Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Deadly Storm Moves East; Steubenville Rape Case; Putin and Pope Meet; Young Stars Win Big

Aired November 25, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Americans on the move this week, but all this just nasty weather is threatening everyone's travel plans on the roads and in the skies.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Live, during the show, the long-awaited report on the shooting inside Sandy Hook is revealed. Joel Osteen joins me live on what he would tell these grieving families.

Plus, the man who lives the high life meets the man who champions the poor.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: -- a toy company strikes back after the Beastie Boys threaten legal action over the song and this ad. We're on the case.

All right, here we go on this Monday. Great to be with you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Before we begin, I want to get this news to you, the campus of Yale University on lockdown as I speak, as police investigate reports of a gunman. The school telling students who are not already on break, stay away or take shelter. Moments ago, we heard from police. They tell us they are interviewing witnesses and the anonymous call came from a phone booth. Again, the sightings of a possible gunman on or near the campus at Yale. Updates as we get them.

Now, this week, lots of you are on the move. Thanksgiving travel really could be a nightmare for a lot of you because of this massive storm already claiming 10 lives. You see the pictures. A storm chaser in Oklahoma City shot this video. See that SUV skidding out of control, flipping over. Fortunately, we can show it to you because the driver was wearing a seat belt. That person is OK.

But this storm, it is spreading a dangerous mix of snow and sleet, ice, freezing rain. High winds over a huge part of the country. And what we're about to hear is that this thing could get a heck of a lot worse. As a precaution, nearly 500 departing flights were canceled in advance. Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport this morning, just to cut down on the number of stranded travelers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of a bummer. I mean the thing of all- like all states, Texas, the weather is just insane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not Texas weather, man. This is Alaska or Idaho.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, we were talking Texas, but talk to me about this northeast corridor, because that looks like it could be messy.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's starting out that way. It's going to start out as a rain event down across the deep south right through here. But the problem is, it has been very cold the past couple of days, with that cold air sinking all the way down to the Appalachian Mountains. You put this rain on top of that cold air and you have problems.

You have 35 degrees at 5,000 feet. You have 31 degrees where you live. All the way through here, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, all the way back into Columbus, into Tennessee, Lexington, Kentucky, this is the danger zone for ice. This is wet. This is snow. So it's all a matter of where you are and your timing. And your timing if you're driving I-70, I-80, the turnpike, 64, all of these roads, east-west roads, are going to begin to something. You're going to start at snow, go to ice, and maybe eventually get to rain.

Going the other way, you're going to start as rain, then to ice, then to snow. And there will be places like Pittsburgh that will have ice on the bottom and snow on top so you can't even see the ice when you get there. That's what this storm is going to make.

Now, I'm talking about rain for New York City and a lot of it. A couple inches. But - and 35, 40, 50 degrees as it warms up a little bit. The issue is not going to be driving problems, although driving in New York City in the rain is never a piece of cake. Flying, when the winds are going to be 40 miles per hour, is going to be really slow. So although wet, windy is going to be the problem. Half the planes aren't going to take off on time, if not more than that.

BALDWIN: Oh, fun. Take your time, take your time, take your time.

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: This is the big story this week as so many people are heading out.

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, we will talk again very shortly. Thank you so much, sir. MYERS: All right.

BALDWIN: Speaking of travel, this is just super cool. CNN made the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta International our destination. This is a fascinating look. So we sent in more than three dozen journalists to Atlanta, to the airport, documented their journey after months and months of research. So if you ever wanted to see sort of the veil at an airport lifted, you have to check this out. It is cnn.com/atl24.

And now this just in today, some stunning new fallout from the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio. So now this grand jury has indicted four more people in connection with the case, including the school superintendent. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that two other educators and an assistant football coach were also indicted. Superintendent Michael McVey is the only one to be charged with felonies, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DEWINE, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: I hope this does send a strong message. You know, people need to cooperate with investigations. They need not to hide evidence. And we hope that this frankly brings an end to this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Six people in total have been charged in connection with this case in Steubenville after two students were convicted of rape back in March. This small Ohio town, it was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this year after photos, like this one, and videos of a teenage girl being carried by her hands and feet surfaced on social media.

Let's get some perspective and some context here with Jean Casarez, our CNN legal correspondent, live in Steubenville.

And, Jean, just first and foremost, put this in perspective for me and just tell me how significant these indictments are today.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think this is extremely significant, especially the superintendent of schools, Mike McVey. You know, we heard from the attorney general's office that he went to work today, just seemingly as a normal day, to head up this school district, and now he has learned that he has been indicted, facing seven years in prison. And here are the charges, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, two counts, obstructing an official proceeding, and falsification.

But there are a couple of other interesting points with the people that are indicted. First of all, a former assistant football coach to the football team of Steubenville High School, he is charged with allowing underage drinking and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Now, the attorney general's office tells me that one of the parties that was held that night in August of 2012, when we now know a young woman was raped, it was held at his parents' home. He lived there, saw what may have been going on, and did not report it, allowed it to happen. So there's one charge.

Another interesting charge would be the principal of an elementary school here. She failed to report -- there is mandatory reporting when, as an administrator, or as a teacher, you know or believe that child abuse occurred. And it doesn't have to occur at the school, just that you have knowledge of it. Well, I've learned through the attorney general's office that they were investigating two rapes. One, an alleged rape, separate individual, the rape that we now know, and the April 2012 date that she failed to report allegedly involved the other rape of another individual never prosecuted.

BALDWIN: Are we talking, a, possible prison time for all of the above, and, b, might there be more indictments to come down?

CASAREZ: The superintendent is the most serious. Seven years in prison is what he faces. The others are charges with misdemeanors that can be fines and jail terms. So, potentially, yes.

BALDWIN: OK, Jean Casarez for us in Steubenville, Ohio. Jean, thank you so much.

Coming up next, one lived the life of luxury while the other is an outspoken champion of the poor. And, today, Vladimir Putin comes face- to-face with the pope. Stunning pictures. We will tell you that story, take you there live.

Plus, three young women scored huge in Hollywood this weekend. And each in her own way is impacting pop culture. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here you have this famously humble pope meeting an international leader known for his life of luxury and style and expense. To be a fly on that wall today. Pope Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting face-to-face today for the very first time. These two sat down for a closed door meeting at the Vatican just a couple of hours ago. This is all part of Putin's two day visit to Rome. And one of the big topics of conversation, what's happening in Syria. Just a couple of months ago, Pope Francis penned a letter to Putin ahead of the G-20 Summit telling the Russian president and current leader of the G-20 to, quote, "help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution." That was from the pope. Joining me now live from Rome is our senior international correspondent there Ben Wedeman.

And it's just so unique and special, Ben, to see, you know, pictures of these two men who seem so far apart, perhaps ideologically in some ways, but tell me more about the visit.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, if there was a fly on the wall in that meeting, that fly is not talking. We do know that they met for 35 minutes one-on-one with their translators. Of course, we do know that, for instance, that Vladimir Putin did give as a gift to Pope Francis an icon of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus. And what we saw in tape that was distributed by the Vatican, both of the men bent over and kissed that icon. In a sense, symbolizing that even though the Christendom (ph) split in 1054 with what's known as the great schism when the west went to the Vatican and the east went to the Russian - or rather the Greek Orthodox church, they are fundamentally united in their basic beliefs.

Now, we do know that they were speaking -- they did speak to some extent about the situation in Syria, about the plight of Christians not only in Syria, but throughout the Middle East. Christians who increasingly are finding life very difficult in that very troubled area. Both these men have expressed over the last few months, and certainly Pope Francis just last week, their concern about the situation of the Christians. But the precise details of that meeting have yet to come out.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: They may be united in several different basic beliefs, but when you think about it, Ben Wedeman, Pope Francis has a -- we'll call it a far less judgmental view of homosexuality and here you have Putin, a leader of a country that prohibits the promotion of gay rights. What's the relationship like for those two? I imagine that was maybe not discussed.

WEDEMAN: Well, we don't know, but obviously that is just one of the many issues that divide them. And as you mentioned, they are very different in their style. Now, the last time Vladimir Putin was here in Italy, he was meeting with his flamboyant close, personal friend, Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy. Now he's meeting with Pope Francis, a man who lives a very austere lifestyle, who has given up the papal apartment, who drives around in a car that's 30 years old. So very different men with a very different outlook on life. But some common concerns, as we know.

BALDWIN: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, for us tonight there in Rome.

And from Miley Cyrus to Taylor Swift to Jennifer Lawrence, they are young, they are beautiful, they are powerful. From music to the silver screen, are these 20-somethings in particular dominating our current pop culture?

Plus, girls against boys. A toy maker defends its popular video ad that plays off a song by the Beastie Boys. We're on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: To paraphrase the Beastie Boys, you got to fight for your right to parody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Girls, you think you know what we want. Girls, pink and pretty it's girls. Just like a (INAUDIBLE), girls.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: You know the song. This is so cute. Toy maker Goldieblox made this parody of the Beastie Boys 1986 hit, "Girls," but they changed the lyric to say, you know, girls want more than just pink toys and dolls to play with. Lawyers for the Beastie Boys complained copyright infringement and now Goldieblox is fighting back in federal court saying it is allowed to use the song under fair use rules. After the suit was filed, the band released this statement, quote, "your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads."

In case you had not noticed, the kids are taking over the entertainment world. Three young women in particular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor Swift wins artist of the year for the -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Taylor Swift cleaned house last night again at the American Music Awards. Her take includes album of the year, artist of the year for the third year in a row.

And then what more can we say about Jennifer Lawrence. The second "Hunger Games" movie released late last week shattering box office records. Maybe, maybe could mean another Oscar for Jennifer Lawrence.

OK, then there was this. Miley Cyrus. What does she actually do? Well, she generates buzz. She did it last night at the AMAs and has one thing in common with Lawrence and Swift. This lady is famous. Love her or not, she is.

And another thing too. Miley Cyrus is still in her early 20s. Barely even. She just turned 21. Taylor Swift, does it seem she's been around forever? No, she's 23. Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar winner already, 23 as well.

So let's talk about these ladies. There may be others that should be on the list. Kelly Wallace, CNN digital correspondent live from New York, and from Washington, Jawn Murray, editor in chief alwaysalist.com.

So welcome to both of you.

And, Jawn, let me kick it off with you because you have these three women, they are cultural powerhouses in their young 20s, all young, all women, collectively speaking. What do you thing that they have figured out about the entertainment world that others have yet to?

JAWN MURRAY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, ALWAYSALIST.COM: Well, I think at least two thirds of them are doing great work, Brooke. I mean, you know, Taylor Swift writes great songs. She sells millions of records, and she's made a decision to live a life that epitomizes morality. Jennifer Lawrence is working against Hollywood's mean girl program. She has spoken out against shows like E!'s "Fashion Police," and so she's celebrating positivity, while also doing good work as an actress. Miley, on the other hand, you know, the verdict is still out on that because it's been over sexualized, you know, the celebration of drug use and a lot of other stuff.

BALDWIN: What was going on with the cat last night? A lot of other stuff.

Kelly Wallace, pick it up - pick it up where he left off for me.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, I don't know, to answer your question, what was going on with the cat there. That is a big question.

BALDWIN: I don't know.

WALLACE: But I will say this, too. One thing, and I think it's Jennifer Lawrence and Taylor Swift who seem to be doing it, Miley also a question mark is, you know, they're really appealing to the young girls, the tweens and the teens. And the moms of these young girls are really happy about it. I mean Jennifer Lawrence, she plays this no- nonsense, tough lead character in "The Hunger Games" series. A series about, you know, a killing game, which isn't, you know, sort of the most wonderful content, but, you know, moms like to see this. She also is very authentic offstage.

BALDWIN: She is very real.

WALLACE: Yes, she's real.

BALDWIN: Very real. And anyone who, you know, can trip upstage in a beautiful gown, right, as she's collecting her Oscar, I think she seems like a pretty real, pretty authentic young woman.

Miley Cyrus, I don't know. I'm going to pass on that and ask you this, Jawn, who right now in pop culture do you think - you know we have these three young women, but what about a young African-American woman who has this kind of influence?

MURRAY: Well, you know, the first one that comes to mind would be Keke Palmer, who rose to stardom in movies like "Akeelah and the Bee" and went on to become a Nickelodeon star and recently starred the TLC groundbreaking movie for VH1. The mainstream media doesn't always give an actress of her caliber the same type of recognition. And I don't necessarily know that the three women that we're talking about today completely resonate with diversity audiences, even though they, you know, resonate in a mainstream pop culture feel. I'd like to see some women of diversity also get the recognition for their influence on pop culture because we know African-American culture, in particular our music, has had pop culture influence for a long time.

BALDWIN: Why are they not resonating? Is it a race thing?

MURRAY: I definitely think so. I don't think that a lot of the mainstream magazines, you're your "Vanity Fair," which likes to put an emphasis on the word "fair," and the "Vogues" often think that people of color can sell magazines. Now, "Vogue," I'll give them credit for taking chances on Beyonce and Kerry Washington and other people this year.

BALDWIN: Kerry Washington comes to mind. Yes.

MURRAY: But Kerry Washington, Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, all of these women offer a positive influence as well.

WALLACE: Right. I mean, yes, yes -

BALDWIN: Kelly Wallace, final thought to you, as a mom with little ones, who are they looking up to?

WALLACE: Well, you know, they're looking up to Taylor Swift. They don't know much about these others.

But just jumping (ph) up what Jawn said. You know, Kerry Washington, you know, she's sort of the first African-American woman to lead a television series. We have a long way to go. I would probably put Rihanna on this list. She got this icon of the year award last night, the first ever, which is funny to call her an icon at just the ripe old age of 25.

BALDWIN: Crazy.

WALLACE: But I think the message, especially coming from her mother, talking about her journey. It hasn't been an easy one, but she continues to be strong and positive, I thought those remarks were pretty positive and strong and could really reach out to young girls and young teens and tweens everywhere.

BALDWIN: Jawn, I just wanted to get you -- you were shaking your head. Twenty seconds.

MURRAY: I was - I was laughing -

BALDWIN: Why are you shaking your head, my friend?

MURRAY: Because Whitney Houston rolled over in her grave and said hell to the no (ph) at that icon awards last night.

WALLACE: Yes.

MURRAY: I think the American Music Awards just needed a reason to get Rihanna there.

WALLACE: Yes. I think you're probably right about that.

BALDWIN: There you go. There you go. Kelly Wallace and Jawn Murray, thank you two very, very much. I appreciate that.

WALLACE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Snow, ice, bone-chilling wind. A powerful storm is crossing the country during one of the busiest travel seasons here. How will this impact you, you know, as you are on the move, right, to spend your Thanksgiving somewhere this week. Chad Myers tells you where to expect this nastiness. Also, news just in on the rocky rollout of Obamacare, but the website is adding to President Obama's sinking poll numbers here when it comes to his character. We're going to debate this crossfire style coming up next.

You are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)