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Roe v. Wade in Jeopardy; Power Out in Louisiana; Susan and Wayne del Corral are Interviewed about the Devastation in Louisiana; McCarthy Threatens Telecom Companies. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 01, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Because those are very big questions.

Dan Simon, thank you very much.

And CNN's coverage continues right now.

Thank you for joining us this morning and letting me fill in.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You'll be back.

COLLINS: Tomorrow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Wednesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

Breaking overnight, what could be the beginning of the end for Roe v. Wade in this country. As of midnight last night, a new law in Texas which bans all abortions six weeks after conception took effect in that state. This after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court failed to take an emergency requests from providers to stop it. Many women do not even know they're pregnant until after six weeks.

Also, a disturbing detail, the new law would allow any private citizen in the country to sue abortion providers or anyone who assists pregnant women in Texas seeking an abortion.

Opponents argue the law immediately and catastrophically reduces abortion access in Texas. All this as the Supreme Court is set to rule on another abortion case next month which could have implications for the entire country and, of course, the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Let's begin with CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue, as well as CNN senior political analyst Kirsten Powers.

Ariane, let me begin with you.

The fact that the Supreme Court did not act on this, does that signal their own decision on the merits or might they act today or at a later date?

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SKUPREME COURT REPORTER: Right. That's a really good question.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: I mean, no matter what, this shows that Roe v. Wade is in big trouble with this conservative court. But it's important to show what the court did and did not do last night, and there is this caveat, right? So the Texas law bars these abortions after six weeks, the most strict in the country. The clinics raced to the Supreme Court and they wanted to stop it. And it was set to go into effect at midnight. The Supreme Court didn't act. So that means they effectively allowed it to go into effect.

But one of the caveats here is that the court still could act on that today. They could issue an order this morning, this afternoon, but they didn't.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: And the fact that they allowed it to go into effect, Jim, that really is not good news for supporters of abortion rights.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: It's not for sure. They could still do it. But that is not good news for it down the road for them.

SCIUTTO: OK. I want to get to the Mississippi case in a moment because that, of course, is before the court.

DE VOGUE: Yes.

SCIUTTO: But, Kirsten, with you, Texas, one of the largest states in the union now, extremely difficult for women to get abortions. They'll have to go out of state, frankly, many of them will.

Tell us about the broad impact of this and about concern -- concerns among women's groups about what this means going forward more broadly for Roe v. Wade.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I want to first say this is just wildly out of the mainstream. So this is -- this is even out of the mainstream in Texas. If you look at the University of Texas, a "Texas Tribune" poll that was done earlier this year, they found that even among pro-life, people who identify as pro-life, they do want an exception for rape and incest, for example, which this does not provide. So -- so this -- this is not even in -- within the mainstream of pro-life people.

Also, I think it will have catastrophic effects in terms of how it will affect abortion providers. They've already said that they potentially could go out of business. It, pretty obviously to me, will lead to more later term abortions because people who can't get the abortions early on will have to go out of state, which means they'll have to get more money, they'll have to get time off from work. And so it's actually for people who claim to care so much about abortions later in the term, they're actually going to be creating more of that through this law.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, an important point you make, too, no exceptions for rape or incest. So imagine those circumstances. Someone is raped or impregnated by a relative, a male relative, they don't know they're pregnant up until six weeks, then they have to carry that baby to term.

POWERS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean it's a remarkable fact to state out loud in plain English.

POWERS: Right. And like you said, you don't -- you're not even going to know basically by the time you would even know that you had missed your period, you have two weeks to get an abortion? And what if you are a, you know, a 14-year-old girl who's been molested by her father.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

POWERS: I mean this -- this is really -- that's sickening to me. And this is in the same state where, you know, people are freaking out about, you know, their bodies are being attacked by having to wear a mask.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

POWERS: And you have the governor trying to ban masks as some infringement on freedom and they're perfectly fine infringing on the freedom of a 14-year-old girl or a full-grown woman for that matter. It doesn't really matter, right, it's -- who it is and making it impossible for them to have control over their own choices.

[09:05:07]

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, if you're looking for a principled consistency on the, my right, my body kind of argument against masking and vaccinations, of course, here that blows up.

POWERS: Yes, don't look here.

SCIUTTO: Ariane, there's, of course, another case already before the Supreme Court in Mississippi law. Tell us what that decision means, what they're considering there. And I just -- I also want to know for sure, by not taking this up, has the Supreme Court just okayed a no exception rule for rape and incest?

DE VOGUE: So it didn't rule on the merits. It didn't say anything. It didn't overrule Roe v. Wade. It said nothing. So by saying nothing, it allows it to go into effect.

But I want to make one other really critical point is that this law was written in a way that's going to inspire other states now because it's not the usual law. SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: It's, usually, you can sue Texas and say, you know, take them to court. This law allows any person to bring a lawsuit about someone who assisted an abortion. So that means it could be a provider, somebody who paid for it, someone who drove you.

SCIUTTO: Could it be a relative who drives you to the clinic?

DE VOGUE: Exactly. So that's why this is interesting.

So, the Supreme Court hasn't said that Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional in this case. It just simply did not. But coming this term, they are taking up a separate case where they're going to have oral arguments about a Mississippi law. That time you should really look to see what it says about Roe v. Wade.

SCIUTTO: And that law -- tell me about -- what are the details of the Mississippi law that they're considering?

DE VOGUE: So the Mississippi law is a ban at 14 weeks.

SCIUTTO: Right.

DE VOGUE: So that's -- that's different, right, from this law.

SCIUTTO: I see.

DE VOGUE: And they're differently situated. That one will have full briefing, oral arguments, we'll hear from the justices and we'll get an opinion.

SCIUTTO: Exception for rape and incest in that law?

DE VOGUE: No.

SCIUTTO: OK. That's remarkable.

Ariana de Vogue -- that's why we cover the news -- Kirsten Powers, thanks you very much.

Now to the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

Water, gas, medical supplies depleted, really hard to come by in some parts of Louisiana, particularly those coastal areas. Many roads washed out. Right now power has been restored to a very small portion of the city of New Orleans, but nearly 1 million households still in the dark across the state. That could last for weeks. Remember, each household might have several people.

At least five people have died due to the storm so far. Officials are still conducting rescue operations. Crews have not been able to access some of the hardest-hit areas yet. And that's why there's concern about a rising death toll.

Let's begin with CNN's Ryan Young. He is in New Orleans.

Ryan, you know, it's a major city. It's been through this kind of thing before. The levees held. That's good news. But power out possibly for weeks.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's good news, yes. Yes, when you -- when you kind of put this together here, when you think about some of the storms that we've covered here in years past, one of the good parts about this is there's no standing water in a lot of parts of the city. But the power being out is something that's really rising frustrations all across the area.

Look at where I'm standing here. And this is just some of the destruction we've been able to find. You can see the power lines have definitely been hampered by the roof that has blown off the school that we're standing in front of. And as we go this direction, you can see parts of this roof hanging.

But it's the sweltering heat, Jim, that I really have to say stands out at this point. You're talking about triple digit possible heat today. And you see people trying to come outside to get any sort of rest from that just extreme heat. And on top of that, they're running out of gas. They're running low on food. And they're running low on patience.

In fact, take a listen to this one woman who's running an organization trying to get food out to the people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA CHOMSKY-ADELSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CULTURED NOLA: I've been working in disaster response for about 12 years and I think this one really just no one saw it coming. I think this was a really improbable scenario. But we're going to do it. We're going to take care of each other. You know, New Orleans is known for caring for our community. And a lot of the ways that we show love is food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So, if you think about this, Jim, look, we talked to several people yesterday who were waiting in line, not only for food, but for gas. This was not something they expected. When you think about it, a category one storm sort of sticking it to the city this way, that's not something that people really expected at all. You have power line crews coming in from all across the country trying to get power back on.

But I can tell you, patience is starting to run thin. When you listen to the radio, people are very upset because they obviously want power back.

And you put on top of that, they're going to their cars sometimes to run the car so they can charge their phone. But if you don't have a lot of gas to make it through the rest of the week, you can start seeing the issues that are going to start compounding in the next few hours. SCIUTTO: No question. Hours, days, weeks.

Ryan Young in New Orleans, thanks very much.

YOUNG: Yes, sir.

SCIUTTO: Well, widespread power outages, as we were saying, impacting millions of people in New Orleans. Despite that, a business there called New York Pizza is still feeding its customers.

With me now are the co-owners of New York Pizza, Wayne and Susan del Corral.

Thanks so much to both of you for joining us this morning.

WAYNE DEL CORRAL, CO-OWNER, NEW YORK PIZZA IN NEW ORLEANS: Thanks for having us.

[09:10:01]

SCIUTTO: So, first, can you describe the damage in New Orleans right now and what that means for businesses like yours just trying to stay open?

SUSAN DEL CORRAL, CO-OWNER, NEW YORK PIZZA IN NEW ORLEANS: There's just, I mean, trees everywhere. No power. It --

W. DEL CORRAL: Power lines, devastation, roads totally covered with trees, debris, flipped over vehicles, trees on houses, roofs flown off. Just reminds me of Betsy in 1965, because I came through New Orleans and we didn't flood, but we were out of power for about two weeks.

So we're going through pretty much the same thing. And that's why we're here now in Centerville (ph). We had to bail out a town, get another generator to be able to get the pizza parlor back up. We had it for that first day and we had to come to Centerville. After this interview, we're headed back to New Orleans. Hopefully we'll find gas. That's been our biggest problem. But we'll get some gas somewhere on the way back to New Orleans. And hopefully we should be open by 11:00 a.m. Central Time.

SCIUTTO: Well, I'm sure -- I'm sure pizza is a little bright spot in the midst of all that there. I mean how many people, you know, running that generator and doing all you're doing, how many people have you been able to feed these last couple days?

W. DEL CORRAL: Well, yes, the day before yesterday, when -- it was Monday, after the storm hit. So we opened with just nothing. We had to bring in lanterns and we had dough from -- we had previously made and stored. So we had that. And so we had to just run out of that. And it was only strictly word of mouth because there was no power. There is no Internet. There's nothing. That's -- fortunately, we came to Centerville, which has allowed us to be able to have this Internet connection. SCIUTTO: So, what do people do now -- I mean you talk about blocked

roads -- if they can't leave, right? I mean they're running their cars just to charge their phones. I mean that doesn't help you when you're home and you can't turn the air conditioning or the lights on or anything. So what are people doing? Are they -- I mean they can't come for pizza three times a day, right? I mean are people able to get food?

W. DEL CORRAL: Right. Well, now they're slowly -- well, when I get back to town I'll find out for sure, but I think they are slowly finally getting some of the general grocery stores open again because of their generators. So it just took a few days for us to get together.

We'll all privately be able to get our stuff together and, like me, just doing my little thing for my restaurant, and everybody in the bigger scheme is pretty much doing the same thing.

S. DEL CORRAL: The city is working at clearing the roads. They had already started all that. So they're -- they are clearing the road. They're doing their job.

SCIUTTO: It's good to hear. I mean, listen, and on the good side, I wonder how much of a difference it makes to you that the levees did hold, unlike in Katrina in 2005, so you don't have the city under water. Tell us -- tell us the difference that makes.

W. DEL CORRAL: Well, I'll tell you, here's the big thing, we are --

S. DEL CORRAL: Oh, my goodness.

W. DEL CORRAL: It makes all the difference in the world. We're actually in Centerville. Sixteen years ago we were here. Our friends let us -- we've been knowing each other since 1990s, and let my wife and I and our three sons, dog, cats, all stay here three and a half months during Katrina. But now, without the water in New Orleans, we're able to get back into the city.

So I'm pretty confident that things ought to be coming up pretty soon.

SCIUTTO: Well --

S. DEL CORRAL: No, the levees did their job. That is -- they did their job. They helped.

SCIUTTO: That's good -- that's good to hear. We have to look for bright spots in there.

And I will ask you, because I'm from New York, before we go, is New York Pizza in New Orleans better than New York Pizza in New York?

W. DEL CORRAL: It's -- well, you know how the water is. You know that situation.

SCIUTTO: Yes. W. DEL CORRAL: I can't import the water from New York, however I'd like to. But other than that, it's the exact same thing.

S. DEL CORRAL: It's better.

SCIUTTO: Well, what -- it's a better combo (ph).

W. DEL CORRAL: Right, we have (INAUDIBLE) a better sauce than in New York.

SCIUTTO: I'll come down and I'll report back.

Wayne and Susan del Corral --

W. DEL CORRAL: Please do.

SCIUTTO: Thank you for -- thank you for what you're doing in the midst of some really tough times there.

W. DEL CORRAL: Thank you. God bless y'all.

S. DEL CORRAL: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, still to come this hour, the top Republican in the House is using his power to threaten private cell phone providers who might cooperate with the congressional investigation into January 6. What's behind those threats?

Plus, CNN has now obtained exclusive video of U.S. armored vehicles and military equipment now in the hands of the Taliban. We're going to discuss how the group will govern in this new era and how they'll get the money to do it.

[09:15:04]

And the battle over masks in schools got physical in one Florida county. Details on what led to, gosh, what's become an all-too- familiar scene, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: New this morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a threat to private cell phone and social media companies that might cooperate with the January 6 Select Committee, warning, quote, a Republican majority will not forget.

This comes after the committee told the companies to preserve phone records of some pro-Trump lawmakers and members of the former president's family who played some role in the stop the steal rally before the January 6 insurrection.

[09:20:05]

CNN's Melanie Zanona is live here with me now.

Melanie, is this a genuine threat? Does he genuinely believe he's got federal law on his side?

MALANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, it is a pretty stunning and remarkable threat from the top Republican in the House. Let me just read the full statement from the minority leader here.

He said, quote, if these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States. If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.

Now, a couple of things to point out here. It's unclear what law Kevin McCarthy is referring to and claiming that they're in violation of. We have asked his office for clarification, and they've not got back to us.

But this is a duly authorized congressional investigation.

SCIUTTO: Right.

ZANONA: And panels have used their subpoena power in the past to obtain private information from companies.

And, second of all, the committee has not even requested technically these records yet. They're just asking that they be preserved in case they want to request them down the line.

SCIUTTO: OK.

ZANONA: But I think what it really shows is that Republicans led from the top are trying to throw as much sand in the gears of this investigation as possible. And Donald Trump himself has also said he's going to exert executive privilege when he can to block access for other documents and records requests. And ethics experts are already questioning whether McCarthy's threat is a violation of ethics law. So, I mean, it's unclear at this point what they're --

SCIUTTO: Do we know what he was threatening by a Republican majority will not forget? Is he threatening to pass some sort of legislation to penalize the companies?

ZANONA: If they're in the majority, they could subpoena, they could bring them up, they could pass laws that could penalize them. I mean there's a whole host of things that they could do.

But, look, at this point the committee, the select committee, has said, we are undeterred by efforts to obstruct our investigation.

Here is what the committee spokesman told CNN in a statement last night. They said, the Select Committee is investigating the violent attack on the Capitol and attempt to overturn results of last year's election. We've asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people. The committee's efforts won't be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events on January 6th, or obstruct our investigation. SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: So, look, I mean the bottom line here is this investigation is really starting to heat up and we are seeing Republicans, including those like McCarthy, who could be ensnared in the investigation, pushing back as hard as possible.

SCIUTTO: Yes. To your point, McCarthy is one of those people who, well, at least not on the initial list but --

ZANONA: But could be at some point.

SCIUTTO: There is interest in his conversation with the president that day urging off the protesters.

ZANONA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Melanie Zanona, thanks very much.

Joining me now to discuss the law behind all this, CNN anchor, and a lawyer herself, Laura Jarrett.

So, McCarthy says, if these telecom companies comply, they will be violating federal law. Is that true?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: It's not even clear what he's talking about, because, as Melanie said, CNN has asked his spokesmen, and they're just not replying, which I think is pretty telling.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JARRETT: But the truth of the matter, Jim, here is, there is no law on point against what he's talking about. There's no case on point. This would actually be a really novel situation if one member of Congress used a subpoena to try to subpoena another member of Congress' records.

Now, there's plenty of state and federal regulations that regulate the telecom industry, right? The telecom industry can't just go disclosing its users and customers' data willy-nilly. But we're talking about a duly authorized member of Congress, a congressional body here, that does have subpoena power.

And the real effect here, I think, is a chilling one. It's the idea that you actually want to prevent these telecom companies from following the law, from following any subpoena that they may get. But we're not even there yet because, as you and Melanie were just discussing, this is just a preservation order. This is highly routine and Congress does this all the time. And all they're trying to do is to tell the data companies that you don't get to destroy the records right now.

SCIUTTO: Right. OK.

Melanie mentioned the possibility of an ethics investigation for issuing a threat. And there are prior cases to that. But from a legal perspective, for a leader, a sitting lawmaker, to say, we will not forget, a not so veiled threat about, I suppose, the possibility of legislation, is that legal?

JARRETT: I think he has real obstruction of justice issues here. You know, there's actually a law on point, 18 USC 1505 actually has to do with obstruction of congressional proceeding. And what he's done here is a threat on Twitter against the telecom industry. As you pointed out, a not so veiled one.

SCIUTTO: There you go. OK. Although, the track record for prosecuting obstruction of justice in recent years, not particularly --

JARRETT: Fair enough.

SCIUTTO: Not particularly good.

So what do the companies do here? I mean do the companies listen to what -- what he's saying or are the lawyers already preparing and preserving these records as -- as requested or demanded by Congress?

[09:25:02]

JARRETT: Look, I'm sure they realize, and their lawyers realize, that this was going to get caught up in litigation any way you go. I think to protect themselves they're going to have to preserve the records. The real question, and where the rubber will meet the road, is if they actually do try to enforce the subpoena.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JARRETT: That's where this will end up in court and that's where things could get ugly. And that's where they're trying to obstruct.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JARRETT: And the real question is why? Why don't they want these records to come out? Why don't they want the American people to know what happened in those conversations with the president on that day.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and does the delay tactic by itself work.

JARRETT: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: That's a -- it's a strategy that's been refined by a certain Donald Trump as well.

Laura Jarrett, thanks so much.

JARRETT: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, two senior leaders at the FDA are now stepping down. The resignations coming as the agency nears critical decisions on everything from vaccine approvals to booster shots. Why now?

And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures looking to rebound. Stocks fell on Tuesday on what was mostly a quiet day for the markets but they did enjoy solid increases in the month of August, including another monthly gain for the S&P 500. Investors are awaiting the big jobs report on Friday, which we'll be covering.

We'll stay on top of all of it.

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