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Iraqi Army Launches Strike against Terrorist Group ISIS; Father Suspected of Intentionally Leaving Toddler Son in Car All Day to Die; Benghazi Terrorist Suspect Arrives in U.S.; Young Man Confesses to Police Plans to Bomb School; Interview with Rick Springfield

Aired June 28, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the creative director tells me it is a very delicate balance to use all of those gismos, all of that technique, but not to overdo it because the last thing they want is a bunch of people walking out motion sick. Fred?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's a good point. That takes movie experience to a whole other area. You had me until I started envisioning a movie like a rain forest or something. Forget it. All right, thanks, Stephanie.

All right, hello again. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories we are following in the CNN Newsroom. We begin with a stunning admission from a Georgia father who left his son in a hot car for seven hours while he went to work. Justin Ross Harris has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and second-degree child cruelty in the death of his 22-month-old child. A funeral for the boy is happening right now in the father's hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The new revelations in this case come from search warrants released earlier today. Our Nick Valencia has startling details. Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, Police released these search warrants, three in total, against Justin Ross Harris, one for search and seizure of his cellphone, the other of his house, and he last for his vehicle. Perhaps the most important detail in these search warrants is this statement that I'm about to read to you.

"During an interview with Justin he stated that he recently researched "child deaths inside vehicles" and what temperature it needs to be for that to occur. Justin stated he was fearful that this could happen." And we don't know the context in which this statement was given, whether he volunteered this information or whether it was revealed during police interrogation. We should also note that this week a source close to the investigation told HLN's Nancy Grace that on Justin Ross Harris's work computer it was found that somebody, perhaps Justin Ross Harris, had looked into how long it takes for an animal to die in a hot car. This police report goes a step further and says that Harris stated that he researched child deaths in hot cars.

How Justin Ross Harris is being portrayed by law enforcement is completely juxtaposed by how he is being portrayed seen here in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Friends and family that we've spoken to off camera say that he was a good man, a great father, a funny and charming and a very likable person. These latest detail in these police reports perhaps makes the case against Justin Ross Harris even more startling. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

Overseas the Libyan militant suspected of masterminding the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi is now stateside here in the United States. Ahmed Abu Khatalla arrived at federal court in Washington, D.C., this morning. He has been meeting with lawyers, and on its Twitter account the FBI says it expects Khatalla will go before a judge in about 90 minutes from now. Khatalla was captured in eastern Libya nearly two weeks ago by U.S. commandos and FBI agents. Since then top U.S. investigators have been interrogating him on board a U.S. transport ship.

On the first day, full day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan fighting rages on in Iraq. A top security official says Iraqi forces have retaken the city of Tikrit from ISIS fighters. Government troops advanced on the city from four directions using tanks and backed up by the Iraqi air force. A tribal leader says the ISIS militants helped by tribal fighters have retreated, by a militant fighter disputes that account and says Tikrit is still in the hands of ISIS.

Today people in cities across the country are rallying to stop deportation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Organizers are calling it the national day to stop separating families. Today marks a little more than one year since the Democratic-controlled Senate passed the immigration reform bill. Activists are now demanding the GOP controlled House pass a reform bill.

A scathing White House report sites chronic failures at the Veterans Affairs medical system and blames unresponsive leadership and a, quote, "corrosive culture." The report just delivered to President Obama comes in the wake of alarming revelations by a whistleblower, and first reported by CNN, that some veterans died while waiting for care at the Phoenix V.A. hospital. The White House report recommends overhaul leadership of V.A. and its outdated scheduling system.

Next, a young man who planned to open fire on his classmates is caught by police. You will hear him tell investigators why he wanted to do it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The families of those killed in the deadly Santa Barbara shooting rampage are still grieving, unable to comprehend why their loved ones had to die. And the shooters' father Elliot Rodger is breaking his silence. He spoke to ABC about what it is like knowing his son caused so much suffering.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS: Mr. Rodger, Elliot was your son and he is dead. How do you mourn a child whom others vilify?

PETER RODGER, FATHER OF ELLIOT RODGER: It is very hard, Barbara. It is very, very hard. After reading the journal I had a lot of anger for him. And I think my job now is to try to replace that anger with love and forgiveness. But at the same time I am haunted by the disease this human being that changed and became something else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And that was Peter Rodger, father of Elliot Rodger, talking with Barbara Walters last night.

He spent countless hours plotting and planning a massacre at his Minnesota high school. Luckily he was arrested before he could carry out his deadly plan. And now we are getting glimpse of what was going on in the mind of this 17 year old would-be killer from the young man himself. Here is George Howell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Insights into the mind of a self- professed would-be killer, 17-year-old John LaDue seen here stabbing a knife between fingers. There's a video showing the teen testing bombs that he hoped to use for a much bigger plan. It is all part of evidence now along with this chilling audio where LaDue explained to investigators his methodical plans for mass murder.

JOHN LADUE: Sometime before the end of the school year my plan was to steal a recycling bin from the school and take one of the pressure cookers I made and put it in the hallway and blow it up during passing period time. My intentions were to then when people were fleeing I would detonate when people were fleeing, just like the Boston bombings, and blow them up, too. Then my plans were to enter and throw Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs and destroy everyone, and when the SWAY comes, I would destroy myself.

HOWELL: Calmly and collected LaDue he revealed how he planned to kill as many people as possible at a Minnesota high school, even his own parents.

LADUE: They did nothing wrong. I just wanted as many victims as possible.

HOWELL: As for the why.

LADUE: I was not bullied at all. I don't even think I have been bullied in my life. I have good parents. I live in a good town. I think I'm just really mentally ill and no one has noticed. I have been trying to hide it.

HOWELL: But LaDue made one thing very clear in his interview with investigators.

LADUE: He thinks I'm just a good kid because I can lie pretty well and persuade him that I am ordinary.

HOWELL: LaDue admitted he was inspired by serial killers and other mass murderers, but that he specifically wanted to be different than the gunman who fatally shot 20 children and killed five adult staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

LADUE: I didn't want to prove I was a wuss like all the other recent shooters, like Adam Lanza, show shot himself. I wanted to get taken down by the SWAT just to show that I wasn't a wimp and not like willing to fight with equal force.

HOWELL: Police busted the plot after someone saw the teen acting suspiciously at a storage facility and called 911. That's where they recovered bomb making supplies. CNN legal analyst Paul Callan says this could have been the case that slipped through the cracks.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You are not going to see him as a potential threat. And here he was, at the same time, gathering Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, guns, planning to attack a junior high school and a high school. He could have caused absolute carnage. Something very definitive and concrete did happen and that was the accumulation of the weapons and bombs necessary to execute the plan.

George Howell, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The Obama administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than any other previous administration, 400,000 since 2009. That is nearly double the number under former president George W. Bush. Despite that people still flock to America hoping for a chance at a better life. Miguel Marquez has the story of one remarkable woman who did not let her status slow her down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How complicated has immigration politics become?

GABY PACHECO, IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST: They are extremely complicated. They change every day.

MARQUEZ: Gaby Pacheco knows. Brought to the U.S. as a child, she is one of millions of young immigrants raised here, acting, feeling in every way American, except she is not.

MARQUEZ: What do you consider yourself?

PACHECO: I consider myself an American. I'm from Ecuador. I was born there. I acknowledge and understand that I don't have papers, and ask for the opportunity to be able to right that wrong.

MARQUEZ: Taking a cue from the civil rights movement, a top student from three degrees from Miami-Dade College came out as undocumented in 2009. Now she is all in on immigration politics. Like a steely-eyed Washington lobbyist, her politicking done from her stoop, she plots and plans immigration reform. She's had a taste of success.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To mend our nation's immigration policy.

MARQUEZ: In 2012 the president signed an order allowing millions of young immigrants like her to get temporary legal status, a provision of the Dream act. The Dreamers, as they are called, saw part of their dream come true.

There is almost a feeling of celebration at this center today, and trepidation, because it's a brand new world for a lot of these people.

Now she fights for others, a trait she picked up on the playground.

PACHECO: Being the bully of the bullies in a way, saying, hey, you can't be bullying other people.

MARQUEZ: So as a child you bullied the bullies, is that what I'm hearing you saying?

(LAUGHTER)

PACHECO: Not really, but yes.

MARQUEZ: In "Documented, From CNN Films," the story of Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer Prize winning former "Washington Post" journalist who risked it all coming out as undocumented. Gaby Pacheco plays a small but critical role.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My first phone call was Gaby Pacheco.

MARQUEZ: She says people like Vargas having the courage to face authority and say "no more" will eventually force change.

PACHECO: He is a game changer in what is the immigrant rights movement.

MARQUEZ: Because of his powerful story?

PACHECO: Because of his story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much to Miguel Marquez there. Be sure to tune in CNN tomorrow night. The film "Documented" tells the story of Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist you saw there. Hear his story tomorrow night on CNN 9:00 p.m. eastern time.

And when you hear the name Rick Springfield, what do you think? You start singing that tune, don't you, "Jessie's Girl," the singer who wished he had Jessie's girl? "General Hospital's" Dr. Noah Drake, guess what, all those you likely think about. But do you consider him a bestselling author? Is that what also comes to mind? The triple threat star is joining me live to talk about his new book after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

Doesn't that bring back great memories? "Jessie's Girl," the iconic megahit that earned Rick Springfield a Grammy in 1982 and then made him a household name. He also made soap opera fans swoon as the playboy surgeon Dr. Noah Drake, remember that, in long-running stints on "General Hospital."

All right, well, what you might know about rick Springfield is that he a "New York Times" bestselling author two times over as well. His 2010 autobiography is one of "Rolling Stones" best rock memoirs of all time, and now his first novel "Magnificent Vibration," is getting rave reviews as well. "Variety" magazine in fact says, quote, "This is not the prose of a rock star who decided to try his hand at novel writing but of a novelist who just happens to be a rock star." What, that is quite the compliment. Rick Springfield right now joining us in the studio. So what does it feel like to get that kind of review, even though you told me it was a writer you actually wanted to be before you became a songwriter?

RICK SPRINGFIELD, SINGER, ACTOR, WRITER: Yes, I wanted to be a writer. And like I said, before I noticed girls were looking at this band down the street and not the writer, I said I'm going the music route. And I actually like the songwriting. But it's great. I'm very proud. I have actually gotten better reviews for my writing than I have for any of my records.

WHITFIELD: Isn't that incredible? It all comes full circle. It really was your destiny then to be this writer despite what you were saying about the music world. So let's talk about your book. The main character in "Magnificent Vibration" finds a phone number for god and begins a relationship with him over this smartphone. Where did this idea come from?

SPRINGFIELD: It's just modern technology. But it is a thing I always wanted. I haven't met anyone who has a spiritual belief who wouldn't love to have a conversation with god. I thought what path would it take if that actually happened? And so I started writing that, I started with an original conversation with god. And he doesn't believe it, of course. He thinks some guys has got all his info. Finally he is told something that no one else knows and he goes oh, my god, which he says. And then it just goes from there. It's really just a setup of the story. Three people hook up through this book called "Magnificent Vibration" and go on a search for carnal salvation and maybe save the world.

WHITFIELD: Wow. When you were penning this were you thinking this is really going to take off, I can imagine people identifying with it, or was it just something that was in you that you said I have to put it down on paper because it's been --

SPRINGFIELD: It's one of my beliefs that I think we are at a tipping point in the world. It's not a preachy book. First of all, it is dark humor. It is funny. It's not meant to be a preachy book. But there is my concern that we are poisoning the world, killing each other, and there is getting to a tipping point now where there is not going to be a road back.

And so that is kind of the underlying theme of the book about respecting your mother, mother earth. That is basically the underlying theme of it. It's a lot of dark humor. A reviewer said it reminded him of a mix between "Portnoy's Complaint" and "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." So that covers a lot of ground. WHITFIELD: So then what is the personal gratification for you? Now

you are getting incredible reviews here. And people are excited about your written work just as they are also excited that you are still very much involved in music. You're touring and coming through Atlanta tonight because you are performing tonight with Pat Benatar.

SPRINGFIELD: At Chastain.

WHITFIELD: Yes, at Chastain Park. So you really are exhibiting that you are very multitalented, you are multifaceted. And what does it feel like on the receiving end to be acknowledged for these things?

SPRINGFIELD: I just view it as a next step. I never look at it as it as, wow, I'm doing this and this and this, because that's not reality. I'm a very driven person, which is why I keep doing it. I am getting ready to record a new record soon and touring more than ever. I love doing all of that stuff. And writing has really been the center of it all for me. Songwriting, there is a reason I started singing, because no one else would sing my songs.

(LAUGHTER)

SPRINGFIELD: And because of the attention that the autobiography got which I wrote myself without a ghost writer, they said, the publisher said you should be writing fiction. So I gave it a shot.

WHITFIELD: Nice. And then the icing on the cake you got a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, yes?

SPRINGFIELD: Right. I used to live two blocks away from where the star is. When I came here from Australia I used to walk along the boulevard and look for other Aussies there, like Errol Flynn. So it is part of old Hollywood, the last vestige of old Hollywood.

WHITFIELD: It really is something very special. What was it like to actually see that star? Enjoy that moment of being --

SPRINGFIELD: I haven't actually.

WHITFIELD: You haven't seen it in person?

SPRINGFIELD: I have. I haven't kind of - that's cool. There was the ceremony and then we split.

WHITFIELD: Let's pretend we're there. Let's have that moment right now.

SPRINGFIELD: Wow! Someone wrote "is a geek" underneath it.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: No. There it is. What a moment. That's great. That's fantastic.

So I dare to ask, what's next? Because you are doing so much. And does it, again, involve, you know, you talk about your new album coming out, but does it involve more writing in the long form way or more music? What brings the most gratification?

SPRINGFIELD: Writing does, songwriting or prose writing. I have just finished the sequel to "Magnificent Vibration." I finished it the other night and sent it off to publishers.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. Well, you must not sleep ever.

SPRINGFIELD: Pretty much. I pretty much don't sleep.

WHITFIELD: Are you a nocturnal writer?

SPRINGFIELD: No. Well, yes. The morning. The great thing about writing prose is you just open up your laptop on an airplane and I could start doing it. It is a great way to use time on the road that you waste time traveling when you are usually playing video games or listening to music. So it is always something constructive that I can do.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Fantastic, congratulations. What a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. Great work.

All right, we have much more of the Newsroom straight ahead. What a way to end our hour today, right, with Rick Springfield in house. Thanks so much for stopping by. "CNN Money" starts right now.