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Trump's Climate Change Denial; Biden Heads to Florida; West Coast Farm Hit by Wildfires. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 15, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

MAYOR DARRELL STEINBERG (D), SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Or so from a national election and we desperately need a new president, Joe Biden. Again, environmental protection has been a core American value for many, many decades on a bipartisan basis. And we have an administration and a president who is now such an outlier, not just in word but also in deed.

Let's remember what he has done. He has sought to cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget $1.7 billion. He has rolled back the three most significant Obama era climate change initiatives, including the California clean air standards. Obviously pioneered out here in the golden state.

And so it's not just what he says, which is dangerous enough. It is also what he has actually done. And so elections, as they say, that old cliche, have consequences. Well, elections also provide opportunities because of course it's not just California.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

STEINBERG: You're reporting on the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast as well.

CAMEROTA: Mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, we really appreciate you taking the time so early for us this morning to give us a status report and what you need to see happen next.

Thank you very much.

STEINBERG: Any time. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Well, Joe Biden heads to Florida today where he hopes to court Latino voters. You'll hear how they feel about him, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:25]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We do have breaking news.

The city of Louisville, Kentucky, has reached a settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Breonna Taylor. Taylor is the 26-year-old EMT who was shot and killed by police as they carried out a no-knock warrant on her apartment in March. A source tells CNN, the mayor of Louisville is expected to announce the settlement later today. Now, this is apart from the criminal case. A grand jury is weighing evidence considering possible charges for the three officers involved.

CAMEROTA: Joe Biden making his first appearance as the Democratic nominee in the battleground state of Florida today. He's hoping to win over Latino voters, a crucial voting bloc. The election is just 49 days away and CNN's Randi Kaye has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Joe Biden launching this new Spanish language TV ad in Florida called (speaking in foreign language), or "they say a lot," all part of an effort to woo the Hispanic voters. The ad claims to dispel the untruths the campaign says Donald Trump is spreading about Biden.

Trump, meanwhile, has his own ads. Team Trump seems to want to convince Hispanic voters Biden would turn the United States into a socialist country.

KAYE (on camera): Trump has tried to tie Joe Biden to socialism, really instilling fear in some voters. Does that seem to be working?

THOMAS SANTIAGO, BIDEN SUPPORTER: Trump's done a really good job of just kind of hammering home this idea of socialism being a big boogeyman and something to be afraid of.

KAYE (voice over): Thomas Santiago lives in Miami. He's Puerto Rican and a newly registered Democrat who is supporting Biden. He says the more Trump talks about socialism --

SANTIAGO: That really resonates with them because for them, you know, somebody like Hugo Chavez or Fidel, they don't want to have anything to do with, you know, people who are like that.

KAYE: Trump may see an opening in Florida with Hispanic voters. Biden isn't doing as well with that voter group as Hillary Clinton did back in 2016. Clinton won Florida Hispanics by about 30 points exit polls show but a recent NBC/Marist poll shows Trump with 50 percent support among Hispanic voters here compared to Biden's 46 percent.

Diala Giardo (ph) is Cuban-American. She's supporting Trump because she grew up in a socialist country and returning to that is her greatest fear. Florida State Senator Annette Taddeo, a Democrat, warns her party needs to take such concerns seriously.

SEN. ANNETTE TADDEO (D), FLORIDA STATE SENATOR: The socialist, communist attacks have worked, especially with Cuban-Americans. And so we have seen a hemorrhaging of those voters.

KAYE: None of this seems to be lost on the Biden campaign. It may be why Kamala Harris and her husband visited a Venezuelan restaurant in Doral, Florida, last week. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to make sure

everybody votes, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, trust me, you have mine.

HARRIS: Good.

KAYE: And Biden will be campaigning today in the purplest part of the state, the I-4 corridor. Former Democratic Candidate Michael Bloomberg is also planning to spend $100 million in Florida to try and secure a Biden victory.

Florida political expert Susan MacManus.

SUSAN MACMANUS, RETIRED POLITICAL PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: It will only work if it's well done and well targeted. Just spending generally isn't a guarantee that you're going to grab a lot of people's attention.

KAYE: Anna Sophia Poli (ph) is a Democratic organizer with the Miami Freedom Project, is Cuban-American, and voting Biden.

KAYE (on camera): Why do you think some Cuban-Americans are supporting Donald Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't all support Donald Trump.

KAYE: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of, you know, voters out there that Joe Biden, you know, he can win.

We're a very purple demographic.

KAYE (voice over): She says voters in that purple demographic want to see Biden talk more about the issues, like his promise to halt mass deportations.

Aculino Asuvado Irana (ph) is a Trump supporter. He's from Nicaragua and tells me he believes Trump has deported fewer people than the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.

Meanwhile, Tristan Garcia, who is supporting Biden, has a warning for Hispanic Trump supporters.

TRISTAN GARCIA, BIDEN SUPPORTER: Trump's not going to help anybody. Trump's not going to help anybody but himself. He doesn't care about anybody or anything.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right, our thanks to Randi for that report.

Joining me now is CNN political analyst Laura Barron-Lopez. She's a national political reporter at "Politico."

Laura, thanks so much for being with us.

First, I think we need to stipulate, we all know the Latino vote is not monolithic by any stretch of the imagination. And we also have to note that Florida is different and it's part of -- partly along those lines than other states as well. So we're talking about a lot of different things at once here.

[08:40:09]

But, broadly speaking, what does the Biden campaign see as its challenges with Latino voters this morning?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, certainly as Randi's (INAUDIBLE) noted, Cuban and Venezuelan Americans are averse to tags of socialism, which President Trump has placed on Biden. So we expect that Biden will address that again. He's repeatedly said he is not a Democratic socialist, he doesn't subscribe to a lot of the same policy proposals that Bernie Sanders did who was a self-described Democratic socialist. So we expect that he'll address that again.

But also Biden sees an in with Latinos, specifically Puerto Ricans, because they lean more Democratic than Cubans and Venezuelans. And then there's also a wide swath of Latino voters in Florida that are from Pan-Latin American roots, so the -- those are central, south, you know, Caribbean countries that are very diverse and Democratic pollsters say that there is a lot of room for Biden to grow with those -- with those Latino voters.

BERMAN: You know, there's always one or two things going on at once with every area of Florida. So Randi was just reporting that Joe Biden's going to the I-4 corridor. We're talking about the Orlando area into Tampa when he goes to visit. That is a swing area, but it's also an interesting area because, as you say, that is where a lot of Puerto Ricans live. And if you're trying to maybe mitigate or cancel out the Cuban vote, that may be one way to do it.

So this is just Florida, though.

One thing is also true, though, is that Joe Biden underperformed with Latino voters in the primaries as well. Why?

BARRON-LOPEZ: So Bernie Sanders was a big reason for that. He, in states like Nevada, focused heavily on Latino voters. Now, again, the Latinos in Nevada are very different from the ones in Florida. Biden actually outperformed Sanders with Latinos in Florida. He also outperformed Sanders or ran about even with Sanders in -- with Latinos in Arizona, which are predominantly of Mexican descent. In a lot of other states, like California, though, Biden did -- did -- did not do so well.

And one of the things that has haunted him from the primary to now is what happened during the Obama administration and this view among a number of Latinos that Obama was, quote, this deporter in chief and those mass deportations that occurred. And so they've been looking to Biden to address that issue. Biden has said that he would immediately work to reunify families that were separated at the border. He has addressed the issue of the deportations under Obama and said that he would take a different track without expressly critiquing what happened under that administration.

So those, again, are going to be issues that Latinos are looking to hear from him between now and election day.

BERMAN: Very quickly, some of your own reporting on the ground there in Florida has been, there has been some resonance with some of the conspiracy theories that have been pushed by either directly the Trump campaign or its supporters. How so and to what extent?

BARRON-LOPEZ: So there's a lot of disinformation, QAnon conspiracy theories. We know that Trump has pushed QAnon conspiracy theories himself. But that are permeating Latino voters channels on WhatsApp or also on Spanish language radio. And so that's a big concern among Democrats that if that infects Spanish language radio, that that could potentially impact voters as well. And so Biden's working to combat that too.

BERMAN: Yes, the Trump campaign was up earlier with all this information than the Biden team to be sure. We will see the impact of the Biden team getting on the airwaves now and with the help of Michael Bloomberg.

Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you very much for the reporting. Really appreciate you being with us this morning.

So the wildfires raging on the West Coast and destroying lives and livelihood. A family who just lost most of their farm and home joins us next.

CAMEROTA: But, first, a non-profit getting free books to young black readers in this week's "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When a child sees themselves reflected in the books that they read, the books are a mirror to them, they feel valued.

It wasn't something I really thought about until my niece came around and it really kind of saddened me that there were bookstores that she would walk into and not be able to feel seen. Young Black and Lit is a non-profit organization based in the Chicagoland area. Our mission is to provide children's book to youth featuring black characters at no cost to the youth or their families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since 2018, we provided over 5,000 books to community centers, organizations, schools and directly to students' homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just always a challenge finding the ones for his age. The introduced the program to the school.

[08:45:02]

He was pretty excited about it.

Show them your favorite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other people say they can't do stuff, then they prove them wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We try not to just focus on historical figures, though we value their importance. But we also try to focus on some of the simple, everyday life activities that you would go through. But we also have books around getting a haircut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Miles Morales, the best Spiderman ever. His suit is better than all the other suits. And he has powers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He think it's Spiderman, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Nearly 100 fires are burning on the West Coast right now and at least 36 people have been killed.

[08:50:02]

Many more have lost their homes and livelihood. That's what's happened to our next guests. Brooke and Eddie Campos, daughter and father, are co-owners of No Boundaries Farm. And most of their business and their family home in California have been destroyed.

Guys, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We're so sorry for this ordeal that you have been through.

Brooke, let's just start at the beginning. Tell us -- tell us what happened last week the night that the -- the fire broke out on your property.

BROOKE CAMPOS, CO-OWNER, NO BOUNDARIES FARM: So, on Saturday, September 5th, around 2:00, 2:30 in the afternoon was the first time that anyone had seen any of the smoke on our property. And the team members that we had with us on the farm at the time kind of kept an eye on it. And it gradually got worse as time went on, to the point at about -- I would say 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. is when it started to overtake our property and everyone that was here at the time had to evacuate.

CAMEROTA: We see video of it. It looks so frightening.

And, Eddie, I think that's you that we see in the far corner of the screen, I think, trying to fight it off yourself.

How were you -- what were you doing? EDDIE CAMPOS, CO-OWNER, NO BOUNDARIES FARM: Yes, yes, we -- oh, it was

rough. It just -- it came in around 2:30. My son tapped me on the arm and, you know, he said, dad, look up on that hill. And we had called for air support. We called for ground support. We called for chopper support. And we couldn't get no help at all.

And we sat and fought that fire for five hours with my son, a couple of his friends and myself. And once it overcame that hill, it came down with 70-foot flames and it just engulfed our farm. And we tried to get all of our personal belongings and I told the kids, it's time. Our life's in danger now. And I'll tell you, it was just a horrible experience seeing this fireball headed at us.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

E. CAMPOS: And it was devastating.

CAMEROTA: I bet. I mean we can only imagine.

E. CAMPOS: And we finally --

CAMEROTA: And so -- and what did you do to escape?

E. CAMPOS: We loaded up in trucks and before we did that we went down the street to help a neighbor rescue eight horses. We grabbed nine dogs. We helped get some chickens out. I think there was about nine or ten chickens that we got out for the neighbors. So Hamul (ph) is a real tight community and we all work together to rescue animals before we left this place.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's talk about Bruce the pig. I know that Bruce -- we have a picture of Bruce and you say that Bruce was, what, too stubborn to leave. What happened?

E. CAMPOS: We -- we just -- we couldn't get Bruce -- we got the -- all the other animals and Bruce is stubborn. He's an orphan that came from a different ranch that Bre (ph) had rescued. So we brought him out to the farm here. And he's just stubborn. And we couldn't get him out of here. We called the neighbor up and she said Bruce's shelter is gone, we can't find Bruce. The next morning Bruce came wandering up. So that darn, stubborn pig ended up making it. We don't know where he went.

CAMEROTA: And Bruce is not telling.

But, I mean, we're happy that Bruce survived, but there was -- so much of your life that didn't survive. And so you lost your offices. You lost your indoor working area. You lost your inventory. You lost your merchandise. I mean, Brooke, how do you even start to rebuild here?

B. CAMPOS: We're just trying to take it day by day, step by step. Our first goal was to just try and get our property cleaned up, get a starting point, try and get some power back on our property, running water. What we do have that's salvageable left on our property is the plants that we have in the ground. So that was our top priority.

Moving forward from there, we're just going to kind of reconvene as a family and decide, you know, where -- what next step we take with our business. We just -- we haven't really made that decision quite yet. We're hopeful that we'll be able to get back up on our feet.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

B. CAMPOS: But it's a pretty devastating loss.

CAMEROTA: It is. I mean -- we see the pictures. It looks devastating. And I know that you have all endured fires before but you've never seen anything like this.

You have a hemp farm, we should let people know, and you also have a GoFundMe page because you're going to need help. I know you were turned down for property insurance by lots and lots of different companies and so you guys are going to need help. You have a goal of $100,000. So please let us know what happens. Brooke Campos, Eddie Campos, thanks for sharing your personal story and all of your pictures and we're happy that Bruce survived and please let us know what happens over the next weeks.

B. CAMPOS: Thank you so much.

E. CAMPOS: Thank you very much. We really appreciate the time. Have a wonderful day.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for being with us. You too.

E. CAMPOS: Thank you.

[08:55:01]

CAMEROTA: John.

BERMAN: All right, time now for "The Good Stuff."

A Connecticut teenager is being honored for saving a mother and her three small children by pulling them from the burning car. Waterbury Police say 18-year-old Justin Gavin (ph) was walking down the street when he saw the vehicle drive past. It was in flames going down the street. He tells CNN, by the time he caught up, the car had stopped and his instincts just took over. Justin helped the driver and her children, ages nine, four, and one, out of the car. And within seconds, the vehicle was just completely engulfed in flames. Police are praising Justin as a hero, awarding him a commemorative coin and warm praise for his courageous, selfless act.

CAMEROTA: If everyone could have the instincts of Justin.

BERMAN: He chased a flaming car.

CAMEROTA: And rescued people.

BERMAN: Good for him.

All right, Hurricane Sally is moving ever closer to the Gulf Coast. Torrential and historical rainfall is forecast. Our coverage continues, next.

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[09:00:00]