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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Trump in Milwaukee; Clinton in Philadelphia; Louisiana Flooding; Presidential Politics. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 16, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:38] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield, and welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

First up, I want to take you to the devastating flooding in southern Louisiana where right now we are awaiting a live news conference from the governor and from FEMA officials for an update. It's going to happen at any moment, so we're going to just watch this carefully and very nimbly going to it just as soon as they begin. And in the meantime show you what it is they're talking about.

These awful floods have now claimed the lives of nine people. And they are fast moving waters, too. More than 20,000 people have now been rescued, many of them from swift water rescues. The sheriff of Livingston Parish says more than 100,000 people in his parish have now lost everything they owned.

This flooding was triggered by more than two feet of rain and, sadly, there is more to report in the forecast. So it is a crisis of epic proportions there. We're going to just tune in to find out exactly what this latest news conference will tell us in terms of the emergency response and the state of emergency there.

In the interim, as we wait for that live update, and watch those pictures, we are also watching the election story. Donald Trump calling himself the law and order candidate and arriving today in a city facing some serious unrest. Trump is making a stop in Milwaukee following violent protests there. The demonstrations in response to the shooting death of an armed African-American man by a black police officer. We're going to get more on the story from CNN's Ana Cabrera, who is on the ground live in Milwaukee.

So we just received word that Donald Trump is about to have a meeting with veterans and police officers. Do we know anything more about this particular meeting and the strategy behind it?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're working to get more insight into this meeting, but we know he had an event already previously scheduled in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, earlier today. He's expected to arrive here in Milwaukee this afternoon, coming on the heels of all of the past 48 hours unrest that led to several buildings being destroyed, major clashes with police. The BP, right behind me, is one of those burning buildings. We are seeing ATF investigator on scene right now and some of what you're hear behind me is part of them doing their investigative work.

What we've learned about the visit to Milwaukee is that Trump simply will be meeting with law enforcement and veteran's groups. But, again, the dynamics of that and what he's hoping to accomplish, we're still working to get that information. He also has a fundraiser planned this afternoon and then a later event with Fox News at a town hall in downtown Milwaukee before he concludes his day in a suburb of Milwaukee, West Bend, about 45 minutes from here, where he plans to hold a rally.

I can tell you, Ashleigh, we've been talking with the folks who live in this community about what they feel and what they think about this visit from Mr. Donald Trump. And the people we've talked to on one hand say it really doesn't matter to them. They don't feel like he or any of the other political leaders out there are really listening to what they need. And so in many ways they feel hopeless that what he can say or do here today would benefit them in any way. But they would encourage him to meet directly with the community. And as we know, he is needing some of those African-American votes in the general election. So it will be interesting to see and hear what the dialogue is in Milwaukee today when Trump visits.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, keep an ear there. Ana Cabrera live for us in Wisconsin.

Meantime, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is returning to the city where she made history. She's in Philadelphia today for a voter registration event. All of this after making her first stop in the battleground state alongside Vice President Joe Biden. The pair taking jabs at Donald Trump in their first joint campaign event. CNN's Joe Johns following the Clinton camp.

And so we're wondering at this point if they're going to make today about yesterday, about the big speech that Donald Trump,. You know, put out last night. He didn't step in it himself, so it's really going to be up to the Clinton camp to do any stepping and if there's going to be any stepping in. Is that what they're expected to do?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly looks like the Clinton campaign is focuses on that. As you know, a statement came out last night from the campaign which appeared to be really an artful attempt, if you will, to try to accuse Donald Trump of flip-flopping as he tries to tone down some of his more divisive rhetoric from the primaries. The campaign putting out a statement last night and also a web ad attacking what the Clinton campaign sees as the incongruities between what Donald Trump was saying back in the primaries and now as he more or less tries to install this notion of extreme vetting.

[12:05:40] So they also put out a statement, I think, and, again, the important idea, though, is suggesting that Donald Trump is trying to impose the kind of test he himself would not be able to pass.

BANFIELD: Hey, Joe. I'm a - I'm going to - JOHNS: Back to you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Yes, I'm going to interrupt you only because I want to get down to Baton rouge, Louisiana, where the governor, John Bel Edwards, has begun speaking about the terrible flooding there. Let's listen in.

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: The individuals behind me will be available because once you start to ask question, if - whoever the best person is to respond to your question, that's who's going to come forward and answer the question.

I want you to know that the administrator and I just met and we got an update on the response and we are also going to meet again very shortly to discuss not only how we wrap up the response phase, which we're nowhere close to having that finished, but what we need to do for the remainder of the response and then transition into the recovery as well. And the recovery itself is multidimensional with near term things that we have to do midterm and then long term.

I want to remind everybody, this is a historic flooding event. And when you have a storm that is unnamed, it's not a - it wasn't a tropical storm. It wasn't a hurricane. A lot of times people underestimate the impacts that it would have. But this is historic. It's unprecedented. And we are seeing unprecedented flood levels as the waters move south.

As you know, Sunday I requested a major disaster declaration from the federal government for 21 parishes. The president was very quick and I want to thank him for approving the first four parishes that were requested and those parishes were East Baton Rouge, Tangipahoa Parish, Livingston and Saint Helena. I am happy to say that today eight attentional parishes have been added to that major disaster declaration. Those eight parishes are Arcadia, Ascension, East Feliciana, Iberia, Lafayette, Pointe Coupee, Saint Landry and Vermilion.

We have been traveling extensively over the last several days with FEMA individuals, Jerry Stoller (ph) from FEMA Region Six, and then yesterday Tony Robinson, who is the administrator there in Region Six, collecting information and data on the damage. I am confident that more parishes are going to be added to the list of currently declared parishes as we move forward. And we're working around the clock to make sure that every available resource that would help us to respond and to recover will be available to the people of Louisiana.

I want everyone who's been impacted by this storm, regardless of where they live and whether they live in a parish that has been added to the declaration list, to register for disaster assistance. That is extremely important, even if you are not in a parish that has been declared, when your parish is declared, that registration will roll over, you will not have to do it again. And I want everyone - and I'm going to give you some information on that. And I want everyone out there to understand, nobody has been forgotten. It is a - this is a very difficult situation to get response out as quickly as we would like to. We fully understand that now that the sun is out, it's hot, we still have about 34,000 meters without electricity. That's customers. So those are homes or businesses. We understand that there's still a lot of people who are suffering. And those people who have been evacuated, they're not entirely comfortable in their circumstances either, although we're doing our dead level best at the shelters to make sure that we're taking care of them.

Let me get back to the registration for disaster assistance. I'm asking everybody out there who's been impacted by this storm, if you haven't done it yet, please register for disaster assistance at disasterassistance.gov, online. I will tell you again, disasterassistance.gov, or you can call 1-800-621-FEMA. That's 1-800- 621-3362. So far we've had right at 40,000 individuals register for disaster assistance in this manner and we're asking that individuals continue to do that.

[12:10:23] It is important to remember FEMA never charges for services that they deliver. If someone shows up at your house, if someone contacts you and says they're a FEMA representative and they've got some assistance for you but they're asking you to pull out your wallet or your checkbook or your credit card, tell them "no thanks." That's not the way FEMA operates.

And while I'm on that topic, I want to alert everyone that there are folks who are unscrupulous. They will come in and try to take advantage of folks, especially elderly people, by promising them that they will, for some amount of money, make repairs or render some sort of assistance. Please be very, very careful that you are not a victim of a scam. And if you think that any of that has taken place, please contact the Louisiana Attorney General's Office.

So while we're beginning to enter recovery mode, especially on the west side of the Mississippi River and on the north side of the Florida (ph) parishes on the east side of the Mississippi River, I want everyone to understand that we are still very much in an emergency search and rescue response mode for much of the Florida parishes. Saving life is the most important priority that we have. We're going to dedicate every available resource to that effort until it's no longer required.

I would like to update the shelter numbers. Last night we sheltered 8,098 individuals. And this number is changing rapidly. Some people were able to move out of the shelter and into their home or out of their shelters and into the home of family and friends. But other people are being moved out of their homes and coming to our shelters. So this is going to change.

We have rescues. Local first responders, state agencies and certainly just individuals being good neighbors have rescued well over 20,000 people thus far across Louisiana and well over 1,000 pets. I am sad to tell you that I have to update the fatality number. We have eight confirmed fatalities that were storm related. We have right at 40,000 homes that have been impacted to varying degrees thus far with the floodwaters.

I'm going to ask for everyone's continued patience and I'm going to ask everyone to join their prayers to mine that the suffering of our people will be quickly diminished and that we will be able to deliver to them the assistance they need i a timely manner. As I said, nobody is going to be forgotten. We're going to work around the clock and we're going to do everything humanly possible to render aid.

And with that in mind, I am proud to be followed by Administrator Fugate (ph), who is going to share some information with you on the response that we're going to be able to deliver now with FEMA, based upon the expanded declaration. And so, Administrator Fugate, again, thank you very much for being here.

ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE: Thank you, governor.

It seems like we were here this spring talking about -

BANFIELD: I just want to take you, if I can, as the FEMA director gives some of the technical announcements, I want to take you down into those waters right now because the story, as it unfolds, is truly the people who are being affected. And what it looks like on the ground is very different than what you see from the air. Our Rosa Flores is actually on the water in a boat right now.

Can you just give me a feeling from what you're seeing, the moment you got there to where you are now, just how devastating and extensive this flooding is, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's devastating, as you can imagine. We've just gone through multiple communities and all of those homes are completely under water. So are their vehicles. So are their belongings. And normally, you know, we'd be on dry ground.

Now, what we've been doing is, we've been out with these first responders, knocking on doors. They've been doing welfare checks, making sure that people are OK. Now, they're logging all of that information because that's important information for when family members call in and ask for their loved ones.

Now, we've seen boats, like the ones that you're looking at in the distance, all day long. A lot of neighbors just helping neighbors. They get on their boats. They knock on doors too. They ask for their neighbors to see if they're OK. They help their neighbors get their belongings out of their house and to dry ground. And so you see a lot of these people, just kind-hearted Louisiana people who are out there helping their neighbors.

[12:15:11] Now, I'm in Ascension Parish. You just heard the governor talk about how this parish was added to the disaster declaration. And you can see why, because a lot of these areas are now completely under water.

Where are the - where is this water coming from? Well, you know, I checked the river gauges, and just north of here, where this gauge is, the flood stage is at 29 feet. Right now it's at 38 feet. So that gives you a sense as to why these waters are so high.

BANFIELD: Wow. Rosa, can I ask you -

FLORES: It gives you a sense to why these waters are so high and moving.

BANFIELD: Are you -

FLORES: Go ahead.

BANFIELD: Yes, I'm just curious, I mean, it truly looks like you're on a river. Are you actually on a road right now?

FLORES: We've been going through roads. We've been going through people's backyards, through county roads. The only way that we know we're on a road is when we see the street sign above the water. And again, here you're taking a look at just a lot of local people. We've seen a lot of these guys actually on the highway, literally making a line on the highway, offering their boats, offering their help to first responders so that they can have plenty of resources to go out and look for people. And so you can see them communicating, letting them know where they've been. You know, a lot of them call in information as well.

But I want us to flip around this camera because you'll be able to see - now we're getting closer to one of these neighborhoods, and you can see the water levels. Now, on some of these, you probably see some of the wake of the boats that have been going by because, again, boats have been going through these homes, knocking on homes, making welfare checks, asking to see if people are OK, and then they take them on these boats, like the ones we're in now, to higher ground.

We just saw people on the road here, probably about five minutes from where we're at, with their belongings, with suitcases, with plastic bags, where they literally just grabbed what they could and left. Now, overnight, last night, waters started rising here and the first responders here tell us that where we're going to next is a place where the water rose so quickly that people had to leave very quickly last night and now they're going back into their homes they're hearing and that's what we're going to go check out next. But they're going into their homes with boats to try to salvage -

BANFIELD: You know, can you ask them, Rosa - do me a favor and - please, if you could -

FLORES: Go ahead.

BANFIELD: If they're able to, and I don't want to impede their work. Can you just ask them if they can tell you what it is specifically they're on the lookout for right now? I'm not sure if they're able to do that and talk to you at the same time, but it would be great to hear from them.

FLORES: Yes, we can talk to John here. He's a firefighter with the Monroe unit out of here -

JOHN: Monroe, Louisiana.

FLORES: Monroe, Louisiana.

JOHN: Right. FLORES: And, John, what is it exactly that in rescues like these that you're looking for?

JOHN: So we're actually looking for people who are stranded or people who are physically incapacitated or (INAUDIBLE), have medical problems and we're going to go ahead and get them out, get them somewhere where they can get the attention they need or to get them to family members.

FLORES: Now, tell me again, because we were talking about this just moment ago, how quickly the water rose and how quickly people had to get their belongings, if they got anything, and go to higher ground, go to safety.

JOHN: Right. Where we're at right now, yesterday this was dry ground. And so overnight all this water rose. They went to bed, it was dry. The middle of the night, they wake up, all of a sudden there's water in their house. And so they're trying to grab what they can. They're running out the door, jumping in a boat, high-water vehicle, a four- wheel drive truck, anything they can to leave. And so now they're trying to come back in and, you know, recover belongings, whatever they can get, you know, medicines, anything they might need just for their day to day lives.

FLORES: Now, some of these people - and I know we've seen these pictures, these trucks right here. Can you explain to us what these guys do and how do you use these resources as you're also rescuing people?

JOHN: Right. So these are - these are great vehicles. They can get through really, really high waters. (INAUDIBLE) drive us in. So we've got a lot of areas here that are - we'll go from water to a high elevated area where it's land locked and then it goes back down to water. Well, these guys give us the ability to go then to them and evacuate. Saturday night we used these same vehicles. We evacuated 120 people out of a nursing home (INAUDIBLE) using these exact vehicles. So they were a huge, huge asset.

FLORES: John, thank you so much.

Now, as you guys take a look at these pictures, imagine, these high water vehicles are used to transport people as well, not just supplies, because right now you can see that they're sharing supplies here with the crew that we're with because a lot of the times the crew - the rescue crew also gives supplies to the people that don't want to leave their homes.

We just talked to a family, the Luke family, a little while ago. They didn't want to leave their home. And so, you know, what these guys do is they ask them, do you have provisions? Do you have water? Do you have plenty of food for a few days because until the water recedes, they are - they're in an island. Their home is an island. They can't leave that place.

[12:20:11] And so one of the marvelous things that we've been able to see here is the cross use of resources, both human power, vehicles, boats, all of these resources coming together to go check on families, to go check on the welfare of people, and also to do rescues, to get people to higher ground and to safety.

BANFIELD: Rosa - Rosa, we've got to - we've got to break in, but this is so incredibly compelling, watching this all happening live.

When we come back after the break, could you ask your crew that you're with how they're deciding where to stop and where to check. I mean there's water everywhere. And every house seem to be under water. So how are they actually strategizing their work? How do they know which houses to pass by and which houses to stop? If you could get them to, you know, for a moment, to just get that question together, we're going to come back right after the break with that.

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BANFIELD: We're going to return to Rosa Flores in just a moment, down in the flooding in Louisiana.

[12:25:01] But in the meantime, this is also set to be a very big day on the campaign trail. Donald Trump is set to meet with police and veterans in Milwaukee following very violent protests in the streets there. And also, at the same time, Hillary Clinton is heading to a voter registration rally in Philadelphia, PA.

I want to bring in our brain trust to talk about the 2016 race and what's at stake today and how it changes day to day. CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott on the right of your screen, CNN political commentator Errol Louis in the center, and political reporter for "The Washington Post" Philip Bump is on the left. And I only meant that geographically.

Hi, guys.

I want to start with you, Errol, if I can. Donald Trump talking to Milwaukee, talking to vets, talking to cops, all sort of in this vacuum of what's been going on in the streets there, a violent couple of nights. There's a curfew in place for teenagers there. What do you make of that plan?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't know if the plan is intended to really sort of do anything as far as his chances in Wisconsin or certainly for anybody else on the ballot. They've got a hard fought Senate race going on there as well. But the reality is, I got to tell you, Ashleigh, I mean the - one of the - I think it was the fourth Republican debate was in Milwaukee, and they never said anything about the local conditions there.

We should note that the local conditions are dire. They were dire before the violence broke out. You're talking about a city that normally or routinely comes up for over 10 years now as the number one most racially segregated city in the whole United States. This is a city where poverty is dire. The black poverty rate in Milwaukee is something like 40 percent. And by poverty we mean $24,000 a year for a family of four. It's been an emergency situation for a long, long time. And so it would be a shame if he does what I guess the normal Republican conservative playbook would be, which is to go in, decry any kind of violence without saying a word about the underlying conditions.

The reality is, this isn't necessarily racialized violence in the way that we've seen in other police cases. It was a black officer. It was a black decedent, person who was killed. So it's not really about that. There are - this is a case where - and I - believe me, I am not a root causes kind of guy. I understand that people have to take responsibility for their own actions. But there are some severe, dire, underlying problems here that if Trump wants to be successful and be of help to the Republican Party in Wisconsin, he will talk about some of the and about an economic plan that would start to address some it.

BANFIELD: So that dovetails into some of the reporting that, Eugene, you've been doing lately. And not to, you know, to say that these are apples and apples. However, one of the more recent McClatchy polls has Trump's support among African-American I think at 2 percent.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I've seen 1 percent. We saw 1 percent on an NBC poll. And one of the reasons is that black voters believe that the Republican Party and Trump specifically are not addressing issues that concern them. One of those issues being the relationship between minority communities and law enforcement. But shortly after the Republican National Convention, we had Newt Gingrich on the air saying that Donald Trump would visit Detroit and he's visit Baltimore and other cities where there are high numbers of black voters who are disenfranchised economically in terms of law enforcement, but we did not see him talk specifically about that when he was in Detroit. And so we're wondering, will he address that tonight in Milwaukee.

BANFIELD: The other - the other issue that he either may choose to address or not, Philip, is this schism that's happening with the Republican Party. One by one they're dropping like flies effectively. Kelley Ayotte has had her differences. And Marco Rubio, in a strange paradox, has said, I'm standing by calling this guy a con man. I'm standing by the things I said during the primaries, which were none too pleasant.

PHILIP BUMP, POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Right. Sure.

BANFIELD: But I'm voting for him. And I wonder what kind of message that gives his supporters or those he wants to be his supporters. Is it a wash? Is it confusing? Is it, well, you know what, to hell with the establishment anyway?

BUMP: Well, I think one of the dynamics that we're seeing that's played out, essentially since the conventions is this difference between Donald Trump and the Republican Party. One of the reasons Donald Trump is doing as badly in the polls as he is right now, and he is doing badly, is that Republicans are not as strongly on board with his candidacy as Democrats are on board with Hillary Clinton's candidacy. And part of the problem for someone like a Marco Rubio or the House Speaker Paul Ryan is that they are both members of the Republican establishment, but also needing to win votes from Republicans. And I think there's a sense that along the lines of what we were just talking about, Donald Trump is not doing a good job of broadening the coalition of support for Republicans. And we've seen part of the problem with - that he's having in the

polls is that he has this core base of support and has no way of expanding it outward. And, you know, some of the comments that he's made, particularly about Latinos, are things that I think Republicans are concerned will be damaging over the long run. So Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan and these sorts of folks are in this tough position of having to support the party and the party's nominee, but at the same time not wanting to tie themselves to closely to Trump. Republican voters are happy to distance themselves.

[12:29:50] BANFIELD: I need to wrap. We've got a lot of breaking news in Louisiana. But not before, Errol, I just want you to weigh in really quickly. Etna has pulled out of the Obamacare exchanges, and that's something that Hillary Clinton is going to have to deal with on the campaign trail. She's registering votes today. And often she doesn't get as big a headline because it's usually not as bombastic a comment, you know, trails her with her speeches.