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Huge Rallies to Fight Climate Change; White House Security in Question; Another Round of Celebrity Nudes Leaked; Over 7,000 Fans Exchange Ray Rice Jerseys

Aired September 22, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Huge rallies across the globe to fight climate change. They come on the heels of Secretary of State John Kerry addressing the United Nations about climate change in the next hour. The secretary is expected to deliver strong comments about how important this issue is, putting climate change on the same level as fighting Ebola and ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): From Manhattan to Melbourne, Copenhagen to Rio De Janeiro, waves of activities from around the world flooded city streets to participate in the People's Climate March. People turned out in droves Sunday to participate in New York's People's Climate March. The Environmental Defense Funds sponsored the event, which they dubbed the biggest climate march in history. Hundreds of thousands of people took part.

RICKEN PATEL, EVENT ORGANIZER: We're seeing droughts, massive droughts across the Midwest and California. We're seeing storms that are devastating the East Coast and the Gulf Coast. We're seeing flooding that's threatened this city and many others. All of those (INAUDIBLE) are happening. It is just a taste test of what's to come if we don't urgently reverse course. And the solution is so clear as to get to 100 percent clean energy powered (INAUDIBLE) economy.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Why is it important for you to be here today and lend your name to this?

MARK RUFFALO, ACTOR & ACTIVIST: Because of my kids, who I love dearly, and I see the world changing very quickly already and I want to see them - I want to do my best to give them the best world that they deserve to have.

COSTELLO: The United Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, celebrities, and politicians participated in the two and a half mile rally. The event is designed to lead into the Climate Summit, which begins on Tuesday.

BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: This climate change is a defining issue of our time.

COSTELLO: World leaders will gather at the United Nations and offer up ideas to combat climate change. As environmental activist and the newly appointed U.N. messenger of peace, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, will address the summit.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR/U.N. MESSENGER FOR PEACE: We are at a pivotal turning point. We are seeing the effects of rapid climate change happening every week in the news.

COSTELLO: President Obama is also expected to speak.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Let's bring in Alison Kosik. She's live on Wall Street, where hundreds of activists plan to protest what they say is the role of big business in climate change.

Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And they're putting that link between big business and climate change because of this. They say that big business is creating - or it's helping to create the problem of global climate change because of their investments in things like oil, fracking, and coal. So they're trying to point this out by making these demonstrations, like the one you just talked about yesterday, the one today. All of this leading up to world leaders meeting this week at the U.N. There's also a big climate summit happening on Tuesday.

So what's going to happen here today? The hundreds that you see here are expected, after a bunch of speeches this morning, to then hit the pavement and start their march toward the New York Stock Exchange, which is right on Wall Street. They're ultimate goal, to shut down the New York Stock Exchange. But in the process, Carol, they're probably going to get arrested, they say, because they're doing this knowing that they don't have any permits. They don't have a permit to march. They don't have a permit for their massive sit-in. But they do have a purpose in their march. I did talk to one of the environmental activists. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PREMO, ORGANIZER, FLOOD WALL STREET: The climate crisis is fundamentally an issue of the economy. Over the last 10 to 20 years, frequent U.N. conferences have failed to deal with the fundamental problem of the climate crisis. So Flood Wall Street is an attempt to bring the problem to the doorstep of the people who are fundamentally responsible for the crisis we find ourselves in right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: O one interesting note that I thought was, well, interesting, they plan to march with 300 foot wide banner that says "capitalism equals climate chaos." It takes at least 100 to walk with that sign.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Alison Kosik, we'll check back with you. Thanks so much.

I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning the Secret Service is beefing up security at the White House. Here's a live look from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The increased security measures follow two incidents over the weekend.

Here was the incident that was most alarming. You can see a man there. He jumped the fence. He's running across the White House lawn and he barges right through the front doors of the White House. He's been identified as Iraq War veteran Omar Gonzalez. He is scheduled to appear in court later today. Gonzalez's stepson says he suffers from PTSD after serving three tours in Iraq. One lawmaker says there's simply no excuse for this type of security breach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: You know, there can be a lot of conspiracies against the president and a lot of very complex assassination plots. This is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure. And how anyone, especially in these days of ISIS and we're concerned about terrorists attacks, someone could actually get into the White House without being stopped is inexcusable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's crazy, right? I have seen the video of that man running across the White House lawn and it stuns me every time. With me now, Marc Lamont Hill, CNN political commentator, host of "HuffPost Live" and Morehouse College professor, and Ben Ferguson, CNN political commentator.

Welcome to you both.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you both here.

Ben, before we get into the Secret Service and its problems, let's talk about public access to the White House. Fence jumpers, they're not uncommon -

FERGUSON: Sure.

COSTELLO: But is it time to rethink public access to the White House in light of what happened?

FERGUSON: I think you certainly have to look at this and say, were there rules that were broken that the Secret Service should implement and not necessarily shut down the street or say there's a new security check point, did they not do their job appropriately and is that the real issue? I mean I'm afraid of overreacting because I do think that Americans should be able to go and be close to the White House. I don't want it to be completely quarantined off. But at the same time, when you see somebody like this that's able to accomplish this - and obviously this man, they say, had significant mental issues after serving in our military. They don't feel that he was a direct threat to the White House or anything. You know that ISIS and other people -

COSTELLO: Well, he had a knife in his pocket. He had a knife in his pocket.

HILL: He jumped the fence and had a knife. I mean he's a threat.

FERGUSON: Sure. But -- well, he had a knife in his pocket. But what I'm saying is, he's not a threat like a terrorist in the same way that a terrorist may watch this video and say, wow, if this guy can do this, imagine if 10 of us jumped the fence or 15 of us go for it. What are they going to do then? And that's where I think the bigger concern comes in.

HILL: Well, that's exactly right. I mean that guy - what if he were a terrorist? What if he did, God forbid, have a bomb. He was 25 - sprinting, he was about 25 seconds from where the president would be had he been there. That's very, very dangerous to me.

This isn't about closing off access to the White House to the public. It's about the Secret Service doing its job. And we've seen consistently over the years, the last few years, that the Secret Service has failed. It's become a very lax culture with low morals. It's become almost a frat boy culture. And some argue that it comes from the shift from the Treasury Department to Homeland Security overseeing the Secret Service in 2003. It's a whole different culture.

COSTELLO: Well, let's - well, you know, along that - along those lines, in March of 2014, three Secret Service agents got drunk during a trip to protect the president.

FERGUSON: Sure (ph).

COSTELLO: They were placed on administrative leave. In April of 2012, a dozen agents got tipsy and brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms before the president's arrival for an economic summit. In September of 2014, that's now, some random guy went through the front door of the White House. And I'm leave out the incident in 2009 where that weird couple broke into a White House party.

HILL: The dinner, yes.

COSTELLO: So, clearly, Ben, there's something up with the Secret Service, right?

FERGUSON: Yes. And I think - I think that's where you need to have some sort of significant overhaul of procedures because this is a huge embarrassment for the Secret Service that one guy could actually get this far with no one stopping him. And it brings up that bigger question of security, of a terrorist or someone with a bomb. And I guarantee you, they're going to look at what happened and be encouraged to say, wow, maybe this could be something that we should look at. And I think that's where the Secret Service should come out in a very blunt way and say, we've changed our procedures, we've changed how we're doing things and this will never ever happen again and we should expect that from them. They have a lot of our tax dollars.

COSTELLO: Well, here's -

HILL: Let me (INAUDIBLE) -

(CROSS TALK)

COSTELLO: Here's the other thing. The president came out with a statement and said he had full confidence in the Secret Service. Marc, how can he say that?

HILL: Well, because, what else is he going to say, I have no faith in the people who are protecting me? If he were to say that, that would actually make things more chaotic and create more security breaches. He has to pretend and probably has to believe that the guys who are protecting him actually have the capacity to do so. I don't think they do. I think it's time to have new people.

Again, there are people here who are hired to Secret Service who wouldn't have been hired under the previous administration. You know, some have said that this is the worst moment probably since '63, pre- Kennedy assassination. This is very, very problematic. And it's even more problematic because this president has faced more threats, more verbal assaults, more rhetorical violence than anyone else in recent years. There's been a rise in nationalist organizations, a rise in death threats. All this stuff is happening and Secret Service is getting worse. That's not a good combination.

COSTELLO: Well, maybe these congressional hearings will help for once. Who knows?

HILL: Yes, right. Yes, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

COSTELLO: Marc Lamont Hill, Ben Ferguson, thanks to you both.

I'm back in a minute.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some cyber creep or creeps have leaked another round of nude celebrity photos online. According to the Daily Beast, names in the latest high profile hack include Kim Kardashian, Mary Kate , that one surprised me actually, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lawrence again. It's not clear who is behind this latest privacy breach but, as you might recall, pictures of Lawrence and other celebrities found their ways on to sites like 4chan and Reddit just a few weeks ago.

So what is up with this? Joining me for more, CNN's entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner and CNN technology analyst Brett Larson. NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Brett gives the

long sigh.

BRETT LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: Again?

COSTELLO: What is up with this, Nischelle?

TURNER: I'm not surprised because the last time we saw this a couple weeks ago we did hear from them saying, I have a long laundry list of nude pictures of celebrities and just get ready because I'm going to release them periodically. So the ones that have come out now, not surprising. To be perfectly honest, like you said, Mary Kate Olsen, yes, I'm a little surprised. The other names on the list, not completely surprised that they have them and I'm not even sure if they mind much because they're kind of open with their bodies.

COSTELLO: You mean like Kim Kardashian?

TURNER: Could be.

COSTELLO: But there's a difference, Brett, in the releasing the photos on your own and somebody doing it for you.

LARSON: Right. You have control when you leak your sex tape. You don't so much --

COSTELLO: And as Nischelle pointed out, you make money.

LARSON: Exactly. You might get a little extra scratch off that, too. But when someone is hacking into your phone and taking your private photos that you're not sharing with the rest of the world, then absolutely, it's out of your control. I love that one of the hackers went to Reddit to say it's been great PR for them and that it's been enormous and good effects will go on. And it's like no, no, no, we're pulling back the curtain on these hackers, you're not the Wizard of Oz, you're bottom feeders who live in your parents' basement who are trading in this.

COSTELLO: Why can't they catch these people?

LARSON: It's difficult.

TURNER: It's difficult. That's an interesting point because in this latest round Gabrielle Union, who had pictures of her and her now husband Dwayne Wade leaked as well, put out a statement saying they have contacted the FBI. They're going to go forward to try to catch these guys because she does believe it's an invasion of privacy. She's had sexual assault in her past.

COSTELLO: Jennifer Lawrence did, too, though.

TURNER: She's going to do it. Meagan Good put out a statement saying she was disgusted by it, and that they were only for her husband. So maybe if there is this coalition of celebrities going forward then something can be done but I don't think this is just an issues for celebrities to be concerned about. This is for all of us regardless of nude pictures or not.

LARSON: We're seeing this with teenagers in high school who very freely exchanging sexual pictures of themselves, and then they get leaked and it becomes the sort of a bullying issue. In many ways that's kind of what this is, it's a bullying issue if you're releasing private photos of someone to get publicity.

COSTELLO: The only sort of positive thing -- and I'm searching, I am -- is Reddit immediately took the pictures offline and even 4chan.

LARSON: They changed their policy on posting pictures after the last time around to say we will proactively take this stuff down as opposed to leaving it as part of the stuff that flows through the site day after day. Which I think is great. The other positive, if we can find a positive, is we're all talking about it and we're all hoping that something is done about it because we want that protection for ourselves as well.

TURNER: One of the things in this case, too, that I found disturbing is the fact, and in Meagan Good's case she blasted the people, just regular folks, who were reposting her pictures over and over. So my thing is, why do you want to do that? Why? What do you get out of that?

COSTELLO: No clue.

TURNER: That's just kind of creepy.

LARSON: It's the keyboard courage. It's the I'm safe in my own home behind a keyboard I can do whatever I want.

COSTELLO: That is despicable. Nischelle Turner, Brett Larson, thanks to both of you, I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The NFL put on its full slate of games on Sunday but with controversy still swirling around the league, it was not business as usual. Point one, Comedy Central buying time on Fox's broadcast of the Washington Redskins game and poking fun at the team's defense of its nickname.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DANIEL SNYDER, CARTOON CHARACTER: In the name of decency, I am asking that you please stop using the name Washington Redskins to refer to your company.

ERIC CARTMAN, CARTOON CHARACTER: Stop? But why?

SNYDER: You have no right to use our name to get attention.

CARTMAN: The trademark got pulled so I'm totally free to use the name actually.

SNYDER: Don't you see that when you call your organization the Washington Redskins it's offensive to us?

CARTMAN: How is it offensive?

SNYDER: It's derogatory, Mr. Cartman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, CARTOON CHARACTER: Makes us feel like a joke!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Daniel Snyder, are you listening? I didn't think so. The Baltimore Ravens were back in action, too, but many of their fans were wearing different jerseys. The Ravens said more than 7,000 people turned in their Ray Rice jerseys as part of an exchange offer.

Also today, the Ravens are expected to address an ESPN report about the -- about what the team knew about that inside-the-elevator video hours after rice assaulted Janay Palmer. There are allegations that head coach John Harbaugh wanted to cut Rice and the other owners of the team disagreed. They'll address that later today.

At his post-game news conference, however, Harbaugh suggested the decision to keep Rice at that time was one made jointly by team executives, and him, the coach. That brings us to another star running back out there, because of alleged off-the-field violence, Adrian Peterson. CNN's Andy Scholes is in New Orleans where Peterson's Viking teammates played on without him. Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, Carol. The Vikings tried to block out the off-the-field distractions going on with Adrian Peterson as they took on the Saints yesterday, but they weren't able to get a win. They're now 0-2 without Adrian Peterson on the field. They lost to the Saints 20-9. Failed to score a touchdown in this game, so it's obvious the Vikings are missing Peterson on the field.

I talked to a bunch of players after the game. They say they know they can't replace what Peterson brought to the table and they also know they can't just sit around and wait to see if or when Peterson is going to return to the team. Now Peterson's next court date is scheduled for October 8th If his case goes to trial, it might not be heard until some time next year and if that happens, Carol, it means Peterson will probably not play another down in the NFL this season.

COSTELLO: What were the fans saying about the Commissioner, Roger Goodell? Anything?

SCHOLES: We walked around and talked to a lot of fans yesterday, they said despite this PR nightmare they still love the NFL, they'll still keep watching the games on the TV. But the majority of them did say they don't like Roger Goodell, they don't think he's done a good job handling these issues and many think he should be punished. Some of them even think he should lose his job. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTFIED MALE: I think he should resign, honestly. I mean, I don't know how it would go but I think he should resign. He's doing an awful job and I don't know, I think it's time for-to-go.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: I think he should lose his job. He should be fined and suspended from his position where he's at.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: I think the media has blown everything out of proportion and I think that's just a new thing and I think it's wrong and I think that if it's done in the right way then, yes, but to let all the past players who have been accused of rain and beating other people and stuff and they're still playing to this day, it's not right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHOLES: So we all know Roger Goodell is not going to step down willingly. He still has the support of a lot of the owners and we saw just yesterday he was at the New York Giants football game. So fans shouldn't expect Roger Goodell to be going anywhere.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Andy Scholes, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.