Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

FEMA: 75 Percent of Florida Without Power; Irma Rain Flooded Downtown Charleston; WSJ: Some Trump Lawyers Suggest Kushner Leave White House; Trump Seems to Downplay North Korean Sanctions. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 12, 2017 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Those folks were really preparing for the 10 to 15-foot storm surge and the police chief on Marco Island said yesterday that they really only saw three to four feet. That's welcome news. He said, on that particular island, one of the dramatic thing they saw is a lot of single-family homes, the water was creeping up and came within six or seven inches of flooding many homes on the island. Since that surge didn't quite reach where it was predicted to reach or many people feared it would reach, the water levels didn't creep into the homes. Folks will take that. The predictions might have been overblown. The experts will have to analyze why all of that happened. They will take that three to four- foot storm surge considering the eye of the storm came through here.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Good point. Ed Lavandera, in Naples for us. Ed, thank you.

A huge issue as we have been reporting for the people of Florida, power. About three quarters of the state is without electricity as we speak.

Joining us, Craig Fugate, the former FEMA administrator.

Craig, thanks for joining us.

What do you think about this power outage is affecting so many millions of people in Florida and how do you fix it more rapidly.

FUGATE: What we told people ahead of time, I don't have power and I'm not sure I will get it back. The utilities will get power back on fairly quick for areas that just had wind damage. The problem is going to be in the heavy hit areas where they have to rebuild power lines. It takes longer. The individual houses, can they take power or is there too much damage. They've got a lot of experience. This is a large area without power, outside of the area with heavy devastation. That's is driving the narrative and shortfalls.

BLITZER: Craig, a lot of people are getting back to their damaged or destroyed homes. What are the risks involved?

FUGATE: Right now, they are going to be gas on the routes to get back. When you get there, most of these areas don't have power. Still a lot of clean up to go. We are advising people if you don't have to get back, stay where you are at and give it another day or two. When you head back, you need to be prepared. The likelihood is power will be out in the hard-hit areas.

BLITZER: There is a short supply of gas. People want to fill up. How long is it going to take to get back to normal as far as fuel is concerned?

FUGATE: Again, we get our fuel out of the ports and as they took ships back in, they are getting the trucks back on the road. We are seeing deliveries taking place. It will take a couple of days to get up to meeting the demand. But gas is now flowing. If people have patience for the next couple of days, things will gradually improve. And if you can stay another day or two, you are probably better off and it gives the system time to get fuel in the stations to meet the demand as people head home.

BLITZER: You are the former FEMA administrator, Craig. What is the number-one priority for FEMA right now?

FUGATE: Supporting the state, it's really starting to get an assessment. Looking at what the housing needs will be. Power and fuel will get resolved with state leadership. Where FEMA will have to play a role in supporting the state is now going to be what kind of temporary housing assistance will be required across the areas that will be hard.

BLITZER: Craig Fugate, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

FUGATE: Thank you.

BLITZER: We will have much more on the devastation in Florida.

Also, a new report suggests members of President Trump's legal team wanted his son in law to resign. Why they consider Jared Kushner a potential legal liability.

Take a look at the people waiting to see Hillary Clinton at her book signing as she takes new shots at President Trump and even one at his daughter, Ivanka. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:38:21] BLITZER: Irma's trail of destruction extends far and wide, impacting nine states, one way or another. Even as a tropical storm, it brought torrential rain to South Carolina. Some of the streets of downtown Charleston look like canals with rescue crews using boats to get around.

Our correspondent, Nick Valencia, is in Charleston.

Nick, has the water receded at all?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time in hours that we are not standing in it. And the first time in hours people are emerging from homes to check out what happened last night.

This is the Battery. Those familiar with Charleston, you are familiar with this site. This is beautiful water and a beautiful site to the city. Yesterday, it was filled with white caps. That storm surge made people board up their homes. The velocity the water came through here was something that residents have never seen here. They have been living here a long time. People like Sandra Fennel.

Sandra, you've lived in this house a long time. You had how many inches in the basement?

SANDRA FENNEL, CHARLESTON RESIDENT: We have 10 inches in the basement and 26 inches in the yard. We measured.

VALENCIA: You went through Hurricane Matthew. What was this like?

FENNEL: This was a lot worse. A whole lot worse. I felt like I was sitting on the ocean in our house. I think too it's because it's daylight and high tide. It was the full moon. All of that had a lot to do with it.

VALENCIA: Are people said it happened fast. Like in 20 or 30 minutes. Then you are flooded by water.

FENNEL: Absolutely. We're tried to keep it out of the basement and, all of a sudden, it just appeared and started rising and rising. There was no way to get out. They said, if you are going to leave, you need to leave early.

[13:40:03] VALENCIA: For those that are watching, they say Charleston floods. It happens. Why was this different?

FENNEL: I don't know why it was different, but it happened in a hurry. We had flooding and I haven't had any flooding in my house before that. It was the last two years that we had major flooding anywhere from six inches to 10 inches in the basement area. It's frightening to go through this.

(CROSSTALK)

VALENCIA: Absolutely. It has to make you nervous rate here.

FENNEL: -- to be able to protect our house.

VALENCIA: You showed an amazing video and, hopefully, we will be able to turn it around.

Thank you, Sandra

FENNEL: OK

VALENCIA: For taking the time with us at CNN.

Amazing video from the garage. The garage doors looked like they were breathing and being swelled with water and pushed with a force of that water. She had coolers that were stacked up and filled with heavy items to try to keep the doors from bursting in. Otherwise, it would have been different down the block. Walls crashed in as a result of the high tide. But this is the good news. No water on the streets right now. That has receded. Still some spots further down in the neighborhoods. That is taking this community by surprise, how widespread the water -- how far it spread throughout this community -- Wolf?

BLITZER: The cleanup will be significant from all of that water.

Nick Valencia joining us from Charleston, South Carolina.

Other important news we are watching, including members of President Trump's legal team reportedly suggesting that Jared Kushner step down from his position in the White House because he was supposedly becoming a legal liability. You will hear why.

Also, moments ago, President Trump responding to the new round of sanctions on North Korea. He seems to downplay their impact. CNN is inside North Korea, and we will go there. Much more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:20] BLITZER: President Trump is making a move to push ahead on tax reform and other items on his agenda. He is hosting a group of bipartisan Senates for dinner later tonight, including three red state Democrats, Heidi Heitkamp, from North Dakota, Indiana's Joe Donnelly, and Joe Manchin, of West Virginia.

Meanwhile, the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting several of President Trump's lawyers were pushing for the son in law, Jared Kushner, resign from the senior adviser over the Russia investigation.

Joining us now to talk about this and more, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, and "Bloomberg" White House reporter, Shannon Pettypiece.

Gloria, you have been doing a lot of reporting on this issue as well. Some of the private attorneys representing the president wanted Kushner out.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Dana Bash and I have been following up on the story and it appears there was a meeting sometime in May at which the prospect arose, apparently promoted by some of the president's then attorneys. Mark Kasowitz and the spokesman, and perhaps other people on the staff, like Steve Bannon, for example, saying that there is so much there that perhaps it would be best if Jared were to step aside. One source I spoke with said that one of the other lawyers blew up and said, you can't do this. That's ridiculous and absurd and the matter was dropped. It was described to me by either attorney as much more of a political issue than a legal issue. As we all know, and you know this really well, Shannon, there political divisions inside this White House. And many times, Jared Kushner found himself on the opposite side of people like Steve Bannon.

BLITZER: At issue, Shannon, and you have been reporting on this as well, at least in his official security clearance forms, he failed to mention the three or four meetings he did have with the Russians. SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: There's

questions about his business and whether he's mixing the White House and business.

But to Gloria's point, there has always been people who don't think Jared Kushner belongs there because they don't like his politics or think family belongs in a close place in the West Wing. With the president's sort of body man, Keith Schiller, expected to leave soon, I think the prospects of him leaving got a lot smaller. Now more than ever, Kushner, Ivanka, and those close to the president will advocate for having family in the West Wing to protect the president and have people there looking out for his interest. Schiller was a protector and guardian and confidant. With him leaving sometime this month, I don't think there will be changes coming from the family in the White House. I could be proven wrong tomorrow but that's what I think today.

BLITZER: With Donald Trump, you never know what's going to happen. All indications are Kushner is there, Ivanka is there, they're not going anywhere.

What also is an interesting story, take a look at the video we've got. Large numbers of people lining up to get the new book, Hillary Clinton's new book, coming out today, her memoir from the campaign. This interview we just saw from "USA Today," she says she's convinced there was collusion between Trump officials and the Russian officials to help Trump get elected president.

BORGER: That is Hillary Clinton. Not Bob Mueller. The special counsel is who we should be concerned about over the question of collusion and other matters regarding this. We do know that the intelligence community overwhelmingly believed that the Russians did try to hack the election. And that, of course, smarts for Hillary Clinton.

But you look at the people lining up for Hillary Clinton to sign their book. It's very clear that the bad feelings that she has are echoed in a lot of places. I mean this is -- I mean this New York. And then Hillary Clinton has a following, a tremendous following. Although as she has said, she's done with political office.

[13:50:41] BLITZER: She has gotten serious criticism on blaming her defeat -- she says she takes responsibility but, all of a sudden, Bernie Sanders, James Comey, and everyone else is involved.

PETTYPIECE: One person we haven't heard from is the president, who has been eerily quiet. I wouldn't be surprised to see in the next few days him starting to chime in on his thoughts on this. I wouldn't be surprised if people started asking him, Mr. President, what do you take on Hillary Clinton.

BORGER: For him, it's low-hanging fruit. It's not a tough call for him. It also means he's not tweeting about Russia and other things he shouldn't be tweeting out.

BLITZER: She is saying she'll be actively involved in politics because she sees so much at stake right now, but she's not running for office anymore.

PETTYPIECE: No, apparently not. So you can cross her off the New York's mayor list. Trump thrives on having enemies. He likes having someone to punch. If it's not Russia or Mueller, maybe it's Hillary Clinton. Or maybe McConnell or Ryan and members of his own party. He has an enemy is can pay attention to. If he has somebody else to focus attention to, that takes away from others, even his own cabinet.

BORGER: Let's see what she says about Donald Trump. We know she called him kind of creepy when he came up behind her during the debate. I'm sure there's a lot more in there about Donald Trump.

BLITZER: I'm sure there is. And she's doing a lot of interviews so we'll see a lot more of her.

Gloria, Shannon, thanks very much.

An important viewing note, make sure you see Anderson Cooper's interview with Hillary Clinton about what happened in the 2016 election, what she thinks is going on right now. That airs tomorrow right here, at 8:00 p.m. on CNN. The Anderson Cooper interview with Hillary Clinton tomorrow night.

Coming up, just in, the president downplaying new sanctions against North Korea, saying, quote, "They're nothing like what will have to ultimately happen." CNN's Will Ripley has a reaction. He's joining us from Pyongyang. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:25] BLITZER: President Trump is downplaying a new U.S.- drafted resolution at the United Nation's Security Council imposing stiffer sanctions on North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a vote yesterday on sanctions. We think it's just another very small step, not a big deal. Rex and I were just discussing, not big. I don't know if it has any impact. But it was nice to get a 15 to nothing vote. But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That resolution that targets some of Pyongyang's most vital imports and exports and could cause the regime a sizeable chunk of its revenue. But Pyongyang remains defiant.

CNN's Will Ripley is in Pyongyang -- Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're getting no indication here in the North Korean capitol that they are concerned about sanctions. Certainly, they're angry, but they think the idea that they would buckle under the additional sanctions after investing so much and coming so far with the nuclear program and missile program, the officials here think it's ridiculous that the United States would think the sanctions would have an impact. You have the threats from North Korea of unbearable consequences and revenge against the United States. There's also the possibility that South Korea believes North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile any time. They thought it might happen over the weekend. It hasn't happened next. For North Korea, we know it's not a matter of if, but when.

What the sanctions do is makes it difficult for North Korea to bring in more money. They can't sell in textiles, and coal, iron, seafood, lead. Also difficult for them to engage in joint business ventures, to smuggle goods illicitly. There's a cap that could cut oil supplies by 30 percent which could have a long-term impact. But at least, in the short term, North Korea promising to push forward with their weapons of mass destruction -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Major developments unfolding.

Will Ripley, reporting for us from Pyongyang. By the way, this is Will's 15th visit to North Korea over the past few years, doing an outstanding job for all of us.

Will Ripley, reporting from Pyongyang.

Much more coming up. We're standing by to see if North Korea takes any action, additional nuclear tests or intercontinental ballistic missile tests. We'll have much more coming up later today in "THE SITUTATION ROOM."

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts now.

[14:00:14] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we'll take it --