Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Thanksgiving Stormy Weather; Missouri Lt. Gov. Kinder's Allegations Untrue; UVA Adopts Zero Tolerance Sex Assault Policy; Justice Ginsburg Recovering from Heart Surgery

Aired November 26, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

WHITFIELD: If you're hitting the road today for Thanksgiving, you could be in for a nasty Thanksgiving day surprise. A major winter storm is snaking up the East Coast today. The busiest travel day of the year. Millions of us could face big travel delays at the airports and on the roadways and because of the bad weather, more than 300 flights have already been canceled this morning. More than 900 flights are delayed and that number is expected to rise.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now with live with more on this messy turkey day forecast.

Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. A coastal low, call it a nor'easter if you want, it's a minor nor'easter. Now this storm two months from now when it's much colder is a major snow event but it didn't happen or hasn't happened yet in January.

So here's what we deal with, rain along the coast, snow in some of the inland areas, and one to three-hour airport delays, some spots going higher than that. Minneapolis seeing some snow. But the major delays, all the big cities through here, Boston through Hartford down to New York, we have New York Liberty now with 59 canceled flights. That's 9 percent of the flights leaving are canceled.

There are not 9 percent empty seats on all the other flights to take those people. The best thing you can do today is pack light and carry it on. If you check your bag and it's under the plane or on the tarmac and your flight gets canceled, you're waiting for something else. If you had your bag and you want to fly through Memphis to get to Dallas they can do that at the gate, if you're holding all of your bags.

Pack lightly today. I know you don't want to. You want to take everything and your presence as well. But that's a tough travel day if all your stuff is already on the tarmac.

Thirty in State College, 33 in Scranton. There'll be a lot of snow in the Poconos. In the Alleghenies as well. And all the way up the East Coast. There is a line, a line from Boston down through south of Hartford right through New York City, and down to Philadelphia, east of that line you're getting nothing. You're going to get rain and a lot of it. But now the rain is

changing over to snow in Newark. That will quickly change back to rain today and then all along I-95, whether it's snowing or not, I don't think it snows on I-95 until after dark, that's when it gets slippery. It's still going be a slow go.

Leave early or plan on arriving late. It's going to be one of those travel days where everybody is just getting on everybody else's nerves, I'm afraid, Carol.

COSTELLO: I know. I'm writing down your advice. Pack light and carry on, leave early, arrive late. Got it.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: All right.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Chad. Yes.

I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Missouri's Republican lieutenant governor is lashing out at the Democratic Governor Jay Nixon saying the governor waited too long to send in the National Guard. He claims the White House might have been calling the shots.

Here are some excerpts of what the lieutenant governor, Kinder, said on KTRS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. PETER KINDER (R), MISSOURI: Desperate reaching out by Mayor Knowles, while his city was burning and the National Guardsmen were being held back. It is so inexplicable. It is so hard to understand why the governor would not deploy the forces that he had at the ready, that he had mobilized, that I have this question.

Is it because he was leaned on not to send them in, leaned on by the Obama administration, and the Holder Justice Department?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so Governor Nixon says that's absolutely absurd and, Athena, before we get to the White House response to this, just so our viewers understand, in Missouri the lieutenant governor and the governor are elected separately and one can be a Republican and the lieutenant governor in this case is a Republican and the Democrat is the governor.

So how is the White House responding?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, that may be the key point here. The White House is saying that this is absolutely not true. White House officials telling me and my colleague Jim Acosta that this is not true, this allegation that somehow the White House put pressure on Governor Nixon not to bring those pre-staged troops, those 700 National Guard troops that were standing at the ready, not to -- put them to their full use on Monday night. The White House says it's not true.

This -- we know that senior -- that Valerie Jarrett, who is one of the president's closest advisers did speak with Governor Nixon on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning to get a sense of what was going on, get an update of what was going on, on the ground there in Ferguson, but the White House says she did not put any pressure on the Nixon administration to stand down.

Let's go ahead and play what Governor Nixon had to say. This is something the White House is pointing to as well. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: That is false and absurd and politics. That's nothing to do with what any of the folks up here are doing. We're doing our duty. You have behind me a series of sworn officers, you have hundreds of people out there putting their lives on the line each and every night. Politics has not one bit to do with the tasks at hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so there you have it. The governor saying this is about -- this could be about politics and as you mentioned this is why it's important to note that the governor and lieutenant governor in Missouri are elected separately and are now into two separate parties.

But of course this comes as a lot of folks are raising questions about the decisions that were made there on the ground in Ferguson on Monday night, not just about the timing of the release of the grand jury's decision, but also decisions being made about resources when all of these businesses were destroyed.

As we heard from the business owner you interviewed just a little earlier, she says she expected law enforcement to be there. So this is why these questions are being raised right now -- Carol. .

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones reporting live from White House this morning.

Thank you.

Breaking news right now and it's a little disturbing. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is recovering in a Washington hospital after having a stent placed in her heart. She's 81 years old. She had some discomfort after exercising. Ginsburg should be released within the next few days. We wish her the best.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a new policy at UVA promises zero tolerance of sex assaults on campus. But what about those students who admitted to those crimes who are still enrolled?

One dean defends not throwing them off campus. It's pretty incendiary. We'll let you listen next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The University of Virginia has adopted a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual violence. This comes after a "Rolling Stone" article on an alleged gang rape and the university's response. That article sent shockwaves across campus and across the nation. It forced the suspension of the school's fraternities.

UVA president Teresa Sullivan who said the "Rolling Stone" article left her numb. It's vowing to protect students going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA SULLIVAN, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: I want to make it perfectly clear to you and to the watching world that nothing is more important to me than the safety of our students. Not our reputation, not our success, and not our history or our tradition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now keep in mind, there have been absolutely no expulsions, not even for students who reportedly admitted to sexual assault. That's according to UVA's Associate Dean of Students, Nicole Eramo, who chairs the school's Sexual Misconduct Board.

Listen to what she said during a September interview just released by WUVA Radio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN NICOLE ERAMO, HEAD OF UVA SEXUAL MISCONDUCT BOARD: If a person is willing to come forward in that setting and admit that they violated the policy when there's absolutely no advantage to do so, that that does deserve some consideration. That they're willing to say that I've done something wrong and I recognize that, and I'm willing to take my licks and deal with it, that's very important to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you not think that it's damaging for sexual assault victims to see the person who sexually assaulted and raped them on campus?

ERAMO: I think it absolutely can be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So why are they allowed back on grounds?

ERAMO: Because I think we are trying to balance the rights of the individual who's being accused as well as the rights of the complainant, and sometimes that's very difficult.

I think you would be surprised to see the number of survivors who I worked with who don't even want to file a complaint because they don't want to get the accused person in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't think that that's wrong -- (CROSSTALK)

ERAMO: You would be very surprised how many times I hear, "I do not want to get him in trouble." You would be incredibly surprised by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about this. Joey Jackson is HLN legal analyst and a criminal defense attorney, Mel Robbins is a CNN commentator and legal analyst.

And welcome to both of you.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Thank you, Carol. Good to be here.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Carol, thank you. Let me pick my jaw up off the ground.

COSTELLO: It illustrates why universities should not be in charge of sexual assault investigations.

ROBBINS: Sawyer, even if you could get into UVA, you're not going, how about that?

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Oh, Mel.

ROBBINS: What? I'm not kidding, this is appalling.

JACKSON: It's a problem. And you know --

ROBBINS: Would you send your daughter to that school knowing that the chair says that the rapist can walk around if he admits it? Because, you know, we want --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Honesty is the best policy.

JACKSON: No, look, here's the point. It's an easy question because I don't have a daughter so look, but no, here's the point. The point is I appreciate good intentions, I certainly appreciate positive steps forward but more important and compelling to me, Carol, are always the results and what else, you know, is the university president going to do? You know, and I'm saying forgive your skepticism, right? But the reality is, it's proper to be skeptical.

You have so much coming down on the university at this point so now they adopt a zero tolerance policy. What about adopting it before the article in the "Rolling Stone" came out? What about adopting it before the gang rape? Before she went forward and went to the dean, of course, told the story and you know what? What happened then? Were they prosecuted? Were the seven individuals held accountable? Or were they allowed to continue to walk on the campus? And so a lot more than, you know, saying I'm adopting a policy and

it's going to be zero tolerance, a lot more than that has to happen for me to be convinced.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm going to give the dean -- let's give the dean the benefit of the doubt because she's very well-liked on campus. And even after this interview --

ROBBINS: Why?

COSTELLO: -- became public, women, young women, wrote in support of her, so I'm just going to throw that out here. She's very well-liked. But --

ROBBINS: First of all, she's lying because if she says that reputation and money is not really what a president at a university is worried about first and foremost --

COSTELLO: Well, we're talking about the dean here?

ROBBINS: Are you talking about the woman that's the head of the sexual misconduct?

COSTELLO: Yes. That would be the dean.

ROBBINS: So the woman in the scarf that basically said that if a guy comes and admits that he's a rapist we're going to take that into consideration and let him stay on this campus? That's exactly what they did. Jackie named all seven people. Named them. Kept bumping into one of them who said, "Hey, great to see you the other night. Are you ignoring me? That was a really good time."

There's a woman at Columbia University that's carrying a mattress around who has identified her accuser who is still on campus. You either take student safety seriously or you don't. Kids get kicked out of school for having fake IDs and drinking too much and hazing.

JACKSON: Cheating on exams.

ROBBINS: Yes.

JACKSON: Right?

ROBBINS: And you know what they did? They did a six-week or they did a six-week suspension of all fraternities until January 9th. How convenient that they're on winter break right now and that January 9th is the first day back of the semester.

COSTELLO: I know.

ROBBINS: I'm not buying it until we see what Joey Jackson is talking about which is a policy that takes it seriously. If she's serious about safety, then those seven kids that were accused of this horrible gang rape should not be -- should face consequences. JACKSON: Absolutely should.

COSTELLO: Should face --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Why don't universities turn these cases over to the police? Why don't they do that? I don't understand that.

JACKSON: Carol, that's a fabulous question and when you look at the penalties associated with rape, I mean, Virginia, five years to life you can get for rape but yet you're in school, and it's just business as usual. Completely improper. There are these parallel tracks, well, they're supposed to be, but the reality is that you have the university that says you can go to our sexual misconduct board, we'll investigate, we'll take care of it, but don't worry.

And then, of course, you should have the Charlottesville Police Department who conducts a full and fair investigation. Here's why I say that. When you're the university, Carol, what are you concerned about? Reputation?

COSTELLO: Yes.

JACKSON: Image. Sponsors. Money.

COSTELLO: Alums.

JACKSON: Then alumni. And so as a result of that there's not the interest you have in establishing that you have rapists running around campus. There's not the interest that you have to establish that this really happened. Weren't you drinking a little bit too much when the incident occurred? And so therefore you want integrity to the process. And I think the police issue gives that, the university does not.

ROBBINS: Well, and here's the other thing, it's because they have a policy where they don't actually police things like this, every woman on campus knows that it will become a huge public issue if she accuses somebody. And so what Jackie was reporting in this "Rolling Stone" article is that her friends actually came to her and said, "Are you sure? You know that this is going to be something you're going to have to deal with."

COSTELLO: You're going to be the girl who cried rape.

ROBBINS: Yes. You're going to be the person --

COSTELLO: We'll never going to be, like, we're never going to get into fraternities if you tell this story, Jackie.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBBINS: And then --

JACKSON: We'll never get into another party. ROBBINS: And this is why I say that she is lying when she says she

doesn't care about reputation. Because your number one commitment is what drives your decision making. And if your commitment is to keep your reputation intact, to keep the alumni happy, and to keep students applying to that school, you are not incented to do the right thing, which may mean that you have statistics out there about the number of crimes that are committed that make parents like me go, "whoo, not a place I want my kid."

JACKSON: And you're supposed to have statistics because of the PRE Act federal law that requires that you keep statistics, whether or not they become really crimes.

COSTELLO: But if no one's charged or --

JACKSON: No one is charged --

COSTELLO: Put through the university trial.

JACKSON: Exactly.

COSTELLO: So there's no stat, right?

JACKSON: So are the -- are the statistics reliable, reasonable and really reflect reality? That's a separate issue.

COSTELLO: All right. We could go on and on about this.

ROBBINS: Yes, we could.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: That's why I love you, Mel Robbins, and Joey Jackson. Thanks so much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Carol. Thank you.

COSTELLO: I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: OK. More now on our breaking news. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is recovering at a Washington hospital this morning after having a stent placed in her heart. The 81-year-old justice had discomfort after exercising. Ginsburg should be released from the hospital within the next few days but, of course, this is concerning.

Joining me on the phone, Jonathan Turley, he's a law professor at George Washington University and a constitutional scholar.

Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN TURLEY, LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, some have long been worried about Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health. Should we be overly concerned about this?

TURLEY: We're always concerned when a justice goes to the hospital for this type of serious problem. However, Justice Ginsburg has been asked repeatedly about her health and she has kept up a very busy schedule. There's no indication that she's physically unable to continue on the court. Many of us know people that have had this type of procedure and have become fully reengaged as lawyers or other professionals.

So we're all hoping and praying that she's going to come out of this a healthier and stronger. She has repeatedly been asked, as you know, whether her age or health would prevent her to continuing on the court. There's a great concern because of her age, particularly among those who fear that President Obama would not be the one who would name a replacement.

However, Justice Ginsburg has been quite clear that she is physically fully able to continue and despite the persistent question, this procedure on its face doesn't indicate that she's anything but able to continue and all of us are hoping that she's going to do well in these procedures to rejoin the court.

COSTELLO: I know she's long said, you know, I'm not going to retire and she appears to be very active. This happened after she was exercising, she's appeared on stage, she's very active in speaking engagements and that kind of thing, right?

TURLEY: Oh, yes. And if you meet her, and I've had the great pleasure of meeting her, she's very vibrant and there's no indication at all that she has slowed down intellectually or physically.

Part of the concern that arises, as you know, Carol, is that she is an iconic figure on the court. She is viewed by many as the representative of the left of the court.

Her opinions are quite good. Even though I've disagreed with some of them, I agree with many of them. They're always very, very well written, well researched and persuasive. So the quality of her work hasn't diminished in the slightest.

And as you know, she has not slowed down at all. She speaks around the country, she loves to engage students, and she clearly loves to be on the court.

COSTELLO: She does. We're all -- our best to her and, Jonathan Turley, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

Thank you for joining me today. Thanks, Jonathan. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.