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Hurricane Dorian Targets For Bahamas Before Heading Toward U.S. East Coast; Northern Florida, Southeast Georgia Prepare For Hurricane Dorian, Knowing It Can Change Direction; NASA Moves Launcher Inside Ahead Of Hurricane; Trump Says He's Forgiven Ex-Personal Assistant, Mentions NDA; Concerns Trump Shared Classified Image On Twitter; CNN: Trump Makes 328 False Claims In Just Six Weeks; Dorian Being Compared To Hurricane Matthew Which Caused Over $10 Billion In Damages; Colorado Woman Sues After Giving Birth In Denver Jail Cell; Tear Gas & Firebombs On Hong Kong's 13th Weekend Of Unrest. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 31, 2019 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:03] ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: It's 3:00 Eastern, noon out West. I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for being here.

Hurricane emergency. A massive storm churning toward the East Coast right now and taking direct aim at the northern-most islands of the Caribbean. Right now, Hurricane Dorian, a category 4 storm, with winds near 150-mile-per-hour. That's not far from cat 5 status.

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(CRASHING NOISE)

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CABRERA: People in south and central Florida wisely making their supermarket runs, even though the storm had shifted to the east, making a direct hit there less likely. Still they are keeping up their guard and watching the hurricane's every move knowing it could change direction again.

And this is just due east from Orlando. You can see the beaches deserted.

Let's get to CNN's Chad Myers in the Severe Weather Center.

Chad, before the storm reaches the United States, it's going to hit the Bahamas. Show us where and what people there are about to go through.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's going to hit the Bahamas over and over and over. And I'm glad you pointed that out. Because I made a special map to point out what we are specking from the storm now. What the European model and the American model are pretty much agreeing upon. The storm right now is 150-mile-per-hour. We did have a wind gust to

166 from the hurricane hunter aircraft about an hour ago. The plane has now left to come back home and another plane son the way. But we won't get any more pressers or updates by the 5:00 hour for sure.

Here is what's going on. The storm is breathing well. The eye is clear. Around the eye is going up and down, going about 15 miles across from one side to the other. We are expecting the turn around the Bahamas and turning right. It appears that this is going to be a smooth turn. But it's not.

This is Saturday at 3:00. This is right now. There's Nassau. There's Freeport. There's the storm at 10:00 p.m. Sunday morning. There's the storm at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. Did you see it move? Here is the storm 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning/ Oh, my gosh, this thing has been in the Bahamas now for 24 hours at 140-mile-per-hour.

But wait. There's more. Here you go. Sunday, 11:00, 10:00 p.m., another 12 hours, in the same spot. And then finally begins to move by Tuesday. So this is not turning. It's stopping and then making almost a 90-degree left-hand turn. If you believe that.

But it wouldn't have to go much farther west to have that type of stuff still over Florida. That's why you're already prepared in Florida. Don't let the guard down. You have to keep watching.

Let's hope it never gets to the Bahamas and does that stop somewhere 60 miles east of the Bahamas. It's still possible but that's not the forecast right now.

We will have more models by the time is gets closer and closer. All we already know is that the hurricane warnings are posted for the Bahamas, and rightfully so.

And 36 hours of a storm at 140-mile-per-hour or greater in any spot will do unimaginable damage and harm to that area. Storm surge, wind damage, an awful lot of rainfall coming down, too. Like that's not even a huge problem at this point in time when your winds are 140.

Waves off the East Coast will be 40 feet. That's not on shore. There will be breakers before that. But eventually, this thing gets all the up to the Carolina with very large breakers.

But neither model -- right now, all models are in. The European and the American model, none of them actually have the eye center over any part of the U.S. Not saying that's eye wall. That's the center of the eye. That's some good news.

Just get this thing farther out to sea and we'll all be good.

CABRERA: Fingers crossed if that happened.

But still, even without direct landfall, I imagine all those people who are there along the East Coast will still feel the winds and the rains and the storm surge, no? MYERS: No question about it, 20 inches of rain easy. Because it sits

over water and uses the water to make its energy and to make it rain and rain and rain on shore. Then you have wind, even if it's just 60- miles-per-hour.

Can you imagine 30 hours of wind on shore in West Palm or Port St. Lucy or Port Ritchey? That would push water right into those back bays and into the inner coastal. Water could go up eight feet even without landfall.

CABRERA: OK. So important for everybody to continue their preparations for the storm.

Chad Myers, thank you.

People living on the coast in northern Florida and southeast Georgia being told today to prepare for the powerful storm's arrival. It will either hit with full force or with a glancing blow.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dianne, how are people there getting ready?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, Ana, we have to point out exactly what Chad said. Whether it's a full force or glancing blow, Jacksonville has to prepare for flooding.

[15:05:03] A large part due to this right here, the St. John's River. It's location kind of in between the ocean and the river here. They may have to deal with flooding in Jacksonville.

I have covered hurricanes in Jacksonville. Even if it's not a direct hit to Florida, they deal with this kind of flooding in the downtown area, simply because of the way it's situated along the water. And they've prepared accordingly, Ana.

There's supposed to be a football game. Florida State versus Boise was supposed to play right across the street from where I am. This should be filled, this marina, with boats, people tailgating. It should be active. Instead, they moved the game all the way across the state to Tallahassee because they weren't sure of the track.

And that's a lot of what we've been doing. We have come up the coastline of Florida, my team and I. It's that uncertainty, not knowing when it was going to hit, just how intense the storm surge will be, how intense the winds are going to be, getting whether it makes landfall or not, and how it affects the low-lying coastal areas.

The good news is the East Coast of Florida is used to hurricanes. The people here are prepared and they know how to prepare and they know what to do. But it's something that makes them nervous.

Schools in the area surrounding Jacksonville have already cancelled classes for students on Tuesday. Remember, this is Labor Day weekend, a holiday weekend. They weren't in school on Monday to begin with. But they want to take every precaution that they can to make sure if

they do have flooding in this area they don't have people who are caught in it. They don't have kids at school. People who return from maybe being on vacation for the holiday trying to get back here and get stuck in whatever comes this which from Dorian.

Now, look, you're not seeing much around here right now. To be honest, there are not a lot of active preparations going on in Jacksonville. The gas station lines aren't here, the grocery store lines, things like that.

But remember, we are still a couple days out. They're watching the forecast in these communities trying to see exactly what to expect.

But, again, we're likely going to see some kind of flooding here because that's what happens due to that storm surge and due to the river here, due to the proximity to the ocean.

CABRERA: It's so eerie to see not a soul in sight behind you.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you for that update.

Of all the people and organizations moving valuable items out of Hurricane Dorian's way, no one perhaps has as big a job as NASA. The space agency decided to move this mobile launcher at the fast clip of one-mile-per-hour.

The launcher is as tall as the Statue of Liberty, weighs more than 10 million pounds, and will catapult the next space craft to the moon. But during the storm, it will be indoors for safekeeping.

NASA's Derrol Nail is the spokesperson for the Kennedy Space Center. And he's joining us now.

Derrol, given the forecast, good news for people in Florida. Does that change anything in terms of your preparations for the storm?

DERROL NAIL, SPOKESMAN, NASA/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER: No, Ana, it does not. We met with our forecaster here at the Kennedy Space Center early this morning. And it's been determined we are going to have potentially still hurricane-force winds here at the Kennedy Space Center as this storm comes by. So we want to make sure we're all buttoned up.

We did the operation yesterday to move a very valuable piece of equipment, that mobile launcher that you mentioned, which is the future for the Artemis Program, to send the first woman and the next man to the moon and learn to live on the moon, so we can live on another world like Mars one day.

We got the mobile launcher moved back to the VAB behind me. In fact, it's behind door number three, high-bay three. It's locked up tight. The ground systems crew here at the Kennedy Space Center finished their work yesterday.

Now they are home preparing and taking care of care of their families and making sure their loved and their homes are ready for the storm.

CABRERA: That big piece of equipment, the mobile launcher, that's huge. Describe some of the challenges of moving something like that. And how vulnerable is that in a hurricane?

NAIL: Well, our engineers tell us the mobile launcher can take winds up to 110-mile-per-hour. But when Dorian started getting over that, we decided, you know what, it's best if we have is it inside. We don't want to test it. It's 400 feet tall.

So when you talk about the challenges to doing this, it takes about a 50-person operation by our ground systems team. They all had to come in early in the morning, around 5:00 a.m. yesterday, and it took about eight hours to move that crawler -- or to move the mobile launcher with the crawler transporter from the launch pad on a three-mile journey all the way here to the vehicle assembly building.

And along the way, we have to make sure that everything is stable and steady as she goes. It only goes one-mile-per-hour. For good reason, you wouldn't want it to sway back and forth in movement like that.

[15:10:08] CABRERA: No doubt. Fascinating.

You sent us a picture of Dorian taken from the space station. It's an amazing picture. Tell us about it.

NAIL: Yes, that's awesome. That's from our cameras at the international space station. And you know, we go around the earth every 90 minutes. And so when we got over the top of Dorian's location, we fired up our cameras, trained it on that angle there. And there you see it. It is an impressive and awesome sight from space.

As you can see there, just the size of it alone. Even though it's a smaller storm, historically speaking, from that camera angle, from 250 miles above the earth's surface, it really shows you just how powerful it is. Especially looking in the part of the picture where you see that defined eye.

It's a great view from space to help understand the power of the storm, Ana.

CABRERA: That is an incredible picture.

Thank you, Derrol Nail, for sharing that with us. Best of luck as you prepare for Dorian to arrive.

NAIL: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: We are keeping a close eye on the dangerous storm. Within the hour, President Trump will be briefed on the response to Dorian.

Plus, six weeks, 328 false claims. CNN breaks down President Trump's many falsehoods.

And a woman gives birth alone in a jail cell, as nearby medical professionals do nothing to help. I'll show you more of the shocking video.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for being here.

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[15:15:14] CABRERA: President Trump says he has forgiven his former assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, after she was ousted for revealing details about the first family to reporters in an off-the-record meeting.

In a new tweet today, the president writes, "While Madeleine Westerhout has a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she is a very good person and there would ever be reason to use it. She called me yesterday to apologized, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave her. I love Tiffany. Doing great."

He adds this on NDA's, "Yes, I'm currently suing various people for violating their confidentiality agreements. Disgusting and foul mouth Omarosa is one. I gave her every break despite the fact that she was despised by anyone and everyone. And she went for some cheap money from a book. Numerous others also."

I should note that, according to the legal experts, the NDAs the president had White House officials sign are unenforceable since they are government employees.

I want to bring in "New York Times" White House Correspondent, Michael Shear, and "New York Times" Politics Editor, Patrick Healy.

Patrick, did you read the president's tweets there as maybe a veiled threat?

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think that's pretty clear. While the president had a very close relationship with Westerhout, he has a tendency, likes to send signals to basically anyone working for him, that even though they are government employees, he basically still sees these people as working for him and that he can both treat them essentially any way that he sees fit.

This is how the Trump Organization worked for many years. This is how he did business with people like Stormy Daniels. And he sees it as a way to do business with -- with people who get on his wrong side.

As you said, Ana, experts pretty much agree these NDAs are unenforceable, probably unconstitutional in terms of how the president makes his threats and sort of sees how he can manage his own employees.

CABRERA: Michael, our reporting is the president viewed Westerhout much like a daughter. When you read about Westerhout's role in the White House, she comes across as a Hope Hicks 2.0. What do you know about her relationship with the president?

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, one of the things that has always characterized this White House is that it doesn't operate with the normal discipline and strictures of a regular White House, whatever party.

Normally, there are very well-defined roles. People play the roles and abide by a set of rules enforced by the chief of staff and on down throughout the rest of the administration.

This -- this White House has always been sort of chaotic in the roles that people play.

And what Madeleine Westerhout seemed to play was not so much just a receptionist or secretary who books meetings with the president but rather somebody whose job it was to make him happy.

You know, we talked to somebody for our story today who said that one of her roles, for example, was to sort of cater to the president's anger at ever being in a meeting or an event that was half full, right? She was always making sure that every time that the president appeared inside the White House somewhere for some kind of event that there were lots of people rounded up to make sure the room was full.

You know, that's not something in a traditional job description. But it is in this White House part of the kind of informality and sort of wide-ranging kind of roles that these people play.

And when you have that kind of informality, you sort of have this kind of situation more often where, you know, the people get on his bad side and, suddenly, they're out.

CABRERA: Yet, considering how close she was with the president, how much he, you know, maybe utilized her, given what she told reporters, didn't get into the public sphere as far as we know, what could she have said that would have been enough for the president to say, see you?

SHEAR: There was a sense -- we reported that in our story today, too -- that he was a little bit ambivalent about firing her. There were people around him saying, look, this crosses a line you can't really allow to stand.

I think the ambivalence reflected what you suggest, right? Which is that he was close to her and he did sort of see her, you know, as part of a kind of inner circle, like Hope Hicks was, like some of the other people and, frankly, like his children, Ivanka and the others, who sort of obviously play a close consulting role to him.

But, look, from what the reporting suggests, the "New York Times" wasn't at the meeting, but from their reporting suggests, she went on at length talking about the family and intimate details. And that really is a line that most presidents wouldn't -- wouldn't allow to be crossed without consequence.

CABRERA: We should note CNN was not at the meeting either.

[15:20:02] Let me pivot to another tweet of the president's in the last 24 hours. He's facing questions over whether he tweeted classified material with this picture that shows the apparent aftermath of an explosion at an Iranian rocket launch facility. Analysts say the granular level of detail in that picture appears far

superior to pictures the U.S. has published in the past or ever admitted to having. And there's that white mark on the photo circled there. Looks like maybe the flash of a camera. Someone, perhaps the president, took a picture of that picture.

Patrick, does it matter whether that picture was classified material given he is the president and he has the authority to declassified?

HEALY: It matters because of the possibility here that he took a material in such a ham-handed way and simply put it out on Twitter as he does with so much commentary, bluster, lies, however he wants to promote information that he just wants to put out there.

But this is information that one would say, historically, you know, if the United States government had in its possession would be handled with the utmost care and discretion.

The president -- we don't know this for certain. But for a president wouldn't normally be screen-shotting material of this kind of highly sensitive nature of a place like Iran and then just post going on Twitter. For what purpose? Simply to defend --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: It would allow Iran to know also what the U.S. can see.

HEALY: Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's not -- the president at least -- we know the president to be such an impulsive communicator that this doesn't seem like it was some kind of three-dimensional chess game with the Iranians.

It seems, again, like the act of someone who is playing around with photos and Twitter and trying to put something out there.

CABRERA: Patrick Healy and Michael Shear, good to have you both with us. Thanks, gentlemen.

From big lies to the tiny exaggerations, President Trump makes plenty of false claims. Next, a six-week CNN analysis.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[15:25:55] CABRERA: Welcome back.

On this Labor Day weekend, a CNN analysis finds President Trump spent his summer laboring to make claims that don't line up with the facts. He has made 328 verifiably false statements over just six weeks, according to our count.

CNN fact-checker, Daniel Dale, started tracking after the July 4th weekend.

Daniel, by your count, the president is making an average of nearly eight false claims a day. You have broken these claims down for us. What area is the president exaggerating about the most?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: So the number-one subject over his false claims over these last six weeks was the economy. And 26 percent of those 328 false claims were about the economy in some way. You see in the top five as well we have trade and we have China. So a lot of the economic claims were about his trade war.

And the other notable thing about this list is that immigration is down at number five. That's still high. But by my analysis, in the first two years of Trump's presidency, that was the number-one subject of his dishonesty.

You see the way the economy and trade have taken precedents over the last number of weeks.

CABRERA: Sometimes these false claims get repeated. What are the president's, I guess you could call them, greatest hits?

DALE: Yes, he says the same things over. So number one over the six weeks was the claim that it was only China not Americans who are paying the cost of Trump's tariffs. I've come on a bunch of CNN shows to explain why that's not true.

Number two is the claim that Democrats support open borders. There's argument that maybe he is using metaphorical non-literal language. But he I think he is making a clear suggestion that Democrats actually want literally open borders. That's in the not true.

And in the number -- third spot the biggest whopper on this list, which is to claim that Trump is the one who got the Veterans Choice Health Care Program passed. As I've said over and over, this is a program signed into law by Barack Obama in 2014. It's not a Trump program.

CABRERA: You've been looking at when the president offered tall tales the most this summer. What did you find?

DALE: It was rallies where he was worst per. So the worst event was a rally in Cincinnati. The second worst event was his rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

A couple of other notables. One was that energy speech in mid-August, which was supposed to be about energy, but he turned it into sort of a grievance session and just said whatever he wanted. Made more than 20 false claims.

And then also on the list was a speech to children, to conservative teenagers. But he spoke to Turning Point USA and made more than 20 false claims to a bunch of kids who came to hear the president speak.

CABRERA: Is it those large events where he makes false claims the most?

DALE: So, per event, it is the large events. Specifically, it's his rallies. He had three rallies. That was enough to make rallies the number-two venue on the list. But number-one overall was his exchanges with reporters. When he was

standing in front of the Marine One helicopter having some other back and forth. And so when he is having to deal with the media, he's saying a whole bunch of untrue stuff.

CABRERA: OK, Daniel Dale, really appreciate you bringing that to us. Facts first, right?

DALE: Absolutely. Thank you.

CABRERA: Back to our top story now. Hurricane Dorian shifts east, putting a whole new part of the country on high alert. The latest on the track, in just minutes.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go anywhere.

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[15:32:51] CABRERA: It's our breaking news right now. Hurricane Dorian, a category 4 storm, still threatening the American southeast. Most of the forecast models put landfall, if it happens, somewhere between central Florida and the Carolinas.

CNN's Chad Myers is back with us from the Severe Weather Center.

Chad, where is this hurricane now? And just how fast is it moving?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Moving about eight to nine-miles-per- hour. And 380 miles from West Palm Beach. Although, it's not heading to West Palm beach because it's going to turn.

Just so you have a reference for distance. It is a day and a half away from the Bahamas. And this is the time that the Bahamas are really going to have to do some significant soul searching, whether you want to protect your valuables or protect your yourself, because this will be a life-threatening storm in the Bahamas. I'll get to that in a second.

This is what the hurricane looks like from space. The visible satellite -- we don't color it. Sometimes they're orange and red and blue and black. This is just the colors that the hurricane is seeing. And if you really try hard enough you can see the ocean through the eye. That's never a good thing.

Right now, 150-mile-per-hour moving to the west at 185-mile-per-hour gusts. Hurricane hunters were in there and found a 166-mile-per-hour gust. That's probably more like it. There's the storm, really a tremendous eye. And barreling toward the Bahamas.

And I know the model here, you look at the map on TV or on the web, it appears like it's going to be a nice little curve. That's not what the models are saying at all. The models are saying it gets to the Bahamas, it's staying there for 24 hours or more. Stopping, like within -- the eye not moving more than 10 miles in 24 hours. That's doing one thing. Two, it's uses up some of that heat in the water, the upwell. It's

going to spin that water around so that the water there, if it sits there and spins long enough, will get colder and may lower the intensity of the hurricane.

But then it moves it almost directly north and like this. It's almost a little bit of a right turn. It's a stop and then a turn. And so almost like, you know, using the blinker for 24 hours and then finally making the turn.

[15:35:08] Hurricane warnings are in effect for all of the Bahamas, especially Freeport toward NASA. And the lower Andros islands only under watches.

But you are still going to see significant waves, significant surge, maybe 15 feet, somewhere around there for surge. And waves 30 feet on top of that. Now there will be breakers offshore so not over-washing all of the islands but they will be over-washing some of the islands.

The prime minister of the area there, I heard a bit ago on CNN international when I was doing a hit there, said, if you are on the keys -- not the Florida Keys, the Bahamian Keys - you need to get off because your island will be over-washed with water. Get to the mainland as high as you can.

And really the water there on some of the keys are six to eight feet tall and mainly made of coral and sand. They are serious about this in the Bahamas for sure.

Does it make landfall in the U.S.? Right now, we don't think it will. But it's too close to call really.

CABRERA: Right.

MYERS: You can't let your guard down. This is too big of a storm.

CABRERA: And we've seen it change course a few times in the last 24 hours or at least past couple of days. So could yet again.

Thank you very much, Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

CABRERA: Dorian is already drawing comparisons to Hurricane Matthew, the 2016 hurricane that took a long slow ride up the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coastlines. Matthew did more than $10 billion in damage and killed 49 people.

CNN Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, joins from us Hutchison Island, a barrier island off Port St. Lucy in Florida.

Derek, Matthew is not the kind of storm anyone wants repeated. Why the comparison?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I think, first, it's important for our viewers, Ana, to recognize that each storm comes with a unique set of challenges, variables and threats.

But if we do the apples-to-apples comparison, think about the track of Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016 riding parallel with the East Coast of Florida. Now think about what Dorian is doing. It's approaching from the east to the west, meaning it's running perpendicular to the shoreline when it approaches. And then we are relying on it to make the right-hand turn.

We are literally relying on expert meteorological analysis as well as data. And unfortunately, the data that we put into the computer models that we look at so closely is only as good as what we have available to us. It's great over land but terrible over the ocean. And that's one of the reasons why the storm has been so notoriously difficult to predict, making it so erratic and changing the path so quickly.

CABRERA: Now Florida beach communities have been trying to save beaches from erosion for decades. What kind of threat does Dorian pose to the efforts?

VAN DAM: Without a doubt, we have to remember we have an approaching category 5 teetering -- or category 4 teetering on category 5 hurricane.

You combine that with king tides. That's actually an abnormally high tide for this time of year. Literally the moon is rotating around the earth at its closest point. And it's exaggerating the tidal swings on the ocean. You combine the two variables, and we put communities on the coastline

at risk to coastal erosion.

You can see this home behind me here in Hutchison Island has been susceptible to coastal erosion. There's beach erosion behind it. We can only imagine, as the storm draws, slows down, it's going to pick up the surf, it allows for more situations like this behind me.

CABRERA: Derek Van Dam, we see people still enjoying the weather while it's nice. But we certainly hope everybody takes the precautions and stays safe.

VAN DAM: Yes.

CABRERA: We'll check back with you.

Meantime, a woman gives birth alone and in jail after hours of crying for help. Yes, this happened in America. Her attorney joins me, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:52] CABRERA: It is an outrage on every possible level. A Colorado woman, who was being held on identity theft charges, had to deliver her own baby behind bars in the Denver jail. She was alone and in agony, despite crying for help for more than five hours.

Now just over a year later, Diana Sanchez has filed a federal lawsuit. CNN's Scott McLean has more on her shocking story.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems there was no shortage of time for jail staff to get Diana Sanchez to a hospital. According to the lawsuit Sanchez, was brought breakfast around 5:00 in the morning that's when she informed the guards she was having contractions. Remember, at this stage, she was 10 days from the official due date.

By 9:43 in the morning, you can see in the closed-circuit video she is knocking on the door trying to get somebody's attention because, according to the lawsuit, her water had broken.

Relief though comes only in the form of a folded white pad slipped under the door that she puts on her jail bed. She pulls her pants down to her knees and lies on top of it.

About a half hour later, you can see on the video she is writhing around clearly in pain. At 10:44 in the morning, gives birth almost six hours after she says she told guards she was in labor.

The lawsuit claims the guards called for a non-emergency van to take her to the hospital but that an ambulance wasn't called until after she had given birth.

I spoke with Sanchez's lawyer this week. And our local affiliate spoke with Sanchez herself last year. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA SANCHEZ, GAVE BIRTH BY HERSELF IN DENVER JAIL CELL: That pain was just indescribable. And what hurts me more, though, is the fact that nobody cared.

MARI NEWMAN, ATTORNEY FOR DIANA SANCHEZ: I cannot fathom any legitimate explanation for not providing her with adequate medical care and taking her directly to the hospital where she belonged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: The Denver Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, sent a statement that read, in part, "Ms. Sanchez was in a medical unit and under the care of Denver Health medical professionals at the time she gave birth. To make sure this doesn't happen again, the Denver Sheriff's Department changed policies to ensure that pregnant inmates in any stage of labor are now transported immediately to the hospital."

[15:45:09] It also said that after this incident an internal investigation was done, which found that deputies took appropriate actions, given the circumstances, and that they followed protocols.

Now Denver Health, which employs the nurses at the jail, would not comment on this incident given the pending litigation. But said that their number-one priority was ensuring that inmates receive adequate care.

CABRERA: Scott McLean, thank you.

Mari Newman -- you saw her there with Scott -- is Diana Sanchez's attorney.

Thank you, Mari, for joining us.

Some of the details in the lawsuit absolutely floored me. Your client was nine days away from her due date, had multiple factors contributing to a high-risk pregnancy. But when she obviously went into labor, they said it was inconvenient to take her to the hospital because they were in the midst of booking inmates?

NEWMAN: That's exactly, right, Ana. I wish I could say this is somehow a unique situation. But unfortunately, experience tells us this is exactly how the Denver jail and Denver Health do business, time and time again. Assuming that inmates are exaggerating or lying when they bring up legitimate medical needs.

CABRERA: I also think about the baby and potential medical needs. Your lawsuit also claims no one had proper clamps so they could cut the umbilical cord. Had to wait for fire rescue got there. No one dried or warmed the baby. No one administered drops to protect the baby's eyes.

Yet, as Scott reported, the sheriff's office said they followed the protocol, there was no wrongdoing. Quoting here, "The deputy sheriffs took the appropriate actions under the circumstances."

What's your response to that?

NEWMAN: Honestly, I'm flabbergasted by that response. The fact that they would say that nothing was done wrong when a woman gives birth in her cell all alone, feet away from a toilet after crying out in pain for hours and hours and hours in labor, and they did nothing wrong? I mean, I shudder to think what it looks like when they admit something did go wrong.

I can't imagine why they would not have already had a policy in place stating something so profoundly obvious. If a woman if in labor, she clearly needs to go the hospital.

This is the United States. We're not living out in the woods somewhere.

I mean, there's no legitimate reason for them not to have always had a policy that, when any inmate expresses a serious medical need, especially something to obvious as being in labor, that they're not immediately taken to the hospital. It's just atrocious.

CABRERA: What does justice look like then?

NEWMAN: Well, certainly, one thing that we absolutely need to make sure of is that something like this never happens to anybody else. This is the kind of horrible experience that we would never wish even on our worst enemies. So justice certainly looks like ensuring it never happens again. And that Denver and Denver Health take some sort of responsibility for

their conduct. Unfortunately, they seem to be doing just the opposite.

Denver's investigation and conclusion that they did nothing wrong really doesn't -- doesn't lead us to believe that things would go differently next time, does it?

CABRERA: As we mentioned this happened in 2018, a little over a year ago. How is the baby doing?

NEWMAN: So far, I am very hopeful the baby is going to be fine.

But I want to be clear. One of the things that Denver seemed to rely on is the fact that this time nobody died. But that doesn't mean that there's no problem here. The fact that, this time, they got lucky and didn't kill Ms. Sanchez or her baby doesn't mean they are off the hook.

Something has to change when Denver continues to treat inmates as though they are a throw away, not believing them when they express needs so obvious as going into labor and having a baby.

CABRERA: Mary Newman, thank you so much for joining us.

NEWMAN: Thank you for having me.

CABRERA: Please keep us posted.

Dramatic images from Hong Kong now as protesters set fire to barricades in the street. CNN takes you there, next.

But first, they played a critical role in American history, helping to build railroads and other infrastructure. But today, donkeys are often abandoned and abused. This week's "CNN Hero" is trying to change it. Mark Meyers has now saved more than 13,000 donkeys giving them a second chance at life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEYERS, CNN HERO: They speak to my soul.

Yes, that will come right lose, won't it?

Donkeys are like dogs. They're amazing animals that nobody gets. I understand what they're thinking. And there's so many donkeys in so many places that need so much help.

[15:50:03] There's nothing cuter than a baby donkey.

We're saving them. We're improving their lives.

I want to see every donkey find its happiness, its happy place, its peaceful place.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CABRERA: They're pretty cute, aren't they?

To see more of Mark's work, go to CNNheroes.com right now.

We're back after this.

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CABRERA: On a weekend that honors America's workforce here at home, we now know the name of the latest member of our armed forces to give his life in service to this country in war. The Pentagon says Sergeant First Class Dustin Ard, of Hyde Park, Utah, was killed Thursday in Afghanistan during combat operations. He was 31. He was part of the First Special Forces Group Airborne.

Ard's father wrote in a statement, "My heart has a hole so big I can hardly stand it," calling him a great son, brother, father, and husband.

Ard was the third American servicemember killed in action in Afghanistan just this week.

Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong turned violent as police and demonstrators clashed in the streets.

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(SHOUTING)

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CABRERA: Look at that. Authorities used tear gas and a water cannons near the legislative council building after protesters threw firebombs onto police barricades.

CNN's Will Ripley is on the scene in Hong Kong.

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[15:55:09] WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just as Hong Kong police disbursed, one demonstration down the road that way, we walked this way and found this. I thought we were walking up to some sort of a rock concert or burning man.

There were laser beams. You here cheers from the crowd, possibly thousands of protesters behind this barricade of fire that they have set up in the heart of Hong Kong. One of Hong Kong's busiest streets shut down by protesters who burned an umbrella. They set up barricades. And obviously, there was enough propellant there because this fire has been going on for quite some time.

We have seen protesters use their usual tactics today, although this is one of the more dramatic things that we've seen. They have thrown bricks at police. They have hurled petrol bombs at officers. And officers have fired back.

OK, not sure what that was. We'll get a little bit further back from the fire there.

Police officers have used tear gas, a mainstay this summer. And they have also been using water cannons, shooting out water with blue dye to try to identify the protesters who might get sprayed with the water.

Keep in mind, all of these gatherings are illegal. Hong Kong police did not give a permit. Demonstrators came out anyway. Smaller numbers. Not the families we saw in the park. These are the people out here ready to fight. That's exactly what they're doing here on the streets of Hong Kong.

I'm Will Ripley, for CNN.

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CABRERA: The track has changed but the danger remains. Florida as well as Georgia and the Carolinas are all on edge as Dorian turns toward the southeast. And these images from Cocoa Beach. The latest on the track, next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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