Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Thousands Flee Fast-Spreading Wildfires In New Mexico; Group Wants FEMA To Declare Heat, Smoke As "Major Disasters"; House Ethics Committee Gives Rare Update On Gaetz Probe; Boeing Trying To Fix Starliner Issues Before Return To Earth; Voyager 1 Spacecraft Sends Stream Of Data Back From Unchartered Territory. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 19, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:33]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: At least one death has been reported in New Mexico as two wildfires continue to burn out of control in that state. Right now, the South Fork Fire remains 0 percent contained and has scorched more than 15,000 acres.

And then just south of that, the Salt Fire is burning through tribal lands. Officials say the fast-spreading flames have destroyed more than 1,400 buildings and homes. And that has forced around 8,000 people to evacuate the city of Ruidoso.

One man that we spoke to this morning says he and his wife did not receive a warning and they had to flee suddenly with a three-year-old and their newborn, leaving almost everything behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC MORO, WILDFIRE EVACUEE: We don't know what's going to happen with our home. And my daughter was crying.

And as we were packing stuff up, she thought we were leaving home. She thought that we'd never come back. And I said, no, we're not leaving. We're not giving up the house.

It's just dangerous right now. And we have to -- we have to, you know, in case the fire comes, we have to be prepared. We can't stay here. But we'll come back. I kept trying to reassure her that we'll come back, we'll come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Ed Lavandera joining us live now from Ruidoso with some new details.

And, Ed, New Mexico police just identified the first victim of these wildfires. What can you tell us?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a tragic story. The first victim of this wildfire has been identified as 60-year-old Patrick Pearson (ph), who, according to a social media post from his daughter, was living in the Swiss Chalet Inn Hotel just on the northern side of Ruidoso, that, we understand, has been severely damaged in this.

His daughter wrote that he had recently broken his leg and was unable to drive and apparently unable to escape the flames as they were getting closer here into the city. So that is the tragic news that we're just able to confirm at this point.

And this comes as the winds, Brianna, here in Ruidoso are really starting to pick up once again this afternoon. And you're looking out toward the South Fork Fire in that direction.

And if you can take a closer look at the mountain range out there, you can see in about a half dozen spots the intensity of the smoke and the flames that are shooting up from the mountain side there. That is the largest fire. More than 16,000 acres.

And then here on this edge of town, over this ridge line, this is the other fire that residents here are concerned with. And we've been monitoring that.

Just a few hours ago, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction. So all of the area that we are in was filled with smoke. We could barely see a mile ahead of us. The visibility was cut down.

[14:35:07]

But this afternoon, the winds have shifted back that way and that has cleared out the city areas. So you're able to see the hotspots that are popping up in the ridge line here.

And that is why -- the unpredictability of all of this is why so many people have evacuated. And 8,000 people have left the area, some 1,400 structures and homes have been destroyed in this wildfire.

And as we mentioned, the very few -- there's very little time for residents to kind of get out of the way of this wildfire. And as residents -- we've spoken to simply left kind of taking account of the things they were able to grab before they had to race out the door.

KEILAR: Yes. It's quite the --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: What were able to save so far?

KURT DELGADO, RUIDOSO, NEW MEXICO RESIDENT: Baby books, my daughters fifth DVD of her birth. That was important. My grandfather's guitar. He passed away about 12 years ago, so I have that was the only thing I had left of him.

And I got his guitar and all of our pictures out. Every photo on the wall's out. And my parents most of all. I got my parents and my family and the dog to safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So at this point, you see really people taking stock and counting those simple blessings of the things that they were able to make it out with. And they're just left watching and waiting how things are going to unfold here.

Brianna, throughout the afternoon, we've seen helicopters and aircraft battling the wildfires from above and also the crews on the ground. We are hoping that these weather forecasts come true here, that, here in the next couple of hours, rain is expected, and also to go until tomorrow.

That would be -- and, hopefully, providing the much-needed relief these fire crews need.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. We'll be hoping for that.

Ed, thank you for the latest. We appreciate it.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Those wildfires are spreading as the nation faces a major heatwave. Forecasters say more than 200 million people in the United States will see temperatures at or above 90 degrees this week.

Weather like this is why dozens of environmental, labor and health groups want FEMA to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke as major disasters, the same way they treat floods and tornadoes.

We're joined now by CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir.

Bill, what is this effort about and how is FEMA responding?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are really trying to call attention to the idea that we now live on a planet where deadly heat and wildfire smoke are just as -- as much of a threat as a hurricane or an earthquake might be.

We should think about these disasters, they kill -- heat kills more lives. It killed 2,200 folks in the United States alone last year. They say that number's vastly under counted.

But FEMA is regulated by law called the Stafford Act, which has 19 separate designations: earthquake, hurricane. But it's designed to be very flexible. Covid-19, a pandemic was not originally on the Stafford Act, but they used it to help out states.

States typically have been able to handle heat events. This is -- you know, FEMA's there for infrastructure, really be overwhelmed in a moment throughout through a disaster right now. That's harder to define with heat, which is usually slow motion.

And it's regional. You know, if it's over 100 degrees for two weeks straight in Arizona or Florida, it's different than if it happens in Wisconsin, for example. But these groups very much want to start the conversation around how

we think about heat events. Some are saying we should name them like hurricanes in a way to help the public -- educate them, help them understand these are not your parents' heatwaves anymore.

Things are going steadily up, which moves us out of the threshold of health and survivability.

SANCHEZ: Bill Weir, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it.

WEIR: You bet.

[14:38:48]

SANCHEZ: When we come back, the House Ethics Committee is moving forward with its investigation into Republican Congressmen Matt Gaetz of Florida. We're going to take you live to Capitol Hill for the latest in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:43:34]

SANCHEZ: We have some new details to share with you in the House Ethics Committee's investigation into Republican Congressmen, Matt Gaetz.

While the committee has closed a part of its investigation, it says it's now reviewing whether Gaetz engaged in a long list of alleged wrongdoings, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, giving special favors, trying to obstruct the government's investigation into him and more.

CNN congressional correspondent, Lauren Fox, joins us now with the latest.

Lauren, what are the details coming out of this investigation?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is an extremely rare move from the Ethics Committee to put out a statement with as much detail as we saw yesterday.

Including the fact that, like you said, some of the areas of their investigation have changed, they have moved on, closed the door to some areas and are now investigating and continuing their investigation into other places.

Like you noted, elicit potential drug use, as well as sexual misconduct, potentially accepting and offering gifts that he should not have, and potentially obstructing investigations into him.

But the reason that the committee said they had to put out this information in this extensive statement yesterday is the following:

They said, "There has been a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the committee's activities this Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate. The committee's investigations are conducted confidentiality -- confidentially.

"But the committee's confidentiality rules do not prohibit witnesses from disclosing information about the committee's requests or conversation with the committee's investigators. The committee is confident in the integrity of its process."

[14:45:11]

In addition, they laid out that they have now issued 25 subpoenas. They've talked to more than a dozen witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

The bottom line here, Boris, is that this investigation is continuing and these investigators are going to continue talking to witnesses. And we have yet to see what the outcome will be.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Meantime, Gaetz continues to call it politically motivated.

Lauren Fox, thanks so much for the update.

Brianna?

KEILAR: We have some new details surrounding the DWI arrest of Justin Timberlake. A short time ago, the superstar's lawyer said he will have a lot to say at the appropriate time. And he is awaiting full discovery from the district attorney's office.

As new video seems to show Timberlake's car just minutes before he was arrested in The Hamptons. Police allege that he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane when they pulled him over.

Court documents say Timberlake had bloodshot and glassy eyes and performed poorly on field sobriety tests. Timberlake allegedly told the officer, "I had one martini," but refused a chemical test for intoxication three times.

Timberlake was released yesterday without bail. He's due back in court on July 26th.

And when we come back, the Boeing Starliner and NASA astronauts are stuck at the International Space Station for now. We're going to tell you what is behind this delay, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:51]

SANCHEZ: If you've been watching lately, you know that Boeing has problems that go beyond anything on this planet. Quite literally.

While its CEO was answering tough questions on Capitol Hill yesterday, its engineers were grappling with issues dealing with their Starliner spacecraft.

Since they launched on June 5th in its first crewed test flight, astronauts have navigated several issues, including malfunctioning thrusters and helium leaks. And it's turned their week-long mission into a three-week stay on the International Space Station.

Retired NASA astronaut, Leroy Chiao, joins us now.

Leroy, help us understand these problems and how much of a concern this is.

LEROY CHIAO, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, you're right. As you pointed out, Boeing has had a lot of problems not only on the commercial airplane side, but also on the space side.

Starliner way behind the original schedule, a lot of development problems. Finally got off the ground. Butch and Suni are aboard the station, but not before encountering several minor difficulties, helium leaks, thruster failures.

These are kind of medium to light problems because it doesn't really threaten the mission at this point. It's just a little bit concerning that we're having these numerous small glitches.

But the bottom line is the helium leaks are about -- pretty small. NASA says they can tolerate about 100 times what's currently leaking. Had five thrusters fail on the way to the station. Four of them have been reactivated. One remains disabled.

Shouldn't keep them from coming home safely. NASA and Boeing just being extra conservative. Don't want to be complacent. Want to go through everything.

And so just being a little bit extra cautious, that's why the mission is being extended.

SANCHEZ: So as it is, the ISS is kind of a crammed space, right? So I'm wondering what kind of contingencies are made for this kind of situation where you have astronauts essentially stuck for two more weeks than originally planned.

CHIAO: Right. So NASA -- of course, what we do at NASA is we make contingency plans. We plan for redundancies, backups. And so you can bet that the folks at NASA have been looking at, well, in the very worst case that we decide the Starliner cannot come back with Butch and Suni, what can we do?

Well, of course, Butch and Suni can safe haven at the ISS for, well, basically, a number of months at least. And so that would be time to get a replacement spacecraft up, probably a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

They -- NASA would have to rejumble the traffic model. But certainly a SpaceX Dragon could be brought up to bring Butch and Sunny home.

So in the very worst case, that would be what would happen. But as I said, the problems Starliner is experiencing are relatively minor. So I fully expect that, come the 26th, per the plan, current plan, Butch and Suni will make it back safely in the Starliner.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We're hoping for that.

Leroy, I want to turn to the Voyager 1 spacecraft because this is really impressive. It started sending back data from truly uncharted territory.

It was sidelined by a glitch seven months ago. But now through some creative programming NASA is able to gather data from it.

What are scientists learning from the voyager that's out there billions of miles away?

CHIAO: Well, you're right, this is pretty amazing.

Voyager now about 15 billion miles away from the earth. You know, it's -- or 50 million, sorry. But it's pretty -- it's pretty incredible.

This spacecraft was launched 47 million -- I'm sorry -- 47 years ago. And here it's still sending back data. And it's made it to the heliopause, which is the extent of the influence from our sun.

And so it's sending back data from a place that no probe has ever been. And this is basically beyond the reach of our solar system. You know, ventured outside, first man-made object to do so.

[14:55:04]

And so it's sending back data on its environment, on what's going on out there, pretty much in deep galactic space. Really, really impressive.

SANCHEZ: Yes, whether billions or millions, it's still really impressive. I mean, five decades, nearly, that this thing has been out there.

Leroy Chiao, always great to chat.

CHIAO: Good to be with you always, Boris. Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

When we come back, Kim Jong-Un says North Korea and Russia now have a new alliance after President Putin's visit. We'll walk through how the U.S. is responding just ahead, when another hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)