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tv   The Situation Room  CNN  February 27, 2014 2:00pm-3:31pm PST

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is there anything unchristian about that attitude in reality tv? >> the catch phrase is i am the way of the truth and the life. it's a great catch phrase in "son of god". >> best of luck with the film. >> thank you so much. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. wolf blitzer is right next door in "the situation room." >> jake, thanks very much. happening now, my brother's keeper. emotion running deep at the white house as president obama launches his most personal program aimed at giving young minority men a chance at success. troops go on high alert, young gunmen seize parliament and it causes echos of the cold war. plus, uncensored messages cause more outrage over the so-called bridgegate scandal. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."
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it may be the most deeply personal cause on president obama's agenda and led to some very powerful moments today at the white house ceremony that ended just a while ago. the president delivering a powerful speech and drawing on his own background, growing up without a father, the president launched a program called my brother's keeper to keep young minority men in school and out of jail and put them on the road to success. >> i explained to them that when i was their age, i was a lot like them. i didn't have a dad in the house. and i was angry about it, even though i didn't necessarily realize it at the time. i made bad choices. i got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do. i didn't always take school as seriously as i should have. i made excuses.
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sometimes i sold myself short and i remember when i was saying -- chris, you may remember this. after i was finished, the guy sitting next to me said, are you talking about you? i said yeah. and the point was i could see myself in these young men. my administration's policies from early childhood education to job training to minimum wages are designed to give a hand up to everybody. every child. every american willing to work hard and take responsibility for their own success. that's the larger agenda. but the plain fact is that some americans in the aggregate are consistently doing worse in our society. groups that have had the odds stacked against them in unique
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ways that require unique solutions. groups that have seen opportunities that have spanned generations. and by almost every measure, the group that is facing some of the most severe challenges sf the 21 21st century. >> don, what was it like inside the white house when we heard those words from the president? >> i think the reaction from most people in the room, because you had almost every lawmaker of color in the country, mayors, senators, congressmen. i think the real reaction was, finally, it's about time. he's human. he's a black man and relating on a level that many criticized him
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on that he didn't relate on before. and, you know, i think we realize in that room that history was being made and hopefully this will be a turning point for the people and i hate to call them demographics, but we're talking about young men of color, a turning point for young men of color because, as i said in the aggregate, they fair far worse than most people, for whatever circumstances, whatever reasons, whether it's racism, whether it's because of their own fault, whatever it is. and so the time is now and if it's not going to happen now, then when will it happen? if it won't happen with this president who is the first african-american president, then when will it happen? and who knows when or if we'll ever get another president of color in our lifetime or ever. and so that's what it was like being in the white house and people -- many people came up to me, journalists, lawmakers,
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celebrities, every-day folks who were there saying, this is a big. this is history and we must hold him to it. >> it certainly is. tell us a little bit about the initiative my brother's keeper. what exactly are the specific items, the main headlines that the president wants to see done? >> reporter: okay. so this is the bottom line with my brother's keeper. because the president faces such opposition politically, every president does but this one in particular when it comes to congress, what he has done is taken this outside of congress and outside of the beltway and what he is doing is bringing together philanthropist, people with unmamoney, people in the faith-based community. he's bringing people together to donate hundreds of millions of dollars towards an initiative that will try to figure out how to help young men of color across the country. what types of mentoring programs
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are working across the country and how can they mimic them or recreate them? what the senior adviser said to me is they don't want to reinvent the wheel. they want to take what is working across the country like b.a.m., which is becoming a man, that program, the young man who introduced him is from that program, and in your sound bite when he said, what i said to them was, you know, i didn't always take things seriously, he's talking about meeting with those young men in february and then back in july at the white house. that's what they are doing. $150 million has already been given now and he's promising at least $200 million over the next five years. all of these folks here, including people from major foundations and philanthropists across the country, including mayor bloomberg, romney emanuel, they are going to meet and they are going to talk about what
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works and take that around the country. >> we have a picture when the president was in chicago meeting with these young men from the b.a.m. program and obviously the president was moved by that. i want to bring in our cnn political commentator cornell belcher. you were there, cornell? >> it was really powerful, wolf. i don't think i've seen a president more laid bare and with his defenses down. it's an issue that is sort of personal to him and moving to him and we've never seen him connect. he's talked about his drug use earlier before but we've never seen him connect his drug use to answ anger that he had and not having a father there. clearly this is an issue dear and near to the president's heart. >> why do you think it's taken so long? this is year six of this presidency? >> i hear criticism like that truth of the matter is, look, in a hyper partisan environment where he has to run for
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re-election, an issue like this can be polarized. any issue around race, as you know, wolf, sends people to their full rise corners. the last thing the president wants to do when he's running for re-election is to have a country more polarized. i think the beauty of this time now is you can have more risky conversations that are important for moving this country forward right now in his second term. so i'm thankful that he did. >> i want to play another excerpt from the president's powerful speech. cornell and don, both of you listen to this. >> no excuses. government and philanthropy, faith-based communities, we've got to help you knock down some of the barriers that you experience. that's what we're here for. but you've got responsibilities,
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too. and i know you can meet the challenge. many of you already are, if you make the effort. it may be hard, but you will have to reject the cynicism that the circumstances of your birth or societies injustices necessarily defines you and your future. it will take courage but you'll have to tune out the naysayers who say the deck is up against you. >> there is no doubt, you, don lemon, you've been saying a lot of the same things over the past several years and you've been getting some serious criticism for saying what we heard the president say today and i want you to respond to that. >> it's not about me but, yes, i have been doing that and to hear
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that it makes me very emotional because obviously i am a journalist. we want to remain objective but i'm also a human being and i relate to that more than most. than you, wolf, and you and i are friends. we'll see each other at an event on saturday night but we understand that. many people across the country don't get it. i just left illinois university saying the same thing to students, that when they come into the newsroom, you know this, they will talk to me and say, don, how do i make it as a strong, black man in this business? how do i make it as a strong, black -- i say stop looking at yourself as other. yes, we get racism. yes, we get bigotry. but you should let people like me and wolf blitzer worry about that, people like cornell belcher worry about that, people who have gone true the fire.
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you concern yourself right now with being excellent and we will take care of the rest. yes, you can be aware of who you are and proud of your identity and all of those things but concern yourself with being excellent and then before you know it, all of those things that you thought were hindrances will be your silent motivators and you will have made it and working in your career and you'll look back and say, how did i do this? so you cannot -- regardless of the circumstances around you and, yes, we get racism and the playing field is not even. but you cannot let that stop you. you must take those hurdles. what a hurdler does is leap over the hurdle. they don't stop and say, i can't go past this because there's a hurdle right there. you figure out how to get your mind together being your game together, body together or whatever it is that you need to do and you leap over that hurdle and don't let other people define who you are because they may think of you as other or you're a black person or they may be discriminating against you.
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you go, damn that. i don't care. i define who i am and as james baldwin said in the most terrifying odds, i can become whatever it is that i want to become and i can achieve. and so that's what the president was saying by that. many people don't get that. they get upset and say you're practicing respectability policies. this has to do with what you think about yourself, how you carry yourself, what you think in your mind that you can achieve. that's what that has to do. and so i get sick of hearing that from people because they are always talking about, you think that you are white because you speak a certain way. you're acting white or educating or acting white or trying to please a white man. no, i'm pleasing myself. i'm doing these things for myself so that i can be better. so that my family can be proud of me. so if i happen to have kids, that they can be proud of me. they can look up to me and go, i can do it. if don lemon can do it, then i know that i can do it. that's one of the reasons as a gay person that i came out.
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i wanted kids who may have been dealing with that to realize, that guy on television is a normal guy. he's just like me. it is okay. i want my nieces and my grand-nephews to look at me and go, you know what, if my uncle don did that, i can do it as well. so this has nothing to do with being an uncle tom or being white or not being respectful of your race. this has to do with personal responsibility with what you think about yourself and that you can achieve. who cares, who gives a damn about racism? it's always going to be there. it's been there since the beginning of time so you must figure out how you can achieve regardless of that, in spite of that, and that's what the president was saying. >> and you have been, don, an inspiration to a lot of folks out there. i want you to stand by. cornell, stand by. i want to get your take from what we just heard from don. a lot amore. we'll continue this conversation but, once again, listen to what
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the president said. >> i can see myself in these young men but the only difference is i grew up in an environment that was a little bit more for giving. are a busi. seeker of the sublime. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro.
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and the worst part is, we've become numb to these statistics. we're not surprised by them. we take them as the norm. we just assume this is an inevitable part of american life instead of the outrage that it is. that's something to think about. [ applause ] >> powerful personal words and emotional words for the president of the united states. let's get back to our top story.
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it happened at the white house this afternoon. the president drawing on his own experiencing and launching a program to help young minority men get a better chance. it's called by brother's keeper and it may be the most deeply personal cause on the president's agenda. let's continue the conversation. our political commentator is here, cnn commentator. cornell, i want you to comment about what don lemon said. he had been criticized by some in the african-american community for the last several years what we heard from the president of the united states today. >> i'll take it back even further. i was one of the people on the obama campaign in o'08 and hillary was winning by a large swath and we decided to do the fatherless speech. we had to win south carolina big, depending on the
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african-american vote. talking about responsibility, he put himself in the african-american community, and white frankly, if you go to a community in the south, they are always talking about personal accountability. i think the criticism of down and the president that you hear often is from a criticism class but not those who voted for him not once but twice. i think he's very much within the african-american thinking talking about personality responsibility. >> you were at the white house and you observed this event. it's something we really haven't seen the president open up as personally, as emotionally as he did you today. >> no. and part of the reason why, he has the burden of being the first. if hillary clinton gets in, she will have the burden of being
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the first. what i mean by that is, there's a sort of expectation that you're going to do things to help your community and he's been criticized for not doing that and it's tricky for him. he doesn't want to be perceived as the president of black people. he wants to be perceived as the president of the united states. >> he is the president of the united states. >> right. but if he comes out aggressively helping only black people, he's characterized at the president of black people. he was cautious in his first term. he's a little freer now. we're seeing more initiatives near and dear to his heart. he's from chicago. i'm from chicago. he's right. we've gotten to a point where we read in that city about young black men being killed and we don't pause. i loved the fact that he brought that up because it strikes home for a lot of people. >> he said we've become numb. i want to read to you what we heard from tavis smily from pbs,
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a very smart guy. this is what he told fox news last october. i'll put it up on the screen. "the data is going to indicate sadly when the obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category on that regard the president ought to be held responsible". >> those are strong words. you have to consider the words. tavis has been a critic of the president since before he became the president. having said that, what's important about today is that president obama struck the right balance between the conversation about responsibility and the fact that the challenges are a moral cause. and i think he personally and i think squarely put his legacy behind the idea that it's time to confront this problem very
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openly. why i'm encouraged is because the president put his reputation, he put his presidency, he put this idea that i'm going to convene and bring people together and while these comments i think as you listen to the comments, this goes back to what he said right after trayvon martin and he gave a very personal set of comments that seemed to be the pressure at the white house and since that time i think this has been on the president's mind and i applaud him today and i look forward to him addressing this. >> don lemon was there for this extraordinary meeting. don, trayvon martin's parents were there as well. the president said if he had a son, it could have turned out -- could have looked like trayvon
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martin. what was it like in there with trayvon martin's parents, such a personal, emotional moment? >> reporter: trayvon martin's mother was sitting right next to jordan davis' mother and since this happened to both of their sons, they have vowed to be each other's support system and you could see that that was so and the president pointed them out and acknowledged them in the crowd. what marc moriel said was right on. he struck the right tone between, hey, listen, for some reason in our country these young men have been oppressed and it's also up to them to achieve. here's what we're going to be doing in five years, ten years, especially from that group of b.a.m. the president's first initiative on young black men, where are they now? where are these guys now? and so we have to look for them to achieve and see where they are in five years, ten years, 15 years because they are going to be markers but also i think that
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right after the george zimmerman verdict, during the whole trayvon martin/george zimmerman fiasco, if you want to call it that, i think the president was struck by that but he was also meeting in july with those folks of b.a.m. in the oval office and unb unbe noens to the mentor of that up gro group, they wanted to bring a father's day card to him in the oval office and some of the young men said, you know what, i have never signed a father's day card because they don't have male role models in their lives. the president said to them, you know what, i had never signed a father's day card either. and i believe that that was the moment. i believe that was the moment where he realized, i need to do something about this. it's not real to you until it's real to you and i think that lz
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is exactly right. as the first, right -- people go, it's great to be the first. it's not always so great to be the first. it's not always so great to be ahead of everybody else because you get the slings and arrows. don lemon, the first journalist to come out. but you also get people who call you names and people who say you're an advocate, all of those things. the president has that particular pressure and he also has a pressure of washington, where people want to politicize everything. the good thing about this, what he's calling about the year of action, he's going to take it beyond the presidency. removing the politics. you can't argue with money. and so if he takes that money, right, and gets things done around the country, it doesn't matter what congress does. it doesn't matter. he will achieve something as the first black president that no one else has achieved in this country, and that is helping a group that has been
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disenfranchised for so long and a change in their trajectory. >> history unfolding in the nation's capital. we'll continue our coverage right after this. the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course.
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said it again. and if i didn't listen, they said it a third time. and they would give me second chances and third chances. and so i didn't give up on myself. >> president referring to his teachers, his community leaders, his mom, his grandmother, his grandfather. powerful words. let's get back to our top story. president of the united states drawing on his own personal experiences and launching a program, trying to give young minority men a chance at success. it's called my brother 's keepe and may be the most personal cause on the president's agenda. we've got a full discussion going on with some experts on this subject, all of whom were over in the east room at the
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white house to watch and listen to the president. lz granderson, marc moriel, cornell. don lemon is at the white house. he did have a mother, he had grandparents, he had educators. this was a guy who came out of nowhere he graduated from harvard law school and lines up the president of the united states. so if he has that example and can say to these young people, i came from nowhere, look at me, you can do the same thing, that has an impact. >> reporter: uh-huh. it has an impact. and you heard christian, the young man who was there from chicago saying, you know, it really made a difference in my life when the president sat down with us and told us his personal story. all at once they could relate to
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him. he could releet ate to them. it only takes one moment in your life to change it and the president happened to be that for those young men. i'm sure everyone on that set, someone just e-mailed me and said i'm in the airport, just landed and i'm watching cnn and i see all four of you black men there and this is an amazing moment, being real on television. because each of us -- mr. moriel, i went to an all black catholic school. those nuns used to sit with me until i got it. don, i know you can do it. they would sit with me in baton rouge, louisiana. and they would sit with me until i got it. they never gave up on me and they would tell my mom and grandmother, whoever would listen, when my older sister gets home, i need for you to work with him on his math. he doesn't have a problem with reading or spelling or whatever but that math, boy, i need you
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to work with him. we need to get back to the core values that we are responsible. we are our brother's keeper. for me, i know when i was growing up, when the street lights came on, that meant you had to have your butt -- >> i know, me, too. >> and not only at home but great words we're hearing excellent words from the president of the united states, excellent words from all of you, how do we translate now the words into action to make sure there are more marcs, lzs and let's talk about the initiative and what it entails. private philanthropies from around the nation and the
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president announced they made a 2$200 million commitment -- >> the money is there but how do you educate young kids, give them the inspiration, without a dad, let's say, give them the wherewithall. >> this is a call to action for parents, teachers, moms and to dads. it's a call to action to all to believe in these young people, to support these young people, encourage these young people and to continuously encourage them but it's also a call to action for best practices in the support services area. so we do this kind of work at the urban league. we have all sorts of effective programs. but if in a city like rochester where we have a black male initiative -- >> rochester, new york? >> if we touch 50 kids, we could touch 500 if there was expanded level of resources. so i think we've got to
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understand, behind the words there is an initiative, there's a work group. there's an effort to -- >> cornell, what's one thing that all of us can do to make a difference? >> well, give back. just go into your community and mentor someone. there's great mentorship programs in every community. just go out there and mentor programs. one thing, barack obama as a role model is not always transactional but to a lot of african-american men and women, one thing that they fell in love with barack obama was that this was an ideal that they want for their children to look up to, this man with this wonderful family who's made it on his own. >> do you think this program is going to work, lz? over the years we've heard a lot about the problems out there and maybe, you know, tavis smiley is right, maybe african-american men will be in worse shape after the obama administration than before the obama administration. is it going to work?
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>> i think it's going to work, one, because we know what does work. we know that early childhood development works and smaller classrooms work. if we're able to use that money and help what is hurting the education system, you will see a change. you want to talk about things that can help, volunteer in our schools. just be present. if you're just present -- i remember going through elementary school and not having a single male teacher, let alone a single african-american male teacher. so just being present is a help and our education system is hurting. sometimes classrooms are 40, 50 students tall. if the community goes in and helps with the classrooms and helps with childhood development, absolutely, my brother's keeper will be a success. >> don lemon is going to stick around. much more on this later. also, other news we're following in "the situation room," a showdown straight out
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it's a scenario straight out of the cold war, a country torn between the east and west. russian forces taking over a government buildings and tough talk from tough u.s. officials. much of the world is on edge right now. let's go over to jim sciutto. he's been following all of these developments. it's sort of reminiscent of the battle days of the cold war. >> no question. you get a clear sense of how concerned administration officials are by the repeated, stern warnings delivered at the highest level to russia.
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on friday, president obama called russian president vladimir putin. today, we heard it from defense secretary chuck hagel, secretary of state john kerry and jay carney. the message verbatim. do not send russian troops into the ukraine and the u.s. will be watching. this is all as violence broke out on the streets of the ukraine today. today, pa frightening taste of worse-case scenario for the ukraine, the country divided among ethnic lines. adding to the tension, russian warplanes placed on high alert and russian troops mobilizing for military exercises right along the ukraine eastern border. with the obama administration increasingly concerned about russian's intentions, president obama issued a stern warning.
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>> i urged him not to take any steps that could be miss interpreted. >> a time of great tension. >> reporter: secretary of state john kerry said that in a phone call today, russian foreign minister sergey lavrov assured him the exercises are not related to the ukraine. but he cautioned -- >> statements are statements. words are words. we have all learned that it's actions and the follow-on choices that make the greatest difference. >> reporter: so if russia does not send troops inside ukraine, what could be its intentions? >> definitely take this as a signal that russia is testing itself on sending a message that it is prepared to do things if there is a situation that develops that russia feels it has to protect its interests. >> reporter: and now in a odd coincidence, a russian intelligence ship docked in cuba 90 miles from florida without explanation from havana or
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moscow. now, russian officials also assured the u.s. that russia was not behind the storming of that parliament building in eastern ukraine. lavrov said he learned about it first watching the television. there is a trust deficit here. when kerry asked if he trusted putin, he said, wolf, there is some value in putin and that's why you keep hearing from u.s. officials they are going to keep watching what russia does this weekend. we know they are watching closely from the air, from the ground to see if the troop movements amount to anything where they go into the country. >> reminds me sort of the worlds of ronald reagan's in the '80s, trust but verify. >> that's right. john kerry says verify, verify, and then verify. >> the situation is tense. jim sciutto, thank you very much. more on the rising tensions in the u.s. but just ahead, former chris
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uncensored messages between those former chris christie aides are bringing new information about the bridgegate scandal and a lot of new outrage. chris frates of cnn investigations has been learning what's going on. what's the latest? >> reporter: this new information comes from documents that we've seen before, but that had been previously blacked out. sure, we've all heard the one about the rabbi who walks into the bar, but two top staffers
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with ties to governor chris christie joked about making a prominent new jersey rabbi the victim of some serious transportation delay, according to documents released today. the exchange involves a discussion between bridget kelly, a former top christie aide, and david wildstein who christie appointed to the port authority. wildstein sends kelly the picture of a rabbi with house speaker john boehner and says, he is officially pissed me off. kelly replies, clearly. we cannot cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we? wildstein responds, flights to tel aviv all mysteriously delayed. the rabbi is chaplain of the port authority police and is prominent in new jersey even lighting the menorah at the governor's mansion. it's not clear from the text why wildstein was annoyed with the rabbi. we were unable to reach the rabbi for comment but sources tell cnn he's not involved in the lane closures. the new documents don't directly tie christie to the bridgegate
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scandal but he was peppered with questions on wednesday. >> we're going through an internal investigation. all this stuff will koom out over the appropriate period of time. i'm not going to give in to the hysteria of questions that are given by folks who have information today that i didn't have at the time. >> reporter: the newly released texts and e-mails come from the committee investigating weather last summer's lane closures on the george washington bridge were political payback. the new exchange is important because it came august 19th, six days after kelly's infamous e-mail to wildstein, time for some traffic problems in ft. lee. a message that launched the investigation into the national media spotlight and cost kelly her job. >> what the committee's trying to understand is how did bridget kelly come to believe that she should send this e-mail? who gave her the authorization? we don't have those answers. >> reporter: the documents also revealed a conversation wildstein had with a port
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authority police officer that shows wildstein was on the bridge the first day of the lane closures. the e-mails and texts also provide a glimpse into how key players handled the unfolding scandal and even offered a little foreshadowing. at one point christie's top appointee bill barone texted wildstein and asked, are we being fired. and a few weeks later barone and wildstein had resigned. >> let's dig deeper with our legal analyst jeffrey toobin. i mean, it's weird, when you think about it, six days after they close the bridge they're joking about this rabbi and traffic and flights to tel aviv. >> what this makes clear is the idea of punishment by traffic was something that was in regular circulation in christie's office. now, whether -- what they did and why remains mysterious, as, of course, is the bigger question of what christie knew,
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if anything, of what they were doing. but certainly weird is the only description of what was going on. >> they're joking about the traffic problems and clearly they're trying to use this, at least these aides, if you believe these texts and these e-mails, they're trying to use this as punishing political adversaries. >> right, which i consider myself a fairly cynical, you know, experienced journalist. i certainly have never heard of the idea before all this of using traffic as a kind of punishment, but clearly now we have at least two examples where they were talking about it and once when it happened. this is why you have investigations. and we'll see where it leads. and if it was done any other times. >> there's no evidence of any smoking gun directly implicating the governor himself. >> and -- that's true. and it's far from clear to me that there's anything criminal about this. as you said, it's weird, but i don't -- >> why is the the u.s. attorney in new jersey investigating if
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it's far from clear potentially there's anything criminal? >> i think it's certainly weird enough that it's appropriate to look into it. even today there's more to discover all the time. but the notion of causing traffic problems, it's hard to articulate at least at this point how that could be a federal crime by anybody, but certainly it's all strange enough to merit an investigation, but it may end as many investigations do, with no charges filed. >> we'll soon, i guess maybe not so soon but eventually. >> eventually. >> jeffrey, thanks very much. forces are on alert. is a new cold war suddenly heating up? plus the cause close to the president's heart. we have details of his most personal initiative yet, helping young men of color. [ man ] look how beautiful it is.
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happening now, a very personal cause for the president of the united states. he is launching a new initiative to help young men of color have the same opportunities he had. from the small screen to the white house, "grey's anatomy" star jesse williams. he's here. he was with the president today in the east room of the white house. he'll share the emotion of the moment. and russian forces on high alert. the u.s. is warning moscow to show restraint. the crisis in ukraine is turning up tensions even higher of fears of a dangerous new cold war. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." i can see myself in these
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young men. and the only difference is that i grew up in an environment that was a little bit more forgiving. so when i made a mistake, the consequences were not as severe. i had people who encouraged me. >> that was the president of the united states explaining why he takes his new campaign to help young black and latino men so, so very personally. he launched the my brother's keeper initiative over at the white house earlier in the afternoon. an administration official just told cnn the president improvised a good portion of his remarks and was more emotional than even many of the planners of the event had anticipated. cnn's don lemon is over at the white house. he came down to watch what was going on along with his special guest magic johnson. guys, thanks very much. don, let me start with you, then i'll bring magic into this conversation. set the scene for viewers, don, who may just be tuning in.
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what was the president really trying to accomplish on this historic day? >> i think the president was trying to accomplish -- and i'm sure you'll agree -- something that i think has been on his heart since he met with a mentoring group from chicago last year and then again in july in the oval office. and i think it's something that he had probably been wanting to say and deal with for a long time, but now that he is in his second term and now that we've had, you know, issues when it comes to young black men, when it comes to trayvon martin and jordan davis, the president now feels a certain freedom to say those things and to get this initiative done. and he is also -- it is timely because he said he was going to do this in his state of the union back in january where he said i'm going to use the power of the pen and the phone and i'm going to make certain decisions. if i have to go around congress, then i'm going to go around congress to do it. if i have to bring in
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philanthropist and community groups and religious groups to do it, then that's what i'm going to do. he announced an initiative today that was groundbreaking, that was historymaking on getting young black men to achieve. getting them as far as we can to level the playing field. and i think it was one of the most emotional moments that i have seen from the president. by the way, wolf, i have to say, i have not grown. i'm not as tall as magic johnson. i'm standing on a box. magic is much taller than i am. >> we knew that. full transparency. magic, you were there. tell us what it was like. what did you go through? what did you feel? >> it was very emotional. a lot of amens and people was really backing the president's speech and his message to america, not just to black and latino young men, but to america because america will be better
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if latino men and african-american men are educated and they can go on and be successful in life. but you can just feel the room, like it was so -- they were so happy. >> it was special, right? >> exactly. it was a special feeling in the room. it was almost like we were in church in a sense. and he delivered a powerful message. and then those young men behind him, i got a chance to meet with them for an hour afterwards, and all of them were so excited to be at the white house, know that president obama looked like them and gave them a message of hope and that if they get a quality education, they can be achievers in life and have a successful career as far as anything that they want to become in life. >> hold on, guys. because the actor jesse williams is here with me in "the situation room." he's one of the stars of "grey's anato anatomy." you came to the white house, jesse, today, you were in the east room. first of all, tell us why you decided to come?
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>> i decided to come because its a historic moment, as you pointed out. it is an initiative to come from the nation's capital. and discuss what foundations regionally and locally have been doing very successfully recently. you can see people being able to handle getting results and addressing the opportunity gap, which we call the achievement gap is in many ways an opportunity gap. >> what did you hear that personally resonated most with you? >> one of the things that really stuck with me personally is something that i think not so many americans are necessarily able to relate to because being biracial, as the president is, and myself is, there are many kinds of americas, there are many americas, there are many experiences people can have. and being able in some ways, i find in my personal experience, i should speak for myself, certainly not him, i've been able to see -- live in the suburbs in massachusetts and in chicago and be in a horrible classroom with 60 kids and be in
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a tiny school with 11 kids and realize the different experiences people can have just by their zip code or color of their skin or the opportunities you have. what he's trying to do is address that and give people an opportunity to be patient and to see what it is for kids to be nourished. >> magic, you and i have known each other for a long time. i know you've done personally incredibly pertinent work including some of your resources, to do what the president is recommending all of us do today. where do we go from here, magic? give us a little sense of how these words can be translated now into action? >> wolf, it's all about the strategy and then how we execute that strategy. and so what president obama has done is said, hey, in 90 days, he wants everybody to report back to him because it is important that we have deliverables. it's one thing to talk, but now we have to put this plan into
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action. he's got great foundations to be involved who have been in this fight who understands this information better than anybody. then hughes called corporate america, myself and other business leaders to say we do turn these young men's life around, will there be job opportunities for them once they graduate from college and we're all saying, yes, there will be. and also we will train them as well. and then he's got great educators who have been in this fight for a long time. so he's got everybody on board with a strategy, with a plan and he's going to execute on that plan and so this has been great, wolf, because before we've always had somebody want to be involved. >> right. >> but it always stumbled. it always came up short. but i don't think this plan will come up short. when the president of the united states is behind it and he's actually the guy who is calling the shots, like president obama is doing, it's going to be
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awesome. >> magic is reading my mind now. that's how this is different. you got the sense, as jesse was sitting one row in front of me, magic was sitting on the other side of the room, what you got in that room was a sense that this is something different. at first, you know, people were saying, we don't know about it, how is this different? there are initiatives everywhere. this is different because he brought people like magic. he had had lawmakers across the country, people like mayor bloomberg, rahm emanuel, people who really need to to work in their cities. if they're fighting for chicago, they're fighting for new york city, they're fighting for philadelphia, or wherever it is, they need these programs to work. not only does he have those people behind him, but he has the money. magics a money and he has philanthropy around him. >> we know he's got a lot of money, but that's another story. jesse, you're not only an excellent actor, but you're a former high school teacher. so you bring a lot to this subject right now. so walk us through where we -- i'm sure you were inspired by what you heard from the president. and he, like you, like magic,
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like don, all of you can be excellent role models for a lot of young kids out there. >> what the initiative my brother's keeper is doing is try to pull together best practices from all these different groups around the country and whether it's in a classroom in oakland that's having credible results and pushing kids into college and weincredible graduation rates, cobbling all this together. people want to create a new foundation. stacking on top of each other instead of taking everybody's initiatives and making them into one. if you're looking at third grade reading proficiency. we had a staggeringly low number of young men of color, young boys of color that are reading way below their reading level. the rest of that you need to read to learn. if you can't read well, that will have a direct impact on the classroom and you'll be left behind and find yourself looking elsewhere. >> jesse, thanks for coming in. thanks for what you're doing.
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magic always great to have you in "the situation room." don lemon, thank you as well. a showdown straight out of the cold war. troops on alert. crowds fighting in the street. tough warnings by world leaders. the former supreme nato leader retired general is standing by. we'll get his take on the potential danger right now.
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right now the russian decision to hold war games as the ukraine crisis boils is making a potentially explosive situation even more alarming. president obama's top national security officials are putting moscow on notice that one wrong move could have very dangerous
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consequences. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara starr for the latest. >> reporter: wolf, years after the cold war ended, the pentagon is right back where it was wondering what exactly moscow is up to. defense secretary chuck hagel at nato headquarters suddenly the cold warrior. >> i'm closely watching russia's military exercises along the ukrainian border. >> reporter: warning moscow. >> i expect russia to be transparent about these activities, and i urge them not to take any steps that could be misinterpreted or lead to miscalculation during a very delicate time. a time of great tension. >> reporter: so far russia has not moved significant forces off their bases near the ukraine border, but by the weekend, the u.s. expects nearly 150,000 russian troops conducting war games close to that border. if, and it's a big if, russian president vladimir putin were to
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order his troops into ukraine, they could move in so quickly, the u.s. might not know right away it's happening. one u.s. official telling cnn, our warning time is cut to zero. and that makes it impossible for last-minute u.s. diplomatic pressure. so it's a full-court press now to make sure russia doesn't go back on its promise to respect ukraine's sovereignty. needs to step back and avoid any kind of provocations. and we want to see in the next days ahead, obviously, that the choices russia makes conform to this affirmation. >> reporter: the u.s. intelligence assessment? putin is sending a message to the u.s. and ukraine that his military still has the capability to invade if he orders it and that he is not willing to lose russian influence over kiev.
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for now, the u.s. believes that putin will not go in to ukraine, at least not on a large scale. one of the key questions nobody could answer, what if just -- he sends a few troops at a time over the border? what then? wolf? >> good question, let's see if we can get an answer. we're joined by george joulwan, the supreme allied commanderp are we seeing another precold war scenario unfold? >> i don't think so. what you're seeing is flexing of the muscle by putin. ukraine is in its vital interests. he'd been concerned about that. this argument has been going on since the soviet broke up in the early '90s. this has been an ongoing thing with the black sea fleet. >> they moved into georgia a couple years ago, a neighboring independent country. >> ukraine is much different. you have a very large russian population in ukraine as well as
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ukrainian population. so i think it would be much different. the eu and nato need to be involved here with us. and we need to provide that leader. >> so when you hear the secretary of defense of the united states, chalk hagel, not just saying but reading a statement in effect warning the russians don't even think about sending troops across the border into ukraine, that's ominous. >> i think we also, as we talked about a couple days ago, we also have to have the deterrent posture to deter something like that, not just politically and -- >> is u.s. deterrent possible right now given the disastrous experience, the long wars in iraq and afghanistan and clearly no appetite here in the united states to use military force any place else? >> the quick answer to that is yes. i think we still have the wherewithal to be able to deter, but it's the political side, the political will, let me use it that way, to be able to deter something like this.
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>> so you think putin can be deterred by the u.s., the europeans. >> yes. >> what about in korea -- >> with u.s. leadership. that's the other part. >> is there u.s. leadership? >> well, i would hope so. and it takes not just the secretary of defense but the president of the united states really understanding why this is important. >> because we're seeing a lot of tensions unfold, not just in ukraine, but obviously syria, tensions with iran, korea, north korea launching four short-range or enemy-range missiles today just as u.s. and south korean troops are leading joint exercises in south korea. there's a lot going on now. >> but secretary hagel used a great word and what you want to avoid for many years, miscalculation, that someone miscalculates on either side what the really threat is. and i don't really think the russians are going to take
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action against ukraine. crimean is another -- that's the black sea fleet. that's another issue that needs to be resolved, but against ukrainian people, no. >> are you concerned about a growing isolationist tendency in the united states? the american public sick of all this international involvement saying, you know what? we've got to spend the money here, we've got important issues here at home. >> yes, i think that is a concern. but u.s. leadership is by the president, by his appointees, by the congress. we have to get this team together again to have a united front against the challenges we face. it's still a very dangerous world out there. we have to understand that. >> i want to show you a picture because they say a picture's worth a thousand words. look at this picture. this is in syria. thousands of people who are lining up. they're dying for food. right? look at this picture. you can see it right there. what a dramatic picture. this is the from the united
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nations human rights commission. these people in syria, they're just hungry, they're looking for food. and look at those lines that have -- i mean, this is heartbreaking to see what's going on right now. >> and we need to take the lead in doing something. we did in the balkans, as you know. we know how to do this, there are ways to do this. >> would you use air power? >> we would have the u.n. and nato and the united states, we used exclusion zones around sarajevo. >> except the russians will veto any such resolution from the u.n. security council. >> i think they've made some move toward humanitarian -- >> humanitarian, yes. >> well, use it. you cannot allow this -- it will spill over in much of the middle east, in jordan, in lebanon, israel is involved in all of this, the saudis are very much concerned. so this is where the leadership is what i'm talking about, and we need to get that. and our military guys that need to stand up and be counted here
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or what are the risks. and that concerns me, there are risks involved. >> general joulwan, thank you for coming in. a river of ice destroying homes and lives. people who fear their community is about to face a disaster. when you order the works you want everything. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup.
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right now this is the worst fear of riverfront residents south of chicago where a massive ice jam is threatening to give way like this one recently did in ohio. homes and lives there are at
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stake. cnn's ted rowlands is there for us. ted? >> reporter: wolf, take a look at this. it's absolutely incredible, this ice jam. we're on the banks of the kankakee river an hour south of chicago. look at these massive chunks of pipes they go on for as far as the eye can see. just a few days ago, they weren't here. the river was frozen, but it was smooth. what happened was we had a few days of warm weather, which started the melting process and got the ice moving, and then it froze up again. and this is the result. the problem, of course, the danger of this is that the massive force that this ice brings with it as it moves down river, you can see huge tree limbs that are in this ice because they were trees that were on the banks of the river and now they're in the middle. the concern, of course, is the homes. you look on the side of the banks of the river and there are homes where the ice is coming right up to. we were talking to people living in this area all day long, they're concerned, they're out
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here monitoring it. you can literally hear the ice cracking at times. and the fear is that there is going to be movement of this ice at some point, and when there is, if there's a buildup, it could move even farther into these homes. and then the second part of the equation is when this ice starts to melt. the ice will move, then the water will come up and a lot of these folks are worried that there could be flooding. but as dangerous as this is, wolf, it is an incredible sight to see. back to you. >> ted rowlands on the scene for us. let's hope for the best. this note, stay with cnn throughout the night, especially later tonight for much more on president obama's new initiative to help young minority men. don lemon will host a special report "my brother's keeper." that will air at 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight only here on cnn. you can always follow us on twitter, tweet me @wolf blitzer, tweet the show @cnn sit room.
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now newt gingrich and sally kohn, they're debating what all of us should eat. >> we might be able to eat better if the food industry wasn't sneaking junk into most of what we buy. >> unfortunately with the food and drug administration proposed today is nothing more than symbolic liberalism. the debate starts right now. tonight on "crossfire," michelle obama's new food labels. is the mom in chief going too far? >> should i be eating this or not? is this good for my kids or not? >> is it the first lady's job to make us healthier or is the nanny state out of control? on the left, sally kohn, on the right, newt gingrich. in the "crossfire" -- a health and nutrition activist and rick berman, who opposes government overreach. should washington help you be healthy or is it wasting your
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time and tax money? tonight on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire." i'm sally kohn on the left. >> i'm newt gingrich on the right. in the "crossfire" tonight guests on opposite sides of this country's food wars. it is a legitimate concern to wore be the health of the american people. michelle obama's done all of us a favor by starting a conversation about nutrition. but the food labels she unveiled today are nothing more than symbolic liberalism. >> we're overhauling these labels to make them easier to read and understand. >> we've been ignoring government labels for 23 years. so now we're going to spend an immense amount of money on a multi-year process to rearrange the information, make it larger and add even more that you'll never read or use. because it makes liberals feel good. it is pure symbolism. >> actually, it's not symbolic at all. it makes us liberals thinner and that's our secret trick to living longer, then wng