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Multiple Explosions in Thailand; Trump Calls Obama/Clinton Founders of ISIS; Pelosi Calls DNC Hack "Electronic Watergate"; Olympics Update; Aleppo Doctors Beg for Lifeline, Slam U.S.; Russia Accuses Ukraine of Turning Back on Peace; Clinton Focuses on Economy; U.S. Government Says No to Medical Marijuana; Fiji Celebrates 1st Olympic Gold Ever; Olympics Update; Palestinian Woman Trained Hard for Olympic Dreams. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 12, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:32] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour --
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.
SESAY: We are following the breaking news out of Thailand where two people are dead and more than a dozen wounded after multiple bombings in five locations.
VAUSE: Police say the attacks are not linked to international terrorism.
Kristie Lu Stout joins us now from Hong Kong.
Kristie, what else have police been saying in the past hour or so?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we're getting a lot of new information from Thai police. They're saying the explosions that have rocked Thailand are not acts of terror, but what they're calling local sabotage. The Thai deputy police spokesman says there is no evidence this is linked to international terrorism. A series of blasts have brought Thailand the last day, nine bombings in total in five locations across Thailand. At least four people have been killed, at least 21 people wounded. This is the latest information coming in and we're trying to update as we get it from you Thai police. A number of the wounded are foreign tourists. Let's break it all down where the blasts took place, including starting first at Phuket, one at the beach, one on Bunwah Street, and Hua Hin. The most devastating explosions took place and a series of blasts. Two explosions took place there Thursday evening and abdomen additional two explosions Friday morning. Last night, 11 people were wounded, mostly foreign visitors, and this morning, two more bombs. They were upsets at 9:00 a.m. this morning near a local landmark, the clock tower. And Surato in this city, I should add, is not a major tourist hot spot, but it is a transit point for tourists in the province. It is not known if these bombings are all connected and all this is taking place right before the one-year anniversary at the bomb attack at the Irwin Shrine in Bangkok. They also add that the latest bombings are not linked to last year's attack in Bangkok.
Back to you.
VAUSE: OK, Kristie, thank you.
Kristie Lu Stout there with the latest news, four people dead in this string of bombings across Thailand. We now know there are nine separate explosions.
Kristie, thank you.
SESAY: Tensions continue to fester in the top ranks of the Republican Party over Donald Trump. More than 70 top Republicans are now demanding their party cut off financial support to their presidential candidate.
VAUSE: A draft letter, CNN has obtained, calls Trump divisive and reckless and says he may cause Republicans to lose control of Congress. Trump is brushing off the letter and says the party needs him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: If it is true, that's OK, too, because all I'll have to do is dump funding the Republican part party. I'm the one raising the money for them. In fact, right now, I'm in Orlando. I'm going to a fund-raiser for the Republican Party. So if they want to do that, they can save me a lot of time and a lot of --
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meantime, Donald Trump is not backing away from his latest comments about President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
SESAY: During campaign events this week in Florida, he's been calling them cofounders of ISIS.
Jessica Schneider has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: I call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS. They're the founders.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump refusing to back down from his incorrect claim that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton created is.
TRUMP: I think we'll give Hillary Clinton the -- you know if you're a sports team, most valuable player, MVP. You get the MVP award. ISIS will hand her the most valuable player award. Her only competition is Barack Obama. Trump first made the claim at a rally in sunrise, Florida, Wednesday night. And when given the chance to clarify on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt's show, he took it a step further.
[02:05:17] HUGH HEWITT, CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO HOST (voice-over): I know what you meant. You meant he --
TRUMP (voice-over): No, I think he's the founder of ISIS, I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award.
HEWITT: But he's not simplistic to them. He hates them. He's trying to --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I don't care. He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq, that was the founding of ISIS.
SCHNEIDER: But Trump himself called for the U.S. to get out of Iraq in a 2007 interview with Wolf.
TRUMP: How do they get out? They get out. Declare victory and leave.
SCHNEIDER: Hillary Clinton rebuked Trump's claims today tweeting, "No, Barack Obama is not the founder of ISIS." Adding, "Anyone willing to sink so low so often should never be allowed to serve as our commander-in-chief."
Wednesday night, Trump shamed the Clinton campaign for having the father of the Pulse nightclub terrorist sitting behind her at a Florida rally earlier this week.
But Trump those comments with disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley in prime position behind him. Foley, a former representative from Florida, resigned in 2006 amid allegations he sent sexually explicit e-mails and messages to under-aged teenage boys working at the capital.
TRUMP (on camera): How many of you people know me? A lot of you people know me.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: When you get those seats, you sort of know the campaign.
SCHNEIDER: The Trump campaign has not responded to requests for a comment about Foley being in attendance.
This, as sources tell CNN that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has expressed concerns to Trump about the direction of his campaign and the potential impact on down-ballot races.
Trump insisted this morning he didn't have plans to change his approach despite recent polls showing Trump trailing Clinton in battleground states.
TRUMP (voice-over): Well just keep doing the same thing I'm doing right now. And at the end, it's either going to work or I'm going to, you know, have a very, very nice long vacation.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): And Donald Trump may be trailing in some of those crucial swing states, but he is neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in had Iowa according to the latest Suffix University poll. He leads Clinton with 17 percent of undecided voters.
Jessica Schneider, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, the Democratic Party has been dealing with a major hack and it turns out to be worse than they thought. "The New York Times" reports hackers got into the private e-mail accounts of some Democratic Party and Clinton campaign officials.
VAUSE: The U.S. has not publicly named a culprit, but the White House says experts who investigated the cyberattack say Russia is to blame. House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, agrees and compares this to another infamous break-in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: This is an electronic Watergate. This is an electronic Watergate. This is a break-in. The Russians broke in. Who did they give the information to? I don't know. Who dumped it? I don't know. But I do know that this is a Watergate-like electronic break-in. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: America swimmer, Michael Phelps, seems unstoppable at the Rio Olympics. He won his fourth gold medal of the games just a short time ago in the men's 200 meter individual medley. This is Phelps' 26th Olympic medal. 22 are gold.
SESAY: And you don't see this very often. A tie for gold in the women's 100 meter free style. American Simone Manuel and Canadian Penny Alexiak touching the wall at the same time.
VAUSE: CNN "World Sport's" Christine McFarland joining us from Rio.
Again, an emotional moment for Phelps.
CHRISTINE MCFARLAND, CNN WORLD SPORT CORRESPONDENT: It really was, John. It's not something we're accustomed to see, Michael Phelps standing up on the podium and crying during the national anthem. It means a lot to him. It's the fourth straight time he's won it across four Olympic Games. And I have an interesting stat for you this hour. That is the stat
that Michael Phelps has as many medals as the nation of India, would you believe, across the summer and Winter Olympic Games. Not only did he take the medal tonight, of course, he came back from 38 minutes later and he competed in the men's 100 meter butterfly. It was interesting to see this race. Not many swimmers can pull off two races within 45 minutes. Phelps was trailing in this race the first 45 meter and he hit the wall and ended up almost winning it, coming in second, just indicating the measure of the champion he is. And, of course, we have still more medals to come from him left in these Olympic Games. But I think his exploits came up slightly.
Next, our first joint medal of the games and it came in the women's 100 meter freestyle. And it was courtesy of two young swimmers who really have had the swim of their lives. 16-year-old Canadian Penny Alexiak and 20-year-old American Simone Manuel, who became the first avenue can American female to win an Olympic swimming medal, and both of them ending up there on the podium, as well, in tears. It was a bit of a disorientating moment. It is the first time we've had a joint medal, though, since the 2000 games way back in Sydney.
[02:10:48] SESAY: A pretty special moment.
And, Christine, let's talk gymnastics and U.S. gymnast, Simone Biles, cementing her moment among the greats of the sport.
MCFARLAND: Yes. And she is perhaps some are calling her the greatest ever. She finished that event 2.1 points clear of the rest of the field. Now, that is, in fact, bigger than the margin of victory from 1980 to 2012 combined. And this in acknowledge event. She has 10 world championship medals now. This is unbelievably her first Olympic games at 19 years of age. She now has two golds and we can expect to see three more from her. She's still set to compete in the beam, the vault and the floor and going to attempt to be the first gymnast to win five Olympic gold medals in one Olympics. I wouldn't put it past her.
And it's worth mentioning, as well, that her teammate, Aly Raisman picked up the silver and it was an emotional event for her, as well.
SESAY: And they're very good friends, as well.
VAUSE: Very quickly, is the pool still green?
(LAUGHTER)
MCFARLAND: I believe it is, John, yes.
VAUSE: Awesome. Great.
MCFARLAND: I thought this might have died away by now.
VAUSE: Nope. Fabulous.
SESAY: John is in love with the green.
Christine McFarland, thank you.
VAUSE: Let's keep it that way.
Thanks, Christine.
SESAY: Let's check the medal count. The U.S. is in the lead with 16 goals. China has 11, Japan, seven.
VAUSE: Australia, South Korea and Hungary all tied with five gold. The U.S. leads in the overall count with 38 medals.
SESAY: Now, Brazilian federal police arrested two people in connection with terrorism. They're not saying much else, but they did serve five warrants for search and seizure, and brought three people in for questioning. All involved all Brazilian nationals.
VAUSE: In July, police arrested 12 people across the country. The justice minister says the group organized mostly online and were total amateurs.
SESAY: Time for a quick break now. The few doctors remaining in the Syrian city of Aleppo say time is running out for thousands of civilians. We're getting reports of a suspected gas attack there.
VAUSE: Plus, two years after Russia grabbed Crimea, why things in eastern Ukraine might just be about to escalate.
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[02:17:14] VAUSE: Well, there is widespread destruction and unimaginable suffering to report in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The U.N. says it is working with Russia to find a workable humanitarian pause to the fighting. Russia proposed a three-hour daily cessation of hostiles to allow medical supplies into the city.
SESAY: But the U.N. says that is not long enough and the U.N. is calling for a weekly cease-fire of 48 hours.
Earlier, our affiliate, ITM, spoke with a British aide volunteer based near Aleppo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED BRITISH AIDE VOLUNTEER: Any of the people that are claiming that aid is entering into Aleppo city know it's trickling in. Anyone that is brave enough to go in is going in very small vehicles. Bigger vehicles can't go this. Stuff like fuel is vitally need because hospitals, like the one we work in, in Aleppo city, is running very low on fuel. These so-called three-hour pauses in bombing are just not being seen on the ground. I've literally just got off the phone with some of our team to let us know that very soon it will be arranged for us so that we can make another attempt. But they are literally using radios, using watch towers. And the words that they're using in Arabic, they're literally saying that when it becomes calmer or with when it becomes more paced, that's when they'll make an attempt. So they haven't been informed the bombing has stopped or anything like this. So it's a very difficult situation at the moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, this comes as the Syrian government is intensifying its fight for Aleppo as rebels broke a regime siege over the weekend.
VAUSE: At the same time, the White House received an open letter from a group of doctors in the city desperately asking for help.
Elise Labott has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Aleppo's last remaining doctors, just 15 who remain in the besieged city, are begging for a lifeline and slamming the U.S. for failing to stop the horrific bombing, writing in an open letter, quote, "We have seen no effort for the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians."
Russian air strikes helping regime forces have devastated Aleppo. Hospitals are frequent targets.
The doctors write, "Last month there were 42 attacks on medical facilities in Syria, 15 of which are hospitals in which we work. Right now there is an attack on a medical facility every 17 hours. At this rate our medical services in Aleppo could be destroyed in a month, leaving 300,000 people to die. What pains us most as doctors is choosing who will live and who will die."
[02:20:05] UNIDENTIFIED PHYSICIAN: Imagine, you are trying to work in a hospital with no clean water, no electricity, no medical supplies and all those victims coming over.
LABOTT: The doctor's appeal comes as the U.S. is investigating another poisonous gas attack in a neighborhood in Aleppo. Chilling footage shows victims in the hospital as aid workers sift through the rubble.
This man describes smelling gas and gasping for breath. The raid, despite the Russian pledge to stop military action to allow for humanitarian aid.
Last week, President Obama acknowledged the challenges of trying to solve the conflict in Syria. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've been wrestling
with this thing now for a lot of years. There's not a meeting I don't end by saying is there something else we could be doing that we haven't thought of?
LABOTT: But Aleppo's doctors warn, "We don't need tears or sympathy or even prayers. We need our action."
That will come too late for this first responder, notorious for pulling a baby out of the rubble --
(SHOUTING)
LABOTT: -- and who colleagues say died.
(on camera): The White House says it is working around the clock to try to get an agreement with Russia to end the violence and allow aid into Aleppo. But the doctors on the front lines tell us, by failing to stop the violence by Russia and the regime over the last six years, the United States shares some of the burden of responsibility.
Elise Labott, CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Russian President Vladimir Putin is accusing Ukraine of embracing terror instead of peace. And the Russians, while they're staging naval drills on the Black Sea after it says it foiled a sabotage attempt in Crimea.
SESAY: Ukraine calls the supposed plot nonsense, just a pretext for Russia or its proxies to carry out more aggression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are talking altogether about modern 40,000 of Russian troops, both inside Ukraine, including Crimea, and very close to the Ukrainian border of Russia. This is not the -- this numbers may reflect some very bad intentions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ariel Cohen is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He joins me now from Washington.
Ariel, there is one theory out there that with the Russian economy in so much trouble because of sanctions and falling oil prices, a conflict in Ukraine would play well domestically, especially out of parliamentary elections. What do you think?
ARIEL COHEN, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Absolutely. But they know how to spot the weakness and our weakness now is the election campaign. We are paying attention to our naval, mostly. It's called naval gazing. And the Europeans are eager to lift the sanctions from Russia because they want business, business, business, with Russia. So Putin apparently seizes an opportunity. They make up some kind of an incident. They call it a terror attack. And off we go. The massive military exercises called caucuses 2016 and some experts believe they will be military actions, some experts believe there will be a lot of diplomatic pressure on Ukraine to comply with something called the Minsk accords. What Putin wants is to shift the balance of power in Ukraine, get people in the east who are pro are Russian elected to the parliament in Kiev and basically grab Ukraine back into the Russian sphere of influence.
VAUSE: So I get the feeling from you that you believe Putin is not up for any kind of widespread military incursion into Ukraine. And what -- that could be the fact that Putin has so much hardware already tied up inside Syria. Anything else at this point, would it be a stretch?
COHEN: Well, let's not forget. Putin has a lot of air assets. Not a lot, but he has some air assets in Syria. His bombing in Ukraine, it's ground forces, it's tanks, it's artillery. And, of course, the huge Russian Army would dominate the Ukrainian Army at any given day. But interestingly, the Russian naval asset res not tied up in eastern Mediterranean in a big maneuver. Putin is fighting a big front war, his economy is tanking and I think that, even if he does go to a military operation, it would be pretty limited, but it will be a very powerful punch against Ukraine if it happens.
VAUSE: And just with Syria in mind, though, just this week, Turkey's president met with Vladimir Putin from Russia. Now there's word these two countries might start joint military operations against ISIS in Syria. Where do you see all of that heading?
[02:25:02] COHEN: Russia and Syria will continue to be competitors. Putin and Erdogan are talking about this trifecta of Russia, Turkey and Iran. So I'm skeptical that Russia and Turkey will have a honeymoon in Syria. Russia supports Kurds. We support the Kurds. We support the Kurds, sorry, and the Turks, fighting the Kurds. Russia supports us and Russia supports us. And Erdogan, of course, does not like us at all. So that is a really, really problematic area, a minefield for the Turkish/Russian relations. So I will remain concept skeptical about that.
VAUSE: There's a lot of uncertainty as to where all this could end up.
Ariel, thanks for speaking with us. We appreciate it.
COHEN: It's a pleasure.
SESAY: Away from the world of diplomacy now. A child in the United States fell off a roller coaster on Thursday, the latest in a string of amusement park accidents across the country. It happened at a park in western Pennsylvania. A spokesman said the boy was talking and alert while being treated at the park. The child was airlifted to a hospital in Pittsburgh.
VAUSE: This is at least the fourth amusement park ride accident this week. A 10-year-old boy was killed on a water slide in Kansas on Sunday. A few people were injured on an Ohio ride on the same day. And then on Monday, three children fell from a ferris wheel in Tennessee. As of Thursday, a 6-year-old girl hurt in that accident was in critical condition suffering from a brain injury.
SESAY: Oh, dear.
Coming up, CNN's "State of the Race" Kate Bolduan.
VAUSE: But next here on CNN NEWSROOM, why Hillary Clinton is calling Donald Trump's economic plans a huge tax break for wealthy people, just like him.
SESAY: Plus, they don't even have an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the West Bank, but that didn't stop this woman from training for her Olympic dream. Her story still ahead, on NEWSROOM L.A.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:30:21] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Isha Sesay.
The headlines this hour --
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Hillary Clinton is blasting Donald Trump's economic plans as nothing more than a huge tax break for wealthy people like himself. And she says Trump's approach to trade is based on fear and not strength. Her comments delivered at a speech from a factory floor in Michigan on Thursday are part of a continuing effort to set herself apart from the billionaire businessman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Starting on day one, we will work with both parties to pass the biggest investment in new, good paying jobs since World War II. We --
(CHEERING)
CLINTON: We will put Americans to work, building and modernizing our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our railways, our ports, our airports.
(CHEERING)
CLINTON: We will fight to make college tuition free for the middle class and debt free for everyone.
(CHEERING)
CLINTON: I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: All right. Let's bring global affairs and economic analyst, Ali Velshi, in for his perspective.
Ali, thank you for joining us.
Hillary Clinton's speech today wasn't about unveiling new policy.
ALI VELSHI, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS & ECONOMIC ANALYST: No.
SESAY: It was about striking a contrast between her economic plan and Trump's. How did she do?
VELSHI: Pretty well. Your editors did a good job of peeling away at a number of policies she discussed today. The thing about Hillary Clinton, and I'm quoting Richard Quest, "She has policies for everything. She has policies for tying your shoes." Donald Trump speaks in broad generalizations and Hillary Clinton gives you a specific name and type of policy. That said, for a guy like me, it's hard to make sense of exactly how these policies will work and how she'll pay for it. The difference is Hillary Clinton does say most of the cost of her policies will be paid for by an increase in the top 1 percent, in the taxation of the top 1 percent and the elimination of a very strange part of the tax code that allows most investment income to be treated as capital gains as opposed to the much higher income tax you pay when you work. So that's the distinction. She is going to raise taxes to cover all of these programs she's got. Donald Trump has lots of programs, too, but he says he's going to lower taxes from the top rate of 39.6 percent down to 35 percent and corporate taxes will come down to 15 percent. So that's the distinction between them economically. But they're both still not fully there in terms of showing the math on these programs the.
SESAY: Yeah. They may not both be there, but Hillary Clinton didn't let that stand in her way when it came to dumping on Donald Trump's tax plan.
VELSHI: Right.
SESAY: She has a new name for part of the plan. Take a listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: In his speech on Monday, he called for a new tax loophole. Let's call it the Trump Loophole --
(LAUGHTER)
-- because it would allow him to pay less than half the current tax rate on income from many of his companies.
(BOOING)
CLINTON: He'd pay a lower rate than millions of middle class families. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Ali, is she on to something there, something she can use as a wedge between Trump and his supporters?
VELSHI: Well, it depends when you say on to something. There are a lot of Americans who witness through the sequester that happened between Congress and President Obama, they witnessed their income taxes going up. So it's a very strong selling point to Americans that taxes might go down under Trump. If you're voting just on the basis of when you're going to pay fewer or more taxes, generally speaking, Donald Trump has a better argument for lowering taxes. Most Americans don't vote on one specific issue. And if it is one specific issue, it could just as well be taxes versus abortion versus gay marriage. There are a lot of things out there. So she's on to something. Part of the problem is that Donald Trump doesn't seem to care when people pin him down and ask him for a detail. He just doesn't give it. He describes things with superlatives. He describes things as amazing and huge. You can't really nail him down. When someone asks him how much increased debt his program will response, his response was I've heard $3 trillion. Experts say it's somewhere between $9 trillion and $14 trillion. But that's the kind of response that he thinks is appropriate. So it's very, very hard for a guy like me to make apples to apples comparisons between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump except Donald Trump says he's going to lower taxes and Hillary Clinton say she's going to raise taxes on the rich.
[02:36:14] SESAY: The Trump campaign put out a statement on Thursday and it said, in part, this: "Clinton's plans today will short circuit our economy by raising taxes, increasing spending and killing jobs. Donald Trump presents a better vision and new direction, a plan to unleash prosperity, create jobs and increase wages so that all Americans can succeed."
I know you say it's hard to compare apples to apples, but the key question is which will lift the middle and working class families.
VELSHI: That unleashed prosperity. What this is, the Trump program -- so it's generally speaking illegal logical to have more expenses and less revenue, which is what Trump is proposing. So everybody is saying this doesn't make sense because you'll create a big debt. And had his answer is that it will propel such prosperity, people will feel so good that they've got more money in their pockets, companies will feel so good that they'll build new plans and hire new people. This is traditional trickle-down economics. And the Trump team likes to quote stuff from Ronald Reagan's time. As you and I know, the world is a very, very different place and that has sort of been pushed to the side as something that works. America is a prosperous company, high corporate profits, OK GDP growth in the 2 percent range, and yet we've got remarkable income inequality which has been growing over the last 25 years as it has been in many developed economies. So the fact is the money trickles somewhere. It doesn't necessarily trickle-down any more and Trump is really relying on old fashioned trickle-down economics.
SESAY: Well, this election campaign is certainly keeping you busy, my friend.
VELSHI: Yeah.
SESAY: Thank you so much for joining us.
VELSHI: Good to see you.
SESAY: Good to see you, too.
VAUSE: And it is nice to see Ali Velshi back, isn't it?
SESAY: It is.
VAUSE: He's a good guy.
Still on come on CNN NEWSROOM, the U.S. government says no to medical marijuana. Why they won't declassify the drug. And why the famed pot advocate, Tommy Chong, is not happy.
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[02:41:41] VAUSE: A major setback for supporters of legalized pot with the U.S. government deciding not to lift restrictions on marijuana. After a lengthy review, officials announced the drug will remain a schedule I drugs, which is defined as "having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse and with potentially severe psychological and physical dependence."
That keeps marijuana in the same category as heroine, LSD and ecstasy.
SESAY: Comedian, writer and marijuana advocate, Tommy Chong, joins us right now.
Tommy, good to have you with us once again.
TOMMY CHONG, COMEDIAN & WRITER & MARIJUANA ADVOCATE: Thank you.
SESAY: Why do you think the DEA continues to resist calls to reclassify --
CHONG: Well, if we legalize marijuana, then we don't need the DEA. So they are really trying to hang on to their job.
VAUSE: Well, they do more than worry about marijuana. There's a lot of other drugs out there, surely.
CHONG: Name them.
VAUSE: There's ecstasy, cocaine, heroine.
CHONG: That sells as much as marijuana?
VAUSE: Well not as much.
CHONG: You see, marijuana is the number-one cash crop this America for years and years and years. You know what that means? Number-one cash crop in the world. Billions of dollars. That's when it was illegal. Now once it becomes legal, it's going to be the biggest cash crop in the world for beating out everything. And so we won't need police to tell us that we can't use this miraculous plant. It will be legal and it will be available for everybody. And it's -- we're coming into that now.
SESAY: I mean, there was the opening today that they created allowing more marijuana growth for medical research, many seeing that as a step forward. What do you see as the implications?
CHONG: It's lame attempt that the government -- first of all, when the government grew medical marijuana, and so on, it was a mess. It's horrible. It's terrible. That's why the black market, the people that grew it, know how to grow pot. They were supplying all the medical people with it now. And now that we've got medical marijuana, we can do that legally. We don't have to hide or anything.
VAUSE: That's the thing. You have the federal government essentially saying, this isn't legal but you have 25 states and D.C., District of Columbia, saying it's OK for either medical use or recreational use.
CHONG: Think about it. The DEA, first of all, they have forfeiture laws. If they catch you with a marijuana garden, they can take your house, your car, whatever cash you have in the house. If you have a weapon, a gun in the house with your pot plant, you can go to jail for five years.
VAUSE: One of the things which is interesting about this decision by the DEA keeping marijuana as schedule I level, if you look at schedule II, that's drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. It's a difficult case to make that marijuana is more dangerous than those two drugs, isn't it?
CHONG: Well, first of all, if you approach it like -- are we talking recreation here or medicine?
VAUSE: Well, either or both.
CHONG: Well, recreation, like smoking, for instance, is recreational habit and it's bad for you. But yet, you know, the government allows it, even though it's proven it causes cancer. The government tells you that, but it's still legal. It's still allowed. Whereas, marijuana is the opposite. Marijuana helps people with illnesses. It's been shown. You know, Sanjay Gupta showed that young baby, that 1-year-old baby, you know? And so --- Montel Williams, he has M.S. to the point that if he didn't smoke marijuana every day, he would be in a wheelchair, he would be dead. So for the government to have the ignorant attitude about that, it's not medical, is just total -- it's another lie. It's just a big die.
(CROSSTALK)
[02:45:36] VAUSE: But will it be legalized anytime soon, executive order? What do you think?
CHONG: It's going to be legal, I hope -- (CROSSTALK)
SESAY: You said in your lifetime.
CHONG: I hope President Obama will make an executive order and legalize it.
VAUSE: OK, we'll see.
SESAY: Tommy, always a pleasure.
CHONG: Thank you.
SESAY: Thank you for being so passionate about the issue.
CHONG: Thank you.
SESAY: One in a million, Tommy Chong.
VAUSE: Tommy Chong, there he was.
SESAY: Well, we haven't seeing rugby in the Olympics for nearly a century, but the squad from Fiji is bringing the thunder. What makes the gold medal victory so special, next on NEWSROOM L.A.
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[02:50:10] SESAY: Well, the South Pacific island nation of Fiji celebrating its first-ever Olympic medal and it's gold.
VAUSE: Good effort.
SESAY: Fiji beat Great Britain in rugby sevens to take the top spot.
VAUSE: They were among the favorites going into the competition. More than 4,000 fans packed the stadium.
Watch the match erupting into celebration when their team won.
Rugby had been absent from the summer games for more than 90 years and this is the first time the rugby sevens has been included.
Fiji's team prides itself on its rigorous training and its faithful fans.
SESAY: CNN's "World Sport" has a closer look.
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(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never laughed as much. They're probably the poorest group of players I've ever coached, as well, yet they're the happiest. In rugby terms, they're resilient, they're robust. They're incredibly excited about this.
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is beyond excitement.
If there is any way that we can hide away or shy away from the fact that we're favorites and there's huge amounts of pressure on them. And it's coming from people in Fiji. There's a determination, wanting to do our best and wanting to win, wanting to come back with gold medals.
And that's the pressure that I've been aware of since I came here and the voice, as well, the newspapers have gone into overdrive at the moment. Everything preparation-wise is being examined. You know, hundreds of people are training before we fly every session. The sevens mania has hit new points.
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we fly into Rio. We will have a lot on social media and everything else to be fair to them. The boys go to the opening ceremony, I'm going to give them their phones so they can take photos and do whatever they want. That's a memory that I'm not going the on stop them. When they get back home that night, we can take their phones and then we are on lockdown. We're literally a small group that will move together as tight and be as close as we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I had goose bumps watching that. It was such a great story.
SESAY: Yeah, it was.
VAUSE: And it was a good day to be named "Manuel" at the Olympic Games. Simone Biles picked up her second gold and Aly Raisman picked up the silver.
SESAY: In the pool, American Simone Manuel tied Canadian Penny Oleskia (ph) of Canada to win gold.
VAUSE: It was an all-China final in the men's singles table tennis. Ma Long (ph) finished on top with the gold. Japan finished with bronze.
SESAY: And we haven't seen gold in the Olympics for more than 100 years. After the first round of golf, Australia's Marcus Frazier tops the leaderboard over Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Canadian Graham Dellett.
The Palestinians have assembled their largest ever Olympic team to compete in Rio. And for some athletes, the challenges are pretty daunting.
SESAY: The West Bank doesn't even have an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
CNN's Oren Lieberman introduces us to one woman who is not letting that stop her.
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OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Olympic dream has already come true for Mary Al-Atrash. The Palestinian swimmer doesn't need a medal in Rio. Just being there is enough.
MARY AL-ATRASH, PALESTINIAN OLYMPIC SWIMMER (through translation): I am very happy representing Palestine in such competitions, a dream for any Palestinian athlete, especially in the Olympics. This is a huge event which brings together all the champions of the world, all nations to compete.
LIEBERMANN: Al-Atrash will swim the 50 meter freestyle in Rio. She doesn't expect to medal. Many Palestinian athletes complain there are no proper training facilities in the West Bank, but Al-Atrash isn't deterred.
AL-ATRASH (through translation): Preparations are going well considering the resources we have. For example, we only have a half Olympic pool, whereas elsewhere they have full Olympic pull pool which are 50 meters. So with the humble means that we have, we are able to achieve our best goals and ambitions. To reach such goals and raise the Palestinian flag.
LIEBERMANN: Al-Atrash is part of the largest Palestinian team to compete at the Olympics. It's a point of pride for her and her coach.
UNIDENTIFIED COACH OF MARY AL-ATRASH (through translation): I am very happy there is someone from Palestine to represent us in the Olympics. This is something to be proud of, especially with the limited resources that we have. In Palestine, there is little coordination in schools and universities so that we can continuously monitor.
LIEBERMANN: Al-Atrash has loved swimming ever since she was a little girl. Now she'll put that love on display at the Olympics, love for her people and love for her sport.
Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.
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[02:55:11] VAUSE: And those of you who are watching read now in Rio, we would like to know more about your experiences.
SESAY: What is it like to be there? What do you do for fun? Take some pictures. Post your photos to social media, #CNNrio. And you just might see them on air.
VAUSE: Tell us if the pool is still green.
(LAUGHTER) SESAY: No, no, go out and do something fun and take pictures.
OK, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. The news continues with George Howell and Zain Asher after a short break.
You're watching CNN.
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[03:00:09] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Bombings in five cities. In Thailand, deadly explosions --
