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New Orleans Levees Put to the Test; St. Bernard's Parish Braces for Barry; Labor Secretary Resigns. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 12, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:04] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, some breaking news for you.

There has just been an earthquake, another one, in Ridgecrest, California. The magnitude is 4.9. A 4.9 magnitude earthquake there. Significant about this is the fact that it was one week ago that there was 7.1 magnitude earthquake in that same town, also in Ridgecrest, California. Obviously this just happened. We'll keep you posted on the impact of it.

Meantime, to New Orleans now where the entire state of Louisiana is preparing for the arrival of Barry, which could make landfall tomorrow potentially as a hurricane. And on top of all of the rain yet to come, the city faces another threat. The storm surge will push up an already really swollen Mississippi River, putting those new levees to the test.

Tom Foreman joins me with more.

I'm so glad, Tom, you're here to help us visualize the issue here, because it's really a -- you know, a three-way punch for Louisiana. You've got potentially a hurricane coming, a swollen Mississippi River. And you've got heavy rain that is going to happen whether or not this thing turns into a hurricane.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a triple threat of flooding almost unheard of here. You mentioned, Poppy, all that water coming down from the Midwest has swollen the river. Now we have water possibly pushing up on a storm surge here. That will be colliding at New Orleans as the state is getting maybe 20, 25 inches of rain over the next few days in a very short period of time.

And, remember, everything in yellow here is below sea level. Yes, they have an elaborate system of levees, sort of dams around it to control all this water. And normally, as we saw in the flash flooding earlier this week, they can get the job done.

This is how it works. The city is essentially a bowl with Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. When a lot of rain comes in, a huge system of pumps starts moving that water out, usually very quickly. But with all of this water converging at once, the fear is that maybe

the river will be so high in in some places it could actually over top the levees. And once it gets in here, either way, if it's that full, where does the water go even with these massive pumping stations? The belief is that New Orleans itself can probably handle it, but we go just a little bit outside the city limits, Sashalmet (ph) and Violet (ph) and other places like Plaquemine's Parish, the fear is the levee are a little bit lower, the rain could be a little bit higher and then the water may have nowhere to go except to their neighborhoods where thousands and thousands of people live, Poppy.

HARLOW: Gosh. OK, Tom Foreman, thank you for helping us visualize this. We appreciate it.

Let's talk now to officials. St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Officials there are manning water pumps, preparing for this flooding. So far no evacuations have been ordered there.

Joining me on the phone is Guy Mcinnis. He is the president of St. Bernard Parish.

Good morning. Thank you for taking the time. I know you're so busy getting ready for what is coming.

You know, John Bel Edwards, the governor of Louisiana, said there are three ways Louisiana floods, surge, high rivers and rain. We are going to have all three.

What is your concern level this morning?

GUY MCINNIS, PRESIDENT, ST. BERNARD PARISH (on telephone): Well, first of all, Poppy, thank you for spotlighting Saint Bernard Parish. We appreciate that.

But, you know, as we sit here today, our biggest concern is a heavy rain event. So they're forecast is 10 to 20 inch and we may get some of that in a short period of time. So our situation is a little different from what Tom had just mentioned. We are just southeast of New Orleans, the city of New Orleans, and we are separated by the intercostal canal. So we have, you know, per se our own levee system.

But I can tell you, Poppy, the last couple of days talking about this high river, right, this is an unprecedented, historical high river, number one, and now we have a storm in the Gulf that's approaching. So what happens is that water pushes back up from the Gulf, it slows down the river and it even gets higher. So the forecast early on was that we were going to have overtopping, significant overtopping in Plaquemine's Parish, which is below us. Mandatory evacuations were set in.

So -- and this social media day, everybody starts talking. Our worst fear has just been talked about.

HARLOW: Yes.

MCINNIS: So getting our messaging out and correlating our message from federal government, from the White House staff, to Governor Edwards, to locally was very challenging a couple of days ago.

So we got the information correct. We're working with the National Weather Service, along with the Corps of Engineers. The storm surge models that you see inside of our levee protection system, it's all the same. And they are now predicting no overtopping in St. Bernard Parish or Plaquemine's Parish for this event.

HARLOW: OK.

MCINNIS: But it was -- it -- you know, we -- we still are staying vigilant. We're asking our families to make sure that they stay safe during this event, that they take it seriously. And right now we're focusing on the high intensity rainfall and the surge in our outlying areas outside of our levee system.

[09:35:13] HARLOW: I'm glad to hear that at least the outlook for you guys has gotten a little bit less concerning. But, obviously, there's still a lot ahead and a lot to worry about. We wish you luck in the next few days.

Guy Mcinnis, thank you so much for joining me.

MCINNIS: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Of course.

All right, so, overnight, the singer, R. Kelly, arrested again. He is in jail this morning. The arrest came by federal authorities. He is facing more alleged sex crimes. We'll bring you the latest, next.

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[09:40:01] HARLOW: All right, we do have really significant breaking news for you.

We have just learned here at CNN that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta has resigned. This is huge. This is someone who was confirmed by the Senate in 2017. You had eight Democrats voting for him. But this is because of the fallout from his handling a decade ago of the plea deal, the sweetheart plea deal that was given to the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, who we now know has more federal charges against him for essentially running a sex ring involving underage minor girls.

Again, if you're just joining us, the breaking news this morning, the Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is resigning.

This is after, remember, that defiant press conference that he held on Wednesday defending vehemently the decisions he made while he was a prosecutor in southern Florida on the Jeffrey Epstein case. And, remember, Epstein will be in court on Monday. The president, we were told, was pleased with Acosta's performance in that press conference Wednesday. But something has changed in the last 24 hours. We heard rumblings that the president may not still feel that way.

What contributed to this, of course, our reporters are all working their sources. But this is really big. Jeff Mason, White House reporter for "Reuters" is back with us. My

colleague, Brynn Gingras as well, who's been covering this.

And Brynn, let me just turn to you first.

Remind people, if they're not as familiar with this story, the highlights of what has happened in the last few days for Acosta.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's been a lot, right? I mean and you kind of summarized it really well there. The big thing that sticks out in my mind is, yes, he came in that press conference, he placed a lot of blame on other attorneys, essentially saying that they didn't do their jobs. We're the super heroes. We jumped in. We actually, you know, helped bring some sort of agreement, which was the big shady agreement, as we can probably call it. And he didn't apologize. He wasn't sorry for anything that came of it.

HARLOW: And, actually, when he was asked by a reporter, would you, you know, give Epstein the same deal again, he didn't say no.

GINGRAS: Right, he didn't say no. He kind of said, you know, we -- we can't turn back the clock in a sense and try to sort of think about what we gave him and think, was it good or bad, because you have to take it in that time reference.

But the other thing that sticks out too is that he said he had the president's support, right?

HARLOW: Yes.

GINGRAS: But we also know the president has been very careful about distancing himself from Epstein from the very beginning.

HARLOW: Yes.

GINGRAS: So in that sense it's not 100 percent surprising.

HARLOW: Right.

GINGRAS: But certainly this is a huge development.

HARLOW: Jeffrey Epstein, a very just high-flying hedge fund guy, very politically connected. The president called him a terrific guy, Jeff Mason, back in 2002. Former President Bill Clinton has flown on his plane numerous times, has been to his homes. And now because, you know, it's clear that it's the fallout from this that is why Acosta is resigning.

What has your reporting told you over the last 24 hours here in terms of the turn that apparently the president has -- has taken on him?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Well, number one, yes, this is clearly the reason why he's resigning. And, number two, I think the president was watching closely during that press conference and must have decided that the fallout was going to be too great or was too great or was too great. He's just outside right now talking to the press, and Acosta joined him on his way out to get on Marine One. And so he's giving him sort of a send-off in some ways, which he doesn't always do for people who he fires.

HARLOW: Yes.

MASON: So he's, I think, trying to show that he still likes him and likes the fact that he performed well as labor secretary, and they were talking about the job numbers being good. But clearly he also is not eager to have somebody at the helm of an important department who is tainted, and -- and now he is.

HARLOW: One thing -- so we're learning this and we're going to play you, of course, everything the president and Acosta says on the South Lawn as soon as we get that in here, so standby for that.

But the labor secretary, apparently we're hearing, Jeff, called the president this morning and said that he thought it was the right thing to step aside. What I find interesting is that it has really been a call from Democratic lawmakers, Democratic senators and members of the House for him to resign, like Schumer and Pelosi, not Republicans at this point yet.

MASON: Yes, I think that is interesting. And it's also interesting to the extent that that may have played a role in this. I mean usually in Washington you get pressure from both sides and the Democrats, obviously, as you say, Poppy, certainly upped that pressure on him. And have also, in that sense, kept the issue in the news. And that -- that's probably one of the bigger things for President Trump. I mean the story of Jeffrey Epstein, whether or not the secretary did well in his press conference the other day or not, is not going away. And the more and more we continue to watch that, hear about the charges, see what happens to him, Acosta's name was going to continually be part of that narrative.

[09:45:08] HARLOW: Right.

Sarah Westwood joins me outside of the White House -- I believe in Milwaukee -- I apologize. That's where the president is going.

All right, so this is huge news, Sarah. What can you tell us about what has happened within the White House in the last 24 hours? Because, frankly, last all our viewers heard is that the president was pleased with how Acosta has been handling himself.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Poppy, but there was some questioning of whether Acosta's connections to that extremely lenient plea deal that Jeffrey Epstein received back in Florida about a decade ago was going to become an even greater distraction for this administration. Sources told CNN that President Trump and his White House team were waiting to see how the coverage of Acosta's Epstein's connections developed over the past week.

We know that earlier this week President Trump and Secretary Acosta spoke. President Trump requested that Acosta go out and address this more forcefully. And Acosta said in that press conference that he had a solid relationship with President Trump and he acknowledged that at some point if the president is no longer satisfied with my performance, then I would go, saying, I serve at the pleasure of the president.

And President Trump, this morning, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn at the White House, as he's heading here to Wisconsin, said that it was the secretary of labor's decision to leave. He did not force Acosta out. That is what he made clear to reporters.

But there were a lot of pressure building of Democrats, of 2020 hopefuls, calling for Acosta's resignation. Acosta apparently telling the president, Poppy, that he did not want his connections to his explosive case to become a distraction for the administration.

HARLOW: Right. And, Sarah, let's remind people that part of Acosta's mandate as labor secretary is to oversee any human trafficking. I mean that -- the irony of that cannot be overstated, right? I mean that is part of his mandate. And he's the boss who signed off a decade ago on this sweetheart plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein.

Stay with us, Sarah. Let me bring Brynn back in, because, Sarah, I want to go back to you on sort of the judgment and the vetting of the White House in a number of picks, including this pick, because we knew a lot of this before his confirmation hearing.

Can you explain to people the highlights of the deal that Acosta gave to Epstein?

GINGRAS: Well, it's -- everyone's been calling it a sweetheart deal, right? And the reason is because Acosta's office at that time actually drafted an indictment, a federal indictment, against Epstein. I believe it was 53 pages long, right? And then all of a sudden a deal is made between Epstein's attorneys and Acosta, basically making Epstein plead to a lesser state charge. Of course we know federal and state charges, there's a big difference there.

HARLOW: Sure.

GINGRAS: And that state charge basically meant that Epstein would have to go to jail -- not prison, jail -- for a year, and he was even allowed to leave on work-release, conduct his business deals, several times leave the jail, go do his work and then return to jail. And this is for a 13-month period. And then in addition to that, the most important part of this was that deal was never discuss with the victims who came forward against Epstein.

HARLOW: And we're talking about dozens of underage women, 13, 14-year- old girls.

GINGRAS: Dozens of underage women. And we're talking about dozens of reports, too. I mean the reporting of this, before Epstein's office even got -- I'm sorry, Acosta's office even got involved, it was -- it was a lot. I mean there was so much investigation that was done, not only by local authorities in Florida, but in other states. The FBI was involved. So he had all the information in front of him --

HARLOW: Well --

GINGRAS: And yet there was (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: And I'd be remiss not to mention, Sarah Westwood, if we still have you, White House reporter, that the Southern District of New York now is the lead on this. I mean the Southern District of New York is now taking a deep, deep look at Jeffrey Epstein and thereby, obviously, will look at, again, the deal that was made for him by Acosta, right?

WESTWOOD: That's right. And there was a lot of scrutiny on that deal. It's not just on the charges that Epstein is now facing in New York and what he did face in Florida ten years ago, but also on how prosecutors at that time behaved, what they did with the evidence that was given to him and why victims at the time were not notified of the plea deal that Epstein ultimately accepted. Acosta faced questions about that at his press conference, as well as, as you mentioned, how he can continue to oversee a big parts of the administration's human trafficking policies when his handling of a case that is now involving alleged sex trafficking is being scrutinized this way.

HARLOW: Right.

WESTWOOD: And Acosta did attempt to answer those questions earlier this week, but, naturally, those questions are going to continue, Poppy.

HARLOW: Right. And so we have some reporting as well, Sarah, from our colleague, Kaitlan Collins, also White House reporter. Let me just read this to you. Adding that the president was having his doubts about Acosta, people close to the president were questioning how long Acosta would last because the president went from praising him earlier this week and urging him to defend himself, to privately questioning why the victims had not been notified about the deal.

[09:50:03] That's very interesting, Jeff Mason, if we still have you with us, that what seem to have turned the page here for the president is his learning more about the lack of notification to the victims in this plea deal, which, by the way, a federal judge has subsequently ruled was illegal. It broke the Victims' Rights Act.

MASON: Yes, I mean, I think that's one of the -- that's one of the issues in this whole case that has been the most troubling to everyone who has seen it. And I'm not sure that Secretary Acosta had an answer to that at his press conference the other day that -- that was enough to assuage the concerns of people and apparently that affected the concerns of President Trump as well.

At the end of the day, it's the victims here who, you know, everyone's heart has gone out to. And even Secretary Acosta indicated in his press conference that, you know, that he's seen the testimony and seen the accounts of some of those victims in the meantime, and that it was a concern to him as well.

But why didn't they have a hand in approving or giving a thumb's up or probably a thumb's down to what the secretary or the then prosecutor was doing? That's something that is troubling to a lot of people, including apparently the president.

HARLOW: Yes. And when you talk about, Jeff, how many people around the president in these cabinet positions have resigned, have been forced out, a lot of because of their past and because of things that could have been better vetted. And this was brought up in the confirmation hearing, but a lot was not known until after Julie Brown's great reporting for "The Miami Herald" in November.

OK, again, the breaking news, the labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, is resigning. The fallout from this sweetheart plea deal he gave to a sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein, who is very connected politically. We'll have much more on the other side.

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[09:56:14] HARLOW: All right, we are back with our breaking news, and it is significant this morning. The labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, has resigned. This is in the fallout from the sweetheart plea deal that he led for known sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein a decade ago that has come into much more stark focus this week as the Southern District of New York has brought new charges against Epstein for essentially running a child sex trafficking ring for years and years.

All of our correspondents on this story are with us. But let me begin with Kaitlan Collins. She joins me on the phone.

Because, Kaitlan, you know, the president apparently thought that Acosta did a good job defending himself in that press conference on Wednesday. He said this morning this was Acosta's decision to resign. But what is your reporting on what seems to be a change of heart from the president himself?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, that's right, Poppy. So the president was the one who had the idea for Alex Acosta to come out to defend himself, something he felt that he needed to do on his own from the Labor Department. And he had initially been pretty receptive to how that had gone. He noted it had this calm demeanor. He took a lot of questions. It didn't go as poorly as people had thought it could have gone.

But then there started to be this shift in the president's tone essentially based on what our sources are telling us. That the president started to have his doubts about it. He started talking about victim notification. That was a big part of that plea deal and why Acosta was facing scrutiny because those victims had not been notified about the plea deal, something he spoke about during that press conference. And that was what led people to start to believe that potentially Acosta did not have that much time left in the White House.

The president also has said nothing publicly about it, which was another cause for concern for people in the West Wing who were worried about potentially the labor secretary having to be forced out of this job.

Well, the president made clear this morning, he said that that was based on Acosta's decision, that he didn't want to be the focus, but certainly he did not feel that he had this support of the president based on the conversations that the president had been having over the last 24 hours or so.

HARLOW: Kaitlan Collins, thank you very much. Stand by. Let us know as you have more reporting.

Nia-Malika, let me go to you.

I think it's interesting that, according to Kaitlan's reporting, the president's turn here was about the lack of the victims being notified. And let me remind people, it's a federal judge that has ruled that what Acosta agreed to here, to basically keep this deal secret from all of the victims, the dozens of victims, over 30 victims that we know about, was not only illegal, that's what a federal judge said. The great reporting from Julie Brown in "The Miami Herald" earlier this year pointed out that Acosta actually acquiesced to Epstein's lawyers over and over again after having this secret meetings with them, agreeing to keep things private, also helped them limit the scandal by shutting out the victims, moving some of this to Miami to keep it out of, quote, significant press coverage, away from many of the victims in the Palm Beach area?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER: That's right. And he tried to offer an explanation in that press conference, but, you know, when the reporters from "The Miami Herald" sort of fact checked it, it came up to be false. He was, you know, in many ways, he was sort of full of excuses and misdirection in that press conference.

I thought he was terrible, terrible, terrible in that press conference. He seemed smug. He seemed self-satisfied. There was a glibness about him. He portrayed himself as sort of the hero in this story who rescued this case from the folks in the state of Florida who weren't going to go further and really be harsh on this guy, Jeffrey Epstein.

So, yes, I mean, it's not a surprise. I mean it sort of sounds like the president, once he listened carefully to the press conference, that he saw I think what I saw initially, which was a poor, poor performance by Acosta.

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