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Hagel: Troops In Iraq Still An Option; JetBlue Plane Narrowly Avoids Disaster In The Sky; NHTSA Announces New Recall Over Airbag Defect; Former NFL Patriots Star Charged With Murder; Goodell: "It's Been A Tough Year"; Whitney Houston's Daughter Found Unresponsive
Aired January 31, 2015 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM.
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CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have to look at all the options and I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops.
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WHITFIELD: A very candid Chuck Hagel on not always agreeing with the White House, but why sending ground troops into Iraq is still an option.
Plus --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 494 BFR traffic, 11:00, two miles, moving north indicating 2,000 unknown.
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WHITFIELD: Close call. A JetBlue Airliner almost collides with a small private plane in the sky. Passengers saying it was so close, they could hear the other plane's engines.
And measles cases continuing to spread, now a confirmed case at a college in New York has health officials on alert. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello again, everyone. Thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're following a developing story out of the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies have launched another series of attacks against ISIS.
Twenty seven air strikes have been conducted against ISIS troops in Iraq and Syria in the past two days. This comes as ISIS militants have also launched a new offensive on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq, and now some are wondering if the U.S. will have to offer more than airstrikes if the coalition wants to defeat ISIS. During an exclusive interview with CNN, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the option is still on the table. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, has more.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I asked Secretary Hagel if he thought it was possible a small number of U.S. troops might get sent to the frontlines in Iraq to help Iraqi combat troops do things like picking up targets. He made clear it's an idea that cannot yet be ruled out.
CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: He said to his combatant commander, specifically, General Dempsey and General Austin, if you believe and you want to recommend, you think you need to recommend to me, to the president that we should look at other options then I want you to bring those recommendations to me.
That so far has not happened. Whether that would happen in the future, again, the president has said to his commanders, if you think this is what's going to be required, I need to know it. You need to make the recommendation and I'll listen.
STARR: What do you think?
HAGEL: Well, I think just as the president said and the advice I've given the president, it's what General Dempsey has is that we have to look at all the options.
And I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops, not doing the fighting, not doing the combat work that we did at one time for six years in Iraq and we did for many, many years in Afghanistan. But to help air strike precision, locate --
STARR: Intelligence.
HAGEL: Those are things we continue to support. We're not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don't know. Whether that's something that our military commanders would recommend into the future, I don't know.
But I think just as the president has made clear, I need to know your honest opinion and he's been very forthright about that what you think. Is that something that you think --
STARR: But you're saying, you think it could be necessary.
HAGEL: It could be, but I'm not willing to say that it will be necessary. I say it could be necessary.
STARR: Hagel leaves office in a few days, but his view is one that is shared by some current military commanders. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right, there has been no reaction at this point from the White House to Hagel's comments so what is the next move against ISIS?
Joining me right now is Lt. General Mark Hertling in Orlando. He is a CNN military analyst and a former U.S. Army commander in Iraq. Good to see you again, and Mike Baker is a former CIA covert operations officer, and is now the president of Diligence, a global security company.
And he is joining us from Boise, Idaho. Good to see you, as well, Mike. So Mike, to you first. Mike, I'm wondering, ground troops there in Iraq. Is that sooner or is that later in your view?
MIKE BAKER, FORMER CIA COVERT OPERATIONS OFFICER: Well, you know, they talked about out of the White House about this is going to be a long, difficult fight. Well, yes, it will be. If their strategy is to, you know, block and delay on this.
There is not a lot of dispute, I don't think, amongst folks that have had a lot of experience in this and I would certainly defer to lieutenant general. But, you know, you can't win this thing. Not to oversimplify, but I think I'm about to.
But my 7-year-old boy, Scooter, he gets involved with lots of snowball fights with his friends and they even understand, you're not going to seize the day by hiding behind your fort and lobbing snow balls.
At some point, you've got to go out and seize the other guy's fort and they have been talking about this. Everybody seems to understand at some point we've got to do this.
It's just as if it the White House obviously is just trying to figure out where is that point in the curve when they've got sufficient political ability to go out and push that button.
WHITFIELD: All right, so General Hertling, is that the case? Do you agree with Mike? It's unwinnable, meaning ISIS cannot be defeated or dismantled, unless you engage ground troops.
LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, taking the snowball doctrine a little bit further, Fredricka, what I would say is, it is unwinnable until we do that, but it doesn't necessarily have to be U.S. forces. And I think that's the difference.
For those of us who have fought in Iraq for many years, we understand that the Iraqi army and the Iraqi government have to want this more than we do. Now, we have provided support, and we will continue to provide support.
And what Mr. Hagel said the other day is exactly what the president has been saying all along. If the military commanders come to me and say we need to put advisers with front-line Iraqi troops, then he will consider that option.
But we're not there yet because the Iraqi forces in the north and in the west are not quite ready to take the fight to the enemy, and start throwing those snowballs en masse to -- as we said, but they will be soon.
And when that happens, yes, I think we have -- we will present to the president, the commanders on the ground, will present to the president a plan to put advisers to call in air support and to provide additional intelligence to their Iraqi counterparts, the ones leading the fight.
WHITFIELD: So now you've got me thinking. Here is another potential scenario. If ground troops to some degree ultimately will have to be involved and Iraqi troops as I hear you saying, General, are not quite there yet.
And if the U.S. says we want to build a better international coalition, might these international allies say, well, we'll devote some ground troops too, if you do as well, more so by just committing advisers.
Would the U.S. be put in a pickle, in a situation where they would have to engage more aggressively by having troops on the ground in greater than an advisory capacity? General, you first.
HERTLING: Yes, I don't think so. Fredricka, I don't think we'll be putting large formations of combat forces on the ground at all in Iraq or Syria. Of course, it could be an option, but I think we're a long way from that.
Yes, a coalition could contribute forces to this Arab fight, and I think they should because ISIS is a scourge to all of the Arab population in that part of the world.
WHITFIELD: All right, Mike, could I get you to comment on that too?
BAKER: Yes, our allies, even our closest allies, they're not going to -- they are not going to do something that we're not willing to do. So when it comes to that, I think we have to take the lead. We've seen that in the past. It's just our responsibility, being at the top of the food chain now.
It may be uncomfortable for us and we're tired of it, but that's the case. The problem we've got is, if we continue to wait, I think, for the Iraqis to be capable of this, and for something else to happen in Syria, I'm not quite sure what we imagine is going to happen in Syria without an aggressive effort on our part then the Islamic State continues to do what they do.
They continue to consolidate territory, have success in spreading out what they're doing into other regions, including Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, in terms of gathering up you those recruits, having success overseas, and recruiting others because of their territorial integrity.
We're never going to get ahead of this curve until we take away that territory from the Islamic State. I just don't believe that's going to happen without us taking the lead. And I think we're already seeing mission creep. We've been seeing it over the past year. It's not going to surprise me if we get combat troops on the ground.
WHITFIELD: All right. Mike Baker, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thanks to both of you, Gentlemen. Appreciate it.
All right, in the skies, a terrifying close call right over Westchester County, New York. We're learning today about a JetBlue airliner which nearly collided with a small private plane.
Passengers say if not for the JetBlue pilots, the flight which was fully loaded with passengers would have been hit by that smaller plane during its descent into Westchester Airport.
The JetBlue collision warning system, in fact, alerted the pilots that the small plane was coming toward it! The tense exchange with air traffic control caught on tape.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 94 VFR traffic, 11:00, two miles, moving northbound indicating 2900. Type is unknown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're looking at it 94.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 94, if you would like to incline or descend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got them in sight JetBlue 94.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maintain. We want you to follow -- 2:00.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, some pretty scary moments indeed, Nick Valencia has more on this. Boy, the passengers pretty shaken. This is a week after the fact.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That was very surprising to Rick Germano, a passenger on the plane. He was surprised there wasn't more news coverage when it happened. It may happen more than we care to believe. Rick Germano described to me the experience as frightening. Take a listen.
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RICK GERMANO, JETBLUE PASSENGER (via telephone): On approach to landing, we were getting pretty excited because the flight was over. All of a sudden, the plane made an abnormal maneuver. You could tell it just wasn't normal.
And we turned quickly to the side, and then all of a sudden heard a loud noise on the opposite side of the plane, and I quickly looked over and my wife said to me, we just got missed by a private plane. And our plane elevated and turned, and the other private plane dove, and went underneath our plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: Very scary situation there for everyone on board. Rick Germano says he doesn't blame JetBlue, but he hopes that this experience leads to a conversation at the very least of the protocol in the air.
He says that he was scared, chokes up when he thinks about having his 5-year-old daughter on the plane sitting next to him and his wife. He said that they're lucky to be alive.
WHITFIELD: Wow, and the pilots got on the air. They informed the passengers what was going on.
VALENCIA: That's right. And that's sort of the curious thing. Let's read a statement from the FAA. They don't put the blame -- I shouldn't say that, they're investigating now.
But just read this with me. The pilot reported the smaller aircraft in sight, received the alert and then climbed in response to the alert. The general aviation flight was operating under visual flight rules, and was not required to communicate with air traffic controllers.
So you take from this statement that the pilot of the small plane was following the rules, as was the commercial pilot for JetBlue. But it was a quick thinking by that pilot to make that defensive maneuver to sort of go up in the air, last-minute, and narrowly missed each other.
We don't know exactly how close they came. But Rick Germano says his wife saw that plane and could see the letters on the plane that it was so close. It could have been a couple miles away.
WHITFIELD: Well, thank goodness the reaction of the pilots was just that, very quick and everyone is safe. Thanks so much for bringing that to us. Keep us posted on any new developments. Thank you, Nick.
All right, this breaking story now into CNN. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is announcing another massive auto recall over air bags that can deploy, even when you're not in an accident. More than 2 million vehicles are being recalled. Officials spoke to reporters on a conference call just moments ago.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The root cause seems to remain not fully understood. Part of our ongoing vigilance was to make sure that the -- you know shall the remedy was, in fact, effective. What we have learned, it was not fully effective. Since the remedy, there have been 39 inadvertent air bag deployments. We would expect with a fully effective, that would have been zero.
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WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Rene Marsh joins me on the phone. So Rene, what vehicles and manufacturers are we talking about?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Fred, this recall impacts a wide range of vehicles by Toyota, Honda and Chrysler, and you have all of the vehicles impacted there on the screen.
Most of them are vehicles that were manufactured in the early 2000s. So just to explain even more, the issue here is a faulty sensor and what this faulty sensor does is, it causes the air bags to deploy, sometimes while the car is running.
While the individual may be driving or even causes the seatbelt to tighten, all of this happening without the car being involved in a crash. That's an issue.
We do know that these vehicles were recalled for this issue before, but when the manufacturer made the fixes, apparently the fixes were not adequate because the problem was still occurring.
So this is somewhat of a recall, so to speak, in that they're trying to get the fixes complete so that this problem isn't happening. No deaths linked to this, but there have been some injuries.
Now, to add, you know -- to add to the problems for people, some 1 million vehicles involved in this current recall also happens to have the Takata air bags in them. So if you're an owner of one of these vehicles that also has the Takata air bag, you're having a tough time, because you're dealing with that recall on top of this one.
That being said, they're urging people, if you have one of these vehicles to address this issue right away. They do not want to take any chances. How do you know if your car is impacted? You want to get your vin number and also visit safercar.gov.
We'll get a link on our CNN website to help people get to that link and you'll determine whether your car is impacted. Because we're talking about so many vehicles, Fred, it will take some time before all these vehicles get a permanent fix.
So what will happen is car owners will get a temporary fix, and then when the parts are in, you'll get that more permanent fix. Of course, this is all happening after we just came off of a year where we saw record car recalls, but again, not wanting to take any chances. NHTSA wants everyone to address this issue now.
WHITFIELD: That affects a lot of people, Rene, so again, Toyota, Honda, Chrysler, some of those vehicles, early 2000. Of course, you can go to CNN.com to get another look to see if your vehicle is in there or perhaps go to the nhtsa.gov website as well. Thanks so much, Rene Marsh.
All right, still ahead, he helped his Patriots make it to the Super Bowl in 2012, but this year he won't be seeing the game. Aaron Hernandez and his attorneys going on the defense in his murder trial. Which side in this case has the upper hand at this point? We'll ask our legal guys, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: When the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks at tomorrow's Super Bowl, former Patriot, Aaron Hernandez, who scored a touchdown the last time the team was in the Super Bowl won't even be watching the game.
Instead he's playing defense in court on trial for the murder of semi pro football player, Odin Lloyd. CNN's Susan Candiotti is covering the trial and is at the courthouse in Fall River, Massachusetts.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, Aaron Hernandez's defense team comes out swinging in opening statements this week, asking why? Why would such a promising, outstanding young athlete kill his buddy, Odin Lloyd?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Why would you kill his friend, Odin Lloyd? Aaron Hernandez had the world at his feet. Aaron Hernandez was planning a future. Not a murder.
CANDIOTTI: Yet, testimony from Shaneah Jenkins, Odin Lloyd's girlfriend, who is also the sister of Hernandez' fiance, appears to question how close Hernandez and Lloyd really were. Jenkins told the jury Lloyd only knew Hernandez about a year, the beginning stages of a friendship.
That they smoked marijuana together, that Lloyd sometimes made joints for the football player as seen in this photo. CNN first showed it in its special report "Downward Spiral."
SHANEAH JENKINS, DATED ODIN LLOYD: He showed me a picture of a bunch of them rolled up and stacked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. When was that in relation to his death?
JENKINS: Right before sometime.
CANDIOTTI: For the second time in as many days emotion in the courtroom. Jenkins wiping away tears and Lloyd's mother leaves crying, when photos of Lloyd's body with gun shots are shown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And on this Super Bowl weekend, a reprieve for the jury. The judge telling them to enjoy watching the Super Bowl, but warning them to steer clear of any possible mention of Aaron Hernandez and by the way, he won't be able to watch his former teammates play in the big game, because the jail where he is staying bans television for high-security inmates -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Candiotti, thank you so much.
Let's bring in our legal guys, Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland. Good to see you. And Richard Herman, criminal defense attorney and law professor is joining from Las Vegas. Good to see you, as well. All right, so, Gentlemen, let's look at the evidence allowed in, and evidence barred. Allowed in, the prosecution has a marijuana joint found near Lloyd's body with Hernandez's DNA, a .45 caliber shell case found in a car Hernandez had rented.
A footprint that matched sneakers worn by Hernandez and his home surveillance video and some texts, Hernandez's texts to Odin Lloyd, but then the judge barred this key evidence, or at least what some thought would be key evidence.
Oden Lloyd's texts to his sister, sent minutes before he was killed, suggesting that -- he said he was with NFL. Any mention of Hernandez's involvement in the shooting of three other men that he suspected of, and a 2009 photo of Hernandez holding a gun.
So those things barred. So Avery, you first, how significant is what's allowed in thus far and what isn't?
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, the evidence, Fredricka, is overwhelming here. Judge Susan Garth is exactly right in barring certain prejudicial evidence. But at the end of the day, the evidence is so strong, including motive.
Meaning the position that prosecution is taking is that the motive behind this murder was that Oden Lloyd disrespected Hernandez. And that's going to be part of it. Secondly, the joint venture theory -- the prosecutors don't need to prove that Hernandez pulled the trigger, but rather, Fredricka, all they have to show is he actively participated in this.
So while we only have the first two days of trial in a case that will last two months, the evidence at this point looks like it's going to be extremely strong, very difficult for the defense.
WHITFIELD: So wait a minute. So Richard, I want you to respond to that. So they don't have to prove that Hernandez actually pulled the trigger, actually committed the crime, even though he's up for murder. But instead all they have to prove is that he was there, he may have been an accomplice, is that right?
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That's on that theory for murder. They charged him with first degree murder. So they have to prove that he intended to kill this individual. But Fred, there are more things than footballs deflated in Massachusetts these days, and that is the prosecution case here.
They do not have an overwhelming case, Avery. They do not. They do not have the gun that was used. They do not have the gun that was used. They do not have any witness to say that he was there when the murder took place. They have no videotape of this. No audiotape.
There are two co-defendants. Neither one of them are rats in this case. The prosecution, although you would think, when you open a trial up, would put on an overwhelming introductory case. So far, fizzle, fizzle, fizzle, Fred. I'm telling you, they've got great attorneys for the defense here. Reasonable doubt is splashed all over this case. Why would a guy who is making $40 million a year plan to kill a friend, kill him near his house, leave him there -- leave the body there, and then leave his home surveillance system on if this was a planned murder?
This was -- this is a very difficult case to prove, Fred. I would not be surprised a jury comes back and says the prosecution failed here.
WHITFIELD: And you feel that way, despite this video, this surveillance video we see. Some say it looks like a gun, but I guess that's disputable too. So Avery, if no gun -- no murder weapon, and you heard the defense attorneys say there was no real motive.
And as you heard Richard say, why would someone throw this away, $12 million contract. That's what so many have said. Then, you know, how does the prosecution try to convince the jury that, yes, there was motivation, and yes, he was there. No murder weapon. But he was the one who, you know, cost Odin Lloyd his life?
FRIEDMAN: The answer is that most cases are established by circumstantial evidence. Most cases and in a case like this, the evidence, for example, of four people going to the site and then three people coming back, along with -- there is motive evidence.
The idea that Lloyd, quote, "disrespected," unquote, Hernandez and the fact that he was earning $40 million a year, at least potentially, I think assumes that Hernandez actually thought this thing out, deeply. He didn't. This was a stupid reactive --
WHITFIELD: But isn't it remarkable, no one has talked? There has been no information as a result of any kind of off plea deals. It is silent.
HERMAN: It's amazing, Fred. It's amazing that the co-defendants have not rolled in this case. They couldn't get anybody to roll. They're all standing strong here. It's going to be a very, very difficult case for the prosecution to try to link together circumstance or here when they don't have it.
I don't see it, Fred. I really don't see it at this point in time and, you know, there are other cases down the pipe here. He's also -- facing a double murder case after this. But none of that is admissible in this case.
FRIEDMAN: You'll never hear about it.
HERMAN: Supposedly. But here the defense is similar to the O.J. Simpson defense. They are saying the prosecution targeted him, tunnel vision. They didn't investigate, and that happens a lot, Fred. It's happened to me --
FRIEDMAN: Not here, though.
HERMAN: Tunnel vision. Yes, I think so.
WHITFIELD: OK. This is one to watch indeed. Avery, Richard, thanks so much, Gentlemen, always great to see you.
FRIEDMAN: See you. Take care.
HERMAN: Fred, I hate both teams, but we're going for the Patriots.
WHITFIELD: You are. All right, well, you know, proximity means something.
FRIEDMAN: If Tom Brady is not a crook, let's go for the Patriots. OK.
WHITFIELD: OK, we'll see how it plays out. Thanks, Gentlemen. Good to see you.
All right, tonight there is more talk of Aaron Hernandez on CNN, a special report "Inside The Case Against Aaron Hernandez" 11:00 p.m. right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, hello again. Thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right, it's the eve of the Super Bowl, and the focus is supposed to be on just the game and the match-ups within it. Like Brady versus Wilson and Sherman versus Gronkowski, but that's not the kind of year that it's been for the NFL.
Headlines of domestic abuse allegations against players, including Ray Rice, have dominated the league's narrative for months. Add to that an indictment against one of the game's greatest stars, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings for allegedly beating his son with a switch.
And then in the days leading up to tomorrow's Super Bowl, deflate- gate, yes, it's been that kind of year for the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted as much in this state of the league address Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: It has been a tough year. It's been a tough year on me personally. It's been a year of what I would say humility and learning.
We obviously as an organization have gone through adversity, but more importantly, it's been adversity for me. And that is something where we take that seriously. It's an opportunity for us to get better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, let's continue the discussion now with my panel of experts. Joining me from Phoenix is CNN sports anchor, Rachel Nichols, and former New England Patriots linebacker, Chad Brown, and with me here in studio, sports attorney, David Cornwell.
All right, so let's talk about this in general. David, you worked for two different commissioners in the NFL. How would you describe the state of the league right now?
DAVID CORNWELL, SPORTS ATTORNEY: I think it's in the transformation. We're watching sausages being made. The NFL is being transformed from a private entity into a public institution. And just as the commissioner said, players will be held responsible or accountable for their conduct for the privilege of playing in the league.
He now knows that he's going to be held accountable for the privilege of the public support. So we're just watching the process. This is a snapshot. I believe that I have confidence in him. I think he can lead them through this challenge. I know that he's committed and I believe that he's capable.
WHITFIELD: So Chad, is it your view that this is just the public display of something that has been maybe the norm? Maybe some of the components have changed over the years, involving some of the allegations and some of the scandal we're dealing with now, but this has been kind of the internal struggle of the NFL for a very long time, in your view?
CHAD BROWN, FORMER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS LINEBACKER: Specifically talking about the deflate-gate or are you talking about the ball pressure?
WHITFIELD: We're talking about the NFL as a whole. David just said this is kind of the -- you know, the sausage being made, but the difference here is the public is seeing all of it and so the NFL has been struggling internally with dealing with things.
And the latest for the NFL today is that, yes, it's deflate-gate, allegations of domestic abuse. Is this the norm for the NFL or is this a different NFL dealing with I guess things happening in the family in a very public way now?
BROWN: Yes, as the media gets deeper and deeper inside the NFL, as David pointed out, sometimes they don't like to see how the sausage is made so whether talk about deflate-gate or domestic violation or bounty-gate a couple of years ago.
These are things that have been operating within NFL circles, but as the game grows and the media attention grows greater, more and more stuff is revealed and sometimes the public looks and goes, wow, I didn't know that about my favorite game.
WHITFIELD: Rachel, you know, the -- Roger Goodell was certainly on the defensive. At the same time, he was trying to be very diplomatic and say this is just the way it goes. Is there greater pressure on him as the commissioner to take more action, to be more out front, to be more public with dealing with these, you know, very public blemishes?
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely. I thought David's phrasing is perfect, the idea of this conversion from a private business to a public institution. Look, the NFL released a statistic that last year 80 percent of Americans watched at least one NFL football game. You can't get 80 percent of Americans to do anything in this country. You can't get them to vote. You can't get them to go into any sort of religious facility. This is the tent that people gather in now and the NFL is in a little way a victim of its own success.
It's become so big, it is the place we have national conversations in this country. It's the place we have talked about domestic violence in the past year. It's a place we talk about a lot of other issues, disciplining your children, for example.
So I think the NFL is still adjusting to that. They did ask for this, with their push and push and push to become America's game. It's not baseball anymore. It is football. But these are some of the consequences that they deal with.
WHITFIELD: So David, is this kind of a new NFL? Is there new pressure on the NFL that there comes with it greater responsibility that perhaps the NFL wasn't either willing to or didn't realize it had to acknowledge before?
CORNWELL: I think it's a little bit of all of that. You know, I work for Commissioner Roselle, and back in those days, in the '80s, his big issue was making sure that the focus was on the game, that the media focused on the game.
So lawsuits and all of these things, they didn't want it. Now we have insiders reporting from every network on the game. We have information about executive salaries, there is no off season. This is what the NFL has become, and with it, as you point out, this is the price of being big.
And listen, it's not all pretty, but we take this snapshot, right, of where we are today, and have all this commentary about it. And things are going to change. You know, it's going to look different eventually, and I think they can get it done. I think they'll be successful.
WHITFIELD: And so Chad, for your former team, do you feel the Patriots are having to deal with unnecessary pressure? Has this been a distraction? Is it unfair, in your view, or is this justify the way the game goes?
BROWN: As far as it being a distraction, no one really circles the wagons as good as the New England Patriots do. When spy-gate came out in the '07 season that was early on in the season, they went on and had an undefeated season and were undefeated in the playoffs until they lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl.
So I think they'll be able to handle this distraction very well. But unfortunately, because of spy-gate, the Patriots are always going to be considered guilty in a court of public opinion. So this deflate- gate is just another thing to tarnish their legacy.
But their legacy, in my opinion, is a team that extremely hard working, perhaps the greatest coach of all-time in Bill Belichick and a quarterback, Tom Brady, if he wins a four-Super Bowl championship Sunday, the greatest of all-time.
WHITFIELD: So Rachel, if the Patriots do win, and since we are talking about legacies, we have been talking about Tom Brady's legacy, Belichick's legacy before the game. But if they win, might that help rewrite their legacy, that perhaps, you know, these blemishes will not be as I guess magnified as if they were to lose?
NICHOLS: Well, we're going to have to see how this NFL investigation plays out before we know how history sees this incident. And it's already gotten ugly. Look, the NFL has fallen under criticism for not even speaking to Tom Brady yet or many other members of the New England Patriots.
On the other hand, the team's owner, Robert Kraft, is upset about the investigation in the other direction. He called out Roger Goodell in the NFL at the beginning of this week, saying he was unhappy with the way the investigation was going.
Saying the NFL office will owe his team an apology if they don't come back with hard evidence. And I want to have you guys listen to what Roger Goodell fired back with yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOODELL: My thoughts are, this is my job. This is my responsibility to protect the integrity of the game. I represent 32 teams. All of us want to make sure the rules are being followed and if we have any information where the potential is those rules were violated, I have to pursue that.
And I have to pursue that aggressively. So this is my job. This is a job of the league office. It is what all 32 clubs expect, and I believe our partners, our fans expect. And we will do it vigorously and it is important for it to be thorough and fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NICHOLS: Now, it's interesting that Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, was not in the room for those remarks. He is typically in the room for those annual State Of The Union addresses so we have no idea why he wasn't there.
Maybe he had an important business meeting, maybe a bingo game. I have no idea. But the fact that he was not in the room is certainly something people have noticed.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, we're just about out of time. But David, why hasn't everyone been talking? This is kind of strange, isn't it?
CORNWELL: I don't think it is.
WHITFIELD: Really?
CORNWELL: I represented --
WHITFIELD: No conversations with Tom Brady yet, NFL, Kraft, Goodell, good friends?
CORNWELL: I understand that others may do it differently. But I represented Jonathan Martin last year, and the investigator was Ted Wells. Ted knows what he's doing. He's the investigator in this case.
WHITFIELD: OK.
CORNWELL: So everybody -- this is this instantaneous need for answers, right?
WHITFIELD: We want it now.
CORNWELL: Yes, Ted is going to go through a thorough investigation and maybe Mr. Kraft had a bingo game. But I know he's got a Super Bowl game, and he may be focused on that.
WHITFIELD: OK, all right, thanks so much, David Cornwell. Thanks so much, Chad Brown, Rachel Nichols, appreciate all of you. Thank you.
There is more talk about this and all things NFL and Super Bowl 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Be sure to watch Rachel Nichols and Hall of Fame quarterback, Dan Marino, as they host, "Kickoff from Arizona. We'll take you inside football's biggest game. That's "KICKOFF FROM ARIZONA" today, 4:30 Eastern Time. We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: New today, more confirmed cases of measles. The latest at Bard College, a small school about 100 miles north of Manhattan. Officials also reported the individual rode on an Amtrak train last Sunday. It departed from Penn Station to Albany, New York and then traveled on to Niagara Falls.
And according to the CDC, the highly infectious virus has now spread to 14 states. Yesterday California officials confirmed two more cases of measles, bringing the state total to 91, since the outbreak there started last December.
And most of them are linked to an outbreak at Disneyland. And it's places like Disneyland and other crowded venues that the virus can spread very quickly.
Another concern the virus is spreading through commercial flights. CNN's tom foreman is in the virtual room to show how easily you can catch this highly infectious disease while flying.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We all know that if you're on something like a plane or a bus or a train, and somebody near you were to sneeze and they had measles, you have a real chance of being exposed to the measles virus.
But a study from MIT last year found it's actually much worse than that. If I were seated on a plane like this and somebody way in the back sneezed, the truth is, that virus now can travel in sort of invisible clouds of micro droplets all the way up to where I am seated here.
And what's more, despite the fact that planes have a lot of systems to filter the air, if the virus stays in the air, it could be viable for two hours. If it lands on the backs of arm rests or on chairs, same thing, and that's -- and that's a real problem.
Because if you are not safe against this disease, you have a 90 percent chance of getting it just by being in the same place because it is a highly infectious disease.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, Tom Foreman, thanks so much.
Still ahead, dramatic video of a daring rescue at sea. But first, here is Samuel Berke with this week's CNN Money innovate report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAMUEL BERKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To the side there and happier -- and your middle finger together. Spread fingers and make a fist. Perfect.
I'm trying out MIO today, this band you put around your arm and it reads your gestures and let you control the devices around you. Mio, I've been able to turn the volume of a television set up and down. There you, go volume is going up. Awesome. To rewind and fast forward a video. I've been using MIO out with a
toy cart, actually moving your arm to move this little car left, right, and make it spin and with video games. And this I can see being really popular and taking off with gamers.
That was close. How does this work?
AARON GRANT, CO-FOUNDER, THALMIC LABS: There's two types of sensors, the first track the motion and position of your arm, similar to the sensors you find in basically any smartphone today. And the second and more important type of sensor for us is the muscle sensors.
So that's the eight pods. Each is reading the electrical activity that occurs when you do something like make a fist or spread your fingers. And that's from your brain actually sending that electrical signal down to your arm, and the MIO picks those up.
BERKE: Long term, what are your hopes and dreams for MIO? What might it be able to do in the future?
GRANT: Interacting with things like the internet of things or wearables or other things like virtual reality, augmented reality and all these new kinds of nontraditional devices, where input solutions like mouse and keyboard or voice and touch don't work that well.
BERKE: I can see how this technology will take off one day. But I don't think we're quite there yet. It didn't detect every movement, and there were some glitches along the way. Only with time and people using it will we be able to know if the motion is this or this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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WHITFIELD: Potentially very sad and alarming news we're just learning in now. We are hearing through Roswell police, a suburb out of Atlanta, this young lady, 21-year-old Bobbi Kristina, the only daughter of late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown has been found unresponsive in the bathtub of her home in Roswell, Georgia.
Not long ago, Roswell, about 30 minutes outside downtown Atlanta. We don't have any more details, except that Roswell police and fire are confirming that she was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her home at that -- apparently, her husband, Nick Gordon, actually found her along with another friend found her in the tub and started CPR.
We're trying to get more information about other kind of life-saving measures that were taking place at the residence. They have tried to take her to North Fulton Hospital. Also just outside of Atlanta, just by about 15 or so minutes.
But again, if you're just now joining us, the only daughter of the late Whitney Houston and Bobbi Brown, 21-year-old Bobbi Kristina now hospitalized at North Fulton Hospital outside of Atlanta after being found unresponsive in the bathtub of her home by her husband and a friend.
With me now, my colleague, Don Lemon, on the phone with me now, Don, you covered the funeral of Whitney Houston. You and I were both on the air that weekend that Whitney Houston was found dead in the bathtub at the Beverly Hilton in 2012.
And now to hear this kind of news, certainly very unsettling, but again, we don't know what her status is right now, just that Bobbi Kristina is now being hospitalized.
Let's talk about her and what we know about her situation. She was recently married to this young man, and Nick Gordon. What more can you share with our viewers about her life and how difficult it really has been for her after the death of her mom?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (via telephone): It was difficult for her after the death of her mom, and even difficult for her before her mother died. They had a tumultuous relationship that then ended up at the end of her life being very close.
And she is close to her mother and at times her dad, did not have a good relationship. She has been in the news back and forth, sadly. She is a 21-year-old girl, lost her mom and she was very young, I think 19 years old when she lost her mother.
She was staying at the hotel, was not in the room with her mother at the time she died, Fred, as you might remember. She came back to the hotel, and they wouldn't let her in the room.
And as you would imagine, she caused quite a ruckus, because you would want to be near your mother, but they wouldn't let her close to her mom. And by the time she got back when her mother was in the bathtub, she had already died.
So in the last couple years, she's had issues. You've seen her in the gossip magazines with drugs, sometimes photographed with what is believed to be possibly marijuana or a marijuana pipe or what have you.
But young kids do that, you know -- it's not out of the ordinary for a lot of kids. And then recently she was very upset with Angela Bassett for the bio pic that Angela Bassett did on her mother, Whitney, for Lifetime Television, and she sort of lashed out with -- lashed out against Angela Bassett publicly.
And, you know, Angela Bassett took the high road and said, you know, he she's a young girl. I did the best I could with her mom's life. And so as we were looking at pictures of her now with her mother, it's sad.
And just a coincidence, Fred, I'm heading out in about an hour to go to Los Angeles and staying at the Beverly Hilton for a luncheon on Monday that we'll be covering. So it's just weird to get this news.
There are so many coincidences with this, and around this time, you know, back in 2012, you and I were both covering the story of Whitney Houston's death.
WHITFIELD: Right. And at that time, of course, everyone was thinking about Bobbi Kristina and given she was so close to her mom, Whitney Houston. What do we know about what her life has really been like?
Because, no you know, like you mentioned, lots of tabloids have talked about how she may have dabbled in -- experimented with drugs here and there. But at the same time, there have been others who talk about, you know, how she has been struggling with trying to figure out, you know, what her life path would be especially since the passing of her mom.
And do we know, you know, whether her dad, Bobby Brown, has been intimately involved in helping her find that path? Is do we know anything more about what it has been like for her the past couple years?
LEMON: I think -- I think more than anyone, I think her aunt has been involved with her more than anything. And probably her grandmother, Sissy, she's in Atlanta and Bobbi in Georgia. I think Pat has
probably been involved in her life more than anyone.
Because towards the end of Whitney's life, Pat was closest to Whitney Houston and, you know, during the filming of this new bio pic, we heard Bobbi Brown talk about his daughter a lot. And you remember the reality show they had, we saw her on that. He talked about that, and I think it was Sean Robinson from the entertainment magazine show asked her -- asked Bobbi if -- if Bobbi Kristina witnessed Whitney doing any drugs. And he said no.
But there was so much going on, in and out of jail, so much drug use by their own admission, it would be tough to grow newspaper that environment and not be affected by it. And at least when you're coming to age as a young lady, not know what is going on, because children know what's happening.
And so to think that you can be, around that environment, even if you're trying to hide it from your kids, I think it would be disingenuous to even think that. Because, you know, she witnessed her mom. She knew her mother's behavior. She knew her father's behavior. And like I said, she was really close to her mother.
And is according to Bobbi, he has not done any drugs, at least -- he says he has been clean for about 13, 14 years. And we know that wasn't the case with Whitney Houston. And she was very close. So she's had -- you know, a bit of a tumultuous life.
She is the daughter of -- she was sort of a rich kid. But during, you know, towards the end of her life, Whitney Houston did not have the money that she had at the height of her career. And so it's been tough for her.
She grew up as a rich kid and probably lost a lot of that and then I think it was -- she was -- ended up marrying -- being involved with a young man who was can considered her brother, that was sort of raised by her family and they became intimate and she ended up marrying him.
And it was a bit of a scandal in the family because they viewed this young man as, you know, brother-like. Even though --
WHITFIELD: Right, that Whitney Houston kind of took him into the home, raised him like a son. And it wasn't long after the death of Whitney Houston that people publicly started seeing Bobbi Kristina with this young man, Nick Gordon, out in public.
