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Michael Flynn-Russia Meeting; Nursing Home Deaths; Residents Return Home; Devastation in Key West; Search and Rescue in the Keys; Justice Department Blocks Request; Michael Flynn Security Forms. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 13, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining pass.

There's breaking news we're following, a tragic discovery. At least six people have died. Dozens more evacuated. After Irma knocks out power at a nursing home in Florida. Brand-new details just coming in. Stand by.

Returning to ruin. Families seeing what's left of their homes across the Florida Keys. As the situation gets more dire without power and water, our crews are live in the Keys.

Plus, new secret exposed. Accusations that former Trump national security adviser, Michael Flynn, never disclosed another trip involving Russia and a business deal. The evidence now in the hands of the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: While, we begin with breaking news from the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, there is a race to get victims the supplies they need, food, water, communications and power.

And now, police in Hollywood, Florida are investigating the deaths of six senior citizens, possibly due to a lack of electricity in their nursing home. Rescuers evacuated 115 people from that facility this morning. Listen to officials only moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIEDE MALE: At this time, we're conducting a criminal investigation into the matter. We have the attorney general's office from the state here for Medicare fraud, assisting us in the investigation.

And also, the agency for occupational health that governs these types of facilities, assisted living facilities, here to determine the regulations or any other violations.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Our National Correspondent Miguel Marquez is in Hollywood, Florida for us. Miguel, they just wrapped up a news conference. They provided some pretty somber, very sober details. Update us.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the doctor who was working at Memorial Hospital about 50 feet -- or 50 yards away from the two facilities where these individuals died, said that when he walked in the building around 6:00 a.m. this morning, it was awful.

It was horrible conditions, he said. Very, very hot. These elderly people had been in there for possibly days, possibly much of the night.

A little conflicting information from the police. The initial press conference they said that the first calls came in at 4:00 a.m.

Now, they're saying that their police did not arrive until 6:00 a.m. at this facility. The very first call was for somebody who had a heart attack. The others expired from different respiratory issues due to the heat.

Three of them expired after leaving the hospital and trying to get care at Memorial Hospital just about 50 yards away after they left the facility.

The doctor also saying that another 12 patients are in critical care right now and the death toll from this could rise. They are in the emergency room at Memorial Hospital.

And I want to, sort of, point out to you, Wolf, that the building right in front of me, it's two different facilities. It's the rehabilitation center at Hollywood Hills and the Larkin Community Hospital.

Those are not related to Memorial Hospital which is literally -- this is the thing that's shocking here. This is -- this hospital is 50 yards away and no one raised the alarm. There must have been other staff in that hospital at the time and nobody raised the alarm.

So, a very, very concerning situation here. Larkin, the company that runs these two facilities, says that they suffered a failure of power after Irma came through.

An employee told us that they had generators starting on Sunday night. They are rented out other generators. It is -- and that -- and that the temperature, when he left last night, was fairly comfortable. It is not clear.

There is a criminal investigation going on now with the Hollywood police. They are also checking all the other care facilities across their own town and alerting cities across Florida. Clearly, this is a state that has lots of care facilities like this.

And it will strike fear in many people who have their elderly parents and loved ones staying in these facilities and they urge them today to check on them, make sure they're home, whether they're at a facility or at home or at anywhere else -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, this is pretty shocking. And as you point out, at least a dozen others now in critical condition rushed to emergency rooms, presumably at Memorial Hospital right across the street. One of the best hospitals down there. I want you to stand by.

Elizabeth Cohen is joining us from Florida right now. Elizabeth, you've done a lot of reporting on these nursing homes around Florida, around the state and indeed around the country.

This is what so many people had feared going into Irma; what's going to happen to these elderly folks who can't simply move?

[13:05:03] ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Right, it's such a huge concern in this state. And that's why they have very strict rules here about standards for structures and for, you know, various services.

It's unclear what happened here, Wolf. But there are inspections by the state agency for health care administration. There's an (INAUDIBLE) that's supposed to be in charge of this.

So, it's unclear exactly what happened. Now, we did look up some of those state reports. And what we found is that there were deficiencies listed in reports in recent years. That's not unusual. That often happens.

The ones that we saw were pretty quickly corrected. And so, you know, what the question here is, what happened at this nursing home and why didn't the state -- and should the state government have anticipated that something might happen? What kind of a history did this facility have? That's going to be looked at in the coming days and weeks and I'm sure even farther into the future than that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, they've got to learn lessons from this awful experience to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Elizabeth, I want you to stand by.

We're joined right now by the mayor of Hollywood, Florida, Josh Levy. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. And our condolences on this awful situation. I know you're just beginning the investigation together with law enforcement. But what can you tell us about this horrible incident?

MAYOR JOSH LEVY, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: Thank you, Wolf. So, as you've heard in the press conference, we're certainly all, you know, very disappointed that something like this could have taken place.

I think there were certainly many ways emergency services could have been alerted to this circumstance. And, unfortunately, emergency services were called obviously too late.

BLITZER: This is an area, Hollywood, Florida, it's right between Miami, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. This is a pretty sophisticated area. It's not remote, by any means. It's not down in the southern part of Florida near the Keys.

This is a highly developed area which raises all sorts of questions. We knew there was concern about the elderly. How could this happen?

LEVY: You know, I think we're all dumbfounded as to how this could happen, knowing that there are so many opportunities for medical care and no less realize this privately-held facility is next door, literally 30 feet away from a regional hospital that has trauma units and the most sophisticated medical care around.

The city of Hollywood is a city of 150,000 people. One of the largest cities in the state. Large city.

And you know what? We're upset about this. We're disappointed.

Although, you know, you never know what goes on in the assisted living facilities or nursing facilities that are relied upon for supervision by their management staff and by their ownership. State regulations sure.

I think this begs the question as to what regulations are in place, in terms of power outages at these types of facilities. Are they required by state law to have emergency generators kicked in? Do they get inspected before hurricane season?

I think this opportunity, like you said at the top of your comments, begs the question of how are we preparing these types of facilities for multi-day power outages in the heat of summer?

BLITZER: Do we know for sure, Mr. Mayor, that this facility lost power? Because I know a lot of Hollywood did lose power. But did this facility, as far as you know, lose power?

LEVY: I can tell you, from what I know, from what I've heard, is that they did have, apparently, a generator. But whatever was running by that generator, apparently the main air conditioning units for this facility that would take care of also the second floor, apparently were out of commission.

I can't speak exactly. I'm not going to speak to the criminal investigation. I'm not with law enforcement. But you can understand, certainly if it was hot, the main air conditioning unit was not working.

BLITZER: A very sad story indeed. The mayor -- Mr. Mayor, we're going to stay in very close touch with you.

And I want to reiterate, lessons have to be learned down the road, unfortunately, there will be more hurricanes down the road. The elderly and there are so many in south Florida as we all know, Florida has a huge retirement community. You got to make sure that we take care of these folks.

I was deeply concerned going into the hurricane about the elderly, especially in areas around Miami and Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale. And, unfortunately, this is a very tragic situation. We will stay in close touch with you, Mayor.

LEVY: Thank you, Wolf. Just, please, if you can, use your ability to communicate through the airwaves that no matter where we are, Texas, Florida, the Caribbean, where there is no power, please take steps right away to check on elderly neighbors.

And conduct welfare checks at assisted living facilities and anywhere where you know there are elderly. Please, neighbors, go out and knock on the doors and see if your neighbors are OK. They might need water way faster than we might, those of us that are younger. Thank you.

BLITZER: Very critically important advice from Josh Levy, who's the mayor of Hollywood, Florida. Mayor, thank you, once again, for joining us.

Down the Florida coast, residents of the Keys are still trying to get home. For so many of them, it's been an emotional roller coaster. Fear as they fled the storm, nerves and sometimes anger as they waited for officials to finally open the road so they could return, followed by either relief or devastation as they saw their homes.

[13:10:13]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN RAMOS, RESTAURANT OWNER, ISLAMORADA: Things aren't looking great right now. But we're just trying to clean up and to the best that we can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God, the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seeing the house, are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now -- right now, I'm OK. Right now, my family's OK. I'm OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: For people who stayed put and tried to ride out the storm, the hardest part has been letting loved ones know they're OK which made our satellite phone a hot commodity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Jess, I'm alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John, it's dad. OK. We have some pretty good damage to our house and a lot of other things are washed away here. But I talked to a nice gentleman here with the best news service and the guy with the CNN camera, and I'm now calling you on their satellite phone.

But we'll get -- when we get cell phone service back, we'll call you and tell you about it. But we wanted to let you know we're OK. Yes, we're OK. Except it's hot here and there's no electricity. I've still got a lot of whiskey and beer left. It's just getting warm. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fine and everyone is good. Please get in contact with mom and the rest of the cousins and friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't even -- the water's still in the house. I can't even get in there yet, get ready. We need tarps. Drywall, roof, everything. OK. Generators. All right, that's right. I love you, dad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Those people are grateful to our Chris Cuomo for making that satellite phone available. These are the people that our correspondents and crews have been running into in the Keys.

I want to bring in our Correspondent Bill Weir who's joining us right now. Bill, you've made it all the way down to Key West right now. The highway hasn't reopened down there, so how did you and your crew, first of all, make that trek and get to Key West?

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDFENT: Well, Wolf, we came by boat which, if anything, taught me, after Katrina, is the roads are going to be really sketchy. And if there's one road, even more so.

So, we found a kind captain just by happenstance interviewing people on your show back on Saturday or Sunday and he brought us down. We visited Marathon Key along the way. We were off the Torch Keys and saw utter devastation from both the inter-coastal bayside and the oceanside. And we were expecting the worst. But I've got to tell you, we get better news the further south we come.

Right now, we're where we started Friday night, corner of Green and Duval. Here's famous Sloppy Joes, Hemingway's old joint there. And it's mostly tree damage in the most populace part of the Keys down here.

I had just ran into Charlie Johnson. He is a pilot for the harbor, the city harbor. He's the guy who goes out and guides the big ships as they come to make port here. And he had really encouraging news. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE JOHNSON, PILOT, KEY WEST: Pretty much surveyed the channel. It looks pretty good. We can bring ships in. If they're ready to come in, we can bring them in.

WEIR: Really?

JOHNSON: Yes. The buoys are out of position. We're not 100 percent sure what the depths are. We've got to get everybody to sound it, so we know how deep it is, make sure there's no sunk boats out there and everything.

But it looks pretty good. We talked with the Coast Guard. They were just waiting to hear from us.

WEIR: Have you heard of any fatalities of those who rode it out here?

JOHNSON: Absolutely none. I mean, it's a miracle that not a single person, that I know of, has died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR: Miraculous indeed. I asked him, what's the main you need? He said, fuel. They need fuel to run generators, to get restaurants and shops back open, get people back to life, get some lights going on.

Now, as far as the rest of the Keys, we just had a CNN resupply convoy come down. And according to them, these inflated -- these numbers of 90 percent of the homes in the Keys being damaged is way over inflated. They put it, roughly, at 30 to 40 percent.

If you lived in a mobile home, that's probably gone. If you lived in a house built in the 1960s, 1970s, you probably have some damage. But anything after Andrew is holding up there.

The power lines, the tie lines, the extension cord that connects Key West to the mainland is intact, at least visually, it looks like, from the road. So, most of the downed power lines are local. We saw just rats nests of them out in the ocean coming in here. And so -- but that is a good sign as well.

At Bahia Honda, the northbound U.S. 1 line is damaged but is being repaired, as we speak. They had the road crews out there working on it right there.

[13:15:00] At mile marker 22, the Cudjoe Key, the transmission lines are good, despite that being right near the fiercest part of the storm. There's some roof damage. And as you come further south down, there's not even any road debris in Sugarloaf Key they're telling us.

So the fickle fate of Irma in some places just complete devastation. That's what we saw on the ocean side, the Torch Keys and Cook Island, a little private island where you can only access from the ocean, completely obliterated. But, no loss of human life that we've been able to confirm right now. And now it's mostly discomfort as we wait to be resupplied as Key West waits to get back in business.

Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They will eventually, but it's going to take a long, long time. Bill Weir, who made it to Key West. We're going to check back with you throughout the day. Thank you very, very much.

CNN is also live in the lower keys, home to some of the worst destruction. You're going to hear what John Berman found when he joins us. That's coming up live.

Also, there's breaking news involving the Russia investigation. We're getting word that the U.S. Justice Department is blocking the U.S. Senate from interviewing FBI officials over the firing of the former FBI director, James Comey. You're going to hear why. Also new, Democrats -- now some other Democrats accusing former

national security adviser under President Trump, Michael Flynn, of breaking the law by not disclosing another trip and business deal involving Russia. We have new information. Stay with us.

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[13:20:39] BLITZER: Three days after Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the sheer scope of the damage is still being assessed. The Florida governor, Rick Scott, took a boat tour of flooded areas. He said his main priority is getting the power back on. More than 4 million people in the southeast still have no electricity. The vast majority are in Florida, including the hard hit lower keys. FEMA estimates that 90 percent of the homes in that region are either damages or destroyed. Authorities are telling people in the lower keys to simply stay away because there's still no power, no water.

Our John Berman is on Big Pine Key for us.

John, what's the situation where you are?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I can tell you, Wolf, we flew into Sugarloaf Key, which is mile 21, about ten miles south of here, and most of the buildings seemed intact and damaged. But just ten miles to the north, where I am, Big Pine Key, a much different story.

Let me show you what I mean here. I'm standing in the dining room here of a shoreline house. The dining room looks OK, but let's pan out here so we can show you something. That's the ocean right there. The ocean came through the entire wall of this house and just washed everything away. There is nothing left inside this house. This house, utterly destroyed.

And that's the case up and down this street that we're on right now. So many of these houses, uninhabitable. These people will have to simply start again.

I actually asked the own this morning. I said, what happened to everything inside? And he came to me and he pointed in the different direction. He pointed over there and said, it's all over there. Everything is over there, Wolf.

Big Pine Key hit very hard. The good news is, is that there are supplies that are arriving toward the center of town. People are driving in, they're picking up their food and water, bringing it back. The people that decided to ride out the storm are beginning to get resupplied, which is good news.

The main problem for them is communication. They want to get a message out to the rest of the world, their loved ones, that they're OK. They want people to know that they're here. And they want to make sure that the help keeps coming, the power gets back on, and they can start rebuilding their lives.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, let's hope they can. John Berman on Big Pine Key for us. We'll stay in close touch with you.

We're going to have much more on desperate race to restore power across Florida.

Plus, breaking just a little while ago, the U.S. Justice Department blocking the U.S. Senate from interviewing FBI officials involved in the firing of James Comey. So what does that mean for the Robert Mueller investigation? Stay with us.

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[13:27:23] BLITZER: CNN has learned that the U.S. Justice Department is now standing in the way of Senate investigators by not allowing two top FBI officials to speak with the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee wants to know more about the firing of the former FBI director, James Comey.

CNN's Manu Raju is joining us now live from Capitol Hill.

Manu, is this a new turf war? What does it tell us about the investigation by the special counsel?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks like that this is a sign, Wolf, that the special counsel is looking into the circumstances around the firing of James Comey. Now, the reason why is because the Senate Judiciary Committee wanted to interview two senior FBI officials, that's Carl Ghattas (ph) and James Rybicki (ph). Those two individuals could provide first-hand information, first-hand accounts about exactly what happened surrounding the circumstances of Comey's firing.

But the Justice Department has sent a letter to the committee saying that they do not want these two men to testify because they are concerned about this ongoing special counsel investigation. And that it could reveal any sensitive or confidential information pertaining to that investigation.

Now, in response, the two leaders of that committee, Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, came back and said, OK, well, we don't want to talk about the investigation. We just want to know about exactly what happened with the firing of James Comey. And in response, the Justice Department has not cooperated according to the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that we -- saying that they are not going to move forward and allow these twos to come forward by the deadline that they had set, which was the first week of September.

This is a sign, Wolf, that these two committees, the committee and the special counsel, are running in a collision course of sorts as the committee is trying to understand exactly if there was any FBI interference, any interference with that ongoing criminal probe into Russia and any association with the Trump campaign and special counsel's investigation, which appears to be looking into the firing of James Comey. And the big question is whether or not there was any obstruction of justice, which a lot of critics say may have happened here in the way the president handled this situation, Wolf. BLITZER: And there's another significant development, new development,

in the Russia investigation. Some House Democrats, as you know, Manu, have sent a letter to Robert Mueller with new information about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Tell us what this is all about.

[13:29:42] RAJU: Yes, two House Democrats, Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Eliot Engel of New York actually received information from Michael Flynn's former business partners that have confirmed that Michael Flynn was in the Middle East in 2015 trying to pursue a major deal that would concentrate 16 nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia, and also would lead to the purchase of military hardware with Russia. Now this $100 billion deal was being pursued by Michael Flynn in a consortium of companies here in the United States. But what was significant was that when --