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Justice Department Suing Georgia Over Voting Law; At Least 4 Dead, 159 Unaccounted For In Condo Collapse; Kamala Harris Makes First Trip To Border As Vice President; Pence Calls Effort To Overturn 2020 Election "Un-American". Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 25, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And some of his supporters, you're seeing a lot of these restrictions, the Attorney General essentially putting the states on notice that he's beginning with the Georgia law, which is, of course, one of the first to pass. But he says during this press conference in the last hour, that they're reviewing the laws that are passed in other states with the intention to challenge those if they believe that they violate federal voting rights law.

Now, it's significant, because obviously, despite the controversy over the initial proposal, Georgia did pull back on some of the restrictions. But there are still, you know, a number of restrictions on ballot boxes. There's also another thing that that the Attorney General announced today, which was to launch a task force to investigate threats against officials that manage elections around the country. That's an important part of the announcement today. Abby?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very significant, Evan. I want to bring in a Van Jones as well on this. So Van, this is the first of the challenges that DOJ will make to these voting laws popping up all across the country. But as Evan just described, there are other laws that are coming. Do you think this is the first of many, and is it enough?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is the first of many and one name I want everybody to keep in mind, Kristen Clarke. She is an unbelievable leader. She's the new head of the Civil Rights Division Department of Justice. She was on stage. And she got -- she has to talk as well.

If there's anybody that can use the law to make Georgia act right or anybody act right is going to be Kristen Clarke. She -- her backgrounds, unbelievable. He comes out of NAACP and other stuff, grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn, wound up getting -- go into Choate and having an unbelievable education. But the thing about her, she has fought these battles before. She knows this law (INAUDIBLE) argued (ph) as a civilian at the highest levels. She didn't have to be briefed on this stuff. She knows this stuff. And she's fought these battles before. Now she's in a position, Kristen Clarke, to actually make the state's act right. The Department of Justice is a very powerful agency. The Civil Rights Division is a powerful division and you got a powerful leader there. So watch Kristen Clarke, she's going to become a big star here using the law to make these states act right as best she can.

PHILLIP: Kristen Clarke recently confirmed to that position despite stiff opposition from Republicans. Van Jones, thanks for joining us this morning.

And coming up next for us, we're going to go back to Florida and the search for answers. How did that condo collapse happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:59]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, what you're seeing over my shoulder right now, this shoulder, is obviously Champlain tower. This is the site where they're doing search and rescue. You see the crane, but you also see what is emerging as an ongoing problem for any search and rescue efforts.

That smoke is not fog. It's not the haze from the rain, it is fire. And the way the first responders will describe how this is affecting us is darker smoke is active burn of what they're calling a pocket fire. When it starts to turn white, it shows that they are active in their suppression, that the water is starting to beat back the fire. They've been dealing with this from jump here. There was significant fire below. They were worried about people dying are succumbing to carbon monoxide. And not just the people trapped inside but the search and rescue.

So they had to deal with that, which meant they had a hose on the structure all night long. And it has created a two-front battle here against the moisture. One from underneath to suppress the fire and other fires like this one that just popped up moments ago. And the rain, which has been adding weight and then giving a substance quality to what they're digging through that makes it harder to approach.

I'm with Rosa Flores, who's been on this from the beginning. And this is now just a current example of why the going is so slow.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what we've been seeing since yesterday. And officials have been talking about this, just how difficult it is to find signs of life when you're having to deal with something like this, not only fires, but reoccurring fires. They put out the fire, the fire comes back, they have to put water on that in order for them to continue searching.

One of the other issues has been, of course, the rising water. They've been inside the parking garage, for example, the fire department released a video showing the firefighters in feet of water. And of course, you also see some of the shoring equipment in there that they have to use to stabilize the structure in order for it to be safe for these firefighters to go inside. Now, depending on how this dynamic is changing with this new fire, we don't know if the firefighters are still looking for tunnels or not.

Just I guess within the last 30 minutes, new equipment was brought in. I saw a forklift, ATVs, box units that you really can't tell what's inside, but also a crate-labeled waders. Does that mean that they're going to try to go into those areas again and try to protect themselves? Because, Chris, the other thing you really have to think about is this is a residential building. And so, some of that water too is the pipes broke.

And there's also gas, propane, there's vehicles that were crushed inside. And so, all of these different factors really complicate the search. Some of the official saying that the firefighters can work for more than 15 minutes, depending on the condition. Sometimes it's five minutes, and that's all they can do. You were talking about the fumes. That's a huge concern for the searchers who are trying to find life and of course, no one to lose some while you're trying to save lives.

[12:40:05]

CUOMO: Right. And then you have what they can't smell, right, fumes that you can smell are very helpful because you know where to go and where not to go. Carbon monoxide is odorless. You can succumb and not even know what's happening. That's why they've been so aggressive with the fire suppression there.

But also, we're showing you this video from moments ago, right? And again, it's always good. Just look at the live picture and you'll see if the weather's different, you know, it's not live no matter what you've been told about this -- about the timing.

Now, there are a lot of people are saying, well, what are they doing? Are they like picking through -- what they're actually doing right now is looking for areas to build a platform to then do more aggressive delayering, removal. They're not just simply digging through by hand right now, they're looking for areas of opportunity. Is what Rosa referred to earlier, is there a crawlspace? Is there a tunnel? You know, is there a void that's been created by the compacting that they can use opportunistically to get deeper in and fine?

Or can they build a platform somewhere to then use some heavier equipment to start digging through? But the more it pulls out and shows you, and again, this is being offered up by people on the scene, thankfully, and they're posting it online. I just hope you have perspective on this. You know, too many people will look into this and say, why are they standing around? This is very delicate. It is very dangerous.

And as Sanjay tried to explain earlier on, just because you find somebody doesn't mean you can just grab them and yank them out like they're in the water at the beach. You have to be sensitive to what the area is around them. What kind of pressure is on their body? What will happen as you try to extricate them from the situation? These people know what they've do -- they're doing. People like Rosa and me and Sanjay, we've watched them do this job in so many horrific situations. It takes time. It's delicate, and that is frustrating. And I know the families here, and the citizens and the concerned community members are very frustrated by this. So are they. Nobody wants to find people alive as much as these first responders do. They commit their lives to it, they train on it, and they deal with the ups and downs of this job in the worst of situations. And this situation is getting worse for them. Not better.

Now, in terms of what that means and timing and what that means in terms of the eventualities and what the variables are, we're going to bring on somebody with expertise, who oversaw what was being done on the screen right now when he was at FEMA. We're going to go with Craig Fugate to help us understand what are the limitations, what are the opportunities, and of course, when do we start answering the big questions. How long until you think it's not search and rescue anymore? How long until they have an answer about why a building in America seem to collapse under its own weight? This doesn't happen here. We need an answer. Stay with CNN.

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[12:47:32]

CUOMO: All right. We're here in Surfside, Florida. This is a video that is lent from somebody at the scene to show what happened in the period of transition going from one of the teams to the new one. You have about 150 or so people actively working on the site from below, above, and now trying to find lateral points of entry or opportunity.

They can only work for so long. They're working with long sleeves and incredibly humidity. Why? Well, because it's like protective gear for them to try to keep themselves as safe as possible in what is an incredibly dangerous operation. They do not know the stability of the pile that they're on. It is getting compacted. It is absolutely shifting in a measurable way. They're measuring it by the hour.

So let's bring in Craig Fugate, the former FEMA Director for some perspective on what we're seeing, how rare this is, let's start with that. Never, I have never seen a building collapse under its own weight this way in America. I've seen it elsewhere. And I know you have and have worked on it there. But that's what has people so freaked out, Craig, is that this had to have a why this building is not fundamentally different from any of the others on the Collins strip (ph) here. So those answers are going to have to come, obviously, they're second to where the people are in that building who are unaccounted for. But help us understand why it's such a concern.

CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, if we don't know the why, we don't know if there are other buildings at risk, and things we need to go inspect right now. So while we're focused on the life saving operations on the site, there will be, you know, trying to gather as much information of what causes. And we may not know this for some time, but that will be important to see if there are other buildings that have similar hazards and things that need to be checked now, so that we don't repeat and have another failure if this is occurring in other buildings.

CUOMO: And Craig, you know, the expectation is that because the building has collapsed, that phase is over. But right now we're getting hit with very accurate fumes, that is sign of active fire that is going on that they have to suppress. Help us understand that dynamic of what is ongoing and what the cycle of opportunity is here.

FUGATE: Well, this is an active site. You know, I think when the building came down, you know, like a construction site people go, OK, now you just pick it up. That's not what happened here. Construction sites, those buildings are cleaned of all hazardous materials. There's no vehicles in there. They've taken all of the stuff that can be dangerous out.

[12:50:08]

When this building collapsed, everything that was there was smashed and released. So think about the cars in the parking garage, think about things that are in your kitchen sink that are now all mixed and crushed in this pile. So it is an active scene. This is not over. It is moving and shifting, it's extremely dangerous. And that's why the search and rescue teams do, you know, they focus on speed, but not haste, because they don't want to hurt anybody they're trying to rescue and they don't want to get their personnel injured or perhaps even loss of life by rushing, where they need to take time to make it right to get in there safe.

CUOMO: Let's play to the optimism. Best case scenario. How does this go over the next 12 to 14 hours in terms of how they're able to control the scene and get penetration?

FUGATE: Well, they'll work to stabilize shore up and tunnel into where they think their voids. What we learn from earthquakes like in Haiti is the dogs are very good locating survivors. So there'll be constantly searching, listening, using their K9 teams for any signs of life, and then that will prioritize where they're going. But right now, they're trying to get into areas where when these buildings fall. It may look it's completely flattened, but we know that there'll be voids in spaces where people could have survived.

And so it's -- now, that's the focus. And this is literally, they are mining and tunneling into those voids. They're having to shore up and stabilize as they go in to protect themselves and the people they're trying to help.

CUOMO: One of the people who've been working on this site, said to me, Craig, hey, the bad news is when you don't see them doing what they're doing anymore. And the big machines come in, and they start to just dig with big machines, that's recovery. The temptation is to want to see that now. It's not what we want to see, it's proof that they're no longer being sensitive to what they're going to find with each trunk they remove.

So thank you for your perspective. I'm going to need you again for sure. Time is very important here, but also the work moves slowly. So thank you for the perspective. We're going to take a break. We're going to stay with this coverage. There's so many families affected. 159 is the latest number of unaccounted for. This community has come out. The first responders, there people who know people in that building, there are families in this building. This is a time to pay attention and to just hope that these men and women will represent the best of us can give help to those who are inside and we'll be watching. Stay with CNN.

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[12:57:16]

PHILLIP: Welcome back. President Biden will have more to say about the horrific Florida condo collapse. A little bit later today, as the desperate search and rescue operation continues, the White House says the President has been getting regular updates on the tragic situation since declaring a state of emergency overnight. The President is also dealing with the political fallout from his comments soon after he announced a bipartisan agreement on an infrastructure bill. He vowed he would only sign it in tandem with the second portion of his economic agenda, his American Families Plan.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need physical infrastructure but we also need a human infrastructure as well. If only one comes to me, I'm not -- and if this is the only thing that comes to me, I'm not signing it. It's in tandem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Also today, Kamala Harris is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time as Vice President. Harris toured a migrant processing center in El Paso, Texas this morning with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. The trip comes after relentless criticism from both Republicans and from some border state Democrats that she did not go to the border sooner. Harris defended the timing, saying, the trip was planned intentionally after her visit to Guatemala and Mexico to address the root causes of immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our administration, it is important to be clear, is working to build a fair and a functional and a humane immigration system that we have the capacity to give people hope, and a belief that help is on the way. And so, that -- those principles are a large part of what is informing the work that we've been doing addressing the root causes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And Mike Pence delivered his strongest rebuke of former President Donald Trump to date without specifically mentioning his name. In his speech at the Reagan Presidential Library last night, former Vice President Pence said that he was proud of his role in affirming the 2020 election results, and he called the effort to stop the counting of electoral votes on American

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And this programming note, sex, power, feminism. She wrote the book on it, but this is the only story she never told. CNN film's "Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story" airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

And that's it for us today. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. Please join us back here on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time for Inside Politics, Sunday. I'll be talking with our roundtable about the politics of the week. But Erica Hill and Chris Cuomo pick up our breaking news right now.

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