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Thousands Left Homeless By Catastrophic Hawaii Wildfires; Judge Says Trump's Right To Free Speech Is "Not Absolute". Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Devastation in Maui, the death toll is soaring with new concerns it might be higher still after the deadly wildfires ripped through the Island.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we approach Puamana from the south and start to head up the coast, we were in shock. We were looking at each other in the helicopter and we had tears in our eyes and we were -- we just couldn't believe it didn't seem real. It seemed -- it looked like a war zone, a place that had been bombed. And then it was just smoking at burning afterwards, just unbelievable.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The federal judge overseeing Trump's election subversion case is making decisions and making them quick saying in court Trump's First Amendment rights not absolute. But also making clear she's not accepting the special counsel's requests full clock. We got new details coming from the court.

BERMAN: President Zelenskyy cleaning house after what he calls a corruption scandal sweeps through the Ukrainian military.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

This morning, officials are warning the death toll for the wildfires in Hawaii which stands at 55 will rise as search crews are finally able to get inside burnt out buildings in search for victims. The historic town of Lahaina has been almost wiped out. Nearly 80 percent of homes and buildings are gone. We're hearing story after story of heartbreak.

One man is now living in the back of a U-haul because there are no hotel rooms available. He just moved to Lahaina and was set to open an art studio on Front Street but the fires got their first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBY MAZUR, LOST ART STUDIO: Fifty years of all my paintings. And I've had collectors. I've had collectors on Facebook write me today, Ruby, we've heartbroken. We'll give you back the original painting we bought, everything. It hurts man. It's a lifetime of work, gone.

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[11:05:14]

BERMAN: When the fire started survivors say they got little to no warning to leave. Many people got stuck between a wall of fire and the ocean. Boats went up in flames looking like the waves were on fire. Christina Lovitt is a boat captain in Maui. On Tuesday night she watched Lahaina's harbor burn and had to rescue two children from the ocean. She joins us now by phone. Captain, thank you so much for being with us.

I can't do your story justice. Will you walk us through what happened to you that night as the waters, we're looking at pictures of it right now, I mean, this looks like Game of Thrones type stuff. The waters were literally on fire all around you.

CHRISTINA LOVITT, HELPED RESCUE CHILDREN STRANDED IN OCEAN DURING WILDFIRES: Right. I am -- we had a 10 foot skiff and I was evacuating people from the harbor. And I was going to go back from my boat. But the priority was just to get people out and away from the fire because the fire was -- the winds were about 70 miles an hour. And the fire was just it, you know, it wasn't like a slow wildfire. It was a horizontal fire that was chasing you.

And the harbor was pitch black smoke. We got people off their boats in the harbor. They wanted to try to save their boats and, you know, we're like you're going to die. You got to come with us now. And so we got them out and driving out of the harbor it's pitch black dark because of the smoke. And you can just feel the heat. And we got them offshore that were -- there were some boats just that were empty and they were at anchor and we got them on those boats.

And in the 70 mile an hour winds our -- I was going to go back into try to save my boat and the Dini motor in the 70 mile an hour winds. We took a wave and it killed the motor. And we were adrift heading out to sea but were luckily able -- as we were flying past a boat, I was able to throw a line and get that line to that boat.

And we just watched our boats burn. The boat I have it's not a pleasure craft it's a boat that serves the community. And I just want everyone to know that I'm so sorry. And I tried my hardest to get to that boat to save it and I'm so sorry that I'm -- I feel like I let people down. It -- we took shelter on the 120 foot boat.

And we got a call couple hours later that the Coast Guard had 100 people in the water and they needed help if there were any boats out there. I'm out there with Emma (ph), Nelson (ph), and Leshana (ph). We're -- all three of us were captain. And we knew that Dini motor was not reliable, but we got it to start again. And we made the decision to go help people. So that's that video that you saw of us going into the harbor where it's on fire looking for survivors.

BERMAN: And you were able to pull -- you were able to pull two children from the water? Explain what happened there. LOVITT: So basically what happened was like people are saying there was no warnings, there was no alarms, the cell phone towers were burned. People weren't able to get water because it was just a trickle of water the power cut and so people ran for the beach. They had no options. There are, I mean, there are cars with the doors still open, of people just running. And there are bodies on the street.

And this is 20 feet from the ocean, that's how quickly this fire was. But people that were able to jump in through the ocean that's the -- the Coast Guard wasn't able to get in shallow enough. And so we were able to get this 10 foot skiff in the middle of the night. And the smoke, and it was just explosions going off, hundreds and hundreds of explosions. And we were able to grab two very small children and then bring them out to that -- into the Coast Guard vessel that was waiting outside the reef.

BERMAN: I mean your efforts I, you know, miraculous given the situation there. I know you probably wish you could have done more but you accomplish so much. Is your home OK?

LOVITT: My home is OK. Thank God. I'm -- there are so many people that lost so much more than, you know, my business. My heart goes out to the people here on Maui. It's a -- it's such a devastating situation. I had about eight people in my house that we have no electricity. Our biggest need out here I think is communication. We -- the community made a spreadsheet.

[11:10:09]

There's about 2,000 people unaccounted for. And we just have no way to communicate. I had to drive up a mountain to try to get cell service. My car is burned down, I borrowed a car. Everyone here is -- they're just worried about their loved ones, and we have no way to communicate.

BERMAN: Well, Christina Lovitt. We appreciate your efforts to communicate with us, so that we can know what is happening there on the ground. We hope that you and the people of your town get the help that you need very, very quickly. Again, thank you for your efforts. And thank you so much for being with us, Christina Lovitt. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So crews, as we're just hearing, crews now are racing to get desperately needed supplies, just like food and water and communications, backup in parts of Maui. But recovery is very clearly going to be slow, long and difficult. And so many people on the island are left wondering what is next.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was everything I could do to just gather my kids and gather whatever I could in two minutes to get out of the house. And I mean, we ran out of the house with no shoes. Finally saw the pictures of what used to be our house and our town. I'm just trying to figure out what to do from here because there's nothing to go back to.

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BOLDUAN: Joining us now is Mayor of Hawaii County, Big Island, Mitch Roth. Mayor, thank you for your time. What support is the Big Island providing for Maui right now?

MAYOR MITCH ROTH, HAWAII COUNTY, HAWAII: Well, we put together a task force where we're trying to give whatever support we can. We're helping them find housing for some of their people there. We've just sent over some of our police officers, our animal control officers. And, you know, we're trying to work with the county of Maui to make sure that we're not sending people over just willy-nilly. We want to make sure that they have a place for them to stay. And you know, they'll have a job to do over there.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. You know, Maui's Mayor, one thing he said is just it's all gone, Lahaina is gone. And he says it's the biggest and worst natural disaster in Hawaii's history. When he says that, what does that mean for all of you?

ROTH: You know, we look at Hawaii as a state, pretty much a family. We treat each other with aloha, Meyer Bison (ph), who is a good friend of mine, we've been communicating a little bit about this. And, you know, we have family members that are there over there. We have friends that are over there. We still have people in our county that are looking for their family members over there.

And so, you know, it's a big deal for us. It's, you know, when someone in your family has something that goes wrong, people naturally come to help. And that's what the whole state is doing, not just our island. We had our fire, we got them with that. And now it's time to give back to the rest of our family and the rest of our state.

BOLDUAN: Yes, some residents or now of Maui are speaking up and wondering why they weren't able to have more of a warning and thinking they should have been able to have more of a warning and how dangerous the fires were becoming and how quickly. I spoke with city council, Maui city council woman a little while ago, and she says we do need to do better looking forward.

But overnight, Maui's police chief said no one saw this coming. Do you think that's the case, Mayor?

ROTH: Well, I think you'd agree that they had -- I would agree that they didn't see it coming to that degree. We knew that we were under a red flag warning. You know, at the same time on Hawaii Island, we woke up about 4 o'clock in the morning, we had our own brush fires that we were dealing with that were pretty extensive.

And so, well, we knew that we're going to have some fires. We didn't know we were going to have the extent that we did have. And so, you know, we worked on ours, they worked on theirs at the same time. And I think at one point they had actually had their fire controlled. And, you know, when you have 70 mile an hour winds it's very difficult to keep those things under control.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And now it's going to be a long process for all of Hawaii to get this all back together and recover and to begin to make people whole again. Mayor, thank you for your time.

ROTH: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: For more information for all of you how you can help Hawaii wildfire victims, you can go to CNN.com/impact. You can also text Hawaii to 707070 to donate. John?

[11:15:08]

BERMAN: Right he is running a political campaign. Currently, he has to yield to the administration of justice. Those crucial words from the judge overseeing the January 6th case against Donald Trump, the first time we have heard from her key signs how she intends to proceed.

Then a major shakeup in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy has dismissed all officials in charge of regional military recruitment centers, accusing them of widespread corruption.

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[11:20:14]

BOLDUAN: All right, revealing new details from the first hearing in the January 6th case against Donald Trump. This is the first time we've heard from Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan. And she has said some really interesting things, telling Trump's lawyers that the administration of justice comes first. And then he may not be able to say everything that he wants to in political speeches.

BOLDUAN: CNN's Katelyn Polantz outside the court for us once again. More and more details, Katelyn, brick -- if you can bring us all up to speed once again, on what we have heard and from Judge Chutkan what she's laid down so far.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this hearing isn't over yet. But even the things that she's done so far, have given limitations to Donald Trump and made clear that he needs to watch what he says publicly, versus what he's learning behind the scenes as he prepares for trial, even though he's a political candidate out there giving speeches and posting on social media.

One of the things that she has already said that is going to happen is that when Donald Trump learns any information he didn't know before, from witness interviews that the Justice Department did, sensitive witness interviews, he's not going to be able to disclose that. That's an order from the court. And that is an order from the court that is going to be above and beyond any sort of free speech claims that Donald Trump may make.

The judge here has been quite clear, saying that his speech is able to be limited, the First Amendment does have limitations to it, and that she is not going to be doing things based on what is happening in the political sphere. She is a judge, it is separate. One of the quotes that really jumps out from this hearing today, the fact that he is running a political campaign currently has to yield to the administration of justice. And if that means he can't say exactly what he wants to say in a political speech, that is just how it's going to have to be. And then also, she says I cannot and I will not factor into my decision what effect it will have on a political campaign for either side. And so there are still many arguments being made here. And they're talking about how Trump will be able to disclose or not disclosed largely not disclosed, information he's learning as he's getting evidence, and his lawyers are getting evidence in this case, and they prepare for trial.

But also, Judge Chutkan is clearly issuing quite a warning to Trump and his defense team that he needs to be careful not to obstruct justices, not to intimidate witnesses. And that is a real thing, a real line that he could cross if he keeps talking publicly about witnesses in this case. She's really tried to avoid it being specifically about any witness in particular. His lawyers have brought up Mike Pence. That's something the Justice Department also had flagged here.

But this is quite a clear sign from the judge. And on top of that, they're still working out some details in this situation, how much Trump can review evidence where he can review evidence, who can be with him. Also how they will designate the evidence in this case, as it gets handed over. What are the things that Trump specifically can't share more widely versus what can he incorporate into his political speech.

And but so far, this is quite a set of things that the judge has said really taking on a lot more than just the legal issues in this case, which I might note have largely been in line with what Donald Trump's lawyers have agreed to or have proposed so far.

BERMAN: All right, Katelyn Polantz, don't go far, because we keep getting new reports from inside the courtroom for. Standby, if you will, for just a moment.

BOLDUAN: And also Paula Reid, who's been inside the courtroom, she's on making her way out. So we're going to be able to hear from Paula on what she saw and heard inside the courtroom as well. In the meantime, joining us right now is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Akerman for more on this. Nick, Katelyn has been laying all of this out for us what has been coming out from court, what the judge has been talking about. Just before we jump into some of her quotes and things we've heard from the judge overall, what do you take from what we're hearing from judge -- from the judge so far?

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: None of this is very surprising. This is a very standard, protective order that the government wants the purpose of a protective order is for the defendant to be able to get discovery and use it for his defense, not to put on a public display or contest the allegations in a public forum. He's already agreed to two protective orders that are almost exactly the same in both the Miami classified documents case and the New York case prosecution.

So none of this is surprising. I think she's essentially going to be putting in place on the order that the government has asked for. And based on the comments that I heard it just reaffirms my opinion that this case is going to trial in January or February of next year. This judge is not taking any blowback from this defendant. They've tried over the last couple of days, if you look at the filings they've been made, they tried everything to delay this, as much as possible. Put this over till next week, try not to make it very important.

[11:25:33]

In a matter, that's pretty perfunctory. So I think the judge has seen through their delay kind of tactics. And she's not going to take any of it. And I think this is a clear message to Donald Trump, that he is going to be in the dock in January or February, and a jury is going to be listening to the evidence.

BERMAN: The actual legal rulings, she could issue here, maybe narrow today. What she said overall, may have a greater impact and may be more expansive, Nick. I'm going to paraphrase here, one of the things she did say is that being a presidential candidate is really no different than any other job. She's going to treat running for president like she would treat any job, which is to say that, you know, the Iowa caucuses don't mean anything more to me than a business appointment that a defendant might have.

So don't expect -- the implication there is don't expect the Iowa caucuses in and of themselves to delay a trial day. She also said the fact that he's running a political campaign currently has to yield to the administration of justice. And if that means he can't say exactly what he wants to say in a political speech, that's just how it's going to be. She's making clear that the politics here won't really impact her legal decisions.

AKERMAN: I think that's absolutely correct. I mean, what she is basically saying is today, I mean, as you said before, it's going to be a narrow ruling. She's going to put into place the protective order. Trump is going to get all of the discovery immediately, discovery well beyond what he would be entitled to normally including witness statements that by law, don't even have to be turned over until after a witness testifies. I never did this before, in all my years as a prosecutor, never gave out this kind of information this far in advance.

She's also signaled that on the 28th of August, when they discuss the trial date, this is going to go ahead quickly. Like I said before, it's going to be January or February. This case is going to move along. She's taken control. And it's so obvious if you look at the docket sheet, she was responding on Saturdays, Sundays. She was on top of this docket and what was being presented to her by the minute.

I mean, it was just phenomenal. I never had a federal judge in any case, where there is a defense lawyer or a prosecutor be so on top of this.

BOLDUAN: Nick, stick with us for a second. Paula Reid was inside the courtroom watching this all play out, Paula is now. So Paula, can we assume you've left core that this hearing is now over? PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is not over. In fact, I came out a little bit early as we have some other news that we're working on. But it was fascinating because this was the first time that defense attorneys and prosecutors were appearing before the judge will handle this case through what is expected to be a trial.

And Judge Tanya Chutkan, she has been on the bench for over a decade and it shows. It was big contrast what we saw down in Florida, before Judge Aileen Cannon who's only been on the bench for a very short time. Judge Chutkan's experience shows through in her command of the courtroom. The way she is able to pepper lawyers with questions just get to the heart of an issue. And she infused humor throughout this hearing at the expense of both prosecutors and the defense.

And as you were just discussing, I think the real key takeaway isn't just necessarily how she decided on how sensitive materials will be handled there. She basically sided with the defense and said she's going to go for a more limited set of rules. But it's her argument that the existence of a political campaign will have no bearing on her decisions.

She noted that while the former president has a First Amendment right, she says there are restrictions on that. And he is now, she pointed out, a criminal defendant. And just like any other criminal defendant in the United States, his First Amendment must yield to the administration of justice. And she went back and forth with prosecutors with defense attorneys about this issue.

And she said to the defense attorney, she said look without these restrictions, she sees the possibility of a lot of problems. And she really narrowed in on the issue of witness security. She pointed out that if he makes comments about witnesses that that could put them in jeopardy, and they certainly don't have the same kind of protections that he has.

[11:29:55]

But it was clear she appeared to have the respect to the attention of both legal teams. They're still going through the real nitty-gritty of this protective order but here she ultimately gave a win to the Trump defense team in terms of how the rules.