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Murdered Victim's Warning; No Bridge Questions for Christie; Studios Beef Up P.R. Campaigns; Protests in Ukraine

Aired February 20, 2014 - 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: Great to be with all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A huge day of news. We're following a lot of stories for you, so I want to get right to it.

But before I begin, just a warning off the top here because some of the video you are about to see is quite graphic.

In Ukraine, the battle on the streets has intensified. Snipers here firing off round after round in Kiev's Independence Square. You see these men? They're believed to be armed forces, although, I have to say, CNN cannot confirm this. But we are now hearing that many of the police there who were once violently fighting against the protesters are now being taken hostage. These pictures right here showing them being escorted, while others believe to be defecting by choice to the other side. A very short - let me say that again, short truce broke overnight bringing the deadliest day Ukraine has seen in these months of anti-government protests. At least 100 killed.

And for the Ukrainian Olympic athletes there in Sochi, that is actually enough to toss out their years of training and leave the Olympic games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOGDANA MATSOTSKA, UKRAINIAN ALPINE SKIER (through translator): My friends are at Maidan. People I know. Close friends of mine. To go on the start line when people are dying and when the authorities broke the main rule of the Olympic competition, which is peace, I simply cannot do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Back in Washington, sources telling CNN that U.S. officials are fast tracking sanctions, and asset freeze on parts of the Ukrainian government are about to cross the president's desk. We'll take you live to Kiev in just a moment here.

To New Jersey, Chris Christie answered 13 questions at a town hall meeting just wrapped a short time ago and he was not asked once, not once about that traffic jam scandal. This was his first such event with voters since the scandal erupted back in the fall. I can tell you that a voter did bring a sign calling for Christie's resignation, but the whole bridge scandal got buried amid questions about Hurricane Sandy, like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Do you have a question for me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When are you going to fix my house? It's still broken.

CHRISTIE: Your house is still broken? OK, come here, Nicole. What town - what town do you live in, do you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New Jersey.

CHRISTIE: All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So some questions from folks big and small. Again, they did not touch the scandal. We will also stand by for that.

Also today, a new shoe bomb threat warning has U.S. airports security workers on high alert. Sources telling CNN, recent intelligence suggests terror groups have been working on new shoe bomb designs. The Homeland Security Department is warning airlines now to be on the lookout for explosives hidden in shoes on flights from overseas into the U.S. Officials are stressing though that there is no specific threat or known terror plot, at least as of right now.

And in Los Angeles, where just a short time ago a judge had harsh words for the men who severely beat a San Francisco Giants fan outside of Dodger Stadium. Remember, that was back in 2001. Marvin Norwood and Louie Sanchez took a plea deal today, pleading guilty for that attack that left Bryan Stow permanently disabled. Stow was a paramedic before he was attacked. And earlier at the hearing, a judge called Norwood and Sanchez (INAUDIBLE) and said they seem to have no remorse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE GEORGE G. LOMELI, LOS ANGELES SUPREME COURT: It was obvious that he was incapacitated, but yet you continued to hit him on the head and kick him in the head, which tells me, and I can only reach one conclusion from that, that you're complete cowards. Even now with your smirks, I'm talking about Mr. Sanchez, not so much about Mr. Norwood, you show no remorse whatsoever, no remorse to the family here. And that is something that is also unfortunate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sanchez was sentenced to eight years in prison. Norwood got four.

A New York woman and her two young daughters butchered, stabbed to death by her husband and she knew he would do it. She even warned police. But unbelievably her statement to the NYPD was ignored. Why? Because it was written in Spanish and it appears no one at the police station ever thought to have it translated. CNN correspondent Maria Santana has the story of what happened after that warning got ignored.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA SANTANA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a horrific scene, 21-year-old Daisy Garcia and her two young daughters found stabbed to death in their New York City apartment allegedly at the hands of her husband. Now there's information that not speaking English may have been the Guatemalan immigrant's death sentence. Garcia filed a police report in May of 2013 saying her husband had assaulted her and that she feared for her life. That report sat untranslated and without follow-up until her death.

SARA ALVARADO, VICTIM'S SISTER (through translator): She was crying, so she called the police and told them that her husband had threatened to kill her.

SANTANA: The May incident wasn't the only one Garcia reported. On November 27th, she again called police and filed a Spanish language complaint, writing, "my husband assaulted me. He pulled my hair and kicked me twice. He threatened to take my kids away." The NYPD has not said whether that report was translated. Two months later, Garcia and her daughter were found dead.

LUZMINA ALVARADO, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through translator): If they would have given it more importance, would have translated it to English, then maybe they would have figured out what to do. They would have investigated him. It was like they just left the report there as if it was worthless.

SANTANA: Authorities say Garcia's husband, Mehdal Mahia Rhamos (ph), confessed to killing his wife in a fit of jealous rage. He said he then hugged and kissed his daughters, asked for their forgiveness, and stabbed each girl multiple times.

ROGER ASMAR, GARCIA FAMILY ATTORNEY: I guess no investigation was done to the point where they could of determined that this person had to be arrested. But what we didn't know is that no one actually translated the text.

SANTANA: The Garcia family believes she and her daughters would still be alive if the police had taken action.

ALVARADO: My daughter may be dead and can't do anything in this case, but I want justice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Maria Santana joins me now. And so it just begs the question, with this case, if it happened here, do we know if there are other cases in which it happened as well?

SANTANA: Well, Brooke, unfortunately, advocates say that this is not the first time something like this has happened. Two months before Garcia was killed, the Violence Intervention Program filed a lawsuit against the city of New York on behalf of six other Hispanic domestic violence victims who claim they too were denied adequate translation services. Now that case is still pending.

But in Daisy Garcia's case, the NYPD said that after an internal review, a memo will be circulated to all its officers reminding them that domestic violence reports must be translated. Of course, the Garcia family, their attorney believe that this is just another case of someone who fell through the cracks, who the system failed and, as a result, they ended up losing this young mother and her two beautiful daughters.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: They have to be read and translated. Maria Santana, thank you very much, from New York.

SANTANA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, it is the platform on which Chris Christie shines. The town hall format. But these days, amid a scandal, it could be risky taking some questions. We will show you what happened today.

Plus, it is one of the front-runners to win best pictures at the Oscars and a new campaign for "12 Years a Slave" is making a very public last minute pitch.

And this is just an awesome story. A guy gets rejected for a job at FaceBook. Flash forward five years. Facebook buys his idea for a cool $19 billion. His story's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Chris Christie, he is back in town - town hall mode. His very first, actually, event since the traffic jam scandal that has thrown him on the defensive and perhaps even dinged his presidential aspirations. So, at - he's pretty good at these events. Actually, he's pretty great at these. He will even tweak his own voters if they start to rub him the wrong way. But no need for that today because not a single question on the bridge-gate scandal. However, Christie did take a question about his favorite rocker, a Jersey guy who performed that whole late night spoof poking fun at Christie and that scandal. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you go home tonight, and I just want to look around and make sure he's not in the room. But when you go home tonight, would you please destroy all your Bruce Springsteen CDs. He's not a friend of yours, governor.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Well - the - you see, the CDs could be destroyed. I have it all on my - on my iPhone now. But -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, so, the boss aside, let me bring in John King in D.C., our chief national correspondent. So we listened, right? Everyone was listening, listening for a question on bridge-gate. The word bridge not uttered a single time. Are you surprised by that?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little bit. But, remember, it's a relatively controlled event and remember how important Sandy relief aid is, Brooke, still in this community. That's what the governor wanted to talk about, efforts to continue to fight through. And he did face some criticism or some people saying, hey, my house still isn't rebuilt. So his attitude is, all politics are local. There's no question he will view this as a good thing that it didn't come up.

Now, there was - there was some Democrats or some critics in the room. There was a woman with a sign in the room. So he didn't escape it completely. I was just looking on Twitter, with the help of my producer, Tasha Deakitas (ph), and Robert Costa of "The Washington Post" is there and he asked Governor Christie on the way out of the room if he was surprised it didn't come up and he says Governor Christie glared at him and then said, no, the people here want to talk about real issues.

BALDWIN: Huh.

KING: So it came up with a report on the way out the door.

But, look, Governor Christie will take some solace in this, thinking that one of the big questions has been, is this going to be such a cloud over his head that he -- never mind running for president or traveling nationally, that he can't get his state business done. And I'm sure he left the room today feeling good about that.

BALDWIN: OK. Well, let's talk presidential politics, because we can. I know we're a ways away from 2016, but talking about Christie, taking on Hillary Clinton. We have a poll I just want to share with our viewers. So this is just out and you see the differential here, Clinton way ahead of Chris Christie and Mr. Magic Wall, what do we watch every four years, Ohio.

KING: Right.

BALDWIN: So given the fact that he really has -- Chris Christie has this, you know, working class appeal that's supposed to work in states like Ohio, should he worry?

KING: A little bit, but not a lot. Remember, we're having this conversation in February 2014.

BALDWIN: Uh-huh.

KING: And no Republican - no Republican beats Hillary Clinton in that poll. But here's one reason he should worry a little bit. You remember, Brooke, right after his big re-election parade - victory last year, before the bridge-gate controversy, he was running even - even ahead of Hillary Clinton in some polls by a couple of points. And so some people will take that as proof and see he's damaged. But we all sort of know that his momentum has been stalled a bit by the investigation. So that's reaffirming. It's not any breaking news.

Or you could flip it around and look at it the other way, though. Again, February 2014, don't put a lot of stock in 2016 polls. However, Hillary Clinton's under 50 percent. She just cracks 50 percent against one or two of the other Republicans. So if you're a Republican looking at this, even Chris Christie, you could say, you know, we're in a circular firing squad over the debt ceiling, we're in a circular firing squad over immigration. Our party can't get its act together and yet she just barely cracks or is below 50. If we get our act together, she's gettable. So you could look at it that way too.

BALDWIN: OK.

KING: But, again, I wouldn't spend too much time on 2016 polls in 2014.

BALDWIN: Not yet. Not yet, John King.

KING: Not yet.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much. In Washington for me.

Coming up, have you heard of this. It's called WhatsApp. Facebook just paid $19 billion for this messaging app. And one of the creators actually applied for a job at FaceBook a couple years ago and they said nope. His amazing comeback story ahead.

Plus, the Oscars 10 days away. For best picture, have you seen this? One movie making a very public push on a new billboard ad campaign.

And speaking of the Oscars, hear directly from Jonah Hill about his role in the movie "Wolf of Wall Street." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Oscars, just 10 days away and the PR campaigns for best picture, they are on. One of the contenders, "12 Years a Slave," is already pushing its message to Academy voters with this massive billboard ad. Take a look for yourself. It reads two simple words, "it's time." The sign hangs prominently on the studio lot for 20th Century Fox in southern California. That movie, by the way, scored nine Oscar nominations.

Another best picture nominee, "Wolf of Wall Street," has its own PR campaign, but it's getting sidelined by some potentially negative press because, and we talked about this yesterday, there was a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the original characters portrayed in the film. And when the film first came out, many criticized it as too polarizing and excessive. "Wolf of Wall Street," by the way, five nominations. And movie publicity, both good and bad, in the run-up to the Oscars is really nothing new, but how much of an impact will it have over the course of the next 10 days. That's the question. CNN entertainment commentator and "Vanity Fair" senior west coast editor Krista Smith joins me now.

Krista, thanks for being on. KRISTA SMITH, CNN ENTERTAINMENT COMMENTATOR: Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's get to the billboard and that simple message, "it's time." It's time for what?

SMITH: Well, I think people want to - I think their point in doing that is to remind everybody that this was an excellent film. It came out a while ago. A lot of people have resisted seeing it because they feel like it's going to be too upsetting. And I think that basically they're saying, look, it's time, see the movie.

I love this film. I think it's one of the best films I've seen in 10 years. For me, it was the first time I actually saw what slavery was. It is just so moving. The performances are incredible across the board. And, to me, I think that's exactly what they're doing. They're reminding everybody, hey, this movie may have come out in October, but, look, we're nominated. They've got best actor, best supporting actor, best, you know, director, best picture. And I think sometimes we get distracted by the other, more commercial films.

BALDWIN: But do you think though it's more of a - more of a symbolic message. It's time, it's time we win because, I mean, haven't the films been voted on already or not yet?

SMITH: Voting is open. It just started, I think, on -- last weekend and it closes the week of the 25th.

BALDWIN: Got it.

SMITH: So it's coming up. But people are definitely voting. And I've heard a lot of chatter about, you know, who do you think is going to win. I'm not sure about who I'm voting for. It is a really tight race, I think, across the board.

BALDWIN: Huh. Well, let's talk about -- continuing the chatter and your Oscar special airing tonight on CNN.

SMITH: Yes.

BALDWIN: It's so exciting. CNN Spotlight "And The Nominees Are." And so you got to sit down, Krista, with four nominees including "12 Years a Slave" Lupita Nyong'o and "Wolf of Wall Street's Jonah Hill. Here's just a sample before we chat. This is what we'll see tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUPITA NYONG'O, OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTRESS: I was sitting there and Kate Blanchett came to me and she gave me a kiss on my cheek and said how much she liked my work. And that was a shock, you know. And I was like, check. A very good check.

JONAH HILL, OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTOR: I would call different businesses. So I would call like Best Buys and Targets. I couldn't go in somewhere and be Donny, because if someone recognized me it would be really embarrassing.

SMITH: Yes. Right, (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: So I would call Best Buy, especially this morning (ph), Hawaii, and their customer service was amazing and I would speak on the phone with them as Donny for like an hour and a half.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about "Wolf of Wall Street." I finally saw it. I've got to tell you, I was entertained every second of that film. I know the press has been - it is crude. I mean there's like 544 f bombs dropped in this movie. But do you think that's a strong contender for best picture?

SMITH: Well, I think that really best picture for me, it's more between "Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave," but you never know. I mean the Academy spoke. It got nominations. A lot of best actor, best supporting actor, as you just saw for Jonah Hill, Scorsese for director and best picture. So I think that anything can happen. I, as well as you, were very entertain by this and I was just blown away.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SMITH: I mean, Leo, I always expect him to be great.

BALDWIN: Amazing.

SMITH: He's been great in everything.

BALDWIN: Amazing.

SMITH: But Jonah Hill, I've got to say, is one of my absolute favorites. I mean he just crushes in this part.

BALDWIN: I can't wait to see more of him just like in life in general, in movies.

SMITH: Yes.

BALDWIN: Krista Smith, I look forward to watching tonight. Again, we all will be watching the one on ones you had with all these stars. Hear with Amy Adams, Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club," that's also on my list, more of what Lupita Nyong'o and Jonah Hill have to say. 10:00 Eastern tonight. CNN Spotlight "And the Nominees Are." Krista, thank you very much.

Coming up, FaceBook drops a cool $19 billion on something that's called WhatsApp. It's a popular messaging service, but is it really worth $19 billion? And the guy who invented this used to be on food stamps and now, yes, he's doing pretty well for himself you could say. His story is coming up.

Also ahead, protesters in Ukraine facing bullets from snipers. More than 100 people killed so far in these violent clashes. And with that number rising, news today from the White House that the U.S. is prepared to take action. You're watching CNN. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And now a warning because some of the pictures you are about to see are graphic, but it illustrates this bloody standoff between police and these anti-government protesters all out on the streets in the Ukraine. Now this has made its way to President Obama's desk because sources telling CNN that U.S. officials are fast tracking sanctions. Essentially this would be an asset freeze on parts of the Ukrainian government. And the goal is this, to get the police, to get the security forces to end scenes like this, and like this. And the need to deescalate the violence has never been greater here. Bodies -- look at these pictures -- just being dragged, scattered through a once peaceful city. At least 100 people are reported dead in this fiery collapse of a truce in Kiev's Independence Square.

And just for perspective's sake here on how bad this is. Take a look at this. This is this picture. This is Photoshopped together. This is a before, as you can see on the left-hand side, and the after on the right of Independence Square. That's circulating websites right now. All this because the president of the Ukraine backed out of this trade deal with the EU a couple months ago, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and, of course, thus to President Vladimir Putin. And now Russia, while telling the west to butt out, is sending its own envoy to broker peace talks.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is following all of this for us.

And so, Nick, we're hearing these reports about police now being taken hostages. Others we're hearing are defecting to the sides of these protesters.