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Severe Weather Hits the East Coast; Severe Weather Impacts Holiday Travel; Senate Continues on Border Deal Talks; Respiratory Illnesses Surging. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 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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[09:32:41]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take live to Washington right now. You're looking at live pictures of the casket of the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor arriving at the steps of the Supreme Court where the late justice will lie in repose today. Justice O'Connor was the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court. She passed away on December 1st at the age of 93. And she, of course, will be remembered for so many things. She's going to be honored during a private ceremony this morning at the court. Afterwards, the public is going to be allowed to pay their respects to this trail blazing, legendary woman and justice. And tomorrow there will be a private funeral service for Sandra Day O'Connor at Washington National Cathedral.

You're seeing now live as they're walking her casket up the Supreme Court steps.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A true trailblazer.

All right, an intense storm system making for a really rough morning for a whole lot of us up and down the East Coast. About 58 million people from North Carolina to Maine are dealing with heavy rain, flooding and strong, gusty winds this morning. The powerful nor'easter is bringing everything but snow. One is small highlight. Up in Maine, the winds were whipping near the beaches. You can see somebody trying to walk there. The cameraman having a hard time holding his camera steady. One man describing the conditions like this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels like a - like a sandblast right now with a combination of salt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it's definitely - the sand's blowing pretty hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. And in the Carolinas, severe flooding is leading to water rescues overnight near Raleigh. Police say a car went around barriers and drove right into floodwaters, getting stuck.

Let's get straight to CNN's Polo Sandoval in Rockaway Beach.

Polo, you're always in the middle of this. First, it was Buffalo. Now, it's here. What are we trying to do to you?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I have a lot of stripes here, right, for each storm that we cover.

SIDNER: Yes.

SANDOVAL: I tell you what, along with our team, of course, the folks behind the camera.

But what we've experienced since long before sunrise is quite literally a night and day difference. What I mean by that, long before sunrise, we experienced heavy winds, extreme downpours leading to some isolated flooding. And then the sun rises, and that weather has cleared out throughout portions of the region. Now that being said, the destructions are still certainly being felt with hundreds of thousands of people in throughout New England still in the dark.

[09:35:08]

So, right now, utility crews certainly trying to get those people back online. You may have heard a flight departure from JFK just a few moments ago. So hopefully they're trying to get back online there as well, clearing out any delays.

In terms of the rescues that we witnessed play out, several in neighboring Connecticut. Fortunately, no injuries to report there. And then in New Jersey, there's some school districts that are still in the dark that are saying you know what, kids, stay home. We have no idea when power will be back online, so it's best to just simply call off classes the rest of the day.

So, again, that's really what speaks to those lingering effects of this storm that I have to say was very - was moving quite quickly. I mean the speed at which that weather has cleared out, at least from where we are right now, is really quite remarkable. But, again, now comes the hard part, the cleanup in some neighborhoods, some downed trees, power lines. And, again, we can't hit that point enough, power outages. That's still an issue throughout the region for millions of people.

SIDNER: Yes, we could hear it howling last night. I did see a sliver of sun. So, there is hope.

Polo Sandoval, thank you so much to you and your team.

SANDOVAL: Yes. Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Already there are hundreds of flights that have been canceled or delayed because of this weather system coming through. Let's get to CNN's Pete Muntean. He's tracking this from Reagan National Airport outside of D.C.

Pete, what are you seeing in terms of the ripple effects of all of this?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: There's always a cascading effect here, Kate. The good news here at Reagan National Airport, most of the weather has moved out. It is gray and it is windy right now. Winds up to about 30 miles an hour here are the peak gusts.

We are see, according to the FAA, some ground stops and ground delays going into effect. In fact, the FAA just put a ground stop in effect for flights going into Boston Logan, also flights being delayed on the ground there as well due to the heavy wind.

The big story here is the fact that this is mostly rain, that this is not a snow event. So, we could be seeing a very different story right now. The number of cancellations and delays remaining relatively low. Here are the latest from Flight Aare. About 388 cancellations so far today, about 1,100 flight delays.

Let's put this into context over the weekend where this weather was. We saw 10,500 delays, but only 200 cancellations. Airlines really repeating a story that we saw over Thanksgiving when they were hit by big rain and there were a lot of delays but not many cancellations.

The weather is the big x factor as we go into holiday travel here. And it really begins to ramp up now. The numbers that we have seen, according to the airlines, is that these -- these rushes for Christmas and New Year's are getting longer. And so many people are leaving earlier. So, we are right on the precipice of what will be likely a record-setting holiday travel season. AAA says it's going to be one of the biggest ever.

BOLDUAN: Fingers crossed that the weather helps us out this time, because it definitely didn't last Christmas season.

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

Sara.

SIDNER: Still ahead, the race to reach a deal. Ukraine and Israel aid hanging in the balance. Democrats thought they could get to an agreement today. But after a weekend of dealing, has anything changed?

Also, a major manhunt is underway in Texas this morning after an inmate serving life for child sex abuse escaped from prison. We'll have those stories and more, coming up.

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[09:42:52] BOLDUAN: So, they are still at it on Capitol Hill, trying to hammer out a border security and immigration deal tied to Ukraine and Israel aid. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he delayed the Senate's holiday break, keeping senators in town, as he vowed to hold a vote on this, this week. But despite a whole lot of meetings and talk this weekend, which is important, negotiators say a deal and a vote are still unlikely.

CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, where you were also this weekend, Lauren.

What's the very latest? Where - where - what -- has there been progress? Where is this progress?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think two things are true. The first is that, yes, they made progress over the weekend. They continued to meet and they'll continue to meet today and into the rest of this week. But it's also true, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema has pointed this out over and over again, that this is really complicated. That the details here really matter. And as they get through decision after decision, as they make agreement after agreement, they then realize there's even more to work out beneath the surface.

And, you know, Senator Sinema said yesterday, this is one of the most complicated areas of law she's ever tried to negotiate. And she's someone who has a lot of experience with these kinds of deals, these kinds of bipartisan talks.

Senator Langford, yesterday, said that it was more realistic that they probably will be talking about some kind of framework or deal in principle sometime in January. There was a number of Republican senators who sent a letter requesting a special Republican conference meeting when they return on January 8th. I think that that does tell you, if you're reading between the lines, that there is an expectation that this probably isn't going to get done and voted on by this week. In fact, yesterday, I asked Senators Sinema and Murphy if a framework was going to be announced last night, and they were clear, no, there wasn't a framework to announce. And that really underscores the reality here, that if you don't have a deal in principle, you don't have that framework, how are you going to sort of make sure that the legislative text is written, that this is something that can be communicated to senators and people are ready to vote in a matter of three days.

[09:45:01]

I think that that's a really tall order at this point, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And also, can I just say, unsurprising that they're not able to hammer something out right now. We're talking about -- like changes in immigration policy which, again, we've said it a million times, it's been three decades since anything significant on that. It's not surprising even with the best of intention that they're not getting there quite yet, which is why it's a question of if they're going to get there at all.

Lauren, thank you for being there. We'll get back to you.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, it's a mess.

CNN political analyst and White House reporter for the "Associated Press," Seung Min Kim, joins us now.

Thank you so much for being here.

I guess, when you look at this, did the White House show up too late to these negotiations? Are Republicans -- their plans just too far to one side? I mean what is happening here?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of competing factors here at play. If you talk to some Republicans, yes, they will say the White House did kind of intervene in these discussions a little too late because if you recall the White House has had pretty good success during President Biden's time in office of kind of staying out of these legislative negotiations and just kind of letting the senators, letting the lawmakers kind of do the lawmaking and then kind of having Biden there at the last minute to sign these priorities into law.

It's a little different here. Obviously, immigration is incredibly complicated. It's incredibly technical and complex, which is why the White House and DHS officials are in the room, pretty much as we speak, you know, hammering out these negotiations. But I've talked to a lot of Republicans who are involved in these negotiations, and they say there's no way you can close a deal until the White House is really fully engaged because the president, the White House, really needs to send a signal to other lawmakers, particularly Democrats, what the president is willing to do on the border.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, those are really good points because, in the end, when you put this together and it's vetoed, what is the point.

But how far apart are, I mean, are these negotiations? And what are some of the sticking points that you have sort of seen play out here?

KIM: Well, there are several outstanding issues at play right now. And a lot of it revolves -- first of all, this isn't like the traditional immigration negotiations where there's all this talk about border security, but perhaps a pathway to citizenship. So, it's more of a balanced approach. This all really focuses on the border, on sort of scaling back these migrants' ability to apply for asylum, which is - which has been causing the rising number of people arriving at the border.

So, you have a lot of sticking points inside the room. For example, you have Republicans who, for weeks, insisting on provisions that would essentially scale back President Biden's what we call parole authority, kind of this authority, kind of power by the president to allow in certain types of immigrants, or basically Republicans say that should be handled on a case-by-case basis and the president and this administration has not been doing that. There are certainly areas of agreement there -- already there are

agreements inside that room on making basically the asylum interview process a little bit harder. So, it's a little bit harder to pass these procedural steps to get to, perhaps, apply for asylum in this country. But this is a really complicated, technical issue. And also, if the law is not written right, if this law is not airtight, then it could open -- the administration could open itself up to numerous legal challenges. And that's going to cause serious problems down the road.

SIDNER: We only have a couple of weeks left in the year. Do you think just one last thing, yes or no, any chance this is going to get passed before January 1st rolls around?

KIM: I mean, it has to be a no right now because, obviously, there are two chambers of Congress. And even if the Senate makes progress, even I the Senate group makes progress and the Senate -- senators pass this - pass this legislation, we have a House to contend with.

SIDNER: Right.

KIM: They've already gone home for the holidays.

SIDNER: Right.

KIM: So, it doesn't look possible at this point.

SIDNER: Good luck getting them back.

All right, Seung Min Kim, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And this just in, we have an update coming out of Texas. That major manhunt for an escaped inmate just this morning has now come to an end. The inmate serving a life sentence for child sex abuse, he was just caught after escaping from prison. We'll have an update from authorities there.

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[09:53:26]

JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Sandra with us, especially to your dad, John, whom Sandra adored and who made the greatest of sacrifices to follow her to Washington, D.C. The world, the country and our court owe all of you a debt of gratitude. I know how precious you were to her. Each of you had your own unique relationship with her. And she cherished that relationship. She was especially grateful for her wonderful daughters-in-law. And it is hard - and it is not hard to imagine why. For a long time the only woman among men, Sandra appreciated you, her daughters-in-law, for breaking up some of the homogeneity in her life. To her grandchildren, you only got to know her at the second part of her life, but I hope you know that she lived her life to leave her legacy particularly to you. She was devoted to making a better world, and that's what she did. Some years ago my colleagues and I were at lunch discussing the bygone

era --

BOLDUAN: What we're listening to right there is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaking and honoring late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Supreme Court. We saw earlier in the show her casket being walked up the Supreme Court steps. She will be laying in repose today at the court where the public eventually today will be able to pay their respects to the trailblazing justice who passed away on December 1st.

[09:55:06]

And there will be a private funeral service for her at the Washington National Cathedral tomorrow.

We're going to keep our eye on those moments happening at the Supreme Court and bring those to you as well, but we're also taking a look right now at new data from the CDC making it clear that respiratory illnesses are spreading fast, hitting big portions of the country very hard right now. And the CDC - it's left the CDC to also say that we still have not seen the worst of it. It still hasn't peaked.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has much more on the data and the warning from the CDC.

What are you seeing in the numbers coming out from the CDC on what we're looking at with these respiratory illnesses right now?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So what's really interesting is, we've kind of been waiting to see when things were going to get back to normal, you know, pre-pandemic levels with flu and RSV.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

TIRRELL: But, of course, now that they're getting back to normal, we also have Covid on top of them. And what the CDC is saying right now is that we haven't seen a peak, so we could start to see this really get kind of overwhelming heading into the end of the year.

If you look at the CDC's map about where things are getting hit hardest, right now what we're showing you is emergency department visits from all three of those viruses. And what you can see is that overall they're spiking. Flu and Covid together are coming up and flu is rising pretty quickly. You can see here the geographic distribution. It's really bad in the south right now but it is starting to move north. And Covid in particular in wastewater is being detected at the highest levels in the Midwest right now. And that can really portend a rise in cases. So, all of these things are at highest levels. And there are concerns about emergency departments and ICU's ability to care for patients if they start to get overwhelmed with all of these respiratory viruses.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And one thing that I know there - I've had conversations with folks is, we're in the middle of the season, did I - did I miss the opportunity or is it even worthwhile to get vaccinated at that point?

TIRRELL: Right.

BOLDUAN: What are you hearing from doctors on this?

TIRRELL: They will definitely tell you to get vaccinated kif you haven't for flu and Covid. That's for everybody over six months. For RSV there's a new vaccine now for people over 60 or for people in pregnancy. There's also protection available for babies. And because we still haven't even hit the peak, they say if you haven't gotten them yet, you should go out and get vaccinated.

BOLDUAN: It would be a huge help. It's great to see you, Meg, thank you.

TIRRELL: You too. Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to speak very soon after meeting with Israeli leaders, impressing them to change their strategy in the war in Gaza. We'll take you there live just ahead. You're looking at live pictures right now of the secretary of state talking to - I think that's Benny Gantz that he's speaking to, if I can see. Ah - ah, this is moments ago.

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