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Ferguson Police Chief Issues Apology; Iranian Leader: West Encourages Terror

Aired September 25, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: An apology from today the police chief of Ferguson, Missouri, after nearly two months of protests in his city over the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Chief Thomas Jackson is now taking full responsibility for how Brown's case has been handled. Brown was shot and killed, as you know, by officer Darren Wilson on August 9. Witnesses have said Brown had his hands in the air as Wilson shot him.

Now in a video statement released to the public, police Chief Thomas Jackson, who is dressed casually in a red polo shirt, apologizes to Brown's parents and also apologizes to any peaceful protesters who feel he didn't do enough to protect their constitutional right to protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS JACKSON, FERGUSON, MISSOURI, POLICE CHIEF: I want to say this to the Brown family.

No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you're feeling. I'm truly sorry for the loss of your son. I'm also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street. The time that it took involved very important work on the part of investigators who were trying to collect evidence and gain a true picture of what happened that day. But it was just too long, and I'm truly sorry for that.

There were many people who were upset about happened in Ferguson and came here to protest peacefully.

Unfortunately, there were others who had a different agenda. I do want to say to any peaceful protester who did not feel that I did enough to protect their constitutional right to protest, I am sorry for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Just moments ago, Chief Jackson spoke exclusively to CNN's Ana Cabrera. I want to bring in Ana in now from Ferguson. Did Jackson tell you why he is apologizing this way now?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did. We talked much about that. In fact, that's the obvious question. That's what protesters behind me were asking why has it taken this long? I'm going to let him answer that question.

But he says it came from the heart and he's very hopeful that this will be perhaps a first step of a fresh beginning in moving forward and having a better dialogue with the community here, a community that's still very much in pain, Anderson. Listen to why now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: You issued an apology video today.

JACKSON: I did.

CABRERA: Why did it take so long for that to happen?

JACKSON: Well, there's been so much going on and every day there's been a different challenge ever since August 9th. There's been new challenges every day for me not only as a man but as a police chief and a member of the community. This is something that's just been weighing on me. Something that needed to be said.

It should have been said a long time ago. It shouldn't have happened. It did and I've been watching to apologize for the time it took to remove Michael from the scene and now I have. I feel better about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He hopes the community is feeling a little bit better perhaps as well. I asked him why not go out and make this apology in person as opposed to doing the video recording. He said he does plan to apologize in person as well, but the purpose of the video, he says, was to make sure he was able to say it completely and not be interrupted and not get flustered or nervous if he was confronted by something in the process of making that apology.

He feels like he's gotten it off his chest now and he can go out and talk to these folks who are so hurt, the protesters, parts of the African-American community and others within the city and surrounding region of Ferguson in the hopes of moving forward -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Ana Cabrera, appreciate it. Thanks, Ana.

Up next, Fareed Zakaria joins me live on his fascinating interview with Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, who has some harsh words for the west, suggesting U.S. policy have given rise to ISIS and other terror groups.

Plus we'll get Fareed's reaction to the Iraqi prime minister telling reporters he has intelligence that ISIS wants to attack subways in the U.S. and those U.S. officials seemed completely at a loss about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to our special coverage on the strikes against Iraq and Syria. Here with me now is CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." You interviewed Hassan Rouhani. What is he like? How did that go?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, I've had the opportunity now to interview him a few time and to meet him a few times. This time he felt to me like there was a real weight on his shoulders. I think that the nuclear deal is real crunch time.

Two or three weeks away from figuring out whether it's going to happen. Two sides are pretty close and so you could feel the pressure. I asked him at one point -- he described a conversation he had on the phone with Obama last year.

He said we talked about the fact that there was so many areas we could cooperate. He implied that it was Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and I said so could this happen? He said first we have to get the nuclear deal done and he said you don't start talking about the second child until you raised the first child.

COOPER: I want to play a clip from the interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The American authorities themselves have announced that they wish to train another terrorist group, equip that group and send them to Syria to fight.

ZAKARIA: You mean the Free Syrian Army?

ROUHANI (through translator): You can call it whatever you wish, sir. Be that as it may, it's another group that as they have announced I'm not sure what their plan is, they say we wish to train these folks in another country, military training.

They even announced a time frame. With whose permission and with whose authority? With what mandate according to what international laws and norms are they doing this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We have been focusing so much on the importance of Iraq and their security personnel, Iraq's political process, the rebels in Syria. How important is Iran in all this for U.S. success in the region?

ZAKARIA: You know, in a sense it may be the pivotal player because we're now in the phase of the operation that we understand and it usually goes well. The American airpower phase. We drop bombs. It looks great. It has an effect.

The next phase is the follow on, what's happening on the ground and that's messy and political and guerrilla warfare so there the question is, do you have the political ability to get the Iraqi government, for example, to win over the Sunni tribes to make the concessions?

Can you get the Syrian government maybe to start making some major concessions so that, you know, the moderate opposition has some room. We have no influence with Syria. We have very limited influence in Iraq. Iran is the crucial player.

They have been the number one supporter of both those governments. It would be great if we could -- it's not going to be an alliance ever. If there could be some engagement with Iran where we could talk with them and get over that point that Rouhani makes.

There's the big divide, which is they support the Assad government. They view anyone attacking the Assad government in Syria as terrorists. We have a very different view. But we don't -- we have very limited conversations. We used to talk to the Soviets at the height of the cold war. Foreign ministers talk is a big step forward.

COOPER: It's so interesting to see him -- I remember interviewing Ahmadinejad when he was here. That dog and pony show. It's such a different spokesperson, such a different president here this time around.

Briefly Iraq's prime minister coming out today saying that Iraqi intelligence has information about an ISIS threat to attack subways in the United States and in France.

Kind of bizarre, U.S. officials saying this is the first we're hearing about it. This guy didn't mention this in any meetings with the president or with Secretary Kerry.

He was interviewed by Christiane yesterday and didn't mention it in a big interview. It's just sort of casually threw it out there to reporters outside of the U.N.

ZAKARIA: Totally bizarre. Frankly, it's dangerous to say this, but I would discount it a little bit. We saw how good the Iraqi Army was over the last month or two. How good do you think Iraqi intelligence is? This is some kind of chatter obviously. But I think that you need really good intelligence to figure out is this serious.

And not just do they have the intention? Lots of people have the intention. The question is do they have a real plan and the capacity? I would wait for serious intelligence officials to actually analyze it before getting worried.

COOPER: Fareed Zakaria, appreciate it. Don't miss Fareed on "GPS" on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern only on CNN.

Just minutes from now, a huge resignation at the White House. Eric Holder, one of the president's closest aides and the first African- American attorney general. The question is why now and who could replace him? We're live from the White House ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Bombshell from the Justice Department. Attorney General Eric Holder stepping down after nearly six years on the job. President Obama is to make the formal announcement in less than an hour from now.

Joining me is Jim Acosta, CNN senior White House correspondent. So it sounds like this has been coming for a while now?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It has, Anderson. You know, I was just talking with some officials over here and you know, Eric Holder has apparently tried to do this before. He does have a close personal relationship with the president. They're friends.

They were up in Martha's Vineyard together earlier this summer and you know, I think it was during this time, from what I'm hearing, that the attorney general started to talk about this and then this really materialized in the last couple of weeks.

I'm told by people at the White House that the attorney general was not in trouble. That's not what this was about. That it was just he wanted to go and his time to go and the president said OK. Now the replacement process begins and that's where it gets interesting because as you know, midterm elections are coming up in a few weeks.

You know, there are questions as to whether or not the president has to make this pick sooner rather than later. We're hearing it won't happen today obviously, but sooner rather than later because the Democrats still retain control of the Senate.

I was talking to one source over here this afternoon who said we'll pick the right person when the right person surfaces. There are some names floating around out there like the solicitor general who argued the Supreme Court case on Obamacare and the attorney general out in California.

You see these others up on screen, the former White House counsel who just stepped aside, Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts and some others that you see on the screen there.

But from what I'm hearing, this midterm timetable is just not going to be that big a factor. They are also saying, listen, these midterm elections may get dragged out. We may not know who the winner is down in Louisiana and some of these other states for some time.

So they are not going to let that drive that process. They want to find a person that they're comfortable with, that the president is comfortable with regardless of what they now will be a contentious fight up on Capitol Hill.

COOPER: I also want to ask you about this really kind of surprising statement by Iraq's new prime minister about an alleged terror plot by ISIS militants to attack subway systems in the U.S. and in Paris.

Has the White House said anything about this? Because it seems like it caught a lot of people by surprise. He casually said this in front of reporters today.

ACOSTA: Yes, I think it caught the White House off guard, Anderson. The deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, was on Air Force One talking with reporters as the president just landed at Andrew's Air Force Base after his trip to the United Nations. He is on his way over here to the White House. But Ben Rhodes was talking to reporters and said that, you know, Prime Minister Abadi did not mention this to President Obama when they met together yesterday up at the United Nations and that U.S. officials at this point have not confirmed this information coming from the Iraqi prime minister.

Now, one thing that Ben Rhodes did say, he didn't really knock this down as much as other administration officials have. Today, he said that they take information that Iraqis are giving them seriously and they're going to check it out.

At this point it has been to be corroborated because at this point, they can't say, yes, we agree with what the Iraqis are saying. We do believe that this threat exist because they just don't have that information at this point.

COOPER: All right, Jim Acosta, appreciate it. Thanks very much.

Tough day on Wall Street so far. The biggest stock tumble. Nearly two months technology stock took a big hit. Apple stock prices down after complaints about the latest iPhone and Apple's latest IOS software update.

Up next, the world you may not know much about, sugar babies and sugar daddies, both sides getting what they want, money or something else. CNN's new series starts with a close up look at why they do it. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. I'm very excited this Sunday. It's a special day here at CNN. Lisa Ling officially joins the CNN family with her new show, "This Is Life." She will look at Americans living their lives outside the norm.

Up first, she goes inside the world of sugaring. A term I had not heard of. Investigating the lives of sugar babies and sugar daddies, which I heard of before. Here's a preview of Sunday's premier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA LING, CNN HOST, "THIS IS LIFE" (voice-over): Taylor grew up in a traditional middle class family, but in her early 20s, she realized her tastes were anything but ordinary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I started dating guys, they maybe wanted to go to a fast food or burger joint or something. I want to experience a different lifestyle. So naturally, I ventured out.

LING: Taylor embraced the sugar lifestyle when she was just 22. And this is Rich. Her sugar daddy of nearly a decade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing, you sexy thing? Give me hug. How are you doing? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want to get in? Let's ride.

LING: Sugar relationships can last a long time. Taylor's been in hers for ten years. She says that her sugar daddy is teaching her a lot of really important things, like golf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outstanding!

LING: Good shot!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outstanding!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I'm with Rich, it was just effortless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor, don't you laugh. We just hit it off.

LING: Whoa. That was a good shot. All right. That was a good shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. I don't want to use the term love at first sight, but something along that lines.

LING: Can I ask you how old you are?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 32.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm 69.

LING: If you forgive me for saying, there are a lot of people who would say, what a dirty old man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a dirty old man. All men are dirty old men. Have you ever met one yet that didn't like to flirt?

LING: Actually, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I rest my case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Lisa Ling joins me now.

LING: Little departure from what you've been reporting today, but --

COOPER: With the intro. But it's really interesting, I mean, there's a financial dynamic. There's got to be a financial dynamic to this relationship.

LING: Yes. Look, the idea of older men dating younger women is nothing new. But what is new is that there are these web sites that have cropped up to facilitate these overtly transactional relationships. And in many ways, this is an economic story and it mirrors what is happening in our economy.

I'm a fairly staunch feminist and so it was difficult to talk to some of these women who were very open about saying we are seeking these men for financial support. But some of the women would say to me, look, we are the first generation to be told consistently that we are not going to be able to make as much money as our parents and we are constantly reminded that the job prospects are so dismal.

And so we found a way to sort of circumvent having to work three jobs and were able to focus more on our studies.

COOPER: So these two, they don't live together?

LING: They don't live together. In fact, I believe Taylor has a boyfriend. But Rich is her -- her financier and they've been together a long time. These days, I'm told, you can negotiate the relationship. So before you even go on the first date, you can express the things that you're interested in and say, for example, sex is off the table.

Some of those men might choose not to pursue the relationship even further but some may say, well, what if we are in a relationship and that's something that naturally evolves?

COOPER: It's really fascinating.

LING: Yes.

COOPER: One of the things I was watching this was thinking, how did you get them to speak? It's one of the things that you're very good at. And I've watched the last couple of years, you really kind of are shining a light on subcultures within the United States and around the world that a lot of people don't know about and I think the way you are able to get people to speak is you approach is in a non-judgmental way.

LING: That's really important for me to do and I've been exploring these worlds for a long time.

COOPER: The sugar daddies?

LING: Definitely not. Definitely not. But I think I've built up a bit of credibility and people know that I will not exploit their stories. I will not sensationalize their stories. You hear the term sugar daddy and you instantly have an opinion about it. Be prepared to think a little bit and possibly think differently than they did going into this experience.

COOPER: Right. I want to show a picture for our viewers of Lisa and I working together 20 years ago this month.

LING: Twenty years ago?

COOPER: September 1st, 1994.

LING: Look at us.

COOPER: I'm sitting in the exact same position here. I have, to quote John Oliver, I have been ravaged by time. You look exactly the same and look amazing.

LING: But I will say, I've seen you with a t-shirt on and you are so much more buff, so much more studlier than you were 20 years ago, if I may say.

COOPER: I am no sugar daddy, but I'm doing what I can.

LING: You could be.

COOPER: I don't even remember having brown hair like that.

LING: Twenty years ago, you were then and always have been such a great journalist and reporter.

COOPER: Lisa and I used to work together at Channel 1. Did you always want to be a reporter? Was this something that you were always interested in?

LING: Well, you know, Channel 1 gave us such an incredible opportunity.

COOPER: This was a show about half the schools in the country.

LING: And Channel 1 really gave us the opportunity to broaden our horizons and travel all over the world. It was when in Afghanistan and Iran and places like that that really opened my eyes and propelled to want to communicate stories. I mean, it was a really, really incredible experience. And since then, I love being in the field and I love being immersed in other worlds.

COOPER: What are some of the other topics you're going to be looking at?

LING: So our next episode is about the rampant rate of addiction to prescription pain pills in the mostly Mormon state of Utah.

COOPER: In Utah?

LING: Yes. Utah has been successful in maintaining low rates of crime and illicit drug addiction. But when prescription pills are concerned, they are like number four in the nation.

COOPER: Really?

LING: Yes. And I was really impressed by how candid a lot of people were in sharing their stories. I mean, the Mormon Church -- there is a perception that they haven't wanted to be as forthcoming about any negative things that happens within its ranks, but the people really wear their hearts on their sleeves.

COOPER: And abuse is such an important topic in this country.

LING: It is.

COOPER: Some people die from it and you kind of think it's prescribed by a doctor or at least, that's how it starts. LING: Well, that's exactly what most people think about in Utah. We all know how addictive prescription pills can be. We also cover a story in North Dakota, which currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. Thousands of men have flooded this oil town in recent years and over the last couple of years, there's been an influx of women as well who are working alongside the men but also working to service the men.

COOPER: Wow.

LING: Yes.

COOPER: All right, we'll be watching. Lisa Ling, thank you so much. Great to see you. Sunday night, don't miss the series premier, "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling. The series premiers Sunday night 10 Eastern and Pacific.

That's it for me right now. I hope you join me tonight in AC360. "THE LEAD" with Jim Sciutto starts now.