Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Hurricane Michael at Nearly Category 5; Missing Journalist; Michael Now Accelerating Through Central Georgia; Deadly Storm Surge, Damaging Winds Continue Following Florida Panhandle Landfall. Aired 2- 3a ET

Aired October 11, 2018 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Live in Destin, Florida, Hurricane Michael has made its mark here on the Florida Panhandle. Now a tropical storm it is still on the move.

I'm George Howell.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm Michael Holmes at the CNN Center. The mystery deepens over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we're getting more leaked details from Turkey. We'll have that and much more. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

HOWELL: Around the world and good day to you. We start this hour with the latest on Michael. It is now a tropical storm over land in the U.S. state of Georgia but still packing quite a punch.

From there it heads through the Carolinas which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence just a month ago. Here in the Florida Panhandle we felt the brunt of the storm all day. It came in as a category 4 hurricane, very intense storm, unfortunately it proved deadly. It killed at least two people.

It's left hundreds of thousands of people without power at this hour. To show you some of the damage, this is near the town of Mexico Beach, Florida. The winds there near 250 kmh. And a significant storm surge as well. A lot of the damage came from the wind there, tearing down trees, the winds destroying homes and buildings and sending large pieces of debris flying into the air.

Another piece of incredible video that came to us from a storm chaser in Panama City, these images are chilling.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: That's just incredible see that. The Florida governor says that he's working to ensure the storm victims will get all the help and support they need. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLA.: They're deploying a massive wave of response. We will be sending help from air, land and sea. This includes thousands of responders for power restoration, medical search and rescue, law enforcement, food and water distribution and every other critical resource.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: If you follow the weather experts, they predicted all along the storm would be one for the record books. It already is. Consider its place in history now. This storm now the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Florida Panhandle. Also it's the strongest to hit the continental United States since Hurricane Andrew way back in 1992.

As things stand right now it is a tropical storm, it is still on the move, bringing heavy rain and devastating winds, tore through homes and buildings already and still a threat as it continues to more to the north and east.

My colleague, correspondent and meteorologist Derek Van Dam is following the story live in Apalachicola, Florida.

And Derek, I don't know what to say. I saw some of the video of what you went through. That was intense to say the least.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it was 12 hours of hell for people here. They just had ride out the storm, George, really difficult moments at the peal of Hurricane Michael came through midday today, winds over 100 miles per hour. Storm surge was incredible, chased several hurricanes (INAUDIBLE).

(AUDIO GAP)

HOWELL: Derek Van Dam's audio, Derek Van Dam was there -- Derek, it was in Apalachicola, Florida. I think we lost his audio. We will try to check back in with him in the show for you.

But, yes, Derek was certainly in the middle of it there in Apalachicola. Also in Panama City, Florida, there is drone footage that we want to show you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL (voice-over): This video really tells the story of what happened there. Take a look. Damage in the gymnasium there. The roof was ripped off in one area. The entire side of the gym is gone there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Given the extensive damage that we're already seeing, rescue teams have been on the move throughout the state.

One volunteer group that you may have seen or heard of before called the Cajun Navy, they came together to help victims of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 and were on the scene when Florence hit just a few weeks ago.

Earlier, a member of the group told my colleague, Anderson Cooper, about some of the work they been doing since Hurricane Michael hit Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON GUNDERSON, CAJUN NAVY: I'm standing in the middle of the street right now and it looks like a third world country and --

[02:05:00]

GUNDERSON: -- that's no exaggeration. Half the streets unpassable, all the power lines are down, all the trees down and everybody out. There's no power. It's a very creepy situation. We came down the block, knocked on the doors and roof crushed in by palm trees, garage on top of the car and we found a lady inside.

She was down in a fetal position with a -- there was no roof and a tree right over our head and we were -- we had to go in and try to rescue her and moved a lot of things out of the way, very dangerous, sketchy situation.

We had to cut the tree down (INAUDIBLE) ambulance can come down the street. Power lines down everywhere. It's a sight to see and very sad, very horrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: That's so intense, what happened here in this state.

Let's go back now to Derek Van Dam. I think we have Derek again in Apalachicola, Florida.

Derek, can you hear us?

I think we might have lost Derek again. That's the way it works when you're covering a major storm like that, a lot of damage around and technical things can happen. We will get back in touch with him if we can.

When the sun comes up here in Florida just a few hours from now, this state will be in recovery mode. Many people will be assessing the damage for what happened.

My colleague, Kate Bolduan, talk to U.S. congressman Neal Dunn of Florida about the many challenges that lie ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NEAL DUNN (R), FLORIDA: There are some people trapped in buildings but we feel how bad it is yet. We're still going to go looking for that. And I will say probably (INAUDIBLE) the worst bit of news is, insult to injury, we found out just a few minutes ago there was some early looting and the sheriff has said he's absolutely not going to tolerate any looting.

This is a nice Southern town. We don't do that sort of thing. And so he put the entire city and entire county under a curfew beginning 5:00 pm or 7:00 pm and we're going to all night built on and (INAUDIBLE) he says otherwise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: After tearing a path through the Florida Panhandle, Michael moved on to the state of Georgia. It became the first hurricane to hit that state as a category 3 hurricane since the 19th century.

CNN's Scott McLean is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the center of Hurricane Michael has now come and gone. We're now on the backside of the storm. The wind has switched directions but it continues to howl.

There are some especially strong gusts still coming through and the rain is also coming down. Luckily, though, for this area, this has been much more of a wind event and less of a rain event. We have not seen the catastrophic flash flooding that many had feared in this part of Georgia.

But the wind has certainly lived up to the hype. In fact it was strong enough to keep first responders from responding to 9-1-1 calls for several hours. They would not go out if winds were beyond 35 mph sustained.

Now the county here is actually asking private citizens to borrow four wheelers and ATVs for first responders to use to try to get to those backlog of calls, especially in some of those areas that might be tough to get to with the downed trees or downed power lines.

There are also other challenges. The power outages are widespread in this area. Could be some time before the lights are back on. The good news though is that there are utility companies that, even from out of state, anybody try to get the lights back on as soon as possible.

But we will not know the full extent of the damage here until morning -- Scott McLean, CNN, Albany, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: That's the scene there in Albany, Georgia.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[02:10:00]

HOWELL: Here in Destin, Florida, to the east of us in Wakulla County, a 3 meter storm surge hit several coastal communities there. I spoke earlier to the public information officer in Wakulla County, the sheriff's office there, Chris Savary, who described it this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS SAVARY, WAKULLA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We were expecting about -- we were forecast possibly at 15-foot storm surge, which was unprecedented in this area by a ton. We ended up with probably just a little over 10 foot storm surge, which still posed a catastrophic here.

It came in quick and it came in fast. I've lived here pretty much my whole life and I've been working hurricanes here for a little over 20 years. I've never seen a storm surge come in as quickly and as violent as this one did. It brought a lot of water in and brought it in very quickly.

It completely inundated Panacea, St. Marks, Shell Point, all of our coastal areas. In fact, the water has yet to recede. We're hoping that happens overnight but we can't even get in there to see just how much damage has been caused.

HOWELL: All right, important to point that out. So the water is still there, hasn't receded. You're having trouble getting in.

And to that point, if you would talk about, you know, what it's going to be like for people who may have evacuated who want to come back home. I'd imagine this is going to take you guys some time to certainly clear things out and get us a sense of how bad things are.

SAVARY: Absolutely. As soon as the conditions became safe, that we were able to get our first responders back out in the field to start the assessment of just how much damage is out there and clearing debris, we quickly realized that we weren't going to be able to get into those low-lying areas and we manned posts there.

There's still a little bit of daylight left and everybody saw that the high winds had stopped. So everybody's trying to come home. We had to turn them around because you just -- you simply can't get into these areas.

So our first priority is, as soon as possible, as soon as we can deem it safe enough for our guys to go in there and in boats if we have to or high-water vehicles, we got a list of people who didn't evacuate and where they're located.

Those are the first places we're going. We're going to check on them and we can't let people go back in the area until it's safe to do so ,until that water recedes and we're hoping that's done by the morning. But we can't -- we don't know that right now. (INAUDIBLE) but we don't know it that is going to happen. And it's a wait and see right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Yes, they were hit hard there in Wakulla County. And also in Panama City, Florida, hit hard. I spoke earlier to a storm chaser and photographer who was there with National Geographic, Mike Theiss. He said the winds were so strong they actually blew a freight train

right off the tracks. Imagine that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE THEISS, STORM CHASER: This storm surge did come in and devastate lots of parts of the coastline, of the Florida Panhandle, points east of Pensacola -- Panama City, which is where I was at, Panama City Beach.

And points east of there was really bad. Right at --

[02:15:00]

THEISS: -- Panama City Beach itself, the surge wasn't too bad because the (INAUDIBLE) east. But the wind damage is the big story there. I witnessed tonight, driving around, trying to get around the Panama City area, a train that was blown off its tracks, a big, huge iron -- you know, metal train, blown off its tracks with all the cars behind it also blown off the tracks.

That is by far the highest example of powerful wind damage I have seen in a hurricane.

HOWELL: That's for sure. You really got a sense, it is seeing these winds come through, feeling and hearing them. This was something that hasn't been seen here in quite a long time.

Talk to us about the damage, the extent of damage so far along the coastline. You survey a lot of things.

What are your thoughts?

THEISS: My thoughts are that, again, Panama City dodged a bullet as far as the extreme storm surge that they could have had. But they did get the extreme winds. But places like Mexico Beach -- I'm hearing really bad things about Mexico Beach from other chasers, first-hand accounts.

And it's just really bad. (INAUDIBLE) we just didn't know exactly where. It's really crucial to know exactly where the eye comes in. But it's catastrophic damage on that coastline.

And let me tell you, further inland, it's amazing how far inland the damage is. There are trees down everywhere. There are power lines strung across the road everywhere. There's people getting stuck in the power lines so they're blocking traffic. There's gridlock.

It took me 2.5 hours just to get across the town of Panama City today because I had to keep taking different roads to figure out how to get over there. People were walking around in a daze. I mean, this was a very powerful and scary storm for a lot of people.

HOWELL: That does lead me right into my next question. I always think about what do people want right now. People want to know where the storm is. Well, it's over the state of Georgia, moving toward the Carolinas.

People want to know I can I come back home, especially those who left and they've watching on. So given what you've seen along the Florida Panhandle to start clearing this damage, what do you think?

It could take several days, yes?

THEISS: Oh, definitely several days, yes. If there's somebody and you're not at your home now, I would (INAUDIBLE) another day or two. I wouldn't rush back because it's going to take them a while to open these roads. And all you're going to do is create more of a traffic jam.

Let the emergency personnel come in and help the people who are there that need the help. Give it a couple days because you're not going to be able to move around. There's no mobility. All the roads are blocked with trees. There's time (INAUDIBLE) but then you drive over into the mud (ph) and people are getting stuck in the mud.

It's just -- the navigation and the driving around that area is an impossibility right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: And it was just 24 hours ago we were talking about a storm that was intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico. This storm has well moved on, 24 hours later. Now it is affecting the state of Georgia and headed toward the Carolinas -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, indeed. There where you are, down in Florida, when daylight comes, they'll stop to add up the cost, get an assessment of how bad things really are. George, thanks so much. We will be back with you shortly.

Meanwhile a steady release of clues in the disappearance of a prominent journalist (INAUDIBLE) Turkey releases photographs of 15 Saudis arriving in Istanbul just before that journalist vanished. Who Turkey says they are and what they were doing there.

Also still to come on the program, global financial markets brace, perhaps another selloff after Wall Street chalks up one of its worst losses in history. We'll be right back.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:20:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

Welcome back.

Turkey releasing more details to back up its claim that Saudi Arabia was behind the disappearance of a prominent journalist. Turkish television airing these images of 15 Saudis arriving in Istanbul just hours before Jamal Khashoggi entered the consulate in Istanbul and vanished.

Turkish police have not made an official statement as yet. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is forcing the Trump administration to launch a human rights investigation. President Trump says it looks, quote, "a little bit like the Saudis are involved," but he added it is too early to say what the U.S. response might be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a bad situation. We cannot let this happen to reporters, to anybody, we can't let this happen. And we're going to get to the bottom of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Nic Robertson pieces together for us what is known about Khashoggi and his arrival at the consulate and the hours immediately afterward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Four fateful steps and he is gone. The last moments Jamal Khashoggi was seen alive in public, entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul October 2nd.

That was at 1:14 pm on Tuesday. What happened over the next hour and three quarters remains the center of this mystery, core to the investigation. At a little after 3:00 pm several consular vehicles was seen leaving the consulate.

The question now, was Khashoggi in one of those vehicles and, if so, was he alive?

The vehicles pull away just after 3:00 in the afternoon, arriving minutes later at the consul general's house nearby. The dark windowed van disappears from view into the compound.

These tantalizing CCTV recordings leaked to Turkish media have Turkish investigators scratching their heads.

How could Khashoggi just disappear?

Their investigations are being hampered. Saudi officials had promised access to the consulate, hidden behind a high razor wire topped wall but now Turkish officials say the Saudis are not cooperating, piling on the pressure, a Turkish pro-government national newspaper has published names and pictures of 15 Saudi men, who Turkish officials confirmed to CNN are persons of interest in Khashoggi's disappearance.

A Saudi source familiar with four of the men confirms to CNN one of them is a former diplomat in London and an intelligence officer. Another is a forensics expert. CNN has pieced together a timeline for how at least some of these men got to Istanbul. Some left Riyadh at 11:30 pm Monday on a private jet, landing in

Istanbul around 3:30 am hours before Khashoggi disappears. Leaked CCTV recordings show the plane arriving at Ataturk Airport at 3:28 am.

Minutes later, nine men from the aircraft are picked up on cameras going through passport control. They head to a city hotel. At around 5:00 am that morning, they check into this --

[02:25:00]

ROBERTSON: -- hotel just around the corner from the consulate. About 4.5 hours later, they all leave, divided into small groups.

Investigators believe they went to the consulate to wait for Khashoggi. CNN has also tracked a second charter jet arriving from Riyadh at a critical moment that day. It lands in Istanbul around 4:00 pm and leaves just one hour later, stopping in Cairo en route back to Saudi.

Why is this important?

Turkish officials say the other plane that left later in the evening with Saudis on it was checked, their bags X-rayed. But we don't know whether the first Saudi plane to leave Istanbul was checked and it left about two hours after that van swept into the consul's residence.

As it flew to Saudi, Khashoggi's fiancee was pacing up and down outside the consulate, more and more anxious. More than a week after Jamal Khashoggi entered this building to finalize his marriage papers, the mystery of what happened to him continues to deepen -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Istanbul, Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And Jomana Karadsheh is outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Good to see you, Jomana. The U.S. reportedly had intelligence in the sense that something was up. There is now that congressional pressure for the Saudis to clear this up. But not that much forcefulness from the administration itself.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what, Michael, this has been a criticism of the U.S. administration over the past few days, that they were very slow to react. You didn't have much being said publicly, at least. They weren't revealing what kind of calls they were making behind the scenes.

They initially said that they were following up, they are monitoring and they were active behind the scenes. And not much information about what was happening.

And people we were speaking to here on the ground were saying that the U.S. has a very critical role to play in all of this. The feeling was if the United States would back Turkey up, we would start to learn more because the feeling was that Turkish authorities here were not really ready to start a diplomatic crisis, which has been in the making for more than a week now without the backing of the international community, especially the United States because we're talking about a country that has such a very close relationship with Saudi Arabia.

President Trump himself having a very close relationship with King Salman and the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who he has praised on so many occasions. So the feeling that the only country that would be able to push for answers was going to be the United States.

And certainly over the past 24 hours, Michael, we're seeing a change of tone from the U.S. Even president Trump made a statement, is going to be viewed as a very significant change of tone from America, with the president saying that it looks like they may have been a little bit, the indications are, Saudi Arabia may have been involved in the disappearance.

That's a big statement that we will have to see how Turkish officials are going to react to it. Of course, everyone's waiting to see what the United States is going to do if proven that Saudi Arabia was involved in the disappearance of Khashoggi -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right, Jomana, we're leave it there for the moment. Thank you so much, Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul.

When we come back, Michael is now a tropical storm moving across the U.S. state of Georgia and after devastating the Florida Panhandle, it still packs a punch. We'll have more on that breaking news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:31:19] HOWELL: Welcome back to our continuing coverage. I'm George Howell live in Destin, Florida. Hurricane Michael made landfall earlier on Wednesday as a category four storm and we surely felt it here along the coastline. Incredibly strong winds sustained around 249 kilometers per hour. And as of right now, Michael has weakened. It is a tropical storm making its way over land in the U.S. State of Georgia and moving toward the Carolinas which have already been hit by a hurricane just a month ago.

Though the storm has been downgraded, Michael has proven to be a deadly storm, a life threatening storm with a storm surges and catastrophic winds, but is still a threat. Officials say Michael killed at least two people. It has left a great deal of destruction in its path and it has destroyed buildings. It has down trees and many power lines of the area. It has left hundreds of thousands of people without power at this hour. Here's another look at some of the powerful images that we've seen so far from the storm.

This video, it shows a roof that was ripped off of a home in Panama City, Florida. Our Brian Todd was just outside that home a bit earlier and has this look at the damage left behind.

BRIAN TODD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Panama City Beach, this is one of the most devastated neighborhoods in the city. This is Surf Drive just a few feet from the Gulf of Mexico. It had a storm surge threat but it was really the wind that did the damage in this neighborhood. Look at this house here. This was captured on video earlier on Wednesday as this roof here got completely sheared off and just about half of the house is missing at least on the top side of it.

We're told by the family who owns this place that that area there that was just so devastated used to be the living room and the kitchen upstairs. And so now that's completely gone. The roof a hunk of twisted metal was blown completely off tossed about 75 yards down the road and is now embedded in a fence. You can see this part of the wall here was also sheared off. The family here, we talked to them as they came by, a gentleman whose mother-in-law owns this place, they were just devastated at this.

They saw this happening on the news. They saw the video being shot as this was going on. Luckily, no one was here. The woman who owns it, this gentleman's mother-in-law lives in Missouri, no one was here at the time. But we did talked to beach patrol and sheriff's deputies who came out here in this neighborhood and they said they did have to go door to door and they did have to pull some people out of these houses, not necessarily because they were trapped, but because they needed to be pulled out of houses like this that are just uninhabitable that have the roofs torn off and other infrastructure just completely damaged.

Here's another example of that, this house right here on Surf Drive. Again, you know, half the roof was torn off. There's a wall around that corner that was completely torn apart and just fell apart. And a lot of debris just got tossed around that house and thrown up against that sliding glass door right there. We have also smelled gas in this area around the side of this house. That's a hidden danger in this area as our, you know, many things that you come across especially here in the pitch-black.

These downed power lines are especially dangerous right now because without these camera lights, it is completely black. If you try to drive or walk around this area, you could easily run into them. That's why the officials are saying please do not come back into these neighborhoods. They're having trouble keeping people out of them though as people try to get back to their homes or just curiosity seekers try to get pictures. Brian Todd, CNN, Panama City Beach, Florida.

HOWELL: Brian, thank you. And, again, some people they chose to leave to evacuate before this big storm came through. Some decided to ride it out in neighborhoods like the one Brian just described. One man who decided to ride it out Tyler Leucht. I spoke with him earlier by phone. He explained a terrifying experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[02:35:14] TYLER LEUCHT, PANAMA CITY BEACH RESIDENT: We all kind of hunkered down into my mother's (INAUDIBLE) a couple of other people over here including my mom's friend. We all just kind of hunkered down (INAUDIBLE) you didn't know what you were hearing outside. Was there something smacking against the house? Was the roof ripping off? You know, there's little bits of (INAUDIBLE) poke our heads to see what's up.

And I remember we looked out the window and just really quickly stupid of course if you're ever in this situation, never go close to a window but we did anyways. We looked out and we're like, oh, my goodness, it looks like the shed is gone. Where did it go? Do you see anything? And as soon as we said that, something just -- it just -- it just clearly rolled right in front of the window. And we're like, yes, that's the closet we go.

So I mean it was -- I'm one of those guys that tries to take (INAUDIBLE) but it was -- it was pretty intense. Even some of the jokes weren't working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Tyler Leucht there explains what it was like to ride the storm out. Michael, you know, it seems like a personal decision that people make. Some decide to leave and evacuate, others decide they would rather stay home and protect their belongings and just ride the storm out. And you hear what it was like for Tyler. Terrifying.

HOLMES: Yes. And it happens every hurricane. We have the same stories and there are always going to be those who regret it, and you just hope that it doesn't cause them safety issues when they do choose to stay. George Howell, thank you. We'll be back with you shortly. Meanwhile, we got to take a break. When we come back, volatile trading erases months of gains in the global financial market. We'll discuss what might be ahead with CNN Business Correspondent Eleni Giokos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It is shaping up to be another rough trading day. Wednesday's shop sell-off on Wall Street has rattled global financial markets. Let's have a look at the Asia markets. And they are all down sharply. That is some red there in those arrows. U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the U.S. Federal Reserve for stoking fears of interest rates rising. But he also said the sell-off was a long awaited reckoning. He said both of those things. CNN Business Correspondent Eleni Giokos joins us now from Johannesburg in South Africa.

[02:40:15] OK. So what is behind all of this talk of U.S. Treasury bond yields fears of overheating economy, IMF forecast on -- what is it? All of it.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's all of it basically. And let me tell you, if you're a market participant and you're in panic mode, you're absolutely worried and just looking at those numbers that you showed a short while ago in Asia. I mean down over four percent down, over five percent in some cases. But it's so interesting and you mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump. He of course has been taking credit for the U.S. stock market rally for some time now and it's so interesting because yesterday he was asked why the Dow Jones came under so much pressure.

It was down 800 points and that of course creates contagion into the rest of the world markets as well. And it's interesting. He didn't actually blame the trade war that are currently going on even though the IMF has said that's one of the biggest risks to global growth and stock markets. He is blaming the Federal Reserve and listen to what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think that the market sell-off today? Are you concerned about that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. I think that is -- it's making a mistake. It's so tight. I think the fed has gone crazy. So you could say it as well that's the (INAUDIBLE) it gives you a lot of margin. But I think the fed has gone crazy. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: No. I think it's good. Actually, it's the correction that we've been waiting for a long time. But I really disagree with what the fed is doing. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, I'll tell you, Michael, what people are saying is crazy is the fact that President Donald Trump saying that -- Trump is saying that the fed has gone crazy. Now, the Federal Reserve has increased rates three times this year already. It's expected to do so one more time before the end of the year. And the reason that it's doing that is you've got an overheated economy. You got stock markets that have been rallying.

They're trying to ensure that inflation doesn't creep into the U.S. economy. So this is something that actually has to happen the normalization of interest rates. Now, this is created a very big concern. I'm going back to go back to that old adage of the 1930s that when the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. And that's what we saw happening in Asia today where markets were down significantly. The tech stocks taking a really big hit the likes of Tencent down seven percent.

All these things that are happening right now is indicative of a slowing global environment. What's also important to know is that money doesn't just disappear when you see a sell-off in equity markets. It's got to go somewhere. It usually goes into safe havens like the U.S. dollar. It goes into the Japanese yen as well and those crosses we've been seeing increasing quite dramatically. And you mentioned U.S. Treasury. People are buying into U.S. treasuries because they're worried about the future.

And these are some of the things that many people are focusing on. Just looking back at those Asian markets. If you could get that (INAUDIBLE) I just want to show you some of these huge declines that we've seen happening in today's trade down over five percent for the Chinese economy. So the outlook for what's going to be happening in the future, a big correction is expected when that's going to happen and whether it is now remains to be seen, Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Good to see you, Eleni. Thanks for that. Appreciate it. And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes. Do stay with us for "WORLD SPORT." You're watching CNN. We'll be back in about 15 minutes with more on Harrington now tropical storm, Michael.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PATRICK SNELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORT ANCHOR: Hi, there. Thanks for joining us. Welcome to "CNN WORLD SPORT." I'm Patrick Snell. Now, he's wildly regarded as one of the best football player of all-time. But Cristiano Ronaldo is being forced in an allegation of rape with lawyers for the Portuguese superstar now maintain in the claims against him are complete fabrications.