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Texas, Louisiana Governors Cautiously Optimistic About Storm; Hurricane Laura Saws Through Louisiana And Texas; 17 Year Old Arrested In Fatal Shooting At Kenosha Protests; Athletes Refuse To Play After Police Shooting Of Jacob Blake; Hurricane Laura Slams Gulf Coast As Category 4, Weakens Moving Inland. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 27, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Saying that he can't support Donald Trump but saying they're actually going to cast a ballot for Joe Biden and that is a big distinction between what we saw four years ago and what we saw this time around.

Now whether or not that has any impact on rank and file Republicans that remains to be seen but that's the biggest development between what happened in 2016 and what's happening now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Ryan, thank you so much. And thank you all so much for joining us today. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very, very busy news day with us.

The president closes his convention tonight and if the first three nights are any guide what you hear will not match the Coronavirus or economic or back to school reality. The vice president was last night's headliner and revisionist historian, decisive at every turn is how he described his boss?

Ignoring among other things the Coronavirus testing debacle, the prediction this would all be over by April, the musing of ingesting bleach and a summer Coronavirus case surge that added 57,000 plus to the world leading American death toll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will make America great again. Again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Also today more unrest over a police shooting in Wisconsin and now a Black Lives Matter message from athletes to the world. Empty courts, the NBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, Tennis all refuse to play. Now a question of how long this protest moment will last? Back to those stories in a moment we begin this hour though with twin challenges across Texas and Louisiana. Hurricane Laura souring through those two states in the middle of the pandemic that of course complicates everything.

You can see right there sear destructive force. Laura coming ashore overnight as a category 4 storms. We are getting new views this hour of the damage. So far one person is dead in Louisiana, a 14-year-old girl that after a tree fell on her home.

The fear that the death toll could climb over the next hours and days as power outages impacting hundreds of thousands into the weekend. The Governors say the build back effort will takes weeks and the Coronavirus worry requires extra precaution, but this morning there is hope that this worst-case scenario didn't quite develop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): People did heed the warnings to evacuate. We no doubt saved lives because of those evacuations.

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): We are not out of the woods there yet. The storm surge was about half of what had been forecasted and as you remember that storage surge was characterized yesterday by the weather service as being un-survivable. So it looks like we got an assist there, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Officials responding now urgently on the ground try to find out what happened including responding to even trying to figure out the source of smoke right now hovering over West Lake. Let's get straight to Gary Tuchman he is in Lake Charles, Louisiana and you can see smoke clouds building up behind him. Gary, what can you tell us?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. We also got an alert on our cell phones it says there was a plant fire just northwest of the city. We've reached out to state and federal officials they call it "Incident" they've not given us more detail. We don't know if that means it's dangerous at all. We don't want to say it is dangerous because we just don't know.

When we get more information about it we'll bring it to you. And we do want to talk to you about what you were just mentioning John, there was great concern here in this city of Lake Charles that storm surge could be up to 20 feet, could decimate this town of flood water. That hasn't happened that's good news.

There was flooding in the river. But it didn't translate to worsen that. The damage - when we had 125-mile-per-hour winds for an hour and a half. There was intense damage throughout the city including it businesses like - this is the Market Basket food store. I just wanted to give you a look.

It looks like a combination of an earthquake and a tornado that went through this business. I must make it clear that lots of businesses not weren't touched and that's the remissive tornado that's why I bring up the fact that's like a tornado.

But you can see the aisles there that are what it looks like the earthquake. When you see earthquakes you see items that are tossed in the aisles. This sore is just decimated it is dripping from the ceiling you could see the ceilings have been destroyed.

And this is something I really don't see during an earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes this ice machine. How much do you thing it weighs? Must weigh 1,000 pounds it was just flipped over from the force of these winds.

You know John when we were in this city last night; I was in a hotel for part of the time when he had these 125 miles per hour winds 12 stories up that's about 120 feet. I'm not a mathematician so I can't tell you how much more the wind speed is when you're that high?

But it was so loud it sounded like an airplane, it sounded like a train and it also felt like an earthquake because the room just kept shaking for two hours. I mean, I just thought this city would be destroyed when we came out.

We're greatly relieved that although there's intense damage of places like that other places are unscathed, John?

KING: Remarkable scenes. Gary Tuchman, grateful for the live reporting on the ground. Keep us posted when we learn more about that incident behind you and what it is? So what's next for Laura? And what areas are still at risks because this powerful storm pushes inland? Jennifer Gray is in the CNN Weather Center right now with the latest tracking. Well, Jennifer what do we know?

[12:05:00]

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, we are going to continue to see this track to the north. It is still a hurricane in North Louisiana if you can believe it with winds of 75 miles per hour gusts of 90 moving to the north at 15 miles per hour.

So this storm is still very much a threat with 75 miles per hour winds. We're going to have a lot of power outages that tornado threat is very, very real and we've also had reports of flooding anywhere from say Central Louisiana and that's going to carry out to the north and even into Arkansas as we go throughout the evening tonight.

So look at this radar. All of this ran that's dumped across North Louisiana, Arkansas, and then you can even see these bands setting up across South Louisiana, portions of Mississippi. If some of this start to train that's where we could see some flooding as well.

We do have tornado threat, that's always a risk when you have these storms make landfall so here's the track, it is going to track into Arkansas and then bend back to the north and east. As we go through the next couple of days so I do believe that flooding, the wind is the biggest concern.

So more than 700,000 people without power this number steadily going up and it could be days or even weeks before power is restored. Remember, Louisiana in August, it is hot. Temperatures are going to be in the mid to upper 80s, low 90s. It's very humid and so that's going to be a story moving forward as well.

The heat with people, so many people without power so here's the forecast wind gusts, 80 mile per hour wind gust in Shreveport. 55 in Munroe and then this travels to the north the winds are just going to carry along with it of course bringing that 60, 70 miles per hour gusts all the way into Arkansas.

Here is the high risk forecast radar giving you a time by time outline of when this is going to strike? You can see those bands entering the Little Rock region around 2:00 local time and it is going to continue to track to the north.

But John, I do want to mention you know what Gary was 30 miles inland we still haven't seen many pictures along the coast. Cameron, Louisiana, where the storm made landfall I do believe there's going to be much, much more destruction as these pictures come out throughout the day today and tomorrow.

KING: It's a very important point. Sometimes it takes a day or so to get to the remote areas to get wrecked. Jennifer Gray, I very much appreciate the update there. We'll keep in touch as this storm continues to move.

Gratitude is probably the best way to describe the mood on the ground today in Port Arthur, Texas. The Mayor of that city Wednesday pleaded with his residents to get out. Today he says his city appears to have dodged a direct hit. The Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie joins us now on the phone. Mr. Mayor grateful for your time, you were very concerned yesterday. What is your assessment now?

MAYOR THURMAN BILL BARTIE, PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS: First of all John, I'm going to tell you - pronounce my name Barite. But I thank you anyway. You will say it as Bartie, all right?

KING: Yes, I got it.

BARTIE: Okay. We are mighty, mighty grateful do God because what could have happened didn't happen. We are still experiencing some power outages and we are experiencing trees in roadways and debris in the roadways and different things, shingles off roof tops but what could have happened didn't happen.

And we are grateful for that and I'm just grateful to the citizens who complied with the order to actually evacuate. That was the best thing that could have happened and because we don't have any dead bodies. You know at the end of the because even if they all stayed I would drive here to my office in city hall, a trampoline, two blocks away at a home.

Was wrapped around a pole on Proctor Street. So this thing traveled two blocks and then hit that pole, wrapped around that pole. So just, you know this lets you know how severe this thing was and we just - we're grateful today. Our prayers to go out far to our neighbors in Louisiana and what they're suffering from this right now and we're grateful that we were spared.

KING: Amen to that sir and I'm sure they appreciate your prayers. You mentioned the best you know nobody died. Are you certain about that in the context you have anybody who has reported missing?

And the second question, Mayor Bartie, is that you do have the refinery and the other businesses there, sometimes whether it is a storm surge or power outage can cause some issues there. Are you confident that everything is okay in that regard?

BARTIE: They haven't reported anything to us. Not that they have to. But we would have been notified and we haven't been notified of anything at any of our industrial neighbors so thank God that they are probably operating and may be up to capacity or getting ready to get back to capacity because of the threat is over basically for us.

KING: Mr. Mayor, grateful for your time and I'm glad for your community and I think your neighbors again will appreciate the well wishes and the prayers you expressed there.

[12:10:00]

KING: Keep in touch if you're learning anything new. But very much grateful for your time today sir.

BARTIE: Okay and thank you. Thank you for having us on.

KING: Thank you. Up next for us, new developments our of Wisconsin where an alleged 17-year-old vigilante now charged with homicide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: New details emerging out of Wisconsin today both on the police shooting of Jacob Blake and the deadly clashes that followed first to the protests that have left two people dead. Officials now have identified a suspect charged in the shooting. That's a 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. You see his picture there.

Online profiles appeared to belong to Rittenhouse, portrayed him as someone who has an affinity for guns. His pro-police and is a supporter of President Trump. Now reports indicate he was at the protest as part of an armed militia trying to protect property.

Police have not confirmed whether this video you see right there taken seconds after the shooting, shows Rittenhouse walking towards police guns strapped across his chest and hands up in the air.

[12:15:00]

KING: The police end up driving right past him. Meanwhile, we are also getting a better understanding now of what led up to the shooting that sparked all of this the shooting of Jacob Blake. For that let's bring in our Crime & Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz who is on the ground. Shimon, what do we know?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so the officers first time we're learning his name is Rustin, he is a 7-year veteran. Authorities here are also saying that they interviewed Mr. Blake and that confirmed that he had a knife, and that the police on scene found a knife in his vehicle.

But what's not clear is was this knife used in any threatening way which would then lead to police, this one officer shooting Mr. Blake in the back seven times? Police did not provide information whether or not the officer felt threatened where he needed to use gun fire to try and bring this person down, to bring Mr. Blake down?

We also learned that authorities, the police on scene, used nonlethal efforts to try to subdue Mr. Blake. A taser, they tasered they said that didn't work and then from there as we see, as we've seen in the video everything just escalate. But it is still very unclear, John, as to why police felt that they needed to pull their guns out point their guns at Mr. Blake?

And then one of them as he is pulling on his shirt firing and shooting Mr. Blake seven times in the back. Ultimately this investigation and whether or not any charges are going to be brought against the officer, that's going to be up to the district attorney here, the local district attorney.

He said that he's going to make that decision perhaps in the next 30 days when the independent investigation wraps up.

KING: And we'll wait for details on that certainly the community on the edge in the meantime, Shimon Prokupecz on the ground for us, grateful for the live reporting. The outrage over the Jacob Blake shooting, another police shooting of a black man, is now a crossroads moment for NBA and other sports leagues.

An unprecedented boycott began yesterday when the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play last night. Other NBA playoff games were then postponed and then the WNBA, Major League Soccer and some Major League Baseball teams joined in.

Today NBA players and league officials are discussing whether to resume play or whether to call off the playoffs as a protest for racial justice. Len Elmore is a Senior Lecture at Columbia University and a Broadcaster in an NBA Veteran. His ten year career included a stint with the Milwaukee Bucks'

Len, it's great to see you today and I'm grateful for your time at this important moment. As someone who knows the NBA and as someone who spends a lot of time on social justice, help us put this moment into context, this unprecedented boycott step back by the players saying wait a minute.

LEN ELMORE, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Well, I really believe that these young people now understand they are citizens of a world, they do have a platform that is meaningful and it's too many for them to speak up. I'm sure just about every one of them, particularly the black athletes, had some experience within themselves or their family with the issues that we're speaking off now.

And they feel it's incumbent upon them to speak up at this moment. And the thing that I'm most impressed with is unity. As you mentioned John, the WNBA, MLB, MLS, there's some unity among players that are going to stand up and at least make this particular symbolic statement.

Now, the question is, will it sustain? Go from a boycott to more of a demand of their owners and others to exercise their influence to help try to affect change.

KING: One of the difficult issues here has been a lot of these players want to be part of this movement, they want to be part of pushing for racial justice, they want to be in their communities and at the moment they're in this bubble in Orlando.

So my understanding is one of the conversation is well, if we continue to play and if we finish the playoffs, how can we make a statement? What can we do when we can't leave this bubble? What's your sense? What leverage do players, sports, athletes have? Well, they're celebrities, they're athletes. How do think they should maximize their leverage at this moment?

ELMORE: Well, I have always been a believer ever since this started, obviously with COVID and now the issues that we are confronted with, that sports has been a distraction and it is a distraction not only for society but also to the players themselves.

And many of them want to get back to their communities and stand up and represent. So I think it's vitally important for them to make a decision as to whether or not they're going to go back to their hometowns, go back to their communities and to be able to lead.

That's a thing that sports do, it helps develop leadership and I think we are seeing it right now. And they recognize their leverage. I mean, sport is a prominent threat in our social fabric. And I think that their stepping up right now gets people's attention whether they agree with them or not.

KING: And this is happening obviously at a very important national conversation about race and policing but it is also happening 68 days from a Presidential Election. You are well aware. I know you are and have read your Twitter feed.

[12:20:00]

KING: The President of the United States whether it's Colin Kaepernick in the NFL or players since Colin Kaepernick's stop playing the NFL and kneeling during the anthem, simply calling for racial justice or the NBA players now he has said he won't watch. The president's views are quite clear. I want you to listen to his son-in-law Jared Kushner this morning. Does he is putting in his context this NBA protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: The NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off of work without having to have the consequences to them financially so they have that luxury which is great.

Look, I think with the NBA there's a lot activism and I think that they have put a lot of slogans out but I think that what we need is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that's going to solve the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I'm going to guess that doesn't sit very well with these players saying its slogans and need action et cetera.

ELMORE: Well, I think that's more than anything else going to be a motivator. Power concedes nothing without a demand as Frederick Douglass said and the White House can ignore the players all they want but once the players elongate this particular walkout if you will, it becomes a strike because the interests of management and labor are now divergent.

Management is not going to want to pay labor if they're not working. And that puts pressure on the owners and the owners are being pressured by the networks who won't get paid because there are no sports and pretty soon you are going to have them looking at their investments.

And deciding maybe we need to put pressure on local politicians, local state politicians as well as federal politicians, those who are most affected are going to speak up I think because if they miss their sports, if their investments are diminishing they are going to have a say in the matter and the White House can ignore the players but they may not be able to ignore the billionaires and others of influence who will probably speak up in that fashion.

KING: Len Elmore grateful for your time and prospective today. And as an NBA fan whose old enough to remember, grateful for your career, as well sir.

ELMORE: My pleasure.

KING: Thank you. Let's stay in touch. Up next for us, we return to Hurricane Laura, an update from hard hit Louisiana and a live look at damage in Orange, Texas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: This just into CNN, that Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards confirming there was a chemical fire burning right now at a plant in the southeastern part of the state near Lake Charles. Residents being urged to shelter in place and to close all doors and windows as a precaution.

That comes as we get our first look at damage in Texas caused by Hurricane Laura. Let's go straight to CNN's Ed Lavandera. He is Orange, Texas. Ed, what are you seeing?

ED LAVENDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We are in the town of Orange, Texas, which are just a few miles away from the state line between Texas and Louisiana. This is what is left of the first United Pentecostal Church here in Orange, Texas.

This is some of the most severe damage we have seen in this area since we rolled into town just a short while ago and it is really amazing to see John as you look around here the damage and the wind blowing away parts of this wall out into the parking lot here.

We are about 60 miles away where the eye of this hurricane came ashore. This was the weaker side of the storm so it's really incredible to see just the difference in the impact that it makes that distance away from the eye of the storm and on the weaker side of the storm because as we have driven around town here there's very minimal structural damage that we have seen.

And what we have noticed is I've driven through some of the neighbors around here and talking to some people who decided to ride this storm out here throughout the night. They say that most people here in this town of Orange chose to evacuate ahead of this storm.

There are a number of downed trees in the areas that we have driven through, many residents say the storm actually came through here rather quickly, the wind started to pick up violently around midnight and by 4:00 am or so they said that it was the worst of it had mostly past over this area of southeast Texas.

So the fact that this storm was moving so quickly was really good news for a lot of the residents who chose to ride the storm out here from what we've seen minimal structural damage in much of the areas that I have been able to see here in the early morning hours today throughout this area in southeast Texas, John.

And the Governor of Texas reporting no deaths and we haven't heard any words of major injuries, as well, John.

KING: And let's hope that stays that way. Ed Lavandera live on the ground for us in Orange, Texas. Ed, I appreciate the live reporting. Stay safe my friend. Up next for us, President Trump closes out the Republican National Convention tonight asking for four more years. Here's a look back at 2016 when he was asking for the first four.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no patience for injustice. No tolerance for government incompetence of which there is so much. No sympathy for leader who failed their citizens. The irresponsible rhetoric of our president who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color has made America a more dangerous environment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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