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Storms and Flooding Hit Parts of U.S. Southeast; Libertarian Party Chooses Presidential Ticket; Possible Third Party Independent Presidential Candidate Announced; Sanders: "Candidate's Job" To Unite Party; One Hundred Fifty Health Experts Warn Of Zika Threat In Rio. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The rushing water enveloping cars and homes in Texas after severe thunderstorms dropped record-setting rain, rapidly generating dangerous floodwaters. The city of Britainham (ph) where at least two people were killed by the flood inundated with more than 19 inches of record-shattering rainfall in 48 hours.

PHILLIP KRAUSS, FIREFIGHTER, EMT: When you see flooded waterways, it doesn't take much water to cause injury.

GRAY: The floods in southeast Texas killing at least six people. One of the victims, 21 year old Darren Mitchell posting this haunting picture of water halfway up his truck window. According to CNN affiliate KPRC, the caption, "All I wanted to do was go home." The National Guardsman swept away not long after.

A few hours northwest of Houston, the search is still ongoing for a 10 year old boy who slipped and fell into this swollen river.

In the east, tropical depression Bonnie dampening holiday plans for millions in the Carolinas, the system stalling near Charleston with 30-mile-per-hour winds and up to four inches of rainfall. Along South Carolina's beaches, the storm creating surf and rip current conditions that could be life-threatening. Lifeguards already rescuing at least a dozen over the weekend.

JEFF OWENS, NORTH CAROLINA PARK RANGER: There's been a lot of rip currents, the undertow is pretty strong, so we're keeping people at knee-deep. There's no swimming allowed now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRAY: Folks across the southeast will be able to salvage what's left of their Memorial Day weekend, but Chris, all of this is headed your way to the northeast.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. We have the wide eye on the situation. Thank you for setting the stage. So that is the question -- Where is the tropical depression headed next? Let's gel to meteorologist Chad Myers for a look at the Memorial Day forecast. What do you have? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Chris, it's in no hurry to move anywhere, moving northeast at three miles per hour now, so very close to Charleston. Later on today in the heat of the day the storms will fire up. Even though it's very blank right now we will get storms that go all along the coast as the low slowly travels up toward Wilmington eventually towards the outer banks.

Now, with that onshore flow, those winds going this way, that will crazy more in the way of those rip currents today. I suspect many of those features will be closed to swimming. Like that one lifeguard said, ankle deep only, that's all we're letting in, because that wind will be onshore all the way up even into New York City and into New Jersey, kind of a wet afternoon into D.C. maybe for the president and also up into New York city. Rain showers expected all the way up the east coast, maybe even one inch of rainfall.

Now, let's get to the rest of the forecast for the parts of the northeast. We will see temperatures in the 80s. Not bad. We're going to be 80 degrees even with a shower or two, and it's not going to rain every minute of the day. D.C. 80 as well. Miami you're the hot spot down there at 85. It will feel warmer than that with humidity. And without the rain showers and without the clouds, Atlanta is the winner, 89. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It's already pouring here in New York City, Chad, so I'm just giving you a weather tip.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

It's a busy holiday weekend for Donald Trump. Trump engaging in a heated Twitter war with "Weekly Standard" editor Bill Kristol over a supposed third party candidate emerging. Trump also courting veterans at a Rolling Thunder biker rally in Washington D.C. Let's go live to CNN's Sara Murray in Washington. Hi, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Like you said, Donald Trump made his pitch to bikers and to veterans over the weekend here in Washington D.C. Of course, all this comes as he's settling into his role as the presumptive Republican nominee. Between a libertarian candidate getting into the race and sort of lingering threats that an independent could jump in at any moment, Donald Trump could be facing more challengers than he expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to rebuild or military and we're going to take care of our veterans.

MURRAY: Donald Trump making the case to veterans at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally, a tribute to the armed forces.

TRUMP: Illegal immigrants are taking much care, really are taken much better care by this country than our veterans. And that's not going to happen. MURRAY: Trump insisting the undocumented immigrants he plans to

deport are treated better than veterans, and after months of scrutiny, also promising to explain where the $6 million he says he raised for veterans charities went.

TRUMP: We're announcing on Tuesday all the groups that we put up this money and we raised this tremendous amount of money, because we love the vets.

MURRAY: This as the presumptive nominee is battling new efforts to derail his presidential campaign. "Weekly Standard" editor Bill Kristol teasing a possible independent opponent in a continued effort to stop Trump, tweeting "There will be an independent candidate, an impressive one with a strong team and a real chance." Trump unleashing his anger in a series of tweets, calling Kristol "a dummy" and "an embarrassed loser," warning the Republican Party to unify behind him if it wants to win in November.

[08:05:00] COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: A third-party run by any candidate is a complete disaster, and you're handing over the White House to the Democrats.

MURRAY: The Libertarian Party also locking down their ticket, selecting two former Republican governors, New Mexico's Gary Johnson and Massachusetts' Bill Weld, to challenge both parties' candidates, especially Trump.

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Taking him off when he says that Mexicans are murderers and rapists. It's incendiary. Call him out on what is really racist. It's just racist.

MURRAY: But for now the Trump campaign is staying laser focused on the Clintons.

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF STRATEGIST: Trouble follows the Clinton everywhere. People are frustrated with all of the drama around the Clinton family. If they'll be back in the political milieu, then their history is relevant to what the American people can expect.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: That rolling thunder event was interesting venue for Donald Trump. It was set up to honor military who were taken as POWs or who were listed as missing in action. And of course this is an area where Donald Trump has incited controversy. Last year he questioned whether John McCain, who was a POW was actually a war hero. Trump saying he preferred people who hadn't been captured. In spite of all that, he seemed to get a pretty warm welcome here in Washington. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Sara, appreciate it.

Let's discuss now with our political commentators Jeffrey Lord, Trump supporter and former Reagan White House political director, and Ana Navarro fresh off vacation. She is not a Trump supporter.

(LAUGHTER)

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I wasn't a Trump supporter when I left, and I'm not a supporter now that I'm back.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I got you. We are clear on that. Help us clarify something else. We have Bill Kristol saying that there's going to be an independent candidate. He had this kind of a cryptic tweet saying that they is going to be someone, that they're going to be well staffed, positioned to win. You've got the Libertarian Party that just put in Johnson and Weld. Do you believe that either can be a factor?

NAVARRO: We just don't know, right? We don't know who the supposed third-party candidate is. Is he a stud? Is he a dud? Is it a she? We have absolutely no idea, so anything we say is speculative.

I think there are people out there. I think Mitt Romney might be one of those who does a have a built-in operation of seasoned veterans, who does have the ability to raise the money in very little time, who does have the name I.D., who does have the gravitas, who has done it and has the experience of running nationwide and knows where the pitfalls are. So I do think there are some people out there in America who could do it. Whether that's the person that Bill Kristol is referring to, we have absolutely no idea. We'll have to wait for the big reveal.

CUOMO: Are you worried? It's hard to judge, Jeffrey, what the tweet smack back of Donald Trump means. He reflexively just attacks anybody that criticizes him. So how seriously do you think the campaign is taking this?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Ana is right. We have to see who this is. I mean, frankly, if it's any serious Republican, that will be the last time they run for office as a serious anything. They'll never be taking seriously in Republican politics again. This is, after all, for whatever they want to say, this is a pro-Hillary Clinton move, because that's what the result would effectively be. So I guess we'll have to wait and see who it is, but it's somebody who clearly either doesn't have a political career and doesn't care if they want to ever hold office again, or somebody that is not to be taken seriously.

CUOMO: There's no indication that it's Marco Rubio, but we do know, Ana, that he did -- said that he apologized to Donald Trump for the small hands thing, saying I told him that's not who I am. Is this his move towards Trump? Let's play the sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I actually told Donald at one of the debates, I forget which one, I apologized to him for that. I said I'm sorry that I said that. It's not who I am, and I shouldn't have done it. I didn't say it in front of the camera cameras. I didn't want any political benefit. I'm not a candidate now so I can say it to you. Not because of him, but because of me. I didn't like what it reflected on me. It embarrassed my family. It's not who I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: How do you take this, Ana? Is this in any way supposed to be seen as an embrace?

NAVARRO: I really have no idea what Marco is thinking. I left, he was not endorsing Trump. I came back and I guess he's going to be campaigning for Trump.

On the apologizing for the small hands issue, I have to tell you that the Marco Rubio I know, him apologizing for something he found was not in character for him, was not seemly for him, I think is consistent with the guy I know. With Jeanette, his wife, and the values they hold. I think he probably felt that, and I think when he tells us his family and kids were embarrassed by it, he's being sincere, and he felt he needed to apologize because it's not consistent with his character.

He went out of character to do that. I think he was in character when he apologized. I think Marco is wrestling with what to do next in his life, with how to stay relevant if he's not going to be running for politics.

[08:10:03] I think it's very difficult to stop running for president. You're going from 60 to zero in one day. And, you know, I think he's figuring out his footing and how best to utilize his talents, his assets, and maybe help his colleagues in the Senate and in the House stay elected.

And I want to tell you, I'm not sure what Jeffrey said before, that it's somebody that would not be taken seriously. The bottom line is we don't know who this third-party candidate would be. We don't know how it would play out. The one thing we know in 2016 is to expect the unexpected, so this notion that it might hurt Trump more than it hurts Clinton, we just don't know. This is the election, Chris, where lead floats and cork sinks.

CUOMO: Well pull. Jeffrey, one of big lines that Trump had this weekend is we have to do better by or veterans. Everybody agrees. It doesn't get done, but everybody in politics agrees about it and then it doesn't happen. He then said the illegal immigrants get treated better than the veterans. How?

LORD: Well, I'm not sure specifically what he's saying.

CUOMO: And that's the problem, isn't it? Let's be honest. It sounds great. It makes you angry. It makes you angry about veterans. But is there any basis of truth?

LORD: Clearly, Chris, let's just take the case of the guy in San Francisco who killed Kate Steinle. He is a guy who had been deported five times from this country, and yet he was welcomed with open arms by the city of San Francisco because they're a sanctuary city. I've certainly seen people homeless on the street wearing veteran uniforms. Now, what's the difference there? A pretty considerable one, I'd say. And so I think --

CUOMO: One has nothing to do with the other. One has nothing to do with the other. They're both terrible situation situations, but in no way can you analogize that that means that illegals are treating better than veterans.

LORD: No, no, no, Chris.

CUOMO: It's just incendiary talk. That's all.

LORD: Chris, it's not incendiary if one guy is being taking care of by the city and somebody else who is a veteran is not being taken care of. Veterans should be the first priority here.

CUOMO: Absolutely they should be the first priority, absolutely.

LORD: My father was a veteran. And while we're on the subject, Chris, my father had his life, and I am here, because Harry Truman dropped that bomb on Hiroshima, and somebody needs to stick up for President Truman and it's not going to be President Obama.

CUOMO: All right, well, there's a little bit of a segue there. Ana, what are your thoughts?

(LAUGHTER)

NAVARRO: My thoughts are before we continue the back and forth, today is Memorial Day and I think we should give a thought to all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice so we can live freely and have this bad choice between two bad candidates.

But listen, I think it's apples and oranges, OK. We have got to fix the national problem with the V.A. We have got to treat veterans better. There is absolutely no excuse for veterans dying on the waiting line as they wait for medical treatment. But it is a completely separate and different issue from undocumented immigrants, from immigration, which is another issue that is a must-fix for our country.

So we've got to figure out a way to walk and chew gum. We must address they pressing national issues. And no, confounding them and conflating them and overlapping them is not the way to do it. That's the way to fan the flames and that's the way to confuse, to stir the pot. But in truth, both of them require serious attention and solutions.

CUOMO: Right.

NAVARRO: Long-term solutions.

CUOMO: And neither has received that today. Jeffrey, the reason I bring it up is because if there's one group that doesn't like being used as political pawns, is the veterans. All they want to see is action. We all know that here today. Jeffrey, much respect, as always. Ana, good to have you back.

LORD: Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: All right, so speaking of who is going to be at the top of the ticket, the man who will be the Libertarian Party standard bearer, Governor Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico is going to be right here to make the case to you tomorrow. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: No holiday today for Bernie Sanders. He's hitting the campaign trail in California. But he's also not saying no to being Hillary Clinton's running mate. CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is live in Washington with more on that double negative. Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: He says he's still working hard to get the nomination and after that we'll see, as the race for California continues. Bernie Sanders tweaking his message this Memorial Day weekend. On one hand repeating his mantra that he is firmly against a Donald Trump presidency, but also suggesting that if frontrunner Hillary Clinton wants party unity and she wants the support of Sanders' supporters, then it's her duty to make that happen. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My job is to make sure that Trump does not become president, and I will do that. But if Secretary Clinton is the nominee,

[08:15:01] it is her job to reach out to millions of people and makes the case as to why she is going to defend working families and the middle class, provide health care to all people, take on Wall Street, and deal aggressively with climate change. That is the candidate's job to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Sanders also tweaked the language just a bit that he used over the weekend on a controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's use of a private server for e-mails while she was secretary of state.

In the past, he's stayed away from weighing in on the issue, but on "Face the Nation" on CBS, he talked about a bit about the recent State Department inspector general report about the matter that was highly critical of Hillary Clinton.

He said it wasn't a good report for her and said the American people and the delegates to the Democratic National Convention will have to take a hard look at it -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Joe, you know where that starts people who have opinions on this should read the report. It's only like 42 pages. You can get through it and then you'll know. Right now, there's a lot of talk without a lot of substance behind it. Joe, thank you very much.

So there is a tragic death toll in the past week alone. The U.N. says at least 65 migrants desperate to escape places like Somalia and Sudan are crowded into boats and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.

There are hundreds more still missing from three major shipwrecks. The U.N. says the number of dead could soar past 700. There's just no answer to this problem yet.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Back here at home, a shark attack in Florida, and a possible another one in Southern California rattling holiday beachgoers from coast to coast. On Sunday at Neptune Beach in Florida, you're seeing the aftermath. A 13-year-old boy suffered an 8-inch bite to his leg.

On the west coast, lifeguards rescued a woman off of Newport Beach after something sank its teeth into her arm and shoulder. Officials believe it was a shark, but it may have been a sea lion.

CUOMO: Really?

CAMEROTA: Yikes.

CUOMO: Same way, you're in the same position.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Rousing, heartfelt powerful, those are just a few of the words people are using to describe Harvard grad, Donovan Livingston's commencement speech. Hits words, both a challenge to America's educators, and an inspiration to African-American students, all in poetic verse. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONOVAN LIVINGSTON, HARVARD GRADUATE: Education is no equalizer. Rather it is the sleep that proceeds the American dream, so wake up, wake up, lift your voices until you patch every hole in a child's broken sky. Wake up every child so they know of the celestial potential. I've been the black hole in a classroom for far too long, absorbing everything without my light to escape, but those days are done. I belong among the stars, and so do you, and so do they.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The speech viewed close to 10 million times so far online. Safe to say this young man you will hear from again.

CAMEROTA: Make that 10 million and one, I'm going to watch it right after the show. That looked incredible.

All right, this story that you need to hear. More than a hundred doctors and health experts are worried about the spread of the Zika virus. So they're calling for the Olympic Summer games in Brazil to be postponed or moved out of Rio. We will ask the nation's top infectious disease expert what he thinks should be done, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:56] CAMEROTA: The World Health Organization announcing this weekend that there's no need to postpone or cancel the Summer Olympics in Brazil over the growing fears of the Zika virus, but the WHO's decision coming under fire from other doctors, who say Zika is a big risk.

Let's bring in Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci has advised five U.S. presidents on global health issues.

Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for being here. Do you agree with the World Health Organization that there is no reason to postpone or cancel the Brazil games?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTION DISEASES: I do. I agree with the WHO. You don't want to be cavalier about this and you don't want to underplay what could be a serious issue with Zika, but you have to make decisions regarding public and global health based on evidence.

The real issue is protecting pregnant women. We get pregnant women who are pregnant, might be pregnant, thinking of being pregnant, to not go to the regions where there is local outbreaks such as in certain countries in South America and in this case, Brazil.

If you do that, the threat to someone who is not pregnant is a relatively mild disease. It can be in certain circumstances sexually transmitted to people who go there and come back to where they live need to take the appropriate precautions that are guidelined by the CDC guidelines. But to cancel the games I think is being just an over reactive I think.

CAMEROTA: Well, your opinion seems to be at odds with 100 other prominent doctors and professors who sent the World Health Organization a letter warning them this weekend. Let me read to you what they believe.

They said, "An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the games potentially acquire that strain and return home to places where is it can become endemic.

It is unethical to run the run the risk, just for games that could proceed anyway, if postponed and/or moved." I mean, basically half a million people will go there. They might be able to contract the virus and then they'll go home to their home countries. Do these doctors have a point?

FAUCI: Well, you know, with all due respect, and I know many of them, I disagree with them. If one looks just at the western hemisphere, if you look at the map of North America, South America and the Caribbean, and look at the number of people notwithstanding the Olympics.

Put the Olympics aside, before the Olympics and after the Olympics per year there are 40 million people who go back and forth between the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and South America.

The added number of people that would come to Brazil globally, since this is such a very attractive tourist area is not significant enough to say that the particular period of the Olympics is going to have a major change.

We already have right now numbers of travel-related cases. In the United States alone, we have close to 600 travel-related cases in the continental United States, namely people who have been infected there and have come back to the United States.

And that's not withstanding the Olympics so you have to put that kind of information and data into perspective.

[08:25:10]CAMEROTA: So you're not saying that it's not a risk to go to the Olympics in Brazil. You're saying it's the same risk because people are such global travelers. However, haven't people curtailed their vacationing to Brazil and Rio as a result of this?

FAUCI: Well, you've got to make sure you make a distinction between the situation with pregnancy. That is the thing that people need to understand. If you look at Zika as a disease, putting aside pregnant women.

It is a relatively mild disease, which is the reason why there wasn't much attention paid to it prior to the realization that it can have a deleterious effect upon fetuses if the pregnant woman is infected.

CAMEROTA: OK, so for those 600 U.S. cases that have now been detective, how concerned should we be here in the U.S. pregnant women included?

FAUCI: Well, we have now, as I mentioned correctly, as you said and confirmed, we travel-related cases. We would not be surprised. In fact it is likely that he will have small local outbreaks of Zika in the United States, particularly as we get into the heavy mosquito season and that likely will occur along the gulf coast states.

The reason we say that is we have prior experience with diseases like dengue fever and chikungunya, which have been in the South America and the Caribbean and have had many outbreaks in places like Florida and Texas along the gulf coast.

The critical issue is to be prepared to prevent those small local outbreaks from becoming sustained and becoming disseminated so that's really what we need to focus the attention if and when that occurs.

I believe it's going to be when rather if. We make sure we have aggressive mosquito control and we try to prevent people from getting bitten by mosquitoes.

CAMEROTA: OK, Dr. Anthony Fauci, always great to get your expertise on things like this. Thank you.

FAUCI: Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn, Donald Trump has come a long way since he rode down that escalator to announce his candidacy, hasn't he? So has his political operation. The question is, is his campaign well positioned for the general election? What does this tell us about how he manages? We have one of his former advisers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)