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Millions in Texas Struggle for Drinking Water; Texas State Rep. James Talarico (R) is Interviewed about Crisis with Power, Water; ERCOT: Texas Power Grid Was 'Seconds or Minutes' from Total Blackout; Biden to Declare 'America i Back' in Foreign Policy Speech. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

[05:59:02]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, February 19, 6 a.m. here in New York. Jim joins me again. Great to have you.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here.

CAMEROTA: OK. So the crisis in Texas continues this morning. Many do begin to get their power back, but they are still in the midst of a massive water crisis.

Millions of Texans do not have safe drinking water. Nearly half of the state has been ordered to boil water before drinking it. Some having to go to extreme measures like boiling snow. Many dealing with burst pipes and major damage to their homes.

Overnight, this huge fire broke out at a San Antonio apartment building shortly after the water was turned off there.

This water crisis also putting a major strain on hospitals. Some having to move critically ill patients to other facilities and others hauling in water just to flush their toilets.

So last night, President Biden spoke with the Texas governor and prepared for FEMA to start sending these federal supplies and resources to the state.

SCIUTTO: As Texas -- Texans suffer, Senator Ted Cruz is back in the state, doing some, or attempting some damage control, this after flying to Cancun with his family for a vacation while the people of his state suffer.

Overnight, "The New York Times" published texts from Cruz's wife showing that the senator lied about the reason for his trip.

Last night, some of Cruz's constituents protested outside his home, calling for him to resign. Let's begin, though, with the crisis on the ground there in Texas.

CNN's Natasha Chen is live in Houston. So, power back for millions of Texans, but really becoming a water crisis there now.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, there's still a water issue in many parts of the city here, but as you said, power is starting to come back on. People are starting to turn a corner here.

And we can tell that, because we're in a furniture store that has been open the last couple of nights as a warming center for people to sleep. And they've had several hundred people the last couple of nights.

But tonight, we're only seeing fewer than 100 people as the power continues to come back on for many people in town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (voice-over): No power, heat, or water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got flashlights. We can't recharge the batteries. There's no propane in the area to be found.

CHEN: Food supplies running low.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all about survival right now until it start getting warm.

CHEN: And homes destroyed.

QIANA ABRAMS, TEXAS STORM VICTIM: It's like complete shock. It's like, one of your worst nightmares.

CHEN: Hundreds of thousands of Texans are waking to a harsh reality this morning.

THOMAS BLACK, TEXAS STORM VICTIM: As of now, we're managing, but the gravity of the situation becomes more apparent by the minute.

CHEN: In Houston, people are waiting in line to fill up buckets of water from a spigot in a park to take home, while others here stay warm within this furniture store, which offered residents a place to eat and sleep.

About 13 million Texans are under a boil water advisory, and more than 200,000 households are still in the dark. And it could take days for all to get power back.

JUDGE LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: We need to figure out what went wrong in the way that the Texas energy grid is run. But right now, there's still a lot of work to do in response and in recovery.

CHEN: Texas Governor Greg Abbott promised to reform and investigate the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is in charge of 90 percent of the state's power grid.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I'm taking responsibility for the current status of ERCOT. Again, I find what has happened unacceptable.

CHEN: With dangerously cold temperatures still in the region, frustration here is growing. Firefighters need to truck their own water to this blaze at a San Antonio apartment complex since the hydrants there were frozen. The conditions delayed the delivery of coronavirus vaccines in Texas and other hard-hit states.

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE: We can't have people riding -- getting on the roads and going into work and boxing them and delivering them through UPS or FedEx either to sites like in Texas, where they're not open yet. We're going to keep these vaccines safe and sound. And then we're going to get them out to people and catch up just as soon as the weather allows.

CHEN: A group of protesters welcomed Texas Senator Ted Cruz home, returning back to Houston after facing backlash for leaving the crisis for a family vacation in Cancun. Cruz confirmed the trip after photos emerged on social media Wednesday, showing the senator boarding a plane.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): The plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family. That was the plan. Look, it was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn't have done it.

CHEN: Some local leaders slammed Cruz.

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON: Well, it's certainly much warmer where he's going. Let me just put it like that.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): I mean, I think he threw in the towel on Texas. You know, this is a situation where it's all hands on deck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN: Senator Cruz initially said his daughters had asked for a trip with friends, but text messages obtained by "The New York Times" show Heidi Cruz telling their friends their house was freezing and, if they wanted, to come along to Cancun -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes. It's been amazing how many different versions of the story we've heard in just the past several hours. Natasha, thank you very much for all of that.

So joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital. Also with us, Texas state representative, James Talarico. Great to have both of you.

Dr. Hotez, I just want to start with you. You have been in the thick of this. You're in Houston. So you personally have been dealing with this. And then tell us what the situation is at the hospital, as well.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Yes, fortunately, things are getting better. We now have light and power and electricity and water. We had none of those things. It was a tough four days for all of us here in Houston and across Texas.

And in my case, I have a special needs adult daughter living with us, four adult kids, but my daughter's still with us. And that was really tough.

But, you know, it's -- power came back on yesterday, so that -- that's a positive side. And the medical center is thriving. You know, we -- we have a lot of experience with power outages and -- because of -- because of hurricanes. We know we have to function. We're the world's largest medical center. We're the -- we're the first and only medical city of 100,000 employees and 60,000 institutions. It's an extraordinary place.

So -- so we'll be OK. We've had some struggles, but -- but that's doing OK. But it's been a horrible, horrible four days, no doubt about it.

SCIUTTO: Representative Talarico, you have this deep irony here, right, of Texas being the largest energy-producing state in the country, not able to turn that energy to the basic needs of its citizens, in the midst of a crisis here.

I wonder -- I mean, I know this is riven with politics, Texas independence, all this kind of stuff, anti-regulation. I mean, does any effort follow this with any sort of bipartisanship in that state to fix the problem, or do you end up where you are?

JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I sincerely hope so. I'm an eighth generation Texan, so I know that our state prides itself on energy production. Yet, we left millions of our citizens to shiver and freeze in the dark.

It's not just incompetent. It's criminal. I heard from mothers who had to clutch their babies to their chest to keep them warm. In the 21st Century in the United States of America, in the great state of Texas, this is a moral crime.

And it's not just a natural disaster. It's a man-made disaster. This is years of under investment. Years of deregulation, years of privatization. Years of neglect. And I refuse to live through this again. And I refuse to let my fellow Texans live through this again.

CAMEROTA: And on that note, Representative, I mean, I'm sure that you heard how former Governor Rick Perry said Texans would be basically willing to go days without heat and electricity, you know, for their own self-reliance, where they don't have to, you know, rely on those bad feds.

Well, now the feds are having to swoop in and help out, and send resources and pour money in and FEMA, et cetera. And so, I just wonder about that mindset of that self-reliance. But you know, sometimes that can veer into incompetence.

TALARICO: Yes, that's exactly right. And I think former Governor Perry speaks for himself. I know my constituents would much rather be connected to the national

grid so that we can balance our energy supply and be able to borrow from other states if we're in a jam.

And I know that Texas is trying to avoid federal regulation, but it comes at a great cost, as we've seen this week, both in terms of money and lives. And so, you know, I hope that we learn from our mistakes this week and we realize that our secessionist tendencies are not just quirky, they're deadly.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Hotez, the repercussions of this in a storm reverberating far beyond Texas, particularly now with vaccine distribution, right? I mean, a lot of these doses can't get out. Planes couldn't land. They couldn't take off.

You have said that you think it's about a week's delay at a crucial time, as variants are expanding here. How big of a setback is that? Because things have been accelerating in terms of vaccinations.

HOTEZ: Yes, that's right. We were just starting to pick up. We've delivered about 40 million immunizations to Americans, but we have to get to half a billion when you add up the -- the population of the U.S. and the fact that we have to get to 80 percent, to fully vaccinate most of the vaccines, two doses. That adds up to 500 million immunizations. So we're less than 10 percent of the way there.

And the urgency that I feel and many of my colleagues feel is the U.K. variant, the 117 -- the B-117 variant is gaining ascendency. And we know that this is much more transmissible, and now that U.K. government has put up information to indicate that it's higher mortality rates and case fatality rates.

So the next big wave is coming. And even though the numbers look promising in terms of new cases going down, that's -- that's -- that's misleading. I think we're about to get hit very hard.

So we have to race ahead of the variant. We need to now fully vaccinate the population of the United States ahead of the timetable. The fall timetable is not going to work for us if we're going to get ahead of the variants.

So what we had heard was Monday, it was only going to be Monday, and then a new shipment will come on Wednesday. And now with all of the collapse in infrastructure, I think we've missed probably the whole week, and that's really unfortunate. So we're going to have to play catch-up now and very quickly if we're going to be serious about protecting the people of Texas and nationally.

CAMEROTA: Representative, as bad as it has been this week in Texas, we know now, as of yesterday, from the head of ERCOT, your electricity company, how much worse it could have been. He admitted yesterday that you all were seconds or minutes away from this being even more catastrophic in terms of plunging Texas into darkness for even longer. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL MAGNESS, CEO OF ERCOT: And it was seconds and minutes, given the amount of generation that was coming off the system at the same time that the demand was still going up significantly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's why he said that they had to shut everything down and move into sort of the rolling blackout stage. And so where do you go from here? I mean, I know everybody wants to fix it, but it sounds like you're just going to have to change everything starting today.

TALARICO: Yes, ERCOT needs to be held accountable. But blame doesn't lie with them. It lies with the policy makers who charged ERCOT to implement our failed policies of deregulation and privatization.

We have got to make sure that we are winterizing our equipment, so it can withstand these freezing temperatures. You look up to our north at Oklahoma, they experienced similar freezing temperatures but didn't experience the same widespread blackouts. And that is because they have invested the money to ensure that their equipment can withstand these types of winter storms. So we have got to take these steps. Otherwise -- (AUDIO GAP)

CAMEROTA: Representative Talarico, Dr. Peter Hotez, we really appreciate both of you. We're so glad that things seem to be turning a corner. Thank you very much for your time this morning.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So Senator Ted Cruz under fire for this vacation, this tropical vacation to Cancun during the crisis in his home state of Texas. Many of his constituents now calling for his resignation. We have the latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:10]

SCIUTTO: Big speech today from the president. CNN has learned that President Joe Biden will declare that America is back in a major foreign policy speech, speeches, actually, this morning, as he hopes to reset America's standing on the world stage, post-Trump.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House with brand-new reporting.

And Jeremy, this is a real and substantiative turn from a whole host of Trump approaches to the world, right? In a way, really, a return to the old normal on many issues.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it. Listen, Jim, two years ago, President Joe Biden then as a private citizen, attended the Munich security conference, and he talked directly about the Trump administration's isolationist foreign policy.

And he vowed, "This, too, shall pass." And he said, "We will be back." Today, a senior administration official telling us that the president

is expected to announce that America is back, with the president reaffirming the U.S.'s global leadership role and reaffirming the U.S.'s commitment to U.S. Alliances and the power of those alliances; in particular, the transatlantic alliance with European countries, which President Trump really, you know, threw by the wayside in so many ways.

The president is also expected to talk about the power of those alliances in terms of confronting the threats and the challenges posed by Russia as well as by China, again casting aside the unilateral approach that former President Trump took in his approach to the relationship with China, in particular.

And he's also expected to lay out some policies on specific country areas. In particular, on the issue of Iran, after the State Department announced yesterday that the U.S. is willing to engage in multi- lateral diplomatic talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

We are expected to hear those words directly from the president of the United States today. The president also attending the G-7 conference. That's the conference of leaders of the strongest, biggest market economies in the world.

And the president will commit to $4 billion to this COVAX vaccine initiative aimed at giving -- delivering vaccines to poorer countries around the world.

Two billion dollars in commitments coming this year that have already been appropriated by Congress, and $2 billion contingent on vaccine deliveries going forward.

But a major day on the foreign policy front for the president before he heads to Michigan to tour a vaccine manufacturing facility -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

Joining us now is Natasha Alford. She is senior correspondent at "TheGrio." Also with us, Eugene Daniels. He's a White House correspondent and co-author of "The Politico Playbook." Good to have you both on this morning.

Eugene, I want to begin with you specifically on the Iran issue. Because that is, I mean, an understatement. That's a political hot button issue in this country.

I mean, Obama made the Iran nuclear deal, Trump pulled out of it. Biden at least talking about getting back in. And there's a lot between now and then and actually resurrecting this thing.

Tell us about the politics here. Is that going to be a major controversy for this president?

EUGENE DANIELS, CO-AUTHOR, "THE POLITICO PLAYBOOK": If not a major, definitely a minor. I think, you know, there is this -- there are a lot of people, especially on the right, who want to make it a huge issue. Who don't want this deal to come back.

But I think the thing that we know about Joe Biden is that he, first of all, he likes what President Obama did. So it's very unlikely that he wouldn't want to be a part of this deal again.

But also that he is trying to signal, just like Jeremy was just saying, to everyone that not only is America back, but they're ready to do more. And you know, moving forward, the ways that you do that are to kind of ease tensions in different regions around the country. And I think that's what President Biden wants to do and will continue to want to do for the rest of his tenure.

CAMEROTA: Natasha, back here at home in terms of, you know, the relief that so many people are waiting for, it just gets worse. Every day, it seems like there's just another cascading crisis.

I mean, as if COVID weren't devastating enough to American families, now what's happening in Texas. I mean, when you see their homes, we know, from living in the northeast after a hurricane, it takes a long time to fix your home after flooding like that, after pipes burst and things like that. They desperately need help.

And so, we talk a lot. We talk every morning about the COVID relief bill and when this, you know, money will get to people. But what's the timeline here? We don't seem to be moving towards a date certain.

NATASHA ALFORD, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, "THEGRIO": Yes, it's unfortunate, because, you know, there are people who are dealing with real-life problems. They're worried about housing, Food Stamps, being able to get insurance for unemployment, which very soon will expire, and that will affect more than 11 million workers.

And yet, there's this debate about money, right? And whether we are spending too much. And the Biden administration has been trying to emphasize this message that you can't spend enough in this moment. That it is better to, you know, to go hard and to make sure that American people have what they need, rather than, you know, try to be conservative to prove some point.

And when it -- when it comes to the GOP, it's just so interesting the things that they were willing to spend money on. Right? To use budget reconciliation to get through these tax cuts for the wealthy or to declare a national emergency for a wall along the Mexican border. And spend billions of dollars on this wall when we know that it was absolutely unnecessary.

So -- -so the American people really care about the bottom line, which is how they're going to survive every day. And it is so important that Democrats do what needs to be done, even with these promises of bipartisanship, so that way people see the government can deliver for them when they're in need.

SCIUTTO: So on that question, and Eugene, I wonder what you think of this. If folks are making a Katrina comparison here -- and it's not on that scale, certainly in terms of loss of life, at least yet. But big natural disaster exacerbated by lousy public response, the whole issues with the power grid, et cetera.

President Biden is president, right? I mean, how much is the response to this a test for President Biden, and how is he performing?

DANIELS: I think everything that happens in the country under a president's watch could be blamed on him. I think this one feels a bit different, because Texas has its own power grid, right? It's not a part of the national power grid.

And also, he has already -- his administration has been out front, talking about this. You know, he -- you know, did the federal -- he added federal help. They've sent generators, all types of things. And so it seems mostly that people are more angry at Texas and Texas Governor Greg Abbott and also now Senator Ted Cruz for the way that they have handled this process.

CAMEROTA: Yes, let's talk about Ted Cruz. Charlie, Natasha, you know, he wanted a tropical vacation. I get it. So do I. But I'm not a public servant. And he -- it is astounding that he seems to have forgotten the public service part of being a public servant.

The taxpayers pay his salary. And so instead of spending time ferrying his family to Cancun, he could have been calling ERCOT. He could have been helping out in his home state. He didn't do that.

And I mean, now -- he had all sorts of different stories. I mean, it just -- the ever-changing narrative has been interesting to watch. But what are we supposed to take away from whatever lesson he's learned here?

ALFORD: Well, I'm amazed that politicians continue to to repeat history and make these mistakes. So whether it was George Bush with the Hurricane Katrina delay or Chris Christie at his beach house during Hurricane Sandy, it's really an insult to our intelligence, and it reflects not much political intelligence, right?

Because you would think, even just for the sake of optics that you would stay home and help your constituents while they're boiling water and trying to close holes that are in their roof.

But I was really insulted by the explanation. You know, the weak damage control, the blaming on the children or the saying, Oh, I was just going to be right back.

But I think what's bigger is that this highlights the privilege that people have when it comes to climate change and the disparity we are going to see.

East Austin, Texas, which is mostly black and Hispanic, they didn't have electricity, but you know who did? Downtown Austin did. Right? These empty office buildings.

And so that is just one example of the ways in which, when you have privilege, when you have money, you're able to escape from these horrible situations. And people try to politicize climate change, but it's going to get

worse. And it's going to expose the disparities that exist, in the same way that the pandemic did. And the people who are most in need won't be able to go to their vacation home or go on vacation.

[06:25:05]

SCIUTTO: It also exposes, frankly, you know, the lie of independence, right, now? Because the secessionists in Texas right now, are they refusing federal disaster aid? Are the Texas politicians who voted -- who tried to overturn the election turning down President Biden's emergency declaration? No. Because when they need it, they go for that federal help.

Eugene Daniels, Jimmy Kimmel, as you might expect, had a bit of a field day with Ted Cruz yesterday. We couldn't resist sharing a little bit of that. Have a watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wanna get away from your constituents? Hop aboard the Ted Cruise. When the power goes out at home, we go out to sea. Leave your troubles behind. Our toilets aren't frozen, but our margaritas are.

Watch the sun set over the state you abandoned. Fill the hole in your soul at our all-you-can-eat buffet and dance your worries away.

Now, that's electricity. There's no wall on the ocean. Climb aboard a Ted Cruise.

Ted Cruz not responsible for COVID, motion sickness or nausea related to seeing his face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That last line. Eugene Daniels, can you top that?

DANIELS: No! I don't think so at all.

You know, I think -- you know, it was brutal to watch, and that's -- that is why it's confusing, why his team and him even thought that he could kind of go and get away with this. Right?

Ted Cruz is someone that really brings a lot of emotion out of a lot of people on the right and the left. And it's an example of something that Americans really dislike about Washington, D.C. Someone who criticizes other politicians for doing something very similar, and then the lie and the spin, and then finally having to say that you did it.

And all of that reminds people why they don't like Washington, D.C. And it's a reminder to all of us that the group chat is never safe. Be very careful with what you put in the group chat, because it always may come out, and that's exactly what -- exactly what happened here today. CAMEROTA: That's the lesson Eugene is taking away from all of this.

Careful on that group chat.

SCIUTTO: If you haven't learned that lesson already, but -- listen, he's four years away from his next re-election campaign, but I wouldn't be surprised if that turned up in --

CAMEROTA: I don't know. Memories are short sometimes.

SCIUTTO: Eugene, Natasha, thanks so much to both of you.

Serious story. Dozens of Capitol police are now under investigation for their own alleged role in the Capitol insurrection. These are uniformed police officers. We'll have brand-new details. They're disturbing. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)