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New Day Saturday
FBI to Investigate Ford and Kavanaugh's Stories; Democrats to Sue Trump for Running Business; Indonesia Slammed with Earthquake and Tsunami; Tiger Woods Opening Day Loss in the Ryder Cup Series; Facebook Hacked - Jeopardizes Information for Over 50 Million; Ted Turner Diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired September 29, 2018 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO)
CROWD CHANT: Hey, hey, ho, ho, Kavanaugh has got to go!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied these allegations.
REP. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) KENTUCKY: Judge Kavanaugh's qualifications have been affirmed by his peers and by renowned legal scholars from across the ideological spectrum.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court.
REP. JEFF FLAKE, (R) ARIZONA: I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote in order to let the FBI do an investigation.
REP. MAZIE HIRONO, (D) HAWAII: The FBI investigation has to be very thorough, complete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is ripping the country apart.
(END VIDEO)
ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day Weekend" with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Good morning to you, and just when Republicans were feeling better about voting Brett Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court, maybe by the end of next week, he and they will now have to wait, along with the rest of the country, as the FBI conducts a new background check ordered by President Trump.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: The investigation has a scope, we know that. We know that it has a timeline. It happened when Senator Jeff Flake apparently had second thoughts and joined several Senators in saying they would not vote yes on Kavanaugh without this hearing from the FBI.
BLACKWELL: So as he announced the investigation, the president said he's still backing his nominee. He will be in West Virginia today for a re-election rally, but he's starting his mornings at the White House. That's where we start with CNN Correspondent Ryan Nobles. Ryan, good morning to you.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, good morning. And make no mistake, this is not the position that President Trump expected to be in on Saturday morning. He expected the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to sail through after Kavanaugh's performance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately was turned for a loop when Senator Jeff Flake decided to take this very bold move and suggest an FBI investigation must move forward.
But regardless, President Trump is not backing away in any way, shape, or form from his nominee. The president tweeting this, "Just started tonight, our seventh FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognized as a truly great justice of the United States Supreme Court."
The president showing that he believes Kavanaugh will ultimately be confirmed and he's also pointing out here that Kavanaugh's background has been thoroughly vetted and that he fully expects this week-long FBI investigation won't reveal any new information that could derail this confirmation. Still the president is very upset about this process. In particular he is upset with Jeff Flake, who's been an irritant to the president since shortly after he was inaugurated.
The president expected after watching the hearing on Thursday that Friday's vote would be an easy one. That the votes were in place and that he would be able to celebrate the confirmation of his new justice and was surprised to see Flake throw this curve ball. The question now is how does President Trump respond over the next week after this investigation is fully launched?
We could get that first indication in this rally that he's holding in West Virginia in support, we should say, of a Senate candidate who's challenging Joe Manchin, who is a red-state Democrat who could be one of the votes -- Democratic votes that could vote to support Judge Brett Kavanaugh. To this point the president has been muted in his criticism of those who have been attacking Brett Kavanaugh and bringing up suggestions about past indecisions, perhaps that changes tonight in this rally. The president heading to West Virginia tonight after starting this morning at the White House. Christi and Victor.
BLACKWELL: Important, important day and the next few days ahead. Ryan Nobles there at the White House. Thank you.
PAUL: You know one of the big questions that a lot of people have is how did Jeff Flake come to a new conclusion here? Remember this started yesterday at 9:30 in the morning when he said, yes, I am going to vote to confirm. Hours later then, demanding an FBI investigation before the final vote. What happened in between -- this confrontation in an elevator. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didn't tell anyone, and you're telling all women that they don't matter. That they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you're going to ignore them. You have power, and so many women are powerless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you not give them an answer, Senator? You just released a press statement. You don't have the courage to give them an answer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Saying thank you is not an answer. This is about the future of our country sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can be a hero today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lifetime appointment in the Supreme Court.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be a hero.
(END VIDEO)
[06:05:00]
PAUL: You just hear her voice there. But Anderson Cooper spoke with one of those protesters who confronted him in the elevator. Senator Flake there, of course. Here's what she said was going through her mind at the time -
(BEGIN VIDEO)
ANA MARIA ARCHILA, PROTESTER: I felt like he really needed to hear. Like he needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged about the thought of our stories, of our experiences of surviving sexual violence being dismissed, laughed at, disbelieved. And I just felt a great sense of urgency. I saw in his face that he could not escape the emotion. I wanted of him to really stay there and be present and think of the people he loves, think of his children, and I wanted him to be a hero.
(END VIDEO)
BLACKWELL: All right joining me to talk about this , Errol Lewis, CNN Political Commentator and Political Anchor for "Spectrum News;" Joey Jackson, CNN Legal Analyst and criminal defense attorney; and Kelly Jane Torrance, Deputy Managing Editor for "The Weekly Standard." welcome back, everyone, and Joey, let me start with you this morning. I want to start with the statement from Senate Judiciary where they say the supplemental FBI investigation or background investigation will be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee, must be completed no later than one week from today. Now how do they get to the working definition of credible here, because there seems to be no overwhelming amount of corroborating evidence for any of the accusations? What's credible here, and what isn't?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Victor. What a difference a day makes needless to say. Here's the point -- I think credible could be parsed. We could argue as to whether or not the other accusers are credible or they're not credible, but I think at the end of the day you need an investigation that satisfies senator flake in addition to the swing votes that they need. I think the FBI certainly having heard, right, as we have heard about not only the fine Doctor Ford but the other accusers, certainly has an obligation to do a thorough and complete investigation.
I think what you see, Victor, in terms of the limitations means they're not going to go and redo every other investigation they've done concerning the six different times they've done so. But they're going to focus in and hone in on allegations relative to, as we look at the parameters there, what we're talking about now. And so I think they have a duty to at least interview the other women involved in addition to, you know, Dr. Ford and anyone who may corroborate what she has to say, and they have to put together information that satisfies those Senators who have to vote; mindful of the fact that if they don't do so and it's not satisfactory, they risk losing this nominee.
BLACKWELL: Well Kelly, Joey says that they have a duty to -- they may also have a duty to follow the leads, and if it takes more than seven days to do that, but there still is a limited window here. There are some who are cynical about this choice from Jeff Flake. Although we saw that exchange with the woman at the elevator who say this was not just some effort to bring the country together but that this was a pretty clever way to try to hollow out one of the concerns from Democrats that there's no FBI investigation, give them the week to do that, and then he can defensively vote for Kavanaugh and then bring along Collins and Murkowski and other who are on the -- others who are on the line.
KELLY JANE TORRANCE, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR FOR "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": Yes, you know I have to say Victor, I am one who tends to take a cynical view of things. Of course Jeff Flake has been one of the big critics of Trump, and people have thought he does so partly out of a need to present himself as a possible challenger to Trump in the primary in 2020. But in this case, I don't think it was cynicism. You could see the look on Jeff Flake's face when those women confronted him, as your cameras caught. And then his discussions in the Senate with friends, people he calls friends, like Senator Coons on the Democratic side.
I think he is someone who I think takes his job very seriously. This guy's not facing re-election, as we know. He's not running again. I mean, there might be that -- he's not facing re-election. I think more than most people what he is thinking of is what is right for his conscience. I mean this guy wrote a book called "The Conscience of a Conservative" recently talking about what's going on in our politics now and how he feels about it.
I think he takes this very seriously. You know, I -- admittedly, this is a big win for the Democrats. The whole time on Thursday when Democrats were questioning Judge Kavanaugh, they asked him, will you ask for an FBI investigation? Why don't you want to clear your name? A lot of people thought Judge Kavanaugh looked bad resisting that. There is no question this is a win for the Democrats. I don't think Jeff Flake would have given them one for no reason. I think he really thinks that the country is being torn apart, as he
told his friend Senator Coons, and he is trying in some way, whatever way he can to try to bring an end to the unreal partisan wrangling over this.
[06:10:00]
BLACKWELL: Well Errol, even if this is a win for the Democrats, if this investigation after a week brings no corroboration to support Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez, or Ms. Swetnick's accusations, there's no indication that there will be a flood of Democrats to support Judge Kavanaugh anyway.
ERROL LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Not necessarily. But you got to keep in minds, Victor, you don't know what's going to happen in the course of the investigation. That while they may be asking questions about things that happened 30-plus years ago, what happens in the course of an investigation is it starts to take different turns. People start talking, witnesses come forward. They contradict themselves; they start to introduce the possible questions that really weren't considered before about truthfulness and about voracity.
It's natural in those kind of cases, and the FBI is well known for this, to try and catch you in a lie. You know, to say, well, look, maybe I can't be sure about what happened 35 years ago, but I know what you told me 20 minutes ago. Does it square with the facts that we have in front of us. We shouldn't be too quick to assume that this is going to yield nothing. The questions that everybody wants answered about whose version of the event back in 1982 is true, yeah, we'd all love to know that. There's a lot more that could be yielded by this. I think the Democrats are taking that admittedly long shot that something's going to come out that will bolster their sort of negative feelings toward Judge Kavanaugh.
BLACKWELL: Joey, to you, this is not a criminal investigation. There are no subpoenas. There are no search warrants. To what degrees does that limit their ability to get to the truth here?
JACKSON: You know, not at all. I think that that question certainly would be more probative and relevant in the event that it was a more recent investigation where you -- you're looking for recent evidence, et cetera. I think here where you're looking at allegations of 36 years ago, the FBI has their duties and responsibilities. They know that they're going to speak to one witness that may lead them to an additional witness that might lead them to an additional witness. So while you're not having subpoenas and search warrants, you have a very well-seasoned FBI; they are skilled in the process of getting to information.
They've been tasked with limiting it to determining whether or not any type of sexual abuse occurred as it relates to Dr. Ford or the other two accusers. And I think even absent it not being a criminal investigation, they certainly, you know, will do the task if history is any guide and if their track record is any guide, if my dealings with them are any guide, I think they'll do a thorough enough job to satisfy the Senators' inquiries. BLACKWELL: Kelly, the context of the president's criticisms, his
relationship with the Department of Justice and the FBI and these accusations of deep state, those are part of this conversation, too. Is it realistic to expect that the president would put any confidence in any report that comes back to him that doesn't do anything or -- let me switch that, if it shows that there is some element that corroborates Dr. Ford's claims?
TORRANCE: Yeah. That's a great question Victor. I have to say as Joey was talking, you know, talking about how track record, the FBI, they're serious, in the back of my head was, well, you know, the Republicans, especially the president, have spent the last couple of years trying to undermine the FBI.
So, you know it is funny that now they're saying, let's let the FBI look at it, and we'll see what they have to say. Yeah, I hope that if the FBI does find corroborating evidence that it's clear what that is and who gave it to them and how it was presented. I think they're going to be careful. I'm sure they have in mind that the entire country if not the world, of course, is looking at this investigation, and I assume they're going to be even more careful than usual if that's possible.
BLACKWELL: All right, Kelly Jane Torrance, Joey Jackson, Errol Lewis, thank you all.
TORRANCE: Thank you.
ERROL LEWIS: Thank you Victor.
JACKSON: Thank you.
PAUL: Well Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to meet with House Republicans in the next few weeks. He'll talk to them about his reported comments where sources say he discussed wearing a wire while talking to President Trump. Also talked about recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office they say. House Republican leaders struck an agreement to hold this meeting to avoid a possible impeachment vote against Rosenstein.
BLACKWELL: Well, as we said, the president is asking the FBI to investigate the allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. We speak with a former FBI official about how the agency might investigate those claims.
PAUL: Also, I'm telling you, it is a devastating scene in Indonesia, here are some of the pictures coming in this hour after a powerful earthquake triggers a tsunami. Nearly 400 people are already dead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:00]
BLACKWELL: The big story the FBI now investigating allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. So how will they go about investigating these allegations? PAUL: Let's bring in Tom Fuentes, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst
and former Assistant Director of the FBI. Tom, so good to see you today. To first and foremost, what can the FBI glean, do you think, in one week in a case that is really as broad as this is?
TOMO FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That's a good question Christi. I think the main thing here is that you have a specific allegation but not a specific time, date, place, for the allegation to have happened. So they're going to have to start I think back with the witness, Ford, and try to see who she can say can corroborate her story which was not reported to anybody for 20 years after the occurrence apparently.
So they're going to try to find out was there a party, was Kavanaugh at the party, was she at the party, did Kavanaugh assault her at the party, who else can verify that. And then little things; she was 15, he was 17. How did she get to the party?
[06:20:00]
Who drove her to the party, or was it walking distance from her home? All of those type of things will be beginning to try to determine what happened, if it happened, if they can. If they don't find a single witness that can verify that this party took place or that Kavanaugh and Ford were together in this situation, it's going to be -- they're going to be no further ahead a week from now than they are today if that's what comes up.
BLACKWELL: Tom, some of the details that were discussed in this hearing on Thursday may not go directly to the question of that event, but elements like the yearbook and some of the reports of drinking, will those be investigated to try to understand his state of mind at the time, what his activities were when he was 17, or those seemingly secondary tertiary issues?
FUENTES: No. I think they are important issues, particularly the drinking. And I think that's what I focused in on when I was watching the hearing and he began describing how much he liked beer, and they always got together to watch games at friends' house, drinking beer. He still likes drinking beer. I thought that was a little bit over the top for a 17-year-old. On the other hand, if Ford as a 15-year-old is at a party where these guys are all drinking, what's she doing there in that circumstance where she would be vulnerable?
You can have a pretty difficult-to-discern situation on both their parts. I think the drinking could come out. He was definitive that he never passed out. Well, if they come up with a witness who said, yeah, I know times when he drank so much he did pass out or drank so much he got angry or had anger management problems during a drinking episode, that could be devastating to his side, to his story.
PAUL: And when you're dealing with alcohol, how do you filter through any truth that might be connect to that because we're talking about parties where a bunch of kids are drinking. So all of the witnesses could have been drunk. FUENTES: That's true. And 36 years later you're not going to have
forensic evidence to back up anybody's good memory or bad memory and that's where the problem also is in this story and has been all along the past couple of weeks is that if everybody at this party was drinking heavily, you know, that's going to be problematic. Now in trying to determine the credibility of both witnesses, you know, this could also backfire other way. What if the FBI finds out that in those days Ford had an alcohol problem or did drugs or was promiscuous and was a party girl and liked to go to these parties and come on to older boys and that type of thing?
She could - she could have a lot to lose in terms of her credibility, but so could Kavanaugh if it comes up that he drank to excess on a regular basis. At the time it was illegal for him to drink. He's 17 years old. It's not legal.
BLACKWELL: Tom, let me ask you about the reports. The 302s that are generated after these interviews. Who gets them? Do they typically go back to the White House and the White House determine how they will be - the information will be disseminated, or in this case would they go to the members of the Judiciary Committee? You know, who gets the information?
FUENTES: I think at this point it's going to end up with the Judiciary Committee but normally background investigations are not what we would call predicated criminal investigations. In other words, the FBI is not trying to prove, gather evidence on a specific crime. In this case they're trying to corroborate the two sides of the story. And background investigations are commissioned by the White House. They have thousands of these ongoing across the country and around the world all the time.
The White House and president makes how many nominations, U.S. Attorneys, judges, Supreme Court justices, cabinet officers, and their deputies, head of the executive branch agencies, whether FBI, CIA, NASA -- so all of these positions require FBI background investigations. In the Washington field office of the FBI, you have several squads that do that full time. Then you have additional squads at almost every field division of the FBI around the country that also are continuously engaged in background checks.
The White House orders the backgrounds, the backgrounds then go back to the White House, the 302s. They're not trying, they're not going to actually be trying to say definitively, okay, Kavanaugh's lying, OK, Ford is lying. They'll say what they've been related. What they learned. How they learned it. Who gave them the information, and provide that back, and then presuming in this case that the White House will turn it over to the committee for their final evaluation.
BLACKWELL: OK, so the reports that go back to the White House, but we would expect considering the point at which we're in the process that the White House will then give those to the Judiciary Committee but that's not typically how this works. We'll see how it works this time around.
[06:25:00] We're a week out now from the conclusion of the investigation. Tom Fuentes, thanks as always.
PAUL: Thank you, Tom.
FUENTES: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: A federal judge has cleared the way now for Democrats to sue President Trump over the running of his businesses. At the center of the lawsuit is the provision of the constitution, the Emoluments Clause that you've heard about. And it that states that officeholders cannot do business with foreign governments without getting approval from Congress. Well 200 Democrats in Congress sued the president saying the president is violating the Emoluments Clause by not seeking their approval for his businesses specifically his hotels to receive payments from foreign governments. When he took office he removed himself from the day-to-day operations of his businesses, but he remains an owner. This is the second time a federal judge has allowed a lawsuit against the president regarding his businesses to move forward.
PAUL: It's a frightening scene in South Carolina. A U.S. Marine forced to eject midair after the U.S. Military's newest and most expensive aircraft crashes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
PAUL: Welcome back; 30 minutes past the hour. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good Saturday morning to you.
PAUL: What a week in Washington.
BLACKWELL: And it's going to be a week ahead, too.
PAUL: Oh my goodness, yes. Confusion in Congress over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, you had chaos outside with two women protesters. And let's face it, there's talk that these two women may have possibly helped change Republican Senator Jeff Flake's mind into demanding that FBI investigation and a delay in the Senate confirmation vote itself.
This week there have been strong partisan politics with Republicans digging their heels in in their support for Kavanaugh. Democrats crying foul. Maria Cardona, Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist, with us, as well as Scott Jennings, CNN Political Commentator and former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. Thank you both for being here.
MARIA CARDONA, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
PAUL: Good morning to you. Scott, I want to go to you first. Did Jeff Flake save the Republicans in a sense?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He saved them technically in that they need 50 votes, and Vice President Pence would break a tie, to get Kavanaugh confirmed...
PAUL: Did he save them from a public standpoint from not having this vote when they wanted to have it?
JENNINGS: Well, I mean look, I think that - I think that the only thing that matters is whether they get to 51 votes and they weren't going to get there without this. And so Flake put them in a position to get the 50 votes plus Pence or the 51 votes that they need to do Kavanaugh a week from today, or a week from yesterday. I think that's all that matters to the White House and the Senate leadership is tactically speaking, we have to have enough votes to clear the guy and we don't have them so what do we do to get there?
PAUL: Maria, if this FBI investigation produces nothing definitive, will Democrats accept it?
CARDONA: Well, I mean, if what you mean is will Democrats vote yes on Kavanaugh? I think that majority of them will still vote no. You might have a couple of red-state Democrats vote yes given what the FBI investigation shows. We don't know what the FBI investigation will show. I still hold very strong, Christi, that actually the most important thing here is not that Republicans get to 51 votes. The most important thing here is that we ensure that one of nine Supreme Court justices don't go on to the highest court in the land with this kind of cloud, with this kind of uncertainty to confirm someone with the suspicion that they could be an attempted rapist. I mean, do Republicans have no other choices? Are there no other judges or expert experienced legal minds that they have to go into this with this cloud of uncertainty that makes women wonder whether Republicans have their best interests at heart? That's my question to the Republican Party. Is this how badly they want this guy? Why this guy? You have to have other choices. This is what baffles me to no end.
PAUL: Scott, is there another choice? Is there somebody else that you would...
JENNINGS: Maria has laid out the entire strategy. No Democrats are going to vote for Kavanaugh. They want the White House to pull down Kavanaugh and restart the process because the entire strategy is to delay this past the election, try to win the election, and hold the seat open for two years --
CARDONA: That's not true, Scott.
JENNINGS: Maria is being honest about the strategy. That's all that's at play.
CARDONA: No, that's not true. In fact the majority of the country don't want Kavanaugh to be confirmed Scott. That wasn't the case with Gorsuch. None of this came one Gorsuch, so you can't tell me that there aren't others that you could choose from that would never have these kind of allegations come up against them -- JENNINGS: I think anybody the Republicans put up at this point,
Maria, you would create allegations and make the same argument because the strategy...
[06:35:00]
CARDONA: Did it happen with Gorsuch? Did it happen with Gorsuch?
JENNINGS: ... is on the doorstep. The election is right around the corner.
CARDONA: It didn't. Which means that there are people out there, there are men out there, there are women out there, with such impeccable resumes beyond reproach, which is exactly what a position, one of nine lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court should be about. If you were CEO of a company, Scott, and you were hiring for your highest legal position in a company that had majority women and you are these kind of allegations, you would not hire that person.
PAUL: OK, so listen here, we have...
CARDONA: The bar should be even higher than that for the Supreme Court.
PAUL: Liz Swisher is a college friend of Brett Kavanaugh. Here's what he told Chris Cuomo -- she, rather.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
LIZ SWISHER, FORMER YALE CLASSMATE OF BRETT KAVANAUGH: There's no problem with drinking beer in college. The problem is lying about it. He drank heavily. He was a partier. He liked to do beer bongs. He played drinking games. He was a sloppy drunk. He was more interested with impressing boys than he was impressing the girls. I never saw him be sexually aggressive, but he definitely was sloppy drunk.
(END VIDEO)
PAUL: She helped Republicans there. She's never seen him sexually aggressive, however he in this investigation and the hearing this week he said, "I never got so drunk that I was inebriated." He said that.
JENNINGS: No, no that's not true. He said he never blacked out and he said he never drank to the point that he could not remember anything.
PAUL: Remember anything. OK.
JENNINGS: He's clearly stated that he had beer. He said I like beer numerous times. He's never said he wasn't a drinker.
PAUL: If this investigation by the FBI cannot confirm that anything happened on a sexual nature, but can in some way confirm based on what she's saying, sloppy drunk, can confirm that he lied in the hearing, did he still be confirmed? JENNINGS: I don't think Brett Kavanaugh lied in the hearing. I think
Brett Kavanaugh said "I did drink beer" and said, "I didn't drink beer so much that I ever blacked out." So if the FBI in one week can prove that someone blacked out 36 years ago, or 35 years ago, or 34 years ago, I have a hard time believing that is going to be the case. Kavanaugh I think has told the truth...
CARDONA: We don't know.
JENNINGS: He's put up his hand under oath and told the truth, as he sees it, about his college experience and his high school experience. And I think what the FBI needs to do is reinterview the witnesses that have come forward and said no this allegation didn't happen. I have no allegation happened and then they need to provide that back to the committee. Presumably everybody that's already testified and gave sworn statements to the committee will give the same thing to the FBI. When that all comes back...
CARDONA: We don't know that.
JENNINGS: The question is will the Democrats accept the outcome, and Maria said they will not.
PAUL: OK, I've got literally - literally Maria, I have ten seconds and I want to ask you, allegations alone do not equate to guilt, so how do we balance believing a victim, which we've seen so much power in, how do we balance that with due process to an alleged perpetrator?
CARDONA: Well, here's the thing -- this is not a due process kind of moment. This is a job interview. He's not on criminal trial here. Nobody is saying that he needs to be jailed for these allegations; nobody is saying that. What we are saying is that this is one of nine lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court and the bar has got to be the highest bar in the land for the highest position in the highest court in the land. These kind of allegations are not things that come up for everybody. Is there not another choice where Republicans don't have to go into this with this uncertainty, where you're going to lose the women's vote in a way that you never have before?
PAUL: All right. Maria Cardona and Scott Jennings, thank you both so much for being here.
CARDONA: Thanks so much Christi, appreciate it.
BLACKWELL: The U.S. Military's most expensive fighter jet, the f-35b, an aircraft like this one, crashed for the first time in South Carolina near the Marine Corps air station. This was IN Beaufort Friday. In a statement, the Marines say the pilot ejected safely and is being evaluated. There were no civilian injuries. And the cause of the crash not known right now. The F-35b that costs about $115 million, is the only version of the aircraft capable of conducting short takeoffs and vertical landings like a helicopter.
PAUL: Well ahead, hundreds of people have died after an earthquake and tsunami devastate Indonesia overnight and rescuers are scrambling now to reach survivors. We'll show you the latest pictures we have coming in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:40:00]
BLACKWELL: Breaking news now. Devastation in Indonesia after a powerful earthquake hit and then triggered a tsunami. Watch this. Wow, you see here when the tsunami strikes the coast and just sweeps through a neighborhood. At last count, 384 people have been killed.
PAUL: Now rescuers are desperately searching for survivors there. CNN's Matt Rivers is following the story. Matt, what are you learning this hour?
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know for sure that that the death toll is going to go up. This is very much an ongoing story. At this point as you mentioned, 384 is the number now. Over 500 people injured, but there are still many more missing and unaccounted for and so we do expect the death toll to go up.
This earthquake happened Friday evening in Indonesia and then the tsunami happened shortly thereafter. Rescuers of course went to work. You saw in the video there guys, how powerful the water is. Just think, that's just one section of this part of Indonesia. That's just one video. That kind of scene repeated all along the coast. So rescuers certainly have their work cut out for them moving forward. The city of Dongala is near Palu where the tsunami happened. That city right now is not in communication with rescuers. There's 300,000 people in that city and we don't know the extent of the damage there so that gives you an idea of how much worse this might get.
BLACKWELL: Matt, what do you know about Palu? What can you tell us about that part of Indonesia?
RIVERS: Yes, it's an eastern part of Indonesia; it's a poor area. There's no other way to put it. The infrastructure there does not stand up well to natural disasters like this. So start with the fact that you had an earthquake but then you top that with the tsunami. A lot of the houses, the structures that are along the coastline there are nothing more than wooden shacks so they stand no chance against an earthquake or tsunami and certainly not against both. That's what rescuers have working against them, trying to find people buried, roads are closed. The airport has a crack in the runway. This situation is probably only going to get worse guys.
PAUL: Matt Rivers, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.
BLACKWELL: So have you heard the one about the MVP candidate and the Marine? Vince, what's this about?
VINCE CELLINI, CNN SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Victor, it's one of the better stories from all of baseball this year. Coming up we'll tell you about a first pitch several years and thousands of miles in the making.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:50:00]
PAUL: Tiger Woods looking to bounce back in Paris after an opening day loss in the Ryder Cup.
BLACKWELL: Vince Cellini is here with this morning's "Bleacher Report."
CELLINI: Hey Victor and Christi. He's going to have to get his bounce going here as are the Americans. This "Bleacher Report" is brought to you by Ford, going further so you can. It's been a tough go for Tiger and frankly, all the American teams out on the course early Saturday as the 42nd Ryder Cup continues.
All four early American morning pairings were in rally mode on a chilly morning near Paris including Tiger and Patrick Reed facing the European team which beat them in Friday morning four ball or better ball, Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. The Euros leading that match. They're three up for 14 and all of this on the heels of a European team that posted a first ever sweep in foursomes Friday afternoon to take a 5-3 lead entering day two. The Euros won the opening match Saturday morning so it's 6-3 now. The course is La Golf Nationale, outside Paris, the Americans defending. They need 14 points to keep the trophy; the Euros 14.5 to take it back.
Well baseball, and it was lit in Denver. Is that what they say, Christie, it was lit?
PAUL: I guess.
CELLINI: Using champagne like super soakers. Dance club-like, splashing, music blaring, after clinching a spot in the playoffs last night, beating the Nationals 5-2. Colorado has work to do before October. The Rockies need a win or a Dodger loss to earn the N.L. West title or face a possible winner-take-all wild card game.
A's and Yankees, the A.L. Wild card game coming to the Bronx. The Yankees bomb their way to the 99th win of the season pummeling their hated A.L. East rivals the Red Socks, 11-6. Lighting up the scoreboard with four home runs; the final off the bat of Aaron Judge. The 264th of the season for Yankees tying the all-time record.
And finally, check out this incredible moment before the Brewers' game. That's Cameron Yelich tossing out the first pitch to his older brother, MVP candidate Christian. Cameron was just honorably discharged from the Marines. He'd never seen his brother play in a big-league game in person the last four years until last night and big bro didn't let him down, driving in two runs. Brew crew get the win -- 6-5, a little story that goes beyond baseball.
BLACKWELL: That's the end of lit. Great round. We'll put that on the wall next to bling-bling and off the hook.
CELLINI: Oh well. Thank you Vic.
PAUL: Thank you.
CELLINI: You got it.
PAUL: All righty, so listen to this one. Facebook, hacked and it may have compromised nearly 50 million users' private information. Take a look. If you logged into other services like Tender, Instagram or Spotify with your Facebook account, ouch. Those may be affected as well.
What happened? We'll talk about it.
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[06:55:00]
BLACKWELL: In the United States minors are abused and sold into sex trafficking every day. This week's CNN Hero was once a victim trafficked at the age of 16. Now she's offering safety to other female survivors. Meet Susan Muncie.
SUSAN MUNCIE, SEX TRAFFICKED VICTIM: Nobody wakes up and just decides one day I'm going to go sell my body and give the money away. Traffickers or pimps know exactly what they're doing; much of it's on the internet now. They're going on dating websites, they're gaming, looking for young, vulnerable women, anywhere where young women might hang out. My vision was to have a home where women could come and find safety and find themselves.
BLACKWELL: To hear Susan's personal story and the stories of courageous women who have survived sex trafficking, go to cnnheroes.com.
PAUL: A massive hack at Facebook, arguably the company's biggest security breach to date. We're talking about 50 million Facebook accounts compromised in an attack that allowed hackers to take over user accounts along with other sites; apps they logged into using Facebook. we're talking did instagram and tinder and Spotify.
The company says it does not know definitively if the affected accounts were misused or if user information was accessed, but they know that no credit card information was accessed. Still not clear who's responsible for the attack, but Facebook says they've already fixed the issue and informed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
Media mogul and founder of CNN, Ted Turner, revealed in an interview set to air on CBS tomorrow that he's battling a breaking news disease known as Lewy body dementia. Although the disease is not like Alzheimer's, Turner says leaves him feeling tired, exhausted, mainly forgetful. And he also said he doesn't watch news often anymore, still checks in on CNN.
Turner led Turner Broadcasting System of course before launching CNN back in 1980. He stepped down as chairman in 2003 but his legacy continues to resonate certainly here at CNN.
