Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Congressional Staffers Walked Out from Jobs; Four Boys Freed in Dramatic Rescue; "Dinosaur 13" Premieres Tonight; E-mails within Sony Leaked

Aired December 11, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we're watching those steps on Capitol Hill because any minute now dozens of congressional staffers are planning to walk off the job and stand in unison on Capitol Hill. Stand in solidarity. They're set to protest recent decisions not to indict the white officers in the deaths of two African-Americans named Michael Brown, Eric Garner, you're familiar with their stories. This planned walkout comes after protests across the country including in Washington where demonstrators have blocked roads and bridges almost every night for a week. They want everything to stop so that people listen.

Athena Jones is covering this for us from Capitol Hill.

And I'm seeing some people behind you, Athena. Are you seeing the members of Congress walk out yet?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke. We have seen several congressional staffers. You can see they are heading toward the steps as they billed it to us. It is staffers, I should be clear, black, Hispanic, Asian. We don't expect to see necessarily any members of Congress but they are free to join.

They're out here, they say, to show their solidarity with the people who are angry about the handling of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. Angry, that the police officers responsible for those two deaths are not facing criminal charges and that's why they came out.

I should point out that one of the staffers I spoke talked about stressed that this is a multicultural event. It's not just the black community that has been affected by this. It's also the Hispanic community, Asian-American community. Those organizations have been involved in the planning here as well.

And so, what we expect to see is as you can see people gathering. We expect to hear from the Senate chaplain Barry Black who is going to pray for the grieving families and also pray for peace, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Can we just sit on these images, guys, for just a moment. I'm not just going to talk. Let's watch.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING) BALDWIN: We are going to sit here and continue to watch. And I just wanted to take in some of this here. Again, if you are just joining us, we will pause if they began to speak, these are different staffers and aides on Capitol Hill, congressional black associates, the Senate chaplain there, Barry Black who is leading the group in prayer momentarily, Senate black legislative staff caucus. A number of groups here, standing in solidarity on the steps there on Capitol Hill. And quiet peaceful protest of the non-indictments as we've seen recently in the cases of Eric Garner and Michael Brown and actually just a number of mothers. We spoke to a mother last hour who lost her son. She contends to police brutality a year ago.

BARRY BLACK, SENATE CHAPLAIN: We gather here today so that we can be the voice for the voiceless. We believe that there is a power that has fueled our nation toward excellence through the centuries. We are here today to take advantage of the free exercise rights guaranteed to us by framers and founders of this nation and we begin this gathering with prayer. So let us pray.

Eternal God, our hope for years to come, we thank you that our presence has sustained this nation throughout the season of its existence. You have brought America through many challenging times. Today as people throughout the nation, protests to justice in our land. Forgive us when we have failed to lift our voices for those who couldn't speak or breathe for themselves. May we not forget that in our national history, injustice has often been maintained because good people failed to promptly act.

Forgive, o God, our culpability in contributing to our national pathology. As you keep us aware of our own capacity to be instruments of injustice, immunize us from that self-righteousness that blames everyone but ourselves.

Lord, comfort those who mourn, who know the pain of loss, the anguish of grief, and the futility of despair. Remind us that earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. Protect and guide your people who gather here today. May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts, and the activity of our limbs be acceptable to you, o God, our rock and redeemer. We pray this in your sovereign name. Amen and amen.

CROWD: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't mind if we stay here, do you? The police want us to leave.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let me come back in. I just let you know that that was the Senate chaplain Barry Black and the gentleman space, the gentleman who was wearing the ball cop, Congressman John Lewis, a key figure in the civil rights movement knew and worked alongside Dr. King.

And so, look at that. What has become a symbol, one of this movements, hands up. You can hear the cameras clicks, the photos. What a moment here on the steps of the capitol. As we look at these pictures, let me bring two more voices here. I have chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash and CNN contributor and democratic strategist Donna Brazile.

And -- I'm being corrected. That wasn't John Lewis. Was John Lewis there, guys? Was he spotted at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was Elijah Cummings.

BALDWIN: That was Elijah Cummings. Elijah Cummings, still member of Congress, nonetheless. Forgive me. Given bad information.

But Donna Brazile, I mean, when you are looking at all of this, and I read something you actually wrote recently in the southern writ-large about this mountain top movement. You were born, what, on the cusp of a very turbulent decade and you talked about making noise and a movement and marching. Is this the mountain top movement of this generation?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I do believe it's a defining moment for this generation. The millennials have been saying almost from the time they came of age, give us something to do. We want to carry that torch of freedom of justice and equality and this is their defining moment.

First of all, let me say, many of these protests across the country, they have been peaceful, they have come together at the last minute. These are young men and women from all backgrounds, not just black. I've seen white kids. I mean, my own students at Georgetown left class last week.

They want to send a message. They believe in justice and equality for all. They don't want to see any person, whether they are rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight, gunned down simply because they may be in the wrong place. They respect the law. They respect law enforcement officials. But you know what? This is the moment that they have chosen to take a stand.

And as a former congressional staffer, I can just say I'm so proud of them. They went outside after Trayvon Martin in August of that year, but today this was their moment and I'm proud of my former colleagues.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right. I wanted to ask you and you bring that up. This is before the acquittal of George Zimmerman. It was that, Dana, the last time we saw staffers in mass peacefully protesting on the streets of the capitol?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I believe so in 2012 outside with hoodies in solidarity with Trayvon Martin in that case. But the thing that is so fascinating to me in working with and covering and knowing a lot of these staffers and frankly their bosses, their African-American bosses, is how much this affects them on maybe another level, which is they're policy makers. They're the ones who are sent to Congress, their staffs have work for them, and they believe and they feel like they should be able to do something because that's their job to affect the laws of this country and they can't because many of them who are outside with this silent peaceful protest, they say themselves that they come here and they help write laws for this nation and they come in their suits and their ties and their dresses but then they go out on the streets of Washington or wherever they're from and they're treated differently.

And so, they experience that, themselves. And so, that's why there are so many different layers to this particular kind of protest. These people than maybe others because it may be after they hit them harder, it should hit them differently because of the responsibility and the job that they have again as being part of the government in this country.

BALDWIN: But seeing Elijah Cummings, I mean, it's not just staffers. And I don't even know if other members of Congress -- I was told maybe John Lewis was out there as well. I don't know if he was, but to see that, Donna Brazile, what do you make of that?

BRAZILE: Look, I was up on Capitol Hill this morning when the house democratic caucus met. I know many of them tonight are going to see the premiere of "Selma" the movie, one remarkable movie about the life of many courageous young people. To see John Lewis, I mean, and he was there at the premiere this weekend. He was beaten. He walked into it because he wanted to stop the violence of his day.

And here it is. He's a member of Congress. And he is still trying to stop the violence of this day. It's a remarkable, profound defining moment in our country. And I hope many Americans don't see this in black and white terms or Democrat and Republican. This is about human lives matter. Everybody. And that's what the kids are trying to say. I say kids because I'm an old person now. But, you know, trust me. I turn 55 soon. So here I go.

BALDWIN: Happy birthday.

BRAZILE: Thank you, love.

But they are really trying to tell us something and we need to listen to them. And I want to be one of those elders that help them speak up and speak out and do it in a peaceful way because they need to be heard.

BALDWIN: Donna Brazile, thank you. Dana Bash, thank you. Thank you both.

BASH: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, the father of four young boys who had gone missing since last week is sitting in a California jail right now after this dramatic standoff with police today. I can tell you that the boys are safe. And now, investigators want to know, where is their mother? We're getting new information on this story at this hour including video of the boys' rescue -- stunning.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Four little boys are freed in a dramatic rescue today. These brothers ages six to 11 disappeared along with their parents nearly a week ago. But now we know who has been arrested in this case, their father, 43-year-old Daniel Perez of California.

And I just have to show you this video here because you can see these two young boys being escorted by officers to safety holding their hands here moments before they ran from the car straight into the officers' arms. You had SWAT teams surrounding the father's car. This is about 30 miles from Mexico.

At this point two more boys are still trapped in the car. But in then moments later, the dad steps out. Here is he in the blue shirt. Two more little boys, there they are, with him falling almost out of the car and suddenly makes this lunge, there it goes, toward police. Look at them all swarming in surrounding him. I can tell you thank goodness the four boys are safe.

As far as the mother though, Erica Perez, police say the mother is considered missing. Just yesterday police found a woman's body in the trunk of an abandoned Perez family car. Police are not confirming the identity of the body at this time. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You are looking at the largest, most complete tyrannosaurs Rex fossil ever found in the history of the world. Her, yes, this is a she. Her name is Sue and she's the focus of CNN films, "Dinosaur 13" premiering right here on CNN tonight at 9:00 eastern. It says the whole story begins to the dramatic moment that it T-Rex, Sue, was found and takes Sue to this massive legal battle over who owns the fossil.

Poppy Harlow got to fly to Chicago and hang out with Sue. She is at the Chicago's field museum where T-Rex is displayed there. I'm a little jealous, just to be honest.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think I was telling people earlier, I've got the best assignment of the day, clearly getting to be here all day. It's unbelievable. So we brought you up here for your show, Brooke, to the skull because take a look at the shot of the entirety of Sue down there right below me in the museum. That is not the real skull. It is so heavy, 600 pounds. It is right here. And also, the reason they keep it separately is because they study it. They take it out most of the time here and they study it.

But the reason they find it's so important. As you said, the largest, the most complete T-Rex at 90 percent complete ever discovered. The bones alone weigh 4,000 pounds. Sue is 67 million years old and she was discovered by a woman named Sue, that's the name, along with other paleontologist on the hills of South Dakota.

There has been a huge legal battle over here, alright? She was found, then, weeks later, the feds came in, the department of justice said this wasn't your property. This was found on federal land. Huge legal battle for seven years. Ultimately, she was auctioned off. And this museum come on piece from the museum won the auction, $8.4 million, you guys paid for Sue. She is here for the world to see. Why is she so important to world history?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, so our museum has 25 million specimens and from a purely academic stand point, they are all equally important. They can tell us things we didn't know before about either the world of animals, the world of plants or anthropology. But of course, in terms of being an icon for our institution and Sue is a figure if you will called, what we do her, Sue is un-rival among those 25 million.

HARLOW: One of the things you know about un-rival Sue, Brooke, is that she's actually 28 years old and she actually -- they discovered her had a huge growth spurt, like all teenager, between 14 and 18. But what they've learned, if we can walk around here really quickly and show you, is why she may have died. And that may be because of these holes in the side of Sue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. One of the reasons, you know, we put the skull here and make it accessible is that, you know, you, myself, lot of researches from around the world and the public can come look at it. And one of the interesting things as we see this pattern of irregular holes, they have sort of smooth edges. They were originally interpreted as bite marks. But bite marks wouldn't have re-healed this way. So this looks like more of a long-term infection perhaps by a parasite.

HARLOW: Parasites?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A fungal infection. This would made life very miserable. Swallowing and eating would have made things very rough in the last years of her life.

HARLOW: It's fascinating being here. Thank you for having us.

Brooke, all of this, a life of Sue, the controversy, the legal battle tonight, 9:00 eastern on CNN "Dinosaur 13," fascinating movie. People should tune in.

Thanks, Pete.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Thank you, Poppy.

BALDWIN: Poppy, the paleontologist, in Chicago. Poppy, thank you.

And in the remaining time I have with you. Let me just talk about the release of thousands of hot emails from executive at Sony Pictures, like the email where an Oscar winning producer called Angelina Jolie, and I'm quoting, "a minimally talented spoiled brat with a rampaging ego." Other emails revealed Sony employees were embarrassed by Adam Sandler's films, calling them, quoting here, mundane, (INAUDIBLE).

And the newest bit today Judd Apatow responding to the coverage of this email half job (ph), tweeting "releasing private Sony emails to hurt people is the same as releasing nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence. Why are they OK to print?"

So much more to the story, senior media correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter.

You have been all over this. And I mean, I think Judd Apatow has a point.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: And every day, I think his point get supported because every day we heard new horrible details from these emails. Some of them are worthy. And I think there's argument to be made for news organization reading through this emails, finding important details.

On the other hand, I've heard folks at Sony who are horrified by the fact that other media that are running with the story. One of them said to me, God forbid this happens to your company and that gets to the issue here of sharing the details. Some of them, like I said, they are news worthy. And for example, we learned the next bond film "Spector" is way over budget. They were guessing it might be one of the most expensive films ever made.

BALDWIN: Yes.

STELTER: That's the kind of thing that would leak out eventually and now it's leaked out early. We have also learned about how they are toning down the film "the interview." This is the movie that some people think is the cause of all this. This is the James Franco and Seth Rogen movie about North Korea. Well, they toned down some of the special effects. I don't want the ruin the ending for people that haven't seen it, but they toned down some of the special effects because there was maybe too gory or too violent in the end.

So we learned a lot from these emails. But when we hear people, you know, attacking Angelina Jolie and we see private security numbers -- social security numbers leaking out, that's stuff, you know, that has shows how devastating this has been.

BALDWIN: Horrendous. As you mentioned, with North Korea, I mean, I don't think we truly know.

STELTER: Yes. But Sony said they don't -- they have not know for sure.

BALDWIN: They don't know. I mean, hacking and illegal downloading, I mean, this is an industry that is a problem. It's rife. I'm talking to people at Vanity Fair. This is a big, big issue. But so, we still don't know, bottom line.

STELTER: Yes. The company hasn't said On the Record about, you know, about what happened. But there was a heinous leak released yesterday. And it showed emails between the head of the studio and a powerful producer named (INAUDIBLE). And it seemed very racially insensitive. It was saying what kind of films do you think President Obama would be interested in? And they were all films with African-American themes.

There is a lot of critics of him overnight of those emails. Well today, the head of the Sony CEO came out and said, my content of my emails was insensitive and inappropriate and she went on to apologize for that. That's just one of many different documents that have been

embarrassing to Sony. You don't hear them, for example, apologizing, for what was said about Angelina Jolie and about some of the other stars that are mocked in these emails.

So, to kind of think, really, every day there are new shockwaves through Sony for this. And I have a feeling it's going to be pretty awkward in the halls of Sony between some of the executives now that they can see what they say about each other.

BALDWIN: Yes. Because you imagine -- but I don't want to imagine.

STELTER: That it can't happen, but it happened to Sony.

BALDWIN: Brian Stelter -- that it can happen to Sony is very frightening.

STELTER: And it is a wake-up call for everybody else.

BALDWIN: Totally, totally. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

And thank you, of course as always, for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York.

Let's go to Washington. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.