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More Heat for Southern U.S.; Trump Campaigns Despite Criminal Charges; Influencer Giveaway Incident in NYC; Russia's War on Ukraine; FDA Approves First Postpartum Depression Pill; Pence Favors Support of Ukraine. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired August 05, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Good to have you with us.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, tens of millions in the U.S. starting the weekend under scorching heat. We'll tell you where records will be broken, and which parts of the country are finally getting a break.
Plus, Donald Trump enters yet another plea.
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KINKADE (voice-over): And the social media event in New York that got completely out of hand. Which influencer brought out the mob and the charges he faces.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: One in five people across the U.S. is starting their weekend under a heat advisory. In Phoenix, they're putting sunscreen on the roads to keep the pavement cool. It's called cool pavement. It kept roads up to 12 degrees cooler.
Heavy rain has been hitting the Tennessee River Valley and parts of the Northeast and the northern Plains.
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KINKADE: Special counsel Jack Smith made an extraordinary late night court filing Friday, asking a federal judge to quickly set disclosure rules in the January 6th case against former President Trump. In the filings, Smith cited this social media post from Trump earlier
in the day that reads, "If you go after me, I'm coming after you."
Trump's campaign defended the post as the definition of free speech and said it had nothing to do with the case.
Smith wants the judge to bar Trump from receiving copies of sensitive evidence from his attorneys for fear that Trump may publicly disclose that information as he's done before. The judge has not yet made a decision.
Trump's three indictments don't appear to have slowed his campaign. Here he is speaking Friday at a Republican event in Alabama, and he will be in South Carolina later tonight. Take a listen to how he describes the mounting legal cases against him.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But despite the demented prosecution of our movement by our corrupt and highly partisan Department of Injustice and deranged Jack Smith.
Doesn't he look deranged?
You've seen the pictures with the purple robe. He's a deranged human being.
We're getting stronger by the day. Somebody said you should treat him nicer. Maybe he'd be -- let me tell you, this guy is a lost soul.
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KINKADE: Well, for more on the former president's legal problems, here's CNN's Katelyn Polantz in Washington.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty twice in less than 24 hours.
That's because, in addition to appearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to enter that not guilty plea related to January 6th criminal charges, he also had to respond to some expanded charges in the case in Florida in federal court related to his handling of national defense records and obstruction of justice allegedly after his presidency.
So Donald Trump -- to respond to the Florida charges, he just filled out a paper because he had appeared in court once before to be arrested and arraigned. But he filled out a paper, saying I received a copy of the indictment, and the plea is not guilty, signing with that thick, black ink signature that's so recognizable of Donald Trump.
That not guilty pleading in Florida's federal court, the expanded charges there are about obstructing justice, where the Justice Department says he was part of a group of people who wanted to essentially get rid of parts of surveillance tapes that captured the movement of boxes that may have had classified records in them after he left the presidency.
Also, there was an additional accusation that he retained in his possession illegally a document from the Pentagon about an Iranian -- a plan to attack Iran, a document he was caught on audiotape speaking about to people who didn't have security clearances. So that's part of the case now -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.
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KINKADE: Well, the campaign trail has been an open forum for Trump to complain about the dozens of serious criminal charges now lodged against him. Take a look at him last night in Alabama, telling a friendly Republican audience why he believes that he's being prosecuted right now.
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TRUMP: They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. In the end, they're not after me, they're after you. And I just happen to be standing in their way and I will never leave. I will never let them do that.
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KINKADE: CNN's Kristen Holmes has more on Trump's rally.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump airing a list of grievances when speaking to Alabama Republicans. He said that if he were re-elected, he would first appoint a special prosecutor to continue Congress' investigations into the Biden family.
He claimed that his enemies were unleashing what he called left-wing rabid lawyers on him, and he also claims that these charges were only brought because he was currently leading in the polls.
This is something that we've been hearing, and we expect to continue to hear. He and his allies are painting this as election interference.
They believe that they can play this out in the court of public opinion, and they do believe, as campaign season begins to ramp up, that they're going to have more solid footing, that it is possible to show that some of these legal trials, these events are going to compete with the campaign.
And they believe that this is a particularly solid point if he remains the front-runner. Of course, Donald Trump, as always, wants to play this out in the court of public opinion. And the big question is whether or not it works.
And right now, if you're looking at the polling, at least with Republicans, we're not talking about independents or overall, at least with Republicans, he still has that commanding lead -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, Montgomery, Alabama.
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KINKADE: A social media influencer has been charged with two counts of inciting a riot. It comes after Kai Cenat said he would be giving away gaming systems and gift cards at Union Square Park in New York City. It encouraged millions to show up.
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KINKADE (voice-over): The crowd turned violent, lighting fireworks and throwing them at police as well as at others in the crowd; 65 people have been arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It was like chaos. A lot of people were throwing stuff and all them got arrested. It's like crazy.
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KINKADE: New York police chief Jeffrey Maddrey said the crowd grew from hundreds of thousands of people in just a matter of minutes.
CHIEF JEFFREY MADDREY, NYCPD: This speaks to the power and danger of social media. When I go back later on this evening, I will determine exactly what our steps were. We can't allow this to happen again in the future.
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KINKADE: CNN's reached out to Cenat's representatives for comment.
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KINKADE: Later today, as many as 40 countries will discuss Ukraine's proposal to end Russia's brutal war on its soil. Kyiv will lay out its vision for a peace plan.
Ukraine's president says it's important that as many countries as possible support his peace plan, which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is very important that the world sees a fair and honest end to Russian aggression will benefit everyone in the world, everyone.
Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the U.N. charter. Eliminating all threats created by Russia to Ukrainian and global security means returning peace to international relations and stability to global life.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KINKADE: Ukraine says it has no intention of stopping its sea drone attacks following two back-to-back strikes on Russian vessels Friday. CNN obtained a video of an attack on a Russian oil tanker near the Kerch Strait. Ukraine says Kyiv is behind that strike, targeting a ship that reportedly transported fuel to Russian troops.
Well, hours earlier on Friday, a different drone damaged another vessel, a Russian warship. It was in the southwestern part. The shore is controlled by Ukrainians. Nada Bashir joins us now.
Ukraine is vowing to continue its strikes on Russian targets using drones.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what we've been seeing, is an increase, an uptick in Ukraine's targeting of Russian vessels and infrastructure along the Black Sea.
As you mentioned there on Friday, we saw that maritime attack on a vessel and we heard earlier this morning from Russian authorities they had reportedly tackled three drones.
But of course, CNN has obtained that video showing the impact this has had. Another maritime drone used on a Russian oil tanker in Black Sea. We heard from at least one Ukrainian security source, saying that this was part of a joint operation with the Ukrainian Navy.
We've heard from the Russian authorities. They had deployed tugboats to tow this vessel back to base and the crew on board were safe but that preliminary information indicated that this was the result of a sea drone attack.
Now of course, we've heard from the Ukrainian security services, saying those attacks are set to continue. This is, in their words, a logical and effective step for the Ukrainian armed forces as there continues to be concern around the security of the Black Sea.
And, of course, we've heard from the Ukrainians, saying if Russia wants this to stop, there is one crucial element, that is the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine's both maritime and land territory. And that is the essential requirement there.
But of course, on the front lines as well and across Eastern Ukraine, that fighting, that battle continues. And we've seen the continuation of artillery fire.
And we've seen new video emerging of Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, visiting commanders and service men at one of the front line posts in Eastern Ukraine near the city of Sievierodonetsk.
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BASHIR (voice-over): He spoke to service men and in this video, he is seen awarding service men for their work on the front lines. But as we saw yesterday, he received updates on the situation on the ground. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Nada Bashir, thanks very much.
Poland says it is taking more steps to defend its border with Belarus after reporting what it calls real threats from Minsk. The Polish deputy prime minister told CNN that his country is deploying more and more troops to the area to remain resilient.
He says the Wagner mercenaries currently stationed there have made many attempts o, quote, " infiltrating Polish territory. "
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PAWEL JABLONSKI, POLISH DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: We will not back down. Obviously there will be attempts. We are expecting more attempts at attacking our border, perhaps more attempts also violating our airspace.
This might be because this is something that they will be -- they're trying to demonstrate they can do whatever they want.
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KINKADE: Well, still to come on CNN NEWSROOM. details of a newly approved treatment for postpartum depression. My conversation with a principal investigator in the clinical trials when we come back.
Plus, Pakistan's former prime minister arrested and sentenced to jail. We'll tell you what Imran Khan is accused of and how his political party is responding.
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KINKADE: Welcome back. The FDA has approved a new treatment for postpartum depression, a serious mental illness that impacts many new mothers. It's taken in pill form, a big improvement over the previous drug. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has more on the trials that won the drug's approval.
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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT: What we know about the depression drugs zuranolone is that it is administered as an oral pill, taken daily over the course of two weeks. And patients in clinical trials have said it worked very quickly for them, within just a few days, and those effects were sustained for weeks.
One clinical trial included 196 women with severe postpartum depression. Half of them were given zuranolone, the other half a placebo.
But among those taking zuranolone, 57 percent said they experienced huge improvements of 50 percent or more in their depressive symptoms over the course of two weeks compared with only 39 percent of those who took a placebo.
Some of the women taking zuranolone even said they started to experience those symptoms improve as early as within three days of taking the medication. Some women taking the drug experienced side effects like drowsiness and dizziness.
But it was overall found to be safe and effective. And it's known that about one in eight women in the United States and about 17 percent of women globally experience symptoms of postpartum depression after giving birth. So this is big news for them. Back to you.
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KINKADE: For more on this potentially life-changing drug, I'm joined by Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis, a professor at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and was a principal investigator on the trial.
Thanks so much for joining us.
DR. KRISTINA DELIGIANNIDIS, INSTITUTE OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, FEINSTEIN INSTITUTES FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.
KINKADE: So Doctor, around one in seven women can develop postpartum depression, according to the latest research. So a drug that is proving effective at treating that could provide a much-needed lifeline to new mums.
DELIGIANNIDIS: Absolutely. It's truly an exciting day for women's health, because we now have the first oral, rapid-acting treatment for postpartum depression.
KINKADE: I'm trying to understand more about the scope of the trial. Two groups were studied, funded by the company making this drug. It was 45 days long but didn't include breast-feeding mothers. And there were -- some of the main side effects were dizziness, sedation, which, of course, is not ideal if you're caring for a newborn.
Talk to us about these studies.
DELIGIANNIDIS: Yes, so we completed two studies. One we published in 2021 and one last week, very similar. We enrolled postpartum women up to about a year postpartum with severe postpartum depressive symptoms.
And they received either a dummy pill or the active zuranolone and we tested at two different doses. And women went home and took the medication for 14 nights. They took it once daily with a fat containing food. And we evaluated them over the course of the 14 days. And then from
day 15 to day 45, when they were no longer taking the zuranolone or placebo. And so women could enter the study. Many had weaned their child but others were still making breast milk.
So they were asked not to provide the breast milk to their child during the study and were provided donor milk as an option.
KINKADE: This drug seems to be able to ease symptoms within three days, which is great.
What can you tell us about the difference between those who were taking the placebo versus those on the actual medication?
DELIGIANNIDIS: Yes, so the difference is that women taking the medication during the study, the zuranolone, for the 14 days.
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DELIGIANNIDIS: As you noted, they saw a rapid reduction in depressive symptoms as soon as day three. So just after two doses of the 14 day course. What they saw in comparison to women taking placebo was they saw a reduction, a real broad reduction of depressive symptoms.
As you know, women can have a variety of symptom clusters, from sadness, loss of interest, loss of concentration, appetite change, difficulties with sleep and insomnia. And what we saw was the medication was really decreasing these symptoms across the board, which we saw to a much lesser extent in women taking placebo.
KINKADE: All right.
And in terms of the cost, is there any indication of whether it would be covered by insurance companies for patients who already have plans that cover ob-gyn care?
DELIGIANNIDIS: We've got to wait on that one. In my experience, as new medications become available in women's health, it does take time for the insurances to sort of figure out how they're going to approach these medications.
So I can only say that I'm hopeful. And my colleagues in the field who do this work really, really hope that this medication is accessible to the women who need it. As you said, prior to this, we know that very few women received adequate treatment.
The majority seek care very late after, you know, bearing the illness for many months. And we're not even fully detecting it when it happens, either with the onset in pregnancy or after delivery.
So we end up with only treating about 10 percent of women with postpartum depression adequately. And that's not acceptable. And so really we've got to fill the gaps by better screening and detection and better referral to mental health treatment in the community and providing women more options. And I think this is a really special tool because it can bring down depressive symptoms quickly, over a short period of time, and really get women feeling back to feeling themselves and get them back into their lives as they wish to be. So really hopeful we can get this and we're not going to run into barriers with insurers and costs.
KINKADE: Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis, good to have you on the program, thanks for your time.
DELIGIANNIDIS: It's a pleasure. Thank you.
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KINKADE: It's already been a busy day at the Women's World Cup, with Spain sending Switzerland home. All the details ahead.
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KINKADE: A fourth criminal indictment against Donald Trump now seems likely, this time in the state of Georgia. The case focuses on the former U.S. president's efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election result. Security around the local courthouse has already been ramped up ahead of potential charges. CNN's Brian Todd has more.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This was never supposed to happen in America.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The enormous legal pressure on the former president is likely about to intensify. A grand jury in Georgia expected to consider criminal charges against Donald Trump and his Republican allies.
KATIE CHERKASKY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: In terms of the Georgia case, it's going to add a significant burden on him to defend yet another case. These cases will have significant trial deadlines and pretrial deadlines for hearings that he's going to have to be involved with and, that will detract from his campaign.
TODD: A decision on whether to seek charges against the former president in Georgia will be made within the next few weeks by a team led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The work is accomplished and we've been working for 2 1-2 years. We're ready to go.
TODD: The case focuses on the multipronged effort Trump launched in the wake of the 2020 election to overturn the results in Georgia. It included pressure on Georgia's governor and secretary of state, both Republicans, to find enough votes to flip Joe Biden's win in the state.
TRUMP: So what are we going to do here folks?
I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
TODD: When the governor and secretary of state refused to go along, Trump urged state lawmakers to convene a special session to reverse Biden's victory.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: This election is a sham.
TODD: Trump ally Rudy Giuliani went to the Georgia House and Senate with bogus voter fraud claims.
TIA MITCHELL, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Rudy Giuliani is considered to have a lot of exposure in Georgia because he spoke at the legislative hearings and, we know a lot of the information he shared was not true at the time.
TODD: Other Trump allies who could face charges are Republican activists the Trump campaign recruited to serve as fake electors. They allegedly played key roles in the failed plot to block the election from being certified.
MITCHELL: About half of them have received immunity deals, which indicates they are working with the prosecution to tell them what they know.
TODD: CNN has reported that Fani Willis is considering bringing charges of conspiracy and racketeering in this case.
CHERKASKY: Racketeering charges are typically broader criminal schemes involving multiple individuals and essentially the maximum punishment for those types of charges are typically much higher than other charges that are mentioned here.
TODD: Testimony has also been sought in the Georgia case from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
Fani Willis has told local officials of threats she has received, many of them of a racist nature, during the period she's been investigating this case.
WILLIS: I've probably been called the N word more times in the last 2.5 years than most -- 100 people combined.
TODD: Throughout the Georgia investigation, Donald Trump has vehemently denied wrongdoing, as have his allies. Trump has lashed out at Fani Willis, calling her racist and, quote, "a lunatic Marxist" -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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KINKADE: Florida governor Ron DeSantis is running a distant second to Trump in most polling. And his campaign has been struggling to close the gap. And while in Iowa on Friday, he clearly stated that Trump's repeated claims of election fraud in 2020 did not hold up to scrutiny.
Yet he suggested a willingness to give him Trump a pass if he became president.
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think it's in the best interest of the country to have a former president that's almost 80 years old go to prison. And just like Nixon -- or Ford pardoned Nixon.
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DESANTIS: You know, sometimes you've got to put this stuff behind you. And we need to start focusing on things having to do with the country's future and so that's what I would do as president. This election needs to be about January 20th, 2025, not January 6th, 2021.
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KINKADE: Well, as for former vice president Mike Pence, he got into a back and forth over Russia's war on Ukraine during his town hall Friday in New Hampshire. The state is one of the earliest Republican primaries next year and often seen as a critical state for building momentum in the campaign.
Pence has considerable ground to make up. A woman in the audience asked the former vice president about his support for Ukraine.
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MIKE PENCE (R-IN), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know Tucker Carlson would like us to abandon Ukraine to the Russians. But the reason I think that we ought to be supporting the Ukrainian military is because I've met Vladimir Putin.
If Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, if you think he's going to stop there, you got another think coming. And I don't want to see the day that that Russian military crosses the border, a NATO country, where our armed forces would have to go and fight.
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KINKADE: Speaking of Ukraine, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie made an unannounced visit there Friday. The former New Jersey governor met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv and he also visited Bucha that has been synonymous with Russian atrocities and alleged war crimes.
Christie has defended U.S. support for Ukraine, calling it necessary to counter the influence of China and Russia.
Well, Western officials increasingly are worried that the race to the White House is impacting Russian president Vladimir Putin's war plans. The thinking is that he could be dragging out the fighting in Ukraine in the hope that someone other than Joe Biden wins the presidential election.
One U.S. official tells CNN that President Putin thinks Republican front-runner Donald Trump would help him. CNN Kylie Atwood explains.
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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: American and European officials are concerned that President Putin may be factoring the 2024 presidential elections into his Ukraine war approach, essentially banking on the possibility that, if President Biden loses and Trump or another Republican candidate wins, U.S. support for Ukraine would diminish, which would then, of course, benefit Putin.
And now this is not a steadfast, hard U.S. intelligence assessment on Putin's mindset. But U.S. officials do think that he is taking this into consideration. And as one expert said, it's basically a potential light at the end of the tunnel for Putin that would drive down any possibility of a near-term resolution to this war.
Now obviously we know that the likelihood of a near-term resolution is quite low now but this could incentivize Putin, folks are concerned in the U.S. and Europe, to drag on the war through November of next year -- Kylie Atwood, CNN, Washington.
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KINKADE: Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan is facing three years in prison after being convicted on corruption charges. He was arrested Saturday after a court found him guilty of making false declarations about his assets.
The ruling disqualifies him from holding office in the future. His political party says an appeal has already been filed against that verdict.
CNN's Sophia Saifi joins us.
This is a major development in the case against the former prime minister, because not only is Imran Khan being sentenced to jail; he'll also be unable to run in the November national elections, unless there is a successful appeal.
SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Exactly, Lynda. This case in Pakistan, back in October, the election commission of Pakistan had disqualified Khan but that did not stand up in a court of law.
It took months to be set in stone and it goes back to when he was Pakistan's prime minister and when he was in office. The accusation is he sold state gifts given to him and then did not declare how much he received for those sales.
For example, jewelry and watches. And it's been a contentious topic of discussion here in Pakistan. It is, of course, an election year. Imran Khan, as you said, has been arrested last May, and a couple of months ago when he was arrested on May 9, there were widespread protests across the country.
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SAIFI: So there is an air of trepidation here in Pakistan. Imran Khan was arrested by a heavy police presence at his residence in the city of Lahore. He is now being transported via road. We're being told from Lahore to the capital of Islamabad, where he will potentially appear in court.
Like you said, there has been appeal made by the -- by Imran Khan's lawyers to the supreme court. But again, we're waiting to see whether this will lead to protests. The chief secretary of the party has called for peaceful protests because previously there has been an immense crackdown this past summer on Imran Khan's supporters.
Many of his senior party leaders and aides have quit the party and joined other parties and have been critical of Imran Khan himself. So, again, an election year, an important time in what has already a tumultuous year in Pakistan. So we'll have to wait and see how this unfolds when he reaches the capital in Islamabad.
KINKADE: We will be following it closely, Sophia Saifi, good to have you on the story.
Six police officers who call themselves the goon squad, now they have pleaded guilty in the brutal beatings of two Black men in Mississippi.
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KINKADE: New York authorities have revealed details about a victim, whose remains found in the same area as the women known as the Gilgo Four. Police say Karen Vergata was a former escort when she went missing in 1996.
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KINKADE: She was one of nearly a dozen victims scattered across the south shore between 2010 and 2011.
Six white former law enforcement officers have pleaded guilty to charges related to the torture of two Black men. CNN's Ryan Young reports on the unthinkable violence that unfolded just this year in Mississippi. A warning: this story contains some disturbing content.
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DARREN LAMARCA, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI: They became the criminals they swore to protect us from.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They allegedly call themselves the goon squad, a group of white former law enforcement officers giving themselves that moniker because of their alleged willingness to use excessive force and not report.
Now they pled guilty to federal charges related to an assault that according to a charging document included nearly two hours of torture, physical, racist and sexual abuse of two Black men after a white neighbor complained.
Several Black males had been staying at the property and the neighbor had observed suspicious behavior. The officer who received the complaint directed an investigator to take care of it.
On January 24th, six law enforcement officers entered victims Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins' home without a warrant.
KRISTEN CLARKE, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: Handcuffing the victims behind their back and using racial slurs and derogatory language and yelling at the victims.
Discharging a firearm in order to scare and intimidate the victims. Holding them down and pouring cooking oil, milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup on their faces and into their mouths; forcing them to painfully and involuntarily ingest those liquids.
Striking one of the victims with objects including a metal sword, a piece of wood and a wooden kitchen implement. Kicking one of the victims in the ribs, tasing the victims dozens times with department- issued Tasers and stealing personal belongings from the house.
YOUNG: It ended with Jenkins getting shot in the mouth, the bullet lacerating his tongue, breaking his jaw and exiting out of his neck. For months, there was doubt about the official account of what took place.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety releasing a statement the day after the incident saying only that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations is investigating an officer-involved shooting. But that didn't encapsulate the horror.
In July, I spoke to Parker, Jenkins and Jenkins' mother and toured the home where the crimes occurred.
EDDIE PARKER, VICTIM OF RANKIN COUNTY POLICE ASSAULT: They started beating me here and tasing me and you can see, you know, blood spots and all. My blood spots there.
YOUNG: Jenkins' injuries make it difficult for him to speak.
MICHAEL JENKINS, VICTIM OF RANKIN COUNTY POLICE ASSAULT: It hurts and I'm embarrassed.
YOUNG: Has anyone from the department reached out to you and apologized or ever asked for anything at all?
Franklin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey spoke at a press conference about the incident in late June. BRYAN BAILEY, FRANKLIN COUNTY SHERIFF: I believe in my heart that this department is one of the best in the state and I'm committed to do everything in my power to keep this department on a correct path moving forward.
YOUNG: Yesterday, he issued an apology and said he didn't fully understand the gravity of the crimes until recently. Federal authorities begin their review in February, they along with the state of the Mississippi, were able to secure guilty pleas of all accused.
LAMARCA: Not only did they brazenly commit these acts but firing a shot through one of victim's mouths. They left him lying in a pool of blood. Gathered on the porch of the house to discuss how to cover it up. What indifference. What disregard for life.
YOUNG: A life that will never be the same for either of these two men.
PARKER: It's hard to stay right here, knowing what happened right here. Justice is what it all boils down to. I'm just like them. You know, whether they're in uniform or not.
YOUNG: A difficult story to cover, especially with the long road to health and recovery for these two men who faced so much inside that home. The officers pled guilty to multiple federal charges, including conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under the color of law.
When you think about this journey for these two men and their lawyers, they've been trying to get anyone to pay attention to the story for quite some time and it has been very difficult. But now they feel they can move forward with the process of healing -- reporting in Birmingham, Ryan Young, CNN.
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KINKADE: Welcome back. The Mega Millions jackpot has grown again after no one won in Friday's draw. The lottery is now sitting at a staggering $1.5 billion with the next drawing set to take place Tuesday. It could potentially be the largest jackpot in the lottery's history.
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KINKADE: Well, it is win or go home time at the Women's World Cup as it reaches the knockout stage. Andy Scholes joins us on who is advancing, who is being eliminated.
Right now Spain is looking impressive. (CROSSTALK)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the group stage was fun but, man, now it gets intense. And heading into the knockout stages, the oddsmakers had Spain, England and USA as the three favorites to win it all.
And Spain certainly looking like they're ready to win their first-ever Women's World Cup. Aitana Bonmati getting Spain on the board in the fifth minute, gathered it and buried it in the back of the net. That made it 1-0.
Then in the 36th minute, up 2-1 off the cross, Bonmati will get it again and pull it back and another superb strike. Spain cruised 5-1, eliminating Switzerland.
[05:55:00]
SCHOLES: The Japan-Norway match is about to end. On the heels of beating Spain, 4-0, Japan, a much tougher go of it against Norway. They surrendered their first goal in the first half but a goal in the 50th minute put them up 2-1. They're on the verge of winning 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Japan would get the winner between U.S. and Sweden on Sunday. The U.S. Women have been heavily criticized for their performance in the group stage where they scored four goals in three games. But their forward said the team isn't letting the outside noise get to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN WILLIAMS, U.S. FORWARD: We are not panicking. We have made it to the round of 16. I think that we haven't played our best soccer yet, which is the most exciting part for us. You know, we are a team that will battle and even when we haven't played our best soccer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes, so U.S. definitely going to need to play their best to beat a Sweden team. The Swedes beat the U.S. in the past two Olympic Games.
Finally, Simone Biles set to make her much anticipated return to gymnastics just outside of Chicago. She's not competed in the past two years after suffering a case of the twisties.
Twisties are a mental block that cause athletes to get lost in the air. Biles looking like her dominant self yesterday, completing all the signature moves, just so impressive. Way up in the air, doing incredible things. This move starting back up is really a signal she's going to go for it again.
KINKADE: And she's a newlywed. I'm looking forward to see how she goes. Thanks so much.
Thank you for joining us for this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. For the rest of the world, it's "AFRICAN VOICES." Have a good Saturday.
