Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Protests of Police Killing in Madison, Wisconsin; Testimony Continues in Boston Bombing Trial; 1st Responder Describes Baby Lily Rescue; Hillary Clinton to Talk Private Email Use; Suge Knight Makes Court Appearance Today.

Aired March 09, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Back live now to Madison, Wisconsin, where you can see a growing number of protesters turning out as they're demanding justice and answers in the case of a 19-year-old biracial man who was shot and killed over the weekend by an -- excuse me he was unarmed and shot and killed by A white police officer in Madison, Wisconsin. It's an incident that is causing outrage in that community. We'll be speaking live to one of the protest organizers coming up at the top of the hour. Apologies for some of these images going in and out. These are live pictures and you can see the growing number of people filling the streets near the state capitol there.

Now to the Boston Marathon bombing where survivors and witnesses are in court and they're sharing graphic testimony. One person who took the stand today described her injuries as war wounds. She's a trauma nurse that lost both her legs. Jessica Kensky remembers how she and her newlywed husband were standing right there next to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan. When the bomb exploded, she said she tried to shield her husband from seeing that, quote, "part of the leg was completely detached and his foot was hanging by a thread."

Jessica says she was so focused on her husband, she didn't realize, she, too was on fire from shoulders to heels and that her legs were shredded. In fact, she told the court, "This was a war zone. Something I've never experienced before. The man came over and said, ma'am, you're on fire. You're on fire!" She went on, "I did not want to become a double amputee. I wanted some memory of my ankles and toes and legs. I wanted to paint my toenails, put my feet in the sand. I wanted all of those things and to lose my second leg was a gut-wrenching decision." The next phase of testimony is expected to refer to some of these personal accounts as the prosecution delves into the more technical aspects of the bombing case.

Listen to the incredible story of survival. It's heart-warming and haunting. Heart-warming because an 18-month-old girl was found alive after 14 hours of being strapped upside down in her child safety seat in a river so cold seven of her rescuers had to be treated for hypothermia. It's haunting because the child's mom was killed in the crash. Yet several of the first responders say they heard a voice, but not a baby's voice calling for help. We know the baby's name is Lily.

Listen as her rescuers describe finding her and getting her to safety, each of them looking close to tears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFC. BRYAN DEWITT, SPANISH FORK, UTAH POLICE DEPARTMENT: The witness said there was an arm that he could see inside the vehicle. It became apparent that the driver was deceased, but we also noticed there was a small baby in the backseat.

PAUL TOMADAKIS, SPANISH FORCE, UTAH, FIREFIGHTER: I got the baby in my arm, raised its head up out of the water as I tried to release the seat belt.

OFC. JARED WARNER, SPANISH FORK, UTAH, POLICE DEPARTMENT: The child was passed to me and I ran up and climbed in the ambulance with the child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: There you just heard there at the end Jared Warner, the Spanish Fork, Utah, officer who dashed with Lily in his arms to that waiting ambulance.

He's joining us now from Utah.

Jared, thank you very much.

We know Lily is doing a little better. She's reportedly in stable condition today. Great news there. Take us back to how you found her. What happened?

WARNER: Well, we responded the vehicle reported in the river upside down. We arrived and as we were trying to assess how many occupants were in the vehicle, that's when the four of us heard a distinct voice coming from the car. We weren't sure, to me it didn't sound like a child's voice. At that point it gave us the extra drive and adrenaline and a decision was made to try and upright the vehicle. And miraculously the four of us were able to get the vehicle up on its side and that's when we found the baby was inside and there was still signs of life coming from the baby.

CABRERA: Amazing. You were in that water, so you know how cold it was. We mentioned that some of your colleagues, in fact, had to be hospitalized for hypothermia, yet this child survived 14 hours suspended upside down. What went through your mind when you realized she was alive?

WARNER: Just to try to do anything possible to help keep her alive.

CABRERA: Was she conscious when you found her?

WARNER: No, she was not. When they were able to pull her from the vehicle, just from their body language and that, it was evident there was some type of life seen within her. They had reported since that they noticed her eyes flutter in a blinking fashion. That's when she was handed off kind of in an assembly line. I was just the one right there at the end and rushed up the hill and into the ambulance. We were able to immediately perform CPR en route to the hospital.

CABRERA: Wow. That voice calling for help that you and the rescuers on scene heard. You said the baby was unconscious when you got to here. We know her mother was already dead. How do you explain that voice?

Officer Warner, are you still with me?

WARNER: I think it's one of those things that --

(AUDIO DIFFICULTIES)

CABRERA: Unfortunately, we have a bad connection there with Officer Jared Warner. But an incredible story.

Our thanks to Officer Warner and the other rescuers who braved the cold waters and were able to save the young child.

Up next Hillary Clinton speaking today in New York, but again, she didn't mention the controversy surrounding her e-mail. And as the left and right piles on, CNN is reporting when she'll address the outrage. Stay tuned for that.

Plus, tourists behaving badly. Two Americans arrested after carving their initials into the coliseum in Rome. That's right into the coliseum. Then they took a selfie. That story after the break.

First, talking or texting on the phone while driving is a habit that can have deadly consequences.

Here is Dr. Sanjay Gupta with this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Being stubborn may have saved Jaycee Good's life.

JAYCEE GOOD, TEXTING & DRIVING VICTIM: My mom didn't appreciate it nearly. I think it's my best characteristic.

GUPTA: In 2008, on the day she graduated from college, Jaycee and her parents were in a car accident caused by a teenager talking on a cell phone. Her mom and dad were killed. She was given a 10 percent chance of survival.

GOOD: My pelvis was shattered. I had a damaged liver. My lungs were partially collapsed and I had a traumatic brain injury which put me on the edge of death.

GUPTA: She fought back refusing to give in.

GOOD: I wanted my life back. In college, I had the reputation I was the one who was going to save the world.

GUPTA: Her call to action after the driver who caused the accident wasn't convicted. There was no law against the use of cell phones. GOOD: I spoke at a press conference in Pennsylvania. Trying to get a

handheld band and texting band. Finally, it went into effect that texting and driving is illegal.

GUPTA: And now the 28-year-old speaks around the country to raise awareness about the dangers of using a phone behind the wheel.

GOOD: I'm so grateful that I still have everything that I do have in spite of having lost so much. Part of life is getting hurt.

None of us escape unscathed. I survived for a reason and with a purpose, to use my time on this planet to make some other lives a little bit better.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It looks like Hillary Clinton decided she will have to speak out and explain why she used a private e-mail account and an e-mail server at home while she was secretary of state. Two sources tell CNN she'll probably address the controversy sometime this week. It's not clear exactly where or when. And in a sign of frustration, one CNN source laid blame for having botched the explanation of the private e- mail setup.

Let's talk about this with the political commentators, S.E. Cupp and Errol Louis.

Errol, I'll start with you.

Why do you think Hillary Clinton has been so silent up until now?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's not much to talk about from her point of view. She doesn't control a lot of the way the story is going to unfold. She cannot tell the State Department what they're going to do or release. She can't do it for the White House either.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: She come out and said this is why I used a personal e-mail account?

LOUIS: I'm waiting to hear that. It will be fascinating. Assumed like her predecessors it was more efficient. That was simpler. Many of us work in places where the setup is not quite to our liking. Assume there's something simple and basic she could put out. There's no point in putting it out now until she's going message by message what was said. Why it's not a problem. Why she's OK with releasing it all herself. She's got to right now run the story through the White House.

CABRERA: Do you think that's the problem here, S.E.? Her hands are tied? She can't really say anything?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There are so many problems with this. The one problem is no matter her explanation we'll never know what we don't know. We have to trust Hillary Clinton that she's released all her e-mails back to the State Department and that the folks at the State Department have pulled through and honestly released the ones that are supposed to matter. We'll just never know. And if there is a simple explanation, you would think she would have come out with it quickly to say this is why I did that.

Now at this point, frankly, it looks like amateur hour. I don't understand the mentality of the Clinton team sending all the surrogates to circle the wagons to say there's nothing to see her when everyone else, even Democrats I've talked to said this could be a problem for Hillary. Instead of just saying this was a mistake. Let's look to correct it.

CABRERA: Like you said, Democrats are now speaking out. Initially, it was the Republicans jumping on Clinton, which you would expect. This weekend, we heard from Senator Dianne Feinstein talking about this. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D), CALIFORNIA: I think she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is.

I think at this point, from this point on, the server -- the silence is going to hurt her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So, Errol, is this a sign that this story is now beyond partisanship?

LOUIS: I think the story is going to go into a place where it's going to be a challenge for the Clintons. I think what involves the State Department. We take her at her word. She turned over 55,000 pages. The House committee will look for it. That's done. But other stuff that might be on the servers and in the e-mails related to the Clinton Global Initiative in particular that's where I think she's going to have problems. That's where the silence will hurt. Because, you know, the relationship that she has to foreign donors that resumed after she left office, if any of that is on the servers it's tricky important part of the upcoming presidential campaign. If she's not ready to thought about that yet I can understand why she's staying silence.

CABRERA: A lot of people criticized the administration saying didn't other people know she was just using a private e-mail this whole time? In fact, there was a question posted to the White House press secretary today about whether the president and Mrs. Clinton exchanged e-mails. Here is his answer?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They did have the occasion to e-mail one another. And the point that the president was making not that he didn't know Secretary Clinton's e-mail address. He did. But he was not aware of the details of how that e-mail address and the server had been set up or how Secretary Clinton and her team were planning to comply with the Federal Records Act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: S.E., your response?

CUPP: This should make voters, I think, wonder what a Hillary Clinton administration would look like. If while at state no one in the White House, no one in her inner circle had the courage or even just the foresight to question this practice because she is Hillary Clinton, you have to wonder how government is going to function with Hillary Clinton in the White House. Usually, the presidency creates a larger- than-life persona. She would be going in with it already. It feels like it would be hard to maintain some checks and balances.

But let me just point out something else. In 2008, Hillary Clinton wasn't beat by Republicans. She was beat by a Democrat. So half the country, the half the country that would be predisposed to the politics and half the country who knew who she was, choose someone else. And the other half of the country chose someone else. She has to keep in mind that going into 2016. It's not just Republicans she's going run against. Democrats -- and, I mean, Democrat voters aren't completely sold on Hillary Clinton. So the last thing she wants is to make these kinds of mistakes this early if she plans to launch a campaign that make it look like she is answerable to no one, accountable to no one but herself and entitled to the office. I think that's a huge mistake.

LOUIS: I don't feel like the entitlement problem is one that Democrats will necessarily react to. Democrats above a certain age are used to the notion she was the first lady, she was the secretary of state. She's larger than life to many Democrats. I think, though, again the details of what she did and why she did it what might be contained within the e-mails, the substance of it is what is going to matter. All though, it won't necessarily matter once the campaign gets underway. I'm not sure that people in New Hampshire or Iowa or, you know, Nevada or South Carolina are staying up at night wondering why she had a private e-mail server.

CABRERA: We'll have to wait to see.

LOUIS: It's what is in the e-mails that matters.

CABRERA: Right.

Errol Louis, S.E. Cupp, thank you to both of you. We appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Up next the video hard to watch of rap mogul, Suge Knight. We have video of him allegedly running over two men in his pickup truck. What his attorney is now saying about that video, next.

Plus, massive protests underway right now in Madison, Wisconsin. Look at this. This is inside the state capitol. And this all coming after the death of an unarmed biracial teenager at the hands of a white teenager. I'll talk with a member of this group who is marching right now and saying this is not like Ferguson. Hear why.

Back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The video is graphic and hard to watch, but it may become a key piece of evidence in the murder case against former rap mogul, Suge Knight.

We're going to show you this video, but we want to warn you might find these images disturbing.

The video obtained by the celebrity website TMZ shows Knight running over two men allegedly and fleeing the scene. Prosecutors say this ordeal happened after some kind of argument at a burger stand in Compton, California. You see him ripping through there at the top of the screen the red pickup truck.

CNN Paul Vercammen is outside the Los Angeles courthouse where Knight is making a court appearance today.

Suge Knight has a third attorney, Paul, and you spoke with him about this video?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I sure did. Matthew Fletcher named in court earlier this morning as Knight's new attorney. Knight no longer representing himself.

Not much drama inside that courthouse. But outside, Fletcher went off. He said without a doubt this new video proves that Knight is 100 percent innocent.

Let's hear what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW FLETCHER, ATTORNEY FOR SUGE KNIGHT: He put the car in verse, and he takes the easiest way out. He's not required to back out and reverse down the street. These guys were, from my understanding, active gang members. There was clearly a gun. Now you have a situation where you have three guys who contact Suge, which is funny because anyone who goes in that area, there's not one -- there's 20 some. The fact they know to go, exactly when to be there, and they got there before Suge Knight got there, answers every question there is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: On the flip side, very different views outside the courtroom, especially people who are not in Suge Knight's camp. Among them, the family of Terri Carter, the community activist who was run over on that day. They released a statement among other things saying, "The video makes it clear that Mr. Carter's tragic death was caused by unnecessary acts of violence initiated by Clay Sloane attacking Mr. Knight, and Mr. Knight choosing to retaliate using his motor vehicle as a deadly weapon rather than go ahead and flee."

So a lot the theatrics out here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Quickly, Paul, you mentioned that Paul was going to represent himself. Now he has a third attorney. Is it a possibility he'll get rid of this guy, too?

VERCAMMEN: I don't think so. Not all. Especially when you consider Matthew Fletcher came out swinging today. It was a quick proceeding. They name d Fletcher as Knight's attorney. And reconfirmed the bail hearing has been moved to march 20th. Undoubtedly, they want to keep him there, the prosecutors, Knight, in jail for some time -- Ana?

CABRERA: All right. Paul Vercammen, in Los Angeles for us, thanks.