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Former U.S. Envoy Says North Korea Was Surprised When Trump Said Yes To Talks; "Sex & Love Around the World" Premieres Saturday Night; Traffic Stop Changes Homeless Woman's Life In Beyond The Call Of Duty; Family Reunited With Dog After Mistakenly Being Flown To Japan. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired March 16, 2018 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:33:20] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: In a CNN exclusive, the man who spearheaded U.S. diplomatic efforts with North Korea until earlier this month says Kim Jong Un's regime was surprised that President Trump accepted that face-to-face meeting so quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR NORTH KOREA POLICY: I think -- to be frank with you, I think they were a little bit surprised that Washington -- President Trump readily accepted. They thought it would take a little time so they were not completely prepared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Well, joining us now is CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour to talk about this and so much more. Great to have you.
So not only was the Trump administration -- some of his cabinet surprised and the public surprised, it turns out the North Koreans were surprised.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and indeed -- and Joe Yun went on to say that he had sent a message to the North Korean leadership to accept and to actually have this meeting and to -- they could put all their things on the table.
But, Korea watchers are getting a little bit concerned. Why haven't we heard anything from North Korea officially? All of this is South Korea says and that President Trump accepted. So they are a little bit concerned as to why it hasn't been formally and publicly mentioned by Pyong as of right now.
CAMEROTA: What do we think is behind that? Why wouldn't they be trumpeting it, no pun intended?
AMANPOUR: Well look, who knows. I mean, many skeptics believe that all they want anyway is a propaganda coup. They want to play psychological games with the United States. And most particularly, they're trying to figure out how to divide the
United States from their South Korean allies. How to wedge the U.S. out of the Asia-Pacific region which, of course, plays right into China's hands as well.
But if it -- and what we really don't know is did they really say that they would pause their nuclear and ballistic missile testing? Did they really say that they would put their nuclear weapons program on the table? Those are the important things.
[07:35:11] It doesn't matter when they do it or how they do it, but when they get to a meeting that all the preparation has to have been done by the U.S. side. All the red lines have to be in place and you have to know what you're going in to negotiate about and, I guess, figure out what the others intend to put on the table or not.
And this is where it gets really tricky because DNI Clapper you just had on and Mike Pompeo of the CIA, they do not believe that the North Koreans are going to denuclearize. They just don't believe it, certainly not as a first step.
And so you have to figure out are these negotiators going to understand that it's a long process and denuclearization may be at the end of the road, and not sort of walk out if you don't get it immediately, so it's really tricky. And there are no career experts, really, in the Trump administration right now.
CAMEROTA: All right, let's segue to sex. I think it's a natural --
AMANPOUR: Really?
CAMEROTA: It's a natural segue.
AMANPOUR: In this odd --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
AMANPOUR: -- diplomatic environment.
CAMEROTA: Yes, that's right.
And so, you have a 6-part series coming out starting this weekend on CNN. Why did you want to explore sex globally?
AMANPOUR: Well, here it is. It's called "SEX & LOVE" -- don't forget the love bit --
CAMEROTA: All right.
AMANPOUR: -- and it's about intimacy, it's about people.
Here's the bottom line. For 30 years or so I've been around the world covering really extreme conditions. People in the middle of war, people trying to stay alive. People escaping genocide, rape, ethnic cleansing, crisis. All of these really extreme facets of the human condition. And it just came to me a couple of years ago when I saw these incredibly tragic pictures of and reporting on all these refugees fleeing the savage war that continues in Syria. I said to myself, but how do these people stay human?
The flip side of that extreme survival is your heart, your soul, and then your physical happiness and your sexual satisfaction. It all leads into a -- it's a very, very vital part of human condition and I wanted to explore that as a counterpoint to all the other stuff.
And my goodness, it opened unbelievable doors. This is an incredible series of people all over the world in various different cities that you wouldn't even imagine. Muslims in Beirut, we've got Shanghai, Tokyo. We've got Delhi, we've got Berlin. We've got -- we've got six cities and it's absolutely fantastic -- Accra, Ghana.
And there's something for everybody there. For young adolescents, for middle-aged, for older.
This is done through the perspective of girls and women and the good news that it's landing in this #MeToo moment, although it wasn't a gleam in our eye --
CAMEROTA: Sure.
AMANPOUR: -- when we started, I really found all these women not to be victims. They are really, even in the most unlikely places, agents of their own change, their own happiness, and it's really a fun series.
CAMEROTA: That is --
AMANPOUR: It's really important.
CAMEROTA: -- really a good perspective.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
CAMEROTA: So we have a clip. Let's watch a portion.
AMANPOUR: Oh good, fine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never heard my father say I love you to my mother. I think it would be really weird for me to hear that in Japanese. It sounds really, really corny.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's the thing. Just linguistically it's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just sounds corny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language spoken). UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh yes, in English, yes. He always says it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we say those sorts of things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you is aishite imasu in Japanese but it means more if you say arigato, which means thank you. So I think a lot of Japanese people say thank you instead of I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aishite imasu.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Fascinating.
AMANPOUR: It is actually fascinating. I mean, it really is because you just don't get it when you are a stranger going to this culture.
You know, I even have Japanese colleagues here. They have never seen hand-holding, kissing, hugging in public. There isn't the words for I love you, as you just saw.
And so, Japanese is known and famous for their sexless marriages. After the kids are born husbands go in one direction, the wives go in another direction.
There's a huge percentage of young men now who are virgins -- I mean, in Japan, like a huge percentage and it's quite dysfunctional.
And then that -- so that's the story there.
And then we show the -- sort of the counterside and how that's being -- sort of trying to be redressed by younger Japanese. And all over the world how this -- how this plays out. It's just really fun.
CAMEROTA: I can't wait to watch it. Really, really provocative. I mean, interesting, thought-provoking.
AMANPOUR: Yes, and a real respite from the current stress that we live under every day.
CAMEROTA: That's right. Let's turn to sex whenever we can.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Thank you, Christiane, very much.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And love.
CAMEROTA: Be sure to watch --
AMANPOUR: And love.
CAMEROTA: And love. I keep forgetting that.
Be sure to watch Christiane Amanpour's "SEX & LOVE AROUND THE WORLD" tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN. CUOMO: Sheesh.
[07:40:00] All right, here's another story for you this morning.
A homeless, single mother's life took this turn for the better after a traffic stop. This is a story you need to hear in "Beyond the Call of Duty." That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: All right. So listen to this story.
A traffic stop in Atlanta changes a homeless, single mother's life, and for the better. It's all thanks to a deputy police chief who definitely went beyond the call of duty.
[07:45:05] CNN's Victor Blackwell explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "NEW DAY WEEKEND" (voice- over): A routine traffic stop turned into a life-changing experience for Ebony Rhodes and an Atlanta deputy police chief.
Her license and registration were expired and she had no insurance. The car was impounded and Ebony was arrested.
EBONY RHODES, HOMELESS, SINGLE MOTHER OF FOUR: And I was like oh, Lord, oh, Lord, oh, Lord.
BLACKWELL: That's when deputy police chief Jeff Glazier got a call and on the ride to the police station one of his officers asked about something he noticed in the back of Ebony's car.
RHODES: We were getting everything out of the car. We were getting a whole lot of bags, a whole lot of clothing and everything. And I told him, hey, this is our home. This is where we were living.
BLACKWELL: Ebony and her four children, Calvin, Issac, Jaheame, and Danniaja were all cramped in her 20-year-old Buick Regal for almost six months.
RHODES: I was only working at Walmart and trying to make sure that I'm able to feed my kids and keep gas in the car. It was unable to get a place.
BLACKWELL: And complications from a chronic blood disorder forced her to miss some work.
RHODES: I felt worse than I ever felt not being able to provide for my kids like I should be because as a mother, that's your job.
JEFF GLAZIER, DEPUTY CHIEF, ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT: I remember turning to my wife and saying Michelle, we have to do something and she said well, go do something.
BLACKWELL: Soon after Ebony was released, Chief Glazier called the director of a shelter he'd met weeks earlier.
GLAZIER: I called her up and I said listen, I've got a family of five, including three boys and a girl, and he's 17, and do you have any room? And she said yes, I've got some room.
RHODES: Oh, God. When he called me that day I just started crying.
BLACKWELL: Finally, Ebony's family had a safe albeit temporary home.
GLAZIER: I mean, staying in the shelter is not optimum. I considered that the whole time just to be a short-term solution for this family.
BLACKWELL: So he helped them find this apartment and has become a reliable friend and mentor to Ebony and the kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would describe him as -- putting him as like a person that helps families get into a better place and not under a bad situation.
BLACKWELL: Chief Glazier says it's easy to help Ebony.
GLAZIER: It's not like she didn't want to work. When I first met her she had two jobs. She was working at Walmart and she had another part-time job, and so she was trying to do the right thing.
BLACKWELL: And, Chief Glazier had started a GoFundMe campaign to make sure they are never homeless again.
GLAZIER: You want to be a striker, or did you want to be a striker?
BLACKWELL: Ebony knows she is not in this fight alone.
RHODES: That is my family away from family. The whole APD is my other family.
GLAZIER: We'll see you, Ebony.
RHODES: All right, see you.
GLAZIER: Take care.
BLACKWELL: Victor Blackwell, CNN, Atlanta.
GLAZIER: All right.
RHODES: All right.
GLAZIER: Bye, guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Great -- great story. So many good men and women in the serve and protect business and you've got to keep a spotlight on that.
All right. So, this story about the dog on United Airlines. Not the one they put in the overhead department that died, the one they sent to Japan -- this German Shepherd. And the family -- the woman and her family were waiting for their German Shepherd and a Great Dane came.
What happened? How is this mistake even possible?
Irgo the dog and his owner is going to join us live, next.
CAMEROTA: Plus, they are taking on the news industry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of the culture in television in creating sexual harassment, I left. There were many reasons that made me pivot my career and I still believe in the news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: OK. How this group of women are coming together for the first time and they plan to take on sexual harassment in the workplace. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:52:59] All right. Our next guests both survived an airline nightmare.
Here's what happened. United Airlines mistakenly shipped Kara Swindle's 10-year-old German Shepherd named Irgo to the wrong destination. Actually, to the wrong country, all right?
The family flew out of Portland, Oregon. They expected to reunite with their dog in Kansas City, Missouri, all right? It was about a 1,500-mile trip, no joke.
But when the Swindle family went to retrieve their dog they discovered that Irgo was on his way to Japan. United Airlines flew their dog from Japan back to Wichita, Kansas first-class, by the way, to reunite with Kara and the rest of the family. A total trip of nearly 13,000 miles -- more than halfway around the world.
But they are reunited, they're together, the dog is OK, and they join us now. And there they are. I see that he -- it's good that he's not too nervous about the T.V. appearance.
He's laying down, he's OK. We'll say the panting is about heat and not anxiety. Fair point?
KARA SWINDLE, OWNER OF DOG MISTAKENLY PUT ON UNITED FLIGHT TO JAPAN: Yes.
CUOMO: All right. We're joking around but this was no joke when it first happened. How is he doing? How is everybody with what happened?
SWINDLE: You know, he seems to be doing OK right now. He's a little restless so we're hoping once we get him home he can just start relaxing and get back to his normal routine. But other than that, everyone seems to be doing OK, so far. CUOMO: All right. Now, I know the pet deal well. We have two dogs. I get the traveling protocols.
Did he need meds to travel or did he have meds with him just because of his age and his ear infection?
SWINDLE: No, he did not have meds with him because he was only supposed to be traveling the one day and only a few hours. So I had the meds with me, unfortunately. So he went about three days without meds.
CUOMO: Oh, all right.
So take us back to moment. You get there, you're looking for your dog, what happens?
[07:55:04] SWINDLE: So they brought me back into their warehouse where they hold the kennels and I saw his kennel. I called his name and up popped this Great Dane instead. And it's just -- it's been a whirlwind of a trip already so it was just instant tears. I didn't even know what to think. I was just so worried about where my dog was instead.
CUOMO: How long did it take you to find -- how long did it take them to tell you where your dog actually was?
SWINDLE: So I went to pick him up about 6:30 on Tuesday and we didn't find out until the next morning about 2:30 a.m. --
CUOMO: Oh.
SWINDLE: -- that he did touch down in Japan --
CUOMO: So that had to be --
SWINDLE: -- because they weren't 100 percent sure that's where he was.
CUOMO: Oh, my God. I mean, look, obviously when you love a dog it's part of the family and not knowing for that length of time where he was, what was that like for you guys?
SWINDLE: It was -- it was horrible. There was no sleep that night whatsoever. We were just so worried about where he was because they couldn't confirm that he was on his way to Japan until that plane touched down.
So not knowing for those -- you know, however many hours was just heartbreaking because I mean, he could have been so much closer but we had no idea until that plane touched down. So that was -- it was definitely very rough.
CUOMO: OK. So, the airlines gets in touch with you. They say, all right, he's in Japan. How do they handle their mistake?
SWINDLE: At first, they didn't. They weren't sure how to handle it. My husband had to literally call them and demand what needed to be done because they were just -- they were in shock still of what had happened and they didn't even know how to get him back.
We told them that there was absolutely no way he was to go in cargo again so they had to figure out how to actually get him here without being in cargo. And that was what took the longest is how do we get him back doing what they need us to do? So that was -- it was definitely a rough day trying to figure out how to --
CUOMO: Right.
SWINDLE: -- get him back the correct way.
CUOMO: But why was it rough? I mean, this was totally on them so why would it have required any kind of negotiation or -- you know --
They didn't just immediately jump on the grenade and say holy cow, this was terrible what we did. We'll get him back. We'll do it first-class. That wasn't their immediate response?
SWINDLE: Not at all, no. They were just going to send him back cargo on the next plane, whenever that was, and we told them absolutely not. You need to be doing this our way now and he is to be flying in the cabin and honestly, we don't care how it happens. You just need to get it done.
And unfortunately, he wasn't able to fly in the cabin for some logistical region so that was another hours and hours of figuring out how to get him back our way and not just how they wanted to.
So finally, after fighting with them for a day, they said we will just do whatever we need to do and they put him on United's corporate jet instead --
CUOMO: Really?
SWINDLE: -- just to get him back so much faster. Yes.
CUOMO: All right, so that's a little bit of something but it's not enough. What have they offered you so far --
SWINDLE: Nothing.
CUOMO: -- because of the infliction of emotional distress on your family in dealing with this?
SWINDLE: You know, we haven't talked too much about that yet. We were just so worried about getting him back. But now that he's back and we can all calm down, and once my husband gets back from his work trip we can actually start talking about what is to be done next.
CUOMO: Are you going to sue? Will you ever fly United again?
SWINDLE: I will definitely never fly United again. I don't know exactly what we're going to do yet so I'm not 100 percent sure there.
CUOMO: He's OK but this is -- that was a --
SWINDLE: Definitely not.
CUOMO: -- terrible nightmare. He looks great. He is a beautiful --
SWINDLE: Oh, yes.
CUOMO: -- and really well-mannered dog.
SWINDLE: Thank you.
CUOMO: I love that at 10, he's still nibbling at you to keep petting him. That shows a really special bond.
SWINDLE: Oh, yes, yes.
CUOMO: He is a beauty. What does Irgo mean?
SWINDLE: Thank you so much. You know, we don't know. He was named that when we adopted him.
CUOMO: Oh, I got you.
SWINDLE: We adopted him when he was about four.
CUOMO: Got you. A beautiful dog.
SWINDLE: So that's what he was named before.
CUOMO: Thank God this story has a happy ending.
SWINDLE: Thank you.
CUOMO: We all know -- I didn't make reference to it because there's no reason to freak you out more but we know what happened with that other family and their puppy on United Airlines when they put it in the overhead compartment.
So let us know what the United Airlines does to make good on this and what you intend to do. We'll stay on it.
Thank you very much.
SWINDLE: Thank you so much.
CUOMO: All right. See you later, doggy.
All right, we're following a lot of news on this Friday. What do you say? Let's get after it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The president has made the decision to remove H.R. McMaster.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There'll always be change. I want to see different ideas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone who bragged about I hire only the best people can't seem to keep people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking forward to the president having the cabinet that he deserves.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The special counsel is looking now into Trump businesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's investigation 101 to follow the money.
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president believes very strongly there was no collusion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no individual in the United States who is above the law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was loud.
