Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With John Berman And Poppy Harlow 20170912

This is cnn breaking news. All right. Good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. Im poppy harlow in new york. Im john berman in miami. In just the last few minutes all around me, these streets have begun to be cleared off there in the distance you can see that yellow utility truck, such a welcome sight here in this city. But moving trees and getting power lines operational not going to be nearly enough in the florida keys. That is a scene of devastation right now. Femas just told us that their initial estimates are that 25 , 25 of the homes, are destroyed. Twothirds of the homes are badly damaged. Our chris cuomo who has been on the ground there tells us he thinks those estimates might be low. No power, no food, no drinkable water. Just some of the issues for the people who chose to ride out the storm there in the lower keys. In the upper keys, some people have begun to return home, poppy. These pictures, john, that were looking at out of the florida keys are stunning. Its this morning as chris and our teams are starting to feed in these images of completely burned out houses, structures just ripped off, downs to just the initial beams. Its remarkable to see. Youve also got senator marco rubio who is asking officials, john, at this point to consider evacuating the lower florida keys, as he notes as you did, no water, no energy, poor access to health is a recipe in his words for big problems. You spoke last hour to one of the folks who helps run things down in the keys. He didnt think that was necessary but senator marco rubio does. Youre looking at aerial images of some of the devastation. Lets go to ed lavandera for more on what hes seeing. Ed . Hi, poppy. The real question here in the one thing that people are going to be dealing with the most for the longest period of time as well is that the Power Outages throughout the state. Across the region, the southeast region, you take into effect as the storm has moved north, north carolina, south carolina, georgia, alabama, and florida, nearly 7 Million People without power right now and, of course, the most of that, the brunt of that, is here in the state of florida wheres theres more than 5. 5 Million People without power. So we have seen here, were in naples, florida, the southwest corner, the eye of Hurricane Irma came through here. We have seen crews going around beginning that process of reestablishing power in neighborhoods. In fact, in one neighborhood, late last night, as we were driving back from another location, we saw one small Little Pocket of businesses around a marina where the power had come back on. But this is a task that is going to take some time. In fact, we were also on marco island, a popular tourist destination, home to about some 17,000 people, poppy, and the police chief and the fire chief opened up access, the bridge on to the island. You can get on to the island now. Theyre allowing people back on. But theyre urging people to stay away if they can, as long as theres no water, no electricity, they say its a very kind of dire situation there on the island and it complicates things if everybody starts coming back. Theyre actually asking people, urging them if they can, to stay away. A lot of seasonal people as well who might have second homes or just stay on the island part of the year, so those types of people, theyre probably urging more so to stay away if they can. Of course theres a great amount of interest in getting to their homes, seeing what kind of conditions and cleanup they have to do, but that power issue and that water issue of major concern throughout the state right now. Poppy . Ed lavandera, thank you for being there and bringing us those pictures. Well get back to you shortly. We are getting new images from key largo and some of the keys and theyre stunning, john. They sure are, poppy. Putting that number on the screen, 7 million customers without power. That doesnt tell the story. The southeast, there are 15 million human beings without power right now and that includes not just florida but georgia, alabama, the carolinas, as this storm has moved up the coast. Thats the power story. The destruction story really in the florida keys, bill rode out the storm in key largo and now is on a boat heading south giving us just an amazing perspective of the scene there. Bill, what are you seeing . Hey, john. Yeah, we finally made it down here to lower matakumbay key, where the north edge of the storm slammed ashore. Im trying to look through the glass and it looks like some of the fishing boats, some of the yachts that were lined up there, took some hits. Theres some trees down. We saw a boat moving around just a moment ago. Thats a good sign that theres people down here and theyre able to free them. But look at this, if you look at this water, first of all this is a pictureperfect day in the florida keys if not for what were experiencing here. The kind of day fishermen and divers dream of, with one exception, see how this water looks like dirty dish water. On a day like this it would be 100 visibility and you could see the tar upon swimming around in here, the mahi mahi and dolphin fish over on the gulf stream side, but as were motoring in here, man, you can feel, its just an eerie sense to come ashore in places we havent seen yet. Sort of cringing with anticipation as to what we might find. But this is well beyond the drivable stretch of the keys. Theyre allowing people down to milemarker 73. Any idea, captain, what milemarker we would be at here . Were at like 73. Were at. Yeah. Okay. All right. So yeah, they can drive up to here, but no further south and west. These are some, as you can see, some really impressive homes and with that price tag comes some sturdy construction. I see roofs are intact. Not the case oh, dolphins, see the dolphins in front of us. That just youll see the dorsal fin. Theres one to the left there. Gorgeous. Theyre right in front of us. Three of them. Three of them just popped up, the dorsal fins. Hey, guys. Glad you survived. Its beautiful. Yeah. Its so crazy to think that this sea is the same one that caused so much destruction. Its paradise today. Were coming up close here. Im seeing some downed trees, but at this point, nothing too startling and we did see some proof of life, somebody moving around in a boat a second ago. As i was saying theyre letting folks in up north, up in key largo, and islamorada as long as you are a resident and can prove it and thats good news for people who need a community to pull together. You need the Hardware Store to open so you can, you know, get the tools to clear your property and start rebuilding. You need food, obviously. There was one place open in key largo, tower of pizza, and people were crying with relief as they were served sandwiches and pizza, which was such a creature comfort after days without any power, without any food. So yeah, take a look over here, guys. You can were starting to see a lot of tree damage. The big pines that are endemic to this part of the keys, you can see on the storm side of them have been stripped away. Wow. Look at this. This one is coming down. But this is, you know, this is landscaping. This is it could be so much worse. If youve seen the pictures coming out of cuba and other parts of the cribben, it looks like a bomb site. Theres somebody port antigua im told by captain bam bam is where we are now. Right. Oh, yeah. Now we can get a look into the backyards. [ no audio ] hey, bill, can you still hear me . I think we may have lost i think we lost bill which is too bad. Getting a remarkable, a remarkable tour from the water of the florida keys right now. He thinks hes at about mile 73 on the water side on the roadside, you cannot get past that point. Hes past the point where you can get to by driving right now. This is the only way we can see that. Just to recap what bill is saying. So far, what he says he has seen, you know, landscaping issues, that doesnt diminish the damage that was done. This will be devastating for people who live in those areas, but trees down, shutters broken, you know, wet floors, thats nothing compared to the problem of having lives lost. So far at least, what bill has seen, is rep prable, and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing and that coincideses with what we heard from the county administer of Monroe County who told us, this was a hurricane. Weve been through hurricanes before. The question we still dont know the answer to, is in some parts of the keys that we havent reached yet, was Hurricane Irma different . When it was is it more than just another hurricane. Is the damage something greater than perhaps we fear right now, poppy, and as bill moves south, as our chris cuomo gets around more, that might be a question soon we get some answers too, poppy. Indeed. Pretty amazing to see in realtime withes him, as hes coming up on the keys for the first time that anyone who doesnt live on them, is seeing the impact of irma. Well get back to bill for more on that in a moment. I want to take you to the caribbean because some of these caribbean islands got demolished. A death toll, at least 36 people are now dead through the caribbean because of irma. As it struck as a category 5 storm, the president of france is there, in the French Islands of st. Martins and saint barts. The dutch red cross says irma destroyed a third of the homes on st. Martin, but as we were told on the french side of st. Martin, 65 of the homes there are destroyed by irma. You have about 1200 americans from st. Martin and puerto rico evacuated ahead of the storm and see some of the damage from these islands all wait from space. Look at some of these images were catching. Astronaut randy pressnick tweeted this after the of the turks and caicos from space. Lets talk with kelsey nowakowski. She lived in st. Thomas two years. Can you hear me . Yes. Im glad you are holding in there an doing okay after irma. Just debrief for us, whats the situation on the ground in st. Thomas right now . Right now, were trying to just get food and water out to the places that were hardest hit. We have fuel shortages so a lot of people cant make the drive to the few Grocery Stores or gas stations that are actually open and that have food and gas, so we have supplies coming in from all over puerto rico, a lot of private businesses and a lot of people on the island of st. Croix, 40 miles south, sending care packages over, lots of water, but its hard to communicate because most of our cell service is down, so we dont know where its needed. At this point, were just trying to distribute based on where people tell us the damage is the worst and where people lost their roofs or their entire home. But lets show people one of these images that you tweeted. The before and the after. I think we can pull that up, guys, of the storm. As soon as we do ill let you know. But, what is needed right now . Because there you go. There are the images before and after. Bright and sunny on the top and below it is after the storm. I know youve said that the because the power is down, the credit card machines are down, so only the folks that had cash on hand are able to go to the few Grocery Stores open, are able to get even some of these supplies. Correct. And there are fema distribution centers. As far as we know right now, fema is not going door to door yet because the roads arent cleared enough. We have marines on the island now trying to clear roads so more than one car can pass at a time. Its tricky getting out there. But for people who didnt take out a good amount of cash before or who didnt have that type of money, theyre just relying on whatever Distribution Sites they can find. What are officials telling you, kelsey, about what is going to take to get power up and running for more folks in st. Thomas, get some of those i mean get cell Service Restored . You see all of the downed towers and power lines. Cell towers will be the first thing that come back up from what officials are telling us. In terms of electricity, even though the town flooded a lot of the poles were protected by buildings so they didnt snap. As you go up st. Thomas and st. John are mountainous so as you go up these hills, theres just power lines strewn over hills everywhere over the hills and a lot of people are cutting them because theyre trying to get them out of the way but thats going to slow efforts to get the power back up. Sure. When hurricane maryland hit it was four months before the power got back on. Wow. It could be months and its going to take skilled electricians coming from the mainland to help. There are, as i understand it, two cruise ships right now at the port in st. Thomas evacuating people that want to leave. Is that what youre seeing . Are you getting on one . Im not getting on one. I saw one cruise ship coming down the mountainous town this morning, but i have heard theres another ship coming. Im going to stay and try to help the Police Efforts and whatever i can do reporting wise to get more information out there. But for the most part, just tourists are allowed on those boats first because we had a lot of people stranded here, our airports still not running, so people are just trying to get to st. Croix or to puerto rico to get out of here. Those boats will be taking people out of puerto rico or the cruise ships are going to florida. Okay. Kelsey, thank you very much for all these pictures and all of this reporting on the ground. It helps us get our head around all of it. We appreciate it. Thanks. And good luck. So you have about 15 Million People right now across the southeast without power. Much more on those outages, when its coming back, next and youre looking at some images out of the florida keys. Were going to take you live, speak with folks in the florida keys, especially those lower keys, that have experienced the brunt of the devastation. Much more as our special live coverage continues. 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At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. Marcopolo marco. polo marco. polo marco. polo marco. si . Polo marco. polo scusa . Ma io sono marco polo, ma. Marco. playing marco polo with marco polo . Surprising. Ragazzini, io sono marco polo. Si, sono qui. Whats not surprising . How much money amanda and keith saved by switching to geico. Ahhh. Polo. Marco. polo fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Polo irma was huge and spread far north. Right now, youve got water being pumped out of the streets in charleston, south carolina, because they had flash flooding overnight there as a result of irma. Nick is there with some of the folks. It has flooded into the homes, in places where theyre not used to flooding like this, nick. Residents of 30 plus years here in charleston say theyve never seen anything like it. Were hearing the words hurricane hugo the last time the flooding was this bad here. Thats saying a lot because remember the thousand year flood that happened in 2015, Hurricane Matthew and the damage that this historic part of charleston experienced and now the effects of Hurricane Irma which was just so big that even here in charleston, south carolina, it was affected. Residents here like mr. Richards, david richards, joining us here. Tell us what it was like last night. Yesterday afternoon, yesterday morning, really, you know, a lot of rain, a lot of wind, nothing too dramatic, and then around 11 30 or so between saying between 11 30 and 1 30 . In front of my house on broad street, streets were clear, the tide started rolling in, something ive never seen before, an hour later, it was two feet, pretty much close up next to our door. And, obviously, saturated and flooded a lot of these homes that are howlower than mine. We will have our cameraman pan to see the water level line, about three feet high. Whats your home look like this morning . Well, were above this mark. Were raised up. We were not in this situation, fortunately for us, unfortunately for them. Theres a lot of homes that are lower. This area of town was developed later, so it wasnt as high as the area that we are, which is three or four blocks from here. What about historically . Youve lived here in this community a long time. Some residents are telling me the storms feel different. What do you think . I wouldnt say that storm itself when its occurring is different, but just the nature of the storms every year coming our way. The results. Absolutely. This is devastating for a lot of people in town. Businesses are getting damaged and you see people behind us pulling out their remaining belongings. Where are they going to go. Theres nothing they can do. Weeks or months before they can get somebody in to do repairs. When is it going to come again . Thank you so much for taking the time with cnn. Theres so many others affected in places like florida, georgia, our state there in atlanta, where we are, our team is coming from, but here, so far away in the carolinas, also feeling the effects of Hurricane Irma. One of the good signs, the sun is out, though we see signs of rain clouds here, though heres the good news, looking down that street there, poppy, that water was high just about an hour ago and its slowly starting to come down. That is the good news, its starting to recede. Its good news, nick, thank you. And those residents are lovely for stopping and talking to us and sharing their strories of pumping out their homes and these streets. John, back to you in miami. Were waiting for the governor rick scott to begin his next press conference with an update from jacksonville, john. Yeah. And again, this is going to require an enormous government response, it requires a neighborly citizen response and now there is an enormous military response as well. I want to get to the pentagon and Barbara Starr right now to get a sense of where that stands. Barbara . Hi, john. Well, it is a combination of state National Guard and federal troops. One of the biggest symbols, one of the biggest levers of that kind of military oomph is the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln off the shore of florida and beginning those helicopter flights, those rotating helicopter flights, to the coast. They are trying to bring aid, theyre trying to do search and rescue, find people in the keys if they can. I see Governor Scott appears to be starting his press conference now. But the helicopters are trying to scout out what the damage is, trying to see if they can establish airfields where they can run continuous helicopter operations trying to provide assistance. Right. All right. Barbara starr at the pentagon. Lets listen to Governor Scott. You just pray that everybody is alive. Were still having ive been talking to people down there, were still having in the keys issues with getting the water started back up, sewage, and their power back up. Weve been sending the department of transportation down in the keys to inspect all the bridges because even though you can see that people are traveling, youre not sure on the bridges they can take any significant weight. And so our department of transportation is working on that and but weve got to get people their power back down there. Weve got to get the sewage system back working. Were doing all these things. So today i had the opportunity with the mayor to tour the flood damage here and theres so many areas that you would never have thought would have flooded have flooded. So you you know, i talked to people, i came to a shelter last night with tim tebow and you talk to the people and one, theyre very appreciative. Ive been in shelters, pensacola, and here, and i can tell people are very appreciative but theyre just shocked at how the flood came in, what it teaches you is that when we have a disaster like this, you really need to watch the weather and listen to your local officials, follow the weather, you can do national or local weather, but follow it and on top of that if they say to evacuate you need to evacuate. I tell everybody, ive said this the last week, is that, you know, we can rebuild your house, you can get your possessions again, but you cant lose a Family Member or your life. You dont have a chance to do all the things you want to do with your family going forward. So, you know, as far as i can tell, i mean were shocked yesterday when the flooding started happening here. So what i immediately did was i know the mayor was focused on this and the sheriff was focused on this but i sent fish and wildlife officers to help with rescue. The mayor will talk about what they did, but i think with everybody here, i think they rescued over 300 individuals. And thank god that everybody helped everybody here. So that was that was important. Fish and wildlife brought boats with them and weve got search and rescue efforts continuing around the state. Im praying that when people get to see the damage in the keys, we dont lose anybody else down there. So you just my primary job is keeping people safe and thats what i focus on this whole time. As you know, the storm moved and so we we tried to be as aggressive as we can, opening up shelters. We opened up almost 400 shelters around the state. The red cross and National Guard, salvation army, churches, everybody came together. And when you go to the shelters people are so appreciative. Theyre so the people are so nice to them and we have pet shelters, special needs shelters. We needed more nurses for a special needs shelter. Early on we started seeing a big increase in number of people, special needs, going to our shelters which is all positive. We have a lot of power out in the state. Every day ive been having calls with the Utility Companies, talked to the big Utility Companies this morning, talked to duke and Florida Power and light this morning about how to get power back as fast as we can. Were i think the latest numbers i saw, might have some while i was in the helicopter was about 60 out still i think it is. Out of power. And but weve gotten a lot restored. Over a million restored already. So hopefully the number will come down. What youre going to see today all around the state more resources and the reason that is, if you think about it, this impacted the whole state. It was hard to preposition the assets if the storm came from one coast to the other. Were having over 30,000 individuals from out of state are helping us get our power back on. Fuel, ive been talking to i talked to the ports this morning and talked to the to make sure were getting the fuel out, we have some fuel in our tanks, we already have the carriers out getting that fuel today with escorts to get it back to the gas stations. Ive talked to the coast guard, i have a call in to the army corps of engineers because they have to open the ports. Tankers, both ready to come in to tampa bay and everglades where our biggest fuel is. Some comes into port ka nav val and here to jackson port. Were doing that. We will do what weve done after last disasters, weve be doing probably two days at call with our Utility Companies, what can we do, how can we help. People want their power back. Ive gotten a lot of phone calls from Nursing Homes and assisted living theyre having issues with their generators and so were doing everything we can to help them get either generators, fuel, power back on, but its one of the issues were dealing with aggressively to help them. Were trying to get ahold of them constantly and a lot are calling me. Were working hard with that. I want to thank everybody. Thank our National Guard, i think its over 8,000 members have shown up doing everything from helping with shelters to debris removal to clearing roads. They show up and do everything. People show up when their own family might be in harms way. I want to thank the National Guard for showing up. Highway patrol. We had over 1700 officers keeping our roads open. We had some traffic but the truth is it never stopped. We had to open up shelters in places in the state and so theyve already they with d. O. T. Opened up all of our highways and turnpikes are open again. Working to make sure theres fuel on them. We will be getting the fuel trucks out. Next i want to thank the federal government. It starts with president trump. Ive talked to president truttyy day. Day before yesterday talked to him three times. Were going to get all the federal resources we can. Talking to Vice President pence, pretty much every cabinet has called me. Administrator from fema, been a partner all along with this. Thank the president for the prelandfall declaration and the major declaration afterwards. That does not happen afterwards. This president and administration is focused like i am on one, the safety of everybody, but on top of that getting people back to normal life as fast as possible. So, we got a lot of work to do but everybody is going to come together. Were going to, you know, get this state rebuilt. This state is a strong, resilient people and we will get our jobs back, help build our companies again and then get this all cleaned up and hopefully more tourists back and everybody back. I will turn it over to the mayor. Thanks. Want to thank the governor for, as always, being onsite, an opportunity to show him some of the years impacted heavily area impacted heavily where there is damage and areas we need to rebuild and clean up. We knew this was going to be a major weather event when it shifted west. You all covered it and heard us say it, this was going to be serious. What does serious mean, what Mother Nature brings, whether tornadoes, wind, flooding, this time, we woke up yesterday to category 3 Hurricane Storm surge and tropical storm. The governor provided assets, we secured assets with his help and the federal government as well and our local First Responders and those rescues happened. So, now the recovery and rebuilding begins. We will have from general mike call hoon of the florida stashl guard. Good morning, governor. Thank you very much. I would like to add that the governor mentioned before we have 8,000 guardsmen on ground and increased to roughly 9,000. In over half of the 500 shelters around the state and in 32 points of distribution that are being opened up currently. Search and rescue on the ground in the keys. The aircraft we were on the uh60 we were doing a recon of the area to see the damage assessment. We have 16 aircraft in the air doing the same missions down in the keys and across the state and our aircraft will grow another six, to 22 aircraft in the air available. They will be doing slang load operations, other operations thats needed and we have engineer assets on the ground, continuing to do search and rescue, debris removal as the governor said and any other tasks for us. Well hear from the Highway Patrol. Also like to thank the governor for his tireless effort in this, all major roadways are open. We ask for your patience as we begin this recovery process. Thank you. David, the Highway Patrol has 1700 people, working 12hour shifts, doing everything we can to keep the roads open. I want everybody to be safe. Thats what theyre trying to do every day. Everything we did on the evacuation now when people coming back how do we do this in a manner that theyre safe. Let me Say Something about fema, fema has been a great partner, its been seamless. We have they have assets that theyre deploying around the state, were doing that with them and do everything we can to get water, food, any resource we can, out to people as fast as possible. The the what the president gave us with the major declaration will help our families get back into a normal life as fast as possible. So ill be glad to answer any questions. What about the [ inaudible ] what kind of damage have you and the mayor seen that stands out to you . Just the amount of flooding. You heard about it in peoples faces last night when you to to the shelter. You saw it on tv yesterday. Then you can see it when you see a birds eyeview, areas that you would never think would be flooded and you cant imagine what those families are going through when, you know, they, you know, maybe they followed the weather but thought well gosh, this is going to be, you know, a typical hurricane event, just a lot of wind and when you get the flooding it had to scared the living daylights out of people. Fortunately the mayor and everybody showed up, brought in fish and wildlife, everybody has shown up and theres i think as the mayor said over 300 individuals rescued. Thats right. Mayor, you want to add anything . Im just were in recovery mode and rebuild mode right now. I am so grateful for what occurred yesterday, you know. We it would have been nice if there werent people in areas that were affected by the surge, but the First Responders just stepped up and did their jobs and neighbors helped each other. What i saw on the ground yesterday was nothing short of what the definition of what humanity should be all about. Mayor, i pick up a little tru frustration when you wish people werent there when you issued the evacuation orders. Was that frustrating . People were out at bars watching the game, was that alarming . The us from frustrating part its about individual lives. Were not trying to be difficult or trying to make peoples lives inconvenient. The governor was saying it best leading up to this. Evacuations are not about convenience. Theyre about safety. We want people to be safe. Look, i was telling people around jacksonville if this wasnt my job i would have left this city days ago. I wouldnt have been here for this storm because i understood the seriousness and impact of it. We just hope that, you know, people take this seriously. We dont want another event like this but Mother Nature is Mother Nature and we want people to be serious about it. Are you pleased with the lack of loss of life here . We didnt lose a lot we have no reported casualties as a result of the storm that were aware of at this point. So yeah, im incredibly grateful. Every life is important, every family is important, we want to keep everybody alive. Are you aware of any like pollution, sewage spills caused by the flooding in jacksonville and around the state . That will be reported in a transparent manner. I havent seen data since ive been up in the air. If its happened well know about it and i think thats a result of the governors we passed legislation that requires that disclosure. One thing you do you work to make sure some of that gets caused because theres not good backup power. Weve tried to make sure happens around the state, that everybody has power so we dont have that issue. These backup generators i know cost money but it does matter. For everybody, whether, you know, in so many businesses. Were working hard with our alfs and Nursing Homes with regard to that. Anybody else . All right. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Youve been listening to Florida Governor rick scott in jacksonville briefing the press on the situation throughout the state. Some news out of there, first of all in jacksonville which experienced really bad historic flooding he did note it surprised them. This storm moved. It shows the scope of the damage here. Jacksonville up on the other end of the state from where i am and the florida keys, had to deal with historic flooding there. The mayor of jacksonville said if i didnt have to stay here and do my job i would have left beforehand. Theyre recovering up there. The governor also talked about the power issues, electricity in this state. More than 15 million human beings still without power in florida and adjoining states. The governor talked about the enormous, mammoth effort being undertaken right now to restore the power. He said 30,000 people from out of state are now engaged in the process of helping restore power. Thats just the out of state help. I have been told 20,000 people in state were working 24 hours a day to get the power lines back up. So this is a huge, huge effort and then the governor talked about the florida keys. Perhaps the most acute concern right now is for the keys, including those places just now begun to be reached by search and rescue operations and utility efforts down there. The governor talking about the need that is still great and how they are trying to get down there and how the department of transportation is at this moment inspecting the more than 40 bridges to make sure that they can hold the weight of the people who want to go home, of the rescue crews, Utility Companies. That might be the first order of business for some of the efforts down there. Poppy . And john, in the florida keys, as we heard the governor say, as you said, d. O. T. Looking at the bridges, the stability there, talking about help on the way, but senator marco rubio of florida is calling on some of those lower keys, especially parts of them, to be evacuated. Youre looking at images from moments ago of key largo, florida. Youve got boats completely whipped on land. Structures demolished. Senator marco rubio says some of the folks need to evacuate the keys because theres no drinkable water, no power, and little availability to contact help. Much more of our special live coverage ahead. Tech when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get a text when were on our way. You can see exactly when well arrive. Im micah with safelite. Customer thanks for coming, its right over here. Tech giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. Take care. Kids singing safelite® repair, safelite® replace. Hit could be the next big thing i should totally get that domain name. Get your great idea online too. Get your domain today, and get. 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Before the sit down he would host malaysias Prime Minister that secretary sanders says will focus on a variety of things including north korea. As the president looks to push forward his tax agenda, growing friction between he and republicans in congress. Nice to have you here, gentlemen. Thank you. Doug, let me begin with you, you know, watching steve bannon in that 60 minutes interview was riveting in so many ways and especially when he talks about taking on members of their own party. Just listen to this. You are attacking on many fronts people who you need to help you, to get things done. Theyre not going to help you unless theyre put on notice they will be held accountable if they do not support the president of the United States. Theres no accountability. They have totally they do not support the president s program. Its an open seat on capitol hill. Since the election, doug, you know, youve got 17 republicans now as of yesterday, who are not running again for congress. Theyve announced their departure. More moderates, a number of them in tough states to hold on to their seats. You tweeted how much this worries you as a conservative. Ive talked to a lot of members of congress, republican members, obviously, in the past week, keep hearing the same thing over and over again. Theyre demoralized, theyre hearing bad things back home about how its just a thankless job, and this is part of what worries them. Part of what feeds that. And if youre a republican member of congress and you see some of your colleagues departing youre starting to wonder if the grass is greener, the bannon interview, the threats of primaries weve seen coming not just from steve bannon but from the press secretary podium as well, all feeds into that. The reality is, though, is that if we elect more democrats, if we primary republicans it will help elect democrats, end any trump agenda that may exist, surely as the republican takeover in 2010 stopped the obama agenda. It doesnt make a logical sense. Bacari, in the press briefing yesterday Sarah Sanders was asked about mcconnell and ryan and the leadership and the Administration Working with them. Her response was, quote, we are, quote, committed to working with the leadership we have. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Its not. I dont think you can expect any more than what you heard from Sarah Huckabee sanders or the white house for that matter. I think that all of this is playing out and what doug is talking about, it hits the nail on the head, its playing out in alabama. You have Mitch Mcconnell and his Group Supporting the current senator, senator and judge roy moore coming not out of nowhere but with the backing of bannon and others, pushing out what is quote unquote the establishment. If youre somebody like senator wicker or senator flake or senator heller, this has to concern you. But as a democrat, it simply states we need to make sure that were fielding candidates and quality candidates throughout the country like doing with doug jones and democrats have to stop having this purity test to be willing to support people throughout the country to take advantage of these openings that the white house has given us. Doug, lets talk about the wall street journal reporting that not just one, but a handful at least, a number of the president s attorneys within the white house, thought that Jared Kushner should go a few months ago. This is after the referencelation of these four separate meetings with different russians, the ambassador, the russian lawyer, the russian banker. That was the feeling. That didnt happen, but the fact that this is now public, has been disclosed, even some, you know, explanations of his departure were drafted the journal reports how significant is that . I dont think its terribly significant. It becomes part of the unimportant theater we follow but raltsty is f you like what this administration is doing its because you like donald trump. If you dont like what this administration is doing its about donald trump. I remember my last conversation with Reince Priebus about a month and a half, two months ago now, he asked me what i was hearing. I said it wasnt good. He asked if that had anything to do with staff. I said one issue with this white house and one issue only, this is Donald Trumps white house. Staff is an unimportant theater at this point. Even Jared Kushner and one of his advisors in charge of middle east peace and huge things. Hes a Family Member. It draws more attention and more scrutiny. But this administration is about donald trump pure and simple. Bakari sellers, you may have the book or buying it today, probably havent read it yet, but Hillary Clintons book is out if you havent heard. She will be talking to Anderson Cooper about it tomorrow night did an interview with usa today. In that interview she says shes, quote, convinced there was collusion between russia and members of the Trump Campaign during the election. So she says shes convinced and goes on to explain why. Doesnt put evidence forward. Mueller hasnt said hes convinced or put that evidence forward, you know, the congressional committees have not done that. Is this a bridge too far at this point, meaning does it risk her looking like sour loser and sour grapes here . Why say i am convinced at this point when you havent had any of the authorities who are actually investigating say the same . Hillary clinton wrote a memoir that i have read and its really, really good. Its more than just, you know, her thoughts about russia and its more than just whether or not she thinks there was collusion between russia and the Trump Campaign. There are a lot of us who believe that. But the fact of the matter is, i mean there are more people who are pushing Hillary Clinton out of the limelight and telling her to go sit down somewhere than there are people pushing steve bannon who is a selfproclaimed White Nationalist out of the limelight. Let Hillary Clinton live. Let her go on her book tour. Mitt romney is thinking about running for United States senate. Its an amazing opportunity. Shes not running for office any more. Thats not what i asked you, bacari. Im sorry . Thats not the question i asked you. Its not a bridge too far. If theres anyone who felt the brunt of the collusion between russia and the Trump Campaign is one person. Muellers investigation will pay out. Im going to bet on the character and honesty and truthfulness of Hillary Clinton than that of donald trump. Bacari, we have to leave it there. I should note bacari, you say collusion, were waiting for mueller and were also waiting for those congressional committees. Lets go to john now in miami who has all right. John, was going to interview senator marco rubio. Were trying to get his connection back up. Senator, i believe i have you with me, is that correct . Yes, maam. Thank you very much for your time and thoughts to all of you in florida and the incredible work being done by Governor Scott and all of those emergency responders. You tweeted this morning that you believe some of the lower keys should be evacuated. What is that based on . Why is that . Yeah. To be clear, what i mean is, if there are individuals down there that would like to leave, they may not have access to fuel or in an unsafe structure, not a mandatory thing, to go back. [ inaudible ] no water [ inaudible ] to the extent [ no audio ] help [ inaudible ] move shelter something that should be considered. Nothing not [ inaudible ] the [ inaudible ] not the evacuation, maybe the better choice of words would have been for me to say that, you know, we should help facilitate moving people who find themselves down there now, unable to, you know, feed themselves, its and over the next couple days as work is happening, to restore power, you know, a water system issue, the further south you get the longer the aid is going to get there. Its scary what were looking at. New images out of key largo and some of the lower keys and the fact that fema is saying you a quarter of the homes in the keys that are completely demolished. Youre in jacksonville. This storm turned and turned fast and jacksonville got a whole lot more than it was betting on. What are you seeing in jacksonville . Whats needed there . Well, were about to arrive. We havent seen everything. Weve been talking to the mayor and local officials. Lot of localized flooding and widespread closer to the water, obviously, and they had numerous sounds like i saw a report upwards of 300 people that had to be rescued. Incredible work by First Responders. Now i think our thoughts are turning to some of the other issues here. Still safety. We had 13 kids yesterday in Bonita Springs go to the hospital because of Carbon Monoxide poisoning due to generators. Then, obviously, a lot of people still in need of emergency sheltering. Weve talked about the keys. There are other places where people arent going to have housing for a significant period of time, and fema has a program called transitional sheltering assistance for eligible disaster survivors trying to facilitate that process and make it as quick as possible. So these are the sorts of things you start thinking about. The economic damage is weve got to start. The florida keys is, you know, replete with Small Businesses for the most part from the bait shops, charter captains to everyone in between and many of them are not going to have any sort of income for a period of time here until the keys are back up and running. So, obviously, thats where the Small Business administration and others can be of assistance. Still concern about life safety issues but concerned about people who have been displaced, how do you feed them, provide them assistance and get some of our rebuilding efforts going. Of course. Senator, john berman is with us, and hes been covering this storm from before irma began in miami and has some questions for you as well. You know, senator rubio, just off the bat hey john. Saying this to every democratic and Republican Office holder thank you for everything youve done before, during and after the storm to keep the public informed. I sincerely think all democrats and republicans save lives in this effort and the work youre going to do to get the resources down that are needed will save more lives going ahead. Let me ask you this, again, about the florida keys. All the resources are heading down there. I did speak to row maine, the county administrator from Monroe County, he made it sound he goes look, this is a hurricane, we deal with hurricanes, we are going to make this through. Make it through this. You know, he doesnt want to evacuate. I know you suggested at least the question needed to be asked, whats your latest intelligence on the conditions there . I think we lost senator marco rubio. Hopefully he heard me thank him. I do mean the republicans and democrats who hold office in florida have done a remarkable job through this storm before and during to warn people to evacuate, to give them the information they needed to keep themselves safe and theyve been everywhere. Every member of congress, every city official and statewide officials, keep track where they are, one hand on the east coast, west coast, up north, down in the keys. It is important work to do and the 20 Million People of florida need them to be doing it right now, poppy. They need them and theyre going to need help for a long time as you heard the senator say, all of these Small Businesses throughout the keys their business is wiped out and gone. This is the nations fourth largest economy. Everyone needs to help it get back on its feet. Thank you for what you, your producer ali, crews are doing. We will see you back here. Thank you for being with us. Ill leave you with brand new images out of florida, especially in the keys, devastation from irma. We have our team spread across the state. Much more of our breaking News Coverage continues next. Theres nothing more important than your health. So if youre on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b heres why. 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Remember, Medicare Supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. Youll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Whether youre on medicare now or turning 65 soon, its a good time to get your ducks in a row. Duck quack call to request your free decision guide now. Because the time to think about tomorrow is today. Hello. Im kate bolduan. The sun is shining in florida and with that were getting the first look at the scope and scale of the devastation that Hurricane Irma is leaving behind. The florida keys have been in large part cut off and the scenes that are now