Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera 20170902

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera September 2, 2017

Us this weekend and right now, President Trump and air force one are just about to leave harveys disaster zone in Southeast Texas bound for nearby louisiana. In houston, the president met with the evacuees doling out hugs and kisses to children and that the government will stand by them. The president is continuing to meet with First Responders and the members of the military who responded in this effort. This afternoons effort was meant to blunt criticism that followed the first texas trip four days ago. Critics even some within his own party said he failed to show enough empathy and compassion and that was on full display today as you can see. He seems to have embraced the role as the nations comforter in chief. Really i think people appreciate whats been done. Its been done very efficiently. Very well. And thats what were were very happy with the way that everything has gone. A lot of love. What did the family a lot of happiness. Its been very nice. A wonderful thing. As tough as this was, its been a wonderful thing. Across houston and much of Southeast Texas, streets are now overflowing with soggy and stinky trash. Ruined items pulled from their flooded homes. Just last hour, the white house announced it will increase its funding of debris removal and other protective measures. This as the death toll rises to at least 50 now. In beaumont thats northeast of houston near the louisiana border the situation is grim. The city of 118,000 or so is now in its third day without running water. And thousands there still dont have power. Workers are hoping to restore the water today, but thats only if the river levels drop enough and at last check that wasnt happening. Our crews are following the president and the first lady. Athena jones is in houston. Ryan, ill start with you. Thats where hes now headed. What will the president do as far as we know after his plane touches down in that state . Reporter well, ana, the role of the president here in lake charles, louisiana, is to thank the contribution that the folks of louisiana have given to help aid the Recovery Process in texas. Now, originally the president promised a visit here to louisiana before that second wave of Hurricane Harvey blew through. There was a good chance that some towns like lake charles would be hard hit. It didnt turn out that way. The bulk of the destruction happened over the border, but the Governor John Bel Edwards promised the governor of texas that they would get all of the support from louisiana that they could handle. And Louisiana National guard which is right here behind me, this is where the president is going to visit has played a key role in going into texas, helping people get out of their homes and get to safety. The city of lake charles itself has been a place that many of the evacuate years have ended up. They have been sheltered in different areas here. Let me show you the scene, and this is where the president visits the hard hit areas. This is a Significant Group of Trump Supporters who have showed up you side the armory, perhaps to catch a glimpse of the president. They have no guarantees they will see him. This is a tightly controlled event where hell go in and spend a little bit of time with the National Guard troops, look at some of their equipment and then talk to them about their assistance and aid in their recovery. But no doubt about it, this is trump country. We have seen plenty of make America Great hats and we have seen trump flags. This is an area thats supported him in a big way so not a big surprise to see his supporters out here. All right, ryan nobles, stand by. Were continuing to see live images as the president continues to meet with the folks on the ground in houston. This is right before he is scheduled to depart from Ellington Field there in houston. Were told hes shaking thanes with members of the shaking hands with members of the coast guard. We heard him ask how many individuals each of these people helped save. One guy tell the president six people. The president is taking lots of thank yous and taking a lot of pictures. We heard from the residents express great appreciation for the president being there. It means a lot, the president is a little over an hour and half now behind the schedule they gave us. So hes taking his time. At one point he made an unscheduled kind of stop meeting a few more people than initially was on the schedule. He really does seem to be enjoying lets listen. But i have to say even you have to admit, i hear the coast guard saved 11,000 think of it. Almost 11,000 people by going into winds that the media would not go into. They will not go into those winds. Unless its a really good story in which case they will. Okay . But i want to congratulate everybody, i want to congratulate the coast guard for what you have done. Incredible. Incredible. I gave the commencement speech this year at the coast guard academy. Theyre going to come out and compete with you guys pretty soon. You know that, right . But they have a lot to compete with. So i want to congratulate you guys, the army guys. This has been i mean, its brutal whats been up there. But you have done so much for the services and the whole world is watching. The whole world is watching. I want to thank you look at all thank you, fellows. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. You have done so much for the prestige of the services. And the coast guard and what you have done. Again, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Going to louisiana now, sir. Theyre in pretty good shape too. Theyre in good shape. Just with the governor and this is going very well. You have done something really special. Thank you. Thank you, its an honor. Thank you. You know it gets better and better every month. Were getting into the new stuff. Thank you. Okay. The president gearing up now to Board Air Force one to head to louisiana after spending several hours now on the ground in houston meeting with many of the people affected by hurricane and Tropical Storm harvey as well as those who have responded. The heroes and the volunteers who continue to do such hard work there. He was just talking with the coast guard in announcing that they saved 11,000 people. That was just the coast guard. Other officials telling us the number of rescues were somewhere in the neighborhood of 72,000. Again in the past week. People working hour after hour and many a sleepless night. The president expressing his gratitude today in person on the ground. Well continue to monitor these pictures. Let me bring in athena jones and shes been with the president throughout the day. It seems like people are happy hes there. Reporter i would say so. I remember the first pictures of the president arriving at the nrg stadium which is sheltering nearly 2,000 people. He came as a surprise, the fact that he was coming was a surprise to the folks there. He was greeting the children. They were hugging him. He was picking them up. He posed for selfies with children and adults alike. Sat down and spoke with him. He and Melania Trump then put some on gloves and started to hand out food. Then they made a stop another a church that was a Distribution Center and he gave encouraging remarks and helped load supplies on some trucks. We saw him stop in pear land, south of houston, people are already beginning to tear out from the drywall from their flooded homes. Put mattresses on the side of the road and now were seeing him give his thanks to the volunteers. You know, White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said the president would meet and speak extensively with the flood victims and volunteers. And lets play a little bit of the message he had at nrg stadium earlier today. A lot of water, but its moving out. But i think most importantly the governor, the relationship with the governor, and the mayor and everybody its been fantastic. And with the federal government. Its been really great. And were signing a lot of documents now to get money into your state. 7. 9 billion. We signed it and its going through hopefully a quick process. Reporter so there you heard the president talking about this big first installment of aid. Nearly 8 billion that he hopes to see congress approve very quickly. We expect to see at least a vote in at least one of the chambers of congress by the end of this coming week. We heard him talk about that aid. Interestingly did not hear him mention the 1 million in personal funds he has pledged to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey. But we have heard words like consoler in chief, comforter in chief and i think cheerleader in chief. Hes had a very optimistic tone. At one point even saying well, yes, it could take several years to recover but because youre texas, we think maybe you can do it in six months. That may be kind of raising the bar that state officials dont want to see, but the idea here is that the president is focused on the positive. And were seeing for the first time in a way that we didnt get to see on tuesday because the president was meeting with officials and not storm victims, we are seeing a personal touch. Sort of the hands on touch that youre used to seeing from a president in a tragedy like this. And ana, he seems to be very embracing it and from the reporting that we have seen from the close pool of reporters who are traveling closely with him, those who flew in with him on air force one, he is being well received even in instances that are off camera. Ana . All right, athena jones, and ryan nobles, thank you. I want to get reaction to the president s second trip to the storm ravaged area. With me here is julian tell zer and bob cusack. So President Trump he was criticized for his visit on tuesday when he talked about crowd size that came to see him. He didnt meet with any of the storm victims at the time. And we saw Vice President Mike Pence Visit a few days later. He met with the victims. He helped clean up debris. Today, the president seems very hands on. Is he doing what he needs to do to quiet those critics . Today, without a doubt, this is a very good day for the president. He had a very, very difficult august. But hes starting off september very well. Its all these situations these natural disasters, terrorist attacks, i mean, theyre all about visuals. You think of bush after 9 11 with the bullhorn and the flyover with katrina, that was not good. These photos and visuals are very good for the president. He is being very president ial and im sure is going to be attracting a lot of praise for what hes done today. The governor of texas has praised the texas and his vow and pledge to help the people there. Again, we have seen these images today of him sitting down talking to children. Giving them hugs. Giving them kisses. Reassuring adults that the federal government was going to be there with them until the very end. Do you think history might be too soon to tell but will he be remembered kindly and in a positive light for what we have seen so far . I think its too soon to tell. Today is much more successful than the first visit. And in terms of his attitude and demeanor, this is more what people were expecting from the president of the United States. But the real question is what youre seeing. Will the federal government be there and we have a big budgetary issue to deal with. This is going to be an expensive fix in the next few month, in the next few years to provide the relief necessary. We dont know yet. Is the president and the Republican Congress committed to the money that will be necessary . Thats how well remember what he does. Bob, lets talk about the money. Because the senior white house official tells us they expect the senate to attach the Storm Funding be toil the debt ceiling conversation. What do you think the outcome of that could be . I think thats going to be very difficult. I think a more likely scenario theyll attach this funding to a government funding measure and do the debt ceiling separately. A lot remains to be scene on this. You know, i thought before this storm hit the chances of a Government Shutdown were over 50 but since the storm hit, no well deal with the wall funding later. Maybe in december. So i dont think there will be a Government Shutdown. But conservatives do not want this funding attached to raising the debt ceiling. They dont mind if its attached to the government funding bill. Two separate issues. Without a doubt, there are fiscal fights ahead and these this money is just the first of many installments. It took katrina it took years after they had to congress had to appropriate money for rebuilding. Again, the president and first lady, this is a live image as they wave goodbye to the people of houston. A fist bump pointing to the heroes on the ground who he was meeting with as theyre preparing to load up and then head to louisiana where they will do much of the same as far as the schedule that we have been presented. We saw him also traveling with some of his aides including his chief of staff, john kelly, who is alongside him on the ground there. Julian, as far as the funding conversation why not make this a clean funding bill do you think . Well, i think hes trying to deal with the fact there was a budget mess already looming for september and october with deep divisions over the wall, with deep divisions over spending on other issues so i think part of this is political gamesmanship. Its a strategic choice to try to solve two problems at once. Im not sure it will work. The Freedom Caucus and the house of representatives is not happy with a lot of this and come december which is not that far off were still going to have to deal with the budgetary issues. Thank you so much. Youll be back both in a moment. Coming up the Justice Department weighing in on President Trumps claims that former president barack Obama Wiretapped him during his campaign. The details next. Destruction is massive, families have lost everything. The final impact not yet known. But you can help. Go to cnn. Com impact, for information and to find links to charitable organizations and resources. Your donations can make a difference. 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Ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. Fixodent plus adhesives. Theres a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. Just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. Strong more like natural teeth. Were following breaking news out of washington. The Justice Department revealed it has found no evidence, zero evidence that donald trump tower was wiretapped. Both fbi and nsd confirmed that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the march 4, 2017 tweets. Among the tweets were these accusations. Terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in the trump tower before the victory. This is mccarthyism. Has low has president obama gone to tap my phones . This is nixon watergate. Bad or sick guy. Lets bring in cnn political analyst and political historian and bob cusack. Bob, first your reaction to the doj saying it has no evidence of wiretapping despite the claims that the president made in the tweets. Yeah, those claims really up ended washington and shocked a lot of people and the white house has never fully described what the situation was and theres been no firm data showing that the president was wiretapped. So its just another head scratcher tweet that we have seen from the president. The president has already had strong words of disapproval with attorney general Jeff Sessions though. Im wondering how this will impact their relationship. This again coming directly from the department of justice directly contradicting the president. It will anger the president. The president doesnt like when anything comes from within the executive branch that contradicts what he says. This is a direct refutation of one of the accusations that he makes and we know that President Trump has tension with attorney general

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