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FEMA Chief Gives Update As Hurricane Idalia Gains Strength; FEMA Chief: Have Positioned Resources In FL, GA & Carolinas; Judge To Rule On Moving Meadows Case To Federal Court; Christie Super PAC Launches Ad Featuring Trump Mug Shot; GOP Candidate Francis Suarez Ending Presidential Campaign; Gov. DeSantis Gives Update On Florida Hurricane Preps. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 29, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So my question is, given what we don't know, are you concerned that there is any wariness, mistrust, or fatigue about listening to officials in times of crisis like this?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: I think the important thing to look at and when we look at Hurricane Ian, is it's not just the path of the hurricane we need to be concerned about.

We have to be communicating what the entire risk and the significant risk and the highest risk for loss of life is storm surge. And that storm surge right now shows impacts all along the western coast.

And so I encourage people -- and I really appreciate your help in getting that message out that it's not just the path of the storm and it will continue to change.

But look at all of the risks that are associated with this storm, storm surge being the most life-threatening, not just where the path is going to go or where the eye of the storm is going to make landfall.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And in terms of the credibility of authorities, do you sense that there is any erosion of that at a time when you're trying to get that message out?

CRISWELL: I don't have any indications that there are. I think what we are seeing right now in Florida is people are heeding their advice, of local officials, and people are moving out of harm's way.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you. I want to go back to Hurricane Ian. When Hurricane Ian hit, you had many communities of color, you also had poor communities complaining that they were not prioritized during this time.

So they didn't get necessary relief that they wanted and they felt like they were kind of put on the back burner. Many of these areas are in places that are more physically vulnerable.

What is your message to those who have that concern that there may be a repeat in their community?

CRISWELL: So during Hurricane Ian, we had a large amount of people that were impacted by that storm. And we had teams of personnel that went out into communities across the state.

And as we heard stories of maybe pockets of people that we may have missed, we immediately sent our teams out in those areas to make sure they were getting registered for assistance and we were bringing all the resources that were available.

What I would say is, if you hear about groups of individuals in parts of the state that, after the storm passes, are of need and they aren't getting that, let me know.

I will send my teams out to those areas to make sure that they're getting all of the assistance that they're eligible for and that they need.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thanks a lot.

FEMA, of course, has been dealing with the aftermath of the wildfires in Maui and now you're preparing for a very powerful hurricane hitting Florida's southwest coast.

To what extent is FEMA overextended or stretched too thin in dealing with these two natural disasters?

CRISWELL: We are certainly postured and have the staff that are available to support multiple large events at the same time.

We do have several open recovery disasters that we can pull some personnel from if we needed to extend or increase the amount of personnel we have. We also have a very layered approach.

We can also reach out into all members of the Department of Homeland Security through what we call the Surge Capacity Force for individuals that have volunteered to support during the disaster.

So I'm confident right now that with these two storms we're currently dealing with in Maui and this one or even another one to come, that we have enough personnel to go in and support these immediate life-saving efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One last question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You mentioned just extreme weather that we've seen all summer from, you know, Hawaii, storms in southern California. Is this, in your view, the new normal, just summers where we're seeing these kinds of events more frequently and maybe more intense events than before?

CRISWELL: What I can say is that we don't have a typical operational season like we've had in the past. We would normally prepare our staff to be extra alert during the peak of hurricane season, which is where we find ourselves right now. But our operational tempo has been year-round. We started with

atmospheric rivers in California in January, extreme tornadoes in the spring, to the wildfires. And now we are in peak hurricane season.

And we have had an unprecedented number of disaster requests from governors because of the extreme weather that they're experiencing. This is our new normal. This is the operational tempo that we find ourselves in.

And we have to continue to invest in mitigation, in resilience to help these communities reduce the impact from these storms so we don't have such complicated recoveries afterward.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. That is FEMA chief, Deanne Criswell, who is warning about the storm surge there in Florida.

She's been in touch with Governor Ron DeSantis who she says he says he's concerned about evacuations, people taking this storm seriously, taking that storm surge seriously, which in some places could be as high as 10 to 15 feet. And he's concerned about vulnerable populations as well.

[13:34:56]

She has and FEMA have positioned people from FEMA in Florida but also in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina because this is a big storm that is going to be moving through those states with flood risks in those areas.

And it was interesting to hear her warn about how that warmer ocean water that we have seen in the gulf this year is really expected to rev up this particular hurricane.

South Florida last month maybe setting a world record. Triple-digit water. That's right. Over 100 degrees on two different days. This is really seriously a concern as it could be fueling this Hurricane Idalia that we are watching.

So we are going to continue to keep our eye on the situation there with this storm. Obviously, it is pretty serious there as it has just come over the western side of Cuba and now has its sights set on Florida.

We'll continue to watch this. We'll continue to get more information. And we'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:49]

KEILAR: We are awaiting a major ruling on a major player in Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, testifying for more than three hours yesterday.

And he did not shy away from his role as Trump's point person in the weeks after the 2020 election. Instead, he sought to convince the judge that coordinating Trump's strategy to upend the election was actually part of his official government duties.

Meadows' lawyers say that's why his Georgia case should be moved to federal court. But whatever the outcome of that hearing, the testimony could have huge consequences for both election cases that Trump is facing.

Let's talk about this now with CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider.

First off, Jessica, we should talk about the timeline here because the judge did not give a firm timeline on when there would be a ruling on this. And we are expecting on September 6th for there to be this arraignment process for all the Georgia defendants.

Could we see Meadows actually get arraigned before this decision comes down?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's unclear at this point. It's quite likely that this judge will rule before September 6th.

Because the judge did acknowledge in this hearing that he was well aware that Mark Meadows and, of course, the 18 other defendants, including the former president, are scheduled to appear in court on September 6th.

But I will note it's likely that most, if not all, of these defendants actually won't be physically in court on that day.

We've already seen one of the defendants, Ray Smith, who was a campaign attorney for the 2020 election for Trump, he's already waived his appearance saying, I'm going to submit my not guilty plea, I'm waiving actually being in court.

So it's likely the former president will waive. Meadows will waive if he needs to. Other defendants will either waive or appear virtually. It's likely we won't see anything in the courtroom itself.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a very good point.

So Meadows is trying very hard to convince this judge to move his case out of Georgia to a federal court.

We heard Marc Short tell Alex Marquardt on "THE SITUATION ROOM" last night, in a way sort of wondering, hey, on this call Meadows was a part of he was bringing in outside lawyers.

This isn't Meadows bringing in White House counsel, an indication that this isn't actually part of his job as White House chief of staff.

SCHNEIDER: And that was exactly the point prosecutors in yesterday's hearing were trying to make.

Of course, Mark Meadows was up on the stand for about three and a half hours pressing this idea and this argument that, as the president's chief of staff, he had to really intervene or oversee every single thing that the president wanted to do, including making this call to Brad Raffensperger.

But the prosecution had exactly the point that Marc Short was making yesterday on our air, saying that this really went way outside the bounds of his role as chief of staff.

And because of that, Fani Willis and her team, they called one of these Trump campaign lawyers to the stand to talk about, well, you were a campaign lawyer, so obviously this was along the lines of a campaign, this wasn't official business. That was the point they were trying to hammer home.

But I will say Meadows made a forceful argument being on the stand for three and a half hours really trying to say, everything that I did was within my realm as chief of staff just because it's such an expansive job in his view.

KEILAR: It seems like maybe anything goes in a White House where they hold the convention in the White House. But actually, anything does not go. So it's going to be interesting to see how the courts decide.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHNEIDER: It could be any moment. It could be today. It could be later this week or could be early next week before the Wednesday arraignment date.

KEILAR: We'll be watching for that.

Jessica Schneider, thank you so much.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The super PAC supporting former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's presidential campaign is out with a new campaign ad in the state of New Hampshire today.

The ad goes directly after Donald Trump and it features Trump's new mug shot, trying to make the case that he cannot win in the general election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD ANNOUNCER: Tired of the drama, the distractions, the lies? It's time for conservatives to win again. A real conservative. Christie tells the truth. And he'll beat Joe Biden, easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:45:02]

SCIUTTO: Going after the "telling the truth" argument as well.

CNN national politics correspondent, Eva McKend, is joining us. You've been spending a lot of time with Republican voters in New

Hampshire. And I wonder, based on what you've seen there, are they receptive to this Christie message?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Governor Christie has made going after the former president central to his campaign. And he is banking on the former president having vulnerabilities in New Hampshire.

The electorate there is just not the same as in Iowa, for instance. If you listen to some of these local town halls and the issues that they raise, they'll ask these candidates, for instance, how they plan to work with Democrats to get stuff done.

So that is why Governor Christie thinks he can be competitive here. But still an uphill battle because we know that Trump's base of support among -- continues to be strong.

And that he's running on the mug shot himself. So he is not, you know, embarrassed at all by this, I guess, alleged criminality.

SCIUTTO: I suppose what works in some states might not work in others. It's always possible.

We've just learned that one in that big GOP presidential field, one candidate is out, Francis Suarez. He was always something of a long shot. Was this a surprise?

MCKEND: No. Not all that surprising because his campaign has gone quiet in the last several days.

And if you remember, Jim, he even said that if you couldn't make the debate stage, then you should drop out. He narrowly did not make it.

Listen, he says that he'll still be involved. I'm curious to see if other candidates court his support.

He has talked about the importance of being competitive in cities and also being competitive among Latino voters and thought he was uniquely suited to make that case.

I don't think this is the last we hear from Mayor Suarez, but he won't be competing for the presidential nomination.

SCIUTTO: Maybe not his race this year.

Eva McKend, thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Hurricane Idalia strengthening and approaching the Florida coast. Any minute now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to be speaking about this storm. We are going to bring that to you.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:35]

SCIUTTO: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is giving an update now on the state's preparations for Hurricane Idalia and speaking from Lake City, Florida. Let's listen in.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Be prepared. So we're talking about counties like Columbia. We're talking about counties like Hamilton, Madison. All of those counties are going to be affected by Hurricane Idalia.

We are monitoring some of these computer models. You may see the National Hurricane Center update, the track at either the 2:00 or 5:00 advisory.

There are models suggesting this is going to take more of a westward shift that could bring it into areas like Jefferson, and Leon. And people know this is a possibility. And all of those counties are making preparations. That is something to look out for.

There's still a range of uncertainty here. They're going to be updating this track as the day goes on, and we'll have better resolution at the 2:00 or 5:00 advisory. But that's a possibility.

We have been in contact with all the local officials in all of these areas, and people are making preparations. Continue to do that.

The state is already starting to feel some effects of this in the southern part of the state. You're going to start to feel effects of it in the northern part of the state, probably later tonight, the beginning of tomorrow morning.

We have expanded our executive order this morning. We now have 49 counties total. We've added Brevard, Orange and Osceola Counties.

And so, you know, pretty much that top of the state into central Florida, maybe excluding some of the farther western panhandle counties.

But there's a huge number of counties that are going to feel impacts from this. And we want to make sure they're able to do what they need to.

We're proud of all the staging that's been done, particularly for power restoration. We're now at over 25,000 linemen, as of this morning. That is going to be over 30,000, approaching 40,000, by the end of today.

And the goal is, when the power -- and you are going to lose power if you're in the path of the storm. You should assume that's going to happen. And the goal is going to be rapid restoration of power.

Some of the parts where this storm is projected to go, a lot of trees, a lot of branches, a lot of trees. There's going to be a lot of power lines down. Just expect that. There's a lot of manpower that's going to go to address it. But it's

definitely going to be something that's going to require a lot of manpower and a lot of attention. So power restoration is something that is very, very important.

And we want to thank all the utilities that have been marshaled. We've got people coming from southeastern states. We've got people coming from Nebraska. Coming to Florida to be ready to go to restore power here in the state of Florida. And we think that's important.

The local municipalities that have utilities, some of the electric co- ops, all of those, accept the mutual aid. We want to be able to have as much manpower as possible to get the power back on for the residents.

And we know how important it is for so many Florida residents to be able to get back online.

But you should prepare to have some time without power if you're somebody that's in the path of the storm.

[13:55:01]

And by the path, it doesn't mean just in the cone because there's going to be impacts that are going to be outside whatever the National Hurricane Center says is the path of the storm.

There have been evacuation orders issued for people on coastal areas, barrier islands, low-lying areas. You still have time, particularly if, in the northern part of the state, you have time to be able to evacuate.

You don't need to drive hundreds of miles. You don't need to outrun the storms. Get to higher ground, get into a safe structure, ride out the storm, and you can go back to your place.

But in some of these areas, like a Cedar Key, some of these others, along the Big Bend, you know, you're talking about really, really significant storm surge potential.

I mean, this is similar, 10, 12-plus feet of storm surge, could happen, in some of those areas. And the storm surge is not something -- you're not going to win that battle, if you decide to stay, stay behind for that.

You run away from the water. And then you hide from the wind.

And so, in Florida, if you get away from where the surge is going to hit, you know, most of the structures that we have, particularly things that have been built until the last 20, 30 years, you know, those are going to be fine for a category 3 storm.

And so you can hunker down there on higher ground where the storm surge isn't going to be a threat.

But if you're putting yourself -- if you're hunkering down in an area that could get hit by 10, 12 feet of storm surge, you know, that is a life-threatening situation. And we saw that with Hurricane Ian, just how massive the storm surge was.

So you are going to see parts of the coast, probably in the Big Bend area, that is going to have really significant storm surge. We actually anticipate the National Hurricane Center to increase their estimates for the storm surge, particularly in the Big Bend from where it was this morning.

So please be advised. You've got time. You've got the ability to do -- I know all of these counties have opened up shelters. You can go stay with friends, family. I know there's deals on hotels.

You still have time to do that if you're in this Big Bend area. But time is running out very, very rapidly.

We are working with counties to make sure they have the resources they need to be able to help their residents weather this hurricane.

We have had more than 450 active missions. We have fulfilled or will have those fulfilled sometime today, all 450 of them.

And I want to thank the Florida Division of Emergency Management for doing that.

We're now up to 1.1 million gallons of fuel that is on standby to be able to mitigate any fuel interruptions. Some you have it, sometimes you don't. We would rather be safe than sorry. That fuel is there and can be deployed as needed if there is an interruption in fuel.

We have -- all urban search-and-rescue teams from the state of Florida are activated and ready to go. Hopefully, they're not going to have anything to do. Hopefully, everybody got out of town in the low-lying areas, and in the very vulnerable areas. Hopefully, there's not a need for rescues.

But we assume they will be. They're going to be there and do their thing, which they do very, very well.

We have a lot of assets available. We have 5,500 National Guardsmen. We have rotary wing assets. We have river assets. All of that is ready, locked and loaded to be deployed as needed.

We have deployed almost 250 Starlink Internet devices, and we have over 500 staged that can be sent to areas that need it once the storm passes by.

We have 3,000 staged and ready to deploy -- excuse me, we have over 700 personnel, including over 220 cut-and-toss crew members with more than 650 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks strategically placed across the state to prepare for cut-and-toss operations post storm.

That is going to be necessary. Hurricane Ian, because it was a more populated area, the amount of tree debris and some of the others on the road, while there was definitely some, it's probably not going to be as much as this storm will be. Because you've got a lot of wooded areas. You're going to see a lot of branches go down. And so we have people standing by to be able to help clear the roads.

And that's important just for pedestrian traffic but also important for emergency response traffic. So that's something that's going to be really, really important.

Once the storm passes, or once you lose power, if you use a generator, please use the generator appropriately. You cannot run the generator in your home. You can't run the generator in your garage. You can die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

[13:59:51]

It's got to be outside your house, 20 feet away from doors and windows. And the exhaust needs to be pointing away from your house. Please use that appropriately.

There's obviously a need for power generation in these circumstances. We understand that. But make sure that's being done outside and there's not exhaust coming into your house.