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Scott Walker in the News; VA Secretary Admits Mistake; Autism Speaks Turns 10; Fed Chair Janet Yellen Before Congress Today

Aired February 24, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Bitterly cold conditions bearing down on the southern U.S. this morning. Ice making roads so slick this rig was left dangling. Overnight, icy conditions causing this American Airlines jet to slide off a taxiway at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. No one on board that jet was hurt. Schools are closed across the south and hundreds of flights are canceled.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, everybody's getting hit with it this year.

National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers says the U.S. lags behind China, Russia and other potential adversaries and must do more to build cyber defenses. Rogers also acknowledging that revelations by NSA leaker Edward Snowden have damaged America's ability to track terrorists.

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ADM. MICHAEL ROGERS, COMMANDEER, U.S. CYBER COMMAND AND DIR., NSA: I would say that it has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what counterterrorism and what terrorist groups around the world are doing. We are aggressively out hunting and looking for them and they should be concerned about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Roger took part in a Q&A at a summit on cybersecurity with CNN's Jim Sciutto.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Earthquakes in Oklahoma? The state has seen a severe uptick in earthquakes. There have been more than 200 of them. That doesn't happen. Scientists say these may not be natural events. They're blaming fracking, apparently injecting wastewater from the fracking into the earth is what causes the quakes. This is going to be controversial, but know this, the Midwest gets nearly no earthquakes otherwise.

CAMEROTA: Well, the first lady celebrating the fifth anniversary of her signature Let's Move campaign. She's asking all Americans to tweet or post to Facebookfive ways to stay fit using the #givemefive. She even had the president get in on the action after losing his tie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, your tie is right there on the ground.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, that's halfway to a push-up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Halfway to a push-up.

CAMEROTA: That video has gone viral, getting more than 25,000 views on the White House YouTube page.

PEREIRA: Start dropping things around here.

All right, a lot of things to talk about in politics today. Let's get straight to John King for "Inside Politics."

Good morning, my friend.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Welcome back from the West Coast.

PEREIRA: Thank you.

KING: You did a great job out there.

PEREIRA: The wet coast.

KING: We were debating whether we should do planks and push-ups or go "Inside Politics," but Mr. Hamby and Mr. Fournier said we should go "Inside Politics." With me this morning to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Peter Hamby, the "National Journal's" Ron Fournier.

Let's start with Scott Walker. He's been in the news and he's been in the conversation at this table quite a bit recently. When he was in London, he didn't want to answer a question about evolution. Then he cleaned it up with his staff. Here in D.C., he had to answer questions after being with Rudy Giuliani in New York at a dinner where Rudy Giuliani said the president, President Obama, doesn't love America. Scott Walker says these questions are ridiculous, not what the American people care about when they're picking a president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: You've seen in the media a lot of talk over the last few days about these self-manufactured gotcha moments from the media where they want to talk about things that I don't think most Americans want to talk about. And we're going to leave the nonsense to the media on the side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Nonsense to the media. Every now and then we ask questions that are probably nonsense. We do that. We're not perfect. But when you get asked about policy issues, he's a governor, evolution is a fair question. Some people think might not -- not the first question I'd ask a presidential candidate. Probably not even in the top 50. But it's still a fair question, textbooks, stem-cell research. In his last campaign for governor, he talked much more moderately about abortion. Now he's appealing to evangelicals. Is that a fair question? I mean what's he trying to do here?

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean he's won three elections in Wisconsin and he's actually done so with pretty remarkable message discipline. Sort of in a conservative media cocoon talking to Charlie Sykes on the radio, using FaceBook, paid media, whatever.

KING: Right.

HAMBY: I'm actually surprised that Walker sort of dug himself into this hole with the Giuliani issue, with telling Dan Balls (ph) that he wasn't sure President Obama is a Christian or not. But, to your point, these are questions that he's going to have to face from pesky reporters if he wants to step into the national spotlight. Do you blame the media tactic is not terribly interesting or creative, but it is a sign that he is on the defensive and he can --

RON FOURNIER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": It's -- first, when you're blaming the media, you're losing.

HAMBY: Yes.

FOURNIER: Second of all. I've always found my job as a reporter, of course you ask questions that are relevant to people and they're in the news. But part of my job too is also to test these men and women.

KING: Right.

FOURNIER: To see if they're ready for the big-time, to see if they're ready to be a presidential candidate, to see if they're ready to be president. And one way to do that, I learned this covering Bill Clinton a long time ago in Arkansas, is ask the stupidest question I can think of.

KING: Right.

FOURNIER: The most innate, obnoxious question, to see how they respond, because we're testing them. It's not about us. It's not how smart of a question I can ask. But when I asked Bill Clinton a dumb question in the hallways of the Capitol, it kind of was revealing of him. And we learned a lot about Walker this week, and not all of it very good.

KING: And we're going to keep learning about Walker. He has risen in the Republican polls. We'll see how it goes. It's still early in the race. He still says he hasn't completely made up his mind, but it's pretty clear he's leaned pretty far forward.

In this speech yesterday that we showed you that little clip from, he was talking to religious broadcasters and he said he wants to run a positive campaign. He says he wants to talk about what he's for, not beat up his rivals. But listen here -- listen here and let me ask you this question as we listen to this sound. Is this about Jeb Bush? Is this about Hillary Clinton? Maybe both?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I realize, unlike some out there, I didn't inherit fame or fortune from my family. I got a bunch of things that were a whole lot better than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMBY: This is part of his sort of self-style, lunch bucket --

KING: Right.

HAMBY: You know, hockey dad kind of thing that he's been doing in Wisconsin for a while. We saw this, remember, when the -- at the Packers/Cowboys game --

FOURNIER: Right. Right.

HAMBY: When Chris Christie was in the box --

KING: Right.

HAMBY: With Jerry Jones and Scott Walker was in the stands, you know, freezing his butt off with the cheeseheads. This is how he's going to frame himself as kind of a working-class guy from the Midwest who, to your point, isn't Jeb Bush or Chris Christie or, you know, one of these wealthy people. And, you know, he doesn't want to be seen as a coastal elite.

FOURNIER: It could be very effective.

HAMBY: Right.

FOURNIER: We saw Barack Obama do this his way. We saw Bill Clinton do it his way. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, obviously, have problems with connecting with the public from the status they now are and from the families that they're from. This is a smart thing for him to do politically.

HAMBY: Yes, he likes to -- he likes to bring his own lunch to work and then tweet a picture of it.

FOURNIER: Right. Right.

KING: Right. And one of the interesting things about running for president, maybe he's going to do battle with the media and then at other times he'll probably have a media charm offensive. Candidates tend to go hot and cold like that. But they're also going to have to answer questions from voters. And voters sometimes ask questions that candidates not so much like. This week I think Scott Walker is going to be at CPAC (ph), right? They have a different forum.

HAMBY: Yes.

KING: They're going to open that up this year, questions from fellow conservatives, maybe fellow candidates. We'll see how that goes. And Governor Walker, if you need a lesson in how this works, here's your potential rival, Marco Rubio. He's in New Hampshire yesterday. And one of those pesky voter throws a fast ball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I first heard of you, I liked you a lot. And then you lost me (INAUDIBLE). But I'm back, here to give you another chance. My question for you is, can you commit, if elected president, to sending home every single person that's violated our country laws and is here illegally?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I don't think anyone can commit that to you. You -- you have 12 million human beings in America, most of them we don't even know who they are. And some of whom our country's not going to tolerate rounding up and sending back. That's not a realistic proposal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's the right answer, whether you think they -- you know, to round them up, throw them out, we don't have the money for it, even if you thought it was the right thing to do. Think about all the resources you would take from fighting crime or something else to put into it. So it's the right answer, but is it politically correct? Can he sell that to the Republican primary base saying, it's not realistic to round them up and throw them out?

FOURNIER: You know why it's the right answer? Not necessarily because of policy. It's the right answer because that's what he really believes. And he looked a voter in the eyes and told the voter exactly what the voter didn't want to hear. I give him credit for that.

HAMBY: Yes, and I think, in New Hampshire, a lot of people think that immigration is a sort of hot-button topic in the Midwest or the south.

FOURNIER: Right.

HAMBY: It really does come up a lot among Republicans in New Hampshire. But John McCain did town hall after town hall after town hall in 2008 --

KING: Right.

HAMBY: Talking about immigration reform and faced questions like this all the time. And what Ron said is true, I think people up there just want you to be straight with them and want you to be honest. They don't want you to pander.

KING: Right.

HAMBY: I think New Hampshire voters -- I mean it is a cliche, but they do really believe that. KING: Right. And sometimes they ask tougher questions than we do. We'll see now -- but let's mention this. I want to see quickly whether you think this has legs or not. The current Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, is admitting this morning he made a big mistake. Here's the statement he has issued. "While in Los Angeles, engaging a homeless individual to determine his veteran's status, I asked the man where he had served in the military. He responded he had served in special forces. I incorrectly stated that I had been in the special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement." CBS cameras picked up this moment. The secretary was in the Army. He served in the 82nd Airborne, but he did not serve in the special forces. This done? He cleans it up an he's done or does he have a problem?

HAMBY: I think, look, it's a -- it's a bad, bad news story for the VA, who, you know, has been reeling over the last few years. He is -- he does seem to be very well liked within the administration and within the rank and file. I don't -- I don't think this is going to snowball into some kind of resignation or something. I mean, again, we do live in a moment where one misstatement by a public figure and then you have, you know, one million, you know, independent researchers on the Internet going into past statements now looking for something.

KING: Right.

HAMBY: So it may be something, but --

FOURNIER: There's two mitigating factors. One, he actually is finally, we have somebody doing something about the VA.

KING: Right.

FOURNIER: He's really trying to transform it. Two, he apologized very quickly and very forthrightly. I think, though, the person -- the people we should be asking that question of is the veterans. It's -- his future is really up to how special forces and other veterans respond to this controversy.

KING: Ron and Peter, thanks for coming in. we didn't have time for this, but as I get back to Alisyn in New York, here's the big defining question in Washington, Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who has vowed there will be no government shutdown on his watch, Alisyn, says he's got a new plan. He's going to split the DHS funding, give the department the money, and have a separate plan and try to get Democrats to vote to go against their president on some of those executive actions on immigration. McConnell thinks this is the way out. The deadline is Friday. I don't know if he's got the votes. We'll watch that one the rest of the week.

CAMEROTA: We sure will, but we can basically guarantee that it will go right up to the deadline. All right.

KING: Yes, Washington knows no other way.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. All right, John, thanks so much. Coming up on our program, a major autism advocacy organization

speaking out as measles cases top 150 in the U.S. So we will talk with the founders of Autism Speaks about their stance on vaccines and what they've learned about autism since they launched.

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PEREIRA: Autism Speaks is marking its 10th anniversary this month, raising over $525 million for autism research since its launch and giving an important voice to the families of autistic children. Amid the measles outbreak that now tops 150 cases in the U.S., the organization is taking a stand on vaccinations. Joining us this morning are Bob and Suzanne Wright, co-founders of Autism Speaks. Bob is the former vice chairman of General Electric and former CEO of NBC Universal and you're the grandparents of a child who has autism.

SUZANNE WRIGHT, CO-FOUNDER, AUTISM SPEAKS: Christian.

PEREIRA: Christian.

S. WRIGHT: Yes.

PEREIRA: We're going to talk about Christian in a moment. Good morning to both of you.

BOB WRIGHT, CO-FOUNDER, AUTISM SPEAKS: Thank you.

S. WRIGHT: Thank you.

PEREIRA: And first of all, congratulations on the 10 years. And we'll get to some of the accomplishments and challenges you faced in the 10 years and where you want to go. But I want to talk about the news of day, which is the fact that Autism Speaks has put out quite a statement that some might even consider surprising and shocking on vaccinations amid the measles outbreak. Let me read it.

"Over the last two decades, extensive research has asked whether there is any link between childhood vaccinations and autism. The results of this research are clear -- vaccines do not cause autism. We urge that all children be fully vaccinated." That's from your chief science officer for Autism Speaks.

This is a forceful statement. Many might wonder, I don't know who -- which one of you want to respond to this.

S. WRIGHT: I think Bob wants to take that.

PEREIRA: Bob, why now? Why take so long to release this statement?

B. WRIGHT: Well, I think we were -- we were trying to be responsive to so much interest in the country about the measles vaccine. The reality is, our position has been the same for some time. It's, vaccines are very important. And, however, you have to remember that parents are the ones that make the decisions on vaccination. We do not believe in mandate -- mandating vaccines. And there are cases and situations where a parent would -- because of the unique medical situation of a child and so forth, would take pause. But the reality is, if you choose not to vaccinate, there are consequences to that. And we think that parents continue to need to be educated as to what those consequences are so that they make that decision.

And there are consequences in the communities. It may be education. It may be participation in other things. But -- so parents need to be educated about vaccines, first of all. And, secondly, they need to be educated about the consequences of not vaccinating.

S. WRIGHT: Right.

PEREIRA: Because that's the important part is that there are consequences for the rest of the population. For people that have health concerns, who are too young to be vaccinated. It does affect the herd, if you will.

B. WRIGHT: Yes. But there -- but there -- the reality is, you need a vaccination level somewhere in the mid 90s, 90 percent, to be perfectly effective in terms of everything. And we're pretty close to that all the time but I guess the numbers have changed.

The other question is, on the research, the research to date we have not been able to directly connect vaccines with autism. But, you know, perhaps in the future there may be other things. The problem is, you're vaccinating 100 million kids at a time. That's what a yearly vaccination program is. And it's very difficult to do research at that level. But we have not been able to make that connection.

PEREIRA: Well, it's a powerful statement to be hearing from your organization.

I want to pivot now to the 10 years. A lot of progress has been made.

S. WRIGHT: Yes.

PEREIRA: And I know that for you it has been a labor of love, obviously because of your grandson Christian.

S. WRIGHT: Very much so.

PEREIRA: Ten years ago we saw, and I want to pull up this statistic. I think it was really starting.

S. WRIGHT: One in 166.

PEREIRA: One in 166, the prevalence of autism in children. Today it's --

S. WRIGHT: One in --

PEREIRA: One in 66. That's devastating. That is devastating. Is it because we're diagnosing more?

S. WRIGHT: Well, certainly it is, a little bit, yes. But 30 percent is still undetected. So we do seriously have a neurological disability that is I think one of the century's biggest problems. And that's why I went global.

PEREIRA: What happened (INAUDIBLE)? It's why you went global. And you really did.

S. WRIGHT: That is why I went global. I mean, and at first I want to tell you how brave my daughter and son-in-law are, because 10 years ago, when we went to them, as you know, Bob was running NBC, very public person. And for them to have the courage to come out and say, OK, we'll be the face of autism.

PEREIRA: Right.

S. WRIGHT: So it was very courageous of them and I -- I'm thankful because we wanted to help the millions of people that didn't have the resources that we have. When I got into this community, I could not believe how discriminated they were against everything. Education, medical, insurance, you name it, they didn't get it. And then, when I went to the U.N. and got the world day, which is -- there's only a few of them because you have to get everybody -- every country in the world to say yes, we needed to go global because it is a global, public health crisis.

PEREIRA: So you have spoken -- both of you have spoken at the U.N.

S. WRIGHT: At the U.N.

PEREIRA: You have passed -- helped legislation.

S. WRIGHT: Traveled all over the world.

PEREIRA: And traveled the world.

S. WRIGHT: Right.

PEREIRA: Yet where we stand today, how do you feel going into your 11th year? Do you feel as though we are turning the tide on this? That we're making headway? Or are children like your grandson still sort of left in the margins?

B. WRIGHT: Well, you have to remember, just before I answer that question, that in almost all the diseases that we think of, we don't know the cause or the cure.

PEREIRA: Right.

B. WRIGHT: And so autism is one of them.

PEREIRA: Yes.

B. WRIGHT: And even a cancer, 70 years of work and we don't know the cause of the cancer.

S. WRIGHT: Right.

PEREIRA: Yes. It's an important thing to remember. B. WRIGHT: So the -- it's important. Awareness is really important here for autism. That was our primary goal to start out with. We've raised over $500 million and most of the programs that we -- we -- that we offer, most of them have -- related to research. But the reality is, around the world, we have 60 arrangements now around the world.

S. WRIGHT: We have partnerships.

B. WRIGHT: Awareness has risen 50 percent in the United States among women of child bearing age, which is incredible. If that were Proctor & Gamble, that would be a home run.

S. WRIGHT: This is an iconic mark now, the puzzle piece.

PEREIRA: Yes, the puzzle piece.

S. WRIGHT: And "Missing" is our big project that we're doing.

B. WRIGHT: And "Missing" is the -- "Missing" stands for the fact that we don't know enough about the genome.

PEREIRA: Right.

B. WRIGHT: And we're doing this whole genome sequencing program and we're using a lot of the work that Google is doing for us, which is incredible. And that will open up a whole research category for scientists. It's open now. And it's -- we've already done 1,000 -- we've done 2,000. We've published 1,000. It's a scientific portal. That hope will be someplace -- it will be like the New York Public Library when it opened. You had to go to the library. You couldn't take the big books out. And this is -- this will be a portal where scientists can go and they can do all their work and it's -- everybody will have free access to this.

S. WRIGHT: Around the world.

B. WRIGHT: That will be the biggest thing we have done as -- if we get that completed this year or next year.

S. WRIGHT: Yes.

PEREIRA: Well, we want to thank you both for coming here.

S. WRIGHT: It's wonderful to be here.

PEREIRA: Again, congratulations on the 10 years. We know your work is cut out for you so that children like your grandson --

S. WRIGHT: Right.

PEREIRA: Can have a chance at a better life and a healthier future. Thanks so much for sharing your voyage with us.

S. WRIGHT: You're global and we're global.

PEREIRA: We are. We're global together. All right.

B. WRIGHT: Yes, you are. You're very good. Good and global.

PEREIRA: Good and global.

Chris, we're good and global.

CUOMO: You are good and global, that's for sure. And it's good to see people with influence fighting a good fight. So it was great to have them there.

So what do you think of this one, Alisyn. In this corner you have Google Wallet and in the other corner you have Apple Pay. Google made a huge purchase to win this fight. Will it work, I ask you?

CAMEROTA: I think you missed your calling, that's what I think.

And a quick programming note. This Sunday, be sure to watch CNN's new original series "FINDING JESUS." This premiers at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN. Should be fascinating.

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(INAUDIBLE)

CUOMO: Tell us why.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Because they're pulling back from record highs. Record high stock prices but blah feeling this morning because nothing happens until this woman starts talking. The Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen, testifying before Congress today. What we want to know, when will wages rise and is the economy strong enough the Fed can finally raise interest rates. So, stay tuned.

A big win for Google in the mobile payment wars. Google made a deal with AT&T, Verizon and T*Mobile to get the Google Wallets payment app pre-installed on Android phones. It's a tap-to-pay system. It's been around for years. Hasn't caught on much. It will now be pre-installed on those phones.

And speaking of phones, iPhone keyboards are about to get a lot more diverse. Those tiny cartoon people, emojis, they'll soon be available in six different skin tones. Right now all emojis are light skinned except one Indian man in a turban and an Asian man in a traditional Chinese hat. Now you can get those annoying little people in a more diverse array.

CAMEROTA: Oh, thank goodness. That's so great. I can't wait to send them to Michaela and Chris and annoy them.

PEREIRA: I still need some curls on the emoji. Come on.

CAMEROTA: OK. I'll do that.

All right, meanwhile, below freezing temperatures crippling the deep south with icy conditions making for a dangerous morning commute. So we will tell you what you need to know before you head out.

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