has taken an even more tragic turn. the man they shot and killed likely not the gunman. now, of course, the family wants answers. i'm ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.

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back now at the escalating violence between russia and the ukraine. in 40 minutes the u.n. will hold an emergency meeting as the two countries are trading blame after russia opened fire on and seized three ukrainian navy vessels this weekend. russian state media is reporting that russian forces detained sailors in the incident and three of those are now in the hospital. >> these are the areas where russia has carried out acts of military aggression, occupied an ex-ed crimea, occupying eerch ukraine within ukraine's international borders. this latest violence alarming many in europe. joining us now, jill dougherty,

fellow at the woodrow wilson center. jill, you've got years of experience covering this kind of stuff. russian navy vessels attack ukrainian navy vessels on their way to a ukrainian port, fire on them, ram them and have now seized 24 crew members. is that an act of war? >> it's a very dangerous act. i don't think that they want it to be an act of war. i'm not convinced that they want an all-out war. but what they do want to do is continue to squeeze ukraine, make it almost impossible for them, for the ukrainians to get their products, steel, et cetera, out of the ports in ukraine that are being blocked. you really should take out a map, i think, and look at this. because where this happened is a little tiny strip of water, which is really like a choke point going into these two ukrainian ports. and so the russians have been squeezing them in a variety of ways. this is not the first time that they have, you know, stopped

vessels. they haven't fired on vessels before, but they have been stopping commercial vessels, inspecting, et cetera. so it's been building ever since -- really you could say for quite a while but i would put it back in april, may. may, really when the russians built a bridge across that strait connecting crimea and russia and, in fact, choking off the ukrainians. >> trying to make it part of russian territory, in effect here. we did have a reaction today from the administration special representative for the ukraine who tweeted the following, russia rams ukrainian vessel peacefully traveling toward ukrainian port, seizes ships and crew and then accuses ukraine of provocation? it continues to occupy crimea,

eastern parts of ukraine and now it's done this. what does that tell you about the u.s. response to russian aggression against the ukraine? >> i'm shocked that the united states hasn't issued a statement. everybody else has. the eu, other countries, et cetera. they have issued statements. the united states hasn't. and i think the problem is for donald trump as president and then his administration, knowing that this is very serious but how do they respond? how far do they go? many people right now are saying there should be more sanctions, very serious steps. but it is important for the united states to put itself on the record of opposing what happ happened. and then figuring out how you respond to it. they simply can't, that the point, come up with any viable response because there is confusion in the administration. otherwise, they would have had a statement last night or early this morning. >> right. so, jill, how does russia take

that? you have a tweet from the special representative in the ukraine but not the commander in chief. does russia take that as license to continue this kind of activity? >> i think it could, yes. there's no question. if the president himself doesn't come out -- and this is an administration that is really driven by the president. if the president doesn't say it, then it loses a lot of strength. right now, you know, you have a big political part of this, too, e ukrainian elections coming up. president putin is losing support. the polls are showing he has diminishing support because of some economic steps that he has been taking. he needs support from the russian people. and the way previously he has done it is to manufacture or take advantage of something, you know, unexpected short of war that can gin up the support that

he needs. >> jill dougherty, thanks. always good to have your expertise on this. >> wow, so telling, no statement from the u.s. yet. ahead, dire new warning about the impact of rising temperatures, climate change, on america's future from the trump administration. independent government report says climate change will be devastating to the u.s. economy, especially it will have terrible consequences for farmers across the midwest next.

an emphatic warning issued about the impact of unchecked climate change on this country's future. >> the national climate assessment says it will wreck the economy and could lead to thousands of premature deaths in the u.s. cnn chief correspondent christine romans joins us now. christine, i think people are aware of the climate and environmental impacts here. >> yeah. >> this puts an economic point on this, that this is going to cost jobs and money. >> it does. jim and poppy, hundreds of billions of dollars a year or more than 10% of its gdp by the end of the century. national climate assessment was mandated by law.

it was supposed to come out in december but was released by the trump administration on friday, smack in the middle of a holiday weekend. that tells you the kind of priority it will have for this white house. southeast will probably lose half a billion hours of labor by the year 2100 due to extreme heating. parts of the midwest will be able to produce less than 75% of the corn they produce today. heat stress will cause dairy production to fall. shellfish, red tides, algae bloom that kills sea life like those that interestingered a state of emergency in florida in august will become more frequent and staggering statistic, phoenix could have 180 days of over 100 degree temperatures.

think about that impact for all sorts of things. >> people thought not in my time, not my generation. maybe my kids, maybe not. this is very present and current and impending and coming soon. >> what i think is so interesting about it, 1600 pages, hundreds of scientists, these are people whose job it is to just weigh facts and weigh data and figure out what it's going to mean. it's overwhelmingly precise in how dire it is. this is not some international organization of scientists that you could say oh, there's an internationalist agenda here. these are american scientists working on behalf of the american government. >> to put an even finer point on it, because you'll hear from the president or some on the right it's under dispute, there's a political agenda here. >> government scientists, political agenda, that's really

a stretch. these are people who are -- my grandfather was a chemist for the government for 50 years. he was a die-hard conservative. he only followed the facts. and what his science told him. >> one more institution that is preparing for climate change that doesn't question the science? the u.s. military. the defense department. >> yes. >> look how they're handling it, what they're doing. and they're not exactly wilting flowers. >> great point. thank you, romans. we appreciate it. this climate report in particular, paints a grim picture for farmers in the midwest. jamie beyer, vice president of the growers association. this is not about politics for you. you take a nonpartisan stance. when you look at the stats here, that the quantity and quality of the crops are to be depleted because of higher temperatures and droughts and flood nth midwest, you could see up to 75% less corn produced, lose more than 25% of soy bean yield,

these are farmers that you represent. what's your reaction? >> i think you're right on. it's the policy not the politics that farmers are interested in. we're first and foremost interested in protecting the food supply and our limited precious farm land, resources and water. when you see the climate assessment, it's certainly starting in black and white. i know that the scientific advances in technology can be part of the solution to mitigate climate change. >> the president, jamie, just last week -- let me quote him on twitter. whatever happened to global warming? when you read that, are you nervous? >> you know, as farmers we kind of keep our heads down. we just got through harvest. i'm in the red river valley where over the past 20 years we've learned the lessons on how to deal with extreme weather predicted and the climate assessment. we frequently experience flooding and drought and not uncommonly in the same growing season. and i know that preparation and planning are keys to success, along with development, adoption of new tools and technology in

ag. >> one thing we've heard from the administration from the president on how to combat climate change is weighing it with economic interest and the president said just last month, quote, i don't want to lose millions and millions of jobs. i don't want to be put at a disadvantage, meaning mern america. what would you like to see from the government, from the trump administration right now, seeing that jobs and lives and the economy are at risk, if nothing happens? >> well, especially in ag, we know that what's good for the planet also turns out to be good for our pocketbooks. as we continue to make aggressive strides to reduce our carbon footprint, reduced pillage, drought tolerancy varieties and using more efficient and precise equipment, family farms are likely to choose and make improvements every year in response to changing environmental conditions. >> okay. jamie beyer, we wish you and all those you represent across the midwest a lot of luck. thanks for being here. >> thank you.

and coming up, will robert muell mueller's forthcoming report on russian interference be devastating to the president? one of the president's most frequent and ardent defenders says yes. as one of the nation's largest investors in infrastructure, we don't just help power the american dream, we're part of it. this is our era. this is america's energy era. nextera energy.

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papadopoulos is to turn himself in to report to prison. >> he has asked a federal judge to pause his sentence. he did not succeed at that. do you know why he wanted this and why the judge said no? >> basically it's because of a roger stone associate, who has been subpoenaed by mueller. we've been hearing a lot about roger stone and where that investigation is. this associate of roger stone is suing the mueller team essentially, trying to say they have no authority to conduct this investigation. as a result of that, papadopoulos was hoping that and arguing to this judge that until that court makes a decision of whether mueller has the authority, he should be free. essentially, he should wait out until that decision is made and once we have a decision on that, then he should be sentenced and then he should finally serve the two weeks that the judge had sentenced him. now what's interesting today is that his attorney now finally,

papadopoulos' attorney issued a statement saying they would not appeal this decision and that he essentially would go ahead and serve his sentence. the attorney saying given the immense power of the special counsel's office and the cost to mr. papadopoulos of continuing to fight, he will serve his sentence and hopes to move on with his life. so for all intents and purposes, this point is over. i'm sure it won't be the last we hear from papadop ochoulos. he may speak before he goes in to serve his sentence but i'm sure we will hear a lot more from papadopoulos once he finishes serving his his sentence. >>tweeting and he has been giving a whole host of conspiracy theories.

>> shimon, thank you. in the rejection to the challenge of his sentence was a larger message about how courts are handling this challenge to robert mueller's authority here, right? this judge, even though he's not hearing that case, he seemed to say, that challenge to mueller's authority ain't gonna happen. deal with it. is that effectively the message you got there? >> i think so. from a strict, legal standpoint, papadopoulos did not have a leg to stand on. his attorney's statement is silly. he did not have a right to appeal. he waived that when he agreed to plead guilty. if the judge saw a serious challenge or serious issue with mueller's jurisdiction it might have given him some pause on that. he clearly doesn't. that's been rejected a number of times, including paul manaforte tried to make that attack. i don't think there will be a

any -- that's the argument you need to make early, before you plead guilty. >> good point. shan, democratic congressman adam schiff will likely get a whole lot more power come january. he is expected to be the chairman of the house intel committee. he said that he expects that democrats will try to bring in attorney general -- acting attorney general matthew whitaker to discuss any actions he may be taking or considering involving the mueller probe. if that does happen and if he does come, what would whitaker be able to withhold from congress, his conversations from the president, how much would you protected? >> he could certainly try to withhold those and could argue a couple of bases for that. he could argue executive privilege, which we've heard a lot about. he could argue that it's law enforcement, meaning it could compromise certain law enforcement investigations going forward. those are the kind of typical issues he would rely upon.

executive privilege is a murky area here. there has been case law which is upheld, aides gathering information in the espy case, for example. if he tries to assert that, it could be a rather protracted element going on. in the espy investigation, the actual litigation dragged on 40 months. that would be a very slow-going process. i'll be curious whether those will be public or private hearings, actually. >> shan, before we let you go, alan dershowitz, renowned lawyer, often a supporter of the president, in his interview on abc this weekend he said that the mueller report would be devastating for the president, speaking in a political sense here. this is someone the president listens to and his analysis there. what is he seeing and hearing, do you think, that will lead him to that assessment? >> i don't see that he has any

legal basis for making that assessment. he is in the dark as much as we all are because mueller's folks are very quiet. he may be picking up on the worries that the president has about it. i think any sort of organized presentation of what has been going on in terms of the inconsistencies, the guilty pleas in a normal political setting, that is going to be very negative for the president. but this presidency is far from normal. and i actually don't -- if that is all there's going to be to it, a bunch of criticisms, people have covered up small things, small statements, that's not going to be a death blow to trump because we pretty much all know that. i think what we're waiting for is to see, is there something substantive that puts the blame on him knowing something about the russian interference and then withholding that or telling people to withhold it? that's the real question. >> it's always been a political question, right? it will go to congress that you can't indict a sitting

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this just in, cnn has learned general motors will cut 15% of its salaried staff,

shoulder or close 15 plants, two in the united states, one in canada. it's a bump in this otherwise strong economy. >> it is. it's about a little under one in six workers at gm. that is significant. look where these plants are. the one in canada, ontario canada. one in the u.s., detroit, michigan, one in warren, ohio. two key swing states. ones that -- a lot of workers in those communities have experienced with shouldering plants and those have political consequences. >> they do. >> we should note gm stock on the current stock exchange is currently halted. you won't see that necessarily reflected in the dow at this point. >> we'll keep a close eye on this and update you with more as soon as we have it. if you're on medicare,...

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welcome back. this just in, cnn has learned that jerome corsi, expected to be an intermediary between stone and wikileaks, e-mails stolen by russia, he will not agree to a plea deal. shimon prokupecz is joining us now. >> reporter: we're getting this from our colleague. co are. si did an interview on a conservative outlet where he essentially said he is not going to take the play. they're offering him a one-count plea to essentially lying. he tells sarah murray, they can put me in prison the rest of my

life. i'm not going to sign a lie. the interview that he did with oam, the conservative outlet, he says that he knew about the podesta e-mails that julian assange was going to release, just based off his own work, work he had done in trying to figure this out. he claims he had not had any knowledge that julian assange had the e-mails but had done some work, connected the dots and through that is how he knew that julian assange had the podesta e-mails. obviously this is is a big part of the mueller investigation. questions he has been asked himself when he has appeared before the special counsel about how he knew about these e-mails, did he communicate his knowledge of these e-mails to anyone, particularly to roger stone and did roger stone then communicate knowledge of these e-mails to the campaign? that seems to be the issue for corsi. he says no way am i agreeing to a plea deal.

we'll see if the special counsel moves in to indict him or arrest him now that he has refused any plea deal agreement. >> corsi said just last week, i believe -- he said this publicly, that he expected to be indicted for giving false information to the special counsel or to a grand jury. i find his comment stunning, they can put me in prison the rest of my life. i'm not going to sign a lie. if he were facing one count, if he were to be indicted, found guilty on this, what would he be looking at in terms of a potential prison sentence? >> statutory time for false statements, is what i presume he was talking about, is five years. of course, if he has multiple ones, that could quickly add up. legally, though, i'm not sure

where he's coming from on this. if it's true that he has been in, talking with the prosecutor for many, many hours, that leaves a defendant with absolutely no defense. there's absolutely nothing they don't know. you could try to make an argument that these were technical lies. i didn't really mean it. i'm trying to cultivate some sympathy with the jury but false statements based on hours and hours of interviewing, based on documents, there's just very little you can do in terms of defending that. >> and we should keep in mind relatively small player when you look at those who have taken plea deals. thank you, gentlemen. this just in to cnn, general motors, iconic american automaker will cut 15% of their salaried workers. they're going to close down three plants in north america.

alison kosik is with us, cristina alesci is with us. two midwest big plants and one in canada. >> that's right. this is huge. and local press is estimating that this impacts about 5600 workers. this is an enormous restructuring, enormous blow to president trump's plan to bring manufacturing jobs back and it kind of confirms what every auto analyst has said for years, the global supply chain is here to say. it's cheaper to produce, in some cases, some cars overseas, especially in the growth markets when it comes to smaller vehicles. >> that's interesting, though, 5,600. there was a time in america when 15% of general motors workforce would be much larger in america, would it not? >> yes. >> in terms of 5,600 in a country of 330 million people with 3.7% unemployment, how

significant is it? >> it's very significant especially because all economics, all economy is local. and when you look at ohio, it's really the center of trump country, especially where this plant is located. detroit, again, an area that was hoping to see domestic manufacturing really bolster the local economy. to put that in perspective, we're still sorting out the numbers. this is new news. we're not sure what that 15% refers to, workers or executives. gm was trying to highlight the reduction in the executive ranks. the 5,600 number i'm pulling from local reports of how many workers may be impacted by this. >> salaried staff? >> exactly. they're highlighting like hey it's not just impacting the average person but we're taking some executives out in this restructuring as well. gm is saying this will free up $6 billion of cash flow. that is a lot of money. that means the company needs that money. more importantly, one thing i noticed in the release was talk

of reducing capital expenditures. that's investment. >> yeah. >> this is something that president trump and all of his economic advisers wanted to see go up. that was the purpose for these tax cuts. now you have a company, one of the major automakers saying they're reducing capital expenditures. >> such a good point. such a good point. when you look at indicators of where this economy is going, jim and i are watching and are concerned about this. it's been a bull run for so long, longer than we historically see. this is an indicator. >> that's right. >> when you look at the depression we've seen in some auto sales for months now. interest rates are rising. it makes those loans more expensive for cars. what does it tell us big picture? >> this is where the rubber meets the road. >> literally? >> yes. we start to see the cracks in the economy. this is what the stock market has been telling us all year. we are on track to have the worst stock market return since

2009. >> interesting. >> that means the stock market sees something about the economy going forward and that is a slowdown and this is what we're seeing today, impacting average people. this is not going to play well for trump. that's why he's going to do everything possible to distract from the economy, to distract from this. look for more boogie men on the border, media and other places. >> it is five plants, actually. you've got three assembly plants, one of those in canada, two in the u.s. and two propulsion plants, in maryland and michigan. >> yeah, that's five. >> you can't underestimate michigan and ohio, two swing states. >> it's a good point. five. let's correct that. closing five plants in north america, one in canada, four of them here in maryland, michigan as well. quickly, if the president points to interest rates rising as the driver of this, if he does, he hasn't been happy with interest rates rising. they do affect auto loans.

is that the whole story here? >> it's not the whole story. look, there have been several economists who have said now is not the time to raise but at the same time the fed has justification to raise interest rates at this point. >> thank you. >> cristina, thank you so much. certainly a story we'll keep on top of. >> we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. "at this hour with kate bolduan" starts now. hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. thank you for joining me. jerome corsi, associate of long-time associaroger stone wi accept a plea deal. this has been going one way and the other and all playing out very publicly, oddly enough. >> now very