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Don Lemon Tonight

New Forecast For Hurricane Michael; Category One Storm, Winds At 75 Miles Per Hour; Hurricane Michael Slams Florida; Senators Pressure Trump to Investigate Disappearance of Saudi Journalist; President Trump Pens Op-Ed Full of Misleading Statements and Falsehoods. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired October 10, 2018 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. We have breaking news tonight. A new forecast for hurricane Michael. The storm slamming the southeast tonight after making landfall as the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Florida Panhandle and the third largest ever to hit the continental United States.

Winds in excess of 150 miles an hour. It blew apart homes and communities are underwater tonight. Let's get right to the Pedram Javaheri. He is in the CNN Weather Center.

Good evening to you, Pedram. Hurricane Michael is nearly a cat five, very close to it as it made landfall. What's the latest on the storm?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, incredible storm system. Nine hours, Don, after landfall here, still looking at a category one. The latest update drops it down from 80 miles per hour to 75. 74 makes it a category one below 74 is a tropical storm. And of course, you take a look, it's still there moving across just about 45 miles southwest of Macon, Georgia. And really can't stress enough the ferocity of the storm system as you said, comes to shore just two miles per hour shy of a category five.

Think about this for a moment. When you're talking about a storm system and 292 hurricanes, by the way in recorded history since 1851 have impacted hurricanes across the United States, only three of them have been stronger than Michael when it comes to the storm and its central pressure coming in as low as it was upon landfall there. And in fact just about every single observation point landfall failed as far as the instrument. The anemometers failed to report beyond 130 miles per hour observations we had with those gust. So it kind of talks about the intensity of the storm and still hanging onto there, into the overnight hours now as a category one into south central Georgia.

That is where tornado watches are in place. Of course a lot of friction here as the storm kind of rotates over land and interacts with land. Where we can spin up tornados. We've already done so several times with the system. And small tornadoes still a possibility with this. And then it quickly moves on out of here as we go into the morning hours of Thursday. Northern and western area of South Carolina. By the afternoon hours of Thursday, it pushes in. Still a tropical storm through portions of North Carolina. But the heavy rainfall becomes the next big story here, of course, in an area that is very hard hit across the Carolinas with potentially another 4 to 6 inches of rainfall on top of what happened just a couple weeks in Florence.

LEMON: Pedram, I appreciate your reporting. Thank you, sir. I want to get to Miguel Marquez. Miguel is in Panama City beach, Florida. Miguel, Panama City was hit hard. What are you seeing?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Gas station canopy is completely torn just ripped off of its base here. That is metal. That is steel that is ripped off. Look at this bit. That is completely just twisted and turned, it didn't stand a chance against the winds here today. There is damage though across a very wide swathe of the Panhandle. Thousands of trees down. Many hundreds of them across the roads. They are starting to cut through them now. Lots of power lines down, as well. Maybe the most surprising things in trying to go through areas like south port and just north of Panama City, hundreds of people who stayed there.

They're coming out trying to figure out shell shocked at the level of damage of the neighborhoods. The fact that they can't get through the, that in some cases trees are blocking their way. In some cases its water. They have no power. Many of their homes are damaged or destroyed. And now they have to figure out what is next. It's going to be a long time of rebuilding for here in the Panhandle. Don?

LEMON: All right. Miguel, thank you. Nick Valencia in Tallahassee for us this evening. Nick, you're in front of this huge downed tree I understand. Let me see as we get you up. There you are. It just speaks to the power of the hurricane. Talk to us about. The damage you're seeing.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: This was a fast moving hurricane. Nothing like what we saw just a couple weeks ago with hurricane Florence. Remember we were out in the South Carolina together, Don, and that just hovered and stuck over South Carolina and North Carolina. Here it was fast moving. The wind gusts ended up being a huge issue. And of course, if you've ever been to Tallahassee, you know that this is a picturesque town, much of that having to do with the canopy of trees, but it became a major problem, Don, just because, look at this, look at what is behind me here.

[23:05:08] This tree has fallen -- cut down access across this road, narrowly missed this house. Smashed into the car here. It became a major issue all throughout the neighborhoods. We did traveled a little bit through the city, the main streets by and large for the most part, they are pretty accessible. You can get through.

It's not until you get into these communities, into these neighborhoods that you're dealing with problems like this. Tens of thousands of people without power. An estimated 50,000 people here in the city of Tallahassee. And it was earlier that I spent some time with the Florida governor, in the emergency operation center and he was very concerned, because of scenes like you see behind me here. He was very worried about the trees here in Tallahassee, capital of Florida as well as the storm surge.

Storm surge didn't end up being a problem or a factor here in Tallahassee. The wind was more of a factor. The rain has stopped though the wind is still OK. It's not too bad here so far as these night hours hit us here. But really, you have to assess the damage when that sun comes up. They'll have a better idea exactly what they're dealing with, Don.

LEMON: Be safe out there Nick Valencia, thank you very much. I want to bring in now, Congressman Neal Dunn. He represents Panama City, Florida. Joins us now on the phone.

Congressman, thank you so much. Hope you're holding up and your community, as well under these circumstances. Panama City really took the brunt of hurricane Michael. Tell us about the conditions on the ground there.

REP. NEAL DUNN (R), PANAMA CITY: Well, thank you, Don, for having us on. I think it's important, because to get the word out about this. And you said it yourself. This is a historic storm, one of the top four storms ever to hit the country. And it really is a, you know, a devastating thing. I've been looking at some of the photographs just this county which is not the -- and it looks like the bomb went off on every single block.

I appreciate if we could use your show, because we still don't have communications here. We have no internet, we have no TV. We can't talk to each other. We have no cell phone service. Except for very, very touchy one or two networks which I'm using to talk to you.

And we're asking everybody to be patient with us. We're trying to get to you. On the ground, if you're here, shelter in place. Don't move around. And if you haven't come home yet, don't come home yet. We're not ready. The roads are blocked. The trees are down. The power lines are down. Some are active. The water is still hot. We're working hard. We know everybody wants to come home. Be patient with us. We have a mandatory dusk to dawn curfew. So we are obviously in curfew right now.

We have a mandatory water. There is now potable water in the county at all. We're doing everything we can to assist recovery. But we do need help. We ask people every time, it's sort of sad that we have so many accidents with generators. They put generators inside and one of them -- they forget there's a risk of carbon monoxide death that happens one or two every time. Please don't do that and finally we ask them to remember the 911 is for emergency communications. Narrow communications we have -- 911 calls. So Facebook and Twitter aren't 911. Please don't use it. Use 911, if you have a life-threatening emergency, we have every officer out that we can.

LEMON: Yes. Well, Representative Neal Dunn, thank you again. We appreciate your time. We know what a horrible situation you're under there and we are hoping that you guys recover very soon and you do it very well. And everyone hopefully will help you out.

DUNN: I think we're a resilient community. We all like each other. We are going to work together. I appreciate you helping us get the word out because our communications just aren't up to yours right now. We are grateful to you for that.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

DUNN: Have a good evening.

LEMON: You too. Now, I want to go to Tallahassee City Commissioner Gil Ziffer and he joins me by phone as well.

Good evening to you, sir. Commissioner, you've lived in Florida, really all your life and I am sure you had experienced plenty of hurricanes. How bad was hurricane Michael for you?

GIL ZIFFER, COMMISSIONER, TALLAHASSEE CITY: Well, thank you Don, first of all for having me. My first hurricane was hurricane Don in Orlando in the early '60s. I was just a child. Even at that age, the sheer magnitude of energy that this hurricane displace is sure incredible. This one we dodged a bullet here. You've had other folks from the City on.

We are very fortunate, because we didn't have the eye wall close to us, but as it's been said earlier, we have a significant tree canopy and as a result. We've got a lot of roads out, we got 90,000 to 100,000 customers without power, but as Congressman Dunn said, we are resilient here in Florida and we will do that. But my greater concern is seeing these pictures of the rest of the gulf coast. It's absolutely devastating knowing a lot of these mayors is pretty painful to see.

[23:10:00] LEMON: Well, speaking of pictures you took some of these pictures yourself as you were out and about. What's the biggest danger now, commissioner?

ZIFFER: You know, the biggest thing is we want to keep people off the roads. Because they truly are at this point impassable. Whether it's trees down or significant limbs and branches, we're at a point where you really can't get around. We want people to stay off the roads and let our emergency crews, let our fire department and police department, other EMS folks get out there. I am sitting in my front porch and what I hear right now the sound of generators and very little light. It's a very eerie feeling to be in my city and not have the light just about anywhere.

LEMON: Wow. Commissioner Ziffer, thank you so much, I appreciate your time. Good luck to you, OK?

ZIFFER: Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

LEMON: Thank you. This hurricane far from over. But rescuers are already taking place. We are going to talk to some of the people making that happen. That is next.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hurricane Michael is battering the southeast tonight after slamming into the Florida Panhandle as a mega powerful category four storm, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, causing widespread flooding, bringing life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic winds. At least one person has been reported killed. More than 500,000 customers are without power tonight in parts of Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

I want to talk now on the phone with me is Rear Admiral Paul Thomas. He is a commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District. He is in Mobile, Alabama. Good evening to you, sir. You've been coordinating rescues all evening. Tell me what's going on.

REAR ADMIRAL PAUL THOMAS, COMMANDER, EIGHTH COAST GUARD DISTRICT: Good evening, Don. Thanks for having us. We've been very busy in the past few days preparing for the storm and as soon as it was safe to fly about 4:00 this afternoon, our air crews are were in the air looking at the storm impacted area both for search and rescue and damage assessments, we have been conducting a number of rescues mostly from destroyed homes, families are in flooded conditions. A number of children have been rescued.

Some pets, as well and some medical emergencies are have been dealt with. Calls are still coming in, Don. We're prioritizing those that make sense to do in the darkness of the night for the safety of our crews and certainly keeping track of all the calls that we will hit it hard at first light in the morning.

LEMON: Yes, I am sure you will. According to the National Hurricane Center, Michael is the worst storm ever to hit the Florida Panhandle. Do you have a sense of how widespread the damage is and possible threat to life?

THOMAS: Our initial damage assessments are certainly verify that this was a ferocious storm. It has done some very severe damage. In the morning, we will get a better sense for exactly how widespread that damage is. That will be a real priority, because understanding where the damage is will certainly assist us in terms of getting to those communities that need our help the most.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Rear Admiral Paul Thomas. We appreciate you joining us from Mobile, Alabama tonight.

Joining me now on the phone is Teddy Rawlings. He lives in Carrabelle, Florida, right on the Gulf Coast. And he did not evacuate. Teddy, are you Ok? How you doing?

TEDDY RAWLINGS, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Yes, sir. I am alive. That is what's important.

LEMON: Yes. You rode it out at your parents' house, correct?

RAWLINGS: Yes, sir, I did.

LEMON: We're looking at video that you shot of the damage. That is a lot of water. I understand the roof of your parents' house was ripped off. So go through what happened. Take us through what happened. You must have been terrified. RAWLINGS: Yes, sir. When it all first started we were definitely on

the scared side growing up in Japan, we dealt with typhoons all the time. But the houses were built a lot different over there. They're meant to withstand, you know, any kind of storm winds and stuff like that. During the first half of the hurricane, everything looked like, you know, just a lot of wind and a lot of rain. I mean, trees are were bending over and breaking. That was the scariest part.

The video I shot was during the eye of the storm. Everything looked to be OK. But when everything came back around after the eye of the storm that is when the damage started happening. And my parents' house had -- they had two different spots in their roof where they have gigantic holes, where sashes were torn off by the wind. And over at my house, the entire roof is in the front yard. I was finally able to get over to my house after the hurricane died down some.

LEMON: You were lucky.

RAWLINGS: I have a two-story house. The entire roof was sitting in the front yard.

LEMON: You were lucky.

RAWLINGS: Yes, I was very lucky to get out when I did.

LEMON: I don't mean your belongings and just the things, right? Your home and all that. I mean with your life.

RAWLINGS: Oh, yes. And my fiancee and my two kids, as well. That would have been devastating if we would have stayed at our house. Which is actually what we were going to do, we are going to ride it out at our house. It's a good thing we decided to leave.

LEMON: Well, we're grateful that you're OK and your family, as well. Thank you, Teddy Rollings (ph).

RAWLINGS: Yes, sir.

LEMON: I appreciate it. Hurricane Michael has left over a half million people without power across three states. I'm going to speak with one of the people coordinating the effort to restore power to residents. That is next.

[23:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hurricane Michael is battering Georgia tonight after slamming into the Florida Panhandle. Florida Governor, Rick Scott, says 6700 people have moved into the state's 54 shelters, while over 19,000 workers are in a position to -- are in position to restore power to hundreds of thousands who are in the dark tonight. So, let's discuss. Ana Gibbs is a representative of Duke Energy and she joins us now by phone. Ana, thank you so much for joining us here. You know, hundreds of thousands are of customers are without power tonight across Florida. Is the worst over?

ANA GIBBS, REPRESENTATIVE, DUKE ENERGY: So right now for Duke Energy, it appears that it is. We have customers that stretch 35 counties, 1.8 million customers and for us, from Tallahassee West, we have about 35,000 outages and most of those customers are again West of Tallahassee are without power right now for Duke Energy.

LEMON: Yes. We've got some pictures that are now up on the screen showing the massive number of vehicles. There it is right now, that Duke Energy is ready to deploy, has already deployed some of them I think. You've been bringing in vehicles from all over the country. Have repairs already begun?

GIBBS: So, because of some of the winds that we have experienced here in this area, we have not been able to put our trucks are out. We have to wait till the winds die down for about 30 miles an hour or below. But you are absolutely correct. Duke Energy has 7,000 resources from all around the country. They are stationed throughout the northern portion of Florida. We have to keep them far enough away so they're not in the path of the storm, but I'm guessing you're looking at the Jacksonville equestrian center.

[23:25:11] We have a thousand of trucks here, we have three helicopters in Gainesville, also people here in Tallahassee, all of those resources are will be moving towards the western portion of the state towards the Panhandle. And we do serve as no doubt your viewers are have been watching, you know, the beach. We do serve that area. So you can see we definitely have a lot of work ahead of us, once daylight hits.

LEMON: All right. Ana Gibbs, thank you so much, I appreciate your time.

GIBBS: Thank you.

LEMON: Absolutely. Justin Nagainer and members of her family were riding out the storm in Panama City, Florida, when the roof started to crack. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop it.

(SCREAMING)

LEMON: Can you imagine that? Did you see that roof? Unbelievable. Part of the roof blew off. Leaving a hole and letting rain pour into the house. So Justin joins us now, Justin Nagainer on the phone from Panama City. Justin, my goodness. You guys must have been horrified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN NAGAINER, RESIDENT: Yes, we were. We were very, very scared.

LEMON: Yes? So take us through what happened. Tell us.

NAGAINER: Well, at first we were all sitting in the bedroom and I had a window ac unit and the window ac unit fell off the wall. So we were wanting to get it out of the wall and we shut the door -- I mean shut the window. After the window broke, we shut the window and five minutes after that, the window broke. That is when we went to the bathroom. We went to the bathroom, we were probably in there for like ten minutes. When we go in there, I'm like it smells like rain. So, then we open the bathroom door and we see the whole left side of the house is like open. We can see right through it. So after that, we like slammed the door. When she went to push back the wall, a piece of the wall came off and hit her in the face. She ran to the bathroom and we shut the door.

At that moment, that is when I went by because I didn't know what was going to happen. From that point on if I was alive, I kind of figured people are watching and people can see like if something was to happen. So we were sitting there. Then I opened up the door again and see that the roof is coming off the house. That is when it starts to pick up and that is when the rain comes. More of the house is coming apart. The bathroom. The leaks. That is when we got scared because we didn't know what was going to happen at that point. We were terrified. My sister was crying, I'm sorry for everything I done. I tried to calm her down. The other sister, she is calm. It was just a lot going on at the moment. We didn't know what was going to happen.

LEMON: When you say I'm sorry for everything I've done, did you or they think the end was near?

NAGAINER: She thought, yes, she thought that we were about to die and we were trying to calm her down and tell her, we're OK. We're not going to die. She is like no, I'm sorry. She was trying to call my mom and grandma. She was calling like everybody. She really thought that we were going to die. Honestly I did too, but I had to keep my composure for her and them. I couldn't let them see me. Because if I started crying, they would start crying and then, yes.

LEMON: Wow. Justin, your home was destroyed. And you can see from the video there, I understand you started a GoFundMe page to help rebuilt.

NAGAINER: Yes, sir.

LEMON: Yes. Tell me about it.

NAGAINER: I really didn't want to start it, but you know, everybody was like, please? I started thinking about it. I do need some type of funds, we and my family, we don't know where to go right now. We're at a shelter. It's a high school. They're sheltering people. They had food and lights and stuff, but it's just sad because we don't know where we're going to go or what's going to happen from this point on. We don't know where we're going to go and we didn't have all the funds to up and move. That is why we didn't move in the first place.

LEMON: How do you feel now having survived this?

NAGAINER: I mean, I can survive anything now, but I mean, it's traumatizing. I'm hurt, I'm sad. I'm mad all in one because I worked very hard to get my place. It's very sad just seeing everything that you worked for just go, just like that. LEMON: Yes. Justin, I know it's very important to you and very dear

to you. You can get that stuff back, but you can't get lives back. So, you guys are lucky to be alive. We're grateful that you are. We're thankful that you are. Thank you so much for joining us.

NAGAINER (via telephone): Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you. To help those impacted by Hurricane Michael, go to CNN.com/Impact.

President Trump is facing pressure from Republican and Democratic senators to investigate the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Turkish officials reportedly say that a Saudi murder squad killed Khashoggi. We are going to get the latest details on the mystery. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:34:58] LEMON: The Trump administration is insisting that they are taking the disappearance of a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, very seriously. Here's what the president had to say earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Have you spoken to the Saudis?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'd rather not say, but the answer is yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Lindsey Graham said there will be hell to pay if the Saudis are in fact responsible.

TRUMP: Well, Lindsay can speak for himself. But this is a bad situation. We cannot let this happen to reporters, to anybody. We can't let this happen. And we are going to get to the bottom of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: So right now, it is unclear exactly how the U.S. is going to get to the bottom of what happened. And so far the Saudis have denied any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance. But according to "The Washington Post," U.S. intelligence has evidence that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi from his home in Virginia back to Saudi Arabia.

And Khashoggi's friends say he was offered protection and even a job by high-ranking Saudi officials. The Saudi dissident has been missing for over a week now. Turkey believes Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi operatives after he went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

And they say his killing was ordered by someone high up in the Saudi government, according to what a Turkish official told "The New York Times." A lot is at stake here. Saudi Arabia is a major ally of this administration. Remember, it was the first country Donald Trump visited as president. But how America reacts to Khashoggi's disappearance has consequences for the rule of law and freedom of speech around the world. The secretary of state, the national security adviser, and White House adviser Jared Kushner have all spoken to the Saudi crown prince. But, there are still questions whether the administration will give the Saudis a pass on this.

Analysts are telling "Politico" that the administration is trying to sweep it under the rug. What happens in the coming days will be crucial. A senior U.S. official is telling CNN that this doesn't fall under the FBI's jurisdiction. But today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has triggered an investigation that could lead to sanctions for Saudi Arabia.

Let's discuss now. Max Boot is here. He is the author of the "Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." This is a very important story that we have been discussing and profiling on this show, Max. The president just spoke to Fox News about Khashoggi. I want you to take a listen and then we'll talk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP (voice over): Well, it's a terrible thing and it certainly would not be a positive. I would not be happy at all. And I guess you would have to say so far, it's looking a little bit like that and we're going to have to see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the senators' bipartisan kind of talk now that they would block any further arm sales to Saudi? Would you support that?

TRUMP: Well, I think that would be hurting us. Frankly I think that that would be a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Max, what do you make of that?

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I mean, I'm glad that Donald Trump is at least giving some pretense of taking this seriously because up until now, he has not risen to the occasion. I mean, this is such a shocking act, Don. I'm so glad that you're devoting time to bring this out because this is not something that we can accept as business as usual.

All signs are that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, a resident of the United States, a contributor to "The Washington Post" was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. I mean, this is a shocking crime. We need to get to the bottom of it.

And all the evidence seems to indicate that this was a result of an operation ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, MBS, who wanted to kidnap Khashoggi and bring him back to Saudi Arabia as part of his crackdown on dissent.

I mean, this is simply intolerable. You have to ask, why would an American ally, somebody that really depends on the United States for protection, why would they think they can get away with it?

Might it have something to do with the fact that President Trump and his son-in-law, Crown Prince Jared Kushner, have given a blank check to Crown Prince MBS in Saudi Arabia to do what they want and have essentially signaled that they will back the Saudis whether they're attacking in Yemen, feuding with Qatar or committing other offenses including kidnapping the prime minister of Lebanon last year.

This has got to end. There is anger on the Hill. There is anger in Washington. And the Saudis need to know they will not be allowed to get away with this.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Max, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner as I said in the introduction to you, they've all spoken to the crown prince, who by the way denies all responsibility. What should American officials be doing right now?

BOOT: They should be demanding answers and telling MBS very frankly that he needs to make a clean breast of this. If the Saudis in fact did this and the overwhelming weight of evidence indicates that the Saudis did do this, they need to issue a full explanation.

[23:40:00] There's has been some speculation that this was a rendition operation gone wrong, that the Saudis were not trying to kill Jamal, they were trying to kidnap him, which is bad enough, and that somehow he was killed in the process of trying to kidnap him.

But whatever happened, the Saudis need to come clean right now, make restitution if they're in fact responsible, do what they can to atone for this horrible crime. And if they don't do that, perhaps even if they do, they need to face consequences from the United States.

I think those consequences may well be forthcoming whatever the administration does because Congress is angry and rightfully angry. This is the biggest crisis in American-Saudi relations since 9/11. The Saudis need to have their blank check revoked.

LEMON: A Turkish official told CNN that the Saudis aren't cooperating fully in their investigation. Do we have ways of pressuring them to cooperate, Max?

BOOT: We have lots of ways. I mean, Donald Trump just recently said that if it weren't for the United States, the Saudi Arabia wouldn't exist. That's maybe an exaggeration. But it's more or less true because the Saudis completely depend upon the U.S. for protection.

We can easily interrupt arm sales, we can stop support for the war in Yemen. There are a lot of things that we can do that will deliver massive pressure on Saudi Arabia. If the Saudis don't come clean and very, very quickly, I think there will be growing pressure in Congress to do just that.

And remember, Congress was able to pass very strong sanctions on Russia even though the Trump administration was opposed. And I would not be surprised to see Congress passing by very large bipartisan majorities, very strong sanctions on Saudi Arabia no matter what Trump says. And so far, it doesn't seem to me that he is treating the situation with the gravity that it deserves.

LEMON: Max Boot, thank you, sir.

BOOT: Thank you.

LEMON: "USA Today" publishing an op-ed by the president this morning, an op-ed full of misleading statements and outright falsehoods. We're going to break down what's true and what's false in the president's claim about health care.

[23:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK, breaking news, I want you to pay attention to this because it affects you and your family. President Trump just called into Fox News and couldn't stop himself from criticizing the late Senator John McCain over his health care vote again, though not by name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP (voice over): We had it beat other than one senator or you could put it differently, one senator late in the evening happened to vote against it, shockingly even though he campaigned for 10 -- for eight years against it. You know, we had it done. It was repeal and replace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. So again, pay attention. We're going to give you some facts here because this comes on the same day as the president published an op-ed in "USA Today" on the topic of health care.

The piece is full of assertions which are misleading and just right out flat out false. So many falsehoods and lies that many are questioning how it even got published. So, let's look at the president's piece versus the facts, OK?

So the president writes this. "As a candidate, I promise that we would protect coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and create new health care insurance options that would lower premiums. I have kept that promise."

OK, well, it's true on one score. He did promise those things. So let's look at protecting pre-existing conditions, OK? The administration is backing a lawsuit in the courts right now that would allow insurers to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. That is an audacious claim to make given that they are advocating the opposite in a court of law.

On the new health care insurance options he mentions, the administration did roll out new plans. We reported on them on this show when the plans first came out. They are short-term plans that don't compare to the coverage you get from an Obamacare plan, from the Affordable Care Act. They don't cover pre-existing conditions either, if the insurers don't choose to. Many of these plans don't cover a lot of things that you might want or need from a health care plan like mental health, prescription drugs, certain types of injuries, even immunizations. Democrats in the Senate joined by none other than Susan Collins voted on this today, but failed to block the new plans from being sold.

Senator Collins said the short-term plans do not provide enough protections for people with pre-existing conditions. On the lower premiums, the president says he delivered the new short-term plans do have lower premiums because they are for a shorter time and they cover a lot less.

But if you compare apples are to apples are, comparable (ph) plans, the Congressional Budget Office says premiums are actually higher than they were before, not lower. The president criticized Democrats who support medicare for all, an idea that is gaining mainstream approval in the Democratic Party, championed by Bernie Sanders and others.

Here is what the president said. Trump says, "Medicare for all would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives. The Democrats' plan means that after a life of hard work and sacrifice, seniors would no longer be able to depend on the benefits they were promised."

OK, so let's look at that. Medicare for all would end Medicare as we know it which is only for people of retirement age. It would expand it to cover not only seniors but everyone.

[23:50:00] Medicare for all replaces a system we have now where the government pays for seniors through Medicare and the very poor through Medicaid and the private insurance market covers just about everyone else or people don't have any coverage at all and have to go to the emergency room.

Now, we can debate Medicare for all on its merits, right, and its cost, but Sander's proposal does not take benefits away from seniors. That is a scare tactic. So President Trump promises to defend Medicare and social security, alleging they are susceptible to an attack by Democrats.

Here's the thing. One of President Trump's signature accomplishments has been his massive tax cut. But in cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, the Trump administration and Republican Congress have caused the deficit to soar.

In spite of healthy economic growth, the nonpartisan CBO predicts that the deficit will exceed $1 trillion in 2020. One trillion dollars. And as that debt and the interest we owe on it comes due, it threatens our ability as a country to pay for programs like social security and Medicare.

So while spreading falsehoods and fear may be good to motivate a select group of voters, it's not honest. Health care may be the issue that decides a selection. If the president thinks he has the winning position on this issue, would he have to lie about them? So joining me now to discuss is CNN Contributors, David Swerdlick and Amanda Carpenter. She is also the author of "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us."

Good evening to both of you. So, I've laid it out there and it's a lot to go through. It's complicated. But again, most of what he wrote was false or was misleading or just flat out false.

So Amanda, you wrote the book "Gaslighting." This is gaslighting in the pages of a major newspaper. The line's not new, but is this a new front?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, here is the thing, and I think you hit the nail on the head towards the end of your comment. You have to ask yourself why is Trump writing this op-ed at this point in time. All the polling indicates that health care remains a major concern for all voters because Obamacare didn't drive cost down, what President Trump has done has not driven cost down, so this remains a big issue.

And so President Trump is really defensive about it. So lo and behold, here's an op-ed warning about Medicare for all and attempting to depict the entire Democratic Party as a wild eye liberal socialist. And let me tell you this is going to get some traction because Bernie Sanders, the sponsor of this bill, is a self-revived socialist, and he has a number of co-sponsors on that bill in the Senate who are considering 2020 presidential run.

And so i think this is table setting additionally for 2020 as well. And these tactics are very effective because right now there is no clear leader of the Democratic Party. And every Republican strategist worth their salt would be happy if they could make Bernie Sanders the avatar of the Democratic Party.

LEMON: Interesting. David, do you think the president -- do you think no one would notice that piece was filled with lies or does he just not care?

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think he was worried about it, Don. Look, I'm not going to get into the weeds of it because you did such a good job of breaking down the fact check. You were like the Olivia Nuzzi of fact-checking tonight.

(LAUGHTER)

SWERDLICK: And Amanda was like the Don Lemon of table setting tonight on what the real issues are. So I will just add onto it and say this. Look, the president, as Amanda said, wants to animate an older, whiter voting base to think of health care as a zero-sum issue where if Bernie Sanders, Senator Sanders' plan takes affect, a younger more diverse voting base will be getting benefits that they otherwise would have been getting, that's why you see some of the language in that piece.

But what struck me so interestingly about this piece, and I also want to act on what Amanda said on this, it's table setting not just for this election but for 2020 for two reasons. Number one, this, when I read it, I thought this sounds like Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign.

Last week, President Trump had arguably the best week of his presidency and he goes to the Mitt Romney -- you know, they're going to take away your health care, they're cutting $800 billion out of Medicare argument, I think that's both because it resonates with voters and also because if you go back to an earlier version of Donald Trump, the year 2000, "The America We Deserve" book writing Donald Trump, he wanted to bring health care to Americans.

He was for universal health care, but he knows that if Republicans had a plan that would bring down premiums and be cheaper and expand coverage, they would have passed it already.

LEMON: You mean he said something and then turned around and did another?

[23:55:00] No way, that's shocking.

CARPENTER: I will say in this piece, this is as close as you're going to see Donald Trump ever get to making a straight up policy argument. I think we should be clear, the Bernie Sanders plan is ripe for criticism. I have yet to see Democrats who can really explain the cost.

The right leading (ph) Mercatus Center at George Mason University went ahead and did their own study and put a $32 trillion price tag on it. Medicare for all would present massive disruption to the system where essentially everyone would be folded into the main system --

LEMON: That what I said, Amanda. We can debate the merits, right --

CARPENTER: Yes.

LEMON: -- on both sides. But the question is, again, why did he think he should lie about this? And I guess -- for you -- I have just a couple of seconds left -- people will believe him, right?

CARPENTER: Oh, sure. I mean, it is socialized medicine, so he can argue it is socialism.

SWERDLICK: Well, Medicare is already socialized medicine by definition. I'm not going to defend the Sanders plan or the Affordable Care Act. I will simply say this. You never hear people in Britain, France, Canada saying, oh, our country is like Venezuela because they have single-pay health care.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Thank you, both. I appreciate it. And thanks for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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