Skip to main content

tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  September 22, 2017 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT

4:00 pm
cnn. i'm jim acosta. thank you very much for watching. wolf blitzer will be back next week and erin burnett "outfront" starts now. "outfront" next, north korea's nuclear threat. the rogue nation with its most dangerous threat ever. a massive nuclear bomb test over the pacific. it could trigger an all out war. plus, breaking news. john mccain defieing the president again. saying he is a no on the republican health care bill. that plan now one vote away from doom. and more breaking news this hour m 70,000 people in puerto rico ordered to evacuate now. their lives in immediate danger from a major imminent dam break. let's go "outfront." and good evening. i'm erin burnett. the breaking new, president trump about to take the stage at a rally the world watching the hear if he responds to north korea's threat of nuclear war. kim jong-un's north korea making an unprecedented and history making threat to detonate a nuclear bomb over the pacific
4:01 pm
ocean. president trump responding on twitter. kim jong-un of north korea, who's a madman who doesn't mind starve ving or killing his people, will be tested like never before. so, north korea threatens a nuclear bomb. president trump threatens to test kim like never bmp, certainly when it come to words, it is a war and could be bringing us to the brink of one. some saying nuclear tensions have not within this high since the cuban missile crisis 55 years ago. here is the foreign minister here in new york. >> translator: i think this could mean the strongest ever hydrogen bomb test on our above the pacific ocean. >> the strongest ever nuclear bomb test. here are the facts. no country has exploded a nuclear bomb aboveground in 37 years. there's a reason for that. such a a test is against humanity. it would unleash the deadly effects of radio active fallout on human beings. this test could mean all out
4:02 pm
nuclear war. michelle kosinski begins "outfront" at the state department. this threat is is different. more serious than the typical bluster. >> it is and you see this back and forth name calling. those are seen as juvenile or not helpful or you know, just contributing to the bad situation, but the kind of thet we just heard from north korea's foreign minister is something else entirely. just the way they did it. leader kim jong-un puts out this angry excoriating president trump, but they had the foreign minister float out this threat of exploding that hydrogen bomb. so, what we hear from president trump when he was at the u.n. is that he starts with the rocket man name calling. with the possibility of the u.s. completely destroying north korea. but then when you hear the secretary of state reck tillerson, today in an interview when asked if north korea did do
4:03 pm
such a test, what would the u.s. do? the first words out of tillerson's mouth are we would continue in the diplomatic arena. and yes, military options are on the table. and when he was pressed on it, he said, well, the president would have to decide. so, what we see is the way the the administration is framing this. they want the president and at times, secretary of defense to put out the tough talk and the possibility of military action. even though president trump has said you know, he's left the door open at least for down the road talks with kim jong-un. but then they want the secretary of state to be the one to focus on diplomacy and sometimes, the tate department even views it as a luongo game, saying it could take a long time for sanctions to work. and there's still more room for other sanctions, so, that covers the basis here, but it doesn't always make for the most consistent message from this administration. to say the least, erin. >> michelle, thank you very much. and of course, something like
4:04 pm
this simply is united states cannot allow it to happen. that's the way it goes. so you're going to talk about, are you going to be shooting it out of the sky? this is a whole different thing than just a test. we are waiting to see if president trump responds to this threat as this rally that begins momentarily and we're awaiting that. jeff is "outfront" live at the white house. this is a big question, whether he's going to come out and up the rhetoric here. already today on twitter calling kim jong-un a madman. >> erin, good evening. i believe that the president will indeed vocal what he's been talking about on twitter. the reality here is that the president ending this long week as michelle was talking about, about united nation, really facing two nuclear confrontations with iran on one hand and north korea on the other. but the president without question is focused on north korea. and this is in one respect, with kim jong-un and the president, so i'm looking for him to address this tonight in alabama, but earlier today, he telegraphed what he may talk
4:05 pm
about in an early morning tweet as he often does. he said this. he said that kim jong-un of north korea who is obviously a madman doesn't mind starving or killing his people. he'll be tested like never before. so that of course is more of the rhetoric that we heard earlier in the week before he moved towards sanctions and other matters, but the point here is erin, this is brinks man ship in one level. the reality though is that this back and forth between the two leaders is not like like as important at least advisers believe as those sanctions that the president announced yesterday. they believe those could have some type of effects, so watch for the president tonight. i'm told by one adviser, they say he may ad lib, but they advised me, he will talk tonight about north korea. >> of course, a lot will depend upon whether it's in the prompter or not. thank you very much, jeff. that's the big question here and it all really matters at this
4:06 pm
point. ouflz now former air force colonel, cedrick layton, also serve nd the korean peninsula. retired general, mark, and gordon chang. colonel, let me start with you. north korea now threatening to test in their words the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the pacific ocean. just to make sure we emphasize this again, this will be the first nuclear weapon detonated in nearly 40 years. there's a reason people stopped doing it. it could kill people. this would be unprecedented. >> the it would. it would be one of the most heinous acts when it comes to nuclear nonproliferation, also one of the biggest issues that the united states would have to deal with in not only east asia, but globally. we're talking about the total annihilation in essence of the whole nonproliferation regime and what that means is that all of a sudden, we hut ourselves at risk and not only from a nuclear standpoint, but also from a
4:07 pm
safety and security standpoint for everybody in our society. and that is really what this is all about. >> so, general, what would happen if kim jong-un does this? >> well, erin, there are probably about 20 different scenarios of how it might happen. if he does it, it would depend on what he does. the indicators are are that they're claiming they can put it on a missile, shoot it somewhere in the middle of the atlantic, sorry, the pacific, and have it explode. is that an atmospheric explos n explosion? putting it on a boat? having a test on the korean peninsu peninsula? those would generate different reactions. if it was atmospheric and didn't tell anyone he was going to do it, it could knock airplanes out of the sky, cause ships to lose guidance system. cause fallout with radio active particles. you can go down the list of all the things that would happen,
4:08 pm
but it would depend on what kind of blast it was. and talking with cedrick just mentioned about nonproliferation, the interesting piece is north korea is not a signatory to any treater on nonproliferation, so their act would not necessarily be an act of war. it would just be a test. a horrible one in first place and might provoke action and reaction, but it is not an act of war. >> gordon, i guess the big question is, whether kim jong-un will do it. >> you know, it sounds so unbelievable, but in the beginning of this month, i was writing about whether he would do this. and the reason is it's logical for him. a lot of people have been saying kim doesn't have all the capabilities, he hasn't integrated them into a real weapon. this would be proof that it works and he has not only a deterrent, but something to blackmail the rest of the international community. the one reason he might not do it is at the anxious ss
4:09 pm
yesterday, are so coercive it could move china to move north korea and that could very well change kim's calculus, but absent those sanctions, i think he may very well go forward. >> general, would the united states have any chance to respond militarily? there's been so much bluster, but they shoot a missile over japan and nobody does anything about it. but if you're doing something like this, can the united states allow it to happen? first of all, would we have the ability, but do you shoot it down? you're talking about a possible rapid escalation and a different sort of response than we've seen before. >> again, erin, i just say it would depend on the situation. if this was an unwarranted test, if they just shot it like they've shot so many other missiles and they had a nuclear tip warhead and it did explode and perhaps do the thing is talked about earlier and even kill some people because of it and it was unwarranted, yes, there would probably be a response and kim would be an increasing pari on the world stage. if they notified everybody they were going to do it and they exploded an aboveground test on
4:10 pm
the korean peninsula, it might cause some other type of reaction if they're doing it just within north korean territory, so again, i could think of 100 different options it would cause different re axes, but it's going to be increasingly provocative and cause us, the united states and the rest o the world community, to do different things. >> i mean, colonel, there are some who are saying that you got to go back to 1955 u and the missile crisis to get anywhere close to what we are getting close to now. do you agree? >> well, i think it's pretty close to the cuban missile crisis indeed with that whole atmosphere we had back in that time. we are definitely not there yet. but one miscalculation and any of the scenarios that general herdling pointed out, we could find ourselves in a situation that's very close to what happened with john f. kennedy and the cuban missile crisis in '62. >> and gordon, michelle mentioned this, personal attacks. and on some level, you can dismiss them when they're from
4:11 pm
kim. they're often absurd and ry dic rouse and one from president trump, sometimes, they can verge on that as well and people can dismiss them, but they seem to be b a big part of this. you got a nasty thing said, then a real threat of action. kim has called trump a parking dog, mentally deranged and a senile old person. president trump has kim sort of a whacko, a maniac, a bad dude, rocket man and today, a man. as i said, you kind of chuckle when you hear this, but words seem to matter now! they matter in a way we don't think. yesterday, president trump had a great day with the announcement of the sanctions. what we should be talking about now is how to cut off money to north korea. and this should be a conversation the united states, not just in china, but around the world, but we're not, we're talking about this escalation of these tweets and of course all these derogatory comments on
4:12 pm
mental health, so no, it's not a good thing for trump. >> and general, you've got north korea going to speak in front of the u.n. tomorrow. president trump tonight. these are two crucial opportunities where the calculus can change again. >> yeah and we've said many times that we can, we should be controlling the tempo on this. and going to your comment, we know north korea has used these terms before. they called the first female of south korea a prostitute. they call eed obama a monkey. so, we're used to this kind of stuff u from north korea and the problem is we've got the immaturity on our side that's not helpful. >> that's what's new. what will change all of this. thank you very much, all of you. and next, breaking news. john mccain says no to the republican health care bill. is the last ditch effort to killough bam care now dead? plus, president trump peddlinging russia links
4:13 pm
facebook b ads as a hoax, but are the ads, which could have influenced the election, just the tip of the iceberg. and from puerto rico, an urgent warning to residents still there an unable to move anywhere. no power. they are told to get out. a dam in imminent risk of break. we're live in san juan. wemost familiar companies,'s but we make more than our name suggests. we're an organic tea company. a premium juice company. a coconut water company. we've got drinks for long days. for birthdays. for turning over new leaves. and we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. we are the coca-cola company, and we're proud to offer so much more.
4:14 pm
3 toddlers won't stop him.. and neither will lower back pain. because at a dr. scholl's kiosk he got a recommendation for our custom fit orthotic to relieve his foot, knee, or lower back pain, from being on his feet. dr. scholl's. born to move.
4:15 pm
i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.
4:16 pm
peobut they're different.ind it's nice to remove artificial ingredients. kind never had to. we choose real ingredients like almonds, peanuts and a drizzle of dark chocolate. give kind a try. ♪ can we at least analyze can we push the offer online? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. the new app will go live monday? yeah. with hewlett-packard enterprise, we're transforming the way we work. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.
4:17 pm
tonight, republicans last ditch attempt to repeal obamacare on the verge of collapse thanks to senator john mccain. the bill one vote away from failing. after mccain announce d his opposition sigs saying in part, quote, a bill of this impact requires a bipartisan approach. i cannot vote for the graham-cassidy proposal. ryan, one vote. one vote away from success or failure. >> that's right, there's little room for senate republicans right now and this bill is on a path that is filled with potential roadblocks, we know for sure that rand paul of kentucky and now john mccain or arizona are no votes on the graham-cassidy bill, through there's still more than a dozen senate republicans who have said they're undecided and there are two in particular, susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska, who's public indications about this bill seem to point to the fact they are going to lean
4:18 pm
no when it comes to their final verdict on this particular piece of legislation. it seems unlike ly this bill ha any shot of passing the is that the, so we're wondering if mitch mcconnell will even bring the bill to a vote on monday or sometime this week. there's a good chance that perhaps susan collins announces her support or her opposition to this bill when she does a round on sunday talk show interviews including state of the union on sunday. as for lisa murkowski, she's continuing to review the prosoez sal and see the specific impact on alaska, but the short answer here is that this bill has a very unlikely chance of ever passing here in the u.s. congress. >> thank you very much and now, our senior political analyst, mark preston, april ryan, also here, mark, it's pretty stunning right, this came up stealthily, they have take some such a reputational hit by the failure of effort after effort to do this, so they try again and john mccain could be the guy who just
4:19 pm
kills the gop effort to repeal obamacare again. >> yeah, and you know what, he feels pretty good about anytime the sense that he owes nobody nothing. this is the john mccain in april and i'm sure you remember, if you go back years, he was the maverick, the one who bucks leadership when he felt they weren't going in the right direction. in this case, he's also bucking his best friend, lindsey graham, they're not in a good position right now. going into the weekend. with momentum coming out a little bit as opposed to gaining as they head into next week. >> and april, a senior official told cnn today that white house aides know that trump's sway with a lot of republicans is weak, right? so the white house was hoping, lindsey graham's friendship with john mccain would win him over and clearly, that was a complete miscalculation. >> well, when it comes to john mccain, he is going to do what he's going to do. and he's shown that he is not in
4:20 pm
the brute thing necessarily, just like mark said, but at the same time, you have to really look at just the reality of this. this is a man who is battling for his life. and he is a man who is, who has an illness that really could ultimately, he could suck come to and he can pay for his treatment, but there are others who can't. at issue, he does not teal confident to vote on something he does not know the positives or negatives of. he doesn't know the cbo score. they talk about how they hate the obama administration's effort, but one thing obamacare did have when it was in the process it had a cbo score. >> that's a crucial thing and clearly, that takes weeks, right? they only have really until the end of next week before this comes from a voting perspective, impossible for them to do. the vice president though is still trying here, mark, tonight. he is trying that you know, the basically, the you if yu aren't
4:21 pm
voting to repeal obamacare, you're voting to save it. you're going to be on record as an obamacare person. here's how the vice president put it. >> we cannot in good conscious a abandon this cause. the american people are hurting. as president trump has made clear, inaction is not enough. let me be clear. a vote against graham-cassidy is a vote to save obamacare. >> will this work on anyone? they tried this every time and by the way, it hasn't worked yet. >> i don't think so. but mike pence is in the position of still trying to sell this as its losing support. at this point. that comment in many ways was directed at john mccain. we already know they when it comes to the specific bill, but to really try to paint it in very stark terms, if you do not
4:22 pm
support this specific bill, that means you support obamacare. that's not necessarily true. but that is what the white house thinks they need to do at this point to try to get something done. but eastern, you're rigyou're r. >> and april, we can talk about we want about republicans in congress, but the buck stops with the president. he doesn't want this. slamming his own party. went on twitter, rand paul, he writes, whoever votes against health care bill will forever future political campaign, be known as the republican who saved obamacare. so he's trying to blame them in congress. trying to threaten them of losing their seats, but let's be clear, april. he put his own legacy, his own reputation on the line on this. here he is, one of the many times he promised the republican base he was going to end obamacare on day one u. >> we will also repeal and replace the total disaster known as obamacare. we're going to stop it. day one.
4:23 pm
>> all right. so, april, who's going to take the blame for this? the president or is is he going to pin it on john mccain, rand paul and other republicans? >> well, if what we've seen in the past few months is indicative, there's a blame game. he'll blame others, but i think of a rapper right now, sean diddy combs when he says can't stop won't stop. this president is not going to stop with with this. he's going to continue. it's about his base, but also about the fact he does not want to fail. he does not look like he's failed, be but you have to remember this, every on all sides are saying there needs to be tweaks, some kind of change, but to totally abolish it and to come up with something that hurts people, today, at the congressional black caucus and the black woman's agenda luncheon, 1500 women were in that room, african-american mostly, and when congresswoman
4:24 pm
joyce beatty and others got up and started talking about what john mccain had done, there was a standing ovation. people are hurting and they want to make sure they have health care and they want to make sure it's reliable and this president seems to be not listening to the least of these who need the help. >> preexisting conditions in caps may be the things that cost the most, make the most financial sense, but they're there and people want them. and clearly, becoming to many. seemingly inhumane to remove them. thank you both so much. on monday night, a spesh event here. bernie sanders and amy bloesh char debating lindsey graham and bill cassidy. next, the russian billionaire close to putin responded to the report he was offered private briefings by the former chairman, paul manafort. and americans reeling from
4:25 pm
maria, confronting dire danger. a warning tonight of a massive dam fail. ♪ "zorba the greek" by mikis theodorakis ♪ ♪ the all-new volkswagen tiguan with available pedestrian monitoring. the new king of the concrete jungle.
4:26 pm
4:27 pm
throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family.
4:28 pm
[ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh? hey? i paused it. bam, family time. so how is everyone? find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. russian oligarch oleg deripaska says he is not spoken to paul manafort in years. responding to the "washington post" report that manafort offered to give deripaska private briefings. deripaska's spokeswoman tells "outfront" quote, mr. deripaska never received any communication about it. mr. deripaska has not spoken to mr. manafort since at least 2012. that denial that oleg deripaska even knew manafort was offering
4:29 pm
these special briefings comes as we are learning more about how russia used social media like facebook and twitter to interfere in the election. dylan buyers is "outfront" and twitter is going to be meeting with the senate intelligence committee next week and what are they going to say? >> that's right. they'll be meeting with the senate intelligence committee on thursday. that originally scheduled for wednesday. what they'll be telling senate intel is what facebook told them. which is the full extent of what they know when it comes to how ruggen actors may have been using their platform to meddle in american politics, probably around the same time span between 2015 through november 2016 an even into this year. i think what's happening now is twitter is looking at what facebook did, which is sort of a limited scope of the full picture in terms of its meeting with the senate intelligence
4:30 pm
committee. twitter is probably going to be more forthcoming. it doesn't want to face the sort of public blowback that facebook faced after not being forthcoming with congress. >> drew griffin talked about what 50 account or more on twitter, sort of russian brk o the ts that had up to 600,000 followers. when you look at this, this is all very significant for facebook. for twitter. are there more shoes to drop? >> yeah. you have to assume there are and the reason, every con ver sag that i've had with my sources at facebook, at twitter, what they all acknowledge is that no one knows the full scope of this issue. it's really the tip of the iceberg as senator mark warner said. you know, i spoke to one person on facebook, they say we don't know what we don't know. and the issue here is that so much of what's traceable in terms of how these actors influence the ad flat platform, it has to do with low hanging flute. it's what you can easily identify. things that were obvious russly
4:31 pm
russian. keyboards, ip addresses, it's going to be a lot harder to find stuff that may have been more sophisticated. >> dylan, thank you very much and "outfront" now, the form director of intelligence, james clapper, who knows more about all this than anyone oult there. thanks for your time. senator mark warner told me facebook's russian ads are just the tip of the iceberg in his view. do you agree? >> i do. in fact, i use that same characterization couple of days ago when i first heard about this. because we did address this in our intelligence community assessment that we published on the 6th of january. and then briefed to then president-elect trump and trump tower about this. the use of social media troll, which will be masked or were, that's why it's going to be difficult for the companies to know the full extent of how much this technique was used, but this was part of the
4:32 pm
multifaceted campaign that the russians used, so i think mark warner's characterization is exactly right. >> and director, when you briefed the president, just to give you chance to talk about that moment, what was his full attitude? when you said this? did he have disdain and blow it off or was he more resceptive ad concerned and private he is in public? >> when we briefed him, if you're speak of the briefing on the 6th of january, he was very curious, complimentary and he did listen and frankly, the evidence that we provided in detail which of course we couldn't expose publicly, was pretty overwhelming. it's why we had such a high confidence level in what we said in that assessment. and so i thought it was a good discussion. he had some doubts about some things, but that's fine to be skeptical about some things. but on balance, i thought we
4:33 pm
successfully conveyed the message because the evidence was quite compelling and we didn't hear anything about the 400 pound guy in his bed in new jersey. >> which is and i think very important as you said, because i think obviously when he says publicly is different than what you're describing, which is sort of the way you want an incoming president to respond, courteous and receptive and li listen. >> i think what this was maybe the first or early harbinger of what i think really motivated him is our intelligence community assessment did i think serve to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his victory in the election and i think that above all else is what concerned him. i think that transcends unfortunately the real concern here was which is russian interference in our political process, which is going to continue. >> so there are many big
4:34 pm
questions here. one is this. was there any coordination between the trump campaign and russians on this voter targeting, right? we know russians were doing it on facebook, on twitter. drew griffin reported 600,000 followers for just 50 twitter accounts. there was a great report, i don't know if you saw it, but jared kushner gave an interview and described in detail how he was trained how to use micro targeting on facebook. specifically for voter targeting. he was proud of this. he told forbes just weeks after trump had the nomination, that he built a 100 person day a the hub. with the express dwoel of targeting supporters. they got a warehouse in austin, texas and this is what they did. do you from what you know or what you believe, think at this point that there was any sharing of information between the trump campaign, anybody who would have known b about that targeting, and russian trolls or bots or russians who did targeting also on social media? >> well, as i've said before, we
4:35 pm
had nothing in the intelligence community assessment that spoke to collusion, political collusion between the trump campaign, the trump camp and the russians. we didn't have any evidence of that at the time. we also didn't have the a lot of the detail that's emerges since we did our assessment. i do wonder, i don't have any basis for this, but i do wonder about you know, a tech that was used successfully in the o bama campaigns, this details analysis on a presinlgt basis. that kind of insight would be difficult for the russians to come by on their own. >> and so, what you're saying is somebody, somebody, helped them or they could have hacked or are you not saying which? >> i don't want to say that. because i don't have any evidence that as i said before, when i left office on january
4:36 pm
20th, there was not any evidence available to me. as dni. of collusion between the trump camp, trump campaign and the russians. i mean, there were things that bothered us. the frequency of the meetings that representatives of the president-elect and before him candidate trump were having with the russians for example and other foreign emissaries. but in terms of specific substance of what was going on, we didn't have much insight into that. at the time i left office. >> and now, director, i want to ask you about oleg deripaska, the oligarch who of course is close enough with the kremlin that he is able to come to the united states when he does on a diplomatic passport because he's not able to get any other kind of visa. you just heard our reporting. he tells our show he did not
4:37 pm
receive any communication from paul manaoffer offering to brief him. says he hasn't spoken to him since 2012. that "washington post" report was frankly stunning. that manafort was offering to brief a russian oligarch, who's close enough to the kremlin that he can get a diplomatic waiver. do you believe oleg deripaska, that he never even knew that n manafort was offering to brief him? >> well, i don't have any insight here. no inside baseball mag into this at all. i have to say that i when i heard this the initial reporting, i could not conceive of why paul manafort would offer insight into the trump campaign to the russians. particularly to an oligarch. that who uneddoubtedly connecte with putin. the russians, it's almost in their genes. they're all inherently
4:38 pm
intelligent people and they look for opportunities, certainly with the united states, to create and exert leverage. now, you know, i don't, i can't resolve this issue of you know, who shot john here, whether it actually happened k, but if it did, it's pretty deserving. >> thanks so much. and next, breaking news from puerto rico. a dam failing. threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people who are already undersiege without power, without communication from hurricane maria and president trump moments away from taking the stage for a rally in alabama. you just saw him getting off air force one as i was talking to director clapper. why are trump's former aides fighting for the challenger in the crucial race? ind my debit card. [woman 2] oh no... [woman 1] oh, it's fine. [woman 2] yeah, totally. it's fine. but like...is it fine though? because, i would
4:39 pm
maybe be worried...really, really, really worried. uh...do you want me to go back and look for it? i will. i mean a lot of bad things could happen. you need to call the bank. i don't know how else to tell you, you need to shut that card off-- [woman 1] it's off. [woman 2] what? [woman 1] i can turn it on and off in my wells fargo app. [woman 2] huh! i feel better already. [woman 1] good.
4:40 pm
4:41 pm
4:42 pm
a new and life threatening crisis emerging tonight. nearly 100,000 americans in danger at this hour. there's a dam west of san juan which is now failing. torrents of water are rushing towards several towns nearby. this threat coming as thr3 mill people are without power in puerto rico. it is now getting to the point of a health crisis. there's a limited supply of food, fuel and water and no
4:43 pm
communication still for so much of that island. nick is "outfront" in san juan. this is a crisis here by any amount here, a humanitarian crisis. what are you learning about the dam now? >> erin, this is an extremely dangerous situation as if this island territory has not already been through enough this last week, now, 70,000 residents in two townships are at risk of this dam failing. the dam in northwest part of the islands, we understand local engineers reportedly found a crack in this dam causing them so much concern that they brought in buses to try to ev evacuate those that cannot e wait themselves. we understand those ongoing evacuations are continuing at this hour. and as if this wasn't bad enough, it was earlier today between about 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. that this community was just pounded with heavy rain, lightning and thunder. it was three days ago that hurricane maria made landfall here and this storm system was
4:44 pm
so big that here we are nearly three days later and we're still dealing with severe weather conditions. it was day ago that our team was able to get out into the xunt and what wu saw was catastrophic damage. cell phone towers down. the mayor told me she's trying to settle a tone for her. >> ken: dents to deal are the lack of modern life, expegting them to be without power for up to six months. >> thank you very much, nick and joining me now on the phone is the puerto rican secretary of state. secretary, thank you so very much. it is hard to comprehend what we're hearing here. six months without power. living without modern life. and outside of modern life. i know the governor is heading to the dam. you have been talking to everyone on the ground. how bad is that situation at this moment, secretary? >> very delicate situation where by experts have issued an imminent danger advisory. in terms of all communities
4:45 pm
leaving one of our largest dams in the island. it is, we were by -- and just recovering from irma when we were struck a direct hit of maria and then we were struck by ferocious winds and there after, monumental rain and -- really it was the rain, the greatest danger. we rescue yesterday and the day before, close to 2,000 families from flooded areas and now, because of the heavy dam, there's structural damage in the communities right now making sure that it is all antiquated, all the communities downstream of the dam. and it is in the blackness of the night because we have a lack of energy, especially in the
4:46 pm
mountain side, we're higher speed and most structures where wooden houses with tin roofs that were just destroyed. when you talk about this, you are u talking about people going back to a prehistoric time. six months with no power. lack of communication for pretty much everybody. it's rare we can get through to people. we're lucky to get through to you. shortages of food and water. is this a hiumanitarian -- is i is really difficult to put words around that. six months with no power. this is the united states of america. >> certainly. we are facing -- we were just getting our energy back and many of our supplies in terms of powerlines and switches and all the materials we needed to get our power back were used
4:47 pm
recovering. receiving right now, the largest fee with supplies and president trump has signed a -- for the island. surgeonly certainty, it's going the take a lot of effort, but puerto rico is a resilient committee and we've never seen this before. this is not a century, but an historic event and communications slicommunication communications certainly are a challenge because first responders, we're going back to the basics, relying on the cars we lay in formation to the country side, which is the only communication channel that we have opened. or the wireless is down. internet is is down. and certainly it's been a challenge and it will be a challenge for the coming months, but we're ready to stand up and be receiving any help you can log in to united for puerto rico.com. give us a hand in recovery. >> all right, well i hope
4:48 pm
everyone heard that. unit united. moments away, president trump going to address a crucial rally in alabama's hotly contested senate race and we expect will talk about north korea and trump's twitter addiction. is it helping him? we're an organic tea company. a premium juice company. a coconut water company. we've got drinks for long days. for birthdays. for turning over new leaves. and we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. we are the coca-cola company, and we're proud to offer so much more.
4:49 pm
if yand constipation,ling and you're overwhelmed by everything you've tried-- all those laxatives, daily probiotics, endless fiber-- it could be wearing on you. tell your doctor what you've tried, and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than eighteen. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain,
4:50 pm
especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain and swelling. talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess.
4:51 pm
their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. whentrust the brand doctors trust for themselves. nexium 24hr is the number one choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. and all day all night protection.
4:52 pm
when it comes to frequent heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. breaking news, and these are live pictures and you are looking at huntsville, alabama, and president p trum is there, and in a couple of moments he is going to be there to speak on behalf of luther strange, and also to comment on korea, and what is important about this is is that trump is now on the opposing side of the former top aides like steve bannon. we go out front. >> reporter: with the race in the final stretch, the candidates are bringing out the big guns. judge roy moore appealing with sarah palin and former white house terror adviser gorka. >> this is enough. the status quo has to go. >> reporter: and so central to
4:53 pm
trump's campaign, but now he is ap peering with former washington lobbyist and interim senator luther strange who has been backed with millions of dollars along with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> the irony is that most of the voters who are supporting moore are trump supporters, and i don't think that they are going to be coming off of moore because trump says to. >> and the race pits trump against senior adviser steve bannon whose firm breitbart has launched a campaign against him before thursday's vote. and strange is advising voters time and time again that he is the president's man. >> we have a close personal relationship and i have supported him 100% of the time and this is why the president endorsed me. >> >> reporter: and moore blast ed the president on core issues like the wall, and kicking the
4:54 pm
transgendered people out of of the military. >> and the problem is that president trump is being cut off in his office, and redirected by people like mcconnell who do not support his agenda. >> reporter: in the white house and the republican leadership know that he could be a major headache and many believe he is going to paint them with the far right brush, and as former chief justice of the alabama supreme court, he was twice taken off of the bench for first refusing to remove the ten commandments on a wall and refusing to recognize gay marriage. this week, he was accused of racially incentive remarks saying now that we have whites and blacks fighting and reds and yellows and then he defenned the line friday. >> i was talk and the division in our society, and black and white and red and yellow, and they are so politically correct,
4:55 pm
they have become politically stupid stupid. >> reporter: judge moore there railing gaiagainst the politica correctness and another thing that he and president trump and the supporters have in common, but here we are waiting for the president to throw his weight behind luther strange. i spoke with senator strange earlier to today and he said that he is excited for the rally, but planning for this to come down to the turnout, and right now, the turnout is expected to favor moore, and senator strange clearly hoping that the president can change that in his favor, hand is likely his last best hope, erin. >> thank you, alex. obviously, a crucial race there and as i said, we will also be watching what the president says about north korea at any moment. >> up next, the book of trump, the twitter. and wait until you see it.
4:56 pm
it's time for some straight talk. the big wireless companies lure you in with great coverage. but then charge you a really high price to use their cell towers. not cool. straight talk wireless uses the same towers, and you get the same 4g lte network for less. so why pay more? get an unlimited plan that works in more places for as low as $35 a month. why haven't i switched? get a samsung galaxy s8. unlimited plans start as low as $35 a month, no contract. straight talk wireless. only at walmart.
4:57 pm
moms know their kids need love, encouragement and milk. with 8 grams of natural protein, and 8 other nutrients to provide balanced nutrition. moms know kids grow strong when they milk life. president trump, wakes up
4:58 pm
and hits the twitter on a new cnn special report tonight reveal ing th revealing that his twitter habit actually provides a treasure trove of information to enemies. >> when it comes to the american adversaries to pyongyang or moscow, following donald trump on twitter, and what worries you the most? >> if i'm the head of a hostile or even friendly intelligence service, i have a new office over here, and follow that account. tell me what this mab n is sayi, and we know his vulnerabilities, and what he demands from the subordinates, and we even know his sleep patterns based upon his twitter usage. >> bill weir is with me, and bill, look, we all know that trump loves twitter and he uses to reach out to supporters and also as a weapon, right? >> absolutely.
4:59 pm
many fact, and it is interesting how that happened. these, we had printed for you, erin as a souvenir for the show, and these are the collective tweets of donald trump, and not all of them, but a they only go up half a month ago because we have been bumped a few time, and we have had a physical reminder that they will be studied for generatio generations, and when he started way back in the early days over here in genesis, it is very light, and motivation sayings, and nobody paid attentions. the first tweet got four reaction, ap the most important social media account of our time, and four people cared and it is not until he started to use it as weapon to attack celebrities and going after kristen stewart cheating on robert pattinson, and then the pavlovian retweets that he use, and also the shield, and 9% of the words since the inauguration
5:00 pm
contain the word "fake" as in fake news which he used today talking tab facebook and russia story, and he said crooked hillary again, and he uses it as a weapon and shield to diminish those coming after him. >> you pointed it out that it is safe to say that book is one of the important ones of our time. thank you so much. >> you are welcome. >> and don't miss twitter and trump tonight at 9:00. a anderson is next. the latest republican attempt to replace obamacare develops a pre-existing condition, and serious case of john mccain. john berman here in for anderson cooper. and lindsey graham and trump's best friend in washington had come after an attack by jimmy kimmel, and he has been at it all week, and also, the american medical association, and the