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At This Hour

Polls Close, Races Get Closer; Nic Wallenda's High-Wire Act on Live TV; NTSB Finds Pilot Error in Virgin Galactic Crash; Brittany Maynard's Death with Dignity

Aired November 03, 2014 - 11:30   ET

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

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Cork that, Doug, because you know what? At the end of the day, people are excited about this election. They know they get an opportunity to change things, may not change things in Washington, but in their statehouses. If we go into overtime, I still believe that both Michelle Nunn, who's run an incredible good campaign, first time campaigner, the fact that she's keeping it close, that's a plus sign for her. And of course in Louisiana, anything could happen once we start stirring up that gumbo.

(CROSSTALK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Ooh, she said gumbo. That pulled my focus.

Give us an idea of the other races you're looking at.

Let's start with you, Donna, since you're right here. Key ones for you.

BRAZILE: I'm going to knock it to him because my paternal grandfather is from North Carolina. I believe Kay Hagan will upset Thom Tillis in North Carolina. That race has been more local than any other case in the country. I'm convinced Jeanne Shaheen will pull it off in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton was there yesterday, she has star power, she's a rock star. And we'll get to the wonderful great state of Iowa. It's been a very seesaw kind of race like Aretha Franklin, "Your Love Is Like a Seesaw."

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: You have had more metaphors than I've ever seen in one show.

(LAUGHTER)

BRAZILE: I have to. We're defending more seats than the Republicans. I believe that's a tight race. Iowans care about the country. I think that will be a shocker as well.

BERMAN: Doug, your top races to watch?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I look at my home state of North Carolina where Thom Tillis has a lot of momentum. We've seen a shocking story of the "Charlotte Observer" pulling a negative story on Kay Hagan with stimulus money that's been causing controversy in this state. I look at Iowa where Joni Ernst, we've seen the poll that has it neck in neck. Joni Ernst has momentum on her side and we've seen a real increase in where Iowa Republicans are turning out with early voting based on what they've done in past years. And also because of the great work the old state party chair has done, Republicans have gained a lot in Republican registration in the last four years. Joni Ernst is going to win in Iowa.

PEREIRA: Since we are talking about Joni Ernst, can we just go there for a little bit? I just need to play a little bit of sound for you. We hear Tom Harkin going after that hopeful Joni Ernst. Ernst fired back. I want you to take a listen and then discuss it with both of you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM HARKIN, (D), IOWA: I don't care if she's as good looking as Taylor Swift --

(LAUGHTER)

-- or as nice as Mr. Rogers. But if she votes like Michele Bachmann she's wrong for the state of Iowa.

JONI ERNST, (R), IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE: I was very offended that Senator Harkin would say that. I think it's unfortunate that he and many of their party believe you can't be a real woman if you're conservative and female. I believe if my name had been John Ernst attached to my resume, Senator Harkin would not have said those things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Look, I had to look at my calendar quickly to make sure we were in 2014 because this felt like a comment from yesteryear, Donna. Really.

BRAZILE: I know when male candidates and, of course, I've cautioned male candidates, don't talk about a female's look and I even tell females don't talk about your looks. Because we're all beautiful. The truth is, what he was trying to say is look at her record she has a record, he has a record, Mr. Braley, et cetera. It goes to a larger narrative. We've talked more about gaffes and mistakes and we don't put them in context and for someone like Senator Harkin who has served with dignity and respect, I think about the Americans with Disabilities Act, that's Tom Harkin's. Violence Against Women's Act, Tom Harkin. Raising the minimum wage, Tom Harkin. Great Senator. He's retired. Thank him for his service. Those comments, I'm sure Iowans will forgive him. Joni Ernst may never forgive him.

BERMAN: Doug, you see something like that and this gets to the issue of are Democrats treated different than Republicans are when it comes to issues like this? Like gender. If a Republican had said that, this would have been a bigger deal?

HEYE: I think if we saw two years ago and four years ago a lot of Republican candidates frankly said stupid things about women and women's issues and they were front page all day everyday and every Republican had to respond to what somebody -- some Republican said in some other state. This is obviously insulting to Joni Ernst. She's right to take offense at it. We saw offensive comments about Governor Nikki Haley in South Carolina. But if you're Tom Harkin, if you're the Bruce Braley campaign, this is not what you want to talk about the day before the election. And it another thing that pushes Joni Ernst forward and it's why she's going to win tomorrow.

BERMAN: Bruce Braley didn't say it. It was Tom Harkin, the guy retiring.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Donna Brazile, great to have you with us.

Doug Heye, great to have you as well.

PEREIRA: Get your Wheaties and your rest because you're going to busy the next few days.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Get your gumbo stirred?

Don't forget to vote everyone. After you're done voting, you can watch the election results right here, CNN.

BERMAN: Ahead for us @THISHOUR, a death defying high-wire act on live TV. Impressive for sure, but think about this seriously. What if he fell? What would that mean for television?

She said she would do it and she went through with it. A young woman takes her own life. We'll discuss Death with Dignity or assisted suicide, later this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: I can barely say this out loud. 600 feet above Chicago. Nik Wallenda last night did what few others would even dream of attempting. He crossed from one skyscraper to another along a steel cable the width of a nickel without a net, without a harness. Oh, did I mention one of the times he was blindfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIK WALLENDA, HIGH-WIRE WALKER: Up until recently, I thought it was impossible to walk a wire without vision. My parents always taught me to focus on the other end, that was the solid rock, focus on that, you'll make it across to the other side. To take that important element out was extremely challenging and really it was challenging -- I learned that wire walking was definitely second nature to me. Seven generations and 200 years, it's in my blood. I started walking at two years old. But definitely challenging mentally. It was very, very draining. That's why, once it was go time, there was no time to think about it. I knew I had to get over that wire. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Of course, it was all broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.

Joining us to talk about this, Professor Robert Thompson, the director of the Center for Media Studies at Syracuse University.

Professor, I don't think any of us want to take anything away from Nik Wallenda here, that is incredible skill that he displayed. I don't think that's anything that anyone can ever do, really, it's very impressive. The question is, should it be on TV? There's no net. There's no harness. I just keep on thinking what would we be talking about today if he fell?

ROBERT THOMPSON, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MEDIA STUDIES, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: That's absolutely right. Let's all agree, Nik Wallenda is a very talented guy. What he does, he does incredibly well. And I've always been a defender of reality TV. I've taught courses on the circus where we talk about Nik Wallenda's many, many, many relatives. But I think in 2014 to do something like that without a net and without a harness, they played fast and loose with the city law to allow him to do that. But even if they managed to make it legal, I think there is a serious ethical problem with what we saw last night. And that was the whole point of it. Let's face it. We kept being reminded that this was death-defying so literally defying death and Nik himself on several occasions said got the win does this, if this happens I could lose my life." So the whole premise of this was that he was, in fact, defying death. I think there's some serious ethical issues about doing something like that.

PEREIRA: Dig into the ethical dilemma that you have with it. Is it part of the fact, too, that it was done live? That this wasn't recorded and then later broadcast?

THOMPSON: Well, I don't know. I have a problem with it whether it was done live or whether it was done for broadcast six months later.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: But we've been pushing these envelopes for years, though, have we not.

THOMPSON: Well, we have, we've been doing it back since the Roman times and before. But we're not in Roman times anymore. When he crossed the Niagara Falls, they said, "Sure, you can cross Niagara Falls. Oh, by the way, you'll be wearing a harness." And nobody talks about that Niagara Falls one as much as they do about his Grand Canyon one because that one was without a harness.

Now -- and it was on a 10-second delay so I guess if something horrible had happened they would have cut away. But it's the law part of this that bothers me. I guess the city of Chicago has a law which says you -- people over 20 feet have to have a harness. And they say oh, but that was for in case employers were going to exploit their employees by making them do dangerous things. OK, that's fine. But they gave a dispensation to Nik Wallenda because they said it was his choice to do it. Now, if I had driven down Wacker Drive last night in my car, I might have chosen not to fasten my seat belt, and I'd have still gotten a ticket for it. Yet, 600 feet above me, Nik Wallenda is able to be walking across a penny-sized cable. That seems to me not consistent.

BERMAN: And the other thing is I bet we'll see more of this as we enter this new fractured television world with appointment viewing. How is he going to do more than this next time?

THOMPSON: Well, I don't know. I mean, the scary thing is you keep doing these things until something happens and then you can't do them anymore. And we've seen that with his relatives who we kept being reminded about as well. So there's such a desperation for live television that's kind of fragmented audience proof. And this is the kind of thing -- this is the kind of thing we see. By the way, if he'd have had a harness on, I think this would have been a fine bit of entertainment. It's doing it -- working without a net ought to be a metaphor. It ought not to be something people do literally above streets.

PEREIRA: And the concern is there, too, as a worrier, I think there's always the concern that other people are going to try and, you know, be encouraged by these similar kind of -- I don't know -- try to do their own version of dangerous risks like this.

Robert Thompson, interesting conversation, interesting thoughts. Thanks for joining us @THISHOUR.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

BERMAN: Ahead for us, possible clues emerging about the tragic crash in the Virgin Galactic spaceship. A key procedure known as "feathering" may have been set off too early. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: The co-pilot who survived the catastrophic failure of an experimental spacecraft over the Mohave Desert is said to be alert and talking. Doctors say, however Peter Cybold (ph) is not ready to tell federal investigators exactly what went wrong at 45,000. That accident killed veteran co-pilot, Michael Asbury. A memorial fund has now been set up for his family.

BERMAN: So the investigation is just beginning but the NTSB has found a couple clues from the wreckage. Also video evidence of this was a very closely watched test flight. Investigators say one of the co- pilots prematurely moved a crucial lever, unlocking the so-called feather mechanism. Normally, this allows the pilot to initiate "feathering" in which the wings pivot upwards slowing down the spacecraft.

Joining us right now is our Poppy Harlow.

Poppy, you had a chance to talk to Virgin Galactic founder, Richard Branson. He's been such a powerful force behind getting this off the ground. Really a salesman. This has to be a really tough time for him.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a huge blow. He's said this is the hardest thing he's ever taken on. They're already five years delayed from where they should have been and this is a massive, massive setback. He would not speculate on what caused the crash. He denied those -- the speculation that was made over the weekend that it was the fuel mix that they were using in the engine. The engine was found intact. He said it is not that.

But I also asked him about the bigger picture because when I interviewed him at the Mohave Desert at this location I said, do you ever think you're taking too much risk? I want you to listen what he said when I asked him that again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I asked you if the risk is worth it and you said, "Unless you risk something, the world stays still." Given this, is the risk still worth it?

SIR RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER, VIRGIN GROUP: Yes, the risk is worth it. And as I say, Mike would have been the first to say that. I'm sure his parents and his wife and his sisters would not say that, but test pilots would say that, because they know the risk they're taking. They know the importance of what they're doing. We know the importance of what we're doing. And, you know, if test pilots haven't taken risks, we wouldn't have had the 747. Two of the comets blew up in the early days of airline travel and now airline travel is as safe as anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: So interesting that you're talking about risk because he says if you don't risk something, you're standing still yet there are people that are signed up to take --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Right. So are they thinking that the risk has changed now?

HARLOW: I asked them, are your customers standing by, who paid $250,000 to take this flight? He said he had two more people buy tickets. So I think it's a long-term question.

BERMAN: What about the future of this program? Look, Poppy, I've been covering this for a long time. I've always thought it's next year, but it's been next year every year.

HARLOW: Right.

BERMAN: So when do we think realistically this will be taking people to space?

HARLOW: Well, the NTSB, Branson says, has allowed them to move forward as you would. Despite the investigation now being complete, they are said to be move forward as you would. They are building another spaceship. They're almost doe with it. He said, we will move forward, I will be the first to go to space and then send civilians to space, unless they find something to troubling that they can't fix it. And that's the question. How much time and money will go into this? A lot of the criticism has been, are you just sending rich people to space? Is this really accomplishing the science that NASA has accomplished? He believes truly that it is about point-to-point travel, New York to Sidney in an hour. This is about putting more satellites into space, making communication better for people all over the world, not just about a thrill ride.

PEREIRA: Well, we've got to wait to see what happens with this investigation.

HARLOW: And it is just beginning.

PEREIRA: It's just beginning to see if it changes any of their business plan or structure going forward.

Poppy, thank you for sharing that with us.

HARLOW: You're welcome.

PEREIRA: Ahead @THISHOUR, the right to die with dignity, that debate flaring up yet again after a young, terminally ill woman takes her own life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: A quick Ebola update. North Carolina patients say a patient at Duke University Hospital has tested negative for the virus. That was preliminary. Another test will be done to confirm the result.

Meanwhile, top medical experts expect to see more cases in the U.S. by the end of the year. According to the Associated Press, scientists predict we could see 130 cases in a worse-case scenario.

If you're being looking for ways to help those affected by the Ebola virus, visit CNN.com/impact.

BERMAN: This morning, there is a new twist on the discussion of life and death and the decision of one woman who became the central figure in the debate over Death with Dignity.

PEREIRA: Brittany Maynard took her life Saturday at her home in Oregon. She was terminally ill. Her story spread quickly on social media.

BERMAN: In a final message, Maynard says, "It's people who pause to appreciate life and give thanks who are happiest. If we change our thoughts, we change our world. Love and peace to you all."

I want to bring in Arthur Caplan. He's professor of bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center.

Professor, this discussion has been around for a while, but this time, somehow at least to me, it seemed more acute. And I'm wondering why that might be.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, PROFESSOR OF BIOETHICS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: You know, it's a 29-year-old newlywed as opposed to a 70-year-old who we think of being at the end of life anyway. Brittany didn't change the debate. She changed the optics. You don't think of a young person being faced with illness and questions about dying. I think that's why it seems more acute.

PEREIRA: I have to tell you, when I saw the news, it made me tremendously sad. I had a sad reaction to finding this out, no matter what side of the debate you're on.

CAPLAN: And I think that's appropriate. It's a tragedy. We're going to sort of debate it in terms of what it means. And the politics, is this going to be a push for legalization. But a 29-year-old with a tumor that just eats into your brain and causes horrible suffering, it's just sad.

BERMAN: So what new questions does this raise? What do we now focus on that we've seen this happen?

CAPLAN: Brittany decided to make her death part of a cause to say I think it should be an option for people all around the country to have a right to have a doctor to write a lethal prescription. She opened up that issue. She wanted this discussed. So in that sense, by bringing in a younger crowd of people, the Millennials and younger, they've changed gay marriage bans and marijuana usage. They get on to this issue and they could push and promote this further. You guys said there were five states that had assisted suicide. There's actually three with laws and two with just court opinions. So they don't even have anything in place yet. Vermont only enacted it recently. New Jersey thinking about it. Hawaii is thinking about, other states. I think we may see some movement because she pushed, if you will, new voters towards it.

PEREIRA: It's such a slippery slope and it's a fiery debate and emotional debate and religious debate. There's so many aspects that come into it.

CAPLAN: So people on the opposition side say, look, this is dangerous. It could be a slippery slope. We don't want people coerced into it and people saying, grandpa, you caused us a costly decision here. There are concerns that the core may not get hospice or perform palliative care. We haven't seen it yet. If we legalize, it's going to take a lot of restrictions and protections.

BERMAN: One of the most interesting things I've heard you say is your concern over the public nature of this. You thought it might actually put undue pressure on her.

CAPLAN: You know, she announced that she was going to die on November 1st. I was worried that she brought her family in, her friends in, she's made this announcement, she's part of a cause. What if she felt OK on the day she was going to die? You don't want her to die because she promised the media and family that she was going to do it. On the other hand, she waffled at the end. I think that was covered. I think she planned to go through with the date announced but didn't want all of that pressure and attention, and finally decided, let's make it vague and I'll go on my own date.

PEREIRA: A tremendously brave young woman --

CAPLAN: Yeah.

PEREIRA: -- who fought a very good fight up to the end.

Arthur, thanks so much for coming in to talk to us about this.

CAPLAN: Thanks for having me.

PEREIRA: We wish her family the best as they mourn her loss.

That wraps it up for us here. Thanks for watching. I'm Michaela Pereira.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.