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CNN This Morning

Hurricane Isaias Lashing Gulf Coast Ahead Of Landfall; Isaias Weakens To Post-Tropical Cyclone After Landfall; 9 Dead, Including Children, In Pennsylvania Shooting; Protests Erupt in New York City After ICE Agent Shoots Father in the Bronx. Protests in New York After ICE Shoots at Man in Car with a 5-Year-Old; Hurricane Isaias Forces Trump to Cancel Visit to Alabama-Georgia Game; New White House Press Secretary to Start Monday. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired October 10, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:38]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's Saturday, October 10th. Thank you for joining us. I'm Sara Sidner in for Victor Blackwell. We begin with breaking news.

We are tracking the latest with what is now post-Tropical Storm Isaias. Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida as a Category 2 hurricane and has since weakened as it makes its way over Alabama now.

Video from near Destin about 15 minutes drive from there in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, it shows just how strong the storm was when it hit with 5 feet of storm surge and 110 mile per hour wind gusts. While all hurricane warnings have been discontinued now, tropical storm and storm surge warnings remain in effect for parts of Florida's Gulf Coast. So far more than 860,000 customers have lost power across the Southeast from this storm.

And you can see some of the flooding there. And we're getting a look at some of the damage as the flooded roads, downed trees and toppled business signs were reported across Florida's panhandle. You can see here residents working to try to clear a roadway from a large fallen tree.

In Pensacola those strong winds tore the roof off of a hotel. You see it? Oh my goodness. Just going there, ripped off and scattered all over the place. One of the hotel guests described the damage as it was happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STORM MCCREE, HOTEL GUEST: They ripped the roof off and everything almost immediately. So as soon as it picked up, everything just came apart. I don't even know how to describe it. So I've been in a lot of storms and the howling and the whistling and stuff like that, you know the normal attributes you get with the hurricane. But this had like a growl to it. It almost had like a roar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Had a growl or a roar to it. That's that wind. We are covering all angles of this with our Ryan Young who is in Montgomery, Alabama and CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking the storm. What is left of the storm in the weather center.

Ryan, let's start with you. Give us some sense of the conditions out there.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so far so good, Sara. Look, we grew up in south Florida so we know a little bit about rain and hurricane. I will tell you so far it seems like the storm is moving so fast it's not having a lot of impact, at least in the area that we're in right now, 2.74 inches of rain so far that that's almost a month worth of rain just in the Montgomery area. We're near the famous Riverwalk down here.

But I wanted to show you this. You could tell they were taking this seriously with all the power crews that surged into this area. I was actually talking to a linesman last night and they said they made the trip up the pre-position here because they were concerned about the heavy rainfall and the possibility of trees falling throughout the area and power being knocked out.

The good news so far, these crews have not had to mobilize so far and they're not large amounts of power that are knocked out throughout this area right now. But over the next few hours they're concerned that the ground could give away in several different places because there's been some dryness around here and they're worried about some of the larger trees in the area falling down.

But the good news is from what we've heard is no emergency calls last night in this general area. They're also still monitoring to see how much more rain falls and then they want to know how this storm moves closer to Georgia over the next few hours or so to see what path this may leave behind.

But I guess if you're going to look at this with the glass half full, Sara, so far so good.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, not seeing any damage so far. That is good news. A different scene in the Panhandle. Ryan Young, it is so good to see you this morning. We'll check back in with you in a bit.

Let's go next to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Allison, Isaias, it's not a hurricane anymore, but it's still hitting the remnants of it hitting the Southeast.

What are you learning?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. I think you're right. It's not over yet, I think is really kind of the key phrase here. Yes, it is in a much weaker stage than it has been the last 20 hours, but not done yet. You can see some heavy rain starting to slide from Alabama up into Tennessee. You've also got some heavier rain showers moving through Atlanta and then also into the Carolinas.

And this is going to be the case throughout the rest of the day today. Off and on, you're going to get those light to heavy rain bands back and forth. You're also still looking at some gusty winds now not quite what we saw closer to landfall.

[06:05:00]

All five of these locations picking up wind gusts exceeding 100 miles per hour. Those were all right around the landfall timeline late Friday. It's no question why you have a lot of these power outages.

We're looking at more than 850,000 people without power in Georgia, Alabama as well as Florida. Now, the bulk of those are definitely right closer to the coast. However, you are starting to notice a lot more of them begin to spread northward because that is where the stronger wind gusts are going and that is also where a lot of the heavy rain is located, too.

You've got a couple of flash flood warnings. We've had several of those off and on throughout the early morning hours. We are likely going to continue to see more of those as we go through the rest of the day. Today, it's just going to change location. They're going to line up with where you end up having the heaviest rainfall.

There is still the potential for some severe thunderstorms, so wind gusts up around 60, 70 miles per hour, but also the potential for some isolated tornadoes. The greatest threat will essentially be from portions of Georgia stretching over into areas of the Carolinas, especially this afternoon and going into the evening hours.

So here's a look at that forecast track again by later this morning notice, again, it's not really concentrated like it was as we were talking about the storm yesterday, where it was right near landfall. Today, it becomes much more widespread, more spaced out for a lot of these showers and thunderstorms.

Now in turn, individual cells are not expected to be all that strong, with the exception of a few. However, you're going to see a lot more people impacted by this storm as we spread out the rest of the day, especially the afternoon where the heaviest rain is really going to be focused over the Carolinas into Virginia.

Now overall, when we talk about the total amount of rain, the heaviest is going to be essentially from around Augusta up through Philadelphia. A lot of those areas, you could be looking at upwards of about 4 inches of rain. However, you'll notice we've got some red in that area as well, especially just to the east of Asheville.

So it's not out of the question for some of these isolated spots to pick up 6 or maybe even as much as 8 inches of rain before this is all said and done. That's why you have the potential for some flooding. But do note too, you've also got the area around the mid-Atlantic because that's, that's where a lot of that moisture is going to be headed over the next 24 to 36 hours.

You've already got several locations that have picked up half a foot, including two locations that have picked up more than a foot of rain. So there are certainly going to be some places we continue to see flooding through the day.

SIDNER: All right, Allison Chinchar, I know you're watching it very closely and we'll be checking back with you in a bit.

All right. We've got some more headlines for you this morning. Several people are dead after a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania. Our affiliate there, WCE reporting nine people including two children are among the dead. CNN has not independently confirmed that number yet, but according to witnesses, the suspect was seen firing a weapon before entering a house Friday night.

A SWAT team arrived and tried to get the man to surrender, but more shots were heard coming from inside that home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RICK LORAH, ERIE POLICE: I want to be candid with our community. This is one of the most difficult and heartbreaking scenes our officers and investigators have ever encountered. The loss of life is devastating and the circumstances we are working through are deeply disturbing.

At this time, we can confirm that the suspect is deceased based on the information currently available to us. There is no ongoing threat to the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Authorities say the suspected shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The identities of the victims has not yet been released and there is no word yet on what the motive might have been.

Alright. Powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Southern Panama on Friday causing damage and minor injuries there. The quake's epicenter was in a sparsely populated area about 124 miles from Panama City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. When the quake hit, thousands were forced into the streets for safety. You see local television program was live as the quake happened, forcing the host to try to run for cover. You can see the television in the background and the overhead lights shaking violently.

Now in a surprise move, the Trump administration has cut a deal with Russia on diesel exports in an attempt to lower prices in the States. President Trump announced it on Friday after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But experts don't appear to have much faith it will do much to lower the cost of diesel. And the deal was met with anger from Ukraine as the deal will certainly aid Russia's economy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a move to allow Russia to export diesel a weak decision of strong partners. Going on to say this only fuels Putin and gives him the possibility to fight more.

All right. We will have more on our breaking news for you. Isaias is now dumping across parts of the southeast east after slamming into the Gulf coast overnight.

[06:10:00]

We'll take you to Dauphin Island where they're facing a major flood threat at this moment.

Plus, another day of protest in New York City after federal immigration officers shot into a car injuring a man. His 5-year-old though was in the back seat. The latest on that investigation and the response coming up.

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[06:15:04]

SIDNER: At this hour we continue to follow the breaking news post- tropical Isaias and its destructive paths this weekend. Right now, radar shows a storm weakening but continuing to threaten parts of the Southeast, including central Alabama. Powerful winds could have gusts reaching up to 60 miles an hour or higher according to Birmingham's National Weather Service there.

Storm chasers were out documenting as Hurricane Isaias made landfall. We begin with extreme weather chaser Reed Timmer reporting from AccuWeather. Then you'll hear from Jonathan Petramala who spoke to my colleague Elex Michaelson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REED TIMMER, EXTREME WEATHER CHASER: There it is. We got big winds up here. You hear the hurricane.

JONATHAN PETRAMALA, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST AND STORM CHASER: Hundreds of thousands of people without power. You see a lot of trees down, especially even along 10 blocking one of the lanes of traffic. A lot of trees. That's a big issue that we are coming across trees down on roadways.

Power is out to so many people here. Also some flash flooding still some very high water sitting in neighborhoods along roadways as well. A tremendous amount of rain fell with this hurricane. A flash flood emergency in the Fort Walton Beach area. Very strong winds.

We are lucky that this was, as I've said earlier, a half cane. It was sheared off towards the bottom. So we just had to deal with the front side of this. And as soon as it started to move inland and away, there was some dry air. And that's really good because there was so much rain that fell on that front side that caused those flash flood emergencies. It could have been a really serious situation along the coast with that flash flooding.

But the main issue tomorrow people are just going to be waking up to is a cleanup, cleanup those tree limbs and those trees, get those chainsaws out and get to work as they hopefully will have the power restored fairly quickly. The governor and the state of Florida really did a nice job pre-positioning numerous crews. You just saw them driving around constantly nearly all afternoon getting in position.

So they should be able to restore power fairly quickly to many customers at least Fort area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And at this point I think there's something like 860,000 customers without power. Now look at this. Scenes of extremely dangerous conditions in the east end of Dauphin Island, Alabama. That's where a man decided he was going to ride out Isaias on his boat yesterday. Not a good idea.

You can see the huge waves, the treacherous winds and weather out there on the water. Police say they've been in touch with the local man earlier in the day and they warned him of the risks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MATTHEW EMLICH, DAUPHIN ISLAND POLICE: I've been messaging him, got a last message from him about 3:46 checking on him and make sure he's OK. I think at this point, his phone has died, the battery has died in it. But he just wanted to be out there. And I told him that we didn't have the resources to get out there to him, but just to keep in touch with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Right now, authorities still don't know the man's whereabouts. Earlier this morning, we also heard from Troy Gorlott. He is public safety officer supervisor for Dauphin Island, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY GORLOTT, DAUPHIN ISLAND, ALABAMA PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER SUPERVISOR: The storm's past us, so everybody's kind of sheltering in place and waiting daylight to go out and assess the damage.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Describe what it felt like, what it sounded like, what it looked like as the storm was overhead.

GORLOTT: Well, coming through, we did have some storm surge come through. Of course the wind -- the winds picked up. Luckily we were on the western side, so we didn't get the full brunt of it. But water started to roll in. We did have some very, very heavy bands of rain come through. Luckily that's all passed now, so we're just waiting on daylight to get out and see what the damage is.

MICHAELSON: Do you have any reports of damage or. Basically everybody's hunkered down right now, so they really have no way to tell.

GORLOTT: Luckily, the reports we've gotten so far from our area of Dauphin Island in south Mobile County is we do have some minor structural damage, some to roofs. We got a couple houses with trees on them. That's about the extent of it. Nothing like they're having over in northwest Florida.

MICHAELSON: So it sounds like so far so good. And you may have dodged a bullet on this one.

GORLOTT: Yes, we did. Luckily, this time we did. We always use these -- these storms when they get close to. Almost like a training exercise, if you can be. All our plans worked, so we'll just roll on to the next one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:02]

SIDNER: All right, we're going to take you to more destruction and the remnants of Isaias now a post-tropical cyclone.

Plus, still ahead, New Yorkers demanding ICE leave the city after immigration agents fired into a car targeting a man. But there was a five-year-old child in that car as well. The latest on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right. Isaias is no longer a hurricane, but still a potentially dangerous storm. Now a post-tropical storm. It is pushing deeper into the southeast this morning. While no longer at hurricane strength, Isaias is still bringing strong winds of up to 30-40 miles per hour as it moves across Alabama, Georgia and into Tennessee.

[06:25:07]

Heavy rain is also expected to continue throughout the day, bringing the chance of flash flooding and even a chance for some potential tornadoes. Let's go now back to CNN's Ryan Young, who is in Montgomery, Alabama. Ryan, look, earlier today you said, look, the good news is there really isn't any damage there.

But what are you tracking? What are you watching? What are the conditions like?

YOUNG: Well, you know, so far we have to act like it. We're in the South, Sara, so, you know, everybody's concerned about the football game that's happening today. And so a lot of people were asking us whether or not they thought the football game would happen. I guess the good news here is with the amount of rain that's hit and the lack of damage, looks like that's going to move through pretty, pretty well.

And I want to show you this as we walk the streets here. Look, all the lights are on. No power was knocked out. And of course, they're still monitoring the situation in several different areas. They're worried about it being dry and having some of the tree fall. So the good news here is the impact seems very minimal so far. And we're going to be checking in with EOC managers over the next half hour or so as they start coming back online around 7 o'clock this morning to see what they had to deal with overnight because of course there could be pockets in smaller communities that had to deal with more impact because of the wind.

But so far in the larger cities, so far, especially across Alabama, they're not seeing any real damage here. In fact, the power never cut off here. And people were at restaurants last night pretty surprised that this windstorm was moving through. And at some point, I think the largest gusts we had was just over 20 miles per hour. So that's the good news here. Of course, it did get a lot of rain, almost a month's worth. But so far it's pretty quiet.

SIDNER: Yes, quiet. And a lot of people wondering, like what their plans will look like. And I know it's the Georgia, Alabama game that looks like that's going to get underway.

YOUNG: I know.

SIDNER: So people will be quite, quite happy there. The damage very different in the panhandle of Florida.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

SIDNER: Ryan Young, I do appreciate you. Thank you so much.

As we mentioned, Isaias is still bringing the threat for flooding and dangerous winds and potential tornadoes to the South. Let's get more from CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar, what are you seeing here and where is the storm at this point?

CHINCAR: Right to the bulk of the heavy rain is actually now spreading from Alabama up into Tennessee. You still have some light showers across Georgia and even into the Carolinas. But that's going to be the trend for the rest of the day, is seeing the bulk of this spread off to the north as we go through the remainder of the day Saturday.

Now you do still have some gusty winds, several of these locations looking at 20 to 50 miles per hour. That's why you still have some power outages. A lot of those were obviously caused by the initial storm as it began to make landfall. That's why the bulk of those power outages are much closer to the coast.

But we are starting to see them tick back up farther to the north as you head into central Alabama, as you head into central and western portions of Georgia. Right now, the heavy rain is really from this stretch of north northwest Alabama all the way up through eastern Tennessee. You can see a lot of red right there on the radar.

This is going to be the case throughout much of the day today. It's going to go back and forth between light, then you'll get some heavier bands, then it will go back to light because the energy from this system is really starting to wind down. But it's also pulling in some moisture from the Atlantic Ocean because of that spin. It's rotating counterclockwise. It's pulling in some of that moisture.

That's really going to help fuel a lot of the showers and thunderstorms that will take place in the Carolinas, especially later this afternoon. That's also going to be one of the factors that can lead to the potential for severe thunderstorms. Yes, that includes tornadoes. Yes, that includes some damaging wind gusts up around 60 to 70 miles per hour.

You're looking at Tallahassee, Macon, Savannah, Charleston, Columbia. All of those areas are where you have the greatest potential for those severe thunderstorms in the latter half of the day today

Let's break down the overall forecast radar again. You can see about 9:00 am. Again, you've got some spots where you're going to be looking at some heavy showers, others where it's barely above a sprinkle. Then as we head into the afternoon, in the evening hours especially, a lot of that moisture really starts to push off to the east, specifically stretching from South Carolina all the way up to Maryland, where it will continue through the early Sunday hours.

SIDNER: Allison Chinchar, you have been tracking this since the beginning and we will check back in with you throughout the morning to see how things are going. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right now to a developing story in New York. Outrage and demonstrations in New York after ICE shot a man on Thursday afternoon near a school area in a busy neighborhood in the Bronx. And it turned out his five-year-old child was in that car. The NYPD has released dramatic new video which federal officials say backs up their claims the shooting was justified. The driver, identified as Oscar Belgal, served -- suffered a minor injury to the neck.

Federal officers say he is affiliated with the gang. Two ICE agents were also injured. Are Shimon Prokupecz has all the details from New York.

[06:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Protesters gathered outside here, the ICE offices here in Lower Manhattan for about two hours, demanding answers, demanding accountability, but most importantly, they want ICE want.

They want ICE out of New York City, especially after what happened here on Thursday in the Bronx. This is all happening as the investigation continues. The Bronx District Attorney's Office on Friday announcing that they're going to investigate what happened here.

They had investigators out in the neighborhood already, and also the NYPD releasing crucial video showing the moments just before the gunfire erupted. Now, the video doesn't capture any of the gunfire, but it does capture some significant information because it shows the two ICE officers running up on the car and the man who was in that car trying to take off.

And you see those ICE officers with their guns out, one of them is banging on the window. And then sometime after that is when the shots were fired. Now, the Department of Homeland Security says that the man driving the car used it as a way to attack officers, weaponizing the vehicle.

And that essentially, from their standpoint, they say this was justified, and that the officers felt threatened, and that's why they opened fire. But there are a lot of questions here about the tactics, about why these officers opened fire, and that's why many of the people out here certainly are calling for accountability. But also now, the Bronx District Attorney's Office is investigating. Shimon Prokupecz CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: All right, thank you to Shimon. And still ahead, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday. President Trump, though, did not get it. And needless to say, he's not happy about it. And making that known what he had to say about that at a rally in New York last night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00]

SIDNER: All right. President Trump has canceled plans to attend tonight's Alabama Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa because of the remnants of Isaias. He still plans to headline a rally, though, today in Tennessee, where early voting begins in just four days.

It will be the President's second visit to the Volunteer State in two weeks after trips to other deep red states like Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Iowa and Nebraska, where races are tightening. The President took his road show to Syracuse, New York, though, on Saturday, but he wound up getting a bit sidetracked.

Instead of focusing on Republican candidates in the state, he aired a few familiar grievances, and his apparent anger over another Nobel Peace Prize that he didn't get. Here's CNN's Kristen Holmes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): After visiting a slew of deeply red states, President Trump was here in New York campaigning alongside Bruce Blakeman, who is the Republican running for Governor in New York, as well as a slew of Republican candidates.

Now, he gave the best of his highlights, talking about how Biden was responsible for inflation. He again promised every adult $5,000 if they were to vote Republicans and Republicans were going to win in both the Senate and the House.

But perhaps his lengthiest rant was about something completely different and something that is clearly on his mind. And that is the fact that he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize again. He attacked the country of Norway, the committee, and even the individual who received this. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Nobel Prize was

given out today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of. I've never heard of the person. I know a lot of people. I never heard of this particular person.

But congratulations anyway. The United States of America, represented by me as your President, should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn't. And this is an indelible stain on the country of Norway, and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilization.

HOLMES: Now, in addition to that, President Trump talked at length about the various wars that he solved. He said he would soon be ending the war with Iran again, as well as the war between Russia and Ukraine. He also had a lengthy tirade about New York officials, including the Democratic Governor here and his nemesis, Attorney General Letitia James. Kristen Holmes, CNN, Syracuse, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: All right, President Trump's next rallies in Tennessee today, as we said, let's talk about that and more with "NPR" White House Correspondent Franco Ordonez. Thank you so much for being here on this Saturday morning. Look, let's talk about the President going to deep red states.

I mean, these states, places like Tennessee, places like Texas, Alabama, where he's been a couple of times, they voted for him overwhelmingly. What does this strategy tell you that he keeps returning to some of these places?

FRANCO ORDONEZ, NPR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, you kind of alluded to it early -- earlier.

[06:40:00]

I think the question really is, is he trying to really expand the Republican map as he's talked about a few weeks ago? Or is he looking to kind of protect areas that Republicans have held earlier? I mean, it was just a few weeks ago that Trump was vowing to Republican lawmakers that he was going to go to 35 of the most competitive races.

And as you know, he's been to Oklahoma, he's been to Nebraska, he's going back to Alabama. He is going to Alaska next week. But he is really, mostly stayed in very comfortably red states, Nebraska, Oklahoma.

And I think this is a sign that the Republicans are trying to, you know, kind of protect this area that is a little bit more vulnerable than before. I mean, I was talking to Republican strategists this week who were talking about, you know, he risks -- he's, you know, he won in one hand, they want to motivate the base. Trump, you know, needs the base to come out and support him, at the

same time, he has to be very careful going into these competitive areas and perhaps spurring opposition from Independents and Democrats who are very mobilized.

I mean, Trump's approval wrote -- right now, are lower than they have been, basically ever. I mean, the numbers are as low as they were during COVID. They're as low as they were during January 6th or after January 6th. Frankly, they're as low as they were after Charlottesville.

So, he's in -- he's in a big -- he has -- he has some big issues right now and telling voters to, you know, pretend he's on the ballot is a risky strategy at this moment.

SIDNER: Yes, I do want to ask you about another issue that's really raised many concerns. And that's across the board. It is the announcement by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying that they will livestream the Fort Hood shooter execution by firing squad in December.

The President was asked about this and whether or not he was aware or OK-ed this idea. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you personally authorize or approve the execution, the livestream execution of the Fort Hood --

TRUMP: Did I approve?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you approve?

TRUMP: Absolutely, I did --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want the execution of the Fort Hood shooter to be livestreamed? And are you worried that the video would be used as propaganda to radicalize --

TRUMP: No --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Determination about that. But he will be killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, Trump later told our affiliate that this, they want to do that because they want to set an example. I wasn't involved in that decision, but I understand the decision. Get some sense here that now he's kind of backtracking a bit.

Does it give you some sense after hearing some really strong opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, that this livestream idea might not be a good thing?

ORDONEZ: Yes, I mean, this is a President who doesn't get very much pushback from Republicans. And this is an example of where I think it's perhaps some of the largest or biggest pushback that I've seen in the, you know, almost eight years of covering this, President.

You know, the outcry from both Democrats and Republicans about this idea has been extent -- extensive. Talking about, as you note, you know, possibly fomenting more terrorism to just being like, this is not something that the U.S. do. But the U.S. does, that America does.

And comparing it to regimes, that the only regimes that kind of do this painting to, you know, you know, Iran and other terrorist kind of places where places -- where terrorism is ripe. I mean, this is not something that, you know, is expected.

If you look back in the day, back to 2018 when Timothy McVeigh was executed, there was actually polls on this. Now, most people did support him being executed actually more than the death penalty. That said, when the numbers were like, do you want to see it publicly?

The numbers were absolutely nuts. So, I think there is a very big political risk doing this. I think polls will show that Americans may support this, but they're not wanting to see it in public view like that. And I think that is why you're seeing kind of like this backtrack, especially just ahead of the Midterms.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, this is something that the U.S. has abhorred, you know, groups like ISIS, the Taliban doing these public executions and has always been thought to be so barbaric. And now hearing from the Defense Secretary that they are thinking about doing this and livestreaming it to the public.

There is a lot of obvious concern about this. Franco Ordonez, thank you so much for walking us through all of those details with us. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

SIDNER: All right, we're back to our top story this morning. Isaias is now a post-tropical cyclone. The threat remains in the southeast with strong winds and flooding. Isaias made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Destin, Florida, last night in the Florida Panhandle.

Downed trees and rain-soaked roads are left in its wake. At this hour, hundreds of thousands of people remain without power. We are joined now by Kaycee Lagarde; she's a spokesperson for Escambia County, where Pensacola is located.

It's good to talk to you. Thank you for being here. I know you're busy. Give me some sense of what's happening right now in your county and what your crews are seeing.

KAYCEE LAGARDE, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, ESCAMBIA COUNTY: Thank you for having me. So, we're really seeing a lot of downed trees throughout Escambia County and Pensacola right now.

[06:50:00]

Downed power lines, a lot of trees on houses, our first responders have had to perform some rescue operations overnight as soon as the storm passed, and it was safe to do so. I do want to give credit to our fire and EMS.

They ran 123 fire calls and 48 EMS calls were able to clear those calls out in two hours following landfall once it was safe to do so.

And so right now, it's just a lot of damage throughout the county. We'll know more once the sun is up. But right now, we're really encouraging people to stay home and stay off the roadways because it's just not safe for a lot of roads throughout the county.

SIDNER: We are looking at some video of a hotel where it looks like the roof was just snatched off from the wind and blown all over the place. Give us some sense of where you are with the power outages. How many people may be without power right now and how that's being worked on this morning?

LAGARDE: So, the last I heard from Florida Power and Light, which is a separate entity from Escambia County, but of course, we are working closely with them here at our emergency operations center, where I am currently stationed.

I know they're working around the clock, you know, as soon as conditions were safe to do so, to get that power restored. But the last I heard, there were about 120,000 customers in Escambia County without power.

SIDNER: OK, and we know that there are crews, you know, ready and waiting to go out once it gets a bit lighter, as you mentioned. I do want to ask you a little bit about how you think this -- how you think you all fared because it looks like -- and correct me if I'm wrong, this was really more of a wind event than a flooding event. Give me some sense of what happened.

LAGARDE: It does appear to be that way. Of course, we're still getting out in the field. Our crews are out there and we'll know more once we start doing those damage assessments. But I have not heard reports of flooding.

Really, this seems to be primarily a wind event. Everything I'm seeing is, you know, downed trees, downed power lines, a lot of safety issues again on the roadway. I actually just heard personally that a tree hit my porch overnight.

So, that's something that, you know, we here at the EOC who are working are also having to take care of eventually after the storm. So, a lot of trees -- again, we've had to rescue a couple of people from their homes or who were trapped under a tree. So, very serious storm.

You know, we haven't had a major storm like this since 2020, which was Hurricane Sally, something that a lot of us in here in the EOC also went through. So -- but we're resilient here in the Panhandle. And I know that we'll bounce back from this and come together as a community and recover.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, you've been working so hard that even you are hearing about damage of your own place, as the assessment is happening. But you said that it was the rescues, because I was going to ask you, the rescues are really from downed trees that have landed on people's homes where people were trapped there. It is good to hear so far that -- or any injuries or --

LAGARDE: I believe we do have one confirmed fatality so far from the storm. And I haven't heard of any others, but obviously very tragic situation. And then as we start to move from the response to the recovery phase, we're going to continue to push that safety messaging out because it's oftentimes you do see some fatalities after a storm with, you know, generator safety, chainsaw safety, things like that.

So, we really are encouraging people to continue to stay safe, stay home if you can, if you don't have to be on the roadways because the conditions are just not safe currently. So, let our first responders do their jobs, let our crews do their jobs to get those roadways cleared.

SIDNER: That's really good advice, and to remind people that sometimes the fatalities or injuries happen after the storm as people try and clean up. Kaycee Lagarde, it is a pleasure, thank you so much. I'm glad that you are OK and most of the community is as well. All right, ahead --

LAGARDE: Thank you --

SIDNER: President Trump's new White House Press Secretary says she'll start her new gig on Monday. Katie Zacharia was tapped by President Trump for the job yesterday. Zacharia is a conservative commentator who briefly worked at the Department of Homeland Security. Here's what she said about how she got the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE ZACHARIA, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I got a wonderful phone call from the chief talent recruiter, the President himself. And it turns out that being a huge supporter of all of his policies actually works.

And he loved what a fighter I was for him, Jesse. So, I just get to continue doing what I've been doing, which is promote all of the things that President Trump is doing on behalf of the American people to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:00]

SIDNER: In announcing her appointment, President Trump said that she has an unblemished record of support. He also called her a loyal and brilliant supporter from the very beginning. All right, now to some other news. The officer who called for President Trump's impeachment on the steps of the U.S. Capitol is facing a historic court martial after the U.S. Air Force invoked a rare clause of the uniform code of military justice.

Watson was arrested in August and has since been held in custody. His attorney told our Erin Burnett yesterday about the brutal conditions he says he's experiencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MUTIMER, ATTORNEY FOR JASON WATSON: He's looking at having his liberty potentially taken away. He is looking at being removed from the military, losing his benefits and potentially spending significant time in jail.

I mean, he is still in solitary confinement 24 hours a day. Even if he gets an hour to eat or to exercise, he's alone. So, the fact that the military has been this aggressive and brought these charges, that means that the risk against Major Watson is significantly higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: In August, Erin Burnett spoke to Major Watson just before he was arrested. This is part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON WATSON, AIR FORCE OFFICER ARRESTED FOR CALLING FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT: Nothing that is worth doing is something that you can do for free. Everything that is worthwhile is going to cost something. We just have to be willing to accept that we can change what is happening in our country if we're just willing to pay a price for it.

So, all that I could do was ask myself, what's the highest price that I'm willing to pay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Major Watson is being held for disobeying orders and conduct unbecoming of an officer. One of his violations included in those charges, speaking to CNN. All right, there's much more ahead on the next hour of CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND.

We are tracking post tropical storm Isaias as it continues to hit the southeast. Look at the impacts and where the storm is headed coming up after a quick break.

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