Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Fires Campaign Aide; California Ablaze; Legionnaire's Disease Outbreak in New York; Investigation into Possible MH370 Debris; Suspected Cop Killer in Custody in Memphis, Tennessee; Outrage over Killing of Famous Zimbabwe Lion; Jon Stewart's Daily Show Tenure Reviewed. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 2, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:00] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Ouch. All right. Last night, a match marked a 12th straight win for Rousey and means that she keeps her Bantamweight title.

All right. The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

(OPENING MUSIC -- "CNN NEWSROOM")

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield right here in the NEWSROOM.

All right. We've got two weather-related stories we want to talk about as California wildfires continue and then, some pretty serious weather conditions happening in Chicago right now, threatening a number of people who are at the Lollapalooza music festival.

Our Allison Chinchar is in the weather center with more on this.

So, Allison, we've got severe weather moving through Chicago?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We do. But the good news is is it's not widespread severe weather. As you can see from the map, we've got some severe thunderstorm watchboxes just off to the north. But actually, in Chicago, where the event is going on, we have just one little severe thunderstorm warning.

Now, they did temporarily halt Lollapalooza just to be on the safe side and that's a good thing. You can see all of the lightning that we have with this particular storm. It's moving very fast. It's about 50 miles per hour to the east.

Now, the good news is the worst of it -- the large hale, the damaging winds, and the real heavy downpours -- that should stay just north of Grant Park where the music festival is going on but they will likely at least see a few light showers.

And again, they want to err on the side of caution just because of how much lightning is with this storm. We know the lightning can spread outside of the main storm so probably best that just to make sure that those folks do seek shelter and get under some type of protective cover in the short term. The good news is because it is moving so fast off to the east, likely in about the next 20 to 30 minutes, folks can get back out and begin to enjoy the music festival once again.

WHITFIELD: I know they're going to be happy to hear that. Thanks so much, Allison. Appreciate that.

All right. Now, back to the other weather-related story - northern California and the fires sweeping the area. More than 12,000 people now under a mandatory evacuation as the so-called Rocky wildfire near the city of Clearlake doubles in size. More than 6,000 structures are threatened and 50 structures have already been destroyed. There are over two dozen major fires in California right now and one firefighter, David Ruhl, was killed battling the Frog Fire in California's Modoc National Forest.

All right. Joining me now on the phone is Chief Ken Pimlott with CAL FIRE.

So, Chief, what is the latest in containing this rocky fire?

CHIEF KEN PIMLOTT, CAL FIRE DIRECTOR (ON THE PHONE): Good afternoon. I'm literally standing here on (inaudible) Highway 20, the north end of the Rocky Fire. Firefighters are currently setting backfires that consume the fuel ahead of the main fire, making their stand here along Highway 20. (Inaudible), this fire doubled in size overnight. This is right around 50,000 acres this afternoon and still only (inaudible) from all over the state and other fires that get in here in the firefight to really put an effort in to get this fire contained.

WHITFIELD: Well, my goodness. That the fire would double in size overnight in just that one central area -- this as you have concerns about other areas. What are you most concerned about?

PIMLOTT: Absolutely. As you indicated, we have well over 20 fires across the state, most in northern California. We have had thousands of lightning strikes across the state in the last several days. And so just as we contain some fires, new fires emerge that have -- from lightning and so we just constantly move resources. And we have over 9,000 firefighters on the fire line. We move resources from one fire to the next. We've also are requesting resources and getting resources from outside of California. In addition to military assets, we have National Guard resources from several states and hundreds of federal firefighters that are coming into California from other areas.

WHITFIELD: And are you concerned about whether your resources can keep up with the potential -- potentially-growing dangers?

PIMLOTT: Well, California is well-practiced at moving resources around the state. We've been through fire sieges before. So we're certainly stretching our resources but we have a system that works well (inaudible) did more and (inaudible) them and prioritize and we continue to do that every day. We reprioritize and (inaudible) highest priority incidents (inaudible) Rocky Fire. We will continue to do that.

WHITFIELD: All right. Chief Ken Pimlott, thanks so much and all the best in your efforts out there.

All right. Meantime, this week on Tuesday, specifically, we will know who among the 17 Republican candidates will appear on stage for the first primary debate Thursday night. Only the top 10 in national polls will be allowed to participate. The remaining candidates will appear in separate debate at 5 p.m., same time, on Tuesday -- on Thursday, that is.

[16:05:04] So this as Donald Trump shakes up his campaign. He fired his campaign aide, Sam Nunberg, over racially-charged Facebook posts he allegedly wrote.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is at the White House for us.

So, Sunlen, what do we know about this Trump aide, Nunberg, who was fired?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, he's worked, Fred, for Trump in various roles over the years and actually, he'd been fired before by Trump. He was fired in 2012 and then he was rehired for Trump's 2016 campaign, working as a political and a consultant. These racially-charged Facebook posts were first uncovered last week and they date back to 2007.

Now, Nunberg has denied that he posted any of the controversial postings and on Friday, the campaign (inaudible) -- they said they were going to go look into it and investigate it. And then fast- forward to today and he's gone. They have cut ties with him completely.

But as this controversy comes, of course, all eyes are on Trump in the lead-up to the Thursday debate. He, of course, knows and realizes that there is some sort of target on his back coming in as a frontrunner. And today, he predicted that a lot of his opponents would come after him in the debate. He said he's not looking to throw any punches, at least not the first one.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've always counter-punched and you have to counter-punch. But I'm not looking to start anything. A lot of people say, oh, they're getting ready and they've got their little lines given to them by the pollsters. Everything's perfectly put down by a pollster, what to say and how to attack me. If that comes, it comes and I'll have to handle it at the time.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SERFATY: And Chris Christie today -- he was really downplaying Trump's recent rise in the polls, saying that anyone can do well for a month or two here and there. But here's what he told Jake Tapper and he said that he needs to be a serious candidate if that's what Trump wants to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to determine through the depth of his answers and the seriousness of his answers whether he's a serious candidate or he isn't. That's what I mean about campaigns mattering. Anybody can do well for a month in this business, especially if you have talent and you have personality. And Donald has both those things. So let's see how it goes over the course of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And it does look likely that Chris Christie will make the cut for one of those one of 10 coveted spots up there on Thursday night's debate stage.

At this point, Fred, it looks like Rick Perry and John Kasich are the ones battling it out for that final spot.

Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

OK. So let's talk more about this primetime debate.

Ford O'Connell is a political analyst and a Republican strategist who worked on the 2008 McCain-Palin presidential campaign joining us from Washington. Good to see you. And also with me from New York, columnist, Democrat, and co-author of "The Party's Over", Ellis Henican.

All right. Good to see you both again.

OK. So, Ellis, Trump reiterated today that he will just be him. He doesn't want to be "unreal" -- his word, not mine. He's not an experienced debater and is even downplaying his preparation but he did say this specifically about at least one issue on ABC Today about waterboarding.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: When people are chopping off other people's heads and then we're worried about waterboarding and we can't because I have no doubt that that works. I have absolutely no doubt. I haven't heard that term in a year now because when you see the other side chopping off heads, waterboarding doesn't sound very severe.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So, Ellis, specificity of some things that will be demanded of -- come debate night. Will we see more of that?

ELLIS HENICAN, COLUMNIST: With Trump, it's all "Whatever. Yes. Haven't heard of that lately. Well, we'll see how I feel about it today and maybe I'll feel something different about it tomorrow." I love -- by the way, Donald has been a presidential candidate for just about a month now and he's already learned how to do the "lowered expectations" game, the rose garden strategy. Right? He's the frontrunner. He's trying to hunker down, let the other people take the risk. And it's probably -- it's probably the right thing for him to do on Thursday night.

WHITFIELD: Why?

HENICAN: Because the others are -- have much more need to do something. I mean, when you're way ahead, you can afford to have -- he would be perfectly fine if the evening passed without any of us watching, right, because he's ahead, the others are struggling and gasping for air. They're the ones -- they're the ones who actually have to take the risks on Thursday night.

WHITFIELD: Ha. So, Ford, even though he's the one who's leading most of the popularity polls, why is it he somehow still goes in as an underdog given that he doesn't have the political experience that his other nine contenders on stage during primetime will have?

FORD O'CONNELL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Who's saying he's the underdog, Fredricka? He's saying he's the underdog...

WHITFIELD: He's calling himself -- he's calling himself quite of an underdog.

O'CONNELL: Exactly. (Inaudible) as Ellis pointed out, this is Politics 101 -- undersell and over-deliver. Trust me, Trump is a story going into this and he will certainly at least be part of the headlight in coming out.

[16:10:02]

This is brilliant Trump. He understands marketing and advertisings for debates that could turn into a WWE wrestling match. (Inaudible) good shape, frankly.

WHITFIELD: And ultimately, you see him as being kind of the top dog in that fight?

O'CONNELL: Absolutely, because everyone else is scared to get near him because if they swing at Trump and miss, guess what, they're going to be (inaudible) -- they're going to be lower down in the polls. Trump has nothing to lose here. Everyone else has something to gain. The question is whether or not they understand Trump and how to judiciously jab at him. if they can do that while making a positive impression, trust me, they'll put Trump on his heels.

WHITFIELD: And, Ellis, OK, so he calls himself an underdog or at least he goes in saying he's not an experienced debater, he's just going to be himself, at the same time, while he'll be asked a number of questions on issues. How much of it is a risk for him that he'll be considered a real hypocrite because he has made donations to Hillary Clinton's campaign. He's made donations to a number of other campaign share -- that will be shared on that stage right up there with him?

HENICAN: Here's the weird thing, Fred. So far, none of it's mattered. It doesn't matter whether he's saying something that's factually correct. It doesn't matter whether it's something that he's completely contradicted a year ago or a week ago or he says the same three things in one sentence and then contradicts himself. The folks who were drawn to him just -- they just like his vibe. It has nothing to do with any of that boring issue stuff.

O'CONNELL: Well, Ellis, you make a very good point and that's the deal. One in five Republican voters are fascinated and/or amused by Donald Trump. And it's not so much about Trump. It's what he represents, his ability to channel that anger against Washington, against -- in terms of populism. And basically, that is the key with Trump. He is speaking his mind and that is what has got a lot of people's attention because he's driving the conversation to the issues that they want to talk about.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's shift gears a little bit from the GOP to the Democratic side and the buzz out there with Joe Biden. Apparently, he is ramping up his team in a more active phase -- whatever that means. At the same time, it was back in January when he didn't necessarily rule it out. Do you think, Ford, we're getting closer to whether Joe Biden will definitively give Hillary and Bernie Sanders a run for their money?

O'CONNELL: Three months ago, I would have said you were crazy if you told me that Joe Biden could get into thing. And I'll tell you, he very well could get under this thing because 37 percent of voters see Hillary Clinton as honest and trustworthy. She's creating self- inflicted gaffes all over the (inaudible) whether it's the Foundation, the email server, her answer to Keystone. And that's the whole deal. It's not that Joe Biden's a great politician. It's that he's seen as likeable and she's committing gaffes all over the place. She's actually the Democrats' Mitt Romney in 2016.

WHITFIELD: Ellis?

HENICAN: Yes, be careful with that (inaudible). It isn't coming from Biden right now. It's his friends, his associates. And frankly, it's from a lot of people like us who think the Democratic race could be a whole lot more fun if he were in it, right? I mean, he's a good campaigner. He's got a kind of a blustery charm to him. And I say, "Come on in". The Republicans have 17. Don't you think the Dems could use what? Four or five or six? Come on, Joe!

WHITFIELD: All right. Ellis Henican. Ford O'Connell. Thanks so much. We'll see what happens next.

Remember, for all the latest news on the race for 2016, go to CNNPolitics.com.

All right. Also, straight ahead, we may be one step closer to knowing the fate of Flight MH370. What French investigators will be doing in the coming days to try to solve that mystery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:01]

WHITFIELD: A mysterious outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York has now claimed four lives in New York City. All of the dead were older individuals with underlying medical issues. But dozens of others have been hospitalized.

CNN's Sara Ganim is following the story for us from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICEOVER): Daniel Tejada spent nearly a month in a medically-induced comma in a New York hospital because of Legionnaires' disease.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL TEJADA, RECOVERED FROM LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE: I was about to wait one more day to go to a hospital and if I would have waited that one more day, I don't think I would have been here right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM (VOICEOVER): The outbreak has caused 65 people to get sick since mid-July. Four - all with pre-existing conditions -- died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The CDC needs to come in this -- in this community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM (VOICEOVER): Residents of the South Bronx are calling for more action as health officials say the outbreak could get worse before it gets better.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DR. JAY VARMA, DEPUTY COMMISIONER, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE: We think it's very possible that there will be an increase in cases over the next seven days.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GANIM (VOICEOVER): Named after an outbreak in the 70s that made a group of American legion workers ill, Legionnaires' is a respiratory disease with flu-like symptoms. You can't catch it from someone else. The bacteria travels through water mist, like from air conditioners or cooling towers. Five buildings in the South Bronx have been thoroughly decontaminated, city officials say in an attempt to contain the spread.

Meanwhile, residents are warned to seek health at the first sign of illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought it was just regular pneumonia? You know? He got sick and then we found out that it was Legionnaires' -- that's when everybody really got into a panic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO)

GANIM: Now, New York health officials saying that this does not affect the drinking water or swimming pools or water fountains. That's all important, of course, 'cause we're in the summer months right now. Investigators now trying to look for a long-term plan for those buildings where the disease was found so they can make sure that those cooling towers stay safe and healthy. And for residents of that neighborhood, there is a Townhall meeting tomorrow where questions will be answered.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sara Ganim, thank you so much.

All right. Straight ahead, we may be one step closer -- a big step closer, perhaps -- to knowing the fate of Flight MH370. What French investigators will be doing in the coming days to try to solve that mystery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:01]

WHITFIELD: The piece of airplane debris found last week does belong to a Boeing 777 -- the same model plane as the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Malaysian authorities confirming now today the piece of aircraft wing is now in France. It arrived from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion where it was discovered last week.

[16:25:06]

Earlier today, more debris was found off the island's coast and right now, local government officials described it as a "metal object of interest."

Flight MH370 vanished 17 months ago with 239 people onboard.

CNN's Saima Mohsin is in France with more on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This piece of the puzzle that could lead us to knowing what exactly happened to Flight MH370 arrived with a police escort to this lab run by the French minister of defense where air accident investigators and forensic teams will take a look. But right now, it's closed. It's closed for the weekend. There won't be any scientists or experts here until at least Monday morning. So it may take some time. And it's really a delicate procedure. It arrived in a sealed box. Everyone who touches this part has to be registered, their details written down before investigators get to them. Now, people are flying in from right across the world -- from the United States, the NTSB, members from Boeing, Malaysian authorities, and of course, the French investigators too.

And in parallel with the forensic investigation, there will be judicial teams arriving to -- because there is also a civil manslaughter case here in France looking into whether or not perhaps terrorist activity or a hijacking was involved in the disappearance of Flight MH370.

Now, what will scientists be doing? Well, they will take a look at this part of the plane. They will confirm whether indeed, as experts believe, that this is from 777 aircraft and whether or not it is from Flight MH370. Two numbers have been taken from this part as well. That could potentially trace it to the aircraft it came from and then they will see whether or not this was torn away from the rest of the aircraft mid-air or in the water and they will take a look at whether an explosion was involved.

These are all the details that the experts here will be looking into.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, Balma, near Toulouse in France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So now, what happens with this investigation?

Les Abend is a CNN aviation analyst and a Boeing 777 captain.

Good to see you.

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So how encouraging is this to you that debris matches that of a Boeing 777?

ABEND: It's been very encouraging all along. I'm hopeful for the 239 families that we have some definitive answers for them. I think the Is are being dotted and the Ts being crossed with this process. It's -- they're being very meticulous. And this is all part of an accident investigation. So very encouraging and I think this piece alone is one of the jigsaw puzzles so I don't think we're going to -- we're just going to stand on this -- completely on this flaperon that we -- that was found on Reunion Island. But indeed, they will look over it very carefully and see what they can glean from impact damage and various other things.

WHITFIELD: And you heard Sailma say that the numbers that were seen on that piece will also be -- tried to match up -- match it up to someway the MH370. But I wonder what other things might French authorities be looking at this Wednesday to help you to rule in or rule out anything, in your view?

ABEND: Well, I think that they're -- once again, I think they'll be looking at the damages -- separating the damage from being washed on shore. They'll look at -- of all things -- barnacles probably -- how long it's been floating and so on and so forth, if that particular part of sea has different barnacles. But certainly, they'll look at -- if there's any particular way to determine whether this -- the flaperon impacted the water, came apart in flight. I'm purely speculating on it. My opinion is that it impacted the water in some form of descent, whether it was a steeped descent, shallow descent. It's going to be hard to say but there's some greater minds that are in Toulouse right now that may be able to make that determination or at least have possibilities of the -- for routes to go down to determine what exactly happened to MH370. But once again, let me caution everybody, this is -- this is just a small piece of that big jigsaw puzzle.

WHITFIELD: Right. And do you think too much can be made of this small piece or is it your view that this small piece really could hold lots of information?

ABEND: Fredricka, it's hard to say on that. It's -- there may be more to it than we actually know. If - the damage itself -- I saw was at -- what we call on the trailing edge of this particular device, the flaperon, which would mean that maybe it was down the time of impact which would be indicative of maybe airplane turning just prior to the impact.

[16:30:01]

ABEND: It's very hard to say at this point in time.

WHITFIELD: All right. Les Aven thanks so much, always good to see you. Appreciate it.

ABEND: Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Police in Memphis, Tennessee, say they have a person in custody following a man hunt for a cop killer. Officer Sean Bolton was gunned down after he made a routine traffic stop last night. A passer by used the officer's radio to alert police to the shooting. Bolton who was shot several times, died after being rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Police say the 33-year-old had been on the force since October of 2010. He was the third officer killed in Memphis in the last four years. Joining me right now from New York is Former Police Officer and Former FBI Special Agent, Jonathan Gilliam. Jonathan, good to see you, well now they say there is a person of interest in custody. How are police moving forward in the investigation now?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, I'm sure -- depending -- we talk about all these different investigation and how they unfold. Typically what these officers are doing, depending on where the stop happened there may be cameras that they can pull the tape from to see if they can identify who this person is. There may have been fingerprints at the location. Now, if they have this person in custody, now they can start comparing the different information that they have and evidence that they have with who this person is. Also, it could have been -- a lot of times when people do things like this, they go out and tell people. I'm sure there was canvassing of sources and people from law enforcement in the communities where that happened. And I think this is a good thing that they have somebody in custody.

[16:35:28]

WHITFIELD: Earlier, I spoke with a former LAPD Sergeant, Cheryl Dorsey. She said there's nothing routine about traffic stops. In your experience, how are most trained to participate in traffic stops? What is the radar that generally goes up for a police officer when making these stops, the worries, the concerns?

GILLIAM: Well you know it's really interesting, Fred, because the reality of a traffic stop is the act of a traffic stop is routine. Cops do this every single day. But along with that routine is the possibility of it going from zero to 100 and 100 is as bad as it can be. Even in these situations like where we saw recently with this officer being convicted -- charged with murder in Ohio, these situations happen every day and they can go bad very, very quickly. And this is the reality of what law enforcement faces every day. You know, law enforcement -- any time they stop somebody, it is 100 percent fluid situation.

WHITFIELD: Do you think that most police departments have retooled or are retraining on traffic stops given the climate of things in recent years?

GILLIAM: Well, if they haven't, they should, because Fred, this is the reality. Cops are now facing two big issues here. A lot of people don't want to comply with law enforcement because they've lost respect for them or they've heard stories about police abuse. And so, you know, any time an officer walks up there, he's having to make judgment calls. And now we see in this case, in Memphis, where it can go bad and the officer loses his life. In all these other cases, when officers walk up and have somebody who acts like they're shady, they're not wanting the police officer anything or given them their I.D., officers are having to think their way through that. And this is something that law enforcement really needs to concentrate on, because this is the main place where law enforcement has interactions with the public every day.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jonathan Gilliam, thanks so much, appreciate it.

GILLIAM: Thank you. Have a great weekend.

WHITFIELD: All right, you too.

All right straight ahead, endangered species taking the spotlight after the killing of Zimbabwe's beloved Cecil the lion, next we'll talk to a large predator expert about what can be done to protect them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:41:24]

WHITFIELD: Outrage over the killing of a famous Zimbabwe lion named Cecil. And now some relief that its fellow lion Jericho is still alive despite earlier reports that it also had been killed by hunters. So this is a picture of Jericho taken this morning by a researcher, Brent Stapelkamp, who is tracking Jericho with a GPS tag. CNN's Dana McKenzie is in Johannesburg with more.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Early reports that Jericho the lion was killed illegally by a hunter turned out to be false. In fact, the group that put out that information has since apologized. And the Oxford University Research Group that tracks these lions says he is doing just fine. Zimbabwe has appeared to tighten up on hunting in the country. They banned all kinds of hunting on the borders of Hwange National Park for big cats and other large game. And in fact, they've banned bow hunting outright. Hunters with a bow, Dr. Walt Palmer shot Cecil the lion last month causing this global outcry. He says he did nothing illegal, but Zimbabwe officials are trying to extradite him to face charges from the U.S. to Zimbabwe though, that might be a tall order according to experts. The guide and the hunter that he hired to kill Cecil face charges this week in Zimbabwe and they could spend ten years in jail if found guilty. David McKenzie, CNN Johannesburg.

WHITFIELD: All right, now joining me on the phone is Animal Planets Large Predator Expert David Salmoni. All right, so David, do you think this hunting ban can be effectively enforced to protect the other animals?

DAVE SALMONI ANIMAL PLANET HOST: I think it certainly can be effectively enforced. It's all a financial situation. Unfortunately in Africa, you have a whole world of poor, poor people over there and certainly they'd love the jobs. But if we can find the money to support the anti-patrols, but unfortunately they're trying to protect such large, vast amounts of land, that unless you have many, many teams, you're going to fall short. You're going to continually like this professional hunter going in there with bait and trying to bring the animals out.

WHITFIELD: And then talk to me about the bait. Because we talked to another animal expert who was talking about how animals are being lured from the game park into areas where typically there is hunting. That sounds like a huge undertaking, and it would seem like there would be some eyewitness to it if something like that were happening. How does that happen? How does it unfold?

SALMONI: Well, there's a couple of ways to do it. One of the bigger ways of doing male lions is they use auditory sounds. They'll take a recording of another dominant male, play it with loud speakers. And then a big male like Cecil would run over to that area to try to defend his territory. Now that's more legal than what these people did, but it's more likely to get caught because other people will hear it. What he did, was he just got his pickup truck, cut a hole in the fence, drove a carcass in a bunch of circles, and then drove it back that same hole. The lions would very easily pick up the scent of this carcass that was dragged around and follow it out the fence. So as far as a large undertaking, but that whole process might take 20 minutes.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh. Ok, then now help us understand this kind of relationship between Jericho and Cecil that maybe there have been reports that perhaps they were not biological brothers, but they are fellow, you know, lions with this common pride. And now it's Jericho that's caring for the cubs. Can you talk to us about the survivability of the cubs and whether Jericho would indeed cuddle and protect these cubs or if the cubs are now in danger?

SALMONI: Yeah, so it's interesting. When males form coalitions, they do it at different times. Some males, if they're born with a number of brothers, they'll all be forced out of their pride around the same time. So when the go out it's what we call the nomadic period, the period in which they don't have a pride. They'll run around, scavenge, and hunt in places they don't "own," until they're big enough to have their own territory. That's when brothers become coalitions. Other ways are, if you're a single male, you don't have any brothers that born are around the same time as you, you'll get thrown out and you'll be young and small and wandering, and you'll bump into another young, small, wandering nomadic male. And those two males, knowing that their chances of survival are better together, will join up and form a coalition. Now typically what happens is, when they do get a pride, they'll both get turns at times of mating females and likely then not know whose cubs are whose. And in other cases, there is dominance amongst them. The subordinate one will still protect the dominant one's cubs. So most likely, yes, Jericho will defend Cecil's cubs if those cubs indeed are his. But what happens is they used to be a coalition of two males which then doubles their chances of winning a fight from incoming males. If another coalition of two males or three or four come in to take over that pride, Jericho is going to be in big, big trouble because he doesn't have his usual backup.

[16:47:43]

WHITFIELD: Do you worry that there would have to be kind of human intervention or is that just simply a big no-no especially inside this game park?

SALMONI: Human intervention in a national park is a major no-no. I don't know any situation where they might step in unless it would be some human-borne disease then we might step in and help cure that disease, because we know we introduced it to them. But in a case like this, males taking over territories, because that's a natural process, even though in this case, we've tipped the balance, it would still be left.

WHITFIELD: All right, still survival of the fittest. All right, Dave Salmoni, thank you so much.

All right, straight ahead, Jon Stewart, with only a week left as host of the Daily Show, we will look back at how the popular comedian made waves over the years. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. This is Jon Stewart's last week hosting the Daily Show. Amy Schumer, Dennis Leary, and Lewis Decay, will be among his final guests. South African Comedian Trevor Noah will take over as host. He joined the show back in December as a Contributor. CNN's Brian Stelter takes a look at the evolution of the Daily Show over its nearly 20 years on the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Daily Show, the most important television program ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a Daily Show before Jon Stewart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, in other news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It premiered in the summer of 1996 hosted by a Former ESPN Anchor, Craig Kilburn. But it wasn't until Stewart took over in 1999 that the show really started to matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you're on the short list for vice president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His sharp tongue instilled fear in politicians and TV pontificators, and he more than tripled Kilburn's average ratings too. While Kilburn introduced segments like five questions, and the longer lasting your moment of Zen, Stewart's Daily Show earned the respect of the industry with 20 Emmy's and two Peabody Awards. Stewart was a clown, that's for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Champagne and caviar for everybody. Woo! Woo!

[16:52:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he was also a fact checker and a media critic, showing the power of a big video clip library to catch lawmaker's contradictions and cable newsers exaggerations. His message, humor can hold people in power accountable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me give you mug force one, this is yours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Towards the end, Stewart's interviews got more serious, and so did his tone. Liberals loved him, while some conservatives despised him. But they all had to pay attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The human mojo is on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stewart's young correspondents became stars. Long before being nominated for an academy award, and winning a Golden Globe, Actor Steve Carrel spent five years on Daily.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you reconcile the fact you were one of the most vocal critics of pork barrel politics, and yet, while you were Chairman of the Commerce Committee, that Committee set a record for unauthorized appropriations? I'm just kidding. No. I don't -- I don't even know what that means.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Later he joined another Daily Show star Ed Helms on the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still just thinking about my old pals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Oliver got his start thanks to Stewart too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Jersey has the highest property tax in the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. What are you getting for it, because it's an awful state?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And people thought he would take over the show some day until HBO came.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, what are you going to do with her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before Olivia Munn starred at Magic Mike, she also reported for the Daily Show.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before there was a name for tiger moms, there was my mom, the original MILF, the mother I learned from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now a new generation of comedians, like Jessica Williams are continuing Stewart's tradition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll put you on the tin ladies, but Alexander, go with them to make sure they don't do any impulse buys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Jon Stewart, a long goodbye this week. All right, still to come, have you ever spent time reading your junk mail? Well one child thought it was his only reading material until his mailman got involved.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:57:01]

WHITFIELD: All right. Many of us toss out our junk mail without a second glance. But for one Utah boy, the mailman was his lifeline to a world of reading. Sandra Yee of affiliate KSL has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matthew Flores is a typical 12-year-old boy. He loves Lego's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like using my imagination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He also loves to read. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just usually read the newspapers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And can get lost in what most of us consider junk mail. That's what Matthew was doing when Ron Lynch saw him last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A young man was standing here reading junk mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As Lynch, who works for the Sandy Post Office delivered mail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Asked me if I had any extra.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lynch found out Matthew reads newspapers because he doesn't have any books.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I asked him about going to the library and he said he couldn't afford the bus pass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matthew's situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started reading very, very early age. My mother instilled a love of books in me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It tugged at his heart strings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 12-years-old, he didn't want electronics, he didn't to sit in front of the TV playing games all day, this kid just wanted to read.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So Lynch posted a picture of Matthew on Facebook, asking his friends to send the boy some books. But his plea went worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard from the U.K., from Australia, from India.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like 350 or more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People have already gone to Matthew's home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said these are books for you. I thought they were mistaking but they were for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And today, Lynch made a personal delivery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More books?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More books to add to Matthew's growing collection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to get thousands the way it sounds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matthew says he wants to read every book.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's interesting. Plus it gets you smarter. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And share them with other kids too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't even know. I'm just super happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That's a great story. You can impact your world. Just go to cnn.com/impact. And thanks so much for being with me this afternoon, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, much more ahead in the NEWSROOM with Poppy Harlow.