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Mandatory Evacuations Underway As Idalia Intensifies In The Gulf; DeSantis Leaves Campaign Trail To Prep Floridians For Idalia; New Audio And Video Released Of Jacksonville Mass Shooting; Suspect In UNC Killing Charged With First-Degree Murger; Eminem Asks GOP Candidate Ramaswamy To Stop Using His Music. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 29, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The $3.4 billion they have in the bank right now should be enough for Idalia, also clean up from Maui wildfires. Do you have concerns about that? Does FEMA what it needs now? This is more about what they need for the next storm.

JEREMY GREENBERG, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DIVISION, FEMA RESPONSE: FEMA right now has the resources to meet the immediate response for both the ongoing efforts in the Maui fires, the hurricane Idalia and other and any other immediate response requirements. From there we certainly look forward to working with the administration and Congress to figure out supplemental capability for those longer-term recovery plans.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Greenberg, we wish you and your teams good luck in the coming days. Thanks so much for what you're doing.

GREENBERG: Thank you for having me on.

SCIUTTO: Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Florida Governor Ron De Santis has stepped away from his presidential campaign to deal with the storm that has its eye trained on his state. But the political optics of handling a hurricane they come with high stakes, as you can imagine. We have CNN's Steve Contorno live for us in Saint Petersburg. Steve, tell us how DeSantis is tailoring his message.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Brianna, no Florida governor would ever suggest that a hurricane is an opportunity to showcase your leadership style, but they certainly have a track record of doing just that. You look at governor like Jeb Bush, who had two years' worth of deadly storms hitting the state. He faced 8 hurricanes over that stretch, and he was remembered, quite fondly here, for that time that he spent and how he navigated those storms.

Of course, one of those storms was Hurricane Katrina, and his brother, President George Bush. People look at his presidency, much different because of how he handled that storm. And that is the sort of the paradox facing Governor DeSantis over these coming days as he navigates Florida through the crisis. He has said that he is hyper focused on delivering for his state. That

he has been holding press conferences all throughout Florida's West Coast trying to prepare Floridians and saying that he is willing to put his campaign on hold for now. Listen to what he had to say earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA GOVERNOR: You remember Ian. We were in the midst of a of a governor campaign. I had all kinds of stuff scheduled not just in Florida around the country, you know, we were doing different things. And you know you, you, you do what you need to do. I mean, and so that's what we're doing. So it's going to be no different than what we did during Hurricane Ian. I'm hoping that this storm is not as catastrophic as Hurricane Ian. Was, but we're going to -- we're going to do, you know, do what we need to do because it's just it's just something that's important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now I talked to a Republican political consultant earlier today who said you never want to willingly leave the campaign trail if you don't have to. But obviously when you're when duty calls for your day job, you have to respond. And we have seen this kind of thing affect presidential campaigns in the past. In fact, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie back in 2016, just weeks before the New Hampshire voters went to their primaries, he had to leave the campaign trail to attend to a blizzard in his home state.

And De Santis actually has been campaigning quite a bit on his past response to storms. He talked about Hurricane Ian in that clip. That storm devastated the Fort Myers Beach region and left two bridges totally damaged. He has talked quite a bit on the campaign trail about his efforts to rebuild those storms, Brianna. Of course, that storm also produced images of him wearing white knee-high boots that have become fodder for his political detractors, showing the plus and the negatives of having to respond during one of these kinds of crises.

KEILAR: Yes, it's very tough. Steve Contorno, thank you so much -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, officials in Jacksonville have released the 911 call from the gunman's father what it reveals about the shooters mindset before he carried out the racist attack at a Dollar General store.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:39]

KEILAR: New audio and video shows us the unfolding events before the racist killings in Jacksonville, Florida. One new clip showing the white shooter donning a bulletproof vest before he gunned down customer Jerrald Gallion, Uber driver, Angela Carr and store employee AJ Laguerre using an AR style rifle that had swastikas on it, the victims, all Black. The father of the shooter called 911, worried about his son, seen here visiting the store a different day. The 911 exchange provides more understanding of the attacker's mental health.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

911 OPERATOR: Does your son go anywhere that you know of? Is there, like, commonplace that he goes to?

SHOOTERS FATHER: No, he doesn't go anywhere.

911 OPERATOR: Oh, he doesn't go anywhere.

SHOOTERS FATHER: Yeah, he flunked out of Flagler College, moved home about a couple years ago. Had a job for awhile at Home Depot and lost that job and pretty much been living in his room. We do know that he's getting -- receiving psychiatric help.

911 OPERATOR: He has been.

SHOOTERS FATHER: Yes, and he's been on meds too.

[15:40:00]

911 OPERATOR: What medicines he taking or was he taking?

SHOOTERS FATHER: Let me see. I'm going to find the bag.

911 OPERATOR: And do you know if he's still taking it or if he's been stopping?

SHOOTERS FATHER: It looks like he stopped.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Another just released clip also happened before the shooter opened fire at a Dollar General store. It shows the gunman's car fleeing from a campus security officer. The officer got out of his white car at Edward Waters University. Jacksonville Police also released footage of officers entering the Dollar General travelling through the aisles in pursuit of the gunman. And it finally captures the moment they say, when the 21-year-old shooter turned the gun on himself -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Just so alarming to see all that.

Well now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise says he has begun treatment now for what he describes as a very treatable blood cancer. The 57-year- old says he started feeling ill over the August congressional recess. Tests led to a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. The Louisiana Republican plans to continue working in Washington while undergoing several months of cancer treatment.

Also a new call for President Biden in Congress to address New York's migrant crisis. More than 130 top business leaders in New York City have written an open letter backing Governor Kathy Hochul's plea for funds for the migrants, healthcare, education and housing. As well as expedited work authorizations. This comes as New York City is struggling with the influx of more than 100,000 migrants, many of them sleeping on the sidewalks of Manhattan, because the shelters are full.

Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Larry Fink of Black Rock and Jane Fraser of Citigroup are among the CEO's who signed that open letter.

And the European Union is sending more firefighting planes and a helicopter now to Greece to help fight what they described as the biggest wildfires ever recorded in the EU. The fires erupted 11 days ago as strong winds and hot, dry summer conditions fueled flames in the northeast forest region. Officials say at least nineteen people have been killed. And an area larger than New York City has now been scorched. Seems like everywhere we look on the globe, we see events like this.

KEILAR: So we are learning new details about the suspect police say shot and killed a faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill. He's a 34-year- old doctoral student who has now been charged with first degree murder. The shooting in a chemistry lab sent students scrambling for safety and video captured students jumping out of classroom windows during an hour on lockdown. The campus was only in its second week of classes of the fall semester.

CNN's Nick Valencia here with the latest now on the investigation. Nick, the suspect, just made his first court appearance. Police have just identified the victim. What can you tell us?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Tailei Qi made his initial court appearance earlier today. This afternoon, a short time ago where the judge read the charges that he's facing, which include a first-degree murder charge as well as possession of a handgun, a 9- millimeter handgun on campus. He was not required to enter a plea, and the judge says that he will continue to be held without bond. If convicted of that first-degree murder charges he faces at minimum, up to life in prison.

And there the District Attorney during this initial court appearance alleged that Qi walked in on campus, I should say, and opened fire gunning down an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences. That professor has been working on campus since 2019, identified as Zijie Yan. Police have not released any information if there's a connection between Qi and Yan. Earlier though, the UNC police chief and the UNC Chancellor addressed the tragedy on campus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF BRIAN JAMES, UNC POLICE: We really do want to know the why in this case and what led to it.

KEVIN GUSKIEWICZ, CHANCELLOR, UNC-CHAPEL HILL So, many of you are feeling uncertain about your safety right now. And again, we have very good protocols in place. There's nothing more important on our campus than the safety and well-being of our community members and certainly our nearly 30,000 students are at the top of that list, alongside our faculty and staff.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: The incident caused panic on the campus there at UNC-Chapel Hill in that harrowing video that we showed you earlier of students jumping out of a first story window to get to safety. A probable cause hearing has been set for September 18th for Tailei Qi, and investigators are still trying to figure out what led him to allegedly do this. Still no word on the motive, Brianna. Look at that video. Just awful.

KEILAR: Yes, terrible. A very scary situation for so many students here. Classes cancelled today as well. When is campus reopening?

VALENCIA: Wednesday, and it seems at this point it gets back to normal, but events and classes have been cancelled for Monday and Tuesday. There's clearly a lot of processing that needs to be done for these students who were going just through their second week of classes. Some of them, you know, starting their first year on campus and hoping that they're having a good experience only for this to be done for these students who were going just through their second week of classes. Some of them, you know, starting their first year on campus and hoping that they're having a good experience only for this to happen, Brianna, just awful.

[15:45:16]

KEILAR: Yes, it is. Nick Valencia, thank you for the latest -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: The real Slim Shady just stood up. Why GOP 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is taking heat now from Eminem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy got some attention a few weeks ago at the Iowa State Fair when he decided to grab a microphone and lose himself in an Eminem song.

[15:50:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Back to the left, yo, it's so raptor. He better go capture the moment and hope they don't lose himself in the music. This moment of hope yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, the real Slim Shady just stood up, sending Ramaswamy a cease-and-desist letter to stop using his music on the campaign trail and his campaign said they will stand down and comply. That doesn't always happen. CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now. Because, Tom, there's a long history of this. Candidates taking songs, sometimes misunderstanding the message of songs. But still taking songs and --

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And sometimes rapping them very badly. Yes, this goes on all the time in campaigns. Take a look at all of the acts that complained about Donald Trump stealing their song, Neil Young, Adele, Aerosmith, The Beatles -- Here Comes The Sun, was that case. Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater -- where, weirdly enough, he chose "Fortunate Son," which is very specifically a put down of rich people dodging the draft.

SCIUTTO: Getting out of Vietnam War.

FOREMAN: Exactly. Elton John and The Rolling Stones he used, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Even Mick Jagger waiting in on this. He said after he saw that he did that, he said, It's a funny song for a play out song. That's my Mick Jagger, uh. A drowsy ballad about drugs in Chelsea. It's kind of weird. He couldn't be persuaded to use something else. I'm convinced they don't listen to these songs.

SCIUTTO: I'm sure, I'm sure they don't. So that list you just gave was just Trump.

FOREMAN: Yes, that was just Trump, but there are more.

SCIUTTO: Before Trump's long history, yeah.

FOREMAN: Well, there are more. Yes, there are a lot of people in this. For example Newt Gingrich in 2011 -- I covered so many of these campaigns in some fashion -- he was using "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. They didn't like him using it. He kept using it right up until the voters stopped believing and he dropped out of the race. Even though they didn't want to do it.

Bob Dole, I spent time on the campaign trail with him back in 1996. He was using this version of "I'm a Soul Man," called "I'm a Dole Man." Nice guy to be around soul in this sense is not what you're thinking of at all. And the Motown people behind the original song came back. And then "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, Pat Buchanan all jumped on this song. Even though this song also is very specifically about problems with the U.S.A.

SCIUTTO: May be one of the most misunderstood songs right. When you listen to the actual message of the lyrics. So I mean my question is when the artists complain, do they win in court?

FOREMAN: Sometimes, yes, sometimes because they're saying. Ah, you know, the campaigns like, yeah, we're having some fun. It's a fair use issue in terms of law. Sometimes they will drop it and move on. Other times it seems like they just steam through and say we'll fight it off until we can't fight it off anymore and there's no penalty.

By the way, it does sometimes happen with Democrats, Barack Obama, the president, "Hold On, I'm Coming" by Sam and Dave. They didn't like that. They want to change the people behind that song who had the rights to it, wanted to change it.

I will say this and when you talk about fair use. Really important to think about it. This is the business of these people. This is the business to take a song when somebody says I don't want you to use it. Is, you know, this is tantamount, I think, to like going to a rental car company and saying I'm just going to take the car and drive it around and bring it back but not pay you for it.

SCIUTTO: And I mean, is there any -- do voters know when the candidates are misusing this?

All, I guess I guess it's only if they pay attention. If they pay attention to lyrics. But I've watched people stand up and sing. You know, they're singing along like "Born in the USA" at a campaign rally and they're so excited about it. And honestly because I'm a big, big music fan, played in bands that whole thing. And I listen, I'm like, are you. I have none of you listen to this song. None of you listen to the lyrics. And then you sort of wish the campaigns would just go back to hiring live bands to play patriotic music and call it today.

SCIUTTO: Listen, I just sing along. I can't play in the band. Tom Foreman, thank you so much. Fascinating history of music -- Brianna.

KEILAR: He sure can dance, though, he sure can. Still ahead 3 strikes and you are out. That is what security told two fans during the Rockies Braves game last night. We'll have details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:27]

KEILAR: So a couple of baseball fans, they got a little too excited to see Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. During the 7th inning of last night's game in Colorado a fan actually ran onto the field, gave him a hug and two security guards rushed in and tried to pry the fan off of him.

SCIUTTO: So then another fan ran towards the Braves outfielder and knocked him down. After a few minutes of struggling, security then were able to remove both fans from the field.

KEILAR: Acuna actually gave a thumbs up after the incident, stayed in the game afterwards, he said he was a little scared at first, but he was glad that everything turned out OK.

SCIUTTO: I mean, listen, you get excited. I'm a baseball fan. I would happily run on the field, but the security guards --

KEILAR: I just don't see.

SCIUTTO: -- take that very seriously they take it very seriously.

KEILAR: I don't see you doing that. It kind of feels like an extension of what we're seeing at the concerts with people throwing things at performers. And like, hello, these are people don't do that -- common sense.

SCIUTTO: Also multi-million-dollar athletes don't like to be tackled --

KEILAR: But they're also --

SCIUTTO: By surprise. Yeah, yeah.

KEILAR: They're at work like they're doing their job, right? It's hard enough with all those people making noise and this is just wild. SCIUTTO: It is wild. Now listen, if I were a Braves fan today and they were ahead by like 25 bazillion games, as they are, I might be inspired to on the field as well.

KEILAR: Running on the field and tackling the player are two very different things.

SCIUTTO: Yes, just watch out for the security guard. Yeah, and try not to injure the player.

KEILAR: Yes, definitely lots of news today. Obviously, we're watching and today's very different than what tomorrow is going to be. As you've been watching CNN News Central. Today we're going to have much more of our coverage on Hurricane Idalia. It's a strong category one storm. Already hitting Florida at this point, right?

SCIUTTO: Live pictures now from Key West, Florida. You can the strong winds there hitting the southern Keys at the moment. You have people still taking photographs. I would suggest getting away from the coastline. There are a lot of mandatory evacuation orders from the coastline.

Do stay with CNN for our coverage of Hurricane Idalia. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.