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CNN This Morning

Hilary Tearing Through Southwest After Slamming California With Catastrophic Flooding and Mudslide; Trump and 18 Co-Defendants Must Surrender in Georgia by Friday; Trump Confirms He Will Skip First GOP Presidential Debate. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 21, 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: The men's final, too, in this was fantastic as well.

All right, Coy, thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. Are you coming up for the U.S. Open?

BLACKWELL: No, I won't be coming up. My next one is -- I got to work on the weekends.

HARLOW: I know.

BLACKWELL: If they keep playing on Saturdays and Sundays, I won't make it.

All right, CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Magnitude 5.1 earthquake has shaken Southern California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burned scars and mud debris flows coming down the mountains.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst of the storm has really been in the desert area. The infrastructure isn't designed to take on all of this water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take nothing for granted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is expected to fly over Lahaina. He's expected to meet with first responders and victims of this disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel that the government is stream-rolling this process without consulting from the leaders of our community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going through every inch of the space in Lahaina and identifying anybody that is still there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former President Donald Trump, he confirmed that he won't be participating, he says, in the debates.

FMR. GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): The counterprogramming is typical Trump. He wants to suck all the oxygen out of the room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: DeSantis is the guy who is in most jeopardy here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Friday is the big day that marks the deadline for D.A. Fani Willis' command that these 19 defendants turn themselves in.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: It's not just Donald Trump and the 18 co-defendants are showing up first. They all have to negotiate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to believe somebody who has 91 indictments should be the president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Djokovic is the champion in Cincinnati once more after 3 hours and 49 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely one of the toughest and most exciting matches I was ever part of on any tournament. Boy, you never give up, man.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Never give up. I loved that moment.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it's a good moment for him. Still, Alcaraz, young man, on the rise.

HARLOW: He's great too, right?

BLACKWELL: Young man on the rise.

HARLOW: That's so true.

Well, good morning everyone. It's the top of the hour. We're so glad you are with us, Victor Blackwell by my side, good morning to you.

BLACKWELL: Good to be here. Good morning.

HARLOW: So, we start with this severe weather on the west coast, because, right now, 8 million people across the southwest are at risk of dangerous flash flooding after Tropical Storm Hilary unleashed record shattering rainfall and catastrophic floods in Southern California. It turned desert town into rivers.

Take a look at this new video into CNN of Cathedral City being overtaken by floodwaters overnight. Hilary has weakened to a post tropical cyclone threat. Not over yet, though.

Forecasters are warning there could be more mudslides, more life threatening flooding all day there. This was the scene in San Bernardino County. You can see trees and boulders just rushing by.

BLACKWELL: Up in the mountains, firefighters were trapped at their station after, look at this, a huge mudslide blocked the road. They heard a rumbling noise and they went to check it out. And then one of the firefighters was recording this video when a wall of mud and rocks, they started coming down the hill towards them and they had to run for safety.

We have team coverage. Derek Van Dam is tracking the storm in the CNN Weather Center as the latest on the forecast, Mike Valerio is in San Diego. Let's start, though, with Stephanie Elam live on the ground in Cathedral City.

You've been there all day and now overnight into the morning. What are you seeing? Still water on the roads?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, so much water. Victor, take a look down here because I'm actually standing next to the edge of the curb here, and I try to put my toe down to feel like how far down that is and I can't reach it. That's how deep it is.

And since the last time I talked to you an hour ago, there was a car here. They finally got a tow truck. It took them about four or five hours before the tow truck could get here. This is happening all through these desert towns because it was just so much water in such a short amount of time.

(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 and prompting at least three swift water rescues.

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

ELAM: 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 floodwaters. The driver was not injured, but the California Highway Patrol closed the road to prevent others from crossing. Those floodwaters 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.

BRUCE THOMAS, HOMEOWNER: Within 24 hours, it's turned into a torrential storm between hole number 13 and hole number 16. It's virtually six feet thick.

[07:05:00]

ELAM: 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 sandbags as well as cleared storm drains.

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

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

ELAM: 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 floodwaters 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.

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. GAIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Take seriously debris flows and floods, flashfloods, lightning, possibility of tornadoes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (on camera): And we were out here all day yesterday while the storm really made its impact felt here and it was amazing to see just how quickly roads were flooded out. It was happening so fast. So, no surprise today that some schools are closed, many schools in this region are closed today. And also what we were also hearing is that 911 communications are down. And that is why it is still taking a long time for a rescue to go out because so many of the roads are inundated, including Interstate 10, which runs through here as well, Poppy and Victor.

HARLOW: Wow, 911 down in some areas makes it even worse. Steph, thank you very much.

Later this hour, we're going to be joined by the mayor of Palm Springs, California, Mayor Grace Garner.

BLACKWELL: From Southern California now to the CNN Weather Center, Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is there tracking the system.

So, Derek, we saw the wake. What's ahead?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so much rain, right? National Weather Service out of Los Angeles just tweeting a few minutes ago that virtually all of their observation sites have broken daily record rainfalls. That's incredible.

And we still have a few hours to go coming out of Los Angeles, some rainfall moving into that area, and, of course, the system is just bulleting to the north at about 30 miles per hour.

And we wanted to highlight some of the lesser impressive rainfall totals but they are impressive because they're breaking daily rainfall records but also it's never rained this much in the month of August. Keep in mind, this is generally a dry area for this time of year.

San Diego, their wettest day in nearly six years Long Beach in Los Angeles also setting daily record rainfall rates -- rainfall totals, I should say, from yesterday. This is in the past 24 hours. 7 million Americans or 8 million actually currently under a flashflood warning, this includes portions of Los Angeles County.

I want to highlight this area because we have the transverse range. This is a mountain range located across Southern California. And this water has literally been piling up across this area, just the rainfall kind of bands just working in perpendicular to this mountain range. So, basically, all of it funneling down the canyons below and unfortunately producing that mud flows, debris slides and landslides that were seen on our T.V. screens this morning. A lot of rain moving up the West Coast, this is going to continue for the next 12 hours.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Derek. We know you'll watch it. Thanks so much.

HARLOW: All right. Let's go to our colleague, Michael Valerio. He's live in San Diego for us, in Southern California, this morning. Good morning, Mike. A lot of flooding from the mountains and the deserts all the way to the coast.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy and Phil, good morning to you. And that's exactly where we're going to start, here on the coast, just up the street where we are in San Diego.

So, overnight, there are no fewer than nine people, Poppy and Phil, who were rescued by San Diego fire personnel. This was an encampment of people experiencing homelessness who thought that they could ride out this storm on an island in the middle of the San Diego River. If you're familiar with the area, pretty close to SeaWorld, pretty close to Mission Bay. All of them are okay.

But because the flooding threat isn't over in our inland to coastal streams and rivers, there are no fewer than ten river search and rescue teams that San Diego Fire is putting up and down the river from Mission Bay all the way to the five, which is a pretty long stretch of the San Diego River.

But I think, Poppy and Phil, just, you know, it's very early here in San Diego, but traversing the streets, there is very little damage, thankfully, to the infrastructure here. I think preparation was key from lessons learned in January, February and March, when we had that succession of atmospheric rivers coming through.

[07:10:05]

But Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego made it a point to say that he was mobilizing hundreds of extra emergency workers, because this is not what San Diego is used to. Listen to what he told us. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TODD GLORIA, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: We're not used to this level of precipitation generally, certainly not in the middle of summer and August. We're not built for this kind of rainfall. That's my main concern.

But with what we're expecting, it may overwhelm us, and we're asking the public to stay out of those areas for your safety and the safety of our first responders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So, as we're looking out across the bay, you're going to see very faintly that number 72. That is the USS Abraham Lincoln. I'm talking about preparation. The U.S. Navy has sent out ten ships from the 3rd Fleet just to minimize ship overcrowding, because the waters were very choppy here.

So, preparation was key, damage minimal in the city of San Diego. This is the wettest weather event for San Diego since 1873, when President Grant was in the White House. So, certainly, a bullet dodged, Victor and Poppy. Victor, very sorry, it's before the crack of dawn. So, we will certainly wait until the sun comes up to assess the rest of the damage. But it seems as though our friends in the desert communities have faced the brunt of the storm and have the worst of the damage.

BLACKWELL: All right. Thank you, Josh. No, I'm kidding. Mike Valerio for us there. It's early and it's storm coverage, so all is forgiven. Thanks so much.

VALERIO: Thank you, my friend.

BLACKWELL: All right. Just days from now, Donald Trump is expected to surrender in Fulton County, Georgia. We'll talk to a retired lieutenant with the sheriff's office about what to expect.

HARLOW: Also, there's a really telling new poll this morning out of, oh, just kind of an important state, Iowa, and it shows Trump still with hugely commanding lead five months before the caucus is. Coming up, we will break down the numbers and how the competition is stacking up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

HARLOW: So, just days from now, former President Trump is expected to have to turn himself in for the fourth time in less than five months. This is according to a senior law enforcement source with knowledge of the surrender, because this time, the former president will appear in Georgia where he's facing charges related to 2020 election interference.

The Fulton County district attorney has set that deadline for Friday for Trump and his 18 co-defendants to surrender at that jail. Joining us now with what we can expect, what does that actually look like when someone surrenders themselves at the Fulton County Jail is retired Fulton County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Charles Rambo. Lieutenant Rambo, it's good to have you.

This jail is notorious. Is that the right word for it? There have been a lot of issues with it. There's been DOJ complaints against it. What is this going to look like when Trump in particular walks in there sometime this week?

CHARLES RAMBO, RETIRED LIEUTENANT, FULTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Well, provided that he has already been served an indictment, persons who surrender themselves normally will come in through the front door.

We have to remember also, again, we're talking not someone who should be under the presumption of innocence as he walks into the door. And when he comes in along with other officials, they would be pat down, led to the booking office in the rear.

From there, they probably will have to have ties and shoestrings and all those type of things taken. Then from there, the persons would be fingerprinted, given a booking photo and then having to spend some time possibly for NCIC and GCIC checks.

Again, for the purposes of safety, it is highly recommended, and I do not speak on behalf of Sheriff Pat Labat, but just from my own experiences in dealing with dignitaries and high-profile persons who come into jail, it's best to just get those persons booked in as rapidly as possible and get them released, because you don't want the jail to become more of an international theater than it has become here recently.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The sheriff has said that unless he's told differently, there's always that caveat, that the president, former president, will be treated like everyone else. But we've seen that there are VIPs who come in and have to have this treatment, in this case for security purposes.

So, will other people, all other people be removed from that area, other people who are in custody, do you expect? The Secret Service may demand that.

RAMBO: That very well could be arrangements that could be worked out. But it will be a very unique situation for the former president and others who may come back there and see some of the faces of persons there that are under the same type of circumstances with them.

And this is one of those particular moments where you just hope that the criminal justice process is going to stick to the weight of the cases, because, again, everyone deserves their fair justice.

HARLOW: You make a good point, and that's just such an important point in this country, that as we see these images, Lieutenant, of people walking in, et cetera, and he's going to be walking in with all these co-defendants, they walk in before their defense has been presented in court. I'm glad you bring it up. Can you talk about the conditions also a little bit in more detail in the jail itself? Because there's been a lot of reporting on it, but you know it better than most folks.

RAMBO: If you could, could you repeat that last question for me?

[07:20:00]

I heard you, but I want to make sure I'm accurate.

HARLOW: No problem. Could you speak to the conditions inside this facility, this jail specifically?

RAMBO: I understand that there have been some improvements. But, again, we've looked at a facility for the past three and a half years that has just been under turmoil, whether it's been manpower shortages, whether it's been inmate violence.

And, again, I'm not making up these narratives. These are things that are documented as well that have been shown on network television. It's a jail that dysfunctionally has been that way, honestly, since we opened it. I helped to open the jail in 1989. But I can also remember between 2009 and 2016, when we got it from up under federal consent decree and got it rolling into the right direction.

It is my prayer that this sheriff will be able to get that done so that people, again, whether it's the persons who are getting ready to come in now or even our locals, everyone will be able to come in for a fast and speedy process so they can get their day in court.

BLACKWELL: Lieutenant Rambo, we've talked a lot about the considerations for Trump turning himself in, but there are other high- profile co-defendants of the 19. You've got former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. You've got Mark Meadows. Do you expect that they would be afforded privileges that other defendants coming in potentially would not receive?

RAMBO: Well, by virtue of the fact and, again, you have to realize, like everyone has been seeing, this is very unique. This is probably the most high-profile detainee or detainees that would have come into the jail. But because you're dealing with persons who have worked in government, and particularly someone who is still a part of the national machinery as the former president, we would give them the same privileges as we would any consulate or any other dignitary or diplomat. We're just extending that for the sake and purposes of getting them in and getting those persons out.

Now, the other persons who have not been elected officials would probably have to go into the same procedures unless they've worked out some type of surrender arrangement with the courts before getting to the jail.

BLACKWELL: All right. Retired Fulton County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Charles Rambo, and, yes, that is your real name, you told us during the break that you've been challenged many times on that, Lieutenant Rambo, thank you so much. RAMBO: Thank you all for having me.

BLACKWELL: All right. Former President Trump is planning to skip Wednesday's Republican debate. And with the new Iowa polls showing him with a commanding lead, could it mean we may see or not see Trump at any debate this primary season? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

HARLOW: So, it's coming up this week. The stage is set for the first Republican presidential debate. It is Wednesday night. Too late for Victor and I but we will be awake --

BLACKWELL: We're going to make it and try to make it.

HARLOW: We are going to make it. But guess who's not going to make it? He doesn't want to be there, Donald Trump. He will not be on stage. He confirmed his absence in a truth Social Post. He wrote, quote, public knows who I am and what a successful presidency I had with energy independence, strong quarters, military. He went on and on and on., So he basically said that they do not need to see him again.

Joining us now, politics reporter at Semafor Shelby Talcott, and National Politics Reporter and Team Leader for Bloomberg Mario Parker. It's good to have you guys.

He went on to list all of his accomplishments as president. And he's basically saying, and the polls, Shelby, reflecting this, not just the national poll, the CBS poll that has Trump with a 46-point lead against his next closest competitor, Ron DeSantis, but the Iowa polling out this morning from NBC, which shows Trump at 42 percent, DeSantis at 19 percent, the largest margin since 2000 in that state.

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yes. I'm not I'm not super surprised by this because this is kind of what we've been seeing in all of the polls. But, particularly, I think this is really the biggest, most detailed Iowa poll that has been done to-date.

And it just indicates a few things. It first indicates that his support with these indictments both hardens and increases. That was one of the notables in the Iowa poll that I pulled out of that.

HARLOW: Hardens and --

TALCOTT: Yes, yes.

HARLOW: Two great things for him.

TALCOTT: Yes, very good things.

But the other thing that I found interesting that should serve as a red flag to Trump's team is the fact that the overall Iowa footprint, which is his -- the voters' first choice, second choice and people they're actively considering, Ron DeSantis is almost even with Donald Trump.

And so that's something that I imagine Trump's team is going to be keeping an eye out for because, you know, you just never know. We still have a lot of time and so you have to see if something does happen, if one of these indictments long-term does start to stick. People are still considering Ron DeSantis, even as Trump is a very clear frontrunner as of now.

BLACKWELL: And not to discount Iowa, but let's say DeSantis performed strongly there. I mean, if we look at 2016, Ted Cruz won Iowa and Donald Trump ran away with the nomination.

I want to talk about this Truth Social post where he says he's not doing the debates, plural, right? So, maybe he's talking about the two that have been announced, this one coming Wednesday and on the 27th. But is it plausible that he could just say, I'm not doing primary debates because I'm so far ahead of you, they would probably be legally problematic anyway with all the cases and still go on to win this nomination?

MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: Yes, what Donald Trump wants to do essentially with this entire campaign is cast himself as the de facto incumbent, right? He's a former president.

It's unprecedented as a former president is coming trying to make a comeback White House bid essentially, very popular with the base, as Shelby said as well. So, he's trying to give the sense that this is inevitable, right, that his nomination, this is all inevitable.

The primary is essentially over. It's time for him to pivot to Joe Biden. And that's what he's trying to give off with these -- with saying that he -- debates, plural, essentially.

TALCOTT: And it's really interesting too, because even though Trump's not going to be at the debate, he's still going to have a strong presence.

[07:30:01]

So, he's having a bunch of surrogates show up to Milwaukee on Wednesday. There's going to be Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake.