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Italy Bridge Collapse; London Car Attack; Trump versus Omarosa; Turkey Fires Back at U.S. Tariffs; Syria's Civil War; Police: Dozens Of Cars Torched, Vandalized; Dozens of Koreans To Have Family Reunions; The Many Faces Of Rudy Giuliani. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 15, 2018 - 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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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Search and rescue efforts are ongoing after a major bridge collapse. A live report from the Italian city of Genoa.
The question was direct and simple. The answer, not so much. The White House press secretary unable to say outright that president Donald Trump has never used the N word.
Plus, Syria's civil war may be coming to an end but Israel has concerns about one area recently taken by Syrian forces and it's looking to Russia for help.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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CHURCH: At least 26 people are dead and that number is expected to rise as rubble is removed from the scene of a major bridge collapse in Italy. Part of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa crumbled Tuesday in a heavy storm, sending vehicles plunging to the ground.
The bridge was undergoing maintenance at the time and the prime minister says a structural failure may have caused the collapse. City officials have declared two days of mourning while the search and rescue continues. Our Ian Lee is near the bridge collapse. He joins us now live from Genoa.
So, Ian, what's the latest on efforts to find survivors under all that rubble?
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, that's still the number one priority of rescue workers here, is to try to see if they can find anyone who may be trapped under these huge slabs of concrete.
I'm going to step aside and kind of show you what we're watching this morning. You can see, there in the middle of this riverbed, is a section of that road. Four lanes, just jutting out of that bed. And can you just see how massive this is and how difficult this is undertaking is.
Over there you can see the rescue workers, the large cranes trying to pull it away to see if they can get at anyone. We can hear jackhammers working. And they have been working through the night.
And then on the bridge you can just see where trucks, cars, had stopped just short of this massive gap. And just to kind of color it for you, to give you an idea. It's hard to probably tell on your television screen but there's a gap of bridge that's missing that's hundreds of meters long.
This is about a kilometer-long bridge. And one of the pylons had completely collapsed, sending, what we're hearing, at least 30 cars down, down onto the ground.
The one thing we are hearing from one rescue worker yesterday, who was one of the first people on the scene, he said there was just pouring rain, high winds, winds up to about 60 kilometers an hour.
He said, when he first got there, the one thing he continued to hear were people screaming out for help. He said they tried to get everyone out. We're hearing that 15 people have been taken to hospital who have been injured. Nine of them are in serious condition.
But there's one thing, Rosemary, that he told us that really stood out and that was coming across a car of a family, where the mother and the father had been crushed. And in the back there was their child. He said they thought at first that the child may be alive. But when they lifted the body, it was completely limp. They found that the child was dead. Just part of that horrific death toll that is continuing to rise.
Last night, you know, there was a lot of fear. There is a lot of fear that this bridge is still very unstable, and so parts of a community that lived right next to the bridge, they've been evacuated, 440 people living in a center right now because this bridge is still -- it could still collapse further.
CHURCH: It is horrifying and heartbreaking. Ian, what are authorities saying about how a bridge that has stood since 1968, 50 years, suddenly collapsed in a storm?
How is that even possible?
LEE: You know, that's the thing they are looking into right now and they definitely believe it looks like it is structural. When you hear from local residents, they say this bridge has had problems for decades, going back at least 30 years.
They say that it always seemed unstable, there was always issues with it, that there would be repair crews that would come and do some repair work on it but it was merely a Band-aid to the problem that they -- the locals say this bridge needed --
[02:05:00] LEE: -- to be replaced, that it wasn't safe and that they had warned authorities -- up to as early as last month they were telling authorities that they didn't believe this bridge was safe.
And even we heard from local authorities who said that they can't absolutely say that this bridge was sound. So there was a lot of questions. This is where the investigation is going to go as well, is to find out what should have been done sooner.
But one thing that locals here tell us is that they said if there was going to be a new bridge, then this is a bridge. That is a major artery here. It connects Italy and France and if they were going to replace it, it would take up to three years to do. And that's why they say they postponed doing major structural work on it.
Sadly, though, yesterday it ended in that tragedy.
CHURCH: It did. Our Ian Lee, bringing us that live report from Genoa in Italy. Just hard to believe, when you're looking at that vision, you're standing right near that expanse where the bridge went down. Thank you so much for that.
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CHURCH: Well, British police are investigating what they call a terrorist attack, the second one outside Parliament in less than 18 months. Once again, a car was used as a weapon.
Police say the driver who is under arrest is a British citizen but originally from another country. Officers have searched three properties in Central England as they look for a motive. Erin McLaughlin has more.
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ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chilling surveillance footage shows the moment a suspect plows his car into a security barrier outside the Houses of Parliament, injuring two. The car mounts the curb and crashes. Police are treating it as a terrorist incident, London's latest.
It happened just after 7:30 in the morning, as people were making their way to work. Surveillance footage shows the suspect driving his car down this road. Now initially, it looks as though he's going to turn to the right of Parliament Square but he suddenly veers this way.
The crash happened just beyond those screens. Immediately after the crash, the suspect was arrested at gunpoint.
JASON WILLIAMS, EYEWITNESS: In my opinion, it was deliberate. It wasn't -- there was no other -- he didn't swerve into it. It was a direct hit.
MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Police agree with that assessment. Given the iconic target, the way the suspect was driving, the weaponized vehicle, they seemed to have a good idea how it happened but they still don't know exactly why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. Our priority now is to formally establish the identity of the suspect and establish his motivation if we can. He is not currently cooperating.
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MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Tuesday, there was an increased police presence around the capital, although no intelligence to suggest another attack is imminent. People went about their daily lives.
SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON: I think all of us are angry when it comes to these acts of terror being committed. The British Parliament, the prime minister, Theresa May, works closely with me as the mayor to make sure we do all that we can do.
MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): This is the not the first time this London landmark has been targeted. In March last year, 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing five and injuring more than 50. London continues to remain on high alert and there's a sense here that things could have been much worse -- Erin McLaughlin, CNN, London.
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CHURCH: Turning now to Washington, where the accusations and insults are flying fast between U.S. president Donald Trump and his former aide, Omarosa Manigault-Newman.
She accuses him of racism and mental decline in her new tell-all book and he responded by calling her a crazed lowlife and a dog. Jeff Zeleny reports on another unprecedented day at the White House.
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SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can't guarantee anything but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's how White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is answering the question tonight of whether a recording could exist of President Trump ever using the N word while producing his "Apprentice" reality show.
The president has repeatedly denied using the racial slur, as his onetime friend and aide, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, has claimed, as she wages war with the White House.
SANDERS: If at any point we felt that the president was who some of his critics claim him to be, we certainly wouldn't be here.
ZELENY (voice-over): Tonight Omarosa also saying for the first time that she's been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into the 2016 election. OMAROSA MANIGAULT-NEWMAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE: I have.
ZELENY (voice-over): In her latest explosive claim, she insisted to MSNBC she's spoken to Mueller's team, blasted by the president as a witch hunt for its investigation of Russian interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
MANIGAULT-NEWMAN: That's the extent I can go in discussing that as well.
ZELENY (voice-over): But it's unclear what, if anything, the former White House staffer, who was fired last December, could offer Mueller's team. Her comment comes in the wake of a racially charged controversy surrounding the president --
TRUMP: Lowlife.
ZELENY (voice-over): -- who referred to her today as "a dog."
The president, out of public view at the White House, instead taking to Twitter, saying, "When you give a crazed crying lowlife a break and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn't work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog."
Sanders insisted the comment was not racist.
SANDERS: The president's an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it. He always fights fire with fire and he --
ZELENY (voice-over): She offered up an unusual character witness: the Clintons, and saying it was curious that charges of racism against Trump hadn't been made until now.
SANDERS: Again, the person that a lot of his critics say he is certainly wouldn't have been in business with him for decades certainly we wouldn't have had Bill and Hillary Clinton. They attended his wedding. A number of Democrats begged him for campaign contributions. I mean if they were who he said he was, why did they have these relationships with him?
ZELENY (voice-over): In a White House filled with considerable drama and remarkably little loyalty, the episode surrounding Omarosa took deceit and dysfunction to new levels from a president who promised this.
TRUMP: You got to pick the best people. You got to pick the right people.
ZELENY (voice-over): In the last day alone, the president has sent at least nine tweets on his former staffer, acknowledging, "It's not presidential to take on a lowlife like Omarosa but doing it anyway," declaring, "Wacky Omarosa has fully signed non-disclosure agreement."
The Trump reelection campaign today filed legal action against her, seeking arbitration for breaking the 2016 confidentiality agreement in her new book, "Unhinged," that offers a blistering yet unverified portrayal of the president and his administration.
ZELENY: The White House is blaming the press for giving so much attention to this new book by Omarosa, saying they simply are expanding and fanning these arguments. The president has been tweeting at least nine times over the last day about this book. Asked if he'll continue to do that, the White House press secretary said she didn't know -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
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CHURCH: And amid all the tweets and war of words, new numbers are out on Donald Trump's approval rating. It's now at 42 percent in a new CNN poll, up slightly from June. And those numbers have held pretty steady for the past few months.
As for the Russia investigation, majorities on both sides of the aisle say they would like to see special counsel Robert Mueller finish his investigation before the midterm elections in November.
Scott Lucas joins us now from England. He is a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham.
Good to have you with us.
SCOTT LUCAS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Thank you.
CHURCH: Let's start with those new --
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CHURCH: -- approval ratings for President Trump, now at 42 percent, up slightly as we said, since June. And those people apparently want to see -- or most people, I should say, want to see an end to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
What is your reading of those numbers, despite all the chaos in the administration?
LUCAS: Well, I think we know. As you've indicated, since these numbers have held steady since January 2017, that there are a group of Americans who will stand with Donald Trump come hell or high water.
Like he once said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York and still have support. The question is, all those other Americans that aren't among that so-called base, which way do they go?
So beyond 40 percent, 42 percent there's two questions here. I think one is, of course, which way do people go in the midterm elections in November?
And we've got some more clues last night from primaries in four states.
But then beyond this which way does the Mueller investigation go?
Because even if Donald Trump supporters say this is awful, this should just go away, it's the legal process that matters here and Robert Mueller, until he finds out what or what did not happen with Russians in 2016, is not going to go away.
CHURCH: Right. We want to turn to that exchange of insults between Omarosa and the president, starting with her explosive claim that she has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team. Omarosa refused to elaborate on that.
But with so little credibility, what could she possibly have to offer that team if indeed she did speak with them?
LUCAS: Well, you know, just to be blunt, if she's got tapes, that's physical evidence. It doesn't matter what you think of Omarosa. Physical evidence is physical evidence.
But beyond that, the question of whether someone does or doesn't have credibility, you've got so many people now who are former Trump administration officials, who are now talking to Robert Mueller.
You've got so many who are talking about his business dealings, that it will be up to them to sift through what is reliable and what is not. The question here is while they try to determine quality, we definitely have quantity that raise question marks over the president.
But I'll come to the wider issue now. Whatever you think of Omarosa, we now have a president who says, I'm not a racist, but then calls an African American woman a lowlife and a dog.
We have a president who, because he may be compromised by what happened in 2016 with the Russians, is attacking his federal agencies on a daily basis.
And we now have a president who tries to say that he is making America great again but, through behavior which is probably at best called unreliable, is really raising a question mark as to whether we can actually have a functional government in Washington, not just over the next few weeks but on a day-to-day basis.
CHURCH: Yes. Now you mentioned that tweet. Let's go back to it, that tweet from the president, where he refers to Omarosa as a crazed, crying lowlife and a dog.
His press secretary, Sarah Sanders, insists his comments are not racist and that his advisers wouldn't work with him if he were a racist. So Sanders says the president is an equal opportunity person and fights fire with fire.
Is that what this is?
LUCAS: Well, let's just break down what Sarah Sanders said. First of all, she said he's not a racist it because he's an equal opportunity insulter of people. He says bad things about everyone.
Not quite sure I would go there. But beyond that she says, well, he can't be all bad because people paid attention to him.
Why would they do that?
Well, you know, I ask myself that question on a daily basis but I've got to answer. Sometimes you've got to deal with the situation and the position and not the man. Donald Trump was a high-profile businessman. He's a man who is now President of the United States.
Not everybody is going to walk away and say, well, we can't deal with him whatever happens. In fact, a lot of people might say we have to deal with him to try to prevent something worse from happening.
So I'm not quite sure that Sarah Sanders gets him off the hook with that carefully constructed wording.
CHURCH: Scott Lucas, we'll leave that there for now, for this hour. We'll get another chance to chat about some of these issues next hour. Many thanks to you for joining us. Appreciate it.
LUCAS: Thank you.
CHURCH: Let's take a very short break. Still to come, Turkey fires back at U.S. tariffs. The Turkish president is calling for a boycott of all U.S. electronics, even iPhones. And that's not all he's doing. We'll take a look at that.
And new concern over a possible flashpoint, this time near Israel's border, as the Syrian civil war winds down. We're back in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
Well, Turkey is firing back after President Trump said he would double U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is now slapping heavy tariffs on U.S. imports including cars, alcohol and tobacco.
He's also calling for a boycott all U.S. electronics, blaming U.S. sanctions for the plunge of the lira. But critics say he should be looking at his own actions. More now from CNN's Arwa Damon.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan most certainly is standing firm, not even coming close to doing what it is the markets would like to see the government here doing and that's pretty much raise the interest rates.
Instead, in a very fiery speech, President Erdogan, in reaction to the U.S. government doubling tariffs on imports of Turkish steel and aluminum, said, well, we're going to then be calling for a boycott of U.S. electronics, adding that whatever it was that Turkey was importing, well, they could just produce it domestically and he said produce it better.
But this position is not likely to do much to really boost investor confidence or calm down the rising anxiety of the population here, especially after they watched the lira go into that horrendous, devastating tailspin following the sanctions and tariffs imposed by the United States.
Of course, much of it, perhaps some would say symbolically centered around Turkey's refusal to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, whom they accuse of having links to terrorism and something that the White House has been urging and pushing for quite some time.
There was a meeting between the American national security adviser and the Turkish ambassador to Washington. We know that they addressed issues. But it seems at this stage that not much has materialized from that, leaving the population here really wondering, with neither leader willing to back down at this stage, if this is a situation where pride will perhaps be trumping progress -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.
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CHURCH: Syria's seven-year civil war appears to be winding down but there are fears a new conflict could erupt in an area recently reclaimed by Syrian government forces. Israel is worried Iran could establish a presence in the Golan, the buffer at its border. As Fred Pleitgen reports, Israel is looking towards Russia to keep Iran away.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This valley could be vital in the next phase of the Syrian conflict --
[02:25:00]
PLEITGEN: -- Quneitra, at the foot of the Golan Heights, the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.
On a Russian organized visit, Col. Viktor Zaytsev shows me the area the Syrian military with Russian help recently retook.
COL. VIKTOR ZAYTSEV, RUSSIAN MILITARY (through translator): On the right you can see the demilitarized zone and further down is the Israeli border. Behind us is the bravo (ph) line. Further along there is the post of the Russian military police, which serves as the guarantor of peace in the province of Quneitra.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The U.N. observer mission abandoned its post here when rebels took over the area in 2014. Now Russia says it wants to bring the observers back, also to mitigate Israel's anxiety over Iran's possible presence.
PLEITGEN: Ousting rebels from this area was a huge achievement for the forces of Bashar al-Assad and their Russian backers but it's also led to huge concerns among the Israeli. They fear Iran could gain a foothold here.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Israel has expanded its cross-border airstrikes on Iranian positions in Syria and says it wants Russia to keep Iran away from its borders. Russia, an ally of Iran in the Syrian war, says it's conducting joint patrols with the Syrian police in the demilitarized zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Currently our plan is -- and we are already implementing it -- is to set up checkpoints of the Russian military police along the bravo (ph) line. And I stress that in the demilitarized zone itself there are no Russian checkpoints but in total we have four checkpoints operating.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The Syrian army, with Russian support, swept through most of Southern Syria about a month ago. Now that the anti- Assad rebels have been ousted, the danger of a larger Israeli-Iranian confrontation here looms -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Quneitra, Syria.
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CHURCH: A first in American politics, Christine Hallquist won the Democratic primary in Vermont Tuesday, making her the first transgender nominee for governor from a major U.S. political party. Hallquist's win is seen as an important victory for the LGBTQ community.
The former energy company executive was tops in a field of four candidates. She will now compete against the current governor, a Republican, in November's general election.
And in Minnesota, Ilhan Omar has won the Democratic primary for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Omar came to the U.S. more than 20 years ago as a refugee. If she wins in November, she would be the first Somali American member of Congress.
She's not without controversy. She has criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians but strongly denies she is anti-Semitic.
It is a tape that may or may not exist. We will look at who is saying what about an alleged recording of Donald Trump using the N word.
And we have details of a new report that accuses the Catholic Church in one U.S. state of covering up decades of sexual abuse of at least 1,000 children.
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[02:30:32] CHURCH: A very warm welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. Time to check the main stories that we've been following this hour. The search and rescue is expected to last for days in Genoa, Italy where a major section of a highway bridge collapsed on Tuesday. At least 26 people were killed. Police say strong thunderstorms were partly to blame for the collapse. The bridge which opened in 1968 was also undergoing maintenance at the time.
British police are trying to figure out why a man drove a car into pedestrians before crashing into the barriers outside parliament in London. The driver was arrested but police say he is not cooperating. Police searched three addresses in Central England and an official says the suspect is a British citizen who originally came from another country. Turkey is firing back at U.S. sanctions. The government has slapped heavy new tariffs on U.S. imports including alcohol, cars, and tobacco.
And the Turkish president has called for a boycott of U.S. electronics. Washington and Ankara are at odds over the detention of an American pastor in Turkey. Well, the White House is side stepping the question of whether there is a tape of President Trump using the N-word while on the set of his reality show. Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman claims there is and that she talked to Trump campaign advisers about it. The story takes a turn with what they have to say about it.
Athena Jones reports.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: it's a tape that may or may not exist and a story that just won't die. The mythical recording has never been released publically, but former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman says she has heard the outtake from The Apprentice and that in it then-reality star Donald Trump uses the N- word when referring to contestant Kwame Jackson. It's an allegation the president strongly denies tweeting the show's creator Mark Burnett called him to say there are no tapes of The Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by wacky and derange Omarosa.
I don't have that word in my vocabulary and never have. She made it up. Jackson himself said in 2016 he never heard Trump use the N-word, but said Trump's actions like touting the false claim that President Obama was not a U.S. citizen suggests Trump held racist views.
KWAME JACKSON, FORMER APPRENTICE CONTESTANT: He never used the N-word or said something racist to me. What I did get from Donald Trump was what I saw through the Birther Movement.
JONES: Still rumors of such a tape or tapes surfaced in 2016. After the release of the Access Hollywood tape on which Trump is heard bragging about grabbing women's genitals. A former Apprentice producer tweeted, as a producer on seasons one and two of The Apprentice, I assure you when it comes to the Trump tapes there are far worse and Trump critic comedian Tom Arnold told a Seattle radio station KIRO in late 2016 --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the outtakes to The Apprentice where he says every bad thing ever. Every dirty, every offensive racist thing ever.
JONES: But Arnold hasn't backed up his claim by releasing the supposed tapes in his possession, and despite intense public interest in Apprentice outtakes when Clinton supporter David Brock promised $5 million to cover the legal costs of anyone who would leak the tapes, he found no takers. While not answering the question directly this morning, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway seemed to acknowledge discussing the rumors with Trump during the campaign.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: I talked to him about it in the campaign. It was my job to tell the president every rumor, innuendo, fact, fiction.
JONES: In her new book, Manigault-Newman writes about an October 2016 conversation she says she had with fellow campaign staffers Lynne Patton, Jason Miller, and Katrina Pierson about how to handle the fallout of such a tape be release. Though no one on the call have heard the alleged tape at the time. Pierson said Monday night on Fox that call never happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Katrina Pierson said he said it. Did that happen?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, Ed. That did not happen. It sounds like she's writing a script for a movie.
JONES: This morning Manigault-Newman sharing with CBS a snippet of what she said is a recording of the conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to find out at least the context it was used in to help us maybe try to figure out how they would spin it.
[02:35:03] JONES: Lynne Patton now a Housing and Urban Development Department official says on the call that she had a conversation with Trump about whether he had ever used the racial slur.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said, well, sir, can you think of any time that this might have happened and he said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that's not true, so --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- he goes, how do you think I should handle it? And I told him exactly what you just said, Omarosa, which is, well, it depends on what scenario you're talking about, and he said, well, why don't you just go ahead and put bed? I --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: In a new statement, Pierson acknowledged there were rumors of such a tape during the campaign, but said they were, "Always being circulated by Omarosa and her alone." And that she was trying to placate Manigault-Newman to move the discussion along. Athena Jones, CNN New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And we spoke with both campaign advisers in an effort to clarify what their accounts of the conversation were. Katrina Pierson spoke with Erin Burnett.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATRINA PIERSON, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: It got to the point where we had a campaign to run so what you hear in that tape which is not the tape she's been referencing is me placating to her which I did a number of times because she would not let this go.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: So let me be clear because when you say, you know, you're saying that he said it, he's embarrassed. It was just you placating her, and when this tape came out today, right, and then it was played, you put out a statement.
PIERSON: Two tapes.
BURNETT: All right. And in your statement you used that word, Katrina, in her secret tape recording of me, it was one of many times that I would placate Omarosa to move the discussion along because I was weary of her obsession over the alleged tape. What I'm trying to understand, Katrina, is if that you're weary of it and you're trying to placate her, how is saying he said it placating that is admitting?
PIERSON: Well, no. It's very simple because if you look at the transcripts which most people haven't seen you see it's Omarosa who is the instigator here. She's literally arguing with Lynne Patton. So here, but --
(CROSSTALK)
PIERSON: Yes. Let me get to that. But, Erin, let me get to that. She is arguing with Lynne Patton about him saying it. The president himself said he didn't. Omarosa is the one saying that he did. So what you hear me doing is interrupting saying, OK, OK, he said it. He said. He's embarrass like let's move on.
BURNETT: In the tape that they -- that they play which is about the N-word when you say the president said it, he is embarrassed, you say -- you're just -- you're basically saying --
(CROSSTALK)
PIERSON: That's the tape where I'm placating.
BURNETT: -- you were lying to Omarosa to make her go away.
PIERSON: Yes. That's the placating. You have to read the full transcript. That's the beauty of this. Omarosa is the instigator in the transcript. She's the one that's pushing the narrative and --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: -- the President of the United States used the N-word in a blow-off kind of a manner. It's not a blow-off sort of --
(CROSSTALK)
PIERSON: Because it's not -- yes, it is. It is because it's not real. That's the whole point. She's consistently pushed this narrative multiple scenarios, and I was tired of it, Erin. We had an election to win. So that's why I stopped her from arguing with Lynne and said, all right, all right, he said he said it. He's embarrassed, move on.
BURNETT: Did you ever sign an NDA with Trump?
PIERSON: Yes, I did actually.
BURNETT: So basically if you have heard him say the N-word, you wouldn't tell me about it anyway?
PIERSON: No. I -- I'm telling you the truth. I'm not up here to lie. I'm telling you the absolute truth. But I did sign an NDA with the campaign because everyone signed an NDA with the campaign.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And Lynne Patton spoke with Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Last night, you released a statement before this recording was released right when it was only Omarosa's word about this conversation. You said, you released a statement that read in part at no time did I participate in a conference call with Katrina Pierson advising me, Jason Miller, and Omarosa Manigault-Newman that Frank Luntz said her President Donald J. Trump used a derogatory racial term and claim that Luntz himself has also denied.
We just heard you on that phone conversation, so last time you said it didn't take place.
LYNNE PATTON, ADMINISTRATOR, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Well, no. Let me clarify and that's one of the reasons why I'm here. What I said was and what was debuted -- refuted was that Katrina set up a conference call to -- that confirmed that Frank Luntz said that he heard DJT specifically say the N-word. That never happened. What did happen though is that Omarosa has been allowed to continue on her tour of lies without being checked by either the media or obviously her book publisher.
COOPER: But that's -- but that's not -- I mean when you made that statement last night, the only thing that had been released by CBS was a tweet saying that Katrina Pierson in a conversation -- Katrina Pierson says, OK, well, Frank Luntz knows what it is apparently heard it. So there --
(CROSSTALK)
PATTON: Well, that's not true because Omarosa then reiterated those statements on both Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd and so that's what I was disputing. What I was refuting was the fact that Omarosa claimed that we confirmed that on that conference call that Frank Luntz said this. COOPER: OK.
PATTON: He's obviously come out and denied it. We've obviously come out and denied it. What I have a hard time understanding is why, you know, this administration has found itself on the defensive end against a woman who has willfully, and deceitfully, and surreptitiously recorded possibly even engage in illegal behavior, you know, against a family like I said that has embraced her.
[02:40:20] But yet, I'm the one on television having to explain myself. I mean It's like the twilight zone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: All right. To another story we're watching very closely closing arguments are set for Wednesday in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The defense rested its case without calling a single witness. Manafort spoke for the first time in court Tuesday telling the judge he would not be testifying. We heard from CNN Legal Analyst Areva Martin earlier about the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AREVA MARTIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ANALYST: There was no way that Paul Manafort could take the stand. The cross-examination would have been too brutal. He would have done more harm to his case which is hard to imagine when you say that given the amount of evidence that was presented by the prosecution. This was a paper case and the prosecution put on lots of evidence from e-mails to bank records to other documents to prove their case of fraud and tax evasion.
And the best that they can hope for is that the jurors believe their argument that I expect they will make which is that Rick Gates lied to the FBI. He lied to the special counsel and he came into that courtroom and he lied to the judge, and he lied to the jurors. And if one juror believes that Rick Gates' testimony is non-believable that he was the architect of all of these crimes, that one juror could cause there to be a hung jury or perhaps even an acquittal in this case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud crimes. A new scathing report about sexual abuse, cover-ups, and the Catholic Church was unveiled in Pennsylvania. More than 300 priests are accused of sex crimes against more than a thousand children. Here's CNN's Jean Casarez.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This 884-page report took two years to put together, and there are many redactions. The attorney general's office is going to court next month to fight for those redactions to be revealed saying, "Every redaction represents an incomplete story of abuse that deserves to be told." This massive investigation involved law enforcement agents, prosecutors within the office of the attorney general and, of course, the grand jurors. Officials say that this report written by 23 Pennsylvania grand jurors
is the largest most comprehensive into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church that has ever been produced in the United States. The grand jurors listened to testimony from dozens of witnesses and studied half a million pages of internal documents about alleged child sexual abuse in six dioceses which involve 54 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
The report states that there were credible allegations found against over 300 priests, over 1,000 child victims were identifiable from the church's own records. But they believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid to come forward is actually in the thousands. The report states that most of the victims were boys, but girls were also victims. Some were teens, some were much younger, some victims were manipulated with alcohol or pornography.
And grand jurors found that church leaders in every part of the state preferred to protect the abusers and, "Their institution above all."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH SHAPIRO, PENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: These petitioners and for a time some of the dioceses sought to prevent the entire report from ever seeing the light of day. In effect, they wanted to cover-up the cover-up. They sought to do the same thing that senior church leaders and the diocese we investigated have done for decades. Bury the sexual abuse by priests upon children and cover it up forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Because of the cover-up almost all of the abuse is too old to be prosecuted. The grand jury has issued presentments against two priests who allegedly assaulted children within the statute of limitations, and there also may be more indictments in the future because the investigation is continuing.
CHURCH: Jean Casarez reporting there. Well, some church leaders apologized late Tuesday and said they are praying for the victims. We'll take a short break here. Still to come, roaming groups of vandals burned and smashed dozens of cars in Sweden, and it's unclear what led to their rampage. We will have reaction ahead. Plus, many North and South Koreans dream of being reunited with loved ones on the other side. Now, their dream is coming true for just a select few.
We will tell you how. Back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:47:41] CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Police in Sweden are investigating a string of arson attacks where dozens of cars were torched and vandalized. They said the level of damage is unprecedented. Robyn Curnow has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Firefighters desperately try to put off the flames. Police say, up to 100 cars were either set on fire or vandalized on Monday night. It happened in Gothenburg, Sweden second- largest city as well as several surrounding towns.
Authorities believe it's the work of young people and say it appears the perpetrators planned the destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I looked out of the window and saw all the fire engines and the foam, and rushed out to see what it looked like it was devastating.
CURNOW: Another eyewitness said that she saw eight to 10 masked men smashing car windows with baseball bats and had a grocery cart filled with Molotov cocktails that they threw into cars.
Sweden has seen a rise in violence in recent years in areas with high unemployment and other social problems. Mounting concern about violence is a top issue in next month's national elections.
As latest incident is reminiscent of the 2013 Stockholm riots which took place in a suburb dominated by immigrants. Those disturbances were reportedly in response to the shooting death by police of an elderly man and involved 50 to 60 young people.
The Swedish Prime Minister called Monday's arson attacks completely unacceptable, and announced that an investigation is underway.
STEFAN LOFVEN, PRIME MINISTER OF SWEDEN (through translator): As I said earlier today, I get angry. And the question has to be asked to these people, what the hell are you doing? Who do you think you are?
You are destroying things for the whole area, for the neighbors, for the children who may have to go to nursery school in the morning and see cars that have burned.
CURNOW: Robyn Curnow, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A ship with rescued migrants on board will be allowed to dock after being stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for the second time this year. Malta says, it will allow the ship into port after five E.U. countries, that's Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Portugal agreed to take in the 141 migrants that are on board. More than half of them are minors.
In June, the same ship was stranded for days until Spain agreed to let the migrants in. Now Spain, says the region of Catalonia will take 60 of those migrants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:50:11] CARMEN CALVO POYATO, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN (through translator): The government of Spain under the leadership of Prime Minister Sanchez, has achieved the response to the situation of the Aquarius rescue ship. It's the European response, the coordinated response with solidarity. A safe and responsible response, and also coherent for the Spanish government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The ship is near Italy but the populist government in Rome is again refusing to accept any of those migrants.
Well, dozens of North and South Koreans separated by their decades- long war are to take part in a family reunion next week. They're part of a lucky few selected to briefly reunite with their loved ones. And Michael Holmes profiles one man who was not chosen and a woman who's thankful she is on the coveted list.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's tantalizingly close but also a world apart. Hwang Rae-ha's family fled South during the Korean War but when the armistice was signed in 1953, his mother was trapped in North Korea.
Despite living within sight of North Korea, Rae-ha hasn't seen his mother for the last 65 years.
HWANG RAE-HA, HAS NOT SEEN MOTHER SINCE 1953 (through translator): Too much time has passed by and it is over now. I don't think she is alive.
HOLMES: Now, aged 77, Rae-ha says he would be happy with just a photograph of the mother he hardly knew. Unfortunately, Rae-ha was not among the 93 South Koreans and 88 North Koreans who are scheduled to meet family members in reunions next week.
82-year-old, Bam Soon-hui is one of the lucky ones. But as she packs towels as gifts for her siblings, the joy is tinged with sadness.
BAM SOON-HUI, MEETING SIBLINGS NEXT WEEK (through translator): I was told that my older sister and younger sister are still alive. Only two of my six siblings are still alive.
HOLMES: For many, time is running out. Since 1988, more than a 132,000 South Koreans have added their names to a government registry, hoping to reunite with their families. But as the years passed, more than 75,000 people on that list have died.
Kim Hyun-sook met her daughter and other family members at the last round of reunions in 2015. It's a bittersweet memory.
KIM HYUN-SOOK, MET WITH DAUGHTER IN 2015 (through translator): When time was up, I let go of my daughter's hand and got onto the bus. The moment I sat down, I could not speak. Not a single word came out of my mouth.
Anyone who has given birth knows what it feels like to leave their children behind. HOLMES: Hyun-sook, says she would like just one last text message from her daughter. Assuring her that she is OK. She's just one of the thousands of Koreans with a simple wish that has been denied for decades. Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And still to come, whether he is grinning, grimacing or laughing, President Trump's attorney certainly shows his emotions when he's on camera. We will look at the many faces of Rudy Giuliani. Back in a moment again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Well, he has been the frontman of President Trump's defense on all the big news stories and all the big shows, and we have come to learn Rudy Giuliani is a man of many faces. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[02:55:06] JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You could watch Rudy Giuliani with a sound on.
RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: With all this craziness.
MOOS: But who needs audio to appreciate the craziness of the faces of Rudy. Especially, those eyes he makes.
GIULIANI: Except no under oath. Shocked. Do you think they had one conversation in two years? Stop the nonsense.
MOOS: One critic turned Giuliani's eyes against him. "Rudy watching the replay of his own interview." And if it isn't the bulging eyes, it's the boisterous laugh.
CHUCK TODD, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, NBC NEWS: I know it's not a crime to lie to us in the media. By --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A good source. A source that the president, our sales.
GIULIANI: Well, we don't like to fight, you know that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the mayor, I used to watch your press conferences -- all right, good.
MOOS: On SNL Kate McKinnon picked up on both the eyes and the laugh in her Rudy impression.
KATE MCKINNON, ACTRESS: They even have programs in jail where you can get a real law degree.
MOOS: Rudy uses air intake. And exhalation to express himself without words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And certain things that are not done. And --
MOOS: And his gestures may leave you sighing.
GIULIANI: Poor little Hillary, we got to be nicer.
MOOS: One tweet compared into a cast member of the Munsters which we only kind of sort of see
GIULIANI: By interrupting, by again (INAUDIBLE).
MOOS: But there's one guy even Rudy can't rival when it comes to facial flexibility.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said he wouldn't want "Such a hothead with his finger on the nuclear codes."
MOOS: Bulging eyes will never overshadow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a chaos candidate.
MOOS: Presidential astonishment who, me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What?
GIULIANI: You'll see.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: (INAUDIBLE). What do you mean?
GIULIANI: You'll see.
MOOS: New York.
GIULIANI: With all this craziness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: All in the face. And thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter. I'll be back in just a moment with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Do join us. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
