North Korea Claims Having ICBM-Mountable Hydrogen Bomb
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- those tiny babies who were once so close to death are now thriving.</s>LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), UNITED STATES ARMY: Boy, you guys grew up in 12 years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for saving our lives.</s>HONORE: Well, God bless you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for saving our lives and our mom's life.</s>HONORE: God bless you. God bless you.</s>ELAM: A bond forged in devastation, unbroken by the passing of time.</s>ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Great to have you with us tonight. A side of President Trump the public rarely sees. More personal, more compassionate, and embracing his role as consoler-in-chief. He was on the ground in storm-ravaged parts of Texas and Louisiana today giving hugs and kissing children and taking selfies with the victims and the first responders. Images like these of the President giving out food and loading up supplies, all the more striking because it was just days ago that he was criticized for a lack of empathy. The White House is now seeking nearly $8 billion in relief funds as the death toll from this storm reaches at least 50. Today, the President told the crowd he thinks the cleanup can happen quickly.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the water is disappearing. And we do -- we have a long way to go, but the water is disappearing. And you look at the neighborhoods and you see it's -- we just rode through this. And two days ago, even yesterday, they had water. And today, it's all swept up and cleaned up. They say two years, three years. I think that, you know, because this is Texas, you'll probably do it in six months. I have a feeling, you know.</s>CABRERA: Here's the reality, though. Floodwaters are receding but the damage is staggering. Families returning to clear out their flooded homes, their possessions are now trash on the side of the street. I want to go to Ryan Nobles. He's joining us from Lake Charles, Louisiana where the President and first lady ended the day, thanking some first responders there. Ryan, tell us about who the President met on this trip.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the President spent the day meeting with a variety of different people from all walks of this tragedy, including evacuees in Houston who had weathered the storm and now are waiting to go back into their homes. He also met with military members who were on the front lines of the rescue and recovery effort. And here in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he met with Louisianans who once went through Hurricane Katrina who were actually spared the brunt of the damage from Hurricane Harvey, and instead were here to help their fellow Texans. This National Guard armory behind me was one of the staging areas for the troops that went in to help the recovery effort, particularly in east Texas which was very hard hit. He also met with members of the Cajun Navy, that volunteer group of folks who got in their trucks and their boats and came to the aid of so many of those people who were in need of help me. The big message from the President today, Ana, was that the federal government will be there to help, and not just after the floodwaters recede, but for the months and perhaps years that it takes before this recovery is complete. One of the things he promised today is that he is beginning the process of requesting billions of dollars in aid from Congress. They've sent that over to Congress. That work will begin next week. The President wanting to make sure the people of Texas know that he is going to be there to help them for the long haul -- Ana.</s>CABRERA: Ryan Nobles in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Thank you. Meanwhile, we have some other breaking we're following, this time out of North Korea. The regime now claims it's able to attach a hydrogen bomb to an intercontinental ballistic missile. Now the country's state-run news agency sent out these pictures today. This is apparently of Kim Jong-un a short time ago and purportedly show the leader inspecting the new weapon at the country's nuclear weapon institute. It's important to note, though, that U.S. officials have not confirmed that North Korea has this new capability or that these pictures are authentic. I want to bring in CNN's Ian Lee in South Korea. He is joining us from Seoul. Ian, this is the latest provocative move from the regime.</s>IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and a significant development, Ana, if it -- is -- turns out to be true that they are able to put a hydrogen bomb on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile, an ICBM. For -- experts, for a while now, have wondering when they would reach this stage. This comes a lot sooner than most experts had predicted that they would be -- or have this capability. But what they also say, KCNA, North Korean state media, is that they have the capability of making many more. So we're waiting to hear any response from the Americans, from the South Koreans, to this latest development. And as you said, experts on both sides, the Japanese, the Americans, the South Koreans, are going to be studying these pictures very carefully to see if they are authentic, what they can glean from them. But also, Ana, this comes as President Moon of South Korea and President Trump have a phone call. They said that they want to put more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea so that they abandon their nuclear program. But from these pictures, it doesn't look like that's working.</s>CABRERA: All right. Ian Lee in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you. I want to bring in here in New York, Jonathan Cristol. He's a fellow at the World Policy Institute. Jonathan, how much credence should we give this new claim?</s>JONATHAN CRISTOL, FELLOW, WORLD POLICY INSTITUTE: I mean, I think that there are a lot of ifs here. I think, without question, North Korea would like to develop such a weapon, but we don't know if they have the capability to put any sort of nuclear device onto an intercontinental ballistic missile. We don't know if they are able to fire that missile with a degree of accuracy. We don't know if it would be able to survive reentry. And we don't know if they have a hydrogen bomb. Now, I, personally, don't think that the hydrogen bomb versus nuclear bomb aspect really changes the political situation around it. It doesn't really change the policy around it because their capabilities to destroy a significant part of an American city wouldn't really change based on the science behind the weapon itself. There's a psychological element there, but it doesn't really change the political aspect of it.</s>CABRERA: Do those pictures surprise you?</s>CRISTOL: It does surprise me a little bit that they are making the claim, particularly so soon after the missile flyover of Japan.</s>CABRERA: Which happened on Tuesday.</s>CRISTOL: Right. It seems that they are ramping up. They're escalating much more quickly than I or a lot of people would have thought. It does come -- I don't think it was timed to, but it also comes on the heel of President Trump's statement about the South Korean/U.S. trade agreement, that he's thinking about withdrawing from that. And so while it may not have been timed for that, it is part, I think, of the North Korean strategy of trying to create tension between the U.S. and South Korea and show the divisions in policies on a wide range of issues.</s>CABRERA: Let me read you a statement -- I was just handed this, a new statement from North Korea KCNA, their state-run media. And it says, if the U.S. acts rashly despite our repeated warnings that the U.S. should ponder over the disastrous consequences to be entailed by its reckless military provocation, we will take a more powerful counteraction. What are we to make of that?</s>CRISTOL: Well, I think that they are, once again, trying to show that they -- if the U.S. launches a military strike of some kind against them, that they will retaliate with some sort of devastating force. Now, the reality of this is that it doesn't take this particular weapon to mount a credible deterrent capability on the part of North Korea. Their artillery, which can produce tens of thousands, at minimum, casualties in South Korea, their ability to target U.S. forces in South Korea and in Japan, as well as that country, really makes it very difficult for the U.S. to have any sort of serious military option against them. They know that. And they're kind of sticking it to us a little bit and saying, look, you might be talking the talk about this, but we're going to keep needling you and showing you what really we're capable of and what are you really going to do about it.</s>CABRERA: And the President this week saying maybe the time for talk -- talking is not the answer, actually, is his direct quote. Jonathan Cristol, thank you, as always, for giving us your expertise and helping us to assess the situation. We do appreciate you coming in.</s>CRISTOL: My pleasure.</s>CABRERA: Coming up, the Justice Department has just announced they have found no evidence to back up President Trump's claims that Trump Tower was wiretapped by President Obama. Details on that coming up. Also, look at some shocking video out of Utah tonight. Police have now launched a criminal investigation after a nurse was arrested and forcibly removed from this hospital for refusing to let officers draw blood from her patient.