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New Day
Joanne Correia is Interviewed about Pine Island after the Hurricane; Judge Hits Record; A "Reality Check" on Republicans and Abortion. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired October 05, 2022 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER (voice over): Of their marriage was granted in 2019. But their legal battles over property and custody of their children continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELAS: So, again, John, this all started because Angelina Jolie sold her stake in the winery. And with this countersuit, it's still unclear if Brad Pitt is going to drop his suit, let her move forward with the Stoli Group, or if they are going to continue to battle this out. Can you believe it's been six years since this divorce battle began.
John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Chloe Melas, thank you so much for the details there.
Supplies now being air dropped to residents of Pine Island in Florida after Hurricane Ian destroyed the bridge connecting them to the mainland. We're going to be joined by a woman who rode out the storm, next.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And how will international leaders respond after Vladimir Putin signed new laws claiming to annex four Ukrainian regions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I will say probably saw more debris on Pine Island than anyplace I've been other than Fort Myers Beach.
[08:35:00]
The electrical poles down. You had other lines down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis describing the damage that Hurricane Ian left behind on Pine Island. Homes and piers destroyed. I mean look at this here. Boats thrown on to dry land. Ian wrecked the only bridge into the barrier island, making it only accessible by boat or aircraft. And officials say supplies are now being air dropped by helicopter to the residents who did decide to stay on the island during the storm.
Work now underway to install a temporary bridge with a goal to have it ready by the end of the week.
Joining me now is Joanne Correia. She has lived on Pine Island for years. She hasn't left since the storm hit.
Joanne, thank up so much for being with us.
Tell us what life is like on Pine Island right now.
JOANNE CORREIA, PINE ISLAND RESIDENT: We're in the middle of moving supplies around. We have supplies now coming in off the bridge. We have supplies coming in via the Pine Island Navy into St. James City. St. James City, from the bridge, is about 12 miles. Pine Island is about a 25-mile island, so it's split in half by the bridge. So, things are getting better than they were, you know, seven days ago. Much better. Much better.
KEILAR: Yes, this is a bug island. It's a very big island. I've actually been there. And so you have many, many homes on it, many businesses on it. I have seen a local account where you said that sometimes there are looters and gunshot at night. Is that still going on?
CORREIA: Yes, it's -- we do have people picking the trash at night. Some of them - some of them might be looters. There are some areas of the - of the area by me that are highly populated that are pretty destroyed because they were mobile homes. And we just started getting more sheriffs at night. We had been alone at night and we've asked for blue lights, we've asked for patrol so that people don't get really hot. You know, people are aggravated right now and they need to cool down and we need the sheriffs at night to show their presence to keep the area from, you know, basically emotions exploding at this point.
KEILAR: Sure, and -
CORREIA: The other night I had a neighbor out at midnight - go ahead.
KEILAR: No, no, please, Joanne, you had a neighbor out at midnight?
CORREIA: Yes, and I - I went out to - I put a spotlight on him and said, excuse me, what are you doing out here at midnight, and she was looking for a fan because her house was hot. So, if people need to calm down and understand that not everyone's a looter and people are desperate, but people are so emotionally hot, we're just trying to cool it down by bringing more sheriffs in.
KEILAR: So, you need more sheriffs.
CORREIA: At night.
KEILAR: It sounds like you have some security at night, but you need more. What else do you need --
CORREIA: No, we don't need more. We need - no, ma'am -- ma'am, we don't need more sheriffs, we need them to stay at night.
KEILAR: You don't need more. You need them to stay at night.
CORREIA: We need them to stay at night.
KEILAR: I see, you need them to stay at night.
CORREIA: Show their presence.
KEILAR: And they're not doing that now?
CORREIA: No, they started last night after we asked.
KEILAR: OK. That's great that you have that.
So, what else do you need and what else does the future hold for Pine Island?
CORREIA: I work for a charity called the Matlacha Hookers. We have a GoFundMe. If they search by Matlacha Hookers, we've raised about $100,000 now. We are the main local charity that rides with all the other charities, like the United Way and the churches. We're trying to get our charities up and running so that we can serve our people. Right now what we need is the bridge to be finished. We need people to be calm and we need to stand up like a phoenix and be Pine Island strong.
We have supplies. We're going to need -- right now we need animal -- cat litter, animal food. We've got water. Last night the water trickled into my house for the first time in eight days. So, some of the infrastructure is coming up. But we need electricity. We need - and we need communications. And the one thing we need on the island right now is like 300 walkie talkies because we've been texting each other once cell came up, but just getting here to this do this interview, I had to do it via text, I had to borrow a car to drive to a boat. Then I had a boat captain take me here to do this interview. So, life's tough right now.
We finally got a lot of medics on the island. I'm a Red Cross instructor. I'm also a self-defense instructor. We need - we got most of the people who had needed medical aid out. We stayed on the island, by the way, so that when search and rescue came, I can point them to the house where there's a wheelchair lady.
We stayed because it's our home. And I also was - had the privilege to stay because I live in a cat 5 house, and my house survived.
And, lastly, I want to thank my company, Info Tech Research, because they're paying me to stay so I can help my friends right now because this is what I do. I do PR. And I really appreciate you guys reaching out to us.
[08:40:00] KEILAR: Yes. Look, Joanne, you have been through so much and you are Pine Island tough. It's amazing what you're doing for your community. And we're going to make sure that we get that information out there about the GoFundMe that you are doing.
Thank you so much for talking to us and telling us what you need and what you're seeing there.
Thank you.
CORREIA: Can I ask you to come back and look at us and do the environmental story, because we are environmentally wrecked.
KEILAR: Yes, I think that's a great story that needs to be done and we certainly have the resources and the reporters to do that.
Joanne, we'll stay in touch. Thank you so much.
CORREIA: Yes, you do. And I'll - I appreciate it. I appreciate the time, thank you.
KEILAR: Yes, thank you so much.
We do have some new CNN reporting this morning on the abortion saga involving Senate candidate Herschel Walker, including what Republicans are saying behind closed doors.
BERMAN: And Yankee slugger Aaron Judge, a home run for the ages. Bob Costas here to discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:09]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: High fly ball. Deep left. There it goes, soaring into history. He's done it! He has done it! Sixty-two!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Number 62 for Aaron Judge. No player in American League history has ever hit more. It puts him in sole possession of seventh place on the single-season home run list. Judge did it in his second- to-last game of the season. This was his reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON JUDGE, NEW YORK YANKEES OUTFIELDER: It's a big relief. You know, I think everybody can finally sit down in their seats and watch the ballgame, you know? It's - no, it's been a - been a fun ride so far.
We're getting the chance to, you know, have my name next to, you know, someone as great as Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, those guys, is incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: In a season as good as any as those two men ever had. And if you're wondering where the ball ended up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This dude caught this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) right here. Can you show the ball? I'll put my hand way out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there. That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck, bro. Keep that ball.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) ball. Keep that ball.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: you got it, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck, bro, keep that ball. Keep the dang ball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The fan says he doesn't know whether he will keep the historic souvenir or give the ball back to Judge.
Go for the money.
CNN contributor Bob Costas is with me now.
BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Well, when you said -- here's the crux of this whole thing. American League record is nice. It's also a Yankee record. It directly connects him to Ruth and Maris because since the 1920s, Ruth held the single season record until Maris broke it. And then when McGwire went past in '98 and then Bonds and Sosa in there, we view that much differently now through the rear view mirror. So, staying that statistically Judge is seventh is technically true. Or to cite the American League record, that's also technically true.
But we know the reason why this resonates is because a huge portion of the baseball public believes that this is the legitimate or authentic record because Bonds, McGwire and Sosa were all convincingly connected to steroids. And in a five-year cluster, those three guys topped 62 home runs a half dozen times. In the whole history of baseball, the lively ball comes in just over a century ago, three guys, Ruth, Maris and Judge have nudged over 60. And in their respective seasons, they each hit a home run between once every nine times at bat and roughly once every nine and a half times at bat. Judge is right in that range with Ruth and Maris. In '98, McGwire hit one every 7.3 times at bat, completely distorting all known norms of the sport. In 2001, when Bonds hit 73, he hit one every six and a half times at bat. He was a great, great player, one of the greatest players of all time on his natural merits, but his home runs per time at bat for his career, into his mid-30s, was one every 16 times at-bat. Over the next five years, he doubled his home run rate. Had he had as many at-bats as Maris had in 61, which was 590 at-bats, where as he hit 73 in 476 at-bats, he would have hit 90 home runs. So, what happened -- this is not to demonize those guys. They weren't
the only ones who did it. As much as half the sport by some estimates was doing it. Some say even more. But they're at the top of the pyramid, so they're the focus in this case. And Bonds holds the all- time record and many people believe that that rightly belongs to Hank Aaron. And until - well, he still holds the single season record, which many people believe rightly belong to Roger Maris.
So, that's the reason this is being celebrated. If it was just an American League record, that's just for baseball nerds.
BERMAN: Thank you. That's all I've been saying for all this time. Every -
COSTAS: Well, you - but you've been right the whole time.
BERMAN: Everyone was - American League record. I'm like, no one follows American - I mean the purest maybe do.
COSTAS: Right.
BERMAN: But really, no, just own up to the fact that what you're saying is, you don't consider -
COSTAS: That's right.
BERMAN: All these other guys -
COSTAS: That's right.
BERMAN: The six other seasons to be legit.
COSTAS: That's right. It's a question of authenticity. It's not a question of morality. You know, you hear people saying, well, how do you know that this person or that person wouldn't have done it if it was available. A lot of all-time great players have acknowledged, competitive as they were, if my contemporaries were doing it and it was available, maybe I would do it, too.
But I'll also say this, OK, without getting too deep into it. Very quickly. One of the defenses you hear, a logic challenge defense, well, Hall of Famers used amphetamines back in the day. Even Hank Aaron acknowledged that he used amphetamines. Where is the distortion of baseball norms because of amphetamines? It does not exist. Amphetamines are a performance enabler, allow you to do day game after night game in August what you could do fresh in May. Steroids are a performance enhancer. And this enhancement is so grotesque, it turned baseball at some - in some sense into a video game.
[08:50:02]
And that's why many people do not view it as legitimate.
BERMAN: I've got to let you go, but I do want to bring up one passing here that I know you'll care about.
COSTAS: Yes.
BERMAN: Which is that -
COSTAS: Do I get wound up on this baseball stuff?
BERMAN: Yes, I know, I know, right? I could talk baseball with you for hours.
COSTAS: Yes.
BERMAN: Jim Redmond?
COSTAS: Yes.
BERMAN: 1992 in Barcelona, his son, Derek Redmond, was - was sprinting, pulled up, lame, couldn't finish the race.
COSTAS: Yes.
BERMAN: And in one of the great dad moves of all time - and it's hard to even look at this without getting choaked up -
COSTAS: Yes.
BERMAN: Walks his son across the finish line. And Jim Redmond passed away. I just wanted to mark that passing.
COSTAS: Well, that's - that's the thing about the Olympics. Sometimes there's hype in (INAUDIBLE) stuff. But the actual drama and the true theater of it can be compelling. You know, for all the dubious dealings of the IOC, you get stuff like this. And with the Olympics, it's once every four years. It's not like next year we didn't win the World Series, you come back. It's once every four years. And most of the training is in the shadows.
Derek Redmond had had a series of injuries, a torn Achilles, the whole thing. He had to drop out in Seoul in '88. He comes back and he had a good chance to win the 400 meters and he tears his hamstring. And he's hopping along on one leg because he's determined to finish because it's symbolic of all the effort and the preparation. And his dad does, as you said, a dad thing. It was so - it wasn't orchestrated. It wasn't cynical. It was what it was. And it still resonates.
BERMAN: And if the two words that everyone remembers you by is great dad, you've done something right.
COSTAS: Pretty good.
BERMAN: Bob Costas, great to see you. Thank you very much.
COSTAS: Good to see you too.
BERMAN: So, NASA preparing for an historic flight to the International Space Station. The first Native American woman will soon go to space and a Russian cosmonaut will ride in a U.S. spacecraft for the first time in 20 years. More ahead on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:55:22]
KEILAR: He's running on a campaign against abortion rights, but Herschel Walker now accused of paying for an abortion.
John Avlon has a "Reality Check."
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Achieving the decades long goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was supposed to feel like a win for Republicans, but instead it's become a campaign issue of duck and defense, an invitation to hypocrisy, in some cases, and a contradiction of the core promise to expand freedom in others.
On the hypocrisy front is Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker. Now, the former football star was always an unlikely advocate for anti-abortion absolutists, and with no exceptions for rape or incest, life of the mother. But I suppose that was one way to spin campaign revelations that he'd fathered three previous secret children out of wedlock.
But there was no way to spin evidence provided to "The Daily Beast" that he paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion over a decade ago, complete with a $700 check and a signed get well card.
Now, it's important to note the candidate denies the allegations and CNN has not independently verified "The Daily Beast's" reporting. But significant, his son Christian, a conservative TikTok influencer, slammed his dad as a liar and a hypocrite when it comes to family values.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIAN WALKER, HERSCHEL WALKER'S SON: (INAUDIBLE) lie, after lie, after lie, the abortion card drops yesterday. It's literally his handwriting on the card. They say they have receipts, whatever. He gets on Twitter. He lies about it. OK, I'm done. Done!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AVLON: Now, fellow Republicans are acting as if these allegations don't matter. But there was a time when they could have argued that this was a personal issue under the banner of individual freedom because, remember, that was once the rallying cry for the Republican Party not so long ago.
Now, take the case of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, author of "Conscious of a Conservative" and the GOP nominee for president in 1964. Now, as a western conservative, Goldwater had a strong libertarian streak, putting social issues off to the side. And as evidence, get your head around this fact, Goldwater's wife Peggy was a co-founder of Planned Parenthood in Arizona. Yes, that's the same Planned Parenthood that's now stopped all abortion services in the state as it appeals a judge's ruling that reinstated a 1901 law which traces back to 1864 that bans all abortions, even - except in cases of the life of the mother.
Now, to clarify, that means under this Arizona law, which was passed while slavery was not yet banned in the U.S. Constitution, and before Arizona even became a state, the victims of rape or incest will be forced to carry the rapist's baby to term, which doesn't sound like small government to me.
Now, the state's Republican AG asked for this reinstatement. But what's revealing though is that the election denied statewide Republican candidates have been trying to stay real quiet about it.
Look, abortion is a deeply personal issue and good people can disagree. Most folks oppose absolutist extremes and feel comfortable with the old safe, legal and rare formulation. Perhaps that's why only 13 percent of Americans say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. While the number of Americans who describe themselves as pro-choice hit a near record high of 55 percent in a Gallup poll back in May.
But take a look what's happened in the great state of Idaho, where a trigger law has now taken effect, causing some public universities in the state to formally warn their faculty not to talk about abortion as an option or to tell students how to get emergency contraception because they could be charged with a felony. The University of Idaho is even advising that referrals for any form of birth control should be stopped. You heard that right, not abortion, contraception.
And all this feels like the opposite of free speech, right? Even President Biden weighed in on it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're talking about contraception here. It shouldn't be that controversial. And - but that's - this is what it looks like when you start to take away the right of privacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AVLON: Yes. And this could be a practical and political problem for Republicans, who desperately want to turn the conversation to crime or inflation, anything but personal freedom, because the patchwork of red state restrictions has even Karl Rove warning that the six week ban in Texas is too extreme, while in Ohio newly filed affidavits show more cases of pregnant minors who were raped denied abortions in the state, while in Arizona a teen girl was denied a refill of a life-saving medication because it could also be used to induce an abortion.
This is what happened when ideology overtakes individuals, when absolutists overwhelm freedom of choice and freedom of conscience.
Which brings me back to Barry Goldwater. Now, he was criticized as a conservative extremist. But back in 1981, he was warning against the rise of right-wing groups that were using the muscle of religion towards political ends. Quote, the uncompromising position of these groups is a divisive element that could tear apart of very spirit of our representative system if they gain sufficient strength, Goldwater warned, as he vowed to fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.
[09:00:05]
That was a long time ago.
And that's your "Reality Check."
KEILAR: John Avalon, thank you so much for that "Reality Check." And CNN's coverage continues right now.
