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Helene Now a Category 3 Hurricane as it Lashes Florida; Helene Threatens "Unsurvivable" Storm Surge up to 20 Feet; Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Trump $454M Fraud Judgment; Hearing Reveals Multiple Mistakes by Secret Service in Butler, PA; House Task Force Holds First Hearing on Trump Assassination Attempt; Biden Announces Additional $2.4 Billion in Aid for Ukraine. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 26, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:53]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A dire forecast for a major hurricane, Helene is now a Category 3. And the worry is, could it intensify into an even stronger storm, as it bears down on Florida and landfall is only hours away?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: Plus, in the hot seat, law enforcement from Butler, Pennsylvania go before lawmakers investigating the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump, as they try to get to the bottom of the mistakes that day, and especially the communication miscues and security lapses that led to the shooting.

Plus, Melania Trump speaking out after keeping a low profile during Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The former first lady has a new book and thoughts about the attempts on her husband's life.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Breaking news now. Helene is now a major hurricane. It reached Category 3 status here within the last hour. And right now, Helene- sustained winds are clocking in at 120 miles per hour. The storm expected to intensify even more before it makes landfall later tonight along Florida's Big Bend region.

Already, Helene is thrashing Florida's coast with heavy rain and strong winds. The National Weather Service warning of unsurvivable storm surge ahead, going all the way up to 20 feet, perhaps, in some places. But it's not just Florida that's going to get hit here. Here is what it looked like in North Carolina. Officials say significant impacts will also be felt throughout Georgia all the way up to Tennessee. And this here, this is just the prelude that you were watching.

For more on this storm and its potential impacts, we're joined now by the director of the National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan.

Michael, what do people need to know about this storm as we're already seeing some pretty terrible pictures coming in before it ever makes landfall?

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, yes, Brianna, conditions are really going to deteriorate very quickly over the next few hours. We've seen the forward speed of Helene now increasing up to 20 miles per hour. So it's going to rapidly approach the coast of the Big Bend. We're seeing conditions deteriorating. We've seen sustained winds of about 50 miles per hour just in the last hour near the mouth of Tampa Bay. Gusts up to 60.

But we're, you know, concerned about three major life-threatening hazards. The storm surge along the Big Bend coast, the devastating hurricane-force winds, and tropical storm-force winds that are going to not just affect Florida, but up into Georgia and the Carolinas. And then the potential for catastrophic flooding from rainfall all the way from Florida up into especially the southern portion of the Appalachian Mountains where we could see up to 20 inches of rain.

KEILAR: So it's a Cat 3 now. Tell us what that means and what you think it could be before it makes landfall.

BRENNAN: Well, we have seen Helene strengthening over the last few hours. We're expecting that to continue. What it really means is there's going to be a huge storm surge with inundation of 15 to 20 feet above ground level somewhere here in the Florida Big Bend. And that's those - that life-threatening, really, unsurvivable storm surge we're going to see.

[15:05:04]

And then because Helene is so strong and moving so quickly, we're going to see hurricane conditions spread across North Florida all the way up into portions of western and southwestern and central Georgia with tropical storm conditions across the Atlanta metro area, up into the Carolinas, potential for hurricane-force wind gusts into the Appalachians.

KEILAR: So, let's talk about that storm surge, unsurvivable 15- to 20 feet. What does that really look like on the ground when you're talking about, say, a single-story structure relatively close to the coast, a two-story structure? What would that look like?

BRENNAN: Well, that could be water that could completely inundate a single-story structure and even come close to the top - the roof of a two-storey structure. Because on top of that storm surge, you're going to have destructive waves as the eyewall of the hurricane moves onshore. And that wave action can destroy a home, destroy other structures and that's what really creates that unsurvivable environment.

You know, if you go back to Hurricane Michael in 2018 that hit Mexico Beach, people died in the storm surge trying to leave in their cars. And it's important to emphasize how rapidly the water is going to rise. And that's why people are asked to leave in advance. Because once you see the water rise, it's going to come up so fast you're not going to be able to get out. So you still might have a little bit of time to get out of these evacuation zones if you've been asked to leave and haven't done so yet. So please try to do so. You don't have to drive very far to get out of the storm surge evacuation zone, maybe just 10 or 20 miles to get to a shelter.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a very good point. It is this storm surge that really strikes fear into our hearts, I think. Michael Brennan, thanks so much. That's very helpful.

BRENNAN: Thanks.

KEILAR: Danny?

FREEMAN: And FEMA is warning, Hurricane Helene could hit Tallahassee, quote, "dead on," as it continues to intensify ahead of landfall. For more on this, we have CNN's John Berman. He's there live.

John, what are you seeing right now? And what are you hearing from officials about the conditions Tallahassee, in particular, is facing?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Danny. The good news is that right now we're in a lull. It's as dry as it has been for some time. The bad news is this isn't going to last. The bands will keep coming through here, soaking Tallahassee, the capital city population about 200,000. And then the wind will come.

For all the storms that have passed over this region in the last few years, none have actually gone past Tallahassee as a hurricane. That is forecast to happen this time. And that could create some real issues here. This is a beautiful cedar tree right behind me. But this town is famous for its live oak trees and the county commissioner told me they expect thousands of trees to come down, hundreds of roads to be closed. That's going to be an issue with power knocked out for days and that could be a good forecast.

The local paper is reporting that Waffle House has already closed all over Tallahassee. And that's a sign to come because Waffle House stays open as long as they possibly can. They don't expect to be able to operate here overnight. Public transportation shut down in Tallahassee about an hour ago. And it's interesting because Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, he's coordinating Florida disaster response from here, from Tallahassee. But Tallahassee could be right in the middle of this disaster in a way it just hasn't been before.

So the triple threat you've been hearing about, the storm surge, that's 20 miles south of here. But the minute that happens right here in Tallahassee, the wind an issue in that drenching, drenching rain, several inches already, as much as 10 inches by tomorrow, the soil will be so wet, which is why we could see so many of those trees come down, Danny.

FREEMAN: Yes, incredibly well said that if there's any indication to take this seriously, when the Waffle House is closed, you should also take caution. John Berman, thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Brianna? KEILAR: We are keeping an eye on communities in Florida's Big Bend region as we're waiting for Helene to make landfall there.

And joining us now is Ralph Thomas. He's the commissioner of Wakulla County, which is south of Tallahassee and, of course, right there in the storm's path.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us.

The big concern as we're talking right now, you just heard me maybe talking to the director of the National Hurricane Center, is that people are getting out of these places that could see this huge storm surge. Are you confident that people are doing that?

RALPH THOMAS, COMMISSIONER, WAKULLA COUNTY, FLORIDA: Well, most of them are. We have teams of people that are going out and following up and going literally door to door. Everything in the low line and coastal areas has now had multiple attempts to convince them to leave. And for the most part they are, there are always some that will stick around. And if they see this message, I just implore them, get out now while they can, there's still time.

KEILAR: Well, that's the thing. You don't want them trying to get out at the last moment in a car in storm surge, right? But you also don't want them facing this, being inundated in their homes. What is your message to them?

[15:10:00]

THOMAS: You know, we've never taken a Cat 3 hit in Wakulla County. We've never had a 15 to 20 foot storm surge. So it's really hard for people to imagine. You know, we've never taken a Cat 3 hit in Wakulla County. We've never had a 15- to 20-foot storm surge. So it's really hard for people to imagine, but that's going to come up quickly. That's going to cover their homes and there's just nothing they're going to be able to do.

Once our wind speeds get to 35 miles per hour, we're going to ground all of our first responders. So we can't help you. We can't come get you until the winds get back down below 35 miles per hour.

KEILAR: So what are you seeing so far?

THOMAS: We are seeing some storm surge. The rivers are rising, the coastal areas are rising. Not a lot so far, but we're - we know that that's probably going to peak sometime around midnight tonight and continue to rise.

KEILAR: And what have you been hearing from people? What are they concerned about that has some of them deciding I might stick around?

THOMAS: I think probably more are leaving this time than would normally happen because we're used to this. We deal with this every year. And so a lot of people get complacent, but I think the magnitude of this with the Cat 3, possible Cat 4 and the storm surge is really getting everyone's attention. Some people are concerned about leaving their, you know, pets behind or having mobility issues and we're trying to accommodate that. And the state has been very good to help us with that as well.

So we're trying to overcome those objections and just encourage them. Nothing in your home is worth your life.

KEILAR: No, it's certainly not. And they don't have to drive too far inland, as we heard the director for the Hurricane Center saying 15- to 20 miles. Hopefully they're heeding your warnings there, Commissioner Ralph Thomas, thanks so much for your time today. Good luck.

THOMAS: Thank you. God bless you.

KEILAR: You too, sir.

Still to come, what we heard inside a New York courtroom today as former President Trump's lawyers keep fighting the judgment from his civil fraud trial.

Plus, lawmakers are grilling local law enforcement from Butler, Pennsylvania for their take on what happened the day someone tried to kill former President Trump.

And Melania Trump, the former first lady, moving away from her typical low profile. What she has to say in her first TV interview of the election cycle ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir.

We'll have those stories and many more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:16:41]

FREEMAN: Today, former President Donald Trump's lawyers making the case for why they say the $454 million civil fraud judgment against him should be thrown out. One lawyer arguing most of the allegations were too old to even be considered. For more on this, we have CNN's Kara Scannell outside of the courthouse.

Kara, did the justices give any indication of how they're leaning today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Danny, there were five judges on the bench. They were all actively peppering both the AG's office and Trump's lawyers with questions. One area of focus was the size of the judgment, that $354 million that Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay. With interest, that has now accrued to more than $487 million.

One of the judges asking the attorney general's lawyer how the size of that judgment fits with the alleged harm. Here's that exchange.

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JUSTICE PETER MOULTON, APPELLATE DIVISION OF THE SUPREME COURT, FIRST DEPARTMENT: The immense penalty in this case is troubling. So how do you tether the amount that was assessed by Supreme Court to the harm that was caused here where the parties left these transactions happy about how things went down?

JUDITH VALE, DEPUTY SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR NY AG: Well, disgorgement, Your Honor, looks at taking the gain away from the wrongdoer. And although this is a large number, it's a large number for a couple reasons. One, because there was a lot of fraud.

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SCANNELL: Now, that issue there of the lack of harm was another area that Trump's lawyers honed in on, saying that no one had lost money in this transaction. One of the judges latched onto that and pointed that out to the AG's office, asking them, if no one lost money, if this was a loan between two sophisticated parties, Donald Trump's organization and the German bank, Deutsche Bank, what was the limit of the attorney general's authority here in going after that.

Now, the AG's lawyer said that they do have limits to their authority, but that they are here to protect big players in the market and small players, and said that when someone acts deceitfully in the market, it hurts those honest business owners.

Now, as to the point that Trump's lawyers had been arguing about, some of this conduct being too old. This was something that the appeals court had reviewed before this case even went to trial. And one of the judges pushed back on Trump's lawyer, saying, if we thought that this conduct was too old, don't you think we would have done something about that.

Now, of course, where the judges ultimately land on this remains to be seen. This is one of Trump's many legal appeals that he's participating in over all of these investigations. A decision, though, Danny, is not expected until after Election Day.

FREEMAN: Kara Scannell, thank you so much for that update. Appreciate it. Brianna?

KEILAR: Well, today, Pennsylvania law enforcement exposed more of the chaos and confusion on July 13th when former President Trump was shot. State and local police leaders testified at the first hearing of the House task force investigating the attempted assassination. And witnessed detail that basic functions were not met that day in Butler, Pennsylvania, like having a shared way to communicate among the agencies on site.

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REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): This tragedy, the very real threat to democracy of our nation escaped that day. I think we realize it was entirely preventable. Had security vulnerabilities not existed, it is entirely plausible he might not even have attempted the shooting and would have returned home.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez has been following today's testimony.

[15:20:02]

That was just a taste of it. What's been going on?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, this was a repeat of what we've heard a lot repeatedly, right, from the Secret Service themselves, which is the idea that there was such a communication failure where, in the case of these law - local law enforcement agencies, which, by the way, the Secret Service has to depend on, right?

They don't have enough people to cover, for example, a rally this large. They need the local law enforcement, and one of the things that happened in this case is that even the law - local law enforcement was having trouble communicating with each other, not to mention the Secret Service having their own separate communication system that was not really interacting.

And these are problems, obviously, that should have been solved going back to 9/11. Here's a - take a listen to this testimony about some of those problems.

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REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): There wasn't a single unified command station on site. The Secret Service did not establish that. Is that atypical in your experience?

PATRICK SULLIVAN, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Yes, that's very atypical. I am very surprised. Normally, there will be an overall command post for the entire visit, and each site will have what's called a security room where radio traffic pertinent to that individual site is controlled. And the command post, the overall command post should be the state and local police Secret Service and other federal partners that may be assisting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And part of the importance of that was, you remember, there were about 30 minutes that they were looking for a suspicious gunman or a suspicious person who turned out to be the gunman who fired the shots at the former president. And the fact that there wasn't this unified place where people had information being exchanged really hampered the response. You heard, just in the last couple of days, that there were - this - the agents who were there, who were there to protect the president, some of the snipers, didn't know what was happening until they saw people running towards that building and they fired towards the threat. Again, because they didn't know what was happening.

KEILAR: Yes, unbelievable that they managed to move that quickly anyways.

Evan, thank you. Really appreciate the update.

Ukraine's president is taking his urgent pleas directly to the White House as he looks to push his victory plan against Russia.

Plus, tracking Helene, you're looking at live pictures out of Naples, Florida. The storm is now a major hurricane, a Cat 3. And millions from Florida to North Carolina are bracing for potentially catastrophic flooding.

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[15:27:02]

FREEMAN: President Biden meeting with Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy, just moments ago. Biden just announced an additional $2.4 billion in military aid for Ukraine after hearing President Zelenskyy's plan for a victory on the battlefield. His next meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.

We're standing by for them to address supporters when they sit down together. As we wait, though, to discuss all of this, we have retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former commander of U.S. Armed Forces in Europe, Ben Hodges.

Lieutenant General, thank you so much for joining me today.

I want to hear your take on this Department of Defense unveiling of the $2.4 billion security package for Ukraine. It includes expanded air defense drones - air defenses, rather, drones, and training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots. President Biden also authorized $5.5 billion in presidential drawdown authority. So looking at all of that together, what impact will the surge of assistance have on Ukraine's ability in this war?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, thank you. Obviously, this is all very good news and it will give Ukraine not only the physical capability to continue their fight to defend their country against Russian invaders, but it also sends a signal to Ukrainians and to Russia that the United States is, in fact, going to continue to support Ukraine. So these are the positive things. The frustrating thing, though, is that these are the kind of decisions that should have been made two years ago if the administration would make it very clear that we want Ukraine to actually win this war because it's in our strategic interest. This is not charity.

FREEMAN: One of the things that we know that President Zelenskyy has been hoping for is a lifting of the restrictions on firing these long- range weapons that would go deep inside of Russian territory. Do you expect the administration will lift some of these restrictions?

HODGES: Well, they certainly should because that would enable Ukraine to strike places from which the attacks are originating that are killing innocent Ukrainian civilians every single day. So this is about helping Ukraine defend itself.

The problem is the administration, I think, is excessively concerned or has an excessive fear that Russia might use a nuclear weapon in response. I think there is almost zero chance Russia uses a nuclear weapon because there is no benefit for Russia to use a nuclear weapon. And the administration continues to hesitate, though, because of the Russian - you know, the - President Putin, for example, coming out saying they've changed the doctrine about nuclear weapons. That is only the continuation of Kremlin efforts to cause us to continue to hesitate. It's working. We should change the policy, allow Ukraine to defend themselves.

[15:29:58]

FREEMAN: Zelenskyy has gotten himself into a bit of hot water with the Speaker of the House and former President Donald Trump over a recent visit to a Pennsylvania munitions factory, notably with Democratic ...