Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'We've never done a pool' - CEO in charge of Trump's reflecting pool
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: President Trump threatening prison time for anyone damaging renovated sites
- 0:04Speaker 1: in the nation's capital. Writing Security is watching very carefully
- 0:07Speaker 1: for the almost seventy other monument statues and fountains that
- 0:10Speaker 1: we renovated throughout Washington, DC. If anyone attacks any of them,
- 0:14Speaker 1: they get as much as ten years in jail. In
- 0:16Speaker 1: any event, go check it out. The reflecting pool is magnificent. Well,
- 0:20Speaker 1: it comes as we're learning more about what was a
- 0:24Speaker 1: very little known company that is now trying to save
- 0:27Speaker 1: the reflecting pool from an algae infestation.
- 0:30Speaker 2: Some Lenserfati is out front.
- 0:34Speaker 3: In the middle of the political title wave. This man
- 0:37Speaker 3: is in charge of keeping water in the reflecting pool
- 0:39Speaker 3: crystal clear.
- 0:40Speaker 4: We've never done a pool, but the water is relatively
- 0:44Speaker 4: the same as the water that you would see out
- 0:46Speaker 4: in a regular blake somewhere. You're treating it for algae
- 0:48Speaker 4: and bacteria.
- 0:49Speaker 2: How clean? Does President Trump want to get this fact?
- 0:51Speaker 4: I don't know the answer to that question yet, but
- 0:53Speaker 4: since it was really blue last week, I think he
- 0:56Speaker 4: liked that.
- 0:56Speaker 3: In his first TV interview, Chaz Antonone, CEO of Greenwater Services,
- 1:02Speaker 3: defended its patented ozone nanobubbler, a new technology that's costing
- 1:06Speaker 3: one point seven million dollars in that the Trump administration
- 1:10Speaker 3: is building as the state of the art fix for
- 1:12Speaker 3: the algae ridden pool.
- 1:13Speaker 4: I zoned a three thousand times faster and fifty times
- 1:16Speaker 4: more powerful than chlorine, and it's able to stay in
- 1:18Speaker 4: the water, travel through the water, find the toxins that
- 1:21Speaker 4: it needs. Us why wherever, We'll treat it from both
- 1:23Speaker 4: ends and treat the whole.
- 1:24Speaker 3: Col But the project has been plagued with other problems too,
- 1:28Speaker 3: from the new blue bottom peeling up to Trump blaming
- 1:31Speaker 3: without evidence left wing vandals. The reflecting pool was so
- 1:34Speaker 3: beautiful they tried to destroy it, prompting Trump to announce
- 1:38Speaker 3: the need to drain the pool again.
- 1:39Speaker 1: We'll fix it right after the fourth of July.
- 1:42Speaker 3: Meanwhile, the small Ohio company has been thrust into the
- 1:45Speaker 3: national spotlight for their role.
- 1:47Speaker 2: What's your understanding of why the virginal blow happened?
- 1:50Speaker 4: How it happened? I don't know. It could be someone
- 1:53Speaker 4: could have come from the pipes, becauld, somebody have dumped
- 1:55Speaker 4: some stuff in there. Anything's possible. In the middle of
- 1:57Speaker 4: the night.
- 1:58Speaker 3: In April, the company was given a note bid contract
- 2:00Speaker 3: from the Trump administration by passing a competitive bidding process.
- 2:05Speaker 3: The company's co owner is JJ Kafaro, a longtime supporter
- 2:09Speaker 3: and donor to President Trump and neighbor living near his
- 2:12Speaker 3: mar Alago club. JJ Cafaro from Florida.
- 2:15Speaker 2: And from Cleveland.
- 2:16Speaker 1: He's a man who made a lot of money in Cleveland,
- 2:19Speaker 1: does a good job, and a fantastic man.
- 2:21Speaker 3: In two thousand and one, Kafaro pleaded guilty to conspiracy
- 2:24Speaker 3: to bribe Representative James Trafficant and separately pleaded guilty in
- 2:29Speaker 3: twenty ten for a campaign finance violation. The Interior Department
- 2:33Speaker 3: says the White House was not involved in the selection
- 2:35Speaker 3: process for any contract and did not weigh in on
- 2:38Speaker 3: the company selected. Full Stop and the company has also
- 2:42Speaker 3: tried to distance itself from Kafaro, saying he is an
- 2:45Speaker 3: Ohio based businessman who invested in the Ohio based company
- 2:49Speaker 3: after the owner showed him research done on local Ohio
- 2:52Speaker 3: bodies of water. A spokesperson for the company said he
- 2:55Speaker 3: has no involvement in the day to day operations. Earlier
- 2:58Speaker 3: this month, Kafaro defended his company's technology, saying he believes
- 3:03Speaker 3: the public scrutiny over the reflecting pool is from people
- 3:06Speaker 3: who don't seem to like Trump, and there's been some
- 3:12Speaker 3: speculation that the Trump administration perhaps possibly added to the
- 3:16Speaker 3: problems down here at the reflecting pool.
- 3:18Speaker 2: There had been four temporary.
- 3:20Speaker 3: Ozone nanabibular machines that were seen in the reflecting pool
- 3:24Speaker 3: behind me, but those were instructed by the National Park
- 3:27Speaker 3: Service to be taken out for a twenty four hour
- 3:30Speaker 3: period in mid June, and that was the same time
- 3:32Speaker 3: that the President had hosted a big UFC photo.
- 3:36Speaker 2: Op down here on the National Mall.
- 3:38Speaker 3: Now meantime, the company has said that the permanent nanoozone
- 3:42Speaker 3: technology is in place. It was actually installed off of
- 3:46Speaker 3: the reflecting pool. You'll see in this area behind me.
- 3:49Speaker 3: That is where the permanent machine is in place, and
- 3:52Speaker 3: we got exclusive photos of that being installed.
- 3:54Speaker 5: Darin CNN has exclusive new reporting on the more than
- 3:57Speaker 5: fourteen million dollars no big contract innovations the DC reflecting Pool,
- 4:01Speaker 5: which has now been fenced off. Company that worked on
- 4:04Speaker 5: the pool more than fifteen years ago was apparently approached
- 4:07Speaker 5: about the current remodel, but refused the job, partly because
- 4:11Speaker 5: the rush to have it completed by July fourth, and
- 4:13Speaker 5: partly because the Trump administration wanted the bottom of the
- 4:15Speaker 5: pool to be blue. The project is a priority obviously
- 4:19Speaker 5: for President Trump. But since the repairs, green algae returned
- 4:22Speaker 5: to the pool in pieces of the American flag blue
- 4:24Speaker 5: lining have been seen peeling off. The pools expected to
- 4:27Speaker 5: be drained and repaired again after July fourth celebrations seen
- 4:31Speaker 5: in Sunland. Serfati is there now? So what do you
- 4:34Speaker 5: learn about this other company?
- 4:38Speaker 3: Yeah, Anderson, This is a New Jersey based company called SICCA,
- 4:41Speaker 3: and they were part of these renovations many years ago
- 4:44Speaker 3: during the Obama administration, and they were actually contacted by
- 4:49Speaker 3: the Trump administration to have part and take part in
- 4:52Speaker 3: this renovation now. And two employees who spoke with us
- 4:56Speaker 3: in a condition that we would not reveal their identities
- 4:59Speaker 3: of that company said that the company considered it, they
- 5:02Speaker 3: looked at the proposal, but they ultimately decided against it,
- 5:05Speaker 3: against being involved this time around for two specific reasons. One,
- 5:09Speaker 3: as you said, the demands of the Trump administration that
- 5:12Speaker 3: this project and someone sorry I.
- 5:15Speaker 5: Got to ask you about Hey, Solon, I just got
- 5:17Speaker 5: to ask you what's going on down there, because obviously
- 5:19Speaker 5: someone's got a megaphone.
- 5:20Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you asked.
- 5:21Speaker 3: I'm sorry for the audio, but I do want to
- 5:24Speaker 3: explain what's going on over here and my foota journalist Mannaquin,
- 5:27Speaker 3: move the camera over.
- 5:28Speaker 2: There's a bit of a protest, a small for.
- 5:30Speaker 3: Which as some people wearing Algae shirts out here Team.
- 5:35Speaker 2: Algae shirts and other shirts.
- 5:36Speaker 3: We've been watch them for about twenty minutes now. They
- 5:39Speaker 3: seem to be Aaron grievance. It's written large against the
- 5:42Speaker 3: Trump administration. Certainly the Reflecting Pool among some of the
- 5:46Speaker 3: top concerns here, but they have listed a whole bunch
- 5:49Speaker 3: of concerns from the Trump administration as well.
- 5:52Speaker 2: As Epstein files.
- 5:54Speaker 3: There have been many tours here that have got into
- 5:57Speaker 3: minor spormishes with them. Two young adults him by just
- 6:00Speaker 3: a few minutes ago waving US flags.
- 6:02Speaker 2: Chanting USA USA.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Really speaks to how this reflecting Pool Anderson has become
- 6:08Speaker 3: the epicenter of a lot of the political grievances about
- 6:11Speaker 3: President Trump, also the epicenter of people, you know, worried
- 6:15Speaker 3: about the direction of the country, and certainly has become
- 6:18Speaker 3: a flashpoint here. Many tourists I talked to said they
- 6:22Speaker 3: came down to the Reflecting Pool because for the first time,
- 6:24Speaker 3: because of all the controversy this iconic landmark has created
- 6:28Speaker 3: in the last few months. But back on your questions
- 6:31Speaker 3: about this company in New Jersey who.
- 6:33Speaker 2: Turned down the opportunity to again work on this reflecting pool.
- 6:37Speaker 3: They turned it down because of the July fourth deadline
- 6:40Speaker 3: that the Trump administration wanted this to be completed by.
- 6:43Speaker 3: They also turned it down specifically because the request was
- 6:46Speaker 3: to paint.
- 6:47Speaker 2: The bottom of the pool blue.
- 6:49Speaker 3: Two employees that we spoke to said that those demands
- 6:51Speaker 3: were unfeasible and that's why they decided to sit this out.
- 6:55Speaker 3: And should be noted that this is a company with
- 6:57Speaker 3: institutional knowledge about this reflect equal and the renovations, so
- 7:02Speaker 3: that just one more layer here into the criticism that's
- 7:05Speaker 3: stacking up against this project. And today we saw many
- 7:08Speaker 3: Hill Democrats in the House Oversight Committee start to request
- 7:12Speaker 3: many documents and information from the contractors who were solicited
- 7:16Speaker 3: to get involved and ultimately accepted the contracts to get
- 7:20Speaker 3: involved with this next round of renovations.
- 7:23Speaker 1: This has gone from a routine renovation to allegations of criminology,
- 7:29Speaker 1: fertilizer sabotage. I mean, I don't even know what kind
- 7:32Speaker 1: of a thriller. It sounds like I'm talking about right now,
- 7:34Speaker 1: box cutter threats of a decade in prison. Have you
- 7:37Speaker 1: ever seen a president so fixated on something like this
- 7:42Speaker 1: or on monuments to himself?
- 7:46Speaker 5: No.
- 7:47Speaker 6: And the answer to almost every question that begins in
- 7:50Speaker 6: the last decade of have you ever seen is no,
- 7:54Speaker 6: there's really not a president here in America. This is
- 7:58Speaker 6: a a kind of weaponized narcissism in many ways, it's
- 8:04Speaker 6: a consuming narcissism that the president is indulging in. The
- 8:10Speaker 6: problem is, you know, he's living in a reality show.
- 8:14Speaker 6: The problem is it's our reality. And I think as
- 8:18Speaker 6: we approach this two hundred and fiftieth weekend, I hope
- 8:22Speaker 6: that we can remember what we need to return to,
- 8:27Speaker 6: which is an actual engagement with the principles that the
- 8:33Speaker 6: country has to be about giving as well as taking,
- 8:37Speaker 6: and this president is very much about taking