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Passenger Trains Collide In Switzerland; Pope Opens Up To Reporters; Campaign Manager Dumps Weiner; Rick Warren Back Behind The Pulpit; Verdict Reached In Manning Court Martial; "Whitey" Bulger Begins Defense

Aired July 29, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We are just getting word into us here at CNN of another train accident in Europe. This time it is in Switzerland where two commuter trains have collided head on. So far, Swiss press is reporting at least 33 injuries. A number of them, we're told, quite serious. Investigators say they do not know what caused the crash. Service on the line has been shut down. Of course, all of this happening in the wake of the fatal train accident in Spain just from last week. As soon as we get more information on this accident in Switzerland, we will pass that along to you live here on CNN.

If we needed more evidence that Pope Francis is a different kind of Catholic leader, well, look no further than the plane ride home from Brazil.

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POPE FRANCIS (through translator): If a person is gay and accepts the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge them?

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BALDWIN: The Vatican leader speaking on the record for an hour and a half on this papal plane. He did not shy away from discussing homosexuals, and he was just as willing to talk about women in the clergy, which he said is a no go. Although he says women deserve a bigger role in the church. He also touched on abortion, saying the church's teachings were clear. All these comments came after a trip to Brazil for World Youth Day.

I mean, you've seen the crowds over just this past week where the pope was enthusiastically embraced by the faithful and here to talk more about the pope's comments is Reverend James Martin. He is a Jesuit priest like Francis and editor-at-large of "America, The National Catholic" magazine.

So Father, it's nice to see you. I know you were asked to speak down in Brazil. You passed the trip and the pope and the crowds, but my goodness, I mean, the news that was made on this plane from the pope. What do you think the comments specifically on what he said about gays and lesbians, what does that reveal?

REV. JAMES MARTIN, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "AMERICA" MAGAZINE: Well, it shows his pastoral side. First of all, notice that he uses the word "gay," which a lot of Vatican leaders do not use. Popes haven't used it. They've talked about homosexuals or same-sex attraction. He said who am I to judge them specifically a gay priest? That's a huge change from 2005 when a document came out from the Vatican saying that gay priests could not be admitted to seminaries or religious orders. So I think we're seeing a very different tack on this particular issue.

BALDWIN: So a change in tone, change in tack, change in word usage, but what does that really signify moving forward, anything?

MARTIN: Yes. I think first of all it's going to make gay people feel more welcome when the pope says who am I to judge them, to talk about them in terms of their goodwill and seeking the Lord. Secondly, I think it's going to raise questions among bishops and archbishops following that 2005 document that said no gay priests, no gay men accepted into the seminary when you have a pope saying who am I to judge these people? So, you know, it's not an official teaching, but I think it really sets the tone for things.

BALDWIN: You know, he was talking specifically when he was asked about the alleged gay lobby. When you think about all the topics, taboo topics he was asked about, he didn't shy away from any one of them, abortions. People who are divorced within the Catholic Church, women. Father, what do you think he's trying to do by not ducking anything?

MARTIN: I think he's trying to be a good pastor and trying to speak clearly to things the way any good pastor will. He also talked about divorced and remarried Catholics and talking about mercy for them, which is something different than what we've heard. Reporters aboard the plane told me they were shocked that he took any and all questions. So I think this transparent, merciful and compassionate way of doing things is terrific.

BALDWIN: And then just finally looking at these pictures, Father Martin, of the pope in this hatch back of a jeep reaching out, pictures when he first got into town and the window was all the way down, kissing babies. We talk so much about being a pope of the people, but, you know, he's showing it each and every day. What's your reaction to this?

MARTIN: Well, interesting when you were talking about showing it. Popes teach not only in their words, but in their actions. Just like Jesus did. Jesus taught with his words and his deeds. You know, just hugging someone in a pavella or kissing a baby really shows his compassion and his love for just being alive and just being among the people of faith.

BALDWIN: Incredible to see him in those places run by drug lords. Here is the pope touching the people. Father James Martin, thank you so much for your perspective today.

MARTIN: My pleasure.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, why a golfer who was leading this tournament walks away from a potential million dollar opportunity. For a good reason, might I add and he may be down, but he's not out. What Anthony Weiner is doing to get support for his bid for mayor in New York City. A live report is coming up.

But first, he is known for hard rock and these iconic costumes, but Kiss bassist Gene Simmons reveals his softer side in this "Impact Your World."

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GENE SIMMONS, KISS: Hello. I'm Gene Simmons. Together you and I can have a real impact on the children of Africa. When we visited Africa, we went to Zambia and I will tell you that it was a sobering moment when I saw these kids were walking 10 miles in their bare feet just for the chance to go to school. No food. There was this sense that nobody cared.

I was born in Israel. We were very poor and one day a box came in. It was a cardboard box. Later on I figured out it was a care package. All the sudden I had the idea that somebody cared. And once I grew up, I promised myself, I've got to make a difference. For over 20 years, I've sponsored 140 African children across the continent.

And I did that through child fund, which provides schooling, some clothing, and educational tools. I've made a difference. You can make a difference. Even a little bit will help save somebody's life. Please, do yourself a favor. Join the movement. Impact the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BALDWIN: Now to some of the hottest stories in a flash, "Rapid Fire." Roll it. Guess who lunched at the White House today? Give you a little hint. It is a former official who knows the place pretty well. Here you have it. The car pulls up. Door opens. Out pops Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state dined one on one with the president. Her political action committee has just retained not just one, but two key players from the president's re-election campaign.

BMW says it can take you from zero to 60 in just about 7 seconds, and you won't even be hurting the environment today. The German luxury automaker unveiled its I3 electric compact car. There it is. It has a carbon fiber body and a range of 80 to 100 miles per charge. The I3 will go on sale sometime next year and sell for just about $41,000.

He may not have the million dollars cash, but golfer, Hunter Mahan is getting a lot of credit. Why, because Mahan was leading the Canadian open over the weekend when his phone rang. He found out his pregnant wife was going into labor one month early. So what did he do? Any good dad to be, of course, walked off the course, and walked away from a potential million dollar payday to be there for his daughter's birth. Zoe Olivia Mahan arrived early Sunday morning.

The manager has quit the Anthony Weiner campaign. Now pretty much wherever he goes the politician with a penchant for texting provocative selfies is being reminded he's a repeat offender. Here is yet another New Yorker giving Weiner an earful.

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PEG BRUNDA, NEW YORK CITY VOTER: I don't quite understand how you would feel you have the moral authority as the head administrator in this city to oversee employees when your standard of conduct is so much lower than the standard of conduct that's expected of us.

ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Are you not voting for me?

BRUNDA: I would not vote for you, sir.

WEINER: I certainly understand that.

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BALDWIN: Well, Weiner's poll numbers are dropping. All kinds of New Yorkers are calling on Weiner to quit the race for mayor. No way, says Anthony Weiner. CNN's Rosa Flores caught up with Weiner this morning. Rosa, Rosa, he's not backing down, is he? ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, he is not. Before the break you were talking about the measures that he's taking to try to deliver his message to the middle class. Let me tell you, today that was in English and in Chinese with the help of a translator. He said, you know, I am all about everything that's for the betterment of the middle class, including affordable housing, safer streets, jobs, but, of course, he does not operate in a vacuum. There are a lot of Democrats out there asking him to quit. His opponents also want him to quit, but he is not backing down. Take a listen.

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WEINER: I don't cake take my cues on policy from the Sunday talk shows listening to pundits. I never have. I don't take my cues from the headline writers in the newspapers. I never have. Those are the very same people that didn't want me to run, that didn't want New Yorkers to have this choice in the first place. I'm going to keep talking about the things --

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FLORES: Now, he also sent out a letter to his supporters, saying in part, take a look at your screen. I believe we have this for you. It says, I am going to keep doing what I've always done. I'm going to keep on fighting for the city. Brooke, if you look at the very bottom of that letter, it also says, support me with a donation because, as you know, campaigns are very expensive.

BALDWIN: Money, money, money. What about his wife? We saw Huma Abedin appear by his side, speaking publicly during that newser last week. Was she with him at all today?

FLORES: I was keeping an eye out for her, Brooke, but I never did see her. I did ask him after his remarks for her and he only said that she is doing fine and he went on answering other questions. So that's all he said about her. But we will, of course, keep an eye out for Huma to see if she appears in any of his other public speaking events.

BALDWIN: We know you will. Rosa Flores for us in New York, thank you very much.

Starting today, the defense has its turn in the Whitey Bulger trial. The big question, will the alleged crime boss take the stand? A live update from Boston, next.

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BALDWIN: After nearly four months away, Rick Warren is back behind the pulpit. The pastor received a standing ovation at his Southern California Megachurch just yesterday. This is the very first time he stepped on stage since his son, Matthew, committed suicide. He took the opportunity yesterday to criticize the stigma surrounding mental illness. Here is CNN'S Paul Vercammen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the past 16 weeks since mental illness took my son, Matthew's life --

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): An impassioned Rick Warren delivered his first sermon since his son, Matthew, killed himself at age 27 in April. With his wife, Kay at his side, Warren told his Saddleback Church congregation Matthew suffered from mental illness since childhood.

RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: We had gone through the best doctors money could buy. We had gotten the best medications. We had the best therapy. We had the best people praying, thousands of people praying. We have an incredibly strong family with deep, deep faith. It just did not make sense.

VERCAMMEN: The grieving couples' influence reaches far beyond the walls of this church. Warren is the author of the Megabest seller "The Purpose Driven Life." With Kay at the forefront Saddleback Church launched a global initiative to provide help for people who are HIV positive and to remove any associated stigmas. After their son's suicide the Warren's new pledge is to erase any shame associated with mental illness.

WARREN: It's amazing to me that any other organ in your body and there's no shame and stigma to it. If your brain breaks down, you're supposed to keep it a secret. There's no stigma. Diabetes, no problem. Lungs don't work. No problem. Break a bone, break a back. Your liver stops working, no stigma. If your brain doesn't work right, why should you be ashamed of that?

VERCAMMEN: Warren credits relatives, especially Matthew's surviving older siblings Josh and Amy, with leading the family through its darkest moments.

WARREN: I am in a family of spiritual redwoods. They are giants of faith. It is a rock solid family. And actually when Matthew died, Amy said, you know, daddy, she said, Satan picked the wrong family to pick on. He's going to lose big time on this one.

VERCAMMEN: Saddleback Church officials say Rick Warren will not grant any interviews soon. They say we will hear a lot from the pastor, especially as he begins his mission to remove the stigma of mental illness. Paul Vercammen, CNN, Orange County, California.

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BALDWIN: Paul, thank you.

Coming up, starting today the defense has its turn in the Whitey Bulger trial. We'll take you to Boston, next.

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BALDWIN: This time tomorrow, we should have a verdict in the Bradley Manning court martial. The army soldier faced a military trial in Fort Mead, Maryland over the leak of thousands of documents to Wikileaks related to the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan as well as sensitive diplomatic cables. Manning's case was heard by a judge who has now reached a verdict. Her decision will not be announced until 1:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. Manning could face life in prison if convicted.

Now to Boston where alleged Irish crime boss Whitey Bulger is facing his day of reckoning in a federal courtroom. Attorneys for the 83- year-old Bulger began laying out their defense today. They have already made an unusual request. That the jury be sequestered during deliberations. Jurors heard more than 60 prosecution witnesses testify against Bulger over the past month.

And just this past Friday, prosecutors rested with an impressive display. You're looking at some of this. Of guns and cash found hidden inside Bulger's Santa Monica apartment when he was captured in 2011. Our Deborah Feyerick who's been all over this trial, she joins us live now. Deborah, today, day one for the defense, who testified?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can tell you, first of all, what's not clear just yet is whether Whitey Bulger is going to testify. His lawyer continues to allude to that. Right now it's looking as if it's a strong possibility. His defense is down to 14 witnesses. They're going to be called over the next couple of days.

One of the key witnesses was the mother of murder victim Debra Hussy, but she yesterday notified the court she's got brain cancer and is too sick to testify. The reason the defense wanted to call her is because they wanted to cast doubt on whether it was Bulger or Flemmi who actually killed the girl. Flemmi had sexually abused his commonwealth stepdaughter.

Bulger's lawyers are saying he has so much more motive than in fact Bulger did. Also on the list a crime associate likely to take the fifth because, Brooke, during this trial he was actually implicated in one of the murders. He's about to get his own reality show on a separate issue. Now Bulger's team today tried to refute the notion that Bulger was an FBI informant.

The first person they called was a former supervisor who had interviewed Bulger just once and who says he believed that Bulger should have been closed as an informant. The FBI agent said the information was simply not up to standards. He also said he was shocked when during the questioning Bulger's corrupt FBI handler showed up because he wasn't even supposed to be there.

Prosecutors really took a lot of hits at him, portraying him as a liar, somebody who was prone to hyperbole. He said didn't you lie about arresting the head of the Boston mafia? Didn't you even lie about finding the rifle used to kill Martin Luther King Jr.? So it wasn't exactly the strongest day for the defense.

Again, they're doing the best they can with the information that they've got. Again, at the heart of this is they're trying to say, no, Whitey Bulger was the one who was paying the FBI, not the other way around. And they're really trying to at least skew the pendulum so that it focuses directly on FBI.

BALDWIN: Then you have all these jurors, Deborah Feyerick, right, who've been sitting day after day after day taking in all this testimony. And here you have -- tell me more about this request from the defense team to sequester the juror, what, for deliberation?

FEYERICK: For deliberations. That's exactly right. You know, the defense lawyer is basically saying there's been so much written about this, what if they accidentally see something in the 11th hour that perhaps skews their opinion. The defense has been very, very frustrated that there's a gag order. So oftentimes we see these cases being tried in the court of public opinion.

But Bulger's lawyer has not even had the opportunity to take the microphone because the judge has said absolutely not. They're trying to sequester the jury. The prosecution believes it's not necessary. He believes -- the prosecution believes, in fact, they've been following the rules and that they'll continue to follow the rules. And that, you know, sort of at the 11th hour to put everybody into a hotel room until they come up with a verdict may not be the best thing. Depends what side you're on -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll see what they, I guess, determine. Deborah Feyerick, thank you very much. Crucial final days here for the defense team.

Coming up, it has been calmed the largest crackdown against child prostitution in the history of the U.S. here. More than 100 children rescued, so many of these pimps arrested. A live report at the top of the hour.

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BALDWIN: Surfers, they're better known for catching the stoke, riding the waves, than causing trouble, right? Well, a riot broke out Sunday. Look at this melee, after the U.S. Surfing Open at Huntington Beach, California, the whole thing started with a fight.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Port-a-potties. The cops started throwing tear gas at everyone. Everyone was plugging their noses, coughing, dodging into stores.

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BALDWIN: Police moved in to break up the crowd with tear gas and pepper balls. Some unruly beachgoers refused to leave. Officers arrested at least eight for causing the disturbance.