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Hurricane Ike Targets Texas; Hillary a Better V.P. Pick?
Aired September 11, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Coming at you now: Conservative pastors say separation of church and state be damned. They are going to challenge it.
Joe Biden, who is a better V.P. pick, you or Hillary?
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.
SANCHEZ: What?
BIDEN: It might have been a better pick than me.
SANCHEZ: OK.
The government in bed with big oil. No joke. It is a federal investigation.
How do you get a million people out of the way of a hurricane? This guy is getting out in a hurry. Look out. He has got a gun.
It is your newscast, because we are interactive. It begins now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Hi, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Of course, we are going to be taking most of your information throughout this newscast. In fact, there is so much going on. As soon as this newscast is over, I am going to be running to the airport to try and catch a plane for Houston. Why Houston? Take a look at this. That is right. They have been told to evacuate the city, and they are going to be doing just that, have been doing so for the better part of the last couple of hours.
We are talking about a million or more people who are just getting out of town as fast as they can, because it does appear tonight, folks, it does appear tonight that this Hurricane Ike is heading their way in some form or fashion. These are live pictures that we are getting at now from -- this is KTRK in Galveston, Texas.
You can actually see -- let's go to the right of the screen, and you can already see some of the wave action that is coming up on the beaches there in Galveston. Galveston has a history of having to deal with hurricanes, but they may be getting more than they can possibly handle if the present trend continues in terms of the way that Ike is coming.
All right. I understand now that we have the lieutenant governor of Texas, David Dewhurst. He is good enough to join us now to let us know about what he's doing as far as getting his folks prepared now.
Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, I have got to tell you, sir, as I look at these charts, it does look like the hurricane is coming for the city of Houston and surrounding parts.
LT. GOV. DAVID DEWHURST (R), TEXAS: Well, it does, Rick.
It has obviously got us all concerned. And we have been working on this for days and days and days. I was just with Governor Perry, Jack Colley, who is our emergency chief, and I think that the state has done everything it can. We are ready for the worst. We are praying for best.
This storm looks as if it is going to come in a little bit to the West about 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning to the West of Houston into Brazoria County, but this storm, Rick, four days ago, we thought it was going to be in South Texas. We have been chasing it and moving supplies, moving buses now for four days. We have moved...
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Yes, but let me ask you this, sir. Do you think you have gotten word out in time to get everybody out of this huge metropolitan area with due consideration of what might be coming their way?
DEWHURST: Rick, two things.
First of all, we have been moving -- we have moved C-130s. We have moved ambulances. We have moved buses. We have got 1,350 buses we have moved into the area. We have gotten special needs people out and we're flying helicopter runs out to make sure that we have got all the people that need, that can't travel themselves, and we have been pushing it down to the local authorities.
We have just convinced earlier this morning the mayor of Galveston to order an evacuation. So, we are trying to get everyone out. We are working in a coordinated way, contraflow, to move all of that traffic out of harm's way, because, in Houston, we are expecting midday on Saturday sustained winds 60, 80 miles, gusts up to 115 miles per hour. That's scary.
But the scariest part is this water, as Governor Perry explained earlier and the weather people, this water as it comes in could be almost like a tsunami. If it is a Category 4, it could be at 15, 16 feet, and in some of our computer models, put the entire island of Galveston under water. That is why, as we speak, we are moving people out of the hospital there and getting everyone off of the island.
SANCHEZ: Governor Dewhurst, can you stay with us just for a moment here?
DEWHURST: Sure.
MYERS: I want to bring in our meteorologist Chad Myers.
Chad, you got your ears up?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, sir.
SANCHEZ: Would you help us to have this conversation with -- everything that he said so far, it seems to be on track, right? Is there anything that the people of Texas, people of Houston and certainly the political figures who really are trying to get their hands around this right now that they should be thinking about, that they should be doing?
MYERS: Well, water is going to get into Galveston Bay. There's no question about that.
Here is a storm surge map here and this is what the lieutenant governor was talking about. Here's Galveston completely under water. That's what this red number -- this red means, probably under five to 10 feet of water overwashing the city of Galveston.
Texas City, right through here, League City getting water and then you push water up these bayous and all the way up here to north into Baytown as well, some of these low-lying areas, everybody in this -- anything -- if you see color and your house is in that color, you absolutely need to be out of that house, no question about it, because of that storm surge the lieutenant governor was talking about -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Lieutenant Governor, are you still on the line?
DEWHURST: Yes, sir, I am.
SANCHEZ: When we look at Galveston in particular, because it is getting the most dangerous part of the storm -- and stay with us while we are here having this conversation, Chad -- what are you saying to the people there in Galveston to get them to get it, if you know what I mean?
DEWHURST: Well, first of all, two things.
First of all, we talked to the mayor. We sent this map to the mayor this morning to encourage her to go ahead and declare a mandatory evacuation, since this whole Ike has moved 300 miles from South Texas to this current location.
Now, I'm interested from your perspective -- I was talking to all of our meteorologists all morning, but we don't -- this is about where we thought in September 2005 when Rita came in, this is about where we thought Rita was going to hit and then in 36 hours moved over slightly east of Beaumont, Port Arthur, but we are planning as if it is going to come in on this track into Brazoria. And as...
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Somewhere around Freeport, you mean, right? DEWHURST: Right, a little bit to the east of Freeport. But as your colleague will tell you, with the surge and with the winds, that is going to create most of the water at Galveston Island. And what he was talking about, although you may are surges on Galveston Island as high, if it is a category -- on a 3 or a 4, you would be looking at 12 to 15 feet of surge, and it could be higher, and that was his point, in Galveston Bay.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Let's put you two together.
Chad, go ahead and answer the governor -- or the lieutenant governor's question. Just what will they see there? Will it be a Category 3, Category 2 style winds? What will it be?
MYERS: Well, I think he was talking about what Rita did to them, and Rita chased a lot of people out of Houston, then made a big right- hand turn.
This storm, Governor -- Lieutenant Governor, is going to make a right-hand turn. Whether it makes it after it makes it onshore or whether it makes it in the ocean, in the Gulf of Mexico, will make a huge difference, whether it takes it toward Lake Charles. I don't think that it is probable, but it is possible, still in the cone of uncertainty.
But what happens is the forecast brings that turn around your city and it looks like the west part of your city could be very close to what we would still consider the eyewall landfall here and that would certainly be a problem for anybody here west of 610 and all the ways out towards -- even Austin is probably going to get winds maybe 50 to 60 miles per hour, gusts, at least.
And that is going to cause problems in a big city like Austin, Texas.
SANCHEZ: Chad, stand by real quick.
We understand we have got Susan Candiotti standing by right now. Susan Candiotti is in traffic in Houston with some of the folks who are trying to get out of there. We will keep the lieutenant governor on the line, because we want to see if he can help us out.
A lot of people have been e-mailing me, Governor, and reaching me on MySpace and Facebook and on Twitter, asking, me what am I supposed to do? I am not sure. Maybe we can give them some answer through this.
Susan Candiotti, you are on. What is the situation with people trying to get out of town?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Rick, we temporarily got off of the highway to pick up some provisions.
I can tell you that while we were on Route -- Interstate 45, traffic wasn't too bad at that time. But I can tell you that there are long lines at gas stations. The grocery stores are very busy. They are running out in some cases of water, certainly of ice. In some cases, we have seen gasoline stations with no more gasoline left.
I can say that the lines, though long in the grocery stores, are moving right along. Interestingly, we talked to some locals who have lived here for years and years in Houston, and, unlike Rita, at least one woman told us she was planning on staying put and not evacuating, as she did during Hurricane Rita, when she spent 17 hours on the road to try to get to Austin. And she said, no way am I going through that again.
So, in some cases, I think it is clear that some people will not be taking the highway to get out, but will plan to ride out the storm in Houston.
SANCHEZ: I imagine officials are telling them that may not be a good idea. I guess it depends upon on where they live, though, right? I mean, are there some areas that are more vulnerable than others?
CANDIOTTI: Certainly, there are. There are some low-lying areas where people are being told to move out. This one woman in particular was not in one of those.
Nevertheless, with the high winds, you know, this is flat territory, as you know, much like, for example, South Florida. So there is not much to protect these folks from high, sustained hurricane-force winds, certainly Cat 3 or possibly a Category 4.
SANCHEZ: Susan Candiotti following that for us.
Thanks so much, Susan, for calling in. We will be checking back with you throughout the course of this newscast to get more information on exactly what is going on.
Let me just break one thing down for you. Can we go over to the Telestrator real quick? I want to be able to show exactly how this thing works out, because a lot of people are confused. Well, if it is going that much far west of Houston, they might ask, then what is the real concern? All right. There is the Houston area right there, right? And they are talking about the storm coming into that area right there, and then kind of starting to do that little turn.
But, remember, and this is important, and this is what we are going to get Chad back on in just a little bit. So, if the hurricane is going here, why are people here concerned? Because, again, this is the big part of the storm, where it turns. When the storm is going, that is the most dangerous side.
And, two, what is the distance from the eye of the storm to the outer edge, where the storm's most dangerous winds reach? What is that distance right there? And is it more than the distance between Freeport and Houston, where it is hitting? Let's say this distance right here is only 30 miles, but the winds extend 60 miles. Well, then, that means that that area right there will be affected by the hurricane with full throttle. I mean, what we want to do is to break down the numbers, so you can know exactly, because I know what it is like to be waiting for a hurricane like this and you want exact details.
Chad Myers is the guy who can give you those. And when we come back, we are going to have him break that down for you. How far do those winds extend, so people in Houston will be actually feel them and, what will they feel?
Also this story -- what if your pastor told you to vote for a certain candidate for president? Would that be wrong? This is not just a question I am asking you. This is a news story in the making that we have been following. And there is a major disagreement about this. You're going to hear both sides when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And welcome back.
Tonight, a follow-up to a story that we first told you about yesterday. A group called the Alliance Defense Fund is organizing a group of pastors to challenge a federal law. Part of what they want is the right to be able to make political endorsements directly from the pulpit.
Should they have that right and still be able to keep their tax- exempt status? I mentioned we were doing this earlier on the Internet when I went to Twitter.com/ricksanchezCNN. And I got a load of responses. In fact, take a look at some of the responses that we have been getting already.
"Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it. Pastors need to go back to school and relearn our history" -- just one of the points that is being made by our viewers tonight.
OK. Let's see if these guys that you are about to hear sway you one way or another. This is the Reverend Jim Wallis, who is against this proposal, and lawyer Erik Stanley, who is proposing this challenge to the law. Hear them out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM WALLIS, PRESIDENT, CALL TO RENEWAL: I am not a lawyer. Lawyers and Erik can argue back and forth. I am a pastor and theologian and on November 4, the kingdom of God will not be on the agenda, but important choices will.
So, Christian pastors and clergy and rabbis and imams should ask their people of faith to vote. Americans should vote. And our Sojourners Web site, we have a vote-all-your-values guide, how people can vote all their values as people of faith. But Martin Luther King, Jr. never endorsed a candidate. He always had them endorse the agenda of a movement.
What is at stake here is the prophetic independence and integrity of the churches. These is imperfect choices. God is not a Republican or a Democrat. And people of faith should be in no political party.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: What about that, Erik, the idea that, as a conservative, you and those who are behind this would say, essentially, to people who are in their church, you have to vote Republican?
ERIK STANLEY, ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND: Well, no, that is not what we are saying at all. This is not about really whether a pastor should endorse or oppose a candidate. What this is about is that the government has no business telling pastors they cannot say that.
SANCHEZ: But wait. Your organization is actually saying -- am I reading this wrong -- that you want the right to endorse candidates?
STANLEY: We want to give pastors the right to freely exercise their constitutional rights.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Which includes endorsing candidates...
(CROSSTALK)
STANLEY: It could include endorsing. It can include opposing a candidate.
What the point is here -- and I think Jim is exactly right -- this is about the independence of the church here. The church should be independent from the government. What we are trying to do here is to enforce a very healthy separation of church and state.
For too long, the government has had its foot in the doors of the pulpit, has been censoring pastors' sermons and telling them, you can say this, but you can't say that. And that is unconstitutional. And we want to restore the right of pastors to freely speak without any government interference.
(CROSSTALK)
STANLEY: If pastors and congregations decide to endorse or oppose, that is their decision.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: The government could not censor sermons. Everybody would agree with that.
But when pastors from the pulpit endorse candidates, they are politicizing and dividing the body of Christ. And that is a mistake. That is a big mistake. It perfectly fine -- in fact, I would encourage every pastor the week before your initiative, we are having vote out poverty Sunday. We're asking pastors to talk about how, with 2,000 verses in the Bible about poor people, poverty is a critical issue to the heart of God, so how do you vote out poverty? But getting poverty should be a nonpartisan issue and a bipartisan cause.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: So, talk about issues and values, but don't endorse.
SANCHEZ: Jim, you are saying it is OK to be political from the pulpit, but not partisan?
WALLIS: It is OK -- to exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: Stay values, values, but not partisan.
STANLEY: Jim, I think that you are right to have this debate.
Our point through the Pulpit Initiative is that it is the job of the pastors and the congregation of each church to have this debate. It is not the job of the government to come in and draw a line and say, you cannot do that.
What this is really about is freeing up pastors and churches to preach the whole counsel of God's word, both poverty and politics, if they want to.
(CROSSTALK)
STANLEY: What is really at heart here...
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: But, Erik, how many of those pastors, how many of those that you have endorsing, several dozen, how many are endorsing Democrats this year?
STANLEY: I honestly have no idea what these pastors are going to say.
WALLIS: Really? Really?
STANLEY: They haven't told me.
This sermon is their sermon. They will be the ones writing it. They will be the ones giving it. We have no idea what they are going to say, because...
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: Why don't we count up the number of pastors that you have signed up and see how many endorse a Republican or how many endorse Democrats?
SANCHEZ: That is a good follow-up. Maybe that's a good thing to discuss. We will get both of you back and we will see if we can figure that out. And then we will have this discussion again. It's a good follow-up.
Gentlemen, you have both been wonderful to have this conversation with -- certainly an important thing for Americans to be discussing.
Jim Wallis, Erik Stanley, thank you and God bless.
STANLEY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right, so let's go with this now in your terms. Let's go over to the big board.
This is a discussion group that we put out on MySpace where we asked the question. It has been overloaded with responses. This thing has really hit a nerve.
"Absolutely not. If churches want to be a political platform, they should pay taxes. Absolutely not. No, no, no. Churches should be above and beyond the realm of politics. This is not theocracy."
Most of these comments came from people or at least many of the ones we have seen from people who are very religious or consider themselves religious. And they have been saying, I'm not comfortable with that, even though I go to church ardently.
"This belongs in the crazy department. Absolutely nonsense. They are in charge of our spiritual guidance, no, not our vote."
So, there you go. We have been getting a lot of these, and we will continue the read in to see what else people are commenting on as we follow this.
Now, how often do you hear a candidate for anything saying that someone else may be a better choice than them?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: She is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She is easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America. And, quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: "It might have been a better pick than me." Yes, he really did say that Hillary Clinton might have been a better pick for vice president. Chew on that.
Also, as we go to break, I want to show you what is going on right now in Houston. Those of you who may now be getting home and don't know yet, it does appear that Ike is heading for this particular area around Houston and Galveston.
Folks are just trying to get out of Dodge now, but, as you can see, they are meeting up with all their friends and neighbors in the process. It is backed up. We are on it. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And on Twitter.com/ricksanchezCNN, people are reaching out to us as we speak. As a matter of fact, let's go to it.
This is from people in the Houston area.
"Gas stations are packed where I am."
Let me go down a little bit there and there you see this one. "In Houston, not leaving. Nervous? Hell yes."
Let's go over to Chad Myers now and find out why these people are suddenly so nervous about this storm.
Chad, I tried to frame for the viewers a little while ago why it is that, even though this storm is not going directly into Houston/Galveston, still they're in a range where they might get hurricane-force winds. Can you explain that to us meteorologically?
MYERS: It is not going to lose a lot of momentum, not going to lose a lot of power from when it hits the island, Brazoria County or maybe up to Galveston, Freeport, to when it makes its turn around Houston.
And I want to take people, too, to this map here. I want to show you what the Hurricane Center does. They don't plot what a hurricane is going to go every minutes. They plot it every 12 hours at the beginning, then every 24 hours at the end. So, we have this storm plotted to come up toward the Houston area.
But see how this line goes? It almost makes a right-hand turn? Well, that is not going to happen, OK? That's just not -- it's not going to work that way. I am going to drag it back over here. It is not going to make an obtuse angle right around Houston.
What is really going to happen is you almost have to use some kind of a curl, a bendy stick, if you would, and try to connect to all of them. This part of the storm is going to be a little bit to here, out this way around, then connecting again around and then connecting again.
There is a curve in there somewhere because, well, hurricanes just don't go around corners. The problem is what is going to happen with these sustained winds. I am going to turn them on right now. The sustained winds are going to be Category 2 winds in Houston proper, because this is the bad side of the eye.
You not only have the winds coming here at 120. You also have the forward speed of the storm, which might be 15 miles per hour. You have to add those together. And you're going to get winds at 135 if the forecast holds true on the right side of this line. You subtract those numbers 120 minus 15, so you only have 105-mile-per-hour winds on this side. That's why we call this the easy side. But, I have never met a 105-mile-an-hour easy wind, Rick. SANCHEZ: So, if this thing goes into Freeport, just to choose a city that some people have been talking about...
MYERS: Yes, OK.
SANCHEZ: ... the distance between Freeport and Galveston, Houston, is less than I imagine the length of these hurricane-force winds, right?
MYERS: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Now, it will probably -- Houston will probably not get the eyewall, itself. The eye is only going to be probably 20 miles around. The radius of that is 10. So, if we get all the way down to here -- here is Brazoria County. That's where the lieutenant governor was talking about. There's Lake Jackson. There we go.
And here's Freeport right down here. This is the area that would take the brunt of that 15-foot wall of water. And it is not so much like a tsunami. It does not really work that way. It is just a building of water a foot at a time. Every time a wave comes in, the water goes up and up and up and up, and it is on you before you know it.
It is not like, oh, my gosh, there is a big wall of 15-foot water and it's going to hit me. It does not work that way. It washes on and on and on. And then by the time the eyewall gets right in here, that is where you are going to see all of these areas, all of these homes that are right along the beach here, they are all going to be inundated with an awful lot of water -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Chad Myers as good as anybody at explaining this stuff. And he has got a new tool to do with it and already he is good at it. Thanks, Chad. Appreciate it.
All right, let's talk to Darryl Trimm. He is a CNN engineer. he happens to be in the area now.
Darrell, are you there? Are you on the phone?
DARRYL TRIMM, CNN ENGINEER: Yes, I am.
SANCHEZ: Tell me what you are seeing around you.
TRIMM: OK. We are West Road and I-45. We stopped to get some gas cans at a Home Depot, and all of the gas cans are going like hotcakes, and as all the plywood is being taken out of the store. We have got six containers so we an power a generator, and we went to the gas station at the same corner at West Road and I-45, and it is chaos.
There are just hundreds of cars lined up trying to get fuel. And a few of the people are getting a little testy, people trying to jump in line. And it looks like they are going to run out of gas pretty soon. And the station across the street was a Shell station, and it was the same situation over there. So it looks like everyone is trying to get gas as soon as possible. SANCHEZ: Yes. And everybody is suddenly making the realization that they need to get out of town, and that is the way usually it happens. We talk everybody crowding out the one exit.
As you can see though, fortunately, the governor and the lieutenant governor are on top of the situation. We may be seeing contraflow momentarily. They have not started that contraflow yet there, Darryl, right, where they stop the highway coming in?
TRIMM: No, it's still -- traffic is still moving quite normally right now.
SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks a lot, Darryl Trimm following things for us in Houston.
All right. Does Joe Biden really think that Hillary Clinton might have been a better choice for the vice presidency than him? That is what he actually said. We will be bringing that story to you and someone from the left and someone to the right to talk about it.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to the World Headquarters of CNN I'm Rick Sanchez.
When the Democrats put Joe Biden on the ticket, a lot of people were wondering when the famously talkative Senator might say something that might be somewhat -- or at least slightly off message.
Here's Biden speaking yesterday, suggesting that Barack Obama might have found a better running mate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Make no mistake about this, Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She is easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America. And, quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Did Joe Biden really say that?
Here to talk about that now Democratic V.P. pick and how that race is shaping up, Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus and Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis -- Chris?
CHRIS KOFINIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hey.
SANCHEZ: I'm thinking, you're thinking that this guy is killing me. Do you wish he hadn't said that? KOFINIS: I mean, listen, he was being gracious. If you look at the actual context of the question, it was a question about Hillary Clinton. I think that he was being self-deprecating, you know, self- effacing, if you will, and being very kind. And obviously, you know, Senator Clinton is incredibly qualified. But the notion that you somehow read more into this, I think that, you know, it doesn't pass the laugh test. It's just not realistic.
I mean he clearly is more than qualified. He's a great vice presidential choice. And that I think that's going to play out very well.
SANCHEZ: So no harm, no foul then. Do you agree there, Cheri?
CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think that Joe Biden needs to stop thinking out loud. I mean there is...
(LAUGHTER)
JACOBUS: There's no filter there. No, this is a gaffe. And it's the type of gaffe that Joe Biden is known for. And he should know better by now. He is an experienced politician. He's been in Washington a long time. And this is just not what the Obama campaign needs right now. So I think that -- you know, usually we like to say and I like our elected officials and our politicians to step away from the podium. We've been saying that about Obama. We know that John McCain is better like that. Sarah Palin is certainly better like that. I think...
SANCHEZ: You think so?
JACOBUS: I think...
SANCHEZ: You think Sarah...
JACOBUS: I think Joe Biden needs to stay behind the podium...
SANCHEZ: Hold on.
JACOBUS: ...and read from the teleprompter.
SANCHEZ: Wait. Let me stop you real quick, because you just said something that I think some people would probably find interesting. You think Sarah Palin is -- well, let me ask you this. Tonight Sarah Palin gives her first prime time interview.
JACOBUS: Right.
SANCHEZ: Are you nervous in any way?
JACOBUS: Not at all. You know, I have to tell you, I've seen interviews that she did prior to being named as John McCain's running mate and she's very, very good. This is a woman who defeated an incumbent mayor when she had no political experience. Then she went on to defeat an incumbent governor. She doesn't have political connections. She doesn't have political money. She's not married to a powerful person. This is all her. Common sense tells you that she's good...
SANCHEZ: Let me...
JACOBUS: And she doesn't owe anybody anything. And when you don't owe anybody anything, you can be fearless.
SANCHEZ: Let me give Chris a chance...
JACOBUS: She's going to be great.
SANCHEZ: Let me give Chris a chance to get in here before we run out of time.
Chris, should Cheri be nervous about her giving her first prime time interview?
KOFINIS: Well, I don't if she should be nervous today. But I mean at some point, you know, Sarah Palin's is going to have to answer the tough questions. She's going to have to answer the questions about why her record doesn't match up to her rhetoric of a reformer. She's going to have to answer the questions about why does she take earmarks and then somehow condemn them. Why does she support a "Bridge To Nowhere" and then say she was against it.
I mean at some point -- this is not "American Idol," it's the American presidency, and she's going to have to answer the tough questions. She hasn't. And they start today. And I think it's going to be a very serious, you know, insight as to how she stands up to the really tough questions...
JACOBUS: And you know what...
KOFINIS: ...(INAUDIBLE) all the major networks.
JACOBUS: ...the more you understood estimate her, the better she does.
KOFINIS: It's not under...
JACOBUS: So I think it's very good (INAUDIBLE)...
KOFINIS: ...estimating her. Cheri, it's not underestimating her at all.
JACOBUS: She's going to knock it out of the park. Well, if you study some of her past interviews...
KOFINIS: It's not underestimating her...
JACOBUS: ...she's very, very good and...
KOFINIS: It's just (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: All right, guys...
KOFINIS: ...that she should answer the questions. JACOBUS: And she will and it's going to be great.
SANCHEZ: Before we go any further, we're going to have to leave it there. A good discussion. Interesting comments made both ways, as we always like to say. We appreciate it.
All right. We are going to get even further in depth on the vice presidential candidates this week. Saturday and Sunday, tune into our "Revealed" specials. "Palin Revealed" starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. It will be followed by "Biden Revealed" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
All right. Let's show you some of those pics out of Houston once again. We're going to be all over this. We'll continue to follow it. It does appear, for those of you who may now just be getting home from work and haven't heard that Ike is heading in this general direction -- maybe even way too close for comfort. That is why people around the Galveston and Houston area are now heading out of Dodge.
And, as you can see, that one fellow at the top of the screen there, he's a little desperate to get out.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We're beginning this segment by showing you an area where we understand John McCain and Barack Obama are going to be jointly meeting. This is to, obviously, commemorate a 9/11 event. This is ground zero that you're looking at there. That's at ground zero in downtown New York.
And as we get word that the two candidates have appeared in the area, we will then immediately take you there and let you see this historic event as it takes place. Again, that should be happening within the next couple of minutes. And we will dip in and let you see it for yourself.
All right. Let's go back to the hurricane now. There you see some of the pictures that we're following. Right next to me, you see the big loop, as we often call it. That's the hurricane -- where it is right now. It's a very, very large storm, which is what concerns some people -- which means we're going to be feeling the effects of it along the coast earlier than with many other storms, for example -- even along parts of Florida, as you can see.
There you see also, in one of our boxes what's going on with folks in the traffic situation trying to get out of Dodge, as we've been saying. And, also, you're seeing the Home Depots and the gas stations. They're all going to be jam packed today with people trying to get in, get their supplies or get their gasoline. And from what we understand, there are lots of lines everywhere. We'll be all over this story.
Stay with us. More this when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We're trying to get all of the news in for you as we go, but obviously one of the big themes of this newscast today is what's going on right now in Houston.
People are sending us messages, which is what we encourage folks to do, about what's going on right now in Houston. And it looks right there -- at least like that road looks pretty good. I'm not sure which way that road is going, whether it's east or west. Obviously, all the north/south corridors are going to have a lot of people heading out of town.
Roger, do me a favor and let's go to our Twitter board if we possibly can. Here's one I got just moments ago. This is from MaestroChris. Let's go in tight on that so we can all read it together. And it kind of sets a good picture for it, doesn't it?
MaestroChris writes to me and says: "Houston is a mess. Grocery stores near in Southwest Houston are running out of supplies, water, ice. Non-perishables are gone, which again is confirmed by one of our own engineers that we talked to on the phone a while ago, who said that things are just a mess at gas stations because everybody is getting out of work and trying to get gas at the same time, before they get out of town. So, hopefully, patience will win out in the end as we watch the situation here.
All right, we've got to back up a little bit now. Three men all believed to be aligned with Al Qaeda were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in 2006. However, there were two dozen of them arrested.
Why were only three of them convicted if they had serious ties to Al Qaeda? A Pulitzer Prize winning author says he's investigated this and he knows why. Watch this as I talk with Ron Suskind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON SUSKIND, AUTHOR, "THE WAY OF THE WORLD": Here was some intelligence that these planes that the liquid bombers were about were going to be coming to the United States. The White House was alerted. The White House said snap -- shut the trap immediately. The British said, look, we do it differently. We wait until we get real evidence and we'll try them in public courtrooms and get long sentences rather than deal with Guantanamo Bay or secret prisons.
The United States heard that. They said thank you very much and then went behind the British -- behind their backs and snapped shut this investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: OK. For the record, yesterday I told you that we had been reaching out to the White House multiple times to try and get their take. My staff tells me today we were never able to make contact with them until today. In other words, it's not the White House's fault, to be fair. Our fault for not being able to reach them to get comment on this. So today we did reach them. And what was their comment? "The assertion is completely untrue."
A police chase ends with a crash, but the story wasn't over. It's an amazing scene as it unfolds, as the driver takes a shot at police. The rest of this story is up next.
Also, a police chase ends with a tasering. Watch this. Down he goes. Our security analyst, Mike Brooks, joins us next to talk about both of these.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right
Welcome back. Watch this. Put that tape up, Roger. I want to talk about this as people take a look at this.
OK. It's a robbery suspect running from the police. Finally they catch up.
See the guy right there?
He opens up the door. He's shooting at the police first.
(VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: See, he's shooting at them and that's what you're hearing right there.
All right, let's bring in the security analyst -- boom. There it is. Exactly.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Did you see his hand with the gun come out first, Rick?
And then the officer -- no cover, no concealment. This is a situation that no cop -- that a cop never wants to be in -- no cover, no concealment after a high speed chase. You don't know if he's got a gun. As soon as he opens up that door, you see the hand come out with that gun. That officer had no choice.
SANCHEZ: Well, we've got this on a loop so you can kind of see it again and again.
Roger, go ahead and put that up again.
Should the officer have even -- was he right in coming around right there and getting that close to the car without knowing what the guy had?
BROOKS: Well, you know, you've got to approach the car. After you get out, you know, if you say -- if you said something to the person inside the car to try to get him to come out, that person probably maybe wasn't saying anything. So he's approaching that car with caution. And as soon as he comes out, that officer, and you see that gun come out with the, you know, the hand with the gun and fired that first shot. That officer had nothing to do but use deadly force.
SANCHEZ: Mike Brooks is our law enforcement analyst, by the way.
And I want to show you something else, Mike. This came to us just moments ago. And we want to let you break it down for us...
BROOKS: Yes...
SANCHEZ: ...and see if the officer in this case responded properly.
Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's now westbound and working through a residential neighborhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: All right. There was a chase...
BROOKS: Apparently, it was a robbery, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Right.
BROOKS: And they believed him to be -- to have a gun and to have been armed. And then he got out on foot and then there was a foot chase. You see the officer...
SANCHEZ: Puts his hands up.
BROOKS: Puts his hands up, comes around. The other officer comes up and uses the taser -- a less than lethal alternative. And now they have him down and now he's being compliant. They roll him over on his stomach. You see the officer by procedure (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: Well, here, let me ask you the obvious question.
BROOKS: Yes?
SANCHEZ: Did he need to use the taser on this guy?
BROOKS: Well, we don't know what he was saying, OK. We don't know if he was being partly compliant when he turned around and, you know, he started to walk toward the officer, because they believed he could have been armed. Now, Rick, the alternative, if he had have come up without a taser and they would go to handcuff him and he goes to struggle and he pulls a gun...
SANCHEZ: Right.
BROOKS: ...it might have been in his waistband and they can't see. Then they're going to say why did they beat this poor man?
So you... SANCHEZ: So this one doesn't give you heartburn like the one we showed you yesterday?
BROOKS: No. No. That one didn't give me heartbroken. If I thought they we were wrong, I would definitely say no, I think that's not the proper use of a taser. But I don't have a lot of heartbroken with this one.
SANCHEZ: Because you call them like you see them.
BROOKS: You've got that right.
SANCHEZ: Mike Brooks, thanks so much.
BROOKS: All right, buddy.
SANCHEZ: We appreciate it.
All right. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that somebody is trying to overthrow him. We're going to check with our friends at CNN Espanol on this one in just a little bit.
And, of course, everything going on hurricane-wise with Ike.
We'll be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We have got a bevy of responses from you on all the stories that we've been following so far.
Let's start with this one. Raucusus (ph) says: "If churches want to pay taxes, I have no problem with their involvement in politics."
Look at this one right under it: "That cop had no need to taser that dude -- another example of abuse of power. Watching you now. Thank you for covering Ike so well. I am currently on vacation in Vegas, but live in Galveston."
And this one is interesting. I just saw it. Look at this: "I'm in Houston, thought we were going on a beach vacation in Galveston this weekend. Guess not."
You guessed right.
All right, let's check now with CNN Espanol, because this is what we want to do for you every day. There is another world outside the United States. It's called Latin America. It maybe doesn't get covered as much as it should be. We are going to do it for you every day.
Glenda Umana is with CNN en Espanol.
I understand Mr. Chavez is acting up again, is that right?
GLENDA UMANA, CNN EN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's been a big story for us. Como esta (INAUDIBLE)? Well, let me tell you the details.
When President Hugo Chavez from Venezuela, today he accused some retired military commanders -- the political opposition and the United States, also -- of being, he said, behind a plan to overthrow the government.
Now, during a televised speech that you're seeing now, he presented a telephone taped conversation between former commanders. And on this tape, they discuss blowing up the presidential jet or bombing the presidential palace.
Now, Rick, Chavez, however, didn't offer any evidence that the suspected conspirators had support from the political opposition and the United States. Now...
SANCHEZ: Well...
UMANA: Yes?
SANCHEZ: I was just going to say, Hugo Chavez always in the news or finding ways to get into the news.
UMANA: Always. Always in the spot.
SANCHEZ: One way or another.
Glenda, we'll check back with you tomorrow.
Excellente (ph). Mucho gracias.
UMANA: Ciao. Ciao.
SANCHEZ: (INAUDIBLE) manana.
Let's go now with Wolf Blitzer, who's checking into us from our nation's capital -- Wolf, what have you got coming up?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I like that segment you've got there, Rick. Keep up the good work. Thanks very much.
Let me tell you what's coming up right at the top of the hour. Common ground at ground zero -- Barack Obama and John McCain, well, they're about to away the division -- at least on this day -- and stand together to mark the deadliest attack on American soil. It's the seventh anniversary of 9/11 and we're going to show you what the rivals are about to do. We'll go there live to ground zero. Stand by.
And he is the latest friend of Bill. Barack Obama is about to do something he hasn't done before this campaign and Bill Clinton is making a bold prediction.
And Hurricane Ike could unleash death and destruction. In Texas, as you know, officials fear a flood surge could completely swallow up some parts. Maybe a million people are now being evacuated. So they're fleeing for their lives by the tens of thousands. We have the latest information.
All that coming up, Rick. It's a busy news day right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
SANCHEZ: It certainly is. Boy, and it's busy for some of the folks down there in Houston who are trying to get out of town. We're going to be all over that as we continue our coverage.
Also, today is the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. So we took a poll to see where terrorism rated on the list of factorings influencing a presidential election. We'll share that with you on the other side.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I think we've got a comment coming in on Facebook, on the page that we set up for those of you who are on there watching our newscast. This is this one right here. We've got a bevy of them, but look at this. This is from Ashley Barbie Legans (ph). She says: "In Cypress, Texas -- and we aren't leaving -- lately these hurricanes have been overrated in our area."
Some people would call that a big gamble.
Seven years after 9/11 -- take a look where terrorism ranks among the nation's priorities in a newly released CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. It's behind the economy. It's behind Iraq. It's behind health care.
When Americans vote in November, a scant one in 10 will do so with their top concern being terrorism. By contrast, 56 percent are voting on their wallets.
All right, let's go -- speaking of 9/11, we understand that Barack Obama has just now arrived at this ceremony. There he is shaking hands with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York. As we understand it, the two candidates for the presidency are going to be laying a wreath at the space that's been dedicated to memorialize the thousands of people who died on that day.
It will be a rather important ceremony, because it may be one of the few times that these two candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, will be together.
I don't know if we can tap into the audio. I'm going to shut up here for a minute and see if we've got any audio on this.
(INAUDIBLE).
SANCHEZ: All right. While we wait for John McCain -- Roger, let's leave this picture up. Let's just bring in Susan Lisovicz's voice -- Susan, I know you and I are supposed to do a bit here about the economy and business.
But, hey, this is a block away from you, where this is going on, isn't it?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it's just a few blocks away. I mean it's an image that we see every single day. And it's something that none of us can ever forget, because basically, as I'm sure you understand, Rick, this community here on Wall Street is a very small one. And not only that, the World Trade Center, of course, was a major transportation hub with lots of subways that converged there, as well -- the PATH train from New Jersey. So a lot of people simply passed through there.
You know, we had a moment of silence here at the -- just before the open this morning. And there is a concert taking place outside the NYSE right now to try to -- to try to also remember the good things that came about as a result of the -- on 9/11. It simply brought so many people together in a very, very, very dark moment.
In fact, the concert has featured some of the people who work here at the NYSE. The lead guitarist lost his brother on that day.
There's the closing bell.
(STOCKMARKET REPORT)
LISOVICZ: Back to you Rick.
SANCHEZ: Wow! That's good news. Thanks so much. Susan Lisovicz following things there for us.
You see the picture there of Barack Obama. Wolf Blitzer is going to pick up the coverage from here -- Wolf, what you got?
