Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Millions Suffering in Texas as Power and Water Crisis Grows; Federal Probe Scrutinizing Cuomo Administration's Handling of Nursing Home Deaths; White House Announces Sweeping Immigration Reform Bill. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 18, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day. John Berman is off this morning. Jim Sciutto joins me.

Jim, all of this news coming out of Texas and I know you have a personal connection to this.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEW DAY: My sister is down here. You hear the stories, and I'm sure you have stories, as well, but it is really tough. Houses are damaged and they don't know when they're going to get back in.

CAMEROTA: She's in Dallas?

SCIUTTO: She's in Dallas, right? Burst pipes, three inches of water on the floor, and this is a really running tragedy in that state.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, we feel for everyone there. We're going to try to get information that they need, because millions of Texans are suffering this morning as the power and the water catastrophe in that state continues. So power crews are making progress restoring electricity. Overnight, they made some progress, but still, more than 600,000 customers are without power.

There's more rolling outages likely today as the dangerous frigid temperatures continue. So, many Texas residents are dealing with burst pipes, like Jim's sister. You can see here just one person who posted this on Twitter. Look at what their house looks like. They're having to sleep in their cars or in warming shelters.

Nearly 12 million residents are now facing these water disruptions. Residents in Austin and Houston are being told to boil water or use bottled water, but, of course, bottled water is extremely hard to come by and food supplies are dwindling. Look at this line outside of a grocery store. Officials in Galveston have requested a refrigerated storage truck for the fatalities.

SCIUTTO: Echoes of a Katrina-like disaster.

Well, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is offering no clear timeline on when power will be fully restored. It is important to note that Texas runs its electric grid independent from the rest of the country, from the federal government, in order to avoid regulations. The governor is falsely blaming, and it is false, that renewable energy is responsible for the issues in his state.

Also, developing this morning, the Biden administration has announced a sweeping, ambitious immigration reform bill that would create, among other things, an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already living in the U.S. illegally. We're going to have more on that in a moment.

We begin though with CNN's Camila Bernal. She is live in Dallas on the crisis there and across the state. You know, hoping for some good news here. Are you seeing any signs of progress?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, a little bit of relief, but nonetheless, so many Texans are waking up this morning, cold, they're angry and they're wanting answers, but the reality is they're not going to get them before they have to deal with another round of wintry weather.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERNAL (voice over): Texas in crisis. Hundreds of thousands of residents still without power and heat after days of brutal cold temperatures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm nervous. I'm nervous. I don't know what's going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our house is 32 degrees inside. We're worried about the pipes.

BERNAL: Residents documenting the damage. Some posting photos on social media of frozen pipes bursting, sending water and ice into their homes.

BRIANNA BLAKE, TEXAS STORM VICTIM: We had no firewood left and we started using things in the house to keep the fire going. And seeing my two sleeping babies under a bunch of blankets in front of a fireplace that was slowly going out was heartbreaking.

BERNAL: Many are speaking refuge wherever they can, including warming centers or furniture stores.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just knowing that you could freeze in the middle of the night. So we would to find some place to go.

BERNAL: Some even sleeping in their cars to stay warm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not like sleeping in your own bed. But we were warm.

BERNAL: Grocery stores running low on food. Nearly 12 million Texans are experiencing water disruptions with most of those under a boil water notice. Even hospitals are struggling to maintain water pressure.

In Galveston, most residents have no power or heat. The local medical examiner setting up a refrigerated truck outside its building, anticipating an influx of deaths. The county's judge furious.

JUDGE MARK HENRY, GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS: Everyone knew this was coming. We had at least a week's advance notice.

So I'm very upset.

BERNAL: The Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, also known as ERCOT, under fire for the power outages. The company said on Wednesday it restored power to more than 1 million households.

[07:05:01]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for an investigation and for the company's executives to resign. But Abbott himself is under fire. Critics accusing him of deflecting responsibility by placing blame on renewable energy sources.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.

BERNAL: Changing his tune just hours later.

ABBOTT: The companies that generate the power, their operations have frozen up or have trip wired and are non-operational. That is the lead reason why there is a shortage of power.

BERNAL: Beto O'Rourke disagrees.

FMR. REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX): Our renewable energy portfolio actually outperformed the forecast regardless of what Greg Abbott and other Republicans and right-wing media are saying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL (on camera): Now, ERCOT says those rolling blackouts will likely continue. They're trying to make that period where people are in the dark a lot shorter, but there are no guarantees. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Camila, very much for all of that reporting.

Joining us now is the Austin mayor, Steve Adler, and Ft. Bend County Judge K.P. George. He is just outside of Houston. Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. We know that this has been a hard many few days for you.

Judge, I want to start with you, because you tweeted yesterday, almost 24 hours ago, actually, more than 24 hours ago, you tweeted, good morning, everyone. My family and I are passing 50-plus hours without electricity, water or heat. This morning, our family's pipes burst in the house.

So that was yesterday, more than 24 hours. What is the situation now? Are you still without power and heat?

JUDGE K.P. GEORGE (D), FORT BEND COUNTY, TEXAS: And we got intermittent power coming and going. And I'm not at home. I'm actually sleeping in the office, because I have to be somewhere I have power and internet, and because I am the director of emergency management. But even now, I don't have water at home and I still have leaks. Somebody fixed it, but it is not completely done, so we are still stuck.

CAMEROTA: And, Judge, is your family with you or are they somehow trying to function at home?

GEORGE: Of course, my children are in college, so my wife, she went to home because we have two dogs and she's sleeping, because we have heat just last night. But after -- you know, after the daybreak, she's got to come back. But I am with the office of emergency management, so I have to be somewhere I can communicate.

But I tell you, yes, I'm hearing all of this complain about renewable energy or whatnot. I will show you a 90-year-old in Fulton County without water, without heat and without oxygen tanks. That breaks my heart.

CAMEROTA: That is devastating. And I don't know how they can function. So when Rick Perry says, as he did yesterday in a blog, Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business. Is that true?

GEORGE: That is actually -- ma'am, that is actually the most frustrating thing, because nobody knows when the power is going to come back. This started Sunday night some time, and the cold, frigid weather, we are not used to. It is below 32 right now and it is hard. Many people are living inside their car and we are noticing here some fatalities of carbon monoxide, you know, breathing and some people are dying and it is a mess. It is a mess.

CAMEROTA: So you don't agree with former Governor Rick Perry that people would be willing to do this?

GEORGE: I completely don't agree, because I am looking at my citizens calling me for oxygen tanks, water, heat, and I'm right here on the ground, talking to people and I don't have that power to give it to them. That is the struggle we are facing.

And as you mentioned before, we are on our own grid, our own regional grid. And I think we are paying a price for it now.

CAMEROTA: Mayor, what's the situation in Austin right now?

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-AUSTIN, TX): It's pretty dire, the city, right now. We started out with COVID, which is obviously, as much challenge as anybody should take, layer on top of that snow and ice, 18 degrees below zero for sustained time. No one here is used to that. And then you add on top of that power outages and people don't have heat. And now we're adding on top of that water issues. It is too much to ask of anybody. People are angry and confused and frustrated and I am too. CAMEROTA: Mayor, who or what do you blame for not being prepared?

ADLER: Well, it's real clear that our power system wasn't hardened to be able to take the really low temperatures.

[07:10:05]

That is not the kind of event that we're not going to see. We have to anticipate that. We're seeing that with greater regularity right now. This is the third time I've seen that. We have a deregulated power system that puts a premium on low costs for power. There's no market incentive for people to -- around the state that are producing the power to actually buy the insurance policy to protect us in times like this. We need to better regulate our power system in this state.

CAMEROTA: Do you think that the ERCOT, which is your energy company, executives should resign in the wake of this?

ADLER: Somebody needs to explain what it is that happened here, why we got to this place. We also need an explanation and an understanding of how it is we're not going to get back here. We're not going to get back here again because the conditions here -- I heard what our former governor said and it sounds like somebody would say who hasn't been without power.

CAMEROTA: Who's going to give you that explanation? Who are you demanding that explanation of?

ADLER: Well, the truth is is that right now we're just trying to keep people alive and safe for the next two days. And that's where all of our focus is. But I expect the governor to give us a better explanation. I expect our state leaders to give us a better explanation. And I expect them to take steps to assure that this is never going to happen again.

But we are focused right now on getting people water and getting people heat and getting people food and getting people a safe place to be. This is a dire place.

CAMEROTA: In terms of getting people water, I know that Austin, all the residents are being told to boil their water. A lot of places in Houston are too. There is this picture that was tweeted from a resident outside of, I think, Houston, of a bathtub. This was -- I don't know if you can see this, mayor, but it's brown. It's brown water. I mean, how are they supposed to boil their water and make this drinkable?

ADLER: I'm not sure what the conditions are there in Houston, but I know that here in Austin, we're telling people to boil the water. We don't see any contaminants yet in our water. We're doing it as a precaution. But my message in my community right now is to conserve. We need to make sure that people are not using a drop of water that they don't need to use so that we can build back up our reserves and our pressure so we can remove that warning.

It is yet just another really hard thing to layer on top of the community. But the message right now is to focus on these next two, three days. Keep people safe, let's

conservative energy and water, and then we have tons of questions.

CAMEROTA: Mayor Steve Adler, Judge K.P. George, we're thinking of you, praying for everyone there. We hope that something turns around fast. Thank you very much for taking time to talk to us in the middle of all of this.

GEORGE: We hope the same. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, here is the other angle of this storm, the back-to- back winter storms are causing widespread delays with vaccine shipments at a crucial. At least 19 state across the country have been forced to close vaccination sites due to low doses.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live in Brooklyn with more. And, Polo, it's a real disruption here, right, supply chains around the country. A lot of folks who have appointments set, those appointments are going to get canceled. How extensive are these delays now?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it goes to the point that you don't necessarily have to be experiencing this kind of winter weather to have your COVID vaccination appointment affected. In fact, you just showed the map a little while ago, over a dozen and a half states being affected in terms of their vaccination efforts. And, of course, Mother Nature to blame.

Some state, we should point out, not going as far as to close their vaccination sites, but instead, what they're doing, they're actually rescheduling or at least canceling many of their appointments because they simply do not have the supplies.

Now, the CDC initially reached out to state this week saying that because of weather delays, they could expect shipping issues and at least two specific hubs, talking about Louisville and Memphis. These are two locations where many of these vaccines are distributed from.

Now, in terms of what the White House is telling states, they are essentially hoping that some of these states will be able to expand their hours of operation to some of their vaccination sites once things slowly get back on track, once the weather begins to clear up.

Here in New York, I can tell you that, for example, Citi Field, that local mass vaccination location there, that has been closed today specifically due to their supplies. At this particular location in Brooklyn, we understand they're not necessarily taking appointments or at least not accepting some of those appointments for the first doses, but instead, they're just proceeding with those second doses that people had already had scheduled.

It really does speak, Jim, to those ripple effects that are being caused by the weather in terms of vaccination efforts happening across the country.

[07:15:00]

You mentioned it. Over 19 states already affected.

SCIUTTO: A rough time too, because the pace of vaccination had been increasing. Shame to see this slowdown now as a result of the weather. Polo Sandoval, thanks very much.

Well, new this morning as well, a federal investigation is now scrutinizing the Cuomo administration's handling of nursing home deaths in New York State. We're going to have details and a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: CNN has learned that federal prosecutors and the FBI are now scrutinizing New York Governor's Andrew Cuomo reporting of those coronavirus nursing home deaths. Athena Jones joins us now with all of the latest.

So, now the FBI is involved too.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. That's right, the fallout from this controversy continues. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn together with the FBI are looking into the handling of some of the data surrounding COVID-19 deaths in long- term care facilities, like nursing homes, near in New York. This is according to law enforcement official who says the inquiry is described as preliminary. It's not yet clear whether authorities are looking at Cuomo himself or members of his administration.

[07:20:02]

Now, Cuomo's office is responding to the development. Spokesman Rich Azzopardi trying to downplay it, saying in a statement, as we publicly said, DOJ has been looking into this for months. We have been cooperating with them and we will continue to.

Now, these developments come after a top aid to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to state lawmakers last week that the administration tried to delay the release of this data on COVID-19 deaths in long- term care facilities because they were concerned about a preliminary inquiry by the Trump administration's Department of Justice.

That admission came just weeks after Attorney General Letitia James issued a reporting finding that the New York Department of Health undercounted deaths among residents of those facilities by about 50 percent, by essentially leaving out the death of residents who have been transferred to hospitals.

Cuomo's present predicament is a far cry from months ago when he was hailed for his leadership during the pandemic. Now, state lawmakers are looking to strip him of his expanded emergency powers and 20 of them are calling for the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences to vacate his International Emmy Award in light of this controversy. And we also know that Republican members of Congress are calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate this matter. So this is not at all over yet. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Expanding. Athena Jones, thanks very much.

Joining us now is CNN Political Director David Chalian. He is the co- host of the CNN podcast, Politically Sound. And also with us, CNN Political Analyst Margaret Talev, she's Managing Editor at Axios. Good to have you both on this morning.

David, for the New York governor, this is not just a political issue, damaging his political position, this is becoming a legal issue. How serious?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, listen, he is in full-on defense mode right now. I mean, this is both a political crisis, potentially a legal problem. I think we have to see where that scrutinizing goes from the FBI and the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District. But this is just a remarkable turnaround.

And here is when any politician sort of is in this kind of crisis mode, when your fellow partisans, and this is what's happening now with some in the state senate and state assembly, are looking to diminish your powers here, right? They want to take away some of Andrew Cuomo's emergency powers that he has had since the beginning of this pandemic.

He argues he still needs those, but there's going to be a critical vote in the legislature among his fellow Democrats or in the majority next week to see if, indeed, they will strip him of these powers. A clear indication just that that movement is afoot, that he's got real political problems in his backyard here.

CAMEROTA: And, Margaret, I mean, as Athena points out, what Governor Cuomo did here had been hailed as such a success story and he got all of these accolades, et cetera. So we'll wait to see if this completely upends that narrative.

And in the meantime, he's not the only governor dealing with this new sort of look at how he's handled it. What happened in California?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Well, I think, like, look, from a purely political lens, and I think the much more important thing right now really is the facts on the ground and the health and the safety of millions of Americans, but from a purely political lens, Gavin Newsom and Governor Cuomo were, you know, over the last -- the course of the last year, some of the biggest, most important leaders and voices in the handling of the coronavirus.

And when Donald Trump was president, they were kind of -- you know, there was this juxtaposition, they could be counterpoints to him, with Donald Trump out of office and President Biden now in office, they are really standing alone and it's changing the scrutiny and putting a lot more of the lens on them in terms of the handling of the politics in their state. I think particularly in Cuomo's case, but in Newsom's case as well, these are people who have been viewed from a national leadership perspective, what could Cuomo's role be in the Biden administration or could he have a future in presidential politics, all these sorts of questions. And I think particularly in that case, because Biden has set such the notion of he is anti-bullying and wants pure transparency and that sort of stuff, but it's a real problem politically going forward.

And I think that's what we'll be watching, is a lot more focus on governors in some of these individual and very big states.

SCIUTTO: Well, genuine and legitimate questions there. Okay, other big political news this morning is a very ambitious immigration plan from President Biden. I mean, you look at some of these things here, the headline issue here is an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented people living in this country, funding for more immigration judges, $4 billion to Central American countries that often are the source of immigrants coming across the border here.

[07:25:03]

David Chalian, notable that even as he is proposing this, Biden already signaled his openness to breaking this up, right, going for something that might be more achievable in the short-term, such as, for instance, a path for the DREAMERs here. And I wonder, is that a signal here that, listen, the big plan is really just aspirational, we're ready to talk about other pieces here?

CHALIAN: I mean, this is going to be fascinating to watch. There's no doubt about it. You're right, out of the gate, he's indicating a willingness perhaps to talk about doing this piecemeal. There are certain pieces of a comprehensive immigration reform plan, like the one that the Biden administration is putting forward that are quite popular, right? We've seen across the aisle, like Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin, working together on the DREAMERs piece.

But when you are pushing a full comprehensive plan that is also involved in giving the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants who are currently in the country a pathway to citizenship the way that the Biden proposal does, that's when the politics start getting very, very tricky.

And we saw back in 2013, remember, the gang of eight in the Senate, Republicans and Democrats coming together under the Obama administration, the House Republicans never even took up what they put forward. This is an opportunity that the Biden administration sees with Democrats in control of the House, the Senate, and the White House to try and push this longtime quest for comprehensive immigration reform through.

But the administration after administration, for now, more than a couple of decades, have failed at this effort. Biden, whether or not he can be successful, is going to be one of the most interesting things to watch here on an issue that proves to be so vexing to actually find a path forward politically. CAMEROTA: I mean, Margaret, yes --

SCIUTTO: It's already changed though, right? I mean, Trump tried to kill DACA, right, and blocked in the courts. And here you have at least discussions, bipartisan discussions about legislation with Graham and Durbin. So some of those changes are already a big deal.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, that's why I would wonder, why not just do the DREAMERs stuff? I mean, haven't we seen this movie before? It doesn't end well when we try something -- I'm sorry to say it, but when we try something big and comprehensive that both parties have always said they want, they can't figure it out.

But there is that bipartisan plan and push for the DREAMERs. And so with Durbin and Lindsey Graham, why not just focus on that, Margaret?

TALEV: I think there's no reason why that can't go forward. From my perspective, what Biden is trying to do is set the table, to some extent, rewind the clock back to 2008, right? This is like a story we're seeing over and over again, so many stories. But, look, the Obama administration at the beginning had to make a choice. Were they going to pursue the health care reform or the immigration reform? They had one bite at the apple and they chose the Affordable Care Act. Between that and the financial crisis aftermath, starting in 2009, that's what they could get done and they lost in the midterms and that was that.

So this is Biden reprioritizing this. This would be the biggest deal since Ronald Reagan's amnesty in 1986, and it allows for those negotiations on stuff, smaller pieces that people with agree with. But a lot of this is about the signaling about resetting the table from build the wall to pathway to 11 million people. (INAUDIBLE) in the middle is space potentially for compromise, but immigration remains truly one of the stickiest points when you look at polling.

There are so many areas where the disagreements over policy issues are really politicized and amplified beyond how they really exist. Immigration is a real one. If you're a Republican or a Democrat, that gulf is really real, and the space in the middle really is for these small, discreet pieces like what happens to spouses on green cards or what happens to people who were brought when they were two and didn't make (INAUDIBLE).

So I think that's probably ultimately where this is going, but the signaling and reset and creating a new framework for the discussions are really important to Biden and to the Democratic Party.

CAMEROTA: Really helpful incite. David and Margaret, thank you both very much.

So, millions of Texans are still in a deep freeze this morning, many with no heat, no water, no electricity. We speak with a family who is struggling to stay warm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]