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Haley Steps Down; Hurricane Hunters Flying inside Michael; Apalachicola Mayor on Hurricane. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 10, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So, Jen, is -- there's all sorts of speculation about whether there's a back story here. Can it be as simple as she's just out of gas and it's that easy?

JENNIFER PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Alisyn, it sure does seem like something funny is going on here because high level -- she's the most popular woman probably in the Trump administration, and most officials do not resign in the weeks leading up to a contentious election. Yes, it's very common for there to be turnover in the weeks following or in the months following. That happened in the Obama administration, Clinton, every administration. But there's something that seems to be up here.

Now, she has walked the tightrope quite effectively here politically. Even if she won't go down as the most, you know, effective U.N. ambassador in history, she's done it effectively politically because she is going to come out of this administration both satisfying President Trump, with the support of President Trump, while also sort of keeping a little bit of a maverick line here because she's criticized Russia even when the administration hasn't.

So it might be as simple as her recognizing she should quit white she's ahead and she should get out, but a couple weeks before the election is very strange timing.

CAMEROTA: What do you say?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, it is very unusual for this high profile of a person to leave before the election. They're trying to spin it as saying if she left after the midterms and they had losses it would be seen as abandoning the ship, but that seems a little too cute by half.

What I think is fair to say is, first of all, she was governor before she was U.N. representative. She has been in sustained public service at the senior level for eight years. That is exhausting.

She is clearly one of the rising stars, and really has been the face of foreign policy for this administration.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

AVLON: Less attention (ph) with Tillerson and certainly Bolton.

CAMEROTA: So, what does that mean? What's she going on to do now?

AVLON: Well, I think she's going to take a break and then really the sky is the limit because whether, you know, she's clearly, in 2024, one of the top Republicans to look at.

CAMEROTA: OK. So that leads us to 2020 speculation.

AVLON: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Because at -- you know, as you have pointed out, she is young in her political career and she's ambitious.

David Gregory is parachuting in for this very moment.

AVLON: Hey, now.

CAMEROTA: So here, David, is what she said about any 2020 speculation that she would run perhaps against President Trump. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: No, I'm not running for 2020. I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one. So I'll look forward to supporting the president in the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: How do you see it, David?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, how the president saw that moment, which was so choreographed to be in the Oval Office for the purposes of resigning, which is -- is pretty striking. After Nikki Haley said that, the president he said, that's beautiful. That's just beautiful. You don't get more loyalty in that moment, but a pledge of support.

AVLON: Oh.

GREGORY: And that is, you know, that's the operative statement as of yesterday. The question is, will that change?

Nikki Haley is in a perfect position to run for the presidency. She's been a chief executive. She now has some foreign policy experience in this administration. She's kept a good relationship here. She's going out on good terms. So all of that sets her up perfectly. She could certainly change her mind. She could read the political landscape later and make a decision either to challenge the president, although, you know, a primary run in 2020 is always a tough way to go within your own party unless things dramatically change for the president, which could certainly happen, but she could look beyond that as well.

So I think right now she's positioned herself as well as she could. And whatever may be going on -- I'm with Jen, I have my skepticism about all of this. It is the two-year mark. It is when a lot of people do leave. She's in a tough job. All of those things are true. But there's no question, she has a lot of running room here as a political figure.

CAMEROTA: Jen, let's talk about who may be next. I think it could be instructive to look at what President Trump says, at least he thinks was one of Nikki Haley's big accomplishments. So listen to one of the things he highlighted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think she's helped make it a better position, if you want to know the truth. I think it's become maybe a more glamorous position than it was three years ago. Maybe -- I wonder why, but it is. Yes, I mean, she's made it a very glamorous position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We'll put aside the sexism of that comment for the moment, but if he's looking for glamor, does he go with Deana Powell, former of the NSC, or Bob Corker --

AVLON: Hold on now. That's not fair.

CAMEROTA: Well, these are the two people who are running -- I mean who have been mentioned. I didn't say. So, Jen --

AVLON: Loaded.

CAMEROTA: Which one do you think is the glamor necessity?

PSAKI: Well, I think we know the answer to that question, Alisyn. The other person who's been thrown out there a bit is Ivanka. So there's a lot of women who, I guess, he would consider glamorous. I'll leave the sexism aside there.

I think the president knows, and his advisers know, that this is a Senate-confirmed position, so it has to be somebody who they think can make it through the Senate. And I think the bottom line is that's going to be a big factor for them. Obviously Bob Corker could. I think you could argue Deana Powell probably could. I mean she has some decisions she was involved in that would certainly come up. I think Ivanka would have a much harder time. Obviously she'd have to put her financial information forward.

AVLON: (INAUDIBLE).

[06:35:16] PSAKI: She'd have to testify. So I don't think that's real. I would guess Deana Powell of those two, but --

GREGORY: But --

PSAKI: Everyone's speculation is as good as mine.

GREGORY: But that --

AVLON: Yes, Kelly Ayotte is another person to watch out for, for exactly those reasons. GREGORY: Yes.

AVLON: It's someone who Lindsey Graham would presumably be pushing.

GREGORY: And Kelly Ayotte, you know, served the administration by -- by shepherding Neil Gorsuch through the nomination process.

I do think it's worth noting what the internal dynamic is on the foreign policy team with John Bolton, who apparently Nikki Haley did not get along with as well. He's a very strong figure. And you have Secretary Pompeo. You have two hardliners on the foreign policy team who are really in line with the president's thinking about America's position in the world. That was not the case with McMaster as national security adviser.

AVLON: Yes.

GREGORY: And, of course, Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. So perhaps that left Nikki Haley not feeling like she had as big of a portfolio on foreign policy as she would have liked. And that will have some impact on who comes in and what that portfolio is like in this --

AVLON: Yes.

GREGORY: This prestigious position the president, you know, called it.

AVLON: Glamorous, even. Glamorous even.

GREGORY: Well, and then later -- later he called it prestigious. It's been more prestigious.

AVLON: But -- but look, I mean, you know, while her departure and the timing has all the heralding (ph) of somebody getting out ahead of something, I think it's also the optical problem for the Trump administration. They do not have as many women in the cabinet as --

CAMEROTA: Five out of 23.

AVLON: Right, which is less than the Obama administration. Even -- the numbers get even worse when you look at appointees down ticket below the cabinet. So this is really an optic problem for the Trump administration.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, David, Jen, thank you very much.

PSAKI: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Obviously we have to get back to hurricane coverage because the outer bands of Hurricane Michael are beginning to hammer Florida with all of this heavy rain and high winds. Michael will make history today when it makes landfall as the most powerful hurricane to hit the Florida panhandle. More of our breaking news coverage with John Berman in Florida, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:41:08] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. John Berman here live in Panama City Beach, Florida, where they are bracing for the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the Florida panhandle.

Hurricane Michael is now a category four hurricane. If you went to bed last night thinking it was a category two or three, nuh-uh, it has strengthened to category four and there may be signs it is getting even stronger. The maximum sustained winds are 140 miles per hour. We could see winds of 145 miles per hour by the time it makes landfall a little bit later this morning or early this afternoon.

I can tell you what it looks like from the ground here. The outer bands are already passing overhead. It is raining. The rain is a little bit lighter than it was a few minutes ago. You will note the rain is falling mostly vertically right now. In a few hours it will be completely horizontal, wind-swept rain as the wind picks up. We're getting gusts of about 20 miles -- 20, 35 miles per hour now. That will get much, much higher in a few hours.

That's the view from the ground. Let's get the view, though, from above. I want to bring in Ian Sears. He is the flight director for NOAA's hurricane hunters. He has been onboard a hurricane hunter that just made a pass north to south through this storm.

Ian, if you can hear me, what are you seeing?

IAN SEARS, NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER (via telephone): I can hear you loud and clear.

So Michael is a very powerful category four hurricane, just like you were describing, lots of rain, lots of wind. And from my perspective here on an airplane, it was quite a (INAUDIBLE) ride through that northern eyewall. And I would much rather be doing this than where you are on Panama City Beach.

BERMAN: I'm not so sure I want to be in a plane driving through the eye of a hurricane. You've done one pass north to south. I understand you're heading east to west.

Can you see its strength from where you are? What makes this storm different?

SEARS: Yes, definitely. The storm is strengthening. We are able to measure exactly how strong the winds are. They're very low in pressure. This is the information that we are trying to use at the National Hurricane Center.

So I just sent them a message letting them know that the pressure is still falling. It's down to 938 millibars. And we have winds at flight levels upwards of 120 knots and then winds at the surface we're seeing close to 100 knots. I mean, keep in mind, these aren't necessarily the strongest winds. This is just one small portion of the storm. So just because we didn't measure winds at the surface greater than 100 knots, doesn't mean that they're not -- they don't exist. And so this is a very strong, powerful hurricane. We're about to make this pass from east to west and this is probably one of the strongest parts of the storm. So we'll probably measure some other stronger winds that we think that Michael is.

BERMAN: And, again, as you note, the pressure is dropping, which allows for more strengthening in the next few hours before this storm makes landfall.

Are you surprised at all by how rapidly this storm grew in power? It was a category two storm late yesterday afternoon. People are waking up to the breaking news that it's now a category four storm and strengthening.

SEARS: And this isn't -- you can't be surprised by anything. Anything can happen. In my experience, this is something that -- it happens quite regularly. You've just got to be prepared for it. And if you're ever in hurricane prone areas, you've got to make sure that you're ready to go.

I'll also say, that's the whole reason that we are up here fly is to help us understand why and how these storms strengthen so fast and just to help everybody that's in harm's way be better prepared and help the forecasting better. It helps the National Hurricane Center make these really great forecasts that they're doing. This data is going directly to them. It's go into their models. And hopefully the work that we're doing is helping them prepare everybody that's in harm's way.

[06:45:10] BERMAN: Yes, their forecasts are amazing and there's no question that it helps save lives. I've seen it here on Panama City Beach where so many people have left already. Virtually no tourists here at all, they got out, because they know this is going to be bad.

And it seems -- you're saying you're trying to understand the causes of how these storms strengthen so fast. There was nothing to slow this storm down. This was moving over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico at about two degrees warmer than normal. So this is really just perfect conditions for this type of strengthening, correct?

SEARS: On the surface, yes. There's also some interesting characteristics that could have prevented this storm from strengthening, such as wind shear. You hear a lot about that and how it can tear a hurricane apart. In this particular storm, it has fought that shear and has strengthened to where it is now. And so with the work that we're doing out here and the radar data that we're collecting and all the other information that we're collecting about this storm, we're going to be able to study this and improve the models, even more than we are doing so now.

So it's a -- there's a lot of ingredients we can go into, a strengthening storm or a storm and (INAUDIBLE). The more we can understand about the processes that make that happen, the better for everybody in harm's way so that when we do make forecasts the way that the National Hurricane Center is doing, that people have confidence in those forecasts and they heed the warnings, just like you're talking about. And that makes all the work that our team up here is doing worthwhile.

BERMAN: Do I have it right? Are you going to be in this flight from east to west for eight full hours? Eight hours flying through a hurricane?

SEARS: Yes, we're going to be up here for about eight hours. We're going to be crossing this storm at least four times, maybe five depending on how much gas and other conditions that might present themselves. But at least four passes through the storm, collecting information all the way through.

BERMAN: Ian Sears, you are a brave man to be up there for eight hours passing through that storm.

Again, you have noted that the eye wall has unique characteristics. Can you describe them?

SEARS: Yes. So a lot of times you like to see a very symmetric, circular eye on the radar presentation. Though the eye has the circular shape, it's gotten a lot of linear shapes to it as well. So it's not always a nice, round, pretty circle. This one, you know, has kind of got edges on it where you would expect curvature. In that regard, it's a really interesting storm.

I've been flying in hurricanes for 10 hurricane seasons now. It's not necessarily 100 percent unusual. I haven't seen a whole lot like -- in a category four, though. Usually the category four storms have a much more circular shaped-eye than this one does.

BERMAN: All right, Ian Sears, flight director for NOAA's hurricane hunters, up in the sky right now for the next eight hours. I'll wave to you. I'm waving thank you to you up there in the sky over this storm. Thanks so much for what you do. We really appreciate your unique view.

SEARS: My pleasure. And you stay safe on the shore there.

BERMAN: All right, you're helping us do that. Thanks so much, Ian.

And, again, we are standing in Panama City Beach. This is where the eye of the storm is expected to pass over several hours from now. You can see it raining. We're getting some wind gusts right now of 30 miles an hour.

We have our eye on the ocean behind me. Right now the levels are about two and a half feet higher than normal here, expecting a storm surge of nine feet, which is bad. But further east from here, they're expecting a storm surge of some 13 feet or higher, which could be extremely dangerous. We're going to speak to the mayor of one community who's already taking precautions, bracing for the impact of this historic storm.

Our special live coverage of Hurricane Michael continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:07] BERMAN: All right, welcome back. John Berman live in Panama City Beach, Florida.

Hurricane Michael expected to make landfall directly on this beach behind me several hours from now. The water level is already two and a half feet higher. A wave just came up about three feet from where I'm standing right now, inching ever closer.

Of course you will remember that the storm surge impacts an area to the east largely of the center of the storm. Apalachicola, which is about 60 miles from where I am right now, could see some of the worst storm surge, 13 feet or higher.

Joining me now by phone is the mayor of Apalachicola, Van Johnson.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being with us.

Thirteen feet sound like an awful lot. What are your concerns this morning?

MAYOR VAN JOHNSON, APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA (via telephone): It is a lot -- an awful lot of water. In fact my greatest concern has been of some people that are just now starting to take this storm serious and are evacuating, which is good. And I just hope that the others that have not made that decision to get out while the roads are still passable and before the bridge is actually closed.

You know, we've been emphasizing over and over that this is a life threatening storm. And we've seen over the last several hours it has intensified up to a category four.

BERMAN: Yes, I think that came as a surprise to a lot of people when they woke up this morning. Do you think that is spurring people to action, getting them to get out? And how much longer do they have if they want to get out?

JOHNSON: Well, they have up until they close the bridge and they normally close the bridge once those winds reach up to 40 plus miles an hour. After that, they're going to have to just hunker down and hope for the best.

BERMAN: Hope for the best with a storm surge that could reach 13 feet.

Now, one of the unique precautions you have taken, I understand you've already shut the sewers down. What's the practical impact of that?

[06:55:07] JOHNSON: Well, we shut the sewers down to keep it from being inundated with 12 to 13 feet of storm surge. We didn't want to get back to the city and have to pump the bay out of the system that had came in through the storm. And, besides that, there's no staff left to operate the system. I mean we're under a mandatory evacuation order. So there was some concerns with making sure that we can bring the system back up once the storm is over.

BERMAN: All right, Van Johnson, mayor of Apalachicola, we wish you the best of luck. We hope people are heeding your call. And if they're listening to you, you have maybe an hour, two hours, to get out before it is too late and you'll just have to ride out this storm. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much.

JOHNSON: You're welcome.

BERMAN: All right, we are live here in Panama City Beach. You can see the outer bands of Hurricane Michael beginning to pass over the coast here. This will get stronger, much stronger. Our special live coverage of Hurricane Michael continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:00:09] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United