Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

LeBron James Returning to Cleveland; Georgia Toddler Death Investigation Continues; Israeli-Palestinian Violence Continues

Aired July 11, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, there was just that moment of we have learned in the past to wait a second and then somebody said, hey, now it's real and then of course the celebration began. And for a lot of reasons, that's great news. If you read what LeBron writes about this city, Northeast Ohio, it's what everybody here takes to heart. That's why it's so good.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Marty, perfect person to cover this. Thank you, Marty. We will see you soon here on CNN.

SAVIDGE: Am I right or am I right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

LEMON: Oh, my gosh. And he's stirring the pot. Of course he is. Thank you, Marty Savidge. Thank you, Clevelanders.

All right, so that's Cleveland. What about Miami? What's their reaction?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No worries. I don't think anybody in Miami is going to start burning some -- I don't think anybody is going to start burning his jersey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four years with LeBron, we're very happy, four Eastern Conferences, two championships. It was fantastic. It's going -- we're going to be very sad to lose him, but we understand he's got to go home and I respect that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Joy Taylor is here from Miami's "Zaslow and Joy" radio show.

Is that a real smile right there? Or do you have to, like, fake it right now? How are you feeling?

JOY TAYLOR, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Oh. Listening to those Cleveland fans is like having my soul ripped out. It's awful.

Look, you know, we kind of had a few days to mourn and prepare ourselves for this. This is kind of like when someone hints that they're going to break up with you, you start emotionally preparing for it. So, look, you know, I'm not going to pretend I'm not disappointed. Everyone down here is upset.

But it kind of felt like it was coming, and, look, Miami can't be anything but grateful. We had four straight finals appearances, two championships. We got to experience the greatest player in the NBA. And what more can you ask for? We have got to let him go. It is what it is.

LEMON: But, LeBron, don't you love me? What happened to us? Oh, my gosh.

TAYLOR: No, no. Look...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Would you take him back? Would you take him back?

TAYLOR: Oh, of course. Please. If he wants to change his mind right now, we will forgive him, of course. But, you know, he's the greatest player in the NBA. He's earned it. He's earned the right to make his decision. And it makes me sad when I see the mural defaced and fans are going to react emotionally.

LEMON: OK.

TAYLOR: I don't like to judge the entire fan base based off one person, the same way that I'm sure Cleveland fans don't want to be judged off the guys that were burning the jersey. Fans are upset. But we will move on and, you know, goodbye, LeBron.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Bye, LeBron. So long.

OK, so here's the thing. I lived in Philly, where we used to throw batteries at the opponent. It was crazy. And you know New Yorkers are rabid fans. I don't know if Miami is like that. What I'm wondering is, that first -- the game between Miami and Cleveland, what's that going to be like? Are they going to need extra security?

TAYLOR: No, no. Miami fans, look, it's Miami. Everybody rips on Miami fans all of the time. We're a loving people. You know, we like to go out and we like to party and we like our sports and entertainment.

And let's not forget that sports is entertainment. So I think it will be fine. Miami fans have got a terrible reputation around the national media, and I think it's very unfair. I'm originally from Pittsburgh. So I come from an amazing sports town. So I can testify that I lived in Miami and I have lived in Pittsburgh, and there's great sports fans here. They are very loyal and dedicated. They get a terrible reputation for whatever reason.

And it's mostly because it's a story. It's a very romantic story for the hometown star to return home and we're just -- we're happy we had him when we did, and it is what it is, like I said.

LEMON: He's going back to his wife. He was with his mistress for a while now, but he's going back. OK.

TAYLOR: That's one narrative.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Can I show you this? These are T-shirts, these Cleveland T- shirts, and they read LeBron James -- quote -- "forgiven." But do you believe they're forgiven, Joy, that he's forgiven?

TAYLOR: Yes, I believe they forgave him. I believe they have always wanted him back and why wouldn't you? Their reaction was what you would expect from a fanatical fan base, and Cleveland has great fans. So, of course, they're going to be upset when he leaves. Do I agree with the way they treated him? Do I agree with what Dan Gilbert did? Of course not.

But, yes, of course he's forgiven. LeBron James is going back to Cleveland. They have an opportunity to win a championship. Yes, I think they're going to forgive me. They're going to get over it real quick.

LEMON: It was fun while it lasted. You always have...

TAYLOR: It was. It was a great run. We had a great time. We're sad. I'm not going to act like I'm not sad. I'm very upset. I'm trying to hold it together. But I think I speak for all Heat fans when I say that we're grateful for the time we had and now we just have to regroup and see where we go from here.

LEMON: You don't want to cry on national TV, the eyeliner and the mascara. This is bad.

TAYLOR: Big girls don't cry. Big girls don't cry. That's not what we do. We will be OK.

LEMON: Joy Taylor, thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck.

TAYLOR: Thank you.

LEMON: All right. We're going to talk to a former NBA -- Greg Anthony in about 20 minutes on this.

All right, now on the case. The dad accused of leaving his toddler to die in a hot car in Georgia has been fired from his job at Home Depot. This comes as investigators testify that Justin Ross Harris was sexting six different women while he was at work and while little Cooper was trapped in the SUV.

Now, we don't know if his wife, Leanna, knew about his online activities, but investigators have questioned her demeanor. They say she made an odd statement when she heard that Ross had not dropped the child off that day, blurting out -- quote -- "Ross must have left him in the car." Leanna Harris has actually just left the state, arriving to visit her mom near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also recently hired a defense attorney. While she hasn't been charged, prosecutors are building a case against her husband, narrowing in on comments he's made online, things that we haven't even heard about until now.

CNN's Victor Blackwell did some digging, and here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What are believed to be the words of Justin Ross Harris one year ago online are now taking on new relevance as Harris is charged with killing his son. "Killing a person in the sense of abortion is selfish and malicious, with the intent of only satisfying your own personal agenda."

They're on the social media site Reddit, where Cobb County detectives say Harris read suspicious topic pages, also known as subreddits.

DET. PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA, POLICE: He visited several sites, and these subreddits, it was people who die. He went to a subreddit, it was called child-free. He also did a search how to survive prison.

BLACKWELL: Hundreds of comments spanning three years under the screen name RoscoeUA, the most recent posted just hours before Harris' arrest. RoscoeUA offered a Reddit user advice on how to avoid arrest in the context of DUI. The post marked three months ago reads: "Refuse to answer any questions and ask if you're being detained. If not, leave."

He goes on: "Everything a police officer does during a possible DUI traffic stop means he is trying to build evidence against you. You should do everything in your power to prevent this."

There are posts about gratitude, one year ago, about a new life in Georgia: "I am now in my dream job, have a beautiful 6-month-old son and love going to work every day. I couldn't be happier."

Also, posts about difficulties, like the surprising challenge suggested during Harris' probable cause hearing, and defense attorney Maddox Kilgore will almost certainly revisit it during any trial.

MADDOX KILGORE, ATTORNEY FOR JUSTIN ROSS HARRIS: Would you be surprised to know that Ross is completely deaf in his right ear? Did you know that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did not know that.

BLACKWELL: RoscoeUA explains: "I had a bottle rocket explode in my ear that was shot by a friend. It caused me to have vertigo, terrible balance and facial paralysis for a long time. Thankfully, after two surgeries, I have no outward issues. I'm just deaf in my right ear" -- potential evidence investigators are scouring to better understand this father charged with killing his only child.

Victor Blackwell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Hmm. Let's discuss this, all these new revelations about this, his online life.

Jane Velez-Mitchell is the best person to do it. She is the host at our sister network HLN of "JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL." That's her show.

We know some background police knowledge of this, but allegedly giving advice on how to avoid a DUI. How can this be used against him?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Well, it's fascinating. Here he is, under a false persona, Roscoe, giving people advice on how to outsmart cops if you're pulled over, and then about three months later, guess what happens to him? He's pulled over by cops, in the sense that he's confronted by cops as his child is there dead on the pavement and he becomes belligerent.

He says, bleep you at the cops. That's when they throw the cuffs on him. What I wonder is, did he think he was smarter than the cops? Because, remember, he had worked as a police dispatcher. And so I'm wondering if he thought, you know, I got this down.

LEMON: Jane, how long have you and I been doing this? They always think that -- we call -- we have segments called stupid criminals.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly.

LEMON: They always think that they're smarter than the cops. Right?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But especially if he worked as a police dispatcher, he might have thought he really had the inside track on how to fool them.

LEMON: We have discussed this on television a number of times. And every -- when you come on, everyone always says, listen, let's stop speculating so much, I caution you on that.

But you believe, I think, that there are just too many coincidences in this case. The searching online. The police knowledge. All of that. You think it's just -- there's way too much.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You can just take any one of the facts that prosecutors have accumulated, and toss it out, and it looks like, wow, overwhelming.

The very fact that at 1:30 in the afternoon, the day care sends a mass e-mail, and on that e-mail list is this father, and he's at work. So wouldn't that set the alarm bells off? Ooh, I'm getting an e-mail from my baby's day care. I forgot to drop him off.

That's just one example. He gets in the car, leaving work. Now, police have described the stench as overwhelming, the stench of death. The child had been dead for several hours in a car that had reached approximately 130 degrees inside. And he doesn't smell anything? LEMON: Yes. Yes. I want to go on to this if you could go up to

number two on the -- I don't have this page. But I want to read what he says. He posts about abortion. And I will read the quote.

It said: "Killing a person in the sense of abortion is selfish and malicious, with the intent of only satisfying your own personal agenda."

Why is he posting about...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, here's my analysis of that. I think it's called a smokescreen.

Sometimes, when you're thinking about doing something, first of all, you're fighting with yourself. And you're also projecting the opposite to the outside world. So, essentially, he's talking about how terrible it is to kill, but he's limiting it to abortion in that comment. Could he be having a personal war with himself? That seems like just from a psychological standpoint, why is he talking about this? Why is he visiting child-free lifestyles?

Why is he looking at videos of people dying, whether it's the Iraq war or suicide? If you take the sum total of this and then a man with different personas, different names lying on the Internet, you have got to wonder, what is up with this man?

LEMON: I just have to say, you know, he will get what's coming to him, whether he goes to jail or not, right? I mean, can you imagine? Even if it was a mistake, can you imagine having to deal with that? And if it wasn't, come on, I mean, it's awful. But that little kid in the car, when you saw -- talked about the abrasions and how he was scratching to get out of the car and fighting to get out of the car, it's just awful.

There's a...

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It's just beyond comprehension. And I think so many people are having a hard time with the idea that anybody could possibly do that intentionally.

But, of course, as you know, and I know, covering these stories -- and he deserves his day in court, but people do the most awful things all of the time.

LEMON: Yes. And people leave their children in cars by mistake all of the time. It's the worst. Remember, check your car if you have a kid. Check your car every single time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let's hope that's the silver lining, is that people really are aware now.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Thank you, Jane. Appreciate you. I'm sure you will be covering this tonight. Love watching you.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You can hear the sirens have just gone off. So, we're all being told to get to a shelter so we're running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Of course, that is our very own Wolf Blitzer in Israel, taking shelter moments after air raid sirens went off. And we're going to check in live with him and he's going to explain exactly what happened in that moment.

And an op-ed column is getting a ton of backlash. The title really says it all. It says -- quote -- "Dear white guy, stop stealing black female culture." We are going to speak with the student who wrote it, plus the guy who is challenging her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're going to try this one more time.

A senior at the University of Mississippi has a message for all the white gay men out there who she says are acting like black women. She says stop stealing black female culture. That's actually the title of her opinion piece that "TIME" published on its Web site, and she has gotten quite the reaction online.

So many people are tweeting her about this. And, of course, she has a response. And so here's what -- had to respond. Here's what Sierra Mannie says in her piece. She says -- quote -- "You are not a black woman, and you do not get to claim either blackness or womanhood. The difference is that the black women with whom you think you align so well, whose language you use and stereotypical mannerisms you adopt, cannot hide their blackness and womanhood to protect themselves the way that you can hide your homosexuality."

Well, of the gay white men who disagree with her, at least one of them decided to fire back a response.

And that is H. Alan Scott. And he wrote this: "Recognizing the things that she thinks belongs only to black women is the very thing that causes the separation and hate in our society. There is a reason why this country is called a melting pot, because eventually once you lose the B.S. separation and start appreciating what makes us all amazing, you start realizing that. Now, we're not all that different. We're not that different at all," he says.

So I want to bring in both these writers.

H. Alan Scott in Los Angeles, can you hear me this time, Alan?

H. ALAN SCOTT, WRITER/COMEDIAN: I can hear you, Don.

Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Yay. OK, thanks for being here.

And Sierra Mannie in Oxford, Mississippi, you can hear me as well, right, Sierra?

SIERRA MANNIE, COLUMNIST: Yes, sir, I can hear you.

LEMON: OK. So you have read his article now, right?

MANNIE: I have.

LEMON: And what do you think of what he wrote?

MANNIE: Well, first of all, Mr. Lemon, you said that my article is intended for all gay white men, and when you first read my article, of course.

I do not think that all gay white men act this way. I do not insinuate such in my article. I actually wrote in the first two sentences I need some of you to stop doing this behavior and maybe some of you think this way.

But from reading his article, also, I would keep on with those same comments. I do not say that all gay men should stop talking, acting or remotely aligning themselves with black women. But it is a problem for gay white men who do do those things.

Also, I definitely disagree with what he says about appreciating people is about ignoring our differences. Well, I definitely do not think that that is the case. I appreciate, for instance, things about different cultures such as mine. Like one of my best friends is Indian, for instance, and I can appreciate...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Here's the question. Here's the question.

MANNIE: OK.

LEMON: A better question is, why did you feel compelled to write this?

MANNIE: Because -- well, first of all, I am not a journalist. I do not write for "TIME." I wrote through my daily student newspaper, because I was hired to be a columnist.

And so I wrote about things that happened to me, things, personal experiences that have happened to me.

LEMON: Why this subject?

MANNIE: Because it happened to me. It happened.

LEMON: What happened to you?

MANNIE: Well, it's not even like just yesterday or the day before that I did it or the day before someone else did it, but almost constantly, it seems, there will be times when I will meet a gay white male, or I will witness it, a gay white male interacting with another black woman, and there will be -- it's aggressive to me, coming up to me and saying, ooh, girl, this and that, and basically putting on their best black woman, basically, face, their best black woman act, in an attempt to try to communicate with me, as if that...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK. I gotcha. All right. And you're sick of it. You're sick of that and you think it's -- they're putting on an act, and you're -- right, that you're sick of it. OK.

MANNIE: Yes.

LEMON: H. Alan, what do you think of -- that's her experience.

SCOTT: Yes. And I -- first, I have to say that I totally sympathize and relate and empathize with the struggle that it must be to be a black woman, because it's true. Black women in America are persecuted on many different levels by both white community and African-American men. That's just the case.

African-American rates of -- African-American women's rates of HIV infection is growing in this country. And there's so many other areas where African-American women are getting the short end of the stick.

I will say, though, that I did not say in my article that we should ignore our differences. We should embrace our differences and we should realize that we are all kind of the same and we're all experiencing this at the exact same time and that it isn't about specifically isolating gay white men as doing something to black women. It's about unifying a community and saying we're in this together.

LEMON: So my question to you is the same as her. What compelled you to -- because when I read it, I was like, OK, why is he defending his right to be a black woman or act like a black woman? What compelled you?

SCOTT: Well, I don't -- I mean, all due respect, I feel like you misread that. I don't feel that...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, but that's what you were doing. You're saying we have a right to do this. We should all be able to do what we want. So...

(CROSSTALK)

MANNIE: No, I'm saying that, culturally -- I'm saying that, culturally, we have a right to communicate in ways that is not offensive. And, yes, there are levels that -- saying ghetto booty is very

offensive. However, if these men, gay men -- and we have all experienced this and I have seen it myself -- where gay men do identify with the affirming awesomeness of black women, the dream girls effect, the Beyonce effect, which you quoted.

And also too, we have to acknowledge historical context here, that many of the mannerisms that you spoke of in your article actually come from gay culture, like "Paris is Burning," like "Boys in the Band." These are not new mannerisms that have come in the last 10 years because of African-American female culture. It's been around. So...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I will let you respond. And then I will go ahead.

Go ahead, Sierra.

MANNIE: But, you know, I wasn't talking about gay behavior or like this idea that these certain things are gay.

What I'm talking about, stereotypical black behaviors, coming up to me and calling me ShaNaNae or trying to talk to me when my hair was natural about, ooh, yes, my hair is...

(CROSSTALK)

MANNIE: That's different.

LEMON: So, let me jump in here, because here's the thing that probably both of you should understand.

I think that many people probably read, Sierra, what you said, and they thought it was that you were, you know, excluding people and that you were coming off as a bit angry. I can understand. But I understand what you're saying.

There's a term, H. Alan, called Columbusing, right, that -- where African-Americans feel that white people will think that they discovered something that black culture has been doing for years, like twerking, right?

SCOTT: Yes.

LEMON: All of a sudden, Miley Cyrus is the queen of twerking. Well, that has been happening in black culture for years. And there are many other examples of that.

So you may think that it's something that is funny and cute and that you're embracing black culture, but what you're doing is almost a minstrel show in some way. You're -- it's a mockery and it's like, OK, this is fun, this is great, I can do this, I'm twerking now and now that's over.

So you pulled parts of the culture and you use it to sort of make fun and then you cast it away. So I understand what she's saying with that.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: I completely agree with that. But I will say the African- American community is perpetuating the stereotype of pushing this.

You look at videos with -- music videos with, you know, rappers and they're having African-American women doing the twerking dances. It's not just Miley Cyrus is the queen of twerking. And so if there is a cultural offense, which I completely empathize and relate to, if there is a cultural offense, the African-American community should also address it within their own community and what kind of stereotype their own -- they're perpetuating on themselves.

(CROSSTALK)

MANNIE: No, no, no, no, no.

This is not about twerking. This is not about what rappers do in rapping videos. This is not at all about that. That is an excuse. You're not acknowledging the fact that certain things do belong to people of certain cultures.

And when you say that I identify those, then you're erasing the fact that I have culture and that there are things that I have, that I have experienced, there's language that I know that you have nothing...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK. We have got to go, just for time purposes.

But people don't own certain things just because they are of a certain color. You just can't own that.

SCOTT: Exactly.

LEMON: But I understand what you're saying.

Here's what I think is the most important thing that you say and that what you, H. Alan, should understand when you're trying to be cute or funny or gay and you're walking up to people saying, hey, girl.

What she says, she said: "But here is the shade. The non-black people who get to enjoy all of the fun things about blackness will never have to experience the ugliness of the black experience, systematic racism and the dangers of simply living while black."

I know that there is a similarity in gays being gays and transgender people and questioning people, being discriminated against. It's not the same as being an African-American. And this is not my minority group is more, you know, discriminated against than yours.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: That's belittling -- that's belittling the gay experience. It is. (CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, I said it's similar. I didn't say that it was -- it's not you know, the same. It's not the same.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: Implying that we can hide our homosexuality is belittling it.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, but it's the truth. You can hide your homosexuality.

If I -- listen, let me tell you, if I ask people on the screen, I said, which one of these people on the screen is gay, nobody would know that. But if I said, which one of these people on the screen is black, everybody would know that. There is some credence to that. So you can't dismiss it.

SCOTT: Yes.

LEMON: But we're not going to solve it...

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: No, I don't dismiss it, but I feel like it's offensive to imply that we can and we should.

(CROSSTALK)

MANNIE: And it was not advice.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, no one is -- that's not what anyone is implying. But to say that they're the same is disingenuous.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: So I have got to go. But thank you both. I appreciate it. It's a fascinating conversation.

SCOTT: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Sierra Mannie and also H. Alan Scott, appreciate it.

Next, rockets flying in Israel, this is closed-circuit video that shows just one of the many attacks that sent people running for cover, Israel not backing down today. The country's prime minister says he is considering a -- preparing for all options, and that could be a war.

Plus, CNN gets unique access to a New York Police Department forensic lab. What is it like in the state-of-the-art place, this equipment, and how are officers using it to solve cases? A real-life CSI explainer coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Palestinian deaths from Israeli attacks on Gaza have risen today past 100. No Israelis have died in the fighting that started late Monday, so zero Israeli deaths so far.

And that's despite the barrage of incoming rockets being fired from Gaza militants and attacks today set off a gas station ablaze, a gas station ablaze some 15 miles into Israel and left one person wounded.

Wolf Blitzer just happened to be right there, and just a short time later, he had to ditch his car with his CNN crew when air raid sirens signaled incoming danger. Here is Wolf running for cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Clayton (ph).

You can hear the sirens have just gone off. So, we're all being told to get to a shelter. So we're running and...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So that was Wolf Blitzer earlier in Southern Israel.