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Tornadoes Kill 23, Hurt Dozens in Alabama; Interview: Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones; Schools Close in Northeast Due to Winter Storm; Rand Paul to Oppose Trump's Emergency Declaration; Interview: Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL). Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

JAY JONES, SHERIFF, LEE COUNTY ALABAMA (via phone): No, ma'am. We currently are confirming 23 fatalities in regard to the storms and, of course, we hope that number does not go up, but we're afraid that it could possibly increase as the day wears on.

[07:00:14] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Is there any common connection between the 23 people who were killed? Were they all on the same street or the same vicinity?

JONES: All in the same general area. We have a one -- about a one- square-mile area particularly that was affected, a lot of residences within that specific area. And all of the fatalities occurred within that -- within that range here off of Alabama Highway 51 south of the city of Opelika.

CAMEROTA: And some of the fatalities were children?

JONES: Unfortunately, yes, ma'am. That's correct.

CAMEROTA: What is your biggest challenge right now as, you know, the morning light begins there?

JONES: Just the sheer number of -- of debris everywhere. We have tons of debris, a lot of residences completely destroyed. We're dealing with some of the victims that we found yesterday who were actually under debris and makes it very difficult to locate, also to conduct a search operation which we'll start here shortly.

CAMEROTA: We had talked earlier to a spokesperson from emergency services who said that you guys will be employing heat-seeking drones. So are those up in the air and how are those going to work?

JONES: Yes, we have drones have infrared capabilities and they locate heat signatures. We will be using that this morning. We'll also be using some standard helicopters in the search, as well.

CAMEROTA: Do you know how many people are missing?

JONES: We do have some reports that people are still not accounted for. We'll be concentrating on the areas where they were last located. They could be some of the individuals that were actually victims. We're still trying to reunite families and ensure that we have the -- we get those identities and make sure that, if we can match the people that have been reported missing with some of our victims.

CAMEROTA: Now, of course, I mean, I understand these are early hours, and it's chaos there. But are there still dozens of people who are reported missing?

JONES: We've got -- we've got several. I don't have an exact number, but it's going to be up in the double digits.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff, I know that you've been sheriff there for 20 years. Have you ever seen anything like this?

JONES: Nothing of this nature that I can recall in memory.

CAMEROTA: And what -- why is that? I mean, obviously, you're no stranger to tornadoes, so what makes what happened last night so different?

JONES: It's just the sheer magnitude of the destruction, just the debris everywhere, and just the difficulty in getting into the area because of that. Again, we just have not had anything quite like this in our area ever that I know of.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff, how is your home and your family?

JONES: Oh, fine, thank you. We were in the Auburn area. The cities Auburn and Opelika were north of the damaged areas. It's really confined to the rural areas south of the twin cities.

CAMEROTA: I'm happy to hear that. There's also -- I mean, obviously, the fatalities, this is the largest amount of people killed in years in Alabama. But there's also a lot of injuries. Can you tell us of the numbers and what those look like this morning?

JONES: Not sure -- not sure the number of injuries. We did have several. They've been treated at area hospitals in Opelika and in the city of Columbus, Georgia.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Do you know how many tornadoes hit?

JONES: We do not know. Possibly two based open the damage, but we're going to get assessments later in the day and see exactly what we've got.

CAMEROTA: I mean, we're just looking right now at your area on the video that we have and it, you know, it's just shocking. I mean, it's just -- it's a stunning image of everything that's happened to trees. And then there's other -- we have correspondents in front of homes and you can see some here, you know, cars tossed around and homes just completely splintered and destroyed.

JONES: That's right.

CAMEROTA: Obviously, I mean, this is -- this is, of course, what tornadoes do, but the amount of damage in your area is really stunning this morning.

JONES: I would categorize it as catastrophic in many cases. The damage is incredible.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Sheriff Jay Jones, thank you very much. We know you have a very busy morning. Thank you. Please come back to us with any update.

JONES: Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the light still coming up, the death toll still at 23.

Want to get a better look of the extent of damage on the ground there. CNN's Kaylee Hartung live in Lee County with the latest -- Kaylee.

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, one square mile of significant damage here in Lee County as the sheriff described, maybe as much as two square miles.

But with this morning light, their search-and-recovery efforts will intensify, halting overnight, because the conditions were just too dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

[07:05:02] JONES: 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: The sheriff mentioned they'll be putting helicopters and drones up in the sky this morning. That heat-seeking equipment on the drones important in the possible recovery process, Alisyn, but also just the bird's-eye view that they will be able to get for the first time will be incredibly important as they try to better understand the extent of the damage here.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Kaylee. Thank you very much for that update.

We just heard from the sheriff the worst damage was two mobile homes, and that's where we find CNN Victor -- Victor Blackwell. He is live in front of one to show us what it looks like.

What are you seeing, Victor?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, let's get right to that. With daylight now, we're seeing more of the drama behind this storm. This is one of those mobile homes and, in natural disasters, these get it the worst.

We can see now the flooring, the carpet from this home. It was just shoved onto its side and slammed up against some trees here.

And if you look 30, 40 feet into the air here, the insulation is in the branches in this home. And we're seeing damage like this all along this road. This is County Road 100.

And actually, Jonathan, if you could kind of zoom in down here, you see parts of this home about 20 yards into this little portion of the forest here. And all along this road, you've got a wall here with the window, more insulation, parts of a home.

Now I say "a home," because there's no way to know which home in this neighborhood any of this came from. Of course, we assume that came from this mobile home, because it's a similar window pane that's on home we're seeing.

But we know from the National Weather Service that the winds were expected here to have been of an EF-3, at least they say at this point, that means 136 miles per hour could be stronger. They'll have survey teams here to determine that.

We're seeing a lot of this, as well, uprooted trees across this area. I can see at least about a half dozen from where I'm standing. And we're just seeing more of this as the sun comes up.

Now, as Kaylee said, the work will continue as the sun comes up. We know that there will be a briefing from authorities at the top of the next hour.

And I have to tell you, as we drove through, there was no power here, so you couldn't see much. We could see a little of our headlights bouncing off the windows of some homes that were untouched. So just a small amount of damage.

But also, there were some homes where just the small things were salvageable. So as is typical with -- with a tornado, it jumped from house to house, and not everyone is seeing this type of damage. As we drive around and we try to survey this area, we'll bring you more as we find it.

John, back to you.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you so much, Victor, for telling us the stories there on the ground.

Of course, our major focus is on Alabama, the aftermath of that deadly tornado. But we do want to tell you, that system that brought the deadly tornadoes to the South is hammering the Northeast at this moment with snow. More than a foot of snow in some areas forcing schools to close here in New York City and in Boston. More than 80 million people from the Midwest to the Northeast are under winter storm alerts.

CNN's Alison Kosik is live in Boston with the very latest there -- Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

So the snow's been falling at a pretty good clip since midnight. It is beginning to taper off. And the kind of snow that's falling, it's that wet, heavy sticky kind, the fun kind that you get to throw at your photographer and build a snowman.

But then there are the headaches of it. You've got to shovel it. It's really heavy. And then what it does to the roads here, it creates this thick coating of slippery treacherous driving. Although you're not seeing the Bostonian drivers here having any issue making their way through the roads. They're kind of used to this.

Also, the plows have been making their way on the streets and also on the sidewalks. We're seeing the sidewalks pretty clear this morning too, considering anywhere from 9 inches to a foot of snow has fallen overnight.

This is actually going to wind up being Boston's biggest snowstorm of the season. It's been pretty light as far as snowfall goes. Only about 15.9 inches has fallen the entire season. So in this one fell swoop, we're getting all this snow. It is beautiful, but as you said, Boston public schools are closed. It is keeping the roads a little clearer than usual, helping those plows get through and make it so these buses can zoom through these slippery streets -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Alison, we thought that was a footpath behind you until we saw the bus zooming and the other drivers not slowing down for the snow. Typical Bostonians.

BERMAN: Because it's Boston.

CAMEROTA: That's right. Alison, thank you very much for the update from there.

Our CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers, joins you now with more. What are you see seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Alison, the heaviest snow about to end for Boston, but there's still some light snow behind it and much colder air. I think that's the story for tonight. We'll be down into the teens. So everything that isn't frozen this afternoon will be refrozen by tonight, tomorrow morning.

Cumberland, Rhode Island, you are the winner so far: 14.3. Foxboro, for you, John, 12 inches of snow. One solid foot there. Greenwich got about 8 inches in Central Park somewhere around 3.5.

Now let's back you up to yesterday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, when these storms were down in the South, using the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and that cold air that made the snow overnight even in New York City. They clashed. It's warm and cold, and when it clashes, it's never a good thing.

This is the storm that moved through Lee County. Lee County right there. That storm may have been on the ground for 65 miles. So we're going to watch that.

And then all these other super cells were all out here, all rotating with more tornado warnings and other tornadoes on the ground, creating more damage that we haven't even got to yet, because they're still out there looking at that damage.

Even until almost midnight last night, there were storms that were still tornadic. At times, ten tornado warnings at a time for ten different cells yesterday. This was quite an outbreak of severe weather for sure, in fact, over 30 tornadoes possible.

The weather service will be out there looking for it. Right now, it's completely clear. Everything is gone, but boy, yesterday was an ugly day. Hail, wind, tornadoes, 36 chances of tornadoes everywhere across the southeast. It will get a lot colder tonight. High today in New York, somewhere

around 38. But tonight, everything you see that's slush will be frozen. We're back into the teens. That's back to you.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that sounds unpleasant. That sounds very unpleasant, Chad. Thank you for that.

OK. Senator Rand Paul announcing that he will vote to block President Trump's emergency declaration to build the border wall. So now what?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:17] CAMEROTA: Republican Senator Rand Paul says he will vote to block President Trump's national emergency declaration. Paul says he cannot give the president extra constitutional powers. And that means there are enough votes in the Senate to send the disapproval to the president's desk. President Trump has vowed to veto that.

Joining us now is Matt Schlapp. He's the chairman of CPAC and the former political director for President George W. Bush.

Matt, great see you.

MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: Good to see you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let me read to you what Senator Rand Paul wrote in a FOX News op-ed about his reasoning.

He says, "I would literally lose my political soul if I decided to treat President Trump differently than President Obama. Every single Republican I know decried President Obama's use of executive power to legislate. We were right then. But the only way to be an honest office holder is to stand up for the same principles, no matter who is in power."

What do you think of his rational?

SCHLAPP: I'm a great admirer of Rand Paul. I think there's a -- there's the legal question as to whether or not Donald Trump has the legal right to declare this emergency, which I think is an open-and- shut case.

But then individual senators have to decide whether that law that Congress passed and the Supreme Court upheld, whether or not that law is something they want to support specifically in this case.

So he's got the right to make that call. Have no impact on what happens with the emergency, because of course, Donald Trump will veto anything that goes to his desk.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but what Senator Paul is talking about is the hypocrisy of it. I mean, he's saying that, as you know, Matt, I mean, you guys couldn't stand it when President Obama went around Congress and when he used some sort of executive order.

SCHLAPP: You're right.

CAMEROTA: You couldn't stand it. So why now are you OK with it?

SCHLAPP: Because in this specific case, Alisyn, when it comes to our immigration laws that Barack Obama decided to not enforce, a president doesn't have the right to pick and choose the laws that he enforces. You have to enforce the laws that are on the book.

What's happening here in this specific case is the Constitution gives the president the -- not just the authority, but the responsibility of securing our borders.

And what Congress has done, in its own profligate spending, has already appropriated millions and billions of dollars in different accounts that can be used to secure the southern border. Excuse me.

CAMEROTA: Well --

SCHLAPP: So that's the difference here is that the funding follows the president's clear delineated responsibilities in our law. And that's why he will win in court.

CAMEROTA: Well, but --

SCHLAPP: Now Rand Paul can stay it would be better if we had a legislative solution. I would agree, we'd be better.

But the Democrats have decided that they will give the president nothing when it comes to this.

CAMEROTA: A couple things. You know that President Obama had more deportations than any previous president in recent memory. So the fact that you say did he nothing to enforce the law, he deported tons of people, No. 1.

[07:20:09] No. 2, you know that this is precedent-breaking. It's precedent-breaking. So the fact that the president can declare an emergency declaration, yes.

But no president has ever been denied by Congress the money and then done an end run around Congress. That is what is making this situation so different.

SCHLAPP: Yes, I think this is right. First of all, you're right about President George W. Bush and Obama, that they stepped up the level of deportations.

Barack Obama was even called the deporter in chief by some on the left.

The difference now is that, because we changed our laws in 2006, and we've had other judges from the Ninth Circuit and other places intervene, it's not the numbers of people who are coming here illegally. Sometimes those lines are pretty flat. Sometimes they come down. It's the type of people who are coming here. There are people from countries who get an automatic in to the

country. The number of children and young women being trafficked is going through the roof if you talk to Doctors Without Borders.

If you get in and look at the granularity of the types of people who are coming to our country, we have very little ability to ever deport them. And that is the problem.

And that's why we've had people die at the border, and that's why we've had this trauma of family separation.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SCHLAPP: There really is a crisis. And the difference here between past presidents on these emergency powers. And Donald Trump is that, when it comes to immigration, most presidents are fairly careful, because it's an explosive topic.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but --

SCHLAPP: When it comes to Donald Trump, he said, look, we're never going to solve this problem until we secure the border, and I agree with him.

CAMEROTA: Yes. But just to be clear, I mean, the numbers of people who are seeking asylum, which is what you're talking about, women and children --

SCHLAPP: No.

CAMEROTA: -- have not changed since 2017. So he didn't declare this in 2017.

SCHLAPP: No.

CAMEROTA: So it's --

SCHLAPP: I don't know --

CAMEROTA: Here's the thing, Matt. It's hard to believe that it's a national emergency when the president declared it and then went golfing the next day and the day after.

SCHLAPP: So Alisyn, what you basically said is it could only have been an emergency if he had declared it when he first became president. And I object to that.

CAMEROTA: I'm saying why didn't he declare it that year when there were people seeking asylum then?

SCHLAPP: Because the first reason is because I think he, as -- you know, believe it or not, it's a pretty tough job; and he was an outsider. Never spent a day in government.

CAMEROTA: Well --

SCHLAPP: I think he is learning about what the law tells him he can and can't do. No. 1.

No. 2, he has tried to work with Congress, including a Republican Congress.

CAMEROTA: And it didn't work.

SCHLAPP: A Republican Congress that wasn't that willing to actually secure the boarder.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that's right. No, no. They weren't willing to give him the money that he wanted. That's different, Matt.

SCHLAPP: They did give him the money. They just gave it to him in these other accounts which they have finally figured out they can use to build the wall. And I think the Supreme Court will uphold this, and I think -- I think these extra 200 miles of border protection is going to get built.

CAMEROTA: Now is a good time to segue to B.S. So let's talk about what happened at CPAC.

SCHLAPP: Did you just say, "B.S."?

CAMEROTA: I said, "B.S." I did not say the full term.

SCHLAPP: OK.

CAMEROTA: As the president did. Here's the president as just a part of his two-hour speech at CPAC. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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)

CAMEROTA: Did you expect him to speak for two hours?

SCHLAPP: I think it was two hours and 20 minutes. I talked to him --

CAMEROTA: How much time did you allot for it?

SCHLAPP: I don't even know, because maybe 30, 40 minutes. But when I talked to him afterwards, I think he could have gone another hour, Alisyn. He was still amped up. We had a long conversation.

And, you know, I think the thing about CPAC, which is probably hard for people who have never gone, is this is not so much a speech that the president gave. It was almost a conversation as he was talking to people in the audience throughout it. It was -- it was an extraordinary event. CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, people also felt that -- you used their term

amped up. We've heard the term, you know, sort of unhinged. I mean, people thought that he was giving his own kind of self-preservation defense there, just that it had gotten to him. That the week after Michael Cohen had gotten to him and he felt the need for two hours to kind of justify where he was.

SCHLAPP: Well, I do think there's a little bit of political therapy that goes on between Donald Trump and the CPAC audience.

I mean, there is -- it didn't -- it wasn't always in this spot. And it's come to the point where the people who come to CPAC are really heartened and vindicated by the things President Trump is doing. There's genuine affection for him. I think he feels the same way. And I think it's a good thing.

Look, I'm sure there are Democratic politicians that have their places where they go where there's great affection in the audience. And I think the longer he spoke, the more it was telling that -- that this relationship is there.

And the crowd -- and the crowd loved it. And by the way, you know, it's a huge international crowd, too.

[07:25:02] So, like, this is an important moment where I, in many ways, I think the 2020 themes -- 2020 presidential themes have emerged.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Matt Schlapp, thank you very much.

SCHLAPP: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you and get your take.

SCHLAPP: All right.

CAMEROTA: All right. Alisyn raised the possibility that something's get to the president. One thing that could be getting to him: dozens of people connected to him are about to hear from the House Judiciary Committee. We're going to speak to a Democrat on that committee about what they're looking for, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says he will request documents today from more than 60 individuals and entities connected to President Trump, including the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and the CFO of his family business, Allen Weisselberg. Question is: what are they looking for?

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch. He serves on the Judiciary Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. What specifically are you looking for? REP. TED DEUTCH (D), FLORIDA: Well, it's the job of the House

Judiciary Committee to fully investigate any threats to the rule of law.

[07:30:00]