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Living in Freddie Gray's Neighborhood; Texas Governor Wanted Gunmen Investigated for Terror Links; Obama Comments on Police Tactics; Alonzo Mourning Friendship with Obama, Helping Underprivileged Children in U.S.; Obama Talks Opportunities for Minority Boys, Youth. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 4, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:33:47] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're looking at live pictures here of this event in which we'll be hearing President Obama speaking about the White House initiative that he launched in February, My Brother's Keeper/

I just want to take you back to Baltimore with me. I was there all last week. I was speaking to some pretty incredible young people who can speak directly to why programs such as the president's are so key. Living in Freddie Gray's neighborhood, Carde Cornish (ph) and Kiarra Boulware, both supporting themselves by selling drugs in a community filled with absent parents and few community resources or recreational centers and little motivation to get an education or seek a brighter future. But that changed.

Here's a piece of what I saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: How long did you sell drugs?

CARDE CORNISH (ph), BALTIMORE RESIDENT: It wasn't a long time. But it's only a matter of time until you partake in it, no matter what it is. It's like sports. If you grow up in a community where everybody is playing sports, you're likely to play some kind of sports. It's --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: It's what you know. It's your community. What were you selling?

CORNISH (ph): Heroin, cocaine, light stuff, nothing that's --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You consider that light?

CORNISH (ph): I mean --

(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: You consider that light. That's the reality here in Baltimore, here on these streets. What needs to happen now? How does this get -- this whole situation improve?

(CROSSTALK)

[14:35:08] BALDWIN: Because not all cops are bad.

CORNISH (ph): Hold these officers accountable for their actions. If I were to hurt you here right now, I would go to jail. I wouldn't go on vacation with pay, none of that. I wouldn't go back to work. I would be sitting in a cell until they decide what they're going to do to you, what they want to do to you, whatever. But these cops are just -- it's like they got a bit of freedom right now. It's weird. That's the numbing feeling. Like, they can get away with it. People just feel -- that's why people are scared of cops. You don't know what's going to happen. Am I going to be the next Freddie Gray if I come in contact with the cops?

BALDWIN: Did you grow up always believing you had limited options?

BOULWARE: No.

BALDWIN: Then what changed?

BOULWARE: My grandmother always worked hard and instilled in us to work hard and take care of yourself and go to work to do the things you needed to do for yourself. But throughout her working, the presence of a parent was missing. So in hindsight, we kind of raised ourself.

BALDWIN: Presence of a parent, meaning your dad, who's been incarcerated?

BOULWARE: Yeah. My mom, who isn't incarcerated, but just wasn't active. We have a good relationship now, but you know, I'm grown now.

BALDWIN: What options were limited to you, are limited to so many people in this community?

BOULWARE: Education, recreation. We have no recreation centers in this community. But our Penn-North Center has become a vessel. Our primary care was adults with substance abuse problems. Having a director that's so passionate -- when I came in and implicated we need something for the youth, he was all for it. We understand, like I said, there's no recreation centers around here.

BALDWIN: Just sitting here and looking around, you have all these different row houses, right. I see a grocery over there. I've seen liquor stores. I've seen churches. That's it.

BOULWARE: That's it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Kiarra and Carde (ph), thank you both so much for your time with me last week in Baltimore.

Again, as soon as we see the president take to that podium in the Bronx, we'll bring it to you live.

Meantime, there's so much more coming out of this story out of Texas. This accused ISIS sympathizer and his accomplice shot and killed outside this event featuring a drawing contest, cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Also next, the sudden rise of Baltimore's chief prosecutor. She's Marilyn Mosby. Her decision to charge those six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray elevated her to the spotlight. This is someone's who has been in the job almost four months. Now we're learning more about how she came to arrive at that decision. CNN's exclusive interview with Marilyn Mosby and her prominent husband in that city, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:21] BALDWIN: As we wait for President Obama, some huge developments today out of Texas, where this ISIS sympathizer and his accomplice have been killed after opening fire outside an exhibit featuring cartoon drawings of the Prophet Muhammad. This event sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which a number of critics describe as a hate group, offered up as much as $10,000 for the best cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Now we have a photo of one of the shooters here. He's Elton Simpson of Phoenix, Arizona. It is believed Simpson actually sent a tweet prior to that attack, claiming responsibility.

Joining me now is Rosa Flores, who's been working this all day.

First question, I understand the governor of Texas has now weighed in. What did he say?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, saying he was briefed by the mayor and the Texas Department of Public Safety. He's offering all the resources of the Lone Star state to make sure that they get to the bottom of this. He's also praising those police officers who were on scene and as you know, Brooke, that one officer used his duty pistol in order to stop those assailants. He's acknowledging that, offering all of the resources of Texas in order for them to get to the bottom of this.

BALDWIN: What more do we know about the suspect? I mentioned that he, you know, sent out a tweet ahead of time. But he clearly was at least motivated by ISIS' radical ideology.

FLORES: And we know that he was an ISIS sympathizer. He was actually linked to an ISIS member online. I'm not sure if we have those tweets available, but I want to read one of them.

BALDWIN: Back and forth.

FLORES: Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth. He specifically wrote this. I want to mention this one. So this one in particular is the one that the suspect first sent. It says, "The bro with me and myself have given -- we've translated that and it pretty much means --

BALDWIN: "Giving ourself over to the jihad."

FLORES: Exactly. "May Allah accept us as Mujahadeen." Take a look at that hash tag, Brooke, #Texasattack. We have that ISIS member online who re-tweeted that tweet and also September this out. I'll read it to you. Quote, "The brothers in Texas may have had no experience in shooting, but they was quick to defend the honor of the Prophet Muhammad." That was his words, end quote. So we're not learning -- we're also learning more from the community center, the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix, from the president of that organization there, saying that the suspect actually went by Ibrahim, by that name. He'd gone to that mosque for many months. He never talked about violence. He says, quote, that "He was a nice guy." So again, we're just kind of piecing things together, gathering information both online and from people on the ground as to who was this man. And maybe, you know, try to find out why he did this.

[14:45:22] BALDWIN: Yeah, still so early.

Rosa, thank you so much.

For that, we have more from Texas.

Also just a heads up, as we can show you live pictures of what's happening not too far from where I am in the Bronx at Lehman College, the president. What we'll play for you on the other side of the break as we watch and wait for him to speak live, he sat down and held a round table, a conversation ahead of his My Brother's Keeper initiative. This is his initiative nationwide to help young men of color in this country. Stay tuned for that. The president, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:49:48] BALDWIN: You've heard of My Brother's Keeper. This is an initiative the president initially spoke about last February. It's an initiative that really reaches out to young boys, young men of color, and using the power of the presidency to get foundations and businesses working together to help these young boys and young men across the country. So President Obama has stopped by this college here in the Bronx, in New York. So as they're running a smidge late, but we're going to take that as soon as it happens.

In the meantime, just within the last few minutes, he sat down with a number of young men and John Legend and they had a round table. Here it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATS: If you have any doubt about the incredible promise and potential of America, then you need to get to know these young men. Because they are examples of intelligence, hard work, empathy and compassion, some street smarts, and all these young men are going to do incredible things with their lives. Many of them are already doing incredible things with their lives. Part of what we want to do was to make sure we heard directly from young people who oftentimes are growing up in really tough situations, single-parent households, low-income communities, crime- infested areas. We've heard stories of some of these young men being stopped and put on the ground by police for no reason. Domestic abuse inside the household. You know, situations where the schools don't seem to be invested in their success. Yet, despite all that, these young men are succeeding in some remarkable ways. And part of what I heard from them was that they're succeeding because somewhere along the line, they've received a mentor, somebody who's just paying attention to them and giving them some sense of direction. Part of what we've heard is that they've had the opportunity in some way to participate in community service and to get involved and have been able to show themselves that they matter and they count and they can make amazing things happen in their own communities. What all of them suggested is that if we're going to be successful in addressing some of the challenges that young men of color face around the country, is that their voices have to be part of how we design programs and how we address these issues because they've got a lot to say, and what they say is powerful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So leading this initiative is, of course, the president. You see all these faces on your screen. You recognize these men helping with this foundation. You have John Legend, former NFL Star Jerome Bettis, Secretary of State Colin Powell and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

And the man you're about to hear from here, NBA Hall of Famer, Alonzo Mourning, talked to me about his friendship with the president and why he shares his common value of helping underprivileged children in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALONZO MOURNING, RETIRED PRO BASKETBALL PLAYER: We share the same interests, you know, and it all resonates from when we were younger and understanding the opportunities we were given as children. There's a lot of children -- we understand there's a lot of kids out here, especially young men of color, who have the ability but just don't have the resources. All of this is centered around basically trying to provide the same resources that we were given to these individuals, these young individuals that come from some very economically challenged areas.

BALDWIN: I want to get into some of those challenges. I witnessed them with my own eyes in some parts of west Baltimore last week. As it pertains to these young men of color, I know the president launched My Brother's Keeper last February. I know, you know, you and your foundation, you're out and about. You're helping young people as well. What is -- when you're talking to young men who have not a lot of hope and not a lot at their fingertips, what is your message?

MOURNING: Well, it's simple. That they're capable of doing anything that they set their mind to by surrounding themselves with the right people. Through our foundation, you know, that's exactly what we do. You think about young people and you think about the journey they have to take and all the obstacles they're confronted with. The difference between the ones that do well and the ones that don't do well is them having that strong voice of influence in their lives and that just makes the difference in whether or not they go left or right. So we bring these kids into this world. They don't ask to come into this world. Everybody talks about the issues that our young people are having and the problems, but we don't have a youth problem. We have an adult problem. I think that adult problem is basically our adults not really prioritizing all the things necessary to help map out the right blueprint for our young people to take steps forward in life.

[14:55:14] BALDWIN: You know, I think you're hitting on an issue -- I talked to someone else in the show who wrote an essay on CNN.com saying where are all these black men in the communities, because of mass incarceration over minor drug offenses, et cetera, the lack of role models. I was there last week. You have the reverends from these churches and some community leaders, but there really is this dearth. You had that with limited job options and no rec centers and Little League fields, what do you have left?

MOURNING: I think the president put it perfectly in his second State of the Union speech that I had an opportunity to attend. He said that the antidote for poverty is a world-class education. What we need to do is we need to try to continue to provide those educational opportunities, which in turn is going to create options for these young men. Many of them feel like they don't have options, but you arm them with the right information necessary for them to develop the right mentality. And throughout their developmental process, exposure is key. We have to expose our young people to things outside of their community. As the old saying goes, what they say is what they'll be. We got to show them other opportunities and what they can aspire to be. I think that's the dilemma we face. We just can't leave it to our public school system to do it. We can't.

BALDWIN: Can I just ask you on a personal level, Alonzo, how did you feel growing up as a young man, a teenager, how did you feel about police?

MOURNING: How did I feel about police?

BALDWIN: Yes, sir.

MOURNING: I looked at them as individuals that were given the job to serve and protect the community. I think that in the wake of some of the recent events around the country, the whole perception of police have changed and they are being looked at more as -- and not all of them are this, but they're looked at more as adversaries. Unfortunately, I really feel like we're at a state and time in our lives where we need to try to come together and address these issues. We're not on this island by ourself. We're all here together. We need to -- the individuals of authority need to address a lot of these issues that we're dealing with. I think that the long and short of it is that we have to prepare our young people to handle positions of authority a little bit better in a lot of different ways.

BALDWIN: I bet, Alonzo, you have law enforcement friends. And I'm wondering on the flip side, you know, what are they sharing with you in the wake of all of these stories we're seeing? Not just in Baltimore but nationwide.

MOURNING: Well, I do have some friends of mine. It's a tough job. It's a tough job when you're in a position where you have to protect and serve, and many of them are intimidated. They are. They're scared of what they're confronted with on a daily basis. Many of them kind of react without thinking. But as professionals, as professionals, we expect them to react and make the right decisions. Many of them don't make the right decisions all the time. So because of that, there's a stereotype that's created just by a couple of bad apples. There's a stereotype that's created, you know, where all of us are kind of looking at these policemen and women and people that are supposed to protect and serve us, they're looked at as villain villains.

BALDWIN: Joining me from the Bronx around this whole My Brother's Keeper event, the Alonzo Mourning.

It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. My best to you, Alonzo.

MOURNING: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And that was Alonzo Mourning.

Here he is, the president of the United States. Just to set this up, he's in the Bronx in New York, specifically speaking about this initiative, My Brother's Keeper, helping young minority men and boys around this country, help bring them up, help them find opportunities. He very well may address what's happened most recently in Baltimore involving the death of Freddie Gray.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:48:48] OBAMA: America is a place where you can make something of your lives. And I want to thank Lehman for hosting here today. Our community college system, the CUNI system, our public education institutions, they're all pathways for success. And we're very proud of what they do.