Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Six Dead, 14 Survivors in Philly Collapse; Self-Help Hosts Commit Suicide; Christie Names Senate Replacement; Prince Philip to Have Abdominal Surgery; Meet CNN's New Late Night Host; Top Golfer Overcomes Curved Spine

Aired June 06, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When he said that everyone in the reporter scrum gasped like, my gosh, I didn't know that. But behind me now, the excavator, you see the front of the building, exterior of the thrift store.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Gone.

LEMON: Completely gone. They knocked it down 5 minutes ago, Brooke. They were looking for people in the back of the building because that's the part that the 25 percent that the mayor mentioned that they didn't get to search. That's the part they didn't get to search. It appears they have gone through that now. They thought there might be someone in there even though everyone had been accounted for. They weren't sure and so far fingers crossed nothing, no one.

BALDWIN: I understand that the owner of that building fell into the thrift store, has made a statement? What's that?

LEMON: OK, he did make a statement. I want to read that statement. I want to talk to you a little bit about the investigation. The owner of the building, it's called SBT Investments, put out a statement just a short time ago, Brooke, saying our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the people affected by this tragic event. Please know that we are committed to working with the city of Philadelphia and other authorities to determine what happened yesterday.

Here's the thing, you remember when we were on the air yesterday, the mayor, you know, had made the statement and he said there were, you know, no violations, it seems that nothing was out of the ordinary, all the permits were in place, right? Well, apparently that was for 2134. The building that was -- had been demolished was 2136, which fell on to 2138, which was a thrift store.

So the city -- so the city, the mayor's office and the inspectors are now saying, listen, the contractor is supposed to notify the city when they're about to start demolition and it looks like the contractor didn't do that.

And we also saw, I think we have some video of it, crime scene investigators here as well as the district attorney for the city of Philadelphia and the assistant district attorney, the District Attorney Jennifer Silver and then also Ed, Ed Cameron who prosecuted Kermit Gossing, the abortion doctor. So this appears to be going into a criminal investigation. They came to tour the scene today and they weren't just out for a walk.

BALDWIN: No, they weren't. They have some questions. Don't they, Don Lemon? Don, thank you so much for us in Philadelphia. We'll stay on it with you.

Meantime, two self-help coaches apparently committed suicide together in their Brooklyn apartment. This video shows psychotherapist Lynn Rosen and her common law husband, John Littig, co-hosting this public radio show. It was called the "Pursuit of Happiness." Apparently, the couple couldn't follow their advice for leading fulfilling lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's -- that's -- that's exactly right. Stepping out of your comfort zone is very important or you know, alternatively you can start to get comfortable with change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So their apartment building manager said that he started smelling a strong odor coming from their apartment Monday, breaks down the door and what did he find, their bodies, holding hands on the sofa. Police say plastic bags covered the couples' heads. A tube attached to a helium canister was nearby. Littig also worked as a musician we're told. Here's a clip of a recent YouTube video.

Two suicide notes were found in the apartment. The man's note read, quote, "I can't take it anymore. My wife is in too much pain." The couple ran a life coaching company promoting personal growth and inner happiness.

Within this past hour, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie named his state's attorney general to hold the seat in the U.S. Senate. Christie's announcement came as the body of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg arrived on Capitol Hill. Lautenberg served nearly 30 years in the Senate until his death this week at age 89.

With me now from Washington, CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Wolf, if you would, tell me about this new interim senator here. I'm totally --

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Yes, Jeffrey Chiesa, the governor announcing that he would be the interim senator until the special election that's now scheduled for, what, October 16th, a couple weeks before the general election. There's going to be a primary election for the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate on August 13th and the special election on October 16th.

Now this attorney general, the outgoing attorney general of New Jersey, Jeffrey Chiesa, he's not going to run in the special election. He will be the United States senator, a Republican from New Jersey, between now and the time of the special election when there will be a new senator elected. We don't know who that new senator is going to be. It does shift the balance of power a little bit in the Senate. Right now, the Democrats together with the two independents who have aligned with the Democrats have 54 seats, the majority and 47 for the Republicans. It now will go from 54 to 53, 47 because there is going to be a Republican senator from New Jersey.

There will be some important votes between now and October that one vote could make a difference in some of these key issues. For example, comprehensive immigration reform and this new interim senator from New Jersey, Jeffrey Chiesa, did not say where he stands on some of these issues. He says he's going to look and study and he'll make up his mind. It's a slight shift, an important shift and we'll see what happens down the road.

BALDWIN: Slight shift for a finite period of time, until that special election in October. Wolf Blitzer, thank you, sir.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, his show hasn't even premiered yet, but George is already making headlines. He's CNN's new late night host famous for interviews with folks from Keanna Reeves, Clint Eastwood and -- Strombo, may I go there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may.

BALDWIN: We're going to have a little surprise for you. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, before we get to our newest host, Mr. Stroumbou, want to get you breaking news here from the U.K., we are following the health of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, Duke of Edinboro. He has been admitted to a London for an exploratory operation on his abdomen. We're hearing he's expected to remain in hospital for two weeks. This is according to British media reports.

I remember I was covering the diamond jubilee there in London last summer and he fell ill after a very cold and long boat ride on River Thames, went to the hospital for a bladder infection at the time. So he is back in the hospital for an exploratory operation on his abdomen. We wish him well. We'll make phone calls. We'll bring it to you on CNN.

But now to this, you may not be able to spell his name. I'm sure he's so sick of these jokes. You will remember it Friday nights this summer. Stroumboulopoulos is CNN's new late night show hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. He is our import from the north as a broadcaster in Canada. He has interviewed all kinds of people.

I'm talking Jodie Foster, Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra, Bradley Cooper, the list of the famous goes on and on. And now we get him to do this for us here on CNN, his show debuts this Sunday night. Set your DVRs, 10:00 Eastern. Regular time slot will be Friday night at 11:00 Eastern in front of a live audience. So George Stroumboulopoulos, it's funny, let me be real. It's funny looking at his name in the teleprompter because it takes up the whole line. How are you, my friend?

GEORGE STROUMBOULOPOULOS, HOST, CNN'S "STROUMBOULOPOULOS": I'm well. How are you today? My name's bananas, I get it.

BALDWIN: Did I hear correctly that it took you until the fifth grade to spell your name correctly?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Yes. I had to go to the back and I would tell the teacher, I'll pull out my driver's license and spell it from there. She said, you won't have a driver's license for a long time. I had to sit in the back of the class and figure it out.

BALDWIN: I've watched so many interviews with you because as you do your homework I'm trying to do mine here. I appreciate your use of the word rad. Tell me, how many piercings do you have?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: I'll tell you, Brooke, you can see three and that's all I'm going to say.

BALDWIN: We'll stay with that, three. To your show now here on CNN, I love this that you're doing no other CNN show does regularly and that is have a live audience. That's what you did back home with the red chairs. You're doing it here. Why is that? What do you get from that?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: I think you get a couple of things. Number one, you get energy in the room which is nice and oftentimes when you sit down in every situation, the host is disconnected from the audience. There are people that are watching this. As you know, Brooke, the camera is kind of a black hole that can suck your soul if you're not paying attention.

BALDWIN: It's really quiet in the studio. People don't realize that, right?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: For sure. You bring that audience in. It's far more human. That's what I try to do and you do it quite well. You want to have this human connection with people. Sometimes you want to surround yourself with others to do it. I'm excited to see how it goes.

BALDWIN: I am, too. Let's talk about the first show. You have a couple of people, one is rapper, Wiz Khalifa. Here's a little clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: When you think about it, hindsight being what it is, the fact that you are going through this. Your mother was in the war.

WIZ KHALIFA, RAPPER/ENTERTAINER: Yes.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: That's quite a thing. It works for masculinity right. You get to see how gender roles work and things are very different today.

KHALIFA: Yes, man. Paris put it out on the line. You know, when you put it in that perspective. I wake up every day and I have to do my job. I would love to spend all the time in the world with my son. I can't. Stay at home and look at him all day like I want to. I actually have to go to work.

My mom having to go to war with me being a baby, she didn't want to have to leave me for any amount of time so, you know, I think we just earn our stripes and we just go with the flow. Whatever is presented, you've just got to make the best of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You know, Stroumbou, I appreciate your lean in, real style of questioning. Yes, let me practice my Stroumbou lean. I appreciate your questions. Who would have thought to ask him about his mother away from war and being a dad, just tell me, how do you prep for these interviews? How do you do your homework?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: You know, you try to do as much as you can in terms of researching. I try to spend a lot of time, like a lot of interviewers, trying to understand where they're coming from. When you go home for a family dinner everybody reverts back to the same role they've always had in their family. It's the same idea. We are who we were when we were 12 or 13. I try to create some sort of environmental portrait of who they are. I don't think about it that much. I kind of lose myself in the person.

BALDWIN: In the moment.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: I forget that I'm on television.

BALDWIN: That's the best compliment I feel like can you get when somebody is sitting with you and they tell you through the interview they've totally forgot there were cameras on you. To something we like to do here for new folks.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: OK.

BALDWIN: So we're going to do a little word association, ready to roll?

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Listen. There's no delay, is there?

BALDWIN: No delay.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Boy.

BALDWIN: Keep the four-letter words for the commercial break. First one, Canada.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Home.

BALDWIN: CNN.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: News.

BALDWIN: Anthony Bourdain.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: He hates vegans but I love him.

BALDWIN: Because you're a vegan, right? I'm asking this because of your philanthropy work, world hunger.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Health and justice issue.

BALDWIN: Bob Dylan.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: The greatest. Well, him and Neil Young.

BALDWIN: Red chair.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Comfortable.

BALDWIN: Justin Bieber.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Slightly worried but optimistic.

BALDWIN: Interesting. Gay marriage.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Yes, marriage equality, justice.

BALDWIN: Jodi Arias.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Sensational.

BALDWIN: Sigh.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Sensational.

BALDWIN: Final one, the perfect interview.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: Do you mean with a person or what it's like?

BALDWIN: I'm leaving it open on purpose.

STROUMBOULOPOULOS: The perfect interview, one with no ego.

BALDWIN: George Stroumboulopoulos, welcome. It is a pleasure. Your new show begins Sunday, 10:00 p.m. Eastern and then you are rolling on to Friday nights, 11:00 p.m. Eastern the following week. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Good luck. Good luck. Thank you.

Coming up, some of the hottest videos of the day including a monkey on the loose, no, not that. A teenager's terrible jump and the Biebs, what, space geeks. He's becoming an astronaut. Hit play next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to the hottest videos of the day. Hit play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN (voice-over): This is what they mean by don't try this at home. Nikki was injured. Her mom wanted to help her pay bills so she uploaded the jump to a crowd funding web site and the video went viral. Reaction against mom was vicious so Nikki found a more willing benefactor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If TV wants to make fun of me, then they're going to make fun of me at least I get a little something out of it for bills.

BALDWIN: Who would want to do this to a mother goose. The goose didn't seem to notice the arrow, but someone visiting the cemetery did. Game Wardens caught the goose and removed the arrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being field tip it went through the breast plate. We pulled it right out.

BALDWIN: Anyone missing a monkey, anyone? This one is on the loose in South Florida. It's been spotted climbing in a backyard, cavorting across a car hood, climbing a tree to eat a mango. Someone called wildlife officers and the monkey got away before they arrived.

And now to the treasure that almost got away, this chair cost a couple $5 at a garage sale, sat around for a year until the couple cleaned out their own garage and almost sent it to goodwill --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But then I decided, you know what, I'll look at the bottom and that's when we kind of noticed our Herman Miller chair.

BALDWIN: A Herman Miller chair designed and made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1946. Get this, could be worth thousands of dollars. And Justin Bieber, astronaut? The Biebs and his manager paying a quarter million dollars for the space ride. Bieber tweeted back suggesting an out of this world music video. That is today's "Hit Play."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Remember the headlines of the Boston marathon bombings screaming two words, bag men. Now the two young men in the picture are responding in a lawsuit. Their lawyers say "The New York Post" made it appear these two guys were involved in the attack. Lawsuit claims libel, negligent inflection of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. They want an unspecified amount of money in compensation.

Coming up, a major development in the case of a Georgia teen found dead at his school wrapped up in a gym mat. Police say it was an accident, that he suffocated, but now a judge's ruling could lead to new information in the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Stacy Lewis started playing golf as a child and never dreamed that what began as just hanging out with dad would turn into a professional career. In today's "Human Factor," chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us how she has reached this level of play despite having a severely curved spine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At age 28, Stacy Lewis is living the life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been fun. You know, I just play golf every day. For a job, that's not too bad.

GUPTA: She's been golfing since she was eight years old, mostly for the love of the game.

(on camera): Was there a point in your life when you knew you were really, really good at golf?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably in college was the time I said I could maybe do this as a professional, you know?

GUPTA (voice-over): But it wouldn't come easily. In middle school, Stacy was diagnosed with scoliosis, a major curvature of her spine. Her doctors hoped it would correct itself without surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wore a back brace for 6-1/2 years 18 hours a day.

GUPTA: She only took it off to play golf, but it didn't work. She had to go under the knife.

(on camera): You scheduled the surgery, do you remember what that day was like?

STACY LEWIS, 2012 LPGA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: I thought I was done playing golf. They took out one of the ribs to do a fusion. Going up the side, had to remove all the organs, lungs, had a chest tube, all of that stuff.

GUPTA (voice-over): It took doctors five hours to insert a rod and screws into her spine and then several months of rehab.

LEWIS: I couldn't bend or twist for six months so the doctor let me chip and putt a little bit.

GUPTA: Slowly but surely her game started to came back. Her swing got a little better.

LEWIS: When your hands are low you hit it left. So when my hands got high I started to hit a little fade to the right, which I think is a better shot for golf. It worked out pretty well.

GUPTA: Today she's at the top of her game.

LEWIS: It's strange. I definitely as a kid didn't aspire to be in this position, but it's cool just to see the hard work pay off.

GUPTA: It has paid off, indeed. She has reportedly made close to $5 million in winnings. Lewis knows it's not forever. LEWIS: I don't know how long I'll be able to play. I'm happy to do what I'm doing.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)