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CNN This Morning

New Polls on the GOP Primary; Steve Powell is Interviewed about Power During the California Storm; Heartbreak for Spain's World Cup Hero. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 21, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A couple of years. Now, I'm a complete space geek and I was in their version of their air and space museum in Moscow. And it's a huge deal for them. They were the first country - well, the Soviet Union was the first country to put a satellite into orbit, to put a man into space as well. It was really only until the U.S. moon landing here the U.S. then really started to gain the edge. So, bringing back those glory days of the Soviet space program.

But then also we have to keep in mind that Vladimir Putin was saying, look, the west has been holding Russia back for decades. And now that Russia is going it alone, and has all these sanctions, they could make real progress. Well, it turns out, it seems they have a setback now.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, no progress on this one.

All right, CNN's senior space geek Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Coveted title.

New overnight, former President Trump says he's not going to go. He's going to skip the first Republican debate. And instead he's expected to turn himself in to the Fulton County Jail this week.

How does this all play politically. That's next.

BLACKWELL: And a new report predicts that American's could soon run out of any money they saved during the pandemic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:20]

HARLOW: New polling just out this morning from Iowa shows former President Trump leading the Republican field with 42 percent is the margin there. That is a more than 20 point lead over his nearest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It also shows that Trump's lead increased in the days immediately after his fourth indictment.

It went higher after the fourth indictment. And in CNN's poll of polls, take a look at these numbers, Trump with a dominating 57 percent lead. DeSantis trails by nearly 40 percentage points at 17 percent. Vavek Ramaswamy sits in third at 6 percent.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for "PBS NewsHour," Laura Barron-Lopez, national politics reporter for "Bloomberg," Christian Hall, and former attorney for the January 6th House Select Committee, Temidayo Aganga-Williams.

Good to have you guys. Welcome to the table. Some new faces for us. We appreciate you being here.

Laura, this poll is - well, which poll? They're all stunning. But really interesting if you look at the state polls. When you look at what's going on in Iowa with 42 percent for Trump. And then you note, when you dig into the numbers, this is the largest Republican caucus lead recorded by the poll since 2000, which was won by George W. Bush.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And, historically, when a candidate leads by that much, or has this wide of a margin, it's unlikely that they lose the nomination. So, I mean, these polls are showing time and time again that the president, even in the face - the former president, even in the face of all of these indictments, these four criminal indictments, two federal, that he is able to still keep the base -- a significant enough portion of the base very firmly behind him.

And the candidates that are right behind him, whether it's DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, don't appear to be able to chip away at any of his support and - particularly with evangelicals. That poll also shows that DeSantis is struggling to take away some of the evangelical support, which is something that he wanted to try to do.

HARLOW: That's so interesting.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And they aren't trying to directly attack him. And DeSantis has said he doesn't plan to attack the former president in the debate.

BLACKWELL: And so, Christian, this poll also shows that the majority of primary voters there still have not made up their mind. That they can be convinced to support one of these candidates, other than the former president. So, going into Wednesday, what do they do with this? What do they do with all this information that they're still this far behind? And Trump's not going to the debates. He didn't go to the fair side chat.

HARLOW: She didn't like that.

BLACKWELL: Kim Reynolds that there will be a cost, right? It doesn't appear that there is one.

CHRISTIAN HALL, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG": Yes, I mean, I think that's a really good question. I mean the debates are really important for candidates because it gives them an opportunity to get in front of voters. I mean there's no event that they're going to have within the next six months before the first primary to have such a large audience as a nationally televised debate. So, I think that's a really good question. If you take just a look at the history of primaries, I mean, debates

have really played a huge role. I mean Pete Buttigieg, Herman Kane, Ben Carson, all these people, their campaigns were really fueled by strong showings. So, these candidates like Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, I'm sure they are looking towards Wednesday as, you know, hopefully getting an opportunity to show voters that they're worth voting for.

HARLOW: Temidayo, let me ask you as the attorney at the table about the legal cases and their strength, because we just noted in the intro, Trump's numbers went up again after the fourth indictment, his polling numbers. And it is rare to have Republicans -- certainly sitting Republicans, calling him out right now. Chris Sununu does it in a new op-ed in - in "The New York Times." Bill Cassidy -- Republican Senator Bill Cassidy had this to say yesterday about Trump and sort of the legal peril that he faces.

Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Well, I'm not an attorney. There's 91 charges, I think. I think the charge that seems most likely - I mean seems almost a slam dunk is the one related to mishandling of classified documents.

We may have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime. I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced but I don't think Americans will vote for someone who's been convicted.

So, I'm just very sorry about how all of this is playing out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that Donald Trump should drop out of the race?

CASSIDY: I think so. But, obviously, that's up to him. I mean, you know, just asking me my opinion, but I - but I -- he will lose to Joe Biden if you look at the current polls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The politics aside, it was interesting to hear him say that, but he called this, especially the Mar-a-Lago documents case, a slam dunk.

TEMIDAYO AGANGA-WILLIAMS, FORMER SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL, January 6TH COMMITTEE: I think multiple of these cases are, frankly, in my opinion, slam dunks.

[06:40:02]

HARLOW: You do?

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: Yes.

HARLOW: Not just that one? AGANGA-WILLIAMS: Not just that one. I think you start with the

documents case. There is overwhelming evidence there. And I think what's even more important, there's evidence of after the fact obstruction. And what a prosecutor always wants is more evidence showing a state of mind. You can commit a crime, but when you try to cover it up, it's even more of an end if you, in fact, did it. And that's what we have in the documents case.

HARLOW: Do you think that the Georgia -- there's been some criticism of the Georgia indictment because it covered a lot of the territory that Jack Smith covered when he brought his second indictment. And there's the issue of if federal supersedes state. But again the state holds. If Trump becomes president again, he can do a lot to get away with the federal case, a state case holds. But is any of that criticism of Fani Willis in bringing this after Jack Smith brought his warranted legally in your mind?

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: I would say no.

HARLOW: OK.

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: And the reason for that being is that a state prosecutor has their own independent responsibility to protect the jurisdiction that they oversee. Here, Fani Willis is trying to protect and defend the Georgia election process.

HARLOW: And the voters. Their voters.

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: And the voters. Exactly. And here there was a discerned focus on Georgia from the president and his affiliates. Jack Smith is considering a far wider scope and only solely one defendant, at least at this time. So, I do think they are overlapping in facts but they are truly separate investigations and they both have the right to go forward.

BLACKWELL: Laura, Poppy referenced the Chris Sununu op-ed in "The New York Times" -

HARLOW: Oh, yes.

BLACKWELL: In which he writes that, if Republicans narrow the field, we will beat Trump. What evidence is there if you go head-to-head, when you look at these polls, that he's at 42 percent in Iowa, 40 points ahead of his closest competitor in the national poll of polls, that if it's one on one that they'll have a better chance.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right, but you have to convince a number of Republicans to drop out of the race. And they're - the Republicans that I talked to, the Republican strategists in different battlegrounds, don't have any real confidence that - that candidates are going to want to drop out and that there is any type of coordinated effort to - to select someone who will take on Trump directly.

I mean you see donors starting to slowly drift away from Ron DeSantis because they aren't happy with his performance. There's some talk about entertaining someone who can jump in last minute, like a Glenn Youngkin from Virginia.

BLACKWELL: Or a Kemp.

BARRON-LOPEZ: But again - right or Kemp from Georgia. But, again, there is no coordinated effort by - by Republicans across the board to make this happen. And it remains to be seen that it will happen.

BLACKWELL: Yes, what I don't see is the evidence that let's say you narrow it down to one person. Trump is the choice of several of the people according to this poll who were supporting other candidates. That they would all coalesce around one Trump alternative if there is no evidence of that.

HARLOW: That's a great point, if their candidate -

BARRON-LOPEZ: No. And even Ron DeSantis, if he were that so-called one on -- person to take Trump on one on one, he is running as Trump light or actually sometimes in more cases more conservative or to the right of Trump. And yet voters who like Trump and are just as conservative are not leaving Trump for DeSantis.

HARLOW: Christian, just one final point that Sununu made in his op-ed that I thought was really interesting. I'm going to - going to read that. This is closer to then. He said, it must be said that candidates who stay in this race that have no viable path, they're auditioning for a Trump presidency cabinet that will never happen. And even if a Trump administration magically materialized, no public humiliation that great is worth the sacrifice. What do you make of that?

HALL: Well, I think that, you know, for a lot of these candidates, even if they don't win their primary contests, we've seen it in the past that, you know, participating in this is very beneficial to, you know, the professional career -- political career of these candidates. So, I think a lot of them might be, you know, concerned about if they will win or not, but it's definitely beneficial for them to be in, honestly.

HARLOW: Yes, well, and a lot - the silence speaks a thousand words, right?

BLACKWELL: Y Es.

HARLOW: In terms of not condemning certain things.

BLACKWELL: We'll see what we hear on Wednesday night.

HARLOW: It's going to be a late night for us, Victor.

BLACKWELL: And an early morning.

HARLOW: And an early morning.

Christian Hall, we appreciate it.

Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you very much. Come back soon. BLACKWELL: Thank you, guys.

Right now nearly 60,000 customers across California, they're without power. Next we'll speak to the president and CEO of southern California's power company about how they're working to keep the lights on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:41]

BLACKWELL: As the now post tropical cyclone Hilary takes aim at southern California, people are being asked to stay indoors. Heavy rainfall and flooding continues and the strong tropical storm like winds are causing downed power lines and, of course, power outages.

So, when can they expect the power to be restored?

Joining us now is the president and CEO of Southern California Edison, Steve Powell.

Steve, thanks for your time.

What are the numbers now? How many customers are without power?

STEVE POWELL, CEO, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON: Hey, good morning.

So, right now for Southern California Edison we have about -- a little bit less than 20,000 customers without power. We're busy with our crews out there looking to bring power back on as safely as we possibly can.

BLACKWELL: Twenty thousand of how many customers overall you serve?

POWELL: Yes, great question. We have about 5 million customers across our service territory that we serve. And so, you know, so far, you know, we don't want any customers to go out. We prepare. We prepare our grid. We invest in our grid so that it will be reliable, resilient and ready for whatever's coming. And so trying to protect and make sure that our customers stay safe, all 5 million of them.

HARLOW: I know you guys did a lot ahead of this, right, reinforcing structures, a lot of planning in advance, backup equipment, generators. Sounds like, for the most part, those worked, is that right, because would you say the worst has hit you guys?

[06:50:01]

POWELL: Yes, I'd say that, you know, right now the major center of the storm has gone through and so we're hoping that we've seen the worst of it. But we stay prepared. As we -- we've got in house meteorologists that have been tracking this storm for the last five days. And they help us get -- make sure we know where the biggest impacts are going to be. We can preposition crews to be very responsive, make sure equipment's ready. And so we're -- we're really looking to minimize the amount of outages. And that really gets to the investments we've made in the grid for the last decade. But we've got a lot more investment to do going forward.

BLACKWELL: Are conditions safe at this hour or I - well, let's say when the sun comes up maybe for your crews to get out there and repair some of these lines and polls?

POWELL: Absolutely. And, you know, our crews are out working right now. Over the weekend we've already restored nearly 400,000 customers with power. And so they'll work in the rain. They're only going to work when it's safe to do so though. And so if there is heavy flooding they'll -- they'll assess the conditions. But with each outage they go out there. They - they'll deenergize the damaged wires that they need to, assess the safely way to bring it back on, and then they'll bring customers back on. So that's why you'll see the number of customers going up and down throughout the event.

HARLOW: What about for folks waking up this morning to the headline that there was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake on top of all of this? Did that disrupt anything?

POWELL: Yes, not - it's not the ideal time to have an earthquake certainly as we're responding to a tropical storm to manage.

HARLOW: Yes.

POWELL: But it was a 5.1 earthquake. You know, as we've looked at it, we haven't had any damage to our infrastructure from it or from our -- or with our employees. When an earthquake happens, we work with the USGS. And they give us a model of what happened. It's called Shakecast (ph). It allows us to go out and see where the most likely damage would be. And so far things are looking good from that earthquake. But we really want to stay focused on responding to the flooding and the rains from the storm.

HARLOW: Yes. The images are so striking.

Steve Powell, wish your teams good luck, president and CEO of Southern California Edison. Thanks very much.

POWELL: Really appreciate it.

HARLOW: Yes.

This morning, the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Office, also in California, is investigating after a 66-year-old woman was shot to death in front of her business from what appears to be a dispute over an LGBTQ pride flag. Officials say the victim, Laura Ann Carleton, was shot after an argument about the flag hanging outside of her clothing store. Investigators say the suspect, quote, "made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton." The suspect was later killed during a confrontation with deputies.

BLACKWELL: This morning, the FBI is searching for a missing member of the Proud Boys. Now, this comes after Christopher Worrell failed to show up for his sentencing in Washington Friday in a case linked to the Capitol insurrection. He's been convicted of seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting officers. Now, prosecutors say he sprayed law enforcement officers with pepper spray gel during that attack. They're asking the judge to sentence him to 14 years in prison.

So, what will it look like when former President trump surrenders at this jail in Fulton County, Georgia. We'll speak to a former sheriff's department official about how this could play out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:43]

HARLOW: A World Cup champion got heartbreaking news on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life. Spain's Olga Carmona learned last night that her father had died.

Coy Wire joins us now with that.

It is heartbreaking. Even with that devastating news, though, she did offer a message of gratitude.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, Poppy and Victor.

Olga Carmona, she's just 23 years old. She's the team captain. She led Spain to their first ever Woman's World Cup title. Here's the message she posted about her dad. "And without knowing it, I had my star before the game started. I know you have given me the strength to achieve something unique. I know you were watching me tonight and that you are proud of me. Rest in peace, dad."

Carmona scored the game winner in the semi-final, then she scored the only goal of the final to beat England yesterday. She lifts her jersey and she reveals a tribute message for her friend's mother who had recently passed as well without knowing that her own dad had died.

Carmona's just been named one of the nominees for UEFA player of the year.

Let's turn now to the world track and field championships. There's a new fastest man in the world. American Noah Lyles dominating n Budapest yesterday, posting one of the fastest times in history. 9.83 seconds. That gives the two-time defending 200 meter world champ a chance to become the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to win gold in both events at the worlds. The 200s on Friday. After the win, he went to the stands to give mom, Kesha, a big old hug. Paris 2024, look out.

Finally, keep an eye on Coco in Queens next week. She's on the hottest streak of her career after beating Karolina Muchova in straight sets at the Cincinnati Masters. Winning her second title in three weeks. Gauff in the semis beat world number one Iga Swiatek. She'd been 0-7 against her, had never even won a set. Well, she and fellow American Jess Pegula are some of the favorites to win the U.S. Open next week. She's just 19 years old. It's hard to remember that. She's been on the scene for quite some time and she's rolling.

HARLOW: So much fun to watch. BLACKWELL: Fantastic player.

WIRE: Yes.

HARLOW: Are you a tennis guy?

BLACKWELL: Yes, I've been to all the grand slam finals.

HARLOW: That's right! How could I not -

BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes.

HARLOW: How could I forget this?

BLACKWELL: So, I -- the men's final, too, in this was fantastic as well.

[07:00:05]

All right, Coy, thank you.

HARLOW: Coy, thank you.

WIRE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Are you coming up for the U.S. Open?

BLACKWELL: No.

HARLOW: Come on.

BLACKWELL: I won't be coming.