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Obama Cancels Talks with Putin; Few Late Night Laughs for Obama, Leno; Massive Manhunt for California Kidnapper; Bird Flu Passes from Person to Person; Oprah Returns to Silver Screen; Oprah Talks about The Butler

Aired August 07, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, breaking news from the White House. President Obama fires back at Vladimir Putin, canceling his trip to Moscow next month.

That's not all from President Obama. He also sat down on Jay Leno's couch for 45 minutes talking about terror, lunch with Hillary, the Olympics and Trayvon Martin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are some things that we can do to foster better understanding and to make sure that we don't have laws in place that encourage the kind of violent encounter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: And Oprah Winfrey adds her thoughts on racism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY: I think that one of the reasons why there's so much still lingering prejudice and racism is because we don't get to see people as ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: The talk show queen says that's part of the reason she's coming back to the big screen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Good morning. I'm Anna Coren sitting in for Carol Costello. We begin this hour with breaking news out of the White House. New fallout with Russia over the Edward Snowden affair, well President Obama has canceled a visit to Moscow next month for talks, direct talks that is, with President Vladimir Putin after Russia granted asylum to the NSA leaker.

Phil Black is in Moscow. Jill Dougherty is at the State Department. We start with chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin. Jessica, as we mentioned last hour, President Barack Obama will still be attending the G-20 Summit in Russia, but he won't be having these one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a major snub to Russia, isn't it? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): It sure is. It can only make relations between the two the men that much chillier. It's not warm to begin with. The White House says they began reviewing the summit in July and considering whether it made sense to do it or not. They have now informed Russia the trip is off.

Clearly, it's because one important consideration was they could not come to terms on an extradition agreement for Edward Snowden or even some sort of wink and nod agreement whereby Russia could extradite him for -- let him go to a second country, which would then extradite him to the U.S. no progress there and that was one knock against the summit.

But in a statement, the White House also says some other contributing factors were a lack of progress between the two countries on issues including missile defense, arms control. They also say trade and global security, human rights and civil society, you know, some of the measures that in the next upcoming Olympics in Sochi create an inequality for gays and lesbians is a matter of some concern to the White House.

There's also the matter of Iran's march toward perhaps nuclear program in Syria. The White House isn't coming to terms with Putin on any agreements on any of those fronts. Interestingly, Anna, the statement says that the president asked to postpone the summit, not cancel it all together.

That seems like a diplomatic nicety. Instead of going to Moscow, he is now going to Stockholm, Sweden, which is just a pleasant place close to Moscow and important for trade relations and on climate change issues so a visit nearby, but not Vladimir Putin.

COREN: If I can bring in Phil Black now from Moscow. Phil, there was always going to be fallout from Russia granting temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. We mentioned before that the relationship is rather tense between the two countries. Has there been any reaction from Russia?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not so far, no. We've spoken to the Kremlin and they seemed a little bit surprised by this news taking place today. They have not yet prepared any official public response, but this is certainly the last thing that the Kremlin wanted to happen. Throughout the Snowden affair, the Kremlin President Putin himself has attempted to stress that Snowden was not a problem of our making.

They did not want this to affect broader U.S./Russian relations because they believe very strongly that the big issues these two countries still have to discuss with much more important than Snowden and they've always said the United States should look beyond Snowden and talk about those sorts of issues.

As you've heard, the response from the United States is we're angry about Snowden and on those other issues like Syria, nuclear disarmament, missile defense and Iran and so forth. The differences are so great. There have become so much greater over the last 18 months or so, that the U.S. feels very little point in holding this meeting.

The issue now is what will the response be from the Russian government? We don't know how long they will take to respond to this precisely. But it will certainly make for a frosty encounter when these two leaders get together at the bigger G-20 in St. Petersburg.

COREN: Yes, indeed, if I can bring Jill Dougherty now from the State Department. Jill, you have covered Russia extensively over the years. The relations between the two countries have never been good, but you can only imagine that this will only worsen tensions. Explain it to us.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, if you look at the statement, it really in addition to Snowden, which is the latest, it's really a damning indictment of the entire relationship. Look at the things they are saying, given our lack of progress on and then they go on, the White House, to mention missile defense, arms control, trade commercial relations, global security, human rights and civil society.

That's about the relationship. So if that is not working, then where is the relationship? Also I would say that will right at the top where they say, you know, we value the achievements we had in the first term, now, what they're not saying is the first term was with another Russian president and that was President Medvedev.

What's unstated here though is that now there is the new old Russian president who is Vladimir Putin, and this relationship is going south. Here are the problems. So in a sense, you could say although the names are not there, this really is pretty personal statement to where the relationship is right now and the very major problems.

COREN: Jill Dougherty, Phil Black and Jessica Yellin, keeping (inaudible) across this story, many thanks.

Meanwhile, President Obama makes a return appearance to late night TV, but this time, very few laughs and lots of serious topics. In an appearance on the "Tonight Show," the president and Jay Leno discussed a wide range of concerns including the terror threat that has shut down 19 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Everyone is concerned about these embassy closings. How significant is this threat?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it's significant enough that we're taking every precaution. We had already done a lot to the bolster embassy security around the world, but especially in the Middle East, North Africa where the threats tend to be highest. And whenever we see a threat stream that we think is specific enough that we can take some specific precautions within a certain time frame then we do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: The president also addressed the killing of an unarmed teen in Florida and the acquittal of the man who pulled the trigger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LENO: I thought you spoke very eloquently about the Trayvon Martin case. I could tell that you were speaking from the heart and tell me about that.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I wanted to try to explain was why this was a particularly sensitive topic for African-American families because, you know, a lot of people who have sons know the experience they had of being followed or --

LENO: Sure.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, being viewed suspiciously. We all know that, you know, young African-American men disproportionately have involvement in criminal activities and violence. For a lot of reasons, a lot of it having to do with poverty, a lot of it having to doing with disruptions in their neighborhoods and their communities and failing schools and all those things. That's no excuse, but what we also believe in is that people, everybody should be treated fairly and the system should work for everyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: And in one of the lighter moments, the president looked ahead to Hillary Clinton's potential run to succeed him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LENO: You and Hillary had lunch. Who invited who to lunch? I'm curious.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I invited her.

LENO: OK.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: And we had a great time. She had that post administration glow, you know, when folks leave the White House, like two weeks later, they look great.

LENO: Did you notice her measuring the drapes or anything like that?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Keep in mind, she's been there before.

LENO: That's true.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: She doesn't have to measure them. Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: She certainly doesn't. Well, let's take a closer look at those comments. Joining me from Atlanta is political science professor and HLN contributor, Jason Johnson. Jason, great to have you back with us. What struck you most about that 45-minute conversation? Considering that this was the first time the president actually addressed the latest security threats against U.S. interests.

JASON JOHNSON, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, HIRAM COLLEGE: I was amazed at the range. I mean, Jay Leno literally started with making jokes about birthdays and anniversaries and then moved right into Russia. And I was amazed at the simple flow with which they moved from Trayvon Martin to Hillary Clinton to so many different subject areas. It's probably one of the most extensive interviews we've seen with the president since the end of last year's election.

COREN: But some very serious issues discussed. Was "The Tonight Show" the right forum to discuss such wide-ranging and important significant topics?

JOHNSON: I think it is. Look, the president of the United States has an obligation to tell us what he's doing every day with our tax money, with our military, with our government in general. And so I've always thought it was reasonable whether it was George Bush, whether it was Bill Clinton, whether it was Ronald Reagan, any president who takes the time to speak to the American people where they are, that's his obligation. I thought it was a good idea. As long as is he doesn't choose to only speak to Jay Leno, I think this is fine for Obama to do.

COREN: To stay on the issue of the terror alerts because that is obviously major news at the moment, 19 embassies and consulates, U.S. consulates closed around the world. There were drone strikes in Yemen. Two attacks were foiled also in Yemen. There are obviously a lot of things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about. As you say, the president comes on Jay Leno sort of tells us what he can tell us. But do you think perhaps he was able to allay fears as to the terror alert that Americans are exposed to at the moment?

JOHNSON: I don't think so. I mean, and unfortunately, it's because I think fear is just a part of American life now. I mean, since 9/11, we're sort of dulled to the pain, but we live with the expectation that the men and women who are fighting abroad in the Middle East, that the men and women who work for the foreign services are constantly under threat. This may be a slightly higher threat, but I don't think there's anything the president can do to convince Americans that those of us we are concerned abroad are safe. He just can't do it. All he can do is say I'm doing my best to keep them safe.

COREN: Jason Johnson, lovely insight there always good talking to you. Thank you very much.

Stay with us. At the bottom of the hour, we'll hear more of the president's comments, a lot more. We'll have that for you at 10:30 Eastern.

Let's now turn to Southern California where a massive manhunt is under way for this man, James DiMaggio who police believe he killed a Southern California woman in a fire and then kidnapped the woman's daughter, Hannah Anderson. Hannah's brother Ethan is also missing. Now, their father is making a desperate plea to his wife's alleged killer and to his daughter who may be with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT ANDERSON, FATHER OF HANNA AND ETHAN ANDERSON: Jim, I can't fathom what you were thinking. The damage is done. I'm begging you to let my daughter go. You've taken everything else. Hannah, we all love you very much. If you have a chance, you take it. You run. You'll be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Miguel Marquez is in San Diego following the story. Miguel, has there been any progress in the search?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's progress in the sense that investigators are hearing from a lot of individuals about possible leads. They say they are tracking down dozens of leads here through the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. They are asking anybody who sees this individual and or these kids. They believe that Mr. DiMaggio may have changed his appearance.

They were last seen in a blue Nissan Versa. They could have changed that vehicle, as well. If Hannah, the 16-year-old girl is with him, her appearance may have been changed and if the boy Ethan is with them, his appearance may also be changed. Another thing investigators are trying to track down is who is the child that was found dead in the rubble of that burned out house?

It is possible it could be that of 8-year-old Ethan. So it could only be that Mr. DiMaggio and 16-year-old Hannah are on the loose right now. And they are also saying that he is considered very dangerous. He may be armed. And if you see them or even suspect that it may be them, call 911. Do not confront them -- Anna.

COREN: Miguel, the father of those children, he made a plea, a direct plea and referred to the suspect as Jim. Can you describe the relationship? Because you can only assume that it's platonic that they know each other.

MARQUEZ: They do know each other. They know each other quite well apparently from the past. Jim or James DiMaggio has known the kids, has known the family since they were born, according to friends and family that we've spoken to. Everybody says that he is a low key introverted mellow sort of guy, would never ever see something like this coming. So it comes out of complete left field. It has people in shocked, confused. And now they are just hoping that this turns out as good as it can -- Anna.

COREN: Miguel Marquez joining us from San Diego. Thank you for that.

Well, a deadly will bird flu virus has never been known to pass between two people, but now doctors in China say it has happened between a father and his daughter. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to break down what exactly that means. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Well, a very deadly strain of bird flu has passed one person to another, and it appears to be the first time that it's happened. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. Sanjay, good to see you. What can you tell us about this recent case?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we've been following this for some time and we're talking about a specific type of influenza virus known at H7N9. A lot of people don't remember these numbers. It's important to distinguish this from H5N1, which is a type of bird flu we talked about several years ago. These cases seem to be mainly isolated to China, One case in Taiwan. But that's the virus you're looking at there.

That's where this virus is located. There have been 134 of these patient who have gotten sick and 43 people have died. Anna, to your question, two of those cases were a father and a daughter. The father was a man who spent a lot of time with poultry, with chickens, and he became sick, five to six days after spending time with these infected chickens.

His daughter was subsequently caring for him and she also contracted the virus. We know that the daughter didn't spend time with the birds, so she didn't get it that way. We also know the exact same genetically matched virus was found in father and daughter. So this was a clear case of human-to-human spread, something that scientists look for both father and daughter, unfortunately, died from this. So this is what's sort of governing all the tension today.

COREN: Sanjay, as you know, I'm based in Hongkong, which has had its fair share of bird scares over the year. Should that be of concern to Hongkong, China, Asia, you know, for the rest of the world if it is spreading from human to human?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, look, I think that the time to sound the alarm bells is not quite here yet. I'll give you a couple reasons why. First of all, this is documented human-to-human transmission. Scientists had suspected this for some time, but this man had also had contact with 43 other close contacts during that time. And none of them became infected.

So while it can spread human to human, it doesn't seem to be happening very easily. Also, we're talking about it now in August, but this happened back in March. And we haven't had evidence of many more cases of human to human transition since then. I think they want to keep an eye on this and see if this particular virus mutates to something more easily transmissible. For now it's more keeping an eye on it, not sounding the alarm bells.

COREN: Dr. Gupta, always a pleasure. Thank you for the update.

Well, it had to be a pretty rock solid role to bring Oprah Winfrey back to the big screen. Next, our Nischelle Turner talks with the queen of talk about her character in the new movie, "The Butler."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Welcome back. For the first time in 15 years, Oprah Winfrey is back on the silver screen. Lee Daniels "The Butler" tells the story of a black man who leaves the Georgia cotton fields to work at the White House. He gets a front row seat to some of the most historic moments of the 20th Century. It opens August 16th.

CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner got to sit down with the queen of talk to discuss the film and much, much more and Nischelle joins us now. Nischelle, what a treat to sit down with Oprah.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm telling you, Anna, it really, really was. We are reporters and biased reporters. When you get the opportunity to talk to a lady who literally changed the face of television, it is a real treat. You know it's going to be a lively conversation with Oprah when she walks into room and gives you a high five. It's like her way of saying bring it on.

So I did. We talked about the movie and her role as Gloria Gaines, the butler's wife. We also talked about the movie's message and why it took so long for her to take on another role.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TURNER: So your first dramatic role in 15 years --

OPRAH WINFREY, ACTRESS, "THE BUTLER": Can you believe that, Nischelle? Can you believe it? I know, really. What made me say yes to that?

TURNER: That was my question.

WINFREY: Especially since I was going through it. I was going through building OWN and thank goodness we were on the other side at least headed in the right direction for that. I said to lee, this is worst time you could ask me to do anything, Lee. And you know, he just would not take no for an answer. I think one of the reasons why there's so much.

Still lingering prejudice and racism is because we don't get to see people as ourselves. And so this was an opportunity, I thought, to let the world feel the heart of the butler, the heart of this period that really was a defining period in the lives of many black people but also our nation.

TURNER: I was going to say, will this generation that sees this movie today, do you think they'll get Cecil gains? Will they look at him as weak because he didn't speak out?

WINFREY: I certainly hope not. You know what I hope this generation looks and sees, they see their own fathers. That's what I hope they look and see and see their own fathers and recognize that there were different ways of being a warrior. That moment in the film where Cecil gains goes in and says the white help is making more than the black help here, and I think that's not fair and we should get equal pay, that is his way of worrying.

TURNER: The conversation that is had in this film about race, race relations, racism, we're still having that conversation today.

WINFREY: I think we'll be having that conversation.

COREN: Do you think?

PEREIRA: For a long time because you know, all of this, the conversations about race, and the conversations about profiling regardless of what race is being profiled is really about our march to humanity. It's about our march to not fearing one another. And I think when you don't have stories and you don't have a placement in the culture where people can see that there's a whole tapestry, you know, one of the reasons why I love this film and wanted to be a part of it is because of the tenderness between the -- of the husband and wife and the tenderness and nurturing nature of the middle class family. You know, so many images.

TURNER: I've never seen that before.

WINFREY: I know you hadn't seen it before. I know.

TURNER: Seriously, I'd never seen that before.

WINFREY: Isn't that just shocking? And when I ask other people, white people, black people, when have you seen a tenderness and honor and respect and -- people who have been together and can finish each other's sentences and you can see the caring, the caring happens not just when they're in bed together, Cecil and Gloria, but when they're sitting at the table and finishing each other's sentences and saying, what is the name of that movie.

TURNER: "In The Heat Of The Night."

WINFREY: In the heat of the night. You can feel that.

TURNER: Do you feel like you still experience racism in any form?

WINFREY: Nobody's going to come up to me and call me the "n" word unless they're on Twitter and I can't find them.

TURNER: Twitter thugs.

WINFREY: Twitter thugs, the Twitter thugs. So I've learned to leave the Twitter thugs alone. So unless it's something ridiculous, nobody's going do it. But I experience racism in ways that you experience when you have reached a level where people can't call you to your face by -- I experience it through people's expectations and lack thereof. I use it to my advantage.

It's a wonderful thing when people count you out because they think you can't do something. It's a wonderful thing. I always say this. There's a poem by Myall Angelou caused "our grandmothers." There's a line in there that says "when I walk into the room, I come as one but I stand as 10,000." So when he I walk into the room and I'm the only one standing in there, I'm the only one, doesn't bother me a bit.

TURNER: Can you just ask you quickly about the good news that you got earlier this week that OWN is going to turn a profit six months ahead of schedule.

WINFREY: Thank you so much for that. Listen, from the beginning, Nischelle, everyone told me it was going to take five years. But I think because it was my name on the channel, there was an expectation that people were just going to automatically turn on the TV and even though nothing was there, they were going to just sit there and watch nothing. So we had to build the channel.

Now, I always believed that it was going to take some time. What threw me off was when I finished the show and then everybody said, well, be why isn't it done yet in but what will I do when the going gets rough, there's no such thing as quitting. I have to -- I sit with myself. I go inside and I say, all right. What is the next right move? What do I need to do to turn this around? And that's what we did. We did. Not I, but my team, Sherri, Salada, Eric Logan, we had many, many, many, many nights.

TURNER: Jesus, come to the table.

WINFREY: Honey, Jesus was at the table. Jesus was at the table. That's why we're moving forward because Jesus was at the table. Thank you.

TURNER: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TURNER: Jesus was at that table, Anna. That's what she said. You know the story of the butler was important for her to tell because her mother was a maid and her grandmother was a maid and her great grandmother was a slave. So she comes from a long line of domestics and says she stands on their shoulders today. So she really wants that story to be celebrated, and I've seen the movie twice.