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McCarthy Elected GOP Majority Leader; Walker Accused Of "Criminal Scheme"; A Cure For Baldness?; Team USA Faces Portugal In World Cup

Aired June 20, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Listen to them in recent days, not only questioning him on Iraq but now they seem to have this broader idea that this president is suddenly soft on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The spread of terrorism has increased exponentially under this president's leadership.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: President Obama has always been a reluctant commander in chief.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The president of the United States goes fundraising and golfing, and now he's fiddling while Iraq burns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Sharp criticism of the president, but do they really want to go well beyond what the president wants to do. The president doesn't trust Maliki, doesn't want to put the U.S. troops in any big combat role in Iraq again. Is that what the Republicans are saying? Troops or air strikes, what are they looking for?

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Talking about John McCain, yes. One of the interesting things about this is that you remember during the campaign Obama's foreign policy was something that a lot of Republicans couldn't touch. Got Osama Bin Laden and now it -- it's something that Republicans, as you saw, are attacking him at will so it -- it seems to be a weak point that they are going to keep hammering him on.

KING: They keep pressing away on that one. Let's move to the big election on Capitol Hill yesterday because they are pressing him on foreign policy. The question is, how will Republicans try to solve their own internal problems in this election year? Well, one of the things they did yesterday was elect a new House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California.

He will replace Eric Cantor who, of course, lost his primary a little more than a week ago. Listen to Kevin McCarthy. A lot of Americans don't know who he is. He moves up to be the House number two and tries his own little introduction. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MAJORITY LEADER ELECT: They elected a guy who is a grandson of a cattle rancher, the son of a fire fighter, only in America do you get that opportunity. They elected a guy that's only grown up through the grass roots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What does this mean? It's obviously good for Kevin McCarthy and his ambition. What does it mean for the American people? Is there something in the Republican agenda that will change now? Are we any more likely to deal with tough issues like immigration reform or no?

KUCINICH: The majority leader is different. The Republican conference is not different and so it's going to be very hard for Kevin McCarthy to stir this this conference when it comes to things like immigration. One of the most interesting things between him and Cantor, Cantor was a policy guy. He dabbled a lot of policy and pushing a lot of bills. McCarthy is a political guy so it will interesting to see how that changes, how he approaches this job, but as far as policy-wise I don't see anything happening.

KING: Some of their most influential voices outside of politics meaning not elected keep pushing them even though we've seen the Republicans and Speaker Boehner, let's do immigration, never mind. Rupert Murdoch, publisher of the "Wall Street Journal," also the guy who owns that outlet Fox News, reported to the Republican grass roots, wrote yesterday not passing immigration reform would be suicidal and Sheldon Adelson in "Politico" says there's no magic want to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants so put that aside Republicans and get to the bill. Will they listen to these people?

OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO! NEWS: As 2016 gets closer and closer the tension between national politics and House politics is going to get worse and worse for the Republicans. Any Republican with national aspiration is going to be pushing immigration reform a lot harder. I don't think it will change the dynamics in the House though.

KING: Where they think, number one, this is wrong and number two, Kevin McCarthy moving up. He's got the number three job in the House. There is a Tea Party guy to keep an eye on them, right?

KUCINICH: Absolutely, you know, we'll see how Steve Scalise handles this job. McCarthy wasn't known as a terribly good Whip, but it's a really tough job, particularly when you have people there who you can't give them anything. They don't want anything. They want to say no, and he has clout with the conservatives, well, we'll see if that translates into votes because it's very different.

KING: Let's move on to men behaving badly and allegedly behaving badly, that's the former governor of Montana Brian Schweitzer. We talked about this yesterday where he said disparaging remarks that he thought were funny, but not so funny about Dianne Feinstein, the senator from California, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He made an illusion that she was acting like a prostitute when it comes to suddenly being tougher on CIA spying and surveillance and the like. He questioned Eric Cantor's sexuality. He saw the storm and he said, quote, "I recently made a number of stupid and insensitive remarks to a reporter for the National Journal and I apologize and I'm sorry for my carelessness and disregard."

He apologized. We'll give him credit for that. There are some people who think he's the guy who is going to challenge Hillary Clinton from the left.

KUCINICH: Good luck. When you're saying things like this, particularly the people he was talking about, good luck, Brian Schweitzer.

KNOX: He is fine tuning his 2016 slogan, a different kind of Democrat.

KING: A different kind of Democrat, that's good.

The other one, this is a lot more serious, Democratic prosecutors in Wisconsin have filed papers in a lawsuit. They are not filing charges, a lawsuit about an investigation, filed some papers and directly accusing Governor Scott Walker of being part of a criminal scheme. This is about the recall elections back in 2011.

They are saying that the governor himself and his chief of staff were working with people like Karl Rove to illegally coordinate campaign fundraising. The governor says this is partisan. This is not true, that he will prove the facts to be wrong. How important is it -- obviously it's a legal issue for the governor. How important politically, in a 50/50 re-election campaign and if he's to win re- election a lot of people think of him as a potential 2016?

KUCINICH: Yes. And I think that's a problem. This is more of a political problem than a legal problem for Scott Walker and I think the Democrats are looking at is done by a thousand cuts. I don't think a lot of independents really care about election law, but if they are saying he's breaking the law and they keep this drum beat particularly with his relationship with unions, it could really hurt him.

KNOX: Not as if Wisconsin's economy is booming either, I mean, this is probably more important for the sliver of voters who will make up their minds close to the election, undecideds, the swing voters, whatever you want to call them. I go with Jackie. This is death by a thousand cuts. It could have an impact in a tiny range in the Wisconsin election and still cheaply a political problem.

KING: It's interesting to watch. There is a lot of the big money figures want a governor. They don't want one of these young senators in Washington to be the presidential candidate. Christie has an investigation over him. Walker has an investigation over him so let's watch Governor Perry and former Governor Bush, we'll see how that conversation plays out. Jackie, Olivier, thanks for coming in. As we end, I will in an attempt to take a difficult political issue for the president and turn it into funny. Here's David Letterman giving the president some advice on Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": President Obama, normally a cool guy, but he's beginning -- today he was saying he might have to send Dennis Rodman and then later in the day, he phoned Hillary Clinton and asked her if she could start early.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Difficult to make light of it, but David Letterman can, if anybody can.

KING: He is one of the best in the business and I'm going to miss David Letterman. I thought that was pretty good, not the Dennis Rodman part. I don't think Dennis Rodman is the answer.

CUOMO: Every time I hear Dennis Rodman I shrink. You know what you did. Those words go in my mind. I used you that day.

KING: You did just fine that day.

BOLDUAN: Put on some sunglasses, even if you're indoors. Yes. Thanks, John.

CUOMO: Have a good weekend, bud.

BOLDUAN: Coming up on NEW DAY, World Cup fever is hitting the United States as America's team gets set to take on Portugal but can they do it? How are they going to do it? Alejandro Bedoya of the U.S. national team will be joining us to talk about the game.

CUOMO: Can do it with their hands behind their back.

Researchers come up with an impressive treatment for baldness. Could it be the answer to the prayers of men everywhere? Yes is the answer. No reason to discuss more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back, everybody. Researchers may have accidentally found an answer to one of life's biggest mysteries, biggest frustrations for so many people. How do you grow back hair after you've lost it? The elusive cure for baldness. Take a look.

A man went from completely bald on the left to a full head of hair in just months, and all thanks to a little pill meant to treat arthritis. How did it work, and could the treatment do the same for millions? Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is back with us from the CNN Center. Elizabeth, tell us everything.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is really amazing, and it all started with the researcher at Yale who had a brainstorm, to take a pill that's already in pharmacies and give it a new twist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): This is Kyle Rhodes' ahead before, and here it is after, a thick full head of hair.

KYLE RHODES, HAIR LOSS PATIENT: I've gotten a lot of comments about how great my hair is coming in and how lovely of a hair color it is. I find myself just a lot of times playing with it.

COHEN: What was the trick, not Rogaine or Propecia, they grow hair on only parts of the scalp and certainly not whatever Homer Simpson took. It was a pill, a drug called Xeljanz that's actually already on the market for of all things, arthritis. Kyle's doctor at Yale University decided to give it a try, and eight months later, voila. Kyle, who is 25, started losing hair all over his body at age 2 because of an unusual form of alopecia.

RHODES: Neighbor kids, school, just jokes, Rogaine comments. One thing I did get when I was completely bald is called a skinhead, which I found very offensive.

COHEN: But now even his eyelashes and eyebrows are back, 6.5 million people have a skin disease like Kyle's. His doctor says the drug may one day help them, too, but what about the tens of millions of men who have gone bald as they have gotten older? The doctor doesn't think the drug will help them, but he does think it's worth doing a study to find out. The drug can have serious side effects. Kyle hasn't had any and he is enjoying his new head of hair.

RHODES: I've always wanted an '80s hockey mullet so maybe going towards that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now why would a drug for arthritis help grow hair? Well, the researchers at Yale think it's because rheumatoid arthritis and the kind of hair loss that Kyle has will both related to the immune system. Now Kyle is still taking this drug every day even though his hair has grown back. But you know, his doctors hope that at some point he can stop because it has side effects and it's really expensive -- Chris and Kate.

BOLDUAN: Really amazing the hair growth that he had back and at least it gives him something, good for him, and what that could mean for a lot more men. We will see.

CUOMO: I'm happy for him, but Elizabeth said that it's not for regular mail pattern baldness.

BOLDUAN: You can learn from these things though.

CUOMO: I'm happy, I'm torn. I'm very happy for this kid especially what he grew up with and there's a lot of people who have immune disorders like that, but you had me there for a second. Actually fell to our own tease.

COHEN: Thanks, Elizabeth.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It's really straight.

CUOMO: Scalp stimulation. That or I have a wig, take a choice.

BOLDUAN: We'll see in the break.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, Team USA's coach said that the U.S. couldn't win the World Cup. It wasn't realistic, but his players are trying to prove him wrong, and they are doing a really good job of it. Matt Besler of the U.S. national team will join us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: No, please. Cough of future victory.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that's exactly what it was.

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY, my friends. U.S. swept up in World Cup fever as the national team faces Portugal this Sunday. It comes after a thrilling victory against Ghana earlier this week. Can Team USA make it 2 for 2? That is a rhetorical question. We have Matt --

PEREIRA: Besler.

CUOMO: Who plays for the U.S. national team, joins us live from Sao Paulo. Great to have you, Matt. I hope you know how much enthusiasm there is there and here for you. But let's get to you specifically first, we know that you had to leave early in the last match, hamstring. Never like to see that in soccer. How are you feeling, and what do you think about moving forward?

MATT BESLER, TEAM USA SOCCER PLAYER: I feel good. Hopefully on Sunday I'm out there on the field. Right now the hamstring feels great, the training staff has been working around the clock giving me some treatments, getting me back and ready to go. So I'm feeling confident about Sunday.

BOLDUAN: We want to hear about Sunday, but first just take us back to that last match. How did it feel getting that first big win under your belt?

BESLER: It was incredible. It was an amazing feeling. And, you know, we set forth at the beginning of this tournament to get three points in the first match and we all knew it was extremely important. Just the way we did it made it more exciting. We feel we have something that other teams don't. And that's the American spirit. And it's -- it just showed in the game. You know, we never gave up. We were able to get the goal in the 86th minute to get the win. It's been amazing. We've seen all the support back home. It's just been incredible.

PEREIRA: You could see the smile on your face when you're talking about this. It was your World Cup debut, the game against Ghana. That must have been incredible and then to boot, apparently Vice President Joe Biden swung by the locker room. Talk about that. That must have been kind of exciting.

BESLER: Yes, it was an awesome experience. It started -- there were about 15 or 20 men that walked into our locker room with suits on. I turned my head and was like, what's going on. Then all of a sudden, Vice President Biden walks through everybody. We all got to meet him and shake his hand. That was very nice for us.

CUOMO: So what about Portugal? What do you think about Cristiano Ronaldo? How focused are you guys on whether or not he plays and thinking about why you win this game? What are your thoughts?

BESLER: I know there's reports out there that he might not play, but we don't believe those. We assume he's going to play. We feel like he's going to play. You know he -- he's the best player in the world right now. There's no denying that. He's a great player. At the same time, we're not really focused on him. We're mostly focused on ourselves. We feel if we play our best soccer, we're going to be able to win the game.

BOLDUAN: Talk to me about one of the things -- the strategy to it. How are you going to deal with the heat and humidity? How do you account for this quite honestly?

BESLER: It's -- it's tough. The humidity, it's no joke. We -- I play in major league soccer, so I play sometimes down in Houston. I'll have to say the humidity down here is actually worse than it is in Houston.

BOLDUAN: That's saying something.

BESLER: So that's saying something. Exactly. Exactly. But you know what, for us, you know, as an American team, we feel like it better suits us. We're used to it. You have teams coming over from Europe that never play in humidity and they're cramping and complaining about it and so for us, we're trying to use it to our advantage.

PEREIRA: You mention the fact that you know there's a lot of support back home here. We've been hearing about the parties. We see people wearing their jerseys. A great deal of support. What do you say to that one or two people still not convinced that soccer is a sport to be reckoned with in America? What do you say to those folks?

BESLER: I mean, they have -- they have the right to be a fan of whatever they want, but if they're not a fan of soccer, they're definitely missing out.

PEREIRA: I like that.

BESLER: They're missing out on a great experience, a great team. So if they're not a fan yet, can't really say anything, but they're definitely missing out.

CUOMO: Say it with your feet, my brother. I like -- that's right.

BESLER: I wish my feet could talk. They can't though.

CUOMO: I've seen you play. They can certainly communicate, that's for sure. They're talking about heat and humidity, our man is wearing a sweatshirt. That's what he thinks of the heat and humidity. It's too cold, he's saying.

BOLDUAN: Go get them, Matt.

CUOMO: All right, man, we're looking forward to it. This is your moment. Feel the pressure because it will motivate you to be your best. No negativity on this one. Win, baby, win.

BESLER: Thank you.

CUOMO: All the best.

PEREIRA: OK. Now think about this, imagine being Portuguese American. You're divided. Your home country, you live in American. What do you do?

CUOMO: I got it in my house. My mother-in-law is Brazilian, but they're very connected to Portugal. My brother-in-law is from France. America's worked hard for this and they're playing -- I know. But they're playing great ball right now. I think it's hard not to root for him.

Coming up on NEW DAY, here's what we know about Iraq. ISIS is surging. President Obama is talking about the next steps in Iraq. He's saying no to combat troops, but what does that mean because U.S. boots will be on the ground and in harm's way. We'll explain.

BOLDUAN: And there's major backlash for "Washington Post" columnist and Fox News contributor, George Will, after he wrote a column about rape on college campuses that many found quite offensive. What he said that got him sacked from a major newspaper and what's going to happen now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)