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World Central Kitchen Helps Feed Thousands in Florida After Hurricane; Supreme Court Begins New Term Today with First Black Woman on the Bench; Soon, Opening Statements in Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Trial. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 03, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now, Chef Jose Andres from one of the hardest hit areas, Fort Myers, Florida. Chef, great to have you back on. Thanks for doing it.

JOSE ANDRES, CHEF AND FOUNDER, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

As you see, the team working here from this kitchen we have in Fort Myers, actually, at the Minnesota Twins training facility. We have food trucks, more than 26, that we have deployed in different parts of this area and we keep increasing the meals output every day. I mean, we've done close to 200,000 meals by the end of the day today. Today, probably we will do over 45,000 meals, 50,000 meals today alone.

SCIUTTO: When you look at the pictures of destruction there, it is going to be a long time before people have what they need. How long do you expect to be there? How great do you expect the need to be?

ANDRES: Well, the World Central Kitchen teams, they already said that this is a long-term commitment. Obviously, it is different parts. I've been able to be from day one visiting Fort Myers Beach. The destruction there is the same, as we saw in Mexico Beach, in previous hurricane. It is amazing the destruction. I've been able to be in Sanibel Island. I've been able to be in Pine Island, nothing like the destruction I saw with the Fort Myers Beach. So, we're going to be here until the people don't need us anymore.

I think the electricity will come back quick and fast because all of these companies, they work so well together. I know many parts of Fort Myers, of Florida, will get that electricity again. But, again, we are trying to be with those communities. We know because the bridges are destroyed, because the electricity is not going to come back any time soon. On those communities, World Central Kitchen will be here for the long haul.

SCIUTTO: You and I met -- we met in Ukraine, where one of the many places you do your work, you and your teams do your work, feeding the people in a war zone there. I understand that you have someone working with you now in Florida who had done her part in Ukraine during the war. ANDRES: Well, what's extraordinary (ph) with the family of World Central Kitchen, we go to so many different places in America and around the world that always we have people that join us one time as volunteers, and because the experience they gain, they keep coming back in an amazing way to new hurricanes, to new moments.

Here, for me, it was also almost heartbreaking to see and a very happy moment when this woman called Kathleen (ph), she's from Fort Myers. She came to help us in the kitchen we had in Poland, in (INAUDIBLE), around March. She stayed there for months working in the kitchen every single day. And right now, she's out here and she said, I cannot believe that now I can put my expertise that I gained working with World Central Kitchen in Poland in my home town. And she's here, like many other volunteers, the hundreds that we have right now, joining forces to try to bring relief to people quick, fast, in a very effective way.

SCIUTTO: No question, on different sides of the world.

You've been doing this for, I think, roughly ten years going back to the earthquake in Haiti, both manmade, like Ukraine, and natural disasters, like we're seeing in Florida now. I'm curious, if our current system, right, for delivering aid has gotten better over that time period?

ANDRES: Well, I'm going to say one thing. What is happening here in Florida because of Ian, I see really a very amazing response. So, really, I think we need to be thanking President Biden, FEMA, Homeland Security. The Florida emergency services, they are experts. It is a very cohesive group. I see that they are hands-on. I've seen thousands of different members of the electric companies trying to fix the grid. National Guard, paramedics, sheriffs, it's really a big effort to bring relief to people.

This is only day five after the hurricane, and, quite frankly, I see that the response is there. I know people sometimes, they lose their patience, they want help right now, but this has been a massive hurricane. But, overall, I will say, I'm very happy what I've seen here.

Food aid, I think we need to always be changing. It is great that we have the MREs. I think it is a good job giving them away. I see them in a lot of places. But I like the way we do it, which is with local people, local restaurants, local food (INAUDIBLE), cooking local food that sometimes we buy from local farmers, and when we show up every day, and we keep bringing comfort to the people.

In the process, sometimes you are able to bring medicines to people that they need, a very important medicine for their health. When you show up every day and you're next to the community every day, you start learning other ways that you can be helping them.

SCIUTTO: I hear you. Well, listen, whenever I speak to you, I have got to ask about food, and I've tasted some of your food in Ukraine, some excellent borscht.

[10:35:06]

I still remember it. So, I have got to ask you, what's what is in the pot behind you?

ANDRES: Well, I'm going to move the camera. Even your producers are going to be telling me what is going on. This is an amazing chili that all of these amazing chefs, they been cooking, and right now, they're plating the chili. They're going to be doing hundreds, if not, thousands of these trays, rice, the cheese and then the chili goes on top. And what I'm going to tell you, these, really, to me, smells amazing.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

ANDRES: You see we could be cooking amazing food and delivery, all of these that you see here, and hundreds more of them, they are all going to be filled, they are all going to be delivered, some of them will go in helicopters, again, to Sanibel Island, again, to Pine Island. You saw your segment about Arcadia. We're going to make sure that Arcadia is taken care of. That's what we do, to make sure that we don't forget any community in the process of trying to start thinking of a reconstruction.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, my mouth is watering, I'm sure a lot of folks watching the same. You're a good man, you're doing great week, your team is doing great work. Thank you, Chef Jose Andres, for bringing us some of it.

ANDRES: Thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: He's such a hero, Jim. I mean, he's a hero for the world.

SCIUTTO: He gets there, right? I mean, he did it -- he went to the frontlines literally in Ukraine, and now he's on the frontlines of the storm recovery in Florida.

HARLOW: Talk about what you can do with your success, right? You can use it to enrich yourself or you can use it to make the world a better place, an example for all of us. That was a great interview, Jim.

Coming up, to the Supreme Court and a really historic term begins, just began this morning, with the first African-American female justice on the bench and a huge docket ahead. That's next.

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[10:40:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Right now at the Supreme Court, oral argument underway in the first case of the new term, and it is a very historic moment as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's first African- American female justice, has taken her seat on the bench

Here with me now for much more ahead for this court, this term, CNN Justice Correspondent Jessica Schneider, joins us outside the court, and Gloria Browe- Marshall, Constitutional Law Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and also a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, also the author of the book, She Took Justice, the Black Woman Law and Power. Thank you both very much.

And, Jess, you go into this term with a precipitous decline from the American public in trust for the institution, down 20 points from where that trust was just two years ago. You've got a still unsettled leak of the Dobbs decision. You've got an internal debate among the justices over whether the institution is considered legitimate in the eyes of the public and so many critical cases ahead.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You got it. I mean, the tensions really between the justices still seem to be simmering here, all was we're going into a term that may be not as tumultuous as the end of last term with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but still a number of consequential cases here. I mean, right now, the justices are hearing a case about water rights, the scope of the Clean Water Act, how the EPA can restrict development on land that borders or is adjacent to wetlands. And, interestingly, the newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, has actually been quite vocal already in the 40-plus minutes of oral argument for the start of the term here.

But for rest of this term, we'll also see Voting Rights Act case, another case involving power of state legislatures versus courts when it comes to redistricting, and then affirmative action will put race at the forefront as well, potentially overturning precedent in that case, and the standing precedent that colleges can in fact consider race as a factor in admissions decisions. Also gay rights will be before the courts in a case concerning whether or not businesses can refuse to serve same-sex couples.

So, it might not be as tumultuous, Poppy, as Roe v. Wade overturning that case, but the race will be at the forefront in many consequential cases that are still to come as we start this term here.

HARLOW: It certainly will. And, Gloria, to that point, these cases will be heard for the first time, you're going to consider voting rights and affirmative action on -- by a bench that actually has a black woman on it, finally. It is different than Shelby County. It's different than Bollinger versus Grutter. So, my question to you is the significance.

We saw Friday, I think we have the images, of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson officially sworn in, making that traditional walk down the steps of the high court with the chief justice. How significant that these will be among the cases she's considering?

GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: I think it is very significant and I think it will be tumultuous. I mean, we opened the door, as far as the conservatives were concerned, to anything goes on this court. And even though Justice Amy Coney Barrett has said they're not political hacks and the chief justice is questioning whether or not the disagreement with an opinion means that the court's legitimacy should be questioned, I think we're all looking at a court that has been politicized and outwardly politicized. And the power of that court is in question.

And as Justice Brown Jackson then looks at these cases, decides these cases, she is going to be playing a role in his history.

[10:45:06]

Over 50 years of social justice progress, civil rights working voting rights and so many other areas will be turned back by this cohort of conservatives in a super majority.

So, there's a lot on the line here for this entire country. What happens to African-Americans, what happens to others affects the rest of the country, and I think everyone should be paying attention.

HARLOW: Yes. You know, it is interesting, Gloria, because in this debate, we've seen in the last few months over the summer some justices speaking publicly in these speeches they've given about the legitimacy of the court. Elena Kagan, Justice Kagan, Justice Sotomayor, and the chief justice, John Roberts, who said this this summer, I don't understand the connection between opinions that people disagree with and the legitimacy of the court, and he went on to say, you don't want the political branches telling you what the law is and you don't want public opinion to be the guide of what the appropriate decision is. He really believes there is not a legitimacy question for the institution right now.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, that is the problem. It is almost as though Chief Justice Roberts is saying, don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain, and that man behind the curtain was Donald Trump. And when he put these justices before the country in such a politicized way, and then now Chief Justice Roberts wants to turn around and say, well, forget about all of that, it just happened last year and just think of these justices as regular justices, this is a regular court and we don't understand why you're making this a political matter.

And we do remember, we do know what Donald Trump said when he vetted those justices that would be conservative and would overturn Roe v. Wade even though they said during the confirmation hearing they thought it was a super precedent and they would not. So, anything is on the table and that makes the country unsure of their high court and it makes everyone think the powers are being abused and has a political slant. So, I don't think Chief Justice Roberts is really getting the full pulse of the country.

HARLOW: Gloria Browne -- yes, yes, go ahead.

SCHNEIDER: This question of legitimacy continues to be a tension point, as recently as last week, just days before the start of the term. You talked about the fact that Justices Sotomayor and Kagan talked about the fact that the legitimacy of the court could be questioned if precedent wasn't preserved. Well, just last week, Justice Samuel Alito, in really a rare move, issued a statement to The Wall Street Journal saying that sort of viewpoint crosses a line. He didn't direct his statement particularly toward Justice Sotomayor or Kagan, but it really shows you the tension between these justices with a 6-3 majority potentially upending a lot more of the law than we've already seen.

HARLOW: It is such an important point. We rarely hear from the justices in such a candid manner, ever, in the public. So, Jessica Schneider, thank you, Gloria Browne-Marshall, good to have you. We'll have you both back soon. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's such an important discussion.

Still ahead, opening statements begin any moment in the seditious conspiracy trial against five members of the Oath Keepers, what we expect to hear, what this trial means for the broader investigation into the January 6 attack, that is coming up.

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[10:50:00]

SCIUTTO: This morning, the seditious conspiracy trial begins for five members of the far-right group known as the Oath Keepers.

HARLOW: That's right. So, their leader, Stewart Rhodes, and four of his top lieutenants are charged with conspiring to oppose a lawful transfer of presidential power by force on January 6th. Moments ago, the judge denied a defense request to move the trial out of D.C., saying that the jury had, quote, no preconceived prejudices against the defendants.

Let's bring in former Federal Prosecutor Renato Mariotti. Renato, good to have you.

I think this is fascinating. Judge Amit Mehta said basically the voir dire process has worked.

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes. That is often the case that judges are always facing motions from the defense saying that the jurors can't be fair, there is press articles out there, that sort of thing. But judges usually have a lot of confidence in jurors saying under oath that they can be fair to the judge, and that is usually enough.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Let's look at the facts of the case. Defense is accused of staging firearms near the Capitol, forcing entry through the Capitol rotunda doors, this after marching single file, and I remember seeing video of this, up the steps wearing combat tactical gear with the Oath Keepers insignia, we should note. Tell us, as someone who has prosecuted cases in court, has the DOJ, does it have the evidence here to make their case?

MARIOTTI: I think so. I have to say the problem for the defense is that their defenses are more technical. They're going to talk about whether there is an agreement or what that agreement contemplated, that sort of sing. I think that if you select a jury properly as a prosecutor in this case, you're going to likely get a conviction because a jury is just not going to like the defendants doing this, they're not going to like people trying to attack the Capitol, and they're not going to be concerned about some of these details as a practical matter. And so I just think it is a reality check. The jurors are going to be looking for a reason to convict.

HARLOW: How much will the outcome of this case and where the jury falls in this case be a guiding light or an indicator of, you know, what the DOJ is pressing for here, because it is pretty unprecedented to bring a seditious conspiracy charge, let alone five folks?

[10:55:12]

And Stewart Rhodes also, some of them didn't go in the Capitol. So, I'm assuming that is going to be part of the defense team's strategy here.

MARIOTTI: That is right, Poppy. First of all, you're right that this is, in many ways, an unprecedented case, or a first of its kind type of case. There were prosecutions many, many, many years ago back in historical prosecutions, but this is a kind of a resurrection of a statute that hadn't been prosecuted for quite some time. So, it will, I think, set an important precedential value particularly for potential future prosecutions.

And I do think that the defense argument here has to be, you know, these folks didn't go into the Capitol, yes, they were -- maybe they said these things, they didn't really mean them, yes, there was some planning but that they didn't really plan to go through with it or they abandoned that and they weren't involved.

HARLOW: Well, they were involved. There is no fact -- there's no factual question about that. But, yes, it is going to be very interesting how -- what the bar is here and where the jury falls. Renato, thank you for getting us started on that.

MARIOTTI: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks to all of us for joining you today. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

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