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Milton To Slam Florida With Life-Threatening Floods And Wind; Milton Now Projected To Make Landfall Near Sarasota; Harris' Tuesday: Appearances On The View, Howard Stern, The Late Show; Anxious Dems Worry That Nothing Harris Does Is Moving The Needle; Harris Discusses Love Of Prince, Formula 1 In Howard Stern Interview; Bob Woodward Reports Trump Sent Covid Tests To Putin In 2020. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash in Washington, and we start with the breaking news. Hurricane Milton is closing in on Florida as a catastrophic category four storm. We just got a new forecast from the National Hurricane Center, and it is projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota, Florida. It's currently packing winds of 145 miles per hour.

At this hour, the outer bands are already wreaking havoc on millions, producing large and dangerous tornadoes like this one in Broward County this morning. These tornadoes are expected to continue throughout the day. The storm is rapidly changing, and this is important. It makes it unclear exactly which part of Florida will be hit the hardest. And officials are warning conditions will be, quote, unsurvivable, and the window to evacuate is about to close.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You still have time to evacuate. Time is running out. If you make that decision now, I think you'll be glad you did.

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: There is time to get to where you need to be. Real soon, wherever you're going to be is where you're going to have to be to hunker down. The winds just get too dangerous. We're going to have to shut down all the bridges.

CHIEF BARBARA TRIPP, TAMPA FIRE RESCUE: I've been in Florida all my life in Tampa, and I've never seen nothing to this magnitude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: To make matters even worse. So many in the storm's path are still reeling from Hurricane Helene, just two weeks ago. Officials fear the trash and debris lining the streets from that storm could become deadly projectiles as Milton sweeps through. President Biden and Vice President Harris are about to get a briefing on storm preparations. We're going to bring you updates live as we get them. I want to start our coverage with CNN's Randi Kaye, who is in Sarasota. Randi?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Dana. If these outer bands are the warm-up act for Hurricane Milton. Boy, this is going to be doozy. It has been downright nasty this morning. We are on South Shore Drive here in Sarasota. A kind resident was willing to loan us his backyard. We're keeping an eye on his boat for now.

He's not sure if it's still going to be here when he gets back, because they are expecting a 10 to 15 -- potentially a 10 to 15-foot storm surge here, which is about double the size of the storm surge that we saw for Hurricane Helene here in this area.

And you can see here all along the water. There are a bunch of homes. They're boarded up. They have their hurricane shutters up, or they have plywood on their windows. That's because most people were smart enough to evacuate this area. They did heed the warnings. If you drive around Sarasota, it is real quiet, pretty much like a ghost town.

We spoke to one woman who told us how she was going to ride out the storm on the ninth floor of a condo building in downtown Sarasota. This is after her husband rode out Hurricane Helene in their home on one of the barrier islands off Sarasota, Siesta Key. You can't get to those barrier islands right now, and you can't get off those barrier islands right now because they closed the bridge.

But she did tell me how her husband got up to five feet of water. It was up to his chest in the home. He had to swim to safety in the dark of night to higher ground in order to survive that storm. So, it has been quite an experience for people, which is why the mayor of Sarasota told me that her greatest concern is the storm surge.

She's also worried that people did not evacuate the barrier island. She said that people need to have at least a week's worth of water, a week's worth of food. She's very concerned that the storm will be so bad, Dana, that the first responders won't be able to get to those people who need them most. So, we will continue to watch the conditions as they deteriorate here, Dana.

BASH: Right. And needless to say, for you and your team, please stay safe. Thank you for that report, Randi. And Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida, is preparing for a hit as well.

County Chairwoman Kathleen Peters is with me now. Chairwoman, thank you so much for being here. I know you spoke with President Biden last night. What did he tell you?

[12:05:00]

KATHLEEN PETERS, CHAIR, PINELLAS COUNTY COMMISSION: He showed very serious concern for all of our residents on the west coast of Florida. He was very genuine. We also talked about our inability to do beach renourishment to protect our infrastructure and our homes. That has been a problem we've been having with Army Corps. So, all of the barrier islands have had this issue with Army Corps being a little more rigid with how they interpret their policy. And so, not being able to keep our beaches nourished has put a lot of properties and our water and sewer and power infrastructure at risk.

BASH: Let's talk about the here and the now. What is happening in your county? What are you hearing from constituents there? Do you feel good about the fact that most people have heeded the warnings to evacuate?

PETERS: I feel that the vast majority of people have heeded the warnings in evacuation, A, B and C. I'm very confident the barrier islands, the vast majority of people there have, of course, many of their homes are not habitable. So, they couldn't really have stayed if they wanted to.

I do know some that decided to ride it out. I don't feel that was wise on their part. I think the storm surge now, here we're looking at a 12-foot storm surge. 140 mile an hour winds and the winds are dangerous. The fast-rising water is very dangerous.

Some of the barrier islands here in Sarasota and south of Sarasota, our homes and buildings can be swept right off the foundation with those winds and that high water. So, I really hope in Pinellas County, we aren't closing the business until three. I'm hoping those that stayed will change their mind and evacuate as soon as possible.

BASH: Three, so it's 12:06 eastern time. We're talking about just under three hours to do that.

PETERS: Yes, yes. And they won't be able to leave the county. They won't be able to get to Tampa or Hillsborough County, because those bridges will also be closed at three o'clock.

BASH: You mentioned that some of the people you know who have evacuated really had no choice because their homes were already -- some of them just devastated because of the hurricane two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene. You are one of them. You're talking to us from a hotel, displaced because of that storm. I can't even imagine how it feels right now, the fear of what's coming on top of what's already happened.

PETERS: So, there really aren't too many words to talk about how that feels. But what I can tell you is, I'm incredibly grateful for the people that showed up to work today. The hotel has staff here, and many of those people there, you know, their homes are damaged.

Our first responders have been out there working 24 hours a day and they couldn't even go home to take care of their home. So, I'm so grateful. And the wonderful side that has come out of this is that our neighbors are all helping neighbors. The kindness that has been shown has been so uplifting and wonderful.

And it just makes everybody feel like everything's going to be OK, because we have so much support and the state is ready. The county is ready. We have everything staged to come in and clean up and fix as quickly as we can. But I can tell you, the mood may be somber, but the resilience is great with our citizens. And everybody is helping everybody, and the kindness is just heartwarming and overwhelming.

BASH: Wow. In today's day and age that it cannot be taken for granted. Thank you so much for sharing that. Appreciate you coming on and good luck over the next 24 hours or so.

PETERS: Thank you so much. And I'm praying for a lot of people on the west coast of Florida.

BASH: Yeah, we all are. Thanks again. Appreciate that. And we just got an updated forecast of Milton's path. I want to go right to meteorologist Elisa Raffa at the CNN Weather Center. Elisa?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are still dealing with an intense category four hurricane. The intensity is only waning slowly, it's really able to maintain this monster strength. 145 mile per hour wind, sitting 175 miles south and west of Tampa. We're still looking at a destructive hurricane, impacting the entire peninsula landfall.

It will be a major hurricane, kind of teetering on either a category three or category four. But regardless, it will take immense storm surge with it that is unsurvivable because it has had the ocean kind of bubbling underneath that this entire time as a massive category five hurricane. The landfall location will be at -- where that eye goes will greatly impact who gets the worst of the storm surge. But we are looking at storm surge period up and down the entire coastline.

[12:10:00]

Tornadoes have been a problem this morning. The outer bands are already coming onto the peninsula. This is common with a hurricane. Some of these outer bands again coming in, meeting the friction of the land and then that spins up a tornado. But some of these cells have been large, large for tornadoes in a hurricane. I mean really discreet cells with large and dangerous tornadoes that are capable of considerable damage. This has been across Alligator Alley and parts of South Florida this morning. The tornado watch continues until nine o'clock this evening.

So, as Milton comes in and kind of collides with this front, the location of the front will really determine how much it wobbles, either to the north or to the south. It will also enhance some of that rainfall, making it heavier. Totals over a foot, very likely, and can pick up those wind gusts even more as well.

We'll find that again, cutting across the peninsula and then exiting going into Thursday. But again, this is what the officials are worried about, that storm surge that is still unsurvivable with some levels 10 to 15 feet. Dana?

BASH: Just absolutely awful. Thank you so much for giving us that update. And we are standing by to hear from President Biden. He'll be briefed by his emergency response team at the White House. CNN's Arlette Saenz joins me now. Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana. I think that the frequency with which we're going to see President Biden today about this hurricane really highlights how urgent and potentially devastating of a situation, the administration believes Hurricane Milton could be in Florida. President Biden this hour is set to receive a briefing from officials on response efforts, not just to Helene, but also the preparations underway for Hurricane Milton.

Vice President Kamala Harris also expected to join that meeting virtually. Then this evening, around 5:30, the president will deliver remarks on the response and preparations for Hurricane Milton, as that storm is barreling ever closer to Florida's west coast.

It comes at a time when the administration has been working to preposition resources in Florida in anticipation of this storm, that includes FEMA and Coast Guard swift water rescue teams, which also can bring with-it high-water rescue vehicles and other airlifting materials to try to get to people in need in those communities.

They are also sending in power teams, as there could be widespread power outages after the storm. There's other things like debris removal that they're focused on, as well as pre-positioning and being ready to deploy up to 20 million meals and 40 million liters of water. It comes at a time when the administration is also battling misinformation about the federal government's response.

That is something that President Biden has said is a key concern for him. But at this time, they are trying to stress to those on the ground in Florida that they need to listen to those local warnings, heed these warnings as they are expecting. This could have very devastating consequences on the state of Florida when Hurricane Milton hits and in the aftermath.

BASH: All right, Arlette, thank you so much. And as we mentioned at the top of the show, we are expecting to hear from the president and perhaps the vice president in and around that briefing that they're getting right now. Thanks for that reporting, Arlette.

And coming up, the entire state of Florida is on alert as any slight move in Milton's path could determine who gets hit the hardest. We're going to bring you the latest updates as we get them. Plus, the campaign high life. Kamala Harris cracks open a cold one on late night TV as her campaign hopes the champagne of beers can move the needle in this vibes' election.

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[12:15:00]

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BASH: Vice President Harris had a very busy Tuesday in New York City. She started her media blitz on the view, sat for a wide-ranging interview with Howard Stern and ended her day on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where the two cracked some jokes and a beer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The last time I had beer was at a baseball game with Doug, so, OK.

STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS ANCHOR, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: OK, so, cheers. There you go.

HARRIS: Cheers.

COLBERT: There you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Well, that is happening, we have some new CNN reporting today about what is going on behind the scenes, inside the Harris campaign. And more broadly, among Democrats who are growing more and more anxious about a 2016 Redux.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins me now. Priscilla, we were just joking here at the table that anxious Democrats happen on a day that ends in why. But this is -- this is something that perhaps is warranted given the data that they're seeing. Explain your great reporting.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, that's exactly right, Dana. And this has been a campaign that was described by multiple Democrats, allies, aides to the vice president, as a good vibes campaign. But what's also creeping in now is that anxiety.

The reason for that is because these polls are not really moving, despite multiple battleground blitzes. Despite the opportunities she has had across media outlets. There is still not a lot of movement from voters who are moving more towards her versus former President Donald Trump.

[12:20:00]

In fact, I had one source describe it to me this way. Quote, people are nervous. They know the polls are tight. And a lot of us are having these flashbacks to 2016 too. We know when it can go the wrong way, and it can still feel fresh. So, 2016 is the key here.

When I talked to Harris campaign officials, it often comes up in conversation. Where did Hillary Clinton have her pitfalls? And where can they make up that ground and build on what Joe Biden did in 2020. One of those, to give you an example, is those red and rural districts.

Look at, for example, Cambria County in Pennsylvania. Now former President Donald Trump won in that county, but the former -- President Biden was able to gain some ground there, more than Hillary Clinton had in 2016. The vice president has already visited twice.

And so that is the type of strategy that they're trying to deploy to try to make up that ground where they saw Hillary Clinton wasn't able to in 2016 then too, there's the mobilizing. Talk to Democrats. They're always pretty boastful about their ground game, and they continue to be so, but that needs to turn into votes. So certainly, some anxiety and nerves setting in as election day gets closer and those polls are, just remain deadlocked. BASH: Really important reporting. I encourage everybody to check it out on cnn.com. Thank you so much. Priscilla, appreciate that. And I'm going to get into all of this with my excellent group of reporters here, CNN and Bloomberg's Nia-Malika Henderson, Bloomberg's Mario Parker and CNN's Kayla Tausche. Hello, one and all.

Kayla, pick up where Priscilla left off, because I think we're all hearing this. I talked to a democratic activist yesterday who says, I feel like we're sleepwalking into 2016. There are a lot of differences. I mean, the differences, I think, are greater than the similarities, but the PTS is real for Democrats.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And it's definitely a cautionary tale that still comes up in a lot of conversations. And I think that where Priscilla was talking about how it's informing some of the strategy is important, but it's also important to remember the polling from back in 2016.

Obviously, there was a very big issue with polling back, they're not capturing that would be Trump voter, whether they were not picking up the phone or they had a general distrust of pollsters. And while some of that still exists, pollsters have tried to recalibrate the data. But this time eight years ago, Hillary Clinton was up by 12 points over Donald Trump. She had 50 percent, Trump had about 38 percent.

And so, when you look at these polls that showed that Harris and Trump are still within the margin of error, and you compare it to 2016, that right there is one of the main reasons why you have that anxiety. And then there's the other fact that she wasn't battle tested in the primary. She was asked about this on 60 minutes.

But it's still a source of contention or consternation rather, within the campaign. Because while they have a massive polling team that's conducting their own internal numbers, they don't have exit polling from the primaries, which is really voters explaining the rationale behind real activity. Not this is how I'm likely to vote. This is what I'm thinking right now. It's -- I went to the ballot --

(CROSSTALK)

TAUSCHE: Yes. I went to the ballot box. I made this decision. Here is why, and here's my demographic and they don't have that data.

BASH: That's really, really interesting, Kayla. So, let's look at what she is trying to do. She's to battle test herself very quickly. I don't know if this is considered battle testing. When she sits down with Howard Stern, who very clearly said at the beginning. I want you to win. I don't want to mess this interview up. But he did get as he's wanted to do a lot of really interesting sort of moments of color out of that conversation about who she is as a person. Let's listen to part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Prince is the one intersection where we both love, and we just played prince all night long. We danced. We sang his songs. HOWARD STERN, AMERICAN BROADCASTER AND MEDIA PERSONALITY: Why do you like Formula One? These guys drive around the cars over and over, like a circle.

HARRIRS: Oh, it's so good.

STERN: You really love that?

HARRIS: We love it. Our whole family does.

STERN: It's not a campaign thing.

HARRIS: No, God know, no.

STERN: Wow.

HARRIS: Well, actually, I haven't been able to watch it a lot recently because I am campaigning because, you know, also depending on where they're driving, the time of day. You know, you got to win --

STERN: Who is your favorite driver?

HARRIS: Lewis Hamilton, of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, BLOOMBERG POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST & CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So, of course, it's Lewis Hamilton.

(CROSSTALK)

HENDERSON: But listen, you know, Democrats are nervous. Some of it is 2016 and some of it is what they're seeing from the campaign. The idea that is this campaign spending too much time in rural white areas, standing beside Liz Cheney and not enough with the sort of low information base voters, right?

So that's a real --

BASH: Which is what the Trump campaign's whole strategy is right now, theirs.

HENDERSON: Yeah, exactly. And so that is a real worry. I was texting with someone earlier this week, and I was asking, you know, what's keeping you up a night about this campaign. And it is, are they going to be able to mobilize these low information, sporadic voters. And this is part of what her strategy is now. The media strategy.

[12:25:00]

When she goes on something like Howard Stern and some of these podcasts, it's some of these voters who aren't necessarily dialed into CNN all the time, as wonderful as we are all the time. But these are people who get their information in different ways, whether it's TikTok and these sorts of podcasts, so they're very mindful of that. It really is a matter of, do they have enough time now, right, to mobilize these people and get them engaged.

BASH: Or late-night TV?

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: One of the other sort of consistent -- point of their strategy since the beginning was vote for me because I'm not Donald Trump. And they were given a gift with this new Bob Woodward book that Jamie Gangel broke reporting on yesterday about Woodward saying that Donald Trump secretly gave covid tests to Vladimir Putin at the beginning of the pandemic. She reacted to this on Stephen Colbert last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Donald Trump secretly sent covid test kits to Putin for his personal use. I ask everyone here and everyone who was watching. You remember what those days were like? You remember how many people did not have tests? And this man is giving covid test kits to Vladimir Putin. Think about what this means. On top of him sending love letters to Kim Jong Un. No, think about it. He thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That was the most animated and passionate and direct that she was, I think, pretty much the entire day.

MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: Yeah. And there's a few things at play, right? Three words, do you remember? That's one of the things that Democrats have tried to seize on for the last -- in this entire election cycle, is trying to stir that angst that voters had about Donald Trump four years ago. They have been unsuccessful in doing so, right? But now she's trying to rejigger that and trying to revisit that in some way. So that's the one thing.

Then you see the more confrontational tone, right? Saying that, hey, this is -- he said these to an adversary who was supposed to be -- I mean, when we were supposed to be sending them to Americans, right? That's flipping the same argument in line of attack that Trump has against her right now, and the hurricanes and also some of the immigration stories as well, right? Putting Americans first. So, you're seeing her going on offense on this issue.

BASH: All right. Everyone standby. We have a lot more to talk about, including, of course, Hurricane Milton. As Florida prepares to get battered for the second time in about as many weeks. Stay with us.

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