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Death, Carnage, Chaos on Mount Everest; Republicans Block Disaster Relief Bill Again; Biden Campaign Responds to Trump's Japan Remarks. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 28, 2019 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:58]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Joe Biden. Joe Biden is staking his 2020 bid in the ability to beat Donald Trump and restore the soul and character of America. And now his campaign says President Trump jabs at Biden's intelligence show exactly why Trump needs to be defeated next year.

As a reminder, this was the current U.S. president yesterday insulting the former vice president on a world stage, citing the words of a dictator.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Kim Jong-un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-I.Q. individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger is with me.

And moments ago, I should point out, Biden's deputy campaign manager responded this way. Let me just read it for everyone.

She said -- quote -- "The president's comments are beneath the dignity of the office. To be on foreign soil on Memorial Day and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former vice president speaks for itself."

She goes on: "It's part of a pattern of embracing autocrats, at the expense of our institutions, whether taking Putin's word at face value in Helsinki or exchanging 'lovely letters'" -- remember, that's how Trump referred to them -- "'love letters' with Kim Jong-un."

That is from Kate Bedingfield.

And so your reaction is?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: My reaction is that Donald Trump is playing right into their hands, to be quite honest. Of course it was completely inappropriate. Of course, a president

should never do that. But how many times do we say that about Donald Trump?

BALDWIN: A gazillion, yes.

BORGER: Over and over and over and over again.

In this particular case, it's just clear that Biden gets under his skin, because Biden is criticizing him about his character and about American values and the soul of America, which Biden talks about quite frequently.

And it just seems to me that the more that Trump does this...

BALDWIN: Does it elevate him?

BORGER: Year. Well, totally. He's already elevated, number one, because he's so far ahead of his competitors.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BORGER: But we know those things can evaporate pretty quickly.

BALDWIN: Very quickly. True.

BORGER: Let's think about Hillary Clinton being throw 41 points ahead of her nearest competitor last time around, so...

BALDWIN: That's a reminder.

BORGER: A reminder.

But, this way, he elevates Biden. And by having his campaign manager respond -- or deputy campaign manager respond to the president, he basically is saying, this is beneath me to respond to this garbage. I am going to let somebody who works for me respond to the president of the United States...

BALDWIN: Respond to you.

BORGER: ... which is kind of remarkable.

BALDWIN: Kind of remarkable.

Also want to ask you about another Trump rival, Republican Michigan Congressman Justin Amash. Last week, he was the first Republican to actually say that Trump is engaged in impeachable conduct based upon what he read in the Mueller report.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Today, he's taking aim at the attorney general, Bill Barr, tweeting: "Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the president's false narrative to the American people. This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth."

Not backing down. What do you think?

BORGER: I think he might be running for president.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Do you think that that's what that is? We all kind of wondered that.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: I think it really -- I think it really might be.

He's been excommunicated from Republicans in the Congress, who are by and large standing up with the president.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BORGER: And he has decided to go head on into this.

BALDWIN: So he would challenge him, you think?

BORGER: Well, who knows? I mean, who knows? But he's clearly not giving up talking about the Mueller report, talking about the attorney general, whom he believes has acted as a shill, effectively, for the president of the United States.

BALDWIN: For the president.

BORGER: A lot of Democrats share that view.

If Republicans share it, they're keeping it secret. And so I think that continuing along this path, look, he might get out there and decide to give Trump some trouble. And that is something that I don't think Donald Trump wants, but it might also get under his skin.

I mean, who knows? Trump expects fealty from Republicans. Generally, he's been getting it. And so Amash is going a different route, not backing down, says he's not worried about winning his congressional seat. He did win by, I believe, nine points or so last time.

[15:05:13]

So, who knows? But there could be another -- there could be a Republican who decides to sort of just give it to Donald Trump. We will see.

BALDWIN: To think that Trump could get incoming from both sides.

BORGER: Yes. We will see.

BALDWIN: We will see. Gloria Borger, thank you very much.

BORGER: Sure.

BALDWIN: Breaking news on Capitol Hill.

House Republicans have blocked the passage of more than $19 billion in disaster relief for the second time in a week. One congressman objected to that bill.

CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood is following this for us.

And so, Sarah, President Trump said that he would sign this, so why the opposition?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Brooke, House Republicans they are upset about the process by which House Democrats have tried to pass this.

They say they don't want to pass it on unanimous consent. They want to have a lengthier debate about a bill of this size. And they're also upset about what's not in the bill, which is funding for border security. The Trump administration has asked for several billion dollars to fund things like more detention beds at the border, which is controversial.

And after a long debate, weeks in the making, of finally arriving at a deal that put together this $19 billion disaster relief package, border security funding was left out of it. It was a so-called clean disaster relief bill.

It's already passed the Republican controlled Senate. And, as you mentioned, President Trump has already said he will sign it if he gets to -- if it gets to his desk. So really, this is just objections from a handful of House conservatives who are upset that the deal, the bipartisan deal that was reached, left out border security funding.

The House will come back from recess on Monday, so they will have another chance to pass it then. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, though, released a statement after it was blocked today saying: "Look no further than the actions of these House conservatives to see which party is standing in the way of disaster relief moving forward," Brooke.

Sarah Westwood, thank you.

Also, right now, more than 100 million people are under threat of deadly tornadoes in the Midwest and the Northeast, the highest risk level, four out of five in a place for parts -- is in place, I should say, for parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois.

Overnight in Ohio, one person was killed and several injured when a tornado ripped through this town called Salina, leaving entire neighborhoods flattened.

And an hour south of there, the fire chief of a Dayton suburb described a similar scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LYNCH, HARRISON TOWNSHIP, OHIO, FIRE CHIEF: Devastation, World War III. It's tough.

There were several houses that we had to go in and remove victims from. There was a couple of cars that were trapped because of live electric lines. That's been a real problem. And the natural gas leaks were incredible out here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There is also a threat of severe storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas today, but the bigger issue may be the flooding, as many, many people find their homes underwater.

Oklahoma's governor is warning that the rivers are still rising. And in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the flooding has already for schools to shut down for the rest of the year. Classes were supposed to end Thursday.

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

And, my goodness, that is some mighty high water.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that water, if you meander your way through there on a boat, will eventually get you to the Arkansas River, but that is nearly a mile away from where we are standing.

So you can kind of get a sense from that just how out of -- how far out of its banks the Arkansas River has come to at this point.

We are several miles downstream from the Keystone Dam. And that's where these floodwaters are getting through. Its north of that dam that is all backed up. And the Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from that dam at about 275,000 cubic feet per second. That is three Olympic-sized pools coming out of that -- of those floodgates every second, and that's why all of this water you're seeing move downstream.

So it's controlled, but there is the threat of more rain here tonight and into tomorrow. And depending on where that rainfall comes, it could really aggravate the situation.

And, Brooke, you mentioned Fort Smith, Arkansas. That is downstream from where we are. The river here in the Tulsa area is expected to crest at some point tomorrow. So, it shouldn't get much worse than what we're seeing here. Kind of depends on that rainfall, although that's the caveat we have at this point.

But downstream in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the floodwaters expected to rise perhaps another five to six feet, which could cause even more problems there, so, emergency officials going around these neighborhoods urging people to evacuate, be ready to move at a moment's notice.

But it is a stressful situation for many of the residents we have been talking to over the last couple of days, Brooke, who say it's almost like a helpless feeling just standing here on the water's edge. And, really, there's nothing you can do, except watch the water hopefully go down very quickly.

[15:10:11]

BALDWIN: Can you imagine? What a sense of helplessness, three Olympic swimming pools. It's massive.

Ed Lavandera in Sand Springs -- Ed, thank you.

The storms in the Midwest are just one of several extreme weather events we have seen so far this year. So just let me paint a picture for you. In the last 30 days, there have been more than 500 tornadoes reported across the U.S.

It is the fourth wettest year on record in Oklahoma. The latest heat wave has set or tied records in at least eight cities for the highest recorded temperatures in the month of May. And the first named storm of the hurricane season came two weeks before. It actually starts this Saturday.

So, CNN's climate change correspondent, Bill Weir, is with me.

Hello, sir.

BILL WEIR, CNN CLIMATE CHANGE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

BALDWIN: Listen, we have covered and we have lived through many an example of severe weather. So, how is this related to climate change?

WEIR: Well, weather is what determines what you wear today. Climate is what should be in your closet.

And the folks, as you saw there in the Missouri River, they're wearing hip waders today.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WEIR: The question is, do they -- are they going to need them in their closet forever as this changes.

It's harder to tie tornadoes to climate change. The scientists are a bit -- don't have enough data on that. But any sixth grade science teacher can teach you that a warmer climate means more moisture. And it means altering the jet stream, which changes patterns.

So, earlier in the spring, when they had a quick thaw and all that water had nowhere to go because the ground was so hard, and then a bomb cyclone on top of that, and it took out grain silos and all of that sort of thing. So, yes, I mean, as we crank up the thermostat on the planet, all of us, with our choices every day, the way we have powered our economies, we're loading the dice for these kinds of events.

BALDWIN: And as the dice are getting loaded, we have been reporting too on what the Trump administration has done, right, how they systematically eliminated regulations put in place to fight climate change. Let me just rattle off a couple. This summer, the EPA will complete the rollback of Obama era rules to cut vehicle and power plant emissions. The U.S. is no longer in the Paris climate accord. The Trump administration recently blocked the declaration on climate change at the Arctic Council.

And "The New York Times" today is reporting that the USGS will only generate climate models through 2040, rather than the end of the century.

The APA said this about the change -- quote -- "The previous use of inaccurate modeling that focuses on worst-case emissions scenarios, that does not reflect real-world conditions, needs to be thoroughly reexamined and tested if such information is going to serve as the scientific foundation of nationwide decision-making now and in the future."

Can you explain the significance for me on the last point?

WEIR: I can.

The statement actually goes on and says: "The fundamental problem with worst-case scenarios is they are based on the flawed assumption that the significant positive of steps towards poverty reduction, economic improvement demographics could slide backwards."

Well, that's exactly what the National Climate Assessment said, 12 different government bodies from NASA and NOAA, to the Smithsonian, to the Pentagon, saying, we're in for a horrible planet when there's not enough food to feed everybody, when you have climate refugees, when life as we know it changes.

And that's not going to happen by 2040. That's going to happen by 2075 and 2100, if nothing changes now. And so, one -- Katharine Hayhoe, one climate scientist, she used the analogy, it's like going to the doctor and the doctor says, if you eat 12 cheeseburgers a day, here's what you're going to look like when you're 40.

BALDWIN: Ugh.

WEIR: But here's what you're going to look like when you're 70 and what -- the length of your life will be determined on that.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WEIR: And so cutting it off.

And Scott Pruitt, the former EPA commissioner, proposed to President Trump, well, let's have a debate. Let's set up a red team, blue team debate. It's really hard to find somebody on the other side of the debate, but they found one. His name is William Happer. He's a former Princeton atomic physicist who also worked for right-wing think tanks, which are funded by petrochemical dollars.

And he had this analogy about too much carbon in the atmosphere. This is from a few years ago. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM HAPPER, PHYSICIST: I get called a denier. And all -- anyone who objects to all of the hype gets called a denier. That's supposed to make me a Holocaust denier.

I'm getting tired of that. And the comment I made was the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, are you kidding?

[15:15:00]

That's who they found. That's your point.

WEIR: Yes. That's -- and that -- the only way -- because, for years, the politicization of this denied it was even happening.

There was a claim that there was a 17-year pause and in the -- now you can't deny it anymore.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WEIR: People are seeing it in their backyards in the Midwest.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WEIR: You can ask bass fisherman or lobster fisherman or anybody.

You could ask scientists at Exxon, now that we have internal documents from the '80s in which they predicted exactly what's happening now.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WEIR: So everything else seems to be either driven by ideology or religious belief that man can't -- doesn't have the power to alter the planet, or it's special interests.

And it's hard to convince a man of something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.

BALDWIN: Totally.

WEIR: I think the Upton Sinclair quote, yes.

BALDWIN: Totally.

Bill Weir, well done.

WEIR: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much. WEIR: My pleasure.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Just ahead here, a Colorado man is now the 11th person to die on Everest this year. Why overcrowding, fewer weather windows and the so-called Death Zone could be to blame.

And a sitting congressman admits to taking wartime photos with combatants he had killed. I will speak with a veteran who led a platoon in Iraq -- why he says undermining the enforcement of military justice goes all the way to the president.

You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:13]

BALDWIN: Now to this dangerous traffic jam at the top of the world.

After 11 deaths on Mount Everest this climbing season, a senior tourism official says Nepal may actually change its requirements to summit Everest. Right now, climbers only needs to obtain a permit, regardless of experience.

And all these expert climbers say that that is playing a part in the overcrowding this year on the mountain. More climbers, plus a shorter window of good weather to summit, has led one veteran climber to call his trek to Everest this year a -- quote, unquote -- "death race."

CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, traveled all the way to Everest base camp on the Nepal side and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have just arrived to Everest base camp. And 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 absolute spectacular. You really understand what the draw, appeal is. That's the icefall 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, trying to reach what is the one main goal that unites everybody here. And, normally, this entire area at this peak of the season is covered in tents.

What you have right now behind me is just a few tents that have been left. There are cleanup crews. There's still a handful of climbers that are down there, some of the last ones to come down from the summit, on what has been an especially devastating hiking season for the summit of Everest, because of the level of fatalities, and because of the issues that arose from all of this backlog that took place, the photographs of the long lines of people waiting inside the Death Zone, called that because the levels of oxygen there are so low.

Every breath you take in the Death Zone only gives you a third of the oxygen that you would get at sea level. So you have to be climbing with oxygen tanks. And so these long waiting hours may have contributed to the deaths that we did see, at least to most of them.

And a lot of these climbers aren't dying on the way up. You can make it to that goal. You can make it to the summit. It's when you come back down, that's when people's bodies tend to succumb to altitude sickness.

A lot of debate right now as to whether or not Nepal needs to be doing more to regulate the number of permits, to regulate who goes up, what level of experience they have.

There's been a lot of criticism about inexperienced climbers going up, but there's also a burden of responsibility on the individual. Yes, this is such a challenge. It is such a goal that is really going to push you mentally and physically to the limit.

But all of the climbers we are talking to are saying you really need to know how to listen to your body.

And just being here right now, one really feels the effect of the lower levels of oxygen.

Arwa Damon, CNN, on the Nepalese side at Everest base camp.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Arwa Damon, thank you so much.

Just ahead here: "Make Aircrew Great Again." You see the patch. During a visit to U.S. troops -- to visit U.S. troops in Japan, President Trump saw his own likeness on the shirt sleeves of some airmen. But did it break the rules? That's what we're asking today.

And lost in the Hawaiian forest for 17 days, a rescued hiker gets the chance to thank the people who never gave up hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:40]

BALDWIN: CNN is learning that active-duty service members were provided Trump-themed patches on their uniforms as President Trump made his Memorial Day address at a Naval base in Japan.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is with me with the details.

And I guess the question is, is this against regulation?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know now -- the Navy has issued a statement a short time ago, Brooke, saying that they are -- Navy leadership is aware of the incident and reviewing, to ensure the patch doesn't violate.