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Oprah Winfrey Pays Tribute to Coretta Scott King; Senate Grills Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Aired February 06, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures now from the Horizon Sanctuary, that's where the musical tribute to Coretta Scott King is taking place right now. Gladys Knight has just stepped up to the microphone. As expected, she is going to perform. Let's listen to what she has to say and listen into her music message.
GLADYS KNIGHT, SINGER: ... my sister. And I call her that because we all are children of God. I bring you a musical message from an awesome, awesome role model of mine, and I know she approves of this message in both of its forms because I could spot her anywhere. She has been supporting me since I was a little -- little girl right here in Atlanta, Georgia. So to my family and all of you that love and supported her, all of those days, I tell you this story. She would say.

(SINGING)

KNIGHT: And, then, because she was always in prayer, and she was lifting it up to our lord and savior all the time, she said:

(SINGING)

KNIGHT: Sing it with me.

(SINGING)

(APPLAUSE)

KNIGHT: And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(APPLAUSE)

PHILLIPS: The great Gladys Knight -- the rich and famous and the not so rich and not so famous all converging on Atlanta to say goodbye to the first lady of the civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King, who died one week ago, lies in honor this afternoon right here -- and evening -- in the same sanctuary where her late husband preached, Ebenezer Church, right across from that musical tribute.

Her funeral is tomorrow. And among those who have come to pay their respects, longtime family friend Oprah Winfrey.

Hundreds of people -- hundreds more people, including King's children, are across the street, here at this musical tribute. A multicultural musical tribute is taking place. It continues, celebrating King's life and the love of music. (MUSIC)

PHILLIPS: Oprah Winfrey now stepping up to the pulpit to give final remarks, before Yolanda King gives the closing remarks -- a special tribute by Oprah Winfrey now.

(APPLAUSE)

OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": Gladys.

Everybody, thank you.

To the King children, Yolanda, Martin, Bernice, Dexter, thank you for allowing me to speak here today.

I hope you know how much I loved your mother. I adored her, appreciated her, and respected her so. And I'm happy to be here to pay tribute to her, but happier still that I know I gave her, her flowers while yet she lived.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: I'm happy about that. I'm happy about that.

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: I am a student of the King legacy. I believe I have read practically every book, and I know I have seen every piece of footage available regarding Dr. King's life and work.

And I'm always struck, when watching those documentary pieces of the demonstrations, the marches, whether in Alabama or Mississippi or Washington. I'm struck by the stalwart grace of Coretta Scott King.

There she was, always by his side, marching us all towards freedom's highway. And I marvel at the strength that it took for her to do that, while, at the same time, raising a family, being threatened daily, and doing what every wife and mother and working mother inside and outside of the home has to do, trying to hold on to just a little bit of herself.

Of course, over the next two days, we are all going to hear about her historical significance. And that is monumental, how she carried the banner and the legacy of Dr. King, and did so with such substance and sacrifice and courage.

Author Marianne Williamson says that she lived on in the spirit of her husband, so that the world would not die of grief at having lost him so soon.

I believe that is true. And I think it's so befitting that we are here, in a musical celebration and tribute of her life, because the very first time I met Coretta Scott King, she was singing. She was singing "Amazing Grace" at a party for Maya Angelou.

And, to me, she embodied royalty. She was the queen. (APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: She was royalty, and grace, and femininity -- femininity -- and power all in the body of one woman. And let me tell you, she was a real woman, and not just an aging female.

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: The way she looked at you, with such calm and steady beauty and power, you knew she was a force.

And, as Marianne so aptly said, in her presence, you felt like you were privy to a spiritual secret. And that secret is that it's not always what a woman does, but simply who she is that can rock the world.

A few years back, I had the privilege to spend an evening alone with her. She talked, and I listened, for hours and hours.

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: And I had only asked one question.

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: I asked, "How did you and Dr. King meet?"

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: That's the question.

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: Her eyes lit up, as she took me to the rainy afternoon of their very first date, what she was wearing, a green scarf and a black coat, what he was wearing, a hat that looked too big for his head.

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: The car he was driving, a Buick, the umbrella he carried for her, what he said, what she said.

One hour and 28 minutes later...

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: ... I understood why she still carried the torch for him.

We talked about the meals she had prepared and who had come to dinner, how she walked through the fear when the house was bombed, and carried on raising the children. She said: "We did what we had to do. We stood up to it."

And months later -- don't ask me how this happened, but I -- I convinced her to get her hair cut on TV.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: And, when she arrived at the studio for her makeover, she had gotten cold feet and was nervous.

I had never seen Mrs. King nervous, but she -- she called me downstairs. And Andre was there with the scissors. And she says, "I don't want him to touch my hair."

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: I said, "But, Mrs. King, we -- we -- we got you here, and -- and we want -- we need to cut the hair."

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: She said: "I don't want it cut. Could he just give me a little trim?"

WINFREY: And I said -- I joked with her. I said, "When's the last time you had it cut, during the march to Montgomery?"

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: "You need to have a little fun, Mrs. King."

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: I said: "You need to have a little fun. Relax and have fun with it."

She never looked more beautiful. And, later, she wrote me a note, saying...

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: She wrote me a note, saying that, indeed, she had fun, and could I please recommend a hairdresser in Atlanta who could make her look like that every day and have some more fun.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: I feel -- I feel blessed to live inside the dream that your father envisioned for all of us.

I don't just live it. I live inside the dream. I understand that, and Mrs. King also understood that. She -- she recognized that my generation and those to come carry the weight and the fulfillment of his legacy.

And every time she spoke to me, she always told me how proud she was of me. And she always remembered my birthdays with gifts of memorabilia from the movement that she knew I would treasure.

A week before she died, she sent me a long letter and a handmade quilt her mother had passed down to her and that she now wanted to pass on to me. And, in her letter to me, it felt like she was sharing all of the wisdom that she wanted me to retain, so that I would know myself.

Every time I sat with her, whether she spoke or not, I came away wiser, knowing more about how to live and what it means to be a real woman. I felt blessed, always, to be in her presence.

She leaves us all a better America than the America of her childhood.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: She leaves us all better prepared to nurture, to strengthen, to broaden and deepen the democracy and human rights that she devoted her life to upholding.

One of my favorite quotes is from Dr. King. And it says, "Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service."

(APPLAUSE)

WINFREY: Mrs. King was the brilliant, shining, blessed example of great service and stewardship.

And for those of us who yet live -- Resonance (ph) said it -- we have got work to do. And I believe that our work is to be pressed to the mark, pressed to the mark of a higher calling to serve the world. And it is my prayer that the greatness that she showed every day, the greatness that she lived, will now find a home within all of us.

I thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

PHILLIPS: Oprah Winfrey with a special tribute to her dear friend and mentor, Coretta Scott King, quoting author Marianne Williamson, who has written a lot about spirituality, saying that, when you were in the presence of Coretta Scott King, you were privy to a spiritual secret, that she lived on in the spirit of her husband, Martin Luther King, talking about her as a compassionate, powerful, graceful woman, that she embodied royalty.

As Oprah puts it, she was the queen.

We are expecting closing remarks from Yolanda King, the daughter of Coretta Scott King. We are going to take that live as soon as she steps -- she's actually working her way up to the podium right now.

Right across the street, you see the live pictures here from Ebenezer Church, the very church that Martin Luther King used to preach -- a pretty amazing place, if you have never been there. It's as if it has been left completely the same, with no upgrades, since Martin Luther King preached there.

You can see, actually, a wide shot of the pews, the stained glass, the carpet, everything in its original state -- Coretta Scott King lying in honor there, as across the street is the musical tribute. We will bring Yolanda King's closing remarks as soon as they begin.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, we will have special coverage of the funeral. Our LIVE FROM team will be bringing that to you from noon to 4:00 p.m. Eastern. We will have all kinds of incredible guests talking about the life of Coretta Scott King and the future of the civil rights movement.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The daughter of Coretta Scott King, Yolanda King, now giving the closing remarks at the special musical tribute.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

YOLANDA KING, DAUGHTER OF CORETTA SCOTT KING: ... president and CEO of the Yolanda King fan club.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

KING: And we just all, on behalf of my entire family, we just want to thank you all for this this -- this glorious outpouring of love and support and care that we have felt during this time.

The prayers since August, when mother became ill, those prayers have carried us through that time. They carried her, because, through it all, very little pain she experienced. She was able to just continue in -- in faith and with her determined spirit.

And I know it is the prayers of so many of you and people from all over the world that carried her safely, safely home.

Thank you to everyone who participated today, to Ebenezer, to Pastor Warnock, and Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church that we grew up in, to my Grady girls, to my Smith College sisters, to all of the participants today, we are so thankful, so grateful for what you have shared and how you have touched us, and how you have tributed our mother's spirit.

In the example of her life, our mother's radiant light, we stood in the sunshine of her being. We knew firsthand the enduring power of love, her life expressed as artist, activist, mentor, champion of peace, freedom, and justice, mother and wife, blazed with passion.

I often teased my mother that the Amazon and Trojan women had nothing on her.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Not a thing. She did not just wear out her assistants. She rusted them out.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Yolanda King and, behind her, Martin, Dexter and Bernice King, the final and closing remarks at a beautiful musical tribute to their mother, Coretta Scott King, at the Horizon Sanctuary, just across the street from Ebenezer Church, where their mother is lying in honor, a pretty amazing day.

But the coverage doesn't stop here. We will continue tomorrow from noon to 4:00 Eastern time. We will be doing live coverage, the LIVE FROM team, of the funeral. Please join us for that.

Meanwhile, right now, if you want to go to CNN.com/pipeline, you can watch the rest of -- of the closing ceremony there at Horizon Sanctuary.

Let's get straight now to Tony Harris in the newsroom. He's working a developing story for us in California.

Tony, more wildfires.

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra.

We are watching that -- a couple of new outbreaks of fire there in Anaheim, California, being fueled by those hot Santa Ana winds. This is that fire that we have been watching for most of the afternoon and for a great part of the morning, actually, at the Cleveland National Forest, near the suburbs of Orange County.

As you know, a voluntary evacuation of several hundred homes has been requested. The fire stretches now over 800 acres of the Cleveland National Forest -- more than 200 federal, state and county firefighters working on the fires right now.

And Jacqui Jeras, upstairs in the CNN Weather Center, is watching this as well.

And, Jacqui, we are all concerned about the winds that are actually fueling this fire.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

It's really been a problem, Tony. This morning, it started out at 100 acres, and now we are up to 800. So, it is spreading very rapidly. And they are having a tough time getting a grip on this fire, because those winds are so strong. They are around 35 miles per hour, the fire is right now.

But there have been some stronger gusts across parts of Southern California, into Los Angeles and Ventura counties. We have seen some wind gusts as strong as 51 miles per hour. We are expecting those winds to stay very strong throughout the afternoon, and even into the evening. And those winds will be persistent through tomorrow as well -- high pressure anchored over here, across parts of the Intermountain West. And that is helping to bring in a strong southeasterly flow.

That strong wind pushes down the mountains. It compresses. It heats up. And those winds also accelerate. So, this will be an ongoing problem across much of Southern California, very critical conditions. And that's also bringing the humidity down to below 15 percent.

A cold front dropped through the Southern Plain states. That has also brought a high threat for fires across parts of Texas, into Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico. We expect the winds to stay strong at both places, particularly in Southern California, through tomorrow. A little bit on the breezy side, I would categorize it as, on Wednesday, and then slackening off very significantly by the end of the week -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK, Jacqui.

And, Kyra, we will keep watching it for you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tony Harris, thanks so much.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Don't talk about it. Don't tinker with it, and don't believe everything you hear about it.

Alberto Gonzales, attorney general of the United States, the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating domestic spying.

Our congressional correspondent, Ed Henry, has been keeping an ear on the hearing. He joins me now from Capitol Hill.

From the last time we talked, anything standing out?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just a couple of moments ago, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy went on a tirade and basically used the phrase CYA, in terms of alleging the administration was trying to get permission for this program far after the fact, years after the fact.

But what has been most interesting, I think, is that the criticism has come from some Republicans, as well as Democrats. Democratic criticism is obvious and expected.

We had the Republican chairman, Arlen Specter, saying the president does not get a blank check on such matters -- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham saying, as well, if you take Attorney General Gonzales' argument about the inherent authority of the administration too far, you end up having no checks and balances at al -- but the attorney general pushing back very strongly today, insisting this program is not only legal, but necessary, saying that speed is so important, in terms of trying to stop a terrorist attack.

He also lashed out at critics, saying that they are basically aiding terrorists by trying to take this program down, a view echoed by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: We are not going hog wild restraining American liberties. In fact, the trend has been to provide more and more protections. And there can be a danger that we go too far in that and -- and allow sleeper cells in this country to operate in a way that they are successful in killing American citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Democrats insisting over and over that they want to give the president every legal tool to fight this war on terror. But they question the legal authority of this particular program.

Democrats also bearing in on the attorney general's confirmation hearing last January, in which he was questioned a bit. And he basically said that he would inform the Congress if the president ever decided to authorize an action in defiance of a criminal statute.

Take a listen to the exchange between Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and the attorney general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: Of course, if you had told the truth maybe that would have jeopardized your nomination. You wanted to be confirmed, and so you let a misleading statement about one of the central issues of your confirmation, your view of executive power, stay on the record until "The New York Times" revealed the program.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Senator, I told the truth then. I'm telling the truth now.

You asked about a hypothetical situation of the president of the United States authorizing electronic surveillance in violation of our criminal statutes. That has not occurred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Those tough questions will continue for at least another 90 minutes. And, then, the committee will -- is planning now to bring the attorney general back another day, not tomorrow, but another day down the road -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Let's backtrack a little bit, when we started talking about the actual leak that revealed what the NSA was doing and triggered everything that we are seeing right now. Has that even come up? Has that even been a question a or discussion?

HENRY: The leak -- in fact, yes.

The attorney general went on the record today, as he had already done in December, in saying there's an investigation that has been opened at the Justice Department to get to the bottom of that leak to "The New York Times" of this program to begin with. That was what he was referring to at the very beginning of the hearing, when he said that terrorists could be helped by the fact that this program is no longer secret, and the fact that committee members are now demanding more details about this program.

And republicans on the committee, also some questions about the timing of that leak to "The New York Times" for political reasons, in their estimation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ed henry on the Hill -- thanks, Ed.

HENRY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Iran takes a big step in its nuclear standoff with the West, ignoring threats of international sanctions. Iran told the U.N. nuclear agency today to remove its seals and cameras from Iranian nuclear research sites.

Let's get straight to CNN's Richard Roth at the U.N.

What's the reality of that even happening, Richard?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, one never knows.

In fact, Iran's announcement today regarding removal of seals and barring instant inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency is not going to go down very well with the U.N. Security Council, which, over the weekend, received formal word, in effect, from Vienna that it will have the case of the Iran file, starting in March, should, especially, if diplomacy not work out.

Here, in New York, at the Security Council, reaction from two key permanent members of the council -- China wants diplomacy, not sanctions, right now -- France saying Iran should listen very closely to the decision taken in Vienna.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANG GUANGYA, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: Even with the adoption of this IAEA resolution, it is the belief of most members there that diplomatic solution is the way out, within the framework of the IAEA.

JEAN-MARC DE LA SABLIERE, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: Meanwhile, I hope that Iran would understand that it is in its interest to go back to suspension of all enrichment-related activities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Right now, Iran is communicating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, keeping inspectors out, perhaps starting one week or so from now -- the Security Council, Kyra, not going to get the case here until March, some time after the director general of the nuclear watchdog delivers a report on Iran's cooperation.

PHILLIPS: Well, I can't imagine that, inside the Security Council, this is going to go over very easily.

There has got to be some points of contention.

KING: Yes, including just the -- the word "report" vs. the word "refer" the case to the U.N. Security Council.

To China and Russia and some others, the word "report' means, let's just keep the council informed of how the negotiations are going in Vienna. To others, the U.S., Britain, France, "refer," "report," whatever you want to call it, the Security Council could take action against Iran down the road. It has been given this now by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors.

PHILLIPS: And a number of special visitors also at the Security Council, yes?

KING: Yes, important Senate Foreign Relations Committee members, including Chairman Richard Lugar, who -- he said diplomacy for Iran should be given time, but, then, maybe there should be other options.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: At the end of the day, if diplomacy has not worked, namely, the Iranians decide to proceed with expelling IAEA inspectors, with a deliberate attempt to build nuclear weapons, that, in my judgment, the Security Council ought to effect sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Senator Lugar said the cooperation by Iran will determine a lot. But so will the U.N. membership, in terms of the credibility of this organization, should Iran not cooperate.

Kyra, Lugar was here in a rare public meeting with the members of the Security Council, stressing the need for U.N. management reform and other improvements in the organization.

PHILLIPS: Richard Roth at the U.N. -- thanks, Richard.

Admit it. You have a favorite. We will talk Super Bowl ads with our friend Ali Velshi -- LIVE FROM selling it right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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