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Hurricane Debby Makes Landfall; Trump Reignites Feud with Kemp; Christine Todd Whitman is Interviewed about Trump; Brown Navigates Re- Election; Tensions Rise in Middle East. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 05, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:44]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Debby walloping Florida right now with downpours and powerful winds. It is a slow-moving storm, which means it's going to bring potentially catastrophic flooding to the state and other parts of the southeast over the next few days.

CNN's Elisa Raffa is live in Steinhatchee, Florida, where the storm made landfall just about an hour ago.

I can see the winds going there, but it doesn't seem like it's raining there where you are. Has it pushed further on?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we're not really getting too much rain in this band right now. But we are really getting the wind. We're getting those gusts on the back end of that eyewall that just made landfall. Still a category one hurricane, winds sustained at 80 miles per hour. And we're really feeling those gusts here right now. Some parts of the coast here have already seen storm surge well over six feet and some rain totals have been over eight inches.

Now, Debby was able to rapidly intensify in the last 24 hours, going from a much weaker tropical storm to this category one hurricane, because these ocean temperatures are at near record warm levels. We're talking upper 80s, even some low 90s. So just incredible that we just keep seeing this rapid intensification which each of these storms that continue to make landfall.

Now as we go through the day today, we're still worried about storm surge. I want to show you that map for storm surge in that big bend area of Florida. Six to ten feet of storm surge still possible as we go through the day today.

Now, people here were incredibly worried about that storm surge because a lot of these docks that you see around me are brand new. They were destroyed in the storm surge last year in Idalia that made landfall just nine miles away from here. So really concerned about that storm surge, especially as this area, again, is just recently recovering from what they went through last year.

As we look at the track going forward the next couple of days, it's very concerning because this storm will just sit and spin and stall, getting to a crawl. Three to four miles per hour is the forward speed. You walk that. And that's incredibly concerning because it is packed with tropical moisture. It will continue to dump some heavy rain.

Look at some of these rainfall totals. We are talking some places could be seeing widespread totals of ten to 20 inches, even up to 30 inches, which could break records for the most rain that Georgia and South Carolina, each state has seen from a tropical system. And Georgia - I'm sorry, South Carolina most recently broke that record with Florence a couple years ago. So, really looking at some catastrophic impacts possible from the heavy rain.

On top of that we're also going to have that center sitting somewhere near or over the coast. So that will continue to slosh the storm surge inland as well. So, when you have the ocean water coming in, all that heavy rain coming down, there's nowhere for that water to go. Really compounding the effect, I'm worried about catastrophic impacts from the water from this through the next couple of days. That it just continues to slow and stall.

But we're still, again, feeling the impacts of the back end of that eye wall here in Florida. We'll continue to move inland. But we are not done yet. Not even close. We have pretty much the entire week to get through this heavy rain.

Sara.

SIDNER: Do you have some sense of just how long this storm is going to sit there over, for example, Georgia and South Carolina?

[08:35:06]

I know Charleston's right in that area where you're going to get the storm surge and the rain coming together at the same time.

RAFFA: It could be at least through Thursday, maybe even Friday. I mean, what is today, Monday. That is the entire work week. And we're still not even seeing it clear too much farther by Saturday or Sunday. So, I really believe we're still talking about this storm making significant impacts by the weekend.

So again, this is multiple days. Could stretch going into the weekend of the flooding. And then even when the storm passes, the rivers are going to be so aggravated from all of that heavy rain, it's going to take a moment for them to kind of like react, to recede, the ocean water to push out. This, again, could go on, you know, even going into next week, honestly.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Elisa Raffa, thank you to you and your team out there braving that heavy wind and no rain yet. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Israel's Iron Dome intercepting missile strikes from Gaza.

And RFK Jr. with a really strange confession, saying he left a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park as a joke. We're not kidding.

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[08:40:40]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Donald Trump has some Republicans scratching their heads after he went after the popular Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp. Now, Trump lost Georgia in 2020 and helped lose three Senate races there over the last two elections. Yet he is going after the popular Republican governor there.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is with us with the latest on this.

Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, and this is obviously a feud that goes back years. Some might say that it started even before Brian Kemp refused to not certify the election in Georgia because of the handling of Covid. I will remind you that Brian Kemp opened up the state of Georgia pretty quickly and then almost immediately after that happened Donald Trump got out there in the Rose Garden, I believe it was at the time in the White House, and said that no one should be opening the government that fast, which might have ticked off some people in Georgia just to say at the time. But this feud obviously escalating when Governor Kemp refused to not certify the election after Donald Trump called him and asked him and Raffensberger to, quote/unquote, find votes, and put lot of pressure on the governor at that time.

Now, again, he needs the governor's help. This is a critical state. This is a state in which Republicans had almost kind of written off while Joe Biden was still on the ticket. They thought it was such a shoo-in. Now, there are a lot of question marks. So here's the latest in the escalation.

It started with Governor Kemp's wife saying that in November she was going to write Governor Kemp's name on the ballot instead of Donald Trump. Donald Trump lashing out in true traditional Trump fashion on social media saying that he doesn't care for her endorsement and attacking the governor. The governor responding with this, and I actually want to put this up because I think this is incredibly important. He tweets this, "my focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats, not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans or dwelling on the past. You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it."

You can see he posted that giant poster there saying that Raffensberger and Kemp were trying to essentially lose the election in Georgia, which, of course, as you say, is pretty interesting given since both of them won their election in Georgia while Donald Trump did not in 2020. Trump, of course, escalating this at a rally in Atlanta over the weekend, saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Your governor, Kemp, and Raffensberger, they're doing everything possible to make 2024 difficult for Republicans to win.

Kemp is very bad for the Republican Party. He wouldn't do anything.

He could have ended the travesty with a phone call because I did nothing wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: I did nothing wrong. Something we have heard from Donald Trump before. Again, we are four years later in the feud between Governor Kemp and Donald Trump. But here's the difference, Donald Trump needs the state of Georgia. He needs Governor Kemp. And he needs Republicans that maybe are unsure about Donald Trump but like Governor Kemp. Remember, this is truly a purple state. There are Democrats who have voted for Governor Kemp. He is wildly popular in the state. So, he could use all the support he can get going into November right now.

BERMAN: And this may not be the way to get that support from Brian Kemp, but we'll see.

Kristen Holmes, thank you very much.

On this subject, the Harris campaign has launched Republicans for Harris. That's a push to real in Republican voters who may be put off by Trump. Their main targets, probably the people who voted for Nikki Haley in the primaries. A group of high-profile Republicans, or former Republicans, have joined that movement. One of those Republicans, or former Republicans, the former governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, who is with us now.

Governor, thank you so much for being with us.

I just want to play a smidge more of Donald Trump's attack on the popular Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But Kemp doesn't want to end it because he's a bad guy, he's a disloyal guy, and he's a very average governor. Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, so Kemp's response to this was that statement that Kristen Holmes read before, which says he's still trying to beat, Kemp is, Vice President Harris in this election, but hopes Donald Trump stops the personal attacks. You're in a different place than that. You don't think it's enough what Brian Kemp is saying. Why?

[08:45:02] CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Because Donald Trump isn't going to change. He hasn't changed over the years. This is the man we've seen since the very beginning, 2016. I knew him, obviously, before that. So, I could see it coming. But this - he's - he's consistent. The people who are suddenly finding him OK, I don't understand it if they didn't like him before because he has not changed.

You know, I grew up as a Republican, but this is not the Republican Party in which I grew up. We used to be a party of trying to solve problems. We believed in the rule of law and the Constitution. We wouldn't be arguing about an election in 2020 now in 2024. I mean we believed in free trade. We believed in working internationally. This just isn't my Republican Party anymore. And that's why I've joined the Republicans for Harris because it's time to move on.

But Donald Trump isn't going to change. And just saying, please do better, is not going to do a thing.

BERMAN: So, how can you convince Republicans like Kemp, who clearly have an issue with Trump, to affirmatively support Harris? You are saying basically it's a binary choice.

WHITMAN: It really is. I mean those are the two choices. And they are stark. I may not agree with everything and every position of Kamala Harris, but I know that Donald Trump is not going to change. And that is going to be very bad for our country. He does not respect the rule of law. The Constitution is an inconvenient document. Those issues are so much larger than almost anything else we face.

But, I mean, if you look at some of the proposals that he's put forward, a 20 percent or 40 percent tax on goods from China. Well, if you take a look at anything that you own, and how many things are made in China, what's that - what's that going to do to the price of things in this country? I mean, if you think it through logically, his policies don't make any sense. And the Republican Party used to be a party of principles, not just what we stand for, the whim of one man, which is what's happening today.

BERMAN: So, what concerns, if any, do you have about Vice President Harris? Republicans, some are trying to paint her as a dangerous liberal. That's what they say here. Do you have concerns that a - what issues do you think or worry she may be too far left on for you?

WHITMAN: Well, I mean, some of the social programs for covering everybody. I'd love to see it done, but we have to understand the cost that goes along with that and you have to convinced me that there are ways to reduce costs on the other end if we want to increase these spending. We have to care about the deficit and the budget. Republicans used to, but, you know, the deficit grew substantially under Donald Trump. So, nobody has clean hands here.

But, in general, I don't - I'm not threatened by her. And I think her vice presidential choice is going to say a lot about her and should make people, I believe, feel pretty good about this team, at least comfortable enough to vote for it to preserve our democracy for the next four years.

BERMAN: I'm glad you brought up the running mate issue because I remember when you were on some lists back in 1996 and in 2000, a little bit there. You say the pick that she makes should reassure people. Do you have a favorite in this race?

WHITMAN: Well, just in a genre (ph), which is I like governors, I like people that have had executive experience, but I have a lot of respect for Mark Kelly, whom I think is sort of the only non-governor in the mix right now.

BERMAN: Governor Josh Shapiro, the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, real close to you, has kind of come under attack over the last 48 hours or so from some progressives in the party. What message do you think his pick, if he is chosen, would sent to Democrats and maybe moderate Republicans?

WHITMAN: Well, I think it'd be an outreach to moderate Republicans. He's a very popular governor across the state, Republicans and Democrats, because he's been solving problems for everybody. And that's the - that's the one thing about being a governor that's so very different than being in the legislature, because when you decide you want to do something, you have to make it work. You're delivering right to the people. And they know it. So, to be a popular governor means that you're doing what the public wants, what your constituents want you to do. And it's not just dreaming and thinking, wow, this sounds like a great program. I'm going to put it into effect with having no idea how it will actually work when the rubber hits the road. Governors have to be concerned about that, which is why I like the idea of a governor.

BERMAN: Now, having been there a little bit, what do you think those candidates are thinking? How are they feeling this morning as they wait for that phone call?

WHITMAN: Well, I think they're pretty nervous, all of them. You know, they're going to go on and do their jobs. They've got jobs to do. And, obviously - but I would have to say that whoever is not picked is going to be disappointed. It's only natural. It's not the greatest job in the world, as we have seen. You know, one of our vice presidents described it as a warm bucket of spit. But it can be a very, very important job. And I suspect now the way things have been going recently, vice presidents have taken on more importance.

[08:50:05]

Generally, they don't make a difference to a ticket. But if you think about John McCain and Sarah Palin, I think that made an enormous difference to John McCain's chances of winning. So, I think this will have a real impact.

BERMAN: Yes, John Nance Garner. I guess there is some dispute about what he thought was in that bucket exactly, but either way it wasn't good.

Christine Todd Whitman from New Jersey, appreciate you being with us this morning.

WHITMAN: No, it wasn't good. It wasn't good.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

WHITMAN: A pleasure.

BERMAN: So, he isn't defending the record of Vice President Kamala Harris. He does plan to skip the Democratic Convention. And he's not saying he plans to campaign with Vice President Harris. We are talking about the Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

CNN's Manu Raju with a look on how he is running for re-election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As Democrats rally behind Kamala Harris, in red states it's more complicated. Like in Ohio, where Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown faces a stiff challenge from Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno. A race central to the fight for the Senate majority.

RAJU: Are you able to defend Kamala Harris' record?

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): My job is to fight for Ohio workers. You can talk about the presidential race. That's your job. My job is -

RAJU: But it will have an impact on this race.

BROWN: Well, that's your opinion. I - I know that what will matter is people vote for me because I stand up for workers and will continue to fight for workers.

RAJU (voice over): Ohio has become a GOP stronghold with Trump carrying the state in 2020 by eight points, and a heavy favorite this fall. Plus, Brown is trying to defy this daunting trend. In 68 of the 69 Senate races in 2016 and 2020, voters elected a senator from the same party as the preferred presidential candidate.

RAJU: You backed much of the Harris-Biden agenda. So, how hard is that going to be to run that far ahead of the top of the ticket?

BROWN: Well, as you know, and I - as I've said, I'm not a pundit. I'm not a commentator. I don't think of politics as left and right. I think of it as whose side you're on. And Ohioans know I've been on their side.

RAJU: Will you campaign with Kamala Harris if she comes here or -

BROWN: I don't - I have not. I mean I have not - I've got my own schedule. She's got her own schedule. I will focus on my race. My strategy is perhaps different from hers. Talking about the differences on abortion rights and on minimum wage between Bernie Moreno and me and how I fight every day for the dignity of work.

RAJU (voice over): With Joe Manchin retiring in West Virginia, Democrats likely have to run the table to keep the Senate at 50/50, hoping to hang on to two of their three seats in red states, and all six of their competitive seats.

In Ohio, Democrats have poured in nearly $50 million on TV ads since March, including $25 million from Brown's campaign, compared to less than $1 million for Moreno's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being a car dealer worked out well for Bernie Moreno. But what's it like to work for him?

RAJU (voice over): Brown's focus, Marino's ownership of 55 car dealerships and a court fight that forced the Republican to pay more than $400,000 to two former employees, plus 14 other settlements.

BERNIE MORENO (R), OHIO SENATE CANDIDATE: We - we followed the law always. We did absolutely nothing wrong.

RAJU (voice over): Saying of Brown -

MORENO: The only tool he's got in his tool box is to despairs me. I'm extraordinarily proud of the company I built.

RAJU: But, I mean, if you were ordered to pay back money, $410,000, you must have done something wrong, no?

MORENO: Well, that's what that jury decided. I disagree with the verdict. We paid it.

RAJU (voice over): Marino now hoping to ride the co-tales of Trump and fellow Ohioan J.D. Vance, speaking at the GOP convention.

MORENO: A vote for Trump and Moreno is a vote to put America first.

RAJU (voice over): As Brown has no plans to go to his.

RAJU: Will you go to the convention (INAUDIBLE)?

BROWN: I'm not going to the convention. I often skip conventions. I don't plan to.

RAJU (voice over): Moreno says there's a reason why Brown is keeping his distance.

RAJU: What impact does Kamala Harris have down-ticket in this race?

MORENO: Oh, it helps me tremendously. So, maybe Scranton Joe had a little bit of credibility here at Ohio. San Francisco Kamala absolutely does not.

RAJU (voice over): But Mareno has been so aligned with Trump that he even cut a 2022 ad accusing big tech of rigging the 2020 election.

MORENO: President Trump says the election was stolen. And he's right.

RAJU: But why did you decide to do that in the primary, cut an ad saying the election was stolen? MORENO: Well, I said it was rigged, like I just said, because it was

true.

RAJU: But do you think that Biden was legitimately elected?

MORENO: He's legitimately the worst president of the United States. Absolutely.

RAJU: All right, legitimately elected, though, I asked.

MORENO: Legitimately the worst president of the United States.

His - his reign of terror in America is almost over.

RAJU (voice over): To defy the odds, Democrats planning a familiar playbook, hammering Moreno on abortion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolute pro-life, no exceptions.

RAJU: Do you still support a 15-week federal abortion ban?

MORENO: Well, ban is a word that the media and the Democrats use. I've never said the word "ban."

RAJU: If you had to vote for a 15-week restriction, would you do that?

[08:55:02]

MORENO: Yes, common sense restrictions, sure.

RAJU (voice over): Brown, meantime, has been on the defensive on immigration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ohio knows illegal immigration is a problem. And Brown is the cause.

RAJU (voice over): As he criticizes the GOP for blocking a bipartisan border security bill.

BROWN: We're here to call the president to step up.

RAJU (voice over): Brown also blames the Biden team.

RAJU: Do you think that the Biden and Harris administration have done a good job at the border?

BROWN: I think presidents of both parties have failed at the border.

RAJU (voice over): All as the GOP aims to remind voters of Brown's past rhetoric about Trump.

BROWN: We have a president who's a racist.

RAJU: Do you stand by those past rhetoric (INAUDIBLE)?

BROWN: There's - there's no room in American politics for divisive rhetoric. And I will continue to speak out against the kind of divisive rhetoric we've seen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: All right, that was our Manu Raja.

Today, President Biden is set to meet with his national security team while tensions are escalating in the Middle East. We have new video of Israel's Iron Dome intercepting a barrage of rockets that were fired near its northern border with Lebanon. This as Israel said it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

I'm joined now by CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier, and CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Thank you both for coming in this morning to discuss this difficult topic.

Kim, I'm going to start with you.

When you see this escalation, everyone has been talking for months now about the potential of a wider regional war. Iran says it is going to retaliate. Israel worried it's going to happen today potentially. What do you see going forward? What do you see happening now?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the fear within Israel is that they'll face a multi-front war. That's what Prime Minister Netanyahu called it in a security meeting yesterday, where Hezbollah and Iran would combine their attacks and overwhelm Israel's defenses.

Last time, in April, when Iran attacked Israel, they did it in a multi-stage volley of some 300 missiles and armed drones. But the way they were launched enabled both Israel and allies working with Israel to knock the majority of them out of the sky such that they only hit an airfield. They injured a Bedouin child, but they didn't cause major destruction or massive loss of life.

But if you've got Hezbollah firing some of their missiles at the same time with Iran's missiles, you get like a 15-minute warning at the very least, with their ballistic missiles. Hezbollah is much closer. They can reach almost every major Israeli populated area. So, the question is, they can do it. Will they?

SIDNER: Yes. I mean Hezbollah shares a border with Israel. They are right there and very, very close.

Colonel Leighton, let me ask you how the response - what the response would be from Israel. In other words, if they were attacked by these - by Iran and by Hezbollah, how difficult would it be for Israel to protect itself? And what would your expectations be, for example, of the United States and some of the other allies?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think what would happen, Sara, is that we'd see somewhat of a repeat of what happened on April 13th. And as Kim was mentioning, what the Israelis are looking at is the possibility that their air defense systems would be overwhelmed by an Iranian and Hezbollah-sponsored rocket and missile barrage. That's the big worry.

So, what the Israelis have to do is they have to make sure that their air defense systems, coupled with those of the U.S. and other western nations and other friendly nations in the region really protect Israel. And that is going to be the reason that the U.S. is deploying forces to the region. More forces. We've got the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group coming in to the eastern Mediterranean. And we also have a U.S. Air Force fighter squadron coming in. So, that is the kind of thing that is going to be used. Those instruments of power are going to be used to try to thwart any potential Iranians/Hezbollah attack.

SIDNER: We are waiting for what that retaliation is going to look like. And again, the U.S., according to one of our - some of our reporting and Axios reporting expected potentially today.

Kim, I'm curious about what this all means for the war in Gaza, where the Hamas health ministry is saying that they're almost at 40,000 people killed. You, of course, still have Hamas holding hostages, dozens of hostages still there.

In the end, when you're looking at the situation (INAUDIBLE) after Israel took out - although they would not confirm and deny it was them, one of the leaders in Iran of Hamas, do you think that this ceasefire is just not possible anytime soon?

DOZIER: It doesn't look likely. Some of the negotiators have even talked about, you know, why travel when it feels like the Israeli prime minister won't say yes to whatever deal we get.

[09:00:00]

That's the reporting inside Israel. There's a lot of criticism towards Netanyahu for pursuing just an all-aggression campaign instead of taking the opportunity to