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Kevin McCarthy Ousted As House Speaker; Louisiana Clean Water Crisis; Creating Robotic Medical First Responders. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired October 05, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, lovely people. Welcome to CNN 10. I`m Coy Wire. It`s Thursday, October 5th. Happy Friday Eve. We have big news, so we
have to jump right into historic news out of the nation`s capital. For the first time ever, the Speaker of the House has been voted out of office.
Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives was kicked out of his position in the middle of a
congressional term.
Speakers in the past have stepped down after losing the support of their party. But McCarthy is the first to be ousted through a vote. The ousting
was orchestrated by McCarthy`s rival, Republican Matt Gaetz. Many members of the House were unhappy with McCarthy`s stances on issues like spending
cuts and the war in Ukraine. And Gaetz warned that he would file a motion to vacate or a force of vote to remove the speaker if McCarthy worked with
Democrats to fund the government over the weekend, keeping the government running instead of risking it shutting down. But that`s exactly what
McCarthy did over the weekend.
Over a century ago, Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon faced a similar situation and basically dared his critics to vote him out. Cannon survived
that showdown marking the first time the House even thought about removing a speaker. Former House Speaker John Boehner also faced a threat back in
2015, but he didn`t wait for the vote. He decided to retire early, instead.
Following Tuesday`s vote against McCarthy, the ousted speaker made it clear that he will not be running for this speakership again. And the race for a
potential successor is underway. Both House majority leaders, Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio have already announced, they will run
to replace McCarthy as House Speaker. And a speaker election is expected to happen next week.
Clearly there are a lot of layers to this historic situation here. CNN`s Lauren Fox with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy vowing not to run for speaker again. After an unprecedented vote
Tuesday plunging the House of Representatives into chaos. The motion to vacate was filed by representative Matt Gaetz, who along with seven other
GOP members voted to oust the Speaker, with Democrats votes, the motion passed 216 to 210.
McCarthy`s speakership was the third shortest in history and was plagued with GOP infighting over spending cuts, border security and providing aid
to Ukraine. Now, the race is on for House Republicans to elect a new speaker as another possible government shutdown is 44 days away. Several
names have emerged as possible contenders for speaker, including House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise.
REP. MARIA SALAZAR, (R) FLORIDA: No one really knows who has the votes. So now we`re going to go through that exercise right now and see who has our -
- our support.
FOX: One person not interested in the job is Gaetz.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putting yourself forward for the speakership?
REP. MATT GAETZ, (R) FLORIDA: Absolutely not. I have no desire to be Speaker of the House.
FOX: McCarthy for his part says he has no regrets about his tenure as speaker.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R) CALIFORNIA: I don`t regret standing up for choosing government over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten second trivia.
The Mississippi River starts in Minnesota and ends in which state?
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or Alabama?
The Mississippi River ends where it starts flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. And that is in Louisiana where we`re headed next. CNN`s Chief Climate
Correspondent Bill Weir is on the ground in Louisiana, where millions of residents are facing a possible clean water crisis as salt water from the
Gulf of Mexico is creeping up the river threatening to contaminate their fresh water supply. We told you about this a bit earlier.
Now, a severe summer drought that lowered the Mississippi river`s water levels is to blame for this. Let`s take a look at the infrastructure and
possible solutions for this issue along the fourth longest river in the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: In south Louisiana folks are plenty familiar with saltwater that moves at the speed of hurricane, but
now they must also worry about salt water that creeps steady and invisible toward the crops, machines, and drinking water systems of almost a million
people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I happen to be one who believes in the power of prayer. I`m going to ask for people to pray for rain.
WEIR: After a second straight year of extraordinary drought, the not so mighty Mississippi is too weak to hold back the Gulf of Mexico. So the
heavier salt water is running downhill towards new Orleans in the shape of a wedge with the toe, about 15 miles in front of the kind of inundation
that could threaten the health of the vulnerable and destroy everything from lead pipes to appliances.
So the Army Corps of Engineers is urgently racing against time and salt with a couple different tools. This is the first of what will be many
barges that can bring about a half million gallons of freshwater at a time downstream. They use it to dilute the brackish stuff as it goes into a
small water plant here in Plaquemines Parish. The Corps says they can move 36 million gallons a day. But even that wouldn`t be enough to save the New
Orleans water supply. So they`re already talking about maybe building pipelines to prop up that water system.
In the meantime, the Corps is also building a big sill, like an underwater speed bump, to try to slow the wedge as it moves inland.
But these are all temporary fixes. And the leader of this parish says, if this is the new normal, that means parts of Louisiana will need the same
kind of desalination that they use in Israel and other desert communities.
KEITH HINKLEY, PRESIDENT OF PLAQUEMINES PARISH: You`ve got one trailer would be the reverse osmosis and the other would be the filtration system
right there.
WEIR (voice over): Keith Hinkley is the president of Plaquemines Parish, a spread-out community of less than 25,000, now spending a fortune on
desalination.
HINKLEY: If we didn`t have help of the state and the federal government, it could bankrupt the parish here.
WEIR (on camera): Is that right?
HINKLEY: So -- yes, yes. Because we are probably right now about $33 million in on this situation.
WEIR: No kidding?
HINKLEY: And, like I said, we`re a small parish.
WEIR: Just this summer? Just this wedge?
HINKLEY: Yes, yes, just because of this wedge.
WEIR: Wow.
HINKLEY: Yes.
WEIR: This is land that`s familiar with hurricanes and flooding, not droughts and wildfires.
HINKLEY: Oh, this -- yes, right, right.
WEIR: How do you reconcile these things?
HINKLEY: Because -- look, it`s like you say, when you look this way and you look that way, you`re looking at water. We`re in the middle of water, but
we`re in the middle of the wrong kind of water. And that`s why we`re -- we`re needing these -- these kind of machines.
WEIR (voice over): There is hope El Nino will bring rare October rain. But this battle could last months with the latest forecast putting the wedge
close to New Orleans in the next three weeks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Next up, some news about high tech helpers, medical robots that can step into risky or dangerous situations to help medics so that they are
kept out of harm`s way. This tech has several advantages, like being able to work for extended periods of time and reach places doctors might
struggle to get to, but there are also plenty of questions. How much will this tech cost and at what cost can or should these robots replace a
trained human, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spread out.
DAVID HANDELMAN, SENIOR ROBOTICIST, JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY: I`m Dave Handelman, Senior Roboticist at the John Hopkins
Applied Physics Lab. We`re collaborating with the army on medic robot teaming. We look to apply robots to perform tests that are dull, dirty, or
dangerous. A medics for example, often have to deal with multiple casualties and we want to figure out ways in which robots can help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spot, go find another casually, send me his vital.
HANDELMAN: For example, robots can carry special sensors, find casualties, gather vital sign information, and relay that back to the medic and allow
them to make better decisions for triage.
Here`s Spot.
We`re exploring tasks like bag valve mask ventilation. We`re also looking at how robots can pull casualties out of harm`s way.
So here`s Spot, the four-legged robot. So there are sensors all around it. It also has a manipulator to grab things, voice commands, active stand.
Come.
We use both speech and gesture to communicate with the robot. In our teaming experiments, people wear augmented reality headsets and they see
information that`s been transferred from the robot to them. These technologies, artificial intelligence, augmented reality robotics. They
will allow medics to do more over longer periods of time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10 is positively amazing. NASA shared this image of pan Saturn`s innermost moon. And it`s not big. It`s
approximately 15 miles across. And is it just me or does this moon look like a ravioli. The new technology allowed us to get a better look at its
features and honestly, yeah, that might be a big piece of pillowy pasta. Throw a little sauce on there. Ah, the "pastabilities." Hey, this reminds
me, what do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.
Shout out is going to Chipley, Florida today. They see me rolling at Roulhac Middle School. Let`s go. Thanks for subscribing and submitting your
request on our YouTube channel for a shoutout.
Here`s your random thought Thursday question. If someone describes something to you as indescribable, didn`t they just describe it. I`m Coy.
This is CNN 10. And I`ll see you tomorrow, Friyay.
END
