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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Report: Surfside Official Told Champlain Tower Residents in 2018 the Condo was in a "Very Good Shape"; Biden Orders Airstrikes Against Iran-Backed Militias; Trump Organization Lawyers to Meet with Manhattan Prosecutors. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 28, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN: Do you still have hope?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I expect miracles. I'm expecting many miracles.

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WHITNEY WILD, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: A grieving community is holding out hope for survivors. But new information overnight reveals residents were misled when a big warning sign was raised about the ill-fated condo.

LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Breaking overnight, President Biden ordering precision air strikes against Iran-backed militia groups. We are live in the Middle East.

WILD: And managing expectations. The new and remarkably low bar being set for COVID cases at the Olympics. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, this is EARLY START, I'm Whitney Wild in for Christine Romans.

JARRETT: Great to have you here in person --

WILD: Oh, thank you --

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett, it's Monday, June 28th, we have reports this morning from Istanbul, Washington, Portland, Tokyo, Sydney, and the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. But we start this morning in Surfside, Florida, where troubling new information suggesting residents of that condo that collapsed last week in Florida were told that their building was, quote, "in very good shape" just two years ago. "NPR" obtained the minutes of the November 2018 meeting with residents where this assurance was apparently made by a Surfside town inspector. CNN has learned though just two days earlier, that same official received an engineering report warning of, quote, "major structural damage to the tower."

WILD: This morning, the Surfside community is trying to keep hope alive for the families of at least 152 people still missing in that condo collapse. Nine people are now confirmed dead. The cause of the collapse still unknown, the difficult task of searching through the rubble is continuing very slowly, and there are very few positive developments. Over the weekend, search and rescue crews at the Champlain Towers cut a 125-foot trench across the rubble pile, that's in an effort to try to find the missing and then reached down into a fire that had been smoldering deep inside the site for days.

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ALAN COMINSKY, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: This -- I mean, it's horrific, you know, if that's going to be a one word that I'll say. Just the type of collapse, type of debris, unfortunately, that we're coming across, let's just assume that it's tough to describe. This is, you know, we don't have a voice that we'd be hoping for, things that we're looking for. You know, not that the -- you know, we're still looking. You know, and so, that's what I mean by horrific, it's just -- it's a very difficult process.

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JARRETT: The mayor of Surfside is still hopeful, citing cases where people have survived under rubble for up to 17 days. This morning, a massive deployment of urban search and rescue members in Florida is now mobilized.

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REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): They had fires probably caused by the gasoline from the cars that were parked underneath in that parking structure. So they had fire. They had smoke. They have the constant threat of the rest of -- or parts of that complex are not very stable, and so they have that constant threat. They have the threat of, you know, moving something and then something unexpectedly moving on them, which could be another slab and injuring them.

And so, these firefighters, these rescue workers are under constant threat from the environment and also the collapse itself. And then believe me, they are doing the best they can. They want to get through this, they want to find as quickly as possible if by some miracle, there are other survivors in there, they want to get to them as quickly as possible and they're doing the best job that they can. And by the way, they know what they're doing.

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JARRETT: Let's go live to Surfside, Florida, and bring in CNN's Nick Valencia. Nick, good morning, I know you've been there all weekend talking to residents, talking to family members who are waiting for news anxiously on their loved ones and they're growing impatient and now this news of this report that suggests this official actually knew that the building was suffering from major structural damage likely only to add insult to injury.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a stinging report here for a lot of the residents. Family members and friends who are still waiting to hear about news of their loved ones who are unaccounted for. There's so much that has emerged in the last five days that would give anyone pause to live in that building. The big question this morning, though, is whether or not that information was deliberately withheld from the residents that lived there. "NPR" reporting this morning that a Surfside official assured residents that the building was safe.

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However, we've learned that just two days before that November 2018 meeting, that same official evidently saw a report which showed major structural damage to the building. This is an issue that was addressed by one of the commissioners here in Surfside at a press conference over the weekend.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In hindsight -- in hindsight, reading that report is very damning. You read that report, you go, my God, how could they miss this? When I was at the community center, be one of the first people to see the survivors when they were being -- you know, evacuated to the community center. They were very traumatized and shook up, and they -- some of them were very vocal about I knew it -- you know, they were saying things like I told them the building was shaking all the time when they were doing construction next door. We had cracks in our building from the construction next door. The roof was leaking in the garage. There was water. I knew this was a problem. Everyone is an expert in hindsight.

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VALENCIA: Those who live in surrounding high-rises are having second thoughts about staying there overnight. In fact, there's a sister building to that same one that collapsed that's nearly identical that officials decided not to evacuate after getting an independent engineering firm to look at the structure there. There was no evidence of any major structural damage. No evidence that anyone is unsafe staying there, but still the mayor here in Surfside said that he would have second thoughts about having his family stay there.

Every building over six stories and that is 40-plus years old is being asked by the city of Miami to get an independent engineering firm to look at those structures and report back to the city within 45 days. Of course, this enters day five of the search and rescue. Today, there will be teams not only from Israel, but also Mexico looking for survivors at any sign of life. Yesterday, it was a very emotional way that the family members and friends were taken to that site to look at the work being done there. No less than 50-60 first responders working on top of that debris to find any signs of life.

But at this point, it seems as though there is an emotional turning point happening with some of these families that I've been speaking to, who say that they're just starting to accept, in some way, shape or form that their loved ones may not have survived this collapse. They've seen the same video that we have, they've now been to the site, seen the work being done. Again, that day five, entering of the search and rescue which is still search and rescue, not yet -- not yet a recovery from officials here. Laura?

JARRETT: All right, Nick, we will see you back in just a little bit. Thank you for all of your reporting.

VALENCIA: You bet --

WILD: Breaking overnight, President Biden ordered precision airstrikes against Iran-backed militia groups along the Iraq-Syria border. Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul. Arwa, the Pentagon is calling these airstrikes defensive. What more can you tell us?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this stage, it most certainly seems as if the U.S. administration is wanting to send a clear message to these Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, it should be noted, and as well to their patron Iran itself saying that the U.S. under the Biden administration will not tolerate any sort of strikes against U.S. interests inside Iraq. As of late, over the last few months, there have been a number of attacks against U.S. personnel, U.S. installations within Iraq carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles.

In other words, drones. Drones that are in the possession of these Iranian-backed Iraqi militias. In fact, on one of the pro-militia channels, a "Telegram Channel", there was a propaganda video that was circulated showing something of a show of force in terms of the sort of technological capacities that they themselves have in their own possession. Some analysts are saying that this is part of the ongoing battle between the U.S. and Iran. That this is a by-product of the increasing pressure, economic pressure brought about by the U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Iran wanting to prove that it still has teeth and that it is not to be messed with, and that's why we're seeing these types of attacks at this stage. But the bottom line is that Iraq, for quite some time now, years, in fact, ever since the U.S.-led invasion into Iraq back in 2003, Iraq has been the main proxy battle field between the United States and one of its arch rivals in the region, Iran. Of course, all of this is quite concerning, given the history within Iraq between these two countries. You'll remember that last year, in early 2020 after a series of attacks by these Iranian-backed militias, the U.S. then turned around and retaliated by killing Iraq's -- Iran's top military commander, Qasem Soleimani on Iraqi soil.

JARRETT: Arwa Damon, thank you. All right, later today, lawyers for the Trump Organization are expected to meet with Manhattan's prosecutors. Their hope is to convince the D.A. not to pursue criminal charges against the company. CNN's Paula Reid has more from Washington.

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PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has informed the Trump Organization that it could face criminal charges as soon as this week. The allegation is that the company tried to avoid paying payroll taxes on certain benefits given out to employees like free apartments, free cars, and even school tuition. That would be very unusual to go after a company for failing to pay taxes on these kinds of perks, but at this point, no charges have been filed. We'll have to wait and see exactly what evidence prosecutors support any potential charges with.

But we've also learned that charges could be filed against long-time Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. The allegation is that he received some of these perks to get around tax laws. Now Weisselberg has been under a lot of pressure for a long time trying to get him to flip against the former president or anyone else who he may have evidence of criminal behavior against, but we've learned that Weisselberg has told prosecutors he will not cooperate. He will not flip. So this could be a very difficult week for the Trump Organization. Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

JARRETT: Paula, thank you. It could be a very big week for Trump and the Trump Organization.

WILD: Yes, absolutely.

JARRETT: All right, still ahead, for the first time in 15 months, an American cruise ship is carrying passengers at sea, and CNN is on board. Join us next.

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WILD: After more than 15 months, the first American cruise ship is back at sea. The Celebrity Edge left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this weekend, and to keep everybody safe, the crew has -- the cruise has made a list of changes. So, they're staggering arrival times, there's a requirement for wait staff to bring food rather than having guests go up to the buffet. There are also four ICU beds on board. And here is the other thing, there are 95 percent of passengers who are vaccinated, and those who aren't vaccinated or won't say if they're vaccinated are asked to wear masks in the public areas. They also have to get tested for COVID, at that's at their own expense. Natasha Chen is on board with the best assignment of the week.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Whitney and Laura, in many ways, this is a typical cruise experience. You've got the casino, you've got jewelry shops, but there are signs of cruising in a pandemic era. Hand sanitizer stations everywhere. And we also hear the band in the background. Well, take a look around at the tables though, there aren't that many people, no crowds gathered. And that is because this cruise is sailing at not even 40 percent capacity. This cruise is 99 percent vaccinated among passengers, 100 percent of the crew is vaccinated.

And they tell me, they're so excited to be back. Captain Kate McCue said it was an emotional moment for them to sail from Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

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KATE MCCUE, CAPTAIN OF CELEBRITY EDGE CRUISE SHIP: It really hit me, though, when we dropped all lines. When we came off the pier with our guests on board because that seemed so natural that it made the last 15 months a bit of a blur, a bit of a dream. And not a nightmare at all because we did have an opportunity to do things on board the ship that we wouldn't have been able to if we were in service.

CHEN: Yes.

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CHEN: Now, out here on the pool deck, you can also see there aren't that many people splashing around, there are a lot of empty chairs, another sign of the reduced capacity on the ship. Reduced capacity can go on for many months according to the CEO, Richard Fain. In an interview, he told us protocols may evolve over time as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. He said with this being the first ship to depart from a U.S. port in more than 15 months, he'd rather do it right than do it fast. Whitney and Laura, back to you.

JARRETT: Natasha, thank you for that. So, while that's happening on cruise ships, a bipartisan group of senators is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and the TSA for an update on mask guidance on planes and buses. The request follows a recent surge in altercations on flights over masks and frontline employees like bus drivers find themselves enforcing mask rules with confrontational passengers.

Well, low vaccination rates in many states have officials concerned this morning. The Delta variant is causing a rise in infections in states like Missouri. The former head of the FDA says combating vaccine hesitancy is going to take a community approach.

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SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: We need to shift to more of a grassroots bottom-up campaign and move away from this top-down national campaign as we enter into the Fall. There will be people seeking out vaccination heading into the Fall as people contemplate going back to work and back to school. So, I'm still optimistic we'll pick up more of the American population and get them vaccinated. But it's going to slow down as we get into the Summer and prevalence declines and people feel safer.

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JARRETT: Vaccination rates remain low for teenagers and school is just a little more than a month away in some places. Lots of large districts start school in the first two weeks of August, meaning they've got to act fast if they want students fully vaccinated by the time school starts.

WILD: Oh, that's a lot of stress.

JARRETT: Yes.

WILD: A lot of stress for parents. All right, 4th of July, America is open now, it's time to celebrate. So join Dana Bash, Don Lemon, Victor Blackwell and Ana Cabrera for a star-studded evening of music and fireworks. All that fun beginning 7:00 p.m. July 4th only on CNN.

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JARRETT: Britain's health secretary has stepped down after a picture surfaced showing the married official kissing a female aide. Now, he apologized for breaching COVID regulations and another questions about how the picture was leaked to the public. CNN has the pandemic covered around the world.

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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. Matt Hancock resigned as health secretary on Saturday after coming under fire for breaking social distancing guidelines that he helped create. The British tabloid "The Sun" published photographs of Matt Hancock and his former aide embracing and kissing in May before restrictions were lifted in the United Kingdom. The prime minister said on Friday after the story broke that he accepted Matt Hancock's apology and had full confidence in him. But Matt Hancock decided to resign.

Apologizing again for breaking the COVID rules and his family and loved ones. The former Chancellor Sajid Javid will be Matt Hancock's replacement.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Beirut. It has become an annual tradition in Istanbul. Turkish police violently cracking down on what was, until a few years ago, a raucous annual pride parade.

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Saturday, riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the parade banned for the seventh year in a row by the Istanbul governor's office. In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become increasingly hostile to gay rights.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David McKenzie in Johannesburg. South Africa has entered a strict lockdown which will last at least two weeks because of a brutal third wave of COVID-19 dominated, say scientists, by the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus. Vaccination rates here and across the continent are low. So, the worst could be yet to come.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Cyril Vanier in London. French authorities are calling for witnesses to find the spectator who caused the massive crash in the Tour de France's opening stage on Saturday. They've launched an investigation for unintentional injuries after that spectator stepped out in front of the cyclists holding a sign seemingly for television cameras and hitting German rider Tony Martin, causing a pile-up which derailed the race.

Three riders pulled out after that stage including a German cyclist who suffered a severely bruised wrist.

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WILD: A disturbing development in the aftermath of the South Florida condo collapse. Were residents misled about the condition of their building?

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