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New Day

Michael to Strike Florida Panhandle as Major Hurricane; Hillary Clinton Calls Kavanaugh Swearing In Ceremony a Political Rally. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2018 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: My focus now is to be the best justice I can be.

[07:00:05] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He said that Kavanaugh has been proven innocent. We all know that is simply not true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Republican Party has said to women, "We don't believe you."

Those women are going to shout very loudly on November 6.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: We've had big fights. Our country will be just fine.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), CALIFORNIA: If we want to correct the course what do we need to do? We need to take the power.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. Sitting there right between us right now, a monstrous storm. That is what Florida Governor Rick Scott is calling Hurricane Michael, and he warns it could bring total devastation to the Gulf Coast. He says he's never seen a storm like this one.

Forecasters say Michael will strengthen to a major Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in the Florida Panhandle sometime tomorrow. Millions of people are now under evacuation orders in at least ten counties. Hurricane watches and warnings now up in several states as life-threatening storm surge and heavy rain are expect.

CAMEROTA: And in just hours, Justice Brett Kavanaugh will sit on the bench of the Supreme Court for the first time. This comes after a swearing-in event at the White House that quickly turned political.

Moments ago, Hillary Clinton said, quote, "What was done last night at the White House was a political rally. It further undermined the image and integrity of the court," end quote.

During this event, President Trump apologized to Kavanaugh, falsely claiming the sexual misconduct allegations against him had been disproved when, in fact, GOP senators decided not to put stock in the women's stories of sexual assault.

The president also painted Kavanaugh as the victim of political hoax by Democrats, despite calling Christine Blasey Ford credible 10 days earlier.

The president appears to be using Kavanaugh's confirmation as a campaign boost for Republicans, attacking Democrats as, quote, "evil people" for what he calls their disgraceful treatment of his nominee. So we will get to all of that in just moments. But we want to begin with CNN meteorologist Chad Myers on the latest track of this hurricane.

What are you seeing at this hour, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there's a hurricane hunter aircraft in the storm right now, flying through the eye at about 7,000 feet high. It just found a wind gust of 102 miles per hour. That's the highest gust we have seen. It also found a lower pressure than we've ever seen with this storm.

So yes, it is getting stronger, as expected. It is 90 miles per hour right now in the middle. And then eventually, it will get to be a 120-mile-per-hour storm as it makes its approach toward Panama City, Port St. Joe, somewhere around those Windmark condos and houses down there, right there in the Apalachicola area.

Now, this is going to be a wider storm than just that five-mile focus. That's just the center of where the wind gusts will be the strongest. There's going to be storm surge with this.

And you're not going to be able to do much by tomorrow morning, because we're already going to see tropical-storm-force winds, sustained, by tomorrow a.m., 8 a.m., 6 a.m., somewhere in that ball park. You need to get everything done today. Make the preps and get out if you're told to get out.

Because this is a storm that approaches as a T.S., just a tropical storm. But there's the Category 3 winds in that ball that will make land fall there right along the Florida Panhandle.

Now, it will also make wind gusts all the way to North Carolina at about 45 miles per hour, as well, knocking down trees and power lines in the meantime.

Here's, though, the big story. Apalachicola, all the way to Cedar Key, you're going to have a 12-foot surge, eight to 12 foot right here into these bays and estuaries.

Not a lot of people live here. But I've been to St. Marks when Ivan put a bit surge there. This is an area that can flood very quickly, because it's very low. The water gets pushed up into the marshes and then eventually into the towns.

Something else, a lot of rainfall. Going to be four to six inches of rain along with with that wind.

Now, this isn't going to stop when it hits the coast right there at Port St. Joe or Mexico Beach. We're going to knock trees down in Tallahassee. We're going to knock trees down in parts of Georgia, as well, because the hurricane warning is all the way on land. It's not going to wind down so quickly. Sometimes they do, guys, but this one is going to keep spinning. We're going to see wind gusts in Tallahassee somewhere around 90 miles an hour. And when that happens, trees always come tumbling down there.

CAMEROTA: All right, Chad. We will continue to check in with you throughout the program. Thank you very much.

So millions of people along the Gulf Coast and southeast U.S. are now under watches and warnings. There are ten counties in Florida that are telling their residents to get out now ahead the hurricane.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in one of those. She's live in Panama City Beach, Florida, with more. What's the latest there, Dianne?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, that mandatory evacuation here in Panama City Beach just kicked in at 6 a.m. local time, meaning that, if you are still here, they need you to leave, especially in these flooding zone areas. They use letters to kind of designate that: A, B, and C. They say they need people to get out because of that storm surge that Chad was talking about.

[07:05:06] Now, look, it's a pretty nice morning out on the beach before the sun has come up. The tide is starting to come in. It's a little bit breezy. In fact, the only indication that there's anything going on are all the camera crews on the beach. And machinery and equipment that's been going by and clearing off the beach area in preparation, anticipation of Hurricane Michael coming through.

But behind the scenes, as quickly as this hurricane formed and came up, the emergency officials have been planning. We're told for the past two days they've been kind of hunkered down in this emergency operations center, working out how to respond to such a fast-moving hurricane.

Governor Scott has already activated 1,200 members of the National Guard. There are 4,000 on standby, just in case they need to respond in the aftermath. There are highway patrolmen and -women who are coming out to this Panhandle area, at least 100 of them, to help with traffic flow. Because we are on an island here. They are trying to get people off. The city manager told me, "Look, we're used to this, but we need people to listen" -- Alisyn, John.

BERMAN: All right. Dianne Gallagher for us on the beach. And Dianne, I should note, I will be joining you down in Panama City tomorrow. Going to head down after the show today.

And joining us now is Congressman Neal Dunn. His district includes Bay County and Panama City, which are under evacuation orders.

Congressman, if I can, can I talk to you as a resident before I talk to you as a politician? You've lived there for a long time.

REP. NEAL DUNN (R), FLORIDA: Absolutely. I am a resident before I was a politician.

BERMAN: So you've seen a lot of storms. Governor Rick Scott calls this one monstrous and says that this city you live in has never seen a storm quite like this. Your concerns this morning?

DUNN: He's absolutely right. This is the worst storm we've seen in our lifetimes. It's a 100-year storm. And the surge that's coming up into the Appalachia, Coalberry (ph), all the way over the Tampa is unprecedented. Nobody has ever seen it. I don't care how hardened you are to the storms. You need to be paying attention to this one.

BERMAN: So that storm surge, and we're saying it could be anywhere between nine and 12 feet along the Big Bend area, maybe even in Panama City. What risk does that pose to your district?

DUNN: So, this is a low-lying area. And the surges like that, that is just huge. You know, whole bridges get carried away with that. And if you don't leave before the tropical-storm-force winds hit, the bridges will often be closed. You haven't got anywhere to go, and then you're riding it out in your car instead of something else.

So we need the residents to be leaving today, this morning, because by this evening, those bridges are going to be in peril of being closed.

BERMAN: Let me provide you an opportunity to deliver that message again, this time as a politician not a resident. What do you want people to hear along the coast this morning?

DUNN: So we think in Florida that we're old hands at hurricanes. You know, our EOCs, our first responders, they've been drilling for this very storm for the last five or six years. And they are telling you this is the worst storm that any of us have seen in our lifetimes in this area of the state. We need to be evacuating. If you're A, B, or C flood zones -- and that's a huge part of this district -- you need to be on road today, this morning, and evacuating.

BERMAN: You know, one of the things that happened with this storm is it really grew in strength and power very, very quickly. Five days ago, I hadn't heard anything about Hurricane or Tropical Storm Michael. And then all of a sudden yesterday, boom, out of nowhere. Is that the sense that you have from residents there?

DUNN: It's very reminiscent of Opal, which happened in '95. It was a nothing, tropical depression. Forty-eight hours later, it is a monster storm, and it's galloping. It's gathering up speed as well as strength. And it's heading for the shallowest part of the gulf, which means the surge gets worse not better.

BERMAN: What are your plans for riding out this storm? DUNN: I am evacuating. I live in a flood zone C, and I will be

staying in the emergency operations center. We have several shelters in Panama City and on the island. People need to be listening to this stuff.

BERMAN: Yes, I know, and you keep on saying that.

DUNN: If you're not a resident, you should be gone already.

BERMAN: That's right. This is not the time. Go to Panama City in a few weeks. Enjoy the beaches there. It's a great tourism location.

DUNN: Right.

BERMAN: Not today. Not tomorrow.

DUNN: That's right.

BERMAN: If you're there today and tomorrow, you shouldn't be.

You know, I was just in North Carolina for Hurricane Florence, and there are plenty of mandatory evacuation orders there, as well. But so many people say, "We know better. We're going to stay at our home. We've seen something like this before."

What kind of a strain does that put on first responders?

DUNN: Nobody -- nobody has seen anything like this in our area. I promise you. Ever. This is it.

BERMAN: And what kind of a strain does it put?

DUNN: You know, we have a great team. Our emergency teams are responding all the time. They plan for this stuff, but we need some help here on the ground. That means listen to your first responders.

BERMAN: All right. Congressman Neil Dunn, from Florida, from the Panhandle, from Panama City. Thanks so much for being with us.

And again, we should note: you yourself are evacuating, which is not something we always hear from public officials. So thank you for delivering that message.

[06:10:04] DUNN: That's true. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Congressman, we appreciate it.

And ahead on NEW DAY, we're going to speak to the director of the National Hurricane Center, Ken Graham. We're going to get the latest forecast and track.

We'll also speak to Florida Senator Bill Nelson as he helps get that state ready for this.

And I should note, as I said before, I will be live in Florida tomorrow. And NEW DAY is going to have a special start time: 5 a.m. Eastern.

CAMEROTA: I'm having a strange mix right now of guilt and perverse pleasure at the idea of that you're going back into another storm.

BERMAN: If only getting so wet made me grow. You know? If only I was like a flower.

CAMEROTA: Watering, just watering.

BERMAN: Yes. That would make a difference.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I feel like maybe it's because you're so good at it that you keep going. And it's so interesting to watch you report while you're being battered by that. I'm not sure I could do it, as well.

BERMAN: I think you're playing mind games with me now. You're trying to trick me into going back.

CAMEROTA: I'm actually trying to trick my boss.

All right. So this just in: Hillary Clinton is talking about Brett Kavanaugh and the swearing in ceremony that we saw yesterday. So what she told our Christian Amanpour. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00] CAMEROTA: All right. Moments ago, Hillary Clinton spoke exclusively to our Christiane Amanpour, addressing the ceremonial swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh at the White House last night. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What was done last night in the White House was a political rally. It further undermined the image and integrity of the court. And that troubles me greatly. It saddens me, because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government.

So I don't know how people are going to react to it. I think, given our divides, it will pretty much fall predictably between those who are for and those who are against.

But president has been true to form. He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaign, really for many years leading up to the campaign, and he's continued to do that inside the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. Joining us now to talk about this and so much more, we have David Gregory, a CNN political analyst, of course; Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's chief legal analyst.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Of course. CAMEROTA: Of course, and former federal prosecutor, duh. And CNN

White House correspondent Abby Phillip. No introduction necessary for Abby.

OK, Jeffrey, so is Hillary Clinton right that what we saw last night, that President Trump, of course, turned political and went, you know, into full insult mode against Democrats, does it undermine the Supreme Court?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I think the Supreme Court has a reputation for being less political than it always has been. You know, if you go through all of American history, it has always been at the fulcrum of American politics. There has been an effort over many years to try to insulate the court. And it is different. They don't run for office the way other politicians do, or the way politicians do.

But this is -- but Hillary Clinton is right, that this was -- he treated this as another way to appeal to his base. I mean, this remarkable national apology to Brett Kavanaugh was really something deeply astonishing. And the claim that he was found innocent by the Senate was so preposterously untrue. But it's in keeping with how Donald Trump has run his presidency and his life.

BERMAN: And Abby, it was deliberate. I mean, that goes without saying. He walked into that room for that ceremony deliberately to stoke those flames. Why do people in the White House choose to do this?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, John, this is the president again, saying the quiet part loud. He's been talking for days now about the fact that he thinks this is going to help them in November. He says something is going to happen. By that, he means this is going to boost his supporters.

But what I thought was the most striking about last night was how the president was on a different page from his own nominee. Brett Kavanaugh is the person who's going to be on the court and understands that he needs to do something to change the -- to turn the page, to change the chapter. And he was trying to do that in his speech. And President Trump did the exact opposite by making this as political as it could possibly have been. That's to be expected, though.

I think Hillary Clinton was right in some ways, that where we are right now in this country is that when the president does things like that, people are no longer surprised by it. They acknowledge it as just being what he does. He is not someone who typically will fall back to what we have come to believe are norms of recent history. Maybe not norms of the history of the court altogether. And President Trump is not bothered by that. He's concerned about November 6. And that's what he said last night.

And I think that that is where the White House is coming from with this. This was their chance to take a victory lap, and he was not going to let that opportunity pass him by.

CAMEROTA: But David -- DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There's a -- go ahead. Go ahead, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I have a question for you, David. And then you can address the whole thing. How can Brett Kavanaugh effectively turn the page, because how can he paint himself differently than that person that everyone saw at the second hearing that was so hyper-partisan, was going after the Clintons or blaming the Clintons for what had happened to him with being accused of sexual assault? He was so overwrought.

I understand why he would want to turn the page. But how can he convince people who do not support him that he is not a partisan?

GREGORY: I think it's a long game, and it's a long path. And I thought what was striking about the ceremony at the White House last night, among the things that was striking, was that the president was very much using this as a campaign event. And Justice Kavanaugh had a very different agenda.

He -- I think he understood that, you know, he had to be there and go along with it, and his remarks had a lot in it. You know, turning to President Trump and saying, "Thank you for everything," knowing the president expected that amount of loyalty, while also trying to signal to the rest of the country that all of this is now done, and he's going to focus on being an effective justice who's not bitter. He chose those words carefully. And is going to try to be big and try to help the institution.

[07:20:14] I think this is going to be a longer-term issue for Justice Kavanaugh, who will probably not want to retreat and be a recluse and who will want to rehabilitate himself over time to the extent that he can.

But I do think the larger politics, look, I'm sure at the White House and Mitch McConnell's office, they'll be really keen to -- to evaluate Hillary Clinton's analysis after they jot off a quick thank-you note to her for weighing in on this. Because that only is going to help them.

I mean, if Hillary Clinton had done more to fire up her base, perhaps Democrats wouldn't be in this position where they were looking at Justice Kavanaugh. So that's the political truth.

And now Republicans recognize that in the Kavanaugh, the contentious Kavanaugh hearing and its aftermath, they're looking in those states that will decide the Senate, realizing that public opinion is on their side. That's who President Trump was playing to. That's who Republicans are playing to. And they're not going to be -- have their minds changed by Hillary Clinton weighing in.

BERMAN: There's some evidence that what the president has done in the last few weeks or the events of the last few weeks have helped the president. His approval rating is up five -- five points since September right now, and it stands at 41 percent. That is still historically quite low. But 41 percent is a lot better than 36 percent. There may be different reasons for this. It might be people approve

of the way he handled the Kavanaugh thing. It might be Republicans coming home. It might be the fact that he hasn't been in the news all that much, which always seems to help him. The more he's in the news, the worse off he tends to do, Jeffrey. But something that is just glaring is the gender gap now in the job approval, which is just striking.

If you look at the difference between men and women, women is down to 31 percent. Thirty-one percent approval rating for the president. Men, at 51 percent. And men noticeably higher, noticeably higher than it was in September.

TOOBIN: One of the greatest mysteries about the midterms is how much the women's vote will differ from the men's vote and how much it will help the Democrats.

You know, one of the cliches about this election in advance has been that college-educated women are -- in particular have abandoned the Republican Party and Donald Trump in vast, great numbers.

Allow me a bit of skepticism. You know, these polls -- how much of this is noise from one month to the next? I'm not -- I'm not really sure. I've learned from Harry Enten and others who you could be talking to shortly that, you know, one poll you don't want to put too much stock in.

But you know, the Kavanaugh hearings were obviously a major moment in American history. And you know, I think it is quite clear that the Anita Hill hearings in 1991 had a big political effect a year later, the so-called Year of the Woman. Many women were elected to the Senate.

Whether that follows the Kavanaugh hearings, women rebelling against the Republican Party, count me as undecided. I just don't -- I'm out of the prediction business, and I think we all ought to be very humble about predicting how this turns out.

GREGORY: Can I just say, too, we also know how women's views of -- of Republicans, namely the head of the Republican Party, President Trump, which way that was going.

So the question is how much more enthusiasm, how much more anger will there be after Kavanaugh?

And there is another side to it. You know, I mean, you asked before about rehabilitating Kavanaugh's image. There are plenty of people, Republicans, who think he got a raw deal. And I think a lot of the gender gap, you also have a bigger partisan gap on that. So it is Republican women versus Democratic women in terms of how they view this.

So that's why I'm with Jeffrey. I don't know how we're going to see that play out when there's certainly more enthusiasm on the right, as well.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Abby.

PHILLIP: It's also about where we're talking. I mean, if you are a Republican running in a moderate district in the suburbs, you are in trouble, regardless of all of this.

GREGORY: Right.

PHILLIP: But even more so now, because that's where the gender gap is really showing up.

But if you are a red-state Democrat in North Dakota or in West Virginia, you might also be in trouble. Because that's where the anger about -- on the Republican side is. That's where they can most benefit from an enthusiasm boost as a result of this.

I do think the gender gap will matter, but it will matter in the places where Republicans are already facing some serious head winds. The suburban -- suburban women, suburban districts, purple districts, districts that have long been drifting toward the Democrats, even in the 2016 election. Maybe it was not enough to change the ultimate dynamics and the result of that race, but it will matter in the House of Representatives.

And I think that's kinds of why there ought to be some uncertain about whether the women's vote is going to result in Democratic control of all of Congress. Because it may not. It may actually result in a split chamber because of the really divergent dynamics in -- in Congress right now.

[07:25:10] CAMEROTA: And so Abby, quickly, then how is the calculation in the White House behind you there playing out with women?

When the president says this was a hoax perpetrated by Democrats, women hear that -- many women, certainly on the Democratic side -- as he didn't believe Christine Blasey Ford. He doesn't believe Debby Ramirez. He doesn't believe accusers of sexual assault.

And so has the president decided that that's the strategy, that he's going to go and ignore what you're talking about in terms of women being pivotal.

PHILLIP: I think he's speaking to a different group of women. He's speaking to the women who he says are worried about their sons, who are worried about their husbands, worried about their brothers and so on and so forth.

The question is how large of a group of those women is that? And also, where are they? And are they going to matter more on the Republican side?

I think the president is gambling that those people matter more on his side of the ledger. Those are -- that's his base. And I think this is a White House that's looking at the Senate being the most important place for them to -- to try to hold on to power, because if they can hold onto one chamber, it will make their lives a little bit easier for the next two years.

And I think, you know, ask any Republican in town, the House is not in a good place for Republicans. The Senate, it's a coin toss. It's a 50/50 coin toss. And President Trump knows that he needs to energize his base in order to hold onto some of these seats that have been slipping away: Tennessee, Texas, North Dakota, even West Virginia.

Now they're in a place where they have someone in West Virginia who's sided with them on a key issue. They're feeling pretty good about that. And I think that's where they're putting all their coins right now.

TOOBIN: But it's not entirely political calculation on the president's part. I think when you think about Donald Trump, you always have to think about the fable of the scorpion and the frog. You know, he's -- it's his nature. I mean, he doesn't believe women who accuse men of sexual harassment and assault.

CAMEROTA: Or he doesn't want to.

TOOBIN: He just doesn't - right. I mean, he never believes women, whether it's Roy Moore or Bill O'Reilly or Roger Ailes or Donald Trump being accused. So yes, it's a measure of political calculation, but I think it's also who he is.

BERMAN: Jeffrey, David, Abby, thank you very much. We didn't get to talk about Kanye West, which I know David is itching to talk about.

GREGORY: Yes, come on.

BERMAN: Kanye West, lunch at the White House on Thursday.

OK, thank you all.

Along those lines.

TOOBIN: We just talked about it.

BERMAN: We didn't dissect it. We didn't give it the time that it really deserves. It's a major political moment.

CAMEROTA: I feel like we just pulled the football away from David Gregory a little bit. Like, he was like, "Yes, come on." And we were like, "And thank you, David Gregory."

BERMAN: He's got an entire David -- he has an entire Kanye West podcast that he can show at some point later on.

All right. Along those lines, the president says he now likes her music 25 percent less, but Taylor Swift may have just pushed a flood of new voters to the polls. We have the numbers on the Swift effect, next.

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