Forecast for Hurricane Dorian; Devastation Across the Bahamas; Trump Campaign Sells Markers
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just how it wasn't caught. I mean everyone knows a six day old child is not a quiet child and how they didn't recognize this much sooner than the morning</s>JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Kate. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. Thank you for sharing your day with us. Dorian makes landfall in North Carolina. Flooding and power outages are the biggest toll there. This as the Bahamas scrambles to deal with much more significant damage. Plus, the economy added 130,000 new jobs in August. That's a solid headline for a report that shows many signs of economic strength, but also tells us some important sectors are stalling. And, what's for lunch? 2020 contender Pete Buttigieg, not quite up to speed on one option that is out of stock no matter how much you love that chicken.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have the Popeye chicken sandwich?</s>MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, not in a while.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, the new one.</s>BUTTIGIEG: No, what is it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You haven't seen it?</s>BUTTIGIEG: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure your team has seen the Popeye chicken sandwich.</s>BUTTIGIEG: Yes, why wasn't I briefed on this?</s>KING: We begin the hour with damage assessments and desperation in the Bahamas. Right now, Dorian is blanketing North Carolina with tropical storm- force winds and heavy rain. The National Hurricane Center says the category one storm made landfall over Cape Hatteras in the 8:00 hour this morning. At last count, the storm leaving nearly 400,000 across the Carolinas and Virginia without power. In Ocracoke Island, what officials call catastrophic flooding, homes, campers floating away. In the Bahamas, rescue missions getting more dire by the minute and hope for the missing quickly fading. The death toll on the islands now has eclipsed 30 with hundreds more unaccounted for. On Abaco Islands, residents wonder how or if they can rebuild. Others, like this man, Adrian Farington (ph), wrestle with what they lost. Farington watched the hurricane drag his son, Adrian Junior, into the surge. He did not come back up. Stories like this all too common and why medical officials are bracing for more bodies.</s>DR. CAROLINE BURNETT-GARRAWAY, MEDICAL CHIEF OF STAFF, PRINCESS MARGARET HOSPITAL: They were in water for hours, just exhausted because they were swimming, trying to save themselves. And, of course, emotionally traumatized. Some have seen family members die and friends washed away.</s>KING: Allison Chinchar in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Allison, update us on where Dorian is and how long she'll be with us.</s>ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. So the majority of the storm is finally starting to exit off into the sea, taking with it the very heavy rain and the very strong winds. But it's not over just yet. Forward movement right now is northeast at 17 miles per hour, so it has started to pick up speed, which is good. The faster we can get this thing out, the better. We do still have some pretty strong wind gusts, though, along the coastline, 40, 50, even 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts still being felt at this hour. And the rain bands, they're still there. There is also still the potential for some of these bands as they move onshore to perhaps have some rotation with them, so it's not out of the question to still perhaps have the tornado threat for the next few hours as well. And we had over 20 tornado reports in just the last 48 hours. Another big threat is still the ongoing flooding. You've got flash flood warnings and flood watches for numerous states because of those heavy rain bands. The good news is, the majority of -- the bulk of the rain is now finally starting to come to an end. But look at some of the total numbers. Portions of North and South Carolina picking up over 10 inches of rain. Wilmington, North Carolina, picking up over nine inches of rain. Yesterday they actually broke a daily rainfall record. There is still more on the way, but most areas are likely only expected to pick up about an additional one to two inches. But you just have to tell yourself, it's on top of what they've already had. Because one to two inches alone does not sound that bad. Here's a look at the forecast track. Notice it does finally take it out over open water, but we do expect some heavy rain bands across portions of the northeast. Cities like New York, Hartford, Portland, Maine, even Boston are still going to look at the potential for some of these outer bands. The good news is, however, it is not expected to be as bad there as it was perhaps in the Carolinas or even Georgia and Florida.</s>KING: Allison Chinchar in the Weather Center, appreciate that. Much better news for those along the East Coast of the United States. The devastation, of course, most severe in the Bahamas. CNN's Patrick Oppmann live for us from Bevans Town, Bahamas. Patrick, you've been surveying the damage for days now. Tell us what you're seeing as you get out into the remote areas.</s>PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And we are getting closer to where the storm made landfall as a category five hurricane and stalled. We've actually moved just up the road. We're going town to town. We're now in the town of High Rock (ph). And I'm joined by the local pastor, Joey Saunders. You've -- the houses are destroyed here. The town is destroyed. What happened to your house? Tell me about what happened to you and your son as you rode out the storm.</s>JOEY SAUNDERS, HURRICANE DORIAN SURVIVOR: Early part of the night, about 12:30, about 12:30 we started battling the water through the floor, bottom floor. Then the water started to rise to the second floor. Then I saw it sort of coming to the third floor, you know, this --</s>OPPMANN: The third floor of your home?</s>SAUNDERS: Third floor of the home. Within minutes this took place. And I was</s>OPPMANN: It was nighttime.</s>SAUNDERS: Nighttime. About 2:00 a.m. in the morning.</s>OPPMANN: And what did you do?</s>SAUNDERS: I remember just praying. The next thing I look -- I was holding a light. My son had a light holding in his hand. I just see him going into this current, hearing him just saying daddy, daddy, daddy.</s>OPPMANN: The current was carrying your son away?</s>SAUNDERS: Carrying him, yes.</s>OPPMANN: How old's your son?</s>SAUNDERS: He's 25. And then I had a light. And minutes later I was going. But in the truss, I was trapped in the truss. And I remember just taking off the huge jacket quickly and suddenly just rose me up and I caught under the truss. In minutes I was gone.</s>OPPMANN: You were -- you were in the water?</s>SAUNDERS: Yes. And it carried me. We landed about 600 feet into like of a 32-feet pine tree because our ceiling was 32 feet.</s>OPPMANN: Your ceiling was 32 feet and the water was up there?</s>SAUNDERS: The water went above that because it was only 32 in the building. And that carried us in different paths. We was separated for about two days. We never saw one</s>OPPMANN: You slept on top of a tree.</s>SAUNDERS: For two days.</s>OPPMANN: For two days.</s>SAUNDERS: Yes. Like about a quarter of a mile away, each one of us apart.</s>OPPMANN: And how did you find your son?</s>SAUNDERS: About two days later in the evening, I hear this person calling me.</s>OPPMANN: And it was your son?</s>SAUNDERS: Yes, it was him.</s>OPPMANN: What was he saying?</s>SAUNDERS: He float -- he was saying, daddy, daddy, because he was shocked himself, you know, it was such a -- you know, I don't know how to describe it. It was just horrific, you know.</s>OPPMANN: And you're the -- you're lucky.</s>SAUNDERS: Yes. Yes. It's a miracle that we survived. Honest, it's a miracle. Because we -- you know, it happened so fast, you know. I was way under the water. Something just rise me up and I hook on to the truss, the water just carried us away. Because we didn't know where we were going. And to land in the tree, with -- you know, planning that, it only could have been the super natural.</s>OPPMANN: We are so glad you are here.</s>SAUNDERS: Yes. It's a pleasure to. And thank God, you know.</s>OPPMANN: Not everybody was so lucky in this community, John. They've lost a lot of people. There are many more missing. And people are still reeling from what they say was a once-in-a-lifetime storm. Back to you.</s>KING: That was a remarkable story, Patrick, and a remarkable contrast, this story of what the gentleman describes as a miracle and then, obviously, the devastation we can see over your shoulder. Keep up the fine work there. It is helping the world understand the scope of this. Wow. Patrick Oppmann, thank you very much. As we come back to Washington, the president, this morning, again tweeting his stubborn and false claim that he got the forecast right on Alabama. Check out the maps, the president says, before criticizing the media's coverage of his dead wrong claim that forecasts on Sunday showed Alabama would take a hard hit from Dorian. Part of his defense, including a map, a chart the president held up in the Oval Office using a Sharpie to draw some lines. One senior White House official telling "The Washington Post," yes, it was the president himself who drew that line, altering an official government map. Here with me to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Dana Bash, Alex Thompson with "Politico," CNN's Manu Raju, and Jackie Kucinich with "The Daily Beast." It is the president continuing this story to the point now his campaign is selling markers trying to make money off this story. The president of the United States repeating false information as a hurricane approaches the United States and now it's an opportunity for a campaign to raise money. Help me.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Raise money and, I am told, an attempt to have a little bit of a circuit breaker, a little bit of maybe a chuckle on this as there might have been on the straws that they were selling, which was obviously based -- is based on a very real environmental debate about what to do. That's the goal. But it doesn't change the fact that this president has been mired in this controversy that he keeps perpetuating. And how similar it is and how much this has all of the components of sort of everything that we've seen go wrong with this presidency from the beginning. First of all, he's -- his instinct was to highlight a red state. That's where this started, no question, Alabama. And then continue to not back down in the face of facts that changed things. And instead not only say that he is right, but force people who have very important jobs, I don't know, like his homeland security advisor, who should be monitoring the very real storm that was coming as he put out the statement, to put out a statement backing up the president. So this is what we have seen time and time again. The only upside, according to people I'm talking to in Trump world, is that it took away from a really big problem, which was the vice president's trip to a Trump resort in Ireland, which looks like he's getting money off of the taxpayer dollar.</s>KING: Right. Well, we'll come back to that story. The vice president's story and now what Democrats want to learn about it a bit later in the program. But back to the president's point. My question when these things happen is why. He's stubborn. He believes -- I believe he believes that if he keeps repeating his lies enough that not only will he believe them but other people will believe them as well. But the why, fixate on this, some people said, well, he was golfing on Saturday when this first started and he wants to prove that he was really being kept up -- up to date information, not winging it, if you will, while on the golf course. Another issue is, he called the Fox chief White House correspondent, John Roberts, into the Oval Office yesterday because he's mad that Fox is covering this story. Sometimes critically, sometimes not.</s>SHEPARD SMITH, FOX HOST: Some things in Trump landia (ph) are inexplicable. This week's edition, the president's ongoing claim that Alabama was at risk from Hurricane Dorian. It wasn't. Maybe he got some bad info from somebody. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he was confused. We don't know. But he was wrong.</s>SEAN HANNITY, FOX HOST: Pretty much every newsroom in America screwed this up and lied to you by accusing the president of lying. What he said about the earlier models about Hurricane Dorian, that it might hit Alabama, is true.</s>KING: Shep is right. Chief meteorologist Hannity is wrong. But it just shows you that even Fox was saying, look, sorry, Mr. President, you got it wrong, gets under his skin.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and he has Hannity speaking to his base of supporters who are listening to him and blaming the media. This follows a similar pattern the president has done throughout his presidency. He'll say something that is flatly wrong, contradicted. He'll get pushback and then he'll dig in and he'll continue to dig in and dig in and dig in until the narrative shifts. And the president is not going to say he's sorry, he's going to continue to blame the media for stories that are correct but he'll call it fake news because it works to his -- he believes to his political advantage. But this is not a pattern that's going to change. This is a president who believes this works for him.</s>JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, in that "Washington Post" story today about this whole fracas. It said that as long as this is on the news, the president is going to keep talking about it because he can't let it go. And to Dana's point, the lengths to which he's gone to try to make this reality -- this into some sort of reality, using these levers of government, these public servants, to try to prop up what is clearly not true is really remarkable.</s>KING: Including getting his Homeland Security advisor, Rear Admiral Peter Brown, to write a memo, we can show you parts of it, just saying that he showed the president maps, yes, at some point that had potential forecast reaching Alabama at some point. The issues is, and this -- this is a public servant being told to do this, obviously. This is your taxpayer money at work. But the issue is when the president did this, that threat was over. He knew -- he should have known anyway that Alabama was no longer in any of the paths.</s>ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": Well, now you're seeing the National Weather Service, their employee union says that they've been getting calls from even private sector businesses in the area asking them, is there anything you guys can do in order to stop the president from creating at least, at the very least, misinformation and confusion on the ground. And because he's dug in, this happens over and over, where now his campaign, eventually because of the president's focus on this, is now kicking into gear trying to make the best of a politically fraught situation --</s>BASH: Yes.</s>THOMPSON: By making this, as you said, into something of a joke, into a chuckle, into this, again, culture war with the media.</s>KUCINICH: But there is danger here if you're not -- starting not to believe the actual weather forecasts and you're believing what the president is saying, to your point.</s>KING: Right. It's important to -- clarity. As much clarity as possible in a difficult, chaotic situation like a hurricane approaching. Up next, the White House says today's jobs report is a blowout. But, read the numbers closely, some warning signs do persist.