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U.S. is out of the World Cup; Exclusive interview with Deandre Yedlin; Russian president Vladimir Putin has a message to President Obama on this 4th of July; Exclusive interview with Meb Keflezighi;

Aired July 04, 2014 - 14:30   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. Thanks for being with me.

And yes, the U.S. is out. But, you know, I know it's unimaginable. The world cup must go on. Later tonight, the host country, Brazil, plays Colombia. The winner, of course, advances on to the semi- finals. It should be a pretty incredible match. This afternoon, Germany faced France in a European showdown. Germany scored in the 13th minute with this header you just saw. France couldn't answer. And the Germans advance with the win 1-0.

U.S. men's soccer team, back home after leaving Brazil without the world cup trophy. But their performance against arguably the toughest teams was certainly enough to impress the president of the United States. He called Captain Clint Dempsey and keeper Tim Howard and had nothing but praise for team USA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Clint, Tim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Mr. President, how is it going?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Mr. President.

OBAMA: Men, I just wanted to call and say you guys did us proud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

OBAMA: Yes. The -- no, you guys just did great. And the way you guys captured the hearts and the imaginations of the whole country is unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You hear those guys? Hey, Mr. President, how is it going? I love that. For vets, Dempsey and Howard, the world cup was likely their last shot. So now U.S. soccer fanatics are turning to the world cup rookies. Soon they could being kept a big impact on their future. One of them, DeAndre Yedlin, the 20-year-old playing crucial minutes off the bench during the group stage on Tuesday against Belgium. He joins me on this 4th of July from New York.

DeAndre, nice to meet you. Welcome. DEANDRE YEDLIN, U.S. SOCCER PLAYER: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: So congrats on really what was an amazing run. I mean, this was your first world cup, and again, let me repeat. You are 20 years of age. Coming home, how has it been for you? Have you gotten recognized like at the airport?

YEDLIN: Yes, I have. I've definitely gotten recognized a lot more and I'm not even in my hometown. So it's been pretty amazing, you know. Just to see the support and, you know, just how much passion the fans have here is -- it's unbelievable.

BALDWIN: Something felt very different this go-round. Let me just attest to that. I know you were away. You were the one playing. But let's talk about that Belgium match. You were subbed in 30 minutes into the first half. I mean, Seemed incredibly intense just watching. What did it feel like to be on the pitch?

YEDLIN: It was amazing. I mean, it was a do or die game. And those are the kind of games you want to be in as a professional player. I mean, you're playing for your country. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the result, but I know we all put our 110 percent into it. You know, and that's all we could ask for. So I had a lot of fun in that game. Thought it was a great game. We were playing against a great team. And like I said, that's all you can ask for.

BALDWIN: Did you have a minute to breathe and pinch yourself and realize in the thick of it what you were doing?

YEDLIN: Not really, no. It all happened so fast. I mean, at the time, it seemed to be happening so slow, because it was practice and we fly and then the game. But after all is said and done, it happened so fast. And there's definitely moments I wish I could go back and relive.

BALDWIN: I hope you're pinching yourself now. And here you are, this team had all kinds of veterans, couple young guys, Julian Green just 19, John brooks, 21. Did you -- I don't know how the word rookie sits with you. Did you rookies, did you, younger fellows, you know, develop any sort of special bond while you were down there?

YEDLIN: Definitely. I mean, as soon as we got into camp, all the younger players kind of just formed together, which was nice. I mean, that's normal. And I -- I've become, you know, very good friends with them. I am -- I think it's safe to call them best friends right now. I text back and forth with them now, and just look forward to the next time I see them.

BALDWIN: Well, I can't wait to watch you in your next world cup. Meanwhile, can we wrap this interview? Dude, your hair. It's been amazing to follow this wild ride. Can we talk about this? What's your inspiration?

YEDLIN: It is a wild ride. Yes, there we go. It's been crazy. You know, it all started probably right before college, and then just kind of escalated, and now I usually have a different hairstyle every week. BALDWIN: We're watching your vine, if you can't see the monitor. So

we're watching the hairstylists, the shaving, the cutting, the -- I don't know what to call it. But what got you -- you said you started before or in college. What was your inspiration to kind of go wild?

YEDLIN: I saw Namar's hair and he had a Mohawk with some blonde in it, and I was like - I like that. So I tried it but my hair was a little bit too thick and I didn't have a relaxer.

BALDWIN: You didn't have that on hand? Come on, DeAndre.

YEDLIN: Yes. I know, I know. So just kind of turned into almost like a fro-hawk. And I rocked that for a little bid. After a little, I didn't dig it. Then I put in some relaxer, got straight. Rocked that for a little bit and then decided to go short and just do a bunch of designs in my hair with some color.

So yes, it's been fun. Me and my barber have a lot of fun with it. I'll spend, you know, anywhere -- anywhere up from seven hours in the barber shop with him, cutting hair. So, yes. We have a lot of fun with it.

BALDWIN: Well, you've got skills up here on the head and with your feet.

DeAndre Yedlin, we will look forward to many years watching you, absolutely kill it playing some soccer. Thank you so much and happy 4th of July. Thanks for swinging by CNN.

YEDLIN: Of course. Happy 4th of July. It thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much, my friend.

Now to this. Many people absolutely glued to the coverage of Justin Ross Harris' hearing. He is the Georgia father facing felony murder for leaving his toddler in that hot car in June. But there was much of the hearing you actually couldn't see. The reaction from the people packed into this courtroom. Next, we'll talk to someone here at CNN who was sitting inside. She can walk us through what it was like to watch and observe all these emotional events and bombshells unfolding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Three film producers face charges in the death of a 27-year- old woman killed by an oncoming train. Sarah Jones was working on midnight rider. It is a movie about rock star Greg Almond, when she was killed back in February. So this crew was instructed to walk into this old railroad trestle, place a bed on the tracks for an action scene. And then this unexpected train came barreling through, killing Jones, injuring several others. The film's producers did not have permission to film on that railway. The director, executive producer, and production owner are charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass. Jones' death has absolutely value galvanized film crew members across the nation to fight for better conditions. You probably saw the hash tag some time ago, slates for Sarah. To our stop story. This is what everyone is talking about. The

string of un-seemingly revelations about this father out of Georgia, Justin Ross Harris. He is this web developer, accused of leaving his 22-month-old toddler to die inside of this sweltering hot car back in June.

So the bombshells that kept dropping, we're not just about this father here, but about his wife, the mother, on the left side of your screen. This is Leanna Harris. I want you to listen to the Cobb County police investigator who testified yesterday about what happened when Leanna went to pick up cooper, thinking he was at daycare. Thinking her husband had dropped him off and discovers he wasn't there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL STODDARD, DETECTIVE, COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA POLICE: Like, Ross never dropped cooper off. And she's like -- just got really calm. And she's like, well, I don't know what to do. They walked back out into the lobby and in front of several witnesses, all of a sudden she states, "Ross must have left him in the car." and they're like what? " There's no other reason. No other explanation. "Ross must have left him in the car."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, Natisha Lance, HLN senior producer.

Thank you so much for coming in. It's your day off, but it was so important to just walk through what you experienced yesterday, this normally bizarre, disturbing, probable cause and bond hearing, three hours.

Let's begin with that moment, when you hear this detective Stoddard describing this wife going to the daycare and she says, oh -- her first reaction is, "Ross must have left him in the car."

NATISHA LANCE, HLN SENIOR PRODUCER: Right. Well, there was an audible gasp in the courtroom, Brooke. And you could feel a shift in the seats, you could feel the energy of people what seemed like getting uncomfortable. And Leanna was over my right, behind my right shoulder so I looked back to see what her reaction would be. And very little reaction from her throughout the entire hearing. She was either looking down or looking straight ahead, not necessarily at anything.

A few moments she would strain her neck and look up to see who was testifying and to be listening to that testimony. But in that moment, that -- it also went on in that testimony that Leanna's mother was -- had more of a reaction in that time when she found out that Cooper wasn't around him. That Cooper had passed away. And her mom said, what do you mean Cooper isn't around? And she asked Leanna, why aren't you responding more? Why aren't you reacting more? And she said I guess I'm in shock. So people also had a reaction to that, also, gasping a little bit. And I did look over. It appeared the woman sitting next to Leanna was her mother and she was continuously dabbing her eyes, looking down and appeared to be crying. BALDWIN: You know, we'll play another exchange. The part that was

toughest, and I'm just a journalist covering the story like you. When I heard the moment when the detective was talking and describing little Cooper and the abrasions on his face and on his back, as if he had been scratching, as if he had been in this hot car, it was 90- something degrees that day in Georgia. And as I'm listening to this, it made me just -- it was horrible. Did anyone react in the courtroom to that?

LANCE: They did. Her mother sitting next to her reacted. I thought Leanna might react as well too. No reaction from her. And no reaction also from Ross Harris, who was sitting right in front of me. I couldn't see the front of his face, but I could see the side of him. And at certain points, he would lean back in his chair and rock. But very little reaction in his face. Very vacant. A very blank expression. And the same thing with Leanna. However, his mother sitting behind me, you could hear her gasp. You could hear her emotion and certain points when people would say to her, shhh shhh shhh and try to comfort her and try to get her to calm down.

BALDWIN: Let me play one more exchange for you.

LANCE: OK.

BALDWIN: Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did his wife ever say anything to him about what he said to police?

STODDARD: She asked him, she had him sit down and he starts going through this, and she looks at him and she's like, "well, did you say too much?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Like, take a half step back. In the police interrogation room, the two of them, the husband and wife. "Did you say too much?"

LANCE: Right. That was another moment where people felt uneasy. There was a shift in the courtroom again, and there was another gasp. Not necessarily from the family. And Leanna, I should point out -- the women sitting on both sides of her, her arms were in lock with them. She was holding their hands, she did have a Kleenex in her hands. She would switch between one or the other hand throughout the hearing. But the courtroom had an audible gasp in that moment, when they heard about that interrogation.

BALDWIN: We -- I say we, those who did not have, you know, had the perch inside the courtroom were watching for some emotion from the this father. And I finally saw it when you have the eyewitness on the stand, describing the moment when this father was pulling the toddler out of the car, and I saw that tear drop.

LANCE: Yes. And I saw that tear drop too. It came out of his left eye. And it was only in those moments when the witness was describing him pulling Cooper out of the car. But also when his friends, his co- workers, were testifying about how much he loved his son. About how he would talk about Cooper all of the time.

And Leanna, that is also when I saw her get emotional. But I wasn't sure if she was responding to the testimony, but it looked like she was looking at Ross so she could have been reacting to Ross' emotions in that moment too.

BALDWIN: I wonder the same thing.

Natisha Lance, thank you so much. I truly believe this is going to end up being one of the biggest stories of the year.

LANCE: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: What's coming out of this case so far. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Tensions. They have been high between the Russia and the United States, of course. But Russian president Vladimir Putin has a message to President Obama on this 4th of July. Hear what he is saying now.

Plus, an emotional funeral for a Palestinian teenager found dead. You see this. Dozens of protesters were injured as they took on Israeli security forces. Obviously, a lot of worries about this escalating totally out of control. We'll take you to the region for a live report as some of our correspondents have been caught in the middle of it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: On this 4th of July, guess who is getting into the holiday speared spirit, Russian president Vladimir Putin. Yes. The Kremlin website has posted this saying Putin quote "express a hope for the successful development as the relationship between both countries based on equal right and utilitarianism despite all the difficulties and disagreements they're facing at the moment."

Difficulties and disagreements is apparently polite speak for Ukraine. You know the story. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, the region, back in March begin massing troops along the border of Ukraine. As for the White House here, they have no comment, except to say national security officials have seen the posting.

More clashes have rocked Jerusalem today, leaving dozens of Palestinians wounded. Most at the hands of Israeli security forces. They're having a sudden spike of hatred there that has been prompted by the killings of those three Israeli teenagers and then the murder of that teenage Arab that some say may have been retaliation.

Today's violence flared as the Arab teen was buried with his open casket carried through the streets. In an ominous sign, men wearing black masks, you see here, some waving the flag of Islamic jihad, were spotted among the mongers. CNN's senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is with us now

in Jerusalem. And we'll get to that bandage on your forehead in a minute here.

But tell me, have things calmed down since those clashes earlier today?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They normally calm down, Brooke, in the evening around the time of the breaking of the daily Ramadan fast. But we do expect them to flare up again, because of the level of tension and anger in the city. Let me actually reference what you just said about people wearing masks.

The reason why people wear masks is that the Israeli forces film all of this, and then go look for the people who are throwing stones. So it's not necessarily an indication of the arrival of some dark and murky group. It's really a question of self-protection as these people go out. And then, in fact, do throw stones at the Israeli police. They just don't want to be identified later, and arrested.

So yes, there is anger on both sides on the Israeli side over the deaths of those three teenagers who were kidnapped on this 12th of June and whose bodies were found on Sunday -- rather Monday afternoon. And on the Palestinian side by the discovery of a body day before yesterday, that of Mohamed Abu Khadr (ph), who both Palestinians and many have concluded was indeed a revenge killing -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. I do appreciate the context and clarification on those black masks we saw in the video.

Let me ask you this. The Palestinian protesters wounded today, as we understand it here, many were wounded by rubber bullets, fired by Israeli security forces? And I understand you may have caught one, as well. What happened?

WEDEMAN: There's no may about it, Brooke. I did get hit in the forehead by one of those rubber bullets. They actually have a sponge tip. But it was turning around, and when it hit me, it was the hard plastic part. It was -- it was just a flesh wound, a scratch. And I was tended to immediately by the medics on the scene. And within about half an hour, we were up and working again.

Now we understand that, of course, more than 60 people protesters were wounded, 13 Israeli policemen wounded. These really were the most intense clashes we've seen in this last three days of protests. And even though tomorrow is the Sabbath, things normally quiet in Jerusalem, I suspect tomorrow will not be a quiet day -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ben Wedeman, thank you very much.

Coming up next, it is the 4th of July, after all, and a little race in Atlanta. You know, just happens to be the world's largest 10k, the peach tree road race. I ran it this morning, along with this guy here, joining me in studio, the winner of this past year's Boston marathon. He is an Olympian. He has won New York. But guess what? Meb, I finished before you. Not because I'm really fast. Come on over here. So nice to meet you. Honestly a pleasure. We're going to talk about this awesome cause he was running and trying to pass people, coming up here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I love this next story, the highlight of my day, other than this race today.

My next guest is an American hero, Meb Keflezighi, became the first American man to win the Boston marathon in more than 30 years. This is event was past April when he crossed the finish line. It was an incredibly proud moment for the city of Boston looking to shake off the shadows from last year's marathon bombing there in Boyles (ph) Street.

So today, my news, this was me as I am running, you know, a little selfie while you are running at 10k with my pal Allison. And here we were at the starting line, rocking the red, white and blue tutus. Technically, I finished the peach tree road race, 6.2 miles, ahead of the man sitting next to me. Because he hadn't even started running the race. Let's be real. He's a little bit faster than I am. And he started way behind me. He tough started in last place behind some 60,000 other runners.

Meb Keflezighi joins me now. His book is "run to overcome." It is such an honor to sit here with you, just after being in Boston and knowing about you. So, Mr. Boston marathon and New York marathon and Olympian, what was it like running and seeing the backs of runners' heads for the first time?

MEB KEFLEZIGHI, 2014 BOSTON MARATHON: It was a great honor to be on the peach tree road race and I started last, ten minutes after everybody left and I was doing it for charity. So it was just a great cause. I was able to -- it was kind of quiet and got louder and louder and more crowded and crowded. So chasing people, dodging people.

BALDWIN: How did people react to you? It's a crowded race. Were you zigzagging?

KEFLEZIGHI: Well, a lot of zigzagging and a lot of piles and a lot of agility movement, and a lot of touching because coming through, coming through. So I have four guys or six guys helping me out, and Meb is coming. He is coming.

BALDWIN: So you had some people clearing the way.

KEFLEZIGHI: I did, yes. It helped a lot. And we met our goals. My goal was to pass 22,500.

BALDWIN: You did?

KEFLEZIGHI: I did pass 22,780.

BALDWIN: Tell me why you did it. Tell me about kilometer kids. KEFLEZIGHI: Well, kilometer kids, it's by the Atlanta track club, and

it was just basically for youth fitness to give back to them, make them more responsible, committed, and how to work persistence and time management. So to be able to just have them be fit and have it. So it was great. And you can learn more about it, chase for -- charity chase for kids.org.

BALDWIN: Charitychaseforkids.com.

KEFLEZIGHI: And you can donate at Atlantatrackclub.org also.

BALDWIN: Can we just talk about your story for a moment. I mean, I remember talking to a Boston globe columnist about the day you won Boston this April. And I mean, he was saying to me, Kevin Colon, was like this is truly the American story. Your parents come over to escape the war from (INAUDIBLE) . Here you are, you come over, you don't speak English. You speak Italian.

KEFLEZIGHI: Used to speak Italian, yes.

BALDWIN: So you're speaking Italian. And you end up going to UCLA, and look at everything you've accomplished now. And your parents -- did I read they put ten kids through college?

KEFLEZIGHI: Correct. You know, I mentioned earlier, I run -- more details about how we came here, 1987, without knowing the language, the clothe on our back, grew up on welfare and we made something. And all my brothers and sisters have accomplished higher education. I just get notoriety because of my running.

BALDWIN: Well, you're kind of fast.

KEFLEZIGHI: Kind of fast but we have an engineer, doctor, MBA, Stanford graduate and Berkeley graduate and list goes on and on. And just fell, my parents gave us this opportunity to sacrifice their lives and they want us to use that opportunity. And we used to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to learn the language word, by word and hard work paid off. And we are so proud of that.

BALDWIN: You pulled it off. Incredibly, may I say. Truly, like I said, an honor. And the last 30 seconds I have with you, what advice do you have for people, just from your own life story, from your running? For kids? What do you want people to know?

KEFLEZIGHI: I would say run to win doesn't mean getting the first place but getting the best out of yourself whether who that talented is. And if you do that, you are going to see a doing the best you can and push your passion and have fun in the process.

BALDWIN: I love it. Meb, so nice to meet you.

KEFLEZIGHI: Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: I mean, I beat you today, after all.

KEFLEZIGHI: You did beat me today. BALDWIN: Thank you, appreciate it. Happy 4th of July.

KEFLEZIGHI: Happy 4th.

BALDWIN: Now this.