Hurricane Helene moves to Georgia after historic Florida landfall | The Excerpt

On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida's Big Bend coast as a Category 4 storm Thursday. USA TODAY Senior National News Reporter Rebecca Morin breaks down new exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University polling from Arizona . The Biden administration announces new military aid for Ukraine , including bombs with the range to reach inside Russia. There's a $20 million reward in a plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton . New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted . Dan Morrison, an editor in USA TODAY's Washington bureau, puts the charges in context. Check out The Excerpt on YouTube .

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Friday, September 27th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, hurricane Helene makes landfall. Plus, we break down exclusive new polling from Arizona. And, we put the charges surrounding New York City Mayor Eric Adams in context.

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Hurricane Helene made landfall last night as the first known category 4 storm to hit Florida's Big Bend region since records began in 1851. After carrying 140 mile an hour winds at one point, the National Hurricane Center set in a 3:00 AM Eastern Time update that it had sustained winds of 80 miles per hour. Helene is moving into Georgia early this morning as a category 1. The storm forced closures of schools, airports, and roadways across Florida after Helene rapidly intensified within hours Thursday as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico. And more than 70,000 people across four counties fled under mandatory evacuations. President Joe Biden approved emergency declarations ahead of Helene's landfall for Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama to mobilize federal emergency management resources. Helene is expected to turn Northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley later today and tomorrow. You can find all the latest on usatoday.com.

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We're into the final stretch before election day. And an exclusive new USA TODAY Suffolk University poll gives us some insight into one of the crucial battleground states, Arizona. I spoke with USA TODAY senior national news reporter Rebecca Morin for more.

Rebecca, thanks for hopping on today.

Rebecca Morin:

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Rebecca, what did this polling find about who's leading in Arizona with less than six weeks to go until election day?

Rebecca Morin:

In our new polling, president Trump is leading by 6 percentage points against Vice President Kamala Harris. I think this kind of shows a little bit of how the election is shifting. We saw a big bump after Vice President Harris jumped into the race after President Biden dropped out in late July that we're seeing a little bit of that bump kind of plateau and we're starting to see voter sentiments shift a little. It's going to be a really close race though.

Taylor Wilson:

Yes. How does all that compare with Maricopa County? This is of course the state's most populated county. It includes the Phoenix area, and we know it can be a really crucial decider for kind of which way Arizona swings in elections.

Rebecca Morin:

Yeah, it's a bellwether county. So that's a really important indicator of what we're going to see across the state. And Trump is still leading in that county. He is leading by a smaller margin though. Statewide he was leading 6 percentage points in the county. He's leading about 4 percentage points. And so it's a much tighter race. It's still within the margin of errors, so it can kind of go either way. It's not a great indicator of what we're going to see a full indicator, but it's a good snapshot of where people's sentiments are right now.

Taylor Wilson:

Rebecca, we know Arizona has a sizable Latino voting block. Where did Latino voters land in this polling and how significant will they be as a voting block for whoever wins the state?

Rebecca Morin:

Latino voters make up about 1.3 million of eligible voters in Arizona, about a quarter of voters in the state. And right now, Vice President Harris still has a pretty good lead over former President Trump, but it's still less than half. About 47% said they support Harris in our latest polling in the state. 29% said they support Trump. And so she's still leading in the state, but it's a little bit lower than the national average that she's seen among Latino voters. And in the past, I've spoken to experts who've basically said that she needs about 2/3 of Latino voters if she wants to see the same outcome that Joe Biden had in 2020.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. In terms of the issues, what do voters in the Grand Canyon state really care about this fall, Rebecca?

Rebecca Morin:

Well, the two top issues were the economy and inflation. I spoke to several respondents of this poll. That was one of their biggest concerns. Some voters who voted for President Biden the last time who are now voting for President Trump because they are fearful or want a different direction of the economy, that's a really big one. The second-biggest concern for voters is immigration. That's also an area that Vice President Harris has struggled in. Recent polling has shown that people trust Donald Trump a little bit more on that issue versus Vice President Harris. And so that's another really big issue that's top of mind for Arizona voters.

Taylor Wilson:

Of course, abortion access is a big issue in the state as it is nationwide right now. How did voters respond on this issue?

Rebecca Morin:

Yeah, because they're going to vote on a constitution amendment in November, and more than half of Arizonans support that amendment, which would allow for the right to abortion. I spoke to a couple of people who are voting for former President Trump saying they support him, but they were also pro-choice and are supporting this amendment. I think the majority of people in the state really want to see some sort of movement on that policy.

Taylor Wilson:

Really Rebecca, can you help us understand why we're talking about Arizona right now? How important is Arizona to either candidate's election success in November?

Rebecca Morin:

Arizona is part of the seven battlegrounds that both Vice President Harris and former President Trump are vying for. It's an important state to reach 270 electoral votes, and so it's going to play a really big role. I think it's really important because it also has a lot of Latino voters. We're seeing that as a big growing voting block across the nation. It's going to be a really important state. Are there other pathways if let's say a candidate loses that state, of course, but it narrows those pathways, right? And so it's going to play a crucial role on who we see elected in November.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Rebecca Morin is a senior national news reporter covering politics for USA TODAY. Thank you, Rebecca.

Rebecca Morin:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The Biden administration yesterday announced a new wave of military aid for Ukraine that will total nearly $8 billion and include bombs with the range to reach inside Russia. The announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House to press for permission to fire long-range precision weapons into Russia, a long-standing plea that has gone unanswered. Ukraine wants the ability to strike airfields ammunition depots deeper inside Russia that have been used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to stage devastating attacks on residential neighborhoods and power plants.

President Joe Biden in a statement announced that he would send more than $5 billion in weapons from Pentagon stocks to Ukraine under authority granted by Congress before his term ends in January. In addition, the Pentagon will contract for another $2.4 billion for air defense weapons, drones, and bombs. One weapon Biden announced is a long-range bomb known as the Joint Standoff Weapon, which can be released from more planes and fly to targets as far as 80 miles away. Current White House policy restricts Ukraine to striking targets in Russia close to its border. For more on the Ukrainian and US calculations for the latest moves, check out my conversation with USA TODAY Pentagon correspondent Tom Vanden Brook in the Thursday episode of The Excerpt.

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The Biden administration yesterday offered a $20 million reward for a member of Iran's Elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps charged in a murder-for-hire plot targeting former National Security Advisor, John Bolton. The bounty for Shahram Poursafi comes two days after former President Donald Trump said he'd been briefed by US intelligence officials about real and specific Iranian threats to his life. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the administration is tracking an ongoing threat by Iran against a number of senior US officials and former officials. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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New York Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on a number of charges including bribery and campaign finance violations. I spoke with Dan Morrison, an editor in USA TODAY's Washington Bureau to put the indictment in context. Dan, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Dan Morrison:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Dan, just starting with some of the basics, what exactly has Eric Adams been charged with here?

Dan Morrison:

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has been hit with five federal counts involving bribery, wire fraud, and foreign campaign donations. He's basically charged with bribery and campaign finance violations. He's alleged to have taken a significant amount of money from the Turkish government and Turkish figures, which is illegal, and then used those straw donations to get $10 million in matching funds from the taxpayers of New York for his 2021 campaign for mayor. In return, he has worked to help the Turkish government. As alleged in the indictment, he leaned on the fire department to sign off on the opening of a new Turkish consulate in New York, that's a skyscraper, more than 20 stories, without a fire inspection because the Turks knew that the building would fail an inspection, but they needed it open in time for a visit to New York by their president in September of 2021.

So Eric Adams, who had by then won the Democratic primary in New York, which is tantamount to coronation, everyone knew he was going to be the mayor, so even before he was mayor, he leaned on the fire department to stop this inspection from happening, and the building went into service without a fire inspection.

Taylor Wilson:

Can you help us put this moment in context historically, Dan? I mean, just how significant really is this moment?

Dan Morrison:

So it's a big deal. New York has its share of municipal scandals. The mayor is usually don't get burned. We're in a period where we've just seen the police commissioner resign. Adams' school's chancellor has also announced his resignation, which will take place at the end of the year. The school's chancellor's brother is the deputy mayor for criminal justice. The school's chancellor's partner is the first deputy mayor of the city of New York. And all of these figures, including the mayor, have been the target of federal raids, seizing their phones and other devices. A number of them had their homes searched. There are a number of investigations swirling around the Adams administration, and this indictment is just the first of many issues that are expected to drop.

Taylor Wilson:

And Dan, have we heard from Eric Adams himself after this unsealed indictment? How is he responding?

Dan Morrison:

He says he's innocent. He says that he has not accepted any foreign campaign donations. He says he's going to keep working for 8 million New Yorkers and that he'll press on. In the background, things are happening. His chief legal counsel resigned recently, which is taken as a sign that she cannot confidently represent him, I believe. And there are just more seizures, more news of people talking to grand juries and the furor around the mayor isn't about to end.

Taylor Wilson:

As we've outlined, Adams has faced questions about his fundraising and other practices since before he was even elected mayor back in 2021, Dan. What sorts of questions have we previously seen circle around Adams even long before this indictment was unsealed and really just how did we get to this point?

Dan Morrison:

So Adams' previous electoral post was as the Brooklyn Borough president, which is essentially an ombudsman for the Borough of Brooklyn, which is akin to a county in the United States. And it's a good pedestal for higher office. And even when he held that post, there were questions about how money was coming into his office, how Borough Hall, which is a sort of stately building in downtown Brooklyn, was being rented out for different events and where the money was going. He's always been seen as an unusual person and an unusual politician. He's a proper blue collar sort of figure. And after three terms with the billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and then two terms of his successor, who was a person from the Park Slope, the more well-heeled section of Brooklyn and sort of a Hillary Clinton liberal, the voters chose a guy who maybe looked more like them. And he won the Democratic primary by 7,000 votes and then waltzed in the general election, and here we are.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, so going forward, what's next here, Dan? And really, what does all this mean for New York City and it's mayor job? Is Adam still in charge?

Dan Morrison:

Eric Adams is the mayor of New York. He has indicated he won't resign. A trial date hasn't been set. If people want him out, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, would have to move to oust him in what is a very complicated process and perhaps a politically fraught process as well. No one's making any noise about trying to forcibly remove him. There are many, many calls for Eric Adams resignation, not least by several challengers who intend to challenge him in the upcoming Democratic primary.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Dan Morrison is an editor in USA TODAY's Washington Bureau. Thank you, Dan.

Dan Morrison:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Before we go, did you know The Excerpt is on YouTube? All of our episodes, podcasts and vodcasts are posted every day to our playlist on the site. We have a link in today's show notes.

And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Helene moves to Georgia after historic Florida landfall | The Excerpt