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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Florida Resident's Roof Ripped Off By Hurricane Milton; Hurricane Milton Leaves Flooding & Damage In Its Wake; 12 People Dead, 3 Million Without Power After Hurricane Milton. Harris Accepts CNN Invitation For Town Hall; 12 People Dead, 3 Million Without Power After Hurricane Milton; U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Fate Of Richard Glossip. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired October 10, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: -- has been devastating. The Hillsborough County Sheriff says first floors of apartment buildings near the city of Tampa are simply underwater. Cars are submerged. They had to help 135 elderly and disabled people get to safety today. But other rescues are taking place in the wake of tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton.
Tornadoes the director of the National Hurricane Center says were quote, "supercharged." Crews are digging through the rubble of decimated homes in Florida today, looking for survivors. The St. Lucie County commissioner says nine tornadoes tore through the area, killing at least five people. The total death toll from Milton right now stands at 12, although state officials are expecting that number to go up. President Biden this afternoon said it's still too early to know the full extent of the damage.
CNN's Bill Weir starts off our coverage today from Pinellas County outside Tampa, where residents are dealing with the effects of two back to back hurricanes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Earth overheats, these are the kinds of storms that take lives and livelihoods, but as families, real and private grief, it's the material loss that is so obvious everywhere in Pinellas County, from the tower construction crane that crashed down on neighboring buildings to Tropicana Field peeled like an orange by Milton's winds, the Tampa Bay Rays already have plans in the works to build a new stadium with taxpayers kicking in hundreds of millions of dollars. But what happens now is anyone's guess, especially after the loss of entire neighborhoods, retirees and working class American Dreamers.
SANDY DAUGHTRY, PINELLAS COUNTY RESIDENT: I'm just really concerned for all these people. It's just devastating. It's like World War III or something, you know?
WEIR (voice-over): Sandy Daughtry hid in a closet during landfall and the day after, rides her bike through the mingled wreckage of back to back hurricanes, praying for neighbors she knows now have nothing. WEIR: Long after all of these pieces of people's lives have been picked up, what will remain in Florida is a massive insurance crisis. In just the last couple years, dozens of different carriers have gone insolvent or stopped accepting new customers or been placed on state watch lists. So, as a result, flood insurance for a home like this can be over $20,000 a year, way more than the mortgage. So most of these families had no coverage at all.
So many folks are uninsured, right?
DAUGHTRY: Yes, yes. I know, that's why I just like it breaks my heart. I'm riding through here just like my heart is just shattered. I just can't even -- it's just unbelievable, really.
WEIR: What do you think becomes of communities like this?
DAUGHTRY: I don't know. I really don't. I'm hearing a lot of people saying they're going to leave the state and head back up north, but I don't know if that'll happen, you know, maybe a mass exodus or something.
WEIR: Do you connect any, all of this, to a changing climate, a warmer planet?
DAUGHTRY: You know, I don't -- I'm not sure. I couldn't answer -- I can't really answer that.
WEIR: Really?
DAUGHTRY: I just -- maybe it's just 100 year cycle or, you know, some kind of a cycle that we go through.
WEIR: Even though all the scientists are telling you, this is what climate change looks like.
DAUGHTRY: Well, yes. Well, that's the point. I'm not sure all the scientists are agreeing with that.
WEIR: They are. I can tell you they are.
DAUGHTRY: So that's why I'm kind of like-- I don't know.
WEIR: I'm here to tell you they are.
DAUGHTRY: Yes. Oh, OK.
WEIR: Ninety-nine percent of them absolutely agree. You can ask anybody in NASA.
DAUGHTRY: Well, I can definitely tell you our beaches are eroding in my lifetime. All the beaches. They have -- I've seen the water come up a lot higher --
WEIR: Yes.
DAUGHTRY: -- than it ever has before. So, thank guys for talking. WEIR: Thank you so much. Yes, thank you for talking with us. Really. You're a great neighbor. If there's a heaven you're getting in.
DAUGHTRY: Ames. Amen. And that's, honestly, that's what I do. I ride around and just pray for people and just pray, you know. I just -- it's just --
WEIR: You're a first prayer responder. That's --
DAUGHTRY: Yes, amen.
WEIR: That's very sweet. All right, good luck to you.
DAUGHTRY: Thank you.
WEIR: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEIR (on camera): Back here at the trop this stadium, Jake, was also supposed to serve as a staging area for first responders and maybe a place for refugees, 10,000 cots inside. Who knows now what's going to become of this? And Deanne Criswell, the female administrator said today, Floridians will have to file for separate storms, if they're impacted by both of these hurricanes. This is a new era in disaster response as we enter a new era of these storms. Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Bill Weir, thank you so much.
A huge storyline with Hurricane Milton as the massive tornado outbreak at cost -- across the entire state of Florida, particularly on the East Coast, far from where Milton made landfall on the West Coast. This one in St Lucie County you're seeing right now where at least five people were killed after multiple tornadoes touched down there. Let's check in with CNN's Brian Todd, who's in St Lucie County.
Brian, give us a sense of how that bad the damage is there.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, these tornadoes, I think, as you just mention, they touched down about four hours before Hurricane Milton even made landfall on the West Coast. That's how just unusual and devastating this was.
[17:05:07]
You know, in pocket after pocket, neighborhood after neighborhood, we see complete devastation here, just north of Fort Pierce. These tornadoes killed at least five people. Those deaths occurred, according to officials in the Spanish lakes, Country Club village neighborhood about a mile or so this way, we are not allowed access into that neighborhood at this time.
But this was a neighborhood, according to officials, as I said, modular homes for people 55 years old and older. Here's a look at some of the devastation. This is the Lakewood Park, Methodist Church, and we're zooming up here to take a look at what the tornadoes did to this building. Look at that, at least half the building was completely sheared off. Imagine the force that it took to lift the wooden beams, the nails, the shingles off of that.
We're told that it then kind of went over to this area here. Our photojournalist, Mandy Clement (ph), goes going to kind of go to your left here. A lot of it was deposited over there.
I spoke a short time ago with the pastor here, Leo Vollbracht. He talked to us about the devastation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEO VOLLBRACHT, PASTOR, LAKEWOOD PARK METHODIST CHURCH: Our church building is half the roof is completely gone and thrown against another wing of the church. But the community has been devastated. We have flattened houses and people have perished because of the tornado itself. So, that's -- we're going to be OK, we're going to rebuild, we're going to do what we can do, but our heart breaks for what's happening right now in our community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: And to give you an idea of the power and the speed of these tornadoes, according to CNN's estimates of National Weather Service warnings, a total of nine tornadoes plowed through this area, St Lucie County, three of them within the span of only 25 minutes. Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Brian, thank you so much. Brian Todd in Fort Pierce Florida.
Back on the Gulf Coast, that's the west coast of Florida, areas south of where Hurricane Milton made landfall, many homes simply look like this. Milton ripped the roof off of this home last night. The home is in North port, Florida, near Sarasota, which was under evacuation orders. Cheryl Bernatowicz live there. She joins us now.
Cheryl, how are you doing? What was your first thought when you found out how badly damaged your home was?
CHERYL BERNATOWICZ, HOME DESTROYED BY HURRICANE MILTON: Hi, Jake, how are you? What you heard was about the flood, the flood, the flood. So we really prepared for the flood. And then when we left home, and when we got back this morning at 4:30 it was absolutely devastating, only because we just went through Ian, and the same exact thing happened with the tornadoes. So to see the and it actually ripped the concrete right out of the ground, like the post for the carports, they totally got ripped with the concrete out of the ground, and the whole entire roof just got completely sore off.
TAPPER: It doesn't sound like there's anything you could have done to prepare for such a thing. Am I wrong?
BERNATOWICZ: Right. I didn't know tornadoes were coming with this one as well.
TAPPER: Yes. BERNATOWICZ: But apparently they did.
TAPPER: But even if you'd known, I mean --
BERNATOWICZ: Like I said we --
TAPPER: -- a tornado is a tornado, right? I mean, there's nothing you -- even if you'd had the knowledge --
BERNATOWICZ: Right, not much you can do.
TAPPER: Right. How much help have you gotten from local and federal officials so far, state officials as well? Are they there? Are they on the ground? Are they helping?
BERNATOWICZ: They're not. No. Nobody's here. And when you go on the line, there's no -- they're not putting this hurricane up yet. So my brother had to start me a GoFundMe page because we just got finished paying for $50,000 for the damages we got from Ian, which was only two years ago. We just finished that two months ago, and we got hit all over again.
TAPPER: We see you. You're in a car right now. Where are you now? Where are you staying? Where are you going to stay?
BERNATOWICZ: I'm up by my clubhouse because by my house there's no service and it's not coming in clear.
TAPPER: Your brother says you couldn't afford --
BERNATOWICZ: The clubhouse of my community.
TAPPER: OK. Your brother says you couldn't afford insurance. Do yourself -- do you see yourself --
BERNATOWICZ: Right. Insurance is way too high.
TAPPER: Yes, no, that's a real problem in Florida, so many insurers have just left the state. Do yourself -- do you see yourself continuing to live there?
BERNATOWICZ: You know, to be honest with you, I don't want to. I just -- when you go through it so many times, it's my fourth hurricane, and four times I've gotten demolished. So after that, you just -- it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It really does.
TAPPER: I'm told that you have seven rescue animals. Are they OK?
BERNATOWICZ: They're all OK. Thank God, they're all perfectly fine. I know it's a lot. It's a lot to take them when you have something like this going on, it's hard to keep them all safe and take them along with you. But yes, thank God, they're all OK.
TAPPER: What kind of rescue animals are they?
BERNATOWICZ: I have four dogs and three cats. TAPPER: And you just brought them in the car with you.
BERNATOWICZ: I did. I brought them. And the -- I brought them all with me. I left them in cages, and we went to a friend's house and I put them all in the garage.
[17:10:02]
TAPPER: OK. Well, I'm glad they're OK. Is everybody from your neighborhood OK?
BERNATOWICZ: Yes, me too.
TAPPER: I mean, I'm so sorry about your home, but physically --
BERNATOWICZ: Every --
TAPPER: -- are people OK?
BERNATOWICZ: Physically, there hasn't been any reports. I was listening before you said a few people had died in other communities, thank the good Lord nobody has died here, but we have lost -- we have a lot of damage, for sure.
TAPPER: It's horrible, Cheryl, and I'm so sorry. Cheryl Bernatowicz, thank you so much, and best of luck to you.
BERNATOWICZ: Thank you, Jake. Appreciate it.
TAPPER: Coming up, we're headed to one of the hardest hit areas on Florida's gulf coast, where city officials say they suffered the brunt of Hurricane Milton. The latest on recovery and rescue and cleanup efforts and moments. Plus, as we follow storm updates, we're also following major news in our 2024 lead. Vice President Kamala Harris is right now in a crucial battleground state. The details on the specific voter outreach she's doing, that's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:15:02]
BERNATOWICZ: And we are back with our breaking news coverage. Just take a look at this footage taken by my next guest. This is just one shot of the destruction left up and down the Gulf Coast of Florida. Joining us now is storm chaser, Brandon Clement.
Brandon, you're in St Petersburg. That's the county commissioner there who told CNN today that this city suffered the brunt of the hurricane. Tell us what you're seeing there.
BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER: Yes, it suffered the brunt of the north side of the hurricane, which in this case, had most of the winds that have the strongest winds and the most rain. Really when we were in St. Petersburg just after the hurricane, saw a lot of flash flooding, a lot of wind damage. But now you're having a infrastructure crisis here. There's no gas, water, electricity, cell service has been spotty. So, that's really the biggest issues right now that I've seen around the area, it's just the availability of resources.
TAPPER: What have you been hearing from residents there on the ground?
CLEMENT: You know, we've been all over Florida, and it's different from one place to the next. We started yesterday afternoon covering tornadoes and the central part of the state, and then we moved over to the west coast for the landfall of the hurricane. In the surge zones it was ghost towns. It was complete evacuations. People really listened to the warnings.
I think Helene caught everybody a little bit off guard that they could have that much surge that far away from the storm. Took this storm very seriously, so it really wasn't a lot of residents there to talk to before the storm. After the storm today, they came back. We were already in the area where some of the hardest hit damage was when they returned. Unfortunately, when you're meeting people for the first time, it's in front of their house that used to be their house.
It's just a blown out or just a pile of debris now. It's not a pretty sight. It's really a heartbreaking moment to see.
TAPPER: How would you compare Milton to other storms you've chased?
CLEMENT: You know, each storm's kind of got its own fingerprint. This storm for me, that one of the biggest things was hurricanes have a number of different risks, and Milton really displayed every one of them, from the severe weather threat and the tornadoes in the eastern part of the state to the storm surge south of the eye where you had the onshore flow just pushing that water on shore. And then on the north side, you had the wind damage, and you had the heavy rain and flash flooding, really Tampa, St. Pete all the way across Lakeland into Orlando. So it exhibited every single one of the risk over a widespread area.
So while we didn't see that worst case scenario Tampa Bay, 18 to 20 foot surge, that is possible here. We did see a catastrophic hurricane that impacted a lot of people across a very large area.
TAPPER: What was the most shocking thing you've seen while surveying the storm's damage?
CLEMENT: You know, whenever you see a storm surge that is greater than 10 feet, and you start seeing those big battering ways on top, you start seeing some really powerful things. As far as Mother Nature goes, water is a powerful force. And when you start seeing homes that are pounded by four to six foot waves on top of a 10 foot surge, it doesn't really care what it's in his way, unless it's really heavy duty steel reinforced concrete structures. It's just going to -- it's just going to get blown out or completely demolished.
TAPPER: All right. Brandon Clement, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
We spoke to one of our next guests yesterday as Milton was about to make landfall, and he warned there were going to be some, quote, "bad outcomes." Now he's touring some of the worst damage. He's going to bring us an update ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:22:54]
TAPPER: And we're back with our continuing coverage of Hurricane Milton. As of this afternoon, at least 340 people and 49 pets have been rescued in Florida, according to Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida National Guard, law enforcement and urban search and rescue teams continue to work hard right now as crews continue assessing the damage. Let's go now to CNN's Leigh Waldman, who is in Sarasota, Florida, for us.
Leigh, what are you seeing there near where Milton actually made landfall?
LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the damage from Hurricane Milton is obvious here across the streets of Sarasota in the neighborhoods here. I want to show you this massive tree that was quite literally ripped out of the ground. Crews were at work all morning long trying to break up this tree and get it off of the roof of this church. This church has been in this community for over 70 years. We're speaking to the pastor.
He says, this is used as a school for young children. It's used as a meeting place in this community. And you can see the damage left behind after a massive tree was quite literally thrown on top of this church. He says, every time he looks at his church here, he finds more and more damage. He's lived here in Sarasota since 1963 and he's never seen anything quite like it.
His son had to barricade the door of his home with his own body to keep it from flying in, to protect his wife and his two young children. He said it was a truly terrifying moment as the storm came barreling inland.
TAPPER: What about the bridges around the barrier islands? Do you know anything about them?
WALDMAN: Well, we know that the -- many of those bridges are still closed at this hour. We talked a little bit about the storm surge, and as the storm surge wasn't quite as bad as what we anticipated, it did have water over the bridges. And so looking at Florida 511's website, those bridges are still closed off right now. So it's hampering efforts to get on to those barrier islands, also to get off of those barrier islands. And that's why the evacuation notices before Milton came ashore were so vitally important, and that's why people now are having to hunker down in their homes.
[17:25:00]
TAPPER: What are you seeing in terms of restoring power?
WALDMAN: Well, as we are driving today, Jake, from Tampa to Sarasota, we notice cars driving with utility equipment going towards Sarasota. And just a mile up the road from where we are right now, hundreds and hundreds of utility vehicles linemen waiting to be deployed, rather, to start restoring some of the power. There was 3.2 million customers across the state of Florida who are still in the dark after Milton came through from one coast to another, knocking down power lines. As we were driving in some of the neighborhoods here, we saw power lines quite literally blocking your path. You can't get through to some of these streets.
So these linemen that are here staged in Sarasota, they're going to be hard at work over these next few days.
TAPPER: All right. Leigh Waldman in Sarasota, thanks so much.
There are ways you can help those affected by recent storms. Head to cnn.com slash impact, cnn.com slash impact, we've got a list of vetted organizations on the ground helping hurricane victims. Again, that's cnn.com slash impact.
We're getting in -- we're getting new updates out of Florida every few minutes as search and rescue efforts continue. I'm going to speak to one of the men leading some of those rescues ahead. But first a new look at the state of the presidential race in key battleground states and what all of that might mean with just 26 days until Election Day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:30:28]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: In our 2024 Lead, just 26 days until Election Day, many of you probably already voting. CNN is reporting a record breaking haul for the Kamala Harris campaign, which has raised 1 billion with a B dollars since the Vice President entered the race officially just in July. Despite all that cash, Democrats are far from celebrating. Instead, there's a lot of hand wringing.
New Quinnipiac polls in three blue wall states show Harris and Trump still deadlocked in a tight race with no clear leader. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harris is slightly ahead of Trump, 49 percent to 46 percent within the margin of error. In Michigan, it's the former president who holds the edge over Harris. Trump also narrowly leads Harris in battleground Wisconsin, all of those states, all of those polls within the margin of error, indicating it's basically a tie.
Here now to discuss our political panel, we have talked a lot about how both campaigns have been trying to appeal to white men. One Democrat is concerned there isn't being enough done by the Harris campaign to win over black male voters, specifically in Michigan.
Jamal Simmons, who we all know, he's a panelist, quite often, a former communications director for Vice President Harris. He told Politico, quote, I am worried about turnout in Detroit. Do they have the machine to turn people out? There are concerns and they're not insignificant.
Karen --
KAREN FINNEY, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes
TAPPER: Are you concerned?
FINNEY: Of course, I am. I'm I mean, always, I'm always nervous at this -- at this point in an election. I'll also point out that Jamal is from Detroit, so he does know the area quite well. Look, I mean, the polls are all over the place. We've seen the data showing that she is a little bit behind the Joe Biden 2020 coalition in a number of places with black voters. So yes, I mean, look, she's trying to do something that has never been done in 100 days, and trying to maximize every minute of every day in communicating with voters.
I hope, and I'm glad she's going to do a town hall with CNN. I think it's really important to do as much as you can and going directly to voters. I would love to see her do more, going directly to talk to black men and Latino men. And let's have it out and let them, you know, talk to her about what their concerns are, and make sure that they see themselves in the policy conversation that we're having.
TAPPER: Do you -- she did -- she did do a town hall today with Univision that's going to air --
FINNEY: Yes.
TAPPER: -- this evening. But are you surprised that she's not doing like five events a day, like barnstorming? I mean, there's only 26 days barnstorming every battleground state, three or four events a day. Forget the interview thing. OK? I -- I -- I realize I'm biased as a reporter. I want interviews --
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: With local news, though.
TAPPER: With the local news interviews --
FINNEY: Yes.
TAPPER: -- town halls round, like it just seems like it doesn't feel like October with the schedules, I'm looking at for both of them, but I kind of think he has the edge right now.
FINNEY: Well, I -- I don't know if I agree with that. I mean I --
TAPPER: Forget the edge thing. But what about, like, what about like how active -- but what about how active the campaign?
FINNEY: Yes. I -- I think they're being very active. And look, she also has her day job. We do have -- we did just have tremendous storm come through Florida. She was here in Washington to help deal with that to some degree. But I think you're going to see that activity kick up over the next several weeks, as it should, by the way.
TAPPER: So Ramesh, I'm not the only one who thinks this. New York Times columnist Charles Blow says the Harris campaign needs more unscripted moments in, quote, Harris has to come down from the rally podiums for more personal interactions with individual voters. She's obviously doing the CNN town hall. It's going to be October 23rd. But what do you think? RAMESH PONNURU, EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: I think it's a very controlled and cautious campaign. And at a certain point you wonder whether, does -- does the campaign not trust Harris enough to comport herself well in these interactions. Does she herself not trust herself at this point? Is she too worried that -- that some mistake or gaffe is going to happen?
FINNEY: Wait, she just did, I'm sorry, a little bit over an hour with Howard Stern. She just did the Call Your Daddy Podcast. She just did, you know, late night --
DUBKE: All hard hitting news --
FINNEY: Not the point. Trump -- Donald Trump just did a podcast with some folks sitting around talking about whatever.
DUBKE: Yes.
FINNEY: The point is, they know just as well as we know, voters now decide where they get their information, when they get their information, and through what channel. And you do need to be everywhere and have conversations with people who aren't watching hard news.
DUBKE: You can make the argument -- you can make the argument that her early success in her rollout the -- the -- the convention and then the debate.
TAPPER: Which was pretty, we should note, it's pretty phenomenal --
DUBKE: Pretty phenomenal.
TAPPER: Yes, yes.
DUBKE: And -- and, I -- absolutely, and that's exactly the point I'm making. You could make the case that part of her caution comes from the fact that she was cautious and she had this phenomenal rollout, and now they're stuck. They're mired right now --
TAPPER: Yes.
DUBKE: -- in these poll numbers. And they -- they don't seem to be able to -- to figure out the way out.
[17:35:03]
TAPPER: So she was asked about running the shortest presidential campaign in modern history by Stephen Colbert.
FINNEY: Yes.
TAPPER: This is a couple nights ago. We didn't run any of this yesterday because we were all in hurricane coverage. Here is some of what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot of catching up to do. You know, my opponent, the former president, has been running since 2020, and, you know --
STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN AND WRITER: Literally filed like --
HARRIS: Yes, right. So we, like, have a lot of time to -- to make up for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So there is a fierce urgency. But I guess just, and -- and yes, she's increased her appearances with Colbert and -- and I'm not begrudging any of that.
FINNEY: Yes, yes.
TAPPER: Look, what people are --
FINNEY: Well, they were, so I'm just --
TAPPER: -- 3 billion media outlets. And, yes, Donald Trump does --
FINNEY: Donald Trump gets to do a podcast.
(CROSSTALK)
FINNEY: Go ahead.
TAPPER: They should go wherever they -- they -- both of them --
FINNEY: Yes.
TAPPER: -- should go wherever there are ears and eyes, absolutely.
FINNEY: Yes.
TAPPER: But is she doing enough of it is my question.
DUBKE: No, I don't think she's doing enough of it. And I think she does need these, going back to your original question, she does need these unscripted moments, because the American people know who Donald Trump is. They don't know who Vice President Harris is. And she needs to interact, whether it be local news, whether it be a debate, which isn't going to happen again, the town, all of these things.
FINNEY: Well, yes, because Trump won't do it.
DUBKE: The -- well --
FINNEY: He said he wouldn't do a debate, that's not on her.
DUBKE: She needs to been -- yes, but -- but it is on her and her campaign to then create the moments in order to introduce herself --
FINNEY: She's doing the town hall. DUBKE: -- to the American people.
TAPPER: She is, we should note, she's bringing out some heavy hitters. Former President Obama is going to stump for her in Pittsburgh. Former President Clinton is going to hit the trail this weekend, starting in Georgia.
DUBKE: -- spring momentum but -- and -- and attention, but they don't -- they don't bring what the American people are looking for. They don't give -- they can vouch for her, but the American people want to know who she is. And so --
PONNURU: And nobody needs to hear more from Trump to form an opinion of him. There still are some voters who are forming their opinions on Harris.
DUBKE: Absolutely.
FINNEY: But we are having an asymmetrical conversation here, right? Because we're talking about what she needs to be doing. We're not talking about him. We're not talking about the fact that he literally put lives in danger people in the southeast.
PONNURU: -- do know what they think about him, and they don't know --
FINNEY: It doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking about him. It doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking about the --
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: -- is right, so last night, an event in Pennsylvania, Trump continued to push these attacks against the federal response to Hurricane Helene. A lot of these are just completely false. Let's run that clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Families desperately tried to escape the rising flood waters, and they climbed onto roofs. They did anything they can to live, but Kamala didn't send any helicopters to rescue them. And when people sent helicopters, they turned them back. It was disgraceful what they did. So she didn't send anything or anyone at all. Days passed no help as men, women and children drowned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: I mean, there's so many lies packed into that clip. I don't even know what to say.
PONNURU: Trump is obviously willing to repeat anything he's heard without doing any due diligence on whether it's true, particularly if it allows him to slam his opponents. He's always been like this.
TAPPER: All right, happy?
FINNEY: Yes, thank you. TAPPER: All right, thanks to all of you.
Since last night, my next guest has been rescuing people stranded by Hurricane Milton. An update on those search and rescue efforts, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:42:06]
TAPPER: And we're back with brand new drone video showing cars stranded in Tampa flood waters after Hurricane Milton hit. Tampa police say even though the storm has passed, there is a lot of work that remains to be done. Officers continue, for example, working in rescue operations. The non-profit organization Aerial Recovery has been on the ground helping in recoveries after both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Let's go to Jeremy Locke, who's the co-founder of the group. Jeremy thanks for joining us. How many recoveries and rescues have you done so far? What was the scene like when you arrived down there last night?
JEREMY LOCKE, CO-FOUNDER, AERIAL RECOVERY: Yes. Last night, I mean, any -- anytime you're actually in the heart of the hurricane, it's -- it's very intense and I'm sure a lot of residents in the Florida and -- and southeastern United States can talk in the last -- last couple weeks especially. But I mean it was really intense. It's dark, it's -- it's rainy, it's super windy and fortunately we were able to get out there and -- and get in to Tampa and we're able to rescue seven individuals who found themselves in a -- in a very bad situation last night.
TAPPER: How does your team know how to find the people who need help?
LOCKE: Yes. Well, we've been doing this for a while now, been doing it about six years. We have a -- a pretty good following and we get most of our information actually from social media, Instagram, Facebook, people that know that we're out there on the ground and we're looking and they can reach out to us. They can go on our website, AerialRecovery.org. They can go on our -- our Instagram and Facebook and basically just say that they need help or they know someone who's in a bad situation and -- and we'll vet it and we'll push a team out there and -- and get them out of harm's way.
TAPPER: How does the damage look now?
LOCKE: Well, last night to be honest with you, I was expecting when I got down to Sarasota after we went through Tampa and -- and the sun to come up, I was expecting things to be a lot worse than -- than it is. I'm not saying that the area has not been affected because it has very heavily been affected out here. But the storm did slow down. It did lose a little bit of it -- of its power as it made landfall just south of Sarasota.
And to be honest with you, there's -- I mean there's a lot of power out, there's a lot of trees down, a lot of things you'd expect from a great wind damage and -- and some surge waters. But I think we were -- we were a little lucky with this one, to be honest. TAPPER: What's the most shocking thing you've seen?
LOCKE: Last night that rescue, I mean we went in there. It's after midnight, it's -- it's -- it's cold, it's wet, it's rainy, we got the water up to our chest and we're helping a, you know, a two-year-old -- a two-year-old toddler out of a window with his pregnant mother and -- and father. And I mean that was -- that was pretty -- that was pretty in -- incredible and intense. And you have fellow neighbors that are yelling for help and it so, that was a pretty intense situation last night.
TAPPER: I'm so glad you were there to rescue them. Can I ask a question? Why were they still there?
[17:45:00]
LOCKE: That's a good question. You know, I can't really speak on that. I -- I would -- my -- my best guess would be, you know, some -- some people they don't get the warnings or unfortunately they find themselves maybe in an economic situation or it's difficult for them to get out of those places, to find a place to go. But for people like that -- that for whatever reason can't get out there, we will -- we will go try to help and -- and find you. But we absolutely encourage when -- when those evacuation orders are put in, do your absolute best to get out of there.
TAPPER: Yes, thank God you were there. Last week, you were in Asheville, North Carolina helping victims of -- of Helene. Now you're in Florida, helping victims of Milton. How is this -- this recovery different from what you saw in -- in North Carolina?
LOCKE: Well, you know that -- that storm Helene as it made landfall, we were actually in Tallahassee as it made landfall. And our kind of M.O. is we follow these things, we'll hunker down and we'd follow behind them. And Helene was interesting because normally you'd seen the -- the vast amount of damage right there where it makes landfall. It kind of dissipates as it goes through but I mean North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee that was absolutely devastated by the flood waters. And that -- that storm actually was -- was worse as it went farther in land, so you normally don't see that.
TAPPER: What is it like personally, what's the toll on you I mean obviously, you're doing such good work but you see so much destruction, so much death in some cases I'm sure.
LOCKE: Yes. You know -- it is difficult but I spent 20 years in the Army and most of my team are, you know, prior special operators, prior veterans. And we do spend a lot of our time out there deployed and -- and working and following orders and we see a lot of people that are -- that are put in harm's way, that are vulnerable and need help and sometimes we can't help them overseas.
But what we're going to do now is we're going to focus on the human beings. We're going to focus on the humanitarian operations. And -- and actually to be honest, it's difficult but it is such a great feeling to be able to go out like this and serve our -- our brothers and sisters out -- out there all over the world.
TAPPER: It's so amazing that you and your brothers and sisters are -- are doing this. It's not surprising that so many of you are veterans. I wonder if you ever think to yourself, you know, the government should be doing this. That's what our tax dollars go for.
LOCKE: Yes. You know I do think that. But we were going to go out there and we augment them, right, like, the government can only do so much and we are the people, right? We -- it's our responsibility to take care of our country as well. And if we are capable I think everybody has a serving heart, has a serving ability and we should go out there and do the best of our abilities to help other people out.
TAPPER: That's a beautiful sentiment. How long do you think you're going to be there in Florida helping with the recovery effort here?
LOCKE: We're taking a look at that now. We're still doing assessments. I really believe that search and rescue operations stays at least on the western part of Florida is -- is drawing to a near to an end. We're doing a lot of health and welfares. I imagine team will be down here at least another 24, 48 hours. And then honestly, we'll probably push back up to North Carolina, they need -- they have a lot of need up there. But we're going to help out as long as we possibly can down here.
TAPPER: Jeremy Locke doing God's work, thank you my friend. God bless you. Really appreciate you.
LOCKE: God bless you too, thank you for having me.
TAPPER: We're getting word of another rescue operation happening across the country in a Colorado gold mine. That story is coming up.
[17:48:17]
Plus the life of an Oklahoma death row inmate that is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme court, even the States Conservative Attorney General is trying to come to his defense. We will give you an update on this case. Richard Glossip, which we've been telling you about for quite some time, next.
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TAPPER: We are back with breaking news and a tense situation in the state of Colorado. At least 10 people we're told are trapped 1,000- feet underground in a gold mine near Cripple Creek. That's about a hundred miles south of Denver. CNN's Camila Bernal is on the story. And Camila, what -- what happened and tell us about rescue efforts.
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Jake, so those rescue efforts are ongoing right now, there are local officials, the sheriff's department, the fire department, everyone trying to get these 10 people trapped out of these mines. So, we know that this was not an active mine. This is essentially a tourist attraction.
It has been preserved for people to go and take this tour. It's about an hour-long tour. And we were told that there was some equipment malfunction. Now, we do not know exactly what part of the equipment malfunctioned here. But they say this is not a mine that collapse. So, keep that in mind this is not an active mine. Again, this is a place where people go for tours and to really learn about the evolution of mining.
And so when you look at the website of this mine, what they say is this about an hour long tour. And in that tour you go down essentially what -- it's like an elevator, they call it a shaft, right, that goes down in two minutes. And they say it goes down about 500 stories every single minute.
After you get off that elevator, what happens then is that you ride this tram air locomotive. So again, we do not know what part of the equipment malfunctioned. But we do know that at least 10 people are underground and are now being -- trying to figure out exactly what to do or how to get them out.
We do know that about 11 people were already rescued and there is, again, all these resources trying to get everything out. This is seasonal. This only opens in the summer. And this was actually the last week that the mine was going to be open, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Camila Bernal thank you so much. Appreciate it.
It is a life or death moment in our Law and Justice Lead. Richard Glossip's life is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. You might remember the story of Glossip who's on death row in Oklahoma. Though, there are serious questions as to whether he should be. Even the conservative Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma is arguing that Glossip should not be put to death.
[17:55:10]
Glossip was convicted of arranging the murder of a man named Barry -- Barry Van Treese in 1997. Glossip's lawyer for years has been raising questions because the key witness at the time of conviction they say, lied under oath. The key witness we should note, was the guy who actually killed Van Treese. There also remain questions about evidence possibly having been kept from the defense.
There are legitimate issues and that lead the case to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, where the Justices heard nearly two hours' worth of arguments before, they will ultimately decide Glossip's fate.
And joining us now, is the attorney for Richard Glossip, Don Knight. Don, thanks so much for joining us. So, you were inside the room as the U.S. Supreme Court Justices listened to oral arguments in the case. How do you think it went?
DON KNIGHT, LAWYER FOR RICHARD GLOSSIP: Well, you know first off. I just want to say thank you to the Court for, you know, agreeing to hear the case. The arguments were amazing arguments by some -- some truly great litigators. Seth Waxman and -- and Paul Clement and Chris Michel. Amazing work done by these guys and it was a lot of good questions from the -- from the justices. And boy, they gave us a lot of time, about an hour and a half or hour and 45 minutes maybe for what was supposed to be an hour long argument. So obviously I think, everybody was really concerned and trusted in the issues the were raised.
TAPPER: Some of the justices appeared open to the idea of sending the case back to Oklahoma State Court for an evidentiary hearing. Explain what that would mean and how it would impact the case.
KNIGHT: Well, there were some questions that about what did people mean they wrote something down or when they said something. So, what that would mean is that the court would remand the case back to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals with an order to send it back to the Oklahoma County District Court.
And once there, a judge would be assigned to the case and witnesses could be called and witnesses could be questioned and cross-examined about what certain things meant and what they said. And once that evidentiary hearing was over, a transcript of that hearing would -- would be made. The judge there would make a ruling on what people have said, and what -- what maybe things meant, who was telling the truth, who wasn't telling the truth. And that it would go back up to the Court of Criminal Appeals, this time with a more fulsome record.
TAPPER: Do -- I mean would you rather there be a evidentiary hearing or have the U.S. Supreme Court decide whether to throw out Glossip's conviction and order a new trial all together?
KNIGHT: We think and it was argued well today that an evidentiary hearing is not necessary in this case. That there -- there should be a -- a remand for a new trial. That's -- that's the appropriate thing to do.
TAPPER: Glossip's case is happening in a point where there is a lot of scrutiny in how the U.S. Supreme Court approaches cases involving the death penalty. What kind of impact do you think Glossip's case might have on current cases, death penalty cases and future ones?
KNIGHT: Well, the thing about Glossip, the -- this case in particular is it's not really one that should end up with some kind of larger context, some kind of precedent. This is a situation where we have a -- a couple of bedrock Supreme Court principles. The -- the -- the first being what we call braiding material which is information that is supposed to be disclosed to the defense before trial.
The prosecutor has a duty to do so, if it's helpful to the defense. And the second principle, is -- from the Pooh versus Illinois which says that when a prosecutor calls a witness and that witness lies and that prosecutors knows that that witness is lying, the prosecutor has a duty to stop the lie and to expose it right then and there.
Those are a couple of bedrock principles that were violated here. And those are the kind of things that if -- if the court says that, you know, the OCCA was wrong not to give us new trial. The court can base its decision on those principles and that's not setting forth something new. That's just holding to what the court has said in the past.
TAPPER: All right, Don Knight thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.
KNIGHT: Jake, Thank you so much.
TAPPER: And we will continue to cover the Richard Glossip case in all of its future endeavors. Ethel Kennedy we should note, died today at age 96. Ethel Kennedy suffered a stroke last week. She was the widow of Senator and former Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. She was with him when he was fatally shot by an assassin during the 1968 presidential race. She -- she was -- they were both in Los Angeles. At the time, she was pregnant with their 11th child.
Among her children are former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Ethel Kennedy devoted her life to the causes that her husband and she believed in, especially human rights. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. May her memory be a blessing, our deepest condolences go to all of the Kennedy family and her friends and admirers.
[18:00:10]
You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X formerly known as Twitter, and on TikTok at JakeTapper. You can follow the show on X at TheLeadCNN. You can also listen to the show whence you get your broad -- your podcasts. The news continues on CNN with Wolf Blitzer right next door on a place we'd like to call The Situation Room. See you tomorrow.
