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Ashley Madison leak impacted Christian leaders; Police officer justify making a traffic stop in part because of how someone looked at him; New video of Vladimir Putin released; 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 31, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:33:21] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: This is CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

After the whole Ashley Madison leak, thousands of people have searched to see if their loved one had an account and might have been unfaithful. But what would you do if you saw that your pastor was on the list?

The article on Christianity today's website entitled "my pastor is on the Ashley Madison list" claims many religious leaders had accounts and at least one has already resigned. We should point out that being on the list does not mean these people actually followed through, had an affair, but it definitely raises questions as in should leaders be held to different standards?

I'm joined now by our own Laurie Segall who has been looking into this. Also with me, Tricia Davis. Her husband is a pastor who had this affair long before this attack, but their marriage had survived. She actually have advise with some these wives whose husband pastors could be on the list.

But Laurie Segall, first to you, with the Christianity today piece, how many pastors do we think are even on the list, period?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: We know that they are looking at quite a few. They haven't been able to confirm and we independently confirmed two, we have heard. There has been one resignation since.

But I spoke to a man name Frank Page. He is a CEO of Southern Baptist Convention, they oversee 50,000 churches all around. And he said Laurie, you better bet that religious leaders all around the country are looking at this list and seeing if their own priest, if pastors are on it.

I want to read you what he said to me. He said we hold a very strong view of fidelity and marriage. Assuming they are on the list, and almost every instance, it would lead to a termination or resignation.

You know, he basically said they are held to this high standard. And people are going to be looking and confirming. And it is just the beginning of it, Brooke.

[15:35:25] BALDWIN: They are. They are. That's the truth. Tricia, to `you. You know, I know that your husband, a pastor, not on

the Ashley Madison site but he did have an affair some years ago. Before we get into advice for some of these wives here that could be impacted, can you just tell me what happened and how you found out?

TRICIA DAVIS, STAYED WITH PASTOR HUSBAND AFTER HIS AFFAIR: Yes. It was actually a Sunday, just a typical normal Sunday. My husband preached on godly relationships, of all things, the irony, and he just came home and decided that he was done, done with ministry, done with me and confessed that he was having an affair with a staff member who was also my best friend of ten years. And so, I know that gut- wrenching feeling of hearing those words, "I'm having an affair" and then feeling like your life is completely falling apart.

BALDWIN: With your best friend. So your trust in that moment has to be shattered. You're still with him. Let me not bury the lead. I mean, you love this man very much and for these women, too, who could be in your same shoes, how do you rebuild that trust?

DAVIS: Right. It's hard. And I think that as a person of faith who believes in the loving savior, there's this notion that you have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and be OK with it. But God has given us the gift of grief. And if you know anything about grieving, there is stages to it. And it's OK to be angry. It's OK to be depressed. It's OK to figure next steps.

And so, I had to figure that out for my own marriage relationship of, you know, forgiveness is free. Forgiveness says, you know what, I'm going to forgive you what you've done. It doesn't excuse your behavior, but I'm not going to let your choices destroy my heart. I'm not going to let it destroy who I am. But trust is earned and you broke my trust. And so, you need to figure out, how do you earn that trust back? And when someone is truly broken from their choices, they will be willing to do anything, whether it's a choice to be on this list or if it is choice to actually go through with an affair.

BALDWIN: Here, though, is this relationship, right, that you had with your husband. But if we're talking about these pastors who, you know, gave their credit card information to potentially be with total strangers, and by the way, I don't know what would be worse. Let me throw that out there. But not only is it a wife or maybe a husband but it's an entire congregation. Do you think that they should be -- is it a higher standard? Do you think these pastors should resign?

DAVIS: Absolutely. I mean, I think that there's two kinds of responses that the church has found themselves in. There's the response of, you've made this moral failure. You're kicked out along with your family and there's no help or it's just grace, grace, grace, we love you and forgive you and there's no consequence for change to happen. And my husband did resign. And we got out of ministry. And we never thought we'd go back into ministry. And here we are now back in ministry for the past six years.

But I think that there's a season of as pastors, even biblically, they are not held to a higher standard. But there's also a way of -- we are a faith people, believe in Jesus. It's about redemption. And so, that's my story that nobody gets on Ashley Madison's list overnight. You don't drift to go, I want to cheat on my spouse overnight. It's a symptom of much greater issues. And we had people in the church willing to walk, with my husband and I to figure out, how did we get here? Why did my husband cheat on me and figure out the issues, not just the symptom but the root issues. And because we both became broken in the process, we just celebrated 20 years. And I'm more in love with him today than I was the day I married him. And that's the miracle and that's the hope of why I want to talk to you all that it is possible. You just have to be willing to fight for it.

BALDWIN: Tricia, you're a strong woman to be so open about something so, so dark and difficult for a time. But you know, 20 years, that's a huge deal. So congratulations to you for working through it.

Tricia Davis, thank you. And Laurie Segall, thank you as well.

Coming up next, can a police officer justify making a traffic stop in part because of how someone looked at him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not doing nothing because I have a missing plate. Other than that, why would you stop me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you made direct eye contact with me and held on to while passing --.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:44:09] BALDWIN: An Ohio police officer and an African-American driver from Michigan expected to sit down to discuss what unfolded during at a recent traffic stop. The driver, John Felton, started reporting when he noticed a police car was following him, he signaled, made a turn, the officer pulled him over. First the officer said it was because he didn't signal 100 feet before turning, but then this is what the officer said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FELTON, TRAINED FOR MAKING EYE CONTACT: Every move I make, why you making it? I'm not doing nothing. Because I have a Michigan plate? Other than that, why are you trailing many he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you made direct eye contact with me and held on to it.

FELTON: What? I didn't even see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I I'm not going to argue with you anymore, sir. If you (INAUDIBLE) license, I can give you a citation for the violation of ticket four. I'm not going to argue about it anymore. All right. FELTON: OK. Sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: City of Dayton, where that traffic stop occurred said this. Quote "the traffic infraction was verified by the video. However, making direct eye contact with an officer is not a basis for a traffic stop."

Joey Jackson is with me. City says no eye contact is reason to pull someone over?

[15:45:11] JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Very unreasonable to pull someone over. Not something that you should be doing. And you know, look. Officers do a lot of good things, protect us, keep us safe, and I think that's a great thing. But when there's ever a perceived abuse of authority or an actual abuse of authority, it raises many red flags and questions and so the thought becomes, was it because it was 11:00 at night, it wasn't because he had out of state license plate, it wasn't because he was an African-American male and that then becomes the issue.

So, if this is a basis to stop someone for an in fraction because they actually did something, Brooke. You are speeding, by all means, you should be stopped. If it's a traffic violation, you don't signal, you should be stopped. But then when it becomes as pretext, which is an excuse to get to the car, that becomes a problem.

BALDWIN: So then we know that this officer and this driver will be sitting together in mediation.

JACKSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: What does that look like?

JACKSON: OK. What happens is, generally when you get a citation or anything else, you go in front of the court. You go in front of the judge. And, of course, the officer comes in and you both state your claims and your piece in front of the judge. The judge then makes the decision.

Mediation is an alternative to that wherein it's not so much court, it's a mutual party who is there. They have a joint session between both parties, then they'll go into a session with each of the parties and say, look, did he really deserve the ticket? Well, maybe, not really. Then they go to the actual person who got the ticket. If we dropped the ticket, would that be OK? If you pay a small fine, would that be OK? And he tried to resolve it in the absence of court in an amicable and reasonable way so that both parties are happy. And that what's this looks like, if adding to, should happened in the beginning. That's a separate question.

BALDWIN: OK. Joey Jackson, thank you.

JACKSON: Pleasure and privilege. BALDWIN: Next, pumping Iran, grilling meat, sipping tea. Folks, this

is the best story of the day we save it for you. Wait until you hear the story behind this new video of Vladimir Putin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:24] BALDWIN: Russian president Vladimir Putin has carefully crafted image as a tough guy. We know him as a shirtless writer of horses, a hunter of tigers. His many exploits documented for public consumptions, but in spite of these over displays of strength, Putin now has a popularity problem. He is slipping in the polls, not a lot, but enough. The reason, Russia's slumping economy. So it seems time for a reminder of Putin, the man's man.

Take a look of the latest Kremlin video released, Putin working out at the gym with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Because, I mean, nothing says, you know, strength to me politically like pumping iron his guns like literally flexing his muscles.

So Brian Todd somehow got this assignment today to work on Putin pumping iron.

Why are they doing this?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why? Well, you know, Brooke, this is vintage Vladimir Putin. Pretty impressive lap I would say in than one piece of video. I don't know if you agree with this, but this is vintage Putin. This is what they love to do. The Russians like to put this out of him doing these, you know, as you say, these manly things. We've seen him shirtless hunting, fishing, riding horseback. He's gone skiing. Not long ago, they showed him going down a submersible into the black sea. It's a great picture of him in that thing.

You know, the kremlin likes to put it out because the Russian public really eats it up. And they really -- to them, it actually is an important thing to have their leader portrayed as someone virile and strong and tough and ready to take on the world. They really take that kind of thing seriously. And Putin's popularity levels have reflected that. Every time he does something like this, his popularity shoots up.

But it has dropped in recent weeks because of the economy taking a hit. It's down to about 72 percent in one recent poll which is, of course, is still a level that most American politicians would kill for. But for Vladimir Putin, he is kind of sensing maybe a squeeze here. He wants to, you know, again, put this image out of him being a tough guy and ready to take on anyone, whether it be in Ukraine, the arctic, in Europe, anywhere else.

BALDWIN: I mean, we shouldn't laugh, obviously, about Russia's role globally. But I'm sorry, I can't watch this video which is phenomenal on loop of him pumping iron and yet it is also juxtaposed with, you know, the lighter, softer tae sipping Putin.

What's up with that Brian Todd? TODD: Well, then, you're trying to portray him as someone who crosses

all boundaries. Not only is he a tough guy who can do this in the weight room and hunt and fish and all that. But he's also refined in their view. They want him to be everything to all Russians. And I think that's a very important message that the kremlin always puts out in these situations. And it's very important to Vladimir Putin. One analyst told me that is addicted to these popularity ratings and these approval ratings that he's getting. And they're at near totalitarian levels. And he is addictive to them. It's very important for him to get that popularity back up and for the Russian people to see it, that is the kremlin's view of all this. We are going to have a lot more on this in the "SITUATION ROOM" in a little more than an hour, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I appreciate your straight face as a reporter's reporter working for this Putin segment with me.

Brian Todd, we look for you on the state room with Wolf. Thank you so much.

I wouldn't have a straight face.

And coming up, tied with Trump, the Republican front-runner suddenly facing new competition from another non-establishment candidate. Who could that be? Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:57] BALDWIN: The last Republican vice president is weighing in on the 2016 race. Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz, a former Bush administration state department official are out promoting their new book. It is called "Exceptional, why the world needs a powerful America."

And in an interview with CNN's special correspondent Jamie Gangel, Cheney talked about the controversy over Hillary Clinton's personal email server.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I found it surprising that somebody as high ranking as secretary of state dealing with classified and sensitive information all the time would think that it was OK to have a private server in your home where you put information and so forth, where you send emails.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So how would you describe her handling her emails this way in a word?

CHENEY: I think it was sloppy and unprofessional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Do not miss the full interview tomorrow night on Anderson Cooper 360 with Jamie live with Anderson beginning at 8:00 eastern.

I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Thank you so much for being with me on this Monday afternoon. We are going to send it to Washington now. Jake Tapper is back.

"The LEAD" starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Kanye West. I'm going to let you finish, but Donald Trump had one of the wildest month with the presidential politics of all time.

I'm Jake tapper. This is "the LEAD."