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Recovery Efforts Under Way after Devastation of Hurricane Ida Affects Gulf Coast and Northeast; Climatologist Interviewed on Steps Now Needed to Curb Negative Effects of Climate Change; White House May Delay Booster Shot for COVID-19 Vaccine or Restrict Booster Shot Only to Those Who Received Pfizer Vaccine; California Governor Gavin Newsom Faces Recall Election. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired September 04, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:04]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to the weekend. We are so glad to see you on this Saturday, September 4th. I'm Christi Paul.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Christi. I'm Boris Sanchez. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. And we begin this morning with a massive cleanup that's under way right now from the deadly remnants of hurricane Ida, and of course, the dire conditions that people still struggling to begin the recovery process are facing. The storm killed at least 50 people in the northeast. Hurricane Ida triggering flash flooding that washed away cars and homes.

PAUL: So that was in the north. In the south, Louisiana, at least 13 people have died because of that storm. More than 700,000 homes and businesses do not have electricity yet again this morning. And residents are waiting in these long lines, look at this. They just want to buy gas and food. President Biden says the federal government will do its part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's much to be done. We're working around the clock with the governor and the elected officials there until we can meet every need you all have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Our correspondents are covering this storm from the Gulf coast to the northeast. So let's begin there and bring in CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro. He joins us now live from Paterson, New Jersey. Evan, bring us up to speed on the conditions there now.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Christi, you both said it best. This is an ongoing emergency. Here in the northeast, we've seen reports of dry ice being delivered. People without power in Westchester County, New York. We have rescue operations still ongoing in Passaic, New Jersey. And here in Paterson, New Jersey, where the Passaic River is the lifeblood of this town, we're still dealing with what is actually flooding. The National Weather Service said the Passaic River floods at seven

feet. A few hours ago, they listed it at 9.3 feet. You can see I'm on a bridge, but it looks like I'm on a dock. And you can see, there's another bridge you can see over here that shows you just how high up this water is right now. This is affecting a lot of things in the area. The water advisory here, potable water advisory, you have got to boil the water. Obviously, once the water comes through, they have to assess the damage of things like the bridges. As you can see, life goes on. It's not like it was on Wednesday night. But just days later, it still is this. It's still flooding that they still have to deal with it. And we'll see just how long it will take to clean all this up and to get to the next phase. But right now, we're still in that first phase of ongoing crisis. Boris and Christi?

SANCHEZ: Evan McMorris-Santoro from New Jersey, thank you.

PAUL: Yes, the amount of water he is standing by this far after the storm, I think, is just so striking. Evan, that was great. Thank you so much for bringing us up to speed there.

We do need to get to the conditions in Louisiana, as well. Correspondent Adrienne Broaddus is with us from New Orleans. So, Adrienne, ray of hope, I understand, St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell today rescinded that mandatory evacuation order we know that was issued about a week ago. And that means people can start coming home, yes?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, if they choose to come home, they can. And I can tell you for some people, waiting in the long lines has led to frustration. And here at this gas station, one of the employees told us that he needs to be protected. So, he carries a gun with him, and it's visible. That's just another added layer of stress.

And I want to show you yesterday's paper. It reads, four nursing home evacuees die. That number is now five. And the state's attorney general has pledged a full investigation. Now, the papers are delayed a little bit because of COVID. So, you've got COVID and dealing with the storm aftermath. A lot of folks here are hurting.

Less than 10 miles from where we are right now, there was also a terrible situation. Police say a man was shot and killed, a man who was trying to get gasoline. And the suspect is still on the run this morning. Investigators are asking, if you know anything about that, to get in touch with police.

But we have seen a few signs of hope this morning. Take a look. There's utility trucks rolling through right now. And for the first time since we have been here, the lights in this uptown neighborhood are flashing. That means power in this community has been restored. Some parts of this community, we should say. I can see some lights on inside of the subway that's across the street. But still, more than 700,000 outages across the state. And because of that, some people told us small things make a big difference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) It means everything to me because I don't have any refrigeration, any power.

[10:05:01]

So, this is keeping the minimal things from going bad. I don't even need put my water or anything. I drink the water hot, but I need it for the food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will get through this. New Orleans is the most resilient community there is. This is bad, but we've seen bad before. We will get through this together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And that was Councilman Jay Banks you last heard from, who showed up with a truckload of ice. He says when he gets the truckloads of goods, he will go to the communities and pass them out. They were also giving away free ice at this gas station. And that is the type of kindness and happiness people are craving. Boris and Christi?

SANCHEZ: Adrienne Broaddus from New Orleans, thank you so much.

If you've been watching, Ida is just one severe weather event that has disrupted life across the country and across the world this year. In the western United States and Canada, heat waves have either created or worsened drought conditions, and that contributed to wildfire season starting early and lasting through this month. Right now, there are record-setting fires burning their way through California. Nearly 2 million acres have burned across the state. Keep in mind, six of California's seven biggest fires have happened since 2020 began.

Earlier this summer, Turkey, Germany, and China all experienced extreme rainfall events that led to devastating flooding. Experts say severe weather is becoming more extreme because of climate change.

Joining us now to discuss is climatologist Michael E. Mann. He's the author of the book "The New Climate War, The Fight to Take Back Our Planet." He's also the lead author of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report on Climate, which came out last month and spelled out some very dire predictions about the future.

Michael, thank you so much for joining us this morning and sharing your expertise. I know you've heard a number of prominent voices on certain media outlets that have mocked the connection that experts such as yourself have made between these extreme weather events and climate change. So, for those that are still skeptical about the effects of climate change, what's your message? How do we know that these fires and hurricanes are a result of a warming planet?

MICHAEL E. MANN, LEAD AUTHOR, U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT: Thanks, Boris. It's good to be with you. And the science here is very solid. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, which you mentioned, in their latest report really connected the dots in a way that previous reports hadn't. And in large part, it has to do with the level of sophistication of the science now where we can do what's known as detection and attribution. It is a fancy way of saying we can do sort of a before/after comparison with the climate models. We run the climate models without the increase in carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning, and we run the same models including that increase in car upon pollution. And we see how often a particular extreme event happens in both cases.

And in many of the cases that you're talking about, what we see is that the event is observed to have been astronomically unlikely without the additional warming from human activity. And in the models that include that, we find that these sorts of events are likely to happen. And here's the bad news. What we're seeing now, the models tell us, is baked in. That's what we're going to have to deal with now for years to come. It gets worse if we don't reduce carbon emissions dramatically in the years ahead.

SANCHEZ: So, Michael, you lay out the science, and it's clear that there is a backing for the arguments that you're making. Stepping aside from your expertise and your experience as a scientist, as a human being, it has to be incredibly frustrating for you to point this out and to be sounding the alarm for decades, and yet there doesn't seem to be the urgency among leadership that is required to meet the moment.

MANN: Yes. And there is a certain level of frustration in seeing your predictions come true. As a climate scientist, the worst thing that can happen is to watch our predictions come true, because decades ago, literally 30 years ago, the scientific community had already come to the conclusion that we could see the impact of human caused climate change, and it would get much worse if we didn't take action. And now, decades later, we're saying the same thing.

And now what we mean by action is a dramatically different thing. If we had acted decades ago, we could have brought our carbon emissions down fairly gently. We could have sort of gradually moved away from fossil fuels. Now in order to prevent a truly catastrophic warming of the planet of more than three degrees Fahrenheit, we have to bring our carbon emissions down by a factor of 50 percent within the next 10 years.

[10:10:10]

And that's going to require a monumental effort on our part. There's some signs of progress. The United States has made a very bold pledge to bring its carbon emissions down by that amount within the next 10 years. Other leaders from other countries are now coming to the table. The United States is leading again on this issue, and that's making a real difference. But there's still a gap between what countries are promising and the policies that they have in place, what we call an implementation gap. We're still building new fossil fuel infrastructure when the conservative International Energy Agency has told us that if we are to avert catastrophic warming of the planet, there can be no new fossil fuel infrastructure, no new pipelines, no new coal-fired power plants.

SANCHEZ: And, Michael, paint a picture for us of what the future looks like. If what we're seeing now is this category five hurricane that floods Louisiana and then winds up also flooding the northeast, when can we expect the three-degree shift that you were talking about?

MANN: If we warm the planet from than a degree-and-a-half Celsius or three degrees Fahrenheit, then we know these storms will become even more intense, even more damaging, because there is a pretty basic physical relationship. The energy that intensifies these storms and provides them with all this moisture that leads to the flooding rainfall that we've seen comes from the heat content of the ocean. And the heat content of the ocean this year was higher than any other year. That extra heat is fueling these stronger storms.

And this storm almost -- if it had had a little bit longer, it would have become a cat five storm. It would have land-falled as a category five storm. Here's the thing, we are going to need to define new categories. A category six storm. Storms with winds of 200 miles per hour or greater sustained, arguably, that's a category six storm. And we're already starting to see those.

SANCHEZ: Michael, there is intense debate on Capitol Hill, not just between Democrats and Republicans, but even within the Democratic Party, about the urgency with which to approach the issue of climate change. What's your message to lawmakers?

MANN: Yes. I would say there are a couple stragglers right now in the Democratic Party. In order to get real meaningful climate action, unfortunately Republicans are unwilling to act, Democrats are going to need to get that legislation through on a purely partisan basis. And that's going to mean all 50 Democrats voting for this reconciliation package that has meaningful climate action. The infrastructure bill itself right now is very skimpy when it comes to the central challenge we face, the climate crisis. But the reconciliation bill would provide a whole lot more funding for renewable energy. It would provide incentives in the form of what's known as a clean power portfolio standard, which would require utilities to meet up to 80 percent of their electricity generation from renewables alone within a decade or so.

So, we need real climate policy in the form of legislation that will codify some of the things that the administration is trying to do through executive actions. Executive actions by the Biden administration alone aren't going to be enough. We need climate legislation. And we need that infrastructure package to pass Congress with climate action intact.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And as we talk about the death toll from hurricane Ida, as we watch these fires along the west coast, and we think about just the damage that this is doing and the damage that it will continue doing in the future, given your warnings, I hope people heed your messages. Michael E. Mann, thank you so much for the time.

MANN: Thank you, sir.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

PAUL: Still ahead this hour, the White House may have to scale back its ambitious vaccine booster plan. We have new details on some confusing mixed messages. SANCHEZ: Plus, one week from today is the 20th anniversary of the

September 11th attack. So could the public finally see secret documents related to Saudi Arabia's role? We'll tell you about President Biden's new executive order ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:35]

PAUL: So, the White House may have to scale back its plans to roll out COVID-19 booster shots later this month, limiting the booster only to those who have actually received the Pfizer vaccine, specifically.

SANCHEZ: According to officials familiar with internal discussions, the FDA is concerned about overall approval of a third dose for all adults at this point. CNN's Athena Jones explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Confusion and possible scaling back of the White House's COVID-19 booster plan for September less than a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci said --

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: I would not at all be surprised that the adequate, full regimen for vaccination will likely be three doses.

JONES: As the Delta variant drives new COVID cases in the United States to nearly 170,000 a day on average, new data shows a third so- called booster dose of the COVID MRNA vaccine provides more protection against the virus.

FAUCI: There is no doubt from the dramatic data from the Israeli study that the boosts that are being now done there and contemplated here support very strongly the rational for such an approach.

JONES: In making the case for boosters, Fauci explaining Israeli data shows they reduce the risk of infection by 11-fold and of severe illness by 10-fold in more than 1 million people over the age of 60.

[10:20:04]

Another study showed the risk of infection fell to 68 percent seven to 13 days after a third dose, and by as much as 84 percent after 14 to 20 days. President Joe Biden announced in late August --

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This booster program is going to start here in September the 20th, pending approval of the FDA and the CDC committee, outside experts.

JONES: But federal health officials now warning the White House they may not have enough data on the Moderna vaccine by then to recommend boosters for anyone other than Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine recipients.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: You can't make an announcement and then say we'll wait to see what the FDA and CDC says. That's just really not the right way to do it.

JONES: The acting FDA commissioner explaining why the booster announcement was made before all the data came in.

DR. JANEY WOODCOCK, FDA ACTING COMMISSIONER: When it happens, we don't want to have a couple more months where we have to get ready and make a plan and then execute against the plan.

JONES: And Moderna announced Friday it finished submitting its data on booster doses to the FDA, so it's unclear if that data will be sufficient enough to allow the FDA to reach a decision as to whether to OK Moderna's vaccine boosters by September 20th.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PAUL: Athena, thank you. On Sunday, tomorrow, be sure to join Fareed Zakaria for a glimpse of the post-COVID-19 world. How can we work and learn and live after this pandemic? This FAREED ZAKARIA GPS special begins tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.

Senator Joe Manchin is getting some pushback from his own party after his comment about putting President Biden's budget package on pause.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:26:13]

SANCHEZ: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says the Constitution protects his phone records from being requested by Congress. He told California News Station KGET that the Supreme Court said so, though the congressman couldn't name the case. He's among the GOP lawmakers whose phone records are being sought by the committee investigating the Capitol Hill riot. This week, McCarthy said any telecom company that complies with the committee's request for records would be breaking the law. And he warned that, quote, a Republican majority will not forget.

CNN has asked McCarthy's office for the specific Supreme Court ruling that he's referring to in that interview. We've yet to receive a response.

PAUL: A new challenge for the strict Texas abortion law that took effect this week, a district judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, blocking them from suing abortion providers employed by Planned Parenthood. The law bans abortions starting as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue anyone aiding a pregnant person seeking an abortion. Travis County Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said if the medical providers were sued by the group, they would face, quote, probable, irreparable, and imminent injury. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for September 13th.

So only a week-and-a-half left until California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing this recall election. SANCHEZ: Yes, and today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is going to

campaign with Newsom at a rally in Los Angeles as the governor works to maintain support from key groups in the Democratic base. CNN's Kyung Lah has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Gary Montana's day as a maintenance technician is so jammed, he doesn't have time to care about the upcoming California recall election. A registered independent, he carries one overriding feeling about Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

GARY MONTANA, CALIFORNIA REGISTERED INDEPENDENT: It's just that lack of -- I don't think he really understood, like, the average person voted you in.

LAH: He's most upset about Newsom dining at an exclusive restaurant in the middle of the pandemic while he worked. It is the California's Latino communities where COVID's impact was felt the most. Everyone in Montana's family got COVID.

MONTANA: I just saw the lack of leadership, it feels like. That was, to me, like, OK, and that's when I thought we needed to recall the governor.

LAH: Latinos make up an estimated 30 percent of California's voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All roads to victory come September 14th are going to lead through every Latino neighborhood in the state of California. Am I right?

CROWD: Yes.

LAH: Key in whether Governor Newsom keeps his job.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Thanks for your help.

LAH: Why Democrats are blanketing Spanish language media with ads, as are the Republican challengers.

With less than two weeks to go to recall Election Day, the drive is getting the base out to vote. Progressives have been knocking on doors through the central Los Angeles neighborhood. While some say this --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you heard about the recall?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I have not.

LAH: And there is frustration over the governor's economic policies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're recalling Governor Newsom, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want him in there. LAH: Most we talked to in this predominantly Latino community say

they'll vote no on recalling Newsom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to vote no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most will say keep him in office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We could end up with something worse, something like Donald Trump.

NEWSOM: Thank you, California.

[10:30:01]

LAH: In 2018, 64 percent of Latinos voted for Newsom, part of a resounding victory, sending the Democrat to the governor's mansion. While the most recent recall poll shows Latinos support keeping Newsom, there are questions about whether those voters will even cast a ballot.

LUIS ALVARADO, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Sometimes we show up, and sometimes we just don't. It depends on what the issue is, and sometimes we're the ones that can change the whole paradigm. And sometimes we just don't show up and everybody wonders what happened.

LAH: One frustrated independent feel so disconnected, he's considering voting Republican.

MONTANA: Yes. I would rather see someone more in touch with the people.

LAH: Here's something important to note -- Montana and the other voters who met for this story, none of them had actually turned their ballots in yet. Governor Newsom will have some help trying to convince those voters along with other Democrat Democrats in the state to vote no with some help from national Democrats. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren both will be in the state this Labor Day weekend, standing beside the governor, hoping to rally the Democratic base.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PAUL: Really interesting story there from Kyung Lah. Thank you so much, Kyung.

So we want to turn to Capitol Hill right now. President Biden is trying to move his agenda forward after what has been a really tough week. There could be a new roadblock now, too. And this is not a Republican roadblock. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin signaling he could threaten the razor thin Democratic majority on the $3.5 trillion spending bill.

CNN's Daniella Diaz has more. And Daniella, Manchin putting out an op- ed in "The Wall Street Journal" this week, outlining that he believes Democrats have to hit the pause button on this reconciliation bill.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's exactly right, Boris. Look, Senator Joe Manchin, this moderate Democrat from West Virginia, is making a mess of this timeline that Democratic leaders have laid out for passing both of these infrastructure bills, the sweeping $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that would expand the social safety net of the country, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed already through the Senate.

And there is a reason why. But first, on Joe Manchin, he is a key swing vote in the Senate, and he is threatening to not support the $3.5 trillion package. He is asking for a pause on this because he says that he's worried about the pay-fors and price tag for this. He wrote an op-ed, a pause is warranted because it will provide more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic, and it will allow us to determine whether inflation is transitory or not.

The bigger picture here is his lack of support for this legislation could really throw a wrench in its passage because budget reconciliation means, which is how this bill would be passed, every single Democratic senator needs to get behind this legislation for it to pass in a simple majority. So Democratic leaders cannot afford to lose his vote.

The bigger problem here is that it's affecting the house. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised moderates a vote on the Senate passed bipartisan infrastructure package by the end of the month, by September 21st, excuse me, September 27th. But if that bill is not on the floor before the larger reconciliation bill passes through the Senate, which can't happen until Manchin supports it, then progressive in the House have threatened to withhold their vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

So as a result, he's really affecting both these bills, which is why Democratic leaders are now worried that he -- since he's not supporting this. So the bottom line here is, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are really going to have to navigate these relationships with moderates and progressives in the party to be able to pass both of these bills.

And progressives have already begun to speak out against Manchin's stand on this. One in particular, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez tweeted that she was upset with Manchin because of his coziness with the fossil fuel industry. Keep in mind that this bill that he's not supporting would have funding to combat climate change. It would expand the child tax credit. It would have paid family and medical leave. So these are big reasons why progressives are angry at Joe Manchin, and Democratic leaders now have to scramble to figure this out. Christi, Boris?

SANCHEZ: And we are expecting fireworks this month on Capitol Hill. Daniella Diaz, we appreciate you following that for us. Thank you.

Coming up, new developments in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. A former prosecutor now facing criminal charges. We'll bring you the latest details in that case.

PAUL: Also, be sure to tune in Monday to the premiere of the new CNN film "LFG," which chronicles the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's fight for equal pay. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lawsuit is something that no professional athlete would ever want to have. It's so much work, it takes you away from your sport, it's very stressful.

[10:35:01]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the same sentiment that has been happening for years and years, decades and decades, through many different negotiations. Something needs to just completely collapse and crumble, and we need to just build it up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in camp a lot, but then there's times when we're in completely different time zones, states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's great, guys. Thank you very much for doing this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of phone calls, a lot of text messages, a lot of emails.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Strategizing and keeping everyone on the same page.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carlos was the only one that has his eyes on that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Discriminated peoples do not have the luxury of --around, frankly. So it's our players that are having to form what the lawsuit is, figuring out all of the inequalities over the year, trying to go through our contract, going through the other contracts. It's hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of our time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:30]

PAUL: So a grand jury in Georgia has indicted a former district attorney on charges related to the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. Remember, Arbery was killed while jogging near Brunswick, Georgia, back in February of 2020. Police say he was chased down by three men and fatally shot. Jackie Johnson is accused of protecting those men that are now charged with murder. In an indictment, officials said Johnson showed, quote, favor and affection to Greg McMichael and prevented officers from arresting Travis McMichael, his son. Greg McMichael had worked for Johnson apparently as an investigator. Former U.S. attorney for the district of Georgia, Michael Moore, with us now. Michael, it is so good to see you. Listen, you reviewed this case with "The New York Times" shortly after Arbery's death. So I'm wondering what your reaction is to this indictment. MICHAEL MOORE, PARTNER, MOORE HALL: It's good to see you, too,

Christi. Thanks for having me on. This case to me was a pretty clear case of just classic vigilante justice. And so I'm not surprised at all to hear about the indictment. Jackie Johnson has other things facing her. She may, in fact, wind up somehow in the federal cases that's going on against these defendants.

But it was pretty clear just at the initial part of the case that she shouldn't have touched this investigation with a 10-foot pole. She had the prime suspect, or one of the three suspects that had been working for her. Then she sent the case, or asked for help from Mr. Barnhill, another district attorney, and his son was working for her. She didn't tell the attorney general that she was doing that, or that she had had that contact when she then suggested that he be appointed to replace her in the investigation at the end of the day. So it is a pretty clear case of favoritism and cover-up and just sort of backwoods, home cooking, protecting a friend of hers. So I'm not surprised by the indictment at all.

PAUL: Let's remember that McMichael told police they thought Arbery was burglar, that Travis McMichael shot him in self-defense. This is what you wrote - you wrote about this. You said, "does not allow a group of people to form an armed posse and chase down an unarmed person whom they believe might have possibly been the perpetrator of a past crime." How hard do you think it will be to prove that the McMichael were aggressors?

MOORE: I think you could probably show -- if you were the prosecutor in this case, you could probably show the video tape and then just sit down. You cannot watch that tape and see anything other than the McMichaels chasing Mr. Arbery like he is some kind of animal on down the street, brandishing their gun, riding in the back of a pickup truck. The younger McMichael jumps up and runs up with a shot gun.

And then incredibly, the district attorney looked at this case, said that somehow that was self-defense against Mr. Arbery. It was absolute nonsense. A first year criminal law student, having not read the book, could see this was not self-defense. And so there was absolutely no justification in the delay to make an arrest. You could watch the tape, and I think that tells the whole story here. The tape is worth more than 1,000 words.

PAUL: I want to play some of what Ahmaud's father had to say at a press conference yesterday. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCUS ARBERY, AHMAUD ARBERY'S FATHER: So grateful, because everybody that had their hand on his death needs to be brought to justice, because the way he died, it's just really devastating to my family. I'm still struggling with it every day as a father because it's my job to protect my children. God knows I do that. I'm still hurt because all I have is pictures to look at him, and every morning I get up and I look at his pictures. I'm saddened by it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: Also, Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said yesterday she believes Johnson should serve jail time. What is the likelihood of that, do you think, based on what you know thus far?

MOORE: I think it may be likely. I think this is often the kind of case where the cover-up or attempted cover-up is something that the judge would take seriously. And I feel for the family. Again, I looked at this case early on in trying to help uncover things and look at it from an objective standpoint. And I see no way around a conviction in the case. And certainly a conviction -- if the allegations of the indictment -- again, it's an indictment, point that out, are true.

Let me remind you, too, that the attorney general of this state, he and I may not see eye to eye on politics on many things, but we do see eye to eye on that, and that is that we uphold our public officials to their oaths.

[10:45:07]

And it is clear here in the indictment that was presented that he felt like she violated her oath. And the director of the GBI, he investigated this case, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing here but a clear homicide. So the whole thing is tragic. It makes me sick to my stomach to watch the tape, and just as sick to think that somehow there were people in elected positions who were protecting friends and family from facing the justice for the murder that they committed.

PAUL: Michael Moore, we'll continue to see where this goes. Thank you so much. As I said, good to see you.

MOORE: It's good to see you. Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, they were just second graders who witnessed a moment that changed the world. So where are they now? A new CNN special report on the classroom that President Bush was in when he learned terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11. A preview next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:32]

SANCHEZ: For 16 second graders at Emma Booker Elementary School, September 11th, 2001, didn't start like any other day. The president of the United States had come to visit, and he was there to highlight their progress with reading.

PAUL: CNN's Victor Blackwell sat down with the teacher and the students in that very classroom where President George W. Bush got word that the country was under attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: What do you do in that moment? SANDRA "KAY" DANIELS, FORMER TEACHER, EMMA E. BOOKER ELEMENTARY

SCHOOL: I cry. I pray. And I ask why, why and how? I really needed a moment.

LENARD RIVERS, STUDENT, EMMA E. BOOKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: We never really see her cry. It's like something definitely impacted her more than what we know what was going on. It was deeper than what we'd seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew Ms. Daniels as loving and caring. It's a really different take from our teachers. It is kind of jarring. We've never seen her like this.

BLACKWELL: How long was your moment?

DANIELS: It could have been two minutes. It could have been three minutes. I knew I had to get back to my kids.

BLACKWELL: OK.

DANIELS: So I didn't want them to think that they had done something wrong, so I had to let them know it was not their fault.

CHANTAL GUERRERO-JONES, STUDENT, EMMA E. BOOKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Something in the way that you presented it to us allowed me to understand that the human side of it, that I am not the most important person right now. He's got something he has to do. People are hurting. He has to leave, and that's OK. And it's not our fault.

DINASTY BROWN, STUDENT, EMMA E. BOOKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: And I think after that, that's when they cut on the TV for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those Americans who are looking at these horrific pictures.

BROWN: And then it all came together. I grasped how serious it was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think myself and maybe other students thought it was like a movie or something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It didn't look real.

BLACKWELL: The TV was here. You took them to a different room?

DANIELS: The monitor that President Bush had was in his office next door. Their memory of it might fluctuate a little. After I came out of the room, I told them what happened. The pictures and the images that they saw, they might have seen them when the door was open. But the TV never came in here. I was very careful about how much I exposed them to and what I said to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the first day I learned word of "terrorists," too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. BLACKWELL: This is the story that so few people have heard, in part

because they've never all been together to tell this story. Those are the students, while they're 27 years old now, and their teacher, Ms. Daniels, who were with President Bush on that morning at Emma E. Booker in Sarasota.

This president was coming. This started as a day that was one to celebrate. The president was coming to congratulate them for improving their reading scores. They were waiting for someone. They had never seen a president in person, obviously. One little girl put her hand over her heart. Chantal, she thought about him much like the flag in pledging allegiance. Another boy talked about he expected a king to walk in.

When he walked in, they say that President Bush was warm. They read a book, "The Pet Goat," that they all remember the title to, the title of. And then Andy Card walked in and whispered 11 words into the president's ear, "A second plane has hit the second tower, America is under attack." And Mrs. Daniels says the president left her, that he was sitting there, but he was somewhere else. And then he came back, and then he got up and walked away.

And she had to decide in the moment what to tell her babies, as she called them, about that moment. She wanted to make sure they knew it was not their fault. Twenty years later, they had the context of time to understand their place in this historic day. They don't really like to talk about it often because they know that so many other people lost something that day. They don't want the notoriety, but they know that they have to be part of the history of that day to share that perspective.

And you're going to learn how they believe it has impacted their lives. Some have gone off into criminal justice. One of the former students came straight to New York after school in Sarasota. And some have had some challenges. But this is the story that you have not heard over the last 20 years, the perspective of those then boys and girls who were with the president on the day this country was attacked. Sunday night, 10:00 eastern, "Front Row to History, The 9/11 Classroom."

(END VIDEO TAPE)

[10:55:08]

PAUL: It is fascinating, isn't it? Be sure to watch CNN's special report, as Victor said there, "Front Row to History, The 9/11 Classroom," tomorrow, 10:00 p.m. eastern, only here on CNN. We're really looking forward to hearing from them.

Thank you so much for watching. We hope that you make good memories today.

SANCHEZ: Thank you so much for joining us. Fredricka Whitfield picks up our coverage after a short break.

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