Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump: "Progressive" Congresswomen Should Go Back Where They Came From; Interview with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA); Official: Raids Targeting 2,000 Undocumented Immigrants Underway; 11 Million Under Flash Flooding Threat As Storm Pounds Louisiana. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 14, 2019 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:05] ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thank you for being here.

President Trump unloading a racist tirade on Twitter today, the same day his administration threatens to round up undocumented immigrants across the country. Coincidence? There's no escaping the fact that his remarks about congresswomen of color have stoked another day of outrage on social media, saying progressive Democrat congresswomen should go back to the crime-infested places from which they came, and you can't leave fast enough.

Now, for the record, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York. Rashida Tlaib was born in Michigan. Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia, but she came to the U.S. at age 12 and became a U.S. citizen when she was 17. Ayanna Pressley was born in Ohio.

And again, in case he didn't make his point clearly enough, President Trump also suggested Nancy Pelosi would be happy to work out the travel arrangements for them to be sent back.

It's all gotten a lot of attention. Most of it negative, almost all of it from Democrats, but it's still attention. And it still hasn't inspired much, or any, comment from members of the President's own party.

Boris Sanchez is at the White House with the latest for us. Boris, are you hearing anything from the GOP, positive or negative?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much yet, Ana. One official in the Trump campaign tweeted out suggesting that perhaps the President didn't actually mean that they should go back to their countries, even though it's in black and white. His intent is clear.

Others, even frequent critics of the President in the past, have remained largely silent. No real comment from Senator Rand Paul or Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz. The list goes on. One former Republican, though, is being highly critical of the President, and that's Michigan representative Justin Amash.

Remember that after the release of the Mueller report, he called for the President's impeachment. And soon after, he left the Republican Party partly because of the reception that he got from some of his colleagues who he says criticized the President behind closed doors. They've largely remained mum today, though.

Here is what Justin Amash tweeted out. He writes, quote, to tell these American citizens, most of whom were born here, to go back to the crime-infested places from which they came is racist and disgusting.

We should point out, part of the reason the President did this and the reason that he mentioned Nancy Pelosi is because he's trying to expose a rift in the Democratic Party. These four progressive women have been critical of Nancy Pelosi's handling of an immigration-funding bill that passed through Congress last week. She's been critical of their use of social media and the way that they go after other Democrats. This may have backfired, though, because now all of them are united against their common enemy in President Trump.

Take a look at what Nancy Pelosi tweeted a short while ago. She writes, quote, I reject Donald Trump's xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation. Rather than attack members of Congress, he should work with us for a humane immigration policy that reflects American values. Stop the raids. Hashtag, families belong together.

There's another tweet that she sent out right before that one, saying that diversity is our strength and power as Americans. Notably, though, here, Pelosi is saying that even if the President is xenophobic, he should still work with Congress to try to get something done on immigration. Something these four progressive members of Congress may outright reject, Ana.

CABRERA: OK, Boris Sanchez at the White House, thank you. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California.

Congresswoman, glad you are with us tonight. You are a member of the congressional progressive caucus. The President appears to be referring to your progressive colleagues -- Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley, and Omar -- in his tweet. Are you surprised your Republican colleagues have yet to call the President out for his racist attack?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: I am surprised that anyone would be shocked by the racism of this president. The President is an illegitimate racist occupying the White House who has defined himself over and over again. Yes, he attacked these four women of color, who are members of Congress, who have been elected from their districts to come to the Congress of the United States and represent the people in their districts. They are certainly legitimate. He is not.

This is a president who has defined himself as a sexual predator, a liar, a con man. This is a man who has cheated young people who went to the fake university that he set up, thinking they were going to become developers, et cetera. This is a man who lied about the President of the United States, Obama, on this birther movement.

But don't forget, long before he was elected to office, he tried to get the Central Park Five death penalty. He wanted them killed even though they were found not to be guilty of the crimes that they were being accused of. So what is it about anybody that we'd be surprised about what he would say or what he does? If there's anything we should be talking about, it is the lack of the responsibility of the Congress of the United States to impeach him. He needs to be impeached.

[19:05:07] He has defined himself thoroughly. He is dangerous. He is divisive. And this is someone who does not understand or appreciate the constitution of the United States of America. He needs to go. We need to be talking about impeachment.

CABRERA: So do you believe that Nancy Pelosi is making the wrong decision in holding off from an inquiry?

WATERS: I disagree with Nancy Pelosi, and I've said that over and over again. I started two years ago when I saw him, even in the campaign, against his own colleagues in the Republican Party, when I understood there was collusion going on with Putin and the oligarchs and the Kremlin in Russia, when I saw this president basically obstruct justice before our very eyes. I've known for a long time that he should be impeached.

CABRERA: OK.

WATERS: Yes, I've been on that for a long time, and I disagree with anybody who thinks differently.

CABRERA: Let me ask you about what's happening at the border because Vice President Mike Pence toured two detention facilities on Friday, one that has children and families, one that has men. And he agreed the conditions in the facility housing the men were unacceptable. But here is where he laid the blame. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Remember, it was just a few short weeks ago that Congress finally acknowledged the crisis and gave us an additional $4.6 billion in humanitarian aid. Remember, for the last six months, Democrats in Congress said it was a manufactured crisis, and it was all we could do to finally get the Democrats in Congress to agree to give us additional funding to deal with this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Congresswoman, to what degree are the deplorable conditions those men are being kept in at the border the fault of congressional Democrats?

WATERS: Well, let me tell you, I don't know exactly what the Vice President is trying to do. I guess he was sent there to try and place blame on Democrats, but it's not true. We know that the President of the United States is not interested in comprehensive immigration reform.

What he's interested in doing is using these unfortunate individuals as political pawns in this campaign that he has to demonstrate to those people that are his supporters that, somehow, our country is being undermined and destroyed by who he calls rapists and criminals and who he's assigned the worst things to. That picture that you see of all of those men behind that cage is simply a picture that they wanted to send out to their constituents to say, see, we're capturing them. We've got them.

And they don't care about the children. They are separating the children from their families. It is the most horrific and ornery thing that any human being could do to separate children from their parents. These children will be damaged for the rest of their lives.

And so I don't care what Pence was sent there to do. Nobody believes him and the President of the United States. They lie. They distort. They do it on a daily basis.

He wakes up every morning tweeting. He needs to be impeached. He needs to be --

CABRERA: Congresswoman --

WATERS: -- gotten out of here. Yes.

CABRERA: Congresswoman, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was with Pence on these tours. He was at that men's facility. Our reporters there say the stench was overwhelming.

WATERS: Yes.

CABRERA: That it smelled like urine.

WATERS: Yes.

CABRERA: That the men didn't have water or beds.

WATERS: Yes.

CABRERA: Here's what Senator Graham said afterward.

WATERS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: What I saw is a bunch of people who've been here before, broke the law before, and we're not going to let them go. I don't care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we're not going to let those men go that I saw. It would be dangerous. I'm willing to buy beds for these people, so they'll have a better place to get a night's sleep, but I'm not going to let them go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: To that, you say what?

WATERS: I say that this lying senator, who's basically another sycophant of -- basically using his voice to protect the President of the United States cannot be trusted. We've seen how he turned on John McCain. We've seen how he's been kissing up to this president, wanting to be embraced by this president.

But he is going to have a great challenge, and we believe that we can get rid of him also. We can defeat him in the election that's coming up. I don't believe him. The average person with any sense of logic does not believe him.

He, too, has defined himself, and we see how he double-crossed John McCain who was supposed to be his friend. He is not trustworthy. He's a liar.

CABRERA: But it kind of sounds like everything that you're hearing from them -- I mean, it doesn't sound like you want to work together at any -- in any capacity with Republicans.

WATERS: Well, it's not that we don't want to, they have shown us that they will not. They are not interested in working with anybody.

[19:09:56] When you have a president who constantly lies on top of lies -- and each day he's attacking somebody, not only the members of Congress, not only Nancy Pelosi, not only, you know, anybody who disagrees with him. He has created a division between us and our international allies.

And that memorandum that you saw that came from the U.K. Ambassador was simply the truth being told about what he has observed, but this is what our allies are thinking about us. They don't know what has happened to the United States of America. How could we constantly wake up every day and basically allow this illegitimate president to keep up the kind of trash that he's doing?

CABRERA: A senior administration official says that the planned ICE raids are currently underway. We're trying to find out what that means and where it's happening. Your district is in Los Angeles County. The city of Los Angeles is one of the cities expected to be targeted. Are you aware of any raids there today?

WATERS: No. As a matter of fact, I went out early this morning, and I went to two of the biggest Catholic churches in my district and I passed out flyers. And I asked them to beware that if anybody knocked on their doors, don't let them in. So I passed out flyers and I went to some of the restaurants, et cetera. I didn't see anybody, but I did have a complaint from one of my constituents that they had tried to come to her door once before even though she is a citizen. So I'm going to follow up on that to see what happened.

CABRERA: OK.

WATERS: I have not seen them today, but I was out there warning and letting people know what their rights are so that they would not be taken advantage of. And so, no, I have not seen them today.

CABRERA: OK. Please follow up with us if that changes. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you for taking the time.

WATERS: You're so welcome.

CABRERA: Appreciate you joining us.

WATERS: Thank you for exposing what is going on.

CABRERA: Thanks.

Coming up, CNN goes one-on-one with Trump's top immigration official. His response when asked who they're targeting in these raids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:36] CABRERA: A senior Trump administration official says the President's latest immigration crackdown targeting roughly 2,000 undocumented immigrants is happening as we speak. But according to immigrant advocates we've spoken to, there have been no reports of any raids in at least three cities on that list. So how would this roundup work? As you're about to see, answers are hard to come by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Who is going to be targeted? Because, obviously, I don't think there's anybody that really would object to dangerous criminals, MS-13 --

KEN CUCCINELLI, ACTING DIRECTOR, CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES: Well, and let's start there.

TAPPER: Yes.

CUCCINELLI: That remains the priority for ICE. They're still the priority.

TAPPER: So when they go out today, that's who they're going to go after?

CUCCINELLI: That's still the priority that what -- what we keep saying --

TAPPER: But today -- today, it's a priority?

CUCCINELLI: Let me finish, Jake.

TAPPER: Yes.

CUCCINELLI: What we keep saying is that will not be the exclusive limit of any operation.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What happens if a child is at daycare or at summer camp, the parent is arrested? Is that child going to go home to an empty house? What's going to happen?

PENCE: Pamela, I am very confident that the American people recognize that the way forward to deal with this crisis of illegal immigration is to enforce our laws. And enforcing court-ordered deportation orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst and former adviser to four presidents, David Gergen.

David, when you ask Trump officials to articulate the specifics of what's behind this ICE policy, this ICE raid action that they're supposedly taking, the details are scarce. And yet, today, we saw the President targeting Democratic congresswomen of color, telling them to go back to their countries when, in fact, their country is the United States of America.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's correct, Ana. Once again, I'm afraid the President of the United States has hung out a sign on the front of the White House. It reads, if you're not White, you're not welcome.

I don't think we can remember a time since the early -- days before the Civil War when there's been so much prejudice and sort of nativism that's coming out of the White House. And it's -- what one has to understand and appreciate and what other presidents have tried to help us understand is this country is becoming increasingly a country of people of color.

At this time, for the first time in American history, as of this year, more than half the people in the country below the age of 30 are people of color. And within about 20 or 30 years, the whole nation is going to be majority people of color. If we don't learn to get along, if we -- if we start by breaking and tossing out the melting pot, we're going to wind up destroying the country.

CABRERA: Three years ago, Republicans, I remember, were really quick to denounce Trump's attacks on a U.S. judge of Mexican heritage.

GERGEN: Yes.

CABRERA: Then-Speaker Paul Ryan, he called it the textbook definition of racism. Where are those Republicans now, David?

GERGEN: That's a very, very good question. And they -- you know, they would do good things for themselves and for -- especially for the Republican Party if they self-corrected now and called out the President on this.

I don't know why the President tweeted in such an angry fashion. It seemed -- it seems almost random at times, but the fact is we know he is very dismissive of women. That's been true for a long time. Increasingly, he's also dismissive of people of color. And that is a very dangerous combination.

These four women that he singled out, three of the four women were born in the United States. They are American citizens. The fourth was born in Somalia, came here as a child, and is now an American citizen. The very notion that they ought to go back to where they came from is so antediluvian, it's just really impossible.

You know, it was -- Jake Tapper said if we're going to go down this path, maybe he ought to send Melania back to Slovenia. You know, I know that was said in jest, but, nonetheless, there ought to be a certain kind of etiquette.

And the President is the moral leader of the country. That's the person we look to, to set standards for us as a people. And when he begins to divide and conquer this way, especially with people of color, especially with women, it's extraordinarily destructive of the fabric that holds us together as a people.

CABRERA: And yet, Trump was elected on the promise that he would be tough on immigration.

GERGEN: Yes.

CABRERA: Remember --

GERGEN: Yes.

CABRERA: Remember all of this? Watch this.

GERGEN: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[19:19:57] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

We have illegal immigrants that, in many cases, are treated better than our great veterans.

Countless Americans are killed by illegal immigrants because our government won't do its job.

But we have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out.

They want to have illegal immigrants pouring into our country, bringing with them crime, tremendous amounts of crime.

We are bringing in some very bad, bad people. We don't want this group of people anymore.

These are rough, rough people in many cases. Yes, sir. We have barbwire going up because, you know what, we're not letting these people invade our country.

In those caravans, you have stone-cold killers.

You got some bad people in those groups. You got some tough people in those groups. And I'll tell you what, this country doesn't want them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And today, we're told we're in the middle of these ICE raids in nine U.S. cities. David, is this part of the deal Americans voted for? GERGEN: Well, they certainly voted to crack down on immigration.

And, you know, to be honest with you, listen, Barack Obama was tougher in some -- in many ways. He had many more people who were either removed or returned during his presidency than we have seen during the Trump presidency. But there are two things about the difference between, say, an Obama -- and George W. Bush along with him. And Clinton along with him.

CABRERA: Yes.

GERGEN: When they deported people, they took as a priority to deport criminals, people who have broken major laws. Not people who have -- you know, have a minor violation or didn't show up at the court. Get the people out who are threatening to our population, and the country respected that. Everybody could agree to that.

But when you start trashing people in the way he does it, it simply divides us, makes us angry with each other, makes us -- and brings a country with -- where people don't trust each other. They don't think that they're respected. And once people are marginalized, they get very angry, they can get very sullen, and they can become more dangerous if you stir them up too much.

But right now, the critical thing is the office of the presidency, the commitment of the presidency in our modern America is to weave the country together, to keep that fabric whole.

CABRERA: And you have advised four presidents, both Democrats and Republicans.

GERGEN: Yes, threw all my sense (ph).

CABRERA: What advice --

GERGEN: Yes.

CABRERA: What advice would you give to whichever candidate ultimately gets the chance to square off against Trump on the debate stage when it comes to this issue of immigration?

GERGEN: Well, I think the candidate, whoever it is, has to be very realistic. We do have a problem on our southern border. We do need to reduce the number coming in. We do need to remove and return some people who should -- who, you know, outlived their -- they haven't shown up when they were ordered to do so. But we need to do it in a humane way.

We need -- don't want the open borders. I can tell you if the Democratic nominee runs on the idea we ought to have open borders, that candidate is going to lose. You've got to bring the rest of the country with you.

And that's the reason that Nancy Pelosi is having this spat with these new progressive women. Yes, you welcome in the Democratic progressive women, but you don't want these newcomers to Congress to turn your party upside-down so that you lose an election. There are -- you know, they have bigger fish to fry.

They're not going to solve the problem that -- these new progressive women, whom I admire, are not going to get what they're looking for if they turn more than half the country against their agenda.

CABRERA: David Gergen, I always appreciate your perspective. Thank you, again, for being here.

GERGEN: Thank you, Ana. Good to talk to you.

CABRERA: Thank you.

Coming up, the worst is yet to come as Tropical Storm Barry still churns over land with 11 million people still in the path of heavy, heavy rains and fierce winds.

[19:23:49] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The people of the gulf coast states are cleaning up today from a hurricane turned tropical storm, now tropical depression. But now, the second shoe of this natural disaster is about to drop. Look at this massive rain system swirling in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's headed for the already waterlogged coast of Texas and Louisiana. It's moving very slowly, meaning heavy rainfall will hammer Louisiana and Arkansas and other states potentially for several days. The emergency officials are preparing for widespread flooding.

Let's get out to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And CNN's Randi Kaye is there on the banks of the Mississippi River, which is already at major flood stage. Randi, just how worried are people there about these flood warnings?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People were certainly concerned, Ana, about the flood warnings and certainly very concerned when they hear the Governor here say that parts of Louisiana haven't seen the worst of this. So there is still a lot of concern here, but along the banks here of the Mississippi, it looks OK. The water actually seems to be going down just a little bit, although it has been above flood stage for several weeks now.

But back there, that beautiful bridge behind me, that's one of the high points -- that's actually the highest point across the Mississippi River. They're not real worried about areas like that, but they are worried about something like this. When they see this -- which is the railing here from this levee system that we're standing on which has been protecting the city of Baton Rouge, when they see the water coming up on those railings, which it has been, that is a concern.

And also back there, that -- those letters -- and I'm not sure how clearly you can see them, but that spells out Baton Rouge along the levee. And there is water that is coming up high on those. It does seem to be coming up and then going down, just like we've seen -- we've been seeing today. The rain has been coming in pretty hard and then it goes away for a little while. Right now, we're in bit of -- a bit of dry spell, which is a nice break.

But there is certainly still concern about the Mississippi River. It is supposed to crest at 40 feet. Thirty is normal so that's why they're a little bit worried about that. They're also concerned about the Amite River which flooded back in 2016 when they had this big depression that just sort of dropped rain for days over the area of Baton Rouge.

One woman had five feet of water in her house, she told me. And she evacuated for this storm. She has no idea what happened along the Amite River in her area. She's hoping to get home tomorrow, so we'll see what happens there.

In terms of power outages, though, the city is in pretty good shape. They are -- they have about 10,000 without power across the state. There's about 10,000 -- sorry, about 70,000 still without power. And no sign of any storms or -- any more storms or anything like that in this area. Back to you, Ana.

[19:30:08] CABRERA: OK, we are keeping our fingers crossed for all the people in Louisiana tonight.

Thank you, Randi Kaye.

Coming up, another batch of leaked cables involving the now former British ambassador U.S. what he reportedly said about the reason why President Trump walked away from the Iran deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:58] CABRERA: It's happened again. The "Daily Mail" reporting on more leaked diplomatic cables from the now former UK ambassador to the U.S. who you may remember resigned this week after it was revealed he referred to the Trump administration an inept, among other things.

In this new batch of leaked cables, the "Daily Mail" says ambassador Kim Darroch wrote about the decision by the Trump administration to abandon the Iran nuclear deal saying they were set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism. And the President, himself, appeared to be abandoning the deal for quote "personality reasons" because it'd been agreed to by his predecessor, president Obama.

We should note CNN has not seen these leaked cables to confirm the contents. We did reach out to the UK foreign office and we are told a police inquiry into the leak has begun. The White House had no comment.

And that brings us to your weekend presidential brief with CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd.

Sam, how will this impact your foreign policy this week?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Ana, this feels like information warfare to me. We have stolen information that's being released potentially for political purposes and the intended target, President Trump, has been reached and breached. The special relationship between the United States and the UK is being held hostage to the President's thin skin and illegally obtained emails that are being released in tranches (ph).

This latest released of cable doesn't really tell us a whole lot that is new. It's no secret that there's discord between the United Kingdom and the United States over the Iran nuclear deal. But if recent history is any guide, this may result in another Trump tailspin.

And, Ana, I fear that the president's reaction to this -- to these leaked cables, may incentivize more leaks. It is very clear that a diplomat doing his job in writing cables results in the President getting incredibly distracted when this information becomes public. If you are an enemy of the United States, if you want the President to take his eye off the ball, off real threats, you may think that illegally obtaining information and then releasing it is the surest way to send president Trump down a rabbit hole.

[19:35:57] CABRERA: And there's not a lot of time or room for distraction right now, as you write in your CNN column. These ICE raids which were expected to start today in nine U.S. cities are going to overwhelm an already very stressed system.

VINOGRAD: That's exactly right. And hypocrisy doesn't help when it comes to human rights. Even before these ICE raids, we know that the migrant detention facilities were overwhelmed. That's the administration's word, not mine. We know that children that were separated from their families under the President's zero tolerance policy, they all haven't been reunited with their families. And yet the President's proceeding with these ICE raids, despite the fact that the facilities can't handle them. He is putting more strain on our ability to protect basic human rights for no reason. There's no security imperative for these ICE raids at this time. And it is shocking that the United Nations several weeks ago said that the United States may be violating international human rights law here at home.

We used to champion human rights abroad and now we are breaking it. That undermines our ability to protect people in other countries because we have no leg to stand on based upon President Trump's record of domestic abuse of human rights within the United States.

CABRERA: Let me switch to a security issue that you and I were speaking about last night in the midst of the power outage. You are doing amazing. I know how tired you must be. Officials are saying that this outage was not because of an attack but yet, you know, it does make you wonder about the vulnerability of the electric grid.

VINOGRAD: We actually know from DHS and the FBI that Russia has attacked our critical infrastructure. I'm not talking about our election infrastructure at this point. We know from DHS and FBI and members of the intelligence community that Russia has attacked our energy grids, our water facilities, our nuclear power plants. They literally have their hand on our light switches.

And Russia has a track record when it comes to attacking electric grids. They shut off the lights in Ukraine in 2015 in the middle of winter because they were upset with Ukrainian activities on a variety of issues. And We have to be very careful here, coned officials, New York City officials, are going to want to brief the public on what's happened and what the physical vulnerabilities may have been in the system.

But we are not the only ones that are going to learn les what happened last night. Our enemies including Russia are going to be listening to find out where there may be other areas they can exploit if they decide to launch more cyber attacks or, again, just to flip that switch to throw New York City and potentially other areas into panic.

CABRERA: As always, Sam Vinograd, good to have you with using thank you.

Up next, the dazzling sight in Paris that came courtesy a French inventor and his fly board.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:42:32] CABRERA: We have dramatic new video of a heart-stopping rescue by some construction workers. Watch this. They catch a baby and a toddler who are thrown from a burning building in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workers, we're told, were putting a new roof on the boarding next door when this fire broke out and they jumped in when they saw a man hanging out the window with his baby. After saving the children, the workers got the parents out safely. Incredible.

Investigators say it could take months to figure out what caused a blackout that left the west side of Manhattan in the dark. Last night's power outage trapped New Yorkers in subway cars and elevators and forced people to fend for themselves at intersections with no traffic signals. At one point, 72,000 customers had no electricity. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says an explosion at an electrical substation is to blame.

And check this out. A French inventor flew around the Champs-Elyse today using a jet pack. He carried a rifle suggesting that maybe this flyboard could serve a military purpose. Apparently the board can reach speeds of nearly 120 miles per hour. And run for ten minutes before needing to refuel. The inventor plans to cross the English channel on it later this month. We will have to see if he's successful.

A whole lot of royalty in London. A duchess, as in Meghan Markle, and a queen, the queen bee, Beyonce. They met at the European premiere of the new "Lion King." There was hugging, take our word for it. This is a big thing. Etiquette dictates ordinary people aren't supposed to touch royals unless said royal initiates it. Again, Beyonce isn't an ordinary person. I think we can all agree on that. Jay-Z and prince Harry were there, too, but it's about Meghan and Beyonce, right?

Coming up, the heroic police officer arrives on the scene just as five teams are being swept deep down a storm drain. We have the incredible rescue that was caught on camera, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:10] CABRERA: Rushing water, a treacherous slope and a pitch- black tunnel when five teenage boys were swept away in a storm sewer, an Ohio police officer went beyond the call of duty to pull them out of danger.

CNN's Alexandra Field has this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OFFICER AARON FRANKLIN, MASSILLON, OHIO POLICE DEPARTMENT: I got --

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Young lives are on the line and in officer Aaron Franklin's hands.

FRANKLIN: I see them!

FIELD: The rushing water sweeping a group of Ohio teens down into a storm sewer.

FRANKLIN: You can hear them. You can hear them yelling. Sounds like they're saying "help."

FIELD: Officer Franklin is first on scene. It's his first water rescue.

FRANKLIN: You guys all right?

FIELD: His body camera records him trying to get close.

FRANKLIN: It's obviously a treacherous downslope. Everything's wet. Including the slate rocks that are down here.

FIELD: The officer spots two boys near the mouth of the tunnel.

FRANKLIN: Don't let go. All the way up here.

FIELD: With help from the fire department, he manages to get both out on their feet.

FRANKLIN: You're the last one, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

FIELD: There are three more boys still stuck inside.

FRANKLIN: There's no way of knowing how far down there they are.

FIELD: What do you know about that tunnel? What's it like in there?

FRANKLIN: Well, I know it's pitch black and, obviously, just looking at it, I can see that the water's rushing. I knew that that tunnel continued down for approximately a mile and subsequently let out at the river.

I'm just going to use this to get down with, OK? FIELD: With Franklin holding on to him, the fire chief goes down to

search.

FRANKLIN: Once he gets down there, he's out of my sight.

FIELD: Soon, rescuers feel the weight of one boy on the line.

FRANKLIN: Take a deep breath, man. Take a deep breath. Come on up.

FIELD: Finally they feel the weight of another.

FRANKLIN: Almost there! There's five, six, grown men tugging, pulling as hard as they can. Pulling a 120-pound teen and it felt like we were pulling a truck. Stand up.

[19:50:05] FIELD: Word eventually comes a missing friend has made it out, too.

FRANKLIN: We got him. He got him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have him?

FRANKLIN: Yes.

TREVER GALLION, RESCUED TEENAGER: I was trying to stand up and eventually realized I couldn't stand up towards the water so I just -- I just let it take me.

FIELD: A second team of rescuers found him clinging to a ladder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the police officers told me if, there is a grate end of the tunnel, he said, if he would have made it down there probably wouldn't have brought your son home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Get you all looked at.

FIELD: The officer says he was just in the right place.

FRANKLIN: Anybody that would be put in a situation in this line of work, they have an obligation to do so and we are going to do it.

How are you?

FIELD: Trever is grateful rescuers reached him and his friends in time.

Alexandria Field, CNN, Massillon, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:54:36] CABRERA: In "Titanic" to "Jurassic Park" to "Jerry Maguire" some of the most influential films from 90s shaped by a country looking for escape from the doll drums of office life. Here is a preview of tonight's brand new episode of the CNN original series "the Movies."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the guy you don't see. I'm the one behind the scenes. I'm the sports extra.

[19:55:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wanted to write a movie that begins with an '80s movie ended.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fire Jerry Maguire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The script went right to Tom Cruise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He calls immediately. I love this script. I'll read it, with you, and you tell me if I'm right for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm not going to do what you all think I'm going to do, which is -- just flip out! .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And basically I have been geeking out over his performance ever since.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerry Maguire. How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerry Maguire! How am I doing? Tell you. I'm sweating, dude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cuba and tom deliriously happy actors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me the money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were just like landing blows on each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! Show me the money!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that scene kind of exploded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes !

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations. You are still my agent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Joining us now, Alicia Malone, host of Turner classic movies.

Alicia, it is fun to see those clips. Haven't seen that movie in such a long time. What kind of movies did Hollywood start making in the 1990s that really set it apart from previous decades of cinema?

ALICIA MALONE, HOST, TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES: Well, as well at the films you mentioned like "Jurassic Park" and "Jerry Maguire," we just saw the 1990s about the rise of independent cinema. So in Hollywood, you had all these smaller studios started to be formed, like Miramax, and they were giving money, not very big money but low budgets to really interesting moviemakers so they could make their movies and make really interesting films. And you think about the directors that came out of the 1990s. I mean, some incredible filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, (INAUDIBLE) and Spike Lee.

CABRERA: Wow. Yes, Spike Lee in the '90s. The '90s really were all about generation x. Right? What kind of influence did that have on filmmaking, generation x?

MALONE: Yes. Well, generation x were watching films about generation x made by generation x and these were the 20 somethings, people would call them slackers but they really had a lot of friends who were like family. They were searching for direction. They wanted to do something different than their parents and their parents really had causes to rally around like civil rights movement. But in the '90s, everything was going well. So you had films like "Clocks" and "Reality Bites," "I Love Empire Records." And as well great filmmakers first time sharing their own stories. So women, people are color, members of the LGBTQ community able to pick up a camera and make their first movies and really share their voices for the very first time.

CABRERA: And during that time we saw a huge advancement in technology in filmmaking and fears about Y2K. Remember that? How did that impact the stories filmmakers told in the '90s and the kinds of the tools that they had to tell them?

MALONE: Oh, I remember everyone being so terrified about Y2K and we saw those fears manifested in the action films, particularly towards the end of the decade. So you had all of these disaster movies films like "Independence Day," and "Deep Impact," and "Armageddon" and "Twister" even "Titanic." Films that were really tragic and almost apocalyptic. But really alongside that sophisticated computer technology developed meaning filmmakers could make the big special effects and make them seem quite authentic.

CABRERA: You touch it had on this. The '90s saw a growth a movement in African-American filmmaking, the rise of movies made by and starring women. What allowed those minority groups to break through during this decade and the what were the some of the great movies they produced?

MALONE: Well, alongside those independent studios, there was also was more access to moviemaking equipment. So you had the consumer video camera and the professional video camera, you can shoot digitally. You didn't have to worry about having a big budget to shoot on film and processed film. And that really allowed people to tell their own stories. So I mentioned Spike Lee. You also had like the late, great John Singleton. Julie Dash was the first female black filmmaker to have a movie and wide extra release with a film called "daughters of the dust" and also you had a new queer cinema. Sheryl Dunne (ph) made a film I love called "the watermelon woman" and it was groundbreaking. And that is showed an interracial lesbian relationship and it was by a black lesbian filmmaker. And really that was what the '90s allowed filmmakers to do this.

CABRERA: Do you have a favorite from the '90s? MALONE: I have so many. But I think because I have a tattoo with

Mrs. Wallace on my ankle, I will have to go "Pulp Fiction." That was the film when saw it as a teenager. It broke my brain showing thee films didn't have to follow a narrative. That you could mix things up and still be compelling. I love the aesthetic and sound track, too, Ana.

CABRERA: Yes, absolutely. My favorite I think "Titanic." I'm a sucker for good love stories.

Alicia Malone, thank you very much.

[20:00:04] MALONE: Thank you.

CABRERA: That's going to do it for me tonight. I'm Ana Cabrera.

Be sure to tune in an all new episode of the CNN original series "the movies" starts right now.