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Turkey Intensifies Anti-ISIS Efforts; Bill Cosby's Accusers Speak Out; Hulk Hogan Fired from Professional Wrestling; One of Zimbabwe's Most Famous Lions Killed by Poachers; 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 27, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: If Turkey can close the northwestern borders and prevent the flow of further fighters into Syria, that will be huge.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: That, too. Let me stop you there. How likely truly, truly is that to happen, general?

HERTLING: I think, given the circumstances right now, it's more likely than it's ever been before. They are already beginning to stop most of the fighter flow but there are still at least two points where jihadists can enter into Syria. That's as important as important as the flow of oil, the continued flow of oil, which provides resources to ISIS going out of Syria.

So all of these things play a part and that's not even talking about the capability that we now have with U.S. Air Force being able to be based out of Incirlik and have 200 miles to the fight where they can conduct rapid attacks, they can loiter for longer periods of time, they can share intelligence with Turkish soldiers who were perhaps across the border, contributing to this fight and all sorts of other factors that will play a part. So this -- it really is a game changer.

BALDWIN: What about just another piece of this briefly here? We have heard that Bashar al-Assad is basically saying he's running out of manpower when it comes to fighting this ongoing civil war in his country and I'm wondering how that might affect the fight against ISIS.

HERTLING: Well, what's interesting is I think a lot of intelligence analysts in the U.S. have been watching this for months saying that he is significantly being reduced in manpower and equipment. He is being drained of his country's blood that are still fighting for him. But I think what is really critical is he actually said it yesterday. He actually admitted to the fact that he's going to go on the strategic defensive in just a couple of areas within Syria. And I think that also adds to the point of can we operationalize a safe zone in the north if he, number one, gives up that area and, number two, the Turks continue their fight and are looking out for their national security. So a lot of things can (INAUDIBLE) be coming together right now and all of it for the good against -- in the fight against ISIS.

BALDWIN: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. HERTLING: You bet, Brooke. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, making of an iconic magazine cover. Here you have more than 30 women who accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, appearing on the front cover of "New York" magazine and speaking about her own experience, the author of this cover story joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:51] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And if you haven't seen this, Bill Cosby's accusers, they are speaking out in a pretty powerful and poignant photo essay just published in "the New York magazine." It is called "Cosby, the women, an unwelcomed sisterhood." Let me show you this cover photo. And you will see these 35 women sitting each of them in a chair and in the last chair, the bottom right, sits an empty chair. Each woman details in graphic memory, their alleged encounter with the iconic entertainer and explains why they have kept silent for so long until now.

This comes on the hills of Atlanta's historic black women's college Spellman College dropping its $20 million endowed professorship founded by a foundation linked to Bill Cosby.

Here with me now is the author of this piece, "New York" magazine senior editor Noreen Malone.

So Noreen, thank you so much for coming by CNN.

NOREEN MALONE, WRITER, COSBY, THE WOMEN, AN UNWELCOME SISTERHOOD: Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: I mean, this picture -- this cover photo has been sort of everywhere. And I'm wondering, first, it's fascinating to read about the sisterhood in this different women through the years finding this sort of sense of, you know, just kind of coming together in a shared story experience. But the empty chair on the cover, what did you all intend by that?

MALONE: Well, it's sort of open for interpretation. But what I will say is that many of the women we spoke to did say, you know, I have a friend, she had the same experience that I had but she's not ready to come forward and it's been interesting to see that take on a life of its own on twitter, #theemptychair has become a thing on twitter today, where people are talking about reasons why women they might not be ready to come forward yet about their sexual assault. You know, these women were, these women are but not everyone is.

BALDWIN: How did this come together?

MALONE: Well, it's been a project about six months in the making.

BALDWIN: Six months.

MALONE: And in December, so our photo director, a woman name Jody Kuan, she saw the picture in her head. She had been reading all of the news about women, you know, with a broad range of ages who all looked very different, who all had this thing in common and she thought, well, that would make, you know, a really powerful picture.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MALONE: And then we started contacting the women and sort of one by one they agreed to do it. Spoke to each other about why it was a good idea and we just had four people sign on in the last week. So it really was up to the wire -- down to the wire.

BALDWIN: Down to the wire. With all these different stories. And it is. When you look at these pictures -- granted, this is many years after this happened allegedly for a lot of these ladies, I mean, different races, you know, ages, it runs the spectrum. Of all of the stories and experiences you've heard, what's the one that really still sits with you?

MALONE: Well, it's hard to pick just one, to be honest. In part, because so many of the stories are similar. There are a lot of common threads. But I will tell you one woman's story, this woman name Victoria Valentino in the late 60s. She was a playboy bunny as were many women who have separately accused Bill Cosby and she knew him a little bit. Her son had recently died and he knew that. And he asked her and a friend to dinner to a place that he owned. And she says that, you know, he gave her a pill and said it will make you feel better and she took it and she took another one and the other friend take one and it was probably a Quaalude and he took them back to an apartment and her friend was totally passed out and Victoria says that he raped her.

And the details, her story that really stands out, you know, after he was done, she was panicking, she didn't know where she was, she said, what am I supposed to do and he said call a cab and just walked out.

BALDWIN: Call a cab.

MALONE: Call a cab.

[15:40:34] BALDWIN: From all of these experiences you have heard about, from the depositions that you've read, I mean, obviously, we've heard zilch from Bill Cosby himself, why do you think we haven't heard anything?

MALONE: You know, I'm not a legal expert but I think in a case like this you don't -- you know, you don't want to say too much because the more you say the more it can be held against you. We did reach out to Cosby's lawyers and we did not hear back before publication. We reached out to several lawyers. They have been active, however. They are pretty upset that the deposition from 2005 was published in which he says On the Record, you know, I did give Quaaludes to the women I wanted to sleep with. And they are upset with the way the organizations are interpreting that. So, you know, maybe they will get in touch with us now.

BALDWIN: What do you think -- we've talked to a number of these women here on multiple shows here on CNN. And it's been so long for so many of them, at this point they are just now being listened to, I think is one thing for them but what do they want, ultimately?

MALONE: I think they just want to be listened to, you know. That for many of them, all of them, the statute of limitations is up. They are not seeking damages. They literally just want people to believe them and to listen to their stories and to not have a sense of shame about it anymore.

BALDWIN: Do they want anything from him specifically? Did they share that? Was that a theme?

MALONE: I do think they would like him to acknowledge their experiences.

BALDWIN: How?

MALONE: Well, I think they would like him to say, yes, they are not lying. And, is he going to do that? Probably not. You know, that would -- that would -- he wouldn't - but, that is what they want.

BALDWIN: It is the "New York" magazine. Noreen Malone, thank you so much. If you want to read it, thank you for coming by.

Next, Hulk Hogan fired from professional wrestling for repeatedly using a racial slur on a recently released audiotape. We will talk to a wrestling insider who has followed Hulk Hogan through his career now about the fall in the wrestling world, an American icon. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:46:48] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From California, weighing 320 pounds, ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He is the WWE's most famous wrestler. But WWE and Hulk Hogan are now parting ways over racial slurs Hogan is heard repeating over and over on recently released audiotapes.

Here is CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan got a smack down from world wrestling entertainment firing the WWE star after he was heard repeating the "n" word in a racist rant.

According to "Radar Online" and "the National Enquirer," Hogan is heard on the tape and recorded in 2006 talking about his daughter, Brooke. He accused her of sleeping with an African-American.

"I mean, I am a racist to a point (bleep). But then when it comes to nice people (bleep) and whatever." Then says, "I mean, I'd rather if she was going to (bleep) some (bleep), I'd rather have her marry in eight-foot tall (bleep) worth a hundred million dollars. Like a basketball player. I guess we're all a little racist."

Hogan's rant captured during his performance in a secretly recorded sex tape and he's suing Garcer (ph) to try to stop the online website from releasing it. Hogan responded Friday in a statement saying, it was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language. There is no excuse for it and I apologized for having done it. I am disappointed with myself that I used language that is offensive and inconsistent with my own beliefs. It is not who I am.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Jason Carroll, thank you.

Let me bring in wrestling insider Dave Meltzer. He is the editor of Wrestlingobserver.com.

Dave, thanks for coming on.

DAVE MELTZER, EDITOR, WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM: Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Before we get into, you know, sort of the details of this whole thing, I mean, I just want you to hammer home for all of us. Like when we say Hulk Hogan, this guy is like, you know, as we said, an icon in WWE history. You say Hulk Hogan, you know -- you know who he is.

MELTZER: Well, he's the most recognizable name in pro wrestling of this generation and it's all over the world. And, yes, for the last 35 years, depending on where you live, I mean, he has been -- if you're a wrestling fan, he's been a major part of the industry. But he's well bigger than the industry in many different ways, too. You know --

BALDWIN: And how can people -- I guess both like wrestling fans in general, but also, you know, some of his supporters, i.e., the Dennis Rodhams, how have they reacted to this whole story?

MELTZER: It's been a mix. I think a lot of people were pretty offended by it. You're going to -- Hogan is - you know, when you have a super big celebrity like this, you're always going to have people who are going to support them. You know, or make excuses for them, something like that. So he is going to have supporters, there's going to be people -- there's a generation of people who buck then that don't want to let go of those memories. So they are going to want to get past them and forget about them.

Hogan, you know, has kind of like been (INAUDIBLE) anyway. He has been in trouble, he has been down and out, and pretty always comes back. So, I'm not writing him off forever, but this is going to be his toughest challenge to come back from this one.

[15:50:14] BALDWIN: I mean, the cat with nine lives, and I think you said it to one of my producers earlier, it is one thing to, and I'm not saying, you know, anyone like take a steroid scandal, that's one thing, but this -- this is big. MELTZER: Yes, it's huge, because it's huge not just in wrestling. I

mean, it is huge in wrestling, because WWE wouldn't want to be associated with that, because they are trying to promote themselves as family entertainment. But on the flip side, Hogan's other income, which is having to do with, you know, during commercial endorsements, and things like that. I mean, who is going to have him right now and do that? I mean, it is going to be a long time.

Now, he did come back and he did commercial endorsements after, you know, the thing with his son getting in the wreck and him saying some things on the phone that got out that he didn't know, you know, the steroid thing, you know, where he, you know, essentially told everyone he didn't use steroids, then it came out. He was using them forever, basically.

So -- but yes, this one is bad because it is -- he basically said he was a racist, so there is no ambiguous thing, well, he said a remark he didn't mean. Even though, of course, that's where he is saying now. You know, it was private. He didn't know he was being filmed. I mean, that's the unfortunate part, but he said it. It's going to be real tough for this guy to be a pitch man for commercials. And that's what he's made a lot of his money on, you know, since his aqua wrestling days are over.

BALDWIN: Final question, I'm just curious, who is wrestling's biggest start right now?

MELTZER: It depends on what you're talking about. I mean, the biggest star overall would be Dwayne Johnson "the Rock," although he is only part time rush, he only rush a couple times a year. The biggest star, as far as full time, that would be John Cena.

BALDWIN: OK, Dave Meltzer, thank you so much, editor of wrestlingobserver.com. Thank you.

MELTZER: You're very welcome.

BALDWIN: Coming up, lost at sea, two teenagers right now missing after this fishing trip off the coast of Florida. Hear how the family is asking for your help.

Also, he was one of the Zimbabwe's most famous lions. Next, a tourist's hunter becoming the hunted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:07] BALDWIN: More than ten agencies now are helping in the search for these two Florida teenagers missing at sea. They are 14- year-olds Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos. They were last seen Friday gassing up for the fishing trip. We have new video here that has been released of the capsized boat that was found Sunday. It was apparently more than 100 miles away from Jupiter, Florida where these boys off. One coast guard officer says the air searches, the Dakota, I'd like finding a needle in a haystack. Despite those odds who boys' love ones tell CNN, they tell remain hopeful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of us are giving up hope. They are going to find those boys. So, obviously, it's a terrifying experience to be living through second by second. But I have 100 percent faith they will find our boys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're optimistic. We are praying. The coast guard is wonderful. The people that are conducting the search are optimistic. The history of the high seas shows survival rates over the years. There have been miracles out there, and we're planning on finding the children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Authorities are just asking people to walk up and down the beaching along that coast line just to see if anything with sees debris that can perhaps be part of that boat.

And now, this is just awful, horrifying moments showing a mother's heroism and her death in China. Just be warned, this is tough to watch. But you are going to see this 30-year-old mother, she is coming up the department store's escalator here on the left side of your screen, picks up and holds her son. They reach the top here in a second. They are approaching the top, she picked up her son, the floor gives way, she - pause it, she falls through the opening and dies, but her son is OK. Official say maintenance had been done on the escalator and workers forget to could the access cover in place there.

There is a lion made famous across all of Africa. Lured out of the national park in Zimbabwe, shot with a bow and arrow, tracked for days as it was bleeding slowly to death, and finally shot and killed with a gun. The lion was named Cecil, seen here in his home in Zimbabwe. He became such a famous lion, because he was monitored for research. He actually had a GPS tracking collar, and now the hunt is on for the hunter who killed this lion.

CNN international correspondent David McKenzie has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Cecil was perhaps Zimbabwe's programs most famous lion, the majestic male, 13-years-old, with a famous black mane has been killed by hunters according to conservationists. They say the lion was lured out of (INAUDIBLE) national park and shot with a crow bow, and then tragically stalked for many hours and then killed with a gun. They say that the head and the skin of Cecil has put into evidence. The head of the safari company arrested and operations suspended, according to the hunting association of Zimbabwe.

Trophy hunting in southern Africa is legal. As animal populations have been decimated in west Africa and hunting made illegal in Kenya, trophy hunters from all over the world flock here to pay top dollar to kill animals. Now, conservationists say the lion population throughout Africa has

dropped by more than 80 percent in several decades. They say even if it brings money to the local communities, it's not worth it, particularly in cases like this when famous lion that is bring in tourists are killed.

David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: That is absolutely horrendous.

Before I let you go, let's go ahead and check the board in the wake of some of the news in the markets in China. You can see a lot of red here on your board. The market is about to close here -- closing bell in 15 seconds, down 121 points on this Monday afternoon. Always check the latest numbers at CNNmoney.com.

That's does it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York, thanks so much for joining me. But stay right here. "The LEAD with Jake Tapper" starts now.