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New York City Board Counts 135,000 Non-Valid Test Ballots; Time Running Out as Search for Survivors Enters Day Seven; House to Vote on January 6th Committee, will Pelosi Name Republicans. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 30, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: I'm John Berman live this morning in Surfside, Florida, along with Erica Hill is with me in New York this morning, and we're nearly a week into the search for survivors of this catastrophic building collapse in this community.

And we have critical new information from an eyewitness about the final seconds before the tower came down. We're going to get to that in just a moment.

First, though, historic heat waves smothering parts of Canada, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast and Canada, a city in British Columbia just recorded a high temperature of 121 degrees. That's 50 degrees above the normal temperature there. And it breaks an all-time nationwide record for a third day in a row.

This week, Washington State hit an all-time record high of 118 degrees. Oregon saw a high of 118 degrees on Monday as well. That's one degree below the all-time record setback in the 19th century, extreme heat and dry conditions fueling a raging 13,000-acre wildfire across the northern -- the border in Northern California.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: Also making headlines, the delta variant now believed to be the most prevalent strain of coronavirus in the United States. This as Australia, Ireland and South Africa reentered partial lockdowns as cases surge in those countries. So, could it return to mask wearing become a reality as we head into the fall?

Plus, a monumental mistake here in New York City, which is raising questions this morning about results in the Democratic primary for mayor and the integrity of the process. Election officials somehow adding 130,000 non-valid test ballots to the count.

CNN Senior Political Writer and Analyst Harry Enten is with us. The question, I think, for so many people waking this morning or last night before they went to bed is how does this even happen?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: How the heck does this happen? It's a disgrace. I mean, look, you have one job, right? Count the ballots. They had a week after the initial preferences came in, then they're were going to do the rank choice a week from then, that was supposed to be yesterday. They left -- look, there's nothing wrong with testing your software but you take those votes out especially in an era in which there's so much distrust within the electoral process, right? There's nothing nefarious that went on here. But the fact is that you couldn't carry out the one job you were meant to do, it's ridiculous.

HILL: But that's the point, right, is there are concerns about what this will say to voters about the integrity of their vote, especially based on what we're seeing with all these lies being pushed around the country. One would think that given that as a backdrop, given that this is the first time, and, again, it's not the rank choice voting that's the issue, but knowing that there would be added scrutiny because this was a new way of doing things in the city, one would think that you would really up your game to make sure there were no issues.

ENTEN: One would think, wouldn't you?

HILL: One would, Mr. Enten. However?

ENTEN: But they've never met the New York City Board of Elections. This is a board of elections that has been, to be frank, as a resident of this city for pretty much my entire life, has been a disgrace. They've oftentimes had problems, oftentimes had delay voting counts. This is just the latest example of a problem of this city of board of elections. If, God forbid, New York City was in a swing state, I could just imagine what might be happening if the stakes were even higher than this.

HILL: So then here's the question, right? Because this is not the first time there's been an issue with the New York City Board of Elections, how does this keep happening? It feels like a rinse and repeat that we have got an issue.

ENTEN: Incompetency. The fact of the matter is that the city and as well as the governor, who is involved in this process, has to get more involved. I'm going to be very interested to hear what the mayoral candidates have to say going forward, even past these results.

There clearly needs to be something that is done going forward, right? The past is behind us. The board of elections came out last night, admitted their error. Hopefully, there are no more errors the rest of the way. Hopefully, the candidates give them a little bit of leeway, recognize that nothing nefarious has gone on, but we cannot have these mistakes occurring, especially when in a new system, especially when the stakes are so high.

And New York City is coming out of COVID, right? New York City is coming out of an economic crisis. We need to be able to trust the results and I'm hoping, I'm just hoping that there are no more errors because the fact of the matter is this system at this point really can't afford any more errors.

HILL: Harry Enten, I appreciate it. And you said we should hear from some of the candidates. We're going to do just do that later on this morning. Kathryn Garcia will join us live here in the studio. John? BERMAN: All right. The latest on the search-and-rescue effort at the scene of this deadly condo collapse here in Surfside, Florida, seven days now since the tower came down, 12 people confirmed dead with 149 others unaccounted for.

President Biden and the first lady, they will visit tomorrow to visit with families of the missing. The Miami-Dade state attorney announced a grand jury will look into the cause of this disaster.

And we're getting new clues about how the catastrophic collapse started from a condo resident who spoke to me overnight and tells me exactly what she saw. I want you to listen to the sequencing here.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH NIR, RESIDENT WHO ESCAPED CHAMPLAIN TOWERS: There was a big boom and I was running to see where the sound come from. And I saw all the garage collapse.

Just was (INAUDIBLE), God watches us. God was waiting for us to leave the building and then another big boom and then we didn't see anything. It was suddenly quiet after the big boom and it was white clouds all over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is Sarah Blaskey, Reporter from the Miami Herald, who has been covering this story extensively. Sarah, thank you so much for being with us.

Very interesting to hear from Sarah Nir who says she saw the pull deck area, the garage area collapse first. That was the first thing to go. And then she still had time to get out of the building before the rest of the building went down.

SARAH BLASKEY, REPORTER, MIAMI HERALD: That's a very compelling eyewitness account. It extends our understanding of the timeline of this collapse from a sudden like moment to moment collapse to one of about five minutes, I think, from her account.

We have another eyewitness, of course, reported by the Miami Herald a woman called her husband from her fourth floor balcony reporting something very similar before the phone line went dead. A chilling account from her as well.

BERMAN: And one of the things that Sarah Nir told me overnight also is that she was hearing sounds. She was hearing things, which is why she walked out of her apartment to talk to security when she saw the pool deck collapse. She was hearing things, so the building -- the building itself was moving and shaking and rearing in a lot of ways.

BLASKEY: We don't yet know exactly what would have caused that but we are getting clues about where that failure might have been. Of course, we have that 2018 report that points to the pool deck leaking on to structural slabs and causing degradation to concrete underneath it. That structural concrete, we're learning from experts, is reinforced by rebar and rebar can corrode. Once it does, it loses strength.

Those kind of things, if they get out of hand, if that kind of degradation is not maintained, that can cause a collapse. And what she could have been hearing, I guess, according to experts, would be that initial failure or failures of columns or beams within the building.

BERMAN: I got to tell you, it is chilling though that it went on long enough for her to hear it, to react, to talk to someone, to go back to get her kids and still go out. It really does give us a new insight on the timeline and the location of where things started going wrong.

You've been doing extensive reporting on all of this and you have got some new insight from engineers about just how rare this really is.

BLASKEY: Right. So we've been scouring clips all over the world. I've looked at about 300 collapses at this point. And what I can tell you is most of them don't look like this. Most of them are bridges or cell towers, those kinds of things, not residential buildings. When they are buildings, they often have something in common, an earthquake, a fire that caused it, they were under construction or very newly built and poorly designed.

What's odd about this building is that it withstood Hurricane Andrew, it was up for four decades before it collapsed suddenly without warning. Other buildings that collapsed at least hours of warning, big cracks, residents able to evacuate, that wasn't the case here. And so it seems to be a largely unprecedented event, according to the experts I'm speaking to.

BERMAN: Keep on doing your reporting. Keep us posted. It's so interesting as we learn these new pieces of information. Sarah Blaskey, thanks so much for joining us.

BLASKEY: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: So, just moments after the condo building collapse, we're now hearing a first responder describe the horrific scene in dispatch audio obtained by CNN. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a 13-storey building -- we have a 13- storey building with both of the buildings gone. This is going to be a high priority. We're going to need TRT (ph). We're going to need a full assignment on this, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 76 command, a quarter of the building that's left, we still have people standing upstairs that still need to be evacuated.

I see many people on their balconies. The building is gone. There's not elevators. This is nothing. I mean, it almost resembles the trade center.

Some people are evacuating say it sounded like they heard the bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have people on the balconies shouting that they are inside of their apartments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This is truly a global rescue effort here with engineering and specialists from around the world joining local officials.

With me now is Col. Golan Vach. He is an Israeli Defense Force commander who is leading the Israeli rescue team. Commander, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for the working you're doing.

You just came from the pile. You've been working overnight. I can still see the dust on your boots, which our viewers can't see here. Give me the latest in terms of what you're finding.

[07:10:00]

COL. GOLAN VACH, COMMANDER, ISRAELI NATIONAL RESCUE UNIT: At the last 12 hours, we found some more people.

BERMAN: You found more bodies?

VACH: We found people.

BERMAN: Okay.

VACH: Unfortunately, they are not alive. We found some more tunnels. And we strolled at night in those tunnels. And there are, from one hand, new spaces we find, and from the other, we found more people but, unfortunately, not alive.

BERMAN: A couple of questions here. Can you give us a sense of how many people you recovered overnight?

VACH: I cannot say the number because the family doesn't know it yet.

BERMAN: Talk to me about these tunnels, because this is new and this is interesting. You are finding spaces and voids. And, of course, we know that's very important because if there's any hope for survivors, it will have to be in these tunnels and voids. Exactly, what are you seeing?

VACH: Okay. First of all, I want to say that when you say, we, is our fellow, as Americans, there are hundreds of rescuers --

BERMAN: 210 people working around the clock.

VACH: Yes, we are only 15, okay? So we are working together. And they found the people with us and we are with them. We are just as one body.

And to your question this is a very complicated effort, professional effort. Support the building, secure the responders and try to open spaces. At this time, it was between the balconies. So the balconies between them remains a big space of air, that we crawled, we crawled in those tunnels. We crawled to people. And, unfortunately, we didn't find anything.

BERMAN: But spaces big enough to crawl into at this point.

VACH: Yes.

BERMAN: Which feels new.

VACH: I personally crawled in.

BERMAN: Okay. So, you were in tunnels overnight looking.

VACH: Yes.

BERMAN: And, again, that's new in terms of this rescue effort because everything before had been so compact.

VACH: Yes.

BERMAN: What makes it -- you've been a lot of places. You have seen a lot of disasters. What makes this one so difficult?

VACH: The gap between the space, the gap between the layers, between the floors, these tunnels that we found right now were almost the first to be big enough to enable people to stay between them. Most of the collapse is very, very tight. The collapse was major.

BERMAN: Do you have hope? I mean, we are nearly a week into the collapse now. The fact that you found these spaces and tunnels, what's the realistic hope you have at this point?

VACH: Right now, I can say it's very, very minor. It's very minor. We must be realistic. But as I said, today is Wednesday, right? Okay. So tomorrow will be one week. Okay. 24 hours. Am I correct?

BERMAN: Look, you are, and I get it. You've been working so hard night and day. It's hard to know what time of day it is let alone what day it is. I get it.

VACH: Yes. So, tomorrow will be one week.

BERMAN: Yes.

VACH: Right. So, until one week, I still hope.

BERMAN: You still hope? Look, why not at this point? Do the work. This is a new development overnight, to find these spaces after all this time. Does this mean you're approaching the site differently? Are there changes in how you're working?

VACH: We picked up the scale. We entered heavy machinery to the perimeter of the site to expose new places exactly that the same place that I just described and it enables us to scale up the speed and to find those people. BERMAN: Well, this is news and I think it may not be the news that families were hoping most for, but I think what they also want is some sense of closure. So these are key developments, I think, that you're providing right now.

The strain on you and the other workers, give us a sense of that.

VACH: We're good. I think the thing that keeps us strong and focused is the fact that we have full support from your people and from home and from the community and from the families. They trust us. And we are working as long as needed.

BERMAN: Just last question here, again. Given your vast experience, and I know you did recover some bodies overnight, are you surprised that one week in given the number of people unaccounted for, that relatively few have been recovered at this point?

VACH: No, no. Because I know that a lot of people think that they could do the work differently. I am here day four, okay?

[07:15:00]

It's my fourth day. And I can say that we couldn't do things differently. I can assure the families that are looking at me that the people here, your people, Task Force One and Two, Chris and Gonzales, and everyone are doing their job highly professional.

BERMAN: Listen, Commander, we appreciate the information you've given us. And more than anything, we appreciate the work you're doing along with everyone else. This is truly a global effort and the entire world is behind what you're doing. So, thank you.

Erica, back to you.

HILL: Wow, some important developments there. We also have some new reporting just in to CNN when it comes to criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, what prosecutors in New York are now focusing on.

And a big decision for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether to put any Republicans in charge of investigating the Capitol insurrection.

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[07:20:00]

HILL: just into CNN, New York prosecutors are said to be scrutinizing cash bonuses at the Trump Organization as part of their investigation into the company and its employees for potential tax fraud.

CNN's Kara Scannell is here with her new reporting. So this is brand- new. We didn't know that bonuses might be involved.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's right. This is new reporting that I got my colleagues, Sonia Moghe and Erica Orden. And what sources told us is that prosecutors are scrutinizing cash bonuses that were given to certain executives. And this is part of this inquiry, but they are looking at some of these other benefits, like rent free apartment, company cars, school tuition.

But cash bonuses is something we didn't know before. Now, our sources didn't say which executives received them or how much they were but what's very interesting here is that when you talk to defense lawyers and tax experts, few could find any cases that were criminal cases for any one or a company that had to do with perks, like the company car, apartment.

But if you receive a cash bonus and if it's off the books, that is something that is, you know, routinely prosecuted in a criminal matter. So that makes this new development very interesting that we are still trying to learn some more details about those bonuses. And this comes as we still are expecting, you know, charges in this case to wrap either as soon as this week.

So, definitely an interesting development and we'll see how this plays out.

HILL: Yes, and this week, we only have a couple of days left in this week, so we'll see, and a holiday weekend looming. Kara, thank you, as always.

House of Representatives will vote this afternoon on establishing a select committee to investigate the January 6th insurrection with members of D.C. Police and Capitol Police invited to the gallery. Last month, bipartisan independent commission was effectively killed by Senate Republicans.

Joining us now to discuss is Melanie Zanona, she's a Congressional Reporter at Politico.

So, as we look what at what is going to be laid out here, we know that for the Republican members, five of them will be chosen in consultation with Kevin McCarthy. He doesn't have carte blanche here though, Melanie.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: That's right. Speaker Pelosi does technically have some veto power here. Whether or not she uses it remains to be seen. There was a COVID select committee last year, if you remember, that had similar parameters, plus, did not veto those picks.

But there's increasing concern among Democrats that Kevin McCarthy would appoint some of the firebrand, some of the far-right Trump acolytes, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, like Matt Gaetz, like Lauren Boebert. Those people are actually openly pushing to be appointed to the committee. But, so far, Kevin McCarthy has been pretty tight- lipped about what he plans to do.

I have a hard time imagining that he would put those members on panel, but I do think he is going to appoint people who are trusted Trump allies who are planning on trying to push back against Democrats and essentially trying to play defense for Trump.

So, lots of concerns among Democrats about who Kevin McCarney is going to appoint.

HILL: And the other thing that's interesting is the Republican who may be appointed as one of the eight by Speaker Pelosi. We've talked a lot about the possible names there. One though who has said he is not interested that I found fascinating is John Katko, who did the negotiation, right, before.

ZANONA: Right. I mean, the reality here, Erica, is that no matter what the issue is, if you're seen as being a team player for Pelosi, that puts a target on your back as a Republican. It's a very tough political reality for a lot of these folks, even for the Republicans who voted for the commission or who voted to impeach Donald Trump. So there's a very small pool of people that Speaker Pelosi could choose from if she does decide to tap a Republican as one of her eight picks for the select committee.

Now, there are some other names who have been keeping the door open, and that includes Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Of course, they are some of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP right now. It's unclear whether they have heard from Pelosi yet, if she's actually considering them as names. But they are some of the most obvious names that do come to mind if she does decide to go that route.

HILL: Melanie, real quickly before we let you go. Police reform, it's frankly not looking great at the moment.

ZANONA: No, it's really on thin ice. There has been some infighting, some disagreement between the law enforcement groups within the community. That can really spook Republicans from signing on to the deal. The deadline has slipped. It went from May to June to July. Now, it's unclear whether there is even a possibility to move forward.

Meanwhile, you have Republicans trying to zone in on a law and order midterm message, so I think there's less of an appetite now than there was perhaps a few months ago. So, it's not looking too good for police reform on Capitol Hill.

HILL: Melanie Zanona, I appreciate it. Thank you.

ZANONA: Thank you.

HILL: Let's take a closer look now with CNN Political Commentator, our former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent. Always good to see you.

So, I'm just curious, who would your picks be here? Let's say you're Speaker Pelosi, who would you put on this select committee?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I would put on Adam Kingzinger. I'd put on Liz Cheney or John Katko, the three that were just mentioned, and perhaps Peter Meijer. The challenge right now though for GOP members is nobody wants to be seen as Nancy Pelosi's favorite Republican. If you're seeking re-election, this might not be a good look politically.

But on the other hand, ordinarily, it would be a high honor to serve on a high-profile investigation like this.

[07:25:01]

But under these circumstances, I think it's rather challenging. But I still say Kinzinger and Cheney might be the best. I'd stick it out there right now. But, again, it all depends on their own re-election. This is a hard political calculation, I think, for those members.

HILL: How do you think this is going to play out with Kevin McCarthy?

DENT: Well, I think Kevin McCarthy is going to use his five selections, and as Melanie said, they're going to try to play defense as best they can for Trump. But if you're Kevin McCarthy right now, what you don't want, you don't want the narrative of the midterm being this investigation.

They made a clear political calculation that an independent commission would be more damaging to the GOP in the midterms rather than this select committee. They'll be able -- Kevin McCarthy and I think many of the Republicans are going to say this is going to be a partisan witch hunt, that this whole is stacked, it's unfair, it's a Trump bash, and I think that's how they're going to play this thing. I don't agree with it but I think that's how they're going to play it, because they don't have any good answers on what actually happened on that day because of Trump's complicity and incitement of the insurrection and some members who may have been complicit.

Again, I would be concerned too if I were the GOP leadership. I mean, Democrats have total control of the subpoenas now. They had a shared responsibility for subpoenas under the independent commission, but now, Democrats are going to run the show and they're going to subpoena whoever they like. So, I would be a little bit anxious.

So, McCarthy has got to be careful. I do not think he's going to be appoint the Lauren Boeberts of the world and Majorie Taylor Greenes. That would be terrible for the GOP going forward. That would be the face of the party in such a high-profile setting. I can't think of anything that would be worse.

HILL: Before we let you go, this vote to remove confederate statues yesterday, it had an interesting split of what we saw there. I'm just curious, what's your take on that in terms of the calculus with that vote?

DENT: Well, to remove confederate statues? Look, I think it's absolutely the appropriate thing to do for the federal government to remove confederate statues wherever they can. You know, we shouldn't be here to honor, you know, a traitorous cause. And I got into these issues, Erica, when I was in the House from time to time and we had issues of the display of confederate flag and other confederate symbols and I was always very much opposed to it. And I can't imagine why anybody in this day and age would think that it's somehow okay to continue to display these confederate images on federal property.

I mean, I get it that historic sites like Gettysburg is part of the story, we talked about it. But there's a proper historical context. But for those who were placing up these confederate statues during Jim Crow, really serving no historical purpose. I mean, I think those need to be removed and it's hard for any member, I think, to vote against it at this point.

HILL: Hard and yet. Charlie Dent always good to see you, thank you.

DENT: Sure.

HILL: More on our breaking news, a rescue team leader just telling John Berman moments ago of new discovery overnight including tunnels.

Plus, see how one 11-year-old is helping the families of her classmates who are still unaccounted for.

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