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DHS Secretary: Abbott's Efforts to Bus Migrants Out of Texas is Throwing Federal Systems Out of Whack; Stocks Sink as Fed Chair Vows Forceful and Rapid Action on Inflation; Biden Sharpens Attacks on Trump, MAGA Republicans; Wolf Blitzer's New Holocaust Special. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 26, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

MARK LEVINE, MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT: And there is a program for that through FEMA. Texas was getting it and now we are entitled to it as well.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: So, just so I understand. Are you saying that the Texas governor is getting money from FEMA to house and feed and school these migrants, and he's, what, pocketing it, and not using it on these resources?

LEVINE: While the migrants were being housed in Texas, they were getting the FEMA money for emergency food and housing assistance. New York City should be entitled for that as a reimbursement. I know there are discussions right now between city hall and the White House. I expect that will come. But we need more. We need help for legal assistance, for immigrants going through the asylum process. This is a big operation. New York City is up for it. We are doing this. I am so proud at how we're reacting, but there needs to be a national strategy for sure.

CAMEROTA: Do you understand why Governor Abbott believes the border states shouldn't have to absorb all of the migrants?

LEVINE: Well, New York City -- New York is of course a border state as well, a different border. I think there is a logic to distributing asylum seekers throughout the country, based on where there's capacity, where there's communities that are ready to accept them. But we don't have that right now. We have one hateful governor who's putting people on buses without clear consent from those individuals who might have family in other states. We have people who get off the bus in New York and tell us I have family in Florida. Why wasn't I sent there? This is not about their interests. It's about a good system. It's just about a political agenda by this governor.

CAMEROTA: Mark Levine, thank you so much for coming in.

LEVINE: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I really appreciate it.

LEVINE: Pleasure. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: The stocks are down sharply right now in

final minutes of trading. You see more than 870 points. The selloff follows Fed Chair Jerome Powell's warning that the central bank's fight against inflation will bring some pain -- his words there -- for households and businesses.

CAMEROTA: CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon is with us now. Rahel, what's going on.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn and Victor, yes, some pain for both investors, Wall Street and main street today. Take a look at the major averages, it is an ugly day to say the least. The Dow off more than 800 points. The S&P almost 3 percent, and the Nasdaq more than 3 percent.

Let's talk about how we got here, and the Fed's comments this morning. A very direct messaging, very clear messaging, and certainly very aggressive messaging in terms of what is to come, and that is higher interest rates as inflation not showing signs, according to the Fed yet, that would lead them to be convinced and confident that inflation is lowering. And so, we are very early in this path of lowering inflation, and so that means borrowing costs will continue to go up.

To put this in perspective, the last few months had actually been pretty quiet for the markets from mid-June to mid-August. The S&P actually rose 15 percent. Compare that to the first half of the year for stocks. It was rough. The worst performance for the S&P since about 1970, if I remember correctly.

What happened between that point and now is we had started to get some messaging from Fed Chair Powell and other Fed leaders that perhaps they wouldn't be as aggressive. Were they already in neutral territory and that was being perceived by the markets as all right, maybe they won't be as aggressive. The Fed clearly pushing back on that messaging today. It was a short speech, very direct. Chairman Powell essentially saying, hear me now, we are continuing to raise rates and that's why you're seeing the reaction you're seeing from investors today.

BLACKWELL: Rahel Solomon, watching the markets for us, thank you very much.

In a fiery return to the campaign trial, President Biden lays out Democrat's case for the midterms, and calls the Trump wing of the party, semi-fascist, we'll discuss next.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Fueled by his recent legislative wins, President Biden made a fiery return to the campaign trail. Both blasting his predecessor and touting his administration's accomplishments.

CAMEROTA: Speaking in Maryland, the president went after so called MAGA Republicans for pushing what he called semi-fascism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate, and division. But we've chosen a different path. Forward, the future, unity, hope, and optimism. I mean it sincerely. We choose to build a better America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in Bakari Sellers. He's a CNN political commentator, and former Democratic state rep in South Carolina. We also have Scott Jennings. He's our CNN political commentator, and a former specialist assistant to President George W. Bush. Gentlemen, great to see you. Bakari I'll start with you. As a Democrat, do you like this style of President Biden, do you like this rhetoric that he's using?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I love it. I mean, seeing dark Brandon as the Twitters sphere calls him, fighting, defining, Republicans, touting his accomplishments, being a messenger and then standing next to the future. I mean, Wes Moore was just off screen there as the Democratic nominee for governor of the great state of Maryland, you look at his opponent who is a complete and utter nut, you truly have the dichotomy that is present in America's political scene right now. And Joe Biden actually being articulate, being clear, defining Republicans, standing on achievements, punching them in the face, allowing us to follow him is exactly what we want. It's exactly what we need for this moment, and he was in rare form last night.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk about this semi-fascism comment because he didn't say it at that rally. He said it at a donor's home before and it wasn't on camera so I'll read it. It's a quick sentence here.

What we're seeing now is either the beginning or the death nail of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It's not just Trump, it's the entire philosophy that underpins the -- I'm going to say something -- it's like semi-fascism.

Scott, your reaction to that description of that part of the Republican Party.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, I mean, when I hear that -- and of course all we have is the text, we didn't hear how he said it -- but when I read those words or hear you read them, what I hear him is doing is maligning all Republicans. I mean remember, 74 million people voted for Donald Trump in the last election, and we know that Joe Biden has a long history of having very thin skin when people don't do what he wants them to do or is political opposition to him.

I mean, just a few months ago, he was saying if you didn't agree with him to federalize our election system that you were Bull Connor or Jefferson Davis. Bakari probably remembers that during the campaign he told African-American voters that if they don't vote for him, they're not allowed to be black anymore. And so, when he gets into campaign mode, he gets pretty nasty. He gets pretty partisan and he shows just how thin his skin really is.

So, I appreciate Democrats love fighting Joe as we get into the midterm election, but you have to admit it's not really congruent with the kind of presidential campaign he ran in which he promised to unify the country, uplift America, save or souls or whatever it was he was saying. This is in direct opposition to that.

[15:40:00]

BLACKWELL: But Scott, what do you describe that part of the party? How do you classify them, the ones who say don't believe the truth, we love law enforcement until the laws apply to the former president. The party used to have a platform, and now is literally is whatever the leader wants to do. How do you describe that part of your party?

JENNINGS: Well, look, there are people in the Republican Party that I don't agree with everything they think, and I don't agree with everything they say, and there are I'm sure parts of the Democratic Party that Bakari Sellers and other Democrats like him don't agree with everything they say either. That's the nature of political parties. They tend to have wings and factions and not everybody is always in alignment.

But in this midterm election, most Republicans are aligned about one issue, and that is they don't like radical progressive liberalism, and that's how they're going to vote. And when I hear Joe Biden talking about the Republican Party and trying to divide it up into sections, he's missing the point. The point is the Republican platform in this election is we don't like the direction that Joe Biden is taking the country, and so they do what they do every election, trying to divide Republicans against themselves. I'm not going to participate in it here today because that's not what this election is ultimately going to be about.

CAMEROTA: OK, so I hear you, Scott. But in other words, you don't believe that there is a distinct majority of what Biden would call MAGA Republicans now in your party?

JENNINGS: I mean, I think Donald Trump is clearly the most influential Republican in the party. There's no question about that. That's objectively true, and I think that Joe Biden is probably the most disliked politician in the country whether you're a MAGA Republican or a McConnell Republican or any kind of Republican. And so, I mean, you can slice it and dice it any way you want, but the only thing Biden is trying to do is to get Republicans fighting with each other so they're not focused on the job that he's doing as president, which most Republicans would say is not very good.

CAMEROTA: OK, Bakari, here's where the president's approval ratings are, they're up.

I wanted to respond, Alisyn --

CAMEROTA: Go ahead.

SELLERS: -- I'm over here chomping at the bit. No, I mean, my friend Scott Jennings is a communications guru and expert, and you hear him even today tripping over his talking points when talking about Joe Biden. The fact is there are MAGA Republicans, Scott Jennings is not even a MAGA Republican. Scott Jennings wasn't at the White House or Capitol on January 6th, he doesn't support that.

But there are people who were there, there are people who support it. They are nominees running for United States Senate in the governor's mansion, who actually do not believe that Joe Biden won this presidency. So that's who we're talking about. That is semi-fascism, and you can say what you want to say, and we have to call it out as true. And yes, there are individuals and factions in the Democratic Party I do not agree with. But do you know who all Democrats agree with when they hear him speak like that last night. That is Joe Biden, we are all with Joe Biden as he articulated last night, what our vision was and what we're fighting against. Scott Jennings, we might not be fighting against you on this particular issue. But we are fighting against these MAGA Republicans because those are the ones who try to destroy democracy.

BLACKWELL: Let's now put up the president's approval rating, Bakari. It's up a bit. Now 40 percent, was at 36 a bit ago, 56 percent disapprove. Do you believe that the fortunes for Democrats have significantly shifted heading into the next couple of months for the midterm election.

SELLERS: If you would have asked me this question in January, February, I would say we were dead in the water, in fact, I believe I said it on every show I was on. The fortunes have changed, and the reason why are a few things.

One, the reason why is not just the Dobbs decision but the overreach by state legislatures across the country. You looked at Kansas, you look at what other state legislatures are doing, you see people are actually voting how they feel, they're pushing back and fighting for their freedoms.

The other thing is this White House -- and you have to give Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer a lot of credit. They've done something that even Mitch McConnell was not able to do when he ran the Senate. They've been able to pass legislation with very thin, very, very thin majorities, and they've made good on campaign promises. Whether or not it is -- whether or not it's forgiving student loans or whether or not it's appointing the number of black justices they have, particularly black women to the Supreme Court, they've actually made good on their promises. I mean, they still have a few more to go. So, things are going in the right direction. So, I expect that to tick up even more.

CAMEROTA: OK, Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, thank you as always.

All right, now to Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is finally reconnected to the country's power grid avoiding a potential nuclear disaster for now. Details ahead.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: At a time when antisemitism and Holocaust deniers are resurging across the world, CNN is connecting one of history's darkest chapters with present day interpretation.

CAMEROTA: In a CNN special report our Wolf Blitzer whose parents were Holocaust survivors goes inside the Holocaust Memorial Museum to better understand what they and so many others endured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hitler often said he was the party and the party was him. And his power became, what, absolute.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. He comes to power through a Democratic process, the conservative elites make a deal with him, there's a lot of things about him they think are too extreme, but they think they're going to control him. And they woefully underestimate him because he's able to destroy German democracy very quickly after he comes into power and creates a dictatorship.

W. BLITZER: You know, it's so, so scary when you think about his rise to power through democratic means, and then within a few years it's absolute and he's slaughtering all of these people and everyone in Germany, almost everyone is going along with it and it's heartbreaking to even think about that, the way he managed to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With a lot of collaborators.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: And Wolf Blitzer, anchor of "THE SITUATION ROOM" is here with us. Wolf, great to see you. You obviously grew up knowing a lot about the Holocaust. Was there something new that you learned from this?

W. BLITZER: We did a lot of research for this documentary, Alisyn, tonight. And I did learn from it every time I walk through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington, D.C., on the Washington Mall, I learn something because there's so much information there. So much powerful information that is so timely and so important. And all of us, no matter how many times we go there, we learned something.

[15:50:02]

I'm grateful to the founders of the museum going back a few decades, as Sara Bloomfield, the executive director took me on this tour. Grateful to her and everyone else who's been so deeply involved in making sure we never forget the atrocity that occurred during World War II. It is so important and so timely, especially right now.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and we know this is personal for you, Wolf. While you're having these conversations, you likely have your parents front of mind. What is that like?

W. BLITZER: You know, it is very powerful. Because my mom and dad, you know, came to this country after World War II. They were both Holocaust survivors. They met after the war. They got married and they were lucky enough to get visas to come to the United States, immigration visas under the 1948 displaced persons act which granted about 400,000 visas to displaced persons including a lot of Holocaust survivors to come start a new life.

They came to Buffalo, New York, with no English, little money. They created a new life and I grew up I think relatively normal. I had a normal life in Buffalo. But I always knew, of course, that my parents were Holocaust survivors. It was very much taught to me what happened. They were never ashamed to talk about it. Never reluctant to talk about it. And so, it was part of what I knew.

In the course of researching this documentary that's going to air later tonight, I did discover, thanks to my team, producers and editors, everyone who was helping me, that my dad had done a video, oral history, done at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in Florida. He had retired with my mom. They were living in Florida. And he did an extensive Q&A about what he went through during World War II in the concentration camp and eventually surviving the war.

And I watched that. I had access to it. They gave it to me. We're going to run clips of it later tonight on the documentary. And I'm so grateful to them for doing this. So grateful to my dad. He really wanted everyone to know what had happened. Let me run a little clip from the documentary tonight about that exchange that my dad had. His oral history. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, sir can we begin. Would you please tell me your full name.

DAVID BLITZER: David Blitzer.

BLITZER (voice over): That's my dad, David Blitzer. He survived the Holocaust, met my mother, another survivor and they got married and came to America after World War II. He recorded his very personal, very powerful survival story for future generations.

DAVID BLITZER: I'm originally from Oswiecim, which is actually the name the city of Auschwitz before the war. My wife did not believe that she is going to be able to have children after the concentration camp. But 10 months after we were married, she would.

W. BLITZER (voice over): Like so many survivors, he knew he had to speak for the millions who couldn't. And now I'm carrying on his legacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

W. BLITZER (on camera): And as you guys know, those oral histories from those Holocaust survivors, they're even more important now because so many of the Holocaust survivors, including my own parents, have passed away. And in order to teach what happened, you need to hear from the actual eyewitnesses who lived through it. And I'm grateful to my dad for doing that oral history down in Florida. BLACKWELL: Such a treasure to have that from your father, Wolf.

CAMEROTA: And so powerful. Yes. We really appreciate you sharing that personal part of your own history.

BLACKWELL: Wolf Blitzer, good to see you and thank you so much. Be sure to join Wolf tonight for "NEVER AGAIN." That airs at 11:00 p.m. right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Meet this week as CNN hero Meymuna Hussein-Cattan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEYMUNA HUSSEIN-CATTAN (voice over): For all refugees and immigrants, food is a sense of self-preservation. So, as long as you preserve those family recipes, it really instills a sense of rootedness, feeling connected to your cultural upbringing.

HUSSEIN-CATTAN (on camera): In August, the chef Orbal will be partnering with Flavors From Afar to highlight her dishes from Afghanistan.

HUSSEIN-CATTAN (voice over): My restaurant, Flavors From Afar, we really bring international cuisine to Los Angeles in a way that hasn't been done before. And it's a way to highlight chefs who all share some form of displacement. Given these home-trained chefs an opportunity to shine. It's amazing. And 40 percent of the proceeds go back to the nonprofit.

HUSSEIN-CATTAN (on camera): Can I borrow yours?

HUSSEIN-CATTAN (voice over): The Tiyya Foundation serves immigrants, refugees and displaced indigenous communities. My mom and I, we knew we could help make the path easier for other families. We want to create a sense of community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Great, now we're starving.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.