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At Least 36 People Dead In Catastrophic Maui Wildfires; 11,000 Plus People Flown Out Of Maui Wednesday as Wildfires Rage; Atlanta- Area DA to Likely Seek 12 Plus Indictments in Trump Case. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Red Sox Manager, Alex Cora, said after the game always talk about the rules if the ball ever gets stuck in the monster. We never thought it would actually happen, though. The Red Sox would go on to beat the Royals four to three.

[09:00:14]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I really want to thank everybody in the room and in the control room will help us get through these two baseball stories. They did well. They did well.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: All right, great.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, go with the real MVPs.

HARLOW: It's so true. Thanks. We'll see you here tomorrow. CNN NEWS CENTRAL is now.

BLACKWELL: All right.

HARLOW: Thank you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Devastating news out of Hawaii right now. Officials now say at least 36 people are dead in Maui from the wildfires that are just tearing through that island. Locals say that they feel the death toll is going to go up. We're on the ground.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very shortly, two of Donald Trump's associates due in a Florida court. They are set to plead not guilty to new charges in the probe of Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

BOLDUAN: The FBI raid that turned deadly, a man in Utah killed in a confrontation with federal agents serving a warrant over his alleged threats against President Biden. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

The situation in Hawaii has gone from bad to worse and it is now very clearly the tragedy is not over. At least 36 people are confirmed dead now and many people, many more on accounted for as the wildfires continue to rip through Maui. The videos coming out show what looks like just an inescapable inferno playing out before people's eyes. One man said that he and -- that he and everyone he knows and loves are now homeless as their homes are ash.

Iconic landmarks have been destroyed. Businesses and livelihoods brought to the ground and what just seems like just seconds. The fires fueled by high winds. They're still burning out of control at this hour. Crews from the surrounding islands are coming in to Maui to help. And today the U.S. Army is planning to begin search and rescue efforts.

Last night, state officials gave an update of what their top priorities are right now. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. KENNETH HARA, ADJUTANT GENERAL, HAWAII STATE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: The primary focus is to save lives and to prevent human suffering and mitigate great property loss. So that's exactly what the counties were and have been doing and are doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The historic town of Lahaina is one of the places hardest hit. It's located on the west side of the island and it's been described as just being decimated. We're going to show you some perspective here before and after of one area. You see on the -- on the before the exactly what you would expect in Hawaii, just a tropical paradise. On the right then charred, burned, smoky, gone, ruined, entire neighborhoods have been wiped out.

A green building we're going to show you right here you can see the before and after, a green building is an elementary school. It's also now pretty much gone. CNN's Veronica Miracle, she's on the ground in Maui with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my gosh, look at the harbor.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The view from above is of shock and heartbreak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my god.

MIRACLE: Wildfires rampaging across the island of Maui.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our entire street was burned to the ground.

MIRACLE: Decimating homes and businesses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Local people have lost everything. They've lost their house. They've lost their animals and it's -- it's devastating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lahaina is on fire. MIRACLE: The historic town of Lahaina, a popular tourist and economic hub on the islands West Side, particularly affected with hundreds of structures impacted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It happened so fast. People stuck in traffic trying to get out and there's flames on both sides of the road like something out of a horror movie.

MIRACLE: Most of the fires on Maui fueled in part by violent winds caused by Hurricane Dora, churning more than 800 miles away. Those winds now subsiding as the storm pushes away.

HARA: The primary focus is to save lives. And it's to prevent human suffering and mitigate great property loss.

MIRACLE: State Department crews assisting in efforts to restore communication across the islands and distribute water. With military helicopters aiding and extinguishing the fires.

HARA: Two CH-47 supporting Maui County, they flew 13 hours, did 58 drops and about 150,000 gallons of water fill just with the suppression of the fire.

MIRACLE: Recovery will be a long road ahead. According to Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke.

[09:05:00]

SYLVIA LUKE, HAWAII LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: The damage to the infrastructure it's not just buildings I mean these were small businesses that invested in Maui. These were local residents. And, you know, we need to figure out a way to help a lot of people in the next several years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MIRACLE: 11,000 people were flown off of the island yesterday, another 1500 people are expected to fly out today. Airlines are reducing their fares. They're increasing their flights to get people off of the island. Officials are asking people also to cancel their flights, to cancel their vacations here. They need to save the resources for those who need it. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Veronica Miracle is on the ground for us, thank you so much. John, this is very much not over.

BERMAN: No. And I think we all came to realize how bad it was. Yesterday, actually, when you were doing interviews and getting video fresh in and we can see it right behind you right now. Like these blazes in areas --

BOLDUAN: Like right on the water.

BERMAN: Right, where people live and work in recreate just out of control. I mean, you can see how out of control these blazes were and you worry that yes 36 people have been counted as dead so far, but you do worry that number could go up given how out of control things have been.

BOLDUAN: That's scariest.

BERMAN: So all inbound flights on United and American Airlines to Maui have been canceled, the airlines are flying in empty planes to take people back to the mainland. All non-essential travel to Maui is highly discouraged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH GREEN, (D) HAWAII: What we're trying to do right now is to make sure that anyone who doesn't need to be in Maui for anything, but essential travel does not go to Maui, will welcome visitors back to Paradise after the fires done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN's Pete Muntean, he is with us. Now, Pete, give us a sense of the travel situation there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, the real challenge now, John, is getting people off of the island and evacuated. The Kahului Airport is the main airport on Maui. It's about 15 miles from Lahaina. And it is really the epicenter right now. Airlines are adding flights. In fact, this is the latest from Hawaiian Airlines. They've added four flights today, after adding nine flights yesterday. In some cases, airlines are doing something called up gauging meaning swapping out smaller planes that would typically be on a route with larger planes to get more people and more seats headed off of the island.

In fact, Hawaiian Airlines has even started adding $19 fares to try and incentivize people to leave. The big question now is how to deal with people coming in. And you mentioned United and American Airlines, they have canceled their flights on to the island. That is a big deal because some of those flights are nonstops from places as far away as Chicago, Denver, LAX.

The head of transportation on Hawaii -- at Hawaii, his name is Ed Sniffen, he says that right now the best thing that's happening is that airlines are waiving their fees, meaning that if you had a trip to Hawaii, to Maui, you can change your trip free of charge, no change fees on pretty much every major airline that flies to Maui and he says, I want you to listen now that it is helping people although the island will be open for business again soon, he insists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED SNIFFEN, DIRECTOR, HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: We really appreciate what the airlines have done. When we look at the Trans Pacific flights, the Alaska, Delta, United and American have increased capacity by bringing in larger -- larger planes to ensure we get more seats, to get more people off the island. Southwest has dropped their -- their fares and increase their service and Hawaiian is still operating.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MUNTEAN: What is also so interesting here is that he says that the island will be open for business again soon. And the Transportation Officials there in Hawaii underscore that Oahu, that Hawaii, that the major islands are still open for business. It's really just the west side of Maui. That is the problem right now. And that is the focus trying to get people away from there and off of the island to larger places like Honolulu so that they can get to safety. John.

BERMAN: Yeah, look right now the priority is saving lives in getting people to safety. Everything else in due time. Pete Muntean, thank you so much for the update there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So the National Weather Service says that wind speeds they are decreasing in Maui as Hurricane Dora is moving farther away from the islands. That should help when it comes to getting some control over the fire. Let's get the very latest on the forecast. CNN's Derek Van Dam, he's joining us now. Derek, walk us through what they're looking at today?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kate, now they're going into more of a typical trade wind pattern so we don't have those 5060 mile per hour winds out of the Northeast but the problem here is that they want rain, right? We need water to help douse some of the flames and the winds are coming up more of a northeasterly direction. So it's coming up and over the mountain ranges and the windward side will see the rain today but on the leeward side where Lahaina is located unfortunately we anticipate the forecast to stay dry.

[09:10:05]

So any hotspots are going to have a bit of a difficulty, actually starting to see any of that relief from the rainfall. So as I advanced this graphic, you'll see on and off again, showers, there's some accumulation, especially in those higher elevations, but really on the eastern facing slopes of Maui and into the island of Hawaii. This has been exacerbated by the ongoing drought and new information to CNN, this is the Drought Monitor. We just got this within the past 30 minutes or so. This has actually increased across the entire state.

Yesterday when we were reporting on this 30% of Hawaii abnormally dry now it's up to 80%. We focus in on Maui County, in particular. They've had an increase of over 10% of severe drought and look, just look closely where that severe drought is located right along the western facing slopes, the areas that are on the leeward side, so they're away from that influence of the wind and the potential rainfall. That is why it is so dry.

Good news, though, we do still have some hotspots but look at the difference compared to what it was in Lahaina 24 hours ago when we were recording this originally. What a difference. Basically, it ran out of room to burn it reached the ocean, and it had nowhere else to go. Not a great story to tell but that's the reality.

Look at the winds right now coming out of the Northeast, as we mentioned 20 to 25 miles per hour through the course of the day. These are very typical trade winds. But unfortunately, John, it doesn't look like and catered doesn't look like there's any significant rain for the near future.

BOLDUAN: Which is what they need the most as we obviously know. Derek, thank you so much for checking back in with you. John?

VAN DAM: Thanks Kate.

BERMAN: All right with us now is the Public Affairs Officer from Hawaii Tourism Authority. Ilihia Gionson. Sir, thank you so much for being with us right now. You are located where so many people are being evacuated to, what stories are you hearing from them?

ILIHIA GIONSON, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, HAWAII TOURISM AUTHORITY: Hello, John. We're here at the Hawaii Convention Center, where we've established an Assistance Center for folks who are heating our call for visitors to leave Maui at this time, so that we can focus resources and attention on those who need it the most, the residents whose homes they've lost, whose businesses and livelihoods have been lost.

We've helped a little over 100 people so far today. We're ready for many more, we anticipate more coming in the final flights of tonight, it's 3:12 a.m. right now. Flights will resume in force in about three hours. It's just great to see that people are taking advantage of that. Coming here, getting a good meal, getting a good night's rest. Getting help with finding other accommodations, whether that's airline travel back to wherever home is for them, or lodging here on Oahu. We're just really thankful to be able to partner with the American Red Cross, and the many organizations that help in a disaster effort like this.

BERMAN: First of all, I know it's 3:12 a.m. there, thank you for being with us. It's just an early hour, it is an all-hands-on deck situation all over the State of Hawaii and the varied islands there. You again are dealing largely with tourists and people who are leaving Maui, so that other people who are in need can be reached. You know, I know as a tourist when I go somewhere, the last thing I do is listen to the news. I barely know what's going on 100 yards from me, let alone a few miles. How surprised are the people who are coming to you? How surprised have the tourists been about what took place on Maui?

GIONSON: Sure, to paint a picture first, the Island of Maui has about 150,000, 160,000 residents. On an average day 70,000 visitors. And so the visitor presence is really pronounced on the island of Maui. In a disaster like this, there's certainly priority placed on making sure that visitors know what's happening where they need to be, what they need to do. Understanding that, like you said sometimes folks unplug and relax. And so there have been lots of efforts made reaching out through our hospitality industry to lodging and accommodations, transportation companies, all of that, trying to get folks to where they need to be.

We did make a call out for visitors who don't need to be on Maui, to leave at this time. And, you know, we talk about aloha and aloha is a reciprocal thing, right? And so those who have shown Aloha by heating our call to leave the island at this time, you know, we're thankful here at this assistance center to be able to reciprocate that and take care of folks on their journey home.

BERMAN: What's your message to people maybe on the mainland who are trying to reach their family or loved ones who could be traveling in Maui?

[09:15:05]

GIONSON: You know, the American Red Cross does a great job managing shelters. Call 1-800-RED-CROSS if you're trying to get in touch with someone. Also our state emergency management website ready.hawaii.gov has a bunch of resources for folks looking for people, folks wishing to help in some way or just keeping up with the latest, ready.hawaii.gov.

BERMAN: When you want tourists back on Maui?

GIONSON: You know, it's an important to note that the impacted area is West Maui, including the resort areas of Lahaina, Kaanapali. There are other parts of Maui less affected. If folks have travel plans in the coming weeks, they should check with their accommodations to see what the situation is. And on the other islands, you know, the island of Hawaii, the Kohala Coast had some impact from brush fires. But certainly check with your lodging provider if you have a trip planned in the next couple of weeks. And for the rest of the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, you know, they're here. They're ready to welcome folks. And so, you know, if in doubt, check it out.

BERMAN: All right, Ilihia Gionson, thank you so much for being with us. Best of luck, get some sleep if you can.

GIONSON: (Inaudible) we've done.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yeah, how much sleep for anybody that right now.

Coming up for us, two have Donald Trump's co-defendants are set to enter pleas on new charges in the classified documents case. We're going to take you live to the courthouse in Florida.

Plus, FBI agents shoot and kill a man while serving a search warrant at his home. He's accused of making threats against President Biden. What we know now about that deadly confrontation.

And a new report is shedding some more and new light on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. We have details on who has been bankrolling many of his vacations. We'll be back.

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[09:21:07]

BOLDUAN: Next hour former President Trump's personal aide Walt Nauta and the Property Manager at Mar-a-Lago Carlos De Oliveira, they are due back in court in Florida. They're facing new charges in the classified documents case. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to a new set of charges last week brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. CNN's Randi Kaye outside the court in Fort Pierce, Florida for us this hour. Randi, what's expected to happen then today?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate that arraignment is expected to start at 10 a.m. So right now we are still waiting for the arrival of Trump's aide, Walt Nauta as well as the Mar-a-Lago Property Manager Carlos De Oliveira. Both men are expected to be arraigned here. Carlos De Oliveira, as you recall, probably was in court in Miami last week but did not enter a plea because he didn't have a Florida barred attorney, which he needed to do so. So this is the first time that we expect to hear a plea in the documents case from Carlos De Oliveira.

Walt Nauta has already pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges before this superseding indictment which brought further charges. They are looking at charges related to false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice and concealing documents as well. This all relates to interviews, Kate, that they gave to the FBI, both men telling FBI investigators that they were not aware of documents at Mar-a-Lago according to the indictment, as well as these alleged attempts to destroy security camera video at Mar-a-Lago as well. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And Randi kind of -- so this is happening today, but happening outside of all of this but involving all of Donald Trump's troubles. The former President's been lashing out once again, about -- after learning that the Special Counsel has obtained access and obtained a warrant for his Twitter account, what is happening there?

KAYE: Right. This was back in January. Special Counsel Jack Smith got a warrant to search Donald Trump's Twitter account. They were looking for data and records and then Twitter and the Special Counsel went back and forth in court for months trying to argue about whether or not Twitter was allowed to alert Donald Trump to this search warrant. And now Trump is ranting about this on True Social saying this is a major hit. He called it to his civil rights. He's accusing Joe Biden of infringing on his campaign. And, Kate, he's also questioning whether or not the First Amendment even still exists.

BOLDUAN: Randi Kaye, good to see you. Thanks.

BERMAN: So that is one of the federal cases against Donald Trump, one of the federal cases against Trump. There's also news this morning about the pending Georgia case. CNN has learned that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will seek charges against at least 12 people for the efforts to overturn the election there and those charges could come as soon as the beginning of next week.

BOLDUAN: That's absolutely right, and this morning Fani Willis, who has been as learning from sources on conspiracy and racketeering charges is also now receiving more security protection. Donald Trump in recent days has just been railing against her as his team is bracing for what they feel will soon become his fourth indictment this year.

Joining us now is Danya Perry, she's a former federal prosecutor. It's good to see you, Danya. Twelve people charged potentially in Georgia. That is a lot. What does it tell you?

DANYA PERRY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It tells me that all of the reporting that the charges will include RICO and wide-ranging conspiracy charges appear to be accurate, that this is going to be a broad scheme that will be charged and unlike in the federal indictment for the January 6 conduct. This, you know, we'll -- it doesn't have this -- Fani Willis does not have the same kind of time pressures that the federal prosecutors have in trying to get, you know, the entire case prosecuted tried and sentenced before the upcoming elections.

[09:25:09]

The DA in Fulton County doesn't have that same kind of concerns. So she can charge a broad conspiracy, or racketeering charges against sounds like up to a dozen defendants. That's going to take a long time to prosecute and to bring to trial. And she doesn't care in the same way as the Feds do.

BERMAN: Why is that, Danya, is that because she doesn't have to worry about if Trump wins the election and pardons himself?

PERRY: I think that's exactly right. The pardoned system is very different in Georgia, as I understand it, and there is no possibility of pardon there in the same way that, you know, it is believed that Trump could at least attempt to pardon himself, should he win reelection. And so this case will play out in its time these cases take a long time, and certainly the DA herself has tried any number of them. And they take -- they take a long time to wind their way through the court system. And this case, surely will be, you know, like the other cases that she has so much experience in prosecuting.

BOLDUAN: What's the risk reward here of bringing an indictment against a bunch of people, it could -- we could be saying in Georgia, versus I'll call it a drip, drip, drip, which is what we're looking at potentially, with the Special Counsel's 2020 election, the federal case?

PERRY: Prosecutors tend to prefer bringing all of their defendants, you know, folding them into one indictment, it's much more efficient, it tells a better story for a jury. And it -- you know, it -- it keeps the court system moving, you know, instead of doing one off cases, so that is -- that is the preferred methodology, that does not appear to have been an option for the Special Counsel's office. But for the DA in Fulton County, she has, you know, again, she has the luxury of a bit more time. This one is, you know, sequence and sequences last in time. And given the number of defendants and the complexity of the charges. It surely will be last or you know, should come later in -- in the timing of all of these court cases that the former President is trying to juggle. And again, there are some efficiencies and kind of jury appeal reasons for doing it that way.

BERMAN: More defendants, Danya, does that mean more potential people who could flip?

PERRY: Yes, that is always the case. Of course, you know, in -- in the Special Counsel's case there are -- for now, at least six unnamed unindicted co-conspirators, you know, there's always pressure for them to flip as well, they know who they are. But here there's even more pressure if they are named and indicted, co-defendants, there's -- there's always that pressure and surely, you know, as with any RICO style charges, there are going to be leaders, they're going to be middleman, they're going to be, you know, kind of the lower level, folks. And so, you know, there's always, I think, a lot of pressure and a lot of good reason for the lower, you know, lower-level conspirators to flip up and against, you know, their bosses and lieutenants.

BERMAN: Danya Perry, former federal prosecutor, great to see you. Thank you so much for helping us out this morning.

BOLDUAN: I hadn't thought about -- I hadn't thought about the difference in pardoning. I hadn't added that into the equation. Obviously, we don't know.

BERMAN: No, you don't know. It is interesting, though, because if that were to happen, it's uncharted territory --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- whether or not the federal courts, including the Supreme Court might step in and say that a sitting president can't go through a state trial while he's in office. The court has weighed in but only in civil cases before, not an actual criminal cases. So there's a little bit of murkiness there.

BOLDUAN: A little bit. I mean -- I mean, and there's just like, add it to the number of there is no precedent for what we're looking at today. And as we move forward with these cases.

Coming up still for us, a candidate in Ecuador's upcoming presidential election, was just assassinated at a campaign event and it was caught on video. What is happening there right now. We're going to bring you the latest.

And a man was under investigation for months for threatening President Biden and other public figures. FBI agents go to his house, and he ends up dead allegedly pointed a gun at agents. The details on that ongoing investigation, next. We'll be back.

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