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Three Americans Subdue Gunman on European Train; Officials Holding Talks to Ease Tensions between North Korea and South Korea; Stock Market Falters in Past Week. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 22, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:03]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: But if anything, people are really going to remember the grace that he just displayed this week.

ALLAN LICHTMAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: And the heart as well that he has displayed. All right, thank you so much. Allan Lichtman, good to see you from American University.

All right, the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

Hello, again. Thanks so much for sticking with me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

President Barack Obama has placed a call to the three Americans who prevented a massacre on a train in Europe. Anthony Sadler, Alek Scarlatos and Spencer Stone were on vacation in Europe when a man emerged from the bathroom of the high speed train they were on with a rifle and a box cutter and several magazines of ammunition. And these three young men right here jumped into action. Their instincts kicked in. They subdued this gunman. And then, with the help of a British national also, then hog-tied that suspect with a necktie. Here's what was said earlier about all that took place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS NORMAN, AIDED IN SUBDUING GUNMAN ON TRAIN: Relief that nobody actually got killed. And it could have been a real carnage. There's no question about that.

ANTHONY SADLER, SUBDUED GUNMAN ON TRAIN: I'm really proud of my friend that he just reacted so quickly and so bravely. He was really the first one over there. Even after being injured himself, he went to go help the other man who was bleeding also. Without his help, he would have died. That man was bleeding from his neck profusely.

NORMAN: A lot of blood.

SADLER: He just went over there and saved his life as he was bleeding himself.

ALEK SKARLATOS, SUBDUED GUNMAN ON TRAIN: Spencer ran a good 10 meters to get to the guy. And we didn't know that his gun wasn't working or anything like that. Spencer just ran anyway. And if anybody would have gotten shot, it would have been Spencer for sure. And we're very lucky that nobody got killed, especially Spencer.

Yes. We called him. He's doing great. He's in good spirits.

SADLER: He's in disbelief it happened himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: They're talking about Spencer Stone, because he remains hospitalized because he did endure some injuries and a severe injury to his hand as well.

Let's bring in Nic Robertson in France to get an update on where things stand. So we know that the two gentlemen who were there with the British national Chris Norman were on their way to Paris to have that special phone call with the president of the United States while Spencer Stone remained hospitalized. What's the status of all of that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they just got in the last few minutes. Spencer Stone has just left hospital. He appears to be joining his friends, as far as we understand at the moment on his way to Paris. He is now out of surgery, out of hospital.

But I've got to tell you, something happened here before that should warm the hearts of so many people here. We were standing on the roadside here when Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos drove out of here in a police convoy. There were French people standing at the side of the road. And when they saw these two young Americans driving out, they cheered at the side of the road. These men, these young Americans really are heroes to the French. There were so many French people on that train so many lives saved by their quick actions. And the people on the streets here, this is not an over-exaggeration, they feel it and they want to thank them, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Gosh, that is so heartwarming. So, you know, these three young men then -- and that's really something else that Mr. Stone would say, oh, I'm not losing this opportunity. I'm going to join my buds here and I'm going to make it to that embassy too for that phone call with the president.

And then the prime minister and president of France also have plans for these three, right? They're going to hold on to them in France for a little while longer before they get a chance to perhaps return to their families stateside.

ROBERTSON: Yes, absolutely. It's not just the French people standing on the street here. It goes all the way up to the president. We're told the president's press office said they will be coming to the presidential palace. It doesn't get any better and grander than that, I would say, even in Europe, certainly in France. So they are getting entertained to high style. That is the gratitude of the French people. That is the gravity and the magnitude of what they did. There were about 500 people on that train. That young gunman with the

automatic Kalashnikov weapon we're told had nine magazines. If they were all full of bullets, you're talking about 270 bullets, you're talking about the potential on a moving train that no one can stop and no one can get into to help those passengers, the potential there for real death and destruction. And that was averted by the bravery of a few people on that train and that's really being recognized in this country right now, Fredricka.

[14:05:00] WHITFIELD: That is incredible. Wow, what an evening and what a morning it has been, learning all the details about how these guys with their instincts kicking in, how they put their own lives on the line to make sure that everybody else could remain safe. Nic Robertson, thank you so much, appreciate it. As you learn more information, get back to us.

All right, meantime in this country, hundreds of wildfires are burning, and the damage is so severe that President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration to send aid and resources to places like Washington state. Our Stephanie Elam has the latest from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across the country, more than 250 wildfires are burning in 17 states.

JOHN PELLISSIER, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY: They're all extreme. They're all big, really bad, and all at the same time.

ELAM: In hard-hit Washington state, 390,000 acres are on fire. More than 3,000 firefighters and 26 planes are battling the flames.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all hands on deck. As you can imagine, with so many fires, it's tough.

ELAM: On Friday, President Obama signed an emergency declaration allowing federal resources to move in as firefighters work to save homes and evacuate residents in harm's way.

TODD PECHOTA, OKANOGAN COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: They're committed. They're tired. They're working long hours. They're not getting sleep. They're getting chased from one house to another. But they're giving it their best. They're doing a great job.

ELAM: What was once a three story home is left smoldering and reduced to ashes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't ever remember seeing Omak burn like this. I've live here my whole life.

ELAM: Some evacuees in Omak, Washington camped in a Home Depot parking lot.

SANDY TUMBLESTON, EVACUEE: It's so sad, because I love where we live. I love the grandeur, the beauty, the wildlife. ELAM: With resources stretched thin, about 200 active duty soldiers

are joining the fight against the fires. The situation is so desperate the state is now asking volunteers to help dig fire lines. And these residents helped knock down flare-ups close to their homes with boots and shovels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is so stretched thin around here right now. I mean, it's just what we do. We go out there and we protect our own, our friends, everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all come together when we have to.

ELAM: The state is also mourning the death of three firefighters who died earlier this week when flames overtook their vehicle after it crashed. Four others were also hurt, one critically.

SHERIFF FRANK ROGERS, OKANOGAN COUNTY, WASHINGTON: You know that danger is always there. You hope it never happens, and when it does, it's tough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, that was Stephanie Elam reporting from Washington state.

The crisis in Korea could be settling down. We're talking about North and South Korea. We'll head to the border between the two and find out what happened to cool the hot tempers during the last few days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:11:28] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. This breaking news, we're getting the details of a phone call between president Obama and two of the three American heroes credited with preventing a massacre onboard a French high speed train. The White House releasing this statement, "This afternoon, the president called Airman First Class Spencer Stone, Army National Guard Specialist Alexander Skarlatos and Mr. Anthony Sadler," so all three, "to commend and congratulate them for their courage and quick action aboard their Paris bound train last night. The president expressed his gratitude to these three individuals for their heroic actions for stalling an even greater tragedy. The president wished Airman Stone a full and speedy recovery and expressed how proud all Americans are of their extraordinary bravery."

And again, you heard from our Nic Robertson who aid it seemed like two out of the three would be making their way to the American embassy in Paris. All three in the end, even Mr. Stone after his surgery, particularly the surgery to his hand, all made their way to the American embassy to take that phone call.

All right, now we're also getting new details about a political meeting that Vice President Joe Biden is having in Washington at the Naval Observatory. Athena Jones is following this story for us from Washington. So Athena, what more have you learned? ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. We'll we're getting these

details in from my colleague Jeff Zeleny. We know that the vice president arrived in Washington just before lunchtime for a meeting with none other than Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Now, Warren has become something of a liberal icon. She has a lot of fans, fans who are urging her to make a run for the presidency in 2016. She's sitting this race out, but she hasn't endorsed any candidate yet. And so it's interesting to think that they're now meeting.

We don't know specifically what they're talking about, of course. But we do know that Biden has told his associates that he's going to make a decision on whether to make a third run for the presidency in about the next month.

We also know that his team has got to be looking at the race, looking very closely at the race. They're seeing the appeal of a candidate like Bernie Sanders, also a liberal favorite who's really fired up a lot of voters, bringing a lot of enthusiasm to the race.

And they've also got to be looking at some of the numbers. Take a look at our latest CNN poll. I believe we have it. We can put it up on the screen. Look at the unfavorable numbers for Hillary Clinton versus Joe Biden. She has a much higher unfavorable numbers, at 53 percent of voters having an unfavorable opinion versus 44 percent for Joe Biden. So these are the kinds of things they're going to be looking at as he tries to make this decision.

We know that Vice President Biden feels that he would be a good president, but of course mounting a campaign requires a lot of things. It requires organization, the ability to fundraise, and, of course, he doesn't just want to run again, he wants to run to win.

WHITFIELD: And money is the big one, isn't it?

JONES: It certainly is. These days, millions -- $1 billion dollars can end up being spent in a full election cycle. So money is going to be a big part of that. We do know that he has a team of advisers who have been quietly putting together kind of a campaign strategy and a fundraising strategy. But it's a big decision. He's 72-years-old, and, like I said, this would be his third run.

WHITFIELD: Right, all right, Athena Jones, thanks so much in Washington.

JONES: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Meanwhile, it looks like the crisis between North and South Korea may be easing today. Both sides have been on a marathon set of talks all day long. North Korea had given the South an ultimatum to stop its propaganda broadcasts by this morning.

[14:15:04] That deadline came and went, but North Korea says its front line troops are still in what they are calling a wartime state. Earlier in the week there was an exchange of artillery fire over the DMZ, the heavily fortified area separating the two.

CNN's Kyung Lah is near the DMZ. So this situation has been escalating, and then the ultimatum today. Where do we stand?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the meeting is still going on, that very significant meeting you were talking about, Fredricka. We are at almost the nine-hour mark since it happened.

These talks are very significant. Kim Jong-un's right-hand man, one of his most senior people in the Kim Jong-un circle, and then the top security adviser for the president of South Korea, they shook hands. They sat down. And they are still in the room. They are still negotiating.

And these types of talks, with this level of management from both sides, with what we assume at this point will be far-reaching negotiations, this type of negotiation hasn't happened since 2007. And more significantly this is the very first time that Kim Jong-un has sent an envoy of this level into South Korea to make this sort of negotiation happen, so very significant. But, as you point out, the posture, the military posture, all of that has not changed on either country as of yet.

WHITFIELD: But it would seem that after all this time, nine hours? I mean, it can't be for naught. You would think that something good, some kind of agreement has to come if they're both at it this long.

LAH: Absolutely. I mean, there has to -- if they're still talking, they're still talking, there's got to be some hope. We're going to find out we hope after these meetings subside, after they end, if they end in the next few hours or so, we just don't know, then yes, we'll find out if there is going -- if this will then lead to further negotiations down the line.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kyung Lah, thanks so much, appreciate it.

Still ahead, the Dow just wrapped up its worst week in more than four years. We'll have more on Friday's big decline and how it might impact your bottom line, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:02] WHITFIELD: All right, it was a rough week on Wall Street. The Dow Jones plummeted 531 points on Friday, adding to its worst week since 2011. CNN money correspondent Alison Kosik joins us now from New York with more on this. So is there any reason to believe things might turn around quickly?

ALISON KOSIK: Sure. You know, why not? I mean, there are different schools of thought here as to what could happen on Monday, and there are those who are saying it could be glass half full on Monday. Saying that, look, this selloff that we saw on Friday was intensely oversold. Many saying look, the S&P 500 is not in a correction yet. It still has two percent to go. There are other indices that are not in a correction either. So some say this could wind up being a bargain hunting moment for those investors who have a strong stomach. On the other hand, what really is going to be a telltale sign of what

could happen here in the U.S. on Monday is what happens actually Sunday night. We're going to be watching the Asian markets very closely, because this is going to be the first time for Asia to react to what happened here in the U.S.

WHITFIELD: So besides Asia, particularly China, what were some of the other contributing factors that caused Friday's selloff?

KOSIK: You know, this has really been a perfect storm that's been brewing for a very long time. But then you've got this pile-on effect. You mentioned China. China's economy has been slowing for a long time. And the thing is, it's kind of a known thing that China manipulates its economic data. But here's the thing. In the past month, China has been very publicly propping up its economy. It's been propping up its markets. And now there's this perception that China is kind of losing its grip on how it's engineering the situation. So it's raising a lot of questions, maybe China is in worse shape than we thought.

This is a big deal to the U.S. because China is one of our biggest trading partners. A lot of U.S. companies make a big chunk of their sales and revenue from China, and if China's economy is worse than we thought, that's why you're seeing this sort of rejiggering of stock prices going on in the stock market.

Also earnings seasons, second quarter earnings season is winding down. Wasn't a stellar one. So investors are looking at that. And they're also worried because there are two things that can crater a market. You've got sales and revenue down with second quarter earnings season, and then the prospect of possibly tightening, or raising interest rates. That is what the Fed is expected to do in September. And that's also why you're seeing that nervousness.

One trader telling me today, though, Fredricka, if the Fed comes out in the next couple of days, maybe even this weekend saying, listen, we're not going to raise interest rates, that could calm the market. We shall see.

WHITFIELD: All right, there's a little hope then. Appreciate it. Alison Kosik, appreciate it. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:36] WHITFIELD: All right, if you're always looking for the latest in technology, take a look at the new screen that people could soon be wearing. Here's CNN's Samuel Burke.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a trick. This screen is meant to be twisted, bent, even rolled up. Start-up Polyera spent 10 years developing the technology. The real breakthrough is what's behind the screen.

How do you make the screens that you produce bend? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We start with electronic materials and actually

the idea of these electronic materials, but we can then actually turn those into the building blocks of electronics. And so these are transistors and they are highly flexible, also highly mechanically robust at things like impact.

BURKE: It's not bending the screen that's the hard part. It's everything that's in the screen, that's what's hard to make bend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all those layers of different materials, and some of the hardest materials are the electronically active materials to make bend.

BURKE: The bendable display uses black and white e-paper technology, which is then, durable and energy efficient. Now Palyera is putting the screens to use in a wearable it calls the Wove Band, slated to roll out next year.

What's your vision for Wove?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here you see an early stage prototype. This is the device in a flat state, but you can change its shape and actually put it around your wrist. I'm going to change the image on it. It actually is fully touch enabled. I'm going to call up some information. But of course you could customize it.

BURKE: No wearable has become mainstream yet, and even if Wove doesn't, the technology behind it may bend our future.

Samuel Burke, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. The change is nonstop.

All right, thanks so much for spending the afternoon with me today, everybody. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta" starts right now.

[14:30:00]