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Mayhem as Afghans Try to Escape; Florida Takes Steps over Mask Mandates; Texas Sees Surge in Hospitalizations; Nearly 2,000 Dead in Haiti Earthquake. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired August 18, 2021 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Right now the Biden administration is facing the tall and urgent task of trying to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan, but it is offering very little clarity about how it plans to do so successfully before the planned August 31st withdrawal deadline. That's less than two weeks from now.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Our Kylie Atwood joins us from the State Department.
Kylie, good morning.
What can you tell us about -- it's not just a question of how many people America can evacuate. It's about how many will they and will they extend this deadline past this 31st of August, which they imposed on themselves?
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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, that is fundamental to this overall question of how many they can get out. It's determined by what their operations look like and how long they keep those operations going.
But as it stands now, we're finding that the administration hasn't been able to answer the basic questions about how they're going to get this done. And I think a lot of that is because the backdrop here is so incredibly chaotic.
So what we do know is that there are about 2,000 of these Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. as interpreters, who have been relocated to the U.S. But there are about 20,000 who have applied as of mid-July for that specific visa.
But there are also tens of thousands of other Afghans that actually are expected to qualify for refugee status here in the United States. That number could well get over 100,000 when you add in family members. So we're talking about some really astronomical numbers here.
Now, the State Department says that they are surging resources to work on this. By Friday they're going to double the amount of people working at the airport in Kabul to process these applicants. They are also saying that they are getting in touch with these Afghans who are SIV holders to head to the airport.
But what we really don't know is how exactly they're determining who gets on these planes and who doesn't because our reporting by Clarissa Ward on the ground shows just how chaotic, how dangerous it is around the airport there.
So what happens when these Afghans show up and they're not, you know, fully through this process? They're partially through this process. Those are things that we really don't know yet.
SCIUTTO: Listen, I've heard from Afghans who want to get to the airport but they're worried that they'll be threatened on the way by the Taliban. I mean these are very real challenges.
Another one we've heard is that U.S. personnel, that they destroyed passports as they were preparing to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Kabul as sort of a security measure. What does that mean for Afghans who had their applications into the embassy?
ATWOOD: Yes, I mean, just imagine, you know, these Afghans were trying to get everything together and then they can't even get their passport because those passports, as you said, were presumably destroyed for security measures. We know that it was part of this effort to get rid of all sensitive, all classified information at the airport -- I mean, sorry, at the embassy. And that, of course, is to fend against the worst case scenario, right, in case the Taliban come into the embassy, which isn't being protected right now, and are able to get hold of those passports, potentially then target those Afghans.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
ATWOOD: But the bottom line is that these Afghans, without a passport, it is a huge hurdle for them to get out of the country.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
ATWOOD: Now, what the State Department is saying this morning to us about this is that this is not going to prevent Afghans who are otherwise eligible from evacuation, from traveling out of the country. But it's really hard to imagine that they have a list right now, a consular officer outside the airport, who is looking for these specific Afghans whose passports were burned during this process.
Jim.
SCIUTTO: Kylie Atwood, thanks so much. And, listen, to Seth Moulton's point, to you just earlier, saying, he and others were warning about this going back months, years in fact.
HARLOW: Yes, years.
SCIUTTO: So the idea that it's all being done in these final moments is remarkable. HARLOW: It could have been different.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
Well, Broward County, Florida, schools are now defying the Florida governor's order prohibiting mask mandates as students return to class today. Florida's board of education already taking steps to punish them. We're going to have a live update.
But first, a quick programming note.
Be sure to join CNN for "We Love New York City: The Homecoming Concert." The concert even will air Saturday starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time exclusory right here on CNN.
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SCIUTTO: The breaking news just into CNN, former Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, is now, we know, in the United Arab Emirates after fleeing Afghanistan amid the Taliban's rapid takeover the country. In a statement to CNN, the UAE ministry of foreign affairs says they, quote, can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds.
We're going to stay on top of all the news.
HARLOW: Today one of the nation's largest school districts, that's Broward County in Florida, returns to in-person learning with a district-wide mask mandate. Now, why is this so critical? Well, the governor -- this mandate defies Governor Ron DeSantis' executive order across the state that bans mandates like that. Now the state is looking to punish the county.
SCIUTTO: Yes. They're going to punish people financially, it appears, for trying to take the simple health care step.
CNN's Amara Walker is in south Florida this morning.
Amara, what's the investigation going to look at and what legal steps is the governor trying to take to enforce the order?
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, as you've been saying, I mean, as you know, there's been this escalating fight over mask mandates between Governor Ron DeSantis and at least two public school districts, including Broward County Public Schools. And all of this culminated last night during an emergency meeting by the Florida Board of Education where they voted unanimously to, number one, investigate these two schools districts, including Alachua County, for defying the governor's executive order that bans, prohibits mask mandates. But, more importantly, to take steps to punish these districts.
Now, those penalties are unclear at this time, though they can take steps to remove some of these school district officials.
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And they can also withdraw funds, as you mentioned.
First off, take a listen, though, to the sound, some of this back and forth from this emergency meeting.
So basically there is this back and forth pitting parents' rights against students' rights to be safe in the classroom. And as you know, Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members if they impose these mask mandates.
But it turns out that he can't directly do that because they are not on the state's payroll. So to go around that, what they would have to do is withhold funding from these districts that are equal to the amount of the salaries of the superintendents and school board members.
But, look, despite all of this, you have Broward County Public Schools and Alachua County Schools digging in. They're not budging from their mask mandate at least for now because they're saying it's about the safety of our students, at least here in Broward County Public Schools, 260,000 students returning to the classroom, including here at Bay View Elementary.
Jim.
SCIUTTO: And, of course, if they're under 12, they can't be vaccinated. But financial penalties for trying to mask up.
Amara Walker, thanks very much.
Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has now tested positive for COVID-19. Here was the governor on Monday this week attending a Republican event indoors, noticeably maskless, as were many in the crowd. He is fully vaccinated, we should note. He says he is not experiencing any symptoms as is common with breakthrough infections.
HARLOW: But many Texans don't have that protection. Just 45 percent in the state are fully vaccinated. One of the state's biggest hospitals, that's Houston's Texas Medical Center, is seeing the most COVID hospitalizations that it has had since last summer.
Rosa Flores joins us again this morning in Dallas.
Rosa, good morning to you.
What have you learned about the governor, his recovery and the big picture here?
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Poppy, he posted a video last night saying that he feels well. He has no symptoms. That he's fully vaccinated. He's in isolation at the governor's mansion in Austin. And that from there the business of the state of Texas continues. We also learned from his press office that everyone who's been in
close contact with the governor has been notified. Now, that could include the individuals in that video that you just showed, the governor there attending a mostly maskless event in Collin County. This as the governor becomes part of this alarming statistic here in the state of Texas, the growing number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Now, all of this at a time when his attorneys across this state are arguing against mask mandates in schools as the school year is beginning in the state of Texas. Now, this as the state of Texas leads the nation in the number of hospitalizations in children with COVID- 19.
Now, let's talk about hospitalizations here because experts in this state sounding the alarm about the number of ICU beds, the number of beds available for individuals. Right now there are more than 12,000 -- 1,200 people hospitalized in the state of Texas. There are 314 ICU beds available across this state.
Now, let me break this down for you because the state of Texas is divided into 22 different trauma center areas. I'm in the Dallas area and this area, there are about 78 ICU beds available. In the Houston region, there are 44 ICU beds available. And just yesterday, during a press conference, the president and CEO of Harris Health explained the dire situation there like this. He says that a man went to the emergency room needing an ICU bed. This individual did not have COVID, did not have COVID, so he had -- he needed an ICU bed. And, Jim and Poppy, this man had to wait for 40 hours to get an ICU bed. This man says that -- the president and CEO of Harris Health says it is shameful for this to be happening in the state of Texas in the United States.
I have to mention, there is some good news. Medical personnel are expected to come into this stated today and in the days to come to help increase those numbers of ICU beds that are already -- that are already here in the state of Texas. They just don't have medical personnel to provide the care.
Jim and Poppy.
HARLOW: Wow, Rosa Flores, 40 hours. Thank you for your reporting on the ground there very much.
We'll be right back.
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HARLOW: Humanitarian efforts are ramping up in Haiti right now as that powerful earthquake has now claimed nearly 2,000 lives across the country. To make matters worse, Tropical Storm Grace then pounded Haiti with heavy rains and strong winds.
SCIUTTO: Just one challenge after another. CNN's Joe Johns, he joins us now from Port-au-Prince.
Joe, tell us how the response is going there today.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, just yesterday the numbers increased rather dramatically, as you pointed out, up to 1,941 dead. We are awaiting, in about 40 minutes, another news conference for any updates the authorities here on the ground in Haiti can give us. There are certainly tremendous concerns on the ground in the disaster zone.
A lot of people complaining, in fact, about why the aid is moving so slowly. Multiple reasons for that. Probably the most important reason is that a lot of the supplies have to go by airbridge, by helicopter, in other words, instead of on the roads.
[09:55:00]
The reason for that is pretty simple, Haiti has a long-standing problem with bandits, with criminals and gangs, armed gangs, by the way, controlling the roads in and out of remote places like where this disaster zone is located. And the authorities are frustrated with it.
In fact, over the last 24 hours, the United States Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Relief put out a tweet indicating they needed to get the roads under control so that they can get supplies to people in the area or, they say, thousands of people could die.
Back to you.
HARLOW: Wow. Joe Johns, we appreciate you and your team reporting on the ground there. Thank you very much.
SCIUTTO: Well, soon the White House will announce plans for vaccine boosters. Up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins to tell us and tell you what to expect, what it means.
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