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Trump to Meet with Zelenskyy; Catastrophic Flooding in North Carolina; Vance and Walz to Debate; Harris Travels to Border. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 27, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: So, sir, I'm - when we look at these pictures and you - you mentioned the west coast of Florida, what should residents there be thinking about as they are making decisions about their futures, especially if they have to rebuild? I mean there seem to be serious questions around a changing climate that - I mean insurance companies are seeing it, right? I mean they're refusing to insure some places in these areas now. It's a real problem for residents across the state of Florida.

Do we need to be rethinking how we rebuild in the wake of some of these storms?

BROCK LONG, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: I - yes, absolutely. I think - you know, one of the problems with the disaster declaration process that Congress needs to rethink is, how do we build in incentives for states and communities that do the right thing? And what I mean by that is, states that are well advanced in land use planning, you know, implementing the latest international codes council building code standards, properly insuring their infrastructure, if it's insurable, those communities, in my opinion, should be rewarded for doing the right thing as we face a change climate and future hazards, you know, unknown hazards in the future, we've really got to have that - that understanding with Congress and start to build in those incentives.

You know, I don't blame the insurance companies for moving out. We have to invite the insurance companies back to the table and figure out how to buy down the risk, you know, in the future and figure out a model that works.

You know, right now one of the biggest problems with FEMA's ability to operate and fully execute its mission is that they're constantly having to operate off of disaster supplementals and to the disaster relief fund. And so for three months, unfortunately, FEMA has been forced to implement what's called immediate needs funding, which means they can only really spend money on life safety missions. They can't actually execute long-term mitigation and long-term recovery missions. And so when you look back, since 1992, FEMA, a third of FEMA's disaster relief funding has come in the form of disastrous supplementals. One, we've got to remove the politics away from FEMA and out of the disaster process, and we've got to come up with a more consistent funding process. And then again, one of the things that I'm most proud of, and, you

know, when I was in office is, we pass the building resilient infrastructure and communities, you know, you know, program. We were able to get that program up and running to really start, you know, having an honest conversation about what's got to be mitigated in the future so that we don't see our infrastructure going down as easily.

HUNT: All right, Brock Long for us this morning, former FEMA administrator.

Sir, thanks very much for being on the program. I really appreciate your time today.

LONG: Thank you, Kasie. Thank you so much.

HUNT: All right, still to come here after the break, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy preparing to meet with Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll meet with President Zelenskyy, and we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A growing divide among Democrats and Republicans over the war in Ukraine. Of course, a defining issue in the presidential race.

Plus, Tropical Storm Helene wreaking havoc on the southeast United States. We're going to be live in North Carolina amid flooding that officials are calling catastrophic, as rescues continue in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT SEELY, BATTALION CHIEF 6A: So, we were -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

SEELY: We've been doing water rescues all night. And, with this one, the vehicle is - was traveling in through the water. And the vehicle started to float. And it floated off the roadway. They were able to get out of the vehicle, get on top of the vehicle. Once they got on top of the vehicle and we arrived, we were able to hook up a system to where we could lower the boat over to them because the current is very strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:23]

HUNT: All right, just hours from now, Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet at Trump Tower, just a day after the Ukrainian leader met with Trump's presidential rival, Kamala Harris. Zelenskyy visited the White House yesterday, where he made an urgent plea to both Harris and President Joe Biden for additional support in the war against Russia. Harris defended Ukraine as an ally and pledged to continue supporting the nation in its defense against the Russia-launched war.

It was a stark contrast to Trump's messaging ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Zelenskyy said that you do not understand what it takes to win this war.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, then I should immediately cancel my appointment? No. He knows. He knows I understand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How - how do you plan on winning the war (ph)?

TRUMP: Look - look, I hate to see the carnage. If I were president, it never would have happened. Russia would have never attacked Ukraine. Never ever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK, our panel is back with us.

Zelenskyy has really stepped into U.S. politics in some interesting ways in recent days. I mean, Brad Todd, this is perhaps the sharp - I mean it is one of the sharpest differences, right, between a Kamala Harris presidency and a second Donald Trump presidency. He's going to be on this issue of Ukraine.

How do you think Zelenskyy is handling it?

BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think, first off, he - he took a very big risk, right? He goes to a munitions plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania. That's home to Pennsylvania's eighth congressional district. A tossup in a five-seat Congress. The Senate race may be the 52nd Senate seat in the Republican majority, and the presidency in that media market. Stepped right into that cauldron and criticized the ticket that might win. There's a 50/50 chase J.D. Vance and Donald Trump win, and he immediately criticized the people he's going to ask for help in January.

[06:40:05]

It's a really, really risky political strategy by Zelenskyy.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, but Trump and Vance have been saying for months and months and months that they're not going to support a, you know, lifeline to keep his country able to push back against an autocrat who's coming in and taking their land. So, like let's be fair here. I mean this is not something - this is not Zelenskyy initiating this conflict. I mean, Vance and Trump have said many, many times, if they take

office, they're going to - well, Trump, I should say, has been very clear that he's said - he's said things like -

HUNT: Yes. I think Trump - Trump's been even more specific. I mean Vance has laid out a plan where they give the land to the Russians and create a demilitarized zone. And that, if anything, has drawn the most fire.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, and - and -

TODD: Trump has never signed off on what Vance has said. That - that's why I -

BEDINGFIELD: Oh, but Trump has also said, you know, or -

HUNT: I mean he -

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Let's not forget the reason why he was impeached the first time -

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

DOVERE: Which was about giving aid to Ukraine and conditioning it on doing what he wanted politically. It's a - it - Trump's history on this is important, right?

And I do think that's Zelenskyy decided to make a pretty big statement, but he did not have to go to any factory. He decided to do it in Pennsylvania, as you say, in a pretty specific place and with Josh Shapiro, a very high-profile Democrat with him, of course the governor of the state. So, it makes sense in that way.

But it's - it's -

TODD: Let's go - wait a second. Mike Johnson is what -- the speaker of the House got Zelenskyy the last tranche of aid. That's -- only for Mike Johnson it doesn't happen. Matt Cartwright's seat in northeast Pennsylvania is key to Mike Johnson being speaker. Going into that place was a big afront of Mike Johnson in a big mistake.

HUNT: Sarah.

SARAH LONGWELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: Yes, sure, but, I mean, J.D. Vance and Donald Trump will very likely abandoned Zelenskyy. And, I mean, Donald Trump has made it very clear how much his allegiance lies with Vladimir Putin. And this is a real problem in a real flip for the Republican Party. This isn't what it used to be like. We were the - the Republican -

HUNT: Where are your voters on this? When you talk to the voters who have swung back and forth, where do they come down in Ukraine?

LONGWELL: Unfortunately, they're not my voters. They are the -

HUNT: The voters that you talk to all time. LONGWELL: Yes, yes, yes, the voters I talk to.

Look, this is the biggest thing that's happening with Republican voters, which is that it's about - about half and half, where Donald Trump has really influenced the Republican Party to be more isolation. They do not want to be involved in Ukraine. They absolutely - they basically don't want any money sent abroad, period. Like there's just this isolationism that has gripped the party.

But then, of course, there's still that traditional part of the party that wants to see Ukraine supported because the Republican Party used to support our democratic allies. But I will say, Zelenskyy, making this - the problem is, Trump is such a vindictive and he takes these things so personally. It's always about him. And so this feels like - for Trump, he takes this as an affront to him personally, Zelenskyy going there. And so Zelenskyy probably does need to do some damage control with Trump because he knows how petulant and, yes, vindictive he is.

HUNT: Well, and, of course, I think we're going to see him walk into Trump Tower today.

LONGWELL: Yes.

HUNT: Which shows, you know, how he's understanding the situation.

All right, still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Vice President Kamala Harris going to the southern border today as she is trying to boost her numbers on immigration.

Plus, Tropical Storm Helene impacting parts of North Carolina. We'll look at how residents are bracing for the worst flooding they've seen in a century.

And with Helene's widespread damage across the southeast, how the Biden administration is preparing to respond to the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're expecting a catastrophic storm, winds and flooding throughout the southeast, starting in Florida right now. Kamala and I have been briefed and spent many hours with FEMA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:43]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

This just in, Tropical Storm Helene now to blame for a fourth fatality. A four-year-old child in North Carolina. The child died in a car crash last night as dangerous and historic flooding is now unfolding in western North Carolina. Rain already swelling rivers near Asheville, well before Helene's rain even arrived. And now the area under a flash flood emergency. Almost a foot of rain has fallen there just since Wednesday.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is joining me now with the latest from Asheville.

Isabel, good morning. What are you seeing?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kasie, good morning.

Here in just the last ten minutes, mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for residents living around the Swannanoa River here in Asheville.

Also happening just this morning, the power has seemingly gone out throughout the city of Asheville as far as we can see. Seventy-one thousand customers are without electricity here throughout the state of North Carolina. Officials here are warning that catastrophic flooding is imminent.

The National Weather Service have - have been telling residents here that - to expect one of the most significant weather events in modern times for this region.

And, Kasie, a big problem here is that the ground has already been so saturated, flooding has been a concern way before Helene due to a totally different weather system. So, let's talk about the rivers.

You have the French Broad River and also the Swannanoa River. They're anticipated to crest tonight, overnight, into Saturday. River levels have been around ten feet. The level - and then expected another ten feet.

And then let's talk about the rainfall. They've had eight inches of rain since Wednesday. Between that time and now Helene, they're anticipating over 20 inches of rainfall. That's a very big problem.

I spoke with the fire chief, Michael Cayse, about what's keeping him up at night. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MICHAEL CAYSE, ASHEVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: As a result of their foundations being undermined from the soil saturation and the other events that caused that and the shifting of the ground, yes, we are absolutely very concerned about building collapses and landslides.

We're - we're talking a record-breaking storm. And we won't see this again in our lifetime. So, our people here are going to live through some tough times tonight, the next days, and as we move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:50:05]

ROSALES: The chief also tells me there is a FEMA team here on standby to potentially help out with any rescues that are needed. And he also talked to me about the specific nuances of the geography here in Asheville. You have the Blue Ridge Mountains. That's about 4,000 feet of elevation. And then Asheville, he says, is sort of a catch basin at the bottom. So, all of this rainfall is just floating down into the bottom, into Asheville, and it has nowhere to go, Kasie. The ground is too soaked. And this is really worrying him.

HUNT: All right, Isabel Rosales for us this morning.

Isabel, thanks very much for that. Stay safe.

All right, let's turn now to this. Next week, vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, will face off on the debate stage with just a little over a month until Election Day. They're both, of course, under pressure to perform. Donald Trump's running mate giving a preview of what he hopes to convey on the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And what I'm going to try to show is very simple, that the candidacy, the team of substance, the team that actually has a record that - that we're proud of, instead of we're running away from, and the team that actually has a plan is the team of Trump-Vance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Meanwhile, Harris' running mate says he's been looking forward to this day since his first day on the ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community.

Come on, that's not what middle America is. And I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now, CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. He is also the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH."

Michael, it's Friday, which means it's great to see you. Thank you for being here.

You've got something coming up on your show around this debate tomorrow. Talk to me a little bit about that and what you expect to see on the stage from Vance and Walz.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nice to see you as well. And I love the clips that you just played. Tomorrow on my program I have the last debate opponents for each of those individuals. In other words, Dr. Scott Jensson is an individual that ran against Tim Walz, Governor Walz, was successful in defeating him. I'm going to take out my headset because I'm hearing feedback five seconds later.

So, J.D. Vance ran against Tim Ryan. And Tim Ryan is my guest tomorrow. So too is Scott Jensen on my program tomorrow. They were the last opponents of each of these individuals.

Kasie, I've been looking at a lot of game tape. I watched all three of the debates between Governor Walz and Scott Jensen. I watched both debates between J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan. And I noted some things that I think will play out on Tuesday. They have different debate styles. As you just heard from the clips that you played, Governor Walz's style is much more folksy, much more middle America. J.D. Vance attempts to be much more intellectual in his approach. They are both very good on their feet. They're both very sharp in terms of the one- liners. And I think that the debate could be very significant given the margin. I also think that what happens Tuesday may determine whether there really is a final presidential debate.

HUNT: Yes, for sure. And it's so interesting that you - that you will be talking to them and when you think about the different styles.

J.D. Vance has sometimes struggled on the campaign trail in his interactions with - especially at these - we call them OTR stops, right? You go to the local diner, the local bakery or whatever. There was one with a - at a cheesesteak place in Philadelphia that I don't know if you saw that, it sort of raised my eyebrows.

SMERCONISH: Of course.

HUNT: I mean he was trying to make front of John Kerry. Didn't quite go the way he had planned. But he does seem like someone for whom the debate stage will feel like a more natural home.

SMERCONISH: True. I think that the training that he received at the Yale Law School has put him in a position to be strong in that posture. But the styles are different.

You know it's interesting because I've already interviewed Tim Ryan, I've already interviewed Scott Jensen. They say the same thing about their opponents. Jensson says about Walz, and Ryan says about Vance, each is very slippery, each is very hard to pin down, each is going to come across with a middle America type message. But it's hard to hold their feet to the fire. It's almost as if both - well, not almost as if. It's as if they each have regrets about not doing something different in the debate opportunities that they had.

But listen, I woke up to morning - to - this morning to the latest polling data, as you did. You look at that Morning Consult/Bloomberg survey, among others. I think today you'd rather be Harris than Trump. And Tuesday night, given the closeness of this race, I think is really significant. And if I'm Donald Trump, despite what I've told the media so far about whether there will be a future debate, I think I've got my eyes on how J.D. Vance performs.

[06:55:00]

And if it doesn't go well for Vance, I think it increases the odds that Trump desires to get back in the ring with the vice president.

HUNT: Yes, it's really interesting. I mean - and Vance is going to be, let's be honest, performing for an audience of one, right, in Donald Trump.

SMERCONISH: Oh, yes. Yes.

HUNT: Michael Smerconish, thank you so much for being with us. Always love to have you.

And, of course, our viewers - for our viewers, a reminder to tune in to "SMERCONISH." It's tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

See you next Friday.

All right, we're going to turn now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, NBC ANCHOR (June 8, 2021): Do you have any plans to visit the border?

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (June 8, 2021): I'm here in Guatemala today. I - at some point -- you know, I - we are going to the border. We've been to the border. So, this whole -

HOLT: You -

HARRIS: This whole - this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. We've been to the border.

HOLT: You haven't been to the border?

HARRIS: I - and I haven't been to Europe. And I mean I don't - I don't understand the point that you're making.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Kamala Harris is going to do that thing that has followed her for much of her term as vice president. Today, Harris will visit the U.S./Mexico border for the first time as her party's presidential nominee. It's just her second border trip as vice president. The visit comes as polls consistently show voters trust Donald Trump and Republicans more to handle immigration. Trump criticizing Harris' trip yesterday. He called it a stunt that's too little too late.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anything she says tomorrow you know is a fraud because she was the worst in history at protecting our country. So, she'll try and make herself look a little bit better, but it's not possible.

She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border. We would merely ask, why didn't she do it four years ago? It's a very simple question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, the panel's back.

Sarah Longwell, you're nodding.

LONGWELL: Yes, I mean, look, this is where Democrats are the most vulnerable. It's where she's the most vulnerable, on immigration. And you hear immigration as one of the top issues, after the economy, from a lot of swing voters.

But the other thing that's happening, as I listen to voters in the focus groups is, as Kamala Harris continues to hammer on Trump about the fact that he scuttled the bipartisan deal that she and Joe Biden had worked on with some very conservative senators and come to a conclusion Trump had - he got - he wanted - he wanted the issue to campaign on. And so he - he scuttled that deal. And voters are hearing that. They heard that in the debate. It was - for some of them it was new information. I mean -

HUNT: I was going to ask you about that.

LONGWELL: It -

HUNT: I mean, did you pick that up, that people had not voted for those people.

LONGWELL: Yes, that's right. In fact, somebody said like, I found out for the first time listening to that debate, that there was a border deal that Trump had gotten rid of. And so I think that if she continues to go on offense on that, I don't think that she's going to eliminate the gap between - because immigration is such a central issue for Trump. It really is the thing that has made him. You know, it's the thing that built his campaign in 2016.

But she's got to do something to mitigate the fact that she is seen as just having an open border policy because voters really don't like that.

HUNT: Yes, so, this is one thing I - so I actually interviewed Harris back in 2018 on the border. She was a senator then. And we went and visited Otay Mesa (ph), which is a border facility in California. She was, of course, senator of California at the time.

Here's a clip of what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A lot of the signs at the rally you just held were people standing there saying "abolish ICE."

HARRIS: Yes.

HUNT: Is that a position that you agree with? HARRIS: Listen, I think there's no question that we've got to

critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing. And we need to probably think about starting from scratch because there's a lot that is wrong with the way that it is conducting itself and we need to deal with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, this is, of course, a year before she launches her campaign for president. And a big part of, I think, why we've seen her kind of shift some of her positions is that she was trying to run a progressive campaign in a Democratic primary and then all of a sudden she's found herself not having to do that. But she has struggled to find her footing on this issue.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, look, I mean, I think you have to call it what it is. She's trying to navigate having been in what she believed was a dramatically different political place in 2019 than she is now. It is what it is.

But I think the thing about this trip now is that she does actually have a good story hear - story to tell here. And that's one - illegal crossings have dropped dramatically since the executive order that she and President Biden put in place. So, she can talk about the fact that these crossings have come down under her watch. And she can go on offense on this argument about Trump having scuttled the deal.

And I think that the other point that Sarah was making that is so important to remember here is, she doesn't have to win this election on the issue of immigration. She has to mitigate some of Donald Trump's advantage. And I think by going on offense today, by being aggressive, voters are, you know - we know they're tuned in. We know that they heard some of this during the debate. They're open to hearing more. You know, by not being afraid to go on offense today, even with some of these, you know, quotes, historically kind of in her past, she's not just advocating the issue, and that's smart.

[07:00:00]

She doesn't have to win the race on the issue, she just has to draw the margins down a little bit.

TODD: The problem isn't that she hasn't visited the border, isn't that they didn't secure the border. And Kamala Harris, in 2019, told us what she believed. She believed we need to get rid of ICE or re- imagine it or however you serve her b-school buzzwords.

But she has a vulnerability here because the job's been (INAUDIBLE). The voters are right, the Biden-Harris administration did not secure the border. It's the worst we've ever had.

I think it's a big mistake to go right now because October's a lot about agenda control in a campaign. You want voters focused on issues that favor you. She's walking right into the vote - the issue that favors opponent (ph).

BEDINGFIELD: Except - except -

HUNT: I know everybody wants the last word, but it is 7:00 a.m.

So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut this off.

LONGWELL: Oh, brutal.

HUNT: Thank you guys very much for being here. Have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.