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CNN This Morning

FEMA Running Low on Funding as Hurricane Hilary Threatens U.S. Southwest Region; Administrator of Maui's Emergency Management Agency Resigns in Wake of Wildfire Disasters; Pro-Trump Lawyer and Accused Co-Conspirator Kenneth Chesebro Located at Capitol on January 6th, 2020, by Video.; Pro-DeSantis Super PAC Debate Memo Suggests DeSantis Hammers Vivek Ramaswamy, Defends Donald Trump After; Biden Turns to Camp David Diplomacy for First Trilateral Summit with Japan and South Korea. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

D'MONTERRIO GIBSON, FEDEX DRIVER WHO SAYS DEFENDANTS SHOT AT HIM: After like -- I'm not going to say everything was purposely done, but it's just like a lot of incompetence. In that police department, for them not to turn over a certain piece of evidence, it just didn't sit right with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: CNN has reached out to the Brookhaven Police Department for comment. They have not responded to us. Gibson's attorney, Poppy, tells us that they expect they won't -- they will get a new trial, but it won't happen until later this year or perhaps next year. They do plan to file a civil suit against the city of Brookhaven, they tell us.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Dianne Gallager, thank you for the update. Keep us posted.

The next hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts now.

Good Friday morning everyone. Glad you are with us. We are watching hurricane Hilary this morning intensifying overnight into a powerful category four storm as it barrels towards the west coast. It is supposed to weaken, so that's good news, by the time it reaches the U.S. But it is expected to bring heavy rain and maybe flooding to the southwest over the weekend. This all comes as we learn FEMA is running out of money for disaster relief after a historic year of weather disasters.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And we have new CNN exclusive reporting. We're learning one of Donald Trump's close allies and codefendants was at the Capitol on January 6th with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

HARLOW: President Biden about to hold a historic summit with the leaders of South Korea and Japan at Camp David to figure out how to counter the looming threat from China and North Korea. National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby will join us live to preview this high-stakes meeting.

This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

Developing this morning, hurricane Hilary powerful right now, a category four storm rapidly intensifying and on its way to the west coast. It is expected to weaken by the time it reaches the U.S. but could be the first tropical moisture to hit California in more than 80 years. Forecasters say Hilary could bring significant and rare impacts, including extensive flooding.

MATTINGLY: And that all comes as we learn FEMA is running out of money after a historic year of weather disasters from coast to coast. America has already had $15 billion disasters in 2023 alone. A FEMA official telling CNN the disaster relief fund could run dry by the end of the month if Congress doesn't act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: We have enough funding to support the ongoing response efforts, because we take events like this into consideration. But it would delay -- if we don't have additional funding, it would delay some of the recovery projects and push them into next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The year started off with devastating flooding in California, crippling winter storms in the northeast, then a tornado outbreak and severe weather across the Midwest and the south throughout March. Then in April, another round of destructive storms from Texas up to the Midwest. There were massive hailstorms in May. Then even more rounds of severe storms in June. All of these totaled more than $1 billion in damage, and that isn't even including the recent wildfire on Maui or historic flooding in the northeast. Derek Van Dam is tracking the latest forecast of hurricane Hilary. Derek, what are we expecting at this point?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: With those billion-dollar disasters, we are now entering into the peak weeks of the Atlantic hurricane season. And here we are talking about a hurricane on our west coast. So, wow, right, 145-mile-per-hour winds with hurricane Hilary. This is a major category four hurricane. It's south of Cabo San Lucas. And I want to show you the projected path of this. It will weaken as it approaching the southwestern U.S., but this is going to be a significant rainmaker. So flash floods, landslides, and mudslides all on the table this weekend into early next week. A very rare level four of four from the Weather Prediction Center. This is a high risk of excessive flash flooding.

And to put this into some context, why you at home should care, let's go back a year, 2022 in Death Valley, California, we received 1.46 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Their average annual rainfall, just over two inches. And what we are forecasting for this particular location, three to four inches of rain. And you can see the devastation in the image I showed you just a moment ago, what happened in Death Valley. So we need to pay attention to this. The rainfall will be the major

concern with the flash flooding. But what about the winds? This storm is going to encounter cooler waters, so that's going to help weaken it as it approaches southern California. If it stays offshore, more coastal impacts. It moves inland, it gets shredded apart and we focus in on the flash flooding for the interior southwest. So many components here, Poppy and Phil. We will keep on track of it.

MATTINGLY: Please do. Derek Van Dam, great reporting as always, thank you.

HARLOW: Also, this breaking overnight. The administrator of Maui's emergency management agency has resigned one day after defending his decision not to sound the island's siren system as those fast-moving wildfires spread through Maui.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:10]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you regret not sounding the sirens?

HERMAN ANDAYA, FORMER MAUI EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: I do not. The sirens, as I mentioned earlier, is used primarily for tsunamis. Had we sounded the siren that night, we are afraid people would have gone mauka. And if that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was Herman Andaya. He cited health reasons for his departure. But he has come under a lot of scrutiny after last week's wildfires are now being blamed for at least 111 deaths. Hawaii's attorney general will be engaging with a third-party private organization to assess the island's fire response. We know Maui's mayor says given the gravity of the destruction, the devastation, the death on Maui, a replacement for Andaya will be named as soon as possible.

We have new exclusive reporting this morning about pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and where he was during the insurrection on January 6th at the U.S. Capitol. He was the alleged architect behind the plan to submit a fraudulent slate of electors after Trump lost the 2020 race. He was also among 19 people, including Trump, indicted this week on racketeering and other charges in Georgia's election subversion case.

Our colleague and CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins us with his exclusive reporting. What do we need to know?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is significant new information that was uncovered by our investigative team here at CNN, and it shows that he was at the Capitol on the Capitol grounds, just outside the doors of the Capitol, surrounded by the mob of protesters. Also, following around the leading voice of the stop the steal movement, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. And the big question is, what was he doing there?

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PROKUPECZ: He is one of the alleged co-conspirators in two cases against Donald Trump for 2020 election interference. Now for the first time, CNN has identified Kenneth Chesebro outside the Capitol on January 6th Shortly before a mob stormed the east side of the building. He followed rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for about an hour. Chesebro is the alleged architect of a plot to use fake electors to stop the certification of Joe Biden's win. This week he was indicted along with Trump and 17 others in Georgia. He has also identified as an unindicted coconspirator in the federal case against the former president.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: CNN projects Joseph R. Biden Jr. is elected the 46th president of the United States.

PROKUPECZ: In the days after the November 2020 election, Chesebro wrote a memo to a lawyer for Donald Trump. It's among the earliest known documents outlining the legal strategy Trump would allegedly try to use. His memo focuses on January 6th as the hard deadline with ultimate significance to determine the validity of electoral votes. Emails obtained by the January 6th Committee show Chesebro later suggesting to the Trump campaign that the fear of, quote, wild chaos on that day could provoke the Supreme Court to take action.

ALEX JONES: Go to the White House!

PROKUPECZ: At the same time, Alex Jones was helping pay for and plan the January 6th rally, urging his massive audience to gather in Washington, D.C. The night before Trump's rally, Jones warned of a coming battle.

JONES: This will be their Waterloo! This will be their destruction!

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

PROKUPECZ: When the January 6th committee asked if Chesebro was in Washington the first week of January, Chesebro pleaded the Fifth.

JONES: Let's go take our country back. Trump's only minutes away. Let's start marching to the Capitol.

PROKUPECZ: But there is no question he was there. CNN has analyzed publicly available photos and videos from that day which show his movements. In the hours before the insurrection, he was with Alex Jones and his entourage a short distance from the Capitol. Chesebro is here wearing a red Trump 2020 hat. As lawmakers prepare to certify the results of the election inside the building, Chesebro follows Alex Jones and a crowd of protesters as they walk towards the Capitol. Chesebro has his phone out, seemingly recording Jones's every move.

JONES: Let's march around the other side. And let's not fight the police and give the system what they want. We are peaceful. PROKUPECZ: As Jones was leading a crowd to the east side of the Capitol, the west side was breached and rioters poured in. At one point while Chesebro was on Capitol grounds, he appears to show something on his phone to a member of Jones's security team. Then Jones and Chesebro climb the Capitol steps.

CROWD: 1776! 1776!

PROKUPECZ: There is no indication Chesebro entered the Capitol building or engaged in violence. But shortly after Chesebro and Jones left the steps on the east sued, the Capitol was breached again as the mob poured into the doors.

[08:10:03]

In all, more than 2,000 rioters would enter the building, vandalizing and looting, attempting to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes. The House committee investigating January 6th would eventually call it the final step in Donald Trump's plan to try and overturn the election, a plan that started in earnest with Kenneth Chesebro.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PROKUPECZ (CROSS TALK): And an attorney for Mr. Chesebro released a statement to CNN saying THAT they were going to allow this to play out in court. Chesebro is expected, he is one of the people who is expected to surrender in Georgia by the end of next week.

MATTINGLY: All right, Shimon Prokupecz, our K-file as well with the reporting, thanks so much.

I want to bring in now our panel for more on this. Alyssa Farah Griffin, CNN political commentator and former Trump White House communications director, Basil Smikle, Democratic strategist and former executive director of the New York state Democratic Party, and Shane Goldmacher, national political correspondent at "The New York Times". Alyssa, what is your reaction when you see yet another thread that seems to connect to absolutely everything this last three months of the administration?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Just only the best people around Donald Trump. Listen, I never dealt with Kenneth Chesebro, but he was one of these attorneys who came in when the former president stopped listening to his White House counsel, when Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin said there is no path for recourse. You are not overturning the election. Actually, as we saw in the indictment, there will be violence in the streets if you try to do this. He then turned to some of these fringier figures.

And I am old enough to remember 10 years ago in the GOP, if you were paling around with Alex Jones, you would have been chased out of respectable GOP circles. This is an incredibly fringe, incredibly dangerous figure. But he was very much involved in this effort we now know and had a close line to the White House.

HARLOW: Shane, do you think this has legal implications for the president's pending cases, for the president, not just for Chesebro?

SHANE GOLDMACHER, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "NEW YORK TIMES": No, I don't think it necessarily has implications for the president. But it does speak to sort of the interplay here between the legal team, the events of January 6th, and that the fringe became the center of the Republican Party at this moment. Alex Jones, as you just said, he was very much the fringe of the Republican Party. And yet the people who were with him, the lawyers that were advising Alex Jones were suddenly also part of the Electoral College scheme. And so it all came together, and it came together in a really terrible, violent way on January 6th.

MATTINGLY: Shane, I want to ask you, the frontrunner in the Republican race is the former president. All these legal cases are surrounding him. The individual that was supposed to be the likely candidate who could take down the current frontrunner, Ron DeSantis, has had a rough couple of months, heading into a debate, very big debate. We now know apparently what a lot of the people who operate on a super PAC would like him to say and do at that debate. Walk people through this really remarkable story you, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan had in the "New York Times" about this memo, all these documents for the debate.

GOLDMACHER: Yes. So we don't know whether Trump is going to be on that debate stage, but we do know that DeSantis is the leading Republican who has said he will be on that debate stage. And it's a big moment. He has had a couple of rough months, as you said. And so he is getting a lot of advice, and really notably the super PAC backing him put together a memo and polling and posted it on basically one of the companies' websites that are working for the super PAC saying what they think he should do. And some of the stuff is, I think, at this point undercutting him because if he says the very lines they've outlined, how he should attack Chris Christie, how he should attack Vivek Ramaswamy, and he should not, in fact, attack Donald Trump, it puts him in a box. If he does the things that the people advising him are telling him to do, then he looks like he is just listening to the people advising him, and that's never good on a national debate stage.

HARLOW: There is a reason, as a strategist, albeit for the other party, there is a reason you are supposed to have a wall between a PAC and a candidate, because it's not supposed to be all about unlimited money. But, the money can go to the PAC, right? There is not supposed to be coordination. And this is why I think your piece is good about pointing out the history of this, that oftentimes these plans if up on obscure parts of the Internet. This one was like right on their website. Just explain to the American people the significance of this and what this sort of lays out to bare for everyone about how things actually work with money in politics.

BASIL SMIKLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: No pressure at all.

HARLOW: In 30 seconds.

SMIKLE: In 30 seconds. You're right. There is not to be any coordination with super PACs. And oftentimes, candidates may not listen to the super PACs, quite frankly. But they do raise, as entities, a tremendous amount of money. They can bring on staff members that the campaign otherwise would not bring on. And they can run ads and get information out to the public that the campaign might not, should not, or for some reason is hampered from doing.

And so this -- and some people call it dark money. And you could use that term, that qualifier for that. But the reality is they are a very significant part of the political process, and they can use some of those dollars to do the kind of research to be able to help a candidate. The candidate shouldn't know that, though.

HARLOW: Right.

[08:15:00]

SMIKLE: The candidate shouldn't have any part of that. Maybe what they do is actually send that information out to the surrogates so that they can act in concert with what the candidate in the campaign are doing. But, yeah, this is a big part of the political process, an important part of the political process. Not everybody agrees that they should exist, though.

MATTINGLY: Alyssa, we asked Governor Chris Christie when he was on a short while ago about, he was targeted in the DeSantis memo or DeSantis Super Pac memo couple of times, several times. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no DeSantis campaign. The entire DeSantis campaign is being run by the never back down Super Pac. They've gotten all the people at the campaign fired that they didn't like, and now they're writing strategy memos and putting them on the internet where everybody can see them.

Look, this just shows you it's not easy to run for president, everybody. And if you can't run for president in a way that doesn't create embarrassing process stories multiple

times a week, you certainly can't run the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And that's my biggest question about posting this, allowing people like Shane to scoop it. Jerk move, man, but great to read because it just creates another news

cycle. And then to Shane's point, how does this not get in your head as a candidate? Walk me through

this. Yeah, as an advisor, what are you doing right now?

GRIFFIN: Governor DeSantis has the most to lose in the GOP debate, assuming that Donald Trump doesn't show up. He had sky high expectations. He's only continued to

go lower in the polls, and I think he's running into a problem that, frankly, some of us predicted. Who

knew him in the House. He's a pretty green candidate. He had some successes in Florida. He did not

have a real strong operation around him. I mean, this is honestly the least of his worries.

I mean, he had the staffer who posted a neo-Nazi video. He had that offensive pride ad that he put out. It's looked like amateur hour on the DeSantis campaign. And he had

tried to argue that the adults will be in charge of my administration at one know, we won't have leaks like

the Trump White House did. They've got a leak in chaos every day. So, I think he is in a position

where I kind of expect to see after this debate, someone else pass him as the number two in the know.

SMIKLE: You know, I don't get often opportunities to burnish my science fiction interests.

GRIFFIN: Go for it.

SMIKLE: Blade Runner, one of my favorite movies. Great line from that movie. "The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.", and if you apply that to Ron

DeSantis, he did so much at the beginning, all this flurry all this anti-wokeness, and now he has really nothing to

back that up. There's no more pathway for him. But your questions to Chris Christie are very

important, because whether it's Ron DeSantis or Chris Christie, how do you try to make a case for a general election and still get out

of your primary?

2012, Chris Christie hugged Barack Obama, the then President Obama after Superstorm Sandy and spent every way possible to figure out how to explain that away. It's a

similar situation, I think happens now. How do you approach Democrats in independence and say, "I can win this

general election and you can't even explain how to work across the aisle to get out of your primary?"

That is a problem I think all of those candidates have.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, there's no question about it. Shane, great reporting as always. Basil, appreciate the science fiction reference. There people who knew him in the House

reference. There's depth to that for those of us who were there. Alyssa, thanks so much.

Also, this morning, Canadian officials are warning that the wildfires burning in parts of the country are, quote, unprecedented. Thousands have been ordered to evacuate.

HARLOW: Also today, President Biden will host a trilateral summit at Camp David with the leaders of both Japan and South Korea, and John Kirby is with us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:08]

MATTINGLY: Well, this morning, for the first time ever, President Biden will host the leaders of both Japan and South Korea at Camp David in Maryland. The trilateral summit

is meant to serve as a show of force in the face of persistent missile threats from North Korea and

China's military maneuvering in the region. Joining us now is John Kirby. He's the National Security

Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House.

John, thanks for taking the time for us at Camp David. This is very significant on a historic level, no question, but also in a kind of near-term level from defense posture,

from an alliance perspective in the Indo-Pacific, what is the primary goal the President has coming out of

that summit in terms of deliverables?

JOHN KIRBY, NSCC FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE: This is really going to be about a future focused agenda today. Phil, I mean, you're right. There's a lot

of history here. It is a historic meeting. It builds on two and a half years of effort and energy by

President Biden to really revitalize our alliances and partnerships throughout the Indo Pacific region. But

what these three leaders are going to be focused on today is the future.

And in just a few hours, when they stand behind me here and do a press conference, they're going to announce a set of initiatives and a framework for making sustainable

all these commitments that we're going to be making. And it's not just in the security realm, although

that certainly will be front and center, given all the threats and challenges, but it's on the economic

front, on supply chains, on microelectronics diplomacy, people to people ties.

There's a whole spate of terrific initiatives that will come out of this meeting today.

MATTINGLY: There's no question that this administration and the leaders in Japan and China are closer probably than I think they've ever been, certainly in a trilateral

basis, but also on a bilateral basis to some degree. However, would you say there's complete alignment in terms of

views of China between the three countries?

KIRBY: I think that all our friends and partners in the Indo Pacific are coming to a common set of perspectives about the threats and the challenges posed by the PRC.

Their economic intimidation, their physical coercion in maritime claims. There are many nations that are

really, coming together and unifying around this common set of threats and challenges.

I'll let the leaders of South Korea and Japan speak for themselves, but I clearly, at least in terms of our perspective, we all recognize in a trilateral format like today, we

all recognize that there's more we need to be doing to stand up to that kind of coercion and that kind of

intimidation. And it's not just the threats posed by the PRC, it's the threat posed by North Korea. Obviously,

that's a real key concern for our South Korean allies, but it has of late become an even more significant

concern to our Japanese allies as well.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, certainly given the scale of some of the missile tests. I do want to ask your response to China's framing of this as the establishment of a sort of a mini-NATO.

KIRBY: Yeah, not true. That's just again, the PRC, I think, overreacting here. Nobody's talking about a binding alliance here between the three countries.

MATTINGLY: Why not though?

KIRBY: Nobody's talking about an Asian NATO.

[08:25:10]

What we are talking about what we are well, it's a good question. What we are talking about is ways to better codify and institutionalize trilateral cooperation across a

wide range of issues, not just in the security realm. And so again, you'll see these leaders come together

today and announce a set of initiatives that we hope will be sustainable for the long term.

And part of the way we're going to try to do that is make these meetings on an annual basis, announce some annual obligations and commitments that we're willing to make to

one another. But nobody's talking about the need for an Asian NATO. I think it's important to

remember, Phil, that five of our seven of the United States is --- five of our seven treaty alliances are

actually in the Indo Pacific region.

So, we already have a vast network of alliances and partnerships that preexist. And what the president has really tried to focus on these two and a half years is showing

them up and revitalizing them because they had not all been treated with the appropriate amount of dignity

and respect by the previous administration.

MATTINGLY: You mentioned North Korea. I want to ask you about the US. Soldier who walked over into ran over into North Korea, Travis King. We've heard a North Korean

version of events. My primary question right now is from the US. side, given the emphasis this

administration has put on getting Americans detained in foreign countries back. Do you view Travis King

in a similar regard, given the fact he went over there himself? Are sanctions a possibility? Is a prisoner

trade a possibility given how he went there?

KIRBY: He's an American soldier, Phil. He's an American soldier, and he's an active-duty soldier at that. And we want to get him back. We want to get him back to the United

States. We want to get him back to his family. We don't really know the motivations that led him to walk

across the border there, the DMZ. We just don't really know. We haven't had a chance to talk to him.

And so, we're trying very hard to get some knowledge here about where he is, how he is, and what conditions is he being held. And we have communicated again through

various channels to North Korea that we want to know more about him, but we just as critically want

him back. So, we are working that as hard as we can.

It's a little bit more difficult dealing with North Korea than it is with some other nations in which there are wrongfully detained Americans that we can negotiate and we have

diplomatic relations with, such as Russia. We just don't have that facility there in Pyongyang to be able

to do that.

MATTINGLY: You mentioned Russia. The last one I want to ask you about our colleagues Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood reported that the Secretary of State, Anthony

Blinken, had spoken to Paul Whelan this week. Is there any update on that? Given what now seems like the

possibility that he may have to serve his entire term unless something changes.

KIRBY: We're still working very hard to get Paul and to get Evan home. And we do have of course, we have the ability to communicate directly with Russian officials on

that, and we are working it very, very hard every single day. I don't have any breaks or deals or

negotiations to speak to today. And even if we had made any significant progress, it would be difficult for me to

talk about it publicly because that could maybe could torpedo the negotiations.

But we are working on it very hard. Secretary Blinken was grateful for the opportunity to talk to Paul. We have a line of communication with him that we can take advantage of,

and that's a good thing. And we also keep that line of communication open with his family. We want to

make sure that they're fully informed. But no, I don't have any breaks in the deal to announce

today except to say we're at it.

We're working on it very, very hard.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, and I appreciate you mentioning Evan Gershkovich, our Wall Street Journal Colleague who's over there, wrongfully detained as well. John Kirby for us in

Camp David, big day for the administration. Thanks so much, sir.

KIRBY: It is. You bet. Thanks.

HARLOW: Really interesting interview. All right, when Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor of New York, he praised the peaceful transfer of power not only for the city, but in

national elections. Well, now he faces charges related to his role in trying to break that tradition. One of

the producers from the CNN original series on Giuliani is here next.

[08:29:14]

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