Tropical Storm Isaias Wreaks Havoc Up East Coast; Interview Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) On Tropical Storm Isaias And North Carolina Joining Bipartisan Agreement for States to Carry Out Rapid Testing; Massive Explosion Rocks Beirut.
BURNETT: Breaking news, Tropical Storm Isaias wreaking havoc across the East Coast, widespread damages in states including New York, Virginia and New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Right now, more than 3 million customers without power and at least two deaths being blamed on the storm in North Carolina, where Isaias made landfall as a hurricane overnight. You can see what's left in one town, Windsor, North Carolina, the buildings, towns, cars, utter destruction. The Democratic Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper joins me now. Governor, I'm sorry for this, you know, amidst this -- that the virus battle to have this happen, two deaths in your state, a tragedy. You've got nearly 100,000 people without power the last time we checked, with major damage which we just showed. And this is happening while you're dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. How hard has it been to have this --this at the same time?</s>GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): Well, it's been difficult. This storm slammed into our state as a category one hurricane. We do mourn the loss of two lives, over a dozen people injured, a lot of damage. But North Carolina knows how to prepare for storms and hurricanes. This time, we had to do it with a mask on. When you have a pandemic and a hurricane, it's double trouble. And we have spent the last few months preparing for a hurricane, hoping it would never come, but knowing in North Carolina we are susceptible to having them. And I'm proud of the way our emergency management approached this, making sure that our shelters did screening for COVID, that we had personal protective equipment there, that they were social distancing. And we were ready and we're glad that the storm is gone, and we're ready to begin the recovery process.</s>BURNETT: So, you know, you talk about COVID and the testing you were doing in shelters. I had mentioned a bipartisan group of governors getting together for these rapid antigen tests where you do a lot of them. You might get some false positives and negatives, but you find out a lot of people that had it that you wouldn't with the other testing , right, because it's very quick. And we have six states -- moments ago, I know you -- we learned you're the 7th joining this. Now, I guess I'm asking you, Governor, is obviously you wouldn't have needed to do this if there were a national testing plan, right? If people in your state had access to fast, frequent testing, even for asymptomatic people. How much is the federal government's failure on this issue, testing, hurt your state?</s>COOPER: It's hurt a lot. We wish there had been a better federal testing strategy. In North Carolina, we worked very hard to get testing out. But we find problems with supply chain. We find problems with personal protective equipment. So, as governors, we've had to step up and do the job. We've done that in North Carolina, and now, we're bonding with other states here to try to use our collective power to do this. It would be better if we had a strong national strategy that would get ahold of the supply chain. And, you know, it's hard to trace when there is so much time, turn around time, in the testing. We've got to do better here for sure.</s>BURNETT: So, the RNC was criticized over the weekend. You know, they were saying the events in North Carolina could be closed to the press. Obviously, there was the whole thing the president called you backward and tried to move as much as he could to Florida. But there's still some parts happening in North Carolina. And the chairwoman of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, yesterday said that this whole issue of the press is actually not on them, it is on you, Governor Cooper. Here's how she put it.</s>RONNA MCDANIEL, RNC CHAIRWOMAN: We want the press there, but this isn't an RNC decision. This is a Governor Cooper of North Carolina decision that's limiting how many people we can have in a room.</s>BURNETT: I guess they're saying because you're currently in a phase where you can't have more than ten people in an indoor space. Is she right on this being your call then?</s>COOPER: Absolutely not. The RNC has changed their mind so much on this. First in Charlotte, then in Jacksonville, then back in Charlotte. How are they going to have it? One thing that hasn't changed is North Carolina's commitment to public health and safety. We're willing to work with them on a safe convention, and look forward to doing that. But in North Carolina, we've been able to keep our numbers down. We have not seen the spikes that other states have because we've taken pro-active action. I put in a mandatory mask mandate back in June. That has shown positive effects. We've taken the dimmer switch approach where we've stayed in our phase two.</s>BURNETT: Yeah.</s>COOPER: These are the things that are positive and the way you keep your numbers low. And we're not going to have a whole lot of people gathering together and spreading virus in a way that the RNC had talked about doing it, with the president telling me he wanted a full arena. We were not going to have that here.</s>BURNETT: All right. Well, Governor Cooper, I appreciate your time, and I thank you, sir.</s>COOPER: Sure. Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And I want to go to breaking news now, a massive explosion in Beirut. Seventy-eight people at least killed, thousands have been injured, thousands. Huge blasts rocking the city. Conflicting reports about what caused it. President Trump coming out, calling it a terrible attack.</s>REPORTER: Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. They seem to think it was a attack, it was a bomb of some kind.</s>BURNETT: Ben Wedeman is OUTFRONT in Beirut. So, President Trump came out and said he thinks this was an attack, which is a huge thing to say. Thousands injured, death toll likely to climb. What are you hearing about what caused the blast?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we understand is that there was a warehouse in Beirut port that contained more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated by the authorities back in 2014 and was being kept in that warehouse. Where exactly it was confiscated from, we don't know. But what is blaringly obvious is that it has caused a massive explosion in this city. It was seven hours ago that that blast took place, and I'm still hearing ambulances whaling in the background. At least 4,000 people wounded. More than 70 killed. Now, no Lebanese politician -- and this is a country where speculation is a national sport and conspiracy theories are a hobby. No one, at this point, has actually pointed the finger in any particular direction. Obviously, often times the fingers are pointed at Israel. So, when President Trump seems to confidently state that it was an attack, he has given a lot of ammunition to people here who will obviously point it -- point their fingers in many directions. And one of them is Israel - Erin.</s>BURNETT: Look, it's incredible he would be the first to come out and say that. Obviously the information doesn't appear to be there yet. By the way, I want everyone to know, the reason Ben is standing where he is -- that's our bureau in Beirut. That's what happened where Ben is standing and how severe the damage is across all the city of Beirut. Ben, thank you very much. Up next, a woman blaming the president and other politicians for her husband's death, writing in his obituary shame on you. She has a message she wants everyone to hear, next.