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CNN This Morning

Tropical Storm Tears Through Southwest Bringing Flooding & Mudslides; Trump and 18 Co-Defendants Have Until Friday to Surrender in Georgia; Maui Mayor: 114 Dead in Hawaii Fires, 850 Remain Missing; Russian Spacecraft Crashes into Moon's Surface. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. We're so glad you're with us on this Monday. Happy to have Victor Blackwell by my side all week.

[06:00:37]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Happy to be back.

HARLOW: You worked all weekend.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I did.

HARLOW: And flew here. Thank you for coming.

BLACKWELL: Took a nap on the plane.

HARLOW: I'm proud of you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

HARLOW: We have a lot to get started to. Really severe weather is dominating the headlines this morning, but here are "Five Things to Know" for this Monday, August 21.

Right now, what is left of Tropical Storm Hilary pounding the Southwest with record rainfall. States of emergencies declared, roads inundated with water. The National Hurricane Center warns catastrophic flooding is still a threat.

BLACKWELL: Happening today, President Biden will visit Maui to meet with survivors of the devastating wildfires. The number of people killed there now 114, with hundreds still unaccounted for.

New overnight, President Trump makes it official. He says he will not show up to this week's GOP primary debate and even suggests that he may not show up to any of them.

HARLOW: That's right. Fulton County Jail in Georgia bracing for a very busy week. D.A. Fani Willis has given Donald Trump and his 18 co- defendants until Friday to turn themselves in on charges stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 election. BLACKWELL: Major failure for Russia here. The country's space agency

reports its first lunar mission in 47 years ended with its unmanned spacecraft crashing into the moon's surface.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

HARLOW: So right now, post Tropical Cyclone Hilary -- that's right -- is barreling through the Southwest after unleashing catastrophic flooding and record-shattering rainfall. This is all happening where you wouldn't expect it, especially in the summer, in Southern California. From the coast to the mountains to the desert.

Palm Springs saw half the year's worth of rain in just six hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED)! Get in, go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Look at that. Heavy rain causing huge, fast-moving mudslides like this one. You can see trees and boulders. What appear to be the wreckage of a building flowing by at one point and this major road turned into a river of mud and rock.

The threat this morning is not over. It's the middle of the night still in California, and across the Southwest, forecasters are warning there could be more life-threatening flash floods and landslides throughout today.

BLACKWELL: Firefighters in the mountains of San Bernardino County were trapped at their station after a huge mudslide covered the road. Look at this.

They heard a rumbling noise. They went to check it out. One of the firefighters was recording this video when a wall of mud started rushing down the road. Boulders you see here, too. Those boulders started coming towards them. They had to run for safety.

Now, right as the storm was hitting, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake then rocked Southern California. Good news, no significant damages. No injuries reported.

We have team coverage. Derek van Dam is tracking this storm in the CNN Weather Center and has the latest forecast, but we're going to start with Stephanie Elam, live in Cathedral City, California.

What are you seeing?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A whole lot of water. Victor and Poppy, good morning to you.

I want to show you what's going on out here, because I talked to these people in this car. They've been out here for hours. They said that they tried to get a tow truck, but they're backed up. They tried to drive through this water. And I can just show you. I'm standing just right here in a few inches of it. And they said because of that, their car has been stuck there with water in the engine. And there's too many rescues going on.

And that's not just the picture here. It's happening throughout Southern California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (voice-over): This morning, Palm Springs is under a local emergency order as heavy rain from Hilary is causing dangerous flood conditions. They prompted at least three swift-water rescues.

MAYOR GRACE GARNER, PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA: We're asking residents to stay inside, stay where they are.

ELAM (voice-over): The mayor's warning is because of a situation like this. A pickup truck stuck in the middle of a street, surrounded by deep, rushing flood waters.

The driver was not injured, but the California Highway Patrol closed the road to prevent others from crossing. Those flood waters so powerful a refrigerator was seen floating away in them.

This drone video, taken over a nearby neighborhood, where the flooding has nearly covered an entire golf course. One homeowner says he's never seen anything like it in the Coachella Valley.

[06:05:02]

BRUCE THOMAS, HOMEOWNER: Within 24 hours, it's turned into a torrential storm. Between hole No. 13 and hole No. 16, it's virtually six feet thick.

ELAM (voice-over): The conditions there also creating a dangerous situation for drivers, including a fire truck, forced to turn around due to rising waters.

Ahead of the storm, the Palm Springs mayor says the city prepared and distributed 60,000 sand bags, as well as cleared storm drains.

GARNER: Even an inch or two of rain in the desert can cause damage.

ELAM: All right. Take a look at this. The road totally covered up, but it's also completely socked in on this other side of the road. I mean, look. I'm barely touching the bottom there.

ELAM (voice-over): State officials say some desert regions, like Palm Springs, could double their yearly amount of water in just one day from Hilary.

Overnight, officials in Ventura County searched by helicopter and on the ground for a couple of people believed to be trapped by flood waters from the Santa Clara River.

Two people eventually walked out of the flooded area, assisted by crews.

Officials urging everyone to stay out of river bottoms and canals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa!

ELAM (voice-over): And this was the scene Sunday in Wrightwood, about 77 miles Northeast of Los Angeles. Huge gushes of water, forcing their way through a wash, carrying large logs, rocks, and muddy debris. Exactly the type of thing the governor wants people to be on alert for.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: Take seriously debris flows and floods, flash floods, lightning, possibility of tornadoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (on camera): And what we are also hearing is that the 911 communications are down in Cathedral City and Palm Springs, which is making it more difficult for rescues to happen.

We are getting some intermittent sprinkles here. But really, what the issue is now is what's left behind, now that Hilary has come through here. And people her in the same situation as rescues are happening all throughout the night here, Poppy and Victor.

HARLOW: Thinking of them. Hope they can get out safely. We'll see what it looks like when the sun comes up. Stephanie, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn now to meteorologist Derek van Dam.

Derek, it's already caused a mess. What's next?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there's no telling the number of rescues that are ongoing as this -- remnants of Hilary move through the Western U.S. under the shroud of darkness. So people have a terrifying night that is still ongoing on the West coast. 35 mile per hour latest winds with the storm.

But look at the rainfall totals. This is really impressive coming out of San Bernardino County. Raywood Flats, over 10 and a half inches of rain. Keep in mind, that elevation, about 7,000 feet. But that water needs to go somewhere. Right? Unfortunately, it funnels down into the communities and valleys below.

We have roughly about 9 million people under a flash flood warning right now. And this includes portions of Los Angeles County.

And I want you to see just the amount of moisture that moved in with Hilary as it started to impact the region late yesterday and into the overnight hours. This is almost streaming, some of this moisture, in from the Pacific Ocean.

Look at that population: 7 million Americans. Well, here's why this is important. There is a mountain range here that's called the Transverse Mountains. And basically, the rainfall running perpendicular to the mountain ranges. So acting like a sponge. It's literally pushing against that wall, the mountain, and it is extracting all the available water out of it.

And that water is in the form of heavy rain that funnels into the narrow channels, and it rapidly rises. The creeks, the river beds and unfortunately the dry desert that is at the base of these mountain ranges.

This is a rainfall accumulation estimate from our radar. And you can see just outside of L.A. over 5 inches of rain. That's a significant amount of precipitation in a heavily-concreted area. So impermeable surfaces. This water has nowhere to go but flow on the surface and, unfortunately, cause that flash flooding.

Hey, look, it's not just Southern California. It's Nevada. It's Idaho. It's all the way into Montana. This is all moisture associated with post Tropical Clone Hilary that continues to wallop the West Coast.

Where does it go from here? Well, we have another 12 hours or so of more rain over the West before it starts to rain itself out. And the flash -- flash-flooding threat continues right through this morning into midday -- Victor, Poppy.

BLACKWELL: Derek, thank you so much. And of course, we'll continue to track this throughout the morning.

HARLOW: All right. Also following this. We are waiting for former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants to surrender and face charges over the 2020 election interference allegations.

District Attorney Fani Willis gave them until this Friday to turn themselves in at the Fulton County Jail. And a senior law enforcement source with knowledge of the surrender tells CNN Trump is expected to show up either Thursday or Friday.

Our senior crime and justice reporter, Katelyn Polantz, live outside of that county courthouse this morning.

Well, Katelyn, it's going to be a long week, I suppose, waiting for him to come, but also just imagining 19 people coming to be processed for this.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's a lot of people, but we're going to be watching for all of them to report to the jail, ultimately, to turn themselves in on those grand jury arrest warrants.

But Poppy and Victor, Thursday and Friday are not going to be the only activity if they were all to wait to that deadline of when they must turn themselves in to the jail to be arrested, processed, and have some wait time inside the jail: getting fingerprinted, getting searched, all of the things that you do when you are a criminal defendant now in the system here in Georgia.

Before that, we're likely to see activity as soon as today, because there will be lawyers that want to negotiate on behalf of their clients, even before their clients need to come in so that that can be as seamless as is possible when the arrests do happen at the jail. This jail is a very populated jail. It has about 2,500 people in it.

It's also a place that's been quite beleaguered over time. It has quite a bit of issues, historically, with the treatment of different people who are being held there in detention.

And so nobody wants to spend very much time in the jail at all. And so to get around that or to make that as seamless as possible, there are going to be different lawyers coming in to meet with the district attorney here, Fani Willis, near the courthouse where her offices would be. That's what we expect, at least.

And whenever they negotiate, they will negotiate, essentially, bail terms to make everything go very smoothly and also to get them to that arraignment as quickly as possible, as well.

BLACKWELL: So, Katelyn, one of the 19, Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is asking a federal court to throw out the state charges there in Georgia. What's his argument? What's the rationale?

POLANTZ: Well, he's arguing that he was working as an official, and the only reason he did anything after the 2020 election for Donald Trump was because he was chief of staff at the White House, that he was a public official.

So right now, Mark Meadows has been very aggressive in getting into court, specifically trying to get his case moved to federal court, and also asking over the weekend for his case and his charges in Georgia that he now faces to be dismissed.

He's pointed out to the court already that he's not charged in the federal case in D.C., where the Justice Department has charged Donald Trump. He's not even a co-conspirator there.

And, thus, because what he was doing for Trump in the White House at the time was part of his official duties, that all should get tossed.

But this Mark Meadows situation, it's important to watch, because we could pick up on how he may split from Trump and already is not in coordination with his former boss.

HARLOW: Yes. Interesting to see how many people try to follow his move to do that, not just move to federal court but try to get the whole thing dismissed, as well.

Katelyn, thank you. Get back to you soon.

BLACKWELL: A brand-new poll just came out in Iowa ahead of the first Republican primary debate. Have criminal indictments had any effect on Donald Trump's commanding lead?

HARLOW: We also have the latest out of Hawaii for you this morning as President Biden and the first lady prepare to visit the scene of America's deadliest wildfire in over a century.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: And so as we stand overlooking the town, we were seeing clouds of dust coming up from some of the heavy machinery. And it's so heartbreaking to realize that dust holds people's children, and parents, and neighbors, and loved ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:55]

BLACKWELL: Happening today, President Biden and the first lady will head to Maui to meet with survivors and to see firsthand the devastation from the deadliest U.S. wildfires in the last century.

And this just in: the mayor of Maui says 114 people are confirmed dead and that 850 are still unaccounted for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RICHARD BISSEN, MAUI COUNTY: When this process began, the missing person list contained over 2,000 names. Through the tireless work of the FBI and the Maui Police Department, over 1,285 individuals have been located safe. We are both saddened and relieved about these numbers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Rescue teams with cadaver dogs have been digging through Lahaina's incinerated wasteland, looking for victims. Hawaii's governor, Josh Green, says he wished sirens alerted people there as the wildfire quickly spread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH GREEN (D), HAWAII: As a person, as a father, as a doctor, as -- I wish all the sirens went off. The challenge that you've heard, and it's not to excuse or explain anything, the challenge has been that historically, those sirens are used for tsunamis. That's when I came to Hawaii 23 years ago was told when I was living down near the shore. So it's usually tsunamis and hurricanes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us live from the White House now.

Jeremy, the president is facing some scrutiny. And it's likely partisan, because a lot of it's coming from Republicans over his response to the wildfires. What is the White House saying?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen. The White House is saying that, look, even though the president was nearly silent for nearly five days last week as the devastation was becoming clearer in Hawaii, that behind the scenes, he's saying that he was leading a robust federal response effort, speaking regularly with state officials, local officials in Hawaii, as well as the FEMA administrator who was on the ground very quickly after those wildfires broke out.

But today, Victor, today will be the opportunity for the president to demonstrate that signature empathy that he is known for and that was so lacking during that nearly five-day stretch last week as the death toll was mounting in Hawaii.

Today the president and the first lady will fly to Maui, where they will get a helicopter tour initially of some of the wildfire damage, surveying it from above.

They will then land in Lahaina to tour some of the devastation on the ground firsthand and meet with state and local officials, who will provide them with a briefing.

The president will then deliver remarks on the wildfires and the recovery efforts, demonstrating the federal government's long-term commitment to that recovery there.

He will also meet with survivors, first responders, community members and volunteers. And the president, in a statement, saying this morning, quote, "I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy. And throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures and traditions."

That there is perhaps a nod to some of the skepticism from the local population there about some of the federal response efforts thus far.

[06:20:03]

As part of that long-term commitment, the president will be announcing that Bob Fenton, the FEMA administrator for that region, will be named the chief federal response coordinator for this effort; demonstration, the White House says, of a long-term commitment to rebuilding after this deadliest wildfire in more than a century in American history -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Jeremy Diamond for us at the White House. Thank you.

HARLOW: So we're tracking also two deadly wildfires in Washington state this morning. Officials say one person is confirmed dead in the Oregon Road Fire. That's just North of the city of Spokane. The wildfire has burned about 10,000 acres.

A second person died Saturday in the fast-moving Gray Fire. That is Southwest of Spokane. It's also burned about 10,000 acres since Friday.

Officials say each zone is still only about 10 percent contained. Right now, thousands of evacuations are underway. And there are more alerts for them ahead.

BLACKWELL: This morning Ukraine is a step closer to getting American- made F-16 jets to help fight Russia. HARLOW: And Russia's first lunar mission in decades ends in failure.

What went wrong? We'll tell you, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:03]

BLACKWELL: New this morning, Ukraine's pleas for fighter jets have now been answered.

Denmark has pledged to send 19 U.S.-made F-16s to Kyiv in the coming months. The Netherlands is promising to send some from its fleet, as well.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Copenhagen, and he called the latest agreement historic and the most important one yet. He thanked his Danish allies for supplying Ukraine's counteroffensive with critical air support.

But officials say it will still take months before Ukraine will actually be able to use those jets.

[A portion of this transcript has been removed. This story relied on a report from the OCCRP, which the OCCRP has subsequently de-published. Therefore, CNN has removed this story.]

BLACKWELL: A Russian spacecraft that was supposed to make the country's first lunar landing in decades has crashed into the moon's surface.

Russia's space agency announced yesterday that it lost contact with the unmanned Lunar 25 space craft on Saturday.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us now.

So Fred, obviously, this is an embarrassment. Well, what's the significance beyond that?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think it's a huge significance for Russia. I mean, one of the things that they said after that probe crashed was they said that, essentially, it seems to be some sort of technical or mechanical error that made that happen.

They actually did manage to put that lander into the moon's orbit. It was going around the moon. But then, in order to try and land, they had to put it into an elliptical orbit, as they said.

And it seems as though that elliptical orbit was a bit off, and it crashed into the moon's surface.

And I was reading the press release from the Russians. In typical Russian technical language, they were saying the lunar module ceased to exist after hitting the moon's surface.

So certainly, an embarrassment for them, especially since the Indians are about to put a lunar lander on the Moon, as well. On the South pole of the moon. So the Russians losing that race, as well.

But you know, also, I lived in Russia for a couple of years, and I'm a complete space geek. And I was in their version of their Air and Space Museum in Moscow. It's a huge deal for them. They were the first country.

[06:30:00]