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New Day Saturday

Guilani Cancels Trip to Ukraine; Stiffer Tariffs on Chinese Goods Imposed; The South East is Waterlogged and Rain is Expected; Subpoenas Issued for Trump Tax Returns; Stepfather of Missing 4-year- old Maleah Davis Being Investigated; Colorado School Shooting Hero Honored; Davis School District Bus Driver Accused of Racial Discrimination in Incident; Examining Florida Election Tampering; California Teacher Made to Pay for Substitute While Fighting Breast Cancer. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired May 11, 2019 - 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)

RUDY GUILIANI, ATTORNEY TO DONALD TRUMP: I have decided, Sharon(ph), I'm not going to go to the Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not going to go?

GUILIANI: I'm not going to go because I think I'm walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president. In some cases, enemies of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Rudy I knew and worked with would never engage in this kind of conduct.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump jacked up tariffs on thousands of goods.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I like the president a lot; he is a friend of mine. But I'm representing the USA and he's representing China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question here in China is not if China is going to retaliate, but how and when.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: The president lost another battle in the war over his tax returns today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to move this along. We need to send a clear message that this is not just all talk and smoke and mirrors, but we're serious about getting this information. Mr. Trump is making it clear that obstruction is his middle name.

(END VIDEO)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Good morning to you. Happy Saturday. Take a nice, deep breath. Made it to the weekend. I know. Marty needs one. I'm Christi Paul. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor

Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning.

PAUL: So good to have you. Listen, there is no deal between the U.S. and China. Thousands of items coming in from China though are going to be more expensive after trade talks have broken down here. Matt Rivers is at one of the main shipping ports in China.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And consumer products could be more expensive and China we know is going to retaliate. We will tell you how they might do that and why. That might hurt the American economy.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile 20 million people are currently under a flash flood watch as severe weather pounds parts of the south. Allison Chinchar is tracking the threat.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Over a foot of rain has already fallen across portions of Texas. We'll talk about how much more is expected to fall, coming up.

PAUL: And a California teacher battling breast cancer is being forced to pay for a substitute teacher while she is out of work. Dan Simon is following some growing outrage there.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going to take California lawmakers and the teacher's unions to come up with a fix for what everyone seems to acknowledge is ridiculous.

SAVIDGE: And we begin, hours after Rudy Giuliani said that he was going to Ukraine to push for an investigation into Joe Biden, Giuliani now says he's not going to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

GIULIANI: I will get out of it. In order to remove political suggestion...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

GIULIANI: I will step back and I'll just watch it unfold.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: The news of the canceled trip came soon after President Trump told "Politico" that he planned to talk to Giuliani about that trip. Giuliani had originally said that he wanted to convince Ukrainian leaders to look into former Vice President Biden's call to remove a top Ukranian prosecutor in 2016. Biden was joined by other world leaders in making that call we need to point out. His opponents, though point to the fact that the prosecutor had been investigating a Ukrainian natural gas company connected to Biden's son. The investigation was later dropped, by the way, after the prosecutor was removed.

SAVIDGE: And speaking of Joe Biden, the president seems to think that he already knows who his 2020 opponent is going to be - Joe Biden. The president told "Politico" that he's been following the former vice president's campaign so far and sees parallels to his own dominance in the 2016 primary. Joining us live now from the White House is CNN White House Correspondent, Jeremy Diamond. Sounds like a growing bromance there, Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. As far as the these comments about the president keeping the door it seems to investigating his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden. The president saying that he is indeed keeping the door open to potentially looking into the former vice president. Saying, to "Politico" in an interview yesterday, certainly it would be appropriate thing for him to speak about, but, "I have not done that as of yet. It could be a very big situation," the president said.

Again, we just have to point out how remarkable it is the president is talking about the possibility of investigating his former political opponent. We know the president wanted to prosecute his former 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. That was revealed in the Mueller report and other reporting also indicating that the president had raised the issue with top justice department officials in terms of potentially prosecuting Hillary Clinton.

Certainly nothing new as far as the president pushing the bounds of his power and looking into these various issues, and as you mention, this all coming as the president is making clear that Joe Biden could be his potential rival in the 2020 general election, comparing, indeed, his run in 2016, his early front-runner status to that of the former vice president this early in the race so those two issues coming together this morning in very remarkable fashion. Martin?

[06:05:00]

SAVIDGE: Jeremy real quick before you go, is the White House not concerned about that imagery that, of course, they wanted dirt on Hillary Clinton in 2016 and now seem to be going and wanting the same thing on Joe Biden?

DIAMOND: Well it certainly seems to be part of the reason why the former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, is no longer going on this trip. Those were some remarkable optics that we saw developing there as the -- as, you know, this was being reported out. The idea that the president's personal attorney would go to a foreign country to suggest that they investigate one of the president's potential rivals so certainly, the White House decided to step back from that. But again, the president is still keeping the door open to himself discussing this issue with the Attorney General Bill Barr.

SAVIDGE: All right, we'll keep an eye on that. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much from the White House.

PAUL: And speaking of the White House, it's quite a battle that they are fighting on all sides as Congressional democrats escalate their battle for the president's tax returns.

SAVIDGE: On Friday House Ways and Means Chair, that's Richard Neal, issued a subpoena for President Trump's financial records increasing pressure on the IRS and Treasury to turn over the documents.

PAUL: Meanwhile CNN has learned former White House counsel, Don McGahn, refused a White House request to publicly state that the president did not obstruct justice in an attempt to paint the Mueller report as a total vindication of the president.

SAVIDGE: And this, as the former top lawyer of the FBI countered conspiracy theories pushed by the president about why the Russia investigation started in the very first place.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

JAMES BAKER, FORMER FBI GENERAL COUNSEL: There was a point and time relatively recently where I just became sick of all the B.S. that is said about the origins of the investigation and I just got fed up with it. The case was about Russia. We have written about this. It was about Russia, period, full stop.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: So federal and constitutional attorney Page Pate with us now with a few things to discuss this morning.

PAGE PATE, FEDERAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: Yes.

PAUL: I want to ask you first about the president's tax records. Let's just, for clarity purposes, does the law require the IRS to hand over those returns to Congress of the president? I know an individual tax...

PATE: Yes.

PAUL: ... of us normal people, they would be.

PATE: Yes. Yes.

PAUL: Is the president protected in any way?

PATE: No, there's nothing in the law that says this applies to everyone except the president. The only condition Congress has to meet is to show that this request is for a legislative purpose and I think they're basically saying we need this information and make sure the way you are handling the audits is properly done. They've made the request. This has not been challenged before in court so it will be interesting to see what a judge does with it.

SAVIDGE: And what do you think the reaction of the White House? What would their strategy be to try and counter this?

PATE: Delay, delay, delay. So if they basically refuse to provide the tax returns, which is what they have done at this point, then the House Ways and Means Chairman says, "OK, I'm going to subpoena it as well. That gives me two different ways to approach this. I'm going to use the law that says you shall furnish it. If you refuse, going to send you a subpoena. If you refuse that, the next step is court. And that process, depending upon the judge that they draw could take a long time and I think that's the ultimate strategy of the White House, play the delay game. We're going to refuse to provide it, make you go to a judge. We're going to file briefs, have hearings, maybe have appeals. They're going to see just how long they can hold off on this.

SAVIDGE: Try and get it beyond the 2020 election?

PATE: That's the strategy.

PAUL: All right, I want to ask you about former White House Counsel, Don McGahn as we get this information that an administration official said that the White House asked him to publically say there was no obstruction here. I know that Chairman Nadler had subpoenaed McGahn.

PATE: Right.

PAUL: He has to appear by May 21st. If not, Nadler says he will be held in contempt of Congress. President Trump has instructed McGahn to defy that subpoena.

PATE: That's right; don't go.

PAUL: What is your initial reaction to that?

PATE: Well and you know Don McGahn here, I think, has tried to do the best he could to play by the book. He's been a good lawyer. He served the White House I think well but he's not the president's lawyer. I think he's tried to make that clear during the whole time he served as White House counsel.

He's not going to do something simply because Trump tells him to do it. Now, when it comes to testifying before Congress though, the White House can and has invoked executive privilege and I think Don McGahn said, "Look, it's not up to me to decide whether I can provide this information, it's up to the president. If the president says this is covered by executive privilege, I'm not going to go in there and talk to Congress unless a judge tells me I have to. So we'll see like we have before where the Attorney General Barr, a congressional finding of contempt, perhaps. That doesn't mean a whole lot unless you have a judge formally hold the person in contempt with the threat of throwing you in jail until you comply with a subpoena.

SAVIDGE: Let me ask you this, what difference does it make, legally, if McGahn does come out and say that the president obstructed?

PATE: No difference, legally because ultimately, he's not the one making the decision to pursue criminal charges or to indict the president.

[06:10:00]

I think it would just make the president feel better. Look he was in the White House. He supposedly was on the receiving end of some of these instructions that some people have called obstructive. If he says I didn't feel obstructed, maybe obstruction was not relevant. Legally, it has no significance at all, but maybe it makes Trump feel better if somebody else said it.

PAUL: What do you make of the FBI saying, you know what? This was a valid investigation? How much does that matter?

PATE: I think it matters a lot. And understand how unusual that is for an FBI lawyer to come out and publicly say the reason we undertook this investigation was for a legitimate investigative purpose and basically defend the actions of the bureau at the time. We don't see that for other investigations. I think this particular lawyer felt there was so much misinformation in the public about the reason the investigation started that he wanted to clear the record and I think he did.

SAVIDGE: Yes, but there are many who support the president who believe that the FBI is politically tainted to begin with.

PATE: We'll see, right? I mean there is an ongoing inspector general investigation within the Department of Justice to determine the reason why the investigation began, how much of it actually related to this dossier, how much related to really hard, corroborated information. Once that investigation is complete, then let's try to spin it. But trying to do that before we have all the facts is really premature.

PAUL: What would have to be present to show that the investigation was invalid or was politically motivated across the board?

PATE: You know, since this is a FISA investigation, it's really murky because the type of information that you may present to a FISA court, and that's this foreign intelligence. The thing that's different than a normal court subpoena. You go to these judges, it's not done in public, it's done in secret for very good reasons. But the type of information they want is not just the highlights, they want as many details as possible and it's not at all unusual in my practice to see a law enforcement officer or a prosecutor approach a judge and give details that may not be the single motivating factor, even the strongest motivating factor but part of the whole picture.

The judge wants to know the entire picture. You can't criticize them for giving information about a dossier, even if it wasn't the most critical piece of evidence at the time; it's the entire part of the picture.

PAUL: All right, Page Pate, thank you for walking us through it all.

SAVIDGE: Always good to see you.

PAGE: Thank you. Good to see you.

PAUL: Always good to have you here, thank you.

Let's talk about these goods worth $300 billion that are facing a new tax - a new tax. A U.S. trade representative said President Trump is adding tariffs to, quote, "essentially all imports from China," after trade talks with top Chinese negotiators failed to yield the deal. What we're hearing from China this morning about it. SAVIDGE: Plus, troubling information about one of the two suspects in

the Colorado school shooting this week. We hear from a former classmate who says one of the suspects always joked about killing his classmates.

PAUL: And new details in the disappearance of 4-year-old Maleah Davis. The mother says there's surveillance video now that may help police in their investigation. What that mom claims is on that video, that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:00]

SAVIDGE: As the trade war between the U.S. and China heats up, again. President Trump is set to raise tariffs on all remaining imports from China. Those imports are said to be valued at approximately $300 billion.

PAUL: And this action comes after the Trump Administration and China failed to strike a trade deal. The U.S. slapped a 25 percent tariff hike on $200 billion of Chinese goods and some of the goods, fish, produce, electronics, building materials, yes, a lot of things you use every day. Overnight, the Chinese government responded saying they, quote, "Are not scared and vow to take all necessary counter measures." I want to get to CNN international correspondent, Matt Rivers now. He is following the story from China there for us. So Matt we know that the retaliation from China is inevitable but do we have any answers this morning as to when and how that might happen?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not anything specific, yet at this point from the Chinese government although we are expecting the commerce ministry, at least within the next few days to come up with a very specific set of retaliatory measures because that's what they have done throughout the trade war. But you know a lot of different -- there's a lot of different ways that China can and ultimately will retaliate against the United States.

I think the first thing you look at is American imports. When America sends things to China through ports like this here, we're in the East Coast city of Tianjin. Most of those products are already facing tariffs but the Chinese government could raise the rates on those tariffs and that, of course, would make those products more expensive to import here, maybe Chinese buyers would go elsewhere.

They could also do lots of other things that might hurt the heartland of the U.S. We have done a lot of reporting about soybeans. It might seem like an obscure item but the U.S. ships billions of dollars worth of soybeans from the U.S. to China every year. There were restrictions early in this trade war put up and Chinese buyers stopped buying soybeans, well now they're buying them again but could we see those restrictions come back up guys? It's certainly a possibility. But ultimately the odds of a deal working out here, that's the question that we have. Let's play you a little bit of sound with Liu He, the top Chinese economic negotiator.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

LIU HE, CHINESE VICE PREMIER: (Through interpreter) At present, both sides reached consensus in many aspects, but frankly speaking, differences still exist. We think these differences are crucial issues regarding our principle. Every country has its principle and we will make no concessions on matters of principle.

(END VIDEO)

RIVERS: So not to get too deep into the weeds here, but basically what the United States wants China to do as a part of this trade deal is to fundamentally operate its economy differently. The state really runs the economy here. The government has its hand in every single industry and the U.S. says, "Look, that gives Chinese companies an unfair advantage." China comes back and says, "No, that's how we do things here. Those are our principles," which you just heard Liu He talk about so it's really unclear how these two sides meet in the middle and I think that we could certainly see this trade war continue to escalate.

SAVIDGE: Matt, there's politics, of course, on both sides here and pressure on both presidents in some way. For xi, it's the impact on slowing down what has been a presidents. For xi, it's the impact on presidents. For Xi Jinping it's of course the potential for the impact on slowing down what had been a strong economy.

[06:20:00]

And so I'm wondering just what are the feelings of those there that you talked to?

RIVERS: Well I think, if you believe what the White House is saying, it was really the Chinese side that changed around the agreement at the last minute and kind of brinksmanship style play, China knew how that was going to be received by the United States. And you are right when you say there are inner politics at play here. There's hardliners on trade here just like there are in the United States and it appears that the hardliners are winning out and it would then give you the notion that the Chinese government right now has enough confidence in the economy here that they think they can weather this storm better than the United States.

Now if you ask outside experts, there's a whole bunch of different opinions as to how long China can put up with this. They don't have to deal with the politics that the United States does and the democracy. There's a lot of different opinions out there in terms of which economy is stronger but clearly both sides feel like now is the time to really push for what they want out of this deal because their economies at home give them enough leverage ultimately depending on how long this will play out, that's the only way we're going to be able to tell which economy is stronger in the end.

PAUL: All right, Matt Rivers, thank you so much for breaking it all down for us. Good to see you this morning.

SAVIDGE: Coming up, new allegations in the disappearance of four- year-old Maleah Davis. The mother says that she thinks the stepfather bears some responsibility in her disappearance. We'll have the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:00]

SAVIDGE: There are new allegations in the disappearance of four-year- old Maleah Davis. The mother told CNN that she thinks the child's stepfather bears some responsibility in her disappearance.

PAUL: And this may be why. She, along with a community activist, claim there's surveillance video that shows Maleah's step father, Darion Vence whom you see there, leaving their apartment with a laundry basket and bottle of bleach.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

QUANELL X, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: We want to share with you that there is a video camera at the top of the stairway by one of their neighbors and on that video camera, we'll show it to you, it captures the step dad coming out of the apartment with a bottle of Clorox, a laundry basket and inside the laundry basket a garbage bag.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: Now, police have recovered the car Vence was driving when he claims Maleah and his 2-year-old son were attacked and abducted. Police say they haven't heard from that man, the stepfather in several days.

SAVIDGE: The Coast Guard is responding to an oil tanker crash in Texas. They say an oil tanker and a tug pushing two barges collided on the Houston shipping channel near Bayport. One barge has capsized and one is significantly damaged. You can see it there. The Coast Guard says nearly 25,000 barrels of gasoline were loaded on each barge. They now say that they don't know how much product has spilled into the channel. No injuries, fortunately, have been reported.

One of the Colorado school shooting suspects, quote, "always joked about killing his classmates." That's according to a former student at the S.T.E.M. School which is Highlands Ranch.

PAUL: Yes, two suspects were arrested this week after police say they killed one student and injured eight others at the school. But a former student at the school says one of those suspects often talked about going on some sort of rampage.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

KEVIN COLE, FORMER STEM STUDENT: He would walk into the classroom and from time-to-time he would say, just like we always thought it was a joke but he would say, "When the pencil hits the floor, I'm going to start shooting," and he would drop pencils randomly throughout the class.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: And here's the hero in all of it, Kendrick Castillo there. He died charging one of those gunmen as the whole thing was happening. He was shot in the chest and his parents talked to CNN's Chris Cuomo about their son.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

JOHN CASTILLO, SON KILLED IN COLORADO SCHOOL SHOOTING: You know, it's an emotional roller coaster. It's -- you know, we are fine when we are busy and occupied and there's a lot of that right now I mean with meeting people and everyone telling us what a hero that our son is and we love that. But, you know, I'm not going to lie to you; I wake up in the morning, I sob and cry and can't believe this is event is taking place. It's like life has literally stopped. I mean, we -- our purpose has gone away.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: I think a lot of parents can listen to that and understand what they think, feeling like their purpose has gone away. One of the suspects is being charged as an adult in this case and prosecutors are trying to determine how to charge the second suspect because she is just 16 years old.

SAVIDGE: There's been an explosion at a gas station in Virginia and it has left at least one person dead. Virginia State Police say the remains of one other victim have been located. The police sergeant says that at least three are unaccounted for; four others were transported to area hospitals with injuries.

PAUL: There is a mom in Utah suing a former school bus driver because she says that driver targeted her son, trapping the boy's backpack in the bus doors and then driving away.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Stephanie Elam reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

BRENDA MAYES, MOTHER OF 14-YEAR-OLD DRAGGED BY SCHOOL BUS: My initial thoughts were I was glad he didn't kill him. I was glad he didn't go under the wheels.

(END VIDEO)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Children lined up, getting off the school bus when suddenly the doors closed just as a 14-year-old boy is exiting. His backpack is caught in the door, then the bus starts to move. For about 20 seconds, the boy's body is dangling outside the bus, held up only by the straps of his backpack.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MAYES: As the driver is driving, he looks over three times as he's going forward. He's driving forward, he's looking, looks. He looks over. So he knew what he was doing. The children were animated. He knew exactly what he was doing.

(END VIDEO)

ELAM: Brenda Mayes is the mother of that seventh grader. She says her son called her after the February 4th incident sounding, quote, "terrified and embarrassed."

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MAYES: And he said that he felt pressure across his chest but he didn't have injuries but you could tell where had been pinched there.

ELAM: Mays believes this was no accident, but was done on purpose by the bus driver John Naisbitt. In a lawsuit that names the Davis School District, it's transportation director, David Roberts and Naisbitt as defendants, Mayes claims the bus driver has a history of targeting biracial students.

[06:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO)

ROBERT SYKES, LAWYER FOR BRENDA MAYES: All of this is based upon race, OK? It was racial discrimination, racial assault and it was unconstitutional conduct and Davis School District suborned it. They passively approved it because they did nothing, OK, until this event.

ELAM: In a statement the school district said, quote, "When issues of discrimination are raised at any time, they are investigated thoroughly. The Davis School District takes any claims of racial discrimination seriously and does not tolerate any form of racial discrimination in our schools."

Roberts had no comment but Naisbitt who the lawsuit claims was forced to retire soon after this incident had this to say to CNN affiliate KSTU.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you say you are a racist?

JOHN NAISBITT, BUS DRIVER: Not at all. No, look at my dog, he's black as can be.

(END VIDEO)

ELAM: May says a criminal investigation into Naisbitt's actions is ongoing. Stephanie Elam, CNN.

PAUL: So, when Robert Mueller's report revealed a Florida county may have been breached by Russian Hackers in 2016, state officials wanted to know, which one? Next, what the FBI could tell them in a briefing next week.

SAVIDGE: Plus a controversial school policy has parents outraged. A teacher in San Francisco, who is on medical leave for breast cancer has to pay for a substitute teacher while she is absent. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00]

PAUL: For the first time next week, the FBI is going to brief Florida members of Congress about a claim that a Florida county was hacked by a Russia intelligence back in 2016.

SAVIDGE: We have been talking about this for a while. We already knew that Russians had targeted Florida's election network, but what we didn't learn is it might have worked. We learned that with the Mueller report when it was released. Joining us now is CNN cyber security reporter, Kevin Collier. Good morning, Kevin, good to see you.

KEVIN COLLIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning.

SAVIDGE: Take us back. Refresh us. Remind us what exactly happened here.

COLLIER: So there were, there was a multi-pronged attack in 2016. The one element that was new here with the Mueller report is that it was a specific county that Russian military intelligence actually had breached and according to Senator Marco Rubio, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee and gets briefed on this sort of thing, the Russians were actually in a position to change or alter voter roles at that moment which was sometime in the summer of 2016. And that's news to most of us and to most Florida election officials.

PAUL: So, as I understand, your reporting shows the issue was taken care of before the 2016 election. There was not a similar issue in the 2018 midterms. What does it tell you about any concern that should be had moving forward, as we look at 2020?

COLLIER: Well, it's worse. It's a bigger issue than we were made aware of before. And so there was a calculated decision to not disclose this at the time, for fear that it would send people into a panic, that their vote wouldn't count, the election stuff had been hacked. So, the concern now is, if this were to happen say in 2020 or even, you know, god forbid the lead-up to the actual, you know, election night in 2020, how would the government respond then? How would we learn about it? What would the response be?

SAVIDGE: Yes, well it could be disastrous and it could cause chaos. The state and local elections officials have insisted that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have basically said that it wasn't a breach. I guess I'm looking for your expert opinion here. When we say hacked, it does imply that there was some sort of a way that they got into the system and were already manipulating, and yet the explanation we get is, no, they were capable and poised to, but didn't. Which is it?

COLLIER: I think the really resounding line you will hear from most government officials talking about '16 or '18 was that, at no point, were any hackers ever in a position to change anyone's vote, which, as far as we know, is indeed, true. What this is would be voter registration. And again this is -- I'm referring to Senator Rubio's comments. They were in a position to change or alter voter rolls as in someone who shows up to the polls on election day and it's not as if their vote has changed but it's that they can't. They're told they can't vote that day. They're not registered to vote, they're at the wrong polling location, something like that.

SAVIDGE: Yes, this is - this is the point where I was talking about how you could create chaos here. In other words, people do sort of fear that the outcome of the election, the numbers could be changed. You could go in before a person votes and create this havoc saying they are at the wrong polling position or you totally erased any information that they were registered to begin with. It would have a devastating impact and you could target specific areas by that.

COLLIER: Absolutely and again, we don't know the specific details. Hopefully we're going to learn a little more after the FBI briefs these members of Congress. And it is worth noting this happened briefly over the summer and was mitigated before the actual election in '16. So, you know, it wouldn't have actually changed the voting process on Election Day in 2016.

SAVIDGE: Yes, no, I get your point.

PAUL: So, if I'm understanding this correctly, what they are basically saying is, listen, this is what happened. We are not concerned moving forward. Is that what they are saying? That they are free and clear now that they've got a handle on it?

COLLIER: They did clear everything out of the - you know, they had cleaned up the county whichever county it was at the time and the government has made some strides toward preventing this sort of thing from happening. DHS, for example, has established a much better relationship than a lot of Florida counties or a lot of counties across the U.S. The question is, you know, not every county is clued in, is on the same page with the federal government here. How do we get every single county on the same page? That's a kind of Herculean task.

SAVIDGE: And different states have different voting systems don't they?

COLLIER: That's correct.

[06:40:00]

SAVIDGE: So that complicates the matter even more.

COLLIER: Exactly.

SAVIDGE: Kevin Collier, good to talk to you. Thanks very much for the...

COLLIER: Thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you Kevin. So Texas and Louisiana are drenched by severe thunderstorms. And guess what? Twenty million of you are under a flood watch this morning, particularly along the Gulf Coast.

SAVIDGE: Plus one of the suspects in the - accused that is -- in the Colorado school shooting reportedly joked about killing his classmates. Coming up, the possible warning signs that may have been missed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Severe thunderstorms, torrential rain, they're pounding Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We want to show you this drone video that we got from Texas and you can see the entire street is under water.

PAUL: And the thing is, there are thousands of people who don't have power. There's more rain on the way. CNN's Allison Chinchar live from the Weather Center. How much more, Allison?

CHINCHAR: Yes, oddly enough only maybe about 1-2 inches. You think that doesn't sound bad but you have to remember, it's on top of what they already had. And in some cases, Richmond, Texas, picking up 14 inches of rain in just the last few days so even an extra one or two inches will do some damage because that water is already high enough and that's not the only place.

[06:45:00]

Again across Texas, Louisiana and even Mississippi, we have had incredible amounts of rain the last few days. The question becomes the forecast and that's brought to you by the Shark Self-Cleaning Brush Roll, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. Here is a look at the forecast. One thing to note, yes, it is going to rain in places like Texas and Louisiana but now, we are also starting to see the bulk of that moisture beginning to shift to the east. So other states, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas are going to start to see a lot of heavy rain moving into their area as well.

By the time we get to the late afternoon and evening hours, that moisture starts to spread north to the mid-Atlantic and even the northeast so places like Washington, D.C. and New York, also getting some rain from this system. The heaviest rain going forward is likely going to be from Richmond, Virginia, stretching back to New Orleans where we are talking widespread about three to five inches of rain. Some areas, however, could get higher amounts on top of that.

The one thing to note, look at this area. This is where you have the flash flood watches because the ground is saturated. You have not only the rain that came down but all of that water that's in the rivers, the creeks, the streams. The key thing I want you to know, do not drive in it. This person driving their truck, thinking it's safe because they are higher than the water. Same thing here, what you don't know is what is in that water. There could be debris buried underneath it. There could be potholes and so the car actually sinks even lower and then you end up being that car that gets stuck, so just don't do it.

If you can't see the ground, don't drive in it. The other thing to note, look at the rivers, creeks and streams that have been around. This is the Mississippi River. This is just north of St. Louis. You are looking at what it looked like last year. Fast forward to this week; look at all of that water overflowing the banks of where the river would normally run. Now, again, crossing back out over and that's what we are seeing. A lot of areas that are having that water just inundate and it's not the only river.

Look at this. You have almost 250 river gauges, either at or above flood stage, pretty much from North Dakota down to the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, Martin and Christi, to add insult to injury, you also have the potential for severe storms today. The best chance is going to be in this yellow area right here. We are talking damaging winds, the potential for some very large hail and even, yes, the threat for isolated tornadoes.

PAUL: Good heavens. Allison, thank you so much for the head's up. Appreciate it.

Listen, there's a California teacher who is on medical leave for cancer treatment. Listen to this. She has to pay, yes, she has to pay for her substitute teacher while she is absent. This is school policy. Oh you can bet there are some things being said there. We're going to take you there.

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[06:50:00]

SAVIDGE: A California teacher who is on medical leave for breast cancer is worried about a whole lot more than just her medical bills. Now she has to worry about paying for a substitute teacher while she is absent.

PAUL: Yes, she is paying for it. Parents at the San Francisco school, they are outraged. They're talking about what they think is an unfair policy. Here's CNN's

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She's a popular seventh grade teacher at San Francisco's Glenn Park Elementary and she has breast cancer, now on extended leave, she has to pay money out of her own pocket for a substitute teacher; parents are outraged.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PARENT: She's a beautiful, lovely, great teacher. She's one of the best teachers; it's terrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes me worry, like later on if that were to happen to me, you know like, I have to plan accordingly and that's not fair, you know?

SIMON: It's all part of a little known state policy that dates back decades. Here is how it works. California teachers get ten sick days a year. If they need more, they can take an additional 100 days of extended sick leave, but there's a catch. The teachers have to pay for their own subs. The money gets docked from their paychecks, about $200 per day, in the case of the San Francisco teacher who wishes to remain anonymous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is an incredible teacher, and that's not fair; that's like crazy.

(END VIDEO)

SIMON: It falls under a 1976 provision in which teachers don't pay into the state's disability insurance program, so they don't get those benefits. In a statement, the San Francisco teacher's union says it is, "consulting with our members on the priorities for contract negotiations next year. As always, we look forward to making improvements in this and other parts of the contract." Educators say it's part of a larger issue about the lack of money in public education.

We need to fix funding in California. I mean we have been, we're the fifth largest economy in the world and we pay 42nd in ranking per state in what we spend per pupil on education; that's just not right.

SIMON: It's not clear how many times this has happened but it was a GoFundMe page that brought the issue to light; the teacher being fully reimbursed and beyond. It's going to take California lawmakers and the teachers unions to come up with a fix for what everyone seems to acknowledge is ridiculous -- a cancer ridden teacher with all the stresses and worries associated with an illness, having to pay for her own substitute. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

PAUL: Italy is known for its struggling economy, a propensity for smoking and drinking, an aversion to exercise and yet we all want to go because we think it's beautiful. In tonight's episode of "Chasing Life," Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores how a powerful tradition of food, family, faith, all contribute to the surprising overall health of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

On the menu, a prized family recipe, Minestrone soup. Let me ask all of you, what do you think the secret is to a long life?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking a foreign language)

DR. SUNJAY GUPTA, CNN HOST: What do you think?

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language)

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language) (END VIDEO)

PAUL: Watch chasing life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

SAVIDGE: The battle over abortion laws, Georgia now has a law preventing abortion after a fetal heart beat is detected and the new law is affecting Georgia's huge film industry.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

ALYSSA MILANO, ACTRESS: We can't continue to allow these -- sorry, white men, middle-aged men to dictate what we are able to do with our bodies. It is not fair so we are taking a stand. Our industry is taking a stand.

And next week, the Alabama Senate is set to vote on one of the country's most restrictive abortion laws. We're working on this story for our next hour of CNN "New Day."

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(BEGIN VIDEO)

RUDY GUILIANI, ATTORNEY TO DONALD TRUMP: I have decided, Sharon(ph), I'm not going to go to the Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not going to go?

GUILIANI: I'm not going to go because I think I'm walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president. In some cases, enemies of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Rudy I knew and worked with would never engage in this kind of conduct.

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