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White House Press Briefing; Hurricane Ida Aftermath. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired August 30, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

QUESTION: I'm wondering if you can just clarify a little bit more, because, last week, the president said that there had sometimes been instances where maybe a bus is coming through and some names have been given.

But then he also added that: "I can't tell you with any certitude that there has actually been a list of names, but I know of no circumstance.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that's entirely consistent with what I just said.

What I -- or several minutes ago. What I was conveying is that reports or suggestions that we were giving a preemptive, proactive list of Afghans or any individuals who wanted to leave the country to the Taliban are inaccurate.

And what the president said and what I also said, maybe in slightly different phrasing, is that there could be cases where on the ground commanders who are coordinating with the Taliban to get people through checkpoints, to get -- save their lives, get them evacuated, were saying, here's individuals we need to get through.

And in any case that we're aware of, those individuals came -- got through. But, again, these are -- this is coordination that's happening on the ground. And I think we can all agree there's a big difference between providing a list of people who want to depart proactively and working at the moment on the ground in a coordinated, tactical way to get people out and evacuated and save their lives.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) prudential on-the-ground decision, rather than a general massive list?

PSAKI: Absolutely. Thank you, everyone.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

PSAKI: I will be back.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right, that's Press Secretary Jen Psaki on both the final hours of the U.S. in Afghanistan, this evacuation, also the administration's response to what was Hurricane Ida, the personnel, the millions of meals and millions of liters of water that have been deployed to the Southeast U.S. and to the Gulf Coast.

Let's bring in now CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, CNN senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton with us.

Kaitlan, let me come first to you on Afghanistan. And we heard there from Jen that there may still be -- they believe there's a small number of Americans in Afghanistan who still want to get out.

Of course, we will see if that will reconcile their ability to get them out with the president's promise that all Americans who want to get out will be extricated from that country.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And that promise was conditioned on the deadline, which, of course, we know is August 31, which we are about 30 minutes away from in Kabul right now, Victor.

And so there are a lot of questions still facing the White House about when exactly they consider the deadline to be the deadline. Is it at midnight? Do they still, they think, have a few more hours left in the day, given these flights to have some flights coming out of Afghanistan?

That's been a big question still facing the White House, as well as what is happening to Afghan allies who are still there, because you have heard officials, and Jen Psaki just did there, talking about efforts to continue to evacuate people out of this going forward.

And they have said that they believe people will still continue to be able to leave. But, of course, the big question is what the airport is actually going to look like once this does get under way, once the U.S. is no longer what's controlling it, Victor.

And so that's been a big aspect of it. One other thing that stuck out to me from Jen Psaki there was saying that also there was going to be an investigation into that drone strike from the United States, which of course, was conducted on that car that was believed to be filled with explosives potentially targeting the Kabul Airport.

That is, of course, they had a drone strike to go and dilute that. And they said that, of course, we now know that there have been several civilians who have been killed in that, including the remains of a 2- year-old that were found.

Jen Psaki said that any time the U.S. takes a measure like that, they try to avoid casualties like that, and that there is an investigation under way into the loss of life that has happened there.

So, two big things. One other thing we should note is that she did say President Biden will be addressing the nation this week on Afghanistan, as, of course, that deadline is drawing near.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And, Alex, we should mention that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to give an update on Afghanistan at 5:00 p.m. But in the meantime, Alex, what does that mean? When Jen Psaki and

other officials say our commitment to the people left behind is enduring, in practical terms. What does that mean? Because even today, right now, we know that there are people trying to get to the airport to get out who are being turned away at the gates and being told to go home.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's a very good question, Alisyn.

It's one that I just put to a senior administration official. In short, what it means is that there will be Americans and others left in Afghanistan once the U.S. has fully withdrawn. They are hesitant, the administration, to put exact figures on it because, as they say, the situation is so dynamic.

But what they do say is that around 6,000 Americans so far during the course of this entire evacuation in the past three weeks, 6,000 Americans have come out, another around 114,000 non-Americans.

[15:05:08]

And the figure, the last figure that we heard was just yesterday, when they said there were around 250 Americans who had expressed some sort of desire to leave Afghanistan. The State Department insists that the American diplomatic presence there on the ground in Kabul has furiously been trying to reach those Americans, coordinate with those Americans, e-mailing them, calling them, texting them to try to figure out how to get them out.

But in terms of any sort of assurance that every single American who wants to get out by the September -- by the August 31 deadline will get out, that is not there. The Department of Defense has said that they will do absolutely everything they can. But, of course, it is a very dangerous, very fluid situation there on the ground in Kabul.

And that's just the Americans. There are, of course, many thousands more, tens of thousands probably of Afghans who either worked alongside Americans, worked for aid groups, or are in danger who would have the right to apply for refugee status here in the United States, who will either have to get to a third country outside of Afghanistan and the U.S. to process those applications before they can actually come here.

We are hearing, journalists and officials are hearing desperate calls from people inside Afghanistan who desperately want to get out in these final hours before the U.S. fully withdraws. But it is a critical question of how these remaining Americans will get out.

And what the Biden administration is saying is that, even after the military operation ends and the diplomatic operation ends, that the efforts to get them out if they want to leave will endure. What that looks like, that remains to be seen.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, Kaitlan picked up on a good point during that news conference, that August 31 is specific, but it is not precise. So we don't know if the withdrawal is -- ends in a few minutes or if

it ends in a few hours at the end of August 31 local time, East Coast time. The question to you is, as this draws down, how many people potentially can be or will be evacuated on these planes? We know 1, 200 over the last 24 hours, just a fraction of what we saw at the height of this operation.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Victor, that's the -- I think the tragedy of this whole situation, that there are going to be SIV holders, people who have every authorization to get onwards, to be moved on to an airplane, at Hamid Karzai International Airport to the United States.

They have done all the paperwork, they have done everything, and the bureaucratic impediments for some of them to move forward are quite considerable. And it's incredibly frustrating not only for those of us who are trying to help them, but also for the people themselves.

And you can only imagine because they believe that they are at grave risk. And you end up picking a few people out and trying to highlight them to various people within the Department of Defense and the Department of State. And, sometimes, so you actually get lucky and we have had a few people get out, but it's nowhere near enough.

So I would say, if they're going to have the kind of evacuation that takes care of everyone, they're going to have to achieve the volumes that we saw in the previous days, not in the last few days, but in the middle of this operation.

CAMEROTA: Colonel, I have an intelligence question for you.

And that is the U.S. retaliated against ISIS-K with these drone strikes over the weekend. And I assume that's because of the intelligence they gathered somehow on the ground, maybe other channels, but after the U.S. leaves tomorrow, what happens with that intelligence? How will the U.S. still get that?

LEIGHTON: Well, it depends on the specific capability, Alisyn, .

There are some things that we will have access to from an intelligence perspective that will actually be on the ground in Afghanistan, but they will be nowhere near as robust a mechanism to collect data as we had when we weren't physically present in that country.

The intelligence that was used could have come from a variety of different sources. It could have come from in-country type intelligence assets, but it could also have come from technical means that are based outside of the country.

And so there's a plethora, if I can use that term, of different things that the intelligence community can access in order to achieve the desired goal of getting as much verifiable intelligence as possible.

BLACKWELL: Alex, we heard from Jen Psaki that there's no assessment that any group in Afghanistan can attack the United States, the Taliban, ISIS-K, al Qaeda. That's the view of the administration. Is that widely held outside of

the administration as well?

[15:10:00]

MARQUARDT: Well, certainly, one of the lines that we often hear is that you need to take the fight over there, so that it doesn't come over here.

And what is clear -- and we heard Jen Psaki just say it there -- is that the Biden administration is keen to show that they can strike against those terrorists and terrorist groups inside Afghanistan even after they leave.

We have now seen those two drone strikes that targeted both inside Kabul and outside ISIS-K, killing a number of their fighters, planners, facilitators, to use the word of the U.S. military.

Now, obviously, we have seen in the past 24 hours the complications of that as well, with these civilians who were killed at the same time in that strike just yesterday.

So, obviously, in the near term, the focus is going to be on this group ISIS-K in Afghanistan and making sure that it does not metastasize. But in the longer term, as we just heard, it is going to be much harder for the U.S. military, for U.S. intelligence to gather intelligence to try to carry out those strikes against terrorists inside Afghanistan.

To be able to target a vehicle yesterday that was carrying that much explosives in the middle of Kabul, that's a pretty impressive intelligence feat. But all the professionals will tell you that, as the U.S. removes its intelligence and military equities, that it is going to suffer.

Without a base there, it is going to be harder to carry out those types of strikes. Everything will be more difficult. They will be able to do certain things, but their abilities will be reduced. And that includes keeping an eye on what's going on inside the country and when these groups will try to grow and prosper.

BLACKWELL: Yes, the administration says they have these over-the- horizon capabilities for counterterror that they say they will rely on moving forward.

Alex Marquardt, Kaitlan Collins, Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you.

So, the president just gave reassurances to Southeastern states that have been hit by Ida. He says that they will get any help that they need to recover from one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S.

We're starting to see some of the damage there. You see this flyover here. This was a Category 4 hurricane. This is from Grand Isle, Louisiana, a barrier island that took a lot the brunt of Ida. So far, one death has been reported. But Louisiana's governor expects the death toll will rise considerably.

Now, hundreds of search-and-rescue efforts are happening; 5, 200 National Guard troops are deployed to help Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

CAMEROTA: And emergency officials are on the lookout for what the storm surge will bring.

So, Ida made landfall Sunday, the very same day as Katrina made landfall exactly 16 years ago. This is what Ida's 150 mile-per-hour winds sounded like in Port Fourchon. Harrowing, just harrowing to imagine trying to live through that. Its strength was equivalent to an F-3 tornado.

But unlike a tornado that moves fast, Ida hovered over that area for hours. So now the entire city of New Orleans is without power. That's more than a million people. AT&T says 40 percent of its wireless network is down across Louisiana.

Lafourche Parish says entry there will be blocked up to a week, maybe longer, because the roads are unpassable.

Here's what President Biden said this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For a time, Ida caused the Mississippi River to literally change its direction. And some folks are still dealing with the storm surge and flash flooding.

And there are roads that are impassable due to debris and downed power lines. And we need people to continue to shelter in place if it's safe for them to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We have a team of correspondents there covering this for us.

And we're going to start with Ed Lavandera. He's in LaPlace. It's about 30 miles West Of New Orleans.

Ed, what are you seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, it was a long night for the residents here in this community who were desperately watching floodwaters rise into their homes.

We are on a high spot here on the eastern edge of LaPlace. And the good news here this afternoon, if there's any, is that the floodwater is starting to recede a little bit, in some places rather quickly. But this is the high spot where essentially have -- people have been rescued out of their homes.

They're being dropped off at this location that we're at. But anywhere into this neighborhood that you see behind us, many of the people have been telling us that, throughout the night, they got anywhere from four to 10 feet of water inside their homes.

One woman told me she was sleeping on her kitchen island, hoping the water wouldn't go above that. Other people told me they were escaping into the second floor of their homes, if they have a two-story home, or into their attic.

[15:15:04]

And one family in particular was really struck. It was like you get this overwhelming sense of just how harrowing the evening was for many people. And these are people who are fully accustomed and used to waiting out storms here, but they say this one was far different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Were you worried that you were going to end up in the attic?

DON DOTTOLO, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: No. My upstairs -- if it went past that, God take me.

(LAUGHTER)

D. DOTTOLO: Seriously.

KAREN DOTTOLO, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: Yes. And we were afraid for a little while because it was coming up the stairs.

D. DOTTOLO: I wasn't afraid of the water, but the wind kept blowing. And I felt the walls in the house move.

This was hours of agony.

K. DOTTOLO: Hours. It seemed like the longest day ever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Hours of agony is how they describe the experience.

And they say that they're moving from the neighborhood that they were in after dealing with several storms like this over the last 10 years. They say they are done. They're going to find someplace that's higher ground and a little bit farther away from the coast.

And that is really what has struck so many people here is that -- the intensity of this storm. Hurricane Ida remained a much stronger hurricane farther inland than any storm that many people around here can remember. And that's what made this so, so different.

It was the intensity of the winds hitting here in the darkness of the overnight hours that made this such a terrifying experience for tens of thousands of people -- Victor and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Ed, just hearing that couple. I mean, everyone has a breaking point. And it sounds like Ida was their breaking point, though they had have lived through a lot. BLACKWELL: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Ed, thank you very much.

Brian Todd is in New Orleans for us.

So, we understand, Brian, that water rescues are still under way for some people stuck in their homes. What are you seeing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Alisyn and Victor.

We were just in Slidell, Louisiana, about maybe 20 miles north of here, where there was some water rescues that took place. We filmed some of the flooding there in Slidell. We tried to get up live there, but talking about the power down and all the transmission capabilities that are really compromised now.

We tried to get a signal up to show you guys some of that last hour. We couldn't because we got no signal. So that -- there's -- again, there are water rescues going on.

Another example here guys, of why the danger still has not passed, even though the storm has passed, take a look behind me. We're at New Orleans East. This is the neighborhood called New Orleans East. Look at this power pole here, clearly leaning over onto the road and could be about ready to fall down.

These power lines are very, very dangerous here. We're told that -- by local officials that this is why they don't want people roaming around the streets, because these lines could be energized no matter where they are. And people here in this neighborhood, we talked to some of them.

They're doing OK, but they're shying away from this, obviously, for good reason. They know that these lines are very, very dangerous. Some other information about downed power lines and about the overall power situation here in New Orleans.

Entergy Louisiana says some 2,000 miles of power lines are out. They said there are eight major power lines that feed the city of New Orleans that sustained damage. This is -- and, again, they got to comb through neighborhoods like this one by one by one to assess what needs to be addressed, what needs to be repaired. So you have got that going on.

There was also an electronic transmission, an electric -- an electrical transmission tower in Jefferson Parish that completely was destroyed, collapsed into the Mississippi River. So that has to be completely rebuilt, pulled out and rebuilt.

That gives you an idea of how many days, weeks, possibly months this is going to take to get people online. Here is some actual good news that I can show you, though. Over here is one of the levees around New Orleans East. These levees, according to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority -- we have been speaking with them yesterday, today, throughout the course of the storm.They were confident that these levees were going to hold and they did. These levees are much stronger, much higher, much more fortified than they were before Hurricane Katrina.

The levee system did hold. The damage from Hurricane Ida was not really necessarily due to storm surge in some of these areas around New Orleans. It was a wind and rain event. So you have got at least some measure of good news, that the levees performed as they were capable of, guys.

CAMEROTA: That is very good news.

I mean, obviously, they're grateful for that, Brian, but is it over? I mean, we keep hearing from some officials to look out that a storm surge can still happen after the fact. You think you made it through the worst of the worst, and then there's more catastrophe on the heels of it.

TODD: That's right.

Now, the mayor of Slidell, where we just were -- and, again, we couldn't get a signal, so we couldn't show you some of the flooding there. The mayor of Slidell was worried about that. He said, even though some floodwaters there had receded a little bit, he was really worried that -- he was told actually that the shifts in the wind and some of the remaining remnants of the storm were going to push some of the water from Lake Pontchartrain back up into his town.

So that's something that they're looking out for this afternoon. It's -- the storm, as slow moving as torturous as it was, continues to torture this area, even with the remnants pushing maybe some storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain into some of those areas like Slidell.

[15:20:11]

So, again, between that and the danger that we're going to show you again, look at all these downed power lines, neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood -- the danger has not passed, even though the brunt of the storm is gone.

BLACKWELL: Yes, which is why this is not the time for most people to get out and drive around and survey the damage.

We know those rivers will crest soon over the next few days. And those could cause more flooding in some of those communities.

Brian Todd, thank you. Ed Lavandera, thank you as well.

Listen, as we said, the power's out, the phone service is down.

Next, we're going to have a conversation about more the incredible amount of resources that will be needed to get this part of Louisiana back on its feet. CAMEROTA: And then, as for Afghanistan, there are just hours left

until the U.S. is officially out of Afghanistan.

But Americans are still in the Taliban-controlled country and trying to escape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:44]

CAMEROTA: We're covering all the devastation of Ida, now a tropical storm that has pushed out of Louisiana and now into Arkansas, Mississippi.

Let's bring in...

BLACKWELL: We -- believe we have Michael Cooper. He is the president of the St. Tammany Parish.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: And, Michael, I have read that you said that your parish has gone through a horrendous night. Describe the night and what you saw when the sun came up.

MICHAEL COOPER, PRESIDENT OF ST. TAMMANY PARISH, LOUISIANA: It was a long night.

St. Tammany Parish is the fourth largest Parish. And we're just north of New Orleans. In fact, Slidell is the largest city in our in our parish. We had we had screeching winds, heavy rains and just the thought of the storm surge coming up from Lake Pontchartrain into the neighborhoods along the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

So it a long night. And at daybreak this morning, I, like many others, wanted to get out and do an assessment of exactly what had happened. And we saw, as you have heard in other jurisdictions, downed trees, downed power lines, heavy rain that has caused rivers to rise, and the storm surge.

A combination of those things have us in a situation now where we have widespread power outages and a lack of gasoline in our service stations because of the rush to get gas before the storm hit.

We have not had our gasoline providers restoring supplies to the local gas stations.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it's going to be a long time before things get back to normal, it sounds like.

Your governor, Governor John Bel Edwards, said to expect the death toll to go up considerably throughout the day. Is that what you're expecting in St. Tammany?

COOPER: We have no reports of any casualties or injuries.

We did have high-water rescues, as you noted in the Slidell piece. We want to thank our St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office, our Slidell Police Department and Fire District No. 1 and other agencies that are providing the high-water rescues overnight and throughout the day today.

But we have no reports of casualties, just the damage to personal property and homes. And that's what -- that's what we're faced with. And we just hope to be able to get our streets cleaned up and get our power restored.

BLACKWELL: I mentioned before the break the potential for these -- well, we know it's going to happen. The rivers will crest over the next few days.

What do you expect the next couple of days will look like for your parish?

COOPER: We have we have four major rivers, the Tchefuncte River, the Bogue Falaya, the Pearl River, and the Bogue Chitto River.

They are all expected to crest in the next few days. However, we're expecting moderate to major flood levels, which could prevent some major flooding in some of the neighborhoods, in some homes.

So we're hopelessly counting on less flood damage through the rising rivers, but we're keeping an eye on those rivers. And we will be able to report the gauge levels to our residents as the day progresses.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Cooper, you described last night as -- quote -- "a horrendous night."

Just describe it for us. Tell us what happened last night where you were.

COOPER: Well, I stayed at our emergency operations center here in downtown Covington.

And I would step out from time to time and hear the winds and hear -- see the pouring rain.

CAMEROTA: There's a lot of technical difficulties right now dealing with anyone in Louisiana.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

Thank you to Michael Cooper, though, for giving us the latest from St. Tammany Parish.

CAMEROTA: We do have some new images for you right now of some of the hardest-hit areas.

So, this is Grand Isle and Port Fourchon.