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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Signs Order To Punish Foreigners Who Medal In U.S. Elections; Vaping By Teens Has Reached Epidemic Proportions; Six Dead in California Shooting; Trump Was Briefed on Election Hacking Efforts; U.S. Bishops Want To Talk To The Pope. Aired 3:30-4a ET

Aired September 13, 2018 - 03:30   ET

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

[03:30:00]

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GOVERNOR ROY COOPER, R, NORTH CAROLINA: Disaster is at the doorstep and is coming in.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN, Hurricane Florence on final approach to the Carolinas. The storm moving at a very slow pace. Some areas will see hurricane conditions for a full 24 hours.

Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Alex Marquardt.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN: Nice to have you hear.

MARCHORD: Thank you.

ROMANS: I'm -- I'm Christine Romans. It is 03:31 AM in the east, and Hurricane Florence closing in on the Carolinas. The storm has weakened slightly. It is now a dangerous Category 2 storm. The expected effects are the same. A huge storm surge and rainfall measured in feet, not inches; forecast to create life-threatening conditions.

The warning officials are giving residents right now, crystal clear, leave immediately before the window to escape closes. More than 10 million people live in areas under warnings or watches for hurricane or tropical storm-force winds.

MARQUARDT: Now states of emergency have been declared in five states. The Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland. Airlines have cancelled at least 800 flights along the East Coast in anticipation of this storm, and the National Hurricane Center says waves out at sea in the strongest part of the storm, get this, are as high as 83 feet. And now seven nuclear power plants are right in the path of the storm. You can see them there in the map.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking Florence for us in the CNN Weather Center. Pedram, this is now downgraded to a Category 2, but that means (ph) that there's still some dire predictions out there, aren't there? PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN: Absolutely. I always say people fall in love

with the category and they think that is what dictates a dangerous storm. That's not the case. This storm having been the strength it was for the period it was there, for multiple days at a Category 4, it had already moved a tremendous amount of water ahead of it and there's not enough time before this makes landfall within the next, say, 28 or so hours that this storm is going to have any energy displaced or a reduce because of that.

When you take a look, the cloud field associated with this from the Coast of the Carolinas all the way out there near Bermuda, that's about 950 miles. So essentially, you put the storm system over places such as the Western United States, San Francisco to Denver is the area it would encompass.

A massive system, tremendous amount of energy ahead of it as far as the water it's already displaced and of course, the number one weather killer, it is the storm surge. The numbers for the storm surge? They're measured in feet, not categories of course, and they have not changed one inch. So certainly, the energy already in motion with the system.

The rainfall forecast of course measured in inches. Typically we're going to feet. The numbers there have not changed whatsoever. So Category 2, Category 3 or 4, the damage of course is going to be very similar when it comes through the storm surge and also the heavy rainfall, which are the top two killers in tropical systems making landfall.

So here we go, late morning into early afternoon of Friday, when this system moves ashore somewhere around Wilmington. We know on the northeastern side of it, the most destructive side of it, the same side that 83-foot wave was measured, that's where the storm surge threat is going to be highest across portions of, say, some of the (inaudible) the base from Beaufort out there towards Portsmouth and Hatteras, as much as 12 to 13 feet. That's the storm surge.

Essentially the water levels have been elevated across that region. That would get water into the second story of homes across that area, potentially several miles inland, and then if you come farther towards the south around Charleston, Edisto Beach, two to four feet. That'll get water pretty close to your front door there for several miles inland on these areas that are sitting at sea level. So that's the threat with this system that could cause (ph) significant damage and potentially millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to properties across the coastal communities.

But again, another feature we look at here is the progression, and notice, it covers a couple hundred miles, it's about 300 miles away from coast right now and it covers that amount of land within the next 12 or so hours.

After it makes landfall, as we go into tomorrow morning, a 50-mile amount of land is covered within 12 hours. So four mile per hour progression after landfall come Friday afternoon; that is a big time story and a big part of this system here, because when you take a look at storms that travel at less than five miles per hour, they drop down 30-plus inches of rainfall. When you speed a storm along, you reduce the rainfall to just a couple of inches.

This is going to be a significant player with this particular storm.

[03:35:00]

And again, a widespread swath here of area that is going to get 20- plus inches of rainfall from Wilmington to Myrtle Beach, down to near Charleston, where potentially six to 10 inches are possible, go inland into Columbia, as much as 15 inches.

Even Charlotte gets quite a bit of rainfall out of this storm. So again, the life-threatening conditions, the number one weather killer with tropical systems. Storm surge remains the same. The number two weather killer with tropical systems, flooding and rainfall remains exactly the same because the energy has already been in motion for many, many days --

ROMANS: Sure.

JAVAHERI: -- leading up to now just before landfall.

ROMANS: All right, Pedram. Thank you so much for that. Keep us posted if there are any changes. More than a million people in the Carolinas have been told to leave. One regional power company, Duke Energy, planning for the worst here. Company expects there as many as 3 million homes in the Carolinas to lose power during this storm. That's 75 percent of its customers. In Carolina Beach, the only bridge connecting the island to the mainland now closed.

Officials fear as many as 1,000 of the 6,300 residents are planning to ride this thing out in town. That is less than five feet above sea level. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam live in Carolina Beach. You know, the math here is pretty clear. With 12 feet storm surge at least, five foot above sea level, it doesn't look like there's much safety there.

DEREK VAN DAM, WEATHER ANCHOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL: You don't have to be a mathematician to figure it out, right Christine? I mean, where I'm standing now, if the storm surge forecast materializes, I would be under water 24 hours from now. So the storm surge being the greatest threat. Pedram was talking about that. This area under a mandatory curfew.

It started at 8:00 pm on Wednesday night and this island, essentially, that I'm on -- it's only connected to the mainland by a bridge, like you mentioned, is nine miles long, four miles wide and at its highest point, about 35 feet above sea level. So lots of this area floods and these people -- there are residents here that call this place home. About 6,000 people. They are no stranger to hurricanes. They've been through Matthew, they've been through Floyd, they've also been through the benchmark hurricane Hugo back in '89.

They know businesses and homes here get inundated with storm surge. But we also are familiar with the fact storm surge is not the only concern with this storm. Since it is such a prolonged event, heavy rainfall, potentially eclipsing records, will be set in this state. Back to you. Alex, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Derek. Thank you so much for that. You know, the president echoed the dire warnings about Florence after touting incredible success responding to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The death toll for Maria is now nearly 3,000 people. The president says he is already hearing good things about preparation for this storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- tremendous (ph) people working on the hurricane. First responders, law enforcement and FEMA. And they're all ready and we're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people. We are ready. But this is going to be one of the biggest to ever hit our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: As part of the federal government response to Florence, the Centers for Disease Control opened its emergency operations center in Atlanta overnight.

MARQUARDT: And as part of the private -- private preparation for Florence, there's an online mapping program that connects civilian rescuers with storm victims that helped facilitate 30,000 rescues during Hurricane Harvey. Now the program is being deployed ahead of Hurricane Florence and we have Matthew Marchetti, who is the cofounder of CrowdSource Rescue. Matthew, thank you for joining us. You are live on Skype from Houston this morning.

MATTHEW MARCHETTI, COFOUNDER, CROWDSOURCE RESCUE: Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

MARQUARDT: So let's just start with how this works. I was down in Houston last year for Hurricane Harvey and -- and was just amazed at -- at how many people -- just seeing people -- you know, people helping people, neighbors helping neighbors. Is that essentially what this comes down to? You're trying to facilitate connecting people, say someone with a boat to someone who needs rescuing from their house?

MARCHETTI: That is exactly what it is. Consider it the Uber of rescues. So essentially somebody who needs help in the middle of a storm can say hey, I need help and in the app, they're directly connected to somebody who can give that help. More often than not, it's just a regular civilian with a boat or with a big truck that's able to help them.

ROMANS: This is not taking away from 911 and official, you know, rescue capacities, right? This is meant to layer on to the existing sort of rescue infrastructure.

MARCHETTI: Absolutely. This is meant to enhance 911 when they're overwhelmed. And what we're seeing in Hurricane Florence is it's very similar to Hurricane Harvey in the stalling affects, meaning that 911 very well could be in a position where it's overwhelmed. And so this allows 911 to sort of tap into civilian resources and facilitate rescues in a safe and efficient way.

MARQUARDT: But speak more to that. What are you seeing now ahead of Hurricane Florence? Are people downloading this? Are people aware of -- of your app?

[03:40:00]

MARCHETTI: Yes. So far we have 950 rescuers signed up online. That means that we're actively GPS tracking them and they said yes, I have a boat, I have a truck, I can help rescue people after Florence. And we also have a couple hundred dispatchers who will help connect the two together. And we're getting hit about 1,000 people an hour on the website right now.

ROMANS: I thought it was interesting that some of these are, you know, after the fact. You have people who maybe evacuated themselves but they're worried about pets -- pet rescues too.

MARCHETTI: Yes. Absolutely. It is sort of difficult to get 30 cows off of a field off the coast of North Carolina. And so that's where the app came into play the last couple days, where people said hey, you know, I need to move my horse, I need to move my cow. They place a pin into the app and then it would connect somebody with a trailer who could help pull them for free most of the time.

MARQUARDT: So when you have the local and federal governments telling people to evacuate, how do you coordinate that with -- with the private citizens? How do you make sure that you're not interfering or going against what they're saying?

MARCHETTI: Well, unfortunately not everybody is going to evacuate. Either they're not heeding the warnings or the reality is they might not have the funds. And so they're placed between a hard situation where it's go into bankruptcy or risk it. And some people are risking it. And it's an unfortunate situation but it's still one where these people deserve our help, they deserve our love and the other thing that we're finding is civilian rescuers, they're going to go out and they're going to help these people anyways.

Because what we found in Harvey is that there is a spirit of compassion in America that no matter who you were, no matter your politics, people came together to help other people. And we at CrowdSource Rescue, we want to facilitate those kind of relationships and that kind of volunteering. And -- and the platform helps people do that.

ROMANS: Matthew Marchetti. Thanks so much. Nice to meet you this morning.

MARQUARDT: Thank you.

MARCHETTI: Have a good one. ROMANS: (Inaudible) a busy 24 hours. And he's absolutely right.

I've covered hurricanes before and when I've asked people why didn't you leave, the answer many, many times is I have A, no place to go and no money to get there.

MARQUARDT: You know, it might sound cheesy but at a time when the country is divided, it was incredible to see last year during Irma -- Irma and Harvey, people coming together and to help each other out. Really incredible.

ROMANS: Yes. That's great. This has the potential to be one of the most expensive hurricanes to ever strike the United States or (ph) nearly 759,000 home. 759,000 homes in the Carolinas and Virginia are in the dangerous path of this storm according to preliminary analysis from CoreLogic. Worst case scenario, more than $170 billion to rebuild. As landfall approaches, wireless providers are rushing to prepare for the crushing demand post-storm.

The major providers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, they are deploying support crews and machinery to ensure cell towers remain operational. Some tips for consumers in the path of the storm. You're going to want to fuel up your devices, obviously, with the maximum amount of power and information. Prep your phone, fully charge the batteries, turn on low power mode and then (ph) have plastic bags available to help keep your phone water proof.

Consider installing an offline walkie talkie app and rescue apps from the Red Cross. Bookmark and set up push alerts for emergency messaging and finally, download apps for your area. Very important stuff there.

MARQUARDT: Great advice. All right. Breaking overnight. Six people are dead, including the suspect in a shooting rampage that started at a Bakersfield, California trucking business. This is how it all went down. Authorities say it started with a confrontation between a husband and wife and another man. The husband shot and killed the man, then turned the gun on his wife. Then police say he killed another person nearby and two others at a neighboring home.

Officials say the gunman then carjacked a vehicle. The woman and child inside that vehicle were able to escape safely. When police confronted the shooter, he then turned the gun on himself. His motive and relationship to those victims is still unclear.

ROMANS: All right. The former head of National Security Agency says that Helsinki summit was a missed opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL ROGERS, FORMER CHIEF, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: He opted to go a different direction. That's certainly his right as the president but I wish we had taken advantage of that opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What Mike Rogers says the president told him about Russian hacking.

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ROMANS: President Trump has signed an executive order intended to punish foreigners for interfering in U.S. elections. The president has been widely criticized for downplaying and even denying Russia's attacks on the 2016 election.

This new executive order allows the director of national intelligence to identify a foreign government's companies or individuals responsible for meddling and it also rises (ph) the Treasury Department to apply new sanctions.

MARQUARDT: But Democrats and Republicans are now saying that the order doesn't go far enough, and former NSA Chief Mike Rogers thinks that the president had his chance to make a real statement at that summit in Helsinki and he let it slip away.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS, FORMER CHIEF, NSA: I thought there was an opportunity here that we could have taken advantage of. Now he opted to go a different direction, that's certainly his right as the president, but I wish we had taken advantage of that opportunity.

But that could have sent a very powerful message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Admiral Rogers told the crowd at the Hayden Center in Virginia that he gave the president detailed briefings on Russian hacking efforts during the election but Mr. Trump responded by saying, quote, "Mike, you know I'm in a different place".

ROMANS: All right (ph) the FDA says vaping by teens has reached epidemic proportions and is (ph) taking historic actions against e- cigarette manufacturers and retailers.

The agency ordering five major brands to submit plans within 60 days, the companies have to detail ways to prevent youth access to their products or face potential criminal or civil action.

[03:50:00]

The FDA is especially focused on flavored e-cigarettes. Several of the manufacturers targeted by the FDA issued statements agreeing with the need to limit access to their products to minors and say they are willing to work with the government on solutions.

MARQUARDT: Jeff Fager, the long time executive producer of CBS' famed "60 Minutes" is out amid accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct. CBS News President David Rhodes says the move is not related to those allegations, but that Fager violated company policy.

Fager tells CNN his contract was terminated because he sent a text message to a CBS reporter who was covering that story, and in those messages he demanded fair coverage in her story for the CBS evening news about his alleged sexual misconduct.

CBS News reports that the text actually warned her to, quote, "be careful" that people trying to harm him had lost their jobs, that's what Jeff Fager wrote. The allegations against Fager include unwanted touching, which Fager has denied.

His departure comes just days after CBS CEO Les Moonves stepped down following his own allegations of sexual misconduct.

ROMANS: All right, the big Apple reveal, we'll tell you about the XS, the XS Max, say that 10 times fast.

MARQUARDT: XS, XS, XS,

ROMANS: And the XR when we get a check on CNN Money next.

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[03:55:00]

MARQUARDT: Welcome back, in just a few hours Pope Francis will meet with a delegation of U.S. bishops and cardinals to discuss the Vatican response to an escalating sexual abuse scandal that ensnared church leaders around the globe.

CNN's Delia Gallagher is live in Rome with more. Good morning, Delia.

DELIA GALLAGHER, VATICAN ANALYST, CNN: Good morning, Alex. Yes, this meeting due (ph) to get underway in just about two hours. The U.S. bishops say, Alex, that they want to talk to the pope about two things.

One is a full investigation as to who knew what when about former Cardinal McCarrick accused of sexually abusing seminarians for a period of years and yet being able to rise through the ranks to become a cardinal.

The other is a streamlined process of reporting bishops who are either accused of sex abuse or accused of cover up to the Vatican, what happens with the investigation and what are the penalties.

It's a tricky conversation, Alex, because a lot of it has to do with what happens here at the Vatican once allegations are received. Now one test case of this might be the current archbishop of Washington D.C., Cardinal Donald Wuerl who says that he is coming to the Vatican to discuss his resignation and to offer his resignation to Pope Francis.

That's a resignation that was offered already three years ago, pro forma, when you turn 75 you offer your resignation to the pope. Pope didn't accept it at that time, whether he accepts it now because Cardinal Wuerl of course is at the center of much of the outrage in the United States after allegations that he mishandled sex abuse cases there.

So whether the pope accepts it, what kind of resignation it is, does he resign just from being archbishop or also from being a cardinal, and is there an investigation after that will probably determine how these cases go forward in the future. Alex.

MARQUARDT: Delia Gallagher in Romein the Vatican, thank you very much.

ROMANS: All right, let's go (ph) check in CNN Money this morning, the DOW and the S&P 500 ended (ph) higher Wednesday, encouraged by a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. is reaching out to China for a new round of trade talks.

Futures right now looking slightly up at the moment, we have several hours to go of course before the market's open. European markets just opened higher, Asian markets including China made gains before closing.

Apple, Apple, Apple announced three new iPhones at yesterday's big event in California. The CEO Tim Cook said the signature device is getting an upgrade and new size options.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM COOK, CEO, APPLE: This is iPhone XS, it is the most advanced iPhone we've ever created.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

XS, the XS will have a 5.8 inch screen, the XS Max will have a 6.5 inch screen. These devices don't have a home button and they feature face I.D. in place of a fingerprint scanner.

The camera's have upgraded features as well, Apple also surprised the audience by announcing a third lower end iPhone called the iPhone XR, it has simpler features and a lower price tag.

Apple also showed off an upgrade to its three year old smart watch, the Apple Watch Series 4 now has a 30 percent larger edge to edge display with curved corners. It's also slightly thinner and we're told two times faster.

XS makes (inaudible) like Serena Williams, the XS, let's go play some tennis.

MARQUARDT: Are you going to get one?

ROMANS: I don't know, I don't know.

MARQUARDT: Whether CNN gets us one or not remains to be seen (ph).

ROMANS: Bosses are you getting us these or what? Or are we getting Samsungs? MARQUARDT: All right, well "Early Start" continues right now.