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Ceasefire & Evacuation Agreement Reached in Syria; The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey; Police on Edge After 6 Shootings in Georgia; Trump talks with National Diversity Coalition on African-American Issues. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 13, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:08] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We are getting some breaking news. Sources inside Aleppo tell CNN a ceasefire and evacuation agreement has been reached in Syria's largest city. This comes after the mass slaughter of dozens of people. And what the U.N. has labeled -- and I'm quoting here -- "a complete meltdown of humanity." The United Nations says women and children were among those killed by pro- government forces loyal to the regime. These gruesome murders of some 82 men, women, and children, are said to have happened in their homes, in the streets, as they tried to run.

The people of this besieged city are taking to social media, some of them posting desperate pleas for help, others telling the world good- bye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a genocide in the besieged city of Aleppo. This may be my last video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am going to be killed, that is what is going to happen. I'm going to be killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't want anything else but freedom. I hope you can remember us. I don't know. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow.

Let me bring in Nora Barre, a Syrian-American whose family is caught in Aleppo.

Nora, we've talked before. Thank you so much for coming back on today.

Just listening to those men and women who are saying good-bye because they don't think they will give to get out of Aleppo, your family is there. We won't name them, I know you're so worried about their safety. How are they? NORA BARRE, SYRIAN-AMERICAN WHOSE FAMILY IS TRAPPED IN ALEPPO:

They're suffering, Brooke. They're like millions of Syrians that have been suffering under the Assad regime for the past five years. While it hurts to see all these people being massacred, it hurts more to see the inaction of the U.S. and international community. What is the difference between Assad and hundreds of women and men being executed by ISIS and Assad? What is the difference between these two? They both are exterminating. Assad and Russia are at war with humanity. Aleppo will be President Obama's legacy unless he decides to make a decision. Will his legacy be that his inaction has led to the genocide of the Syrian people or will he in his final weeks of his presidency listen to his secretaries of state and build a legacy as the savior of the Syrian people.

Mr. Obama, you get to decide that.

[14:35:42] BALDWIN: Nora, I hear you on the geopolitical ramifications of all this, but personally on your family are they hopeful they will get out? Tell me about their lives? Are they eating? Are they getting medical assistance? Tell me about them.

BARRE: There's no food, there's no medicine, there's nothing normal. There's nothing normal like millions of Syrians that are suffering across Syria. They're not living under any kind of normal conditions. Many of my family have been killed. They've been displaced. Many have become refugees and are suffering abroad and they would just like to go home. People want to stay home, they don't choose to become refugees for the past five years there have been plenty of band aids on the Syrian issue. We can treat the wounded and we can take the refugees in but has anyone tried to solve the core problem? Safe zones is what they need. Right now, if we had save zones in Syria like the ones being advocated by the help me go home campaign, which I'm part of, they would protect the Syrian people, stop the refugee crisis and people can return home. The situation is horrific yet 20 became commit suicide to avoid being raped by Assad's militia. You have children being burned in the streets in front of their mothers. Is this the kind of world we would like to live in? This is a genocide happening on our watch and history will remember so if you want to do something go helpmegohome.org and sign the petition to press President Obama to create no-fly zones in Syria because Assad taking over all these neighborhoods, some news media is reporting that this will bring peace to Syria. I would like to remind them that Assad is the one killing his own people. They will be killed and him taking over neighborhoods as we've seen the past 24 hours, he's demolishing everyone he encounters.

BALDWIN: Nora Barre, our thoughts and prayers are with your family and so many others in Aleppo and beyond, within Syria.

Thank you so much for continuing to shine a light. We have to continue talking about this.

Thank you very much.

BARRE: Yes, we do.

Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up, my next three guests spent some time today at Trump Tower meeting with President-elect Trump. What did they discuss? We have NFL greats, Jim Brown and Ray Lewis, joining me live here on set, next.

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[14:42:00] BALDWIN: "It didn't make sense" -- those are the words of an investigator who worked on the JonBenet Ramsey case. It has been almost 20 years since the little girl was found dead in her home in Colorado.

CNN has a special report tonight on this case. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On New Year's Eve, in their hometown, Atlanta, Georgia, the family buried JonBenet Ramsey.

JOHN RAMSEY, FATHER OF JONBENT: It's the worst thing a human being can experience.

CASAREZ: But things for John and Patsy were about to get worse. Investigators had grown suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of things didn't make sense. Why would they leave a ransom note with her body still in the House?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My first impression was that this guy wrote the Magna Carta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will withdraw 118,000 from your account.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I were kidnapping this guy's daughter, I'd ask for a quarter million, a half million, a million. So, the amount of money is just odd to me.

CASAREZ: The Ramseys thought so, too.

RAMSEY: What does that mean? We looked at Psalm 118. Was it a Biblical reference? Where did this number come from?

CASAREZ (on camera): When did it hit you that the 118,000 equated to your Christmas bonus?

RAMSEY: It didn't initially, because that bonus had occurred a year earlier, in January of '96. But it was on every pay stub that I got.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Police asked the Ramseys for handwriting samples. John gave them two note pads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These pads were pads that were kept by the telephone and each, John and Patsy, had their own pads. CASAREZ: Detectives concluded the ransom was written on pages torn

out of Patsy's note pad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: That was the voice of Jean Casarez, who's host this special report.

I remember, for years, the world was following this family, and the case is still open.

CASAREZ: It's still open.

BALDWIN: 20 years later.

CASAREZ: There are no statute of limitations on murder. I spoke with the current district attorney of Boulder and he said, "We get tips. Somebody knows something. And as long as I have the evidence that I believe beyond a reasonable doubt that someone murdered her, I will bring charges, no matter who it is, he said.

BALDWIN: What about the evidence? I understand the statute of limitations doesn't run out in murder but what about the evidence that's 20 years old.

CASAREZ: Of course, there are challenges. This little girl was a kindergartener.

John Ramsey doesn't give interviews, very rarely does he. We were able to go to where he lives, an undisclosed location. He doesn't like people to know where he is. He wants his privacy because he lost his whole life. And I spoke with him with hours. And we're going to get his thoughts. He takes us back 20 years. He didn't want to go there but he tells us what happened, how he found her, her condition. Do you know she had duct tape over her mouth and he ripped it off because he was so horrified, he said, when he found her in the cellar? And I spoke with an acclaimed forensic pathologist who told me, "It's a shame that happened because that could have been a mechanism of death depending on how that duct tape was put on her nose or her mouth.

BALDWIN: He shouldn't have removed it. He shouldn't have removed it. But as a father, he saw his child.

Has there been new information?

CASAREZ: There's new information all the time, but the question is, they still have various theories running, and everyone believes something. And as you look at the proposed evidence we have, you have to decide in your own mind what you think.

Remember, John and Patsy Ramsey, unanimously, by a jury, they returned a True Bill of indictment on child abuse resulting in death, and accessory after the fact -- meaning after the murder -- of first- degree murder. Helping somebody after the fact committing first- degree murder. And the district attorney didn't believe he could prove it, didn't bring the charges, so he's lived with that for all these years.

BALDWIN: 20 years later, you have this special. Let me tell everyone where they can watch it. It's a special report, "The Murder of JonBenet," tonight, 9:00 eastern and pacific, on CNN.

Jean Casarez, thank you so much.

CASAREZ: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Now a number of police shootings across the state of Georgia has put law enforcement on edge. Six officers have been shot in as many days, two of them killed. That shooting happened last Wednesday in Americus, Georgia. Since then, four more officers were shot and injured in separate incidents in two other towns.

Nick Valencia is following the story from Atlanta.

Six officers. Why?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Six days, six officers, two of them shot fatally, Brooke. This spate of shootings in Georgia perhaps the worst we've seen since this summer. You remember the assassination of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, five others murdered at the hands of a gunman in Dallas, Texas.

With this spate of shootings in Georgia, 2016 now becomes well above the number that we saw for officers killed in the line of duty in 2015. To be fair, 2015 was one of the safest years in the last 10 years for anyone to be a police officer. But this year, Georgia has been the fourth deadliest state for anyone putting on a badge/

And one of the shootings that's gotten a lot of attention is the murder of two best friends. One of them, an Americus police officer, the other a friend of his from a nearby university police department. He responded because he didn't want his friend to not have backup. Both of those men you're looking at on your screen were shot and killed. One of them was engaged to be married. The other was going to be his best man.

In 2016, one of the deadliest years for officers in the last 10 years, 64 shot and killed in the line of duty. They range from rookies to veterans, from west coast to east coast. And it seems, Brooke, anyone who put on a badge this year in America was a target for a gunman -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: You talked to police officers and they say it's a frightening time to be a police officer. But we need them, we need them, we need them.

VALENCIA: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Nick Valencia, thank you.

VALENCIA: You got it.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, NFL greats, Jim Brown and Ray Lewis, also Pastor Darrell Scott will be joining me here live. What they discussed in Trump Tower with the president-elect today. Plus, why did Trump meet with Kanye West this morning? Hear what they said, coming up.

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[14:52:00] BALDWIN: President-elect Donald Trump talking diversity today at Trump Tower. He has been holding a meeting with his National Diversity Coalition to discuss issues important to African-Americans. Among those invited, former Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis and former NFL Legend and Hall of Famer Jim Brown.

Mr. Brown has a long history with social activism and he's focused on economic empowerment within the black community. He spent decades working to get young gang members off the streets.

And Jim Brown is here with me, along with the organizer of today's meeting, Pastor Darrell Scott, who supported the president-elect during the campaign.

Gentlemen, an honor, both of you.

JIM BROWN, NFL HALL OF FAMER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Cleveland represented here at CNN.

BROWN: Great city.

BALDWIN: Jim Brown, you supported Hillary Clinton.

BROWN: Yes, I did.

BALDWIN: What brought you to Trump Tower? This guy?

BROWN: Well I tell you the president of the United States brought me. My president. You know, that's -- he won it fair and square. He's going to be our man for the next four years at least, probably eight and he's amenable to listening to people who did not vote for him.

BALDWIN: He listened to you. You told me in commercial break that you were in there for a long time.

BROWN: Yes.

BALDWIN: What did you talk about and what did you ask of him?

BROWN: We talked about making America a better country. We talked about the poor people. We talked about African-American people. We talked about education, getting rid of violence. Dealing with economic development realistically and how to work together.

BALDWIN: You know, people listening to these NFL greats and the pastor being in this room, that's a stellar lineup of men. But when you're thinking about those who voted for Mr. Trump and the working class and middle America -- and you have fought on behalf of a lot of these people for your lifetime -- but speak to those people in this country who feel they're not being listened or being represented.

BROWN: You almost have the wrong guy. I look like a bourgeoisie middle-class but I've been there out for many, many years in the ghettos across this country.

The American Program concentrates on being in the community, developing leadership in that community, teaching life skills to those individuals and teaching them how to deal with responsibility of self- determination and how to gain success over working hard and intelligently so we're not bourgeoisie, we're not above the people, we are a part of the people and I can't speak for the pastor but I fell in love with him because he really talks about helping African- American, black people and that's why I'm here.

BALDWIN: You fell in love with Donald Trump today?

BROWN: Well, it isn't really ant just Donald Trump, it's about him and the position he occupies. That position is considered the most important person in the world, the most powerful person in the world is supposed to be our president when he goes through what he went through to become the president, he got my admiration. Because no one gave him a chance, you know? They called him names people that called him names when he won, he reached back and brought them along with him. He held no grudges. So, who am I to say I played quarterback when I only played running back? I don't know everything and I don't try to address everything. But the reception I got today from him, I'll always remember that because he listened to us. And he knows that we can bring something to him to help the people of this country.

You're out of speech?

[14:55:] BALDWIN: No, I a56ppreciate you coming through.

And I want to hear from you, Pastor Scott, though, on more of the conversation and the substance that was had, and what the specific plans are to reach out to the black communities in this country?

DARRELL SCOTT, FOUNDER & SENIOR PASTOR, NEW SPIRIT REVIVIAL CENTER: First of all, President-elect Trump continues to honor the commitment he made to America and to African-Americans, we discussed when he said, "What do you have to lose?" he meant give me a chance to prove myself. So, I have dialogue with him on a regular basis and he interacts with our diversity coalition on a regular basis in formulating strategy to positively affect the African-American community,

I was already familiar with the American Program. I was born and raised in Cleveland. Jim Brown was my first hero growing up, not just a sports hero. So, I had desire to convene a summit during the campaign to have Mr. Brown come in and we have a sit down with Donald Trump, President-elect Trump, while he was campaigning, but I wasn't able to for scheduling make that happen. But he and I had a great discussion this past weekend.

I'm very familiar with the American Program. It addresses the number of ills our community faces, unemployment, under employment, violence, gangs, prison reformation --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So, he's the perfect voice. You're the perfect voice.

SCOTT: And he's the perfect voice.

BALDWIN: You have to have the right people in the room.

SCOTT: And he's a standup guy.

BALDWIN: I believe you.

SCOTT: He's the standup guy.

BALDWIN: I know about this guy and I love I'm sitting next to him.

It's important to have the right people in the room and make also to make sure talk turns to action.

When you look at other than these phenomenal people in the room today, when you look at the pictures of this cabinet, Jim, you have the majority are white men in Mr. Trump ice cabinet. There have been critics who have said this is not diverse enough. Yes, there are women. Yes, there are minorities represented. But not the majority. Does that bother you? Is that a big deal to you?

BROWN: I've lived all my life in America and I'm 80 years old, so I have seen discrimination at its worst. I understand slavery. I studied history. The only thing that I've always done, I've tried to make sure that I was a decent person and that I worked outside of myself to make things better. So, I don't always look at black and white.

But I'll say this to you, and I don't ever say this, the three greatest people in my life were white, my high school coach, my high school superintendent and my mentor in Long Island. I never had a father really. My great grandmother raise me. But I was in this country where I got help from people that were not of my same color. So, when I come out of the box, I don't come out of the box as racial. I look for good people and people that will be like-minded and help me try to do good for other human beings. So, that's where I'm coming from.

BALDWIN: Mr. Brown, an honor and privilege.

BROWN: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Truly. Thank you so much.

Pastor Scott, thank you so much for --

BROWN: Thanks for having us.

BALDWIN: -- swinging by and bringing this along. It's an important conversation. We'll continue. Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, he is a friend of Vladimir Putin. He is the CEO of Exxon. But today, he is Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of state. And the showdown about whether he will even see the inside of that department has just begun. Hear which Republicans may endanger Rex Tillerson's future.

We're back in 60 seconds.

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