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Queen Approves Suspension Of Parliament Amid Brexit Drama; Dorian Strengthens To Category 1 Hurricane, Heads For Still-Recovering Puerto Rico; Trump Turns Against Fox, Says Not Doing Enough For Him; Sheriff: L.A. County Deputy Who Faked Sniper Attack No Longer Has Job. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 28, 2019 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: CNN Business Editor-at-Large, Richard Quest, is live there in London.

Richard, he says amply time but, you know, critics say, no, that this his way of trying to block parliament from its job, limit the options of his political opponents. Why would he even want to do that.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Because he wants to get Brexit through, come what may, do or die, to use the prime minister's own words.

And poor time for debate, virtually no time to do anything serious about it,

The only way the M.P.'s in that building can stop Boris Johnson is if they pass new laws. And he has now restricted the number of days they've got to do it.

He saw them do it back in the spring. They passed a law in a day. He's truncated the number of legal days, sitting days they can do it.

And, Brooke, he has enmeshed her majesty, the queen, into a mess as well, into a constitutional crisis.

The queen, up in Scotland, at Balmoral on holiday, had no choice. In a constitutional monarchy, he said, I want you to suspend or prorogue parliament and she basically had to rubber stamp it.

BALDWIN: So if this is no-deal Brexit, and that means Britain would put out of the E.U. without a plan, which Theresa May was trying to avoid and wasn't successful, what will that even look like?

QUEST: We don't know. If you look at the various operations and ideas, some suggest it will be total chaos, bedlam, delays at borders. Others suggest it will not be bad at all.

What this is going to do, Brooke, this is going to sharpen the Europeans attention. This might be exactly almost Trumpian in the sense of the negotiating strategy to basically say, I'll burn the fields on the way out, but the Europeans might blink. And might actually give Boris Johnson what he wants. I say might, it's a big might. Boris Johnson is not Donald Trump.

But there are similarities being drawn tonight about how Johnson has behaved outrageously in the views of many, but it's win at all costs.

BALDWIN: We'll see if the page out of the "Art of the Deal" playbook works for him in England.

Richard Quest, thank you very much.

We're also keeping a close eye back here at home on Hurricane Dorian as it heads toward Puerto Rico and the more than three million Americans who live there. We'll talk to one woman who survived Hurricane Maria and is now facing the storm in Florida with her family in Puerto Rico.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:22] BALDWIN: We're keeping a close eye on the deteriorating situation in the Caribbean as what is now Hurricane Dorian hovers over the U.S. Virgin Islands on its approach to Puerto Rico.

The storm is tracking the very same path it took in 2017 with the destructive Hurricane Maria. That deadly storm devastated the island killing nearly 3,000 people and virtually destroyed its infrastructure. Survivors are still recovering. Many relocated to the U.S. mainland.

And Yanira Cardona survived Hurricane Maria. She was there. She's now in Jacksonville with the majority of her family still living on the southwest side of the island.

Yanira, that you so much for being with me.

You're about to hop on a plane. You're going down to Puerto Rico tomorrow night. Weather looks OK for you. What's going through your mind right now, with this storm arriving?

YANIRA CARDONA, SURVIVED HURRICANE MARIA: I'm nervous. As far as flying out, I'm nervous about the turbulence, because the storm will still be in the Caribbean, I'm really nervous about the turbulence of that. And I'm worried about if we're going to arrive to electricity in Puerto Rico or have power in Puerto Rico.

BALDWIN: Remind us. I know 2017 can seem distant, but I'm sure it was like yesterday. Remind us what those first few days were like after Maria hit. You were living in your great grandmother's house with your family?

CARDONA: Yes, correct.

That was in 2017. I took a year off from my career. Me and my father were in the process of purchasing a home, we were living in my great grandmother's house. We had my grandmother, my uncle and my cousins family all under one house.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. The Puerto Rican officially turned off the electricity around 2:00 in the morning, and around 5:00 in the morning is when we started feeling the winds of Hurricane Maria.

And in front of my house, in front of my great grandmother's house, there was a tree that was approximately 70 years old, a huge tree. It's been through every hurricane, has never been knocked down. And within an hour of Hurricane Maria, already by 6:00 in the morning, the tree completely fell.

That's when we knew this was a serious hurricane. Within an hour of the hurricane starting, we're seeing tree damage.

We have a canal in front of my house. Because of all the debris that was caused by the hurricane, water was coming. It flooded our home. Water came up to our stairways.

[14:40:02] There wasn't a way to get in and out of my hometown. Where my family lives, it's only one street to go in and out. And we were blocked from all the trees that were knocked down, all the cable lines, the cable poles.

We saw dead horses, dead animals on the side of the street. It was like a horror film. I've never seen anything like that.

Puerto Rico was so green, all the trees were filled with beautiful leaves, and the next day, there was nothing, like no leaves, no flowers, nothing at all. It was devastating.

BALDWIN: I hear you and we're recounting all the details. This is still fresh?

CARDONA: Yes.

BALDWIN: Maria left scars not only for you, but so many others, emotional scars for those who were in Puerto Rico that were being hit and rebuilt.

Now you have Dorian following a similar path. For you and so many others, this must be incredibly traumatizing. Is that the right word?

CARDONA: It is. It really is. I think people don't understand. A lot of people are like, oh, it's a tropical storm, why are you freaking out? It's because we're still traumatized from Hurricane Maria. People are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

If you drive -- once you fly into the island, you'll see a lot of houses still with a lot of blue tarps over the roof, because they haven't been fixed. So, you know, we're still traumatized. Even if it's 50-mile winds, we know the power grid in Puerto Rico is not good.

Hurricane Maria was like the cherry on top with the power grid. Even if it's a tropical storm, how long are we going to be without electricity.

BALDWIN: It's upgraded, it's a category one. I was reading the notes. You told my producers that FEMA came, but

that was three weeks after Hurricane Maria. Once they did, they gave you guys one 24 pack of water for the entire household.

CARDONA: Yes.

BALDWIN: Obviously, no one hopes the devastation will be nearly as bad.

Do you think FEMA is better prepared this time?

CARDONA: I hope so. I really hope they can learn from Hurricane Maria. Especially now that we know that they had over 200,000 bottles of water basically hidden they didn't distribute. I hope that that doesn't happen this time.

Because what people don't understand, Hurricane Maria left damages, but it rained seven days straight after Hurricane Maria nonstop. So it kept causing damage.

So -- and it's rainy season. Even after that, it kept raining on and off, on and off. We were never able to get a break. It's scary to think that the same thing can happen.

And although FEMA came, what really upsets me in my household, it was my grandmother who's diabetic, my father's diabetic, my uncle has health issues, my cousin and his family. They gave us one 24 pack of water.

At that time, I had another cousin whose house was right next to us. She was taking care of her grandmother who was really sick at that time. I asked the Army soldier who was there giving out the water, can I sign the paperwork for her, so you can leave the water. They didn't allow it.

To find out they had all these extra bottles, and to hear people crying, calling in the A.M. station. At that time, there was only one A.M. station working. That's the only way we knew what was going on, on the island. And to hear people call in with desperation that they wanted food, they needed water, they needed medical supplies. I hope FEMA really learned from this.

BALDWIN: Gut-wrenching just to sit there listening to the radio knowing you need help, you can't go anywhere, and so many people needed help as well.

Yanira, travel safely.

CARDONA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Be well with you and your family. We'll be thinking about you and your family very much.

Yanira Cardona, there in Jacksonville, thank you.

CARDONA: Thank you. BALDWIN: Forty-fourth president and his favorite TV network, it's

suddenly complicated. Why he no longer thinks FOX News is doing enough for him.

[14:44:17] Plus, remember the deputy accused of lying about being shot by a sniper? A big new development is just in.

Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is his source for political advice, his recruiting ground for top advisers, a favorite pastime in the West Wing. Today, President Trump's lashing out at FOX News, tweeting the conservative outlet, quote, "isn't working for us." Arguing his supporters have to start looking for a new news outlet. This, after a segment featuring a DNC official.

With me now, Carl Cameron. He covered politics for FOX News for more than two decades. And now he works for the progressive news site, "Front Page Live."

Carl, a pleasure. Nice to have you on.

CARL CAMERON, CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, FRONT PAGE LIVE & FORMER FOX NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Brooke. It's a pleasure, too.

BALDWIN: The sense of betrayal that the president seems to have, why do you think he feels this way? Where does it come from?

CAMERON: His ego. Oh, come on. That's an easy one. The problem with this is he's effectively telling FOX viewers to boycott FOX News. We have to find another outlet he said. That's pretty radical, even for him.

And what he really means is, I need to have more opinion people who will espouse my opinion. Because his clash came part of the news department at FOX News channel.

[14:50:03] They're simply talking to Democrats because, by the way, Democrats are part of the election next year. It's good to talk to their candidates and party leaders.

BALDWIN: You mentioned those who opine, and I want to get back to that.

But when you read the part of the tweet where he says, "FOX isn't working for us," the pronoun "us," is that Trump sort of indirectly acknowledging that he thought FOX was an arm of the Republican Party or even an arm of his own administration?

CAMERON: That's the kind of thing that makes the news department at FOX News, where I worked for a number of years, sick to their stomachs.

BALDWIN: Why?

CAMERON: News people don't like to hear that stuff. The entertainment side, on the other hand, is vastly different. It's a threat to them. He's basically challenging the Sean Hannitys of FOX News to beat up on the journalists. That's not going to work either.

BALDWIN: You left in 2017. Given what you saw, do you agree with the president's view that the network has become an arm of the administration?

CAMERON: I think there's no question that conservative television hosts tend to support President Trump. You see Bill Kristol on CNN, but there's not a lot of Never Trumpers who get a lot of TV time.

Unfortunately, the administration and most of the Republicans in Congress are supporting him, even though most of them understand that Trump's values have nothing to do with the values they grew up in in the Republican Party.

BALDWIN: You mentioned a second ago the opinion hosts. We know in the TV world that FOX has worked to distinguish what's opinion and what's news. Daytime versus who we watch at night.

But the problem is, Carl, it's difficult for a viewer to differentiate that> And today, is Trump's behavior not the perfect example of this?

CAMERON: Sure. It's not the first time. He complained about FOX polls recently, because the FOX polls showed he was losing some ground. That was a couple weeks, maybe a months ago.

There's a new poll that comes out today that shows he's down in some serious categories. For the first time in the poll, he's under water, which means people oppose him more than support him, and believe now, for the first time in the poll, that the economy is not going well, it's going worse.

And those are the types of polls that FOX was doing all along. FOX has good polls. And Trump doesn't like it, because it doesn't reflect well on him.

But this is a cry baby president who wants to bully because he can't find solutions.

BALDWIN: On that point. One thing I can't get over in this era is the glaring hypocrisy.

You take a news item, huge scoop in the "Washington Post" today, and I'm going to change the -- it would be Trump. I'm going to say this, if then-President Obama told aids to take any border land needed, fast track a border wall for construction, and then he would pardon them if they get in trouble, which is -- let's just remind everyone --against the law and an abuse of power and an abuse of imminent domain.

Fill in the blank for me, Sean Hannity would say?

CAMERON: Go for it. Sean Hannity would say, go for it, break the law, he'll pardon you.

BALDWIN: If it were President Obama, no, no, no.

CAMERON: No, of course not.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No, I'm saying, flip the script.

CAMERON: That would be treason and they'd lock up the entire administration. Of course.

In so far as it's Trump, he's going to say, go for. I don't know that. We're speculating.

The point of all of this is, the president has huge disregard for the values of American history and the traditions that have gotten us to the point where he ended up becoming the president. And he is absolutely devouring them every day.

It's a voracious attack on American exceptionalism, America's role as a leader in the world, the equality that American ethos was originally supposed to be born on.

Look, there were problems. We had to put in amendments, we had to have a Civil Rights Act in order to stop some of the inequality in this country. But there's always been an effort to progress forward.

Trump's idea of progress is what lines his pockets, and that is not politics.

BALDWIN: Carl Cameron, thank you.

CAMERON: Thanks, Brooke.

[14:54:22] BALDWIN: Our breaking news coverage continues.

Hurricane Dorian barreling toward Puerto Rico. Some three million Americans are in the path of this major storm. But instead of comforting, the president today is hurling insults.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This just in, the Los Angeles County deputy who fakes being hit by a sniper bullet one week ago today is no longer employed by the sheriff's department. And this news is coming from the sheriff himself during a news conference just moments ago.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is watching the development for us in L.A.

Does this mean the deputy was fired, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He wouldn't say he was fired, just that he was no longer with the county.

In fact, let me let you hear how the L.A. County sheriff, Alex Villanueva, put it in this presser.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX VILLANUEVA, SHERIFF, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: As of last night, Deputy Angel Reinosa is no longer employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department or by the county of Los Angeles.

Again, by law, I am unable to discuss confidential peace officer personnel matters. And I cannot speculate on why he did what he did.

As far as the criminal investigation of this incident, it's our intention to present our evidence to the district attorney's office for filing consideration in the very near future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:00:02] ELAM: That's the big part here, is that he could be facing criminal charges because of this, one being filing a false report. But he could also be facing civil charges because of the fact there was so much money spent on trying to find out where this sniper was.