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Important Aspects of Obama's Asia Trip; Russia To Build Nuclear Reactors For Iran; Russian-Made Tanks, Artillery Flood Into Donetsk, Ukraine; Patrick McStay Reacts To Arrest In Murder Case; Violent Protests In Mexico Over Missing Students

Aired November 11, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama's week-long Asian trip includes two summits with world leaders on important issues like trade and nuclear weapons. So far, less weighty topics are dominating the headline. The president arrived in traditional Chinese clothing but online media erupted because the president was choosing gum as he emerged there from his limo. A big no-no to choose chewing gum at a formal event. The president no longer smoking but still chews nicotine gum. Here he is in June when he attended the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion.

Let's talk about the president, his gum and bigger issues at stake during the president's overseas trip with Michael Weiss, a columnist with "Foreign Policy" magazine.

Chinese media has -- I want to ask you, is this what we should be paying attention to? But you have Chinese media focused on this, and there is a lot of protocol and etiquette that goes into meetings like this, and this is obviously bothering them.

MICHAEL WEISS, COLUMNIST, FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE: I mean, look, I think this is sort of the fluff of the coverage of this sort of important event. You know, there is also the famous photograph or image of Vladimir Putin putting the shawl, I think it was, on the wife of the Chinese leader. I take that as slightly more significant, although, that's been given the same kind of mocking or derisive commentary in the media.

KEILAR: I'm very familiar with this woman and her husband.

WEISS: Yes, I have a better rapport with the Chinese government than you do, and, oh, by the way, this happens the same week that Gazprom, the gas company in Russia, has made a deal with China. So the Russians are trying to telegraph to the United States "your so-called Asia pivot, guess what, we've done that, we're there, and it matters more to us than you."

KEILAR: We're seeing the pictures of the shawl right now.

WEISS: Yeah.

KEILAR: And she smiles and there was certainly some controversy over that as well.

WEISS: Sure.

KEILAR: The gum issue, though, I guess, as the president goes into this, in a way he goes -- he goes to Asia at a time where perhaps overseas and by China he might -- it's always about who's stronger, right? He goes in seeming perhaps a little weak and this is something to ding him on, right?

WEISS: There's not the due solemnity that people expect of the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief. He's sort of casually striding into the hallway. It's almost like he's meeting with some old friends and it's no big deal. And that, I think -- the Chinese state media will use that to further undercut this attempt at the United States to rebuild this relationship or strengthen the relationship. But, again, what are we talking about here? Does this matter more than geopolitics? No.

KEILAR: No. They want to see respect, so this is maybe sort of a symbol for them?

WEISS: Right.

KEILAR: The other thing I want to talk to you about, word now that Russia is planning to build up to eight new nuclear reactors in Iran for, quote, "peaceful use of atomic energy."

(CROSSTALK)

WEISS: It has to be peaceful, right?

KEILAR: It's always peaceful.

WEISS: Correct.

KEILAR: But of course, this comes as a time when the U.S. is trying to broker a deal to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions to ensure that they are peaceful. So how do you read this?

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Is this more of the shawl?

(LAUGHTER)

WEISS: The Russians have played a very clever game with the United States with respect not just to Iran but a host of sort of issues that have bilateral importance. With respect to Iran, though, all the while they've been saying, well, we'll get on board with you and Security Council sanctions but we're not going to help you enforce them. We'll take deposits, Iranian deposits in Russian banks. The subsidiaries of these banks are, by the way, owned by Iranian state banks for, you know, channeling funds or moving funds around the world that are related in some way to Iran's illicit nuclear program. We will continue to sell the Islamic Republic of Iran very advanced weapons technology. So you recall the famous dispute over S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.

So the United States patted itself on the back and said, oh, great, the Russians have agreed to nix this contract. But nobody bothers to ask why would Russia want to sell anti-aircraft systems to one of the world's leading state sponsors of global terrorism? Right? This deal, I think, this is another way of -- on social media what's referred to as trolling, I see this as the Russian government trolling the United States.

Right now, you're in intense talks with Iran to certify or to agree to this sort of final agreement on the nuclear program. So now we're going to engage in another deal to build more nuclear reactors. I saw one former U.S. de-proliferation official saying, we don't know if this means that Russia will accede to allowing Iran to develop its own fuel rods?

KEILAR: Yeah.

WEISS: That's a major, major sticking point for the West in these negotiations. So Russia's basically saying, yeah, we can undercut you.

KEILAR: And we see that even in small gestures.

We covered everything from gum to nuclear arms.

WEISS: There you go. All in a day's work.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Michael Weiss, thanks so much.

Next, Russian-made tanks and artillery flooding into the streets of Donetsk, Ukraine. Rebels there arming themselves. Could this mean a full-on civil war is on the horizon? We have that next.

And later, a suspect arrested in the mysterious murders of the McStay family. Our own Randi Kaye interviewed the man known as Chase Merit, and she also spoke to the father of one of the victims. His reaction to what that suspect had to say about his son right after the break.

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KEILAR: Ukraine once again on the brink. Fighting has gotten worse in and around Donetsk, the eastern city, seized by rebels aligned with Moscow. Things began to unravel after the separatists held elections and Moscow recognized the outcome. Now Ukraine and NATO say rebels are loading up on Russian-made tanks and artillery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE, NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: Materiel, equipments, heavy armored weapons, supplies continue to flow into eastern Ukraine and more have been seen in the past several days. So this cease-fire is in name only at this point. The violence continues to increase day by day. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Moscow's support for the rebels has brought down sanctions that have rattled the Russian economy, pummeled the ruble, slashed economic growth to zero, but that hasn't stopped Vladimir Putin from keeping skin in the game.

With us from Kiev, Michael Bociurkiw, the spokesman for the OSCE, that's the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Michael, thanks for being with us.

And tell us about the state of things. We heard right there that this is a cease-fire in name only. What's driving the violence?

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, SPOKESMAN, OSCE: Good to be back with you, Brianna. Yes, we are not seeing the de-escalation that we would have expected by now after the signing of those accords way back in early September. In fact, since Saturday, Brianna, we've seen almost 130 unmarked military vehicles coming towards Donetsk city. By the way, these are not just small trucks. These are big trucks. They're carrying heavy artillery pieces and we've also noticed they're carrying multi-launch rocket system. So this isn't the de-escalation everyone hoped for and this isn't something that will contribute towards immediate peace right now.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's the opposite of what you're hoping for. When you're looking at winter coming now, are you expecting that to effect the fighting?

BOCIURKIW: Yeah, there are two groups of people in are heavily affected in a dire way. There are hundreds of thousands of people still in the conflict zones, like Donetsk and Luhansk, that have no access to electricity, no running water, no gasoline to keep them warm during the summer. Then we have way over 400,000 internally displaced people throughout Ukraine, many of them living in unheated facilities.

I can tell you, too, Brianna, that we're thinking a lot these days about those kids and families that are still around that MH-17 crash site. It's right in the middle of a conflict zone. They have very little heating and running water, so it's a dire situation we're looking at.

KEILAR: Michael thanks for talking with us from Ukraine. And with the cease-fire crumbling, I think we'll be talking about this in the days to come.

Michael Bociurkiw, thank you so much.

Next, a suspect arrested in the mysterious murders of an entire family with two little kids. Our own Randi Kaye interviewed him and spoke to the father of one of the victims. His emotional reaction to the news of this arrest right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: Exactly one year ago today, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the Mohave Desert. Joseph McStay, his wife, Summer, and their two young sons vanished more than three and a half years before that, a mystery that would stump investigators for years. But just last week, a major break in the case. Authorities arrested Charles "Chase" Merritt, the man they think is responsible for the deaths.

In his first on-camera interview since Merritt's arrest, Joseph McStay's father describes his reaction to the news to CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK MCSTAY, FATHER OF JOSEPH MCSTAY: We knew something had happened.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We met Patrick McStay near his home in Houston days after learning of an arrest in his son's murder. This is his first television interview since San Bernardino sheriff's deputies announced they had Chase Merritt in custody.

(on camera): Did you get a sense of relief when you heard that name?

MCSTAY: A lot of people will say it's like lifting a ton off your shoulders. I said, no, it was more to me like a boulder falling on me.

KAYE (voice-over): That's because Patrick's son considered Chase Merritt a friend. Joseph McStay sold custom waterfalls and Merritt was one of his welders.

(on camera): Do you think Chase Merritt is capable of something like this?

MCSTAY: After all I've seen through the years and the information we found, I still can't say yes, but I can definitely say I wonder.

KAYE (voice-over): Patrick McStay has been waiting nearly five years to find out who killed his family. It was February 4, 2010, when Joseph McStay, his wife, Summer, and their two beautiful young boys, Joseph and Gianni, disappeared. Their remains were found a year ago, buried in two shallow graves in the Mohave Desert. Investigators say they died from blunt force trauma.

In our exclusive interview with Merritt earlier this year, he shared that the grave site is just 20 miles from his home.

(on camera): Would you ever expect this is how it would end? In the desert like that?

CHARLES "CHASE" MERRITT, ARRESTED IN MURDER CASE: In the desert? I had no clue.

KAYE (voice-over): We played some of our two-hour interview with Merritt for Patrick McStay. MCSTAY: I am telling you and describing the area perfectly. I'm

telling you, he knows that area really well

MCSTAY (voice-over): On that final day, Merritt told us he'd met Joseph McStay for what he described as a business lunch and that they talked by phone a dozen times later that day.

KAYE (on camera): You were the last person he saw.

MERRITT: I am definitely the last person he saw.

KAYE (voice-over): That night in 2010 at 8:28 p.m., Merritt says his phone rang, that it was Joseph calling from his cell phone, but Merritt didn't answer, he says, because he was too tired, a statement now raising eyebrows among those who have followed the case closely.

MCSTAY: The rest of Joe's existence was phone calls, text messages. So if I want to make you look like you're alive for several hours, what's the person going to do? I'm going to take to your phone, I'm going to text, I'm going to call myself.

KAYE: During our interview, Merritt revealed he'd taken a lie detector test soon after the McStay's disappeared. He said he never got the results from authorities.

(on camera): Did detectives ask you if you killed Joseph McStay and his family?

MERRITT: I don't recall them asking me that.

KAYE: Nothing that direct?

MERRITT: Hmm?

KAYE: Not that directly?

MERRITT: I don't recall them being that direct.

KAYE (voice-over): If Chase Merritt did kill the McStay family, Patrick McStay suspected it had to do with money. Joseph landed a waterfall deal worth $9 million, so Merritt stood to make a lot of cash. But Patrick said his son told him Merritt's work had gotten sloppy and Joseph was in the market for another welder.

Patrick said he last spoke with Merritt earlier this year when the two discussed the books they were writing about the case. Looking back, he says he thinks Merritt was just digging to find out what Patrick knew about the murders. Patrick hasn't seen or spoken to him since.

(on camera): What would you ask him?

MCSTAY: I wouldn't ask him anything. There'd be one person coming out of that room.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Randi Kaye joins me now.

Randi, you did a documentary on it for CNN. It caught my ear and so many of our viewers because it's a family and it was so mysterious and now --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: And beautiful children.

KEILAR: -- a year ago. Gorgeous little kids.

I remember at the time there was a thought that it must have been more than one person that had attacked the family, or been involved in it if it was an abduction. Investigators now think that Chase did it alone. Is that possible?

KAYE: That's the question, because if he did it alone and if it was blunt force trauma like the authorities are saying, there would have been a lot of blood in the house, so it would have been a mess in the house. Plus, there were three different locations. Not only the house in Fall Brook, California, but whoever did this would have had to have been in the house, then driven the bodies 100 miles north to the desert where they were buried and driven the family car 250 miles south, which is where the car was discovered. And if it was Chase Merritt, he would have figured out he had to get back to his home, which is another 250 miles north again, because he said he was in place at 8:28 p.m., when he got this phone call from Joseph McStay. And his cell phone does ping off that tower, so his cell phone was at home. The question is was he there as well?

KEILAR: Ah, that's a very good point. So Chase Merritt talked to you. At the time, it seemed like he was not a suspect. He told you they were first one at the house, right?

KAYE: Right. He said they was there, looked in the window, didn't see anything, but he got alarmed and called Joseph McStay's mother, who lived not too far away, and said, "Maybe we should do a welfare check." But the question is, what was he doing at the house? Because Patrick McStay, the father in the case, said maybe they were tending to family's dogs, because the family's dogs were still locked up and tried up in the backyard, and they treated them like children. Was he tending to the dogs? Was he making sure they kept quiet, giving him time to clean up the house? Maybe clean up the blood if it was blunt force trauma there? So if he was involved in this, those are the kind of questions that folks are wondering. Maybe he gave himself enough time to get it cleared up before he then alerted family and friends that maybe something was up.

KEILAR: We'll learn more about this story.

Thank you, Randi. Appreciate it.

KAYE: Thanks.

KEILAR: And for more, be sure to catch Randi's special tonight called "Buried Secrets, Who Murdered the McStay Family?" That's tonight at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

We are getting some breaking news. Violent protests erupting right now after the murders of dozens of students. CNN is live in Mexico where crowds have just torched a government building. We'll be going there next.

Plus, happening any moment, the governor of Missouri getting ready to hold a news conference on how his state is preparing for a grand jury decision in Ferguson. We'll take that live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We have breaking news out of Mexico. Violent protests erupting right now after dozens of students disappeared and are feared murdered. Parents demanding answers from police and officials.

Our own Rosa Flores just back from the protests.

Tell us what you saw, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you the tensions completely erupted between protesters and police. And like you mentioned, all of this goes back to those 23 missing students. They went missing on September 26, and from talking to the spokesperson, Brianna, he told me that they -- their protests will get more and more radical, and that's exactly what we saw.

Take a look at your screen because you'll be able to see some of this video.

Now, you'll probably see a bridge and you see the protesters over that bridge. Let me paint you a picture. Moments before this video was shot, there were -- the protesters on one side, the police on the other. One approached the other until the protesters overcame the police.

Now, these tensions have exploded since we've been here. We've seen burned buildings, burned cars, even in Mexico City the burning of the door of the national palace. And to tell you the truth, it only seems like it's intensifying. It doesn't appear to be de-escalating.

Right now, we're standing on the street that's very close to the center of this city, which is the capital of Guerrero. And you can see, I'm going to step away, they used a cardboard box to block off this street that leads to the center because there's been so much -- so many traffic jams as these protesters approach the center square.

But, again, tensions very high right now in the capital city of Guerrero, Brianna, as the clashes between the protesters and federal police get more intense -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Rosa, authorities have arrested a mayor and his wife for suspected connections to the deaths, the presumed deaths of these dozens of students. There's a certain feeling, I think, from folks there that, unless they have been so upset, that the government would haven't really done anything. What more are protesters wanting? FLORES: Well, there's a lot of mistrust in the government in this

particular area of Mexico and, quite frankly, all over Mexico. And I'll give you an example. These parents have been told three times by authorities that someone has confessed to the murders, that remains have been found, and that these are, indeed, the students. However, in at least one of those times, the forensic evidence doesn't jive. They've found it was another family, someone else that has gone missing, and it's not these particular students. So you might imagine, as a parent, if federal authorities are telling you that your child is dead, you want forensic evidence. And the police, federal authorities, they have not been able to provide that evidence to parents.

KEILAR: Yeah, many of them just feeling like they have been placated. So the story continues. We'll watch it with you.

Rosa Flores, in Guerrero State, thank you.

Top of the hour. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.