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CNN NEWSROOM
Erdogan: Turkey Will Take Necessary Steps for Security; Last Gardener of Aleppo Dies; Brazil's President Testifies at Impeachment Trial; Muslim Group Will Sue French Towns Banning Burkinis; Trump to Make Major Speech on Immigration Wednesday; Top Clinton Aide Separates from Sexting Husband. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 30, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:07] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour --
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SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. A third hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.
There's new tensions among the allies in the battle against ISIS. Turkey's state-run news agency reports Turkish jets pounded Kurdish militants in Iraq.
SESAY: And they slammed the ISIS stronghold Monday while pushing further into northern Syria. The U.S. is raising a red-flag warning to maintain the anger on ISIS instead of Kurdish forces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We've called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on ISIL. That's the basis of our cooperation with both of them. And specifically, not to engage one another. And to -- to retain those geographic commitments that they've made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, Turkey's president has no regrets, saying his country will not differentiate between terrorist organizations when it comes to national security.
VAUSE: Nick Paton Walsh has more on the Turkish offensive which began last week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A fast- moving situation in northern Syria, Turkish interventions taking the town of Jarablus. It was clear they also wanted to tackle the Syrian Kurds. That thrust the U.S. policy into almost an impossible position. Yes, they are a fellow NATO member with Turkey and they are backing the Syrian rebels Turkey are using on the ground. But at the same time, they're also allies and giving assistance the Syrian Kurds that have proved very effective in attacking ISIS in parts of northern Syria, too. For a while, for a number of days, it looks like two sets of American allies were facing off on a front line in that particular area.
Now, it appears after an air strike yesterday in which 25 Kurdish militants were reported killed by the Turkish military, caught up after the death of a Turkish soldier and after a number of villages were seized by those Syrian rebels who were backed by Turkey, it appears the U.S. has stepped in to try and lower tensions between the Syrian Kurds they're backing and their ally, Turkey.
It appears at this stage according to Kurdish militants that they are slowly moving eastward back towards the Euphrates River. That is the natural boundary which the U.S. said is the red line, they don't want to see the Syrian Kurds they're backing cross. It's not clear at this stage if all Kurdish militants have pulled back across that natural border, but the Pentagon are suggesting that is the case and they're appeal to go Turkey and the Syrian rebels they're working with not to go too much further south.
A lot is still fluid here. A lot is hanging in the bag for U.S. policy. It appears this brought a moment of rest, but nobody is really kidding themselves here. In the last 24 hours, Turkey said it launched 61 artillery strikes. They had planes in the sky, a clear agenda and outlined just in the last few hours included removing all threats be they Syrian, Kurdish, ISIS to Turkey in the border area. That's a large agenda, indeed, and probably just doesn't stop seeing the Syrians across the Euphrates. It seems calmer, but we are looking now at a whole new chapter in the Syrian war on the ground.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Gazent (ph)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, the ongoing conflict in Syria has forced millions of people from their homes, seeking refuge in other countries, including the U.S. The Obama administration announced it has reached its goal of welcoming 10,000 Syrian refugees to the country by October 1st.
VAUSE: That's one month ahead of time. The White House also says the milestone was reached with proper vetting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Significant screening was put in place to ensure that these individuals don't pose a threat to our national security. That's the kind of screening that every refugee applicant is subjected to and we are able to meet this goal without cutting any of those corners.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And putting this 10,000 number in context, almost five million people have fled Syria to nearby countries.
[02:05:09] SESAY: More than half of those are in Turkey, some 2.7 million. That's roughly the population of Chicago. And Lebanon has taken in about one million people to nearly 17 percent of Lebanon's population. By contrast, 10,000 people is less than 100th of 1 percent of the U.S. population.
VAUSE: And among those who stayed behind in Syria, was the owner of the only plant nursery left in the rebel-held area of Aleppo.
SESAY: He worked with his son, offering the beauty of flowers to anyone who wanted to see past the destruction of war.
Christian Murphy (ph) has his story.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CHRISTIAN MURPHY (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's called Abuwad. It means father of the flowers. And his young son, Ibrahim. For five years of hellish war, this pocket of serenity has been, perhaps, the most amazing survivor in Aleppo.
Abuwad runs the city's last garden center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MURPHY (ph): His world is in rebel-held Aleppo and it's been bombed relentlessly by the Syrian regime and now the Russians.
We met during a lull in the bombing earlier this year. Of the million people who lived in this part of the city, just 250,000 remain. And throughout this time, Abuwad hasn't stopped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(MUSIC)
MURPHY (ph): Aleppo was one of the great cultural beauties of the world and one of the longest inhabitant. Today, so much has been laid to waste and thousands have been killed.
Despite all of this, Abuwad's whole existence seems dedicated to the beauty of life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MURPHY (ph): This customer chooses Rosemary plants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) MURPHY (ph): Rosemary, not for remembrance here as much as resistance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MURPHY (ph): Some Aleppoans buy the flowers and plant them on roundabouts in the city, small islands of vitality, and surely a comfort to those who, by choice or lack of it, remain in Aleppo, because to live here is to live every day with grief.
13-year-old Ibrahim gave up school to stay close to his dad. He helps in the Dwarden Center, but he's clearly weighed down by the worries of war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MURPHY (ph): Freshly cut flowers in the middle of Aleppo's war seems too extraordinary to believe. It didn't last. In the final days of May, six weeks after we met, the intense bombing by the Syrian regime and Russia began again. A bomb landed near the garden center. But Abuwad was hit and died immediately.
The nursery is closed. Nobody comes to buy flowers any more. And this is where Abuwad, the gardener of Aleppo, is buried with no blooms to decorate the graves.
Without his dad, Ibrahim, seems lost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(MUSIC)
[02:11:22] MURPHY (ph): In time, perhaps he will remember how his father described the cycle of life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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[02:15:45] SESAY: Hello, everyone. We're following breaking news. There are reports of an explosion at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan. A Russian news agency says several people are dead and wounded.
VAUSE: The exact number is still unknown. As soon as we get more information, we'll bring it to you.
SESAY: Day three of the impeachment trial of Brazil's suspended president has wrapped up after a grueling 14-hour session. Dilma Rousseff is accused of manipulating the country's budget ahead of her 2014 re-election.
VAUSE: The final Senate vote is expected on Tuesday.
CNN's Shasta Darlington has the latest from Brazil.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A dramatic finale for Dilma Rousseff, who sat through this long-running impeachment war. She was suspended last May and only now is she appearing for the first time here on the Senate floor to defend herself in person against accusations of on manipulating the budget to hide a shortfall.
In her own words, she said she felt she had to come to look her accusers in the eye and tell them she hasn't done anything that's illegal, anything that's an impeachable offense.
She took part of her 45-minute impassioned testimony to point the finger at some of the lawmakers spearheading the drive who are themselves being investigated for corruption. She said this attempt to impeach her is nothing more than a power grab, what she calls a parliamentary coup d'etat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DILMA ROUSSEFF, SUSPENDED BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: In the face of these accusations against me in this process, I cannot stop feeling in my mouth the sharp and bitter taste of injustice. That's why in the past I resist. Don't expect from me the silentness to cowards who in the past used weapons and today the rhetoric to undermine democracy in the rule of law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLINGTON: After the testimony, a lengthy Q&A with each of the 81 Senators allowed up to five minutes to ask questions, allowed as much time as she needs or wants to answer those questions.
A final vote could come as early as Tuesday or may be dragged on a bit further because of this Q&A. And yet, the conclusion is widely expected to be her impeachment. Two-thirds of Senators would need to vote in favor of that impeachment. Most of the observers say the count needs to vote in favor of that impeachment. Most observers say the count has already been done, and that by the end of the week Brazil's first female president will be removed from office. Her vice president will take over until the end of the term. That's 2018. He, of course, is the man who stepped in on a temporary basis in May, and the man that Rousseff accuses of working behind the scenes to have her ousted. He's already vowed to move social and economic policies to the right and has talked about a privatization plan.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Brasilia.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Colombia's president is defending a permanent ceasefire with FARC just days after the rebels agreed to the deal. The agreement ends 52 years of war between the government and the Marxist guerillas.
SESAY: Juan Manuel Santos spoke to CNN's Christiane Amanpour and called the most comprehensive peace deal possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN MANUEL SANTOS, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT: I have to doubt that the people will support what we have agreed Colombia is really fed up with war. We don't want any more war. And the more we explain what we achieved and the terms of the agreement, people are accepting it more and more. Because they know that perfect peace is impossible, but a good peace, like the one we just negotiated, that's the best thing for every Colombian and the world because always to have peace, is much better than to have war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Critics say the government let the rebels off too easy. The Colombians must approve the agreement for a vote scheduled for October 2nd.
[02:19:53] SESAY: Now, several French mayors are still refusing to let Muslim women wear the full body suits called burkinis despite a court ruling last week to overturn the ban in one town.
VAUSE: A Muslim rights group says it will sue every town which continues with the ban.
CNN's Jim Bittermann has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That decision by the top administrative court here on Friday against the town in the south of France to strike down a mayor's decree banning burkinis on the beaches to his city only applies to that town. And there were about 30 similar bans that were enacted by mayors across the country.
Now if the mayors defy this, and a number of them have been defying this, they were apparently going to be taken to court, each one of them, individually, by an Islamic group that started the initial suit and they'll be heard starting with a case in the court of Toulouse. The Islamic group has already four towns in their sights, and there may be more added to that as they go along.
Apart from the legal ramifications, there are tremendous political consequences. Already, all of the candidates who are declared for the 2017 presidential elections here have been asked his or her opinion on this exact issue.
And it's going to also apply to a more general issue and that is the whole issue of French identity.
So political consequences as well as illegal ones across France.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: India's tourism minister is backing off his controversial suggestion that women visiting the country shouldn't wear skirts to hold off sexual assaults. He said that over the weekend while promoting a welcoming party for tourists. He's in charge of the region where the Taj Mahal is located.
VAUSE: He says the documents outline basis safety tips, such as don't go out at night alone, don't wear skirts. There was pretty quick reaction of outrage and now the minister is walking it back, saying he would never tell women what to wear.
With just 70 days left until the U.S. presidential election, the FBI is investigating cyber breaches of election databases in Illinois and Arizona. Law enforcement officials say hackers accessed a debate for the Illinois Board of Elections.
SESAY: It contained 200,000 personal voter records including names, addresses and in some cases voters' Social Security numbers. That information can be used for identity theft.
VAUSE: A new poll shows Donald Trump has cut Hillary Clinton's post- convention lead nearly in half. The latest poll by Monmouth University shows Clinton leading Trump among likely voters by seven points. That's down from her 13-point lead a month ago.
SESAY: Meanwhile, after days of issuing mixed messages about his immigration policy, Trump is saying he will make a major speech on the issue on Wednesday.
Jim Acosta has more on that.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump may be signaling his latest shift in immigration, moving towards the idea of privatizing deportations to target criminals and away from removing all undocumented right away.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All the media wants to talk about is the 11 million people, or more or less, that are here illegally. On day one, I'm going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country.
ACOSTA: In what may be a major departure from this controversial call from a deportation force that Trump issued during the primaries, a senior campaign adviser said the GOP nominee will announce in had a speech later this week that he will secure the border first, and suggested what to do with the millions of undocumented should come, quote, "years from now."
As for Trump's proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border == TRUMP: We're going to build a great wall on the border.
ACOSTA: -- the advisers said don't bet on any cracks, adding, "It will be an impenetrable barrier consistent with the candidate's promises just in the past week."
TRUMP: It's going to be as beautiful as a wall can be.
We will build the wall 100 percent, and Mexico will be paying for the wall.
(CHEERING)
ACOSTA: In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, told Jake Tapper the policy is a work in progress, but insisted there will be no path to legalization in Trump's plan.
MIKE PENCE, (R), INDIANA GOVERNOR & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He will stand on the principals that are underpinned his commitment to end illegal immigration in this country.
ANNOUNCER: In Hillary Clinton's America, the middle class gets crushed.
ACOSTA: Still trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls, Trump is revving up his spending on new ads, aimed as winning back middle class voters.
ANNOUNCER: In Donald Trump's America, working families get tax relief, millions of jobs get created, wages go up, small businesses thrive, the American dream achievable.
ACOSTA: But Trump is still capable of stepping on his own message. Take his tweets on the killing of a relative of pro basketball star, Dwyane Wade. Over the weekend, Trump saw the crime as vindication of his outreach to minorities, tweeting, "Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will vote Trump." Hours later, he tweeted his condolences to Wade and his family.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I think you have to look at with both tweets where he expresses his condolences and he reminds everybody he's been trying to make the case that the increase in random crime and senseless murders, the poverty, the joblessness, the homelessness in some of our major cities is unacceptable to all of us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:25:37] SESAY: Jim Acosta reporting there.
Well, the marital woes of Hillary Clinton's top aide are being pushed center stage in the race for the White House. Huma Abedin is separating from her husband, former New York congressman, Anthony Weiner. Sources say she is furious and sickened over reports that Weiner sent a sexually suggestive photo of himself to a Trump supporter. VAUSE: The photo reportedly sent in July of last year shows Weiner in
bed next to their young son. Now Trump is making this a campaign issue, saying Weiner's proximity to Clinton through his wife could have put classified information and U.S. security at risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's a sick person. And, you know, she has access to classified information. How did Hillary get away with that one, nobody will ever know? But to think that it's very likely that much of this information, Anthony Weiner would know about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A close friend to Abedin tells CNN she has been living apart from Weiner for months.
SESAY: Much more on campaign 2016 coming up this hour.
For viewers in Asia, "State of the Race" with Kate Bolduan after the break.
VAUSE: And, indeed, for everyone else, still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, Donald Trump calling black voters. Meanwhile, the deadliest months in Chicago. Just ahead, what people affected by the violence think about Trump's message? VAUSE: First, American funny man Gene Wilder has died. Just ahead,
we'll look at some of his most unforgettable roles.
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[02:30:19] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause.
Let's check the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is weighing in on new sexting allegations against former New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner, allegations that have now broken up Weiner's marriage to Clinton's top aide. Trump says Clinton showed bad judgment and put U.S. security at risk by keeping Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, on her staff and that gave Weiner, quote, "access to classified information."
VAUSE: We spoke earlier with Democratic strategist, Matthew Littman; and Mathan Guhrim (ph), a Trump supporter and former chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, about why Trump is linking this latest Weiner sexting scandal to Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATHAN GUHRIM (ph), FORMER CHIEF COUNSEL TO THE STATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: One of the most significant background checks when the CIA or the FBI do for top level positions in the government is to check to see are there any issues for which you could be blackmailed, are there financial irregularities, are there sexual issues that may be embarrassing, either to the person or to the White House, and if those information can be used against them by a foreign power, by somebody who may want to hold the issue over that candidate's head, and in order to get them to do something that may not be in the state's interest.
MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So the less they say about their marriage, the better off we all are. It's obviously a terrible situation for their family. Donald Trump seems to take a lot of pride and misery about other people.
We could talk about Dwyane Wade's cousin being shot and how happy Trump seemed and sent out a tweet saying I told you so, instead of expressing sympathy. In this case, we're talking about the disillusion of a family, something you should be sympathetic towards. The idea that Trump should be commenting on someone else's marriage because she works for Hillary Clinton with security clearance is absolutely ridiculous.
VAUSE: Is reporting on the marital trouble of Abedin and Weiner any different than reporting on the domestic violence of Steve Bannon, who is now running the Trump campaign?
LITTMAN: Well, reporting on it. But the idea that she could be blackmailed or bribed -- the Anthony Weiner thing is obviously news. There's a documentary called "Weiner." And in that one, he's running for mayor of New York. He already had one sexting scandal while they're doing this documentary.
VAUSE: I think it was two.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: At that point.
(CROSSTALK)
LITTMAN: And the next one breaks. It's an incredible documentary. Now this one breaks. His story is incredible. I feel terrible for the family. It has nothing to do with the campaign. SESAY: I couldn't agree more. As we talk about the Trump campaign
and just statements made in the last couple of days, I want to bring up the tweet put out by the Trump surrogate, Mark Burns, which showed Hillary Clinton in black face and it is obviously generous in a firestorm of criticism for him. He has now put out an apology. I want you to take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK BURNS, TRUMP SURROGATE: Obviously, many people were offended by my tweet and it was not at all my intention. I really am a shepherd to God's people. And the last thing I want to do is to offend people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Methan (ph), this episode deepens the perception that the people around Donald Trump and by extension the candidate himself have no understanding of African-American communities, no understanding of how to win their votes and how to speak to them.
GUHRIM (ph): Well, first of all, the pastor is African-American himself. And that doesn't --
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: So there can't be a disconnect.
GUHRIM (ph): Well, that's true. But the issue is, you can't separate and they have and the fact that he did it I don't think is necessarily has a clandestine racial motive to it, the fact that it was done and it being unfortunate is absolutely true no matter who did it. I think we're at a space in this country, a lot of us had hoped seven and a half years ago when a lot of folks came together and voted for President Obama to be the first avenue can American president and, you know, put through a lot of the racial issues behind us and be proud of the United States, given its history less than 250 years in its history, we've come to a place where we can elect an African-American president whereas most of our foreign countries in Europe cannot say that, get over some of their dark past histories. So a lot of us can be proud of that. Unfortunately, the racial issues continue to pervade our elections. And I don't know when that ends. I think it would be great if President Obama stood up and tried to put the racial issues behind us for both parties and not get into --
(CROSSTALK)
[02:35:41] LITTMAN: Trump is running --
(CROSSTALK)
LITTMAN: Part of what he's running on is sexism, racism, anti- Semitism as part of his campaign. He's very much supported by white supremacists. Let's remember that Trump sent out a tweet that said 88 percent of homicides against white people are committed by African- Americans. It turns out it's almost the exact opposite, right? What was the point of sending out that tweet? I think we all know what he's trying to do. We talk about race in this campaign, Trump has a history of dealing with racial issues poorly. His advisers on his campaign, he says he hires the best people. These are about the worst people I've ever seen working on a campaign. And this guy appears to be another bad employee or adviser to Trump.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Our thanks to the gentleman there.
Murders in Chicago on track to hit their highest level in nearly 20 years. The "Chicago Tribune" is reporting 65 people have died from gun violence so far this had month. That includes the cousin of NBA star, Dwyane Wade, Nykea Aldridge.
VAUSE: Aldridge was killed Friday by gunfire as she was pushing her newborn daughter in a stroller not far from a school. Donald Trump tweeted this in response to the shooting, "Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago, just what I have been saying. African-Americans will vote for Trump!"
SESAY: Trump's tweet was the latest message in his strategy to appeal to black voters.
VAUSE: CNN's Randi Kaye talked to three Chicago mothers to see if it's reaching its intended audience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do any of you trust what Donald Trump is telling you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
KAYE (voice-over): Donald Trump's message to African-Americans is lost on these women, three mothers from Chicago who each lost a son to gun violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not a reality show. This is real life. This is our everyday lives. Our innocent children doing the right things gunned down in a city that they love so much. You know, it's not a joke to us.
KAYE: Certainly not to Annette Holt, who has met with Hillary Clinton on the violence plaguing her community.
(on camera): Donald Trump paints himself as this law and order candidate. Is he the guy who is going to rescue these communities that are struggling?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would think he doesn't even know what our communities are going through. KAYE (voice-over): Still, that hasn't stopped Trump from making his
pitch, asking for the vote of every single African-American. Listen to what he said at a recent rally.
TRUMP: What the hell do you have to lose?
KAYE (on camera): Do you feel, Pam, that you have nothing to lose?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Donald Trump is disvaluing our community. He has not come here. He's been running for 14 months. Donald Trump has not been to the south side of Chicago. He hasn't been here. How can you talk about us when you haven't talked to us?
KAYE (voice-over): Trump talks about poverty in the black community, bad schools and youth unemployment. But these women say that isn't the whole story.
Pam's son was in college when he was killed. Shot as he left choir practice. Annette's son was a 16-year-old honor student killed on his school bus. Danielle's son was in his second year of college and working two jobs when he was shot dead leaving a party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pain that you get from losing a loved one never goes away. It's going to always be there forever. It's just heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking and sad to see this continues to happen each and every day.
KAYE: Trump says he can fix it and knows a guy inside Chicago P.D. with a plan, though Chicago police have denied this.
(on camera): When you hear someone like Donald Trump say he talked to a top cop in the Chicago police who knows how to fix it in a week, he didn't exactly share what that plan was or even if he knows the plan but do you buy that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. He's wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he knew how to fix it, why is he talking about it? Do it.
KAYE: Pam, do you think Donald Trump has a point at all given that the Democrats in leadership here have not been able to fix it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He don't have a point. He don't have a clue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard enough to lose your child but for somebody to take it lightly and make it like a political agenda now that he sees that maybe it might work to help advance him, it's ridiculous. It really is. Where was your heart before this?
KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: One NFL player's decision to sit in protest during the national anthem is fueling that race debate rate here. 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick says he is drawing attention to conditions within the black community.
[02:40:05] SESAY: But he's also facing backlash.
One mother says Kaepernick is out of line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I read that he said he couldn't stand for a flag that he didn't have pride this, right away, my heart kind of stopped and I lost my breath because the flag that I see is the flag that draped my son's casket in honor. And I see the flag that was handed to my husband and I, with deep respect from a grateful nation. So instead of saying what is wrong and telling us how everything is oppressive, I agree that we have a lot of work to do. But let's try to do it in a positive manner, support each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Kaepernick says he meant no disrespect to the servicemen and women and their families, but that hasn't slowed criticism.
SESAY: No, it hasn't. He does have supporters though. Film director, Spike Lee, says black athletes should be speaking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPIKE LEE, FILM DIRECTOR: I support him. I find it so interesting how people want to pick and choose what rights people have. Anytime you talk about anti-gun violence, people run around screaming about they don't want their second amendment rights to be infringed upon. The same way John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their black gloved 50s in the six Olympics in Mexico, the same way Mohammed Ali refused to fight for a war that was crazy --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: The Vietnam War.
LEE: Yes, the Vietnam War. These are rights Americans have.
COOPER: You see what he is doing, what Colin Kaepernick is doing is in that tradition.
LEE: Yes. It's in that tradition of black athletes standing up, using their platform, and saying I'm not happy with the way black people are being treated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And he says he'll keep doing it --
SESAY: Yes, he does. VAUSE: -- until conditions improve.
SESAY: We're going to take a quick break now. The mother of one of Nigeria's missing Chibouk girls is taking action. What she's doing to try and bring her daughter home, next on CNN NEWSROOM.
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[02:46:02] SESAY: More than two years have passed since Boko Haram abducted hundreds of school girls from their beds in northern Nigeria. For much of that time, there's been largely no news of the girls' whereabouts. In April of this year, CNN obtained a proof-of- life video which showed a handful of the girls. Just weeks ago, Boko Haram released a second video in which one of the girls pleaded with the parents of the girls to intervene so that they may be released from the militant group. Now, Mira's mother is speaking out with a personal message for her daughter and the Nigerian government.
Joining me to discuss this video is international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe.
Emmanuel, thank you, as always for joining us.
It is hard to imagine the feelings of grief and frustration the families of the abducted Chibouk girls are dealing with. Explains why Esther felt the need to send this message to her daughter and the Nigerian federal government.
EMMANUEL OGEBE, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, yes. The thing is, for the parents, it's particularly traumatic because after two videos from the terrorists, there isn't a clear indication that the government is actively working to negotiate the release of these girls. And forester, it was particularly hard breaking that her own daughter was picked to be the spokesperson and to channel that message directly to her. Part of the challenge has been that the president of Nigeria told CNN that he hasn't watched the first proof-of-life video, so the parents are saying, if he didn't watch the first one, how are we sure that he's going to watch his step.
SESAY: So, Emmanuel, you said the Nigerian government has had little to no contact with the families of the missing girls since the two videos emerged. Do you know why?
OGEBE: Well, the president has famously said that he doesn't like to meet the parents of the girls because it troubles him emotionally. Now, considering that he's a retired General and considering that, you know, the parents of these children have to go through this trauma every day, it was not a very heartening comment to make. Yesterday or so, one of his aides apparently tweeted that the president loves to look at cartoons in the newspaper. So when you put all these pieces together, it doesn't show you a president who is very engaged on this issue.
SESAY: Our hearts remain with the families of the missing Chibouk girls. Emmanuel, thank you so much for being able to just share just what
they're going through at this point in time, and let's hope that this video elicits a response if it is Nigerian federal government.
Thank you so much, Emmanuel.
VAUSE: And when we come back here on CNN NEWSROOM, we will remember the beloved actor and comedian, Gene Wilder.
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[02:57:58] VAUSE: Well, an oddly shaped cloud in the skies over Siberia this weekend had some Russian onlookers terrified and fascinated. It was basically a huge mushroom-shaped formation. Really? That's it? Oh, there it is. Looks like a big nuclear blast. OK.
SESAY: One person told CNN she thought it was smoke from an explosion, but later realized it was a natural phenomenon. The cloud formation is completely natural and caused by a strong thunderstorm updraft. Never knew that.
VAUSE: Except for when it's caused by a nuclear explosion, which it wasn't.
Sad ending. The world has lost one of its best. Gene Wilder died from complications from Alzheimer's. He was 83.
SESAY: Legendary producer and director, Mel Brooks, worked with Wilder in some of his most famous movies. Here is what he said about the loss of his friend. "Gene Wilder, one of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film he did with his magic and he blessed me with his friendship."
VAUSE: Jeanne Moos has a look back at some of his unforgettable roles.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Willie Wonka" has left this world --
(SINGING)
MOOS: Actor Gene Wilder changed it with his performances, from his Oscar nominated role in "The Producers" to his other Oscar nominated role "Young Frankenstein."
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Dr. Frankenstein?
GENE WILDER, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: Frankenstein. You must be Egor.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: No, it's pronounced Igor.
MOOS: Wilder died at the age of 83 from complications of Alzheimer's. Though his nephew said it never stole his ability to recognize those closest to him.
There was nothing wild about Wilder in person. He had a sweetness about him, even when deflecting a question.
WILDER: Are you asking me if I want to have a baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, yeah.
WILDER: Well, I'll tell you after the interview.
MOOS: He was an actor who painted water colors, who married four times. His third wife was SNL favorite Gilda Radner, who got ovarian cancer, even as Wilder himself successfully battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
WILDER: I said, I'll sign right now, I'll exchange life spans with you. The irony is I meant it. I thought she would pull through and live longer than I would.
[02:55:17] MOOS: Five years into the marriage, she was gone. Wilder's fourth wife survives him.
"There's a big hole in comedy's heart at the loss of Gene Wilder," tweeted comedian, Larry Wilmore.
Wilder blazed his way through Mel Brooks comedies, a hard drinker with a quick draw.
(GUNFIRE)
MOOS: No wonder kids liked him. He was an expert in not growing up.
WILDER: A lot of men are babies. To grow up, it's something that comes easier to women.
(SINGING)
MOOS: A toast to your imagination, Gene Wilder. You'll live in ours.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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SESAY: Such a sweetness to him.
VAUSE: Really was, huh? A big loss. Sad to see him go.
SESAY: Very much so.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. The news continues with the one and only Rosemary Church in a moment.
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[03:00:12] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Barack Obama prepares to meet his Turkish counterpart --
