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Coalition Airstrikes Stall ISIS Advance In Ramadi; Report: Tulsa Deputy's Training Records Falsified; Gupta: Legalize Weed Across U.S. Now; Congressman: "It's Like Open Season On Black Men". Aired 14- 14:30p ET

Aired April 16, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

[14:00:14] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Here we go. Breaking news on CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's begin with what we're learning here. This American man has just been charged with propping up a terror organization. We're learning that this man is a 23-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, reportedly traveled to Syria where he went through terror training with an al Qaeda (INAUDIBLE), the al- Nusra front. It was there, we're told, he was allegedly ordered to return to the states and carry out an act of terrorism.

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And we are now watching what could be one of the most dangerous ISIS advances since militants began their siege in Iraq. Right now ISIS terrorists are in this fierce fight to try and seize a government complex there in Ramadi. And Iraqi security forces are obviously desperately trying to stop them. Just a reminder, this is the capital of Anbar Province, just 70 miles from Baghdad. Overnight, violent clashes ramped up between terrorists and Iraqi forces who are begging for more help there on the ground. We are seeing a new crisis emerging as thousands of civilians are running, fleeing their homes, grabbing their children, trying to escape the violence.

Joining me now, someone who's talked to these people, who have left, Arwa Damon, a CNN senior international correspondent.

I want you to talk to us about Ramadi specifically, because Arwa, we're hearing - let me just quote this official telling CNN, "We have seen nothing to indicate that Ramadi will fall at this time." You're there. What do you see?

ARWA DAMON, A CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that is coming from a U.S. official based in D.C. and it is in stark contrast to what we're hearing from people that are actually on the ground in Ramadi. We've been talking to local officials, local commanders, and throughout the night into today, ISIS was steadily advancing towards the city center, launching an attack on the government complex that Iraqi security forces were able to repel for the time being. Then finally in the afternoon, those much-needed airstrikes began targeting ISIS positions inside Ramadi as well as on the outskirts of the city. But they need so many more troops to actually begin to push ISIS back. They are quite simply outmanned and outgunned. And this ISIS push into Ramadi has sent upwards of 150,000 people fleeing. But it's not just Ramadi that's really seeing and feeling the impact of the violence brought on by ISIS. There's another small town called (INAUDIBLE), it's on the way from Baghdad to Ramadi. It is also regularly, daily coming under fire by ISIS. And we were there to speak to some of the wounded individuals in the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was out in the garden and a rocket hit and the shrapnel sliced me. She says, tears falling from her eyes. I felt something fall out of me, and I put it back in. A few moments later while we're in another building, ISIS attacks.

DAMON: Just a massive explosion. We're not sure exactly -- It may have been a rocket or mortar of sorts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think there's more.

DAMON: They think there's more?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's more.

DAMON (voice-over): The impact shattered the glass.

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DAMON (on camera): Another one.

DAMON (voice-over): More explosions in the distance and then another that shakes the building.

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DAMON (on camera): They're clearing a way for us to get to the cars. We are lucky. We are able to leave. And we don't have to make the impossible choice of living under bombardment and ISIS terror.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And Brooke, it's not just about ultimately defeating ISIS. It's also about sparing families like the ones we met, like so many others in both Iraq and Syria, from going through that unbearable pain and suffering.

BALDWIN: It is so important that you're part of this conversation later because you're there, you're seeing it, you're talking to these people who are being forced to flee. Arwa Damon and crew, thank you.

What I'm referencing is Defense Secretary Ash Carter. He'll be speaking from the Pentagon in less than a half hour from now. We'll take it live. This is huge. It's his first news conference since taking the job. So stay tuned for that. We'll bring Arwa back in for that conversation. Now, to a possible cover-up in the case of the police killing in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. You heard about this? Many people have questioned why a 73-year-old volunteer deputy was on the scene of this illegal weapons sting when he mistook his gun for his Taser, killing Eric Harris.

[14:05:00] Now the sheriffs office said Robert Bates, who is now charged with second-degree manslaughter, says yes, he had the necessary training. Here is the but today. But now a report by the "Tulsa World" newspaper is raising some serious questions, saying not just that Bates' records were doctored, but that those who refused to go along with the doctoring were reassigned.

When the sheriffs office held a news conference on the killing, "Tulsa World's" enterprise editor asked officials about Bates' training. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) for failure to sign off on his training to prove his training.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to my knowledge, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there's never been any concern about his training?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not that I'm aware of, no. He has been trained.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he has 300 hours or almost 300 hours, including accredited training and state statute requires 25 hours of continuing education per year. So, he is well in excess of what you would anticipate someone would have that was meeting minimum requirements.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But no one has ever expressed concerns about his ability or his training in the sheriffs office?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never to me. In fact, just the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Okay. So that's one side of the story. Let's go straight to "Tulsa World" staff reporter Dylan Goforth. Dylan, you're the one breaking this with sources telling you supervisors at the sheriffs office were told to falsify, to doctor Bates' records. Be specific, how so were they told to doctor them?

DYLAN GOFORTH, STAFF WRITER, TULSA WORLD: The way it works is to reach the level of reserve deputy that he was, you have to have something like 480 hours of field training with another officer. What we were told from pretty much day one was that he had not gotten this training. I mean, that takes a long time to accumulate that many hours. He had not gotten that training, and that the people who are over that reserve deputy program were told either, you know, you need to sign these documents saying that he received this training, and when they didn't do it, they were given lesser jobs or reassigned to other areas.

BALDWIN: So the records were doctored, is what you're telling me, based upon, what, firearms training, firearms certification, even though he didn't have the sufficient training, and those who said no went away.

GOFORTH: That's what we've been told. I mean, pretty much since -- the shooting was April 2nd, and we started hearing it on April 3rd.

BALDWIN: Okay. The attorney for Robert Bates was on CNN -- let me point just this out - earlier today, claiming your sources have the same lawyer as Eric Harris' family -- this is the victim's family - and that your sources are terminated employees from the sheriffs office. Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK BREWSTER, ATTORNEY FOR ROBERT BATES: So their sources are their clients. One was terminated for stealing records from the sheriff's office years ago. One was terminated for improper conduct. He has -- since then has committed a murder, is being held on murder charges. Those are the sources.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I'm not going to ask you to give up your sources, but I do have to press you and have you respond to that.

GOFORTH: Well, I mean, obviously I'm not going to say who our sources are, but I can say that we've talked to them before this happened. We've talked to them before. They've always been right, and we trust them.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you a step farther, because from what I read in your paper, is that the sheriffs deputy who would have signed off on all of this at the time with Robert Bates, he's gone. He's now with the Secret Service. Before I tell you what the sheriffs office told us, did any of this doctoring happen after the shooting?

GOFORTH: No, this would have all been -- he said he became an advanced reserve deputy in 2007. The sheriffs office said 2008. It would have been during that process of receiving those training hours.

BALDWIN: Just so I get this on the record here, the sheriffs office told CNN, "Just keep in mind that the 'Tulsa World' reporter cannot validate her sources and claims anonymity, which leaves us skeptical that the claims are unsubstantiated and deceptive."

Let me move on. The office also announced this morning that it will conduct this internal review in the wake of what you're breaking here of this deputy reserve program, which is exactly what your paper -- we had chatted about this earlier this week -- is what your paper had called for them to do. Can you just remind all of us of Robert Bates' history with law enforcement and also some of the money he'd been given to that sheriff.

GOFORTH: Yeah, he -- you know, when the sheriffs office held that first press conference, they said that he was a former police officer, which is true, and we later found that out he served one year from January 1964 to January 1965. Following that, he became --

BALDWIN: And we still don't know why that was just one year.

GOFORTH: Right. We don't know. I think the sheriffs office attorney had maybe told the under sheriff that Bates had told him at some point that he just wasn't making money as a police officer. He probably chose correctly and became a wealthy insurance executive. He did that for a long time. Then in 2007 or 2008, became a reserve deputy.

[14:10:01] BALDWIN: Okay. Dylan Goforth, "Tulsa World," thank you. Keep asking those questions.

GOFORTH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Next, one Congressman says it is "open season on black men in America." Hear his reasons and the backlash against him. We'll speak with him live.

Plus, our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has everyone talking today because he says legalize medical weed now, and he's not stopping there. Sanjay will join me live.

And investigators figure out how a mailman landed this gyrocopter yards from the United States Capitol. We'll take you live to an airfield as the pilot will show us the capabilities of this aircraft. Don't miss it. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:02] BALDWIN: All right. Got some breaking news. We've talked a lot last fall about NFL star Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson. He was suspended without pay since last November for violating the NFL personal conduct policy. It was an event involving abusive discipline of his child. Remember, it was found that he was using switches on his kid. So essentially, he was ultimately suspended until they looked into this further. Now what we're learning is he will be, as of tomorrow, reinstated as an active NFL player and may participate in all scheduled activities with the Vikings. There you go. Adrian Peterson back.

Now to pot at Georgia, to the growing list of states where medical marijuana is now legal. The state's Republican governor signed legislation today that will make cannabis oil legal for patients with any one of eight chronic illnesses. It was this little girl, Haleigh Cox here, who inspired the Georgia law. She suffered from more than 200 seizures a day before her mother moved her to Colorado for treatment. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is among the

experts who say it is time for all states to legalize medical marijuana. He's exploring the subject in this incredible piece Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern. We're calling it "Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution." Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER, (D) NEW JERSEY: This bill that we're introducing seeks to right decades of wrong and end unnecessary marijuana laws.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): March, 2015. Democrats Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Republican Rand Paul have just proposed the most audacious marijuana legislation in our lifetime. If it passes, it would create a fundamental change in the way the United States views and treats marijuana.

BOOKER: Our drug laws in this country as a whole need a revolution of common sense and compassion.

GUPTA (voice-over): For starters, it would do something scientists have been begging for: reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to a much less restrictive Schedule II controlled substance.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, (D) NEW YORK: Once you make the class of drugs Schedule II, you can then research it and find out what are the medical impacts and when can you use it? When does it make sense? So that's what's necessary here. It's so simple.

GUPTA (voice-over): The bill would also mandate more farms to grow research-grade marijuana and allow greater access to it for those in need, including to veterans, who would, for the fist time, be able to get a prescription for medicinal marijuana from the VA hospitals.

BOOKER: Let's stop the pot hypocrisy. We've now had three presidents who have admitted to smoking marijuana. People here in public office all throughout the Senate have said, hey, I've smoked marijuana recreationally. How much of a hypocrite do you have to be to say that I broke American laws using pot as a recreational thing and that I'm not going to support this idea that as a medicine for severely sick people that they shouldn't be able to access this drug?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I'd heard about those interviews there on Capitol Hill with senators Booker and Gillibrand, and so you have that as part of this "Weed 3" this weekend. Then you have you causing a bit of a stir here with your CNN opinion piece saying, yes, indeed, we should be legalizing medical marijuana. How did you get there?

GUPTA: Well, I think it's a medicine, Brooke. I think it's something that can help people. I think it's a medicine that not only works, but it often works when nothing else has. I think there are people who have suffered needlessly because of the concerns - to some degree, legitimate concerns -- about abuse, but in the crosshairs, people have just been denied a very viable option for them to alleviate their pain and suffering. It's easy to do nothing, as I wrote in that op-ed. It's easy to just play it safe on this issue. Once you two go out and look at the data, look at the science, many of which is from countries outside the United States, and then you meet the patients, it changed my mind. I think it's something that needs to be available to everybody.

BALDWIN: I know there has been such a dearth of data until recently. We talked about the lack of research. I have to ask you about skeptics. You have Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey making headlines because he's saying if he were ever, ever elected president, you know, no way, Jose, basically on this. I'm wondering, since he's so well-known for his town halls, if you were in a town hall, Sanjay, with Governor Christie and could ask him one question on this, what would you ask?

GUPTA: I would say if there was a medication that was available for someone who was suffering and we knew it would work for them, would you not make it available, or would you keep it illegal? That's what I would ask. I should say, by the way, when it comes to Governor Chris Christie, who was part of our most recent documentary before this one, he used to say the same thing about New Jersey. He said no way, Jose, about New Jersey. We're not going to allow New Jersey to become Colorado or California. He changed course on that a little bit. He allowed certain strains of marijuana to now be obtained in New Jersey.

[14:20:02] So look, I think the data is very compelling. I think when people start to look at it, you know -- and I fully admit, as you and I have talked about, that I didn't look closely enough the first time I looked at some of this data. When you look closer, dig deeper, travel around the world like I did, you see an important picture, an important picture emerges that could mean a law for people out there who don't have good treatments right now.

BALDWIN: I cannot wait to watch this. I've heard so much about it around the building. Sanjay, thank you so much. Just a heads up for all of you, it's "Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution" airing Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific here on CNN.

Just a few moments from now, a huge moment at the Pentagon. Live pictures as we're watching and waiting to hear from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. He'll be holding his first news conference since taking over the post from Chuck Hagel. Obviously, a number of tough questions will be expected on a number of issues, ranging from ISIS to Iran, perhaps Russia, North Korea, et cetera. We'll bring that to you live. He'll be sitting with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey.

But next, one Congressman says it is "open season on black men in America." Hear his reasons and the backlash live. We'll talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:25:35] BALDWIN: In just 11 days, two new videos have surfaced

that show deadly police shootings of unarmed black men: Walter Scott in South Carolina, Eric Harris in Oklahoma. These, of course, come in the wake of the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Now protesters across the country have taken to the streets again, demanding an end to police brutality as well as action from lawmakers. And there's a Congressman from Georgia who's really helped lead that chorus. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HANK JOHNSON, (D) GEORGIA: It feels like open season on black men in America, and I'm outraged. In fact, all Americans are at risk when bad actors in law enforcement use their guns instead of their heads. Despite bipartisan nationwide calls for action and despite my bills to reform the broken grand jury process, hold police accountable, and end militarization and despite my colleague's bills to encourage body cameras, this Congress does nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There he was on the floor. Here he is live. I have Congressman Hank Johnson joining me from Washington. Congressman, welcome. Nice to have you on.

JOHNSON: Nice to be here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I think first of all, something that a lot of people don't know is there's actually no federal database that tracks how many people are killed by police. So the closest thing we have is this nonprofit that's been collecting data through police reports and citizen tips, fatalencounters.org. If I may, let me run through some numbers.

It found, most recently, in 2014, more than 1100 people were killed by police, 414 were white, 233 were African-American, and just to be totally clear, this database actually doesn't account for guilt or innocence or armed and unarmed. We heard you on the floor saying this is, "open season on black men," a hunting term. Congressman, is it not dangerous to use that kind of language?

JOHNSON: Well, I said that it felt like it was open season, and it really does. I think if you are a black male and you've grown up in the inner cities, as I have, and you have matriculated to this point in life, I think most black males feel the same way. I just simply expressed a sentiment that is very common. But I would take issue with those statistics that you mentioned. Every time I see statistics from one source or the other, it's always a different number in terms of how many police killings have occurred in a given year.

BALDWIN: It's true. That's because there are no actual hard numbers. I've even tried looking at the CDC numbers and those are even tough as well. I agree with you there. That needs to change. But back to your point on how this is open season, here's the thing. What's implied in that, what you're not saying but implying, is that broad strokes on all police are the hunters out to kill. Is that really fair?

JOHNSON: Well, yes, I think it's a fair depiction of what's happening in society today. We find an overabundance -- and we have got video evidence of black males who are being shot and killed by police officers. Now, that doesn't include the numbers who are being wounded, nor does it include the people who Tasers are being used upon, which may or may not be necessary in a given situation. So what we have is we're seeing black males. We don't see any other demographic being inordinately singled out for this kind of misconduct.

BALDWIN: I was talking to a man just the other night on our 10:00 show who is not African-American, who's the man who was beaten and Tased in a desert after granted -- eluding police and running and jumping on a horse. So he was not African-American, and we have absolutely run that video here at CNN. Here's my next question, though. And I'm with you. I agree that, for example, the case in North Charleston involving Walter Scott was absolutely outrageous. We've covered enough of these to see, Congressman, that a number of these suspects are resisting arrest or are fleeing police.

[14:29:45] JOHNSON: Well, nobody deserves to die for committing or attempting to commit a misdemeanor or some offense that does not place in jeopardy the life of a police officer. And we've just simply had too many episodes where people are quick to pull the trigger and ask questions later. That's the problem that we have in this country, and it always seems to be the black male who is