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Iowa Republicans To Hold Leadoff Caucus On Jan. 15; Sheriff: Missing Girl Found At Marine Base; Growing Calls To Remove "Forever Chemicals" From U.S. Tap Water. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 10, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the 2024 Republican primary calendar is taking clear shape. Iowa Republicans this weekend voted to hold their first-in-the-nation caucuses on January 15. No date yet for New Hampshire's Republican contest, the first in the nation primary. But it's likely to take place before the end of January given how things are going.

Joining me right now to talk about the impact of this calendar and the states and everything we've seen. CNN political commentator, and political anchor for Spectrum News, Errol Louis. Also the host of the "You Decide Podcast." OK, Errol, let's talk first about this calendar. January 15 for Iowa.

If you look back at the past few cycles, it's earlier -- weeks earlier than the last two cycles. But as we know, this does jump around. It's also a federal holiday. It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Earlier in the cycle, earlier in the calendar means what?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Earlier in the calendar means that they have more time to prepare and to execute. In the case of Iowa, though, you got to keep in mind that it's a very particular electorate that's going to come out for these Republican caucuses, and it's -- it tends to be more evangelical. It tends to be a lot more conservative, so they'll benefit as well from having a couple of extra Sundays in there to try and mobilize the base and make sure everybody turns out. And who that will advantage, I guess will be those who are tuning their strategy to this unusual calendar development, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. You know, Ron DeSantis. He's struggling in the polls right now. Not struggling in fundraising so much. His second-quarter number is that keeps running -- I think it was 20 million dollars in the last fundraising report. Less than Trump but still, it's a really big number. What do you make of this mismatch, fundraising versus poll numbers?

LOUIS: Well -- I mean what it tells you is that the donors are very interested in seeing Ron DeSantis take down Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the voters seem to feel otherwise but -- by quite a large margin as a matter of fact. And then I was looking through the first dozen or so states, and you just can't find a place where Trump doesn't have you know, like a 20-plus point advantage over Ron DeSantis.

In fact, I think the first place where they're even remotely close is in Wisconsin, but that's in April, and that's on the other side of Super Tuesday, more than half delegates will be allocated by that. So, the donor class, or there's a faction of the donor class that clearly wants an alternative to Donald Trump. Now, all we've got to do is find some voters who feel the same way.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Well said, Errol. Ron DeSantis, in the meantime, is looking at these numbers and will you hear -- you know, you will hear from a spokesperson for Super PAC supporting him, that they are very well aware that they're way behind right now. Also, you know, you'll hear a candidate say they're not -- they don't run their race by tracking the poll numbers, though Ron DeSantis is now blaming the media for the fact that he's not doing so well in those very same poll numbers. Let me play for you what he said this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): These are narratives. The media does not want me to be the nominee. I think that's very, very clear.

Why? Because they know I'll beat Biden. But even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A strategy that is not new as you -- as you know, Errol. But what -- I was kind of wondering if this speaks to kind of where DeSantis is in the polls or isn't delivering in the polls, as people kind of expected him to be at this point. Do you think that maybe that he wasn't as well known outside of Florida, as many people suspected he was or thought he was?

LOUIS: Well, now, that certainly is a problem. But all that money you just alluded to is supposed to buy your way out of that problem, or at least help you to get known. And the problem with Ron DeSantis is the more known he becomes, the worse he does in the polls. So, there's something fundamentally wrong there.

And when you hear a candidate blame it all on the media, what that tells you is it they've got to blame somebody because they spent a lot of time and a lot of energy and gone to a lot of appearances. And every time Ron DeSantis opens his mouth, it seems like voters like him a little bit less. So you know, I -- you want to blame the media, you can blame the media.

If he somehow thinks the media has a hold on evangelical Republican voters in Nevada and in Iowa and in South Carolina, that's way, way, way more authority or influence than the mainstream media has. The reality is, he's got a -- he's got a real serious problem, and he's going to have to fix it. He's going to have to fix it --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

LOUIS: -- maybe with the help of the media if he can figure out a different way to relate to them. But by castigating and attacking the media at every turn, it's definitely not going to help.

BOLDUAN: Not a new strategy, though, and it probably has the same effect as we've seen in the past. And maybe the change of fortune comes in August on a debate stage.

[11:35:01]

But we do know that when it comes at least to the caucuses to kind of go back to the beginning of where we started this, the caucuses and -- has a mixed bag if you will of a record in terms of predicting who will be the eventual nominee for Republicans. I did hear some talk over the weekend that this time, this year, this cycle if Trump would win in Iowa, that the primaries essentially -- the nominating contest has essentially over.

Meaning that he would -- is already starting so far ahead. He already has so much momentum that it would -- he would just be off and running too far at that point. What do you think of that?

LOUIS: Yes, I think that that's pretty sound, actually. And you're right on both counts. The Iowa caucuses have not been a great predictor of who's going to become the eventual Republican nominee.

You can ask Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008 did not become the nominee. You can ask Rick Santorum who did the same thing in 2012. You can ask Ted Cruz who did it yet again in 2016. It's not a great predictor.

But if you can even do that, if your Mike Pence or your Ron DeSantis, that's the base of the base for you. The conservative evangelical base. If you can't win them over, it's really hard to see where you get back into the race. And an early knockout blow I think is what the Trump team is going to try and accomplish.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It's good to see you, Errol. Thank you. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up. The U.S. Marine is in custody now and being questioned after a missing 14-year-old girl was found in his barracks on the military base. We'll have the latest on that story.

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SIDNER: A U.S. Marine is in custody and being questioned after a missing 14-year-old girl was discovered in his barracks at Camp Pendleton. The girl's grandmother reported her missing last month according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. She was then discovered at the base two weeks later.

CNN's Camila Bernal is at Camp Pendleton. What are you learning about what happened here and what they're saying as to whether he and this 14-year-old are connected in some way?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara. Unfortunately, details are very limited on this case. And especially because we are talking about a minor here. So, all the information that we got from the Marine Corps is that this 14-year-old girl was at the barracks here on base. And that's where military police found her.

They also say that a marine was taken into custody for questioning. And it all happened on the 28th. I want to read part of the statement from the Marine Corps because this is what they're saying.

This command takes this matter and all allegations very seriously. The incident is under investigation and we will continue to cooperate with NCIS and appropriate authorities.

Now, the NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We reached out to them as well and they declined to comment out of respect for the investigative process. But the sheriff's department here in San Diego County did release a timeline of essentially what happened leading up to this entire situation.

The sheriff's department is saying that her grandmother reported her missing on June 13. But the grandmother told deputies that she actually ran away from home on that night. The grandmother also is saying that this was not the first time that she ran away from home but normally returned home quickly.

So, they put her name into missing persons' databases. And it wasn't until the 28th that military police actually found that 14-year-old girl here on base. Then detectives were able to speak to her, they offered resources, and they reunited her with her grandmother.

But yes, there are still a lot of questions in terms of how this all happened, how this little girl was able to get on base. But we will probably have to wait for the findings of the NCIS investigation since this is a very just complicated case because of what we're dealing with here in terms of a 14-year-old girl, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes. At least one member of her family has been very vocal on social media. She wants a thorough investigation. Camila Bernal, thank you so much for your reporting. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Now, prosecutors in Placer County Florida -- California rather say that they have won a first-of-its-kind murder conviction. A 21-year-old man now convicted of second-degree murder, among other charges in connection with the fentanyl death of a 15-year-old girl. Deadly fentanyl overdoses have led to charges of manslaughter before but a second-degree murder conviction is so far unheard of.

CNN's Josh Campbell is following this for us from Los Angeles. Josh, the DA's office says this is the first of its kind conviction. What more are you learning about it?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's right, Kate. And you know, as law enforcement tries to counter the nation's fentanyl epidemic, we've seen a lot of prosecutors getting more aggressive even seeking murder charges against fentanyl dealers who sell products that ultimately go to kill someone. As you mentioned, that's exactly what happened here in California. The Placer County District Attorney's office filed charges against 21- year-old Nathaniel Cabacungan accusing him of providing fentanyl or fentanyl-laced pill to a 15-year-old girl who later died. Now, he was just convicted of second-degree murder in that case. Sadly, we've seen this happen so often where you have young people that are buying drugs that they think are you know opioids or some other type of drug, it ends up being because of the drug supply and how, you know impacted it has been by fentanyl.

A lot of those pills in the place. They're deadly. The kids die. Sadly, we've seen that time and again, but prosecutors getting very aggressive.

Now, I sat down not long ago with Placer County's DA. And he talked to me about why it's so important to aggressively bring these cases. Have a listen.

[11:45:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN GIRE, PLACER COUNTY, CA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Honestly, we're not going to arrest or prosecute our way out of this problem. It's going to take getting the community together and understanding the dangers. But where we can hold dealers accountable? We will do so aggressively and we will teach them that if they come into our community to sell these deadly drugs, they may pay for it with a life sentence.

CAMPBELL: The different than you know going after coke dealers or meth dealers or -- I mean, what's different about this effort?

GIRE: Quite simply. Fentanyl makes it different. We've been prosecuting drug dealers and we've prosecuted people who have sold drugs that people have overdosed on before. But fentanyl -- the lethality of fentanyl, the deceptiveness in which it's being sold, has changed the landscape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, the 21-year-old drug dealer will be sentenced next month here in California. We'll see if this drives behavior, Kate, whether there are dealers out there who are now on alert and aware that there are prosecutors that might make file murder charges if their product ends up killing people.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It is something even though the crisis is overwhelming as that DA makes clear. It's good to see you, Josh, thank you.

CAMPBELL: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

SIDNER: They're found in countless items we use every single day. A new report found that forever chemicals are in nearly half of the nation's tap water. So, what can be done to regulate these harmful chemicals, and how it's going to affect you? That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BOLDUAN: There are growing calls now to remove forever chemicals contaminating tap water pretty much everywhere. This is after a new study -- a recent study that found nearly half of the tap water in the United States contains these chemicals that have now shown to be harmful and dangerous. They're manmade chemicals known as PFAS. They're nearly indestructible, hence why they are called forever chemicals. And they're almost ubiquitous.

I mean, they're in everything from nonstick cookware to cleaning supplies to fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn containers, pizza boxes. Now, you get my drift of where I'm going here. But if they are everywhere, how do we get rid of them now?

Joining us right now is Faye Flam. She's an opinion columnist for Bloomberg News and host of the "Follow The Science" podcast as well. Faye, thanks so much for coming in.

You took a bit of a look back to understand a little bit of how we got here, especially after some would see massive settlements of some of the big chemical companies over these chemicals. What is the backstory with PISA -- PFAS? What are they? And where do they come from?

FAYE FLAM, SCIENCE & MEDICAL JOURNALIST: Yes, it's really interesting. So, the company that had to pay I -- a huge settlement was Three-M and they are the main makers or were the main manufacturers of these chemicals. And they were considered a real innovation in the 60s.

A chemist that I interviewed sent me a book called The Chemical History OF Three M. And there was an anecdote in there about how the chemists at Three M were so confident that these chemicals were safe that they actually brought some of one of them in a crystalline form to a corporate meeting and dished it out on paper plates and ate it. And they all survived.

This happened because the chemicals are considered inert. And at the time, people thought inert chemicals, they don't react with things. That means that they're safe.

And it doesn't mean they're not going to poison you. But it also means they're really hard to get rid of. They don't degrade in the environment.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And as we -- and as has been shown, depending on the levels, they are proving to be harmful. They are showing to be harmful and dangerous and linked to many different things.

I mean, it wasn't until recently that the EPA put out a warning saying that this class of chemicals was much more dangerous to humans than originally thought. I was doing a read of it and probably more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed. Just that one anecdote in and of itself data point may -- has me wondering like, how could they be so off on this? What does it say about how much or how little we still know about these chemicals?

FLAM: Some of it is just that it's really hard to know how things will act long-term. You know, you can test how things act in the short term, which was what happened at the time.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

FLAM: And the bad effects are things that are cumulative. That happened because they build up and build up. They build up in the environment.

It's not just in half of our drinking water. It's in 98 percent of people's bloodstreams. They've done tests to people. And it's -- they've done autopsy studies and it's -- in most people's liver when -- so, it's really everywhere.

And I think that you know, they haven't really been able to get a clear link to cancer. It's considered a possible carcinogen.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

FLAM: But I think the more likely effects are parabolic. A lot of these compounds affect people's metabolism, maybe even increased our risk for obesity.

BOLDUAN: Yes, we're seeing some the -- some potential links to cholesterol levels as well. So, I read it from a professor at Notre Dame said this, that grabbed my attention. My fear is that this global warming aside, this is probably the most expensive environmental problem we're ever going to face. What do people need to know about what they can do now if this is going to be -- if this is such a long- term problem?

FLAM: Yes. I think we have to demand that it's -- that they take it out of the trivial uses. Fast food. Wrapping. Pizza boxes. It's even -- it was even in toilet paper. Somebody found that it was in small levels and toilet paper.

So, I think we have to demand that those uses, which are the main contributors to the buildup in the environment, that those stop. That they're -- really the risks are -- the benefits are not worth the risks.

[11:55:10]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Well, Faye, thank you so much for coming on. It was really interesting reading some of your work on this and what you've learned about this and through your -- through your study, as well. It's good to see you. Thank you.

SIDNER: This is one of those things. It's like unintended consequences. We think we're so smart.

BOLDUAN: Right. Like, everyone loves nonstick cookware.

SIDNER: Right. BOLDUAN: Until you realize that it's -- if it's not -- if it's not helping you, it's actually hurting you.

SIDNER: Right.

BOLDUAN: It's so -- it's in -- it's the compound that the build-up over the years that people are pointing to, which is exactly unintended consequences of our easy lives.

SIDNER: Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. She's Kate Bolduan. I'm Sara Sidner. John is enjoying his life. "INSIDE POLITICS" is next.

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