Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

World Remembers Barbara Bush; Mike Pompeo Meets with North Korea; Starbucks Tries to Improve Image. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired April 18, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, stunning news out of North Korea, a secret meeting between the head of the CIA and Kim Jong-un.

The UN calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis as the war rages in Yemen; three quarters of the population are now in need of aid.

Plus, Starbucks shutting down its stores to train employees for a day not to make lattes but how to avoid those racially biased incidents like that one right there.

Hello. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. This is the first hour of Newsroom LA and it starts right now.

Well, those plans of a face -to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are moving full speed ahead. Sources confirmed to CNN CIA Director Mike Pompeo travelled to North Korea over the Easter weekend and he actually met with Kim. On Tuesday, while hosting Japan's Prime Minister in Florida, Mr. Trump said the U.S. and North Korea have been talking at very high levels, and officials are now considering five locations for the upcoming summit.

Mike Pompeo talked about the Trump-Kim meeting last week during his Senate confirmation hearing to be the next Secretary of State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm optimistic that the United States government can set the conditions for that appropriately so that the President and the North Korean leader can have that conversation and will set us down the course of achieving a diplomatic outcome that America so desperately -- America and the world so desperately need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And now you know why he was so optimistic. CNN's Will Ripley is live for us this hour Hong Kong.

Will, we've now confirmed this clandestine trip to North Korea by Mike Pompeo. We should know he's also nominated to the next Secretary of State. So, what other details that we can add to the reporting here?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really remarkable considering what a leaky administration this is that we haven't heard about this sooner, John. But, yes, sources are telling CNN that in fact there was a meeting in Pyongyang. Mike Pompeo flew there secretly on the same weekend that Kim Jong-un met with the IOC President, Thomas Bach, and also watched the K-pop performance.

Sometime over that weekend, he also had a several-hour long meeting with Mike Pompeo and a source familiar with that meeting tells me that Kim Jong-un came into the room, he had a number of notes in front of him. He was personable and well-prepared, this source tells me.

But the main sticking point then and now I'm told is the venue for the meeting. South Korea and perhaps North Korea as well would like to have the meeting at the demilitarized zone where the summit will be happening next week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

However, the U.S. is not interested in having that meeting in South Korea. They want a neutral location. There are apparently five locations being considered according to President Trump. We're hearing the frontrunner is Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, but we just have to wait and see if they can come to an agreement on that for the meeting sometime in early June is what President Trump is now saying or he's saying it might not happen at all.

VAUSE: This is just a stunning development on a number of levels, not least because the Trump administration for the better part of the year seemed intent on finding a military solution to the North Korea crisis rather than a diplomatic one. And this isn't just a 180, this is 180 at light speed.

RIPLEY: It's a U-turn, it sure is. And there are a lot of factors at play here. The Olympics were one reason. The fact that North Korea feels they've completed their nuclear force or at least completed it to a point that they can use as leverage with the U.S. is another reason.

The key difference going into these negotiations is going to be that the price will be much higher for North Korea to even consider denuclearization given the fact that they have come so far with their nuclear program. And sources are also telling me that the idea of complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization, while you hear that said over and over by the United States and its allies, it's a pretty unrealistic goal simply for the fact that we don't know where all of North Korea's nuclear weapons are hidden. We don't know exactly what materials they have.

So, a more realistic compromise would be perhaps closing down major facilities, destroying some weapons, agreeing to inspections and trying to contain North Korea as a suspected but undeclared nuclear power. Now, whether the United States would be willing to accept that, whether North Korea would be willing to accept that the United States is highly unlikely to pull its troops off the Korean Peninsula and get rid of the American nuclear umbrella that protects South Korea and Japan, that is another open question here.

This is clearly very complex, very sensitive. Whether President Trump fully understands that going into these meetings, we don't know. But we certainly know that Kim Jong-un does and will be very well-prepared after being advised by a number of people whose sole focus is the Korean Peninsula and nuclear gamesmanship, John.

VAUSE: Okay. So, there's this upcoming summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump which is looking more and more likely with each passing day. There is also this upcoming summit between the leaders of North and South Korea. And with that in mind, Seoul announces negotiations to formally end the Korean War are on the agenda when they sit down for these talks with the North. Listen to what President Trump had to day about that.

[00:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war. People don't realize, the Korean War has not ended. It's going on right now, and they are discussing an end to the war. So, subject to a deal, they would certainly have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Apart from the fact that most of are well aware that the war is still actually technically in effect, explain why the final agreement to formally end the war would actually need U.S. approval, because it is not as straightforward as it might seem.

RIPLEY: Right. It's not so simple as President Trump giving his blessing, because obviously the United States was a major player in the Korean War and the Armistice Agreement was signed by the United States and North Korea, although the United States had a representative from the UN go in and officially sign it because they didn't want to acknowledge at that time that the war was essentially a stalemate that has now continued on for all of these decades.

And, look, a peace treaty is something the North Koreans want; it's something that the current South Korean progressive administration wants. But the devil is in the details and the details really are, again, the American presence in the region and particularly on the Korean Peninsula.

VAUSE: Will, we appreciate you being with us.

Will Ripley, who has been to North Korea more times than I think anybody else from outside the hermit kingdom. Appreciate you being with us, Will. Thank you so much.

VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN's Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic. He is with us here in Los Angeles. Thanks for coming in, Ron. Okay, I would preface this by saying the situation in the Korean Peninsula, it can turn on a dime at any moment.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Right.

VAUSE: Having said that, though, right now there has been no nuclear tests, there have been no missile launches, there's been nothing coming out of the North Koreans, no hostile language, nothing out of state media. It seems that maybe this is one foreign policy success that Donald Trump might be able to rightly point to.

VAUSE: Yeah. On most days, in most ways, the Trump presidency has really revealed the risks involved in a President who is willing to just kind of go outside the box on everything. And North Korea is kind of the exception here so far where you know his willingness to go further both on the threatening side and further on the diplomatic side than other presidents have gone does seem to be producing some movement.

But as Will said, I mean all of these roads really point toward the same big rock in the road, which is that it is highly unlikely that we are going to see significant concessions on the nuclear side from North Korea without some major concession on the withdrawal of U.S. troops which would -- from the South Korea which would have an enormously, I think, unnerving effect on American allies through the region.

VAUSE: So essentially, what we're saying here is that the style and the process of the Trump Administration is like nothing we've ever seen before when it comes to North Korea. But that doesn't...

BROWNSTEIN: Like everything.

VAUSE: Like everything.

BROWNSTEIN: Like everything.

VAUSE: But that doesn't actually mean anything when it comes to the issues which past administrations have been unable to resolve.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Right. Look, I think in the past, North Korea has said they would consider denuclearization, but what do they always tie that to, demilitarization, the removal of American troops. Now, if in fact there is something different on the table, that would be a major shift in the calculus, but it is not at all clear is what we're saying.

And by the way, there is another factor in all of this which is between now and this summit, if it happens in June, is the President going to pull out of and decertify Iranian compliance with the Iranian nuclear deal, and if you're and sitting there in North Korea and you're looking at that, isn't that -- how is that going to affect calculus on whether you're willing to --

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE).

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Correct. Exactly. VAUSE: There is also this issue of Russia. Once again, the President

has undercut a member of the cabinet. This time it's the U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who on Sunday was on television and she made this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, UNITES STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. Secretary Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday if he hasn't already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The President was apparently yelling at the television screen according to the New York Times.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

VAUSE: The sanctions were never announced. They were put on hold, essentially. On Tuesday, the White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow basically took Haley to task, saying she was just confused.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISOR: She got ahead of the curve. She's done a great job. She's a very effective Ambassador. There might have been some momentary confusion about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay. And the same -- because a few hours after that Nikki Haley told CNN's Jake Tapper, "With all due respect, I don't get confused." Kudlow has apologized but how much damage has now been done to Nikki Haley's credibility?

BROWNSTEIN: First of all, in American baseball, there is a phrase called chin music, that's when you throw a fastball right under somebody's chin. That was chin music for Larry Kudlow and really quite a striking moment. Look, it's just a reminder. As we said, North Korea was a case where kind of unpredictability and erratic breaking of rules has produced some benefit.

This is more the reminder of what it usually is. You have an administration in which there is no process and when there is, the President seems to be existing independently of it. And so, this question of who is speaking for the President at any given moment has always been extremely murky.

[00:10:00]

There has been no one who has been more effective and has kind of garnered more respect across the aisle than Nikki Haley. But even she in her privileged position in the administration is really unable to impose order.

So on the one end, you have the issue, this bit about Russia with Donald Trump and how far he will go. But I think this is, again, indicative of a larger issue, of the kind of level of chaos that is there on a daily basis and which is enormously confusing for everyone, from people in congress, to people in -- diplomats and capitals around the world.

VAUSE: All around the world. And while the President continues to deal with Russia and North Korea as well as Syria, there is the ongoing Stormy Daniels lawsuit. And now the adult film star who says she had an affair with Donald Trump is offering some new details on her story. So Ron, you'll stay with us. But right now, we'll get details from Sara Sidner.

Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, we're finally getting more details now from Stormy Daniels herself about the person who she says threatened her in Las Vegas back in 2011. This is the first time we have seen the sketch now of the man she says was behind the threat.

After more than a week of teasing it, porn actress Stormy Daniels revealing this sketch of the man she says threatened her back in 2011 to keep her from talking about her alleged affair with Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM ACTRESS: The thing that I remember so clearly about him is that nothing was alarming about the way he looked at first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Daniels appeared on ABC's The View revealing more details about the incident she said happened in a Las Vegas parking lot while she was headed to a mommy and me workout class with her infant daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELS: He had his hands in his pocket and he looked at my daughter and I just remember him saying like, oh, it's a beautiful little girl, it would be a shame if something happened to her mom. Forget about the story. Leave Mr. Trump alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, says he has gotten hundreds of tips since releasing the sketch and he tells CNN's Jake Tapper Daniels has looked at photos of people who may be the mysterious stranger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You said you have some names in mind of whom that sketch might be of. Has Ms. Daniels looked at photographs of these individuals who it might be? MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS LAWYER: She has reviewed, Jake, a

number of photographs over the last few weeks, couple weeks actually and we've narrowed it down.

TAPPER: The photographs that you have that she's looked at, are they individuals who worked for Mr. Trump or Mr. Cohen at some point in the past?

AVIDEO CLIP ENDSNATTI: We believe indirectly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: But she didn't go to the police saying she feared her husband would find out about the alleged one night stand with Trump in 2006.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELS: First of all, I was scared. I would have had to tell an entire police department and police reports are public record, I know that for a fact. I had sex with Donald Trump and then the whole world would have known and I was in the process of trying to quiet that or figure out what to do and honestly, I was just afraid and I didn't want everyone to know.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SIDNER: But she did tell her story that same year for a deal worth $15,000 to In Touch Magazine which didn't publish the story until this past January reportedly because Trump's lawyer threatened to sue. Daniels is talking openly about the alleged threat, insisted she can recall vividly what the man looked like, enough to commission this sketch drawing from her memory seven years prior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELS: I knew I would be asked the question that you just asked me like why didn't you say anything. And I did tell quite a few people actually from back then and...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who did you tell?

DANIELS: I told family members and two friends and people that I worked with.

AVIDEO CLIP ENDSNATTI: I think it's obvious. She just didn't sit down with the sketch artist and, I mean, fabricate this. I mean, this is a very detailed sketch.

SIDNER: And as for President Trump's recent denial...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, can you tell about the (INAUDIBLE)?

SIDNER: The porn actress and director is now reacting; Stormy Daniels isn't buying it.

DANIELS: Let me just say, I work in the adult business and I'm a better actress than he is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Not only has Michael Cohen said in the past that he did not threaten her in any way; he says he's never emailed her, talked to her, texted her, but the only contact he had was with her then- attorney, Keith Davidson. Now as for Stormy Daniels and as to whether she believes the President knew anything about the deal, she says she doesn't believe a word he has said about it.

John?

VAUSE: Sara Sidner, thank you.

So, Ron, we had this reported from the Daily Beast last couple of hours. Stormy Daniels will now appear in next month's edition of Penthouse which apparently is still around, go figure.

BROWNSTEIN: I didn't know.

VAUSE: She'll be donating $130,000 to Planned Parenthood, the money from her appearance. This is the Daily Beast reporting. Sources close to Penthouse have informed the Daily Beast that Daniels talks about everything concerning her alleged 2011 affair with President Donald Trump during the interview including several not safe for work bits left out of her 60 Minutes chat.

[00:15:00]

BROWNSTEIN: You know, there are Democrats who worry that the party is drifting back into the same position that Hillary Clinton was in the 2016 campaign as all this unfolds, which was, as you recall, Clinton put almost all of her dollars and effort on disqualifying Trump on moral grounds, that he was morally unfit to be President, right, and did not really make an economic case against him.

You know, there's no question that all of these accusations and just the way he has comported himself have been a huge headwind. It's the principal reason he's at about 40 percent in approval. But the Democrats may have maxed out on the number of people who are going to abandon Trump and thus abandon Republicans because they view him as morally unfit.

And the more Stormy Daniels is the story, for example, on today's tax day, we're not talking about the tax bill and whether it fulfilled Donald Trump's promise whether good or bad.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE).

BROWNSTEIN: What Trump promised during the campaign was that he was going to defend the economic interests of working people, and there were voters who were willing to accept or swallow their doubts about his kind of moral character because they believed that. No question, he has given people a lot to shoot at on the moral character, but Democrats, as I say, may have maxed out on how people leave him for that. And if they're going to get him further down and create more

vulnerability to the Republicans, they have to challenge that self- image of him as someone who is defending the interests of order. His worst period other than Charlottesville was when he was trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And if the entire dialogue between now and November is about whether Trump is morally fit to be President, that will cause problems in certain places like suburban white collar districts, the Orange County district we talk about with our friends here all the time. But to really go beyond that, ultimately they have to find a way to introduce a dialogue about whether he is effective for working people.

VAUSE: It's very hard, too, with Avenatti, her lawyer. He is a master showman.

BROWNSTEIN: And there is another tabloid -- there is going to be another tabloid scandal between now and November that we don't know about.

VAUSE: Almost out of time. So I want to finish this on a sad note.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes.

VAUSE: Former First Lady Barbara Bush, she died age 92. There is a statement from her son, President George W. Bush.

"My dear mother has passed on at age 92. Laura, Barbara, Jenna, and I are sad, but our souls are settled because we know hers was. Barbara Bush was a fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions. To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end. I am a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly, and we thank you all for your prayers and good wishes."

The ones thing about Barbara Bush is that she was so different than Nancy Reagan.

VAUSE: Yes. That was okay.

VAUSE: She was the grandmother as opposed to Nancy Reagan who rightly or wrongly she was perceived as maybe a little cold, a little aloof.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Right. The one word that I think explains Barbara Bush's hold in her place in the American consciousness was authentic, especially in the contrast to Nancy Reagan who as you say, rightly or wrongly, was viewed as very controlled, even a little plastic, the gaze that she had on Ronald Reagan.

Barbara Bush was seen as someone who spoke her mind, who was not necessarily always warm and cuddly, and she was kind of tart and astringent, but drew enormous respect because she seemed enormously comfortable in her own skin. She was authentic. She was seen as someone who was always really being herself. And you saw that, and I think people responded very well to that throughout her life. You know in 2015, when she was talking about Donald Trump, I mean, she did not mince words or suffer fools gladly.

VAUSE: Donald Trump found out just how loyal she is to her family over the Republican Party, that moment where he went after Jeb Bush. Ron, it is good to see you. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Good to see you.

VAUSE: A little bit more now on First Lady Barbara Bush. She died in her home in Houston, Texas. As we said, she was 92. She was the matriarch of a Republican dynasty. Here is Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: America loves Barbara Bush.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Barbara Bush was the woman behind two U.S. presidents, the wife of one, the mother of another. Barbara Pierce was born in Queens, New York on June 8, 1925. She grew up in suburban New York. At a Connecticut country club dance, she met a young man who would change her life, George Herbert Walker Bush.

BARBARA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY: I was a square all through high school. I just try to do the best I could. I married the first man I ever kissed. You talk about a bore, I am the world's worst.

BLITZER: George Bush focused on building an oil business. Barbara Bush focused on building a family. George Bush eventually entered a life of public service, and while Barbara's candor might not have made a good match for his job as CIA Director.

BUSH: That's because I can't keep a secret.

BLITZER: Her charm was a definite asset to her husband's political career.

BUSH: Find the joy in life because as Ferris Bueller said on his day off, life moves pretty fast. And if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you're going to miss it.

[00:20:00]

BLITZER: George Bush served two terms in Congress and in 1980 was elected as Ronald Reagan's Vice President. Eight years later, he sat in the Oval Office. Barbara Bush loved living in the White House, keeping diaries of her time there and using them to help write her memoirs. Two other books showed her lighter side and a dog's eye view of the executive mansion.

Mrs. Bush knew well her vision of a First Lady's role.

BUSH: I think the person who has the courage to run for the office is the one you should hear, not the wife or the husband. Having said that, of course, I told George how I felt.

BLITZER: For George and Barbara, they are more than 60 years together and included decades of devotion, this letter to her written by George while he was serving in World War II.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, UNITED STATES FORMER PRESIDENT: I love you, precious, with all my heart, and to know that you love me means my life. How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday, how lucky are our children will be to have a mother like you.

BLITZER: Two of those children, George W. and Jeb would solidify the Bush political dynasty as President and Florida Governor. But in a surprising comment in 2013, as talk of a Presidential run by Jeb swirled, the matriarch told NBC's Today Show, there should be a limit on the family's White House claim.

BUSH: There are other people out there that are very qualified and we've had enough Bushes.

BLITZER: But after Jeb did decide to run for the 2016 Republican nomination, she fully backed him and hit the campaign trail.

BUSH: He's decent and honest. He is everything we need in a President.

BLITZER: In and out of politics, the legacy Barbara Bush nurtured will live on through her family, children, and grandchildren.

BUSH: I know that I am the world's luckiest woman. I think if I sort of put it in a nutshell, these are the things that are important to me -- faith, family and friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, the United Nations says the world's worst humanitarian crisis is happening right now in Yemen, the result of a brutal civil war now into its fourth year which is why the U.S. Ambassador to the UN says achieving peace is urgent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: Government services like schools, hospitals and clean water barely exist anymore. This chaos is the perfect environment for terrorist groups like Al Qaida and ISIS to find safe haven and plan attacks that could threaten us all. Finding peace is urgent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This is essentially a proxy war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces loyal to the former Yemeni President which the UN says has killed an estimated 10,000 civilians and three quarters of the population in need of aid; 8 million people are on the brink of starvation.

[00:25:00]

Joining us now on the line from the capital of Sanaa, a spokesman from the UN Refugee Agency in Yemen, Shabia Mantoo.

So, Shabia, thank you for being with us. What's the timeframe here before this goes from a humanitarian disaster to an outright catastrophe?

SHABIA MANTOO, UN REFUGEE AGENCY SPOKESPERSON: Well, we're actually dealing with the world's largest humanitarian crisis at present with 22 million people in need of assistance. And this just the result of three years of conflict, so each day that the conflict is prolonging we're going to see more and more humanitarian needs accrue, and now, we're looking at already the majority of the population really on the brink and in need, so it is catastrophic already and we're not sure what's going to happen after this.

We're dealing with multiple crises, the world's largest humanitarian crisis, the world's largest security emergency, the world's (INAUDIBLE) crisis and also now dealing with the situation where we have now two million people displaced across the country. So, the situation is getting worse and it's (INAUDIBLE).

VAUSE: Your sound on the line is pretty staticy but we can hear you which is great. So, when you walk out your door, when you go down the street of the capital there, what are the scenes, what are you seeing? And how are people actually surviving essentially for food supplies there right now or medical supplies?

MANTOO: Well, across the country, we're just seeing massive humanitarian. On the streets we see people begging, people trying to stay alive not having adequate shelter. There are over two million people that have been forced to flee their homes. They are making makeshift camps.

They are living in any vacant buildings. They are finding shelter wherever they can. People don't have enough water, sanitation, food. They're also trying to evade bombs and bullets, so it's really a struggle for basic survival, a struggle to stay alive, a struggle for safety and a struggle to meet basic needs.

VAUSE: There are 10,000 civilians which have been killed so far, are they just dead in the streets right now?

MANTOO: Well, casualties are occurring almost, I mean, every day that the conflict is ongoing so (INAUDIBLE) casualties; it's quite sad but there is in fact very little, I mean, safe havens and the people don't have anywhere to turn to for safety. They may actually be on the move and then only to find that the place they've moved to has been a site of conflict and hostilities and they've got to move again.

So, it's really quite dire. There's very little protection and safety in the country. So, everywhere we're looking at in each area of Yemen we find that people are displaced and the conflict has really spread there as well

VAUSE: You said that there's sort of multiple crises which are sort of underway right now in different parts of the country which you have to deal with, but just sort of in a big picture here, what are the biggest challenges that you are facing right now in trying to get just basic supplies to people?

MANTOO: Well, the biggest challenge is actually how to distribute and deliver aid in actual warzones because first thing, the conflict in security is prevalent across the country. So, even if we're responding to humanitarian needs and we try and deliver assistance and emergency supplies, the conflict is still continuing, so each day we are finding there are civilian casualties there are people having flee their homes.

And so, as much as we try and respond, each day that the conflict continues the humanitarian needs growing so it's a very insufficient solution short of peace. What really is required is a peaceful end to the conflict and then humanitarian aid and response can start to sort of address really the symptoms of the problem. But as long as (INAUDIBLE) isn't really addressed then we're going to see that we're going to exhaust here really the response on the ground.

VAUSE: Yes. This is a country which seems to be falling apart before our very eyes and no one seems to even care right now. Shabia, we thank you for being there. We thank you for joining us and giving us an update on the situation. Thank you.

Still to come here, investigators are searching for answers after the engine of a Southwest jet failed mid-air causing the first death on a U.S. airline in years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN Newsroom Live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour. Sources have confirmed to CNN, CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong-un during a trip to North Korea over Easter Weekend. President Trump says the US and North Korea have been talking at the highest levels in advance to the planned summit. He's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida.

Syria's Ambassador to the UN says international chemical weapons inspectors will go to Douma on Wednesday if the UN Security team there says it is safe. The town is the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack believed to have killed dozens earlier this month. Russian military says it has discovered a chemical lab in Douma that it says belongs to rebel forces.

The former US First Lady Barbara Bush is being remembered for her devotion to her country and her family. Mrs. Bush died Tuesday at her home in Houston, Texas. She was 92, one of just two women in history to be both been wife and mother of an American President. She also helped raise more than $1 billion for literacy and cancer charities.

Well, officials are investigating the first death on a US airline in nearly a decade. Passengers described chaos in the cabin of a Southwest jet after one of the engines fell shortly after taking off from New York. Shrapnel shattered a window and a woman was nearly sucked out of the plane. That woman later died and has since been identified as 43-year old Jennifer Riordan. We have more details now from Paula Sandoval.

PAULA SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The terrifying moments were captured by passengers who thought they'd never see their loved ones again. Not long after takeoff from New York's La Guardia Airport, passengers aboard Southwest flight 1380 described hearing an explosion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, we hear this loud explosion and it's like -- in a span of five seconds all of the -- all of the oxygen masks deployed and then just a few seconds later, another explosion happened and it was a window that just completely exploded. And as you can imagine, everybody was going crazy and yelling and screaming.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SANDOVAL: This horrifying sight was captured by one passenger at a left window. Fragments of the engine blew off, damaging the fuselage, breaking a window and causing a sudden depressurization of the cabin. The pilots described the harrowing situation for air traffic controllers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your airplane physically on fire?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it's not on fire, but part of it is missing. They said there's a hole, and someone went out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, you said there was a hole and somebody went out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight 1380, it doesn't matter. We'll work it out there.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

SANDOVAL: As one witness recalls, passengers held on to one woman, keeping her from being sucked out of the plane. At least 12 terrifying minutes went by after the explosion and before the plane's emergency landing in Philadelphia, altitude readings from flight radar 24 shows a Boeing 737 descended rapidly from nearly 32,000 feet to 10,000 in only minutes.

Passenger Morty Martinez described the experience, posting on Facebook, I literally bought Wi-Fi as the plane was going down because I wanted to be able to reach the people I loved, thinking these were my final moments on Earth and put in a position to have to prioritize the people I love to send them my final words was an absolutely gut- wrenching feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are protection rings around the engine to keep shrapnel from coming out. Even though we believe that there were parts coming out of this engine, it may not have been in that section of the engine that technically would quality this is an uncontained engine failure.

SANDOVAL: The plane's voice and data recorders are being sent to the NTSB for analysis. They may provide crucial clues in determining what caused the mid-air nightmare.

VAUSE: Thanks to Paul Sandoval for that report. Well, when we come back Starbucks has made a big mooch to try and save its reputation after continued backlash from the arrest of two African-American men who refused to leave because they say they were waiting for a friend, but could this all be a little bit too late for a company right now in crisis?

[00:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: When it comes to crisis management, there is almost total agreement that James Burke wrote the book. He was the CEO of Johnson & Johnson during the Tylenol poisoning recall of 1982. In October of that year, six people died in the Chicago area that have all taken Tylenol laced with cyanide. The seventh victim was found dead in California. In the midst of the crisis, the FBI and other government officials opposed a wholesale recall saying it would be an overreaction. But Burke made that call anyway, ordering 31 million bottles of Tylenol off store shelves at an immediate cost of $100 million.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The phone has been ringing off the hook at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, it's the Regional Poison Control Center for the entire Chicago area. Poison Specialist Lane Oliff.

(LANE OLIFF), POISON SPECIALIST: We've been receiving calls about once every 15 seconds At Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's we only have three poison lines and they are lit up constantly ever since yesterday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, they're telling people which lots of Tylenol are known to have contaminated capsules and checking to see if callers have displayed any symptoms of cyanide poisoning.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

VAUSE: Those are a part of a report aired on CNN, but what was truly remarkable about the response from James Burke was his decisiveness, openness and candor. He quickly relaunched the product with tamper- proof packaging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I discovered Tylenol in the hospital when I had my second child. It worked then and I've used it ever since. It turns out Tylenol is the pain reliever hospitals use most and that's been so for more than 10 years. Well, if hospitals trust Tylenol, that confirms my own trust.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For relief you can trust, trust Tylenol. Hospitals do. Tylenol, safety sealed for your protection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And a year later, sales were almost back to where they were before the poisoning occurred. James Burke would go on to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Fortune Magazine named to be one of history's 10 greatest CEOs. If ever there was a way to deal with a crisis, that was it.

Only it still seems to be incredibly rare for a company of a corporation to be open and honest to admit there is a problem, accept responsibility and then honestly and earnestly try to fix it, which is why the actions at Starbucks is so notable. One day next month all U.S. stores, about 8,000 will close so staff can focus on racial bias training.

And that's on top of the unreserved apology from CEO Kevin Johnson to the two African-American men who were arrested for refusing to leave the Starbucks in Philadelphia. They said they were waiting for a friend and the manager said they couldn't stay because they hadn't bought anything. The police came in and they were taken away.

Joining us this hour is Eric Rose is a Crisis Management Expert. He is partner at EK&A Public Relations. So Eric, good to see you.

ERIC ROSE, CRISIS MANAGEMENT EXPERT: Good to see you again.

[00:40:00]

VAUSE: Okay, so there's been a lot of praise for Starbucks for taking this action. It's a big move. It sends a big message because at the same time, the company really had to do something because it was in free fall. It was facing a lot of problems. It was taking a beating and it's also an example of just how quickly companies have to act in this age of social media. You have to move faster than social media.

ROSE: Starbucks found itself in a lot of hot water that had nothing to do with coffee.

VAUSE: Right.

ROSE: Unlike the Tylenol incident years ago which you just profiled, we live in an age of social media. Everything is much quicker. The CEO of Starbucks had to take decisive action. The first steps out of the gate, the first 24 hours were a little bit of a stumble. They didn't have the greatest statement. The CEO got involved, took over and did what companies need to do nowadays. He took ownership of the issue. He took responsibility. When many of the people wanted to blame the manager, he took the blame himself. He apologized without reservations and he is doing things to make it right. VAUSE: That's (INAUDIBLE) for a CEO who has been in the job for about

a year or so?

ROSE: Yes and he's been there a short period of time, but clearly, he or the people around him have very good instincts. He is putting together a distinguished panel of experts to help the company with racial bias and bias issues period, and I think that what you're going to see is something come out of this company that other companies can follow. And there are other things that they can do.

VAUSE: Okay, when you said instinct, but the one day store closure that they're talking about to train staff will cost Starbucks, I think the estimated I read was around $15 million, maybe a little more, not a small amount of change, but in the grand scheme of things, it's nickel and dime compared to what this could have ultimately cost the company, right?

ROSE: Right. Well, they're not as I understand it doing any complete store closure for a day. They are going to be training people for a couple of hours. It would be a rounding error for Starbucks, really, if they didn't do the right thing. If they didn't think this action, the hit to their stuck and to the company image would be more significant than the cost to take these employees and train them.

VAUSE: Okay. There're also the two African-American men who were arrested by a police.

ROSE: Yes.

VAUSE: They haven't spoken publicly. They have no plans on giving interviews at this point, but we did hear from their lawyer on Tuesday. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Johnson apologized on behalf of Starbucks and the conversation continues today about how this painful incident can become a vehicle for positive social change. We have a situation and the people at the center of this have come together with civility, common focus and a willingness to listen to one another and work towards a solution. Together, we ask that the community respect this process. There will be more to follow.

(VIDEO CLIP ENDS)

VAUSE: Okay, so you touched on this. There're a lot of programs, a lot of other stuff associated with this, not just the training.

ROSE: Right.

VAUSE: Which if you want to be the pessimist, there are a lot of opportunity for something to go wrong further along down the line right?

ROSE: There is. Here is the reality for any major company, any CEO, we hire from the human race. No matter how well you train someone, no matter what your company values are, people are sometimes going to do the wrong thing. Clearly, the actions of the Starbucks manager were not indicative of the values of Starbucks and I think that they're taking the actions now to do things right, especially with the panel they're compiling to help put together best practices and training.

And I think that if you're Starbucks, you may see a surprise. If I were the CEO, what I would do is I would offer whatever the best practices are, whatever comes out of this blue ribbon committee they're putting together and share it with other companies.

VAUSE: You know, given the success that James Burke had what, 40 something years ago with Tylenol in Johnson & Johnson, the praise that Starbucks has received, you know, the positive press I guess after what was a disaster.

ROSE: A disaster.

VAUSE: You know, the model is there for companies to follow when something has gone wrong. Why don't more companies and corporations follow it, you know, like Facebook for instance, Mark Zuckerberg?

ROSE: People are wondering why Mark Zuckerberg who lives in the age of social media, who helped create a platform, isn't living by those same standards. It's remarkable how that...

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) I mean the companies have faced these crises -

ROSE: United, we've talked about United.

VAUSE: Yeah, totally.

ROSE: We've talked about quite a few companies over the last couple of years who have an inability to own up to a situation, to take responsibility, to apologize and really mean it and then do the right thing.

VAUSE: Very quickly, we're out of time, but is this a turning point, maybe this is where things change for companies?

ROSE: Let's hope so.

VAUSE: Okay, Rose, thanks. Good to see you.

ROSE: Thank you. Good to see you.

VAUSE: Cheers. And thank you for watching CNN Newsroom Live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. World Sport is up next. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORTS) [00:50:00]