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Heat Wave Across the Country; Jean Su is Interviewed about a Petition to FEMA; Biden to Announce Legal Protections for Undocumented Spouses of U.S. Citizens; Celtics Win 18th Title. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 18, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Designation of drought level in the U.S. right now. It's labeled as "exceptional drought," which makes it extremely dangerous for fire conditions. Of course, that whole state has been under extreme drought for nearly the entire year.

So, we are closely monitoring that situation of several thousand residents, as we mentioned, already having to leave the area and a really quickly developing situation, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much, Madam Chen, out there in California dealing with that situation.

Now let's go to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

You're looking at the whole country and,, whoa, the high temperatures are insane. But it is - it is June, but this is pretty early for above 90 degrees.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And you have to kind of take into context just how many people are affected by this. Again, we're talking about over 80 percent of the U.S. population looking at temperatures of 90 degrees or even higher. And yes, for some that's maybe five or ten degrees above average, not too far, but for others we're reaching record-breaking levels.

Look at this, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, all setting record highs yesterday. Some several degrees beyond what the previous record was. More records are expected, not just today, but likely through the end of the week. You're talking over 150 high temperature records could be broken in just the next several days. The bulk of them are in the Northeast and the Midwest, but you even have a few down in the Southeast, a few out to the west too. So, a lot of folks looking at this exceptionally pretty decent heat wave that's out there.

Now for some, too, it's not just the temperature itself, but also factoring in the humidity. And that's impacts on the body. We refer to that as the heat index.

Take a look at the feels like temperature today. In Cincinnati it's going to feel like it is 100 degrees later this afternoon, 103 is what it will feel like in Syracuse, New York, later today. And even Boston getting that feels like temperature up around 96. Another concern for some places is the prolonged nature of this

heatwave. Take Pittsburgh for example. The average high this time of year, 80 degrees. Not only will we spend every single one of the next seven days above that, but the bulk of them, you're talking ten to even 15 degrees, Sara, above where they normally would be even for summer.

SIDNER: Yes, we're starting to feel it here certainly in New York as well.

Thank you so much, Allison Chinchar, for that report.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, with all this extreme heat going on, there is a new development here. Advocacy groups are petitioning FEMA to include extreme heat as a major disaster in the same way they do for hurricanes and other emergencies.

With me now is Jean Su, the director of the Energy Justice Program and the lead author of this petition.

Jean, thanks so much for being with us. So - so what would change if FEMA all of a sudden considered extreme heat as a major disaster?

JEAN SU, DIRECTOR, ENERGY JUSTICE PROGRAM: Thanks for having me, John.

So, if FEMA considers extreme heat and wildfire smoke, which we're also pushing for, as major disasters, it actually unlocks really critical federal funding for state and local governments to deal with these incredible climate emergencies. I think the footage that you just showed, it - you know, it feels, and it is true, that we're living in the apocalypse and we have extreme heat records that are being broken right now, wildfires that are surging and wildfire smoke on the horizon that will - that will pollute people.

So, what we've heard from so many states and local governments is that you don't have the ability to actually handle this in a systematic way. And so they are asking, you know, teaming up with us as well, for federal funding to help out.

BERMAN: one of the issues has been historically that FEMA funds are generally used for stuff that gets broken, right?

SU: Yes.

BERMAN: Stuff that gets broken. Homes that get demolished in a hurricane or a tornado, or a fire. When you're dealing with heat and smoke, it gets a little more esoteric, right?

SU: Absolutely. And I think this is where the rubber meets the road for our premier emergency management agency. So, in the past, absolutely, as you said, their mindset has been build back to status quo. It's easy to see that that hurricane ripped off your roof. We're going to pay you to get your roof back in order. But what we have now is that climate change has led us to a new frontier of disasters where extreme heat and wildfire smoke are actually really silent killers. Right now actually extreme heat is the number one weather related killer above hurricanes and floods by two- fold. So this is - this is an extreme crisis.

Now, what FEMA needs to do is really move beyond and evolve and go beyond this idea of measuring poverty damage, but really look at how they can save lives. And I think, you know, for our petition, we're working with workers, with major labor unions and public health officials, the remedies are actually different in many ways. So, it's not that we're asking for money - you know, we're asking for money also for medical services, but it's not one for one, you know, let's get this life, you know, I mean it's hard to bring back life, but it's really building the infrastructure that people need to survive.

[09:35:12]

So that looks like very common sense things like cooling centers and air filtration systems. It also means, for so many residences, to actually arm them with rooftop solar and community solar and storage to allow the electricity to keep flowing during these times of risks of severe blackouts from rolling blackouts of the heat actually frying up our grid system.

BERMAN: But it requires a rethinking though of the FEMA mission, correct? And this is what they've said in the past. And it's - where in these types of petitions have been rejected. They say, look, we're here for disasters. We're not here to handle what is a, frankly, changing world.

SU: Absolutely. And I think this is the problem with many of our federal agencies. And FEMA really epitomizes that. Climate change has really, you know, thrown everything up in the air. We're not dealing with traditional disasters anymore where property is being damaged. FEMA really needs to evolve into this century. We have - they have an updated understanding - or outdated understanding of how to deal with disasters. And climate just demands so much more nuance and understanding of what disaster relief looks like now. And for now, in the United States, that actually means saving lives with common sense measures of infrastructure -

BERMAN: Yes.

SU: Cooling centers, water stations, air filtration systems that people can go to and need.

BERMAN: Jean Su, great to have you here. I will say, there are people both for - a lot of people for and against this, but they all agree that important discussions need to be happening on this very subject.

Great to have you on explaining it so well. Thank you very much.

SU: Thanks so much, John.

BERMAN: We are standing by as Boeing's CEO is set to testify before Congress. Just this morning, a new whistleblower came forward with damning allegations of safety violations.

And the Boston Celtics are now the only team to win 18 championships. That's way more - way more than any other team. The second winningest team has only won 17 titles. The Celtics have 18. Big difference.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:01]

SIDNER: Today marks what will be a massive change to U.S. immigration policy. President Biden is expected to unveil a sweeping executive action that would shield hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens from deportation.

Joining me now is former Trump administration official Matt Mowers and Democratic strategists Julie Roginsky.

Thank you both for being here.

I want to start with what we're expecting to hear from Joe Biden today. He's going to announce this new immigration policy. This comes after he announced a policy that made actually it more strict for asylum seekers to come into the country. So you have these two things going. But this is a little bit of DACA, because of the children, and then the spouses of undocumented immigrants would be able to apply for citizenship. Is this a good idea right now, politically, and policy wise?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: From a policy perspective, it's a, I think, a great idea. Politically it's tricky, right? On the one hand, he's trying to say that he's enforcing the border. It's become a massive issue, not just for Republicans, but also for independents and some Democrats. On the other hand, there are 100,000 voters who are married to undocumented immigrants just between the states of Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. And for those swing voters, in those swing states, it's obviously a very big priority. So, he's got to play the balancing game very well. The White House has a lot of messaging ahead of it to make sure that they don't offend one part of the coalition they're trying to protect, and at the same time that they make it clear that they're taking immigration seriously because it is a big issue for the rest of the country.

SIDNER: Mike, this has been such a big issue. Polling time and again for the first time in a very, very long time, in decades, immigration was at some point at number one with what people are worried about in the country. What do you make of this and how will Republicans, you think, use this against the Biden administration?

MIKE MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, look, it's bad politics and bad policy right now. The truth is that in order to stop the flow of illegal migration, you have to stop offering incentives to folks to actually come into the United States in the first place. We saw policies of deterrence actually worked in the Trump administration. It's one of the reasons you saw some record decreases in border crossing at that time. Whether its policies like remain in Mexico policy that are negotiated, or whether it was getting rid of catch and release and doing catch and deport. Whether those sound nice or not, what they did is they told folks that you try to come to the United States, you weren't going to be able to come in, in any chance (ph), weren't going to be able to find a job.

And that ensured that a lot of folks said, you know what, it's not worth taking that risk across the southern border to come to the United States. Joe Biden got rid of those policies, many of them by executive action on day one of this administration, getting rid of the remain in Mexico policy. It's one of the reasons you've seen such an influx of illegal migrants come across the southern border since Joe Biden became president.

You look at the politics of it right now. No - very few Americans are saying, we need policies which present a softer approach towards immigration. They're concerned about the rising crime they've seen in urban areas - in many areas across the country, in particular some core urban areas like New York, Chicago, where your - you just saw the story come out of Maryland the other day where - that you just covered about an hour ago where it was an illegal El Salvadoran migrant who killed this young woman going out for a run in Howard County, Maryland.

[09:45:13]

Americans are seeing the impact of the crime, they're seeing the impact on the economy. They're not asking for any softer policies right now. And they're going to see this kind of, you know, election year maneuver from President Biden and it wreaks of politics. They're going to see right through it.

SIDNER: You - we just want to be clear, you can't blame, you know, a rising crime on immigrants coming into this country. Actually the violent crime has gone down. So, I do want to make that point.

But I do want to talk to you, Matt, about another subject. Obviously, we're going to have this debate, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, the earliest that we've ever seen to presidential candidates coming at each other. But there is this issue of - of Milwaukee. You had the president calling Milwaukee, as he's about to go to Wisconsin, one of the swing states, calling Milwaukee a horrible city.

Do you think this is going to have any impact on folks in that state to hear that from a presidential candidate who is coming to the state asking them to vote for him?

MOWERS: No. Look, I talked to some members of Congress who were in that meeting. They said that's been taken out of context from what President Trump was saying.

Look, I wasn't there. I didn't hear it, so I can't speak to it. But what they told me was that it was taken out of context. He was -

SIDNER: I mean, what could the context be?

MOWERS: He was referring to the crime - you know, crime and other issues they're having in Milwaukee. SIDNER: Yes.

MOWERS: And, look, the truth is, in Wisconsin there are two different views in Milwaukee. Obviously, if you live there, you love it. If you're outside of it, a lot of folks have concerns with what they're seeing going on in Milwaukee. We're seeing those concerns play out in many states where you have differences in leadership in some of these cities where they have had weaker crime policies, where they have had tax policies, sometimes at the local level, which are running businesses out. And that's having an impact on the quality of life and the safety of those residents in that city.

And so I'm - you know, whether I - again, I can't get into the details of what President Trump said or didn't. But based on what I was told by folks who were in the room, he was referring to crime and other issues around Milwaukee, not the city itself, where, you know, we'll all be in just a few weeks.

ROGINSKY: Yes, Matt, I - you know, we'd be shocked - shocked to hear that Donald Trump is somehow trashing cities. I mean, come on, it begs - beggars belief that Donald Trump was not trashing Milwaukee. You know that because you worked for him. You know exactly what he's capable of.

I'll also say on immigration real quickly, Matt, now this, if Republicans really wanted a solution, and not just to use this as a cudgel for the election, they would have voted for their own immigration bill, but they chose not to. So, if you're blaming immigration on crime and places like Milwaukee, which you shouldn't, you should have done something about that. Your party should have done something about that long ago when they had the opportunity, rather than grand stand for political reasons now. And I think you know that.

SIDNER: Julie Roginsky -

MOWERS: No - I would just say, Joe Biden could have taken executive action years ago.

SIDNER: Oh, go ahead, Matt, I'll give you the last word.

MOWERS: I would just say, Joe Biden could have taken the same executive action he took two weeks ago three years ago.

ROGINSKY: I think he was hoping Congress - I think -

MOWERS: And he chose not to. He only did it because of the politics in an election year.

ROGINSKY: I think he was hoping Congress was actually going to enact laws rather than him having to take executive action, which the next administration could overturn easily, which you also know.

SIDNER: I think that we -

MOWERS: Just like he overturned strong immigration policies on day one. SIDNER: This is the thing, immigration, a big deal. We can see it between the two of you.

ROGINSKY: Certainly is.

SIDNER: But also we did hear from the sheriff in - who was responsible and helped arrest that suspect that you mentioned, Matt, who killed a mother of five, who was a suspect who is an undocumented immigrant. And he himself said, look, the buck stops with Biden, but he blames Congress just as well because this is a congressional issue. So, it was a bipartisan blaming, if you will.

But thank you both, Julie Roginsky, Matt Mowers. Thank you for coming on and having this conversation that Americans are having at home as well.

All right, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash moderating that highly anticipated first meeting a President Biden and former President Trump in the "CNN Presidential Debate." That is live Thursday, June 27th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right, we've got new - a brand-new sneak peek. What the American athletes will be wearing at the Olympics for the opening ceremony. Hopefully that will bring us all together.

And we're following the breaking news that Justin Timberlake has been arrested for DWI. He is supposed to be in court right now in Sag Harbor, New York. We will bring you updates as soon as we get those.

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[09:53:52]

BERMAN: Can you see this here? I don't know if you can see this.

SIDNER: We can - we can see you, John.

BERMAN: You see what it spells out?

SIDNER: Everyone can see you.

BERMAN: Champs! The Boston Celtics are the NBA champions for the - how many time?

SIDNER: I'm not -

BERMAN: Eighteenth. It's the 18th time the Boston Celtics have won the NBA championship.

SIDNER: Nope.

BERMAN: You know what, this is one of the best teams that has won a championship in a long, long time. Maybe 2017, but it's been a long time since a team was this good.

With us now to say how right I am about this - SIDNER: Oh, gosh.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Would I dare -

SIDNER: Here we go.

BERMAN: CNN's sports -

MANNO: Would I dare say anything else?

BERMAN: CNN's sports correspondent Carolyn Manno.

No, they -

MANNO: I'm not looking to get fired.

BERMAN: They were really - like I have that power.

Anyway, they were good.

MANNO: No, they were good.

SIDNER: It was very good.

BERMAN: It was a great team, a great season and a great champion.

MANNO: And I know you brought celebratory gestures (ph).

SIDNER: I would begift (ph) you this because you are not getting that in your home.

MANNO: That's nice.

BERMAN: That's right.

SIDNER: This -

MANNO: Listen.

SIDNER: The thing that you made yourself. Good times (ph).

BERMAN: It's right - (INAUDIBLE) thank you.

MANNO: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: In CNN NEWS CENTRAL fashion, a gift that I made myself for me.

MANNO: Yes. No, what a good teammate. And, you're right, this team has worked so hard. They've been under tremendous scrutiny and pressure. And this is just a moment that they have been waiting for, for over a decade.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get ready to raise an 18th banner, Boston.

[09:55:02]

The Celtics are once again the winningest franchise in the history of the NBA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Boston would not be denied. They really set the tone from the opening tip against Dallus. They were ready to go. They jumped out to a 21-point halftime lead.

SIDNER: That's -

MANNO: This is crazy.

SIDNER: That was nuts.

MANNO: Payton Pritchard. Yes, I'll just - I'll heave it from beyond half court, the buzzer, no big deal. They just didn't let up. Jayson Tatum, you saw him emotional after the game. He had 31 points, he had 11 assists, eight boards. A 106-88 victory, and well-deserved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYSON TATUM, BOSTON CELTICS FORWARD: Oh my God, it's a surreal feeling. We did it. We did it! Oh, my God, we did it.

We've been through a lot as a team over the last couple years, over my seven years. What they going to say now? What they going to say now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: John, do you look this happy when your kids celebrate Christmas? Do you look this happy at any other time? I mean you are glowing, smiling from ear to ear.

SIDNER: Now.

BERMAN: It's just - it's much better than losing, it turns out, winning is. And it's - and it's great. And as Jayson Tatum says, like, what you going to say now?

MANNO: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean this team - this team has gone through a lot. It took a long time to get here.

MANNO: It's true. Yes, it's true.

SIDNER: And we have to hear this, by the way, with the Patriots. But now that you've lost the quarterback that everybody - good luck with that.

MANNO: Yes.

SIDNER: I'm just saying, I didn't know when to bring the - the thing down, but like, he's got a win.

BERMAN: Next year.

SIDNER: He's got a win.

MANNO: He's ready (ph).

SIDNER: He's happy.

MANNO: He seems (ph) ready.

SIDNER: Boston's happy and it's going to be wild.

BERMAN: All right.

MANNO: Yes.

SIDNER: All right, thank you for joining us.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Thank you for being here. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta, up next.

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