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Two More Victims Identified, Death Toll On Maui Now 115; Ex- Trump Attorney John Eastman, 2nd Co-Defendant Surrender In GA; Driverless Taxis Causing Chaos, Crashes In San Francisco. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 22, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:32:10]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Two additional victims of the Maui wildfires have now been identified, 59-year-old Douglas Gloege and 45-year-old Juan Deleon. Both were residents of Lahaina. And still, even with those identifications, a very tough reality is setting in for the community, which is many of the missing may never be found.

About 850 people are still unaccounted for. The death toll now stands at 115 people killed. Officials now say they have been able to search all single-story residential buildings which then leads to another phase, combing through the commercial and multi-story properties destroyed by the flames.

CNN's Kayla Tausche joins us now for more. Kayla, the president, and the first lady, they visited yesterday. What are you hearing from the White House, from the president, from -- what are you hearing from the White House about what the president's takeaway was from this visit?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate. On that visit, President Biden and the first lady were able to see firsthand the destruction of the land on Maui. The devastation of the people. They saw that fire-ravaged area by air in Marine One, by land in the president's motorcade, and by foot touring some of the rubble with local officials and with search dogs that are committed to that recovery effort.

And President Biden sought burned-out buildings. He saw burned-out cars. He asked questions about why some land was more susceptible to burning than other parts of the land. And he was given very frank assessments by those local officials about how Maui got to this position and what is going to be needed from the government to rebuild from here.

But President Biden also learned that there's still a good bit of animosity that remains on the island. When he arrived at the airport, the crowd that was gathered had some messages that were peppered with very angry posters, middle fingers, and one poster that said no comment, which was a reference to the remarks that Biden made just a couple of weeks ago in the immediate aftermath of the fire while he was on vacation. But when he took the podium to deliver a message directly to the Hawaiian people, directly to the American people, he had a relatively light-hearted tone, but he also wove in some personal touchstones of his own experience with grief and loss. And he said that the federal government is going to be committed to helping Maui rebuild.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To rebuild the way we want to rebuild by making sure your voices are heard, by respecting your traditions, by understanding the deep history and meaning of the sacred ground, and establishing your community not to change its character but reestablish it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:35:03]

TAUSCHE: Lawmakers are now working on getting more funding specifically for the Maui rebuilding effort. And the homeland security adviser to the president told reporters yesterday that as the recovery concludes, the government's work is going to shift toward finding longer-term housing for all of the people, Kate, who have been displaced.

BOLDUAN: And they're going to need that for quite some time. Kayla, thank you very much. John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A developing story out of Los Angeles where emergency crews have evacuated more than 200 patients including babies and people on ventilators from a hospital after a power outage. Officials say a woman gave birth during this blackout, all she had was the light from a flashlight. CNN's Nick Watt is live in Los Angeles with the latest here. Nick, what's going on?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John. They call this a special care tower, six storeys high, 241 patients, including 28 in critical condition. And a few hours ago, in the middle of the night, a total power blackout. No power at all coming into this building.

How did this happen? Take a listen to the president of the hospital saying what they do and don't know.

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JOHN RAFFOUL, PRESIDENT, ADVENTIST HEALTH WHITE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: We are in the mode of investigating that. We don't know the cause of the double failure that we had here at the hospital yet, other than the fact that we had a major storm that hit us here in Southern California.

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WATT: So, the first problem was 3:00 a.m. Monday morning. When that tropical storm was moving past Los Angeles, the main power failed. The backup generators kicked in. That was fine. Then in the middle of the night last night at 1:00 a.m., those -- the connectors from those backup generators to this tower. They failed as well. Total blackout.

So, LA Fire Department was called. And obviously, with no power, there are no elevators. So, firefighters had to take people down the stairwells to waiting ambulances and to safety. As you mentioned, one baby was born by the light of flashlights, John.

BERMAN: Good thing they had the flashlights. I have to say a hospital like that you have to imagine there are backups and backups to the backups. What a story. Nick Watt, great to see you. Thanks so much. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, an update to a story that has a lot of people talking. Remember that newspaper in Kansas City that was rated and police were roundly criticized, accused of violating First Amendment rights and being authoritarian in their actions?

Well, the update to that story, there's a newly released video showing the moment that Kansas police raided the home of the 98-year-old co- owner of that newspaper. And with a walker in hand, she put up a fight. In the video posted by the Marion County Record, you can see the newspaper's co-owner Joan Meyer confront law enforcement officials and tell them exactly how she feels about their actions.

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JOAN MEYER, KANSAS NEWSPAPER CO-OWNER: Don't you touch any of that stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am?

MEYER: This is my house. You're (BLEEP) police chief. Oh, god.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MEYER: Get out of my house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many computers do you have in the house, Ma'am?

MEYER: I'm not going to tell you. Get out of my way. I want to see what they're doing.

SIDNER (voiceover): Yes. She cussed out the police chief there, very upset as the police raided both her home and the newspaper she co- owns. And here's the update as well. Meyer ended up dying the day after police executed that raid of her home.

Her son believes stress from the raid contributed to her death. Computers, phones, and other items are taken from the home but have since been returned. The newspaper became nationally known after an uproar over police raiding the newspaper's offices. Meyer's son, who co-owns the paper says the raid was prompted in retaliation for a story the paper publicized about a local business owner. Police have said they did nothing wrong. And they said they were investigating what they termed identity theft. But prosecutors have ordered the police to return all of the items that they seized from those offices. Now, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case and the actions of the police. Kate.

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BOLDUAN: Coming up still for us. Some of Donald Trump's co-defendants are starting to report to jail to be processed. They all have until Friday to turn themselves in. Kicking off the next step in an already historic legal battle involving the former president of the United States. We're going to go live outside the Fulton County Jail in Georgia, next.

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[11:43:57]

SIDNER: Two of the 18 co-defendants charged alongside Donald Trump had been booked at Georgia's Fulton County jail today. Former Trump Attorney John Eastman was booked this morning after agreeing to a hundred-thousand-dollar bond deal with Fulton County authorities. Also today, another defendant the first to be booked, was Scott Hall. He is a bail bondsman.

CNN's Zach Cohen is outside the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. What more are you learning? More people have to turn themselves in at least before noon on Friday.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. We're seeing some activity here today starting this morning at the Fulton County Jail. As you mentioned, two of Trump's 18 co-defendants have turned themselves in and have been booked at the jail behind me. That includes conservative Attorney John Eastman, who you know is the -- you know, one of the architects of the fake elector's plot that was a central part of the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

And local bail bondsman by the name of Scott Hall. He was allegedly involved in the breach of voting systems in Coffee County, Georgia. Now, over at the courthouse, we are seeing more lawyers for Trump's co-defendants come in and negotiate bond agreements, which means they could be coming in to surrender here over the course of the next few days.

[11:45:08]

We're already seeing an increased security presence at the entrance of the jail behind me. There's more officers checking cars as they go through the front gate. So, we are anticipating more activity and an uptick in activity here as these bond agreements continue to come through and as folks get closer to that five -- or to that Friday deadline.

SIDNER: All right. Zach Cohen, thank you so much live there for us outside the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. John? Hello, friend. BERMAN: So, chaos and crashes. A San Francisco-based taxi company ordered to cut its fleet of driverless cars in half just after it launches. Veronica Miracle has this story.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They are not the only company in town. There's a lot of them. We're going to show you how one of them works.

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[11:50:20]

BOLDUAN: California regulators essentially gave the green light to two companies to use driverless taxis in San Francisco just like basically yesterday or earlier this month. And already, a series of events is raising serious questions about that move. Several crashes and other malfunctions linked to the autonomous vehicles.

CNN's Veronica Miracle has more on this. And you're inside one of these wild things, Veronica. What's happening there?

MIRACLE: That's right, Kate. The future of transportation is here. But of course, with any new innovation, there are always issues in the beginning. And that is what the city of San Francisco is experiencing with a couple of autonomous vehicle companies.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's like 10 of them.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Traffic chaos on the streets of San Francisco caused by cars with no one in the driver's seat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's like one, two, three, four cruise cars blocking. No one can get through.

MIRACLE (voiceover): These driverless cabs stalled for half an hour outside of the Outside Lands Music Festival. In the last two weeks, incidents involving autonomous vehicles have spiked after a regulatory agency approved GM's Cruise and Google's Waymo to expand their driverless car services in San Francisco.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello? We can't hear you, can you turn up the volume?

JEANINE NICHOLSON, CHIEF, SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT: I mean, I couldn't have predicted it any better. I don't think any of us could.

MIRACLE (voiceover): San Francisco city leaders, including Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, were outspoken about safety concerns. Requesting more testing and regulations for the innovative but potentially dangerous technology. Just days after California's Public Utility Commission voted to allow Cruise and Waymo to roll out more cars in the city at expanded times, a cruise car and a fire truck collided. Now, the state's DMV is investigating and Cruise has been ordered to reduce its fleet by half until further notice. NICHOLSON: It could cost someone their life. When an autonomous vehicle impacts one of our company's ability to respond to an emergency incident, it can impact someone's survivability.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows driverless cars have only resulted in minor injuries. But city officials say that paints an incomplete picture because that data only shows crashes, not delays or chaos caused by stalled cars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't know what to do. He's about to go drive into this trench right here.

MIRACLE (voiceover): This cruise car drove into downed power lines.

JEFFREY TUMLIN, DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION, SAN FRANCISCO MTA: The data that we're getting is from 911 calls, which have tripled as a result of autonomous vehicles doing crazy things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone's getting off the bus. There's no one driving the car.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Cruise's Prashanthi Raman says its mission is to work with cities and make their streets safer.

PRASHANTHI RAMAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, CRUISE: The status quo of transportation is really unacceptable. There's over 40,000 fatalities happening on the roads in the United States. We've driven over three million driverless miles, and we have had no life- threatening injuries or fatalities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This experience may feel futuristic but the need to buckle up is the same as always.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Waymo declined an interview with CNN but said it's proud of its safety record and its automated driver demonstrates comparable or better performance than a reference model of the human driver. AVs aren't just in San Francisco. Cruise is already operating in Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles too. Chief Nicholson has a warning for other cities.

NICHOLSON: Pay attention. Get on board. Get ahead of this because it's coming your way. And I don't want them to have happen to them what has happened here.

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MIRACLE (on camera): I do want to note that the Cruise passengers that we've spoken to have all had positive experiences. We also got to ride in Cruise and Waymo cars, and the experience was seamless. Speaking of seamless, right now we are in a driverless shuttle.

That's right. There's no driver here. This is operated by the company, Beat, and it is on Treasure Island in San Francisco. They just started last week. So, when I say there's no driver, if you look around, you've got seats here. We've got our attended, Christian. So, he's always going to be on board to make sure that nothing happens. And just in case anything does, he will be around.

But we'll pan to the back and show you. It's a little bit tight. They're still in the testing phase here on Treasure Island. This is funded by a grant and they're trying to find different solutions for transportation.

So, this is going to be going on for the next year. It is free. But again, there is no driver. So the question is, guys, would you take a ride?

[11:55:04]

SIDNER: Yes. So, here's the thing. I'm just waiting to see if it stops at the stop sign. It did. That's good.

MIRACLE: Right.

SIDNER: My hot take here is I like talking to taxi drivers. I like talking to Uber drivers. I spend most of my time having long, deep conversations. No joke.

They tell me all about the city in their lives. I don't want this. I'm not with it. Kate, you?

BOLDUAN: I just think when we look at the safety record of humans behind the wheel, I would kind of assume a robot might actually do better. I'm actually fine with it.

BERMAN: You could still talk. It's just that no one will -- no one will respond.

SIDNER: I'd look like a crazy person talking to myself in the back of the cab with nobody there.

BERMAN: If the shoe fits.

SIDNER: Yes. It feels like Friday. I'm taking the day off.

MIRACLE: Sara, very good points.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Veronica. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: Veronica, stay safe. I hope it stops at some point. Thank you.

SIDNER: Thanks, guys.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, guys.

SIDNER: Thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS" with someone who isn't crazy is up next.

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