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Earthquake Hits Haiti; U.S. Suspends Air Operations in Kabul; U.S. Races to Evacuate Afghanistan. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 16, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That means less time over target (ph), you know, because you have to fly from over here, spend less time on target, go back to keep track of the bad guys, in effect.

And, remember, who's fighting alongside the Taliban in recent weeks, al Qaeda and ISIS. The question going forward is, does Afghanistan become a terror haven again? It's a real -- this is where we were 20 years ago. It's a real question going forward. They certainly have an advantage today that they didn't have --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right.

SCIUTTO: Because U.S. forces aren't close.

BERMAN: The situation very much worse today than it was weeks and months ago.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: Jim Sciutto, great to see you. Thanks so much for helping us understand this.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BERMAN: Ahead, top doctors warning about the danger of COVID to kids, just as schools reopen.

Plus, an unvaccinated COVID patient who spoke with CNN about her regrets from inside the hospital, she has died. Her story, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We have a very sad update to a story that we brought you last month as COVID cases are on the increase through parts of the south.

CNN's Miguel Marquez visited a hospital in Louisiana where almost every patient was unvaccinated.

[08:35:02]

Forty-four-year-old Amy Matson told Miguel she was not anti-vax, she just never got around to getting the vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What does it feel like to have COVID?

AMY MATSON: Exhausting. Extremely frustrating. Tiring. And the fact that I am here now, I am furious with myself.

MARQUEZ: Why?

MATSON Because I was not vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now we've learned from Miguel overnight that Amy there had passed away. Matson said she had a feeling that had she been vaccinated she would not have been hospitalized.

Louisiana is one of the five states with the least amount of fully vaccinated people. And on Friday, Louisiana's governor reported the state's highest-ever number of hospitalizations during the pandemic. That is just -- that is incredibly heartbreaking news of someone that, you know, we saw on our air and was trying to get the message out.

BERMAN: But, first, obviously, our thoughts are with Amy's family right now. We know how hard this can be.

And Miguel made the point over that he was really surprised because he thought she had been doing better. He was surprised to learn of Amy's passing. And it just goes to show how insidious this is, how deadly COVID can be and the struggle, the real struggle that people are going through who got it. And right now those people are people who have chosen largely to be unvaccinated.

KEILAR: Yes. It makes people fight for a long time and it demands a lot. And sometimes it demands too much, as we see with Amy.

BERMAN: Up next, the rising death toll in Haiti after the powerful earthquake there. CNN is live on the ground.

KEILAR: And breaking developments out of Afghanistan. The U.S. military halting operations at Kabul's airport as Afghans swarm the airfield in a desperate bid to escape.

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[08:40:50]

BERMAN: The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti over the weekend has left a trail of devastation and suffering. Nearly 1,300 people are dead. That's as of now. More than 5,000 injured. The Haitian government has declared a state of emergency and called on foreign aid to provide urgently needed medical supplies for the country's thousands of victims.

Matt Rivers live in Port-Au-Prince right now in Haiti, a country that has suffered so much upheaval.

What's the latest on the ground?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, John, we're expecting those numbers to go up. That's just how these things work, especially in areas that were hit so hard, like the ones we know were. These are difficult places to get to. We know that this region has already been affected by road closures, mud slides. Access is a big problem for the government right now as we've been told by Haitian authorities. And so as high as those numbers already are with the death toll, the injured, the number of missing, we are expecting those numbers to -- at least the death toll to go up as the days continue.

We did get access yesterday by helicopter. We flew to an area not far from the epicenter of this earthquake. We saw a hotel that was multiple stories high. It collapsed in on itself after that earthquake happened early Saturday morning here, multiple fatalities at this site. And yet what we didn't really see at that site was a big search and rescue effort despite that being one of the largest buildings to be, you know, affected by all of this. It's clear that Haitian authorities are having difficulty --

BERMAN: All right, we seem to have lost communication with Matt Rivers temporarily on the ground there. Obviously, the situation very fluid. The Haitian government asking for help. And as Matt noted, the death count expected is to rise.

Matt, did we get you back?

RIVERS: Yes, John. If you can hear me at this point, basically what happened there was at that hotel, it collapsed. And what I was saying before, Haitian authorities having such a difficult time at this point reaching some of these places. We didn't see the kind of search and rescue efforts that you would think you would see. But part of the reason is because this is a very widespread area. Different localities, relatively small communities that authorities are having trouble getting access to.

And that's before what's going to happen in just a few hours from now, John, when this tropical depression, Grace, is expected to arrive here. It's expected to directly impact where this earthquake happened. At least 35-mile-an-hour winds, if not higher, with the gusts, localized amounts of rain according to the CNN weather team, anywhere from five to 15 inches. That's mudslides. That's flash flooding. That makes a complicated situation that much more complicated.

John.

BERMAN: Matt Rivers, a lot of suffering. Please keep us posted on the new developments.

So, moments ago, the superintendent of schools in Dallas told me he's going to defy the state's supreme court decision and he will institute mask requirements in schools. Hear what he thinks will happen, next.

KEILAR: Plus, more on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan as we learn that the U.S. has stopped all air operations at the Kabul Airport, which is the only way out of Afghanistan right now. How did this go so wrong, so fast?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:20]

BERMAN: This is CNN's special live coverage of the collapse of Afghanistan. A dramatic scene this morning. You can see the video right there as hundreds, maybe thousands of people scramble to get out of Kabul. The U.S. military forced to suspend air operations at the airport. U.S. troops are trying to clear the air field, institute some sense of order. Clearly this is not order.

Just hours from now we expect the State Department briefing on the situation there.

CNN's Kylie Atwood live at the State Department.

Look, Kylie, the situation changing so quickly. Unclear that a briefing two hours from now, what it will cover. The situation could change a lot until then but what are the plans?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll give you a little bit of good news here, John.

The State Department says that all of the U.S. diplomats that were at the embassy were safely evacuated from the embassy to the airport. The bad news, however, is what we are seeing there. These incredible images of Afghans flooding the runway, holding on to American planes as they try and get out.

Now, of course, that is the reason that the Pentagon just announced this morning that they are temporarily suspending all of these flights out of the country. That is the only way for people to get out of the country right now.

So resuming those flights will mean that U.S. diplomats, U.S. contractors can get back on these flights and get out of the country.

And then the question, of course, is, what about these Afghans who worked alongside U.S. diplomats and U.S. military officials over the last 20 years, doing jobs such as interpreting? A lot of them have received or are in the process of receiving special immigrant visas to the United States. The State Department has said that they are working rapidly to get those flights of those Afghans out of the country. But we are told that they have been large largely put on pause because, first, the State Department wants to get out American diplomats, American contractors.

[08:50:06]

So we will be watching to see when they can resume both of these sorts of flights.

And the question here also is just how many of these Afghan interpreters, SIV applicants, the U.S. is going to be able to get out in the coming days because if you look at this airport, there are questions about how long the U.S. will be able to continue flying these planes out. Those are questions we'll ask at the State Department briefing today. We'll also ask about the future of the U.S./Taliban relationship.

John.

BERMAN: Those are key questions there. And I should note, when Brianna was talking to the deputy national security adviser, right now there is no contingency in place to get people to the airport.

ATWOOD: Exactly.

BERMAN: There's no way to get these Afghans who desperately need to get out to the airport even so they have a chance of getting out. So we'll be watching that very closely.

Kylie Atwood, thanks so much for your reporting.

KEILAR: And let's talk about this more now with national security analyst Rebecca Grant and "New Yorker" columnist and distinguished fellow with the Wilson Center, Robin Wright with us.

To you first, Rebecca.

OK, let's deal with -- I know there's a -- there's a, you know, there's a blame game that is being played, but let's deal first with the people who are trapped, right? This is the acute situation here. You have Americans, Afghan allies, you have highly skilled and educated Afghans who are particularly vulnerable to Taliban reprisal. They may be eligible for P-1, P-2 visas.

What happens to them if they are holed up in Kabul, as we know so many of them are? What needs to happen?

REBECCA GRANT, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, and this may be as many as 60,000 people that are now being told to shelter in place. Job one is for the military to clear the ramp at Kabul's International Airport and then to resume the flights. They'll have to bring in not only the military transport, but commercial and contract air lift to get everyone out. They're going to need a secure airport, a clear ramp and then a way to bring people to Kabul Airport even if that means using U.S. ground forces to hold those roots through the city.

KEILAR: Do you see that happening, Robin? Because I have spoken with a Pentagon official. We spoke with the White House on this show. And there appears to be no plan to put U.S. forces in that position where they would be essentially on the same streets as the Taliban.

ROBIN WRIGHT, COLUMNIST, "THE NEW YORKER": The Biden administration clearly wants to limit its military presence. It -- and its military mission. The fact is the United States is getting out. That was the signal with the closure of the embassy and the evacuation of all American diplomats. I think the focus will be just on the airport and try to limit it to the evacuation. The question is, you know, is there a time limit of how long the will -- the U.S. is willing to stay, and how long will the Taliban let the Americans stay?

KEILAR: What does that mean? What does that signify to you, Rebecca, in terms of the U.S. commitment to its Afghan partners, people who served alongside Americans and kept them safe, who, you know, now are in peril?

GRANT: Right. And it's time to demand that the Taliban allow us to build that security perimeter and move those people out. I don't want to hear asking the Taliban. We have the military power to secure that airport, to move forces out and we've got two more weeks to get it done. Let's make this happen.

KEILAR: Robin, do you think the Taliban would be OK with two more weeks? What's your expectation?

WRIGHT: The Taliban clearly wants the United States out. And the question is, does the Taliban have the kind of control over all it's (INAUDIBLE) elements so that that -- that could happen in a peaceful way and that there's no bust-up, be it smaller or, you know, larger between the two forces. I think this is a moment of incredible tension. They need cooperation.

CENTCOM has talked directly to the Taliban about getting the U.S. out. But I think this is a reflection of the implosion really of U.S. policy in Afghanistan that the mightiest nation in the world has to go to a rag tag militia and ask for permission and help in allowing Americans to leave Afghanistan.

KEILAR: You know, Rebecca, where did this go wrong? Because even -- even with withdrawing all U.S. troops, there are many experts, lawmakers who say that this wasn't the way to do it, even people who were supportive of this policy. Where did this go wrong?

GRANT: Make no mistake, this went wrong in the last few weeks. Really, this went wrong last week. And there's been an implosion of U.S. policy. And I think someone gets fired for this. And, in my opinion, it would be Secretary Blinken.

KEILAR: Why?

GRANT: Because this was a signature event for the Biden administration. They had the warning. They should have seen this coming. And, clearly, what we see at Kabul Airport tell us that they were weeks and months off in their security estimate. This is not the military's fault. This is an intelligence failure here in Washington.

KEILAR: Robin, what do you think?

[08:55:02]

WRIGHT: I think all four presidents made profoundly flawed calculations about how you build a nation, how you create an army from scratch, how long it would take and how much it would cost the United States. It had one mission. It didn't -- and that was to eliminate al Qaeda as a threat to the American homeland. It stayed longer, hoping to secure Afghanistan and create a kind of a different kind of country that would have a rippling effect across southern Asia and have -- perhaps well beyond.

It -- you know, we can talk about these last few weeks and the -- and the bad intelligence, the poor planning, but, you know, I think history will look back on American presence in Afghanistan and see a number of times we made mistakes. The way we fought the war, those we chose as allies and -- and the difficulties when you have a limited middle class and low education rates and trying to overhaul a country politically, economically and militarily in a very short time period. We saw that it didn't work in Iraq and it certainly hasn't worked in Afghanistan.

KEILAR: Yes.

WRIGHT: And the cost to the United States in terms of this image worldwide is catastrophic.

KEILAR: Yes, a series of mistakes, very fair to say, punctuated by this one that we are seeing play out before our very eyes in Kabul.

Robin and Rebecca, thank you so much to both of you.

GRANT: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, just in to CNN, we are learning that militants in Gaza have fired a rocket into Israel. That's the first launch since the 11-day war in May. The Israeli Army says the rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome Defense System. And it comes as there are reports that Hamas believes Israel is not delivering on its end of the deal, to partially ease the blockade on the enclave there.

Again, CNN following all sorts of breaking news.

Special coverage of the situation in Afghanistan right after this.

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