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The Situation Room

Rising Deaths, Danger After Milton's Destructive Assault on Florida; CNN on Scene of Deadly Outbreak of Supercharged Tornadoes; Soon, Obama Kicks Off Campaign Sprint for Harris in Pennsylvania. Soon: Obama Campaigns For Harris In Pittsburgh; Ethel Kennedy, RFK's Widow And Family Matriarch, Dies At 96. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. The death toll is rising after Hurricane Milton's destructive assault on Florida. And the danger is ongoing this hour from the rampant flooding and the wreckage the storm left behind. We're following the urgent rescue and recovery operation that's now underway.

And CNN is on the scene of a Florida community battered by at least nine tornadoes, nine tornadoes that were supercharged by the hurricane. Local authorities say the deadly barrage of twisters was unprecedented.

Also breaking, former President Barack Obama is about to kick off a major campaign swing on behalf of Kamala Harris in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Why did he wait until now? I'll ask the former Obama attorney general, Eric Holder, who's joining us live.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news out of Florida, the death toll from Hurricane Milton just went up to 13 and is expected to keep climbing as recovery crews move deeper and deeper into flood-ravaged and storm-ravaged areas.

CNN's Randi Kaye is on Florida's Gulf Coast in Sarasota for us. Randi, give us an update on the damage there and across the state.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, we are just off Sarasota Bay and I can show you a little bit of the damage right here. This boat lift, when we were here just yesterday morning reporting, that boat lift was intact, now it's down in the water. And take a look at this, Wolf. This piece of dock now on dry land came from all the way over there. The wind, the strong winds from Hurricane Milton lifted it right up. And this is the sort of damage that we are seeing across the state of Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIMOTHY DUDLEY, DIRECTOR, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: It's really hard to see. It's kind of spooky. To see all the damage. KAYE (voice over): Hours after Hurricane Milton moved off the coast of Florida, Floridians are surveying the extensive damage across the state. There were a number of confirmed dead in St. Lucie County, over 100 miles from where the storm made landfall, following tornadoes spurred by Milton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tornadoes we saw develop yesterday in Milton were really kind of supercharged compared to the typical tornadoes you see in a hurricane environment.

KAYE: New drone footage shows Milton's destruction on the west coast of Florida where the hurricane made landfall as a Category 3 storm. The storm's monstrous winds ripping the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to shreds and downing several cranes in downtown St. Petersburg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things can be replaceable, but life cannot.

KAYE: Just hours after the sun came up, water rescues taking place in Hillsborough County, where massive flooding due to the rain, not the storm surge, trapped people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just happened to be on the airboat for that one of its over 200 rescues we've done and are still actively conducting. He was frantically wailing his arms. We went over and it literally was like a scene out of the Castaway movie, how he's hanging on for dear life. His mom evacuated him to a safer area last night. He was walking home, didn't realize the water was going to get flooded as deep as it did. And he's not a good swimmer, and hence the rescue. And he was visibly shaken.

KAYE: In Fort Myers, Robert Haight (ph) says he got his pregnant wife and kids to a safe spot just moments before a tornado bore down on them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the tornado coming. I yelled my wife, come look at it. It's cool, kid, wife, come look at it. Started to close, hit trees and we all started going for the hallway, didn't even make it there in time, started toot toot, and I heard a piece of glass crack, and it sucked the whole roof off, and I felt the thing sucking me up, and I grabbed my kid and my wife and hunkered down.

KAYE: Another Fort Myers homeowner says the storm ripped his home apart in a matter of minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this, this happened like instantaneously, like these windows blew out. I was about probably right here when it happened.

KAYE: One Tampa business owner braved floodwaters to assess the damage to his commercial property Thursday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what to say. It's a lot. Born and raised here, I've never seen anything like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Helene, for the first time, we had storm surge and took on water in the 20 bottom units. Now with Milton here, we've lost the brand new carports. Our dock is destroyed.

[18:05:00]

KAYE: While many evacuees are hoping to soon return home, hard-hit Sarasota's chief of Emergency Management is urging people to hold on a little longer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's still dangerous out there. So, we're asking for residents just to stay put. You know, we know a lot of people evacuated, which we appreciate, but we just need some time to clear everything so that it's safe for them to return.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (on camera): And, Wolf, we learned today that FEMA is asking residents who have been hit by this one-two punch to apply for hurricane relief separately for each storm. They want them to apply separately because you can get different aid and possibly additional aid for both Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene if you show that you've been hit by these double damages. And they also really emphasize, Wolf, that if you are applying for aid and relief from Hurricane Milton, make sure you have your dates right. If you put down the dates for Helene and you were hit by Milton, it's going to slow the process down. So, they really wanted to emphasize that as well, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, good advice. Randi Kaye, thank you very much.

I want to go to CNN's Anderson Cooper right now. He's on the ground in Fort Pierce. That's in hard hit St. Lucie County. Anderson, what have you seen throughout the day today?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Well, you know, Wolf, we spent the last really all day driving across the state of Florida to get here to Fort Pierce. Here, the story was tornadoes. And one of the things that really strikes you as you drive across the state, you know, this is the morning after, the day after, the grim reality for a lot of people, no power, trying to find gas, kind of the mundane details of cleanup, figuring out insurance, just trying to kind of get things back to normal. But for many people, there will be no normal for a very long time, and you see that here in Fort Pierce.

There's this tractor trailer, I mean, you can see just flipped over on the side. Luckily nobody was inside. We're told at the time this was a park tractor trailer on the side of the road. There's another one just on the other side of the road both flipped over.

And as you remember, before the hurricane actually hit, the story on the on the east coast of Florida in the Atlantic side was dozens of tornadoes, more than they've ever seen in one single day here in the state of Florida. Two of them touched down in this area, flipping this these trucks, ripping the roof off a church just a little bit further down the road within eyesight from here. And then there's this community homes and one to three-bedroom homes. It's community for people 55 and older. Two tornadoes touched down within about 40 minutes. So, people there were hit by one tornado while they were still, you know, inside their homes. Another one came.

There have been five fatalities in this county, in St. Lucy County, at least five fatalities that we know about, at least one of them was in that community just down the road. We talked to the sheriff, Keith Pearson. They have crews out. They are still very much trying to assess and account for a lot of people. Some people may have left, so they don't have the locations of where everybody was. They're trying to figure out how many people may still be missing and how many at this point have died.

BLITZER: Anderson, are search and rescue operations still ongoing?

COOPER: According to the sheriff, they are still ongoing. They brought a lot of people out after the tornadoes yesterday. They brought a lot of people who were injured to hospitals, to shelters. But the sheriff said -- I talked to him just about 20 or 30 minutes ago, he said the search operations are still underway. There's a lot of debris in that community. They're asking -- they're not letting anybody into that community because they are going, just searching, trying to search every inch of ground, picking up debris. There's no doors on buildings, that a lot of the homes have just been completely smashed and destroyed. So, there's a lot of work to be done to try to figure out the scope of what went on here in Fort Pierce.

BLITZER: Anderson Cooper, thanks very, very much. Anderson, of course, will be back with much more hurricane coverage later tonight on AC 360. That's at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. We'll, of course, be watching.

For more on the storm and all the latest developments involving recovery efforts, I want to bring in the mayor of Clearwater, Florida, right now, Bruce Rector. Bruce, thank you very much for joining us.

I know your city was hit with major flooding after 18 inches of rain. What's the situation on the ground right now and what are your biggest concerns?

MAYOR BRUCE RECTOR, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: I think we've stabilized it. But, Wolf, this morning, I can't thank our first responders enough. They -- and in conjunction with county agencies and the state agencies, they rescued 500 people from an apartment complex.

[18:10:06]

When they got in there at first, some of these folks were in chest- deep and neck-deep water. They were getting calls during the hurricane, but the winds wouldn't allow them to go in immediately, but they got in there as soon as they possibly could to protect their own safety. And we removed 500 people from the department complex and got them to safety today.

BLITZER: I want to follow up, Mayor, on that very dramatic rescue. As you point out, more than 500 people from a flooded apartment complex just outside your city's evacuation zone. So, what happens now for the residents?

RECTOR: Well, that's a lot of people to find temporary housing for. So, we're working with local agencies to do that. And I think the thing about this storm that was different from the one two weeks ago was we did a really good job of getting people out of the evacuation areas. This apartment complex was in a non-evacuation area. These people weren't expecting this. But the rain came down so hard, so fast, that it completely flood complex.

BLITZER: Mayor, what does recovery look like now as your community absorbs this one-two punch from Hurricanes Helene and Milton?

RECTOR: Well, we feel like we've had one major hurricane in two separate events. If your put it all together, it's really tough for our entire community. We still have tons of debris out on Clearwater Beach and our barrier islands from Hurricane Helene. So, we need to get that off. We probably only got 20 percent of it off before Milton came along. So, that's a priority.

And we have many people, 400,000 as of this morning, in our county that do not have electricity. So all those elderly folks that that need electricity, need food, you know, to survive, our immediate need is to provide relief to those folks and make sure they have a comfortable place to stay until electricity is restored and that they can get food.

BLITZER: Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector, thanks very much and thanks for all you and your teams are doing. We really appreciate it.

And just ahead, we'll go back to Florida for much more on the devastation from Hurricane Milton.

Plus, former President Barack Obama is about to launch a last-minute campaign push for Vice President Kamala Harris, his first since she became the Democratic nominee.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, officials in Florida are taking stock of Hurricane Milton's destruction. Much of the damage caused by powerful tornadoes spawned by the storm hours before it made landfall.

CNN's Brian Todd is joining us right now from St. Lucie County, where three twisters touched down in less than 25 minutes. Brian, give us the latest.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Wolf. I can give you a visual of the devastation here in St. Lucie County. Take a look at this, at this gas station. This stanchion supports a roof over this little island of gas pumps. You want to know what happened to the roof? I'll show you. Take a look at that behind me on my right shoulder. That mangled huge pile of metal right there is the roof that that stanchion supported.

This comes, Wolf, as we get new information tonight from the local sheriff who I just spoke to. He says that six people are now dead, more than 50 injured, and they are still trying to find missing and unaccounted for people from that neighborhood where the tornadoes touched down as this community tries to come to grips with the carnage that occurred here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These tornadoes came out of nowhere.

TODD (voice over): And the tornadoes came hours before Hurricane Milton even made landfall. At least six people were killed in St. Lucie County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been a tragic 24 hours.

TODD: At least nine tornadoes confirmed in St. Lucie County alone. This video showing one of the twisters power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were tornadoes popping off everywhere across our county.

TODD: And this aerial video shows some of the damage, homes torn apart or ripped in half, roofs gone and fences tossed like paper.

JULIENE MARTIN-MORGANELLI, PRESIDENT, SUNNIER PALMS MEMBERS LODGE: I love all these people. They're like my family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just -- it's --

MARTIN-MORGANELLI: And I just don't want people to have to come back to this. What a shame.

TODD: And from the ground, a semi-truck shredded, the bed of the truck flipped over, twisted metal, wood and other debris scattered around businesses. And this St. Lucie County Church lost part of its roof. The pastor telling us they will rebuild.

PASTOR LEO VOLLBRACHT, LAKEWOOD PARK METHODIST CHURCH, ST. LUCIE COUNTY: Our heartbreaks for what's happening right now in our community and the people reeling.

TODD: Other buildings left in shambles. Take a look at this warehouse. And even sheriff's vehicles were crushed under a hangar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's replaceable. Life isn't.

TODD: Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis made a stop in St. Lucie County today confirming he spoke to President Biden on the phone.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state and local governments and work together to put the people first.

TODD: Which is good news for those people who are left with damage.

VOLLBRACHT: There's still hope. There's still hope in our world. And the community is here for you. You're not going through this alone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): And I've just speaking with Jimmy Patronis. He is the chief financial officer of the state of Florida. He's on site here. He told us that they're working to thwart an insurance scam that is targeting elderly people in that Spanish Lakes Country Club Village area where those elderly people were killed. Patronis says, these predators are coming in and conning these elderly victims whose homes were damaged by the tornadoes, conning them into signing away their insurance claims. These predators will then take that paperwork and bill the insurance companies and siphon money directly away from the victims.

[18:20:07]

He says, they are trying to work against those predators committing those scams in that neighborhood not far from here where those elderly people were killed. Wolf?

BLITZER: A lot of elderly people, retirees have moved to Florida from up north, as we all know. Brian Todd, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, much more from the storm zone just ahead.

Also ahead, former President Obama is hitting the campaign trail for Kamala Harris for the first time since she locked up the Democratic nomination.

Plus, Donald Trump lobs new attacks at the city of Detroit while campaigning in Detroit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

BLITZER: In Pennsylvania tonight, former President Barack Obama is about to kick off a 27-day campaign sprint for the Harris-Walz ticket. President Obama's rally in Pittsburgh will mark the first time he's stumped for the vice president since she earned the Democratic presidential nomination.

Let's get some details from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, what can we expect tonight?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is going to be, as you mentioned, Wolf, the first public campaign appearance by former President Barack Obama, one of the party's most popular figures, if not the most popular figure. So, this is certainly an indication of the campaign and the former president viewing this as crunch time ahead of Election Day as they try to mobilize voters to the polls.

Now, according to a source who spoke to our colleague, Kayla Tausche, the former president is expected to tell the values and experience that Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz would bring to the White House. Aides around former President Barack Obama have told CNN that he is clear-eyed about this race and also that it is, quote, an all-hands-on-deck moment.

And, of course, where he's doing this is notable. It is in Pennsylvania, that crucial state for the Harris campaign as they look to those pathways to 270. And earlier today, the former president stopping by a Harris-Walz campaign office in Pittsburgh to also show his appreciation, you see the images there.

Now, of course, it's worth reminding viewers that Obama and Harris do have a history together. They've been acquainted for 20 years. He was at the Democratic National Convention where he gave a rousing speech in support of the vice president. So, certainly, this is another opportunity both tonight and over the coming weeks as he embarks on this blitz to continue that message.

We should also note that it's not just the top of the ticket. The former president will also be assisting those down ballot races too as they look to the Democratic Party as a whole and where they can gain ground and gain an edge come November. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Priscilla, the vice president, Kamala Harris, she's out on a swing out west right now, right?

ALVAREZ: She is. She, earlier today, taped a town hall with Univision. Of course, she has been trying to appeal to Latino voters where polls show she has an edge over former President Donald Trump, but it still lags from where Democratic nominees have been before. Break that down, that advantage is more with Latino women instead of men. With Hispanic men, she's pretty even with former President Donald Trump.

So, this town hall an opportunity for her to talk directly to Latino voters on a range of issues, we'll see more of that later tonight. She'll also be in Arizona with that similar appeal. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very, very much.

I want to check in right now on what's going on in the Trump campaign. CNN's Alayna Treene is following the former president in Michigan for us. Alayna, there were some rather interesting comments in Trump's speech in Detroit earlier today.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's exactly right, Wolf. Donald Trump, while speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, laid out a series of steps that he said he hoped would reinvigorate what he called a collapsing U.S. auto industry. But what I think you're referring to is when he started to criticize Detroit, the same city, of course, that he was giving remarks on.

I will get to that in a moment, but I want to lay out some news that Donald Trump made. He did announce today for the first time that he plans to eliminate interest payments on car loans, or, excuse me, make interest payments on car loans fully tax deductible. That's the latest in a series of his tax cut offers that will be pretty costly but he says should help car makers as well as consumers dealing with high prices. He also then said he wanted to revisit his 2020 trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. He said he wanted to renegotiate that deal, particularly with Mexico, to talk about putting more imports on cars that are made in Mexico.

But then, at one point during that roughly two hour speech, it was pretty meandering, he started to criticize Detroit itself. He said that it was a developing country. He said, quote, that it is more developing than most places in China, calling it a once great city. And then he also used the city to try and characterize what he argued would happen if Kamala Harris were to win in November.

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't think anything that we're talking about today is high on our list. I mean, the whole country's going to be like, you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president.

We're a developing nation too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit's a developing area, a hell of a lot more than most places in China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Wolf, Donald Trump has made similar criticisms of Detroit in the past, but I have to say it's pretty striking, especially when you consider that Detroit is Michigan's largest city, and, of course, this is one of the most vital blue wall states that Donald Trump is competing very hard at to win in November.

[18:30:02]

Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Treene in Detroit for us, Alayna, thank you very much.

Joining us now, the former U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Attorney General, thanks so much for joining us.

As President Obama hits the campaign trail, his former chief strategist, David Axelrod, a man you know well, says this, and I'm quoting him now. Harris made steady incremental progress in the ten days after the September 10th debate, but now the race has plateaued. You have to lift your game and adjust your strategy.

So, how will President Obama help her do that? What do you think?

ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I don't think what David Plouffe said is a surprise. Everybody has known for a long time this is going to be a tight race. But having Barack Obama out there, a person who, throughout the political spectrum, is widely respected, he moves the Democratic base, he also moves people in the middle. And I think his words and the authenticity that he has, that's going to be something that's going to help the campaign.

And it's a good thing that he's going to be starting in Pennsylvania, which is a critical state. I suspect that you're going to see him in the other battleground states as well.

BLITZER: Yes, I was quoting David Axelrod, not David Plouffe, just to be correct on that point.

HOLDER: Okay. I'm sorry.

BLITZER: All right. Kamala Harris is winning a black voters, as you know, but Maya King of The New York Times writes this, and I'm quoting her now. More black men under 50 have expressed in polling and conversations their openness to voting for Mr. Trump or staying home all together. And Politico notes that the Harris campaign has yet to do any big events focused primarily on black men. Is Kamala Harris taking this vote, do you think, for granted?

HOLDER: No, not at all. I mean, as she's indicated, she says that she has to win every vote that she seeks, and that includes votes in the black community. I expect that over the course of the next 25, 26 days, she has the opportunity to go to a variety of places and interact with people in the African-American community as well as in other communities that you will see her support rise to levels that we would expect to see for a Democratic candidate.

I'm quite confident of it. I've known Kamala for, you know, 20, 25 years. She's a person who, as a prosecutor, certainly looked out for the interests of people in the African-American community and has consistently done that in every position that she has had. And the proposals that she has made and the things that the Biden-Harris administration have done for the African-American community, I think, will stand her in good stead, not only with black women, but ultimately with black men as well.

BLITZER: As you know, Attorney General, Republicans are seizing big time on Kamala Harris telling The View, the T.V. show on ABC, that there's not a thing, not a thing, a direct quote, she would have done differently from President Biden. What do you think when you when you heard her say that?

HOLDER: Well, I think that's a function of her instinctual loyalty, and I think that's a good thing. But I think if you look later on in the show, she talks about things that she would do differently. And I, for instance, think about what she says that she wants to do with housing, you know, building additional home units so that people have the ability to get into homes coming up with breaks for people who are first time home buyers. I think that she will build on the successes of the Biden-Harris administration and will ultimately put together a program that will benefit the American people that she will be able to call her own.

BLITZER: I know, Attorney General, you've expressed some deep concern that Trump will claim the election is rigged if Harris wins. Is the Biden administration prepared for this? And are you confident, do you have confidence that the guardrails around our democracy will hold again?

HOLDER: Well, I'm confident of one thing, that if Donald Trump loses, he's going to claim that the election is rigged. He thinks that any election that he does not win is, in fact, rigged. The Democratic Party has put together an apparatus. We have hundreds of lawyers all around the country ready to go into court, and to do a variety of things, to respond to whatever creative things the Trump administration, of the Trump administration campaign or Republicans try to do.

And beyond that, I do have confidence in the Justice Department, in the Civil Rights Division, the Voting Rights Section, and the entirety of the Justice Department apparatus to try to make sure that the election is in fact fair and that anything that is attempted to be done to undermine the will of the American people will ultimately not be successful.

BLITZER: A woman you know well, the former national security adviser, Susan Rice, says Trump may have violated the law, violated the law with his repeated calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office, as reported by journalist Bob Woodward and confirmed by the Kremlin.

[18:35:02]

Do you agree?

HOLDER: Yes, it is entirely possible. There's a thing called the Logan Act that prohibits that kind of contact. I don't know all the circumstances under which he was talking to Vladimir Putin, but I think that's an indication of the admiration that Donald Trump, for whatever reason, has for Vladimir Putin and is a danger sign for American citizens trying to make a determination as to who should be our next president.

You got to ask yourself, what is it that he's talking to him about? Why is he talking to him when we're in the middle right now of supporting a nation fighting for its independence against Russian troops led by Vladimir Putin?

So, you'd have to know more facts, but the possibility certainly exists that the former president has violated the law.

BLITZER: Yes, that's very worrisome as well.

I know you ran the V.P. vetting process for the Harris campaign. Governor Tim Walz, as you well know, has faced scrutiny for several false statements he's made over the years about his background. Did you and your team of lawyers miss important information about him during the vetting process?

HOLDER: No, I don't think we did. I mean, I don't think that we were surprised by any of the things that he has said. And as what he has indicated is that sometimes he misspoke but he is -- unlike Donald Trump, who lies like all the time Tim Walz has made some misstatements that he has said, you know, I was wrong in saying that, apologized for making the misstatements. And so there's nothing that of any substance that was missed by our vetting team.

We had a sense of who Tim Walz is. He's an authentic guy, a person with a great record as the governor of Minnesota and who I think will be a superb vice president. And he has resonated with the American people. He has generated enthusiasm for the ticket. And I think that the slight exaggerations, misspeaking that he has done, and, again, for which he has, you know, taken responsibility, is not something that's going to ultimately hurt him.

BLITZER: Eric Holder, the former Attorney General, thanks as usual for joining us.

HOLDER: All right, thanks for having me.

BLITZER: And just ahead, CNN joins a team of rescuers looking for survivors in Hurricane Milton's floodwaters. We'll be right back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: Back to the breaking news, the rescue and recovery effort going full steam tonight nearly 24 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast. Earlier, CNN's Isabel Rosales did a ride-along in an airboat rescuing people in Hillsborough County trapped by the floodwaters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm on an airboat right now with Sheriff Chad Chronister. And we're seeing people like right there, if we can push in, you know, up on the second floor of these apartment complexes. We've been seeing people wading through the waters. Let's switch the camera over here to my other side. Do you see right there, cars underwater. This is all from torrential rainfall. This is not storm search. This is not an evacuation area. This is something completely unexpected for this area.

Let me introduce you to Sheriff Chad Chronister. Sheriff, 33 years ago, you were a rookie. This was your district known as University area. Now it's uptown. Have you ever seen anything like this?

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is where I started. This is where I fell in love with this community. I've never seen flooding like this. We had people that evacuated here to make sure they were safe. They listened. They came here. 135 elderly, disabled individuals that we rescued earlier, they came here. They were evacuated from Bradenton to stay safe.

This is a neighborhood that doesn't have a lot. They have very little. And the very little they had, they've lost everything. We have water four feet up into their first floor here. This is a heavily Latino community. Their church is gone. Their cars are gone. Again, they don't live paycheck to paycheck. These are people that live day to day and they have nothing ROSALES: I can tell because I've known you for many years. You're getting choked up right now. What are you going through?

CHRONISTER: Your heart shatters for these people. We did a bunch of rescues. We took them to a shelter. The female that you saw that we passed, she was waving me down. I made her promise me if it got too deeper, she got tired, we'd come back and get her. She broke down and hugged me for five minutes. She goes, I don't have a lot. I take care of my grandmother. I evacuated my grandmother, and I'm left with nothing. We've lost everything. We have no furniture. There was five feet of water in there. I mean, how does this not shatter your heart?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And once again, the Hillsborough County sheriff says, 135 residents had to be rescued from an assisted living facility due to the flooding. Our thanks to CNN's Isabel Rosales for that report.

Coming up, CNN's Chris Wallace joins me here in The Situation Room. We'll discuss the Harris campaign's rolling out two heavy hitters in these final days of the race, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:44]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Democrats are deploying two of their biggest stars to stump for Kamala Harris, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

I want to bring in CNN anchor Chris Wallace. He's the author of an important and very, very, very significant new book entitled "Countdown 1960".

And, Chris, thanks to writing this book. You talk about it a little while. But what do you think about these two heavyweights, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, now going out there campaigning for Kamala Harris?

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR, "THE CHRIS WALLACE SHOW": Well, as the line goes, it can't hurt. Barack Obama, probably the most popular Democrat in the country. And I think you see him, he's going to be in Pittsburgh tonight. You'll see him in a lot of urban areas, obviously, trying to help Kamala Harris with a weakness she has with younger, below 50 Black men.

We hear that Clinton's going to be deployed primarily to rural areas and try to help Harris with a weakness she has with non-college educated working-class white men. Having said that, I think you can overstate how much they can actually accomplish.

I mean, Barack Obama as popular as he was elected and re-elected, never had any coattails, disastrous midterms in 2010 and 2014, and he couldn't put Hillary Clinton over the top in 2016.

[18:50:01]

So, you know, it can't hurt. But Kamala Harris is going to have to do it on her own.

BLITZER: And Bill Clinton?

WALLACE: Again, you know, I think he can -- he can help, but I don't know that he's seen any more any particular coattails and obviously, he's a somewhat more distant figure. I mean, it was a while ago he was president.

BLITZER: I'm sure you've seen that new Quinnipiac poll of the so- called blue wall states.

Harris is ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, 49 to 46 percent, but she's behind Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin, though both states are inside what's called the margin of error. She's raised $1 billion since she got the nomination. That's a lot of money that they could use in these campaigns.

WALLACE: Yeah, but these polls point out something I know you were talking about it with Eric Holder, with David Axelrod said, and I'm hearing this from top Republicans and top Democrats, that Harris seems to have stalled out a bit in the last couple of weeks. You know, she had a great rollout, great convention, very successful debate, but she seemed to have plateaued.

One top Republicans said two weeks ago, I would've said that she was a slight favorite. He said today, I'd say Trump has a slight favorite.

BLITZER: Interesting to hear that. I want to talk about your important new book "Countdown 1960: The Behind the Scene Story of the 312 Days That Changed America's Politics Forever".

Are we going through a similar moment right now that with the election of 2024?

WALLACE: Well, I mean, that was a much -- more conventional election. I mean, it was -- it was an inflection point. No question about it. I would argue the first really modern election, you had these two young candidates, Richard Nixon, 47, Jack Kennedy, 42, the first debates, the first televised presidential debate, and really a new way of conducting politics.

It's a great story in and of itself. One of the reasons I wrote it was because I think that it has a lot of relevance to where we are right now. And it particularly in the sense, it almost stands what were seeing now on its head.

That was an election 1960, that may, may have really been stolen by the Kennedys and Richard Nixon, the loser, refused to contest the transfer of power, the peaceful transition of power. So, you know, almost exactly the opposite of what we've seen from Donald Trump ever since 2020.

BLITZER: And you tell that story in this book in great, great detail. And there's a lot of other wonderful stories for those of us old enough to remember that campaign, really a fabulous week.

Thanks very much, Chris, for joining us.

WALLACE: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And thanks for writing "Countdown 1960", a really important book.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:57:04]

BLITZER: Finally tonight, we remember Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, and a matriarch of their famous political family, has died at age 90 -- 96. Her political family was amazing. And we are so sad by her death.

Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the last links to the Camelot of the Kennedys, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, knew triumphs few can imagine -- from her own family's rise in politics, to the extraordinary changes that eventually brought the nation's first African American president, a fact she right reflected on in the film made by her youngest daughter, Rory.

ETHEL KENNEDY, WIDOW OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY: That was so refreshing and wonderful and shows how our fabulous country has moved ahead.

FOREMAN: Born to a large family in Chicago, when she was five, her father, a successful businessman, moved the family east, to wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut. She was raised Catholic.

As a young woman, she led a charmed life, attending the best schools and falling in love with Robert Kennedy. They married in 1950.

And as he and his brother, John, rose and political prominence, she was right there with them. The charming socialite, Ethel was considered by many to be more outgoing, more exciting, more entertaining than John's wife Jackie.

But Ethel Kennedy's role took a more serious turn after President Kennedy was assassinated. As her husband became a senator and then sought the presidency himself, she struggled to raise 11 children, the last of whom she was expecting when Robert, too, was gunned down.

The losses for Ethel Skakel Kennedy grew her whole life long. Both of her parents died in a plane crash, a brother was killed in another plane, went down. Her son David died of an apparent drug overdose. Another son, Michael, in a freak skiing accident.

Her granddaughter, Saoirse, died of a drug overdose. Months later, another granddaughter Maeve, drowned with her eight-year-old son in a canoeing accident. She took each disaster in turn.

And still, those who knew her say her faith never wavered. She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial to raise money for the humanitarian and environmental causes in which he believed.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND, FORMER MARYLAND LT. GOVERNOR: I want to welcome each of you.

FOREMAN: Their oldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, followed her father's footsteps into politics.

And yet troubles continued. In 2014, another daughter, Kerry Kennedy, was tried for driving under the influence of drugs. She was acquitted, but her mother looked frail.

Through it all, Ethel Skakel Kennedy stood by her family. She went on carrying her husband's name and memory as a living legacy of Camelot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: And our thanks to Tom Foreman.

Our condolences, of course, to the Kennedy family. May Ethel Kennedy rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing?

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.