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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Relief Begins to Reach Ravaged Philippines; Frost, Freeze Warnings in South; Boston Bombing Suspect's Lawyer Ask Judge to Ease Restrictions; New York's World Trade Center Announced as Tallest U.S. Building; Dolphins Owner Says No More Bullying or Hazing; Will Rob Ford Step Down?

Aired November 12, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Thousands of aid workers and troops on the ground -- many more on the way; and millions of dollars pouring in to help storm victims. But is any relief effort big enough? Miles of devastation -- so many dead and the battle for survival for countless others is only just beginning.

Also ahead, the big city mayor's first big public appearance since admitting to smoking crack in a drunken stupor, and guess how his constituents greeted him? And alley-oop, yes, whoa, this Harlem Globetrotters' nickname is "Bull," so don't let him near a China shop, the story behind this incredible video coming up this hour on CNN. Yikes.

Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It is Tuesday, November the 12th, and welcome to LEGAL VIEW. It is midnight Wednesday in the Philippines where a UNICEF worker tells CNN that the plight of typhoon survivors, and I'm going to quote, "is hideous."

By official count, 1,774 people in the Philippines did not survive super typhoon Haiyan. The Philippine president now estimates the final count will be closer to 2,000 than 10,000, if there is any silver lining here. More than 2,000 people hurt, again, that is probably an undercount at this point. Eight hundred thousand or more have nowhere to live today. Two million people need help just finding food. And what no one there needs is more rain at this point. But that is exactly what they're getting today from yet another tropical storm, wet-weather system.

This one is nothing like Haiyan, but more floods and landslides are possible through tomorrow. They also didn't need an earthquake. That's right, an earthquake in the middle of all of this devastation. Another silver lining, it was not powerful, but it certainly did not help an already impossible situation.

United States Marines are on the ground and in the air, and 5,000 sailors are on their way now. The aircraft carrier, George Washington, cut short a port call in Hong Kong yesterday and is due to reach the Philippines, along with escort ships and 80-plus aircraft. They expect to be reaching their destination there either tomorrow or possibly Thursday.

Countless people are depending, depending to live, on that relief because they just have nothing left, and they have been waiting now for days. Anna Coren followed a military aid flight into a remote peninsula called Guiuan where relief has been long overdue, and the pictures from the air, they just speak volumes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the disaster relief operation shoots into overdrive, the roar of engines from C-130 Hercules fills the air.

We've been given permission to board this military cargo plane carrying vital aid and dozens of soldiers and police to one of the worst hit areas in the Philippines.

As we fly over the township of Guiuan in Samar Province, all we can see is utter devastation. This community was the first to be hit by Haiyan and since then there has been no communication.

While the plan is to conduct a search-and-rescue mission, these men know all too well they're likely facing a recovery operation. The police and military on this flight have an enormous job ahead. We have just landed at the airfield, and as you can see, all around us these enormous palm trees have been snapped like twigs. Everything has been flattened.

You can see that the local people over here, standing under a shelter that its roof has been completely ripped off. They've been without supplies now for days. This typhoon hit this point first. This was the first town really that was devastated, and these soldiers, they have no idea what they're about to face. As the troops unload bags of rice and boxes of bottled water, the locals desperately watch on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They showed us some food, tents, Everything, everything is gone, so we need help.

COREN: Of the 50,000 people in this town, almost everyone is homeless. Dozens of people have lost their lives and many more are still missing.

CHRISTOPHER GONZALES, GUIUAN MAYOR: I didn't know where to start. If you will take a look of our municipality, it's total damage, 100 percent damage.

COREN: With the aid off, the sick and injured are carried onboard, some suffering spinal cord injuries. In less than 20 minutes the engines start up again ferrying these traumatized survivors to safety.

Anna Coren, CNN, Guiuan, The Philippines

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Aid groups, governments, corporations, they're all stepping up, and you can, too.

Impact Your World at CNN.com/impact, a great site to go to, you can browse a lot of different places where you can reach out and help those people who so desperately need anything they can get. Another big story that we're watching right now this now, the cold air is moving in. The highs are dropping 10 to 20 degrees below average.

There are frost advisories and freeze warnings out from Texas to Georgia for this morning and for tomorrow morning, too.

Here is a shot from Columbus Circle here in New York. We just had our first snowfall here. As you can see, it doesn't stay long on the ground, down on the warm streets of New York City.

But there you go, snowing earlier in New York.

Other news making headlines today, lawyers for Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are in court today. They're asking a judge to ease his restrictions in prison as he waits for his trial.

Tsarnaev's attorneys say that, quote, "special administrative measures," end quote, that restrict his access to mail, to the media, to the telephone and to visitors are making it hard for them to do their jobs and defend him.

Now this is a battle that we've been watching carefully. And you may not think it's a big deal, but to some people, it is a very big deal, a very tall deal indeed, the battle of the towers. Look at those pictures, New York on the left, Chicago on the right. Can you tell which one is taller?

OK, because New York's new World Trade Center has been basically bragging that that is its new status, tallest building in the country. But is it Chicago's Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower on the right? A team of architects actually had to convene to get together and figure out which one is taller, and they have just announced the results of their findings. And there it is, the New York World Trade Center. For a lot of people in New York that's going to be a big deal.

Clearly, you'll remember that building is a result of 9/11 and the Twin Towers going down, and 1,776-feet of new tower going up. The spire counts. That's what it means after all of this, because Chicago had said it's the last floor that's habitable that counts.

Now determined that the spire counts and New York wins. And that's the end of that story, for now, anyway. The owner of the Miami Dolphins is speaking out and saying that no bullying or hazing will happen in his locker room. But honestly, is that really possible? We're going to talk to a player who spent a decade in the NFL. The famous face, you know him well. Tiki Barber joins me live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Welcome back to LEGAL VIEW. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.

The Miami Dolphins bullying scandal has more twists and turns than a roller coaster. The latest twist? The team owner, Stephen Ross, says that he was not even aware that Richie Incognito had bullied Jonathan Martin before he left the team. And that's an allegation at this point. Ross says he plans to meet privately with Martin in an undisclosed location tomorrow. We have more now on this story from Joe Carter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: As the saga around the Miami Dolphins continues to unfold, the team's owner, Stephen Ross, is the latest to speak out.

The billionaire owner appeared embarrassed by the allegation surrounding his team.

STEPHEN ROSS, OWNER, MIAMI DOLPHINS: What's going on is really something couldn't have been our worst nightmare.

CARTER: Before Martin abruptly left the team, Ross says he was unaware of any bullying inside the Dolphins organization.

ROSS: I never heard that. The coach didn't hear that. Nobody heard that.

CARTER: And when he finally saw the vulgar and threatening messages from incognito to Martin, it raised immediate concern.

ROSS: I was appalled. I think anybody would be appalled. I didn't realize people would talk, text or speak that way.

CARTER: In the team's first game without Incognito or Martin, the Dolphins furthered an already embarrassing week by losing to the last place Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football.

RYAN TANNEHILL, MIAMI DOLPHINS QUARTERBACK: The more and more adversity hits you in the face, you know, you've got to step up and face it and be able to handle it. Life is full of adversity, you know? Not everyone deals with a situation like this.

MIKE POUNCEY, MIAMI DOLPHINS CENTER: We're here to play football. The distractions are outside. It was external not internal.

CARTER: While everyone involved is still trying to figure out exactly what really happened between Martin and the Dolphins, the team's owner made it very clear that change is coming.

ROSS: There will not be any racial slurs or harassing or bullying in that workplace, in that locker room and outside the locker room.

CARTER: Joe Carter, CNN Tampa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Here with me now is someone who has vast experience in pro football locker rooms. You know him well.

He's Tiki Barber, former star running back for the New York Giants. He was selected to play in the Pro Bowl three times. He is the author of the book, "Tiki -- My Life in the Game and Beyond."

And if you don't know this, he and his brother also have written 10 children's books, all of them football related, adorable.

By the way, his brother Ronde used to play for the Buccaneers, just retired a couple of months ago.

So it's great that you're here today, in particular, Tiki, because the Dolphins played the Bucs last night. The Bucs have not been considered the best team in the league.

TIKI BARBER, FORMER NEW YORK GIANTS RUNNING BACK: It would have been an otherwise meaningless game except for the drama surrounding both of these teams, really.

BANFIELD: And the Bucs won.

BARBER: The Bucs were winless, so they got a win for the first time, but obviously what's going on in Miami with the Richie Incognito- Jonathan Martin story --

BANFIELD: Do you think that matters?

BARBER: It matters a lot because --

BANFIELD: No, to the game result? Do you think the game result --

BARBER: No. I don't think so. I think the Dolphins have issues that are beyond what's happening off the field.

BANFIELD: OK, listen, when I heard that the owner of that club is only now, weeks later, just about to meet with Martin, I thought, he hasn't talked to them yet? Is that plausible?

BARBER: Well, Jonathan Martin disappeared. He disappeared. No one knew what happened. I know he talked to Coach Philbin briefly after he left.

But he's been locked up in a rehab facility. He's only communicating with people through his lawyers or his family, so we don't really know what happened.

A lot of people have passed judgment without having all the facts. But we don't know what happened yet.

BANFIELD: Last question, real quick, and that's this. I'm shaking my head at this and I've never been inside an NFL locker room. That's not true. I've been in the Cowboys locker room once.

You know this game, you know the culture, you know these players, you know the way it works. Are you surprised by this story?

BARBER: I'm surprised at the depth of this story. These type of things happen. They happen in basketball locker rooms and colleges and high schools --

BANFIELD: No, they don't. At the professional level, nobody says, I've been bullied and I'm quitting. BARBER: It rarely gets to this extent where it feels like bullying. You get hazed. You get taped to a goal post. You get asked to buy dinner. Those type of things go on all the time, and I think they'll continue to go on. This extent - to this extent, with the racial slurs, with the feeling that you are in despair that Jonathan Martin felt, doesn't necessarily happen all the time.

BANFIELD: Can a white teammate call the a black teammate the N word?

BARBER: No. Never.

BANFIELD: Never.

BARBER: Me and my wife just went to see "12 Years a Slave" last night. Watch that movie. You'll understand why you don't use that word.

BANFIELD: I'm having this conversation with my children. It is a very difficult thing to explain.

BARBER: It's hard in pop culture. Listen to Jay-Z and Kanye. It kind of feels colloquial.

BANFIELD: I'm telling you, it is hard to explain and it's even harder for them to understand.

BARBER: I agree.

BANFIELD: Tiki, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming in. Maybe we'll continue to talk on this story. I still smell a rat. I think there's a missing puzzle piece.

BARBER: We'll know soon.

BANFIELD: Another head shaker. Toronto's crack smoking mayor. Really there's no other way to put it, is there? He is just refusing flat out to step down. This week his city council members are saying we're going to try to do this for you, force to leave and take a leave the absence. Our Bill Weir went to Canada to get some new perspective on Rob Ford and what's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The mayor of Toronto, who is in the middle of a crack cocaine scandal, did not get a very warm welcome at a Remembrance Day event for Toronto veterans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like to invite to the podium, His Worship, Mayor Rob Ford.

(BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You probably heard that. Rob Ford was booed. Some people clapped. Some people booed. And at least one veteran refused to shake his hand according to CCTV news. This week is not going to get a lot better for Rob Ford either. Tomorrow, Toronto city council is going to take up a motion calling on him to take a leave of absence. And as early as today a judge could release more documents detailing Ford's relationship with a reputed drug dealer. As correspondent Bill Weir reports, reactions in Toronto are all over the map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's hard to find politicians who are unintentionally funnier than the comedians who mock them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Ford, you're smoking crack right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you getting this?

WEIR: But then, Rob Ford is unlike any politician anywhere.

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I was very, very inebriated.

WEIRAnd it's all the more vivid because this is Canada. A place so friendly, one assumes that up here crack is just a sound made in hockey.

Is Canadian crack maple flavored? How is it different?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the wrong guy to ask.

WEIR: And you see more proof walking into Toronto's city hall. There are no metal detectors, no security. Stroll right in, go past the cute baby visiting city records, and join the scandal scrum. And just a few feet away. They are giving away free health care. Even to pesky Americans.

Do I get a lolly pop?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you're from the states, right? How much would you pay to go to your own doctor for a flu shot.

WEIR: $75.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $75 bucks.

WEIR: While we're shocked by their mayor, this guy is shocked that we actually have to pay for flu shots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, and you got yours free, on Canada.

WEIR: Canadians are far superior human beings. Have you heard that today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --

(LAUGHTER) WEIR: So how did a guy like him get elected in a place like this? Well, in the late '90s, the bursting, bustling metropolis downtown absorbed the blue collar suburbs into city elections. After a decade of liberal rule, Rob Ford ran as a good old Canuck, a fiscal hawk who would show those bicycle-loving, free-spending liberals downtown a thing or two. But while he stayed on message, it was a messy campaign.

ADRIENNE BATRAAS, FORMER FORD PRESS SECRETARY: : Our candidate had been caught on tape having a conversation with a drug addict where he was prepared to go buy him oxicontin.

WEIR: Adrienne Batraas ran Ford's communication on that campaign, and even she was stunned when after every gaffe and scandal, his poll numbers went up.

BATRAAS: People in the city were tired of a tax and spend liberal mayor. The suburbs wanted in, and that was Rob Ford.

WEIR: And he's the guy you want to have a beer with.

BATRAAS: Yeah, well -- or a few.

(LAUGHTER)

WEIR: And while Mayor McCrack turned city hall into a global punch line, imagine what it's like to be his runner up. His name is George Smitherman. And in 2010, everyone knew him as the very liberal, openly gay deputy premiere who had presided over the botched rollout of e-health, a plan to modernize the national health care system. Sound familiar? Yes. They use the same contractor, CGI, that brought us healthcare.gov.

GEORGE SMITHERMAN, FORMER TORONTO MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The right wing would probably tell you there's a conspiracy and a billion dollars went missing. None of that is true.

WEIR: Now, here's the ironic part. When Smitherman admitted an addiction to unspecified party drugs in the '90s, Ford's supporters pounced.

SMITHERMAN: His supporters stood in line and asked me about my fitness for office. That's the most stinging bit of it for me on a personal level.

WEIR: But for some of the proud citizens of Ford Nation these days, fitness for office is a relative term.

Would you vote for him again if this all blew over?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's done what he said he would do.

WEIR: Though some wish to support their support anonymously.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you rather have someone taking our money, and lying to the people, or just somebody smoking crack.

WEIR: But back in the big city, flavors of Ford frustration run the gamut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should say no, good-bye, I'm sorry, and go home.

WEIR: There are sober calls for his exit on the top national newscast, and tears from the federal finance minister.

JIM FLAHERTY, CANADIAN FINANCE MINISTER: He'll have to -- the mayor -- at the end the day, he has to make his own decision.

WEIR: You day that he's only leaving office on a stretcher or in handcuffs?

SMITHERMAN: I think so.

WEIR: Toronto police could soon release more damaging video or wiretaps related to his friend and driver now accused of drug dealing. And then there are the men in that notorious crack house photo. Two were shot in March. One killed. Another about to go on trial.

They were suspected members of a gang called the Dixon City Bloods that operates in and around these high rise, low income apartment towers. Home to a lot of Somali and Pakistani immigrants. And when you meet the kids who live here, the easy crack jokes stick in your throat.

So he came campaigning here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WEIR: Knocking on doors?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. (INAUDIBLE)

WEIR: This community organizer said Mayor Ford asked in his vote in the hours before the last election but he didn't give it. Because he has to scrounge for donated computers just to keep the kids away from gangs and the crack pipe.

ARDI RKAR, TORONTO COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: I never see bad help or good help. I never see that at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFUIELD: Thank you, Bill Weir. That's my country. More on that story coming up.

Also, a father forced to travel across continents, thousands of miles, just to have a visit with those two little girls. They're his. This, after his ex-wife abducted them and took them to South America. And you will not believe what happens when he finally gets to see them. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)