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Army Capt. Awarded for Tackling Suicide Bomber; Violence in Chicago; Investigators Analyzing Black Box Sound; Melania Trump Emerges from Campaign Shadow; Jetpacker Zooms around Statue of Liberty. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 12, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:29:50] CAPT. FLORENT GROBERG, U.S. ARMY: So I hit him with my rifle. That's when I felt I hit a vest under his clothing. And so at this point on all I could do is just get him away as far as we could. Grabbed him by his vest and tried to push him down, throw him.

So Mahoney, the whole time Sergeant followed me into this and, you know, as I'm throwing him down, Mahoney is throwing him down and then he detonated at my feet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Capt. Groberg is from Bethesda, Maryland. He's retired now. When he was in college at the University of Maryland, he was a standout distance runner there. So obviously, that leg is very important to him, continues to work on that recovery.

The President of the United States has already met once with Groberg back in September, on September 11th of 2012. This will be a second meeting for him and the retired army captain.

Carol -- back to you.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joe Johns reporting live from the White House. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM -- determining a split second of sound -- the lessons investigators learned from a past plane tragedy that could help them decipher what caused that Russian jet liner to go down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:08] COSTELLO: Comcast in Chicago says the city's South Side is so dangerous that it canceled at least six appointments in that area in an effort to keep their technicians safe. The company made that confirmation to the "Chicago Sun-Times. Those efforts publicized after a complaint by Father Michael Flagler, who said the Internet provider would not come out to his church after the funeral of nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee. The little boy was gunned down by gang members allegedly last week.

Our Anderson Cooper sat down with Father Flagler and director, Spike Lee who talked about the city's rising tide of violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: What got you, Spike, wanting to come here?

SPIKE LEE, DIRECTOR: Well, number one, I care about human beings. And what's happening in Chicago is happening where I'm from -- boogie down Bronx, "Killadelphia", "Body-more" Maryland, as you know New Orleans, Houston, South Central. But my wife really gave me -- made it crystal clear.

Chicago is the canary in the coal mine. New York City has three times the population of Chicago. Yet Chicago has more homicides than New York. So, this is the -- this is the spot. This is ground zero.

And I've always been a believer, and I'll go to my grave believing this, Anderson, that art can affect change. Good and bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Part of that art Lee is talking about is this, his new movie, which comes out next month. The title is "Chi- raq". Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Homicides in Chicago, Illinois have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Chi-raq.

Land of pain, misery and strife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody here got a man banging and slanging, fighting for the flag, risking that long zipper to cadaver bag.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All to the bang-bang.

WOMEN: Bang-bang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It all started with a gorgeous, Nubian sister.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's up, spinner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They call her Lisa Starks. A woman like no other.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just try taking away their guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The story is actually a take off of the Greek play "Lysistrata" where women try to end a war by refusing to have sex with their husbands and boyfriends. So let's talk about this with cultural critic and writer Michaela Angela Davis. So, welcome first of all.

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: When I first heard what this movie was about and I understand it's a satire I was kind of insulted.

DAVIS: Why?

COSTELLO: But then as I -- well because it's women withholding sex and it seems so silly and why go there when you're talking about A little nine-year-old was shot down in an alley allegedly by gang members in retaliation for something maybe his father did.

DAVIS: Right.

COSTELLO: And to put a movie out like that?

DAVIS: Well, I mean this is art, right. And this is one of the things that, at its best art is supposed to provoke. And I think it's really interesting that Spike in his tradition of making movies about topical things in historical theater context, right?

Some of them like the movie about black campuses was done in a musical tradition. So I think it's very interesting to put it in a Greek tragedy idea because this is a tragedy we're looking at, right. And playwrights throughout the ages, whether you're Shakespeare, you put current events into structures that are artistic that make people think in a different way and come and see it.

And I think this is a tragedy that we're looking at. And I think that Chicago and Iraq have some real similarities in some of the young men. You have hopeless, jobless, young men who are isolated with easy access to guns.

So, what they did to that young boy is what we're seeing happening there, but the difference is, this is America. We shouldn't have a population of young men so hopeless for so long and so sequestered. Just like the men of color in Iraq, you know. So I think it's very provocative. And this is --

COSTELLO: Like, I understand where you're coming from. I do. because when I thought twice about the movie, I'm intrigued now and I want to see it. But I've got to tell you, many white people will not get this. Who is Spike Lee talking to?

[10:40:01] DAVIS: Well, I mean Spike Lee is talking to the culture. And it's time for white people to get it, right? Because I feel like there's this idea that only black people and people of color have race. White people get to be human and not choose. They don't see race as their thing.

So, perhaps when you present it like art, when you present it like a Greek tragedy, when you present it in the dignity of theater that more people will come, right, that need to understand versus those people fighting for their lives on the streets in Chicago, they might not see it. But for, you know, scholars, they know what "Lysistrata" is,

right. So perhaps it will get to the people that well, that's the beauty of art. That's the beauty of theater. That's the beauty of cinema that's supposed to draw in people.

COSTELLO: Ok. So when all is said and done now, will it really make a difference?

DAVIS: Art does at its best, right? So, I think we all need to go see it, right? Get uncomfortable. Go see it. And then let's talk about it. But look at all the stars. You've got Sam Jackson is back in there --

COSTELLO: Well, the most interesting one is Jennifer Hudson because, you know, she suffered tragedy in her own family in the city of Chicago.

DAVIS: In the same city. Right -- so that's part of it, too. I mean, if for nothing else, don't you want to see J. Chappelle (ph)? Like, you know, there are all these elements of why you should go see it, but also it will provoke these conversations.

And you know, the idea that you won't come and do service because you're afraid you might get shot? That is -- we are -- the intersectionality of what's happening in Chicago and in other parts of the world, whether it's ISIS, whether it's Nigeria -- this is happening right in our hometown.

We need to -- you know, we need to deal with the structural problems that cause that kind of condition, right?

COSTELLO: Yes. Because it's easier to say, criminals -- throw them in jail. That's the easy way, right, but that doesn't solve the underlying problem.

DAVIS: But it's a Spike Lee. So we have to go see it.

COSTELLO: I'm going to go see it with you because it would be fun.

DAVIS: Good. Let's go.

COSTELLO: Thanks Michaela.

All right. You can watch the rest of Spike Lee's interview with Anderson Cooper, by the way. It airs tonight on "AC 360".

Now on to the investigation into the crash of that Russian jetliner: now the NTSB says Egypt has accepted U.S. assistance and it's now waiting for information to access to the wreckage. But a sound -- just a split-second sound in the final moments of that cockpit voice recording has been uncovered.

So, how do investigators determine what that sound is? How do they use it? Miguel Marquez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what one half of one second of an explosion sounds like. Here it is slowed down five times.

In the Metrojet 9268 investigation, France too, quoting an investigator says something at the very end of the voice recorder sounded like a possible explosion. Could that be possible?

Pan Am flight 103 was brought down by a bomb placed in the luggage hold. The bomb exploded as the 747 was at 31,000 feet. The jet's final moments captured on the cockpit recorder left little for investigators to work with -- just 170 milliseconds, that's less than two-tenths of one second.

PAUL GINSBERG, PROFESSIONAL AUDIO LABORATORIES: It's going to be loud enough to severely overload the input system to the cockpit voice recorder.

MARQUEZ: In the final moment flight 103's voice recorder shows nothing on the pilot's mike. The co-pilot ending a normal conversation with ground control and a microrecording of everything in the cockpit appears to capture a loud noise but investigators could never determine what it was.

GINSBERG: It is going to overload the microphone, the pre- amplifier, the recording system and cause distortion and that -- that's just telltale that something happened that was very quick, very loud.

MARQUEZ: The voice recorder then indicates all power was cut to the system.

It's not just about the voices on the voice data recorder.

GINSBERG: No, no. It's everything. It's the totality. You have to -- you have to be a real detective and use every bit of information that's recorded on the recorder.

MARQUEZ: Investigators found the power cut itself. This five millisecond indication -- a sign all four of the plane's generators simultaneously ceased. The only explanation: the disruption of the passenger cabin floor across its entire width; in other words, the massive jet in the fraction of a second split into pieces.

The voice recorder also gave investigators a time reference for when the cataclysmic event occurred. Eight seconds after that loud noise on the cockpit mike, ground radar tracking the plane showed not one blip, but four -- the plane was coming apart. Then 46.5 seconds after that loud noise, Flight 103 crashed into the area surrounding Lockerbie Scotland, 270 people died, 11 of them were on the ground.

[10:45:09] Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM -- we know Donald Trump

certainly likes to talk but now his wife Melania is going to have her voice heard. Her new role in the campaign, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:49:46] COSTELLO: All right a quick journey to New Hampshire. That is Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi. Ted Cruz just signed paperwork declaring his candidacy in New Hampshire. So the beat goes on there.

Let's talk more politics and Donald Trump because Donald Trump might grab a lot of headlines, but is his wife about to give him a little competition? Randi Kaye has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Super model turned super supporter to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump suddenly fielding questions in the post debate spin room.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: Great evening, yes. Just the way it was handled was very fair and elegant and fair questions -- all about the economy and business. And he's master of that.

KAYE: After months of keeping his third wife out of the spotlight, Melania Trump is by his side on the campaign trail, and she's talking more than we've ever heard her before.

In September she did talk to "People Magazine", though sharing how when she and Donald first met in 1998, she refused to give him her number even though she thought Donald did have, quote, "sparkle". When "People Magazine" interviewed Melania Trump, politics was off the table. "I'm not ready to go political yet. That's his job and I'm supporting him."

She told Larry King years ago she considers herself her husband's equal.

M. TRUMP: You know, you need to know who you are. And you need to be very strong and smart.

KAYE: Melania once graced the covers of glamour magazines and sold her own line of jewelry on QVC. Her name is trademarked.

M. TRUMP: You make them feel special. You make them feel and elegant.

KAYE: She also appeared in this Aflac commercial. She's a Slovenian immigrant who became a naturalized citizen in 2006. When asked about becoming a citizen, her response was it didn't even cross my mind to just stay here. I think people should follow the law.

If they do reach the White House, Melania would be the first foreign-born first lady since John Quincy Adams' wife who was born about 200 before Melania Trump.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Des Moines, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:56:38] DAVID BROMSTAD, ARTIST: Hi I'm David Bromstad (ph). I'm an artist, designer and television host. I live in Miami Beach and I'm at the Edition Hotel. This is my favorite place to be.

You know what, if you think this is cool, just wait. A bowling alley in the hotel, in the basement? I can't handle it. I need a strike. An ice skating rink in the basement of a hotel -- I'm actually terrified.

If you're like me, you are coming to Miami Beach to be on the beach. I mean look at this place. It's gorgeous. It's fabulous.

Have you seen my tan?

Welcome to the Wynwood Walls. I mean just look around us -- beautiful murals, absolutely fantastic. There are so many international artists that are represented here. And this is not your average graffiti and this is what inspired this whole district.

This is truly one of Miami's most popular tourist destinations and honestly, it's one of mine.

Oh, my gosh. Do I look like that when I'm angry?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I love him.

An iconic tourist destination gets a visitor unlike any other. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's a man in a jet pack flying around the Statute of Liberty.

DAVID MAYMAN, PILOT AND CEO, JETPACK AVIATION: It was awesome. It was a dream come true. I was just having a blast.

MOOS: Though The actual blast off from a boat was fairly gentle, the founder of Jetpack Aviation David Mayman is the test pilot and yes, he and his chief designer had to get all kinds of approvals to pull this off.

MAYMAN: The FAA asked, "What is it? What is it? A jetpack? What is that?" MOOS: The flight lasted about five minutes, the pilot uses hand

controls and his body to steer though Mayman took one hand off the controls for a second.

MAYMAN: I saluted Lady Liberty on one of the passes I stopped and turned around and gave her a salute.

MOOS: Mayman has been hooked on jetpacks ever since he first saw James Bond take off on one in "Thunderball".

For 10 years, Mayman and designer Nelson Tyler have worked together. Tyler helped design the rocket belt that sent up a man for less than 30 seconds at the 1984 Olympics. For the Statute of Liberty flight, the designer told his pilot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fly slow and careful and not too high.

MAYMAN: Yes, I didn't hear that message, I don't think.

MOOS: Next thing you know, he was 100 feet up doing 65 miles an hour.

Mayman says he can imagine eventually selling a jetpack for the price of a super luxury car, somewhere in the ballpark of $100,000.

There are other devices that transform men into flying machines. Some are big and bulky. Others like these jet wings require take off from a chopper and landing via parachute. But Mayman wants a jetpack like the one 007 wore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No well-dressed man should be without one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, very practical.

[11:00:06] MOOS: No well-dressed man should be without one, especially when taking liberties with a certain well-dressed lady.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I'd like to go to work that way.

Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.