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New Day

Tropical Depression Fred Drenches North Carolina; Haiti Hit by Storm after Earthquake; Kimberley Motley is Interviewed about Afghanistan; Lisa Grim is Interviewed about her Two Losses Due to COVID. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 18, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

RON BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Regulating plastic bags to police budgets. Obviously, last year, we saw a lot of that on lockdowns and school -- and business hours. But this year there is more pushback, more open defiance than ever before. This attempt to stop school districts from mandating the masks when COVID cases are surging, as someone said to me, is a breaking point in Texas and these other states. And now I think this battle is joined (ph). Not over by any means. A lot of questions about whether the Biden administration can do more to support the local governments. But you are seeing open defiance in a way we have not on these previous generations of reemption (ph).

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Everyone should use the next commercial break to go out and read Ron's amazing column, a lengthy, lengthy look at this issue, "The Red State Blue City Divide," and specifically why this discussion over masks and local control over masks could be the beginning of a new political trend there.

Ron, it's really good. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: Up next, CNN live in Haiti, where the death toll is rising as the need for aid grows more desperate.

And tropical weather making a mess in parts of the south. Where does the storm head from here?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And this reminder, join CNN this weekend for "We Love New York City: The Homecoming Concert," a once-in-a- lifetime concert event Saturday starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, exclusively on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:36:20]

KEILAR: Tropical Depression Fred is causing landslides, flooding and damage from high winds in the mountains of North Carolina. And now this storm is threatening the Northeast. So let's check in now with CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

What are you tracking here?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Brianna, certainly West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania for today, parts of New York, very heavy rainfall and still winds of 20 to 25. But it's the rain that is really the problem.

This weather is brought to you by Carvana, the new way to buy a car.

So where did this go? Across parts of Florida, Georgia, 4 to 6 inches of rainfall on the ground already and much of that is still running off of flash flood watches and warnings still in effect and more to come today. There's a lot of areas here that are going to see more orange here, 4 to 6 inches of new rain on top of fairly saturated ground. So we're going to have to watch for more flash flood warnings, also even the potential for a tornado or two.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Chad, thank you so much. We'll be keeping our eye on that for sure.

BERMAN: Earthquake rescue efforts in Haiti have been hampered by a lack of resources and heavy rains that have battered the island, causing mudslides that are now blocking roads. At least, 1,941 people are now dead, more than 9,000 injured and officials fear the toll will keep on rising.

CNN's Joe Johns is live in Port-au-Prince this morning to give us a sense of where things are headed.

Joe, what are you seeing?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, the increase in the death toll has only increased the concerns for the living, concerns for the survivors of this earthquake, especially the children. UNICEF says about 500,000 children were affected. And we know from past disasters, the big concerns are about how many have been orphaned, how many have been separated from their parents.

Generally, the needs are, as you might expect, food, water, clothing and medicine. Also, shelter extremely important. The mayors on the ground of those affected areas have sent word, they don't have nearly enough tents and tarps to help the tens of thousands of people who lost their homes in this earthquake. So, that's very important.

There's one other necessity that's coming to the fore right now, and that is the need for law and order on the roads leading to the affected areas. We know that Haiti has over the years and even decades had a huge problem with criminal gangs controlling the roads almost anywhere outside some of the major cities. And that's the case here. The United Nations has sent word that if this government and if the people here don't get control of the situation on the roads, tens of thousands of people could die. Back to you.

BERMAN: All right, a dire situation.

Joe Johns, thank you for being there for us.

Women facing an uncertain future under Taliban rule. One even now warning of a massacre. The chilling, new tape received by CNN.

KEILAR: And a teacher in Texas afraid of dying from COVID just for doing her job. Her plea to parents now going viral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want for your child to be comfortable, but more than anything, we want them to be alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:44:00]

KEILAR: We have some disturbing new audio that shows the desperation, the level of desperation of one single Afghan woman as the Taliban arrives in Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm done. My life is over. And I don't know like -- I am not sure if I can keep your messaging anymore. Thank you so much for everything Kim, but I think it doesn't -- gonna work out and then you guys were super late to control things. It was -- it was way too late to control the situation. I'm sorry but your efforts don't mean anything anymore.

Kim, the thing is, that if we -- if we stay here for one more hour, there is gonna be a massacre. I'm telling you that there is gonna be a massacre, everybody will be killed here.

Please, we are under attack. There is a big, big mob. They are attacking us and they are, um, maybe there are some Taliban fighters among them and they are, um, and there is like thousands of them.

[06:45:07]

It's not just a few hundred, it is thousands of them.

I'm really scared. And I -- I -- I -- I --I -- I -- I don't want to be here anymore because I'm really scared and I'm -- I'm scared of -- for my life and my family's life and also I'm dying of anxiety and also stress. It is really stressful. It's really, really, really stressful. And I don't know what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, we must note that CNN can't independently verify what the woman on that tape is seeing on the ground.

But joining me now is international human rights attorney Kimberley Motley, who was in touch with that Afghan woman that you just heard from and that woman is currently in hiding right now.

You know, Kim, that is one woman, but this is what we are hearing from so many people who are in touch with Afghans. This is moment to moment for them and they are not sure they're going to get out of this.

KIMBERLEY MOTLEY, LAWYER FOR AFGHAN GIRLS ROBOTICS TEAM: I mean, absolutely, Brianna. Thank you for having me.

It's a human rights nuclear bomb. And I'm getting so many messages from particularly women and men who are terrified for their lives. Women who worked with, you know, the international community, as well as men, who were, you know, military -- worked alongside our military or those that are SIV applicants. It is a terrifying situation. Like you said, it is changing very rapidly and minute to minute.

KEILAR: Do you think that her pleas, that the pleas of other Afghans are being heard by the American people, by the Biden administration?

MOTLEY: I don't think they are. And, frankly, I do think it's so important for the Biden administration to listen to her pleas because, you know, what we're doing is just -- we -- we helped build this. We broke it and we need to fix this.

And so what I'm hearing is, I'm hearing women that are being turned away from going to school, women that are being turned away from going to work. I'm hearing reports of girls being snatched away from their homes and being forced in -- to be child brides. I have, you know, hundreds of SIV applicants and dozens and dozens of Afghans who worked along our military that aren't -- just aren't being heard and are talking about how their electronic, their phones are being taken away if they're, you know, in communications with -- with internationals, or if they have something on their phones that the Taliban's doesn't like. I'm hearing about people being beaten on the street, women, men and children.

And it's extremely distressing. We definitely have a responsibility to help -- try to do what we can. I mean, as a country, we went there and we sold this dream of rule of law and, you know, of democracy. And, frankly, I think for many of those of our Afghan allies that are working with us, I think it's even more crushing that the U.S. and other internationals aren't supporting them than what the Taliban are doing to them because they -- they know who the Taliban are but they thought that we were the people that would support them, that we would continue to support democracy, that we would continue to push women's rights. And I think that's what's so much more crushing for many people on the ground who are just terrified for the knock on their door, you know, where they maybe -- they maybe disappear.

KEILAR: Yes. And now the issue is, you know, can America get them out, right? And I have to be clear, we haven't seen evidence of mass reprisals or massacres in Kabul, but the fear is very real and justified by the past actions of the Taliban. We've heard from so many people who are watching the Taliban put forward, you know, this more -- this sort of kinder or more in control, more humane front, but the U.S. is still there. And so there's a question if that completely goes away.

And I wanted to ask you specifically, Kim, and I do want to say, too, we have seen, actually, we've heard reports of major issues in some border areas. You represent the Afghan All Girls Robotics Team, which, you know, I think there's many Americans who have seen this. They are a symbol of a more progressive Afghanistan. The ages of these young women ranging from 12 to 18. They've known nothing other than the regime that, you know, previously was in the area, in Afghanistan before Sunday. What is going to happen to them?

MOTLEY: I mean, based on some -- a lot of the disturbing reports that I'm hearing in Afghanistan, I mean, we don't know. I mean we're seeing women being -- women and girls being eliminated from public spaces. They're actually painting black paint over women's faces, as though they don't exist. You know, this is 20 million women in their population.

We're very concerned that their education will stop.

[06:50:02]

You know, this Afghan Girls Robotics Team, you know, they deserve to be protected. They -- they should be allowed to be educating. And, you know, we're imploring upon the governments to -- and the new government to allow women and girls to have freedom of movement, whether it be by air or by land. That's extremely important.

There should be women leaders in Afghanistan, such as Fasia Acupsi (ph), who should be allowed to go to Doha to negotiate with this new government on behalf of women of what that looks like. I think there needs to be continued scrutiny on women's rights and there needs to be consequences if women's rights are not honored within the country.

We did this. You know, we are -- we helped the Afghan Girls Robotics Team be who they are. And to take this away from them, we're putting them potentially in a situation that's even worse than when we went to Afghanistan 20 years ago.

KEILAR: Kim, I want to thank you for coming on. I know this is a difficult time. And I know that you are watching this carefully as you are so concerned about the friends that you have made in Afghanistan over the years, just wanting to see if they'll come out of this alive. We appreciate you being with us.

MOTLEY: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: New this morning, some disturbing images. This is from Kabul, showing what the Taliban is doing to Afghans who are just trying to reach the airport, the only way out of the country. CNN's Clarissa Ward live from Kabul, next.

BERMAN: And big news for vaccinated Americans. The White House is about to announce plans for vaccine boosters. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the new information coming up.

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[06:55:26]

BERMAN: A Missouri wife and mother of two lost her husband almost one year ago to COVID. Ultimately losing her home from the financial hardship that followed. She's just one of the thousands of people whose lives have been completely overturned by the virus.

And Lisa Grim joins me now.

Lisa, thank you so much for being with us.

And I know it's been almost a year but I also know how hard it still is. And we're so sorry for your loss.

We read your story in "The Washington Post." And it's been hard. I mean this last year has been really difficult. And it's not just the loss of the man you loved and the father of your children, but the loss of so much more. Explain.

LISA GRIM, LOST HER HUSBAND TO COVID, THEN LOST HER HOME: Yes. Good morning. And thank you for having me.

This past year has been the most devastating thing that my children and I have ever experienced. Not just emotionally but financially. And the stress of going from having, you know, two adults in the household and both earning income and taking care of our kids together to going to suddenly solo parenting while grieving and my children are grieving and at the same time trying to figure out our financial future because we lost the main breadwinner. And it has been very stressful and very traumatic.

BERMAN: COVID can take so much. It can take your health --

GRIM: It really can.

BERMAN: And, in your case, it more or less took your house. I mean you now do have a place to live. But even that has been touch and go.

GRIM: Yes. It can be very difficult to find housing. And we ended up needing to sell the home that we've lived in because as a single mom working and I'm going to go to school and taking care of my kids, there was no way I could manage to be a homeowner at the same time and keep the house fixed up and all the associated expenses with that. So we ended up moving into an apartment.

And it's good. I'm happy that we have it. But it's just another stress that was added after my husband passed away.

BERMAN: And, of course, the vaccine wasn't available when you lost your husband. It happened a year ago. You have now been vaccinated. What is your message? You have friends and family who still aren't vaccinated. What's your message to them? GRIM: Yes. And it is so painful to me to see that people are still

refusing to get vaccinated because I think if my husband had been able to be vaccinated that he would be alive today. And every time someone dies from COVID now, a death that was preventable because of the vaccine, it just breaks my heart.

And I just want to ask people to please, please, please get vaccinated. Don't be afraid of it. I understand that some people are scared and there's a lot of misinformation out there, but please don't be afraid of it.

I got vaccinated. I was fine. Everybody I know that got vaccinated is fine. And knowing that my friends and family that have chosen to get vaccinated, knowing that they're -- that they're protected, that is worth so much to me, knowing that -- that these people are most likely not going to die from COVID because that is my worst fear is losing someone else to COVID.

BERMAN: Lisa Grim, listen, I know you've worked so hard this last year to build a life for you and your kids. We wish you the best of luck going forward. We know you have great plans. We also know there are a lot of people pulling for you and hopefully there to help. So thanks so much for being with us.

GRIM: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman, with Brianna Keilar, on this NEW DAY.

This morning, as many as 15,000 Americans, 15,000, waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Just getting to the airport in Kabul can be a challenge, if not life-threatening. The State Department says it is determined to do damage control in the wake of this trying U.S. troop withdrawal.

[07:00:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Let me be very clear about this, the embassy remains open and we plan to continue our diplomatic work in Afghanistan.

This is not