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Trump: Freed Player's Dad An Ungrateful Fool; Charlie Rose's Former Co-Host Reacts To His Firings; CNN Tests Out Google Earbuds That Offer Translation; Paul's Wife: My Husband Can't Breathe Without Pain. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 22, 2017 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVAR BALL, FATHER OF UCLA BASKETBALL PLAYER ARRESTED IN CHINA: Tell Donald Trump to have a great thanksgiving because big Ball is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The -- the surreal war of words escalating between this father, LaVar Ball and President Trump after Ball's son, one of the UCLA basketball players was released by China for shoplifting.

The two of course have been arguing over whether Ball should thank the president for helping. LaVar is not. And that inspired the president to tweet a slew of insults today, among them, writing that it was he alone, the president alone, who got China to release Ball's son and two other UCLA basketball players.

President Trump went on to call LaVar Ball a quote, ungrateful fool and poor man's version of Don King but without the hair, OK? So let's begin there.

With me now, CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Bradford Cohen, lawyer and former Apprentice contestant who supports President Trump, gentlemen, nice to have you both on.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

BALDWIN: Marc, to you first. I mean the quotes I just read, ungrateful fool and poor man's Don King. Chris Cillizza here at CNN is calling this a racial dog whistle. Do you agree?

HILL: It feels like a racial dog whistle. The entire time there's an undertone of you should be grateful to me. You know, these uppity black people.

And it isn't just because of LaVar Ball, it starts with the NFL where again, he talked about these highly paid athletes who should be grateful to be in the NFL.

This discourse keeps recurring about -- and it seems to be directed largely to black people. Let me be clear, Donald Trump is an equal opportunity jerk when it comes to celebrities.

I mean he goes after Meryl Streep, he goes after anybody but when it comes to athletes in particular, there is a sense of, you should be grateful.

And this is narcissistic, this is arrogant, this is bizarrely unprofessional and unpresidential but there is also racial undertone to this. It's really disturbing.

BALDWIN: Bradford, how do you see it?

BRADFORD COHEN, FORMER CONTESTANT, THE APPRENTICE: Exactly the opposite. I mean listen, you know -- first of all the hair comment, I feel for him but Donald Trump and Don King have been friends for probably 40 years.

They have known each other for a very long time. I know personally that they are friends. So the thing is, there's nothing racial about it.

[15:35:00] You know, his son stole things in China at an LV store. I mean, how disgusting is it? You're going over to China on a full ride scholarship with UCLA and you end up stealing something there.

And then Donald Trump steps in, and says you know, these kids, they made a mistake, let's release them. This is crazy, let's do something for them and they get released, and then there's no thank you. Now, how is that right?

I don't care if you're purple, blue, black, yellow, I don't care what you are, you thank someone for going out of their way and helping someone who stole something. In America that would have been a grant theft.

And a grant theft is punishable by a felony. In China it's even worse. You could get three year minimum mandatory. These are three guys that are ungrateful guys that don't thank anyone. Race has nothing to do with it.

They could be any color of the rainbow. They -- you thank somebody. He went out of his way. Even if he wasn't solely the only person responsible release these guys, right, even if he wasn't.

He went out of his way to mention them and to say listen, these are kids that made a mistake and let's take a step back, and let's release them. And they were released. So I think they're ungrateful, I think Donald Trump's statements are 100 percent true.

BALDWIN: OK. Go ahead, Marc.

HILL: Right. I mean you're largely debating things that aren't in dispute. You made the point that he and Donald -- that he and Don King are friends. Not in dispute. You made the point stealing is wrong. Not in dispute.

You made the point that it's a big crime in China. Not in dispute. Not in dispute. You made the point you should say sorry -- you should say thank you if someone does something for you, not in dispute.

No one is disputing those things. What's in dispute is whether or not Donald Trump's reaction to LaVar Ball has a racial undertone to it. And comparing him to Don King...

COHEN: It doesn't.

HILL: ... saying -- calling him an ungrateful fool is an unrelated issue to almost everything else that you raised and again, if this were just an isolated incident, I would feel for you.

I would say, you know what, maybe this is just Donald Trump being a jerk. I mean the best case scenario here is that he's being narcissistic and unprofessional.

But the problem is, this is linked to a series of things. Donald Trump has a long history of racial and racist tweets, and actions, and so because of that, it's very easy to connect this.

BALDWIN: Let me -- let me jump in and, Bradford, I want you to respond.

COHEN: Sure.

BALDWIN: But Shaun King, the activist, tweeted this out about Trump's tweets in the last couple of days, if you are struggling to understand why Trump has criticized LaVar Ball and Marshawn Lynch more than Roy Moore it's because conservatives have made it very clear that a white Republican pedophile bothers them far less than a free black man.

HILL: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Listen, what he tweets about is what he tweets about. In terms of people that he likes and doesn't like...

BALDWIN: What does that mean?

COHEN: He's not a racist. It's because -- I'll tell what it mean. It mean that this has nothing to do with race. For us to jump to the conclusion that this has somehow or something to do with race that if someone didn't say thank you, for him going out of his way to get them released.

And then LaVar Ball goes on TV and says, well, I would have said thank you if they were flown home on Air Force One. I mean this guy is a lunatic. I think he is absolutely out of his mind...

HILL: Right, but again -- but again, that's not the point. You're arguing against things that aren't in dispute. The question is, why does Donald Trump focus on particular people as opposed to others? There is...

COHEN: I'll tell you why...

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: If you hit at Donald Trump, he's going to hit you back. Roy Moore has not hit Donald Trump. So I will tell you, I'm going to give your answer. Let me answer you...

HILL: I didn't ask the question. Let me ask the question. No, that's not my question. Let me be clear about my questions. When you look at the tiki torches in Virginia, no one was on the offensive.

When you look at Colin Kaepernick, he was on the offensive. Yet he targeted other people and he doesn't target Roy Moore, and he doesn't target other people who are committed far more heinous acts. Why is that? That's the question.

COHEN: That's not true. That's not true. If you look at his tweets as a whole -- when he's gets attacked, he'd attacked. If something bothers him, he's going to tweet about it. If someone doesn't...

HILL: So why doesn't Roy Moore bother him? That's the question. Why didn't the Tiki torches bother him more than the Black Lives Matter activists who resisted him? Why does Colin Kaepernick bother him.

COHEN: It has -- it has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with that. You're taking in one thing and adding in another. Why does it not bother him with Roy Moore...

HILL: Well, you said he tweets when he's bothered.

COHEN: He didn't say bothered him or doesn't bother him.

HILL: You said he tweets...

COHEN: What he said was...

HILL: Exactly, he should. Exactly, he should. It should bother him.

COHEN: Well, that's not what he said. He's saying everyone has a presumption of innocence, am I correct? So we don't know all the fact...

HILL: In a court of law. In a court...

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: But when it comes to Ball we know all the facts and that's what we're talking about right now. We're talking about three kids...

HILL: No, we're not.

COHEN: ... that stole something. That stole something from a store and he got them released. There's a kid in North Korea that stole a poster that spent 15 years -- that got a sentence of 15 years in prison and then he died, OK? So to not thank Donald Trump for what he did was just disgusting.

HILL: But that's not were talking about. COHEN: That's what we're talking about. It has nothing to do with

race. It has nothing to do with white, black or purple. You turned this into a racial thing and it's not a racial thing.

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

COHEN: End of story.

[15:40:00] HILL: That's not the end of the story. You don't get to decide when it's the end of story. Brooke, may be saying it's the end of the story but it's not the end of the story just because you say so.

BALDWIN: I think we're at the end of the story. I think we're at the end of the story for now.

COHEN: Sorry, Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's all right, we wanted to have both of you all on. I wanted to hear the perspectives. It's just -- it's fascinating how so totally far apart, you know, people can be on this very issue that's so important. Bradford and Marc, thank you all so much, thank you both.

HILL: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll continue the conversation here I'm sure in the coming days especially as we talk more about Roy Moore and other tweets. Remember he's at Mar-a-Lago where he can get tweetastic.

Coming up next here, CBS says three more women have come forward to accuse veteran journalist Charlie Rose of unwanted sexual contact. One of his former co-anchors and my HLN colleague her, Erica Hill joins me live with her own experience with Charlie Rose.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: After CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg fired Charlie Rose following sexual harassment allegations by eight women, that were first reported by the Washington Post, CBS reports three more women say they also experienced unwanted sexual contact from this veteran journalist.

So let me bring in my friend and colleague, HLN's Erica Hill who used to sit there at CBS around the table with Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning and today has shared this impassioned message about the way she, and so many other women have been mistreated at work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, HLN HOST, ON THE STORY WITH ERICA HILL: I haven't been physically assaulted and it is really sad, that I consider myself almost lucky to have avoided that.

But the news especially these past two days has brought back a lot of moments, I realize now I had blocked out and it's been an emotional kick to my gut, and it's also helped me find my voice. A lot of those moments I blocked out until last night when friends and

former colleagues, and my husband reminded me of far too many moments they had witnessed, and that I had shared.

The boss who when I was 21 told me, we should go for coffee or he just wouldn't be able to stop himself from coming across the desk to kiss me. I laughed it off at that time.

I went for coffee to get out of that uncomfortable office, because I was too smart to fall for those games, I told myself. He put out moves on the wrong woman.

Or the man who so many journalists looked up to, the one who berated me for in his eyes not showing enough respect to my new co-anchor by daring to join in on a segment on our show that we were supposed to do together.

Or that co-anchor who made it very clear that I was in the way. Who decided I would be allowed to speak on our program when he pointed at me. Imagine a 70-year-old man pointing his finger at you. That's the signal that I was allowed to ask a question.

What an honor to be given the privilege of doing my job with a point, every single day. And sometimes it came with a smile. Did that mean I was supposed to thank him?

And you know I wonder when are these or any other moments were worthy of your time because I chalked them up to no big deal because that's what we do if we want to keep our jobs and get ahead, we don't rock the boat, don't get so upset about a dirty old man, stop being so sensitive.

But the truth is every single moment is worthy because when we stay silent and when we down play the bullying, the misogyny, the harassment, the uncomfortable moments, all we do is fuel their game.

And we let them win in their quest to remind us who they believe holds all the power, but the truth is, they don't hold all the power anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Yes, Erica Hill, thank you for doing that. That was a big moment. It's a big moment for me to share just here with you for you to have the courage to say what you did, so thank you.

And then just when you first -- when you read that Washington Post piece about Charlie Rose, about all the accusations, what was your thought?

E. HILL: I mean I had to stop a couple times when I was reading and I think a lot of people did. It was incredibly well done. Phenomenal reporting and very detailed.

And the allegations to these situations that these women put forth, I want to be very clear nothing that I had experienced with Charlie Rose.

It was just a kick in the gut to think that, anyone could be treated that way. And he will be put in that position, and it was -- it was disturbing.

It was disappointing and it made my blood boil, and it just got me to thinking about also, you know, what I see in many ways in our industry because this is where we work. But across the board if we look at different interactions and they're not always physical, there's a clear abuse of power.

And I think a lot of what we're seeing and what women, and men are coming forward and speaking about now all goes back to this need to remind women who is in charge, who is the person in power, and who they should, you know, in some ways bow down to for lack of a better phrase.

BALDWIN: Yes. But what you were talking about, you know, the stories that we've all maybe through our careers told our girlfriends or our boyfriends or husbands, and now -- what was the click for you to think, oh, wait, after all these many years maybe that wasn't OK.

E. HILL: Honestly it was talking with friends, and after I spoke with Aaron last night, I was just getting texts from friends and former colleagues, and even talking with my husband at home.

And I has shared with someone, you know, that there was a program I worked on where it was decided that I should wait basically until it was my turn to speak.

[15:50:00] And that would be determined when my co-anchor decided. And so thing that was decided upon was that there would be a point and I shared that with someone. And it's not -- I mean I haven't hidden this.

I've talked about this openly with friends and family for a long time. And everybody who work on that set knew and it, and saw it. But all of a sudden the reaction that I got yesterday was one of absolute horror and disgust.

And somebody said, are you kidding me? That's so terrible. How could that happen? And then I just thought about a lot of things. And people were texting me about moments that I had shared with them that I had completely forgotten about.

And comments and observations I had made, and things that have been said to me, all of a sudden I realized demeaning someone and trying to damage them whether it is of a sexual nature or not is not OK.

And we can't grade these moments and say, well, mine's not as bad because it wasn't this. It's different, but they all add up to something that is a lasting scar on people.

BALDWIN: Thank you for saying that. Erica Hill, thank you so much.

E. HILL: Thanks, Brooke. Appreciate it. BALDWIN: Coming up next, Senator Rand Paul's wife opened up to CNN

about the injuries he suffered after being attacked by a neighbor. Why she says many people have gotten that story all wrong. But first, in today's Future Tense, CNN Samuel Burke tests out Google's new ear buds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Google is playing catch-up to Apple's air pods, those wireless headphones. They both cost about $159. Everybody wants to know how the translation feature works. So I invited the trilingual anchor of CNN's Hala Gorani Tonight, Hala Gorani.

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Bonjour.

BURKE: Bonjour.

GORANI: (Speaking Foreign Language)

BURKE: (Speaking Foreign Language)

GORANI: I mean it looks like you have reading glasses somewhere back there.

BURKE: I feel like it's something my parents would wear. Hala, who is your favorite reporter on CNN? Is it right? (Speaking Foreign Language)

GORANI: It's good grammar.

BURKE: OK.

GORANI: (Speaking Foreign Language), but because we know each other you could have said (Speaking Foreign Language), but that's OK. (Speaking Foreign Language)

BURKE: It stopped translating after I don't have a favorite reporter on CNN. That's the wrong answer you know, right? I mean the question I have right now is, why do I have these ear buds on because it works without the ear buds.

GORANI: So let's do from English to Arabic.

BURKE: Hala Gorani, how old are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Foreign Language)

(CROSSTALK)

GORANI: That was the wrong translation.

BURKE: It says hello, granny, how old are you?

GORANI: The idea is that this is almost a seamless gadget, a device that allows you to have a conversation person-to-person in two different languages as if you're having it in the same language. That's the whole point of that.

BURKE: That's the point.

GORANI: We're not there yet.

BURKE: We're not there yet.

GORANI: We're not there yet.

BURKE: It wasn't seamless.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The wife of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is speaking out about the November 3rd attack on her husband. Kelly Paul wrote a CNN opinion piece where he talks about the senator's injuries after he was knocked down by his neighbor Rene Boucher.

He suffered six broken ribs and he's gotten pneumonia. His neighbor has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault. Until in the CNN opinion piece, Kelly Paul writes the following.

As his wife, I have been distraught over seeing him suffer like this. There has been several nights where I had my hand on my phone ready to call 911 when his breathing became so labored it was terrifying.

It is incredibly hurtful that some news outlets have victimized Rand a second time as he struggles to recover, concocting theories about a, quote, ongoing dispute. She said the only dispute existed solely in the attacker's troubled mind.

This was not a scuffle, a fight or an altercation, as many in the media falsely describe it was a deliberate blindside attack. So Sunlen Serfaty is on this for us today, our CNN congressional correspondent.

And, you know, she also talks about how neither her husband nor she have spoken to the neighbor apparently in ten years. It was just casual waves. So why did she write this?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I think because there is still three weeks after the fact there are so many questions about this incident, exactly why it happened.

A lot of mystery and confusion about the details, so clearly Kelly Paul here is trying to tell their side of the story, not only outlining the extent of the very serious injuries that the senator suffered but really trying to beat back all of these questions about why it happened, the motive here.

And as you know, we reported in recent weeks that neighbors in the area have suggested that this was some sort of long running dispute between the two men over some -- a property issue, over property maintenance between their two houses. And Rene Boucher's lawyer has suggested that as well, but Kelly Paul

here is saying, look, no, we barely talked to him in the last ten years other than a casual waive in the neighborhood.

So she is setting this up to say that this was a deliberate blindsided attack. The senator did not -- was not involved in any scuffle or fight here. And I should note, Brooke, that Rene Boucher's lawyer says that he regrets the incident and he, of course, has pleated not guilty to the misdemeanor assault.

BALDWIN: Can read the whole thing for yourself, just go to CNN.com. Sunlen, thank you so very much. And thank you all so much for being with me. I'll be back here tomorrow, thanksgiving. But For now, John Berman taking the helm again, The Lead, starts now.