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Death Toll Rising in Louisiana Floods; GOP Speechwriter Will Never Vote for Trump; Shocking Image Emerges of Injured Syrian Boy; Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 18, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He would have gone. But I think why he did it 45 minutes out, he wanted to show allegiance to the officers, wanted to show that he's for them, and shows that --

KEITH BOYKIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Then why give a speech to black people? Why bill it as a speech to black people when there's no black people in the audience, Scottie?

HUGHES: The doors were open. They could have come in, very peacefully.

BOYKIN: And why didn't they come, Scottie? Why didn't they show up?

HUGHES: Well, that's --

BOYKIN: That's because the community is only 1 percent black. There's only 1 percent black in the community. Of course there were no black people there at a Donald Trump rally. The people who would show up they'll probably get kicked out.

(CROSSTALK)

HUGHES: We saw people's lives were endangered in Chicago because of the riots that happened outside by the protesters. He has tried to go into those communities, and unfortunately those communities would not accept them yet, despite --

BOYKIN: He could have gone to the NAACP. He could have gone to the NABJ.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK. I got -- I'm going to end this here because --

BOYKIN: He could have gone to a lot of different events.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm thinking, I'm thinking, Tom, and I'm sure you'll agree, there will be no agreement here. I'm going to end the conversation here. Thanks to both of you -- all of you, Keith Boykin, Tom Bevin, Scottie Nell Hughes.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, cut your vacation short, Mr. President. The biggest newspaper in Louisiana says the state is hurting after historic flooding and it needs a presidential visit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:22] COSTELLO: This morning, the death toll has risen to 13 in flood ravaged Louisiana, and forecasters are warning more rain is on the way. Today, CNN will join the head of the National Guard on a helicopter tour of the devastation around Baton Rouge, as tens of thousands remain displaced from their homes. The Homeland Security secretary will also be visiting the state today, but that's not enough for the state's largest newspaper. They are demanding that President Obama cut his vacation short and come see the damage for himself. They say, "In coming here, the president can decisively demonstrate that Louisiana's recovery is a priority for his administration and the United States of America."

CNN's Rosa Flores live in Livingston Parrish, in a neighborhood reeling from those historic floods.

Good morning, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, the American Red Cross calling this disaster the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, more than 40,000 homes impacted.

Let me show you around. I'm in Livingston Parrish, one of the most devastated areas. And you can see that people are starting to rebuild. They're pulling all of the wet, soaked stuff out of their homes to make sure that they can start rebuilding and not only their homes, but also their lives. You can see that some folks are already out here this morning doing just that.

Now I talked to the owner of this particular house where I'm standing, and he tells me he's going to be back with his family, a family of six. He says that the water started rising so quickly that some of his neighbors here asked him, because he has a truck that is a little higher, asked him to please allow them to take their children to higher ground, but he says that the water was rushing into his home, and you can see that he's already started to remove some of the sheetrock inside.

He says that is critical because of how moist and how wet all of the inside of his home was going to get and so it's critical to get all of that out and let it dry out, but Carol, as you mentioned, this storm already claimed the lives of 13 people.

Now I was here in this particular neighborhood yesterday when a recovery team recovered the body of victim number 12. They're still trying to identify the body and identify the body and also notify next of kin. But, Carol, a lot of people here in Louisiana, still hurting, still, you know, trying to recover. And as you mentioned, with more rain expected in the forecast, that's not what people here want to hear -- Carol.

COSTELLO: My goodness. Rosa Flores, reporting live this morning. Thank you. A massive wildfire is raging out of control in southern California.

The Blue Cut Fire has already scorched more than 25,000 acres since Tuesday and for more than 80,000 people under an evacuation order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With these, the rate of spread that we've seen, if we ask you to leave, you have to leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Dry weather and winds are making the flames unpredictable, more than 1500 firefighters have been called to battle the flames, along with a dozen air tankers and 17 helicopters.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the mother of a Benghazi victim emotionally laying the blame on Hillary Clinton. It was perhaps the most powerful speech at the Republican National Convention. Why the man who helped write that speech is now saying he'll never vote Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:24:51] COSTELLO: Donald Trump's new team is promising a bare- knuckled fight where no tactics for taking down Hillary Clinton will be off-limits. It may work or not. But one thing is clear, many high profile Republicans are disavowing Trump and going with her. The latest is Richard Cross, who drafted one of the most moving speeches at the Republican National Convention for the Benghazi mom, Patricia Smith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICIA SMITH, MOTHER OF BENGHAZI VICTIM: I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son. That's a personally. Donald Trump is everything Hillary Clinton is not. He will make America stronger. Not weaker. This entire campaign comes down to a single question. If Hillary Clinton can't give us the truth, why should we give her the presidency?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now Cross helped write those powerful words, but now he says he cannot vote for Trump. He will vote Clinton. This is part of what he wrote in the "Baltimore Sun," quote, "To choose otherwise embraces fear, as Donald Trump has chosen to do. Fear sometimes wins you elections, but it doesn't create jobs, build schools, reduce crime or improve the quality of life for all citizens. The only prospect more terrifying than voting for Hillary Clinton is not voting for her. The reality of American politics today is she is the only choice."

So let's talk about this. David Gergen is here. He's a CNN senior political analyst and a former presidential adviser to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton.

Welcome, David.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So Richard Cross, he writes this powerful speech for this Benghazi mother and now he says he cannot vote for Trump. What do you make of that?

GERGEN: I think he is a symbol of a growing number of Republicans who are moderates. He is a self-described moderate. And he feels increasingly uncomfortable in a party that is turned right. And he basically I think speaks for a lot of people in the sense of saying, I no longer have a home. You know, my Republican pals think I'm a renegade and my Democratic friends don't know what to make of me.

[09:45:08] And I can just tell you, there are lots and lots of people in America who feel that way, who feel uncomfortable in the Republican Party. They've been hoping that they could see signs in Donald Trump that he would move more and that he would pivot toward their direction, and that he would moderate, he would stop some of these attacks that he has been doing.

And now, you know, Carol, the truth is, what he has just done here this week in hiring Mr. Bannon and bringing Roger Ailes into the midst of his campaign, you know, he is doubling down as you know. And I think what we're seeing in Mr. Cross is the early part of the flow. I think that the -- you know, if what we see from Trump is Trump being even more Trumpian. It's going to trigger a bigger exodus of people like Mr. Cross and moderates who feel homeless.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But don't Republicans -- don't Republicans in general like attacks on Hillary Clinton? They want Donald Trump to focus on Hillary Clinton and attack her?

GERGEN: Oh, I do think that they -- there is a lot of Hillary Clinton sentiment among moderates in the Republican Party, that's why Mr. Cross is so -- you know, he's agonizing about what to do. I think basically at the end of his article he said he was going to vote for Hillary. But if in fact what these new -- they're reshuffling of the Trump team means he's going to go even further right and going to go engage in even more in incendiary attacks against the media, against Muslims, you know, against women, against any whatever, you know, that these people -- there's going to be a bigger flood.

You know, because as much as people don't want Hillary, they also feel, look, if I can't vote for this guy, who can I vote for? I throw away my ticket -- I throw away my vote if I vote for a Libertarian and that's why Cross is going to go, I think, for Hillary in the end.

But listen, I just can't emphasize enough what we have seen in the reshuffling is that Trump is reaching out to people who are bigger bomb throwers than he is. That who think FOX News is way too tame. That, you know, that Mr. Breitbart has called Mr. Bannon, who's a new guru of the Trump campaign, he's called him the Leni Riefenstahl of the American Tea Party. People who know history understand Leni Riefenstahl was the woman who is the chief propagandist for Hitler. And here, one of his friends, Breitbart, is calling Bannon that kind of person. \

And you know, just read the accounts of what Breitbart has been saying, and say, do you really think suburban moms, educated women, are going to -- people with college degrees are now going to move over and vote for Trump happily? No, they're going to be looking at Mr. Cross and saying, I wonder if I should be doing the same thing.

COSTELLO: All right, David Gergen, thanks as always for your insight.

GERGEN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the horrors of war captured in a single image. The image of a dazed and bloodied Syrian boy is drawing outrage around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:59] COSTELLO: In Turkey, three police officers are dead and at least 217 people are wounded after an explosion at a police station. It was the second bombing targeting police in eastern Turkey in the last 24 hours. It's prompted the nation to raise its level of alarm. Turkey's prime minister says Kurdish militants are responsible for the attack.

I'd like you to stop what you're doing just for a minute so you can take a look at this picture. It's a powerful image. You know, we hear about the ongoing battle in Syria and the fight against ISIS all the time but we don't often hear about the people who are living it and barely surviving it.

That picture of a dazed, shell shocked boy named Omran in the back of an ambulance. I can just say it's sparking outrage and sorrow across the world. He's sitting in that ambulance as the chaos continues around him. Just waiting for somebody to come get him. Waiting for somebody to help.

CNN's Nima Elbagir joins me now with more on the story and the story behind the image.

Good morning.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We spoke to one of the men who helped rescue little Omran and who actually took the still image of him sitting in the ambulance. And he was able to describe to us what was going on behind what you see there. He said it had taken nearly an hour to dig Omran out from under that rubble and in that moment when you see him sitting in the ambulance, he still didn't know whether the rest of his family had survived. He didn't know whether anyone would be coming to get him.

And as he reaches to touch his face, I think this is the moment that broke so many people's hearts, that a 5-year-old boy could touch his face, come away with blood on his fingers and not respond. But still be completely impassive. And the young man that we spoke to, the activist we spoke to said that he thought Omran was in extreme shock. But he also said something which broke my heart. He said but Omran is as old as the Syrian conflict itself, he is 5 years old. And so this is probably all that he has known.

[09:55:01] And so while he is also incredibly traumatized, he also doesn't know anything else other than the sirens and the air strikes and the air strikes and the rubble. His mother and older brother are in critical condition. And because of the situation in Aleppo, they have had to be smuggled out of Aleppo and they're seeking medical care elsewhere. And those survivors that you see digging in the rubble, they were extraordinarily brave because so often, as we've heard described in these attacks, these are double tap attacks so the bombs are dropped and then they return again sometimes.

I also want to say, Carol, to anyone out there who's watching this, they can go to CNN.com/impact. There's so many ways there that they can reach out and try and help Omran and the thousands of other Syrian children who are trapped in these conditions.

COSTELLO: Any word on who is responsible for the bombing?

ELBAGIR: Well, we were told by this activist that it was a combination of regime and Russian planes. And today at the U.N. the Syrian envoy will be trying to get those very same people, the Syrian government and the Russians, and others around the table to try to pull together a cease-fire.

COSTELLO: Nima Elbagir, just heartbreaking.

The next hour of NEWSROOM after a break.

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