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Hot Air Balloon Crash Kills 16 in Texas; Donald Trump Responds to Criticism from DNC Speakers; Zika Virus Cases Reported in Florida. Aired 2-2:30P ET

Aired July 30, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll take one or two questions. Again, I'm just here to tell you we are performing a stake down until the rest of the team arrives later tonight.

QUESTION: What is the company? Is the Heart of Texas Balloon Company ride?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is my understanding, sir. However, we've been so busy at the scene, I have not addressed that.

QUESTION: Can you confirm the number 16 dead?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now we have a number of fatalities.

QUESTION: Can you give us a range of what happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot.

The NTSB, just for everybody's edification, the NTSB will provide factual information as the investigation begins full bore tomorrow when the rest of the team is here.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have weather. You have coordination with a number of resources here local, state, and federal, getting the documentation much like a crime scene. You only get one chance at it so we want to make sure we do everything correctly. And thanks to the cooperation of all these agencies standing next to me and behind me, we've been able to start on right foot with that.

QUESTION: What constitutes a major event?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Significant loss of life.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, not a whole lot of information, just that it is an active crime scene and the NTSB officials and FAA officials just now getting to the scene there. Weather is something an important criteria in trying to determine what could happen with a hot air balloon, that being among the things they are continuing to look into. And 16 people are on board that hot air balloon, it crashing earlier this morning 8:00 local time there, just south of Austin, Texas. We have a number of people who are looking into this. We talked to a few experts along the way. Our Ed Lavandera is in Dallas. Our Rene Marsh who is our aviation correspondent also joining us. So let me begin with you Ed Lavandera, on what we're hearing. Not a whole lot from the NTSB. It's still very early in the investigation.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know from local first responders the sheriff's department there near Lockhart, Texas, where this accident took place, they got a call of a fire just before 8:00 this morning and that's what they were responding to. The sheriff's office there says that when they responded it turned out that what was on fire was the basket from this hot air balloon.

So as you mentioned and as you heard there from NTSB officials, this considered a major accident. FAA officials have told us that there were 16 people on board that hot air balloon that have died. So this is a significant crash, obviously a horrific crash, and demands the investigation that it will get here apparently will take some time for those NTSB investigators to get fully on ground to begin piecing everything together.

So not a lot of answers as to whether or not it was weather that played a factor, were there power lines that might have contributed to all of this. All of those questions being asked and will be examined at some point here. So all of that going on right now just outside of Lockhart Texas with is about a 35 minute drive southeast of Austin, Texas.

WHITFIELD: And we did hear from the official who did confirm that it appears that balloon came out sort of a tour group sort of organization, one that rents out to a number of individuals. I tried to get on their website. Of course it's not up and running right now. But you had mentioned earlier this is an area where it isn't out of the ordinary that there would be hot air balloon rides and that would be a main attraction to this area.

LAVANDERA: Yes, that whole area. I used to live in Austin, been to Lockhart, Texas many, many times, this is an area of Texas where many people from Austin and San Antonio, towns like San Marcus and New Braunfels, this is an area where people for weekend excursions. So there were a lot of people who would go sky diving in this area just outside of these major cities. You get into these wide open spaces, so activities like hot air balloon riding, parachuting, that sort of thing can be a very popular weekend activity for many people.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. Let's also check in with our aviation correspondent Rene Marsh out of Washington. So Rene, help us understand how the NTSB, FAA would be working together leading up this investigation.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so the investigation is going to be so critical because the bottom line is both of these agencies want to get to the bottom of the cause, whatever caused this hot air balloon to fall out of the sky.

I do want to touch on something that Ed was talking about, just about the magnitude of this. We know that the NTSB in the past investigated hot air balloon accidents, but this is definitely on a different magnitude. The last one that the NTSB investigated was about two years ago. That was in Virginia and three were dead. Today we're talking about 16. And just for context, in a span of 10 years from 2002 to 2012, a total of 16 people had died from hot air balloon accidents.

[14:05:16] So we're seeing that in one accident today, so that puts it into context. This is quite a significant investigation for the NTSB as they move forward. They are going to be looking at several things. They are going to be looking at the pilot, who was this pilot? What sort of experience did this person have? They are also going to be looking at the mechanics of the hot air balloon. Were there any issues there? They'll look at the maintenance record. When was the last time it was inspected? Of course, they'll want to photograph the scene which they mentioned in that press conference. But they'll be seeking out video from anyone who may have seen this all happen. All of those pieces of evidence will come together to form this whole picture of what happened, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Rene Marsh, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Meantime, Texas Governor Greg Abbott released the following statement, saying in part, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families as well as the Lockhart community. The investigation into the cause of this tragic accident will continue and I ask all of Texas to join us in praying for those lost," end quote, from the Texas governor.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are expected to arrive any moment in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. They are all assembled, ready to be in place as they continue on their bus tour of the rust belt states. We'll be right back.

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[14:10:14] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Turning now to politics and battle to woo voters in battleground states. You're looking at live pictures, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. That's where Hillary Clinton and her Tim Kaine are expected to speak at any moment now as they continue their bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania. CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is on that campaign bus tour. So, Brianna, what's happening?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, we are heading towards Johnstown, Pennsylvania, right now. This will be Hillary Clinton's first of three scheduled stops for the day. And she's going to be touring a wireless technology manufacturing company where they make steel wire products for transportation in the construction industries. And this is what she's trying to do. She's trying to go to areas like this where the unemployment risk is a little higher than the national unemployment rate, where it's really white working class voters, and trying to appeal to them and sell what are her proposals for jobs and for the middle class and for trying to make investments in the manufacturing communities. So we're awaiting that event to see what she says.

WHITFIELD: OK, Brianna Keilar, thank you so much. Let us know when they are parked and disembarking from the bus.

So this bus tour comes as both candidates are poised to begin receiving intelligence briefings, and both Trump and Clinton are criticizing each other on trust. Trump tweeting, "Hillary Clinton should not be given national security briefings in that she is a loose cannon with extraordinarily bad judgment and instincts," and Clinton said this in her DNC speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, so let's talk more about this with CNN's senior analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also a senior editor for "The Atlantic." Good to see you. So Ron, what's your understanding about the kind of information that candidates at this juncture would be receiving?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Well, you know, all indications are -- and this has been going on for a few weeks with Paul Ryan initially suggesting that Hillary Clinton should not receive intelligence briefings. The National Intelligence officials have made clear that both sides are going to receive the customary briefings which begins to bring them into the loop on the most sensitive details of American foreign policy.

WHITFIELD: In today's "New York Times" columnist Maureen Dowd interviewed Trump about the DNC e-mail hack and the possibility that Russians were involved. Trump said, quote, "E-mails in general are terrible. There's no security. It happens so often. I'm old fashioned. I put a letter in an envelope and have it hand delivered." Your reaction to that?

BROWNSTEIN: I think a lot of the focus in the past few days has been on the potential partisan implications of these -- apparently the increasing evidence of Russian intelligence are behind this series of cyber-attacks on Democratic Party institutions. And I think in looking at the partisan implications is really missing the forest for the trees. I think the big point here is that Russian fact it is proven that they are behind this, and that is certainly signals we are getting from all of the leading national security officials, is this is an extraordinary escalation of conflict with the U.S., direct involvement in an American presidential election, potentially to influence, to support, to help one side or simply just to cause chaos and disruption. The head of the CIA said yesterday that foreign actors appear to be trying to shape the foundation of our democracy which are elections. And I think that is something that should alarm all Americans. I think Donald Trump has been a little cavalier in his response to this, kind of in the original remarks --

WHITFIELD: Then claiming he was being sarcastic.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, either way, either way I think it is much too cavalier. We have seen actions like this from Russia and the Ukraine elsewhere in Europe, but to directly engage in trying to tilt the scale or as I say simply to sow chaos and disrupt an American election that is really a national security issue much more than it should be a question of temporary partisan advantage for either side.

WHITFIELD: I know this is not your publication, but we all read each other's materials. This is more from the "New York Times" here, and on the issue of Michelle Obama, because, again, Maureen Dowd interviewed Donald Trump, and on the issue of Michelle Obama who said "You can't boil down the issues a president faces to 140 characters." She gave, and I'm quoting now, "She gave a very good speech." Those are Donald Trump's words on the poignant appearance of the Muslim lawyer Khizr Khan and his wife, saying this, quote, "I'd like to hear his wife say something," end quote.

[14:15:06] These are standout moments from the DNC where Trump was directly confronted. Is this enough for Donald Trump to respond that way? Does he need to give more than just these kind of staccato responses.

BROWNSTEIN: First of all, no problem responding to Maureen Dowd's columns. She has had extraordinary access and a fascinating relationship to Donald Trump. And he says things to her that he really doesn't say to anyone else. Look, I think there were two central lines of argument at the Democratic convention which had to I think an extraordinary degree a kind structured sustained set of arguments against Donald Trump.

This is my 18th convention. Usually they are kind of a smorgasbord, kind of check the box, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Democrats really had two central arguments, and Michelle Obama was at the core of one of them when she said I live in a house that was built by slaves. One of the arguments was we are -- America is changing. It is becoming a diverse, tolerant, inclusive world nation. Democrats went out of their way for four nights in every way possible to identify and embrace that and to basically argue that Donald Trump is someone who is fundamentally opposed to that. We he talked about making America great again is basically trying to take us back to a time when many of the groups that are now emerging in American society were marginalized. And obviously the Muslim family was a critical part of that argument, as was President Obama's speech and Cory Booker's speech.

The other argument was essentially that Donald Trump is not within the framework of the usual left/right political debate in the U.S. and that in fact he represents something aberrant from either party, a trend toward authoritarianism reflected in part of what we were talking about before, his kind words about Putin, but also his kind of "I can do this alone." So I think you have these two big arguments that Donald Trump is going to have to respond to over time in different ways. But it is an unusually focused and I think disciplined Democratic message that came out of the last week.

WHITFIELD: Interesting, and Khizr Khan, that father, he is going to be on state of the union tomorrow. Don't want to miss the rest of his thoughts on the issue. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, the fight against Zika intensifies. What's being done to stop the spread of the virus around the world including in Brazil, of course the Olympics begin next week.

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[14:21:12] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So we're following breaking news out of Texas where 16 people have died in a fiery hot air balloon crash. Officials say there are no survivors, making this the deadliest hot air balloon accident since 2013. And as you can see this is a remote area where this happened and just south of Austin, Texas, in Lockhart, Texas. Witnesses say the balloon burst into flames before falling into a field. The NTSB is there and FAA will also be working together with the NTSB to get to bottom of what happened.

Meanwhile, four cases of Zika virus have been found near downtown Miami. These are the first confirmed transmissions of the virus in the U.S. Florida is taking aggressive measures to combat the spread of the Zika virus, screening residents and spraying against mosquitos. And on a global scale, health officials are continuing to race to contain the spread of Zika around the world. The virus has been circulating in dozens of countries.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live now from Salvador, Brazil, just ahead of the start of the Olympic Games in Rio. There is a fairly lengthy delay in our audio. So Dr. Sanjay Gupta. What efforts are you seeing there on the ground to try to stop the spread of this virus?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You've got to remember here in Salvador and all of Brazil really, they had no idea this was coming. You get a pretty good clue in the United States and an expected one as to what happened in Florida. We kind of could have predicted that was going to happen, but in Brazil they didn't know. They started seeing people with these unusual infections.

And then, as you know, Fred, the babies started to be born and had these birth defects, including one known as microcephaly, which means small head. And they had small heads and brains and also had developed improperly. So all of these things were happening.

They were doing a lot of investigative work. They go door to door in many of these areas that are the epicenter for microcephaly, the epicenter for Zika, trying to figure out why it is about this virus that is so problematic for women who are pregnant. Women who are younger, for example, who have pregnancies, they seem to be more at risk. Women who had this in fact earlier on in the pregbancy, they seem to be more at risk. Women who don't have as much access to good nutrition, they are more at risk. What does it mean for other countries around the world? They are learning this real time, Fred. Even right now these investigations continue.

WHITFIELD: The small heads on babies are big indicators, but then what about for the masses? What are the symptoms of Zika? Is it any different from the kind of mosquito bite that you have from any other kind of general mosquito?

GUPTA: Well, the answer to that, Fred, is both good news and bad news depending on your perspective. The good news is I think for the vast of majority of people we believed they would have no symptoms or very mild symptoms, and now here in Brazil, that still seems to be the case. Even when you look now a couple of years down the line about 80 percent of people will have hardly any symptoms whatsoever. Twenty percent of people do have some symptoms, as we're just talking about it is pregnant women are most at risk.

The tough news part of that, though, is sometimes you can be carrying this virus and not know it. That's what's been happening in the United States prior to this week. People have been coming back from a country that has Zika virus circulating and not even knowing that they are carrying it in their bloodstream, and then maybe passing it on through sexual transmission to a partner or becoming ill at some point later on. It can take some time to develop symptoms if you are going to develop symptoms at all.

[14:25:13] And again, in Florida, I just want to be clear, there he been cases of Zika in the United States. There have even been babies who have been born with these birth defects in the United States. What changed this week is that we can now say it is spreading locally. Mosquitos likely bit somebody who had Zika virus. That mosquito then after some period of time was able to transmit to somebody else. Before this week that hadn't happened in the United States. Now it's happened and likely to happen more often.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much from Salvador, Brazil.

That is going to do it for me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks for being with me today. "Vital Signs" airs right after this.

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