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At Least 48 Dead after Floods Wreak Havoc across Northeast; Biden's Leadership Tested this Week, COVID, Afghanistan, Deadly Storms; Fauci Says, COVID Booster Shot Likely Needed for Full Protection. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: And as soon as the president is done speaking, he will hop on a plane to visit the hurricane-damaged parts of Louisiana. Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power there as the sweltering heat stretches into the weekend.

We are also following the rising death toll, just an alarming one in the northeast from the very same storm system. This morning, the count in at least 48 people across six states, that is confirmed dead, others are missing. And the threat is not over. Rivers are expected to continue to rise throughout the weekend. We're going to bring you the latest on all of the storm damage in just a moment.

Let's begin though at the White House where President Biden is set to speak. John Harwood is there. John, these numbers are a big miss in the midst of what has already been a disheartening, you might say, month for the administration. What do we expect the president to say about them this morning?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it's absolutely not what President Biden wanted to see after the agony of August, and then in Afghanistan, the agony of the hurricanes, which the United States is just now recovering from. This huge miss on the jobs report just underscores, though, what the former Obama economist, Austan Goolsbee, says is the first rule of virus economics, solve the virus in order to get the economy going. And the surge of the delta variant is holding down economic growth.

Remember, this summer before the delta variant mushroomed around the country, you saw much stronger job growth with the revisions, we see that July added more than 1 million jobs. But the story, the story -- pandemic story in August was delta and that has now depressed hiring. And I think it puts pressure on President Biden in a couple of ways.

I would you expect him to remind the country of the urgency of ramping up the vaccination totals, which have slowed. They've come back a little bit lately as people have gotten anxious about it. But it's going to increase pressure on the president to lean harder into mandatory vaccinations. He's encouraged businesses to do that. He's done that for the federal government. Are there further steps that the president could take, say, on air travel, train travel to make vaccination mandatory for that?

The other question is, is it going to increase pressure on him to do something about the expiration of those expanded federal unemployment benefits, which have now expired for 7 million people. You see within these numbers that black unemployment is twice as high as white unemployment, that is going to generate some pressure on the president to act and we'll see over the next couple of weeks whether he does so.

SCIUTTO: John Harwood at the White House, thanks so much.

Well, as we said, at least 48 people in the northeast confirmed dead. Many of them drowned in their own homes, in their own cars caught in streets like that as the rivers rose. President Biden has approved an emergency declaration for New York and New Jersey now.

CNN's Polo Sandoval, he's been covering this from New Jersey. He is in Manville this morning. Polo, oftentimes, you see the extent of the damage after the water begins to recede. What are you seeing there as you've been traveling around?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim, the more communities that we visit, the more evident it becomes that the heartache is just getting started for so many families. The storm has come and gone. Those waters have generally receded in most communities. But what remains is the need to clean up and rebuild and that is quite evident where you see behind me here.

As mentioned, we're in Manville, New Jersey, and the house that used to be a house off the distance, according to several neighbors, actually exploded, according to one woman who lives down the street yesterday, while all of this area was being overtaken by floodwaters that were coming from a nearby river which essentially peaked yesterday. And so you can see in the cars, nobody actually parked it there. You can see that the water placed that -- left the car there. And you see these kinds of scenes repeating themselves in just over and over again.

Now, in terms of what could be next for so many of the folks here, what is going to be cleaning up and in some cases perhaps even rebuilding. Now, we are told by one neighbor that she's hearing the people who called this home, they made it out safely and know that this area tends to flood during these storms. So, they had evacuate before this took place.

Now, in terms of what led to this, I've reached out to fire investigators to see if potential issues, for example, they play a factor. But we have seen utility crews visiting these neighborhoods to make sure that no other homes are risk here, that utilities there and the gas lines weren't jeopardized here.

Now, in terms of lives lost, we heard from the governor here in the New Jersey just recently now saying that 35 of those total deaths, storm-related deaths, have actually happened in his state. So, we are anxiously awaiting to hear some comments from the New Jersey's governor to see if that potentially has gone up even more and to see what will come next, what kind of help will be offered to some of those people who have been deeply affected by it.

[10:05:01]

And we also expect to hear from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio as well, as he's expected to take some questions during his normally, regularly scheduled remarks here. As we now know, about at least 16 storm- related deaths in New York State. And, obviously, the mayor is going to likely face some more questions about what municipalities, what local governments did to prepare for this. Obviously, we all got those warnings but the question is, was it simply too much, or could more have been done to try to save more lives and potentially more property.

SCIUTTO: Yes, Polo Sandoval there in New Jersey.

We're, of course, also following the aftermath in the south. CNN's Adrienne Braddous, she is in New Orleans, where later today, President Biden will land there, get an up close look at damage left by Hurricane Ida. At least 14 people, the death toll there, 14 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

You've been speaking to a lot of people there, Adrienne. And I just wonder because the storm is gone but the damage is not. How are they coping?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, every day is a battle. There is no power, so that means no electricity. It is a challenge to find food. People behind us have been waiting in line hours so they can get fuel for their vehicle. And there are a limited number of gas stations like this one that are open. You can see over on the other side some people have walked up physically with their gas cans to fill up. And that is not all. The Louisiana Department of Health says that the death toll here is increasing. There have been nine deaths in the state linked to Hurricane Ida, three of them from carbon monoxide poisoning.

And while some parts of the city have had their power restored across the state, there are still more than 800,000 power outages. I was glancing because earlier we saw some power trucks riding through. Nonetheless, people who live here say, yes, they're happy President Biden is coming but they want him to know they are hurting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYRA CASTRO, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We're in the heat, we ain't got to lights almost five days. I have got to sleep in the car. My kids are hot. We're hungry.

We don't die in here. Where is FEMA? Where is the Red Cross? We need help now. Can y'all help us? We're about to die. We've got children in here. I'm a single mom and I'm doing it by myself. It is hard out here. Can they help us? Where is the president? Can he come help us? Where is the FEMA?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: The president's message is that help is on the way.

And one thing I discovered talking to people, a lot of them did not know there are cooling stations across the city. There are eight of them. And at those cooling stations, that is where you will find the FEMA representatives. I saw them yesterday. I even spoke with a representative from FEMA who was helping people register for what he called disaster assistance, or, excuse me, survival assistance.

Meanwhile, Biden will be here later today. He's going to talk with the state's governor as well as some parish leaders and he will see some of the hardest hit areas, Jim, across the state.

SCIUTTO: Well, listening to people there, they expect help and they want it quickly. Adrienne Broaddus, thanks very much.

As we said, any minute, we are expecting President Biden to speak, first, about the August jobs report, the numbers very disappointing, adding far lower than expected and coming during a week when he's seen several crises.

Our Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, he's going to weigh in on what it all means.

Plus, the storms may be over but the possibility for flooding is not. Rising rivers, still rising, could make it dangerous this weekend.

And a terror attack overnight in a New Zealand supermarket. The suspect had ties to ISIS. We're going to have the details just ahead.

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[10:10:00]

SCIUTTO: It was a bad month for Biden in August, September not off to a great start either. Just moments from now, he's set to speak about a jobs report that the White House was hoping would be positive news, but it was well below expectations, dragged down, it appears, by the pandemic. He will then leave the White House and tour severe storm damage in New Orleans.

But on Capitol Hill, key Democratic senators threw a wrench into his two-track infrastructure and budget strategy.

Joining me now to discuss, the politics of all this, David Gergen, CNN's Senior Political Analyst, served as adviser to just four presidents in both parties. David, always good to have you on.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's always good to see you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right. So we're seeing this in Biden's approval rating. The latest MPR/PBS/Marist poll has it down at 43 percent. I mean, that is a Trumpian level, it should be noted, and down in that poll, I believe, six points from just July. It has been a series of crises for Biden. Is this lasting damage? GERGEN: He can bounce back from some of these things. But I do think he's paying a price. And one thing just to -- and, crucially, the White House and in August of the first year looks toward the midterm elections and, as you know, the rule of thumb is that a president, sitting president is above 50 percent in the polls, does well and by elections, but if his popularity or approval rating is below 50 percent, he often loses 30 seats or so, which would give -- in this case, would give the Republicans the House as well as the Senate.

[10:15:08]

So, this is serious stuff.

But, Jim, I think it is worth remembering that he inherited, Joe Biden inherited more crises, bigger crises than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. And the early weeks, the early months of this administration, they did see a couple of things, that they were coming to grips with (INAUDIBLE) proposals, the country was pleased, he was above 50 percent. But in these last few weeks, there is an increasing sense that the wheels are coming off the bus, that before the crises he inherited are not getting better, not substantially better. The pandemic, we're seeing the deaths rise again with jobs and the numbers, as you say, are extremely disappointing today. But the climate, whether you're looking at New Orleans or New Jersey from the floods or you're looking at Lake Tahoe and the fires, it is probably worse.

And also race has gotten a little better, but there are two new crises on his desk since he took office. One is Afghanistan and now, increasingly, abortion.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And as you know, regardless of how many inherited, voters don't look that far back, right? They look at how things are going now. I wonder, because, of course, a big portion of his hopes for success are built on his domestic legislative agenda. You have Joe Manchin now saying he wants a pause on the $3.5 trillion planned reconciliation plan. And Bernie Sanders just said there will be no infrastructure deal without that reconciliation budget, so putting that in danger.

Are you hopeful that he can at least get the infrastructure deal through or is he going to lose the two big planks from his platform?

GERGEN: Good question. Listen, I'm reasonably optimistic about the infrastructure bill. The country so much needs it. Both sides of the aisle believe that. I think there must be a way out of this. I do think that the larger proposal, the $3.5 trillion proposal, is in some trouble related to the crises that are unfolding now. Because the president does not have the kind of clout today that he had, say, three or four weeks ago to get things through.

And I do think, Jim, overall, there is a sense in the country that the Washington is not a good follow of events, events are in control of Washington. And I think people are having come off a $2 trillion expenditure for Afghanistan, there is just not a lot of enthusiasm for now spending $3.5 trillion on the economic and sort of (INAUDIBLE) for the next little while. I think Joe Manchin picked up on this, can we slow this down and get things under control and then do the big things.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Well, the point you raised there was going to be my next question and that is, as his popularity weakens, is the president losing clout with his own party on some of these priorities?

GERGEN: Yes. I think the answer is yes. And, listen, in fairness to him, any president would lose clout who went through these things and he was hit with some things that were unexpected. He's doing the best he can. But from a survival point of view for the Democratic Party, there are going to be increasing numbers of Democrats in the middle in this central lane of politics or the centrist or moderates who are nervous and there are a growing number of them if this doesn't get under control soon.

President in the August of the first year, that is when you want to be rolling. That is when you want to have sense of momentum going in here, and instead Joe Biden is facing these terribly difficult problems. And you have to sort of, again, be sympathetic with what he's going through. He inherited a lot of this.

SCIUTTO: Well, voters tend to punish at the polls, as you say. David Gergen, always good to have you perspective.

GERGEN: Thank you. It is good to see you again.

SCIUTTO: We're going to take you live to New York now. This is where Mayor de Blasio giving an update on the response to the deadly storms there. Let's listen for a moment.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): Thank you.

We saw a lot of pain as I went around the city yesterday, talking to people who have been through so much. There is a lot of pain. We also saw a lot of heroism. I want to thank all of our first responders, our paramedics and EMTs, firefighters, police officers and the folks from environmental protection, our sanitation workers. So many people did extraordinary things fighting back through the storm on Wednesday and into Thursday and even now, the work that is being done in the clean- up. Our first responders literally made hundreds and hundreds of rescues from cars, from subways, from basements.

[10:20:00]

Our colleagues at the MTA, I want to thank everyone who works at the MTA, the subway personnel, bus drivers, everyone. You also did heroic really difficult work in the midst of something unprecedented. Neighbors helped each other. We know this is what New Yorkers do. And I think New Yorkers do it in a way that is an example to the whole country, always there for each other.

We started Wednesday activating our flash flood emergency plan. We sent out alerts. We sent out the Department of Environmental Protection crews, sanitation did extra cleaning. There was a focus on drains. But here is what we did not know, that we would have literally shocking and unprecedented rainfall. We had a one-hour period on Wednesday night that set the all-time record for a single hour in the history, the recorded history of New York City, and no one projected that coming.

We are now dealing with something inconceivable. We have set a previous record a few weeks earlier for the most rainfall an hour. This new record is much, much higher. So it is not just that shocking and unprecedented events are happening, once in a century events are happening regularly. I mean, think about that. Things that we're told that are once in a century are now happening regularly. But, bluntly, they're also getting worse. It is entirely different reality.

And we all, and I want to speak on behalf of all city agencies here, we have to change what we do across the board. We have to change our entire mindset, because we're being dealt a very different hand of cards now. And it is not just us. We saw the destruction of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. We see what's happening in the southwest with unprecedented drought. We see what's happening with the wildfires on the west coast. We all understand this is coming from climate crisis, but also it is not just that the climate crisis is causing problems, it is causing massive problems, stunning, brutal problems, things that come on with a speed and ferocity we've never --

SCIUTTO: That is Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York there. We will keep listening for any additional updates to the response to the storm there over the last 24, 48 hours. Here is what else to watch today.

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[10:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Right now, some 4.5 million people in the northeast are still under flood warnings. Rivers are still expected to rise.

CNN's Chad Myers is in the Weather Center. And, Chad, you were right about this. A few days ago, you were talking about all of the rain that the storm was going to drop and we saw it up and down the country. I mean, what is remarkable to imagine is you're saying more is coming. Where and how much?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it is for the middle part of the country, nothing really for the northeast until the end of Monday. So you may be looking at your app right now and it says, flood warning. That does not mean more water is coming, more rain is coming, but that does not mean that your river may still not be cresting, because this water all has to run downhill and that is what it is doing right now. A lot of these rivers are still out of their banks, certainly. For a while there we have 31 river gauges above major flood stage, and a few of them above record flood stage, records that have been kept for hundreds of years.

So there is where the rain is going to be, west of where the flooding happened. But what we had, we had an atmosphere, Jim, that was a relative humidity, about 100 percent at the surface. And that 100 percent relative humidity extended all the way to four miles high in the atmosphere. So think about how much water in that column of air, four miles high saturated, and that is what caused all of that flooding.

Our temperatures are going to be cool enough for the rest of the weekend, that is good news, but not good news for Louisiana. Heat indices there likely over 100 degrees. I mean, look at New Orleans. It's going to be in the middle 90s. Some spots a little bit farther south well into the 100 degree range, not only today but certainly for tomorrow, cooling down some by the weekend.

But even New Orleans, the morning lows are the problem for me. If you don't have power, you like to have the air cool down to 60 so you can open up the windows. Morning lows are in the upper 70s. That is not cooling down, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No, not at all. And the lag time on that flooding is always remarkable. Chad Myers, thanks very much.

Dr. Fauci now said it is likely that three doses of the COVID-19 vaccines are needed for full protection, and that an official rollout of booster shots could begin within weeks. This is pending FDA approval.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now. Elizabeth, he's been looking, as others have, to data from Israel that have shown both the danger here but the effectiveness of boosters. Tell us what you're learning.

[10:30:00]

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That is right, Jim. And that is what is causing Dr. Fauci and others to say, you know what, now is the time for boosters. To be clear, Fauci and others.