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tv   Cuomo Prime Time  CNN  June 29, 2021 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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some left but experts came through after this collapse and gave it a really high bill of health. that caused the return of the residents there. >> to your eye, they look even better than those other buildings. brian todd, thank you for that report. the news continues, so let's head over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> thanks, john. we learned tonight another body was found in the rubble. that means 12 have been confirmed dead. i suggest to you that that is the only number that we can be sure of in terms of how many might be lost. tonight we're dgoing to test th idea of how many are missing. is it 150? who decided that and how? here's what we do know. first responders have now moved approximately 3 million pounds of concrete.
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210 rescue workers are on that mound at one time. the fires have been put out. they're still struggling with stability, but they are doing the job. today we also learned a little bit more about the moment of tragedy. >> i see no people on their balconies. the building is gone. there are no elevators. there is nothing. i mean, it almost resembles the world trade center. >> each day the desire for understanding inevitably grows. state authorities should be carrying the responsibility. the governor said rightly, governor desantis, we need answers. yes, and it is his job to start the process to getting them. we're waiting on the formation of some group to discover what can be discovered here, to give families closure and to make sure other buildings are maintained the right way. the mayor of miami-dade said today she's very supportive of
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the support of the state attorney to probe this collapse. is that the best way to do this? and when will that happen? we have to keep pressing on this issue in the weeks to come. also, there is now a letter that has surfaced from the board president of champlain towers south to residents from less than three months ago. she warned then about the pressing need for millions of dollars' worth of repairs. we quote, the observable damage, such as in the garage, has gotten significantly worse since the original inspection. concrete deterioration is accelerating. the roof got much worse so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated. what she was referring to was that 2018 report we told you about that found major structural damage below the pool deck, cracking and expanding in the parking garage. what happened in the parking garage and what's going on at the pool, they showed them this
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two days before the collapse. they found extensive cracking beneath the pool deck. was this a piece of a puzzle? was there something they should have foreseen or known? the board president said, no, that was never there, and if they were, why did residents stay in the building? fair enough, but did they miss big clues? let me ask you something. you hear me at the top, this 150 number that we have. i heard another local official talking about it and now they say it's 149, but how do they know? how do we know that number is accurate, because we all keep saying it.
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>> that's exactly right. we don't really know exactly who was in the building. there are airbnb apartments, friends have friends over, neighbors have friends over. not everyone may be accounted for unless family comes forward and says, i haven't heard from so-and-so and they may be in miami. there may be people who don't come forward and we may not know. >> that would be unusual, wouldn't it? how long would that take? this should be something you know, or no, you don't know. and who is doing the counting? >> there are so many organizations involved in this. this is not surfside scene. that scene is being hanld he would -- handled by miami-dade county and fire and rescue. i wouldn't be surprised if the feds showed up at some point. we're a small town. we're a small town. we're not prepared for a tragedy of this magnitude.
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i don't know that any town is, but we certainly aren't. so we are really trying to use our resources as best as possible and defer to the experts. that's what we've done a good job of, bringing in some real heavy hitters to help solve this mystery. the mystery of who was in that building, hey, if someone got lucky that night, we're not going to know. we're not going to know if someone had family over, if someone had a girlfriend over, if relatives flew in. there was family staying there that wasn't supposed to arrive until the next day. as luck would have it, they decided to go a day early and this is their fate. but we don't know. it's been less than a week. in time we'll have a full accounting of everyone. in time we want families to have closure. in time we want answers. more importantly, we want to make sure this never happens again and how this happened. >> we'll keep an eye on that. if for no other reason it nets at zero at some point. who is found alive, god willing,
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if a miracle can still happen. who was found or never found, not only for faecmilies waiting but it has to be at net zero sometime. what we're learning, commissioner. this extensive reporting, it's scattershot, it's piecemeal. the guy doesn't like all the standing water. the board sends a letter saying we need $15 million in repairs but it wasn't scary enough to leave because all the board members stayed in the building. what do you make of the significance of the reporting that's come out about concerns, about sprawling and cracking, et cetera, in this building? >> i think in hindsight obviously these problems were catastrophic that they were missed. going forward, i think that anyone who sees this in their garage is going to be pretty panicked, and for good reason because we don't know what caused this, what set of circumstances led to this building collapsing. it's going to turn out to be not just one thing, maybe a perfect
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storm of different contributing factors. but obviously, in hindsight, they should have made more noise. they had this report, they had a report, it said very clearly your building is in bad shape. it said very clearly you have significant deterioration of the concrete, of the structure, of the slap. it didn't say run for your lives, and maybe it should have said run for your lives. but it didn't, and the residents, maybe they didn't want to spend the money, maybe it took a while to get their act together. there wasn't a sense of urgency, and we need to find out why that sense of seiurgency wasn't communicated. >> so you're trying to get a meeting with the condo department during the time they were getting assessments. what are you looking for? >> i spent some time watching the survivors come to our community center and seeing the looks on their faces. the first thing they said to me was, i knew it, i knew it. the building was shaking like crazy when they were building that building next door. i knew the water damage was
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there. i told them, nobody listened to me. they all had something along those lines to say. for me, that's my wake-up call to say i need to do something about this. i'm an outsider. i got elected to clean up this town hall, to bring this mickey mouse paper-based system into the 21st century. we have a new assistant town manager. we have a new building official. the guy who was at the helm during this period is not there anymore working for our town. we were doing what we needed to do to clean things up and straighten things out and then this happened. the good news is the people involved in this, who had their fingers in this, are no longer with the town, so i'm not concerned that people will be shredding documents in the middle of the night or trying to cover their tracks. everything is public record, it's in there, it's just a matter of how fast we can get to it. we're a small town. >> i hear you.
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at this point this is not about blame. i'm coming to you for perspective, not for accountability. not yet, anyway. the idea of the people who had their finger in this, you got to help us understand what that means as i appoint of clarification. as a man who knows the area and suggested, without proof of this particular building, and that matter, that sometimes boards in this area would pick people because of their rates and not their expertise, and that that's something that has to be looked at with who does the inspections and who oversees that. does that resonate with you? >> you know, it does, but not in this case, because this guy's report was bad. they didn't hire someone to just tell them what they wanted to hear. they didn't hire someone who whitewashes things. if you read the report by the engineer who did that report, mr. morabito, it's very strong. he's telling them, your building
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is in bad shape. you have to fix these things. in this case i don't think they hired someone just to -- >> so the guy comes, he or she, he in this case, they come and do an inspection. okay? the belieuilding is in bad shap. does the accountability end with telling the board, or should there be some public accounting. >> if you go to the doctor and the guy said you need quit smoking, you leave and you go to the parking lot and you light up. >> but it's just you, it's not 110 units of you. see what i'm saying? >> yes, absolutely. >> should there be a different rule? >> we do need to take a look at the whole process. the condo board gets the report. the condo board then needs to communicate that to the condo residents and need to make it clear enough that they are concerned. my concern was it was diluted. the board got the report, it was
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scary to them and they asked for a second opinion. they called in our building official to come over and talk to them about it, and from the reading of the minutes, our building official said to them, you're okay, it's okay. i wasn't at the meeting and i don't know someone who was at the meeting. all i know is what the minutes reflect. they may have heard what they wanted to hear. he may have been trying to cause them not to panic, but i certainly think there needed to be more urgency. we can see from the follow-up e-mails that he communicated to our town manager that he talked to the board and they're working on starting their stuff for 2021 to do their 40-year certification, but there was no sense of urgency kmcommunicated. where did that message get lost? >> it sounds like from him. to be hoenest, i haven't really heard this before. the lawyer for the condo board said, we got the report. her argument from her
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perspective, is, chris, are you saying the building was falling apart and they needed to tell their loved ones? i don't think people who thought their building was in danger of collapse would stay. i give you that. but now you say that somebody who worked for the municipality, doesn't work there anymore, didn't work there on your watch, said i looked at it. you're okay. >> he looked at the report. he didn't look at the building. it's not his role to look at the building. >> but you said the report is bad. why didn't he think it was bad? >> you can ask him. i would love to ask him that. i want the e-mails, the minutes. >> have you asked him to come in and speak to the commissioner?
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>> there will be state subpoenas, we will hear the issues, and we'll get to the bottom of this. i'm not interested in politics, i'm interested in getting answers for our residents so this never happens again and so they know what happened. i do want to point out another item. when this was done, the building is certainly in bad shape. but tlhere were other factors that also impacted this building. there was a huge construction of a large tower right next door called 87 park which was in the city of miami beach. when it was being built, the residents of this building, of champlain south, complained. our building is shaking, i'm seeing cracks in the construction. can you do anything about it? unfortunately it wasn't our territory. so we had people saying to them, what do you want us to do about it? it's not our town. that's not a satisfactory answer to me. the answer is you call the city of miami beach and say, what's going on over there? and the city of miami beach should be held accountable for what went on over there, because each one of these things will have an impact.
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there was another factor. the army corps of engineer did a beach reconstruction on our plan and they hauled in thousands of pounds of sand. hundreds of trucks. usually this is done by barge because of the weight of the sand. they did it by truck. did the weight of all the trucks coming in day after day after day, did that contribute? i'm saying there is not going to be one person to say, oh, gosh. >> understood. but, look, you've put a lot of stuff together. and as you said, you're new to town. >> i'm not new to town. >> two years. >> i'm new to the role of commissioner. >> i get it. let's say you're new to the game but you picked up a lot of thread pretty fast. that should give us hope that we can get answers so that not only do the families who are waiting with whatever the real number is we're waiting to find out about,
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that the system can work to make sure this is one story and one story only that is ever told about this kind of disaster. i appreciate you, ms. salzhauer, commissioner, for being on and giving us insight i hadn't heard yet. i appreciate the pieces to the puzzle. >> i want the residents to know that there are people on the inside working to get to the bottom of this. not just the people on the outside who have questions, but even on the inside. i'm nagging them multiple times a day, where are those documents, when can we post them, i want answers. nobody is as eager to get to the bottom of this than me. i will continue to do that. >> we're happy to assist in the effort of accountability and getting the information out. may you use this platform to shed insight as you receive it. >> thank you. >> that was interesting, right? i didn't hear that this guy from the municipality talked to them
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about the report, about whether it was bad or wasn't bad. who knew this building? a structural engineer who worked on the building is going to join us. we first brought him in on night one. now we know more. there are more documents out. there are more different pieces of context. a bit of a paper trail. things for him to build off of. what does he think it's starting to shape up as? what does he need to know? next. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ♪ now is the time to ask your dermatologist about skyrizi.
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listen, here's a little window into reality here, okay? it's going to take time. it's going to be confusing. it's going to be complicated finding out what happened with this building in south florida. i can't even get it straight with my own team. i got information they had heard before. this is one team. think of all the different layers that will be part of this investigation. you'll have the state attorney, you'll have the feds involved,
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the municipality, you got north miami beach here, you got surfside right next to it. you got the commissioner just on. she wants to see the minutes. we don't even know -- this is going to be complicated. that's why the state has to own it and put together a team that is the clearinghouse for everything. if you do it scattershot, if you do it piecemeal, it's going to get screwed up, people are going to get angry, there is going to be bad information and false suggestions. and we know it now. okay? and that's why i hope that the people who are in charge understand that there is one right way to do this. now, when we turn our attention back to the actual tower, there is a telling line in that april letter to residents of surfside's champlain towers south. quote, a lot of this work could have been planned or done for in years gone by, but this is where we are now.
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what does that mean? in the time between the 2018 report and that letter, the cost ballooned nearly 70%. why? well, the letter blames rising construction costs. the costs for all sectors of construction in the area only rose about 12.9%. that's a lot, to go to 12% or 13%, but why did the problems get that much more expensive in three years? let's try to get some perspective on that. and how do we understand the language in these reports? someone who writes them, someone who studies them, someone who does the investigating. a structural engineer familiar with the building that fell, greg batiste. thank you for coming back. >> good evening. >> help me with the money. this got much more expensive. the condo lawyer told us, hey, they could have had cash reserves. the board members kept voting it down so they needed to do a major assessment. it took them more time to raise the money. is that what they're talking about, or was there some fixed
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cost or some shortage of suppliers to do this kind of work that ballooned expenses? >> well, being a contractor and an engineer, i can speak to this. let's just assume for a second, and this is a big assumption, that it's exactly the same scope of work, because if you have a price on a set date and then three years later you have another price, maybe they added windows, maybe they added waterwa waterproofing -- >> maybe it got worse. >> yes, and that's what i'm getting at. let's make the assumption that both were equal but it's the same scope of work. it is the fact that the concrete repair and this sprawling and the fact that the reinforcing steel inside the concrete worsens over time and it's a g -- -- geometrical increase.
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year number 3, it's going to magnify. it's not a straight line, it goes up geometrically. i'm not at all surprised. even with inflation and the cost of construction going up, it's no surprise to me. >> two issues. one, knowing what you know about this building, what's your reckoning about why the repairs weren't done when they were supposed to be? what was your experience working with them? >> this building is sort of an anomaly. i'm used to doing 40-year recertifications when the building department asks for it, which in this case would have been the year 2021. these people had the foresight, for whatever reason, maybe they already saw the damages, that they chose to do it three years before ahead of time. so when they saw the damages, they should have, you know, immediately jumped on it and done something about it. but it's very complex, all the
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different pieces that go into play as far as banks and assessments and the people getting upset, not willing to pay and the financial status of those that are involved. it's a very complex situation. >> one other thing. how were we supposed to understand this language when we hear the language in these reports, significant structural deterioration, people saying things that sound scary to a layperson, but then we heard, i think one of the engineers from your own shop who had done some of this saying, yeah, this is what we're accustomed to seeing when we do these kind of reviews. i'm trying to figure out why this board wasn't scared out of their wits by this report. is that because the language doesn't mean in the vocabulary of this kind of work what it sounds like to the rest of us? >> when an engineer says something needs to be done and
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this is dangerous and he calls their attention to it, they don't need to get into alarmist language. at least, i don't do that. i've seen many concrete damages where i do use that same language. but if it comes to the point where it is life-threatening, that's up to the engineer's judgment to use that strong language. either way, if the engineer said that these -- this is a dangerous situation, they should have taken him at his word. to me that's it. i've been in many situations where i use that language and the boards for whatever reason, they want to kick the can down the road, we can't afford it, et cetera, et cetera. the engineer's hands are pretty much tied as far as being able to enforce any action on the part of the boards. >> just to be clear, that's not you i'm talking about. you just have familiarity with the building. this wasn't you who was dealing with this board. but i tell you one thing, greg, we know one thing now. it can't just be the engineer in this situation has the duty to tell the board. there has to be a rule that you
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have to tell the municipality. if you see something that is that much of a concern and the board doesn't seem to get it, it has to be reported and i can't believe that's not the requirement now. >> i've done it before, chris. i've been in situations where i deemed that the damage -- again, it goes back to what the florida rules say, that it's the engineer that is empowered by law to be able to say these things. but in certain cases, i've seen damages that are so extensive that i have had to call the building department and tell them, look, you guys need to do something about this in very strong language. and ultimately they are the ones that are empowered by law and the building official to come down on them and use whatever resources they have at hand to enforce it. >> i still think there has got to be a more direct chain of accountability that an engineer should have to do it every time. of course, it's on the building department. we're going to learn about that process, and i guarantee you things are going to change.
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greg batista, i appreciate you. i'll have you back on again. >> thank you. so the fate of this is uncertain. i know you guys have jumped on me about this and i kind of understand it. i'm not saying if biden doesn't pass this bill the building is falling down next time. nobody is saying anything that stupid. all i'm saying is infrastructure matters, that's all, okay? it matters, because a lot of things are in the state of disrepair that this building was. i've watched bridges fall in this country and dealt with the aftermath of it. i've been there. i was there for i-35 in minneapolis, in minnesota and watched that happen and saw the lives taken. it's real. it happens. infrastructure matters. and not just because of this building, but this building is an example of what can happen. biden is pushing his deal in wisconsin today. so does this add urgency, or is the really big problem not the reality of what we all know but the politics of getting it done?
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a bipartisan group of senators got together and they forge d an agreement to move
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guard on key priorities in the jobs infrastructure plan. this is creating millions of good-paying jobs. i'm going to be out there making the indication for the american people until this job is done, until we bring this bipartisan deal home. >> he's out there talking to people. good. but is his real problem his own people in congress? let's discuss. that's president biden, but capitol hill is where this is going to live or die. progressive democrats are not happy. they think the bill is too small that was celebrated as a function of a deal, and they want this second piece tranche, program, policy, any word you want, a chunk of money for different things that you won't hear as critical infrastructure. there are people on the other side who don't want that.
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d katie porter is here. >> thank you for having me. >> porter, are you the problem? >> absolutely not. wire so glad that republicans are stepping up and recognizing that this kind of investment in infrastructure is what we need to have a strong and stable globally competitive economy. but to say we're going to support infrastructure is also to say that we're going to support the workers who are going to be building those bridges, working on those transit jobs. that means we need to also be investing in child care, processing family leave. these are all parts of the build back better plan and democrats are saying, we're with you, president biden. we're going to do both these things absolutely with you and we hope republicans will join in the second part of the plan,
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that both of these can be bipartisan. >> what if you can't get the number of democrats in the senate with the reconciliation part -- i agree with your analysis about the need to help workers. let's just call it nontraditional infrastructure. i know that's a little ob objectionable to infrastructure, but let's say they don't want to do it in the senate. then it comes back to you guys, and it is will you pass the part that they agree on that biden is celebrating and leave the other part alone? >> there is absolutely a necessity that we don't leave any americans behind in this economic recovery. so that means we have to be thinking not just about jobs' climate resilience but also about caregiving jobs. we we have to not just be investing in airports, but we have to be investing in child care. >> will you kill the first bill if you can't get the second one?
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>> this is a false choice. we, the democrats, have control of the house. we have 50 votes in the senate, and this is ultimately, chris accident up to the american people. the american people want us to create good high-paying jobs. they also want us to support them in being able to train and travel to and take care of their family and put away enough money to take care of themselves -- >> but you have sticker shock with some of your democrats in the senate, as you know. >> it's really important to talk through what we're going to be investing in and what the cost is of doing nothing. it's also important to understand, president biden has put very real proposals on the table to help fund his build back better agenda, including irs tax enforcement, making sure that corporations of the ultra wealthy are paying their fair share. i see this in my own district talking to republicans, independents and democrats, that
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they understand these cost money but they ultimately will pay andland they will pay for the president's proposal to do these things. katie po-- >> katie porter, i appreciate your insight. are shootings going up? yes. we have to keep looking at the system, how it works and how it doesn't. this is how it doesn't. a 78-year-old grandmother serving time for drug crimes. nobody ever said she didn't do anything wrong in her life. she comes out of jail. she doesn't answer the phone because she's in the program and she gets ordered back to prison after she was granted home confinement? why? for missing one damn phone call. you'll hear from her son and the attorney to make the case for her release, next.
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a grandmother, literally older than 75, she's 76 years old, is behind bars tonight because she didn't answer the phone. look, that is the bottom line, all right? gwen levi is 76.
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levi served 16 years for dealing heroin. i'm not saying she's mother teresa, okay? you can do things in life, pay your debt and there should still be fairness in the law. last june as covid flared, she and other prisoners were released to home confinement. there were conditions. one of the conditions was you do something productive. she attended a computer class in baltimore. when she went to the class, it triggered her ankle monitor. it happens. she didn't answer calls to her phone for a few hours. a federal report listed the 76-year-old as having attempted an escape. gwen, 76-year-old levi, is now back behind bars. her son craig and attorney sapna merchanandi, join me now. tell me, i want to get the name
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right. >> merchanandi. craig, i know this is killing you, and it should be. this is embarrassing to us. monitoring matters, and let's be very clear. craig, why didn't your grandmother answer the phone? >> she was in a computer class. >> why didn't your grandmother answer the phone, craig? >> she was in class and she didn't want to disturb the class. >> did she know who it was at the time? >> no, she didn't. she just heard the phone ring and turned it down. when she got back home is when she found out what was going on. z >> this is the class your mother was in. is confused. she's got grandkids, but she is your mother. >> yes. >> she did time for the crime that she did, she's out trying to do something and that's why she didn't answer. sapna, what am i missing that triggers this?
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is it just unreliability, that if you don't answer the phone, you've escaped? >> that's what i've learned the past couple weeks. i was shocked when she told me she was being sent back for this. i figured it was a misunderstanding and i got on the phone with her case manager at the halfway house and bureau prisons officials, and what i was told is that she did not have permission to be at that class, first of all, and that she didn't answer her phone for more than four hours. and in answer to the first one, she believed she had permission to be at class. for the past year, she has religiously sent every two weeks a list of where she's going to be, medical appointments, anything she does, it has to be preapproved. she does not leave her house if -- >> was the class on her list of attended appointments? >> yes, it was. >> that's important.
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craig, i'll be coming back to you. for her status, she wasn't on probation? >> no. >> she wasn't being furloughed, she was serving the rest of the sentence at home because of covid. does that change the standard? >> i don't think it should. the home confinement standard is not easy to get in the first place. when she was chosen for home confinement, she was one of the few chosen under the trump administration, so this was bill barr's doing, she's elderly, ill, and she's at an incredibly low risk of recidivism based on all these factors, that she and others like her could be safely put into the community. they were encouraged to build their lives again. they were not told they could be sent back. the understanding at the time was that they would be on home confinement until the end. that's what the prosecutor's office has been arguing in
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court, actually, that home confinement is the end of the story and that she shouldn't get a sentence reduction, which is what we're seeking for her. >> so the prosecutors are trying to nail her on this and say, no reduction in sentence, she should go back to prison and serve the whole thing because she didn't answer the phone for four hours. >> they haven't commented on this escape thing which just happened in the last couple weeks, but they have revoked her early release even though she has an almost perfect record. she helped younger inmates, she helped people get around the jail so they could participate. you said she's not mother teresa, but she's as close to mother teresa as you can get. >> i'm not trying to krcriticiz her or judge her in any way. people hear you committed a
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crime and people's hearts close. >> she did become a different person. >> it happens all the time. craig, what do you want people to know about your mom? >> she's a compassionate woman, a loving woman, a caring woman, family oriented. i can go on and on, sir, but right now i'm just emotional and trying to hold it together. it's very hard on the family. >> i hear you. it's got to be tough whufr her back all that time and she's at risk of being gone again. we'll keep monitoring the situation. >> thank you, sir. >> i appreciate you talking to us about your mom and bringing this to light. counselor, thank you very much. sapna merchandani, thank you very much. you can be tough on crime. that's not tough on crime. the olympics are less than a month away.
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you're about to meet someone who qualifies for team usa. why are people talking about track runner gabby thomas? because she's a sensation. this young woman is going to tokyo and she's tonight's american, next. ♪ don't flex your pecs. terminix.
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gabby thomas 24 years old tonight's american. you know what? the analysis of she graduated from hard wavard and just wants give back. she's now studying epidemiology, which is disease science. we already learned a little bit about that the hard way at the university of texas and she wants to get involved in health care management and taking on racial disparities in the health care system, which is a big need. she is doing the right thing with a huge degree. that would be enough. guess what else? she's one of the fastest women on the planet. and is a rising track star on team usa. she is going to japan. congratulations, my friend. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> so you're very smart but has
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this sunk into your brain and heart yet you won the 200 in the trials and that you are going to be with your childhood idle, allyson felix on the same team and that only flojo posted a better time than you did in the 200? >> it has nod sunk in yet. i think it will hit me when i'm in tokyo in the gear and running on the track. as for right now, it all still feels like one big dream. it's unreal that i get to be on the same team as allyson felix and i even ran a time that fast. >> have you ever run that fast in training? >> you got to ask my coach. i don't think so. i think that time was a combination of the mental preparation for the week. i was in oregon for two weeks in my hotel room preparing and getting myself pumped up and laser focused. i think i pulled it out at the time when i needed it most.
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>> you're so fast, you don't even know how fast you are. that's how fast you are. so what does this mean for you you'll represent the country and how does that hit your head and heart? >> for me, it means everything because it's been such a long journey for me. like many athletes there, it takes a lot of patience, hours, days, weeks, months of mental and physical preparation just for that one moment. so when it comes together for that, those 21 seconds and for me to make the team, what i've been training for is a magical feeling. there is no other way to describe it than felt like magic. >> third fastest time in history. that would be more than anybody could ever dream of and that's before getting to go to the olympics. flojo holds the other two. there is only one other woman.
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that two is accurate. do you think given what you just did, are you now starting to get to the point where you are believing i can do this and come out of there with medal around my neck, it may even be gold? >> absolutely. so i went into that meet not knowing what to really expect. i wanted to make the team and that was my goal, and that was kind of what i was training for all year including 2020 because it was a covid year. just get on this olympic team. during the round i ran faster, sub22 which is good for me and a personal best. i kept getting more and more confident and i didn't expect to run quite that fast but now that i did and i know what i'm capable of mentally and physically, i'm ready to go into tokyo and run for the gold absolutely. >> i'll tell you why i made you the american. because you're fast as hell and you'll be on the olympic team and that's cool and especially as a parent and somebody
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watching the next generation, you check in so many boxes, you know. you went to harvard for god sake. that's a dream for 99.9% of the population. you want to study epidemiology and give back and work with people. you're young and open minded and you are just talented as hell and doing the work. track is all work. speed is made. talent is given. i want to say thank you as an american. thank you for representing the best of us. and you better run your ass off in tokyo and do even bigger and better things and we will be watching gabby thomas. >> thank you so much. that means a lot. >> congratulations. thank you for being the best of us. we'll be right back.
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we go after answers in florida not because it's a got you game because that's what you would want if it your family and there has to be a responsibility to one another. that's what that story is about. that building come down makes no sense. it never happens here. it's not going to be simple.
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getting the answer if it's not handled right and they don't get a commission and they don't have discipline and they don't bring in all the assets and marshall it, it's going to be ugly and that isn't right. so let's be together. that's what being an american is all about. we can be better and we will be better if we are together. thank you for the opportunity. the big show, "don lemon tonight" with the star d. lemon. >> an interesting conversation i had with the daughter of one of the people missing. she said we're realistic. there is so much smoke. there's fire. chances are, we know, not good, but we just want closure. and i thought about that a lot over the last 24 hours, about what they want and what is needed. remember, chris, we both covered 9/11. the last person just being honest was pulled out 27 hours after the towers fell. it's been -- >> alive. >> alive. it's been six

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