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Louis Freeh Comments On PSU Report; Freeh: "Most Powerful Men At PSU" Failed; Sandusky Report Released; New Evidence Released In Zimmerman Case; Viacom Pulls Online TV Shows, Too; Heavy Flooding In Texas; Biden At NAACP In Place Of Obama; Robert Blake Interview Gets Combative; Biden Speaks Soon at NAACP

Aired July 12, 2012 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you immediately to Philadelphia. You see Louis Freeh, the former FBI director. He led the investigation into the sex abuse scandal at Penn State. His 200- page report has been released online. Let's listen.

LOUIS FREEH, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: -- children now young me who were victims of a now convicted serial pedophile. I'd like to remind you all and those watching this conference today of the need to report child abuse to the authorities.

In Pennsylvania, you can report that child sexual abuse to the Department of Public Welfare's child line. That number, which will be up here during the conference is 800-932-0313.

It is our sincere hope that this report and the subsequent actions by Penn State will help to bring every victim some relief and support.

Penn state University is an outstanding educational institution, which is rightly proud of its students, alumni, faculty, and staff, who in turn hold that institution in very high esteem.

We fully appreciate the strong emotions, which surround these tragic events in our work. All of us here today understand that it is the duty of adults to protect children and to immediately report any suspected child sex abuse to law enforcement authorities.

Our team was reminded of this on a daily basis because Henderson South, which was our base on the Penn State campus was the former Child Care Center with some of the children's art works still there.

On November 21st, the special investigation's task force established by the Board of Trustees retained us to conduct a full, fair and completely independent investigation.

I commend Ken Fraser, chairman of the task force and Rom Tomalis, the vice chairman of the task force and other colleagues and their colleagues for the steps they took to ensure the independence and thoroughness of our investigation.

To conduct this investigation, we assembled an outstanding team of former law enforcement lawyers, one of whom is a former Navy SEAL and officials including former prosecutors, FBI agents, Pennsylvania and Delaware state police officers with many decades of experience in conducting sensitive investigations especially crimes against children.

COSTELLO: I want to bring Paul Callan, our CNN legal analyst while Louis Freeh is going through what the investigation entailed and who was on staff and -- you know, one of the things that I'm wondering about, Paul, this investigation was paid for by Penn State, but it seems to be rather scathing. So I guess, you could call it fair?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, and you know, I think you're on to something that's very interesting here. This report is a shocking indictment of not only Penn State, but the Board of Trustees specifically.

The president of the university, the athletic program, Joe Paterno and it was conducted by Louis Freeh who was hired by the university in essence to investigate them.

So it's really -- at one point deserve criticism obviously because he says really they aided an embedded child molestation, but on the other hand, they have now had to courage to come forward, to hire somebody to go out and do a thorough investigation and issue this scathing report.

I have to tell you there are no institutions that would hire to somebody to do this kind of scathing analysis and indictment. So I think in the end, you have to give them credit for having the courage to do this.

And hopefully they are going to learn a valuable lesson and straighten out the way they deal with children.

COSTELLO: You know, I have the report right here. It's 200 pages long. Louis Freeh did release some statements prior to his press conference, which is going on right now.

I'd like to read some of that for our viewers so they are brought up to date. Here's are some of the direct quotes of Louis Freeh, our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State.

The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Freeh also said, indeed, the continued access provided Sandusky with a very currency that enabled him to attract his victims.

Some coaches, administrators, and staff members ignored the red flags of Sandusky's behaviors and no one warned the public about him. Can't get much more scathing than that, Paul.

So he indicts Joe Paterno in here. Louis Freeh indicts not in a legal sense, but he also indicts the former president of Penn State, Graham Spanier, who has not been charged with any crime in this case. So what might happen down the line?

CALLAN: Well, I think the first thing is that this is a road map for the civil attorneys who are suing Penn State University to prove their case.

I mean, here you have Penn State's own hired investigators saying -- this is not an isolated incident that higher-ups didn't know about. Higher-ups aided and abetted in this.

What is particularly damming, Carol, is that after 1999, even though they knew that Sandusky was doing improper things with kids in showers, they gave him emeritus status and they have a direct link with the Second Mile program, which pretty much allowed him to continue to abuse children.

So this has drawn a direct link to the university and Second Mile and it's going to just open the flood gates in terms of civil lawsuits against Penn state.

COSTELLO: Joe Paterno's family in the past few days tried this p-pre-emptive strike saying that Joe Paterno cooperated fully, had nothing to do with the football culture that these terrible things happened on campus. But this report seems to say something different.

CALLAN: Well, yes it does and it's directly critical of Paterno. Although, I will say one of the things I found to be interesting is that Paterno's testimony in the grand jury is quoted in the report and it's actually pretty tepid.

He doesn't say a lot. He says before the grand jury that the only incident that he knew about or was told about was when McQueary told him about the shower incident, of course, that led to the whole investigation.

But he says that prior to that he had never heard a rumor or knew anything about Jerry Sandusky horsing around or doing improper things with children in the shower rooms at Penn State.

So in terms of testimony under oath by Joe Paterno, this report doesn't point to anything specifically incriminating him and I think the Paterno family and Paterno supporters will take some comfort in that finding, which is part of the report.

COSTELLO: Paul, I'm going to interrupt you because I think Louis Freeh is finally getting to the meat of his speech so let's listen.

FREEH: -- most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State.

The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Mr. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curly never demonstrated through actions or words any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest.

In critical written correspondence that we uncovered on March 20th of this year, we see evidence of their proposed plan of action in February 2001 that included reporting allegations about Sandusky to the authorities.

After Mr. Curley consulted with Mr. Paterno, however, they changed the plan and decided not to report to the authorities. The failure to protect the February 9, 2001 child victim or make attempts to identify him created a dangerous situation for other unknown, unsuspecting young boys who were lured to Penn State campus and football games by Sandusky and victimized repeatedly by him.

Further, they exposed this child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who was the only one who knew the child's identity, about what McQueary saw in the shower on the night of February 9, 2001.

The stated reasons by Mr. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley for not taking action to identify the victim and for not reporting Sandusky to the police or child welfare are, one, nobody told them it was sexual conduct.

Two, Sandusky should be treated humanely and, three, somebody else would handle it. Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity.

The most powerful leaders at Penn State University, Mr. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno, and Curley, repeatedly concealed facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the Board of Trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large.

Although concern to treat the child abuser humanely was expressly stated, no such sentiments were ever expressed by them to Sandusky's victims. The evidence shows that these four men also knew about a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky related to --

COSTELLO: We're going to break away from this because these are powerful allegations, especially against the legendary Coach Joe Paterno.

Lee Rubin played for Paterno and Jerry Sandusky of Penn State. Rubin was a starting free safety for the Lions between 1991 and 1993 and defensive captain of the team during his senior year.

Rubin was the go-to guy on the field for Sandusky who at the time was the defensive coordinator. Lee Rubin is now a public speaker. He is a teacher. Welcome. Did you just hear that?

LEE RUBIN, FORMER PENN STATE FOOTBALL PLAYER: Hi. How are you? I did, very difficult words to hear.

COSTELLO: Has your opinion changed about Joe Paterno?

RUBIN: Not at all. I think the thing we all need to consider is that this is a report, a very thorough report. But as in everything else, we need to give the family and all those involved to digest it take it for the gospel of truth.

COSTELLO: Wait a minute, Lee. This is what Louis Freeh said. He said Joe Paterno among others concealed what happened in that shower knowing what happened because they wanted to treat Jerry Sandusky humanely and they wanted someone else to handle it.

They didn't want the bad publicity coming down on the university and the football program. How could you possibly feel the same way about Joe Paterno?

RUBIN: Sure. Again, in fairness, I think this is Mr. Freeh's report and we need to take a chance to -- I haven't had a chance to read any of it at all.

I think in fairness it needs to be read. It needs to be digested to be responded to. I think the accusations are very direct, they are very clear, and it would be unwise to try to defend any wrongdoing. I just think there needs to be an opportunity to respond to those accusations.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure that you paid close attention to the trial of Jerry Sandusky.

RUBIN: I have.

COSTELLO: You worked closely with Sandusky in your playing days at Penn State. Can you believe even now that that all happened?

RUBIN: No, not at all. And I was actually in the same position when the grand jury came out and made the exact same statement. Let's wait for the trail. Let's wait for the legal process to run its course.

Once he was convicted and I think there was freedom then to share some very open and direct statements about what he did and the fact that he violated the trust of those people who did believe in him.

COSTELLO: I mean, I'm sure you had a great opinion of Jerry Sandusky before all of this came to light. Did your opinion only change about Jerry Sandusky after the trial was over and a conviction came down?

RUBIN: Absolutely. When you find out that what was reported, what was -- what he was accused of was actually true, absolutely. And as I mentioned a little earlier, the thing that made it even more damming to me was the fact that he did it violating the trust of those people who did support him, who did believe him.

COSTELLO: Lee Rubin, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us this morning. Thank you very much. You can read the full Freeh report online at cnn.com. It's on our home page. We also have a live blog going on with some of the more remarkable excerpts our team is finding at cnn.com/thisjustin.

Also moments ago, the state of Florida released new evidence in the case of George Zimmerman. We'll have the newest information on what happened the night Trayvon Martin was killed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's 17 minutes past the hour. Just minutes ago, the Florida state's attorney just released new evidence in the case against George Zimmerman.

As you know he's the man charged with killing Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. We have a team of people combing through that new information.

Included are details of more than 30 interviews from the FBI investigation at the heart of this, whether or not race played a factor in the killing.

Martin Savidge has been reading through all of this new information. What have you found?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, this is the second release of discovery evidence that has come from special prosecutor's office, Angela Corey.

And like before there is a mountain of material that has to go through the web site by which they're releasing it only about 17 minutes ago.

But what we're really looking for here is the first indications of the FBI probe. Keep in mind that there are a number of investigations that are going on surrounding the Trayvon Martin death.

The FBI came into this a couple of weeks after the young man was killed by George Zimmerman after weeks of protests that were held because there were many who felt that the investigation at the Sanford Police Department and in fact the shooting of George Zimmerman was actually racially motivated in some way.

So the FBI was investigating whether there were civil rights violations. A dozen agents fanned out in the Sanford community so we're going to look and hear some of what they turned up. But, again, it's evidence. So don't expect to get any final results. In other words, you're not going to get a ruling by the FBI.

Other things we're going to look for here, many other witnesses that have been now interviewed, 21 civilian witnesses are described. That's on top of the police officers.

We're also expecting to get diagrams that will be coming from the crime scene photos. There's also apparently information coming from a private investigator that Trayvon Martin's family hired.

And then something else that could be interesting. Interviews done at the gun shop where George Zimmerman bought the gun that he eventually would use to kill Trayvon Martin.

Of course, he claims that that was in self-defense so a lot of things to go through, Carol. It's only just beginning. COSTELLO: I know and some of this new evidence was released by prosecutors. Before we saw those interrogation tapes that were released by defense attorneys, but this time it's the prosecution's turn. Why are they releasing this evidence?

SAVIDGE: Well, here's the way the process works. Actually the prosecutor's office must first turn the evidence over to the defense team. This was worked out as a result of a negotiation between the press wanting to have access to it.

But the defense team saying, wait a minute, we need to see it first. Of course, we're the ones that are providing the defense for George Zimmerman.

So there's kind of a 30-day waiting period from when the material is actually released by the prosecutor's office to when the defense team says, it's OK to release generally to the public.

So that's what this is. This is the public release. The defense has had it for some time.

COSTELLO: OK, I'll let you get to it. Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

One of the biggest business stories of the morning, even if you don't have DirecTV, the fight between the satellite giant and Viacom is getting really nasty now. That's because the video that you could once watch online, now not available because of this fight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The battle between DirecTV and Viacom is really heating up now. Yesterday, it was just the 20 million DirecTV customers that could not watch Viacom channels like Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.

Now nobody can watch those shows online. Even if you don't have DirecTV, you can get those shows online. Alison kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with more on this nasty battle.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's turning into quite the battle royale. You know, if the gloves weren't already off between Viacom and DirecTV, yes, they are now.

So here's the latest. Less than 24 hours after DirecTV dropped Viacom from programming because of this big pricing dispute, Viacom has now dropped its own shows online.

So those popular programs like Spongebob, Square Pants, the Daily Show, "Jersey Shore," and Teen Mom, you can't see them on Viacom's site. So when you go to click to watch the video, you get this statement.

This content isn't currently available. So DirecTV is saying in a statement that Viacom is now not only holding DirecTV viewers hostage, but all online viewers as well.

But here's a footnote for you, Viacom hasn't yanked all of its shows, just the most popular ones. Clearly though Viacom is not being shy about letting the public even people who don't use DirecTV know how it feels.

When you go to mtv.com or nickelodeon.com, Carol, there's a huge ad that takes over the whole page telling everyone that DirecTV had the gall to drop their channels -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It is interesting that DirecTV is so upset about this since DirecTV has been complaining how about how much content Viacom makes available free online. Because DirecTV wants people watch to Viacom content on DirecTV not online, but now they're complaining about it.

KOSIK: Yes, I mean, funny, isn't it? You know, the kind of thing two different things. DirecTV saying yesterday it has no problem compromising, but that the ratings for many of Viacom's main networks have plummeted and much of the programming can be seen for free online.

That was one of their big sticking points. So clearly DirecTV wasn't happy that Viacom has all of the shows up and out there for free. But the big problem here though seems to be that Viacom appears to be using viewers as pawns.

Now Viacom isn't just keeping DirecTV customers from their programming, but everybody else, too. To be continued, Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm sure. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

We are just minutes away from Vice President Joe Biden's speech at the NAACP Convention. It will probably be a lot different than Mitt Romney's speech was. I'm thinking Joe Biden won't be booed. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just about 30 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh is now releasing details of his report on Penn State's handling of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.

Among the findings, university leaders showed a total disregard for victims of sexual abuse and they failed to protect children.

Also this hour, Florida state's attorney is releasing new information in the Trayvon Martin shooting. The report could shed new light on whether race played a role in George Zimmerman's killing of the unarmed 17-year-old.

In money news, home foreclosure filings jumped 9 percent in the last three months. According to a new realty report, more than one million homes -- one million people filed for foreclosure so far this year, but numbers do show a slight improvement over last year.

In weather, parts of south east Texas under water today. Several inches of rain fell yesterday and that triggered heavy flooding. Other Texans, well, the rain is a welcome relief. Temperatures should stay below 90 for the first time in days.

And we're waiting on Vice President Joe Biden to get his key note address to the NAACP convention in Houston. Mitt Romney as you know spoke to the group yesterday getting both boos and a standing ovation.

The Obama campaign says the president could not attend the convention due to a scheduling conflict, but that reason has raised some eyebrows. Especially since the president's public schedule is pretty light today.

Listen to reporters trying to get a straight answer from the White House press secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In 2010, the first lady addressed the convention and last year the president met with Ben Jealous in the oval office to discuss many of the concerns in the African-American community. The vice president of the United States will be speaking at the convention this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

CARNEY: Again, he's spoken before the organization in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: National political correspondent, Jim Acosta joins us. He is in Houston covering the NAACP Convention. Are people upset that President Obama is not going to be there?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes you know Carol, there are a few members of the NAACP that we've talked to who have said yes they are disappointed that the President is not coming.

But keep in mind, this is a pretty supportive audience. So they are not really letting him have it. And the Vice President is coming here. And it's going to be interesting to see what he has to say, Carol, because we have not really gotten an indication yet as to what Mr. Biden is going to be telling this crowd here.

And if -- if the past is any guide, Carol, you know, when Joe Biden has gone to some of these events he's been you know carrying out that role of campaign attack dog. So it will be interesting to see how Joe Biden goes after Mitt Romney today, if he goes after Mitt Romney today.

Because on a separate track from all of this Carol. Keep in mind, there's all of this talk about what happened at the NAACP yesterday with Mitt Romney. But on a separate track this morning, both campaigns are going after each other accusing one another of not telling the truth.

The Romney campaign has an ad out this morning, that brings back that old Hillary Clinton line, "Shame on you, Barack Obama", taking the President to task on some of the claims that have been made in some of his ads recently.

And the Obama campaign, Carol we'll tell you, in the next half hour is holding a conference call with reporters to talk about an article that is now in the "Boston Globe" that reports -- and let me just explain this. It's a little complicated but I'll try to do it as quickly as possible, that back in 2001, Bain Capital, Mitt Romney's former private investment firm, filed a document with the SEC that shows Romney as the CEO and president of Bain Capital.

Now why is that important? That's important because the Romney campaign has repeatedly said that Mitt Romney left that position in 1999 to go run the Olympics. So anything that happened at Bain Capital the Romney campaign has said cannot be attributed to Mitt Romney. It's not Mitt Romney's fault.

And so all of this is now coming under discussion. The Obama campaign put out a statement earlier this morning saying that Mitt Romney is basically not telling the truth about when he left Bain Capital.

So it's going to be interesting to see how all this plays out and whether or not the Vice President picks this up and runs with it here at the NAACP -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh I bet he will. And the other thing he'll probably pick up and run with of course, Mitt Romney was booed when he said he wouldn't repeal Obamacare and he used that term Obamacare. Maybe Joe Biden's first line should be about how we love Obamacare. Not we per se, but the African-Americans and the --

ACOSTA: We'll see. I mean he might do that. That's right. He might do that. I mean, there have been some Democrats who have said, you know we like the term "Obamacare" because it -- it almost sounds like Obama cares.

So you know there are some Democrats who sort of like that term but it's going to be interesting, Carol I think getting back to this Bain Capital story, to see if the Vice President talks about this at all.

You know I should also point out the Romney campaign did put out a statement, not from a named official but generally from the campaign saying about this SEC filing, that this is a -- this is technical filing with the SEC. Just because Mitt Romney's name is on the filing of the SEC it doesn't mean he was involved in the day to day operations at Bain Capital.

They are saying that even though his name was on that SEC filing in 2001 he wasn't really running the company after 1999 when he went to run the Olympics. So all of this is just now becoming very interesting and we'll be talking about it all day long today. COSTELLO: Ok. So -- so what did Bain Capital supposedly do after 1999 that Democrats say it shouldn't?

ACOSTA: Ok. Well, it goes back to an Obama campaign ad that's been running in recent weeks that you know FactCheck.org has called inaccurate and false. But basically what this ad has stated is that at Bain Capital when Mitt Romney was in charge the ad states, the company was advising other companies on how to outsource jobs out of the United States.

And the Romney campaign has said, wait a minute that's not fair, you can't say that because after 1999 Mitt Romney was no longer at Bain Capital.

So the reason why these SEC filings are interesting and possibly important is that if these filings establish that perhaps he was more involved at Bain Capital than he's previously stated, then perhaps there's a contradiction there. There's a discrepancy there. That's what the Obama campaign is saying. Well, they are saying more than that, they're saying Mitt Romney is not telling the truth.

The Romney campaign is saying, no, no, no, these are technical filings with the SEC. Just because his name is on the form as the owner, and the CEO, the president, t doesn't mean that he was involved in Bain's operations after 1999.

COSTELLO: Got it.

ACOSTA: That's the back and forth. It's just getting started Carol and it isn't going to be over for quite a while I have a feeling.

COSTELLO: And it's raining so we'll let you go. Jim Acosta, thank you so much.

ACOSTA: That's right. I'm sorry, thanks.

COSTELLO: Actor Robert Blake he has a new book out. He also has a big chip on his shoulder. Listen to the fireworks when our Piers Morgan asks Blake about the mystery of his wife's murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm not trying to drive anything into the ground. I'm asking you questions about what I presumed to be a very important moment in your life. You've written a book about your life.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERT BLAKE, ACTOR: I've written a book about my life. I didn't write a book about that night and I didn't write a book about Bonnie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It gets better, though. A.J. Hammer has pulled some of the most heated exchanges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Piers Morgan wanted to give Robert Blake an opportunity to clear the air about his wife's murder back in 2001. The actor known for his temper almost as much for his roles like Beretta, apparently did not like Piers' tone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKE: Tell me why I'm lying. Because if you don't know I'm telling you the truth, then you must have a little scratch in the back of your head about where I'm lying. Tell me where I'm lying?

MORGAN: No, I'm not saying you're lying.

BLAKE: But you say you don't know if I'm telling the truth. What the hell is the difference?

MORGAN: I'm saying I've met you for what, 20 minutes?

BLAKE: I don't care about that. You put me on the stand. I'm telling the truth and you say you're scratching the head.

MORGAN: Why are you being so defensive?

BLAKE: Because you just insulted me.

MORGAN: I didn't insult you.

BLAKE: Yes, you did. Nobody tells me I'm a liar.

MORGAN: I didn't call you a liar.

BLAKE: You said, I might not be telling the truth. What the hell is the difference? I don't want to take this anyplace special. All I want -- ok, let me say it this way. My skin is a little bit thin --

MORGAN: Sure.

BLAKE: -- which is why I stay away from people mostly. I've never allowed people to ask me the questions that you're asking. I allowed you to do that because I trust you and I would have assumed that you and that guy in your ear would trust me. And if you don't, then we better start talking about the "Little Rascals."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You might remember, Blake was acquitted of his wife's murder in 2005 and then later found liable in a wrongful death civil suit.

"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" host A.J. Hammer has more of last night's testy 101. It was just a bizarre interview to watch. A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes it was pretty strange. And it had a lot of us scratching our heads. Now the whole reason he went on the show Carol was to promote his memoir, "Tales of a Rascal". It's a book about his life. So Piers asked the questions that I think everyone wanted asked. He wanted Blake to talk about the death of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley.

And here now is another the combative exchanges between them last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT BLAKE, ACTOR: You're just like the cops. There's no place to get. Keep him in jail until he dies because everybody's who is dead is guilty.

Why would I marry her if I was going to kill her? I mean I was worth $25 million. I could have hired somebody to kill her when she was in Tibet or someplace. She drove all over the country. She was out selling (inaudible). I could have hired somebody to follow her for ten months and make her disappear so nobody would ever find her, for Christ's sake.

I will go out to dinner with her to kill her? What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is wrong with you?

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: I didn't say you killed her.

BLAKE: You didn't say I didn't. And you said it's all very interesting. What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is so interesting about it? Why don't you ask me some really interesting questions?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: So there you have it, Carol. I mean this is how it went on and on and on. And it was so strange to see him sitting there and saying, well, if I wanted to kill her, here's the things that I could have done as opposed to what actually ended up happening. I suppose all the time he spent in prison he had a lot of time to think about how he would have done it if he had done it. I don't really know what to make of it all.

COSTELLO: It's just all so pathetic in a way. I mean he says he has no friends and the only love he has comes from fans. And he also talked about some sort of comeback.

HAMMER: Yes. He was talking about the fact that he was having such a hard time breaking back into show business, his big dream to be back on the screen. He was very upset. This has been an emotional roller coaster ride as he had said and you have said.

Blake tried to explain why it has been such an emotional experience for him. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BLAKE: There's no question that I'm very thin-skinned and I'm frightened. And there's no question that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) -- wait a minute.

There's no question that I take things that you say too seriously and too much to heart. And I do misrepresent what people say to me because I know I'm still hurt and I may be hurt for the rest of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Now Carol, Piers did ask Blake who he thought killed his wife and Piers didn't get anywhere with that line of questioning and that really didn't surprise any of us.

COSTELLO: Wow. That's all I can say is wow. A.J. Hammer, thanks so much.

HAMMER: You got it.

COSTELLO: Any minute now, Vice President Joe Biden will make the keynote speech at the NAACP convention.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. You're live in Houston right now where at any moment Vice President Joe Biden is expected to replace that man behind the podium and give the keynote address to the NAACP's convention.

Of course, President Obama is not going to be there today because he had a scheduling conflict, he says. When Joe Biden begins speaking, we'll head back to Houston.

We're looking at the other top stories. After months of investigation, we know much more about what actually happened at Penn State. The independent report from former FBI director Louis Freeh is scathing, to say the least. It condemns Penn State's handling of the child sex abuse scandal involving former football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Among the findings, "University leaders showed a total disregard for the victims and failed to protect children."

We're also poring over new FBI evidence released in the Trayvon Martin. It's part of the civil rights investigations to whether race played a role in the killing of the unarmed teenager.

And the war between Viacom and DirecTV is heating up. DirecTV pulled all Viacom channels including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon in a dispute over subscriber fees. Now Viacom has pulled much of its content online off. And that affects everyone, not just those who have DirecTV. One of the complaints of DirecTV though is much of Viacom shows can be seen online for free. But not anymore.

In weather news, parts of the southeast in Texas are under water today. This is Bay City. Several inches of rain triggered heavy flooding.

For other Texans though, the rain is a welcome belief. Temperatures should stay below 90 degrees for the first time in days.

And this is just like a scene out of "Jaws". A woman is reeling in this fish. She's reeling in this fish. She is excited. And then --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

It's all mine. It's all mine. Get it.

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COSTELLO: Wow. You'd be cursing, too, if a shark just ate your fish. This happened near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Sarah Brame was the fisherman or fisherwoman says -- fisherperson. She was afraid the bull shark was going to get her. Her family ended up catching the bull shark and then decided it would be smart just to let it go.

Ex-Wall Street banker Michael Marin lived large and died at the very moment of greatest shame. Did he commit suicide in court moments after being found guilty of arson?

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our goal can't just be to put people back to work -- although that's priority number one. We have to build an economy where everyone can have the confidence that their hard work will also pay off.

That's what I believe. That's why as long as I have the honor of serving as your president, I will get up every single day and fight as hard as I can for that big, diverse, hopeful, optimistic, hardworking America that we love. An America where we're looking out for the middle class. An America where we're creating ladders for people who are willing to work hard to get into the middle class. That's my promise to you.

And if you keep standing with me, if you keep persevering like the NAACP always has, then I know that we can arrive there together.

Thank you so much. I'm proud of all that you do. Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and I all send our deepest regards.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. President Obama, a taped statement to the NAACP. As you know, there was a lot of criticism from many quarters of the NAACP that the President was not going to appear in person at this convention and speak to African-American voters. There was a sense that he was taking the African-American vote for granted even though he's supported by 87 percent or more of African-American voters.

Jim Acosta is at the convention. Maybe this was not so much of a surprise. Right, Jim?

ACOSTA: That's right. And I should tell you Carol, that just a few moments ago, the NAACP conference here played a video message from President Obama. It was fairly generic. It's not really clear when he recorded this video because he doesn't really respond to what happened here yesterday when Mitt Romney spoke before this group. But he gave some generic campaign pitches -- I think you will describe him as -- and said at one point, quote, "We're looking out for the middle class."

Carol that's a theme for the Obama campaign right now. And also to the Romney campaign, for that matter.

COSTELLO: Yes, he did mention healthcare but he certainly didn't talk about it at length. We checked out the President's schedule this morning Jim, and of course we can't know all that is on the President's schedule but he appears to have a light schedule this morning. He has briefings in the morning and then an interview with Charlie Rose, I think.

ACOSTA: That's right. CBS News does have an interview with the President and Mrs. Obama today. That may be part of the reason why that there's this scheduling conflict that the President could not be down here in Houston because he's doing that interview.

But like you said, we don't know everything that's in the President's schedule. There are some things that they put on the schedule and there are some things that aren't on the schedule. But -- and the White House has said this is a scheduling conflict.

I think you played that earlier where the White House press corps tried to pin down the Press Secretary on this and that was interesting to watch. But, you know, I think the Vice President may be coming out here in just a few moments and what will be kind of interesting to watch for Carol is whether he sort of reprises that campaign role of attack dog.

He's been doing that recently. He did that at La Raza the other day when he spoke for that group and went after Mitt Romney in front of those folks. So it will be interesting to watch and see what the Vice President has to say.

COSTELLO: Well, it's funny this morning, you know, I was talking with my team and we're saying, "Oh, maybe President Obama will Skype. You know, he'll talk to the NAACP via Skype. Well, he almost did exactly that.

But back to Joe Biden for just a second; you talked about him being this attack dog and being very passionate in his remarks and really like -- kind of roiling up the culture war, right?

ACOSTA: Well, the other day in front of La Raza, he went after Mitt Romney big time. I mean he -- you know this is in front of the Hispanic audience and talking about the former Massachusetts's governor's decision so far to not to release more of his tax returns and Joe Biden said to that crowd, that La Raza crowd, Governor Romney wants you to show your papers but he won't show his.

So that was just one sort of blistering line from Joe Biden; he's done this at several other events. And so that's what we'll be looking this morning to see if he goes after Mitt Romney again. The campaign likes Joe Biden in that role. They feel like he connects maybe even better than the President does, with working class voters in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

And so, you know, even though Joe Biden is talking to predominantly African-American audiences in Houston, Texas -- a state that Romney will carry easy -- obviously the message is meant to go beyond the borders of the safe Texas.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta, I know you're standing by waiting for Joe Biden to appear behind that podium. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back.

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COSTELLO: Ok. Joe Biden was supposed to begin speaking at the NAACP convention in Houston, around 10:30 Eastern time, but as you can see, things are running a little late. We have Jim Acosta on the phone. So what exactly are they doing, Jim?

ACOSTA: They are getting ready for Joe Biden to come out on this stage. We sort of had some advance notice that he might be running a few minutes late. I don't know if we talked about this earlier Carol, but there was a really big storm that came through Houston earlier this morning and it's sort of wreaking havoc with a lot of people's flight schedules. People are trying to leave Houston right.

So that might explain part of the reason why he's getting started late. But, you know, one thing I can tell you, Carol is looking at this audience -- it's about half full. It is a pretty lightly- attended audience. This is certainly not packed to the rafters and it's roughly at the same size crowd that Mitt Romney had yesterday.

It will be interesting to kind of watch the crowd's reactions to what Joe Biden has to say, you know, obviously because it's so interesting to watch what they did yesterday. Obviously the perception for Mitt Romney as we've been reporting was not always that positive. So we'll see if that changes here today.

One thing that we sort of picked up on is that, you know, Romney's message, while it may have upset some folks here at the NAACP, really wowed conservatives. I mean they were talking all over Twitter, online yesterday. And they thought this was one of his best speeches. So he really fired up the conservative base with that speech even though the conservative base wasn't in the audience. And it will be interesting to see if Joe Biden tries to sort of return fire and do the same thing here by firing up the Democratic base.

That's one thing that we'll be looking for. COSTELLO: Absolutely. Jim Acosta, thanks for sticking around. I know you're going to sit through Joe Biden's speech and you'll have more in the next hour of NEWSROOM which starts right now.

I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me today. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Kyra Phillips.