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New Day Saturday
Trump Likely To Strip DOJ Official's Clearance Soon; Gop Fundraiser Elliott Broidy Investigated For Influence Peddling; Husband In Custody For His Family's Death, But Not Charged; Manafort Jury Returns Monday, Trump Calls Trial "Sad"; Pregnant Women Addicted to Opioids Quadruples; Jeff Sessions Directed to Sue Opioid Manufacturers; Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Dead at 80; Families Gather in Italy for State Funeral for Victims; Aretha Franklin's Funeral Set for August 31 in Detroit; One Hundred and Sixty Eight People Killed in Historic India Flooding; Heart Patient Sends Rapper Drake a Message. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired August 18, 2018 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Security clearances are very important to me. Very, very important.
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: He's drunk on power. He really is and I think he's abusing the powers of that office. I think right now this country is in a crisis.
TRUMP: There's no silence. If anything, I'm giving him a bigger voice. Many people don't even know who he is and now he has a bigger voice and that's OK. I say it, I say it again, that whole situation is a rigged witch hunt.
BELLA WATTS: My daddy is a hero. He helps me grow up strong.
CHRIS WATTS: If somebody has her, just please bring her back. I just want them back. I just -- I just want them to come back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The husband, Chris Watts, was taken into custody and was transported to Weld County Jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY WEEKEND: And we begin with breaking news. Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General and Nobel Prize winner, is dead. He was 80 years old. A diplomat from Ghana, he served in the U.N.'s top post from 1997 to 2006 and worked tirelessly for human rights.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY WEEKEND: The current Secretary General released this statement, quote, "Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good. It is with profound sadness that I learned of his passing," unquote. We're going to have more from CNN's Richard Roth who covered Annan for years in just a couple of moments.
BLACKWELL: And this morning there are new jabs in the fight over security clearance. The President defiant and threatening to strip a DOJ official's clearance soon, and we're hearing this is 60 former CIA officials our now condemning his decision to revoke former Director John Brennan's clearance. Brennan's take? He says the President is drunk with power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENNAN: He's drunk on power. He really is and I think he's abusing the powers of that office. I think right now this country is in a crisis in terms of what Mr. Trump has done and is liable to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: What's critical to understand here is that the people who could lose their clearance next, let's take a look here, all of them have either been publicly critical of the President or have been tied to the Russia probe in some fashion.
BLACKWELL: "The Washington Post" reports that documents to strip their clearance are ready for the President to sign. Let's start with Sarah Westwood who is in New Jersey near where the President is staying this weekend. Sarah, good morning to you.
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN REPORTER: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: So tell us, what --
WESTWOOD: Yes, President Trump --
BLACKWELL: Go ahead. Go ahead.
WESTWOOD: While President Trump is facing that backlash for removing the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, he has tied that decision to the Russia investigation, but also allegeded that Brennan somehow abused his security clearance, although the White House has produced no evidence to indicate how exactly they think that Brennan did so.
Former senior intelligence officials are speaking out on Brennan's behalf. Crucially, they're not necessarily saying that they agree with what Brennan has said about the President, but they agree on Brennan's right to say it. Sixty ex-CIA officials warned the President that this could set a dangerous precedent.
And they said in a statement, "All of us believe it is critical to protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure, but we believe equally strongly that former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as a critical national security issue without fear of being punished for doing so. The country will be weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before experts are allowed to share their views."
Now, President Trump is indicating that he think he's received a, quote, "tremendous response to his decision" and that happen he might continue to remove security clearances from officials.
PAUL: So Sarah, what are we learning about other potential clearances being revoked?
WESTWOOD: Well, there are reports that the White House has drawn up the papers to remove the security clearances from potentially dozens of former officials, many of them connected to the Russia investigation or prominent critics of the President. Some of the names on that list, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who is an outspoken critic of the President.
[06:04:57] Others are former FBI officials who have been linked to the special council's probe, such as Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who was only recently removed from the bureau, and Lisa Page, former FBI Attorney with whom Strzok had an affair and with whom he exchanged anti-Trump text messages during the Russia investigation.
Senator Mark Warner, the democrat who is the ranking democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is threatening to take action to prevent President Trump from making these moves on security clearances. He said in a tweet, "I will be introducing an amendment next week to block the President from punishing and intimidating his critics by arbitrarily revoking security clearances. Stay tuned."
Now, the White House is reportedly weighing the opportune time to roll out these decisions to remove security clearances so potentially we'll have to wait for the next busy news day to see those decisions actually come to fruition, Christi and Victor.
PAUL: Allrighty. Sarah Westwood, we appreciate it this morning. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: And that's where I want to start with Walter Shaub, CNN contributor and former Director of the Office of Government Ethics, and Julian Zelizer, CNN Political Analyst and historian and professor at Princeton university. Gentlemen, welcome back to NEW DAY WEEKEND.
And Julian, I want to start with you just where Sarah left off there in this reporting from the "Washington Post" that the President is prepared to sign most, if not all, of these documents to revoke the clearances of others that she mentioned there. And the way the "Post" wrote it here is that they're discussing the optimum time to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles, using this as a distraction play, these security clearances. Your take?
JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I'm sure there's an element where this is a distraction from the President's comments or alleged comments on race, but it's a pretty dangerous distraction. And it's more than a distraction. It's trying to create a climate of fear among President Trump's opponents by revoking these clearances and insinuating things about the people whose clearances are being revoked.
And it's kind of freezing discussion. It could freeze discussion among very important experts in this country about intelligence, simply because they know the President might go after them. So it is a distraction, but its implications are much more than that.
BLACKWELL: Walter, I think, as the reporting is from the "Washington Post," to hold these to use them for optimum timing to distract from major stories, does that not hollow out the central argument for revoking the security clearances? If they believe that these men and women having that clearance is a threat to national security in some way or they're not deserving of them. If you hold them for weeks or months, does that mean that you are not then putting the country in jeopardy by not doing it immediately?
WALTER SHAUB, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, and the President has been clear. This has nothing to do with national security. This has to do with creating a distraction for the various scandals working their way through the news. It has to do with silencing critics. Brennan himself won't be silenced, but every former government employee who depends on having a security clearance for their job or other purposes is now going to have to think twice about ever speaking out.
The definition of corruption is misuse of governmental authority for your own purposes, for your own benefit, and that's exactly what the President is doing here. Unfortunately, he's doing it in the area of national security which jeopardizes the entire national security framework and that is extremely dangerous.
BLACKWELL: Julian, what's your take on what we just heard about democratic Senator and Vice Chair of Senate Intelligence Mark Warner who plans to introduce an amendment next week to stop the President, as he characterizes it, from arbitrarily revoking security clearances? Unlikely to pass, but put it into historical context what we're seeing and are not seeing from members of congress.
ZELIZER: Yes. The not seeing, I think, is more relevant. We're seeing a total collapse of oversight. From the Congress, we're seeing that partisanship with the republican majority is triumphant over any kind of institution responsibility. So Senator Warner might try to push for this, but if we're just going on the track record of the republican Congress, it's going absolutely nowhere.
Thus far, the republican Congress has protected the President. They have insulated the President and they have stood by in the most controversial moments without doing much more than making some statements reprimanding him. So I don't think Warner's going to have much luck here.
BLACKWELL: And Walter, on the theme of what congress is and is not doing, I read your letter that you sent to Senator Grassley, Chair of Senate Judiciary about the concerns that members of the administration are being required or at least asked to sign these nondisclosure agreement, which was part of the discussion after the roll-out from Omarosa Manigault Newman's book.
[06:10:11] And what's your concern here? And specifically about this gag rule?
SHAUB: This is an across-the-board assault on free speech. The President attacks the press, he's going after former government officials with clearances and he's even making his White House officials sign nondisclosure agreements. Shockingly, it was the White House Ethics Official, Stefan Passantino, who was the one running around making people sign these and administering these nondisclosure agreements.
The problem is that since 1988, with the exception of one year when it slipped through the cracks, Senator Grassley has included an anti-gag rule in the appropriations for the government saying that any office funded by congressional appropriations cannot have a confidentiality policy or agreement without including specific language warning people of their rights. And this just simply doesn't include it.
So I filed a letter with Senator Grassley saying you should look into this because they're thumbing their nose at your gag rule. And he had even written a letter to Don McGahn, the White House Counsel, warning him that this thing exists, but they don't seem to care.
BLACKWELL: And let's wrap up here with you, Julian, and former President Jimmy Carter. And this, I guess a bit of a profile piece about his post presidency life there in Plains, Georgia. And his comments on President Trump and his presidency. Let's put him up on the screen, give people just a taste of what he said here. Calling the administration a disaster.
He says, "I think he's a disaster in human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal. I think there's been attitude of ignorance toward the truth by President Trump."
First, just how rare it is, Julian, if you could describe, for a president to talk about one of his contemporaries, and then for this president to speak about a president in this way?
ZELIZER: Look, this is very pointed criticism. You do have presidents make statements about what's going on in terms of policy and some high-profile issues, but this is a very hard-hitting attack and represents where a lot of the country is now on the President of the United States.
It's not a total surprise. Jimmy Carter was a president who in many ways was committed to restraining presidential power and to restoring some of the balance of order after Watergate and Richard Nixon. So I think for him what he's watching is a total reversal of some of his aspirations and goals in the late 1970s. But again, hard-hitting words from Carter, Brennan, and reflects the nature of the opposition to this presidency right now.
BLACKWELL: All right. Julian Zelizer, Walter Shaub, always a pleasure. Thank you, gentlemen.
ZELIZER: Thank you.
SHAUB: Thanks.
PAUL: Well did (ph) a top republican fundraiser and a Trump supporter try to sell his influence to foreign officials for millions of dollars? "The Washington Post" reporting that Elliott Broidy is under a justice department investigation. He allegedly came up with a plan to urge the Trump administration to send a Chinese dissident back home where he faced arrest and wanted $75 million to help stop a U.S. probe of a fund under the Malaysian government's control.
Broidy's attorney says the allegations are not true. Broidy resigned as Deputy Chairman of the RNC in the spring after reports surfaced that he'd paid a former Playboy model more than $1 million to keep quiet about their affair.
BLACKWELL: This is a tense weekend for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as he continues to wait on the jury to decide his face and future. We'll ask our legal expert to weigh in.
PAUL: And new disturbing details for you in the deaths of a Colorado woman and her two little girls. What we're learning about how those children may have died and a request their father just made from jail.
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[06:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Seventeen minutes past the hour and listen, there are some new details this morning regarding the deaths of that pregnant woman in Colorado and her two daughters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELLA WATTS: My daddy is a hero. He helps me grow up strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Chris Watts is the prime suspect and is accused of killing his wife, Shanann, and daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste. Watts has not been charged, but prosecutors are expected to file the charges in the coming days. CNN's Randi Kaye has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANANN WATTS: Guess what, girls? Mommy has a baby in her belly.
CELESTE WATTS: Yay. Yay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A moment of joy that's turned to pain and mystery. That was Shanann Watts telling her two daughters that she was pregnant again. Four-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste were thrilled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: I love you, girls.
WATTS: I want to (ph) give the baby a hug. WATTS: You want to give the baby a hug?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: There's a video of her sharing the news with her husband of nearly six years, Chris Watts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: That's awesome. I guess -- I guess when you want to, it happens. Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: But not long after that video was taken, something terrible happened. On monday of this week, Shanann and her daughters went missing. Then came Tuesday, and Shanann's husband Chris began a series of public pleas for their safe return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: Just come back. If somebody has her just please bring her back. I need to see everybody. I need to see everybody again. This house is not complete without anybody here. I just want them back. I just -- I just want them to come back and if they're not safe right now, that's what's -- that's what's tearing me apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Authorities searched the home and canvassed the neighborhood. Two days later, a grisly discovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been able to recover a body that we're quite certain is Shanann Watts' body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:20:09] KAYE: Authorities say the woman's body was recovered on the property of a petroleum and natural gas exploration company where Chris Watts used to work. The bodies of two children were found nearby. Then another bizarre turn. The desperate husband and father who had pleaded for his family's safe return, was now suddenly the prime suspect in their disappearance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the late hours of Wednesday evening, the husband, Chris Watts, was taken into custody and was transported to the Weld County Jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: He has yet to be officially charged, but police say Chris Watts faces three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of tampering with a human body.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No, he wouldn't do anything And then I seen his interview and I was like, oh my God, something's not right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: On Facebook, with emotions running high, Shanann's brother directly accused Chris Watts. "This piece of blank, may he rot in hell. He killed my pregnant sister and two nieces." Police have not suggested a motive. Before his arrest, Watts told reporters that he and his wife had exchanged words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: It wasn't like an argument. We had an emotional conversation, but I'll leave it at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Still, on Shanann's Facebook page, a portrait of a happy family and a woman in love.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got a friend request from Chris on Facebook and I was like, what the heck, I'm never going to meet him. Accept. Well one thing led to another and eight years later, we have two kids, we live in Colorado and he's the best thing that has ever happened to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
BLACKWELL: Well, there are new court documents that suggest that some of the victims may have been strangled.
PAUL: Yes. Shortly before the autopsies were conducted on the girls and their mother, Chris Watts' attorney requested DNA swabs be taken around the girls' necks and under the mother's fingernails. Now, later this morning we're going to be talking with Yodit Tewolde about this case hopefully once more.
BLACKWELL: All right. No decision yet on the trial of the former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. As we wait for the jury to return Monday, President Trump weighs in.
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[06:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: So glad to have you with us. Twenty-seven minutes past the hour on this Saturday. I'm Christi Paul. BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you. Two days now and counting. The Paul Manafort jury will return on Monday. This is after they ended a second straight day of deliberations without a verdict.
PAUL: Of course, this verdict is going to be the first big courtroom test for special counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump did not hesitate to weigh in. The former Trump campaign chairman is charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts. CNN's Kara Scannell has more.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: The jury in the Paul Manafort trial deliberated for 15 hours over two days, but most of the activity was outside of the courtroom Friday. When President Donald Trump was asked if he would pardon Paul Manafort, he offered words of support for his former campaign chairman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad. When you look at what's going on there, I think it's a very sad day for our country. He worked for me for a very short period of time, but you know what? He happens to be a very good person and I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCANNELL: Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing spoke to reporters after the court ended for the day thanking the President for his support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN DOWNING, ATTORNEY: We were very happy to hear from the President and that he's supporting Mr. Manafort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCANNELL: Downing also said the length of the deliberations was in his favor. The jury reconvenes on Monday where they will deliberate for the third straight day deciding Manafort's fate in this high stakes case where, if convicted, Manafort faces at least a decade in prison. Kara Scannell, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.
BLACKWELL: Joining me now, Page Pate, CNN legal analyst and constitutional attorney. Page, good morning to you. So Monday will be day three of the deliberations. Clearly, there are some complex law that's involved in these deliberations. But day three, is that good news or bad news for Manafort?
PAGE PATE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: (INAUDIBLE) for Manafort and his defense team, Victor. In a trial like this that's very document intensive, where the prosecution appears to have a great case, you would expect a verdict maybe after a day or two of deliberations.
I think there's something (ph) to the questions that the jury is asking the judge and seeing how hard they are working through the evidence, that's got to be good news for the defense team. It means there's not going to be a quick guilty verdict, obviously, and you may have a few people who are unwilling to convict him based on the evidence they heard in court.
BLACKWELL: OK. So we just heard from the President. That was as he leaving Washington yesterday and speaking about the prosecution and speaking favorably about Mr. Manafort. When do the President's comments cross from just opining about a case into potentially tampering with this case?
PATE: You know, Victor, we've never had a situation like this that I can remember where a sitting president is commenting on the merits of a case while the jury is still deliberating.
[06:30:06] It's really unprecedented. So given his position as president, and the fact that he has the power to pardon Paul Manafort if he's convicted, I think it does influence the jury.
Now of course, the judge has instructed the jury not to watch television, not to talk to anyone outside of the jury room about this case. But you know those comments are going to make their way to somebody (INAUDIBLE) on the jury, a strong talks(ph) that could very well end up in a hold-out jury and ultimately a hung jury.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CO-HOST, NEW DAY SATURDAY: All right, Page Pate, we're having a little bit of trouble with your Skype connection, if you at home heard a little problem there, your TV is fine. It's the Skype that's bad. But thank you, Page, we learned a lot. Christi?
PATE: Thanks Vic.
CHRISTI PAUL, CO-HOST, NEW DAY SATURDAY: Well, America's opioid crisis is affecting a segment of the population you might not have realized. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us to talk about what they're doing to help pregnant women who are battling that addiction.
BLACKWELL: Well, his life's work focused on peace and diplomacy. This morning, the world is mourning the death of former UN Secretary General and Nobel Prize winner Kofi Annan. We'll take a look at his remarkable life next.
[06:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: But then it's a jolting number, 72,000. That's how many people died from drug overdoses in America just last year. And it's a 7 percent increase from the prior year. This is according to a new CDC report.
Now most of the deaths were opioid related. And now there's a new sector of people in crisis -- we're talking about pregnant women. Cnn's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta met a couple of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL SOLOMON, ADDICTED TO OPIOID: I have been addicted to opioids since I was 17. My grandmother gave me my first Percocet. I had a headache, and she told me that would help.
SANJAY GUPTA, NEUROSURGEON & CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): If there was a last refuge of people insulated from the opioid epidemic, it was pregnant women. But even they are no longer immune.
For them, the risk of opioid addiction has quadrupled over the last 15 years. What do you think when you hear that?
SOLOMON: I believe it because I did it.
GUPTA: Rachel Solomon(ph) grew up here in Eastern Tennessee, a part of the country hard hit by the opioid epidemic. Two years ago, she had a miscarriage. Her doctors say due to her opioid addiction. So when Rachel found out that she was pregnant again, she was terrified. How worried were you about the baby?
SOLOMON: I was very worried, but I just thought that my body was not going to be able to carry it.
GUPTA: It's hard to overstate the risks of being pregnant while addicted to opioids -- miscarriage, stillbirth, and the possibility a baby would essentially be born into a crisis of withdrawal known as neo-natal abstinence syndrome, NAS.
This is tough watch. The uncontrollable crying, unstoppable tremors and this distinctive scream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're essentially coming off of opioid I guess like an adult would, except these are babies that have just been born.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's correct, so we're going to see how big the baby is, I can tell --
GUPTA: For Dr. Craig Towers, this was not acceptable. So he decided to challenge status quo.
(on camera): Conventional wisdom has been if someone has a use disorder during pregnancy, don't try and detox, wait until after they've delivered the baby. The thought was that would be safest, is that right?
CRAIG TOWERS, PHYSICIAN: That's correct. But our two systematic reviews now have shown that that's not the case.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Towers says he has now detoxed more than 600 women from opioids while they were pregnant, not a single baby has died.
(on camera): What was it that made you convinced that maybe you could get through this time?
SOLOMON: He asked me just to trust him, and nobody's ever done that with me. You know, they've never cared like that.
GUPTA (voice-over): It's the same compassion Michaela Howard felt when she detoxed during pregnancy. It wasn't easy, but look at how it turned out.
(on camera): How is JC doing?
MICHAELA HOWARD, ADDICTED TO OPIOID: She's good, she's a happy baby.
GUPTA: Yes?
HOWARD: Yes --
GUPTA: This is her beautiful baby girl who is now three months old.
HOWARD: She was born with no withdrawal symptoms and she didn't go to the NICU.
GUPTA: You're pretty proud, I imagine that she -- I mean, JC is doing so well?
HOWARD: I'm very happy about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're almost there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're doing good.
GUPTA: Now weeks away from her due date, Rachel is hoping for the same miracle as Michaela.
(on camera): You got any names picked up?
SOLOMON: Brantley(ph).
GUPTA: What's it like to look at Brantley(ph)?
SOLOMON: It's amazing. It's amazing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: So Sanjay is with us now, and wanted to ask you about how that detox procedure works.
GUPTA: Yes --
PAUL: Because that's got to be confusing for some people.
GUPTA: Well, it's -- you know, you basically have someone who's addicted to these medications, these opioids, and you start to give them lower doses, less powerful doses, eventually you get them to the point where you're giving them a medication that blocks all the opioid receptors in their body.
And if you take an opioid at the point, you're just going to feel really sick, you're going to feel unwell. It's a way to deter people from taking it. The issue a little bit though is that if a woman is in detox, go to lower and lower doses, and then suddenly reverts back to a high dose again, you know, something that she used to take, that could be deadly at that point. So that's the real balance for these doctors -- PAUL: Yes, Sanjay, thank you so much.
GUPTA: Yes, thank you.
PAUL: Appreciate it.
GUPTA: Thank you.
[06:40:00] PAUL: Sanjay is going to be back with us in a little bit because I talked to him about the announcement from the White House that President Trump is telling Attorney General Jeff Sessions to sue certain opioid companies for their contribution to the crisis.
His thoughts from a medical perspective coming up in our 8:00 hour.
BLACKWELL: Breaking news -- Kofi Annan; former UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize winner is dead. He was 80 years old. The diplomat from Ghana, he served in the UN's top post from 1997 to 2006 and worked tirelessly for human rights.
Now, the current Secretary General released a statement -- "Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good. It is with profound sadness that I learned of his passing." Cnn's Richard Roth who covered Annan for years has a look at his life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I, Kofi Annan --
KOFI ANNAN, DECEASED FORMER UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY OF STATE: I, Kofi Annan --
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Kofi Annan was the seventh Secretary General in United Nations history.
ANNAN: Good morning, as you know, this is my first day, it's like first day in school.
ROTH: Annan received quite an education, serving ten years at the helm of the United Nations. There were personal highs and lows.
(APPLAUSE)
From winning the Nobel Peace Prize to failing his fight to stop the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Born in Ghana, Annan's university schooling included the big chill of Minnesota at Macalester College. Kofi Annan spent most of his adult life with the UN.
ANNAN: OK, now, we go to what?
ROTH: The man who many simply called Kofi rose to the top after over half a century. Staffers recalled his ability to lead and inspire. Annan did manage to avoid potential career-ending moments while serving in the Department of Peacekeeping.
In 1994, the UN Security Council and others including Annan were accused by the UN field commander in Rwanda of ignoring his warnings. An estimated 800,000 people died as the world was reluctant to send troops in.
ANNAN: I believe at that time that I was doing my best, but I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done.
ROTH: The next year, thousands of Muslims were massacred in Srebrenica as Bosnian Serbs overran a UN safe zone. Annan would later say Rwanda and Srebrenica would shape his global thinking.
The Secretary General at the time, Boutros Boutros-Ghali would take the heat. U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright would block him for a second term as Secretary General, Washington's candidate Kofi Annan.
ANNAN: I didn't have any such a dream, have never happened that somebody from the system was elected Secretary General.
ROTH: Annan's first term was highly rated. He championed human rights and urged the UN to protect civilians if their own governments turned on them. But it was Annan whose charm and style elevated him to international rockstar status.
(APPLAUSE)
The man and the organization accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, months after 9/11.
ANNAN: We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire.
ROTH: It would not be a smooth second term for Annan. Friends of Annan reported he appeared depressed and distant, unable to stop the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He later called the assault illegal.
ANNAN: I think the worst moments, of course, was the Iraq war which as an organization we couldn't stop. And I really did everything I can to try to see if we can stop it.
ROTH: Personal nightmare when a suicide truck bomb killed UN Iraq's envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and many UN personnel sent to Baghdad by Annan.
ANNAN: So you can imagine shock when that brutal death of my friends and colleagues happened.
ROTH: Iraq brought more bad news for Annan. The so-called oil-for- food UN agreement with Iraq led to corruption. A report later cleared Annan, but his son Kojo was linked to the scandal.
The reserved Annan erupted when a reporter pressed him about a mysterious Mercedes tied to his son.
ANNAN: You've been behaving like a overgrown schoolboy in this room for many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. ROTH: A warmer engagement on his final day when Annan drew a standing
ovation in the General Assembly. He never stopped working for the goals of the global organization, Annan spent a lifetime in a life and career fueled by tragedies and triumphs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: And still ahead, families are gathering for the state funeral in Italy to honor the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse. But there are some families so angry they're refusing to take part. We have a live update for you from Rome.
[06:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: We now have the date for the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin's funeral. It will be August 31st at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. There will also be public viewings held on August 28th and 29th, and those will be at the Charles Wright Museum of African-American history also in Detroit.
Now, listen, fans, and you've seen it, have flooded social media with tributes to the singer including a statement from former President Obama saying in part, "for more than six decades since every time she sang, we are all graced with a glimpse of the divine.
Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience." Aretha Franklin died Thursday from advanced pancreatic cancer, she was 76 years old.
PAUL: And today is the national day of mourning in Italy as the state funeral for the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse is getting underway. Italian President and the Prime Minister are leading mourners in a ceremony there in Genoa.
[06:50:00] BLACKWELL: Some family members there praying and placed flowers on the caskets of their loved ones, while others chose not to participate because they're still angry at the government. Cnn contributor Barbie Nadeau joins us now from Rome.
Barbie, a mix of sadness and understandable anger today, Barbie.
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. There's a lot of frustration here. Those 18 families who decided to participate in this state funeral today in Genoa are being embraced for their bravery, for the sacrifices they've given.
But the 20 families, those other people who decided not to participate are doing it out of anger. Many of them saying they didn't want to be part of the parade of politicians that are going to try to gloss over the fact that this is not a natural disaster, it's a man-made disaster.
Meanwhile, they still haven't pulled out all the bodies in the wreckage which has also caused some anger. Those people, those families still waiting for their own victims to be recovered, believe it's too soon to actually be holding any sort of state funeral or memorial service at this time.
PAUL: Barbie, is there any indication how long that recovery is going to take?
NADEAU: No, there's not. You know, they're treating this very much like an earthquake recovery search and rescue, hoping that there could have been some sort of pocket of air that if there's a car that could have fallen into that, that there could still be survivors.
But of course, as the time goes on though, that chance is less and less likely. They have huge chunks of cement and concrete to move, and they can't just demolish it. They have to take it apart slowly in case there are survivors under that rubble.
So they're not giving us any time frame when they might be finished. But they're still considering it search and rescue, and they haven't turned that into straight recovery quite yet.
BLACKWELL: All right, Barbie Nadeau for us in Rome, thank you so much.
PAUL: And India is seeing its worst flooding in nearly a century. Now, look at some of the pictures we have coming in here, more than 160 people have died, and that's just in the last ten days.
BLACKWELL: The minister of Kerala says more than 300,000 people are living in shelters. Now, India's prime minister got a look at some of the damage today and approved $71 million in relief aid there.
But experts say the damage could be in the billions. Water rescues are happening now for thousands of people. A pregnant woman thankfully was pulled from her home Friday, she delivered a baby boy just two hours later.
It's the Drake song that's inspired a viral dance challenge on social media. Now a little girl has done her own version of the "Kiki in My feelings" challenge at the hospital. Find out why she's hoping Drake sees it.
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[06:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: I know you may think comedy and cursing go together. But in the next episode of the "History of Comedy", we look at how keeping it clean is actually harder than it sounds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best comedian who happens to be clean is Brian Regan. But when he would get done with his show, no one in the audience is like I can't believe he didn't curse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is clean not because he did it for corporate money or to be more appealing for television. He did it because his sense of humor rings clean. So we want Brian Regan to be clean. Although it would be funny to see him go off the rails. Just get him drunk.
BRIAN REGAN, COMEDIAN: Some law firms deal with DUI, then aggravated DUI. Do you know why I pulled you over? Yes, I know why you pulled me over.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's the thing about Regan, despite someone not cussing, it doesn't mean that you can't sense that there's an edge. He's quintessential comedian's comedian. Every comedian, he's their favorite. And it's funny because your mom might have never heard of him, but he would be her favorite comedian too.
REGAN: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's normally the sign of a clean comedian. One that the audience wants to embrace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Watch "The History of Comedy", no offense, it's tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on Cnn.
BLACKWELL: A little girl in Chicago is hoping her version of the "In My Feelings" challenge catches the attention of her favorite rapper/singer, you got those slash singer name with Drake.
PAUL: OK --
BLACKWELL: And he's hoping -- she's hoping he sees it -- watch.
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MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Oh, look at Sofia Sanchez there doing her own Kiki dance out of her wheelchair. She has a heart condition, and she is not allowed to leave the hospital until she gets a new one. Today, by the way, is her birthday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOFIA SANCHEZ, DRAKE FAN: My birthday is this weekend, this Saturday, watch the concert this Saturday, and I love your music, and I was hoping that you could come and cheer me up for my birthday or any time this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Any time will do --
PAUL: Drake!
BLACKWELL: Any time -- PAUL: Listen! We hope you see that, yes. Happy birthday to you,
Sofia by the way, and her mom says her favorite Drake song is "God's Plan" because she thinks God has a plan for her too, yes, he does --
BLACKWELL: Oh, that is sweet.
PAUL: It is, Drake, we'll be waiting for the follow-up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Security clearances are very important to me. Very important.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's drunk on power. He really is. And I think he's abusing the powers of that office. I think right now this country is in a crisis.
TRUMP: There's no silence, if anything I'm giving up a bigger voice. Many people don't even know who he is. And now he has a bigger voice and that's OK. I say it, I say it again, that whole situation is a --
