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Investigation Into Actor's Death Continues; Network Morning Show Changes

Aired December 02, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

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JIM TORP, EYEWITNESS: He took off running. He got up to the scene, saw the car smoking. It was on fire, but it wasn't a big fire yet. He was trying to put it out. He could see Paul and Roger were both in the car when the car decided to blow up.

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The witness, Jim Torp, also says the Porsche was not racing before the crash. The driver of this car, Roger Rodas, was Walker's racing team partner, and this crash happened just a couple hundred yards from Rodas' shop.

Joining me now, Jeff Burk, editor on "Drag Racing Online" magazine.

So, Jeff, welcome to you. We're going to have a conversation in a moment.

But, first, Paul Vercammen, I want to go straight to you on the investigation. Tell me why sheriff's investigators think perhaps drag racing could be involved.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first at the top, Brooke, they say that the car was speeding, and that is irrefutable. They say they're also investigating the possibility that another car may have veered in front of that Porsche, causing Walker and the driver to crash.

Now, let's take a look at this area, because it forms what could be called a natural oval or race track. If you were to take an aerial view of it, inside this industrial park, you can see right there, you can make that series of right turns, and Always Performance racing is one of the businesses in that area -- so they have had problems in the past, sheriff's investigators telling us, with racing in the area.

They had a crackdown just about two years ago. Also, you may have seen these pictures, skidmarks all over this place. It, as I said, forms sort of a natural oval, and it's a favorite among some people who like to test the speed of their cars, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Paul Vercammen, thank you.

Jeff Burk, let me get to you, again, editor of "Drag Racing Online" magazine. Before we really get into the nitty-gritty, I want you to make your point, that when it comes to drag racing vs. street racing, as this can could be street racing, you say drag racing can be perfectly legal.

JEFF BURK, EDITOR, "DRAG RACING ONLINE": Drag racing is legal done in the proper situations, and let's understand that drag racing is about from a standing start to the end of a quarter mile. It's an acceleration test.

What this guy was doing was not drag racing. He was probably racing or, you know, checking out his car to see how fast it would go. Obviously, it's on an oval. The big problem we have that is any time someone has an accident like this, pretty much the first thing the press says is drag racing. Don't know why, but that's what they do. But people very seldom drag race a Porsche Carrera.

BALDWIN: I think it's lack of knowledge, this is what we're getting from the sheriff's office, so that's why we're saying drag racing. but let's stick with street racing. Let's stick with something that is illegal.

I will never forget covering a fatal accident in 2008 in Accokeek, where it was something like eight spectators were just run down by these street racing cars. This is a very real, it's not a sport, but a hobby. Why do people do this, Jeff?

BURKE: You know, people will -- people drag race from stop lights, and people race their cars on the street all the time. I really think that street racing has to do with just people, you know, natural tendency to not want to obey the laws.

That's why we have speed laws in the country, because people go faster than they should. And outlaw street racing is just something that's part of our fabric, unfortunately.

BALDWIN: Are these younger folks, are these older drivers, are these people with the money and the cache to drive these fancy automobiles?

BURKE: Mostly, I think, from my experience, and I have been to a lot of street races, and been involved in, it's mostly younger people. Generally speaking these days, it's mostly import cars and that sort of thing, which is kind of like what the gentlemen's movies are about, is import cars racing on streets.

So, yes, most drag racing on the street is with is between kids and their cars.

BALDWIN: And how does it happen? Is this a phone call in the middle of the night, hey, I will meet you here, crowd shows up and boom, they have an audience and they go?

BURKE: Yes. It's kind of like that. I guess you could call it a flash race. People have a communication system, and much of it is done over the Internet. Sometimes there are certain places in any town where it's known that's where you go to gather up and decide you're going to go drag race, or going to go to some street in town or a parking lot or wherever and go drag racing, but it's a little more organized than people might think, but that doesn't make it any better.

BALDWIN: No, it doesn't. Jeff Burk, thank you.

Paul Vercammen, I have one more question for you. This franchise, this "Fast & Furious" franchise has been enormously successful. They were weeks away from wrapping this latest film. What happens next?

VERCAMMEN: Well, they were supposed to resume shooting in the Atlanta area this week, but right now, everything is on hold. And we were trying to press the studio on just whether or not they would go forward. This has happened in the past, Heath Ledger being an example of a movie going on without the star. Let's listen to what one of the filmmakers had to say about the future of the "Fast & Furious" seven.

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VALENTINO MORALES, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen with the film right now, because we're almost done with the film, but we're not even thinking about that. We're not even thinking -- we're just thinking about him right now and his family and, just, you know, sure his daughter is going to be OK, his mother.

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VERCAMMEN: And it was indeed the franchise that Paul Walker helped build. Worldwide sales for the "Fast & Furious" movies, six of them, $2.6 billion -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Paul Vercammen, thank you very much. Once again, thank, Jeff Burk, very much there.

Let's move on because Rush Limbaugh, he is annoyed. And nothing new there, but Rush Limbaugh, he's now annoyed at the pope. Rush Limbaugh said Pope Francis sounds like a Marxist. Here he is, Rush Limbaugh.

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RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: If it weren't for capitalism, I don't know where the Catholic Church would be. Now, as I mentioned before, I'm not Catholic. I admire it profoundly. And I have been tempted a number of times to delve deeper into it.

But the pope here has now gone beyond Catholicism here. This is pure political.

I got to be very -- attacked numerous times to the Vatican. It wouldn't exist without tons of money. But, regardless, what this is, somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. There's no such unfettered capitalism that doesn't exist anywhere.

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BALDWIN: Rush Limbaugh says the pope sounds like a Marxist. He's not the only conservative saying that, especially since the pope's pronouncement last week in which he referred to what he called the new -- quote, unquote -- "tyranny of unfettered capitalism."

He also condemns the idolatry of money and called trickle-down economics naive.

John Berman is with me now. He's filling in on "THE LEAD" today.

John Berman, you have Pop Pope John II, conservative, Pope Benedict, conservative. Are American Catholics suddenly dealing with something else?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Pope Benedict XVI had just as much to say about capitalism as the new pope, Pope Francis.

In fact, Pope Benedict said a judicial and political and economic order should manage the global economy. He actually called for a managed economy here. But some of the language that Pope Francis is using has obviously set something off with Rush Limbaugh, the idea of trickle-down economics, which means something very specific, specifically to American consumers. They talk about Reaganomics, supply-side economics.

And that apparently is something that Rush can't necessarily stomach. What will be truly interesting though is to see what Republican Catholics, especially potential candidates, say about the new pope. Pope Francis is being called the people's pope. He's wildly popular in many parts of the world, including right here in the United States.

You have Paul Ryan, you have our own Newt Gingrich, you have Rick Santorum, you have a guy named Chris Christie who are all Catholics right now. I would be shocked if these potential candidates were to go out and be critical of this pope who, as I said, is wildly popular in many parts of the country.

BALDWIN: You mentioned potential candidates, but Catholics are also a key voting bloc, yes?

BERMAN: White Catholics are often seen as the key voting bloc in the U.S., the key swing group. It's often said you can look where white Catholics vote and then you can see how an election goes. They're seen as swing voters.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: And, again, I haven't seen numbers yet on their feelings on Pope Francis, but by most accounts, Pope Francis has had quite a debut and quite a first few months in office.

BALDWIN: Mr. Berman, we will see you at the top of the hour.

BERMAN: Great to see you.

BALDWIN: Great to see you on "THE LEAD" coming up at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Meantime, the pope had a high-level meeting at the Vatican today. Pope Francis meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Vatican officials, they discussed the political situation in the Middle East, and the possibility of renewed talks between Israelis and Palestinians. An Israeli official told CNN last month that Pope Francis plans to visit Israel in late May. The Vatican has not confirmed the precise date of that trip.

And a U.S. war veteran dragged off this plane, held captive in North Korea, now releases this chilling and suspicious confession to supposed war crimes.

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MERRILL NEWMAN, HELD CAPTIVE IN NORTH KOREA: On this trip, I can understand that in U.S. and Western countries, there is misleading information and propaganda about DPRK.

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BALDWIN: Now the U.S. is stepping up efforts to get Merrill Newman free, along with another American, Kenneth Bae, held captive for more than a year.

As the U.S. appeals for their immediate release, you have the Vice President Joe Biden now, he is planning to visit the demilitarized zone between Korea and South Korea during his Asia trip.

Forget the madness at the malls for Black Friday. Forget waiting weeks and weeks and weeks for a delivery. No, no, no, how about ordering your gift, voila, where a drone picks it up and delivers it smack dab to your front door a cool 30 minutes later? I know. It sounds absolutely crazy, right? Amazon wants this to become a reality. But hang on. There could be many, many issues with this. Those details next.

This is CNN.

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BALDWIN: So, if you thought Jeff Bezos was kidding, kidding about Amazon delivering goods by drone in as soon as four or five years, well, now Amazon is saying its drones might even launch sooner, perhaps 2015 -- in the year 2015 or whenever the feds establish some rules here.

I have to say, this is getting close to "The Jetsons." We were just saying this in the commercial break. I want you to hear from Jeff Bezos himself, appearing on "60 Minutes."

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JEFF BEZOS, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, AMAZON.COM: I know this looks like science fiction. It's not.

CHARLIE ROSE, CBS: Wow.

BEZOS: This is early. This is still years away. Drops the package.

ROSE: There's the package.

BEZOS: You come and get your package. We can do half-hour delivery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, as we noted, today, Amazon saying they will launch their drones as soon as the feds give the go-ahead. That could again happen reasonably soon, perhaps, perhaps 2015.

Brian Stelter is with me now here, our CNN senior media correspondent.

Good to see you, sir, and also host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," also HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

We have to listen to more of Jeff Bezos.

Roll it.

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ROSE: What's the hardest challenge in making this happen?

BEZOS: The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need to say, look, this can't land on somebody's head.

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BALDWIN: OK, first to you, Joey Jackson, because bells are going off here as far as like privacy issues, legality concerns.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, it represents a major concern. Listen, technology is a blessing and a curse, as we all know. Right. You can use it for wonderful things, and I think people are concerned. When you hear drone, you think of the uses. You think of the CIA. You think of the government spying and everything else. That's a legitimate concern.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: ... to your home in 30 minutes.

JACKSON: That's a legitimate concern.

However, I think what we will see is we will see Congress step in as they have with the Modernization Act of 2012, and as long as it's regulated properly and appropriately, I think we will see a lot of commercial uses come out of this, which could be very beneficial.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Can we say pizza?

But, Brian Stelter, to you. We were talking in the commercial about how Jeff Bezos is such a private, private man. To see him coming out, a fascinating interview. A lot of people maybe likening him to Steve Jobs, Henry Ford. Is that fair?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think Amazon and especially Bezos wants to appear to be the man of the future and the company of the future. What better way to appear that way than to go on "60 Minutes" and reveal these drones? If nothing else, it was a wonderful ad for Amazon.

BALDWIN: Got us talking about it. Right?

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: But I think there's more than just that. I think that's part of it, but I do think they're also trying to smooth the way forward for the drones.

Bezos just bought "The Washington Post." You could imagine him delivering "The Washington Post" some day to household like this, and maybe not just in the D.C. area either. He has got an infrastructure that would spread it across the whole country.

BALDWIN: We're talking Amazon today. There are other brands who have stuck their toes in the proverbial drone water idea, your Pizza Huts, your Domino's.

STELTER: That's amazing .

BALDWIN: It's amazing, but is it just really more about branding? Can they really deliver?

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STELTER: No pun intended, right?

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STELTER: If anyone can, it's Amazon, because they have got these fulfillment centers. You know that video we just showed, it wasn't filmed in the United States. I e-mailed Amazon. I asked, where did you shoot that video?

They can't -- they said they won't tell us, but they wouldn't shoot in the United States because of the laws right now that govern the use of drones.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: And just, Brooke, you know, the Federal Aviation Administration has been regulating drones, believe it or not, unmanned aircraft, since 1990.

And so their uses -- it's been a long time. They have quite a bit of experience in this area. That experience, of course, is not commercial experience where we're talking about pizza delivery and we're talking your online delivery that will be here any day. You look at disaster relief efforts, you look at search-and-rescue, you look at surveillance, that's generally... (CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Absolutely. Those are the uses, but when you look at technology, if you can expand it to this area, which could be beneficial, who knows.

STELTER: And that may be why Amazon came out with this yesterday, to warm up the FAA to this. They have already started lobbying the FAA. They say they have reached out to the government and offered to help.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: That's right. That's right. They want them to move as fast as they can.

BALDWIN: Brian Stelter, Joey Jackson, fellows, thank you very much. Fascinating.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: "Jetsons" or not, it's coming.

Coming up here, after a couple of months of not revealing numbers on its health care Web site, the White House suddenly up front about some new numbers they're seeing today. We will share that with you.

Also, big changes to America's top-rated morning show why meteorologist Sam Champion is leaving "Good Morning America" and who's coming in next. Stay with me.

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BALDWIN: Big news for morning television. Sam Champion, who has been a huge, huge part of the top-rated success of "Good Morning America," is leaving ABC News and heading to The Weather Channel.

ABC News president Ben Sherwood has announced that Champion is moving on to become the on-air face of The Weather Channel, appearing as a host and serving as managing editor. Here is a tweet from Sam Champion just a short time ago. "Only an amazing opportunity like this at The Weather Channel could take me away from my ABC family of 25 years at 'GMA.' #blessedlife."

Champion will be replaced by Ginger Zee, and his last day will be this Wednesday.

Brian Stelter is back with me, our newest host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," which debuts this weekend.

You know, you wrote the book on morning television. Chemistry is key.

STELTER: Yes. And I was surprised by this. I have to admit, I didn't see this coming.

BALDWIN: I'm such a fan of his. STELTER: Several of the contracts for several of the anchors of "GMA" are all up in the next few months, like Robin Roberts, Josh Elliott, Lara Spencer, and Sam Champion.

I thought ABC would find a way to keep the gang together, because it's working. You don't want to mess with it if it's working. But Sam Champion got an offer he can't refuse from The Weather Channel. He informed ABC over the weekend that he was leaving and his last day will be Wednesday, as you mentioned.

BALDWIN: Are the folks at 30 Rock doing a little happy dance?

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: They are. They are. They won't admit it out loud, but they're very happy about this. Anytime "The Today Show" can seem to hurt "GMA" they will do it. The reason why they take a little big of credit is because Weather Channel is partly owned by ABC.

It doesn't mean he's taking over for Al Roker, because he's not, but it does mean that "The Today Show" has a little more reason to be hopeful. Remember, it's only been 15 or 16 months since "Good Morning America" took the crown and started beating "The Today Show" every single day. Sam Champion was part of it because he had great chemistry with his co-hosts.

BALDWIN: One-fourth of it.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: That's right. That's right. Now, I don't think any single anchor change at "GMA" is going to be a very big deal, but they will have to make sure that they will bring in Ginger Zee, make her feel welcome and get the viewers comfortable with her, because in the morning when your waking up you want it to be comfortable.

BALDWIN: You have to trust the people while you're putting on your clothes in the morning, I suppose, right?

STELTER: That's right. That's right.

BALDWIN: Brian Stelter, thank you so much, 11:00 a.m. Sunday, "RELIABLE SOURCES." This guy, tune in here on CNN. Good luck to you, by the way.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, passengers on board this USA Airways flight were told you're riding with someone who has an active case of tuberculosis? Find out what happened the those passengers coming up next.

Also, shouldn't we have a serious conversation about seat belts on public transportation, trains, buses? Could seat belts have saved the lives in the deadly train derailment in New York over the weekend? We're all over this coming up next.

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BALDWIN: New pictures of the cleanup after this Metro-North train in the Bronx came off the tracks, killing four, injuring more than 60 others. This section of the track is closed while the cars are now rotated upright and investigators try to piece together what happened.

One passenger telling CNN about the horrific moments inside the carriage as the train jumped the tracks.

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AMANDA SWANSON, PASSENGER: I wound up going kind of up one side, and then just rode into where I was technically on the ceiling. And when it landed, I fell to the side where the windows had been smashed out to the ground. All of those windows had broken through. Gravel and glass and those big rocks that line the track were all flying into the windows.

I managed to put my bag in front of my face. I don't even have any cuts, and then once I stood up, I just immediately was like, I still have my phone, it's shattered, but it works, and I just dialed 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Was it speed, was it failed brakes, operator error?

That's what investigators are trying to figure out. But this is what we know. This was right around 7:20 in the morning Eastern time. This train here, carrying 150 passengers, on its way to Grand Central Terminal from Poughkeepsie approached the sharp curve, a bend with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour; 70 miles per hour is the limit on the straightaway that leads up to this curve.