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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hurricane Michael Thrashes Six States As Death Toll Rises To Six In Florida, Georgia, And North Carolina; Kanye West And President Trump Do Lunch; Turkey Claims New Proof Saudis Killed Journalist; Voter Suppression In Georgia Governor Race? Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 12, 2018 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:17] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": It's obliterated and it's awful. It's awful to look at.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The wrath of Michael wiping out an entire oceanfront community. Some returning home saying it looks like a bomb was dropped. A report from Florida as the death toll rises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KANYE WEST, RAPPER: I love this guy right here.

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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Bro hug. President Trump facing criticism for spending the afternoon with Kanye West as millions of Americans pick up the pieces from Hurricane Michael. Their bizarre Oval Office meeting.

ROMANS: Turkish officials claim they have new evidence to prove that a missing "Washington Post" columnist was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. What they say led up to his killing. Some really disturbing developments there.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START this Friday morning, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: Good morning, everybody. It's 5:31 eastern time. Happy Friday.

We start with the latest on Michael.

Cleanup underway this morning in the wake of the worst hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle ever. The death toll from Hurricane Michael has risen to six people in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, including an 11-year-old girl killed when debris punctured her trailer home.

Nearly 1.4 million customers without power this morning in six states. Officials say nearly 4,400 remain in shelters. Recovery efforts underway now in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

ROMANS: From the air, in this Coast Guard footage, you can see the rows of houses and oceanside businesses in Mexico Beach, Florida reduced to wreckage. Some residents returning to find their homes destroyed.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's so many memories here. I can't describe it. It's just terrible.

It's -- I just can't describe the feeling and I know I'm not the only here that feels the same. They've lost everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Any survivors who stuck it out in their homes say they, frankly, feel lucky to be alive, recounting a surreal experience.

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SCOTT, SURVIVED HURRICANE MICHAEL: The cars started floating by and stuff and all the debris was in the air, and the wind was just so tremendous, so strong. We had furniture in our house that wasn't even our furniture. That's what -- the surge had brought stuff in so bad.

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ROMANS: National correspondent Dianne Gallagher live for us this morning in Panama City, Florida. What's the latest this morning, Dianne?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, Christine, you listen to the people talk about what they've lived through and understandably, people are still sort of shaken up around here.

Now, you mentioned all those people who still don't have power. One of those customers, it's the hospital here in Bay County. This is Bay Medical Sacred Heart and you're taking a look at the receiving building.

Now, the good news, all this damage happened to a building where patients were not located. The winds from Michael just sort of ripped the sides off of it. This is where supplies come in, billing, purchasing, things like that.

But the hospital says they did receive some structural damage during the storm, including some blown-out windows, as well as some roof issues and some structural issues of one of the walls. So they're in the process because they're running on generator power. Water is not running and working here in Panama City right now so they

are evacuating the patients here. They started yesterday morning. They still have about 24 more hours before they get them all out.

We caught some of the ambulances coming through yesterday from other communities working on getting those patients out. There were helicopters, as well, choppering them to other places in Pensacola, Jacksonville, Mobile, Alabama.

Now again, all of the patients, the workers, the staff, they all survived the storm just fine -- nobody was injured. But they did have to move some of those patients to different floors due to damage. It's going to continue.

[05:35:02] The good news, Dave and Christine, is that a DMAT self- sufficient, full-service, portable hospital is going to be set up hopefully by the end of the day to help new patients here in the community for their medical needs.

ROMANS: All right, Dianne Gallagher. Thank you so much for that in Panama City, Florida for us this morning.

BRIGGS: At this hour, Michael is a post-tropical storm packing 65 mile an hour winds. More than 60 million people now under a flash flood watch from the Carolinas into New England. Michael still driving weather as it moves northeast.

Meteorologist Karen Maginnis tracking it from the CNN Weather Center this morning. Good morning.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

And I will scroll through some of these pictures that you can see right around the Panhandle of Florida near Panama City Beach. This, a Dollar General store that was obliterated when category four-then Hurricane Michael made landfall. We can see the amount of devastation here.

But the National Hurricane Center has issued its last public advisory regarding Michael. That's not to say it's over and done with but it is racing out to the Atlantic and as it pulls away now we get to assess the damage.

And in this particular image -- the after imagery -- what happened at Mexico Beach. This, in the eastern section of the Panhandle.

Now, it is post-tropical, meaning it doesn't have any tropical characteristics. But nonetheless, we already have, of course, severe flooding in portions of North Carolina and Virginia, perhaps several fatalities, and no doubt, that death toll will continue to climb --

ROMANS: Yes.

MAGINNIS: -- as we go into the next few hours and the weeks ahead.

Back to you, Christine. ROMANS: All right, Karen. Thank you so much for that.

For ways that you can help those affected by the storm, go to cnn.com/impact.

BRIGGS: While millions of Americans were fighting to recover from Michael, President Trump was hosting a bizarre working lunch with Kanye West, billed as a meeting about prison reform. But it went off the rails in a hurry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: Trump is on his hero's journey right now and he might not have expected to have a crazy mother****** like Kanye West run up and support. But best believe we are going to make America great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: For more on lunch Kanye, here's Jeff Zeleny.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, for all the surreal scenes we have seen at this White House, for all the unorthodox moments, there certainly was a major one yesterday here at the White House when rapper Kanye West was coming for a meeting -- a private meeting with President Trump to talk about prison reform. They were scheduled to have a private lunch and nothing on the public schedule.

Well, all that changed when the president invited Kanye West into the Oval Office. Sitting right there in the Resolute desk, the president listened as Kanye talked.

WEST: I love Hillary. I love everyone, right? But the campaign, "I'm With Her" just didn't make me feel as a guy that didn't get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son.

There was about when I put this hat on it made me feel like Superman.

If he don't look good, we don't look good. This is our president.

He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories, and we have to make our core be empowered.

ZELENY: Now, for nearly 10 minutes or so this went on in somewhat of an incoherent rant, with Kanye talking about everything under the sun. About -- you know, about race relations, about other matters.

The president clearly enjoying this moment -- enjoying this celebrity moment, but other eyebrows were indeed being raised because so much else is on the president's agenda -- the stock market slide, of course; the hurricane recovery and damage and devastation in Florida; and certainly, the escalating crisis with Saudi Arabia. But the president clearly had time for Kanye West in two separate sessions. The old adage if the most valuable thing is the president's time -- if that's true we certainly saw what that was yesterday -- Dave and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, let's bring in CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood, live in our Washington studio. Good morning.

And let's just -- I want to touch on this briefly because a lot of oxygen has been spent on that meeting yesterday.

Was there -- was there a strategy here to distract, do you think, from what was Michael, the stock market, an international crisis with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, or was this just a reality show moment unscripted, unplanned, but kind of I guess reveals -- I don't know, a demeaning of the office?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Christine, initially, this meeting with Kanye West wasn't even supposed to be public. It was a private lunch that President Trump decided --

BRIGGS: Right.

WESTWOOD: -- to open up to the cameras. And that created the kind of split-screen that you would expect a White House would try to avoid, which is on the one hand, these images of the devastation in the south, and on the other hand these images of the president embracing a celebrity at the White House, seemingly not plugged in to the federal response.

And this is something that President Trump should have known he would have been susceptible to criticism over, given that the White House just emerged from a period where they were being criticized for neglecting the response in Puerto Rico.

[05:40:07] So now, this is sort of very small and relatively, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant self-inflicted wound that sort of shows how little the White House is thinking about these sorts of things.

ROMANS: I'm not sure he sees it as a wound, though, right? I mean --

BRIGGS: That's -- again, that's the question. I mean, this was Nixon meets Elvis in some manner of speaking.

But didn't it work perfectly -- that shiny little object we did chase around throughout the afternoon and the evening?

WESTWOOD: Well, I'm not sure if it was quite that strategic. It's hard to ever know whether they --

BRIGGS: But you said that this was a private lunch, right? They opened up the cameras and let him go on this rant. Why?

WESTWOOD: Well, you know that President Trump loves this kind of attention.

ROMANS: Right.

WESTWOOD: He really prides this relationship with Kanye. He's elevated him --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WESTWOOD: -- and he thinks it helps him -- it might help him with African-American voters. So perhaps he just wanted to showcase the fact that he was friends with Kanye West and wasn't necessarily thinking about the kind of message it sent to the people of Florida, for instance.

ROMANS: Yes, and people who are worried about the stock market.

BRIGGS: It's everything the right used to hate --

ROMANS: Yes, yes.

BRIGGS: -- these celebrity encounters with the president, not long ago.

ROMANS: That's right.

Let's talk about the situation with Saudi Arabia, and there's been some calls that maybe the Saudi arms deal should be canceled -- this multi-billion-dollar arms deal -- to send a message to the Saudis that this -- you know, what happened in Istanbul -- what apparently happened in Istanbul will not be tolerated.

Is the president throwing cold water on that? Listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs -- like jobs and others for this country.

I don't like the concept of stopping an investment of $110 billion into the United States because you know what they're going to do? They're going to take that money and spend it in Russia or China or someplace else.

So I think there are other ways. If it turns out to be as bad as it might be, there are certainly other ways of handling this situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So the president doesn't sound like he's going to come out strongly on the arms sale part. And, "The New York Times" in an op- ed, saying that at issue here, not only how terrible his fate is.

"The Saudi-led slaughter in Yemen should have stopped American arms sales some time ago. Now, unless the Saudis come up with a credible explanation for Mr. Khashoggi's fate, which is tragically unlikely, business as usual is not an option however high the cost."

It sounds like the president is considering business as usual, Sarah.

WESTWOOD: That's right. I think it looks like President Trump wants to find some kind of way to retaliate against the Saudis if it does, in fact, turn that they did orchestrate this attack on Khashoggi -- and it certainly is starting to look that way -- without scuttling that $110 billion proposed arm sales deal.

The Trump administration has had this realignment with Saudi Arabia. They've made Saudi Arabia their key partner in the Middle East. And, in particular, they've elevated the crown prince Mohammad bin Salman. And a lot of folks -- a lot of critics would say that that has sort of emboldened the Saudis to act more recklessly in the Middle East.

And I think you mentioned a key point, which is the Saudi's activities in Yemen -- the airstrikes that have killed civilians. The Trump administration was already starting to face the mounting criticism --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WESTWOOD: -- of the fact that they seem to be turning a blind eye to that kind of behavior in order to facilitate this relationship.

And here, President Trump doesn't have a ton of credibility to fall back on because he hasn't taken a lot of opportunities to call out human rights abuses from countries he wants to work with, like China, like Saudi Arabia.

And now, he's confronted with the situation and the first thing that he's concerned about seems to be that proposed arms deal. That's concerning to a lot of critics.

BRIGGS: Our complicated relationship with the Saudis, the obvious context. Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- were Saudis, so not the first time this relationship has gotten complicated.

Sarah Westwood, thanks so much for being here. Have a great weekend.

ROMANS: Bright and early this morning for us. Thanks, Sarah.

Forty-three minutes past the hour.

Nearly five months after Harry and Meghan tied the knot, another royal wedding is getting underway. We're going to go live to Windsor Castle where the ceremony will begin in just 20 minutes. A windy day for your fascinator.

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[05:48:24] ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this Friday morning. Global stocks and U.S. futures, they are higher, everybody, after

another very brutal day on Wall Street and that's the damage, of course.

The Dow fell another 546 points yesterday. That's 1,300 points down in two days. The broader S&P 500 closed two percent lower.

You know, investors are concerned about a couple of things. The U.S.- China trade war -- they're worried that's going to slow economic growth -- and they're worried about rising interest rates.

The economy is strong, consumers are spending, and unemployment is the lowest in a generation, so the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates to keep that in check -- to prevent any overheating in this really strong economy.

But higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive and that eats into company profits. It's not also very good for consumers sometimes, either. Many loans are pegged to interest rates, like auto loans and mortgage rates.

And mortgage rates, guys, are nearly five percent. That's the highest level in seven years. The housing market has been in a bit of a slump. There are issues of tight supply -- people can't find houses -- and rising prices.

Now, the benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage is at just about 4.9 percent. That is still historically low but rates have been four percent or lower for years and many buyers are used to those very low rates.

Richard Branson is suspending billion-dollar investment talks with Saudi Arabia. He's citing concern about missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Branson had been talking with the Saudis about investing in Virgin's space company but he is stepping away.

He writes that "If the kingdom were involved, that would change the ability of any of us in the west to do business with the Saudi government."

In fact, many media companies are reconsidering a business conference in Saudi Arabia later this month. "The New York Times" already pulled its partnership.

[05:50:05] BRIGGS: Let's hope there's more of that to come.

CNN has learned the U.S. is working on the assumption that a missing "Washington Post" columnist was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. We will go live to Istanbul, next.

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ROMANS: All right, breaking news this morning. New evidence that missing "Washington Post" columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate. A CNN source brief by Western intelligence says the evidence shows

Khashoggi was killed following some kind of assault and struggle. The source saying the Turkish government told a foreign intelligence service the evidence is in audio and visual form.

[05:55:07] The White House reports -- the "The Washington Post," rather, reports the recordings include voices speaking Arabic and the sounds of Khashoggi being quote "interrogated, tortured, and then murdered."

Turkish media reports a team of 15 Saudi men, including a forensic expert, arrived by private jet in Istanbul about the same day. Saudi Arabia categorically denying any involvement in his disappearance.

BRIGGS: That has not slowed momentum in Congress where leading senators are putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to account for Khashoggi.

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SEN. BOB CORKER (R-TN), CHAIRMAN, SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: My instincts say that there's no question the Saudi government did this. And my instincts say that they murdered him.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I've never been more concerned about his well-being than I am right now. And all the indicators point to Saudi Arabia and if it turns out to be Saudi Arabia, as I've said before, there will be all hell to pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The White House, though, resisting calls for action against Saudi Arabia. President Trump, Thursday, said the U.S. sent investigators to work with Turkey, something Turkish officials flatly deny.

In just the last few minutes, we have learned a Saudi delegation landed in the Turkish capital to participate in the investigation.

International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live for us in Istanbul with the latest. Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Dave.

Very damning information coming from a number of sources. Our source saying that the Turkish authorities shared that intelligence of Khashoggi's and evidence of Khashoggi's murder with a number of their intelligence allies around the world.

One of those intelligence officials who had seen the material and heard the material briefed our source they found it very, very shocking. And the experience of this intelligence agency was something that they really hadn't come across anything that they found so brutal. It took them a little time to make sure that the Turkish authorities

weren't trying to fool them, but they are now convinced that this is real and they do now believe the evidence the Turkish authorities are putting forward of Khashoggi's murder is real. So very, very damning evidence.

This Saudi delegation that's arriving in now -- this investigation delegation -- they're supposed to be teaming up with Turkish officials to form a working group that will in essence get to the -- cut to the chase here, which is to allow the Turkish authorities to get inside the consulate there and give their forensic teams access to the key rooms that they want to get to inside the consulate.

They have the information. They know, and believe, and understand where they think these events -- that Jamal Khashoggi's brutal murder at the end of a long, violent struggle took place. It's difficult at the moment given the Saudi denial to see how there's going to be an agreement here to actually get that access, Dave.

BRIGGS: Yes, and asked if we should cancel our $100 billion arms deal with the Saudis, the president asked, "What good does that do us?" So not clear what Congress can do if the president wants to sweep this under the rug.

Nic Robertson live for us in Istanbul. Thank you.

Allegations of voter suppression in the Georgia governor's race. Democrat Stacey Abrams campaign calling on Republican candidate Brian Kemp to resign as Secretary of State. That demand coming after an Associated Press report revealed Georgia put a hold on more than 53,000 voter registration applications with nearly 70 percent of them belonging to African-Americans.

The reason? They failed to clear the state's exact-match standard. That means even the most minor discrepancy, like a typo or a missing letter, disqualified them.

Abrams vying to become the first black woman elected governor of any state. She is running neck-and-neck with Kemp.

ROMANS: We're just now 25 days from the midterm elections. If you still have not registered to vote, today is the deadline in Idaho, Oklahoma, New York, and North Carolina. So don't forget.

Some of these polls -- there was a new poll this morning from "USA Today" about young people -- only, what, 35 percent --

BRIGGS: Thirty-some percent.

ROMANS: -- think they're going to vote.

BRIGGS: Unfortunate.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Have a great weekend, everybody. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

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GOV. RICK SCOTT, FLORIDA: This hurricane was an absolute monster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was probably the scaredest I've ever been in my life.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is literally like a giant bomb went off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about it, their loves are gone. What do you do?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": The allegations against Saudi Arabia now sparking an international crisis.

CORKER: I think they did it and unfortunately, I think that he's deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a murder, it appears, and we're silent.

GRAHAM: If it turns out to be Saudi Arabia, they'll be all hell to pay.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, October 12th, 6:00 here in New York.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It's great to have you back. I'm very glad that you were there for us --

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- for the storm, but I'm glad that you're back here.

BERMAN: You know, it's strange being back. It's a little odd because when you're down there you have tunnel vision. You only can see what's around you. We had no T.V. for 48 hours and, of course, the power was all out, and you only see what is around you.

I mean, we knew it was bad. I knew the situation was bad in Panama City.