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Secret Service Faces Grilling Over Breaches; Link Made in Graham Abduction; Entereovirus Causing Paralysis Symptoms in Kids?

Aired September 30, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, you guys have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, is there a serial killer in Virginia?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't know if its a cluster phenomena, or if its actually a pattern of a predator.

COSTELLO: Breaking new developments in the case of missing UVA student Hannah Graham.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state police announcing a significant break, pursuing a new forensic link.

COSTELLO: We're live in Charlottesville with the latest. Also - -

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: The president is not as safe as we want and need him to be.

COSTELLO: Security scare.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Omar Gonzalez didn't just make it over the White House fence, Gonzales overpowered the guard, ran past the stairway leading just up to the first family's residence, through the first floor and East Room.

COSTELLO: This morning the head of the Secret Service, Julia Pearson, gets grilled as new questions surround the agency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The agents I talk to says it's a miracle that there has not been an assassination so far.

COSTELLO: Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello, thank you for joining me. We begin with the security of the White House and the president in a time of war.

Under the microscope and on the Hill this morning, the Secret Service facing blistering questions in the next hour over recent security failures including how an armed intruder got much deeper into the White House than previously thought.

The stunning details of just how far Omar Gonzalez was able to make it after he dashed through the front door of the White House or enough to make anyone pause and ask, is our president really safe?

Not only was Gonzalez able to make it into the White House foyer carrying a knife, he got past the stairway that led to a half a flight of stairs up to the president's living quarters. Reports are that Mr. Obama and his daughters Sasha and Malia had left the White House only minutes before.

Then Gonzalez made it down the hallway and all the way to the East Room before finally being tackled by a Secret Service agency. The East Room where countless White House receptions and public ceremonies are held that included parties for heads of state, even Frank Sinatra. Lawmakers are demanding answers over the frightening breach of security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Where's your question of leadership, for example?

CHAFFETZ: To have such an epic failure from top to bottom really begs the question, why did they decrease the number of training that were going on at the same time that the House was actually appropriating even more money? Why did those trainings come down? What is the protocol? Why is it that the White House -- I'm sorry, the Secret Service, they issued a statement that say that the intruder, the guy who hopped the fence, had no weapon? Ends up he did have a weapon.

Why is it that they said he was stopped at the door, but our whistleblowers are telling us he went much further into the White House? Why is it that they brag about -- I say brag, but they tout the idea that there is tremendous restraint by these officers?

I want to see overwhelming force repel anybody who's trying to get into White House. I don't think that's good leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now, CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown. She's in our Washington bureau.

So talk about this hearing that's set to take place in the next hour.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about the director of the Secret Service, Julia Pearson, will be in the hot seat in this upcoming congressional hearing scrutinizing this latest security breach at the White House.

You can expect the committee to grill Pearson on current training, practices, procedures and the culture within the Secret Service in the wake of the breach this month as you pointed where Omar Gonzalez allegedly was able to jump the White House fence, make it 70 yards across the North Lawn all the way into what is supposed to be one of the most secure buildings in the world, the White House.

Essentially getting past the first several layers of security at the White House. And the Secret Service initially sent out a statement saying the man was apprehended right after entering the White House. However, as we just heard Congressman Jason Chaffetz says a whistleblower told a different story that Gonzalez ran through the first floor and into the East Room where the president hosts state dinners.

Chaffetz says according to whistleblowers an audible alarm that should have been pulled was muted. So congressmen want to know today among other things why that crash button wasn't pushed, why attack dogs weren't released, and whether the perimeter should be expanded.

And, Carol, the hearing is also going to focus on past security breaches at the White House like the 2011 incident where Oscar Ortega Hernandez fired several shots at the White House. "The Washington Post" is reporting the Secret Service didn't discover that until several days later -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Pamela Brown, reporting live from Washington. And you'll join us next hour when the hearing begins, thank you so much.

Joining me now Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York.

Welcome, Congressman. Thank you so much for being here.

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: So I'm going to ask you about the security breach. This man Gonzalez got past five layers of security, got past plainclothes surveillance, guard dogs, a special SWAT team, a guard at the front door, and he had a knife. Is this a failure of leadership?

RANGEL: It's -- I don't know about leadership, but it's a totally shattering thing to the Secret Service and it shatters the image. It's a frightening thing that could happen to the most important building that we have in the United States.

I am certain that there's going to be questions that the whole country is begging answers for. There's absolutely no excuse for what happened. None at all.

COSTELLO: And we come to find out the Secret Service, well, they lied about what happened. They didn't tell us that this guy penetrated the White House like this at first.

RANGEL: Well, they certainly weren't forthcoming in what really happened. And the whole story isn't even out yet, you know. They had this Gonzalez two months ago. And they knew he was mentally disturbed. He had pictures of the White House. He had a map, he had a machete, he had guns, and he was reported to the Secret Service.

Now it is true that all of this is a result of America now having so many of our Iraqi veterans coming home ill, but this could have been stopped before it even got started.

COSTELLO: Had they arrested him and got him mental help perhaps.

RANGEL: Exactly. And that's a big problem. You know, an amazing thing here is that now we have members of Congress rushing back to have hearings on this occasion where the president is declaring war, having 10,000 troops committed yesterday, and yet most of the members of Congress would rather be involved in reelection than to deal with the president's authority of war.

COSTELLO: So why -- why do you suppose Congress has called this hearing and they didn't call any sort of hearing to talk about the war with ISIS?

RANGEL: I think it's very difficult for people to understand that very little can get in between a member's campaign to get reelected, and the question of whether or not you're declaring war giving the president that authority has a lot more --

COSTELLO: So it's safe to talk about security at the White House and not --

(CROSSTALK)

RANGEL: There's no question. You being critical of civil servants. You're being critical of the White House. Republicans jump at it. Thought that Democrats can't run away from a disaster like this. But the issue before us, should the president have the authority to commit American troops into harm's way?

But I'm glad to see that we're responding to something certainly that Congress has not been responsible this year.

COSTELLO: Congressman Charlie Rangel, thank you so much for talking with me. I appreciate it this morning.

RANGEL: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new clues in Virginia. DNA evidence now linking the disappearance of missing college student to the murder of another woman five years ago.

Athena Jones is in Charlottesville, Virginia, this morning.

Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. This forensic evidence has people around here wondering if police may have not just a repeat offender, but possibly a serial killer on their hands.

More when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It could be the break that blows the case of a missing University of Virginia student wide open. Two unsolved crimes now linked by forensic DNA evidence.

Hannah Graham has not been seen in more than two weeks. And then there's Morgan Harrington who went missing and was later found murdered after a concert in 2009 not far from where Graham disappeared.

This significant break between the two cases is all because of the arrest of Jesse Matthew. He is now charged in Graham's abduction, but Harrington's parents say the focus right now needs to be on finding Hannah Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIL HARRINGTON, MORGAN HARRINGTON'S MOTHER: They've got plenty of time to sort it out and make sure that this is indeed the person who killed Morgan Harrington and who is responsible for the disappearance of Hannah Graham, which is really paramount. I mean, we know where Morgan is. Morgan is in a box over there. Hannah Graham is still missing and her family needs to know where she is. She -- we need to bring Hannah home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Athena Jones now joins us from Charlottesville, Virginia.

And, Athena, police believe that DNA evidence might connect three cases of assaults on women? Tell us about that.

JONES: That's right, Carol. This is a big break in this, until now, unsolved murder of Morgan Harrington back in October of 2009. That's when she went missing from right here in Charlottesville after attending a Metallica concert on the University of Virginia's campus. But Virginia State Police has said that there is now new forensic evidence linking Jesse Matthew, who is now the suspect in the Hannah Graham's disappearance with the Harrington case.

Authorities have been tightlipped publicly but our own Pam Brown, the CNN justice correspondent, has learned from law enforcement sources that DNA, it's DNA evidence that they are talking about.

We know police investigators are going to be continuing to pursue this link. And if it holds up, we could have Jesse Matthew attached to three separate cases. Now he's only been charged now in the Hannah Graham case. But this DNA evidence found on Morgan Harrington's body which was found several months after her disappearance was linked to another case in 2005 of a sexual assault.

That DNA profile of that unnamed suspect at the time, unknown suspect at the time of a sexual assault in Fairfax City in Virginia in 2005. And so now you have this case linking Harrington with Morgan -- sorry, Harrington with Matthew with this other case. It could be confirming a lot of the fears of a lot of folks around here that Hannah Graham's disappearance more than two weeks ago was part of a pattern -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I know that Jesse Matthew will be back in court on Thursday for a hearing, but could there be more charges leveled against him soon in light of this new information?

JONES: Well, certainly there could be if this link holds up. Virginia State Police say they'[re continuing to pursue this forensic link. They believe that they have a lot more work to do and so they're asking for the public's patience. But on Thursday that hearing is a bond hearing. Jesse Matthew will be appearing via video link from the regional jail in -- before a district judge on Thursday morning. He won't physically be in the courthouse.

As of right now that's scheduled to just be a bond hearing. But certainly if this link holds up, we could see more charges -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones, thanks so much. Athena Jones reporting live from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Let's talk more about this DNA evidence with Dr. Cyril Wecht, he's a forensic psychologist.

Welcome, Doctor.

DR. CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Pathologist. Thank you, nice to be with you.

COSTELLO: OK. Pathologist. I apologize.

Let's talk about what kind of DNA evidence this might be.

WECHT: In the first case of rape in 2005, presumably it would be a seminal stain. The young woman was sexually assaulted, raped and she undoubtedly would have been examined. So I think that they probably had semen -- seminal stains perhaps on her clothing. Maybe possibly pubic hairs, blood spittle, but most likely seminal stain.

In the case of 2009 with Ms. Harrington, her body was decomposed after three months and, therefore, the DNA evidence would be quite different. Maybe they found something on her clothing that depicted the same DNA pattern as they have found in a 2005 rape case. They had linked those two. Mr. Matthew, if it is he, evidently was not in the DNA database. They would have run that through Virginia, through the national database, and they did not get a connection because evidently he wasn't in there. But they did have that link in those two cases.

Now we're told in 2014 that they have a link. Well, it can't be from Ms. Graham because she hasn't been found. So there's nothing on her or her clothing at this point that we know of. Therefore, it must be something on Mr. Matthew.

But I'm a little confused because we already know -- I have seen videos and you know more than I -- of Mr. Matthew with Ms. Graham, his arm around her. So just to prove he had contact with her, I don't know what that adds to the case at this time. They already had him linked with her. And so that transference of DNA from her to him just corroborates that.

So I hope Ms. Graham is alive and well. But if she's not and her body is found, then it will be very relevant and highly important to determine whether there's any DNA evidence of Mr. Matthew on Ms. Graham.

At this time, we've got those links that are somewhat tenuous, insofar as the rape case of '05. And this now, if it matches with Mr. Matthew, is a solid case for that 2005 case. If it matches the 2009 death of Ms. Harrington, that could be a solid case too. At this point with Ms. Graham, seems to me that unless and until they found Ms. Graham and learn about the details of her murder, that link at this time simply confirms what we know.

COSTELLO: OK, Dr. Cyril Wecht, thank you so much for being with me. I appreciate it.

Still to come in NEWSROOM, a troubling new development in the Enterovirus that's hitting kids in 40 states. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the case. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morining, Carol. We are hearing children developing weakness of the limbs as the well. Is it related to the virus? We're not sure what's happening. What can you do about it? We'll have that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Texas health officials are waiting for test results to see if they have a new case of Ebola in the United States. An unidentified patient is being treated in an isolation unit at a Dallas hospital. Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital will only say the patient was admitted based on symptoms of recent travel history. According to the CDC, Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding and can appear as many as 21 days after exposure to the virus.

Now to the Enterovirus that's striking mostly children in the country. Forty states now reporting confirmed cases. In Colorado, doctors are treating ten children who are suffering some form of paralysis, which may be linked to the virus.

I want to bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to help us better understand what's going on. Because this is pretty frightening for parents, Sanjay.

GUPTA: It is pretty frightening. And the scenario seems to be this, that between August 9th and just a couple days ago, there were ten children that came into the hospital, they had had severe respiratory problems, severe difficulties with breathing, thought to have the sort of the significant viral illness. And then within some time after that, started to develop weakness of either one limb, two limbs, or all their limbs, arms and legs. They were between the ages of 1 and 18. And they all had this history of being sick some time in the recent past.

What they subsequently found out, Carol, was they did an MRI of their spinal cords and found the people who had the weakness did have some lesions in their spinal cord. Whether that's specifically related to the viral illness, they're not sure. Whether this is something that's temporary or permanent, they're still not sure. But I will tell you this, that that hospital that is reporting these particular children, they had some 4,000 patients who had significant respiratory illness and we're talking about 10 people who developed these symptoms. So it is rare, we know that; about a quarter percent at this time, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still it's so frightening because it sort of sounds like polio, right?

GUPTA: It does sound like polio. And polio is a good reminder and example of a virus -- a viral illness causing weakness or even paralysis in people. Viruses can do that sometimes because they can cause injury to the spinal cord or they can even trigger the body to start attacking itself, sort of an autoimmune disease.

Again, we don't know what's specifically happening here. And we don't know -- I should point out, Carol, that all ten of these children even had Enterovirus D-68, the virus we're talking about. That has not been confirmed either. So they're still figuring things out.

But, look, anybody -- you go in with what you think is a cold, it turns into a flu, and then within a couple of weeks you have weakness or paralysis, that's obviously frightening. It's going to prompt a lot of investigation.

COSTELLO: Right. And one more thing that I have to bring up. The CDC is reporting at least 434 confirmed cases so far, but no deaths. However, New Jersey health officials say they're investigating one possible death linked to this illness. Do you know about that?

GUPTA: We know that this is happening real time, now. And what I mean by that is that -- and, again, it is difficult to talk about because we haven't had a death up until now from this virus and we don't know that this virus caused this death, but they have to check. They have to confirm to see if this person in fact had the Enterovirus 68 in their body and that those specimens have been sent to the CDC.

I will tell you something, a lot of times these test results come back normal or negative. That doesn't mean that the virus wasn't present at some point, and there's probably hundreds of thousands of people out there in this country, Carol, who have been exposed to Enterovirus now who have been just fine. We just don't know that they have been exposed. In this particular situation, they may find the virus, they may not as well. In the end, we may not know for sure.

COSTELLO: OK. And finally, what can parents do to protect their kids?

GUPTA: It's funny, Carol, you and I have had this conversation so many times and I almost feel a little bit silly reminding people of some of the obvious things. But let me just say in the context of Ebola, we talked about something that was not particularly contagious, these Enteroviruses are contagious. They can live on surfaces. You can touch a surface and then touch your hand to your nose, your mouth. That's how these viruses spread often. So washing your hands, washing surfaces is really important. But let me tell you something else that I think is a little specific

here, and that is that children with asthma do appear to be most affected by this. So if your child has asthma and is starting to develop a significant problem with a viral illness, all the things that look like a cold but are getting worse, there's a little bit more concern there. Again, statistically, chances are they're going to be just fine. But I think the children with asthma are a little bit more at risk here, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it, thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an intruder rushes into the White House and violates even more levels of security than previously thought. CNN's Brian Todd walks us through a breach that has lawmakers demanding answers. Hi Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. We're going to have details on where the intruder went and exactly where he was taken down. Very surprising and disturbing details, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)