Transcripts For CNNW Inside Politics 20190902

The bahamas right now and threatening florida next. The Prime Minister of the bahamas says the devastation is unprecedented. The Foreign Affairs minister there is urging people to stay inside. From all accounts, we have received catastrophic damage. It is not safe to go outdoors. Power lines are down. Lamp poles are down. Trees are across the street. Its very dangerous to be outdoors if you dont have to be outdoors. As soon as conditions permit First Responders will go to areas where we had reports individuals are in distress. Were holding strong. We ask you to continue to pray for us. And look at this video taken this morning in freeport where dorian was still a category 5 storm. The woman who took this video said there was 6 feet of water outside her house, 5 feet of water inside. She says everyone is hunkered down upstairs, safe for now, but she says the worst is yet to come. And dorian is inching closer to the southeastern coastline of the u. S. Where it threatens millions of people. Its impossible to know for certain where dorian will make landfall in the u. S. , if at all. Cnn is on the scene for the duration of this storm. John berman joins me from right . Reporter ive got to say the winds are picking up a little bit over the last few minutes, dana, the sky is getting darker. Every half hour, hour or so we get one of those powerful rain bands. The first bands from Hurricane Dorian. And then the wind gets north of 50 miles an hour or so and you can really feel the power of this storm, which is still about 100 miles that way over the bahamas. Also the surf here beginning to kick up seriously, not even high tide here yet. High tide about another hour away. Already the water getting very, very close to the dunes. Imagine what will happen here when there is the 4 to 7foot storm surge that they are expecting. It will send the water clear over the dunes and thats the area of greatest concern on the florida coast. But again, as you said, inching over the bahamas now, Hurricane Dorian is, and moving closer to florida. How close will it get . Lets get the latest forecast. Lets go to the weather center. Allison chinchar is there. Allison. Yeah, thats right. So we take a look. One of the most notable things in the last few hours is the eye is starting to expand again. This is very important because that means the overall wind field of the storm is also expanding. That now puts more folks in florida at risk for those incredibly high winds. Sustained winds right now at 155, the storm is still moving only 1 mile an hour at this hour. Again, lots of heavy rain across portions of the bahamas. But were starting to get some of those outer bands beginning to reach into areas of florida as we speak. The watches and warnings have since expanded to additional counties across portions of florida. You can see that map here. The pink is a hurricane watch. The yellow a Tropical Storm watch. The blue is a Tropical Storm warning. This red area here is a hurricane warning. So what does this mean . You get these watches, you get these warnings. The main focus with these is the wind. Lets take a look. The area in orange, winds about 58 to 73 Miles Per Hour. This red area here, however, along the coast, were talking places like west palm, jupiter, ft. Pierce acti, even melbourne youre talking 74 to 110mileperhour winds. This is the same for places like daytona beach, the palm coast, st. Augustine, stretching into portions of the georgia coast, again, where youre looking at winds about 74 to 110 Miles Per Hour. That will make significant Power Outages and do some damage to these communities here as well as the path is still expected to continue to slide up the east coast and head towards other states like georgia as well as the carolinas. Reporter thanks so much, allison. Its such an important point you make. It doesnt have to make landfall. The eye doesnt have to make landfall here on florida to have a serious impact. They will experience hurricaneforce winds and even as we speak, one of those outer bands now, the rain is starting to come down. You can feel it on your skin, the wind picking up. When the bands come through, the wind speeds get to be 40, almost 50 miles an hour. Tomorrow morning at this time 70 to 100 miles an hour along the coast where we are right now. Nothing, though, compared to what theyre experiencing 100 miles that way over the sea in the bahamas where this storm is still devastating that island chain. Im joined now by Florida State rep chevron jones. The representative has family that has been riding out the storm in the bahamas that amazingly has been sending back footage of what theyre seeing. Representative, thank you so much for being with us. Before i ask anything else, from what you hear is your family doing okay . Thank you so much, john. Yes, my family is doing okay, thank god. Reporter what has it been like for them . How much have they been able to tell you about what they have seen and experienced . So weve been on group chat since last night, kind of going back and forth, and they have been sharing their pictures and their videos with everything thats been going on. All of them are in one area. Theres a lot of flooding, the power is out. Just as early as this morning, we have been communicating with each other but they have been trying to conserve as much power as they can on their cell phones. The last message came from my cousin, chrissie, at 8 39 and she said she was going to leave so she can conserve her battery power. So theres a lot of flooding and they are out of power. They will need a lot of help in the coming days. Some of the images weve seen, its hard to distinguish where the ocean stops and the streets begin because the water is simply everywhere. Is that their biggest concern . How were the winds overnight . Thats one of their biggest concerns. The winds have been massive. As you guys have been showing, we also have video from my cousin, video outside of her door where the storm surge and how far it has come up to her to her home. And so, yeah, its a lot and they are they are in need of a lot of help. They are going to be in need of a lot of help. I know there are a lot of efforts that has taken place here in miami. I spoke with congresswoman wilson this morning and she shared the work that shes doing along with the white house and with the governor to send that effort over as soon as conditions become safe. Reporter listen, representative jones, thank you for being with us. We wish your family the best. They have a long way to go there. Smart to conserve the battery while they can. Im glad they have you to lean on to support them while theyre getting through this. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Reporter joining us now is the mayor of Palm Beach County, florida, a little south of where i am. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being with us. I am sure youre doing exactly what were doing, which is gazing out to the sea every five minutes or so periodically and just thinking about where that storm is and how much closer it is moving to the florida coast. Tell me what youve been doing. John, thanks for having me. Right now im currently in our Emergency Operations center in West Palm Beach thinking, first of all. About all of our neighbors who have been impacted in the bahamas right now thats feeling the pain of this dangerous disaster, storm that isido dori. Right now were concerned about how its going to move and how it could potentially affect Palm Beach County and the whole coast of florida. Reporter whats your area of biggest concern, mayor . Well, we have like first of all, we have mobile homes. We have mandatory evacuations in Palm Beach County for zone a and b. Zone a is pretty much our mobile homes and our substandard housing and low homes also. And also we have our barrier s islands, jupiter inlet, so we have some areas that were really concerned about. Pretty much our whole coast in Palm Beach County. Right now because of the fact that were going to pretty much around 2 00 really feel the Tropical Storm winds in Palm Beach County, were urging all of our residents in Palm Beach County to make their final storm preparation, because this is not a storm that you want to have apathy and play games with. This is a storm that we want all of our residents to not be on the road, lock down, be ready and lets ride out this storm. Reporter be ready, your plans needed to be made already. Stay safe over the next few days. Mayor, thank you very much for being with us. You please stay safe as well. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, john. Reporter all right, were getting periodic communication with Patrick Ottman who was in freeport on grand ba hahama. Patrick, what are you seeing . Just the wind coming in sideways, it really is incredible. Its incredible because we are on our i dont know what, 12, 14, ive lost track, the storm came in last night in the middle of the night and it sounds like a plane taking off. Here we are all these hours later and youre watching the rain go sideways like this. If i were down there, because im in a good covered spot. But if i were down on the ground i would be flying out to the ocean. That wind, i wouldnt want to guess how fast its going but it is really going. Again, just amazing that all these hours later as dorian has been hanging out over grand bahama, its still giving this island absolute hell. There have been communities under water, cars have been its hard to get word from certain areas. You look out at the wind just going along guessing ain80, 100 maybe more Miles Per Hour and its crazy that all these hours after dorian arrived here in the bahamas that we are still getting absolutely pummeled by the storm. It will not let go. Back to you, john. Reporter patrick, i simply cant imagine being inside those winds for as long as you have been and the people in freeport, all of grand bahama. It has been a harrowing 24 hours and it will continue for several hours more, and only then will we get a real sense of how much damage was done there. Our Patrick Oppman whos doing amazing work along with his team in freeport, please say safe. Dana, as you can see here, the wind is starting to pick up. Were getting moments of the rain but nothing compared to what patrick has been going through there now for a full day in freeport. And chances are, john, those conditions thats headed for you soon. I just have a quick question. While you were talking, there were people on the beach behind you. Theyre not there anymore, but they were. Do you have a sense theres somebody right there. Do you have a sense that they are actually taking the Evacuation Orders seriously where you are . Reporter i think many people have. I think people out on the beach are all locals from the Barrier Island who have chosen to stay. It was empty earlier this morning when i was here when it was raining much harder than it is now and winds were blowing more fiercely. Theres been a period of two hours where its been a little better conditions and thats when everyone came out, which is unfortunate frankly. I think things will get worse steadily over the next two to four hours and hopefully most of these people will get somewhere safe. I think by and large people on the east coast of florida are taking this very, very seriously as they should. Good. Reporter because even the slightest variation in the path of this storm could be devastating, dana. And it has been the most unpredictable of storms as we have been reporting. John, well get back to you soon. Actually right now were hearing there is a press conference in california from the u. S. Coast guard about the fire that was on a boat, deadly fire that was on a boat off the coast of ventura. Lets listen. Coast guard and Partner Agencies have responded to a vessel fire near Santa Cruz Island this morning at 0330 which is 3 30 a. M. Coast guard sector los angeles, long beach overheard a mayday call over channel 16 of an engulfed 75foot commercial diving vessel with 39 people aboard. Crews from the coast guard, Santa Barbara Fire Department, Ventura County Fire Department and the vessel assist have responded. Fire Department Crews were fighting the fire when the vessel sank 20 yards offshore in 64 feet of water. Five people were evacuated aboard a Good Samaritan pleasure craft known as the grape escape. Currently 34 people aboard the vessel are unaccounted for. Watch standards at coast guard los angeles sector long beach launched two harbor 45foot response boat medium crews. Coast guard air station San Francisco Forward Operating base magoo dolphin mh65 helicopter crew, a Coast Guard Air station san diego mh60 jayhawk helicopter crew and a coast guard cutter narwall. The vessel currently has a portion of the bow sticking out of the water. Those are my comments at this time. Ventura county, would you like to make a comment . Dustin gardner, Ventura County Fire Department. Weve been in unified command since this morning at 0330 with the United States coast guard, Channel Islands harbor ventura and it will continue to be a unified effort as we switch to Santa Barbara county. Sheriff in Santa Barbara fire as the incident goes on and we go into a recovery mode. So there is no chance of youre talking recovery mode. Theres no chance of further rescues . Step up to the microphone, please. Presently the coast guard has full efforts in a response posture right now. We are currently still in the response phase. What does that mean . Are there divers in the water looking in the wreckage . I dont have any Additional Information regarding that at this time. What does response effort mean . Search and rescue activities, yes, maam. So what can they be doing at this point . Right now theyre conducting shoreline searches for any available survivors. What is the distance from where the boat was to the shoreline . Its approximately 20 yards from my last from my last brief. So at this point no word of anyone who made it to shore otherwise . I dont have any Additional Information at this time. 34 unaccounted for folks on board. Are there divers in the water . I cant answer that question. I dont have that information. One question at a time, please. Does the Boat Operator have any violations . The vessel has been in full compliance. We are working we are working deliberately with the vessel Owner Operator who is with us at the time. Working on a plan to conduct further assistance for his vessel. Whats the location . Its at plats harbor, isnt that correct . Plats harbor, 20 yards off of plats harbor on the north side of Santa Cruz Island. The fire, you must have some initial information. Was it something that started small . Was there an explosion that was quick and out of nowhere . The only mayday call we received was the vessel was engulfed in flames. Thats all we received. How long was it between that call and the time crews were able to arrive . I dont have that for you right now, but i can get that for you. Its 34 unaccounted for people on board. How was the crew able to the crew was awake and on the bridge and jumped off. To clarify, five crew members. Were there only five crew members and all made it off . Five crew members on board. Were they all awake at the time . They were awake at the time. Did the crew try to help the other passengers . I dont have any Additional Information regarding that. You mentioned the grape escape. Weve seen things printed great escape but some shirts that said grape escape. I believe its grape, grape. Thats a rescue vessel . Its a Good Samaritan. A person who offered their services to help. A woman wearing a grape escape shirt simply a Good Samaritan. Do you know where all the passengers as opposed to crew below decks on the vessel . The report i received they were below deck asleep. Did you receive any witness accounts that anybody was able to get above deck from below decks . I dont have any information. And there are no witness accounts from anybody other than the five crew members in the water . I dont have any Additional Information. If you will, well go ahead and continue our response search efforts. So with that ill close out this brief. Thank you. Its rochester. First name . Monica. My rank is captain. When can we expect another update . And what do you say to family members who want information . Id like you to go ahead and work through our Public Affairs person here, petty officer coony and he will set up the next briefing. Were working on a family assistance center. Was there thats all the questions i have for right now so we can go ahead and continue our response. Thank you very much. Youve been listening to a briefing from the coast guard, absolutely terrifying and tragic. Just to recap, after 3 00 this morning pacific time, there was a mayday call that a ship that was engulfed in flames. Engulfed in flames. 39 people onboard this boat, i should say. 20 yards off the shore. And now 64 feet underwater. The key here is 34 people, 34 people unaccounted for who were below deck sleeping when this fire happened. Five people, all members of the crew who were on top, on deck, working and awake, they were able to survive. This is absolutely horrific, tragic. Were obviously waiting to get more information about the people onboard, who they were and they said that there is still search and rescue to see if it is possible, possible that any of those 34 unaccounted for who were below deck asleep when this explosion occurred did survive. Well take a quick break. Stay with us. Geico makes it easy to get help when i need it. With licensed agents available 247, its not just easy. Its havingjeromebettis onyourflagfootballteam easy. Go get em, bus ohhhh [laughing] cmon bus, cmon hey, wait, wait, wait hey man, i got your flag i got your flag, man i got your flag its geico easy. With licensed agents available 24 7. 49 nothing woo you wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. 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At tmobile, what can you get when you a buy a Samsung Galaxy note 10 . A Netflix Subscription on us. And for a limited time. Buy any Samsung Galaxy note 10 and get one Samsung Galaxy note 10 for free. [music playing] jerry has a membership to this gym, but hes not using it. And he has subscriptions to a Music Service he doesnt listen to and five streaming Video Services he doesnt watch. This is jerry learning that hes still paying for this stuff hes not using. Hes seeing his recurring payments in control tower in the wells fargo mobile app. This is jerry canceling a few things. Booyah. This is jerry appreciating the people who made this possible. Oh look, there they are. team member this is wells fargo. Welcome back. John berman here in jensen beach, florida. This is cnns special live coverage of Hurricane Dorian. Just in the time of that commercial break, during the break there was driving rain. I could barely see the camera from where i am. Driving rain, complete cloud cover, and now the sun is out just seconds later. Thats how quickly things can change here. They will change like that many more times over the next several hours. Within a few hours the rain will come in and stay for 24 hours or maybe even longer. Hurricane dorian causing Major Concerns all up the florida coast and mandatory evacuations as the water comes in here where im standing. Mandatory evacuations in several counties up the coast in florida, georgia and South Carolina as well. I want to go to rosa flores whos in daytona beach, florida, where there are mandatory Evacuation Orders under way. Rosa, tell me what youre seeing. Reporter well, john, we are seeing that people at least here in the Barrier Island are heeding that warning. If you take a look, you can see that a lot of the businesses here are boarded up. Weve seen this all along the beach. Just like you, what we have been experiencing are those outer bands of Hurricane Dorian. Right now we can see sunny skies. It feels like a beautiful kay on the beach. And then what well get is one of those gusts. The wind will start to pick up, it will get wet and it will be brief. It will be powerful but very brief. But of course nothing compared to what the bahamas have been seeing. If you take a look behind me, you can see theres high tide, a few people on the beach. Weve been seeing that throughout the morning. About the latest information that weve received from county officials, they are expecting thunderstormforce winds starting tomorrow at about noon or 1 00 p. M. Now, heres the other thing that they are warning residents about. Theyre expecting 4 to 6 inches of rain and a storm surge of 4 to 7 feet. That is the reason why this Barrier Island, which is about 47 miles long and all of the lowlying areas, anyone that lives in a Mobile Home Park or rv parkes under a mandatory evacuation. Weve talked to people on the mainland as well. A lot of them are not in the mandatory Evacuation Order but they are hunkering down and being vigilant, listening to officials, county officials, city officials, to see what it is that they need to do next. But john, take a look around me right now. It just looks like a Beautiful Day on the beach, but we know that that wont last long. John. No, it wont last long. Wont last into the afternoon here i suspect. Rosa flores in daytona beach. Rosa was talking about the storm surge. Just so you can see what she means right now, look, the tide has been coming in this high. The tide has been coming in and water is pushing up to here. The dune is right here. If you have a 4 to 7foot storm surge, the water is going right over those dunes. Theres just no room left to spare on this beach. So the storm surge is one of the areas of the greatest concern. Joining me now is nick underwood, a Hurricane Hunter who has flown into dorian in the last several days. Nick, thank you so much for being with us. Some of the pictures weve seen from inside this hurricane, theyre like nothing ive ever seen before. This is the textbook definition of a catastrophic hurricane. What did it look like to you . The past week ive been flying on noaas gulfstream 4, our highaltitude surveillance jet. So weve been flying up above, around and in front of dorian sampling the highaltitude winds steering where the storm is. In a few days ill swap crews and go onboard of the orion and actually be flying between 8 ,00 to 10,000 feet and into the eye. Ive flown that aircraft before. Being inside that is like being in a roller coaster. A lot of vibration, a lot of turbulence. Once you get in that eye, its crystal clear, blue skies above you and its really other worldly. Reporter i cant imagine doing what youre about to do, flying above it like you already have looking down on top of dorian. What could you tell about this storm . The last i flew was saturday, which is when dorian was really starting to intensify into the powerful storm that were seeing now. The cloud tops were really reaching up to our flight level at 45,000 feet. Were getting some of the outflow and some turbulence up there as well. Really just a powerful storm. Reporter nick underwood, thank you so much for what you do. The science youre helping provide is saving lives. Thank you for joining us right now. Were happy to do it and thank you, john. Reporter dana, you can see it right there, water coming up here along the beach in jensen beach. Still not high tide. In a day or two more of this with the storm surge coming in, thats why theyre so concerned here. As they should be. John, im guessing you agree with me, add Hurricane Hunter to the list of jobs that i admire greatly but would never, ever, ever want to do. Thanks, john. Reporter not a chance. Not a chance. Well get back to you later in the hour. 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Grieving families and friends want answers. Leyla hernandez celebrated her quincenara in may. A bullet ripped through her shoulder seconds after she stepped out of a car dealership. She didnt make it to the hospital. Her friends talking to cnns ryan young at a vigil last night asked why this happened. I dont know why it happened to her, but it just did. It shouldnt have because someone that sweet and kind doesnt deserve to go through this. Her hugs, they made peoples days and she was the most nicist, kindest person to everyone. Why did she have to go . Because i still need her here. I really do. She should have never went. Scott mclean is in odessa, texas. Scott, what are you hearing about the other victims of this mass shooting . Reporter hey, dana. So we know that 22 people were injured, three of them are members of Law Enforcement. There was also a 17monthold girl named anderson davis. We have just gotten an update on her condition. Yesterday we know, though, she went into surgery to repair a hole in her lower lip and her tongue and also remove some shrapnel from her chest. The local Sheriffs Department says that shes now had a second surgery today that was successful. Amazingly shes expected to make a full recovery. We also have some confirmation about another one of the victims, a u. S. Army veteran who actually served in afghanistan. Cameron brown was from brownwood, texas, and he was killed in this shooting. His employer confirmed the news, calling the shooting senseless and horrifying. Now, we know the shooter used an ar15 type of weapon. We also know at some point he hijacked a u. S. Postal service van, the one that you still see here behind me, which made it confusing for Law Enforcement to figure out where the shots were actually coming. Heres a bit of the dispatch audio 40 minutes later. Listen. Start locking that down. Do we know if the people have moved from one vehicle to the other or do we have two vehicles . They dont know if they moved. Theres a mail truck they believe hes part of it. Reporter again, that was about 40 minutes after the first shots were fired. There was still confusion as to what exactly Law Enforcement was looking for. All in all, this shooter was on the run for about an hour. Scott, thank you so much for that. Listen, the one ray of hope and optimism is the fact that 17monthold anderson looks like she will make a full recovery, but obviously a lot of heartbreak there in texas. Another mass shooting, another Pressure Point here in washington on lawmakers. The question again, will they or wont they address the issue . The Vice President s chief of staff, marc short, told reporters this morning that the Justice Department has drafted legislation to expedite Capital Punishment for convicted mass shooters. Short says that piece would be part of a package of measures the white house hopes to send to congress. Here with me at the table to share their reporting and their insights, cnns abby phillip, Melanie Zanona with politico and melanie washington with the washington examiner. R lets listen to what President Trump said yesterday at the white house. Ive been speaking to a lot of house members, a lot of republicans, a lot of democrats. People want to do something. So were going to see. This really hasnt changed anything. I will say that for the most part sadly if you look at the last four or five, going back even five or six or seven years, for the most part as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it. Thats a really different tune from what we heard after what happened in el paso where he was talking up the idea of background checks. Exactly. And youre seeing a shift, and dare i say an inevitable shift in the president s rhetoric to start to align more closely with the nra, with republicans and people in his own party who are very wary of going too far on background checks. Wary that it will backfire with their base. The white house is talking a lot less about background checks these days and a lot more about the Death Penalty for these mass shooters, even though we should note a lot of these mass shooters never survive the attack themselves. They are a lot of times killed in confrontations with police, so it raises the question how much would a Death Penalty, if you are convicted of a mass shooting, deter people from going there. On the other hand if you look at the polling, youre seeing two things. One, almost universal support for toughened background checks, but at the same time a majority of americans, a slight majority say Mental Illness is a big part of this, so thats also one of the reasons why youre seeing the president talking a lot more about Mental Illness these days. And that has been something that after many, probably every one of these Mass Shootings for years that republicans who tend to support the nra position have talked about Mental Illness. Our team covering capitol hill says that these talks so far, because congress has been in recess, they have just been on the staff level so theyre not really that real yet. What are you hearing . Right. Even some of these modest proposals, like these socalled redflag laws, which are really narrow and essentially just allow the courts to temporarily seize guns away from people who are deemed dangerous, even that is running into hurdles with the gop. You heard some of these topranked republicans coming out against them, raising due process concerns. So that just really underscores the challenge that republicans are facing on capitol hill and i might add theres not a whole lot of confidence that even if trump does come out in support of Something Like a background check that inevitably hes not going to go back to his original position against it. I was just texting with a senior republican who said there arent a lot of gop lawmakers who dont believe that he isnt going to just reverse course and thats a huge problem for them. A huge problem. That has been the story line, the narrative of will they or wont they get anything done on tough issues for wrepublicans since the president took office. Even if he puts a toe in the waters of compromise, he pulls it back when he starts to get heat from his base. Thats something thats on the mind of President Trump. He doesnt want to go too far and looking like hes going to do Something Like supporting background checks because that can back fire in the election. I will say, though, the one interesting thing about the discussion is the nra had this internal turmoil and havent had as coordinated of a response as maybe they would have liked so some people might be thinking this is maybe the time to move forward on gun roll legislation, but at the same time once they get it back together, that can spell doom for any republicans who move forward supporting those measures. And we were hearing that after the el paso mass shooting last month, that was one of the things that the president was sort of mentioning as he was talking publicly about potentially expanding background checks while the nra is kind of a mess right now. Thats probably an understatement, at its top ranks. I spoke yesterday to senator rick scott, who is a freshman senator but also of course was governor of florida and after the parkland shooting a year and a half ago they actually did put some measures into place statewide, including a redflag law, which he says hes going to push when Congress Comes back. But then just the more broad question about other gun control measures, heres what he said. I believe in all the amendments, including the second. I dont want to take weapons away from even weapons of war . Well, everybodys has their definition of things. But why dont we look at the people that have the problems and look at taking all their weapons away from them. And why not do both . I want to do the things that i think work. I think the redflag laws work. And assault weapons ban is a nonstarter in this Current Congress . Im focused on the people that have problems. That was a you know, i was going out on a limb on an assault weapons ban because obviously that expired many years ago now and there was no talk of bringing it back. But still, if you look at the polls, there is broad support for banning those kinds of guns, even among Second Amendment supporters. You can see in that interview that you had with him the wheels turning in his mind as he tries to navigate these tricky waters on some of these issues. The fact of the matter is there is broad support. When you look at the polling, the recent quinnipiac poll, its not even close. Youre talking 60 , 70 , 80 , 90 for some of these gun measures that rick scott wouldnt even entertain as an idea. So that shows you the power of Second Amendment advocates or gun rights advocates within the Republican Party itself. Its broadly popular if you look at the whole electorate but when you look at just republicans, it is not nearly as close. And so its very tough for them to go that far. And people i talk to who are among those who are supportive of these bans and changes bang their head against the wall saying since when does congress not listen to the majority . Especially in the suburbs, gun control is very popular. The gop and president has a problem in the suburbs so if they dont act, there could be a backlash at the polls at least on the house side. But at the same time gun control is still very unpopular in red and rural states. Texas just in fact loosened some of their gun laws just yesterday, i believe. So it is a balancing act and you have people like Mitch Mcconnell up for reelection in a red state. So at the end of the day hes going to do whats best for his electoral map. Thanks, efverybody. Well get back to you on campaign reporting. Before we go to break, there are a lot of 2020 candidates, of course, spen spending their lab campaigning. 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Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace welcome back. We are tracking every part of Hurricane Dorian, a category 4 hurricane right now. Its lumbering towards the east coast and that is where cnns own john berman is on the scene in Hutchinson Island, florida. John, it looks like the winds have picked up there. I asked you earlier about the fact that i saw some people still on the beach there and not evacuating. Whats it like now . Reporter yeah, they have emptied out. Its actually really interesting, dana. Over the last 30 minutes or so, this beach has become a bit of a ghost town. A few reasons, i think. Number one, the water is coming in. Theyre running out of places to stand on the beach. The second thing is, is that the skies are getting darker here and were getting closer to that time where the weather is going to get lousy and stay lousy with the driving wind and the pounding rain as well. The third thing is Hutchinson Island is a Barrier Island. One of the things they have done here. Officials have turned off the water to this island. So people if theyre going to stay in their houses, theyre going to do it without Running Water and it makes it less appealing to try to ride out the storm here. So it could be that people have finally decided get out while the getting is good, get a few miles inland to ride out this storm for the next 24 hours, because its going to get worse here. Were going to feel hurricanestrength winds and that rain starting later tonight into tomorrow morning, dana. All right, john berman, please stay safe. I know that you are going to be on tv probably 24 hours a day as you track the hurricane coming toward you. Appreciate it, john. Thanks. And parades, picnics, president ial candidates, thats labor day on the campaign trail. Michael bennet, we saw him before the break, joe biden, steve bullock, pete buttigieg, tulsi gabbard. Jeff zeleny is in cedar rapids, iowa. Joe biden is the latest candidate to address a Union Coalition picnic. So, jeff, what are you seeing there . Reporter well, dana, we are five months and one day before those iowa caucuses, which will start off the 2020 democratic road to the white house. If you look behind me here, you can see a group of people, reporters gathering. Joe biden has just arrived here. Hes answering some questions. But what joe biden is doing as he begins the next phase of the campaign here, dana, is trying to maintain his lead. Hes endsiing the summer still leading the pack but not in command of the race. By that we mean he has not necessarily grown over the summer but is staying in that position. The voters ive been talking to this morning are quite torn still. They say they like joe biden but they are looking at others. They are trying to find the most electable candidate. That is one question hanging over the rest of this year and the Campaign Going forward. Should democrats nominate someone in the middle like joe biden or a progressive to take a little bit more of a risk with elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders or someone else. So thats what voters are trying to figure out here. And there arent many answers. Theres still a lot of undecided, torn democratic voters here, dana. Pete buttigieg, you have some reporting on the fact despite being in single digits, hes got a lot of money and is spendsiin it there . Reporter he is. I was with him earlier this morning. Hes opening 20 Campaign Offices in the next 20 days. Hes starting from behind here, but hes really starting to turn on his organization. Well see if that makes a difference. Youll remember barack obama in 07, he turned it on in the fall so this is when candidates can make their stake. He sure did. Jeff zeleny, you are going to be all over it. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for joining us on why the inside politics. 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Millions of people are in the path of Hurricane Dorian and waiting to see exactly where this storm is headed next. Most of floridas east coast is now covered by either mandatory or voluntary evacuations along with the entire east coast of georgia and South Carolina. Now the National Hurricane center is giving hourly updates on the storm. Le