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Kerry in Tokyo for North Korea Talks; Immigration Bill Expected Tuesday; Background Check Vote Expected Wednesday; "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane"; The American Journey; Parts Unknown; Decline of African-Americans in Baseball
Aired April 14, 2013 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Fredricka.
I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We're going to begin this hour with the very latest diplomatic effort to calm things down between North Korea and just about the rest of the world. The top negotiator in the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry, is in Tokyo right now. He's personally visiting three countries closest to North Korea and getting assurances from them that a nuclear capable North Korea is unacceptable.
Meanwhile, inside North Korea, does this look like a country that's teetering on the edge of war as they claim? A marathon scheduled a long time ago went off as planned with runners of 16 countries starting from Kim Il Sung Stadium in North Korea.
Let's go live now to Tokyo, Japan, and that's where we find, that's where John Kerry is today. And CNN's Diana Magnay is there as well.
Diana, as always, the messages from North Korea mixed. They are threatening nuclear war but having a nice sports festival at the same time. What gives here?
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true. You're going to see more of that pageantry also on your screens today from North Korea because it's the 101st anniversary of the founder -- of the birthday of the founder of North Korea. And so, there are going to be huge parades and celebrations all day today.
And it's those mixed messages that, you know, come out of North Korea all the time. There are still tourists going in. It doesn't seem as though this is a country preparing for war. And yet, you have all this war rhetoric coming out of North Korea aimed at Tokyo, aimed at Seoul, aggressive, invective.
And that is something that in his meetings in Seoul, Beijing, and now in Tokyo, Secretary Kerry said we will not stand for this anymore, enough of this war talk. Now is the time for peace.
Let's just have a listen to what he said yesterday in Tokyo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: It is very simple. That the United States will do what is necessary to defend our allies, to ban Republic of Korea and the region against these provocations. But our choice is to negotiate. Our choice is to move to the table and find a way for the region to have peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAGNAY: So, all about getting North Korea back to the negotiating table, Don. But with one very important caveat: North Korea has to show that it's serious about dismantling its nuclear weapons program. And I think the most important visit of his trip was that the one he made to Beijing where he said he'd really got a commitment of China that they were committed to a denuclearized North Korea.
And you could tell from the way he spoke about it that that in his mind was the most crucial thing, to get Beijing on board because, of course, the economic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang are huge. North Korea relies on China for its power, for its food. So if Beijing can really start to exercise its muscle on North Korea, then you might get somewhere in trying to negotiate some kind of peace here, Don.
LEMON: Diana, a question for you. What is the expectation that North Korea will fire a missile tonight or tomorrow as part of the big national celebration? And we've had some experts say that they're positive it will happen and others say, no way. No way that they're going to do it.
What do you think? What are the Japanese saying?
MAGNAY: It's very hard to read North Korea. No one knows. That's the trouble. There's been a lot of talk at various points over the last week that this could be the day that North Korea fires a missile. You know, last Wednesday, they said that's the day that foreign diplomats no longer safe in Pyongyang. So, people thought maybe it will happen now. But it didn't.
Today is the anniversary of the birthday of the founder. Perhaps they will fire a missile. But I think the concern is less when it happens but more if it happens will it just be a test fire which everyone's hoping it will only, or will they carry through on the threats and starts targeting?
I think people in this region are pretty clear that Kim Jong Un would be out of his mind to strike U.S. military facilities, for example, in Japan or even Japan itself, because of the repercussions, but that is -- that is the concern. It's so hard to know what they plan to do and it's so hard to know how far Kim Jong Un is prepared to go, Don.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Diana Magnay. We appreciate that.
Let's go to Washington now, where an immigration reform bill will be unveiled Tuesday in the Senate. The compromise legislation is expected to provide a 13-year path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
CNN's Athena Jones now live at the White House for us.
Athena, explain the details of what's in this bill.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.
Well, we did hear some details from Florida Senator Marco Rubio today. He appeared on seven of the Sunday talk shows to begin this push for the immigration bill. We heard him lay out some details, so- called triggers -- three things that have to happen before people who are here illegally can get legal status.
The first -- I believe we have a graphic to put on the screen. The first is a universal E-Verify system. That would allow workers to check the citizenship status of people they want to hire. Another is a tracking system for immigrants, to make sure that people who come here legally don't end up overstaying the visas. That's one of the big problems. And the last is what he called some real border security, which would include fences.
The idea here is that this is not going to be easy for the undocumented. They're going to have to pass a background check and pay a fine before they go through this legalization process.
Let's listen to what Senator Marco Rubio had to say to our own Candy Crowley on "STATE OF THE UNION" today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: And you're going to have to be in the system at least 10-years plus, plus all the enforcement things happen, before we give you access to apply for the legal immigration system. In essence, we're not awarding anybody anything. All we're doing is giving people the opportunity to eventually earn access to our new, improved and modernized legal immigration system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: So, there you heard from Senator Marco Rubio.
Another senator who's on the "Gang of Eight", one of the Republican members, is Senator John McCain and he told Candy today that he was guardedly optimistic about the prospects for this bill and opposition. But, of course, there is opposition.
We heard also from another Republican, Senator Jeff Sessions out of Alabama, who thinks that this is an amnesty and that it's going to hurt American jobs. And so, it shows that there's a tough road ahead for this, Don.
LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Athena Jones. We appreciate that. Just ahead here on CNN, we'll talk more about immigration with our political contributors. Also, the trip that's tripped up Washington. Jay-Z and Beyonce's vacation to Cuba. Why is it such a big deal?
And later this hour, on the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, Major League Baseball has a problem. The number of African-Americans in the league is alarming low. We're talking about what's driving young blacks away from the past time and what the league is doing to try to get them back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A former Texas lawman is now in jail, arrested and held in a $3 million bond. This is Eric Williams being booked in Kaufman County, Texas. He used to be a justice of the peace there in the same county where an intense investigation is swirling around the shooting deaths of two prosecutors.
Deputies went to Williams' house with a search warrant tied to the murders, and then brought him in. They're not saying if Williams arrest is directly connected to the case. We'll follow up on that on that one for you.
The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on legislation to tighten background checks for gun sales. The National Rifle Association is against the measure.
One of the bill's authors, Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania says he is not sure it will have enough votes to pass. Despite the NRA strong opposition, he defended his position earlier today on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: First of all, let me be very clear: Senator Manchin and I are not interested and not willing to support infringing the legitimate rights of law-abiding citizens. This is about whether or not it's reasonable to try to make it more difficult for dangerous people who -- for whom it's already illegal for them to have weapons to obtain them.
And I think that's a vey reasonable thing.
Now, there are some people do want to infringe on Second Amendment rights. I won't be part of that, but I will part of trying to make sure that criminals and dangerously mentally ill people have a harder time getting guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona today expressed support for the bill.
The other big story on Capitol Hill this week, of course, immigration reform deal, the one in the Senate. As our Athena Jones reported, the so-called "Gang of Eight," four senators of each party, will unveil their plan on Tuesday.
CNN contributors L.Z. Granderson and Ana Navarro are here to talk about it. L.Z., is also a senior writer at ESPN. Ana is a Republican strategist.
L.Z., is this deal that finally -- is this the one that finally gets passed? I mean, we have been talking immigration reform for years.
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, but because of the 2012 election, now we know it's actually important. And I think that's the big difference. People realize -- and by people I'm actually talking about the GOP -- now realize that the Latino vote is an important vote. Not only for 2012 but going forward.
And so, yes, this is a deal, skeleton, that will eventually find its way to the White House and eventually to Obama's desk. I do believe that.
LEMON: Ana, you have been involved in immigration reform. You've been involved in the debate. You've been doing it for years as part of what you do as a Republican strategist.
Are enough of fellow Republicans going to get behind this bill to get it passed, do you think?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think so. Let's just understand that you don't need a majority of Republicans. You probably need 10, 15, 20 Republicans to get it through the Senate and I think that those 20 Republicans are there.
If you take a look, you've got very important voices in the party that are in Congress right now like Mario Rubio, like Rand Paul in the Senate, like John McCain, like Lindsey Graham already behind this.
On the House side, you've got the Paul Ryan, the former V.P. nominee, who's also been a pro-immigration person and is speaking out strongly. He's going to be in Chicago on the 22nd, doing an immigration event and speaking about this issue.
So, yes, I think Republicans are there, but part of it is politics.
LEMON: But, Ana --
NAVARRO: Yes?
LEMON: Ana, if it gets through the Senate, though, can it get through the House?
NAVARRO: I'm actually optimistic. I'm cautiously optimistic.
I was with John Boehner in Miami on Friday, Don. I think he's cautiously optimistic and I think he's committed to trying to do this.
LEMON: OK. NAVARRO: The same thing is going on in the House.
There's a "Gang of Eight" also working very diligently in the House of four Republicans and four Democrats trying to put together their own deal an their own bill which I think will be unveiled also very shortly.
LEMON: I want to ask L.Z. about that. L.Z., do you think if it gets through the Senate, does it get through the House?
GRANDERSON: Well, I was going to say -- I mean, there's some things in the bill -- the way Marco Rubio was describing it today, I couldn't tell if it's immigration reform or episode of "The Hunger Games." I mean, this is really, really stringent and tough. So, I think he'll be able to sell the fact that it isn't amnesty. He isn't handing anything over the bill. It doesn't make it easy for per se. It actually makes it very difficult.
And it really addresses what I think is a major issue and an important issue and that is securing the border. It makes it really top priority. And I think he'll able to sell people, Boehner will be able to sell his party on the fact that this bill would not be coming to full fruition unless we're able to control and have a secure border. I think that's most important part of the bill.
LEMON: OK. I want to talk about a vacation that's gotten more coverage I think than a first family vacation. You guys have both mentioned Marco Rubio, a Cuban American had some strong comments this morning on Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip to Cuba. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: There's a rapper in Cuba, there's a hip hop artist in Cuba, who is on a hunger strike and has been persecuted because he has political lyrics in his songs, and I wish they would have met with him. If they really wanted to know what was going on in Cuba, they should have met with some of the people that are suffering there, not simply smoke cigars and taking a stroll down the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Ana, to you first, you know him very well. Is he right? Was it a bad idea from the beginning? I mean, he also said that one of Jay-Z's heroes, Che Guevara is -- he said he was actually a racist and he says Jay-Z needs to get informed.
NAVARRO: All of those things that Marco Rubio said today are true. If you go -- just go Google Che Guevara and you will see that one of the first things that will pop up are his writings on racism, his writings on his race, when he was alive in the diaries, where he, frankly, had some very ugly things to say, demeaning things to say about the African race.
And yes, there is a rapper in Cuba who is in jail for rapping anti-government lyrics. If somebody in Cuba -- if an artist in Cuba had rapped what Jay-Z rapped about the American politicians, that would be grounds for being in jail.
In Cuba, Don, it's illegal, for example, to play the lyrics of Gloria Estefan or my friend Willy Torino (ph). There are Cuban artists who had to escape the island in order to be able to play and exercise their freedom, Arturo Sandoval. You know, people like Celia Cruz (ph) died without ever being to go back to the island. So, I'll tell you this -- look. If Jay-Z and Beyonce want to go to Cuba, they want to thumb their nose at the laws that are in the books, you know, do it, that's fine. Everybody can do that. But let's not pretend that Cuba is Cancun or that Cuba is the Bahamas. It is a 54- year-old dictatorship and people live under oppression and those of us who are familiar with the situation and educated on it, it brings us pain.
So, yes, it's their choice to go but it's my choice to find it wrong and to think that it's just not helpful to freeing that island.
LEMON: L.Z.?
GRANDERSON: Well, you know, I keep thinking about what he said about Jay-Z and Che and the history. So I did some digging. You know, I was reminded that Batista wasn't a good guy either. He was a bit of a dictator, as well. He was a racist as well.
I've been to Cuba. I'd applied for license. I didn't roll with Jay-Z and Beyonce and I spent two weeks on the island and spoke to some of the actual people there. I was able to get away from my tourism group and actually speak to some of the natives there.
I saw a real divide financially based upon the skin color and the skin tone. So, I think racism is still a problem there, but I think racist was a problem during the Batista era, as well as what we're seeing with Castro.
So, as we talk about the history and what we are going to do with Cuba, I think it's important to realize that this is an island that's been on a dictatorship much longer than 50 years, and that this is an island that's very, very complicated.
But is that dictatorship worth what we dealt with Mubarak? Is that dictator worse than that we're dealing with, with China? I mean, we are talking about the fact that we give millions and billions of dollars to countries that oppress women still.
LEMON: Quickly, L.Z.
GRANDERSON: That to me is also hypocritical.
LEMON: Yes, OK.
NAVARRO: Well, L.Z, I tell you what --
LEMON: Ana, I simply don't have time, Ana.
NAVARRO: -- if I see Jay-Z wearing a Batista t-shirts, I take issue with that, too. LEMON: We have to go, guys. Thank you very much.
A notorious gangster breaks out of jail. Now, an international manhunt is on. This is the stuff that movies are made of. We're going inside the escape, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will be the 40 mega watt solar field.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They told him he can never do it.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: It is a disruptive idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, someone's got to bring solar energy to this place. I was like, please not you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be the field with the best security in the whole world because we have two armies guarding it.
GUPTA: Yosef Abramowitz and his real first solar field on "THE NEX LIST."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever he can envision, he can figure out how to make it happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's stunning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he can see it, he can do it. It's incredible.
UZI LANDAU, FORMER ISRAEL ENERGY & WATER MINISTER: Well, like a bulldog, he just put his teeth in something and doesn't give it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Venezuelans are electing a new president today for the second time in less than a year. This election comes just over a month after President Hugo Chavez died. Chavez has just been re- elected in November. Voters are choosing between these two men, Nicolas Maduro, who represents the United Socialist Party, and Enrique Capriles, who represents a coalition of opposition parties. He lost to Chavez in the last election.
Thousands of Venezuelans in south Florida had to go to New Orleans to vote in their home country's presidential election. Many stood in long lines in the rain. They had to make the trip because former President Chavez closed the consulate in Miami last year.
An Islamist militant group is claiming responsibility for an attack today that killed 29 people in Somalia. Witnesses say at least 10 heavily armed men stormed a court building that was in session in Mogadishu. Some donated explosives. Others exchanged gun fire with government security. Nearly 60 people were wounded in the attack. Somali's president calls it a sign of desperation by the terrorists.
A notorious gangster blasts his way out of prison in France. Now, an international manhunt is under way for Redoine Faid. He's described as a criminal mastermind and the French government says his prison break is an act of war.
Clearly, this was not an impulse move. His plan was well- organized and flawlessly executed.
So, CNN's Azadeh Ansari is here, CNN International's Azadeh Ansari is here.
How did he execute this spectacular jailbreak?
AZADEH ANSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL DESK EDITOR: Well, Don, when you see this, it's really jaw-dropping. And probably one of the most jaw dropping jailbreaks that we've seen in recent history.
So, what he did, he's a criminal mastermind. He blasted his way through five doors of a high security prison in Lille, France, all the while taking four security guards hostage briefly. Then, getting out and getting away in a car which then he dumps, sets on fire.
Now, he's on the run. We have Interpol involved. We have an arrest warrant in 26 countries issued for him. I mean, this is someone who's had a history of doing this. And his own lawyer comes out with -- to BFM TV in France and says, look, I'm not surprised. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN-LOUIS PELLETIER, ATTORNEY FOR REDOINE FAID (through translator): It is also a young man remarkably intelligent and he is using his intellect to serve his ambitions, and I think he has so many years in prison behind him that he thought it was one too many.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
ANSARI: Go ahead.
LEMON: I was thinking, I was going to ask you that apparently, they believe he saw this in a movie "Heat" from Robert de Niro?
ANSARI: Well, he drew his inspiration from a lot of movie plots, for example. Like he would use those plots as manuals for his heists. But he really got his street creds, Don, from robbing money shipments off of armored trucks.
LEMON: That's his criminal reputation.
ANSARI: That is -- you know, and he spent 10 years in prison. And the million dollar question is where did he get all these explosives from?
LEMON: Yes.
ANSARI: Which is the discussion that's taking place right now. One of the reasons, they're saying, is that this was an overcapacity prison. The other reason is the possibility that there's a different way in terms of how France deals with their prison system so their guards don't always check inmates and it's done on a very random basis. So that could also be an issue at play as to why he got away with this.
LEMON: I think we'll be seeing the movie of this coming to theaters near you. This, a new bold breakout.
ANSARI: Yes, that's true. It's like a script.
LEMON: Yes.
ANSARI: Absolutely.
LEMON: Thank you, Azadeh.
ANSARI: You're welcome.
LEMON: Appreciate it.
A mother driving the wrong way on the highway kills eight. The autopsy says she was drunk and high. Her family says that could never happen. Is there more to the story? We're going to talk about it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It was a wrong way crash that claimed the lives of eight people, including four children. A New York mother, too, driving erratically on the wrong side of a New York parkway, crashing head-on into another vehicle back in 2009.
Diane Schuler's autopsy showed a blood alcohol level of 0.19 and a high devil of HTC, the active ingredient in marijuana. But her husband believes there has to be an explanation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL SCHULER, HUSBAND OF DIANE SCHULER: I want to know what happened to my wife. I want an autopsy done, a correct autopsy done. I want to know if she had a choke or not. What they're saying is not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So is there more to this story? Tonight, CNN airs the HBO documentary, "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane." The director, Liz Garbus, joins me now.
Liz, thank you for joining us.
Diane's family has always said driving drunk would be completely out of character for her. Is there any truth to that?
LIZ GARBUS, CO-PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Look, I mean, people are complicated and no one person is equal to their worst action. Diane was by all accounts of everyone we spoke to a devoted mother and an incredibly hard worker. She managed working and family with incredible ease people felt.
But obviously on that day in question, she did consume that alcohol and smoked marijuana. I mean, it was in her system. So the question is, why? And you know what else was happening in her life? And in this film we set out to explore those questions.
LEMON: Yes. So, Liz, it would appear from all accounts that the five children riding in Diane's minivan knew something was wrong. I want you to listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When there is an incoherent phone call with her brother, her oldest niece is apparently on the phone to her parents saying, there's something wrong with Aunt Diane.
JAY SCHULER, DIANE'S SISTER-IN-LAW: They're saying, Aunt Diane can't see. Aunt Diane can't -- something's wrong with Aunt Diane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Meaning, do you think she consumed or do they think she consumed something or someone gave her something? The kids knew something was up.
GARBUS: The kids knew something was up. Clearly their aunt was acting erratically. She had stopped in a market, along side of the road to look for some Advil, some liquid gels. Maybe she was having some kind of pain. Maybe the alcohol and pot was some way of addressing that pain.
Clearly not a healthy or safe way to address this but maybe that is what was going on. We don't know. I mean, we do know that -- Diane smoked marijuana occasionally to relax. But people said she was not a big drinker. But obviously something happened that day to make her get very out of control. The combination of marijuana and alcohol together can make people -- their judgment very, very impaired.
LEMON: Liz, I want to listen to another clip from the documentary where we hear Diane's husband float an idea that an abscessed tooth could have had something to do with the accident. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL SCHULER, HUSBAND OF DIANE SCHULER: So say we exhume the body and there's a really bad abscessed tooth, we have X-rays from years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the question will still prevail, how did it cause --
(CROSSTALK)
SCHULER: Maybe she had a stroke and by mistake she thought that was water and drank it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Is he in denial?
GARBUS: Look, I mean, your wife driving the car, the women you've loved all your life, this most horrible tragedy that takes not just her life but the life of her nieces and his daughter, I mean, of course, the human thing is to look for some explanation, something that roots this and some kind of narrative that makes sense to you.
Nothing makes sense. We know she had tooth pain. She'd seen the dentist for it. A doctor probably told him, well, an infected abscess tooth can cause a stroke so he hung on to that. I think that's a very, very normal human reaction to a tragedy like this.
LEMON: Yes. I remember this story when it happened. I mean, it was just horrific. I can't imagine working as closely with the people involved as you have. What did you learn from this particular project, Liz?
GARBUS: I learned a lot about life through this particular project. I learned that no one is entirely knowable. Sometimes the people closest to you have secrets or have pain, have histories that you don't know. Sometimes people medicate themselves. Sometimes people don't get the assistance that they might need. And that there are secrets in families and secrets can hurt and secrets can kill.
LEMON: Liz Garbus, thank you very much. It looks to be a very interesting documentary.
And you can watch HBO's "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane," it's coming up at the top of the hour, 7:00 Eastern, and you can see it again at 10:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
Again, our thanks to Liz Garbus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We take them for granted in high-rises around the world. Of course, we're talking about elevators. But how many of us know the backstory to this invention that launched an empire of sorts? Tom Foreman has the story in this week's "American Journey."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a staple of horror movies for decades. A great skyscraper towers high above a city, a calamity strikes like the one in earthquake and an elevator plunges. Yet that almost never happens in real life. Because 160 years ago, a man just outside of New York drew this diagram on a scrap of paper. A simple idea for a simple invention. His name was Elijah Otis and Pedro Baranda knows all about him.
PEDRO BARANDA, PRESIDENT, OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY: What he invented is a device by which when the rope broke the platform remained in position and it became safe and that was opened up vertical transportation safely for people and enabled tall buildings.
FOREMAN: Indeed, the elevator's safety break freed the imaginations and opened the heavens for architects in the rapidly growing cities.
BARANDA: Buildings started to shoot up. First five floors, then 10, 15, 102 floors like here in the Empire State Building.
FOREMAN: This is what it looked like when those elevators were installed in the early 1930s. Today, the Otis Company lays claim to elevators all over the planet and the very tallest buildings and fully expects to be climbing to even greater heights as demand for urban offices and homes continues to grow.
BARANDA: There's buildings on the drawing board that are -- that were unimaginable only 10, 15 years ago, so that's another area of technical challenges and innovations, mega tall buildings.
FOREMAN: In other words, more than a century and a half after Otis started his small company business is still looking up.
Tom Foreman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Tom.
Former President George W. Bush is a grandfather. His daughter Jenna Bush-Hager gave birth to a baby girl last night in New York. Her name is Margaret Laura Mila Hager. Honors both of her grandmothers there. The former president and the first lady say they are elated about it but Mr. Bush says he doesn't plan to change any diapers any time soon. Don't blame him.
Need an inspiration? This ought to do it for you. Our nation's wounded warriors receiving the special treatment they deserve. And about to compete in one of this country's most famous sporting events.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Avalanches in Washington State's Cascades Mountains have claimed at least one life. Police in King County say a woman hiked -- a woman hiker died from her injuries after being buried beneath five feet of snow yesterday. And now another hiker is missing after getting caught in the second avalanche nearby. The search for him has been called off due to dangerous conditions. They will be the true heroes of the Boston Marathon tomorrow. A team of wounded warriors will hand cycle the 26.2-mile race. The veterans arrived in Boston yesterday on private jet. Several lost legs to IED explosions in Afghanistan. One veteran says he is doing the marathon to deliver a message. Never let anything get you down. We salute all of them.
He dished up inside information about the restaurant business in his book "Kitchen Confidential" then he served up "Wanderlust" in a TV show "No Reservations." Now the table is set for Anthony Bourdain's next adventure, "PARTS UNKNOWN." It's debuting tonight right here on CNN.
I had a chance to talk with the well-traveled chef touching on everything from his new show to what his last meal would be. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: So tell us what we can expect. I mean, we know what we get from Anthony Bourdain. What are we going to get on CNN? We're going to get exotic locations. What else?
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: I think, I hope entertainingly schizophrenic. Meaning there will be lighthearted shows of me shoving delicious food in to my face in European capitals and there will be dark, hard to make shows in places like Libya and the Congo.
There will be, you know, small tight focus stories told through the -- from the point of view of maybe a few characters and bigger picture stories. I'll continue to look at the world as somebody from the point of view of an eater and a former chef. But I guess on a bigger scale, coming to CNN has allowed me to fill a lot of stories and go a lot of places that would have been impossible anywhere else.
LEMON: Yes. And I would imagine, though, coming to a place like CNN, with a reputation like CNN, I mean, you are -- you are a free spirit. You travel everywhere. And as you said, you know, you make some people nervous with standards and practices. Is this -- is this going to come with a viewer discretion advised label before it goes on?
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Well, I mean, I think it's a little too late for me to change my behavior. I mean, I'm not a journalist. And like I said, you know, I have really never had to tailor my behavior or my speech. I'm -- I'm used to certain latitude and freedom. And I see no reason to change now. Presumably CNN knew what they were getting into when they brought me on board so I'm hoping for the best.
LEMON: There are some things that you eat, some people might find them unsavory, you love them. There's some, I guess, nasty bits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BOURDAIN: These little birds?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. These guys are really good. Was flying just this morning.
BOURDAIN: I'll tell you it's the backbone of every street fair in the world, is it? Deep tried food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
(CROSSTALK)
They also have the little batter where they break a quail egg in it. One shot. It's really good.
BOURDAIN: One of the really weird things that happened -- that's happened in fine dining over the last 10 years, largely because chefs have become empowered to serve people the food that they themselves love, is if you want to eat like pig's feet or tongue or jowls or marrow or any of those things that poor people used to have to eat, you have to go to a fine dining restaurant and pay $29 for it because it's increasingly difficult to find those traditional foods.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You killed a pig for Louisiana. I think it's -- for a Cajun roast. I told you, I grew up in Louisiana. Don't you just love New Orleans and go in Louisiana and the food there? It is amazing.
BOURDAIN: If you don't love New Orleans, if you don't love Louisiana, there is really just no hope for you.
LEMON: Right.
BOURDAIN: It is the magical, magical state with the -- maybe the single most glorious tradition of cooking and eating and drinking.
LEMON: Your book "Kitchen Confidential," was that -- did that change your life or have you -- did it change your life?
BOURDAIN: As much as anything could change your life, "Kitchen Confidential" changed mine. I mean I was literally -- I was 44 years old and standing next to a deep fryer looking forward to pretty much more of same for the rest of my life, and I wrote this little book thinking that a few cooks and restaurant people in New York would read it and really almost overnight the world became my oyster and I found myself with the -- with the best job in the world. I mean, look what I do for a living. I sit around with my friends, looking at a map thinking where do we want to go and what stories we want to tell and how do we want to tell them?
So it was absolutely transforming event for me and made everything possible. You know? I was a guy who've never had health insurance in his life and now I'm on TV.
(LAUGHTER) It's -- it was a big, big, big change for me.
LEMON: I don't want to be morbid but last meal for Anthony Bourdain, what is that?
BOURDAIN: Last meal? Some super high test sushi. Maybe at the Sukibayashi Jiro in Tokyo. You know? Maybe just a couple of bites of sea urchin raw -- yes. You could pretty much shoot me in the back of the head right after that.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: You're a treat and I'm looking forward to you being on CNN. Thank you, Anthony.
Suddenly I'm hungry. Are you? CNN brings you the world as Anthony Bourdain and his crew travel to Myanmar, to Colombia, Libya, Peru and other countries. "ANTHONY BOURDAIN, PARTS UNKNOWN," it starts at tonight 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.
Sixty-six years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Major League Baseball has a problem. The number of African-Americans in the league is amazingly low. Ahead, we're going to talk about what's driving young blacks away from America's past time and what the league is doing to get them back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Quick update now from the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta. Not far from where we are in Atlanta. Not quite over with but the winner won't be an American. Won't be an American. Australian Adam Scott and Argentina's Angel Cabrera, the 2009 winner, battling down to the wire. Tiger Woods finished his round a few -- a few minutes ago. Couple of shots out of the lead at 5 under par.
OK. Kobe Bryant's comeback from a torn Achilles' tendon is already under way. The L.A. Lakers star went down near the end of the game Friday night. And by last night he already had successful surgery. Recovery time is usually at least six to nine months, but Kobe, who is 34, vows to be back. We say Kobe who is 34 like that's an old man but you know --
TERENCE MOORE, CNN.COM SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: That is an old man for the NBA.
LEMON: Don't say that.
MOORE: Particularly when you play like this way.
LEMON: I passed 34 a long time ago. That's not old. Kobe's young. Young. Terence Moore is here, he's a sports contributor to CNN.com and a columnist for mlb.com.
We're going to talk about the Masters in just a second, but I want to start with Jackie Robinson, and the movie called "42." MOORE: Yes.
LEMON: Robinson, of course, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball in 1947. And we just learned today that the movie will be number one at the box office. I'm going to go see it tomorrow. But as we celebrate Jackie Robinson, the number of African- Americans who are playing baseball today is actually falling. On opening day, just 8.5 percent of big league rosters. In 1986, it was about 19 percent of league rosters. League has announced diversity task force to study the issue.
You've written about the decline. Why do you think this is happening? What did you say, it's the lowest since when? Since ever?
MOORE: Well --
LEMON: It's the lowest since ever.
MOORE: Well, actually probably in the last 20, 30 years. And you go back to the 1950s --
LEMON: Right.
MOORE: You know, percentage wise, yes, it is the lowest since the 1950s when the Boston Red Sox were the last team to integrate. But to answer your question, I tell you, I'm good friends with baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.
LEMON: Right.
MOORE: And we've talked about this subject for about 35 years and Joe has it exactly right. And he says that if you're not looking for black players, you're not going to find them. He blames it -- blames it on scouts. They're not putting the emphasis on this thing. And you look at baseball, too. Baseball has built these elaborate academies in Latin American countries to try to get players to come.
Haven't done that as much here in the United States. You know, they did it a little bit in L.A., somewhat in Houston, they're doing one in Cincinnati. And you saw the old baseball, the baseball movie "Field of Dreams," right?
LEMON: Yes. Yes.
MOORE: "Build it and they'll come."
LEMON: Yes. I tweeted out "Field of Dreams" today. It had a picture of Jackie Robinson, you know -- because everyone is celebrating him on social media and they're starting tomorrow. I wanted to start today.
MOORE: Yes.
LEMON: I don't think you can celebrate him enough. But it's interesting that they're starting a -- a task force. That's well and good. MOORE: Right.
LEMON: But maybe, maybe African-Americans aren't interested in baseball. I'm just -- I'm just asking. I mean, maybe they're more attracted to the NBA and to the NFL than they are to baseball.
MOORE: Well, actually that's a myth. Because when I worked at the "San Francisco Examiner" back in the early 1980s, they did a five- part series on the subject. And what I discovered, I spent a lot of time concentrating on the state of Florida, we have a lot of great African-American football players. And what I discovered was at the high school level a lot of these young African-American kids are being steered away from baseball toward football.
There's a great baseball coach there named Billy Reed back in the day who produced a lot of Major League players who's African-American. He talked about how a lot of African-Americans would beg to come to his school so they can play baseball.
LEMON: OK. So that's a myth. I mean, you inform me on that.
(CROSSTALK)
MOORE: I think it's a myth for a lot of people because a lot of people say that and it's just something that's easy to say without checking it out.
LEMON: Because there are so many African-Americans in the NFL and the NBA.
MOORE: Exactly.
LEMON: You'd think that they're not -- OK.
MOORE: And a lot of them are still --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Fair point.
MOORE: Prophecy.
LEMON: Fair point. So the solution is you said scouts should be looking and doing more to attract.
MOORE: And baseball putting a sincere effort on saying that we want these people in our sport.
LEMON: OK. You saw the movie.
MOORE: It was a great movie.
LEMON: The Jackie Robinson movie.
MOORE: And the great thing about that movie is when you're at Seagull's old ballpark you get to fell that you're right there. LEMON: Yes. I heard him this morning on "Meet the Press." You know, just hearing his voice. And they were playing a clip. And they said, you know, just talking about waiting. Someone said, well, why can't -- why don't -- when they said negro back then, why don't negroes wait?
MOORE: Right.
LEMON: You know, for integration? And he said, well, haven't we waited long enough? We've been waiting and waiting and waiting. And this is good to hear.
MOORE: Well, and plus the fact the greatest title in history of an autobiography is Jackie Robinson's -- the title of his autobiography, which is that "I Never Had It Made."
LEMON: Yes.
MOORE: He was talking about for Jackie Robinson and a lot of people.
LEMON: We were -- Jackie Robinson came before Dr. King. And he actually -- he actually sat on the back of the bus and refused to get up and was prosecuted for it before --
MOORE: Rosa Parks.
LEMON: Before Rosa Parks.
MOORE: Ten years before Rosa Parks.
LEMON: Yes. Yes.
MOORE: He was -- I don't think people really realize how huge Jackie Robinson was. Not only did he integrate baseball, and not only did he integrate sports, he integrated society.
LEMON: Yes.
MOORE: He was huge.
LEMON: I was listening to George Will this morning. And he said that Jackie Robinson was the second most important African-American figure in history. And I was like, who was number one?
MOORE: Probably Dr. King.
LEMON: It has to be -- it has to be Dr. King. We were saying, is it Dr. King or is it the person who was president who would be Barack Obama? But without --
MOORE: Without Dr. King, there would not be an Obama. And you know, you can make the case that either Dr. King and Jackie Robinson were 1a and 1b.
LEMON: There you go. Good stuff. MOORE: Pretty close.
LEMON: Yes. Good stuff. Thank you. And thank you, Jackie Robinson.
MOORE: Thank you.
LEMON: And others like him. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
A song about racial harmony now turning into comedy fodder. Next, hear and see how much fun "Saturday Night Live" had with the duet that features Brad Paisley and LL Cool Jay.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It's a musical duo that's dominating the headlines. I'm talking about country singer Brad Paisley and rapper LL Cool Jay, their song "Accidental Racist," intended to bring attention to race relations is now getting mocked.
Here's how "Saturday Night Live" handled it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But all we try to do is start a conversation, you know what I'm saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you're white.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're black. Uh-oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't follow me around this store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes? Well, don't talk during this movie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see?
(LAUGHTER)
That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what's going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Pretty funny if you saw that entire skit. And pretty much a consensus from a lot of folks is that maybe the effort was good but it was a bit ham-handed and maybe they should try again. Maybe they will. Who knows. We'll see. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here as news warrants. Don't forget the premier of "ANTHONY BOURDAIN, PARTS UNKNOWN." It begins at 9:00 Eastern. And you can watch HBO's "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" coming up at the top of the hour. And you can see it again at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
How's that? A lot of programming. See you later. Good night.
