Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Donald Trump Appeals to African-American Voters; Parts of Louisiana Devastated by Flooding; Ryan Lochte Criticized for Written Apology; Donald Trump may Possibly Start Media Organization if He Loses Presidential Bid; Simone Biles Discusses Olympic Experience. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired August 20, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:00:09] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What do you have to lose?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump making a passionate pitch to African-American voters.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They can make him read new words from a teleprompter, but he is still the same man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five individuals have already been confirmed connected to the Miami Beach area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if you're a pregnant woman living in that neighborhood? Can you imagine the emotional toll that must take on you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you get this much rain over this area it is going to be devastating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on down, Donald. Glad to have you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to thank Mr. Trump for coming to Louisiana. He brought attention to our state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama will travel to the devastation on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The two swimmers placed most of the blame on Lochte, describing him a drunk and unruly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's done it, history has been made, an unprecedented triple-triple for Usain Bolt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't think of another athlete since Muhammad Ali that has so captured the public imagination.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: A lot going on in the world. We always appreciate you keeping us company. Good morning. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. It's 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 out west. CNN Newsroom becomes right now.

PAUL: And we also are going to be looking at this hour the Olympics. Those are winding down.

BLACKWELL: Yes, but the action is still going on there. Here's our Coy Wire with what is ahead today. Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Talking about speed and a whole lot of it. We're going to go bolting through the latest on all things Olympics from beautiful Copacabana Beach right here from Rio on Newsroom coming up.

PAUL: Before we get to that boisterous Coy, we do want to begin with Donald Trump. Very soon he's going to be meeting with the national Hispanic advisory council for Trump. This of course as his campaign is going through what seems to be a major overhaul. His campaign chairman Paul Manafort is out.

BLACKWELL: And with the new leadership Trump is trying to bring in a new approach to reach out to black voters specifically. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say it again, what do you have to lose? Look, what do you have to lose? You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. And 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates. Chris, we would assume this is part of the outreach of the new Trump? How is it resonating? What are you hearing?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Christi. You know, Trump continuing his outreach to African-Americans yesterday. This time telling a mostly white crowd in a predominately white suburb that Hillary Clinton is taking black voters for granted.

Now, Trump promised that if he were to run for reelection, at the end of his first term, he'd win 95 percent of the black vote. And that's a really tall order considering that President Obama, our nation's first black president, only won 93 percent of the black vote in his reelection.

And Trump's question of, what the hell do blacks have to lose by voting for him was answered swiftly by the Clinton campaign. In a statement the campaign said "Donald Trump asked what the African- American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything. From a man who questioned citizenship of the first African-American president, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color, Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African- American community." And Hillary Clinton tweeting this, she said "This is so ignorant it's staggering." So Clinton not mincing words there, guys.

PAUL: So let's talk about Paul Manafort's departure, because I think a lot of people are wondering how that is going to shape the campaign moving forward. What have you heard?

FRATES: I've been asking around as to what happened, Christi. And what I found is that kind of depends on who you ask. A friend of Manafort telling me this morning that Manafort was not going to take orders or relinquish any power to the campaign's new CEO or campaign manager. That it's nothing against Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, the new executives who were just elevated, but that's how Manafort rolls, the friend tells me.

But a senior campaign aide telling me that Trump lost faith in Manafort a couple weeks ago, feeling like Manafort wasn't quick enough with his answers to Trump's question. That aide saying Trump and Manafort lacked chemistry. And quickly another source saying Manafort who was facing increasing scrutiny over his lobbying ties to Ukraine and Russia, lots of bad stories out this week. Told Trump he was becoming a distraction and didn't want that to continue, guys.

[10:05:04] PAUL: All right, boy, great information there. Chris Frates, thank you.

FRATES: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Bruce LeVell, executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, and April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and author of "The Presidency in Black and White." Welcome to both of you.

APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Bruce, I want to start with you, executive director of the Diversity Coalition. When you hear Donald Trump say to African- Americans and this is his pitch to get the votes from African- Americans, "You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, what the hell do you have to lose?" You know it? Is that what he believes about African-Americans?

BRUCE LEVELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL DIVERSITY COALITION FOR TRUMP: It's not so much -- once again you can always take a particular sentence and frame it the way you want to. At the end of the day, there is a need in a lot of our cities and a lot of our predominately African-American cities that have call to have change, especially with their school systems as well as jobs. So, you know, Mr. Trump has been meeting for several years. He has a lot of friends across the country, Pastor Darrell Scott, a lot of pastors. He's very close to the faith-based community because it has a pulse about what's really going on. BLACKWELL: Understood, and we'll get into the faith-based community.

But first, words matter. And we know that during this campaign. And Donald Trump who the day before apologized and said sometimes in the heat of the debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words. He regrets that. The following day he says that black people are living in poverty, have no jobs, going to bad schools. They've got nothing to lose. Vote for him. Why -- is that the whole pitch to African-American voters?

LEVELL: No, it's not. For example, here in Atlanta, it's no secret that we've had a situation with our own Atlanta public schools here in DeKalb County, Atlanta, we've had a situation under Democrat rule. The deal is, at the end of the day is like give us a chance at this. Give us a shot. Let Mr. Trump's administration come in and let us put something together that could work in terms of charter schools, local control, you know, in terms of having an ability to have so many tremendous resources that has the ability to come in and make suggestions on how to help a community that has been, you know, struggling.

BLACKWELL: Let me come to you, April. The point that we've heard from Trump supporters for the last 12 hours or so is that Donald Trump says that black voters in America did not get some windfall out of the Obama administration, and give his administration a chance to fix some of the ills that have not been fixed.

RYAN: Well, Victor, let's really look at this realistically and from a journalistic standpoint. I covered three presidents. I started with Bill Clinton who wanted to talk about the issue of race. He had a conversation of race in his last four years. And we are still how many years out still dealing with this.

The issue of race is an evolution. You have moments where you move forward. But it's been hundreds of hundreds of years where there have been problems in the black community from the time of slavery, the beginnings of slavery. So if you expect for this president or any president in four or eight years to fix hundreds of years, you're sadly mistaken. Let's be realistic.

And when you talk about the issue of education. With all due respect, he's absolutely correct that there is a problem when it comes to black communities in their education and richer white communities. But when you talk about education, let's really drill down. When we see public schools in America that are suffering, I'm from Baltimore.

BLACKWELL: Me, too.

RYAN: Amen. When you see public schools in the Baltimore area, it's about property taxes. It's about where you live. And does he really want to get into the housing issue? Because that's another issue. And under former president Bill Clinton more African-Americans bought homes during that time. So when you start talking about one issue you're going into another, and they're going down a slippery slope. If you want to talk about education, you know --

BLACKWELL: Let me introduce some other facts here, because, again, he says you're living in poverty, you've got no jobs. Let's put up the stats, because the numbers are important here. The facts matter. African-American unemployment rate, 8.4 percent, lower than it's been for some time. Let's go to the statistics as it relates to blacks living in the poverty line. In 2014, the latest number from census, 26.2 percent. So not even a plurality of blacks living under the poverty line. Still too high in both categories.

But let me ask you about the audiences, Bruce. If Donald Trump wants to make a pitch to black voters, why isn't he speaking to black audiences? He has a spate, as you mention, of black pastors that support him. Why isn't he in one of their churches? Why did he decline the invitation from the National Association of Black Journalist and the NAACP and the Urban League? He wants their votes he has to go and ask for them, right?

[10:10:03] LEVELL: Respectfully, I represent the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. And I can't speak for the campaign in terms of their logistics or where they travel and what venue they go to. But I do know for a fact I have actually said in these meetings, and it's an honor to be listening amongst some of our best pastors and awesome pastors from across the country from all different multicultural backgrounds. And like I said previously, this has been an ongoing thing for him for years and years.

BLACKWELL: If it's been years and years he should have a black church he knows he can go to. If it's been years and years he would have spoken at NAACP and NBJ and Urban League before. So why is it he's speaking to black audiences? When you go into Diamond Dale, 93 percent white, and says black, here's what you need to do because you have really nothing to lose, doesn't that from your perspective seem a bit condescending?

LEVELL: No, because, once again, I was asked this question on another show. You know, when Mr. Trump moves, you know, and he comes to a city, if there's not a venue that reaches 20,000, 50,000 people, it's so much about the venue. The other thing two, respectfully, is that when he has a speech there is millions of viewers that watch him. Donald Trump comes to town, it takes a tremendous amount of infrastructure and resource. I'm not trying to dodge that or anything like that.

BLACKWELL: I hear you there. But if he wants the law enforcement vote, he made time to go to the Fraternal Order of Police. He wanted the Christian conservatives, he went to the faith and freedom conference.

We've got to take a quick break. We'll continue the conversation. Bruce Levell, April Ryan, we have much more to discuss after the break, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00] BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Back now to our conversation about Donald Trump and his pitch to African-American voters with Bruce LeVell, executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, and April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and author of "The Presidency in Black and White."

April, I want to start with you on this block about something I've heard anecdotally from black voters trying to Iowa during the primaries, traveling to Ohio, traveling to Florida, the battleground states. And there is residue, and that's being generous here, of the birther movement from 2011, still holding over to this choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I want people to remember what happened for those several weeks when Donald Trump was pushing this line of the president's citizenship. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Why doesn't he show his birth certificate? Why has he spent over $2 million in legal fees to keep this quiet and to keep this silent?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I want him to show his birth certificate. There is something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like.

I feel strongly about the fact that Barack Obama should give his birth certificate. And if he doesn't do it he's doing a tremendous disservice to the public.

Three weeks ago when I started I thought he was probably born in this country, and now I really have a much bigger doubt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: April, from your perspective and your reporting preparation for your book, how much of that do you believe is still at play here in this cycle for president?

RYAN: It's still at play, because sometimes when you say things people believe them. You say it enough people will believe it even though it's not fact. You still have people -- there are polls being done. Is President Obama a U.S. citizen, was he legally born in the U.S. somewhere? And they're like, no. So you still hear people say that.

Indeed, the president has tried play on the fact that, you know, he's talked and joked about it in at least two of the White House Correspondents Association dinners. So it is a real problem. But it's also interesting that you have people like Ted Cruz, who no one talks about, you know, about his birth. So the Republican Party wanted to play that down this year for this election cycle. At the same time, it's still, as you say in the best of terms I guess you would say, the residue still lingers.

With President Obama, you have it one way with Ted Cruz it's another way. You wonder if there's a racial component there.

BLACKWELL: Bruce, let me come to you. Before I get to that question, do you know -- you know Donald Trump, you've spoken with him, if he still believes that? LEVELL: We haven't discussed that. We've obviously been so busy, you

know.

BLACKWELL: Do you think it would be important in his effort to get black voters to -- for some mea culpa or some clarification and some explanation. He called the president and 93 percent of the black voters in 2012 voted for President Obama.

LEVELL: First of all, in 2007, the Clinton campaign, Hillary Clinton started that whisper campaign about the president's birth certificate. That did not come -- no, sir. That came --

BLACKWELL: The birther was Donald Trump.

LEVELL: No, sir.

BLACKWELL: Did Donald Trump not put up a $5 billion bounty --

LEVELL: That came from the Clinton campaign back in 2007. Along with Biden, the whisper, they did not want -- that was part of their strategy to beat him in 2008. That came from Clinton campaign.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you these questions. Donald Trump, did he or did he not put up a multimillion dollar bounty for information about the president's birth certificate in Hawaii?

LEVELL: I don't know anything about that. I don't.

BLACKWELL: And the last question, how will he get black voters? He's at one percent in the latest poll.

LEVELL: If you noticed the other day, two days ago, Breitbart came out six percent. Here in Atlanta we're at six. As the message goes forward, as we go on to November 8th as it relates to our jobs and our school situation and a lot of our communities that desperately need change, you're going to see a major spike in term of -- we'll get 20 percent plus.

BLACKWELL: Twenty plus percent, and I don't know if that's been the reality for the last couple of elections, but that's the prediction for Bruce LeVell. Bruce, April Ryan, the author of "The Presidency in Black and White," thank you for being with us, both of you.

RYAN: Thanks, Victor.

LEVELL: Thanks, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: Better parenting, tough love, a real friend, one newspaper columnist says Ryan Lochte needs all three, and he is not buying the Olympic swimmer's apology. We're talking to the writer of one blistering open letter to Lochte.

Also, the clock is ticking in the Clinton e-mail controversy. A judge giving her 30 days to answer questions about that. What effect might it have on her campaign? That's ahead as well. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:23:38] PAUL: It's 23 minutes past the hour. The Olympics are almost over. The drama is continuing. One of the U.S. swimmers is apologizing for the robbery scandal in Rio and putting most of the blame on Ryan Lochte, now. Gunnar Bentz we're talking about. He says Lochte is the one who tore down a sign at a gas station, who yelled at security guards.

And now the International Olympic Committee is forming a group to investigate the swimmers. But Ryan Lochte is facing serious criticism from home. Some of the most scathing comments coming from a column in the "Chicago Tribune." I want to read some of this to you. The writer says to Lochte, "Dear stupid, and you know who you are, Ryan Lochte, no wait you don't know who you are. You don't know what a dope you are because you're acting like a spoiled brat at 32." So the writer of that column, Steve Rosenbloom, is with us now via phone. Steve, I appreciate you being here. Thank you.

STEVE ROSENBLOOM, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE" (via telephone): Thanks for asking, Christi.

PAUL: I want to point out that "Dear stupid," that whole thing is how he started this letter. So your anger seems to be very evident from the beginning. What got you so riled up about this?

ROSENBLOOM: The end of it, when he issued the non-apology apology. The insincere words that were really just a bunch of manure. It was heavily lawyered. It didn't mean anything. It didn't do what it was supposed to do. And by the end of my column I got to what I would have done.

[10:25:07] But look at what he did. He certainly checked off all the boxes of idiocy and being a spoiled brat. He showed up in somebody else's country because the U.S. OC brought him there. And thought he could vandalize small little business and he thought he could lie about it, and he lied to everybody starting with his mom, to the USOC, the IOC, local authorities, a couple of broadcast outlets, and then he skipped town and left a bunch of teammates to answer for the stories, the lies, the misconceptions, whatever he did. And then he comes out and starts shoveling this insincere pile of manure --

PAUL: OK, I'm wondering --

ROSENBLOOM: -- as an alleged apology.

PAUL: Let me read a little bit of it just in fairness. Lochte issued the apology via Instagram, and he said in part, this is just part of it, "Regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself, and for that I am sorry." What part of that do you take issue with? What do you see is in sincere?

ROSENBLOOM: Well, he hasn't given us a breakdown of the lies he told. He should have been much more responsible. I don't think he wrote those words. You read that whole thing you can pick out words and sentences, read the whole think. Do you really think he wrote that?

PAUL: I know you said that you would like to see him give a video apology. Why is that important to you?

ROSENBLOOM: Well, that was where I got there, because a video apology with no notes, no teleprompter, no cue card, you just stare into a camera. And if I were his mom I would have grabbed him by the ear put him in the seat, and said you're going to talk, you're going to say it, because that comes from the heart. You either tell the truth, it comes from the heart, or you're back in the toilet and people can see the insincerity and see the way you're trying to talk around it.

Then I said I would have provided a verbatim transcript of it. People's words look awful in print, in black and white, when the verbatim transcript, and it would be true of this interview that we're doing. It's a hard thing to read. He needs some kind of education. He needs a friend, some tough love to say this is what you're doing. This is what you would have to do. He needs some humility. You can't walk into somebody else's country as somebody else's guest and then act like that and then ditch out on your team, on your Olympic Committee the way he did. And that's been my thought. And that would have been a way to make him look at what he says, and there's an honesty about a video apology.

PAUL: Steve, I only have about 20 seconds, but what kind of reaction have you gotten from this open letter to him so far?

ROSENBLOOM: A lot of people made the point that yes, it was heavily lawyered, and other people seem to be in favor of it and liked it. And that was about the extent of it that I've seen. Moving on to other things, I'm sure Ryan Lochte will and his lawyer will do what they need to do to cover his speedo-wearing backside.

PAUL: All right, well, Steve Rosenbloom, like I said, I appreciate your being here. It certainly got my attention. And we'll see what happens from this point on. Good to have you, thank you.

ROSENBLOOM: Thanks for asking, Christi.

PAUL: Sure. Take good care.

BLACKWELL: A federal judge says Hillary Clinton will not have to be deposed in person about her e-mail controversy, but she will have to answer written questions under oath about it. The latest on that lawsuit and how it could impact the campaign, that's next.

Plus, could Trump TV be coming to the right side of the dial? CNN's Brian Stelter is looking his reliable sources on that one.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Yes, Trump TV, is it a possibility? Trump says he's trying to win, but if he loses, what could be in his future? Maybe a media company. We'll talk about who he's surrounding himself with and why Glenn Beck says a TV network is in Trump's future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:32:27] BLACKWELL: Donald Trump's latest message to African- American voters, "what the hell do you have to lose?" That's a quote. The GOP candidate spent the second straight night appealing to black voters while speaking in front of a predominately white crowd. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I say it again, what do you have to lose? Look, what do you have to lose? You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs, 58 percent of you your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And Trump then went on to say that in his second term he would win 95 percent of the African-American vote, which at this point is a huge jump. The new NBC News poll has Trump at one percent among black voters.

Here's a tweet from Clinton. She called Trump's speech, quote, "So ignorant it's staggering."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is being ordered to give written testimony after a judge ruled in the favor of a conservative watchdog group. Judicial Watch sued Clinton as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. And now the group has until October 14th to get their questions in front of Clinton. CNN correspondent Chris Frates is following that story. The timeline here is critical. Explain it for us.

FRATES: Yes, that's right, Victor. A federal judge denied a conservative watchdog group's request to depose Hillary Clinton about her e-mail server in person, but ordered Clinton to answer the group's questions in writing and under oath within 30 days of receiving them. So it's the latest action of conservative group Judicial Watch's lawsuit seeking records from the State Department.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said this in a statement. He said, quote, "We will move quickly to get these answers. The decision is a reminder that Hillary Clinton is not above the law."

Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon declared victory when this ruling came out yesterday and dismissed Judicial Watch as a rightwing organization that's been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s. Here is what Fallon had to say in a statement. He said "This is just another lawsuit intended to try to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. So we are glad that the judge has accepted our offer to answer these in writing rather than grant Judicial Watch's request." Judicial Watch of course asking to interview her in person. But this is just another reminder, guys, that Clinton's e-mails will remain a political issue no matter what happens through November.

BLACKWELL: All right, Chris Frates for us there in Washington, thanks so much.

[10:35:02] PAUL: There is speculation that Donald Trump's end game isn't the White House necessarily but rather running his own television network. CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter is looking into that. Brian, what have you heard about a possible Trump TV network?

STELTER: I tell you the reason why this is getting so much attention this week, Christi, which is because of Trump's new hires, particularly Steve Bannon, the chairman of Breitbart News, a far right website who has been talking about wanting to challenge FOX News over the years. Of course former FOX News chairman Roger Ailes is also by Trump's side, giving him advice. According to the "New York Times" Ailes was reviewing some of Trump's TV ads recently.

So he has the right people around him if Trump wanted to launch some sort of new media company, if he loses this race for the White House. For now it's mostly a thought experiment, but he's getting a lot of attention because so many people are curious about what Trump will do to harness all the energy he has, all the supporters he has, if he loses. Listen to what Glenn Beck said on CNN tonight the other night. Glenn Beck of course a FOX News host who then launched his own streaming service. Here's what he thinks Trump will do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, HOST, "THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM": I believe Donald Trump is going to lose. I believe he's going to start his own network. I believe it's going to be run by Bannon. I don't think Roger Ailes will be involved because of his non-compete. But Roger Stone will be involved. What's going to happen is Donald Trump is going to make this look like it was a stolen election. He will divide us even more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: He mentioned Roger Stone, by the way, a longtime Trump confidante who gives Trump informal advice and guidance. Think about the pitch for this network would be. This is all just theoretical, of course, but think about what the pitch could be. Trump has been saying all along the media is biased and out to get him and the system and rigged against him. So the pitch would be pretty clear. The media was biased against me, thus I need my own form of media. Listen to some of what he said on the trail criticizing the press in recent months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The establishment media doesn't cover what really matters in this country or what's really going on in people's lives.

The insiders include the media executives, anchors and journalists in Washington, Los Angeles, and New York City who are part of the same failed status quo and want nothing to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: So, Christi, that could potentially be the pitch after Election Day.

PAUL: All right, I mean, you can't start up a network. I don't know, that takes --

STELTER: That's the thing. That's right. It's incredibly difficult, especially in this environment to launch a new television network. Even if you're Donald Trump, you have to have hundreds of millions of dollars, the support of cable operators, and you have to have the support of advertisers. So maybe he'll go a different direction. Maybe he'll go the Netflix route and start a streaming service. But that too could be very difficult.

It's also interesting because we know Trump has an incredibly loyal fan base, a base of supporters that could be monetized in a variety of ways. Of course, this all assumes that he doesn't win on Election Day and we're still several months away from that.

PAUL: Yes, we are. Brian Stelter, thanks so much for looking into it. Appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, a growing Zika virus warning here in the U.S. Pregnant women told to avoid another section of Florida. We'll tell you where that is.

Plus, the disaster in Louisiana, a difficult road ahead for thousands of people, our Polo Sandoval is there.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, it's been almost seven days now, well over a week since those flood waters began to rise. And still people have to wait until they can walk into their home to see what's left. We'll take you out here live to Ascension Parish where recovery efforts are underway.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:28] PAUL: Two disasters are ravaging the country right now. The first, another massive wildfire in California. Nine buildings have been destroyed now in the so-called blue cut fire. He is some of the video we're getting in. This includes the landmark Summit Inn on Route 66. The fire sparked Tuesday in San Bernardino County in southern California there, spread to 37,000 acres by Friday. So far it's 40 just percent contained.

BLACKWELL: And more scattered storms and flash flooding expected to hit Louisiana after devastating floods put the Baton Rouge area underwater. You know they don't need another drop there. At least 13 people have died. About 40,000 homes have been damaged. And the Red Cross is telling CNN at least 7,000 people are in their shelters alone. Thousands more have no power.

Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence are being praised by some in the state for touring the damage. The two visited Baton Rouge, they were there yesterday. President Obama is planning to visit the area on Tuesday. This morning, the state's lieutenant governor told us that high profile visits like theirs give the state the attention it needs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LT. GOV. BILLY NUNGESSER, (R) LOUISIANA: To see a presidential candidate come down here, it lifts them up. It makes them see that he cares. And I think anytime a public official as our governor, as myself, anybody goes into those communities, they know they're not forgotten.

So it was a great boost to those communities. We applaud anybody to come down and bring attention to this catastrophe because it's going to take a lot of help from across the country in the way of donations and volunteers to get -- make Louisiana whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Our Polo Sandoval is live in Baton Rouge right in the middle of all the flood damage. As we heard there from Mr. Nungesser, Trump's visit was appreciated, the president' visit will be appreciated. But they need some real help, and it will take weeks, months or more for them to recover.

SANDOVAL: Possibly even years, Victor, especially when you look at the scenes here in southern Louisiana.

There are two phases to point out in this post flooding situation we're seeing here. There are those who are finally dry, able to go into their homes to start to clear it out of any potential debris and save what they can.

And then of course you see what we're looking at here in Ascension Parish, some homes that are still difficult to get to. Off in the distance you're able to see that brick home and kind of able to make out that water line. That's where the water peaked just below the windows on that home. Clearly the water is receding but is leaving behind widespread devastation in what I can only describe as a putrid smell. So clearly it's going to be extremely challenging for the people who call this place home.

[10:45:10] And we have heard from not just the people who call these places homes but also officials who have been here on the ground and even up in the air to try to get a better idea, and that includes General Joseph Lengyel. I had the opportunity to fly with him over the devastation to try to get a better idea of how many people were actually hit. And Victor, I want to play a portion of our conversation aboard that Black Hawk helicopter. This is a man who has seen plenty of devastation before working with the National Guard, but much of it doesn't compare to what he saw there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOSEPH LENGYEL: I think I'm struck by a couple things. One is how bad it was and how fast the waters got but the devastation is clearly there. The National Guard, their part in this and how they have been able to help the recovery is what I'm really proud of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Some new numbers that were released this morning, or at least yesterday by the local area Chamber of Commerce, estimating there's only about 110,000 homes in the affected area here in southern Louisiana, and only about 15 of them have flood insurance. That's because many people who lived here for years, for decades had never seen this kind of flooding. So they had no reason to suspect that this week their homes would be so severely damaged, guys.

BLACKWELL: And more rain coming potentially. Polo Sandoval for us there in Baton Rouge, thanks so much.

PAUL: And listen, there is a warning for pregnant women and their partners. Stay away from certain sections of Florida's Miami-Dade county. This is according to the director of the CDC. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden discussing how travelers need to be making informed decisions right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of the informed decision comes about as a result of conversations they're having. If a patient came to you or family member came to you, Dr. Frieden, and was pregnant and said thinking about going to Miami-Dade County, should I go? What do you tell them?

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: It really depends on why you're going. Anytime we travel anywhere we look at the risk, we look at the benefits, and we make a decision that's right for us. We're saying certainly for these two one mile areas, we really urge you not to go and for women living in those one mile areas, do everything possible to avoid mosquito bites.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: The CDC says if you have already travelled to that area and you're planning to get pregnant, you should wait at least eight weeks to try to do that.

So still to come, our Coy Wire talking to the American gold medal gymnast, Simone Biles. She's writing history, she's stealing hearts, and she's meeting Zak Efron.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Are you more nervous meeting him or going out there on that floor?

SIMONE BILES, OLYMPIAN: I was definitely more nervous meeting him. My hands were like shaking.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: We want you to meet an 86-year-old farmer in North Carolina who is anything but retired here. For 20 years, Harry Swimmer has introduced hundreds of children with disabilities to the healing power of horses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY SWIMMER, CNN HERO: Horses are very special animals. People just don't realize it.

What do you say now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Walk on.

SWIMMER: That's my girl.

We had a child on a horse who had a seizure and that horse stopped dead in his tracks. But nobody else notice. The horse caught it first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Isn't that something? Harry Swimmer is this week's CNN hero. You can watch his full story and more great videos at CNNHeroes.com. While you're there, nominate someone you think deserves to be 2016 CNN hero. We'd love to meet them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Usain Bolt sprints into history winning the triple-triple. What's a triple-triple? I'm going to tell you.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Gold medals in all three sprint events at three consecutive Olympic.

PAUL: He thought it sounded like a burger. I'm pretty sure he's going to make one up.

BLACKWELL: With bacon.

PAUL: Yes, with bacon. Coy Wire is live in Rio with all the highlights. Hi, Coy.

WIRE: Good morning, guys. Usain Bolt's record in Olympic finals, nine races, nine winds, undefeated. No one has ever done that before, capturing the unprecedented triple-triple last night. Bolt dropped the mike. He said, there you go, I'm the greatest. Jamaica was behind when bolt got the baton in the 4 x 100 relay. But then Bolt took off. The fastest human being the planet has ever seen running that final leg for his team. He says he wants to be named right there with legends like Pele and Muhammad Ali. And 325 seconds run in his Olympic career, that's one gold medal for every 36 seconds. Usain Bolt is legend.

Now, just named the closing ceremony flag bearer for team USA. I got to spend time with the high flying Simone Biles. All of her hopes and dreams came true right here in Rio. So I had to ask, what's next?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Four gold medals, you're going to compete in 30 plus cities after this. All kind of talk shows talking about gymnastics, but what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home completely unrelated to gymnastics?

BILES: We actually fly to New York directly from Rio after closing ceremonies. And us girls, we want pizza party and watch the team final, because we haven't been able to watch any of our teams yet.

WIRE: All of your hopes and dreams came true here in Rio.

BILES: Yes.

WIRE: You met Zac Efron.

(LAUGHTER)

WIRE: How did meeting him compare with how you always imagined it could be?

BILES: Oh, gosh. I thought I would like, die, if I met him. And then I got to meet him and I thought I was going to die. So it was the same exact feeling, except I didn't die. I just thought I was going to die. And the girls kept asking me Simone, are you OK? I was like, I think I'm OK. I think I'm OK. But it was amazing and it was awesome how genuine he was that he could fly way over here for us to see us compete.

[10:55:02] WIRE: Be honest, were you more nervous meeting him or going out on the floor and preparing?

BILES: I was definitely more nervous meeting him. My hands were like shaking. I didn't know what to say. I was like -- and then I was like, I promise I'm not weird.

WIRE: Has anyone given you advice about how intense it's going to be when you go to all the shows and talk about your accomplishments. And if so, what did they say?

BILES: Ally and Gabby guide us through all of that and tell us how crazy it is going to get and to make sure you keep your family and friends close because you'll go through a hard time because everyone is surrounding you and it's really hard when you're looking like -- you feel like you're in a snow globe. So yhey just said once you have each other you'll have everything.

WIRE: Do you think maybe 2020 Tokyo?

BILES: Yes, after we take a break and we get our mind off of gymnastics and we reward ourselves with vacations and stuff like that. Then we'll get into the gym and put more work in.

WIRE: We might be seeing you in four years?

BILES: Yes. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Good stuff from Simone.

What do we have to look forward today? Football is a religion here in Brazil, so they're going to look to avenge embarrassing World Cup loss to Germany two years ago. And Christi, Victor, the first gold medal in women's golf since the year 1900 will be awarded today.

BLACKWELL: All right, Coy Wire for us in Rio. Thanks so much.

PAUL: Earlier we told you about the devastating flooding in Louisiana that's forcing so many people out of their homes, families that are trapped in shelters. And I told you about nine-year-old Jill Vickers. She's a little girl who is not only dealing with the flooding there, she and her family are in Tennessee at St. Jude's right now and she is fighting cancer and just had her surgery on Monday, started her first round of six chemo rounds. And a lot of people -- this is why I just love our viewers so much, are trying to find out how to help her.

So I'm going to work on that. I'll tweet it out on my page, but you can always help so many of these other victims, just go to CNN.com/impact. And thank you so much for asking about that and for asking about her. It means a lot to her family. And we appreciate the fact you're here and watching.

BLACKWELL: Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Newsroom. Martin Savidge in today starts right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)