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CNN This Morning

Myanmar Earthquake Death Toll Soars Past 1,000 As Scale Of Disaster Starts To Emerge; Trump Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Lift Ban On Deportations Under Wartime Law; 4 Dead After Flooding In South Texas And Mexico; Vance Defends Comments He Made In Leaked Signal Chat. VP Vance Accuses Denmark of Neglecting Greenland; Danish Foreign Minister Slams VP Vance's Tone While Visiting Greenland; Utah Becomes First State to Ban Fluoride in Drinking Water. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired March 29, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:27]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, March 29th. I'm Victor Blackwell. It's good to be with you.

New this morning, the death toll has surged in Myanmar after that magnitude 7.7 earthquake. Officials say more than a thousand people are dead. Search and rescue crews are now working through the rubble of these buildings to see if there's anyone that they can save.

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on the president's efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants. The case they're making to the justices after legal setbacks in lower courts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: This has to happen. And the reason it has to happen, I hate to say it, is because our friends in Denmark have not done their job in keeping this area safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The vice president makes the highest profile case yet for the U.S. taking control of Greenland, even as polls show that most Americans and most Greenlanders are against the idea.

Plus, Utah has now become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water. Dentists say that the ban will hurt low income communities. Most could. Other states soon follow.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And we are headed towards more severe weather, not just today, but for three days in a row. We'll detail exactly where we're looking for these storms coming up.

BLACKWELL: We're starting with the deadly earthquake that has devastated Southeast Asia. More than 1,000 people are now confirmed dead across Myanmar and Thailand. That number is expected to rise over the coming days. And officials in the U.S. say that the death toll could end up above 10,000.

Geologists say this earthquake unleashed energy equivalent to 334 atomic bombs and that aftershocks could last for months in that region. We're getting new video morning of the devastation the earthquake brought to Myanmar. It shows entire buildings and mosques being reduced to just piles.

In Bangkok, search and rescue crews are racing to free more than 100 people believed to be trapped under a collapsed high rise. Rescue workers detected signs of life from 15 people stuck under the rubble there. And heavy machinery has been brought in to help.

Loved ones of those still missing can only wait outside the twisted mass of metal and hopes of those buried will be found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My heart sank. Never in a million years did I think something like this could happen. I still can't comprehend it and I'm still shaken. My niece, I still don't know when we will find her. I'm hoping there's nothing else we can do. We just sit and pray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Will Ripley is live outside the collapsed high rise there in Bangkok. Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been an absolutely exhausting night and now morning for everybody out here at the scene of this horrific building collapse here in Bangkok. This was a skyscraper under construction. It had well over 100 construction workers inside when the 7.7 magnitude quake 600 miles away caused shaking that was so severe here in Thailand that this building came down and the workers had almost no notice.

Crews have been out throughout the night and now the morning, basically digging by hand through this rubble, a huge mountain of twisted metal and concrete. They actually heard a cell phone ringing inside. At one point they thought they had identified a pocket with some survivors and some people who had died. But then they called off the search for a couple of hours because they just weren't able to get in.

And even though there's a lot of heavy machinery out here, they're not using it right now because they don't want to risk causing instability. If there are pockets where people are still alive, around 100 people still somewhere inside this pile, and there may be some air pockets where people have survived. They pulled out more than a dozen people alive and they also found at least 10 people dead.

It's been absolutely agonizing for the people here in these chairs. These are some of the family members of the construction workers who've been out here basically just sitting, waiting, hoping for any news.

[06:05:00]

There are paramedics that have been on standby to treat anybody who is a survivor to come out, although we haven't seen any survivors come out now for a number of hours. And again, this is 600 miles from the epicenter. The true extent of the damage is in Myanmar in the city of Mandalay, city of one and a half million people, where the videos that have emerged have shown buildings that have collapsed, many buildings that have collapsed, along with a bridge collapse, and a really dire situation in a country that's been gripped in a civil war now for several years.

The military junta that controls parts of that country making a rare plea for international aid. But even getting that aid in could be very difficult because there are militias that control certain areas in Myanmar. So they're going to have to navigate all of these military barricades essentially just to get in the relief.

And at this point, it's still too soon to know exactly how many people in Myanmar, far closer to the devastation than this, are in dire need of help.

BLACKWELL: Such a dire situation there. Will Ripley with the report. Thank you. President Trump is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene and overturn a lower court's ruling temporarily blocking him from using this 18th century wartime act to justify deportations. CNN's chief legal correspondent Paula Reid has more on what's at stake. Paula, good morning to you.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. Well, here the administration is asking the Supreme Court to wade into one of the more contentious legal battles that it has waged. And it involves not just one, but two thorny legal issues.

The first is, of course, the constitutional question of whether President Trump can use this expansive wartime power to facilitate deportations of people the administration alleges are affiliated with a Venezuelan gang. But they're asking the high court to overturn a ruling by a lower court judge that temporarily put that policy on hold.

That judge James Boasberg, has been the target of repeated attacks from President Trump and even Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump went so far as to call for Boasberg's impeachment over this decision, which prompted a rare statement from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said, look, if you're unhappy with the way a case went, you appeal it. You don't impeach the judge.

So the administration, they went ahead, they appealed. And in their appeal Friday, they argued this case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national security related operations in this country. They go on to say that the answer is clear, the president, and that the republic cannot afford a different choice. But The Supreme Court has a choice as to whether it wants to weigh in

here, and it's unclear if the justices are going to want to step in at this point or if they want to let this issue work its way through the lower courts and maybe return to the high court sometime next year.

But next Tuesday, we expect a response from the other side of this case. Then we'll likely hear from the justices on how they're going to proceed. Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Paula Reid, thank you. Let's discuss now with immigration attorney Regina de Moraes. Regina, good morning to you. So, Paula, set the table for us the two questions that the administration is asking the court to answer.

Is it your expectation that we will get answer to both the constitutionality and the application or the request of overturning this order from the lower court?

REGINA BORGES DE MORAES, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Well, good morning, Mr. Blackwell. Thank you for having me on your show this morning. I don't have a crystal ball to know whether the Supreme Court is going to accept this case or not.

I hope they do because we are at a crossroads between a constitutional question, what the powers of the executive branch are in conjunction with asserting a law that has only been used during times of war, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

So listening and hearing Justice Roberts say what he said regarding Justice -- Judge Boasberg, that if a person doesn't like a ruling, you appeal it. I hope that the Supreme Court does take this case and issues a clear, decisive pronunciation on it.

BLACKWELL: Is there any scenario in which a ruling from the Supreme Court would impact those 200 plus men who were in that Salvadorian prison, many of whom say that they are not connected to Tren de Aragua. Government attorneys say that many of them have no criminal history, would there be any impact that would say, well, they have to be released from that facility?

DE MORAES: I believe that if the Supreme Court makes a decision on this case and finds in favor of the plaintiffs and continues with this temporary restraining order.

[06:10:00]

ICE, CBP, Immigration Customs Enforcement would need to bring these gentlemen back. It is correct. A vast majority of these individuals had never even had a hearing, were not even given the opportunity to present their case as to whether they were part of this Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. I've heard of several different cases where the gentlemen who, well, more than one who were removed have no criminal history, not even in the U.S. nor in Venezuela, have no tattoos associated with the gangs.

So I think that if the case is decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the plaintiffs, these gentlemen not would be released into El Salvador because they're not from El Salvador, but they would have to be returned to the U.S. and have their cases processed within the immigration courts.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the case of Rumeysa Ozturk. She's the Tufts University student who was arrested in broad daylight in Boston. She's now at a deported -- detention facility in Louisiana. A judge wants to know the justification of her arrest before he allows ICE to deport her. Homeland Security says that she engaged in behaviors that support Hamas.

But all that we know publicly thus far is that she shares a byline on an op-ed that was published critical of Tufts University calling for them to divest from Israel. I mean, that cannot be. You tell me enough. Does that reach the threshold in this new climate of supporting Hamas?

DE MORAES: I legally and personally don't see that it does. But this Turkish student is here on an F1 visa. You have less protections on those types of visas. F1s, J1s, H1Bs. You have less protections on those than you do with individuals who are lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Ms. Chung, the South Korean student at Columbia.

So even though the Turkish student is here on an F1 visa, she should be given the opportunity to present her case and her defenses before she's yanked out of school and sent back to Turkey. She's been here quite a long time. She's not a recent F1 student, but I think that her freedom of speech is just as protected as our freedom of speech as U.S. citizens.

BLACKWELL: Regina De Moraes, thank you so much for talking through some of this. A lot of cases moving as it relates to those men who were in the facility in El Salvador, the students who are being marked for deportation. So we rely on your voice to help us understand all of it. Thanks so much for being with me.

This morning at least four people are dead after severe storms brought heavy floods flooding to South Texas and Northern Mexico. We've got video here from near the Rio Grande river shows streets, cars swamped by the flood waters. Homes here as well. Nearly 700 people had to be rescued from the rising water there.

The storms dropped almost a year's worth of rain in some areas just on Thursday and Friday. And Texas is not the only state in the path of these storms right now. More than 15 million people are under severe weather threats all the way up to Iowa.

CNN's Allison Chinchar joins me now. Risk today, risks tomorrow.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And again on Monday.

BLACKWLEL: And again on Monday.

CHINCAHR: Yes, it's going to be three days in a row now. I want to point out today is the lowest of the threats. We really don't see this system ramp up until tonight and then it really gets going on Sunday and into Monday. But that doesn't mean you don't need to pay attention to it today.

So let's take a look at the areas that we're talking about for today. Now you can see it's this red highlighted area right through here and it's a pretty wide area. You're talking Iowa all the way back down through Texas. The main concern with the storms today is actually going to be hail. You could be looking at hail the size of baseballs or even larger in some of these spots. So again, that's going to be one of the concerns here that we get for some of these storms.

And if I could actually hit the space bar for me so we can push some of these forward here to kind of advance the graphics to show you where these storms are going to go over the next couple of days. Here you can see right now where we've got those storms down along the Gulf Coast. We also have them farther up to the north. But then we advance it and show you what's going to happen as we go later on into the day.

You can see where the storms are going to be. Here's a look at the focus. Again, now that yellow circle the area, that's where we're really looking at the focus for today. The main concern will be hail, damaging winds, but we can't rule out another tornado.

Then we start transitioning into Sunday and you see not only does it expand, but we also see those storms intensify, especially for this orange area here. You're talking St. Louis, Indianapolis, stretching down through Memphis and Little Rock.

[06:15:05]

These are going to be the concerns in the afternoon and as we head into the evening hours. Here's a look at that timeline again. So you can start through this afternoon. You can see a lot of that line beginning to form. Then we transition into the evening hours. Now some of it does actually fall apart. You lose that heating of the day from the sun. But then we transition into Sunday and you see more of that really start to fire back up again.

Especially, especially right through here. You've got Knoxville, Atlanta, a lot of these areas as that system continues to spread off to the east.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, thank you. Shout out to Aaron on the spaceball.

CHINCHAR: Yes. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. New fallout this morning from the Signal scandal by current and former officials say the group chat may have done long term damage to the United States ability to gather intelligence on Iran backed Houthis going forward.

Plus, the FDA's top vaccine scientist forced to resign. What he said about Health and human services secretary RFK Jr. in his stinging resignation letter. And we have more information now about a close call between Delta, a

plane there taking off from Reagan National Airport and the U.S. Air Force jet that caused alarms to go off.

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[06:20:57]

BLACKWELL: New this morning, Dr. Peter Marks, the head of the FDA's vaccine safety department, was forced out of his after being given the choice to step down or be fired. An HHS official defended the move and said that Marks did not align with the agency push for radical transparency now.

In his resignation letter, Marks accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of rejecting truth and transparency in favor of subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies. Marks played a key role in Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine program. His resignation takes effect April 5.

Columbia University's interim president is stepping down after making big policy changes to meet the Trump administration's demands tied to federal funding.

The university rolled out the new rules after Trump pulled $400 million in funding, including stricter protest limits and giving campus police new arrest powers. Katrina Armstrong took over last August when former President Minouche Shafik resigned under pressure over campus protests.

Claire Shipman, the board's co-chair, will step in as acting president until a new leader is chosen.

A Delta Airline Airbus had a close call with the U.S. Air Force jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It triggered cockpit alarms and collision warnings. The pilot confirmed with air traffic control that another plane was just flying 500 feet below. Watch.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One that departure we had a momentary TCAS RA. Was there an actual aircraft about 500 feet below us as we came off of DCA?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 2983, affirmative.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: It happened yesterday as Delta flight 2983 was taken off from Minneapolis when the military jet flying over 350 miles per hour passed nearby. An Air Force jet used for training took off and landed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Close call close to the spot where an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided. 67 people were killed in that collision in January.

Vice President Vance says that he and President Trump are standing behind their national security team after the Signal Group chat scandal. Vance also defended his comments made in the chat when he wrote that he believed the strike against the Houthis was a mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I support the President's decision to strike the Houthis. I always supported the President's decision to strike the Houthis. And I support the national security team having the argument about how best to serve the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With me now, former intelligence official for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Matthew Shoemaker. Thanks for coming in studio.

MATTHEW SHOEMAKER, FORMER INTEL OFFICIAL, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: My pleasure.

BLACKWELL: What's your reaction to what you heard from the vice President yesterday?

SHOEMAKER: You know, he's not wrong that they should be having these sorts of conversations. The biggest problem for all of this, though, was the manner in which they had these conversations. Having a classified conversation on an unclassified system is a mistake that even my most junior analysts when I was an intelligence officer would know not to make. So

that is really the underlying issue behind all this, is the judgment that they made to have this sort of conversation in the manner in which they had it.

BLACKWELL: And so the vice President there was criticizing the media and others, saying that there's this pressure for the President to fire someone. If one of your most junior officers had made a decision like that, had a conversation on a commercial platform, what would have likely been the consequence?

SHOEMAKER: Under normal circumstances, they would immediately have their security clearance suspended pending an investigation. In this particular case, if we did that to say the Secretary of Defense, he would not be able to do his job. That is how serious the situation is that someone is not able to do their function, as, you know, the Secretary of Defense.

So if he were treated like any other person, he would not be in the position that he currently is. And so that's really going to have a knock on effect for the morale in the intelligence community itself, that they're not going to be treated the same way that their superiors are.

BLACKWELL: So two messages in the Signal exchange, current and former intel officials say, have damaged the ability to gather intel on the Houthis.

[06:25:06]

Let me read one out for you here. This is from the CIA Director Radcliffe texting that a delay would give them a chance to better, quote, identify better starting points for coverage on Houthi leadership, explain why that one is problematic.

SHOEMAKER: Anytime that you're discussing the manner in which you want to go after targets, when you're talking about targeting situations, you never want to give the enemy any idea that you're looking at them. And the longer that you have in terms of tracking them, in terms of finding out where they are, where are their usual places of residence or where they usually go, the better it usually is.

In this particular case, considering how it was done on an unclassified system, and for all we know, the Russians, for that matter, could have been privy to the conversations. They have a military base just 20 miles away from Yemen in Djibouti.

If I were a Russian intelligence officer and I had an asset in the Houthi military, I would more than happily let them know you need to get out of the way because we're getting some intel that you might be on target list. So that sort of situation really presents a lot of problems towards the intelligence community, towards the military, who are then tasked with actually executing those orders.

BLACKWELL: Here's the second one. This is from the National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz says that the U.S. had, quote, positive ID on a Houthi leader and, quote, walking into his girlfriend's building. How about that? And the ability to collect data in the future.

SHOEMAKER: Sure. So that in and of itself is battle damage assessment. What that means is that the military wants to figure out, did the strike that they actually wanted to do, did it actually accomplish its goals? Because in the event that it hasn't committed -- hasn't accomplished its goals, they're going to want to go, and if they can, take another go at it.

So him describing the battle damage assessment in an unclassified system is almost under every single circumstance that I can think of, going to be a classified conversation. So for then, you know, you get Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claiming absolutely that it is not classified. No one in the intelligence community takes him seriously. And that really undermines his credibility amongst the troops and amongst the intel community.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Beyond the question of consequences, there's. There is the obvious follow up of will conversations continue on Signal? And beyond just the national security realm, listen here to the Attorney General Pam Bondi on Fox.

(BEGIN VIDEEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIE FEMALE: Signal not going to be used, or is it going to be used, going forward. Are you aware of it? PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I think signal is a very safe way

to communicate. I don't think foreign adversaries are able to hack Signal as far as I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Foreign adversaries aren't able to hack Signal. Is that a safe assumption to start with?

SHOEMAKER: I would not operate under that assessment. The United States government and the United States intel community has resources, vast resources at its disposal, especially when it comes to communications. I would not source this out to an unclassified system to then have classified conversations on it.

It's one thing if you're talking, you know, human resources logistics, hey, I'm going to be late by 15 minutes to get into work. That's one conversation that, you know, any sort of individual can have with their boss. It's another thing to say, hey, the Houthis are over here. We need to go and strike them right now. Very different conversations that we're having. So for Pam Bondi to say that, you know, it's a secure system, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that.

BLACKWELL: Yes, because there is actual a definition in the government of secure. And this being a commercial platform doesn't meet.

SHOEMAKER: Well, if that were the case, if she were right, then there would be no reason to have something like a skiff, which is a secure environment, secure room, to have classified conversations. I severely disagree with her assessment.

BLACKWELL: Matthew Shoemaker, thank you.

SHOEMAKER: My pleasure.

BLACKWELL: All right. Still to come, Vice President J.D. Vance has made the case for why America should take over Greenland. We have more on his trip to the island.

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[06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: What was supposed to be a cultural trip for second lady Usha Vance turned into another push for U.S. control of Greenland. Vice President J.D. Vance told the crowd at the American military installation that Denmark neglected its territory, but he did acknowledge that the island's future should be up to its residents, even as President Donald Trump insists he'll get Greenland one way or another.

In a late-night statement, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Rasmussen said that the countries need to work together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LARS RASMUSSEN, FOREIGN MINISTER, DENMARK: But let me be completely honest. We do not appreciate the tone in which it's being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies, and I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And just hours before the Vances arrived, leaders announced a new coalition government that shut out a pro-independence party that had expressed interest in working with the U.S. Joining us now, Lynn Sweet; Washington bureau chief with the "Chicago Sun-Times". Lynn, always good to see you on a Saturday morning.

So, this was switched from this cultural visit from the second lady to now, this visit from the Vice President. With the day trip behind us, what's the significance of what we saw?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Thanks, Victor, and good morning. There's a lot of significance of a Vice President of the United States going to the territory that is not U.S. territory.

[06:35:00]

Let's not get caught up in Greenland's status. It is in its relationship with Denmark. And kind of sticking your thumb in the eye of the government there saying, we want to take it over. This is -- this -- getting Greenland, it's in my analysis. Why is this a priority right now of the Trump administration with everything going on? We could put that up there as one question, but it is confrontational, it's provocative, and it's creating a distancing of the U.S. between its strong allies.

And it's being done at a time when the context is that President Trump and his administration is trying to destroy or decay other international institutions and forums and alliances with our allies.

BLACKWELL: Yes, this is not something that the American people knowingly voted for because it wasn't a priority of the campaign. It wasn't on the top list of issues, I don't know that it was on any list of issues that people voted on or for. I just had a conversation with Matthew Shoemaker about the Signal chat, and there's reporting from Germany's Der Spiegel that found that Secretary Hegseth, NSA Waltz, the DNI Tulsi Gabbard had a lot of personal information online, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, still in use for social media and drop boxes. Is this surprising or is this something one would expect?

SWEET: Well, Victor and everyone listening, I think we could strike the word surprising from any daily development from this time forward in terms of what happens in the unfolding Trump administration. The idea that you take anything less than the highest security when you have sensitive government information, even of that of the level of an attack, is something that is unfathomable.

The issue isn't whether or not something was classified or not. I think everyone can agree, this is sensitive. It is sensitive in so many ways that --

BLACKWELL: All right, appear to have a bit of a Signal issue with Lynn. Our thanks to Lynn for being part of the conversation -- you're back. All right, Lynn, continue your thought. You had a --

SWEET: I'm here --

BLACKWELL: Had a digital freeze for a minute --

SWEET: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Go ahead.

SWEET: OK, I'm so sorry. It's just unrealistic to think that any conversation that's government and sensitive, let's not get hung up in the word whether something is classified or not, classified. It's something that should not be done without the most securest equipment possible, that these officials have available to them.

That's what is so -- the -- just like the need to be smart and how you carry out confidential sensitive conversations, that these safeguards were not put in place, that they took away their safety net is what is the issue here?

BLACKWELL: Former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell had some really strong words for the Trump administration's Ukraine policy, in which he called out what he said is their embarrassing naivete in their dealings with Russia and Vladimir Putin. He ended it by saying to cut off Ukraine as a stab ourselves in the back. What's the potency of a McConnell slam these days? What's the influence?

SWEET: Well, not as much as if Senator McConnell had said some of the things, some of his criticisms of Donald Trump and the administration when he was a person of great power and influence as the top Republican in the Senate. His influence is waning still. What he says is important, important messages that he's putting out for people who want to listen and understand that he is talking about a very important relationship and American policy, and whether or not he has heard, maybe not because he just is not as influential as he once was, and he is on his way out of the Senate.

BLACKWELL: All right, Lynn Sweet, thanks so much, enjoy the rest of the Saturday.

SWEET: You too, thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: All right, Utah has now become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water. Coming up, why doctors say the ban will lead to medical problems for children, especially the poor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Utah's Republican governor signed into law a bill that bans fluoride in public drinking water. It becomes the first state ever to do this, and it's against the advice of dentists. CNN's Meg Tirrell has more on this historic and controversial law.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, fluoride has been added to drinking water across the United States for decades in order to prevent cavities or tooth decay essentially. The CDC has called this one of the most successful public health interventions of the last century.

[06:45:00]

And Utah now has become the first state to bar cities and municipalities from deciding whether to fluoridate their water. Typically, this is a very locally-made decision, and in this bill, they note that while they are prohibiting use of fluoride in water, they are enabling pharmacists to prescribe fluoride pills so that people can choose whether to take them or not.

But you know, public health advocates note one of the reasons this has been such a successful intervention is that it is -- it makes this available to everybody at a very low cost. So, even people who can't afford a lot of dental care, for example, or fluoridated dental products, and this enables them to have that intervention.

But there's been growing controversy over fluoride over the past few years, and even longer than that. But most recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now, of course, the Health Secretary, he put out a tweet just before the election, saying that if President Trump was elected, that on inauguration day, they would direct states to take fluoride out of drinking water.

And he pointed to a whole host of health issues he sees with fluoride. Now, we should note that any of those potential health issues are seen at levels much higher than where fluoride is in U.S. water systems, or where it's directed to be. The level that's recommended for U.S. water systems is 0.7 milligrams per liter of water.

And that's about 3 drops of fluoride for a 55 gallon barrel. Sixty three percent of the U.S. population as of 2022 was receiving fluoridated water. And in Utah, that level is much lower. Even before this bill was signed, about 44 percent of people on community water systems received fluoridated water. That made them the 44th in the nation.

And the state's own Health Department has actually called that a problem, noting, quote, "that Utah children have more cavities, in part because of the lack of fluoridation in Utah community water systems." They have been making an effort to increase that. It's -- has been increasing in the last 25 years. But now, as of May 7th, when this new law take effect -- takes effect, they'll need to take fluoride out of the drinking water.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Meg, thank you. Well, we're now getting a better understanding of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene. There are details now laid out in the National Hurricane's Center's final report on the storm. We have that for you next. Also, a woman in Missouri thought she lost wedding photos after a tornado ripped through her town, until she got a call. We'll tell you how far the storm's powerful winds carried the photos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: The National Hurricane Center's full report on Hurricane Helene is now out. This week, it's six months since that historic storm, a Category 4 slammed into Florida's Gulf Coast, left behind catastrophic damage as far away as Asheville, North Carolina. CNN's Allison Chinchar is here with me now to break down the findings. What did they find?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so, you get these reports every year, they'll go back, they'll look over all the storms, and it's a bunch of stats and numbers. But this one was exceptionally interesting because the statistics were kind of staggering. First, that this was the deadliest hurricane in the contiguous U.S. since Katrina in 2005.

That death toll over 200, that's direct fatalities. You also had some indirect fatalities that went along with it. So, that number was quite high. Landslides specifically, you know, that isn't necessarily common in places like Florida.

BLACKWELL: Sure --

CHINCHAR: But you had to go in-land. And that's where this storm went. They had over -- more than 2,000 landslides, the bulk of those in western North Carolina. That's incredibly high number for a tropical system to be able to produce more than 60 of the river and stream gauges that they keep track of, broke records in four different states, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia for the other one, 2,700 swift water rescues.

BLACKWELL: Wow.

CHINCHAR: More than half of those in the state of Florida. Another good chunk of them in western North Carolina. But again, that's a staggering number, 2,700 people rescued from incredibly high water and again, in multiple different states, too. Damage was more than $78 billion. That makes it the seventh costliest tropical system. Again, when you adjust it for the current rates.

BLACKWELL: Yes --

CHINCHAR: But that was behind storms like Katrina, Harvey, Ian, Maria, Sandy, Ida, again, all those other big names that kind of stick out at you. And then also too, to kind of geek out from a weather standpoint. There were 33 tornadoes from this tropical system. Now, that number alone is not necessarily uncommon. It was they had a particular tornado.

It was an EF-One in South Carolina that was more than 1,100 yards wide. That makes it the widest tornado on the -- in the database, caused by a Tropical cyclone. So, just a lot of like little intricacies about this particular storm that made it different from so many others.

BLACKWELL: And with all those superlatives, it's easy to understand why there's still so much work to do to recover six months after the storm.

CHINCHAR: And it may be another six months before people really start to get back to where they need to be.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, thank you. Speaking of recovery efforts after storms, a bride was reunited with a cherished wedding photo that she lost recently in a tornado that hit -- this was off the town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

[06:55:00]

Another couple found it after it landed in their front yard nearly 100 miles away in Brazil. They made a social media post about the picture that followers are able to track down the woman in the photo. Man, that is a 100 miles away they found this photo and were able to return it. Considering all that you know, happened and came of that storm that they lost to get that photo back.

CHINCHAR: You hear that happen before? You hear that happened before? I mean, so the phrase it's raining cats and dogs --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

CHINCHAR: It actually originated from cats and dogs being lifted up from the winds of a storm and being transported, you know, a ways away, and people not really understanding. So, yes, I mean, now, granted, that weighs a lot less than a dog --

BLACKWELL: Yes, sure --

CHINCHAR: But yes, I mean, you hear about stories like this, but I'm happy that they were able to actually get it back to her.

BLACKWELL: Yes, some good news to wrap this up. All right, final episode of Twitter breaking the bird. It follows Jack Dorsey's return to Twitter as CEO. Now, under his leadership, the app saw years of unprecedented growth, then that came to a halt. Jack looked for guidance from other tech leaders like Elon Musk, that follows and foreshadowed of course, the sale of the app in 2022. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One team was the whole team got together in one location for announcement as to where things were going.

JACK DORSEY, FORMER TWITTER CEO: OK, we got some set, how is everyone feeling?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When one team came around, they really made Jack's sort of health-stuff his personality a key part of the programming. So, Jack would fast for, you know, days at a time. He would do ice baths and cold tubs and saunas. He walked to work. He every day would drink what he called salt juice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were like little salt juice packets under everybody's seats, it's like the weirdest Oprah check-under-your-seat giveaway. You can imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: You get a salt juice, you get a salt juice. New episode of "TWITTER: BREAKING THE BIRD" airs tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

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