Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20190829 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 August 29, 2019

I understand the headline is getting stronger. You can see that when you look at the satellite images and read the numbers. The most significant thing is it had a big drop in pressure from 997 down to 990. Thats a big drop for a tropical system in a short period of time. Winds are still sustained at 80 Miles Per Hour gusting up to 100 Miles Per Hour but the key is its now moving entirely over open water. That is fuel for a storm like this, which is why were seeing it intensify. Also, now, were beginning see that eye wall begin to take shape. That is also another indication that the storm is strengthening. Here is the thing that you dont often necessarily see at night, it needs the sun. It needs the heat of the day to help intensify. There will be a lot of information that comes out of this once we wake up tomorrow morning and really see what the storm has done overnight tonight. There is a Hurricane Hunter flight in there now taking all these new measurements. Again, they did pick up a measurement of 83 Miles Per Hour, more significantly, we talked about the storm intensifying. Here is a look where the track is expected to take. It will be out over open water not necessarily hitting land but a good thing in terms of the storm because it allows it to intensify. There is nothing to weaken the storm in the short term. Long term, the question where does it go from here . Its going to start to curve back towards the state of florida and in fact, just about owns the entire state of florida is in the cone of where a potential landfall point could be and perhaps making landfall as high as a category three storm. The question is why florida . Because by all normal circumstances, these storms always want to veer north. Always. Under normal atmosphere conditions but thats not the case here. Normally this storm would start to curve back tornados the carolinas and virginia but this High Pressure system right here is what isfect tifzeffectively it and pushing west towards florida. The models now make a landfall somewhere over florida. The american models tend to favor more of a north florida landfall, jacksonville down to the space coast. Whereas the european models favor more of a landfall point south of orlando. This is really what well have to keep a close eye on over the next couple days but one other thing, john, they could have been having two landfalls because the storm may end up going back out over the gulf of mexico and curving back around making a second landfall sometime next week. And when will the first landfall be or could it be on florida . Right, so right now the timeline looks to be sunday night into early monday morning. Whether it goes further north, that would be delayed versus the south florida landfal earlier end of the timeline. And all of this has to do with this warm open water and now nothing in its way, correct . Yes, even the bahamas for the most part is different than say puerto rico. They dont have the elevation that those other countries do. You need that elevation to break these storms apart but because the bahamas is a relatively flat country, there really isnt much in the way for this to break apart the storm, and the temperatures, john, hovering in the mid 80s. Perfect fuel for a storm like this. The gulf of mexico warm, also. Two potential dangerous landfalls in the mainland. Please keep us posted throughout the night. Well speak with the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee about Administration Efforts to redirect Disaster Relief money as this hurricane is hitting toward enforcement efforts on the southern border. Something else shows how far the president might be willing to go to get his border wall. The one mexico was supposed to pay for. Now we are. But this is yet another twist its twist. Its potentially unlawful and maybe impeachment. If the president did what were about to tell you about, which by the way, nobody is directly denying, some aids say he was only kidding like individual one walks into a bar, that sort of thing apparently. So here is what the president did. Two officials tell cnn he is so desperate to build a border wall by election day he told aids he would pardon them for any laws they break to get it done. The Washington Post broke the story and well hear from a correspondent that did the reporting. They said its a joke we dont get said with a wink and a smile like this one calling democrats traitors for not applauding at his state of the Union Address last year. Should we call that treason . Why not . They certainly didnt seem to love our country very much. His press secretary said the president was clearly joking. Her assistant called it tongue and cheek. Others called it sarcasm, which the president invoked after remarks such as this one. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. The president in his written answers to Robert Mueller said quote, i made the statement quoted and questioned ingest and sarcastical sarcastically. The russians started hacking within hours unless the president was being sarcastic when he said he was only being sarcastic. There are many examples. What they share is none in any way actually resembles a joke in form or content. They also share is the tellers demonstrated dishonesty. Which is press secretary seldom seen stephanie flat out denied telling the Washington Post quote, i dont think they are lies. I think the president communicates in a way some people especially the media arent necessarily comfortable with. A lot of times they take him so literally. I know people will roll their eyes if i say he was just kidding or speaking hypotheticals but sometimes he is. The question now, seriously, was she joking when she said the president doesnt lie . Perspective from the Washington Post nick who shares a by line on this pardon story. So nick, based on your reporting, what did the president actually say about pardoning officials . So the president said to aids who were worried about both the pace of the contracting process, the procurement process, the Environmental Concerns as well as the imminent domain issues involved with taking large amounts of private land along the border when they express those worries, the presidnt said dont worry, ill pardon you and this was, you know, and we were told this by people who were in those meetings with the president at the time. Did they take it as a joke . They did not take it as a joke. In fact, the president has said this repeatedly to his aids and to visitors at the white house who were working on this project and there have been moments when for example his former chief of staff general john f. Kelly had to later reassure some of those aids that the president didnt really mean it and not to follow his instructions. Just to be clear, what exactly is he pushing these aids to do before the election when it comes to the wall . So the president is under extraordinary pressure to deliver on his 2016 Campaign Promise to build a wall along the border. So far the army corps of engineer built 60 miles, all of it replacing fencing in areas where that fencing was older, but the president promised a border would and feels like he has to deliver, he has told his supporters that hes going to build 500 miles by next years president ial election. And Homeland Security officials and the army corps of engineers have said they are on track to build 450 miles and so the president wants them to hurry up. He wants to be able to point to this as an establishment and hes hungry to take it as to be able to claim it as an achievement. As youve reported, his staff wants pictures of it to prove that its going on. Youre reporting about copper theft comments the president made how effective of a deterrent a wall would be. The president acknowledged in meetings with lawmakers he realizes a wall along the border, or a large fence, which is what it really is will not make as large a difference in detouring a lillegal immigratios other measures including the legal and administrative authorities that hes been seeking to be able to deport more people faster, that type of thing. Again, yes, the wall doesnt do anything about the asylum issue and thats really the big problem right now. People are presenting themselves. A wall doesnt stop them from surrendering at the border which is what is happening. The president tweeted this afternoon quote the wall is going up very fast despite total obstruction by democrats and congress and elsewhere. If youre talking about new miles of wall where wall has not been, thats factually untrue, correct . Thats right. So far administration hasnt completed a single mile of fencing or barrier in a place where none existed before. They have completed 60 miles of replacement barriers and their plan is to install about 110 miles of barriers in places where there is currently no fencing whatsoever. I also want to point out that the president has been changing his mind about design requirements hes passing along to the army corps of engineers and in may he directed them to paint the wall black. The wall is to be painted black and he also wants it to be spiked on top with sharp points, which he thinks will be more of a deterrent to people who might consider trying to climb it. He has reasons for that. His own theories but the fact of the matter is by making those changes or additions, it adds extra cost to reduce the total number of mileage. Thats correct. The cost of painting for example 175 miles of barriers is going to be as much as 133 million according to the governments own calculations and that is going to reduce the amount of fencing that they will ultimately be able to build. Terrific reporting. Thanks for being with us tonight. Good to be with you. More perspective from two people familiar with the president s thinking and the way he works. David served as dhs spokesman under President Trump and former white house attorney James Schultz is a cnn legal commentator. David, you worked for this administration and president. Would it surprise you if the president did in fact offer to pardon people who broke the wall, broke the law i should say in order to get his wall built . No, it wouldnt surprise me. And again, i think the issue here is all the confusion after the fact. You know, the question is was the president joking about pardoning people . He joking about breaking the law . He joking about building 500 miles of fence before the next election . I mean, there are all these elements that have gone unaddressed. What does it matter if the people in the room didnt take it as a joke, took it literally and took it as an order . Now thats a great point because again, for all of us, words matter. For the president of the United States, its even more important. So there should never be any doubt of any of the people who work for or support the president about exactly what his intent is. He should be clear and if there is doubt in their mind about whether hes joking, whether hes serious, thats going to cause confusion and people will get out of line and do things that they werent supposed to be doing. I will note, if he was joking and there is no evidence in fact he was based on the reporting coming out of that, it would be hard for those people who took him literally to find that out after he broke the law. That would be a heck of a time finding out he was kidding, wouldnt it . Absolutely. I would be hard pressed to go ahead and knowingly break the law with this idea that there might be a pardon for me, what kind of guarantee is there that will happen . If i break the law, im held accountable for breaking the law, not the president. Jim, how do you see this . To be clear, this isnt the first time that the president has reportedly suggested pardoning people who break the law to get things done that he wants to get done. Look, i dont think there is any question that the president said that in the meeting but the context of it is just, we dont know how it was said and we dont know how it was taken. A lot of this is somewhat speculative but one thing he wasnt kidding about is the fact that he wants to see a border fence built and he wants to see it built in a fast and efficient manner. Look, he has a right to be frustrated with bureaucracy getting in the way of construction of that fence. Ive worked in government for a lot of years off and on. Ive seen what bureaucracy does to Construction Projects. In pennsylvania when i was general counsel, to get bridges built, we had to do a rapid Bridge Replacement Program to get through the permitting process in the construction and procurement process. Thats not unheard of in government that youll want to get through the processes quicker to get something accomplished. Nobody will argue the government tends to slow down as it relates to Construction Projects when compared to the private sector. Bureaucracy is a pain in the neck, jim. No question about that but were you serving in the White House Counsels Office as you did and someone came to you and said hey, jim, the president just told me to break the law, what should i do . Wou what would you say . First off, nobody came to me and said that when i was in the white house. Im saying now, there are people in the meeting youre giving me a hypothetical that never happened. No one in their right mind is going to walk out of there and think the White House Counsels Office the report and the process to give a pardon cnn and New York Times all say no one is taking that seriously there are three reputable news organizations all now reporting in this meeting the president said if you have to break the law to get this done, i will pardon you. So frankly, everyone is saying it happened right now. The distinction is i havent disputed that it happened. There you go. Not even you are disputing it i think if there is someone is that took it, is there is someone in the meeting that took it to be an offer of the pardon if you broke the law so its not a hypothetic hypothetical, it mhappened, wha would they say to the Administration Official . Thats not right. Dont take it literally. Thats exactly dont do it. You would say dont do it . Dont break the law. You would say dont break the law no matter what the president says. Of course you would say that. Of course you would say that do not break the law and that person thats coming to you, if they are coming to you and asking was he serious about that . The answer is likely to be no. He wasnt serious about that. But what he is serious about is breaking through the red tape in order to get this wall built. Ill note likely isnt definitely in this case but there is another issue here thats serious, as well. David, i want to put this question to you, red portiporti president is conceding while he cares about the law, there is no question he cares about the wall. The wall in and of itself wont stop the biggest part of the illegal immigration problem now, which is the asylum process and Asylum Seekers. Thats a pretty glaring admission, given that he ran on the wall, the wall seems to be where his primary focus is, correct . Thats correct. And another talking point that there has been on the wall is that its effect on stopping Drug Trafficking into the United States, which is also not accurate. Most drugs enter the United States through ports of entry, not only across the southern border but in the airports and ports, a wall will do nothing to stop that. The humanitarian crisis at the border, not just Asylum Seekers is women and children. Again, they are not detoured by a wall. In fact, as you noted earlier, weve seen photos of migrants coming to the border and walking up to the fence that exists there and now and waiting patiently for Border Patrol to open the gate and let them in so they can request asylum. Jim, to be sure, this isnt to say that the border officials i speak with and i know you speak with dont want the wall because most i have spoken to say a wall would be helpful. More officials want it. However, however, at the exact same time they will tell you that they wish that is not where the focus was at this time because it would not help or affect the asylum crisis they see going on. Why doesnt congress get off the coach and do something about it . Thats what i have to say. The democrats and congress can get off the coach and do something about this now. They choose not to. They choose not to work with the president on a global approach to how to deal with the Immigration Crisis at the border. Just today they were upset that the president was diverting funds to add additional beds and additional funds as it relates to the courts and the Detention Centers along the border and at a time they are saying there are problems, aoc said they were like concentration camps along the border. There is all of this that the sky is falling along the border, yet when it comes to doing something, they sit on the couch. You gave me a segway to the next segment. Diverting fema money as the hurricane hits to address the border, thank youall so much for being with us tonight. On the issue of priorities, what about sending fema money to the border and what the chairman of the Security Committee has to say about that and later, the president s former defense secretary opens verbal fire on the commander in chief, what retire said about his old boss and leadership. Thatthere you are, mom here. Thats you . That does kinda look like our family. What are you wearing . 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