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Trump Indictment in Georgia Coming Soon?; Another Delay in Classified Documents Case; Interview With FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell; Hawaii Wildfires. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:04:03]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: This hour, we are monitoring the deadly wildfires tearing through Western Maui. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out, one person just telling us that it was like a bomb went off.

There are 36 people confirmed dead, but search-and-rescue efforts continue, as officials fear the worst.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: A new not guilty plea from one of Donald Trump's co-defendants, but a different hearing postponed. So is the Trump team winning the delay game?

BOLDUAN: A presidential candidate in Ecuador just -- was just assassinated on the campaign trail. The new video showing the moment he was shot. This is just 10 days before the election.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: We're getting new information from the ground in Maui, where at least 36 people will have been killed from the wildfires there.

[11:05:01]

There are fears that number could rise now that we are seeing the scope of this devastation. Entire neighborhoods burned to the ground in a matter of seconds. One man tells CNN that everyone he knows, they are now homeless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTIN KALEIOPU, EVACUEE: Our neighbor's yard was on fire. The smoke was filling our house. And we had no choice but to evacuate. We had no time to grab anything.

We lost our kitten in the process of evacuating. And, honestly, we're grateful to my brother, who returned home to retrieve my grandmother's urn before he left to evacuate as well.

The home is lost. I can say everything in Lahaina is completely gone. Everyone that I know and love, everyone that I'm related to, that I communicate with, my colleagues, friends, family, we're all homeless.

Thousands of people are homeless in Lahaina and hundreds, if not -- at least 1,000 are still missing and unaccounted for.

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

NEHEMIAH KUHAULUA, LAHAINA RESIDENT: We thought we were OK, but then the wind came. The gas stations blew up. Everything caught fire by the brush. And then we just had to evacuate.

KEKOA LANSFORD, LAHAINA RESIDENT: We still get dead bodies in the water floating and on the seawall. They have been sitting there since last night. We have 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. This is a nationwide issue at this point. Yes, we need help, a lot of help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Some 11,000 people have evacuated by plane so far. All inbound flights on United and American have been canceled. But the airlines are flying in empty planes to take people back to the mainland.

Many of the people who fled Maui, they now have no place to go. Some have gone to Oahu and are staying in a makeshift shelter at the Honolulu Convention Center.

And that is where CNN's Mike Valerio is this morning.

Mike, what are you seeing and what are you hearing about details of this evacuation?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we have been here since midnight. So it's just after 5:00 a.m. here in the heart of Honolulu.

And what's happening is, as soon as people can get off of Maui, on a plane to here in Oahu, this is their main destination. So, we have seen bus after bus with about a dozen people in each bus come off, and expressions of just people simply shell-shocked, exhaustion, expressions of people who are utterly disconsolate about, can you imagine, just narrowly escaping this inferno, and then sheer exhaustion of trying to get out of Maui's main airport.

Perhaps you have lost everything or have nowhere to go. And then you make your way to a cot in a cool room in an area that's run by the Red Cross. So, what we're able to tell you is that a couple of yards away from us, there are now about two dozen people who are sleeping in the Convention Center overnight.

The Convention Center is prepared to handle about 2,000 people. But, John, when we're here and we're just speaking with first responders and people who are part of the Red Cross community, they say that this gigantic Convention Center is prepared to handle hurricanes, tropical storms, perhaps tsunami events.

That is all within the realm of possibility. But wildfires with three intense infernos burning at the same time 80 miles away from here, and this being a safe haven from that, that is not in the playbook, first responders tell us, of what they are trained to manage and deal with.

So, they are trying to console people who have survived this disaster as best they can, while also trying to grapple with what they are witnessing so far.

BERMAN: It's traumatic on so many different levels.

Mike Valerio at the Convention Center in Honolulu, terrific work. Great to see you this morning. Keep us posted, Mike.

And with us now is FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Administrator, thank you for being with us.

Our latest update is 36 people, 36 lives lost on the island from these devastating wildfires. Do you have any information that that death toll has risen?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: John, thanks so much for giving me an opportunity to join you today.

And I just want to start by expressing my deepest sympathies to everybody who has been impacted by this tragic fire, especially all of those families who have lost loved ones.

I know, when I talked with the lieutenant governor yesterday, it was six. She had expressed concerns that she thought the number would go up. When I got up this morning, we did see that number rise.

And I would refer you to the state on what they think the additional increase might be, but we are there on the ground working side by side with the state to help them coordinate this initial response. And we will be there to support the recovery efforts.

[11:10:10]

BERMAN: You have people there on the ground, as you just said. What are they seeing, in terms of the scope of the destruction?

CRISWELL: Yes, I think what we're seeing is just this widespread devastation across many different neighborhoods in Maui.

We have an office on Oahu. So, we had staff that were already there, as well as some of our senior leadership from one of our regional offices. Our regional administrator was on the ground for another meeting. And so they were immediately able to embed with the state emergency operations center, hear the updates, hear the tragic impacts that these communities are having, and start moving resources.

And so we started moving resources early yesterday to support the communications outages, sending our personnel that are going to be able to go out and help the individuals that have been impacted. We have also opened up our logistics center that's there on Oahu and provided meals, 5,000 meals for up to five days -- for 5,000 people for up to five days right now.

And we can send more as needed. And so we immediately started pushing resources in because of the tragic and widespread impact that this fire is having.

BERMAN: I'm not sure that I have seen pictures quite like this, what we're seeing from Hawaii.

Take Lahaina, where you see these populated areas, a downtown, a thriving downtown, that, by the pictures that we're seeing, has largely been burned to the ground. What unique challenges does that pose to you now?

CRISWELL: Well, I mean, just the devastation itself are certainly going to bring challenges.

It reminds me very much of the fire that we saw in Boulder, Colorado, at the end of 2021, where an entire community was burned to the ground, spread by excessive winds, like we're seeing from this fire. I think what we now see and the challenges that we're going to face is that it's limited in our ability to where we can put people, because it is isolated as an island.

And so we're going to work closely with the state to understand what resources they need and what types of create creative solutions we're going to have to bring in to help this community in the interim recovery, but, more importantly, in their long-term recovery.

BERMAN: What estimate do you have right now in terms of how many people have been displaced?

CRISWELL: So, when I talked to the lieutenant governor yesterday, she had said that there were 2,100 people in the shelter, but she said that was not even representative of the total number of people displaced, because many are staying with friends and family.

And so one of the things is, I'm going to be traveling out there probably tomorrow, so I can get eyes on and talk to the people and hear what the impacts are, so we can make sure we're bringing all of the right resources to help this community.

But, right now, the estimates that we have are, thousands of people have been displaced by this event.

BERMAN: As you said, you have resources on the ground already. It's a unique situation. It's not that easy to get to, a remote island, obviously.

CRISWELL: Yes.

BERMAN: Deanne Criswell, FEMA administrator, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much.

CRISWELL: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate. BOLDUAN: It's important to hear from the administrator right now.

Hawaii state officials, they are already saying it is going to take years to recover. We spoke to one business owner last hour who says she's simply still in shock from what she sees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAREN GARTNER, FIRE VICTIM: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is another Maui resident, La Phena Davis.

Thank you so much.

La Phena, my -- you told my producers that your home is among those that has been lost in this fire. How are you doing?

LA PHENA DAVIS, FIRE VICTIM: It's been a long -- a long couple of days. I'm exhausted.

I have been able to rest a little bit. It's about 5:00 a.m. here, in Maui time. We evacuated late. We left Lahaina or the Kaanapali area late yesterday. So, yes, it's an extremely traumatic experience. There's a lot of emotion and trauma that's going to have to be dealt with for the whole community.

BOLDUAN: I mean, you're -- you're with family now. I mean, how's your family doing?

DAVIS: Well, I'm in a temporary place where I'm staying, actually away from my family. We had to split up because there was quite a bit of us. And we had animals that we had to house.

[11:15:00]

So, yes, we're shooken up. And we're just kind of feeling like we're in limbo and a little bit numb.

BOLDUAN: That's understandable. It's -- from far, far away here in New York, looking at the images of what we're seeing come out of Lahaina, it is nearly impossible to wrap your mind around how quickly Lahaina was just brought to the ground.

I keep hearing people talk about how fast this all happened. Can you talk me through what you saw, what happened to you?

DAVIS: Absolutely.

So, where we live is right on the oceanfront off of -- in the Mala area, off of Front Street, which -- area was completely impacted and leveled. There's absolutely nothing left of our neighborhood. But I could see this fire from the mountainside that's outside my

bedroom window. At about 4:00 p.m., I got a text message from my daughter, who's a first responder in Louisiana, so they're always keeping an eye out for us. She said that her family up on the mountainside, on the hillside of Lahaina, they're evacuating.

And I could see the fire from my window. But never in a million years did I think that fire would reach our home. But, by 5:00 p.m., the smoke was -- already reached the mount -- the oceans -- from the mountain to the ocean, and it was such a thick, black smoke, that we immediately just left our homes.

We barely grabbed anything, I literally didn't grab any clothes. I grabbed my important papers. But everything that we own in all my 50 years of life is completely burned to the ground. The home is gone. We had many -- we have extended family, kupuna, right, grandparents, great-grandparents, grandchildren all living in that home.

And we're all displaced and homeless. And we're just one -- one home of hundreds of people that are in that situation.

BOLDUAN: Well, you're living right off Front Street. I'm quickly learning there's really nothing left.

DAVIS: No. And just...

BOLDUAN: The lieutenant governor has said even just last night that it's going to be years to recover.

What does that mean for you and your family, La Phena?

DAVIS: It's not just a loss of our home. It's a loss of our entire community, our town that we have known it to be for generations.

And it's completely devastating. We're shook to our core. And it's not even something that anyone can really wrap any thoughts or real emotions around it right now. There's going to have to be a lot of processing and unraveling from this experience.

But, in this situation, we're only focusing on survival, shelter, food, water. We have families still there who couldn't evacuate because there's no gasoline for the cars. There's no gas. We had to leave family behind. We had to leave our vehicles behind.

Some people had to leave their animals too. So it is devastation. And to even try to think about three days, let alone three years from now is -- it's a stretch at this point. I can just say that immediate help to that area for the people who are still there is crucial.

BOLDUAN: La Phena, I'm so sorry that we're meeting under these circumstances.

And to say, yes, thinking what the next few hours are going to look like, as the sun's about to start -- as the sun is about to come up where you are, seems to be about as far forward as you can look in this moment. DAVIS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thank you for spending time with us. I'm very sorry for your loss.

DAVIS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, we are getting new information from a Florida court.

Why did one of Donald Trump's co-defendants just have his arraignment delayed? And what does this mean for the Trump efforts to run out the clock?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:24:31]

BOLDUAN: This just in, Virgin Galactic joining the ranks of SpaceX and Blue Origin, just launching its first flight carrying space tourists, more than a decade after vowing -- first vowing to do so.

The flight, this flight, is carrying three customers, former Olympian Jon Goodwin, plus entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff off and her daughter Anastatia Mayers. They are the first mother-and-daughter duo to go to space, which is extremely cool.

[11:25:00]

The crew will travel more than 50 miles above the Earth's surface right to the edge of outer space. Virgin Galactic, as you well know, was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. Take a look what zero gravity looks like -- John.

BERMAN: My hair often looks like that even on Earth's gravity when I wake up, but, yes, very impressive there.

All right, just a short time ago, Donald Trump's co-defendant, Walt Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira, they left a Florida court. Nauta pleaded not guilty to a new set of charges in the classified documents case. But De Oliveira had his arraignment postponed.

CNN's Randi Kaye outside the court in Fort Pierce.

Why? What does this mean, Randi?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's just another delay.

We know that there has been a not guilty plea entered on behalf of the former President Donald Trump. He wasn't here. He had waived his appearance, but the judge accepted the not guilty plea in this case for these additional charges in the superseding indictment from his lawyers. Walt Nauta, his aide, was here in person, entered a not guilty plea to these additional charges. But then it takes us to Carlos De Oliveira, who we expected would enter a plea officially today. He was in Miami court last week. His arraignment was pushed it today, so he could get a Florida lawyer, which is required for him to enter a plea.

There was a Florida lawyer here on his behalf named Donnie (ph) Morrell, but that lawyer said that he's waiting for confirmation before entering his appearance as counsel.

So, De Oliveira's D.C. attorney, John Irving, who was with him in Miami, said that they believe they have ironed out the details, but they need another day or so.

This all relates to these charges in the superseding indictment, John. Those would include false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice and concealing documents. And, of course, John now, with De Oliveira's arraignment pushed to next week on Tuesday, August 15, it is just another delay.

We know that Nauta's arraignment had been delayed. First, he needed a Florida-based lawyer to enter a plea. Then he had allegedly missed his weight. So he missed that arraignment. And now we have Carlos De Oliveira's arraignment being pushed yet another week. This trial is set for May of next year.

And there's a big hearing on the case before Judge Aileen Cannon on August 25. She wants all of these arraignment set and done before that hearing, so just another delay. And we will see what it means for the trial for Donald Trump on this classified documents case coming up in May, John.

BERMAN: All right, Randi Kaye in Fort Pierce.

Randi, thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: So that is one of the cases for tracking against Donald Trump.

On the long-running investigation out of Georgia, CNN has also learned that Fulton County DA Fani Willis is going to be seeking charges against 12 or more people for the efforts to overturn the election there. And those charges could come as soon as next week.

BERMAN: So, this morning, Willis, who has been on conspiracy and racketeering charges, RICO, is also now receiving more security protection.

Trump in recent days has been railing against her as his team braces for what they feel will soon become his fourth indictment of the year.

With us now from Atlanta is former U.S. attorney Michael Moore.

Counselor, thank you so much for being with us.

Twelve people at least charge or perhaps charged, that's what Fani Willis is seeking here. What strikes you about that number?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, we have known for some time that it's likely to be a big number, mainly because you have got so many people involved in potential fake electors, charges that I think you will see, and the conspiracy charges.

You have got several lawyers who came down and gave some testimony that might not have been accurate in from the Georgia legislature. So, once you (AUDIO GAP) adding some other people close to Trump's inner circle, then it's not a surprise to see that many folks.

I mean, part of the beauty, I guess, of having a RICO case or a conspiracy case is that you can have a big net. And it seems clear that, at this point, she's going to cast a big net and try to get as many of the fish as she can.

BOLDUAN: One thing that has -- that you have pointed out is the possibility that there could be some overlap here between the indictment coming in Georgia and that -- that's -- we have already seen from the special counsel on the federal level.

What do you think that means for both those cases?

MOORE: Well, I mean, it'll be interesting, because I do think there will be overlap.

I mean, some of the state laws seem to mirror the federal laws. And, basically, the information laid out in the federal indictment is essentially the -- the very allegations that the district attorney has been investigating that occurred in Georgia related to the call and Raffensperger, things like that.

So, there will be -- there will be some discussion about witnesses. And they may share some investigative information. I hope they have already done that, maybe deconflicted, decided who's going to move forward on some of the bigger allegations.

The problem is, if you don't have the joint allegations, then, clearly, the district attorney here is left with information already talked about it in the federal court. It doesn't mean she can't try the case. I mean, we have dual sovereignties, that is, crimes committed against the state

[11:30:00]