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Sterling Interview Sparks More Outrage; House Explosion Following Officer Killed; Inside the Jay-Z; Beyonce; Solange Family Feud; Kyle J. White Awarded Medal of Honor.
Aired May 13, 2014 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Donald Sterling's exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper has sparked all kinds of outrage and utter display, not for just an awkward apology for making racist statements about African-Americans, but because he attacked NBA Hall of Famer, beloved L.A. man, Magic Johnson, again. You heard the comments moments ago. In response, Rosen, Magic's long-time agent and friend said this to the "L.A. Times," "Johnson is the exact opposite of the way Sterling portrayed him on 'Anderson Cooper 360'. I've known Ervin since 1979, and his whole mission in life has been to create business opportunities in urban America and to be charitable." Rosen is also the executive V.P. of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Let's talk about this with long-time L.A. gal and "At This Hour" anchor, my friend, Michaela Pereira.
So nice to have you in the studio.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, AT THIS HOUR: Nice to be in Atlanta with you.
BALDWIN: So you were in L.A. for nine years. You know Magic. You've known Magic for a few years.
PEREIRA: Yes.
BALDWIN: You've watched all this unfold. You've been talking to your friends back home.
PEREIRA: I've been a hearing a lot from the folks from Los Angeles.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: It was interesting to watch it through the eyes of myself, of somebody who lived in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, covered that city extensively in the news. Covered things that Magic was involved in. And was in the communities that he was directly affecting. I've heard from people -- Donald Sterling was completely off-base. They're shocked, and just the fact that he got it plain wrong about Magic. Look at the things he has done. BALDWIN: Not just a little bit wrong.
PEREIRA: Not just a little bit wrong. Aside from the racial comments, but the attacks on Magic, there are two separate things that are completely combined. Look at his foundation. You know, we could even pull up some information that we have here.
Look, back in '91, is when he started the foundation, working with HIV awareness, and campaigning to get more people tested. He cites the fact that his own coming out prompted a lot of people to get out and get tested. It was the same year that he announced he was HIV positive. Awareness testing. Mobile clinics going into the community. Still doing that.
One of the challenges that many people expected him to fail before our eyes, he has thrived. He looks so healthy. And he is concerned because he looks so healthy, other people would think that they would do just as well with HIV. And he says that it's something that proves there's still more work to be done with HIV and AIDS awareness.
BALDWIN: Beyond the foundation, he lived in L.A. You went to Magic 24.
PEREIRA: Right, in South L.A. Scholarships. This is a thing that made a lot of people really upset, is that the fact that Donald Sterling made the claims that Magic has done nothing for people of color. If you go into south Los Angeles, and you look around, the infrastructure that is there in terms of some of the businesses, that previously wouldn't go into Los Angeles, are there. The Starbucks. He's since divested of them. The 24-Hour Fitness. This is where I worked out in the San Gabriel Valley. Burger King, the movie theaters, one in Harlem and one in Los Angeles. He put these businesses in south L.A., proving to these companies, you can do business in these communities and they will be supported. That influence is still found there. There's a Chili's in Englewood.
BALDWIN: Quickly, so L.A., either Lakers, Clippers.
PEREIRA: Well, see, my better half is a Lakers fan. And I'm a Clipper fan. And this is the thing. The Clippers are always seen as sort of the J.V. team to their Staples Center, you know, roommates.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: For a long time, Sterling was never seen as somebody that was taking the team seriously. You know, they never thought of him as a serious owner. But the fans are devout and devoted to the team, through thick and thin. And lucky in these recent years, with CP3 and Blake Griffin coming in, it's more exciting down there, if you're a Clipper fan. This is not what they need. This is not what the fans need, this is not what the team needs, and certainly not what the NBA needs.
BALDWIN: I wanted to hear how you perceived it.
PEREIRA: Oh, this is -- people in Los Angeles, saying in the "L.A. Times," this is not --
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: This is not L.A.
BALDWIN: Ms. Pereira, thank you.
Coming up here, reminder, Magic Johnson speaking exclusively to CNN. Definitely tune in tonight. This is happening. We're actually sitting down shortly this afternoon, Magic with Anderson. He will be speaking. We'll hear this whole interview tonight, "A.C. 360," 8:00 p.m., only on CNN.
Coming up, stunning video. This house explosion happened to be caught live as the news helicopter was hovering over this home in New Hampshire. It's unreal to watch. It happened minutes after an officer went inside, was shot and killed. That explosion shook that entire neighborhood. The officer responding -- was there for a domestic dispute, reportedly between a father and his son. Neighbors were just stunned by what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could see our house, saw the explosion go up and stuff blow over to our house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not only did we hear it, we saw it simultaneously. Very frightening.
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BALDWIN: It is believed that the gunman died in the fire or the explosion afterwards. State and federal authorities are investigating that.
Just ahead, a legendary deejay and voice actor just vanishes. Casey Kasem's family frantically searching for him. The fear now, that his wife has smuggled him out of the country. Yep, smuggled him. More on that bizarre story.
But next, we're talking Beyonce's family drama and what actually it takes to break a story like this, coming up.
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BALDWIN: A couple crazy in love. On top of the world.
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(SINGING)
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BALDWIN: But now, the intensely private Jay-Z and Beyonce find themselves in an apparent family feud so intriguing and so public it now has its own hash tag on Twitter, #withJay-Z. This video -- watch it with me. To the curious out here, the woman on the right throwing the punches, according to TMZ, is Solange Knowles, the younger sister of Beyonce, and the man in the white tux jacket is, according to TMZ Jay-Z, Beyonce's husband since 2008. But even gets kicked. Never hits. Never strikes back.
The woman beside him on the left, see, right there next to Jay-Z, she never intervened. TMZ said that is Beyonce. The tabloid website also reports at one point the apparent bodyguard stopped the elevator on the 12th floor as this whole scene played out. The ugly episode reportedly happened during one of the most glamorous nights for the A- list. The New York Standard Hotel is investigating the apparent security breach with, quote, "the utmost urgency." The couple and Solange Knowles are declining to comment. Hours after TMZ posted the video Monday, Beyonce and Jay-Z were all smiles here.
Joining me to chat about it, CNN's "Reliable Sources" host, Brian Stelter; and John Murray, editor of AlwaysAList.com.
Fellows, welcome.
John, it made me think of, you know, you're in the grocery store and you see the celebrity magazines, and you think, celebrities are just like us. They shop, get coffee. They also have family drama, right?
JOHN MURRAY, EDITOR, ALWAYSALIST.COM: That's right, Brooke. This is really humanizing this couple. I call them the prime ministers of privacy. They don't share a lot about their life unless they're putting it in their music. Solange likes to buck the system. She's like the Latoya Jackson of the family, if you will. It's a combustible situation. She's mad. Now you see how she acts when she's mad.
BALDWIN: What I really noticed, John, to follow up on that, when you see Beyonce, in this elevator, she doesn't flinch, which makes me wonder that this has happened before.
MURRAY: Either she's accustomed to her sister flying off the handle, or she thought, this dress I have on costs so much money --
(LAUGHTER)
-- girl, you're not going to make me have to pay for this.
BALDWIN: Could be. I don't know.
Brian, listen, when it comes to TMZ, this sparks an interesting conversation in our morning meeting. It got us thinking, they have broken multiple major stories. You have the story we're all talking about, the Sterling audio. Michael Jackson's death. Can you explain to our viewers how much they pay?
BRIAN STELTER, HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Gosh, I wish I knew how much they pay. I think there are a wide variety of circumstances, no two stories are alike. In some cases they're not paying for the material. In other cases they probably are paying for the material. They might not be paying the person directly involved. They might be paying a third party. They have lots of different sources in Hollywood. It all comes back to relationships. The same kind of relationship that it takes to get Magic Johnson, as Anderson Cooper has tonight, the same kind of relationship it took for Edward Snowden to share his top- secret NSA files. TMZ has those relationships in Hollywood.
BALDWIN: All right, gentlemen, thank you.
I need to pull away because we have to go to the White House as the president himself is about to bestow quite the honor, the U.S. Medal of Honor, on a former U.S. Army sergeant. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED CHAPLAIN: -- renew our devotion to one another. What we know of God it is the dearness that gives everything it's value. We're honoring Sergeant White. We also honor the dear memories of the men who fought that day, those who now rest in eternal peace. Increase our faith, renew our hope oh, God, that we may live lives worthy of honor, devotion and courage that we recognize today.
We pray all this in your holy name, Amen.
(CROSSTALK)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everybody. Please be seated.
Welcome to the White House.
It has been said that true courage is a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger and a mental willingness to incur it. More than 12 years with our nation at war, the men and women of our armed forces have known the measure of danger that comes with military service. But year after year, tour after tour, they have displayed a selfless willingness to incur it by stepping forward, by volunteering, by serving and sacrificing greatly to keep us all safe.
Today, our troops are coming home. By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will be over. And we'll welcome home this generation, the 9/11 generation, that has proven itself to be one of America's greatest.
And today, we pay tribute to a soldier who embodies the courage of his generation, the young man who was a freshman in high school when the twin towers fell, and who, just five years later, became an elite paratrooper with the legendary 173rd Airborne, the sky soldiers. Today, we present our nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, to Sergeant Kyle J. White.
Kyle is the second sky soldier to be recognized with the Medal of Honor for service above and beyond the call of duty in Afghanistan. Today, he joins Staff Sergeant Salvatore Junta, and members of the Medal of Honor Society, some of whom are with us here today.
We have a lot of VIPs here but I'd like to acknowledge the most important, Kyle's parents, Cheryl and Kurt, and Kyle's girlfriend, Helen. I am told that back home, in Bonnie Lake, Washington, when Kyle wanted to enlist, at first, he had set his sights on the Marines. But his dad, Kurt, is a veteran of the Army Special Forces. So I'm told there was a difference of opinion.
(LAUGHTER)
And I suspect a good family discussion. As commander-in-chief, I cannot take sides in this debate.
(LAUGHTER)
Bottom line is Kyle joined the Army. And in doing so, he carried on his family's proud tradition of service, which found its expression on a November day over six years ago.
Across Afghanistan, base commanders were glued to the radios, listening as American forces fought back an ambush in the rugged mountains. One battalion commander remembered that all of Afghanistan was listening as a soldier on the ground described what was happening. They knew him by his call sign, Charlie 16 Romeo. We know it was Kyle, who was only 20 years old, and 21 months into his military service.
Earlier that afternoon, Kyle and the 13 members of his team, along with a squad of Afghan soldiers, left an Afghan village after meeting with elders. The Americans made their way back up a steep hill, single-file along a narrow path, a cliff rising to their right, and the slope of rocky shale dropping on their left. They knew not to stop, that they had to keep moving. They were headed into an area known as Ambush Alley. And that's when a single shot rang out. Then another. And then an entire canyon erupted with bullets coming from what seemed like every direction. It was as if, Kyle said, the whole valley lit up. The platoon returned fire. Kyle quickly emptied a full magazine, but as he went to load a second, an enemy grenade exploded and knocked him unconscious. He came to with his face pressed against a rock. As he moved to get up, enemy rounds hit, just inches from his head, sending shrapnel and rock shards across his face.
Most of the unit had been forced to slide down the cliff to the valley below, but Kyle saw a teammate, Specialist Kain Schilling, trying to treat his own shattered arm using a tree as cover. Later came to be called the smallest tree on earth. I'm sure that's how it felt. Kyle sprinted through enemy fire and began applying a tourniquet, shielding Kain with his own body as gunfire shredded that tree.
Then Kyle saw another man down, Marine Sergeant Phillip Box, in the open, 30 feet behind them, but too injured to reach cover. Kyle remembers thinking it's just a matter of time before I'm dead. If that's going to happen, I might as well help someone while I can. With bullets impacting all around him, Kyle ran to Box and began to pull the injured Marine to cover. But worried he would expose Box to more gunfire, Kyle retreated. The enemy rounds followed him. He ran out again pulling Box a little farther. Once more he retreated to distract the enemy fire. Once more he went out. Over and over thinking to himself, I'm not going to make it. Kyle could feel the pressure of the rounds going by him. Somehow, miraculously, they never hit him, not once. One of the teammates said it was as if Kyle was moving faster than a speeding bullet. Finally Kyle succeeded in pulling his comrade to cover. Tragically, there on that cliff, Sergeant Box succumbed to his wounds. With his final moments, this American Marine certainly found solace in Kyle White, the American soldier who to the very end was there by his side.
Now, that other injured soldier, Kain Schilling, was still out there. He had sustained another injury, this time to his knee. Kyle ran out once more to cane's side. Kyle ripped off his own belt for a tourniquet and soon got his hands on a working radio. The voice of Charlie 16 Romeo came into base. Crouching behind that lone tree, Kyle began calling in air strikes to take out enemy positions.
Kyle stayed with Specialist Schilling as night fell. Kain was too badly injured to move. Kyle was starting to feel the fog on his own concussion set in. But he knew that he was Kain's best chance to get out alive, so Kyle took charge and ordered the Afghan soldiers to form a security perimeter. He called in a Medevac and made sure Kain and the other injured were safely on board. And only then did Kyle allow himself to be lifted out. As the helicopter pulled away, Kyle looked out the window, watching the darkness as they pulled away from that single tree on the cliff.
When you're deployed, he later said, those people become your family. What you really care about is, I want to get this guy to the left and to the right home.
This family was tested that day. Not a single one of them escaped without injury. And six brave Americans gave their lives, their last full measure of devotion. And we remember them today: Sergeant Phillip A. Box, Captain Matthew C. Ferrera (ph), Specialist Joseph M. Moncore (ph), Sergeant Jeffrey S. Mersman (ph), Corporal Lester G. Roka (ph), and Kyle's best friend, Corporal Shawn K.A. Longsmith (ph). Some of their families are here today. I've asked them to please stand so we can recognize their extraordinary sacrifice.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: The legacy of these fallen heroes endures, and the strength of their unit, 14 men, forever brothers in arms. We're proud to welcome those who fought so valiantly that day.
Specialist Kain Schilling, the soldier that Kyle saved, and members of the 2nd Battalion, Chosen Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, would you please stand.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: We honor Kyle White for his extraordinary actions on that November day. But his journey from that day to this speaks to the story of his generation. Kyle completed the rest of a 15-month deployment in Afghanistan. He came back home and trained other young paratroopers as they prepared to deploy. And when he completed his service, Kyle decided to pursue a different dream. And with the help of the post-9/11 G.I. Bill, he went to college and graduated, and today works for a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. When Kyle walks into the office every day, people see a man in a suit headed to work. That's how it should be, a proud veteran walking into his community, contributing his talents and skills to the progress of our nation.
Kyle will tell you that the transition to civilian life, in dealing with the post-traumatic stress hasn't always been easy. More than six years later, he can still see the images and hear the sound of that battle. He wakes up thinking about his battle buddies. If you look closely at that man in the suit on his way to work, you'll notice the piece of war under his shirt sleeve, the bracelet with the names of his six fallen comrades who will always be with him. Their sacrifice motivates me, he says, to be the best I can be. Everything I do in my life is done to make them proud.
Kyle, members of Chosen Company, you did your duty. And now it's time for America to do ours. After more than a decade of war, to welcome you home with the support and the benefits and opportunities that you've earned. You make us proud. And you make -- you motivate all of us to be the best we can be, as Americans, as a nation, to uphold our sacred obligations to your generation, and all who have faced that measure of danger, and the willingness to incur it. May God bless you, and may your courage inspire and sustain us always. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.
With that, I'd like to have the citation read.
UNIDENTIFIED MILITARY SERVICEMEMBER: The president of the United States of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded, in the name of Congress, the Medal of Honor to specialist Kyle J. White, United States Army.
Specialist Kyle J. White distinguished himself by acts of gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, while serving as a radio telephone operator with Company C, 2nd Battalion Airborne, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade during combat operations against an armed enemy in Afghanistan on November 9, 2007.
On that day, specialist White and his comrades were returning to an outpost from Ashurah (ph) with the village elders. As the soldiers traversed a narrow path surrounded by mountainous rocky terrain, they were ambushed by enemy forces from elevated positions. Pinned against a steep mountain face, Specialist White and his fellow soldiers were completely exposed to enemy fire. Specialist White returned fire and was briefly knocked unconscious when a rocket propelled grenade impacted near him. When he regained consciousness, another round impacted near him, embedding small pieces of shrapnel in his face.
Shaking off his wounds, Specialist White noticed one of his comrades lying wounded nearby. Without hesitation, Specialist White exposed himself to enemy fire in order to reach the soldier and provide medical aid. After applying a tourniquet, Specialist White moved to an injured Marine providing aid and comfort until the Marine succumbed to his wounds. Specialist White then returned to the soldier and discovered that he had been wounded again. Applying his own belt as an additional tourniquet, Specialist White was able to stem the flow of blood and save the soldier's life.
Noticing that his and the other soldiers' radios were inoperative, Specialist White exposed himself to enemy fire yet again in order to secure a radio from a deceased comrade. He then provided information and updates to friendly forces, allowing precision air strikes to stifle the enemy's attack and ultimately permitting medical evacuation aircraft to rescue him, his fellow soldiers, Marines, and Afghan Army soldiers.
Specialist Kyle J. White's extraordinary heroism, and selflessness, above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest tradition of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Company C, 2nd Battalion Airborne, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173 Airborne Bridge in the United States Army.
