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Inside Politics

Monster Storm Bears Down On Florida; Million In Florida Ordered To Evacuate As Milton Approaches; Biden: "Matter Of Life Or Death" To Evacuate; CNN Issues Deadline For Trump And Harris To Agree To Final 2024 Debate; Harris Proposes New Medicare Benefit: Home Healthcare Aides; Trump On Political Prosecutions: "People Say That's What Should Happen". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 08, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Thank you. And thank you all for joining me. I'm Pamela Brown. Inside Politics with Dana Bash starts next.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash in Washington, and we start with breaking news. Hurricane Milton is packing catastrophic winds. 150 miles per hour, and it's barreling straight toward Florida as a category four storm.

People across the state are trying to evacuate before it makes landfall tomorrow night. The city of Tampa is in the storm's bullseye. And later this hour, we will get an update from the mayor. She's already issued a blunt warning, if you stay in the evacuation zones, you are going to die. President Biden echoed that sentiment from the White House moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: With the potential for this storm to both enter Florida as a hurricane and leave Florida as a hurricane on the Atlantic coast. This could be the worst storm hit Florida in over a century. And God willing, it won't be, but that's what it's looking like right now. If you're under evacuation orders, you should evacuate now, now, now. You should have already evacuated. It's a matter of life and death, that's not hyperbole it's a matter of life and death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The president just canceled his planned foreign trip this week, so he can oversee the response to the second hurricane to hit Florida in just two weeks. CNN's Carlos Suarez is in Fort Myers. Carlos?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, so the folks here in Fort Myers are no stranger to powerful hurricanes. The plywood is up here in downtown Fort Myers and the folks are getting ready for the forecasted six-to-10-foot storm surge. They've got the sandbags out.

And just to give you some perspective on some previous hurricanes, a Hurricane Ian really destroyed a good part of Fort Myers and Lee County. And the folks tell us that at that time, about two years ago, the flood waters reached about here, with the expected storm surge to be that we're expecting, rather, it's going to be well above this water line.

So, we're talking about a real concern when it comes to flooding. Mandatory evacuation orders are already in place for Fort Myers Beach as well as Sanibel, and we're told that the town of Fort Myers is going to put into effect a curfew at 10 o'clock tonight.

The concern with this storm surge is the Caloosahatchee River, which is just on the other side of where we are behind that building. That River connects out into the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida.

So, the concern is that when we get all of this rainfall, between six inches to a foot of it, you get high tide, and then you get the storm surge pushing in. That river is going to overflow. It is going to crest, and all of that water is going to push into where we are, which is the concern that folks are having.

And so right now, everyone is getting ready. The waiting game begins, and the hope is that the storm continues its track north of here, and that the impact that we're going to see in Fort Myers won't be as great as what we saw during Hurricane Ian. Dana?

BASH: And Carlos, it looks pretty quiet where you are, but we did see some people walking behind you, somebody riding her bike as you were speaking, just one car, which leads me to ask you, how seriously are the people there taking the evacuation orders?

SUAREZ: I'd argue, considering the fact that I covered Hurricane Ian and the recovery effort out here, a good number of folks are not leaving this up to chance. I note that Hurricane Ian, its initial track had it in the Tampa Bay area, and that storm ended up making a last-minute change to the south.

And so, this area was almost caught off guard two years ago by a pretty powerful storm. And so, folks really are not taking any chances. We've encountered a few folks who said, look, we've evacuated from Fort Myers Beach. We just finished rebuilding our home there, but we're not going to ride out that storm.

And in fact, we've also seen a few Fort Myers' police officers drive around in their squad cars. They're playing out a message on their loudspeakers telling folks out here, look, this is a mandatory evacuation. You need to get out of here. You cannot stay here because of the flooding concern.

Again, Hurricane Ian two years ago, was a direct hit, and the flood levels again were about four to five feet. This, if the projected path stays to the north, we're still looking at a storm surge anywhere between six to 10 feet. And so, once all that water gushes in, the folks here know exactly the damage that they're in for.

BASH: All right. Thank you so much for that report. Needless to say, please stay safe, Carlos. I want to now bring in FEMA Associate Administrator Keith Turi. Thank you so much for being here, sir. 20 million people are Americans, total are under storm warnings. But I do want to start where Carlos is, and that is Florida, and that is Milton. What is your biggest concern right now?

[12:05:00]

KEITH TURI, FEMA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR: Yeah. Obviously, Milton is an extremely powerful storm going to bring a range of hazards to folks all across Florida. And so, what the most important thing right now is making sure that everybody is taking the actions that they need to take to prepare.

As you mentioned, there's going to be rain in portions of the state that many people may not think are that close to the hurricane. They need to make sure everyone's doing what they can to get their preparations in order to check on their neighbors. The most important thing, though, is to make sure those individuals in those evacuation zones evacuate.

It was just discussed, you know, we've had, unfortunately, hurricanes in the past -- in the recent past where we've lost lives. And those were people just like the viewers that are watching now that for whatever reason weren't able to evacuate.

So, asking everyone, please, don't take chances, follow the direction of your local officials and evacuate those storm surge areas now. You don't have to go hundreds of miles. Sometimes the shelter is just a few miles inland, but it's time to get out there is right now.

BASH: And that's the key. I was speaking to somebody this morning who said that, depending on where you are, evacuate could only mean 10 miles or 20 miles. You don't have to go extremely far. You just have to get away from the -- from the coast. Is that still your sense as this hurricane moves? And in fact, as I ask you that question, I just want to tell you that our viewers are looking at live pictures of I-75 traffic, which as you can imagine, is very, very congested.

TURI: Yeah. One of the philosophies of evacuation is that you run from the water and hide from the wind. And what that means is that if you can be in a safe structure, inland, outside of the surge zone with the winds that we're expecting, that you're going to be fine in those types of structures.

If you're in a mobile home or a manufactured home, of course, you want to leave those types of structures. But if you're in the surge area, and that's 10 to 15 feet of storm surge that you can potentially see. It's not impossible -- difficult, if not impossible to survive that. And so, you need to move out of those surge areas.

And the other thing I'd say is, if Florida has a lot of experience with hurricanes, but this particular storm at the track that it's coming in at could flood areas that have not flooded in a very, very long time. So please don't use the previous storms as a sense of where the flooding maybe, it could be in other areas. Listen to your local officials and evacuate now. BASH: When is evacuate -- when is it too late to evacuate? We just saw the live pictures of the highway, which is understandably jam packed. At what point do you say, change your -- to people, if you haven't already evacuated. Change your approach and make it so that you are safe where you are, as safe as can be with the kind of storm we're talking about.

TURI: Yeah. There's a -- there's still time to evacuate. The tropical storm force winds are expected to approach tomorrow morning -- tomorrow midday or so. And so, there's still a little bit of time in the morning, but really, today's the day. Then now is the time to take those actions. You don't want to be driving around with the winds picking up. You want to make sure that you're safe today. And so now is the time to take that action.

BASH: As you may have heard, some Republicans are claiming that you FEMA, you don't have the resources, the money, the manpower to handle what is coming. Is that true?

TURI: No, we absolutely have the resources that we require. We have staff from across the agency and across the federal family. This is an all of federal government response. And we're doing this in partnership with our state partners, who have immense amount of capability as well, particularly in Florida.

Obviously, they are very well prepared and seasoned at responding to hurricanes. So, we have the resources we need. We have the financial resources we need. No one needs to worry about that. What we want to focus right now in is those preparedness actions and people taking those steps they need to be prepared for what's going to come.

In the next couple of days, it's going to be different. But if everyone does what they -- what their local officials are asking to do, we can get through this, and then we'll deal with the recovery on the other side.

BASH: OK. Keith Turi, FEMA Associate Administrator, thank you so much for being here. I want to now turn to one of those local officials, the fire Chief Trip Barrs -- fire chief -- Chief of Treasure Island, Florida. Thank you so much for being here. Your city is one of those many cities under an evacuation order. Access to Treasure Island was closed off last night. Are your residents heeding the warnings?

CHIEF TRIP BARRS, TREASURE ISLAND, FLORIDA FIRE RESCUE: Thank you for having me. I believe so. It seems like the streets are a lot more deserted this morning. A lot stayed for Helene. I think we anecdotally had probably about a 30 percent evacuation rate during that last storm. And a lot of folks have told stories of being in their living rooms and chest deep water. And it coming in so rapidly, they couldn't leave. So, I think they're heating the warning this time.

[12:10:00]

BASH: I mean, talk about that, because we are just a week, not even a week after Helene, that as you just mentioned, clearly, hit your area and other areas in Florida where Milton is heading. Hit them hard. So how are you dealing? How is your community? How is your city dealing with what is coming now, given the fact that you haven't even come close to recovering, I'm sure in many parts of Treasure Island from Helene.

BARRS: That's correct. We were in response mode for Helene. I spent two weeks. We went to recovery. We were just starting to make a dent in recovery, and now we're switched back to response mode. So, we're getting great support from our state and federal partners, our local first responders, public works folks, all out there doing what needs to be done.

And the big issue for us is, we know we're the bullseye for 10 to 15 feet of storm surge and a major hurricane with wind impacts. So today, our focus is not on removing debris anymore. It's not on providing any services to our citizens, other than insisting that they evacuate. If you stay here on the barrier island, you will die.

BASH: Full stop. You are absolutely convinced of that. There is no riding out the storm in that barrier island where you are.

BARRS: Even in a second or third story. We've had so much impact. We've got debris that will be flying around. We have two and three- story tall piles of debris on the island. That's all going to be missiles. We had a hydrologic impact to a lot of structures from Helene. So, we don't know the structural stability of some of our high-rise condos, of some of our buildings. So even in a condo, you're not guaranteed to be safe, even if you can get above the water level. So, we are urging everyone to evacuate.

BASH: You are the Florida rescue fire chief of Treasure Island, but I know you have been in emergency response for a couple of decades at least. Have you ever told the people of the place that you live. If you stay, you will die. And that is because of a natural disaster coming your way. Has that ever been the case?

BARRS: No, ma'am. No, this storm is different. We're not getting a glancing blow on this one. There's no uncertainty in the forecast. We are going to be a direct hit for a major hurricane, and we are in no place to respond the way we would -- had we not been hit last week. Our infrastructure is -- we lost our fire and police station here on Treasure Island.

We just -- we're going to -- the first responders are going to evacuate when the winds and water reach a certain speed and height. And we will be in a safe place to come back after the storm. But if you fail to evacuate today, we can't come and get you for probably a couple days after the storm.

BASH: Well, I just want to underscore again what you said, just as Jane Castor, the Mayor of Tampa said to my colleague, Kaitlan Collins last night. That if you stay, you will die. I mean that is as blunt and as ominous and as urgent as it gets. So, thank you so much for coming on and doing this public service. And we will continue to amplify that as well. Stay strong, stay safe.

BARRS: Thank you. BASH: Coming up. We're going to turn back to politics at Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, just joined the view. She is unveiling a new plan to help the so-called sandwich generation. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: It's just in CNN has given the Trump and Harris campaigns a deadline to officially accept or reject an invitation to debate one another on CNN later this month. I want to get straight to CNN's Brian Stelter. Brian, what are we learning?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right. In practice, this is a deadline for Donald Trump, because as you'll recall, Dana, -- Dana, about two weeks ago, the Kamala Harris campaign immediately accepted CNN offer for an October 23 debate. Trump has been avoiding that offer.

So now, in a new statement, CNN has saying to both campaigns that there's a deadline coming up this Thursday at noon. After all, in order to hold a presidential debate, you have to organize it for days and weeks ahead of time. So, CNN is saying, if the campaigns want this to happen, they have to give a formal response by this Thursday, at noon eastern time.

The Harris campaign has been trying to goad Trump into a green. Trump has claimed it's too late to have another debate, but in fact, that October 23 date is right in line for when past presidential debates have taken place in past cycles. So now there's a 48-hour clock. We will see if the Trump campaign agrees or not. It'll be a shame if there's no more debates between these two candidates, because I for one, have a lot more questions, and I think a lot of viewers do as well. Dana?

[12:20:00]

BASH: No 60 minutes, so far, no debates. Maybe he'll change his mind. Thank you so much. Brian for that reporting.

STELTER: Thank you.

BASH: And the New York Times is out with a new poll this morning. It has Vice President Harris leading former President Trump, 49 to 46, which is within the margin of error. They were tied in that poll last month. Meanwhile, Harris kicked off her busiest day of media since entering the race. Just minutes ago, she finished an interview with the view, and she brought with her a brand-new policy pitch.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has the details. Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Dana. She wanted to appeal here to what's known as the sandwich generation. Those adults who are caring for both their aging parents and children, and outlined a proposal directly targeting them and explaining how she would structure long term care for senior citizens. Take a listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They're taking care of their kids and they're taking care of their aging parents. And it's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income. What I am proposing is that, basically what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in home healthcare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now she was also asked how she would do that? How she paid for it? She said that it would be expanding Medicare drug price negotiations as well as increasing drug discounts from manufacturers. But here's what's also interesting about this policy proposal. We know that Harris aides are trying to roll out more of these types of proposals to show a notable difference from President Joe Biden.

Now she was asked if she would have done anything differently from the president over the last few years, and she said, quote, not a thing comes to mind. But this, as we also know that behind the scenes, aides are trying to strike that very delicate balance of career of defining her and creating some distance where they credibly can from the former president.

Again, as these polls remain just so close weeks ahead of election day. So certainly, a notable interview, one of many she'll have today. Later this afternoon, she'll have that Howard Stern Show, targeting that male -- mostly male audience, and later the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Dana?

BASH: Howard Stern, best interviewer in broadcasting. Anyway, we'll talk about that later. Join me -- joining me now our three great interviewers, three great reporters, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, Jackie Kucinich of The Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal's Molly Ball. Hello to all of you.

On this very busy day, I want to get to what Priscilla was talking about in that one of the questions that Kamala Harris was asked was about how she differentiates herself. Is there any daylight effectively between what she would do and what the Biden, Harris administration did? Let's watch part of the answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We're obviously two different people, and we have a lot of shared life experiences, for example, the way we feel about our family and our parents and so on. But we're also different people. And I will bring those sensibilities to how I lead.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CO-HOST, ABC NEWS: Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?

HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Molly, what do you make of that?

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I'm surprised, frankly, that she doesn't have more to say about this, given that she and her campaign know that this is one of the main questions that voters have about her. And one of the main things she's been trying to establish as part of her candidacy is the idea that she would represent a break from the past four years.

And to not be able to come up with something to say in that moment, she continues to not be particularly nimble on her feet in a lot of these interviews. And this is a very obvious question that gave her an opportunity, frankly, to differentiate herself in a way that that would have made news that would have answered.

I think, the curiosity of a lot of voters who want to know how she would lead differently. And she's not very specific in laying that out, and she can't point to a decision she would -- she would have made differently, which, you know, in an electorate that thinks that doesn't like the way this administration has led, and that doesn't like the track that the country is on, that may not be a very satisfactory answer.

BASH: I mean, it's a delicate dance because it's not as if she's coming in. It's not as if she just fell out of a coconut tree. She's been part of this administration as the vice president for four years. Now she did later talk about the fact that she would put a Republican in her cabinet, which she first told me over the summer, and then she said, Oh, that's something that's different. She sort of added it later.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. This has been the central sort of point of tension when it comes to the Harris campaign. You are framing yourself as a change candidate, but you also represent incumbency. You were vice president for the past four years. And often saying that you were the last one in the room as well when President Biden would make a decision. So, it's tough to detach yourself from a president that, you know, consistently in the polls has been unpopular with the public as well.

[12:25:00]

When it comes to the policy platforms that the vice president has proposed, thus far it's very much -- it's similar with some differences in scale and also the way that she describes them. For example, the child tax credit a bit, you know, more sprawling as well. And when it comes to tone, you see some differences on foreign policy.

I reported as well that at times she was saying behind closed doors in the White House that she didn't want to -- that she didn't necessarily agree with the way President Biden described foreign policy as autocracy versus democracy, because some American allies, not all, are democracies. She more so want to go with, saying, this was a matter of international law.

She obviously, it's been reported has also pushed to have more empathy for Palestinian civilians when it comes to Israel and Gaza. But thus far, the policy platforms are very similar. So, this will continue to be the challenge. How do you represent yourself as a change candidate, when your policy platform is so similar to the person in office.

BASH: And let's go back to what Priscilla was reporting, which I should have started the conversation with -- forgive me, the home healthcare aspect of this. Somewhere Bernie Sanders is, you know, dancing in his office or wherever he is, because expanding Medicare to take care of basic needs, real needs of people in American society right now, particularly the sandwich generation. It is a big and important thing for a lot of voters.

And she addressed that. And she addressed it in a way that her campaign believes is relatable to people who are really desperate to figure out a way to take care of their parents, their kids in between.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: And I think they feel that she's a good messenger for this kind of where she is in her own life, and her -- that cohort. You also see her plans about childcare is another emphasis that's a huge cost for American families, and really trying to bring it to that level.

And, you know, maybe at this point of the campaign, they don't think feel like they need to draw a distinction from themselves and President Biden. I mean, we're seeing in the New York Times poll, that voters do are starting to see her as a change candidate, which is a bit of a rabbit out of a hat, considering who she is and what she's been doing. But maybe at this point, going down the road, they don't feel like that sort of line is necessary to cross.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And there is a thinking among Democrats that you don't necessarily -- among some Democrats, that you don't necessarily need to draw a distinction from the policies. This is actually a good example. This policy here that would help the sandwich generation.

President Biden did propose, you know, had a proposal to invest, I think, 400 million in home healthcare aides. That got gutted out of his -- one of his domestic legislative packages. That was popular when you look at polling across the American public. The question here is, can you take the same policies but apply a different messenger, and can that be the key to building support among them?

KUCINICH: Working with abortion, I mean, she's a much better messenger on that than Biden was.

BASH: And just we're having a whole discussion about what Kamala Harris is doing. What she's talking about president -- former President Trump did. We don't time to play the sound bite, but I just want to be on record. He was on Fox last night after saying no to 60 minutes. He told Laura Ingraham that he is still very much considering the notion of going after his political enemies if he were to win.

A lot of people say that's what should happen. You want to know the truth, and that, of course, was greeted by a lot of laughs and chants. If the Trump campaign is responding to what the vice president said on the view about not wanting to or not being able to think of a big difference with Joe Biden, they said, if you're a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden's veiled economy, open border and global chaos, then Kamala Harris is not the candidate for you.

OK. Everybody standby, because coming up. We do have a blunt warning from the mayor of Tampa, which we also heard from a local official right here on the show in Treasure Island, Florida. And that blunt warning is, evacuate or you will die. The mayor of Tampa is about to speak to reporters as Hurricane Milton storms toward her cities. We're going to take you there. Next.

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