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Breaking News in Freddie Gray Trials; EgyptAir Investigators Cannot Download Data from Black Boxes; C-SPAN Turns to Social Media Broadcasting; Voting in U.K. Over Brexit; Pulse Nightclub Holds Fundraiser. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: I've been, you know, shocked and surprised and disheartened so many times with these police cases that at this point what does it take? At the end of the day, Freddie Gray is dead. And it wasn't a suicide.

So now, who is responsible for his death? Is this going to be he was responsible for his own death? Is there no one within the government responsible for this? I think that's the question many people out there are asking.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: How does this -- there are four more trials to go including one. There was the hung jury and so they're retrying. I mean, this was the guy who was the van driver who, again, as we, you know, underline how faced the most serious charges. So he is found not guilty on all of the charges, what does that tell you with the following trials?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, it tells us that we're in for an uphill battle that we'll probably be lost as well. I mean, you think about it. What is it that that they need?

Do they need this van driver to have someone have a witness say, "He said to me, let's give him this rough ride. Let's beat him up so much in the back of the van that he is injured in a way that he never gets out of this."

That's what they are looking for. That's what they want. It's not enough to have this circumstantial evidence that he was driving and the wounds and other injuries were such that it came from that rough ride.

They want some direct causation between the two. And the jury -- I mean the judge felt he wasn't going to get that. He didn't get it from the prosecutor's office. And what really gets is what if jury have found differently?

BALDWIN: Because this was a bench trial, reminding everyone. So this was up to the judge. If the evidence was presented up to the judge, no jury and you say that benefited these officers.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: In most of these cases, 99. BALDWIN: They ask for it.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: They ask for it, but in 99 percent of the cases, they asked for these types of trials. They believe that a jury is too emotional, that a jury may be biased. All of this, even though you have the voir dire and they ask all the questions, et cetera.

But what really concerns me is this. In a case in which there's a police officer and you have a defendant who is accused of hurting a victim, they want a jury trial. But when it comes to a police officer putting his or her liberty on the line because someone else has been injured, they want a bench trial. They only want the judge to decide.

It is very interesting that, you know, the reason behind this and they feel that the jury is not going to give them a fair shake.

BALDWIN: We will watch the final four. Perhaps you'll be surprised in a different way. We will cover it. We are in Baltimore through the end. Gloria Brown-Marshall, thank you very much. And Miguel Marquez, thank you very much as well.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We have more breaking news. This time involving the state of EgyptAir Flight 804, we are now being told a key piece of information about the plane's black box, the recorder -- flight data recorder. We'll hold all the answers to what happened before the crashed. New details on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:07] BALDWIN: Breaking news now into the investigation of that EgyptAir crashed. CNN Aviation Correspondent Rene Marsh is joining us now live from Washington on.

They have the flight data recorder, but they're not able to get the information off of it. Is that correct?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. We are just getting this information in. A U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN that those memory chips inside of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder are so badly damaged.

Investigators in Egypt have been unable to successfully download any data from either one of those recorders. So those recorders are now being sent to France. The French equivalent of the NTSB, the BEA will now get their chance as trying to download that critical data on both of these recorders.

As you know, these recorders are so critical in answering many questions that we still have about what went wrong on board EgyptAir Flight 804.

On the cockpit voice recorder, for example, you would hear conversations between the pilots, possibly the flight crew. You would hear if there was another voice, someone else in the cockpit. You would hear any other sounds that were happening, whether it was warning sounds and alarms from the aircraft or even an explosion. Those are all the sorts of things that could be answered, could be detected on a cockpit voice recorder.

And then you have the flight data recorder, which records thousands of parameters, everything from how fast the plane was going to the altitude, how the engines were performing.

So this is why these two recorders are so critical and everyone is sort of holding their breath and they were so happy to hear that they had been found and hopes of getting some answers about what brought down this plane.

And now, this news at this point that Egyptians at this point have not been able to get any data, you know. I f there is anyone that's able to download any data, it would be the BEA. They are very good at dealing with these recorders.

We also know the recorders are essentially built to withstand extreme conditions. I mean, they can withstand up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for up to an hour. So they are built to withstand it. They have the equipment. We expect that the French will have them in their hands in the next few days.

BALDWIN: Hope (ph) for these families so far that neither of them are giving any information. Rene, thank you.

Peter Goelz, CNN Aviation Analyst, I mean I have seen one of the, you know, the cockpit voice recorders. It's like a solid hunk of metal. It's like Forth Knox. How are they not able to get something off of this?

PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: Well, I mean these are very armored devices. And as Rene said, they are designed to take a terrible beating but very clearly, this plane hit the surface of the water at an extreme rate of speed and, you know, the damage we just saw a few pictures of the recorders.

[15:40:11] The damage was extensive. I'm optimistic that the French working with the manufacturer will be able to extract some of the data, but it certainly a concerning moment.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. We'll stay on it, hopefully to Rene's point the BEA. If anyone can get it, it's the BEA. They try get some of that information to give those families some answers. Peter for now, thank you very much.

I want to go back to politics now and the House Democrat sit-in over gun control that ended just a short time ago sitting on the floor of the House 26 hours.

The protest highlighted another issue that had nothing to do actually with mass shootings in this country. It shined a spotlight on who control the cameras on the House floor, how creative's are these members of Congress will do when it comes to show social media. You know, Republican leadership they cut off C-SPAN's live feed. The cable network turned to social media broadcasting the images that protesting lawmakers were sending out from their smartphones, Periscopes, you know, FaceTiming us here at CNN. They've never done that before.

These words today from Congressman John Lewis sum it up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D) GEORGIA: People are with us not just for that history, but people all over America and around the world. The social media told the story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Social media told the story. Let's talk to Susan Swain, C- SPAN Executive and host and Brian Stelter, CNN Senior Media Correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES". It's great to talk to you all.

And Susan, first of all -- I mean, from what I know, you all have been trying to get your own cameras, you know, on the floor since the early '80s. Talk to me about what happened with those cameras.

SUSAN SWAIN, HOST, CO-PRESIDENT AND CO-CEO, C-SPAN: Well, we have wanted it. It was part of the original compromise that allowed cameras to come into the House in the first place that they had to be controlled by the Speaker.

Every time there's been a change in leadership, we have appealed for C-SPAN and journalist cameras to come in to the chamber with no success. And in the past, it was a done business when the sessions were over.

Yesterday, social media changed all that and for the better, I think, for the public.

BALDWIN: Brian Stelter, let me pivot to you on social media. I mean, I think some of these numbers of Congress are more hip (ph) that I on them. The Snapchat, I mean, I was impress with the Periscoping. How do they build this up?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope, Facebook, like every app you've heard of and maybe some you haven't were being used by these legislators. And some of them more effective than others, about some of the video was amateurish.

It was -- what I would be doing if I was holding my camera up on the floor of the House. But this was an unprecedented and historic moment because, you know, there's television cameras control by the government. They always have been, ever since the '80s as Susan said and yet now for the first time there's an alternative, you know.

This is what the promise of the internet is all about that if you run into a wall, if there's a roadblock or impediment, you can go around that wall. In this case, you can go around it by getting out your cell phone camera and beaming at their Periscope.

You know, I was over in France. I was flying through Amsterdam this morning on my phone on Periscope watching. I think it was 5:00 in the morning here in the U.S. and I was able to watch what was happening on the floor of the United States Congress thanks to Periscope. And that's something we just didn't have a decade ago.

BALDWIN: Susan, what do you think of all of this?

SWAIN: I would argue that it was that raw -- a nature of it that made it much more compelling that this was a highly polished production, people wouldn't be watching as much. You really felt like you were and you were getting an insider view of this.

STELTER: You know, the legislature eye of view it kind of cool, you know, C-SPAN cameras, the television cameras are always top down there from the balcony looking down. It's kind of a boring shot I think, right? This was from the bottom up. You could see it like the way the lawmakers were watching.

BALDWIN: So let's remind everyone.

SWAIN: Sure.

BALDWIN: Let's remind everyone it was 2008, it was the Democrats this time, especially turned the lights out on Republicans. Take a listen.

SWAIN: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC CANTOR, (R) FORMER HOUSE LEADER: And we've had almost 50 members talking on the floor to the American people. Meanwhile, the Speaker of this House has shut down the people's House. As you know, kept the cameras out, turned the lights off, turn the mikes off, but yet we had a House full of people listening to a parade of members insisting that we open this House back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I was just asking Brian a commercial break. I was cheating (ph) and asking him when Twitter was born. He was like it was just launching in 2008 ...

STELTER: Yeah, people like you and me ...

BALDWIN: ... when that out.

STELTER: ... were just barely sign it up. No one had heard of Twitter or even almost Facebook when that happened. And there was no way to stream live video from your phone when that time happened.

BALDWIN: Susan, final word.

SWAIN: Well, even earlier than this, back in 1994, Newt Gingrich and the Republicans who are in the minority used television technology because they wanted their voice heard as a minority. This is always a tactic of minority.

Social media has added another layer to that and it gives the minority a voice in the legislative process. That's what the system is all about.

BALDWIN: It is indeed. Susan Swain, thank you. Brian Stelter, welcome back from France. Thank you very much to both of you.

[15:45:04] In a matter of hours, we will know whether U.K. voters have decided to stay or leave the European Union. The vote has been dubbed Britexit for this exit, but here is what happened when we ask a bunch of Americans what that means?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brexit, sounds like a store?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it like a word scrambled thing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was a breath mint or something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. A watch company?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's actually a British exit from the European Union.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) something you should care about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, maybe we should. We'll take you live to London and explain why we should care, what's at stake and how it could affect the rest of us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One hour and 10 minutes, polls close on this historic vote in the United Kingdom. America's closes ally facing a crucial decision that may have serious consequences for us here in the United States and around the world.

The question is this. Should the U.K. stay or leave the European Union? Our polls show voters are really split down in the middle, the outcome too close to call at this point in time.

[15:50:05] Key political players were seen headed there to the polls. David Cameron there the Prime Minister voting to stay, while the leader of the U.K. Independence Party voting to leave. President Obama, by the way, on the record, would like the U.K. to stay. Let me bring in Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir in London. Nima, before in American audience, please explain what is at stake in this historic vote?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first and foremost we're already seeing the financial evaluation (ph) of this. We're seeing the impacts on global financial markets and that is really only around the uncertainty of not knowing which way this is going to go. This is really just the result of the fear that Britain might exit and we're already seeing that turmoil.

But even more crucially, you know, we saw the disarray that the European Intelligence Agency were sworn into during the Belgium attacks and the crisis that happen in Paris and the sense that that has really sent shock waves around Europe.

What we were hearing consistently from American security agency is we cannot rely on the Europeans effectively share information and Britain has increasingly been a conduit, been almost a highway between Europe and the U.S. trying to smooth the path of that information.

The information that is needed so crucially in this rough shooting out war entire globally and many those we've been speaking to sources within, you know, the security agencies in the U.S. are saying without Britain, imagine having to deal separately with what the British Intelligence Agencies are hearing and then what those European Intelligence Agencies are hearing and then trying to become an information clearing house to bring that all together given how much of a threat ISIS poses inside Europe right now.

There is very real concern about the security impact of a potential British exit and that's why you saw President Obama -- it didn't do much for his popularity rating here in the U.K. I have to tell you, Brooke, but that's why you saw him making that very blunt statement about where he would like the British voters to fall on this issue.

BALDWIN: He did again polls closing in one hour, your time there in London. Nima, thank you so much. We allow (ph) the whole world is watching the Brexit. Thank you.

Next, the show of determination in the face of tragedy, the owners of the Pulse Nightclub planning a party tonight to help their employees and help that community continue in its healing process. We'll talk live to the club's former entertainment director, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:16] BALDWIN: When the shots bring out at Pulse Nightclub 11 days ago who is "Latin Night", a night that is more to just a quickly theme with the club. It's an institution within the LGBT community and tonight at tradition we'll be leaving on.

The owner of Pulse Nightclub is hoping to ease the pain and bring people together because she is hosting a Latin Street Party just two miles down the road at a family owned restaurant. Proceeds will benefit Pulse employees. So, let me bring in someone who is deeply involved in the community there. She is Blue Star, the former Entertainment Director at Pulse who knows a number of the victims there.

Blue, thank you so much. It was this time last week I was standing right there next to you and now the road has opened up. I see the nightclub and the memorial growing over your right shoulder.

Can you just -- as we look at some of your photos, tell be about how that community is evolved over the last few days?

BLUE STAR, FORMER ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR, PULSE NIGHTCLUB: I would definitely say we're just trying to find our best way to move on. I think now that Orange Avenue has opened up and people are able to get a little bit closer to faults now, it's becoming a little bit more apparent that our process is starting to move forward.

Again, like you were saying, with things like we're doing tonight, with the Latin Night Street Party, we're just trying to move forward. It's not necessarily moving on. We're just trying to get back in the groove of some things and just trying to find a sense of normalcy, whatever that might be for each and every person going through their process.

But, I will say that it's interesting to see the amount of traffic on Orange and the people that are paying their respects to Pulse. I went by their last night at 1:30 which I think that you can see some of my picture when I got off of work and it was quite amazing because I ended up running into people that I knew and, you know, just hugged each other.

And I think one of the most important things that saw last night was an off-duty police officer just kind of manning the vigil and taking care of all of the candles that were there. And I think that that kind of speaks volumes for the community and itself because he really didn't have to do that. But he actually made sure that each candle stayed lit while I was there and I'm fairly certain that he just went on and did that throughout the night.

BALDWIN: I just saw the photo of that officer. I saw your photos. That struck me as well. OPD doing (inaudible) work there as well.

Well, what about -- tell me, Blue, about this, the Latin Party tonight, the owner of Pulse, you know, making sure that those employees who are out of jobs are not forgotten.

STAR: Absolutely. I mean, so many people have been affected, you know. We keep touching base on the butterflies that since the staff, you know, doesn't have a place to work.

And so I think that this is a beautiful way of the owner kind of taking charge in saying, "We're going to move forward and we're still going to respect our Latin community, so tonight is for you guys. And tonight is to show how strong that we are and let the community embrace us and let's move forward together as one strong unit, one Orlando strong unit." And we're going to dance, as I don't know if you've seen, but Orlando has been dancing our way through the healing process which I think is pretty awesome. And so we're going to dance and listen to music and eat food and just kind of be together. And I think it's a wonderful tribute that they're doing and I think it is very brave.

You know, they are certainly my heroes with the way that they have handled all of this and I know tonight is going to be no different.

BALDWIN: You are a leader in that community. Keep doing what you are doing, Blue. Blue Star, live in Orlando. Thank you so much. I know the Pulse Nightclub owner, she will be up here in New York for pride this week and marching with the throngs of people here in Downtown Manhattan. Blue, thank you very much.

And thank you for being with me here in New York on this Thursday afternoon. Let's go to Washington now. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Brooke.