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Hurricane Debby Makes Landfall, Lashes Florida With Severe Winds, Rain; Global Markets Plunge Amid Wall Street Uncertainty; Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) On Harris' VP Choices. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 05, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JEFF KINNARD, COMMISSIONER FOR CITRUS COUNTY, FLORIDA DISTRICT 1: And unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be a long day ahead for Crystal River and Citrus County. We're seeing a bit of a repeat of Hurricane Idalia. Thankfully, this one does not appear to be as strong and thankfully, the tide tables are bit more cooperative with us this time.

So we're hoping for nothing more than three to five feet of storm surge. If that happens, we're in pretty good shape. Anything over that and, unfortunately, we'll have a lot of homes with water in them.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Kennard, I understand that Hurricane Idalia was some of the worst flooding you have ever seen there in places like Crystal River where I know you get a lot of tourists coming to see the manatees.

What are your worries now? Are there still things having to be dealt with because of Idalia that are now going to be a problem again because of Hurricane Debby?

KENNARD: Oh, yes. Many of the homes are just finishing up their renovations. It was -- that was -- that was devastating flooding for our community. But I'll tell you, the citizens Crystal River and Citrus County are very resilient. We're prepared for these things. It's part of living on the coast.

Mayor Joe Meek for Crystal River has spent -- got his crews ready to go. Citrus County has standing orders with debris cleaning companies that will move in once the storm clears. And we've had sandbag sites open, naturally. We've been meeting with Duke Energy and Withlacoochee electric company to make sure that everybody's on the same page for getting the power turned back on once the storm settles down.

So we're prepared, the city is prepared, and we're just hoping for the best here.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jeff Kennard. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you. Keep us posted as it moves over.

We're going to go right to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Tallahassee who is briefing on the storm. GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: -- Hurricane Debby has reached 80 miles an hour with higher gusts throughout the storm area. I could contrast that with Idalia. Idalia reached close to 120-mile-per-hour in sustained winds.

We have seen significant storm surge. We have seen inundation. We have seen and will continue to see flooding in very parts of the state of Florida.

This storm is expected to move throughout North Central Florida and likely go into Georgia and in the Carolinas.

Yesterday and into this morning we saw impacts throughout the west coast of Florida, starting in Southwest Florida and continuing up the coast. This storm has produced and will likely produce significant flooding events from Sarasota-Bradenton area all the way to Northern Florida. And that's not something that just happens when the storm passes. There's a threat -- ongoing threat of that over the ensuing days.

Now that Hurricane Debby is making landfall the most important thing to do is to just protect yourself and protect your family. Don't go out into this storm.

Don't drive on the roads, particularly when they're flooded. We have had some traffic mishaps over the last 12 hours. And when you have flood situations, that is the number one way where we will see fatalities is by people being out on the roads and hydroplaning or having other problems. So do not go walk or drive into flooded roadways. There are hazards there. They are dangerous. We want everybody to be safe.

Power -- so far, we have about 143,000 Floridians without power. We have a lot of restoration personnel ready to go to get it back on. I think because this is a category one with 80-mile-an-hour sustained winds, the total number of power outages are not going to reach the level that they did with Hurricane Idalia and certainly not the level that they did with Hurricane Ian back in 2022.

BERMAN: All right, you've been listening to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as Hurricane Debby makes landfall as a category 1 storm. As you just heard, the situation in Florida largely under control. This is not a very powerful storm. The real problem will be how much rain it brings to the entire Southeast over the next several days -- 20 to 30 inches in some places.

This story really just beginning and we'll stay on it over the next several hours as we get more reports from the areas affected -- Sara.

SIDNER: As you know, John -- you've covered so many of these -- this is not so much a wind event but a rain event. We'll be reporting more on that coming up in the hour.

All right. This morning, reenergized Democrats are looking to bring voters from the other side of the aisle to presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. The group known as "Republicans for Biden" has officially relaunched as "Republicans for Harris." The goal, convince Republicans put off by Donald Trump that he is enough of a threat to democracy for them to cross party lines and vote blue in November.

[07:35:05]

CNN's Isaac Devore joins me now with more on this story. Obviously, they were "Republicans for Biden" and now "Republicans for Harris," which all makes sense and all tracks.

Do you think there will be numbers, though, there when they -- after they do this launch?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well look, it's a good question, Sara, and we are seeing how it's playing out. This group just officially relaunched yesterday. It's part of the Harris campaign. They've got events that are going on in a bunch of battleground states today and a number of endorsements from former Republican-elected officials.

But the question here is not just what you point to of whether they can be repelled enough by Trump -- of those Republicans -- to vote for Harris, but whether they are accepting enough of some of the past positions that Kamala Harris has had, which are more on the liberal side of things, on the left side of things than Joe Biden was.

There was a big part of the argument for Joe Biden that he was a moderate, a centrist. He could make that appeal across the aisle. Now the campaign is trying to say look, not only is Trump still the threat that he is, if you believe that, but that they're saying a lot of her positions have changed and that she is tacking more toward the center than she was when she ran in her primary campaign for president in 2019.

SIDNER: Isaac Dovere with great reporting this morning. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, former senior adviser to the Trump 2016 campaign, Jason Osborne, and Rachel Palermo, former deputy communication director to Vice President Harris.

And friends, we're literally out of our seats, standing up in anticipation of the announcement from Harris, or at least the leak that could come any minute of who she has chosen to be her running mate. I will not we don't have seats here at all so we're always standing.

But Jason, first to you. I do want to ask who the selection would be that Republicans fear the most. The top three contenders at this point as we sit here this morning seem to be Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania; Mark Kelly, senator from Arizona; and Tim Walz from Minnesota.

Who do Republicans fear the most?

JASON OSBORNE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN, FORMER SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST, BEN CARSON 2016 CAMPAIGN (via Webex by Cisco): I'm not necessarily certain that there is anybody that would -- Republicans should fear the most. I mean, the vice presidential pick gives you a temporary boost or, in some cases, a temporary drop as we're seeing now. But I think after the decision is made, whoever Kamala picks is certainly going to be out on the stump and going to be able to energize voters in a certain way.

I think if you look at the three contenders that are up on the screen right now, Josh Shapiro is certainly the one that I think on the stump has the best resume. I like Tim Walz. I'm a big fan of governors, period. So either one of those two I think are going to be able to resonate better with crowds than a Mark Kelly, who is kind of untested but has a great resume, but not necessarily good on the stump.

BERMAN: So Rachel, there seems to be infighting. There was no primary for the Democrats, so a lot of the fighting seems to have been going on behind the scenes the last 48 hours over the vice presidential selection with some, sort of, jabs at Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.

What do you make of that?

RACHEL PALERMO, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR AND ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, what I will say is that all of the names that have been floated so far really show that the Democrats have a deep bench. And there's a lot of energy about all of the names, there's a lot of excitement, and it shows that the future of the Democratic Party is bright.

And I think what's important here is that any of these candidates would be significantly stronger on the ticket than J.D. Vance has been for Trump. J.D. Vance is running on the Project 2025 agenda with Donald Trump, which would roll back freedoms. It would gut the federal government, including agencies like the Department of Education. And it would hurt the middle class.

And so, I've been energized by the response I've seen about all of the Democratic potential vice presidential picks, and we'll have to see what happens.

BERMAN: But why, then, are people going after Shapiro? All kinds of reporting over the weekend that Fetterman -- John Fetterman, the senator from Pennsylvania, isn't happy with the idea that Shapiro could be the pick. You're getting people point out Shapiro's staunch support in the past of Israel.

Why are there people targeting him?

PALERMO: Well, I think that it's a normal part of the veepstakes process for people to express their opinions about the various candidates. I will say in terms of the names that have been floated, a lot of them do have very similar policy positions and a lot of them align with the vice president's vision of this country of moving forward and not back.

BERMAN: Jason, there is this notion that Shapiro could upset some progressives in the Democratic Party, but the flip side of that is isn't that maybe what the ticket needs? Do you think that Harris -- Vice President Harris needs to appeal more to the middle?

OSBORNE: Well, I -- certainly. I mean, although, I think you're looking at obviously, a very historic election here in the sense that the U.S. has really never had a kind of "snap election," which is what essentially this is. I mean, this is what every country outside of the U.S. experiences where you have 30, 60, 90 days to run a campaign.

[07:40:04]

So I think there is that danger in this sense that you always kind of want to veer toward the middle on both sides of the aisle. Now, whether or not the Republicans are doing that is a different question.

But in terms of the Democrats, if they're veering towards the center, they're hoping that they have time through a traditional campaign to kind of bring back those folks that are on the far left or the far right that, at the end of the day, who is better? Would you rather -- would you rather have somebody that's closer to your positions or somebody completely on the other side of the aisle on this?

I don't know if there is enough time to convince the progressives that a Harris -- you know, whether a Harris-Shapiro ticket is the one that's going to be better than a Trump campaign going forward.

So I think one thing though we need to watch is this week, whatever announcement is made tonight or leaked out tonight or tomorrow -- you know, however the economy -- the stock market does today is going to impact a lot the effect of this announcement.

BERMAN: We're going to report on the stock market in just a moment because in Japan, they had historic losses overnight and futures are down right now. So we have a report on that coming up.

In the meantime, I know what you both want to talk about more than anything is how Robert Kennedy Jr. confessed overnight that he left a dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years ago. And I -- it's -- I don't have the time to even describe every aspect of this story.

He found the dead bear cub, he says, in Upstate New York. Brought it to dinner. Didn't have time to dispose of it and decided to put it in Central Park and stage a situation where it made it look like a bike killed it.

This is how Kennedy explained it last night in a social media post video that he made with Roseanne Barr because it couldn't get any weirder - watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., (I) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear. And it was in very good condition and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator. And you can do that in New York State.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: OK, Rachel, what do you -- what do you do with this?

PALERMO: Uh, well, I know that we've been talking a lot about weirdness in this campaign and, of course, this is very weird and very bizarre. But I think that we have to not let this get to a distraction. He was never a serious candidate in the first place.

This campaign is a clear contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump where she's fighting for fundamental freedoms and she's fighting for a vision to take us forward. And Donald Trump is threatening the very essence of our democracy.

BERMAN: I do want to play one additional piece of sound from this, which is that 10 years ago, when we were reporting on this dead bear cub being found, this is what I said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: There have been no bears in the park for a long, long time. It seems as if someone brought the thing there, which is really said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Jason, is the lesson here that you need to listen to me because ultimately, 10 years hence, I will be proven correct?

OSBORNE: Listen, I like the throwback to 10 years ago. You haven't changed a bit. I'm sure Sara is agreeing with me on that.

But one thing that I found that was interesting was he did come up with an explanation of where he thinks he got the brainworm from. So at least we have a solution to that problem. So in a sense, now we know what happened with the bear and who did it, and where the brainworm came from. So --

BERMAN: All right.

OSBORNE: -- I'm happy about that.

BERMAN: And I think the upside of this is maybe now we never have to speak of this again.

Jason Osborne, Rachel Palermo, thank you both very much for being with us -- Sara.

SIDNER: One thing to note on this show, John Berman is always right. We have learned that.

All right, breaking overnight for you, a major global market selloff. Japan's stock market plunged amid uncertainty on Wall Street causing other Asian markets to follow. The downturn trend continued in Europe. And here in the U.S., futures all pointing sharply lower ahead of the market open.

CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing for us. Give a sense of why we're seeing this falloff here -- this selloff here. MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So much at play, Sara. And let me just be blunt. The economic anxiety -- the stress that we saw across Asia today has now crossed the ocean and is very much going to be in play when the stock market in New York opens up in just about two hours, and that could potentially impact your 401(k).

Japan, for example, had a really rough day -- the biggest daily losses ever for Japanese stocks. It's not that often we use the word breathtaking when reporting on business, but this is one of those cases.

So what exactly is happening? Well, a lot of this really does vary continent to continent. Let's go back to Friday in the United States. We got a lackluster jobs report. Wall Street didn't like it and we saw a slump.

[07:45:04]

Now, Monday morning, here in Asia, among the many worries on the list for traders here are high interest rates in Japan. Traders there didn't take it so kindly and we saw these big drops today at -- on the stock market in Japan.

Now we have a new week in the United States and among the events that are happening, a number of companies -- big companies -- brands that we know very well -- their CEOs are going to start reporting their earnings. The concern is not how much they made this quarter; the concern is what do they think about the future. If they feel a little bit hesitant -- if they don't think things are so rosy when they give these remarks, Wall Street may very much react.

So it's a very long worry list. And these concerns certainly can happen very quickly. Things can unfold quickly.

At one point today, Sara, we saw what are known as circuit breakers put into place in Japan and South Korea. Basically, the markets took a pause. People regrouped. There was so much fear that there was all of this selling creating a panic, essentially.

SIDNER: Marc Stewart, there's a lot of emotion in the markets. We know that is not just science. Appreciate your reporting this morning there from Beijing -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Forget the Olympics. The greatest athletic drama in the world found at the Dog Surfing Championship near San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY ERHART, PACIFICA, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: This is way better than what I was expecting. It's adorable. It's -- I would say it's like the happiest place on Earth. You have dogs surfing, whales, people are caffeinated. It's amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, the surfers competed for medals in different weight categories -- small, medium, large, and extra-large.

Cacau, a chocolate lab from Brazil, took home the gold in the extra- large category. We're not judging on the size here, that's just the category Cacau was in. As far as we know, Cacau is exactly the BMI exactly where it's supposed to be. And Cacau not just winning the top paddle surfing competition, but the top dog overall.

Our congratulations to all the dogs who competed.

This morning we are learning that Australian triathletes prepared to swim in the Seine by taking E. coli medications. Sort of, you stretch, then you warm up, then you take you E. coli drugs. This comes amid reports of illness from athletes who swam in the Seine just days ago.

And we are watching the potentially life-threatening flooding in Florida now that Hurricane Debby has made landfall.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:19]

BERMAN: So this morning, Olympic triathletes plunged into the River Seine for the mixed relay race, but without the team from Belgium. The country pulled its whole team because one of its athletes got sick following her swim in the Seine for the women's triathlon. Switzerland switched up its roster because one of its Olympians also got sick after swimming in the river.

CNN's Melissa Bell live in Paris with the latest here. Don't get too close to that water, apparently, Melissa.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Apparently, best not to at this stage, although that race did go ahead this morning as planned, John. It was a mixed relay triathlon without the Belgian team entirely gone and with the Swiss lineup changed.

Now, both of those triathletes who felt sick had been in the river last week for the individual triathlon races. Both triathletes coming down with illnesses. One we know was a gastrointestinal infection; the other we don't know exactly what kind of sickness it was. But they were sufficiently ill that they were prevented from taking part this morning in the mixed relay race.

Nothing for now to link their illnesses, John, to their having been in the water. But clearly, the question of whether these races could go ahead as planned -- the fact that a couple of events had to be postponed because when it rains the bacteria levels and specifically John, E. coli levels get so high that it simply isn't safe.

What we have been learning though as well is how some teams have been preparing for this. The Australian triathletes, for instance, have been taking E. coli anti-coli medication now for a month and taking all kinds of precautions to ensure that their athletes remain healthy.

So until we get more word on the state of these two triathletes who weren't able to take part this morning -- the nature of their illnesses, and whether or not they did come from the river -- lots of questions, really, about just how clever this gamble was that the Parisians took ultimately about holding events in the River Seine where, let's face it, for 100 years, swimming was illegal, John.

BERMAN: There's a reason why people haven't been swimming there for the last century or so.

Melissa Bell, thank you very much for that -- Sara.

SIDNER: Good point, John Berman.

All right, personal attacks on Kamala Harris continued over the weekend at a rally in Atlanta. Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance criticized her campaign as "pretty weird" using the words that the Kamala Harris has used against him.

Anyway, he also accused Harris of faking a southern accent -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's especially weird when Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta -- I believe came here to this arena. Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta and talks with a fake southern accent even though she grew up in Canada. You can't make it up. That's pretty weird.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:55:10]

SIDNER: Democratic congressman from Ohio, Greg Landsman, is joining me this morning now.

I want to start with these attacks that we're hearing not only from J.D. Vance trying to use the "weird" thing that the Harris campaign has been using against him, and Donald Trump. Donald Trump in the same stadium that she was in with a bunch of people there talking about crowd size again, but he also said Kamala Harris is a pretty low I.Q. individual.

When they're using these kinds of attacks, like childless cat lady and low I.Q. individual, is that going to backfire on them? What are your take -- what is your take?

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): Yeah, it'll backfire.

I mean, J.D. Vance is from Butler County. That's where I grew up, too. He lives in Cincinnati. That's where I live. And I represent him in Congress.

We both ran in 2022 in a -- and this district is a competitive district -- an equal number Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. It's a district where swing voters have a lot to say in terms of who wins. I won this district by 5 1/2 -- almost six points. He lost it by almost nine. Folks don't want this kind of chaos and extremism. They want to be

done with the incendiary rhetoric, the cruelty. And with Kamala Harris, with me, with Sherrod Brown, and others, and whoever she picks as VP, they get a return to normal. They get a pragmatic bipartisan group of leaders who are going to protect our democracy, restore our freedom, fix the economy, and quite frankly, pass the bipartisan border fix, which Trump killed.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you. Any moment now we could hear from Kamala Harris about who her vice presidential pick is. If we can put those pictures back on the screen. You've got Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the governor there; Mike Kelly (sic), Arizona senator; and Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor.

Who amongst them should she pick? And without naming names, do you think she should pick someone from, like, Pennsylvania because of the number of electors there? How should she decide who is going to be her running mate, and how important is that?

LANDSMAN: I think there are two decision points here.

One is can the person do the job, and in all of these cases, the answer is yes. They can do the job. And two, will they reinforce the things that are true about her? That she is a more normal politician, reliable, bipartisan, and somebody who gets things done. And all three of them will do that.

The problem with Vance is that he reinforced the chaotic, extreme, cruel part of Trump.

On Harris' side and the VP selections, and those of us who are running on the same ticket, all three of them not only will be pragmatic, and reliable, and bipartisan, they'll help us pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill to end voter suppression, and partisan gerrymandering, and dark money. They'll help us restore reproductive freedom. They'll help us build an economy and a tax code for working people, not billionaires. And they will help us pass the bipartisan border fix which, again, Trump killed.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about some of the way they're trying to frame Kamala Harris, calling her a liberal lunatic, a far-left -- you know, a far-left liberal.

I do want to ask you about whether or not you think it's a mistake that she has not done a press conference, she has not done a sit-down interview that we are now two weeks-plus into her campaign for the presidency. And we're coming up on the DNC, which -- where we expect her to become the nominee.

Is it a mistake for her not to sit down and talk through some of these issues where the Republicans are trying to define her right now as they are on the campaign trail?

LANDSMAN: Yeah, she'll do that. Of course, she will. She's been doing it for her entire career. The attacks on her at this point, which aren't policy-based, are very

strange. They suggest that there is a deep fear that they can't compete, and you saw that with Trump backing out of the debate. And that's going to be a huge problem for them because it makes Trump look what I believe he is, which is very weak and small.

So she is obviously still the underdog, but the country is rallying around her, and I think they'll rally around whoever she picks as VP because they want to get to a point where they don't have to worry about their politicians anymore. That they have people like Kamala Harris and me, and others who are worried about them and who are just doing our jobs and making sure things get done.

SIDNER: Well, it is good that you noted. I think you are a representative for about 800,000 Ohioans and that includes vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. We will see what happens, Rep. Greg Landsman. Thank you so much for coming on this morning.

LANDSMAN: Thanks, Sara.