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Passengers Stuck on Amtrak Trains; Cop Shoots, Kills Schizophrenic Teen; Robert Gates Slams Obama Administration in New Book; Kevin Hart and Ice Cube Promote New Movie

Aired January 07, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And cue the ice cold animation. We're talking weather and we're also talking about these passengers who are finally heading home after spending the night, and some of them multiple nights trapped on these stranded Amtrak trains, some of whom stuck for 15 hours or more because of these huge snow and ice drifts that were simply blanketing the tracks. Trains couldn't move.

This is actually video shot by someone on board showing the drifts as high as the windows.

Passenger Anthony Ponce joins me from Chicago on the phone.

So, Anthony, welcome home. I read you got...

(CROSSTALK)

ANTHONY PONCE, STRANDED PASSENGER: Thank you so much, Brooke. I really appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

PONCE: The weather is frigid in Chicago, but I have never been so thankful to be home.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: I cannot imagine. I read you got two hours sleep, several days' journey, a quality Cheez-It breakfast from a bus station.

How are you doing?

PONCE: Yes.

I am absolutely exhausted right now. I have never had such a travel ordeal. As a reporter myself, we tend to cover these stories, but to actually become the story, believe me, it is no fun.

I have five times the amount of sympathy I had before for all the people that got stranded on that cruise ship last year.

I was trying to get back from Lincoln where we were visiting my wife's family, to Chicago, which is normally an easy one-hour flight, turned into a more than 24-hour nightmare.

BALDWIN: So in this nightmare, I want you to describe this for me.

I hear people were just sleeping bodies covering the floors of the different trains.

Did you sleep? Where did you sleep?

PONCE (via telephone): I was one of those sleeping bodies on the floor of the train. I found myself a nice cozy nook in the corner of the dining car. That's where I tried to sleep last night. I think I slept about two hours. Other people are better at sleeping up right in those chairs, but I'm not one of them, so I staked out my little piece of real estate on the floor. It really wasn't fun.

BALDWIN: The dining car, did you dine? Was there food?

PONCE (via telephone): They did serve us a free dinner last night. They called us by rail car back to the dining car to eat the free dinner, so that was a little bright spot.

So we get back to the dining car, and we got a really small little bowl of beef stew, which I actually thought was the appetizer until I realized that was the meal.

And they wanted the next rail car. I realized the meal was over. I thought it was the appetizer until I realized that was dinner.

So that's why we were so hungry this morning. That's why we had to resort to Cheese-Its for breakfast.

BALDWIN: Hopefully you're eating something nice and huge and warm before you go to bed. You're up and at 'em at 2:00 a.m. You anchor a news show in Chicago.

Anthony Ponce, thank you, thank you, thank you and welcome home.

PONCE (via telephone): Not a problem.

BALDWIN: A police officer shoots and kills a teenager with schizophrenia, and listen to a perspective, really, that you rarely get.

An officer is the one who picks up the phone and calls 911, moments after the trigger is pulled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER: I don't know if you've been advised or not, but shots fired. I've had to defend myself against this subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The officer calls in self-defense, but the stepfather of the victim, Keith Vidal, labels it something entirely different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK WILSEY, STEPFATHER OF TEENAGER KILLED BY POLICE: I know what happened. I was there.

I watched him shoot my son in cold blood right in front of me. And there's no changing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Vidal's stepdad also called police to their eastern North Carolina home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALLER: He wants to fight his mother. He's got a screwdriver. He's just -- you know, he's not doing so good. She's scared to death of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is what the victim's family told our affiliate, WECT.

For at least 10 minutes, two officers were speaking with Keith, who stood just 5'3", weighing in at 100 pounds. And then a third officer from Southport police arrived at the home.

The stepfather told another affiliate WWAY that the Southport officer said, quote, "We don't have time for this."

The officers then tased this young man a couple of times, and as he was being restrained, the Southport officer shot the high school senior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY VIDAL, MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I'm burying my second child right now because somebody murdered him.

And this was uncalled for. And this is not how mental health patients should be treated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Lou Palumbo, let me bring you in. You're a former investigator from the Nassau County police department.

You're hearing both sides, these different 911 calls. What do you make of this?

LOU PALUMBO, FORMER INVESTIGATOR, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: I think it's troubling, to say the least.

I realize that there's going to be an independent and impartial investigation. They're going to have to take statements again from the family and from the other officers that were involved.

You know, perceptively, on the surface it seems highly problematic. What this police officer now has to do is justify this shooting.

He has to establish, concretely, the fact that he had no other option, other than the use of deadly physical force, that the lives of other individuals were in imminent danger and there was no option.

BALDWIN: You talk about the independent investigation. We know that the police chief has had no comment to CNN. The state bureau of investigation now has the case.

The county d.a. will make the final decision as to whether or not to file charges against this particular detective.

Obviously, this isn't a first in terms of a police officer shooting a mentally ill person, but can you just tell me, Lou, what is protocol for an officer in this kind of situation?

PALUMBO: Interestingly enough, and I have a discussion earlier today with a young lady from CNN, we used to unload our weapons, because what we found is that these individuals possess unusual amounts of strength as a result of a rather imbalanced emotional state and the rush of adrenaline.

So we certainly don't want to lose the weapon and have it be turned against us.

BALDWIN: But how would you even know what you're walking into to then unload your weapon?

PALUMBO: You don't. You basically have to rely on the 911 call.

And if the people are describing this kid as already being in a distraught and emotional state or schizophrenic or threatening, you would have layers of police respond to this thing in the event the situation went completely south.

But the bottom line is that what you would hope to do is to restrain the individual, you'd call for a bus, and then transport him to a facility where he can receive proper attention and evaluation.

The last thing you want to do is have to resort to shooting someone.

Again, as I mentioned to you earlier, Brooke, this police officer is going to have to establish the fact that there was pure need in shooting this young man.

BALDWIN: We'll follow and see if he's able to do that.

Lou Palumbo, thank you.

PALUMBO: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Coming up, a bit of breaking news, excerpts are being revealed from Robert Gates' memoir.

A former defense secretary, he has some harsh criticism of President Obama and his administration, and it specifically involves the war, our troops, and national security.

This just in. It is incredibly significant stuff. Stay here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Breaking news as we're getting some new information here as former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has now penned this memoir, and these new details are coming to light as far as his harsh, harsh critique, specifically, of the Obama administration.

I know my colleague Chris Lawrence has been getting up on exactly what this memoir entails as people are beginning to write about this.

And let's begin, Chris, with the harsh critique, specifically, of the president's leadership. What did he have to say about that?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, this is red meat for folks who want to know what the inner workings of Washington are really like, in other words, what people really say about each other behind closed doors.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in this book basically offering a pretty harsh criticism of President Obama's leadership style.

At one point saying he finds him a man of great personal integrity, but when it came to making the decisions on the Afghanistan war, specifically, surging those 30,000 troops, he says that Obama basically didn't believe his own strategy, mere months after he made that decision.

He said, as early as 2010, he had concluded the president didn't think the war was his.

That's in direct contrast to candidate Obama, who campaigned against the Iraq war, but specifically said Afghanistan is the place where troops need to be fighting and the U.S. needed to win.

BALDWIN: What about the -- Vice President Biden? Very critical about him.

LAWRENCE: Yeah. Again, he has some good words for the vice president, but really blames Vice President Biden in this memoir for sort of, as he calls it, "poisoning the well against the military," in other words, putting out advice that was contrary to what the military wanted to do in Afghanistan and on other issues.

He said he finds Biden to be a good man personally, but Gates felt that he's -- that Biden has been wrong on just about every major foreign policy issue in the recent past.

BALDWIN: And Secretary Gates talked about the political motivation of the White House, of the Obama administration, in its decision-making.

LAWRENCE: Yeah. He basically -- he said two things that really sort of -- that jump out at you. One was basically that there was this conversation between Obama, President Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in which Hillary Clinton admitted she sort of opposed the war, because it was -- she was running against Obama in the Iowa primary.

And that the president sort of admitted that he was being very political, too. And Gates says, I was sort of astounded to hear them admit such a thing in front of me. And he felt sort of disheartened by that.

But he also goes on to talk about the advisers around President Obama, saying that he -- you get a sense that there is a respect, an underlying respect for President Obama, but that Gates had a lot of problem with the people around him.

Of course, some of that can be attributed to the fact that the military wanted a lot more troops. They wanted a bigger surge in Afghanistan.

There were a lot of people like Vice President Biden who were saying we need to get out of that country, ASAP. We don't need to surge any troops, much less the 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 that the military wants.

BALDWIN: With all of the harsh criticism here in this memoir, I know Jake Tapper at the top of the hour on "THE LEAD" will be all over this.

We'll look for you, Chris Lawrence, as well. Chris, we appreciate you very much on the latest there -

LAWRENCE: Sure, Brooke.

BALDWIN: -- that's beginning to percolate from the defense secretary.

Coming up next, though, Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, right here in Studio 7. Need I really say more?

We talked "SNL." We talked Dennis Rodman. We talked legalizing marijuana.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HART, COMEDIAN: First of all, because of this, I went and basically set up shop in Colorado. I just got a little home down there, just to kind of take a little off time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Rapper Ice Cube and one of the hottest comics on the Hollywood circuit teaming up to make a new movie, Kevin Hart. They costar in this action-comedy.

It's about this fast-talking security guard played by Hart who proposes to the sister of an Atlanta police officer, Ice Cube. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HART: Why do I have to suck up to the brother just because she wants to get (inaudible)?

Hey, you're white! You're white! You don't fight.

ICE CUBE, RAPPER, ACTOR: It's that little clown that's dating my sister. Little "Man Smurf."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe he just wants into the family.

CUBE: I know exactly what he wants.

HART: You want the hammer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want the hammer.

HART: You going to get your hammer.

CUBE: OK, enough of that nasty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, so the movie looks funny. It comes out January 17th.

But just a short time ago, Kevin and Cube, they joined me in studio and we talked about everything from legalizing marijuana for recreational use in Colorado, to Dennis Rodman, to his emotional outburst this morning on "NEW DAY."

Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And I'm going to -- I just want to toss some questions at you first on what's happening in the news. We've been covering because of what's happening in Colorado --

HART: Oh, man! I told you, don't give me no educational stuff.

BALDWIN: Come on, come on.

HART: Talking about no educational stuff.

BALDWIN: Kevin Hart, let me begin specifically with marijuana. It's been a couple of days since it's been legalized recreationally in Colorado.

There's been huge debates over whether this is a good thing. What do you guys think?

HART: First of all, because of this, I went and basically set up shop in Colorado. I just got a little home down there, just to kind of take a little off time.

Just to really see what this problem is about and get into it, to really engulf myself in what's going on there.

So the best thing for me was just to move to Colorado.

BALDWIN: So he's moving to Colorado.

HART: Just for a second.

BALDWIN: What do you think, Cube? Do you think it's a good thing?

CUBE: I think California need to catch up.

BALDWIN: California is behind?

CUBE: Yeah, California is behind. We was ahead a few years ago with the medical thing, and now California is behind.

But to each his own. If you're an adult and you of age, I'm not down with any restrictions on people that's grown.

HART: Me, personally, all I know is I love God, so --

CUBE: What that got to do with anything?

HART: When you don't know what to do, you just say, go to Jesus. That's what my mom told me.

BALDWIN: Some people disagree with both of you two. There are a lot of critics out there.

I want you to watch the monitors and hear real closely. This is going to be a clip from "NANCY GRACE." Nancy Grace, she's a former federal prosecutor. She's a big host on HLN.

We had a discussion --

HART: She does this all the time.

BALDWIN: We had a discussion yesterday and she basically was not so subtly inferring that those who smoke dope are lazy and sit on the sofa and eat their chips.

Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST, HLN'S "NANCY GRACE": Not a good idea. Look, I don't want -- when I'm at work, I don't want my babysitter high on pot. All right? Does anybody?

Do you want your children, do you want your parents, your sister, your brother to be taken care of or driven around by somebody on pot because it's OK in Colorado?

BALDWIN: I know people are screaming at the television agreeing you and vehemently disagreeing with you.

GRACE: Hey, look, the ones that are disagreeing are lethargic, sitting on the sofa eating chips. They are fat and lazy. There.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yeah, that got a little pickup on Internet.

HART: She just called my grandpop lazy.

CUBE: I know.

HART: My grandpop got glaucoma.

CUBE: Nancy, your babysitter already high anyway.

HART: I just don't like Nancy's angry face. Her eyes get real big. Her face gets narrow.

BALDWIN: So I take it we're disagreeing with Nancy?

HART: Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. Here's my problem with these reporters, not including yourself. You're excluded from this.

Just because they have an opinion and they're passionate about their opinion, it doesn't make it right. Different people have opinions and that's what opinions are for.

Everyone has a different view on life, so what you think is not what another person thinks. It doesn't make you right. It doesn't make them wrong.

It's hard for people to come and find an agreement and find a median. You've got to understand that.

Some people think that's great. Some people don't. Me, personally, it's not my life. I don't live it. I don't need it. So it doesn't affect me.

BALDWIN: I am not going to sit here and opine, but I want to move on, because I want to talk about this new "SNL" cast member.

Let me get her name. Her name is Sasheer Zamata. She's the first African-American female cast member of the biggest comedy, most classic comedy sketch series in this country.

It's been five years. What's taken them so long?

HART: You know, man, people tend to put a race issue on everything. "SNL" has existed for years.

I was a person who auditioned for "SNL." I didn't get "SNL." And it had nothing to do with my race at the time. I wasn't right for the part.

I'm quite sure several women of all races have been going out for "SNL" who've been turned away.

What people don't understand is that there's literally one part that's available every two seasons, or season and a half, how Lorne Michaels he does his system, so he picks who he feels should be in that one part.

BALDWIN: Whoever is most qualified, no matter the color.

HART: Whether it's man or woman. They've made this the-black-woman thing an issue, and I don't think it's fair to other black women, because other black women are like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do need a chance.

And now you got 3,000 black women coming out for this one opportunity for what seems to be the black woman part?

BALDWIN: So you're saying much ado about nothing?

HART: Yeah, it's so much about nothing.

Congratulations to her. She had an audition. She got the part, not because she was black, because she was qualified.

BALDWIN: Dennis Rodman in North Korea, he has this Bizarro friendship with the dictator Kim Jong-un who apparently executed his uncle a week ago, all kinds of human rights atrocities, nuclear weapon, by the way, over there.

And here he is. He goes over to North Korea with a bunch of his former NBA ballers to go play a game.

Now, he says, no bigs. This is just a game of basketball.

But do you think this is a good idea? Should he be over there?

CUBE: Of course, you know, basketball is a sport that people love all over the world. It's brought people together all over the world.

It's brought many foreigners here to the NBA, and we've got a chance -- in the Olympics, basketball has become very competitive.

BALDWIN: It's unifying, but this is North Korea.

CUBE: It's a game that brings people together.

BALDWIN: This is North Korea. That doesn't bother you?

CUBE: It could bring -- you know, at one time, the United States wasn't talking to China until ...

BALDWIN: Ping-pong diplomacy.

CUBE: Yeah, so, you know, sports have always been a way to set down the political things and find some common ground, and you build from there.

HART: Don't ask me that question, because I don't know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Quick pause, we have much more with Kevin and Cube.

On the other side of the break, we talk about this movie, "Road Trip." We played a little word association, and President Obama comes up.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Where were we? Ah, yes, we were talking to rapper Ice Cube and comedian Kevin Hart, here in studio at CNN.

We were talking Dennis Rodman. We were marijuana legalization in Colorado.

And now these two gave us a little behind-the-scenes scoop about their new movie that they filmed in Atlanta. It's called "Ride Along."

And we played some word association. Take a look.

How about "Ride Along?" You guys are in town --

CUBE: It's the funniest movie of the year.

BALDWIN: It's out January -

HART: Seventeenth.

CUBE: For sure.

HART: January 17th.

BALDWIN: Here's what I want to know. Behind -- lift the veil behind the scenes. What's it like shooting this film? You shot it in Atlanta.

CUBE: Yeah, we shot it in Atlanta.

After Kevin gets to the set, after he leaves the strip club, gets to the set, you know what I mean?

BALDWIN: Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen -

CUBE: We really, really do get going.

BALDWIN: You call him the Energizer Bunny.

CUBE: We really get going and we got great chemistry.

HART: What you see is what you get right now. What you see now is honestly what it was on set, 24/7.

You're looking at two guys who get along, two guys that have a mutual respect for each other, two guys who have natural chemistry and are friends.

So, I think we shine on camera in this film, and I think we made a movie -- I don't really want to say -- I know we made a movie that appeals to everyone.

BALDWIN: Your first lead, what --

HART: This is my first huge starring role.

BALDWIN: In an action-comedy -

HART: Action-comedy, yes. This is my first huge starring role.

BALDWIN: Congratulations.

HART: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Come a long way from -

HART: A long way.

BALDWIN: Did I read you had chicken wings thrown at you?

HART: Yes, I did, Buffalo wing. Got hit in the face with a Buffalo wing in Atlantic City. Little sauce got on my lip.

CUBE: I got you. I got you, huh?

BALDWIN: Can we play a little word association and then I'm going to let you go?

HART: Is this political world association?

BALDWIN: You're two smart gentlemen. Roll with me.

Cube and Kevin, ready? Kevin, you first then Cube.

HART: OK.

BALDWIN: I'm going to say something, then you say the first thing that comes to your mind.

President Obama?

CUBE: Cool man.

HART: Coolest man in the world.

BALDWIN: Jinx.

CUBE: I'm first and then you.

HART: She said me. She said me.

CUBE: Cube, then Kevin.

HART: No, she said Cool Kev, then Cube.

BALDWIN: Kevin, Cube.

HART: Told you.

BALDWIN: Sorry, Cube.

Same-sex marriage?

HART: Agreed. Oh, I panicked.

BALDWIN: OK, Cube, your turn.

Gay marriage?

CUBE: To each his own.

BALDWIN: OK.

Kevin, Kanye West?

HART: Passionate.

CUBE: Very talented.

BALDWIN: Very talented.

Miley Cyrus?

HART: An adult.

CUBE: Little girl.

BALDWIN: Finally, CNN?

HART: Controversy.

CUBE: Uh, you know, it's cool. CNN is cool.

HART: Controversy! You should have said controversy with me.

CUBE: CNN, you know, there's other people that go more controversial. CNN is every man's --

HART: I said controversial. You don't know nothing, the world and everything.

BALDWIN: Saving my job.

Kevin, awesome meeting you, my friend. Thank you so much.

Good luck, Cube.

CUBE: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: They were great. I have to tell you, when the cameras were rolling and even when they were not rolling, they were hilarious.

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, thank you. "Ride Along," the film, hits theaters January 17th.

And now to some of the hottest stories in a flash, "Rapid Fire.:

We begin with this. In Washington, six Senate Republicans joined the unanimous Democrats in this sort of unexpected win for the long-term unemployed.

Take a look at the Republicans here, Dan Coats, Rob Portman, Dean Heller, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Kelly Ayotte -- all six voted yes to three more months of federal aid to people who have not worked for at least half a year.

Full passage requires another Senate vote, plus, of course, approval by the House.

And an Arizona man has been busted allegedly trying to smuggle a woman into the country in -- you see this picture? That's a suitcase.

Customs and border protection officers at the port of Nogales say they found the 48-year-old Thai national hidden underneath clothing after zipping open the suitcase that was found in the back of an SUV.

The man was traveling from Mexico to the U.S. and now faces human smuggling charges.

And a trucker says this crash happened because the officer who recorded this video had his blue rights flashing.

The trucker says the lights diverted his attention just as the traffic ahead was slowing down.

By the time he recovered, all he could do was swerve. That's at least what the driver was saying.

Thank goodness no one was killed or injured.

And America's most recognizable skier will not be hitting the slopes at next month's Winter Olympics.

Lindsey Vonn, she says her injured knee is just too unstable to compete for gold at the Sochi games.

She tore a ligament in her knee 11 months ago and aggravated the injury when she crashed in November.

Vonn says she plans to have surgery soon so that she will be ready for the world championships in Vail next February.

Quick reminder, as always, in case you missed any kind of interview on this show, go to the Brooke Blog. That is CNN.com/Brooke. And as we mentioned, some of the breaking news, Bob Gates, former defense secretary, this memoir coming out. Jake Tapper will have that and so much more, coming up on "THE LEAD."

I'm Brooke Baldwin. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for watching.

And now to Washington, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.