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New Day

Florida on Alert as Ian Strengthens into Hurricane; Video Shows Train Hitting Police Car with Woman Handcuffed Inside; Democrats Warming to Biden 2024 Run, But Aren't Sure He'll Run Again. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:04]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: But Brady does Brady things, leading his Bucs on an 89-yard march that ends with him finding the Russell Gage in the end zone with 14 seconds to go. Now down just two, they have to go for the two-point conversion, but the Packers defense denies them, De'Vondre Campbell saying denial ain't just the river in Egypt. The Packers hang on to win 14-12. Afterwards, Rodgers and Brady hugging, Rodgers calling it apropos, an awesome game.

Tonight, we have the Cowboys is and the Giants facing off in Monday Night Football.

New Day continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Ian expected to become a monster storm by tonight with Florida in its sights.

It is Monday, September 26th, I'm Brianna Keilar. John Berman is off and Erica Hill is here this morning.

Ian reaching hurricane strength overnight and there may be no stopping it. It's forecast to reach major hurricane status tonight bearing down on Cuba. The storm's path otherwise uncertain here, but Floridians are preparing for the worst. People are filling sandbags to protect against the heavy rains and storm surge that are predicted.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Long lines outside of stores as people look to stock up on their supplies, as you can see the empty shelves there, bottled water one of the hottest items. All of Florida at this point is under a state of emergency this morning. Governor Ron DeSantis has also activated the National Guard.

KEILAR: Joining us now is Michael Brennan, acting deputy director for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Thank you so much for being with us on this morning as we're watching Ian approach here.

Give us a sense of where you are watching and when you're expecting landfall.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NOAA: Well, you can see Ian right now is located about 90 miles southwest of Grand Cayman with intense thunderstorm activity developing near the center. We have seen this storm strengthen very rapidly since yesterday and reaching hurricane strength this morning.

If we look at the forecast now, we're expecting Ian to turn from its northwestward motion turn more northward and move near over the western tip of Cuba overnight tonight and into Tuesday morning. And then we're expecting a major hurricane to approach the west Coast of Florida during the day, Wednesday, and into early Thursday.

And for that reason now, we're highlighting this area from here Inglewood up to Anclote River, including Tampa Bay is now in a hurricane watch. We also have a storm surge watch in effect for the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula, including the Florida Keys as well. So, we're very concerned about those hazards, life- threatening hazards developing as we go into Wednesday and into Thursday in this region.

KEILAR: Talk to us about the potential damage here, how strong this is expected to be, what people should be expecting.

BRENNAN: Well, we're looking at the potential for, in terms of storm surge, inundation of five to eight feet above ground level in this region, from Inglewood up to in the Sarasota, Pinellas, Hillsborough Counties, Manatee County up into the Tampa Bay region. That's life- threatening storm surge. I'm 6 feet tall, so that's potentially water two feet above my head in some of these areas here. Four to seven feet of inundation in the, three to five fight south of that. And then the also potential for major hurricane-force winds that can certainly do a lot of damage, but water and potentially storm surge, in particular, is the hazard that has the potential to kill the most people in a hurricane, especially along the Florida West Coast.

KEILAR: With that cone of uncertainty being with what it is, how should Floridians be preparing for this, depending on where they live?

BRENNAN: Well, if you live in the storm search watch area here that's highlighted in this pink color, especially in this area, say, from Cape Coral up to Tampa, today is the day to put your plan into action. Be on the lookout for any evacuation orders or other preparedness information that's going to come you're your local officials. You basically have today and tomorrow to prepare and to evacuate, if you're ordered to do so.

Conditions are going to start to deteriorate as we go into late Tuesday, Tuesday night and then into Wednesday. There's also the potential for very heavy rainfall across much of the state of Florida, even inland and on the east coast. This area here in red from Orlando to Tampa Bay is sort of Central Florida areas most at risk of flooding rain over the next three days.

KEILAR: Michael Brennan, we appreciate your time. We know that you're busy. Thank you so much.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

HILL: With Ian now forecast to reach major hurricane status tonight as it nears Cuba, people there understandably preparing as well, and that's where we find CNN's Patrick Oppmann who is live this morning in Havana. Patrick, good morning.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, people in this area of Cuba, Western Cuba, are holding their breath to see if the storm hits the western tip of Cuba or comes further east into the populated areas, like where I am, in Havana. And so the government is sort, of course, warning people to be paying very close attention.

Certainly people who live in low-lying coastal areas will probably have to evacuate. Of course, the storm is hitting a country that is already battered economically.

[07:05:00]

So, in terms of going to stock up or buy plywood, those things are just not in the store. So, if you live in an island, you really just kind of have to hunker down and wait for the storm to go by you.

All this summer, it's been fairly quiet summer in terms of hurricanes, and I think people on both sides of the Florida Straits were hoping that we would get by without a hurricane hitting. That is not the case. Cuba is going, one way to the other, one place to other, get absolutely hammered in the next hours to come. And it just remains to be seen whether it's a mostly rural area where the storm crosses over, which would do less damage, or if you have flooding, buildings collapse in Havana, which can happen even if there isn't a direct hit from a hurricane.

So, at this moment, the government here is just telling people to keep a very close eye on what could be a potentially incredibly dangerous situation.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. We'll continue to check in with you, Patrick. I appreciate it. Thank you.

KEILAR: In a new interview, former Senior Technical Adviser to the January 6th Committee Denver Riggleman says a Capitol rioter had a short call with the White House on the day of the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R-VA): So, you get a real aha moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter's phone while it was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone in the White House was calling one of the rioters while the riot was going on?

RIGGLEMAN: On January 6th, absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining us now with more on this is CNN Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz. That is fascinating to hear, Katelyn, but what can you tell us about this? KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Bri, this is the only known call made from the White House to the phone of a rioter while the riot was taking place, but a few things here based on months of reporting from Correspondent Jamie Gangel and Producer Elizabeth Stuart, this phone call from a White House landline, the publicly available number for the White House, it lasted for only nine seconds.

Who placed the call and why remains a mystery. Phone logs don't reveal any specific extension. But we have learned that the rioter who received is Anton Lunyk from Brooklyn. He attended The Ellipse rally with two friends. They were only in the Capitol for a few minutes, and he's seen on a cell phone video leaving through a window.

The call happened after they left the Capitol and Lunyk was likely on his way back to New York. But according to one source, the House committee continues to investigate this phone call, but, so far, they have been unable to discover who placed it or why.

Congressman Adam Schiff from the committee downplayed Denver Riggleman's comments yesterday when he was on CNN. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): One of the things that I think that has given our committee credibility is we have been careful about what we say, not to overstate matters, not to understate matters. And without the advantage of the additional information we have gathered since he left the committee, it, I think, poses real risk to be suggesting things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, earlier this year, Lunyk and his two friends pleaded guilty in federal court to demonstrating inside the Capitol. They were sentenced to home confinement and probation. Attorneys for all three men declined to comment to CNN for this story. Prosecutors never mentioned this call during their court proceedings.

According multiple sources familiar with the investigation, Lunyk says he doesn't remember receiving the nine-second call and he claim he doesn't know anyone who worked in the Trump White House. So, Bri, given what's known here, it's really hard to say how significant a finding this is.

KEILAR: Do you think we're going to find out anymore about this?

POLANTZ: Well, we'll just have to wait and see. The committee does have their next hearing coming up this week on Wednesday.

KEILAR: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

HILL: This morning, Russians lining up to flee the nation as Vladimir Putin intensifies his war mobilization against Ukraine. Meantime, Russian forces have been driven out of the newly liberated city of Kupiansk in Ukraine. The echo though of dangerous shelling nearby remains, and the city, while maybe free of Russians, is far from safe, as CNN's Ben Wedeman reports now from the frontlines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Where a few loaves of bread, the residents of Kupiansk risk their lives. Ukrainian forces retook the city about two weeks ago but the fighting is far from over. Yulya, describes in one word, intense. That's the echo of cluster bombs falling not far away.

Sometimes I'm scared, says Danylo, over the sound of nearby shelling, sometimes I don't care.

These are the few people left in Kupiansk. This city, even though, theoretically, the Russians have left, the Russians are just across the river. And, in fact, according to the soldiers here, there are still Russians inside the Ukrainian-controlled part of the city.

Russian forces took control of Kupiansk with little fighting in the first days of the war. It served as the administrative center for the Russian-occupied part of the Kharkiv region.

[07:10:00]

Pro-Russian sympathies linger on here. The Russians paid salaries and pensions and the recent Ukrainian counteroffensive turned the city into a warzone, sparking resentment against both sides.

They are one in the same, says Yevgenyi. The mood of the population is shocked.

It's too early and too dangerous to begin clearing away the rubble. Wreckage still scattered in the streets.

Okay. There's a fairly constant thud incoming and outgoing artillery and rocket fire here.

An hour's drive away in the town Izium, no shelling but shell shock still shows on the faces of people waiting for food. The fighting has moved on. The scars it left, deep.

They hit my home, says Lyudmila. War spares no one, adds Katarina (ph).

The local fire station has become a warehouse for supplies donated by a town near Kyiv. In her grandfather's arms, Alina recalls intense bombing. It killed our dog and hit the roof. We were hiding in the basement, she says.

Back in Kupiansk, a tank rumbles toward the front. The battle rages on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks to Ben Wedeman for that report.

Well, Democrats are now warming to idea of a second Biden term, but aren't sure he will run. We have new CNN reporting ahead.

Plus, revelations in Maggie Haberman's forthcoming book on former President Trump, who says making secret rich friends made the presidency worth it.

KEILAR: A train hit s as a police car with a woman handcuffed inside. The frightening collision all caught on tape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

HILL: Dramatic video to show you out of Denver which shows the moment a train collided with a police car parked across the tracks. Inside that car, a woman handcuffed in the backseat.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov has the story for in Denver. I mean, this video is really something, Lucy.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: it really is, Erica. Nearly eight minutes of body cam and dash cam video showing the terrifying moments before and after that train slammed into the police vehicle with a 20- year-old woman handcuffed in the backseat.

Now, she is being treated for serious injuries. She did survive, but I should warn our viewers the video maybe difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV (voice over): On the night of September 16, Platteville Police Department officers responded to an alleged road rage incident involving a firearm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep your hands above your head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's going on?

KAFANOV: 20-year-old driver Yareni Rios-Gonzalez was stopped in her truck just past a set of railroad tracks while the patrol vehicle parked on the tracks. Soon, a nightmare was to follow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no weapons in the car?

KAFANOV: After she was placed, handcuffed in that patrol vehicle, body cam and dash cam video show a freight train with horns blaring, heading Rios-Gonzalez's way. Noticing what was about to happen, one police officer ran for his life.

Rios-Gonzalez's attorney, Paul Wilkinson, tells CNN his client also saw the train coming and was, quote, frantically trying to escape, trying to open doors. Locked in handcuffed inside the police cruiser, she was out of options.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Send us medical emergency. The suspect was in the vehicle that was hit by the train.

KAFANOV: According to her attorney, Rios-Gonzalez, quote, lost consciousness and woke up at the hospital very upset. Wilkinson says his client sustained multiple injuries, including nine broke ribs, a broken arm, broken teeth and injuries to her head.

The Platteville police officer who parked on the railroad tracks has been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated. According to a statement from their police chief, so far, no charges have been filed for Rios-Gonzalez or any officers involved in the incident, according to the Weld County District Attorney's Office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV (on camera): And regardless of whatever the officers were actually investigating, so many questions about why that cruiser parked on railroad tracks.

Now, the crash remains under investigation by three agencies. The Fort Lupton Police are investigating the original road rage incident. The Colorado State Patrol is investigating the crash between the train and the police car. And the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Rios-Gonzalez sustained those injuries while in police custody. Erica?

HILL: It is really something. And as you point out, Lucy, why, why would the car be parked there in the first place? Glad to hear that she is okay, but, boy, a long road ahead. Lucy, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Some new detail this morning on Donald Trump's motive for running for president, what he told Maggie Haberman, next.

KEILAR: Plus, the welfare fraud scheme involving Brett Favre deepening now. What a new court filing is revealing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that Democrats, if the election is about who is the most extreme, as we saw Kevin McCarthy touch on there with Marjorie Taylor Greene, I'll say her name, sitting over his left side, then they are going to win. If it is a referendum on the president, they will lose, and they know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, that's former press secretary with her thoughts on the 2022 midterm elections.

Looking ahead to 2024, new CNN reporting finds more Democrats are warming to the idea of Biden seeking reelection, though the final decision on whether he will run is still yet to be made.

Joining us now is CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere with some really interesting reporting on where sort of the party apparatus is on this.

Fascinating the shift between March and September. What did you find?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, people were not feeling good about Democrats. People were not feeling good about Joe Biden in March. They were talking about him being too old, out of the moment, not really ready for the time and they did not want him to run again.

We've talked to some folks who were at the big Democratic National Committee meeting, all these party leaders from around the country, that happened in the spring. And they were saying, how do we keep it from Joe Biden running again. By the time they met again in -- right outside Washington two weeks ago, they were saying, listen, if he feels like he could run, people would want him to run.

KEILAR: You have this vignette in your story where you kind of sort of maybe around the bar at the table talking amongst themselves making sure no one can hear them as they talked, maybe disparagingly or discouragingly about a potential Biden run.

As much as Democrats would like to dispense with his whole will he or won't he thing, let's listen to what Biden said on 60 Minutes about it himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: And it's much too early to make that kind of decision. My intention as I said to begin with is that I would run again, but it's just an intention.

[07:25:04]

But is it a firm decision that I would run again, that remains to be seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: They can't dispense with it when he's saying that.

DOVERE: You talk to people around the president and they will say one or two things. One thing is he is being careful about the legal things here, not declaring campaign because there are federal elections laws and finance fundraising things that get triggered by that. But it is clear that he is still thinking about it. We have got reporting of a story where his wife, Jill Biden, is, where the family is, where he is. It's still going through this.

And that is feeding already uncertainty there among a lot of Democrats that for all they will say, he intends to run, planning on running, that he is not really going to go through with it. And that by maybe three months from now, four months from now, some time in the spring, we're going to hear an announcement that maybe Joe Biden actually is not running.

KEILAR: You talk about how in the White House they have this kind of underdog mentality. They are kind of gearing up for that fight. People are maybe counting them down and out a little bit. But I just wonder what is the calculus when he's thinking about whether to run or not. Surely age is a factor. That's just part of it, right?

DOVERE: Listen, he will turn 80 in November. He would be 82 right after the election in 2024. He would turn 86 at the end of his second term. He's already the oldest president ever. But when you talk to people around Biden and the president himself has summed (ph) this as well, people counted him out from all points of the way in the 2020 primaries, he won. People said, he's not going to do that race against Donald Trump, he won. People in the spring and the summer were saying his president us is sit is a flop. Now, he says, look at all these bills that we passed, look at it all this time, he succeeded again.

So, they look at this and they say, oh, doubting me, you're saying he's not exciting enough, he's not what people respond to? Look at this pattern. Why would you think that it wouldn't happen again?

KEILAR: Very interesting. Is he a transitional figure? Is there a bench behind him? There's so many questions that could determine where lands on this, and we know you'll stay on the story, Isaac. Thank you.

DOVERE: Thank you.

HILL: In a new excerpt from Maggie Haberman's book, Confidence Man, Donald Trump appears to say he ran for president for the fame. Haberman interviewed the former president three times for the book. Trump said of running for president when asked, this is from an excerpt that was just published in The Atlantic, quote, the question I get asked more than any other question, if you had to do it again, would you have done it. The answer is, yes, I think so. Because here's the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.

Joining us now is Senior Political Analyst John Avlon and Host of PBS's Firing Line, CNN Political Commentator Margaret Hoover. Good to see you both this morning.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Erica. How are you?

HILL: I'm doing well.

So, in some ways, I have to say, I don't find this entirely shocking, right, Maggie goes on to write, it appeared to be a vehicle for fame and that many experiences were only worth having if someone else envied them. I mean, what Donald Trump is, as we know, he is a transactional person. He wants to get something out of the presidency. Fame could be something.

HOOVER: Well, it's not really a surprise either. I mean, this has been a clear M.O. of his from the beginning. And, by the way, I mean, he has long track record in public life. It was always of ultimate value of him to be written about in the newspaper. There are thousands of stories of him circling his name in the newspaper and sending them to other people, circling other people's name that is sending it to that person.

I spent the weekend in Mt. Vernon. John Avlon conducted and gave a speech at a naturalization service at the home of our first founding father, George Washington, the man who did not want to serve, did not want to serve a second term but did so for the good of his fellow citizens, for the country, in order to establish a tradition of public service on behalf of others. This notion that the citizenry has power that they offer temporarily to their leaders to act in good faith on behalf of other people. This is the exact opposite of what Donald Trump has embodied in the context of how he cares about the presidency.

HILL: And it's interesting. I wonder, right, especially when you put in that, Margaret, as you look at this, John, how has that attitude too changed all of these new lawmakers or candidates that we're seeing? I mean, that's really trickling throughout. It's not about service for many people in the same way that it used to be.

AVLON: Well, I think Trump's gravitational pull towards money and power and fame has distorted certainly our democratic norms. Margaret is right. I mean, it's founding fathers' worst nightmare that people would pursue the presidency for these kinds of reasons.

What I think has really changed the tone and tenor within the Republican Party though is an idea that attention through trollishness, attention through stunts that where cruelty maybe the point, that that's the way to galvanize the Republican base around you. And it's totally contrary to the values and virtues of the Republican Party had been preaching for a long time before, right, which is a sense of obligation, patriotism, internationalism, whatever those virtues may be, fidelity to the Constitution.

[07:30:08]