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Three Drone Sightings in Three Days at JFK; Thousands Evacuating as California Wildfires Spread; Intense Manhunt for Suspected Cop Killer; Official: Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Syria; Republicans Blast Clean Power Plan. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 03, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:04] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like who can swim the fastest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I normally win by a little.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Still competitive. A slice of normal life for a brave little girl that gets very little in her own life.

PEREIRA: We love them both. What a great friendship.

All right. It's time for "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow in for Carol Costello.

Isn't that a nice "Good Stuff" today?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That is a great "Good Stuff." It's my favorite part of the show and I know it is yours, too, guys. Have a great day. Thanks so much.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. More than 50,000 acres in California torched. And it's not over yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All hell broke loose. Everyone we know, houses are ashes right now.

HARLOW: Dry and windy conditions feeding the flames. What firefighters are doing to stop them.

Also, the president ready to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions. But this major climate change plan has many seeing red.

And is Joe ready to go? Talk Biden might launch another presidential bid. How that could shake up the race.

Let's talk in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Good Monday morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in today for Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me. We begin this hour with a very unnerving story for anyone who boards

an airplane. For the third time in three days airline pilots are reporting a close call with an unmanned drone. The latest incident from last night once again right at JFK airport in New York City. One of the busiest airports in the country.

Let's talk about it with a veteran airline pilot who flew out and into JFK this weekend. Les Abend, he's a 777 pilot. He has logged more than 18,000 hours in the cockpit. He is also a CNN aviation analyst.

You flew in and out of JFK to London.

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I did.

HARLOW: This didn't happen to you but it happened to three different planes that had been reported. Potentially more. When you look at the rules of the road here when it comes to drones, they have to be five miles clear of any airport. They can't fly above 400 feet. Why does this keep happening?

ABEND: It's the technology is such that people can afford these toys that go to incredible altitudes. There are some that go all the way up to 13,000 feet. And for the price of $3500 for these toys. You know, why it's happening, it just -- it just sounds like complete irresponsibility to me.

HARLOW: So take me into the cockpit. If this were to happen to your commercial airliner, I mean, what happened with the two incidents over the weekend is that these drones were within 100 feet. It's unclear how close the one was last night. But what do you do? I mean, you can't exactly just veer off course. You've still got to talk to air traffic controllers.

ABEND: It's -- when you're in an approach phase, it is tough. You're in a very stabilized position. But if you have to maneuver the airplane you certainly can maneuver the airplane to get away from that particular object or another airplane, for instance, but that being said -- listen, if a drone hits an airplane, more than likely the drone is going to lose. However, we've talked about this before.

HARLOW: Yes.

ABEND: If it goes into an engine there's a possibility of that kind of ingestion possibly shutting down the engine. Even -- but even if that happens we are trained to fly the airplane on one engine. And it's -- it can hit the wind screen, crack the outer pane of the wind screen. It will cause a visibility problem. But that being said, for the most part, we can maneuver away from this particular object, if we see it. They're very small.

HARLOW: But this is the last thing you as a pilot want to have to be thinking of flying your plane.

ABEND: Sure.

HARLOW: Is another thing. ABEND: We're dealing with the environment, we're dealing with

weather, and now we're dealing with laser strikes, drones, and --

HARLOW: Yes. And security concerns.

ABEND: Security concerns. Sure.

HARLOW: What can be done? Because, you know, you've got the FAA that regulates planes and regulates the drones. And a lot of folks have said the regulation here just isn't in line with how fast the technology for these drones is becoming and how assessable they are.

ABEND: I agree. And my suggestion has always been let's register these things. Let's license the people that are flying them. So if you don't have a license, that there's a fine, a penalty, possible jail term for this kind. At least we have some form of accountability. At this point, we really don't. Unfortunately, you know, it takes away from the people that are responsible that are radio control hobbyists.

HARLOW: Right. It certainly does. You have also pointed out, look, you believe this is just people making dumb moves with drones. Nothing nefarious. At the same time if you -- you know, you're talking about JFK airport in New York City, this is also a way that people with bad intentions could test the waters.

ABEND: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we saw -- I think a couple of weeks ago we saw a young man that had put a gun on a drone. So, you know, yes, it's indeed possible. We can carry it one step further and it could be a nefarious act.

HARLOW: Right.

ABEND: Absolutely.

[09:05:02] HARLOW: Right. Les Abend, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

To California now where the sun is about to rise but across much of the state it will have to break through thick billowing smoke. There are nearly two dozen wildfires burning in northern California right now racing across drought-parched landscape from one end of the state to the other.

But the most ferocious, the Rocky Fire, grows more dangerous by the hour. Thousands of people have fled their homes and fire officials are already warning of the day ahead.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Stephanie Elam. She is in Colusa County, California, that is north of Sacramento.

How is it looking, Steph?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the sun is just starting to give us a little bit of light here, Poppy. And you can see what the terrain is starting to look like. Well, what I can show you behind me are those really big bulldozers. That's because this fire is only 5 percent contained and they want to see if they can contain the fire and then stop its progress.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (voice-over): Flames crackling, spreading into the night. Overnight lightning, winds, and low humidity further fueling the flames at a time when firefighters normally gained some ground.

At least 21 wildfires are burning across California exacerbated by the state's drought. More than 9,000 firefighters battling those flames. The state's largest wildfire, the Rocky Fire, ravaging counties north of San Francisco. This inferno already incinerating more than 50,000 acres.

CAPT. STEVE KAUFMANN, CAL FIRE: There are firefighters that have 20, 25, 30 years on the job that have never seen fire behavior like we've seen the last couple of days here on the Rocky Fire.

ELAM: Firefighters using many resources to try to tame the fire. Some crews actually using tools to set fires. This to prevent the progress of a fire by taking away its fuel.

(On camera): We're standing along highway 16 -- California 16, and what they want to do is contain this fire so it doesn't jump across this road. So a lot of fires, backfires being built on the opposite side. But as you take a look at this active fire here, you can see the wind is really pushing it.

(Voice-over): Thousands of people and structures under evacuation.

ROMILYN RAMOS, EVACUEE: We got out of the meeting and it looked like a bomb had went off over here.

ELAM: As dozens of residences and buildings are now left smoldering.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All hell broke loose so fast. Everyone we know, those houses are ashes right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And when you take a look at the conditions that these firefighters are dealing with, it's soaring up to around 100 degrees. We were out on it yesterday. They are all suited up.

And now as the sun is coming up, Poppy, I'm starting to feel the wind build up as well. And that wind is really part of the problem because it just helps to spread those embers and blow this fire along and into different places. So that's one thing that they're really trying to battle and contain this fire.

HARLOW: Yes.

ELAM: But just a massive explosion over the weekend up to this 54,000 acres that have been burned. HARLOW: Absolutely. And we saw one firefighter lose his life trying

to battle these flames over the weekend. Our thanks to everyone out there doing their best to contain it.

Stephanie, thank you for that.

I want to talk more about this now and the latest on the firefighting efforts mobilized as you just heard from Stephanie across the state.

Daniel Berlant is the chief of public information for Cal Fire, that is the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Thank you for being with me, sir.

DANIEL BERLANT, CHIEF OF PUBLIC INFORMATION, CAL FIRE: Yes. Good morning to you.

HARLOW: Give me a sense of the latest tally on the number of acres burned, and also those winds that Stephanie talked about and just how much worse those gusting winds could make this.

BERLANT: Well, as she mentioned, right now we're battling nearly two dozen large wildfires up and down the state. Northern California specifically being hit the hardest. It's the dry conditions that are allowing the Rocky Fire and many others to grow at such an explosive rate. The Rocky Fire, our largest fire of the year so far, well over 50,000 acres burned, but we continue over the next couple of months to only get drier.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERLANT: That means the risk for a lot of fires will only go higher.

HARLOW: How thinly stretched are your resources right now trying to fight these flames?

BERLANT: Well, as you can imagine with well over 9,000 firefighters on the front lines right now, we are incredibly busy. Now here in California Governor Brown did sign a Drought State of Emergency last year.

HARLOW: Right.

BERLANT: Giving us extra firefighters and equipment to help battle this exact scenario. We're mobilizing even more crews and brought in the California National Guard. So we've got a lot of resources to battle the current fires that we have on hand.

HARLOW: So is it enough? Are those resources enough now that you do have the governor declaring that state of emergency over the weekend which unlocked some of those extra funds?

BERLANT: Absolutely. We are definitely aggressively attacking with resources that we have here. Because we also have more resources available to us that respond to the initial attack fires. We talk about two dozen fires, but that's not the hundreds of fires that we're responding to each week that we're able to keep relatively small with those other personnel and firefighters.

[09:10:04] HARLOW: Daniel Berlant, thank you very much. Good luck to you and all of your teams out there. We appreciate what you're doing.

Still to come here in the NEWSROOM, armed and dangerous. You're looking at a photo of a man suspected of gunning down a police officer over the weekend. This man is still on the loose. That story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: A manhunt is underway right now for the killer of a Memphis police officer. CNN has obtained frantic audio alerting police that the officer had been shot. I'm going to play you a little bit of it but I'm going to read over it because it's very hard to understand, right.

Here is what it says. It starts by saying Summer Lane 47, Summer Lane. He's shot. The dispatch officer says officer is shot. The dispatch goes on to say now advising there's an officer down in front of the location. The person calling this in from the radio says, call the balance, call the ambulance. I need an ambulance now.

[09:15:01] This audio ends with the dispatcher saying officer down at that location.

We are talking about Officer Sean Bolton. Funeral arrangements are pending for him. He was murdered Saturday night during a traffic stop. He's just 33 years old. He is the third Memphis officer to die in the line of duty in just four years.

Police right now looking for this man 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn in connection with the murder. He was on supervised release for a convicted -- for a robbery conviction, rather, a reward has been offered for his capture.

A Memphis police spokesperson says that Officer Bolton apparently interrupted a drug deal when he pulled this man over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONEY ARMSTRONG, DIRECTOR, MEMPHIS POLICE SERVICES: The inventory in the suspect vehicle that was found and Officer Bolton apparently interrupted some sort of drug transaction. A digital scale and a small bag of marijuana, about 1.7 grams, were located inside of the vehicle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our Nick Valencia joins me now with the latest.

Nick, this just reminds you that these officers put their life on the line every single time. They do anything. They pull someone over in what look like a routine traffic stop. What do we know about the suspect right now?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the 29-year-old Tremaine Wilson on the run now right now, considered armed and dangerous. We know as you had mentioned, Poppy, he has a criminal history, no stranger to police. He was on supervised probation. Ten years he was sentenced for an armed robbery of a bank.

We also know that he was involved, for what it seems, according to police, in a small time drug transaction, about 1.7 grams of marijuana, equivalent to about $20 street value. So, essentially, this 33-year-old officer, Sean Bolton, was killed over $20. Bolton, an Iraq war veteran served overseas to protect America's freedom only to come back and be gunned down on the streets of Memphis -- Poppy.

HARLOW: We know that a second person turned themselves in over the weekend. That's why there was a little bit of confusion last night on, if they caught the man they were looking for yet. What do we know about the other person who turned themselves into police?

VALENCIA: Initially named a person of interest. He was questioned by police and later released. We don't know what information was gleaned from that person. We don't have this identification.

But we know he may have been the last person to see 29-year-old Tremaine Wilson. It was also after that person of interest, that man who was driving the car, a he witness to the shooting was that Tremaine Wilson -- I'm sorry, Wilbourn, I should say -- was named a suspect. Again, still on the run today a $10,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to his capture.

This is a very difficult period and time for the Memphis Police Department. In the last four years, they've had three police officers killed in the line of duty -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. And this officer, Sean Bolton, just five years on the job 33 years old.

Nick Valencia, thank you.

VALENCIA: You bet.

HARLOW: Checking top stories for you now, New Mexico churches are on alert following two separate explosions in churches in Las Cruces, both happening during Sunday services. Officials say one device exploded in a mailbox. The other inside a trash can. Luckily no one was hurt. It's unclear if the blasts are connected to one another. The FBI, of course, is investigating.

And a very sad story to tell you about. A 9-year-old bat boy has died after being struck in the head by a bat. Kaiser Carlile was helping retrieve bats for a collegiate baseball team in Kansas when the accident happened. The team is crushed by his death. They dedicated their win to his memory.

And police are searching are searching for two gunman who opened fire at a house party in Brooklyn, injuring nine people. The shooting was captured on this grainy surveillance video. You can see one of the suspects walking right there in the video. In a different frame, you can see a different man fire off multiple rounds from the sidewalk. Two of the victims were both shot in the neck. They are in stable condition.

And in Myanmar, heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 47 people. More than 200,000 other people have been displaced. This weekend alone, as much as half a foot of rain fell on the area. It's happening across the region. In Eastern India, 48 people were killed due to flooding. More bad weather on its way.

Still to come here in the NEWSROOM: to politics now -- Joe Biden getting a lot of attention this weekend. Will he run in 2016? There's talk that he could launch another presidential bid. How do Democrats feel about that? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:23:34] HARLOW: We're learning more this morning about President Obama authorizing U.S. airstrikes in Syria to back the rebel fighters.

Let's go straight to the Pentagon. It's where we find our correspondent Barbara Starr with the latest. I know, Barbara, this broke on Friday. But now, we are getting more details on the strikes, how expansive they will be, et cetera.

What are we learning?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. More details indeed. The president now has authorized U.S. coalition air strikes to defend rebel fighters on the ground in northern Syria. There are several groups up there that the U.S. is looking to defend against ISIS, against al Nusra, the al Qaeda group up there.

It was on Friday that a compound came under attack by al Nusra, the al Qaeda. Two groups of rebels were there. The rebels that the U.S., small number, has already trained and equipped, and another group that the U.S. is supporting. So, the president authorizing U.S. airstrikes to defend that group at that compound when they came under attack from this al Qaeda group.

It's gotten a lot of attention for a couple of reasons. We're seeing U.S. airstrikes defending additional rebel forces and we're seeing this group come under attack by al Nusra. The U.S. had not thought, we are told by sources we've spoken to, that al Nusra would attack them in that part of northern Syria. But as one official said to me, at the end of the day, al Nusra is more anti-U.S. perhaps than they anticipated.

[09:25:01] So, that strike coming as a bit of a surprise, looking to embarrass the United States by attacking the rebels that the Obama administration is supporting. But I think what's so interesting here is that it may now lay the groundwork for additional strikes in this area, an expansion perhaps depending on how the fighting goes of the U.S. effort up there -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Exactly what I was going to ask, and that is, what your sources there at the Pentagon are telling you and what you read from this in terms of the larger strategy by the United States in the region. What does this tell us? STARR: Well, northern Syria right now, it's a great question.

Northern Syria, where all of this is happening, is very much in the U.S. military crosshairs. Northern Syria is a stronghold of ISIS. Two towns up there, Raqqa, and in part, Aleppo, as well as the stronghold of another groups. Now, the Kurds up there have been making a lot of progress in fighting ISIS.

So, the U.S. supporting the Kurds now able to do airstrikes much closer from Southern Turkey. So, a lot of effort in the coming weeks expected in this area of northern Syria to get the rebels up and running and push ISIS even further back. It's really the place to watch right now.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Barbara Starr, and the story for us from the Pentagon this morning -- thank you, Barbara.

STARR: Sure.

HARLOW: Republican presidential hopefuls blasting President Obama's ambitious plan to combat climate change. Some already threatening to go to court to block it. He hasn't even officially unveiled it yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's a -- I think it's a disaster. It's taking -- it's typical of the Obama administration taking executive power he doesn't have.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It will make utilities. It will make the cost of electricity higher for millions of Americans. So, if there's some billionaire somewhere who is pro- environmental cap and trade person, yes, they can probably afford for their electric bill to go up a couple of hundred dollars. But if you're a single mom in Tampa, Florida, and your electric bill goes up by $30 a month, that is catastrophic.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen, facts matter. Here are the facts -- if you look at the satellite data in the last 18 years, there's been zero recorded warming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, you're not saying global warming isn't real?

CRUZ: I'm saying the data and facts don't support it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: There you have it some of the responses that came out yesterday after this was unveiled. The president making a formal announcement a little bit later today to announce what is known as the "Clean Power Plan". That comes this afternoon.

Let's go straight to the White House where we find CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

Good morning, Michelle. No surprise that this going to be highly criticized. This really cuts

down party lines. I expect we'll hear from some big energy CEOs about this as well.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. Right, right.

HARLOW: So, walk us through the big headlines here on this proposal.

KOSINSKI: Yes. I mean, you knew that this was going to happen surrounding the subject. And this is exactly one of those, "pal, I'm still here, not only that but I'm still going to get stuff done" kind of things that President Obama has wanted to do in this, the fourth quarter of his presidency.

But could he get it done if Congress had a say in it? Nope. Ands therein lies a lot of criticism.

But the White House is putting out some big numbers surrounding this. They are saying that this is going to cut carbon emissions specifically from power plants by 32 percent over 2005 levels by the year 2030 and also saying it's going to have expansive effects even medically, that it's going to cut down on premature death due to emissions by some 90 percent over 2005. Childhood asthma attacks by 90,000 cases. Economically, it's going to cut energy cuts and create jobs because it's going to also generate this new focus on clean energy. However, that is exactly the opposite of what critics are saying.

But here is President Obama in this video that the White House put out on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Power plants are the single biggest source of the harmful carbon pollution that contributes to climate change. But until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of that pollution those plants can dump into the air. It you believe, like I do, that we can't condemn our kids and grandkids to a planet that's beyond fixing and I'm asking you to share this message with your friends and family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So, yes, absolutely. People are going to jump all over this. We're hearing it from Republicans, from those sound bytes you play there, from the mining industry, from climate change doubters, deniers, some states are threatening to sue the administration over this.

But the White House is saying we are giving states time. That they don't even have to come up with a plan to reduce these emissions until late next year. Then, they have years and years to either extend it or slowly phase it in.

So, the White House is saying states have plenty of time to accomplish this, Poppy.

HARLOW: You know, it's interesting, Michelle, thinking back to what Senator Lindsey Graham and other GOP contenders said in the past few months. He talked about his party and he said, you know, we have energy plans. We don't have environmental plans as a party. You know, when you look back to 2012, the issue of climate change didn't come up in a debate.