>> Four Americans kidnapped in a Mexican border city.
And this morning, a law enforcement official tells NBC News,
this video captures part of the horrifying attack.
In it, you see a gunman dragging people to a white pickup truck in Matamoros,
Mexico after authorities say the van carrying four US citizens was caught in
the crossfire of a deadly shootout.
>> Now, United States authorities believe that the four Americans from
South Carolina were kidnapped by cartels in a case of mistaken identity.
They believe the cartels believed that the Americans were drug smugglers.
It's still being investigated, but there is an unfortunate update to the story.
Apparently, two of the four who were abducted have died, they were killed.
One of the others is in critical condition from an injury and the other is alive.
With those details in mind, we should go to the next video because it gives
you some more context into the case prior to the individuals,
the Americans being found, let's watch.
>> Family identified one of those victims as LaTavia Washington McGee,
sharing the group rented a van to drive from South Carolina to Brownsville, Texas.
The plan crossover for a cosmetic surgery.
Zalandria Brown told the associated press that her younger brother,
Zindell Brown is also one of the victims.
Now, the whereabouts of all four unknown.
The US State Department placing both the city of Matamoros and
the Mexican State of Tamaulipas under a level four travel warnings since October,
citing crime and kidnapping as reasons to avoid travel entirely.
A US official tells NBC, authorities are concerned about the group's
well-being since videos appear to show some of them severely wounded.
>> Now the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has stated that one
suspect is in custody, but violence, especially violence carried out by
cartels continues to plague Mexico, especially some of these border towns.
And there's good reason why the US government is issuing these travel
advisories and trying to discourage Americans from traveling to Mexico.
I've got more details about this story and
what's currently transpiring in the country in just a moment.
But Cenk, what are your thoughts?
>> Yeah, look, I don't know that I wanna say something that is acceptable.
So I've gone to Mexico plenty of times, but
I've gone to the resort areas to be honest.
And it's been a long time since I've been in Tijuana, etc., but
I wouldn't just randomly driving to Mexico.
>> Yeah, neither would I.
I don't think that's controversial at all.
>> I don't know if some people take offense at that, but
there's way too many drug cartels.
And so you're gonna get caught in the cross.
Now to be fair, guys.
I was Mexican,
I don't know that I drive randomly to America with our non-stop mass shootings.
So I mean, our massacres versus their drug cartels.
I don't know which one's worse, but I do know that this is a super unfortunate
situation and please just some people do like, this is not one of these cases.
But dangerous tourism, that kind of thing,
they'll go to North Korea and get kidnapped.
Don't do that, don't do that.
In this case, I know that they meant well and they did not and I feel awful for
what happened to them.
I'm just saying, please be careful, that's all.
>> Well, look, I certainly don't wanna blame the Americans for
going there, right?
They went there, it's reported for tummy tucks.
I don't know for sure, that's what they're reporting.
But nonetheless, there are plenty of Americans who either go to Mexico or
Canada in order to get affordable pharmaceutical drugs that they need.
Because as you know here in the United States,
we're constantly price gouged when it comes to these medications.
So when you consider the threat of violence in Mexico and also
the desperation that a lot of Americans feel in trying to obtain the medications
they need to remain alive, this is just a dangerous combination, right?
This isn't a story of Americans just willy nilly.
Yes, some do travel there for fun.
In fact, I was on a cruise last year that stopped in Mexico,
in three different parts of Mexico.
>> No, but those are very safe areas.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's important they be protected for tourism reasons, keep it real, etc.
But I just had a family member drive through Mexico for two weeks and
seeing this story, it's part of the reason why I said what I said.
It makes me think like I'm not sure he should have done that.
So anyways, but let's get to the implications.
>> So let's get back to the American victims here.
So Matamoros is a city that's actually dominated
by different factions of the same drug cartel.
And so they fight amongst each other and that's why the violence is high in that
area, and that's why the United States has issued this morning.
The FBI would like to find more information.
They're still investigating this and they wanna learn more about the suspects.
So they had initially offered $50,000 for the safe return of the US citizens.
It's unclear if they're still offering a reward for more information,
especially since now we know where the four individuals are, right?
Two of them tragically have turned up dead and two of them are alive.
Now one of the victims was identified as LaTavia Washington McGee by her cousin,
Aaliyah.
And Aaliyah says that the group is from South Carolina, but
had been traveling in a rental vehicle with North Carolina license plates
when they entered Matamoros.
And the FBI confirmed that the group was traveling
in the white minivan with North Carolina license plates, that's LaTavia Washington.
So far, I haven't seen any confirmation in regard to the identities
of the two Americans who were killed.
Now Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina told the associated press
that her younger brother Zindell was also among the four victims.
She said she had been in contact with the FBI and
local officials after learning her sibling had been kidnapped.
Now, implications are interesting here, right?
Because what happened is tragic, but you can always rely on right-wing
politicians in the United States to wanna take things a little too far and
one of those right-wing politicians is a war hawk like Senator Lindsey Graham.
So let's let's take a look at what he had to say during a recent interview about
this matter.
>> You just saw a report at the top about these hostages that have just been taken
in Mexico and it doesn't look like the Biden administration even really knows
much about it or they don't really have a plan for it,
what would Lindsey Graham do in this situation?
>> Well, I would follow Bill Barr's advice and get tough on Mexico.
It's not just the hostages.
Number one, I'd do everything I could to get them back.
I do what Trump did, I put Mexico on notice.
If you continue to give safe haven, defending drug dealers,
then you're an enemy of the United States.
70 to 100,000 people have died from fentanyl poisoning coming from Mexico and
China, and this administration has done nothing about it.
So Bill Barr's idea about I'm gonna introduce legislation, Jesse, to make,
certain Mexican drug cartels, foreign terrorist organizations under US law and
set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from
being poisoned by things coming out of Mexico.
>> Yes, engaging in military activity against Mexico will certainly
help with the fentanyl crisis here in the United States.
Smart idea, great.
I mean, Lindsey Graham, has there ever been a tragedy
that Lindsey Graham did not exploit to push the idea of more war?
>> Yeah, so guys, there's two different issues here.
When Americans get kidnapped like that,
we've got to be able to show enough force to get them back, okay?
And force means police work, it means maybe people that are from DEA or
other branches of the government being on the ground with allies.
Mexican authorities who are allied with us and we can provide enough incentives and
disincentives, cash to make sure that we get our people back and that there
are consequences for the drug cartels who specifically did this act, right?
So that sends a message to cartels and other bad guys throughout the world,
do not mess with American citizens cuz they will come for you, right?
But you've got to actually do it to the people who did it,
not to random other Mexicans cuz then that sends the wrong message.
Hey, if somebody does something, they're gonna get away with it and
other people are gonna be punished cuz America is dumb, right?
>> Yeah, so I wanna give you a little more context into what Lindsey Graham was
referencing when he brought up Bill Barr, right?
Okay, what did Bill Barr,
the former attorney general under Trump proposed when it comes to drug cartels?
Well, he thinks that the United States government should designate drug cartels
as terrorist organizations.
So the drug cartel issue would be the newest and latest,
the modern version of America's war on terror and we know how that works out.
It doesn't work out to anyone's benefit, except for defense contractors
because it's not really about dealing with the issue at hand.
I'm gonna say something to upset people, but I don't care.
This is why I can't stand the narratives that are pushed by either the far right.
In this case, the war hawks like Lindsey Graham and Bill Barr or
the far left that has this nonsensical idea that we should just have an open
border policy because that's the kind and generous thing to do.
No- >> But I don't want anybody getting
misled, hold on them.
So there are people who believe in the open border policy, but
there's like 12 of them.
So no Democrat, including the most progressive Democrats, Bernie Sanders,
AOC, etc., believe in an open border policy.
We do not have an open border right now.
Biden is not- >> No, we don't.
>> In favor of that policy.
I've never heard of an elected Democrats say that therefore, open borders.
There's a couple of activists who think that,
but that's not a real thing on the left.
Whereas the right, you guys are conflicted.
So now, that's an interesting story too.
That's not as simple as everybody else paints it to be,
because here's Lindsey Graham being the usual hawk that he is.
>> Right. >> A warmonger and every opportunity.
Somebody dropped a handkerchief.
Let's invade Canada, right?
And so he gets tons of money from defense contractors is one of the most corrupt
politicians of my lifetime.
So of course, the minute there's one crime committed.
I mean, think about his logic.
He said, cuz they're sheltering fentanyl drug dealers.
First of all, are they?
The Mexican government is in a lot of ways fighting those dealers.
Some in the Mexican government might be corrupt and protect them, but
it's not the overall Mexican government.
But wait a minute,
where is the great majority of fentanyl drug dealers here in America?
So are we sheltering them?
Should someone invade us, because we're sheltering fentanyl drug dealers?
But if you're talking about drug dealers, we have way more of them,
specifically about fentanyl.
Should Canada attack us?
Should they show military force against?
It's an absurd idea, right, but he's just using any excuse to start a war and
saying that Trump would have done it too.
So is the anti-war?
Is he pro-war when I'm now talking about Trump?
See, the reality is there's tons of right-wing voters.
And you know me, anybody that watches this show knows there's no one
that's more vicious the right-wing voters than I am, okay, but
there is a streak of right-wing voters who are anti-war.
Great, that is an actual real thing and
you should give credit to those guys for being anti-war.
So are you in favor of Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump who
are both threatened to invade Mexico, because of a one crime?
I mean, how many countries should invade us because of our mass shootings, right?
A tons of foreign citizens have died in our mass shootings that happened here
on this soil.
>> Yep. >> Should Norway have invaded us?
Should the other Taiwan invaded?
I mean, this is absurd, this is insanity.
So Republicans, are you all gonna call out Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump for
being warmongers against Mexico?
No, you're not, so that's the hypocrisy.
But again, it's a little bit complicated cuz there are a couple of people
on the extreme left who say open borders and there's a bunch of people on the right
who say no war which is a good thing and I will take that agreement.