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Amber Vinson Leaving Emory; CDC Issues New Ebola Guidelines; Kurdish Peshmerga Join Battle for Kobani; ISIS Recruiting a Big Problem for Denmark; Christie Under Fire over Ebola Quarantines; S.C. Dem Gubernatorial Candidate Makes Controversial Slip of the Tongue

Aired October 28, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, STAFF WRITER, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: If they see that a patient is struggling with breathing, they want to put them on a ventilator. If a person's kidney function isn't very good, they want to put them on dialysis. That can be really important with patients with Ebola to give them that kind of supportive medical care.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Even when they're very, very ill.

Poppy, let's talk about the little 5-year-old boy just back from West Africa. They suspected maybe he had Ebola. But all the tests show he does not have Ebola. But he's still in the hospital. What's the latest?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's good news to report to you, Wolf. We're just learning from Bellevue Hospital that this little 5- year-old boy who had spent a month in guinea with his family was rushed here late on Sunday night with a 102-degree fever. He does not have Ebola. He has cleared all of the tests. It was a respiratory illness that caused that fever. He's here because he's very sick and is still being treated. But no Ebola. And that is wonderful news to report. This coming as the CDC has issued much tougher guidelines trying to protect Americans from the Ebola virus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW (voice-over): The CDC has come out with new guidelines, it says, to help protect America from the spread of Ebola. The change is coming as Nurse Kaci Hickox who tested negative for Ebola is released from her controversial 21-day quarantine. A mandate that allowed New Jersey officials to isolate her for three days after treating patients in West Africa with the group Doctor without Borders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quarantine of a healthy aid worker who presented no symptoms, does not present a danger to the society.

HARLOW: Under the new guidelines, the CDC outlines four main risk levels -- high risk for those with direct exposure to infected fluids of an Ebola patient, some risk for those living with or within three feet of a patient without wearing protective gear. The third is a low but non-zero risk, meaning anyone traveling from a country with widespread Ebola. The fourth category includes people with no identified risk but could have had exposure to a person with Ebola before the person was showing symptoms or who traveled to West Africa more than 21 days ago. The CDC believes the changes will better determine when individuals should be routed to care.

Health officials are holding a 5-year-old boy for additional testing after an official test for Ebola came back negative. He is being monitored at Bellevue Hospital in New York City where New York doctor, Craig Spencer, who contracted the virus in Guinea, is being treated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did the cautious thing and brought the child in under the full protocol.

HARLOW: Meanwhile, ICU patients were transferred to NYU Langone Medical Center. According to Bellevue, there were not enough nurses on staff to handle both ICU patients and treat Ebola.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference here, highly praising the first responders, the doctors and nurses here who have been taking care of Dr. Craig Spencer. We know at this hour, Wolf, he remains in serious but stable condition. As soon as we get an update on the 33-year-old doctor, we'll bring it to you here live on CNN.

BLITZER: Let's hope he makes a full recovery as well.

Poppy, thanks very much.

Seema Yasmin, thanks to you as well.

Coming up, a different story we're following. Kurdish fighters leaving their post in northern Iraq to join the battle for Kobani. We'll talk about why this is significant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington. We once again want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

ISIS has released a new propaganda video. The militant terror group uses the British hostage, John Cantlie, to talk about the battle for the city of Kobani. Kobani is a key city on the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a strike point between Kurdish fighters and ISIS militants. It's also the city that's expecting the arrival of more Kurdish Peshmerga troops reinforcements from northern Iraq.

Our Nick Paton Walsh is in southern Turkey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wolf, after a week of bickering about when, how many and what Peshmerga will do if they finally left northern Iraq, traveled through Turkey into Kobani. It's clear this morning they are going, according to Kurdish officials. And we've seen media pictures showing this substantial convoy of hardware pulling out of Erbil and moving towards the Turkish border. If they go at a reasonable pace, they just might make it to the border at Kobani about dawn tomorrow. That will be a very volatile time for them. ISIS has had plenty of opportunity to prepare for their crossing. This is surprisingly public, frankly, this mission. Some of the Peshmerga may fly in separately and perhaps join up with that convoy before they try and move in.

But while this is a symbolic moment, certainly, the Kurds uniting in Iraq and Syria to fight together against ISIS with Turkey assisting them, too, it's going to have a real practical effect on the battlefield as well. This is a lot of hardware. Peshmerga are battle-hardened. They will be resupplying the Kurdish forces in there. The Turkish military may be assistant as well and clearing their entry. We know Kurds inside the city are fighting to clear the area behind the official crossing into Kobani on the Turkish-Syrian border. We'll have to see how bad or how easy things are for those Peshmerga tomorrow. But clearly the fight for Kobani still ongoing -- Wolf?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh on the border between Turkey and Syria.

Last year -- get this -- 30 young people from one Danish city traveled to Syria to fight. This year, that number fell to just one. We'll show you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: ISIS has been aggressively using social media and other methods to recruit Westerners to its cause. And it has been working. Hundreds have joined, including a few Americans. But the problem is a lot worse in Western Europe. In Denmark, for example, some 200 have left to join the ISIS fight in Syria.

CNN's Atika Shubert explains how that country is dealing with clearly a growing problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Why have hundreds of jihadi fighters across Western Europe gone to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq and how do authorities keep them from lashing out violently once they're home? The answers might be found in Denmark. It may not look like a hotbed of jihadi radicalism, but of the 100 Danish fighters that have left for Syria, more than a third come from the suburb of Aarhus.

(on camera): The suburb of Aarhus is just outside of a city where 80 percent of the people living here are immigrants. Unemployment is high. According to the Ministry of Housing, it's been described as a sort of ghetto.

(voice-over): Here Danish authorities have set up a de-radicalization program with the help of the larger mosque and its chairman, Oussama el-Saadi. Interestingly, the mosque refuses to condemn or openly support ISIS, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But he does meet with Danish police every month to both discourage young Muslims from fighting in Syria and to counsel them on their return.

OUSSAMA EL-SAADI, CHAIRMAN, GRIHOJVAJ MOSQUE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SHUBERT: "The only and the most important thing that we want to see is that they don't consider us as criminals," he tells us. "They don't consider us as terrorists and they recognize us as a minority living in Denmark," he says.

El-Saadi introduces us to Omar -- not his real name. He was once an engineering student before he became a fighter in Syria.

OMAR, JIHADI FIGHTER: Nobody's going or leaving their country because of someone has brainwashed them. They go because -- to defend the oppressed people in Syria and help them by any means. It's a good deed according to the Koran.

SHUBERT: But infighting among jihadist groups drove Omar home to Denmark. And he isn't the only one to return home disillusioned.

Says Preben Bertelsen, who counsels returning fighters.

PREBAN BERTELSEN, PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF AARHUS: They see things they didn't expect to see. Brutality, violence, evilness and also corruption from the guys they thought were their allies. In fact, some of them are de-radicalized.

SHUBERT (on camera): Just by the process of going there?

BERTELSEN: Yeah, some of them.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Disillusioned, traumatized, perhaps. But will Denmark's experiment on de-radicalization win the hearts and minds of Muslim youth? Yes and no.

Omar insists that he still wants to travel to Syria even though he considers Denmark his home.

OMAR: With regard to the youth who left from this city, I knew them as very intelligent people who finished high school, were starting the universities and had a good degree. So I don't believe that they were isolated from society at all.

SHUBERT: According to police, the numbers traveling from Aarhus to Syria have dropped from 30 in 2013 to just one in 2014, an encouraging start for the Aarhus model of de-radicalization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Atika Shubert reporting for us from Denmark.

Coming up, Chris Christie digs in on Ebola quarantines, comes under fire from both sides. We'll talk about the latest controversy, what it means for the New Jersey governor. Plus, a South Carolina candidate's major slip of the tongue and it has

a lot of people talking, a lot of people pretty upset. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, no stranger to controversy, as all of our viewers, know. This time, though, he's under fire for a policy of quarantining health care workers returning from the Ebola hot zones. The nurse, Kaci Hickox, now back in Maine, says her basic rights were violated when she was confined against her will in Newark, New Jersey. Christie says his policy is just common sense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, TODAY SHOW: She was sent back to Maine because she no longer had a fever or any symptoms. Or was she sent back to Maine because she went out and hired a talented lawyer like Norm Seagal and was threatening legal action against the state?

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Well, you used the word talented, Matt, not me. And secondly, no, nothing to do with it. That's been the policy all along. If she'd never presented with any symptoms, our policy would have been to send her back to Maine and to ask her to quarantine at home in Maine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Here's how the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded to a reporter's question about all of this a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Josh, Chris Christie said this morning about the CDC, they don't want to admit it that we're right and they were wrong. I'm sorry about that. There seems to be some disagreements of how things are playing out. I'm just wondering --

(CROSSTALK)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There certainly wasn't a disagreement about the need for Nurse Hickox to be released. She was released consistent with the guidance from the CDC. And she is making her way -- presumably has arrived in her home in Maine. Again, consistent with the guidelines that were articulated by the CDC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; along with Ana Navarro, our CNN political commentator and Republican strategist.

Chris Christie is not immune, of course. He's very familiar with controversy. But he says he's not backing away from his position at all. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No. He's sticking to it.

Don't forget, he's a potential 2016 presidential candidate who is the truth telling, no nonsense, common sense guy that says, you know what, she was inconvenienced a little bit. She showed a little bit of a temperature, so that's a little bit of a symptom. And I want to protect the state of New Jersey and if it inconveniences her, I'm sorry, but I have to do it. And I'm not going to change my mind on it.

BLITZER: Not the first time Chris Christie has been criticized by the left or from the right. He's getting criticism from fellow Republicans.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, you know, Wolf, if it's late October, Chris Christie's in the news right before an election and controversy.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: They think he caved to the White House, if you will.

NAVARRO: Look, I think what happened was, frankly, we saw one doctor who had Ebola, who didn't do a good job of the quarantine. And the two governors who did not, at that point, have national guidance from the CDC, took matters into their own hands. Maybe they overreacted. Now, if that nurse developed symptoms, none of us would be thinking it was an overreaction. Two things happened. One, she wasn't symptomatic. Two, the P.R. was terrible. She looked like a caged animal in that tent.

BLITZER: Yeah.

BORGER: The sort of to'ing and fro'ing makes a leader look incompetent. And what Chris Christie does not want to project is any kind of incompetence because that's the wrap on President Obama and the Democrats aligned with President Obama as we head into the midterm elections. So he's -- he's not going to sway at all. I mean, part of his brand, part of who he is and part of what he wants to project.

NAVARRO: Last thing he wants to do is something that the White House wants him to do.

BORGER: Right.

NAVARRO: Frankly, not even Democrats want to do anything the White House might --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Chris Christie thinking about his political future. You're from Florida. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, he's thinking about his political future. And all of a sudden, some members of his family are saying, he may be a Republican presidential candidate. What are you hearing?

NAVARRO: What am I hearing? Let's see. Look, Jeb Bush is seriously considering this. He is, I think, in the midst of deliberations. He has set a time line for himself. He's going to make a decision by the end of the year. Doesn't mean he would announce by the end of the year if he decides to do it. I think he's looking at the pros and cons. He knows what it takes more than anybody. And I think he's seriously considering it. He knows it's a weighty issue. It's a difficult decision. It's a life-changing decision. If you win, your reward is that it changes your life for the rest of your days. I think he's taking it seriously.

BORGER: I spoke with somebody who is close to Jeb Bush yesterday. And I was told that, quote, "wanting to do this and doing it are two different things." I believe that Jeb Bush probably wants to be president of the United States. The question is, does he -- and thinks he could serve well. But does he want to go through what you have to go through, which by the way, he knows as well as anybody, having had two members of his family who went through it. Does he want to go through all of that at this point in his life? I think that's a decision he probably has to make.

NAVARRO: I was with him on Sunday morning and I said to him, you know, so George P. just said --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: That's his son.

BORGER: Right.

NAVARRO: George P., his son, and had given an interview said, you're more likely than not to run for 2016. And his reaction was, really? Did he really? Why is it that everybody feels compelled to opine about what I'm thinking?

BORGER: Right?

NAVARRO: Let me apologize to Jeb right now, in case he's watching, for opining on what he's thinking.

BORGER: But it's members of his family, which he's worried about. His mother felt one way, didn't want him to run. His father wants him to run. His brothers want him to run. His son clearly might like to see him --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: I am not his family. I'm his friend. I've known him for a long time. I'm torn about it. Because what if somebody you love, a friend comes and tells you they want to run for president, who wants to do that these days. It's saying to me, look, I'm going to go mud wrestle for a year and a half. And if I win, I'm going to mud wrestle for another.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Quickly, I want to play this clip. This is the Democratic candidate for governor of South Carolina challenging Nikki Haley, the incumbent Republican. He said this. Let me play the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. VINCENT SHEHEEN, (D), SOUTH CAROLINA & GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: That is the worst kind of politics! And we are going to escort whore out the door.

(CHEERING)

SHEHEEN: We're going to escort her out the door.

(APPLAUSE)

(LAUGHTER)

SHEHEEN: Think about it, y'all. All right. Calm down out there.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He said "whore." And that's getting a lot of --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: I'm going to call him fool, jerk and every single woman and every single Democrat who goes out and bangs the drums on war on women should be out there today. All those war on women brigades from the Democrat side calling on this man to apologize and really condemning these things he said. It's not the gaffe, supposed gaffe he made, it's that cackling.

BORGER: Right.

It was playing along with the crowd. And, you know, our Peter Hamby spoke to Ann Romney about it. It's one thing to make the mistake, correct it, but he was playing into that crowd. He should have never, ever, ever have done that. And he can't apologize enough for it, as far as I'm concerned.

NAVARRO: I'm with you on that.

BLITZER: Gloria, Ana, guys, thanks very much. He obviously made a major blunder. Not that he had much of a chance, I think, getting himself elected. A pretty serious blunder there in handling this affair.

Thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, a quick check of your headlines after a quick break.

For our viewers here in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)