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President Trump: "We Are Ready" For Hurricane Florence; Florence Grows In Size As It Takes Aim At The Carolinas; CNN Reality Check: Are Climate Change Policies And Hurricanes Connected?; Untouched Pallets Of Water Found One Year After Hurricane Maria. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 13, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:28] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Just want to give you a little look at what is happening 30 miles off the North Carolina coast.

So you can see Hurricane Florence, the outer bands there in the distance. All of that sort of gray air churned up that meets the sea. And you can see the ocean getting very choppy and you can hear the ominous wind as Hurricane Florence move towards the North Carolina coastline.

So, Hurricane Florence will be the Trump administration's biggest challenge from Mother Nature since the disaster of Hurricane Maria. President Trump is assuring the country that this time they'll be ready.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: I thought there was an opportunity here that we could have taken advantage of. Now, he opted to go a different direction and that's certainly his right as the president, but I wish we had taken advantage of that opportunity. That could have sent a very powerful message.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tremendous people working on the hurricane -- first responders, law enforcement, and FEMA -- and they are all ready. And we're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people. We are ready but this is going to be one of the biggest ones to ever hit our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We apologize. Admiral Mike Rogers was not talking about Hurricane Florence there.

But we'll get into all of that when Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for "The New York Times" and CNN political analyst joins us.

Maggie, happy to see you safe and sound in the studio --

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: -- as we look at the split screen there.

HABERMAN: We're lucky where we are, yes.

CAMEROTA: Yes, OK.

So, let's talk about what's really getting a lot of attention and that is President Trump revisiting FEMA's response and his administration's response --

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- to Hurricane Maria, which was a disaster. I mean, an abject failure.

Three thousand people died. Eerily, almost the exact same number as on 9/11. Yet, the president tweets this.

"We got A-pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!"

So, Maggie, look, we now know from the Bob Woodward book, from the anonymous op-ed, from your reporting for the past two years that the people around the president don't feel comfortable when he doesn't represent reality. It makes them uncomfortable.

So what's happening now with his take on the Maria aftermath?

HABERMAN: When you talk to people who work in the administration you will usually hear some combination of recognition that what he is saying does not comport with the reality of what people experienced.

Three thousand people dead. Remember, initially, the death toll was I think at 64 which the president was touting as a good, low number, which most people at the time said there's a zero percent chance it stays this way as a number.

There is some recognition of that plus well, but there are other factors where it wasn't entirely the administration's fault or they did get X-Y-Z aspect of this right. It is true that conditions on the ground in Puerto Rico, in some cases, were problematic. It is true that there were impassable roads.

This is a president who not only tries to create his own reality, but he doesn't deal in nuance at all. So everything is either up-down, black-white, A+ or an F.

And again, he has a way of turning this into a referendum on himself. This was a storm during which 3,000 -- roughly, at this point, the estimate is -- Americans died. These are Americans. And that ends up not being where the focus is. Puerto Rico, which is a tiny island, has continued to get battered by storms since then. We are approaching the one-year and as often is as the case with Donald Trump, the notes that he is sounding are not empathetic.

And I understand that they feel as if they take too much incoming and they feel as if they get too many attacks. You have to know that if you are talking about a storm where that many people died it is not going to -- people are not going to grade on a curve. And it's not really -- the A-pluses are not coming from anyone other than himself.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, you and I have talked in the past about his powers of persuasion --

HABERMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- which I think are strong, except --

HABERMAN: Really?

CAMEROTA: -- in the occasions where people can see things with their own eyes.

So, the inauguration crowd where people could actually see with their own eyes the overhead imagery. The Helsinki moment where he blamed America as he stood next to Vladimir Putin. And, the deaths from Hurricane Maria.

When he goes so far from reality -- when people see the truth with their own eyes, what happens behind the scenes?

[07:35:08] HABERMAN: Look, people try to get him to either not tweet or they try to get him to say a different version of X-Y-Z.

But again, as I said, there are a lot of people within the White House -- yes, there are people who have been uncomfortable with things he does but they often find themselves trying to comport to his desires and how he wants things to be, at least to some extent.

You had Sean Spicer try to accommodate his wishes on finding better pictures of his inaugural.

You had Reince Priebus in a scene that was described in the Woodward book and that has been confirmed to me by other people, trying to accommodate the president's desire to get a statement saying that he was not under FBI investigation, and sort of a sense of anxiety when that was not forthcoming because it was going to mean the president was upset.

There is -- I think one of the disconnects, frankly, with the Woodward book and I think where it does not paint a correct picture of what happens is there is not a chorus of people who are constantly standing there and saying absolutely not, sir. You cannot do this. That's just not true.

There are people who are trying to work with the situation at hand and it usually involves something a little more nuanced than drawing a red line.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, I don't know if you have any reporting on this. It's just crossed from "Politico" that the head of FEMA --

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- who obviously is very relevant today, Brock Long, is being investigated by the inspector general --

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- to determine if he somehow misused a car service that he would between his home in North Carolina and his office in Washington, D.C. The inspector general is looking into it. It's too soon --

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- to have any sort of determination so who knows if that is, in fact, true.

But I think we can say that there has been a pattern of Trump officials and people around the president who seem very confused about the boundaries between taxpayer money and their own personal expenses, as though there is no rule book that is being given out on day one in the Trump administration.

HABERMAN: Or that -- and to be clear, I don't have reporting on this. I'm going off the "Politico" story, but I know the two reporters and I'm confident it's accurate.

There are a lot of people who did not end up moving to Washington from where they live -- I believe that Brock Long is one of them -- and they end up looking for ways to justify certain commuting costs.

Again, as you note, this is yet another alleged example of somebody misusing a government car. This has come up before. This was one of the things that John Kelly mentioned in getting rid of Omarosa was a misuse of a government taxi service, which is actually a thing.

This would be yet another example. It is not -- I don't think it's that nobody is putting out a rule book per se, but I think there certainly is a sense extensively within the administration that you are not necessarily going to get called out the same way if you do certain things as you might have in previous administrations.

CAMEROTA: We just got a statement from FEMA that says that they are fully cooperating with the inspector general's investigation. So obviously, we'll wait to see what the inspector general comes up with.

Maggie Haberman, thank you very much.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Always great to see you.

OK, let's go to John Berman who is there in North Carolina on the beach.

I hope that's not John Berman right there. I hope that that is not John Berman swimming in the ocean right there. That is a surfer who should not be there and I hope that John is going to go drag that person out of the water.

John, are you watching this?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That is not me. There's a whole lot of flesh there so that is not me, I can assure you.

What you're seeing right there -- you know, he's doing a good job riding that wave but it's dumb -- it's dumb. People should not be out surfing right now.

The mayor of Oak Island, North Carolina, where I am, doesn't want even people to be on the island. There's been a mandatory evacuation order. People have been told to leave here on Oak Island, as they have up and down the Carolina coast.

When we come back we're going to speak to someone who chose to stay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:02] BERMAN: All right, I'm John Berman in Oak Island, North Carolina.

What you're listening to and looking at right now is a light station about 35 miles off the coast. Listen to this. That just sounds ferocious -- ferocious winds.

That is Hurricane Florence. That is what is coming this way. The outer bands of the hurricane already starting to hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a couple of hundred miles north of where I am.

It's just the beginning. Two and a half days of this ahead for portions of the Carolina coast.

Oak Island, where I am right now -- there's been a mandatory evacuation order -- a population of about 8,000. They were all told to leave. Most did, some did not.

Joining me now is someone who chose to stay, George Sturm, a 38-year resident of this area -- roughly, right now.

GEORGE STURM, RIDING OUT THE STORM IN OAK ISLAND, NORTH CAROLINA: Yes, indeed.

BERMAN: Let me ask you the question that I think so many people have on their minds. What were you thinking? What are you thinking?

STURM: It's my home. I have an interior home as well as a home on the water and I'll be safe.

Sometimes it's harder to get off the island. You take a chance and hope that it goes from a four maybe down to a two, and which it did, you know?

So I wanted to stay here to be here with my family and ride her out. I've ridden out several. I've ridden out many -- all of the major ones.

BERMAN: So it has been reduced to a category two storm. All that means is that the wind speeds are down to 110 miles an hour.

But the problem, as you know -- and you're experienced at this -- is the issue with the storm is the surge.

STURM: Right.

BERMAN: And the speed doesn't really have an impact on that. It's a huge storm. We're expecting a surge of some nine feet which will overflow the berm -- the dunes behind us right now.

STURM: Correct, yes.

BERMAN: What will that do to your house?

[07:45:00] STURM: Well, I've ridden out Flo and I've ridden out Fran, Gloria, Hugo. Dependent on the moon and the lunar tide and all, maybe a couple of inches.

However, Matthew, which was a low cat one with all of the things lining up, I had two feet of water in my basement. My home is framed out in two by sixes which code is two by fours, so I'm pretty safe over there on the water.

BERMAN: Talk to me about your plan. Again, the duration of this storm -- it's going on for a long, long time.

The tropical storm force winds will hit several hours from now and they won't go away maybe for two days.

What will you do during that time?

STURM: We'll hunker down at the house. My nephew owns a restaurant at the end of the island so we have plenty of food, plenty of drink. Hopefully, the power is cut off for a minimum amount of time.

And we'll just ride it out in the house, you know, and stay dry. And locals at this time, you know, we all stick together, you know.

BERMAN: So once the wind speed hits 45 miles an hour they're going to close the bridge to the island here. You won't be able to get on and off.

How will that affect your life? It could be days.

STURM: How it will affect my life will be the fact that we -- you get into a survival mode and if we can get on and off the island -- I do have a pass due to a medical condition. I'll be able to do that.

The thing will be flooding. Now, I'm not going to be funny and say yes, I'd get in a rowboat because that's not really realistic.

You hope for the best is what you do, you know, and you get in a survival mode.

BERMAN: Is hoping for the best enough here? I mean, you've heard so many people practically begging you to leave and part of it's for you.

Part of it is their concern about your own safety -- they want you out -- but part of it is that you may be putting other people's lives at risk if they have to come save you.

STURM: I'm -- that's really not in the equation. I don't think that that would occur. That's never occurred in the 38 years I've lived on this island so we're not going to go with that as a thought.

BERMAN: Who's staying in your house with you?

STURM: My sister and my brother-in-law. My nephew is right down the street.

We have generators, we have refrigerators full of food, water. You name it, we have it.

BERMAN: Anyone in your family -- any loved ones telling you George, you're crazy? We know you have survived the ones in the past but this one, don't do it.

STURM: I've been told that before the storm but not necessarily during this one. And the reason that I'm not staying in my home, besides my medical condition, this one felt a little bit different.

And actually, in the last couple of years, all the locals have said you know, we're due for the big one and when we saw it possibly being a four, we're like this might be the one. That's why a lot of people left that wouldn't have.

There's a lot of houses that aren't boarded up that normally during most of these cat twos, ones, all these houses would have been boarded up. And I think they just left and said that's it, it's over. You know, they bagged it and went on.

BERMAN: But you do know -- as they are saying -- as you said, this one might be different.

STURM: Yes, it could have been a few days ago but it took a turn for the better. So --

BERMAN: All right. George Sturm, listen, we wish you the best of luck. Stay safe, stay inside. It may not be the best decision to stick around but make good decisions going forward.

STURM: Absolutely, we'll do that. It's part about living here. It's part -- it's the price you pay to live in paradise sometimes, you know?

But your life involved -- you don't do that. That's a foolish decision. I just -- I've been through so many, I feel like we're going to be all right.

BERMAN: All right, George Sturm. You know, this is paradise but I will tell you, there's a bridge off of paradise and you can leave for a few days if you need to.

STURM: I have a pass to get off if need be, yes.

BERMAN: All right. George Sturm, thanks very much. Stay safe, my friend.

STURM: You're more than welcome.

BERMAN: All right, Alisyn, let me go back to you.

You know, George is Zen about it and he's staying here with several loved ones.

But make no mistake about it -- I mean, I talked to the mayor, I talked to some swift boat operators who are really, really clear. They want people to go. They do not think it's safe to stay here.

The storm surge will be life-threatening and it will exist over a very long period of time, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I understand George, right? I understand that's human nature. Nobody wants to leave their home and all of their stuff. I understand.

I mean, that's optimism prevailing over raw data that's coming from all of the meteorologists and all the forecasters who are trying to warn everyone.

And I think that that is human nature but it does make me uncomfortable when he says you know, I've weathered other ones before because this one, John -- I don't have to tell you -- you know, meteorologists are telling us that it is different. And it's different because of how long it's just going to stay parked and hover.

He keeps saying I'm relieved that it became a category two as though the wind is going to be the big issue.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: It's not. It's the rain --

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- and the storm surge.

[07:50:00] BERMAN: He heard the wrong message. He heard the wrong message when the forecast changed this morning and it was a category two. Yes, that means the wind speed will be less than it had been forecast, but the storm will sit here for so long.

And the storm surge, because the storm has become bigger, is going to be higher than expected and it is a serious, serious threat here, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Maybe you can impress that upon him off-camera. But John, we will check back with you.

BERMAN: I tried.

CAMEROTA: I saw that. All right, John, we will check back with you.

Now it is time for a CNN "Reality Check" as Florence bears down on the Carolinas. A damning "Washington Post" editorial is calling President Trump quote "complicit" in this storm -- not for failing to prepare but for failing to address climate change.

So, senior political analyst John Avlon has more for us. What do you see, John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right, Ali.

Look, President Trump has been reaching for storm superlatives, as he is one to do -- the biggest, the worst, the most dangerous, and who can forget tremendously wet.

But while President Trump has been talking up our preparedness, his policies have been tearing down our defenses to climate change, which is often to blame for extreme weather.

In fact, on the very same day Trump was discussing Florence from the Oval Office, his EPA proposed rolling back restrictions on emissions of methane, which is 25 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to climate change. And that's just the latest environmental policy targeted by the Trump administration.

According to a July study from "The New York Times," nearly 80 regulations could be on their way out. They include everything from no longer requiring chemical companies to report leaks, to cutting car's and truck's fuel efficiency, pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords, dismantling the Clean Power Plan, and opening nearly our coastline to offshore drilling.

It's so bad that according to two Harvard scientists, Trump's environmental policies could lead to an additional 80,000 unnecessary deaths every decade.

Not convinced about the connection in climate change and extreme weather? Well, warmer water means more intense storms. And when President Trump called Hurricane Florence tremendously wet he was actually onto something.

The amount of precipitation in our worst storms increased nearly 20 percent between 1958 and 2007, according to one scientific study. And the relative number of these extreme storms is also up about 40 percent in that same period.

But you don't need to be a tree hugger to recognize the cost of climate change. Here's a stat that will get the attention of even the most commitment capitalists. The total cost of U.S. hurricanes this decade is more than $343 billion -- that's with a "b".

And southern states, the heart of Trump's base, are the ones that have sustained the most damage and will likely face the greatest costs in the future.

Now, just last month, the Richmond Fed released a report that found quote, "evidence that higher summer temperatures could reduce overall U.S. economic growth by as much as one-third over the next century, with southern states accounting for a disproportionate share of that potential reduction."

And in 2012, North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill explicitly ignoring climate science, forcing officials to work from outdated predictions of sea level rise rather than the latest figures which are more dire. Their stated motive, to boost development along the coast, which is exactly where Florence is headed.

Short-term thinking isn't sufficient to deal with long-term problems.

And here's a final stat that should get your attention. We found out late last month that the oldest ice in the Arctic is breaking up for the first time ever in a development that one scientist simply called scary.

This isn't rocket science, folks, it's climate science. And as long as we continue to aggressively ignore it, the cost in lives and dollars will only escalate.

And that's your "Reality Check."

CAMEROTA: John Avlon, that was really helpful. More precipitation we're seeing and they're seeing that right now in the Carolinas. Thank you very much.

So many people in Puerto Rico were desperate after Hurricane Maria. They were desperate to find clean water. They had to wait for months for electricity and sometimes for water.

So why is this runway filled with bottles of water in Puerto Rico? What CNN has learned, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:56:05] CAMEROTA: For months after Hurricane Maria hit, people in Puerto Rico were desperate for just the basics, including clean drinking water. Now, an untouched stockpile of water has been found. A staggering 20,000 pallets of bottled water just sitting on a runway.

CNN's Bill Weir is in San Juan, Puerto Rico with more for us -- Bill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR AND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Just for a moment, imagine you spent months getting water from a pipe into a creek or collecting rainwater to keep your family alive. And now, imagine you discover all that time there have literally been millions of bottles of bottled water -- fresh water sitting on an airport runway unused.

That is the story that is outraging so many Puerto Ricans this week after a local law enforcement official posted pictures of what looked like thousands of pallets parked on an abandoned runway at an airport in Ceiba, about 45 minutes south of San Juan here.

We went looking and it wasn't hard to find, and you can see why. It is literally a runway full of bottled water.

And it seems to be also an exercise in blame. FEMA put out a statement that says look, it's just our job to get the resources to the island. This was not a supply issue, this is a distribution issue, pushing responsibility off on the local Puerto Rican government.

Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican government put out a statement that says FEMA delivered 20,000 pallets of water. That's anywhere between 30 and 40 million bottles of water that they didn't need. In other words, it came too late.

By our reporting, it wasn't until they started distributing that water in May that people complained of a foul odor and taste, which then set off a series of water tests. And all the while, that precious resource is just sitting there in the Puerto Rican sun.

I'm Bill Weir in San Juan. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK, our thanks to Bill for that very frustrating report.

So we are just moments away from getting a new advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Florence and where it is headed. So let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are ready but this is going to be one of the biggest ones to ever hit our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wall of water is still underneath this storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may be in danger. This is a big storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm worried about this one. I'm worried about the flooding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take the mandatory evacuations very seriously. It's probably not going to be survivable out here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's unpredictable, really. We need to get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do expect up to three million to be out of power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are trying to send the signal that there is nothing left to stay for.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Disaster is at the doorstep and it's coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, September 13th. It is 8:00 in the east.

This is CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Florence.

It is here. The outer bands of this huge storm beginning to hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina, some 200 miles north of where I am. I am on Oak Island, North Carolina where there is a mandatory evacuation order.

But yet, there are surfers out in this sea which really has begun to kick up over the last two hours since we've been here, Alisyn. They're out there, they're surfing. They should not be here. They have been told to get off this island.

It will be very dangerous starting in about three hours here and then staying that way for about 72 hours, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Well, I'm sure they're just going to surf for a little while, and then they'll get out, and then they'll hightail it out of there.

At least I hope that's what's going to happen because it is so upsetting and nerve-racking to see that they are ignoring all of the warnings that so many people have been giving for days.

I mean, this is about to become what, you know -- I don't have to tell you, John -- they're calling the storm of a lifetime because of all of the water it's going to bring. All of the rain. Right where you are standing they're expecting 30 to 40 inches of rain in the next 24 hours.

BERMAN: It's the combination of threats here that's the real problem. It's not just the wind -- and you'll have wind speeds of 110 miles an hour -- but also the rain that Alisyn was saying. You know, some three feet of rain in some places and then the storm surge, six to nine --