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Texas Ebola Patient; Secret Service Mistakes; White House Intruder; Liberians Concerned about Ebola

Aired October 01, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today.

We're going to begin with a brand new concern just raised about this first case of Ebola in the United States. So here's what we've just learned. This news conference just wrapped. So we now know that the infected man was around children, school aged children to be precise, this is what we're hearing from the Texas governor, before being hospitalized in Dallas. That announcement moments ago from Texas Governor Rick Perry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Today we learned that some school aged children have been identified as having had contact with the patient and are now being monitored at home for any signs of the disease. I know that parents are being extremely concerned about that development. But let me assure these children have been identified and they are being monitored and the disease cannot be transmitted before having any symptoms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The country's first diagnosed Ebola patient is listed in serious condition. He's isolated and under intensive care. A search is underway for anyone who came in close contact with the man after he arrived in Texas from Liberia, one of the Ebola hot spots in West Africa, to visit family here in the United States.

So, tracing his movements from that plane to Dallas, crucial. Ebola becomes contagious with the onset of symptoms. And this man's symptoms apparently started days before he was diagnosed.

So here's the tick tock. He left Liberia September 19th, arrived in Dallas the next day, started feeling kind of sick one week ago today and then went onto the emergency room Friday but was sent home. Finally, Sunday, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he was tested for Ebola and placed in isolation. That test then came back positive just yesterday. And that is when this whole thing spread wide open.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is on the phone with me from Dallas, who, by the way, was just in Liberia and we'll get to that in just a minute. I have tons of questions, Elizabeth, especially in the wake of the news conference and hearing this guy was in contact with young kids. But first the obvious question everyone wants to know is, how fast might this spread?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): You know, Brooke, it -- it -- I think that it is very possible to take steps to control this. This is not sort of something that at this point would spread like wildfire. So let me explain. I was told that these five children are kin -- that was the word that was used by a school official -- are kin of the patient who is here at Presbyterian. Those five children attend four different schools. So those children are being told not to go to school and they are being told to monitor themselves, which means checking to see if they feel sick and checking their temperature.

All in all, we were told today that there are 12 to 18 contacts of the patient who is here at this hospital and that those patients are all being monitored. Now, it's interesting, we said, do those patients have to stay home? Do they have to quarantine themselves at home? And, you know, they said this is not a quarantine. So it sounded to us like these patients, these contacts, rather, are free to move about the community as they see fit. They have to monitor themselves. And if they feel ill, then I'm sure they would be isolated. So that's the way that this was described to us.

BALDWIN: Can move around the community and self-monitor. OK. Let's talk about you. Just because, obviously, the concern is the fact that this man was on a plane, traveled many an hour back to Texas. You were on a plane. You and your CNN crew. I mean were you tested leaving Liberia? What was -- how stringent was that process?

COHEN: You can't test for Ebola because you -- for the test to work, you have to be sick. So if you're about to get Ebola, if you're on the verge of it, you're going to test negative anyhow, just because of the way the test works. So -- and so let me tell you about the -- about the system that's in place.

So when I left Monrovia, they took our temperature, mine and my crew, not once, not twice, but three times. And they asked us in questionnaires and in person, have you had symptoms? Have you felt sick? Were you exposed to patients with Ebola? Did you attend a burial? All of that. It was really rigorous. And there were nurses there who were looking at you and they wanted to see if perhaps you were lying, would your face show signs of sickness.

When I got to the U.S., Brooke, it wasn't as -- it was basically really no screening. None of us were asked about our exposure. We said we're journalists who are returning from Liberia covering Ebola. We put it out there. And they did not ask us about exposure. They didn't ask us how close we got to patients with Ebola. They didn't ask us how close we got to dead bodies. They didn't take our temperature. One of the -- (INAUDIBLE) -- the officials --

BALDWIN: Did you say, hang on a second, should you be seeing if I have a fever? I've been covering this story for many days. COHEN: Well, I think the thinking is, look, when you left Monrovia you

didn't have a fever, right, because they checked three times. But, you know, this was -- this was now a good -- I'd have to do the math, but this was, you know, more than 12 hours later. I mean that is, I think, a legitimate question. I mean people can get sick in the course of time that they're -- that they're flying and Ebola, when people get sick, they get sick very, very quickly.

The customs official who was working with me, or the immigration official who was working with me, was about to hand me my passport and say welcome home Ms. Cohen when he said, oh, wait a minute, I got an e-mail. Something about people returning from a country like Liberia. Hold on a second. And he went and conferred with colleagues who conferred with other colleagues and they came back to me and said, oh, we're supposed to tell you to monitor your systems, your health, for 21 days. And I said, OK, what should I be looking for? And they couldn't tell me.

And my other two colleagues, John Bonafield (ph) and Orlando Gradez (ph), they weren't told to monitor their symptoms at all. Nobody even mentioned anything about doing any monitoring for 21 days, even though that is recommended by the CDC for people coming back from Liberia. So there seems to be some disconnect here between what travelers are supposed to be told coming back into the country and what actually happened to us on Saturday.

BALDWIN: Given what's happened in Dallas and given what you're telling me here on national TV, I have a feeling, Elizabeth Cohen, that is about to change.

COHEN: Yes.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth, stay in close contact with us, please. I appreciate your reporting. And best to you and the crew.

We're going to, of course, stay on this story. I know a lot of you are talking about this Ebola story out of Texas. Do me a favor, tweet your questions because we're going to be having our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has been on this for months and months and he too was in Africa not too long ago. Send us your questions on Twitter and make sure you use hashtag #ebolaqanda. And we'll talk to Sanjay in about half an hour to answer some of those questions live here on the show.

But now to this. Now to the simple crime that has exposed system wide weaknesses in the force that protects the president. Right now the man who allegedly jumped over that White House fence and ran into the White House is in front of a federal judge. He is Omar Gonzalez. He also, at the time, allegedly had a knife. The Secret Service says the 42-year-old Iraq War veteran ran past a door, into the lobby, past the stairs that led to the first family's residence, through that first door and into the East Room and then back into the hall where he was taken down.

We are also learning about a new breach just three days before Omar Gonzalez allegedly got inside the White House with a knife, there was a security contractor with a gun who was riding in an elevator with the president when he was visiting the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta not too long ago. And the Secret Service agent did not actually initially know that this guy had a weapon, that this guy had a gun. Those details confirmed by the agency itself.

As I mentioned, this happened recently when President Obama was at the CDC actually talking about Ebola. An official said, while this security contractor was reprimanded for pulling out his cell phone trying to take pictures of President Obama, the Secret Service then discovered he had the gun. The director of the agency failed to mention any of this during the three plus hours that members of Congress lambasted her Tuesday for multiple lapses in security. She was there on The Hill testifying. In fact, Julia Pierson testified the only breach she told the president about this year was the White House intruder incident. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What percentage of the time do you inform the president if his personal security is in any way, shape or form been breached?

JULIA PIERSON, DIRECTOR, SECRET SERVICE: The percent of the time? One hundred percent of the time we would advise the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In calendar year 2014, how many times has that happened?

PIERSON: I have not briefed him with the exception of one occasion for the September 19th incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, let's bring him in, Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of "Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life in the Secret Service."

And, Jeffrey, just judging by your body language and seeing you shaking your head watching all of these details, unbelievable.

JEFFREY ROBINSON, AUTHOR WHO WROTE A BOOK ABOUT THE SECRET SERVICE: I need to ask you a question.

BALDWIN: Go.

ROBINSON: Do you lock your front door?

BALDWIN: Every day when I leave.

ROBINSON: That's right. That's right.

BALDWIN: What's your point?

ROBINSON: That's the -- that's the moment -- that is the minute -- the precise moment we realized this is a catastrophe, the White House door was unlocked. It was unmanned and unlocked. The White House door. Now, there's a reason why this has been going on and you can trace it

back for about 15 or 16 years. At the end of the 1990s, there was great turmoil in the Secret Service as a number of senior managers left. You know, corporate memory starts retiring.

BALDWIN: OK.

ROBINSON: By 2002, George Bush made a humongous error in creating Homeland Security and taking Secret Service out of Treasury. They'd been there since 1865 and they had oversight in Treasury. They worked in Treasury. They knew how to function in Treasury. They're suddenly put into this mish mash of Homeland Security. The first obvious signs of problems came when George Bush landed a fixed wing aircraft on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. A president. The Reagan Secret Service people would never in a million years have allowed the president to do that. It was a dangerous, stupid stunt and they would have absolutely put their foot down. What happens a few years later? Bush is in a press conference in Iraq and an Iraqi reporter throws a shoe at him.

BALDWIN: A shoe. The shoe.

ROBINSON: Where's the Secret Service? There's one agent up front and what he's doing is staring at the president. No, no, no, he should be looking there.

BALDWIN: So what happened? I mean I hear you that you're saying at some point in time, and I think it was in the '90s when they sort of -- I don't know if it was hemorrhaged or a lot of them were let go, but a lot of these older guys who had been around, you say, for -- part of the problem is a lot of these -- I should say men and women -- who are Secret Service agents do not know firsthand what it's like when a president is shot at and that, you say, is a huge part of the problem.

ROBINSON: Right. That's a huge problem. I mean what you've got today, the agents themselves are terrific. They are the best and the brightest and they live under enormous pressure and they really --

BALDWIN: But then how did this happen?

ROBINSON: Management -- it's a management problem.

BALDWIN: How is there a man on an elevator armed and the Secret Service had no idea.

ROBINSON: Management.

BALDWIN: And they allowed him in there with the president.

ROBINSON: Because since the early days of Bush, the Secret -- the staff, the White House staff, has eaten away at Secret Service's power inside the White House. You see it in Obama today when he makes a speech and there are 50 people or 100 people behind him. A very dangerous situation.

BALDWIN: How are they not (INAUDIBLE), those people behind him? I'm sure they check their background.

ROBINSON: It's not a question of that. If there's an incident, they're going to panic. The Secret Service needs to be closer to the president. There's no agent within 15 feet of him. They need to be closer to get him off that stage through a clean exit. They need clean elevators. They need -- what they need is proximity and intensity and attention to minute details.

BALDWIN: OK, I hear you. You are like the fifth person I've talked to and heard from when it comes to management and leadership and that was certainly echoed in the House Oversight Committee hearing that we heard yesterday.

Let me just play a little sound from Congressman Chairman Elijah Cummings. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: What percentage of the time do you inform the president if his personal security is in any way, shape or form been breached?

JULIA PIERSON, DIRECTOR, SECRET SERVICE: Percent of the time? One hundred percent of the time we would advise the president.

CHAFFETZ: In calendar year 2014, how many times has that happened?

PIERSON: I have not briefed him with the exception of one occasion for the September 19th incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Congressman Chaffetz, forgive me. But, nevertheless, they were both sitting there asking some pretty tough questions of Pierson, the chief of the Secret Service. If you say leadership, do you think it's fair, though? Let's give her the benefit of the doubt just for a second.

ROBINSON: No. No.

BALDWIN: She may have no idea what happened. Was there a breakdown in communication?

ROBINSON: No. No, no, no, there is no benefit of the doubt.

BALDWIN: Uh-oh, (INAUDIBLE) the wagon.

ROBINSON: There is absolutely no -- no, absolutely not. The Secret Service cannot afford a mistake. A mistake is November 22, 1963.

BALDWIN: Right.

ROBINSON: That's what a mistake looks like. They cannot afford a mistake. There is attention to the minutest detail. It is her head that has to roll. And I think -- BALDWIN: So, if it's her head that rolls, is it not -- is it not within the culture? Is it -- you can't just -- are you pinning all this on one person?

ROBINSON: No. It's the management team. It's -- the culture has slipped into the management team with no proximity, no intensity, no attention to detail. And I have the solution. A very, very simple solution.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ROBINSON: You bring in a new management team who have worked on PPD and you bring in --

BALDWIN: What's PPD?

ROBINSON: Presidential Protection Division.

BALDWIN: OK.

ROBINSON: And you bring in some -- on an ad hoc kitchen cabinet kind of way, you bring in some of the former agents who worked for Reagan and Clinton, who really got it right. I'm talking about guys like Jerry Park (ph), who saved President Reagan's life. Bob Duprosporo (ph). Ray Shadick (ph). Larry Kockle (ph). You bring them in on a volunteer basis to re-instill in the Secret Service the intensity, the proximity and the attention to detail because they cannot afford a failure. It is catastrophic if they fail.

BALDWIN: Are you worried about the president's security?

ROBINSON: I am with this bunch, absolutely. Absolutely. The Reagan people knew what it was to almost lose a president. These people don't.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness, by the way, but I understand --

ROBINSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: I understand your point loud and clear. Jeffrey Robinson, author of -- wrote the book on (ph) the Secret Service. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on.

ROBINSON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Just ahead, as the search is underway for people who came in contact with Ebola, we'll speak live with someone from that local community and he has a special request for everyone who may know that patient.

Plus, live on CNN, ISIS terrorists attacking a key city on the Turkey/Syrian border, leaving behind these black clouds as the group is getting closer to the city center. All of this happening hours after the United States and coalition are launching its biggest bombing campaign yet in this war. You are watching CNN's special live coverage. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are just talking about Secret Service and that intruder in the White House. I can tell you that moments ago the arraignment for the so-called intruder with that knife wrapped up, authorities say Omar Gonzalez had 800 rounds of ammunition and 11 guns in his car when he hopped that fence and ran into the White House. So let's go straight to D.C., outside the federal courthouse there, our justice correspondent Pamela Brown.

Tell me what happened in court today, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, Omar Gonzalez's attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf to all three charges he faces, including entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon. It's a federal charge. It carries up to 10 years in prison.

But it's interesting here that the judge actually surprised the defense today by asking for a competency test. There was a revised report since the last hearing here at federal court. And in that report, there was a mental health assessment. And based on that, the judge said there should be a competency test to see if Omar Gonzalez is competent to stand trial. As you know, there had been reporting that he suffered from post-traumatic stress after serving in the Iraq War.

His defense attorney says that there is no need for that. He said, quote, "it is so clear this is not appropriate. There is no basis to think that he is not competent to stand trial." And the prosecution did not challenge the defense on this. And so what happened today is the defense said basically it wants to delay the judge's order for this competency test so that it can challenge it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, so competency issue but then also, you know, just going back to a couple of weeks ago when this all happened, Pamela, do we have a number as far as how many members of the Secret Service Gonzalez actually got past?

BROWN: We don't have a specific number. It was talked about yesterday in the hearing. Of course, as we know, the Secret Service director was grilled by Congress members yesterday and she said that there was a Secret Service agent that he overpowered at the front door of the White House. He was able to get past that Secret Service agent and there was a chase that ensued and then he was eventually apprehended at the East Room of the White House, pretty deep into the White House. As one Congress member said, that's a half a White House tour for the American public.

And then we also learned that there were two off-duty Secret Service agents that helped to assist in the apprehension. But as far as how many agents he actually was able to get past or officers he was able to get past, that's still unclear. But we knew -- do know that there was five rings of security. So he was somehow able to get past five rings, five layers of security deep into the White House. As we know, initially the Secret Service didn't give any indication of a chase or struggle, how deep he got into the White House. So these revelations from the director herself are pretty -- pretty astounding. And she did apologize and said that she too is outraged about what happened, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Outraged, but a lot of people calling for her job. Pamela Brown for us in Washington. Thank you so much, Pamela.

We'll take you back to our special coverage on the very first case of Ebola here in the United States as the search is now underway for people, anyone, who this individual came in contact with. We'll talk live with someone actually from his local community and he has a special request for everyone who may know the patient. Stay with me.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States certainly raising some concerns, but perhaps nowhere is that concern more acute than in the Liberian community in Dallas. That's where the Ebola patient is hospitalized and where he arrived about a week and a half ago to visit family. Stanley Gaye is president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Ft. Worth. He joins me now.

Mr. Gaye, welcome.

STANLEY GAYE, PRESIDENT, LIBERIAN COMMUNITY ASSN. OF DALLAS-FT. WORTH: Thank you for inviting me.

BALDWIN: So just listening to that news conference and the governor of your state, Rick Perry, basically saying that this patient did indeed come into contact with school aged children. They're being monitored. That has to concern you.

GAYE: Yes, it's a big concern because the kids have been taken to a school and we are concerned within the community that young kids have been in contact with the person that has the Ebola virus.

BALDWIN: Do you know of any of these children or any of these -- it was -- our reporter saying he came into contact with 12 to 18 individuals who are allowed to move within the community on their own volition.

GAYE: No, we are not. I do not know any of the kids or the parents. So what we are doing as the Liberian community is to reaching out to the community and ask people that have been in contact with this person to reach out to the CDC. They should not be afraid or ashamed of this or embarrassed. It could happen to anyone. The best way is to catch it at an early stage and look for symptoms and reach out to the CDC or go to the nearby hospital to have themselves checked.

BALDWIN: It's interesting you used the word ashamed. This is something I heard about in villages in Africa, the sense of shame and stigma that comes with Ebola. And so is that something, is that pervasive in your community, this fear that if someone comes forward and says, yes, I have it or I have family who have it, they're shunned? GAYE: Yes, it is. So that's why we try to encourage it. We Liberians sometimes do not like to speak of our sickness and so we try to stay away because we think people will say negative things about them. So, again, we -- I encouraging them to reach out to who are the -- the CDC and the hospital if they have been in contact with the person in question.

BALDWIN: Reach out to the CDC. I know you're also saying, you know, to members of your community, don't all get together. I know mass gatherings are really part of the Liberian culture, but for now asking community members to hold off on that. Stanley Gaye, thank you so much for taking the time to come on with me. We appreciate it. This is, obviously, a big issue in your community and really in the greater Dallas area for now.

A quick programming note for you. Ebola survivor Nancy Writebol will be joining Anderson Cooper tonight. So don't miss that interview, especially in the wake of everything that's happening in Texas. Watch the interview, 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Just ahead, breaking news in the war against ISIS. We are live on the Turkey/Syria border where fighting erupted and terrorists are getting dangerously close to the center of a key city there.

Plus, are U.S. air strikes working against ISIS? It appears the group is growing, holding on to its territory. We'll take a look at how far they've come in just a short period of time. Stay here.

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