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23 Million Under Warnings & Watches for Hurricane; Trump Delivering Mixed Message on Immigration. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:58:14] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Friday, September 2, 6 a.m. in the East. Chris is off this morning. John Berman joins me. Great to have you here.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here.

CAMEROTA: We start with breaking news for you, because Hurricane Hermine makes landfall this morning, south of Tallahassee. Believe it or not, this is the first hurricane to hit Florida in more than a decade.

BERMAN: Now, the storm has weakened in the last hour, the tropical storm, but it's still a serious threat to a huge swath of the East Coast. Twenty-three million right now are under watches and warnings in nine states. Tens of thousands of residents are without power already. And really, this thing is just getting started.

We have the storm covered from every angle this morning. Want to begin with Polo Sandoval in St. Marks, Florida, where the store made landfall a few hours ago. Polo, what do you see?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it is important to point out what you can expect after the storm sweeps through. And it's amazing how we witnessed just a few moments ago it was a large tree that was blocking this roadway.

We saw a small army of workers from the nearby city of Tallahassee actually clear it out in a matter of minutes. That's important as these are some of the first vehicles that are now making their way out of the city of St. Marks. That is the region that was perhaps hit the hardest here. In fact, it was closest to where the eye of the storm made landfall only a few hours ago.

So what's important to see here are people actually making their way out of the region. What is a relatively small city of only a few hundred. Several people decided to simply hunker down while the storm swept through. And now that the main roadway in and out of the regions clear, we are seeing people finally leave the area.

And most importantly this is going to allow resources and first responders make their way into the region to actually get a better picture of just how widespread and how significant the damage is. I've spoken to some of these folks who were some of the first to actually leave the area. They tell me that there are some pockets there in that small city that could be under about three to four feet of water.

Since this is now clear, we are prepared to actually get a closer look ourselves, but it's important to point out that authorities are still recommending that people simply stay indoors. Offices are closed. State offices are closed. Schools are closed in the region, as well. That's authorities trying to make sure that people simply stay at home, because the main priority right now will be to get some of these crews in so they can clear out the debris and then also get some of those power companies in to get people back online. There are still at least 70,000 folks in the area that are waking up in the dark this morning -- John.

It is only when the sun comes up after a storm like this that you get a true sense of the damage that was caused. That will happen over the next several minutes and hours. Polo Sandoval for us. Thanks so much.

Want to the move west now on Florida's Panhandle to Apalachicola. That's where CNN's Boris Sanchez is.

Boris, what are you seeing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John.

The good news here in Apalachicola is that the storm mostly veered east, so the damage here is minimal. Now, I actually spoke to a police officer a few moments ago who said this is about as smooth as you get when you deal with a hurricane. Very, very fortunate that not this not a direct hit, but also it didn't seem to pack the punch that people were expected here.

We saw a lot of businesses that were boarded up. They did not seem to sustain any damage, but the danger is still present exactly because of the reason that you mentioned. It's still dark out, so there could be dangers lurking in places many people may not expect. That's why officials are asking folks to stay home until they can scan for the extent of the damage.

One obvious danger are puddles where power lines may have gone down and may still be live. People start walking around their homes, trying to scan things to see the extent of the damage, and it could be a potentially very dangerous situation.

As you mentioned, there are about 70,000 people without power right now. Crews are now working to get that back online. The big news here, obviously, is that the streak is over. The last time that Florida had a direct hit, landfall from a hurricane, was October 24, 2005. Hurricane Hermine obviously breaking that record and now moving northwesterly as it causes more damage for Georgia and the Carolinas -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Polo. Thanks so much for that update. And there are more than 23 million people under watches and warnings for this tropical storm at this hour.

So let's get the latest on the storm's track. We want to bring in CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. How's it moving, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, moving into Georgia now, just west of Valdosta, we're going to get the onshore flow. We have the chance of tornadoes today as this storm continues to roll across Georgia into the Carolinas. It's getting the ground very wet. That wet ground with the wind going to knock trees down all the way up and down the East Coast as we work our way into the weekend.

The water is still high in many spots, although I will tell you right now there is not a less populated area in Florida, at least the Florida coast, that it could hit. There's nothing here that could have been such a miss.

Back over here, Panama City, that would have been a direct hit to millions of more people. It's still going to move up the East Coast. We're going to get significant power outages through the Carolinas, through south Georgia, and then where does it go? We have watches all the way up and down the East Coast, almost to New York City, because this storm is going to head out to the ocean. Somewhere around North Carolina it's going to get back into the Gulf Stream. And that's warm water. This thing could redevelop in the Gulf Stream and sit offshore for many, many days.

This is one of our computer models, the American model. It has this storm right over Cape Hatteras in 72 hours. That's not far to go from where we are right now. And the storm, as it gets into the ocean, could get much stronger. The spaghetti models very consistent until you get to here. Then all of a sudden, spaghetti turns into angel- hair pasta. Models absolutely confused. Does it go left like Sandy did? It won't be -- the problem won't be the power of Sandy. Or does it go to the right? Right now we don't know. The models are confused.

CAMEROTA: Chad, we have some live pictures to show you and our viewers of Tampa. This is what it looks like there at this hour. You can see that it's pouring and obviously very gray. Quite windy. What are you seeing the conditions there in Tampa at this moment?

MYERS: This is one of the outer bands affecting Tampa right now. That outer band has been over Tampa for many, many days now. Some spots around Tampa have picked up 24 inches of rainfall since this thing got into the Gulf of Mexico. There's that band. A lot of lightning. And when you get this type of lightning coming onshore, these storms already have spin because they're part of a hurricane, now a tropical storm. But they're already spinning. Some of these could put down some waterspouts that come on land as tornadoes.

Tampa, you are in for many hours of still rough weather, even though you are 200 miles from the eye.

CAMEROTA: Wow. That's incredible. Chad, thanks for explaining all that. We'll check back in with you throughout the program, of course. Joining us now on the phone is Andrew Gillum. He's the mayor of

Florida's capital, Tallahassee, where more than 100,000 people at this hour are without power.

[06:05:09] Mr. Mayor, what's the situation there in Tallahassee at this hour?

ANDREW GILLUM, MAYOR OF TALLAHASSEE (via phone): Yes, good morning, Alisyn. I'll tell you, it's been already a long day. We've been up here at the emergency response center since yesterday afternoon but making over the past several days for this storm.

While Florida hasn't had a hurricane in about 11 years almost, it's been, you know, three decades since the city of Tallahassee has had a hit this close. And so you can imagine we are -- we're really exercising that many years of experience in this storm.

We've got today, and our crews are right now surveying the damage as best we can at this hour. But a number of downed trees, as you can imagine, all over the community. Power lines snapped and disconnected, 100,000 customers through our entire service area that are right now waking up to no electricity.

I will say I think the good news is that we know that a number of these outages are related to a couple of downed substations. Once we're able to get to those and start to get those back up and operating, those are thousands of customers that can come back online in a short period of time.

But it was a harrowing evening for a number of us here as we watched the winds and the rain come through. We're a Tree Capital USA, which we take a great deal of pride in, but certainly, you can see the downside to it when a storm like this comes through.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GILLUM: But we're really confident in the coordination and our ability to recover.

CAMEROTA: It is just incredible that a hurricane has not made landfall in Florida for 11 years.

GILLUM: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That just sort of defies, you know, intuition where we think that Florida is always the target. What's your biggest concern there this morning?

GILLUM: We are obviously concerned about the downed -- the downed trees, which have impacted electricity, that cover roadways. They've brought down power lines. I was listening to a number of the emergency calls as they were coming in overnight. A number of people obviously concerned about trees having collapsed on their homes, on their property, downed power lines as I mentioned before.

We want folks to, as best they can, stay off, stay off, stay off our roadways. Give our crews time to get out there, begin to clear some of the debris and some of the trees. Let our emergency vehicles be able to move and to respond without interruption of regular traffic. If you don't have to be out, don't go out.

And obviously, with downed power lines, never, ever, ever physically touch, try to cross over in a vehicle or personally downed power lines. Those things are extremely dangerous. And we certainly don't need to any loss of life to the loss of property that we're already experiencing.

But to also be patient. A hundred thousand customers trying to get back up on the grid is not an easy feat. Our folks are working extremely hard. We're asking our citizens for a little bit of patience as they work through it.

CAMEROTA: Those are all good renders, Mayor. But without -- with 100,000 people without power, how are you getting your message to them?

GILLUM: Yes, so one of the things that we've exhausted are all social media platforms, which our citizens have been very responsive in. In fact, we've collected the overwhelming majority of our reports of outages through social media. Folks went to our website. They used our Digitali application.

As you know in this very technologically savvy world we live in, if people are connected and powered by their phones and devices, they have a way of getting in touch and following information. And so we're using those platforms to communicate to citizens. Obviously, radio and television for those who have access to it, but also the various social media platforms. And we're asking people to stay connected to those in the coming hours.

CAMEROTA: That makes perfect sense. And what a great use of that tool.

Mayor Andrew Gillum, thank you very much. We know you have your hands full. Thanks so much for making time for us.

GILLUM: Thank you all very much. Keep us in your prayers.

CAMEROTA: Yes, of course we will. I mean, just -- you know, that is, since -- in the past 11 years since they had a hurricane make landfall there, social media has changed the equation there.

BERMAN: Yes, and the mayor just saying 30 years since Tallahassee has seen anything like this. And they don't even know what they have yet. I mean, over the next hour, they're really going to get a sense of just how bad this storm was and just how much damage was done. We're going to have much more coverage on Tropical Storm Hermine throughout the morning. We are tracking its path. It is moving through Georgia at this moment. You're looking at live pictures from Tampa. That's the tail end of the storm right now.

Next, though, for us, Donald Trump's stance on immigration. It's a moving target still. New polls show the presidential race getting tighter. So who won the week? Our political panel debates next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:14:01] CAMEROTA: We're staying on top of breaking news for you. Hermine making landfall as a hurricane just a few hours ago. The storm has weakened slightly to a tropical storm. More than 23 million people along the East Coast are under watches and warnings this morning.

The center of Hermine is now over Georgia. It is packing 70-mile-per- hour winds. Tens of thousands of people, maybe even hundreds of thousands, are without power. So we will keep you posted on the storm throughout the morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You've got to get out and vote on November 8. We're going to take our country back, folks. This is a movement. We're going to take our country back.

CLINTON: I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans, independents, for people who vote for me, for people who don't, for all Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So we're on Labor Day weekend eve right now. And traditionally, Labor Day is the kickoff, the traditional kickoff of the campaign season. So everything that's happened until this point is just spring training.

CAMEROTA: Give me my year back.

BERMAN: It doesn't matter at all. It's now going to get important. But we're going to talk about who has won this last week, because a lot has happened.

Joining us to discuss, CNN Politics executive editor, Mark Preston; and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich.

Guys, let's start with Donald Trump, because honestly, he's been out on the campaign trail a heck of a lot more this week than Hillary Clinton has, and he's done lot more on the campaign trail than Hillary Clinton. Look at some of the things that's happened here. Wins and losses, don't pay so much attention to what we're calling wins and losses. Let's talk about the events. The trip to Mexico City. He excited his base with the immigration speech. He has made up some ground in the national polls.

You could look at the speech, though, on immigration the other night in a different way, Mark Preston.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, well, so look, the trip to Mexico City, I thought, was a huge win. Right? So he was winning the day and would have won the week, I think. A couple of hours later, he goes. He gives this speech which alienates, pretty much, the middle, the folks that he was trying to get, the independents, to come to his side. He did excite his base. So that was a win in the sense that his base was excited, that he pivoted back to being a hard line on immigration. Having said that, though, I think that it was not a good week for him.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He also lost several of his Hispanic advisers as a result of that speech, who dropped off yesterday, saying they felt like they were scammed and like it was misrepresented to them what he was going to say. So that also sort of piles onto the fact that this wasn't -- that sort of undermined all the work that he did in Mexico City.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, let's look at some of the missteps. And it's amazing that it's just been one week, to tell you the truth. It was a long week for everyone, I think.

Dwyane Wade tweet about his cousin being killed that people found insensitive. The Trump surrogate tweeting Clinton in blackface that he then had to apologize for. David Duke robocall that was linked to Trump, but of course, the Trump campaign disavowed that. And Trump's personal doctor admitting that he wrote the letter about Trump's amazing, phenomenal, fantastic health in less than five minutes sort of under duress. How did those all rate for you?

KUCINICH: A lot of those seem like a little bit of the circus. Right? The storm -- because we're in the middle of a storm -- the surrounds Donald Trump that he's created for himself. But still, he has to answer for. It seems like those are more temporary. They might be indicative of a larger problem as a campaign. For instance, his problem with African-American voters.

But I think those might fall away as we go forward. And less so than the immigration speech.

PRESTON: Yes, and it's worth noting that some of that he can control and some of that he can't control, right? You know, like he can control not sending out an insensitive tweet. Right? I mean, because he controls that. But he can't control someone like David Duke, you know, saying that "I'm supportive of Donald Trump."

CAMEROTA: Definitely.

BERMAN: He can control his response to it, though, which has been a lot, you know, more rapid than it was earlier in this campaign. Now David Duke says something and the campaign responds right away.

PRESTON: And they did a great job of it last night here on CNN when General Flynn immediately shot it down.

BERMAN: All right. Let's bring -- I want to get back to immigration in just a moment here, because I think there's a really interesting dynamic with that speech going on. But first, let's talk about Hillary Clinton.

Her week, not out in public a lot, raising money a lot. You can see one of her wins is she broke a fundraising record. A lot of cash coming in. We have listed as a win there a wide lead in battleground polls, but one of the big losses, actually, overall is an overall tightening in the polls. I think both campaigns will acknowledge that things are tighter now than they were a few weeks ago.

Also big news overnight, the State Department telling the Associated Press it will provide Hillary Clinton's schedules as secretary of state before election day.

PRESTON: Right. So a couple things. One, I think that the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy is something that they didn't expect would last, certainly, now into September. You know, just a couple months before election day. It's like a nagging injury that potentially could become something that could take her out of the race. Right?

And the Trump campaign is looking at Hillary Clinton as somebody that is hopefully going to implode and then that's when they could win. Having said that, there's been a lot of talk about how Hillary Clinton being off campaign trail is really going to hurt her. But I would go to those fundraising numbers where she's raised so much money, it is going to blanket the airwaves in the five or six states that are really going to determine the outcome of this election.

CAMEROTA: So therefore, given the wins and the losses, and the losses are that the e-mail stuff keep coming out, there's more content that comes out, the FBI is going to be releasing its notes on the interview with Secretary Clinton. So is -- was this week a win or a loss for her, Jackie?

KUCINICH: I feel like it's a draw for both of them in a lot of ways. Mark is absolutely right. She can't get away from this. It keeps on nagging. And I think there's a feeling among her supporters saying, why can't you get out ahead of this guy? I wonder how that frustration is going to manifest itself going down the line, be it people stay home because they're so disgusted with both candidates at this point, or -- or it motivates them to get out to say, you know, enough already. Let's get this done.

BERMAN: All right. I want to go back to immigration right now, because it's a fascinating thing. Jackie, you brought up the fact that some of Donald Trump's Hispanic advisers have quit his advisory council. They've left the campaign.

We picked up over the last day, and there are articles about it this morning, how over the course of the 24 hours leading up to his immigration speech in Phoenix, it actually changed. It got harder that night than it had been intended to be.

[06:20:06] And then last night on FOX News, Donald Trump essentially wanted to clean up and say, "You know what? People may have gotten wrong idea because of the loud cheering and the screaming in the hall. I actually really was softening." And this is how he explained it last night.

OK. We don't have any of that right now. OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via phone): We do it in a very humane way. And we're going to see with the people that are in the country, obviously, I want to get the gang members out, the drug peddlers out. I want to get the drug dealers out. We want -- we've got a lot of people in this country that you can't have. And those people will get out.

And then we're going to make a decision at a later date, once everything has stabilized. I think you're going to see there's really quite a bit of softening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. That was with Laura Ingraham on the radio yesterday. He said a similar thing to FOX News. But he wanted -- he made the point, no, really, really, I am softening here. You missed it. I said I'm softening.

CAMEROTA: But that is softening, right? I mean, he's not saying 11 million anymore. That is softening.

PRESTON: OK, but if you had watched the speech, which I did, and then had a talk about it afterwards, in real time, absolutely confused about what he was trying to do. What the message -- again, a self- inflicted wound now upon himself, creating a situation where there's chaos and confusion at a time when you need to tighten up your message.

And quite frankly he did ten bullet points the other night, where he said, you know, "This is my policy prescriptions." It could have been shrunk down to five bullet points. He could have been more focused. He could have told the crowd to quiet down. In fact, he began that speech saying, this is not going to be a rally. This is going to be a policy discussion. It was a rally.

KUCINICH: Yes, it definitely, it was a rally. And we've talked about this before. I do think Donald Trump loves the crowd. And he gets carried away by it a little bit.

But he has muddied the waters. He's been kind of -- this is one place in his immigration platform he's kind of been all over the place. And I think that's because there hasn't been a solid policy prescription on either side for what to do with the 11 million people that are in this country illegally.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, Mark, thank you very much. We do want to get back to our storm update, because Tropical Storm Hermine hammering the East Coast now with heavy rains, wind, and flooding. How will the storm impact your weekend plans? We have a live report and an updated forecast for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[06:26:04] CAMEROTA: The southeast getting pounded by Tropical Storm Hermine. At this hour, the storm making landfall as a hurricane. The first hurricane to hit the state of Florida in nearly 11 years, if you can believe that.

Millions of people are under storm watches and warnings, and more than 100,000 people are without power in Tallahassee alone.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in Florida with more.

Where are you, Boris, and what are you seeing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

We're actually in the city of Apalachicola. It's about an hour and a half south-southwest of Tallahassee. The good news is that the brunt of the storm came just east of here. So in the neighborhood that we're in right now, the lights are still on, and the damage at least right now appears to be minimal.

I talked to a police officer who was roaming the streets along with many other crews that are checking on damage. He says this is as smooth as it gets when it comes to dealing with a hurricane. There were a lot of concerns. Not only the high winds when the storm hit at about 1:30 a.m. It hit with winds of 80 miles an hour. But also the storm surge. Three to five feet across most areas. Up to eight feet in some parts.

Here in Apalachicola, obviously a coastal city, several hurricanes ago a marina overflowed, and boats came into the neighborhood. Fortunately, that didn't happen this time. It hit, the hurricane, as low tide was coming in, so the water didn't go into neighborhoods.

Still, though, the damage is very prevalent. It's still possible out there to find yourself in some trouble. So officials are asking everyone to stay home, specifically because there are a lot of puddles out there. And if power lines went down, it could pose significant danger if those power lines are still live.

As you mentioned, more than 100,000 people without power. As the sun starts to come out, we'll get a clearer picture of just how much damage the hurricane did. But at least right now here in Apalachicola, it appears that it was not nearly as extensive as it might have been in other parts -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Boris Sanchez for us in Apalachicola right now.

Hermine made landfall in St. Marks, Florida, overnight. It dumped heavy rain, sent trees toppling down. CNN's Polo Sandoval is there with more.

SANDOVAL: Hey, guys. Good morning.

The first step in actually assessing the damage that was left behind by Hurricane Hermine is to actually get to some of the communities that were perhaps hardest hit. And that includes the city of St. Marks. It was actually just a short drive down the road. This is as close as

we can take you right now as authorities say that they still have not cleared the rest of the roadway. There was a large tree that was blocking people from getting in and out a few moments ago. But just a little while ago, crews were actually able to actually cut that tree down and then move it out of the way. It is the first step now as authorities try to get toward St. Marks to assess the damage, but most importantly, to check on some of the individuals who decided to stay behind.

I had an opportunity to speak to some of people who actually live in that city just yesterday. One woman said that she planned on actually riding out the storm, just as she did about 11 years ago.

The main point that people -- that authorities want people to get right now is to simply stay off the roads. Businesses are closed. School is not in session. This is an effort for authorities to really encourage people to stay home as emergency responders, cleanup crews, and some of those power companies need to get out there to begin that process of cleaning up and getting people back online.

Guys, back to you.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Polo. That's the big message this morning. Stay put if you can.

There are more than 23 million people under storm watches and warnings for this Tropical Storm Hermine. So where is the storm headed next? CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joins us with more.

What is the model saying, Chad?

MYERS: Well, you want to talk about the eye or do you want to talk about the effects? Because this storm now has gotten so big it's already creating tornado warnings in South Carolina. There's a storm surge in Tampa Bay at about five feet.

And Polo is not going to get to St. Marks. It's still under water. The storm surge there was nine feet deep, just as the hurricane center said and just as we expected.

The story to take away from this weekend is stay out of the water. I know it's Labor Day, but the waves are...