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Protesters Storm LVMH Luxury HQ in Paris; Extreme Rainfall in Ft. Lauderdale; Abortion Pill Legislation; Dominion v. FOX News; Some Dems Pressure Senator Feinstein to Resign; Person behind Pentagon Leaks Worked on Military Base. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 13, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening right now, flash bangs and more clashes between protesters and police in France. This as a final decision on French president Macron's changes to the pension system is expected tomorrow. We're live in Paris with the latest.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This morning President Biden is suggesting that the government is close to identifying the person behind the leak of classified Pentagon documents. What we're learning about the leaker. That's ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A flash flood emergency in south Florida, two feet of rain in some places. Rescues underway as we speak.

These stories and more on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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BOLDUAN: Unfolding this hour, massive protests continue in France. We've seen these intense confrontations already during our show. It continues right now. This is ahead of this final decision that's expected on whether or not French president Emmanuel Macron's pension plan can go through.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen on the streets for us in Paris amid the protests.

How's it looking now, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's looking a little bit more calm than last time we talked. But I can you can I can show you here. You can see that there is still a big standoff going on right now between the cops and the protesters. You can see the cops sort of walking away from the protesters right now.

But still very much there on the defensive. You can see some of them there with their riot shields, stopping every once in a while, obviously trying to prevent all this from going out of control, as it did before.

If we look into the distance, you can see a little bit, there's a bit of a fire that's going on, on the side. They are stopping everybody here again now. So extremely tense atmosphere continues here as the people are voicing their anger.

And the last time that we were on the air, we did see those pretty heavy clashes at times going on between the police and some of the protesters, with people hurling rocks and the police answering with tear gas and, in some cases, with batons as well.

We've seen the cops come in and detain a few people since then. The march for now, however, is moving once again. And you know, just to state to our viewers, there is a lot of anger that is being displayed here on the streets. You can see this garbage can here is on fire.

There is a lot of anger here that is being displayed by the people on the streets. And it is toward that pension reform, Kate, that you were talking about. But they are also generally very angry at French president Emmanuel Macron because of the way that he pushed all of this through.

He used executive powers, he essentially bypassed a real vote in the legislative process. And so a lot of people voicing that anger as, I would say that we've seen tens of thousands on the streets here in Paris and no doubt throughout France.

There will be a lot more people on the street as well as you can see the cops really tense. They're shuffling back and forth between some of these groups of protesters as we can see here in downtown Paris.

He's got that bus stop over there that's been ransacked and destroyed. You have another garbage can that's on fire here just to give you an idea of what's been going on here on the streets of the French capital. Certainly has been some pretty notable violence going on, at least at the fringes of this protest for a lot of the time that we've been here, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and as Fred has shown us in real time and live on air there, things are largely peaceful but we've seen flare up very quickly and suddenly, as he found himself in the middle of it just last hour. Fred Pleitgen, thank you, Fred.

We're going to continue. Fred's going to keep us updated on this throughout the hour -- John.

BERMAN: All right, at this moment, a flash flood emergency is unfolding in south Florida. You can see runways at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale still underwater after a rain event that is being described by officials as a one in 1000 year phenomenon.

Look at that. Earlier this morning, several people who were trapped by the high rising water near this school were rescued by boat. We're told several roads in Ft. Lauderdale, where an act of emergency declaration is underway, are impassable at this moment. Rain totals top 20 inches in some places. [11:05:00]

BERMAN: Two feet in some places. We actually have one more video that our next guest sent us. It is of a crew with the Broward Sheriff and Rescue that was filmed while they were helping get people from homes in Broward County.

Battalion chief Michael Kane, with the Broward Sheriff, Fire Rescue and Emergency Services Department joins us now.

Chief, thank you so much for being with us. We're looking at this video of you pulling people from the window. Walk us through what we're seeing here.

BATTALION CHIEF MICHAEL KANE, BROWARD SHERIFF, FIRE RESCUE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES DEPARTMENT: Yes, good morning and glad to be with you. So we've been inundated with a lot of rain over the last couple of days.

And it really ramped up last night, going into the later hours of the evening. I think two feet of rain is an is an underestimate. We've had areas and pockets of our communities, with a surplus of 4 to 5 feet, roads that are simply impassable with any type of vehicle.

And we were forced to use boats to make and perform some rescues. And that's the video that you're seeing there. We have some very low lying areas, very prone to flooding. And when you get rain for several days on end without stopping, the water table rises.

It's very high. The water has nowhere to go. And it starts intruding into people's homes. And that's what you're seeing. So our crews have been out since yesterday. They're still out right now, in fact, still performing rescues, with boats, with other apparatus, with high water vehicles.

And they're going to continue to do so until everybody is rescued (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Chief Kane, we just got word that the Ft. Lauderdale airport is going to now remain closed until 5:00 am tomorrow. That's pretty extraordinary. We saw pictures of the runway. They're just covered in water. That airport will be closed until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

At this point, Chief Kane, you talked to me about the water rescues.

How many people?

Do you have a sense of how many people are stranded out there and need to be rescued?

KANE: How many people that are stranded and need to be rescued?

I don't have accurate numbers. What I can tell you, however is, within the 36 hour period that I spoke about, that we were running these water rescues, we ran hundreds, hundreds of water rescues in Broward County for people.

Now the majority of these people that were trapped and required rescue were actually in their vehicles. They misnavigated, misjudged the water height and water levels and became stranded in their vehicles.

So a good vast majority was simply just removing people from their vehicles. However, we did have some people that were trapped in their homes, water that was rising, people that were in need of medical rescue in homes where there was flooding.

And you know, those are the people that we're really concerned about. We're concerned about everybody. But when your home and your water is rising and you have nowhere to go and you can't seek higher ground, that's a very stressful situation.

And we focus a lot of our attention on those folks. And that's the video that you saw and that's the reason why we used our boats to be able to perform those rescues.

BERMAN: Chief Kane, thank you for being with us. Thank you for the work that you've done over the last 36 hours. I'm sure this has been a busy time for you and really like nothing you've seen before, not quite like this. Stay safe.

SIDNER: A new federal appeals court ruling added to the pile of rulings in the fight over abortion access in this country. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals effectively keeping the abortion drug mifepristone on the market but keeping in place restrictions ordered by a Texas judge.

The White House has said it will continue to fight to allow access. Still, this latest ruling further complicates abortion access nationwide, even in states where the procedure is legal.

Criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson is joining us now.

I want to ask you first about this. This ruling does a couple of different things.

Can you give it to me straight on what it means for someone who might be a patient?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure. Now even before that -- good to be with you -- I think we have to consider it in context. This is where the law meets politics. The 5th Circuit is historically a very conservative circuit.

What does that mean?

It means their interpretations of various decisions -- this certainly very controversial, abortion -- we need to know is colored by that. We also need to know that Trump appointed, I believe, six of the 17 justices there.

Normally in a legal conversation, it would be absent that, right, and we could just talk about the nature of the statute, the nature of the ruling. But I think it's important to provide context when we're talking about the 5th Circuit -- Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas -- that it's very conservative. So we have to look at it in that way.

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JACKSON: With respect to actually what's happening here we know that another conservative judge in Texas, you know, really imposed mass restrictions on this particular drug that has been out since 2000.

That's 23 years. And we should also note that that's as a result of the FDA approval, the Federal Drug Administration. That is the entity that really examines whether or not something should be brought to market.

In making that assessment, they found, the FDA did, that it was perfectly fine and proper. Now we have a district court judge, the lower court judge has said not so fast and said, we're not doing that.

Of course it was appealed and that's where we are now in the 5th Circuit, that says can't mail the drug, right?

Cannot do so. But as of now the drug will remain, you know, certainly available. And I would suspect that it will not end here. There will be more litigation up to and including the Supreme Court.

SIDNER: That was going to be my next question as I think everybody watching this, anybody with a legal mind and any anyone in this country can see that this should definitely probably end up in the Supreme Court.

I do want to ask you, though. These kinds of fights are happening because of the decision the Supreme Court made on Roe versus Wade.

Can we expect that going forward we are going to see all manner of litigation when it comes to abortion access pills. The pills, by the way, mifepristone and one other drug, are the two drugs combined that are used.

They account for, in a new study, more than 50 percent of abortions and with miscarriages as well.

So we're just going to keep seeing this fight, aren't we?

JACKSON: You know, Sara, I really think so.

And why do I say that?

I mentioned the 5th Circuit, right, that the circuit court or the appellate courts. You have the district level and federal court. If you don't get your relief, there you go to the circuit. There are 13 of those within the country.

It's important to talk about this from a nationwide perspective because we're the United States of America. We have 50 states. And what we want is uniformity. And you don't get that uniformity, right, everyone wants, you need

consistency in life. You need to know what the rules are, what the benchmarks are, what's happening next. And so I think, when you have this level of uncertainty as a result of this 5th Circuit Court, you need the Supreme Court to interpret that.

It doesn't mean their interpretation is going to get any better. It's very conservative, right. Six justices conservative, three not. But let's look for what they do moving forward.

SIDNER: Joey Jackson, it is going to be a constant thing and I'm sure we're going to have you on talking about it quite a bit. Thank you so much.

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SIDNER: Appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: So longtime senator Dianne Feinstein asking to be temporarily removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee. This as she faces pressure from some in her own party to step down.

Plus new fallout from the classified Pentagon leak. President Biden said his administration is getting close to answering who is behind it. The new details on that person from his friend.

And a medical scare for actor Jamie Foxx. What his daughter says about his condition right now.

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SIDNER: On our radar this morning, jury selection is underway in Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against FOX News. The trial is still moving ahead, even though the judge plans to appoint a special master to investigate whether the network lied to him.

He also slapped sanctions on FOX for withholding evidence. Opening statements are expected on Monday.

Federal prosecutors say they are not pursuing charges in the death of an American woman who was found dead in Mexico last year. The family of Shanquella Robinson says they are deeply disappointed but not deterred after investigators weren't able to find enough evidence for prosecution.

Her death made headlines in October after video surfaced that appeared to show a physical altercation between Robinson and another person. The death certificate classified her death as accidental or violent.

And finally here in New York City, the statewide search for a first ever rat czar. I said that right.

Well, it's finally over. Mayor Eric Adams named Kathleen Corradi as the city's Director of Rodent Mitigation, tackling one of his top priorities. The new czar will coordinate agencies to help find and exterminate the city's problematic pests -- John.

BERMAN: So there's that.

This morning, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein is asking to be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee as she recovers from shingles. But the 89 year old is now facing calls to resign from Congress after missing dozens of Senate votes this year. CNN's Lauren Fox is following all of this for us.

Lauren, my bet is it's not so simple as Senator Feinstein saying replace me temporarily on the Judiciary Committee, is it?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, there really isn't a playbook for this, John. This is not something that happens every day on Capitol Hill. But like you noted, senator Dianne Feinstein, facing calls from House Democrats to resign.

Here's Ro Khanna on why he thinks that's what the senator should do.

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REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): It has become painfully obvious to many of us in California that she is no longer able to fulfill her duties. As someone from California, I felt an obligation to say what so many colleagues are saying in private, that the time has come for her to gracefully step down and have a dignified end to a very distinguished political career.

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FOX: And the question of course, how is this all going to unfold on Capitol Hill?

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FOX: What is going to be required is that Senator Chuck Schumer will bring a resolution forward to try and replace Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The reason for that is because that committee is going to be unable to continue confirming party line judges because of how narrowly divided it is.

Once he brings that forward, it's a huge question mark.

Do Republicans go along with that or do they try to block this?

Normally, members get their committee assignments at the beginning of a new Congress and it's not really controversial. They usually do it by unanimous consent. Americans back home probably don't even know the vote is happening.

But this is a different situation because of all that is at stake in the lower courts. Just think about what we have been talking about all day, when it comes to that abortion case -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, this will be a fight, not about Dianne Feinstein but really about judges over the next few days. Lauren Fox, great reporting. Thank you so much for explaining it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There's a lot going on and coming in this hour with regard to that massive and extraordinary leak of Pentagon documents. CNN has new reporting this hour that the FBI has narrowed down the potential pool of suspects who could be behind the leak of classified Pentagon documents.

Also new today, sources say the Pentagon is now limiting access to top military secrets because of and after these leaks. And "The Washington Post" is reporting an extraordinary conversation they had with someone who claims to be a friend of the leaker.

That friend saying that he was a young, charismatic man, who worked at a military base. Joining us right now, back with us, is former general counsel for the NSA, Glenn Gerstell.

Glenn, thank you so much for coming back in. Yesterday, when we spoke to you, your take on this leak was that it was a little amateurish and a little odd.

And then what we're learning now from "The Washington Post" and this inner in this conversation they had with his friend, who calls him a young gun enthusiast, who is sharing this information with people that are in a chat group with him online, what do you think of this leak now?

GLENN GERSTELL, FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL, NSA: Well, it certainly seems to fit the pattern. You know, after the Snowden leak, this kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen again.

And the government tried to figure out what kind of person is likely to do this sort of criminal act. And it turns out it's a disaffected -- psychological studies show it's a disaffected, disgruntled person, who thinks they know better than everyone else. They're smarter than everyone else, in their view.

And that's why the laws and the rules don't apply to them. And if "The Washington Post" story is true, we don't know that for a fact but if it is indeed true, this certainly seems to fit that pattern.

We've talked about how this didn't look like a professional spy or something else. This seems to be -- to fit that pattern of a disgruntled person. And I might add that's probably exactly what is going to lead, I suspect, to his or her arrest, because that feeling that I'm above it all, the rules don't apply to me, is exactly what leads someone to leave all sorts of telltale clues and evidence, which is exactly what this person did. so I wouldn't be surprised if -- I don't know but I wouldn't be at all

surprised if we were talking about an arrest in a fairly short order, you know, a couple of days. Who knows?

BOLDUAN: Especially given all of the information that seems to be out there, especially with "The Washington Post" reporting and new reporting coming in to CNN about just who this person is, that you think the FBI would have even more than that.

This man's friend -- again, if this reporting bears out -- says that he worked at a military base.

How big of a deal is that, Glenn?

GERSTELL: Well, if indeed it is true that it's a military base, then there's certainly going to be a lot of military officials who have to be called for account.

It sounds like this kind of, if the story is true, it sounds like this person took documents out over a period of months, on multiple occasions; had access to all sorts of information, not merely military briefings but briefing from the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

So there'll be questions about why did such a young person have, who obviously wasn't a four-star general at that -- at that age, why did such a young person have access to so much information?

And why was he able to take these documents out, print them out and get outside of the military base on multiple occasions?

Lots of important questions we need to answer.

BOLDUAN: And one thing, well, there are more questions and it sounds like many more answers are about to be coming in soon or seems like they could.

You have said it then one thing you think is important here is that this whole episode reveals some real weaknesses in the system. But my question still remains.

What can and needs to be changed to fix the classified system?

GERSTELL: Well, for the past couple of years, there's been a lot of talk about the need to fix the classified system. This -- the talk got even more serious at the time of the disclosures of documents being taken by president Trump and Biden and Pence, vice president Pence, after their time in office.

Most of that is focused on the overclassification, the fact that we have too many classified documents. That's absolutely true. But we also need to be focusing on the other end, which is the dissemination.

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GERSTELL: And how many people have access to too much information and what kind of access controls prevent people from printing out something and walking out the door with it.

And there's technology that can help us with that. Unfortunately, we haven't invested in that technology.

BOLDUAN: Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel for the NSA, it's great to have you back and thank you so much, Glenn.

GERSTELL: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: All right -- Sara.

SIDNER: Fans are now worried about actor Jamie Foxx after his daughter said he suffered a medical complication. We will have the latest on that story.

Also new economic data just in, with officials warning the real fallout from the banking crisis could be -- I'm going to say the R word -- a mild recession. That's coming up ahead.