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State of Emergency; Interview With Lieutenant General Russel Honore; President Bush To Nominate Roberts for Chief Justice of Supreme Court

Aired September 05, 2005 - 07:31   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You're taking a look down Canal Street. And you can see sort of at the beginning where the water just begins. It's only about six inches deep or so. But as you head further down this way, it really becomes feet and feet, four feet of water. And as you can imagine for rescuers, it compromises their ability, one, to get into the home. And, two, the chances of finding anybody alive.
We went out on a rescue yesterday. And you could see they were wading through water up to their hips, looking for signs of any bodies, breaking into homes.

There will be a very grizzly task ahead for those who are now on the scene. The operation much less about rescuing people, frankly, than recovering some of the bodies. And, of course, time is of the essence, Miles, because disease is going to be a huge problem. And identifying all of these bodies is also a big problem. That's what lies ahead for the folks here in New Orleans -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Not a pretty picture at all. Soledad, thank you very much. See you in just a few moments.

After days of outrage, a massive military relief effort is pouring into New Orleans and some of the other devastated areas. Lieutenant General Russel Honore is the commander overseeing military relief efforts. Joint Task Force Katrina it is called. He joins us from Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

General, good to have you with us.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Could you bring us up-to-date right now, number of boots on the ground and what the situation is right now?

HONORE: Yes. We have approximately 30,000 National Guard troops on the ground with more on the way, and approximately 10,000 active- component troops. And our priority of work will focus -- continue to focus on search and rescue, of providing food and water, and assisting the people in the devastated area that goes from Mobile to the west side of New Orleans.

This is a disaster of enormous proportion. And the big impact on the region in Mississippi, where the coastline was destroyed for two or three miles inward, then damage north of that, all the way up to I- 20, almost the entire span -- width of the state of Mississippi.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, I'm told, general...

HONORE: A significant challenge there in the rural areas.

M. O'BRIEN: ... it's the size of the country of Great Britain. Is40,000 troops enough? Do you need more people?

HONORE: Well, we have -- we still have the local officials to get the job done. And if we need more troops, they will flow. Right now, we are linking up with each one of the four parishes in Louisiana that had significant damage and in the flood areas. And we're doing the same thing in the state of Mississippi.

We are just completing the search and rescue phase of this. After we do the search and rescue and evacuate the people, we'll work off the priorities of the governor is what we do. And we'll continue to do that. And right now, we have enough people to get that done, based on what we know.

But phase two and three of this might be harder than phase one, which is to do search and rescue. We're going to have to determine what we're going to do to mitigate the water in New Orleans. And much has to be done about establishing shelter.

So, there's a lot left to be done, and much of that is a task that the industry do, not military equities. We don't build buildings, per se, or build cities, but we'll do what we are told to do to help mitigate this situation. Over.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about chain of command for a minute, general, if we could. You mentioned the governors being in the mix here. The president has made an offer, put an offer on the table to federalize this whole thing, to streamline your chain of command. I assume that's something you'd like to see happen.

HONORE: We are working with the arrangements we have now, which is in relationship to the national response plan, where the inner agency led by FEMA on the homeland security will work in response to the governors at their request for support. That's what we are doing. We're getting the job done.

We evacuated 20,000 people at one location from the Convention Center the day before yesterday. We evacuated another 3,000 yesterday. We cleared the hospitals in New Orleans. We are working the outlying parish of St. Bernard and Jefferson parish...

M. O'BRIEN: General...

HONORE: ... in New Orleans...

M. O'BRIEN: General, let me ask you though...

HONORE: ... and Hancock County in Mississippi.

M. O'BRIEN: General, let me ask you this, though. If it were federalized, if the chain of command were such that it was streamlined, wouldn't that make your job easier?

HONORE: We're getting the job done. We're focusing on our search and rescue. Troops are doing a great job. That question -- I'm hearing your question, but that's a question you need to answer at a higher level.

I'm telling you, we're achieving success, and we're getting the job done working with the generals or working for the governor and meeting the requirements of FEMA. Boots on the ground, as we continue to deploy the forces in there, get the hospital ships off the coast and the aircraft carriers, we have more of ability to help coordinate the effort.

Right now, we are still in the crisis phase of this, because we have not gotten the people out of the destroyed area, because we're still looking for them. There are still people hiding in the top of their houses. If we could see them, we would go to them.

And in some cases, we're getting phone calls from them, and they're telling us where they are. And we're going after them, and we're getting them. That's what my focus is right now.

We might be in the half-time in this game, we might be losing 50- 0, but I'm going to focus on this next half. We're going to win this half, and we're going to get it done, and we're going to get it done as quick as we can. And the people of New Orleans need to know that.

And there has been much talk about the security of New Orleans. We are moving freely in and around New Orleans. And there are isolated incidents, but we're getting the job done, and we're going to continue to do it. And I wish we could of been there on day one, but wishing something is not making it happen.

M. O'BRIEN: Well...

HONORE: Playing something is not reality.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me show viewers who might have missed it over the weekend what happened when you finally got there on the ground. Let's take a look at this piece of tape and how you handled the troops in the situation there for just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put those (EXPLETIVE DELETED) weapons down! I'm not going to tell you again, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)! Get those (EXPLETIVE DELETED) weapons down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, I've got to tell you, general, if you told me to put my weapon down, I would. You went in there, and you took control very quickly. People literally applauding there. Isn't it a shame that it took that long, that it was Saturday for you to be there, and that whole scene had to even occur as it did? HONORE: I wish we didn't have to do that. But the reality of the situation, when we got the mission, we went in and got it done. The New Orleans Police Department was decisively engaged with that operation, and we evacuated that center.

And as much talk as had been had, there were ill people there, but there was not mass starvation. People were taking care of one another. They used the local stores in the region to provision themselves. And this was not -- it was filthy. It was crowded. It was uncomfortable. It was every description you could give of a situation you would not want to be in.

But the people took care of themselves. And in spite of this, they kept good order.

There was some activity inside the Convention Center. But much has been said about that. But we evacuated over 20,000 people from there. And you'll be able to go in and get the count of how many people didn't survive that. But this should be looked at as somewhat of a success that the number of people that were there, living in the conditions that there were, that many days later, we were able to evacuate them. And, look...

M. O'BRIEN: General, this is your home.

HONORE: This was -- yes.

M. O'BRIEN: This is your home. What was that like being there, having to do that job in your home state of Louisiana? Did you ever envision that?

HONORE: Now, look, the storm had a vote here. It's the storm that did this. It's not anything any government did or any individual. The storm had a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) vote, and the storm is still there. The water is there! You can't vote that water out of the city of New Orleans. That's reality, folks.

We need to get on with it. We need the big brain people in America finding a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) solution and stop worrying about the first-half. The second-half is yet to come. Take care of the evacuees. Let's get it on. And I need to go to work. Any other questions? Over.

M. O'BRIEN: No, sir. Over and out. Thank you.

HONORE: See you.

M. O'BRIEN: Carol Costello with headlines.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're getting breaking news right now, Miles. I'm sorry. Just a short time ago, CNN was able to confirm that the president, President Bush, will nominate John Roberts to be chief justice, of course, to replace William Rehnquist, who died over the weekend at the age of 80. We're expecting remarks from the president at the top of the hour, and we suspect he's going to be saying exactly this: That John Roberts will be nominated to replace William Rehnquist as chief justice. When we get more, we'll get right to it.

Also in the news this morning, dozens of people are feared dead after a passenger jet crashed in Indonesia. The flight went down shortly after takeoff from the northern city of Medan on Sumatra Island. The Mandela Airlines flight was carrying 117 people. An unknown number of people were killed on the ground.

U.S. flags are at half-staff today and will be until September 20. President Bush ordered flags lowered in honor of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Of course, he died Saturday, as I said, of complications from thyroid cancer. Rehnquist's body will lie in repose starting tomorrow in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. He'll be buried on Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

In the meantime, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts are still slated for tomorrow. He was nominated to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And, of course, as you just heard me say, he will now be considered for the chief justice position.

President Bush is heading back to the Gulf Coast in the next hour. He is expected to make several stops, including Poplarville, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's his second trip to the region in the past three days.

In the meantime, former Presidents George Bush, Sr. and Bill Clinton are in Texas this morning. They plan to visit with evacuees at Houston's Astrodome.

And some people from New Orleans are heading back home to collect their belongings. Jefferson parish is on the other side of the 17th Street Canal, where Louis Armstrong Airport is located. Within the past half-hour, the area was opened up to residents with I.D.s only. These are brand new pictures coming in to CNN. Some 1,000 National Guard troops are expected to help secure that area later today.

Back to you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. As we just told you, as Carol just told you, John Roberts, who is currently a nominee for Supreme Court justice, may, in fact, be converted, if you will, into a nominee for chief justice of the United States of America. This was one of the scenarios we talked about yesterday when we first were talking about the death, the passing of William Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States. And it lays out an interesting scenario.

Bob Franken it at the White House to talk about this.

One of the things that we talked about yesterday, which is important to point out, is Sandra Day O'Connor has not left her position on the high court. She said that she would do that only at such time as her successor was confirmed.

Well, now, as it turns out, John Roberts has been shifted to become potentially a successor to William Rehnquist. And, thus, Sandra Day O'Connor might very well have to show up to work in October for the next session of the Supreme Court.

Bob Franken at the White House with a little more insight on what's going on and what the thinking is at the White House -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thinking is that Roberts, who had been nominated to be associate justice, had already been very thoroughly vetted, to use the term that is so often used here, very thoroughly researched, both in public and by members of the Judiciary Committee. He is young, young enough to have somebody as chief justice who would last a long time.

And as you pointed out a moment ago, it would take a little bit of pressure and would also mean that in all probability there would be a chief justice in place when the Supreme Court meets.

Now, here's what's happened this morning. In confirming this for CNN, White House officials told us that earlier today, at 7:15 to be precise, Roberts came to the White House. The president presented him with that proposition, and Roberts very quickly accepted. So now the dynamic changes.

As for what happens now, the paperwork will have to be resubmitted. That's something that can be done fairly quickly, but it would pretty much assure that the hearings that were going to go forward tomorrow will not be going forward.

There had already been strong consideration for delaying those hearings out of respect for Rehnquist. The former chief justice is going to have his burial at Arlington National Cemetery with services earlier in the day. He is going to be also -- that's going to happen Wednesday. He's going to be lying in repose at the Supreme Court before then.

But in any case, it is not a surprise to most people, who quickly were determining exactly what might happen, that John Roberts will now be somebody who is nominated to be chief justice of the Supreme Court.

And I should point out that among the early duties in his career, he was a clerk for Chief Justice Rehnquist -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Isn't that an interesting turn? And this would be certainly the first time that a clerk followed a justice onto the court, much less chief justice.

A couple of things. How will this change the hearing? Does the hearing change in any way? Do the questions get ratcheted up to a different degree?

FRANKEN: Well, certainly the types of questions might be, because one of the functions of a chief justice is to try and establish, as Chief Justice Rehnquist did, a collegial atmosphere in the court. In other words, to make it possible for decisions to be reached.

There's a lot of negotiation that goes on between the justices. They don't just come out with opinions and just write them down like that. They have to reach a consensus. Oftentimes one justice will agree in principle to a particular point of view, but has some differing legal opinions, that kind of thing. It is extremely difficult. You have very heavy egos involved there.

And so, you need somebody who is a conciliator, somebody like a Roberts, the White House will argue, who is affable, somebody who gets along well with the other justices. He has a long relationship with them as an advocate before the Supreme Court, somebody who has the respect of the other justices. And Roberts is considered a heavy heavy-weight lawyer.

So, all of those will be arguments that the White House makes.

On the other side, you have the opponents who have lined up against Roberts, who say that he is, from their point of view, a wolf in sheep's clothing. That is to say a hard right conservative, who is not somebody who should be on the Supreme Court. To the argument against that will be Rehnquist himself was considered quite the conservative. And so it would be trading conservative for conservative.

What I've tried to do here is give you a preview of the kind of discussion that's going to take place. But what's going to happen, Miles, it's going to take place quite quickly. The Supreme Court reconvenes on October 3.

M. O'BRIEN: It's interesting you talk about the collegiality and getting -- you know, and we're talking about, after all, some egos here. And we don't mean to be disparaging, but these are people of great accomplishment. To have some somebody come in from the outside and try to herd those cats, so to speak, I would think would be harder than elevating from your own ranks. But I guess, you know, it all depends on how the person does their job.

FRANKEN: But let's look at the choice that you would have if you were going to be elevating within the ranks of the Supreme Court.

First of all, Justice Scalia is somebody who has always taken pride in the fact that he is very outspoken, very forceful with his views. He has oftentimes been bitingly critical of his fellow justices. That is not something that necessarily would win him the kind of friendships that he would need to be the conciliator, to be the person who can call somebody in the office and administer the velvet glove. He has always used a steel glove or a steel club or something like that.

The others who are of a persuasion similar to the president's have a similar kind of difficulty, that type of thing.

Now, somebody like John Roberts, he's going to have the problem that he's going from being an advocate before the Supreme Court, not a member of that elite body, to suddenly being the person in charge. So he has his work cut out for him.

But, again, he is considered a heavy-weight lawyer. He is considered somebody who has, how shall I say it? Good people skills. So, those are going to be the arguments that are made in support of his being the chief justice.

M. O'BRIEN: An interesting turn of events. The White House not wasting any time on this one. And I guess given the nature of this, since these hearings were about to start, they needed to make this announcement today.

FRANKEN: They did need to make this announcement today. There is, of course, the old, old British saying that "The king is dead, long live the king," meaning, of course, that although one generation has passed on, you immediately have to maintain continuity by coming up with another generation. And that is the tradition we're seeing here. That is what we're going to see with the president speaking from the Oval Office.

An interesting thing, Miles. When we heard this morning, just a short while ago, that the president will be speaking from the Oval Office, the question was, well, why? Why not just speak from the helicopter pad before he's taking off?

Well, now we get an impression of why that is, because this is an announcement that requires the dignity of the Oval Office, and this is something that he would do from there.

In any case, we've had it confirmed, Roberts got into the White House this morning at 7:15. I sadly confess that I didn't see him. He went and had a private meeting with the president, where the president offered him this proposition. It certainly was not really a surprise. It had been widely discussed in the last 24 hours. And now, he is going to be nominated to be the chief justice of the United States.

M. O'BRIEN: It's all right, Bob. I'm sure he took the chief justice entrance. Don't worry about that. Thank you, Bob Franken at the White House.

About 11 minutes from now, we should see the president in the Oval Office making that announcement. And that means you'll see it as well right here on CNN. So stay with us for that. That's 8:00 Eastern, about 10 minutes from now.

Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, meet a Houston man who opened his home to dozens and dozens of people who are evacuees from the storm. That's a little bit later in the show. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush from the Oval Office in about eight minutes' time, there to make an announcement, we are told, that John Roberts has been shifted from a nominee to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court to become a nominee for chief justice of the United States of America. We will be following this story all throughout the day, of course.

We're also, of course, following very closely the aftermath of Katrina. Soledad in New Orleans with more on that.

Good morning -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And good morning to you, Miles.

And, in fact, former President George Bush and former President Bill Clinton are expected to announce today their fund-raising efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and, of course, the subsequent flooding. Joining them will be the former mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial. You'll recall we've been talking to him a lot over the last several days, the last week in fact. All of them will be at the Houston Astrodome, where they are visiting some of the evacuees who are now there.

Mr. Mayor, former mayor, nice to see you, Marc. Thanks for talk with us.

MARC MORIAL, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Have you been here? Have you come home to see in person the damage and the devastation here?

MORIAL: I haven't been -- I'm looking forward to visiting New Orleans. I don't think that the scene there is a spectator situation. So I think the people who come to New Orleans and go to New Orleans right now while there is a difficult recovery effort should go with purpose.

I'm here in Houston, because this is where literally in excess of 100,000 evacuees have been relocated. And I think our efforts today are to demonstrate appreciation and thanks for the people of Texas and the people of Houston, but also to show support, caring, and love for the people who have been evacuated to this place, dispossessed of their homes. And I'll bring a team of volunteers over to the Astrodome this afternoon after joining former Presidents Clinton and Bush this morning here as they announce their efforts.

S. O'BRIEN: Marc, you know, at the same time, when we've been talking about the Convention Center and all the people there and all of the damage there, that's a convention center that's named after your dad. I mean, that's the Morial Convention Center. Are you eager -- I mean, in the sense of resolving in your own mind how bad it is here...

MORIAL: I can't...

S. O'BRIEN: ... to sort of see what is left of your city?

MORIAL: I can't tell you how eager I am to visit New Orleans. And I plan to do it as soon as possible, to visit the city and see not only the damage, but to lend whatever assistance and help.

I think there's a great need here, Soledad, in Texas and in other parts of Louisiana, and in Arkansas, where people have been resettled. We've got a tremendous humanitarian crisis. We need the continued generosity and the caring of the people of the United States and the people of the world to help people who have to rebuild their lives, who have to transition. I understand inside the Astrodome there are many, many single moms with children, many who were about to begin school. The human toll is incalculable. And I think I want the country to remain engaged with the people, the people here in Texas and all over.

S. O'BRIEN: Then let's...

MORIAL: Soledad, go ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: Then let's talk about that point, Marc, because as I'm sure you're well aware, there are many people, many black people here in New Orleans and outside who have said, you know, if these were white middle-class people who were in distress, who were waving for food and water, help would have come a lot faster. And I know those were some of your concerns. You talked to the secretary of homeland security about that. What did he tell you?

MORIAL: Well, when we talked, myself, Bruce Gordon, Elijah Cummings (ph) and Mel Watt (ph) talked with Michael Chertoff, Alfonso Jackson and Claude Allen (ph) at the people at the White House, we strongly expressed privately what we said publicly. And that was great concerns about the adequacy of the response, and also the very important question, had this been Washington or New York or Miami or Los Angeles, would the response have been the same?

What we came away with was a commitment that as of last Friday things would change, and that there would be an unprecedented marshaling of federal resources and military resources to help with the recovery effort and the resettlement effort. And I think there's been a change in the last 48 hours, but that's got to sustain. That's got to continue. That's got to go on.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, clearly, Marc, lots and lots of work ahead, no question about that. Former Mayor Marc Morial for us this morning. Nice to talk to you, Marc. Thanks -- Miles.

MORIAL: Thanks, Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Soledad.

In just a few minutes, we're expecting to hear from President Bush. The president is set to nominate Judge John Roberts as chief justice of the United States. We'll have Mr. Bush's remarks before he sets off for the Katrina-ravaged region in just a little bit. Stay with us.

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