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Flooding Devastates Counties in West Virginia; Donald Trump Speaks about Brexit and Possible Vice Presidential Picks While in Scotland; President Obama Speaks about Gun Control; Democrats Hold Sit-In on House Floor Over Gun Control Legislation; Technological Advancements in Heart Surgery Examined. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired June 25, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the last two days, West Virginia has been pounded by heavy thunderstorms and massive flooding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dad, watch out!

VALENCIA: This house exploded into flames and floated down the river. This family picked through the smoldering remains of what was once their home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't get the -- the memories out of my head.

VALENCIA: Eye-popping currents ravaged the mountain state, leaving at least 26 dead by Saturday morning. A day before, four-year-old Edward McMillion was playing behind his home when washed away by rapid floodwaters. His body was recovered in a nearby creek.

MELISSA SCARBERRY, EDWARD'S AUNT: It's been horrific, a nightmare. I mean, no words can explain.

VALENCIA: It's being called a 1,000-year flood. The high terrain along the rivers in the southeastern part of the state is only making problems worse.

JIMMY GIANATO, WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: When you add nine inches of rain over just a short period of time in the mountains it causes the waters to come up very rapidly.

VALENCIA: The rising waters took out bridges and broke barges loose.

LARRY CONRAD, RICHWOOD RESIDENT: The older people that's worked all of their life for what they got, and then just one day it's all gone.

VALENCIA: Hundreds of first responders including 200 National Guardsmen have been deployed to help families like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said the last thing they knew of was somebody threw her a rope and then they never heard any more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: It's been such a devastating event for many residents in West Virginia. You see behind me here, this is just some of the damage, flooded out gas stations, these people having to rescued. These first responders, one of 500 that are currently in the area, 200 National Guardsmen also there to help out with those water rescues. Just a few hours ago we spoke with a local official there with the Department of Emergency Management saying 300 water rescues had already taken place. 150 more are currently underway. Fredricka?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So flash flooding, it's really dangerous. For people caught off guard. But even for those rescues, I mean, over the years I've covered lots of flash flooding and talked to a lot of emergency responders, and this puts them at great risk and in danger too. What is being said about what kind of precautions might be put in place, you know, to try and assure everyone's safety?

VALENCIA: Sure. You hear it all the time from your coverage. I'm sure you've heard it. We've covered a lot of floods ourselves. You hear people trying to drive into these waters and they end up getting overtaken by these flash floods that are just there and gone in an instant.

People are still stranded. The big concern was that people were stranded on rooftops. There's also chances for pop-up showers. You hear local officials still warning people although the weather has let up, there's still a chance for possibly more fatalities. The death toll could go up. Already 26, this is the deadliest flash flooding in the U.S. since 2010, Fred, and that's saying a lot because we've seen a lot over the last handful of years.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible. Thank you so much, Nick.

There are also a lot of heroic rescues that have been carried out. Earlier this afternoon I spoke with a man who helped rescue his neighbor in the flooding. Paul Moya captured this video, in fact, while he and his neighbor sat on top of the roof for hours waiting for help. Here's more of what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL MOYA, RESCUED FLOODING VICTIM (via telephone): The flashfloods came through the area, and I was rescuing my daughter's dog. And I was making my way through a clearing and I heard a young lady screaming. And she said, leave. I said, yes. And by the time she got out of her house, she couldn't make it through the waters. And I tried to talk her into it, but she was panicking. So needless to say I just couldn't leave her behind. So I stayed with her. We took shelter on the second story of her home and eventually had to make our way to the roof. She was just panicking so bad we going to lose. So we were up on the roof there for a few hours. And yet I had posted a video to Facebook with some of the scenes that were going on around us, and --

WHITFIELD: So Paul, wait a minute. Take me back for a second. So Paul, wait. You saw her in this clearing area, you heard her. She couldn't leave her home. How did you get to the roof?

MOYA: I took a window out of the framing of the house, and we crawled out it, and then I just -- lifted her on my shoulders up to the roof and then I just went ahead and scaled as best I could and got up there.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. You're making it sound so matter of fact and effortless, but this was difficult. You've got water rushing around you at incredible speeds. How were you able to keep her balanced at the same time hold on for your own dear life in order to push her, support her to get to rooftop?

MOYA: Other than the adrenaline flowing, the military taught me very well to survive.

WHITFIELD: And then once you -- thank goodness for those skills. Once you got to the rooftop, how long did you have to wait? How did you communicate to anyone, or how did anyone even find out that you all were in this position to eventually rescue you?

[14:05:08] MOYA: Well, Facebook, I had posted a video to Facebook, gave them our location prior to my cell phone dying. She had limited cell phone activeness and was in touch with 911. And, of course, the situation was really, really dangerous, and I really could not have expected anyone to come to our rescue at that time. So we were approximately held up for over ten hours.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, 10 hours?

MOYA: Yes, ma'am.

WHITFIELD: All during daylight hour, or were these also involving --

MOYA: No, ma'am.

WHITFIELD: Overnight?

MOYA: No, ma'am. We got caught up approximately at 2:30 in the afternoon, and I believe state police trooper came through the door at approximately 1:45 a.m.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my -- and what was your feeling when you heard them? I don't know if you could really see them, because it was dark right? But when you could tell it was them rescuing you, what were you thinking at that moment? What kind of relief did you feel?

MOYA: It was great relief. I'm a diabetic and was going down fast, but --

HANNITY: Oh.

MOYA: The adrenaline was kicking in. I just maintained my composure, kept her calm and, again, thank God we made it through this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Incredible survival story. Paul Moya there.

Coming up, Donald Trump is using the Brexit results to his advantage. Jim Acosta is following him through Scotland. Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: One of the strangest days I've ever experienced on the campaign trail, Fredricka, a rolling press conference across a golf course in Scotland with Donald Trump. He talks about Brexit and his vice presidential selection process. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:10:20] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Donald Trump is in Scotland today. The trip was planned to promote one of his golf courses, but he landed just in time for the Brexit bombshell vote. Some political pundits are saying those results bode well for Trump come November. And the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is pouncing on the opportunity, tweeting, quote, "Many people are equating Brexit and what is going on in Great Britain with what is happening in the U.S. People want their country back."

Joining me right now from Aberdeen, Scotland, CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta who is traveling with Trump. And you say this has been one unusual journey.

ACOSTA: It really was, Fredricka, that's right. During a pretty strange press conference which really just rolled across the golf course here in Aberdeen, Scotland, we stopped at this hole. He took some questions. We'd go to another hole, he's take some more questions. Donald Trump throughout the course of that journey did take questions from reporters and talked about the Brexit vote. He once again said there were parallels between what occurred here in the U.K. and what he hopes will happen back here in the U.S. He hopes that same kind of sentiment and push will push him into the White House come November.

But at the same time there were other questions that were asked. And we did ask him during a quick one-on-one interview with the presumptive GOP nominee whether he is working on his campaign at all. And he did say, yes, he is working on his vice presidential selection process over here in Scotland. Here what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am indeed. I actually --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's the process coming along?

TRUMP: It's coming along good. A lot of people who want it. I will tell you one thing, I'm getting calls from a lot of people and they want it. The only people that say they don't want it are the people that were never asked. I read, everyone says, they said they don't want it. They weren't asked, but we have a lot of people that want that slot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, one other bit of news that came up. A reporter asked Donald Trump whether or not he would be comfortable with a Muslim emigrating to the U.S. from Scotland. You recall that Donald Trump has said throughout the course of this campaign that he wants to have a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States. Donald Trump said he would be OK with a Muslim coming from Scotland. And then reporters went back to him and pressed him on this, and then Donald Trump went on to say later on in the day in the campaign confirmed this that Trump is now only interested in banning Muslims coming in from countries with a heavy amount of terrorism.

Now, obviously, Fredricka, there's a lot of wiggle room in that, a lot of uncertainty in that. What does it all mean? We'll still waiting for more clarifications from the Trump campaign. But it does seem to be a bit of a softening of that original hardline stance. But at the same time he is really waffling a bit on this issue. He has not offered a clear, concise stance on this issue.

Other things he came up with during this press conference, he did defend his trip over here to visit these golf courses, Fredricka, saying this was the work of his sons working on these golf courses and that he deserved to have that chance to come here oversee their work before he heads back to the United States later on tonight. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: And so Jim, the whole issue about, you know, banning Muslims and whether he's softening his language or his approach or whether this is reiterating something, he may have already conveyed before. We're still looking for some real clarity on this. But among those questions is it also being asked that what he may have tweeted out today or most recently about he would make I guess concessions for a Muslim from Scotland to come as opposed to from a terror state, that that is a sentiment that he had tweeted out previously and he just re- tweeted that most recently? Or is that one of the, you know, issues of clarification we're also looking for?

ACOSTA: Well, one thing I can tell you, Fredricka, is that shortly after the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump was saying something to this effect, where he was sort of softening, backpedaling a bit on this Muslim ban. But we've heard him do this before. You'll recall it was earlier on in this campaign where he once told an interviewer that this was just a suggestion on his part. And then after the media said, wait a minute, you're saying that was just a suggestion? He went back said, no, no, no. This is what I believe in.

And so really I think what has to occur is Donald Trump just has to come out and say what is his plan when it comes to banning Muslims coming into the United States? Which countries is he talking about? How would this be conducted? And we just have not gotten clear answers from the campaign so far. But he did say today that a Muslim coming from Scotland would be OK, which is a different take on that original position.

WHITFIELD: All right, more confusion. Jim Acosta, thank you so much from Aberdeen, Scotland.

ACOSTA: That's right. You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much. Straight ahead, the polarizing debate over gun control rocked

Washington this week. President Obama also weighing in again on that issue. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:56] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. President Barack Obama returning to Washington in just a few hours after a west coast U.S. trip. While in Seattle, Washington, he weighed in on gun control nearly two weeks after has mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, the worst in U.S. history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Think about what just happened in Orlando a few days ago. We can protect more of our, our kids, our people from the horrors of gun violence. Just a couple of weeks after the worst mass shooting in modern history, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked any new gun safety reforms. Republicans in the house wouldn't even allow a vote on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN investigations correspondent Chris Frates joining us now from Washington. So Chris, it was a historic week on Capitol Hill with Democrats holding a sit-in on the House floor, demanding a vote on gun control. But where do things stand now particularly while they are on holiday break?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. You know there was a lot of sound and even some fury this week as lawmakers debated tightening the nation's gun laws.

[14:20:04] But when it was all over, the status quo stood up, it brushed itself off, and it walked away unchanged.

So here is how it went down. The Senate debated measures to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns and then try to tighten up background checks. All five proposals, including a bipartisan compromise, failed.

Now, over on the House side, Republicans refused to even bring up any gun control measures for a vote. That infuriated House Democrats. They staged a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor to protest, and that was led by Congressman John Lewis who is famous for organizing the sit-ins at segregated lunch counter during the civil rights movement. He took the lead in the House protest on the sit-in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN LEWIS, (R) GEORGIA: The American people demand an action. Do we have the courage, do we have raw courage to make at least a down payment on ending gun violence in America? We can no longer wait, we can no longer be patient. So today we come to the well of the House to dramatize the need for action, not next month, not next year, but now, today! (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, President Obama also weighed in, tweeting, quote, "Thank you, John Lewis, for leading on gun violence where we need it most."

But Republican house speaker Paul Ryan accused Democrats of creating chaos and even threatening democracy with what he called a political stunt, and, in fact, in the middle of the night Republicans adjourned for break that's going to last until July 5th. Democrats vowed to go back to their districts, continue this fight. And when they come back to Washington in July they're going to continue fighting on, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Frates, thank you.

Let's talk some more about this with Julian Zelizer. He's a professor and historian at Princeton University and also wrote an op-ed for CNN this week on the gun debate saying for anyone who hasn't -- for anyone who hasn't seen it, here's a portion of it right now, reading, quote, "The first sign of hope in the gun control debate in many years came this week as Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, offered legislation that would prohibit people that are on the no-fly and other surveillance lists from purchasing guns." That measure did pass, but with only 52 votes, not enough to avoid a filibuster. So what is your feeling or what is a gut feeling out there about whether there will be a continuation of that sentiment?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, I think the debate will return. I think Collins and the Democrats are going to try to push this again. But as I said in the article, of all of the issues in American politics, this is one where the status quo is quite powerful. And so the odds are very low, but this is a glimmer of hope in that it was the first time a Republican really put herself at forefront of a bipartisan effort.

WHITFIELD: And what does it mean when the house speaker is to say what just took place, like the sit-in, threatens democracy, when last anyone checked, being able to protest, have civil opposition, is very representative of a democracy?

ZELIZER: Yes. I'm not sure, and Republicans actually defined how this was done on C-Span decades ago. And Newt Gingrich used to take to the floor of the House on C-Span and stage all kinds of stunts. So I'm not sure what he meant by that. Obviously, what Ryan was trying to do is to protect having to vote on this issue, to protect Republicans from having to vote on this issue. In the Senate, the bill won a majority. It's because of the super majority rules that it wasn't able to get through there either.

WHITFIELD: So in the Collins measure she's talking about the no-fly measure. If you're on the no-fly you shouldn't be able to obtain a gun. But then opponents are that very measure are also saying their concerns are there are people who are wrongly placed on the no-fly list, and what's the counteraction to that?

ZELIZER: Yes. It's not just conservatives but many liberals who are opposed to this strategy of the Democrats for that reason. But what the compromise of this sort is is simply an effort to get some gun control through a Congress which has been adamant against passing any kind of gun control. So, you know, I think there are clearly problems and questions with it, but what's more striking is after Orlando, right now we have nothing.

WHITFIELD: OK, so the sit-in on the floor of the House lasted, and you saw those still images, very powerful images of the lawmakers who were literally, you know, conducting that sit-in. It was led by Congressman John Lewis, who, of course, dedicated his life to civil rights, human rights. What did it mean, you know, to the audience of the American people to see, you know, John Lewis and others taking this kind of stand the way they did on the U.S. House floor?

[14:25:10] ZELIZER: I think it was important. I actually think it was more than a stunt. It's a kind of act of both desperation and hope that finally there will be some movement. And to have John Lewis, who was at the center of the civil rights protest and voting rights March in Selma lead this is significant. First he called for action now, which was the mantra of the civil rights movement, not waiting until later, and, b, it reminds us ultimately to win the battle the battle will have to be fought in the districts where pressure will have to increase as it did with civil rights in the '60s on members to allow for a vote.

WHITFIELD: And, I mean is it the case even the use of the word "stunt," not necessarily a bad word, because it's about getting attention. That's what the sit-ins, in large part were about historically, getting attention. That's' what this one was about. So a stunt towards trying to promote change.

ZELIZER: I think that's exactly right. And what they're trying to show is that their vote isn't even being allowed, which I think a lot of Americans don't understand. It's not even being rejected. There is no vote.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julian Zelizer, thank you so much, appreciate it.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for being with me today. Much more news straight ahead. Right now, time for "Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta." CNN Newsroom returns at the top of the hour as well.

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