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Ex-Trump Campaign Chair May Be Going To Rikers Island; Texas Couple Dies Of Mysterious Illness On Fiji Vacation; James Holzhauer's 32-Game Winning Streak On "Jeopardy!" Over; Trump Says U.K. Protests Against Him "Very, Very Small"; Trump And First Lady Host Dinner For Royal Family In U.K. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired June 04, 2019 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:30:14] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Former Trump campaign chief, now convicted felon, Paul Manafort, may be on the move. CNN has learned Manafort may be relocated from a low-security level inside of a Pennsylvania federal prison to the notorious Rikers Island in New York City.
He's facing a 16-count criminal indictment on state fraud charges in New York and Manhattan's district attorney wants Manafort close by for the duration of the state trial.
A source tells CNN it is not clear when he will be moved. But it won't be this week. Manafort is currently serving 7.5 years for federal fraud crimes.
This change could also mean Manafort, who is 70 years of age, might end up in solitary confinement. And his attorneys tell CNN they do not want him at Rikers.
Ed Gavin, a former deputy warden with the New York City Department of Corrections is here with me. He was also a commanding officer with the efficiency accountability and Management system at Rikers Island.
So you know this place quite well.
It is nice to see you again, sir.
Rikers has this reputation as we were talking because of the violent, hostile inmates. It is just that kind of place. And so to think of Paul Manafort there, what would his every day look like?
ED GAVIN, FORMER DEPUTY WARDEN, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: Well, Paul Manafort would be what we call a CMC, a centrally monitored case and he would be afforded protective custody status. And we would track him -- it is a CMC tracking.
And in all likelihood, he'll be in solitary confinement for his own personal protection at what we call the west facility, which is a former hospital facility on Rikers Island. And he'll have his own space in which he can live and he'll be fine. BALDWIN: It is not often you hear solitary confinement and he'll be
fine in the same sentence. The notion of living in this teeny tiny cell without seeing daylight is hell. But you see it's in an advantage for him.
GAVIN: Oh, absolutely.
BALDWIN: Why?
GAVIN: He's going to be segregated and not with the garden-variety criminals, the felons, the rapists, armed robbers, the murders, people like that. He'll be by himself. And he'll do his time.
And he'll be brought back and forth to court and that should be it. He'll probably escorted to and from court by our Emergency Services Unit. And there will be heavily armed officers. And it is like taking a cab into Manhattan every day, only he'll have armed guards with him, armed correction officers.
BALDWIN: You think he shouldn't go to Rikers?
GAVIN: Yes. I don't think it is necessary.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Tell me why.
GAVIN: If I was District Attorney Vance, I would have sent him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is at 150 Park Road, which two blocks away. It would save the taxpayers money and provide him access to his attorneys. But common sense isn't very common.
I think this is a lot of fanfare on the part of the District Attorney Vance to request him being transferred to Rikers Island. It doesn't make any sense. He's a federal prisoner and convicted of process crimes. He could just as easily stay in solitary confinement two blocks away and escorted to court at Center Street. And that would make life easily for everyone and it would save the taxpayers money. But Vance doesn't want to do that.
BALDWIN: You mentioned what his life would look like. And it sounds like he would be so protected for however long his time would be at Rikers, if that is the case. I mean, can you give other examples of how he would be living, who he'll be in contact.
GAVIN: Likely with other prisoners, three or four prisoners in a dormitory setting.
BALDWIN: But not, to quote you, your garden-variety felons?
GAVIN: No. He'll be with garden-variety felons, people that are murderers, armed robbers, rapists, people like that.
BALDWIN: Yikes.
GAVIN: He'll be kept in an environment. He'll get three squares. If he needs medical treatment, he's in close proximity to Elmhurst Hospital where we maintain a prison ward, or if we need better care, we take them to Bellevue where we maintain a prison ward. So he is just fine.
Of course, I'm not trying to make it like it is cake walk.
BALDWIN: A cake walk. Sure.
GAVIN: His freedom is being taken from him.
BALDWIN: Sure.
GAVIN: But he won't be at any risk. His physical safety, he won't be at risk.
But again, I say they should put him down the block at MCC and that is what I would do if I were the district attorney. There's no need to have him ordered to Rikers Island and sensationalize this more than it has already been. That's my opinion
BALDWIN: Ed Gavin, I appreciate your opinion. Thank you so much.
GAVIN: Thanks for having me on.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
A couple goes on vacation in Fiji and dies after this mysterious illness. What American health officials are trying to find out.
[14:34:35] And plus, it's one of the biggest issues in the 2020 election and, today, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren releases plans to fight climate change. We have those details ahead.
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BALDWIN: Family members of a Texas couple are desperate for answers after the pair died during a mysterious illness in a vacation to Fiji. David and Michelle Paul were on vacation in the South Pacific island when they both got sick and died.
CNN's Paul Vercammen is covering this for us.
And, Paul, what do you know about this couple and their mysterious deaths?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know this is now an international investigation and involving the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. Now saying they are going to get specimens from the couple's body and they're going to bring that to laboratories to look over.
[14:40:03] The big question, as you pointed out, how did this healthy couple somehow pass away on this idyllic vacation in Fiji.
And something I learned recently, I called the hospital in western Fiji, and they said, as a precaution, they also admitted five people who had come in contact with this couple. Four of them have been released. And that was a precaution just in case.
And more about this couple, according to "The Fiji Sun, he's 38, and on his LinkedIn, it said he's an engineer who works on F-35 fighter planes, and she's 35. They have a 2-year-old son and he has a daughter from a previous marriage.
So the focus of the investigation, of course, is on them. Their bodies can't leave Fiji, which is even more heartbreaking for the families in this now international mystery -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Stay on this. How awful for the family having to go to Fiji.
Paul Vercammen, thank you, very much.
The president said he has not seen any protests during his trip to London, despite this massive Trump baby blimp. We'll talk to the woman behind this thing.
And the streak has come to an end. But did James Holzhauer, quote, "break the game of 'Jeopardy!?'" A previous winner joins me, live, next.
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[14:45:44] James Holzhauer's captivating 32-game winning streak on "Jeopardy!" is over. After dominating for weeks, the professional sports gambler came up short in the bid to set the all-time record for money earned on the show.
Holzhauer became a phenomenon with his dominant win totals and brash Daily Double bets. He averaged more than $77,000 each win. But he finally met his match losing to a librarian from Chicago.
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ALEX TREBEK, "JEOPARDY!" HOST: So, Emma, it is up to you. If you came up with the correct response, you're going to be the new jeopardy champion.
Did you?
You did. What did you wager?
Oh, gosh -- $20,000.
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TREBEK: What a pay day, $46,801.
(APPLAUSE)
TREBEK: What a game. Oh, my god.
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BALDWIN: Like the high five. And we'll get back to that.
During the record run, he won 32 games, set a single game winning record and ended up winning more than $2.4 million. That is just shy of the all-time record.
So with me now, Austin Rogers, a former "Jeopardy!" champion, who won 12 games and more than $400,000 two years ago and became a "Jeopardy!" sensation for his brains and off-beat style. Take a look.
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TREBEK: Our returning champion, a bartender from New York, New York, Austin Rogers.
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TREBEK: Austin?
AUSTIN ROGERS, FORMER "JEOPARDY!" CHAMPION: What is grandson.
TREBEK: Yes.
ROGERS: Ozzy for $200.
Who is Napoleon Bonaparte.
TREBEK: You picked the right one.
(APPLAUSE)
TREBEK: And at the right time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So good.
I'm missing the hair, Austin. Where is the hair?
ROGERS: It grows back. It grows back.
BALDWIN: That's the great thing about hair.
So great to have you on.
ROGERS: Thank you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: His streak is over. Did he change "Jeopardy!" forever?
ROGERS: Yes. His streak is over but his legacy is cemented. Remember when "Jeopardy!" first came on, you could only win five games and you were booted. If you won anything over $75,000, it was donated to charity.
And they changed the rules and made the open era, what's called the Ken Jennings era.
BALDWIN: Sure.
ROGERS: And Ken broke that open. But you'll notice, in the Ken Jennings era, besides Ken, and Julia Collins, who won 20 games, everyone hovered around the eight to 12 to 14 mark.
BALDWIN: Until --
ROGERS: Until him. And now we're going to have this clear demarcation. Moving forward, you have to play in a James Holzhauer way or it is over.
BALDWIN: I want to come back to that. And you say he broke the game.
ROGERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: He broke the game.
This is how the "New York Times" put it: "Holzhauer's statistic will be tough to beat. During his streak, he won an average of $77,000 per game, more than Jennings' rate. When he buzzed, in he got the right answer, that is question, 90 percent of the time. According to the show, he almost always entered Final Jeopardy so far head that no one could catch him."
So you can't argue with that. The man had the answers.
ROGERS: But, Ken himself said, I can't wait for someone to break my record. It is doable.
BALDWIN: Yes.
ROGERS: So this is doable, too. We'll see a new spate of players who play in the new manner.
BALDWIN: New way.
ROGERS: Because the rules haven't changed. It is just the strategy and the mentality have changed.
BALDWIN: Do you think they should change the rules?
ROGERS: No. Why? It is the world's perfect game. It is perfectly structured. No, there's no reason to change the rules.
BALDWIN: You had a huge run on the show.
ROGERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: We played the highlights. And it served you well. So what does Holzhauer's life look like post-"Jeopardy!?"
ROGERS: He's the -- what is the world - (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANAUGE), in Spanish, the world is your handkerchief in Spanish.
BALDWIN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANUAGE)
ROGERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: A Spanish major, I was not --
(CROSSTALK)
ROGERS: But the world is your oyster.
BALDWIN: Yes.
ROGERS: He can literally do anything right now. He can write his own legacy. Write his own -- right now, he's on social media lockdown, which is brilliant because I didn't know sort of what was coming for me. He knew how special his performance was so he knows what to come.
He's getting cold calls and his cell number is out there and blah, blah, blah.
(CROSSTALK)
ROGERS: And you have to be judicious because there are going to charlatans and snake-oil salesmen and people do the jingling keys, jingling keys.
He's already surmounted that. He probably has like a 10-year plan and this was part of it. He's that smart.
BALDWIN: Totally.
Let's just shout-out, the University of Chicago librarian, Emma Bettcher (ph), about her. At the UNC, Chapel Hill, where she got her masters, she wrote an award-winning master's thesis called "Predicting the Difficulty of Trivia Questions Using Text Features." So there you have it. She's the one that took him down.
[14:50:14] Austin Rogers, thank you.
ROGERS: Thank you very much.
BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.
Any moment now, President Trump will host Prince Charles for dinner and we'll take you there.
Plus, details on the first family's gift exchange and the first lady's special role in all of it.
We'll be right back.
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BALDWIN: President Trump meeting outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May in London as thousands of protesters took to the streets.
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(MUSIC) (SHOUTING)
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[14:55:08] BALDWIN: Even the Trump baby blimp was inflated this morning in the square for the demonstrations. But despite the crowds and signs reading "Dump Trump," the president said all he saw was love.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't see any protests. I did see a small protest today when I came -- very small. So a lot of it is fake news. I hate to say. But you saw the people waving the American flag, waving your flag. It was tremendous spirit and love. There was great love. It was an alliance.
And I didn't see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people put in for political reasons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And moments ago, I spoke with Cerise Abel-Thompson, who is one of the people behind the Trump baby blimp.
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BALDWIN: I know a number of protesters are calling out President Trump's choice of language and insults, and yet you float a baby Trump blimp. Cerise, is that not perpetuating the problem?
CERISE ABEL-THOMPSON, ACTIVIST: Look, the blimp isn't there to answer all of the kind of problems around Donald Trump. It is a small part of a rich texture of protests that goes on in the U.K. It's part of a big history of political satire and it is not -- on top of that, it is calling out one person for his behavior.
He doesn't stand up for debate or to facts or truth and he stands up -- he is only affected by mockery. That is the language he uses. And so we answered him with that. But it is one part of a much bigger range of protests going on.
And it is not as damaging as the things that he's doing. The danger that he is to society with the rhetoric that he uses, the legitimization is widespread, and we're poking fun at him to damage his ego.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: All right. And we're going to come out of that, as we now see the president of the United States and the first lady ahead of this black-tie dinner they're hosting for the royal family there. Leaving the Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador's residence in the U.K.
So as we stay on the pictures, let me bring in Kate Bennett there and following all of these things.
And, Kate, talk to me about the dinner and how involved Melania Trump was in planning.
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: So she's been very involved as they await Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla. And they're talking about protesters and a lot of love, there's one gentleman that is particularly loud in the background. Sorry about that.
So they're awaiting guests. Melania Trump has been working on this dinner for the past several weeks. And one of her team members is telling me this is something she very much focused on, down to the menu and the guest list and to the seating charts, the flowers.
She was very actively involved. Planning it back home at the White House but working in concert with the people here at Winfield House in London as they host this dinner.
This is something that is a reciprocal dinner, a night after the state dinner at Buckingham Palace, something the Obamas did as well. They hosted the queen and Prince Philip. And tonight, we'll see Prince Charles and Camilla in the place of the queen.
And we'll also, Brooke, see, I believe, the adult Trump children on the list. They've joined them for this trip. We saw pictures of them last night at the state banquet. I'm talking about Tiffany Trump, Eric Trump and his wife, Lara, and Donald Trump Jr. Of course, Ivanka and Jared Kushner are part of the delegation.
But people are wondering about additions to the trip and they were at the press conference with Theresa May, and took a tour over there earlier today. But we'll see them here again tonight.
Back to you right now.
BALDWIN: Trying to listen to you over the megaphone. Listen, that is the reality of some of this. There have been a number of protesters, thousands of protesters talking to a woman behind that blimp. Although listening to the president earlier today, saying he hadn't been around it and all he feels is love.
While we stay on the picture, Kate, if you could still hear me, we were talking, you and I, yesterday, the white tie, the state banquet. And the toast with the queen and the president, and you have more details on the gifts exchange, right?
We know the queen gave Trump that first edition book by Winston Churchill on World War II. What do you know about the gifts that the first family presented to the queen and her husband?
BENNETT: The president got the Winston Churchill book. But Melania got a gift, a jewelry box inlayed with enamel that reflected the decor of the music room at the palace, which sounds beautiful and elaborate very thoughtful.
