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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Harris Visits U.S.-Mexico Border For First Time As Dem Nominee; At Least 45 Storm-Related Deaths In 5 States; Millions Without Power; Massive Blasts In Beirut; Israel Says It Struck Hezbollah's HQ; Harris Speaks At Southern Border, Taking Trump Head On. Aired: 8-9p ET
Aired September 27, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Very quick final word, David.
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, again, I think this problem doesn't have to be where it is today. If the Biden-Harris administration would just left in place Donald Trump's policies. We wouldn't have the seven plus million folks in here, wouldn't have those horrible numbers that I just read that the ICE director sent to Congressman Gonzales, none of that would have happened if they were just left to go.
So, they are trying to fix a problem of their own making.
BURNETT: As you made the exact point that Republicans would make.
All right. Well, she is going to be speaking in just a couple of moments, but our time here on this Friday is finished. You will hear the live address in just a few moments with Anderson on AC360.
[20:00:42]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, Vice President Harris at the border. Her effort to get voters to believe what the numbers already show that progress is being made even as her opponent says otherwise in the polling rewards him.
Also tonight, with 45 killed and counting, what Hurricane Helene did as it roared into a north and with the rain it packs is still doing to parts of North Carolina and Tennessee.
And a new series of Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, just hours after a major airstrike targeted Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Good evening. A lot to get to tonight.
We are expecting to hear from Vice President Harris any moment. We'll bring that to you live.
The city of Asheville, North Carolina was already flooded from days of heavy rain when Hurricane Helene dumped even more of it overnight. Tonight, one person there described the situation is complete pandemonium, a citywide curfew is now in effect until 7:30 tomorrow morning. The same could be said in Irwin, Tennessee where dozens of people were pulled from the hospital rooftop driven there by rising waters or Cedar Key, north of St. Petersburg, where the storm picked entire houses off their foundations and blew them away, according to Michael Bobbitt who lives there and spoke to us is just as it was getting bad last night.
Cedar Key as we know it is completely gone, he now says. Michael Bobbitt joins us shortly as well.
We'll have much more on all aspects of the storm, especially in places where the danger is still real and staying safe is still the immediate concern.
Joining us right now as we wait for Vice President Harris, CNN political commentators Van Jones and Scott Jennings, also journalist Gretchen Carlson, co-founder founder of Lift Our Voices.
So Van, this is obviously, a big deal for Vice President Harris. There has been obviously a lot of focus on her position on the border. President Biden's position on the border, the deal that Donald Trump killed, the bipartisan deal that he helped kill on the border. What are you expecting to hear from Harris tonight?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, she's got something to say. She's going to a border that the Biden administration has secured.
It took a while and they took a lot of beating, but they got it done. And so, she can say we got it done. Donald Trump stood in the way.
And I think Republicans should be very happy now. I bet Scott Jennings is going to give her a lot of credit night because he wanted something done on the border. She got something done on the border. She wanted him to separate from Biden. She is separating from Biden. So, I expect Republicans to give her a lot of love today.
COOPER: Scott Jennings, are you going to give her a lot of love today?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I love Brother Van, as he knows, and I mean it, I love him like a brother, but no, there'll be no love for me or Republicans for Kamala Harris today.
In fact, I think the Trump campaign line today ought to be arsonist returns to scene of crime. I mean, look at the last three-and-a-half years, we've got the border is effectively been opened, people flowing across.
ICE today, released information that there are 13,000 noncitizens convicted of homicide and almost 16,000 noncitizens convicted of some kind of sexual crime who are in the country right now.
Only because we are in the shadow of an election is Kamala Harris trying to rush and pay some lip service to this issue as a tactical matter, Anderson.
I don't think Harris should be trying to elevate this issue because this is the best ground from which Donald Trump has to fight.
So no, I think the Harris campaign is making a tactical mistake and I think they have very little to say that the American people are going to buy on this today.
COOPER: Gretchen, it's interesting point that -- Gretchen, it's an interesting point that Scott made that this is a gamble for the Harris campaign.
Obviously, Donald Trump has a lead when it comes to the issue of immigration among likely voters. She's certainly hoping to chip away at that lead, but to Scott's point, her going to the border does raise questions about her role as she was the border czar as Republicans are trying to paint her, but is dealing with Central America during the Biden administration and what the Biden administration did or did not do over the last four years in the border.
GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF LIFT OUR VOICES: Yes, this is going to be her first trip in three years.
Look, I've been saying from the beginning that she needed to step aside from some of Biden's policies. But on this one, I think she has to stick right with it with his executive order when he issued no more asylum for people who are coming across the border and apparently tonight, she's going to be even tougher on that.
[20:05:02]
But as you state, this is a bit of a conundrum for her or a big conundrum because I think she absolutely had to go because Donald Trump is leading in the polls on immigration. But at the same time, it could bite her because voters are going to be reminded that she maybe hasn't paid as much attention to this issue as she should have.
So, she needs to talk about the fact that border crossings are down. She also needs to talk about the fact that Trump, Trump could have had a huge victory with this. He had a bipartisan bill sitting in front of him earlier this summer. And because that would have looked like a victory for the Democrats, he convinced the Republicans in Congress to not vote for this.
She needs to talk about that a lot. But look, voters have a choice between a tougher Kamala Harris now on immigration and a Trump who's always been tough, but who is actually going to deport legal immigrants, possibly.
COOPER: Van, what about that? I mean, Donald Trump has talked about mass deportations at the Republican National Convention. There are people -- a lot of people holding up printed signs saying you know, mass deportations. Do you think that is feasible? Do you think it's realistic?
JONES: I don't know, Donald Trump is just terrible. He says terrible stuff. He has terrible ideas but the reality is, he is -- if there's a border crisis now, it is Donald Trump's fault because it could have been fixed in a bipartisan way and Donald Trump threw banana peels on the sidewalk, marbles on the stairs, and made sure America couldn't respond and it was a Biden-Harris regime that stepped up for it and said we are going to get something done about it.
And now you have lower border crossings than you had under Donald Trump. And so, she should be happy. She should have her shoulders back, she got it done.
Donald Trump tried to trip America down the stairs to make sure we couldn't fix the problem. They got it done anyway and she should be proud of it.
Now, that's just the benefit of her saying that is, it's actually the truth. It's the truth, but it's not this crazy stuff from Donald Trump.
COOPER: But Van, at the end of the debate between them, Donald Trump sort of finally got around to align which was probably work-shopped ahead of time and he just neglected, to actually get to it until the end of debate, which was, you know, why didn't you do it? You know, what have you been doing over the last three years on the border essentially? That is the push back from Republicans.
JONES: That's a good point, listen, It took them too long. They didn't take it seriously enough. That is true. But then when they tried to get everybody together to fix it, Donald Trump wouldn't let them and they got it done anyway. All that's and she should just own it.
COOPER: Scott.
JENNINGS: Anderson, it gets worse than that. It's not that it took them too long. It's that they actively worked to undo everything Donald Trump had done during his time in office.
On the first day, they rescinded all of Donald Trump's border executive orders. The floodgates opened. All of these people come rushing across. Then it becomes a political problem. And now, at the end of the election, they want to blame it on Donald Trump.
For her entire career, she has wanted a more permissive immigration structure. When she ran for president before, she wanted to decriminalize border crossings in her heart -- in her heart of hearts, she wants a more liberal, permissive immigration structure. And in his heart of hearts, Donald Trump wants to crack down on the border.
That's why when you look at the CNN polling this week, Trump is far more trusted on immigration than Harris, that is not going to change because of this visit today or anything she says today, the die is cast on this issue.
If I were her, I'd want to bury this issue, not make it more prominent, but hey, if she wants to have border events, I think Republicans will rejoice because it'll increase the prominence of this issue for the last month of the campaign.
COOPER: Gretchen, do you think it is that cut and dry?
CARLSON: Let me jump in because -- no, I do not.
COOPER: Actually here's Vice President Harris, I'm sorry, Vice President Harris is coming out. know? Let's listen.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, good afternoon. Can we please applaud Teresa and her extraordinary courage. Please can we applaud.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you, thank you. Please have a seat everyone. Thank you. It's good to be in Arizona. It is good to be back in Arizona. Thank you all. Thank you so very much you.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(PEOPLE chanting "Kamala.")
HARRIS: Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.
I just wanted for a moment speak about Teresa, we had some time together backstage and you know, I think that in moments of crisis such as the fentanyl crisis, there are people who through their suffering and their pain rise with, courage in such a selfless way to be a voice for others with the anticipation and the hope and the hard work of hoping that their story will be the reason other people don't have that story.
[20:10:18]
HARRIS: And you, sharing your story about Jacob and your advocacy on why we have to stop this scourge is so incredibly important, and again, I applaud to Teresa, and I know we all do.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And our need to stop this issue is one of the reason that were all here together today.
I also want to thank the extraordinary elected officials who are here. Senator Mark Kelly came with me. He and his extraordinary wife, Gabby Giffords who traveled with me from Washington DC to be here, and Senator Kelly has been talking with me for quite some time about the importance of this visit.
And so, I thank you in front of all of our friends for your work. Thank you.
COOPER: We obviously lost that that feed. We'll try to get that back to you.
The panel, I think is still with us. Obviously, Gretchen, one of the things that this administration is trying -- the Harris campaign is trying to do is chip into the lead that former President Trump has on this issue.
Scott was saying he doesn't think that's possible. Do you think it is?
CARLSON: Yes. I mean, if you look at the polls about where Trump was against Biden on this, he was up 22 points on immigration. He's now up six to eight to ten depending on what poll you look at. So, she's already had a massive victory in doing that.
COOPER: Gretchen, sorry to -- let me go back to Vice President Harris.
CARLSON: And I see she's back --
HARRIS: I do want to say a few words about Hurricane Helene. I spoke this morning with our FEMA Administrator Criswell, and President Biden and I of course, will continue to monitor the situation closely.
We have mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support those communities that have been impacted.
We have food, water, and generators that are ready for deployment.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And are working to restore power for millions of people who currently are experiencing outages and I just want to stress for the press that is here, to those who are watching, the storm continues to be dangerous and deadly. And lives have been lost, and the risk of flooding still remains high.
So, I continue to urge everyone to please continue to follow guidance from your local officials until we get past this moment. So thank you all.
And now, I'll speak about, in particular the people who are here today and why we are gathered here together today.
So Arizona, I think you all know and this is why you are here. There are consequential issues at stake in this election and one is the security of our border.
The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them and I take that responsibility very seriously.
We are also a nation of immigrants. The United States has been enriched by generations of people who have come from every corner of the world to contribute to our country and to become part of the American story.
So we must reform our immigration system to ensure that it works in an orderly way. That it is humane, and that it makes our country stronger.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: So, I've just come from visiting the border in the Port of Entry in Douglas. I spoke with dedicated agents from Border Patrol and Customs officers who every day see the overflow of commercial traffic through the port.
These men and women who work there and at other places along our southern border help keep our nation secure. And they need more resources to do their jobs, which is why we have and are in the process of investing half a billion dollars to modernize and expand the Port of Entry here in Douglas.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And why last December, I helped raise the rate of overtime pay for Border agents and also why I strongly supported the Comprehensive Border Security Bill written last year, written last year as you know, by a bipartisan group of senators, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Congress.
[20:15:14]
That bill would have hired 1,500 more Border agents and officers. It would have paid for 100 inspection machines to detect fentanyl that is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. It would have allowed us to more quickly and effectively remove those who come here illegally and it would have increased the number of immigration judges and asylum officers.
It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union and it should be in effect today, producing results in real time right now for our country.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: But Donald Trump tanked it, he picked up the phone and called some friends in Congress and said stop the bill.
Because you see he prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. And the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games and their personal political future.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And so, even though Donald Trump tried to sabotage the Border Security Bill, it is my pledge to you that as president of the United States. I will bring it back up and proudly sign it into law.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And let me say, the issue of border security is not a new issue to me. I was attorney general of a border state for two terms.
I saw the violence and chaos that transnational criminal organizations cause, and the heartbreak and loss from the spread of their illicit drugs.
I walked through tunnels that traffickers used to smuggle contraband into the United States. I've seen tunnels with walls as smooth as the walls of your living room. Complete with lighting and air conditioning, making very clear that it is about an enterprise that is making a whole lot of money in the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings.
And my knowledge on how they work comes from the fact that I have prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings.
My team and I broke up a heroin trafficking ring in the Bay Area with ties to Mexican cartels. We took down a gang working with the Sinaloa cartel to traffic methamphetamine into the United States.
We seized millions of dollars worth of cocaine from the Guadalajara cartel, and broke up a drug trafficking operation, including pill mills and so-called recovery centers that were pushing opioids with deadly results.
As attorney general of California, it was 10 years ago that I brought a bipartisan group of American attorneys general and led that group to travel to Mexico City, to meet with Mexican attorneys general to address this issue. And in particular, to increase intelligence sharing on gang activity. All of which allowed us to prosecute more human traffickers.
And I started as attorney general, the first comprehensive report in the state of California analyzing transnational criminal organizations and the threats they pose to public safety and to the economy.
So, stopping transnational criminal organizations and strengthening our border is not new to me, and it is a longstanding priority of mine. I have done that work and I will continue to treat it as a priority when I am elected president of the United States.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And it is my pledge to you, understanding how solutions get formed that I will reach across the aisle and I will embrace common sense approaches and new technologies to get the job done.
[20:20:14]
Because I know transnational gangs coming across the border trafficking in guns, drugs, and human beings could care less who somebody voted for in the last election.
They could care less. They've got one goal in mind and it is there therefore critically important that anybody who calls themselves a leader would work with other leaders for common sense solutions, understanding the pain and the suffering that Americans are experiencing if we don't work together to fix these problems.
And look, transnational gangs, one of the things I know about them, they are always innovating. So to disrupt them, we must do the same and that means again, working together in real time, grounded on finding common sense approaches. Not just about some rhetoric at a rally, but actually doing the work of fixing a problem.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And as president, I won't only bring back the Border Security Bill that Donald Trump tanked, I will do more lets secure our border. To reduce illegal border crossings, I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry.
Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years. We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators. And if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum.
While we understand that many people are desperate to migrate to the United States, our system must be orderly and secure and that is my goal.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And that is my goal.
Securing our border also so means addressing the flow of fentanyl into our communities. Fentanyl is a scourge on our country. The nature of it as a drug is such that it is highly addictive and it is highly lethal so much so that using it, one time only can be fatal.
I have met far too many families parents, loved ones who have lost a family member, a child to fentanyl and their grief is heartbreaking and the devastation caused by fentanyl is being felt from rural communities to big cities.
It is impacting communities across our country regardless of where they are geographically, politically, or any of the demographic you choose to talk about. It's a scourge in our country and we have to take it seriously. And as president, I will make it a top priority to disrupt the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And I know everyone here understands that most of the fentanyl in America comes from two cartels based in Mexico.
Most often, they are smuggling it through vehicles at legal ports of entry like the one I visited today. The fact is Border officers don't have enough resources and are only able to search a fraction of the vehicles that pass through their checkpoints.
This is unacceptable. They need the resources to do their jobs and as we could have done with that Border Security Bill, I will surge support to law enforcement agencies on the front lines, more personnel, more training, and more technology, including 100 new inspection systems that can detect fentanyl hidden in vehicles.
And we will make sure that our Ports of Entry including airports and seaports have additional state of the art technology to detect fentanyl and the chemical tools used to make it.
[20:25:11]
I will also double the resources for the Department of Justice, to extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations and the cartels. Yes.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: I will ensure that we target the entire global fentanyl supply chain because we must materially and sustainably disrupt the flow of illicit fentanyl coming into our country.
My approach takes into account also that the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl are by-and-large, made in China and then shipped to Mexican cartels and trafficked right here into the United States.
Our administration demanded that China crack down on the companies that make those chemicals and it has started to happen. But they need to do more, and as president, I will hold them to their commitment to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals coming from China.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And all of this to say, we must tackle this issue from every angle because our highest charge must be to protect the lives of our people. It must be to understand the pain and to have the courage to know that solutions are at hand if we focus on fixing a problem instead of running on a problem.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And on this issue writ large, we must ensure that our country remains strong and competitive, which includes fixing our broken immigration system and let me be clear, I reject the false choice.
I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly, and humane. We can and we must do both.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: We must do both. And we need clear legal pathways for people seeking to come into our country. And we must make our current system work better.
For example, it can take years for asylum claims to be decided, well, this is a problem we can solve including by hiring more asylum officers and expanding processing centers in people's home countries.
And as president, I will work with Congress to create, at long last, a pathway to citizenship for hardworking immigrants who have been here for years.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) HARRIS: For years, and deserve to have a system that works.
I also have in mind our DREAMers.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: I have met with so many of our DREAMers throughout my career, they who have grown up in the United States, were educated here, pay taxes here, serve in our military, and contribute to our communities every day. They are American in every way.
But still they do not have an earned pathway to citizenship and this problem has gone unsolved at this point now for decades.
The same goes for farm workers who ensure that we have food on our tables and who sustain our agricultural industry and they too have been in legal limbo for years because politicians have refused to come together to fix our broken immigration system.
Well, as president, I will put politics aside to fix our immigration system and find solutions -- solutions -- to problems which have persisted for far too long.
For far too long we have all known this is not working as it can and as it should.
And so, as I said at the beginning, these issues are highly consequential for a nation. And the contrast in this election is clear. It is a choice between common sense solutions and the same old political games.
[20:30:23]
In the four years that Donald Trump was president, he did nothing to fix our broken immigration system. He did not solve the shortage of immigration judges. He did not solve the shortage of border agents. He did not create lawful pathways into our nation. He did nothing to address an outdated asylum system. And did not work with other governments in our hemisphere to deal with what clearly is also a regional challenge.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: As overdoses went up during his presidency, he fought to slash funding for the fight against fentanyl.
And what did he do instead? Well, let's talk about that. He separated families. He ripped toddlers out of their mothers' arms, put children in cages, and tried to end protections for dreamers. He made the challenges at the border worse. And he is still -- he is still fanning the flames of fear and division.
And let me be clear, that is not the work of a leader. That is not the work of a leader. And that is, in fact, I think we all believe, an abdication of leadership.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And so on behalf of all across our nation who want to see these problems solved, I say we cannot accept Donald Trump's failure to lead. We should not permit scapegoating instead of solutions. And let's see what's happening. Let's not permit scapegoating instead of solutions or rhetoric instead of results.
As your president, I will protect our nation's sovereignty, secure our border, and work to fix our broken system of immigration. And I will partner with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to do it.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: Arizona, it is time for us to turn the page on the ugly hurdles that have characterized our politics. And it is time to move forward together to achieve real solutions that make our country stronger. And I know we can get this done. I know we have the will. I know we have the courage. I know the solutions are at hand. And I know we are ready.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And so with all of that, I say thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Douglas, Arizona after visiting the border, taking a gamble, say some, going to the border, focusing attention on her record on the border, on the Biden administrations record on the border, but clearly believing it was worth it to try to
distance herself somewhat from what President Biden has done, charting her own course moving forward in what would be a Harris administration if she's elected.
Van, what do you make of what she just said?
JONES: Bravo. I mean, bravo. I thought that was an extraordinary speech for a couple reasons.
First of all, that's the Kamala Harris that I know. She was -- when she talks about prosecuting folks and putting folks in jail for heroin, that's what she was known for here in California. And you can have confidence that she will take that forward.
She also acknowledged the asylum system being gamed and ripped off and messed up by people who want to come up here and break the rules. She's going to do something about that. But what I like about it is you can be tough on the border without being terrible to people.
[20:35:02]
You can be tough on the border without scapegoating people. You can be tough on the border without lying about people eating cats and dogs. So if you want mature leadership, proven bipartisan leadership, proven prosecutorial leadership on this issue, Kamala Harris just gave you somebody to vote for.
COOPER: Gretchen, what she is saying is only -- the only asylum claims will be heard at legal border crossings, nothing in between, which is a shift from what we've seen over the last several years.
CARLSON: Yeah, as I said at the top, she's going to be tougher than Biden in an effort to separate herself. But let me be blunt about this speech, Anderson. This was for independents and undecideds. That's what this speech was about, including somebody like me as an independent. She used buzzwords and phrases like, I'm going to reach across the aisle. These are common sense approaches.
I'm putting politics aside. I'm going to find solutions. These are things that people who want to bridge the gap of our hyperpolitical environment want to hear.
So we're in the weeds in this kind of stuff. You and I and Van and Scott, we study this stuff on a daily basis every day. But for the average voter out there, if they're only hearing this speech tonight and they're undecided, they're thinking to themselves, wow, you know, she wants solutions on this.
And I would know something about this, having passed two bipartisan bills on the Hill in the last two years. Lots of people want to come together. So this speech was for independents. And I think it was successful in that right.
COOPER: Scott, no surprise, she blasted former President Trump for -- for killing this bipartisan border deal that, as she pointed out, you know, was dropped in part by Lankford, a very conservative Republican. What did you make of her, what she says she wants to do on the border?
JENNINGS: Well, first of all, I think you have to understand these speeches are not taken in a vacuum independent of everything else you know. And everything else voters know, independents or otherwise, about the Biden-Harris administration is that they don't like what they've done on immigration.
And everything else we know about Harris prior to this moment is that she has favored a more permissive immigration structure. She wanted to decriminalize border crossing. She once compared ICE agents to the KKK. She tried to scapegoat border guards by claiming they were whipping people on horseback at the border, which turned out to be false.
And so when you hear a speech like this and then you take it into account with everything else you know about Harris and everything you know what Biden and Harris did together, you might be saying to yourself, is this just another politician who's coming along and telling me something I want to hear in the shadow of an election? How can I trust that they'll actually follow through on it after they get elected?
So if you're an immigration focused voter and you think it's broken, who do you actually believe will be tougher, Trump or Harris? Most people would tell you definitely Trump. And I don't think this speech, despite trying to separate herself from Biden, is going to change that. I don't think 100 speeches would change it.
COOPER: Then do you think it gets her? I mean, to Gretchen's point about independence, undecided voters. Do you think it gives permission for some of those voters to say, oh, you know what, I have some confidence in her on this.
JONES: Yeah, I think -- I think so. And for a couple of reasons, Scott's exactly right. And Gretchen's right. People aren't following this every day. When you get closer to the election, people start listening. And what she's saying actually does make sense.
This system has been broken for a very long time. Trump did not fix it. Everybody keeps bragging on Donald Trump. He didn't fix it. And then things were kind of good during the pandemic. The border was closed. Pandemic's over. People come rushing up here. The Biden-Harris administration did not respond early enough, appropriately enough. But then they did. And now they have.
So you don't have to wonder. I wonder if Kamala Harris is going to do something about the border. She literally just did. We have lower border crossings right now than we had under Donald Trump.
And so this question of, you know, can you trust her, et cetera. She was -- she was tough when she was here as our attorney general in California. She's tough in this speech. And the Biden administration right now is tough on the border. But they're not scapegoating people. They're not being nasty to people. They aren't making up nonsense. They aren't -- they aren't coming up with racist lies about people eating dogs and cats. You can be tough on the border without being terrible to people. And that's Kamala Harris.
COOPER: All right. Van Jones, Gretchen Carlson, Scott Jennings, thank you very much.
We're going to return to our storm coverage after the break and hear from Michael Bobbitt, who saw the island he lives on, he says, devastated.
Also, with Israeli airstrikes and continuing what they say are Hezbollah targets in Beirut, we'll get a live report from the region.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:51]
COOPER: The death toll from Hurricane Helene has been climbing all evening, even as the immediate danger continues. Places like Asheville, North Carolina. Take a look at the city's River Arts District. That's either a rooftop or an entire house, it's hard to say, floating downstream.
As we reported at the top, Asheville is now under a curfew. In a moment, we'll speak with the top fire official there, but first CNN's Carlos Suarez with more of the totality of the damage done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've lost everything in this building.
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A common refrain along much of Florida's West Coast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, there's nothing, just some sticks.
MAJOR LIZ ALPERT, SARASOTA, FLORIDA: This is the worst probably we've seen in our area in 100 years. I know I've been in Sarasota for 22 years and I've never seen anything like this.
SUAREZ: Heavy rain bringing historic flooding, forcing water rescues.
MATTHEW HELLER, TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Holy cow, that storm surge, the whole lower level of my home was filled with water. I ended up hopping on to one of my little kayaks to float around in my living room.
[20:45:02]
This has been just a heck of a storm surge. It's wiped out all my neighbors. I see just the destruction going all down the road.
SUAREZ: Boats thrown about, power lines down, homes and businesses destroyed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of it's outside, some of it's in here. This is by far the worst I've ever had.
SUAREZ: And even amidst the flooding, massive fires, rescuers pass a burning home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody in your house?
SUAREZ: Using their resources instead to search for survivors.
RANDY VON ALLMEN, GULFPORT, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Boy, it's devastating. I've never seen something like this. I've known people that lived here 20 years that said they've never seen anything like it.
SUAREZ: After slashing Florida, Helene pushed north, battering Georgia and the Carolinas, also leaving life-threatening flooding.
In Atlanta, communities left underwater as Helene held its strength as a hurricane until halfway through the state of Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the worst I've ever seen. I've seen the creek high, like right up to the bottom of the bridge, but nothing like this.
SUAREZ: But it wasn't finished yet. Helene's massive size spread the rain and misery into North Carolina, where a relentless deluge caused historic flooding in Asheville just one day after a one-in-1,000-year rainfall saturated the region.
GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): This is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina.
SUAREZ: And Helene continues to move, now into Tennessee, bringing rising water and dangerous flooding.
In Erwin, Tennessee, more than 50 people were stranded on the roof of a hospital surrounded by raging floods. Helicopters were sent to save them.
MICHAEL BAKER, ERWIN, TENNESSEE ALDERMAN: They're currently taking patients and staff off of the roof of the hospital and then transporting them back into the city of Erwin. This is a serious situation. I would dare to say this is a life-and-death situation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Carlos Suarez joins us now from Gulfport, Florida. So what are you hearing from people about the frequency and size of these storms and what kind of help they're getting right now from authorities?
SUAREZ: Well, Anderson, the folks out here really are resigned to the threat of a hurricane. This is my third storm in as many years that has threatened Pinellas County, and it's never been a direct hit, and yet this time around, the damage was more significant. Just about everyone that we talked to out here readily admits that these hurricanes are growing in number, they're larger in size, and they're just as more powerful as the one that came before it.
And yet all of them tell us that they plan on staying put, they plan on rebuilding and moving forward with their lives. As for what happens next out here and the help that these folks are getting, the National Guard is already on the ground. They got here earlier today. They're the ones that are organizing the safety and recovery effort moving forward. They're the ones that have to figure out how they're going to remove the nearly half a dozen sailboats that crashed ashore yesterday, including the one right behind me.
Anderson?
COOPER: Carlos Suarez, thanks very much. We intended to speak with the Asheville Assistant Fire Chief, Jeremy Knighton, right now, but he's been called away for an emergency response briefing.
Let's go to Keaton Beach, Florida. Earlier today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis toured the area and said that the vast majority of homes were destroyed, all because of massive storm surge. CNN's Ivan Rodriguez is there tonight. What are you seeing?
IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, just 24 hours ago, communities like this one along Florida's Big Bend were getting hit by Hurricane Helene, feeling those impacts, and now we're here standing in this field of debris.
To my left used to be a gas station, and to my right here behind, a market. Now you can see parts of shelving, a cash register, microwave, refrigerator, and really just destruction here all across this area of Keaton Beach.
I want to show you a bird's eye view to get a better sense of where we are. This actually also used to be a neighborhood. And Anderson, I spoke with one person who lives here in this area, and they told me that there's one home still standing.
The couple who lived there was able to evacuate early, but the rest of the homes that were surrounding the home still standing there are now gone. And it's hard to even picture exactly where those homes used to stand because it's just now a field of debris. And on top of all this devastation, a lot of Florida's Big Bend is still dealing with power outages.
Here where we are in Taylor County, 99% of the county is still here without power. To my left is a highway to get in here to Keaton Beach, Florida. It's been heavily trafficked all day long. Power lines were moved off to the side so that first responders and crews could get in.
I spoke with the deputy as well a couple hours ago, and he mentioned to me that before the storm, residents here were actually given permits to then be able to return a little bit easier. And the people who I've spoken with so far, Anderson, many of them, as you can imagine, heartbroken, seeing images like these telling us that they really have nothing left. Everything that they have is now gone. And this is just one picture of that widespread devastation we're seeing here in Keaton Beach.
[20:50:23]
COOPER: And are -- I mean, are there rescue teams out there working overnight? Is there a need for that? What's happening at this hour?
RODRIGUEZ: At this hour, a lot of crews were beginning to see leaving, like this vehicle you see behind me here. During the early afternoon hours, we did see a lot of search and rescue crews going in, as well as different first responders from across the state of Florida. National Guard also had a presence here flying helicopters over Keaton Beach.
For right now, though, it's so dark, it's pitch black anywhere you really travel. Conditions are pretty dangerous. A lot of that traffic, as I mentioned, now moving outward. The recovery, as you can imagine, will resume again tomorrow.
COOPER: All right. Ivan Rodriguez, thanks very much.
I want to go back to Florida and someone we met last night, Michael Bobbitt, who lives in hard-hit Cedar Key. He told us he stayed behind to help as many elderly neighbors who refused to leave.
Michael, I'm glad, first of all, you're OK. Tell us what you have been seeing there. How have the last 24 hours been?
MICHAEL BOBBITT, RODE OUT STORM IN CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA: Thank you for having me, Anderson. As bad as we thought the storm was when we fought it during the night, these images that you're seeing here, when we woke up to the morning, it was so much worse than we could have ever imagined. Just our little island is largely just gone.
There are no commercial buildings of any note left. The vast majority of our homes were completely inundated with water. Streets where we know houses should be, there would just be missing houses.
Sometimes like this image that you're seeing here, this house was supposed to be in another part of town. And then we would see just blank spaces where buildings used to be. The power of the storm was just, I mean, magnificent and terrible. I've never seen anything like it. We're just totally gob smacked with the level of destruction here on the island.
We're situated three miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. So we're totally exposed. And so we're really at the whims of the Gulf here. And when the water started to rise, they closed in on all sides. And they don't just trickle in like a gentle creek. They're a raging torrent. And with the force of a locomotive, it's just the most powerful, humbling, terrifying force I've ever seen.
COOPER: Yeah, and these images that you took, they're just, the nighttime winter, it's just terrifying. You know, you were staying behind in part. Your house is, I think, on a little bit higher ground. You have boats. You had people who, you know, you were wanting to check on others who weren't leaving, staying behind to help them if they needed it. Have you been able to check in with your neighbors? Is everyone doing OK?
BOBBITT: We were. And in fact, we were able to get two elderly residents out of their low-lying house in the middle of the storm before the floodwaters got their home. And I brought them to my house. And they spent the night in my front bedroom.
Until just a few hours ago, we had two folks missing here on the island. But thankfully, they've been accounted for. So it looks like we've had no loss of life. We've had a few injuries. But you can see from these images, our post office is gone. Our hardware store is gone. The bank is gone. Our market, our little -- the lifeblood of the town, our little mom-and-pop supermarket just doesn't exist anymore.
This recovery is going to be measured in years and years, not months.
COOPER: So right now, I mean, are there authorities on the ground, recovery services on the ground? What's -- you know, what's happening there right now?
BOBBITT: Sure. So the governor just left. We have the National Guard here. We have the Army here. The folks that wisely evacuated have not been allowed back on the island yet. We need another full day to get the island secured. We're going to welcome them back on tomorrow.
So I've spent the day taking photos of 75 different homes, people who weren't allowed back on the island, but just terrified about how their home might be. And of those 75 homes, 60 of the photos and the messages and calls I made were to deliver the worst news, those people had ever heard in their lives, that their home was just totally destroyed. There were very few happy stories today. Our island is just totally devastated.
COOPER: Wow. Well, I mean, I'm glad you're there and helping out with people and getting people worried about their homes. But, I mean, 60 out of some 70, I mean, that's just awful.
Michael Bobbin, I really appreciate talking to you tonight. Thank you.
[20:55:02]
BOBBITT: Godspeed, Cedar Key. Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah, you took care.
There's more breaking news this busy night. This is a live video from Beirut. More explosions there as you see some extensive fires burning as well. We await confirmation whether the leader of Hezbollah was killed in a massive strike earlier today. An Israeli official confirmed to CNN that Hassan Nasrallah was, in fact, the intended target. You see the explosion there, multiple.
Jeremy Diamond joins us from Tel Aviv along with retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and Ben Wedeman in Beirut.
Ben, what have you seen in Beirut and what can you tell us about this intended target of Hassan Nasrallah?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we understand from Israeli sources that that was the target, but we don't know anything from Hezbollah. I've tried to contact them throughout the evening, but they do not respond to phone calls or messages.
But what happened was that that strike was massive, apparently using 2,000-pound bombs, bunker busters provided by the United States. And as far as we know at this point, according to the Ministry of Health, six people killed, 91 injured, but it was six buildings flattened in that strike, and we assume that the death toll will rise as they can recover bodies from underneath.
But what we've seen, Anderson, in the last three and a half hours is well over a dozen strikes. What you can see in that other pictures we're putting out from here are some of the fires left from those strikes.
Now, what's interesting is that the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military has been putting out tweets with specific locations, warning people to leave that specific building and get away as much as 500 meters. But we noticed, for instance, one of those warnings came out at the top of this hour, and 12 minutes later, there were airstrikes on an area, Bourj el-Barajneh, which is a Palestinian refugee camp in a wider area, which is one of the most densely populated parts of Beirut, home to Palestinian refugees, Syrian migrant workers, and workers from South Asia and Africa, probably the most deprived people in this country who don't have the means to evacuate even if they wanted to.
But what we've seen is that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people, have streamed out of the southern suburbs of Beirut, basically camping out on the sidewalks in other parts of town, desperate to get away from this series of Israeli airstrikes that has rocked Beirut for the last three and a half hours.
Anderson?
COOPER: Jeremy, what do you know about why Israel ultimately decided to launch the strike?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, over the course of the last week and a half, the Israeli government and the military have been steadily escalating this conflict, and they've been doing so very intentionally. Effectively, the Israeli government made a decision that they believe it is now necessary to go and strike Hezbollah even harder in order to try and get Hezbollah to stop firing rockets into northern Israel. And tonight certainly marked the most significant escalation that we have seen over the course of the last week and a half.
And it appears to have been born out of a target of opportunity. We saw the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, approving that strike while he was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly. The Israeli military then came out, talked about hitting this central headquarters of Hezbollah underground.
I then confirmed with an Israeli source that Hassan Nasrallah was indeed the target. But so far, we don't know that this strategy of de- escalation through escalation, as Israeli officials have called it, is showing any signs of working.
So far, Hezbollah has shown that it is also willing to escalate on its side as well, firing deeper into Israel over the course of the last week. Anderson.
COOPER: General Hertling, in terms of Nasrallah as a target, why is he so important?
LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, (Ret.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Anderson. And of course, you know, if you're seeing pictures of Prime Minister Netanyahu approving a strike, what the military would call a time-sensitive targeting, it means that they have very good intelligence on a direct location of where Nasrallah is.
Over the last week, after the beeper walkie-talkie chaos that occurred within Hezbollah, I think we've seen a lot of turmoil in that terrorist organization. They've been attempting to find other ways to communicate. And when they do that, they give up positions of some of their key targets. And what we've seen over the last couple of days is multiple leaders of the Hezbollah organizations, from area commanders to missile strike commanders to rocket commanders to the chief of Hezbollah, becoming targets because they are in a bit of turmoil. Communication opens up the targeting and the intelligence collection by the Israeli Defense Forces, and that's what's happening.
[21:00:11] I'd add to the point that on October 8th, the day after the October 7th attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah started firing rockets. There had been over 3,000 rockets fired into northern Israel. And I think what Israel has been attempting to do is find intelligence to strike the leaders of Hezbollah during that entire period of time. That's what I would do as a commander, and I think that's what the Israeli Defense Forces is doing as well.
COOPER: General, General Hertling, Ben Wedeman, Jeremy Diamond, thank you.
That's it for us. The news continues. "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
