Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Hurricane Ian Intensifies into Category 3, Takes Aim at Florida; Oath Keepers Trial Begins Today; Video Shows Stone Revealing How 'Stop the Steal' Would Work; Real-Life Examples of Interest Rate Effects on Consumers; Long Lines Evacuate Russia Ahead of Mobilization. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 27, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Ian now a major Category 3 storm making landfall in Cuba as it continues on a path toward Florida. We just got some fresh forecast information a short time ago. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

[05:59:47]

Officials across Florida sounding the alarm along Florida's West Coast. People are being urged to get out of harm's way. Tampa's mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. Officials say the Tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime.

More than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of Ian when it arrives. The storm has intensified to a Category 3 hurricane, 115 miles per hour with the winds. This could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now.

So far, ahead of the storm, a hospital in St. Petersburg has suspended service and transferred its patients; Florida parks and preserves are closed; schooled and universities are closed. At least three cruise lines have re-routed passengers. The Tampa Bay airport will suspend operations at 5 p.m. today. And NASA has moved the Artemis rocket back to the hangar for protection.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And then take a look at this video, showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the Tampa Bay area Monday night, heading inland to safety. People hunkering down, as well, though. The storm perhaps testing their patience. One Tampa resident waited three hours to get free sandbags.

U.S. military installations are moving aircraft and ships out of the Tampa and Jacksonville areas.

And to give you an idea just how massive this storm is, NASA released this video of hurricane Ian, taken from the International Space Station.

BERMAN: CNN's Carlos Suarez is in Gulfport, Florida. Patrick Oppmann is in Havana. And Chad Myers, our meteorologist, standing by at the weather center.

First, let's go to Florida, and Carlos Suarez is there. Carlos, give us a sense of what you're seeing.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Brianna, good morning.

A second round of evacuation orders will go into effect here in Pinellas County later this morning. A number of businesses in Gulfport out here are already boarded up. They've got the plywood up. This one's got a bit of a sense of humor. They wrote, "Good vibes only."

They've also put down a number of sandbags, all of this in anticipation of what we expect to be a pretty significant flooding event. You walk all the way down to the marina out here, and it is just business after business that has all of this plywood out.

Pinellas County, where we are now, is just about a 20- to 25-minute drive from Tampa. And the county sheriff's office out here, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, has already started to restrict some of the access to the barrier islands.

Later this morning they've -- you're going to need to show some sort of I.D., and you're going to have to give them a reason why you're trying to get this far out West, because if you don't have a reason to be there, there is already an evacuation order in place for those barrier islands.

Now, in Hillsborough County, where Tampa and some of the other cities are, 43 hurricane shelters opened yesterday. And thousands, tens of thousands of sandbags were handed out at three locations that were opened by the city of Tampa.

And as you guys mentioned in the lead-in out here, traffic cameras showing Interstate 4, which connects the Tampa Bay area out into the central part of Florida, the Orlando area, that showed cars bumper-to- bumper at around 10 and 11 p.m. at night.

A number of folks that we talked to, one woman that we spoke to yesterday at a sandbag distribution site, she said she had made reservations for her family. They were going to Orlando. A lot of the emergency officials have been telling folks, Look, just because there's an evacuation order doesn't mean you have to leave the state. You just have to get to safer ground, higher ground.

And so they want folks to either head to one of these emergency shelters. If you can't get there, go ahead and just make your way a little bit more inland. Again, a lot of folks leaving the Tampa Bay area heading central, the central part of Florida. Most likely Orlando being their destination -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, Carlos, the storm surge, the concern. The most important thing is to get inland. Carlos Suarez in Gulfport, thanks so much.

KEILAR: Right now in Cuba, the powerful storm is slamming the island with devastating lands after making landfall. Forecasters say Cuba could see water levels rise by as much as 14 feet.

Almost 20,000 people have already been evacuated from the Western part of the island. So let's go now to CNN's Patrick Oppmann, who is standing by live for us in Havana.

Patrick give us the latest from Cuba there.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are starting to feel the winds pick up here, and it's been a steady rain all morning long here in Havana. Seeing some flooding already in some low-lying areas.

And really, the outer bands of the storm have just begun to reach here.

To the West of me, a very different story. People that have passed a really long, hard night. I was in touch with a friend who lives in the town of c, a tobacco-growing region. And he says that he doesn't have any tobacco leaves, come first light, that much of his house has been knocked down. And so people there have been really holding on for dear life.

As you mentioned, tens of thousands of people evacuated from that region ahead of the storm, heeding the Cuban government's warning to get out of the way of this storm. Because, of course, if people are in danger during the storm, there's really nothing that anyone can do for them.

[06:05:03]

And already power is out in much of Western Cuba. Communications are very spotty. We still have power here at our office in Havana, but it's just a question of when we lose power.

And so even though Havana will get the worse of this storm, you know, it doesn't take much -- a heavy wind, tropical storm-force rains -- to cause buildings here to collapse, to cause massive flooding. So we'll be watching for that today as the storm continues to blow through here.

KEILAR: Yes. We can see you're just there on the edge of the storm, but that can be very dicey. Patrick Oppmann, live for us in Cuba, thanks.

BERMAN: All right. Let's get right to meteorologist Chad Myers, who is tracking the path of this. An update about an hour ago, Chad, where do things stand?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: One twenty-five, the wind speed right now. It did make landfall officially around 4:30 this morning, South of Pinar del Rio, where it is, actually, right now.

Although the winds in advance of the storm got there much earlier. So that's what's important to not focus on where the eye is. We had tropical storm and hurricane-force winds hours in advance of the eye/ And there it is right there from the Key West radar.

Some of these storms today will rotate on the way in on the right side. There could be some tornadoes.

Now, the forecast map hasn't changed very much, but the model since shifted slightly. Slightly to the east. And that means that Tampa and Port Charlotte, you are right in the middle of it.

And I know we're talking about the storm surge, and there's going to be significant surge. There's going to be ten feet or more in some of these bays, even up toward Tampa Bay.

This is going to make a huge difference, whether this storm is here or off the map to the South, because then there wouldn't be as much surge into Tampa Bay.

But it would be down here in Port Charlotte, in Fort Myers, back into Punta Gorda, where we had so much damage back in Charlie, that I was there with Anderson Cooper.

One more thing. I know you're trying to get away from the surge, but there will be spots across part of Florida with 20 inches of rainfall. So if you are in a flood-prone area, you need to keep that in mind, as well. Not just saltwater surge, but there could certainly be freshwater rainfall making significant flooding across your area -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, storm surge coming in. The freshwater flooding going out. A lot to worry about --

MYERS: Yes.

BERMAN: -- as we sit here this morning. Chad Myers, thank you very much. We're going to have much more on this ahead.

KEILAR: In just a few hours, jury selection begins as five members of the Oath Keepers, including their leader, go on trial for seditious conspiracy, stemming from the January 6th riot. It's the first sedition trial in the U.S. in years, and it could reveal new information about extremist efforts to subvert the 2020 election results by whatever means necessary.

CNN's Whitney Wild is live for us outside of the federal courthouse in Washington with more on what we should expect here -- Whitney/

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this is the most aggressive case for the Department of Justice, and it's worth noting that a few people have already been, again, charged with seditious conspiracy, members of the Oath Keepers, and they have already pleaded guilty, which is giving prosecutors some strength as they enter the first of three seditious conspiracy trials this year.

This case will center on a man named Stewart Rhodes. They say that he is the leader of the Oath Keepers and that he basically quarterbacked this entire plot that began shortly after the November 2020 election; and that was intended to stop Joe Biden from assuming the presidency.

So they will focus on Stewart Rhodes, and they will focus on four other defendants who they say were his top lieutenants in carrying out this mission.

What they're going to argue, Brianna, is that again, this plot began shortly after the November 2020 election, and it culminated on January 6th as these members of these groups for several weeks hosted what were basically tactical training -- tactical trainings throughout the United States.

They amassed tactical gear, as well as weapons outside Washington and created what they called a quick reaction force that was stationed outside Washington on January 6th.

Further, again, they're going to point out that several of these Oath Keepers went into the Capitol on January 6th. Some of them tried to push past police in certain areas of the building. Others were looking for Nancy Pelosi.

The defense, for their part, Brianna, is going to argue that these Oath Keepers were not there to cause harm; that they were there to become peacemakers, should riots break out between pro-Trump protesters and Antifa.

And further, Brianna, the defense is going to argue that they were there inside the Capitol to actually assist police.

Back to you.

KEILAR: All right. Whitney Wild, live for us here in Washington. Thanks.

BERMAN: Documentary footage obtained by CNN shows Roger Stone, a longtime ally of former President Trump, calling for violence just days before the 2020 presidential election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER STONE, ALLY OF DONALD TRUMP: Excellent. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the -- (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the violence or (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the voting. Let's get right to the violence.

[06:10:02]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get right to it.

STONE: Shoot to kill. See an Antifa, shoot to kill. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) 'em. Done with this bullshit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In another clip, Stone discusses strategy of simply claiming victory, no matter who won.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STONE: Let's just hope we're celebrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

STONE: I suspect it will be -- I really just suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is 9/10 of the law. No, we won. {EXPLETIVE DELETED) you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

STONE: Sorry, over. We won. You're wrong. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Roger Stone has responded to this video in a statement to CNN, saying, quote, "I challenge the accuracy and the authenticity of these videos and believe they have been manipulated and selectively edited. I also point out that the filmmakers did not have the legal right to use them. How ironic that Kim Kardashian and I are both subjected to computer-manipulated videos on the same day. The excerpts you provided below prove nothing. Certainly, they do not prove I had anything to do with the events of January 6th. That being said, it clearly shows I advocated for lawful congressional and judicial options."

With us now, former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer and CNN law enforcement analyst, Michael Fanone. He's also the author of the forthcoming book, "Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul."

Michael, nice to see you this morning. So on that video, it appears to show Roger Stone talking about violence, saying, Forget the voting. Go to violence before the election even happened. What does that say to you?

MICHAEL FANONE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think it's just another example in what's becoming a laundry list of examples of members of Trump's inner circle who planned for violence on January 6th. That what happened that day was not a spontaneous event, that it was premeditated, and it was part of a plan all along.

KEILAR: That is Roger Stone. He's certainly known for being more eccentric in his language than people, I think you would say, around or sort of in Trump world. Do you take what he's saying there to be representative of what others around Trump thought?

FANONE: Yes. I mean, if you look at the speeches that were delivered on January 6, there was a lot of violent rhetoric utilized by Donald Trump supporters. And then lo and behold, January 6th happened, and it was violent, and individuals were severely injured. Police officers were severely injured, and some individuals lost their lives.

So, yes. I think this is just more evidence of a seditious conspiracy that involved violence.

BERMAN: Don Lemon spoke to the documentarians, the filmmakers behind the footage we just saw there. And one of the things they talked about was the Proud Boys and the relationship that they saw between Roger Stone and the Proud Boys. How does that strike you? FANONE: I mean, I'll be honest. I didn't know who Roger Stone was

until after January 6th. Now seeing that, you know, a member of the Trump inner circle was interacting with a group like the Proud Boys, which is a white supremacist organization, and an anti-government organization, is shocking. It's alarming.

I will say this. I've been involved in a lot of criminal investigations, and, you know, even the most unsophisticated drug dealer, I think, would tell you if you're going to plan a violent insurrection, don't embed a documentarian crew with you while you go about doing so.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about Kyle Young, who was one of the people who assaulted you on January 6th. He's actually being sentenced today. And prosecutors are asking at this point for a sentence of more than seven years in prison. What do you think he deserves? What do you want to see?

FANONE: I'll say this. Before the trial -- and the guy's name escapes me. He was a former NYPD officer who was sentenced to ten years. The time, in and of itself, really didn't matter to me. What did matter to me was what Mr. Young did with that time.

And, like all the individuals who have been charged with assaulting me, the only thing that I'm interested in seeing them do is suffer. I'm not looking for apologies. I'm not looking for them to turn their lives around. If they want to do that, they can do that. That's fine. But I want them to suffer just like I have. Just like a lot of police officers have. To me, that -- that's what accountability is.

[06:15:04]

Now, having heard that that individual, that NYPD officer, was sentenced to ten years in prison, I think that that's a -- a reasonable amount of time for Mr. Young to serve, considering what his actions resulted in that day.

BERMAN: Michael Fanone, we do appreciate you being with us to share your views this morning.

FANONE: Thank you.

BERMAN: The Dow falls, entering bear market territory for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Plus, the Russian exodus. Satellite images showing long lines of traffic at the border to cross from Russia to get out of the country in the wake of this draft.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one! Oh, my gosh! Whew! Oh, wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Cheers all around NASA's first test of a planetary defense. A smashing success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:09]

KEILAR: This morning U.S. stock futures are higher after all three major indexes started the week in major decline. The Dow slipped into its first bear market since the pandemic. That is defined as a drop of 20 percent or more from a recent high.

The index plunged more than 300 points amid investor concerns about central bank efforts to slow inflation.

Traders are also concerned about a too-strong U.S. dollar. The British pound hit a new record low against the dollar, which means U.S. companies doing a lot of business abroad could be hurt as the profits they make in other countries will decrease in dollar terms.

BERMAN: Meanwhile, global central banks, including the Federal Reserve are hiking interest rates to fight inflation. Really no end in sight to this. So how will this impact you?

Want to bring in CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans for that. So what does this mean? The higher interest rates? How are we all going to feel this?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So it means that the normal personal finance rules really matter now more than ever, because your borrowing costs are going up.

If you borrow money for anything, your standard of living could be affected. And credit card debt is the most important. You've heard me for years rail against too much credit card debt.

The typical person has about 5 grand. At 16 percent APR, earlier this year, it will take you 33 months and $1,200 to pay it off. But at 24 percent APR, it's going to take a lot longer, and you're going to pay a lot more in interest.

So it's just a reminder. You want to be paying down that high-interest debt if you can. Those rates could continue to go higher.

We've talked about mortgages here. I mean, this mortgage rate last year was so epically low. And there are a lot of people who have houses at that rate. They're not really going to want to sell their house. Right? To go buy another one and pay something like 6 percent.

So it's about $700 more a month in extra interest if you bought the same house this year as last year, and that just shows you how that interest really, really can add up.

BERMAN: Just one thing I want to point out. If you're in the middle of a 30-year fix right now, your interest rate won't change.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: A lot of people are looking at this saying, Oh, my God. My interest rates are going up.

No, no, no. That's what "fixed" means.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: You're fine. It's is you want to buy a new house or leave that you're in trouble.

ROMANS: And so first-time home buyers have had a lot of trouble in this big boom getting in. It just means maybe there's not going to be a lot of availability for them anyway.

Let's talk about cars. Can we talk about cars here?

Beginning in 2022, a 60-month new car loan, 3.85 percent. Now it's about 5 percent, and that's probably going to continue to go higher here.

More important than the interest rates are the money moves I think you're making with your car right now, OK? Let's talk about important stuff for car buyers.

If you leased a car in 2019 -- this is great advice from Pat Ryan, the Copilot CEO -- you should buy it. This is the only time when your depreciating car asset has actually appreciated. You probably have a contract in 2019 that says you can buy, say, a Volkswagen Atlas, buy it back for $25,000. Well, it's worth $40,000 right now. So it makes sense to buy it.

Finance to a credit union. That's also advice, because you get lower rates there.

And new cars are lower tech than the older model used cars. And this is what Pat Ryan means by that. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT RYAN, COPILOT CEO: Your 2019 cars likely, for many brands, better equipped than any new car you can buy today. Because any new features that cane out in the last couple years, almost all computer chip- dependent, and with the scarcity of chips, the cars coming out in '22, '23 are often less equipped. They have less bells and whistles. They're like a 2015.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Isn't that amazing? That the pandemic and the supply chain was so messed up that a new car today is kind of like a 2015 car in terms of technology.

BERMAN: Yes. Used and old are the new advanced. You know, crazy. Christine Romans, smart is the new rich, as they say. She's got a book called that.

New satellite images reveal long lines of traffic waiting to cross from Russia into neighboring countries. KEILAR: Plus, a Senate showdown between Republican Leader Mitch

McConnell and Democrat Joe Manchin over his energy reform bill. Senator Manchin will join us live, ahead on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:21]

BERMAN: This morning, many fighting-age men in Russia are desperately attempting to flee President Vladimir Putin's mobilization order. Look at this new satellite imagery. It shows traffic backed up for miles.

This is the Russian border. This is the border between Russia and Georgia. You can see the lines and lines of cars, people trying to get out of the country.

Witnesses say people wanted -- waited up to 48 hours to get over the border. This as two Russian men launched separate attacks on two recruitment stations yesterday.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Kramatorsk in Eastern Ukraine with the latest on what's happening not only in Ukraine, Nick, but also over the border in Russia.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes. I mean, startling, those images there. A country that Russia invaded in 2008, now the place from which Russian men are seeking some sort of asylum or escape from being involved in Russia's next invasion of Ukraine.

And this, of course, is the stories of how badly mobilization continue to emerge.

You mentioned those two attacks in recruitment centers. Well, a leading state TV talk show analyst, in fact, last -- over the past days, says how some of this have been handled with idiocy. I paraphrase there.

But signs that Moscow's own elite, part of the Kremlin chatterati almost, are beginning to question how appallingly this is going.

As we also see Ukrainians trying to get away from the likely time now where, in the hours or days ahead, Russia will declare false results that positively suggest these referenda in occupied areas mean that they falsely want to join Russia.

That's a change, potentially, on the battlefield. And Ukrainian officials are saying that actually in Kherson, in one of those areas, it's now impossible for Ukrainians to flee.

[06:30:00]