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Florida Awaits Possible Hurricane Landfall; Source: Trump Unhappy with Pence Debate Performance; Hurricane Matthew Heads Towards East Coast; Foreign Ministry Teams Meet to Discuss Syrian War. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 5, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] RICK SCOTT, (R), FLORIDA GOVERNOR (voice-over): Right now we've already start counties starting with Broward going north and you can evacuate our state in the same county and you don't have to go that many miles in. Even though the storm may have three to six feet of storm surge, you don't have to go very far in. We've got to get off the barrier islands. We have to look at our low-lying areas. Like Jacksonville is a very low-lying area so we're evacuating here. Amelia Island to make sure everyone gets safe there. We're going to everybody safe. It's just work to get there.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So how many people so far have been evacuated?

SCOTT: Wolf, I don't know the number, but this could be one of our biggest evacuations ever. Typically, when a storm is coming, we know exactly where it's going to hit. This one is going right up our coast. Basically, we have to prepare as if it's going to hit everywhere from just north of Fort Lauderdale all the way to Jacksonville. We've got to prepare every one of these areas as if we were going to have a direct hit, because we won't have enough time as it goes along our coast, because if you look at the path, it's right along our coast right now. The projected path is right along our coast, and as we know, you can't predict a path perfectly. So a slight movement to the West, we have a direct hit. A category 4 when it gets here, that's going to be a lot of wind, a lot of storm surge, a lot of damage. This is going to be catastrophic.

BLITZER: It's a huge problem right now. So what's your bottom-line advice to the Floridians living along the coast right now, potentially in harm's way?

SCOTT: So if you think you're going to evacuate, don't wait until it's mandatory. Do it now so you can beat the traffic. Number two, if you think you're going to a shelter, know where the shelter is. We have shelters all across the state and you can shelter in the county you're in. We have special needs shelters, pet shelters and shelters for the general population. We can shelter you in your county but you've got to act. From trying to get everybody to take this seriously and understand that you've got to get prepared. Now, if you don't have to evacuate, have three days of food, have three days of water. We're going to lose power. Wolf, I don't know how long we'll lose power for, with 130-plus mile-an-hour winds, we're going to lose power around the state. So I've got to get everybody ready to assume they won't have power for two or three or four days.

BLITZER: Good luck, Governor Scott, of Florida. Good luck to everyone in Florida, indeed, all up the eastern seaboard where this potential hurricane -- this hurricane could cause enormous damage.

Governor, thanks for joining us.

SCOTT: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this story and continue to update you.

But we're also following politics here in the United States, the race for the White House. The Republican Governor Mike Pence may have won last night's vice president debate but a source tells CNN that Donald Trump less than pleased with his running mate's performance. We'll tell what you that source is saying and why. We'll have that and a lot more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:25] BLITZER: A source tells CNN Donald Trump is not happy with how his running mate, Governor Pence, performed at last night's vice presidential debate. The senior campaign aide saying now, quote, "The media is saying Pence won but didn't really defend Trump. That isn't sitting well with the boss." And a longtime friend says he's worried Trump will hear that Pence is a better debater. Trump's campaign manger, Kellyanne Conway, denies those claims.

Pence spoke about his performance just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, (R), INDIANA GOVERNOR & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump called me late last night from Nevada to congratulate me on the debate.

(CHEERING)

PENCE: That really meant the world to me. Truly did. Some people say I won.

(CHEERING)

PENCE: You know, what I can tell you, from where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate.

(CHEERING)

PENCE: Donald Trump's vision to make America great again won the debate.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Special correspondent, Jamie Gangel, has been talking with Republican leaders about the debate. Jamie is with us right now.

Specifically, Pence's performance, what are they telling you, Jamie?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: It's fascinating the reporting Trump might not be happy with it, but all of the GOP establishment people I spoke to, people who are veterans of the debate process, these are also people who have said publicly they're supporting Trump, they think Pence was fabulous. They said they were relieved. They were thrilled. One said that he is the MVP of the Trump/Pence ticket. And he pointed out that he didn't think Trump really understood how valuable Pence was going to be.

The other thing I heard was, when I reached out to all of these people, I got almost the same reaction. In fact, someone just e- mailed me a few minutes ago, two words, "Pence 2016." And they didn't mean Pence 2020. A lot of these people feel, he's so good, they wish he was at the top of the ticket. One of my sources said, he looks like a Republican. He sounds like a Republican, and he really knows how to debate -- Wolf?

BLITZER: The implication is that Donald Trump doesn't look like a Republican or sound like a Republican?

GANGEL: Correct.

BLITZER: And doesn't know how to debate, is that what they're suggesting?

GANGEL: Correct. Absolutely.

BLITZER: Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son, came over to us after the debate. He had this exchange on the refusal by Donald Trump to release his tax returns. This exchange with Dana Bash. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Has he paid federal income taxes over the last 18 years, yes or not?

ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: Of course, yes. Absolutely. My father pays a tremendous amount of tax --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: So if we ever see your father's income taxes, it will show he has paid federal income taxes?

TRUMP: There's no question about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:40:13] BLITZER: No question about it. So what are these Republican leaders telling you about how Donald Trump is handling this whole issue of refusing to release his tax returns? GANGEL: They think it's a P.R. disaster. Again, Mike Pence released

his taxes. Everybody else would be releasing their taxes. And they're very concerned it's going to come up again at the debate, and everything they said to me was, they hope he has a better answer this time and that he is preparing over and over again, prepare, prepare, prepare.

BLITZER: The second presidential debate, Sunday night, right here on CNN.

Thanks very much for that.

9:00 p.m. eastern.

Coming up, Hurricane Matthew continues its deadly and destructive path towards the United States. When and where will it hit? New information coming in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:48] BLITZER: We're keeping an eye on Hurricane Matthew right now, a powerful category 3 storm that could make landfall on Florida's east coast Friday morning. Right now, four states on the southeast United States are under a state of emergency. Florida's Governor Rick Scott saying 17 deaths reported across the Caribbean.

Jennifer Gray is at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta now.

Jennifer, where does Matthew appear to be heading as far as we know right now?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: As far as we know now, the next step is the Bahamas and it is going to roar through there as a strong category 3 or strengthen to a category 4 once it gets to the northern Bahamas, which is extremely dangerous. We're also possibly going to see a category 4 storm either just off the shore, off the coast of central Florida or making landfall, and that is going to be the big question mark, because, Wolf, those strongest winds are right around the center of the storm. Of course, they weaken as the storm goes out, but if that tracks on shore or very close to shore, you could have some pretty devastating consequences along the coast and Florida. And then is supposed to bend back up to the north and east, possibly a category 2, off the Georgia coast, South Carolina coast. Some models take it out to sea. Other models, Wolf, drag this back around and make a second landfall across Florida. It is going to be something to watch extremely closely.

Let's go to here on the floor. I want to show you, if I can -- oh, the graphics are not working. Never mind. We'll come back here, Wolf. It is going to be extremely important for

folks in the Bahamas to be on the lookout. We're talking about 10 to 15 inches of rain, storm surge 10 to 12 feet on top of that, very, very high waves, 12-foot waves. We are going to experience catastrophic consequences across the Bahamas, as well as this to the north and west, and the next stop being Florida. If you're in the evacuation zones, I can't stress enough, get out, especially if we could possibly anticipate a second landfall across Florida by next weekend -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Yeah. That would be awful indeed.

Thanks very much, Jennifer. We'll stay in close touch with you.

Coming up, as the fighting rages on in Aleppo and Syria, the talks about a ceasefire between the U.S. and Russia come to stop. We'll take a closer look at what's being done right now to try to get that process back on track. The State Department spokesman standing by to join us, live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:27] BLITZER: Foreign ministry teams from Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and the U.S., as well as the E.U. are meeting in Berlin today to talk about a political solution for the crisis in Syria. It comes as the U.S. and Russia are locked in a diplomatic stalemate over the cessation of hostilities in Syria.

I'm joined by Mark Toner, the deputy spokesperson for the State Department in Washington.

Mark, thanks for joining us.

Quickly, where does the relationship between the U.S. and Russia stand right now?

MARK TONER, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: Well, as we talked about the other day and, indeed, we issued a statement that said we have suspended bilateral engagement with Russia with regard to Syria. What that means we're no longer pursuing the agreement we reached in Geneva on September 10th that would have initiated a cessation of hostilities and lead to the possibility of the Joint Implementation Center with Russia and would have effectively grounded Syria's air forces if it had been fulfilled, but it wasn't. So after a week of watching Russians and the Syrian regime carry out bombings on Aleppo, which continue, we had to walk away from it.

BLITZER: Russia has deployed an air defense missile system, we're told, in Syria. How concerned is the U.S. about this move? Does it pose a threat to other friendly pilots in region? TONER: Well, Wolf, I'd say we're watching that closely. It goes

without saying that neither the opposition, Nusra nor Daesh, have any kind of air force so it's hard to say who they're trying to defend themselves against. All I can say is that the coalition will continue to carry out its mission, counter-Daesh mission in Syria. And as we made very clear at the time we suspended our bilateral engagement on Syria with Russia, we made clear that the de-confliction mechanism that we worked out between the ministry of defense and our Department of defense remains in place.

BLITZER: At last night's vice presidential debate, both sides called for a humanitarian zone in Syria. If everyone, at least here in the U.S., is in favor of that, what are the chances it could be achieved?

TONER: We're working hard to get humanitarian assistance into Syria in a sustained way and that was one of the key components to this September 10th agreement that fell apart last week. We're pushing this through multilateral channels. We haven't given up. Look, we all can see the urgency of what's happening in Syria and the fact that some of these areas, including Aleppo, have been besieged for weeks and months now and the people are in desperate need of assistance.

When you talk about safe zones and that kind of thing, we talked about the logistics around this before. They need to be policed. There's a logistical arrangement in order to protect that space, that need to be worked out that requires a lot of heavy lifting logistically.

BLITZER: Russia's foreign ministry rejected U.S. reports that two American officials traveling with diplomatic passports were drugged while attending a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, last year. Instead, they're suggesting that the pair might have had simply too much to drink. Have you raised this issue with the Russia foreign ministry?

TONER: We've raised, in general, the issue of harassment of our diplomats, a trend we've seen, frankly, worsen over the last two years. We have raised that that at the highest levels with the Russian government. I can say --

BLITZER: What about these two diplomats?

TONER: I don't really want to speak about this particular incident. We're still gathering the facts, looking into it.

But, in general, we've seen an increased harassment of our diplomats. You've seen some of these in various reporting.

Again, this isn't a spat we necessarily want to have out in public. But trust me, we take the safety of our diplomats, the protection of our diplomats very seriously, and we've raised it with the highest levels.

[13:55:24] BLITZER: Exactly, as much as you can tell us, share with us, what did you say to the Russians?

TONER: Precisely that when we have our diplomats operating in Russia, we expect their rights to be protected, in lines with the Vienna Convention, and that we want them to be able to operate and work and live peacefully and without harassment in Russia.

BLITZER: Mark Toner, lots going on.

The State Department deputy spokesman.

Thanks so much for joining us.

TONER: Sure, happy to be here.

BLITZER: All right, Mark Toner, thank you.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

The news here on CNN will continue right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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