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Funeral For Federal Judge Roll; Gifford's Doctors Say There Is More Improvement; FBI Testing Black Ammo Bag; Defending Loughner; What Was In Loughner's Pockets; Gifford's Aide Released From The Hospital; Bringing Left And Right Together At The State Of The Union; Halfway To Sainthood; U.S. Trade With China; Biden Picks Centrist as Top Aide; A Bullet to the Brain
Aired January 14, 2011 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Carol, thank you very much.
These are live pictures outside the memorial for US District Judge John Roll. This is Saint Ann Elizabeth -- Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tucson, the same church that memorialized Christina Green yesterday afternoon.
Judge Roll was one of the six people killed in the shooting rampage on Saturday. These are live pictures, now, that I'm going to show you from the Vatican. The late John Paul II is said to be beatified later this year. That news came out this morning. I'll explain to those of you who don't know what that's about, what it all means, and the significance of it is. But we start this hour in Tucson in another place where both police and doctors are laser focused on their different roles in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting.
It is 11:00 a.m., right now, in Arizona. Still pretty early, but, already, lots of new details and developments to tell you about.
As we mentioned, the funeral of Judge John Roll under way. Security at the church is extremely tight. Among the mourners, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Senator McCain and John Kyle and former Vice President Dan Quail. Also paying their respects, literally, bus loads of judges who work with or knew Judge Roll in his nearly 40 years on the bench.
And doctors have held another briefing on the condition of Gabrielle Giffords. They say she is opening her eyes more and more. She's able to carry out more complex movements and commands. Another good sign. Giffords husband told our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, that his wife's breathing tube may be removed today.
Meanwhile, police have been scouring that black bag that turned up yesterday, thought to belong to the shooting suspect, Jared Loughner. They tell CNN it contains seven boxes -- seven boxes of nine millimeter ammunition, and a store receipt for the bag. Nothing else inside. The FBI is running DNA and fingerprint analysis. That could take about a week and a half. Jared Loughner, meanwhile, remains at a federal facility outside of Phoenix. We found out this week, a prominent federal defender will be leading his case. The unabomber, Susan Smith, Eric Rudolf. Judy Clark is the defender. She has defended them all. Quite a rogue's gallery, there, convicted of some heinous crimes.
A clue to her capacity to defend such quote, unquote, "monsters", or what Clark once said was her favorite quote. Here it is. With every ounce of freedom comes a pound of responsibility. Well, one of the people who knows Judy Clark best, professionally and personally, is David , a clinical law professor at Washington Lee School of Law. He joins us, now, via Skype.
Professor, what a responsibility to defend people who are, in many cases, are seen by society as some of our biggest offenders. What makes this defender qualified to do that sort of job?
DAVID BRUCK, CLINICAL LAW PROFESSOR, WASHINGTON LEE SCHOOL OF LAW (via Skype): Well, Judy is as good of a lawyer as they come. She's been a public defender her whole career and she's somewhat worked under the radar, except these high-profile cases have come to her. Because she's extraordinary hardworking.
She's a brilliant lawyer. She knows the law inside and out. And she, also -- she's just single mindedly focused on protecting her clients and doesn't get anything -- let anything else get in the way. Yet she'll be invisible to the news media. She has no interest, at all, in talking on cameras about her -- on camera about her cases. She never does. She just focuses on protecting the clients with whom she's been entrusted.
VELSHI: And that's why we don't know much about Judy Clark. It's not a name that's going to be familiar to our viewers. Does she have a particular strategy or some tactics that she employs, particularly, defending people who may face the death penalty?
BRUCK: Well, her strategy, if you want to call it that, is, sort of, old fashioned. She just works extraordinarily hard. She's going to organize an investigation that is as thorough as it can possibly be into every aspect of this young man's relatively short life. And try to unlock the mystery of why this happened. And, once she's done that, as well as it can be done, she'll present what she finds.
VELSHI: Have you had a chance to talk to her since she's been assigned this case?
BRUCK: A little bit, yes.
VELSHI: What's her sense of the daunting task in front of her?
BRUCK: Well, I'm not at liberty to disclose anything we've talked about. Sorry.
VELSHI: What's your sense of the daunting takes being in front of her in that case? BRUCK: Well, it's like any case. You know, you begin with a terrible crime or -- that has blighted lives and rant the whole community, you have to stay focused on that and not have blinders and not see the damage and the harm that your client has apparently committed. But, at the same time, you have to go to work and find every witness and every scrap of records and evidence that might explain your clients path in life and who he is, and why it's come to this.
And, often times, the first appearances of things prove to be deceiving and the real story can be quite different than the way it may have appeared at first.
This may be a story involving severe mental illness. If it is, of course, that is something that none of us choose. And severe mental illness is not something that you decide to do. It's something that happens to you, or that can happen to anyone or to any of our children, and that's a realization that it's the job of defense counsel to drive home, if, in fact, that's what we're dealing with.
But it's far too early to say anything about what the facts in this case are. That's going to have to wait until the work's been done and that's something that Judy Clarke is very good at doing.
VELSHI: Well, thank you for bringing us that side of the story. Obviously, our constitution allows him a defense and she seems like somebody who is prepared to take on the task in front of her. Judy Clarke, we'll be learning more about her in the future. Thanks, very much, for joining us. David Bruck is a clinical law professor at Washington Lee School of Law joining me via Skype from Lexington, Virginia.
We've also received a list of the contents of Jared Loughner's pockets. This comes from the Pima County Sheriffs' Department. He had two 15-round magazines, a four inch buck knife, a plastic bag containing currency, a Visa card, and Loughner's Arizona driver's license.
And let's take another look at some live pictures from Arizona. Shooting victim Pam Simon is a part-time outreach coordinator for Congressman Gabby Giffords. She was the one, sort of, lining people up to meet her. She was released from the hospital, yesterday. Pam Simon was collecting information from constituents. Let's listen to what she is saying.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you sure you can do this?
PAM SIMON, OUTREACH COORDINATOR, CONGRESSWOMAN GABRIELE GIFFORDS: I'm committed to this.
And it was just very, very special. I, also, got to meet some of her doctors and she is getting, I believe, the best care in the world. I felt like I was getting the best care in the world. UMC was incredible. And it's -- there is a -- there are a lot of wounds. Some of that will gross you out. The wounds in our heart are a lot deeper. They are -- they're not going to heal for a long, long time, if ever.
And, I think, it's going to be very important for us to stick together because I happen to get hit by bullets but all of you, especially those of you that there were, you got wounded, too. And, so, I feel like I'm a spokesperson for you, in a way, because we're all together in this. And Gabby is going to get back in the saddle. Where is the saddle?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The saddle is right over here.
SIMON: There is no question about it. We know how determined she is. But I want to introduce my Good Samaritan and, Bob, would you come up?
Bring your wife. This is Bob and Jenny Fagona (ph), and I just saw Bob's face for the first time because my face was flat down. And, I think, Sarah looked back and saw me --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was with you the whole time.
BOB FAGONA: I wasn't going anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rubbing your back and making phone calls.
SIMON: He touched my shoulder and just introduced himself, told me that he was going to stay with me. It was so incredibly important. I didn't know what was going on. I did know that Gabby and Ron were down. I didn't know anything else, and I was not aware of what the gunman was doing so I just played dead.
And, then, after that, Bob touched my shoulder and stayed with me, made cell phone call to Bruce. I told him to downplay it. I didn't want Bruce to be too nervous driving to the hospital. And found Bruce in the emergency room, got my cell phone back to him. And I cannot tell you how important it was. It seemed like absolutely an eternity and Bob kept saying, they're coming, the ambulances are coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, on behalf of Congresswoman Giffords' office, thank you very much for helping Pam when she need help most.
FAGONA: You're most welcome. All of you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to get moving. Got some things for Pam to do.
SIMON: OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. Let me bring you up to speed of what we're talking about here. This woman you're looking at in front of you was shot twice. She was responsible for, sort of, vetting people before they went up to the meet the Congresswoman. One bullet passed through her wrist. Another one hit near collarbone, travelling through her torso, stopping near her hip. Somehow, no vital organs were hit.
You can see she's looking like she's in good health. She's a retired school teacher. She taught home economics and English for 18 years at Arizona's Marana Unified School District. She retired in 2006. We'll keep you updated on her and others. A number of you have tweeted and sent me messages to say what is going on with the other surviving victims. We'll keep you posted as we get more information on them.
Let me bring an update now to a story that we brought you, yesterday, related to this. Colorado's Democratic Senator Mark Udall's idea of having members of both political parties sit next to each other at this year's State of the Union address is getting a lot of traction. Some of it positive and some of it negative. I've, also, posted this on my Facebook, and I haven't seen such a reaction in a long time.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, Udall's suggestion is worth, quote, "serious consideration." Let me just remind you, he is saying that instead of Democrats and Republicans sitting on either side of the House where one side gets up and applauds all the time, the other side is remained seated, that they mix it up like a checker board. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, all of them support it.
A few had more tepid responses to the idea, however. Spokesman for the House Speaker John Boehner said, quote, "Members of Congress choose where to sit at the State of the Union would not respond directly to questions about the proposal." A senior GOP Congressional aide said, quote, "Quite frankly, we have nine plus percent unemployment, jobless claims spiked this week, and we're at war. Not sure most Americans care which senator sit next to each other at a speech."
I can tell you, the responses I've been getting from you suggest otherwise. I asked for your comments on the issue. It's a mixed bag, today, but people seem to care.
Jackie posted this on my Facebook page. Mixing sitting arrangements is just a cosmetic cure. Without true selflessness and a focus on what's best for the country, instead of their political careers, nothing will change.
Laura says, I think it's a great idea. It'll be interesting to see the reactions of individual members of Congress when they can't see if their friends are applauding, standing innovation, or glaring in disgust.
Christina says, I think it would provide a one-time artificial spectacle. It's how they vote and their public rhetoric that is meaningful.
And Susan posted this. This is a fine way to enable members of Congress to express their desire to appear less partisan and begin a process of finding common ground.
Interesting. The conversation always continues on Facebook and Twitter, so feel free to go to my Facebook page, or my tweet -- my Twitter account, @alivelshi, is the account to go to.
The Vatican is answering the prayers of millions of Catholics who consider John Paul II a saint. Well, almost answering their prayers. We'll look at the man, and his miracle, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Remember these scenes from 2005, April, the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The banners say "santo subito," which means sainthood now. Well, now has not arrived, but it's closer than ever.
Less than six years after he died, John Paul II is being officially credited with a miraculous healing and the Vatican says he'll be beatified the week after Easter. That's the half way point to sainthood. Keep in mind, this process generally takes decades, in some cases it's taken centuries.
But John Paul II broke the mold in lots of ways. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In his 26 and a half years as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, he visited 129 countries. And he, himself, canonized 482 saints, more than all his predecessors combined.
Want to talk more about the man, the miracle, and the process that the catholic church goes through of recognizing saints with John Allen. He's a familiar face to us. He's our senior Vatican analyst and a senior correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter." His latest book is "The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing The Catholic Church."
John, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
First of all, let's talk about the supposed miracle.
JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, the miracle in this case involves the healing of a 49-year-old French nun from an aggressive form of Parkinson's disease. And, of course, Ali, there's kind of a nice poetic arc to that because John Paul II himself suffered from Parkinson's.
The report is that shortly after the pope's death, in April 2005, the religious order to which this nun belongs began praying to John Paul II. Apparently she wrote the late pope's name on a prayer card and tucked it under her mattress one night, woke up the next morning completely cured from the Parkinson's and went back to her normal work as a maternity nurse.
The Vatican standards for a healing to be considered miraculous are that it has to be instantaneous, it has to be complete, it has to be permanent. There's a bank of doctors, then a bank of theologians, then a group of cardinals and bishops and then finally the pope himself who would have to sign off. And, in this case, they obviously all agreed that this was the real deal. VELSHI: Let's talk about the process of becoming a saint. Tell me a bit about it and the fact that Pope John Paul II actually changed the process himself.
ALLEN: Yes. When John Paul II revised the law of the catholic church in 1983, one of the things that was affected was the sainthood process. A number of things changed, but I think the bottom line was that the pope wanted to, in some ways, accelerate the process because he believed that there were a number of great saints of the 20th century, including martyrs under the Nazis and martyrs under the communists and so on, that he wanted to be able to hold up to the world.
The effect of that has been that it has made it easier, when you have a case that you want to move through the system fairly quickly to get it done. That was the case, of course, with Mother Teresa, who was beatified in 2003, just six years after her death. And it is now, of course, again the case here with John Paul II once again moving from soup to nuts in a period of just six years.
VELSHI: And, real quick, Pope Benedict did actually change something as well. He made the waiting period shorter?
ALLEN: Yes. I mean, normally speaking, five years have to elapse between the death of a person and the beginning of a sainthood clause. But, of course, you know, under the rubric of, it's good to be pope, the pope can set that aside if he chooses and, in this case, he chose to do that in response to grassroots demand. And you showed those images from the funeral mass, the chants of "santo subito."
Also in response to the fact that during the concave that elected Benedict to be pope, the cardinals actually signed a petition requesting that whoever the next pope would be would move up the process. And so Benedict, obviously, did that and here we are today.
VELSHI: All right. Good conversation with you, as always, John. Thanks for being with us and telling us more about this.
John Allen, our Vatican analyst. We'll talk more about this next hour with a former catholic priest, who's own journey made quite a splash. You'll remember him, Father Alberto Cutie (ph). He was a bestselling author and TV host who came to be known as Father Oprah before he was photographed on a beach with a woman who is now his wife. Father Cutie is now an Episcopal priest with a new book and he joins me in an hour from now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
All right, how much does China really have to do with America's economic problems and with your life? I'll dig deeper into that question in "Your Money" right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: In today's "Your Money," China. Next week Hu Jintao, the premier, coming to America. Christine Romans has been following China for longer than it's been interesting to a lot of viewers out there. She knows a whole lot about it. So tell me, Christine -- CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It still isn't to some, quite frankly.
VELSHI: But it should be. And here's the bottom line, it should be. And that's what you're going to tell us about. Why should my viewer right now care that Hu Jintao is going to be at the White House and meeting with fancy, important people? What's it got to do with you?
ROMANS: It's the most important economic, military, political, diplomatic relationship in the world.
Back to you, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Well, that sort of says it. It touches you on every level.
ROMANS: That is -- it's as simple -- it really does. And, look, you've been hearing a lot, especially with so many people out of work in this country, this whole ideas that our jobs have gone to China. I want to be really clear on the magnitude of that, you know. One particularly pro, you know, pro labor survey said that 2.4 million jobs have gone to China from the manufacturing sector because of an unfair playing field, an unlevel playing field. Well, we've lost 15 -- we've got 15 million people out of work. We've lost 8 million people -- 8 million jobs in the recession. So, be clear, that's one part of the whole story.
But how China touches us is everything from -- you're going to hear them talking about the currency. The fact that it keeps its currency -- very closely guards and manages its currency and many people say that makes its exports really cheap and that puts our manufacturers out of work. Trade issues, like, Ali, for example, counterfeits and not -- all kinds of different issues, but subsidizing different industries and the like. Human rights. There's this old saying that, you know, the Chinese can round up democracy protesters in 10 seconds, but it takes 10 years to shut down a counterfeiter, somebody who's ripping off American goods.
And then we need China as a buffer in the region, as a partner in the region, with North Korea in particular, but also with Iran and with other countries that, you know, the United States considers rogue regimes. The Chinese have kind of a different way of playing with some of those players.
Now critics would say they scour the globe for natural resources and they are friends with our enemies and that is a concern. But Hillary Clinton, today, with a pretty seminal, I would say, speech about the U.S.-China relationship. Summing it up like this, saying, we are both in the same row boat. We need to be rowing the boat in the same direction, otherwise you don't go anywhere and you can swamp (ph) the boats around you. It's an incredibly complicated relationship, she said, that does not come down to black and white. She did highlight some of these concerns, but said that, you know, that this is -- these are the power players. This is the super power pair. VELSHI: Well, let me ask you this. I'm going to ask you a simple question that could probably take us hours to discuss. But see if there's an answer to this. Can America maintain its feeling of being important and still the largest economy in the world and yet profit from how China is developing? Can this be America's century and China's century or can it be both a country century or is it going to -- is somebody going to come out on top?
ROMANS: We want it to be both. And Hillary Clinton herself, the secretary of state, said to think of it as (INAUDIBLE) is to 19th century thinking. That, you know, we have to -- China is winning at our peril. That that's not the way to think of it. We want it, Ali, to be both country's century. The nagging feeling, however, is that China has a very well thought out domestic strategy for how to get where it wants to go. And where it wants to go is not necessarily compatible with the world view of the United States. And so these two -- these two -- I would say it's a culture clash, but the couple is married forever.
VELSHI: Right. Right. That's a good way to put it.
ROMANS: So that's what makes it so complicated. And in a lot of ways it's a relationship that we haven't seen before. So that makes all this unchartered territory. And the secretary of state said that as well.
VELSHI: Yes. You and I will talk about this on our weekend shows, we will talk about it next week. And in honor of the visit, I sent you the first e-mail I've ever sent you using Chinese characters today, thanks to Google.
ROMANS: And also you gave a translation in case I couldn't understand the Chinese characters.
VELSHI: In case, exactly.
ROMANS: And I couldn't understand the translation anyway.
VELSHI: All right, we'll be talking a lot over the course of the next week.
Be sure to tune in to "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" that Christine hosts every Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. "YOUR MONEY" airs Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00. The two of us are going to be talking about this a lot.
Another staffing change at the White House, by the way. Ed Henry is standing by to tell us why it is a significant sign of where the Obama administration might be headed. There he is. We're going to him right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. Let's go to the White House, as we do every day at this time for "The Stakeout" with our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry. Good afternoon to you, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon.
Are you feeling better, because I was on the Twitter before and it seemed like somebody was attacking you and you had a cold. Are you all right?
VELSHI: I'm good. I'm a little stuffy, as you can tell.
(CROSSTALK)
HENRY: We're thinking about you.
VELSHI: Thank you. I appreciate it.
What have you got for me?
HENRY: Well, you know, interesting staff move today. And sometimes you got to read the tea leaves because you here, OK, Vice President Biden has named a new chief of staff names Bruce Reed, well known in political circles, maybe not around the country. This is a big deal and here is why.
This is someone who had been the CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council. What's that? Well, of course, that's the centrist Democratic organization that really pushed Bill Clinton's rise to power. That was the group that really moved the Democratic Party to the middle of the political spectrum there in the early to mid-'90s.
And so now you add that that on top of Bill Daley being named chief of staff, another Clintonite, if you will, Gene Sperling named the head of the National Economic Council, as you and I have been talking about over the last couple of weeks, not only is there a growing Clintonista event, if you will, but there is also a growing number of very powerful centrists who are coming in. Now as chief of staff, Bruce Reed, to the vice president of the United States, who is a very pivotal counselor to this president. And that suggests that this White House is very clearly, there has been speculation about it, but the more and more they pile up, these personnel moves, it's very clear that they are trying to stakeout the political center here as they deal with a Republican House and a more closely divided Senate.
VELSHI: OK. There are two issues. Let's just parse this a little bit, two issues. One is the relationship between the White House and the business community, the relationship between the White House and Congressional Republicans and then there are policy issues.
Do these, these faces you just showed us, do they signal a policy shift towards cutting debt, towards tax changes? Or do they single that they are going to be more conversations between the two groups?
HENRY: I think there's going to be more conversations, but I think it will matter to our viewers in terms of policy and here is why. You were just talking about trade issues with Christine, and the bottom line is, Bruce Reed, coming from the DLC, that organization is very pro-trade, is much different than the AFL-CIO and liberals in the party. They won't want to move in that direction.
On taxes, much more in favor of tax cuts. But at the same time, Bruce Reed was just the executive director of the Bowles-Simpson Debt Commission the president appointed. Talked about some deep spending cuts, all kinds of tax changes, a lot of liberals do not want to swallow. And the bottom line is, you now have the guy who was running that commission, executive director Bruce Reed, now the vice president's chief of staff. It suggests that on some of these policies, not just the personnel, not just the conversations with Republicans, but on some of these policies, they may have a more centrist bent here and it's something to keep a close eye on.
VELSHI: All right, Ed, thanks very much. Listen, we're going to talk all next week about China and you're going to be on with me on "YOUR MONEY" this weekend as well to talk about it, because it's going to be a big, big matter of interest.
Thanks very much for being with us, Ed, as always. Thanks for your words of support with me and through my little cold.
HENRY: Yes, I hope you're doing OK. Have a good weekend.
VELSHI: I hate having colds. Nothing serious, it's just a little irritating. But always a pleasure to see you, brightens my day.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Have a good one, Ed.
Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, with "The Stakeout."
OK, a Florida sheriff's deputy who survived what could have been a fatal gunshot to the head feels he and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords have something in common. They've never met, but if you believe in miracles, I'm about to introduce you to somebody who thinks he's gone through one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK, happening now, new potential evidence in the Arizona shooting. Investigators say a black bag found by a teen walking his dog contained nine-millimeter ammunition. The FBI is testing the bag for DNA and fingerprints that could link it to shooting suspect Jared Loughner.
Plus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major speech today on relations with China. This comes, of course, ahead of next week's visit by President Hu Jintao. She said that the U.S. and China have one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world, but called for more openness and cooperation.
And first it was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," now the U.S. military is focusing on another controversial policy. A commission of high ranking officers is recommending that the Pentagon drop a ban on women in direct combat.
A Florida deputy who survived what could have been a fatal gunshot to the head in 2007 feels that he and Gabrielle Giffords are now family. Even though they've never met, they share an incredible common bond.
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen shares his amazing story of survival.
Oh, Elizabeth is right with me.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right here. How about that?
VELSHI: I knew you were here, but I thought -- I thought we were going to go to your story.
Remarkable story. This man got shot in the head and has talked about his evolution from there.
COHEN: Right, exactly. Because, you know, so few of us know what it's like to get shot in the head, thank goodness. And as we look at the future for Giffords, he's one of the few people in the world who has an idea of what she's about to go through.
And so, let's listen to his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): A bullet through the brain, a coma.
(on camera): You were once where she is now?
SGT. MAURY HERNANDEZ (RET.), BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I was.
COHEN: You were in that coma?
HERNANDEZ: I was there.
COHEN (voice-over): Maury Hernandez is a police officer in Broward County, Florida. Three years ago, he was off duty when he noticed a man on a motorcycle running three red lights. He pulled him over and the man pushed Hernandez and fled.
HERNANDEZ: A couple hundred yards into the pursuit, he turned around, pointed a gun at me, and fired twice.
COHEN: Hernandez was just a few blocks away from Memorial Hospital and chief neurosurgeon Dr. Greg Zorman.
(on camera): So the bullet entered here?
DR. GREG ZORMAN, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY, MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Right. So the bullet entered here.
COHEN: And went up here?
ZORMAN: Correct.
COHEN: Yikes.
ZORMAN: As it did that, it was tumbling and turning and heating and heating (ph) and destroying brain tissue.
COHEN: When Mr. Hernandez was brought in and you saw this scan, this damage, did you think he would live through it?
ZORMAN: I was pessimistic.
COHEN (voice-over): But Hernandez said he always knew he would survive.
(on camera): There are so many similarities between what happened to you and Congresswoman Giffords.
HERNANDEZ: I know it.
COHEN: And what have you been thinking when you've been watching the news stories about her?
HERNANDEZ: The first thing I thought was, well, she can make it. You know, she's going to be able to survive.
COHEN: Why are you so confident? I mean, she got a bullet in the brain?
HERNANDEZ: So did I. So did I and where there is a will, there's a way.
COHEN (voice-over): When Hernandez was discharged after nearly three months after being in the hospital, he had vision problems, speech problems and couldn't walk.
Today, he's weak on his left side, but that's it. He says he's never listened to people who told him he would never fully recover.
(on camera): As she goes down her path to recovery, what advice would you give her?
HERNANDEZ: I would give her the advice of not listening to the negativity that is going to be around her. I would tell her not to listen to that, to listen to herself and to her heart and let that guide her way. If she does that, she's going to be OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: That is incredible. That is incredible.
COHEN: It's amazing.
VELSHI: Other than the fact that it was a bullet in the brain -- with Gabby Giffords, it went right through, with his it sort of stayed in there and did some damage -- how similar are their injuries?
COHEN: You know, there are some similarities, and I've actually relied on my colleague, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to sort of help me figure a lot of this out.
But if you take a look, this is Hernandez's brain scan. It didn't go all the way through. It sort of went in, stayed here and then kind of exited there. But can you see, if you can imagine a midline, it stayed on one side.
VELSHI: Same as hers.
COHEN: Same as hers, from that's what we're told.
VELSHI: And that seems to be important, right?
COHEN: That's really important because there's all this -- forgive my term here -- stuff, OK, that's really important in the middle of your brain. And the fact that it didn't cross that line is really big.
And actually, Sanjay spoke to his neurosurgeon, also spoke to her husband exclusively and that's going to be on 7:30 tomorrow morning, 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, and he's going to explain more of this. I mean, cause you think -- I mean, look at that, that is a bullet lodged in the brain and he's doing OK.
VELSHI: That's crazy, I got to admit. I mean, the beautiful miracles of science and the human body and the brain is that there can be some healing.
But he's not out of the woods. He's been -- he goes to treatment five time as week?
COHEN: He does, physical and occupational therapy five times a week and he says he's going to keep doing this until he can go out on the beat again and be a cop. Because right now, he can't because he can't run and running is important for cops who got to chase those bad guys. So he says he's going to keep on doing it. If it takes the rest of his life, it takes the rest of his life.
VELSHI: OK, well, that's excellent news. Excellent prognosis.
Thanks for bringing us this story, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
VELSHI: All right, Tunisia's president -- this is an important story. Tunisia's president has been forced from power after days of antigovernment protests. This is very, very unusual in an Arab state. The latest from the capital, Tunis, when we come back. Stay with us.
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VELSHI: Remarkable story developing now. The president of Tunisia was forced from power today. State media reports that the prime minister has taken over as interim president. The move came as police in the capital, Tunis, cracked down on tens thousands of peaceful antigovernment protesters. Witnesses say officers fired tear gas and beat the protesters with batons, but there were reports of gunfire as well.
Joining me on the phone from Tunis is CNN's Ben Wedeman.
Ben, give us some context for our viewers. We don't report on Tunisia a lot, and this is a very, very unusual development in an Arab nation that you've covered for years.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly Tunisia has sort of been the beacon of stability in North Africa, and we've seen over the last few weeks this growing movement, calling for the ouster of the Tunisian president. The protestors basically (INAUDIBLE) falling standard of living, higher prices, the young people frustrated that go to universities and graduate and can't find jobs. This has been mounting for quite some time.
Now, Ali, I'm at the airport. We just arrived here. But basically, it looks like the last flight into Tunisia. The air space is closed. The airport is closed. We've been told that there is a complete curfew. There's no way to get from the airport to the city because of the curfew and also because, according to officials I spoke to here, because it's dangerous. So people are just milling around.
I spoke to some people. They seemed fairly pleased with this development. After the tensions subside, things will get back to normal. People were clearly very unhappy with the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who's been in charge of this country since 1986. So, a good deal of relief here, but a certain amount of tension that still remaining --
VELSHI: Hey, Ben, real quick, while some of this is stoked by what you said, the economic concerns -- that's sort of a worldwide concern - there have been real issues about the president. And it's quite remarkable, to underscore this, a series of protests have led what appears to be the president to step down to eliminate his cabinet and to have somebody else put in. This is a very, very big development that could show signs of progress, for a place like Tunisia, which you said, has got a history of being stable.
WEDEMAN: Yes, and certainly in a relatively stable country like this should in a matter of weeks end up wwith a popular movement, essentially ousting the president who has been in power for decades is significant. And also significant, Ali, is the economic conditions that led to this popular revolt are popular to many other countries in the Middle East - Morocco, Algeria, Egypt. In fact, in those countries, the situation is even worse. And obviously, this is going to set an example for unhappy people elsewhere in the Middle East of how they can go about making change.
VELSHI: Alll right. Ben, thanks very much for that. We'll stay on top of this story with you now that you're in country. Ben Wedeman has landed in Tunisia. A very significant development we'll stay on top of. Okay. Imagine being able to print out actual things, three- dimensional objects like you print out documents on desktop printers. It's today's "Big I." The best description I have read about 3-D printing. I want to be careful about that word. Because we're not talking about printing, but we're talking about emulating something the way a printer does.
Best article I've read about this comes from "The New York Times." Let me quote from this. It says, quote, "Someone designs an object on a computer and then sends that design to a 3-D printer. The printer does not draw a picture of the item on a piece of paper as an ordinary printer would do. Instead, it physically builds the object by squirting melted plastic out of nozzles. The plastic follows the computer design, and layer by layer the printer actually constructs the object.
Let me just show it to you. Today we want to show you one live on the show. This is just a plain old normal printer. Okay? And instead of the ink that the printer uses - so old, I don't even know how to open it. Instead of ink that the printer squirts out, this thing that we're going to tell you about actually squirts out plastic and builds stuff. Components. Plastic components that you can make something out of.
Let me introduce our guest. Christina, tell me a little bit about our guest.
Bre Pettis -- there he is. There he is. He's right there. He's got it. He's the founder of MakerBot joining us. And he's got one with him. Hard to see there, Bri. Is that something that you can pick up or is that all we are going to see of it?
BRE PETTIS, FOUNDER, MAKERBOT: Yes So, this is a Maker-Bot 3-D printer. It's a machine that can make you almost anything. And I just finished printing out a bunny right here in the CNN offices. You can actually use it to print out all sorts of stuff, from gears to creepy alien heads to DNA structures. Anything you want. I have a little ring here --
VELSHI: Hold that up so we can see that. Hold something big up. So, the point is, this computer gets a design message from something. You've designed that. And then, it just builds that in that little housing. How big of a thing can you build?
PETTIS: You can build something up to about this big, 5 by 5 by 5 inches.
VELSHI: Okay. And what kind of things would this be useful for? I mean, I know you've given us sort of samples, but in terms of mass production, the fact that you can buy a unit and produce things perhaps in your own home, what kind of things would it be useful to print as it were?
PETTIS: Well, you know, no MakerBot operator will have to buy a bottle opener again. This is one of my favorite things to print out and give away. It's a bottle opener, and you just print it out. You stick a little penny in there, and you're opening bottles. All sorts of stuff from knobs, anything you want.
VELSHI: In the history of labor and manufacturing in this country, we remember times when women were given sewing to do at their homes at the Lower East Side in New York and things like that. Putting things together that they got the raw materials from outside for.
This changes the game. People can actually make stuff in their own home. They can fabricate stuff without expensive machinery. How much will that thing cost?
PETTIS: This costs $1,225 at MakerBot.com. And it comes with a kit, so you do have to put it together.
VELSHI: Well, I suppose if you're going to be manufacturing things in your own house, you should have some facility of putting things together. What's the aim, though? That I buy that and then I buy plastic, I assume. Is it plastic that we use to build stuff in that?
PETTIS: Yes, our goal is to democratize manufacturing. So you get the machine, put it together, you get plastic. It's really cheap, like $10 a pound. And then you just either download designs or make them yourself and print them out.
VELSHI: To democratize manufacturing. What an interesting idea because all we've talked about is how we've had a decline in manufacturing for years in this country. It's too expensive for the average person, the average small business person to make things on their own property. We have some manufacturing businesses obviously in the United States. Can people actually manufacture stuff for the cost of that machine and the plastic that might actually create a business for them?
PETTIS: Oh, yes. One of the cool things about this machine is it has a little conveyor belt on it, so that when you're done making something, it goes ahead and spits it out, and it makes another one. So it's really not just for rapid protyping. It's also about personal manufacturing. And it's just fun.
VELSHI: That is really neat. You were at CES, and our producer Christina, saw this there. What a great idea. Thanks for inventing such a great thing and for bringing it to the market. Bre Pettis is the founder of MakerBot. To check out MakerBot's -- it's called a Thing-O-Matic, by the way. If you want to check it out for yourself, head to my blog. I'll post it there. CNN.com/ali.
All right. Sarah Palin about to break her media silence over the criticism that she's received about her reaction to the Tucson massacre. We'll talk about that in our political update right after the break.
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VELSHI: It is time for a CNN political update. One Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation to cut billions of dollars in government spending. Our chief national correspondent, John King, joins me from Washington. John, the business guy in me likes the fact that at least if we're going to have this debate, someone's put down some specifics.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ali, you're exactly right. We'll have big debates. Health care will be first. Obviously, the vote on repealing health care was delayed - rightly so because of the Tucson shooting. But the House comes back to business next week. Health care will be first.
But then we'll have some big arguments about the role of government, deficit reduction, government spending. And Kevin Brady, a Republican, a member of the Ways and Means committee. He's also a member of the joint Economic Committee. He proposes two dozen cuts recommended by that deficit reduction commission that the president had appointed. He takes some of it right from that. Slash government spending by $43 billion right out of the box in year one. $153 billion over five years. $70 billion of the cuts Congressman Brady proposes would come from military spending, freezing federal worker pay and reducing the government's workforce.
He also says Congress and the White House need to set an example by cutting the size of their staff and bureaucracy. Says there's about $3.8 billion he would cut from there. Also sell of what he calls excess federal property. So there's a marker, if you will in, the debate to come over spending and deficit reduction.
Another quick story. You can go to our ticker to see more on this one. As you know, Ali, you've been talking about this. In the wake of the Tucson tragedy, there has been some political finger pointing, and Sarah Palin is not happy that some critics have pointed to a map she put up during last year's campaign that had a rifle crosshairs over Gabby Giffords' district out there in Tucson, one of 20 districts. She responded on Facebook yesterday, used the term "blood libel." Use of that language had some people upset.
Well, she hasn't talked directly to any reporters about it. She is going to do an interview with Sean Hannity, one of her colleagues at Fox News. That interview, we are told, will broadcast Monday. So, we'll get a chance to hear in more detail Sarah Palin's explanation about all this, Ali.
VELSHI: All right, John, good to talk to you. As always, thanks very much, John King.
Your next political update is just an hour away. We'll take a quick break. Much more news on the other side.
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