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Haley Steps Down; Florida Braces for Hurricane; FEMA Prepared for Storm. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2018 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Time. But this tells you it's a fascinating year. We're going to keep tracking it for those 28 days.

Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS. Don't go anywhere, though. More breaking news. "WOLF" starts right now. Have a good day.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.

We start with a shocker for many over at the White House. The resignation of Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, it takes effect at the end of this year. She was in the West Wing today to talk about it with the president. And the two of them spoke about their successes so far and about the reasons for the resignation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's done a fantastic job and we've done a fantastic job together. We've solved a lot of problems and we're in the process of solving a lot of problems.

We're all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you. Hopefully you'll be coming back at some point, but you want to just -- maybe a different capacity. You can have your pick.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: There's no personal reasons. I think that it's just very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside. And I have given everything I've got these last eight years and I do think that sometimes it's good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He's over at the White House.

How much of a surprise was this announcement for members of the Trump administration? What about the timing of this decision? Rather awkward, what, one month before the midterms elections.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Usually when you have a senior official like the person that just stepped down today, Nikki Haley, you know, that person usually waits until after the midterms elections so you don't create additional stories that may not bode well for the administration, may not bode well for the White House. This happened today and we're still trying to sort out exactly why.

We do know that Nikki Haley met with the president on October 3rd last week, that she handed him this letter of resignation thanking him for allowing her to be a part of his administration. But in terms of the specific reasons as to why she is stepping down at this time, she said, when she was in the Oval Office with the president earlier this morning, that, you know, listen, she wants to have a break, essentially. That she's been doing this for some time, being governor of the state of South Carolina and then a top level member of this administration.

Now, Wolf, one thing we should also point out is that this departure of Nikki Haley is setting off all kinds of speculation inside the West Wing as to what is going to happen next, who is going to replace Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador. Obviously some of the names that have been floated so far is the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump. I'm told by a source familiar with some of these discussions going on inside the White House that Ivanka Trump laughed when she was told of this speculation that she could potentially replace Nikki Haley. I think that's very interesting. Obviously it's not a total denial, but that she laughed when she was told of this -- this speculation that was going on in the news media.

Obviously people are also talking about the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, because he has been such a full-throated supporter of this administration. At times he's been perceived as being too political in that job as the ambassador to Germany, but he's well-liked inside the White House.

And so the White House is saying, Wolf, that they'll have some kind of decision within the next few weeks. Nikki Haley is expected to stay around until the end of the year. But no question about it, I mean, when somebody like Nikki Haley leaves the administration, that leaves a pretty intense ripple effect.

One other thing we should point out, Wolf, the source I was speaking with earlier today said, there is also some talk inside the White House as to where Nikki Haley is going next. She obviously said earlier today, when she was in the Oval Office with the president, that she wants to have a break. However, there is some speculation inside the West Wing that Lindsey Graham's stock is on the rise, that people inside the White House have been cheering him on during this whole process, this nomination process of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and that potentially the senator from South Carolina could join the administration in some capacity. And whether that would be replacing the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who a lot of people think may step down after the midterms, that could be one potential landing point, and that Nikki Haley could potentially be appointed to serve out Lindsey Graham's term as United States senator. Again, this source saying that is -- that is simply some of the discussions going on, some of the speculation going on inside the West Wing at this point. But it just goes to show you, Wolf, when somebody like Nikki Haley

leaves the administration, it has a major ripple effect across the entire administration, Wolf.

BLITZER: And the president said he'll have an announcement within the next two to three weeks on a successor. Let's see if that happens.

Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN global affairs analyst Max Boot. His brand-new book entitled "The Corrosion of conservative: Why I Left the Right," has just been released today, in fact. Just released today. We also have CNN military and diplomatic analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, CNN global affairs analyst, staff writer for "The New Yorker" magazine, Susan Glasser, and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

[13:05:07] So, there's a lot presumably going on that we don't know behind the scenes.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And we've been reporting all morning that it hasn't been all sweetness and light within the administration. I knew you'll be shocked by that. But that Nikki Haley had graded a little bit recently about not having as much influence because of the enormous influence of John Bolton coming in. And that both Bolton and Secretary of State Pompeo were surprised by this announcement, which is also interesting. And so we don't know exactly why the timing was today, but there are always other reasons, Wolf. And we're just going to have to dig some more to find out exactly what it was.

But you also know publically, she has disagreed with folks in this administration. I mean the most famous one may have been in mid-April when she said there were going to be sanctions against Russia and then there weren't sanctions against Russia and the president said there weren't and I believe it was Larry Kudlow who said she must have been confusion and she said I don't get confused. So there have been -- there have been some tugs of war here. And I think she's been on the losing end of some of them.

BLITZER: How do you see it, Susan?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, first of all, I think it is important to note that, you know, we don't have the back story on this yet.

BORGER: Exactly.

GLASSER: But the coincidence in timing, if that's what it is, will certainly be remarked upon that the president is losing his most senior and public, by far, female official. She's the most senior woman in national security or foreign policy in the Trump administration, literally hours after Brett Kavanaugh is feted at the White House, when there's a major election issue brewing over the role of gender in the politics of this election year. Again, it might be pure coincidence. She handed in her letter on

October 3rd. Perhaps it was in the midst of this Kavanaugh fight they said, wait until it's over. But that's one factor to consider.

I think, as I wait to hear what we are told as far as the back story goes, I keep in mind that she's a politician. And my view is that she's running for something, we just don't know what yet.

BORGER: Or when.

GLASSER: Yes. Exactly.

BLITZER: John Kirby, what's your thought? When you heard about it, were you surprised?

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Oh, yes, I was absolutely surprised. But I think, you know, again, we don't know the reason, but I have to think that it has something to do with the midterms coming up here and maybe it's a good calculation to get out before there midterms, before there's a shellacking, so it doesn't look like you're sort of reacting to that on the back end of it, but we'll just have to wait and see.

BLITZER: Max Boot, what did you think? There's a lot of speculation she wanted out before the midterms, especially if there's going to be some sort of major Republican setback.

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: That could well be the case, Wolf. She is certainly a canny political operator. I confess that my immediate thought was to think of a picture that flashed around the world in 2016, right before the South Carolina primary, in which Nikki Haley endorsed Marco Rubio and it was a picture of Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. This was an Indian- American woman, a Latino man and an African-American man and many people thought this would be the future of the Republican Party, these young reformers, relatively moderate.

Nikki Haley, of course, came to prominence initially by opposing the confederate flag and monuments in South Carolina, showing that she's a new kind of southerner, and, of course, the Republican Party has gone off in an entirely different direction under Donald Trump, essentially embracing white nationalism and populism.

And Nikki Haley, I think, is one of the politicians who has written this transformation in the most skillful fashion. That she is somebody who has served in the Trump administration and kept Trump's confidence, was not public at odds with him, but at the same time kept some distance, kept some independence and maintained a reputation for integrity. That's a very skillful balancing act that she's pulled off.

And so I think, you know, she's one of the few people who can emerge from the Trump administration with potentially her political prospects enhanced rather than diminished.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a good point. You know, Gloria, she spent six years as governor of South Carolina and now almost two years as U.N. ambassador. She didn't have a whole lot of foreign policy experience going into this U.N. position, but she's got considerable experience now.

BORGER: Right. I mean, look, she's broadened her reach considerably. If she were to run for president, nobody would be able to say, oh, she has no foreign policy experience, et cetera, et cetera. The person she works for had no foreign policy experience, one could argue.

So, look, I think she's positioned herself very smartly and we just don't know what she's -- what she's going to do next in the next couple of years. And if there's a possibility that Donald Trump doesn't run, then she'll run. There's no doubt about it.

She's a political creature and I think getting out in front of all the line of people who are going to -- as John was saying -- all the line of people who are going to be fired or gone, distances her from those people who might be beheaded as opposed to leaving of her own volition.

[13:10:01] BLITZER: Major changes in the national security team during these first year and a half, almost two years of the Trump administration, the national security adviser, the initial one -- or the initial two gone, I should --

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: I should point out, the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, gone. Now the U.N. ambassador leaving. There's some significant changes. And the new people coming in are clearly -- they seem to be a lot -- much more aligned with the president of the United States politically.

GLASSER: Well, Wolf, I think it's an important point because it certainly seems that there was less running room for Nikki Haley in this current set-up where you have John Bolton and Mike Pompeo working by all accounts more closely with the president.

One thing that doesn't get as much attention I think is that Nikki Haley was not just at odds with Rex Tillerson, the president's first secretary of state, but, you know, dramatically so. You know, she was reported by sources, both in the White House and in the State Department basically to have been, you know, at war, in open conflict with him, helped to encourage President Trump to push him out. Apparently she was there at the meeting with H.R. McMaster right before he sent his famous tweet firing Rex Tillerson. And so, you know, she's shown that she can play skillful inside baseball politics in the Trump administration, as well as the external positioning that Max alluded to.

I think what you're going to see going forward, first of all, John Bolton, the national security adviser, is an avowed enemy of the United Nations really. He's been a long time skeptic and critic of the institution to the extended that she was there sticking up for some of the institutional prerogatives. She'll be gone. At least in the short- term this will strengthen John Bolton's hand. And, you know, I think it does reflect how much room is there really left for a more traditional Republican view of foreign policy, which she held and which Donald Trump really does not.

BLITZER: What do you think?

KIRBY: Yes, no, I agree. I mean, look, it's -- the job there is very difficult. It's really not about foreign policy expertise. You can do it, she's proven, without having that, but it is about working across a big, vast bureaucracy, which she proved you could do. Samantha Power once described it as working at the U.N.'s like trying to be heard at an Irish dinner table. You know, you've got to have a story to tell. You've got to work -- you've got to work the room, and she's done that very well.

BLITZER: And she had a decent relationship with the career diplomats, right?

KIRBY: She did. And she was very well respected in the halls of the U.N., but also at the State Department. And she was seen as a credible, authoritative voice.

Look, you can take issue with Trump's foreign policy, as many people have, but she was a credible voice for it.

BLITZER: I want you to listen, Max, this is what she said earlier today in the Oval Office about her future. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Thank you, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, Nikki. Take care.

HALEY: It has been an honor of a lifetime.

And I will say this, for all of you that are going to ask about 2020. No, I am not running for 2020. I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one.

So I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what did you think?

BOOT: Well, she's breaking the hearts of never Trump conservatives like me who would love to see a more mainstream conservative primary Donald Trump in 2020 and she would be a great candidate. Obviously she's taking herself out of the running, I suspect positioning herself for 2024. I mean it's too bad because, as I said, she is one of the few people who emerges with credibility and tact from the Trump administration.

One point I would add would, in talking about a successor, I think that will be an interesting indicator of where the Trump administration stands in terms of its anti-globalist so-called agenda. If somebody like Rick Grenell, who is the ambassador to Germany, who is a hard-edged Trumpian, who has really teed off people in Europe and supported far-right parties, if somebody like him is promoted to U.N. ambassador, that will show that John Bolton's view, which is very hostile to the U.N., very hostile to international institutions, has prevailed.

On the other hand, if you see somebody like Deana Powell, who was the former deputy national security adviser, and somebody who used to work at Goldman Sachs, that will be an indication that the administration is trying to replace Nikki Haley with somebody more in her imagine, somebody with a more internationalist and moderate reputation. So, stay tuned for that.

BLITZER: Well, what do you think? Which direct do you think he's going to go?

BOOT: Well, I -- I mean with this administration, it's always a safe bet to bet on extremism and ultra-nationalism. So that would be my bet, especially when you have somebody like John Bolton, who is making, you know, attacks on international institutions, like the international criminal court and the U.N. He wants to make that really a pillar of U.S. policy, which I think is very much at odds with the truth long term U.S. interests. But that, you know, when he bashes these international institutions, you know, I think he finds in Donald Trump, who has very isolationist instincts, somebody who's very sympathetic to those arguments. So I would be dismayed but not surprised to see somebody who is a more hardliner taking over for Nikki Haley.

BLITZER: We'll find out, the president says, within two or three weeks, if he makes the announcement.

[13:15:01] Max -- and let me just point out, Max's new book out today, once again, the title "The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right."

Max, congratulations on your new book.

Gloria, Susan, John, thanks to you as well.

An important day here in Washington.

We're also tracking other breaking news, including Hurricane Michael, now officially a category two hurricane and forecasted to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida panhandle in decades.

And with four weeks to go until the midterms and fresh off their victory confirming Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump and the Republican leadership, they fine tune their message to voters. We'll have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:05] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: And Hurricane Michael is forecast to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida panhandle in decades. This storm will be life-threatening and extremely dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That's Florida's Governor Rick Scott warning residents in the Florida panhandle to -- they need to prepare today -- today for Hurricane Michael. The category two storm is expected to strengthen to a category three, threatening 300 miles along the Gulf Coast.

Let's go to the CNN Weather Center. Our meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking this powerful storm.

So, Jennifer, explain what makes this hurricane so dangerous.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this one's intensifying by the second and will continue to intensify until it makes landfall. This is a strong category two storm with winds of 110 miles per hour, gusts of 130. And to put that in perspective, 110 miles per hour is the strongest category two you can get. This will most likely end up a category three before today is over with. And we're talking about, at landfall, 120 to 125 mile per hour winds, 129 is the strongest category three.

So this could be a strong category three storm when it makes landfall. And that's going to be significant with all of the -- that strong wind, we have a lot of trees still with leaves on them all along the panhandle, Tallahassee, those big oak trees, and so those could easily topple with the ground so saturated. That's a huge concern. Of course, the roof damage, things like that, not to mention eight to 12 feet of inundation across the big bend of Florida, from Apalachicola west. We're talking about six to nine feet of storm surge. That's incredible for this low-lying area.

And, Wolf, we could feel those tropical storm force winds as early as this evening.

BLITZER: We're going to watch it very, very closely and people have to heed all the warnings that they're getting. Jennifer, thank you very much.

Hurricane force winds, dangerous storm surge, massive flooding. President Trump says Florida is equipped to handle all of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are very well prepared. FEMA's ready. We're all ready. I spoke with Governor Scott, spoke to everybody that you have to speak to, and I think that hopefully we'll get lucky, but maybe that won't happen, but we're prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: With the current track, Panama City, Florida, is certainly one place that will feel the full effects of Hurricane Michael.

Our correspondent Dianne Gallagher is on the scene for us.

So, Dianne, first of all, what are the continues like now?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, right now the conditions are at least wind wise. Some of the calmest that we've had all day. We've been experiencing more of these bands of strong winds and then it just dies down.

But if you can see out, the surface where we're really starting to see this come in here. The waves have been pretty intense coming off as the tide comes in. We're right around high tide at this point. And as that is where the concern is when it comes to this storm. It's all of the water.

One of our meteorologists, Chad Myers, he said earlier, the wind will hurt you, the water will kill you. And that is what's behind all of these evacuations right now, Wolf. They need people who live in the Panama City Beach area, and really all 10 of these areas under evacuation orders, to go ahead and get out today, as in this afternoon, because once the rain begins, once the storm surge comes in with this, it's going to be virtually impossible for people to leave. And if you can leave, it's going to be incredibly dangerous.

Now, they already have 3,500 members of the National Guard activated by Governor Rick Scott. He's also said more than 300 highway patrol troopers to the area to help with evacuations as well.

BLITZER: All right, be careful over there, Dianne. I know you're sticking around for this hurricane as well. We'll have extensive live coverage. Let's hope for the best.

Up next, the Kavanaugh effect. Republicans look to build on their momentum as Democrats harness their party's anger. I'll ask Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts what his party must be thinking about doing next to capitalize on this midterm landscape with just four weeks left until voting day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:53] BLITZER: Time to move on. That's what we're hearing today from Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, suddenly announcing her resignation effective at the end of the year. A surprise for so many, including the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

Joining us now, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. He's a Democrat. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

So, senator, what do you think of this sudden resignation? What impact will it have on American foreign policy?

SEN. ED MARKEY, (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, first, I want to thank her for her service to our country. She clearly is committed to service and we thank her for that. But at the same time, a new nominee for this very important job of ambassador to the United Nations will give us a chance to review the Trump administration's views on the critical issues facing the planet. Number one, over the weekend, the United Nations issued an absolutely scary report about how much more dangerous the threat of climate change, global warming is to our planet and the fact that the actions, which we're taking as a planet, are not sufficient and clearly the United States is not any longer the leader, but the lager, because of not only did the president but Nikki Haley defended the decision to pull out of the Paris agreement.

[13:30:12]