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Don Lemon Tonight

Interview with Ashoka Mukpo; Brittany Maynard's Decision to End Her Life; The Infamous Cat-Calling Video; Kaci Hickox in Negotiations with Maine over Quarantine; Chris Christie Lost His Cool; Conversation with Mike Tyson

Aired October 29, 2014 - 22:00   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

Of all the places that you'd think we'd be battling Ebola, the last place you'd probably expect is northern Maine. But that's where a standoff is taking place. And it's happening tonight. The state filing a court order to force Nurse Kaci Hickox into quarantine. But she is not backing down.

Meanwhile, I sat down today with someone who has actually survived Ebola. Ashoka Mukpo. He is a cameraman for NBC News who contracted Ebola in Liberia while he was working with Dr. Nancy Snyderman's crew. And now he is one of seven Americans who had battled Ebola and survived.

I visited Ashoka at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, and he told me about the moment he realized he had it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHOKA MUKPO, EBOLA SURVIVOR: I knew enough about Ebola to feel pretty confident that I was about to have a rough couple of weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also the dark days fighting for his life, his recovery and what he thinks of the battle lines around quarantine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUKPO: So I think that Governor Christie is playing politics right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also tonight, an exclusive update on the 29-year-old woman who says she'll end her own life before a brain tumor kills her.

We've got a whole lot to get to tonight so make sure you stay tuned. But I want to begin with Ebola survivor Ashoka Mukpo in his first interview since leaving the hospital. As President Barack Obama pointed out earlier, he is part of an elite group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of the seven Americans treated for Ebola so far, most of them while serving in West Africa, all seven have survived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, it certainly has been a long road for Ashoka Mukpo. And he is -- well, we'll see. How is he feeling? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUKPO: I'm feeling pretty good. I'm happy to be alive. I'm lucky I'm around family and friends. I'm back home. It is a good feeling to be where I am now especially considering where I have been.

LEMON: No long-term effects that you worry about, that they tell you about?

MUKPO: I mean, it's impossible to tell. I think they tell me that I should be fine in a couple of months but there is not a large pool of people that they've studied and seen on a long-term basis. But I think that I should be fine.

LEMON: What happened when you first started feeling it? Did you start to feel sluggish? What happened?

MUKPO: I had actually been feeling fine all day. We worked a long schedule. We were a couple of hours outside of Monrovia and I didn't notice anything. We went back to the hotel, we got a very late lunch. We started cutting film, talking about how to put together the segments, and the NBC crew asked me to go and interview someone at a different hotel. And I got in the car and I kind of slumped hard. I felt my back kind of had this achy feeling to it.

And I think if this happened to anybody else in a normal situation, they wouldn't even notice it. But I had been so attuned to any tick in my body feeling off because of the fear of contracted the disease. OK, you know, I need to stop by my apartment and get my tripod anyway, and maybe I will take my temperature.

LEMON: And?

MUKPO: And I went in and put the thermometer in my mouth and watch that LED dial go from 99 to 100 and up through 100. My heart rate is going up as the number is going up. So I got to 101.3 and it started beeping. I took that thermometer out of my mouth and threw it down on the bed, and started making phone calls.

LEMON: Did you know?

MUKPO: I knew, I knew. For me there was actually no doubt, which is strange because, you know, people say it could be malaria, it could be typhoid. You don't know. But for me, when I saw that thermometer bump up to 101.3 with no serious symptoms outside that, I knew enough about Ebola to feel pretty confident that I was about to have a rough couple of weeks.

LEMON: How did you get it?

MUKPO: My feeling, and I'll never know this for 100 percent certainty, is that I touched an infected surface in one of the high- risk areas that I was, and then either I didn't chlorinate fast enough before I touched my face, you know, maybe I rubbed my face or something like that. Or maybe the chlorine that I sprayed on my hands didn't get that particular place where it was on but really I can't give a definitive answer to that because I don't know unfortunately.

I wish I did. Because then I could tell other journalists, look, make sure you don't do this. But it's a bit of a mystery to me.

LEMON: OK. So I understand you talk a lot about, you know, the hysteria, I believe that, you know, there's unwarranted hysteria, especially in the west, and in the U.S. about Ebola. If you worked in those infected areas, right, you don't know how you got it. Some of the health care workers are coming back saying, I was completely covered. I did everything. Followed protocol. I don't know how I got it.

Can you understand some of the possible panic or concern is a better word that people may have here?

MUKPO: I absolutely understand the panic people have. It's a terrifying illness. And the prospect of getting it, I know more than anybody having worked so close to those area where people were dying and then contracting it myself, it is very frightening. But I think you have to look at the facts. You know, I think we have fear that's not informed by facts. It can cause us to make bad decisions.

And the truth is, all the health care workers and me as a journalist were around very, very sick people for very prolonged periods of time. So there would be seven, eight, nine days in a row where I would be going to places where there's people who either died or who were very close to it. So it was not a situation where you had somebody who was 24 hours before a fever, which is what the circumstance with Dr. Spencer was.

LEMON: So you were around people who were very highly --

MUKPO: Highly contagious.

LEMON: Highly contagious. So I want to continue on with that because, you know, there have been some developments as it comes to people being quarantined. But let's talk about before we get there you being in isolation. For how long were you in isolation?

MUKPO: Two-and-a-half weeks. Total.

LEMON: Did it feel like forever?

MUKPO: Yes. It felt like a long time. I mean, in some ways the days actually went by quick. I slept a lot. And I was sick, I was trying to conserve my energy. And I think anybody who's been very, very ill, as this experience were, sometimes you just sort of go inside yourself. You sleep. You're conserving your energy. And when you wake up, you are very vivid. You're very alert. Your body almost goes into hibernation so your immune system can get strong. But it felt like forever before I knew that I was going to be OK.

LEMON: Is there any way to describe what the illness feels like? What does it feel like, a flu? What does it do to your body?

MUKPO: I want to find ways to help people understand it. It's nothing -- it's like nothing that I had ever experienced. It was a bit like a flu in the sense that there was body aches and chills and fever, but they were so pronounced and so much more intense than anything that you're likely to get with the flu.

LEMON: Pain?

MUKPO: Yes. There was pain, certainly muscle pain, muscle aches, very high fever. I think at one point, my fever was at 104. But I think the thing that was most pronounced for me almost that everything was the weakness, the physical weakness. And I used to see people who would be laying in front of treatment centers trying to get admitted. And, you know, they're just laying out in the grounds, in the gravel, in the sun.

And I used to look at them and say, my god, you can't you sit up? At least? .And then once I was sick, I completely understood. You just have absolutely no energy. To walk three feet feels like you just ran a marathon.

LEMON: You can't move?

MUKPO: Not very much.

LEMON: And you are -- as I said, you are in isolation. So can you even see the faces of the people who are treating you?

MUKPO: You can see their eyes.

LEMON: You can see their eyes.

MUKPO: Yes.

LEMON: And no human contact?

MUKPO: Of course not.

LEMON: You probably needed it the most then.

MUKPO: You know, it's one thing people have asked me that about the human contact. And I think I feel like, I don't know what human contact would have done for me. At that point. I needed my own strength so much that to be touched and cared for, I'm not even sure I would have wanted that. I know that sounds so strange to people because everybody would expect you want to hold someone's hand.

I was so scared and so sick that I think I needed to be in some kind of -- you know, bubble. But it was really disconcerting I think is the main things. When somebody comes and they look like that, you just think -- it just throws you off.

LEMON: Someone who is completely covered, and basically they are afraid of you, right? They don't want --

MUKPO: Sure.

LEMON: They don't want to get what you have?

MUKPO: Sure. Sure.

LEMON: In that moment, do you understand that?

MUKPO: Yes. I mean, I could see the fear in their eyes. But -- I actually far more than the fear, I could see sympathy in every single caregiver. That's why I feel like they are so brave and such heroes is that they are at risk. You know, there is a moment where an MSF doctor put an IV in my arm. And I actually bled quite a bit because Ebola thins your blood out. And I could see that they were afraid. But they were willing to take that risk for me to, you know, help me survive.

LEMON: Did you think that you were going to die?

MUKPO: I thought it was possible. I was realistic. I mean I think being deceitful to yourself isn't helpful at that point. I absolutely thought that there was a chance that I wasn't going to make it. But every time that thought would come up, I would fight against it and say, I am going to think positive. I am thinking about all the people who are sending good energy to me and praying for me right now, who are, you know, have -- keeping me in their thoughts.

And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to take that energy and I'm going to use it and I'm going to get better. But I knew that it might not go well. And the worst thing for me, I would say, is just idea that I was going to leave some loved ones that I care about so much behind. I was, like, you know, afraid for my own death.

But I was also thinking if I have to do this to somebody that I care about so much, to leave them. That's going to be hurting them. You know, that was almost the worst feeling, the worst idea.

LEMON: Ken Brantly, you got a transfusion from him. Did you -- how long did it take you to start to, you know, feel better? Because I'm sure of the transfusion helped.

MUKPO: Well, you know, I'm not a doctor. And I don't know -- you know, I don't want to make these assertions that I couldn't back up scientifically. But I felt that the transfusion itself was very difficult. There's a lot of physical reactions to it. You know, I've never had a blood transfusion before so my body, I think was, like, whoa, what's going on?

But I think the next day I started to feel better. That was really when I started to -- you know, my eyes felt easier to see, it was easier to see. My headache was less. I just felt like I had more energy. And the doctor walked in and said, wow, you look better today.

LEMON: Do you think -- has anyone asked you for a transfusion?

MUKPO: I can't give blood for another two weeks. I think. My antibody count is not strong enough to be useful but I want to say that, you know, Kent Brantly is a hero of mine for what he did. I think that he had a role in saving my life. And he has just been so compassionate and so willing to literally give his body to the care of others. And I hope that when my number gets called that I have that same courage. And I know I will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: We have got much more to come from my interview with Ashoka Mukpo, including his reaction to Governor Christie's controversial quarantine policy for health care workers in New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUKPO: This is just my own view on the exposure that I've hard to Ebola is I think that Governor Christie is playing politics right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news tonight. A standoff in Maine. The state is filing a court order to force Nurse Kaci Hickox who is in remote northern Maine into mandatory 21-day quarantine. She treated Ebola patients in West Africa and was isolated last weekend on her return to the U.S. But she has twice tested negative for Ebola and says there is no reason for her to be quarantined. Her lawyers are threatening legal actions.

I spoke with Ebola survivor, Ashoka Mukpo, today about some of the controversy raging in this country over the disease.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Were you aware of the congressional hearings and all of that controversy going on?

MUKPO: I had CNN in my hospital room.

LEMON: You did?

MUKPO: I did. So as much as, you know, when I became such a big issue around the nurses and Thomas Eric Duncan's death, I obviously had a bit of an interest in what was going on. So I paid quite close attention to it.

LEMON: What did you think of public reaction?

MUKPO: I thought that the public reaction was understandable in the sense that people tend to be afraid of the unknown. And there are so many factors that go into this disease being an unknown. The fact that it comes from a foreign country that people are afraid of, you know, and that it can kill you in these gruesome and (INAUDIBLE) ways. So I understood public reaction.

But I felt like some of our public officials and elected representatives whose responsibility would have been to dampen that panic actually seemed to exploit it. You know, even some people in the media seemed to ride it in the way that it wasn't -- to me at the time it felt like this isn't helpful. We need to calm this down so we can put our attention back on what's really important.

LEMON: How do you think our health officials and the administration handled the situation?

MUKPO: I am not an expert in public health but I can say just from my own citizen's perspective that I think the CDC was criticized far too much. I think for a hospital like Dallas to receive an Ebola patient was something that, you know, we might say, well, hey, we are prepared for it, but I think, you know, mistakes happen when the first time you confront something that you've never had experience with before.

In my opinion, the CDC has been doing everything that they can to keep people in this country safe. I just think that there's been a little bit of political showmanship of trying to score points off of criticizing them without acknowledging the good job that they've actually done.

LEMON: I want to talk about -- you heard what happened this weekend in New York and New Jersey about mandatory quarantines. And then the New York governor walking it back, New Jersey's governor is still sticking to his guns. But Kaci Hickox who is the -- who's a nurse says, you know, she's back in Maine now. She says, you know what? I don't feel like I should be in quarantine. I'm not -- you know, I'm asymptomatic. And this is, you know, in violation of my rights. And she said she is going to do what she wants to do.

MUKPO: Good for her.

LEMON: Do you agree?

MUKPO: She's earned the right to, you know, have a sense of her own safety and her own risk factor to others. And I don't think that Doctor Spencer is in danger anymore. My feeling is, and, you know, again, I'm not an expert, this is just my own view on the exposure that I've had to Ebola is I think that Governor Christie is playing politics right now. It seems to me it's an effort to, you know, work with public opinion rather than listen to the advice of the experts.

I just think that it's counterproductive. These are people who have gone and endangered their lives to work with people with very limited resources and are dying in, you know, relatively large numbers. So to make it more difficult and to treat them as if they are a potential problem as opposed to a public asset, I just think it's a shame. And I don't think it's the right way to act, personally.

LEMON: It's also been reported that his reaction may have been because, you know, Dr. Nancy Snyderman lives in New Jersey, was, you know, supposed to be on voluntary quarantine. It didn't happen. It was mandatory quarantine. Do you -- do you think that's a fair reaction from the governor because of something that Dr. Nancy Snyderman did?

MUKPO: Still. And I support Dr. Snyderman. I mean, I understand that people had questions about her coming back. But for me, I know that me and Dr. Snyderman were never within a three-foot space of each other. We didn't share anything. There was no objects that went back and forth. And I was not actually heavily symptomatic until the next day. So it's not surprising to me that none of them got sick. I was concerned. But I don't want to speak for her. I just think that she's been treated unfairly.

And to go back to the original point. In the United States of America, since the beginning of this crisis, there has not been one instance of a person who's sick with Ebola passing it on to somebody else on the street. The only people an Ebola patient has passed the disease on to so far is health care workers, which is understandable given the intense contact that they have, bodily fluids when they were very sick.

To start passing these very severe measures with no actual evidence that what they are supposed to prevent has happened yet just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

LEMON: Even now, you are aware of the hysteria, right?

MUKPO: Mm-hmm.

LEMON: You wouldn't go to an event recently, a public event, why? What was it? Tell us.

MUKPO: Yes. You know, there was kind of a Jack-O-Lantern exhibition kind of thing. And I was going to go with some friends of mine. And we pulled up in the parking lot. I mean, there must have been like 8,000, 9,000 people there. And I just am a little tentative right now. I don't know what the energy out there is going to be as far as -- even if people kind of recognize me and they are happy to say, I saw you in the newspaper and I am so happy that you're alive.

And that's been the overwhelming sentiment that I've gotten. You know, I just worry about making people uncomfortable. I think I need a couple of weeks out of the hospital where I really can say, look, I've been fine for three weeks.

LEMON: You see what happened with the doctor in New York. The Ebola stigma. Is that fair to say?

MUKPO: It's real in West Africa. When you go to Liberia, you know, people have a very hard time integrating back into their communities. And I don't think that on a fundamental level, we are all that different from West Africans. You know, people get afraid and sometimes people don't trust the science. They don't know the science.

LEMON: What do we need to know as Americans about what's happening there?

MUKPO: I think that we need to know that what's happening there is the greatest danger to us. The greatest danger to us isn't that somebody jumps on a flight and comes to America and starts some giant outbreak here. It's that this outbreak in West Africa continues to get worse. And, you know, more cases come up. And that just heightens the risk not just to us but to the entire world.

LEMON: So your dad came to get you from the hospital and he flew back with you, right? Your mom was waiting for you to get home. What was that moment like when you saw them? You may not have seen them again.

MUKPO: Sweet, sweet, relief. For all of them. Just to be able to hug them and see my mom. You know, there were moments that I didn't know if that was actually going to happen. It was beautiful.

LEMON: When are you going back?

MUKPO: To Liberia? I have no immediate plans to go to Liberia. And I think that, you know, for the benefit of my family's heart rates and health, I don't know if it would be any time soon. I mean, I'm never going say that I would never go back to Liberia under the right circumstances but it would have to be the right circumstances. I love that country.

LEMON: What's the big lesson in this for you? What did you -- what did you learn about yourself, about the world?

MUKPO: I learned that I am an incredibly fortunate human being to have the kind of people in my network that I have. And I learned that, you know, some things that we focus on that we think are important are actually not. You know. The amount of people that reached out to me just made me realize that how much love and compassion there is in the world that we don't see, because it is under the surface.

To reflect that for the rest of my life. On a level, I know that, you know, if I'm going to be in a situation that's dangerous, I am going to be three times more cautious than I was this time. I thought I was being safe. I thought I was taking precautions. But next time, I'm going to put, you know, two pairs of boots on instead of one or whatever it is. Life is very precious. And you know, you have to have a really good reason if you are going to put it at risk. Next time, I think I'm going to be much more safe.

LEMON: Next time.

MUKPO: If there is a next time. Maybe I'll -- you know, get a job working at a restaurant instead. We'll see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Ashoka Mukpo. Greatest guy. Thank you, sir. We wish you well. We wish you luck.

We have much more ahead tonight here on CNN. A video of a woman being cat called as she walks the street of New York and goes viral. Lots of strong opinions on that.

Plus, boxing legend Mike Tyson. There he is. He'll be live in our studio tonight. Lots to talk to him about, including rising tensions in Ferguson and more.

And we have the first look tonight at a new video from Brittany Maynard who explains why she plans to end her own life. We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Brittany Maynard has given us a first look at a new video that explains her decision to likely end her life. And she calls for the passage of Death with Dignity Laws.

Maynard has brain cancer and recently moved to Oregon which permits doctors to prescribe medication so that terminally ill patients can end their lives. She caused a stir this month when she revealed that she planned to celebrate her husband's birthday this week and then possibly end her life soon after if her condition does not improve.

Here is part of her new video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRITTANY MAYNARD, CANCER PATIENT: So if November 2nd comes along and I've passed, I hope my family is still proud of me and the choices I made, and if November 2nd comes along and I'm still alive, I know that will just still be moving forward as a family out of love for each other and not that the decision will come later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So Brittany Maynard supports an organization called Compassion and Choices, which advocates end of life choice.

Barbara Coombs Lee is the president and also joining me now is Philip Johnson, he's a Catholic seminarian who has terminal brain cancer.

Good evening to both of you. Appreciate you joining us.

Barbara, I'm going to start with you first. There has been a lot of controversy about the November 1st date. The November 1 date. The "People" magazine story quotes her as saying that that is the day that she plans to take her own life. But she says she never chose a specific date.

Do you know what she is planning now?

BARBARA COOMBS LEE, PRESIDENT, COMPASSION AND CHOICES: I think these dates are soft in people's minds. People know that there are certain symptoms that they would exhibit, certain places that they don't want to go that they consider worse than death. They don't know when they might be on the verge of that. But they want to live life fully until they are on the verge of that and then they want to have the control to have a peaceful death and avoid the worse that their disease might have in store for them.

So it's a very individualized decision. And that's what Brittany is facing right now. Watching her symptoms very closely. She wants to cheat her cancer of the worst that it would do for her.

LEMON: OK. So you said these dates are in your estimation arbitrary. But she also had a bucket --

LEE: No, I wouldn't --

LEMON: Yes. Go ahead.

LEE: Yes, I'm sorry. I wouldn't say -- I wouldn't say arbitrary. I'd say they're soft. You know, people can't know for certain exactly when these symptoms will accelerate and escalate. And they'll start to experience things that they consider worse than death.

LEMON: OK.

LEE: Unbearable suffering.

LEMON: All right. Point taken. She also had a bucket list. And last week, she visited the Grand Canyon. It's the last thing on her bucket list. So how is she doing on that final trip?

LEE: I think she did pretty well on that final trip. You know, she didn't do any hiking, of course. It was a helicopter trip. She was extremely fatigued afterward. I think she reported after that after that, she had the worst seizure, the longest and most severe seizure she had ever had. That may have been the result of the exertion that she had during the trip.

LEMON: This is what she says about how she is feeling. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYNARD: Sometimes people look at me and they think, well, you don't look as sick as you say that you are which hurts to hear because when I'm having a seizure and I can't speak afterwards, I certainly feel as sick as I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That's what the public has really been reacting to because this is such an emotional thing. Many people, most people don't really understand it. I want to go to Philip now. Philip, you were diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer in 2008 at the age of just 24 years old.

PHILIP JOHNSON, CATHOLIC SEMINARIAN WITH BRAIN CANCER: Yes.

LEMON: How long were you given to live?

JOHNSON: I was told that the median survival time for my tumor was about 18 months, maybe two years, if I'm lucky. They told me that my young age was in my favor, that I might live a little bit longer but as Brittany said, when you are so young, even if somebody tells that you have a few years to live, it seems like you are going to die tomorrow. So it is an upheaval in your whole life. It crushes all the plans that you had.

LEMON: You don't really agree with what she is doing but you -- I'm sure you can obviously empathize here?

JOHNSON: Oh, of course. That's the reason I reached out in the first place. I was almost in tears when I saw her video. Because I know what she is going through, and that's the reason I wanted to reach out to her. A lot of the articles I have read are offering suggestions to her. As Brittany said, until you have been in my shoes, you can't understand what I am going through, and that's really true.

LEMON: Yes.

JOHNSON: And I felt like since I was in her shoes, I am in her shoes, I could reach out and maybe offer a different perspective.

LEMON: I'm going to go real quickly. You said, Dear Brittany, our lives are worth living even with brain cancer. You wrote I agree that her time is tough but her decision is anything but brave. Why isn't she brave in your eyes?

JOHNSON: Well, I think that suicide in itself, obviously, I'm catholic and I disagree with it. She is undergoing so much fear right now. As I wrote in my article, as I've been suffering, I have looked for any kind of way out of the suffering that I could find, whether temporary, any kind of temptations. I have a lot of friends with brain cancer that are getting addicted to alcohol. It is something that you just want to get away from, no matter what decision it is. No matter what it takes, and I really think...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: She has decided to die on her own terms?

JOHNSON: I don't think so. I believe that God made us with human dignity, and that human dignity continues whether or not we are alive and fully functioning or if some of our faculties are taken away or even if we are lying in a hospice bed. I don't think that somehow my dignity when I am lying in my bed dying is less than it is right now.

LEMON: That is actually going to be the last word. Philip Johnson, Barbara Coombs, thank you very much. I appreciate you joining us here on CNN.

JOHNSON: You're welcome.

LEMON: Up next, why Governor Chris Christie lost his cool and said this to someone in New Jersey?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE: So listen, you want to have the conversation later, I'm happy to have it, buddy. Until that time, sit down and shut up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is going to be one of those conversations that you will be talking about. You have probably seen that infamous catcalling video of what happens when a woman walks around New York City for 10 hours and men react. You probably have a lot of opinions about it. My guests definitely have, and that's why I'm excited about this conversation. And joining me now is Mel Robbins, a commentator and legal analyst, Mark Lamont Hill, a CNN political commentator, and Tara Setmayer, contributor at the Blaze TV. So guys, more than 1 million people have watched this video of a young woman walking the streets of New York where she gets catcalled more than 100 times in a single day. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, beautiful!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a good day all right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So, Mel, to you first, the woman in this video, her name is Shoshana Roberts and it was created by an anti-street harassment group called Hollaback. You just published an opinion piece on CNN.com that I was reading and I think you were OK with it until it happened to your daughters.

MEL ROBBINS, COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I mean, it was really eye-opening, Don. I used to be one of these women that was like so excited any time somebody said, hey, beautiful. I'm 46. I'm very confident. I just saw Mark Lamont Hill's eyes go, what, Mel, what did you say?

The truth is a couple weeks ago in Boston, I was walking down the streets. I was with my 15-year-old and I noticed all of the guys checking her out, doing the toes to the head and craning the neck around to check out her fanny. She was mortified, Don. And it made me realized first hand, holy cow, I may be OK with it, I may be OK with being able to defend myself. I may be able to deflect it, but a lot of women aren't. It shouldn't be up to the women to have to feel OK or not. Guys shouldn't be looking at women like they are a piece of meat. Now, look, I realize your sex center in the brain as a dude is 2 1/2 times bigger than a woman's and you think about sex more than we do.

LEMON: No.

ROBBINS: But still.

LEMON: No, I understand what you are saying. Listen, when you're talking about something a teenager, OK, that's wrong. But, you know, that's in a perfect world where guys aren't going to look at women. Tara, you know, guys will simply say, how are you feeling this morning.

TARA SETMAYER, BLAZE TV CONTRIBUTOR: Listen, I have mixed feelings about this.

LEMON: I do, too.

SETMAYER: I understand that you know women -- nobody wants to hear people making suggestive things to you or being harassed when you walk down the street. But that is -- I think this is something that you cannot, you are not going to be the thought police. I mean, what are we going to do about it? Should we be teaching men to be more respectful to women? Yes, we should, but this is something, catcalling has been going on forever. It is probably the second oldest thing since prostitution. Men are going to do this. It is a class issue. If you don't have class, you are going to act like that. But I think organizations like this, there are much greater issues that affect women that people need to talk about.

LEMON: Mark, go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Go ahead, Mark, before you head snaps off.

MARK LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I disagree with so much stuff there. First of all, I do think that it is not an issue of being the thought police. This is about what people say and do. It is not about what's in people's heads. It is about what's in their mouths and what they have to experience everyday. I think this is a part of a broader culture. The fact that men feel entitled to be able to say whatever they want to women, the fact they feel entitled to holler at a woman on the street.

(CROSSTALK)

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: You think pop culture contributes to that, Mark? Come on.

HILL: I don't think this panel is about that. I don't think anyone disputes that.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Finish your point.

HILL: Let me finish my point. I feel like we are just tearing down the straw. I agree pop culture and I think all cultures plays into it. I think it is part of a broader culture. To be quite honest, it is a rape culture that says women and women's bodies are open to men for whatever they want it to be. That's what scares me. That's what we have to deal with. Yes, it is old and yes, it is long. Patriarchy is old and long. That's why we have to dismantle it. It is important. As our daughters, mothers and sisters, we have to walk down the street and be objectified.

LEMON: Yes.

HILL: It is dangerous and problematic.

LEMON: OK.

SETMAYER: Do you feel that way about rap videos? Do you feel that way about rap videos and things like that? I mean, let's be honest. You are being hyperbolic.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: A man saying hi, beautiful, and now, it's rape culture? Come on, that's ridiculous.

HILL: I said a sense of entitlement. Yes, I do think that rap music plays into this and single parent households, and any other you know right wing...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: That was Mark Lamont Hill saying that, people, not Don Lemon. Give all of your hate messages to Mark Lamont Hill on Twitter and not Don Lemon. Mark, I have a bunch to get to. Listen, a lot of people, a lot of women I've talked to, and guys say catcall me especially as I get older, I like it.

SETMAYER: As long as they don't touch you. You know what I mean? I feel like they are going to say whatever, but it starts to get creepy if they touch you.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBBINS: If you want to engage somebody in a conversation, talk to them. Don't talk about them. Don't talk to a person like you are calling them like a cab for crying out loud.

LEMON: I want to talk about Kaci Hickox, who is a nurse quarantined up in Maine. The state wants her to be quarantined, and she feels she shouldn't be quarantined. Here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KACI HICKOX: It is not my intention to put anyone at risk. We have been in negotiations all day with the state of Maine and trying to resolve this amicably. They will not allow me to leave my house and have any interaction with the public, even though I am completely healthy and symptom-free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. I have to give you guys more time. But you have to go quickly on this. There's another topic I want to hit. Mel, what do you think? Is she being selfish? ROBBINS: Listen, first of all, Don, Fort Kent Maine, REM song you

can't get there from here is written for that. It is like one of the most northern points in America. There are two people that live there and she is living with both of them. It is a little crazy. She is trying to make a point, which is fear Ebola is out of control. She is not symptomatic. She has tested negative twice.

LEMON: I spoke with Ashoka Mukpo who had Ebola and recovered. He agrees with you about the fear of Ebola. There is also the optics of it and you have to be aware of how the public feels as well. So he doesn't go to large things. I think you know she should be aware of that.

So I'm going to move on now. I want to talk about Governor Chris Christie. He was in New Jersey at the shore -- down the shore on the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy and today, when a protestor held up a sign that heckled him, he fired right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: I would be more than happy to have a debate with you any time you like, guy. Because somebody like you who doesn't know a damn thing about what you are talking about except to stand off and show off when the cameras are here. I have been here when the cameras aren't here, buddy, and done the work. I have been here when the cameras weren't here and did the work. You want to have a conversation later, I'm happy to have it, buddy. Until that time, sit down and shut up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Mark, why are you shaking your head?

HILL: Because this is ridiculous and disturbing and disgusting. It is ironic that Chris Christie is talking about somebody playing to the cameras. What is he doing but playing to the political cheap seats? This is unacceptable for a leader. We have a right to protest and he shouldn't be irritated by it, but you don't have talk to people like that.

LEMON: Should a guy who has presidential inspirations be doing this?

SETMAYER: Well, look, here is a part of the video we didn't see. I watched the entire exchange and actually, that guy was doing more than holding a sign. He was verbally heckling him and yelling out and interrupting the governor while he was trying to speak. So everyone knows how Chris Christie is. What did he expect? Chris Christie even said before that, listen, if you want to have that debate and continue on, things are going to get awfully interesting. He prefaced it. So look, Chris Christie is brash. That's who he is. Did he lose his temper, did he go a little too far? Probably.

LEMON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I paid for that microphone moment.

SETMAYER: He went a little too far but I get it. He was trying to speak. What are you going to do?

LEMON: End of story, all of you. I appreciate it. See you back here soon.

All right, here he comes, just like when we used to see him in the ring so many times. Mike Tyson will continue our conversation on everything from Ferguson to Charles Barkley to his new venture, of all things, a Cartoon Network.

MIKE TYSON: I didn't know we were going to have a discussion.

LEMON: Yes, we are. Don't come in here starting a mess, because I'm bigger than you.

TYSON: Yeah, I bet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: As you can tell, Mike Tyson here. He is the heavyweight champion of the world. At 20, he knows what it is like to be on the top of the world and of course, he knows what it is like to hit rock bottom. Joining me now, Mike Tyson.

TYSON: Hey, Don, lemon.

LEMON: Undisputed truth.

TYSON: Remember the lemonhead candy?

LEMON: Yes. It was owned by the Ferrara family in suburbs of Chicago. They used to send them to me when I worked in Chicago and sweatshirts and hats, and all that stuff. This is the book. I love this book. The best thing is the picture of you is my favorite.

TYSON: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: So I'm going to talk to you about this book. But as I was saying in the commercial break, I was impressed by the way you were able to pivot from this troubled boxer into someone who has become a spokesperson and now on Broadway and doing all these things and you are up on current events. I saw you on CBS Sunday Morning and I thought, wow, this guy knows a lot.

(CROSSTALK)

TYSON: I know a little bit about everything.

LEMON: But you're good.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Can I ask you about Ferguson?

TYSON: Yes.

LEMON: Because you know they are waiting to see if the officer, Darren Wilson, is going to be indicted. What's going to happen there? What do you make of the situation?

TYSON: What is the update with the evidence? Do they have evidence of the young man being in the car, grabbing the guy?

LEMON: According to some leaks, they are saying the evidence shows in the autopsy that he had a struggle in the car, gunshot in the hand at close range and that sort of thing, but the attorney general and most people say, that should have been leaked if it is the evidence. What do you make of the tensions and the situation that happened there with the protests?

TYSON: Well, you know, this thing is going to boil into something real bad. It doesn't have good energy over there.

LEMON: Yeah.

TYSON: There are people frustrated. I don't know. I don't know the history of Ferguson and the inhabitants of Ferguson. So I don't know. I know from this incident, it just doesn't look good.

LEMON: What about your relationship with the police? You were arrested, what, 38 times by the time you were 12. Mike Brown had no record. Did you -- what was your relationship like with the police?

TYSON: Anything I had when I was younger, any involvement I had with the police, I had it coming.

LEMON: Yeah.

TYSON: You know, I was in the streets. I was in that life. I was in that street life back then. I had it coming. It just doesn't look good. It's been pervasive that black young men have been killed in the streets by police. This is not something that is just happening out of osmosis. It has been happening since the beginning of our time, since police and young blacks interacted.

LEMON: Let's talk about you. You said you have struggled with addiction and depression, that you had a relapse. That you went back into rehab. I thought it was interesting. I was listening to you on Howard. I listen to Howard Stern all the time. I was listening to you on Howard. You said to him that you found out you and Robin Williams had the same drug dealer.

TYSON: No, no.

LEMON: Is that how you met?

TYSON: No. I met Mr. Williams in a meeting. I met Mr. Williams in a meeting. He was telling me about certain people that I never knew that he knew. I was saying that, when you are in your addiction, you go to any length. You go to any length to get that feeling, that high.

LEMON: Did you two know the same -- the interview said that you knew the same dealer? Am I incorrect?

TYSON: I am not going to say that. He knew someone that I knew. I would imagine for the many years he would know that guy.

LEMON: I get it now. All right. Let's talk about the book here. The favorite thing in here for me is now out on paperback is a picture of you and Maya Angelou and your relationship with her. She died recently. She visited you while you were in prison.

TYSON: Yeah.

LEMON: What did she do for you?

TYSON: We spoke. We spoke. She is a beautiful lady. I was very grateful she came to see me. I saw her again. I met her again when I was released.

LEMON: All right. Can we talk about your TV show?

TYSON: OK. Go for it.

TYSON: Can I call it a cartoon?

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Mike Tyson Mysteries. Look at it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It says help me. Someone in IBM must be in trouble.

TYSON: Time-out, time-out. Number one, if you can read computer code, it means you are a robot. If that's so, you should have come to me and told me that earlier. Number two, who is it that need our help?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the mystery. I'm not a robot. It says, help me. See?

TYSON: You do not need to hide who you are, Yang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yang?

TYSON: I am proud of you no matter how you choose to live your life. Let your freak flag fly R2-D2. Beep beep!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You said this is Scooby Doo for adults.

TYSON: No, I said it is an equivalent to Scooby Doo meets the A team. I'm embarrassed.

LEMON: Why are you embarrassed?

TYSON: I don't know, but I enjoy it. LEMON: That is something I would love to watch. Listen, I would love to spend more time with you. You are an incredible guy. Thank you so much.

TYSON: What the hell did you put me on the show for?

LEMON: Well, I have put you on the show to get you on and to talk about your series. We talked for a long time actually.

TYSON: We talked for a long time off the camera.

LEMON: The new show, Mike Tyson Mysteries airs every Monday.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Adult swim. Thank you, Mike Tyson.

TYSON: I love you.

LEMON: I love you, too. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I'm back with Mike Tyson. He is still here.

TYSON: All right. Pump the book, Don.

LEMON: You should buy this book and next time, we are going to have you on for a lot longer.

TYSON: That's not long enough. Show the book, Don. Show the book, Don.

LEMON: Hey, listen. I want to tell you guys that tomorrow night I will be live in Ferguson as it gets close to a grand jury situation, so make sure you watch.