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Feistiest Debate Yet in Brexit Battle; Big Endorsements for Hillary Clinton; World Outrage Growing Over Stanford Rape Case; Rape Victim's Powerful Letter. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired June 10, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


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[0:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles at this hour.

ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Brexit battle, the feistiest debate yet between the stay and leave camps takes center stage in London.

VAUSE: Big endorsements for Hillary Clinton and top Democrats now launching brutal attacks on Donald Trump.

SESAY: Plus, world outrage growing over a college rape case here in California and the jail sentence that we've just learned is even shorter than first thought.

VAUSE: Hello, everybody, great to have you with us. We would like to welcome our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Well as we get to closer to the U.K. vote on whether to leave the European Union. Campaigners from both sides are sharpening their resurrect.

VAUSE: London's former mayor, Boris Johnson and the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon went to head to head Thursday in a heated debate. Here's CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time the leave and remain campaigns have gone face to face. It was feisty, it was fiery. And of course, Boris Johnson came in for criticism, a common criticism that he is really in this just running for the prime minister's office, David Cameron's job.

NICOLA STURGEON, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY: Boris Johnson is asking people to trust his words. He is making a lot of claims and he's asking you to trust him and vote the way he wants you to vote in two weeks, and I'm simply asking him, if he's telling the truth tonight about the protection of watchers race. Was he not telling the truth when he said, he wanted to get rid of all the ones -

(CROSSTALK)

STURGEON: The thing is, Boris Johnson is not - UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Please -

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- you must allow Boris Johnson now to respond.

STURGEON: -- he's only interested in David Cameron's job.

ROBERTSON: Now that issue came up a couple of times and it did get some laughs from the audience, but Boris Johnson coming back very strong, his message, "Take back control from the European Union, take control on migration, on taxation." He says, that Britain spends half a billion dollars a week paid to the European Union, get out of the European Union, get that money, spend it on the - spend it on services, like health service in Britain. Now, the remain campaign, Nicola Sturgeron saying that that is a lie. That figure, of course, painted on the side of Boris Johnson's referendum bus.

BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER LONDON MAYOR: I'm very struck, by the way, that they do this, because this one, as a member of that panel who's complained about the remain campaigns it said, it's miserable, negative, and fear-based, and fear-based campaigning of this kind starts to insult people's intelligence. Now that was Nicola Sturgeon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nicola Sturgeon.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNSON: I agree with Nicola.

STURGEON: At least it's not driving around the country in a bus with a giant whopper painted all over the side of that bus.

ROBERTSON: Across the whole two hours of the debate, they were points scored by both sides, they were laughs from audience, both sides seem to win some support from the audience on some issues. But one lady in the audience, she asked, how should we be able to trust you? She said, both of you, both sides you're trying to shout louder than the other one you're trying to get the great sound bite. And so, it wasn't really clear if one side landed and not kind of blow it, it didn't seem to be that way. It's not clear how many peoples' minds they persuaded. But this is by far the most feisty debate so far.

Nic Robertson CNN London.

VAUSE: Euro 2016 Football Championship will begin in Paris in the coming hours as Romania facing the host nation, France. Twenty-four European teams, thirty days, ten different venues. French officials say, they're ready for the sports extravaganza despite heightened terror threat.

SESAY: The suspect in the Brussels terror attack claimed his cell targeted the tournaments and the U.K. and U.S. have warned their citizens about the potential risks. But French president, Francois Hollande says France won't be pressured by the threat and has invested "All the means to succeed." VAUSE: For more on that, we're joined by CNN law enforcement contributor Steve Moore. He's also a former special agent with the FBI. Steve, thanks for being with us.

Hey, we've got two and a half million fans, fifty-one matches, nine different cities, one former counter-terrorism official in London. Describe the threat to the Euro 2016 as being more acute than any other sporting event in history. You agree with that?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: It's possible. The only thing I can think of that would be close would be some recent Olympics, but, yes, it's right up there.

SESAY: All right. So that being said, you hear Hollande say that they've "all that means to succeed." Knowing what we know of the security plan and with your background, when you look at it, is it the right plan for a tournament, it's going to last 30 days across multiple cities?

MOORE: It's the only plan you can come up with, and whether they have invested all the means to succeed or not, we won't know until it's over. But I can tell you they have - they have put in, they have invested all the means that they have to succeed. We don't know if it's going to be successful.

SESAY: So a hundred thousand people on the street to secure it, that sounds about right?

MOORE: Well, they say a hundred thousand people on the street but they're not all going to be on the streets. They're going to back in intelligence centers, they're going to be monitoring cameras, because what you don't see here is that this is going to be probably the most heavily electronically monitored event in the history of the world.

VAUSE: OK. The biggest concern though it seems to be those fans zones. One French security source told the independent newspaper this is, "...as if we have created 10 open-air Bataclans and invited the jihadists to their worst." That's a reference to the (INAUDIBLE) we're killed last November during those Paris terrorist attacks.

But the counter argument (INAUDIBLE) officials is that it's better to keep the fans in secure area rather have them roaming all around the streets of Paris. So where do you stand on this? What's better plan of attack here?

MOORE: They're talking in philosophies, in theories, rather than realistic targets. You cannot get everybody all in one venue. It's going to impossible. And when you have people lining up to get into security and through security into the venues, you're creating just another clump of victims.

And so, there is no way you can do this. You can't change human behavior and you can't shut down the way people celebrate these events.

SESAY: Yes. I mean, one analyst said the key here is going to be intelligence and coordinating information quickly among multiple groups involve.

MOORE: The amount of electronic and visual intelligence that is going to go on is going to be outstanding to the regular person. They're going to have things up there like cell towers that aren't cell towers that just captures cell phone numbers walking by them and they'll - that will be instantly databased against all the known bad numbers in the world. There's going to be facial recognition. I think the FBI alone has 52, 53 million faces on file.

So, all of these things are going to be captured and disseminated almost instantly, and it's going to be the computers that are going to pick up links and matches.

VAUSE: This reminds of me Beijing Olympics. As you mentioned the Olympics before, and that was a massive security crackdown by the Chinese authorities like only the Chinese can ever do, but they were no fun games. I mean there was no security incident, it was perfectly safe, but no one had a good time, and that sort of similar situation that we're looking at now with France there's going to be so much security, so many people on the street, but essentially you kind of take the enjoyment out of it. How do you feel balance that out?

MOORE: If anybody can balance that -

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: But I believe that they are - I've been encouraged by how much they are allowing people to enjoy this even realizing that the more enjoyment they give people, the more freedom they give people in the venues, in the areas around it, the more targets they present. But France is not going to be cowed by this, and to me that's encouraging, that's a victory.

SESAY: It's a massive undertaking.

VAUSE: Yes. It's going to be pretty tense 30 days.

MOORE: Yes, it is.

SESAY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

VAUSE: White House hopeful, Hillary Clinton still celebrating and for a good reason. Today, we've got three very big endorsements.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S PRESIDENT: I want those of you who've been with me from the beginning of this incredible journey to be the first to know that I'm with here. I am fired up and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.

VAUSE: President Barack Obama said he has seen up close Hillary Clinton's judgment as well as her toughness. He says there's no one as qualified for the office.

SESAY: Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren are also endorsing her. Warren is seen as more progressive than Clinton and could help her win over supporters of Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders. Warren didn't mince words when she attacked the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

ELIZABETH WARREN, U.S. SENATOR: We will not allow a small insecure thin skinned wannabe tyrant or his allies in the senate to destroy the rule of law in the United States of America. We will not.

VAUSE: OK. CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for the Atlantic, Ron Brownstein joins us.

Now, Elizabeth Warren -

RON BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR EDITOR THE ATLANTIC: I think up the block recognize that in Hollywood as an audition. I mean, that - you know, there something interesting - it's an interesting - I don't know if you saw the report the other day that Harry Reid commissioned a lawyer to look at the succession laws in Massachusetts, because one of the problems Democrats have is three of the most promising vice presidential possibilities. Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Cory Booker in New Jersey are all in states with Republican governors, and if they - if they pick them as vice president, a Republican would get to kind of, you know, control the seat. But with they - with they ascertained was that the Massachusetts law is pretty tight would require a special election very quickly and kind of lead you the feeling that Harry Reid was putting this out there as a way of kind of promoting her candidacy.

VAUSE: Let's go to the Barack Obama endorsement and it was effusive. Let's listen to this.

OBAMA: Look, I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.

VAUSE: No one ever more qualified to hold this office. Couldn't ask for any better than that.

BROWNSTEIN: Thomas Jefferson. I was thinking if he said that. You know, if he's been waiting awhile, that did not feel like he was waiting awhile to say that.

VAUSE: Well, he recorded two days ago.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, I think - I think there are two central advantages Hillary Clinton has against Donald Trump. One is temperament and preparation, who's really prepared and equipped emotionally and by experience to do this job. And the other is that - is that Trump is seen as someone who is dividing America and essentially running against many of the cultural and demographic changes. You know, Trump's big advantage is that he has seen as body and change at a time when most people want change which is the status quo.

But he hit very hard, I thought, at this kind of, who do you really want to do this job? He kept saying, this is a tough job. I know how tough this job is, and she's tough, and I think that is - I mean, that - you know, that - all the way through one of the biggest doubts about Trump and obviously accentuated by some of the events in recent weeks. Is this someone with the temperament that kind of the demeanor and the experience to really handle the job?

SESAY: It is remarkable when you listen to that endorsement and you remember how far they've come, how that relationship between the president and Secretary Clinton has evolved. It is quite remarkable and the thought he can well be her most effective surrogate.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, he's a long way from likeable enough. His famous line about her at an ABC Debate in New Hampshire that I attended in 2008. You know, the thing is presidents are on the ballot with their successor no matter what they do. I mean the fact is that the vast majority of people who approve of Obama will vote for Hillary Clinton and mostly a vast majority of people who disapprove of Obama will vote against her. That has been the pattern in both 2008 with Bush, 2000 with Clinton, 1988 with Reagan.

The most important thing he can do for her he's already doing, his approval rate is raising, but having said that, given her particular problems among young people that is somewhere he can be important, and obviously turning out African-Americans and other elements of that core Obama coalition.

VAUSE: OK. Let's move onto Bernie Sanders right now because, today, he had a very important meeting with President Barck Obama and today he came so close maybe to conceding.

BERNIE SANDERS, U.S DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I spoke briefly to Secretary Clinton on Tuesday night and I congratulated her on her very strong campaign. I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump.

VAUSE: I mean, the best thing you could do to help defeat Donald Trump is stop running.

BROWNSTEIN: Look, I think he's in a pretty untenable position in that. He has said all along that that he view superdelegates as kind of illegitimate and undemocratic. And now, the only way forward for him would be to ask superdelegates to overturn a pretty decisive result on the part of voters. You know, in the end she ended up beating him by 3.7 million in the popular vote. She won 15 - she beat him in 15 states by more than he beat her in any state.

You know, he ran a great race. He mobilized young people, he revolutionized small-dollar fundraising, but she beat him pretty decisively and for him to now argue the superdelegates to overturn that, how does that fit into the overall message from the beginning? It's kind of a dead end.

SESAY: So he steps out as the expectation is, what - then for the convention, what are your expectations on the role Sanders will play if he steps down -

BROWNSTEIN: I think if he steps down it will probably be a bigger and more welcome run. I mean the president was effusive in his praise and the statement of Senator Sanders and obviously he has touched a chord in the Democratic Party. I mean he had done far better than anybody probably including those around him expected. I think if he does step out, he will be, I think, given kind of a hero's welcome at the convention. If he goes in, he's a much more divisive figure.

VAUSE: OK. Let's move onto Donald Trump because there's not so kind words coming from the house speaker, Paul Ryan.

PAUL RYAN, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Do I think that these kinds of antics are distracting and give us a campaign that we cannot be proud of? Yes. I've spoken very clearly about it. But I think and hope and believe that he can fix this to the point where he can hopefully run a campaign that we can all be proud of. And what I can control, Jay, is what we do here in Congress.

VAUSE: What are the risks right now for someone like Paul Ryan to unendorsed trump that you got to change your behavior and I won't, you know, give you my endorsement back until you do.

BROWNSTEIN: There's never been anything quite like this, you know. I mean, there's never - you have never seen as many senior party leaders much less the speaker of the house from the same party level the kind of criticism that we have heard over the past week in particular at Donald Trump. I mean, several Republicans using the same phrase, "Un- American" to describe his criticism of Judge Curiel. They are between a rock and a hard place.

I mean Donald Trump represents something like half of their coalition, you know, I mean, maybe 40% of their coalition. You see it most acutely in John McCain who, you know, Trump personally demean in a way that I'm sure John McCain would like to rhetorically punch him in the nose, but he knows he needs the Trump voters. On the other hand, he worries that by embracing Trump too closely he will a generate backclash among Hispanic and independent voters. So they are really squeezed here.

But I do think that Ryan's instinct is to create space all the through and not to allow Trump to define the party not only this election, but beyond.

VAUSE: Let's get back quick. So, (INAUDIBLE) Washington Post articulated. Breakdown the challenge ahead to Donald Trump, maximizing the white vote if he wants to win states which Obama carried against Mitt Romney back in 2012. Let's look at three of these swing states here.

Ohio in 2012, Mitt Romney took 50% of the white working class votes (INAUDIBLE). If Trump wants to win Ohio this time, because of the changing demographics, he'll need 58%. That's assuming all things are equal, but if he does 5% worse with Hispanics, college educated whites, compared to Romney, that number then hits 61%.

OK. So then we go onto Florida. Romney lost at 64%, Trump needs 67%.Now, if he does works with Hispanics it's up to 72%. Let's go to Pennsylvania. Again, Romney lost with 56%. Trump needs 61%. And then all things -- if he loses with Hispanics, he get 64%.

So can Donald Trump can he get those -- BROWNSTEIN: So that's what he would have to - that is clearly what he

would have to do. If there's a path to the White House for Donald Trump, it runs primarily through the Rust Belt. You have older, whiter states that are not as affected by demographic change as some of the new Sun Belts winning states, like Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia.

All of those, even the Clinton campaign believed are likely to grow harder for Trump. But Trump, clearly, has, you know, his core appeal has been to the white working class voters. They are the ones who powered his nomination. And if you look at some of those Midwestern states, Ohio and Iowa in particular, I think Pennsylvania is tougher. He -- the level he'd have to reach among working class whites is approximately where Republicans have gotten since 1988 in their - in their best moments.

Look at some other states, like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He would have to go beyond anything that we have seen in at least -- since 1988. So - but that is the path.

I think the general expectation in the Clinton campaign is that the Rust Belt states are going to get a little harder for them and the Sun Belt swing states might be get a little easier because of the pattern of Trump support where he's stronger in the white working class but he's not - he's under performing with college educated whites and he faces the risk of a big backlash among non-white voters.

SESAY: Ron, thank you. We appreciate it.

VAUSE: It's good to have you.

And still breaking. When we come back, Israel searching for clues in Wednesday's deadly shooting. A little detail from the hunt and how the terror attack is impacting Ramadan.

SESAY: Here's why close to a million people have signed a petition asking to remove a California judge from his position.

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[0:20:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody, watching CNN, and this is the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But thousands of Palestinians will not be allowed into Israel to visit family.

Israeli authorities have frozen entry permits more than 80,000 Palestinians after Wednesday's deadly mass shooting in Tel Aviv. The attackers killed four people, wounded more than a dozen.

SESAY: Israeli forces have also closed off the West Bank city of Yatta conducting door to door searches and interviews.

VAUSE: Phil Black live this hour in Jerusalem with more on this. So, Phil, what's the latest on the Israeli response in particular there in the West Bank?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jonathan, by suspending those 80,000 or so permits there that you mentioned, what they have effectively done is shut down all movement for Palestinians who would normally and would like to travel into Israel. These people who would travel here for work, family, religious reasons, that's not happening. Usually, at this time of view during Ramadan, the movement is loosened up a little bit so the people can come and visit family during this holy month for Muslims. But, that's not going to happen either.

So, effectively, the West Bank is being shut off from Israel for the - for a period of time. It's unclear just how long this will last for. And around the village or town, really, of Yatta in the south of the West Bank specifically, that's where we're seeing an even tighter security force building up. The town is really being blockaded.

That's what we saw there yesterday over the course of the day. Security was being built up at all the main entry points to the town. Firstly with roadblocks, really, literally large blocks of stone just lumped in the middle of the road to prevent people from getting in and out, getting their cars in and out, and an increased military presence as well stopping people from coming and going.

What we saw there, like, yesterday was that it was simply cars that weren't being allowed in and out. People were still allowed to walk in and out of the town. But at the moment, it appears there is something of a blockade around this town of 120,000 people or so in the south of the West Bank. This is the town that was searched extensively on night of the raid by the Israeli military it's where arrests were also made, and it's unclear just how long that blockade will now stay in place.

VAUSE: And, Phil, there's a lot of focus right now the new hard-line defense minister, Avigdor Liberman and how he will respond to all of this. But today, he returned to the scene of the shooting and drank a cappuccino.

BLACK: Well, there has been a push among Israeli officials for people to get back to the scene of that market and treat it normally, to open up the businesses for people to go back there and eat and drink and so forth. And so, yes, Avigdor Lieberman the defense minister among other officials including the prime minister did just that.

There is a lot of attention on Lieberman because he is something of a controversial appointment to the defense minister position. A recent one, a right-wing politician with a very well-established reputation for blaster, threatening language, particularly when it comes to security-type issues. So there are a lot of people that are watching his performance in this first test for him very, very closely.

I guess you would have to say that so far the Israeli government response has been pretty steady. Iit has built up over the last 24 hours or so. But it is, it would seem increasingly muscular in the sense that we're seeing this ban on travel between the West Bank and Israel now being put into place, and increasingly this military presence being built up around the town of Yatta as well, John.

VAUSE: Phil Black pulling early morning duty there in Jerusalem. Thank you. SESAY: Time for a quick break. Outrage over a rape sentence here in California growing louder. Coming up, why nearly a million people are pushing to remove the judge in that case.

VAUSE: Also, head of public defender's passionate argument challenging the rapist's privilege in the U.S. justice system.

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[0:28:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

The biggest Britain has faced in decades is two weeks away. Polls show the public split on whether to leave or remain in the European Union. The debate on Thursday, the Scottish first minister accused former London mayor, Boris Johnson of being after the prime minister's job.

VAUSE: The Euro 2016 Football Championship is hours away. The game kicks off at the Stade de France near Paris with a match between the host nation and Romania. The threat of terror attacks has prompted France to deploy nearly 100,000 security forces and put up a no-fly zone over stadiums.

SESAY: U.S. President Barack Obama is endorsing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. He says he'll campaign for her. The U.S. vice president, Joe Biden and Democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren, are also endorsing Clinton. Warren could help a win over supporters of Democratic rival, Bernie sanders.

VAUSE: A Pakistani woman who police say was brutally murdered by her own mother and brother was buried on Thursday. Authorities say Zeenat Rafiq was tied to a bed, doused with gasoline, then set on fire, all because she secretly eloped. Her mother is in police custody and has expressed no remorse. The brother remains on the run.

And we're following the global outrage over a U.S. sexual assault case in what was a very lenient jail sentence. Close to a million people have signed a petition asking that California Judge Aaron Persky be removed from the bench.

SESAY: They're upset, Persky gave a former Stanford University athlete a six-month prison sentence to sexual assault on an unconscious woman. CNN Sara Sidner has more on the fallout from this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIRLANE MCCRAY, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR'S WIFE: You don't know me, but you've been inside me and that's why we're here today.

[00:30:00] CYNTHIA NIXON, ACTRESS: I was butt naked all the way down to my boots, legs spread apart, and has been penetrated by a foreign object by someone I did not recognize. ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN NEWSROOM HOST: I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water, and I decided I don't want my body anymore.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The searing words of a sexual-assault victim brought to life by people who have never met her, but want her voice heard. The 12-page letter first read aloud in court by the 23- year-old victim to her 20-year-old attacker, former Stanford student and swimmer Brock Turner. The two go to the same party, both drink too much, and Brock Turner attacks her. Two grad students find her unconscious behind a dumpster. A jury convicts Turner of three-felony counts. The prosecutor asked for six years in prison. The judge sentences him to just six months in jail and three years' probation in line with the probation officer's recommendation.

The decision sparks outrage by the prosecutor. Victim's advocate and more than 950,000 people online trying to recall the judge. Then letters and support of Brock Turner are revealed. Some partially blaming the victim for drinking, others turning Brock Turner into the victim. Turner's father write -in part, "His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20-minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life. That letter causes its own firestorm. Another father's message to the Turners going viral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no scenario where your son should be the sympathetic figure here. He is the assailant, he is the rapist. I can't imagine as a father how gut-wrenching the reality that is from you, but it is true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: In this case, the deeply personal words of a victim managing to stir a nation and spotlight an issue so often kept in the dark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to the CDC, one in five women will be sexually assaulted during her lifetime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And in 80 percent of those cases, those attacks are perpetrated by someone they already know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And one in four girls will be sexually abused before the age of 18.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't a secret.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: What has further outraged people is that Brock Turner won't spend six months in jail, he will spend half that time, that is the law here in California, only 50 percent of the six months, which means he'll be out in three. Isha, John.

[0:32:34] SESAY: Let's thanks Sara Sidner for that. Let's have Rachel Marshall weigh in on the case. She's the public defendant Alameda County, California. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. You wrote a really interesting piece about the sentence Brock Turner received from that judge. In the article, you said, "When the judge who sentenced Turner looked at him, he saw a person with whom he has a lot in common: white attending Stanford (where the judge in this case graduated from, and where I also attended.)"

You say, "A top-ranked swimmer, wearing a suit, and with similarly successful family and friends rallying to support him. To the judge, Turner doesn't 'look' like he belongs in the system at all. Thus, it was easy for him to have compassion for Turner." Now, Rachel, as you well know, this judge has said he was actually taking account Brock Turner's age, lack of criminal history, academic achievement and alcohol consumption when he gave him that six-month sentence, but you think the deciding factor here was the judge's own bias.

[0:33:34] RACHEL MARSHALL, PUBLIC DEFENDANT: Yes, my concern in this case isn't so much what it says about this judge, who I don't appear before. Though, the difference in the way the sentencing happened in this case versus how it happens for most criminal defendants, most criminal defendants don't come to court with the ability to point to a stack of success that stem from their privilege that make a judge more sympathetic. So, for example, he mentions the lack of priors.

There's been evidence today coming out that Brock Turner had engaged in drug use, and certainly had engaged in illegal underage drinking. But he grew up in a community as Stanford as well where there's not a lot of law enforcement in his life, whereas my clients who are all grow up in poor communities, living in poor communities, and who all are mostly people of color, they have lived lives where law enforcement is rampant, and where they're far more likely to come into contact with the police simply for doing the same kind of offenses that lots of folks with privilege do, but do behind closed doors, and do behind in college campuses -

SESAY: Uh-hmm.

MARSHALL: -- where law enforcement doesn't really intervene.

SESAY: So, Rachel, with that being said, if this had been one of your clients as you say, frequently poor, frequently of color, what would they have been looking at in terms of a sentence for these same charges that Brock Turner was facing in your experience?

MARSHALL: It's hard to speculate as to what a specific sentence would be in a case without knowing the specific backgrounds and facts, but what I can tell you is that they wouldn't get a sentence of six months and probation. My clients, when they appear before a judge are often come across as people to the judge that looked like other people in prison, looked like they belong in the system simply because of the color of their skin or their background, and that needs to change.

It's much easier to be able to reward or have compassion for someone like Brock Turner for a lot of judges who come from similar backgrounds, who come from similar educations. We need that to change. We need judges to stop looking at a narrow area of successes and deeming those as proxies for lack of priors, or for proxies for other kinds of successes.

SESAY: Well, Rachel, as you know some 960,000 people have signed to change or petition, asking for this judge to be removed. Not everyone supports that one. We need to take a listen to one public defender from Palo Alto, and we'll listen to what Gary Goodman has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY GOODMAN, PUBLIC DEFENDER: I think it's absurd. I think it's absolutely absurd. The man is an excellent jurist. He does things the proper and the correct way, and I hope it doesn't have a quelling effect on other judges around the country that, you know, that are voted for. That, you know, if you make a wrong decision, people are going to come after you and try to make you change your decision when those people have no idea of what happened at that trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Rachel, where do you stand on this issue of whether or not the judge should be recalled?

MARSHALL: I agree with that comment. I think the recall is misguided. We don't want judges to be afraid to exercise leniency or compassion, we just want them to be broader in who they exercise that towards.

SESAY: All right. Rachel Marshall, we really appreciate it. We appreciate the fact that you would come on and then speak to us and share your opinions on this. Very, very well-needed. Appreciate it. Thank you.

MARSHALL: Thank so much.

[0:36:58] VAUSE: OK. Short break. When we come back, it was the unofficial Studio 54 of Los Angeles, but you did not have to be an A- lister to dance at "The Catch" by the founder of the legendary night club, "Never turn anybody away."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL)

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

[0:39:21] SESAY: Taking you back to the 1970s disco. That's inside "Jewel's Catch One" a legendary night club right here in L.A. For four decades it's where celebrities, politicians, and regular Joes cut loose.

[0:39:35] VAUSE: It was the unofficial Studio 54 of the West Coast, now the subject of a documentary which will premier at the Provincetown Film Festival next week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THELMA HOUSTON, SINGER AND ACTRESS: You came here prepared to dance. It was as if that was your job for the evening.

SHARON STONE, ACTRESS: There was upstairs and there was a little bit of downstairs, but it was great music, and it was packed, packed. And I think they pretended not to know me because I always had a parking space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: The producer/director of the doc, C. Fitz and club owner, Jewel Thais-Williams join us now in the studio. Welcome to you both.

VAUSE: Thank you for being here.

[0:40:12] C. FITZ, JEWEL'S CATCH ONE DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Thank you for having us.

SESAY: (INAUDIBLE) with us. Jewel, we can start with you. I know that the club closed last year.

[0:40:19] JEWEL THAIS-WILLIAMS, JEWEL'S CATCH ONE CLUB OWNER: Yeah.

SESAY: But back in the day, this place was hopping. It was jumping. Take us back in time to what a typical night at Catch One was like in its prime.

WILLIAMS: Well, there were actually not too many typical nights. Each one had its own flavor. But - yeah, it would - it would be packed. We have a huge dance area that's like 60 by 90. And lots and lots of speakers and the best D.J.s on the planet. And folks would come in and dance and party from the time we opened at 10 o'clock until - initially, until 6 o'clock in the morning.

VAUSE: And this was - this was a place with celebrities, too. It was - it was a big hangout in L.A. And history was made there. Is this where Madonna did the Vogue?

WILLIAMS: Madonna was there. She came frequently during the late '80s, early '90s. Whenever she was in town, she made The Catch a place where she would come and hang out.

SESAY: So, as we listen to Jewel, incredible just images trying to put it all together. This was such an inclusive place. It was a trend-setting place. Is that what drew you to this story?

FITZ: Well, Jewel created for 42 years a place where people of all kinds could go, including the celebrities, and they felt safe there. Not just the celebrities, but people that didn't have any place to go. She never turned anyone away. They couldn't get into clubs in West Hollywood, a lot of them. And -- but they could get into Jewel's Catch One, and that's how it started. And then the celebrities started showing up. And the music, the music that's in the documentary just - it's amazing and what a ride. VAUSE: And Fitz, let's talk about Jewel for a moment, because she didn't just run this club.

SESAY: Yeah.

VAUSE: This was a place where people could go to get help when they couldn't get help anywhere else.

FITZ: Yeah, they had no place to go, but they had Catch One. And not only that, she created next door to it a non-profit health clinic when she was age 56. I mean, that's amazing to be a healer not just through the non-profit health clinic but through this club and through that music. And everybody was welcome, and Jewel was there at the forefront.

And she was battling all kinds of odds. She was harassed by the police, homophobia, her neighbors didn't want her there, some of the authorities. And she was burned down in 1985 and couldn't get a building permit. And all these things that she battled just so she would keep those doors open for everybody, celebrities, all the way to the regular Joes, as you mentioned. Pretty amazing.

SESAY: being as inclusive as you are and just talking about being someone who kept the doors open for people who sometimes didn't have anywhere else to go, what do you make of the climb that we find ourselves in where we have some politicians, people of influence, talking about building walls and being divisive at this point in time? What goes through your mind when you hear some of that stuff?

WILLIAMS: It sounds familiar, even though it's 19 - it's 2016, but you know, we see that racism: A, has not gone away. B, are these walls could keep people from coming in or keep us from going out, too? I wonder sometimes about this wall, the purpose of it. You know, of even suggesting it. But on the other hand, there is a big spiritual growth and uprising, too, that hopefully, one day will offset all of this.

SESAY: Uh-hmm.

WILLIAMS: I never thought in my lifetime as a kid in the '40s and '50s that I would have been in and shook the hand of the president of the United States, and that he was an African-American.

VAUSE: And quite possibly the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton as well.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes, during the aids crisis, she came to APLA, which was the Aids Project Los Angeles, and I was on the board of directors then. So, I have a picture on my - on my Facebook that was taken with Hillary and my spouse. Yes.

SESAY: So -

VAUSE: Well, thank you, guys, for coming in and sharing the memories.

SESAY: Yeah. Thank you very much. WILLIAMS: Thank you very much.

FITZ: Thank you.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) we wish you the best.

SESAY: Yeah, absolutely.

WILLIAMS: It's great. Thank you.

FITZ: Thank you.

SESAY: And thank you for watching NEWSROOM L.A. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. World Sport is up next with Patrick Snell. And Patrick, it's been a big night for hockey fans in Pittsburgh.

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[01:00:01] SESAY: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

VAUSE: Ahead (INAUDIBLE) the push for party unity is now a whole lot easier for Hillary Clinton with democrat heavy hitters coming out in support of their presumptive presidential nominee.