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McConnell Cleared to Work; Geoff Duncan is Interviewed about the Georgia Case; Man Escapes Prison in Philadelphia; Labor Day Travel. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 01, 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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[09:31:26]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning the Capitol physician has cleared Senator Mitch McConnell to continue working. This is after the 81-year-old long-time Republican leader froze while speaking to reporters in Kentucky. The incident Wednesday was the second episode, you'll recall, like this one for McConnell. Even with the medical all clear given, questions are continuing to swirl about his health and his political future.

CNN's Melanie Zanona has more on this for us. She's joining us now.

Melanie, what are you hearing about what this all means for Mitch McConnell, his health and his leadership?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, I'll tackle the leadership part first because, Kate, there are growing doubts right now about whether Mitch McConnell will continue to serve as leader past 2024. That's how long his term as GOP leader currently is.

There is chatter among rank and file Republicans about trying to force a special conference meeting next week to talk about their party's leadership and all of McConnell's health challenges. That would take five Republicans to call for such a meeting. But there is no mechanism really to force a vote to remove McConnell at this point. So, it's really a conversation about the future and where the GOP is headed and what a post-McConnell GOP looks like, which at some point is going to happen.

But his team does recognize that this is a potential political problem for them and so they have been taking steps behind the scenes to tamp down speculation about both his political future and about his health. Notably a step that they took yesterday was to release a statement from the Capitol physician. The Capitol physician said in a statement that he conferred with both McConnell and with his neurology team and determined that he is medically cleared.

I want to read you part of that statement from the Capitol physician. He said, "occasional light headedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration." As a reminder, Mitch McConnell did suffer a concussion earlier this year when he tripped and fell at an event. So, clearly his team trying to be more transparent about his health and a number of Republicans and Democrats are also giving him some grace here.

Let's take a listen to what President Joe Biden had to say yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spoke to Mitch. He's a friend. And I - I spoke to him today. And, you know, he was his old self on the telephone.

It's not at all unusual to have a response that sometimes happens to Mitch when you've had a severe concussion. It's part of a -- it's part of the recovery. And so I'm confident he's going to be back to his old self.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: And Biden, of course, facing questions of his own about his age as he runs for reelection. But, look, this is just an issue that is likely not going to go away anytime soon. The Senate will return next week, so I'm sure these conversations are only going to intensify.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that's a good point.

It's good to see you, Melanie. Thank you.

Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Georgia's governor says he will not call a special session of the state legislature despite demands from some of his fellow Republicans who want DA Fani Willis investigated over her prosecution of former President Donald Trump. While Governor Kemp says he believes the timing of Trump's Georgia indictment, quote, sows distrust, he also said he's not seen any evidence the DA has acted unlawfully.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R), GEORGIA: The bottom line is that in the state of Georgia, as long as I'm governor, we're going to follow the law and the constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically.

And in Georgia we will not be engaging in political theater that only inflames the emotions of the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:35:07]

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss with former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.

Geoff, great to see you, as always.

I imagine listening to that sound bite and watching what's unfolding in Georgia, it's got to be frustrating to you to a degree because we're two and a half years out from the 2020 election and you're still answering questions about a free and fair election in that state.

GEOFF DUNCAN (R), FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Well, Boris, actually, it's refreshing to hear a conservative leader stand up in front of a microphone and say the right thing, right, not what's politically popular, but genuinely what the right thing is. And when we create laws in this state, when we create laws in this country, they're not created to create partisan advantages, they're there to enforce the law. And so Brian Kemp's doing exactly that. He's making sure that he stands up and the letter of the law is adhered to, not followed along party lines.

But, yes, it is frustrating. And to think that we are in the place we are as Republicans and we should have a layup to beat Joe Biden at this point. But for whatever reason, we continue to be infatuated with Donald Trump. I hope the fever is close to breaking. It certainly -- we have all the warning signs going off in front of us to make this decision to pick somebody other than Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: Notably Governor Kemp also said that calling a special legislative session would potentially be unconstitutional and yet it's something that so many Republicans in the state are pursuing, in part because they're hearing from constituents who listen to people like former President Donald Trump calling for this kind of thing. How do you break through the distrust that some in the constituency have for leaders like Governor Kemp?

DUNCAN: Well, look, I still believe it's the cowardly way forward. I mean this is how we got here to start with was this call from Donald Trump to have a special session to overturn the election. And myself and Governor Kemp and the late David Ralston, the speaker of the house, stood strong and said that that was not a constitutional step forward and it didn't merit us calling the general assembly back into session. And so anybody to do this is just a continued small-minded approach.

But, you know, Governor Kemp, in the second part of that press conference, really laid out the vision for a conservative leader. We've cut taxes in the state of Georgia. I was proud to be along his side. We've increased pay for teachers. We've made neighborhoods safer. We've increased our economic development opportunities, you know, massively. These are conservative principles that we should not only be running on here in Georgia but be running on nationally.

Instead, we've got this three-ring circus going on and, you know, apparently we're going to spend the next 18 months campaigning on courthouse steps. And, you know, Donald Trump's got his work cut out. Whether you like him or don't like him, regardless, you've got to be an honest purveyor of the facts. And that says that this is going to be a disaster for the next 15 months. We're not going to be in a position to beat Joe Biden, unfortunately. We're going to continue to not talk about the issues and hold Joe Biden accountable for those issues.

Today we should be talking about how pours the border is. We should be talking about all the misinformation that's going on inside the economy. We should be talking about negative reactions to foreign policy or lack of reaction to foreign policy. But we're not. We're talking about Donald Trump and 18 co--indicted individuals that are trying to fight for their own freedom. And, quite honestly, I think they're waking up to the realities of their second and third retainer payments to these attorneys and they're not going to care about Donald Trump's political future.

SANCHEZ: That is an interesting point about the finances of these co- defendants because it - it gets really expensive to defend, especially in a RICO case.

I'm curious about your message to Colton Moore. He's a Georgia state senator. He's talked about potentially impeaching Fani Willis, potentially defunding her office. There are other leaders like him in Georgia in your party. What would you say to them?

DUNCAN: Well, as a former president of the senate, you know, certainly I've seen folks try to stand up and say the -- ridiculous things just to get popularity in their district. Look, sometimes small people arrive in big jobs, and that's how I would explain that situation. Trying to incite violence, trying to stir the crowd. I mean that's exactly how we got to January 6th. And to be honest with you, I think very shallow, below the surface in Donald Trump's mind, he wouldn't mind another January 6th moment. It would create the perfect shiny object for him to steer away from the current legal situation that he's in and those around him that would even think about stirring us in this country to that point, that feverish pitch is wrong and, quite honestly, it's un-American. There's no election worth winning to bring us back to a moment of January 6th.

SANCHEZ: So, you touched on how you could potentially see this playing out in the primary and in the presidential election of 2024. And I just want to push back a little bit because it seems like your argument is that Republicans would be far further along with a candidate not named Donald Trump, and yet he is trouncing the other presidential candidates on the right in the primaries and in national polling it doesn't seem like he's that far behind President Joe Biden for a re-election bid.

[09:40:08]

What are your thoughts?

DUNCAN: Well, I'm not certain I understand the push back because I think we agree, he is ahead. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is well ahead and we continue to go down this road. I hope a candidate stands up and speaks the truth about the 2020 election, makes sure that there's no - there's no space between the fact that the 2020 election was legal and fair. It is unfortunate if you're a Republican. But I do think that when we get to the general, I mean, this is a Herschel Walker type moment, right? Herschel Walker seemed bulletproof coming through the primary with an 80-point win. But it was very easy to see that going into the general, when the other team, the Democrats, start, you know, carpet bombing with all the indiscretions and all the lack of decision-making that, you know, Donald Trump's, quite honestly, going to have to face from Joe Biden's campaign, we're going to lose the middle. Nobody in the middle, nobody, not to a single person has changed their mind on Donald Trump since they didn't vote for him in 2020 based on all of this that's played out. And so this is impossible math, you know, as we continue to navigate through this.

SANCHEZ: Geoff Duncan, very much appreciate your perspective and your time, sir. Thanks.

DUNCAN: Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Boris, coming up for us, extremely dangerous. That's how authorities are describing a convicted murderer who escaped a Pennsylvania prison. But he is not the only escapee who has sparked a massive search this morning. We have the details when we come back.

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[09:45:56]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

And happening now, intense searches on both the east and west coast for two escapees considered extremely dangerous. One was just convicted of murder. The other is accused of attempted murder.

In Oregon authorities are looking for 39-year-old Christopher Lee Pray, who managed to escape while he was fully restrained with shackles on his arms and legs. Pray, who was being held on suspicion of attempted aggravated murder, was in custody as a patient at Oregon State Hospital when he took off Wednesday in a 2016 white Dodge Caravan.

Now, across the country, just 30 miles west of Philadelphia, convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison. And that happened just days after he was sentenced to life without parole for killing his ex-girlfriend.

Let's bring in CNN's Danny Freeman. He is in Philadelphia.

Danny, I imagine this must be a huge operation. What's the latest with the status of this manhunt?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, you're absolutely right, a huge operation. I actually just got off the phone with the district attorney's office in Chester County. Within the past hour they tell me there are no real new updates except that they are expanding their search. They're searching the entirety of Chester County at this point. And they're really encouraging restaurants around the Chester County prison, where this escape happened, to remain vigilant because, as you said, this is an extremely dangerous suspect who is on the loose.

Now, Rahel, I want to get back to what we know and how this all started. Law enforcement officials say this all started Thursday morning around 8:50 in the morning. That's when inmate Danelo Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison. As you said, it's about 30 miles west of where we are right now in Philadelphia. He was last seen, though, at 9:40 a.m. wearing a white t-shirt, gray shorts and white sneakers. And, Rahel, that's important because law enforcement believed that he was able to change his clothes after he was in prison and after he escaped because he would otherwise be wearing the regular prison garb.

Now, Rahel, I just want to go into exactly what put this man in prison in the first place. He was just convicted of first-degree murder two weeks ago, just sentenced to life without the possibility of parole last week. And it's all for stabbing his former girlfriend 38 times back in 2021, killing her in front of her children, Rahel. And police and prosecutors say that the motive for that killing was his girlfriend discovered that he was actually wanted for a separate murder in Brazil and was threatening to expose him. They say that is the motive for this murder that took place in 2021 and lands him this first-degree murder conviction.

This is why the DA and law enforcement have been speaking so cautiously about this inmate. Take a listen to what the DA in Chester County told CNN's Laura Coates last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEB RYAN, CHESTER COUNTY, PA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This man has nothing to lose. He is going to do everything and anything, we think, to escape. He's managed to evade law enforcement on numerous occasions, including during the domestic dispute he had with the same victim back in 2020. He was -- he managed to evade a service for a protection from abuse order, despite law enforcement from multiple agencies attempting to locate him. So, he's really good at hiding from law enforcement and we believe that he'll do anything in his power to attempt to evade us now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Rahel, there have been at least a lose agencies who have helped in this search so far. We've seen K-9s, drones, helicopters as well, but, Rahel, we still don't have an answer to the question of how he broke out of this prison. Investigators at this point not giving us that answer. But, of course, we'll keep asking.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: I imagine also looking into whether he potentially had any help at all. So many questions.

Danny Freeman live for us there in Philly.

Danny, thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So many questions and still so scary.

Coming up for us, do you have plans to travel this Labor Day weekend? What you can expect on the roads and in the sky as we round out, very sadly, the official end of summer.

We'll be back.

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[09:53:53]

SANCHEZ: Are you traveling this weekend? If so, you're in good company. This week AAA said booking data puts domestic travel up 4 percent compared to last year. And, notably, international bookings jumped 44 percent from 2022. While it's still going to cost less to drive than to fly, drivers are going to be paying more at the pump. Gas prices nearing record highs for Labor Day weekend.

Let's take you now to DCA (ph) with CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean.

So, Pete, who's it looking so far? What are the lines like?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, so far so smooth, Boris. It's not to terribly bad, although we could see some ground stops later on today in some pretty major hubs We'll get to that in a second.

The numbers, though, are huge. Today is going to be the busiest of the Labor Day travel weekend, 2.7 million scheduled to pass through security at America's airports according to the TSA.

And entire weekend, though, even bigger number, 14 million in total and now through Wednesday when everybody begins coming back home all at once. This really is the climatic end to a huge and record-breaking summer. And 227.5 million people, that's how many people the TSA flew this summer.

[09:55:06]

The biggest summer for air travel ever.

The cancellations have gone down a little bit. We've seen about a 20 percent drop from 2023 compared to 2022. It's about 40,000 so far this summer, 50,000 in total last year. And travel expert Scott Keyes of Going says, you know, there's still some things that are out of the airline's control and there's still room to improve.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT KEYES, FOUNDER, GOING.COM: The odds are pretty good. The odds are -- have been - have mostly played out in the traveler's favor in 2023 with the x-factor, of course, being, how will mother nature cooperate? Will we see widespread thunderstorms like we saw over July 4th that led to a lot of cancellations that were largely unpreventable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The FAA already anticipating some weather in place today like San Francisco, Phoenix, also in Florida, Tampa, Orlando. So, getting to Disney World may be a little bit difficult for people trying to take advantage of that over the long weekend.

A lot of people may try to bypass that by driving. And AAA saying the worst time to go is today between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. So you still have a little bit of the window if you want to hit the road sometime soon, Boris.

SANCHEZ: The cliche is always for these kinds of travel stories, pack your patience. The unofficial mayor of DCA, Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: So, Boris, I guess this means you'll just have to stay in New York a few more days.

SANCHEZ: Yes. I don't know about that. I don't know about there.

SOLOMON: You'll just have to hang out with us a little bit longer.

All right, coming up for us, and in the next hour, a Proud Boy member who smashed in a window at the U.S. Capitol will learn just how much time he will spend behind bars for his actions of January 6th. We are live with the latest.

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