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Private Group Builds its Own Border Wall Along U.S.-Mexico Border; Another American Dies on Mount Everest Amid Overcrowding Concerns; One Dead After Tornadoes Rip Across Ohio. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 28, 2019 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:24] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Top of the hour, good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

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

Again this morning parts of the Midwest are waking up to devastation if they were able to sleep at all. It was a dangerous night. Multiple tornadoes ripping through western Ohio, pulverizing buildings, leveling trees, knocking out power for tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Just look at those pictures.

HARLOW: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next I know, windows was breaking, I heard a lot of debris flying around and just stuff crashing and glass just everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about I'd say 10 to 15 seconds, scariest 15 seconds of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Well, at least two dozen tornadoes hit near Dayton, another hit in Celina some 90 miles north of there. At least three dozen people have been treated in hospitals for relatively minor injuries, thank goodness. So far no reports of deaths due to these tornadoes.

Let's go to our colleague Ryan Young. He joins us in Celina this morning.

What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Really a scary situation when you talk to some of the people who lived through this. They're talking about the pressure they felt in their body. We're even looking for scenes of destruction. It's very easy to see.

Guys, take a look at this, you see the car turned over from the sheer power of the wind that blew through here, but look, when you think about this, you think about the impact it has on people. Not walking back this direction because look at how you can see the path -- first of all, it took this roof off right here, guys. And if you look down this direction the path continues. You can see what it did to this house that's just across the street here.

We were even told that two houses over there was a family trapped in a basement and they had to have a fire crew come and rescue them after all this debris fell on top of their basement area. There are stories like this, but listen to this woman talk about how terrifying this was overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENEE MONIZ, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I came out last night and, I mean, the first things I thought of was war zone because it just looked like somebody just took a bomb and --

JANET MCGINNIS, TORNADO SURVIVOR: It's like in the distance a train coming and I jumped out of bed, put my shoes on, ran to the hallway. I could hear things banging against the apartment and it was over quick. It was quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: See this shot from above, we shot this video and you can see just the immense damage from a distance with the drone video. We saw about a half a mile of damage. And we were talking to people from house to house who basically told us they were lucky they got the warning from the weather service and they were able to get in the basement in time.

Coming back now live, you can see the power that we talked about before. Look at this tree branch that's actually stuck in this tire. This truck is a pulverized mess. But as we talk about the cleanup and people firstly starting to come out and see the damage for themselves, look over there in the distance, you see what everybody is sort of concerned about right now, which is those power line crews who are working as we speak, cutting down large branches and trying to get back in.

We've also seen the gas company doing the critical work of shutting off the gas to some of these homes because obviously they are so damaged you wouldn't want that gas spreading anywhere else.

We really heard some stories of survival, we are just getting into this, Poppy and Jim, but you can understand why people are so upset dealing with this sort of damage.

HARLOW: Yes.

YOUNG: Especially when it happened in the overnight hours.

HARLOW: Of course, and there has been really no reprieve for the entire midsection of this country.

Ryan Young, thank you for racing there to be there for us this morning. We appreciate it. SCIUTTO: Yes, and the speeds, the wind speeds that these storms are

capable of, just incredible.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Well, another area, relentless wave of storms in the southern plains has sent the Arkansas River into record territory. In some spots the river could top out more than four feet above the previous high. Catastrophic floods are possible. This morning the entire state, that's right, the entire state of Oklahoma remains under a state of emergency.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Sand Springs, just west of Tulsa.

So, Ed, as you look there, what area is at risk of flooding right now?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you are sitting along the Arkansas River you kind of basically have a helpless feeling at this point that you can just essentially just wade out and see what happens here as these floodwaters continue to rise.

We are in a neighborhood just west of Tulsa. And, Jim, to give you a sense, we are about a mile away from the bank of the Arkansas River in this particular neighborhood. And this is floodwaters that have been released from the Keystone dam there, everything is making its way downstream and we have spoken with residents here in this area and they say some of these homes, dozens of homes in this particular neighborhood that are under water or taking on water, anywhere between two to six feet depending in the areas where they're lying.

As I mentioned, all of this water coming from the Keystone dam. We have drone footage kind of showing you the floodgates from there. 275,000 cubic feet of water being released from that dam every second, and all of this pushing downstream. So there is concern here in Tulsa. The river is expected to crest we are told sometime tomorrow, perhaps going up another foot. There is even greater concern downstream from where we are as you leave eastern Oklahoma and you get into western Arkansas, the Ft. Smith area where the water there isn't expected to crest for another day or so, a couple of days, and that water there could go up another five to six feet.

So real concern as neighborhoods along the path of this river and other rivers in the area as well are really threatening hundreds of homes and, you know, putting livelihoods here.

And the concern, Jim and Poppy, is more rain expected later today and tomorrow. That could complicate things further.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Imagine if you were looking out your front door step at that picture there. Just devastating for those families.

HARLOW: Of course.

SCIUTTO: Ed, we're glad to have you there, we know you're going to keep on top of it.

HARLOW: Thanks, Ed.

Right now President Trump is heading back to the United States after important meeting, of course, with a key ally in Japan, and a lot of pageantry and many photo-ops. He also leaves after sharing some very different views on North Korea, clashing with both the prime minister of Japan and with his own National Security adviser.

SCIUTTO: Not the first time the president has clashed with his own National Security team or close allies. But another person very much on the president's mind this trip, former vice president Joe Biden, of course the number one Democratic contender in 2020. He may have been thousands of miles away, but the attacks against the 2020 candidate ramping up.

Let's speak to CNN's Boris Sanchez who is live in Tokyo with the latest.

You know, Boris, these attacks, personal attacks on politicians, they are not new, but to be overseas and to say you share the assessment of a fellow U.S. -- statesman, rather, with that of Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, let's put that into context here. That's remarkable.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim and Poppy, not just remarkable, it's unprecedented and really draws into question just how much President Trump trusts Kim Jong-un. And you're right, there was a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of pageantry during the president's visit to Japan but not a whole lot of substance. We didn't see a breakthrough on a trade deal which was one of the focal points of this visit, and now you have this exposed rift between President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

President Trump not believing that North Korea violated U.N. resolutions with these short range ballistic missile tests. Shinzo Abe flatly saying that he believes that they violated these resolutions and it shows that President Trump is sort of on an island on this, going against some of his own advisers, even outspoken members of Congress, and obviously a key ally like Abe.

Further the president sided with Kim Jong-un on the North Korean's assessment of Joe Biden being a, quote, "low IQ individual." The president also we should point out took time out of his trip here in North Korea to tweet -- or rather here in Japan, I should say, to tweet criticism of Joe Biden attacking a former vice president and senator for his votes on a 1994 Crime Bill. It gives you an idea of where the president's mind is right now as we get closer and closer to 2020.

We should also point out the president is due to revisit Japan in just a few weeks for the G-20 -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: That's right.

Boris Sanchez, thanks for being on that trip, for reporting for us live from Tokyo this morning.

Let's talk about the politics back here at home. CNN political commentator Errol Louis and CNN political reporter Arlette Saenz joins us now. Arlette of course is in Houston where Biden will return to the campaign trail today for the first time in 10 days.

So let me begin with you, Arlette, just on that. I mean, really interesting piece in the "Washington Post" talking about this. He's sat it out, those critical, you know, few words from his team, no public events scheduled when every other 2020 contender was out there at ice cream socials, shaking hands, kissing babies, et cetera. Explain the thinking of the Biden team to us. They know him already so we don't have to, you know, be out there every moment here and he's been campaigning, I guess, since 1988 when he first ran. Is that the thinking?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, that's part of it, Poppy, and Biden is really running this front runner style campaign. You're seeing fewer public appearances, more high-dollar fundraiser compared to other candidates but part of the strategy is, yes, that he is a known commodity here in the U.S. Voters know who Joe Biden is so he doesn't have to spend as much time introducing himself to voters in the way that other Democratic candidates do.

But they are aware that he does have to put in that time pounding the pavement, being out there with voters, but really over the past month you've seen him hold 11 public events and nine fundraisers overall. Last week he had three fundraisers alone and wasn't out in public doing any events with voters.

[09:10:08] That's going to change today. We are going to see him out on the campaign trail for the first time in 10 days. He and his wife, Jill Biden, who is a community college professor, they are going to be speaking to teachers here at a town hall with the teachers union, making that pitch not just to unions but also that critical voting block of educators that you've seen other candidates also appeal to. So Biden returning to the trail today after those 10 days off and we'll see going forward how intense his schedule is heading into that first debate.

SCIUTTO: So, Errol Louis, beyond the school yard taunt of Biden from afar, low IQ, let's just ignore that, on the '94 Crime Bill, though, which Biden supported, that a more strategic attack perhaps you can call it. He is in effect going after African-American voters here. Is there any potential for that kind of argument for a U.S. president who has at times courted white nationalists and has his own, shall we say, speckled history?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: To say the least.

SCIUTTO: When it comes to race relations.

LOUIS: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Going back to his days in the '80s as a New York property developer. LOUIS: That's right. Look, let's not be mistaken about this. Donald

Trump is not appealing to black voters as if he's going to get them. It's more as if he's trying to sort of turn them off from who he thinks and is worried about clearly, Joe Biden.

SCIUTTO: Right. Yes. Appears (INAUDIBLE).

LOUIS: Well, exactly. Well, look, frankly, negative campaigning is sort of a slightly muted form of voter suppression, right. He's trying to get people so disgusted that they stay home.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.

LOUIS: Donald Trump knows very well and his strategists I'm sure don't need to explain it to him that the reason he is sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is that black -- the black vote was sort of less enthusiastic as far as turnout. That there weren't quite enough voters who came out in Detroit, in Milwaukee, in Philadelphia, and that's why he won Michigan and he won Wisconsin, and he won Pennsylvania.

If he wants a repeat of that he needs to get a similarly sort of muted, discouraged, maybe not quite as enthusiastic black base to the Democratic Party come election day.

SCIUTTO: Smartest analysis of that point I've heard. It gets right to the point of what this is about.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: I am interested, though, in how much you think Anita Hill and the way that Joe Biden conducted those hearings and the '94 Crime Bill, voting for that could hurt Joe Biden. Yes, Bernie Sanders also voted for the '94 Crime Bill, but at the time he was vocal about his concerns about it, and said, look, I'm doing this largely because of the Violence Against Women Act portion of it and funding for that.

But how much could that be an Achilles' heel for Biden and maybe to a lesser extent for Sanders?

LOUIS: Well, I mean, listen, we know that millennials now outnumber baby boomers. We know that younger voters, especially younger voters of color, are not all that thrilled about what happened with the '94 Crime Bill. Those of us who lived through it understand that there is some nuisance to it. You kind of had to be there to sort of I think really recognize what was going on. But the reality is, it was a problem for Hillary Clinton in 2016, it will be a problem for anybody associated with that bill.

And Joe Biden is not the only person who voted for that bill. You know, there are a bunch of senators up there who have some things to answer for when it comes to what was going on in the 1990s. If the younger voters, if the millennial voters, if the younger voters of color are going to be unforgiving about it, then yes, Joe Biden definitely has a problem.

I don't think he has a problem just because Donald Trump has pointed out this obvious fact,

SCIUTTO: Right.

LOUIS: But it is a cleavage within the party that's going to have to get resolved.

SCIUTTO: So, Arlette, how do -- how do Biden's advisers and his team react to President Trump being abroad and incredibly sharing a North Korean dictator's assessment of him beyond the school yard attacks.

HARLOW: Right.

SCIUTTO: Just saying, oh, yes, I agree with Kim that he's a low IQ individual. Do they ignore it or do they think it's an issue they have to respond to?

SAENZ: Well, so far we really haven't heard from Joe Biden and his team very much on this issue. On Sunday one of his aides told me that the president's tweet was erratic and unhinged, but that's really all that we've heard so far. Perhaps because he was down over the Memorial Day weekend, they were maybe deciding not to respond then.

We will see if he decides to address that today here in Houston. But one thing is that these comments from the president, they all play into Joe Biden's argument about the president and foreign policy. Biden often on the campaign trails talks about how President Trump is siding with Russian president Vladimir Putin and murderous dictators like Kim Jong-un. So this all plays into his argument about the way that the president is approaching foreign policy and placing the U.S. in jeopardy on the world stage.

SCIUTTO: Arlette and Errol, great to have you both on.

Still to come this hour, another mountain climber has died on Mount Everest. The 11th person to die just this year. Why crowds -- and they are incredible crowds, look at those pictures.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: In what's called the death zone could be to blame.

HARLOW: Plus a major test in the opioid epidemic. What responsibility might big pharma bear? Johnson & Johnson goes to public trial, a televised trial starting today. It is a historic trial and it is in the state of Oklahoma.

And a private group says it's using millions of dollars raised from a GoFundMe account to built its own wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. And they say they are just getting started.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, a Colorado man is now the 11th person to die this year climbing Mount Everest.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's just a crazy scene there. He's a 62-year-old Christopher Coolish, his death coming amid growing concerns about potentially fatal traffic jams, that's right, traffic jams, at the peak of the world's tallest mountain. Many experts blame inexperienced climbers as well as overcrowding in what's known as the Death Zone.

It's an area just below the summit where each breath only has a third of the oxygen you get at sea level, you cannot spend very much time there and live. One mountaineer called the climb "carnage".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:00] RIZZA ALEE, MOUNTAIN CLIMBER: It has become a death race there because there was massive traffic jam and people are pushing themselves who are not even capable of doing it, they do it, they try to summit and in the state of summiting, they kill themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our Arwa Damon joins us now from Nepal. Arwa, I was watching your reporting earlier today, heading up to the base camp there, and you can even hear it in your breath, just that far how limited the oxygen is. It's remarkable. What can you tell us this morning?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we went up to base camp without having acclimatized along the way. The way that most people climbing Everest would do. And when you get there, I mean, I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Here is a short clip of what we shot earlier in the day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: I have to say even at this altitude, even without being anywhere near to the summit, you really feel the impact of the decreased oxygen levels. The scenery here is absolutely spectacular, you really understand what the draw and appeal is. If you look that way, that's the ice fall that is so famous.

It's what the climbers first have to go through to get to camp one, and then, of course, as they move on up through the different camps and the different stops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: And so, as these climbers are going towards the summit of Everest, they are acclimatizing along the way. But again, as you were saying in the introduction. When you get to that Death Zone, it doesn't matter how well you have acclimatized along the way, your body is still struggling so much for every single step.

So when you have this overcrowding that took place, when you end up waiting for longer than expected periods, maybe some people didn't have enough oxygen because people do carry oxygen tanks up there with them, maybe they weren't listening to their body when it was telling them I can't handle this.

Because most of the fatalities happen after the individual has already summit. They've made it to the very top. It's on the way down where they end up succumbing to altitude sickness. Now, people have been criticizing the Nepalese government for the number of permits issued.

We actually just spoke to an official from the tourism ministry who told us that they only issued nine more permits this year than last year. He does not think that it is fair to blame them for the overcrowding. Instead, he says and climbers have told us that there were only a few days that were available this year where people could actually make it to the top, so you have this big crush of people going through.

But there's also the issue of experience. So, now the government is considering an experience requirement before someone can get a permit.

SCIUTTO: Arwa, the crowding is and has been an issue there for years now. I wonder, as you go to the base camp, do you see evidence of that, the number of folks there, the number of tents? I mean, there's issues with garbage and so on. I mean, can it maintain all those folks who want to get up the mountain?

DAMON: Yes, so we caught it when we were there, we're at the very end of the climbing season. So, that sea of tents that would have normally been across that entire area was not there. We only caught a few of the last climbers as they were coming down the mountain and, in fact, one of them was telling us about how when she was on her way up, she was going past the bodies of those who had died.

But yes, the overcrowding has been an issue, the management of space. And Everest is a sacred mountain here, has been an issue. And that also, you do have this experience problem where inexperienced climbers with some of these companies who are trying to cut corners to keep it on the cheap aren't really listening to their bodies when they told them that they can't make it. There's a lot of factors that really contributed to this year's death toll.

HARLOW: Wow --

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, it's great to have you here, Arwa --

HARLOW: Yes, amazing reporting.

SCIUTTO: What's special about CNN, we get folks right to where it's happening. Please, stay safe yourself. We have some news just in CNN about issues here at home. We're learning that one person has died in those devastating tornadoes near Dayton, Ohio, we were reporting about earlier.

The mayor of Celina, Ohio, giving an update to reporters this morning, seven people injured in that town, three of those injuries are critical and as many as 40 homes were destroyed. You can see some of them there or sustained significant damage. We're going to continue to follow this story. Still ahead, President Trump has contradicted allies and his closest advisors by playing down North Korea's latest missile test. What message does that send to the North Korean dictator and to the world?

HARLOW: We're also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Taking a look at futures here, relatively higher, expecting a bit of a flat open, following the long holiday weekend. Markets still on edge, though, of course, over the trade tension. We'll keep a close eye on the numbers.

[09:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: President Trump is due back in Washington later today, of course, he's flying back from Japan, and there are growing questions on the status of his relationship with national security adviser John Bolton. The president publicly.

[09:30:00]