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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Virginia Governor on Mission to Reinstate Voting Rights of Felons; Obama to Visit Flooded Louisiana Tomorrow; NBA Sideline Reporter Craig Sager's Personal Battle. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 22, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:31:41] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: So this is curious. Just minutes ago a swing state government announced the potential addition of 13,000 new voters with several times that many, potentially to come down the pike.

That is Governor Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic governor of Virginia and he has been on a mission to reinstate the voting rights of felons, despite a state court's smack down that came last month. Here's what he said at the top of the hour in Richmond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE, (D) VIRGINIA: Today we are here to talk about an issue of basic justice, the restoration of civil rights. This is an issue that I have been passionate about for many, many years. I personally believe in the power of second chances and in the dignity and worth of every single human being.

These individuals are gainfully employed. They send their children and their grand-children to our schools. They shop in our grocery stores and they pay taxes. And I'm not content to condemn them for eternity as inferior second class citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Joining us now, CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos. So that all sound really nice to say look, give people a second chance, but it also sounds really Democratic because typically those tend to be Democratic voters that he's reinstating, but the bigger issue is the numbers.

He tried to reinstate through executive order 200,000 like that. The court said no. But, 13,000 scooted through and yet he still thinks he's going to be able to get those other ones registered. I don't understand that. How can he do that?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There are a lot of twist and turns here. You know, governors traditionally have the power of clemency, the power to pardon inmates, former inmates. And this in case, the court, in doing this smack down, as you put it. Said specifically that yes, the governor's clemency power is broad but it is not absolute. And it's something that I always thought, look if a governor has the power to pardon, that sounds pretty absolute to me. Depending on, you know, whatever the state's rules are individually.

But, in a case like this, you know, a lot of people say well, constitutionally can states even disenfranchise voters, felons specifically for their record? And, you know, most people are surprised to find that states can do this.

Voter disenfranchisement based on your felon record is actually explicitly provided for in the 14th amendment. So while it feels incredibly discriminatory it's a particularly brand of discrimination that is not only permitted by the constitution but explicitly endorsed by it.

BANFIELD: So, to be super clear, the court came down on the Terry McAuliffe, former DNC chair, let's be clear, because they said he just went way too broad with the 200,000. He didn't look through the details to find out who they were. And within that, 132 sex offenders still in custody. Several convicted murderers on probation living in other states. I mean that's pretty messy.

So, effectively does that mean that the court had said, you can't do it with a big pool. You have to look at each individual case which means, gets your auto pen going and however fast you can auto pen each one of those people, that's the number of voters you reinstate.

CEVALLOS: This is a very long opinion but one of them means jest is this, you know, the Governor concededly has this power to pardon but we've just never seen this before.

[12:35:04] We've never seen thousands and thousands of people pardoned at once. So therefore, something must be wrong. So, I mean I know I'm very much summing up a very well reasoned opinion by his honor but this is basically their argument.

BANFIELD: All right. Danny, thank you for that. We'll continue to watch to see how many he's able to do before election time. But for now it's 13,000. Thank you for that.

Coming up next, what could possibly be worse than flood waters swamping thousands and thousands of homes? How about the misery and the mess that is left behind once that water clears out. We're going to take you live to Louisiana so you can get a firsthand view of what you're fellow Americans are suffering right now

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:07] BANFIELD: Well, you have seen the outside of all of those homes underwater in Louisiana. But just you wait until you see what they look like inside.

President Obama is heading there tomorrow for a firsthand look at this mess. We've reported that 40,000 homes were damage, but today we got new numbers. It is closer to 60,000 homes. And to give you a sense of the scope of the devastation, Baton Rouge and the surrounding perishes that got 20 plus inches of rain in one day. Well that amounts to roughly the size of New Jersey. So, just picture it. Roughly the size of New Jersey under all that water.

Polo Sandoval is live right now in Louisiana for a seven trillion, nearly seven trillion gallons of rain fell, where you're now standing and flashed through that community wreaking havoc. What's the President going to see when he gets there, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly what you see behind me, Ashley. This is what all of that water left behind when it began to recede. You see people's belongings. Parts of people's homes now stacked high in neighborhoods all across the Louisiana.

You mentioned that number. Yes, about 60,000. Let's give you a look at one of those. This is Drew LeBlanc's home, when you see the outside, Ashley, it looks like it spared much of the flood and the damage. But then, I want to take you inside Mr. LeBlanc's home, so you can actually see what greets you when walk in through the door. And this actually is what homes in most -- much of the Southern Louisiana look like.

You have families coming together and they're beginning the long, painful and emotional process of cleaning out. Drew LeBlanc, you -- we've spoken to you already before. You have told us about your losses, what you're experiencing today. How soon do you think it will be before you're sitting in this living room with your family again?

DREW LEBLANC, GONZALES, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: At least two, two and a half months, depending on who we can get to do the work for us. Right now we just pretty much going -- spray this mold control right here. We pretty much use spray concentrate most of the blocks (ph). A day later we come back with Clorox and water, 20 percent Clorox and the rest water. We've got to make sure everything is killed

SANDOVAL: I know you've told me before that you had help. You've had help from dozens of people clearing out all this. But now it's ...

LEBLANC: Right.

SANDOVAL: ... it's you, your wife and your kids.

LEBLANC: Yeah. Actually my wife right here, (inaudible) been assisting us. My son is over there spraying the Clorox. It's a tough job. We got long road ahead of us.

SANDOVAL: What do you want the rest of the country know? What do you want President Obama to know as he prepares to visit the area and to hopefully see this for himself.

LEBLANC: You know me and my wife both have good jobs. We make average. We're middle class people. We just hope they don't discriminate when it comes to giving FEMA support, you know, to us. Because I mean we took a big hit with our contents and we lost everything. We have flood insurance, which is going to take care the house itself, but as far as the contents in it we lost everything. SANDOVAL: Mr. Drew LeBlanc, thank you very for sharing story. I know you have a lot of work to do. And of course he has been giving us perspective and adding a face to what is massive issue here, Ashley, there are so many families. Again, at least, 60,000 homes that have been damaged, and that is just a preliminary number. As State officials went through neighborhoods, contacted what they called windshield assessment. Basically looking out the window and counting. But until FEMA has the official numbers then we'll have a real idea of much damage is left behind. And as you just heard, they are among the lucky ones. They do have flood insurance.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

SANDOVAL: And also have a place to stay. At least 3,000 people ...

BANFIELD: I mean.

SANDOVAL: ... woke up in shelters this morning.

BANFIELD: If you call it a place to stay -- I mean. They've lost all their contents. And like you said, flood insurance is extra and in addition to. And many people in the community where you are were told that wasn't going to be an issue for them. A rain like that could never fall in a thousands years. So, this is a crisis of magnitude.

Polo, keep on it and keep telling us these stories. And of course the President will be there tomorrow so we'll continue to cover this. Paul Sandoval, live for us Louisiana. Thank you. If there is anything good that can come out of this Louisiana flooding disaster it's this, the community, the country, all coming together to help those in need.

Coming up next, how the Red Cross is responding to the devastating floods and how you can also get on this bandwagon. They need you. They need you more than you know. You'll find out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:46] BANFIELD: Donald Trump visited Louisiana last week. President Obama is visiting tomorrow. And today, Hillary Clinton announced that she will travel to Louisiana but not right away.

In a statement she said, "I am committed to visiting communities affected by the flood at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response to discuss how we can and will rebuild together."

She also asked supporters of her campaign to give what they can to the Red Cross. And Jono Ansalone handled external relation with the Red Cross in Louisiana. He's live with me now with the backdrop that I just cannot stress, is going to be a repeated scene all throughout that state.

Jono, thank you for being with me. Let's just talk raw facts and raw numbers. The Red Cross has been able to raise only $5 million thus far in this catastrophe. And as I understand it, you're going to need close to $30 million. How are you going to bridge that gap? How are you going to get the five, six of the way towards that goal that you need?

JONO ANZALONE, EXTERNAL RELATIONS RED CROSS: Good question Ashley. We're really committed to being here in Louisiana, both in the days to come and months to come and quite frankly the years.

[12:50:02] So, we're relying upon the generosity of the American public because we know if there's a significant gap with our fundraising efforts.

BANFIELD: And I don't know what the greatest need is at that this point considering we weren't even, you know, sure that the rescues had ended by airtime. But, you know, we just had an interview saying that, you know, that LeBlanc family has lost everything, all the contents out of their house. There are people who have no home. So, where is the greatest need? You know, sheltering people, helping them to restore, you know, contents so that they can live in their homes once again? Is it food, clothing, what is it?

ANZALONE: An excellent question. We're focusing on sheltering, feeding and really providing a bit of hope. A lot of the individuals that are volunteers we're speaking with just need a sounding board for figuring out what the next step are, whether it's registering with FEMA, if they're FEMA ineligible working with voluntary organizations like the Red Cross to make sure that the days and weeks they had have a navigable (ph) path.

BANFIELD: And so, I have heard from a friend of mine even told me she's loading up trailers in Texas and heading to where you are right now on Wednesday with donations and with volunteers. Because they're just so heartsick at the pictures they're seeing. You must be hearing story after story like that?

ANZALONE: We are. We're really begging the American people, really just to hold tight on the in-kind donations as we call it. It's really paralyzing our ability to shelter and feed people and to provide that spiritual and emotional care that people need right now. Because every trailer, tractor trailer that shows up that comes with used goods, we're having to pull front-line volunteers and actually work through sorting and making sure that we have warehousing space. We're really pleading with the American people just to kind of hold tight on the in-kind donations and allow some of the logistical pipelines to open up.

BANFIELD: But you certainly don't mean to hold the donation donations. I mean isn't that really what you need everyone to do right now, just get on the phone, get online, open up your wallets and -- look, it isn't Christmas but this is a gift that they need desperately. They just need money.

ANZALONE: You're right Ashley. You know, I was meeting with a client no more than 10 minutes after getting off the airport. Hurricane Katrina survivor, this is the second time within 11 years, we're talking about displacement, these are that people that have deep, sincere wounds internally and we're making sure that those stories are being heard, the power of presence and by mobilizing the donations of the American people, financial donations. We know we can help the people of Louisiana.

BANFIELD: So Jono, I don't want this to be a telethon, but if I can do anything to help you, I want to repeat once again. For anyone who's joining us, you've raised $5 million, you're going to need $30 million. That's one-sixth of the way. So if we have a new viewer -- we have one viewer who reached out after an interview to the Salvation Army and anonymously gave a million dollars after watching the interview on our air. If there's anybody out there who has the same capacity, no matter how large, no matter how small the Red Cross desperately needs you.

In the interim Jono, bridging the gap between now, which is crisis mode, waters aren't all flooded out yet from this region, and when FEMA really can sort of take hold and start sending some of that federal money towards where you are, are you going to be able to make it? Are you going to be able to bridge that gap? And will FEMA ultimately be able to do what's needed there?

ANZALONE: It's going to take all agencies both government, non- governmental partners, state-based organizations. We are committed to the people of Louisiana, and obviously really just pledging commitment to staying here on the ground but we will rely upon the generosity of the American people. So anything, whether it's a dollar or a million dollars goes a long way to help those individuals that are in need.

BANFIELD: You do good work my friend. God bless you. Thank you for what you're doing out there, on behalf of the people of Louisiana who need you and need us so much. Thanks and good luck, good luck with the fundraising and with the recovery and restoration efforts. Jono Anzalone, appreciate your work.

By the way, Red Cross is always a great place to go. You can also help the victims of the flooding in Louisiana by going to cnn.com/impact. We have everything there that you need. It is vetted. The money goes where you want it to go. Do yourself a favor, make yourself feel great. Help people who need your help most. Back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:58:35] BANFIELD: NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager is fighting a major personal battle. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his story in today's turning point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Veteran sideline reporter Craig Sager is probably best known for his vibrant interviews and his colorful outfits during NBA games.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible). OK.

CRAIG SAGER, NBA SIDELINE REPORTER: Something about getting up and being lively.

GUPTA: But the upbeat sportscaster was dealt a devastating blow at a game in 2014.

SAGER: I ran it to the doctor (inaudible). He looked at me and Sager, what's wrong. He said you got to go to the emergency room.

GUPTA: It was leukemia. Sager need a bone marrow transplant. His son Craig was a perfect match. But the cancer came back. His son saved his life again.

CRAIG SAGER II, SAGER'S SON: I didn't really even think of it as donating. It was, we're in it together.

GUPTA: Sager recover just in time for start of an NBA session.

SAGER: I didn't miss a game. I felt great.

GUPTA: But then in February, another relapse. Even through treatment Sager never stopped working. He covered the first NBA finals of his career in June.

SAGER: Just a tremendous night.

GUPTA: Now he's back at the hospital preparing for a rare third transplant from an anonymous donor. Last month Sager was awarded the Jimmy V award for perseverance at the ESPY Awards.

SAGER: Time is something that cannot be bought. Time is simply how you live your life.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Thanks for watching everyone.