Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

Circus Act Stopped During Bad Weather; Massive Storms Flood Parts Of Houston; Obama Slams Lynch Delay As "Embarrassing"; ISIS Claims Attack On U.S. Consulate In Iraq; GOP Presidential Hopefuls Flood New Hampshire; Wife of Gyrocopter Pilot Speaking Out; Police: Jarret Stoll Had Cocaine Ecstasy; Passenger Stuck On Tarmac Outraged By Delay; ESPN Reporter Caught Berating Clerk. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired April 18, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: You can see water starting to pour through an opening in the top of the circus tent. The trapeze act comes to a screeching halt with the performer walking offstage then there's pandemonium as people start running out of the tent.

Luckily nobody was hurt and police say the tent was never in danger of collapsing, still, some scary moments for those people in the audience.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us is an eyewitness who was at the circus event, Robin Garrett. Robin, thank you so much for being with us. Help us understand what it was like in there when this happened.

ROBIN GARRETT (via telephone): Well, we were watching her and the hail started which was a very scary sound honestly. And I don't want to minimize, weather is a scary thing. I know some people that were home during all this and they were scared as well.

But it's just people decided maybe they shouldn't be in the tent and when they did, they started moving. The tent was not flapping or picking like it was lifting up or anything like that.

It was just a scary time with the noise and you can see outside because, of course, you're inside the tent. But the circus did a great job and everybody able to leave the tent that wanted to leave.

And many people stayed in the tent and waited out the few minutes of the -- of the hail, and then when the weather was done, everybody went home. I mean, it was scary, but everybody was fine. Nobody honestly appeared to be in any imminent danger, but it was a scary moment, yes.

PAUL: All right, well, Robin Garrett, thank you so much. As you said, we're just so glad that everybody's OK, but, you know, you think of all the kids that go to circuses --

JOHNS: Unbelievable.

PAUL: And stuff like that really freaks them out. JOHNS: Yes, yes, and you wonder the next time kids there are going to want to go back to the circus.

PAUL: That's right. No kidding.

Listen, take a look at some more video that we got, this from Houston, severe thunderstorms in that city overnight. Streets were flooded, you see look at this car. Some of them were submerged. Drivers were stranded and, please don't hurt me, there's more wet weather ahead. I promise it's not my fault.

JOHNS: Getting a lot of it around the Atlanta area, too. It's sort of like Seattle.

PAUL: Welcome to Atlanta, Joe! Aren't you excited to be here?

JOHNS: Awesome. What's up?

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's a scary situation in the tent because not where you want to be in a tent during a severe thunderstorm --

PAUL: Right.

CABRERA: -- which is what was happening there, but then what's your option? Do you go outside? That is also a problem because you have frequent lightning. You got torrential rain coming down so a terrible situation there. Some of the rainfall tallies, anywhere from 3 inches to 5 inches of rainfall fell that's just in the last 24 hours and a lot of that came down in just a few hours.

This is in the last five days torrential rains from Houston extending all the way along I-10 that will continue over the next several days the same weather pattern here is pretty much stuck and so we have flash flood warnings from Houston and then we have flood warnings extending all the way along the gulf coast with more heavy rain that's going to be on the way.

And we're not just talking torrential downpours. You see this frequent lightning coming in so I think today we're under the gun for potentially severe storms that will develop especially for the afternoon.

We're not talking about a big outbreak as far as tornadoes, but we could be looking because of this upper low at some strong thunderstorms that could bring down some torrential rain and also hail with the potential of damaging winds.

We're going to watch that from Corpus Christi through Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City, and then ending in Wichita and that threat continues tomorrow pushing to the east. We are stuck pretty much in this pattern.

PAUL: All righty, thank you for the heads up, Ivan. Appreciate it.

All right, let's talk about Washington, your stomping grounds. President Obama said enough is enough. He's slamming the Senate for refusing to confirm attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch.

JOHNS: Obama called the Senate, quote, "Embarrassing and their lack of action and yet another sign of dysfunction in the Senate. You know he used to work there. Sunlen Serfaty is following the story from the White House. Sunlen, what else did the president have to say?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joe, this was certainly a public chastising by President Obama sent directly to the Senate calling it political gamesmanship. There have been 160 days since Loretta Lynch was first nominated by President Obama.

She has had to wait for her confirmation now longer than any other cabinet secretary has had to wait in the last three administrations so this clearly is weighing on President Obama. At the press conference yesterday, he was clearly frustrated calling for the Senate to get this done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have to say that there are times where the dysfunction in the Senate just goes too far. This is an example of it. It's gone too far.

[08:05:02] Enough, enough. Call Loretta Lynch for a vote. Get her confirmed. Put her in place. Let her do her job. This is embarrassing, a process like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And Lynch's nomination is held up because it's tangled in a separate unrelated issue of this anti-human trafficking bill that the Senate's trying to work their way through. That bill includes some controversial language on abortion that Democrats aren't happy about.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he has said that he will move on this human trafficking bill if they can get agreement on that early next week. That would potential pave the way to hold a vote on Lynch's nominations early next week. There are a lot of ifs. There are a lot of maybes in there. Back to you.

PAUL: All righty, so I'm curious, and I'm sure you are, too, you say the president, you know, it's weighing on him. It's got to be weighing on Republicans, don't you think?

JOHNS: Well, yes.

SERFATY: That's a great point, Christi. You know, Republicans are really in a tight spot here because in one stance they want to stand their ground. Many of them are opposed to Lynch's nomination, her defense of President Obama's unilateral executive move on immigration.

But at the same time, they're probably keenly aware of the historic nature of Lynch's nomination, her being the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general so that's a balancing point that they're going to have to continue to make. JOHNS: But they're also I think it's true to say that the Republican Senate is sort of flexing its muscles and perhaps even tipping the hat to the Christian right concerned about abortion as such, right?

SERFATY: Absolutely. And that's why the only way to describe it is it's tangled into this web of related to this abortion amendment and the anti-human trafficking bill and we saw that frustration from President Obama.

Making note of this, he is saying this is an unrelated issue really trying to separate the two parts, but clearly these comments from President Obama has really elevated the pressure on Republicans in Congress.

PAUL: All righty, Sunlen Serfaty, so good to see you this morning. Thank you.

JOHNS: Now we're going to take a look at some breaking news out of Afghanistan. A rush hour suicide attack leaves at least 33 people dead and more than 100 injured. ISIS is now claiming responsibility for that blast. Here is what we know.

We're told a man on a motor bike blew himself up in front of a bank in Jalalabad that's about 150 miles from the capital city of Kabul. Investigators believe the bomber was targeting government workers who were picking up paychecks.

Earlier today, the Afghan president condemned the attack vowing to take down terrorists who he says are using Afghan blood and soil for a proxy war.

And in Iraq we have new details this morning on an attack near the U.S. Consulate in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Erbil. ISIS is now claiming responsibility for the suicide car bomb blast.

Officials say at least four people killed, 18 injured, but all U.S. Consulate personnel are safe and accounted for. Let's bring in senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson. Ivan, what else do we know about this explosion?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're just getting reports now that two of the four people killed were Turkish citizens. The blast went off in an area close to the U.S. Consulate, which wasn't damaged, but an area where there were coffee shops and bars and cafes that were often frequented by foreigners.

And that attack has really put the Kurdish safe haven city of Erbil on edge and what's amazing is that Erbil is really located only about 30, 40 miles away from the front lines that are manned by Islamic State fighters.

Despite that, Erbil has been considered relatively safe. I mean, international airlines fly into its airport there. There are international chains of hotels there, and foreigners, westerners, can walk around somewhat freely there and feel somewhat comfortable. This is a grim reminder that the war is not far away and that the militants were able to infiltrate the city, get past Kurdish defenses, and really pose a threat to that city.

This is -- is an existing normal, the terrible security situation, that has been tearing apart Iraq for most of the last decade -- Joe.

JOHNS: Ivan, we've got another big development that we're reporting on, the alleged killing of a top aide, former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. What else do we know about this death?

WATSON: His name is Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri and he's actually been declared dead and effectively brought back to life several times since the U.S. invasion of Iraq because of false reports in the past.

Now, he was one of the most wanted men from the former Saddam Hussein regime, wanted by the U.S. military, put a $10 million bounty out on his head.

[08:10:09] It also labeled him the king of clubs in the list of most wanted fugitives. He was one of the leaders of the militant jihadi opposition movement. Now, the Iraqi government is claiming he was killed around the city of Kirkuk on Friday.

We have some -- I have to warn viewers because they're graphic. They're just a few still images from some video that emerged of what people believe is his body in a morgue in Baghdad.

It does appear to resemble Izzat Ibrahim Al Duri, the Iraqi government and Iraqi authorities say they're testing his DNA and they should have confirmation on whether this is, in fact, him within the next 48 hours.

It does seem to have that telltale red hair that he was very well known for. What's important to note is while he is a symbol of the old regime that the U.S. military overthrew, an ongoing symbol of armed resistance against the current Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, he is not believed to be one of the top officials in ISIS.

He was allied with ISIS. He had reportedly had tensions with ISIS. He was in his 70s and it's not believed that this will dramatically transform the battlefield and the ongoing war against ISIS if it, in fact, is the death of this former right-hand man of Saddam Hussein.

JOHNS: A loose association there at the very least. Thank you so much for that, Ivan Watson.

For more on how you can affect children affected by the violence in Iraq, go to CNN.com/impact. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:41]

PAUL: It's 16 minutes past the hour right now, so glad to have you with us. ISIS launches another deadly attack this time in Afghanistan. Take a look here at the aftermath of this blast. Hear the sounds of the sirens ringing out there in the streets.

At least 33 people are dead. More than 100 are wounded. We're told a man on a motor bike blew himself up in front of a bank near the city of Jalalabad. Now that's about 150 miles from the capital city of Kabul.

Let's bring in someone who knows this region really well, CNN military analyst, Major General Spider Marks. General, thank you again so much for being with us.

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you. Good morning.

PAUL: Of course, we talk about this ISIS branch, they are known as ISIS Wilayat Khorasan. What intel officers know about them and do you think it was somebody specifically who might have been trained by ISIS or a lone wolf kind of group?

MARKS: Well, I don't think it's a lone wolf. I think what you have is inspirational recruiting that takes place, and so the nature of terrorism is that it metastasizes and takes on many forms so the attribution of this attack to ISIS makes perfect sense.

That's where all the buzz is. That's where we're paying attention. It's part of our lexicon, you say ISIS, you say ISIL, folks know what you're talking about. It's easy to attribute this type of attack to ISIS.

What needs to take place is a lot more forensics afterwards to find out if it really was so you can backtrack to who the sources are, who the particular leaders, who might have brought, who recruited this individual to get on that motorcycle?

What was his linkage back into the broader network and how this all ties together frankly the intelligence community has been looking at this and has some incredible tools to get to the bottom of it.

The key issue primarily, Christi, is what can be done about it and that really gets back to what is the local ability to use that intelligence to their advantage.

PAUL: Which is getting me to my next question, how much is the Afghan government doing to fight ISIS recruiting specifically?

MARKS: Well, you know, it's very, very difficult. What you have is the normal expression of what takes place in Kabul stays in Kabul. So, it's very, very regionalized, localized. There are few connections that exist within Afghanistan.

And as we know, Afghanistan has been defined over history by the borders of its neighbors so there really hasn't been an Afghan type of perspective that emanates from a powerful regional capital.

So, Kabul speaks for what goes on in Kabul as they try to expand the connections that exist. But the easy connection exists right now on the internet, so through cyber-recruiting that very cynical means of getting young men to do these -- to take on these acts has been in place for the last 15 years. And it's very little that Kabul can do about that.

PAUL: All right, General Spider Marks, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you for being with us.

MARKS: Thanks, Christi.

PAUL: Sure, thank you, sir -- Joe.

JOHNS: Christi, an L.A. Kings hockey star is out on bail today. We'll tell you why he was put behind bars in the first place.

Plus Dr. Oz is defending himself this morning against criticism from his peers in the medical community. They want him fired and some are even calling him a quack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:23]

PAUL: All right, want to give you a look at some of the other stories that are developing this morning.

JOHNS: L.A. Kings hockey player, Jarret Stoll, is out on a $5,000 bail he was arrested yesterday at a Las Vegas resort for drug possession. In a statement, the Kings said they've begun conducting their own investigation into the charges.

Iran's showing of new hardware, military hardware, including anti- aircraft guns, wheeled battle tanks, is part of the country's national army day, which also marks the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Parades are going to be held across the country, but this one in Tehran was attended by President Rouhani.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You are looking at a natural gas line explosion there. This was in Fresno, California, it was a fireball. It injured 11 people and at least one had to be airlifted out to safety. The exact cause of the blast, well, that's still under investigation.

JOHNS: Dr. Oz is speaking out against his own critics in the medical field after ten physicians across the country have called on Columbia University to fire him from the faculty. Dr. Oz released this statement.

"I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves. We provide multiple points of view including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest. I will address this on the show next week."

The physicians calling for Dr. Oz to be removed from the faculty say he recommends, quote, "Quack treatments to patients and has medical conflicts of interest."

PAUL: Take a look at this. Gloves off! Face masks pulled, lots and lots of punches thrown.

[08:25:05] My goodness, it is nasty during the Vancouver Canucks versus Calgary Flames game last night. Canucks were up 4 to 1 when this fight broke out.

JOHNS: It's a ballroom brawl.

PAUL: All ten skaters, Joe, all ten of them involved in that all-out brawl.

JOHNS: That's crazy.

PAUL: Good heavens.

JOHNS: Wow.

PAUL: Well, it is hockey, some say, without a fight it's not a game.

JOHNS: Speaking of brawls, contenders clash in New Hampshire. GOP presidential hopefuls are making their first pitch to voters in the crucial primary state. We're live with the latest from this Republican summit. Plus --

PAUL: An ESPN reporter is suspended for a tow truck rant that was caught on tape. We've learned it's not the first time she's gotten into a war of words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I was a member of underwater recovery team and the "Apollo 16" recovery team. The command module popped up and I jumped out and we put the flotation device out and stood up on it, and the astronaut looks out.

It was phenomenal, one of my defining moments as a team guy. My name is Larry and I'm retired Navy SEAL and now I run a Snowcat in Vail, Colorado.

What it means to be a Navy SEAL is six months of the most arduous military training in the world. We started with 108 in our class, 24 graduated. I was a Navy SEAL for 37 years. And I spent 20 years on active duty and 17 in reserves.

I had reached the mandatory retirement age of 60. I would say plan early for retirement. Don't wait until it's too late. Have an idea of what your projected income, when you do decide to retire, what your Social Security is going to be, and come up with a lump sum and see if you can afford to do what I do.

I was actually spring skiing in Vail in 2007 and watching the cats coming down one night, and I thought, that looks like something I might want to do.

I spoke to the grooming supervisor. He said might be looking for a little maturity to work the game creek club which is a private members club. And next thing I knew I have a job offer and moved to Vail for the season in 2007-2008.

What I enjoy most about the Snowcat driving is the ride up in the morning watching the sun come up over the Rockies, it's just spectacular. I also like the challenge of driving the Snowcat.

It takes a certain amount of sensitivity to hydraulics and snow consistency, and certain amount of adversity that I like when it's adverse weather conditions. Kind of have to make it happen. I have tried kicking my feet up and it gets old after a while.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:59] PAUL: The eyes of the political world are on New Hampshire where the second day of a GOP summit's under way now. More than a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls gathering in the important primary state and during the first day several contenders tried to grab the spotlight or at least, you know, put some of their rhetoric to a field test, let's say.

CNN's Athena Jones is in New Hampshire right now and she's been following what's been going on there. Let's look ahead first of all, Athena, what do we expect today?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi. Well, soon we're going to hear from Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky who, of course, has already thrown his hat in the ring, one of the declared candidates, there are a lot of folks here who aren't declared. Later on we'll hear from Senator Ted Cruz who was the first to throw his hat in the ring for president. We'll also hear from Governor Scott Walker and many, many others. It's a long list of folks. This is all about appealing to activists especially here in New Hampshire who could help these candidates or potential candidates get organized on the ground here which is going to make a big difference here in the first in the nation primary, the first state in the nation to hold a primary next year.

It's also though, of course, about the national spotlight and appealing to Republicans all across the country in a way that could help these folks, these candidates, raise money. So I expect today we'll hear more talk about conservative principles, more bashing, of course, of President Obama's policies. And we could also hear a repeat of some of the themes we've heard over the last couple of days from folks like Governor Rick Perry who said, you know, let's not elect another first-term senator which is, of course, a dig at the first-term senators who want to be president. And we've also heard from Chris Christie that, you know, President Obama is all about his library and his legacy now, so we'll probably hear some of that same language echoed in the speeches today.

PAUL: Is there any gauge yet who there may be resonating with the folks in that community?

JONES: It's very, very early to say.

PAUL: Yes. JONES: I spoke to a couple of folks that's yesterday and also at an

earlier event with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and they're really just coming out to hear what these folks have to say. One person told me he'd been to several Christie events. We've heard from voters who say that they've followed some of these guys around to see if they've changed their answers at various town halls and question-and-answer sessions. But it's quite early for folks to really be choosing, I haven't heard anyone yet say who they are backing for sure -- Christi.

PAUL: Great, though, as understanding that they're going around and listening for certain things. I was just wondering what might be resonating with some of those folks in terms of what they're talking about, and who they are leaning towards. Athena Jones, always good to have you, thank you.

JOHNS: Several big names including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker are set to speak today in New Hampshire during this two-day summit. But once this meeting of the GOP minds wraps up, another contender is going to head into New Hampshire, that would be Hillary Clinton. The Democrat.

Joining us now to talk about this more are Republican strategist and senior director for the Black Rock Group Lisa Boothe and Democratic strategist Rob Zimmerman. Rob, I want to start with you.

ROB ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.

JOHNS: Good morning. Hillary Clinton has taken a lot of shots from the GOP this week. Is her strategy the same going small driving around in a van with the Secret Service and trying to make little one- on-one contact with people or is she going to change it up a bit?

ZIMMERMAN: Well, I think you're going to obviously the strategy will grow and change as the campaign progresses. But right now I think it's on a very important track and that is connecting with everyday people and talking about economic opportunities. Improving our political process. Issues that impact people's lives. I think it's a very good sign, Joe, that the most you hear from the critics, from the Republicans, who are attacking Hillary Clinton for wearing dark glasses in a restaurant or trying to criticize some of the people who attend her forums and meetings. But I'd much rather have her meeting with people discussing issues than hearing Ted Cruz discuss as he did recently as Best Simpson's episode are Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum debate whether they go to a loved one's marriage if it was a gay wedding or Jeb Bush discussing worried about being compared to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Note to Jeb, don't worry too much about comparisons to the Adams.

[08:36:12] JOHNS: Lisa, he took some of them off there. Which GOP contender in your view needs a really good showing this week in New Hampshire to get a bit of a boost?

LISA BOOTHE, BLACK ROCK GROUP: Well, I think they all do right now. And, you know, New Hampshire's kind of anyone's game at this moment and there is a crowded primary field and it's very unpredictable. I mean, if you have someone like Chris Christie winning New Hampshire would kind of be the key to any path forward that he might see. I think, you know, someone like Marco Rubio is kind of looking for his breakout moment that you know, Scott Walker had at the Iowa Freedom Summit, so it's incredibly important to, you know, to each of these potential candidates and candidates like Marco Rubio who have already announced.

But, you know, to Robert's point about Hillary Clinton I think what you'll see from the Republican candidates is that people actually walking in to, you know, fast food or restaurants and shaking hands, you know, actually being accessible, being honest about the answers that they're giving not lying about their grandparents being immigrants and, you know, not having these incredibly controlled access environments like Hillary Clinton has. You know, Hillary Clinton continues to claim that she is a woman of the people and try to drive this populous message but she is anything but, you know, all we've seen from her is hypocrisy on the campaign trail. You know, she criticizes CEOs and the pay disparity between CEOs and workers but she charges $300,000 per speech.

ZIMMERMAN: Oh, Lisa.

BOOTHE: It's true, Robert. She calls out unaccountable money but her campaign is costing over $2.5 billion so it's hypocrisy.

ZIMMERMAN: Lisa, it's kind of early for these kinds of personal attacks, you've got an almost a year and a half ahead of you, so I think what's more important is to focus on the issues.

BOOTHE: It's the truth.

ZIMMERMAN: And I've still yet to hear them from you or for most Republican candidates.

BOOTHE: I'm talking about the issues, I'm talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton is incapable of driving a populous message when she is an elitist and she is out of touch.

JOHNS: Rob, let me ask you, though.

ZIMMERMAN: Sure.

JOHNS: A lot of Republicans do say Hillary Clinton has a bit of a credibility problem on the campaign trail. Do you see that as a liability for her?

ZIMMERMAN: Well, I think that the only concern would be trying to react or be concerned about these transparent obvious Republican partisan attacks. I mean, the campaign is only six days old. The fact that we've had a rollout and six days where there have been no leaks on the campaign trail and, in fact, that she's staying true to her theme of meeting with people and talking about issues. And she's already advocated a constitutional amendment to reform our campaign finance system. She's been talking about economic opportunity. College affordability. So, there are real issues and, of course, as this campaign progresses there are going to be many times to discuss policies, issue position papers. No one's ever -- no one's ever questioned Hillary Clinton's commitment to public policy or the fact -- there's never a shortage in any Clinton campaign or during her tenure in public office of taking strong positions and taking tough policy positions.

JOHNS: Lisa, now about Mike Huckabee, he's been around the barn a couple of times. Do you think he should jump in again? He's making noises that he will?

BOOTHE: Well, you know, and I think he might and that's obviously what he has indicated towards. I think he has said that you know, May 5th is the date for him. I mean, he's someone that obviously would appeal to, you know, social conservatives. Appeal to evangelical Christians but, you know, quite frankly, you know, as a younger Republican I'm looking for someone, you know, a little bit newer blood and someone who, you know, represents a brighter future for the country and, you know, I think that's --

ZIMMERMAN: That's the fatal flaw. Lisa, that's the fatal flaw --

BOOTHE: No, but Roberts, here's the difference between the Republican candidates and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has been running for a decade.

ZIMMERMAN: Here's the problem though, Lisa, if I can make a point --

BOOTHE: You interrupted me, Robert.

JOHNS: Hillary Clinton did run for president once previously.

BOOTHE: She's been running for a decade.

ZIMMERMAN: But the problem, Lisa is --

JOHNS: All right. I got to go, folks. I got to go.

ZIMMERMAN: Okay.

BOOTHE: Thank you.

JOHNS: Thanks so much to the both of you, Rob Zimmerman and Lisa Boothe.

ZIMMERMAN: Good to be with you.

[08:40:01] JOHNS: Thank you.

All right, a hockey star under arrest and booked on drug charges. Details on what happened in Vegas next.

And outrage in Colorado. Passengers aboard a Republic airlines flight in Colorado are left on a runway for six hours. And we got cell phone video that shows how angry they were. We'll show it to you coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:43:30] PAUL: Well, the wife of the Florida mailman who landed a gyrocopter near the U.S. capitol Wednesday is speaking now publicly for the first time.

JOHNS: Her husband Douglas Mark Hugh was charged with violating aircraft registration requirements and violating national defense airspace. Here's what she told our affiliate WFLA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you thinking when you heard?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My reaction is difficult to explain my reaction for this. I was shocked. My hands shake. I need to support my daughter and I need to explain to her what happened because I was very worried her reaction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she was traumatized, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he's patriot. And I'm proud of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Hughes has been placed on home detention in Tampa.

Hockey Star Jarret Stoll is in big trouble with the law this morning.

PAUL: Yes, Coy Wire joining us now with this, this came out of nowhere. What happened?

COY WIRE, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT: It came out of nowhere. Yes. Hockey star going from the ice into hot water, guys. The L.A. Kings Star Jarret Stoll is arrested for drug possession yesterday in Las Vegas. Police tell CNN affiliate KSNB that Stoll was found in possession of cocaine and ecstasy at MJM Grand's wet Republican poll. She was released from jail on $500,000 just hours ago. That is just hot off the presses here, we'll see what continues to happen.

JOHNS: Right. So, I guess the team's got to have a statement on this one, right?

WIRE: They did. Yes. On their pr twitter account they came out and said that, you know, first of all, there's a hearing scheduled for later today and they said in the statement, "Our organization is concerned and has begun conducting a thorough internal investigation while we continue to actively gather facts, we are withholding further comment."

PAUL: So, I mean, what's his background?

WIRE: All right. His background, maybe his name sounds familiar because he and Erin Andrews were a bit of a couple out in Los Angeles, she's the host of "Dancing with the Stars" and the sports reporter so there's that. But this guy was a good player, too. I mean, he had a rough season. But he joined the kings in 2008. He won two Stanley Cups including last year. Here's the other thing about this guy, he's becomes a free agent in July.

PAUL: Oh, yes.

JOHNS: Bad timing.

WIRE: Yes. The kings barely missed the play-offs and here they are one of the players who helped them win two Stanley Cups in recent years is now in big, big trouble.

JOHNS: Right. Kicking back maybe a little too much, at least --

WIRE: Yes. We'll see. You know, we'll see when the facts come out how true they are and what actually happened. We'll see. More to come.

PAUL: Good point. All right. Hey, Coy, always good to have you here.

WIRE: Thanks for having me.

PAUL: Absolutely.

Speaking of sports, ESPN reporter Britt McHenry was suspended after a video surfaced of her berating, attacking a towing company employee. We'll learning it may not be the first time he's been caught verbally attacking complete strangers, somebody said she's doing it on social media.

JOHNS: Wow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:49:53] JOHNS: Okay. Try to imagine this no fresh air or air- conditioning and just crackers for food for nearly six hours. That was a situation for passengers aboard a united flight. Weather caused the flight from Kansas City to be diverted to Colorado Springs and that's when the waiting began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The operation is required to formulate plan to start getting people off the airplane. That is and they are sticking to that.

GREG MILLER, REPORTER, KDRO (voice-over): That plan -- not fast enough. No fresh air, no air conditioning, and only a few crackers for food, passengers coming close to a riot at one point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll make a co and we will go.

MILLER: Instead of rioting, they recorded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We only have three dates and they are not in the mood to be dealing with us. They don't have to do anything with us until we've been on out here for three hours. VICKEY MINDEN, PASSENGER: My sister and I -- taking her to visit an

aunt. And this was probably our last vacation together. And this is the memory we have.

MILLER: Desperate to get out, but couldn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically if we exited the plane any time in that six hours we would be stranded.

MILLER: Colorado Springs Airport says it was a mix-up.

HEATHER LENARD, SPOKESWOMAN, COLORADO SPRINGS AIRPORT: There's been a little bit of a miscommunication between the pilots and the passengers stating that the Colorado Springs airport was not allowing them to taxi to the gate. That is not true.

MILLER: Turning what was supposed to be a dream vacation --

MINDEN: And to them it's just business, but to the people on the plane, it was our heart. We weren't flying out of boredom. We had something to do.

MILLER: Into an hours-long nightmare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Thanks to Greg Miller from our affiliate KRDO for that report.

An ESPN reporter is in trouble for a tow truck rant caught on tape but it's not the first time she's gotten into a war of words for the world to see. We'll talk about that coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:22] PAUL: There may be more pr trouble let's say for ESPN reporter Britt McHenry, remember she's been suspended after a surveillance video surfaced of her berating a towing company employee. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITT MCHENRY, ESPN REPORTER: Do you feel good about your job so I could be a college dropout and do the same thing? Why? Because I have a brain and you don't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's great. Yes.

MCHENRY: Maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me, huh?

(INAUDIBLE)

Oh, like yours because they look so stunning. Because I'm on television and you're in a (bleep) trailer. Lose some weight, baby girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All right. We want to point out that's an edited video that was first posted on the website Lively and it says, the incident occurred earlier this month. Although the 28-year-old has apologized for the insult-laced rant we're now learning this wasn't the first time she's gone after complete strangers, some say, touting her looks, her career, other people's carriers and education.

CNN Senior Media correspondent Brian Stelter joining us now with more. Brian, what are you learning?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: You know, in cases like this, sometimes a video comes out and then people go looking into people's past, in this case on to Britt McHenry's Twitter feed where there were examples of her seeming to get into twitter fights with people and so those have now been highlighted which just makes the challenge for ESPN even more challenging, doesn't it? They offered a one-week suspension and they announced that right after this video came out but that one-week suspension is going to end this week and there are no shortage of people saying it's got to be longer than that. The hard thing I think for ESPN here, putting aside the ugliness of the rant is that this video is going to live online for a very long time. It's already become a mime so it's not the kind of thing people are necessarily going to forget about when the suspension ends in a few days.

PAUL: Coy Wire though who was just here was telling us about how, you know, Britt is maybe getting some traction in the sense that people are jumping on this -- the fact that this was an edited tape and does she have any -- do you see any recourse? Anything else she could do to try to help herself in terms of public relations?

STELTER: Well, apologized directly to the people I think at that parking lot, at that towing lot, that would be one step and that was missing from the initial apology. It was really interesting to see what the towing company said yesterday. They came out and said, look, listen, parking enforcement is contentious by nature. And then the most interesting thing was, we saw no benefit of releasing the video except to highlight personal attacks our employees face. Sort of implies that yes, they were behind the leak of this video. They said by the way, they did not license or sell the video at anybody. Yes, it was edited but no that doesn't let her off the hook.

PAUL: Why?

STELTER: Because this is one of those higher standard situations where if you're on television, if you're in a big job like this, you are held to a higher standard. You know, ESPN's owned by Disney the most family friendly media company of them all, that's why it's a very hairy situation for them.

PAUL: Well, and just take the high road. Just be nice to people -- I always say, you know, how somebody treats you is a reflection of them not of you. All right. Some of these tweets here I just wanted to read. In December of 2014 McHenry apparently tweeted, "O'Dell Beckham Jr. turned down playing for the U.S. National Soccer Team for football, example of why we'll never have European caliber soccer." And Chicago fire in major league soccer player Mike McGee tweeted to her, "I've stumbled on some ridiculous tweets in my day but this one stood out, thanks for the laugh, Brit." And McHenry fired back, "well, at least you stumbled upon me. Can't say the same for you." Ouch! She's got an acerbic tongue, right?

JOHNS: Yes, I know.

STELTER: Yes. And you know, she's a personality in some ways, you know, you can maybe explain that and explain that away. I would say what's damning about the video is that it makes her sound entitled. There's some class issues there between her and the employee who is probably not making much more than minimum wage. That's why it stung so much. And the fact that we haven't heard about any personal apology and that maybe that's the next step for her if she wants to go ahead and get back to work and go ahead and reclaim her reputation. That might be the next step here.

PAUL: We only have 30 seconds but what do you predict for ESPN because they've had a lot of problems the last year?

Well, you know, they've suspended employees in the past. Steven A. Smith last year for comments about domestic abuse. Bill Simmons for repeatedly calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. That suspension was actually for three weeks and that's making some people think that this one-week suspension is not enough. I always want to be sympathetic. I always want to be empathetic. But this is a really tough case I think for ESPN.

PAUL: I know. I know. Yes. It is. Brian, I always appreciate your voice on this. Thank you so much.

STELTER: Thank you.

PAUL: Sure.

JOHNS: All right. That's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 Eastern in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PAUL: Don't go anywhere. Michael Smerconish is starting for you right now.