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Backlog at Port of Savannah; Pressure Grows as Supply Chain Woes Worsen; Attack in Norway Appears to be Terrorism; Attempted Hijacking of Afghan Evacuation Flight; Stores Forced to Close due to Shoplifting Rings. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired October 14, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:53]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, business leaders are putting pressure on the Biden administration to take more action to address the global supply chain crisis. The president announced the Port of Los Angeles will begin operating around the clock, said major companies such as Walmart, UPS and FedEx have promised to do the same.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: But still major retailers are warning product shortages and rising prices are likely to last through the holidays. The White House says there's only so much they can do at this point.

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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They're not the Postal Service or UPS or FedEx. We cannot guarantee. What we can do is use every lever at the federal government disposal to reduce delays, to ensure that we are addressing bottlenecks in the system.

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HILL: Joining us now, CNN's Amara Walker from the Port of Savannah, which is also facing a major backlog.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: And we hear so much about the West Coast. The East Coast also facing some tough moments.

What is the situation in Savannah, Amer -- Amara, sorry?

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No problem. Erica, I mean you're seeing the supply chain nightmare playing out here at the Port of Savannah, which is the third largest container port in the country after L.A., Long Beach and New York, New Jersey.

What we're seeing here is a major traffic jam of cargo ships, as well as a major backlog of supplies. If you just take a look at the view from our mass cam, you'll see this wall, this mountain of shipping containers stacked as high as you can see. We're talking about 70,000 to 80,000 of these steel boxes that have been sitting here every day waiting for somebody to pick them up to get to their final destination.

And we're told that this is a 50 percent increase in the number of shipping containers that the Port of Savannah is now dealing with. So why are we seeing this huge backlog?

Well, as you know, and as we've been reporting, there is this major shortage of truck drivers around the country, right? And also that's causing retailers to leave their containers here. And the Georgia Port Authority has been calling the retailers to remind them, look, your container has been sitting here for 12 days or weeks, actually, we're told. Hundreds have been sitting here for several weeks.

So what we're being told right now, what's happening is that there are seven vessels at the dock, in their berths, being unloaded. Most of these shipping containers take about 24 hours or so to be unloaded. That's not atypical.

What's atypical is the fact that there are 25 cargo ships in the queue right now, many of them could be waiting up to as long as five days, Erica and Jim.

HILL: It is amazing.

SCIUTTO: A lot of products waiting out there as well.

Amara Walker, thanks so much.

And joining us now to discuss the bigger issue, Derek Thompson. He's a staff writer for "The Atlantic."

And, Derrick, so there's Savannah. Let's look again at California and Long Beach. This is where 40 percent of containers come into the U.S. Of course, a lot of them coming across the Pacific from China.

And look at this jump here now. This is the number of ships at anchor in effect sitting out as they wait to come in and unload all their products. It is just a dramatic jump. It used to be like a 30-minute wait. Now some of them are there for many days.

[09:35:03]

How long does it take to break through that logjam? I mean if you start running ports 24/7, does it take days, does it take weeks, can you do it?

DEREK THOMPSON, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": This is going to take months.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

THOMPSON: We need to think about this as a problem that's not going to be resolved in the next few days, it's not going to be resolved by a few overnighters in Los Angeles or Long Beach. It's going to be resolved in months. And for that reason I think we should be prepared for the fact that

the holiday season is going to be a mess.

I don't think this is necessarily going to carry over into the second quarter of next year as bad as it is right now. There's a couple things that are clearly getting better. But this is a month's long crisis, I think, and we should look at it as such.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

HILL: So -- and there are so many elements to it. It's not just that it's going to take that long to get those ships unloaded. It's the trucking issue, as Amara just pointed out.

But with all the talk about the holidays and people understandably upset if they can't get the Christmas tree that they wanted or they can't get the gifts that they wanted, at the same time, we look at that versus necessities. Give us a sense of the impact this supply chain issue is having on basic necessities?

THOMPSON: Well, it's having an impact on just about everything right now. I mean when I go to Walgreens or I go to CVS, they're running out of all sorts of drugs and products that I certainly consider necessities in my household and I'm sure that there are lots of people who are watching that have also found this experience, that they go out for like a one hour errand and it turns into like a three hour shopping odyssey because they have to go to three different places to find the things that they typically found at one.

This is hitting essentials, but at the same time I think that it's important to point out that it is mostly hitting things like electronics and cars and the kind of things that we are buying from Vietnam and overseas that can be essential but sometimes are just the nice to haves.

SCIUTTO: So manufacturers around the world have boasted about they're just in time formula for years, right? I mean they have this global supply chain. It's tracked by satellites. It's computerized. They knew -- I mean a great stat to me was that, you know, even for these trips across the Pacific that take a number of weeks, they would get them into port within a half hour. You know, that requires a lot of, you know, just in time kind of management. And I wonder, are we exposing something weaknesses in that system here?

THOMPSON: The truth is that, yes, we are absolutely exposing weaknesses in the just in time model. There's no question about that.

At the same time, I think it's important to point out that when something happens that has never happened before, it means that that thing might not happen that exact same way again.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

THOMPSON: This might not be a new normal. It might be something that's truly extraordinary. And one of the reasons why it's extraordinary, we mentioned a lot of really important factors, the containers, the trucker shortage, the rail that's backed up.

But also look at consumer demand. If you look at the demand for hard goods, the kinds that tend to be shipped overseas, it has soared in the last three months. Americans are buying a lot more exercise equipment and televisions, cars. The demand for that stuff has gone berserk.

And that demand is going to come down as the stimulus checks are spent out. And as a result, we're going to see a relatively more normal demand curb going forward. And that is going to alleviate this as well.

So, yes, this has exposed problems that might be endemic to the supply chain system, but this is also still a very unusual crisis and we shouldn't expect it to last forever.

HILL: All right, but buckle up for the next few months.

Derek Thompson, appreciate it. Thank you.

THOMPSON: Yes.

HILL: Just ahead, a potential terror attack in Norway. Authorities say a man went on a killing spree with a bow and arrow. We have those details, next.

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[09:43:10]

HILL: Police are now calling a bow and arrow attack in Norway that left five people dead an act of terrorism. Officials say they had previously been in contact with the Danish man charged in the attack. They've been in contact over radicalization concerns. Now, the suspect has not been named yet. The charges, not yet announced.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now from London.

Salma, what else do we know about the attacker?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Jim and Erica, this is an absolutely horrific attack that has caught Norway in shock. The deadliest terror incident seen in a decade there. It occurred around 6:30 p.m. in the evening yesterday. This perpetrator was carrying a bow and arrow, shooting people with that arrow in an open place, in a marketplace. He was able to operate over a large area, police say, before he was captured.

Unfortunately, four people, four women and one man lost their lives. There are also two injuries. And you can imagine these horrific scenes again of arrows being blown over streets, seen in the sideway. It's left a community in shock.

Police say they are now treating it as a terror investigation. They are hoping that that investigation will reveal the motivation of the attacker. But here's what we know about him so far. He's a 37-year-old Danish national that was living in Norway. He had, as you said, been previously flagged by police for links to radicalization. We also understand he's a recent convert to Islam. So there's going to be questions there for authorities.

In the meanwhile, police have been given a very rare, temporary order to carry firearms. And there's hope that that could begin to calm tensions there.

Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: I'm sure they'll be asking as well, did he have ties to international Islamist groups.

Salma, thanks so much.

There are new details this morning on U.S. citizens who remain stranded in Afghanistan. The State Department says that most evacuation flights scheduled to leave this week have now been canceled.

[09:45:06]

In the email reviewed by CNN, the State Department is not yet saying why.

HILL: Which, of course, raises more questions than it answers.

At the same time, we're hearing a terrifying new account about one of the initial flights out of Afghanistan involving the attempted hijacking of a commercial airliner.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Oren Liebermann joins us now with more details.

What do we know about that incident, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Jim and Erica, we don't have too many details yet because this is so sensitive and all of it had to be approved by U.S. Central Command. But it speaks to the frenetic final days of the U.S. evacuation and withdraw from Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Duncan from the 23rd wing, which had airmen working in Afghanistan, wrote of those final days. And she said, as C- 17s were beginning to steadily arrive into Kabul's International Airport, there were five people flagged on one of the commercial flights that was going in and out of the airport at the time.

Take a look at this graphic. It will give you a better sense of what was happening here.

It was a commercial flight. We don't yet know on what exact date or for which airline. But according to this account, there was intel that flagged five people on board one of these commercial flights. The airmen went on board and removed these five people from there and they were, quote, handled. We don't yet know what exactly happened to them after that. These are some of the follow-on questions we have.

But she writes here, our team worked to get them clear of the NATO ramp, relocated to the north side away from friendly forces, then ultimately onto the south side where the situation was handled.

We have requested any more details that are available, but, again, that would have to be cleared by Central Command before it comes to us. So that might take some time.

But there is also another interesting part of the account. And that's when expeditionary rescue squadrons went to make sure that there were medical treatment facilities that would remain open. She writes this about those facilities and effective sniper fire that they faced.

One of our captains was on the rooftop taking effective sniper fire. Every enemy combatant was taking every opportunity to incite more chaos in what was already a chaotic event.

Again, that speaks to the frenetic situation that we saw in the video, in the accounts of what was happening at Kabul International Airport in the final days of the U.S. presence there.

SCIUTTO: So, Oren, to be clear, did these five individuals attempt to hijack that plane as it was taking off?

LIEBERMANN: That's what this account says. But we don't know -- it was before it was -- how it was on to the runway and taking off, that much seems clear from this account. But what happened to them, who they were, who was handling the investigation or what the intel was, don't know any of that yet at this point.

HILL: Interesting. Well, we know you'll do your best to keep digging.

Oren, appreciate it. Thank you.

Professional thieves targeting drugstores in San Francisco, stealing thousands of dollars' worth of goods, forcing some stores to shut down in response. We're live, next.

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HILL: A rash of thefts at Walgreens prompting the pharmacy giant to shut down a number of its locations in San Francisco. Five of its stores set to be closed due to ongoing retail crime.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's organized stuff on a remarkably big scale. This as the San Francisco Police Department has reported nearly 22,000 larceny theft cases since the beginning of this year. Year to date, that is up more than 7.5 percent.

What's behind it all? How are they doing it?

CNN correspondent Dan Simon has more.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Boxes and boxes of over- the-counter drugs. It looks like a warehouse distribution center for medicine. In reality, it's a warehouse full of stolen goods.

JASON BREWER, RETAIL INDUSTRY LEADERS ASSOCIATION: What you're looking at is not petty shoplifting. What you're looking at is an organized criminal ring.

SIMON: Law enforcement making this bust last year in San Mateo, California, just outside of San Francisco. These videos offering a glimpse inside the sophistication of organized shoplifting rigs, San Francisco an epicenter, so much so that Walgreens says it will soon be closing five of its stores here. That in addition to the 17 stores the retailer had previously shuttered in the past few years.

AHSHA SAFAI, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: This is a real blow to San Francisco. It's a blow to the merchants. It's a blow to our reputation as a city.

SIMON: It begins with something like this. A thief hurriedly grabbing items off store shelves. This viral video captured in June at a San Francisco Walgreens in plain view of a security guard. The store among those being shut down.

BREWER: You have street-levels thieves who are selling to boosters who are then selling to larger syndicates, who are building million-dollar businesses selling stolen product. It's not something that is limited to San Francisco. It's happening all over the country. San Francisco is a -- is a focal point now.

SIMON: Jason Brewer of the Retail Industry Leaders Association says the stolen goods then wind up being sold online.

BREWER: We've allowed criminal networks to create a business model selling stolen goods online. And that is what's put this problem on steroids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm really sad that the situation in San Francisco is driving businesses away.

SIMON: This Walgreens shopper deeply saddened to see her neighborhood store shut down but understands the decision.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If business is going to lose money, why should they stay open?

SIMON (on camera): So you don't blame Walgreens?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, why would I blame Walgreens? Business is to make money.

SIMON (voice over): San Francisco Police have added foot patrols to deter threats in known hot zones.

MAYOR LONDON BREED, SAN FRANCISCO: Our police department is working really hard to make sure that people are apprehended and held accountable for these crimes.

SIMON: And Mayor London Breed says criminals are only hurting people in their own neighborhoods.

BREED: When they do this, it impacts their family members, their grandmothers who can't get medicine at the pharmacies or can't get resources that they need to take care of their health and well-being.

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[09:55:12]

SIMON: And this is one of the Walgreens behind me that's going to be shuttered. Experts say the real key to attacking this problem is to try to prevent these stolen goods from appearing online in the first place.

Now, a bill is working its way through Congress that could potentially help in that regard. It's called the Informed Consumers Act. And it would require third-party merchants to be vetted by these online marketplaces.

But the bottom line here is, this is a very complicated issue and it's just so sad for these neighborhoods to lose their corner pharmacies.

Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: Dan Simon there. Thanks so much.

Today is a critical day in the investigation of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. How will lawmakers proceed now that at least two senior Trump aides are just straight up defying subpoenas? We're going to be live, next.

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