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Milton Now a Category 4, Set to Regain Cat 5 Strength Today; New Book Reveals Biden's Candid Views of Allies, Enemies; North Carolina Governor Says, Restoring Water in Asheville is Going to be a While. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 08, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We are following breaking news. Hurricane Milton is quickly getting more intense, even more intense in the Gulf of Mexico at this hour and taking aim directly at Central Florida. It's at Category 4 strength right now, but is expected to be a Cat 5 again later today.

We're also getting this new exclusive video from Madeira Beach, Florida, a town standing right in Milton's path. This is debris piled up from the Hurricane Helene cleanup, still posing a danger as Milton's winds could pick all of this up and shoot it in all sorts of directions as the storm pummels this area, something to be on the lookout for. If you live in that area, you've got to clean that up.

Let's begin our coverage in Fort Myers, Florida. Floodwaters there could reach ten feet in some areas. That's where we find CNN's Carlos Suarez. And, Carlos, that's a big part of this story right the storm surge. And it could just really come up throughout that area you're standing in right now.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jim. Good morning. So, the folks here in Fort Myers, Florida, have been preparing for this storm for the better part of the last couple of days. One reason that they're taking this storm so serious is because of Hurricane Ian, which hit this part of Lee County, a good part of Lee County, really, two years ago.

And so the folks out here are well aware of what these powerful storms can do. You can see this sheet of plywood that's gone up this morning. What they're concerned about is what you said, the storm surge anywhere between six to ten feet of it. And so when Ian hit, we're told about four feet of water flooded a lot of these businesses. And so what you're looking at is more or less where these folks believe the water will most likely come in from one of the main rivers out here just to the other side of where this business is at.

The folks have been preparing for this again for the better part of the last couple of days. They have been trying to figure out whether they were going to stay put. We know that evacuation orders went out for Fort Myers Beach to the south of us here. They also went out for Sanibel. Those are two parts of Lee County that were really destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

And, in fact, if we can take a live look at interstate -- I-75, you're taking a look at Alligator Alley or at least you should be. And you can see the traffic that's been building there for the last day or so. Interstate 75 connects Southwest Florida to South Florida.

And so on our drive last night, we ran into what you're taking a look at there, which is folks from this part of the state of Florida deciding to go ahead and make the drive across the Everglades into Broward County. If you live in southwest Florida, that's probably the easiest drive for you to make to get away from the storm. But then, of course, the further north you are, chances are folks there are trying to make their way a little bit more north in Florida. And then some folks are just trying to cross over into Central Florida because they're trying to get away from the storm.

One final note from me out here, there are some concerns about the gas supply, gas stations across the state of Florida. The governor already said that the state of Florida recognizes this is becoming an issue and they've tapped into some of the state reserves to try to get some of these gas stations back with a supply of gas as we move forward and the storm inches closer. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. I'm sure they're getting ready as quickly as they can. Carlos Suarez in Fort Myers, thank you very much.

Let's go straight to the CNN Weather Center and Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, how's the storm looking right now? It sounds as though it is slowing down a touch, but that's giving a time to strengthen, so a lot of moving parts right now.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, still a dangerous Category 4, and it's made that dreaded north easterly turn, which will give it this inevitable path into the west central coastline of the Florida Peninsula.

And let's talk about that angle of approach because I feel like that's so important and that's something that I'm very concerned about, if we can compare it to Helene two weeks ago, which basically ran parallel to the west coast of Florida, this will run into it perpendicularly. So, this means the difference as an analogy would be taking a side swipe from a sedan versus a T-bone from an SUV, right? So, we are going to maximize and realize the full energy, the full brunt of this storm as it makes its way onshore what we believe will be late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning as a powerful major Category 3 hurricane.

[10:05:02]

Now, the beauty of the technology that we have at our disposal is we get real-time updates from the hurricane hunters who have recently just had two planes within the center of the storm. This is what it looks like from inside of the eye of Hurricane Milton. You can see their onboard radar. You can see them flying right through the center of the storm on there, getting valuable data, sampling the environment around the storm to give us the most accurate information that we provide to you at home.

So, what we have now is a Category 4. We're noticing some clearing on the satellite imagery. So, that's indicative of perhaps some strengthening. And the National Hurricane Center has explicitly stated that this wind field will double in size while it approaches the state of Florida. So, the impacts of this will be felt well outside of the center of the storm, Jim, we all know that. But the storm surge here, we cannot understate the threats to the coastline.

ACOSTA: Yes, it's a big threat. Everybody needs to get ready. Start evacuating. Make plans now. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

Let's go back to Southwest Florida. Dan Allers is the mayor of Fort Myers Beach. It was battered by Hurricane Helene just a couple of weeks ago. And before that, I was there covering that storm.

Mr. Mayor, are people in your community doing enough to prepare? What can you tell us?

MAYOR DAN ALLERS, FORT MYERS BEACH, FLORIDA: Yes, thanks for having me, Jim. Yes, we got out the emergency evacuation. Well, yesterday, on Monday, actually, we issued a mandatory evacuation for 3:00 yesterday. Most people have heeded that warning and have gotten off the island. I just got back a few minutes ago, just to check to see if people were gone. And it's pretty empty out there. People are listening and they're getting off.

I think, you know, being so close to two years ago, Ian hitting us with the same surge in the same power that we're looking at with this one, it's still fresh in people's mind and they know it's better to be inland.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Mayor Allers, I mean, I remember Ian, I was down there covering it. And, you know, when that storm surge came in, it just made a huge mess throughout the community. And there are some predictions now that this could even exceed what Ian did. On top of that, there's still debris from the previous hurricane. That does not sound like a good mix.

ALLERS: No. I mean, our staff and the county have been great working together with our contractors to get everything cleaned up from Helene. So, that's about two days ago, we were to get the majority up. We do it still a little bit left. But our big concern now is Ian took away a lot of our structures along the Gulf Coast.

We're only a seven-mile island, so a lot of those structures are still not built back. So, as this surge comes in, if it makes any turn towards the south, it's going to be even worse. You know, we're expecting six to ten here with nothing to block it on the gulf side, so it's going to come inland and it's going to hit the houses down some of these side streets pretty hard.

So, it could be as significant as Ian. We're hoping certainly that it doesn't. But we know what's coming. We feel for the people that are in that 12 to 15-foot storm surge, which is what we got during Ian. And as you said, if you were here, you saw the damage. It is nothing to joke about. You need to get off the island.

ACOSTA: That's exactly right. I mean, it's absolutely deadly when this comes in. And what about the reports of gas shortages? Are the residents there encountering that? What do you say to that one?

ALLERS: I have not heard anything about gas shortages. I haven't been off the island yet. No one has reported to me that they've had a hard time finding gas. People are saying that they got inland and they were happy that they were given notice a little bit earlier. It's better to, you know, be on the side of caution than regret it later. So, I have not h shortages of gas yet.

ACOSTA: All right. Mayor Dan Allers of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, best of luck to you. I hope this is not as bad as it looks right now. We really appreciate your time. Thank you, sir, so much.

ALLERS: Yes, thank you. Stay safe.

ACOSTA: You as well.

And as we've been reporting for days, FEMA is still battling disinformation and lies about its response to Helene as Milton barrels toward Florida. Here's yet another plea from the FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, earlier today.

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DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: This has to stop because if it continues, we will see more and more people not trusting their federal government to be able to give them what they need. And so I need people to register for assistance so I can get them the financial resources they need to support their recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And at any moment, President Biden is expected to speak about Hurricane Milton and the preparations for that as well as Helene recovery efforts will have that live when it happens.

Plus the eye-popping things the president has reportedly said, plus new details about Donald Trump, according to a new book from legendary journalist Bob Woodward. That's coming up.

Stay with us.

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[10:10:00]

ACOSTA: A new book is offering an extraordinary look at President Biden's candid and brutal views of fellow world leaders in a copy of Bob Woodward's War obtained by CNN ahead of its release, the president privately referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a, quote, son of a bitch and referring to Netanyahu as a, quote, bad effing guy. Biden also had a blunt assessment of Vladimir Putin saying the Russian leader is the, quote, epitome of evil.

Let's discuss now, talk about that and also what happening on the campaign with the Harris-Walz campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, he was also a senior advisor to the president. Cedric, good to see you this morning. We appreciate it.

Did you ever hear the president refer to the Israeli prime minister in those terms? And does the vice president share this view? I guess I should ask that too.

CEDRIC RICHMOND, CO-CHAIR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Well, no, I, I've never heard the president talk like that. I've never heard him refer to either of those world leaders in that manner.

[10:15:00]

I find Joe Biden, President Biden to be incredibly honorable guy, and his focus has always been on the American people. And I think that's the same thing with Vice President Harris. You see her today rolling out new healthcare plans because she's concerned about the American people.

ACOSTA: And just the second component of that question, you haven't heard the vice president refer in those terms or agree with the president in those terms?

RICHMOND: No.

ACOSTA: All right, Cedric, let's talk about the campaign. Let's talk about the election. A new poll from The New York Times finds the vice president leading former President Trump by three percentage points. This has gone up a little bit in this particular poll. The polls are kind of here and there, according to the margin of error. Why is this -- what's your assessment of why this race is so close right now?

RICHMOND: Look, it's going to be a close race. It will be within the error. I think all of the battleground states are within the margin and we have work to do. We have to talk to American voters about what's important to them and what's important to their families and their communities.

And I think that's what the vice president is doing this week. She's out there a lot this week talking about issues that are facing Americans. And you still have some undecided voters out there that are trying to decide who's in it for them. And it's our job to show them that Vice President Harris is in it for them and has a plan for them and former President Trump is in it for himself.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask you about the former president and some of the comments that he's made in recent days. He has suggested in just the last day or so that undocumented immigrants who commit murder have what he calls bad genes. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person? And they're now happily living in the United States.

You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: He also refused to say last night that he would not use government institutions to go after his political rivals. So, what does the vice president have to say about some of this rhetoric we're hearing from the former president?

RICHMOND: I don't think she's addressing his rhetoric at all. I think today she's going to talk about the fact that so many families find themselves in the sandwich generation where they're caring for not only a child but they're caring for a parent also. And she's going to expand Medicare so that we can include home health for our seniors who deserve to live out their lives with dignity and respect.

So, while she's talking to that health care crunch that so many seniors find themselves in, Donald Trump is talking about genes. Donald Trump is talking to a fly at a rally. Donald Trump is talking about Hannibal Lecter. Donald Trump is talking about windmills causing cancer, electrocution, and sharks.

And so what I really would encourage listeners out there to do is go watch Donald Trump. He's unhinged. He's all over the place. He's unwell and he's talking about himself over and over again. And if you look at Vice President Harris and Governor Walz, they are attempting to address the issues that are facing our families. And so that's going to be a contrast we're going to continue to drive.

ACOSTA: You know, I want to ask you about these hurricanes, Cedric. Florida's preparing for yet another major hurricane. A White House official told CNN that the vice president reached out to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis multiple times since Hurricane Helene hit two weeks ago, but he didn't take her calls. Harris says DeSantis is playing political games and the Florida governor had this to say this morning. I want to have -- I'll play that for you.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she's never shown any interest in the past? We know it's because of politics. We know it's because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games.

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ACOSTA: Cedric, what's the response to that?

RICHMOND: Jim, I want to be very clear here. I went through Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and I saw thousands of people die, 1,500 people die. These hurricanes are serious, and that is an idiotic statement from a governor who will need all the resources ahead of time and after to help his people recover.

And it is beyond the capacity of Florida. It is beyond the capacity of people who will get devastated to do it on their own. They need government assistance, federal government assistance. And when the vice president or the president calls you to see what you need on the ground, to see what you need before the storm, during the storm, and after the storm, it is irresponsible. It could cost lives to not answer that call and not to take it seriously.

[10:20:00]

It's why Ron DeSantis didn't make it to the big boy stage. It's why Donald Trump has emasculated him at every step because he's not ready for primetime and he is putting the people at Florida at risk. People are going to die because he is selfish in playing political games.

And this is personal to me. I saw Katrina and Rita. I saw what happened in Ida and Sandy. Don't play games with these storms. Don't ignore climate change. And if the president or the vice president picks up the phone to call you, answer it.

ACOSTA: Yes. Cedric, if you can just give us a little editorial guidance that we did. So, the vice president called the Florida governor. Do we know how many times when she did this and it was -- the call just not returned? What happened? Do we know what happened there?

RICHMOND: From my understanding, he just didn't answer the call and won't take the call. And so it's no secret when the vice president or the president or the FEMA director or a cabinet secretary is trying to reach a governor. They inform the governor that they're trying to reach him and a governor facilitates a call or accepts a call.

And this is dangerous. I've worked under Republican governors while I was in the state legislature. I worked with a Republican president while I was in Congress. This is dangerous. And as Americans, we should be offended and alarmed that we're going to watch people in Florida take a beating and the governor of Florida doesn't have the wherewithal, foresight, intelligence, whatever word you want to use, to get all hands on deck.

This is going to be an all hands on deck storm. I am terrified for the people of Florida. I'm praying for them. But I think that I hope I'm wrong. But I think the day after the storm hits, we're going to be back revisiting this conversation and say, did we do everything we could do in terms of Governor DeSantis, not Biden or Harris to prepare for this storm and be ready for it.

ACOSTA: All right. Cedric Richmond, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

RICHMOND: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Let's go out to the White House. CNN's Kevin Liptak has some breaking news for us about the president's schedule. Kevin, what can you tell us?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, the White House just announcing that President Biden will postpone some planned foreign travel that he had scheduled for the end of this week as he prepares for Hurricane Milton to make landfall on Thursday. The president had been scheduled to travel to Germany. He had been scheduled to go onward to Angola and Africa. Now, the White House says that that trip is postponed so the president can oversee the preparations for Milton, but also to oversee the recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene last week.

Of course, you know, the White House acutely aware of the politics surrounding these storms as well. And I think, you know, as the president's aides were coming to this decision, it was clear that the president would need to remain here in Washington and here in the United States as these storms come towards the U.S.

Of course, a decision like this also with some costs, and in this case, the president had been planning a major summit in Germany to discuss Ukraine. He had been expected to meet with a number of foreign leaders, in addition to the German chancellor. The White House saying that this trip is postponed, but, of course, there's not a lot of time remaining in President Biden's term only about three months. It's not clear when exactly he'll make it over to Germany and Angola, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Kevin Liptak, I'm not surprised that the president is making this change. I suspect we might see some other officials, top officials and candidates perhaps doing the same thing.

All right, coming up -- Kevin, thanks so much.

Coming up, officials in Asheville, North Carolina, say it could be weeks before water is restored there. Keep in mind, folks are still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. I'll speak to the mayor of Asheville on the storm recovery efforts there. That's next.

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[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: As Hurricane Milton churns ever closer to Florida, much of the southeast is still struggling to recover from the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

And joining us now is Mayor Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina. Mayor, it's good to see you again. I hope you're doing all right. I know the recovery is slow going. How are things right now?

MAYOR ESTHER MANHEIMER, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: Well, things are a little bit better in terms of getting street lights back on and certain functions of the city, but we still have a lot of people without water to their homes because our water system is still out of commission. And we have a lot of folks that still don't have power or communication connection.

ACOSTA: And this has been a little baffling to me. Can you explain why is it taking so long for the water to come back on for the folks at home who are saying, well, why does it take this many weeks? What's the deal?

MANHEIMER: Well, so the way our system works is we have a large -- most of our water comes from an area east of the city and it runs in very large transmission lines that run down into the city several miles actually. And, unfortunately, one of the hardest hit areas of our county, it was in this area where these transmission lines come from. And, literally, this water flooding event created a canyon with a new river channel that knocked out these lines. So, a massive rebuilding effort is happening right now to reconnect all those pipes.

[10:30:00]

ACOSTA: Okay, that explains it. And you spoke to Vice President Harris last week by phone.