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Forecasters Tracking Two Storm Systems; Global Sea Levels to Rise; Biden to Push Assault Weapons Ban; Biden's Numbers Rise; Carriers Keep Location Data for Years. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 30, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:31:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, forecasters are tracking two areas of stormy weather as we are heading into the heart of hurricane season. A tropical storm could actually develop this week.

So, let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, what are you seeing?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Brianna, the water is heating up. And so is hurricane season. This is about as hot as the water is going to get this year. Two systems now, one possibly coming off Africa with a 40 percent chance of development. But the bigger one, in the middle of the Atlantic, now 80 percent.

This weather brought to you by Safelite, your vehicle glass and recalibration experts.

So, let's get to it. Where should we be? On average, we should be at Fiona. We're only going to head toward Danielle. And by last year we were already to Karl. So, yes, a very slow ramp-up to hurricane season. But, as you said, we are now in the heart of the season where the water is the warmest.

Now, we focus on the biggest storm, the biggest potential, that 80 percent storm. It is making a run to the northeast, but eventually all of the models, and I mean every single one I've looked at today, turning it to the right and up toward the north. Towards Bermuda, but still turning it away from land.

A cold front coming in across the northeast. A beautiful weekend coming. Temperatures are going to be in the 60s, 70s in the morning. And, finally, cooling off by the afternoon for D.C., New York and all of the northeast airports, Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, we'll take it, Chad.

MYERS: Yes.

KEILAR: Thank you so much. MYERS: You're welcome.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, a new study suggests that a large ice sheet that covers Greenland will lose trillions of tons of its ice between now and the year 2100. In a report, scientists say the melting will set off nearly a foot of sea level rise around the world.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir spoke with one of the authors of this report last year, William Colgan. Listen to how he described the ramifications.

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WILLIAM COLGAN, STUDY'S CO-AUTHOR: And you think, well, maybe as long as I don't live within 20 feet of the sea, I'm going to be fine. You know, that would be like the first level of thinking it's not a big issue. But that rate of sea level change, how fast it's going to happen, it will be really hard to adapt to change that fast.

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BERMAN: And joining me now, as we stand near the Atlantic, or in the Atlantic in some cases, right before us is Bill Weir.

First, tell us why Greenland is so important.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Biggest island in the world. A lot of ice. Enough ice there, if it all melted, raises global sea levels by average 20 feet. You've got to think about it. You know, the ice cubes in your glass, if they melt, it doesn't spill over the top, it equalizes, right? But if you take a handful of ice, dump it in the glass, it's a problem.

Well, just one part of this - of this island of ice, the Yakamshun (ph) glacier on the east side, is putting out an ice cube every year that's nine miles wide. That's the equivalent of the ice that's being dumped in as a result of this. And this -- these guys basically ignored all the models, the complicated computer models that try to predict the future. And they just looked at the receding ice line as it - as it moves every year. You know, in the winters it goes down. In the summers, as it melts, it goes up. And by doing the math about what's lost there, they can make this prediction that what is already built in is it at least ten inches of average global sea level rise.

BERMAN: And that's just about 3.3 percent of the ice in Greenland is what's melting here.

WEIR: Right.

BERMAN: But it's enough, enough to raise the sea levels by about a foot.

WEIR: Right.

BERMAN: What does that mean for the coastal communities all around the globe? WEIR: Well, the thing is, it's all relative. You can't think of the

oceans like a bathtub where everything goes up at the same time. It depends on winds, and tides and where you live.

[06:35:01]

So, if you take examples that we know so well, like New Orleans or Boston or other low-lying cities, it means whether it's sunny day flooding that happens maybe twice a year now happens 20 times a year. It means that the devastating flooding events that may be once a decade, may be now every year. It just slowly ticks up.

And then, of course, when the storms come, it's added storm surge.

BERMAN: And all the intensity in the storms is extra now.

WEIR: Right.

BERMAN: The scientist you talked to, William Colgan, there told you, this is happening so fast, so quickly, that we can't adapt. What does he mean by that?

WEIR: Well, it's because, you know, we've built some of our greatest cities right on the coastline. You know, we've hardened this with the idea that this will be forever. That there's a permanence to our climate. Sadly, those days are over. So, to adjust a city like Miami, how do you move those people inland? How do you move New Orleans north? It boggles the mind to think about the climate refugees that are implicit in this, the infrastructure challenges. They have to move the launchpads at Cape Canaveral. Norfolk Naval Base is already preparing for these sorts of things. And so the conversation around climate change right now, it's this distant thing that may or may not touch me, ten inches, what could it matter. It's so, so, so important to be talking about this if you live anywhere near the coast. And, of course, if you live in the heartland, this will affect supply chain, the price of your food, who lives next to you.

BERMAN: The part of this that's particularly bleak is that even if we stopped all emissions right now --

WEIR: Right.

BERMAN: Which is not happening.

WEIR: Right.

BERMAN: But if it all went away right now, this is already baked into the cake?

WEIR: It is. Sadly, we're paying for the unintended consequences, you know, of our - of our forefathers. There's 150 years of industrial revolution. You know, we live -- the age of the tail pipe and the smokestack, built the modern world, but all of that plant cooking pollution has now built up and it takes centuries for the oceans to absorb that and for it to, you know, to even out.

So, this is our future. And how we prepare for it will mean everything in terms of lives, fortunes, blood, sweat and tears.

BERMAN: It's interesting. Bill Weir, I will walk the oceans with you anytime. Never step on Iceland, though, they get really upset.

WEIR: Yes, they're Vikings.

BERMAN: All right, Bill, thank you.

President Biden heading to Pennsylvania to make a renewed push for an assault weapons ban.

And new CNN reporting, how former First Lady Melania Trump reacted when she learned FBI agents has searched her Mar-a-Lago home.

Plus -

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Serena Williams, (INAUDIBLE).

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BERMAN: Tennis fans savoring every second as Serena Williams advances to the second round of the U.S. Open.

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KEILAR: Today, President Biden is heading to Pennsylvania to promote his crime prevention plan. The president is expected to call for an assault weapons ban and increased funding for public safety.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us at the White House with more on this.

Jeremy, what's his message going to be?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be something that we've heard from President Biden before, which is threading together this issue of crime prevention with this issue of gun safety reform, talking about the need to increase funding for police, make sure that police is funded, not defunded, as Republicans have accused Democrats of wanting to do, and also calling, at the same time, for this assault weapons ban. The president is going to be touting this safe America plan that calls for billions of dollars of additional funding for police, for crime prevention and community policing initiative. And it also calls for universal background checks and banning assault weapons.

Now, President Biden, in his speech today, as we approach this midterm campaign season, he's also going to be talking about this issue that we've heard him say, as he did last week during this first rally of the midterm cycle, about MAGA extremism. And that's a thread that we're going to hear from the president going forward. You know, today, Brianna, is one - is the first of three events that

President Biden is going to be holding in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania over the next week. He's in Wilkes-Barre today. He'll go to Philadelphia on Thursday for the "Soul of the Nation" speech. And then he'll be in Pittsburgh on Monday for a Labor Day event. So, all different parts of the state.

But a senior administration official I spoke with said that the throughline in all of these speeches will be those themes that the president laid out in this midterm campaign rally last week. And that's certainly something that we can expect to hear from the president going forward.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be watching today in Pennsylvania.

Jeremy, thank you for that.

BERMAN: So, President Joe Biden is now hitting the campaign trail, as you just heard, ahead of the midterms. And more and more Democratic candidates seem to be openly committing to campaigning with the president. They want to be with him.

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten is here.

Harry, I don't know anything about this, but it seems, as you get more popular, people want to spend more time with you.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: That's why I consistently want to spend time with you, John.

All right, here we go, Joe Biden's approval rating. Forty days ago he was at the trough at 37 percent. You can see the trend line here on your screen. It's pretty clear that the president is starting to gain back some of his popularity. A month ago, 39. Twenty days ago, 40. Ten days ago, 41. And today, in my average of polls, he's at 42 percent. Not awesome but certainly far better than 37 percent.

BERMAN: Five points where - above where he was.

And, Harry, you were the first person to point this out to me, this doesn't usually happen for a president heading into a midterm election.

ENTEN: Something is happening here.

OK. Second year job approval rating. The 40-day period from July 21 to August 30. Look at the last five presidents, including Joe Biden. We've mentioned that Joe Biden's up five points. Donald Trump saw no change. Barack Obama, down a point. George W. Bush, down five points. Bill Clinton, down a point. All the previous presidents of the last five, their approval rating during this last 40 day period has either had no change or gone down. That's the usual trend that we see for presidents as you get closer to the midterm election. Joe Biden is very much beating that historical baseline with his approval rating up five points.

[06:45:03]

Clearly, again, something is happening.

BERMAN: What you are seeing now is different than we have seen before. What's the party breakdown in this shift

ENTEN: So, where is it occurring?

It's not occurring among Republicans. So, compare late July to now, 7 percent, 7 percent. It's -- if you look at the numbers, he's gaining back among independents, up from 31 percent to 36 percent. Look among Democrats. Again, that five-point jump. So, he's gaining back voters in the center of the electorate and he's also gaining back among his base, which, if you're a president of the United States and you're heading into a midterm election, it's a pretty good combination.

BERMAN: What's interesting there is 81 percent. There's actually still room to grow, potentially.

ENTEN: There is more room to grow potentially. You and I were talking about this before we started. We can have a more in-depth look at it later on. But it seems to me he does have some room to grow among younger voters who, of course, usually are a main part of the Democratic coalition.

BERMAN: And we'll see if that happens. Look, a lot has happened in the last 40 days. There have been bills passed. There have been, you know, things in the public eye. Where does that rank in terms of the public view?

ENTEN: Yes, so, you know, when you do popular things sometimes your approval rating can go up.

Now, I don't believe that this is part of it yet because it's so fresh. But you look at the student debt cancellation, approve of recent actions or policies accomplished by the Biden administration, 54 percent approve of that. That's pretty good in today's polarized era. You look at the Inflation Reduction Act, 55 percent of Americans approve of that. Again, that's pretty good in this polarized era.

These aren't runaways. This isn't an 80/20 issue. But in a country in which elections are often decided by a few points, having majority approval on two major policy accomplishments, at least as Democrats think of them, that's pretty good, John.

BERMAN: Harry, you think this is a good time to point out to people one of the key phraseologies things in polling. Explain.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, we often talk about job approval rating. Do you approve or disapprove of a president's job. But there's also another way to look at a politician's popularity. That is, their favorable rating. Do you have a favorable view or an unfavorable view of a politician? And if we look right here, the net favorability, that is favorable minus unfavorable verses the net approval, approval minus disapproval, and you look at this point in their presidency. Look at Donald Trump. His net approval rating in an NBC News polls around this time was minus 5 points. You look at his net favorability rating, it was actually worse. He was less likable than the people who thought he was doing a good job at minus 10.

Look at Joe Biden. It's the opposite pattern. His net approval rating in the most recent NBC News poll was minus 13 points. His net favorability was minus 8. There's this likability factor with Biden that wasn't there with Donald Trump where there are a few folks in the electorate who may not like the job that he's doing, but they still think he's a pretty decent guy. And to be honest, you run equations.

I'm not really quite sure which one is more telling. But I will tell you, it's a good thing that these numbers all higher. So, the fact that his net favorability, Joe Biden's, is higher than his net approval is an indication that he may be more likable than his approval rating lets on.

BERMAN: It will be interesting to watch how that reacts going forward.

Look, people are wondering, well, what does this mean for Democrats. The party in power usually loses seats in a midterm election. Do they have a path to maybe not lose the House of Representatives?

ENTEN: I think it's iffy. You know, we've spoken about the Senate, the gains that Democrats have made there. They're probably the favorite at this point to hold on to the Senate, if not gain a seat or two. But if you look at the House of Representatives. Look at the president's approval rating at this point in midterms where his party doesn't lose any seats. You look at - well, these pictures -- funny enough, I think that these two guys maybe should be --

BERMAN: That would be a headline.

ENTEN: That would be a headline if George W. Bush was the president then. But it doesn't matter. The point is here, 63 percent approval rating, 63 percent approval rating. Look at where Joe Biden's was, at 42 percent. So he is not where he needs to be.

BERMAN: He is nowhere near where these guys were.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: No matter what year it was.

ENTEN: What - what -- no matter who was the president when.

BERMAN: When they didn't lose a lot of seats.

ENTEN: Right.

So, I think at this point, look, Democrats may have reined in their losses in the House of Representatives. Instead of say like a 25 to 35 seat loss, it may be closer to a low double-digit loss. But, still, it's an uphill hill to climb for Democrats to maintain control of the House. BERMAN: All right, we will see. Harry Enten, thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you, sir.

BERMAN: How the nation's biggest wireless phone carriers are keeping tabs on you.

KEILAR: And Meghan Markle's revealing new interview. What she is saying about her in-laws and her exit - or Prince Harry's exit as well from the royal family.

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[06:53:10]

KEILAR: Do you ever wonder how long cell phone companies hold on to your location data? Well, you're going to start. Because, according to the FCC, the nation's largest carriers not only track users locations, they can store that information for months and even provide it to law enforcement and the government upon request.

CNN tech reporter Brian Fung is joining us now with more.

Tell us how far this goes.

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, it's pretty far. According to these letters that the nation's largest wireless carrier sent to the SEC this month, it could be from months, as you said, all the way up to years.

So, for example, T-Mobile said it stores detailed latitude and longitude data from devices on its network for up to 90 days, but then it also stores less granular cell site location information. So, you know, the locations of the cell towers that your phones have been talking to for several years. And AT&T said that it may store cell site location information for up to five years.

Now, all of this location permission is pretty sensitive stuff. You know, for example, you can imagine that if, you know, three data points from overnight show that your phone hasn't moved, that's a pretty good indication of where you might be living or sleeping at night. This information could also be useful for tracking down people who seek abortions, for example, or go to religious sites. And the federal government has warned that, you know, this location information can be used to discriminate against people or to, you know, intimidate them, or even engage in violence against people who are vulnerable. So, this is really sensitive stuff that, you know, the -- these telecom carriers are required by law to make available to law enforcement when it gets a valid request.

KEILAR: All kinds of implications, as you point out there, Brian.

Thank you so much for that report, Brain Fung.

[06:55:01] So, it turns out the U.S. intelligence agencies have been conducting threat assessments on the documents that were taken from Donald Trump's home all the way back to May. Maggie Haberman joining us with the latest reporting.

BERMAN: And Senator Lindsey Graham declaring there will be riots in the streets if Donald Trump is indicted. Now, he's trying to explain why he said that.

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KEILAR: This morning, alarming video shows the moment that a man attempted to abduct a six-year-old girl from right in front of her home in Ohio. The little girl was taking out the trash when a man identified as Deric McPherson is seen walking up to her, then grabbing her wrist and trying to drag her down the sidewalk with him. She screamed there. You see McPherson finally let her go. And then her father tried to chase him down.

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RICKY NASH, FATHER: And then he tried to dip in and out of alleys and through people's yards to try to get away from me.

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But the only thing that kept running through my mind is that, I can't let him do this to another kid.

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KEILAR: Now, McPherson has been arrested.