Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

At Least 36 People Dead in Catastrophic Maui Wildfires; Coast Guard Helping With Rescue Efforts In Maui Wildfires; Soon: Arraignment For Trump Co-Defendants In Docs Case; All 16 Fake GOP Electors In Michigan Plead Not Guilty; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:36]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Right now, wildfires continuing to rage across western Maui. Homes and businesses, as we have seen, are just destroyed. Thousands of people are homeless now. And officials worry that the number of people that have already been killed, it's already 36. They're afraid that that number is going to go higher.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Two co-defendants in one of Donald Trump's legal battles have just arrived at a Florida court. Both are expected to plead not guilty. We are getting new reporting from the scene. I'm John Berman working with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: A tropical paradise turned into a hellscape in just hours. Sadly, that is what has happened in the western part of Maui. The compounding -- and compounding the tragedy, from the wildfires there, now at least 36 people are confirmed dead.

And officials and residents who had to flee for their lives, say that they fear the death toll could be growing very soon because many people are missing this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If anybody's still out here, the fire is on Front Street and it's time to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What you're hearing right there is as the flames are approaching very fast. One member of a charter boat crew, he sprinted down the dock in Lahaina, tried to warn anyone left behind to get out while they could.

And a word of mouth warnings like that one, are all -- some residents say that they're -- that they are getting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTIN KALEIOPU, FORCED TO EVACUATE: It was all word of mouth. No warning at all. We had to wait until everything was on fire. Our entire street was burned to the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Right now, the cause of what initially ignited the wildfires, it's still not known. And officials say that there was no significant change in the size or containment of the fire overnight.

Chelsea Davis is a reporter with CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now. She walked through the Lahaina which was governor said simply it's gone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHELSEA DAVIS, REPORTER, HAWAII NEWS NOW: I'm standing in front of what's left of King Kamehameha the third school here on Front Street. It was established in 1913. And as you can see behind me, it has been completely destroyed by the fire, nothing left. Everything has burned, from the fence to the roof, to the structures.

[10:05:02]

And then when you look this way, this is Front Street. You can see it is completely unrecognizable. Power poles down on the ground, power lines as well. And over to my right is that iconic Banyan tree that went up in flames as well. People here tell me this area will never be the same.

I took a boat with Maui firefighters out to Lahaina on Wednesday to survey the devastation. There, I met Brian Sizemore [ph] who gave me this video. He took this video Tuesday night around 7:00 P.M. It shows the horror on Front Street, Lahaina harbor up in flames.

KEKOA LANSFORD, LAHAINA RESIDENT: Still get dead bodies in the water floating and on the seawall. It's been sitting there since last night. We've been pulling people out since last night, trying to save people's lives. And I feel like we're not getting the help we need, you know. Oh, my god.

DAVIS: You can see the emotion on born and raised line a resident, Kekoa Lansford's face and feel his pain. I saw the bodies as well.

LANSFORD: This is a nationwide issue at this point. Yes, we need help. A lot of help. We got to get people down here. We need -- we need funds allocated for fixing our home. We are out here working.

DAVIS: He took me to his home that has burned to the ground and drove me around behind a town where it was difficult to see historic landmarks gone.

LANSFORD: Honestly, I couldn't even figure out what was going on. Half the time, I never know where I was. But I just knew that I had choke smoke. And I couldn't tell where I was sometimes, sometimes I could. You know, it's a short road, Front Street. If you guys walked on the street, you see it's completely burned. And we just -- if I saw somebody, I help them.

DAVIS: Kekoa said he left during the fire to take his family to safety, but he came back. LANSFORD: Because I could -- I felt like these guys wasn't going to get help. Because I've seen so much people walking. And that's what we do in Lahaina. We don't leave people behind, you know. This is how we roll.

DAVIS: He says Lahaina will rebuild, but they sure need a lot of help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God. Chelsea Davis from our Honolulu affiliate. Thank you so much for that report.

I mean, we see a lot of stuff, that is horrible, what she just walked through.

BERMAN: Look, every time we get a new piece of video and a new piece of reporting from the ground there, you get a better sense of the scope of the devastation.

BOLDUAN: That poor man that was -- he was helping pull bodies from the water.

BERMAN: And he's walking through it and he's trying to live in it and it's just got to be overwhelming. It is simply overwhelming.

President Biden has ordered federal assets to help battle the wildfires and to assist with the search and rescue efforts. That includes the Coast Guard, of course, which is partnering with local responders in water rescues off the coast.

Joining us now is Captain Aja Kirksey, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Commander of Honolulu. Captain, thank you so much for being with us.

One of the first things we heard as these fires were raging about 24 hours ago is that people were jumping into the water to escape them and needed to be rescued. The Coast Guard part of those rescues. Describe the numbers and what you saw there.

AJA KIRSKEY, COMMANDER, U.S. COAST GUARD SECTOR HONOLULU: Good morning, John. Aloha. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

That's right. On Tuesday night. As the Lahaina brush fire really rapidly spread west and engulf the downtown Lahaina area, the Coast Guard began receiving reports of people who had to flee the flames and the smoke all the way down to the shoreline and then ultimately into the water off of Lahaina.

Initial reports of people in the water were around 100 that had to enter the water at Front Street in Lahaina. So we launched our station, Maui 45-foot response boat medium, and also Air Station Barbers Point helicopter along with two Coast Guard cutters that were diverted and we requested DOD air support. We considered this a mass rescue operation.

We also, as we always do, coordinated really closely with our state and county and local partners for the response. The aircraft that we launched, the helicopters were unable to make water approaches due to the extremely low visibility that they were encountering.

However, the Coast Guard's 45-foot response boat from station Maui and Maalaea Harbor, they were able to recover 17 survivors from the water and transport them back to station Maui in Maalaea Harbor. They also assisted an additional approximately 40 different people, recovering them from the water and then transporting them to State Department of Land and Natural Resources for further evacuation there in Lahaina.

[10:10:14]

So, as far as -- as far as I know, those survivors that we transported were reported as uninjured. And we also received some support from several good Samaritans in that -- in that area, but it was a really rapidly developing scene, and pretty harrowing for the victims that had to jump into the water. And, of course, you know, the first responders also.

BERMAN: Yes. I didn't realize the helicopters couldn't even get there because of the low visibility and how herring it must have been for the people in the water, not to mention the rescuer. So 17 survivors pulled an additional several dozen assisted. I didn't realize that 100 people-- more than 100 people were the initial reports.

Listen, Captain, we just heard from someone on Maui itself, and this is tragic and grim, saying that they're still finding bodies in the water. Is this something that the Coast Guard is assisting with? What have you all seen there?

KIRKSEY: So, throughout the night, Tuesday night, and throughout the day, Wednesday, and last night going into today, our Coast Guard assets remain actively engaged in our number one priority right now, which is the search and rescue response.

There are actually no reports that we have received with the Coast Guard have confirmed missing people that have entered the water. However, I've directed my team to operate and search as though there are potentially people survivors that are in the water and in need of assistance.

So throughout the day, yesterday, we continue to have that 45-foot response boat responding to look for survivors and for anyone else, any deceased victims in the water. We also had the Coast Guard cutter Kimball and the Coast Guard cutter Joseph Gerczak, along with both of those cutter small boats, responding in the area to look for survivors or more victims who succumbed.

And then we also were able to fly Coast Guard helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point and also Navy helicopter marine -- maritime strike Squadron 37 helicopters to conduct searches. And so we're receiving information and directing assets.

But so far, throughout many, many hours of searching Tuesday night into Wednesday, and last night, we've have not received a report of any deceased or additional survivors for us to recover.

BERMAN: Captain Kirksey, we do appreciate the extraordinary efforts that you and your team are putting forth right now in this moment. We keep looking at the images and we're just, again, overwhelmed by the scope of the disruption.

Thank you so much for being with us. Best of luck. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

KIRKSEY: Thank you, John. Thank you so much. And the Coast Guard absolutely stands ready to support the people of Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, and our thoughts are absolutely with everyone who's been affected.

BERMAN: Thank you, Captain. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thank you, John. Not only are people's homes gone, but -- and so many -- and lives are being lost, but so are people's livelihoods. And state officials are already saying that it is going to take years to recover from what has happened in just a mere hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVIA LUKE, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF HAWAII: The road to recovery will be long. 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 VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So Lahaina is really the center of this. It's located on the western side of the island. It has been described, as we've seen the videos, of it being just decimated. About 12,000 people, we're told, live there. And it's considered an economic hub and major tourist attraction for the Island of Maui.

Now, Laren Gartner is joining us now. She owns a business there. She's lives -- she's lived in Hawaii many years. She's -- it's a well-known spot. The business that she owns, a restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise, that restaurant was lost in these fires.

Laren, thank you so much for being on. You're in California right now, which is where you and your partner split your time. And I mean, I don't know what's worse being in Maui and having to evacuate or being out of town and having to watch all of this from afar. How are you doing?

LAREN GARTNER, LOST RESTAURANT AND BREWERY TO FIRES: Aloha and good morning, Kate. It's very difficult being away from all of our employees and our family there in Lahaina. I would be there in a heartbeat if I could and I expect to get there shortly.

[10:15:07]

BOLDUAN: Talk to me about what you have heard, what you know in terms of your properties. Is the restaurant just completely gone?

GARTNER: Yes. Not only is Cheeseburger in Paradise gone, but our brewery is gone as well. And we lost our condo. Lahaina looks like a bomb went off, there is nothing left. The entire village has been turned into rubble. It's a devastating sight to see. We've only recently got pictures.

And it's heartbreaking for our employees, our Cheeseburger family, and everybody who works for us in the Lahaina as well as everybody who works for all the restaurants and all the service areas and the people who live there.

BOLDUAN: I have to say, it is hard to wrap my mind around some of these images that you've sent in of just seeing your beautiful establishment, your restaurant on -- we had it on the left side of the screen and the images that you've sent to us as well and what you've seen since.

I mean, it's -- there's just nothing, and you have -- you told my producers, you have some 80 employees. I mean, how are they? Have you been able to be in contact with them?

GARTNER: No, there is no cell phone, there's no electricity, there's no devices to be used anywhere. We don't know where our employees are. We're asking them to call in if they can, if they can get a cell for just a moment.

We have some people sleeping in their cars on the side of the highway with their families, their animals. And we've been able to find them. We have between 80 and 120 people involved in both of these restaurants. And we're asking them to call in as quickly as they can.

BOLDUAN: I keep hearing, Laren, people talking about, and you can see it from the videos, just how quickly all of this happened, how quickly the fires kicked up, and how quickly it tore through Lahaina. If Lahaina is destroyed, and I think we -- it's safe to say it is now, how do you describe what has been lost?

GARTNER: Well, this is -- this is a famous area worldwide. We have thousands, thousands of people reaching out to us on our web pages and on our Facebook. It's been unbelievable to experience they've had in the Lahaina. I don't know how we're going to replicate Paradise again.

I'm not certain that we will be able to get what happens. When you see these devastating pictures and there was Cheeseburger full of vitality and all the tourists and then you see the picture of Cheeseburger gone, it's an unbelievably destructive and sad situation for everyone.

BOLDUAN: What --

GARTNER: The entire town, everybody.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the entire -- the entire town, the island. I mean, everyone who's connected to it, which is so many people. What are your plans now? I mean, when do you -- have any idea when you can get back to the island? And where do you stay when you get there?

GARTNER: We'll probably go directly to Oahu, fly over to Maui for the day. It'll be very difficult to find a place to stay. As I said earlier, our condo was destroyed. So we'll be back as soon as the authorities tell us that we can go into Lahaina.

It's important to me to see the space and to wrap my head around the devastation that's there. I -- we're going to -- our biggest -- frankly, Kate, our biggest situation is to get a hold of our employees and make sure that they're safe. And to that end, we're putting out to GoFund --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: GoFundMe.

GARTNER: GoFundMe pages. One Cheeseburger Lahaina staff Disaster Relief Fund and Waikiki Brewing Company Lahaina staff Disaster Relief Fund, we're going to need help from America in order to get these people set up for the next year.

So they don't have any place to go. They don't have any homes. Many of them will have to leave Hawaii. And even when they do, they're going to need assistance because they lost everything they had. So it's going to be very important that we give them all the help that we can.

BOLDUAN: They lost -- they lost their homes. They lost their work. And there's very little support. I mean, the infrastructure, it seems, is completely crumbled in the -- in Lahaina and beyond.

Laren, I'm so sorry. Thank you --

GARTNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- for coming on to speak with me. It's -- it seems like it's almost -- it's -- it almost probably hasn't even said in what really has happened because it's how do you wrap your mind around it?

GARTNER: We're still in shock and I really appreciate you reaching out to us. Aloha.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. Thank you very much. John.

BERMAN: At this moment, former president Trump's co-defendants are facing a federal judge in Florida. Standby for new information from the courtroom.

And New York City officials say they need help dealing with a huge influx of migrants that could cost the city billions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:20]

BOLDUAN: Walt Nauta, we will show you, arriving at court last hour. Donald Trump's personal aide and another man, Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos de Oliveira, are about to be arraigned and it will happen very soon. All of this is connected to charges that they face over Donald Trump's handling of classified documents

CNN's Katelyn Polantz tracking all of this and everything else, if I'm being quite honest, but let's focus in on this one and this court appearance happening in Florida right now, Katelyn. What is expected to happen today?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Kate, I just heard that this hearing just wrapped up really short and sweet. And the purpose of this hearing today was to have Carlos de Oliveira there in person with a lawyer who could represent him in the state of Florida, one of the people he works at Mar-a-Lago, and then Walt Nauta, Donald Trump's close aide. He also was there in person.

[10:25:11]

Both of them need to be arraigned or needed to be arraigned, meaning, entering their initial plea of not guilty to this additional set of charges that was levied against them. And Donald Trump recently -- Trump is not there. He already had submitted some paperwork saying that he was pleading not guilty to these charges around a conspiracy to obstruct surveillance tapes.

But, Kate, exactly what happened in that hearing, I don't have a full readout yet, because there are no electronics allowed inside that federal courthouse. Our Randy Kaye and Holmes Lybrand were there watching the proceeding and should have a little bit more update coming soon.

BOLDUAN: Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much. John.

BERMAN: We will stand by for that update.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Stand by, stand by.

BERMAN: That was a good tease.

BOLDUAN: Definition of.

BERMAN: All right. In Michigan this morning, we don't talk much about Michigan, all 16 of the fake Republican electors there were arraigned and all of them pleaded not guilty. These are people, in case we didn't explain, they were charged with multiple felonies for signing certificates that falsely claimed then president Donald Trump won the state.

CNN's Jessica Schneider following this for us. Jessica, so where does this stand now?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, these arraignments just wrapped up. They really weren't rapid fire. They were all conducted via Zoom. They occurred all over the course of about 90 minutes. And all of the people who appear pleaded not guilty.

So this morning, there were nine out of the 16 alleged fake electors. They appeared in court via Zoom. The remaining five had already been arraigned. And the messages from their attorneys really were all the same that these are upstanding citizens in their community, no criminal record, and they do intend to fight these charges.

Now these are prominent Republicans in Michigan. They're each facing eight counts. It includes election law forgery, also publishing a counterfeit record. It's all for their efforts to really storm into the Michigan State Capitol in December 2020 with those fake certificates that falsely declared Donald Trump as the winner of the state of Michigan, even though Joe Biden won by more than 100,000 votes.

The attorney for one of the alleged fake electors, Clifford Frost, he told the judge that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office, they've already started turning over materials to the defense as part of this discovery process. All of these electors who appeared in court via Zoom, they were released on $1,000 bond, as the hearings continue in the coming weeks. And the low bond, it's all because of the lack of any criminal records. So here's a bit from today's proceedings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN KIJEWSKI, LAWYER FOR MICHIGAN FAKE ELECTOR CLIFFORD FROST: He has strong ties to the community, he has really no prior criminal record. He has no history of not appearing for any court proceeding or trying to lead to avoid prosecution.

In fact, in this particular case, retain with several weeks ago. He has no history of any type of substance abuse. He has no reputation of dangerousness. So I'd be asking this honorable court to set a very low PR bond for my client.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And that's what we heard for all of these defendants, but this will be an uphill legal battle. All eight of these charges combined their felonies. They would amount to decades in prison if convicted on all counts.

On the flip side, though, John, these are first of their kind charges. A situation like this has never been tested in the courts, just as the special counsel's 2020 election charges against Trump have never been tested. So we'll see what happens in Michigan as these proceedings move forward.

And we'll also see if state prosecutors in other states, where these fake electoral plots unfolded, were getting charges there. So there's a lot to watch in the weeks ahead in Michigan, and potentially other states as well, John.

BERMAN: Yes, first of its kind charges, but maybe not for long. Jessica Schneider, thank you very much for that.

And one quick update, CNN just did obtain video of Carlos de Oliveira, one of the defendants, Donald Trump's co-defendants in Florida, leaving the courtroom that is now over. He's on his way out. We should get new information about what took place in that hearing very, very shortly.

While we're waiting, CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, is here with us.

Elie, what could we learn from inside the courtroom, all these procedural things happening in Florida right now?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, first things first, let's assume they're going to all plead not guilty.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I think it's a fair assumption.

HONIG: Let's start with the beginning. The big thing I'm looking at here is the calendar and the schedule, because this is a magistrate judge, he or she is not going to have the ability to push the trial date. But I want to know where the defendants making noises along those lines where they saying things like, Your Honor, now we have new charges. Now we have this third defendant Mr. De Oliveira, therefore, we're going to need more time.

And the schedule that's already been set, which by the way leads up to a trial date in May of 2024, could it be that that's in jeopardy? I see you --

BERMAN: We just got some new information, which is that Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty.

HONIG: OK.

BERMAN: -- to the -- to the new charges. And Carlos De Oliveira --

BOLDUAN: His arraignment was postponed. We don't know why quite yet.

HONIG: Interesting. I wonder if it could have been another problem with the attorneys. You do need an attorney --

BOLDUAN: There's a lot of attorneys that have been --

HONIG: Yes.

[10:30:00]