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SpaceX Tries Again for Launch; Tornado Kills Two in Oklahoma; Renato Mariotti is Interviewed about the Abortion Battle; Frank Goodman is Interviewed about Shootings in Alabama; SpaceX Launch on Hold. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:21]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ready to launch. SpaceX will soon attempt to send the largest and most powerful rocket ever built to space. CNN is live at the launchpad ahead of this historic flight and second try.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Delayed decision. A key abortion medication will remain available through midnight on Friday after the Supreme Court pushed their self-imposed deadline due to conflicting rulings from federal judges in two states.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: we are tracking a major threat. More than 50 million people from Texas to Wisconsin bracing for severe weather after deadly tornado slammed parts of Oklahoma overnight. Officials fear the death toll could rise.

These stories and more coming here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

COLLINS: If all goes well, we are just minutes away from the historic launch of the SpaceX Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. This is a critical test flight with a longer term goal of one day taking people back to the moon, and maybe even Mars. The launch window opens this hour 9:28 a.m. Eastern to be exact. Then it gives SpaceX a 62-minute window to get that massive rocket off the launch pad.

This test was originally planned for Monday, you'll remember, but that launch was called off almost as soon as the window opened because of a pressurization issue. But now the Starship team says it's a go. The rocket will take off from the coast of Boca Chica, Texas, and then it's going to fly partly around the world, to ultimately splashed down in the waters of Hawaii.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is back in Texas for us, joining us now.

Ed, how's it looking there this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, the weather looked much better on Monday, but Elon Musk tweeted just moments ago that everything is on track to launch. We're about 25 minutes or so away from the scheduled launch. But the weather continues to be a factor. We're told by a SpaceX official that the weather conditions are mostly favorable. We've had a lot of cloud cover here this morning. In fact, just within

the last 20 to 30 minutes we've really started being able to get a clear glimpse of the rocket there on the launch pad. So, we are, as you mentioned, that window opens up about 8:30 Central Time, 9:30 Eastern. And so far everything is on track.

But, remember, everything was on track on Monday about this time. And it was about six minutes or so before the scheduled launch that the launch was scrubbed because of a pressurization valves that had frozen somewhere in that rocket system. We haven't got much clearer indication of what exactly happened there over the last few days, but we are told SpaceX officials have been working on cleaning that up.

But they've already put in the fuel. The propellant is inside the rocket system. They did that I think within the last hour. And that is about 10 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen inside that rocket system. And, remember, you know, as we've said over and over again, this is one of the most powerful -- the most powerful rocket ever built, 33 engines in that heavy booster, that lower part of that rocket system, which is about 230 feet long. The entire rocket is about 400.

And, Kate, when this launches, it will take off and kind of go out toward the east, toward the - in the Gulf of Mexico. About three minutes into the launch, the booster will separate from the rocketing and continue traveling eastern. It will not make a complete orbit around the earth. It will come up short. It will splash down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii. And the entire mission should take about an hour and a half. But that is best case scenario. So, we'll see if this continues to play out. But so far, Kate, this morning, everything seems to be on track once again. And we'll see if that holds for the next 30 minutes or so.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. A very exciting next 30 minutes.

Ed Lavandera, on the ground for us right near the launch pad.

And, Sara, we just had the countdown clock. Oh, there it is right behind you. There - oh that one's for Monday. But they were like 25 minutes out from that window to open.

SIDNER: OK, I want you to stick around because I need you to geek out with me a little bit.

All right, here's what makes the Starship rocket system so impressive. It's massive, standing at 394 feet when fully assembled. Look at that. That's more than 70 feet taller than NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket system and nearly 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.

It's also incredibly powerful. You just heard Ed Lavandera say 33 engines will lift Starship off its launching pad in south Texas and generate 16 million pounds of thrust. The rocket that took NASA astronauts to the moon had only 7.6 million pounds of thrust.

[09:05:00] Now, Starship can carry 150 metric tons of crew and cargo into space. That's close to 331,000 pounds. And it's not only huge, it's also designed to be fully reusable, which means that when it returns to earth, both the rocket and the spaceship have to land in one piece.

Here's a look at an animation of what that would look like. For Elon Musk, Starship is the start of his dream to put humans on Mars. But Starship could do way more than that. It could change the way we travel here on earth. SpaceX claims that Starship could get you anywhere in the world -- look at that -- in an hour or less. Wouldn't that be nice, John, Paris in 30 minutes?

BERMAN: Paris in 30 minutes would certainly be nice.

We're about like 22 minutes away -- I was just looking at the clock -- from launch.

With us now, CNN aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien.

Miles, my favorite thing about launches is I get to talk to you. What's your favorite? No, what's the most exciting part of this mission? What's the most exciting part of this mission to you, Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Talking to you, Mr. Berman, of course.

BERMAN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: It's talking to you, clearly.

No, it's -- there's such excitement when you consider the amount of power that comes out of a rocket like this. This is twice as strong as the Saturn Five. I wish I could be there near the Texas coast just to feel it. I remember sometimes when the shuttle used to launch, if the conditions were just right, John, the fish would jump out of the pond in front of the press site. So, that gives you an idea of how it kind of rattles the fillings out of your teeth.

BERMAN: You know, Elon Musk has been trying to, I think, lower expectations with this, saying things like, success isn't the main goal today, or it's not expected, or we'll be lucky if the launch pad doesn't explode. What's going on here? Is that actually fair or is he just trying to - to make us excited about this?

O'BRIEN: Well, if you look at the history of this program, there have been a lot of mishaps or tests that went awry along the way. The SpaceX philosophy is to test frequently, rapidly, learn from the mistakes and move forward. This is a test that we are all paying a lot of attention to and so he's trying to prepare us for that idea that things could go awry.

We're talking about 33 separate engines in the first stage. Making all of those fire in perfect synchronicity and just as they should, it's an awful lot of plumbing that has to go just perfectly for this to work, John. So, he is setting us up for the reality that when it comes to space, it's a cliche, but space is hard. BERMAN: How important is this for NASA in what are supposed to be the

next steps in space exploration?

O'BRIEN: We won't get human beings onto the surface of the moon without Starship. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to use the top portion of that rocket, the black portion, which is the Starship portion of this stack. It's actually two vehicles. A super heavy lift at the bottom and Starship at the top. But a modified version of that will carry NASA astronauts from a NASA craft, from the space launch system Orion capsule, to the surface of the moon. So, this is crucial.

It's interesting, you know, Elon Musk started developing this -- he called it the BFR for big -- well, let's just say freaking rocket back in 2005 before he had a single successful launch. And he developed this out of his own pocket while he pursued the Falcon 1 all the way through to the Falcon 9. And along the way NASA started paying attention to this starship program and ultimately became a customer. So, it's interesting how SpaceX is now intertwined with NASA.

BERMAN: It is what will take humans to the moon hopefully in the next few years.

You're looking at NASA pictures here of the launch site. People lined up to see it. They will feel it, I think, as they see it, as you describe.

Miles O'Brien, don't go far because when this thing launches, if it launches, we're going to want more from you shortly.

Thank you so much, Miles.

Sara.

SIDNER: Always so cool to see you guys chat. And I love him. And I love the idea of being able to sit there and watch this wonder. It's a wonder.

BERMAN: Going to the moon almost as cool as speaking to Miles O'Brien.

SIDNER: Not quite.

All right, back here on earth, at least two people are dead in Oklahoma after multiple tornadoes touched down in that state. Both deaths were reported in the small town of Cole, that's south of Oklahoma City. The Tornado caused widespread and significant damage. Officials are searching for debris for survivors and fear the number of people killed could rise. One local storm chaser was right in the middle of this intense storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the winds flowing into the tornado. Oh, big power flash. It's hitting Cole right now.

[09:10:00] Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, this is incredible. Kyle (ph), we're going to back up a little bit more. We're fine where we're at. The tornado is getting stronger. Right back over here to the left. It's moving extremely slowly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. More than 14 tornadoes were reported across three states, eight in Oklahoma, four others in Iowa and three more in Kansas.

Let me give you a look at the aerial video that shows heavy damage to a neighborhood in Oklahoma City. Buildings there completely flattened. Here you can see severe damage to a Lowe's right there in the city. The roof partially collapsing into the store and debris littering the parking lot.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining us now.

Derek, these tornadoes just seem to keep coming and coming and coming. Can you give us a sense of what the threat is now?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, yesterday's tornadoes, for instance, had such erratic behavior that it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly where a tornado is going to spawn out of these very erratic moving tornadoes.

Now, today's threat is a completely different ballgame, even though it's the same storm system. We're starting to see that threat of severe weather extend further north. We've noticed from the Storm Prediction Center, they've included central portions of Illinois. So, as we start to see the daytime heating from the sun, we get to destabilize the atmosphere, we'll see the increase for severe weather.

A small chance of tornadoes for these locations, including central Texas, but the greater threat here really damaging winds and very large hail. Just to summarize what Sarah mentioned, 15 tornado reports in the past 24 hours and hail over three inches falling from the sky. That's the size of a baseball.

Here's the latest radar. Zooming in and I want to show you some of the stronger storms that were warned a few hours ago that rolled through Kansas City with gusts over 60 mph. Again, this is associated with the same storm system that brought the tornadoes to Oklahoma City yesterday evening. So, we know they have the capability of producing tornadoes. Now we need the ignition. And that, of course, is the sunshine when we start to destabilize and make that atmosphere a little bit more volatile.

Here's the probability of tornadoes today. That shading of green where you see just outside of the Chicago suburbs. Anywhere around a point -- 25 miles around a point, we have a 2 percent probability of experiencing a tornado today.

Sara.

SIDNER: Wow. Thank you so much, Derek. That was telling. Very scary. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Today, the abortion pill Mifepristone is still widely available, but it is not clear at this hour how much longer that it will be. The Supreme Court pushed off their self-imposed deadline yesterday, meaning that the justices now have a bit more time, until actually 11:59 p.m. tomorrow night to consider the challenge against the medication, and also consider what to do about the lower court rulings that have thrown the future and fate of this abortion medication into real limbo.

Here's what the justices are looking at right now. Most immediately it's a decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And that court handed down a ruling last week that did not fully side with the ruling that kicked off this legal chaos. The judge in Texas, who moved to block FDA approval of the drug. And Mifepristone, remember, has been FDA approved for 23 years.

But the Fifth Circuit did agree to reimpose some restrictions on the pill, like preventing women from getting the drug after seven weeks of pregnancy, also now stopping access to the drug by mail and requiring in person doctor's visits before getting the medication.

No matter the outcome of what the high court decides, the justices certainly know how high the stakes are. Abortion pills account for more than half of the abortions in the United States today. And as we wait to hear from the justices, joining us right now is former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

It's great to have you here, Renato. Thank you.

I wanted to get just your thoughts on what you think of the delay first from the justices. What do you think it could mean?

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I think it means that there's going to be some opinions that are going to be written in this case. And it really, I think, can go one of two ways. Either there are some justices that are considering actually letting that Fifth Circuit ruling going - go in place. We're going to have some -- maybe the more liberal justices write descents from that, explaining the stakes.

And I think it could go the other way, where the majority of the court is willing to stay that ruling in the pendency (ph) of the Supreme Court case, and the conservative justices are going to write a ruling. I definitely think there's going to be some contention and disagreement amongst this as well.

BOLDUAN: I was wondering if you thought that it, at its very most basic, suggests that there is disagreement, which you could assume there would be amongst this -- amongst the justices.

MARIOTTI: Yes, I think that's safe to say.

BOLDUAN: Do you -- I just laid out kind of the complicated and - the complicated road that got us where we are in this moment, the -- kind of the complicated nature of the appeals court and what they have put in place and what they're now considering. What do you think the options are for the justices in terms of how they come down on this and what it means for millions of people across the country?

MARIOTTI: So, I think on one end of the spectrum,

[09:15:00]

I think that they could decide that the doctors that brought this case originally don't have standing. Standing is essentially whether or not you actually, or somebody's injured sufficiently enough to be able to bring a lawsuit. And I think there's a real question about whether these doctors have been injured at all. After all, you know, I'm a lawyer. If more people are arrested, I actually have more potential clients. And for these doctors, they're claiming that more people have been injured, or may be injured by this drug. I don't think that that claim is necessarily accurate. But even if it's true, that doesn't necessarily indicate that these doctors are harmed in some way. So, that's one possibility, they could just get rid of the whole case on standing grounds.

There's also a possibility that you're going to see something more like the ruling in the Fifth Circuit, where they essentially say, we're going to allow -- you know, certain claims are too old, because, as you pointed out a moment ago, 23 years, a long time. There's some statute of limitations issues. In other words, certain claims are too old, have already been discarded, essentially. And they're going to allow -- have some sort of, I'll say, split the baby approach.

It's also possible we're going to see something like a very dramatic (ph) ruling. I don't expect that because even some of the justices in the majority in Dobbs, justices like, for example, Brett Kavanaugh, made it very clear that federalism and allowing the states to have some ability to have different opinions regarding abortion I think was important too.

BOLDUAN: And what we have -- but what we have seen, especially in just like the last week plus, is we've got -- we've had moment after moment where we've had kind of these critical junctures that we've seen through the appeals process, and now we're at least going to get -- we will have something that is coming overnight where this is all going to - overnight, going into the weekend, where this is all going to head. Looking forward to seeing what your reaction is on the next steps after that.

Thanks, Renato. It's good to see you.

MARIOTTI: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, still ahead, another day, another senseless shooting. This time witnesses say a little girl and her dad were shot after her basketball accidentally rolled into a neighbor's yard. Now there's a manhunt underway in North Carolina.

Plus, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene silenced. The reason a member of her own party barred her from speaking at a Homeland Security meeting.

And, fuel shortages in Florida. Nearly 60 percent of all gas stations in Miami-Fort Lauderdale area reportedly out of gas, but officials say, at this point, there's no need to panic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:28]

COLLINS: Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was silenced by her own party yesterday in a hearing with the Homeland Security secretary. The Republican chair took away Greene's speaking time after this exchange about the surge in fentanyl deaths.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): How long are you going to let this go on?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Congresswoman, let me assure you that we're not letting it go on. We are fighting this -

GREENE: No, I reclaimed my time. You're a liar. You are letting this go on. And the numbers prove it.

REP. MARK GREEN (R-TN): It's pretty clear that the rules state you can't impugn someone's character. Identifying or calling someone a liar is unacceptable in this committee. And I make the ruling that we strike those words.

The general lady is no longer recognized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that is from the Republican chair of the committee. Shortly after that, Marjorie Taylor Greene left the hearing.

In Florida, teachers are now banned from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity through 12th grade. That's an expansion of what critics have called they don't say gay bill that Governor DeSantis signed into law last year. At the same time - at that time, DeSantis said that it would only impact students and kids through third grade. Teachers who violate the policy could be suspended or have their license revoked.

Tiger Woods is now sharing more about what forced him to withdraw from the Masters two weeks ago. Woods says that he underwent surgery yesterday for arthritis in his ankle. He didn't provide a timetable for his return to golf when he offered the update on social media, but he did write that he is, quote, currently recovering and looking forward to beginning his rehabilitation.

John.

BERMAN: Why did you shoot my daddy and me? That is the question this morning from this six-year-old girl in North Carolina. Police say Kinsley White was playing in her yard when her basketball rolled into the neighbor's yard. And then the unthinkable happened. The neighbor began shooting, hitting the girl and her father, grazing her mother. Police say the suspect is Robert Singletary. And this morning, Singletary is on the run. He is considered armed and dangerous.

This is the latest example of a shooting over what seems like a simple mistake. In just the last week, a teenager in Kansas City was shot after he rang the doorbell at the wrong home to pick up his siblings. In upstate New York, a woman was shot and killed after she turned around in the wrong driveway. Outside Austin, Texas, two cheerleaders were shot after one mistakenly got in the wrong car at a grocery store. And now, in North Carolina, a six-year-old girl has stitches in her face, all over a basketball.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in North Carolina this morning.

Dianne, give us the latest on this manhunt for the person who pulled the trigger.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, police say they still do not have 24-year-old Robert Singletary in custody. That is currently an active manhunt in the Gaston County area with U.S. Marshals and police here in Charlotte helping them. They had helicopters out searching for this person.

Now, look, all of this, according to neighbors, started over a basketball. They say that young children were playing basketball, and the ball rolled into Robert Singletary's yard. According to neighbors, he became angry, started running out and began shooting. And that is when six-year-old Kinsley White, her father, her mother and another neighbor were all shot and injured. Her father is still in the hospital here in Charlotte this morning. His mother telling a CNN producer just a few moments ago that he remains in a lot of pain.

[09:25:01]

He's taking it day by day. But he is terrified right now because this suspect is still out there.

Meanwhile, six-year-old Kinsley, who was released from the hospital, doesn't understand why any of this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINSLEY WHITE, SIX-YEAR-OLD SHOT IN YARD: Why did he shoot my daddy and me? Why did he shoot a kid's dad?

ASHLEY HILDERBRAND, GRAZED BY BULLET: I look at my - my husband and my daughter and told them, I'm going to kill you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Just absolutely terrifying. And again, remember, all of this, according to the neighbors, was over a basketball. John, according to records with the police department, Singletary, who again is still out there on the loose, was arrested back in December as well for using a mini sledgehammer during a domestic related assault and then preventing that victim from getting medical care.

The mother of Kinsley's father says that she's even more concerned because of this person's past.

John.

BERMAN: Look, this is terrifying. My kids, when they play basketball, the ball is in the neighbor's yard more than ours. Really unthinkable.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

BERMAN: Dianne Gallagher, keep us posted. Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: It's a nightmare.

New this morning, three young people are now facing murder charges for a mass shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party that left four people dead and at least 32 people injured in Dadeville, Alabama. The suspects are 20-year-old Wilson Lamar Hill Jr., 17-year-old Tyreek McCullough, and 16-year-old Travis McCullough. They are all facing four counts of reckless murder. All of the suspects will be charged as adults. The district attorney says we should expect many more charges to be filed judging for the number of people that have been injured against them.

Joining us now, the mayor of Dadeville, Frank Goodman.

Sir, I am extremely sorry to meet you under these circumstances.

There is a vigil tonight for the victims. And you've said you've never experienced anything like this in your town. What do you plan to say to people as they grieve?

MAYOR FRANK GOODMAN, DADEVILLE, ALABAMA: You know, there's not much you can say. It is so shocking that words cannot express, you know, what the family is feeling, what are -- what we are feeling. But we want the people to know that we are their for them. We will help them in any way we can. But we just don't have the words to express the way we feel.

SIDNER: Sir, I am so sorry for your community and for you and all of the victims there. We are going to keep you here, if you don't mind, with us for a bit.

We do have some news that is breaking right now. So, I want to definitely keep you here and get back to you because I want to hear your thoughts on what you think needs to be done going further to keep people safe.

Stay with us, if you don't mind. We'll be right back with you. We do have some breaking news.

We are almost at the point where the spaceship is going to launch. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you can see the clock is recycled. Flight director has called a hold. We are recycling. For the moment. We'll see where they moved the clock back to. They could hold at t minus 40 seconds. That could go to an earlier point. Give us a minute to listen into the nets (ph), and we'll see if we can get you more information to share.

BERMAN: All right, Ed Lavandera is at the launch site.

Ed, we just heard flight controllers say the clock is paused at 40 seconds. What does that mean?

LAVANDERA: Well, we don't know exactly what the issue is at this point. Everything up until about now they've been saying that everything was on track and everything looking good. So, we don't know if it's a weather issue, it's a wind issue that has been a little bit of the problem, or if there's some other technical issue that is ongoing right now. So, it could be a multiple -- multiple things that are going on right now with this -- with this rocket launch.

This is as close as we've ever come. When this was scrubbed on Monday, it was about six minutes away, and they went through the process down to about t minus 10 seconds.

[09:29:56]

So, right now this launch on hold and there are thousands of people here on the waterfront of South Padre Island watching this with bated breath as they wait to see what is exactly going to happen in this