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Harris Unveils Economic Plan Focused On Lowering Costs For Middle Class; Biden To Make Case For Harris In Speech Opening Dem Convention; Soon: Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Battleground Pennsylvania; Israel And Hezbollah Exchange Rocket Attacks Across Lebanon Border; Ceasefire Talks Expected To Resume In Cairo Next Week; CNN Witnesses Ukraine's Cross-Border Assault Into Russia; Polls Show A Tight Race In 4 Key Sun Belt States; Trump, Harris Campaigns Head To Battleground Pennsylvania; Trump Will Counter-Program Dem Convention With "Messaging Events" In Battleground States; 5 Charged In Matthew Perry's Ketamine, Drowning Death; New Jackie Robinson Statue Is Unveiled After Original Was Stolen; Riots Erupt In Venezuela Capital Amid Contested Election Results. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired August 17, 2024 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Largely because there was a door, there was a barrier --
IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
WHITFIELD: -- between -- that was locked.
All right, Ivan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Hello again, everyone, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
All right, the 2024 presidential race is rolling through the battleground state of Pennsylvania this weekend. Both candidates are campaigning in the Keystone State, which will be critical to winning the November election.
Vice President Harris and her running mate Governor Tim Walz will go on a four city bus tour tomorrow before heading to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday. The bus tour will give Harris the opportunity to sell the economic proposals that she laid out in a speech in North Carolina yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Two days ago, Donald Trump was here in North Carolina. He said he was going to talk about the economy. I think you all watched. You know what I'm about to say. But he offered no serious plans to reduce costs for middle class families.
No plan to expand access to housing or health care. And on the other hand, when I'm elected president, what we'll do --
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Lowering down cost, increase the security and stability financially of your family and expand opportunity --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
HARRIS: -- for working and middle class Americans.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And we're now learning that President Biden will pass the symbolic Democratic torch to Harris on the opening night at the convention when he delivers the keynote speech.
CNN's Kevin Liptak joining us now. Kevin, what more are you learning about the President's big speech on Monday? How he's preparing for it?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. He's up at Camp David as we speak, going through with top aides, what exactly he wants to say in this speech will -- which will essentially be the start of a long political farewell for the President. And I say the start because his aides do say that he'll have a very busy remainder of his term campaigning for Kamala Harris, working on foreign policy.
But at the same time, there's no question that this speech that he'll deliver on Monday is not the speech he was planning to give or the speech he was hoping to give. Obviously, there's still some scars left from that effort to remove him from the top of the ticket. The Democratic Party really still processing some of that, but I think his focus now is looking ahead.
And that is what you'll hear from the President when he delivers this speech on Monday, really trying to make the case for Kamala Harris as the natural inheritor of the record that he had while he was in office. And certainly, he'll make the proactive case for Harris talking about her record, about her character, but he'll also make the case against Donald Trump, making the argument that Trump remains a threat to democracy and that electing Kamala Harris is necessary to ensure democracy is preserved. That's in the words of Biden aides.
Now, that's a lot for the President to pack in this speech. When we did hear from the President last night talking about his message, he was a lot more concise. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to work on your speech this weekend?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your message to Democrats on Monday night?
BIDEN: Win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: Now, the unity that you're going to see in Chicago next week wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion in those moments after President Biden withdrew from the race. What his aides say is that he's extraordinarily proud of how the Democratic Party was able to coalesce around Harris. And no small part because of his decision to very quickly endorse her out of the gate.
And what you'll see in Chicago next week is reminders of President Biden's record while he was in office, things like, you know, battling the COVID pandemic, the number of pieces of legislation that he was able to pass. You'll also see these sort of thank you moments for President Biden, some quotes of his featured on walls of the United Center, which is where the convention is taking place.
The quote, "history is in your hands" will be projected on screens. That's something that he said in his Oval Office address, explaining his decision to withdraw. You'll see Bidenisms like "spread the faith on those walls" as well.
Now, Vice President Harris will be on hand Monday night for this sort of formal passing of the torch moment, but that will be the last we see of President Biden in Chicago. He will depart and go elsewhere for the rest of the week, really sort of handing over the convention to Harris as she assumes this mantle as the Democratic standard bearer.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Liptak, thanks so much.
All right, former President Donald Trump, well he's also back on the campaign trail today in Pennsylvania. A couple of hours from now, he will hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre. It marks Trump's second visit to Pennsylvania since surviving an assassination attempt in Butler one month ago.
[13:05:02]
CNN's Danny Freeman joins us now from that campaign event location. So Danny, what can you tell us about Trump's plans during the Democratic National Convention?
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, it's interesting. We just got a little bit of new reporting from CNN's Kristen Holmes specifically about the former president's plan to counter program the Democratic National Convention next week. And believe it or not, that will actually start with another rally back here in Pennsylvania in the Harrisburg area.
Now, sources are telling CNN that what these counterprogram events will look like is they're called messaging events. They'll be in slightly smaller venues and say some of these arenas that we've been accustomed to seeing Trump events in. And they'll probably be focused on one or two policy issues each night. The first night will be in Harrisburg Pennsylvania -- or in the Harrisburg area, I should say. And then we'd see other events in Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona. But I think it's interesting that we're hearing from the campaign that these will be messaging and policy focused events next week, because frankly, that's one of the big questions that we have tonight in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Will the former president be able to stay on message and continue to try and land attacks on Kamala Harris when it comes to her policies on the economy, perhaps on immigration as well. This is not been going particularly well for the campaign over the past week. His allies, his advisers have been trying to get him to stay on message.
You saw that event in Bedminster earlier in the week, where the former president had a lot of grocery items on a table, but still the tone of that event took on more of the campaign rally type feel that we've still heard from the former president in recent weeks and really during the course of this entire campaign.
One of the other distractions, Fred, that I'll mention that came up again over the course of the past 48 hours was a series of comments that the former president made, specifically saying that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was actually much better than the Medal of Honor.
The Medal of Honor, of course, awarded to service members who have shown extraordinary valor. Those are the type of distractions that the campaign is trying to avoid today in events like this in Wilkes-Barre and then further on into these counter programming events during the DNC.
And the one last thing, Fred, that I'll note is just where we are here in Wilkes-Barre today. We're in Lucerne County, it's Northeastern Pennsylvania. This is a county that president -- former President Obama won twice, and then former President Trump won twice.
So really juicing the vote counts in these areas. These more white working class areas. This is the pathway that former president needs to win in order to ultimately win the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania. We'll see if he can continue on that track tonight here in this event in just a few hours. Fred?
WHITFIELD: All right, Danny Freeman, we'll keep checking with you. Thanks so much.
All right, let's go overseas now to the Middle East. Militant group Hezbollah launching a volley of at least 55 rockets toward northern Israel this morning. The group says it was in retaliation for an Israeli strike earlier in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah says at least 10 Syrians were killed in that attack. Israel says it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons storage facility. Meantime, Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike overnight killed at least 15 members from one family.
In a statement, Israel says it killed several militants in central Gaza, including one who launched rockets toward Israeli troops. CNN's Nic Robertson is following the developments for us from Tel Aviv. Nic, what -- how is this being interpreted right now? A continued escalation?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's that sort of very thin red line, if you will, between what's actually going to trigger an escalation and what isn't, because this was civilians who were killed and not senior Hezbollah commanders. Although the death toll was significant on one of the highest in Lebanon in a single Israeli strike that we've seen since October 7th.
They were Syrian refugees. They were working and living next to what the owner of the business premises described as a steel fabrication and storage plant. Now, the IDF said that they were targeting a weapons storage facility. The building completely collapsed and destroyed, that 10 people killed. And that was why Hezbollah then fired that salvo of 50 or so rockets into northern Israel.
Again, the incoming rockets didn't injure anyone. If they had, then this could have been a different situation and scenario. But this is a sort of tit for tat we've seen across the northern border and it does seem at the moment to be within the bounds of not leading to an escalation, but that's the danger of this situation right now, is that any one of these strikes could hit civilians.
There's always a potential for that. We saw it several weeks ago with a number of children injured in northern Israel and many -- almost a dozen, I believe, were killed. And that did lead to a spike in strikes by Israel that's led to the current tensions.
[13:10:15]
So, at the moment, not an escalation on the northern border.
WHITFIELD: And then Nic, what about those ceasefire hostage release talks? While there were some this week, it wrapped up, it's expected to resume sometime next week. President Biden seems to be rather optimistic. Is everyone else?
ROBERTSON: Well, they can't come soon enough for the people of Gaza. And in the center of Gaza, another significant number of people received warnings from the IDF to evacuate and go to a safe zone. The U.N. says the safe zone space now in Gaza is down to 11 percent of the size of Gaza.
170,000 people were told to leave or left their homes on Israeli IDF instructions on Friday. The sort of rate of people being told to move is leading to a sort of a, you know, an absolute level of frustration. We listened to what people there were saying today, they were just at their wits end. We don't know where to go. We don't know what to do.
We keep moving. We want this to end. And even saying, you know, look, I -- you know, one of them describing himself as somebody who might've supported Hamas before and essentially saying not anymore. He -- every time Hamas fires rockets, and this is what the IDF is saying, the IDF will then go and target that area, and that's what led to the casualties overnight. So it's just a very desperate situation. But President Biden says he feels that the talks are getting close. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive here over the weekend and be available and talking to Israeli officials expected on Monday. So that's a diplomatic push on top of those talks.
More talks expected with both Hamas and Israel. Separate talks in Cairo at the beginning of the week. But despite that positivity, Hamas a signaling they're not happy with what they heard come out of the talks at the end of the week. So it's too early to say that there's real progress.
WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
All right, still ahead, CNN -- by Ukrainian forces, the latest from the front lines next.
[13:17:08]
WHITFIELD: All right, a look now at the aftermath of that Ukrainian cross border assault on Russia. CNN was among the first news organizations to go into the part of Russia that is now controlled by Ukraine. That's the area in blue in the center of your screen. We were accompanied by Ukraine's military, which reviewed the video you're about to see for operational security reasons, but the military did not hear the sound and had no editorial control.
Here now is CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was never in Putin's plan. But still, into Russia we cross with Ukrainian forces moving forwards. Through the border post they destroyed in their surprise assault 10 days ago.
PATON WALSH: As we get closer towards Sudzha, we can see more smoke on the horizon. But still, it's bizarrely calm on this road.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Pause a moment in these open fields and remember, this is the Cold War superpower. Unguarded, open and never expecting when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war of choice two years ago, to be invaded back.
A Russian dead soldier still in the road. Ukraine only claimed here a day ago.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Well not even the statue of Lenin is unscathed here. This Ukrainian assault, so persistent, and Russia, despite its sense of history, its sort of past as being so impregnable, completely unable to push the Ukrainians out here. A sound of small arms fire we can still hear, so clearly there is a bid for the Russians to push back, but it simply isn't working, and the humiliation for Putin endures.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Days ago, locals had honored their war dead. But none since the Nazis led Russia to face occupation.
PATON WALSH: You can see the damage that's been done to this street here from the intense fight that rage to. Still clearly active fighting happening here.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): A sign in the basement here, they're peaceful people, no soldiers. Ina (ph), 68 says 60 civilians are there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The Ukrainians brought a lot of boxes. There is food.
PATON WALSH: Just like we've seen in multiple Ukrainian towns over the last two years here, the locals trying to find some shelter from the war around them.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Dennis Lav (ph) shows his gray.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This isn't living. It's existing. It's not life.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): In the dark, hunted like so many Ukrainians now. The infirmed isolated, begging for calm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't know how it will end. At least a truce, so we can live peacefully. We don't need anything. I have a crutch. I can't walk. It's very hard.
[13:20:17]
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Day, night, light, dark, news or blackout or blur into one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No news, we don't know what's happening around us.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Yefimov (ph) is over 90 and wants to leave to Ukraine, but there is no root out, he says.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You're the first to come here.
(Speaking Foreign Language)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My daughter, niece and grandkids are there. I'm Russian but they are married to Ukrainians.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Again, ordinary streets that never guessed of their destruction or newfound fame days ago. Vacant in the storm around them.
Normal life here vanished in a hurry, leaving store floors as barracks. And Nina, 74, out looking for a pharmacy for her medication.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If I wanted to leave, I would have. Why leave? I've lived here 50 years. My daughter and mother are buried here. What about Ukraine? I live on my own land. I don't know whose land this is. I don't know anything anymore.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): It is a war that keeps turning the world order on its head. Where wreckage that lined Ukraine's fields now horns Russias. Ukrainians learn to paint over their road signs to confuse the invaders, but still hear. The signs ask God to protect and save Russia. That was Putin's job.
It is not clear when he's coming back.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sudzha, Ukrainian-held Russia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much to Nick and his team there.
All right, coming up, the new poll showing Sun Belt states shifting in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. And Romania's Ana Barbosu gets her Olympic bronze after U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles was stripped of the medal. What Team USA plans to do about that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:26:51]
WHITFIELD: All right, with just 80 days now until the November election, new polls show a very tight race in four key Sun Belt states. A just released New York Times/Siena College poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly leading former President Donald Trump among likely voters in Arizona and North Carolina.
Trump has a narrow lead among likely voters in Nevada and Georgia. All four states fall within the margin of error, meaning there's no clear leader in any of those states.
Joining me right now to discuss this and more is Antjuan Seawright, he's a Democratic strategist. Also with me is Barrett Marson, a Republican political consultant. Great to see you both.
BARRETT MARSON, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Good afternoon.
WHITFIELD: All right, Barrett, you first. Back in May, Trump led Joe Biden by nine points in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada. And I'm wondering if the Trump campaign is in panic mode now, with Harris closing the gap so quickly in making these states now very competitive.
MARSON: Sure. I'm sure that, first of all, President Trump probably doesn't read these polls because they're not that favorable to him and so there is no panic. However, obviously, you know, with the change to Kamala Harris, you are seeing a huge shift in many of those, you know, double haters and many of the younger people who were really not supportive of Joe Biden and, you know, now are sort of coming home to Vice President Harris.
WHITFIELD: So now there's a lot more, I mean, visible enthusiasm. Antjuan, I mean, what does Harris need to do now to kind of build on that momentum that we've been seeing in now these final weeks of campaigning?
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, the Kamala momentum is real, and we're starting to see that in organic ways. When you see the type of coalition and constituency building organically that's happening without her even pressing the gas, if you will, she is still reintroducing herself to the American people, to the voters as well as her running mate. She's doing that softly.
And what we see in the polling is that she has tremendous room to grow. Whereas, most would argue on the Trump side, he's almost peaked too soon. And so elections are about coalitions and constituencies. They're about addition and multiplication, not subtraction or division.
And those things are lining up. The tectonic place, the math, the map and the momentum have shifted in her favor. And so I think she just has to continue doing what she's doing. Do not get caught up in a personality conversation, but keep the focus on a policy conversation. And that is going in her favor.
WHITFIELD: So Barrett, let's zero in a little bit on the whole map. OK, go ahead. You got to respond to that?
MARSON: Yes, no, I do agree with that one there a little bit at -- for Vice President Harris does have some room to grow, especially among women where she only gets about, you know, just over 50 percent in many polls with women. I think she can grow there. And if she does, that's bad news for the Trump campaign for sure.
WHITFIELD: OK, let's zero in a little bit, Barrett, on the map.
[13:30:00]
Because both candidates are campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania this weekend. Trump won that critical state back in 2016, lost it in 2020. So how important will Pennsylvania be this November? Is it a must-win for Trump?
MARSON: Yes, it is a must-win for either side. And, frankly, I'd love to be a hotel here in Pennsylvania because those two campaigns are going to park themselves in Pennsylvania for the next 80-plus days. And there's going to be a lot of activity there.
Arizona, we have seen the campaigns come here and, allegedly, maybe Donald Trump is going to come here during the DNC. So they are going to be hitting these seven or eight states repeatedly over the next 80- some-odd days.
WHITFIELD: Antjuan, Vice President Harris and her running mate will be both parking and rolling through western Pennsylvania tomorrow making a four-city bus tour. This tour will be quite the departure from their previous campaign rallies of big crowds and speeches.
Instead, this is going to be one of more kind of facetime handshakes, small -- small talk with people. What do you say about that strategy? SEAWRIGHT: The campaign is a combination of high tech and high tech. Being the $370 million announcement today, $170 million on television ads, reservations through between that between Labor Day and November 5th, as well as the largest digital ad reservation in American political history.
It's 270 -- I'm sorry, $100 million or $200 million. So I think that is a combination of what you're going to see in this campaign. What was once uncertain ground for Democrats has now become fertile ground.
Certainly, so goes the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so goes the presidency. And so she's got to treat all these states, every single battleground state as an investment manifest.
And certainly, in the campaign, in American politics, it's always a game of margins. So candidate quality messenger -- message, and investments, infrastructure matters.
I think those things are incumbent to Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz's favor as well as down the ticket, when it comes to Democrats taking back the majority in the House and maintaining the Senate.
WHITFIELD: And Barrett, obviously, it's going to be big-weight week for the Democrats with the DNC in Chicago next week.
Meantime, Trump is planning to hold some messaging events as kind of counter-programming. What do you expect in that?
MARSON: Well, look, anytime that Trump can get out there and talk the economy, inflation, border, immigration, it's great. It's the riff in Trump that then there's a problem because you go so far off script.
But if he can really stick to those two issues that are front of mind to voters, he can connect with them. And that's the problem that he has, of course, is that --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: But you say "if." And we already see that he really can't.
MARSON: No. Hey, go into one of his rallies, it's like going to a Grateful Dead concert. There's no two concerts that are the same. You starts, he starts riffing and, you know, it just goes off the rails and you never know where --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: But isn't the whole objective here to grow the support?
MARSON: Absolutely. You know, Donald Trump has a base that will never leave him. We should all have a rider debt, a die like that.
(LAUGHTER)
MARSON: Like Trump's base will never ever leave them. But you're right, he has to connect to the suburban mom, who is feeling the effects of the Biden economy. And he has to find a way to connect with them.
WHITFIELD: OK, Antjuan, you've almost had the last word with your head shake, but go ahead, give it a couple of seconds --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: -- on your mind.
SEAWRIGHT: This is a campaign of contrasts. Presiident -- Vice President Harris and Governor Walz has been on the right side of history when it comes to issues relating to the American people.
And particularly that consequences group called black voters and women, who we're made to make up a large segment of the voting population in this election.
We know that Donald Trump has been on the wrong side when it comes to women being trusted to make their own health care decisions. We also know he's been on the wrong side of many, many issues.
And I think those things are going to continue to come to light in this campaign. And that's why candidate quality matters a whole lot.
WHITFIELD: OK, we'll leave it there.
Antjuan Seawright, Barrett Marson, great to see you both. Gentlemen, thanks so much.
MARSON: Thank you.
SEAWRIGHT: Thank you.
[13:34:29]
WHITFIELD: All right, new details now about the five people arrested in the death -- in connection with the death of "Friends" star, Matthew Perry, including someone known as the ketamine queen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A major development into Actor Matthew Perry's death. Five people have now been charged with supplying or distributing the drug that ultimately killed him.
Investigators revealed the beloved "Friends" star fell back into addiction last fall and died from the acute effects of ketamine and drowning in October. He was 54-years-old.
Camila Bernal reports on how Perry's personal assistant, multiple doctors and others are now implicated in his death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Prosecutors say that five people took advantage of Matthew Perry, who had been very public about his struggles with addiction. And according to authorities, Perry fell back into that addiction last fall.
[13:40:02]
And they say that between September and October of 2023, he was given about 20 vials of ketamine that cost him about $55,000, that prosecutors saying that these people cared more about making money than they did about his well-being.
And among them is Eric Fleming, who supplied the drugs. He has entered a guilty plea. And he told authorities that he'd got the drugs from Jasveen Sangha. Now, that's the woman known as the "ketamine queen" that authorities say ran a drug selling emporium in her home.
Prosecutors believe that the doses that ended Perry's life actually came from her. She entered a not guilty plea and is one of the lead defendants in this case, along with Dr. Salvador Plasencia.
Prosecutors say they have a text message from Plasencia that says something along the lines of, I wonder how much this moron will pay. He has entered a not guilty plea.
And this is what his attorney is saying. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEFAN SACKS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DR. SALVADOR PLASENCIA: Mr. Perry was on ketamine treatment, medically supervised, medically prescribed. And while the U.S. attorney may disagree with Dr. Plasencia's medical judgment, there was nothing criminal at the time.
And more importantly, the ketamine that was involved in Mr. Perry's passing was not related to Mr. -- Dr. Plasencia. That was provided by another party sometime later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERNAL: The other doctor, Mark Chavez, entered a guilty plea.
And then there's Perry's live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. According to the court documents, during the final week of Perry's life, Iwamasa injected him with at least 21 shots of ketamine. And this is a man who was not medically trained for this.
On the day he that Perry died, he'd given him multiple shots and injected him after Perry asked for a big one. He entered a guilty plea.
And finally, Keith Morrison, Perry's stepfather, he released a statement from the family saying that they were and are still heartbroken but say it has helped to know that law enforcement is taking this case very seriously.
They're hoping for justice and they're hoping for suppliers to get the message.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: Camila Bernal, thank you so much.
All right, still ahead, Jackie Robinson's statue rebuilt and back in Kansas after the original was cut at the ankles, stolen and burned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:47:06]
WHITFIELD: The Paris Summer Olympic Games closed almost a week ago, but another medal has since been awarded. Romanian gymnast, Ana Barbosu, was officially bestowed the bronze medal for her floor routine in a reallocation ceremony on Friday.
The medal was first awarded to Team USA's Jordan Chiles, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Barbosu was the rightful third place finisher after an appeal.
The medal she received is not the same medal that Chiles was given nearly two weeks ago. But Barbosu says she is now looking ahead and turning a page on this controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANA BARBOSU, ROMANIAN OLYMPIC GYMNAST (through translation): The resolution of the case was possible thanks to the federation and the law firm that did not give up on us, the sportswomen.
I'm very happy to have this medal. And I hope to continue to represent Romania at the highest level and bring back as many medals as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Meantime, the U.S., in defense of Jordan Chiles, is continuing its appeal to the Swiss tribunal.
All right, a beacon of hope is back on the baseball fields in Wichita, Kansas, seven months after a stunning act of vandalism.
You might recall -- recall, earlier this year, we talked to people in Wichita who were devastated after a bronze representation of number 42, the American professional baseball player who would be the first African-American to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, unveiled last week a new statue of baseball legend, Jackie Robinson.
It's an exact replica of the sculpture that first stood in its place. Back in January, the original bronze statue of Robinson was stolen from its pedestal, cut at the ankles there. Firefighters extinguishing a trash can blaze found burned remnants of the statue days after the theft.
And earlier this month, the man convicted of the crime sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Joining us right now, Brandon Johnson. He is a city council member in Wichita.
Mr. Johnson, great to see you.
I mean, this was a very big deal, right? Not just because MLB players attended the unveiling at the ceremony, but this statue has represented so much to the community there. How does it feel?
BRANDON JOHNSON, (D), WICHITA, KANSAS, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Thank you for having me, Fredricka.
It feels amazing. Our community is so excited. We had hundreds of people there that celebration. It -- having that beacon of hope back is even better.
And now it's four foot (sic) higher than it was before.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: -- pedestal.
JOHNSON: Yes, so on that pedestal, we also have some additional security measures that look like artwork. So there's baseballs out there. There's three of them with 42 on it.
And we had some students actually write what that means to them in there. And that's plastered over there as well. It's really -- it looks really great. I hope to have you out here one day.
[13:50:00]
WHITFIELD: Oh, I'd love to see it in person, for sure. I mean, while it's on the pedestal, it seems like it's still, though, within reach, right? Because it is something that represents inspiration in so many ways.
I mean, the statue sits right in front of the field there, that has the League 42, which was named after Robinson's uniform number with a Brooklyn Dodgers.
So for kids there in this league to walk past this statue, I mean, what does it mean for them? Because I think, what, in the past, they would kind of touch -- many would touch it before play. I mean, what -- what does it mean for them now?
JOHNSON: Yes, they can still touch it. You can stand up on what is the plate, which is the foundation, and still touch the statue. It has become a great place to take photos.
But it still means a symbol of hope. And one of the best speakers there that night was one of the League 42 players. And I think, for them, it shows that, even when something tragic happens, we can come together and make something good out of it.
So I think it means even more to them now, when they see it, when they go by it to play their games. And also, I've just seen some of them out there around it when I drive by every other day. WHITFIELD: Oh, that's so nice.
It was crushing to so many when the vandalism took place. But then you had immediately a flood of both emotions and money, right, to replace it, Hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, including $100,000 from Major League Baseball.
What did that mean for the community there, that it touched so many?
JOHNSON: It meant so much. It's the Wichita way. We come together when bad things happen.
And we saw donations come in from across the country thanks to folks like you and the media. We got phone calls and emails and support. I mean, everyone really came together.
Because it's always been a theft from the kids. You know, that statue means a lot to many in the community, but this was directly stealing from kids.
And we saw the city, the state and the country come together and reach out and support. And again, it just means so much to us and League 42 to have that support, that attention.
And now saying they'll have a successful season and a celebration of getting the statue backup just means the world to us.
WHITFIELD: Oh, that's so neat.
You said you've already seen kids who have been out there practicing who are enamored by it, you know, want to touch it and feel inspired by it.
So when is the next game? Has it mostly been summer practice or has there already been a game played right there on one of those fields in the last week?
JOHNSON: Yes. So their -- their season was over before we could install the statue.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JOHNSON: So right now, you have folks out there just kind of playing around, you know, neighborhood ball.
Their next season will be next year. But the community has already been talking about looking at running out fields, playing some games there.
But I think the most impactful thing -- and I saw it actually on the way to my office today -- was just having people out there looking at it, taking pictures of it, taking pictures with it.
WHITFIELD: Aw.
JOHNSON: It happens all the time now. WHITFIELD: Aw. Well, it's so great to be able to report on this good news. And so glad you could join us with -- with all the good news and how this has touched so many and continues to do so.
Brandon Johnson, thanks so much.
JOHNSON: Thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.
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[13:57:49]
WHITFIELD: All right, riots are breaking out in the streets of Caracas today.
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WHITFIELD: Police we'e seen firing tear gas in the Venezuelan capital as opposition leaders call for demonstrations against the government of Nicolas Maduro.
It has been three weeks since the contested election there. The United States said it is clear that President Nicolas Maduro lost.
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is joining me now, live from Bogota, Colombia.
Stefano, what is the latest?
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: Well, Fredricka, the latest -- and apologies for the quantity of our signal -- is that there are protests all around the world today.
Because today marks, as you said, the three weeks since that controversial election were electoral authorities in Venezuela proclaimed Maduro as the winner and the new precedent the country without showing any proof.
Here we're coming to you from Bogota, which is home to the largest Venezuelan community outside of Venezuela. There are -- there is a rally at the end of the street.
We had to come out to just very quickly because of the signal on the -- to come to you, speak to you with a better quality as possible.
But because of eight million Venezuelans who have left the country in the last few years, to flee from Maduro's persecution and the economic situation in that country, where you have protests pretty much from the city, Oakland Belgium, Spain, here in Bogota, and in the United States, in Miami and New York City. This morning, the leader of the opposition, Maria Corina Machado, who is in hiding because she fears for an arrest by Maduro's forces, had to say this about the significance of today.
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MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translation): We face a difficult path ahead of us. We know it. But we will move forward day after day putting all the pressure home and abroad until Maduro accepts a negotiation for a transition to democracy. Venezuela must be free.
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POZZEBON: And the latest, Fredricka, we are hearing from Caracas is that Maria Corina has, indeed, arrived at the protests that are down there in the Venezuelan capital.
