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Hurricane Joaquin Strengthens to Category 3; Russian Air Strikes in Syria; Donald Trump Vows to Send All Syrian Refugees Back; Mexican Kingpins Extradited to the U.S. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 01, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:57] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for my friend Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining us.

We turn now to Hurricane Joaquin, strengthening overnight to a Category 3. See it there whipping up speed. Winds faster than 120 miles per hour right now near the Bahamas. This morning, millions on the East Coast worrying that Joaquin could hit as hard as Sandy. Huge sand walls already in place. You see them right there. Chad Myers on top of all of it with what could happen.

Sandy -- Sandy's strength, really?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, here's the deal. I can't put to rest the fact that it can't happen that way, because it's still a possibility. New York city is still within the cone. Atlantic City's still within the cone, Poppy. But let me get to the models and let me show you what Sandy did and how this is similar, although changing.

Sandy was a major hurricane. This is a major hurricane. This is going to be 140 miles per hour later on today. It's 120 right now. I just saw a couple of gusts of 125, still getting stronger. It's going to spend some time down here and then it's going to turn its way on up here and then go something like that we hope and miss everything.

But not that much of a turn back to the left, like some of these models are indicating. That wouldn't be that much of a stretch to turn it back to the left because the jet stream is doing something like that. So if it got turned back into the jet stream or got caught in the jet stream, it could do that. A lot of the models -- well, look, look how many are out here. And so there's probably a 50/50 chance or less that it makes landfall in the U.S., but that's still very, very close. I'd give it 45 if not 50. So I'm not taking that out of -- out of the question.

This is a big storm. It's getting bigger. It's in warm water. It's 140 miles per hour, tearing up the Bahamas later on today and tomorrow. I turns to the north. Look at -- I took the line out of the middle. I want you to look at the error possibility.

So how big is the error? It could be in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, almost Durham, or almost halfway to the Bahamas. It could be in West Virginia or halfway to the Bahamas. And somewhere out here are where the models are right now. We'll see what the Hurricane Center does. They will adjust the forecast track at 11:00. They do it 5:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 5:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m. We'll see what they do with it now that the hurricane hunter airplane is in this storm.

What we know is that this is going to be a flood maker, whether it makes landfall or not, because there will be places with 10 inches of rain in the Carolinas, maybe through Virginia, and that will cause flooding because it's already saturated.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, especially down there by Charlotte, ten inches plus.

MYERS: Yes.

HARLOW: Wow.

All right, Chad, thank you, as always.

Do want to check top stories for you this morning. In a stunning move, an Oklahoma inmate is being spared the death penalty for now at least. Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin granting a last minute stay of execution for Richard Glossip. Fallin revealed they did not have the specific drugs for lethal injection that were necessary.

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GOV. MARY FALLIN (R), OKLAHOMA: The Department of Corrections did what they should have done, which is to notify the attorney general. The attorney general was thinking it through, called me, made me aware of it. One of the things that we do in our state is go through the execution process and it's a very, very serious matter for the state that none of us take lightly.

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HARLOW: Glossip was convicted nearly 17 years ago of hiring a hit man to murder a motel owner. His execution is now set for November 6th.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the United Nations today. The big talking point in his address will be Iran and also comments by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority during his speech in front of the United Nations. Abbas accused Israeli's leaders of breaking agreements and undermining U.S. peace efforts.

[09:34:40] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new Russian air strikes in Syria today. Two consecutive days of these strikes. You see images of them right there from Russia's defense ministry. Moscow says, look, we are targeting ISIS, but is that really their sole intention? Our next guest says Russia is helping the Assad regime brutalize the Syrian people. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARLOW: Russia unleashing a new round of airstrikes in Syria, this time claiming they targeted four ISIS facilities. Despite what Moscow is saying, many are questioning, what is Russia's end game here? Many experts say it appears Russia is, instead, targeting rebel groups supported by the United States, not ISIS strongholds. A move that could potentially bolster the Assad regime. Let's listen to what Republican Senator John McCain told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."

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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I can absolutely confirm to you that they were strikes against our Free Syrian Army or groups that have been armed and trained by the CIA because we have communications with people there.

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[09:40:05] HARLOW: Joining me now to talk about all of this, Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. He says Russia is now participating in the direct brutality of the Assad regime.

Thank you for being with me, senator.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thanks, Poppy. Good to be with you.

HARLOW: I want to read our viewers part of a statement that you issued on Thursday. You wrote, "the Russia Federation is no longer just protecting and supplying the Assad regime, it is directly participating in its brutality. The choice to strike Homs, an area already besieged and essentially destroyed by the Assad regime's barrel bombing campaign contradicts Russia's claims to be assisting with the fight against ISIS." You say that. Your colleague on the other side of the aisle, John McCain, we heard what he just said to Chris Cuomo. So what does the United States do as a result?

CASEY: Well, the first thing we have to do is to be very clear with the Russian Federation that we're not going to tolerate this kind of activity where it's clear I think all the evidence, the reported -- and the reporting that's been done in the last 24 hours indicates that they're targeting rebel controlled areas, or at least very close to that. Certainly not --

HARLOW: But how do you do that, sir? You say we're not going to tolerate. What does that mean?

CASEY: Well, that's --

HARLOW: Are we talking about phone calls between the president and Putin?

CASEY: That's why Secretary Kerry is engaged with Lavrov right now.

HARLOW: Lavrov (ph).

CASEY: So on that level there has to be direct engagement. That's already started. That's good. Secondly, there has to be military to military engagement on this to make it -- to make it very clear. And if the Russians don't back off on this, then we've got a much bigger problem. I think the first thing we've got to do is keep the engagement.

Secondly, and almost on a parallel track, we've got to be very clear about what our objectives are, even if this recent bombing campaign didn't (ph) start by the Russians. Meaning, we've got to be very clear in terms of pushing for a negotiated end, pushing countries in the region to contribute more. We've done a lot already. $4.5 billion of American taxpayer dollars. So we've got to get others to participate. And thirdly, we've got to be very clear, not only to the Russians, but to the other members of the U.N. Security Council that we're going to enforce those U.N. Security Council resolution as they apply to Syria.

HARLOW: You said if -- essentially if Russia doesn't stop this, we have a serious problem. History teaches us a lot. And what history shows us is Vladimir Putin, wouldn't you agree, isn't likely to just pull back and say, OK, never mind.

CASEY: Well, we'll know in a -- we'll know in a couple of days whether or not we've made progress with this engagement. But one thing you have to be careful of, I think, in Washington is, you have a lot of people that will talk tough about how to deal with Russia, and then when you ask -- ask them what they specifically should do, there's not a lot of -- a lot of answers.

The first thing to do is to have the two foreign ministers in a sense, our secretary of state and their foreign minister engage.

HARLOW: Right.

CASEY: And then have the military engagement. And then see where things are. This is going to be almost a day-to-day evaluation. But apart from the Russian engagement, we've got to have a specific strategy that is articulated and communicated on a regular basis. And I think there's been a void there.

HARLOW: Well, and we're seeing Lavrov and Kerry sent to meet today at 11:00 a.m. So just a little over an hour's time.

Look, you -- you, senator, called on Assad to go back in 2011. You spent a lot of time in the region. You met with refugees. Secretary Kerry has said and agreed all along Assad must go, but now he's saying in an orderly transition. It can't just be an ouster right away or everything falls apart. What do you make of that approach? Seems to be a change a bit in U.S. stance.

CASEY: Well, that's why when I said a negotiated resolution of this, I mean we've got to have a -- we do have to have a process. I don't think this can be -- can happen too quickly. That's why it's critically important that we're engaging not only with the Russians on this limited but critical military question, we've got to engage with the Russians, as well as countries in the region, to have an a negotiated settlement. I don't know necessarily what that looks like at the end of the road, but what hasn't happened is we -- there hasn't been enough in the way of pushing and probing as to whether or not we can get to that end game.

But having Assad in place over time is going to foster not just more opposition within Syria, but his very presence there, barrel bombing his people over and over again, killing children over and over again for years, that's driving the threat posed by ISIS. So the two are related, even though we're on the same page with the Russians on the battle against ISIS. We've got to deal with the Syrian problem as well.

HARLOW: Senator Bob Casey, thank you very much.

CASEY: Thank you.

[09:44:54] HARLOW: Still to come, Donald Trump says if he gets elected president, Syrian refugees coming to the United States are, quote, "out." Will the voters get behind his policy on that, next.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now I hear we want to take in 200,000 Syrians. Right? And they could be -- listen, they could be ISIS. I don't know. Did you ever see migration like that? They're all men. And they're all strong-looking guys.

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HARLOW: Donald Trump there saying he is suspicious of the flood of refugees escaping violence across Syria and the Middle East and he's got a message for any Syrian who makes it to the United States: Get ready to get out.

[09:50:01] Take a listen to what he told our Don Lemon last night.

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TRUMP: I'm just telling you right now, they may come in through the weakness of Obama. But they're going out if I become president. They will not stay here. They're going back to Syria whether it's safe zones or whatever. But they're going back to Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's talk about all of this. We are joined now by Republican strategist and columnist at "The Sun Sentinel" Noelle Nikpour, along with CNN contributor and editor-in-chief of "The Daily Beast" John Avalon. (sic)

Noelle, let me begin with you. He made it very clear, mincing no words. He rarely does about this. Do you think this is a domestic policy that will help rally the votes he needs?

NOELLE NIKPOUR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, let's face it. Donald Trump is very outspoken. But, you know, then again, he's not really a loon when it comes to this issue because a lot of Americans, a lot of people are leery about some of these people coming over. Because maybe some of them don't have the best intentions. So I think that --

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HARLOW: How do we know that a lot of Americans -- how do we know a lot of Americans are leery about these Syrian refugees?

NIKPOUR: Well, if you look at what Trump says overall, he's still leading, like it or not. He's still leading in the polls. So obviously what he's saying on every subject, including this, is resonating in the polls.

If he had made this statement and a lot of people didn't agree with it, you would see him plummeting in the polls, in my opinion. And I think that, right now, what you're seeing is a lot of people are leery. Plus, we have a lot of problems at home. We have a lot of things that need to be taken care of on the homeland without opening our arms to these people that we don't really know the backgrounds.

Maybe if Donald Trump had said these people need to be detained so we can do thorough, thorough background checks, to make sure that they're free and clear before they're dispersed through the communities, maybe that would have been better than just a no-holds bar.

HARLOW: John, to you. We don't -- I haven't seen any polling of the American people yet on how they feel about these refugees, an increase of them coming into the United States. And we don't have any updated polls from after the comments he made about them last night to our Don Lemon. But to you, what do you make of it?

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, look, it's fear-mongering, it goes against the best American traditions. And for those folks who say they want a smaller government, philosophically, the prospect of a 10,000, 20,000 Elian Gonzalez-style raids to remove children and refugees from the United States should scare the hell out of people.

The practical matter is that if you look at the refugees, they are evenly divided between men and women. 51 percent are children. So, you know, words have meaning. And before you just sort of say that this is striking a chord with the American people, think a step ahead about the practical implications. And if you do that, I think you'll recognize that this is a recipe for disaster that would not represent the best American traditions; it would represent our worst fears.

HARLOW: So Noelle, let me ask you this. Jeb Bush responded to what Trump said yesterday. And he said, "We have a noble tradition of taking care of refugees. We've done it since the beginning of time. I think we need to maintain that."

He went on to say, "But send them all back to a hell hole?"

Do you agree with Jeb Bush's assessment here more than Donald Trump's, or vice versa?

NIKPOUR: Well, I love Jeb Bush. I think Jeb Bush is a very reasonable candidate. I think what you have in Donald Trump, he's a great business person, but I think that he says exactly what he wants to say, whether he researches his facts or not.

So, I like what Jeb Bush has to say, but I expect nothing less from Jeb Bush than what he said. I mean, what he said was very reasonable. And I do agree with Jeb Bush, and a lot of people agree with Jeb Bush, but you've got to look at Donald Trump and he is still resonating among a lot of GOP voters.

HARLOW: So quickly before I let you go, John, let's talk about the poll, the most recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll. Let's pull it out. We've got Donald Trump, yes, still leading, 23 percent. Behind him, tied for second, Carson and Fiorina.

AVLON: Look, I mean, Donald Trump has a core base of support, it seems to be around a quarter of the Republican Party. But I think what Republicans like Noelle need to confront is if Jeb Bush is so reasonable and Donald Trump is unreasonable and doing a quarter, what's the problem with the base of the Republican Party? What's -- because I'm sure Noelle and other conservatives wouldn't want to send, for example, people back to Pol Pot, people back to the Soviet Union. So it's about strengthening the civic backbone of the Republican Party and saying that words have meaning and you're going to rally around people who represent our best traditions, not our worst fears.

HARLOW: Noelle, John Avlon, an important discussion. Thank you, as always.

Still to come here, several of Mexico's cartel bosses being extradited to the United States. We're going to talk about why this is such a significant move in terms of the two countries collaborating in the war on drugs. Next.

[09:59:53]

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HARLOW: Some of Mexico's most dangerous kingpins have been extradited and are in the United States this morning. Among them, a top level henchman, an arms trafficker for several notorious cartels. In total, 13 suspects long sought by the United States were sent here to face charges.

The move comes on the heel of that July escape of the world's most powerful drug lord, El Chapo.

CNN's Evan Perez with us for the latest. This is big, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right, Poppy. Good morning. Murder, cocaine, trafficking, kidnapping, rape, now these are only some of the charges that these 13 mean.

Let me tell you about a couple of them. Edgar Valdez Villareal and Jean Baptiste Kingery. We have a couple pictures of them. Valdez is known as La Barbie and he's a dual American and Mexican citizen who grew up in Texas playing high school football. The DA considers him ruthless and someone who unleashed a war for control for the Beltram Leyva drug cartel. [10:00:00] Kingery is also an American; he allegedly confessed to the

ATF that he ran a factory in Mexico making grenades and explosives.