Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Starbucks CEO Says Keep Guns Away; Who is This Masked Clown; The Human Factor; Interview with Dash Mihok

Aired September 18, 2013 - 08:30   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: You're watching NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, September 18th.

Let's get to Michaela for the five things you need to know for your new day.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go.

No motive known for the Washington Navy Yard shooting. We do know that despite run-ins with police and a history of mental health problems, Aaron Alexis still had security clearance to the Navy Yard.

Residents of Crook, Colorado, have been ordered to evacuate as a local canal rises to historic levels. All that water has got to go somewhere. Flood runoff from Colorado now making its way over to neighboring Nebraska.

President Obama's week long focus on the economy takes him to members of the business round table this morning. He's pushing Congress to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Concert promoter AEG Live expected to rest its case today in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial. The defense no longer planning to call Katherine Jackson. Instead, they may play clips from Prince Jackson's video deposition.

And at number five, if you like to play the lottery, tonight is the time. The Powerball jackpot now up to $400 million. The fifth largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

We're always updating those five things to know, so be sure to go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Guys.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Michaela, thanks so much.

So now let's go to a CNN TV exclusive. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is taking a stand on gun control. He's asking people who carry firearms to keep their guns out of his stores, but he's not implementing a ban. So why is he speaking up then? For that, let's go to CNN's Poppy Harlow who spoke with Schultz for his first TV interview on this very issue.

So what is going on? There's a little bit of background to why he's coming out (ph).

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, the way Starbucks puts it, Kate, is that they have been unwillingly thrust, they say, into this gun debate. For the past few years, gun owners have gathered at Starbucks stores across the country with their weapons in what they call Starbucks appreciation days, because Starbucks, like frankly most other companies, allow you to have a gun in their stores if you're allowed to have it legally in the state. But now Howard Schultz is taking a stand, coming out and saying, no, we don't want your guns in any of our Starbucks stores. He's not banning it, but he's making this plea in an open letter to the American people, which will run in newspapers across the country tomorrow. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So first question to you is, why are you doing this and why are you doing it right now?

HOWARD SCHULTZ, STARBUCKS CEO: Well, I think it's very important just to start the conversation by framing the fact that Starbucks is not a policymaker. And, in fact, we're not pro or anti-gun. However, we do believe that guns should not be part of the Starbucks experience. And as a result of that, we're making that decision, we are respectfully requesting that those customers who are carrying a gun just honor the request and not bring the gun into Starbucks. We're also saying something else. This is not a ban. And the reason it's not a ban is that we don't want to put our own people in a position of having to confront somebody who's carrying a weapon. And so those customers who will bring in the gun -- we hope they won't - we're still going to serve them. We're not going to ask them to leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And when you listen to that, I mean he's taking a stand -- he's taking a stand, but he's almost not taking a stand when it comes to his company. Other companies have this policy. I'm a little confused kind of where he stands on it.

HARLOW: Yes, there are companies like AMC Theaters, Disney, Pete's Coffee, which ban - which bans guns on the premises. He's stepping into the controversy if not all the way.

BOLDUAN: Right.

HARLOW: And this is a CEO that often steps into the controversy. You know, they came out and they vocally supported gay marriage, for example. So he's done that before. I said to him, if you feel this way, why are you not banning guns in Starbucks stores? And he said he spent a lot of time thinking about this, trying to get the best decision on both sides.

This is also a business, so you don't want to alienate customers. But I also did ask him, are you willing -- if people don't respect this request, are you going to ask them -- are you going to implement a ban? And he said, you know, not at this point. And that's what I think we should see is, how does this play out in stores? And if people say -- more people with guns come in to make a point, maybe we will see a ban.

PEREIRA: To be fair, don't you think the converse (ph) was sort of brought to him because gun owners -

HARLOW: I do.

PEREIRA: Right. So what I find interesting is, they think so many people, in light of what happened yesterday, in light of what's been happening, so many people are struggling to find a solution. He probably looked at it and said, this is something I can do within my world. I can't change policy, as he said.

HARLOW: Yes.

PEREIRA: This is something I can do. I think it's interesting that he's just trying to force dialogue, perhaps.

HARLOW: I think he's forcing dialogue. I think that people are going to force action and conversation in the stores. But I do think that it's important to note that, you know, he didn't go all the way here to ban it, but really considered both sides of the argument here. I'm getting a lot of tweets this morning, guys, after we aired this in the last hour from people saying, well, what about me having a gun in the store if I want to protect myself if there's a shooting? You know, aren't I allowed to have that? And that's a question that I asked him. And he said, look, we tried to honor both sides here.

CUOMO: It's the latest reflection of the debate that's gotten toxic.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: You know, this started off, the latest round of gun talk, about how do we enforce the laws best? Do we need different laws? That's how it started. Now it's become an existential crisis, whether there are going to be guns or no guns, and I think that's what you see here. I think there will be a backlash -

HARLOW: Yes.

CUOMO: And then he'll be put into a box. We'll see what he does.

HARLOW: And I did ask Schultz, do you personally have a gun and do your personal views weigh in here? And he said this is not about my personal views, this is about the company.

PEREIRA: The fact is, he can afford it. That's one thing, you know?

CUOMO: That's true.

PEREIRA: He can afford it.

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Poppy. HARLOW: You're welcome.

CUOMO: All right, time for the next story. A provocative question, are you a clown? Do you like clowns? Are you afraid of clowns? Why am I asking?

BOLDUAN: Is that rhetorical?

CUOMO: Well, clown -- this clown that you're looking at right now, popping up all over a quaint English town.

PEREIRA: Kind of creepy.

CUOMO: Are all English towns quaint? That's for another time.

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: He doesn't juggle or make balloons or animals or anything like that, but what he does do is even more bizarre. So why is he doing this? CNN's Erin McLaughlin has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "IT": Aren't you going to say, "hello"?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It started on Friday the 13th. Like a scene out of Stephen King's "It."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "IT": Don't you want a balloon?

MCLAUGHLIN: A creepy clown who resembles the penny wise character in that movie lurking the streets. His identity is a mystery. He poses photos of his exploits on FaceBook, along with messages that end with Stephen King's signature, "beep, beep."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "IT": Beep, beep!

MCLAUGHLIN: His most recent cryptic note posted yesterday. It reads, "I'll be seeing you all very soon in the day, but I'm going to lay low for a bit as I have a big surprise for you all hopefully due at the end of the week. Beep, beep."

It's all for the people of the quaint English town of Northampton to see and, in some cases, fear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd be terrified if I saw that clown at night. Yes.

MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): If you ran into him on the street, what would you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd probably run away. He's got quite a mean face on him.

CALLUM JONES, REPORTER, "NORTHAMPTON CHRONICLE": The last confirmed sighting of him was right by this statue about -- I reckon about midnight on Sunday.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Callum Jones is now the unofficial clown correspondent at "The Northampton Chronicle." He's been following the story since last week.

JONES: I think he's probably an older guy. I think he's quite clever. I don't think he understands social media that well. He says he doesn't know how Twitter works.

MCLAUGHLIN: So you don't think he's going to jump out at any time, do you?

JONES: Well, I hope not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, his FaceBook page has over 100,000 likes. And that's just since Friday. Some people speculate that this might be some sort of promotional campaign or something for a mockumentary. But Callum tells me he thinks this is just a guy out having some fun dressed as a clown.

Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Having some fun is one thing, but being very creepy while you're doing it is something entirely different.

Erin, thanks so much.

CUOMO: As long as he's benign, then it just comes down to being a mean, you know, little bit of a stunt.

BOLDUAN: Have you ever seen "Killer Clowns from Outer Space"?

CUOMO: No.

BOLDUAN: It's a really scary movie.

CUOMO: No. No. I -

BOLDUAN: That's what this made me think of.

CUOMO: He just picked the wrong clown to emulate, because it brings back that creepy movie from --

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

CUOMO: From -

BOLDUAN: Stephen King.

CUOMO: Although - from Stephen King. Although, you know, with the English accent, everything sounds a little bit more dramatic.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: But that was more interesting because of the accent. So we'll see what happens Friday (ph).

BOLDUAN: We will see what happens.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, he's an actor and a role model overcoming an incredible obstacle. Why one of the stars of Showtime's "Ray Donovan" is trying to shine a new light on Tourette syndrome.

CUOMO: Plus, what a "Good Stuff" we have that I'll tell you about never.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Are you a fan of the hit series "Ray Donovan"? Well, if you are, you'll recognize actor Dash Mihok. But even though you may know the actor, you'd probably never guess he has Tourette's syndrome. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with today's "Human Factor."

Hello again, doc.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

You know, a lot of people have heard of Tourette syndrome but not as many people certainly know what it is exactly or what sort of behaviors are associated with it. You will recognize this actor. You'll see him and how he performs in movies, sometimes masking his Tourette's. Then you'll see him when he's not acting as well. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DASH MIHOK, ACTOR, "RAY DONOVAN": I was a fighter. Why didn't I try and stop them?

GUPTA (voice-over): Dash Mihok is a fighter, both on and off the screen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "RAY DONOVAN": With the Donovan family, boxing is a part of life.

GUPTA: On Showtime's "Ray Donovan," the fighting takes place in the ring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "RAY DONOVAN": When a Donovan goes down, he comes back harder.

GUPTA: But when the cameras stop rolling, Dash fights for something quite real.

MIHOK: I've had Tourette's syndrome since I was six years old. Part of reasons I became an actor was probably because I was experienced so well in hiding it, that I was acting all the time.

GUPTA: Tourette's syndrome is a neurological disorder. It causes repetitive involuntary movements and sounds sometimes called ticks.

MIHOK: Growing up in New York City can be a very tough place. And, you know, schools are tough enough, but New York, there's so many people around that there's people looking at you all the time.

GUPTA: And Tourette's is also genetic. As it turns out, both of Mihok's older sisters have it as well. In fact here he is as age 11 talking about Tourette's with his sister Gwen. This was a video for the Tourette's Syndrome Association.

MIHOK: I have to like look at it in a funny way or I just can't concentrate.

GUPTA: Mihok has come a long way since then. Appearing in films like "Romeo & Juliet", "The Thin Red Line", and "Silver Linings Playbook".

MIHOK: What are you doing?

GUPTA: And while his career was taking off it was this report on CNN.com that caught Mihok's eye.

MIHOK: His name is Jaylen Arnold --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His mother taped him ticking to show others how severe the condition can be.

MIHOK: He's a young man with Tourette's syndrome, who was brave enough to start his own Web site. to educate people about Tourette's Syndrome.

GUPTA: Together, Jaylen and Dash captivate their student audience working with Jaylen's Challenge Foundation to put a stop to bullying.

MIHOK: Can we get a "bullying no way".

GUPTA: And when they're not raising awareness about an often misunderstood disorder, they hang out. Like brothers.

MIHOK: I'd like to say to anybody who's watching this that I'm just like you just a little bit different. And when you're a little bit different from me I have nothing but love for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: You know, certainly as people get older, a lot of times they either get better at masking or hiding or camouflaging their symptoms or the severity goes down. But you just -- you just met Dash there. And I just want to show you a little bit of video as well to make this point. Even -- even as people start to get older, when they're not focused on something in particular, they may start to have some of these repetitive movements.

So acting in his case, Chris, is something that keeps him very focused. You don't see the Tourette's as much. But in a down moment like that that you just saw, that's when a lot of these ticks start to manifest themselves. CUOMO: It's a great story, doc. It's so important for you to get I out there. Thank you. And I got the bracelet on. We've got the no bullying, Jaylen Challenge.

GUPTA: Me too yes.

CUOMO: You got it, there it is. That's great.

GUPTA: We'll talk more about him as well, Chris. We'll have him for you as well.

CUOMO: All right thank you so much. Dash Mihok is a great actor, he's a better guy. Thanks for the story. And everybody don't forget to tune in to "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." airs weekends of course right here on CNN -- Saturday at 4:30 Eastern and Sunday 7:30 Eastern Time.

All right that was a great story. So let's follow it up a little bit of good stuff for you. And today's edition and normally when we show you surveillance video, it's captured something very bad.

BOLDUAN: Not bad.

CUOMO: But watch this. A little boy was showing you he's dropping by the police station in Greenfield, Milwaukee. He was there to do what? To donate his life savings -- pennies, nickels, dimes. He gave it all to the police. He quickly left. He didn't leave a name. The cops there were so touched by the gesture they had to track him down.

The question is, why did he do it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX SIEPERT, DONATED LIFE SAVINGS TO POLICE: In social studies class, we learned about 9/11 and all the great things that the police and fire department did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That's 11-year-old Max Siepert. He also has a special place in his heart for policemen because his grandfather was an officer killed in the line of duty back in 1974. For the record, the amount he donated, $10.03 --it's not the size of the donation though is it? It's the size of Max's heart that counts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIEPERT: One day that's going to make a difference. It might not a really big difference. But at least it's something. If every person would do that we would have such a great world. It would be awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That's so cute.

CUOMO: The officers at the Greenfield PD say Max has lifted the morale of the entire department. And hopefully he's done something for you as well.

PEREIRA: I think he has.

BOLDUAN: See teachers you have an impact. He learned it in social studies class.

CUOMO: Right he learned it at his home as well.

BOLDUAN: Right. His grandpa.

CUOMO: So it's great. Thank you so much for sending us the story. Send us the good news so we can keep telling it to you.

BOLDUAN: What a good guy.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, here's a weird look for you. A Michigan University taking down a pendulum sculpture. Sounds pretty benign, right? Well Miley Cyrus deserves some credit for it. Well her wrecking ball video is still doing making news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is time for the NEW DAY award of the day award? But before we get there, let's go to the couch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: His own team song -- John Berman here to give us his NEW DAY award of the day award, my friend.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You guys -- you guys are out of breath after walking over here. I appreciate the long walk. I bring you the most extreme example in history of life imitating art. And this might be one of the only times in history anyone will accuse Miley Cyrus of committing art.

I think we're all now familiar with this. This is her fine performance in the "Wrecking Ball" video. In this video she does, in fact, ride a wrecking ball. Naked. Doesn't leave much to the imagination there. There she is again on that wrecking ball Stanley Kubrick (ph) will be proud. That, folks, is art.

But it has created a major problem at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Why? Because they have a pendulum-like piece of art outside their science building. And after seeing the Miley Cyrus video, students there did what any responsible student would do. They rode the art, right? Pictures of their own homemade Miley Cyrus tributes have been popping up everywhere. The school now actually has removed the sculpture.

CUOMO: Of course they have.

BERMAN: They say it is for safety reasons. They say they're worried about the structural integrity of the sculpture.

PEREIRA: It may not have been made or built for that. BERMAN: I can't think of another use for it.

CUOMO: Yes it's one of those fragile wrecking balls.

BERMAN: No this university wins the Grand Valley -- this University, Grand Valley State University in Michigan wins our award of the day award. It is the "let's hope they don't replace it with a sculpture of a foam finger" award because that would be awkward. Very, very, very awkward.

BOLDUAN: You know what I'm thinking at this moment? Thank goodness that they did not have Twitter around and you did not go to Grand Valley State when you were in college.

CUOMO: Yes. I was thinking none of that. I think that that was really funny.

BERMAN: Chris Cuomo sees a wrecking ball, you know what he wants to do with it.

CUOMO: You know -- I'm all over it.

PEREIRA: You know the conversation is like, now we've got to take down the wrecking ball.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Pulling up in their environmentally friendly car. Remove the ball. The children are expressing themselves.

BOLDUAN: We'll keep talking about it. And we'll be right back after this break.

PEREIRA: We're expressing somebody else.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Thank you for watching Michaela, Kate and me here on NEW DAY. It's time for "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. It begins right now. Good morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I hope you all have a great day. Thanks so much.

"NEWSROOM" starts now.

Happening now in the "NEWSROOM": desperate but determined.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever seen it like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Colorado copes as families who lost everything but hope begin to clean up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our basement was filled with five feet of water in the first 20 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Also, Pastor Rick Warren opens up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASTOR RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: Matthew was not afraid to die. He was afraid of pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In his first interview since his son's tragic suicide, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life" sits down with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAY WARREN, WIFE OF RICK WARREN: I'll do anything to help you live. I cannot help you take your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)