Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Day One of Olympics With an American Tourist Dead; Georgia Declaring State of War With Russia; What Caused Deadly Bus Accident in Texas?; John Edwards Admits Affair; Bernie Mac Dead at Age 50

Aired August 09, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm T.J. Holmes. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for this August 9th.
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Melissa Long, in today for Betty. 9:00 in the morning and while you were asleep, boy, a lot of news broke.

HOLMES: A lot has been going on and day one of the Olympics, and an American tourist is dead. Attacked in a popular tourist spot and the folks that were attacked were actually the relatives of an Olympic coach. Just a horrible way to start the Olympics. We'll be talking about that this morning.

LONG: And they were checking out a popular tourist spot not far from the Olympic venue.

Also, this morning, Georgia declaring a state of war with Russia today. The president who is in Beijing for the Olympics, calling for a halt to the fighting. We'll be talking about this story in great detail this hour on CNN at the CNN NEWSROOM, almost said cnn.com.

HOLMES: That's all right.

LONG: We're going to follow, of course, the breaking news now. That we've been keeping you up to date on all this morning out of China. A terrible attack, a shocking attack in the Olympic city of Beijing with one American male tourist dead, another female injured.

HOLMES: Yes. The two victims actually related to a U.S. Olympic coach. A tough blow for the team. Larry Smith is there covering the Olympics. Larry, certainly didn't expect, certainly didn't hope to cover anything like this.

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: That's -- you're so right, T.J.. It's the one thing you really never want to talk about, but here it is right now we are awaiting to see if the men's indoor volleyball team will still play its match on Sunday around 12:30 local time in the afternoon.

Right now, we're not hearing they're going to possibly not play that game. It was one of their coaches who is now -- family members of that coach that suffered this tragedy. What happened, it was a knife attack at the drum tower. It's an ancient, very historic landmark in central Beijing that several centuries old, about five miles away from the Olympic Green which is where we're located here.

And again, as you mentioned one man killed, a woman was seriously injured. Now, they were taking a tour of that facility and the Chinese tour guide was not injured in the attack. The man who the assailant, 47-year-old Chinese national, he then killed himself by throwing himself off the second story of that building.

Now, we understand from the USOC that neither person was wearing any clothing that would identify them as a part of the U.S. Olympic team or as Americans. But once again, more on the USOC, their comments from spokesman Darryl Seibel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRYL SEIBEL, USOC CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFC.: We have informed our men's indoor volleyball team as well as our women's team, the teams are as you might expect very close, and they're shocked. They're shocked. They're deeply saddened and shocked. And I know in this very difficult hour, their thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been impacted by this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Well, Seibel adds there is nothing right now that they have been able to ascertain that would force them or prompt them to change the security or tighten the security around the U.S. athletes, be it overall on the team or simply on this Olympic team volleyball team as well. Let's go back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Larry Smith covering really a tough day one there at the Olympics in Beijing. Larry, we appreciate you this morning.

LONG: Breaking news out of China and breaking news also out of the Republic of Georgia. There's fierce fighting there today. Russian forces have been launching air attacks against Georgian troops in the break away region of South Ossetia.

Just a short time ago now, President Bush from China offered his take on this conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Georgia is a sovereign nation and its territorial integrity must be respected. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand down by all troops. The call for an end to the Russian bombings and a return by the parties to the status quo of August the 6th.

The United States is working with our European partners to launch international mediation and with the parties to restart their dialogue. Russia needs to support these efforts so that peace can be restored as quickly as possible.

MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI, PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA: Today, Russia has launched a full-scale military invasion of Georgia. Russian forces including air, land, sea, and mobile forces are massed against attacking our sovereign nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LONG: And that was Georgia's President Saakashvili calling for a cease-fire this morning. But the very same time, Georgia's parliament went ahead with his other suggestion, declaring a state of war.

HOLMES: Fifteen people dead in a bus accident in Texas, an accident that may have been called by illegal retread on that bus. Looking here at a memorial service that took place for those victims. Dozens of others were injured as well. They were all part of a church group that was headed to a religious festival in Missouri.

This morning now, investigators are looking into the possibility of that illegal retread on that tire. That tire they say blew, causing this fatal accident. The bus was carrying 55 people and it slammed into a guardrail and skidded off the road.

Listen now to this horrifying 911 call.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

911 OPERATOR: Sherman 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got a overturned vehicle in the creek at Lazy L RV Park on 75 just south of park lane northbound, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are, there is kids everywhere out here. I don't know what kind of bus this is, but there are literally kids just everywhere. Laid out on the ground.

911 OPERATOR: So it's a bus?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a bus.

911 OPERATOR: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a bus or an RV type thing, but there are literally, they're bloody. There's people just laid out everywhere.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

LONG: Now, investigators say it could take months before we know the exact cause of the wreck. Was it an illegal retread? Of course many of the passengers were asleep when the bus left the highway north of Dallas. They woke up to this terrifying scene.

Susan Roesgen has this latest report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty-five passengers were on this bus when it veered off the highway and flipped on its side. The passengers were Vietnamese Catholics heading to a religious celebration in Missouri. Just before midnight, they had prayed the rosary together and most were falling asleep. A survivor, Leha Nguyen says she was worried the bus was going a little fast but she pushed the thought out of her mind and when she woke up.

LEHA NGUYEN, SURVIVOR: As I opened my eyes, I see that, you know, the chair kind of falling out. I was sitting right below the TV and I felt that my leg was -- somebody lay on my legs and then right next to me, there was a lady, she got her arm really crushed.

ROESGEN: The bus was filled with injured men, women and children. The youngest was 12-years-old. The oldest, 70. Rescuers had to cut a hole in the bottom of the bus to get the victims out. Twelve died at the scene.

ROESGEN (on-camera): Some of the injured were taken here to a hospital in Sherman and one of the first problems for doctors was that many of the patients spoke only Vietnamese.

JANICE WALKER, CHIEF NURSE: The victims were very scared. The language barrier had a lot to do with that, but they were almost in a state of shock.

ROESGEN: And many were critically injured.

DR. AL CARDENAS, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: The types of injuries were multi-factorial, that is, head injuries, orthopedic injuries, abdominal, intra-abdominal injuries.

ROESGEN: At crash scene, the first responders found a shredded front tire and they believe a blow out might have caused the crash. But federal investigators say it's too early to know for sure.

DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: The question was, what caused this tire to lose air? We don't know the answer to that question. That's why we're here. We're here to look and see if that loss occurred before the accident, during the accident sequence, and so we are establishing all of those facts right now.

ROESGEN: Something else investigators will consider is whether that bus should have been on the highway at all. Texas officials say the bus company was not yet authorized to be on the road and the owner had operated another bus service with a long history of safety violations. The company has made no comment.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, Sherman, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In Maryland this morning, a memorial service for Bruce Ivins. This is the main anthrax suspect who killed himself last week as authorities moved in on a murder indictment.

Meanwhile, new details emerge about Ivins' whereabouts around the time those anthrax-laced letters were mailed that was back in 2001, you may remember. A CNN source says the scientist left work early on September 17th, 2001. Investigators think Ivins may have driven to Princeton, New Jersey, and that's where the infamous anthrax letters were dropped in a mailbox. Ivins' attorney says his client is innocent and there is no proof.

Well, a man cheating on his wife and then lying about it, certainly happens all the time, unfortunately. But a lot of people today are just shaking their heads and saying, not John Edwards. He has confirmed now what had only been tabloid accusations.

LONG: Confirming months of speculation, the woman had once worked on his presidential campaign and now it looks like his involvement with her may have helped to destroy his political career.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it wasn't that long ago John Edwards wanted to be president. Well it seems now things have changed dramatically and that political career, storied political career could be over.

LONG: Absolutely. After months of whispers, tabloid headlines and firm denials, former Senator John Edwards now admits he had an affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006. The 42-year-old woman had worked for the Edwards' campaign, documenting the behind the scenes on film.

HOLMES: In February, Hunter had a baby. That fueled speculation that that child was, in fact, John Edwards' child. He says however that child is not his, hasn't really eased that pain for anyone involved in this story, so many of the supporters as well but especially Edwards' wife and family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS (D), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was mad. She was angry. I think furious would be a good way to describe it. And it was painful for her. Hard and painful for her. But she responded exactly like the kind of woman she is. She forgave me and we went to work on it. She -- I'm not saying she thought it was OK. I'm not saying that. But she did forgive me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Edwards' wife Elizabeth has been battling cancer as many people know. A statement from her was posted on the Web site Daily Kos that says in part, "John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear what he had done, but he did tell me." She goes on to say, "we began a long and painful process, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter."

Well, one man's relentless pursuit of the story may have finally forced John Edwards into the open. That man is Alexander Hitchen. He is a senior reported for "The National Enquirer." He joins us now from New York to talk about really what might be the scoop of your career.

And I want to say to you, you have got to feel some sense of vindication in this story and this coming out. Nobody's happy that this family is going through this, but you got to feel a sense of vindication. You've been after this for a while.

ALEXANDER HITCHEN, "THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER": Yes, T.J. We, obviously, feel great sympathy for Mrs. Edwards at this time, but since we came out with the first story, we have been finding it very tough to get Mr. Edwards to comment about this.

HOLMES: Now, have you all been sure from the very beginning? Have you always been this confident that this was true?

HITCHEN: Our information has been impeccable. We have been working on this for many, many months. And more information has been coming to us which culminated with the Beverly Hotel.

HOLMES: Yes. He was there meeting with Rielle Hunter. How did you all know? How did you get word? You get word, that in fact, he was there?

HITCHEN: T.J., you're a journalist yourself. You know that you get information through many sources, and we received information that this was going to happen.

HOLMES: What do you think he was doing there? He said he stopped seeing the woman and the child's not his. What reason would he have and what have you been able to glean, what was he doing there?

HITCHEN: I asked Mr. Edwards at 2:40 in the morning very same question. I stopped him as he was taking a lower lobby elevator and was walking up a staircase to the side of me and I followed him up the staircase and I said, Mr. Edwards, Alexander Hitchen from "The National Enquirer," would you like to comment on why you were at this hotel tonight with your mistress Rielle Hunter and your love child?

And at that point, he refused to speak with me. He got to the top of the stairs, saw that there was a colleague of mine at the top of the stairs, turned and went straight into a rest room that was dealing with the restaurant.

HOLMES: Alexander, I know this had to be surreal for you to have this man, you essentially chasing him in the hotel, at 2:00 in the morning, but last here finally, more stuff might be coming out from "The National Enquirer," tell me, do you all still believe after his denial and after the timing -- timeline we know, you all believe that the child is his?

HITCHEN: Our information has been impeccable and I'm very pleased that he's willing to take a test.

HOLMES: All right. We will see if he takes that test. Alexander Hitchen, I know it's been a whirlwind for you all for the past couple of days as this story broke. You were on it from the very beginning. "National Enquirer" Alexander Hitchen, senior reporter. Sir, thank you for your time this morning.

HITCHEN: Thank you, T.J.

HOLMES: We look forward to more reports from you. HITCHEN: Pleasure.

LONG: And breaking news to share with you this morning. Just minutes ago we have learned that actor and comedian Emmy-nominated Bernie Mac has died.

HOLMES: This is the word coming from family members. He passed away actually early this morning. The cause of death still unknown right now. He had been in the hospital in Chicago since the beginning of the month for pneumonia. Doctors say that illness was not related to his inflammatory lung disease he had. Sarcoidosis that we know he has had. He has been in remission is what we've been told, but it is something that can cause issues with different organs and cause those lung -- cause organs like your lungs to dysfunction and malfunction and also cause you to be susceptible to things like pneumonia.

His publicist actually earlier in the week said that Bernie Mac was doing better. He was doing OK. He was getting better. Saying he was responding to treatment and was expected to be released from the hospital in the coming weeks. He has two movies now in post- production. Unbelievable here. He was 50-years-old and a face that a lot of people certainly know and a voice we love.

LONG: Now, Stella Foster, a columnist for the "Chicago Sun Times," joins us now live this morning with more on this developing story. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it, Stella.

VOICE OF STELLA FOSTER, REPORTER, "CHICAGO SUN TIMES": You're welcome. You're welcome. I got a call about 5:00 Chicago time that -- from someone, a close, close friend of the family, saying that Bernie had passed. You know he had been in the hospital, I think, since like last Friday or so and he -- first they said he had -- well he had pneumonia and then he had complications in terms of infection.

LONG: So what did that family member tell you about the last couple of days and how he's been deteriorating?

FOSTER: Well, the things, the thing that really hurts me, is the fact that people have been saying that Bernie was doing better and he was, you know, responding to his treatments for his lungs and that he may have been getting out of the hospital like next week.

LONG: Well, there had been a lot of rumor that he wasn't doing better.

FOSTER: Yes, but I'm just saying what I heard from my sources, OK.

LONG: Right.

FOSTER: But when I got the call this morning, it was just devastating news. Because let's face it, you know, he -- Bernie Mac is one of a kind. He's the best of the best in terms of giving you a good laugh and, you know, I'm from the south side of Chicago, Inglewood, and so is Bernie, and I just -- it's just devastating news for his many fans and friends here and actually all over the country to get this news that Bernie has left us.

LONG: An Emmy-nominated comedian. You mentioned the south side of Chicago. What has he meant to that community? I mean, he really has made his mark in so many ways.

FOSTER: Well, come on, he's like a super star. And you know, when I was first -- was exposed to Bernie's talent, was back in 1995 when he did four shows for HBO for "Midnight Mac" and it was produced by a guy here named Leon Allbritain and Leon's mom, Carolyn Allbritain, was his manager at the time and so, it was like called the "Midnight Mac show" and it --

LONG: Stella Foster, I want to thank you for joining us again. A columnist for the "Chicago Sun Times" with this tragic news of Bernie Mac passing away. He was just 50 years of age. Stella, thank you so much for telling us the details of the conversation you had early this morning. Again, Bernie Mac dead at the age of 50 on this Saturday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Democrats meeting in Pittsburgh this hour to finish building their party platform. Some of the major planks including universal health care and withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The platform committee will fine tune and adopt the draft and democrats will vote on it at their convention a little later this month.

LONG: John McCain on the campaign trail today in Las Vegas. He is going to be addressing a disabled veterans convention. The senator says he may take a few days off a little later in the month. Meantime, democrat Barack Obama is already enjoying some down time. He and his family are vacationing and visiting some relatives in Hawaii. Kind of a lull right now, of course, leading up to the democratic convention at the end of this month and the republican convention the first week of September.

HOLMES: Well, it was a heck of a grand opening, to welcome in the world.

LONG: It was spectacular. China pulling out all the stops for a fiery and majestic open to the Olympics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Many people are talking about it like it might be one of the most spectacular opening ceremonies of all time. Heck of a grand opening.

LONG: Absolutely.

HOLMES: There was a nice shot. China putting on quite a party to launch its first Olympic Games.

LONG: If you were watching, and if you did a little bit of a count, there were 15,000 dancers and drummers that were part of the event. The show concluded with a lighting of course of the Olympic cauldron. Fireworks that you really had to see to believe. There were some 91,000 people crammed into that stadium. It's affectionately known as the bird's nest. And another four billion people tuned in at home. Now, it's coming up on 9:30 in the evening there. It's 9:30 in the morning here.

HOLMES: For us. Most of us, of course, can't be at the Olympics but if you could, you still could only be at one event at a time.

LONG: But luckily you can stay up to the minute on all the sporting events on cnn.com. And Josh Levs joins us now to tell us more about all the up-to-the-minute updates.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The U.S. got to see some of the ceremonies, right?

LONG: Why? You were sleeping?

LEVS: Yes. Exactly.

LONG: What time do you go to bed, 6:00?

LEVS: 20 minutes before the baby took over for the night.

HOLMES: I didn't see any of it either. I was just doing other things.

LONG: Really.

HOLMES: Yes. I was busy.

LONG: It was really amazing.

LEVS: We all know your life is more exciting than mine. Trust me. I'll tell you, this is some amazing stuff. It really blew me away. And we have the best photos you can see at cnn.com right now. They have picked out the best photos from the ceremonies. I encourage you to check it out. But T.J., stay with me for a second. I want to ask you guys something.

Got a little quiz here that we have from cnn.com. We're going to close in on this question here, what sporting type are you? How would you describe your competitive drive? And these are your choices? Do you do back flips to compete, I'm game for a while, I'll go the extra length for the team, I'm an uber self-motivated automaton or I want to crush everything before me?

LONG: Are you asking us now?

LEVS: Yes. What do you guys think?

LONG: I'm quite self-motivated but usually it's for the team. Because I can't do a back flip.

HOLMES: I'm the automaton. No doubt.

LEVS: Oh, yes. I had the feeling you would go there.

(CROSSTALK)

LONG: Wait a minute, answer your own question.

LEVS: All right. Well, here's the thing. I don't have an answer.

LONG: You're not going to answer your own question?

LEVS: I don't have an answer, but you know who does? Our intern Jason ...

LONG: Mr. Answer over there.

LEVS: ...who took the quiz -- I know, I'm sorry. Our intern Jason Reesfeld (ph) took the quiz for me and he found out that he is a runner. This is one of the many, though apparently he's not -- but, if he were in the Olympics, he would be best to be a runner.

This is one of the fun things people are having a great time with here at the Fan Zone. This is the place for all the latest information on all the games, all the sports. We have pretty much up to the minute reacts from all over the place in Beijing and of course, we got all these games you can play, find out what kind of athlete you would be if you were in the Olympics, CNN.com/olympics.

LONG: So, answer your own question.

LEVS: You know what, here's the thing. I think I'd be really great at Olympic watching. Does that count?

HOLMES: All right.

LONG: Yes.

HOLMES: That counts as well.

LEVS: All right. Thank you.

LONG: You earn a medal for watching.

HOLMES: We're going to stick with the Olympic theme. Coming up next hour, Joey Cheek, Olympic gold medalist going to be joining us.

LONG: Right.

HOLMES: He was supposed to be in Beijing for the games, but China pulled his Visa last minute. Might have a lot to do with politics here.

LONG: And "OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis starts right now.