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New Day

Hotel Collapses in City of Surfside, Florida; Mayor of Surfside, Florida, Charles Burkett Speaks at Press Conference about Collapsed Hotel; Justice Department Charges against January 6th Insurrectionists Examined; Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is Interviewed About the Capitol Riot and Border Security; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is Interviewed About the Infrastructure Deal, Policing. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Prices are higher, and dates are few and far between.

JASON RHEE, OWNER, RHEEFINED COMPANY WEDDINGS AND SPECIAL EVENTS: It is a little challenging right now that we can't offer as much as we can to our couples and to our clients. And the last thing I want to say is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And here at the White Hotel, they are expecting that the sales team is now going to be getting involved in serving tonight because of labor shortages that we're hearing across many other industries. And now Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they're not going to be having two weddings each day, a sign that this wedding craze is going to continue into the near future, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Salespeople now doing the serving, that's pretty interesting. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. We do have more on our breaking news out of Florida right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: A very good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It's Thursday, June 24th, and we are following breaking news from south Florida. It is devastating really. It's deadly. There's been a high-rise building that has collapsed in the city of Surfside. This is just north of Miami Beach, for context there. And what you're looking at here are live aerial pictures from the scene. You see that swimming pool on the left? This part of the building that has fallen down stretched all the way alongside that swimming pool. So we're talking about a very large chunk of this building that fell down overnight. There is a huge pile of debris, 12 stories in this apartment building. Balconies that had been sawed in half, and we're told that at least one person has died.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: About 100 units in this building which was, I think, about 39 years old. The collapse happened before 2:00 a.m. New video shows rescue crews pulling a young boy from the rubble. More than 80 emergency teams are on the ground working to find survivors. We have some sort of before and after video. This is what the building looked like before the collapse. And then you can see what it looks like now. Again, the fear is this happened before 2:00 a.m., so how many people might have been sleeping inside at the time.

I want to bring in CNN's Leyla Santiago who is live on the scene for us in Surfside. Leyla, give us the very latest.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you mentioned, we have confirmed that one person was transported to the hospital and died at the hospital.

I want to give you a better understanding from our vantage point what this looks like here. This is the building. It was built in the 80s. We understand there was some roof work that was being done at the time. What sort of role that plays is still unclear, and what caused this is still unclear.

But we know there are at least 10 people treated here when this initially happened. This is an area that's known as an upscale beach community with old and new buildings. And when I spoke to the mayor about it, he said this is something that just doesn't happen in the United States. Buildings just don't collapse. He just spoke at a press conference. I want you to listen to what else he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MAYOR CHARLES W. BURKETT, SURFSIDE, FLORIDA: Those guys, those guys deserve all of our respect and credit and anything else we can give them, because they're real heroes. They risked their lives. It's amazing. We ought to be very proud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor, talk about the building itself. We are hearing it's an older building.

BURKETT: It's not really an older building. It was an 80s building. So, again, I did art deco renovations in South Beach years ago. That's how I started. Those are old buildings. Those are from the 20s. This is from the 80s. There's no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls out the supports from underneath, or they get washed out, or there is a sinkhole, or something like that, because it just went down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there construction being done on the building?

BURKETT: There was roof work being done, but there's roof work being done on buildings all the time. And it's hard to imagine that that could have been the impetus for such a catastrophic collapse. And I'm sure that it probably wasn't.

(INAUDIBLE)

BURKETT: The roof work? Well, listen, I jog by that building every day, and I know they had a crane out there. They were lifting stuff up. So as far as I know they were still in the process of doing the work, the work on the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When would have been the last major inspection on this building?

BURKETT: Listen, we do inspections all the time. Our building inspector, whenever we do work on a building, especially for the roof job, I'm sure there was an application, there was an inspection, there was an understanding about how it was going to be staged and how the work was going to be done. So, as you know, we do 40-year inspections here in Florida. So I'm not quite sure if there was a 40-year inspection on this building. But the bottom line is that's not an old building. And 40-year inspection are not, that kind of thing should not be happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how heavy was the equipment that was being put on top of the roof?

[08:05:02]

BURKETT: That's a good question, and we need to get the answer to that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

(INAUDIBLE)

BURKETT: We talked to the building manager about that, and they don't log owners when they come in and out, but they log guests. So we do have a log of guests, but we don't have a log of owners. And the building manager is -- has intimated to me that the building was substantially full.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minimally, how many people are --

BURKETT: It's unclear right now because those people don't necessarily report in. They're just owners, and we're just going to have to go through the process over the next couple days to try to piece that together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we talking --

BURKETT: I think we're talking a lot of units. I think we're talking a third of the building. I understand that building was over 100 units. So It could be at least 30 units.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the name of the building?

BURKETT: The Champlain Towers South.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And could you repeat the number of how many people were injured and killed?

BURKETT: This morning I was told by the chief that we treated 10 people on the site, two were transported to the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two of those 10?

BURKETT: Two of those 10 were transported. One has passed away. One of the two has passed away. And the rest are now up at our community center getting ready to be relocated into a hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, the bottom line is that dozens of units may at this moment still have people --

BURKETT: That is correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, there's speculation -- is that true?

BURKETT: No idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The person that died, was he on a top floor?

BURKETT: I don't have that specific information. But I do know the heroic first responders have cleared the building, so that means they've gone into the units that exist now and have made sure that there's nobody else in the building that needs to be taken out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But to be clear, is there still an active search for potential survivors?

BURKETT: Yes, I think -- we had the dogs out in the middle of the night last night, and it was very difficult in the dark to try to get the dogs up on the pile of rubble. But they're reigniting that effort right now. And I'm sure that's ongoing at full strength.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the search of the nondamaged units is done.

BURKETT: I think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the search of the collapsed area goes on.

BURKETT: Is beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And will go on for quite some time.

BURKETT: Absolutely. I think we need to bring heavy equipment in. And it's -- that part of it is heartbreaking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor, your thoughts about -- it's hard to put into words what we've seen.

BURKETT: It's less likely than a lightning strike. It's less likely than a lightning strike. It just does happen. You don't see buildings falling down in America. And here we had a building literally fall down. Just doesn't happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many people were rescued, if you have that information?

BURKETT: I think we have 15 family units that walked out on their own. And like I said earlier, we had 10 that were treated early this morning and we had two that were taken to the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Medically treated only scene?

BURKETT: Medically treated on the scene. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how many were taken out? We saw people being

rescued from the balcony.

BURKETT: Correct. I believe they found -- my information, last time I was over there, they had found one person in the building. They were looking and they had brought that person out. I don't know what condition that person was in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has anything like this ever happened before?

BURKETT: No. No, nothing like this has happened. I've lived here my whole life, and I've never seen anything happen like this happen anywhere in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any indication that it's a tragic accident --

BURKETT: Listen, I think we need to find out what the answer is. I don't know if I could characterize it at all right now, except that we have a building that's fallen down.

(INAUDIBLE)

BURKETT: I think they should be contacting the town of Surfside if they knew their loved ones were here in the building so that we can start to piece this thing together, because we're going to have to know that they're safely out of the building, or if they were in the building, we need to account for them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the name of the hotel that has to be evacuated?

BURKETT: I think it's called the Bluegreen Hotel which is right next door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, total focus now is on the ongoing active search. But it will beg the larger question about the safety of the surrounding buildings here and elsewhere. How will that effort commence both in Surfside and likely all across --

[08:10:01]

BURKETT: We're going to, obviously, keep everybody a safe distance away from the building, number one. That's why we're not letting those people go back into the hotel that's to the north, because it's too close. The building to the south is far enough away so that the experts believe it's not in danger should the rest of the building collapse. So we're going to take this one step at a time. Miami-Dade County is leading us through this. They've got their engineers, they're got their fire people, they've got their first responders, and we're all following their lead.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: That's the mayor of Surfside, Florida, explaining what happened there overnight where this condo, big chunk of it, just collapsed. And we did learn, I think, Brianna, one new piece of information.

KEILAR: What particularly was that?

BERMAN: The roof, that there was construction on the roof.

KEILAR: That's right, there was construction on the roof. And one of the reporters asked him how heavy was the equipment. But he didn't know the answer to that. So that's going to be something that they're really looking into here. That's going to be a very big question.

BERMAN: He also said in his mind not heavy enough to cause the building collapse. Obviously, we'll get more information on this throughout the morning. We'll bring it to you as soon as it comes in.

KEILAR: Just in, CNN has learned that the Justice Department seems to be shying away from filing sedition charges against the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Instead Attorney general Merrick Garland is advising prosecutors to use similar laws to make sure that cases are on firm ground.

Let's bring in CNN senior justice reporter Evan Perez. Evan, what is the concern here about charging suspects with sedition?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the issue, I think, for the Justice Department officials is that the sedition conspiracy law is rarely used. The last time it was used, which was during the Obama administration, a judge tossed out charges against a militia group in Michigan. It's been used successfully back in the 1930s against Puerto Rican separatists.

But certainly, when in early January after the insurrection, Michael Sherwin, the acting D.C. U.S. attorney, told us that this was something he was pursuing, and subsequently said that he was -- he believed that there were facts to support this. It really drove home the gravity of what happened on January 6th. Listen to him on "60 Minutes" describing this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sedition occurs when anyone opposes by force the authority of the United States, or by force hinders or delays the execution of any law of the United States. Seems like a very low bar, and I wonder why you're not charging that now.

MICHAEL SHERWIN, FORMER ACTING D.C. U.S. ATTORNEY: OK. So, I don't think it's a low bar, Scott, but I will tell you this. I personally believe the evidence is trending towards that, and probably meets those elements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you anticipate sedition charges against some of these suspects?

SHERWIN: I believe the facts do support those charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PEREZ: And, Brianna, the new attorney general, Merrick Garland, and under this administration, they've come to view this a little differently. They view the fact that there are other charges that they've brought that bring potentially 20 years, which is what the sedition conspiracy charge would bring. For instance, 200 people have been charged with obstruction -- obstructing a congressional proceeding. Three people have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy as part of the Oath Keepers group to try to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory.

And we pressed the Attorney General Merrick Garland just this week, he came to visit us in the press room at the Justice Department. And we asked him why haven't there been these sedition charges after there has been so much talk about it. And he declined to say. He said that essentially they are looking at all the panoply of laws that are available.

But he's a former judge, and some people say he's risk averse. But he wants to make sure that these cases are won. And given the politics of everything, you already see Republicans trying to minimize what happened there. You can see the thinking inside the Justice Department to go a more safe route in these cases.

KEILAR: Yes, but will there also be serious charges? Obviously in some of the cases, they are very serious charges as well.

PEREZ: Absolutely.

KEILAR: Evan Perez, thank you.

PEREZ: Sure.

BERMAN: So a federal judge has offered a forceful rebuke to some Republican lawmakers and other rightwing figures who are whitewashing the events of January 6th. The judge was handing out the first sentence in the insurrection when he said of these Republican lawmakers, quote, "I don't know what planet they were on. This wasn't a peaceful demonstration. It wasn't an accident that had turned violent. The attempt of some congressmen to rewrite history that these were tourists walking through the Capitol is utter nonsense."

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales of Texas. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. Just so our viewers know, you voted for the bipartisan commission to investigate what happened on January 6th.

[08:15:00]

You were part of that group of members who were trying to barricade the door on January 6 to protect yourself and others there.

So, I wonder if I could just get your reaction to what that judge said.

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): Look, January 6 was a terrible day, and it should never happen again. And we have to review that to make sure it never happens again.

In the same breath, I don't wake up thinking about January 6. I don't go to bed thinking about January 6. I worry about securing our southern border.

BERMAN: I get that, I get that. But just one more question on this. When your colleague Andrew Clyde says that the people who were walking around the Capitol was just like a normal tourist visit, how do you feel about that?

GONZALES: That was a dark day in our history. We ought to make sure that never happens again. I served, you know, five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. That day reminded me of the chaos that you see abroad. It should never happen here in our Capitol.

BERMAN: I covered the war in Iraq also. That wasn't a tourist visit. You and I both know that.

Congressman, the Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that she is going to visit the border in person, her first trip there as vice president. She's been there before certainly.

She's going to the El Paso area. This is an area, broadly speaking, you represent the largest area of border of any member of Congress.

What do you want her to see on this visit?

GONZALES: You know, I'm glad the vice president has realized that the border crisis is real. You know, I would -- I wish she would spend more than just a couple of hours in El Paso.

Ideally, this is the first of many visits. The border is very diverse. You know, El Paso is -- El Paso sector is different than Del Rio sector or Laredo or Big Ben sector.

The other thing I would say, too, is the administration needs to work with Congress. This isn't a Republican issue or Democrat issue. We have to come together to solve our nation's problems, securing our border are part of those problems.

So, ideally, this is the first of many visits that the administration makes.

BERMAN: So, what is -- and, you know, I know you said there are myriad issues here and it's complicated and there are different issues in different places. But if there is one thing that could come to light she should see in this visit, what would it be?

GONZALES: You know, there are a few things. But the one that is just so eye-opening is the number of migrants that are passing away.

You know, my district is over 40 percent of the southern border. I recently visited with many of my county judges and they were asking me for more body bags. It's those type of very real instances that I think needs -- the takeaway needs to be. That, and we need to support our Border Patrol. I mean, they are doing God's work on the front lines. We need to get them out of the processing centers and back out into the field.

BERMAN: We learned overnight that the man who has been leading the Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, is stepping aside, I think largely at the request of the Biden administration.

There were some people who were surprised he stayed on so long after the change in administration.

What's your take on that change? And what do you hope to see going forward there?

GONZALES: You know, I spent a lot of time as a child playing sports and there is a saying kind of next man up. And the Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz is a strong leader, and I think he's going to be able to at least in a temporary role lead the Border Patrol agency going forward. He's from the Del Rio area. He understands the border firsthand.

So, while we're losing a good leader, I think there is an opportunity to fill that void with the next man up.

BERMAN: Last question. What's the Biden administration doing right, and what's something you think they could do differently on the border?

GONZALES: You know, I think they're starting to open up their eyes that they can't go it alone, whether that's the infrastructure package, whether that's the border crisis, whether that's the cyberattacks that we've seen. It's important for this administration to realize we have to come together. We have to work with Republicans and Democrats, Congress alike to solve our nation's problems.

I would like to see more of that, more bipartisan, real discussions on folks that are willing to roll up their sleeves and work together. I'm one of those folks. I wish they would reach out more. I wish we would have more of that discussion for the betterment of our country.

BERMAN: Have you ever talked to Biden?

GONZALES: I have not, but I would love to.

BERMAN: Congressman Tony Gonzales, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

In terms of bipartisanship, you might have a bipartisan deal, a bipartisan infrastructure deal to vote on coming up based on what we're hearing from Capitol Hill. So, stand by for that, Congressman.

GONZALES: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: All right. Just a short time from now, President Biden will meet with senators over potential bipartisan deal on infrastructure. What's inside of this deal? And does it have the votes to pass? BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And explosive testimony from Britney

Spears pleading for control of her career and her estate and her body after what she describes as years of abuse.

BERMAN: And parents of a mass shooting victim state a powerful message on gun violence, duping the former head of the NRA.

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[08:20:59]

BERMAN: A bipartisan group of senators says it has reached a tentative deal on infrastructure legislation and plans to meet with President Biden at the White House this morning. They say they have at least ten Republican senators on board, but can they count on all 50 Senate Democrats?

We might have an answer to that.

Joining me is Democratic whip, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Senator, thanks so much for being here. I'm glad you're here. Maybe you have news for us.

First of all, what's in this deal?

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Well, I can tell you that I saw a review of it just a day or two ago. And there are still questions unanswered on the revenue sources.

I think the spending side of the equation is generally agreed to. But it's not as complete as the Biden infrastructure plan, which I support, but it is a step in that direction. When it comes to the revenue side, that's what we are wrestling with at this moment. I won't be attending this meeting. I've got a Senate Judiciary Committee I'm chairing this morning.

BERMAN: I'm going to get to some of the issues facing the Senate Judiciary Committee in a moment. But more on infrastructure, since it doesn't seem you know exactly what's in this deal yet. You're going to learn it probably before us, but not yet.

Listen, there's a question about whether or not all Democrats are on board. You have ten Republicans, which if you had 50 Democrats means they could withstand any filibuster. But do you have 50 Democrats that support it at this point?

DURBIN: That's certainly the key question because I want to support the bipartisan plan. I hope we can reach that point. Certainly if the president feels good about it, that helps.

But we also want to make sure that Democrats are on board for reconciliation. The next step in the process, it will complete the infrastructure request of the White House. And if we have all Democrats on board, I think it gives the green light for this bipartisan bill to move as well. BERMAN: Do you need a commitment from the so-called moderate

Democratic senators, from the Manchins and Sinemas? And maybe others, I name them but there could be others. Does there need to be a commitment from more progressive members that the moderates would vote for reconciliation on that other bill?

DURBIN: I think that's a very key element. We've been talking about that publicly for several weeks. They certainly understand it. I applaud, and been at least tangential part of the bipartisan negotiation. But there's more to do, important work to do that the president is asking for. We're making sure that all those who involved in the bipartisan negotiation are on board for that as well.

BERMAN: If, if you manage to get a bipartisan infrastructure bill through, does this do two things? One, show that President Biden was right in his patience in waiting for this to happen? And that, two, you know, maybe you can do things without filibuster reform?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you that's what we're trying to prove every single day here, and there are efforts underway, bipartisan efforts to get this done.

Infrastructure is a big, big deal. I mean, consider the fact that under the previous president, there was no infrastructure bill. There is no agreement reached, and I sat in several fruitless meetings in that regard. This I think is a major step forward for the country, to rebuild the infrastructure and to put new infrastructure in place, create jobs in the process at a moment we desperately need it to move this economy forward.

So, I think this is a good show of good faith, bipartisan effort. And I applaud my Republican friends as well as Democrats for their initiative in leading this effort.

BERMAN: I want to ask about police reform which is happening under the umbrella of the Judiciary Committee which you chair. Today might be a big day there. First of all, do you expect a deal to be announced today?

DURBIN: Well, I'm not sure if we're going to announce a deal today, but I do feel very positive. I've been directly involved in the negotiations with Corey Booker on the Democratic side, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, bipartisan effort, and it's a good faith effort. And there's been a lot of energy put into it by both sides.

I think we're close. We haven't closed the deal. I don't want to announce that until we're ready to.

[08:25:02]

But I think we've made a great deal of progress in the last 48 hours.

BERMAN: In terms of the hold ups, what are the remaining hold ups?

DURBIN: I won't get into a checklist on that. I think that's a mistake. I will just say that we are very close, and the elements of disagreement are starting to be reduced to a number that we can see the finish line.

BERMAN: Have you reached an agreement on the issue of whether officers or departments can be sued, civilly liable?

DURBIN: We're still hammering out the last details on that. I wouldn't want to announce an agreement until we have everything agreed to.

BERMAN: All right. Dick Durbin, Senator, chairman of the Judiciary Committee -- we appreciate you being with us. This could be a very busy day up in your neck of the woods.

DURBIN: I hope it will be productive as well.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much for being with us.

DURBIN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Would you look at that, Congress caught doing something, right?

DURBIN: They got caught. They got caught doing something.

But again, he didn't say either deal is done.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's right. No, it's very important point.

BERMAN: On infrastructure there seems to be some kind of deal that was done maybe, because the White House had people there yesterday. It would be weird if they had people there yesterday and the senators went to the White House today and they didn't get something. But we'll see.

KEILAR: Yeah, definitely. Great interview, by the way.

Coming up, Britney Spears speaking out, leaving courtroom observers stunned. The pop star's passionate plea to the judge, next. You'll really want to see this.

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