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Federal Judge Blocks HHS Guidance; Francis Rooney is Interviewed about Florida; Joe Moody is Interviewed about Pete Arredondo; Heavy Rain in Parts of Southeastern U.S. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 24, 2022 - 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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[09:30:29]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, a significant ruling involving access to emergency abortion services. We're seeing a lot of rulings like this. A federal judge in Texas has blocked guidance from the Biden administration, which gave protection to doctors who offer abortion services specifically in life threatening situations for mothers.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Our senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera is following this story.

Ed, can you - I mean this is a federal judge, so it could have significant nationwide implications here. Can you explain who this impacts and what happens now legally?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer, overturning the rights to abortion in the United States, the Biden administration ruled -- sent out guidance to the Department of Health and Human Services that it would require medical providers across the country to provide abortion services in life threatening -- in medical emergency situations. They said that this guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services would essentially supersede any state law banning abortion or trying to restrict access to abortion.

A federal judge this morning is -- in the state of Texas suit, I should point out, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, and that was -- happened back in early July. And now this federal judge is saying that as this lawsuit is making its way through the courts, that what essentially has happened, that this guidance coming from the Department of Health and Human Services has to be halted.

So, this is a victory for Republicans here in the state of Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton. And, you know, obviously, we have not heard from the Department of Health and Human Services exactly how they're going to react to this. This was one of the few things the Biden administration felt it could do or was trying to do in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion earlier this summer.

SCIUTTO: And we should note, this related specifically to cases where there was a threat to the mother's life.

Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for keeping on top of it.

Well, abortion rights are top of mind for many candidates as we head into the midterm elections. We've certainly seen that in the primaries. And this includes Florida, where congressman and former governor, former Republican Governor Charlie Crist won the Democratic primary and will face off with the incumbent Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in November. This morning, Crist told CNN that abortion rights could prove to be a major factor this fall, even in Republican states around the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHARLIE CRIST (D), FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Did you see Kansas? What happened - Kansas. That's like Mississippi or Alabama. Florida's a lot different than that. We're a lot more moderate than that. We're a third Republican, a third Democrat, a third independent. Kansas is not. And you see what women in that state did. I've already, as the governor of this great state of Florida, vetoed an anti- abortion bill. I mean, you know, my distinction from him on this issue is crystal clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining me now to discuss is former Republican congressman from Florida, Francis Rooney.

Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

FRANCIS ROONEY (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM FLORIDA: Thanks for having me on.

SCIUTTO: So, you heard Crist there say that abortion will drive the vote in the fall, not just in Florida, but perhaps elsewhere around the country. And I wonder, in your view, is he right?

ROONEY: I think he makes a point. I think it's kind of inevitable that there will be a lot more Democratic voters giving the momentum that the issue has. And what we saw in Kansas may be a canary in the coal mine for that.

SCIUTTO: Now, this is an interesting race here in Florida, as are, frankly, all Florida races these days. But Crist was himself a Republican governor a number of years ago. Now he's the Democratic nominee for governor.

That said, DeSantis is very popular in his home state. And, by the way, popular among Republicans around the country. Is he at all vulnerable in the fall?

ROONEY: I don't think Ron is vulnerable at all. But I have been wrong before. I think it would be really hard for Crist to beat him. When you get out of the Democratic primary, you get into a whole different league in Florida. One third Democrat, one third Republican, one third no political affiliation, but more of them are Republican than not. And I think Ron resonates with a lot of people. Even Hispanics have been paying attention to him and he got a pretty high percentage of them.

SCIUTTO: Now, one part of his strategy, frankly, central to it, is social issues, DeSantis diving into many of the cultural issues driving the news here from LGBTQ rights to Covid protocols and reaction to that, to books, to schools.

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You and I were speaking in the break about how he's been endorsing school board candidates and winning a lot of those races. This is -- you could argue, this is a very Trumpian model here.

Is that a winning strategy for him in Florida and for Republicans nationally?

ROONEY: Well, I think that Governor Youngkin started that movement when he defended those mothers in Loudon County, and now it's gone national. And we could debate the merits or how far it should go or this or that, but the principles of parent involvement in education has kind of become a national issue. And Ron's picked it up in Florida.

I noticed this morning that every one of our county school board races in (INAUDIBLE), where I live, the incumbent lost really badly to very conservative challengers. Evidently Sarasota's the same way.

SCIUTTO: As you know, DeSantis' aspirations may lie far beyond the borders of your home state of Florida. Do you believe DeSantis would challenge Trump for the Republican nomination if Trump does indeed run?

ROONEY: Well, that's a hard one to call, you know. He might. If Trump gets weakened enough, I think the midterms are going to be a referendum on Trump. If he looks bloodied and weak, he could have several people challenge him.

SCIUTTO: Other issue, of course, that is central to this race beyond the cultural issue, it has become something of a litmus test, frankly, for Republican candidates around the country, that is either straight up saying that 2020 -- the 2020 presidential election was stolen or at least not saying that Biden is the legitimate candidate. And, by the way, DeSantis himself has been somewhat on the fence in the way he answers those questions there. Has that become a lasting litmus test for your party?

ROONEY: Well, it certainly has been in the primary. What we've seen in the primaries so far around the country is Trump's endorsement and the stop the steal business has some traction among very hard core conservative primary candidates. But that has nothing to do with winning a general election. And I think most Americans realize the fraud that's been perpetrated on America by the stop the steal effort.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see how -- and that's a good point and we'll see how that plays out in the - in the general election in the fall. Of course, other big race in your state. This is for the Senate seat

currently held by Republican Marco Rubio. Val Demings has won. CNN predicts she's won the Democratic nomination by a wide margin. She's centering her campaign around abortion access. Rubio is striking back by -- on her record on law enforcement.

Where do you see that Senate race going?

ROONEY: Well, I think that Val may have a better chance than Charlie Crist because of her very strong record in law enforcement. And, you know, fairly moderate track record. And she's a smart person. I really had a lot of respect for her in the House, and still do.

On the other hand, it will be hard for her to get much above 45 percent the way Florida is configured and Marco Rubio has got very high name ID as well.

SCIUTTO: No question, nationally and in his state.

Francis Rooney, always good to have you on. Thanks so much for joining.

ROONEY: Thank you very much.

HARLOW: Really good to have his perspective.

Well, ahead for us, starting a new school year just three months after the horrors that took place in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas. Up next, we will ask Texas State Representative Joe Moody what it will take for this community to regain trust in the safety of their schools and law enforcement.

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[09:43:22]

SCIUTTO: Tonight, the Uvalde school board will meet to discuss whether to fire School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo. Arredondo, you'll remember, has faced heavy criticism for the police response to the May 24th shooting as commander on the scene. That shooting claimed the lives of 19 children and two of their teachers. The superintendent said earlier this month that a search for an interim school police chief has already begun.

HARLOW: Let's bring in Democratic Texas State Representative Joe Moody. He is the vice chair of the state house's bipartisan investigative committee, formerly served as a prosecutor in the El Paso County District Attorney's Office.

Thank you very much for being with us this morning. Obviously, you guys have been doing incredibly difficult but very important work on this investigation, trying to get the answers that these families deserve.

So, let's just begin with Chief Arredondo. I mean do you think that he should keep his job? JOE MOODY (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Look, there are findings we made in

the report that a plan was developed in an active shooter - or active shooter situation. And we definitively said that that plan was not followed.

Chief Arredondo was supposed to be in charge of that effort. And there are certain jobs in the community requires and demands that you conduct yourself error free. And law enforcement is one of those.

So, I would anticipate that the district officials there are going to take the actions necessary based on the report that we made.

HARLOW: But do you - does it -- it sounds like you do not believe he should keep his job. Am I - am I understanding that correctly? Given all that you found?

MOODY: Look, I -- we cannot have - we cannot have the conduct that we had that day from a law enforcement official.

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We demand more of our law enforcement officials. That decision ultimately is up to the local school board. Our report was very clear that the plan they had in place was not followed. He should have been in control or ceded control. He did none of those things and we have to have accountability.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, because your report probing the shooting found a series of failures, by multiple law enforcement agencies. It described it as, quote, an overall lackadaisical approach by authorities on the scene. I wonder, is the singular focus on Arredondo too much? In other words, are there others who should lose their job? Was there blame to go around here?

MOODY: I think - I think that was part of the goal of the report was to, you know, to not fall into this attitude that if we fire one person, that we somehow solved the problem. There was a broader problem here.

I think it's natural for us to want to say, I want to point at one person, I want to point at one thing, because it helps us go to sleep at night. But if we -- if we close our eyes to the more systemic problems here, then we are going to continue to have these failures time and time again.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOODY: So that's why I think it's good that DPS has started their own internal investigation. Both the, you know, the Uvalde Police Department has done the same thing and I think the sheriff's department there has done the same thing, to start the process of understanding who did what and when, because there are hundreds of officers on the scene that day, but many of them never even set foot in that hallway. Some are there just to provide medical care.

So, the roles are different and the analysis for each one should be different as well.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: You know, all of us who are parents are getting ready to send our kids back to school for the fall. Some already have. In Uvalde, students go back to school September 6th. And, you know, I know they're going to different schools, not the one where the mass shooting was, but, you know, your report also found just errors in the school structure itself, really poor wi-fi, for example, that could, you know, really make communication more difficult, locking procedures, recurring problems with doors and locks.

Can you confidently say to parents across the district and outside where the kids will now go to school that those things won't happen at those schools, that they'll be safe?

MOODY: Well, I think everything is being done at the local level to give safety and security for the schools in Uvalde. And I think that's important for them. It's one of the main things they asked for us, from the state, was to ensure that they felt secure, they felt safe. We talked to the teachers who -- the teachers even in that hallway are prepared to go back to the classroom. Some of the - you know, some of the - probably the biggest heroes of that day were the teachers and they're ready to go back to the classroom. We owe it to them to make sure that that is safe and secure.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOODY: I know that we're doing everything we can do for Uvalde. I've gone back to El Paso and met with my superintendents because we have multiple districts in El Paso, to try and figure out where our gaps are, because it's important. Our family -- I took my kids back to school a couple weeks ago and I'm - you know, I'm doing the same thing as every other parent. I'm looking at the doors. I'm looking at the windows. I'm trying to understand what the gaps are. That's, you know, that's the world we live in, which is unfortunate, but we have to address it.

SCIUTTO: And those poor kids have to confront those images and those memories and those fears as well.

Texas State Representative Joe Moody, we really do appreciate having you on this morning.

MOODY: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: So, here's an update for you. A young survivor of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde is getting a new home thanks in part to some major league baseball players. Mayah Zamora spent 66 days in the hospital. She underwent 20 surgeries for gunshot wounds to her hands, arms, chest and back. And while she was there, also found out that the shooter lived just a few blocks away from her. So, she was scared to go home.

Well, Mayah's story was shared last night as she threw out the first pitch before the Houston Astros played the Minnesota Twins. Twin short stop Carlos Correa and the Correa family foundation stepped in to help secure funds to build Mayah and her family a new home. One she feels safe in.

Look at that, Jim. Pretty good news.

SCIUTTO: Nice pitch, too. A little silver lining too. Just such a heart-breaking story.

Well, days of rain with more in store for parts of the southeastern U.S., as we've been covering in recent days. We're tracking the risk of more flash flooding like we saw in Dallas and there in Mississippi. That's coming up.

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HARLOW: So, right now, people living in parts of the southeastern United States are bracing for potential flash flooding. As heavy rain rolls through from Texas all the way to Alabama, there is the potential for at least three inches of rain there.

SCIUTTO: This on top of rain that's already drenched this area over the last several days.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray, she's on the ground in Shreveport, Louisiana.

You know, Jennifer, we've been speaking to your colleagues in recent days. They described how like all this rain after drought conditions, you know, the ground just can't absorb the rain and that contributes to the flooding. So, I wonder what you're seeing where you are now.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're right, s lot of this rain is just running off. And, unfortunately, where we're going to see the biggest threat for today is where we've already seen a lot of rain. In some areas six to eight inches already.

Here in Shreveport, on Monday, had the wettest August day on record, 4.5 inches of rain after a very dry start to the summer. Some areas around here have received as much as nine inches of rain, though.

[09:55:02]

And I want to show you the weather maps because you can see those areas shaded in red. Those are the areas that have already received more than six inches of rain. And the areas especially in northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi, that's where the greatest threat is going to be today. This boundary (ph) has been stuck in the south since the weekend and the rain has not stopped.

You can see from the radar, we do have flash flood warnings in effect for areas in eastern Louisiana, central Mississippi. That is where the heaviest rain is coming down. And these showers just train over one another, basically meaning the rain goes over the same spots over and over for hours on end, and that's where we could see potentially two to three inches per hour in some of the heaviest rainfall areas.

So, the area shaded in red, that's where we do have the most potential for flooding with the excessive rainfall potential, flash flooding through Jackson, Mississippi, potentially today. Vicksburg is another area we're going to be watching closely where we could see an additional five inches of rain. And as mentioned earlier, Jim and Poppy, those are some of the areas that have already received up to six inches of rain. So you're easily looking at possibly ten to 12 inches when all of this is said and done. So, a huge concern today across the south.

HARLOW: Yes, just building on what we saw in Dallas.

Jennifer Gray, thanks very much for being there to you and your team.

Well, here in New York, voters delivered Democrats a win in a special election that had been favored for Republicans. Just ahead, a look at the issue that got voters to the polls and what it means for the midterms.

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