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CNN NEWSROOM

Woman Heckles First Lady; Building Collapse in Philadelphia; Paris Jackson Rushed to Hospital; Chrylser Refusing Recall; Doping Scandal Rocks Major League Baseball

Aired June 5, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: This is unusual, Wolf, is it not. This was a private residence. You usually don't have hecklers at private functions. Rather intimate. We've seen this with the president. But clearly, the first lady, she responded differently than her husband. How is this playing?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: The president, when he was interrupted at that event a couple weeks ago by someone from Code Pink, he sort of engaged the heckler at the time and had a little conversation. And he was very polite and very generous, if you will.

The first lady, on the other hand, she would have none of that at an event like this. She dismissed this woman completely. And, of course, everyone at that group, other than this woman who was interrupting the first lady of the United States, wanted Michelle Obama to continue that speech that she was delivering. And that woman was escorted out.

The bottom line in all this, Suzanne, as you and I know, and a lot of people know who know the first lady of the United States, you don't want to mess around with her.

(LAUGHTER)

She is one tough lady. And she's going to have none -- as she said, she's going to have none of that kind of impolite interruption.

MALVEAUX: Yeah. She's one tough cookie there.

All right. Wolf, good to see you as always. Thanks a lot.

BLITZER: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Of course, we are following that breaking news story out of Philadelphia, the building collapse. More details after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Want to go directly to Sarah Hoye in Philadelphia at the scene of the building collapse. Sarah joins us on the phone.

Sarah, I understand you are right there and are able to see what is taking place outside of the building. Can you tell us what's going on?

SARAH HOYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yeah. I'm at a new vantage point here at the front door of the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Firefighters have made a wall and moved ambulances around to kind of block the view of cameras, which, from the past, isn't always a good sign. However, we don't have anything confirmed. It looks as though they are removing someone or something from this building. They are now putting down a red plastic sheet as well as a yellow plastic sheet on the ground. Not sure exactly what that's going to be used for. This could mean that it might not be a happy ending for whoever's inside. However, we just do not know that at this time.

However, there is a fury of law enforcement as well as fire department personnel. So there's definitely a lot of movement going on. And we'll have to wait to see.

MALVEAUX: Yeah, Sarah, we actually saw some pictures of the firefighters and some of the EMT guys with red plastic sheeting there. One of the things that we learned just within the last 20 minutes or so, an update from the mayor. Mayor Nutter telling our Don Lemon that there was a young woman who was pulled out of the debris after being buried for two hours. Do you know anything about that?

HOYE: I have no more details on that other than what Don is reporting. We are being told that they were removing somebody. Very few details at this time. As I'm sure you're aware, things get whipped around this area pretty quickly here. But they are working on removing someone. So our earlier reporting was that 12 people had been transported to hospitals. They were still working to remove two. It appears as though they're still working on getting both of those two remaining out. However, even though they are working on those two, they still don't know if there's anymore left inside of that building. They just don't have an exact count. Just like if you were at the mall, you don't know how many people are at the mall. So they're working to remove this debris and going down to the basement. Once they clear this entire area, that's the only time they'll give the all clear, which could take quite a few hours to get the all- clear.

MALVEAUX: Sarah, we know the 13th victim that came out that the mayor talked about was taken out of the rear of the building. Where does it look like most of the activity is taking place? Is that out of the front of the building, the rear of the building? Can you give us a sense of where they still seem to be actively searching?

HOYE: Well, they're actively searching in the front, the side and the rear, from what I can see. The rear of the building actually jutted up next to another building. That's the one they were working on. It was an issue that happened with the building that they were actually having an active demo at. So then that building collapsed on to the rear of the Salvation Army. So what is left standing right here at this thrift store is one corner of the building, literally the front door that's facing the street. So you can see the Salvation Army Thrift Store sign and that is it. Otherwise, it is completely to the ground. MALVEAUX: Yeah. Sarah, we're looking at earlier pictures here, aerials. And we know exactly what you're talking about there because you can literally see there's the back portion of the building that is still standing. And then the front portion there, just the front section of the Salvation Army.

Sarah, stay with us.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll get back to you as we get more information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Just learned in a quick break here that there was another person who was just pulled out of the rubble there and put into an ambulance and taken away from this thrift store, from the Salvation Army there.

The mayor earlier reported that there were 13 people who had been injured, 12 of them with minor injuries and in stable condition. And then the mayor himself describing the fact that a young woman was taken out after being buried underneath that rubble for several hours.

Well, now the very latest from our affiliate, WPVI, reporting that there was another person who has just been pulled out from the debris, put into an ambulance and taken away. It is still an active search- and-rescue scene. An operation there that is dangerous, we are told. It is delicate work.

They do not know how many people were inside that store at the time of the building collapse. The building that was four stories that fell on top, one of the walls falling on top of that thrift store. So they are actively searching for people in the basement of the thrift store as well as in the front entrance, which you can see there, right there, the yellow awning, and in the back of the building in the rear of the building. They are literally lifting piece-by-piece, brick-by- brick, that structure, to see if there's anyone who has survived, or anyone who remains inside.

We are also following another story. New details we are learning about the hospitalization of Paris Jackson. That is right. She is the 15-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson. And sources close to the Jackson family say that she was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles this morning. Now, one source says that this might have been a cry for help. Paris tweeted out to her followers messages last night saying, "I wonder why tears are salty." And yesterday, "All my troubles seem so far away, now it looks as though they're here to stay." Paris and her brother, Prince, they're scheduled to testify in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial. That is happening later this month. We're going to update you on her condition as more details become available.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Following breaking news out of Philadelphia. You're seeing pictures there from our affiliate, WPVI, a building collapse, the thrift store, a Salvation Army. Reporting just moments ago someone else was actually taken out of the rubble, put into an ambulance and taken away. We've been told that at least 13 people have been removed from the building. And most of those injuries have been described as minor. That's what the mayor is saying. But it is still an active search-and-rescue operation that's taking place on the ground. They have warned people in that area to please be quiet as they search, as they listen for any sounds of people who might be under that debris. So we are following that. We're going to give you as much information as we can as we get more information on that breaking news story.

We're following another big story here. This is Chrysler, refusing to recall 2.7 million -- that is right -- Jeep SUVs. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the gas tank design used in the 1993 to 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees and the 2002 to 2007 Jeep Liberties is unsafe. The government agency found more than 300 people have died when their Jeep SUV caught fire after rear-end collisions.

Jeff Fortson, of jeffcars.com, is joining us to talk about this.

I'm surprised by the fact that they can refuse to recall the vehicles. I wasn't even clear that that was possible. Do we know if it's even necessary?

JEFF FORTSON, JEFFCARS.COM: That's a good point. Just like the Philadelphia story is big news today, this is big news as you just mentioned. But consumers shouldn't be alarmed at this point. The reason is because I'm hearing from my internal sources and from those of us who are industry analysts out in the field is that this information is inconclusive right now. So we believe this information's just kind of jumped the gun without full research being done at this point. Chrysler, the government are working hand-in-hand on it. And it seemed as though one party just kind of moved ahead and released the information. And there's no remedy at this point.

MALVEAUX: So what do you do? If you're one of these people who owns one of these Jeeps, should you be worried, concerned, should you do something to your car?

FORTSON: I would be concerned and worried. Three things I would recommend to do. The first thing, be an advocate. Call your local dealer. Make sure you're registered with them, your vehicle is registered with them. These are older model Grand Cherokees and Cherokees that are still out right now, about 2.7 million of them. That's the first thing I would do. Make sure your vehicle's registered with them so just in case something does come up and it's conclusive that there is an issue with the vehicle and there's a recall --

MALVEAUX: Sure.

FORTSON: -- is that the dealership and Chrysler has access to get in touch with you.

MALVEAUX: OK.

FORTSON: Second thing I would recommend is to contact the 1-800 number we have listed on the screen. Contact them. And also make sure they have your data that's registered with them. And also make sure that they have a good understanding of what your concern is and it's documented.

MALVEAUX: Sure. OK.

FORTSON: Last thing I would recommend doing is, if you're still alarmed about the situation and you're scared that you may be one of these individuals who may be involved in an accident and something may occur, is that you can stop driving the vehicle. That's the last thing you can obviously do.

MALVEAUX: All right. Jeff, good advice. You know, we hope this gets resolved relatively quickly.

FORTSON: Exactly. Probably the next few weeks, we should hear some resolution on where Chrysler is with the government on it or it could move further out than that.

MALVEAUX: That is a lot of people.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

FORTSON: Exactly. 2.7 million people.

MALVEAUX: Yeah.

All right. Jeff, thanks.

FORTSON: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Appreciate it as always.

Again, following a breaking news story out of Philadelphia there. At least 13 people injured in that building collapse. You see it still standing on the corner of 22nd and Market Streets. It is a very busy intersection. It's a busy neighborhood in the city of -- in the heart of the city of Philadelphia. It is an active search-and-rescue operation that is still ongoing. It was just moments ago that they reporters on the ground telling us that they actually saw another individual being pulled from the rubble and transported in an ambulance.

We're going to have more on the breaking news story after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty today to killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan. His attorney says Sergeant Robert Bales agreed to the guilty plea to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors say Bales left his base in Afghanistan and went house to house shooting villagers, including children. The massacre in March of last year added to the tense relations between the United States, of course, and Afghanistan. And we want to show you, this is a moving tribute. This is Barts Town, Kentucky, K-9 officer, James Ellis. This was taken at his funeral just last week. That is Officer Ellis' police dog, Figo, saluting his master, the paw touching the coffin. You might remember, Ellis was gunned down, ambushed just 10 days ago when he stopped to remove debris from the road. Here is what the police chief says about the photo: "Figo was almost giving him that final hug good-bye. I think that picture brought more tears than anything." The chief retired Figo and the dog is living with Ellis' widow and their two young sons.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Following the breaking news story here out of Philadelphia. A building collapsed there. At least 13 people injured and pulled out of the rubble so far. It is an active search-and-rescue operation as they still go through the debris, seeing if there are -- is anyone left in the building and if there are still survivors. We're following this story throughout the morning and the afternoon. We'll bring you the latest as well.

We're also following this. This is a doping scandal, rocking Major League Baseball. ESPN reporting now that the league plans to suspend some 20 players for using performance-enhancing drugs. Reportedly, baseball's highest paid player, new Yankee, Alex Rodriguez, A-Rod, is among them.

Pamela Brown has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ESPN is reporting that Major League Baseball is preparing for an unprecedented wave of player suspensions that include Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, and the Brewer's Ryan Braun. Rodriguez, Braun and some 18 players are allegedly linked to a Miami area clinic at the center of an ongoing performance- enhancing drug scandal.

On Tuesday night, Ryan Braun refused to talk about it after his game.

RYAN BRAUN, BREWERS BASEBALL PLAYER: I'm not answering any further questions regarding the whole situation. I've dealt with it for a long time. And aside from that, I don't have anything further to say.

BROWN: Yankee's manager, Joe Girardi, was peppered with questions at a post-game news conference.

JOE GIRARDI, MANAGER, NEW YORK YANKEES: I think we all had hoped we kind of got through it. But obviously we're not through it yet.

BROWN: Major League Baseball issued this statement following the ESPN story, "We can't comment on an ongoing investigation."

ESPN reports that Tony Bosch, the founder of this now-closed clinic near Miami, has reached an agreement to cooperate with the league's investigation. The "Miami New Times" first reported in January that Bosch's biogenesis clinic was a pipeline to performance enhancing drugs for several players.

TIM ELFRINK, MIAMI NEW TIMES: It is clear that biogenesis, like an anti-aging clinic was selling a lot of HGH, a number of other drugs that are widely banned in sports.

BROWN: Representatives for Alex Rodriguez issued a denial after the January report. "The news reports about the reported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch's patient. He was never treated by him and never advised by him."

According to ESPN, players could be suspended for 100 games, a penalty usually given to second offenses. If upheld, the suspensions may be the largest in American sports history.

A-Rod fans, disappointed.

TREVOR KAUFMAN, YANKEES FAN: I looked up to him when I played baseball because he was -- I really liked him. Now it saddens you kind of.

BROWN: Not only is the legacy at stake, but more importantly, that of America's past time.

GIRARDI: I worry about baseball being affected as a game, the whole thing, and what it's been through in the last 15 years. And that's my concern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We have a new statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association. It says here, "The Players Association has been in regular contact with the commissioner's office regarding the biogenesis investigation. They are in the process of interviewing players. And every player has been or will be represented by an attorney from the Players Association. The commissioner's office has assured us that no decisions regarding discipline have been made or will be made until those interviews are completed. It would be unfortunate if anyone prejudged those investigations."

And that's it for me. Have a great afternoon.

Brooke Baldwin takes it from here.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, thank you so much.