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Pompeo Meets with Saudi over Missing Journalist; Sasse on Divided Americans; Trump Tweets About Warren; Deficit Highest Since 2012; House Survives Storm. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 16, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I do want to ask you about the news from Saudi Arabia. The Saudi's explanation seems to be, or will be when they come out with it officially, that this was an interrogation gone wrong, torture that took a bad turn. The implications of that may be just as bad as any other explanation.

SEN. BEN SASSE (R), NEBRASKA: Yes, that doesn't seem to me to be making anything better. The Saudis have a lot of explaining to do. My last classifying briefing on this was Thursday night. So I want to be clear about intelligence that I don't know. But the Saudis got a real problem. This guy goes into the embassy. He doesn't come out. If he had come out, we'd have seen the videotape of that by now. Something terribly bad happened in there. And the Saudis know what it is and they need to explain it. This is -- this is a country that we need to have a conversation with about the future and they need to get honest real fast.

BERMAN: And I think they need to see the United States exhibiting leadership on this issue. And one of the things the president has said, he said there will be severe consequences.

But the other thing he repeatedly points out is, well, even if this did happen, it didn't happen here. And that's the same language he's used dealing with Vladimir Putin and assassinations and poisons. What message does that send?

SASSE: Yes, that's not the right message. So Americans, 320 million of us, we can't police everything in the world, but we do believe things in the America creed about human dignity. And it's a universal thing. And so when we look at the Middle East, and there are lots of origins and reasons for the conflict and problems in the Middle East, we are there because we believe certain things about human dignity. And we know when things go wrong there, they spiral out of control and they come home to roost. We need to have our policy flow from our principals.

BERMAN: What does it say if in fact this man was tortured beyond control and died as a result of torture if Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince, is connected to it? What does it say that he thought he could do this? Even if he wasn't trying to kill him, even if he thought it was just a rendition gone wrong, what does it say that he thought he could get away with this? SASSE: Yes. Again, the Saudis have a lot to answer for. They've got

some big problems in the intelligence that I've seen, raises more questions than any of their cover stories right now are answering. I hope the president is consulting deeply with this intelligence community. We have a lot of heroes and patriots in there and they know a lot and I hope the president's listening.

BERMAN: We'll get some news from the Mike Pompeo meeting in a little bit. We'll check back in with you after that.

In the meantime, I do want to ask you about this book because, again, talk about a book that hits on a theme at is at the right time to have this discussion. It's called "Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal."

One of the platitudes in life is mostly about politics but also just about America is, we used to say there is more that unites us than divides us. And we said that. I do wonder whether it's still true.

SASSE: Yes. And so I named this "Them" on purpose because the antidote to "them" is "we." And most of "we" is what happens locally. The things that make people happy are, do you have a tight family? Do you have a couple of deep friendship? Do you have shared work, shared vocation, shared projects, lifelong coworkers? Do you have a local worshipping community? All of that stuff is being undermined by the digital revolution. And people are looking to politics to find meaning about good and evil.

Politics has important work to do. We need to build good bridges and roads in a cost effective way, but you shouldn't look for grand meaning and hope in politics. Politics is mostly about who are we against right now. People need a lot more "we" in what we're for together. We need to rebuild that texture in local communities.

BERMAN: You were looking for what -- what is really affecting us and plaguing all of us and what's wrong in the country. And one of the answers you came up with, and I found this so fascinating, loneliness.

SASSE: Yes. So researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other -- other medical and public health researchers are arguing now that loneliness may be our number one public health crisis. We've had -- having a friendship in America in the last 27 years. The average American had 3.2 friends in 1990, 1.8 today. Forty percent of our neighbors have either no confidants at all or only one. And that loneliness is fueling all sorts of terrible stuff. It turns out loneliness is more costly to your health than smoking 15 cigarettes in a day. Loneliness has downstream effects in our politics. We need to tackle these problems and we need 320 million Americans to read them and to look at what those community solutions are.

BERMAN: And you've been making the case, this isn't a book about politics. It's a book about society. A book about all of us. But, obviously, now politics plays into it. Doesn't seem to be helping the problems you're laying out in this book.

SASSE: No, we can't do entitlement reform. We can't do an infrastructure bill. We can't have a long term rational conversation about what our immigration policy should look like if everybody in politics mostly thinks they're there to scream at the people in the other colored jerseys, blue or red jerseys, are evil. It turns out, we should be looking for 70 and 80 and 90 percent solutions in politics, but only if we can put politics in the proper box. And politics isn't the place where you're going to find somebody to comfort you in your old age. That's going to happen in your neighborhood. We need to rebuild those neighborhoods first.

BERMAN: You are talking about the impact of the digital world, social media on all of this. I think in the last 20 minutes, President Trump's been on Twitter, you know, 10 different tweets, three of them were about Elizabeth Warren.

SASSE: I have happily not been on Twitter in the last 20 minutes, so I don't know what all of those are about. But it is the case that our teenage kids are --

BERMAN: Does it matter, though? Does it matter? If he's going after Elizabeth Warren on Twitter, does it matter what it's about?

[08:35:03] SASSE: Yes, I mean, it's not a healthy place to have a political debate, right? Twitter is a place where you're trying to get the one quick put down that's going to make all the people who are already in your silo, in your echo chamber cheer for you. It doesn't make you any happier.

It turns out, statistically, if you go from 200 to 500 to 1,000 social media friends, you don't get any happier. If you know the person who lives two doors away from you statistically in your neighborhood, you actually are much more likely to be happy. We need to put the smartphones down a little bit more of the time. They're a great economic tool. I'm glad I have my three phones. But we box them up at our house a lot because we have teenage kids and we see the addictive potential of how it pulls you away from place and neighbors (ph).

BERMAN: What is the president's role, this president, President Trump's role and responsibility in the problem you're laying out?

SASSE: Yes, so I want to be clear, I think the president does a lot to exacerbate a number of the scabs that we have in our society right now, but these problems aren't two years old. The president can't fix this because the president didn't cause this. Politics can't fix this. Politics didn't cause this. This is two-plus decades in the coming. The digital revolution really is undermining place and we have to rebuild community. What "Them" tries to do is start a conversation which is construct about the way that we rebuild that neighborliness.

BERMAN: Sometimes you suggest the media lets itself get played by the president.

SASSE: He's good at this.

BERMAN: So what would you do? If you -- if you were in charge of us, what would you do? SASSE: Well, first of all, not only should I not be in charge of us,

nobody should be in charge of us, because the greatness of a republic is moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and little league coaches and rotary, you know, venture philanthropy projects. That should be the heart of community in America.

Politics is to create a framework for order, liberty, but we don't want the political square (ph), which is about power, to be the center of American life. And so we need a lot more conversations that start in our neighborhoods and then send people to Washington to do a limited number of things but then come back home. Don't look to Washington to solve our problems. We need to look to the neighborhood.

BERMAN: Could this be a platform for a presidential campaign for someone who's name rhymes with like Ken Fasse.?

SASSE: That's a bad -- it sounds like a goofy name rhyme. That's not what I'm looking to do. I have little kids and we lived on a campaign bus for 16 months. My then baby, I think, puked in 93 Nebraska counties. Multiplying that by 50, it sounds like a terrible proposition.

BERMAN: That's awesome for the resume going forward.

Ben Sasse, senator from Nebraska, thanks so much for being with us.

SASSE: Thanks for having me on.

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John, as you know, Latino voters are a key voting bloc in this community. Could they make the difference in November? We take a closer look, next.

Plus, still standing after Hurricane Michael. How did this house survive?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:10] CAMEROTA: All right, with just three weeks before the midterm elections, Democrats are in a tough race to capture the Latino vote. They're pulling out all the stops to try to generate enthusiasm in some Hispanic communities.

CNN's Kyung Lah is live in Phoenix with more.

What have you learned, Kyung?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.

Nearly 30 million Latinos are eligible to vote in this upcoming midterms. Enough to make a major impact. But Democrats already fear that those numbers may not meet expectations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH (voice over): The push for the Latino vote. In Arizona, volunteers are calling voters cell phones in Spanish. In Nevada, organized labor, most of them Latinos, going door to door. But signs that turnout trouble may be looming.

LUIS HERIDA, DNC COMMITTEE MEMBER: The numbers are alarming sometimes, but we got to dig a little bit deeper.

LAH (on camera): What do you mean the numbers are alarming?

HERIDA: If they're not registering support or they're undecideds or like they're just -- they're holding back on choosing who they're going to vote for.

LAH (voice over): A voting bloc Democrats hoped would surge in the upcoming midterm election.

LAH (on camera): If the emphasis were put on the Latino vote that's put on, for example, suburban white women, what kind of a game changer would that be?

BETTY GUARDADO, UNITED CARE LOCAL 11: I mean we would be represented. Right now we're not represented.

LAH (voice over): The Latino vote could significantly impact midterm races in these states with high Hispanic populations.

After two years of President Trump's animosity from separating families at the U.S./Mexico border, to anti-immigrant rhetoric.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're not sending their finest, that I can tell you. And we're sending them the hell back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like to vote.

LAH: Some told us they'd just rather stay home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't do nothing for us. It's just -- I just don't like to at all.

LAH: You don't feel that you have a say?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LAH: You don't have more of a say in government if you vote?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we don't -- the government doesn't help us for nothing.

LAH: The Latino voter turnout rate in midterms has dropped since 2006. So in 2018, candidates across the country are going bilingual on both sides of the aisle, but it's the Democrats who are counting on Latino turnout to win seats I Congress.

LAH (on camera): Do you feel that the Democratic establishment is paying enough attention to the Latino vote?

HERIDA: Not enough, but there are inroads. Little by little I think we are getting to the numbers. And by them paying attention, then you can motivate them to turn out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: And Latinos are not monolithic as a voting bloc. In the latest Gallup poll, 25 percent of them say that they approve of President Trump.

[08:45:00] And something else to remember, Alisyn, is that as a demographic, they're quite young and youth means that people are less inclined to vote.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: And that is a problem! The youth need to turn out to vote.

Thank you very much, Kyung.

OK, so it's time for "CNN Business Now."

America's deficit is ballooning. Higher spending and lower taxes are pushing it to the highest level in years.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with more.

Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Alisyn.

Question, do deficits matter these days in D.C.? The federal government is racking up the bill, spending so much more than it takes in. It's running the largest budget deficit in six years, up 17 percent this year to $779 billion. The highest since 2012, when the country was spending big to stimulate a struggling economy. But 2018 is very different. The economy is strong and growing. Typically deficits shrink during boom times. The government collects more taxes. But thanks to tax reform, the U.S. is spending more than it takes in. Spending rose 3 percent because of higher interest payments on our debt and more defense spending. At the same time, tax cuts mean less money is coming into government coffers. Government revenue was flat with corporate tax collection down 22 percent, or $76 billion.

Now, the White House defended the tax cuts. They say it is boosting economic growth, which will eventually increase tax revenue. The Treasury secretary says the White House will eventually cut wasteful spending to make up the difference. Now that makes progressive nervous. It likely means Social Security and health care cuts they fear.

And, remember, when the U.S. spends more than it takes in, you've got to borrow the money, right? And who is the biggest lender? The largest foreign holder of U.S. debt is China. And the U.S. is currently waging a trade war against China. John.

BERMAN: Who could have predicted that these deficits would have ballooned? Who would ever have predicted that? Everyone.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: Thanks, Romans, appreciate it.

Hurricane Michael flattened much of Mexico Beach in Florida. But look at this house. It defied the storm's historic fury. The owners of that house join us to explain how they managed to build this thing so well. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:51:37] BERMAN: Hurricane Michael has destroyed nearly everything in its path in the Florida panhandle. That's the town of Mexico Beach. You can just see pictures there. The aerials for the scope of the damage. But this house managed to withstand the historic hurricane. It's one of the few structures still standing. Look at that. Look at the difference between that house and everything around it.

Joining us now are the homeowners, Russell King and Dr. Lebron Lackey.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being with us.

First, your reaction when you first saw the pictures of your house and all the damage that was done around it.

RUSSELL KING, OWNER OF HOME THAT SURVIVED HURRICANE: You know, we're glad our house survived, but we're so sad -- we're overcome with sadness for everybody else.

DR. LEBRON LACKEY, OWNER OF HOME THAT SURVIVED HURRICANE: So the relief of seeing the pictures was just incredible at the time.

KING: He watched the storm come in. We had arlo (ph) cameras stationed on the decks. He watched the storm coming in. I'd been watching CNN all day and knew it was coming, but I had to turn it off. And he kept calling me. And I kept hanging up on him.

LACKEY: I was watching the whiteout through the eye wall.

KING: We had arlo (ph) cameras here, they survived.

LACKEY: It was incredible.

KING: That are in -- there it is. And y'all got the disk out of it.

BERMAN: Yes, no, no, we've seen --

LACKEY: When I first drove into town --

BERMAN: Go ahead. LACKEY: I'm sorry. When I first drove into town, I had been relieved

because I had already seen the pictures of the house and the fact that the house stood. And I'd already -- I'd already seen the pictures of destruction, but there was just nothing like it firsthand. Before I ever made it to the house, I already had fears in my eyes for the community.

BERMAN: No, it is hard. It's so hard to look at the community now and think of everything that was lost.

Why did your house --

KING: We were with our friends yesterday.

BERMAN: Why did your house survive?

KING: Go ahead.

We put a lot of work in it.

LACKEY: We paid attention to every detail from the ground up. At every point, from pilings to the roof and everything in between, when it came time to make a decision about what level of material or what to use, we didn't pay attention to code. We went above and beyond code. And we tried to -- and we asked the question, what would survive the big one? And we consistently tried to build it for that.

BERMAN: And this was the big one.

KING: The engineers took all kinds of things -- yes, apparently so.

BERMAN: My understanding is that the codes -- the Hurricane Andrew code in the Florida panhandle is that you have to build a house to withstand 120 miles per hour winds. You built this to withstand 240 miles per hour winds, is that right?

LACKEY: Ah, 240, 250 something like that. It's -- it's poured concrete walls on top of 40 foot pilings and rebar all in the walls. Steel cables go from the girders above the pilings, through the roof, and are -- and continue through the roof down the other side on the back wall.

BERMAN: And then, of course, you can see the house built up on the stilts.

KING: There's other kinds of things --

BERMAN: I mean you can see it built up high. Why was that done?

KING: Now, that's code. We have -- obviously we followed everything that was code. But then we went beyond that. I could have put a balcony that I wanted on the east side of the house. The engineer said, I thought you wanted a hurricane house. We took it off. I wanted more overhang. He said, I thought you wanted a hurricane house. So our soffit is very small. We don't have any vinyl. It's all hardy board, hardy construction, the eaves, everything that we could do that way we did, trying to make it as survivable. We took windows out that we thought -- instead there's concrete there. A lot of people criticized us. You know, our friends said, why don't you put more windows in. We did put the gulf view in, so you've got that, but the rest of it not so much.

[08:55:17] LACKEY: And we put in -- and we put in hurricane windows by Custom Windows Systems and those are rated for 140 mile per hour wind, four pound projectile hurricane windows. And, you know, they did their job.

BERMAN: How much more did it cost?

KING: The president of that company will be here tomorrow.

BERMAN: How much more did this house cost than if you had done it otherwise?

LACKEY: We've estimated 15 to 20 percent. Would you say that's accurate?

KING: Our land -- they're saying I saw where in "The Times" the guy that did our -- Mr. Gaston (ph), that did our designing, he thought it was more than that. And we just have to -- we just have to go and figure because the hurricane windows are supposed to be in regardless and the hurricane doors. You're supposed to do a lot of that regardless. And going from vinyl to hardy board construction or other -- cement board, you know, it's not -- it's not that much.

Now, we -- the 30 foot pilings is what we were going to do, and then I called and said, well, what can we get better than that? And they said, we can get 40 foot. And it was like $2,000 more.

BERMAN: Right.

KING: Then I called back. I said, well, can we get 50 foot? Well, they make them for commercial but that was going to be $2,000 more. I said great, we'll do that. But then they said they couldn't get them here to us without spending about $12,000 more to get them here. Of course now I wished I'd spent that and they were 50 foot in the ground, but --

LACKEY: But basically you beef up the specs. And at every point along the way you reach some point where you can't beef up the specs anymore within reason.

BERMAN: Right. Russell King, Dr. Lebron Lackey, thanks so much for being with us. We're happy for you --

KING: Can I say one more thing?

BERMAN: Very quickly, sir.

KING: Just, thank you to CNN. I watched y'all's pre-storm coverage. There are people who are alive today, in my opinion, because y'all got the word out. Sometimes you're accused, you know, of over dramatization and all. Y'all did a -- from the time this thing formed in the Caribbean, y'all were reporting on it, tracking it, telling us where it was going to go. And he was watching the camera. And I was watching it then. That's before I chickened out. But y'all did a great job of warning people. People are alive today, in my opinion, because CNN warning people, saying, please get out of harms way.

Plus, all these brave, wonderful people --

BERMAN: Right.

LACKEY: The first responders.

KING: The first responders, they're having to -- they're in here searching debris now looking for people that are still missing.

BERMAN: Yes.

KING: (INAUDIBLE) it puts their lives in jeopardy.

BERMAN: Gentlemen, thank you.

KING: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Your community is going to need you. They're going to be leaning on you in the coming days and weeks and we appreciate you being there today.

Thank you.

KING: Thank you.

LACKEY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: That's a really nice sentiment that he got in there at the end and everyone's going to have to follow that blueprint, however they built that house.

BERMAN: Yes, that's the future.

CAMEROTA: CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto begins after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Two full weeks after Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for what should have been a routine visit for marriage papers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Saudi capital for a visit that is anything but. Pompeo is on a fact-finding mission for President Trump, though it's not clear how many facts he'll come home with.

Regarding his 15 minute chat with King Salman this morning, his spokesman says only that Pompeo thanked the king for, and I'm quoting here, supporting a thorough, transparent and timely investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance.

[09:00:11]