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Inside Politics

Hurricane Florence Hammering Carolina Coasts; Manafort Pleads Guilty, Will Cooperate With Justice Department. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 14, 2018 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:33:54] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Florence. Last time we checked in with Ed Lavandera in New Bern where there have been hundreds of rescues overnight in the morning hours. He was in a boat with some volunteers who are going to try to find a woman and her child who they believe needed help.

Ed, explain what happened there and where you are now.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Well, (INAUDIBLE) with those two guys that we're with (INAUDIBLE) on a dry patch, another car came by, picked them up and they took off so we lost them. But then we found another man who had shown in -- he's a retired marine and has a high water military style vehicle with a big open space in the back and we jumped in with him and he just went to a neighborhood where they just pulled -- met up with a swift water rescue teams that pulled out seven people from a neighborhood in New Bern. One of those people I have here with me, his name is Felix Fisher (ph). He's 22 years old.

Felix, can you describe to me what the scene was like in your neighborhood?

FELIX FISHER, RESIDENT OF NEW BERN, NORTH CAROLINA: Yes. So, it happened real fast. One minute, there was no water on the streets, the next hour, we were preparing for water to try to come in the house.

[12:35:08] So it got real heavy real fast. When we've seen the water coming in the house, we tried to -- the best we could do is pack small bags to get out real fast. We waited on help. We called help probably about 2:30 in the morning.

LAVANDERA: How chaotic was it?

FISHER: My family, they really stayed focused, they really stayed focus on what we prepared for. We knew that it was a flood zone. But we really have no plans to get all my family out of the area so we just stayed in.

LAVANDERA: So you're happy help came?

FISHER: Yes sir. LAVANDERA: How many more people back in your neighborhood you think needed to be rescued?

FISHER: I really think we were the last group. They went and got most of the elder first. And then --

LAVANDERA: That's been going on for few hours?

FISHER: Yes sir.

LAVANDERA: So Anderson, that's kind of the scene here as these family members are being driven to higher grounds. They're trying to figure out where they going to move to next. They all got out with just a few belongings and these volunteers are trying to help them now.

Anderson?

COOPER: Yes. Well -- I mean, again, you know, kudos to those volunteers who time and time again, we have seen this in so many places in Harvey in Houston and Katrina who are, you know, saving people's lives, rescuing, and reaching out to help fellow citizens. Our thanks to them.

I want to go to with Nick Watt in North Myrtle Beach. Nick, last time you and I talked the weather seemed to be getting a little bit worst. I'm wondering how it is now.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, still getting worse, Anderson. About 10 minutes to go we had a gust of wind through here that could have taken me clean off my feet. And I just spoke to city officials and they say that had stopped answering any and every emergency call. They're not worried about the sustained winds, they are worried about those gusts which could rise to about 90 miles an hour sometime this afternoon. So they're saying that it has to be life-threatening or pretty close for them to risk sending first responders out into the weather now.

What is going to be crucial here is listen, this is just the start of the storm down where we are about 50 miles south of you. The last time I checked the radar, the storm hadn't even begun. It's kind of southwestern turn that will bring it down behind us.

We will actually end up being somewhere between the eye of the storm and the water. And we're going to have high tide here at 2:00 this afternoon and here is really going to be all about timing. That's what's going to dictate how bad it gets here.

Now, the storm lingers over her for long enough there to be two high tides. That's when the water is going to pile up and we're going to see the flash flooding that many here fear. Now, there are about -- I would say about 2,000 people have decided to hunker down in the town and ride this storm out and so far, so good. We took a drive around just a few minutes ago, a couple of downed power lines, (INAUDIBLE) but no major damage yet. But as I say, down where we are, we haven't seen anything yet. We haven't seen the worse of it by a long shot and it's going to go on for a couple of days down here. Back to you, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Nick, thanks very much.

I want to go to Cassie Spodak. Cas, can you just explain to me where you are and how things are?

CASSIE SPODAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So we're in Lumberton, North Carolina where you see volunteers and members of the National Guard behind me, working frantically to fill sandbags. Just two years ago during Hurricane Matthew, this is where water flooded through a gap in the levees right behind them. And that it really devastated the southwestern part of this city. They had no power -- they had no water for a week. The water plant is located really close by.

So volunteers here told me that they saw a call that was put out on Facebook and they just came down and started filling sandbags. We're not really sure how much time they're going to have to keep working until the rain and the winds make it impossible here.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, there's been a break in the rain right now which is certainly good news. It allows people to kind of try to regroup. But we're anticipating rain coming back.

But how many volunteers are there? And how many National Guard folks are there?

It's hard to say right. I probably see around 10 to 15 volunteers and many more National Guard members here that we can see if we will walk down closer to where the water flooded through two years ago. And you can see the National Guard members kind of frantically throwing sandbags and bringing dirt and gravel over.

We saw yesterday that they had started doing work around the water plant as well, filling in berms. But you can see the ground it's already getting really wet here. And this break under the bridge right to our left is where the water came through before. So this is really where they're putting all the effort right now.

COOPER: We wish them the best. Cassie, thank you very much.

We're going to take a short break.

[12:40:00] More coverage from North Carolina and South Carolina and the region. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. I'm John King in Washington. Back to our coverage of Hurricane Florence in just a moment.

But more breaking news here in Washington, D.C. where earlier this morning, Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, a longtime lobbyist and influence in Washington, D.C. entering into a plea agreement, pleading guilty and entering into a guilty plea and an agreement to cooperate with the special counsel Robert Mueller.

[12:45:03] That is the most interesting part here.

Paul Manafort not only pleading guilty to charges, could face up to 10 years in prison, but he will not be sentenced for now as he promises to cooperate with Robert Mueller and with the broader Justice Department into ongoing investigations. Exactly what? We don't quite know just yet.

I'm joined here in the studio by CNN Shimon Prokupecz, CNN Sara Murray, and our legal analyst Michael Zeldin.

A dramatic day, hard to overstate the significance in the special counsel investigation in the sense that Manafort had held out, he said he was innocent. First, he was convicted in Virginia, he was about to stand trial on a separate set of charges here in D.C. After the proceedings this morning, his attorney came out and issued a brief statement to reporters explaining why Mr. Manafort decided now on the eve of trial number two to cut a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DOWNING, ATTORNEY FOR PAUL MANAFORT: It's a tough day for Mr. Manafort. He's accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure that his family is able to remain safe and live a good life. He accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years. And everybody should remember that. So thank you, everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Two significant pieces to me and please ump in if you find others in what Mr. Downing just said there.

Number one, voicing publicly a concern that Mr. Manafort not only wanted his family to be able to live a good life, a financial question there. Does he keep some resources even though as he has to forfeit assets to pay back the government but to be safe? To be safe.

And then the second part saying everyone should remember this is conduct that goes back many years. Is that a message to the president of the United States saying Mr. Manafort has pled guilty to things that have -- that predate the Trump campaign?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, certainly. I'm with you on this, John. I think the part about safety, you don't often hear when people cooperate that their lawyers start talking about their safety. So we don't know exactly. Something is going on here and perhaps maybe that was a part of the plea agreement here that the government was going to offer him and his family some kind of protection.

We know that, you know, Paul Manafort has dealt with a lot of shady characters for a very long time. And that could be what his concern is, a concern could be that they may think --

KING: Including -- let's put it on the table, including Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin who has a history of punishing his critics overseas.

PROKUPECZ: And that was a concern. You know, certainly, some folks that I've talked to always felt that the reason what -- why Manafort didn't want to cooperate was because he was afraid for his family and for his safety. There could be something here going on where perhaps the special counsel and the government has offered him some sort of safety.

The other thing is the continuous cooperation that they're now going to get. Not just in the Mueller investigation, this is at the Justice Department so there could be other manners. As we know, Robert Mueller have sent cases to the southern district of New York. To the U.S. attorney here in Virginia. So he could be cooperating in those cases.

This could -- this is true -- this does really go back many, many years.

KING: The cases that involved, there are investigations for years about Russian oligarchs and the business dealings here. There are other lobbying firms tied up in this allegation. Manafort has now pleaded guilty to that he was essentially illegally hiding money from the government because he was doing foreign lobbying and not disclosing it as such.

And then the Trump Organization's CFO was cooperating with the southern district of New York. Michael Cohen is cooperating. And so if you're the president of the United States today and you were sitting in the West Wing and yes, your public statement, any factual statement is, none of this has anything to do with my campaign.

But, the big but is you also know that there are a half dozen or more other investigations going on about people around you and your organization, including your family.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, sure and nothing has to do with his campaign until it does. I mean, that's obviously what we saw in the situation of Michael Cohen where there were lots of concerns that, you know, his various business dealings, and then he went out and essentially implicated the president in these campaign payments.

And so we just don't know what it is that Paul Manafort knows what it is that he could offer information on. You know, he is close with Roger Stone. He could have information on Roger Stone. He could have information about that infamous, you know, Trump Tower meeting between Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner and the Russians. But he could also as Shimon points out and I think is Kevin Downing was pointing out there, have years of information about how these oligarchs who are connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin, how they have exerted influence in the U.S. under the radar. And that is obviously very valuable to law enforcement as well.

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. That sentence, this has nothing to do with the White House. I think it needs a comma and then the word, yet. Because we have yet to know what this really is going to mean for them. Or others like the oligarchs who have financial dealings in the United States that are untethered to the president that he may be providing important information on.

KING: That's critical. This opens up a whole new chapter in an investigation that is not ending anytime soon. Paul Manafort who's been hostile witness, refusing to cooperate with prosecutors now saying he will cooperate outside the presence of his attorneys. And so if you thought the Mueller investigation was ending soon, if you got these other investigations might wind down, this big development today suggests dramatically that is not the case.

[12:50:01] We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, our continuing coverage not only in Washington, but the continuing punishing effects of Hurricane Florence. Stay with us. Will cooperate outside the presence of his attorneys. If you thought this was ending soon, this suggests dramatically that is not the case. Our continuing coverage not only the big breaking news here in Washington, but also of the continuing punishing effects of Hurricane Florence.

Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Hey, we're coming to you from Wilmington where winds are just starting to pick up a little bit more rain. But I want to go to Myrtle Beach where we've been watching very closely, where Drew Griffin is, where it seems to be intensifying a little bit.

Drew, what are you seeing?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It is intensifying, Anderson but not really as bad. This is the worst we've had so far. But you're beginning to hear words from county officials that they may think they're maybe dodging a lot of the worst of this hurricane.

Obviously, the winds are very strong, you can see them blowing behind me and we're getting the rain but it's the offshore flow that is helping things out.

[12:55:05] The ocean I showed you a couple of hours ago, the water is blowing out to sea so it's not coming in and we're at high tide right now. So when the winds do switch, I think that's going mean advantageous high tide period, Anderson.

You can see behind me, this is the mean drag ocean boulevard. There are palm fronds scattered around and a couple of cars out. North of here, the North Myrtle Beach police, they are no longer responding to emergencies. We're about 15 miles south were seem nothing but police on the road.

But in Horry County, the county we're in, Anderson, they are reporting no major rescues going on, no major catastrophes, no real hardcore damage of any kind. So right now, Myrtle Beach obviously still waiting for the storm to come. But there is a sense that this storm could pass without dramatic damage being done here. We'll probably see much more flood damage inland in South Carolina than along the coast.

Anderson?

COOPER: Yes. Well, let's hope Myrtle Beach does OK. Drew, appreciate it. We're going to continue checking with you.

I wanted to introduce you to Tim Buckland who's a local reporter here at the paper -- the name of the paper is --

TIM BUCKLAND, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, WILMINGTON STAR NEWS: Wilmington Star News.

COOPER: OK. You have been basically sleeping in your office, I mean, last night.

BUCKLAND: Well, sleep is one way to put it. I got about two and a half or three hours of sleep in between posting updates throughout the night.

COOPER: So, you've got some news on the curfew here in Wilmington?

BUCKLAND: That's correct. Right before I came over to talk to you, Anderson, the mayor of Wilmington stop me and said that they are instituting a curfew. It begins at 10:00 tonight and ends at 6:00 at tomorrow morning. It's the first time Wilmington has done something mandatory like this in the height of a storm.

COOPER: And I guess the idea of that is just to protect property, keep people off the streets?

BUCKLAND: Well, I'll tell you, ordinarily to get here from the newspaper, it's a five-minute drive. It took us 20 minutes because we were dodging downed tree limbs, downed power lines. It's just a mess in Wilmington right now.

COOPER: It's interesting because I mean, when -- you know, here, there's not a lot of debris obviously, there's not a lot of trees but you're saying outside and other areas of Wilmington, it's bad.

BUCKLAND: Nearly every street we passed had tree limbs laying across the road. We had to take several U-turns, go around. It took quite a while just to get down here.

COOPER: Have you seen a lot of water on the ground yet?

BUCKLAND: We did go through some hatches of water but not yet.

COOPER: OK.

BUCKLAND: I think that's coming with the rest of this rain.

COOPER: Is that so a big concern. The mayor was saying -- when I talked to him yesterday, I mean, he was talking about a possibility of 20, 30, 40 inches of rain in some areas.

BUCKLAND: Yes. And that's a catastrophic amount. To put it in perspective, the most rain Wilmington has ever had in three-day period was almost 20 inches. And we're expecting to get 30 within the next 24 hours or so.

COOPER: Got it. They're talking about it's like eight months worth of rain over the next three days.

BUCKLAND: That's right. And that's on top of this year's record setting pace already. We've already had drenching rains. Luckily for a couple of weeks, we had some dry patches so maybe there's a little bit where the ground can soak some of this up. But -- I mean, you can look behind us and we've already got river flooding meeting storm surge. And we're not sure that there's anywhere water can go.

COOPER: It's very possible this area would flood because as you said, this water is moving out and it's also colliding with water moving this way.

BUCKLAND: Well, I don't know how soon it's going to happen but I can't imagine that this isn't going to soon wash over.

COOPER: You've been here for -- I mean, is this the first -- you've been here for two years did you say?

BUCKLAND: Three years. And this is -- I was here for Hurricane Matthew, but I've never experienced anything like this. And I've lived in very extremely cold climates and hot climates. This is the first real monster I've been tried.

COOPER: Well, Tim, I appreciate all your reporting. Thanks very much.

BUCKLAND: My pleasure.

COOPER: I want to toss it over to Wolf Blitzer in D.C. who is monitoring events here not only the storm but also the dramatic news about Paul Manafort.

Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Anderson.

Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington and we'll bring you our special live coverage of Hurricane Florence as it batters the Carolinas. Right now, more than a half million people without power as we speak. And we're going to take you there right into the middle of the damaging winds as we see firsthand the enormous strength of this truly massive storm. We're going to get there in just a few moments.

But first we have major breaking news here in Washington as well. Paul Manafort is now a major government cooperator and a potential witness against the president.

Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman just a little while ago pleaded guilty in a Washington federal court to one count of conspiracy, one count of witness tampering. In court, the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors said Manafort has agreed to extensively cooperate with the federal government.

CNN's Evan Perez is joining us from outside the courthouse here in Washington. Evan, we just heard from Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing. Update our viewers first of all on what he said and how this is playing out.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. An extraordinary day playing out here in federal court in Washington. Paul Manafort standing before the courtroom saying --