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Mother of Victim on 737 Max: FAA, Keep Unsafe Planes Grounded; Business at Trumps Miami Resort in Steep Decline; Anderson Cooper Honors Journalist Killed in War Zone. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 15, 2019 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Nor would anyone watching ever, ever want to. But, you know, it's happened to you. It's to so many other people's children and husbands and wives. And could we just -- I want to get your thoughts on this hearing. But I want to talk about your Samya. She was 24. She was flying to Kenya for her first assignment with a health systems development organization and you lost her. And so just for parents who have never gone through losing a child like this, can you put it into words?

NADIA MILLERON, DAUGHTER KILLED IN ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH: So, it just makes you shake like a leaf. I got a message from Samya. It was a group text. She said, I'm on the plane for Nairobi. I have two more hours to go. And then for a family sickness I was up in the night a couple of hours after she sent that text. I heard the BBC report that there was an Ethiopian crash. They said that the plane left at 8:36 in the morning and it was Ethiopian Airlines.

And my whole body just started shaking, shaking terribly because I just thought that -- there can't be two planes from the same airline going -- leaving at the exact same time. And then we confirmed with her work that that was her itinerary. That she was on the plane.

And we got in the car and drove to JFK airport, which is two and a half hours south of us. And we figured out how to get to Ethiopia. And we're thinking she's alive. She's in the hospital. She needs us. We've got to get there. And then in the airport we found out that there were no survivors.

And then when we got to Ethiopia, we were there to take her body home. And we kept pushing and saying there are bodies. There are bodies. We saw it on the news. We saw them loading bodies into vans. And the reporter was saying, I see six bodies have loaded and then we found out there were no bodies. Those were chunks of flesh and it took us days and days and days to figure this out. Even when we went to the crash site. We just saw a pile and pile of debris.

But when we finally talked to the Ethiopian CEO of the Ethiopian Airlines, he said he got to the crash site at noon and it happened at quarter of 9:00. And he said there was a crater and a -- and one piece of metal sticking out. The airplane dove into the earth and the airline was broken into tiny and small pieces and the people were broken into small pieces and it all mixed together with the earth. So it wasn't until Friday that we understood that that happened. And I am still so agitated physically because I don't want this to

happen to anyone else and I believe that the way that Boeing is acting and the way that the FAA is acting and those quotes you shared -- although there were some very good questions and concerns that were coming out of the hearing, that the hearing was, I think, productive. But the quotes that you shared is an attitude which leads us to another crash and I don't want this to happen to anyone ever.

BALDWIN: Can you --

MILLERON: The only way that we can stop this is by the public caring. That's it.

BALDWIN: How can they not listening to you. Just tell me more about Samya and her dreams.

MILLERON: Samya graduated from her master's program in Copenhagen, Denmark in June. She had got a full scholarship to go and study global health there. And she worked on getting a job all the way from June until December. She was offered this dream job with Think Well, which is a Gates funded NGO that does bottom-up systems change and proposal for health care in Africa and other low-income and middle- income countries.

And she really believed -- you've got to talk to people who are going to get the health care to make the right program for them. So she had done research in Peru as an undergraduate and she had done research in Europe on hepatitis and recommendations for policy change as a consultant after graduating.

And she was just on fire. She loved life. She was almost six feet tall. She wore four-inch heels. She strode around Washington, D.C. I just can see her here now.

Last night we stayed at a rental that she had stayed in for four days before starting her job. I could just feel her. She's still so alive. She was just -- she was -- she was looking up women DJ's in Kampala. She was so excited about everything, about clothing in east Africa, about music, about women, about health care, about the promises for the future. Who knows how many people, lives Samya would have saved.

And look at all these other people I'm holding. The girl who is pictured next to Samya. Danielle Moore, she's from Toronto. She got -- the Canadian government gave her the opportunity to join the U.N. in their climate -- in their environmental conference. The boy right under Samya, 23 years old, Micah Messent got the same opportunity from the Canadian government. He works with indigenous to Canada.

BALDWIN: We could spend -- forgive me --

MILLERON: These people are amazing. Look at the little boy there. Adam Konarski.

[15:35:00] You know, how could this happen. And if anybody thinks they're immune, if anybody thinks this just happens in the -- outside of the United States, that is delusional. We have to look at the real problems in this plane. Do a proper investigation, find out everything that went wrong and correct it. We can't just say oh, like that representative said, that happens in other countries because they don't train the pilots. That --

BALDWIN: No, it has to be corrected. I appreciate -- I appreciate you being on. I am -- I'm not even going to say I'm sorry because I appreciate your fight. And I appreciate the fight of so many other families and it does need to be corrected. And Nadia Milleron, I have no other words. You spoke so eloquently. I thank you so much. Let's continue this conversation. Change must happen. Thank you.

MILLERON: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Thank you. We'll be right back.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Being President has cost me a fortune and that's OK with me. I knew that a long time ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well President Trump may have been more spot on about that prediction than he realized. Bloomberg has been reporting that vacancy rates at Trump Tower in New York are now twice the average for Manhattan. And now today "The Washington Post" lays out how Trump's prize National Doral Resort in the Miami area have seen the net operating income drop 69 percent in the past two years. It is a business Trump has listed as his biggest money-maker in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The land is great. The golf courses are -- as you know the Blue Monster is one of the great courses of the world.

But most importantly we have happy just really happy customers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's bring in Jonathan O'Connell, a "Washington Post" reporter who report about his Trumps Doral resort. Jonathan, what's behind the decline?

JONATHAN O'CONNELL, REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well you know, some people may remember when Mr. Trump was campaigning and made comments about Mexican immigrants being rapist or drug dealers. A major sponsor of the tournament that played at Doral every year for 50-some odd years, pulled out and the tournament left as a result. And that tournament was really essential to bringing golfers from around the country and around the world to Doral. Because they could watch famous golfers play it on TV and then go play that course themselves. And now that sort of annual advertising boost is really gone. BALDWIN: So I read the quote from Eric Trump in your piece. Is he

just not looking at the same documents you're looking at?

O'CONNELL: That is a good question. The Trump family likes to talk about how they have some of the best real estate in some of the best cities in the world. And obviously Miami is a great American city and this is a beautiful golf course.

At the same time there is absolutely no question that the finances there have gotten much worse over the last two years. Again, we're relying here on financial figures that the Trump organization themselves submitted to Miami Dade County in order to get their tax assessment lowered. So we're just really reporting what they themselves are claiming in terms of their own revenue and profits.

BALDWIN: In case people haven't read it. This is Eric Trump.

The story is completely senseless. Our iconic properties are the best in the world and our portfolio is unrivaled by anyone.

Jonathan O'Connell, thank you.

O'CONNELL: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, Anderson Cooper joins me live to talk about a fellow journalist and war correspondent he won't forget. And what's being done to honor his memory.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All this week we're bringing you stories of remarkable people who are making a lasting impact around the world. We're calling the series "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE." It's our chance to revisit stories we've covered in the past that have really stayed with us.

Back in 2009 Anderson Cooper was sent to Afghanistan to report on the battle with the Taliban and he worked with a talented young photographer by the name of Tim Hetherington and it is a friendship Anderson will never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The realities of war, captured on camera by journalists Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What just happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we were the targets. We were supposed to arrive very close over our head and coming.

COOPER: This is Tim in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan in 2007. He spent a year on and off embedded with U.S. troops, making a documentary called "Restrepo."

They were on the front lines of battle, the combat intense. The footage as up close as you can get.

But for Tim, reporting from warzones was about so much more than just capturing firefights. Sebastian's film, which way is the front line from here, is behind the scenes look at Tim's work and his mission.

TIM HETHERINGTON, JOURNALIST: For me, whilst there is a certain amount of adrenaline to combat and filming that. I mean, for me the really important story is being close to these men. And that's what it is about. That's what really, I'm there for.

COOPER (on camera): These pictures by Tim Hetherington, have has been traveling with us this past week.

(voice-over): I first met Tim in 2009.

(on camera): They all said we were in Afghanistan together, reporting on the fight against the Taliban.

(voice-over): Tim was our photographer for that assignment, and his talent was obvious from the start, but I soon came to know his humor, his kindness and his bravery.

[15:50:00] And I saw firsthand how his curiosity about the world gave him the ability to connect with people.

It's a sensitive situation.

He started off as a colleague, I came to consider him a friend.

Tim went out of its way to interact with his subjects, no matter where he was in the world.

HETHERINGTON: How to say very good in Talen (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alam.

HETHERINGTON: Alam. OK, you're English.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alam.

COOPER: In 2011, Tim went to Libya to cover the rebel forces who were fighting against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi that would be his last assignment. This video is from that trip, taken before a mortar fired by Gadhafi's forces landed near Tim and a group of journalist in the city called Misrata.

Sebastian Junger was supposed to be with Tim on that trip.

(on camera): Do you remember where you were when you got the news?

SEBASTIAN JUNGER, FOUNDER RISC: The phone rang, and it was a mutual friend of ours saying Tim's been hurt. And the news was that Tim and some other journalists were hurt.

COOPER: I read that they have been out earlier in the day, and sort of felt like they had pushed their luck. And that Tim decided to go back with the rebels to take photographs of the aftermath of the attack.

JUNGER: So they all went back, and who lived and who died, and who was wounded and who wasn't, depending on where they were on the group where the mortars landed.

COOPER (voice-over): Tim was hit by shrapnel in the leg. His femoral artery was cut, he bled to death in the back of a pick-up truck on the way to the hospital. Sebastian believes Tim's life could have been saved, if the others with him knew how to administer some basic first aid.

JUNGER: I just thought, oh, had I been with Tim, I wouldn't have known what to do either. I would have watched him die. Right and which I can't imagine what that would have been like. And I just have to start an organization that will train people like myself and like Tim and everybody else.

COOPER: And so he did. In Tim's honor, he started an organization called RISC, Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues. This nonprofit seeks to provide free medical training to journalists who cover conflict zones.

They used real life scenarios, journalist practice on dummies and actors. Many of these journalists are freelancers, which means they don't have companies to pay for their insurance or security, or to outfit them with the medical supplies they may need on the front lines. Sebastian wants to change that status quo and do what he can to prevent another death like Tim's.

(on camera): What do you think Tim's legacy is?

JUNGER: I think, he represents to a lot of people, a certain very human way of taking it and understanding the world. Of realizing that we are sort of all part of the joy and the pain of this planet, and that there's a way to connect other people in very different circumstances, just through your shared humanity.

HETHERINGTON: You seem very intelligent for nine.

A really important thing for me is to connect with real people, you know, to document them in this extreme circumstance, you know, where there aren't any kind of needs solutions. So where you can't put any kind of neat guideline and say this is what this is about or this is what it is about is not. I hope in my work kind of shows that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And Anderson is with me now. I mean, wow. Towards the end of the piece, when you ask Sebastian about Tim's legacy, I just wonder for you, why all these years later Tim is still so important to you?

COOPER: I think when you traveled with him, you just saw what an extraordinary human being he was. You know, beyond just an extraordinary photographer. And I think I learned a lot about interacting with people in very dangerous situations. And Tim managed to focus on the humanity in all of these situations. You know, their complex battles and wars with varying groups in different places in the world. And yet it does battle down to individuals who are fighting, who are dying, who are trying to save others. And I think Tim was able to kind of capture that humanity and relate to people in a very real way that was remarkable to see up close.

BALDWIN: And just tell me more about RISC and helping journalists covering war zones.

COOPER: Yes, you know, I think it's such an interesting idea. You know, we work for CNN, we work for a major organization. If we go into a war zone, we have -- you know, sometimes we have security. We have a medical pack with us. We generally know where the nearest hospital is, if, you know, if we're going to have the possibility of getting injured.

[15:55:00] We could be medevacked out in an emergency.

You know, freelancers who are traditionally used in war zones, they don't have any of that. And it's very difficult for them. And I think this group, RISC, which is just kind of exists here and there wherever they can raise enough money, they put on a training for freelance journalists to basically try to figure out how to save lives in the field.

BALDWIN: Thank you for Tim's story. Anderson, good to see you. And just a note to everyone watching, do not miss an hour-long "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" special, this Saturday night at 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

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