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Donald Trump's Conversation with Taiwan's President Draws Criticism from China; Fire Kills Nine in Oakland, California; College Football Teams Jockey for Playoff Positions. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 03, 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] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: -- from officials on that deadly warehouse fire. Nine people killed, 25 still unaccounted for. The very latest on the next hour of the Newsroom.

Hello, again, everyone. Thanks so much for being with me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

At least nine dead and 25 unaccounted for in that massive fire in Oakland, California involving a warehouse party. It happened in a building used by local artists. It happened in the county there of Alameda, and the sheriff said they are preparing for the worst, which could be possibly upwards of 40 people dead. One witness describes what he saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. RAY KELLY, ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: So fire is still here, open fire is still seen. We are making sure it is safe to go in and then see what we have to deal with inside.

So first off, this is a very traumatic event. This is a very rough day for the city of Oakland. Our heart goes out to the families, to our first responders that have to deal with this. This is very, very tough for us. This is not easy. This hits very close to home for a lot of us.

So right now the coroner's bureau, which is working in conjunction with the police department and the fire department, we are prepared for a mass casualty event. I am not going to throw out numbers here at this point, but we are prepared to deal with several dozen fatalities as a result of this fire. We don't exactly know how many. We can confirm at this point we have nine deceased. That number we expect to go up once we go inside and begin to around inside. So I can only confirm for you at this point that there is nine people deceased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Dan Simon in there Oakland, California. It's a tragic situation and possibly it could get even worse. So what are some of the obstacles that firefighters are dealing with right now?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are here at the scene. And I guess you can hear me. So I apologize for that. So fire crews are trying to figure out how they can get inside the building and figure out how many people are actually deceased. As we heard there from the officials we're talking about as many as 40 people dead. They are preparing for a mass casualty event.

This fire broke out about 11:30 last night. There was a party. This is a place for artists. It is called an artist collective. And some people, also, apparently live there. There was a party on the second floor, there was live music being played. We don't know who this was started. It obviously spread very quickly much. And the building must be configured where it made it difficult for people to escape.

We know that there were some people there on the second floor looking out the window calling for help. And we are hearing reports that a couple people actually jumped out of the window to try to reach safety. But just a terrible situation, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Dan, if you are able to continue to hear me, what about the use of these drones and why are firefighters reporting to that?

SIMON: Well, the drones are outfitted with thermal imaging technology. I think we just saw one up above the building. And it's going to help firefighters determine if there are hotspots and if they can make safe entry into the building. It's one of these newer piece of technology that the Oakland fire department has acquired. And it sounds like it's going to be very helpful in determining whether in fact crews can go actually into the building. We saw crews earlier basically go a few feet into the building, clear away a little bit of rubble, if you will. But so far, they have been hesitant to enter and go into that second floor where the party was taking place because at this point they think it is too structural unsound.

WHITFIELD: Dan, still unclear the sequence of events. Are any eyewitnesses saying more about what happened last night when the first sparks of fire or when someone first smelled smoke or in what part of the building, all of those details?

SIMON: Unfortunately, we have not really been able to hear those first-hand accounts. The people who attended the party, they have stayed clear from the scene this morning. We don't know where those people have gone. Presumably fire investigators will want to talk with those folks.

We know that a few blocks away, that there is a notification center for people who live in the Bay Area and that may be concerned about their loved ones or friends. That's where they can go and congregate and tell somebody physically that their friend or loved one is missing. We know Facebook has also been a very useful and helpful tool. People have been posting pictures and names of people that they fear may be missing. And that's something that investigators are sorting through as they try to determine how many people are exactly missing.

Obviously the critical piece of all of this is going to be getting inside to confirm how many people may have died, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, and then there should be more updates in the next hour and a half, Dan?

SIMON: There should be an update, we are told, at every hour. That update has not taken place. So it should actually occur within the next few minutes. If that happens, we will try to bring that to you live, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Dan Simon, thank you so much, in Oakland, California, appreciate it.

There are less than seven weeks until Donald Trump becomes president. He is already overturning international policy protocols. Yesterday, Trump spoke on the phone with the president of Taiwan. This marks the first publicly reported call with the leader of Taiwan since 1979. Now China has lodged an official complaint with the U.S. The U.S. does not formally recognize Taiwan as an independent state, but Chinese officials fear this phone call may have signaled otherwise. Trump and his team are downplaying that call, that it had any further implications.

CNN's Ryan Nobles joining me right now from outside the Trump tower. Ryan, any more detail about the sequence of events and how it all unfolded?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Fredricka, president-elect Trump tweeted yesterday he just accepted a call from the president of Taiwan and accepted her congratulations of her recent win, and he also congratulated her, trying to downplay the idea this is any kind of indication of perhaps a shift in policy by the incoming Trump administration. This was simply pleasantries between two foreign leaders.

But it obviously has raised some concerns in Washington and in the foreign policy community that perhaps the president-elect is not aware of all the information that goes into this relationship between Taiwan and China and the rest of the world. And it is leading some to ask whether or not the president-elect is experienced enough to handle a matter like this. Trump's senior advisers have pushed back on that criticism quite strongly. This is what Kellyanne Conway told Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: President-elect Trump is fully briefed and fully knowledgeable about these issues on an ongoing basis regardless of who is on the other end of the phone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And the transition says this should not be an indication that the Trump administration will push back on this idea of a one China policy, something that the American government has observed since the late '70s.

Now, the Trump team has a very busy Monday planned, three different people will come here to Trump Tower to meet with the president-elect. Some of them could potentially be up for jobs in the Trump administration. Among them, Debra Yang, who is a U.S. attorney in California. Two South Carolina politicians will be here as well, including Congressman Mick Mulvaney and Catherine Templeton, who is rumored to be a frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina in 2018. And of course Monday will also of course be a big day because it will be the formal announcement of General James Mattis as Trump's pick for secretary of defense. So a lot of eyes here on Trump coming up next week. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Ryan Nobles, thank you so much outside Trump Tower, appreciate that.

Let's talk more about all this with Allan Lichtman. He is a presidential historian and a professor at American University, who also, might we add, president on this network that Trump would win the election. Good to see you. And then we tried to get you right away but then you were overseas at Doha during the election, and someone else got you at the time. Good to see you, professor.

ALLAN LICHTMAN, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Same.

WHITFIELD: So let's begin with this phone call between Trump and Taiwan's president. Trump pointing out maybe even as a justification, well, if the U.S. is going to be selling military equipment to that country, what is the matter with him as president-elect having a phone conversation with him?

LICHTMAN: First of all, there is a big difference between --

WHITFIELD: I mean her.

LICHTMAN: Right -- selling military equipment to Taiwan and actually upsetting the one China policy that is essential to our relationship with certainly one of the world's top three powers, certainly perhaps our greatest trading partner in a critically sensitive and volatile area of the world.

And moreover, there's a big contradiction here. On the one hand they are saying, this is OK. On the other hand, they are saying, it is pretty meaningless, it's inadvertent, it's just a congratulatory call. They need to get their story straight.

WHITFIELD: And then reportedly there was an adviser, Trump adviser, who was in Taiwan who helped facilitate the call. So does that make a difference, how the phone call came about, whether anyone in the president-elect's corner helped make it happen or make it easier for that to happen?

[14:10:09] LICHTMAN: I think that makes an enormous difference in light of what we have to understand about the incoming Trump administration, that he has far flung business over the world, and he has associates all over the world whose interests may not be consonant with the interests of the United States. And this may be a slight hint of truly significant clashes of conflicts of interest to come.

WHITFIELD: You talk about all over the world, at least 25 countries, 500 businesses and in many of them the name Trump is emblazoned on all of it. Professor Lichtman, good to see you. Thank you so much.

LICHTMAN: Same here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And of course we're going to have more on this massive fire in Oakland. A two-story warehouse going up in flames overnight. Confirmation now of nine killed and 25 unaccounted for. The Alameda County sheriff's warning that they are getting ready for a mass casualty event, meaning they are making preparations for it because there are concerns that the numbers of casualties may be very high. We'll have much more from Oakland right after this.

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[14:15:00] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You are looking at pictures right now of a massive fire in Oakland, California, overnight, confirmation now of nine dead, 25 still unaccounted for. At any moment now we expect to hear from officials to update us about how they are going about trying to enter that building. They have been unable to do so because there remain hotspots. And when they do, they will better assess how to tackle the smoldering embers and everything else in this building and be able to retrieve, recover, and perhaps rescue. But right now they are also making preparations for a mass casualty event. And of course when that press conference happens, we will take you there live.

Meantime, to get a better understanding of how firefighters are going about tackling a blaze of this scale, I want to bring in Norman Augustin, the deputy chief for Georgia's DeKalb County fire department. Thanks so much for joining us on the phone now. So deputy chief, give me an assessment of when you know there is a two- story warehouse building. It may involve a number of people, upwards of 100 inside at a party. It's late at night, and now based on that information, how do firefighters assess how they will tackle a blaze like that.

NORMAN AUGUSTIN, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF, DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA: There is a lot that goes into assessing an incident of such a scale. The first thing, get a good idea of what's going on the ground. And it takes bodies to do that, experienced bodies with experienced eyes. And the first part is putting people on the ground to look all around the building to see what's going on. That depends on hazards.

Another tool is the UAV. A lot of fire departments in the United States are going to this technology because it is another way of gathering that vital information that we all need to make the decisions relative to attacking fire and saving lives.

WHITFIELD: And we did hear in the last update they would be using drones to get a better assessment of the hotspots of this warehouse since they are unable to actually enter it. Give us a better assessment of how these drones would be used. What's the capability of these drones? Is it primarily used for a visual? Or are there other apparatus or other potential tools attached?

AUGUSTIN: It is primarily used for visuals, but with the right camera attached, you can actually assess the hotspots and see where you need to attack a fire. It can also in some cases show victims so you can focus your rescue efforts.

WHITFIELD: And will they use more than one at a time? Do they work in concert together when you are talking about a building of this size? We don't know the square footage, but just in looking at the pictures, it seems to cover a good portion of a block?

AUGUSTIN: Yes. In some cases, you can put more than one drone in the sky. And in some cases you will have a pilot that will operate the drone and someone else on the ground that is assessing the video of the feed that's coming from the drone. So that pilot is focused on keeping the drone in the air, keeping it safe in the air, and that other person is looking at the screen and making decisions based on what they see.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead with that final thought.

AUGUSTIN: Yes. I think some of the decisions they would be making would be seeing if it is safe to enter, seeing where victims are, as I said, and seeing how best to attack a fire in a safe manner.

WHITFIELD: Deputy Chief Norman Augustin for Georgia's DeKalb County fire department, thank you so much for you time. I appreciate it. We are going to continue to follow developments out of Oakland, California, as we await an update from officials there. We'll be right back.

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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to newsroom. I'm Andy Scholes in downtown Atlanta where Alabama and Florida fans are getting ready for the SEC championship here later today. And this is actually a rematch from last year's SEC championship game that saw the Crimson Tide win by two touchdowns. Alabama has been the best team in college football all season long. They are undefeated. Of course they are the defending champions in college football. They have actually won four national titles under Nick Saban. Coach Saban says he doesn't necessarily love winning. He just hates the alternative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK SABAN, ALABAMA FOOTBALL COACH: I hate to lose more than I like winning. So this next game is the game we can lose. So what we did, I'm not in love with what we did last week or the week before that or the whole season. The challenge is the next game, because that's the game we can lose. And I hate losing more than I like winning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: A kickoff for the ACC championship is at 4:00 eastern. Alabama, huge favorite in this one over the gators. Actually they are 24 point favorites. Tonight, we've got two more huge games in college football. Number three Clemson trying to lock up a spot in the playoffs. They are taking on Virginia Tech in the ACC championship game. Then in the big ten title game you have sixth ranked Wisconsin and seventh ranked Penn State squaring off. That one kicks off at 8:00 eastern as well.

Now, last night the fourth ranked huskies making their case they should be in the playoffs this. Washington and Colorado both playing in their first Pac 12 title game. The huskies were up seven at the half, and this is the first play of the third quarter, Taylor Rapp gets the interception and takes it the other way for the touchdown. Washington's defense would just dominate this one. Huskies beat Colorado, 41-10 to end the season 12 and one.

[14:25:02] So if we are looking at the playoff picture today, Alabama is in. They are number one undefeated. They are in whether they win or lose. Ohio State, they are ranked second, they're likely in. Washington with that convincing win, they have likely clinched a spot in the playoffs. It all comes down to what happens tonight in that game between Clemson and Virginia Tech. Wisconsin and Penn State both huge Virginia Tech fans tonight because if Clemson loses, that's when we could see some chaos and then make the playoff committee's job really hard. If not, it could just be an easy walk for those guys. We have one, two, three, four.

WHITFIELD: It's so exciting, and just seeing the folks running behind you are having a good time. They're really excited to be there. Andy Scholes, always good to see you. Thank you so much.

All right, thank you so much for being with me today. I am Fredricka Whitfield. "Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta starts right after this.

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