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Today: GOP WH Candidates Speaking At Atlanta Gathering; Mississippi Judge Declares Mistrial For Two White Men Charged For Shooting At Black FedEx Driver; Long-Term health Of River Basin Remains Doubt; Focus On Crimea Has Some U.S. Officials Skeptical. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:08]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: This morning, Republican presidential candidates are gathering in Georgia, attending a two-day event called, the Gathering. Today and tomorrow, six Republicans running will be sitting down with conservative radio host, Erick Erickson.

But one person not on the invite list, Donald Trump. The event takes place just a few miles though from the Fulton County jail where Trump will eventually have to turn himself in by next Friday on the charges he's faced trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

CNN's Eva McKend is in Atlanta. She's following all of this. Eva, Erickson, he organized the event. He's long been critical of Donald Trump. I see folks on the stage behind you. What's happening?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Kate. These are really wide-ranging conversations. Governor Kemp is up there now speaking with Erickson. Senator Tim Scott just left the stage. They're touching on everything from domestic policy to foreign policy as well.

Senator Scott, though lead with the personal, he has made his personal biography, really central to his campaign pitch. He spoke about the goodness of America and argue that he would be the best person to compete against President Biden in a general election. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): It's tough start being a small business owner. And they're having a chance to provide the American people with the largest tax cut in American history in 2017. It's one of the three primary authors of the tax cuts and Jobs Act, really, I think, makes me qualified to run our economy, be commander in chief, as well as allow my life story to disprove the lies of the radical left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So Scott also spent his conversation with Erickson railing against Biden economics and talking about weakening the footprint of the federal government.

Listen, Trump won't be here. Erickson and Trump have had a rift to put it generously. Although Erickson did at the outset of the event compliment Trump on policy. But really, this event is about all of the other candidates over the next two days. Them having the opportunity to introduce themselves to conservative voters across the region here in Georgia, but also conservative activists from South Carolina and Florida as well. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. A lot happened in there. And Eva is in middle of it. Thank you so much, Eva. Really appreciate it.

John, one thing Tim Scott does have is high favorability, as we've been seeing recently.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Kate, I feel like we need to whisper.

BOLDUAN: No, but that is, as you know --

BERMAN: Stop talking too loud.

BOLDUAN: -- as a veteran of campaign events --

BERMAN: Stop talking so loud.

BOLDUAN: -- that is the hardest of reporting jobs is to whisper report when people are so closely behind you. She has an amazing job.

BERMAN: Eva did a great job, but we're going to whisper the rest of --

BOLDUAN: Please stop --

BERMAN: -- this until tomorrow for our reporting out there.

All right. Another candidate on the trail today. I think speaking in full voice is former congressman, Will Hurd. He will speak with voters at the Iowa State Fair. And Congressman Hurd joins us now.

Nice to see you, Congressman. I saw you celebrating yesterday that you had reached the 40,000 donor threshold which you need to cross to get in next week's first Republican presidential debate. You are not yet, I believe, at the polling threshold. The latest Fox News national poll has, you know, not even at one percent, which is frankly no change since June. So how do you get to one percent in three polls by next week?

WILL HURD, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: Sure. Well, John, thanks for having me on. And I won't whisper. Here's reality. We were excited about hitting the 40,000 and campaign donor threshold. Just want to thank everybody that believes in us. We still got to keep going and still keep going to hurdforamerica.com.

We've had two national polls where we've hit the polling requirements and one state poll. We have just one more poll, whether it's in another early state or national poll to go, so I feel -- I feel good about that, about being able to be ready to be on that debate stage which we're planning on happening. I feel confident we're going to be in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

[09:35:14]

BERMAN: So if you don't get there, I know you're planning on it. I know you're hoping for it, but your competitor, Francis -- go ahead. Yes.

HURD: I'm not going to -- you know, my goal is to -- is to be on that debate stage. We're confident that we're doing that. And that's what we're planning to do.

BERMAN: Well, Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, he says, I think any candidate that doesn't make the first debate should think long and hard about it, because time is valuable, and you shouldn't be taking time or trying to take away time from people who are fighting to get their message out there. He's running against you. He says, if he doesn't get to that debate, it indicates he likely will drop out.

HURD: Sure. And I think, you know, folks, like the governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, has also talked about how -- if there's no pathway to victory towards winter, then people need to start thinking about consolidating. And I think that's a -- that's pretty sound logic as well.

But for me, right now, we're going to focus on -- we're going to focus on debate prep and getting ready and we're getting ready to speak the truth and power. I'm not going to be like Ron DeSantis and defend Donald Trump, which is absolutely crazy. But I'm also going to be articulating a vision on the future.

BERMAN: Well, let's talk about that, Governor DeSantis, because this leaked memo from his super PAC appeared in The New York Times, that appeared to give -- giving instructions to Ron DeSantis about just what you were talking about, perhaps defending Donald Trump.

I'll read for the New York Times. The debate prep memo urges DeSantis to defend Trump when Chris Christie attacks him with a specific suggestion for an attack line accusing Mr. Christie of appealing mainly to Democrats. "Trump isn't here. So let's just leave him alone. Who's -- he's too weak to defend himself here. We're all running against him. I don't think we want to join forces with someone on the stage who's auditioning for a show on MSNBC."

What do you think of defending Trump as a strategy next week?

HURD: Well, first off, this wasn't a leaked memo. This was a memo that was posted to a website. And so this was a level of coordination, because the Ron DeSantis campaign is circling the drain. The fact that they're having to cut so much staff. They don't have the resources to do their own debate prep, but the strategy itself is flawed.

If you're on -- if you're afraid to take on Donald Trump, then you shouldn't be on that stage. And you shouldn't be running for president. And the other thing that was missing in that campaign memo was, how do you articulate what your vision for the future is? It was just about attacking other people versus laying out a plan for America.

So when I'm on that debate stage, I'm going to first answer the questions that's asked. And then you have two great reporters, and journalists are going to be asking those questions. Explain why that particular topic is important to the American public. And then outline my vision of that future. America wants someone who's not afraid of Donald Trump, but articulating a vision for the future. That's what that campaign memo should have said.

BERMAN: In about an hour and 20 minutes, President Biden will be meeting at Camp David, with the Prime Minister of Japan and the president of South Korea, it's a fairly historic tri lateral meeting there, how improve -- how important, I should say, is that alliance to battling the global influence of China?

HURD: The greatest existential threat the United States of America is facing is the Chinese Communist Party. And the Chinese government is trying to surpass the United States of America as to go -- as the sole global superpower.

The only way we're going to be able to defend against this is to have allies and to be working together. And Japan and South Korea are super important in that. I would have invited Australia to come to this event because they're a critical partner in our operations in East Asia.

Improving the cooperation between the Japanese and the South Koreans is super important as well. And that alliance is not only important to countering and the Chinese government, but also the threat of North Korea is always there.

And the likelihood that the North Koreans could end up killing hundreds of thousands of South Koreans and Americans within minutes is a threat that we always have to be -- have to be prepared for.

BERMAN: I got to let you run.

HURD: We need to make sure (inaudible) Cold War.

BERMAN: I got to let you run, but all this talk about strengthening economic alliances in the Pacific and defense alliances, do you ever regret the fact that TPP, the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact, was blown up? Because that in and of itself was something that would have strengthened Pacific alliances vis-a-vis China?

HURD: Yes. You're absolutely right. And what's even crazier is not only was it blown up, but because the Trump administration pulled out of it, you had the Chinese get into, which is absolutely insane. And we'd be in a much stronger position if we had a trade alliance with our allies in East Asia.

[09:40:09]

BERMAN: Will Hurd. Congressman, thank you very much for being with us. Best of luck.

HURD: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER: Just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was great reluctance the court has no choice in this matter but to grant the motion for a mistrial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (BLEEP) you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Shock and outrage in the court. Emotions running really high in a Mississippi courtroom after a judge declares a mistrial in an attempted murder case. What the victim a black FedEx worker has to say about it.

Plus, the Colorado River has been a playground for adventure seekers for decades now, but its future remains in serious doubt, even despite some help from a serious winter snowpack. A firsthand look at the eve revolving basin. That is just ahead.

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[09:45:20]

SIDNER: Frustration and disappointment, inside of Mississippi courtroom, after a judge declared a mistrial in the case of a white father and son accused of chasing and shooting at a black FedEx driver.

The woman you see walking away is D'Monterrio Gibson's mother. Gibson says he was delivering packages, just doing his job last year, when two men in a pickup truck began blowing their horn at him. He then tried to get away, but they started chasing him and eventually shot at his FedEx van multiple times hitting that van.

The men were identified as Gregory and Brandon Case. They now face attempted murder charges.

CNN's Diane Gallagher is following the story for us. This is a case where there was exasperation and a lot of emotion after the judge declared a mistrial. What happened?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, an absolutely shocking moment in court, Sara. A police officer admitted, under oath, to withholding evidence a detective had interrogation video, a witness statement with the victim, D'Monterrio Gibson, that was never turned over to the defense or the prosecution.

Now, the judge declaring that mistrial, after a motion from a defense attorney for Brandon and Gregory Case, who, of course, are charged with attempted murder, accused of chasing and shooting at D'Monterrio Gibson's, a black FedEx driver who was just dropping off a package at a house on a dead end road back one evening in January 2022.

Now, Gibson says he was wearing his FedEx uniform, but he was in a Hertz Rental van when that pickup truck came behind him blowing the horn. He said that he saw a man with a gun, the pickup truck tried to stop him from getting out, and that's when he did hear those shots into his rental van, chased him out of the neighborhood.

Now, Gibson, after the mistrial was declared, spoke with CNN and said that it's felt like a lifetime, not a year and a half since that happened. He has faced anxiety and is extremely frustrated with the police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D'MONTERRIO GIBSON, FEDEX DRIVER IN CASE: It's definitely a shootout. It was not the first one to do, hey, didn't get my case and other cases. It's just like due to negligence on their part, they -- I feel like -- I'm not going to say everything was purposely done, but he just like a lot of incompetence and the police department, you know, for them to not turn off a certain -- a certain piece of evidence (inaudible)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, CNN has reached out to the Brookhaven Police Department. They have not returned our request for comment.

Sara, an attorney for Gibson says, they do think they're going to get a new trial but fear that it's not going to be until much later this year, or even next year.

In the meantime, Gibson does plan to file a civil lawsuit against the city of Brookhaven.

SIDNER: And, Dianne, I understand the judge that he had never seen anything like this what that police officer did in 17 years. Thank you so much for all of your reporting there. Appreciate it. John.

BERMAN: All right. Some good weather news this morning. Good-ish, if that's a word, and Kate assures me it is.

Fresh off a huge winter snowpack. Water levels on the Colorado River are going up for the first time in years. This has prompted federal officials to announce that it will ease water restrictions on the river next year.

Still though, the river basin's long-term health remains in serious doubt. Between 2000 and 2021, rising temperatures sucked more than 10 trillion gallons of water out of the Colorado River basin. And that trend is likely to get worse.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov went to Moab, Utah to see the impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SINJIN EBERLE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AMERICAN RIVERS: This river is iconic.

KAFANOV (voice over): Sinjin Eberle has spent much of his life on the Colorado River.

EBERLE: It's a remarkable, remarkable area of the world.

KAFANOV: As an avid adventurer and Colorado River advocate, his mission in life is to protect it.

EBERLE: This is one of the most important places in the nation. And it's one of the places that we need to be really diligent about taking care of, because it does contribute so much to all of us.

KAFANOV: The Colorado River is the lifeblood of this region, powering cities, watering farms, and quenching the thirst of some 40 million people.

It's a critical refuge for wildlife and a playground that's under threat.

EBERLE: It's being overused. There's more demand on the river. There's more water being taken out of the river than the river can handle. If we continue to over extract the bank account, we are going to run dry.

KAFANOV: An unusually wet and snowy winter brought some relief, replenishing snowpack and boosting water levels for the first time in years, but with the rapidly changing climate, experts are warning, it's not enough.

[09:50:07]

EBERLE: It's been so hot and so dry in the southwest that much of the benefit we got out of the snowpack was literally evaporated.

KAFANOV: So one or two extra wet winters is not going to solve this crisis?

EBERLE: My concern is that people will assume that the situation is getting much better, and that we can take our foot off the gas in terms of conservation. This system can crash and it can crash fast.

KAFANOV: Over the last century, the river has shrunk by roughly 20 percent. Those losses are more apparent in the lower basin states, but the impacts are being felt across the entire waterway.

Rafting in Colorado is a breathtaking experience. It's a slow and sometimes bumpy ride through ancient time, at a moment when it seems like the Earth's clock is speeding up. Even here, the effect of climate change, rapid growth, and water overconsumption, are threatening the very existence of this river.

DAVIDE IPPOLITO, COLORADO RIVER RAFTING GUIDE: We boat through Cataract Canyon, that's the best roller coaster in North America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just (BLEEP) did it. IPPOLITO: Last five rapids all the way down when it's high water and, yet, my most dangerous part of my job is when I get to this ramp. It's extremely dangerous.

KAFANOV: The river has shrunk so much that it's nearly impossible for Colorado River guides like Davide Ippolito to pull boats out of the water.

IPPOLITO: It's kind of like pyramid building, you have guides putting roller tubes underneath boats. As that boat is pulled up, guides are running and putting those tubes under until we get to flatland on top like ancient Egyptian technology, literally.

KAFANOV: It's such a hassle that many tours now float an extra 50 miles downstream, adding up to two days, not to mention costs to a trip. What worries Ippolito more than the business impact is the threat to future generations.

IPPOLITO: If we want to live outlast, and we want to protect our heritage out here, and we want to have enough water for our kids and grandkids, then we need to solve these issues now. It's no longer problem we can kick down the line.

KAFANOV: A sentiment echoed by Eberle.

EBERLE: It would be heartbreaking to lose this place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: Now the Colorado River remains in a massive climate change driven drought, which is the region's worst in more than two decades, as well as the region's worse in 1,200 years. And as you saw in the piece, one unusually wet and snowy winter isn't enough to magically erase this crisis. And so states tribes, as well as industry, will have to keep looking for ways to use less of this dwindling resource. John.

BERMAN: Such a beautiful place. Lucy Kafanov, thanks so much for that report. Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's great to have her highlighting that.

Coming up for us, Ukraine has ramped up missile strikes on Russian occupied Crimea in recent weeks. But is this an effective strategy? U.S. military officials are weighing in with their concerns now. We'll be back.

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[09:55:55]

BOLDUAN: As Ukraine's grueling counter offensive fights on, some U.S. military officials are growing increasingly skeptical of the recent attacks against Russian occupied, Crimea, some going so far as to call the strategy a distraction at best, and at worst, a waste. And as Ukraine looks to the West for continued supply of ammunition, optimism may be fading now within the U.S. military that Ukraine will be able to pull off a major breakthrough anytime soon.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis has this new reporting. She's joining us now.

Katie Bo, what are you -- what more -- this is your new reporting. What are you hearing? What more are you hearing from officials about the take on the attacks in Crimea?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Kate, it's against the backdrop of this stalled counteroffensive that Russia has -- I'm sorry, excuse me, Ukraine, has become -- begun increasingly launching strikes against Russian occupied Crimea, this sort of critical, strategically critical peninsula that Russia has occupied since 2014.

They've been using missiles to strike both bridges connecting Crimea to mainland Ukraine, as well as to Russia. And they've been using artillery to strike things like arms depots, command and control hubs, logistic hubs.

And for Ukraine, the idea is to try to isolate Crimea and make it more difficult for Russia to use Crimea to sustain its military operations on the mainland.

Now, U.S. military and intelligence officials that we spoke to said that it is -- it's difficult to say at this point. It's just too early to say whether or not these strikes on Crimea are actually having the intended effect, whether they're making it more difficult for Russia to stand up to this Ukrainian counter offensive.

But what we can say, Kate, is that there is a growing skepticism behind closed doors within the U.S. government that these Ukrainian attacks on Crimea are really a good idea. There are some military and Biden administration officials who fear that these attacks are, as you said, at best a distraction and at worst, a waste of valuable resources at a moment in which the U.S. government broadly is concerned that Ukraine has stretched itself too thin across multiple axis of attack.

And I want to share with you what a senior defense official said to us, which is this person said, it's knocked the Russians off balance a bit, but it's not doing anything decisive. And it would probably be better for everyone for them to just focus on the counteroffensive.

Now, Kate, it is important to note that the U.S. government hasn't yet started advising Ukraine not to strike Crimea. But what we can say is that the longer this counteroffensive goes on, the less likely its chances of success.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Katie Bo. Great reporting. Thank you.

LILLIS: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara? SIDNER: All right. Coming up, a rare weather threat to the West Coast. A major hurricane is now tracking towards California. It is now blasting category four storm winds. How soon will it land and where? We have the very latest coming up.

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