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Interview With Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA); Interview With Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA); President Biden Tours Hurricane Ida Damage in Louisiana. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 03, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:38]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of a new hour. Thanks for staying with us. I'm Victor Blackwell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

President Biden is in Louisiana right now, meeting with local leaders and getting ready to see the devastation from Hurricane Ida. The hurricane hit on Sunday, but its impact will affect communities from the Gulf Coast all the way up to the Northeast for months to come.

The death toll is now up to 61 people, most of them in the Northeast, where the remnants triggered flooding and at least 10 tornadoes. The floodwaters are only now beginning to recede in the Northeast.

And in the Bayou, 850,000 customers are still without power, no relief from the relentless heat that is still on the way this weekend. The heat indices say they could hit 105 degrees today.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Ed Lavandera is in LaPlace, Louisiana.

So, the plan is for the president to tour a neighborhood there and others, but where you are, what will we see?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we think it might be the general area where we are here this afternoon in the city of LaPlace, Louisiana, which is just west of New Orleans.

And the brunt of Hurricane Ida came through here Sunday night. You see the extensive damage. We're just a few blocks off the main road that cuts through town here, where there are still downed power lines as far as you can see.

In fact, the parish president here in Louisiana has really kind of stepped up the rhetoric about exactly how long it's going to take to rebuild everything here, and really kind of trying to get people braced for just how long it's going to take. The parish president was saying yesterday that the extensive damage to the electrical system here in this city was -- touched virtually everything and that, because of that, it's going to take a considerable amount of time to get the power back on.

But this is blocks and blocks as you walk this way into this neighborhood. This is the area where there were houses with anywhere from two to eight feet of water inside. We have seen residents here over the better course of the last couple of days really starting the cleanup process, cleaning out all of their belongings and doing all of this with very little respite from the heat, which is really just becoming brutal with every passing day.

It almost feels like one day to the next is getting hotter and hotter down here in Southeast Louisiana. So this is what residents here are bracing for. And the president about to get a tour of all of this, not just here in LaPlace, but in some more other surrounding communities around here as well.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ed Lavandera for us there in LaPlace, thank you very much.

FEMA has approved a temporary housing program for people in Louisiana who need a place to go. And President Biden approved emergency disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey, which will allow FEMA to provide disaster relief there as well.

With us now is David Bibo from FEMA. He's an administrator for response and recovery.

David, thank you very much. I know how busy you are. We appreciate you being here.

So, tell us, what is needed most right now and where?

DAVID BIBO, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Yes, well, I was where Ed was just reporting from in LaPlace, St. John the Baptist Parish, earlier this week.

And, as you noted, the president and the FEMA administrator are there today hearing from parish President Jaclyn Hotard about what it is that St. John's going to need to recover.

What we're focused on right now is making sure that we have a good flow of supplies and commodities, like food and water, into the affected areas, so that we can support those points of distribution, where folks can get relief.

We have seen Louisiana open 39 of those across the affected area. We expect that number to climb in the days ahead. And we're prepared to sustain that mission while Entergy, the primary power provider, works to get the lights back on.

CAMEROTA: But, David, our reporters have been bringing us the stories of people who say that flow is not reaching them. They are waiting in line for hours for food, for water, for ice, and not from FEMA, waiting for gas as well.

I want you to listen to some of the people who are asking, where are you?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PATRICIA CARTER, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: Nothing whatsoever. You don't even see a FEMA truck come down. And me and (INAUDIBLE) we thought you all was FEMA, because some kind of assistance should be out.

I mean, what we had to do, get 10 feet of water to get help?

MYRA CASTRO, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I got asleep in the car. My kids are hot. We're hungry. We going to die in here. Where's FEMA? Where's the Red Cross? We need help now.

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BLACKWELL: So the help is not reaching them. And those are two of several who we have heard from.

So what do you say to those women, to those families that aren't seeing your trucks drop anything go?

BIBO: Well, it's -- no question, it's an extremely challenging situation with the persistent power outages, which do affect whether stores can reopen.

We are starting to see some grocery stores that are reopening either on generator power or being reattached to the grid. Yesterday, it was 27 points of distribution. Today, it's 39. We expect that we will be upwards of 50 in support of the state of Louisiana with the Louisiana Guard tomorrow and even more in the days ahead.

And we're just going to keep pushing. We're going to keep pushing to get resources to those who are in need. And we have already provided more than $120 million in assistance to affected individuals across Louisiana. That number climbs by the hour. And one of the things that we're able to provide is hotel rooms to folks who have been displaced from their homes.

And we're going to continue to provide that assistance as rapidly as we possibly can to Louisiana and throughout the affected area.

CAMEROTA: David, one of the most astonishing things about Hurricane Ida and the aftermath was the swathe of the country that it hit.

I mean, from Louisiana -- we're here, obviously, in the Northeast. I mean, cars are still strewn on the sides of major highways, because people were caught in the floodwaters from all of the rain. And so do you have the resources to provide that many states help?

BIBO: Yes, within hours of the flash flooding in New Jersey and in New York, we had begun deploying emergency personnel, our incident management assistance teams, to Albany and to Trenton to coordinate with our state partners.

We also deployed our search-and-rescue teams to help be ready to support additional rescue missions that were under way from the flash flooding. And what we saw is pretty extraordinary. And I think it's a really important reminder to all of us, especially

if Ida didn't affect you. Imagine if it did. Get yourself and your family ready now, because government is going to be certainly part of the solution. But the steps that we take to get our families ready, to have our go kits ready, to have a plan to take care of ourselves for a few days when disaster strikes us are really, really important.

So we would really encourage folks to visit Ready.gov. Download the FEMA app, because one of the things that you can get from the app, in addition to preparedness tips, is flash flood warnings and alerts. And we saw how critical those were to saving lives throughout the affected area from those flash floods that were so devastating.

CAMEROTA: OK, Readiness.gov and get the app for those flash flood warnings.

Thank you, David, very much, David Bibo. We really appreciate the updates.

BIBO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, in Pennsylvania, flooding has paralyzed parts of that state. A major expressway and Philadelphia is still closed because of high water.

At least four people were killed in that state. And crews have rescued thousands of people.

So, CNN's Pete Muntean is live in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

So, what are you seeing there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, the toll here in Montgomery County to the northwest of Philadelphia is really unimaginable.

The county officials now tell us 467 calls for water rescues on Wednesday night alone, the previous record, only 150, 3, 100 people without power, not to mention the EF-2 tornado that came barreling through Upper Dublin Township here.

In fact, this was the roof of the township building that's behind me. It was peeled off like a tuna can. Then the twister kept barreling towards the high school across the street. It peeled the roof off of the pool there. They had a series of dumpsters. One of those dumpsters has now completely disappeared.

The fire chief here tells me they got about four minutes' warning for all of this. And now the landscape of the town has changed forever.

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ANDREW RATHFON, FORT WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA, FIRE CHIEF: But, as for the damage, I think the hardest part for me going through all this is seeing the neighborhood that I grew up in just completely changed. I mean, the landscape of our community is completely different. And that's -- it's hard to deal with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now you mentioned on the way in the Vine Street Expressway in Center City, Philadelphia. That is a vital thoroughfare for Philadelphia. And it remains closed, according to PennDOT.

They are doing this massive pumping operation to try and get the water there into the Schuylkill River and to clear that road. But the big issue now will be the debris that is left on the bottom and then inspecting the road bed before that road can be reopened again.

Another rush hour on the way here. It is going to be a big problem in Philadelphia and there are many big problems region-wide.

BLACKWELL: All right, Pete Muntean for us there.

Pete, thank you very much.

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Now, Ida's powerful winds and massive destruction path is urging us, of course, to examine how climate change is fueling these superstorms and fears that this could be a preview of more extreme weather to come.

Jay Inslee is the Democratic governor of the state of Washington.

Governor, thank you for being with us.

Listen, you have been a climate change governor, ran as the climate change candidate for president in 2020. Have we passed the point of no return.

All of the slow, stop, recycle, reuse, reimagine urging, is that too late now for us to stop this trend?

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): No. We know the pain and the agony people are suffering today. We feel that from the hurricanes in Louisiana, to the flooding in New York, to the fires in California and in my state.

We feel that. And that can lead to some sense of despair. It's human to feel that way. But we have to rally ourselves with a sense of confidence, frankly, and hope and optimism that we can stop these -- onslaught of these fires and flood by adopting a clean energy economy that we have the capability of building.

Thank goodness we have the means of stopping this horrendous beast who is swallowing every community in the state of Washington or the United States. That means cleaner cars. That means a cleaner electrical grid. It means more efficiency. We have these things at our disposal.

So, at this moment when we are feeling the pain for the folks who are in such heat and agony right now, we ought to couple this with a sense of determination and resolution and hope that we can stop this beast from swallowing us hole.

Now, we are going to suffer some of the pangs of our past failure to act in the last few decades, no question about that.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

INSLEE: But this should not deter us from passing the reconciliation bill now pending in Congress, so we can have a clean electrical grid and get on top of this monster.

BLACKWELL: So let's talk about that.

You are one of 10 governors who signed this letter to the administration saying that not only the reconciliation bill, but the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well, they both have to be passed, they are vital to stopping what we're seeing.

I wonder what your reaction then is to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin saying we need to put a pause on rushing, as he says, that amount of money through to handle many other things, but also some of the initiatives you're talking about?

INSLEE: Well, I would ask him, does he think the floodwaters coming down through the subway system of New York somehow would be abated by the Senate deciding to take a pause, or the fires that are threatening my friends' homes as we speak in California in Washington state?

Those fires don't respect the Senate's desire for pause. We just simply don't have time. We have squandered decades in this regard. This is our last chance. And so I think that the Senate needs to act, I believe will, because the nation now understands there is no neighborhood, there is no family that is not threatened by this -- looming disasters, in some sense, anywhere in the United States.

So we're hopeful that the Senate will move with dispatch relative to their normal operations, because we don't have any other choice. Mother Nature will not take -- give us a pass, or a get-out-of-jail card or a delay. And you cannot overstate the urgency of this moment.

By the way, it is our last chance both ecologically and politically. It is the moment where we are aligned with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. We have a president who has expressed a very realistic vision, not only to defeat climate change, but to put millions of Americans to work.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

INSLEE: So this is one of those magic moments where the urgency of the situation is matched by the ability to move the ball.

So I'm hopeful that all senators will bear down here.

BLACKWELL: Governor, let me ask you one more thing. There's this new EPA analysis out that shows that black people in this country are 40 percent more likely to live in places where extreme temperatures will cause more death, that Latinx Americans will lose more work than their white counterparts, that Native Americans and Native Alaskans are more likely to succumb to floods.

An important element of this letter you sent to the administration is where the investment of the benefits of this new climate strategy are invested. Tell me where and why.

INSLEE: Well, we need to realize the inequities of climate change for exactly the reason that you have put out.

And there's no secret that the people who are swallowing most of the pollution on a per capita basis are people of low income living next to the toxic waste dumps and the polluting industries and our freeways.

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They have a vastly disproportionate death rate because of air pollution caused not just climate change, but air pollution from the particulate matters coming off burning fossil fuels from our smokestacks and our tailpipes.

So it only stands to reason that we would vector in a great intense effort to protect these people with where our investments need to make to move forward. We have done this in our state. We would commend our state's cap and invest bill, which really is the best environmental justice measures in the United States.

We need to embrace those, and, fortunately, the proposal to do that are now pending in the Senate. So this is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to do. It is the necessary thing to do, but we need the Senate to act.

BLACKWELL: All right, Governor of Washington Jay Inslee, thank you, sir.

INSLEE: Be well. Get vaccinated.

CAMEROTA: All right, we will continue to follow the latest from President Biden's visit to Louisiana, where nearly a million customers are facing day five without power and excruciating heat.

BLACKWELL: And a complex challenge for Democrats. What can they do at a federal level, if anything, to counteract Texas' new abortion law?

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CAMEROTA: Today, President Biden spoke out about that restrictive abortion law in Texas that outlaws virtually all abortions.

The president specifically went after the sue thy neighbor feature of the law that allows anyone in the U.S. to sue someone who helps a woman seeking an abortion, even a friend, even an Uber driver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The most pernicious thing about the Texas law, it sort of creates a vigilante system. It just seems -- I know this sounds ridiculous -- almost un-American.

And I must tell you, I am not certain. I was told that there are possibilities within the existing law to have the Justice Department look and see whether are there things that can be done that can limit the independent action of individuals in enforcing a federal system -- a state law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, after the Supreme Court failed to intervene this week, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington tweeted about her own personal story.

She says -- quote -- "For me, terminating my pregnancy was not an easy choice. But it was my choice. And that is what we must preserve for every pregnant person throughout Texas and across America."

And Congresswoman Jayapal me now.

Congresswoman, great to see you, as always.

And I do want to get to your very personal story that you have shared in a moment. But, first, let's just talk about what President Biden said there. He thinks that somehow the Justice Department might be able to do something about this draconian law. But do you know what he's talking about, since he didn't sound quite sure of what the Justice Department could do?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Alisyn, it's great to be with you.

And I think that they are looking for every possible avenue. I don't think that they have determined exactly what that avenue is. But criminalizing people who assist somebody who is trying to get an abortion makes no sense at all.

And so I think they're looking at the boundaries around what can happen there. You might remember, almost 10 years ago, there was an attempt to do the same with criminalizing people who helped undocumented immigrants in this country. The Catholic Church at that time rose up against that, and so did many, many people.

There was a nationwide movement against that. I don't think that this is something that can stand. But we have to look at the judicial ways -- or not the judicial ways, but the administrative ways in which that can be challenged.

At the same time, Congress has to immediately act to codify a pregnant person's right to make choices and to have an abortion. And that is what the Women's Health Protection Act is, which I'm a very proud original co-sponsor of...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

JAYAPAL: ... and that the speaker has said that we're going to vote on in the House. That's what we need to focus on passing immediately.

CAMEROTA: I do want to ask you about that, because, if you can't get relief from the Supreme Court, and there are a slew of states that are passing restrictive bills -- I mean, Texas is the most, as we have said, draconian one, but it's happening in a lot of places.

But, I mean -- and I know that you're saying it's time for Congress to act, but in terms of the Women's Health Protection Act, what makes you think there's an appetite in this divided Congress to protect doctors and women on this?

JAYAPAL: Well, I believe we're going to pass it through the House. But the challenge, of course, is always the Senate and the filibuster.

And I just have to say, I mean, women make up over half of our country, and one in four women across the United States has had an abortion. So this is not something that is a distant issue. And it crosses all party ideological lines. Independents, Republicans and Democrats support having safe and legal abortions available to pregnant people.

This is critically important, because it's not like, Alisyn, when -- that in Texas abortions are suddenly going to stop. What's going to happen is they're going to continue, but they're going to be unsafe, they're going to bleed to death. And, of course, particularly women of color and poor women will be most affected.

So it's the urgency. And we're going to have to get the Senate to understand that keeping in place this filibuster with no reforms and affecting constitutional protections for women and, of course, for voting rights, which is something we have been talking about for a long time, is not acceptable anymore.

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CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, as you -- well, I don't know if you point out, but, as the research suggests, restrictive abortion laws don't cut down on unwanted pregnancies.

And so where does that leave women in Texas and beyond? I mean, again, I want -- I do want to get to your personal story just for a moment, because you ended up having to terminate, deciding, I should say, to terminate your pregnancy. And you wanted another child.

JAYAPAL: I did.

CAMEROTA: I mean, you personify the complicated reasons that go into a family and a woman's decision.

And so the idea that -- particularly in Texas, where they have made such a point of how can the government interfere in our health choices in terms of mask-wearing and vaccinations, but for 50 percent of the population, sure, go right ahead and interfere with their family decisions.

JAYAPAL: This is so -- I mean, it's personal to me. It's personal to millions of women across the country.

And I had never talked about my abortion prior to a couple of years ago. The only reason I did was because these restrictive laws were starting to come out across the country. And I felt like I had to give voice to the nuances that are involved when we as pregnant people make decisions about whether or not we can have a child, the medical complications, but just the freedom of choice, because whatever choice we make, Alisyn, we are the only ones that have to live with the consequences of that decision.

And it does not affect anybody outside of me and my loved ones, my family, the people that I choose to bring into that decision. And so while it was hard for me, it may not be a difficult choice for every single pregnant person, but it is their choice, and they have to live with the consequences.

So, yes, we are not going to stop abortions from happening. That is not going to happen. What's going to happen is backroom abortions with dangerous, dangerous consequences, including death for millions of pregnant people across this country. That cannot happen.

And, look, we have fought for so long. We, as women, have fought for this for so long. We thought we were making progress. And now the Supreme Court's action or inaction is absolutely unacceptable. But it puts the pressure back on Congress. We can't shy away from this anymore. We need to pass this.

The Senate needs to pass this and we need to protect this right for pregnant people across the country.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thank you for the candid conversation.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Could the public finally see secret documents related to the investigation of the 9/11 attacks?

We will tell you about President Biden's new executive order and what could be declassified next.

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