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At Least 55 Killed in Catastrophic Fires Scorching Maui; Soon, First Hearing Before Judge in Trump's Jan. 6 Case; Republicans Descend on Iowa State Fair. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, Donald Trump's legal team will face the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case, also special counsel is requesting an aggressive trial date.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, Trump's 2024 Republican rivals are flocking to Iowa for the Annual State Fair. Former Vice President Mike Pence being heckled by some fair goers as a trader.

BLACKWELL: The Supreme Court blocks a $6 billion opioid settlement that would give immunity by the family of Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin. Where that case goes from here.

HARLOW: What happens in Vegas, hacking, the White House telling thousands of hackers to try to do their worst against ChatGPT.

CNN This Morning starts right now.

Look, the tragedy in Hawaii is getting worse by the hour.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Overnight, the increase in the death toll up to now 55, and most people we speak with expect it's going to go even higher.

HARLOW: And very concerned about a lack of warning that we're hearing from some of the residents there. Hawaii's governor says that number of dead likely to increase significantly as search and rescue teams go through hundreds of burned out homes in Lahaina, the town that was incinerated by the fast-moving inferno.

You're looking at drone video from our CNN crew in the disaster zone. Police say they don't know how many people are missing right now.

We have learned that rescue teams from California and Washington are headed to Hawaii now. They will be searching for survivors. They are also bringing cadaver dogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. PAUL SEAWRIGHT, RIVERSIDE FIRE DEPARTMENT: We're getting intel now that the rescue effort is severe and we want to match that need with what we have. Our personnel here are highly trained. They train over the course of several years for this very moment to serve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And as Poppy mentioned, there are serious questions about if and when people were warned to evacuate. Some survivors say they didn't get the evacuation orders or the orders came too late when the flames were already closing in. And we just spoke to one man who said he never heard any sirens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLE MILLINGTON, LOST HIS HOME AND BUSINESS IN LAHAINA FIRES: I probably wouldn't have been able to grab anything in my house. I don't know if I would have been able to find my car keys, find my phone, find my dog food, whatever. It later pinged me as I was getting into my truck to leave. So, that warning was completely useless. We have tsunami warnings that I think should have been utilized. I think this could have been handled so much better in so many ways, but so many of us residents felt like we had absolutely no warning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, here's the timeline on when social media alerts were sent out. A brush fire was spotted early on Tuesday and at 8:38 A.M., the county Facebook page put out this message, ordering evacuations around Lahaina Intermediate School.

Now, you see the school marked on the map here, which ended up not being in the area most impacted. And about 90 minutes later, the county says the fire is 100 percent contained. Another evacuation message doesn't go out for five hours. We're talking 3:33 when the next one's out.

HARLOW: Our own Bill Weir got a firsthand look at the destruction. He walked through the burned streets of Lahaina. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This is the historic banyan tree, a 150-year-old majestic tree at the center of Lahaina town. It looks like it may have been survived. It needs water desperately to survive right now. But for the locals who are coming down and looking at the damage, this is such a sign of hope that maybe their iconic tree will have lived when so much else is gone here.

But the history can never be replaced. Right here, this is the first hotel in Hawaii, the Pioneer Hotel, Pioneer Theater. It's completely gone. Right over here was the library. It's just now a stone shell of scorched blocks around Front Street there, Fleetwoods, Mick Fleetwood of the band Fleetwood Mac, his place is gutted out with flames. It's just unrecognizable. One of the most charming, beloved port cities anywhere in the world is just scorched like a bomb went off.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARLOW: Wow. Like a bomb went off. We'll have much more live with our Bill Weir in the next hour. Our thanks to him. As we mentioned, it's unclear how high the death toll in Maui is and how high it could go.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's because police don't know how many people are actually missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How many people are still missing at this hour?

CHIEF JOHN PELLETIER, MAUI POLICE: Do you want to defer that to me?

REPORTER: Sure, whomever.

PELLETIER: So, honestly we don't know. And here's the challenge. There's no power. There's no internet. There's no radio coverage.

Until we get some of those basic things set up, we are not going to have that number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:00]

BLACKWELL: Tim Williams' family has not seen him since he sent them this photo of the inferno closing this as he was evacuating. Now, he's a disabled veteran who uses a wheelchair and crutches to walk.

Linda Vaikeli's family in Massachusetts says that they have not heard from her since the fire destroyed her apartment, and they're even more concerned because she has health issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH MCCLEOD, LINDA VAIKELI'S FAMILY MEMBER: She doesn't get around very well. She needs some assistance. And I just hope that someone was able to get to her and help her to evacuate. They're looking but we have not heard anything yet. And from what I have seen, it looks like their apartment complex is completely gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Allen Vu is with us now. He lost his home and the place where he worked. His restaurant, where he was the chef there, the fire took both. Allen, I'm sorry to speak with you under these circumstances, but I do want to start with at least some good news. There was a question about an employee, a co-worker at the Marlin Bar, I believe it's named. You did not have any idea where this person was, but you have an update now, tell us about it.

ALLEN VU, LAHAINA RESIDENT: You know, it came from our tremendous strong leadership from the company of Tommy Bahama. What we first did was make sure that we made sure all of our employees were taken into account from management staff. We made sure that we continuously text and phone called every employee to make sure that they're accounted for. And it was just until today that we were able to contact the final one, which was Angelina (INAUDIBLE), and she is currently with her boyfriend north of Lahaina now.

BLACKWELL: So, everybody is accounted for. That is the good news. Let me start, though, with when you knew that you couldn't wait this out, that you had to move, where were you, and what was the first indication that this was an emergency that you had to escape from?

VU: We didn't expect the fire to go through the town this quick. I was with my general manager, Jerica (ph), in our restaurant, thinking that if the possibility of power coming back, we can salvage our products and our restaurant. We were just getting some work done. I left the bar restaurant around 3:00 P.M. with my housemates. They were with me the whole time.

And as we were driving to town, we could see that there's smoke coming our way. We drove down on Front Street towards our house, which is southbound. During that time, there was already an evacuation with bumper to bumper traffic going northbound on Front Street going up to the civic center. But when we got to our place, we continued to look up at the smoke, and it was just, you know, within minutes we could see the smoke brush, I would say, a half mile through the town, the footages that I shared with some of your staff members that the fire went through the town really quick. And when we saw that, it was time to warn everyone in our neighborhood to get out.

BLACKWELL: Now, speaking of warning everyone in the neighborhood to get out, it was evident based on what you're describing, the traffic, smoke that you had to make a move. But did you receive any alerts, any warnings officially from the city on your cell phone or anything like that?

VU: On my cell phone, we had warnings of strong winds and, you know, possible fires, but no real, you know -- like the -- no real warning, like the Amber Alerts for the storms that we normally get that would vibrate and make loud noises from our phone. We didn't get any of that. There was no sirens from -- we had monthly sirens tsunami noises just to make sure the sirens worked every month. But on that day there was no sirens.

BLACKWELL: No sirens. So, your home is destroyed. Your workplace is destroyed. What do you do now?

VU: Well, I'm fortunate enough to be housed in Wailuku, which is a town 30 miles away from Lahaina, along with my landlord and my housemates and my dog. I'm staying at my co-worker's place, Marcus.

[07:10:00]

But a lot of us that are displaced from Lahaina are staying at a Wailuku shelter at the War Memorial Stadium here in town.

But right now, you know, we're planning ahead about what to do in the week, what to do in two weeks. There's a lot of plans of being there for the relief support in Lahaina when they open up access for everyone to enter because we saw footages of how destructive that place is, and everyone is ready to come back to revive the place.

BLACKWELL: We have spoken with people over the last two days, several days now, that are relying upon their friends, their neighbors, like you are, and we spoke with Cole Millington earlier, who's one of 15 staying at a friend's house.

As it relates to the government support, local, state, federal, have you received support? Do you know where you can that? What's the communication from those resources to you?

VU: Well, for me, personally, I haven't been, you know, paying attention to a lot of news or radio. But we do hear that, you know, governor just talking about sending in help, we heard that there's assistance from our president wanting to send support in.

We do know that there's an army and naval base on Oahu. But as of now, we are seeing very little support from big organizations. We hear that there is Coast Guards or National Guards that's assisting with organization in Lahaina, but at the same time, we are in contact with a lot of residents in Lahaina that are stuck up north between Kahana and Kahili (ph) who are out of power, out of water, out of gas. People need gas. You get their cars out of there. There's no gas.

So, a lot of civilians and a lot of people are trying to access into Lahaina either northbound or southbound to provide support.

BLACKWELL: Well, Allen vu, we are happy that you are safe, that Angelina is safe, everybody there at the Marlin Bar, and thank you for spending some time with us and telling us your story. Be well.

VU: I appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: For more information on how you can help Hawaii wildfire survivors, go to cnn.com/impact or text Hawaii to 707070 to donate. Poppy?

HARLOW: Victor, thank you.

In just a few hours, Trump's team will meet Judge Tanya Chutkan in a courtroom. She is the judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case. And this comes as federal prosecutors are hoping to start the trial just ahead of the January 6th anniversary.

Our ELIE HONIG is here with more. What is the significance of today, as they're before the judge who is going to oversee this whole thing?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Poppy. So, every time we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're going to start with this (INAUDIBLE) because there are now three indictments, maybe a fourth coming soon. It's a lot.

The case we're focused on here is the federal case brought by DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith relating to Donald Trump's effort to steal the 2020 election. Now, the main issue in front of Judge Chutkan today is what can Donald Trump say and do publicly relating to discovery? Now, discovery means that in any criminal case, prosecutors have an obligation to turn over all their evidence, all their witness statements, all their documents before trial. Jack Smith has taken the position there should be a protective order preventing Donald Trump from speaking publicly about all materials, everything.

Now, Trump's team has said we should limit that only to sensitive materials, not all materials. And they've said, we'll let you, Jack Smith, tell us which ones are sensitive. Jack Smith has said, no good, you have to be stopped from talking about all the materials.

And Jack Smith in his brief cites Donald Trump's inflammatory social media posts, including this infamous one, much worse ones followed this.

HARLOW: Can I just ask you? Is that realistic? Would any other defendant face something like that to say, you can't talk about anything?

HONIG: It's drastic, but Jack Smith argues it's merited based on the circumstances and the fear that Jack Smith says is we don't want witnesses being intimidated here.

There's a secondary issue before the judge today. We have now learned that there are some, not many, but some classified documents in the January 6th case. This is separate from the Mar-a-Lago case, which is all about classified documents. So, the parties have to work out how they're going to deal with those classified documents. As you said, this is the first appearance in front of District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan.

A little quick background, she spent over decade as a public defender. She understands the defendant's constitutional rights. She was Obama nominee in 2014 and she has handled prior January 6th cases very harshly.

HARLOW: This is the part that I think is going to make today so interesting because she is obviously a big believer in defendants' rights. Trial schedule, what are we looking at? Because they want January 2nd, that's soon.

HONIG: Yes. Jack Smith asked for January 2nd, 2024. Trump has not weighed in yet. I think it's safe to assume he's going to want much later.

But let's look at what that really means. January 2nd is awfully ambitious.

[07:15:00]

This indictment dropped just last week. It feels like longer ago, but on August 1st. If they do a January 2nd trial, jury selection is going to start here. That would only give Trump's team four and a half months to prepare. That's a really short amount of time.

Bigger picture, and here's where it gets sort of crazy, okay, the election is in November 2024. We already have the Manhattan D.A.'s trial starting in March. That will go through April. We already have the Mar-a-Lago trial starting at the end of May, that's going to go through June and July. And now, Jack Smith is saying, let's start the January 6th trial in early January. There's just not room for that. You're not going to get this trial in before March.

So, this is the D.A.'s trial. That one is going to have to move in order for there to be any chance of getting this one to get in early. There's a lot here.

HARLOW: Yes, that will be so interesting. Elie, thank you, stick around. We have a lot to talk about. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Senator Tim Scott signs the loyalty pledge and seals his place at the first GOP debate. We'll tell you who's in and who is still on the fence.

HARLOW: Also, huge deal at the Supreme Court. They have blocked a $6 billion opioid settlement that would give immunity to the family behind Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin. Details behind that ruling ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pence is a traitor. Anybody that says he has a higher power, uses those words, he is not a Christian, when you say higher power. We don't buy it as believers, Pence. You are far from a Christian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Former Vice President Mike Pence faces some heckling from Trump supporters at the Iowa State Fair. Republican presidential hopefuls are there, and what's become an important political tradition in the first in the nation caucus state. It's one of the biggest state fairs in the country. It's 11 days long.

People come for the typical call fair atmosphere, the rides and the corn dogs and the famous butter cow. But every four years, there's swarms of voters who come to check out the field of presidential candidates before the caucus in January.

Now, the fair is the chance for candidates to get their names out there, and also show off their ability to field questions from voters and reporters.

HARLOW: So, this time around, the Republican candidates trying to make a dent in Trump's double-digit lead in the state.

Let's bring in our colleague, CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah, also our Political Director David Chalian. Good morning, guys. Oh, David, you're there too. I thought Kyung was the only lucky one, and you get to be there too.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Would I miss the Iowa State Fair, Poppy? Come on.

HARLOW: You would not. David, talk about how important it really is.

CHALIAN: Well, there's a huge opportunity here for candidates. First of all, the local and national press sort of gather here, and so there's a whole sort of free media opportunity for candidates to get a lot of attention, especially those candidates who have been starved for attention in this race. That's one. Two, it's also a real opportunity to mix and mingle with voters and have these candidates get their tires kicked, if you will, by the voters. That's what they do in these early states.

And I know you played that video at the top of Pence getting heckled. I would just say having watched him here yesterday, that was not sort of the typical encounter that he had. He had a very, I would call, successful day at the fair. He seems sort of in his skin and natural at home in this environment. In fact, we were at a press availability, and he said for a southern boy from Indiana, the Iowa State Fair is sort of in his strike zone, and you can see that as he was making his way around the fair yesterday.

BLACKWELL: Yes. He appeared to be well-received at the Soap Box. I watched some of it from the Des Moines Register, where he was speaking with voters.

Kyung, let me come to you on what should we expect over the next several days as more of these candidates show up.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, sort of in line with what David is saying, getting your tires kicked. All of the candidates want to get a little bit of kicking in. They want to engage with all of these voters. So, we're going to see what Mike Pence went through, all of the candidates are going to go through, the Soap Box, as well as a fair side chat with the governor of Iowa, except for Donald Trump. He is going to bring his own stage. He's going to do his own thing, just as we saw him do in 2016, you may recall that. I was in here for that. But, certainly, he was giving chopper rides.

CHALIAN: Yes, to all the kids at the fair that wanted to get on his helicopter.

LAH: Right. So, he's not going to be doing that, as we know of right now, but he's going to be walking through the fair and really sort of creating his own spectacle here and rewriting the rules of what we typically see at the Iowa State Fair.

HARLOW: David, another twist we might see in all of this has to do with Joe Manchin, and he has been flirting and flirting with does he get in as an independent, what is the No Labels tie here, what is this all going to mean? What do we need to know about that this morning?

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, Joe Manchin once again sort of publicly flirting with this notion of maybe leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent. You know, Joe Manchin has not actually made his intentions known for 2024, not just at the presidential level, Poppy, but whether or not he would run for re-election to his Senate seat, which is up in West Virginia. And, obviously, having the D for Democrat in West Virginia is not the best path to victory despite his past success. So, that may might have something to do with his calculus as well about publicly putting out there that he's attracted to sort of the independent lane.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Kyung, there's some reference to special guests that the former president will be bringing with him. Do we know who he'll be bringing to the fair?

LAH: Well, he's going to be officially bringing some of the Florida representatives who have endorsed him, emphasis on Florida. Because, truly, what he is also going to be doing by walking with these Florida representatives is sending a signal to Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, certainly signaling, hey, these guys are with me, not with you, and making a very loud point as he walks through this Iowa State Fair with representatives from the governor's own state.

[07:25:00]

So, that is certainly the spectacle that we expect with Trump. Certainly there could be others. But we're going to be watching especially to see what happens beyond just walking with those representatives.

CHALIAN: And on the same day that Governor DeSantis will be at the fair as well. There was no mistake in scheduling there, I think, on Trump's part either.

HARLOW: They have to eat all of it. Anything that they are given, they have to eat it, right, David and Kyung?

CHALIAN: And the challenge of eating food on a stick with all of those cameras in your face, I am not jealous of them.

HARLOW: Thank you, guys, have fun. Enjoy.

CHALIAN: Thank you.

HARLOW: So, this from the Supreme Court blocking a $6 billion opioid settlement that would have given immunity and civil prosecution to the family that once controlled Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin. The court agreed to pause that bankruptcy deal that included the immunity provision. They will have arguments on it in December. The billionaire Sackler family controlled the drug company until recently. And the settlement stemmed from a lawsuit accusing the family and its company of fueling the opioid crisis that's killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Our Senior Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic joins us now. So, really significant that the court did this. JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Very much so, Poppy. Good morning. The court, you know, doesn't explain itself, but certainly it was convinced by the solicitor general's argument. It means that the Sacklers are going to have to wait until at least probably next year, probably in the summer, to know whether they are shielded from future lawsuits. But also, Poppy, the victims of Purdue Pharma and from the opioid crisis are going to have to wait for any kind of payments.

What the solicitor general argued on behalf of the trustee for this bankruptcy that the condition of this $6 billion Sackler plan, releasing them from all future liability is not allowed under the bankruptcy code, that this would be -- violate statutory provisions and go beyond what the code allows. It would also give, they argued, wealthy companies an ability to buy their way out of future lawsuits.

Now, Purdue Pharma countered that this delay is only going to hurt the victims of the opioid crisis, hurt them in terms of getting the payments but we will see what court itself does.

As you noted, the arguments will be in December. They're on a fairly quick briefing schedule, and as I said, a decision likely by the end of June next year.

BLACKWELL: With this new reporting on Justice Clarence Thomas accepting dozens of trips paid for by some billionaire friends, Democrats are calling for some new ethics reforms for the court, unlikely to go anywhere if we just use past as some context.

BISKUPIC: That's right. Just yesterday, it was probably the most comprehensive report that we have seen of all these trips, you know, on private jets. This is a ProPublica report you're referring to Clarence Thomas had benefitted from many wealthy billionaires who have themselves contributed to Republican and conservative causes.

Let me just tell you what Clarence Thomas had said about that. He earlier -- he didn't respond to that particular report yesterday, but he had earlier said that he had been under -- his belief was, after seeking some advice from colleagues and others in the judiciary, that he -- this kind of personal hospitality from close personal friends didn't have to be reported. You see his statement right there.

But here's the deal, folks, that even though there was some fuzziness in the code, those private jet trips that were reported yesterday, all of those were supposed to be reported from the beginning.

So, you can see why Democratic senators have been saying that the court needs to have a stronger ethics code. It needs to be abiding by rules that are already in place. Some of the things that were alleged in the report yesterday would violate what's already in law. But then stepping back more broadly, the court has resisted any kind of formal ethics code for things that are not written into law as lower court judges have.

But the truth is that Chief Justice John Roberts has been trying to get his colleagues to agree to something formal, but he does not want to do that without unanimity. There are too many holdouts right now. And I just think that yesterday's report, as much as it's gotten so much attention, and rightfully so, is likely not going to change things either on the Hill or at the Supreme Court.

HARLOW: Wow. People deserve transparency, that's for sure. Joan, thank you for the reporting.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: In just a few hours, former President Trump's legal team in the 2020 election case is scheduled to appear in a Washington courtroom for a hearing to determine what Trump can and cannot say as he awaits trial.

[07:30:03]

HARLOW: Also some of the world's top tech companies are encouraging hackers to find vulnerabilities in their artificial.