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Military Troop-Levels to Be Cut; Band Mangles National Anthem; Oil Spill in Mississippi River; Devotional Book Saves Bus Driver From Bullets; Susan Rice Appears on Sunday Show; McFaul on Ukraine and U.S.-Russian Relations; Dr. Drew's Daughter Speaks About Her Eating Disorders

Aired February 24, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Look at that. Up 130 points, a half hour to go in the trading day.

Alison Kosik, thank you.

Bottom of the hour, you're watching CNN here. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And through good times and bad, the U.S. military has always been mostly off limits to budget cuts or at least last resort, but reality check. Not anymore.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has just announced major cuts to the Pentagon budget, this happening just late this morning.

The A-10 attack plane would go away, the U-2 spy plane to be retired and the number of active-duty Army troops and National Guard troops would be cut by thousands.

Secretary Hagel said a recent Pentagon review made two new realities very clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: First, the development and proliferation of more advanced military technologies by other nations, that means we are interesting era where American dominance on the seas, in the skies and in space can no longer be taken for granted.

Second, defense spending is not expected to reach the levels projected in the five-year budget plan submitted by the president last year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Then you have this notion of getting the proposed cuts through Congress. That's a challenge, in and of itself.

Wolf Blitzer, "The Situation Room" host and some of us remember former Pentagon correspondent here on CNN, Wolf Blitzer, is this like a necessary evil?

Is this something the military had to do or was it forced upon them by the budget crunch?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": I think they had to do it for several reasons.

First and foremost, the U.S. had to have 200,000 troops in Iraq. All of them are out to 150,000, 160,000 170,000 troops.

Almost all of them are out to 20,000 or 30,000 left right now. All of them are supposed to be out by the end of the year Let's see if a contingent stays next year and beyond.

If you eliminate all those ground forces, two active fronts in a war, you don't need the troops. You can cut and go from 500,000 to 450,000 and whatever it is and not lose much.

It was doable and a lot of these big ticket items, you mentioned them. You don't need them anymore with the drones that can basically do a lot of the same stuff with cheaper cost.

BALDWIN: Sorry that what it is? The evolving technology. Just reading about this, my goodness. This is just wars that will look so different. The future of war.

BLITZER: A drone can do a lot of the stuff that you used to use a fighter jet to do. That might cost a hundred times more money if not a thousand times more money and you endanger pilots.

With a drone, you don't endanger them and you can do the stuff you used to do with aircraft.

It's a remarkable, new technological advance that allows the military to get rid of the high ticket items you used to spend a ton of money in the past.

BALDWIN: They conducted it and it was the guy sitting in the west pushing the button for the drones and you talk about a different kind of PTSD and still existing.

What about this? The old question being able to fight two wars at the same time. What if we had a dual warlike Iraq and Afghanistan in the future?

BLITZER: Then you mobilize and build up the military quickly. You have the National Guard and the U.S. Army and Air Force Navy Reserve.

You have all of these men and women who were on stand by and mobilized and activated quickly. You go fight and go to it.

After the two experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have seen no appetite to get boots on the ground and get involved in other major land wars.

It will require a major threat to U.S. national security, given the appetite for that experience after Iraq and Afghanistan, if there is a crisis like that to develop, you mobilize and you get the job done.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, we never miss you each and every day on "The Situation Room." Thank you very, very much.

Coming up, did you hear the National Anthem over the weekend? The singer's unique style is getting a lot of backlash today. You can judge for yourself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Turning online, the National Anthem kicked off the series race with "The Star-Spangled Banner." It all went well for a while and then this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A.J. Hammer, I don't know if there words for what we just saw.

A.J. HAMMER, HLN ENTERTAINMENT ANCHOR: No. Their words actually, and people have been spreading them around the Internet today -- I am seeing words like awful, hideous, un-American. I have seen the band referred to as butchers for doing this.

Whoever booked them should have expected it. It stays true to what they do. They have done this before.

They call themselves America's most patriotic rock band as well. Before the performance, the band's leader said they wanted to make it a rock song that people could sing along to and enjoy.

Their version still had reverence. That is clear.

BALDWIN: I understand wanting to put their twist on a song, but some you don't do that to.

HAMMER: They call it awful and when one of the drivers was asked for reaction, he was quoted as saying, "I wish they would sing the damn song."

But you know, we remember when Roseanne sang it, Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis sang it. Right?

BALDWIN: There is something about putting your own stamp on it. I don't know if the band realized how poorly it was going to be received.

They thought they were playing to a crowd who could appreciate that kind of a version, but today, a lot of people know the name Madison Rising.

Now, I should point out very quickly, Brooke. On the other side of this, Aloe Blacc, you know him from the Avicii hit song, "Wake Me Up," he performed the anthem right before the Daytona 500, the very next day.

His version was spot on. His dad was in the Marine Corps, and he said he knew better than to mess with it.

I say, wouldn't you rather be remembered for doing it in the tried- and-true method than trying to put your spin on such an important song?

BALDWIN: I'm just curious. Viewers, what do you think? @BrookeBCNN, I would love to know what people think about that.

A.J. Hammer, thank you very much.

Coming up, a big problem on the Mississippi, oil spill affecting up to 65 miles of the Mississippi River, including the port of New Orleans.

How far this oil sheen could travel, how soon crews could get this cleaned up, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Parts of the Mississippi River are closed for business this afternoon because this giant, oil spill had shut off all traffic for a good 65-mile stretch here.

Coast Guard officials reopened part of the river late this morning. The spill happened Saturday, just off the Louisiana coast, after this tow boat and a barge collided near New Orleans.

Chad Myers has been watching this for us, and where exactly is this?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Vacherie, Louisiana, 70 miles or so up the river from New Orleans.

But, now, they have reopened a lot of the river back up, because they don't believe that the oil has gone down.

There was a sheen, but there was 31,500 gallons.

BALDWIN: Sounds like a lot.

MYERS: Its sounds like a lot. Let me put it into perspective for just a second -

BALDWIN: Please do.

MYERS: -- because there is no such thing as a small oil spill. I just want to you get an idea of where this was and what this means.

There is New Orleans right there, Lake Pontchartrain and all the lake. We zoom into this and we'll show you, right along the river itself, this is where the spill took place, a little crash right here near Vacherie.

We believe that some of this oil did make its way downriver, but not far enough to close all down towards New Orleans any more. They have now reopened it.

But, Brooke, here's an idea. OK, we have the Kern County, California, 9 million barrels of oil; Deepwater Horizon, 4.9 million barrels, the Gulf Persian oil spill, 4 million barrels, Alaska Valdez, Exxon Valdez, 260,000-to-750,000 barrels/

There were 750 barrels spilled here. Again, there is no such thing as a small spill, but it was light crude. Most of it has been picked up.

But they are stopping vessels from going up and down because they don't want to contaminate anymore, up or down the river.

They think they have it pretty much contained at this point, but you know, people get their water from this. You don't want oil in your water.

BALDWIN: I know where you're going with that. Let me stop you, because I just got -- Chris in the control room just told me that the Mississippi River is now totally opened -

MYERS: OK.

BALDWIN: and they say it should not affect your drinking water. That's the latest word.

MYERS: That's good news, because there were saying that they were going to look at every boat to make sure that those boats aren't contaminated along the side before they let them go.

So, 29 vessels, waiting to go.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: And a Dayton, Ohio, bus driver is shot, and police say a higher power may be the only thing that saved his life. Listen to this guy's story.

Forty-nine-year-old Ricky Waggoner was just standing outside his bus, this is early, early this morning, when three men approached him, shot him not once, twice in the chest, stabbed him in the arm.

But after these guys ran away, Waggoner realized the devotional book he kept in the front pocket of his shirt actually stopped those two bullets from hitting him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEANT MICHAEL PAULEY, DAYTONA POLICE: There was obviously some kind of intervention involved in this incident, because he should be probably -- he should not be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow. CNN affiliate WHIO reports the men were possibly carrying out some kind of a gang initiation. They are still looking for those guys, but thank goodness for his Bible that he had in his chest pocket.

Coming up, it has been a year and a half since former national security adviser Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows to talk about Benghazi.

And now, she has made her very first appearance since those remarks launched a giant debate.

What she doesn't regret, we'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: President Obama's national security adviser made a rare appearance on a Washington talk show. This was the first time for Susan Rice since a year and a half ago when she ignited that controversy over the consulate attack in Benghazi.

Susan Rice said she does not regret her comments that day, but she admitted she didn't have the whole story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: That information turned out to be in some respects not to be 100-percent correct.

But the notion that somehow I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Rice also talked about the chaos that we've been watching play out in the Ukraine. She says President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree Ukraine should remain a unified country.

And Susan Rice also said it would be a grave mistake -- her words -- for Russia to send troops into Ukraine.

But, as he tries to maintain the Kremlin's influence in Kiev, President Putin doesn't have many options.

Jake Tapper joins me from Washington, host of "THE LEAD." And you, sir, talked to the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Moscow. What did he say?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We spoke with outgoing ambassador Michael McFaul who is on his way out.

We talked specifically -- we talked about a lot of things, including Pussy Riot and the Olympics and Edward Snowden, but we also, of course, talked about the story of the hour, which is whether or not there is a fear that Russian's will send in troops to Ukraine if things there get too chaotic.

And I asked him what he thought. He said he did not think it was in the Russian national interests. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MCFAUL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: I can't imagine anybody's thinking of this as a Russian national interest, because let's be clear -- if this country is divided or moves down that path, you will have political violence in Europe and, second, you'll have an economic total meltdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Brooke, the concern, of course, not just that the Russians would send in troops, but that the country would split, one side of the country being more pro-European, the other side being more pro- Russian.

We'll have a lot more of that interview coming up on "THE LEAD."

BALDWIN: We will watch it in seven minutes from now. Jake Tapper, thank you very much.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Before I let you go, coming up next, Dr. Drew Pinsky's daughter, speaking out about a very personal story to her about her eating disorder.

She said, quote, "Even the daughter of Dr. Drew can have an eating disorder."

You will hear from her, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A strange illness is stumping health officials in California. Doctors are now being looking into more information about this polio- like syndrome that's actually caused paralysis in some kids.

Neurologists have identified these five patients who developed paralysis in one or more of their limbs between August of 2012 and July of last year.

All five of these children have been vaccinated against the polio virus.

Doctors insist that this is incredibly rare. They don't want to alarm anyone. They are simply seeking help in finding the cause.

And Sony is hoping the late "King of Pop" can help sell its new high- tech smartphone. The company's mobile division teamed up with Michael Jackson's estate to use M.J.'s music in their ads for the new Experia Z2.

The song is called "Slave to the Rhythm." Michael Jackson recorded it back in 1998, but never released it before his dead in 2009. Sony's announcement did not thrill too many Michael Jackson fans, who said Justin Bieber recorded an online version of the same song last year. Jackson's estate called that recording "unauthorized."

And "even the daughter of Dr. Drew can have an eating disorder." That is a direct quote from Paulina Pinsky as she revealed her very personal story on "NEW DAY" this morning.

She's the only daughter of one of America's leading voices on addiction recovery, Dr. Drew Pinsky, one of our hosts at our sister network HLN.

Paulina, who attends Barnard College, first talked about her struggles with anorexia and bulimia in her university newspaper.

She wrote that she has been throwing up since the seventh grade. And she's revealing more now during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULINA PINSKY, DAUGHTER OF DR. DREW PINSKY: Obviously, my father works in mental health, and so I knew what I needed to do to take care of myself.

And it got to the point I didn't want to live like that anymore. And I put myself in therapy, and I've been in therapy ever since. And I'm two years recovered.

Talking about it has been really helpful in my recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has it?

PINKSY: Yes. A lot of people have reached out. And talking about it gives me more clarity. And I'm comfortable talking about it. I'm not ashamed of it, and I think it's really important to talk about it, because it's such a stigmatized issue.

And part of the reason people don't talk about it is because it's so stigmatized it. And if we could talk about it, I think it would solve a lot of the problem.

I think it's a product of our culture. We're thin-obsessed and fat- phobic and it could happen to anybody. It's not just my family alone.

But I think that's a good point to make, is that, even Dr. Drew's daughter can have an eating disorder, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Paulina Pinsky in her own words.

In a statement Dr. Drew said he is, quote, "proud that Paulina is helping reach out to others."

Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.