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Deadly Debacle, Power, Water, Natural Gas Outage Grips Texas; FBI, Prosecutors Scrutinizing Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D-NY) Handling of Nursing Home Deaths; Maryland Salesman Charged for Brawling with Police During Riot. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 18, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

We begin with the humanitarian disaster that is gripping Texas. Americans there are struggling to find the basics for survival, heat, shelter, food and water, all because of frigid temperatures and a winter storm that knocked the state's power grid offline.

And, of course, they're dealing with all this in the middle of a pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of Texans are trying to manage now for a fourth day without power. This lingering bitter cold has broken pipes and it has made many homes uninhabitable.

As one Texan put it, quote, if you're in a cold house, you're definitely not eating warm food. And food is a concern with Texans finding their grocery store shelves, that includes bottled water, desperately needed, as nearly 12 million people are facing water disruptions from systems buckling under the cold.

People are being told to boil water, but that is a challenge when there's no power, and many Texans are being pushed to the breaking point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are freezing (BLEEP) temperature, we ain't got no (BLEEP) water, no heat, it is nothing and now we ain't got (BLEEP), everything that we brought here, we don't have nothing, y'all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The shelters are at capacity. There is no hotels anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is water from the (BLEEP) ceiling because somebody's (BLEEP) pipes burst upstairs. Y'all, look at the (BLEEP) water. Look at the (BLEEP) water. Our whole (BLEEP), y'all. Our whole (BLEEP) apartment, our whole apartment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: This crisis has caused a political firestorm for the state government and utility officials. People blame them for not better winterizing the Texas power grid, which the state deliberately keeps separate from the federal system, unlike every other state in the U.S.

The deadly weather across a large swath of the country has killed 37 people across eight states, 16 of them in Texas.

And the weather has also sidelined the coronavirus vaccine. More than a dozen states have been unable to receive it, they've been unable to distribute it and that has forced them to close vaccination centers.

CNN National Correspondent Ed Lavandera is joining me from Dallas. At one point, Ed, there were 4 million people in Texas who had no power. Tell us what the situation is now.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's unbelievable to think about that, Brianna. Almost 4.5 million at the highest peak that I remember seeing, over the last few days, households that did not have power, that represents far more people than that. And the latest check we've seen is that that number is now to just under 500,000.

So the good news is things have improved dramatically in the overnight hours and state power grid officials say that some of the hardest work that is still left to be done at this point isn't necessarily a power generation issue, and that is still ongoing. And I don't want to minimize that, but that's still a big issue.

But a lot of what the work that needs to be done now at this point is just the damage from the winter storm that came through here. So that is going to involve power crews repairing downed power lines and that sort of thing.

If you look at the map of where the hardest hit areas right now are the people with the least amount of power, it's really in that Central Texas region around Austin that is really -- the slowest area to come back online. State power grid officials say, we're not out of the woods just yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAGNESS, CEO, ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCIL OF TEXAS: We still expect a high cold weather peak tomorrow morning, and so we really feel like we're in a glide path, we hope, where those customer restorations happen. If we do hit a bump and have the generation has to come back off, we may have to ask for outages. But if we do, we believe that we're at the level where they could rotating outages, not the long-term numbers that we faced earlier this last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So the power grid officials there talking about how they're trying to still get back to the point where you have those rolling outages where that pain is spread out among more people on having these outages for 30 minutes to an hour or so. It doesn't sound like we're still quite there, but it is going to take some time.

We're still under freezing temperatures in many parts of the state. Some areas are still getting snowfall, and so we're still seeing the effects of that. Ad as you mentioned off the top, Brianna, food, grocery stores really getting cleaned out. It's very hard to move along the roadways and all the trucks that bring food are just -- all of that process is still severely impacted across the state.

[13:05:03]

Brianna?

KEILAR: Ed, thank you so much. We'll be watching this. It is going to continue here.

Now, despite his fellow Texans suffering, freezing, going hungry, some of them even dying, Senator Ted Cruz last night flew to Cancun, Mexico, for a family vacation. Pictures of him at the airport and on the plane popped up on social media. CNN has repeatedly reached out to Cruz's office. No word back, but a person familiar with his itinerary confirms the trip.

Apparently, he felt he needed to trade the prickly cactus of his recorded podcast for the inviting palm trees of the Yucatan Peninsula in the middle for a crisis, which is, as you just saw, a disaster of historic proportions.

And what makes this all the more surprising is that Cruz used police resources in the middle of said crisis to make his way to the sky zone. Houston Police confirming moments ago that Cruz's staff requested assistance to get him to the airport.

The irony is thick, because one of Cruz's reelection selling points in 2018 was that he helped Texans during the Harvey disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When disaster struck, Texans came together, helping each other, everyone doing their part, like Ted Cruz who brought home billions in disaster relief and passed emergency tax relief for those hit by Hurricane Harvey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No official, state or federal, has been more involved in the recovery of Galveston County than Ted Cruz.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the hurricane hit, you stood up for Texas, and Ted Cruz stood up for you.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I'm Ted Cruz and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Cruz is not up for reelection now, and he is abandoning his state. It is bon voyage MTV spring break-style, where in Cancun, the temperature is a heavenly 84 degrees in a city they flew from home to the people who serves it is near freezing.

Of course, Cruz has already proven he's not too sentimental when it comes to those who are suffering through disasters in other states. When heat waves caused massive power outages last year in California, Ted Cruz mocked the blue state after the governor called on folks to conserve energy. This is what he said. California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity. Democrats want to make California's failed energy policy the standard nationwide. I hope you don't like air-conditioning.

Now, when called out on his cruelty a couple days ago, Cruz said that he has no defense and he did the Twitter equivalent of a shrug, not good, he said, about what was going on his state, stay safe, he added, not long before flying ahead, made like Frankie Avalon, and bounced back to the beach.

I want to talk now with Robert Rodney Garrett, the Austin Bureau Chief for The Dallas Morning News. We have learned, Robert, CNN has, that Cruz is booked on a flight from Cancun back to Houston this afternoon. I know many constituents of his are without power. They may not even know, especially with what they're going through, what is up with Ted Cruz, but I wonder what the political fallout is so far.

ROBERT GARRETT, AUSTIN BUREAU CHIEF, THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Well, Brianna, we should note that the Senate is in recess and a U.S. senator can do nothing about what's hitting us in Texas right now.

But this is remarkably bad political timing for Ted Cruz, who, as you know, is a creature of social media. And it's kind of rich with irony that social media is sort of what has outed him on his furtive dart to the Yucatan Peninsula. And I think we'll be hearing about this for a long time. I think a lot of the Democrats, even more than before, are calling for him to resign.

KEILAR: I mean, in terms of legislating, perhaps not much that he could be doing, but certainly there is a place for him to comfort Texans and be there, be present while they're going through this, which is something that was clearly such an important part of what he did in Harvey.

GARRETT: Right. And it's worth noting that his narrowly vanquished opponent from 2018, Beto O'Rourke, has been very visible, calling seniors and doing things that are sort of a humanitarian nature, even though he's a private citizen, has even less official clout to affect things than Ted Cruz.

KEILAR: There is also former Texas Governor and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry who has said Texans need to sacrifice for a few days to avoid federal control. He said this on a Republican blog, quote, Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business. Try not to let what the crisis of the day is. Take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically and strategically.

I wonder if -- I mean, that seems a little tone deaf. I wonder how Texans are absorbing his argument there as they're worried like you.

[13:10:00]

You're in your house right now. You don't have water. We talked in the commercial break. There is a lot of people without water, without power. What do they think when they hear something like Rick Perry saying that?

GARRETT: You know, a lot of Texas politicians have not gone broke appealing to our state's sense of exceptionalism, but the real arguments that Rick Perry is making are way beyond the grasp of most of our 29 million Texans about the value of this power grid. And I won't bore you with that, but I think, you know, in a nationwide weather disaster like this, there is no sensible value to having our own grid, because we can't selectively import power like we might in a more limited disaster.

I did not hear Rick Perry say that he was going to personally forgo power for three days. We're not sure if he's living in Austin or his house in Round Top, Texas, but he is also back on the board of a giant pipeline company based in Dallas, Energy Transfer Limited. And so he is definitely a fossil fuel spokesman at this point.

KEILAR: Definitely. Robert, we are watching Texas. Thank you so much for bringing your voice to us from Austin.

GARRETT: Good to talk to you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Next, the governors of America's four biggest states under intense pressure. The feds are now investigating Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration accused of covering up nursing home deaths.

Plus, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threatening to yank vaccines over criticism of his decisions.

And a judge allows a riot suspect allegedly connected to the Proud Boys to stay out of jail after he is found with a knife while awaiting trial. This after another suspect is allowed to go on a vacation to Mexico. We'll discuss.

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[13:15:00]

KEILAR: The FBI is now investigating New York State for how officials there handled information about coronavirus deaths that resulted from cases contracted in nursing homes. State law enforcement officials say the New York Department of Health undercounted the number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent.

Governor Andrew Cuomo says he takes full responsibility for not providing information but he insists there was no cover-up. He is facing criticism from within his party for his handling of the controversy and he has been accused of threatening one Democratic state lawmaker. Jon Campbell is here with me to discuss this. He is the New York State Team Editor for USA Today Network. Jon, I mean, tell us about this investigation. What is the goal here? How serious is it?

JON CAMPBELL, NEW YORK STATE TEAM EDITOR, USA TODAY NETWORK: Well, we don't know exactly what the investigation is focusing other than broadly knowing that it's looking at the governor's coronavirus task force, which was really filled with many of his senior staffer members.

The broad strokes of the investigation were reported by the Albany Times Union, and, really, we know that in part, at least, it's looking at the nursing home issue and how Governor Cuomo handled COVID-19 in nursing homes and the data that we've heard so much about in the last few days.

KEILAR: Yes. The governor has long said that this is political. He has said that for months now, that this criticism of his administration is very much driven by politics. But you have Democrats who are criticizing him, and now the FBI is looking into how things were handled. Does his defense that this is political still hold water?

CAMPBELL: You know, you see it from a broad range of people inside and outside of Albany now. Most notably, you see Senate Democrats, which have been -- at least their leadership has been relatively aligned with the governor over the past few years, they are pushing a proposal and they're going to put it to a vote that would limit his emergency powers that the governor has used to impose restaurant curfews and non-essential business shutdowns.

You're seeing them put forward a proposal that they plan on voting on that would allow a panel of lawmakers to approve these directives before they come out. So you're seeing a lot of pushback across the political spectrum. Republicans have been beating that drum for months, but really now it's coming from inside the governor's party as well.

KEILAR: Yes. Jon, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us there out of Albany. We appreciate it.

CAMPBELL: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Not just New York but people in the country's four biggest states are demanding answers and action from their governors today. Andrew Cuomo, as we just told you, who is under scrutiny by the FBI for an alleged cover-up of nursing home COVID deaths.

California's Governor Gavin Newsom facing a recall vote over his handling of spiking coronavirus numbers. People in California are also furious with him for attending a crowded dinner during a COVID lockdown.

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas is accused of deflecting blame for the massive power outages there in his state. The debate is over where and how Texas gets its power, and Abbott is blaming problems on renewable energy sources, which is happening while millions of Texas have no electricity in the middle of a major winter storm in a state that is largely reliant on natural gas.

And in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is accused of playing politics with the coronavirus vaccine. A state COVID vaccination site popped up in a very wealthy, exclusive neighborhood and many Florida residents want the governor to keep the vaccine distribution fair.

John Avlon is with us now. He is CNN's Senior Political Analyst. And, John, I think the governors had so much responsibility throughout this pandemic, but now they're really seeing a tremendous amount of accountability.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. It's two sides of the same coin, and a lot of frustration from citizens who have been in various forms of lockdown for almost a year really bubbling up.

[13:20:06]

And what's extraordinary is at the outset, the early times of the pandemic, you'll remember that we saw governors consistently getting higher approval ratings for their response than the federal government, when it was led by Donald Trump.

But you do see this sea change, as accountability reports coming out in various states. And it's notable, these are the four largest states in American, a different array of scandals engulfing these governors. But it is a sign that people are getting frustrated in a sense that the government may not be working or working anonymously. And that's a killer combination.

KEILAR: I also wonder, John, when you think about Congressman Steve Scalise, how is the number two House Republican. He was in Florida this week and he met with former President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago. Scalise's people say he was just touching base while he was there on political travel.

But this is something that we've seen with other Republican leaders. What does it signal to you?

AVLON: He's kissing the ring. And this is a time when the GOP is incredibly divided and people are choosing their sides.

Aligning yourself with trump right now makes sense within the context of fundraising and trying to keep the GOP base on your side. What's extraordinary is that when Republicans have spoken out and told the truth, they have not only been rebuked by their state parties, but many have tried to sort of come crawling back and made excuses to get back in Donald Trump's good graces.

Nikki Haley gave that extraordinary series of interviews to Tim Alberta and then tried to clean it up. And Politico is she tried to get a meeting at Politico and Trump wouldn't see her, sort of the Trumper tantrums of old. But the fact that Scalise is doing this on a trip down, he's not the first, he won't be the last, but it's a sign of how he sees the wind blowing at least within his conference and among his donors.

KEILAR: Yes, they're making choices. John Avlon, thank you so much for being with us.

AVLON: Thanks, Bri.

KEILAR: Not long after a judge allowed a riot suspect to go to Mexico for a vacation, another suspect is not being sent to jail despite being found with a knife while awaiting trial.

Plus, the Pentagon says, a third of service members refuse to get vaccinated. Why is that? We'll discuss.

And here is a new one, Nikki Haley blames the media for the Republican civil war. We will roll the tape.

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[13:25:00]

KEILAR: A Maryland salesman is now charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The suspect is accused of brawling with Capitol police during the attack as officers tried to remove him from the building.

CNN's Whitney Wild has more.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A Maryland salesman is facing charges after brawling with police who were trying to evict him from the Capitol. Federal prosecutors say he was so erratic, so irate, it took several officers to subdue him. And in that effort, one of those officers was actually injured.

Federal prosecutors also say at one point this man grabbed a police officer and, quote, screamed at her to shoot him. He is now facing five charges, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Whitney, thank you.

The Maryland suspect has not yet entered a plea. He did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

Also new in the Capitol siege investigation, a federal judge telling an alleged Proud Boys member that he is lucky he didn't throw him behind bars after he was found with a knife while awaiting trial for his alleged role in the January 6 insurrection. The judge says that Gabriel Garcia brought a knife to his first initial meeting with a pretrial detention officer. She also says Garcia, who is a former Army captain, an Iraq War veteran livestreamed video of himself inside the Capitol, yelling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The judge on Wednesday decided that Garcia will remain free with GPS monitoring until his trial.

I want to bring Journalist Mara Schiavocampo talk to us about this. She is the host of the podcast, Run Tell This. Mara, you talk a lot about news, pop culture and you also tackle a lot of issues about race. So, as you hear what the judge has said here, I just wonder what your reaction is.

MARA SCHIAVOCAMPO, JOURNALIST AND PODCAST HOST: On the one hand, Brianna, it's shocking but I'm not shocked. So it's shocking when you look at this in the context of what this man is accused of. This is someone who has military training, who is a Proud Boy, who, according to federal documents, was posting videos of himself inside the Capitol, fighting with Capitol police and then hunting for Speaker Pelosi, saying, Nancy, come out and play. Purportedly, that's what the video shows.

And then this man brings a knife to pre-trial recording with an officer of the court, and the court decides that and the decides that he is not a threat to his community and then he can remain free until trial.

But at the same time, I am not shocked because it fits squarely with the everything that we've in the insurrection. From the planning out in the open, which so many people were able to see it coming, from the way that these insurrectionists were treated when they descended upon the Capitol, the restraint that was used with them from law enforcement, and now we're seeing how it's playing out in the court system.

And we know if this was a Black Lives Matter protest, things would have ended differently. We know that because we saw what happened with the Black lives Matter protests. These insurrectionists were literally, by and large, allowed to storm the Capitol at lunchtime and be home in time for dinner.

[13:30:02]

On one day of the Black Lives Matter protest this summer, five times the amount of people were arrested by D.C. police than were arrested on January 6.