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CNN NEWSROOM
The Two Sides of Donald Trump in Different Rallies; James Clapper Voice Concerns Over Trump's Fitness; New Development in Russia Probe Involving One Trump Aide; Jared Kushner Meet Middle Eastern Leaders; Charlottesville Covers Confederate Monument; Examining Race Relations In The U.S.; Crowds Gather Outside Nfl Head Quaters To Support Kaepernick; U.S. Defense Secretary To Meet With Ukrainian Preisdent; U.N. Warns Thousands Of Children At Risk In Yemen; Samsung Has A New Galaxy Note Smart Phone; Campaign's Cringe-Worthy Moment. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 24, 2017 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, HOST, CNN: Ahead this hour, Donald trump tones it down. A new speech and a different message from the U.S. president but how long will this softer approach last?
It was the custody battle in the middle of a diplomatic standoff. Elian Gonzalez return to Cuba from the U.S. 17 years ago. We ask him what he thinks of relations between the two countries now.
Plus, a U.S. football player takes a stand by taking a knee. Now Colin Kaepernick supporters think he's being black balled by the NFL because of his protest.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN Newsroom.
And we begin this hour with the tale of two Trumps. One day after his divisive and defensive campaign rally in Arizona, the U.S. President went back to the teleprompter, this time he is stuck to the scripts avoiding the spontaneous rants that caused so much controversy the day before.
CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
JIM ACOSTA, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Speaking to military veterans in Reno, it was a more presidential Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have no division too deep for us to heal, and there is no enemy too strong for us to overcome.
ACOSTA: But the restrained performance was a far cry from the president who went on a verbal rampage in Phoenix ranting and raving about the removal of Confederate statues.
TRUMP: They're trying to take away our culture, they are trying to take away our history. And our weak leaders they do it overnight.
ACOSTA: And threatening a government shut down if Congress doesn't pay for a wall on the border, the same wall he once Mexico would fund.
TRUMP: Believe me, if we have to close down our government we're building that wall.
ACOSTA: The most mind boggling moment came when the president tried to white wash his comments on Charlottesville.
TRUMP: This is what I said on Saturday. We're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia, this is me speaking, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump blatantly omitted the fact that he blamed the violence on many sides.
TRUMP: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides. On many sides.
ACOSTA: And neglected to mention that he said some of the white supremacists demonstrators were very fine people.
TRUMP: Excuse me. You also had some very bad people in that group.
But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.
ACOSTA: No, sir, the Nazi -- there are no fine people in the Nazis.
In Phoenix, he was playing to the cheers from his base.
TRUMP: So, I think we'll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point.
ACOSTA: From a suggestion that he might pardon controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
TRUMP: You know what, I'll make a prediction. I think he's going to be just fine. OK?
ACOSTA: To his not so subtle bashing of Arizona Senator John McCain who is battling brain cancer.
TRUMP: One vote away, I will not mention any names.
ACOSTA: The president is still venting his frustration with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell fuming over his defeat on healthcare, tweeting "If the republicans doesn't get rid of the filibuster rule and go to a simple majority which would the dems would do they are just wasting time."
But the president keeps forgetting his healthcare bill failed to secure that simple majority in the Senate. The last two days are leaving GOP lawmakers scratching their heads and warning against the idea of a government shutdown. PAUL RYAN, UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I don't think a government shutdown is necessary and I don't think most people want to see a government shutdown.
ACOSTA: But a more critical conversation is underway in Washington, whether the president should have access to the nation's nuclear arsenal.
JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER UNITED STATES NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: I worry about, frankly, the access to nuclear codes. If he's in a fit of pique, he decides to do something about Kim Jong-un, there's actually very little to stop him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining me now is Larry Sabato, he is the director at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Thank you so much for being with us.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. So let's start with the two Trump speeches and the very different tones that we saw from the divisive ranting speech that the president made Tuesday night to the teleprompter Trump Wednesday uniting the country. Which is the real Trump and what do you make of the two very different presidential styles and what are Americans supposed to make of that?
[03:05:01] SABATO: Clearly you're right. There are two Donald Trumps. One is the teleprompter Trump, which is kind of ironic because he used to criticize President Obama for using a teleprompter so much, and yet, that seems to be the only medium that can produce Trump that doesn't upset the apple cart or say something outrageous.
Then there is what I called the real Trump, which is Trump unhinged, Trump off script, Trump ranting and raving and saying whatever comes to his mind. And mainly, releasing the frustrations, Rosemary.
He has these frustrations that build up. He watches probably too much television. He gets angry at the things who are said and then he just can't wait to get back. But that's not what a president does.
CHURCH: Yes, indeed. A little later I want to talk about what all that means. But we do know also that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump have not spoken since they screened at each other in a telephone conversation on August 9th but their aides are playing to play down the whole thing of course, saying the two teams are meeting, discussing various issues. How sustainable is that relationship given McConnell apparently said Trump didn't -- or he didn't expect Mr. Trump to see out his presidency.
SABATO: I was really stunned by that New York Times report that originated this cold war between McConnell and Trump and the reason I was stunned is because I've known Senator McConnell for a number of years and he was one cool character. The idea that he would get so exercised and that this would be a very blunt call, shall we say, in diplomatic language is unusual.
And it suggests to me that the level of frustrations on both sides is quite high. Here's what's going to save at least part of Trump's program. McConnell is a conservative republican. He's only got a narrow edge in the Senate. He has to be concerned about his incumbents who are on the ballot in November 2018.
So he'll cooperate with Trump to get something passed that they can run on.
CHURCH: Right. And of course, in that controversial speech on Tuesday night, Donald Trump threatened to shut down the government if that was what was needed to get the wall built. What would be the ramifications of just such a move?
SABATO: It would backfire tremendously on Trump and the Republican Party. Yes, it's possible people would blame Congress more. Who runs Congress, the republicans in both Houses. But I think a lot of people would realize that it was because Donald Trump is inflexible. That's why I really don't believe it will happen. It sounded like a classic bluff to me.
CHURCH: And before you go I did want to ask you for your reaction to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper questioning President Trump's fitness for office, and of course, raising concerns that he had that Mr. Trump had access to the nuclear codes. What did you make of those comments?
SABATO: I watched that live on Don Lemon show and it was alarming to say the least and pretty remarkable. Because General Clapper is not someone who runs out screaming and yelling at every opportunity.
The fact that he was so disturbed listening to the president, frankly validated a lot of our feelings watching President Trump for an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and a half, whatever it was. He was truly unhinged and that is the best word to describe him. He keeps repeating these representations, he keeps repeating, to be honest, outright lies, and no one is able to correct him, even including his staff.
CHURCH: You used the word unhinged. If that is the case, if we are dealing with a president that is unhinged, what needs to be done? What does Congress need to do?
SABATO: Well, let me clarify first. I'm not a psychiatrist and I don't play one on TV. The word unhinged doesn't necessarily mean a question of sanity. But I do think that there are senior people in the Republican Party who are watching Trump closely to see whether, as Mitch McConnell suggested, his presidency is salvageable.
If they decided isn't, they may surprise us and move towards perhaps trying to invoke the 25th Amendment. I doubt it happens but it's a possibility.
CHURCH: You doubt it but we'll watch very carefully to see where it goes. Larry Sabato, always a pleasure to talk with you and get your analysis. Thanks so much. SABATO: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: We turn now to an e-mail last year from a top Trump aid that's getting new scrutiny in the investigation of Russia election meddling. It was among 20,000 e-mails the Trump campaign turned over to congressional investigators.
[03:09:55] The e-mail informed the campaign staffers that an unidentified individual was offering to arrange a meeting between Trump officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CNN's Manu Raju has exclusive details.
MANU RAJU, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Congressional investigators have unearthed an e-mail from a top Trump aid that reference a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump officials and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin according to sources with direct knowledge to the situation.
Now, the aide is Rick Dearborn who is now the president's deputy chief of staff. He sent a brief e-mail to campaign officials last year relaying information about an individual who was seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin.
Now the person was only identified as being from, quote, "W.V.," which is in reference to the State of West Virginia. It's unclear who this individual is, exactly what they wanted or whether even Dearborn acted on the request. Dearborn did not respond to our request for comment.
The White House would not comment but one source familiar to the matter said that this person appeared to have political connections in West Virginia. That same source actually told me that Dearborn in the e-mail appears skeptical of the requested meeting.
Now it did occur in June of 2016. And that means that were around the same time is that Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. Russian operatives, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. The question is whether or not this fits a pattern of efforts by the Russians to find an entry point into the Trump campaign. That's a big question going forward that investigators are trying to understand at this this.
Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.
CHURCH: One of the recurring central figures in the Russia investigation is Sergey Kislyak, who until recently was Russia's ambassador to the United States.
Our Matthew Chance recently caught up with the former ambassador and in a CNN exclusive asked him whether he was the Russian spy master that many in the U.S. have alleged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: What about this allegation that you're a spy master or spy...
(CROSSTALK)
SERGEY KISYLYAK, FORMER RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Nonsense.
CHANCE: Did you attempt to recruit any members of the Trump administration?
KISYLYAK: You should be ashamed, because CNN is the company that keeps pointing to this allegation. It's nonsense.
CHANCE: The U.S. security officials, intelligence officials that made it, of course.
KISYLYAK: I've heard that in the statements by them and also by former head of the FBI who said that I was a diplomat. I had no -- no reasons to doubt that he knew what he said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: CNN senior correspondent Matthew Chance with that exclusive interview with the former Russian ambassador to the United States.
We'll take a very short break here, but still t come, despite protest from Gulf neighbors Qatar says it's ready to restore ties with Iran. We will see how that's being viewed in the region in a live report.
Plus, 17 years after he was taken at gunpoint from his home in Miami, Elian Gonzalez speaks exclusively to CNN about why he has no regrets about returning to Cuba.
[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom.
Qatar is restoring full diplomatic ties with Iran. Now this comes as Doha is embroiled in a diplomatic dispute with four Arab Gulf nations.
Our Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Moscow with more on this. So, Fred, you've traveled to the region numerous times now. How did Qatar successfully restore full diplomatic relations with Iran and what are the issues of common concern that they share and they talk about.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, you know what, Rosemary, I think this is a pretty clear sign by the Qataris to a lot of its Arab Gulf neighbors, specifically the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates that it's not going to back down in that feud that you were talking about with those Gulf countries.
Of course, Qatar's relationship with Iran was always one of main issues that some of its Gulf neighbors have had especially the Saudis. And the Qataris are now saying look, we're not going to back down. In fact, we're going to go back and restore the diplomatic relations.
Now, Qatar has a lot of reasons of its own to do that. On the one hand they share a very, very large gas field with the Iranians, in fact, the largest gas field in the world. So the two counties have common economic interests at play.
And at the same time since Qatar has had that feud with its Gulf Arab neighbors especially with the Saudis where at the certain point all of the borders between Saudi Arabia and Qatar were closed off still. Flights aren't possible between these two countries and many other Gulf Arab nations as well.
It was the Iranians that jumped in, they offered food aid to Qatar, they supported Qatar diplomatically as well. So this certainly seems to be a result of that. It's going to be very, very interesting to see how some of these Gulf Arab countries are they going to react to the Qataris doing this because it's certainly is a clear sign by the Qataris that they are not going to be the one to back down in this feud, even though many of their neighboring countries seem to be against them at this point in time.
CHURCH: Yes. I wanted to ask you that very question. Because you know, you're talking about these four Gulf Arab nations Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. What is their likely response to this do you think?
PLEITGEN: Yes. It's a very, very interesting and very, very sensitive time in the region. I would say that a week ago, I would have told you there would have been a very angry reaction especially by the Saudi's to all of this because completely cutting ties with the Iranians is one of the main demands that the Saudi had for lifting some of the sanctions that they placed on the Qataris.
However, right now there seems to be some of a thought generally going on in the region. One of the things that we heard only a couple of days ago is that apparently there's going to be diplomatic visits by Iranian and Saudi diplomats to each other's countries to look at the embassies there, to see if anything was damage. Of course, it was a big riot going on outside the Saudi embassy only about the 20 months ago in Tehran.
So there does seem to be somewhat of a thought in those relations as well, still this is certainly something most likely will not fit very well especially with the Saudis because they still have this very long, very historic standoff with the Iranian. The two nations are very much rivals in that region and certainly the Saudis seem the Iranian as a big threat to themselves. And they see the Iranians as trying to exert influence in larger parts of the Middle East.
If you look at Syria, if you look at Iraq, if you look at Yemen those are all areas of concern that the Saudis have voiced in the past. So, I'm waiting to see what the reaction is going to be. Certainly, a very, very sensitive, very interesting time. And this move by Qatar certainly does send a very, very bold statement, Rosemary.
CHURCH: We will certainly be awaiting reaction from those four nations. Our Fred Pleitgen joining us live from Moscow. Many thanks for that report.
Well, Jared Kushner and two of the top Trump advisers are trying to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on the Middle East Tour. They've traveled to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt where Kushner met President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi in Cairo. The final leg of their trip is in Israel with the U.S. delegation will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Now they also scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem, he joins me now live. So, Oren, what has come out of these meetings across the regions so far, and of course, looking ahead, what are the expectations when Kushner and his team meet with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, Kushner and his delegation met with all of the essentially important players in what would be some sort of regional peace initiative. All of the players that are critical in trying to move the process along from original perspective. That's a smart move to try to get everyone in the area on board.
[03:20:08] But now that they're here in our meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, they'll face an entirely different set of challenges, that's because both leaders seem unwilling and unable to make concessions on a peace process.
From Israel's perspective the prime minister is under criminal investigation and in response to that shore up his own base is shifted sharply to the right attacking previous Israeli-Palestinian accords, as well as saying he is in no position and doesn't want to make concessions.
So it will be very difficult to get Netanyahu to move on a peace process. As for President Mahmoud Abbas, he is still waiting for the U.S. to commit openly and convincingly towards two-state solution, something the U.S. hasn't done it.
And that is the international consensus on the only possible future (AUDIO GAP) Israel next to state of Palestine.
Kushner has to do something beyond -- above and beyond to make some sort of progress here but the expectations at this point are quite low. And yet the fact that Kushner is here indicates how important this that President Trump himself to try to make some sort of progress here.
But, Rosemary, that doesn't make any of this any easier. We expect to see some sort of statement but nothing concrete and progress today. That being said, we'll see where it leads.
CHURCH: Yes, certainly. And Oren, I do want to ask you this. Has the Trump administration do you think grasp just how complex the task of negotiating peace in the Middle East will likely be?
LIEBERMANN: I think there are certainly beginning to and Trump has alluded to a couple of times. The guy who is the central player here is not in fact Jared Kushner. He may be the highest level part of this delegation, but it's been Jason Greenblatt, Trump's special envoy for the Middle East peace process or for international negotiations who's been here multiple times shuttling back and forth between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the other Gulf states that are important here.
He certainly at this point must realize the task ahead of him in terms of trying to find some sort of agreement on the most sensitive issues. Jerusalem, borders, refugees, security. That's not easy. And even if you know an idea than could work some sort of framework convincing the size to make concessions that's a whole different level of challenge.
CHURCH: All right. CNN's Oren Liebermann joining us live from Jerusalem where it is 10.22 in the morning. Many thanks to you for that live report.
Well, 17 years ago, a young boy named Elian Gonzalez was possibly removed from his relative's home in Miami, Florida and return to his father in Cuba.
CNN is a new documentary about that traumatic moment on Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern.
Now a grown man, Gonzalez says he has no regrets about returning to Cuba. He gave this exclusive interview to CNN's Patrick Oppman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK OPPMAN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Now 23 years old, Elian Gonzalez walks in the street of hometown in Cardinals, Cuba. Since going back here he only rarely speaks in public. But Gonzalez appears in a new CNN documentary about his famous custody battle. But alongside his father he agreed to talk to us about his life now it hopes for the future.
What do you think your life would have been like if you had stayed in the United States?
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: There are a lot of people who argue against sending you back to Cuba because they said you would be brainwashed. What do you say to those people now?
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: You're still hopeful that there could be a reconciliation between your family here and your family in Miami?
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: You watched President Trump's speech about Cuba, what did you think?
[03:24:59] (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: Next year, February of next year President Castro says that he will step down as president. How do you think Cuba will change?
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: Do you think your case looking back helped heal some of the wounds that existed between Cubans and Miami, and Cubans here in Cuba.
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OPPMAN: Do you feel like you a foot in both countries?
OPPMAN: Patrick Oppman, CNN, Cardenas, Cuba.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Fascinating interview there. Let's take another short break. Still to come, two controversial Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia have been covered up. Reaction to the move ordered by city leaders. That's after the break.
And many people were outraged when NFL quarterback Collin Kaepernick famously took a knee in protest last year. Well, now supporters are taking a stand for him why they say he has been blacklisted. That's next.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: And a very warm welcome back to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you now on the top stories we've been following this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A day after his angry divisive campaign rally, Donald Trump made a call for national unity.
The U.S. president has talked to the Teleprompter for his speech to veterans Wednesday, something he did not do in Phoenix where he criticized the media and try to defend his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The White House is expected to send the Pentagon its new guidelines for transgender people in the U.S. military. The Wall Street Journal reports they include instructions to reject transgender applicants. Those already serving could be subject to expulsion.
Jared Kushner is in Israel with two other top White House advisors to revive Middle East peace talks. Kushner has plans to Meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the hours ahead.
This is later, U.S. delegation at mesh with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt earlier this week.
Qatar has announced it's restoring full diplomatic relations with Iran, that's despite demands from four Arab Gulf nations to ease those ties, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar in June, accusing the country of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the charge.
Well now to Charlottesville, Virginia where these powerful images show workers using black tops on Wednesday to cover the statues depicting Confederate military generals Robert E Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson.
City leaders voted unanimously to cover the statues to honor the woman killed during a rally by white nationalist earlier this month.
These Confederate statues and others around the U.S. had ignited nationwide debate on whether they promote racist believes -- beliefs police and other hate filled attitudes.
U.S. President Trump's remarks in New York following that violent rally also fueling tensions.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THEUNITED STATES: I'm not putting anybody on a moral plan, what I'm saying is this, you had a group on one-side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious, and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch.
But there is another side, there was a group on this side, you can call them left or you've just called them the left that came violently attacking the other group. Yes I think this blame on both sides.
You look at-- you look at both sides, I think is blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: All right. So let's turn to San Francisco now where controversial white supremacist rallies planned for this weekend will move forward.
The U.S. National Park Service approved permit allowing the events at Crissy Field, setting the stage for potential counter protest, the city's mayor is urging people to stay away and to attain peace rallies in state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ED LEE (D), SAN FRANCISCO: I ask our public and our residents of San Francisco Bay Area to honor our requests to not dignify people who are coming in here under the guise of patriot and prayer words to really preach violence, and hatred, and incite violence.
That is their purpose. We know that as a fact by simply watching how they've acted in other cities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Earlier I spoke to civil rights activist and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Andrew Young about current race relations in the United States. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: What do you make of the fact that the mayor San Francisco has approved a protest for the white supremacies on the weekend? What do you think...
ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER AMBASSADOR, UNITED NATIONS: I'm afraid I would have done it, too.
CHURCH: And why was that?
YOUNG: Because it's free speech and...
CHURCH: Do you want a hate speech?
YOUNG: Well, Dr. King said that violence is the language of the unhurt. I would rather hear them out. I would rather hear hate and when you say it, you can kind of deal with it.
I started dealing with the client in 1956 in South Georgia when they were in charge and I was just a little county preacher and I never got upset. I never got angry.
I will always show them respect but I always insisted through the business community, not the politics, that client be contained and not affect the black community. And we know how to make this county work but we are so distracted by the confusion.
[03:30:00] Let's say we ought to have confusion now, if you are not confused in 2017, you really sick.
CHURCH: But white supremacist and...
YOUNG: Nobody say no promises, nothing holds them all.
CHURCH: The white supremacist and Nazis...
YOUNG: Yes.
CHURCH: I mean when you're looking at group like that...
YOUNG: Yes.
CHURCH: ... their indefensible I think.
YOUNG: Yes but they have a right to be heard in this country and what they have right to be heard without arms, and they have right -- they don't have a right to interfere with any other -- by else of free speech.
But I was just elected to Congress and they were putting Martin Luther King's statue openly in the state capital, no have been a black man statue up there and there was a clan march out there.
And a group of young black folks wanted to harass it and I said no, wait a minute, let them march. They have the right to peacefully protest, and the court protected my right. Now that I'm a congressman, I have to speak up and protect their rights, too.
CHURCH: And something that is causing a problem right now and it was the center of the Charlottesville protest was the statue in Charlottesville of Robert Lee.
It's been covered up now and we know that there is this portion now to remove Confederate monuments.
YOUNG: You take them and what do you do?
CHURCH: What's your -- what's your view on that?
YOUNG: I say it's a waste of time.
CHURCH: So you think they should stay?
YOUNG: Yes. An I think what we've done in Atlanta is put them out of context. We -- we had cyclorama that was falling down. We didn't let it fall down.
It was a 200 foot picture of the Civil War -- last Civil War battle of Atlanta. We spent $6 million of city money restoring it but that was paid for by the church that time.
And it's -- it did so well, it's been moved to next to the History Center on Paces Ferry and nobody complains about that because when you go there, you hear about what the Civil War really was.
Unfortunately, most of the people who are complaining about these statues don't even now who these people are and everybody in the Civil War were not bad.
And it was as complex to time as it is now and so I think we sort of glossed over it. That was 100 years of suffering and the segregation but I don't remember father or my grandfather, say that the flag of the statue -- in fact, I'm embarrassed, maybe but I don't know why.
But my grand father named my father Andrew Jackson. Now that bothered me because he was you know, one of the, you know, one of the all time military man. But as I read into it, he was one who gave all the slaves some property.
CHURCH: Right.
YOUNG: And I think maybe my grandparents who were born in slavery got some property and the result of being a part of Andrew Jackson's militia, to defend the audience.
CHURCH: Right.
YOUNG: And so, you can't -- you can't defend the past but you can't refight it or relive it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Civil Rights leader Andrew Young talking to me a little earlier. Well hundreds of people rallied to support NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: They gathered outside the league's headquarters in New York to protest the fact he remains unsigned. Kaepernick kneeled for national anthem, you would call throughout the 2016 season to protest black oppression and police brutality.
Well now his supporters say, he's being black bold for taking a stand despite his obvious talent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, the NFL thinks his bad for business, obviously. We all know NFL is $11 billion organization, their down to make money, right?
It's -- according to these NFL owners, he's bad for bad business but at the same time, you know they talk about how a player is based on various skill but obviously that's not the case, when you have a guy who's like 22nd and can't even get a backup job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Earlier, film director and activist Spike Lee spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the rally. Lee says Kaepernick is just the latest in a long line of black athletes to be punished for believing in something.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SPIKE LEE, AMERICAN FILM DIRECTOR: Let us study history, there have been -- this is not the first this happened to African-American athletes that stood up.
Jack Johnson who was champion, he was now going out, everybody else didn't like him when around the white women, boom, out.
[03:40:00] Sixty Olympics Mexico, John Carlos, Thomas Smith, black race fist, Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted, all these are examples where man has stood up, believe in what it believes and been questioned.
The biggest thing that kills me, we all remember Muhammad Ali Olympics in Atlanta, lightning of torch, his arm has triggered, only low. Muhammad Ali at one time was the most hated man in America. But change the whole (Inaudible).
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm reading a bio of him now and it's incredible.
LEE: They change -- they leave that out, like it never happen, when he refused to be inducted (Inaudible) a word.
COOPER: You're saying they refuse to call him Muhammad Ali, they kept calling Cassius Clay.
LEE: It's revisionist history. He was the most hated man and now I put Kaepernick with these guys and I will -- and I believe this, Jack Johnson, already Carlos Smith, Muhammad Ali, and Kaepernick will loomed and history will decide, they're on the right side.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Now all the players have picked up Kaepernick's protests in his absence. A dozen players on one team, Cleveland Browns knelt during the anthem in a preseason game on Monday. We'll take another short break.
Still to come, the U.S. Defense Secretary is Kiev, what Ukraine's president is expected to ask for drawing those talks, and hundred of thousands of children in Yemen are struggling to survive the dire warning from the United Nation, back with that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. A concert the Netherlands was canceled because of a terror threat. Authorities say police stopped a van with Spanish plate that was carrying gas cylinders near the venue in Rotterdam.
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CHURCH: They have the driver in custody for questioning and bomb experts are investigating but the man says it's too soon to know if the van is directly connected to the threat.
The U.S. defense secretary is in Kiev for meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart and President Petro Poroshenko, they're expected to discuss support for Ukraine's fight with Russian-backed rebels.
Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from London with more on this. So Nick, what's the United States offering at these meetings with Ukrainian leadership and what are the overall expectations on both sides?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, publicly they're offering solidarity, symbolic visit to Jim Mattis, the first secretary of defense to visit Ukraine really since the troubles began with Russia, the war in East on the annexation of Crimea.
Robert Gates was the last during the Obama administration, so great symbolism there for him to be seen alongside Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president during the Ukrainian Independence Parade. Great pump of military ceremony there but most likely behind closed doors.
[03:45:00] According to some indications, they will be discussing the possibility, long held out by senators in Washington who advocated a tougher approach to Russia's incursions into Ukraine, potentially offering lethal military aide.
Now this is begin sort of phrased as potentially defensive equipments but extensively weaponry that is antitank perhaps, the Javelin antitank missile, maybe antiaircraft missiles to ways of enabling Ukraine to repel any future Russian backed separatist offensive. Now Of course there are some who say you do risk the possibility of escalating the conflict if you bet on the Ukrainians because choose for example, to use some of those weapons in the offense to push Russian separatists and Russian-backed forces back further from the front lines they currently occupy.
But this is the first sign I think we'll get of how a Trump administration views the still ongoing conflict in Ukraine while Sunday for example, very heavy shelling in the city.
And around the city of next con-separatist held areas in the east and possibly behind doors who they may emerge some sort of broader policy initiatives from Jim Mattis. Rosemary.
CHURCH: So, Nick, what are Ukraine's biggest challenges in this fight with Russian-backed rebels?
WALSH: Well Russia really the shortest agree and possibly to their own sense of burgeoning nationalism. Remember now we're into the third year of some sense of military conflict with separatist who they perceived to be rushing back to frankly the west and they documented have a lot of Russian military assistance.
The real question here is exactly what is Moscow's endgame. Now some say they're looking to simply permanently hobble Ukraine by hiving off part of the citied territory and making it constantly war-torn to the point where the ultimate goals for Ukraine, of NATO and the EU membership become unattainable.
Because simply that country is too heavily hampered by having a part of it under separatist control and the other issue took of course with this conflict goes on, the more we see what inside Ukraine, a strong nationalist (Inaudible), one's really the promotion of negotiation possibility of forcing separatist out entirely from those areas restoring Ukraine's old borders.
Interesting to note though, that it is Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty that the U.S. is very keen on supporting a language, it doesn't really suggest a sort of recognition of the status quo of separatist controlling parts pf the east is viable.
But still frankly, giving a level of fire power, military might to those separatists have in the east but notion know some overnight withdrawal by those Russian-backed forces will return to how thing were in 2013 seems extraordinarily remote.
So a lot resting on this but it's certainly in the eyes of Ukrainians who want to see quite a how far at Trump White House is willing to go in overtly supporting them militarily and pushing back Ukrainian -- sorry, Russian-backed separatist in the East.
CHURCH: Let's see what comes out of those meetings. Nick Paton Walsh with that live report in eastern London where it is 8:48 in the morning.
Well, now to the war in Yemen and a dire warning from the United Nations. It says more than 10,000 people have been killed since 2014 and hundreds of thousands of children could die in the coming month if something doesn't change.
And this warning some of you may find these images disturbing. Now Lynda Kinkade reports.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's being dubbed the forgotten war. By the wildest bikers on Syria, the people of Yemen have endured two and a half years of full blown conflict.
A war lies under reported hardly go (Inaudible) on journalist and aide group. The children of this war are suffering the marks.
DAVID BEASLEY, DIRECTOR, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: We're trying to serve nine million people in Yemen. If we don't receive the funds that need, we're literally talking about hundreds of thousand of children alone die in the few months and millions of people on the break of starvation.
KINKADE: The United Nations is at a loss, unable to make a real impact.
STEPHEN O'BRIEN, U.N. AIDE CHIEF: It grieves me as in these last two years and despite my and my teams best efforts, I have been unable to report any significant improvement in the deplorable avoidable, completely man-made catastrophe that is ravaging the country.
KINKADE: Thirty rebels in the north allied with the former president (Inaudible), fighting those in the south allied with the current president and the Saudi-led coalition.
The United Nations blames the government and the Saudi coalition for failing to lead them to lead a help to those who need it most in the areas held by rebels in the north.
Well the (Inaudible) coalition blamed regulation blamed the rebel saying they are using the same port to smuggle in weapons. That port has been the target of Saudi air strikes.
O'BRIEN: Let's just be clear, most of the need is in the north of Yemen north the south.
[03:50:00] KINKADE: And if the international claims all sides have committed human rights violations including war crimes, they add that other countries have potentially contributed.
The U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Canada and Turkey have transferred nearly six billion U.S. dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2016 including bombs, and rockets which risk being used Yemen. Some of those weapons banned under International Law.
In this vital infrastructure destroyed, the cholera outbreak is playing havoc, more than half a million people have caught the disease and without treatment, many won't survive it. Lynda Kinkade, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well, Typhoon Hato has killed at least 12 people that was after it struck China's southeast coast on Wednesday, one person remains unaccounted for according to Chinese State Media, the produce massive winds and flooding.
It also cause widespread power outages, more than 60 million people were in the storms part. We'll take a break now but it was one of the most memorable scenes from last year's presidential debates. Donald Trump lurking behind Hillary Clinton. Now she has revealed...
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CHURCH: Someone in the United States just won a $759 million Powerball jackpot. A lottery spokesman says the winning ticket was sold at this convenience store in the state of Massachusetts.
It's the largest jackpot with a single winning ticket in North American history. The odds of picking all six winning numbers was one in 292 million and that means you will more likely to be struck by lightning while drowning than to win that lottery. How about that?
Now Samsung has a new Galaxy Note smart phone. Nearly one year after the disastrous recall of the Note7 which was prone to catching fire while charging. That recall cost the company more than $5 billion. CNN's Samuel Burke tells us what's new about the Galaxy Note8.
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Samsung packed so many features into the Note7 that it was bursting at the scenes, literally this time around Samsung is playing it more conservatively taking a safer route with the Galaxy Note8.
So we don't see too many new features for Samsung here except for the dual rear cameras. New for Samsung but we already seen something similar with Huawei and the iPhone, they do have an infinity display which they had on the S8.
So the screen goes almost all the way to the edge. You just barely see an edge there. It will have a stylist that's similar to something that we've already seen on the iPad so that you can draw and live focus.
This is different because you can actually have the foreground be very much in focus and the background completely out of focus, the way you might see a wedding picture but you can do that focused after you've taken the picture.
That's going to be in people's hands by September 15th, that's interesting because Apple doesn't even announce its phone until September 12th, so it looks like Samsung is going to beat them to the market. I'm Samuel Burke back to you.
[03:55:00] CHURCH: Thanks so much, Samuel. Well, Hillary Clinton hasn't being shy when it comes to talking about her loss to Donald Trump in last year's presidential election. In her new book, she reveals how she felt about one of the campaigns, more cringe worthy moment. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this is what they call it working, call it looming, the slot it certainly looms large in our memory of the Clinton-Trump debate, spoof and now with music Jaws.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: And number three...
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MOOS: Hillary, talk about it.
CLINTON: I got whoa, this is really weird.
MOOS: But we never heard her talk about it like this.
CLINTON: It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck, my skin crawled.
MOOS: In excepts from her book What Happened, Hillary describes their second debate.
CLINTON: No, go ahead, Donald.
TRUMP: No, I'm a gentleman, Hillary, go ahead.
MOOS: Gentleman? She thought not. Trump pace behind her, sway behind her.
CLINTON: The highest priority...
MOOS: She debated whether to stay calm and keep smiling.
CLINTON: Or do you turn look them in the eye and say loudly and clearly back up you creep.
MOOS: Prompting this tweet, I need a backup you creep T-shirt ASAP. Some fact checker says that Trump wasn't intentionally looming over Hillary. But rather was staying by his chair in his assigned space.
At times, it looked like he was using it share to exercise. Trump has said Hillary walked in front of his position to get closer to people asking the questions.
TRUMP: Believe me, the last space that I want to invade is her space.
MOOS: Hillary's space was definitely invaded back when she first ran for the Senate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sigh it right now.
CLINTON: We'll shake it. We'll shake hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, necessarily, I want your signature. MOOS: George W. Bush handled Al Gore's invasion with and odd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I believe I can.
MOOS: Hillary now says she may have overlooked the lesson of staying calm.
CLINTON: I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off.
MOOS: In a debate, what goes on behind your back doesn't stay behind your back. Jeanne Moos...
CLINTON: Back up you creep.
MOOS: CNN, New York.
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CHURCH: We'll be seeing lots of those t-shirts I think. Thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church, do connect with me on Twitter anytime. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.
