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23 Dead, Dozens Hurt after Tornadoes Hit Alabama; Interview: Rita Smith, Lee County Emergency Management Agency Spokesperson; Winter Storm Forces Schools to Close in NYC, Boston; Senate Poised to to Rebuke Trump's Emergency Declaration. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2019 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:58:52] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, March 4, 6 a.m. here in New York. And we begin with breaking news, because at least 23 people are dead after an outbreak of tornadoes rips through central Alabama. That death toll is expected to rise today.

Take a look at the catastrophic destruction in Lee County. Here is an entire neighborhood wiped out. You can see cars crushed, buildings leveled, debris littering the streets.

Georgia is also reeling at this hour. At least a dozen tornadoes hit that state, causing widespread destruction there.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And this is just one part of the weather story this morning. At this moment, the whole northeast is being hit by a winter storm, some 80 million people waking up under winter weather alerts. More than a foot of snow has fallen in some places already. Public schools are closed here in New York City and in Boston. The morning commute is going to be a mess. We're going to stay on top of that.

But our main concern at this moment is the tornados. Let's begin with CNN's Kaylee Hartung, live in Lee County, Alabama -- Kaylee.

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, just five minutes. That's how little lead time some people here in Lee County, Alabama, had before the first of two deadly tornadoes ripped through this community yesterday afternoon.

Search-and-rescue operations continued into the night, and overnight, the death toll rose to 23 people. We're told that includes a number of children.

We're about a quarter of a mile from what they're considering ground zero of the tornado's devastation in this area, but this is as close as we can get. Police saying this is still a very active scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HARTUNG (voice-over): A series of deadly tornadoes ripping through Alabama and Georgia, leveling homes and causing catastrophic damage across both states.

JAY JONES, LES COUNTY SHERIFF: Houses completely destroyed, homes just basically just slabs left where once stood a home.

HARTUNG: The tornadoes are the deadliest in years, with authorities telling reporters they expect the death toll to rise.

The path of destruction tearing through Lee County, Alabama. Officials say one tornado appears to have traveled for several miles on the ground in one community, destroying nearly everything in a half-mile wide path and sending dozens of people to the hospital with very serious injuries.

JEREMY DANIEL NORTON, ALABAMA RESIDENT: I wouldn't wish this on anybody. This just came on so quick and changed so many lives that, I mean, it's really sickening to watch.

HARTUNG: Neighborhood after neighborhood in this Georgia town leveled. Roofs torn off the tops of Houses. Trees uprooted and blocking streets. Cell-phone towers knocked down.

NORTON: This whole area right here is -- is pretty much just gone. Looking out over this way, which was mostly trees, it just looks like toothpicks broke just all through there.

HARTUNG: This porch, the only thing still standing from this home.

JONES: Contents of one residence we know for a fact was located over a thousand yards away. So we've got a wide -- very wide storm track that went through the area.

HARTUNG: Families gathering anything they could find in the rubble to take with them to safety.

JONES: These families have lost everything they have.

HARTUNG: In the midst of the chaos, some families reuniting with their pets --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that your baby?

HARTUNG: -- and their loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a sweet reunion, isn't it, right there? Granny's OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARTUNG: And when the sun comes up this morning, search-and-rescue operations will intensify. A search area will be divided into a grid, combed through very methodically by authorities.

And Alisyn, in this rural area, authorities say they'll also be using drones with heat-seeking equipment to survey the area.

CAMEROTA: Of course, that makes perfect sense. Kaylee, thank you very much for that.

So the tornado outbreak devastating Lee County, as Kaylee just told us, and the aftermath is just beginning to sink in. CNN's Victor Blackwell is live there with more -- Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, no question the legacy of these tornadoes will be written in the epitaphs of the people who died, who lost their lives here on Sunday. But we are also seeing serious damage to homes and property.

And this home is a total loss. This obviously a mobile home, and as is typical in natural disasters, the mobile homes show the worst of the damage, and early. You can see here the foundation of this home, the wheels exposed here, tossed on its side, a total loss.

Now, some homes in this community have a small amount of damage. Others, it's just the small things that are salvageable after the storm.

But look across the street here. You can see parts of that mobile home a few yards into the woods here, part of the roof here, insulation in the branches. We're seeing also a lot of these exposed roots of trees, lots of trees toppled in this community.

But what you're not seeing are the trees in the road. Because throughout Sunday and overnight, crews did a lot of work to try to clear the roads so that the work that Kaylee talked about can continue when the sun rises.

More work that will happen, the National Weather Service, their survey teams will be out, trying to determine exactly how strong the tornadoes were. They say right now, based on what they've seen, they can say that at least an EF-3 was on the ground here.

What does that mean? That means that the winds were at least 136 miles per hour. If that were a hurricane, it would be a strong Cat 4. So a very strong storm is coming through here, those 23 deaths qualifying this for being the deadliest Sunday, the deadliest day for tornadoes in Alabama since 2011.

A lot of work to be done. It all starts when the sun comes up.

John, back to you.

BERMAN: All right. Victor Blackwell for us on the ground there in Lee County. Victor, thank you for showing us the situation around you so we can get a sense of just how bad it is.

Joining us now on the phone is Rita Smith, spokesperson with the Lee County Emergency Management Agency.

Rita, thank you so much for being with us.

The last count that we had was 23 people killed by these tornadoes. Has that number changed overnight?

[06:05:04] RITA SMITH, SPOKESPERSON, LEE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (via phone): I would not be able to confirm a number for you. That's going to come from our coroner, and when he gives those statements, that's what we rely on. I would not be able to confirm a number.

BERMAN: I know that you have had some 150 people out working the ground over the last 12 to 20 hours. Can you tell me what they have been seeing?

SMITH: What I can tell you is that we had 150-plus in the field and not counting the 50 or so we had in our emergency operations center. And the devastation that they have seen and the devastation that they have had to endure, with families -- families who have lost loved ones, injuries, still some search-and-rescue to be done as soon as daylight hits, they exhausted as many efforts as they could last night well into the late hour. And many, many of us today without any sleep, many of them without any sleep.

BERMAN: I'm sure that they've been up all night, and I know you in the emergency operations center, as well, likely up all night, as well. When the sun does come up very, very shortly, what do you expect to find?

SMITH: It's -- it's going to give a lot clearer picture of just how significant the damage was and just how heartbreaking it is to see a community that was affected so severely.

And we actually had two separate touchdowns.

And the National Weather Service has already been out. They came out last night. They're going to be back out this morning. And determining if we had two touchdowns or if there were, indeed, more than two. Right now we're looking at two separate areas.

BERMAN: Have you been receiving calls through the night from people in need?

SMITH: Not from people in need, because we have a system that was set up before we laid down a few -- a couple of hours ago. It's only been a couple of hours. And a system in place.

We have a shelter that the Red Cross coordinated with us to open at Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard. We have a -- on our website a form where people can contact if they are still missing loved ones and they need information on doing welfare checks to try to locate those folks.

We have not received calls through the night of people in need. A lot of people have been taken care of through the night.

BERMAN: Well that's good, if they are -- if they are getting what they need. That is reassuring. What's the biggest challenge you're facing as the sun comes up? SMITH: All right. Now we've got the debris that has to be cleared

from the right of way. Certain areas are more congested than others. We did have a cell tower that completely covered Highway 280 that had to be removed. And we have a couple of areas in the Beauregard community that are just very, very heavily congested.

And for people that are just coming there to see what's going on, that want to see damage, that want see this, they actually have been getting in the way of our first responders. We have repeatedly requested that they don't do that.

BERMAN: Well, if they are listening to this, we will reiterate that. Please stay at home. Do not get in the way of first responders, the people who are out there and need to reach those who could be suffering at this moment.

SMITH: Yes.

BERMAN: Tell us about Lee County. Tell us about this community that has been hit so hard by this tornado.

SMITH: This is a, for lack of a better word, it's just a phenomenal place to live. It's very, very community- and family-oriented. Other departments look out for other departments. We had numerous, numerous paid and unpaid fire working hand in hand yesterday. There are no -- there are no words that are big enough to say how great this community is and how they come together when there's a crisis.

BERMAN: Well, they're going to need you all to come together right now to see your way through this.

Just lastly again, I know you can't tell us or give us the latest information on the death toll, but we were told it was 23. The sheriff last night told us he expected that number to rise. Do you still expect that number to go up?

SMITH: Our coroner actually said that he expected last night the number that he gave in the interview last night to rise, because there are still people that are unaccounted for that they're trying to account for this morning as soon as they can get some light.

BERMAN: Well, let's hope. Let's hope that, when they do get out there and they do search these buildings and this rubble, that they don't find anyone else who has passed.

SMITH: Agreed. We've had some heartwarming stories. We've had people -- we had one lady in particular, her home was destroyed. And she called last night, and she said, "I went out of town today and no one knew it, and my family thinks that I died. And I'm OK. I didn't tell anybody I was going anywhere today."

[06:10:18] So we've had some positive things also.

BERMAN: Rita Smith, we will let you get back to work. Please keep us posted as developments take place throughout the morning. And we will check back in with you in a couple hours. SMITH: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you so much.

SMITH: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Let's keep all the people in Lee County in our thoughts right now.

Meanwhile, that system that brought those deadly tornadoes to the south is now bringing snow to the East Coast. Nearly a foot of snowfall is expected in some areas, forcing schools to close in New York City and Connecticut and Massachusetts. More than 80 million people from the Midwest to the Northeast are now under a winter storm alert.

CNN's Alison Kosik is live in the thick of it in Boston.

Oh, my gosh. Tell us where you are, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

We are right in downtown Boston and, yes, it is a beautiful picture here. The snow has been falling since midnight here in Boston. So this is six hours of snowfall you're looking at here.

And this is the kind of snow that's heavy and wet. So on the good part of that, it's great to build snowmen. Bad part of it, it's a real bear to move when you're shoveling it from your sidewalks and from your home.

Also on the roads, heavy snow. They're coating the roads here. Good thing is Boston public schools are closed today, so you're seeing lighter traffic at rush hour.

But here's the thing. The snow buildup, it's really piled up during that -- during those crucial hours right now when it is going to be that morning commute. So that's the biggest worry right now.

The sidewalks are getting plowed pretty well, though. They look pretty clear. I caught a couple of guys walking to work, saying, "You know what? This is Boston. Got to get to work." So as you know, Bostonians are used to this kind of snowfall.

Interestingly enough, this could be the biggest snowfall of the season. And it's only expected to be about 7 to 10 inches. All season long so far, Boston has only received about 15.9 inches. Yes, I know it's March, but it is beautiful even to see the snow this late.

John, back to you.

CAMEROTA: Boston doesn't sneeze at a snowfall like that. That's -- they're just used to it. Everybody's dressed in four layers at all times, even summer in Boston.

KOSIK: Yes. Yes, you got it. BERMAN: And that snow is wicked pretty, as we like to say in Boston. Look at it. It's wicked pretty.

All right. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now with the forecast. Chad, the winter storm up north, and we're particularly concerned about these tornadoes down south. What do you have for us?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And you know what, John? It really is one system. You need the cold and you need the warm to get the clash to get the tornadoes.

Well, on the cold side, that's where the snow is. It's ending in about Worcester right now but still a couple of more hours of snow for Boston.

This weather is brought to you by Boost nutritional drink. Be up for life.

Now let's take you back to about 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon when the storms were moving very close to Columbus, Georgia. This is Lee County, Alabama, right there; and there's the tornado.

Now, there are other super cells. In fact, for a time yesterday, I counted ten tornado warnings at the same time for ten separate storms. So there were tornadoes on the ground everywhere yesterday across the Deep South.

Move you ahead one hour. Albany, all the way into Macon just north of Warner Robins, tornado on the ground right there. After dark, Cairo in Georgia had a tornado on the ground. So this didn't even stop after the sun set. This was a very big storm.

And on the north side, that's where the cold air was. On the south side, this is where the humidity was; and that's why they clashed and made such significant weather down here.

In fact, 36 tornadoes. Now that's maybe somebody seeing it from the north and someone seeing it from the south and calling it two separate tornadoes, and it may just be one.

But the weather service will be out there. We know this is at least 150 mile-per-hour tornado that killed all those people. It may be higher than that.

The forecast, though, is frigid. I know you have a lot of slush in New York City. It's going to freeze up tonight. Anywhere that you see snow or ice right now or even water will be frozen tomorrow morning. So not only a bad commute today, but certainly a bad commute tomorrow, as well -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Chad, thank you very much for that warning and wrap-up.

OK. One powerful lawmaker says it is very clear that President Trump obstructed justice, and he's launching an abuse of power investigation. So we have live reports for you from Capitol Hill and the White House next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:08] CAMEROTA: The House Judiciary Committee will formally request documents today from more than 60 people and entities in and around President Trump. And another Republican senator says he will oppose the president's emergency declaration to fund the border wall.

CNN's Lauren Fox is live on Capitol Hill with all the latest. A lot of action there, Lauren.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. And this week you could expect that more Republicans may come out against the president's national emergency on the southern border.

Now, we don't know exactly when they will take this vote, but more Republicans say that they are opposed to the president having this unilateral power to build his border wall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOX (voice-over): Senator Rand Paul announcing that he supports a resolution to block President Trump's declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border, writing in a new op- ed, quote, "I think he's wrong, not only policy, but in seeking to expand the powers of the presidency beyond their constitutional limits."

[06:20:07] Paul joins three other Republicans in opposing Trump's move, despite warnings from the president.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that, really, it's a very dangerous thing for people be voting against border security, for anybody, including Republicans.

FOX: Paul's opposition to the emergency declaration likely giving Democrats the support they need to pass the measure and send it to the president's desk.

TRUMP: Will I veto it? One hundred percent. One hundred percent. And I don't think it survives a veto.

FOX: Pressure also growing on the president from Democrats in the House, with the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, announcing that he plans to request documents from more than 60 people and entities with ties to the president.

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: We are going to initiate investigations into abuses of power, into corruption of -- into corruption, and into obstruction of justice.

FOX: Nadler is seeking information from the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., and the CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, who Mr. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, repeatedly referred to during his congressional testimony when discussing potentially criminal behavior, including alleged hush-money statements to Stormy Daniels. MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: Allen Weisselberg made the

decision that it should be paid over the 12 months so that it would look like a retainer.

FOX: President Trump again denying wrongdoing and railing against the investigations he's facing.

TRUMP: There's no collusion. So now they go and morph into "Let's inspect every deal he's ever done. We're going to go into his finances. We're going to check his deals. We're going to check" -- these people are sick.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX: The president, of course, facing more pressure from House Democrats this morning. The House Oversight Committee has a deadline today for the White House to turn over information related to security clearances.

So we'll be waiting to see if they meet that deadline. And of course, Michael Cohen coming back to Capitol Hill to testify again behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee -- John.

BERMAN: Lauren Fox for us on Capitol Hill. Lauren, thank you very much.

As you heard there with the investigations closing in, President Trump is lashing out. He declared, "I am an innocent man" on Twitter; and he spent two hours in a fiery stream-of-consciousness performance before a conservative audience, a performance that really spared no one.

CNN's Joe Johns live at the White House with the latest here -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, the president was in rare form over the weekend, especially on Twitter as he suggested that the testimony of Michael Cohen, his former attorney, on Capitol Hill, while the president was -- was negotiating with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have contributed to the failure of those talks, even though the president got credit even from Democrats for walking away from those talks, because no deal was seen so much better than a bad deal.

That, of course, was preceded by the president's record-breaking conversation with CPAC, in which he railed against the Russia investigation and even the special counsel who's in the center of it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Unfortunately, you put the wrong people in a couple of positions, and they leave people for a long time that shouldn't be there. And all of a sudden, they're trying to take you out with (EXPLETIVE DELETED), OK? With (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Robert Mueller never received a vote, and neither did the person that appointed him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Busy day scheduled for the president today. He is expected to host the North Dakota state football playoff champions and after that, he's also expected to deliver remarks for the National Association of Attorneys General.

John, Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: Joe, thank you very much.

So let's talk about this. We want to bring in Seung Min Kim. She's a White House reporter for "The Washington Post"; John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst; and Joe Lockhart, former Clinton White House press secretary. Great to see all of you.

Joe, what I heard Nadler saying on the weekend show was basically a roadmap for what they're going to do for the next two years. And it sounded to me like they're going to continue investigations but slow roll any sort of impeachment talk or proceedings. They're not going to get there before the 2020 election. I mean, that's just what I read from what he said.

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I'm not sure I'd today be willing to say not before the 2020 election, but they clearly answered the question, I think, both of you were posing last week, which is post Michael Cohen, what now? What are you going to do?

And I think Nadler was very clear, and Adam Schiff was clear. Then I think Nancy Pelosi's hand is all over this, which is they're going to do their own independent investigation. They're not going to be rushed. Mueller is not a trigger for them. It's just a piece of their puzzle. And they'll do it at their own pace.

I think they understand the perils of an impeachment hearing, and they want to air all of this stuff out before they make that decision.

BERMAN: And just to reiterate why Jerry Nadler matters, he's chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which is where impeachment proceedings have to begin if they are going to begin. That is the committee where they would come out of.

What I heard, and I agree, I mean, I think he was clear that this isn't happening today or tomorrow, but the number 60, Seung Min, seemed to me to be designed for shock and awe. When he went out there on the Sunday shows and told George, basically 60 people, that's a lot of people. The list is long there.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Exactly. It shows just how expansive this investigation is going to be by the House Judiciary Committee.

And Jerry Nadler made it very clear that, while obviously impeachment is a long way down that road, he does believe there has been obstruction of justice.

And you've seen Jerry Nadler, who was a careful person who he knows he has a very difficult role to play here. He has been very methodical over time in how he frames this and how he has kind of rolled out this investigation, particularly since the Democrats took back control of the House.

And his methodical fashion is kind of how House Democrats have been trying to do their investigations in the various committees under the Trump presidency. Because they know that Republicans are going to go after them for overreaching. They know that the president himself derives a lot of, you know, a lot -- he thrives on a political opponent.

So that's why you've seen, for instance, investigating the president's tax returns, the Ways and Means Committee has been slow and deliberative, you know, holding hearings first on the merits of releasing tax returns. Passing legislation later this week, mandating that presidential candidates release tax returns and then making that final request to the Treasury Department for them.

So this is all part of a strategy, obviously, spearheaded by the speaker to take that a very deliberate methodical approach to Trump investigations.

CAMEROTA: John, here's how Jerry Nadler laid out why he believes there's already been obstruction of justice in plain sight. S-16. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADLER: It's very clear that the president struck the president obstructed justice. It's very clear. Eleven hundred times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt. He tried to -- he fired -- he tried to protect Flynn from being investigated by the -- by the FBI. He fired Comey in order to stop the Russian thing, as he told NBC News. He -- he's dangled pardon -- he's threatened -- he's intimidated witnesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That, to me, was the headline out of the Sunday shows, was that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee saying it's very clear the president has committed obstruction of justice. That's a serious thing. Separate from questions of Russian collusion, you know, and any other things they may look at with regard to the finances.

But what you're seeing here is Donald Trump run into the checks and balances that come with divided government. And you are going to see an epic conflict between the executive and Congress. And it's going to be fascinating to watch.

The president's going to be playing to the base, as he did this weekend. And the danger, of course, is that we've all become a bit numb to it. That there's a normalization occurring.

From the president's speech over the weekend, which you know, over two hours long, any number of those sound bites would previously have dominated, you know, a week of coverage and questions about whether the president was well from using the phrase "B.S." for the first time in public to saying that members of Congress hate our country.

And they're all sort of taken with Trump being Trump. He's performance art. You know, he's being an insult comic. But there's something cold and hard about the congressional oversight and the inquiries they're going to be getting, and that's -- that's where to pay attention to.

BERMAN: I want to come back to Congress in just a minute, but I know the CPAC speech really did bug you, so I want to give you a chance to say a little bit more about what really got under your skin there.

AVLON: Look, our -- the coverage has been, instead, treating the president in his own universe, that we're buying into the reality distortion field, where the president's not being judged against the standards of previous presidents.

And individual statements that would normally dominate headlines are swept up under the rug of Trump being Trump. But it's not Trump being Trump when the president of the United States says that members of Congress hate America.

It's not being Trump when the first time on record the president has publicly used the phrase "B.S." -- I'm not going to repeat it in the morning -- and there's virtually no -- no shocking -- no shock quality to it, no commentary on it. And those are just --

CAMEROTA: Because we are past that. I mean, we are past that, John. I hear what you're saying.

AVLON: We're not.

CAMEROTA: We are. I mean, everybody would say, "Tell me something I don't know about Donald Trump."

AVLON: That's --

CAMEROTA: This is how he speaks.

AVLON: That's the danger of normalization: that the president can say that members of the opposition party in Congress, quote, "hate our country," and we're treating it as just another Sunday. It's not.

The reason you use history to analyze current events is because it imposes a sense of perspective. And if we buy into that normalization, we end up aiding and abetting, I think, the dumbing down of our democracy.

LOCKHART: I mean, I think there's a reason that.

END