Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Football and Brain Disease; Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion?; Trump Under Fire. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 18, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:02]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here it is. Really, truly resembles, a phenomenal job, of little Bella. This image was created by an expert based on what was left of her small body. And more than 50 million people viewed, clicked on, shared this photo, wanting to know Baby Doe's name and what happened to her.

And we may know some of the details soon. We're waiting on word from law enforcement officials. But a neighbor of this mother who says Bella and her mother lived near her for two years just spoke with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YESSIOMORA TORRES, NEIGHBOR: She was always happy that she had at least custody of her, that she was going to keep her away from her dad. But she didn't want anybody taking her away from her. She was trying her best to be the best parent she could be. So, it's kind of strange that she would let all that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Alexandra Field on the phone from Boston.

Alex, I was having a bit of a tough time hearing the neighbor. What was it the neighbor saying and what more do we know about the mother and this boyfriend?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I think just a lot of people are so touched by the fact that this is a young girl who was discovered.

Nobody knew who this young girl was. For months, police were asking for the information. They were saying somebody obviously knows that this child is missing. Somebody needs to come forward. What they got instead were people from more than 30 states calling in tips, people from four countries phoned in tips, but, frankly, it took three months before a tip came in yesterday that broke this case wide open.

Police received that tip yesterday afternoon. They then executed a search warrant at a house in Mattapan, which is a part of Boston. That search led them to make two arrests, Rachelle Bond, this toddler's mother, and then Rachelle Bond's boyfriend, Michael McCarthy, who does have not have a biological connection to Bella Bond. But both were taken into police custody. They were picked up in separate locations. We're told McCarthy is now in custody of police at a hospital and the mother, Rachelle Bond, is with police in another location.

But, Brooke, you saw that image. We showed it so many times on our airwaves. It was picked up by TV stations across the country. It was shared on the Internet even more than 50 million times, because you have this rendering of a child but no details on who the child was.

This was a tiny body that was discovered. It had been thrown out frankly in a trash bag left on Deer Island, which is just a little strip of land east of Boston's Logan airport. Police did a lot of forensic work to try and come up with some kind of way to identify this child over the last few months.

There have been clues. At one point, they found pollen and they determined that that pollen had come from a tree in the Northeast, that a tree was indigenous to the area. So, they figured she had to be somewhat local.

They also found soot mixed in with the remains, so they determined this was probably a little girl from an urban area, but there was still no way to identify this toddler until someone came forward yesterday making a tip, which led to these arrests.

Brooke, we should tell everyone that authorities have not said what kind of charges Rachelle Bond or Michael McCarthy could be looking at, just that they have been taken into custody in connection with this little girl.

BALDWIN: Just quickly, Alex, do we know how old Bella was?

FIELD: About 3 years old. And that's where police had determined her age was based on remains.

(CROSSTALK)

FIELD: The child was between 3 and 4 years old. And that's what we continue to hear from authorities now.

BALDWIN: Alex, thank you so much, Alexandra field in the Boston area for us.

Let me bring in former prosecutor HLN's Nancy Grace, who is also a mother.

And so, Nancy, here's my question for you, because here we are three months later and Alex mentioned the forensics, the pollen, the soot, the isotopes, the oxygen, the drinking water, the teeth, the hair, all of that obviously looked at. But here's what I'm wondering. In three months, why didn't this mother come forward and say my child is missing?

NANCY GRACE, HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Exactly. I imagine by the time this winds its way through the system, the mother will be painting herself as some sort of victim. Whether she was there at the time this child, baby, Bella, died or not, still remains the fact you just stated so clearly. What has she been doing for the last three months?

I believe baby Bella was born around August the 6th, because if you look back at her mother's Facebook postings, she's celebrating baby Bella's birthday a while back on August the 6th. Her body was found washed ashore on June 25. That's how close she was to her third birthday, two months away.

This is what I know. I know that the two were apprehended separately. I believe that the boyfriend, McCarthy, no bio connection, is at a hospital right now, Beth Israel, we believe, and the mother separately arrested in the night. The fact that they have been apprehended separately tells me this. They are going to rat on each other, if they speak at all, if they are, in fact, involved in this, they will try to rat on the other.

[15:05:05]

Now, what about other people, neighbors, friends, relatives? According to tips, family related to the mother kept asking, where's Bella? And the mother would say, oh, DFCS took her, Department of Family and Children Services. That leads me to another question.

Family services did take a look at the mom. They closed their case back in 2013. They went home, put their head on the pillow and had a good night's sleep. Bella is dead. And my question is, not that I'm saying DFCS did it. Of course I'm not saying they did this thing, but when is it not OK? When are they held accountable for their decisions that ultimately end in the death of this child?

Can you imagine going down the interstate every day and looking up at that picture? She had little leggings, like my little Lucy used to wear from Target, the Circo brand. She had a little blanket around her like a zebra print from Kmart. Nobody recognized that? Because I would.

BALDWIN: Back to your point though, Nancy, about the Facebook postings. You're telling me that this mother was posting on Facebook in August that she was celebrating her daughter's birthday, but her daughter was gone.

GRACE: Before.

Well, I believe that that was prior to this, the last birthday.

BALDWIN: Got it.

GRACE: But the other thing, speaking of her Facebook postings, which if this does go to trial, will come in, all right, because they are clearly of her and the little girl, and she says things like my reason for living. I have a reason to live now. She's my world. I'm going to give her the world and more. But either she did this thing or she stood by and watched this thing

happen or didn't report her daughter missing for three months. Those are the choices we have got. None of them are very good. Right? So those Facebook postings are going to come into evidence and they are heartbreaking.

BALDWIN: The 3-year-old little girl found washed up in Boston three months ago in a trash bag.

Nancy Grace, thank you so much for joining me. We will stay on this. I appreciate it.

GRACE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Awful.

Coming up here on CNN, Donald Trump under fire for what he did not say, the White House responding last hour to that cringe-worthy anti- Muslim comment made last night at a Trump rally in New Hampshire, a supporter calling President Obama a Muslim, and Trump did not correct him. Michael Smerconish will weigh in coming up next.

Also, will Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl be charged with desertion? That question being dissected right now. The prosecution says Bergdahl spent weeks planning to abandon his post in Afghanistan. We will talk to a member of Bergdahl's own platoon who was there when Bergdahl left.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:12:26]

BALDWIN: This is CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Donald Trump canceling a scheduled appearance this evening in South Carolina, citing a -- quote -- "significant business transaction" and no further details, this as he continues to take heat over this moment at a campaign event last night in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need this question, this first question.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But, anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question. When can we get rid of them?

TRUMP: We're going to be looking at a lot of different things. And a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying

that bad things are happening out there. We're going to be looking at that and a lot of other things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, the news today is in his nonreaction reaction to the statement that President Obama is a Muslim.

You have folks like Chris Christie and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton all jumping on Donald Trump for not correcting him. Our own Suzanne Malveaux asking Hillary Clinton about Trump's silence on that very issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you think about Trump's response, and, secondly, how would you have responded if someone said that in a town hall?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I was appalled, and, as you may know, quickly put out a tweet expressing the great disappointment with that kind of rhetoric, and calling on him and anybody else who is seeking the highest office of the land to start behaving like a president, to show respect and to stand up for the truth.

He knew or he should have known that what that man was asking was not only way out of bounds; it was untrue. And he should have from the beginning repudiated that kind of rhetoric, that level of hatefulness in a questioner in an audience that he was appearing before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Michael Smerconish, CNN political commentator and host of the CNN show SMERCONISH," joining me now to weigh in on that.

The fact that -- and, listen, Donald Trump's camp says, hey, we didn't fully hear the question. I talked to someone there at the event and said he couldn't fully hear the question.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, he's heard it now.

BALDWIN: He's certainly heard the cacophony right all over media today reacting to his lack of reaction. He's pulled out of this event with other candidates this everything, which when you have you ever heard of Donald Trump shying away from the spotlight?

SMERCONISH: Bad optics.

BALDWIN: Bad optics.

SMERCONISH: Yes.

It makes it look like he's on the run. He's had a horrible week. He's had a horrible week. The debate did not go well for him. He didn't come off looking good in the debate.

[15:15:02]

Carly Fiorina clearly won the debate, and now this on top of it, it's the worst week that he's had thus far of the campaign. But don't expect that because of that statement immediately you're going to see a precipitous drop in his numbers, because 43 percent of Republicans agree with the gentleman in the audience and with Trump, because he's the original birther.

BALDWIN: Agree with him. Right.

SMERCONISH: And I'm sure, Brooke, that that number among Trump supporters is much higher than 43 percent.

BALDWIN: It's huge. But if he needs to think, overall, if he really wants to be the president, you have to appeal to a lot more people than just that red meat kind of base. Does he repudiate, as Hillary Clinton -- in the coming days? What does he do?

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: But, see, it's already too late. The time for repudiation was right then and there.

Let's give Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt he didn't hear that question.

BALDWIN: Absolutely.

SMERCONISH: He immediately thereafter should have said, oh, wait a minute, that's what that guy said?

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: But it was pretty darn clear. And he just chose to respond to the second part of the sentence, the question, which suggests he agreed with the first part, that we have a problem in this country, and the problem is all these Muslims.

BALDWIN: You mentioned Carly Fiorina. We know he's since attacked Carly Fiorina in the, what, 48 hours since that debate. And so at that Trump event last night in New Hampshire, there was a woman in the crowd who had worked -- we know Carly Fiorina was CEO at Hewlett- Packard. Before that, she was president at Lucent Technologies.

She is extraordinary frustrated at Carly Fiorina. She says she was forced retirement and lost half a million dollars, she and her husband. I spoke with her just a couple minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALYNA SORENSEN, FORMER EMPLOYEE OF CARLY FIORINA: With her there, my husband and I, after she had left, the jobs were being -- we were holding on to our jobs. And then our jobs were terminated. We were forced retired. BALDWIN: How much did you lose? What did you lose from that forced

retirement?

SORENSEN: When we were forced retired, my savings that I had in stock, because I had a lot of stock options when I was working, was close to $500,000. And he had approximately $400,000, which was also lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Paul La Monica was with us. He is one of our heads at CNN Money. He said, listen, it's not entirely fair to blame Carly Fiorina, and maybe some of the blame rests on her shoulders, but it's a huge company. There are a lot of bosses.

Then she moves on to H.P. and she does, as Trump likes to point out, have this reputation. Stocks plummeted and jobs are still being lost there. What is accurate?

SMERCONISH: This is what it means to play on the big stage and to be among the leaders, because now we go from admiring the rise and success story to scrutinizing the facts.

And you heard in the debate that Donald Trump dropped the name of Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. If I can plug, he will be on my program tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Absolutely.

SMERCONISH: He's the guy from Yale who said, wait a minute, yes, you did double the revenues, but the stock value declined 52 percent.

She dismissed him at the CNN debate as a Clintonite. But Andrew Ross Sorkin, who I think is one of the most admired financial writers in the country with "The Times," maybe they would say, oh, the liberal "Times," but Andrew Ross Sorkin is the one who also called this out and he said it puzzles those of us who are in the financial press why the political media, and I think that's a guy like me, don't ask questions of her about her H.P. track record. I think there is going to be a lot of scrutiny on that now.

BALDWIN: It's time, because as we just see, just quickly, with your score card at the end of the debate, before you let any else color your view, let's put up the Michael Smerconish initial notebook. You can see Fiorina, where is she?

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: Big arrow up.

BALDWIN: Big arrow up.

SMERCONISH: Yes, big arrow up.

BALDWIN: And that means scrutiny time.

SMERCONISH: I did it because I didn't want to be swayed by what everybody would say after the debate. Just as it was winding down, I locked in and I stand by all of that.

I think Trump that had a bad night. Carly Fiorina had a big night. We all know that now.

BALDWIN: We will see you, sir, Saturday mornings 9:00 a.m. Eastern here on CNN with that great guest.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much.

If you missed the debate, if you would like to watch it again, we urge you to do so. It re-airs this evening tonight 10:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Coming up, stunning results from a new study about football and brain disease. We will talk to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who will break that down for us.

Also, Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl back in court today, new details about why he says he left his platoon and what happened in those days leading up to that. Bergdahl's former roommate will join me live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:36]

BALDWIN: Want to talk to you about this report here about head trauma and its possible ties to a controversial brain disease. It's just been released. Researchers from Boston University and the Department of Veteran Affairs say they diagnosed CTE, that is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in 96 percent of brains they examined. Those patients were all deceased former NFL players. They had donated their brains to science.

So CTE is believed to be linked to repeated head trauma, concussions. It's been a huge, huge topic in the military and within professional sports communities. There's even a movie in production about CTE starring Will Smith. In this film, he portrays the doctor who actually discovered this disease.

I know someone who has done a lot of work and a lot of reporting on this. He's our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Just given your knowledge of CTE, what's your take on the study?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're going to hear this number, Brooke, 96 percent, and it's going to be staggering to a lot of people and for good reason. I mean, 96 percent of the brains, again, former NFL players showing evidence of this disease, CTE, which I promise you most people had never even heard of a few years ago. We visited the lab where this research has been going on. The

research has been going on since 2008. We saw firsthand how they are actually looking at these brains and trying to determine do they in fact have the signs of CTE, which are very similar to Alzheimer's disease?

[15:25:00]

These people developing sort of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, that's what we're talking about here. I do want to point out an important caveat, Brooke, and that is that what happened in these cases is players are concerned while they are still living that they may have developed some symptoms of CTE are typically the ones who have had their brains donated to this particular lab.

I point that out just to say it's a self-selected group of people. We're not suggesting that 96 percent of all NFL players have this disease, but still it's a pretty significant number and they have got now seven years' worth of data.

BALDWIN: But what about -- I know you have talked a lot too about taking it from professional athletes down a notch to people who are playing football in college or in a high school. Is this something that they need to know about? Should they be worried about this?

GUPTA: I think they absolutely do need to.

There's a couple of important reasons. First of all, Brooke, when you went to high school, when I went to high school, people talked about concussions as getting your bell rung or something like that. It was sort of trivialized a little bit.

And now we think of these things as traumatic brain injuries, as opposed to just getting your bell rung. It changes the whole dynamic. It's important because a lot of concussions go undiagnosed. People don't report them. I think as a result of these sorts of studies, people are more likely to report them.

But also it's not just football. There are other sports where you can develop either concussions or even subconcussive hits. These kids' brains are still developing at that age. It might even have more of an impact on them. The chief health adviser for the NFL, a recently appointed position, Dr. Betsy Nabel, I had a chance to sit down and talk to her about this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BETSY NABEL, NFL CHIEF HEALTH AND MEDICAL ADVISER: Any contact sports is going to have a risk of injury. We see that in soccer, for example, women's soccer.

I think what is critical is knowing how to play the game right, knowing how to play the game safely, so you understand the best way to tackle, if you have got good equipment in place, and you know how to recognize injury. Then you're going to play the game as safe as possible. And if you're really driven to play that game, then I would feel comfortable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: I can tell you, Brooke, Dr. Nabel there, Dr. McKee, who is actually running the study, they are sports fans. I talked to them both.

They love these sports. They love football as well. But they think it can be done safer. And if it's done safer, hopefully some of these astonishing numbers will actually go down. People won't have as many brain injuries.

BALDWIN: Let's hope that's the key. Such an important bit of research.

I should also -- I would be remiss in not pointing out you're in lovely Malibu, California. I know people watching are looking at those waves and thinking, hmm, very surfable waves there in Malibu. You're not there to surf. You're there for our bit CNN Fit Nation triathlon this weekend. So good luck to you and good luck to the Fit Nation team.

Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Thank you very much. You come join us next year.

BALDWIN: I will.

GUPTA: Counting on it.

BALDWIN: Want to turn now to a long-awaited military trial here that really could rewrite history for the Obama administration.

I'm talking specifically about the accused Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl. So this preliminary hearing, it is under way today to decide whether he will be tried in a military court. We have learned he will not testify.

Sergeant Bergdahl, as you know, was captured by the Taliban after he left his platoon and held there with them in captivity for five years. Flash forward to 2014. President Barack Obama agreed to free these five Gitmo prisoners, members of that very same terror group in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl and his safety.

Prosecutors argue that this all happened because Bergdahl deserted his unit in Afghanistan back on June 30, 2009.

I am honored to have former Army Specialist Cody Full, who was a member of Bergdahl's platoon, was there in Afghanistan when Bergdahl up and left.

So, Cody, thank you so much just -- let me just say for your service to our country and thank you for your time today.

SPC. CODY FULL (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thank you for having me. BALDWIN: Let's begin with this lead investigator here who I know you

have been in touch with, Major General Dahl. He said, upon talking in these interviews with Bergdahl, that Bergdahl apparently said he left. He said he needed to do something. He said that there was poor leadership within this unit. He felt like he was in danger. He wanted to make a bit of a ruckus, P.R. stunt, whatever you want to call it, so that he could get access to higher-level officials.

You were there. You were serving. Tell me about the leadership. Did you feel like you were in danger?

FULL: No, ma'am.

I think it speaks to that claim that no one else ever brought this up. No one else ever deserted or report some atrocity. So, whatever leadership problems he was having were not evident with anybody else in the platoon.

And another thing is, Dahl had to pass to his report to his bosses, who are higher generals. So, whatever it says in his report, his bosses felt that it was enough evidence to push this to trial to charge with Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before his enemy.

BALDWIN: Do you wish he were testifying?

FULL: I mean, I don't care either way.