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CNN This Morning
Debate Momen's Changing a Campaign; India Lands on Moon; Mike Massimino is Interviewed about India's Moon Landing; Burgum Taken to Emergency Room; New Funding for Airports. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired August 23, 2023 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: That's not one of the things I think you should - that should surprise you about me.
And, you know, I think back on big debate moments and the first one that I remember coming out of college was this moment in the 2012 campaign, Rick Perry, I think we have the clip. Let's play it and we'll listen and we'll talk on the other side.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (November 9, 2011): It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, education, and the -- what's the third one there? Let's see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you can't name the third one?
PERRY: The third agency of government -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
PERRY: I would - I would do away with, the education, the, um -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commerce.
PERRY: I -- I - commerce. And let's see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my.
PERRY: I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENTEN: Ah.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
ENTEN: Oops.
BLACKWELL: Oops.
ENTEN: Energy. Energy, anybody?
BLACKWELL: Energy. Yes, that's the one.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: But then he would go run it.
EETEN: And then he'd go run it.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
ENTEN: And, you know, one of the interesting things people look back upon that moment and they remember that Rick Perry was, at one point, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination during the 2012 campaign. He had already lost that status in the polls by this particular point. He was already -- had dropped significantly from where he was two months before this moment occurred.
But this was seen as sort of the last gasp sort of moment where maybe Rick Perry could turn his campaign around. And, obviously, it just didn't work out for him. He ended up winning no caucuses, no primaries and fell further in the polls after that moment.
But there's another moment that, to me, just jumps out as the seminal sort of moment where a campaign that looked like it was on the rise was coming to an end. It was from the 2016 campaign. It happened in New Hampshire. It happened with Marco Rubio and Chris Christie.
HARLOW: Oh, yes.
Let's listen to that.
BLACKWELL: Remember that one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You see everybody -- I want the people at home to think about this. That's what Washington, D.C., does. The drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisors gave him.
There it is.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): It's not true. He knows exactly what he's doing.
CHRISTIE: There it is, the memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.
RUBIO: He - well, that's the - that's the reason why his campaign -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENTEN: I feel like there was a trap that was set up at that moment. And Marco Rubio walked right into it.
Remember what - what -
HARLOW: People didn't see he kept repeating the same thing in that moment.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
ENTEN: That's exactly right. He said exactly what Chris Christie said he was going to do.
HARLOW: To say. Yes.
ENTEN: Exactly right.
And if you recall during the 2016 campaign, Marco Rubio had this sort of three, two, one strategy. Come in third in Iowa, come in second in New Hampshire, come in first in South Carolina and your campaign will take off. And if you look at the polling in New Hampshire, what you saw was, after he came in third in Iowa, he completed the first successfully, his polling was on the rise, and then what we saw, we saw that moment crushed his campaign into smithereens. He ended up finishing not second - I don't even finish - he didn't finish even third in New Hampshire. I think he finished fourth, if I recall correctly. And it basically ended his campaign.
Chris Christie, of course, took Marco Rubio out and, therefore, basically gave Trump the nomination. And now I think it's so interesting, of course, that Christie is running as the anti-Trump. Almost making up for this particular moment. But these moments sort of -- these debate moments sort of give you an idea of how important debates can be to sort of ending a campaign. Those are two fine examples.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
ENTEN: Two fine people. Two fine examples.
BLACKWELL: Oh, well, thank you very much for that, Harry.
HARLOW: Awe.
ENTEN: Thank you.
HARLOW: Thank you, Harry.
I wonder if he's going to do that tonight. I can see him maybe doing that on DeSantis.
ENTEN: Yes.
HARLOW: I don't know.
ENTEN: I don't know. I don't know.
HARLOW: I don't know. That's why we're all going to watch.
BLACKWELL: Maybe it isn't the same result. If you take out DeSantis then, does that again hand - I mean he's so far ahead anyway.
ENTEN: Right. He's so far ahead. This is a somewhat different campaign. Trump's much further ahead.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
ENTEN: But I'll be interested to see whether these great debaters of the past can create great debate moments again. We'll just have to wait and see. and that is the beauty of it.
BLACKWELL: All right. You're excited.
ENTEN: Oh, I am - oh, I am thrilled!
BLACKWELL: I know you are.
Harry Enten, thanks so much.
ENTEN: Thank you.
HARLOW: All right, as you get your morning started, here are "5 Things" to know.
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani set to meet with the Fulton County D.A. in Georgia today to work out a bond agreement and then surrender in the 2020 election subversion probe. So far only four of the 19 people charged have turned themselves in.
BLACKWELL: And on that debate, the stage is set in Milwaukee tonight for an eight-Republican presidential candidates. They are squaring off in the first primary debate. Frontrunner Donald Trump, as we said, will not be there, but the stakes are high for his rivals as they seek to win over voters.
HARLOW: Hawaiian officials working to identify victims still of the deadly Lahaina fire. They say nearly 1,100 people remain unaccounted for. Some may be lost forever. They will be releasing a list of the missing in the coming days, according to "The Washington Post." The confirmed death toll this morning is 115, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
About 110 million people are under heat alerts across the central and eastern states today. The searing August heatwave continues with record-breaking temperatures this week.
BLACKWELL: The father of Tennessee Titans cornerback Caleb Farley has died after a home explosion in North Carolina. Fire officials say that Robert Farley's body was discovered as investigators searched the demolished property.
[08:35:01]
That's "5 Things" to know this morning. You see more of these stories all day on CNN and cnn.com. And don't forget to download the "5 Things" podcast every morning. Go to cnn.com/5things. You can also find it wherever you get your podcasts. All right, after a number of close calls on runways across the
country, the federal government is funding millions of dollars' worth of construction to help combat that problem. A new report next.
HARLOW: Just in, India has become the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon. We'll take you live to New Delhi ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: India has done it. It has become now the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon after the U.S. and China and the former Soviet Union. Just moments ago, and we're talking just a couple of minutes, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar south pole. Look at the celebration here. Indiana's space research organization is already sharing stunning photos from the mission.
[08:40:03]
And look at these pictures of the approach. It's a rare close-up of the moon's kind of dusty gray terrain.
HARLOW: This mission comes as space programs around the world are racing to get to the moon. This weekend, you'll remember, Russia failed to land a spacecraft on the moon. NASA has announced multiple crewed lunar missions, including plans to have the first woman and person of color on the moon's surface. But India landed on the south pole of the moon. And experts believe there could be ice, mineral deposits, valuable elements there.
Vedika Sud joins us live in New Delhi with more.
I can only imagine how excited people are, Vedika.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely. The moment that soft landing happened, Poppy, you should have seen these people behind me, not believing this (INAUDIBLE) pavilion (ph) that was set up. But they were clapping. They were clearing. There were chants. They were cheering the prime minister on after that while he was addressing the nation.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is at the BRICS Summit in South Africa currently, but he tuned in virtually to watch that moment.
And what a moment it was. You could see the emotional scenes inside the mission control center. And if you just go four years back approximately, those very hearts were broken, not only inside the control room, but across India. Millions of hearts broke when the Chandrayaan-2 failed to make that soft landing on the moon.
But, well, that's the past. Now look at what's happened today. India's not only, like you pointed out, Victor, the fourth country in the world to make this soft landing on the moon. It's also the first country in the world to make this soft landing in the south pole region. A big accomplishment for India. Just the first in many in terms of its space ambitions. It wants to send a mission to space very soon a manned mission. It also wants a place in the international space center there.
So, a lot happening -- at the International Space Station, rather.
Right now we still have the Indian prime minister speaking live. This is, like people have told us, and scientists have said, a moment of intense national pride.
Back to you.
BLACKWELL: Exciting moment. They're joining a very small fraternity.
Vedika Sud with the reporting there. Thank you so much.
Let's bring in now Mike Massimino. He's a former NASA astronaut and professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. Also has a new book coming out in December called "Moonshot: A NASA Astronaut's Guide to Achieving the Impossible."
Mike, good to have you.
MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Thanks for having me.
BLACKWELL: Let's start here with the positioning.
MASSIMINO: Yes.
BLACKWELL: How important it is for India not just to join this fraternity, but to go now to the south pole.
MASSIMINO: Yes. So, the south pole is big, Victor, because of ice. There is the - there's ice there. So, the interest with ice is that it can be possibly made into drinking water to support crews that would go there, astronauts that would go there. And also could be turned into rocket fuel to use the moon as a place to launch -- to further locations out in the cosmos. So, that is the great interest with the south pole. And no one's been able to land there yet.
HARLOW: Yes.
MASSIMINO: This is the first time a country has pulled that one off. So this is big news. And looking forward to what they'll find out there.
HARLOW: And what are they trying to find out there?
MASSIMINO: Well, if they can - if they can find that ice and see -- learn more about it, how it's composed of -- what form it's in, where it is exactly and maybe how they can process it into drinking water and how they can maybe process it into fuel.
Also, just - all the mechanics, the physics of getting to the -- the reason it's so difficult is because of -- it's a difficult place to get to based on the math, the physics, (INAUDIBLE). It's harder to get there than it is in the -- towards the center of the moon, where we've landed previously.
HARLOW: Yes.
MASSIMINO: So, sharing - hopefully they'll share all that information. I would expect they would. What the terrain is like. If there's any atmosphere there at all. Any traces of any elements there. So, all of these things will help us understand the south pole, which is of great interest as a possible landing location, not only for more spacecraft like this, but also for people in the future.
BLACKWELL: Yes. It's just been a few days since the Russians, their unmanned mission to the moon ended in failure. It crashed into the surface of the moon.
MASSIMINO: Yes.
BLACKWELL: And now that India has landed this, are we in another moon race? I mean I -- what do you see with this, I guess, rush back?
MASSIMINO: Yes, I hope it's not a - I hope it's not a race. I think it's good to have a little competition maybe, but I don't believe we're going to be sharing information together.
I think what we're seeing here is that it's possible now to get back to the moon, not just 50 years ago like the United States did, an incredible accomplishment. It was just a visit. Now we're looking to go back and set there and explore there and go there for science and for prestige, for national prestige. India's got a - you know, this is a great accomplishment for them.
And also strategically, economically, to see what resources are there. Can we use it as a place to move to other places in the - in the cosmos, to launch from there. So, I think - I think what we're seeing is that it's possible. You know, when things are -- we can't get there for the last 50 years. It's been, ah, you know, it's tough to get there and so on.
[08:45:03]
But now that we see it's possible, more people will think about what they can do there. And so that's why I think we're seeing this - this heightened interest, particularly in that location on the moon. But I hope it's not really a race. I hope it's cooperation. It is not an easy thing to do. This is the first time a country has been able to pull it off. Hopefully, they will share that information and, hopefully, we can go together. It's a huge undertaking and I hope it's done as a team between different countries around the world.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
HARLOW: Yes, good for India. They should celebrate this moment.
MASSIMINO: Great for India. Yes, really - we'll see what happens too.
HARLOW: Great for India. Mike -
MASSIMINO: We'll see what they learn here.
HARLOW: We'll be watching it.
MASSIMINO: Hopefully everything keeps working.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
MASSIMINO: You know, you've got a rover that's looking around. So we'll see what happens.
HARLOW: Fingers crossed.
BLACKWELL: Great to have you.
HARLOW: Mike Massimino, thanks so much.
MASSIMINO: My pleasure.
HARLOW: Look forward to the book.
MASSIMINO: Oh, thanks very much.
HARLOW: Thank you. Thank you.
MASSIMINO: Thank you for plugging it.
HARLOW: So, after a number of close calls on runways across the country, the federal government is funding millions of dollars in new construction to try to help combat that. We've got that new report ahead.
BLACKWELL: Plus, breaking news on one of the eight presidential hopefuls planning to take the stage at the debate tonight. He was just injured, and his debate attendance is in question. The latest right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:08]
BLACKWELL: Breaking news, Republican candidate Doug Burgum, who is supposed to be on the debate stage tonight, was taken to the emergency room.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now live from outside the convention center where the debate will take place.
Jeff, what do you know?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Victor, we are learning that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, as you said, was playing a pickup game of basketball yesterday here in Milwaukee in preparation for tonight's debate when he was injured. So was taken to a Milwaukee area hospital emergency room. Our colleague, Dana Bash, is reporting that the governor's attendance tonight at the debate is very much in question if he will be able to stand on the debate stage for that two-hour debate. Now, we are going to see all of the candidates at a walk through this
afternoon on stage, sort of seeing what this format is like. And it's unclear if he will be able to go through that.
But this is just coming into us this morning. And Dana will have more on this on "INSIDE POLITICS" later.
But the governor, of course, 67 years old. He is one of the later joiners into this Republican presidential campaign, but has been actively campaigning, is very physically fit. I saw him at the Iowa State Fair just a week or so ago.
But yesterday he was playing basketball and we're told that he was injured. The extent of the injuries are not quite clear. But the question is, will he be able to stand for the duration of the debate. So, this is certainly something that his staff is assessing today, as well as the impact it could have on the rest of the program.
Again, eight candidates will be on stage. And he was, frankly, thrilled to be included in them. He made the threshold of those 40,000 donors through some unique processes, essentially enticed people to donate to his campaign. So, he has been here in Milwaukee preparing for the debate. But that basketball game yesterday landed him in the hospital and is putting his debate attendance in question.
Victor.
BLACKWELL: Yes, took a lot of work to earn that podium. Of course we're all hoping for his recovery.
ZELENY: He did.
BLACKWELL: Jeff Zeleny for us there in Milwaukee. Thank you.
ZELENY: Sure.
HARLOW: All right, we'll keep you posted on that.
Also this morning, the FAA announcing $121 million investment to fund upgrading airports and the runways specifically. The money is going to construction projects at eight major U.S. airports. The NTSB says it's investigating seven runway incursions this year.
Pete Muntean joins us now, who is also a pilot, by the way. So, I want your take on how much these changes are going to matter and make things better.
What are they going to spend it on?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're talking changing the design of airports to make them less dangerous, Poppy. These repeat near collisions are a really big problem the FAA is trying to get its arms around. There's been a safety summit, memos to pilots and controller, new review board. But all of this now is the kind of stuff that you'll actually be able to see. Shovels in the ground at airports. Here are the airports where taxiways and runways are getting a
facelift in the same of safety. Boston Logan, Reagan National Airport in D.C., Richmond, Jackson Hole, Toledo, Naples and Anchorage. In some cases, tricky blind corners will be removed. In other places, new taxi ways will be built so planes don't have to use the runway to taxi back to take off at the end.
The biggest outlay of cash, and this is significant, $44 million, is going to Boston Logan to remove parts of problem front taxiways. And that's significant because Boston was the scene of one of these incidents earlier this year. A JetBlue flight, full of passengers, had to abort its landing when a Learjet, operated by a charter company, took off from an intersecting runway in front of it. A very close call.
This is the image taken by an off-duty pilot in the jump seat of that JetBlue flight. That streak there of the dashboard, that's the Learjet. We're talking only hundreds of feet from tragedy.
This is the kind of thing this money is going to try and avoid. $121 million. It all comes from FAA grants and the bipartisan infrastructure law, Poppy.
HARLOW: OK. Pete, thank you very, very much.
BLACKWELL: Ahead, the harrowing rescue in Pakistan. School children trapped in a cable car dangling 900 feet above the ground.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:58:40]
BLACKWELL: Well, now to our "Morning Moment."
This is in northwest Pakistan where a daring rescue happened. This was more than 900 feet in the air. A cable snapped and six children, two teachers also, were left dangling by a single cable over the valley. The high winds prevented helicopters from getting close enough. But rescuers were able to get some medical supplies to them after some of the children got sick.
And finally a special forces officer was able to carry one of the students to safety while, look at this, dangling from the helicopter. The crews worked well into the night when the zip liner snapped to get two children down.
And, finally, after 14 hours, this huge team of officials and locals on the ground, they pulled together. They were able to bring the final passenger to safety. This was just children trying to get to school and were there dangling in the air. All safe now.
HARLOW: Thank goodness for that.
We are also keeping a very close eye on an intense firsthand look at these deadly wildfires ripping through Greece right now. This is video. You see a CNN photojournalist caught right in the middle of this desperate battle to fight those flames near Athens as the powerful winds have just whipped them.
[09:00:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Authorities, on the other hand, face a sercipient (ph) task of trying to put out these raging fires that have caught with massive winds that you can see that I'm experiencing right now.
This family here, as you can see, watering down their homes. All these homes are at risk. Many homes have already been burned. The damage is extraordinary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That's our colleague Eleni Giokos, with our photojournalist there, covering this. We'll keep everyone posted. Just seeing that engulfed in smoke.
BLACKWELL: Yes, it's remarkable.
"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.
