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House to Vote on Budget Deal; Space Station Troubles

Aired December 12, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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


SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I mean, we just saw...

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The husband's family.

HOSTIN: ... when we were talking about the affluenza case, how will the victims respond to whatever sentence is given? How will the victims respond to a plea deal? And so I suspect that the prosecutor spoke to the families and said, you know, what do you think about this?

(CROSSTALK)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: When I look at a case, I often look at, how would I perceive this evidence if I was a juror?

And for me, the blindfold was significant because people can have arguments, and things can happen in the heat of passion. Oh, yes, boom, boom. And then you might want to give the person a benefit of the doubt in that kind of situation, but I thought it became very sinister when you find out about a blindfold and him saying that his wife had a surprise for him. That crosses over into...

BALDWIN: Premeditation.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... insidious premeditation. And when I heard that, I thought, I connect the dots.

BALDWIN: And now we have it, murder one off the table, pleading guilty to murder two, possibly 15 to 25 years.

HOSTIN: I think about 19 to 25 under the guidelines, if my memory serves me.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I bet it does. Sunny Hostin and Jane Velez-Mitchell, thank you both very, very much.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.

HOSTIN: You bet.

BALDWIN: And watch Jane HLN tonight 7:00 p.m.

Now to this political pop in Washington, the House of Representatives, ta-da, moving toward this vote on a long-term budget. This time, we're not talking about government shutdowns. We're not talking about last-minute crisis talks at the White House, no temporary fix, no kicking that can down the road.

We're talking about a real live budget, first time in quite a couple years.

We have our chief congressional correspondent standing by, Dana Bash, and Jake Tapper, our chief Washington correspondent, host of "THE LEAD."

Dana, to you first, though. You were in the room. You were questioning House Speaker John Boehner, who I believe your words to me were, he's doubled down on his criticism of fellow conservatives for opposing this budget agreement. You also told us those conservatives are doubling down as well. What is the feeling right now going into today's vote?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That the Republican Party is going to be split, the Democrats, too, probably to a lesser degree.

And that's what you get when you compromise. This is what a genuine compromise usually looks like. Not everybody is happy on either side of the aisle with the deal. But, generally, enough people say it's a good first step or it's enough of what they want that they're going to approve it.

But focusing just now on the Republican side, it is a fascinating turn of events that you have the House speaker trying to get his rank and file in line or, maybe more specifically, giving them cover to vote for this by lashing out at these outside groups who continue, started yesterday and are continuing as we speak to send notices, to make calls to members of the House of Representatives, saying, do not vote for this.

And, substantively, the reason they say is because they feel that it increases fees or in some cases taxes, it does not do enough to address the long-term problem with the debt and deficit, and that it should not be something that conservatives should agree to, that they should stick to principles.

John Boehner says, we get it.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: John Boehner says we get it, it's not enough, but it's a first step.

BALDWIN: This isn't just Republicans who are not getting everything they want. This is Democrats as well.

Jake Tapper, I'm coming to you in just a minute, but just for our viewers, just so you can understand that neither side is getting exactly what it wants, let me through for you first. Republicans wanted but are not getting a newer, simpler tax code set at lower rates. They're not getting Social Security reform, not getting Medicare reform.

On the flip side, Democrats failed to get a tax increase on the wealthy. They're not getting another extension of unemployment aid.

Jake Tapper, I know you today talked to Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat. What was her advice for her troops?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, she's not a huge fan of this legislation. As you mentioned, it doesn't extend unemployment insurance for 1.3 million Americans. She also said she would have liked to have seen some job creation measures in the bill, infrastructure by eliminating tax loopholes, for example.

But, ultimately, she told her members this morning that they should hold their nose and vote for it. That's not actually the precise term she used. Well, we will take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So this morning, you told your members, embrace the suck.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: That's a quote.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Yes.

TAPPER: That's a quote.

PELOSI: That's a quote, yes.

TAPPER: First of all, where -- before I get to the substance of the bill, where did you get that from?

PELOSI: Where did I get it? I think it really captured the moment, wouldn't you think?

TAPPER: Oh, I'm not criticizing it. It seems to sum up what you think of this legislation.

PELOSI: Well, it's not just the legislation. It's the whole process and the fact that we don't have unemployment insurance and those kinds of things, but at the end of the day, we need to have a budget. So what we decided was that our approach would be to...

TAPPER: You're not going to say it to me?

PELOSI: Not on camera.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Embrace the suck. OK.

PELOSI: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: Embrace the suck.

BALDWIN: You tried, Tapper.

TAPPER: She got the expression from former Pennsylvania Congressman Patrick Murphy, who is an Iraq veteran and knows about days, months, years that suck, and she also noted that voting for this is not half as sucky as that. Of course, she wouldn't use that term, but that was her implication.

BALDWIN: Tapper, the eloquence you bring to my show. You and Leader Pelosi, I really appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: I'm just quoting public officials. People say things and I quote them. You can take issue with me, if you want, but I'm just the messenger, Brooke.

BALDWIN: If that's just a sliver of this interview, we will all tune in on "THE LEAD" to watch more of this interview with Nancy Pelosi, embracing the suck on "THE LEAD" at 4:00 Eastern.

Thanks, you two. I appreciate it, in Washington for me.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we're learning more about that interpreter who was signing at Nelson Mandela's memorial. He now admits he suffers from mental illness, says he was hearing voices as he was there on the dais. Should he have been allowed so close to President Obama and all those other world leaders? We will talk to a former Secret Service agent about that.

Plus, a problem on the International Space Station may require an emergency space walk. I will talk live to an astronaut about what these guys are facing up there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The now infamous interpreter accused of signing gibberish at Nelson Mandela's memorial is explaining himself to CNN.

He's Thamsanqa Jantjie right there on the right side of the screen. But take a look on the left here, because that's an authenticated signer, her movements vastly different from his. You see the difference here? But he's still defending his performance, saying he is -- quote -- "a champion of signing."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THAMSANQA JANTJIE, SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER AT MEMORIAL: I have never, ever, ever in my life have anything that said I have interpreted wrong. You can go through all the medias of South Africa. I have interpreting through all the medias of South Africa. Even if you can see my portfolio, I have been in papers for a very long time. No single one says I'm interpreted the wrong interpretation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This man is also saying he suffered from schizophrenia, although CNN has yet to confirm that diagnosis. He also has reportedly told other media outlets that he was having a schizophrenia episode that day, he was hallucinating, signing and hearing voices as he was there on stage next to President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANTJIE: I would like to see the people with deaf disability be accommodated as much as I want to be accommodated.

QUESTION: What sort of disability do you have?

JANTJIE: Me, I'm suffering from schizophrenic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Anthony Chapa, a former Secret Service agent and senior vice president of international business development at Trailblazer International.

Anthony, welcome to you.

ANTHONY CHAPA, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: First question, your reaction, your reaction that this guy here was feet from Barack Obama.

CHAPA: Well, he was close by.

And anyone that's going to be on stage during an event like this -- and this was planned well in advance -- was the responsibility and the selection of the host government. Now, they do work and the Secret Service should have a plan of action or reaction with them.

And what you would see in a larger faraway cutaway is when the president came forward, that his security detail, that inner circle, was never compromised.

BALDWIN: We would have seen other Secret Service agents ready to jump in at any moment's notice if something went awry. But if you're saying it is up to the host government, so in this case, it's up to South Africa for security, for vetting, as a Secret Service agent or from the administration, do you always 100 percent trust the host country to do so?

CHAPA: Well, again, we have to respect that the host government is going to select who's going to be on stage and such, but the Secret Service is going to work with them to find...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Clearly, things were missed in this case, though. CHAPA: Well, they, the host government probably felt comfortable with him, but the Secret Service was not going to take anything for granted.

BALDWIN: What sort of risks does the president of the United States assume when he does travel to another country? I mean, I know you're saying he's at the mercy of the country in which he's traveling all the time.

CHAPA: Well, fortunately or unfortunately, the Secret Service agents, the men, the women, the uniformed division, the agents, the professional administrative staff, we have a reputation for being very, very pushy and very forward-thinking, and wanting these things to be done a particular way.

And when we hear that they're going to do, they're going to take care of vetting and deciding who's on stage, well, fine. We will accept that, but we're going to make -- we're going to put in place mitigating factors in case the work that they're doing is not up to our standards.

BALDWIN: Did you find in your time that you had to do a lot of that?

CHAPA: Every time the president leaves the White House, it's -- for us, it's our Super Bowl. And everything must be absolutely perfect. And you're going to find our guys, our team are the hardest on themselves.

And, you know, after each event, even if on its face it's a perfect event, we're going to go through and find fault and we're going to find was of doing things even better. And I'm doing that now in private practice.

BALDWIN: Anthony Chapa, former Secret Service agent, thank you so much, sir, for joining me. I appreciate it.

CHAPA: Pleasure, Brooke. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, an urgent problem on the ISS, the International Space Station, this may require astronauts to perform this emergency space walk, so we will talk live with an astronaut about what could happen way up there.

Plus, a CNN project six months in the making. A teenager hears voices, hallucinates. We take you behind the scenes of life at home with this family. This is eye-opening. Everyone should see this. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, my fellow space geeks, Houston, we have a problem, different kind of problem than what you're thinking. American astronauts may have to do an emergency space walk to fix it. This is part of the International Space Station's cooling system. It has shut down.

And, right now, we don't know what caused it or even exactly how they can fix it.

But joining me now is Danny Olivas, former NASA astronaut.

So, Danny, welcome, by the way.

DANNY OLIVAS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Good afternoon, Brooke.

BALDWIN: NASA, we know NASA hopes this software fix can help stop this valve from malfunctioning. If not, someone has to actually get out there and make the repair, so you were an astronaut. Walk me through the dangers of heading outside the ISS.

OLIVAS: Well, the components There that are in question as part of the external thermal control system, which basically dissipates the heat from avionic systems, electronics that are outside the space station, as well as inside the habitable module, it just so happens they still have the capability to reject heat from the external payloads.

What they're having trouble with is a sticky valve that's not allowing us to be able to reject heat from internal to the space station.

BALDWIN: I love hearing about payloads and space stations and everything else, but let's just get real for a second. Is this something that would make you nervous? The notion of an emergency space walk makes me nervous, but I'm no astronaut.

OLIVAS: Well, so let's be perfectly clear. The engineers and the researchers here on the ground are aggressively working the problem. As I understand it, they have come up with a temporary solution. There's two loops that are available to them on space station, a loop A and a loop B.

They have reconfigured the space station to handle the loads on loop B. In addition to doing that, they have actually shut down some of the electronics inside the space station in node two, as well as in the Japanese experimental module and the Columbus orbital laboratory.

They're in a good configuration right now. There's not any kind of imminent danger. With regard to going out and doing a space walk, any time you do a space walk, it does have its hazards out there that make you want to be very cautious about doing it.

BALDWIN: Hazards such as?

OLIVAS: Well, so, obviously, there's a litany of things, because this is not something that's planned. It's referred to as a contingency EVA or a contingency space walk to go out and do a repair.

And, first, we have got to understand what repair we would have to do if indeed we did have to go out there. It could be anything from just simply checking some connections, all the way to changing actual boxes and configurations out there.

Now, earlier this year, they had problems with one of the space suits. And they had water fill up and completely fill up, but basically extra water in the helmet.

BALDWIN: Nearly drowned.

OLIVAS: Well, so we never got to a situation where it was, you know, life or death.

The astronauts worked through the problem. The ground team has been analyzing the hardware and trying to determine what the root cause was. They haven't yet been able to identify it or even replicate it on the ground, so it is a little bit of a gremlin out there, but the team has come up with work-around procedures that if it were to happen again, and if the astronaut were to need to breathe, that they have come up with some very interesting ways of being able to use kind of like a snorkel, if you will, for space, to basically get their -- them breathing air in an area that is not contaminated with an excess amount of water.

But, again, we have to get to that point first. All the suits that have been looked at so far, they have gone a thorough evaluation and the team feels pretty good right now that if they needed to do a contingency, they would.

BALDWIN: To fix the gremlin, as you put it. Danny Olivas, Danny Olivas, NASA astronaut, thank you so much for joining me.

OLIVAS: Thank you very much, Brooke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If Stephanie, seems to take it all in stride, it's only because she's seen worse, even worse than what you're about to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go away. Please go away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, a gut-wrenching story of a teenager who hears voices and hallucinates. One of our CNN writers, Wayne Drash, spent six months with this family, dealing with this mental illness and the revelations that he got are stunning. We will talk to Wayne, who got this incredible access, and also Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who spent time with this family. Do not miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Back to our breaking story here on this bride who has now accepted this deal, accepting murder two for pushing her husband off this cliff this summer.

Kyung Lah has been on this as the trial has been under way in Missoula, Montana. She's just walked out of this courthouse.

And, Kyung, huge news there for this woman.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is a very surprising development.

Her own lawyer seemed very surprised. What happened was is that toward the end of the morning, they were approached with a new deal, a plea bargain, saying that they would drop the first-degree murder charge, the lying to federal investigators charge, if she would agree to plead guilty to second-degree murder, so she did.

Before the judge, before Cody Johnson's family, her groom of eight days, she told the judge what she said was finally the truth, that they got into an argument on that cliff, that she did not walk away during that argument, that she pulled and then she pushed him with two hands off the cliff on the shoulder and the back. She pushed him off the cliff. That she panicked, and then she tried to cover it up by telling numerous lies to her friends, to her family, and to police at the local level as well as to the FBI -- so, certainly a very startling development in this case that is officially over, though.

The jury was sent home, Brooke, this case now over. This young woman, 22 years old, now could face a maximum, since she has pled guilty, to life in prison -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Just quickly on this young woman, I mean, what has her demeanor been like day in and day out in that courtroom?

LAH: You know, she -- today, we actually saw this morning when her wedding video was played, we did see a little more emotion from her.

Throughout this trial, she's been quite reserved. She's been very stoic, but, today, we saw her tear up quite a bit morph. The other thing that we did see inside the courtroom when this video was played is that people were quite emotional as far as Cody Johnson's mother and his friends and the other family members in this very packed courtroom.

And the other thing I should mention, Brooke, when she did say the words, when Jordan Graham said the words to the judge "guilty" to second-degree murder, you could physically see her mother slouch, her aunt become very emotional, say the words yes, and that her friends were very, very emotional.

Certainly, these were the words that they were hoping to hear when she was explaining what happened on the cliff after being lied to for so long.

BALDWIN: Understandably so. She's going away for quite a while, as you point out, Kyung Lah in Montana for us. Thank you, Kyung.

And now to a story here. This is about a boy. We're going to call him Daniel. And so when Daniel was 9, without anyone knowing, he repeatedly fought to save his brother's life. How? By ignoring the voices in his head.

Let me read you this quote now from Daniel's story on CNN.com -- quote -- "On a fishing trip, Stephanie" -- this is Daniel's mom -- "watched as Daniel pushed their lunch supplies, one by one, off the top of a picnic table. When she scolded him, he apologized. He kept the real reason to himself. Voices urged him to shove his 3-year-old brother into the lake so he would drown. Daniel pushed stuff things off the table instead. It was his way of deflecting the voices, of keeping his brother safe."

These are the secret struggles of thousands of families who live with a person who has severe psychological problems. And too often, we hear and we report on what happens when families do not get help, Newtown, Aurora, Columbine. And now one family allowed CNN into their lives to help you understand the often unspoken side of living with the mentally ill.

Here's CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ESCAMILLA, MOTHER: When people meet my son, they don't see the mental illness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, mom. It stopped raining. I'm going to go.

GUPTA (voice-over): I want to tell you a story about the love between a mother and her son.

ESCAMILLA: They don't see the 20 hospitalizations. They don't see that he hallucinates. He strives to be a normal kid, but he has something that holds him back from doing that.

GUPTA: To protect his privacy, we're not going to show you his face or use his real name.

For the next few minutes, he will be known as Daniel.