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Trump To Host World Leaders At U.N.; Interview With Former U.S. Ambassador To the United Nations Bill Richardson; Alvarez-Golovkin Fight To Controversial Draw; Florida Beats Tennessee; USC Outlasts Texas In Double Overtime Thriller; Clemson Blows Out Louisville, 47-21 Aired 6-7a

Aired September 17, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:08] ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND, with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. We have two developing stories this morning. British police have made a second arrest in the explosion in London there on a commuter train. More arrests are expected in this terror attack that injured 30 people. We will have a live report from Scotland Yard shortly on that one.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And also this morning cars are lining up in south Florida. Some of them started late last night. Take a look here. My goodness. There is a long line as these residents who left Key West before Hurricane Irma finally getting the green light to go back and see what's left.

And we want to start there. Key West mayor says residents need to be prepared for a shock as this island reopens in just about an hour from now.

BLACKWELL: Yes. As Christi said for the first time since Hurricane Irma nearly a week ago when it went people who evacuated the Lower Keys will be able to see the damage done to their homes, the property there. More than 20,000 people are expected to go back the next few weeks. Emergency managers say they may have to reopen shelters for people who are still without power or just need a safe place to stay.

PAUL: CNN correspondent Nick Valencia has been talking to some of the people who are in line, waiting to get back, and he's joining us live from Florida City.

Nick, what are they saying to you?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there. Good morning, Chris. This line has been steadily growing since about 11:00 p.m. last night according to this gas station attendant who has seen the crowds grow. And we've seen the crowds grow in the hours that we've been here.

This line just spreading back steadily just for miles it seems. Some of those residents don't know what really they are going back to. Even the mayor has said you need a temper expectations a little bit. Some of those residents, we've spoken to them in the morning. Come on in here, guys. You guys have been through a lot but you're

waiting -- you're kind enough to share your time with us. Tell us what you've been through the last week. I mean, you're residents of one of the hardest hit areas of the Keys.

CHRISTOPHER CASTRO, BIG PINE KEY RESIDENT: Big Pine. Yes. We evacuated around Thursday of -- what is it? A week ago now?

ARMAND WHITE, BIG PINE KEY RESIDENT: Yes.

CASTRO: And, I mean, we traveled all the way up to Wisconsin.

VALENCIA: You basically have all of your belongings hitched to the back of a car, right? I mean a lot of them anyway.

WHITE: Well, we brought back more than we took. We've brought back generators, tarps, water, fuel.

VALENCIA: Do you know what you're going back into? Have you seen any video or pictures of --

WHITE: A mess.

VALENCIA: What is it?

WHITE: It's a mess. We brought back what we thought we needed.

VALENCIA: Just -- can you like turn around and look at this for me, guys? I mean, that's -- this is not normal, right? I mean, this is like -- I mean, maybe the traffic is normal here but like --

WHITE: (INAUDIBLE).

VALENCIA: Yes, but I mean, what is it like looking at this? I mean, this is like a road to get to your home.

WHITE: It's kind of crazy. I mean, the fact that we had to wait, you know, it really is.

VALENCIA: What do you think about, you know, how long you've had to wait to get back in? I mean, do you think it's been too long? Enough time to --

CASTRO: Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

WHITE: It's ridiculous. Yes.

CASTRO: Too much. I mean, we own houses down there. We have property down there. I've got a picture of my house with a door wide open. I have no clue who's been in that house.

VALENCIA: So you guys worried about looters or anything?

CASTRO: I mean, I have a house full of stuff. I mean, now I can't go home to check on my stuff. I mean, now I can.

VALENCIA: What about your friends and family? I mean, how has this storm affected your friends and family?

WHITE: Well, they had to give us a place. You know, I mean, it's -- happy I had somewhere to go. You know? People that, you know, could take us in. There are a lot of people that didn't have that.

VALENCIA: I mean, this has got to be expensive for you guys. I mean, you must have been hemorrhaging money the last week.

CASTRO: Oh, yes. I've been broke the last couple of days. I mean, can't wait to get back and start making some money maybe.

VALENCIA: Well, we'll let you guys get back to getting into the mind frame of getting back home. We really appreciate it, Christopher and Armand. Thank you so much for taking the time with CNN this morning. Thank you, guys. Good luck. Good luck.

So, you know, some optimism there, Christi and Victor. Some hope, but, you know, the mayor, as I mentioned earlier, he is telling people that they may go back to residences and businesses that are unrecognizable.

It's an estimated one third of these homes in the Keys have been either hit to the point of their not inhabitable any more or they're just flat-out destroyed -- Victor, Christi.

PAUL: Well, it's not just what they are going through with their home but you have to think the destruction they're going to see all along the way of, you know, their areas that they know and love. It's going to be really hard to take in.

Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Well, there is still about 800,000 customers still live there in Florida who do not have power after Irma. And now three -- three new storms have formed in the Atlantic.

PAUL: And one of them is already a hurricane, another is strengthening and could hit the same islands that Irma hit.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us live.

All right, what is the first concern for you?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: In the short term it's actually going to be Maria. Maria was just formed yesterday or newly named yesterday rather. Jose is the one that we are going to be watching but most likely at this point it actually looks like it's no longer going to be a huge threat for the U.S.

[06:05:04] So that is bit of good news. And we take a look at the current statistics with Jose. Right now 80 miles per hour so it's still a category one hurricane. It's made that shift off to the north. Now by doing so, it's a little bit further east than maybe perhaps originally anticipated. So that means with the exception of, say, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the extreme eastern portions of the Cape we really don't have a U.S. landfall expected at this point. And the National Hurricane Center saying that a U.S. landfall at this

point not very a high possibility. With that said, we can still expect some strong winds and extremely dangerous rip currents still along much of the east coast from North Carolina up to Maine.

Now we move on to Tropical Storm Maria. It's currently sitting over the open Atlantic 65 miles per hour. We are talking less than 10 miles an hour away from being a hurricane. And we expect it to strengthen up to a hurricane likely in the next 24 hours. The problem is the track of this storm.

Take a look. I mean, it's going to go back and hit some of the exact same islands that were just hit by Irma. We are talking some of the lesser Antilles, the Leeward Islands in the Puerto Rico then to the Dominican Republic. But then the question becomes where does it go from there? We've got relatively good agreement up to that point of Puerto Rico.

It's after that the models begin to split. This red one is the American model which actually starts to veer it back out over the open Atlantic away from the U.S. The blue dot is the European model. This actually continues to track pushing it closer to the U.S. coastline.

But at this point, Victor and Christi, we'd be talking at least eight to 10 days, if more likely 11 or 12 days from now, and a lot can change. In the short term, however, we are looking at tropical storm watches for places like Martinique, Barbados and then hurricane watches for Dominica, St. Kit, and St. Maarten, one of the hardest hit areas just recently by Hurricane Irma.

PAUL: And that -- and let's be honest, the European track has been more accurate, has it not?

BLACKWELL: Yes. Both Harvey and Irma.

CHINCHAR: With Harvey, with Irma, and even with regards to Jose. It has it staying off the coast for most of the run, so yes.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: All right.

BLACKWELL: Allison Chinchar, thanks so much for watching them.

CHINCHAR: Thanks.

PAUL: Let's talk about something else that happened overnight. New protests, new ones, over the acquittal of an ex-cop in St. Louis and this turned violent. This was the second night leading to multiple arrests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and you, go one-on-one.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, the night started peacefully but there were tensions as the evening went on with some of demonstrators refusing to disburse, and you see here confronting police directly. A few protesters threw bricks, rocks, other projectiles with paint at police. Officers tried to clear out those crowds and others shattered windows, you see here, of businesses along the street.

PAUL: And we are now learning nine people were arrested and today's Ed Sheeran concert in St. Louis has been cancelled amid the security concerns. Protesters are frustrated with a judge's decision to acquit former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith.

CNN's Ryan Young was in St. Louis as the violence started. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are on Delmar Boulevard. You can look behind me and you can see the heavy machinery that the police brought in here. That's a bearcat. And the officers in their riot gear. About 50 percent of the businesses that are coming down Delmar Boulevard look like they've suffered some sort of damage.

We were standing in the crowd. Look, the organizers told the peaceful marchers to go home but about a half hour after that, we saw another group that decided to stay here. And that started to build and there was a confrontation between police and those protesters.

At some point, someone started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers and started breaking out windows of businesses. Officers started to advance and try to arrest a few people and then it was total bedlam. People started running. We saw people being pushed down in the streets. We saw cars racing down the streets and we saw officers advancing.

At this point, right now you can see how they staged right here to make sure that that property damage should stop. I can tell you, though, there were some tense moments that were very scary here. You thought it was going to get out of hand. Police got it back under control in about 30 minutes.

Ryan Young, CNN, St. Louis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Ryan, thank you very much. There has been second arrest in connection with the London terror attack.

Our Nina Dos Santos is live from London this morning -- Nina.

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: Thanks so much, Victor. Yes, a 21-year-old man has been taken into custody overnight in west London. Moved to a south London police station and the Home secretary says that this second arrest means that Parsons Green may not have been the work of a lone attacker.

We'll have more after the break.

PAUL: Also, President Trump will speak at the United Nations. He slammed the organization in the past, so a lot of questions about what leaders -- what world leaders can expect from his first-ever U.N. address this week.

[06:10:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Fourteen minutes past the hour, and new this morning, London police have arrested a 21-year-old man. This is the second arrest in connection with the underground train blast. Police have also searched a house in a suburb west of London which the U.K. Press Association says belongs to a foster care couple who are also known to take in refugee children. An 18-year-old man, remember, was arrested by police yesterday and is still in custody.

BLACKWELL: Well, the terror threat level is at critical, meaning an attack may be -- imminent, rather. And security has been ramped out across the city. 30 people were hurt when this improvised explosive device went off in a train car during rush hour on Friday morning.

CNN's Nina Dos Santos is live in London, outside Scotland Yard.

Nina, what have you learned about this second arrest?

DOS SANTOS: Well, we know that this is a 21-year-old man. He was arrested at 10 minutes to midnight on Saturday evening in the west London borough of Hounslow. That's about nine miles away from Parsons Green, the site of the attack.

[06:15:04] For the moment, authorities not releasing his identity and they're not releasing the identity of the 18-year-old male that they arrested in the port of Dover, a major exit point for the United Kingdom earlier on on Saturday.

We just know that both of these individuals have been questioned under the Terrorism Act which gives authorities sometime to glean information from them. They can also apply for extra time under the Terrorism Act if they feel that they need to hold these individuals for longer and they're currently being questioned at a south London police station.

The Home secretary Amber Rudd has taken to the air waves saying on British television that the fact that there is now a second arrest is significant because it could indicate that Parsons Green was not the work of what she called a lone wolf attacker. So for the moment, authorities and counterterrorism officials here at New Scotland Yard keeping an open mind about whether or not the network might have been bigger and probably for that reason we haven't seen the identities of these two men released yet nor we've seen CCTV footage which is slightly different to what we saw last time there was a major bomb attack in the aftermath of the Manchester attack.

But as you said before, Victor, that the situation does remain critical, although that is under review. It means that another attack could be imminent at any point in the British capital or elsewhere in the British isles -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Nina Dos Santos, outside Scotland Yard, thank you so much.

PAUL: Fawaz Gerges is the chair of Contemporary Middle East Study at the London School of Economics, joining us now, also author of "ISIS: A History and the Far Enemy Why Jihad Went Global."

Fawaz, Thank you so much for being here. I know that you just listened to Nina's report there, talking about the second arrest that's been made. How expansive do you believe this network may be?

FAWAZ GERGES, CHAIRMAN, CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST STUDY, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Well, just last night, the assistant commissioner of the police, Mark Crowley, said that the security forces are chasing suspects, not one suspect. Implying that basically there is a wider network of plotters and that's why the situation remains very much influx. That's why the security forces are very anxious.

How many plotters are there out there? Are there any bombs out there? The first suspect was basically seized in Dover, a gateway to France and Europe. What are the links between the suspect or the suspects and any kind of European suspect as well? That is why the situation -- I mean, it remains very critical as, you know, you've suggested that a potential, a possible attack could be imminent.

PAUL: When you talk about the fact that this could be a wider network, is this indicative of ISIS? They've lost ground in Iran. They've lost ground in Syria. Do you see a desperation from this group right now?

GERGES: You know, Christi, just to give your viewers -- American viewers a glimpse of what we are talking about, 2017 in the United Kingdom has been a very bloody year. Five major attacks have taken place where I am here in the United Kingdom. 38 people have been killed. Hundreds injured. The security forces have also foiled six significant plots in 2017. More than 600 people have been basically arrested in Britain in 2017 related in terrorism-related activities.

Most of these attacks are either inspired by ISIS or directed by ISIS and al Qaeda. So yes, the reality is of course you have right-wing extremism as well. I mean, terrorist attacks basically carried out by right-wing groups in the United Kingdom. So the reality is as ISIS loses ground in Iraq and Syria and Libya, you're going to see more attacks, either by individuals who are inspired by the ideology of jihadism and ISIS or by sleeping cells, either in the United Kingdom or France or Belgium or Germany as we have seen in the past few years.

PAUL: OK. So you just mentioned France and you mentioned U.K. and the six plots that have been foiled there. Why France and the U.K.? What is the reasoning behind these two countries?

GERGES: Very simple. Because you have a large radicalized infrastructure both in France and Britain. To give you an idea again, here I am in Britain. The security forces say there are 3,000 basically dangerous suspects who either believe in the ideology of ISIS or al Qaeda or basically have certain similar ideologies. So the police, the security forces are monitoring 3,000 suspects. Imagine. Not to mention you have 800 British men and women who have joined ISIS in the Iraq and Syria. More in France.

[06:20:08] You ask me about France. In Britain there are 800. In France we have about 1,200 men and women who have joined ISIS in the Iraq and Syria and you have a large radicalized infrastructure, about 20,000 potential radicalized individuals. So the situation is very real, very serious.

And that's why, I mean, these attacks keep on taking place, I mean, here and there. I mean, the -- the good news is that the bomb, the crude device, the homemade bomb in Parsons Green did not explode. Imagine if the bomb had exploded.

PAUL: Yes.

GERGES: Dozens would have been killed and injured even though 30 individuals have been injured as a result of the bombing in Parsons Green.

PAUL: It could have absolutely been deadly. You're right.

Fawaz Gerges, thank you so much for sharing your insight with us.

GERGES: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: President Trump will speak to the United Nations General Assembly for the first time on Tuesday. Now he sharply criticized the organization in the past so what can world leaders expect from his address?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:23] PAUL: So good to have your company. 25 minutes past the hour right now. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.

Line of cars now moving south there in Florida. They are going to the Lower Keys. The people who live there will soon be able to return to their homes for the first time since Hurricane Irma hit.

PAUL: And listen to this, Key West mayor says his city needs its residents back but he also says you need to be ready for a shock in terms of what you're going to see when you get back to that island. More than 20,000 people are expected to come back over the next few weeks.

And what you're looking at there is a line of cars that have been waiting some overnight since 11:00 last night to try to get back in.

Well, the president is still planning on withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. This clarification coming from the White House after a European diplomat told reporters a Trump administration official appeared to soften their stance at a meeting of climate ministers in Canada.

President Trump did say he is open to staying in the accord but only if there was some changes made to the carbon emissions pact set by the Obama administration.

BLACKWELL: Tomorrow the Climate and Energy ministers from nearly a dozen countries will meet in New York with the head of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn. The U.S.'s stance on the Paris agreement is expected to be a part of the discussion obviously.

CNN White House correspondent Athena Jones has more for us this morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Right. The White House is pushing back on this "The Wall Street Journal" report. This is the statement we got from Deputy Press Secretary Lindsey Walters. She said, "There has been no change in the United States' position on the Paris agreement. As the president has made abundantly clear the United States is withdrawing, unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.

Now that very much echoes what we heard from the president in that Rose Garden address back in June when he said, "We will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair." That has been the key to the White House's argument here, that this deal is not fair to the U.S., that it hurts the U.S. economy and U.S. workers.

And we should mention that this is a campaign promise. This is something that Candidate Trump ran on doing. He ran on cancelling the Paris accord.

Now it's important to remember that even though he announced the U.S. would be withdrawing in June, this is a lengthy process under the terms of the Paris agreement. It was something that was going to take until November of 2020. It's also important to note that the U.S. sets its own goals when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under this agreement, and so that is something the U.S. could look to change, to change those targets that it set for itself.

But this has now become something of a muddle now you that you have this EU official telling reporters what a White House official told the EU official. This is something that the White House is going to have to address at the United Nations general assembly in New York next week.

Top economic adviser Gary Cohn was already set to meet on the sidelines of that summit with climate ministers from about a dozen countries. They are going to want to hear what the White House's stance is on this, if there has been any change. But this also speaks to the larger challenge the president faces heading into the U.N. General Assembly which is how to promote his America first agenda at a meeting of the United Nations, a global body that is all about addressing global issues. 195 countries signed on to this climate accord, they certainly see this as a global issue, the issue of climate change.

And so we'll have to wait and see whether the White House has any more to say about their stance on this in the coming days. Back to you.

PAUL: Thank you so much.

And President Trump will address world leaders at the United Nations this week. It's the first time he'll address the U.N. since blasting the body as a, quote, "underperformer."

So what do we expect this time around? CNN's Richard Roth has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The flags are up. It's time for another United Nations General Assembly global get-together. As always, the United States is the host country. A host with an edge from the very start of the year.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: For those that don't have our back, we're taking names.

ROTH: Much of the world's big names will attend. None bigger than President Trump, himself, whose name has been just up the street from the U.N. for years. At the Trump World Tower Building.

RICHARD GOWAN, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: This general assembly is about one man, Donald Trump. And the big question is, will Trump insult the U.N. or will he try to make friends with the U.N.?

ROTH: Trump, a New York real estate mogul, has not always embraced the U.N. Nearly five years ago he tweeted, "The cheap 12-inch square marble tiles behind speaker at U.N. always bothered me. I will replace with beautiful large marble slabs if they ask me."

No one asked. Despite years of renovation at the U.N. After his election Trump said the U.N. was a club where people like to talk.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Welcome to the White House.

ROTH: Trump was more conciliatory when members of the U.N. Security Council visited the White House in April.

TRUMP: I have long felt that the United Nations is an underperformer, but has tremendous potential.

ROTH: President Trump will speak to the entire world for the first time from here at the General Assembly rostrum the leader who vowed fire and fury if Kim Jong-un threatens the U.S. will be closer to the North Koreans than he ever has been in his life. The North Korean delegation will be seated here in the front row just 20 feet away from where President Trump speaks to the general assembly.

There have been some memorable speeches inside the General Assembly. Libya's Muammar Gaddafi tore a page of the U.N. charter, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez warned the devil in the form of George W. Bush had been in the chamber.

HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): And it smells of sulfur still today.

ROTH: U.S. presidents are usually more measured in tone.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: I think you're going to have the president who did the bombing on Syria from the chemicals, the one that has gone against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq at record pace.

ROTH: Other first time speakers include President Emmanuel Macron of France. It is also the first U.N. General Assembly for Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: The most dangerous crisis we face today is the crisis related to the nuclear risk in relation to the Democratic People Republic of Korea.

RICHARD GOWAN, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Donald Trump has made the U.N. unexpectedly relevant. We thought that Trump was going to trash the organization but his single biggest foreign policy priority containing North Korea is being handled right here in the Security Council.

ROTH: Trump will also call for more reform of the U.N. unclear if he, again, demands changing of the marble.

Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Richard Roth, thank you much.

Joining me now to discuss further is CNN political commentator Errol Louis and CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer. Gentlemen, good morning to you.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: Let's me start where Richard left off there with -- quickly on North Korea and then we'll move on to this climate change development this weekend.

And, Julian, first to you. Richard showed just the proximity between the North Korean delegation there in the front row and the president there 20 feet away. Of course, they will have opportunities to see each other potentially on the sidelines. Do you expect that there will be any direct interaction between the U.S. delegation and the North Korean delegation this week?

ZELIZER: Well, certainly you can imagine him going off-script in the speech either through a glance or through a statement. He does want to use this message to affirm his commitment to strong punitive action against the North Koreans. So if there is an opportunity for any kind of interaction, I do think President Trump won't be able to resist.

BLACKWELL: So, Errol, let's turn now to this climate change statement. Is this just semantics or is there some significant change here?

We heard from the White House after "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that the U.S. will withdraw unless essentially a better deal can be made. The president back in June in the Rose Garden said that the U.S. will withdraw and then begin to consider re-entering if there could be a better negotiation.

What is your take on what we are hearing now?

LOUIS: You know, in some ways there a semantic difference but in the end it's not all that important.

I mean, the United States as what was reported would take a couple of years to actually fully withdraw even if there were no questions about renegotiating any kind of terms of remaining as part of the accord. So, you know, even if they are going at full speed it would look pretty much like what we are seeing here.

What is more interesting I think in some ways is that, you know, the standards that are voluntary that are internal to the United States that really constitute the meat of our involvement in the Paris climate accord are decentralized. You have states like California that can set its own emissions standards. And as we've seen for decades when California decides what it wants for emission standards the entire auto industry follows.

We have got municipalities. You have got cities all over the place, including New York City, frankly, that are setting their own standards for building emissions and resiliency for storms and other kinds of climate related effort.

So it's not clear whether or not what the president wants to have happen is going to happen on anything resembling the kind of speed and timetable that he laid out during the campaign.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

Julian, let's listen to what the president said this was back on June first when he announced the withdrawal. This is what the president said about liabilities the U.S. would face if it were to continue with the Paris accord.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Paris accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risks, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:35:11]

BLACKWELL: It's important to say that the CO2, the emissions standards in this -- in this accord are not legally binding. So that is one important thing.

The second thing here is what is the president looking for in this renegotiation? He kind of gives these platitudes of better for American, America first, Pittsburg not Paris, but are there any specifics about what the president wants to see out of this deal?

ZELIZER: Look, I think to see the specifics you have to look at what the administration has been doing on climate change issues.

This is an area he is not inconsistent. He has consistently been trying to dismantle almost every regulation that President Obama put into place.

So if you look at national policy and you look at what he has been doing through executive power, including right now on the Arctic Refuge, the administration is trying to weaken as many of these regulations as possible. So I don't think the semantics on the Paris climate agreement are as relevant as his own track record.

This is somewhere there is no gray with President Trump. He is at war with regulating and curbing damage to climate change.

BLACKWELL: Errol, let me check your cynicism here on the timing of this ambiguity, as the president prepares for his debut at the U.N., what does that mean that we are hearing this now from a leader there at the E.U.? And how much residual diplomatic damage has the withdrawal, the announcement of the withdrawal in June, created as the president re-enters the world stage?

LOUIS: Well, it's interesting. Diplomats and even other heads of state are relatively slow to form sort of a lasting, hard and fast opinions about somebody, even like Donald Trump, that they have a little bit of skepticism about.

So I think they're going to kind of wait and see and the speech will actually mean something. There are points where the text of a speech and the diplomacy actually matters quite a lot. This is going to be one of those times.

So I don't know that he has irreparably breached any sort of wall when it comes to trying to get the other nations of the world to sort of still accept the United States as a partner and as a potential partner even in the Paris accords. I mean, it's interesting if you think about sort of the political staff, and Julian is exactly right. The political staff in the White House, they have only gone in one direction and that direction is toward deregulation.

But you get a little bit deeper into the bureaucracy, the people who were talking with other diplomats about what we are going to actually do on any given point at any given point in time, and it starts to look a little bit more ambiguous. So, you know, Trump has to get control of his own government to make sure they are speaking with one voice and how he conducts the diplomacy is going to be the thing I'll be watching for when the United Nations General Assembly opens tomorrow.

BLACKWELL: All right. Errol Louis, Julian Zelizer, we will see what the president says when he speaks on Tuesday.

The president has if he follows pattern has been much more fiery and critical away from the world leaders and then when he's with Angela Merkel or the president of China or President Macron he's a lot more amiable to that leader.

Thank you very much. We'll see what happens.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

LOUIS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Dianne Feinstein will be on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper today at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And next, a former ambassador to the U.N. weighting in President Trump's upcoming debut at the world body and the approach to North Korea's nuclear threat. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:04]

PAUL: Forty-three minutes past of the hour.

President Trump talked to South Korean President Moon on the phone this morning agreeing to stronger sanctions against Kim Jong-un's regime (INAUDIBLE) latest nuclear and missile tests. Now, the president will have the opportunity to directly address the regime's delegation at the U.N.

On the phone with us now is Ambassador Bill Richardson, former energy secretary and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., also former governor of New Mexico. Ambassador Richardson, thank you so much for being here.

Let's listen together to what the president said in August about North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: The president takes to the podium on Tuesday. He will be but 20 feet away from the North Korea delegation.

How do you think he will -- will he direct them? Will he talk to them directly?

BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (on the phone): He will talk to them directly.

I think he will do a combination of two strategies. One will be if you continue these aggressive efforts, you're going to get a worldwide trade ban. We're going to ask more countries not to trade with you.

Or at the same time, he may offer a diplomatic fig leaf, because I think the U.N. has done its last set of sanctions. Very strong sanctions limiting oil exports, textiles about four days ago. I don't think China and Russia would agree to any tougher sanctions than have already been passed.

So we are kind of at an impasse and I think the president is going to be very tough, very talking about military options, but, at the same time, say to the North Koreans you have a chance to get out of this mess if you're ready to rein in your nuclear missile activity, stop threatening, and we will talk.

[06:45:02]

I think that is the best we can get from a presidential effort tomorrow -- Tuesday.

PAUL: National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that the president will stress sovereignty and accountability.

Now, sovereignty is a bit of a loaded term. "The New York Times" points out that sovereignty appeals obviously to the U.S. conservatives but this is a term that has been used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

So do you get a sense that President Trump will attempt to redefine sovereignty in his speech?

RICHARDSON: Well he's going to push his "America First" agenda. The issue is going to be will it be sprinkled with diplomatic initiatives.

Like, is he ready for diplomacy with North Korea? Is he going to keep the nuclear agreement with Iran? Is he going to talk about flexibility on climate change?

It sounds like he won't but he is ready to renegotiate American terms. But I think he is also going to hit the U.N. saying, look, you've got to reform yourselves. All presidents have said that.

And it's hard to reform the U.N. management issue. He is also going to say that it's important that the 193 countries respect what the United States wants to do on its trade agenda, which is basically get out of a lot of agreements. But then if he talks a little bit about traditional U.N. issues, poverty, hunger, equity of women's rights, health, I think that will be a nod to the U.N., but I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

I think it will be dominated by the security issues, by North Korea, by Iran, by issues relating to what are we going to do in the Paris climate agreement, are we going to get out of it? Are you going to give us a chance to renegotiate the terms?

So it will be his first big world stage and I think that what the big challenge for the president is going to be, if he appears to be isolationist, unilateralist, presidents like Macron of France are going to step in and be the leaders of the international community and the U.N. And I don't think that is very much in our interest.

I think Macron is a very attractive positive leader, but the U.S. has been the traditional leader of the U.N. because they are -- we are the biggest contributor, we exercise a lot of the U.N. Security Council issues, we have the biggest weight there.

And I think, lastly, there will be concern by U.N. members, is President Trump going to slash financing for the U.N. as he said he will? It may be up to a third. The U.N. will not want that because there are a lot of peace keeping and other activities that the U.N. depends on U.S. contributions, which is about 25 percent of the entire budget.

So it's going to be a very closely watched speech and the president will be there four days. He'll be dealing with all of these issues, so it will be his first shot at the world stage.

PAUL: And you are right. It is something that the world will be watching.

Ambassador Bill Richardson, we appreciate your perspective. Thank you for being here.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. It was a wild Saturday in college football. Andy Scholes has details for us -- Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Victor, we had everything. We saw a Hail Mary, a double overtime thriller and a Heisman winner playing against the defending national champs.

We are going to have all of that for you coming up in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

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[06:52:42]

BLACKWELL: So we have all had an off day, right?

PAUL: Sometimes it's on the air.

BLACKWELL: Yes, sometimes it is on air.

PAUL: (INAUDIBLE).

BLACKWELL: You've been here for a couple of updates. But what is your off day --

PAUL: And me.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's true -- contribute to one of the most shocking decisions in boxing history?

PAUL: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

SCHOLES: Good morning, guys.

So, you know, last night's fight, it was huge. One of the fighters was undefeated, Gennady Golovkin. And the other only lost once to Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez.

But now thanks to a questionable score card from one of the judges they both have a draw on their record. Now most thought Golovkin won the fight last night. He landed more punches

One judge saw it that way and the other judge had it at dead even. The last judge, the one that caused the controversy had Golovkin winning just two rounds the entire fight.

Now the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission said -- quote -- "Sometimes have you a bad day."

Both fighters have called for a rematch of the fight and it's likely going to happen considering this was the third best gate in boxing history netting more than $30 million.

All right. Florida and Tennessee renewing their rivalry yesterday. And this was an incredible finish.

After the Vols tied the game with under a minute left the Gators have one last chance to regulation. Feleipe Franks goes deep and hits Tyrie Cleveland in stride for the touchdown with zeros on the clock. That's a walk off win.

Franks and Cleveland both said after the game that a winning touchdown just like that was a dream come true. Look at that dog pile.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Like 5-year-old boys at that point. Yes. Yes, I love it.

SCHOLES: When you win a game like that. Yes, absolutely do

USC and Texas meeting for the first since the 2006 national title game. This was just as good as that Vince Young winning game. Sam Ehlinger right here is going to fight (ph) Amranti Foreman for the score with under a minute to go to give the Longhorns the lead. USC however (INAUDIBLE) in overtime and double O.T. Ehlinger here has the ball stripped on like a five yard line. The Trojans jumps on it to recover and they kicked (ph) a game winning field goal to win the absolutely thriller, 27-24.

All right. Finally, Louisville star quarterback Lamar Jackson taking on Clemson. This is the fourth time ever that the reigning Heisman Trophy winner has faced off against the defending national champion.

And things didn't go that well for Jackson. He completed only half of his passes as the Tigers' defense kept them in check pretty much the entire game. Clemson they remain undefeated.

[06:55:02]

They win in Louisville by the final 47-21. I tell you what, guys. That (ph) was (ph) all day.

And I wish I could have stayed up later for some of those late games. That was an exciting afternoon of college football.

PAUL: Have you a tough job, Andy Scholes. I got to watch football.

SCHOLES: I'm doing research for work. I tell my wife, I have to do research for work. I'm going to sit on this couch and watch football.

PAUL: Talk to the hand.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Thank you, Andy.

BLACKWELL: Coverage (ph) for the show. All right. Thanks, Andy.

All right. Coming up at the top of the hour, the sun is coming up in south Florida where officials are getting ready to lift the road blocks and let people now return to their homes in the lower Keys.

Evacuees are being told to prepare themselves for what they will find. The mayor says there is a shock awaiting them in Florida.

We are live in Florida.

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