Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Protest Greet President Trump In Pittsburgh; U.S. President Calls For Ending Birthright Citizenship; Divers Hearing "Ping" Locator From Lion Air Plane; Divers Hear "Ping" Locator From Lion Air Plane; Pakistan's Supreme Court Acquits Woman On Death Row; Khashoggi Probe A Factor In Vision 2030 Support. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 31, 2018 - 01:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: After a terrible tragedy, a city divided as Pittsburgh mourns the deadly massacre at a synagogue, the U.S. President is not getting the warm welcome he expected. Plus, freedom of Aasia Bibi, Pakistan's Supreme Court acquits the mother of five after she spent years facing death row charged with blasphemy. And beat the world's tallest statue, but not everyone is celebrating him in India. Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world, I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

In the coming hours, there will be more funerals, more tears more heartbreak in Pittsburgh when more victims of Saturday's massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue are laid to rest. On Tuesday, there are long lines of mourners waiting to pay their respects to three of the eleven victims. Cecil and David Rosenthal, and Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz. Despite calls to stay away President Trump and the First Lady visited the site of the mass shooting. They were greeted by the Synagogue's rabbi. He was leading Saturday service when the shooting started. Just a block away though, large crowds protested Trump's visit. Many say his words and policies have embolden a growing white nationalist movement.

The four most senior leaders in Congress both Republican and Democratic all declined an invitation to travel to Pittsburgh with Donald Trump. CNN's Miguel Marquez has more now reporting from Pittsburgh.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I want to show you sort of how this day went. There was you know the president showed up here and just blocks at one point about a block from where he was thousands of protesters gathered this is just sort of the end of it. People are now breaking up here but it was -- it was prayers, it was singing, it was a neighborhood and a city coming together basically to say we don't want the President here and that they will get beyond this.

This neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, everyone just in tears today walking around here. No matter where you went you just saw people crying and emotional. It turned to anger at certain points during the protest. There was at least one person who was arrested. I spoke to a young woman, she's a first generation Indian-American who came here. Here's why she was so upset about the President's visit.

SUGANYA SCHMURA, RESIDENT CARNEGIE, PENNSYLVANIA: I think everyone should feel terrified of what's coming for our country if this is becoming a normal thing in our society and it has been normalized. Shootings have kind of been -- you almost expect like what next, where's the next place, and it's sad to feel scared living in America because this is supposed to be a land where you feel free. Free to practice your religion, free to be who you are, and it doesn't feel that way anymore.

MARQUEZ: And what was most remarkable about this protest is that it wasn't planned 24 hours before the President arrived here. We weren't even sure that anybody was going to show up but there were 20 and then there were 50 and before long within an hour there are over a thousand people and by the end of it there were several thousand people in the streets of Squirrel Hill singing and protesting so that the President himself could hear them as he was paying his respects.

The city, this neighborhood, the city, this area just torn by this in entire episode and that the -- we've only seen the first funerals, the rust will continue through this week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Now, thanks to Miguel Marquez for that report. CNN's Jim Acosta has more now on the President's trip and what lies ahead for Donald Trump with the critical Midterm Elections now just a week away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, any message for the people of Pittsburgh?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With the First Lady at his side, President Trump traveled to Pittsburgh, a city in mourning after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. The city of Pittsburgh is split over Mr. Trump's presence with some community leaders wishing he would stay home.

RICH FITZGERALD, ALLEGHENY COUNTY EXECUTIVE: We're trying to heal right now and I think a later time would be better.

ACOSTA: While the Synagogue's rabbi left his door open.

JEFFREY MYERS, RABBI, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: This is not about any one person, this is about hate and that good must win. Mr. Trump is igniting passionate reactions to nearly every move he makes in part because he's enflaming an already bitterly divided country. Just one week before the Midterms, the President is resurrecting a controversial proposal he's made before to end birthright citizenship in the U.S., something he claims he can do with an executive order.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what, you don't.

ACOSTA: But he's wrong. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees citizenship to people born in the U.S. Presidential Scholars and members of Congress from both parties agree Mr. Trump would have to amend the Constitution.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Well, you obviously cannot do that. You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.

ACOSTA: The citizenship issue is straight out of the President's Midterm playbook to energize his base with racially loaded rhetoric like his claim that the convoy of migrants many of them women and children heading for the border is an invasion requiring a military response when it doesn't.

REP. RYAN COSTELLO (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I don't know how much political calculus he's putting into this. I think he thinks maybe there is but my point is I don't like it. I don't think it's effective. It's not good for our country.

ACOSTA: The President is also using questionable language and describing Florida's Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum.

TRUMP: Look, here's a guy that in my opinion is a stone-cold thief. He's a disaster.

ACOSTA: That followed the tweet for Mr. Trump that described Gillum's opponent as a Harvard, Yale-educated man. Gillum fired back in a tweet of his own saying I heard Trump ran home to Fox News to lie about me but as my grandmother told me, never wrestled with a pig, you both get dirty but the pig likes it. The White House is scrambling to clean up after the President's remarks even Vice President Mike Pence tried to maintain that Mr. Trump respects the American press despite dubbing some news outlets the enemy of the people.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: This is a president who believes in the freedom of the press. But the president's complain and it's often mischaracterized not by you either but it's -- the president says fake news is the problem, not news.

ACOSTA: The question is whether any of this will have an impact on the Midterms as Democrats are hopeful voters have grown weary of the President's rhetoric.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am sick and tired of this administration. I'm sick and tired of what's going on. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I hope you are too.

ACOSTA: And Mr. Trump's attacks on the press are also right out of the President's Midterm playbook. A source close to the White House says outside and inside advisors are urging the President to keep on slamming the media despite the pipe bombs that were mailed to CNN over the last week. Jim Acosta, CNN the White House.

VAUSE: Mark Hetfield is the President and CEO of HIAS, what was formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He joins me now from Pittsburgh. Mark, thank you for being with us. You know --

MARK HETFIELD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, HIAS: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: You know, normally at moments like this, a presidential visit to the scene of a national tragedy is like the entire country stopping by and paying their respects but I don't think I've ever seen a president so unwelcome as Donald Trump was on Tuesday. Is that because of what he said in the past, was it just to be bad timing? How do you explain it?

HETFIELD: Well, what Pittsburgh needs -- what the whole country needs right now is healing. We need to address this epidemic of hate speech which is leading to hateful actions around the country. And I mean, we -- maybe the President's not responsible for all of it but certainly he has not helped it and he's been a bit of an irritant when it comes to hate speech in this country. And also it's not just that he said hateful things in the past, he said hateful things this morning. He woke up and immediately declared that he was going to try to abolish birthright citizenship which again is authorizing people who are born outside of the United States.

VAUSE: Yes. The alleged shooter, he ranted online quite a bit. HIAS was not spared the hate. He hates your group of helping murderous invaders reached the U.S. but facts matter and the reality really is quite the opposite to the garbage this guy was posting online.

HETFIELD: Absolutely.

VAUSE: You've helped over 4.5 million people escape persecution over the years.

HETFIELD: We are are the oldest refugee organization on earth and so yes, since our founding we've helped about 4.5 million people but we were established in the 19th century in New York City to help refugees and that's what we're still doing today. What we describe our history as going from an organization that helped refugees because they were Jewish to one that helps refugees because we are Jewish. But yes, that's why we've been able to help so many people.

VAUSE: In language which was strikingly similar to the accused shooter, the President described the immigrants in a caravan heading for the U.S. border as an invasion and a threat, he's also pushed this idea that somehow there's something criminal for immigrants to try and want to come to the to the United States but isn't that the American dream?

HETFIELD: And it's not just the American dream. I mean, HIAS is motivated to protect refugees because of our experience during the 20th century especially during the 1930 and the 1940s when Jews were literally trapped inside of a genocide in Europe and it was out of the ashes of the Holocaust that the right to seek and enjoy asylum was declared as an -- as an international human rights by the international -- by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and then by the Refugee Convention of 1951.

So, if somebody comes to our borders and those people are fleeing persecution as some of the people from central America certainly are, they have a right to make an asylum claim and get protection if they need it. That's a -- that's a right under international law.

VAUSE: Your motto is welcome the stranger, protect the refugee and this is from your Web site. We understand better than nerve that hatred, bigotry, and xenophobia must be expressly prohibited in domestic and international law because the right to refuge is a universal human right. HIAS is now dedicated to providing welcome, safety and freedom to refugees of all faiths and ethnicities. So how much harder is it now to carry out that miision statement in the era of Donald Trump?

HETFIELD: Well, there's a real imbalance here because on the one hand, we actually feel we more supporters than we've had ever and this has been the case not just Saturday but since our community and much the world woke up to the global refugee crisis in September of 2015. So we have a lot of support. But on the other hand, our partner in this, our most important partner perhaps in this is the United States government. And the U.S. government is no longer a reliable partner because of this hateful rhetoric against Muslims, against refugees, against immigrants. And what we really have to remember this attack that occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue is this was -- this was attack against Jews. This was anti-Semitic attack but people that are anti-Semitic aren't just anti-Jewish. They hate other groups as well. And this particular attack was motivated by an anti-Semitic, anti- Jewish impetus but also by a hatred of refugees and immigrants.

VAUSE: What I think a lot of people have realized is how the Jewish community and the Muslim community were unified just side by side not just at this moment but in other difficult moments in you know, in the last couple of years. You spoke about Trump's Muslim ban. You called his words hateful. When his administration slashed the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. from 100,000 in 2017 to 30,000. Trump has betrayed the commitment the U.S. made after World War II and to ensure that the world never again turn its back on innocent people seeking safety. You know, piece by piece it seems, this President is chipping away at the U.S. leadership role in so many issues be it refugees, be it immigrant asylum regardless of what it is. And regardless of what people say, he just keeps doing it.

HETFIELD: The one thing that we're experiencing now in the wake of this horrible tragedy here in Pittsburgh is that we at HIAS feel that there's more support out there among Jews and non-Jews for our mission than ever before and for the mission of other organizations that protect refugees. So you know, yes, our elected leader is not with us on this but we have so much support and so much love for refugees. What we had here, what HIAS organized last week was this refugee Shabbat where over 300 congregations in 32 states in the District of Columbia celebrated refugees and made it clear that the Jewish people welcome refugees to this country.

And that's what motivated this murderer to come into this synagogue on that day to commit this unspeakable atrocity. But what we have going for us is the fact that so many people, so many Americans stand behind us to welcome refugees. What we have to address now is the unfounded fee that others feel toward refugees confusing people who are fleeing terror with a terror from which the flee. VAUSE: We're out of time, Mark. But I just kind of feel we're at a

moment where even the darkest night comes to an end. Maybe that's where we're at right now. Thanks for being with us.

HETFIELD: I hope so. I hope so.

[01:15:03] VAUSE: Well, this just in, to CNN. Officials in Indonesia say pings have been detected possibly from the flight data recorder at the cockpit voice recorder, the two so-called black boxes from the Lion Air Flight which crashed on Monday, shortly after takeoff.

Ivan Watson is live for us in Jakarta. He joins us now. So, Ivan, they've heard pings but they still seem to be a little bit of distance here to go before they actually know for certain if they have the two recorders. It seems that they don't know exactly the location right now.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, that's the message that we've gotten from the National Transport Safety Commission, John. Which is that they have detected the beacon, what they suspect are sonar pings coming from the underwater locator beacon that would be affixed to the flight data recorders which is a positive development. Because then from that, they can try to triangulate and locate that beacon itself.

And hopefully the flight data recorder and hopefully some of the main body of that doomed Lion Air Flight 610, itself. Because, you know, as of Tuesday, they still hadn't even picked up that beacon which is supposed to help in these disasters to locate the body of the plane and that vital information that can lead to some kind of explanation for why a brand-new Boeing 737 would have crashed just some 13 minutes after takeoff.

We've been looking at, and we've had experts looking at some of the flight data, John, that has come from flight resources like flight radar 24 that indicate that the altitude that the plane was flying at in its first 13 minutes was highly erratic.

And that at one point, there was a 726-foot drop in just over 21 seconds. Which suggests there may have been some real problems taking place that could have occurs resulted in this terrible disaster that has resulted in what we believe of the deaths of 189 passengers and crew on board this doomed flight.

But yes, the top officials involved in this operation, reporting that they've heard a sonar pings from what they believe are the underwater locator beacon, and that should help with what has already been an effort to recover debris, floating debris, and human remains from this doomed airliner. John.

VAUSE: Ivan, we appreciate the update. Clearly, this is a slower the details are still developing. We'll check back in with you as soon as we have some more information on the search for that missing plane.

But there's obviously some encouraging news at this point with the pings from the locator beacons from the two so-called black boxes. Ivan Watson there, senior international correspondent in Jakarta.

And from Jakarta, we now go to Pakistan. Another story just in, to CNN with the Supreme Court has decided to spare the life of a Christian woman. Asia Bibi has been on death row since 2010. That's when she was found guilty of blasphemy. But she just won an appeal against the conviction and the sentence.

Bibi was charged with making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with three Muslim women. Her case had gained international attention. CNN's Sophia Saifi joins us now from Islamabad with more on this.

OK. So, what are the legal grounds here? How does she get off the charge?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Well, John, we're still waiting for the long order. There's just been a short order announced by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and that is, is that Asia Bibi has been acquitted, and she is free to go. She's been acquitted of all charges of blasphemy.

This is a groundbreaking judgment, actually, considering the fact how controversial blasphemy laws are here in Pakistan. So now, you know, there's a lot of celebration amongst human rights activists and very liberal Pakistanis in the country. Considering the fact that -- you know, there have been -- that she's been on death row for around eight years.

She -- the incident occurred back in 2009. So, it's been almost a decade that this has been ongoing. So, we're just waiting to see what happens next. There has been some fair off riots across the country. There are some firebrand clerics who've announced that -- you know if she is acquitted, which she has been now, that they're going to take to the streets and cause chaos.

We're getting some small reports of skirmishes in the city of Karachi which is the largest city of Pakistan. But nothing as of right now in the capital of Islamabad.

Now, it's just going to be something that we are going to have to continue to monitor. But this is some very good news coming out of the Supreme Court today. John?

VAUSE: OK. Very, very quickly because there's obviously big domestic pressure here. This is a very highly charged case, so there's the domestic pressure. But there is also international pressure as well.

In the scheme of things, where was the balance here, which -- if anything played a bigger role, it may be her acquittal during no or was this just simply she was acquitted on the other question of war?

[01:20:21] SAIFI: It's a bit of all things altogether. I mean, there had been considerable pressure from the European Union. The Pope had spoken out against it. There had been a lot of international pressure as you said. They've been -- you know, consequences as well. Pakistan had been -- you know, threatened with economic consequences by the European Union with regards to the continued detention of Asia Bibi. So, there is an element of that.

In considering the fact, you know, we're hearing reports which have not been confirmed that -- you know, some of these countries in Europe, we don't know which one yet has offered asylum to Asia Bibi because her life is still under threat here in Pakistan. Considering that there are quite a few people who do not want her alive.

And so, it's just one of those things where it is the case of -- you know, the law coming through. But also there has been a lot of continuous international pressure on Pakistan with regards to this case.

VAUSE: And again, Sophia, we appreciate the update. Let us know as soon we gets some more details on this, and we find exactly what the acquittal has been based on. We appreciate the updates for now.

And we will take a short break. When we come back, the tallest statue in the world with the price tags match for this depiction of one of India's beloved freedom fighters and unifiers is getting a very mix response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, Turkey is ramping up the pressure on Saudi Arabia for answers over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudis chief prosecutor was at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, inspecting where Khashoggi was killed on October 2nd.

A senior Turkish official tells CNN, 18 Saudis are being investigated for the premeditated murder and torture of Khashoggi. Turkey's president is pressing the Saudis to reveal who sent the team involved in the killing as well as who disposed of the body.

The Khashoggi investigation is now another factor in the crown prince's plan to reboot Saudi Arabia's economy. Try to make it less oil-dependent. His vision 2030 relies heavily on foreign investment and Western knowhow.

John Defterios, reports Khashoggi's killing, as with that plan now at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:24:59] JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: In front of the hometown crowd, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman enjoys near Rockstar status with followers eager to capture his image. Bold declarations are further packed audience at his investment summit with high-profile regional leaders were met by rapturous applause.

But the multi-billion dollar question is or what the Saudis call the premeditated murder of Jamal Khashoggi be the international undoing of the crown prince's economic blueprint called Vision 2030. MOHAMMAD AL TUWAIJRI, MINISTER OF ECONOMY AND PLANNING, SAUDI ARABIA: I think ultimately, we will able to go back to the opportunity, we look at reciprocity, we will look at the win-win situations. We look at what's beneficial for one nation with Saudi Arabia and the others.

DEFTERIOS: The region's biggest economy which is over half trillion dollars of cash reserves is counting on a similar amount of foreign investment to complete its 2030 master plan.

The crown prince calls his mega-projects, Dreamers, like the Neom City of the future, and the Red Sea Island Resorts. That today only exists in flashy videos. To come to life, they require Western design, engineering prowess, and confidence.

Foreign investors were rattled by the collapse in oil prices better than two years ago that eventually collided with three key events. The detention of 300 Saudi billionaires at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the economic embargo against Qatar, and the ongoing nasty war in Yemen. Combined, it raised the level of risk in Saudi Arabia.

FLORENCE EID-OAKDEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ARABIA MONITOR: Investor memory is all about risk and reward. And if Saudi Arabia is able to present the risks versus the rewards in a way that's favorable to investors, investors will resume looking at the kingdom.

DEFTERIOS: The crown prince may find wooing back the highest-profile U.S. corporate leaders challenging, with the reputational risk at hand. But the daily (INAUDIBLE) over Jamal Khashoggi's murder investigation, analyst suggests could eventually lead to a Middle East political reset driven by Turkey's president.

EID-OAKDEN: Mr. Erdogan is a fine politician who is certainly leveraged what's going on now to Turkey's benefits, and there are many advantages to be obtained for Turkey from what is happening now. One advantage is good for everyone which is more approach more between these two large economies, Turkey and Saudi Arabia better relations.

DEFTERIOS: Which may be the first step for the Saudi Crown Prince in rebuilding the Kingdom status. Depending, of course, on how the murder investigation concludes. John Defterios, CNN, Riyadh.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well in the aftermath of the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, a grieving community has come together. But the arrival of the U.S. president has revealed a growing divide in that grieving city and well beyond.

And just how deeply does Donald Trump's rhetoric resonate? Lawyers for a convicted would-be killer say their client was doing the violence by the explosive and false claims coming from the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN HOST: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN "Newsroom." I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour. Great to have you with us. Indonesia authorities have detected a ping signal from the flight data recorders on the doomed Lion Air flight. This could lead divers to the boxes and the fuselage of Boeing 737 MAX 8; 189 people were on board when the nearly-new plane crashed just 13 minutes after takeoff on Monday.

The secretaries of defense and state are calling on all participants in Yemen's civil war to agree to a cease fire in the next 30 days. They're insisting on a swift end to air strikes and want all sides to support the U.N. Special Envoy's attempts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has acquitted a Christian woman who has been on death row for almost eight years on blasphemy charges. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five was found guilty in 2010 of taking the Prophet Mohammad in vein while arguing with some colleagues at work. But last hour, she won her appeal against the conviction and death sentence.

Protests greeted President Donald Trump in Pittsburgh 3 days after 11 Jews were gunned down in their synagogue. Now the president and first lady lit candles and laid flowers and laid stones at the memorials of the victims. But just a block away, thousands protested. Some calling on Mr. Trump to denounce white nationalism as others demanding he leave.

President Trump's visit to Pittsburgh was low-key and somber but it's also further exposed the the divisions in the U.S. and next Tuesday's midterm elections. We have more details now from CNN's Sara Sidner reporting in from Pittsburgh.

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The first, funerals of the faithful after the massacre in Squirrel Hill, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, considered family by those he treated for generations. Daniel Stein, a father and husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a fun guy. He had a dry sense of humor.

(END VIDEO)

SIDNER: And beloved brothers David and Cecil Rosenthal who made each soul who entered the synagogue feel special and welcome. This is what the community is focusing on. There are funerals for seven more yet to come. Enter President Trump. The mere mention of his name evokes a reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

BECKY GOLDBERG, CANONSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA RESIDENT: Please, it is not about him. It's about the diseased. It's about the families. It's about the community that now we all have to try to survive and move forward. He needs to just stay away and stop his provoking words. (END VIDEO)

SIDNER: Becky Goldberg is Christian; her husband is Jewish. She knows a little something about acceptance and doesn't want division entering this heartbroken place, but it has. Jewish leaders are at odds; diversity of thought prevalent in a Jewish community as it is in other communities. The former Tree of Life synagogue president sent this message.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

LYNNETTE LEDERMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: I do not welcome this president to my city.

RABBI JEFFREY MYERS, THE TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: I'm a citizen, he's my president. He's certainly welcome.

(END VIDEO)

SIDNER: Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers welcomed the president and paid a price for it.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MYERS: When I first said that the president was welcome, I received a lot of e-mails. The thing that saddens me is those e-mails also contain hate and it continues in this vicious cycle. Hate promulgating more hate promulgating more hate and that's just not the solution.

(END VIDEO)

SIDNER: But he is clear. His first duty is to comfort his people as the 20 minutes of terror rattles around in his head, he has not stopped. We watched as he removed the sacred Torah from his synagogue turned crime scene. At one of the many makeshift memorials that have appeared throughout the neighborhood his message of unity, peace and love are abundant. But there was great concern that the president's very presence would distract from what this community really needs, a message that comforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

JEFF PARNESS, MOURNER FROM NEW YORK: I'm an American and the president is an American. He can go wherever he wants. I hope he chooses words that are genuine, that are uniting, that are genuinely compassionate.

(END VIDEO)

SIDNER: The president arrived here in Pittsburgh and yes, there were protests. Hundreds of people gathered to protest his presence here. We also heard a very small group of people here in this neighborhood protesting the president as well. They live here and did not appreciate him coming at this time. To be clear, it appears there are a lot of people here in Pittsburgh who simply did not want to see the president at this time no matter what he had to say. Sara Sidner, CNN, Pittsburgh.

VAUSE: It might just be called the Donald Trump made me do it defense

[01:35:00]

A lawyer whose client was convicted of conspiring to kill Somali refugees says it was inspired by Trumps words, details now from Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The day after Donald Trump's stunning election win Patrick Stein and two other men had their own surprise planned out west.

TOM BEALL, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY: The defendants conspired to detonate a bomb at an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas where Muslim immigrants from Somalia live an worship.

FOREMAN: A recording played in court and reported by the Washington Post has the Trump supporter saying the "f"ing (ph) cockroaches in this country have to go, period. They are the threat in this country right now. He was convicted but his attorneys want the court to go easy at sentencing. Because they say Stein was pushed over the edge and he directly sited explosive and at times false claims by Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They caught 50 radical Islamic terrorist. They took a pig and then they took a second pig, and they cut the pig open.

FOREMAN: The court can not ignore the circumstance of one of the most rhetorically mold breaking, violent, awful, hateful, and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president. Legal analysts say courts may recognize the president's inflammatory words.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But at the end of the day everyone's responsible for their own conduct, right? You've hear a million times, right, by your parents if someone else jumps off the bridge does that mean you do?

FOREMAN: Trump denies spurring violence. Asked about his fan accused of sending bombs to top democrats and CNN?

TRUMP: He was insane a long time before you look at his medical records. He was insane for a long time.

FOREMAN: Still a man charged with assaulting a protestor at a rally said Trump urged him to do so. The courts have now said no it wasn't Trumps fault. But the president criticized low level criminals being offered deals to testify against bigger players. And now his remarks are coming up in court rooms sited by defense attorneys.

TRUMP: It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. FOREMAN: And federal prosecutors say a man recently groped a woman on an airplane and even in that case he tried to argue Trump said it was OK.

TRUMP: They let you do it. You can do anything.

BUSH: What ever you want.

TRUMP: Grab them by the bleep (ph).

FOREMAN: Again legal experts say this precedent by president is not likely to work for anyone. But they add we've also probably not seen the last of the Donald Trump made me do it defense. Tom Foreman, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The world's tallest statue has just been unveiled by India's Prime Minister. The Statue of Unity, monument of Sardar Valiabhbhai Patel (ph) the freedom fighter credited with uniting India during its independence era. But the huge monument is hugely controversial as well, from the multi million dollar price tag to the environmental damage, just to its location a remote area in the home state of the Prime Minister, so joining us now with more on this New Delhi Bureau Chief, Nikhil Kumar.

And Nikhil if you look at it on the one hand it could be seen as this symbol of global aspiration for the people of India as they emerge on the world stage. It could also be seen as a vanity project for the Prime Ministers ego.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN CORRESPONENT: Well that's right John. It all depends on who you ask. And there's also a political angle to it which has been dominating conversations here as this statue has neared completion. You know the Prime Ministers Party, the BJP which is on the right flank of Indian politics. They say supporters, people who are allied with that movement. They say that look this is a fitting tribute to a towering national figure.

And this is fitting quite literally; it's a towering statue, the tallest in the world now. And this is the right harness to somebody who was central to the project of creating the modern Indian state after the colonial British left the subcontinent. Critics however, critics of Mr. Modi say that actually - and among them there are many renowned historians I should say. They say that actually this is the BJP's effort; this is Prime Minister Modi's effort to appropriate a figure who's actually at the other end of the political spectrum from the BJP.

So as Patel (ph) was India's first Deputy Prime Minister. He was a life long member of the Congress party (ph). He worked very closely with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was the great grandfather of course of Rahul Gandhi, today the leader of the Congress (ph), the principal opposition to Mr. Modi. This also of course comes as India gears up for national elections next year. And so at this very, very large shore, at the center of which is Mr.

Modi himself and Mr. Modi's BJP, now he's saying that this is all - critics are saying that this is all nothing more than a very expensive, very costly, very visible publicity effort. John.

[01:40:00]

VAUSE: Nikhil, thank you so much. There is a lot to talk to - to talk about this statue I guess we'll be chatting, well you will be chatting throughout the day. Thank you.

Coming up how not to create a snowflake from safe spaces to awards for everyone. Is America becoming the next generation into failure?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: A few years ago, they just sort of turned up. They came without warning, kind of out of nowhere. At first no one was really sure where they came from. Terms like "safe space," "micro aggression," "trigger warnings." This was a new language of liberal snowflakes. The risk adverse, safety obcessed so called I generation. Kids born after 1995, the ones probably cowering in a campus corner somewhere desperately searching for a safe space.

Or maybe they were the ones that protested at U.C. Berkeley last year and the rifling flamethrower and desperately seeking Facetime. Milo Yiannopoulos was invited to speak to a conservative student group. Yiannopoulos was forced to cancel his speech at Berkeley. Yes, that Berkeley, birthplace of the free speech movement.

These days it seems the "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it," is more like "oh run away in tears until you stop." A recent study found this I generation obsessed with safety. They drink less, smoke less, become sexually active later which I guess in many ways is a good thing, but they don't want to leave home and they want to be kept away from people they disagree with. In other words they want to be protected from the ideas they don't like because they'll get upset.

And now a new book takes a closer look at how this happened and maybe how we can fix it. and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, one of the authors, Greg Lukianoff joins us now from New York so Greg first of all I would like to thank you for dressing up and thank you for being with us.

GREG LUKIANOFF, AUTHOR: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: Great. The premise here is that the I generation kids, kids born after 1995 are significantly different than millenials born between '82 and '90-'94. Is it just the social media here? Is that the big game changer?

LUKIANOFF: The social media makes a big difference.

[01:45:00] It doesn't explain everything that's going on when you look at the data. But it - there's definitely a coloration. So we went looking for what happened around 2013, because you know I defend free speech on campuses. And students that always been the best people on speech - on campus for freedom of speech.

But then suddenly like you said, we had microaggressions and disinvitations on all this stuff happen seemingly overnight. And as me and my co-author looked into it we actually found some really disturbing findings about how different the IGen, the internet generation born after 1995 is. Particularly when it comes to issues as serious as mental health.

VAUSE: And what we were hearing though in what your book puts out and some of the other studies out there is that they just don't want to hear stuff which upsets them. And you argue that that's just not a really good place to be for mental health.

LUKIANOFF: Well you know we should be clear. That most students are OK, but unfortunately what we've done and we kind of look at this through the lens of cognitive behavioral therapy, we've taught a habit of sort of catastrophizing. We've created lots of obstacles to actually talking with people who don't share your point of view.

And we look at trends including political polarization. And unfortunately we think we've let all of these things add to a situation in which we're going deeper and deeper into our echo chambers instead of actually trying to talk across lines of difference.

VAUSE: See I thought we were already doing that. And that's what our generation was doing. You know we've had the conservatives watch FOX News, the liberals go away they watch MSNBC, you know everyone has their own newspapers. No one talks to anybody. No body even lives together anymore.

LUKIANOFF: Right.

VAUSE: Democrats live with democrats, republicans with republicans.

LUKIANOFF: Right down to the city block by the way.

VAUSE: Yes, absolutely. And there were those that stayed recently which said they would - you know that parents don't want their kids - if their democrats they don't want their kids dating republicans.

LUKIANOFF: Yes.

VAUSE: I mean I thought we were already sort of well on the way to that sort of stove piping.

LUKIANOFF: We absolutely were. But social media sped everything up. It sped up both polarizations; it sped up anxiety and depression unfortunately. So a lot of trends that we saw coming - I wrote a book called "Freedom from Speech" in 2014 thinking like OK, this is polarization things about to get much worse in 10 years. And you know by the next year I was shocked at how bad it had already gotten.

VAUSE: OK, well how much blame for the current situation should we put on parents for all this? Because you know the parents said, you know they've gone from being overly indulgent to what was it, the helicopter parents? And now their mower up (ph), they're lawnmower parents where they clear everything in front of them.

LUKIANOFF: I say this as a parent. I know we get a lot of blame ourselves. But you know honestly a lot of people want to blame the students themselves. But who's teaching them these things? Who's teaching them the catastrophizing? Who's teaching them the - as we say in the book the mental habits of anxious and depressed people. And then being surprised that their anxious and depressed.

And unfortunately to a degree it is - it is to a degree parents, and particularly the kind of parents who send their kids some of these elite schools.

VAUSE: So the parents - there's a wider issue I think, isn't there? Because these parents don't want to tell their kids anything bad, it's like every child wins a prize even if they suck.

LUKIANOFF: Well I think there's an emperor's new clothes problem going on here. I think I see a lot of parents know that the elimination of free time and crowding out free play, some of those kind of like life or death if you don't get into Princeton kind of attitude. I think a lot of parents know it's unhealthy and they know it's going to lead to something bad down stream. But I don't know if they know yet that other parents are thinking that too.

And what we hope this book will do is tell parents all over the country and across the pond, that you're not alone. That other parents are saying that we -- we've sensed we've done something wrong and we think we can fix it.

VAUSE: Time for a bit of a course correction. One of the criticism, and there's not a lot of criticism in this book, but I'll put this to you. You make the - you come to the conclusion that you know all of this protectionism on college campuses is sort leading to this increased level of anxiety and depression. But aren't there plenty of other factors out there ...

LUKIANOFF: Sure.

VAUSE: ...which could be responsible? And one of the examples that is given is massive student debt in the U.S.A. at $1.5 trillion. That seems like a pretty good reason to be depressed and anxious.

LUKIANOFF: Yes, and then that's some thing that I originally would - I talk about debt all the time and the fact it didn't make into the final copy of the book when someone brought up that criticism, well your totally right that is a big factor.

VAUSE: That sucks.

LUKIANOFF: But we do talk about bureaucracy and we do talk about how the swelling of the campus bureaucracy has made things worse. So I always make the point that a less expensive version, more stripped down, more rigorous version of education could also be less stress inducing, but also a freer at the same time.

VAUSE: OK, well and from everything I've managed to read about the book so far it's great, and congratulations.

LUKIANOFF: Thank you.

VAUSE: And have a great time tonight.

LUKIANOFF: Thanks so much for having me.

VAUSE: Pleasure. And when we come back an audacious mission to touch the sun, a NASA probe gets closer to the sun then any other space craft ever has and its not done yet breaking records.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[01:50:00]

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the sun than any other manmade object has ever been, and it's moving closer. The probe broke the previous distance record on Monday, about 43 million kilometers from the sun and will reach 23 million kilometers from the surface next week. It's intended to give scientists a better understanding of how the sun works, and that's probably a good thing.

Let's get all the details now of this record breaking mission. Mike Wall, Senior Writer for Space.com. He is live with us from San Francisco in California. OK, Mike, thanks for the time and chatting away. Look, a couple of records have been set by the Parker Probe - closest to the sun as well as speed, right now moving faster than 150,000 miles per hour. And so, that's 250,000 kilometers an hour. NASA declaring it the fastest humanmade object relative to the sun. Explain what do they mean by that part there, relative to the sun. Why is that important?

MIKE WALL, SPACE.COM SENIOR WIRTER: Well, yes because there are a lot of frames of reference that they could use throughout the solar system. You could also use relative to us here on Earth and that would be a different measurement, but they're talking about relative to the sun.

And it's an important distinction because it's possible that there's a faster spacecraft relative to the Earth and that's probably NASA's - the Juno Jupiter probe which got a little bit faster when it was being sucked in by the big planet's gravity a couple years ago when it arrived there.

But yes, Parker Solar Probe will like soon top that speed record if it hasn't already. The whole relative to Earth, relative to the Sun, it'll own all of those records before too much longer.

VAUSE: Yes, it's going anywhere about 400,000 miles per hour or something. WALL: Miles per hour, yes. It's going to go really, really fast, yes.

VAUSE: Which is incredible when you think about. Still way shorter than the speed of light, though, but that's one day. Let's talk about next week, though. As they say to make its (ph) first close approach to the sun to go where no manmade thing has gone before, and this is when that thermal protection system will really come into play. That includes a special heat shield.

Here's how CNN describes it. The shield will protect the core of the spacecraft from being exposed to temperatures reaching nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit or roughly 1,370 degrees Celsius. Provided the shield actually does it job, NASA believes the instruments will be kept at a relatively comfortable temperature of about 85 degree Fahrenheit, which I'm going to quickly do the math here. I've never done math on here before (ph.) It's about 27 degrees Celsius I think.

OK, question is what happens if the shield doesn't do its job? Is there a back up or is this just game over?

WALL: No, of the shield doesn't do its job and the science instrucments are exposed to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, then that's the end. That's the mission. They won't be able to function. They'll melt.

But yes, they're pretty confident this is going to work. They put it through just like a bunch of testing here on Earth, I mean, to the extent that - that like you can test those conditions. But yes, this is - it's a real trial by fire and has to prove it on the actual mission. So we - yes, they're confident that it'll work, but in - yes, in these space missions you may never know anything for sure until it actually happens.

VAUSE: One thing that tracks right here (ph), we know that it's being sent to gather data, to find out about solar winds and solar storms and all that kind of stuff is important, but it seems to me that the technology which is being used to simply get to this point is far more exciting and far more interesting.

WALL: Yes, yes. It is really interesting. I mean, this is a mission that should get people really excited.

[01:55:00]

I mean, this is a mission that should get people really excited. I mean, we're - this thing is actually going to fly through the like outer atmosphere of the sun where temperatures are just unbelievably high. This is something that we have designed - I mean engineers have built a plan to actually fly a spacecraft through the atmosphere of the sun to survive and make measurements.

It's - it is really fascinating and it's something that, yes, we all should - yes, should be celebrating, which is why I'm glad we're talking about it right now.

VAUSE: Yes, and just to say sort of (ph) I want to say about sort of flying under radar of all of it.

WALL: Yes, yes.

VAUSE: Want to finish off with I read about this gravity assist movement that I did fairly early on. It passed by Venus as the orbits of the spacecraft and Venus converged towards the same point, Parker Solar Probe slipped in front of the plant allowing Venus's gravity and relative bicelestial standards to twist its path and change its speed. That's coming out from NASA. That sounds like a really complicated maneuver.

WALL: Yes, and this is something - I mean, if you ever didn't realize how sort of smart aerospace engineers, mission planners are, they're going to be like six more of these Venus flybys to kind of tweak the orbit so the Parker Solar Probe can get closer and closer to the sun over the next seven years. So they figure all this stuff out to a T. They know exactly what the gravity's going to do, how much it's going to change the orbit over years and years from now such that they can get to within about 3.8 like million miles of the sun's surface in 2025 on the final flyby. They have all that calculated out based on all these gravities that's flybys (ph), and yes. It's really phenomenal. I mean, all the engineering and the mission planning that goes into something like this is just unbelievable.

VAUSE: I mean, these are really, really smart people. I just (inaudible) as kid, you know, they're working around the sun.

WALL: Yes.

VAUSE: Mike, thank you so much.

WALL: Sure thing. Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, from the very, very high tech to the very, very low tech, what they once called many hands make life work. In South Hampton, residents called it a lift and shift about 250 people - do the math. That's about 500 hands - formed a human chain when they're local bookstore had to move to a new location. The line went all the way along 54 doors of high street to the streets new location. They handed off a total of 2,000 books in just a couple of hours. What a fun way to spend a day.

Thank you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. Another whole hour of news still to come. That will be with Rosemary Church. You're watching CNN. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:00]