Third Night Of Republican National Convention; Hurricane Laura Nearly Category Five Hurricane
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. And we all thank you for what you do. Please stay safe up there right now, as you said, just passing through that eye. Thanks to all of you for joining us as our coverage of that breaking story and our special coverage of the Republican National Convention continues now.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Live pictures from historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore, one of the backdrops for the Republican National Convention tonight. It's about to get underway in the shadow of huge stories that are breaking right now. A curfew taking effect right now in Kenosha, Wisconsin as the city braces for what could be a fourth night of unrest following the police shooting of an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake. Tonight, a white teenager is under arrest in connection with a shooting attack on protesters in Kenosha overnight. And this new flashpoint in the fight for racial justice has sparked a boycott by NBA players on the Milwaukee Bucks. That has led to all three of tonight's playoff games being postponed. In addition, the six teams slated to play tonight in the WNBA announced they are standing in solidarity and won't play either. The protests spreading to Major League Baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Seattle Mariners refusing to play their games. I am Anderson Cooper along with Wolf Blitzer in our special convention coverage -- Wolf.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Anderson, we're also following a truly devastating Category Four Hurricane that is bearing down right now on the Gulf Coast. Laura is poised to strike with more power than Katrina and unleash a storm surge that could be un-survivable. All of this playing out as Vice President Mike Pence is about to get his big moment in the convention spotlight. We're told he will have very tough criticism for Joe Biden in his headline speech and portray Democrats is dangerous for America. The campaign official tells CNN that President Trump will join the Vice President at Fort McHenry to honor Medal of Honor recipients and other military veterans and first responders. We're covering it all with Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and Abby Phillip. Jake, a lot of questions about how much we will hear from the Republicans about what's happening in Kenosha, and this new NBA boycott.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's right, Wolf. We're told that Vice President Pence will address one of those issues and I'm not sure how it will land exactly given the breaking news. We were told that Pence intends to try to tie Biden and the Democrats to the violence in Kenosha, the arson and the vandalism, despite the fact that just today, Biden condemned, quote, "needless violence" stemming from those demonstrations. And perhaps more importantly, last night, someone shot and killed two people at protests -- two apparent protesters. What if it happens that it turns out that the killer has far right or conservative beliefs? Now, we don't know that yet, but with so much up in the air, might that complicate what Pence and Republicans will say tonight about violence. I'm also interested as to what if anything we hear from Mr. Pence about the coronavirus on the day that we learn the White House is pressuring the C.D.C. into issuing weaker testing guidelines. Pence is of course the head of the Coronavirus Taskforce fighting a pandemic than under any objective measure. According to health experts, the United States has failed to contain in comparison with other Western wealthy countries. And Dana, Republicans seem quite eager to move on from the coronavirus pandemic, instead they are trying to focus on law and order.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Of course, because Jake, they believe that it is one of if not the driving issue in the battle for votes in the suburbs, particularly women who could be the deciders in this election and Republicans argue that the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin with that as a backdrop to their convention, that it plays right into their law and order message, no matter what. And tonight, we are going to hear from the head of a Police Union that endorsed the President and expect him to say that Mr. Trump is a defender of the police while acknowledging the need to hold bad cops accountable. And of course, Republicans will keep painting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as anti-law enforcement, which the Biden campaign insists, is patently false and a scare tactic. And Abby, this racial justice issue is so potent as a wedge issue, and we're seeing it on display today. This new NBA boycott and of course, we're going to look ahead to Republicans trying to double down on their criticism of athletes who started taking a knee -- what -- four years ago?</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, four years ago to the day and Dana, we expect to hear multiple Republicans denounce athletes who refuse to stand for the National Anthem, and they'll try to tie Black Lives Matter protests to the anarchy they claim will unfold if Joe Biden is elected. We know the Republicans are featuring a few sports figures tonight including a former football player who is now running for Congress in Utah, Burgess Owens. He is expected to hit Joe Biden on race. And tonight, we are seeing a stark divide on display in America between the messages being delivered at the Republican Convention and the support for racial justice in the sports world. If anything sums that up, it may be this tweet by NBA superstar LeBron James saying, "Eff this man. We demand change. Sick of it" -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: Let's get the latest right now from Kenosha. CNN's Omar Jimenez is there for us. Omar, some very disturbing developments as the city is now under curfew for another night. What are you seeing?</s>OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Anderson, we actually just finished up a press conference with the Wisconsin Attorney General, Josh Kaul who actually gave us insight into where we are in regards to the investigation over the officer that shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back a few days ago now. Now for one, he did identify the officer, Officer Rustin Sheskey, who is a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department here. We also learned that at the very beginning of what they put out to us, it was a little bit -- dispatched over calls of a woman's boyfriend who was on the scene who was not supposed to be there. Now, we actually asked the Attorney General whether that quote-unquote "boyfriend" was actually Jacob Blake and they would not answer that question. Now, another aspect that they honed in on when they gave us this new information. They also say, this is the Department of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin D.O.J. leading this, they say that Jacob Blake told them that he did have a knife in his possession. However, they did not elaborate and we do not know at what point throughout the interaction that we saw play on the cell phone video he either had one or didn't. They did say they did recover a knife from the floorboard of the driver's side of his car and then they also laid out the process of what we are looking at, at this point. The Attorney General's Office is the lead investigator on this case within the Department of Criminal Investigation. They are trying to get and complete one within 30 days, they tell us. At that point they will then refer it to the Kenosha County prosecutors or District Attorney's Office, at which point they will decide whether charges are to be filed or not. They also told us that the U.S. Department of Justice is also looking at the facts in this as well and potentially considering opening a parallel investigation to look at any Federal charges as well. But of course, all this comes after nights in a row of pain and emotion expressed to people in the community and even last night, at times, growing violent in the deadly form -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: Yes, two people dying. Omar Jimenez, more to come. We'll talk to you shortly. Also breaking, Hurricane Laura closing in on the Gulf Coast. It is an extremely dangerous and powerful storm. It is now nearly a Category Five storm with winds up 150 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center is warning what it calls -- their word -- un-survivable storm surge of more than 15 feet that could push inland for up to 40 miles. Gary Tuchman is in Lake Charles, Louisiana for us, but first, the latest forecast from meteorologist Tom Sater -- Tom.</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anderson, we're looking right now of an update in the last hour where the pressure has been dropping, which means Laura is still getting stronger, and the winds have increased from 145 to 150 miles per hour. That's only seven miles per hour away from a Category Five. But those that decided to hold out and hang through this are not going to know the difference. Laura is joining an elite group, a small elite group of hurricanes that are infamous for their tragic loss of life and property, taking the same path as Rita in 2005. Rita, took of course the loss of life, precious lives, but also left in its wake $18 billion worth in economic losses. That was 15 years ago. This is moving in with such a force still looking between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. It is going to change topography. It is going to alter the coastline. It's going to create inlets that dissolve away some of the barrier islands, but it looks like it's making its way just to the east of the border and again between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. I fear the pictures we see tomorrow morning, Anderson, are going to be absolutely jaw dropping.</s>COOPER: Well, we will be following this very closely all throughout the night. Let's go to Gary Tuchman who is in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Gary, what's it like there now?</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this was a tropical storm yesterday. Now, a catastrophic 150 mile per hour hurricane is on its way to Lake Charles, Louisiana. You know, people who live on the Gulf Coast, they are hurricanes savvy, but man, this intensification has been shocking. And frankly and understandably, people are very scared. Emergency officials are saying there can be catastrophic storm surges of up to 20 feet from the coast to our south to the Interstate 10 corridor to our north. That overpass over there, that's Interstate 10 to our north. This river right here, they are expecting record setting flooding levels on this river. We expect that this beach that we're standing on tomorrow morning will no longer exist. There is a mandatory evacuation order in effect here in Lake Charles, population 75,000. The fact is, though, and people are abiding by it, we don't see anyone wandering around, but we've never had in modern history, a pandemic and hurricane season at the same time. So many people are afraid to leave their homes. They're boarding up their homes. They're staying in their houses and they're hoping for the best -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: And, Gary, be careful. As we get closer to the start of the Republican Convention, we are getting new reporting about President Trump's response to the unrest in Wisconsin. Also hear how Vice President Pence frames the protests and attacks Joe Biden in his convention speech tonight.