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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Helene Strengthens To Category 3 Major Hurricane; NYC Mayor Eric Adams Indicted On Charges Including Bribery. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 26, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:23]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And we have several huge stories today. We're going to start with our national lead. Warnings of, quote, unsurvivable -- unsurvivable storm surge flooding for some parts of Florida in the southern United States.

Hurricane Helene was just upgraded to a powerful category three storm. It's already wreaking havoc on bridges and roadways such as this one you're looking at in southwest Florida.

For those in the Big Bend, that's where the Florida panhandle meets the peninsula. The storm's outer bands already have brought extensive flooding. And we're told that worse is yet to come.

Listen to what federal and state officials are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Right now, it looks like it's dead on hit to Tallahassee.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: This is an unusually dangerous storm that threatens to bring heavy rain and potentially catastrophic flooding.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R), GEORGIA: This will be a statewide event. We expect strong winds throughout date with hurricane-force winds, wind gust up to 80 to 100 miles an hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You just heard from the North Carolina governor and the Georgia governor. We are standing by to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the next hour.

And as you heard, it is not just Florida in Helene's path, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, are all facing historic flooding. Some 60 million people across 12 southeastern United States are under some sort of watch or warning related to this hurricane.

Let's get right to CNN's John Berman who is on the ground in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida.

And, John, the FEMA administrator says, this is looking like a dead on hit where you are.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a dead on hit on Tallahassee, Jake, as a hurricane in that significant, even historic. For all the storms that have passed over Tallahassee the last, even 14 months, two of them, this would be the first at crossed with hurricane force strength winds. And that's a real problem.

South of here is where it will make landfall about 20 miles. That's where you'll see the dangerous storm surge as much as 20 feet. If it crosses with wind speeds, a hurricane category three, category four of 120 miles per hour winds there, it could pass over Tallahassee with 100, 110 mile per hour winds. And that is just treacherous.

The county commissioner told me a short time ago, they expect thousands of trees to come down. They have all kinds of beautiful big trees here, including those huge live oaks, thousands of trees could come down. That's a serious threat to homes, cars, anything on the roads. And of course, power as well, they expect hundreds of road closures, which could mean the Tallahassee suffering for days and days.

You see people out walking now, they're looking around like when is it coming? When is it coming? Over the next several hours, that conditions will progressively get worse with those winds picking up, the rain is beginning to fall. A total of ten inches of rain could fall here in Tallahassee, population some 200,000, the public transportation shutdown a 2:00 p.m. so the only way to get around is by walking or by car and they don't want people driving right now.

"The Tallahassee Democrat" reporting that even Waffle House has shut all its locations in Tallahassee, which is assigned because anyone who's been in a hurricane knows the Waffle House tries to stay they opened no matter what is the last thing to close, the first thing to open unless conditions are really bad, those really bad conditions or what they're expecting here, Jake.

And one more thing, I'll add, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the disaster management from Florida, they run their operations at a Tallahassee because normally Tallahassee is safe place for the hurricanes that hit further south and peninsula, not this time. Tallahassee right in the direct path in could feel it starting around 8:00 tonight, Jake.

TAPPER: John Berman, thanks so much.

CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa is tracking Hurricane Helene for us.

Now, Elisa, tell us what to expect in these critical hours that are coming out.

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're expecting it to intensify even more. It's still sitting over very warm ocean waters with very little wind energy in its way. So that could allow it to continue the organized and gain strength. This eye was a little bit clear in the last couple of scans, showing us that it is intensifying, 120 miles per hour in the center of the storm. Those are the wind speeds still sitting hundred and 65 miles south of Apalachicola.

So again, still some time to gain strength here. We've already found some wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour for Key West, at Fort Myers as well. Some of the outer bands have already been lashing Florida today. And we've already had multiple tornado warnings as well because as the outer bands come on shore, you've got a turning and twisting tropical system.

[16:05:03]

The threat of tornadoes continues through the night as well.

Here's a look at the track. We're looking at it, maintaining this major category three strength as it makes landfall somewhere in that Big Bend of Florida, Apalachicola, Tallahassee, the hurricane warnings stretch up to make in the storm is very wide about 400 miles wide.

So again, not just a Florida problem, look at how far stretching the warnings stretch into Georgia, all that blue tropical storm warnings that are in effect worried about widespread power outages, even in Atlanta from the damaging winds.

This is the un-survivable part, the storm surge up to 20 feet. Look at this in the Big Bend of Florida, you have to escape this. You need to evacuate some storm surge like that.

Again, the outer bands come in. There's that eye coming in by tonight, still 70 mile per hour winds overnight even in Macon, Georgia, with all of that heavy rain. We are also worried about historic catastrophic flooding in the Western Carolinas.

This high risk of heavy rain from Asheville down to Tallahassee is incredibly rare, only issued 4 percent of the time, but is responsible for 80 percent of the damage that we see from flooding because we are looking at up to a foot or more or of rain possible in this area here in the Carolinas.

And this is a mountainous area. This is this southern Appalachian chain. So where were worried about is landslides that could be catastrophic for people in the Carolinas and North Georgia, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Meteorologist Elisa Raffa, thanks so much. We'll be back with you in a second.

Let's turn now to Florida state fire marshal, Jimmy Patronis.

Jimmy, do you feel as though Florida is prepared for this massive hurricane?

JIMMY PATRONIS, FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER & STATE FIRE MARSHAL: We are, this is the second largest deployment we've had an urban search and rescue in the state's history, only second to Hurricane Ian. We've got about 1,100 men and women pre-staged, ready to go. We brought resources in from out-of-state as a precaution simply because of the magnitude of this storm and the uncertainty and how fast it was moving. TAPPER: You're also Florida's chief financial officer and thus, you worked closely with insurance company -- companies. You've worn Floridians, quote, do not sign anything. What kind of scams should people be looking out for in the wake of the storm?

PATRONIS: Jake, thank you for asking that question.

What will happen is there'll be predators. They're almost like locust. They will be canvassing the neighborhoods pre-staged better than the utility companies. And they will go from door to door because you're vulnerable. Maybe don't have electricity, maybe you have limited access to the Internet but they will essentially get you to sign a document, whether its called an assignment of benefits, or directional payment.

They will essentially take over your insurance claim because you're in a vulnerable place. Maybe you have a tree on your house. Maybe you got damaged to your roof and you're panicking because you want to get as much service to save your house as much as possible. And these predators know that.

So, if their first phone call is to their agent, my office at 1877,MYFLCFO, or their insurance carrier. There's zero chance for them to be taken advantage of.

TAPPER: What do you worry about most right now?

PATRONIS: What I'm worried most about right now are those that are going to be too stubborn to evacuate. This storm has created some complacency in the Big Bend area of Florida, this storm -- this storm area has been hit by Idalia and Debby in the last year, two storms in the last year.

This storm is very different from the two previous storms that hit the same vicinity of the state. So there are going to be those individuals that said I survived Debbie. I survived Idalia. I'm just not going to leave this time. And unfortunately, that's where we have the loss of life. That's where were going to put our first responders at the greatest risk, trying to save peoples lives that were too reluctant to evacuate to higher ground.

This storm is going quite a storm event -- surge event that others didn't have.

TAPPER: Obviously, loss of life is the worst possible results, but billions of dollars worth of storm damage is also of concern because that's money that would normally be spent on other things, food and shelter for individuals, et cetera. How is the state of Florida working to minimize the cost of damage to homes and to businesses?

PATRONIS: Sure. So, it's crazy. It's hard to want to believe this. The state of Florida makes money off for hurricanes, when you have billions of dollars, they're being paid out. An insurance claim, things you could take, for example, hurricane Ian generated about $1.5 billion in non-typical revenue for the state. We didn't plan for it. So those dollars or something, we are very

aggressive about pushing back out to offset expenses with insurance through programs like the My Safe Florida home program, which literally helps you harden your home to buy down your insurance premiums.

[16:10:04]

So we've got some programs in place. Florida's a unique place, and Mother Nature loves to pay us a visit.

TAPPER: All right. And your last question, I'm just going to say talk to the people in the path of the storm right now, talk to your fellow Floridians. What should they be doing right now?

PATRONIS: You know, thank you. Please hunker down. You can't leave now. It's too late. Understand, if you have decided to stay home and you're in a low lying areas, please call a loved one, call somebody else that knows and cares about you and let them know you did not evacuate.

As our many and women go out and tried to rescue and try to find you, it would be great if we have a pointer reference to know that, hey, my sister did not evacuate, this is her address. We will take that information and it helps us pinpoint where we should look when it comes to those life-saving recoveries that will happen in the next 24 hours.

TAPPER: All right. Florida state fire marshal, Jimmy Patronis, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Just moments ago, we saw the situation inland in Tallahassee, but next, we're going to go to the coast, CNN has teams position there as this hurricane moves in. We're also standing by to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a press conference.

Plus, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is going to join us live here on THE LEAD, as his state braces for what's to come.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:14]

TAPPER: Now, we're back with the national lead. You are looking right now at live pictures from Tampa, Florida. This is the Howard Franklin Bridge that crosses old the Tampa Bay. You can see the storm surge already starting to cover parts of that span as Hurricane Helene gets closer to landfall.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Apalachicola in the Big Bend. That's where the panhandle meets the peninsula.

Derek, as these outer bands move in, this area could see some significant storm surge tonight. DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, and this area is bracing for what could be a generational event as well. The National Weather Service coming out of Tallahassee using very strong wording, talking about this increasing likelihood of catastrophic, if not unsurvivable storm surge of 10 to even upwards of 20 feet right around the Apalachee Bay region, just to my east, where we're standing roughly 10 to 15 foot storm surge is predicted at the height of the storm as major Hurricane Helene moves in.

Now, we have an opportunity to speak to one of the sheriff's deputy of Franklin County where we're located which is under a mandatory evacuation. And they talked about how the bridge behind me which connects Apalachicola to the eastern side of this Apalachicola River, this has not closed down just yet, we actually need these sustained tropical storm force winds.

And why I mentioned this is because Tallahassee is just to my east and this bridge really connects us that lifeline of Tallahassee. We want to talk about the threats that are posed to this area, not just the storm surge, but it is the potential for catastrophic winds. Right among that immediate the coastline, a major hurricane approaching. We know that this can cause so much damage, especially considering the tree coverage that's in this area and the already saturated environment, just looking at this radar and satellite it is just pushed up so much water in terms of rainfall, just here alone in Apalachicola, we've had over seven inches of rain since yesterday.

So, the ground is pretty saturated and the main event hasn't even begun yet. So we anticipate the worst of this system finally move in with that heavy rainfall. So, flash flooding, the threat of tornadoes, the storm surge and catastrophic winds that are all typical with a landfall in hurricane of this magnitude.

But I'm going to highlight this because this is so important. This, catastrophic, and they're using words like unprecedented coming out of western North Carolina. This rainfall event that is going to shape up as this storm system slides with a cold front that's moving through the area its going to allow this over spreading of extremely heavy rainfall that has allowed the national weather service issued this high risk of extreme rain that could lead to flash flooding.

And they don't take that lightly. That only occurs for 4 percent of those instances, Jake. And that's when we have actually 40 percent of fatalities and 80 percent of damage within those high-risk areas. So we need to watch -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Derek Van Dam in Apalachicola, Florida, thanks so much.

Let's bring back meteorologist Elisa Raffa.

And, Elisa, and always I want to play something from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp today as he warned people in his state to get ready for the storm. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEMP: Unfortunately, we're going to be on the state of Georgia and most of our counties are going to be on the dirty side of the storm, or the east side of the storm.

So that's something else people need to be prepared for, be listening to your local media outlets for potential tornado watches and warnings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Elisa, he mentioned Georgia expected to be on the, quote, dirty side of the storm.

Explain for us what that means.

RAFFA: Yeah, I want to show you where it is right now. You can see here so clearly when you look at the wind gusts. So, hurricane in the northern hemisphere, kind of spins itself counter-clockwise, plus, it's got this forward speed that's going north, right? So with the forwards be coming this way and the winds also coming this way, you get some of the fastest winds, right here on the northeast side of the storm. And you can see that in the colors, how destructive these winds are right offshore here of Tampa. Fort Myers, gusts up to 44 miles per hour right now in Tampa.

So as this center continues its trek towards the Big Bend, where you get this cluster of it strongest winds again, sits on the east side. So when you look at the maximum wind threat, if we get this landfall somewhere along the big bend here of Florida, that's going to take the most destructive winds up to Tallahassee, possibly, Albany, Georgia, and then even up towards Atlanta. We've been watching this very closely to see where the strongest winds, if they come straight through Atlanta or if they go just to the east or to the west, something to watch very closely what those wins will do is close widespread power outages.

It's also where you find the heaviest footprint of rain as well. That's where the moisture gets sucked in -- Jake.

TAPPER: Elisa Raffa, thanks so much. We're going to come back at your way at the top of the hour when the new hurricane forecast comes in.

Another big story, we're following, of course, is the federal charges against the mayor of New York, Eric Adams.

Adams denies any wrongdoing, but we're going to show you the messages that we're traded between Adam staffers and we're going to tell you about the alleged instructions by Adams to delete texts. It's all laid out in the new indictment.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:00] TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is defiant. He is refusing to step down as he faces new federal charges of bribery, fraud, and campaign finance offenses.

This is all part of an alleged multiyear scheme to solicit illegal campaign contributions and lavish gifts from foreign donors, which prosecutors say he lead illegally hid. Specifically, Mayor Adams allegedly received luxury travel and other benefits from a Turkish official, including multiple first-class flights, and hotel stays worth tens of thousands of dollars.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino reports for us now on what officials say Adams gave up in return.

(BEGIN VDIEOTAPE)

ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK MAYOR: I look forward to defending myself.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New York City Mayor Eric Adams, once a rising star in the Democratic Party now faces a five-count federal indictment.

DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: The conduct alleged in the indictment, the foreign money, the corporate money, the bribery, the years of concealment is a grave breach of the public's trust.

PAZMINO: Prosecutors say Adams sold his office in exchange for thousands of dollars in illegal donations from foreign nationals, along with gifts, luxury travel and premium hotel rooms.

Adams forcefully denied the allegations.

ADAMS: The leaks, the commentary, the demonizing, and I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments.

PAZMINO: The indictment lays out a decade long scheme by Adams stretching back to his time as Brooklyn borough president. Since then, prosecutors say Adams solicited donations from Turkish nationals in violation of campaign finance laws.

The indictment lays out a number of alleged instances like one where staffer is communicating around a potential $100,000 donation, writing I think he wouldn't get involved in such games. They might cause a big stink later on.

The Adams staffer allegedly responded, I'll ask anyways.

WILLIAMS: Adams knew that these wealthy individuals could not legally donate in a U.S. election.

PAZMINO: Prosecutors allege Adams tried to hide the donations by funneling them through straw donors, the money multiplied by thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded matching funds.

Once he took office, prosecutors say Adams used his power to pressure agencies to take favorable action to benefit Turkish officials. In one instance, the mayor directed the Fire Department to facilitate the opening of the new Turkish consulate, which had failed to pass safety inspections.

WILLIAMS: This building was important to the Turkish official and it was important to Turkey.

PAZMINO: Turkish officials under pressure from an impending visit by the Turkish president allegedly asked Adams to intervene. The building opened without incident.

Prosecutors allege Adams took multiple trips to India, France, China, Hungary, and Ghana, making critical stops in Turkey, at one point texting his partner. You know first stop always is Istanbul.

During the trips, Adam stayed in luxury accommodations for free or at a steep discount according to prosecutors.

WILLIAMS: He asked to pay a nominal fee for all of this in order to disguise what we alleged were, in fact, bribes.

PAZMINO: The indictment also lays out how Adams would keep cash with an email that, quote, suggested that he left at a minimum well over $10,000 in cash in the Adams scheduler's desk drawer to, quote, send to Turkish Airlines.

When he learned federal prosecutors were investigating, Adams allegedly tried to conceal the evidence directing staff first to delete messages. Federal agents spend more than three hours inside Adams's residence this morning. Only Adams was named in the indictment. But since news of the investigations and impending charges broke into the open, several officials have tender their resignations, leaving critical agencies without steady leaders.

ADAMS: From here, my attorneys would take care of the case so I can take care of the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO: And he has a taking a first step to address that exact concern, Jake, whether or not he's going to be able to run the city just a few minutes ago, he sent an email two city workers telling them that he is innocent and that he wants them to focus on the job of running the city.

That that's what he's going to be doing in the next several weeks. We also heard from his lawyer outside of Gracie Mansion here just a short time ago, Alex Spiro was standing with the mayor who remain silent while he was standing next to him. Spiro said that some of these airline upgrades and these travel tickets were simply airline upgrades, something that all VIPs get very often.

[16:30:07]

Another important detail in all of this, Jake, if he is convicted of all these charges, the five counts, he could be facing up to 45 years in prison. We have also reached out to the Turkish consulate. We have not heard back -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Great case. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

Let's break this all down with CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. He's the former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. That's the same office that charged Mayor Adams.

So, Elie, you've read the indictment now. It's pretty juicy stuff. I have to say as an indictment reader and in your view as a former prosecutor from the Southern District, how strong is it, do you think?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jake, you know, sometimes ill look at an indictment as a former prosecutor and just think game over. They have no -- the defense has nowhere to run.

I actually did not have that reaction to this indictment.

I don't think it's a slam dunk, but I do think the prosecution is proceeding from a solid foundation of evidence.

Now, two things jumped out at me. First of all, it's clear that prosecutors have someone or more than one people cooperating from the inside. There's conversations that are relayed in this indictment that are clearly inside conversations. So they do seem to have key cooperation.

And second of all, the text messages are really valuable. You saw some of them in Gloria's piece right there. One that jumped out at me, there's an incident where Adams learns about a foreign businessman who wants to donate to his campaign, but that's illegal. You cannot accept campaign contributions from a foreign national. And so, Adams texts one of his campaign staffers: essentially, find a way to make this happen. We don't want to waste this guy's potential donation.

So, to me, it's a pretty incriminating text, so I think the evidence is good, but I wouldn't declare this over and done just yet.

TAPPER: Where do you see Mayor Adam's defense going here?

HONIG: So, yeah, a couple of things. First of all, Eric Adams remains a popular figure in this town. Remember, its going to require a unanimous New York jury to find him guilty. That's never easy to do.

The other thing is the corruption laws have become more difficult for prosecutors in recent years, the Supreme Court in a series of decisions has narrowed the scope of these corruption laws, and one of the things they've held is it's not a quote-unquote official act under the law to set up meetings or to make phone calls. There has to be something more tangible, like a vote given.

So I think Eric Adams and he's already hinted at this, will argue I was doing my job as mayor. I was doing constituent service and that's not a crime.

TAPPER: How likely is it do you think that this case ends up at trial as opposed to a guilty plea? And if it goes to trial, how quickly might that happen?

HONIG: So if you look at the data, Jake, over 95 percent of all federal cases in the southern district of New York plead guilty without a trial. That said, this one seems like it's headed to trial to me. I don't see a scenario where Eric Adams, who is famously headstrong, who's obviously dug-in, is going to admit criminal culpability and take a plea.

Now timing-wise ordinarily a case like this would take at least a year to get to trial, maybe 18 months, maybe two years. However, were going to have a situation where our sitting mayor is under indictment and I think that will lead all parties, judge, prosecutor and defense, to understand the need to get this thing to trial as soon as humanly possible, because to have a sitting mayor laboring under federal indictment is I think a problem for everybody.

BURNETT: All right. Elie Honig, thanks so much.

Let's discuss this all now with Maya Wiley. She's a civil rights attorney. She ran against Eric Adams in New York City's 2021 mayoral Democratic primary. She finished third. Her memoir, "Remember, You Are A Wiley" is out now.

First of all, I saw your eyebrows go up when Elie Honig referred to Mayor Adams as popular. I don't know what the current polling is. I know last December, he had historically low approval ratings in New York. Maybe, you know, something more recent than that.

MAYA WILEY, PRESIDENT & CEO, THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL & HUMAN RIGHTS: Yeah, no, the -- his approval ratings at the end of '23 were the lowest of any mayor since 1996, and I think part of what Elie may be referring to is that certainly he had not lost full support from the Black community. I think at that time, he was still polling at about 48 percent but less than half. And he had plummeted with Latinos who was down to 20 percent, and anyone who knows politics in New York knows that that's actually key constituencies. And those are not the best numbers and certainly don't indicate popularity.

TAPPER: Right, and he was perhaps going to fend -- or still may fend off a challenge, and when he runs for reelection in the Democratic primary from Lander (ph), right.

WILEY: And he's being challenged already by for announced candidates. All of whom are current elected officials and certainly, Scott Springer ran also in the race for the city hall that Eric won.

TAPPER: So, let's talk about what you read in the indictment because I'm sure you read the indictment. What did you think and do you find it compelling?

WILEY: I was so deeply saddened. I don't think there's any other way to describe it that we have these kinds of allegations against a sitting New York City mayor.

[16:35:02] I think Elie Honig is an excellent lawyer and certainly a seasoned prosecutor. I think these are very serious allegations and sitting as someone who is a Brooklynite who had Eric Adams as a borough president for a decade, in addition to running against him, I can say this: It is very telling that certain people have not been implicated or indicted, that we know of.

And when we look at those allegations and it's not -- it's both the significant allegations I that I see in terms of Eric Adams being directly engaged in approving or agreeing to the plan that is for unlawful campaign contributions, and then his direct engagement in exactly the kind of thing that his donors wanted from Turkey, for example, in terms of a building, there's another one over -- New York City real estate developer, who's permits were not being approved by the buildings department. And the suggestion and him personally thinking Eric Adams, after an asked for him to get directly involved.

In other words, these aren't the kind of things where we don't see a quid pro quo or that we don't see -- these are also season prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District, who understand what legally they have to demonstrate. And it looks like they may have some very knowledgeable collaborators who are also working and speaking directly to U.S. attorney's office.

TAPPER: Yeah. He -- Mayor Adams says he's not going to resign do you think he should?

WILEY: Oh, I think any -- any elected official facing these kinds of charges should resign. They're serious, they directly implicate the public's ability to trust that they are doing the job and the best interests of the residence, and it is extremely difficult to make real progress on the problems that people face.

I mean, the affordable housing crisis in the city, homelessness, the fact that we still have way too high rates a black women dying, just trying to have a child.

TAPPER: Yeah.

WILEY: And I say that because these are very real issues for New Yorkers. They're the things they want the city to solve. We're actually trying to figure out how to make sure people with disabilities can actually access public transportation. So these are serious issues New Yorkers care about them, and it is extremely difficult to understand how this mayor can actually move the policy necessary to change people's lives for the better.

TAPPER: If he resigns, if the Governor Hochul removes him from office, which he actually has the power to do, there could theoretically be a special election, would you run now?

WILEY: No, but here's the thing, what's so critically important here is that every single New Yorker really have the opportunity to know and understand what their choices are and have someone who is absolutely going to put their best interests first and not those of the powerful. TAPPER: Yeah. New Yorkers certainly deserve that. Thank you so much. It's good to see you in person.

WILEY: Good to be here.

TAPPER: Thanks for being here.

New video shows hurricane hunters at work flying their plane into Hurricane Helene, trying to get a better sense of this storm's strength. Coming up, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will tell us what his state is bracing for as this Hurricane and all of its intensity gets ready to make landfall.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:43]

TAPPER: And we're back with our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene and this brand new video flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, where authorities urged residents to evacuate before the hurricane gets there. That's because eight inches of rain painful a separate system have already fallen in the last 24 hours and Helene is expected to tip that way over the edge, making it up to 20 inches of rain, which would be historic, but not in a good way.

Right now, Hurricane Helene is barreling toward the U.S. with 60 million people across 12 states in the United States bracing for some sort of impact.

And joining us now from Atlanta is Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Governor Kemp, Helene is threatening your entire state. CNN extreme weather center will be monitoring intense winds in the southern part of Georgia, while to the north, officials worry about the mountainous areas already prone to flooding. And of course, there's the Metro Atlanta area, home to millions of people in the path of all of it how worried are you about Helene's impact in Georgia, and what are you most worried about?

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R),GEORGIA: Well, a couple of things, Jake, is it's a big storm that's really even though its a category three, it's -- it's so wide, it's 400 to 500 miles wide, which is one of the biggest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic. It certainly has this concerned. Most of the state of Georgia is going to be on the, quote, dirty side of the storm, which is going to have hurricane force winds going all the way up to middle Georgia, places like Macon and then still having tropical storm type weapons up in northeast Georgia in places like Athens and up into the mountains.

And, of course, you got a lot of rain that's already fallen up. There has fallen right now is going to continue falling when the hurricane comes through. So we're looking up to a foot of rain in some places. So we're worried about flash flooding obviously saturating ground trees falling power outages and the thing is this is going to be happening all over the state. Its not just, you know, in one area of the state like Debbie was just a few weeks ago. It's going to be a statewide event.

So we are deploying resources literally statewide as we speak.

TAPPER: Do you have enough resources? Do you have enough people in equipment to get Georgia through this?

KEMP: Well, we're deploying to react on the initial blow. And if there's, you know, dependent on how bad it is, we'll call up more National Guard. We already got 250 that are deployed right now. We have a lot more resources there. We've got a lot of state assets. We obviously have private contractors. We've got -- Georgia Power has literally 10,000 linemen stationed and ready to go, the AMCs have 8,000.

And so, we've done -- you know, we're throwing everything we got this thing because we know its going to be a big event and we know its going to be statewide. But we'll have other available resources. I've had a lot of texts from fellow governors offered assistance from other states and certainly appreciate that. And then the locals are doing a lot as well.

So we'll be ready. It's just going to be -- you know, it may take us a few days after this one hits.

TAPPER: Obviously, a lot of the deaths happen in the wake of the storm when there are downed power lines and other -- other threats. Talk about some of the biggest concerns here. I mean, there's also the fact that hurricanes often spawn tornadoes when they move over land.

What should -- what should Georgians be preparing for?

KEMP: Well, the bad thing about the storm for us, Jake, is this going to be coming at night? The event in South Georgia is going to happen about dusk or is as the sun's going down, it's going to continue until the sun comes up and then move throughout the night the state of Georgia.

So, people are going to happy weather alert really all night in the state of Georgia. As you said, for spin up tornadoes especially on the east side of the storm or the dirty side of the storm, which most of the state will be.

The other thing is fallen trees. If you're out driving, there's a potential for having a tree fall on you. We had a fatality in our last norm, unfortunately in a tragic incident with that happening. And then you also have the potential for fallen on houses.

So people need to be prepared for that. Move to the center of the house if the winds start getting bad throughout the night, just like you would for a tornado. Those are really my biggest worries, and then, obviously, staying away from downed power lines.

TAPPER: There haven't been any evacuation orders in Georgia yet. But do you expect that to change? KEMP: Well, people in our state are prepared for whether they're used

to these kind of things. We just had a storm. We were hosting a little over 200 folks from Florida that moved up our way. We have facilities that we've noticed that are that are open for people if they need a place to shelter or move.

But, you know, Georgians know how to deal with this and even when you order evacuations, sometimes people don't leave. So we're expecting people to be weather aware, weather smart and, you know, hunker down, let this thing pass and just asking people to try to stay now off the roads once it does so we can get the roads clear, get power trucks, and get power back on as quickly as we can after the storm.

And then also be able to do rescues if we do have injured people you know, swift water rescues if we got a lot of flash flooding and other things. So, we're prepared for all of those. We've got teams deployed all over the state to be able to move quickly.

TAPPER: All right. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, thank you so much. Prayers to the people of Georgia. Hope you guys don't get too much of it.

Now, Hurricane Helene is barreling closer to landfall, is expected in just hours. You're taking a live look right now in Gulfport, Florida. That's near that Tampa St. Pete area. That's where conditions are worsening. Our teams are live on the ground. We'll go there next.

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[16:52:49]

TAPPER: And we're back with our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is live for us in Gulfport, Florida, just west of St. Petersburg.

Carlos, the winds certainly seem to have picked up their dramatically.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's exactly right. Jake.

So this is the worst of the weather that we have seen and we've been here since about 6:00 this morning. We are in Pinellas County in the city of Gulfport. So we're just left of the Tampa area in as you can see behind me here with the storm about southwest of where we are this is kind of what this part of Pinellas County is going to see considering that this hurricane is going to remain offshore and continue going north.

And my photographer could go ahead and pan out. You can see some of the flooding that's associated with this storm. What you're taking a look at here, it's a combination of the rain that we have seen the entire day, a part of high tide and that came in this morning and through the afternoon and actually a good part of this is coming from the bay itself. What we're seeing in the last hour or so is that a lot of this water

is now breaching the seawall here, because it really has nowhere else to go as this war continues, it's passable in the north. It's pushing all of this water, this way this is the main concern that emergency officials had in Pinellas County going into today.

In fact, Jake, earlier this morning, city officials were quite concerned with the fact that a lot of residents did not take their advice and are evacuation orders is seriously. They gave everyone that lives in this part of Pinellas County one until noon to go ahead and make their way inland.

After that noon hour passed by, because the weather was so bad because the winds were so strong because all this rain started moving in, two bridges that connect Pinellas County to Tampa, as well as Bradenton, those two bridges have closed because the highway patrol says that those sustained winds on these bridges were north of 60 miles per hour.

And so for folks that are trying perhaps trying to leave now, it's probably a bit too late considering that what we're experiencing now it should last for another couple of hours as this hurricane continues with its way north, staying just off the coast of where we are here in Gulfport -- Jake.

[16:55:05]

TAPPER: Carlos Suarez, stay safe. We're going to be keeping track of conditions there in the Tampa St. Pete area throughout the evening, as Hurricane Helene moves in.

And we're standing by to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. We're expecting that at the top of the hour. We're also expecting a brand new hurricane forecast from the National Hurricane Center. We're going to bring all that to you right after we squeeze in his quick break. Thank you.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper, and we're going to start this hour with breaking news, and a brand new forecast for Hurricane Helene, which is now expected to slam into the U.S. --