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15-Year-Old Sensation Defeated, Ending Magical Wimbledon Run; U.S. Women's Soccer Team Returns Home After Victory; Kevin Spacey Accuser Pleads the 5th in Sexual Assault Case; Detroit Music Festival Sets Ticket Prices Based on Race; Woman Convicted in Texting Suicide Case Appeals to Supreme Court. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 08, 2019 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Sadly the run is over for the teenage tennis sensation who wowed at Wimbledon. The 15-year-old Cory "Coco" Gauff lost in the fourth round of the tournament to a Romanian ranked seventh in the world. Gauff was ranked 313 when she beat Venus Williams last week in Gauff's first grand slam event. And she talked about her loss about the worldwide reaction to her success, as well. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORY "COCO" GAUFF, TENNIS PLAYER: It's amazing. I mean, I kind of don't know how the rest of the world reacted, because I'm still in London and even with all this going on, I still felt like I was in a bubble. Because I mean, I've just been going to tournament hotel, tournament hotel, because I've been finishing so late. But I'm excited to go home now and see my family. And I saw a video and they were saying they were proud of me so that kind of makes me happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me add this. The legendary Billie Jean King tweed at Coco. She wrote, your journey is far from over, Coco Gauff, looking forward to watching future successes on the court and off. #bigfan. Billie Jean King.

Within the hour, the Women's World Cup champions are expected to arrive back on U.S. soil. For the fourth time, the U.S. women's national team took the title, besting the Netherlands 2-0 Sunday. And ratings released today, TV ratings show the game is now one of the highest-rated soccer telecasts in the history of the sport. So there's that. The women's final match on Sunday saw 20 percent higher ratings compared to the men's 2018 World Cup finals, which the American men failed to reach. And while the women on the field certainly captivated millions and millions, their off the field celebrations have also been mighty fun to watch. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) Equal pay, equal pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: CNN's Erica Hill is live at the Wagner Hotel where the champion players will be speaking after their arrival into Newark Airport. Do we have an eta? And get your ear plugs ready, because there is going to be a lot of screams from lots of fans all week long.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. So here's what we know in terms of timing, Brooke. They are scheduled to land around 4:15 in Newark. So we are waiting for them anxiously there. And then they're going to make their way here to lower Manhattan where, as you pointed out, we are hoping that they will stop and talk to us. Because so many people are excited about this U.S. Women's National Team.

As you pointed out, this is their first -- fourth, rather, world title. These are back-to-back titles, having won in 2015, as well. Beating the Netherlands yesterday 2-0. And boy the reaction in the wake of the game this was a ratings win, as you pointed out. Also at the stadium, a sold-out stadium in Lyon. Nearly 58,000 people there on hand. And after the game too, Brooke, chants of equal pay in the stadium.

And a reminder, this is a team that has filed, of course, a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay. They are supposed to enter mediation after the World Cup. When exactly that will happen, we don't know. But I can tell you that after the game yesterday, Meg Rapinoe said, at this point, everyone is ready for the conversation to move to the next step. So what is that next step? Is it mediation, is it something more? We will certainly see where that goes.

As for what's going to happen here too in terms of celebrations, on Wednesday morning here in New York City, New York playing host to the 2019 World Cup champs with a ticker tape parade and keys to the city will also presented. Keep in mind, this is only the second time that a women's team has been honored with one of these parades, Brooke, and the first time was in 2015 for the U.S. Women's Team World Cup champions. So there's a little bit of a precedent there.

BALDWIN: Love it. Here they go again. Can't wait to see their smiling faces back in America. Erica Hill, thank you very much. Keep your eyes on watch for them for us.

Next here on CNN, breaking news in the sexual assault case involving Kevin Spacey. The accuser taking the fifth during a hearing this afternoon. The accuser's father really getting into this heated exchange with Spacey's attorney. We will take you live to Nantucket for the latest details.

[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In a Nantucket courtroom, the young man accusing Kevin Spacey of sexual assault took the stand for the first time today. Spacey is not in the courtroom, but there have been some outbursts and fiery exchanges between his attorney and the accuser's parents. Jean Casarez is there in Nantucket. She's been following this from the very beginning. And so, I know this hearing is still ongoing, Jean. But what happened between especially this lawyer and the victim's dad -- the accusers' dad?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, what happened today just does not happen. Especially having the alleged victim of sexual assault have to take the stand before the actual trial. This is extremely unusual. But the issue is the cell phone. The issue is that as allegedly Kevin Spacey was committing sexual assault of on this young man, he was texting his girlfriend, and he was, according to him. But the question is, were some of those texts deleted, those that maybe favored the defense.

[15:40:03] Were screen shots not accurate? Were conversations not fully turned over to the police? The young man took the stand saying that he never deleted anything, but his mother looked at the phone. He and his mother had conversations about the phone. He specifically said, do you remember her saying anything to you about texts she was concerned about? She might have. Did you ever tell her to delete? I don't remember, but I don't think so. Theoretically, she might have.

And then his father took the stand and that was so combative. He didn't like being questioned. He is so emotional about this. Alan Jackson, the attorney for Kevin Spacey, questioned him. He does not remember getting that phone back. So the phone is lost. It is gone. They don't have the phone to be able to extract everything that may have been deleted.

And then finally, his mother took the stand. She said that she only deleted some pictures that she thought were not good for others to see. Him drinking excessively, some possible racist language, some possibly homophobic language. And, of course, the defense is saying this goes to the state of mind of this young man. This is important to impeach his credibility at a trial. So the judge was exasperated today in court. No question about it. And at the very end, he said to the defense, I think you're going to file a -- and the defense said, yes, we are. And so we'll see where this case goes. But don't be surprised if there's a motion to dismiss all charges on the basis of today's hearing -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Stunning. What about the dad? What was the back and forth with the father?

CASAREZ: He was angry. He was angry, because he believes that his son was sexually assaulted by Kevin Spacey. That it was not consensual, that the young man wasn't allowing it to happen, agreeing that it was OK to happen. If it, in fact, did happen. But he was -- he was so rude to the defense attorney, the judge said, OK, look, I'm going to hold you in contempt of court if you do this one more time in my court, you're going to be held in contempt. That sort of calmed things down, but not entirely. But he finished his testimony and then he left. And he said -- testified he never deleted anything, but he sure didn't get that phone returned to him, and the police are saying, we returned the phone to you. The father of the accuser.

BALDWIN: Jean, thank you very much. Following this for us in Nantucket.

Coming up next, a Detroit Music Festival under fire after it asked white people to pay twice as much as people of color for a ticket. One artist pulled out because of this whole thing. What we're hearing from organizers, coming up.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A Detroit Music Festival charging white customers twice as much as people of color is putting an end to its race-based ticket pricing after a ton of backlash. The Eventbrite page for Afrofuturefest advertised an early bird people of color ticket, that's what they called it for $10. The site also offered early bird non- people of color tickets for 20 bucks. News of the group's pricing differential hit social media when a biracial artist named Tiny Jaguar got wind of the controversial policy and refused to perform.

The strong reaction causing the organizers to send out a tweet reversing the controversial pricing based upon race and CNN's Ryan Young is on this story for us today. I can't say I've ever heard of something like this. I don't know if you have -- what do you know about this?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, first things first. You know, the internet has a lot of backlash. Brooke, an event to empower young black kids in Detroit using mostly local artist sounds great on the surface but this festival had a little bit of a twist. People of color, black or brown, could pay $10, and white people had to pay $20. As you can imagine, when parts of the internet got wind of this, well this pretty small event actually started getting swamps with calls of threats of racism.

From this of course, Eventbrite put out a statement which basically in part says they wanted the group to take this posting down, because they didn't go along with the set of regulations they had. They said they could put a donation in. And then that artist, her list, she is biracial, they knocked that out, as well. She did not want to be a part of this. In fact, she even put out a partial statement that says, look, she goes, I didn't think we were near the thinking that something like this could be acceptable.

[15:50:00] And so you understand people on -- trying to think exactly why this would be done. How this would move forward? Now we do know, the pricing has gone forward. You could add a donation. It looks like these organizers were trying to move forward, saying they thought people of color did not have access to music festivals across the country, because of the prohibitive costs. But in the end, it sparked a controversy, and they said they were getting threats from white supremacists and other groups who were very upset with this sort of pricing.

A lot of questions, Brooke. Obviously, no one really stepping to the mic to kind of stand up for what they thought about in this process. So still a lot of questions. This was a really small event. It's getting a lot, a lot, a lot of publicity at this point.

BALDWIN: Yes, it is. Ryan Young, thank you very much for that.

[15:50:43] The President of the United States giving a speech on the environment, despite all of his administration's moves against it. We're going to fact-check his claims so stand by for that.

Plus live pictures Newark Airport with the U.S. Women's Soccer Team is coming home as world champs. We're expecting to hear from them this afternoon. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The suicide texting case that left one teenager dead and landed his girlfriend in jail for involuntary manslaughter may be heading to the U.S. Supreme Court now.

[15:55:00] Michelle Carter who are is now 22 was convicted based upon texts that she had sent that seems to encourage her boyfriend to kill himself, and we just learned from her lawyers they filed an appeal to the high court today to hear her case on grounds that her texts are free speech. This latest legal maneuvering comes as HBO is about to air a documentary on the wider implications of this fascinating case. Here is a peek.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TEXT FROM CONRAD ROY: I love you so much.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: I love you forever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw him text her all of the time but I didn't think that they had a relationship like that.

TEXT FROM CONRAD ROY: I'm in the worst pain right now it's like unbearable.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: I think it's time to do it now then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is impossible to understand what happened because it is so far from acceptable human behavior.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: It's okay to be scared and it's normal.

I mean you're about to die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The trial of a Plainville woman accused of encouraging her friend to kill himself through text messages is now underway.

TEXT FROM CONRAD ROY: I wish you could be with me holding my hand through it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are left wondering what happened. Now we have this opportunity to see inside their minds.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: I'd hold your hand and cry with you and tell you how much I love you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One level of the conversation is a kid that is going to kill himself. And there is another level that is a romantic fantasy. TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: Ha-ha I'd love to be your Juliet ;)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question is can you cause someone else to commit suicide?

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: Are you gonna do it now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She keeps at him, your honor, at him and at him.

TEXT FROM CONRAD ROY: I'm scared babe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The defendant's own words, his death was my fault. I told him to get back in.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: Okay. You can do this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Roy himself stated I want to die.

TEXT FROM CONRAD ROY: Just remember I'm not the person you thought I was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She thought she was doing absolutely the right thing.

TEXT FROM MICHELLE CARTER: Heaven need a hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a perfect storm of a tragedy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Erin Lee Carter -- Carr, forgive me. Erin Lee Carr is with me. I watched this thing now twice through and it is such a pleasure to have you here. And you directed this whole thing. It took you three years to throw all of you into this. It's an extraordinary narrative and how you involve just the emotions on both sides. I first just want you to explain how you set this up, because it is almost as though you make the viewer the juror with your two different parts?

ERIN LEE CARR, DIRECTOR, HBO'S "I LOVE YOU, NOW DIE: THE COMMONWEALTH VS. MICHELLE CARTER": Absolutely, Brooke. So the first part is the prosecution side of the story and the second part is the defense. The defense I think is the like the story you don't know, there a lot of twisted, turning, crazy elements. My producer Andrew Rossi said you know, she's getting a bench trial, that means a jury isn't there to decide her fate. What if we had a show where the audience was the jury. It is part one and part two and you get to decide after you watch both parts.

BALDWIN: What's incredible is after watching the first part it's easy to want to hate her. Right. First for the texts to this boyfriend whom she had only met five times in person. You sat through all of this in the courtroom. At what point did you actually feel sympathy for her?

CARR: You know, I'm a pretty sympathetic and empathic person and that is why I make documentaries for a living. When her friends got up on the stand and basically disowned her in public, that horrified me. The fact that you know these sort of -- this sort of wolfpack mentality, that you can be the weakest of the pack and in a courtroom that could be used to humiliate you and create a motive felt pretty shocking so that was a huge public empathy.

BALDWIN: And how about the court of public opinion and how people within Massachusetts seemed to really villainize her and why that was so important for you to also include that in both parts?

CARR: Yes, I mean, we were walking up to court with Michelle Carter and filming her and a woman yelled out of her car, kill yourself. Michelle Carter is on trial for telling someone to kill themselves and here is a woman shouting that at her. I mean, people were so angry. They had such intense anger toward her. So as a feminist and filmmaker I wanted to demystify, why are we so angry with her? What's that about but also really think about Conrad Roy because Michelle Carter is a fascinating part of the story but Conrad Roy is no longer here and it also had to be about him.

BALDWIN: Well, you got his family. In 30 seconds what was the biggest piece of those interviews for you and telling his story?

CARR: I mean, by far one of the most brutal interviews of my life, Lynn Roy, mother of Conrad Roy. She loved her son and did not see the warning signs. This film is about what happens if you don't see the warning signs. What do they actually look like? And so we really wanted to think about mental health in a new way.

BALDWIN: Erin Lee Carr, it is on HBO, part one airs tomorrow night. When is part two happening?

CARR: Wednesday.

BALDWIN: Wednesday night tune in, HBO this week and watch it and then like me you'll want to watch it again. Erin, thank you very much and thank you for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Let's go to Washington. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

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