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O.J. Simpson Has Passed Away At The Age Of 76; O.J. Simpsons Fall From Grace; O.J. Simpsons Landmark Murder Trial; FISA Controversy. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 11, 2024 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: OJ Simpson, one of the most controversial people in modern American history, has died at the age of 76. We're going to look back at his life, his murder trial, and how it changed the nation.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And the fight over FISA, the battle over the controversial surveillance program threatening speaker, Mike Johnson's short tenure at the helm of the House. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: The breaking news today, OJ Simpson is dead at 76 after losing his battle to cancer, according to social media posts by his family. He was a celebrated football star. He won the Heisman Trophy in college. He then transitioned into acting as a pitchman, who was then later accused and acquitted in the double murder trial of his ex- wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

KEILAR: Simpson gripped the nation after taking police on that slow speed police chase scene here. And of course, the high profile trial that followed, his eventual acquittal, becoming a landmark moment in American history. Let's get to CNN's Stephanie Elam, who is in Los Angeles, where all of this happened. To this day, Stephanie, OJ Simpson's name brings out strong feelings for many people.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's very true, Brianna and Boris. When you take a look at OJ Simpson, he was a superstar among superstars. And if you wrote this out as a script, no one would believe that this was one person's life. But indeed, it was OJ Simpson's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (voiceover): OJ Simpson soared to fame as number 32 for the Buffalo Bills.

O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER NFL STAR AND BROADCASTER: I'm sorry for all of it.

ELAM (voiceover): And plummeted to infamy as inmate number 1027820 in the Nevada Department of Corrections. In between, Simpson led a life filled with more surreal drama than all of his various film and TV projects combined. Mass media experts say Simpson's sensational televised low speed chase, arrest and murder trial--

UNKNOWN: Doesn't fit. You must acquit.

ELAM (voiceover):-- stand as the first reality show and perhaps the greatest three ring television phenomenon ever. At one point, the world heard OJ Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, say-

NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON, WIFE OF O.J SIMPSON: I don't want to stay on the line. He's going to beat the shit out of me.

ELAM (voiceover): Then later, Simpson was charged with the horrific murders by knife of Nicole and her friend, Ron Goldman.

UNKNOWN: Ron and Nicole were butchered.

ELAM (voiceover): The trial made lawyers and even witnesses household names.

UNKNOWN: Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.

ELAM (voiceover): When the jury freed Simpson, celebration erupted in parts of Los Angeles. But Simpson would never recapture his idol status. Simpson first sprinted into the national spotlight as the Heisman Trophy winning running back at the University of Southern California. Then 11 spectacular years with the NFL vaulted him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Simpson cashed in on the popularity.

UNKNOWN: Go, OJ, go!

ELAM (voiceover): Becoming a pitchman for Hertz and an actor. Becoming well known for the Naked Gun movies.

UNKNOWN: OJ Simpson, as you've never seen him before.

ELAM (voiceover): Simpson played a lawman on screen and ran into trouble with the court's, off-screen. He lost the multi-million dollar wrongful death suit brought by the families of his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. Then moved to Florida. In 2000, Simpson was accused of assault in a road rage incident in Miami. He was found not guilty. In 2005, he was found guilty and fined for stealing satellite television. Then in 2007 in Las Vegas, police arrested him on several felony charges including kidnapping and armed robbery. In that case, Simpson and armed accomplices raided a hotel room, and what he called, an attempt to just get back some of his stolen belongings.

O.J. SIMPSON: And I didn't know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property.

ELAM (voiceover): The Nevada jury never bought his story and instead sent him to prison. He was released on parole nine years later in the dead of night with no fanfare and no bright future. Just the distinction of arguably the greatest rise and fall in pop culture history. (END OF VIDEOTAPE)

[14:05:09]

ELAM: And it's important to keep in mind the context of what was happening in L.A. in the 90s. It was a very tempestuous time here in the city where you had the Rodney King beating in 91, and right after that, the acquittal of all four of the officers. And that led to the Los Angeles riots. And then shortly thereafter, a couple years later, then you have O.J. Simpson's trial and then his acquittal. So while a lot of black people didn't really care about O.J. Simpson in particular, they were happy to see that the trial, that this justice system could sometimes work in their favor. So you saw some cheering at that time. But it's also worth noting some of the people who've spoken out about O.J.'s Simpson's passing, including who was known as the most famous house guest ever, Kato Kaelin, who at the time of the murders was staying at a house guest in O.J. Simpsons home. He has put out a statement. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATO KAELIN; AMERICAN ACTOR AND RADIO TELEVISION PERSONALITY: I've been asked to comment on the death of O.J. Simpson. Foremost, I'd like to express my condolences to the children, to Sidney and to Justin, to Jason and Arnelle. They lost their father, and that is never easy. I wish to express my love and compassion to the Goldmans, to Fred and to Kim. I hope you find closure. And finally, to the family of the beautiful Nicole Brown Simpson. May we always cherish her memories. Nicole was a beacon of light that burned bright. May we never forget her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And Brianna and Boris, you may remember everyone was hanging on every word when Kato Kaelin was testifying during that murder trial. He became one of the most famous people from that trial who was not directly a part of it, but still everyone wanted to know what he knew at the time.

KEILAR: Yeah, certainly everyone remembers Kato Kaelin. Stephanie, thank you so much for bringing that to us. We do appreciate it. And before Simpson became the centerpiece in arguably the most high- profile trial in history, he was one of the greatest football players to ever set foot on the gridiron.

SANCHEZ: Let's expand the conversation now with former NFL player and host for DraftKings Network, Mike Golick. Mike, thanks so much for being with us. Your reaction to the news of O.J.'s passing?

MIKE GOLIC, FORMER ESPN RADIO HOST: I mean, this all went on right in the wheelhouse of the end of my football career and the beginning of my broadcasting career in 1993. I was playing for the Dolphins, and he actually was a sideline reporter for a couple of our games that year. And just months later, obviously in June of 94, we all know what happened and how this started. And by that point, I was still trying to play in the NFL, but my career was about over. And then in 95, I started in a broadcasting career, which included radio. So this was the big thing to be covered as the trial started going from January or I'm sorry, November of 94 and October of 95. So I saw it from the football side and I saw it from the broadcasting side and talking about it. And this was this was just a surreal experience for all of us in that era, knowing what a football great, great football player he was. And then just being floored by the situation going on. And then how it escalated.

KEILAR: Yeah, I mean, I think everyone was certainly Mike. I want to bring in CNN contributor Bob Costas to the conversation now. And Bob, you and your network were broadcasting the NBA final as that Bronco chase was playing out, which just set up this extraordinary split screen moment for millions of viewers. What do you remember about that time?

BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, every network, including CNN and all the mainstream networks, the preceded cable, CBS, ABC, they're all carrying it with aerial views from the helicopters and trying to cover it as best they can. But Dick Ebersole, who ran NBC Sports, had a dilemma because it wasn't just a basketball game. It was the NBA finals. And as I recall, the series was tied two games apiece. And it was a close game at Madison Square Garden. And so at various times I threw it between Marv Albert is calling the game.

They would come to me upstairs at the garden. I'd throw it to Tom Brokaw. He would do a summation. At other times we'd have the split screen, as you mentioned, half the screen the game and half the screen the Bronco chase. And another factor here is that many of us involved for NBC Sports had known and been very friendly with O.J. He and I worked on the football show for NBC for four or five years, beginning in the early 90s and up until that point.

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And then, subsequently, not that night, but not long after, I learned that O.J., for whatever reason, was trying to call me from the Bronco. I didn't have a cell phone at that time. Those who know me know that I'm behind the technological curve. I had a flip phone until about three or four years ago. And this was the early days of cell phones. But he had a car phone. So he calls my house in St. Louis, and I wasn't there. I was in New York. Nobody answered the phone. And eventually, he called the studio where we did the NFL show from, which was also where we did the NBA show from. But on this occasion, since it was the finals, we were at Madison Square Garden. And the phone rang and rang. Apparently, he tried it a few times.

And an engineer eventually answered the phone. And he said, I need to speak to Bob Costas. He's not here. Well, I got to speak to him right away. He's not here. Who's calling? O.J. Simpson. Yeah right. Click. He hung up. Now, I don't know any of this on that Friday night. The series proceeds to Houston. And on Monday, before they're going to play Game 7 a couple of days later, I'm in the hotel. And a woman from Time magazine calls me and says, we hear that O.J. tried to call you from the Bronco. And I say, truthfully, at the time, no, that didn't happen. The conversation lasts less than a minute. Now, fast forward from June to November of 74. And at his request, I go to visit. O.J. in the L.A. County Jail. This is prior to the trial, which didn't start until January.

And in the course of some awkward kind of small talk conversation, and Al Cowlings, who was driving the Bronco that night, was there with me, along with Robert Kardashian. It was the three of us talking with O.J. And Al Cowlings just kind of casually brings up, you know, we tried to call you from the back of the Bronco. And now I remember the call from the woman at Time magazine. And we begin talking about this. And I said, O.J., why would you be trying to reach me in that moment? And he said, I was being defamed. Not so much about the alleged murders, but my whole life was being defamed. And I thought that maybe you could give a different viewpoint as my friend. And I didn't bother to explain to him what the journalistic imperatives would have been at that time. And what I would have had to have asked him if somehow we were patched through, if he was willing to go on the air rather than just talk to me privately. But obviously, that's all a moot point because it never happened.

SANCHEZ: Well, Bob, I mean, I have to ask, what would you have asked O.J. Simpson at that moment that he called you from the Bronco if he was able to reach you?

COSTAS: Yeah, I think the first thing you have to ask, Boris, as delicately but still directly as possible, O.J., did you do it? And then let's assume he says, no, I couldn't possibly have done this. Well, O.J., the letter that you wrote to Robert Kardashian that was read by the police officials when they declared you a fugitive of justice, who writes a letter like that, seemingly a suicide note, if they're an innocent man with the kind of wherewithal that you have to defend yourself and the standing you have, good standing with the American public prior to this? And what are you doing with a gun to your head in the back of the Bronco if, in fact, you're an innocent man?

These things don't add up. And whatever his response to that was, it would have been what it was. And then I would have done in my own way, I guess I would have tried to do what Tom Langmeier, who I thought was heroic in his role as a policeman. You played the audio earlier on CNN, in the way he calmly and compassionately tried to talk O.J. out of doing what he apparently was on the verge of doing, which was killing himself. I would have had to kind of try to do the same thing. So, O.J., whatever it is, you'll have a chance to mount a defense, put the gun down, think of your family. Surrender peacefully and take it from there.

KEILAR: Yeah. And unbelievable story, by the way, Bob and Mike I mean, I wonder when you look back to thinking of that note, thinking of what we heard O.J. say, what we know from the transcript of the Bronco and then the outcome of the case. You know, whatever the outcome of the case was, what you think about what it does to his legacy, because as he was saying to Bob there, kind of, you know, I would have wanted you basically to speak positively of me, maybe sort of lacking some awareness of what something like this does to someone's legacy, even if they built such an amazing one in sports.

GOLIC: Well Bob had an unbelievable seat close to that scene, as he just said, that's an incredible story. But now being in the media and doing radio and TV as I was. And the sports icon that O.J. Simpson was, this just brought it into our world. And you couldn't watch all of this from, you know, from the white Bronco to the trial and not have an opinion.

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My opinion was, and still is, I think he did it, and I think a lot of people feel he did. It's going through just what Bob said, why would you write a note? Why would you potentially be trying to kill yourself? So, I think that's where, even though he got acquitted, we know he lost his civil suit. So, I think that was the big thing. It was a riveting time for everybody to say, how can this guy, in our world, when we're just so used to talking about what a great player he was, and then went into broadcasting the way he did, and now this? But everything pointed toward it. I mean, I know there were those who said that, hey, he got acquitted, so he's innocent of it and didn't do it, but we all hold our opinion.

And I know a lot of people, especially in social media today, were saying, hey, let's let the man rest in peace with his family and not bring up everything that he did. And I think that's a big thing, and I think that's an impossibility, gang. I mean, you can't bring up O.J. Simpson without bringing up this situation, and then the robbery in Vegas, where he eventually went to jail for it. It's part and parcel of O.J. Simpson's legacy, both on the field and off.

SANCHEZ: The entire trajectory of his life is just insane when you think about the heights that he reached and then the lowest of lows. Mike Golic, Bob Costas, quite a fascinating vantage point to history. Thanks for being with us.

GOLIC: Thank you.

COSTAS: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Of course, still ahead on CNN, we're going to speak to the helicopter pilot who brought this infamous Bronco chase to America, a moment that was watched by nearly a hundred million people. Zoey Tur joins us in just a moment.

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[14:20:09]

KEILAR: So many of us were glued to our TV's watching OJ Simpson in the backseat of his friends white Ford Bronco leading police on this slow speed chase across Southern California.

SANCHEZ: Our next guest Zoe Turr was the first helicopter pilot flying over the vehicle during the chase and brought the world these images. Zoey thanks for being with us nearly 20 years later, now OJ Simpson losing his battle against cancer. Dead at 76. Your reaction to the news. ZOEY TUR, HELICOPTOR PILOT DURING O.J. CHASE: I was a bit caught off guard I knew that he was ailing and I was you know like everyone else a bit surprised but you know I'm not mourning his passing. He got to live to 76 and he got to die in his own bed surrounded by family, grandchildren, something that Nicole Simpson Brown or Ron Goldman didn't get.

KEILAR: No they didn't and their their families did not get that time with them. Zoe take us back to that day June 17th 1994 and and tell us how this all happened for you.

TUR: Well I was downtown at Parker Center waiting for O.J. Simpson to turn himself in. We had advanced notice that he was going to be arrested and that his lawyers agreed to surrender him at Parker Center. Well he never showed up and the lieutenant in charge of press relations, Gascon, told the press that O.J. Simpson was in the wind. And it took me a moment to like underst-like in the wind like and I asked again and he said yeah the guy's a fugitive and we're looking for him. So literally every police officer and federal agent in California and maybe even the country were now looking for O.J. Simpson as well as every reporter. So I turned to my crew, we had our helicopter in downtown LA and I said we're going to go find him. So once we were in the helicopter the discussion moved to you know, where would somebody, a malignant narcissist ,where would that person go. And I thought he would go to the grave site of his ex-wife and I flew down there.

It was about a 20 minute flight, normally it takes about an hour and a half by car. And I went over to the grave site and he wasn't there. There was an undercover unit there so they had pretty much the same idea. Then I got a phone call in the air from our assignment editor Mary Helen Campos who told me that they were listening to some FBI frequencies. I tuned in and sure enough O.J. Simpson was spotted at the El Toro Y which was literally right below me so I looked through the helicopter chin bubble and there was a white bronco. And to confirm that it was O.J., a sheriff's unit pulled up, another sheriff's unit pulled up, another and another and the vehicle didn't pull over and we had our man. And so with the flip of the switch we had almost 100 million viewers around the country and parts of the world watching this infamous slow speed pursuit. This surreal spectacle on television.

SANCHEZ: Zoey how do you think that moment changed the way that news is covered because covering news from the air the way that you did, that was a sort of step forward and a change in the way that we process news.

[14:25:19]

TUR: It was. It gave birth to the modern reality television program. You know, I think that news operations realized the power that live coverage has, and especially with the news helicopter. So, it changed the way television coverage happened. The helicopter became a frontline tool in breaking news. It also launched the careers of you know, the Kardashians, Bob Kardashian, and others You know the celebrity lawyers like Dershowitz and Robert Kardashian and others. So, it really changed the landscape, maybe not necessarily for the best, but it did change much about the way we cover news.

KEILAR: What do people say to you, Zoey, as they encounter you and talk to you about this sort of singular moment that you captured?

TUR: Well, I think that, you know, I went from being a somewhat well- known journalist, and then overnight I was extraordinarily well known. And people would stop me on the streets; they still do. It's one of those events that you know exactly where you were when it happened. The country stopped. People canceled vacations, they canceled weddings. More pizzas were sold by Domino's that day than they sell on Super Bowl. You know, it really--- the country ground to a halt to watch this surreal situation. People poured out to the freeways to watch this weird procession going by, 18 helicopters, two airplanes, and dozens of sheriffs and highway patrolmen all out to get O.J. Simpson. And they were cheering him on, and it was just macabre. You know, another-- I mean, nothing surprises me in Los Angeles anymore. Nothing.

KEILAR: Not after that.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, not after that. Zoey Tur, a great perspective to get on that historic moment. Thanks for being with us.

TUR: Of course, thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: So, right now on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Christopher Wray is testifying before Congress, urging lawmakers to renew FISA. He's warning of possible terror attacks if the surveillance law expires. We're going to hear from the FBI director next.

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