Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Dorian is projected to Hit Florida; Cocoa Beach Mayor on Hurricane Preparations; Dorian Could Slam Florida as Cat 4; DOJ Inspector General Report on Comey; Trump Criticized for Trade War with China. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 29, 2019 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] RENE MARSH, CNN GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: About it. Shell, for example, specifically saying that they're going to continue to operate in a way that would roll back the use of these sort of emissions. They plan on working to cap these emissions because they understand the impact on the environment, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We'll leave it there.

Rene Marsh, thanks so much.

MARSH: Sure.

WHITFIELD: I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for joining me. "INSIDE POLITICS" with Dana Bash starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Dana Bash. John King is off today.

It's days away from hitting, but getting stronger by the minute. Dorian now forecast to be a category four hurricane with Florida in its crosshairs.

James Comey is on the defensive today after the Justice Department's watchdog concludes the fired FBI director violated agency policy and set a dangerous example by leaking memos about his meetings with the president.

And, shut out of the Democrats' next debate and nearly out of money, Kirsten Gillibrand bows out of the 2020 race, but others outside the top ten are still hoping their message catches on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are a lot more lovers than haters in this country.

And that does not mean to me, saying, oh, OK, and going home just because the DNC says to. Not now. It's too early in the process. What I feel, what I feel when I am around the country, people are processing, people are thinking.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: A lot of news to get to this hour.

We begin with Hurricane Dorian, threatening the entire state of Florida. Dorian swept through the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and sideswiped Puerto Rico on Wednesday, lashing the islands with dangerous winds and heavy rainfall.

And now the storm is moving across warm and open waters, gathering strength. Florida's governor has already declared a state of emergency and Dorian could become a category four strength before it hits Florida early Monday.

President Trump says the state is prepared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were ready in Puerto Rico and we're very ready also in Florida. The bad news is, it looks like it's going to be making a turn into Florida. It looks, I don't know with certainty, but according to the folks over at weather, they seem to think it's going to be making a pretty decisive turn into Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The president's namesake business empire, the Trump Organization, owns 11 properties in Florida.

Let's go live to meteorologist Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center.

Chad, what is the latest?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Dana, I think the -- yes, the most troublesome part of this last forecast is category four status at 130 miles per hour making landfall in Florida. It will make landfall first in the Bahamas and a 130-mile-per-hour storm in the Bahamas will do significant damage there as well. But somewhere plus or minus a couple hundred miles from the space coast, north or south, that's where it will make landfall on Labor Day Monday. So if your plans are to go to Florida Friday, you know what, they're going to kick you out on Saturday. Today would be a real good day to cancel those plans and get your money back if you can.

Seventy-five miles per hour right over Orlando sometime during the day on Tuesday. Now, that's only 100 miles in 24 hours. So once this thing makes landfall, it's going to sit there for a very long time and rain and rain and rain.

So there's Dorian. What else came out of this area? Irma, Frances, Jeanne, Hugo. Warm water, no shear, lots of open ocean, no mountains in the way. This is going to get bigger. Every single model says so. There's nothing that even says, ah, you know what, this isn't going to happen. Hurricane hunter in there just now, 89 miles per hour they founding. So we were 85. Now they're finding slightly higher.

The European model much farther south than the American model. Dangerously close to Miami-Dade on the European model where the GFS or the American model closer to the space coast at landfall.

It is a storm that's gathering strength. It isn't that circular saw blade that you sometimes see. There's a little bit of dry air coming up into the storm right there from the south. I suspect that that will stop and this will become that major hurricane that is forecast for sure.

Dana.

BASH: Thank you so much for that, Chad.

And communities from the Florida Keys up to southeast Georgia are keeping a very close eye on the storm and preparing.

Ben Malik is the mayor of Cocoa Beach, a barrier island community in central Florida, and joins me live now.

Mayor, your community has been hit before. Just a couple of years ago Hurricane Irma. What is your pre-hurricane checklist for Dorian?

MAYOR BEN MALIK, COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA (via telephone): Well, hi, Dana.

Unfortunately, we're well versed in these events and it's -- we pretty much have been meeting with staff and city officials all day. And basically we have our firehouse. which was newly built, and it serves as our emergency operations center. So it's basically almost like a military position type event and just getting all the plans and getting ready for this event. Hopefully it will burn a little further and I pray that we get spared. If not, we're certainly going to take every -- all the plans that we need to have in place to hopefully get through it.

[12:05:32] BASH: And you obviously have to deal with the infrastructure, the residents there, but you're a tourist destination. Millions of people visit Cocoa Beach every year. What's the plan to keep them updated on the latest forecast and warnings?

MALIK: Yes, and we certainly have social media. The city of Cocoa Beach has a FaceBook page, Twitter. So we will be disseminating information out. Brevard County has an emergency operations center. People can get information via text and the web there as well.

We just, you know, hopefully, as we keep monitoring this, if we're told to evacuate, we really hope people will take heed and evacuate. We are a barrier island that is surrounded by water.

BASH: Yes. Well, let's hope so for sure.

Thank you for that, and the fact that you have a military precision- like plan in place, I'm sure people in your city there are breathing a sigh of relief. We'll be in touch with you.

Thank you, Mayor Ben Malik.

My next guest is a tropical weather expert. Brian McNoldy is the senior hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, who also works for "The Washington Post."

Brian, you've been researching hurricanes for 18 years, I believe. You're looking at these models and forecasts. How is this storm different from others?

BRIAN MCNOLDY, TROPICAL WEATHER EXPERT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hi. Well, it's -- for the time of year, it's not all that different. This is, of course, the peak of hurricane season and this is a system that came from Africa. So in that regard, it's not too different.

What is different about it is, if it does end up hitting, say, the central to northern coast of Florida, that's a very rare spot for hurricanes to hit just because of the way the coast curves. It's happened before, but it's uncommon. So most -- most hurricanes that are located where -- where this one is right now actually recurved before they hit the U.S. There's a few exceptions to that and they're all storm names that we know, unfortunately.

BASH: You're quoted in "The Washington Post" today about the forecast cone of uncertainty becoming a cone of confusion. What does that mean?

MCNOLDY: Yes, I think, in general, people tend to misunderstand what the cone of uncertainty is. It does say at the top of it, if you -- if you look at that, it is not meant to be an impact cone. So being inside or outside of that line doesn't suddenly make you safe or unsafe. It's really just meant to represent a historical likelihood where the center of the storm might track. And it's only a two-thirds likelihood at that.

BASH: I have to ask about the climate crisis. You are an expert in this. How has the climate crisis made hurricanes, like the one we are seeing on the screen right now, more dangerous?

MCNOLDY: In general, I don't think it has to a large degree. We haven't seen a large signal in storms becoming more frequent or stronger yet. Probably the largest impact we see from year to year is as the ocean levels have risen, of course. So anywhere along the coast might experience storm surge now that wouldn't have before. Or places that would have before will have it worse now.

BASH: OK. Well, that sounds like an impact. Thank you so much for your expertise. Appreciate it, Brian McNoldy.

Up next, James Comey is facing a tough report from the Justice Department's inspector general who says the ex-FBI director violated agency policies. That's after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:13:56] BASH: A long-awaited report from the Justice Department's inspector general concludes fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by sharing memos documenting his meetings with President trump. The IG report states, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees and the many thousands more former FBI employees who similarly have access to or know of non- public information. Now, remember, Comey testified to Congress that he released those

memos with a very specific purpose. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. And so I asked a close friend of mine to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The IG report went on to say that, quote, Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a special counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure.

Now, despite those conclusions, prosecutors declined to bring a case against Comey.

[12:15:04] Here with us to share their reporting and insights, Carl Hulse with "The New York Times," Tarini Parti with "The Wall Street Journal," CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and Margaret Talev with "Axios."

So let's start there, Shimon, since you are our resident expert here at CNN on all things FBI. What do you think the reason is that the FBI isn't going after Comey in a -- charging him?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right. So it was ultimately up to the Department of Justice. The inspector general here made their finds, made their referral to the Department of Justice. And ultimately when the Department of Justice looked at everything, they said there's not enough here to bring any kind of charges against the former FBI director.

I think one of the key things here is that, yes, he violated policy, the FBI's policy, on releasing sensitive information, internal information. That's very clear. But it's not so clear on the classified aspects of this. And, in fact, it appears from the inspector general's report that he didn't release any classified information to the media and those memos were classified after the fact. So what happened is after Comey writes these memos, these memos get out there, the FBI then takes a look at these memos again and said, OK, there was a couple of words here, a couple of things here that should be classified on the lowest level, confidential. And so they looked at everything at the Department of Justice. And given all the facts, they just decided there wasn't enough to bring charges against the former FBI director.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think Jim Comey made his peace with this a long time ago.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, I agree.

TALEV: And, I mean, this is on balance somewhere between neutral and good news for him. It means that there is not going to be a lot of ammunition if the president wanted to try to pursue something on the classified or, quote, leak front.

But, you know, this has certainly had reputational implications for Jim Comey. It's created divisions and changed his reputation. But in his view, I think he thought it was worth staking his reputation on this. He felt that his goal was more important than the fallout over that. And what's the point of having a decades-long reputation if you can't use it for something. He thought putting the president in check, I guess, or taking that stand during the campaign was more important and this just means that there's not going to be kind of a leak investigation in that (ph).

BASH: And Comey basically said that in a tweet today, a few tweets. He said DOJ IG found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. This is Comey speaking, I don't need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a, sorry we lied about you, would be nice. And to all of those who spent two years talking about me going to jail or being a liar and a leaker, ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I don't think this is going to stop those same people from attacking James Comey today.

TALEV: Yes.

HULSE: They're going to say there are violations here. He broke departmental policy. This is all part of the cover-up. I don't think -- it's -- it probably is good for the former director that he's not going to be charged with a crime.

But the same arguments are going to be made against him now, I think.

TARINI PARTI, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": It does seem like there's something in this report for everyone, for both sides, and they're going to continue to make those points that they have been for the last two years now. So everyone will go back into their political corners and keep sort of regurgitating those same talking points.

TALEV: Yes, I don't think he's going to get his apology.

BASH: No, he's definitely not going to get his apology.

And, look, here's a Republican who -- John Kennedy, who was on this morning on Fox, is somebody who certainly is a partisan Republican, but sometimes calls it like it is. In this case he was being pretty partisan.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Just because it's not criminal in the opinion of the Department of Justice doesn't mean it's not sleazy. Now, in terms of Mr. Comey's response, I think it's pretty apparent to the American people at this juncture that Mr. Comey is not exactly Mensa material. He never should have been appointed the head of the FBI.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HULSE: As I was saying.

BASH: As you were saying.

But, to be fair, this is what Comey said when he testified back in June of 2017 about keeping the memos, why he did it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I created records after conversations and I think I did it after each of our nine conversations. If I didn't, I did it for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive. I knew that there might come a day where I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself but to defend the FBI and our integrity as an institution and the independence of our investigative function.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: How does that play in the FBI, Shimon?

PROKUPECZ: So I think initially --

BASH: He's saying, I'm trying to help the FBI, not hurt the FBI.

PROKUPECZ: So -- so I can tell you, initially I think people were on Comey's side. For months people initially inside the FBI, senior level people were all on Comey's side. But slowly, as the drama started to unfold and more information was getting out, people started to turn on Comey. And I don't think he has the support of some of the high-level people that he once did at the FBI. And even the rank and file. I think at the end people were very upset that he did this the way he did it.

[12:20:18] But, in Comey's mind, and, you know, this is Comey, I think he has a history of doing this, he felt he couldn't trust anybody. He couldn't go to anyone in the administration about this, at the Department of Justice. You had -- Jeff Sessions was the attorney general, who he didn't trust. He didn't trust Rod Rosenstein, who was the deputy attorney general at the time. He couldn't raise these concerns to anyone internally. And his ultimate goal was to get a special counsel appointed.

TALEV: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: So he does this. He gets this out there. He gets this information out into the public sphere. And then what does Rod Rosenstein do? Immediately turns around and appoints a special counsel. So I think looking back, I think people internally at the FBI certainly are not happy that this is how this played out.

The other thing, I think there's going to be some changes as a result of all of this in the end. Remember, there's another inspector general report that's coming out that has to deal with more on the overall Russia investigation. Likely some changes after that internally at the FBI.

BASH: And before we take a break, to your pointing, Carl, Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted out that this is the first of what I expect will be several more ugly and damning rebukes of senior DOJ and FBI officials regarding their actions and biases toward the Trump campaign of 2016.

They are not -- just as the -- neither side is letting go the political pluses they see in, you know, keeping the story alive.

HULSE: Well, I think Comey has managed to do almost the impossible. He's irritated both the Democrats --

BASH: I was just thinking that.

HULSE: With Hillary Clinton and the Republicans with this. And I think what really gets a lot of people about this, and I don't know what you would say, is that in both cases there was a lot of protecting Jim Comey involved. That he was doing certain things to cover himself later. And I think that that has had a negative reaction among people.

TALEV: And yet we did have the special counsel's investigation. I mean it's impossible to divorce the steps that he took and thought -- I think and thought through first from everything that's happened since. And as exhausted as probably you are and all of us were by the special counsel investigation, that became an important part of the history of this presidency.

PROKUPECZ: It certainly did. And I think it -- that this was his goal. Ultimately he got what he wanted, Comey. And you do make a good point, Comey did want to protect himself. But, you know, he said he wanted to protect the FBI and the investigation. So --

BASH: Yes. And you can do -- you can do both at the same time, to be fair.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

BASH: OK, everybody stand by.

Up next, the president in a Fox News radio interview answers critics from his own party who say his trade war is hurting the economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:27:22] BASH: The president often goes it alone and follows his gut, but today new signs he at least is hearing some Republican dissenters. In a Fox News radio interview, the president put a number, 8,600, on the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. That after big warnings that a complete and total exit could help revive ISIS and al Qaeda and put the U.S. homeland at risk.

As for the China trade war, that's another issue where Republicans in Congress question the wisdom of what the White House is doing. One of the objectors is Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, who told "Politico," quote, there is no question that the trade uncertainty is contributing to the slowdown. The danger is where -- where are we going to be a year from now if concerns about trade continue to be an irritant to growth. Asked about Toomey's concerns, Trump shied away from personally insulting Toomey, which is sometimes unusual. Instead, he asked if not now and not me, who will take on China?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So what does Pat Toomey wanting me to do? Does he want me to say, let me put my hands up, China, and continue to rip us off? Just continue. Tell Pat, I like Pat, tell Pat continue to rip us off. I -- let me give up right now, China, even though we're winning. Let me give up right now.

But when Pat Toomey says, oh, I don't like that, that only means one thing, that means raise your hands and get used to paying $500 billion a year to China, plus, plus, plus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Josh Jamerson with "The Wall Street Journal" joins the panel now.

I thought that was very interesting and probably, we were talking here, one of the most articulate arguments that the president has made for what he is doing with China, if not now, when, and why not and I have to be the -- I should be the person to do it.

But Pat Toomey is not the only person on Capitol Hill in the president's own party who is saying, OK, we're done with this, because it's really hurting the economy. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Joni Ernst has said that and others.

So is this squeeze plus the fact that the economy, the economic numbers are showing what his approval and the actual economic numbers are showing that it is hurting? How much is the White House hearing that, Carl?

[12:29:43] HULSE: Well, I think what you have is these senators are looking -- they're looking at their electoral map right now and this is really tough for them because they -- they really wanting to hold on to the Senate. It's going to be tough. They probably have a little advantage right now, the Republicans. But the states where this -- where it's going to be played out, you know, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, this is the kind of stuff that is hurting them. So they -- they really want to back out of this. So, if not now, they want not now. You know, they want later.