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Rodney King was Found Dead at the Age of 47; More People are now Questioning the Existence of God; A Reporter Shout at President Obama;
Aired June 17, 2012 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST (voice-over): The worst race riots this country has ever seen. And the man at the center --
RODNEY KING, VICTIM OF POLICE HARASSMENT: No, put your f'ing head down, face down. With my hands up, showed no threat.
LEMON: Rodney King his race, his rage, and his death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don on camera 2.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This one here, because of a Latino vote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The black vote.
LEMON: What about the white people? The real deciders in the presidential election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got 30 seconds.
LEMON: And doubting the existence of God? If you're losing faith, you're not alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A reading from the holy gospel.
LEMON: Tonight, we ask, at this rate, decades from now will anyone believe God even exists? I play devil's advocate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Hello everyone. I'm Don lemon. Thank you for joining us. We are going to get you up to speed now.
Rodney King was found dead at his home today in suburban Los Angeles. The 47-year-old whose beating by police triggered riots 20 years ago was found at the bottom of his pool. Police say there was no sign of foul play.
The acquittal of L.A. police officers in the King beating sparked days of rioting that left more than 50 people dead. And just moments, we will have more on how America changed because of Rodney King.
The national election in Greece, it's over. Voters picked the Conservative New Democracy Party to form a government taking European bailout and stay in the Eurozone. Had the opposition gotten more votes Greece ran the risk of dropping out of the euro, and that would have pounded the markets worldwide.
Soaring temperatures, strong winds fueling a new wildfire in the lake George area of Colorado. Evacuations are underway explains threaten a number of homes. Meantime, firefighters near Ft. Collins are trying to get the upper hand on the massive hype park fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: It will be some time before the fire is out. Over 140,000 man hours have already been dedicate to this fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Almost 200 homes have been destroyed. High fire warnings are currently in place for nine western states.
Heading into a new week in Washington and the president's big shift on immigration policies still the talk of the town. The president made it easier Friday for some children of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation. He called it the fair and just thing in do.
Top Obama aide told our Candy Crowley that politics was not a factor on this decision.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID PLOUFFE, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: This builds on steps we've taken.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You could have done it last year, you could have done it the year before, you could have done the year before that.
PLOUFFE: We've been trying to get the dream act done. We've been trying to pass immigration reform. This builds on a series of stages the homeland security department has already taken. And again, this is tickets on law enforcement personnel the ability to have more discretion and focus resources where it should be focused, which is criminals.
CROWLEY: Got it.
PLOUFFE: Which by the way, our deportation number amongst criminals --
CROWLEY: But you can't say it was not done without some political consideration.
PLOUFFE: It was not, Candy.
CROWLEY: Five months before the election?
PLOUFFE: Well listen, who knows how the politics will turn out. But this decision --
CROWLEY: Probably pretty good.
PLOUFFE: Well, we will see. You know, I've ceased making predictions on things because we will see how they turn outs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, Mitt Romney disagrees. He believes it was politics and he told CBS that politics was a big part of the equation behind the president's immigration announcement. He didn't vow to repeal the new policy, but says he would look for a longer-term solution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it would be overtaken by events, if you will, by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution with legislation, which creates law, that relates to individuals, such that they know what their setting is going to be not only for the term of the president but a permanent basis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't depend about this, but just to make sure I understand, would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution or would you just repeal it.
ROMNEY: We'll look at that setting as we reach that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The beating of Rodney King was clearly much more than a case of police brutality. The incident pulled back a curtain revealing a very dark truth about race relations in America.
CNN's Nick Valencia was living in Los Angeles during the riots that were sparked by Rodney King's case. And when the riots started, there was no internet, there was no twitter then, there no cell phone.
How did you find out and people in Los Angeles find out the city was starting to burn?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: My family and I were huddled around TV, I was 8-yearsold. We were watching the news. And you know, Don, I didn't get scared until my mom and dad were scared. When you're a kid, you know, your parents are like ten-feet tall to you, and when they were scared, my dad lived through the first riots in Los Angeles and this even scared him.
LEMON: Yes. This went on for days.
VALENCIA: This went on for at least a week. LEMON: Yes, for at least a week. So, what was it like, as a child, for you being -- did you have to stay at home? Could you go to school? Did you go out and about?
VALENCIA: Well, just imagine this, looking outside your balcony, for about 15 minutes northeast of downtown Los Angeles where the many of these riots were concentrated, there in south central, seeing smoke on the TV and the looking outside your balcony is seeing those same smoke plumes 15 minutes away, it was chilling.
LEMON: Had a lasting effect on you?
VALENCIA: Formative event.
LEMON: Why so?
VALENCIA: I mean, I think it's part of the reason I probably went into news. There is so much things - there is so many things going on in Los Angeles during the '90s and the Rodney King incident was very big part of that, no matter the color of your skin, brown, black, white, Asian, whatever. If you were living in Los Angeles at this time, this impacted you, and it had a big impact on me and my family.
LEMON: And you know what, you say that, I had just had become -- I was a cub journalist in a New York city Newsroom when riots broke out. We were saying, what is going on? And they were closing down fifth avenue and stores and the fancy shops in Manhattan because they thought the rioting may spread across the country and come to New York. This was an event not only the U.S. but the world watched the event.
VALENCIA: It resonated everywhere. I remember talking to my dad and asking him if we could move to Las Vegas because that was one of the near big cities of Los Angeles that wasn't impacted by the rioting. I wanted to get out, everybody else wanted to get out. We were watching our city burn to the ground.
LEMON: This was one of the first big incidents caught on videotape. This is pre-cell phone.
VALENCIA: Sparked an era in journalism.
LEMON: And even, it was one of the first, if not the first. And you know what, there are very few other incidents caught on camera that evoked as much passion from people and as much of a response that that Rodney King beating video. Of course the subsequent video that came out from the rioting.
VALENCIA: That's right. I remember that. You covered it with such a bigger last year during the 20th anniversary. That's why it seems so recent that this happened, it really left a lasting impact and impression on everybody in Los Angeles.
LEMON: Certainly did. Nick Valencia, lived down in Los Angeles when those riots happened. Thank you very much, Nick Valencia. We really appreciate it.
It was just last year that Rodney King took me back to the very spot of the famous beating and talked about turning his life around, a new man, 20 years later, he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODNEY KING: I consider myself a decent, you know, good human being.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: This is Rodney King that night in the days that followed, like you've never seen before, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It was just last year that I sat in Rodney King's living room, one-on-one, he walked me through step by step what happened along a California road back in 1991 on a night that changed this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): A city in flames. The entire neighborhoods burn to the ground. Now, two decades later, what's it like to be the man whose beating, seen around the world, ignited one of the worst race riots in U.S. history?
Do you still have nightmares?
RODNEY KING: Yes, yes. I'm -- I do.
LEMON: What's a nightmare?
RODNEY KING: Do you wake up like tossing and turning, sometimes hearing voices that was going on that night.
Get down, get down. Get down you f'ing -- you know those words, you know? That's how I have to wake up, it's all right, look outside, it's all green and blue.
LEMON: King's nightmare begins just after midnight. He and two friends out celebrating, head west on the 210 freeway.
RODNEY KING: I just gotten word that my old construction company had called me to come back to work that following Monday.
LEMON: But the celebration is cut short. State police clock King's car going 110 miles per hour and immediately start a nearly eight-mile high-speed chase through L.A. neighborhoods.
RODNEY KING: I was doing 100, I did every bit of 100, and I'm not proud of it.
LEMON: Following our interview, Rodney King agrees to relive those terrifying moments by taking me back to the scene.
RODNEY KING: Coming down the 210.
LEMON: As retrace his steps we discuss the split-second decisions.
RODNEY KING: I exit here on Paxton.
LEMON: Where did you pull over?
RODNEY KING: I seen all of the apartments over there, so I said, man, I'm going to stop right here if it goes down, somebody will see it.
LEMON: Once stopped he they are surrounded by police, King's two friends are arrested without incident but Rodney King would have a much different fate.
When I opened the door, she said take three steps back away from the car which I did that, took three steps back. I took three steps back, said lay down. So, I laid down. I laid down like this. And my face was facing this way, so I could see them. They said, no put your f'ing head down, face down.
When I finally face down, bam, took the blow. Bam. A real hard blow to the temple. When he did that I looked and I went up like that, run this way with my hands up showed no threat. And that's when I didn't know, but my leg was broken.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And if you're just hearing now, King was found dead today, in Los Angeles, drowned in his swimming pool.
Coming up a little bit later I talked with Rodney King about the challenge his faces over the past 20 years.
The president seems to have a new strategy when it comes to congress, if you can't beat them, don't join them, simply do nothing. Governing through inaction, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The president makes a surprise shift on immigration policy, but why? He calls it the right thing to do, but critics see politics as the motivation here.
I talked about it with CNN contributors Will Cain and Maria Cardona and I asked Maria if the president could made his immigration decision three years ago and if the move was really about gaining political support from Hispanics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA CARDONA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He would have loved to do this three years ago or any time before now, Don, but what happened? Absolutely zero support from any Republican in Congress to help him do this. Let's remember, he cannot change the laws or pass laws by himself. Democrats can't do it by themselves. He needs Republicans.
Let's remember, in 2010, he famously tried to pass the dream act. He called Republican senators asking them for their support on this. You know how many voted for it then? Three. He needs help on this.
LEMON: Maria, I understand what you're saying but you can't say this isn't about politics. Of course it's about politics. He wants to be the president again.
CARDONA: Well, OK. Look, Don, if the president yawns during an election year people will tell --
LEMON: I'm not saying anything's wrong with that. Can't he be honest about that.
CARDONA: People will say that he is trying to get the votes of sleepy voters. I'm saying everything he does this year is looked at through the prism of politics.
LEMON: Go ahead, Will.
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We know what happens, Maria asked me. Know what happens when your policy goes meet a stonewall of inaction through the democratic process. We now know the answer to that question, we have numerous examples to support our conclusion.
The president then picks and chooses which laws he will support, which laws he enforce, that's the word to use, enforce, because that's the power granted to the president in the constitution, to enforce the law.
We now know the president will pick and choose which laws he chooses to enforce. And listen here, Maria. I hope we can have this conversation with no partisanship. This lays a precedent regardless of who the president is, regardless of what party he comes from that should terrify everyone. Should terrify everyone.
LEMON: But, listen. OK. I'm going to ask both of you this.
If you -- and everyone is saying it's no secret that people believe that there is inaction in Congress and in Washington that nothing is getting done. So, if the president can figure out a way of getting it done, hang on Maria, Will, what's wrong with that? If you are being stonewalled every place you turn and figure out a way to get something done, regardless of which party you're from, what's wrong with that if you can figure out way to do it?
CAIN: Well, Don. What you're suggesting is the democratic process is now being insufficient to accomplished a policy goes. The president basically has two outs on not enforcing a congressional law, law passed by congress, through the democratic process.
One, if he sees the law unconstitutional. There's nothing here, no serious argument whether or not this is constitutional, whether or not our immigration laws are constitutional. The second is prosecutorial discretion, which usually means we, as the executive branch, don't have the money to pursue a certain criminal. Does not mean we invalidate an entire law.
This does not fit into either president. And you really, honestly, you have to ask yourself, Maria has to wonder, what happens if a president, Mitt Romney, decides I don't like to capital gains cap rate? So, I'm not going to use the IRS to prosecute those who don't pay their taxes. Or I don't like Obama care. So, I'm not going to have the IRS to prosecute those who don't the fines in Obama for not buying mandated insurance.
LEMON: OK. Let her answer. Go ahead.
CARDONA: First of all, let's tell truth here. This is not an absolute decree and the president has said this very clearly. This is still a case by case review of each case that comes before them. It is, like you said, Will, prosecutorial discretion, which the president has under the law. So he is not basically ignoring anything.
CAIN: That's not true.
CARDONA: He's using the authority that he has under current law to do a case by case review of each of these kids who, by the way, have done nothing wrong of their own doing. And, by the way, you're right, this actually has been done before. Bush famously, when he signed legislation would include statements basically saying if he didn't like pieces of the law he wasn't going to enforce it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: My thanks to Maria and Will.
Firefighters in Colorado now have even more to worry about, details next. Plus, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING: This one here, because of the Latino vote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The black vote.
LEMON: What about the white people? The real decider in the presidential election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back. Almost half past the hour now. We can get you caught up on headlines here on CNN.
Rodney King, the man whose beating by Los Angeles police sparked riots 20 years ago, was found dead in his swimming pool today. King's fiancee said, she heard a splash and walked out to find his body at the bottom of the pool. There were no sign of foul play. The acquittal of L.A. police officers seen beating King on videotape sparked days of rioting that left more than 50 people dead.
The Greek people enacted a government today, a conservative one, that promises to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Most of the financial world including the United States holding its breath right now, waiting to see global market reaction in the morning.
IT was also Election Day, election weekend in Egypt. Voters there went to the polls to pick the first president since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Polls are closed. Vote counting is under way. Expect results to be officially announced on Thursday.
Dangerous continues out west. Where yet another fire has erupted due to hot, dry conditions. Evacuations are under way in the lake George area of Colorado. Meantime firefighters near Ft. Collins are trying to get the upper hand on the massive Hyde Park fire. Almost 200 homes already have been destroyed and more than 55,000 acres burned. Fire warnings currently in place for nine western states.
Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky are expected to begin presenting their defense tomorrow. Prosecution is expected to rest its case. So far, the jury has heard from men describing years of sexual abuse at the hand of Sandusky. A former Penn State assistant football coach charged with 52 counts of molesting 10 boys for more than a decade.
We like to see questions get answered on this program. But not like this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is -- it is the right thing to do. Excuse me, sir. It's not time for questions, sir. Not while I'm speaking. Precisely because this is temporary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: There is no way we're going to pardoned than interruption on tonight's no talking points. Don't miss it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You don't are to be in front of a television to watch CNN. You can do what I do. You can stay connected, you can do it on your cell phone or you can do it from your computer at work. Let's go to CNN.com/TV.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It is time now for no talking points. Neil Munro, how dare you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: Is it -- it is the right thing to do. Excuse me, sir. I -- it's not time for questions, sir. Not while I'm speaking. Precisely because this is temporary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Matt Lewis, the nerve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, DAILY CALLER: There was going to be no question and answer. This was the only chance he had to ask a question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: That happens all the time. He had no business interrupting the president.
LEWIS: The press corps should be less differential to authority.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Tucker Carlson, the audacity as editor in chief of the Web site. Both those men work for to defend boorish behavior, by writing quote, "I don't remember Diane Sawyer scolding her colleague, Sam Donaldson, for heckling the President Reagan. And then summed up your response by saying, we're proud of Neil Munro."
What if someone heckled you in the middle of your "Dancing with the Stars "routine? Someone needs to take a long look in the mirror ball. Wait, you didn't win. In fact the first sent packing.
Plus, Tucker, there's a big difference between Sam Donaldson and Neil Munro. For starter, who the hell is Neil Munro?
Mr. Donaldson is very dignified, response like this. "Never once did I interrupt a president in any way while he was making a formal statement." Donaldson says what Munro did was something new to me, wrong and unusual.
He also says, let's face it, many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there, they oppose him not for his policies and political view, but for who he is, an African-American!
Finally, the elephant in the Rose Garden, thank you, Sam Donaldson, enough said there. So, while some in the conservative media had called Munro's hissy fit refreshing, most thankfully have denounced it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's outrageous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Munro's absolutely wrong in interfering with the president's statement.
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: He's representing all of us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm hoping maybe Tucker didn't see it, didn't know the context, because Tucker knows better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He must respect the office of the presidency even if you don't like the person in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And, yes, other presidents have been badgered by the media, Sam Donaldson had his moments with president Reagan, David Gregory versus president George W. Bush, Ed Henry and President Obama. Heck, W. Was even dodged shoes but he was in a war zone and it was in Iraqi reporter who did it and the guy was taken down by security.
But this is America. It's not a war zone. And we pride ourselves on civility. And we also respect the office of the presidency, just as we respect the courage of a man or a woman who dons a uniform to fight for our country.
As a journalist, I know there are ways to get my questions answered it may not always be on the time line I want but there's always way a way to do. And Mr. Munro interrupting the leader of the free world at the White House in front of an international office is not the way.
And quite frankly, you're the one who should be asking and answering a whole lot of questions of yourself.
And that's tonight's no talking points.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I'm just going to say it, heard anyone talking about white voters lately? Me either. Sounds kind a funny, but can you name the last time Mitt Romney or President Obama made a direct appeal to white folks? Whites make up three-fourths of all voters.
So when I talked about it with CNN contributor Ana Navarro and Stephen Moore of the "Wall Street Journal," I asked Ana why it seem there's no love for white voters in this campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NAVARRO: I think there's plenty of love for white voters. You have Mitt Romney doing a bus tour right now through New Hampshire, through Ohio, through Pennsylvania. I got to tell you, Don, I've within to New Hampshire. I've been to Ohio. And there are a lot of white people there.
So, I think they're getting plenty of love. They are - and it's a good voting group for Republicans. We actually have a white male gap that Obama has got to overcome.
LEMON: Yes. And that's why we're talking about this and trust me, I was at the Iowa state fair and so your point is well taken there, Ana Navarro. Stephen, a new Gallup survey finds that President pulling in just 38 percent support among white voters. Is that a white voter problem? You wrote about that this week, didn't you?
MOORE: Yes, I did. It is a big problem for President Obama. And, you know, I wrote this story, Don, because as you said at the outset of the show, everybody talks about the Latino vote and the black vote and the senior vote and the soccer mom vote. But nobody ravel really looks very closely at the biggest voter bloc of all which is the still white. It is about 70 to 75 percent of the electorate.
And when I started to kind a looked at those numbers in the polling, 'lo and behold it shows, that Barack Obama does have a white voter problem that's worse than it was in 2008.
And let me say this. I actually believe that there's no question that in 2008 that Barack Obama's race was actually an asset. Americans loved the idea of electing the first black president. I think that really helped him in the election. It was cool to be for Barack Obama.
It's a little bit of a problem now -- let me put it this way. It's not as big of an asset now as then because Barack Obama has a record to run on. And so you do have more skepticism of white voters. By the way, the polling also shows that Barack Obama is doing unbelievably well with black voters. I have seen polls as high as 94 to 95 percent of the black vote for Barack Obama.
LEMON: Yes. But the interesting thing time is will the black electorate be as passionate about going to the polls as they were the last time. And if that doesn't happen then, I think it's going to pose a big challenge for President Obama.
But it's interesting, Ana, and Stephen, because last time you would think that if Barack Obama is president of the United States, you would think that he garnered most of the white vote, and I showed, he didn't. John McCain did.
So Stephen, I want to also talk about something that you mentioned a little bit earlier. You talked about you know, about people last time were proud to go to the polls and vote with the idea of a black president.
MOORE: Sure.
LEMON: Do you think some liberals have white guilt, and I'm just being honest because we talked about this. And when they go into the polls this time, they may be reluctant to deny the first black president a second term?
MOORE: I think there's a little bit of that. I think no question about - look, the American people like Barack Obama. Not just because of his race and being the first black president. But he's just a likable person.
LEMON: But does the economy outweigh that though? MOORE: Yes. Definitely it does. And I think that's the reason that Barack Obama has a white voter problem. Because, you know, where the problem is most severe and I looked at the kind of cross- tabulations in this polling data. There is a kind of white middle class anxiety out there and a lot of white middle class voters did vote for Barack Obama in 2008. But they're feeling the stress in their pocket books. They are feeling financial strain. They know a family member that doesn't have a job and yes, I think you put your finger on it. That the economic issues is now are tromping these issues of well, it's cool to be for Barack Obama.
LEMON: Yes. OK. So, Ana?
NAVARRO: I think - you know, Don, I think it's a lot less about race, I think than it is about history.
Four years ago Obama was a phenomenon. Obama was a historical moment, a historical opportunity. The thing is, you can only make history once and he's made it. So now he's no longer the historical figure. He's the grey-haired president who's got a four-year record that he has to defend and contend with.
And so, we are talking about two completely different Barack Obama's. He's not less black or more black today than he was four years ago. And it's not about that issue. It's the historical components that I think are the determining factor.
LEMON: Great conversation.
MOORE: The one last point.
LEMON: Go ahead.
MOORE: Barack Obama does have to get 40 percent of the white voters. How it for him to go over the finish line if he doesn't get at least 4 out of 10, and as you said right now, he's is about 38 percent. So he has some work to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: My thanks to Stephen Moore and Ana Navarro.
Next --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And doubting the existence of God? If you're losing faith, you're not alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A reading from the holy gospel.
LEMON: Tonight we ask at this rate, decades from now, will anyone believe God even exists? I play devil's advocate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You're out and about, not in front of a television to stay connected to CNN. You can pull up on your cell phone like I do or you can watch it from computer even at work. Just go to CNN.com/TV. Tell them Don Lemon sent you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: It is the top story on CNN tonight.
A key figure in recent American history is dead, Rodney King was found dead at his home today in his swimming pool. His beating at hands of Los Angeles police and the street violence that followed permanently changed Los Angeles, its police department, and the race conversation in America.
Just a few minutes ago I talked with CNN's Nick Valencia, who was living in L.A. near south central 20 years ago when the riots exploded.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: My family and I were huddled around TV, I was 8-yearsold. We were watching the news. And you know, Don, I didn't get scared until my mom and dad were scared. When you're a kid, you know, your parents are like ten-feet tall to you, and when they were scared, my dad lived through the first riots in Los Angeles and this even scared him.
LEMON: Yes. This went on for days.
VALENCIA: This went on for at least a week.
LEMON: Yes, for at least a week. So, what was it like, as a child, for you being -- did you have to stay at home? Could you go to school? Did you go out and about?
VALENCIA: Well, just imagine this, looking outside your balcony, for about 15 minutes northeast of downtown Los Angeles where the many of these riots were concentrated, there in south central, seeing smoke on the TV and the looking outside your balcony is seeing those same smoke plumes 15 minutes away, it was chilling.
LEMON: Had a lasting effect on you?
VALENCIA: Formative event.
LEMON: Why so?
VALENCIA: I mean, I think it's part of the reason I probably went into news. There is so much things - there is so many things going on in Los Angeles during the '90s and the Rodney King incident was very big part of that, no matter the color of your skin, brown, black, white, Asian, whatever. If you were living in Los Angeles at this time, this impacted you, and it had a big impact on me and my family. LEMON: And you know what, you say that, I had just had become -- I was a cub journalist in a New York city Newsroom when riots broke out. We were saying, what is going on? And they were closing down fifth avenue and stores and the fancy shops in Manhattan because they thought the rioting may spread across the country and come to New York. This was an event not only the U.S. but the world watched the event.
VALENCIA: It resonated everywhere. I remember talking to my dad and asking him if we could move to Las Vegas because that was one of the near big cities of Los Angeles that wasn't impacted by the rioting. I wanted to get out, everybody else wanted to get out. We were watching our city burn to the ground.
LEMON: This was one of the first big incidents caught on videotape. This is pre-cell phone.
VALENCIA: Sparked an era in journalism.
LEMON: And even, it was one of the first, if not the first. And you know what, there are very few other incidents caught on camera that evoked as much passion from people and as much of a response that that Rodney King beating video. Of course the subsequent video that came out from the rioting.
VALENCIA: That's right. I remember that. You covered it with such a bigger last year during the 20th anniversary. That's why it seems so recent that this happened, it really left a lasting impact and impression on everybody in Los Angeles.
LEMON: Certainly did. Nick Valencia, lived down in Los Angeles when those riots happened.
Thank you very much, Nick Valencia. We really appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: For a man whose severe beating changed America, Rodney King struggled to become a changed man himself. I sat down with him in his living room where he told me about his battles and he continued to live his life in fear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): In the 20 years since his life was turns upside down, Rodney King has relocated to suburban rialto, California. He's 20 years older and, according to him, a lot wiser. He admits his past is riddled with bad decisions.
If you could do it all over again, what would you do? Go out that night?
RODNEY KING: I'd have stayed home. I think I'd have stayed home.
LEMON: For years after the beating, Rodney King continued to have run-ins with the law. In 1996, he was sentenced to 90 days for a hit-and-run involving his wife. He was also arrested several times on charges related to domestic abuse. Drug intoxication and indecent exposure.
Why, after all that, that's what people would say, especially black people, why after all that, Rodney, are you still getting in trouble?
RODNEY KING: I guess the trouble they see me in is a part of my life I'm working on.
LEMON: And 20 years later, Rodney King still lives in fear.
Years after the beating, you were a vest?
RODNEY KING: Oh, yes.
LEMON: Do you still wear a vest?
RODNEY KING: Yes I do. I do.
LEMON: He wears a bulletproof vest in large crowds because threats against his life were all too real. The FBI once infiltrated a white supremacist plot to assassinate King.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over your shoulder.
RODNEY KING: You know, I -- I never feel safe, you know? It's things that happen.
When you are part of history and it changes, for the better, you've got a lot of devilish people out there that don't like it.
LEMON: When Rodney King had the blood on his face, that mug shot of you with the blood on your face, who was he then?
RODNEY KING: Man, a guy that was almost dead and just like happy to be able to still have that face to be able to see that face.
LEMON: And Rodney King now? All cleaned up, trimmed goatee, beads around his neck, who is Rodney King now?
RODNEY KING: I consider myself a decent, you know, good human being.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: During my interview with King, we went back to the scene of the police beating, and you can see that interview in its entirety tonight as part of our special CNN Presents, "Race and Rage, the beating of Rodney King," it's about ten minutes here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. For your Sunday night mysteries, we solve one puzzle and give you one to think about. OK, here is the unsolved one. Who in the world are these people? Photographs found on civil war battlefields, in the pockets of dead northerners and southerners as well a civil war museum in Virginia is hoping to recognize one face and speaks up.
I'm reading slow on purpose I'm want you to look at these faces. But them, they return the pictures to the rightful owners because that's what they want to do. The museum knows it's a long shot, but won't it be amazing if they actually do find a descendant?
OK. And no longer a mystery tonight, forest boy, he's a young man who told police in Germany that he's an orphan and has been living in the woods alone since he was a little kid. Turns out his story was B.S. and he really is a Dutch guy goo who's kind of a troublemaker back home. Somebody in Holland recognized him and called authorities.
So, Forest boy staying at a youth home in Berlin, getting money and free clothes. Germans are going to put him on a train back to the Netherlands. So, be there saying, Forest boy, nice try.
Go now to the big stories in the week ahead from the White House to Hollywood. Our correspondents tell you what you need to know. We begin tonight with the president's plans for the week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Athena Jones in Washington. President Obama begins this week in Mexico at g-20 summit. There, he is expected to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin and differences over Syria are almost certain to come up.
At end of the week, the president heads to the battle ground state of Florida, where he'll talk to Latino leaders eight conference in Orlando. Latinos are going to be a key voting bloc to watch in November.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN MONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. All eyes will be on world markets following Greece's Sunday election. The outcome, no doubt will impact markets around the globe, given the significance of the election and the future of the Eurozone.
Back here in the United States, the federal reserve will hold a two-day policy meeting this week. Very close attention will be paid to comments from chairman Ben Bernanke following the meeting especially any hints whether or not the fed will act further to stimulate the U.S. economy. On the docket the latest home sales and home building numbers.
So, a lot ahead coming up on Wall Street this week.
NISCHELLE TURNER, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT CORRESPONDENT: I'm "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" Nischelle Turner. Here's what we're watching this week.
"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," is bringing you all the biggest daytime Emmy Award Nominees. We are going one-on-one soap stars like Heather Tom and Maurice Bernard. Make sure to watch all next week. And make sure to watch the daytime Emmys on June 23rd right here on HLN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Thanks, guys.
On the show we tend to ask the questions a lot of others are afraid to ask. And this weekend was no different.
This past week we learned young people are more and more questioning the existence of God. So, I asked, where is the proof that God even exists? It was time to play devil's advocate with Jim and Tammy Faye's son, Pastor Jay Bakker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: More people are now saying they have questioned the existence of God. So I'm going to lay it out there for you. What's the proof? Give me the proof, the physical proof that God exists.
JAY BAKKER, OR, REVOLUTION NYC: Well I think the idea that God sees God as this being in the sky when, really, I think if you look at God as being like the grounded being. You know, God is the ground below us. Ground is in everything. And so, for me, I can't prove to you. And that's why it's called faith. You know, if it was a belief, if will be called belief. But for me, it's faith.
LEMON: Listen, a lot of people would say, of course I can prove to you that there is God. Look at the sun. Look at the moon. Look at the trees. How do you think the wind? And so, I was talking to people on social media. I said, give me physical proof that God exists and those were similar answers. And I said, is there a recorded conversation. Do you have any physical proof?
And so, really playing devil's advocate here, but there's no real physical proof, is there?
BAKKER: No. I mean, there is not. I mean, the sun is a pretty interesting idea just because it's amazing thing to study. But no, there's no physical proof. And the thing though, is that we have to realize that doubt is not opposite of faith.
Doubt is actually an element of faith. So, you know, that was said by Paul Tillick. And I really have to agree with that. I think that you can't have one without the other. When you don't doubt, you don't grow. And you don't question thing. And I think it's important to question things.
I think faith is becoming something else. But I also do think that the church is going to shrink. I do think we are going to see less religious people because I think of all the partisan politics and how people have treated each other - I mean, who the church has treated the gay community. So, I think we will see - we definitely going to see a decline. LEMON: And for those among us who consider themselves Christian, if you actually read the bible and you read the red parts, the guy who was Jesus said "doubt, doubt, doubt you should doubt everything."
BAKKER: Well, he doubted, you know, in the garden of Gethsemane and also on the cross. He said, God, why have you forsaken me? So we have a God that was forsaken by God. So in a way Christ was even an atheist at one point.
LEMON: Interesting. Pretty subversive things here.
Listen. I want to show you a quote from the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. And he says, he recently told "the guardian" "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There's no heaven or after life or broken down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." And Hawking said he has come to this final conclusion. That's his final conclusion. Listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My view that the simplest explanation is that there is no God. No one created the universe. And no one directs our fate.
LEMON: Arguably, one of the greatest minds of our time. Do you think people are starting to see heaven as a fairy story?
BAKKER: Yes. I think so. I think it started when people started questioning hell. And now, you know, people question heaven. And I think what's important is that we don't live for life after death. You know what I mean? We have live before death and that we love each other and we focus on helping one another and necessarily, you don't have to have religion for that.
But for some of us it's a comfort. For some of us it's shown us a whole new world. Like I'm obsessed with the idea of grace, you know, because of the bible and the church.
LEMON: Hey, listen. I have to run. But I want to ask you, were not you writing -- why aren't you writing a book on doubt?
BAKKER: Because it's something that I've dealt with over the past years. You know, I doubt just as much as anybody else does. And I think it's important to realize that doubt is part of faith. It is an element of faith and it's OK, to have.
So, I just want people out there -- I think so many people are feared over the years of doubting. But now that we have computers and internet and facebook and stuff, everybody is talking, everybody is able to share their doubts, which is a powerful thing and we should have ever the ability to tell someone they can't doubt or they shouldn't doubt. You can't do that anyway. You're going to doubt everything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Rodney King, the man who was beating by police set off, one of the worst race riots ever in this country has died.
