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Some Participants Experience Coal Burns At Tony Robbins Event; United Kingdom Now Has AA Credit Rating. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 27, 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] PAUL GOLD, BURNED BY HOT COALS AT TONY ROBBINS EVENT: And I realized something had gone terribly wrong. I felt this immense fire and I just started to the other side of the, you know, of the fire walk. They hosed my feet off and it just, you know, it felt like something had gone wrong.

I stepped away and then my feet just had this burning sensation so I came back. They hosed my feet off. They did a wonderful job of at least, you know, hosing it off and making sure that, you know, it was fully inundated with water. But you know, as I left I saw some people on the floor crying. I had to sit down and one of the other attendees had given me so ice so I rubbed ice on my feet and it just as swelling, just started to occur immediately.

I was one of the lucky ones. I mean, I only had second degree burns on both my feet with some big blisters. And you know, it hurt a lot. I went to the burn center. They treated me but some other people, you know, they were not as fortunate, unfortunately. But you know, I still believe that the fire walk is safe. I just think something went wrong.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Because you said four months ago you went and obviously there wasn't this issue otherwise you wouldn't have done it again most likely. What went wrong this time from what you could tell?

GOLD: I don't know if they used the wrong kind of wood or maybe there -- the pit was not flat and there were some jagged coals sticking up which made the surface area, you know, not smooth and caused, you know, as if you are stepping on just a small rock and it can cause an injury to the foot. I think the same thing may have happened with the coals. That some of them were sticking up and the entire foot just -- all the pressure went on a single coal and that's what I think happened because I got pretty badly burned. My fiance went right after me and, you know, nothing really happened to her, just a few minor blisters. But the person behind her experienced severe burns. The person behind her, bad burns as well.

BROWN: Weird. There was some talk that some people were taking selfies during this. Did you see any of that going on?

GOLD: I saw one person who was up there kind of had a camera up and he was filming the whole thing. But it, you know, it all happen so quickly. You know, before it happened they had the drum beat going. It was kind of nice. Everything was going well. And then when you got to the other side of the pit, you know, it wasn't so pleasant anymore.

BROWN: Some people might be watching this and saying, why would you walk hot coals in the first place? There's inherent risk in that. What did you expect? What were you hoping to accomplish by doing this?

GOLD: Well, you know, I believe in Tony Robbins. I think he has done a lot of wonderful thing for millions of people. I still believe in him. Will I fire walk again? Well, if Tony goes firstly follow him through the pit but other than that I'm not 100 percent sure that I'm going to be fire walking anymore. But, you know, it has set up to overcome your fears. And you know, of course, everybody is scared of burning and scared of coals, but it's supposed to be safe. I did it four months ago, nothing happened. I mean, 7,000 people walked through the fire walk on the last event that I attended. I didn't see anybody injured the last time.

BROWN: I should read this statement from a spokesman for Tony Robbins that says "it's always the goal to have no guests with any discomfort afterwards but it's not uncommon to have fewer than one percent of participants experience hot spots which is similar to a sun burn that can be treated with aloe." So there you have it. Did it feel like a sunburn o you?

GOLD: I saw -- you know, unfortunately I saw people peeling skin away from their foot.

BROWN: Oh, God.

GOLD: And, you know, there were, you know, severe injuries that I saw firsthand. My foot, you know, has a huge, huge blister on it. You know, I didn't even -- it was well beyond anything like aloe or any small cure. You know, I'm going to be off my feet for probably the next week and a half.

BROWN: Well, I hope that you heal quickly Paul Gold as well as all the others who were injured during this. Thanks for coming on and talking to us about this.

GOLD: Well, thank you, Pam.

BROWN: And by the way, we are less than 30 minutes away from the closing bell on Wall Street. Markets down nearly 300 points right now reacting to news that UK's credit raiding has been downgraded. We are going to take you live to London to find out what happens next in the messy fallout from the Brexit vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:39:28] BROWN: The UK has just been stripped of its stop credit rating after the seismic decision that has sent tremors around the world. Brexit, the UK's vote to leave the European Union rocking Britain's economy as three million Brits and counting signed an online petition calling for a do over vote. Meantime, U.S. markets are taking a beating for a second day on the heels of this Brexit decision. Let's go live to Alison Kosik now at the New York stock exchange.

So how bad are things looking here? And what will this new credit rating drop mean for global markets, Alison?

[15:40:00] ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So we are not seeing the credit rating drop play out here in the U.S. markets, but I would bet you would see it play out in overseas markets tonight. Now this overall no way to put it but it doesn't spell good news for the UK because not only did Standard & Poor's, which is one of three ratings agencies, not only did it lower the credit rating two notches to AA for the UK, which by the way is a negative credit rating, it kept a negative outlook on the UK. So what that does signals, guess what? This isn't the only downgrade that is possible. Others are possible as well.

So what these credit ratings agencies do essentially is analyze the ability for a borrower. And in this case the country, the United Kingdom, to repay its loans. And at this point the ratings agency sees the UK as a risky bet. Keep in mind the way credit ratings go, the (INAUDIBLE) is AAA, pristine rating. Well, now the UK has lost that pristine rating. Keep in mind, though, it's not junk status, it's just not top notch. And what it essentially does for the UK, Pamela, is that it makes it more difficult and it makes it more expensive for the United Kingdom to borrow money, especially if it winds up being in a situation where it needs an economic rescue.

One interesting thing with this downgrade with the Standard & Poor's pointed out that this is in direct response to the referendum, to the vote for Britain to leave the European Union. It called the UK leaving the EU a seminal event - Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Alison Kosik, thank you so much for breaking it down for us.

And up next, Richard Quest joins me live from London where leaders of the movement that pushed the UK out are now backing off their promises. Hear why coming up.

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[15:45:45] BROWN: Well, the UK has just been stripped of its top credit rating, just part of the fallout after the UK's surprise vote to leave the European Union.

I'm going to bring in Richard Quest, CNN business correspondent and host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS."

So Richard, the political chaos here is only just beginning to play out. Now we hear the UK lost its AAA credit rating. But is there really any chance of do over or veto at this stage?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. So the reality on the AAA is that two agencies had already taken it away a couple of years ago during the debt crisis. And now S&P lost the AAA and downgraded two notches to AA. It's embarrassing. It's -- the speed which this has happened just a few days after the referendum vote. It all suggests the wheels are coming off the wagon which is why today it was so important that the finance minister basically said the economy was strong and the prime minister in the house of commons said, look, you know, there will be a new government by September and he will invoke the necessary so-called article 50 to begin negotiations when Britain is ready. But don't get - I mean, the truth is there is a lot of chaos, a lot of noise, a lot of disturbance but we still don't know the way forward.

BROWN: And that's the big question. And some want the way forward as a do over or a veto as I just said. So what is the likelihood that that could happen, Richard?

QUEST: Oh, the do over, you mean let's have another referendum. Well, those who are from the leave campaign say, hey, it's not the best of three. And even the prime minister today who said, look, people have voted. He is not calling another referendum. The chances of a second referendum are just about zero.

As for a veto, parliament is supreme. Parliament will decide. Is it likely that members of parliament will fail to put the will of the people into effect? They will be committing political suicide if they did. It was a small majority in favor of leaving, 3.78 percent. But to majority it was. And guess what? That's the way the rules work.

BROWN: That is certainly true.

Richard Quest, thank you so much.

And up next right here on the NEWSROOM, actor Jesse Williams steels the show at the BET awards with a rousing speech on discrimination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WILLIAMS, ACTOR: If you have no interest in equal rights for black people, then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: But the standing ovation also came with some criticism. We are going to dig into that. Stay with us.

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[15:52:59] BROWN: This week's c hero is a remarkable young man from Colombia. He grew up with a serious disability. But today he is in law school and he has dedicated his life to helping other kids like his self.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I have cerebral palsy. A doctor told my mom that I would amount to nothing. What we have been able to accomplish through our work is to change that story. We have transformed the lives of thousands of children with disabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And you can see his full story at CNNheros.com. And while there, nominate someone you think should be a CNN hero.

Well, an emotional call for justice during BET awards as "Grey's Anatomy" star, Jesse Williams honored with the network's humanitarian award for his role in social activism. Williams delivered a fiery speech about racism, police brutally, cultural appropriation, and what he called black magic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not give interest to those who do. Sit down. We have been throwing this country on credit for century. And we are done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us. If you have a critique for the resistance for all resistance then you better have an established record of critique of our impression. Freedom is somehow always conditional here.

You're free, they keep telling us. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt. Burying black people out of sight while out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil, black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, then stealing them (INAUDIBLE) our genius, and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strained fruit. The thing is just because we are magic doesn't mean we're not real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Joining me now is cultural critic, Jamilah Lemieux. She is the senior editor for "Ebony" magazine.

Jamilah, thank you for coming on.

His acceptance speech, and we just saw a bit of it there, touched millions across the country. Why did it strike such a cord with people? What were your initial thoughts?

JAMILAH LEMIEUX, SENIOR EDITOR, EBONY MAGAZINE: I am always so excited to hear Jesse speak or to read his words via twitter or any of the interviews that he has done including cover story that I did with him for "Ebony" in December of last year.

He is a genius. He speaks quite plainly. His ability to synthesize American history, American culture, racism, police brutality, his lens is just unmatched. And unmatched in Hollywood. And so I think the reason that he said a lot of things that he said before. He tweeted them. He said them. And then he is like this. But the BET awards is the biggest cable awards show on television. And that show was televised on Nickelodeon, on BET, on VH1, on like 12 different networks.

But there are a lot of people that aren't used to the Jesse Williams experience in the ways that some of my peers and I are. And he pull node punches. He called out capitalism. He took some of his Hollywood entertainment industry peers to the (INAUDIBLE) for their lack of activism or refusal or inability to speak up about issues of race while calling out white supremacy and gave a special acknowledgement to black women which is something that doesn't often happen in spaces like this.

BROWN: Yes. What was your reaction to that when he touched on black women and what they've been through?

LEMIEUX: It absolutely brought a tears to my eye. And in the time that I followed Jesse and read his words, he has always made a point to speak to the ways that black women have done the emotional economic physical labor of, not just social movement, but in our communities, in our classrooms, in our churches, in our homes. And that something that women like myself and I can, you know, say 24 hours a day. But it does take on a different amount of meaning when someone with his platform and access uses that space to highlight and acknowledge us. It meant a lot. And I was very touched by that and grateful.

BROWN: And he used his speech to also highlight this notion of colorism, not just racism but colorism. Can you explain what that means and your reaction to his take on it?

LEMIEUX: Absolutely. Colorism is something that African-Americans, like people of color, across the world deal with. And it is not something that gets a lot of attention in mainstream media for a number of reasons. It is simply - it is something that white folks quite frankly don't have to think about or understand. But when we look at complexion, Jesse being not just light complexion black man but a bi-racial black man, calling incarceration rate aren't formed by our color. How the access that we get to be television stars or even magazine journalism to be on TV is in formed by our complexion.

Jesse benefits from the privilege of being, you know, what we call fair skinned and having those eyes. Yes he is handsome but so are a lot of men in the industry. A lot of very dark complication black men. And I wonder how many of them would have been able to have his career trajectory with his politics if they were as unapologetically honest about them and the way that he is. And I think that him levering his privilege to raise these important conversations is exactly what those of us who have light skin privilege including myself should do. And I hope that other people now have more space to speak out because of it.

BROWN: And it was interesting. He talked about being biracial and how it has given him perspective on both sides of the cultural divide and he talked about cultural appropriation as well. So really touched on a lot of topics and like you said struck a-cord with a lot of people here.

Jamilah Lemieux, thank you so much for coming on. Really, interesting to hear what you had say.

LEMIEUX: Thank you for having me.

BROWN: And thank you so much for being here with us here in the NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown filling in for my colleague Brooke Baldwin.

"The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Pamela. Welcome to "the LEAD." I'm Jake Tapper.

We do have breaking news in our money lead today. We are just seconds away from the "closing bell" on the floor of the New York stock exchange. And U.S. stocks are taking another haircut today. You see the big board right there. Those red numbers mean that your 401(k)s are, shall we say, bleeding. All these financial freaking out fuelled, of course, by the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

CNN Money correspondent Alison Kosik is on the stock exchange. For Alison, Brexit, Britain exiting the EU, it has already have the

top impact on markets worldwide. And now, rating's agency Standard and Poor's downgrading the credit rating of the United Kingdom. Is it just getting to get even worse?

KOSIK: It very well could. Because it totally doesn't spell good news for the United Kingdom. Because not only did Standard and Poor's lower the credit rating for the United Kingdom two notches to AA, which is negative. It also has a negative outlook on the UK which means more downgrades could be possible.

So what agencies essentially do is they analyze countries to see how able they are to repay loans.