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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

SpaceX rocket explodes at the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Tropical Storm turns in to hurricane Hermine off the coasts of Florida; Rapist Brock Turner is set to be released from jail. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 01, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:34:27] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Some breaking news for you. Brand new video that's just coming into us of the SpaceX rocket explosion at the launch pad it was on in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

We take the pictures. Look very closely, because you may be able to spot there is quite a plume of smoke. You can see it for miles. They said you could actually feel the impact in the office buildings. They certainly heard the booms. Take a look at the pictures.

So the rocket actually was supposed to take a satellite into space on Saturday.

[12:35:06] This was a test fire of it and now, as you can see, from the close up view, that rocket is functionally destroyed, if not completely destroyed. Wow. Look at that.

Rachel Crane joins me now along with retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly. Rachel, first to the reporting of what actually happened. What did happen? This seems significant, this kind of explosion.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, at this point it's very early in the investigation. SpaceX only revealing that this has been an anomaly. We know that the vehicle as you saw in those pictures as well as the payload has been lost.

As you pointed out, this was a planned static test fire in anticipation of that launch that was planned for this Saturday. These types of test fires are quite usual when you have a launch coming up.

We know that no injuries occurred because it was planned and as per standard protocol, nobody would be on the launch pad. As you pointed out, this was a very loud explosion. People could feel it there. We spoke to somebody who is in an office building.

BANFIELD: That's several miles away. How many miles? Do you know?

CRANE: You know, we're not on the ground right now so we don't know exactly how far.

(CROSSTALK)

CRANE: Yeah. Well, this happen at Cape Canaveral and the person that we spoke she was at the Kennedy Space Center and he said that it felt as though a Mack truck was colliding into the building that he was in and that he was very clear that something seriously have gone wrong. Luckily, nobody was injured.

BANFIELD: So that this is standard. It seems happens all the time. They take, you know, cargo up into space, up to the space location, et cetera. And this particular cargo was unique. It would apply to a lot of people. Every American out there knows Facebook. So tell me what was on board?

CRANE: So this payload was a satellite. Facebook was one of the partners in this satellite and it was intended to bring internet to remote parts of the world in Africa, that's because about 57 percent of the world is not online. They do not have access to internet. So Facebook is one of the many companies like Google and one web that is trying to bring those people online.

And, you know, this is not Facebook's first explosion. They had one about a year ago on one of those cargo missions that was headed to the International Space Station. This was also that same rocket, a Falcon 9 that exploded this time.

BANFIELD: All right, I want to jump over to Mark Kelly if I can. So, Mark, I know you've seen some of the pictures and you've obviously seen that the scant news that we have right now about what's happened.

It makes us all wonder, you know, gosh, if we're still having these kind of catastrophic explosions, SpaceX is supposed to put astronauts up to the International Space Station. That's the contract they have from NASA. Does this derail that?

CAPT. MARK KELLY, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, first of all, let me say that doing this stuff is really difficult.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

KELLY: I mean, if, you know, if it was easy, every country in the planet would be doing it. And SpaceX has a fantastic record of launching the Falcon 9. This would have been the 26th launch. There was one mishap in flight, but very, very, you know, sophisticated and generally safe operation.

But these things are hard to do, and, you know, accidents will happen. You know, what they're going to have to do is take a step back and figure out why this happened and then change their, you know, procedures or change the hardware to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Launching people, you know, is another step up. But it's this rocket, the Falcon 9 that will soon be taking U.S. astronauts, U.S. crew members to the International Space Station.

BANFIELD: So, I mean, as an astronaut, does that not make you a little nervous? I get it that tests don't always go as planned. Maybe you push the envelope a little more on test and obviously would you when you have human payload. But I mean this must give you some pause. KELLY: Well, no. I mean, they test -- I mean, they do a static fire on the launch pad before launching a Falcon 9 and this is the kind of test that would certainly happen with, you know, before our crew fly to the space station.

You know, when you're dealing with liquid oxygen and kerosene as the propellant and the oxidizer, it's a very hazardous operation. There's a lot of stuff that can go wrong. But they will certainly figure out what happened here and they'll make sure that this doesn't happen again. But, you know, that doesn't -- you know, it's a dangers business.

I mean, flying rockets into space to get a payload, this satellite weighed 12,000 pounds. To get that 12,000 pounds moving at 25 times the speed of sound is a really difficult thing to do. And SpaceX needs to be really proud of their record, but also needs to fix whatever went wrong here to make sure it doesn't happen again, and they will.

BANFIELD: Yup. It's why the colloquial expression out there rocket science is what it is because you guys are amazing and you're also heroes because this is scary, scary dangerous stuff.

So Captain Kelly, thank you. It's good to have you. I hope we get to talk on a lighter note next time. Captain Kelly joining us live and thanks to Rachel Crane as well.

And coming up next, the SpaceX disaster isn't the only breaking news in Florida. Florida is really struggling against this one, folks. It's a live picture from Tampa right now. Sandy and Soggy beach, the west coast of Florida, of that state getting slammed by tropical storm Hermine. That storm is likely to turn into a hurricane.

[12:40:04] Just think about the last time you heard about a hurricane in Florida. It's more than 10 years, believe it or not. So hurricane issue -- warning has been issued. And now much of the state of Georgia is also worried about the state of emergency there. We're going to have an update on that in just a moment.

And then also I want to give you a reminder of a "CNN Special Report" that's going to take an in-depth look of the life and times of the two major party candidates for president, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Get an up-close look at these candidates. It's all going to start at 8:00 p.m. Monday, that's Labor Day. Don't miss it. Here's a quick look just to what your whistle (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I accept your nomination.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For the presidency of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The essential Hillary Clinton.

CLINTON: We are stronger together in charting a course toward the future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The essential Donald Trump.

TRUMP: I love you, and we will make America great again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All on one blockbuster night. Clinton has been kind of the most fearless person no one knows.

CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON DAUGHTER: I never ...

(AUDIO GAP)

CLINTON: And she's fighting first and foremost for children and for families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump has a passion for business and the spotlight.

DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD TRUMP SON: No one is going to outwork him. No one's got more energy than him.

IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP DAUGHTER: He always said to us find what it is that you're passionate about and pursue it with your full heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their stories from the people who know them best, "CNN Special Report," Hillary Clinton at 8:00, Donald Trump at 10:00. CNN, Labor Day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:55] BANFIELD: State of emergency right now in Florida and much of Georgia as well, as ugly weather barrels towards those states and their coastlines. First, it could be the first hurricane to hit Florida in 11 years. And Florida's governor just gave a live update. Have a look at what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT, (R) FLORIDA: This is life-threatening. We have not had a hurricane in years. So many people have moved to our state, and we always have visitors. This storm, hurricane is life-threatening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Serious stuff. Meteorologist Chad Myers is watching the storm from CNN Severe Weather Center. So what's the story on landfall? Will it be a hurricane and when?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It likely will be a hurricane late tonight. It's still getting its act together, but, Ashleigh, the winds that will be hurricane strength may only be 10 or 20 miles wide. The rest of the storm will be a tropical storm.

So if you're unlucky enough to be in that little window from maybe Apalachicola to about St. Mark's, you will feel hurricane-force winds. But if you're anywhere away from that, you're only going to feel a tropical storm. But what you're going to feel anyway is a storm surge of up to eight feet.

What we have here is a day and a full of wind that blows the water this way and that has been blowing the water to the north. Kind of like if you try to cool off your coffee by blowing on the one side, you blow the coffee to the other side of the cup, that cup goes up.

The level of the coffee is higher on one side than the other. Well, the level of the water is going to be higher here than down to the south, into the keys. It will be sucking some of that water away from the south gulf and pushing it into the northern gulf.

And with that wind pushing it up into these estuaries, we're going to get surges of five to eight feet. That's the real threat that the Governor was talking about. It's a death -- it's a life and death, when you talk about that much water in your town or in your home, OK.

So I lived this. I experienced this in hurricane Dennis. When Dennis moved well to the west, yet St. Mark's had about 15 feet of water in downtown and people were floating around in boats. Boats were floating out of the marinas and just landing everywhere. So that's the story for the first 12 hours or even 24 hours for now.

Then the storm gets into Georgia and the Carolinas and it could really churn the coast here, make significant rip currents for the entire weekend and people want to go play because it's Labor Day.

Then all of a sudden, it gets up here in New York, at least close to New York and it just stops. So that's two days. That's 48 hours' worth of nearly no movement. So can it wobble to the left? Can it wobble to the east, sure? Spaghetti models in pretty good agreement going to go across here.

But notice what happens to spaghetti and my joke was, this has turned into to angel hair. We lost spaghetti because that is just going in every possible direction. It could go left. It could go right. The models are completely in disagreement when it bumps into a front that's up here. No one yet knows what it's going to do.

So if you are anywhere from the Cape Hatteras area all the way up to Boston, just because it's hitting Florida now doesn't mean it couldn't be a hurricane again and hit the U.S. a second time. That's possible with this storm.

BANFIELD: Yeah, you know, if you're in your 20s now, you might have been 10 or so when Rita and Katrina and Wilma hit. And that's a big memory for a lot of people. All right, keep an eye on it and keep us updated through the day. Chad Myers, thank you for that from the extreme weather center for us.

Programming note, in our next hour Governor Rick Scott is going to speak with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He's going to talk about the hurricane preparations that are under way and just the notion that, look, it's been a long time. Get those memories fired up. It's serious stuff and it is life-threatening.

Just ahead, we've been following every development in the Stanford rape case. And tomorrow there is a huge development. Brock Turner is set to get out of jail. And guess what, dozens and dozens of people are standing by to greet him. What kind of greeting do you think it will be? We're going to explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:56] BANFIELD: Tomorrow, Brock Turner is set to be released from jail. When he was a freshman at Stanford, he raped a 23-year-old woman, and during the testimony he lied and he said that she consented, even though the evidence proved to a jury that she was flat out unconscious. She was badly injured. She was bloodied. She was hospitalized. Those were the facts.

This week we have been pouring through newly released court documents and we learned the horrible state that this young woman was found in by the first responders. A Stanford deputy testified that he, quote, found her, "Lying with her knees bent up in a sort of fetal position, her private parts exposed."

In just a few hours, the man who did that to her and left her in that condition is set to be freed. Three month of his sentence served, a six-month sentence was all he received. And that caused a lot of consternation. Dan Simon joins us now to tell us what's next for Brock Turner.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, this is a 21-year-old who faced the possibility of 14 years in prison.

[12:55:04] Instead, Brock Turner will only serve three month in county jail when he's released sometime tomorrow. That's why critics had blasted the sentence saying it's nothing more than a slap on the wrist and they are vowing to recall the judge who handed it down.

This is a case that began in January of 2015 when Turner was accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside of a fraternity party. A couple of graduate students on their bicycles ultimately caught Turner.

In court, he tried to claim this was all consensual, but the jury did not buy it. But this is a case that really rose to national prominence after the victim's powerful impact statement. It was an emotional gut-wrenching letter and only fueled the anger over what many perceived to be a very lenient sentence.

The spotlight now has shifted to the judge who handed it down, Judge Aaron Persky. Tomorrow in San Jose there will be a very large rally where critics will once again call for the judge to be removed.

As for Turner himself, he will not be headed back to Stanford. He voluntarily withdrew instead of being expelled. He will move back to his home state of Ohio where he will have to be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Dan Simon, reporting for us. Thank you for that.

And coming up after a quick break, Donald Trump's running mate, Governor Mike Pence will speak with CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)