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Obama Authorizes Secret Action In Syria; Soni Adding To Olympic Medals; Al Qaeda Suspects Arrested; Romney Campaigns In Colorado; Rubio Rallies For Romney In Florida; "I Am The Face Of Suicide"; Obama Talks Economy In Florida

Aired August 02, 2012 - 14:01   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Mitt Romney speaking in Golden, Colorado. You can keep watching Mitt Romney. Just head to cnn.com/live. Also keep in mind, he is in Golden, Colorado. He's going to be meeting with a roundtable of Republican governors in just a couple of hours.

And tell me if these are live pictures, guys, in my ear. OK, this is -- this is, obviously, President Obama earlier. He is in Florida today. So we will be taking the president as he will be speaking in Winter Park, Florida, this hour. Keep in mind, he was actually supposed to be speaking in Winter Park, it was two Fridays ago, when that horrendous shooting happened in Aurora, Colorado. He had to hop back on that plane and head back to the White House. So he is back to finish what he would have started in Winter Park, Florida. We will bring that to you live a little later this hour.

Meantime, as we have begun this show each and every day this week, we begin in Syria, where peace envoy Kofi Annan calls it quits amid growing violence and a diplomatic inertia. I want to begin with this -- really this increase in violence. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Another blast rocking the city of Aleppo. This is Syria's commercial hub. This is the largest city. And you see the aftermath, the damage. And as of today, in Aleppo, it is getting even worse.

Now, south of Aleppo, you have the capital city of Damascus. These images purport to show shelling in a suburb of the capital. CNN, we have to tell you, cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this video. It was posted on YouTube earlier today.

Same situation with this video, also posted to YouTube. It appears to show burials in a mass grave, allegedly, after dozens were killed in a government raid in a Damascus suburb.

Now, add to all of this here, the frustration of the peace envoy, the man on the right of your screen, Kofi Annan. He quit today. He's frustrated. He says he's frustrated, and I'm going to quote him here, with, quote, "present divisions within the U.N. Security Council." Those divisions separating China and Russia, who support the Assad regime. We've been watching their vetoes thus far when they've been voting, the Security Council, from also the U.S. and France and Britain, who want to get tough on Assad.

And on that note, there was this that happened in London today. Look at this. Russian President Vladimir Putin arriving at 10 Downing Street. Putin is in Olympic -- in London for the Olympics but he stopped by for some face time with the prime minister of Britain, David Cameron. Cameron tried to push Putin to take a tougher line on the Syrian regime. And after some 45 minutes, face to face, no progress.

CNN's Ivan Watson recently left northern Syria. We've been talking to him. What he'd been seeing the last week here. So much fighting there. He is now back safely in Turkey. And I spoke with him minutes ago about this news of the Annan resignation and also the escalating violence in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They basically failed to get either side to stop fighting. If anything, the fighting has escalated and gotten much, much, much worse since that peace plan was supposed to have gone into effect months ago. It was basically irrelevant.

BALDWIN: Irrelevant and then the blood on the streets, which you saw with your own eyes. I know you're back in Turkey, but just tell me, paint the picture for me, what's the last thing you saw as you were leaving Syria?

WATSON: The last thing I saw, Brooke, were refugee families. An old man with a cane, who couldn't stand up, in the middle of the night, 4:00 in the morning, by the border fence with Turkey, wanting to escape with his family and a bundle of his belongings. That's what Syria has been reduced to. Massive portions of the population uprooted by this conflict, running from one village, from one town to the next, trying to find shelter to escape the fighting.

It's gotten worse over the course of the past 17 months. And what we're really going to start seeing and start documenting, I believe, is an increasingly impoverished population that is no longer able to grow food to sustain itself, no salaries to pay for food and the most basically necessities. A truly escalating humanitarian crisis. And what's incredible is how much ordinary Syrians have taken in their extended families, their cousins, their neighbors, complete strangers into their homes, provided them shelter, fed them, according to, you know, the local culture of hospitality, to try to take care of people. How much neighboring countries like Turkey have taken in more than 40,000 refugees and given them homes and camps and fed them for more than a year at a time.

This problem is only going to get worse now that over the course of the past two weeks, the largest city in the country has become a free-fire war zone. Largest city, that's Aleppo, a city of millions of residents, and they've all had to flee. They have no place to go. This is a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe that is just spinning out of control.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: That was Ivan Watson talking to me minutes ago, safely back in Turkey, having been on the ground in northern Syria.

I want to talk now about this other major development in the conflict. Sources are now telling CNN that President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing the CIA, other U.S. agencies, to help the rebels fighting the Assad regime. And I want to bring in Bob Baer. And Bob has a unique perspective. He is a former CIA operative. Also a CNN contributor.

SO, Bob, welcome back.

And just, if we can, just begin with -- look, we don't know when exactly the president signed this secret order. But what does -- and I know it's referred to as an intelligence finding -- what does that really mean?

BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That means that the CIA can support with money and communications and medications and things like that. Nonlethal items can go to the opposition. And, you know, frankly, right now, that's what they need is money. The Syrians have started to go hungry. They're going to starve pretty soon. The opposition is running out of ammunition. They can't afford things. And if they're going to sustain this, holding on to Aleppo, they need this money.

And I think it's also a diplomatic move on the part of the Obama administration to support the governments in the region. In particular Turkey, which is panicking. Two days ago, the prime minister said that, you know, they would consider sending troops into Turkey to control the Kurdish areas. There are maneuvers on the border.

And, Brooke, I think we just have to look at this as it is getting out of hand. There are reports unconfirmed today that the opposition has artillery, they're firing it at the airport, outside Aleppo. If they have artillery, how far are they away from getting some of these chemical weapons? We don't know and neither does Washington.

BALDWIN: Yes. When I was talking to Ivan, one part that we didn't include, he was saying part of the fear also is that the Kurdish militants, right, he was talking to me about PKK, and that's a fear. You and I were talking last week, fears of, you know, jihadists, possibly al Qaeda infiltrating then the rebels within Syria. Let me get to that in a minute.

But you mentioned, you know, that the rebels in Syria now, they need more money. They need more weapons. They need more ammunition. But we have learned that they do now have, Bob, they have these powerful shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. What more do they need?

BAER: Well, they're going to need train on these. You know, they're infrared. They're Soviet-made, generally. They've got -- they lock on to a plane's engine by heat. You just don't pick up one of these things and learn how to fire it. I mean, it's a waste of a missile. So they need to be trained on this. BALDWIN: But who trains them then?

BAER: Well, the CIA used to do it in Afghanistan. They did it themselves. They're going to need outside people or even people in the Syrian army, but it has to be better organized if they're going to defeat the Syrian air force. And I think if this siege on Aleppo continues and continues to get worse, we're going to see a move to get these trainers in.

BALDWIN: Part of the fear, this is what I alluded to a moment ago, and you and I talked about this last week, the fear that the presence of jihadists infiltrating these rubble groups. We've seen the YouTube video. You know, the al Qaeda trademark, black background, white lettering, and I -- the longer it takes, perhaps, for -- you have the training and then the military intervention, what then happens to these rebels? Do they begin to the feel abandoned and fearful? And at what point do more and more tend toward jihad?

BAER: Well, if history's prologue, all places that have fallen apart, like Afghanistan, Somalia, northern Mali right now turned to Islam, the militant form. You know, call it al Qaeda, call it militant jihad, it really doesn't matter the name. We're not dealing with an organization, we're dealing with an idea. And people who are desperate in situations like this turn towards Islam.

BALDWIN: Bob Baer, former CIA operative and a CNN contributor. Bob, thank you so much.

We'll be following what's happening in Syria every day.

Got a lot more for you in the next two hours, including these three terror suspects ready to act in Spain, Europe, captured with enough explosives to -- to quote one of these investigators -- blow up a bus. And they were learning also about motorized paragliders.

And then terror here at home as we learn more today about this Colorado movie shooting suspect. Could his psychiatrist -- could she have done more, or do federal laws prevent her from speaking out?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The behavior of the alleged Colorado theater gunman, James Holmes, reportedly worried the psychiatrist who was treating him before this shooting. And so CNN Denver affiliate KMGH reports Dr. Lynne Fenton became so concerned nearly six weeks before this massacre at that midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," that she was concerned so much, according to KMGH, that she told her colleagues at the University of Colorado. John Ferrugia is the investigative reporter on the story for that affiliate. I want you to listen closely here to what specifically he found out from his sources who have knowledge of the current investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FERRUGIA, KMGH: Something that he said to his psychiatrist caused her to contact the University of Colorado threat assessment team. Now, that threat assessment team was formed in part with her help, and she's on that team. So she's a member, she helped form the team, she contacted several of her colleagues on that team. We don't know what she told them. We don't know what triggered her to call them.

On the 10th of June, he dropped out of school. They then thought, the team thought, we're told by our sources, the team thought they had no jurisdiction, they had no control over him. So there was nothing that they could do. We have been told no one contacted the Aurora Police Department with any of these concerns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, we don't know whether Dr. Fenton referred Holmes to another doctor or if she had any further contact with him after he left the school. Holmes is charged with murdering 12 people and attempting to murder 58 more.

Pop singer Miley Cyrus, this latest victim here of swatting. Swatting. That's when an anonymous caller makes a false report of a crime in progress. So, what happened here? Police, firemen, paramedics, they rushed to Miley Cyrus' California home last night. Someone had called 911 to report a kidnapping in progress. Apparently they were reporting that shots had been fired. But, guess what, no one was home. If they had been, someone could have been hurt here. Making phony 911 calls is a misdemeanor offense with up to a year in prison in California.

A Texas man lucky to be alive today after a car slammed into him at work. Look at the video. Obviously, we're showing it to you because he's OK. But watch, watch, and here it comes. Slams into the side of the wall. He flies to the ore side here and he's OK. Clerk standing behind a counter when this SUV comes slamming through. He's already back at work, would you believe, after the crash happened last week. Police say the driver hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes. She was charged with being intoxicated.

Try to imagine this. Imagine your heart going 400 beats a minute. That is what nearly kept one Olympic swimmer from getting back into the pool. Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells her incredible story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: To London we go. Let's take a look at what's ahead today in the Olympic games, including another showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Lochte will try to add another gold to this 200-meter backstroke race he's going to be a part of this hour. He will then go head to head against his own teammate, Phelps, next hour in that 200-meter individual medley. Also on the women's side, gold medal winner Missy Franklin will be back in action in the final of the 100-meter free. That is also next hour. We will keep you posted.

U.S. swimmer Rebecca Soni is adding to her Olympic medals this week in London. She is a three-time medalist from 2008. She's already picked up a silver medal in the 100-meter breast stroke and set a world record during qualifying there for the 200 meters. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta, here reports that before she became this elite superstar swimmer, she had to undergo surgery on her heart.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she did it. A great swim by Rebecca Soni.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These days, Rebecca Soni is used to getting to the wall first. But being an Olympic swimmer wasn't always part of the plan.

REBECCA SONI, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: It just never crossed my mind. When we grew up, my family, we didn't watch a lot of sports. My parents were from Europe, so we didn't understand the American sports of football, baseball, and they just didn't watch very much TV in general. So I never had those people to look up to and be like, oh, I want to be like them.

GUPTA: As she began to excel, she refocused her goals. But an unexpected obstacle got in her way.

SONI: I was diagnosed with SVT. It was basically a rapid heart rate, but only at certain times, usually exercise-induced, and all of a sudden my heart rate would go up to the highest I counted was 400 beats per minute. And it would only last about five minutes, and I'd kind of lose feeling in my arms and legs. I'd just climb out of the pool.

GUPTA: Her heart condition required her to take it easy in practice. Something Soni doesn't like to do.

SONI: It would always happen in the hardest part of practice. The most important part.

GUPTA: Six years ago, as the episodes became more frequent, Soni decided to have an operation to remove abnormal tissue from her heart. When she was healthy again, she dove back into training and qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where she won one gold and two silver medals.

SONI: I definitely feel like I had the meet of my life in 2008, the race of my life with the 200 breast stroke. To win a gold medal, break a world record, all in one race, was kind of that ultimate moment of sport.

GUPTA: Even so, Soni wasn't ready to hang up her suit.

SONI: I could have probably walked away and been happy, but I still felt like I had a little bit more to give to the sport. I'm just excited to race.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you.

Suspected al Qaeda members learning about, of all things, paragliding, stowing explosives. Authorities say they were ready to move, but now they are behind bars. We are digging on this one. We're live in London, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You could see it in city after city, Chick-fil-As really across the country, their lines of people. Look at this with me, wrapped around restaurants. This was yesterday. Cars snaking through parking lots, lining up in the streets. This was a massive show of support for Chick-fil-A amid controversy over the company president's stance against gay marriage. So just how big was this Chick-fil-A appreciation day? The company will not reveal numbers, but it confirms it was a record day for sales.

The world's largest automaker reporting gloomy sales here. I'm talking about General Motors. Their net profits actually tumbled 40 percent in the second quarter from a year ago. Still, this was well ahead of analyst's forecasts. GM's biggest losses were in Europe, which, as you know, they're experiencing widespread recession, tough times over there, high, high unemployment. The once-bankrupt car maker has been profitable now for more than two years.

A frightening near-miss at one of the nation's busiest airports, as in the airport in our nation's capital here. Three U.S. Airways commuter jets came within seconds of colliding Tuesday afternoon. How did it happen, you ask? There was apparently a miscommunication between air traffic controllers during some bad weather. As a result, they sent two outbound flights directly at another plane coming in to land here. This is DCA in D.C. Listen to the confusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PILOT: 180, we were cleared at the river (ph) back there. What happened?

TOWER: 3329, stand by. We're trying to get that figure out too. Stand by.

(INAUDIBLE) one, approved as requested. Route -- you said route three to zone five?

PILOT: Are we going to land at 1-9 or are we going to one?

PILOT: National tower muscle 1-1, we are landing.

PILOT: OK, we really don't have the fuel.

TOWER: We've got a temporary stop on all departures right now. I'll just trying and get you out as soon as I can.

PILOT: We've got to get on the ground here pretty quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Pretty quick, indeed, because the planes came within 12 seconds before hitting one another. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that.

And what an emotional moment at the World Trade Center. A very special beam signed by President Obama was put in place at the top of One World Trade Center just this morning. Here it is. First Lady Michelle Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also signed the beam. The 104-story skyscraper is set to be finished early in 2014.

The custody battle for Michael Jackson's kids taking a new turn here. A judge today restored Katherine Jackson, the singer's mother, as permanent guardian and approved a plan to add their cousin, T.J. Jackson, as co-guardian. You know the story. We went through this recently. A judge granted T.J. temporary custody of Paris, Blanket, and Prince after family members say Katherine had gone missing for 10 days. Turned out she was just in Arizona at the spa.

Three suspected al Qaeda members caught before they took action. More on these huge terror arrests, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: New evidence today that al Qaeda may still be obsessed with staging attacks from the air and it was apparently pretty close to carrying them out.

This comes from what's being called one of the biggest operations against al Qaeda in Spain. Police in Southern Spain arrested these three suspected terrorists.

Spain's interior minister said the terror cell had gathered new explosives to blow up a bus and they had information about remote- controlled planes.

I want to go straight to our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, has been gathering the details for us there in London.

Nic, let's begin with these three men. What more do we know about them, their background, and how close were they to pulling off some kind of attack?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of them was believed to be Turkish. He was arrested today. Two of them believed to be Chechens or of Russian decent or somewhere sort of in the form of Soviet Union is what we're being told or around Russia at least.

They didn't have any identification papers on them when they were arrested. They were on a bus traveling north from the south of Spain, for the city of Kadiz, but they put up a ferocious resistance to being arrested when they were caught.

How close were they to being caught isn't clear, but these two men on the bus had both had training in Afghanistan or Pakistan Jihadi camps and are believed to be affiliated with a Pakistani-Jihadi group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

It's most recently known to be attacking Mumbai in India so these men very well trained in explosives and weapons according to Spanish officials.

BALDWIN: So they're in Spain. This is where they're caught, in southern Spain. Were they planning on attacking Spain, other parts of Europe, somehow targeting the U.S.? Do we know?

ROBERTSON: What the Spanish are saying right now is that they think that these men were trying some kind of aerial attack. The police said they had some kind of light aircraft flight manuals. Another source is telling us that the police were saying that they were going to fly a motorized paraglider into a joint Spanish U.S. naval base.

Now, if you look at the south of Spain, not so far from Kadiz, the Rock of Gibraltar, it's high up above that port area. Were they planning to use the sort of high mountains to gain a height advantage, fly this aircraft, whatever it was, with explosives?

So police are saying enough explosives to blow up a large bus, one bomb, several bombs, the specifics aren't clear at this stage, but what we do know is that the police are still looking for more explosives -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Do we know if you're talking about paragliders or some sort of remote-controlled planes. Is this a new tactic, sort of an attack from the sky for al Qaeda?

ROBERTSON: Yes, I mean, we're used to them sort of trying to get on commercial aircrafts, explosives, the underpants bomber, of course, 9/11. They're fascinated with this.

When you think back to last year, a man living in the United States, a 20-or-something-year-old was arrested for conceiving a plan to fly a model aircraft packed with explosives into the White House and potentially into the Pentagon as well.

So al Qaeda's wannabes, if you will, have flirted with this idea a lot in the past. So it's kind of not new, but using this sort of the type of aircraft that they might have been at a fold up, carry on their backs, and fly off a mountain, maybe that part of it might be new.

But this whole idea of coming in by air, this was going to get them some kind of advantage surprise on the ground -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And these three men are part of a cell, might there be additional arrests?

ROBERTSON: You know, there are so many questions out there. The police are searching for explosives. They say they've got a laptop they recovered during the arrest. They want to search that for more data.

They believe, because these men were being watched for about a month before they were arrested. The western intelligence agency, not Spanish, was tracking the men, a bugging device in one of the buildings where they were gave an indication that somebody was coming in.

The wife of one of the men was coming in to clean the apartment, which subsequently they discovered perhaps meant the explosives had been moved. So where's the wife? Why were these men traveling north on a bus, potentially to the rest of Europe?

Were they trying took into account activate other members of other cells? So there's a lot not clear, but it does seem there are likely to be more announcements, more arrests.

BALDWIN: OK, Nic Robertson for us in London. Nic, appreciate it.

Back here at home, Florida, Florida as you know is a key battleground state in the race for president. And this recent poll shows the president with a six-point lead over Mitt Romney.

We are waiting on the president now to come to the podium in Winter Park, Florida. Remember we saw Romney not to long ago in Golden, Colorado. As soon as we see the president, we'll take him live. More on politics after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Both Mitt Romney and President Obama on the campaign trail right now, creating some buzz in several swing states. Let's begin with Mitt Romney. His swing state today, here he is in Colorado, the race there, very tight.

So tight, in fact, take a look at the poll with me. This is the most recent poll. It gives the president a one-point lead over his republican contender, but with 8 percent saying they still don't know who they want for president.

Colorado very much so, still up for grabs. I want to the play some sound. Mitt Romney spoke just a little while ago to a packed crowd in Golden, Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's sad, and I mean, it's just extraordinary to have someone go out and make those kinds of promises and not be able to deliver on them. I've got a little report card here, and it shows -- his report card.

If you look on there with the arrows, it says there, jobs, and on the far left, the Obama record. It has there a little downward arrow, a little red arrow, all right? Jobs, we have fewer jobs under President Obama.

Then we have unemployed and underemployed. That's gone up, that's in red, because that's a bad direction. Then we have the unemployment rate, that's bad too, that's why that's in red.

Then we have home prices, they've gone down, that's in red too. Then we have the budget deficit, that's gone up, that's in red. And finally we have family income. That's gone down. All measures he laid out are measures that have gone in the wrong direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mitt Romney there speaking within the last hour. Also in Colorado right now, a group of Republican governors, Romney is set to swing by the for a chat with them a little later and I should mention CNN will be going live there right around 5:50 Eastern Time today.

To Florida we go, Orlando, specifically, where the senator of that state, Marco Rubio, rallied for Romney earlier today. Rubio, one of the Republicans often mentioned as a potential VP pick, and at today's rally, the Florida senator went on the attack, hitting president Obama on a favorite republican theme, taxes. We have the sound. Dan, roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: He threatened to raise taxes on people to historic levels. Do you realize that next year, when you add up all the taxes that Barack Obama wants to impose on the American economy, and you add in state and local taxes, some people will pay close to half the money they make to the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And not too far away from where Marco Rubio was in Orlando, you have the president in Winter Park, Florida, today. He is making a campaign stop there.

The president is really on a swing state roll. It was Ohio yesterday, Florida today. I got another poll for you, because before we -- and we're waiting for the president to speak, I should remind you. You can see this poll.

These are the numbers in Florida during the last week of July. The president polled is six points ahead of Romney in this all- important swing state. So again, we're watching, here we go, live pictures, no one there quite yet, but as soon as we see the president, we'll bring him to you live.

Coming up, though, the son of soul train's Don Cornelius is going to talk to me live about the day his father took his own life. He was, in fact, the one to find him and to hear his father's final words.

He wants to talk about this. He wants to break the silence, because, he says the silence cloaks suicide. Hear why he and not his father is the, quote, "face of suicide."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Don Cornelius, you know his name. He launched all kinds of music careers through "Soul Train," his tremendously popular TV show that was on air for 37 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON CORNELIUS: I'm Don Cornelius, and as always, we with wish you love and soul!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Six months ago yesterday, the man behind love, peace, and soul shot and killed himself. And now his son is launching another project, not on the songs people want to hear, but about the struggle he says people don't want to talk about, and that being suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know the faces of suicide? I'm the face of suicide and countless other family members. Suicide affects family, friends, loved ones, and co-workers. Suicide affects everyone. Be it depression, prescription drugs, mental illness or accidental, suicide is on the rise in our communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Tony Cornelius joins me live from Los Angeles. Tony, welcome, and I'm sorry about the loss of your father, but I appreciate that this is something that you want to talk about.

Take me back. Six months ago, your father kills himself and you are the one to find him. Tell me about that phone call. What happened in that phone call to make you go find him at his house?

TONY CORNELIUS, SON OF DON CORNELIUS: Well, first of all, Brooke, thank you very much for having me on the program. And as I go back and think about that day and that night, and that evening, and that morning, prior to that, he had talked to me about not wanting to be here anymore.

In other words, he didn't think he would be here. I didn't know what that meant, but when I got that call that morning, it was just a call of urgency.

And I replied to it by getting up out of my bed, immediately, and going to his home. I mean, his thoughts were that, I'm sorry to call you, Tony. But I just don't think I'm going to be here anymore and those words just resonated for me.

BALDWIN: So I imagine that alarm bells sort of start going off for you. You go immediately to his home, and I understand that you immediately smell gun powder. Did you know, Tony, in that instant, what your father had done?

CORNELIUS: Actually, no. You know, when you smell gun powder, I mean, it's almost like a match, but it's even more pronounced, you kind of don't know what it is.

thought maybe it could have been, maybe a small fire somewhere, but then, you know, walking into other parts of the house and finding him, that's when I noticed that there was something a little different going on.

BALDWIN: So you find your father and, you know, I've talked to people who have loved ones who have committed suicide, and the first thing they say, it's such a selfish act. Is it something -- I'm sure it saddened you, but did it anger you as well?

CORNELIUS: Well, of course. It angers me now periodically, but it's really about celebrating, at this point. I go through my periods of being upset and disappointed about it.

But, of course, we're very angry. I mean, he should be here. He should be here enjoying his family, his granddaughter, his sons, his nephews. I mean, he should be here today.

BALDWIN: You're here today because you're taking action. You started the Don Cornelius Foundation, and I understand, Tony, that the person who actually gave you the idea was Mr. Stevie Wonder, who, by the way, I talked to, shared his own personal story, his anecdotes about your father when he died. And I just want to play part of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVIE WONDER, FRIEND OF DON CORNELIUS (via telephone): It's a heart break to know that he's gone at 75. What do you do? You hear about these things and your heartaches and you wish that you could have been there for that person, for those in the past who have lost their lives in that kind of way.

But no matter the way someone loses their lives, you wish you were able to prevent that from happening in some kind of way, to encourage and to inspire them. We have to give them as much love as we can and let them know that. Listen, no problem is so big that it cannot be solved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Do you agree with that, Tony? And tell me more about this foundation you've started.

CORNELIUS: Yes, I totally agree with that and thank God for Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder was one of the first people that I spoke to after my father's death. And he gave me words that I'll never forget and those words were that life is worth living.

And from that, the Don Cornelius Foundation was started. It's basically to help people transition, help people who are in need. It's actually life is beautiful, precious, and worth living.

And that's what Stevie Wonder did for me. Unlike others who would either, you know, close up, I kind of attacked it. I wanted to really do something about it and that's where we are today.

BALDWIN: I love how you say, thank God for Stevie Wonder. You know, having people like that in your life, to then help you forward. And as part of this foundation, Tony, I understand you're focusing really on minorities, specifically.

You say when this happens, this being suicide, happens to a loved one, they don't talk about it, at least not with a professional. Why is that?

CORNELIUS: Well, it's a veil of shame. And if you will, I'll say that it's not just minorities. It's all people. We're all, as I say, we're all a starfish, and every starfish is worth saving.

And I feel that as I express in the PSA that it's prescription drugs, it's old age, it's health, it's divorce. I mean, there are all kinds of things that draw us to hopelessness and pain.

And that's who I want to reach out to. I want to make sure that people have a place to go, have someone to talk to.

BALDWIN: So you never know, Tony Cornelius, who's watching right now, could be people who are seeing similar signs in their own loved ones. Just, finally, advice for them, what do they do?

CORNELIUS: Well, first of all, you get to an organization, a Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is part of the American Foundation of Suicide, and that phone number is 1-800-273-talk.

There are people there 24 hours a day who can talk to you and let you know that it's OK, your problems can be solved. You have someone to speak to. And that's what the Don Cornelius Foundation is really about, is awareness.

It's letting people know that there's somebody you can talk to. I mean, had I had the opportunity to save my father, believe me, I would, but it was too late.

He had thoughts in his head that -- of hopelessness and those things sometimes, without expressing those, being able to express that to someone can be devastating.

BALDWIN: Tony Cornelius, thank you for talking about this and coming on. Again, the phone number, 1 1-800-273-talk, your foundation, Don Cornelius Foundation. Thank you, sir.

CORNELIUS: Thank you very much, Brooke.

President Obama, he is talking middle class and the economy when we come back. Then next hour, neighbors storm into a pastor's home, saying a gang, some kind of gang is after them.

A frightening night for all involved. But, wait, there's no gang, only hallucinations. Bath salts, again, a huge problem in our country. We're going to talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: To Florida we go, as promised, here he is, President Obama speaking at this campaign stop in Winter Park. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: After all, we had gone through a decade of sluggish job growth and jobs being shipped overseas.

BALDWIN: And just like that, we lose the signal. And I'm told it's back, so let's go.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: -- to deal with challenges that didn't happen overnight and that was even before the middle class was hammered by the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. A crisis that robbed too many of our friends and neighbors of jobs and their homes and their savings and pushed the American dream even further out of reach for too many working families.

But, you know what, over the last 3-1/2 years, I have taken strength from you, the American people. Because I have seen your resilience, I have seen folks get knocked down and get right back up. You are tougher than tough times, and that is the reason why we've been able to see 4.5 million jobs created.

That's why we've been able to see the housing market just barely slowly start to tick back up. That's the reason the auto industry come all the way back. It's because of you. See, there's one thing that the crisis did not change. It did not change who we are.

It has not changed our fundamental character. It hasn't changed what made us great. It hasn't changed how we came together in 2008. It's only made us more determined to make sure that America is doing right by everyone.

That our prosperity is broadly based and broadly shared and we're here to build an economy in which work pays off so that no matter who you are or what you look like or where you come from, what your last name is, here in America, you can make it, if you try.

That's what we're fighting for. That's what this campaign's about, Florida. That's why I'm running for a second term as president of the United States of America.

CROWD: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

OBAMA: Now, there are no quick fixes or easy solutions to our challenges. But let me say this.

We know what we need to do. There are no challenges that are not within our power to solve. We have got the capacity to beat any challenge. We have the best workers in the world. We have got the best entrepreneurs in the world. We have got the best scientists, the best researchers, the best colleges, the best universities.

We're a young nation. We are still -- we're still a young nation, and we have got the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity that comes from every corner of the globe.

Nobody knows that better than Florida.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: So no matter what the naysayers tell us, no matter how dark the other side tries to paint the situation, there is not another country on Earth that would not gladly trade places with the United States of America.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END LIVE FEED)