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Pilot Dies in Mid-flight; Six Injured in Vermont Amtrak Derailment; Nine People Reported Dead in S.C. Flooding; Curfew Underway Tonight in South Carolina; Cargo Ship Sank; Search Underway for Survivors; Search Teams Find Damaged, Empty Lifeboats; Clinton Hits Back on Benghazi; Hospital Airstrike Sparks Outrage; Clinton and Benghazi; Race for House Speaker. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London and 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Wherever you are watching around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with a tragedy on board a commercial airline here in the United States. An American Airlines red-eye flight that was scheduled to land in Boston early this morning made a harrowing stop in Syracuse instead because one of the pilots died. The plane took off from Phoenix just after midnight and diverted safely just after 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

Our Aviation and Government Regulation Correspondent Rene Marsh is with us here. What are you learning about this? Pretty disturbing.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: It is very disturbing and it is sad, American Airlines dealing with this. We know that there were 140 passengers on board when this all happened. Luckily, you know, you often hear about two people in the cockpit and this is a perfect example of why that is so critical.

We know that this captain who was at the controls on American Airlines Flight 550, he suffered from some illness and, unfortunately, passed away as a result of the illness. So, the co-pilot had to take over. Thank goodness, Wolf, they were able to land tis airbus 320 safely when they diverted to Syracuse. And now, they have a replacement crew to get the folks from Syracuse to their final destination, their intended destination of Phoenix.

BLITZER: Everybody's OK though.

MARSH: Yes.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. All right, you make a good point, that's why it's always good to have two pilots instead of one.

There's a train derailment that occurred in Vermont today. What happened?

MARSH: That's happening right now. We know investigators are on the scene. We are traveling to the scene. This is train 55. It derailed in the area of Roxbury, Vermont. We know that there were some 98 people on board. We don't know how many cars jumped the track, but you're looking at video there, pictures there of trains -- cars that actually did leave the tracks. We know this train was going from St. Albans, Vermont to Washington, D.C.

What Amtrak is telling me at this hour is that this derailment happened after the passenger train struck a rock slide. That the rocks came onto the tracks and that is what caused the derailment. That's the initial assessment. But we know four people have been taken to the hospital with injuries. Amtrak, at least at this hour, saying they don't know of any life threatening injuries but it's still very early. So, as they make their way there, we'll be keeping track of the development and investigation is underway, at this point, too.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly should be. All right, Rene, thanks very much.

Let's get to the historic flooding in South Carolina where the death toll continues to rise. The governor says there are now nine people, nine people, reported dead in weather-related incidents. The damage, so far, is massive. Homes are flooded or destroyed, cars have submerged in floodwaters, 550 roads and bridges are closed throughout the state. Forty thousand people are without water, 26,000 are without power, and the Department of Natural Resources has made over 150 water rescues. While the rain has dissipated a bit, the governor says the worst is not over with yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: As our biggest focus right now is safety. So, if you're in your house, continue to stay in your house. Continue to remind your kids to not get out and play in this water. What we want you to remember is if you're under a boiled water advisory, follow it. And remember that this is not the time to take pictures. We've got enough media out there that you can look at to see the pictures and see the views of what's happening in South Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This is clearly a dire and desperate situation, presenting a monumental challenge for emergency officials. The Columbia mayor, Steven Benjamin, is joining us now. Mr. Mayor, I know this is an extremely awful situation. Thanks so much for joining us. What's the primary mission right now?

STEPHEN BENJAMIN, MAYOR, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: Our primary mission remains working every single day, working together to (INAUDIBLE) had incredibly (INAUDIBLE) officials working with states officials. The governor has been leading on this issue. We've had incredible support from our federal officials. Today alone, I've talked to Congressman Jim Clyburn, U.S. Senator Tim Scott and Senator Lindsey Graham. I got a call from Congressman Joe Wilson as well. Everyone is working together to make sure we use federal, state and local resources that preserve human life. The devastation is significant. It's real. This is a 1,000-year event. We're going to have to work every single day to get out of the weeds. Once the waters subside, we're still going to have to, of course, deal with the incredible damage. So, our number one goal remains working together to try and rescue people from treacherous situations.

And, regrettably, some people are -- haven't been happy about the fact that we've had a curfew but that's going to be all right. We had a curfew last night from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. to keep people who were not essential workers off the street.

[13:05:11] And it looks we're going to have another curfew tonight from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., again, to clear the streets, keep people out of danger, protect people from their own curiosities so that our first responders can do their job. Their job is to make sure people are safe and sound, work to restore our water system, and work, of course, to keep people away from dangerous situations.

BLITZER: What is -- what's your priority need right -- do you have enough resources to get the job done?

BENJAMIN: Sure. I'm confident that we have significant resources. The governor has reached out to other governors from around the southeast and they have sent resources. Our National Guard is engaged closely with Major General Claudia who runs Fort Jackson, the Army's largest training base right here in town.

It's amazing, the amount of support we've gotten from just individuals and also large philanthropic organizations, large companies like Pepsi and Wal-Mart and Cisco, all making sure that we have resources to take care of people who need shelter, who need foot, who need water. There's a lot of good things going on.

But, again, our number one -- our number one need, really, is the cooperation of all people who live, work and play in the city. If you don't have to be on the streets of our city, we need you off the streets. As soon as the sun goes down, I believe the forecast says it's 7:03, we expect the streets to be clear of anyone who does not have to be on the streets.

BLITZER: Mayor, what about the hospitals, the medical attention, how are they doing?

BENJAMIN: Sure. They're doing well. We've been working very closely with the hospitals. We have three large hospitals in downtown Columbia. I was on the phone with one of the hospital president well after midnight last night. And I just got off the phone with another hospital assistant president about 15 minutes ago. We've been working very closely with them. Two of the hospitals right downtown require at least 100,000 gallons a day simply for their chillers to make sure that the electrical equipment can continue working.

Our fire department, we worked closely with them last night and provided them with all the water that they need. We're going to continue day by day. Water pressure and water service has been restored to several parts of the city already so things are going better.

But we're still making sure we take this one hour at a time, making sure that whatever way we can deal with this, it has to be in a sustainable manner. So, we remain engaged with the hospitals very closely to make sure we're meeting their needs as well.

BLITZER: Stephen Benjamin's the mayor of Columbia. Mr. Mayor, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck.

BENJAMIN: Thank you so much. Pray for South Carolina. We appreciate you.

BLITZER: We certainly will. Thank you.

The U.S. Coast Guard, meanwhile, says they believe a missing cargo ship has sunk and they'll now focus on the search for survivors. The El Faro went missing off the coast of Florida Thursday during Hurricane Joaquin. That was the last time the ship made contact.

During the search over the weekend, the Coast Guard found a survival suit with unidentifiable human remains and debris. But there was no sign of a ship. The vessel was carrying a crew of 28 Americans and five Polish nationals. I'm joined on the phone now by the U.S. Coast Guard captain, Mark Fedor, who is in Miami. Captain, thanks very much for joining us. What's the status on trying to find survivors?

MARK FEDOR, CAPTAIN, U.S. COAST GUARD (via telephone): So, as you said, sir, we have shifted the search from looking for the vessel itself to survivors. And we're actively doing that right now. We have three Coast Guard cutters on the scene. There are also three commercial tugs, ocean-going tugs, that were hired by the shipping company.

And we have a whole slate of aircraft that are going to be flying today, including Coast Guard, C-130 aircraft, and Air Force C-130 aircraft, and the Navy P.E. aircraft. And what we've done is we've adjusted their search patterns. Instead of covering a huge area looking for a 791-foot ship, we are now zeroing in, flying lower and trying to look for survivors, any lifeboats or life rafts or any signs of a ship at all.

BLITZER: So far, you've only found one body, one deceased person in a survival suit, is that right?

FEDOR: That's correct. And that happened yesterday and when it happened, there were several simultaneous reportings of other survival suits in the water, other life rafts. So, we needed to make a quick on-scene decision to see if there was anyone alive in that one survival suit.

Once we determined that that person was deceased, we quickly moved onto the other reports. Because if we didn't check them out quickly, if we didn't go over and analyze what we were looking at, things on the ocean move quickly and it will drift away or it could even sink. And we wanted to make sure we followed every possibility for a survivor out there. And that was why we moved so quickly. [13:10:00] BLITZER: And have you identified that person yet, the one

deceased person you found?

FEDOR: We have not. It was -- it was really unidentifiable, unrecognizable.

BLITZER: This was a category, what, three or four or maybe even five hurricane in that area. This is a big cargo ship, though. How unusual is it for a hurricane of this enormity to bring down, in effect, a cargo ship of this, you know, width and breadth?

FEDOR: Right. The -- it was a category four storm at the time. It really -- the main problem was the vessel became disabled Thursday morning, meaning it had no means of propulsion. So, it was totally vulnerable to the storm. And what happens, even a large ship, it's going to fall in the trough, as it's called, where the seas and the winds hit it from the side. So, if you are disabled and you're drifting, these heavy winds, 140-mile-an-hour winds up to 50-foot seas are just battering the ship from the side. We also know that the ship had some previous water intrusion and it had a 14-degree list, meaning it was kind of leaning over. Again, a very difficult situation which just exacerbated the danger they were facing at that time.

BLITZER: Captain Mark Fedor with the United States Coast Guard. I know these daylight hours are critical in the search for survivors. Good luck to you. We're hoping and praying for the best. Thanks very much.

FEDOR: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: Coming up, Hillary Clinton making some of her most passionate comments yet on the Benghazi investigation. We'll take a closer look at what sparked her response.

Plus, outrages growing over an air strike that hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan. We're going live to Cabo.

[13:11:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:47] BLITZER: A fired up Hillary Clinton slams the committee investigating the Benghazi terrorist attack. Hillary Clinton blasted the House Select Committee probe as nothing but a partisan exercise, her direct words. Here's what else she said during a "Today" show town hall meeting in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at the situation they chose to exploit, to go after me for political reasons. The death of four Americans in Benghazi. I knew the ambassador. I identified him. I asked him to go there. I asked the president to nominate him. There have been seven investigations, led mostly by the Republicans in the Congress, and they were non-partisan and they reached conclusions that, first of all, I and nobody did anything wrong, but there were changes we could make. This committee was set up, as they have admitted, for the purpose of making a partisan, political issue out of the deaths of four Americans. I would have never done that. and if I were president and there were Republicans or Democrats who were thinking about that, I would have done everything to shut it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is out there on the campaign trail covering Hillary Clinton. Brianna's joining us now from Manchester, New Hampshire.

Brianna, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, he's the House majority leader, he set off a firestorm last week when he talked about the Benghazi committee, that it has damaged Hillary Clinton's poll numbers. I take it that is what really has so fired her up, this acknowledgement, in effect, that there was a political impact in going - in trying to set up this select committee.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no doubt about it, Wolf. She sees an opportunity here and the campaign sees an opportunity and they feel that what Kevin McCarthy said really plays into what they have been saying all along, that the Benghazi Select Committee is a partisan effort. So when McCarthy said that everybody that Clinton was unbeatable, and then he said "we," meaning Republicans, put together this Benghazi Select Committee, and now look at her numbers, they've been dropping. Really attributing the efforts of the committee to both the drop in her overall numbers it appears and also the trustworthiness numbers when it comes to Hillary Clinton, because she has seen her numbers certainly drop, although a lot of people would say that it's because of the e-mail controversy. But this is something that going into this hearing where she will testify October 22nd, Wolf, that she and her campaign are really seeing a lot of opportunity from what McCarthy said.

BLITZER: Brianna, even a lot of Republicans think that what Kevin McCarthy said is a gift, a political gift, if you will, to Hillary Clinton in advance of that October 22nd special hearing on Benghazi. How's this likely to play out?

KEILAR: You know, it's really had to tell exactly. We'll have to wait for the hearing. But we've seen her testify before Congress before. And you'll recall, Wolf, that it was the moment that she said, what difference at this point does it make when she was answering a question about how the attack in Benghazi happened, if it was a terrorist incident or if it was because of protests. We had learned, of course, that it was the former. But we saw that really fiery moment that Republicans felt really livened up their base. Certainly that's the hope for Republicans. But now I think for Clinton, I think that she is going into this and the expectation is no matter what happens, that she's going to say, look, this is a partisan witch hunt and you have the majority leader saying as much.

BLITZER: Yes, she really was fired up today in responding to that question about Kevin McCarthy's comments.

All right, Briana, thank you very much. And to our viewers, you can get your first chance to see the

Democratic presidential candidates all on one stage at the CNN/FaceBook Democratic Presidential Debate. That's next Tuesday, a week from tomorrow, October 13th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern in Las Vegas.

Just ahead, the race for speaker of the House heating up. Congressman Jason Chaffetz, he jumps into the fray. You're going to hear why he thinks he should get the job instead of the frontrunner, the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:23:57] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: The breaking news we're following, the Coast Guard has just released some new video showing a lifeboat. There you see it. A lifeboat found in the water believed to be from the El Faro cargo ship that went missing off the coast of Florida on Thursday during Hurricane Joaquin. The U.S. Coast Guard says they believe the missing cargo ship has sunk. They will now focus on the search for survivors. They did recover one body so far, but the search for survivors continues. These next few hours during daylight are critically important.

Other news we're following, politics here in Washington. The Republican so-called family feud over who will become the next speaker of the House of Representatives is getting more complicated. Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah says he's now in the running. Chaffetz says the frontrunner, the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, doesn't have enough support to get the job done. Our senior political reporter, Manu Raju, talked with Representative Chaffetz just a little while ago up on Capitol Hill about his long-shot campaign.

[13:25:03] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: What is wrong with the existing leadership team?

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: There is a - there needs to be a - a fresh start. I think there are internal processes. I think the communications war is not going well. We just seem to cede that at every level. And we haven't' been taking the fight to the Democrats and the president. And that's - that's in part what we got elected to do.

RAJU: Let's talk about the speaker's race now. You've been saying for the last couple of days that Kevin McCarthy has a majority of support within the conference right now.

CHAFFETZ: Sure.

RAJU: So, Thursday there's a key vote to determine who the Republicans are going to nominate for speaker. So it appears that Kevin McCarthy will get that. If he does have the majority support within the conference, at that point, what will you do? Are you going to actively support Kevin McCarthy and push him over that 218 level on the floor? CHAFFETZ: I'm going to make my best case in five short days to my

colleagues in the hope that I am victorious on Thursday. If I'm not, whoever the nominee is, I'll support the nominee. But it still doesn't change the math question because I think there are too many of our members who will not vote for a member of our existing leadership team to simply get a promotion now that Speaker Boehner has stepped down.

RAJU: You've been saying you want to take the fight to the Senate. Of course the Senate is run by Republicans. The Republicans have a 54/46 majority. Senator Mitch McConnell runs the place. He has been saying all along, there will be no government debt default. We're headed up to a key deadline, November 5th, to raise the debt ceiling. Is Senator McConnell right in saying that there will be no debt default?

CHAFFETZ: I'm running for the speaker of the House of Representatives, and we're going to have to figure out where to hold the line. But I have no interest in just simply raising the debt ceiling without changing the trajectory of spending. It's - it's a -- a time when we should be reflecting on, what are we going to do, so that we don't have to keep changing the debt ceiling and raising it. The debt under President Obama has gone from $9 trillion to almost $20 trillion. We can't keep doing that. We pay more than 600 million a day in interest on our national debt. It's silly for the president to say he's not even going to have this discussion. What - his only solution is to go to the Chinese and borrow more money? Really, that's the solution? That's -

RAJU: Shouldn't Senator McConnell be saying there will be no default?

CHAFFETZ: I think - I think the Senate majority leader is wrong. I disagree with them. Now, I've got to take care of the House Republicans. We're going to figure out where we're going to hold the line, but we need to change the trajectory and not just gravitate the lowest common denominator. I think it's wrong to signal that you're going to cave at the end. That - that's not what I'm interested in doing. And you're not going to see me doing that.

RAJU: And he said the same thing about shutdowns, no shutdown. Do you think he's wrong about that too?

CHAFFETZ: The shutdown decision is the presidents. Our role and responsibility is to put the bill on the president's desk, then he has to decide if he wants to shut down the government.

RAJU: So you obviously think McConnell's wrong about the shutdown?

CHAFFETZ: I do. I think one of our - our challenges is, we are not working together to put a bill on the president's desk. The president really has had to veto next to nothing. And I think if we had good bills, broad bills on both sides, from the House and the Senate, let's get those to the president's desk. That's what we were elected to do.

RAJU: Is Senator McConnell a good leader for your party?

CHAFFETZ: I have the greatest respect for Senator McConnell. I forward to working with him. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A diplomatic answer there. Manu is with us right now.

This race for the speaker, second in line to the presidency, obviously critically important. How ugly and disruptive could it get?

RAJU: Pretty ugly, Wolf. I mean the end of the month is really the key vote. Thursday, the Republicans are going to nominate who they should put up for the speakership to succeed John Boehner, but end of the month comes a time where the next Republican candidate for speaker cannot lose more than 29 votes on the House floor. And what we heard Chaffetz say yesterday and today is that he believes that Kevin McCarthy, the leading contender, cannot get - will automatically lose 50 votes on the floor. So then it throws the situation into a state of flux.

Now, when I talked to Jason Chaffetz today, I really tried to push him on what he will do come Thursday when the Republicans choose their nominee for that speaker's vote. He seemed to suggest that he would - he would back off and he would get behind Kevin McCarthy and he would actively support him to get over that critical threshold come the end of the month. The question though is, what will some of those conservative members do who are very skeptical about Kevin McCarthy? Will they back him or will they try to find another candidate?

BLITZER: It could be ugly indeed. What happened because last Wednesday he was here, Jason Chaffetz, I interviewed him on CNN and he was not happy about Kevin McCarthy's comments about the Benghazi Select Committee, that it was created, at least in part, to try to hurt Hillary Clinton's approval numbers and all of that - the political spin on that. But he did say he would support Kevin McCarthy when I spoke with him on Wednesday and then all of a sudden yesterday he announced he's going to challenge him for the speakership.

[13:30:04] RAJU: It was really remarkable because I - I talked to him on Thursday and he said I'm very supportive of Kevin McCarthy. And then Friday morning he had a meeting with McCarthy in New York. They were at a fundraiser.