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Calls to Cancel Trump/Russia Summit after Indictments as Trump Still Claims Probe a Witch Hunt; Immigrant Child Whose Crying Was Heard Across the World United with Mother; Schnatter Scrubbed from Papa John's Advertising after Racial Slur; 2 Georgia Officers in Hot Water for Using Coin-Flip App; National Intelligence Warns Russia Threat Far from Over; Mueller Indicts 12 Russians for DNC, DCCC Hacks. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 14, 2018 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:18] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. So glad you could join me. I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York.

Lots to get to. The meeting is on. The White House not canceling President Trump's historic face-to-face with Russia's Vladimir Putin even after the Justice Department's bombshell indictments of 12 top Russian military officers. Those Russians are accused of hacking Democratic e-mails, steeling voter data, and trying to poison U.S. democracy.

President Trump is blaming someone for the 12 Russians' actions, but it is not Putin. Instead, Trump is pointing the finger at his predecessor, former President Obama.

All this comes amid growing calls from Democrats and at least one Republican to scrap Monday's summit. Such a move would not be unprecedented. President Obama canceled a planned Moscow meeting with Putin back in 2013 after Russia gave asylum to fugitive leaker, Edward Snowden.

Let's bring in Abby Phillip. She is our White House correspondent traveling with the president in Scotland. And, Nic Robertson, CNN's international diplomatic editor, in Helsinki, Finland, where that summit is scheduled to take place.

Let me start with you, Abby.

How is this administration reacting to the calls to cancel on Putin?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. President Trump is not too far from here at his golf course at Turnberry where he has been sending tweets this morning, giving us a clear indication of how he feels about what the indictments mean for his summit with Putin. He hasn't said anything at all about Vladimir Putin in either of these tweets but has, instead. focused on President Obama. And the White House has also said they are not canceling this meeting.

In his latest tweet, President Trump says that he believes President Obama didn't do something about it because he thought "Crooked Hillary Clinton would win." He says repeatedly, "It had nothing to do with the Trump administration." And he claims the "fake news doesn't want to report that."

But, Ana, the issue here is less about under whose watch this happened, but rather who was responsible. These indictments make it very clear that these were Russian military intelligence operatives who were working on this. The Intelligence Community has also concluded that Vladimir Putin directed this attack on the United States democracy. And yet, we are about two days away from the summit with Putin, and the White House insists nothing has changed with their plans, even as Democrats continue to call for President Trump to postpone or cancel this summit.

And even Republican Senator John McCain has weighed in on this, saying, if President Trump isn't willing to forcefully confront Vladimir Putin about Russian interference, the summit should be canceled.

A lot of folks looking at this summit say there's not a whole lot on to gain if the president isn't going to come into this really defending the United States, confronting Putin on what is -- a lot of people view as an attack on American democracy, and one that is likely to be repeated again as we are just months away from another midterm election cycle -- Ana?

CABRERA: In fact, we have the DHS second talking about the efforts under way right now. We also heard from Dan Coats on that as well in the last 24 hours talking about the efforts happening to meddle in U.S. systems.

Nic Robertson, let me get to you.

How is Russia responding to this indictment of 12 Russians?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Ana, perhaps no surprise the Russians are saying there's no evidence, that this is just an effort to break the good atmosphere ahead -- the good spirit ahead of this summit. But they are saying that that is recycled fake news. They are saying that this is criminal cases being cooked up for a political agenda. Any way you look at it, the Russians are rejecting it, which, of course, is a major concern. I don't think anyone is expecting right now President Trump to go into a meeting with President Putin and for President Putin to put his hand up and say, hey, after all, I did do this.

But what we've heard from President Trump in the past couple of days is he seems to have accepted that fate already. He said at a press conference just in the past three days, hey, I can say to him, did you do it, don't do it again, and he will just deny it and move on." And I think the past is an indication of what may come. We look back to the first time President Trump went face-to-face with President Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg last year, and the indications and readouts that we got of that meeting then, where he was just meeting with then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with the Russian president and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was that President Trump didn't take ownership of this. And said to Putin, well, other people are saying this.

The best indication we got from that, which was Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, giving us a read out of it. This is how he described it and what it means for when it happens again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:09] SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translation): President Trump said, and I'm sure either he or Rex Tillerson himself will say, that this campaign of alleged Russia interference in U.S. elections is of a strange nature. Because there hasn't been a single fact in all these months of allegations, which was recognized by those in Congress, who are leading this movement at a certain point and brought various administration members on the carpet. President said he's heard Putin's very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government didn't interfere in the elections, and he accepts these statements. That's all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So what we heard back then from the Russians was saying that there was no evidence. And now they are saying there's no evidence again. But the difference this time is that President Trump has that evidence in the form of these indictments. So the question is, will he go in more forcefully with this evidence, and put it to President Putin that here is the evidence, you said it wasn't there last time, here it is this time. From what we are hearing, from what Abby's hearing, from what we're hearing here, it doesn't seem like that is the attitude President Trump is going into the meeting with -- Ana?

CABRERA: And who knows what will happen, given that he wants to meet one-on-one without his national security personnel alongside him.

Nic Robertson, thank you very much for that report, for giving us some perspective.

I want to talk more about the upcoming Trump/Putin summit. Joining us is Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation, and Josh Rogin, CNN political analyst and "Washington Post" columnist.

Josh, I'll start with you.

A growing number of lawmakers are calling on President Trump to cancel the summit with Putin. As mentioned, he wouldn't be the first president to do it. Should he cancel it?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think he is going to cancel it. I don't think any amount of congressmen calling on him to cancel it will have any affect. But what the Congress is showing is an increased and sustained bipartisan, bicameral effort to confront what President Trump is saying and doing in response to these new hacking allegations, indictments and evidence. And what he is doing is downplaying it, obfuscating, blaming his predecessor, and refusing to marshal the resources of the U.S. government to prevent the next one. We had the director of National Intelligence Dan Coats say Friday that there's a blinking red alarm about cyberattacks coming up ahead of the 2018 elections. And we have the president of the United States saying, well, I'm going to ask Putin about it, he will say he didn't do it, what am I going to do. That is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to his own national security officials and our allies and to Congress. Now, there's not much that Congress can do about it. So they will call on the president to be tough, which he won't do. They will call on the president to end the meeting, which he won't do. And then they have the option of imposing their own penalties on Russia, which I think is the next step after the summit, new sanctions, new pressures, new costs for Russia, for perpetrating this attack on our democracy.

Anne-Marie, there's another way to look at this upcoming meeting. Listen to General Michael Hayden, former CIA director, on his reasoning for the summit to go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: This is your chance, Mr. President. You have a document beyond speculation. You actually have evidence, which the Intelligence Community couldn't rule out in that Intelligence Community assessment. Here we have solid forensic detailed evidence that the president can make use of. And so, as a citizen now, I would say, let's do it. And then I want to see what the president does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let's do it, he says.

Is this a real opportunity for Trump to reset with Putin here, Anne- Marie, to confront him in no uncertain terms, and if he did that, how do you think Putin would react?

ANNE-MARIE SLUGHTER, PRESIDENT, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: Well, Ana, I just think that Trump himself, the man, has absolutely no interest in doing that. Trump and Putin actually share a world view and Trump admires Putin, and he has never said anything negative about Putin himself. Indeed, when I look at the two of them, they share a love of money, they share machismo and they share megalomania. So the idea that Trump will do this to Putin flies in the face of everything we know about Trump. The administration as a whole, his national security adviser, others, others in the Congress, have a view that Russia is, in fact, hostile to our interests. But Trump himself does not. And now 51 percent of Republicans following Trump say we should have better relations with Russia.

CABRERA: Josh, back to the timing of these indictments, just three days before Trump's meeting with Putin. And then we know Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point to say that he briefed Trump on these indictments coming earlier in the week. So Trump knew it was coming. Do you think Trump actually wanted this news to come out before the summit?

[15:10:06] ROGIN: No, it doesn't help Trump at all. I don't know if the Justice Department timed this to match with the summit. I'm trained, as a journalist, not to believe in coincidence, but we can't be sure. But the bottom line is now Trump can't deny that there's an overwhelming amount of evidence that the Russian government did perpetrate this attack. But, no, it doesn't help him. It actually hurts him because, exactly what Anne-Marie Slaughter said, which is that he agrees with Putin. He's not trying to confront the Russians. He not only agrees with Putin on his basic world view, he agrees with Putin that the liberal international world order that the United States and Europe have spent the last 80 years building, has been the backbone of peace, security and stability in the world, should be dismantled. And we saw him traipse through Europe setting relationships ablaze with our closest allies. That is a gift to Putin strategically. It's a gift to Putin ahead of the summit. So all these revelations make the bromance between Trump and Putin harder for Trump to sell, both internally and externally. But he doesn't care. He's going to do it anyway. He doesn't care about the evidence. He's made that very clear. He will just blame Obama and do whatever he wants.

CABRERA: Anne-Marie, CNN's chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, said this, quote, "We've only had 45 presidents. Now we know one of them was elected with the explicit and intentional help of a foreign power."

Would you go that far?

SLAUGHTER: Yes. Absolutely, I would. We can never know whether he would have won absent Russian help, but we know that Russia helped him win. And, indeed, the Russian playbook here is exactly like the Russian playbook in Ukraine, getting Yanukovych elected, and also support for right-wing nationalist authoritarian parties in Europe. And for Putin, this was yet another example of how to elect someone who would be friendly to his interests. As Josh just said, Trump's trip through Europe, thus far, both with respect to Brexit and to NATO, is like following a Putin script.

(CROSSTALK)

ROGIN: And it's not only that the Russians helped him win. He helped the Russians attack us. Remember, he promoted the material. His team promoted the material. They worked with their friends in Congress and the media to spread the results, the benefits, the fruits of the criminal activity. Now, I'm not alleging collusion. There might have been collusion. We don't know if there was any collusion. We'll wait for Robert Mueller to tell us --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: What we do know about it, according to --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- indictment, there was no American charged with a crime.

ROGIN: No.

CABRERA: We also know that, in this indictment, they say that those Americans who were in direct contact with these Russian actors did not know that they were --

ROGIN: No, they --

CABRERA: -- Russian officials.

ROGIN: No. They said there's no evidence in the indictment that they knew that they were Russian officials. That doesn't mean they didn't know. It just means that wasn't presented yet. We don't --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: In the indictment?

ROGIN: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: And they said no.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Let me get to this real quick.

(CROSSTALK)

ROGIN: The point here is that, whether or not they were working with them, they helped them. We can call them fellow travelers in the criminal enterprise. OK? And if they were just useful idiots, and no colluders, is that good? No, that is bad. That's bad enough. To be used as a tool of Russian foreign intelligence operations is terrible even if you didn't know you were doing it.

CABRERA: And let me read the actual quote, "There's no allegation in the indictment that the Americans knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers."

ROGIN: Exactly.

CABRERA: It says in this indictment. We also heard Rod Rosenstein say that is an ongoing investigation.

You brought up, Josh, the comments Dan Coats made just last night, the director of National Intelligence, about these blinking red lights. He also says the situation is at a critical moment. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN COATS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: It was in the months prior to September 2001 when, according to then-CIA Director George Tenet, the system was blinking red. And here we are two decades, nearly two decades later, and I'm here to say the warning lights are blinking red again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Josh, he believes foreign adversaries, China, Iran, North Korea and especially Russia, are at work every day --

ROGIN: Of course.

CABRERA: -- to penetrate America's digital infrastructure. Should we be assured now knowing Coats is on it?

ROGIN: There are a lot of serious professionals inside the U.S. government working on protecting our democracy and our systems and our government every single day. They're doing their best. But there's another element. It's not just the defense. It is the deterrence. It's how do you convince these other countries to back off. Now, isn't it absurd that President Trump today tweeted that President Obama didn't do enough to tell Putin to back off, and here is President Trump meeting with Putin, and he won't do enough to tell him to back off. He is committing the same exact thing that he just accused Obama of.

When it comes to deterring these state actors, it has to done at the political, diplomatic level. It has to be done with pressure and costs. And that is what a Congress is trying to do, trying to impose costs on Russia. But that can't really be done without the president's help and that is the big hole in our activity here. We can strengthen our systems. I hope we're doing that. I think we're doing that. I know there are a lot of people trying to do that. But without actually imposing costs and raising the pressure on Vladimir Putin, he has no incentive not to do it again and again and again.

[15:15:29] CABRERA: Anne-Marie, combined with the comments from Dan Coats, we have this indictment, which gives us a better sense of what the Intelligence Community is facing, the critical work they are doing. And, yet, the president continues to attack the FBI, DOJ, now even foreign institutions like NATO. Is that scrutiny, criticism President Trump likes to dish making the world safer?

SLAUGHTER: This is really a very dangerous moment where the president of the United States is attacking, as you said, the CIA, the Justice Department, the FBI, attacking the rule of law in the sense of those agencies that are supposed to keep us safe from foreign adversaries and those agencies that are supposed to uphold the rule of law in the United States. So I do not see this as a partisan Democrat-versus- Republican issue. I see this as a rule of law and America's true interests in the world issue versus people who are actively undermining our institutions. Again, Trump is playing by Putin's playbook. The Russians could not be happier. Or I shouldn't say the Russians. Putin and his government could not be happier than to see President Trump attacking the FBI, attacking the CIA, attacking the rule of law.

CABRERA: Thank you so much, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Josh Rogin. Great to have you with us.

ROGIN: Thank you.

CABRERA: Coming up, we'll talk more about the danger that exists today. Again, Dan Coats says the threat is blinking red. We'll ask the head of the DNC, Tom Perez, how his party is protecting itself ahead of the midterms.

And what do these indictments tell us about where Mueller's investigation may go next? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:21] CABRERA: We now have evidence that 12 Russians military officers orchestrated computer hacks to try to swing the 2016 election in then-Candidate Trump's favor. The accusations are laid out in stunning detail in a new indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

I want to walk you through some of them. First, the indictment says, "Russians hacked in to the e-mail accounts of employees and volunteers working on the Hillary Clinton campaign, like John Podesta. But they also hacked into computer systems belonging to the National Democratic Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the DCCC. While there, they stole passwords, they tracked individual key strokes employees made, even took screen shots of whatever was being viewed on the computer screens."

The indictment says the Russians wound up stealing e-mails, opposition research and field operation plans for the 2016 election.

At least one of the hacking attempts happened the very same day then- Candidate Trump said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And because the Russians didn't just go after Clinton and the DNC, we now know they went after everyday Americans as well. According to the indictment, the Russians tried to hack into voting election systems. And in some instances, they were successful. In one state, although the state isn't specified, they were able to steal the names, addresses and driver's license numbers, even partial Social Security numbers of at least 500,000 voters. When they were done stealing what they could, the hackers set up fake personas by Guccifer 2.0 and D.C. Leaks to release the information.

How is President Trump responding to the indictment against the Russians? He is not blaming Putin or Russia. He is blaming President Obama and the DNC. He says, in an official statement, quote, "These Russian individuals did their work during the Obama years. Why didn't Obama do something about it? Because he thought Crooked Hillary Clinton would win. That is why. Had nothing to do with the Trump administration." And this, "Where is the DNC server and why didn't the FBI take possession of it? Deep state."

Joining us now, the chairman of the DNC, Tom Perez.

Of course, Tom, we know you weren't the DNC chairman at the time this hacking happened, but what is your reaction to the president's statement?

TOM PEREZ, (D), CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, it is breathtaking. You look at the depth and breadth of this indictment. And what you just mentioned, not only was this an attack on the DNC, this was an attack on democracy. The attack on state election boards, the efforts to infiltrate secretaries of state databases. This was an attack on our democracy. And this president knew about it before he left for his trip to Europe and he was still calling it a witch hunt. It is anything but a witch hunt. It is a frontal attack. It is not about Republicans and Democrats. It is about the integrity of our elections. It was an act of war. And you see as recently as this morning, he's already Trumping up more of these conspiracy theories trying to distract from the matter at hand. And the matter at hand -- and his Intelligence Community telling him this for a long time -- Russia did it in 2016, they were doing it in other countries, they attempted to turn the tide in the French election in 2017, they continue their attempts here. Why? Because the leader of our nation is allowing it. He is Putin's poodle. And he is not going to hold Putin accountable. That is unconscionable. And whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent, this is not about partisan politics. This is about the most important thing we do in this country, holding elections. This is our democracy at stake.

[15:25:10] CABRERA: And according to this indictment, the hacking began in March of 2016. The DNC learned of it in May.

Until now, did you know to what extent hackers had been able to monitor individual computer activity for hours apply down to each key stroke an employee made?

PEREZ: Well, again, I wasn't here in 2016. But when we learned that there had been this effort to infiltrate, we called in the best and brightest. And we've heard spectacular cyber officer. Cybersecurity is job gone at the DNC and with our partners in the state parties with whom we share our voter file. And the thing that is very clear to me, they succeed before. They continue to try. They have someone in this president who isn't going to hold them accountable. So why wouldn't you continue to try? You had great success in undermining the Democratic process. And so that is what is just so puzzling to me about why he is even meeting with Putin on Monday when Putin granted asylum to Snowden in 2013, President Obama canceled a meeting that was on the books with Putin. That is what this president should do. And if he is not going to do that, he should hand him the indictments, demand the immediate extradition of these people involved. And let's be clear, the people named in this indictment were not low-level operatives. They are righthand people to Vladimir Putin. It is impossible --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: They are Russian military officials.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: I want to ask you know specifically about what we're learning in the indictment about how they did their hacking and the dissemination of the stolen documents and data. President Trump suggests that there was nefarious reason the DNC didn't turnover its computer servers after the hacking was discovered. In January of 2017, the FBI said the DNC rebuffed its request to review the computer servers. Have you since then given the FBI and special counsel investigators access?

PEREZ: This -- today's tweet is rehashing old conspiracy theories. The fact of the matter is that we cooperated fully with the FBI. And when then-Director Comey went to Congress, he himself said that what he should have done differently was, I think, his term was cast a flare up to the DNC even earlier about what was going on. The DNC cooperated throughout.

And again, today's tweet is another effort to distract from the matter at hand. And the matter at hand is that Russians not only hacked the DNC, but the DCCC. They attempted to infiltrate secretaries of state and boards of elections. They were successful in this one state, getting more than half a million individual names and personal information. And they did that so that they could attempt to swing our elections. That is an act of war. And if we had a Democrat in the White House right now --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: But again --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREZ: -- we would have a cabinet that is dealing with this.

CABRERA: Forgive me. I didn't mean to step on you.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: But has the DNC done everything in its power to make sure this doesn't happen again and to get to the absolute bottom of what happened? Have you turned over the DNC servers?

PEREZ: We have cooperated from day one and we continue to cooperate. And again, all you need to do is read the testimony of then-Director Comey when he was in front of Congress. This is, again, another red herring. And we continue, again, through our hiring, through our cyber practices to do everything in our power to prevent it from happening again.

But here is the deal. And one of your commentators said this before, when you can do it with immunity, as Russia did, you will try to do it again. We filed a civil suit because it was clear to me we needed to do something to deter future misconduct. This president is not deterring nothing to deter future misconduct. To the contrary, he's aiding and abetting future misconduct. The reason we filed the civil suit was because, A, we were the victim and, B, I don't want this to ever happen again. This was an assault not simply on the DNC, it was an assault on our democracy. And we're fighting hard to win elections. And we're fight hard to win elections because this is more than fighting for good jobs, which we're doing, fighting for health care, which we're doing, fighting for women's reproductive health, fighting for immigrant rights --

CABRERA: OK.

PEREZ: -- fighting for our democracy. And he's putting our democracy at risk.

CABRERA: Tom Perez, thank you for your time. Really appreciating you joining us this weekend.

PEREZ: My pleasure.

[15:30:00]

CABRERA: This latest indictment means Special Counsel Robert Mueller has brought 191 criminal charges against 35 defendants. All of this in just over a year.

To help us put more perspective -- put it into perspective, I want to bring in CNN legal analyst, Carrie Cordero. She is former counsel to the U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.

Carrie, based on this indictment, where do you think Mueller's investigation goes from here? Is he in the home stretch?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Ana, I think this is definitely a significant milestone in the investigation. If I had to put a marker on it, I'd say maybe we're in the seventh inning. This was a major indictment of the Russian military intelligence officers, as you mentioned. But it only covers the foreign side of things. It doesn't yet get into whether or not there were any individuals who were affiliated with the campaign or any Americans who made have been co- conspirators. So I think that is the next wave of the special counsel's final investigation. Whether or not ends up in any type of charges or outlined in a further report, we'll have to wait and see.

CABRERA: Rosenstein, in his announcement said, quote, "There's no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime." The president and his legal team seem to have really seized on that. We showed the president's tweet earlier. But Rudy Giuliani also tweeting, in part, "The Russians are nailed. No Americans are involved."

Carrie, does this indictment clear anyone?

CORDERO: It doesn't clear anyone. They are correct that this specific indictment does not charge any Americans. But Rod Rosenstein, the deputy A.G., was very clear yesterday that his remarks were tailored to the specific indictment and that the investigation continues. So the special counsel's investigation is not over. I would assume, based on some things that are specifically in the indictment, that they will continue to investigate the U.S. end of it, and they will take that investigation as far as it takes them. So I think we may still see more come out of this special counsel's case. But I don't think that we'll see any other major indictment as we get closer to the midterm elections because, although I don't think the special counsel's office is looking at polls or any other political thing, I think they will be careful not to make mistakes that were made in the past as far as taking any type of investigative activity close to a U.S. election.

CABRERA: Carrie Cordero, our thanks to you.

CORDERO: thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: We always appreciate your expertise.

Coming up, it was one of the most moving moments in the family separation crisis, the sound of a little girl just 6 years old being separated from her mother. And now they are back together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:58] CABRERA: The Trump administration now says it has a plan to reunite migrant children and their parents who were separated at the southern border. Still more than 2500 children held at various centers around the country and, over the next couple weeks, many of those families may be brought together in what the government is now calling a streamlined vetting process.

Among the children recently reunited is that little girl whose cries for her family, for her aunt, for her mom, were heard all across the country. Remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLISON HAMINO (ph), CHILD SEPARATED FROM FAMILY: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(CRYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: CNN's Gary Tuchman was in Houston on Friday for her happy reunion with her mom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six-year-old Allison Hamino (ph), walking off her first plane ride ever. She looked out the window and wondered during the flight, played with her doll, colored in her coloring book. Getting off in Houston with two social workers hours after being released from a shelter in Arizona. Getting ready to see the mother she was separated from one month ago.

While she waited for her mom to arrive, the two spoke by phone.

HAMINO (ph): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

TUCHMAN: Mother Cindy telling her, she and her lawyer are on a very long drive from the airport from south Texas, but will be there soon.

After Allison was done talking to her mom, I told Cindy I was on the plane with her daughter. (on camera): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) She was not scared on the

plane. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Si? (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

You are very strong.

(voice-over): At 3:00 a.m., Cindy arrives at Houston Intercontinental Airport for the reunion she has been dreaming of for a month. Finally getting to hold hands with her daughter.

(CROSSTALK)

TUCHMAN: Big smiles.

The little girl, heard the world over on the gut-wrenching Pro Publica audiotape, back with her mother, a mother released from a detention center in Texas after being approved to proceed with her asylum claim following a journey from El Salvador.

Cindy not even knowing where her daughter was after they were separated a little over four weeks ago.

Allison says she isn't going to take her eyes off of Allison and is excited they are now in this country together.

CINDY HAMINO (ph), MOTHER OF ALLISON: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANAUGE)

TUCHMAN: Cindy says, "Everyone knows the United States is a great country. It is safer. There's better education. A better health system. But most importantly, the safety for my daughter."

Mother and daughter will live with Cindy's sister in the Houston area while proceeding with her asylum claim, hoping the sadness and separation are behind them.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:39:53] CABRERA: Coming up, the founder of Papa John's now speaking out after resigning for using a racial slur. We'll hear from him, next.

Plus, outrage in Georgia. Listen to this. Two police officers allegedly flipped a coin to decide on an arrest. How their police department is responding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:44:45] CABRERA: The face of Papa John's Pizza is changing. This is after the company's founder admitted using the "N" word during a conference call. John Schnatter's name and face has been scrubbed now from the company Web site and the marketing materials. He also resigned as chairman of the board.

And the University of Louisville is even removing the Papa John's name from its football stadium. Here is part of an open letter the CEO posted to the Papa John's Web site yesterday: "Racism and any insensitive language, not matter what the context, simply cannot be tolerated at any level of our company. The board of directors of Papa John's accepted Mr. Schnatter's resignation as chairman of the board earlier this week."

Now it has also been decided that he will no longer be in any of the advertising or marketing materials associated with the brand.

Polo Sandoval is joining us to discuss it.

John Schnatter is Papa John's. What is he saying?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And now Papa John's is without its John because of what we've seen there, what you read, and how they are having to restructure some of their marketing. And he is saying that there's more to the story. But when it all comes down to it, yes, he did use the "N" word and, yes, he is sorry. He has given several interviews to several media outlets in the Louisville area explaining that all of this had to do -- or at least his use of the "N" word was during what he called a training session over the phone between various Papa John's executives and also a marketing company.

This is how he has explained it in some of the interviews on exactly how and why this went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN SCHNATTER, FOUNDER, PAPA JOHNS PIZZA: It wasn't a slur. It was a strategy and media planning and training, and I repeated something that somebody else said, and said we're not going to say that. We don't use that kind of language, vocabulary. And, sure, it got taken out of context and, sure it got twisted, but that doesn't matter. I hurt people's feelings. That's what matters here. And for that, I'm sorry. And I'm disappointed in myself that something like that could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The so-called strategy session here is leading to some corporate fallout. There have been many big clients, many partners pulling out of their deals with Papa John's. New York Yankees, for example. Also the Atlanta Falcons. And also another professional team in Atlanta, United, the soccer team there also severing ties with Papa John's. And, Ana, this, of course, is in addition to the internal turmoil this has caused to the pizza giant here, Papa John's. The CEO, as you said, now removing this man from all their advertisements. However, we should mention that he is still a massive shareholder in this. However, he will not be the face of the company anymore.

CABRERA: Interesting to see where they take it.

Thank you, Polo Sandoval --

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Ana. CABRERA: -- for that update.

Coming up, two Georgia police officers are in hot water. Did they really flip a coin to decide whether to arrest a speeder or let her go? Details next.

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[15:52:09] CABRERA: Welcome back. Police officers in Georgia are accused of arresting a woman based on a coin toss. Let me take you back to April. Sarah Webb was pulled over for speeding. In newly discovered body camera footage, you can hear officers use a coin-flip app to decide what to do with her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: A, heads, R, tails.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: This is tails, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Well, the charges were thrown out in a courtroom this week.

Let me bring in Kaylee Hartung.

Kaylee, what happened to the officers?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, the two officers you hear in that body cam video have both been put on administrative leave. The Roswell Police Department saying they opened an internal investigation as soon as they learned of it. The police chief in Roswell going so far as to say he is, quote, "appalled that any law enforcement trivialized the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person."

You mentioned it was back in April when Sarah Webb was late for work and she was speeding and she drove through roads, poor conditions rain in the area, and she was pulled over by Officer Courtney Brown.

Listen to Officer Brown's body cam and the color it gives from this initial exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFC COURTNEY BROWN, ROSWELL POLICE DEPARTMENT: OK. So you think driving that fast on the wet road is a smart idea just because you are late for work? Instead of calling and saying you're running late for work, you would rather risk people's lives?

SARAH WEBB, MOTORIST: I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARTUNG: After that tense exchange, Officer Brown returned to her patrol car and had this shocking debate with her colleague, fellow officer, Kristee Wilson, and there you have the debate to arrest or release Sarah Webb hinging on the toss of a virtual coin.

What's interesting, when you listen to the exchange earlier, the coin lands on tails, which they had agreed meant they released the driver. They arrested her anyway. Ana, when prosecutors say the body cam video, they dismissed the charges against Sarah Webb immediately.

CABRERA: All right. Kaylee Hartung, we appreciate it. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

But first, CNN's original series, "The History of Comedy," is back with an all-new season. Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chemistry is the main special sauce in comedy team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's one guy out of control and one guy trying to take him down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The theme of sex in comedy is like there's a huge flow chart and everything leads to sex.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sex was always taboo those walls have been torn down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything I needed to learn about comedy I learned watching Warner Brothers cartoons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get so many chances to be funny in animation, but writing, voice talent, animation, boom.

[15:55:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Comedians don't have a great mortality rate. We lose a lot of people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we lose a comedian, I feel it's more personal because I know them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really one of the highest forms of comedy when you can be totally clean and just as funny as if the jokes were dirty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jokes are a really fun way to talk about the culture with a quick turnaround.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just show up on set and you just roll.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No rehearsal, no discussion. You just roll and try not to laugh.

ANNOUNCER: "The History of Comedy," starting tomorrow at 10:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[15:59:52] CABRERA: A 2011 top-10 "CNN Hero" refuses to let tragedy stop him. A fire burned down the Chef Bruno Serato's beloved restaurant last year, but in true heroic fashion, he found a way to continue serving hungry kids in his community.

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BRUNO SERATO, CHEF & CNN HERO: Here's my mission, feeding children that are hungry. But February 17, 2017 -