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Ted Cruz Booed During Republican Convention Speech; Turkey Declares State of Emergency; Russian Track Team Could Face Rio Ban Over Doping Scandal;; Milo Yiannopoulos Banned on Twitter for Leslie Jones Harassment; Russian Olympic Participation Still Hangs in Balance; Pep Guardiola's Manchester City Loses to Bayern Munich. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired July 21, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:00] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Turkey's president takes emergency action in response to an attempted coup.

Plus doping claims could force Russia from the Olympic Games. We're just hours away from learning whether the country's track and field team will be banned from Rio.

And another wild night at the Republican convention. Donald Trump's former rival is practically booed off stage.

Hello, and thank you for joining us. I am Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Another night, another controversy at the Republican National Convention. It was supposed to be vice presidential nominee Mike Pence's turn in the spotlight. Instead, Donald Trump's primary rival Ted Cruz is grabbing all the headlines. He did not endorse Trump during his speech, drawing this response from the crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: And to those listening, please don't stay home in November. If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Wow. Well, our CNN Politics reporter Tal Kopan joins us now from the convention center in Cleveland.

Tal, good to have you with us. I am not sure words can adequately sum up the ferocity of the booing that Ted Cruz was confronted with during his speech. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: We must make the most of our moment. To fight for freedom, to protect our God-given rights, even of those with whom we don't agree.

God bless each and every one of you and God bless the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Booing, and Tal, the cherry on top was Trump's entrance there as he was trying to wrap it up. What was it like actually in the hall?

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: You know, and you said words can't do it justice. I'm not even sure that recording that we have can do it justice. I mean, when I was sitting in the stands it was like a wave of sound and you know what was really interesting about it is when Ted Cruz came out, the crowd loved him. I mean, he was sort of -- he had them eating out of the palm of his hand in some way. It felt like he was getting almost a better reception than Donald Trump had been getting from some of his surrogates along the way, and you know, it's interesting, the crowd didn't seem to notice that Cruz wasn't endorsing Trump right away.

We in the media had some copies of his prepared remarks so we know what was coming. The moment he got to the words "voting your conscience," the crowd turned on a dime. That word has become very poisoned. It's come to symbolize the anti-Trump movement. As soon as he said it, the delegates figured out he wasn't endorsing Trump and that's when the booing started. It was incredible.

SESAY: Wow. What are we hearing now from the Trump campaign given that refusal to endorse the nominee and of course those unbelievable scenes in the hall?

KOPAN: Well, I'm not sure you have to have me tell you this but the Trump campaign is playing it down. Trump himself actually tweeted afterwards very quickly and said, "Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge. I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak any way. No big deal."

So, you know, the message from the Trump campaign is they knew what they were getting into. They decided to let Ted Cruz have his moment. And you know, Ted Cruz took a big gamble with this and the Trump campaign, you know, sort of decided they were going to let him see how the crowd reacted and, you know, we all saw what happened and I think it's pretty clear that the Trump campaign isn't particularly worried about Ted Cruz right now.

However, what did happen is that, you know, the night that was by all accounts, in some ways, one of the best of the entire campaign for Donald Trump has become overshadowed by this moment that we're probably going to be talking about for years.

SESAY: Yes. Indeed. And we heard from Chris Christie who's obviously on the inner circle of the Trump campaign. Here's what he told our own Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I think it was awful. And quite frankly, I think it was selfish. And he signed a pledge and it's his job to keep his word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: And, Tal, are Christie's comments in line with what other Republican politicians are saying?

KOPAN: Yes, absolutely. And it's, you know, hard to find a Ted Cruz defender right now. There are a few out there but you know, keep in mind, that all along the way of his political career, Ted Cruz has portrayed himself as an outsider, as antiestablishment, as someone who sort of stands up to the party's bosses.

[01:05:09] It is well known that he's not particularly well-liked among his Senate colleagues or in Washington more generally. But if anywhere should be a Ted Cruz's favorable place it was this convention. You know, more than 500 of the delegates were bound to him. He had some supporters who were so gung ho about him, they were causing trouble until the end for Donald Trump's nomination.

And so the fact that the response was so unanimous from the crowd, you know, at some point you can be a rebel all you want but, you know, you have to have someone on your team and Ted Cruz did not show himself to be someone who had with anyone on his team tonight.

SESAY: So where does this leave his political career? I know he's got two more years in the Senate but the thinking was that this speech, this speech at the convention was all about laying the groundwork for his 2020 presidential bid. That's the expectation. Where does that lie now after what happened at the convention?

KOPAN: That's absolutely right. We sort of saw the speeches that kick off this 2020 campaign. You know it's interesting again before we got to that booing moment he said some things that you would never have thought Ted Cruz would say on the campaign trails including, you know, talking about how gays and lesbians needed their rights protected as well.

It was very interesting to hear that from him. We're sort of getting Ted Cruz 2.0 and then, you know, this happened. Look, Ted Cruz is making a big bet here. He is betting that Donald Trump is going to lose in November and the party will come around to him and sort of see him as the one who was always right, that they should have known, they should have looked at. That's probably what the calculus is here.

Now whether or not that plays out we're going to have to see. You know, Donald Trump is down in the polls but the idea that they're going to look to Ted Cruz as a savior, he was a little bit farfetched tonight. And we'll see how in the coming months and years, you know, he still has a Senate campaign to get through before 2020. We'll see how this plays out.

SESAY: And, you know, this was a night that was supposed to be predominantly or about the vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence. He had his opportunity. Let's listen to some of his speech which has been somewhat, you know, overshadowed by the Cruz debacle. But let's listen to some of what Pence had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, the funny thing is the party and power seems helpless to figure out our nominee. The media has the same problem. They all keep telling each other that the usual methods will work against him. They keep thinking they've done him in only to wake up the next morning and find that Donald Trump is still standing and running stronger than ever before. The man just doesn't quit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right. Well, Tal, let's give Mike Pence his dues and pay some attention to him. How did he do in his big moment?

KOPAN: Well, he did his job. He did it perfectly. He, you know, spoke in favor of Donald Trump. He portrayed, you know, both sides of him. He sort of talked up how Donald Trump can be a bit of a political rogue figure as much as he wants to be but also talked about how warm he is sort of behind the scenes. You know, and he also laid out, he's -- what Mike Pence brings to the ticket is sort of a traditional conservative. He is well-liked by social conservatives.

I was at a luncheon earlier today where they were all sort of raving about the choice of Mike Pence. Very socially conservative luncheon that was going on. And you know, he's supposed to bring some policy credibility to the ticket. So he did all of that tonight. You know, I don't know that it was a particularly exciting speech. The crowd here was very into it. I don't know that there is a sound bite that really is sort of campaign ad fodder coming out of this. But he 100 percent did the job that he needed to do tonight.

SESAY: All right. Before we let you go, we want to talk to you about the Melania Trump plagiarism row. At long last some insight into that episode. A junior aide coming forward and taking responsibility. In a statement Meredith McIver said, "A person Melania has always liked is Michelle Obama, and over the phone she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama's speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. This was my mistake and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps as well as Mrs. Obama."

And, Tal, before you weigh in, I also want to play this clip from Donald Trump himself who is also spoken on the matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She has been me a long time. She's a very good person. She came to see me because she hated to see the conflict and she made a mistake. And you know people make mistakes. You've made mistakes, we all make mistakes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right. So, Tal, a junior aide stepping to the plate, saying it's my fault. Is this episode done and dusted now? Do we put it to bed?

KOPAN: You know that I can't say yes. You know, there's a lot to unpack in that statement.

[01:10:01] You know, the implication that somehow this started with Melania I find very interesting. She said, you know, I made the mistake, I wrote it down, I didn't check it. But she also made very clear that Melania Trump explicitly expressed her admiration for Michelle Obama and suggested some of the phrasing as something she wanted to emulate. That's really interesting coming from the wife of the man who led the birther movement against Barack Obama.

So, you know, there is still a lot to unpack about this incident. You know there is another question here about the role of this speechwriter who comes from Trump's corporation in the political campaign. This isn't going away quite yet.

SESAY: Yes, somehow I knew you were going to say that, Tal. I knew you were going to say that. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate the insight. Thank you for staying up for us.

KOPAN: Thanks for having me.

SESAY: It's much appreciated. Thank you.

KOPAN: Absolutely.

SESAY: Now a court in Hong Kong has found three student protesters guilty of charges related to pro-democracy protest in 2014. Those charged include Joshua Wong, the face of the so-called umbrella movement. Wong was found guilty of unlawful assembly. The three students were released on bail and are expected to be sentenced next month. Speaking outside court another one of the three, Nathan Lo, said, we believe we have done something right and will not regret it.

Well, the human rights group Amnesty International says the massive crackdown by Turkey's president is threatening freedom of expression after last week's failed coup. The Turkish government has now suspended media licenses for 24 broadcasters and has fired or suspended about 50,000 people including teachers and university deans. But thousands in Turkey are standing by the president rallying again on Wednesday.

Our Arwa Damon filed this report earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Shortly after his televised address to the nation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly spoke to those who have been gathered every single night since that failed attempted coup in squares throughout the country.

Behind us Taksim Square where Erdogan is still speaking. He had just declared a state of emergency to last for three months and this is what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (Through Translator): The purpose of the declaration of the state of emergency is in fact to be able to take the most efficient steps in order to remove these threats as soon as possible, which is a threat to democracy, to the rule of law and to the rights and freedoms of our citizens in our country.

This practice is absolutely not against democracy and the rule of law and freedoms. Quite on the contrary, it has the purpose of strengthening and protecting these values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: Erdogan supporters will firmly believe in his government's intent to try to preserve that democracy that Turkey has fought so hard for. But this declaration is going to be causing quite some concern amongst his opponents.

The state of emergency gives the government sweeping powers. It also allows for the various different governors to also be able to issue certain legislation in areas under their control. Broadly speaking, what the state of emergency means is that the military forces will be under civilian supervision. The government can declare curfews, ban demonstrations from taking place, prevent people from gathering both in public areas, but also in some private settings. It means that the government can restrict access to certain areas and also place severe restrictions on the media.

Now the government has said that it is doing this to try to cleanse the country of the virus that is contained within. This is a government that up to date has already either detained, suspended or removed from office tens of thousands of governmental employees mostly in the ministries of education and of course also within the security apparatus. This is a country that right now at this stage is entering into uncharted territory.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: And now Sinan Ciddi joins me from Washington, D.C. He's the executive director of the Institute of Turkish Studies.

Sinan, thank you so much for joining us. What does the recently declared state of emergency mean for democracy and rule of law in Turkey?

SINAN CIDDI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF TURKISH STUDIES: Well, I'm afraid it's likely to mean quite terrible things by my best guest estimation. Articles 120 and 121 of the Turkish constitution unfortunately grants quite extensive powers to the executive at this point to curtail a significant amount of individual freedoms as well as social freedoms.

[01:15:12] And this very much plays into Tayyip Erdogan's hand in order to be able to capitalize upon what he seeks which is an empowered presidency in Turkey. And he has been seeking that for some time.

Now the failed coup attempt of July 15th now allows him to basically capitalize upon the state of emergency that has engulfed the country because many of the institutions such as the military or the judiciary, it is both cannot be trusted by the Erdogan regime. Therefore he has implemented the state of emergency law that is granted to him by the constitution. And there is virtually no limit to what powers the executive can exercise to subdue political opposition, round up dissenters and political opposition, and very much steer the direction of the country to what he would like.

SESAY: The Turkish president is saying what he is doing is no different from what happened in the aftermath of the November attacks in France. You disagree?

CIDDI: I do disagree. You know, since the Gezi protest of 2013 -- or 2013, I should say, the Erdogan government have basically exercised a considerable amount of executive privilege to very much roll back individual freedoms, exercise a tremendous amount of state pressure upon individuals and associations. Police brutality is at untold levels.

And if anything over the last two or three days since the coup is anything to go by, we have seen the dismissal of over 50,000, or probably closer to 60,000 government employees, ranging from the military to the judiciary to academia. And these dismissals were carried out prior to the implementation of the state of emergency.

What is to say what will take place now, now that the government has a state of emergency authorization? Academics, journalists and policymakers here I think as well as in Turkey are braced for the worst because this is one perfect opportunity for Erdogan to finally go after as much dissent and opposition possible, on the one hand, and, secondly, put into motion the required steps to basically promulgate an executive presidency, which he has been seeking since he was elected in August of 2014.

SESAY: And is there any outside party -- I'm thinking principally the European Union or NATO itself, is there any outside party with the leverage to rein in President Erdogan as he goes about this purge and some would say remakes Turkey?

CIDDI: The short answer to that is no. What possible leverage could these two entities have? It's not as if exactly the European Union says -- could say unless you cooperate with us and uphold Democratic standards we will cancel your Turkish -- Turkey's EU membership bid to the European Union because Erdogan probably at this point does not really care about that nor do his supporters.

SESAY: The outlook, as you paint it, Sinan is indeed grim. We very much appreciate the insight and analysis. Thank you so much.

CIDDI: You're welcome. Thank you. SESAY: Time for a quick break. A car bomb kills a prominent

journalist in Ukraine. Next on NEWSROOM L.A., why some say the reporter's views may have led to his death.

Plus Russia's track and field team will soon find out if it can race in next month's Olympic Games.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER)

[01:22:34] SESAY: Hello, everyone. A well-known award-winning journalist has been killed in an apparent car bombing in Ukraine. Pavel Sheremet was killed -- was driving in central Kiev Wednesday when the car he was driving exploded. Sheremet was an outspoken critic of fellow Russian-Ukrainian and Russian leaders. And there's speculation he was targeted because of his work. Ukraine's president called the killing a terrible crime and is getting international help for the investigation.

Well, Russia's participation at the Olympic Games in Rio is uncertain right now due to allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping. In the coming hours a sports arbitration court in Switzerland will decide whether 68 Russian track and field athletes should be allowed to compete in Rio. They were banned following a damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee is expected to decide later this week whether any of Russia's 387 athletes can participate.

The IOC said it would consider banning Russia after an independent investigation found evidence of a doping scheme during the 2014 Winter Games.

Joining me is the Ed Hula. He is the founder and editor of Around the Rings, the publication specializing in business news around the Olympics.

Ed, so good to have you with us. Russian officials very much attempting to frame the McLaren report and proposed ban of Russian athletes as a case of politics intruding into the sports arena which could be seen as ironic given the apparent politicized nature of the Russian doping operation.

ED HULA, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, AROUND THE RINGS: Well, it is very closely apparently tied in to the control of the -- of the state. That's what the evidence produced by the McLaren report prepared by the World Anti-Doping Agency is pointing to. It says the highest levels of the Russian government were involved in this. Somebody knew something about it in the government and that's why the IOC has decided most immediately to hand down sanctions against government officials prohibiting them from attending international sports events involving the Olympics such as the Rio Olympics.

That's just the government officials. The decision has to be made on what to do about the athletes. That's the most important one of all.

SESAY: There are those who say the IOC has to ban the entire delegation to protect the Olympic brand.

HULA: It's a tough choice they have to make here.

[01:25:01] Yes, they have to come across with strong action. They must be firm in their actions, their sanctions that they take against the Russians. At the same time they have to be fair. They have to show the idea of protecting clean athletes. It's a whole new philosophy the IOC has adopted in the past couple of years instead of necessarily going after the dopers, how do you protect those athletes who are clean, and give them the right to exercise and participate at the Olympic Games?

SESAY: But, Ed, this isn't just the case of the rest of the world having confidence in Russia and the way they conduct themselves and their sports people. This is also about confidence in the IOC and the world anti-doping agency surely because at the end of the day this massive doping operation took place under their noses as well. So what are we hearing about that in terms of that self-regulation or self-reflection or self-investigation?

HULA: We -- we talked to some athletes a couple of nights ago who are also IOC members and they are very adamant that all the Russian athletes should be banned from the games. And they say the IOC credibility is at stake in all of this. But again as I say if the IOC bans the complete Russian delegation there will be any number of athletes who are likely clean and who very likely will pay a price for the sins of other people. And that's the natural law that the IOC is trying to find a way to bring to bear.

SESAY: Should individuals within the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency be held accountable, held responsible, be fired for the fact that Russia, according to this McLaren report, was able to pull off such a massive doping organization?

HULA: Well the World Anti-Doping Agency says it didn't really have the power to launch the kind of investigations these situations require until the past year or so. The IOC recognizes the weakness in this world anti-doping system and have called for a summit next year to redo things. There clearly has to be a different way of combating doping.

WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, was set up in the year 2000 to bring an end to this kind of scandal to sport and the Olympics. It clearly hasn't worked. There's got to be something done to make a new way of attacking this, perhaps a much more independent agency free of the IOC, free of the sports federations that stands on its own and is accountable not to the IOC, not to the sports federations but accountable to the world.

SESAY: Ed Hula, it's so good to speak to you. Thank you so much for the insight. Very much appreciated.

HULA: You're welcome.

SESAY: Later this hour on NEWSROOM L.A. hate drove her off Twitter. Coming up, Twitter responds after an actress becomes a target of intense abuse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:44] SESAY: Hello, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

The headlines this hour --

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: Turkey's president is declaring a three-month state of emergency after last week's failed coup. The government will have sweeping powers and military forces will be under civilian supervision. About 50,000 people have been suspended or fired and more than 9,000 have been detained.

Hugh Naylor joins us via Skype from Istanbul, Turkey. He is a correspondent for "The Washington Post."

Hugh, thank you for joining us.

A state of emergency in Turkey and there are growing concerns about the actions of President Erdogan in the aftermath of the failed coup. What is your sense of President Erdogan's end game here?

HUGH NAYLOR, CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: It's unclear what his end game is. Since he came to power in 2002 he's gradually consolidated power around himself by placing loyalists into key government positions and diminishing the power of the military which has steadily been eroded over the last few years. It used to be the most powerful institution in the country and that is no longer the case especially after this coup. The fear among any Turks is that Erdogan will effectively amass more power and be, you know, an autocratic ruler, even more so. That's the fear.

SESAY: Turkey, as you know, is requesting the U.S. extradition of the Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, we're hearing from John Kerry that the U.S. will need to see hard evidence. Do we think that the U.S. will stick to that position?

NAYLOR: You know, I don't know. I think there are a lot of issues that come to play here. I think the United States in particular is concerned about how this coup attempt taken resulting crackdown will affect the Turkish military. I think John Kerry and officials in the United States are wondering how they can tread carefully enough so as not to anger the Turkish government to keep cooperation with the military intact because this is coming at a time when the military has already been sort of weakened by attempts to take out people -- you know, opponents of Erdogan have been removed from the military and then after the coup, judges -- sorry, military judges, generals, senior officers have all been arrested in connection with the coup which divided the military even further. And I think the capacity for the military to fight ISIS could be diminished significantly because of all of this. So that's a concern that's probably weighing heavily on the minds of officials in the United States right now. [01:35:18] SESAY: So, Hugh, an expanding crackdown. Analysts say

what we are watching is a tilt toward authoritarianism. Does Erdogan have the long-term public support to keep this going? You're there in Turkey, what are you seeing?

NAYLOR: I think Erdogan has a substantial number of followers who will support him for the long term. But Turkish society itself is very divided. The country has a history of secularism, and many Turks who embrace that history and sort of tradition of secularism are very concerned about the way that Erdogan is trying to bring Islam into society more, whether it's in the teachings at schools or allowing women to wear veils in government offices, a variety of measures that Erdogan has passed over the years. He's an Islamist ruler. It's really been a divisive issue here for many Turks. So I don't know if he can rally the entire country around him. I think what's going to happen is the polarization will intensify because of this.

SESAY: Hugh Naylor, with "The Washington Post" joining us from Istanbul, Turkey. Thank you for joining us.

NAYLOR: Thanks.

SESAY: Next on NEWSROOM L.A., she should have been celebrated with the release of her "Ghostbusters" movie. Instead, Actress Leslie Jones was fighting off haters on Twitter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: A conservative blogger has been banned from Twitter for good after the site said he encouraged his followers to harass "Ghostbusters: star, Leslie Jones. Milo Yiannopoulos is tech editor for the site "Breitbart." He's well known for targeting his opponents online. Hundreds of Twitter users went after Leslie Jones, posting racist, sexist and pornographic tweets. Jones was so upset that she called on Twitter to change its policies. Yiannopoulos says he is being silenced because he is a gay conservative.

Let's bring in Jasmyne Cannick to get her take on the story from a social and political commentator.

Jasmyne, I find the story troubling, I have to say. All of the "Ghostbusters" cast, the female cast, was subjected to abuse regarding the film. It crossed into something else with Leslie Jones. Why do you think that is?

[01:40:03] JASMYNE CANNICK, SOCIAL & POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One of the reasons is because we have a lot of racists in America. When you give them a platform where each and every person can have a voice and have a say, it - tends to get louder. And so what happened to Leslie Jones is really sad but it's happened to a lot of people. I think Twitter does need to take a look at its policies and figure out what it's going to do in the future. I know there is a lot of talk about free speech. And you know, Milo has his followers. But you know what, Leslie has her followers and there are just people who understand what is right and what is wrong. SESAY: In case you have not been following this closely, this is an

example of the horrific tweets this woman was subjected to up. And we're only choosing to share this one. They are all just so awful.

CANNICK: They are.

SESAY: But this theme came up over and over again comparing her to a monkey or an ape. "You're "Ghostbusters" isn't the first time to have an ape in it." And it just kept on going. This is what happens in these situations. There is trolling.

CANNICK: It is. And you know what's really sad on Milo's part is he was trying to blamed on being gay, he was targeted because he was gay. And lately I have heard gay conservative. There are a lot of gay people who do not like what he did. What he did was straight up racist. And it just reminds us that again, in 2016, when you make these platforms where everyone can get online and have a voice and have a say and develop a following, you are going to get people like Milo.

SESAY: We have to put up Twitter's response to all of this. They did put something out. A spokesman said, "People should be able to express their opinions on Twitter but no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online."

This is good. They put this up. But it seems like it took a minute before they brought the situation under control.

CANNICK: You know, Twitter had been looking at its policies around this for a while and I think the situation with Leslie Jones pushed them to have to act now. I think they are already in the process of trying to figure out what to do. This happened and they needed to put something out now and they did this. Like I said earlier, this is the beginning of new territory for Twitter. They have to figure out how to deal with it. I'm sure Milo won't be the last.

SESAY: I'm sure he won't be.

Let's not forget Leslie Jones in all of this. This is supposed to be her big moment. And they took this away from her. This is her final post. She said, "I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this because I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) I got today, you know, that's wrong." She says, "I feel like I'm in personal hell. It's just too much and shouldn't be like this. It's just so much. It shouldn't be like this. So hurt right now."

And you know, my heart goes out to her.

CANNICK: It does.

SESAY: You know, nobody, nobody regards of what you do for a profession should be subjected to that. This was such an achievement for her.

CANNICK: And for African-American women. SESAY: Women of color in that position in a blockbuster.

CANNICK: They took it from her. I hope she comes back to Twitter. I hope she realizes she has a lot of fans.

SESAY: Did we see a lot of support for her?

CANNICK: There was a lot of hash tags. We love Leslie Jones and Leslie Jones appreciation day. And I think what will probably happen and she will eventually come back.

SESAY: We'll be watching.

I'm finding this all very distressing.

CANNICK: I know.

SESAY: Jasmyne, always a pleasure. Speak to you again next hour. Thank you. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

I'll be back at the top of the hour with the day's top stories.

But first, "World Sport" starts after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:45:53] KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN "World Sport." I'm Kate Riley. Thank you so much for joining us.

Russia's Olympic Committee is meeting on Wednesday on allegations of a four-year state-sponsored doping program made in this McLaren report. A number of senior officials have been suspended. The drama is unfolding with two weeks to go until the Olympic Games in Brazil. We still don't know if Russian competitors will be able allowed to compete at the first-ever summer games to be staged in South America. However, today, the Russian Olympic Committee did reveal the athletes they expect to be competing in Rio next month.

CNN's Claire Sebastian filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The new and explosive allegations into state-backed doping and an Olympic ban as a result of that is not stopping the Russian Olympic Committee from moving ahead with plans to go to Rio. They announced a 387-member Olympic team and that includes 68 track and field athletes who are currently banned and are awaiting their appeal at the court of arbitration. That result is expected tomorrow and will have a significant impact on whether the International Olympic Committee moves to ban the entire team.

How likely is that? The head of the Russian Olympic Committee says he is not giving up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALEXANDER ZHUKOV, HEAD, RUSSIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (through translation): The International Olympic Committee has expressed it will be very careful in following its decisions of the international arbitration court. I think that the International Olympic Committee can make a final decision by the end of the week, main act is those who will be taking decisions must be the international federation and the international federation must make the decision about the participation of the Russian sports persons, the majority of the strongest ones the federation, as you know, have expressed themselves in support of the participation of the Russian Federation in different areas of sport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: The head of Russia's Olympic Committee also warned against letting politics enter the world of sport, echoing President Putin earlier in the week.

Russian authorities continue to deny that any state-backed doping took place and are demanding more investigation into the evidence in the McLaren report. Meanwhile, the fate of Russia's newly Olympic team hangs in the balance.

Claire Sebastian, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RILEY: We're flowing this developing story every step of the way. For latest on the Russian doping crisis go to CNN.com/worldsport. The World Anti-Doping Agency lifted the accreditation of the doping control lab in Rio. But WADA says the lab is now in compliance and anti-doping analysis of urine and blood samples can resume with immediate affect.

In the aftermath of the attempted coup in Turkey last week one of the biggest football stars in the country has decided to leave. German International and World Cup winner, Mario Gomez, said on Wednesday he will no longer play in Turkey explaining to his fans this has nothing to the with the club or their fans. Gomez wrote on Facebook, "The reason for this is completely down to the political situation. There are no sporting or any other reasons that have made me make this decision. It is down to the terrible events that happened in the last few days. I hope you can understand that and that these political problems can be solved in a peaceful manner soon. Then it would be my great wish to play again. The club and country grew very close to my heart in the past. Hope to see you again soon."

[01:50:00] Another player affected by the coup is Turkish basketball player Enes Kantor. He has been outspoken against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the past and revealed that he has received death threats. He provided screen shots of multiple threats and posted this statement in Turkish, "Death threats will continue to fall prayer does not stand still."

Coming up on the show, Premier League pre-season training has stepped up. Pep Guardiola's new team faced his former club, Bayern Munich. Details on the way.

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RILEY: We've got just over a fortnight away from the start of the Rio Olympics and athletes are starting to trickle into the city. But 1.7 million tickets are yet to be sold. That's a worrying 28 percent of the total tickets for games. However, Rio 2016 will be hosting Super Thursday. They will be release a new batch of some 100,000 tickets for sale to the public. And that will include some of the previously sold out sessions. And despite the concerns, the local organizing committee says it is satisfied with ticket sales so far, noting that demand and interest around tickets is increasing as we near the opening ceremony.

Pep Guardiola has returned to Bayern Munich, sort of. His first game as Man City's boss comes against the very side he took three straight Bundesliga (ph) titles. He announced he would leave before the end of last season and took his talents to the Premier League side after leading Bayern to a plethora of titles. But Bayern weren't going to go easy on their old boss. A deflected shot goes inside the near post, and that's how it would end, a loss for Pep at the hands of his old club in his debut at Manchester City.

Footballers behaving badly. This is your warning. With the new Premier League season in England starting in mid August, a crackdown on bad behavior is expected. We could see straight red cards being dished out for players resorting to foul-mouthed tirades towards match officials. Also those mass surroundings of referees we see from time to time will be punished with bookings to at least one of the players involved.

With the Olympic Games getting underway in just over two weeks, among the first athletes in action will be the fencers. Gauthier Grumier, from France, is ranked number one, and he is also a gold medal favorite. In "En Garde," he gives us a fascinating account of why he took up the sport in the first place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:55:30] GAUTHIER GRUMIER, OLYMPIC FENCER: I choose fencing because of my father. He is a fencing coach. And when I was a little boy I saw him play with blades and I wanted to do the same. And he told me no, no. You don't do fencing. I don't want you to fence. So I asked to my mother and she said OK. And so I started fencing at the age of 3. And I never quit.

When I was a little boy, you know, in school, every kid played football, soccer. So I asked my parents, OK, I want to play soccer, and my parents said, OK, we'll take you to soccer but you have to play outside when it's raining. So it's not really clean for you. And I said, OK, no football.

(LAUGHTER)

Later I try horse riding. But I'm allergic to horse. Yes, I have many allergies and food and animals. So horse riding wasn't for me, too.

Fencing is better for me because I like to be, you know, clean. And you deal with your opponent and you don't have to touch him.

I like the game, playing cat, mouse. And in the end, it's the one who can beat the opponent with his head. And this is the fencing I love.

(SHOUTING)

GRUMIER: We want to win the gold medal in team and in the individual. I think I'm a favorite because of my ranking because of my results last year and the year before and my history in fencing, so I hope for a medal.

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RILEY: And that is all the sport for now. I'm Kate Riley. Thank you so much for joining us.

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[02:00:10] SESAY: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.