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Cellphones Targeted by U.S. Spy Program; House Votes on Keystone Pipeline Today; New Ebola Patient Coming to the U.S.

Aired November 14, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Could the President be impeached if what he's doing legal, John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean this is a far cry from high crimes, misdemeanors or treason. This is an extension, in effect, of the executive order that was pushed through in the last lame duck regarding the dreamers, an expansion of that.

Again, I think the President strategically would be in a much better position to try to use this threat of an executive order to try to find common ground in legislation.

Remember, the previous senate with a lot of Republicans voting for it passed an immigration bill. It died in the House. There's a chance you could get a more piecemeal deal through. Certainly there's the prospect of things like tax reform or infrastructure investment. If the relationship isn't poisoned and blown up from the get go when the new Congress come in.

This election really was -- there's a populous mainstream anger at dysfunction in Washington and if it gets deeper that anger is going to ratchet up and both sides have a sense of responsibility to try to proceed in good faith. This gambit of a president who seemed liberated from the idea that he has to run for reelection again could poison than relationship even worse than it's been poisoned in the past.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll have to leave it there. John Avalon, Larry Sabato, many thanks to both of you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Checking top stories for you this morning, prosecutors in Pennsylvania have now filed terrorism charges against Eric Frein, the survivalist accused of opening fire on two state troopers and then vanishing into the woods. One trooper died, the other seriously wounded. Investigators say Frein wrote a letter to his parents saying the ambush was meant to trigger a revolution against the government.

Jesse Matthew, the man suspected in the case of UVA student Hannah Graham has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. The charges stem from a separate case of alleged sexual assault back in 2005. Further charges are pending against Matthew in the Graham case. Are you ready for some royal watching? Just last hour we learned that

Britain's Prince William and his wife the former Kate Middleton are heading to the United States. They're due to visit New York next month to announce a new wildlife charity. The duchess, who as you well know is pregnant, has been grounded by morning sickness but is now able to fly so we're ready to welcome them in December.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Get ready for another invasion of privacy. The security of your cell phone is possibly at risk. There's actually a secret government surveillance program that uses special technology and spy planes to read all the personal information on your mobile phone.

This morning's "Wall Street Journal" has the report. Here's how it works. A device on the plane is called a dirt box. It tricks your phone into sharing its location. When the plane flies over an area, it can collect in bulk data from thousands of phones, dump the data not needed, hone in on a particular suspect, even tracking their movements.

The program has reportedly been in place for seven years. Let's bring in CNN's justice reporter Evan Perez to tell us more. Good morning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Hey, good morning, Carol. Now, this device basically works like a cell phone tower. It pretends -- it's like a fake cell phone tower in the sky, essentially. And when your cell phone is communicating with cell phone towers every few seconds, this device basically picks up that signal and that signal can tell where you are exactly.

We have a picture on screen right now of a device called a Stingray which is a very similar device that the FBI and local police, a lot of police agencies around the country have used for years, again to pinpoint and triangulate the position or the location of a suspect that they're looking for. The government says that this is something they use only to find suspects that they're trying to arrest.

However, this is not a very smart device. It basically picks up everything, including your cell phone, even if you're not suspected of any wrongdoing.

COSTELLO: Still, it's disturbing. Is it legal?

PEREZ: Well, you know, so far yes. I mean the government has not -- this has not been tested anywhere to see whether or not the government needs to get any special permission to do this.

COSTELLO: Because no one knew about it.

PEREZ: Exactly. Exactly. And that's the point from civil libertarians. Now we have a statement from a Justice Department official which we can put to our viewers here. "Discussion of sensitive law enforcement equipment and techniques would allow criminal defendants -- criminal enterprises or foreign powers to determine our capabilities and limitations in this area in deploying any such equipment or tactic ours federal law enforcement agencies comply with federal law, including seeking court approval."

Carol, what's interesting about this is that this particular device that the "Wall Street Journal" wrote about this morning was used in catching El Chopo Guzman, the drug cartel leader in Mexico who was nabbed last year. It was a very big catch for how law enforcement and it was something that the U.S. worked with Mexican law enforcement to try to use. And again this is something that obviously gets a lot of criticism because a lot of people's -- innocent people's communications is also caught up in this stuff.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting live from Washington -- thanks so much.

PEREZ: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the newsroom, house lawmakers are expected to vote today on the controversial Keystone Pipeline. The project has become the center of a fierce senate runoff in Louisiana.

Up next, we'll talk about -- we'll talk to Senator Bernie Sanders and what the project means to him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In just a matter of hours, House lawmakers are expected to vote on the Keystone Pipeline. The controversial plan widely opposed by Democrats for environmental reasons for transport crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. Earlier this week, the White House stopped short of saying the President would veto bill if it passed congress but President Obama says his position has not changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone Pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices. Understand what this project is, it is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land down to the Gulf where it will be sold everywhere else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Let's bring in Senator Bernie Sanders. Welcome, sir.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), VERMONT: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here, so what do you suspect will happen if Congress passes the Keystone Pipeline?

SANDERS: Well, I certainly hope that Congress will not pass this Keystone Pipeline. As you know, the scientific community is virtually united in saying that climate change is real. It is already causing devastating problems in our country and around the world. And if we do not transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, Carol, that situation is only going to get worse in terms of floods and drought and extreme weather disturbances.

And what the C.I.A. and the Department of Defense are telling us, these cause international security problems because you're going to find people around the world fighting over scarce resources. So I will do everything I can and hope very much that the Congress does not pass this Keystone Pipeline which will produce and transport 800,000 barrels a day of some of the dirtiest oil on earth.

COSTELLO: Well, there's a fly in the ointment in your argument, though because the State Department did a study on the pipeline and it found the pipeline would not significantly affect greenhouse gases. And it also would support 42,000 jobs over two years. It would result in $3.4 billion for the U.S. economy. All of that sounds good.

SANDERS: No. First of all, in terms of jobs the figure that you're giving us comes from the company itself and it is widely exaggerated.

COSTELLO: It comes from the State Department.

SANDERS: Do you know what the number of permanent long term jobs are -- no. It is less than 100. And in terms of jobs, what we're talking about are not 42,000 jobs. We're talking about some construction jobs -- that's true. But if we're serious about job creation, we should rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads and our bridges and our rail system and our water plants. We can create millions of jobs, not a few thousand temporary jobs.

Further more, as the President just indicated, most of this oil is going to be exported largely to oil. And, in fact, there are studies out there that will suggest that gas prices in the United States will actually go up as a result of this project not down.

COSTELLO: But these things that I passed along to you came from a State Department report, which is an unbiased report. So is it wrong?

SANDERS: Well -- yes, it is wrong. I have looked at other studies which suggest there is no debate. In terms of permanent jobs you're looking at less than 100 jobs. But let's go back to the most important point and that is the scientific community is united in saying that climate change is real. And if we support the transportation of 800,000 barrels a day of some of the dirtiest oil in the world, how do we go forward into the world and say look, we think climate change is real and we have got to do everything that we can to protect the planet for our kids?

COSTELLO: I also -- I think climate change is real and I think that man has contributed to that but you can't really ignore the State Department report that says it won't significantly affect greenhouse gases if the Keystone Pipeline is completed. How do you just brush that aside?

SANDERS: Well, I think what they're saying is, among other things, that if we do not support the pipeline, the project will go forward in Canada or and somehow or another they will be able to transport their oil to Asia. I am not sure that that's accurate. Clearly the companies in Canada want this pipeline. They're going to make a whole lot of money out of this pipeline.

But I think if the United States stands up and says wait a minute, we want the whole world to move forward in reducing carbon emissions, we are not supporting this project, I'm not quite so confident that that project will go forward. But the United States cannot be an international leader on one of the most serious crises facing this planet and if we say ok, we're supportive of the extraction of 800,000 barrels of the dirtiest oil on earth every single day.

COSTELLO: Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks for being with me. I appreciate it.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone is coming to the United States for treatment. The doctor is Sierra Leone's -- is a Sierra Leone -- he's from Sierra Leone, let's put it that way. He's a legal permanent resident of the United States. He's married to an American. He's expected to arrive at the Nebraska Medical Center this weekend probably on Saturday. That hospital previously treated two American Ebola patients.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from the CDC with more. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Carol, in this interview that I just had with Dr. Frieden, he was very reflective on that time in Dallas. You know, his agency under his leadership had been preparing for the first patient to come unexpected from West Africa to the United States with Ebola. And, you know, all the planning in the world -- you can do all the planning in the world but it's still not reality. Reality is different. And he said that they just didn't necessarily realize how much care someone with Ebola would need. How much hands on nursing care a desperately ill person would need and, of course, it was very concerning when two nurses became infected.

Carol, I asked him, is there anything that you might have done differently? And he had this to say about nurse Amber Vinson who was allowed to get on an airplane even though the CDC new that she had a 99.5 degree temperature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: In October, Amber Vinson was at the airport in Ohio. She calls in a temperature of 99.5 and she was allowed to board the plane. Was that a mistake to allow her to board the plane?

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: I wish we had prevented her from flying. That would have prevented a lot of people have from having to be inconvenienced and go through the anxiety of concern that they might develop Ebola. No one got infected but, still, we should have prevented her from flying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now, Dr. Frieden mentioned also that in the future that people with that kind of a temperature would not be allowed to get on an airplane if there was a possibility that they had come in contact with a patient with Ebola -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Elizabeth Cohen reporting live from Atlanta this morning. Thank you.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Bet you don't remember your first birthday card. Well, a Minnesota family won't let their baby girl forget a musical birthday card, one that made her famous on the web.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Who can resist a dancing baby? Whether it's dancing with Ally McBeal or dancing to sell bottled water. But when the baby is real and she's boogying to a musical birthday card featuring the Hamster Dance, prepare to be smitten by Acadia Jamieson (ph), not so much by her moves as by her stops and starts. The card was from her grandma for Acadia's first birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's actually -- it's quite well loved as you can see.

MOOS: A hamster inside is hanging by a thread. When I was one they didn't even have musical birthday cards. Try dancing to this.

But Acadia could single-handedly boost the musical card industry with her joie de vivre though the opposite of joie de vivre is also going viral.

Whoever thought a movie called "The Chipmunk Adventure" could be such a tearjerker. And this was the second time that almost three-year-old Reagan Luther (ph) had seen it. The part where a baby penguin is reunited with its family really got to her. Reminds us of Marie Lynn LaRue (ph).

She was dubbed the emotional baby for the way she repeatedly reacted to just this one song her mom used to sing.

Now a year later her mom says she still gets emotional when she watch this video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a song.

MOOS: Don't try telling that to Acadia. Sometimes when her parents are in the other room they hear the card opening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She'll be sitting in there going at it.

MOOS: When you put her on TV, she went at it, all right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loves it.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's awesome. Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great weekend. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: President Obama throwing down the gauntlet and vowing to go it alone on immigration if he has to. The Republicans say they are ready for a fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: And that's going to happen. That's going to happen before the end of the year.