this is cnn breaking news. >> all right, good morning, everyone. welcome to our viewers around the united states and around the world. one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in the united states is still battering louisiana at this moment. hurricane laura is the strongest storm to hit that state at all in more than a century. it made landfall as a category 4 storm around 2:00 a.m. eastern near cameron, louisiana. that's category 4, but very nearly category 5. lake charles' population, 80,000 may be the area of greatest concern. you can see what the winds did there. just pushing over that rv like it was a toy. we have seen power lines down. trees down. windows blown out, all kinds of debris as the light comes up in that city. >> at this hour, nearly half a million customers are without power in texas and louisiana so we'll talk to the governors in both states about what's next.

it was 15 years ago this week that hurricane katrina killed more than 1,800 people and that hurricane right now is hitting louisiana, it's even more powerful than katrina. let's begin with cnn's martin savage, who is in hard-hit lake charles, louisiana. so what's happening at this hour? >> hey, alisyn, as you say day light is going to tell everything here. you know, one of the frustrating things we know this storm has done a great deal of damage but when you're in a big resort which is where we had to go to find safety and shelter in the ferociousness of the storm, and take a look at this. this tells you a story about the impact. this is a tree, most trees usually in storms they all come down. that's broken off at the base, snapped, twisted, torn. it's just a very small example of the incredible power. trees are down all over the place like that. you have steel poles and lampposts that are bent and moved by the wind.

you have a lot of street signage that has been torn out of the ground. so again, this just gives you small insights into the power and the ferocity. we can attest to it too, even though we were sheltering in a parking deck we had to abandon that and seek shelter inside the building. it simply became too dangerous so it's quite clear that this area has suffered a tremendous blow. but right now you want to be in the neighborhood. right now you want to be in the subdivisions, those streets to find out what's going on. we can't do that until we can get out and drive and it's simply not safe enough to do that. we have seen power out in some places but it's probably generators and right now this is a community that's just beginning to get a sense with the daylight and emerging from what may be left as to what t t that -- what lies ahead for them. it's going to be an extremely difficult day, alisyn and john. >> no question about that.

martin savage, please stay safe and keep us posted as you get a look around there. i want to bring in cnn's meteorologist chad myers. we are just now beginning to venture out, literally yards from where we have been stationed all night. we are beginning to see the damage and why are you so concerned about lake charles and the scope of the possible damage? is it because of how long they were under such powerful winds, correct? >> right. from 120 to 129 miles per hour gusts for a solid hour. and i know we talked about how that's an ef-2 tornado. but think about what the derecho did the other day in iowa and illinois because all of the wind was coming from the same direction with this. this is just wind wave after wave after wave of wind gusts coming down from the sky every time a big burst of rain came down, another gust of rain came down. taking off what was maybe three shingles and now nine and 15. wind from the same direction has really done a number on many

structures, even the highrises that i have seen from downtown and there aren't many. but the windows are gone. completely gone from some of these buildings. roofs are gone as well. this was a big storm and it's amazing to think that it's still 100 miles per hour storm. six hours after it made landfall. that was the power that this brought with it when it did make landfall in cameron and those places down to the south. now, we know that entire parish, cameron parish, only has 4,000 residents and then lake charles, that's where the significant wind damage will be. it didn't lose a lot of power because there's not a lot of land there. an awful lot of lakes and streams and bayous and swamps. i would say this is spinning around like ft. polk. you may be in the eye, but at the numbers -- they still go up,

almost 400,000 without power and the numbers will continue to go up. we talk about how many trees, how many power lines are down, these power lines and these trees are all going to need to be replaced. the power poles are gone, they're snapped off. so it will take a long time to restore power. >> okay, chad, thank you very much for the update. joining us now is ken graham, thanks for being with us. what's your biggest concern at this hour? >> yeah, well, i was listening to the broadcast and you started to look at this eye around ft. polk so you still have hurricane-force winds. 100 miles an hour so well inland you have the hurricane-force winds. look at this fetch of moisture, i can zoom way out. even areas away from that center as you move northward we have the movement. even a hurricane, even towards shreveport, look at this fetch of moisture back to corpus

christi. as long as we're moving in that direction, these bands of rain continue to flow in the same areas. so this is an ongoing event. you're going to see areas with tropical rains and flooding and even tornados in some of these bands. >> ken, yesterday the biggest concern was going to be storm surge. the fear was that it would be so high it would be unsurvivable was one of the words. did the storm pivot a little bit to the east? is that what's kept it from being at that 20 foot point? >> yeah. it's interesting with that because lake charles was spared a little bit with the actual direction, but they still got the wind. here's what's tricky about it. we don't even know. it can take months before we know exact my what those totals were because not every place has a gauge. you know, there's gauges that we can measure the value of the storm surge and we have to get people on the ground to survey the storm surge itself. but what's dangerous is that storm surge that did come in, i had seen some 11 foot storm surge values and the winds shift back behind the storm. it's held in there.

so cameron parish, you're going to hold that water in. push a little bit more. but the water that fell overnight and was pushed in there is going to be held up. so it's prolonged. the water is going to be prolonged in some of the areas. >> so flooding is still a concern this morning? >> absolutely. i think the big message, you have storm surge damage, definitely not safe to get back into the areas. >> i think we have some pictures from crystal beach, texas, right now. they might be live pictures that we can possibly show. that's interesting because we're not talking about texas. i mean, you were, you were showing us the band of moisture, but we're talking about louisiana. you see the flooding in these areas here. >> yeah, absolutely. you start to see the flooding, and it's the expanse of the storm. go back to the radar, i mean, you see this rain, you know, portions of east texas as well. so as that comes in -- it's interesting in the texas area. they were north winds so some areas can take flooding from the

opposite direction, from the gulf, from the barrier islands. >> how long is that blue blotch going to linger right there over louisiana? >> it's going to be a while. the latest forecast follows it northward. it's interesting because we'll see even at 1:00 a.m. on friday, so tomorrow morning, still a tropical storm in arkansas. so we're forecasting this to continue to be a hurricane all the way to the louisiana/arkansas border. so we saw the rain on the radar, take the winds. we're not done yet. you can still see trees down. very forested area. so we're not done yet. anybody well inland if you think this is a coastal event that's not true. you will see some impacts into arkansas. >> a really good warning. thank you very much. let's take one more looking if we can at the aerials, the first pictures we have seen from the level. this is crystal beach, texas. it's a little hazy there but you can see clearly the water had

come up some. some. it's hard to tell, frankly, at this point. the storm surge at least in louisiana coast, not what they had feared, at least not yet. but it was a serious wind event and we're just waiting to see the extent of the structural damage that was in the immediate path of the storm. this was off the side of the storm here in crystal beach near galveston. now back to louisiana. paul hurd lives there and he rode out the storm. thanks for being with us. i understand you had a harrowing, harrowing night. your roof blew off? what happened? >> you know, it didn't blew off -- [ indiscernible ]. it started -- the water started just pouring in. and the winds -- [ indiscernible ]. it seemed like it was -- and then it was a bad way. so i made a decision to go to my

car. and which is about 25 feet away. you know, 100 mile plus winds. and my car had been moved by the winds because when i woke up -- when i got up at day break, i looked at my trailer and my car -- so we had winds that picked my car up and moved it. >> wow. >> so i rode out the storm in the car until 2:00 in the morning. and the eye of the storm hit over here about 1:00 a.m. and then it got real bad. around 3:00 it was starting -- that's pretty much it. now, the guy that just spoke a couple minutes ago couldn't have said it better. this was a wind event, no at

water event. strangely we should have flooded out here in the south -- in the parish where i am. [ indiscernible ]. and we normally do get water events out here. we get hit -- but what we did get was a huge wind event and this destruction is everywhere. trees are twisted from high winds. people are going to need a lot of help down here. >> yeah, we're seeing -- we're actually looking at moments ago a look at pictures from crystal beach, texas, and there was clearly flooding there. water had flowed inland. we saw the cars parked in what looked like lakes which i'm sure it was not meant to be a lake there. >> right. >> talk about the damage that

your house sustained. i'm struck by the fact that the wind was powerful enough to move your vehicle. talk about the damage that your house sustained and talk to me about what's next for you. i know you have serious concerns because you're immunocompromised and we're in the midst of a pandemic. >> well, just take it one day at a time. that's all you can do. and rebuild. i mean, that's what we do. >> what's left of your house? >> well, the house structure -- it's a fabulous home and it's just -- [ indiscernible ]. and probably all new supports too. but it was all compromised because i was up in the roof looking at it when it was getting ready to go off because i could hear the noise. i went up the attic stairs with a flashlight and noticed it was

just buckling back and forth, three, four inches and it was like this is not good. this thing is going to blow away next five, ten minutes. i have to get out of here. and it oddly didn't and -- but there's plenty of other damage around here. so we'll just -- we'll rebuild. >> we'll rebuild. we admire your spirit but as you say, people will need a lot of help there. we hope you get it. let us know what we could do for you. thank you so much for being with us. we're so glad you're okay this morning. >> thank you. we just saw some of the live aerials from texas, cars there parked in water or left in water. we'll get a sense of the damage in that state when the governor of texas, greg abbott, joins us next. ♪ come on in, we're open. ♪

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okay. let's take a look at some of the storms that's happening right now. this is obviously hurricane laura and this is the aftermath, this is in crystal beach, texas. you can see streets are flooded, obviously cars are floating in streets. the storm surge was the biggest concern before laura hit and now i were seeing -- and now we are seeing why people are concerned. it lead landfall in cameron, louisiana so not even texas, but you can see the bands and the

aftermaths as far as away as crystal beach. joining us now is governor greg abbott. thank you for being with us. give us a status report, how many people had to be evacuated, any deaths, anything like that? >> the earlier reports is there are no deaths and one reason is because people did heed the warnings to evacuate. you mentioned the storm surge, the storm surge and the powerful winds could have led to catastrophic deaths and because we had well over 5,000, 10,000 people who evacuated we no doubt saved lives because of the evacuations. right now, we have search and rescue teams that are already going throughout the entire area to see if there is anybody who does need some type of assistance. with the level of water you're talking about especially in the beaumont, port arthur and orange areas closest to the louisiana border, we're very concerned there.

but as you go further up in texas, in northeast texas, the hurricane is still going through that process and i think it may be a category 2 hurricane. so there's powerful winds knocking down very tall trees as well as potential tornado activity. so people in northeast texas still need to remain very vigilant right now. >> i don't know if you can see a screen, if you have access to it, but we're looking at aerial pictures of crystal beach, texas, and and it's just flooded. cars and homes. any sense of when emergency workers will be able to check to see if anybody is trapped there? >> so those emergency workers are on the ground and operating as we speak right now. and they're going through all of those areas, making assessments about what that flooding damage is, but also whether or not anybody needs to be rescued from that flooding. >> i can only imagine how much this complicates whatever was happening with coronavirus. i mean, obviously, texas has

been hit hard by covid-19 as so many states were. so having to evacuate between 5,010,000 people, how does that work when you're trying to keep people distant and not spread covid-19? >> believe it or not, this is our second hurricane during covid-19. we had one last month that came into corpus christi and we had flooding there. we used new strategies to use in evacuations, for example, and as opposed to evacuating people to large convention centers and things like that, we tried to put as many as possible into to hotel rooms so that families can isolate together. so they're not in a congre gant setting and spreading covid-19. it worked very well in the aftermath of hurricane hannah because several weeks after hurricane hannah, the number of people testing positive for covid-19 and the hospitalizations for covid-19 actually declined and we're hoping here continued to follow the safe standards of wearing a

mask, sanitizing your hands as well as maintaining your distance. if they were able to do that, i have no doubt we could contain covid-19. >> let me give everybody a status report of covid-19 in your state. it peak -- the cases peaked some time in late june and then since then you have been steadily ticking down but in the past week it looks like you have ticked up a bit, not only in cases but in the positivity rate. as well, we have a graph for that. so what's going on? >> well, first, i will tell you with the positivity rate that's compromised a little bit by some outdated test results that have come in. the main thing to look at is the number of people hospitalized for covid-19 and we have had a steady decline since july 27th and the number of people hospitalizationed and we have the lowest number of people hospitalized since early june. the health situation for people

who have tested positive for covid-19 continues to improve. >> president trump is speaking tonight at the rnc. what do you expect him to say about coronavirus? >> yeah, i'll be candid with you, because i have been literally working around the clock on the hurricane, i haven't had a chance to tune into anything concerning politics. my focus right now is making sure we do everything possible to save lives, to continue these rescue operations and i have no doubt that i'll be talking to the president because i know that he's very concerned about the status of what happened on the ground here in texas. >> you haven't watched a single night of the rnc you're saying? >> i have been watching the hurricane, as it's approaching. one reason why we had such a good result in dealing with the hurricane is because we work a week in advance around the clock, prepositioning the national guard, what's called texas task force one and two, that engage in search and rescue

operations. as well as we added a thousand department of public safety officers into the region, especially the region where people evacuated from because we want to get in there and make sure we both prevent looting, but also stabilize the communities so we can minimize the loss of life. >> can do you think that president trump should postpone his speech tonight given what's happening in louisiana and texas? >> i think it will continue on as planned and i think he will give a terrific speech. >> governor greg abbott, we really appreciate your time. thank you for giving us a status report on all of this. >> thank you. and louisiana's governor john bel edwards is going to join us there with a status report. another day, another chance to bounce forward.

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right at this moment, hurricane laura still pummeling louisiana. it has been over the state for a full six hours and it made landfall near cameron, louisiana. the most powerful storm to hit

that state in more than 100 years. joining me now is the governor of louisiana, john bel edwards. this storm is still hitting your state. can you give me the very latest assessment of damage? >> yeah, we can. first of all, you're exactly right. we have hurricane strength winds still associated with this storm as it moves north and still causing damage, power outage and so forth. i will tell you that the damage is extensive. we know that the wind speed was as promised in the forecast. it hit as a category 4 at 150 miles an hour winds. right now we believe we have a break on the storm surge. it appears to have been half of what was forecasted but we still have a southerly flow and water is still coming into cameron and vermilion parishes. so we're not out of the woods

there yet either. as you know, it takes until daylight before you can really see and get a good estimate of the damages. we have people moving in to the lake charles area now. we have got about 1,500 people who will be engaged in search and rescue, about 400 boats and high water vehicles. they're all moving into the lake charles area now. but also we're going to have to do some of this work, search and rescue, all the way up the west side of the state as the storm moves north and clearly the power outages are going to become more extensive. and we have more restoration crews prepositioned in louisiana than ever before, but nobody should think this is going to be a quick process getting the electricity back on because the damage from the storm is extensive. it will take a while for that to happen and then i want to remind everyone that this is all happening in a covid-19

environment where we have the public health emergency as well. and so as we move people, as we shelter people, as we rescue people, we have to be very, very mindful of this. otherwise, in a couple of weeks we're going to really pay the price here with more cases and hospitalizations and unfortunately more deaths than we would otherwise experience. >> you said there are many people moving in for the possible search and rescue. what do you know now in terms of need? what kind of calls are you getting? >> well, it appears now that we have more structural damage from the wind and less of a problem related to the surge, the storm surge than we expected. of course this is in calcasieu paris around lake charles. it could be the opposite along the coast in cameron parish, where the storm surge would have made impact first. so we really -- we really don't have a full assessment yet. the good news is we didn't lose communications at all and so we were quickly talking to local

officials, trying to figure out exactly what the situation is. we can't get up and fly just yet, it's not safe to do so, but as soon as the wind speeds subside enough for us to get our national guard helicopters in the air, we're going to have a much better readout on the damages. i will tell you that we know that it's going to be extensive. this was an extremely powerful storm, but we are thankful that -- first of all, we haven't had a single report of a fatality yet. i don't know how long that's going to hold up, but that's a blessing. we also believe that the storm surge was about half of what had been forecasted and as you remember, that storm surge was characterized yesterday by the weather service as being unsurvivable. so it looks like we've got an assist there as well and certainly we'll take all of the help we can get. >> i was going to ask you about fatalities. so far, good news, no reports yet of fatalities. i know it's early, the light is

just coming up, just getting a sense of the damage there. also good news so far, the storm surge not the problem that was feared, but again, it could develop over time because the winds are still blowing a certain way and i know salt water is still being moved inland. what do you think the area of greatest need is at this moment? >> well, it's going to be going in and getting people out of homes that are no longer safe and habitable and making sure we can get them safely transported to the shelter and quite frankly because of covid-19 that shelter shouldn't look like a big, open space and we're putting multiple families, hundreds or couple thousand of people into the same shelter. we need to transition them into hotel and motel rooms which have been filled up with people that have evacuated on their own and power crews that came into the state of louisiana, the linemen,

to restore power. we're looking for hotel and motel space all across the state and moving people as quickly as we can into those areas and then just making sure that we're mindful of the covid-19. we have an immediate need that we have to take care of, but we don't want to do it in a reckless way that causes more cases of covid to, you know, impact our state than necessary. and of course, we won't know that for a couple of weeks. then finally, we have to resume our statewide testing program. we had to close those programs down because of the storm and the national guard -- in fact, we have activated the entire national guard for the state of louisiana for the first time in eight years. but they were doing an awful lot of our community testing and so we'll have to juggle all of this, resume our testing just as soon as possible and make sure we're taking care of the needs

of the people of louisiana and not just southwest louisiana. all of the western side of our state. and as you go further north, the state is not as wide and we know that we had a very disruptive winds up in rustin and monroe. i was able to speak to the president at about quarter after midnight last night. and he certainly is paying attention, we're thankful for that. but we're going to have a long road ahead of us to recover from this damage. >> john bel edwards, governor of louisiana, as you said this is not over yet. there's a hurricane still bearing on your state. we know you have to be so deliberate because of covid-19. everyone who has been in a shelter you have to completely rethink everything.

good luck and keep us posted. >> thank you so much. federal investigation under way this morning into the miss shooting of jacob blake in kenosha, wisconsin. we'll speak to a former detective from the kenosha police department about all this, next.

developing overnight, federal investigators launching a civil rights probe into the police shooting of jacob blake in kenosha, wisconsin. police shot blake seven times in his back as his young children watched in the car. but why? joining us now is russell beckman, he worked in the kenosha police department. and he was one of the driving forces behind a law that now mandates police shootings must be investigated by outside agencies. mr. beckman, great to have you here. it will be great to have your insider explanation of everything that happened in kenosha. let's start with the shooting of jacob blake. we have not gotten any information from the kenosha police department about why this happened. is that an offshoot of the law

that you helped have passed whereby they no longer investigate themselves and exonerate themselves, it's an outside agency but we still don't know why the police still did this. >> well, you may not know for actually quite a while. it's important that there be a thorough, comprehensive, objective and transparent investigation done into this. and i understand that the chief of police in kenosha wouldn't necessarily want to interfere with that investigate. his agency's not in charge. the wisconsin department of justice is, so i understand the frustration that citizens would have in not having the information. but it's important that the integrity of the investigation be protected and i think that the officials in this case involved with this are acting in a way to make sure that that integrity is not threatened. >> okay. that's fair that's a great perspective. we do know the officer's name who fired the shots, sheskey.

they found a knife on the floorboard of jacob blake's car. the front seat. given your experience on the kenosha police department for so long, would your training suggest that if there were a knife in the car that you can shoot a suspect in the back? does that explain what happened? >> well, one of the things -- an alleged weapon is a deadly weapon. i'm really hesitant to comment on the actions of the officers until all of the facts come in. we don't know exactly how far mr. blake was away from that knife, whether he intended to take control of that knife and use it. there's so many things that we don't know. and i really don't -- i'm not comfortable speculating about it, but i do know that if you do have to -- are forced to use deadly force as an officer, you use it in a way that you -- you

shoot to incapacitate. that's how officers are trained. and like i said, i just don't -- i think we need to reserve judgment until all the facts come in. i know that makes no one happy when i say that, but certainly the fact that there was a knife on the floorboard is relevant to this and certainly if there wasn't a knife it would be relevant. the bottom line is we just don't know and i think it's important to let due process, the rule of law prevail in this. to assume and to make sure there's a competent investigation going on. >> help us understand what's happened since then. what we have seen on the streets of kenosha. there was vigilanteism, there was chaos two nights ago and we saw this 17-year-old with an ar-15 be arrested for -- and charged with killing two protesters. and help us explain what we saw in that moment. i don't know if you have seen this cell phone video where the kenosha police are offering

water to we believe the suspect and other vigilantes with guns on the street and saying we sure appreciate you guys out here. why would the kenosha police want the help of armed vigilantes and say they appreciate them? >> i can't explain that. i have a different attitude than maybe officers currently employed at the kenosha police department. i wouldn't be grateful for the help of armed, untrained vigilantes whose character and motives can be questioned. i did watch exactly what you're talking about. and i was appalled by it. i also watched -- spent the entire night watching the live feed of the shooting and the events and i watched it in realtime and i was disgusted by it. now, the fact is that it bothers me that certain people, armed --

so-called armed militia can walk around cities and at events being heavily armed but yet other groups of people are not allowed to. first of all, i believe that no one should be, but yes, i think it's a problem and i think this attitude that some people are on the side of law enforcement, they get a free pass, shouldn't happen and it's clearly wrong. >> russell beckman, we really your perspective and expertise after 30 years on the force. thank you. >> thank you for having me. how is the trump administration responding to hurricane laura as well as the racial unrest in kenosha? the vice president's chief of staff joins us next.

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. hurricane laura is pummeling the state of louisiana this morning. president trump is scheduled to address the nation tonight at the rnc. it has been a rough week with the nation reeling from the hurricane, coronavirus and violence in kenosha. joining us now with what we can expect and a recap of last night

is marc short, the chief of staff for vice president mike pence. good morning, marc. >> good morning, alisyn. thanks for having me back on. >> great to have you. so we still don't know the full aftermath or damage from hurricane laura. is there any talk in the white house, any consideration of postponing or changing the president's speech at the rnc tonight? >> alisyn, i think the president looks forward to addressing the nation tonight. his remarks i'm sure will address the situation with the hurricane too. but as you know, last night the president had an opportunity to speak to the governors there. the vice president before his remarks got an update from the fema administrator pete gaynor on the ground there and the president will be getting more updates throughout the day. we encourage people in the path of the hurricane don't let your guard down. there's a lot of flooding that will still occur as it moves inland. and so we ask people to continue to heed the advice of the local and state government officials. >> let's talk about your boss, vice president pence's speech last night. one of the things that he said

that is getting attention is quote people will not be safe in joe biden's america. do you think that people feel safe in kenosha, wisconsin, this morning in donald trump's america? >> well, alisyn, i think that we have seen a lot of violence in democrat-run cities. what we are see is an unwillingness to help enforce law and order in the streets and that's what this administration will continue to do and i think the vice president last night was drawing a contrast between the america that continues to hope for more freedoms, but also continues to protect our law enforcement versus an america that we think would lead to socialism and decline and continues to attack our law enforcement. so i do think there's a very sharp contrast of divisions between the two sides and i think that that that's what you heard last night. >> to be clear, president trump is president today and he was president in may when george floyd was killed. and so why should americans think that if they re-elect him

to be president anything would be different than the -- >> come on, alisyn, i think you know as well as i do that this administration has stood strongly with law enforcement. that's why law enforcement is continuing to support this administration. what the other side has done is continue to -- continue to excuse violence in many cases against law enforcement. for the first time -- >> what do you mean, marc? >> for the first time, alisyn, you hear joe biden come out yesterday and condemn the violence. it's the first time that's happened. didn't happen in minneapolis, it didn't happen in -- >> but it's on president trump's watch. >> because you're looking at what's happening as an erosion in democratic-run cities, democratic-run cities for decades of leadership, decades of leadership that's led to the violence. it's what this administration has asked to stop. we're sending the national guard in to help make sure it's protected. it's what the administration did to end the violence in minneapolis. >> if president trump is

re-elected there won't be democratic run cities? >> of course there will. but we'll standing with the men who put their lives at risk each and every day. that's what this administration is going to do. we have not seen that. we have seen from the other side what we have seen is continued blame casting toward law enforcement. so yes, there is a stark difference as to where we're going to see the path of two different nations between the trump/pence administration versus a biden/harris administration. >> i think what you're missing, people saw with their own eyes what what happened to george floyd and they were able to see with their own eyes the piece of the cell phone video what happened to jacob blake. why didn't mike pence talk about those situations last night? >> i think you're failing to understand is this president, this administration, did condemn the violence against george floyd and what the vice president said last night if you listen to his remarks he said too many heros have died and in american's history to continue to see americans strike down on each other. that's on both sides of the equation that's what he said

last night. >> why isn't he specifically naming jacob blake and what happened to him and similarly, the vigilanteism happening in kenosha -- >> he said specifically he wants to bring an end to the violence, period. he said it must stop. that applies to vigilante justice as well. it's an all encompassing phrase to say we're calling for an end to the violence, period. we don't know all of the circumstances about what happened with mr. blake. the investigation is ongoing, but we want an end to the violence, period. as this vice president said again and again, we respect the right of people to peacefully protest. that's a hallmark of our it have but the violence must stop. >> does vice president pence support the nba players' boycott of the season? >> i don't know if the administration will weigh in on that, it was an acceptance or a

nonspeaking out against china's continued abuse and yet wrap their arms -- >> i'm talking about this. >> i know you're talking about nba, but they support china for people speaking out about their minds. >> i understand you're upset about that, but they're upset about jacob blake so why is that absurd? >> if they want to protest i don't think we care. i think at this point if they want to say we're not going to play any more games i don't think that's a position we'll speak out on one way or another. >> should president trump meet with anyone about it? >> i think we have been willing to meet with professional athletes time and again. you have seen that cooperation from the start but i think in's a discrepancy about what the nba has spoken out against and what i they don't. >> i want to ask you about the cdc guidelines and coronavirus. why did they change the guidelines this week to lessen the need for testing?

>> you know, alisyn, i think the testing is a remarkable story in our country. that in february, the vice president took control of the white house coronavirus task force. collectively, 800,000 tests have been conducted. there are other 800,000 being conducted every day. >> why lessen it? >> what cnn doesn't cover, 800,000 tests have been -- more than any other country in the world. >> why now are the guidelines saying that if you come into contact with someone -- there is not -- >> there is not lessening. people are still able to go get tests. if their doctor suggests you get a test, get a test. >> why isn't the cdc telling you that? >> the guidelines updated there's backlog in the system. >> so you have to slow it down because of a backlog? >> it's not a matter of slowing down, alisyn.

over 800,000 tests a day are being conducted. six times more than any other country in the world. when we talk about the number of the cases, many countries are not doing the same level of testing. they're only asking people to get tested coming in. just yesterday you saw the fda authorized the emergency use testing to do surveillance testing of large communities. that's what we're doing. >> one last question, i know we're running out of time. why wasn't -- why was dr. fauci under anesthesia when this decision was made? >> dr. fauci was having surgery and i heard you without out the conspiracy theory, it was like a tom clancy novel. dr. fauci had the opportunity to weigh in because we discussed this -- >> he didn't like it. >> and the document was circulated for weeks before it finally came out. >> you're saying he didn't speak up? >> no, we always listen to dr. fauci's guidance but to say he's

not part of the discussion is ridiculous. >> he's the person who said i was under anesthesia. >> he said he was under anesthesia when the final meeting happened and i'm proud to say that he'll be at today's meeting. >> i wish your time weren't up. we have so much to talk to you about, but we really appreciate you being on "new day." >> thanks, alisyn. >> thank you. >> a lot there. it was astounding that he called what the nba players are doing is silly, and he lied about what vice president biden did after george floyd. vice president biden absolutely did condemn the violence on the streets there after george floyd and he did again yesterday with kenosha. >> appreciate that. cnn's breaking news of hurricane laura continues after this quick break.

among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. this is cnn breaking news. >> a very good thursday morning to you. i'm jim sciutto. welcome the our viewers in the united states around around the world. the breaking news this morning -- hurricane laura has slammed into the gulf coast as a category 4 storms packing winds of up to 150 miles per hour. this is the most powerful hurricane to hit the state in more than a century. look at this in lake charles, louisiana. wind gusts so strong it pushes