Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Shooting At Texas Army Fort; Who Will Decide George Zimmerman's Fate?; Hollywood's Dirty Little Secrets Revealed

Aired June 10, 2013 - 16:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Now it's time for the Money Lead. It's one of those rare cases in which Apple seems way behind the curve. We've already got Pandora and Spotify. Do we need another music streaming service, even if it comes from the house of Steve Jobs?

In national news, it's been 16 months since George Zimmerman said he killed Trayvon Martin in self defense. Since then, he's been called a racist, a vigilante, but the only opinion that will really end up mattering will be the one formed by the jury being assembled as we speak.

And the Pop Lead: nearly 50 years after his death, people are still whispering the rumor that J.F.K. was with Marilyn Monroe. Did it happen? Find out what's in the files of a notorious Hollywood private eye.

Welcome back to THE LEAD. Now it's time for the Money Lead. How do you like them apples? The tech giant Apple computers used to be synonymous with innovation. iBooks, iPhones, iTunes, iPads. So what was CEO Tim Cook's big innovation at today's Worldwide Developer Conference? iTunes Radio. Hmm.

Rocco Pandola, columnist from TheStreet.com joins me now. Rocco, tell us about this new software. Is this going to be enough to acquire consumers and investors and convince them that this company is still the powerhouse of ingenuity that it was under Steve Jobs?

ROCCO PANDOLA, COLUMNIST, THESTREET.COM: Jake, if Steve Jobs were alive, he would strangle Tim Cook.

(LAUGHTER)

PANDOLA: This is borderline embarrassing what's going on. You realize that about two years ago, just over two years ago before Steve Jobs died, he did one of the best presentations we have ever seen from him. He put up a slide on the screen that said 2011, the year of the copycats. And he had Samsung, Blackberry and Hewlett Packard on there and said how they were all just copying Apple's innovation, and it was true. And to a certain extent, it still is true.

But iTunes Radio is a Pandora knockoff. It absolutely does not come close to Pandora - or will not come close to Pandora in terms of functionality and user experience. It can't possibly do that. Pandora is a 13-year-old company. For nearly a decade they've been collecting your music preferences, your habits. They've been collecting all this data that makes the radio experience better. And also, they analyze every song that goes into the Pandora Internet radio. Every song in that music genome project, the technology that drives the recommendation engine, is analyzed by one person sitting in front of a computer. It takes 20 minutes to analyze one song. This is an amazing experience they put together. And Apple is just doing what everyone else has done, copying it.

TAPPER: All right, well before we let you go, I want to know what your take is on this new operating system, OSX Mavericks. Is it going to sell?

PANDOLA: Great dane (ph), people in California like me really resonates with them, the Mavericks name. People will definitely put it on its devices, both the IOS that's coming out and OSX, great stuff. No one is disputing that. But there's no innovation here. And again, it's really actually sad to watch what Cook is doing to the company.

TAPPER: And the other big news, one could say, out of the announcement at the conference was that Mac Pro will be manufactured here in the United States. Tell us about this new laptop.

PANDOLA: Well, a Mac Pro is Apple's big power computer, OK? And it's crazy to hear the senior VP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, say we can't innovate anymore? My ass. I mean, an aggressive statement, lots of bravado. But they're using Steve Jobs' bravado to back up non- Steve Jobs type innovation. This is an incredibly expensive computer, very powerful. Is it innovative? Yes, it's innovative within a vacuum of geeks, power users, designers, musicians, editors, the type of people who are going to spend a lot of money for a computer. Not a mass appeal product like the iPod or iPhone or iPad.

TAPPER: They always skeptical and opinionated Rocco Pandola. Thank you so much.

PANDOLA: You got it, Jake.

TAPPER: Coming up, with most Republicans on his side, will President Obama really take any heat over these classified leaks? Our Politics Lead is next.

Plus a budget movie by today's standards takes home box office gold. Does the director of "The Purge" know something that big Hollywood producers do not know? Our Pop Lead is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Now it's time for the Politics Lead. Another day, another leak, another potential scandal. But this time, the president is not facing the kind blowback he did after Benghazi and IRS stories broke, and maybe it's because when it comes to data mining in the name of national security, the majority of Republicans might be on his side. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: The National Security Agency is not listening to Americans' phone calls and it is not reading Americans' e-mails.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: But I do believe that if this was September 12, 2001, we might not be having the argument we're having today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: One of the central tenets of the Obama presidency is that government can play an important, positive role in the lives of the American people. How damaging have these last few weeks been to that argument?

Let's bring in our panel. CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, former chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard and former Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, and CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

Now, clearly the news of Edward Snowden's leak of government prison data collection program may have shocked the media. But do you think, Carly, voters will be as upset as we in the media seem to be?

CARLY FIORINA, FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I think there are two sides to this. The first is do you agree with the program? But the second is more fundamental. And I think these fundamental questions voters will start to ask. How is it that we hold vast, complex bureaucracies accountable? How do we know the people inside these bureaucracies are competent or ethical or have good intentions or are honest? How is it that a few people in Congress, a very few people or a few people in the White House, regardless of their party are capable of sufficient oversight?

And finally, when you have this much concentrated power in these vast bureaucracies, these complex programs, isn't corruption and abuse inevitable really?

TAPPER: Dana, President Obama, as you saw earlier in the show said on Friday that every member of Congress has been briefed. As you also heard, Congressman Keith Ellison is one of many who said he has not been briefed on this program. Tell us what's going on here.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have lists now from the White House giving us times and dates when they say that members of Congress were briefed on the two programs we're talking about. One dealing of course with phones and the other dealing with the Internet.

However, here's the real deal. The real deal is people probably wouldn't be surprised to know that their members of Congress do end up voting for things that they don't know about; they don't really know what they're voting for. Particularly when it comes to classified information. Members of the intelligence committees, they do have oversight as you were saying, Carly. They get the information, they're briefed, they have votes on the legislation, but it's all done in secret because it classified.

If you are Senator Tapper and you are not on the intelligence committee, you can go -- and in the Senate, in particular, they were invited to read a white paper with information about this. But you don't have a staff member who has that security clearance. So can you only learn so much unless you rely on somebody who's in the committee who you don't know. And part of the problem is that members, some of them, don't go and get the briefings. And even if they do, they don't really know what to ask because they don't have that kind of experience on these issues.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: In many respects I think that's as much the problem as anything, which is that technology -- people are so ignorant about technology generally and particularly in Washington and too often in Congress. I find one of the most interesting things about this conversation is that we're talking -- we're upset about the NSA getting vast amounts -- access to vast amounts of data that commercial companies actually collect on us. That we actually willingly give to commercial companies, and they use it to market it. So when you're talking about, you know --

TAPPER: You mean Verizon already has the information, Google has it --

ROSEN: Yes. And every time you go sign on to Gmail or something, so when you talk about vast bureaucracies who have huge amounts of power that might be out of control -- in my mind you could easily be talking about these private sector companies. So, I think the idea that we would be okay with it for marketing purposes but maybe not okay for terrorist actions, I think that's what's driving people's confusion.

FIORINA: I actually think you're raising a really good point. And I think there are two fundamental differences between business and government, although I agree business bureaucracies can get out of control as well.

First, a business faces competition. And consumers have choices. They can take their business away.

ROSEN: Not if --

FIORINA: And as a result of technology company has been extremely actually transparent about what they collect. The difference is there is no competition to government, and taxpayers and citizens have no choices.

Again, I personally support this program but I think we're foolish if we don't say that it raises some questions about how do you hold these kind of bureaucracies accountable and how do you hold the people within them accountable --

BASH: You can ask the same thing about the IRS --

FIORINA: Exactly, the IRS is the same question.

TAPPER: I have to take a quick break right now. Carly, Hilary and Dana, thank you so much.

Breaking news. Authorities are searching for a gunman on the loose on an Army base in Texas. As we speak, authorities at Fort Sam Houston are reporting that a shooting did occur a short time ago. No word on injuries, but we will stay with this story. We'll be back with more information as it develops in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Breaking news, you're looking at live pictures on a situation at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Authorities confirm that a shooting has happened there. No word yet on injuries. Please stay with us. We will update you as soon as we learn anything new.

In other national news today, jury selection began in the George Zimmermann trial, one of the most highly publicized murder cases in recent history. It sparked a protest and a passionate about race and racial profiling across the country. Now it's time to actually have the legal argument for the feature we call "Explain This To Me."

The immediate mission for both sides is clear, find six jurors who can put their emotions aside and decide what really happened on that February night in Sanford, Florida when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed? There's been plenty of speculation and misinformation with this case, but here is what we know for sure.

On February 26th, George Zimmermann, a neighborhood watch captain notice Trayvon Martin walking in his neighborhood, he called police and reported Martin as suspicious. According to 911 tapes, Zimmerman said he was following Martin. The dispatcher advised him not to do so. Minutes later he and Martin got into a fight and Zimmermann shot and killed the unarmed teenager.

What happened between the 911 call and that deadly confrontation remains a mystery. To explain this to me, let's bring in CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin who is live in New York. Jeffrey, let's listen to what Zimmerman's brother said earlier today about why he thinks his brother will be acquitted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S BROTHER: I can tell you as a family that we're very confident in the outcome of the case and we're very confident that the state will not be able to meet its burden. It's a two-fold burden here in Florida. Not only do they have to prove that this was a murder, as they allege, they also have to prove simultaneously that it could not have been self-defense. So we're confident the state won't meet its burden and that kind of backs into our confidence in the legal team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Jeff, explain this to me. What are some key pieces of evidence that will make it difficult for the jury to convict Zimmerman? JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the best evidence that Zimmerman has are his own injuries. He is going to claim that this was a confrontation. That Trayvon Martin assaulted him and he was conducting an act of self-defense. He had bruises on his head. He had bruises on his nose.

So that is going to be the core of his defense, is that this was a violent confrontation, I wasn't looking for trouble and most importantly there is, alas, only one witness surviving to this contest because Trayvon Martin is not here to testify about what happened.

TAPPER: Jeffrey, what key evidence could lead to his conviction?

TOOBIN: Skittles and a can of iced tea because that's all that Trayvon Martin had with him. Here you have a 17-year-old kid walking along having bought candy and a drink and he gets killed for no good reason. And that is the prosecution argument is that in the United States of America, you are allowed to walk in a hoodie carrying candy and a drink without getting killed by some vigilante cop. That's the argument.

TAPPER: The other interesting thing to note is of course in this case as with so many cases, a lot of the things that you and I and our viewers know about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin will not be admissible so they will not be introduced as evidence.

TOOBIN: And the jury will be picked from people who haven't followed the case closely. Those of us in the news media think it's going to be impossible to find anyone who hasn't followed these things closely. But you know what, we always do because people out there in the real world don't follow the news as closely as we do, especially since you only need six jurors and two alternates in Florida, I think they're going to find a jury quickly and this trial is going to get under way soon.

TAPPER: Jeffrey Toobin, thank you so much.

Coming up, she famously serenaded President Kennedy on his birthday but were they really lovers? One private eye says he recorded their tresks. That's our "Pop Lead" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Now it's time for the "Pop Culture Lead." This is the time of the year when big budget blockbusters are supposed to dominate at the Box Office. So how in the world did a horror flick made for practically pennies end up trouncing the competition this weekend?

"The Purge" starring Ethan Hawk took the top spot earning $36 million. That's double the earnings of the Vince Vaughn comedy "The Internship." and get this, "The Purge," only cost $3 million to make. For some movies, that would barely cover the peeled grapes and Evian.

In contrast, Will Smith's sci-fi flop "After Earth" only earned $27 million in its opening weekend and it cost a whopping $100 million to make, not to mention all those future therapy bills for his son, Jaden, who was hoisted into it.

You've heard the rumor for years, Marilyn Monroe's affairs with not one but two Kennedys. Now there are new details from the man who says he heard it all on tape. A Hollywood reporter got his hands on boxes of files from former Hollywood private eye Fred Otash. His daughter said she turned the files in an effort to set the record straight about her father's life.

THE LEAD's Erin McPike is here with all the juicy details -- Erin.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's get right to the good stuff. There might have been a sex tape but before you get excited, it's just audio, not video. So everyone in the control room can get their minds out of the gutter, but the tapes have disappeared. So there are only notes of them, we will never hear them. But they didn't make this tape is because they were being bugged.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE (voice-over): There are in intimate details of a reported relationship between a president, his brother and a Hollywood sex symbol. Eleven boxes of files Hollywood spy/private eye Fred Otash sacked away in a storage unit in the San Fernando Valley were reviewed by "The Hollywood Reporter."

MATT BELLONI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": This was someone who had wiretaps all over town, was listening to some of the biggest stars and some of these revelations will be published in magazines.

MCPIKE: Matt Belloni is the executive editor for "The Hollywood Reporter."

BELLONI: Otash claims that he had recordings of JFK having sex with Marilyn Monroe. He spoke about this as if it was a common knowledge thing.

MCPIKE: Otash worked for members of the Hollywood elite to dig up on their enemies. A note he left behind before his death reviewed by "The Hollywood Reporter," Otash provides salacious details of the long rumored affairs between Marilyn Monroe and both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy.

He claims he listened to Marilyn Monroe having sex with John F. Kennedy and in the hours before her death, Otash says Monroe had a blow out fight with Bobby Kennedy over their relationship. He claims Monroe complained she was being passed around like a piece of meat. Otash claimed he heard Bobby Kennedy trying to quiet Monroe down with a pillow so the neighbors wouldn't hear her shouting. But the audiotapes his notes are based have since disappeared.

BELLONI: Some of these files that we reviewed contain elements that are not 100 percent verifiable. They are his recollections to his daughter. So what he said and what is actual truth is not necessarily the same. MCPIKE: Otash was part of the LAPD until 1955 after a falling out with the police chief so he became gum shoe to the stars. Otash disguised the surveillance van a TV repair truck. The real life gum shoe helped inspired the fictional detective Jack Nicholson portrayed in the film was classic "Chinatown."

JOHN BUNTIN, AUTHOR, "L.A. NOIR": He was someone who naturally moved in the gray zone between the police, the mob, the private investigators who made Hollywood in the 1950s such an interesting place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE: Now, Otash's daughter said she released all that information to the "Hollywood Reporter" because she thought her father's reputation was being maligned.

TAPPER: Interesting. A weird little underworld you've explored for us, Erin. Thank you very much.

"The Wild Rumpus" may have begun with children's author, Maurice Sendak, but it did not end with his death. Today, Google paid tribute to the author and what would have been his 85th birthday with this elaborate Google Doodle. Maurice Sendak, the author of such children's classics as "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen Died Last Year." Among his most cherished lines is this little gem, "There Should Be A Place For Only The Things You Want To Happen Happened." We miss him.

It's almost as random as the scene from the movie "Being John Malkovich" and perhaps this time it was a superhero exploring the portal into the actor's brain. Malkovich actually rescued a man in Toronto who was bleeding out on the sidewalk. The man said he slipped and slit his neck on a scaffolding pole.

Malkovich who was in Toronto shooting a movie reportedly rushed to the man's side and helped to stop the bleeding. The actor disappeared by the time the ambulance showed up. Rumor has it he was last seen near a ditch on the side of the New Jersey turnpike.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter @jaketapper and also @theleadcnn. Check out our show page at cnn.com/thelead for video blogs and extras. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I leave you now in the very capable hands of one Mr. Wolf Blitzer. He's right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Jake, thanks very much. Happening now, shy and always on his computer, that is how one person describes the man behind one of the biggest leaks in the history of U.S. intelligence. Just ahead, we go live to Edward Snowden's hometown right here in the Washington, D.C. area where neighbors are now speaking out.

Plus, hero or traitor, it's the debate that's now raging around the world. Our own Jeffrey Toobin has some very strong views on this. He's --