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Remembering Robin Williams; Fans Remember Robin Williams; Protests Over Teen's Death; FBI Investigating Missouri Teen's Death; Rescuing Refugees From ISIS
Aired August 12, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BOLDUAN: All right, a lot going on today of course. Let's get you straight over to "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.
Hey there, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Kate, have a great day.
NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBIN WILLIAMS, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: Good morning, Vietnam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: A comedic legend gone far too soon. This morning, the laughs, the characters and the life of Robin Williams.
Plus a fragile face-off and a tense morning in St. Louis. Tear gas fills the air, protesters fill the streets. Michael Brown's parents speaking out and a police department under the microscope.
And aid from the air. Help for hundreds of refugees in Iraq escaping ISIS. Our Ivan Watson on the front lines and in the chopper. The question this morning, where do the refugees go from here?
Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Of course we begin this morning with Robin Williams. The beloved actor being remembered today from the Hollywood hills to the nation's capital as not only a comedic genius but also a man of great compassion.
Officials say Williams took his own life at the age of 36. Williams' publicist acknowledging he recently battled severe depression calling his death sudden and tragic. Williams often talked about his struggles with addiction including at least two trips to rehab.
Fans mourning his loss with flowers and notes on the Hollywood Walk of Fame where Williams was honored with a star some 14 years ago.
On Twitter the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which awarded Williams the Best Supporting Oscar for "Good Will Hunting," highlighted his role in another movie, "Aladdin." In a tweet that reads simply, "Genie, you're free."
Off screen, Williams was known for his work with the USO, traveling the world to inspire our troops. Here he is in 2003 at an appearance in Afghanistan. In a statement, Williams' wife says she hopes the focus is not on his death but on what she says are the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.
So let's do that now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAMS: Good morning, Vietnam. This is not a test, this is rock 'n' roll. Time to rocket from the Delta to the DMZ.
God, it's hot in here. I know size can be daunting, but don't be afraid. I love you. I love you. Mork calling Orson. Come in your boob-tubeness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that you, Mork?
WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Talk about bad connections here. (INAUDIBLE), I'd be talking with every bated breath like, sorry, sorry, sorry. To walk into a Major Baseball League stadium like.
DANTE BASCO, "RUFIO", "HOOK": In your face camel cake.
WILLIAMS: In your rear, cow derriere.
BASCO: Lying, crying, spying, prying ultra-pig.
WILLIAMS: You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food, dude.
Now you ask me if I've been practicing medicine. Well, if this means opening your door to those in need, those in pain, caring for them, listening to them, applying a cold cloth until a fever breaks, if this is practicing medicine, if this is treating a patient then I am guilty as charged, sir.
You don't know about real loss because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much.
If you listen real close you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen. Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That scene always makes me cry.
CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner joins me now.
And I just -- I can't believe it now. NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Right. You and I,
we were just talking about it how yesterday we were kind of all just going about our lives and then wham, we get this news, and I've covered so much in this industry for a lot of years, Carol, and this one just totally took my breath away. It knocked the wind out of me, to get this news and to realize, OK, now we have to talk about this man whose career has spanned more than four decades and kind of put it into a box here and also coupled with talking about a bigger issue of maybe mental health, mental illness and depression and things like that.
But there are celebrities and you know, then there are Hollywood icons, and Robin Williams from all that we've heard over the last 12 hours fits into the category of a Hollywood icon most definitely. So that's kind of what we're doing this morning, remembering.
COSTELLO: I know he battled depression.
TURNER: Yes.
COSTELLO: He battled drug addiction. He seemed to be over it for -- what, 20 years or so, and then suddenly he relapsed. Does anyone know why?
TURNER: Well, first of all, I think you hit the nail on the head when you say he battled it. I think that addicts will tell you, I think that folks that are suffering from mental health issues will tell you that it's an everyday battle, that it's a disease, and that it's something that you live with, and you try to maintain, you try to win that battle, but it is an everyday battle, and sometimes that doesn't happen, and maybe we saw that here, and now we're getting a chance to kind of remember all of the great things he did.
I think it was interesting when you said earlier that he's being remembered from the Hollywood hills to the halls of the White House, and we saw yesterday President Obama release a statement saying we were introduced to him as an alien, we're seeing him as Mork, but he touched us all in this really humane way, touched our lives, and then the secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, releasing a statement saying, you know, the troops owe a little bit of a debt of gratitude to Robin Williams.
He was an advocate for the troops in ways that not a lot of us even knew. So it's really we're learning more about him than just this actor or this comic genius, like you said, but --
COSTELLO: And it's just mind boggling that he couldn't realize the joy that he gave us.
TURNER: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: I want to head out to Stephanie Elam now. She's -- there we go. There you are, Stephanie Elam.
Fans around the world I know are remembering Williams, too. They're paying tribute to his life's work in a variety of ways. So tell us more, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's so true, and I realize that we are in Hollywood, Carol, so you're going to hear a lot of people who had a connection to Robin or maybe who were lucky enough to work with him. But for a lot of people he meant so much. I know I grew up in the bay area and I remember when I realized he lived in the bay area, how cool I thought that was as a teenager. I thought that was really cool.
Out here in Hollywood you can see that there's flowers all around his star. There's even an Oscar statue marking the fact that he won an Oscar for "Good Will Hunting" and people have been making their way out here to pay their respects since the news broke. Let's take a listen to one person who really said he moved to Hollywood because of Robin Williams.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Robin Williams, you know, he could be anybody, he could be all of us. He wasn't just Robin, he was like the collective conscious, like a conduit, for a lot of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: And a lot of people expressing that same feeling that he was the man that you wanted to be, like someone who could be just so funny in a moment. And you could tell sometimes when he was adlibbing in roles and that is what people loved about him. And for a lot of people they're remembering when they first fell in love with Robin Williams and that was in "Mork & Mindy" and all the people who tried to learn how to nanu-nanu -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Absolutely.
Stephanie Elam, reporting live for us from Los Angeles. Thank you.
Also a reminder this morning, join CNN for a special look back at the life of Robin Williams, our "CNN SPOTLIGHT". It's coming up 11:30 Eastern Time.
Officials responded to an emergency call at Robin Williams' home just before noon on Monday, amid reports that a man had been found unconscious and not breathing. Robin Williams would be pronounced dead minutes later.
Dan Simon joins now from us outside of Williams' home in California.
Dan, tell us more.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, Carol. There's going to be a news conference at 11:00 a.m. local time, 2:00 p.m. Eastern, where I think you can expect authorities to talk about the emergency response, talk about who called 911, who first discovered his body, perhaps the release of some initial autopsy results as well.
I can tell you that Robin Williams was a fixture, Carol, in the San Francisco bay area, most recently moving here to the neighborhood of Tiburon. We're in front of the house and you can see this makeshift memorial here that is growing. People leaving flowers and candles and cards, things of that nature, and you know, he was a constant presence in this neighborhood. Neighbors tell us that they often saw him riding bikes and was very down-to-earth, and engaged with kids when they would come up and talk to him and seek his autograph -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Dan Simon reporting live from northern California this morning.
Of course we'll continue our coverage of Robin Williams' death in just a minute. But we want to remember what Robin Williams is best known for, and that would be making us laugh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: You do an eclectic celebration of events. You do Fosse, Fosse, Fosse. You do Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Martha Graham. Or Twyla, Twyla, Twyla or Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, or Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, but you keep it all inside. All right, just work on that. I'll be right back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Protesters and police faced off for a second straight night in St. Louis -- in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, I should say. Based over the shooting death of an unarmed African-American teenager.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the police. Return to your homes, get off the streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Tension has been boiling over in the predominantly black town of Ferguson since an officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Saturday. Protesters want the officer to be identified, fired and charged. Brown's mother talked with CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESLEY MCSPADDEN, VICTIM'S MOTHER: Justice has to be seeked (sic) for my son, because he didn't deserve this. He didn't ask for it, and like I said at first, whatever profile they set out, my son don't fit the profile at all. He didn't deserve none of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's George Howell is live in Ferguson this morning with more.
Good morning, George. GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning. We do expect
to learn the identity of that officer at some point today. Meantime, we know that the FBI is here on the ground in Ferguson to investigate this case, and at the request of Attorney General Eric Holder, the Department of Justice is also monitoring things.
There were peaceful protests the other day, but still police find themselves dealing with turmoil on the streets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL (voice-over): Tempers flare on the streets of Ferguson on the second night of unrest over the death of Michael Brown. Police in riot gear facing off with protesters, firing tear gas canisters, yelling at them at move.
Protests during the day remained peaceful, but here, anger and frustration linger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?
CROWD: Justice!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do we want it?
CROWD: Now!
HOWELL: This community outraged and demanding answers for what some believe was an unprovoked attack on an unarmed teenager.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
HOWELL: The FBI is now launching an investigation into the racially charged shooting to parallel the police investigation following the massive outcry from community leaders to get involved.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: Their baby was executed in broad daylight. And that's why people are so outraged. That's why people are frustrated. Because they're saying yet again, one of our children executed before he even becomes a man.
HOWELL: A recent high school graduate, the 18-year-old was shot and killed by police Saturday, the spot where he fell marked this memorial. The circumstances surrounding his death are still in dispute. Police say Brown assaulted the officer in his car trying to take his gun, but witnesses say the teen was surrendering with his hands in the air when the officer opened fire.
What's not known is exactly what transpired in those moments before the fatal shots and why his grieving parents tell CNN's Don Lemon they want justice for their gentle giant.
LESLEY MCSPADDEN, MICHAEL BROWN'S MOTHER: Never a day we think we'll be planning a funeral. We was waiting on his first day of school. And they robbed us of that. Just because my son is a 6'4 black male walking down a city street does not mean he fit the profile for anything other than just walking down that street. That's all he was doing.
MICHAEL BROWN, SR., MICHAEL BROWN'S FATHER: My son don't have justice. And we don't have no peace. If he has no justice, we won't get no peace.
HOWELL: An autopsy on Brown is now complete, but findings have not yet been made public. Neither has the officer's name, the six-year veteran now on paid administrative lead while the investigation into what led up to this shooting continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: There is frustration, fair to say, there is a lot of outrage on the streets as the information is slow to come in this case, but we do know, again, that we should learn the name, the identity of that officer later today, also that the mayor and the police chief here in Ferguson plan to attend a community forum set later today as people try to come to terms with what happened here, try to get information and facts with all of the unanswered questions, Carol, surrounding this case.
COSTELLO: George, why is it taking police so long to release this officer's name?
HOWELL: Sure. And you know, Carol, we put that question to the police chief yesterday, just as far as getting information out to people. Again, that's what people want. They want to know if there was video in this case. They want to know what police know. Are there things that have not yet been released?
The police chief telling me that the process for releasing information, the process for investigating this case is very slow and deliberate. He even said that, you know, given that we've heard so many things from witnesses, you know, we've heard these different accounts from witnesses, different from what police have put out, police have said little. We've heard a lot from witnesses, he says that as we learn more, as police put more information out about this case, he believes that we should have a better understanding of exactly what happened that night.
COSTELLO: We'll see what happens later this afternoon. George Howell reporting live from Ferguson, Missouri, this morning.
In just a few minutes, St. Louis alderman Antonio French will join us live to talk about the protest, the unrest and the racial tension in Ferguson.
And in the next hour of NEWSROOM, we'll talk live with the NAACP national president Cornell William Brooks as the civil rights organization pushes for answers and justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: "Trust but verify" was a Cold War strategy used by Washington, with Moscow. It may be at play again over Ukraine. Russian convoy of 208 trucks left Moscow for eastern Ukraine. Russia says the delivery of humanitarian supplies has been worked out with the International Committee of the Red Cross. But the West is concerned they may be using the convoy as a Trojan horse to move troops in.
Ukraine's military says no aide convoy will be allowed to cross into Ukraine until it's certified by Ukrainian authorities.
Putting a human face on the crisis of refugees escaping ISIS fighters in Iraq.
Ivan Watson was onboard a helicopter dropping food and water to the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar.
But the aid mission turned into a dramatic rescue mission as desperate refugees raced toward the chopper, about 20 people including children were able to make it on board before the helicopter took off.
But this group of people just a tiny fraction of the refugees remaining on that mountaintop. A Kurdish official says as many as 70,000 people are still trapped.
With me now, Emily Romero, the Middle East director for relief international, and CNN military analyst retired Major General Spider Marks.
Welcome to you both.
MAJ. GEN. SPIDER MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.
EMILY ROMERO, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR FOR RELIEF INTERNATIONAL: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Emily -- thanks for being here. Emily, I want to start with you. I know you're not directly involved with the refugees on the mountaintop. But tell us how desperate the situation is in Iraq because of ISIS?
EMILY ROMERO, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, RELIEF INTERNATIONAL: Well, I think this video clearly portrays how desperate the situation is, as people are trapped, they lack water, this he lack food, they lack health care. They fled their homes in complete terror, and I think this video is very good at showing the brutality that ISIS is showing to the population of Iraq in general, to minority groups in particular and other vulnerable populations.
You know, we have been responding for the past couple of months as we've seen hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing their homes in search of safe refuge.
COSTELLO: Emily, once these refugees get off the mountaintop, do you know where they're going? ROMERO: It's not clear where they may be able to go. I think, you
know, of course, the threat has to be stopped. ISIS still controls roads on the mountains, and so they remain trapped and as you said, there's tens of thousands of people. So what we are ready, you know, is to respond to the needs of the people when they are able to come down, which we know will be across the board in terms of urgent access to health care, psychosocial assistance, you know, water, across the board shelter.
COSTELLO: General Marks, I wanted to ask you it the desperation of the people, the helicopter came under fire as it took off. Describe for us what a difficult mission this is.
MARKS: Well, it's extremely difficult mission, a lot of peril, a lot of risk.
The flight profile of the aircraft just to begin with is very, very difficult, you're maneuvering through space that they probably know, but it's in enemy control. You have civilians completely uncontrolled. You're bringing down this helicopter, and it's going to be a mob scene as you saw on Ivan's reporting, a mob scene getting on the helicopter and many will be left behind, many will want to get rescued in the future.
And then as you've asked, where do they go from here, flying up to Turkey or going to some other places in northern Iraq that are safe havens? We simply don't know. This is an Iraqi mission, being run by the Iraqis, and Ivan was lucky to get on board and to get this incredible footage.
This is a humanitarian disaster of immense proportions in the midst of a civil war with political and military implications are phenomenal.
COSTELLO: Was the American air force supposed to provide cover for this Iraqi crew and the Kurdish crew who landed this helicopter?
MARKS: In an ideal situation, you'd want to have fixed wing aircraft providing the type of protection that's necessary for a helicopter, which can maneuver very quickly but is also, it's a rock in the air and going to fall if anything goes bad. I'm sure it was coordinated but I'm sure Iraqis found a window of time and got in there as quickly as they could.
COSTELLO: So, Emily, as you watch this, what is your biggest fear?
ROMERO: You know, to me, this really highlights that this crisis doesn't have an end. It doesn't have an end in sight. And so, my biggest fear is that, you know, this will continue and will continue to affect other populations, you know, that we won't be able to find, to get access to them in time for greater loss of life, and greater suffering.
COSTELLO: Well, thanks to you for all of your good work. Emily Romero and Major General Spider Marks, thanks as always. We appreciate it.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
