Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

West Virginia Flooding; Brexit Implications. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 24, 2016 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:33:37] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We're following breaking news. Deadly flooding in West Virginia at least 14 people killed here.

I want to bring in CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar. Give us the latest, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, so let's take a look right now at the flood print. This is where we have our most recent flood warnings, in portions of Virginia and West Virginia, right there along the border. But we also have some, right around Charleston, West Virginia, again, a very heavily populated area.

Here is a look at the radar that kind of went through those past 36 hours. Here you can see the first round of rain that went through, a second round, and even a third round of rain that went through. And that's very important, because a lot of these systems were trailing. And it was able dump a very significant amount of rain.

This red swath that you see right here, this is at least 6 inches. We know some areas that picked up as much as 9 inches of rain in just that 36 hours time period. But the topography plays a huge role in this.

So let's take a look at what we have. Again, we kind of zoom down, here's Charleston for reference, Interstate 79 that runs up to the northeastern portion.

The City of Elk View that's right here sits at the bottom of the mountains. So not only were they picking up the rain coming down from the sky. But all the rain that fell on to the mountains now flows down into the City of Elk View. And just basically sits right down here.

Also, Elk View sits right along the Elk River at its highest point, this river made it up to 33.3 feet. That's a record. And their records go all the way back into the 1800s, so again, very impressive.

[15:35:12] And another thing to note, that river, it rose 24 feet in just 12 hours in other words that's about two feet every hour. So it's no wonder that they've been having such bad flooding problems.

KEILAR: Yeah, just devastating. Allison, thank you so much. We'll follow that.

And we will get back to our top story, Brexit and reaction in Scotland, where people overwhelmingly voted to stay in the E.U.

Now, Scottish leaders are threatening to leave the United Kingdom. Is this also the end of the U.K. as we know it? We'll take you live to Edinburgh, Scotland, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:09] KEILAR: Welcome back. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Brooke Baldwin. And on this historic day for the United Kingdom, It's no longer united. The people of Britain declaring their desire to be an independent nation, prompting some to say, who's next?

CNN's Phil Black is in Edinburgh, Scotland, it's a country that held its own independence referendum 21 months ago. How is Scotland reacting to this news, Phil?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL FREELANCE REPORTER: It's not happy Brianna, though plenty of warnings about this, that one of the unintended consequences of Britain voting to leave the European Union could be the breakup of the United Kingdom itself.

You're right, there's a strong independence movement here in Scotland. They last voted back in 2014, and the independents campaign lost on that occasion. But the first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, she is the leader of the local government has said that in the event that Scotland is pulled out of the European Union against its will, then that would trigger a set of circumstances that should allow Scotland to vote on its independence once more. That's what happened here yesterday. Scotland overwhelmingly voted in favor of sticking with the European Union. 68 percent of voters favored that.

And so now, the Scottish government says that its Democratic mandate is to try and do everything possible to ensure that Scotland stays within the European Union.

That means holding another referendum, and they're talking about trying to make this happen pretty quickly. Once Britain triggers its removal from the E.U. there's a two-year time scale that organize all the details.

The Scottish government is now saying that it wants to hold that referendum on independence within that same period of time. So by the time Britain does leave the E.U. the United Kingdom itself could be a considerably smaller country, Brianna.

KEILAR: Amazing. All right, Phil Black, thank you so much for that report.

The actual withdrawal of Britain from the E.U. is a couple years away, as you heard Phil reporting there. So in the meantime, what happens?

Joining me now is lawyer and economist Ben Stein. I'm sure you recognize him, who was also a speech writer for President Richard Nixon and he's the author of "How to Ruin Your Financial Life." Your gut reaction, sir, to what's happened. Should global economies be worried here? BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST/LAWYER: Not at all. The amount of yelling and screaming about this is insanely larger than is merited. Especially in the U.S. our trade with England is a very, very small -- with Britain and I should say, is a very, very small part of USGDP. It is down like 10 percent, 20 percent which is very unlikely. It would not even be a rounding error in the national endemic counts.

The Stock market has gone crazy. It's knocked trillions off the value of U.S. Securities over a possible loss of billions in exports. It just makes no sense at all.

KEILAR: And you -- I heard you say before you think traders have been scaring people.

STEIN: Traders like to scare people I mean let's remember the market is not made by abrading on the present in the sky the market is not made by some guy with incredibly brilliant computer, the market is made by human beings, and they make money by tricking other human beings and by scaring other human beings, and making the other human beings do a stampede to the wrong side of the trade, and then they step in on the right side of the trade.

Then there's just no reason why we should have a law, as I say, in the trillions on the stock exchange in the value of U.S. Securities over an inconsequential change in our exports. It just makes no sense. It's only because the traders are whipping people up. Traders will make money out of, the ordinary citizen should just stay the course, stay invested and look on to the next mountain peak.

KEILAR: So you think in the long run because I know so many people today Ben, are looking at their 401(k)'s and they're freaking out about it. You're saying in the long run ...

STEIN: Yeah, don't worry.

KEILAR: ... do not worry too much and what about in the next couple of years, as we're waiting for this transition. We know there's going to be some volatility. Obviously there are going to be some tremors back to the U.S. because of that. People just should not worry, you're saying?

STEIN: Well, I say it's a buying opportunity. I think the smart people that I know are buying the index funds for the United Kingdom and for Western Europe. It's -- there's just nothing that's very bad that's happening to the U.S. economy. Unless there's some other shoe left to drop. And I can't think that would be, the U.S. is not even particularly a big exporting country as a percentage of the GDP.

There's almost nothing that could happen in the way of U.S. exports, except if they were screwed up in China, that would be a big blow to the U.S. economy and certainly a very small change in exports to the United Kingdom is not going to make a darn bit of difference to the U.S. economy. People just hold on to your 401(k)'s, if you got some spare cash. As I say, the smart money that I know is buying, not selling today. [15:44:58] KEILAR: Donald Trump said today Ben that this bodes well for him and obviously we look now at what we've seen what happened in Britain and we know that there's a lot of discontent with government here in the U.S. and we're seeing that now in Britain as well. Do you think that you can really come to any conclusions about what's going on in the U.S. by looking at this measure?

STEIN: Not exactly, because I think this measure has a lot to do with extreme unease about Middle Eastern and North African immigration in the United Kingdom. Lots and lots of crime, especially sexual crime associated with these immigrants. We're not having that problem in the United States, as far as I know.

So, I'm not sure that the same rules and motivations apply. By the way this is interesting the people are voting in this Brexit referendum we're told about this, there's been a lot of stories about this. They weren't so much concerned about regulations from Brussels or Tara policy or trade policy. They were concerned about people coming here from the Middle East, coming there to the Middle East, and doing very bad crimes with British women. And then somehow this has become transmuted into a fight about trade. And it isn't about trade. It's very largely about ...

KEILAR: I know there were attacks in Cologne New Years Eve I believe, right?

STEIN: No, no, in Britain madam, madam in Britain. There's a thing called the Rotherham incidents in which hundreds of British girls were very badly mistreated. And I say girls. I don't mean women. Girls were mistreated by Middle Eastern immigrants. This is a very serious matter in the United Kingdom and they take it very seriously.

KEILAR: Certainly, and obviously a lot of fear and we're seeing that in the result of this Brexit. Ben Stein, thank you so much, we appreciate you being with us.

STEIN: Great buying opportunity. Thank you.

KEILAR: All right, thank you sir, so much.

And next, keeping an eye on U.S. markets, the Dow is down. You can see -- actually, it's come up just a little bit there, down 553 points. That's still quite a lot. I'll be speaking live to the European Union's ambassador to the U.S. next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:01] KEILAR: Joining me now is David O'Sullivan, he is the European Union's ambassador to the U.S. and can you tell us ambassador markets all over the world are down. What is your biggest concern right now?

DAVID O'SULLIVAN, EUROPEAN UNION AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Well, I think it's perhaps understandable that in the aftermath of a vote such as this and a momentous decision by the British people to leave the European Union. There is great deal of uncertainty out there. And that is why I think the part of the other 27 member states we are anxious to try to move as quickly as possible now to initiate the procedures needed for the U.K. to extricate itself from the European Union so that we can provide as quickly as possible a degree of certainty and predictability for in particular commercial operators in this new environment. And that's what that we've been saying today.

KEILAR: Yeah, important point that you make because David Cameron is in power until October. And clearly the E.U. and others say, you know what, let's get this done before then.

One of the big concerns we're hearing from people has to do with security. So, how do you see obviously we've seen President Obama and others emphasize NATO and stole the power of NATO and how essential that is but do you see this having any effect on European security?

O'SULLIVAN: Well, I think it's always easier to cooperate on security matters when we're all members of the same European Union. We have the Europe poll which is the agency and proper exchange of police information and we have a common European security and defense policy.

Having said that, the majority members states our members of NATO that is the keystone of the security policy of most European Countries. And whatever the new arrangements which may exist between the U.K. and the European Union are going forward, I am sure that it will be in the interests of both sides to find new ways of cooperating on security matters, even if this might be slightly more complicated than it might otherwise have been.

KEILAR: On the business side of this. What advice do you have for U.S. manufacturers, U.S. companies that maybe operating in the U.K.?

O'SULLIVAN: Well, I think my immediate advice, but it's easy for me to say that, would be to remain calm to give the British government the time to decide exactly how they want to manage this new situation, to allow the initiation of the negotiations under Article 50 to begin the unraveling of the legal relationship between the United Kingdom and European Union. And to listen to what the British government will say about how -- what kind of new relationship they want with the European Union which, of course, will have to be agreed with the 27- member states currently in the European Union.

So this is going to take some time. But I think everyone will want this to proceed as quickly as possible and to try and arrive at the best possible arrangements which square the circle of the interests of the United Kingdom and this and the interest of the European Union now at 27 member states.

KEILAR: Ambassador David O'Sullivan, we certainly enjoy you being with us today thank you so much.

O'SULLIVAN: Thank you very much.

[15:54:03] KEILAR: And less than ten minutes away now, the closing bell on Wall Street. We will bring that to you live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: U.S. markets just minutes from the close CNN Money Correspondent Cristina Alesci joining me now from New York. Investors are holding their breath of it, right?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely going into the weekend we saw definitely a little bit of a slide. But this -- it's an important thing to keep in mind that this is a big move for the day. But we're essentially where we started at the beginning of the week -- for the week we're only down about 1 percent and that's important context here.

Plus we see moves like this before, right, last August when investors were worried about China. We saw the market react to that. So we've seen these moves before for the average person what they really have to keep an eye on is business confidence ...

KEILAR: Yeah.

ALESCI: Because if businesses don't feel confident they're not going to be hiring and that's going to cause angst for the consumer.

Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Cristiana thank you so much.

And "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to "The Lead". I'm Jake Tapper in New York.

We begin today with some breaking news. Divorce is never pretty all the more so when it involves billions of people and trillions of dollars. We are seconds away from the closing bell on Wall Street where U.S. markets have been in a panic after one of the most consequential events in modern European history, the United Kingdom perhaps the strongest ally of the United States voting to cut official ties with the European Union, a partnership that lasted more than four decades.

British Prime Minister David Cameron who fought to keep his country in the European Union now plans to step down and saying he will respect the will of the British people. And the vote as you might expect is having an immediate impact on the markets around through out world and likely on your money in the banks and stocks spent the day in the red after plunging more than 400 points in the first minute of trading. How will the so-called Brexit vote play out? Does the UK now close off its borders? How does the decision of the people of the U.K. impact money world politics even international security? We have teams at the New York stock exchange and in London, CNN has the resources to cover this major story like no other American network.

Let's start with Alison Kosik on the stock exchange floor. Alison, why did today's news from the UK create such a mess on Wall Street?

[15:59:53] ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for one I did saw investors continuously caught off guard. They not only did they tell me that but you can really tell how the week went because trading throughout the week bought into the markets there were a couple of rallies because many investors were created really thought that's British people would vote to stay at the European Union. Well guessed what they were wrong and when stop play out today was an --