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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Obama Heads to CDC for Ebola Briefing; Rihanna Lashes out at CBS for Pulling her Song; Roger Goodell's Image Crisis Continues

Aired September 16, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A couple of pictures we want to show you.

Just moments ago, the president and his extremely fortified limousine pulling up to Air Force One at Joint Andrews Air Base so that he can board Air Force One to head to the CDC in Atlanta.

He is going for a briefing on Ebola as he is about to commit some serious money and effort to the battle against that deadly disease as it continues to spiral as a critical problem in west Africa and potentially a critical problem for the rest of the world as well.

The president will get out of the vehicle and board those stairs for air force one and be meeting again.

We should probably tell you as well, he's calling on Congress to approve $88 million as part of a continuing resolution to try to fight this battle as well. He's going to announce Operation United Assistance. That is the expanded plan to fight that disease and it includes sending 3,000 troops -- yes, 3,000, effectively, boots on the ground to west Africa.

It is six times more ground forces than the president has committed to fight ISIS so far. He will also ask Congress again for that money, that $88 million, to combat this epidemic that has killed nearly 2,500 people thus far.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at the CDC headquarters. What exactly are the troops on the ground going to be doing, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, this mission has many different assignments. So, first of all, they're going to be overseeing the construction of 17 different Ebola isolation treatment centers, and those would each have 100 beds.

In addition, they're going to be facilitating getting medical equipment and supplies in and out, which is a big deal. That hasn't always gone so smoothly.

And also they're going to be training health care workers who are already in Africa, training those workers to take care of patients. So lots of different tentacles to this one mission. BANFIELD: Is this something that the United States will be

spearheading and effectively to spread to other countries as well? I hate to use the word coalition. Is this going to be the start of a broader worldwide coalition to fight this disease?

COHEN: Definitely the White House talks about this as something they are doing in conjunction with other countries and in conjunction with nongovernmental organizations that have been out there for quite a while, in conjunction with the World Health Organization.

But they were very clear that the U.S. is not running the entire international show. Of course, they'll be in charge of the U.S. part of this. But they're not saying, we're here and we're running the show; everybody move aside. It's not that at all. They talk about it more as a cooperative venture.

BANFIELD: Elizabeth Cohen, live for us, I'm sure you'll be doing the live coverage as soon as Air Force One lands in a few hours, Elizabeth Cohen, senior medical correspondent live in Atlanta for us.

Some of the best medical minds on the planet are trying to stop the spread of that deadly Ebola virus.

Up next, I'm going to speak with the man known as the virus hunter. Dr. Ian Lipkin. And we're going to ask him what he thinks should be done to keep this epidemic from going from bad to much, much worse.

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BANFIELD: There's nothing quite like a picture of Air Force One in motion, the president on board, having just taken off literally about 20 seconds ago, leaving the runway at Joint Andrews Air Base en route to the CDC in Atlanta where he's not only going to get an update on the current predicament, globally, of the Ebola virus but also America's commitment to try to fight this battle. And, yes, it is a major battle.

As the president visits the CDC in Atlanta, we're going to talk about the potential spread of the worst Ebola epidemic in the history of the world. We've got some new predictions from Columbia University. I want to show you the charts, if I can.

Best-case scenario, we're looking at about 8,000 cases if conditions actually improve. If they don't improve or stay the same, we're looking at 15,000 cases of Ebola, and worst-case scenario, 46,000 cases of Ebola by mid October. That's just a month from now. They say it could affect as many as 46,000 people by later on in the month.

And joining me now is the man known as the "Virus Hunter." Dr. Ian Lipkin is a professor at Columbia's Mailman School of Public and is the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity.

Those numbers sound pretty scary, and there are a lot of people who are writing very scary things. Is it as scary as people are making it out to be?

DR. W. IAN LIPKIN, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's very frightening for west Africa.

BANFIELD: For West Africa?

LIPKIN: For West Africa.

BANFIELD: Are you saying that strategically because we should not seem to be as concerned? The president seems to be --

LIPKIN: I think -- first of all, these are numbers. These are estimates. No one actually knows where we're going to go, and that's why you see three different scenarios.

We could be looking at anywhere from 100,000 people to a million people before the outbreak is curtailed.

BANFIELD: A million people before the outbreak is curtailed?

LIPKIN: It could be that high, but the notion here behind the president's proposal is to try to arrest that. And I think it's an excellent and timely start to trying to address the problem associated with this outbreak.

BANFIELD: Sending that many troops, literally troops, overseas to start building treatment facilities, setting up these specialized beds, is this proposal enough or does America need a lot more help from other countries around the world to make this even better and perhaps really where it needs to be?

LIPKIN: So, the more help, the better. Clearly there's an urgent need for assistance there. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough supplies.

The challenge right now is containment because we're months away from having a vaccine, so the only thing we have at present to offer are ways in which we can try to isolate people, identify those who are sick, identify those at risk for making other people sick, and to find ways in which we can arrest this outbreak.

We are working as hard as we can to develop vaccines and drugs to treat these individuals, but that's really going to come down --

BANFIELD: You said it's months away from the vaccine? What about the treatment? And I know we've had some that have shown to be effective, but we're not really -- I mean, two cases isn't really a strong enough study.

LIPKIN: It's not a strong enough study, but again, if you're talking about 40,000 or 50,000 people within the next month or so, we don't have enough drug or vaccine to prevent those sorts of cases.

At present, all we really have are the logistical measures that the president has described today.

And the reason for using the military -- and I think it's a good idea -- is because they have an enormous amount of experience with command and control, the idea of how you logistically go in and stet up operations, build field hospitals. This is not something that most people are familiar with doing.

BANFIELD: I actually was just speaking off air with you about a piece that I read in "The New York Times," and it was terrifying because it not only talked about the need for almost a global war against this virus and the need for a serious command and control, much like the United Nations would actually take control of it.

But then it also talked about the spoiler factors, and that could be the airborne possibility of this disease. And I know that there has been a study done in Canada back in 2012 where it was shown to actually be successful as an airborne virus in some animals that share similarities with human lungs.

But should we extrapolate from that to say it's not far off from being an airborne virus?

LIPKIN: So the question -- obviously, if this becomes an airborne virus, then the genie is out of the bottle, and it's very, very difficult at that point, and then we really have to focus very much on developing vaccines. And it's going to be much more difficult to

BANFIELD: Do you think there's going to be --

LIPKIN: Let me tell you what we actually know as opposed to what we speculate.

So we know that this virus is very aggressive. We know that it is evolving. We have some data now that's preliminary that suggests that it grows to higher concentrations in the blood of infected people than earlier outbreaks of Ebola may have done. and that's early data, so it's not yet confirmed.

Is it possible that this virus could change, could evolve to become capable of airborne transmission? Yes, anything is possible in biology, but it would be unprecedented, and I would suggest it's highly unlikely, and many of my colleagues feel it is highly unlikely.

So while I am very appreciative of Dr. Osterholm's editorial, because I think it may have actually helped prompt some of the response that we've read about today, I think he went beyond the science and thinking in terms of what can be done --

BANFIELD: And he mentioned that. He said that he will have his critics with that piece.

Well, I - listen, we're going to continue to watch the president today as he is just in the air as we speak and will be landing and making these announcements. Doctor, thank you for coming in.

LIPKIN: My pleasure.

BANFIELD: Nice to speak to you.

LIPKIN: Thank you.

BANFIELD: So I also wanted to let you know that we've got a couple of other things we're watching on the radar today as well. A big story that we've been following is domestic violence, obviously. The controversy in the NFL. And now pop singer Rihanna is weighing in to her 37 million Twitter followers on how she feels about being pulled into this controversy. She hurled a very public "f" bomb at CBS for its decision to not air her song kicking off last Thursday's game broadcast. And now CBS is firing back. We'll have the details on it straight ahead.

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BANFIELD: That is one good song. I'm telling you, one of my faves. It's "Run This Town" by Jay-z and Rihanna. And when we heard CBS was planning a taped performance of Rihanna and Jay-Z for Thursday night's football open, in light of the Ray Rice controversy, we thought, wow, that's awkward. CBS was going to start running it this week instead, but something else happened. Rihanna decided to tweet the network. And now the network is dropping the song altogether.

Today she posted this furious message on her Twitter account. Quote, "CBS, you pulled my song last week. Now you want to slide it back in this Thursday? No. F you. You all are sad for penalizing me for this." She followed up with a second tweet, quote, "the audacity." Ouch.

Joining me now is CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner and George Martin, who almost needs no introduction because the gleam off of his Super Bowl rings is blinding.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is.

BANFIELD: Former New York Giants player, former president of the NFL Players Association, author of "Just Around the Bend: My Journey for 9/11."

Nischelle, first to you.

TURNER: Yes.

BANFIELD: Whoa.

TURNER: Exactly.

BANFIELD: When she sent that out this morning it was almost deafening. And my first thought was, I think they paid for the licensing.

TURNER: Uh-huh. They did.

BANFIELD: Of that song.

TURNER: They did. They did.

BANFIELD: Does she have the right to say no?

TURNER: I don't think so. If you pay for the licensing, I know CBS licensed the song for the entire season. They licensed it. And, by the way, this is a Jay-Z song featuring Rihanna. So I believe that CBS licensed it from Jay-Z. And they did this as the theme song to their Thursday night football open. It was going to play the whole season, this performance with Jay-Z and Rihanna, coupled with a comedy routine with Don Cheadle -

BANFIELD: Which was also dumped out. That was dumped too.

TURNER: Right. All of it was dumped out last week.

BANFIELD: All of it.

TURNER: And I think that, at that point, it was appropriate because of everything that was going on. Now, CBS said because of tone and time, they were dumping the whole thing. But they always said they were bringing it back this week. So with her doing this today - oh, I mean, I hear what she's saying -

BANFIELD: Sure.

TURNER: Because I did feel like at the time that she was kind of being re-victimized, being brought into all of this for what happened to her seven years ago. I might not have used the language she used -

BANFIELD: Yes.

TURNER: But, yes, now there's some fallout.

BANFIELD: Don Cheadle didn't say anything, did he?

TURNER: No.

BANFIELD: And his stuff was tanked last week too. It was pulled as well.

TURNER: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BANFIELD: OK. So, George, we weren't expecting to talk to you about this. This was not what the segment was about for and it sort of just happened and surprised a lot of us. Is this spiraling out of control? Is the image getting really muddy?

GEORGE MARTIN, FORMER NY GIANTS PLAYER: Well, I think the hits just keep on coming, unfortunately, for the National Football League. This is a month to forget as far as they're concerned. And, unfortunately, I think this is a succession of things that are hitting the social forefront. And, unfortunately, Roger Goodell hasn't been handling it very well. I think the league is now compounded by a series of things and now you've seen that the network has pulled this song in lieu of what has been surrounding all of this. So, yes, it is a crescendo of problems that are facing the National Football League.

BANFIELD: Someone else -

TURNER: And -

BANFIELD: Go ahead. TURNER: Well, the network did release a statement. CBS did. So I do think we should get that in to say what they are saying now -

BANFIELD: Yes.

TURNER: And why they're pulling this. They just said, "beginning this Thursday, we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of our Thursday night football open. We will be using our newly created Thursday night football theme music to open our game broadcast." So basically what they're saying is, we're keeping Don Cheadle, we're dumping Jay-Z and Rihanna.

BANFIELD: Oh, it's all very uncomfortable, I think. Well, I hope that they can mend fences, if that's possible.

TURNER: Not after "f" you.

MARTIN: Yes.

TURNER: I think that - I think that ship has sailed.

BANFIELD: Right.

MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE).

BANFIELD: Yikes. Yikes.

George, just before I let you go.

MARTIN: Yes.

BANFIELD: The job you used to hold, George Martin, the Players Union, had said something along the lines of, maybe it's time to change things up a little bit and take some of the power away from Roger Goodell. Did you agree with that?

MARTIN: Well, I agree that it should be shifted. I don't think Roger should sit as judge, jury and executioner. We found that that doesn't work very well, particularly of late. And he's admitted that he's blowing it. So I think that there should be some independence, some outside force that should be looking at these things objectively, which is a - I think the key word. And then, you know, making a decision based upon the findings that they have.

BANFIELD: Well, thank you so much for coming in. I'm actually going to ask if I could just take a little bit more time. I know that we're sort of down to the wire on a report but, you know, the reports just -- you said it yourself, the hits just keep coming. Adrian Peterson now dealing with a allegations of potentially a second issue with child abuse. How is it that Goodell stays silent effectively to the public on this, that he plays again this Sunday. I mean all of this just seems to be such an image crisis, if not a protocol crisis. How is this going to resolve?

MARTIN: Well, first of all, if you realize it, this is a unilateral situation that Roger's handling solo. And the noise that's coming from - or not coming from the NFL Players Association is deafening. Yo know, there should be a bilateral joint agreement coming to say how we're going to collectively address these situations. But that's not happening. And Roger's only going to be able to exercise his independence for so long before DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA have to chime in on this.

BANFIELD: What do you expect is going to actually happen?

TURNER: Well, I don't know. I think that the Players Association does have to have a louder voice. But isn't this what the whole work stoppage was about this summer when they were trying to have a louder voice and not let Roger Goodell be judge, jury and executioner? And they didn't succeed with that. They failed so they could go back to work. So I don't know what can be done because it was part of the collective bargaining agreement that they ultimately agreed to give him this power.

BANFIELD: You know what, I'm going to interrupt you. You just said to me earlier that you had reached out to Jay-Z's people for a statement.

TURNER: Yes.

BANFIELD: And that they rarely respond.

TURNER: Did we get it?

BANFIELD: We're just getting it now. Let me just read it as I'm getting it myself. "Due to the misuse and misrepresentation of Rihanna's name and participation in connection to CBS TNF," Thursday night football, "they were not cleared to move forward with their initial creative." That's all I have time for, unfortunately. I can't even parse that with you. But that's what we just got from Jay-z's rep (ph).

TURNER: Yes, there's a little bit -- there's layers in that. So, yes, you're right, we can talk about that.

BANFIELD: I think you're going to be on Wolf's show because if I don't get off the air, he won't get on.

TURNER: There you go.

BANFIELD: So thank you to both of you. George, great to see you.

MARTIN: My pleasure.

BANFIELD: Nischelle, great to see you. Thank you, everyone.

And stay tuned because Wolf's going to pick up the baton right after this quick break.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. We begin with a major claim by ISIS as top Pentagon brass testify

about the U.S. military mission to destroy the terror group. Let's get the very latest. ISIS now claiming to have shot down a Syrian military jet