Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

"Back of His Hand" Misstep; Poll: McConnell, Grimes Race Tightens in Kentucky; Third American Diagnosed with Ebola; Home Depot Investigating Security Breach

Aired September 04, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PERIERA, CNN ANCHOR: Former Israeli president Shimon Peres and Pope Francis meeting this morning at the Vatican to discuss the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire and the wave of terrorism now gripping the Middle East. This is the second time in three months that Peres has met with Pope Francis. In June, at request of the Pontiff, Peres joined the Palestinian president at the Vatican gardens for a day of prayer.

An update for you now, Joan Rivers' daughter says her mother is now out of intensive care and is being kept comfortable in a private room at a New York hospital. In her latest statement, Melissa Rivers again thanked everyone for their support.

Earlier this week, she had confirmed her mother was on life support. The 81-year-old Rivers was hospitalized a week ago after suffering cardiac and respiratory arrest following throat surgery. So good to hear that she's been transferred and is resting comfortably.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Right. Let's hope it is what it sounds like.

PEREIRA: Those prayers and good thoughts coming through.

CUOMO: We need her funny.

Let's get INSIDE POLITICS on NEW DAY with Mr. John King.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Chris, Kate, Michaela, good morning to you. Stay with us. At the end of the segment today, a special treat for you, I'm not going to tell you what it is. But stay with us for that.

But let's start with some breaking news in a number of important 2014 races. One of them involves the Democratic National Committee chairwoman. She is also a Florida congresswoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

With me this morning to share their reporting and their insights as we go through this one, Nia Malika Henderson with the "Washington Post," CNN's Peter Hamby.

So Debbie Wasserman Schultz is out in Wisconsin, a huge governor's race, a 50-50 race right now, a dead heat. Republican Scott Walker is the incumbent. Democrat Mary Burke is the Democratic candidate. Debbie Wasserman Schultz going after Scott Walker on a theme we hear Democrats across the country speak, but listen to the language here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION: Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand, and there is no -- I know that is stark. I know that is direct, but that is reality.

When you have women earning 78 cents in Wisconsin for every dollar a man earns and a governor who has actually signed a law that repealed this enforcement mechanism, that is just -- that is just unacceptable and it should be motivation enough for women across this state.

So instead what Republican Tea Party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back, and it's unacceptable, and it's not going to happen on our watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Giving women the back of his hand, grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back. The Democratic candidate who has used this issue in the campaign felled compelled to issue a statement.

Mary Burke's spokesperson saying, "That's not the type of language Mary Burke would use or has used to point out the clear differences in this contest. There's plenty that she and Governor Walker disagree on, but those disagreements can and should be pointed out respectfully." Over the line?

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Very over the line and that's why the campaign is trying to get some distance here. You have the DNC doing the same thing, saying that Debbie Wasserman Schultz didn't mean to sort of -- sort of minimize the problem of the domestic violence and violence against women.

You do have a lot of Democrats who are talking about this issue about women in their campaigns. Grimes is talking about it as well as Wendy Davis in Texas. I think one of the problems that you have with Democrats facing this very tough race -- races in November is whether or not the war on women still works.

I mean, they -- you know, it obviously worked in 2012. They had Todd Aiken who himself made Republicans a very big target, but here I think you have in Debbie Wasserman Schultz somebody who very much stepped over the line.

KING: And in the context, also, if you're going to raise these issues and use that kind of language, and we've been through this when they pushed the legislation. The Obama White House study shows they pay women 88 cents on the dollar.

Most congressional offices pay women who do equal work less than equal pay so there's hypocrisy across the world of politics here. If you do this, but Peter, the particular language, the back of his hand and grabbing us by the hair.

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean, leaning in a little too hard --

HENDERSON: Right.

HAMBY: -- in the war on women. Nia is right. This will be an interesting test, the cycle of the war on women because in 2012 you did have this sort of Todd Aiken and Richard Murdoch boogiemen on the Republicans side.

Republicans this time have really nominated the people that they want, the sort of palatable inoffensive candidates that they think are electable in November and not the hard right wing conservatives. Democrats would say on policy level they are right wing conservatives.

A couple things also jumped out here to me. Mary Burke has been running a very good, disciplined campaign, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz comes in and really messes up the news cycle for her. You don't want that.

And, two, this sort of speaks to the waning power of party committees and the era of outside money. The only time you hear from Reince Priebus and Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the bigger media picture is when they mess up. The parties are now mostly dealing with field operations and get out the vote stuff and not messaging.

KING: In a 50/50 race any time you have to explain away something one your surrogates said, that's a lost day especially in a highly competitive race. We'll continue to watch that.

Here's another close one, the Kentucky Senate race, remember, Republicans need a net gain of six Senate seats this November to take control of the Senate. The man who would like that to happen more than anyone else is Mitch McConnell.

He is the Republican leader. He wants to be the majority leader, but he's up on the ballot this year, look at these numbers. Our brand new CNN/ORC poll in Kentucky, Mitch McConnell 50 percent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, 46 percent, this among likely voters.

That's the statistical dead heat. Number one, so McConnell is in a horse race. One of the big questions I have in this race is what trumps on Election Day, disapproval of the president or disapproval of Congress?

If it's disapproval of Congress, maybe Mitch McConnell because he's a leader loses this race, but look at the president's numbers, only 29 percent approval rating. We know Kentucky is a red state, but 29 percent of approval among all Kentuckians and 64 percent disapprove. That to me is McConnell's best hope, right?

HENDERSON: That's his best hope and also his best hope is these Democrats, I think it's something like 16 percent, who probably voted for Grimes for secretary of state, but really want to back McConnell, according to this poll. So I think all across the country we're going to see the president's terrible approval ratings drag down these -- these folks who are running, and, of course, you see McConnell there running as in some ways the candidate of change.

I mean, here's a guy who has been in the Senate for years and years, but he is saying if you want change in Washington, vote for Mitch McConnell.

KING: Well, he's definitely changed a lot of his positions over the years so that's true. If you look at more on numbers, Grimes is losing, Eastern Kentucky, coal country by about 20 points. She wants that number to be tighter if she can win.

And secondly, she's only winning women by only about seven votes, if you're her you probably want that closer to 10, 12 and 13 and you feel a little bit safer, but this poll is keeping with other ones we've seen.

I mean, nothing most people probably think, if you talk to Republican and Democratic strategist that McConnell probably has a three or four- point lead, but still if you're the Senate minority leader, you don't want to be there.

KING: The Republicans need a net gain of six, meaning if they lose any of theirs then they need to pick up another Democratic seat. So we'll watch Kentucky. Suddenly we're also watching Kansas.

Pat Roberts survived the Tea Party challenge. Everybody thought at that point, OK, it's Kansas. It's a pro-Republican year. He's going to win, but the Democratic candidate dropped out of the race yesterday.

Now Greg Orman, the independent candidate has a one-on-one shot at Pat Roberts who has not run a stellar campaign. Do we now have to put Kansas on the watch list?

HENDERSON: Possibly so. This is what Democrats are hoping. Claire McCaskill seems to be instrumental in making some of this happen behind the scenes. I think the question for is if this independent can pull it out, who does he actually caucus with? Is it going to be Republicans or independents?

HAMBY: We'll see if Democrats, you know, someone create some kind of super PAC to help him. Pat Roberts has I think almost $2 million in the bank and this guy has only 670. But Kansas you don't need that much money. You buy Wichita and Kansas City and you're in the game.

KING: You're played by outside (inaudible). The question will be, Ladies and Gentlemen, do we see Peter Hamby in Kansas. I asked the question because if you go to "CNN Politics," our wonderful political page, you will see today the debut of what we call the Hamby cast.

Now Peter Hamby has a great job. I consider it the world's greatest paid vacation. If there are politicians in a state somewhere where he can say let me go and if you can add beer and barbecue, you get this. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMBY: This is like the fun part of covering political campaigns. There's a lot of speeches and policy rollouts and just sort of rogue campaign events, but so much of politicking is going to places like this, which is essentially a big old carnival. What's the reaction been like from the South Carolina folks since you've been here?

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Good. There's a couple of big issues with them. One is they really appreciate what we've done in Texas on the border.

HAMBY: What's the other one?

PERRY: The other one is just standing up for the rule of law. This indictment, people see it for what it is and think it's absurd.

HAMBY: Rick Perry certainly has some flaws to overcome if he runs for president. Again, you know, he has to earn the trust of donors and voters who didn't take him seriously after the last campaign, but one thing he's always been good at is retail politics this. Environment is tailor made for him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: A&M won the game big, right?

HAMBY: It was a thumping.

KING: So tell us about this. You have the greatest job in the building.

HAMBY: Thanks.

KING: Because you're not in the building.

HAMBY: That's right.

HENDERSON: Have his sunglasses on out there and looking cool. That was hip.

HAMBY: What we do covering campaigns a lot of times is obviously leave Washington and get out on the road and the goal of the series is to kind of step away from the kind of scripted politics and just sort of turn the camera back around on what you usually don't see.

Talk to the characters, the operatives, the legislators and the kind of people who make politics tick in this country and then have a little fun with it, be a little irreverent and stripped down. It's fun. It's on the web. It will be weekly, just a couple minutes, mobile friendly. Check it out.

KING: Nia, Peter, we'll follow Peter on the road because, you know, Kate and Chris and Michaela, if you haven't noticed, usually where Hamby shows up is a place where they have good food and see the guy with the funnel? KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I actually thought that was Peter behind the funnel for a second, but then I realized when the camera goes off. Peter Hamby bringing hipster to CNN News. I love it.

KING: There you go.

CUOMO: I think it's great. I just don't like that they didn't have Hamby's face in that opening graphic. They show him putting the glasses on.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: And the denim shirt.

BOLDUAN: Don't worry.

CUOMO: The 007.

KING: The Chambray.

BOLDUAN: If we know Peter and we know him well and loved him, he'll find plenty of time to put his face on camera.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I'm just playing because I love you. Because I love you. Thanks, guys. The Hambycast.

CUOMO: All right, back to the news that is pressing at this moment. How about this? Another American now infected with that deadly virus Ebola. This as Nancy Writebol speaks about her experience beating the disease. What does this mean for future cases? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here.

BOLDUAN: Plus, a Home Depot security breach, a big one potentially. How bad was it and what does it mean for customers? We're going to tell you what the company is saying about it this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Dr. Rick Sacra is the third American missionary to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus while working in Liberia. This news comes as health officials warn that the outbreak is going to get worse before it gets better.

The World Health Organization now says more than 1,900 people have died in West Africa from that virus, this as American Ebola survivor, Nancy Writebol spoke publicly for the first time about her experience with CNN.

Let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with more. I could not believe how healthy she looked yesterday.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: She looked good, and you know, obviously we know how sick she's been over the last several weeks. Also this other third volunteer, Rick Sacra, who is he, what exactly happened for him and what does this mean for all of us going forward?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Rick Sacra was not working with Ebola patients when he became infected with the deadly virus. Instead, he was delivering babies at a hospital in the capital city of Monrovia.

It is still not known how exactly he became infected, but thanks to his own vigilance he detected it immediately when his temperature started to rise on Friday. By Monday, he tested positive for Ebola.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When his temperature went up, he self-isolated himself at that point, and then when the test came back positive, then he personally moved himself into the Ebola unit.

GUPTA: SIM says they are exploring all treatment and any evacuation options, but for now Dr. Sacra is being treated in Liberia. He is communicating by cell phone and computer and reportedly remains in good spirits.

It's worth noting Dr. Sacra volunteered to return to Liberia last month for SIM after Dr. Kent Brantly and Nurse Nancy Writebol were sidelined by Ebola. Under normal circumstances he's a professor at Boston's UMass Medical School, and he's a family physician at the UMass Medical Center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the consummate family physician. Not only is he incredibly bright and incredibly skilled with his hands and able to perform a number surgical procedures, but is also just a wonderful human being.

GUPTA: Liberia was familiar territory for Dr. Sacra. He's spent nearly two decades of his career there. His wife, Debbie said in a written statement, "We are trusting in God to be with Rick and us through this difficult circumstance. Hopefully he'll recover as well as his SIM colleagues, Dr. Brantly and Writebol."

Both of them walked out of Atlanta's Emory University Hospital just two weeks ago as Ebola survivors. And on Wednesday, we heard from Writebol for the first time.

NANCY WRITEBOL, EBOLA SURVIVOR: I remember that David wanted to put his arms around me, and of course, hi fever and I just said don't, don't. I don't want you to touch me because, you know, touching who knows. I didn't have any idea if I would survive. I didn't have a clue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: I'll tell you, remember, she looked so good there, but she didn't think that she would survive the medical evacuation just a few weeks ago so it's really a remarkable recovery.

I should also point out, now that she found out Dr. Sacra became ill with Ebola, Nancy has volunteered to go pack to Liberia to start taking care of those patients as well. PEREIRA: These are amazing people. She wants to continue her missionary work as well. Back to Dr. Sacra for a minute, so you said that he is there at the isolation unit in Liberia. What do we know about the specific treatment that he's getting? Will he get ZMapp, the experimental serum that we know about?

GUPTA: It doesn't sound like it. For the simple reason that there aren't any doses available. Remember when we talked about this, Michaela, that, you know, Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol, they were the first two humans to receive it. That wasn't the plan.

This was not really ready for human use so they haven't scaled up, but we do know that they have at least two government grants to start making more of that Zmapp.

PEREIRA: Right.

GUPTA: And we also know, Michaela, vaccine trials started earlier this week as well.

PEREIRA: They did. We'll be watching that. Here's another thing that's so concerning for all of us. He was not even treating Ebola patients, and he got sick. What are we missing here, Sanjay, about the number of health care workers that are getting sickened by this?

GUPTA: Well, you know, first of all, it's health care workers who often do get sick with this. Why? Because they are taking care of sick patients who have Ebola, and the sick patients with Ebola are the ones actually transmitting the virus, not people who in that incubation period, who weren't sick.

So that's one reason. How he got it, not working on the Ebola isolation ward is still unclear. Did one of the women he was caring for at the pregnancy ward, did she have Ebola, unrecognized, you know, at some point?

Was there some sort of cross-contamination with the protective garb? We don't know. That's part of the CDC investigation right now. And I'll tell you having seen a lot of the situations like this, covering these sorts of stories, we may not have a clear answer ultimately on this either.

PEREIRA: Yes. "The New York Times" writing an article about the WHO and some cutbacks they had and likely that might have contributed to the outbreak and the response to it. We'll have to discuss that another time, Sanjay. Thanks so much for giving us an update on Dr. Sacra and on Nancy Writebol.

Another possible security breach at a major retailer. Home Depot now in crisis mode. Why does this keep happening and how can we protect ourselves?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, Home Depot is working with banks and law enforcement agencies to try and investigate what could be a massive security breach. The retailer hasn't determined yet if a breach even took place, but it has hired computer security firms to try and help investigate.

Credit card -- credit and debit card information may have been stolen from an untold number of customers and security experts say this potential hack could be bigger than even Target's enormous data breach last fall. So what does this mean for you, since it seems everyone's shopping at Home Depot lately?

CNN money correspondent, Cristina Alesci is joining us. I mean, what do people need to know? Because a lot more people shop at Home Depot than even Target.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Just to put this into context, the reporter who discovered the breach is saying potentially all of Home Depot's stores were impacted. That's 2,200 stores.

When you look at Target, it was 1,800 stores and this particular breach, the Home Depot breach, has been going on since potentially late April, early May, whereas the Target breach only lasted three weeks. So you're looking, you know, you're looking, as you said, at a much bigger breach here.

Bottom line for consumers, they have to be really diligent about monitoring their credit card statement and flagging any kind of suspicious activity, any kind of fraud. But there's really not much else to do.

What it comes down to is that all retailers in the United States are operating on a somewhat antiquated system. We're talking about technology that was developed in the 1950s, right? If you look around the world, other countries are using a much more sophisticated and secure system.

It's a chip system. It's a chip in the card that's encrypted, OK, and that is much harder to break into, much harder to get information off of and that is where we need to go in the U.S.

BOLDUAN: Yes, but it's some more expensive. And until we get to that place, you're going to just -- unfortunately, the buyer-beware situation, where you're going to have to be more diligent to watch your credit report.

ALESCI: And consumers are going to have to get used to this happening more often.

BOLDUAN: That is not what we want to hear this morning.

ALESCI: Nope.

BOLDUAN: Cristina, it's great to see you. Thanks so much.

ALESCI: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: All right, coming up, the NATO summit officially getting underway in just minutes. Western leaders are facing two major challenges. The threat of ISIS and the crisis in Ukraine.

What can this group accomplish in just two days? What is going to be the big focus coming out? We'll go live to Wales for the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)