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At This Hour

Front Against Ebola Intensifies; Malala Yousafzai Speaks; Lundergan Grimes Refuses to Say if She Vote for Obama.

Aired October 10, 2014 - 11:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The fight against Ebola is intensifying on several fronts @THISHOUR. In the hot zone, six U.S. military aircraft delivered now more Marines, more airmen and more supplies to Liberia there are more than 300 U.S. troops currently there. By the end of the month, we're told the number will jump to about 700.

Britain, meanwhile, plans to join the U.S. in screening passengers that are traveling by plane from the West African countries hardest hit by the epidemic. They'll be asked questions and potentially given a medical assessment at Heathrow, Gatwick and Eurostar terminals. Passengers will have their temperatures taken at New York, New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, and Atlanta.

Thomas Eric Duncan's family is now criticizing the care he received at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Officials, though, there say staff members did everything they could.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in Dr. Jorge Rodriguez now.

Dr. Jorge has been with us the last several days talking about what is real and not real in dealing with Ebola and today we want to talk about treatments, doctor. We know ZMapp was this anti-viral drug give on the several people here in the United States who were treated for it. But that's gone. There's none of it on earth, we're being told right now. Other people have been given different anti-viral drugs. We heard from a doctor in West Africa yesterday who said they're getting aids type drugs right now to try to treat this. What are the chances that any of these will work?

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNIST: Your guess, John, is as good as mine and theirs. Those drugs are being used as a desperate measure because Ebola and HIV are in the same family of viruses. They're called retroviruses. So desperate times call for desperate measures and they're trying to see if any of these drugs work at all. So nobody really knows where they do work or will work.

PEREIRA: Obviously, you probably can speak in generalizations and -- about the treatment that Thomas Eric Duncan was given but we received an e-mail from a viewer Wendy who wanted to know why that patient, Thomas Duncan, didn't receive the antidote the first two infected patients were given. You talk about the fact that it wasn't available but also, I think there's questions about why he didn't receive a blood transfusion. Could it have been too late in his illness' progression?

RODRIGUEZ: There are many reasons. That's one of them. First of all, everybody's assuming these drugs that have been used work. We don't know that.

BERMAN: That's a good point.

RODRIGUEZ: These people may have gotten better just by the supportive care. In order to get a blood transfusion for someone, your blood type needs to match. So maybe the people that have had it here in the U.S., their blood would not have matched Mr. Duncan's and giving him a blood transfusion would have been lethal. That's one very likely possibility. I don't think it's because it was too late. And to get a drug that isn't designed or approved by the FDA, it isn't as quickly as just snapping your fingers and saying, "Give it to him." You have to go through a process called compassionate use. It has to be available. The FDA has to approve it. So it's a little time consuming and maybe that can be sped up.

BERMAN: Explain to me the theory of why a blood transfusion might work.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, someone who's been exposed to Ebola and has survived has natural anti-bodies to the virus. Someone who has Ebola currently and is working to fight it off doesn't have the anti-bodies. Therefore, you give the blood to someone who already has the anti- bodies and it's like we're doing in West Africa. We're sending in the troops already ready to fight. So that's the theory is how a blood transfusion from someone who survived Ebola may be helpful.

PEREIRA: Dr. Jorge. We appreciate you clarifying for this for us. This is obviously going to be a long battle. We'll call on you again for your expertise, OK?

RODRIGUEZ: My pleasure.

PEREIRA: Have a great weekend.

For those of you at home trying to figure out how you can support this ongoing battle, we have set up a section of our web site that you can visit. CNN.com/impact.

BERMAN: Ahead for us @THISHOUR, I'm going to give you an easy question right now. It should be an easy question to a Democratic candidate. Did you vote for President Obama? Wait until you hear the answer that one Democratic candidate gave. Man, oh, man, political gymnastics at its best.

PEREIRA: Oh, actually, I want to take you right now live to Britain, to Birmingham, in fact.

Malala Yousafzai, the winner who will share the Nobel Peace Prize, is speaking. Let's listen.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER: Wherever I go and spoke, the only problem I face is that the podium is usually taller than me. So I hope it will be good this time. I'm feeling honored that I am being chosen as a Nobel laureate and I have been honored with this precious award, the Nobel Peace Prize. And I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person who is getting this award. It's a great honor for me. And I'm also that I'm sharing this award with a person from India whose name is Kailash Satyarthi and his great work for child's right, his great work against child slavery.

It totally inspires me and I'm really happy that there are so many people working for children's right and I'm so happy. He is not alone and I'm so honored to share this award with him. He received this award and we both are the two Nobel award receivers, one is from Pakistan, one is from India, one believes in Hinduism, one strongly believes in Islam. It gives a message to people of love between Pakistan and India and between different religions and we both support each other.

It does not matter what the color of your skin, what language do you speak, what religion you believe in. It is that we should all consider each other as human beings and we should respect each other and we should all fight for our rights, for the rights of churn, for the rights of women and for the rights of every human being. For of all, I would like to thank my family, my dear father, my dear mother for their love, for their support. As my father always says, he did not give me something extra, but what he did do, he did not clip my wings. So I'm thankful to my father for not clipping my wings, for letting me to fly and achieve my goals, for showing to the world that a girl is not supposed to be a slave.

A girl has the power to go forward in her life. And she's not only a mother, she's not only a sister, she's not only a wife. But a girl should have an identity. She should be recognized and she has equal rights as a boy. Even though my brother thinks that they are treated -- that I am treated very well and he is not treated very well. But that's fine.

I would like to share with you how I found out about the Nobel Peace Prize and it's exciting because I was in my chemistry class and we were studying about electrolysis and the time was, I think 10:15. So the time of the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize was gone and before that I was not expecting that I would get this award and when it went to, like, 10:15, I was totally sure that I haven't won it. But then suddenly one of my teachers claim to the class and she called me and she said, "I have something important to tell you." And I was totally surprised. And she told me congratulations, you have won the Nobel Peace Prize and you are sharing it with a great person also working for children's rights. And it's sometimes quite difficult to express your feelings, but I felt really honored.

I felt more powerful and more courageous because this award is not just a piece of metal or a medal that you would wear, an award that you would keep in your room, but this is really an encouragement for me to go forward and to believe in myself. To know that there are people who are supporting me in this campaign. And we are standing together. We all want to make sure that every child gets quality education. So this is really -- this is really something great for me.

However, when I found that I have won the Nobel Peace Prize, I decided that I would not leave my school, rather I would finish my school time, I would -- I went to physics, I learned, I went to English lessons and it was totally like -- I considered it as a normal day and I was really happy by the response of my teachers and my fellow students. They were all saying that we are proud of you and I'm really thankful to my school, to my teachers, to my school fellows for their love, for their support and really encouraged me and they're supporting me. So I'm happy. Even though it's not going to help me in my tests and exams because it totally depends on my hard work. But, still, I'm really happy that they are supporting me.

I have received this award, but this is not the end. This is not the end. This is not the end of this campaign which I have started. I think this is really the beginning and I want to see every child going to school. There are still 57 million children who have not received education, who are still out of the primary schools and I want to see every child going to school and getting education because I have myself suffered through the same situation when I was in swat valley and you all may know that in swat there was Talibanization and because of that no girl was allowed to go to school.

At that time I stood up for my rights and I said I would speak up. I do not wait for someone else. I do not wait for someone else. I had two options. One was not to speak and wait to be killed. The second was to speak up and then be killed and I chose the second one because at that time there was terrorism, women were not allowed to go outside of their houses because education was totally bad, people were killed. At that time I needed to raise my voice because I wanted to go back to school. I was also one of those girls who could not get education.

I wanted to learn I wanted to learn and be who I can be in my future. And I also had dreams. I also had dreams like a normal child has. I wanted to become a doctor at that time. Now I want to become a politician, a good politician. And when I heard that I can not go to school, I just for a second thought that I would never able become a doctor or I would never be able to be who I want to be in the future and my life would be just getting married at the age of 13 or 14, not going to school, not becoming who I really can be so I decided that I will speak up.

So through my story I want to tell other children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights. They should not wait for someone else and their voices are more powerful. Their voices -- it would seem that they are weak, but at the time when no one speaks, your voice gets so loud that everyone has to listen to it. Everyone has to hear it. So it's my message to children all around the world that they should stand up for their rights.

I believe that the Nobel Committee, they haven't given this just to me. But this award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard. And I speak for them and I stand up with them and I join them in their campaign, that their voices should be heard and they should be listened and they have rights. They have rights. They have the right to receive quality education. They have the right not to suffer from child labor, not to suffer from child trafficking. They have the right to live a happy life. So I stand up with all those children and this award is especially for them. It gives them courage.

At the end, I would like to share with you that I had a phone call with honorable Kailash. I cannot pronounce his surname accurately so please I ask for forgiveness for that. I will just call him Kailash if he wouldn't mind. So I had a phone call with him right now and we both talked about how important it is that every child goes to school and every child gets quality education and how many issues there are that the churn are suffering, but I'm not yet highlights. So we both decided that we will work together for the cause that every child gets quality education and does not suffer from these issues.

Other than that, we also decided that as he's from India and I'm from Pakistan we will try to build strong relationships between India and Pakistan. And now days you know that there is tension on the border and the situation is getting -- it's not like as we are expecting, we want Pakistan and India to have good relationships and the tension that is going on is disappointing and I'm really sad because I want both countries to have dialogue, to have talks about peace, and to think about progress, to think about develop rather than fighting with each other. It's important that both countries focus more on education, focus more on development and progress, which is good for both of them. So we both decided that -- I requested him that would it be possible that he request His Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join us when we receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December. And I promised him that I would also request the honorable prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, to join us when I get and he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. And I myself request the honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and honorable Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, that they both join us when we receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

I really believe in peace. I really believe in tolerance and patience and it is very important for the progress of both countries that they have peace and good relationships. This is how they are going to achieve success and this is how they're going to progress. So it is my humble request and I hope it will be listened. At the end, I want to say that I'm really happy for your support. I used to say that I think I do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I still believe that. But I believe that it is not only an award for what I have done but also an encouragement for giving me hope, for giving me the courage to go and continue this campaign, to believe in myself and to know that I'm not alone, there are hundreds and thousands and millions who are supporting me.

So once again, thank you so much to all of you. Thank you. Oh, yes, I'm really sorry. I wanted to share --I will speak in Urdu and Pashtun as well for my country.

BERMAN: It takes your breath away. I hope everyone has a chance to see that because --

PEREIRA: When you think about the fact that she nearly died. BERMAN: What you're seeing there is everything that is good.

Everything that is good. 17 years old. Malala Yousafzai was in chemistry class today, chemistry class when she learned she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Two years ago yesterday, she went to school in Pakistan and she was shot in the head for it. Almost killed because she had the courage to stand up for what she believed in to go to school.

PEREIRA: And continues to. We should point out that she is not welcome in her homeland. Her life is very much in danger in her native Pakistan. On a more cheerful note, she is going to share this tremendous honor of being a Nobel Laureate with an Indian man by the name -- and I will try to say it -- Kailash Satyarthi. He is an Indian activist who has worked tirelessly and has held peaceful demonstrations against the exploitation of children. The two of them are posing such a wonderful duo, Muslim-Hindu, young-old, India- Pakistan. The connections are powerful and they're an excellent statement on what needs to be done in the world today.

BERMAN: She called on everyone to stand up for what they believe in. Stand up for the 31 million girls not in school. She said, winning the Nobel Peace Prize is not going to help her in chemistry class.

PEREIRA: No.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: It's hard work. That's all she ever wanted a chance to do and that's all she wants for the girls around the world.

PEREIRA: Great fighters for our children. Amazing, isn't it? Wasn't that great? My goodness. 17 years old.

BERMAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. There's politics and then there's gymnastics, but then there are times when the two look awfully similar. I want you to look at the twists, turns, and back flips attempted by Alison Lundergan Grimes when the she was asked a simple question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you vote for President Obama, 2008 and 2012?

ALISON LUNDERGAN GRIMES, (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: You know, this election is not about the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.

GRIMES: It's making sure that Kentuckians get back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you vote for him?

GRIMES: I'm a Democrat through and through. I respect the ballot box and I know the members of this board do as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're not going to answer?

GRIMES: Again, I don't think the president is on the ballot as much as Mitch McConnell might want him to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Nowhere in there was there a yes or a no.

PEREIRA: I was trying to see if I interpreted it differently than you. There's a whole new level of trying to create distance with the president.

Bringing in our political commentators of the day, Ana Navarro and Paul Begala.

Good to see you.

Paul, I think I'll start with you.

Does that kind of convoluted answer help her cause?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It eats up air time. People of Kentucky already know that Barack Obama's president and they don't like him. What Grimes is trying to do is pay more attention to it. I don't think it's a gaffe. We come back at some point and people talk about their own lives and not whether she supported Barack Obama.

BERMAN: Interesting how hard she worked not to answer that question.

PEREIRA: That's aggressive.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Ana, I want to go to you now. President Obama was speaking to celebrities and not to mention other people. He said that Republicans by opposing immigration reform are committing political suicide. Now, I know this is an issue that you have worked on quite a bit. What do you make of that?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first, let me tell you, John, it's cringe-inducing that we're talking about these things having talked about mala which was such the epitome of class and grace and things missing in our political system these days. But back to your question, if we must. You know, I think, frankly, he's right. And I think a lot of Republicans would agree.

But it's not because of politics that we should be doing immigration. It's because it's what is good for the country in terms of national security and the economy and education and just being pragmatic in our workforce and having an energized and a younger workforce. But, you know, I think President Obama also has got to look in the mirror because everything he has done or not done on immigration has been political. When he promised to do it the first year of his first term, that was for politics. When he didn't do it, that was for politics. When he did the dream act directive right before 2012 election, that was for politics.

Now that he delayed this executive action and has said that he's going to do it right after the election, that's for politics. And I would say the exact same thing for my party. They brought out standards at the beginning of this year and a lot of people were on board and they didn't do it because of politics, because they didn't want to get into the way of primaries for many of the Republicans.

You know what, shame on both sides. It's time to put politics aside and I think Latinos need to smarten up when it comes to this issue. We cannot change it to allow it to be used as political pawns.

PEREIRA: Paul, I feel as though, even though it does you great discomfort, you agreed with some of the things she said.

(LAUGHTER)

BEGALA: I'm not shocked. Of course, of course politicians are playing politics. Of course they are. I don't think that's a bad thing, actually. I think people should know where these politicians stand and reward them with their vote when they support them and oppose them. Ronald Reagan got 30 percent of the Hispanic vote. He said they are Republicans, they just don't know it. He signed amnesty. It didn't exactly ruin the court, did it, in 1986? George W. Bush moved that up. Voters were smart. Mitt Romney went out of his way to insult them in the election and that's why Latinos are rushing back to the Democratic Party that actually supports them.

BERMAN: Paul Begala, Ana Navarro, thank you.

If should be noted, Malala said it was always her dream to grow up to be a politician.

PEREIRA: A good politician.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks for joining us @THISHOUR. I'm Michaela Pereira.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right after the break.

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