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GOP Debate Gets Heated; Not Armed But Dangerous; Clinton Touches Down In Kabul; Social Security Benefits Rise; Celebrating Steve Jobs' Life; Struggling to Pay for School Lunch; Inside the World of Kiss; Violent Clashes in Greece Over Austerity Measures; Herman Cain's Battle With Colon Cancer; Fourth Arrest in Philly Basement of Horrors Case
Aired October 19, 2011 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Don Lemon in for Randi Kaye. Hey, Don.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Thank you so much, Suzanne, it's good to see you. It's interesting, that topic didn't come up much last night. That's not history, though, I'm sure he'll be talking much more about that, Suzanne, but the CNN Western Republican debate, it is history. But what happened in Vegas got very heated, and very personal. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: I'm speaking, I'm speaking, I'm speaking.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The newspaper -- the newspaper -- I'm speaking.
PERRY: It's time for you to tell the truth.
ROMNEY: You get 30 seconds.
PERRY: It's time for you to tell the truth, Mitt.
ROMNEY: The way the rules work here is that I get 60 seconds and then --
PERRY: You know, but the American people want --
ROMNEY: -- you get 30 seconds to respond, right?
PERRY: And they want to hear --
ROMNEY: Anderson?
PERRY: -- you say that you knew that you let illegal working --
ROMNEY: Would you please wait? Are you just going to keep talking?
PERRY: Yes.
ROMNEY: You've got to let me finish what I have to say.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Boy, you know what it was that sparked that? It was illegal immigration that sparked that conversation. You see, Rick Perry's numbers dropped back in September after he defended a law in Texas that offers in-state college tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants. Well, the governor trying to throw the issue back at Mitt Romney last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERRY: Mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals, in your home, and you knew for it -- about it for a year. And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration, is on its face the height of hypocrisy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. They needed some people to break them up last night. Maybe we need these guys to jump in the middle. Joining us live from Las Vegas, Juan Carlos Lopez, he is a correspondent with CNN in Espanol, and senior political editor Mr. Mark Preston.
You know, guys, a 2004 former President George W. Bush, he won more than 40 percent of the Latino vote. And then four years later, 67 percent of Hispanic voters, well, they supported candidate Obama. So, my question is to you, Juan Carlos, the Hispanic vote no doubt is a key swing vote. Cain made those comments about the electrified fence that he got in so much hot water for. Most of the GOP hopefuls (inaudible) a hard line on this issue.
Are they losing Hispanics here?
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting that whatever happens in Vegas people hoped stays in Vegas. And I guess that's what the candidates are going to want for this issue on immigration. And I'll just give Mark an example. In 2010, the election, Harry Reid kept his Senate seat due to the Hispanic vote, and it was after a very bitter battle with Sharon Engel, who had a tough position on illegal immigration. That offended many Hispanics who feel that the debate on illegal immigration isn't necessarily on illegal immigration but on Hispanics, he got 90 percent of the Hispanic vote.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes, huge. Huge down out here in Nevada, no doubt about that.
LEMON: Yes, but Mark, why immigration? I imagine this isn't a black- and-white question, they probably intertwine, but the conventional wisdom says that this election is about jobs and the economy.
PRESTON: It is. It's all about jobs and the economy. Issue number one, we've been talking about it for several years now. But what you're seeing in the immigration issue is that it's being framed that illegal immigrants are coming across the border and they're taking American jobs. And by and large, that's not necessarily true, but people are very frustrated right now. If you look at the unemployment rate here in Las Vegas, double digits. You look across the country, over nine percent. People are very frustrated, they're losing their homes, they're losing their jobs, and it's very easy to look at illegal immigrants coming across the country and pinning all of their problems on that. Now look, the issue of illegal immigration is a problem. People coming across the border, they're breaking the law. They're not necessarily taking people's jobs though, Don.
LEMON: Yes, they say they're taking jobs, I guess they want to pin it on something, as you said. Juan Carlos, President Obama pointed to Sonya Sotomayor over to the Supreme Court to propose immigration reform, is that enough for him to win over Hispanics again this time?
LOPEZ: You know, when there is -- this can happen (ph) in the Hispanic community, people are saying that immigration reform didn't happen, they've been signaling the White House for that. They're also upset about deportations. The Obama administration has already deported about a million people in these three years. This -- the figures for 2011 are almost 400,000, that's more than any Republican president. But the interesting thing is that even though Hispanics are upset and feel that the president hasn't delivered on that promise, he did name Sonya Sotomayor, he has members in his cabinet. He's done a lot of things. They're not hearing a message from Republicans saying that we're going to do things differently. On the contrary, they're -- the impression we get speaking to people is they feel pushed away from the Republicans.
LEMON: Mark, if you can answer this -- a short time left here. Will the eventual nominee need somebody like maybe a Marco Rubio to help balance the ticket and win over the Hispanic vote? But-- it's not a monolithic group here. They have different issues, they don't all vote the same.
PRESTON: Yes, that's absolutely true. And (inaudible) and he knows this very well better probably than anybody. The fact is Cuban- Americans down in south Florida are different than Hispanics that are living out here in Las Vegas. Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, a rock star. A lot of people think that whoever is nominated president is going to name him the vice president, of course, we've got a long time to go before we get to that. But people like Marco Rubio, the governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval, where we're standing right now, as well as Susana Martinez from New Mexico, are all super stars right now in the Republican party that Republicans hope can take back some of this Hispanic the support that see with Democrats.
LEMON: Juan Carlos is nodding his head in agreement there. Thank you Mark, thank you Juan Carlos. We appreciate it.
We want to go now to Ohio, where police say only three of 50 or so wild animals they've been chasing all night and all day are still on the loose. Lions and tigers, bears and wolves, giraffes and camels all were being kept on a private one-man reserve -- preserve near Zanesville until late yesterday. Now, according to Zanesville mayor, the animals' owner apparently opened all the pens and then took his own life. That hasn't been confirmed by police. And we do know though that sheriff's deputies, wildlife experts, state troopers and firefighters scrambling now to minimize the threat to public safety which was and is substantial. Many, if not most, of the animals now said to be accounted for, have been killed. And at a news conference, you may have seen live right here on CNN, the country's best-known zookeeper said there was no alternative.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK HANNA, DIRECTOR EMIRITUS, COLUMBUS ZOO: The sheriff did the right thing. I know we have animal rights groups giving me threatening calls right now, all sorts of things. (Inaudible) saying this, what was he to do at my time with tigers and lions, leopards, going out there. In the wild, this is a different situation. These cats were captive animals. Now, they were fed I understand maybe the day before yesterday. That's fine, right now it's raining, that's in our favor, they're probably hunkered down somewhere out of the rain. However, once they start moving, then that will help us probably figure out what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. Jack Hanna is going to join me live here at CNN in about five minutes. And those three animals still hunkered down or roaming free, guess what? They're believed to be a mountain lion, a wolf, and a monkey. Make sure you stay tuned for Jack Hanna's conversation coming up.
This is developing news that we reported to you at the last hour. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton just touching down in the Afghan capital of Kabul. It is her second straight unannounced stop in as many days. She landed under tight security in Libya yesterday where she talked to transitional leaders and visited injured forces loyal to the transitional government. Azad leader, now fugitive Moammar Gadhafi is wanted on war crimes charges. And when asking about him, well, Clinton told reporters, we hope he will be captured or killed soon.
Some encouraging money news for those of you on Social Security, you're about to get a raise. A cost of living increase of 3.6 percent, well it goes into effect in January. It is the first cost of living increase in two years. Many of you won't see the full bump, though. We're hearing Medicare premiums, well they could go up by a double-digit rate. Expect new premiums to be announced next month.
If you head to an Apple store near you this hour, it might be closed. That's because Apple is holding a private company-only memorial service for former CEO, Steve Jobs, right now. It's being held at an outdoor amphitheater at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California. But store employees are able to view a live Web cast of the event. Well, Jobs died earlier this month from complications related to pancreatic cancer. He was 56 years old.
So, we've been reporting here, lions, tigers, bears and wolves, all on the loose in an Ohio suburb. We continue to follow this story with Jack Hanna, that's next. But first, it is still a work in progress, but today's "Rock Star" is all about hope. A new vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline and the path malaria initiative, appears to cut child malaria cases in half. Medical specialists say lots of testing still ahead, but if the results remain positive, well the world health organization could give the vaccine the thumbs-up by 2015. So, for taking care of business and adding a side of hope, all those behind the malaria vaccine are today's "Rock Stars."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK, developing news now. This is our "Facetime" segment, we've had developing news out of Ohio. Let's show the picture real quickly. We're waiting for a press conference regarding those animals. There you see the sheriff there. They just started this press conference. We want to listen in now -- let's listen in, and then we'll be back to you in just moments.
MATT LUTZ, SHERIFF, MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO (live): And wanted to get it out there to our public. We have confirmed that the missing bear and the missing mountain lion that we could not account for, they have been recovered. Both have been put down, evidently last night. The mountain lion made it across off the farm and onto a private property into a backyard. So I wanted to put our public to ease a little bit that we have recovered the mountain lion. We have recovered the bear. That leaves us with what we believe is only two animals that are missing from this farm, and one would be the monkey and one would be a wolf.
At that point, that is -- that is what we have and I wanted to get that out to you now. I don't want a lot of questions because we will have some more information at 3:00. We will be releasing the 911 CDs. There were only two phone calls. One is, I know a neighbor in the area, the other is, I don't know if it was a passerby or it was another neighbor. But those are the only two calls. We will form a line and I would like to have you print your name, put your agency down, show your credentials and do a signature for me so we can make sure you all get one and make sure I know who's getting them. OK? Any quick questions on that part of the information?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you put them down were they tranquilized or killed?
LUTZ: They were killed. And this was last night -- this was last night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible.)
LUTZ: Yes. They were shot by our officers. Evidently the one lion -- sounds like the one that was in the pack, that we had put down four at one point, he was probably wounded and got to that yard and expired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many animals are being transported right now to the zoo.
LUTZ: We are going to have more to comment on those animals at 3:00.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real quickly while we're here --
LEMON: OK, you're looking at Muskingum County there in Ohio, holding a press conference talking about the animals -- hundreds of animals that went missing -- 50 or so, I should say wild animals that were released by this man who had this preserve. And apparently, this according to someone earlier, the mayor said they believe he took his own life. That has not been confirmed. But you hear the sheriff there saying that they found at least three more -- two more of the animals and it's believed that a monkey is still missing right now.
A mountain lion and a bear both recovered, but he said they had been put down. One of them made it onto a neighbor's property -- private property. So, I imagine they're still looking for the monkey, but it appears most of the animals that may have been provided some sort of danger to people, have been found there in Ohio. We're going to talk to Jack Hanna coming up in a little bit on CNN. Some good news at least as far as recovery goes.
Let's move on now. Over 200,000 kids going hungry, and I'm not talking about some far-off place, it's right here in this country in one state alone. It's uncovered and we're taking you there. "Under Covered" I should say and we're taking you there.
A lot of you are probably living this right now. If you want to know just how hard this economy is hitting families, I want you to take a look at what's happening in Florida. Many kids are struggling just to eat lunch. It is a story that is "Under Covered" but we're giving it some much-needed attention right now.
Here are the facts according to "The Orlando Sentinel." In five central Florida counties, it's near Orlando, as many as 222,000 students can't afford to pay for their own lunch. They either get it for free or for a few cents they get it through a federally-funded lunch program. In Osceola County alone, we're talking about 71 percent of students. And that number was 63 percent just four years ago. That's nearly three out of every four kids.
Sal Recchi knows the reality. He is the education editor at "The Orlando Sentinel."
Hey, thanks for your time right now.
The information I just shared only scratches the surface, right?
SAL RECCHI, EDUCATION EDITOR, ORLANDO SENTINEL: Yes, that's right, Don. It's pretty bad. The economy in Florida is hurting very badly right now with an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, which is considerably higher than the national average. And we've been hit real hard by the housing crisis here.
LEMON: And, Sal, just to qualify, I want to put this up, to get a lunch for free, a family of three has to have an income of $24,000 or less. And we're talking about a year here. And to get lunch for 40 cents, a family of three can have an income up to $41,000 give or take a couple hundred dollars there. Some of these communities were once considered affluent communities, but not so anymore according to these numbers.
RECCHI: Well, yes, that's true. Central Florida, by and large, for a long time, isn't -- hasn't really been as affluent, I think, as many people across the country might think. It's the home of Disney World and Universal Studios and there's a certain aura there. But the -- one community in particular, Seminole County, where I live, has been considered sort of the bedroom community of central Florida, where a lot of people live and commute into town, into Orlando. And even Seminole County now is hurting. And there are a lot of kids on free reduced lunches in Seminole County as well.
LEMON: I wanted to give an idea of what it costs to -- how much money you had to make to qualify for the program. And for -- when you're talking about a family of that many, you know, $42,000 or $20,000, that's not a lot of money to support those folks. And you mentioned, Sal, you mentioned the -- you talked about foreclosures and housing. There are a number of families who are living in motels. And to the point that school buses are picking students up at their motels.
RECCHI: That is correct. That's been happening, actually, for quite some time. And it's getting worse. And as you might have noticed in the article, the one woman we quoted was very thankful for this program. It means that her child can -- she know her child's going to have a meal. And, you know, it's not going to be a situation where the child is hungry, and in class, and is unable to concentrate.
But that is true, there are people living in motels. There are people just getting by, renting. There are people whose homes have been foreclosed on and they're looking for places to live. It's a very untenable situation right now here and I'm sure in many communities across the country.
LEMON: And having to deal with studies and everything else that children have to deal with in school. On a more personal level, talk to me about what the families, the parents and the kids are saying about this particular situation since you've been covering it, Sal.
RECCHI: Well, again, it's not just our education team that has been covering it. We do consider the school -- public schools, especially, to be a place where, you know, a place that really reflects what's going on in the community. What's happening to the kids in schools and their families will be a good mirror on what's happening in the rest of the community.
But there have been plenty of other stories that other teams in our newsroom have documented where the foreclosure rates in central Florida especially, but across Florida, are among the highest in the nation. And people are just struggling to stay in their homes. Hopefully they're also looking at trying to hang on to their jobs, if they haven't lost their jobs already. A number of families have moved away. Families are breaking up. There's a -- something we call the mobility rate in public schools, which measures the number of times a child comes in and out of a classroom. And the mobility rate in Orange County, and Osceola County, are among the highest in the state. LEMON: They're growing. Yes. Yes. It is a story that needs much more attention. Hopefully, you know, other folks will be covering it as well. Sal Recchi from "The Orlando Sentinel," thank you for your time.
RECCHI: Thank you.
LEMON: From their makeup, to their luxurious lifestyle on a whole different level here we're talking about, and outrageous performances. You know them. You love them. Kiss is known for being extreme. And our very own Poppy Harlow got a behind-the-scenes look at this iconic band. Did she dress up like one of them? I hope she did. Let's rock 'n' roll, folks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, this is for those folks who are like me, old heads as they call it. Their images are everywhere. Four musicians with iconic painted faces who created one of the most enduring and successful rock bands ever. It's the world of Kiss. A rock empire that still tours after first hitting the stage 38 years ago. Thirty-eight -- can you believe that? Wow. Poppy Harlow spent some exclusive time with Kiss when the band invited her on tour. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's almost midnight and Kiss isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Tonight the band's rocking hard in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It's what they've been doing since 1973, putting on a spectacle to devoted fans, their painted faces known worldwide. What got us here began eight hours ago, when we met the band in Minneapolis aboard the Kiss jet.
HARLOW (on camera): It's not every day you get picked up in a private plane.
HARLOW (voice-over): Band members Paul Stanley and Tommy Thayer are in the front. Eric Singer and Gene Simmons, in back.
PAUL STANLEY, KISS: We went on last night after 10:00. I didn't go to sleep until 4:00 in the morning.
HARLOW (on camera): How do you do that?
STANLEY: The adrenaline gets you through the show. But then afterwards you sleep. Get the deserved, much-needed sleep. And tonight's another night, the same thing.
GENE SIMMONS, KISS: That sound you're hearing is not bad CNN sound, that's our jet warming up.
HARLOW (voice-over): And then we're off, to Oshkosh, and nearly 30,000 Kiss fans.
HARLOW (on camera): What do you think makes you guys different?
TOMMY THAYER, KISS: Kiss is so unique. I mean, you know, where do you start? You know, just the whole imagery and the outfits and the makeup and the pyro. You know, everything's over the top.
HARLOW: What about the groupies? Are we going to see some tonight?
THAYER: There's groupies. You know, I don't really partake as much now in that since I'm married.
HARLOW: Ballpark, what could you guys walk away from this one show tonight with?
SIMMONS: $1 million.
HARLOW: Not bad. You have 20 shows this summer. Touring makes sense.
SIMMONS: And that's why it's good to be me.
HARLOW: Here we go. About to touch down.
Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
HARLOW (voice-over): Backstage is the maze of trailers and port-a- potties. There's no running water, but Kiss still gets fed well.
HARLOW (on camera): We're going to see their private chef. He goes everywhere with Kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the catch of the day -- deer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, actually, have sea bass.
STANLEY: Let's see what my dressing room looks like.
HARLOW (voice-over): Paul has his own dressing room. The others share one in a nearby trailer.
HARLOW (on camera): Not bad.
STANLEY: Not bad. I mean everything's all set up.
HARLOW: I love that Paul Stanley has an eyelash curler.
STANLEY: I don't know how to use it, but they put it here.
HARLOW: I can teach you how to use it.
STANLEY: Yes, could you?
HARLOW (voice-over): At dinner, Doc McGhee, the band's longtime manager, reviews the song list. It's got to be cut down.
DOC MCGHEE, KISS MANAGER: OK, we've got to only do an hour and a half.
STANLEY: This is actually tough because, you know, Kiss has 400 songs to begin with and we've got a set of 18 songs.
HARLOW: You won't find any large entourage here. Kiss is anything but high maintenance. They do their own makeup. And as the band preps and primps, we head out with Doc McGhee, who's famous in his own right.
HARLOW (on camera): The manager's even a celebrity. Check it out.
MCGHEE: Where are the merchandise fence at?
HARLOW: There is the Kiss stuff sold there.
HARLOW (voice-over): Merchandise payoff is huge, especially in big venues.
HARLOW (on camera): It's quarter to 10:00. Kiss has been in makeup for two hours, which is a lot longer than I take to put my makeup on. But they're getting ready. They're rehearsing. They're singing. And we're going to get a very rare glimpse into them finishing up the intense makeup process.
Look at you guys. What a transformation. Look at these heels. Look at these heels. Gene, is this all your hair? Is this all your real hair?
SIMMONS: Mostly. Mostly.
HARLOW: Got some extensions in there?
SIMMONS: Yes. Some of it is in there.
HARLOW: How many years of practice did this take?
SIMMONS: Thirty-eight years.
HARLOW: So how does it not all drip off during the show?
SIMMONS: We bake it in. What happens is, this is a series of layers.
HARLOW: And this stays on for the whole show?
SIMMONS: Well, actually, some of it drips off, but they love it when it does.
HARLOW: Can I help?
SIMMONS: Yes.
HARLOW: How many people can say that they have done Gene Simmons' makeup? How many?
SIMMONS: I would say none.
HARLOW: How'd I do?
SIMMONS: Good.
HARLOW: What's your method?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, my method is, as you see -- look at Gene's pigpen over there. Now look at mine. There's nothing anywhere. I wipe everything off. I'm very like meticulous about it. HARLOW: Very nice. What about these costumes? Look at these shoulderpads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a costume.
HARLOW: Sorry. What we call it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my space outfit. I don't play in the boots. Everybody law asks that question.
HARLOW: You don't? So you wear those when you're drumming?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mm-hmm.
HARLOW (voice-over): We head over to check on Paul.
PAUL STANLEY, KISS: I always save the last for the last, which is cheap red lipstick. Not bad, huh?
HARLOW (on camera): Not bad, like a true woman. By the way, you notice the knee pads.
STANLEY: I started wearing knee pads, because my knees are just all scar tissue.
HARLOW: What are the fake nails for?
STANLEY: Fake nails because I play guitar so hard that I literally wear through my nail. I put on a fake nail, then cut it off. So basically all it's doing is it's a shield.
HARLOW: Who knew?
STANLEY: Who knew? Who knew?
HARLOW: Secrets of KISS.
(voice-over): In full regalia, it's time to meet the fans.
(on camera): Are you a little obsessed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the fun begins.
HARLOW: It is about showtime, 11:00, KISS making it up on stage. I guess I'm going to have to check out the crowd, 30,000 screaming fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hottest band in the world, KISS!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We take tremendous pride in what we do. When you come to see us, you're pummeled, deafened, blinded. It's an experience. It's a belief. It's an ideal. That is what KISS is.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That's amazing, 38 years and still pulling in 30,000 fans, own private jet. I'm kind of jealous, Poppy. Great assignment. So that is KISS, the band. But what about KISS, the brand?
This rock institution is big business with their images on some 3,000 pieces of merchandise. "KISS, Inc." premieres this Sunday as part of a special "CNN PRESENTS" hour. It's at 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
And for more on KISS right now, make sure you go to CNNMoney.com.
It was a fight night in Vegas last night.
(BELL RINGING)
LEMON: Thanks for that. Perry and Romney came out swinging in this CNN GOP debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You get 30 seconds. This is -- the way the rules work here is that I get 60 seconds, and then you get 30 seconds to respond, right?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, but was it all fighting words, or did they actually get their messages across? It's "Fair Game" next.
All right, political junkies, we will test your knowledge right now. When it comes to debates, who determines where everyone stands? Do they flip coins, do they draw cards? The answer when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, just before we went to break, we asked you a question about locations. Specifically, who determines everyone stands in a political debate? Well, it's determined by polling status, as a matter of fact.
Take a look at this video. Herman Cain has risen in the polls, so his podium is now equal to Rick Perry's. Mitt Romney is still the leader, so his podium is dead center. And then there is Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann -- there are Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, I should say. They are the furthest away from the action.
The CNN Western Republican debate is over. And conventional wisdom is that Romney and Perry reestablished themselves as front-runners. But what about the other candidates? Did anyone else help themselves? While everyone took shots at the front-runners, Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan remain the topic of conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because it raises revenues, and the worst part about it, it's regressive. A lot of people aren't paying any taxes, and I like that. I don't think that we should even things up by raising taxes.
So it is a regressive tax. So it's very, very dangerous in that thing. And it will raise more revenues.
But the gentlemen asked the question -- he didn't even ask what we're talking about. He asked the question, what are you going to replace the income tax with? And I say nothing. That's what we should replace it with.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. So Ed Espinoza is a Democratic political consultant and Ron Bonjean is a Republican strategist.
Thank you, guys.
Ed, you first. Did Cain do a good job of defending his 9-9-9 plan?
ED ESPINOZA, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: No, he didn't. He can't defend himself against Republicans. I don't know how he will defend himself against Democrats.
Ron Paul took him to the woodshed last night. Look, Nevada is one of the most competitive states in the country and if you can't fight in a primary here, you're not going to fight in a general election here.
LEMON: Well, you said that Ron Paul took him to the woodshed. There were others that said that Mitt Romney took him to the woodshed as well about his plan. Everybody was beating up on him about this plan.
ESPINOZA: Yes, everybody was beating up on Cain.
And the interesting thing about Cain and a lot of the other also-rans in this race is they have all decided to boycott Nevada. They're not going to compete in the caucuses here. This race is basically down to Romney, Perry, and Ron Paul, at least in Nevada. And some might say that Perry is dead. He might be a zombie candidate, but he can still cause some damage. I think last night he demonstrated that.
LEMON: It is interesting, because they started with Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 plan, but quickly moved on. It became Perry and Romney again.
So, Ron, Cain has benefited from Perry's bad debates, but Perry was -- he was better last night. I'm not sure how to qualify it. Was he solid or was just his performance better than his last debate?
RON BONJEAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think the bar was so low, on the other two debates, that any type of improvement was a massive improvement. He did very well for his level of performance, I mean, just showing some energy and enthusiasm and engagement and then to take it to Romney, even though it got personal, it showed that people can't count him out of the debates just yet, of the race just yet.
He does have a lot of money, and he's clearly a work in progress. But he has a few weeks now until the next debate to improve his performance further. But that does hurt Herman Cain. Herman Cain did suffer from not being able to explain the 9-9-9 plan correctly. And then he really didn't engage very effectively later on in the debate. And so he's going to have to be able to explain that plan in the next debate clearly, and just pretty much get aggressive.
LEMON: Yes.
Ed, you know, the last election was really about foreign policy and about terrorism. And if you didn't know the players, if you didn't know your geography, then you were sunk. Bachmann implied that Libya is not in Africa. Is it over for her?
ESPINOZA: You directing that to me?
LEMON: Yes.
ESPINOZA: I think that it's been over for Bachmann for a while. She doesn't have a lot of money in the bank, her numbers haven't been going very well, and that comment doesn't help.
The kind of thing that candidates like Bachmann need to do at this point is not to have any unforced errors. Unfortunately, for her, that was one of them.
LEMON: Yes.
Ron, last question to you.
The primaries and the caucuses before April are no longer winner-take- all. Does this help, or does it hurt the Republicans?
BONJEAN: You know, I think it's a mixed bag.
Last time, with Obama and Hillary, Clinton's primary, they were able to get their messages out, while we already had our front-runner, John McCain. This time, we're going to be, you know, working on the primaries, working on -- the candidates will be working on their delegate counts while President Obama will be doing clear campaigning.
In a way it hurts us, but in a way it can also help us, because people are going to pay a lot of attention to the primaries and to see who emerges as the real front-runner and the real candidate. So you can -- it's six of one, half-dozen of the other.
LEMON: Ron Bonjean, Ed Espinoza...
ESPINOZA: We got a long way to go.
LEMON: Thank you very much. And that is "Fair Game today. More anger, more clashes on the steps of a government building where lawmakers are debating protesters' financial future. This is not an Occupy rally I'm talking about. Do you know where this is going on? We're going to take you there next in "Globe Trekking."
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LEMON: Anger over pay cuts and pay disparities, anger over government intrusion. We're not talking about the Occupy movement. Violent clashes over new austerity measures are happening in Greece right now, protesters throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Politics responding with tear gas and stun grenades -- six protesters and 15 police officers have been injured today. More than a dozen people have been arrested.
Diana Magnay is right in the thick of it in Athens and she joins us now right now.
Dana, what is the message in the latest round of demonstrations?
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.
Well, the message is simply that the Greek people are fed up with austerity, with the two years of stringent cuts that they have had to sustain. And they say they can't take anymore, which is of course what the Parliament is debating on right now, further austerity, particularly singeing cuts to the public sector, which is something that the E.U., IMF very much demand needs to be, Don, agreed.
The question is, how much can you push a people until they reach a breaking point? How austere can those cuts be before you see a society starting to come apart at the seams. And the Greek people say, you know, we can't pay our bills anymore. You see things like the suicide rate going up dramatically. You see things like garbage piling up on the streets because municipal workers won't take it in.
You see sit-ins, arbitrary sit-ins in government buildings. And today, of course, we saw a huge wave of violence on the streets as people came out for a first day of two days of general strikes. So you do really have a sense that this is a society who is saying, we cannot take this anymore. We're looking to our Parliament to do something. We're looking at Europe to do something to help us out of this crisis.
LEMON: And, Diana, what happens if the measure passes?
MAGNAY: The measure -- the measure basically involves big cuts to the public sector, 30,000 job cuts, a change to the Constitution whereby it will now become possible to hire and fire civil servants, because up until now it was constitutionally guarded that you had a job if you were a public servant.
And this of course has led to a sort of very bloated public sector, three times as big as it was back in the 1970s, when this Socialist government came into power. So they're largely to blame for a civil service that has sort of expanded and expanded, people settled in jobs with big pensions. And that is really the focus of today and tomorrow's votes, that public sector and how to cut it down -- Don.
LEMON: Diana Magnay will be standing by to report.
Thank you very much from Athens.
Another story that we're following, French media report the very pregnant first lady of France, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, has been admitted to a maternity clinic in Paris. She is due to give birth soon. Some media reports say she will deliver later today, but the clinic and the presidential palace, they aren't saying anything. They're not commenting. Cameras did catch President Nicolas Sarkozy leaving the clinic earlier today.
He has since boarded a plane to Germany for talks on the Eurozone debt crisis that Diana has been talking about, all the debt crises there. If we get word of a mini-Sarkozy, we will let you know here on CNN.
Few people diagnosed with stage four colon cancer survive five years, and one of those people, Herman Cain -- an in-depth look at how he beat the odds coming up.
And on this day in 1987, stock markets crashed around the world. It's known as Black Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 22 percent, the largest one-day drop in history. Now, that's a shame in history.
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LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.
You may or may not like his politics, you may or may not like his chances to capture the White House, but Herman Cain has faced long odds before, and he's prevailed. The GOP businessman and presidential hopeful just passed the five-year mark since treatment for advanced colon cancer.
And we get the details in-depth from CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- Sanjay.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, a lot of people have talked to me about the history of colon cancer with Herman Cain.
What we know is back in 2006, he was having lower abdominal discomfort. He saw his doctor and he subsequently got diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, cancer that was in his colon, but had also spread to his liver.
We know he had four cycles of chemotherapy. Then he had surgery, and then he had six more cycles of chemotherapy. Now, that's all very important in part the surgery, because they were able to surgically resect his cancer both from the colon and the liver. And that really changes the odds in his favor, Don.
Survival rates without any treatment at all in the single digits. If you can surgically resect this and get chemotherapy, the numbers go way up.
Here's how Herman Cain himself described it.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got my five-year checkup from my oncologist, CAT scans, X-rays, all of the various blood test, and the special blood tests they do if you're a cancer patient. And I got a clean bill of health, five years totally cancer-free. And that's after only having a 30 percent chance of survival.
That's an aha moment.
GUPTA: Even his doctor at M.D. Anderson, Don, telling us that at the five-year mark, he is essentially cancer-free. That means they don't see any evidence of cancer in his body.
It doesn't mean that he is cured, necessarily, but cancer-free a very important benchmark. Again, he had a screening, he had his tests because of his lower abdominal discomfort. Screenings in this country are something that are going up, actually, with regard to colon cancer.
Now, the recommendation is around age 50 people start the screening process, earlier if you have a family history or have some sort of high risk. But those numbers going up -- about 100,000 cases of colon cancer detected every year, but mortality rates, the likelihood of dying from it, going down as those cancers are found early.
But, again, that five-year mark so important for Herman Cain and his doctors very optimistic about his future -- Don, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Dr. Gupta, thank you very much for that.
Animals on the loose in Ohio. And get this. Get a load of this one, all right? You see that right there in -- customers shopping in a grocery store caught off guard by a surprise in the produce section. Oh, yes, that's a little cub there.
But, first, remember balloon boy? Do you remember balloon boy? His dad, Richard Heene, claimed he thought his son was inside one of his floating inventions. Well, balloon boy's dad is back, believe it or not, this time as aluminum man. I kid you not. You heard it right. Heene is now starring in this music video. Balloon boy dad, aluminum man, whatever you go by now, you have got like nine lives, none of them left. Your 15 minutes are up, dude.
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LEMON: New disturbing details out of Philadelphia in a story we have been reporting to you. It's a terrifying case of four mentally disabled people held captive in a boiler room.
Police have arrested a fourth person now and say they have located 10 more victims potential victims, six of them children.
Sarah Hoye has the very latest, and she joins us now.
Sarah, what can you tell us about these victims? Six children, really?
SARAH HOYE, CNN ALL PLATFORM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don.
So, what we're hearing now, among those 10, they range in age from 2 to 19, with that 19-year-old being identified as Beatrice Weston, who is the niece of the potential niece of Linda Weston, who was the apparent ringleader of this organization.
So, right now, authorities are doing DNA testing to figure out who these children are, who they belong to, where their families are. They do think that they are related somehow to the suspects in this case. So they are combing through that information trying to figure out exactly who they are and where they are supposed to be.
LEMON: All right, you mentioned this Linda Weston, right? And you said her niece is not -- Linda Weston is believed to be the ringleader here, the one who masterminded this whole thing?
HOYE: That's right. Linda Weston was the apparent ringleader. She was the one who brought in and arrested on Saturday in relation to those four people being held captive in the basement.
LEMON: Yes. And I misspoke. Is it her niece or her daughter who is the fourth suspect?
HOYE: The fourth suspect today was her daughter.
LEMON: Her daughter, OK.
HOYE: Her daughter, Jean McIntosh, a 32-year-old, lived in the apartment building. She was a tenant in that seven-unit apartment building where those four people were kept in that sub-basement.
LEMON: And, also, this Linda Weston is believed to be the ringleader and she has a criminal record. Can you give us a little more about that, Sarah?
HOYE: That's right. Real quick, Don, in the '80s, she was charged with a crime in which her sister's boyfriend died of apparently starving to death. She was kept in a closet. She served eight years back in the '80s.
LEMON: Eight years back in the '80s.
Thank you very much for that, again, this story coming out of Philadelphia, we have been reporting on this weekend, when it happened -- thank you, Sarah Hoye -- since this weekend, when it happened, and it's just a horrific tale. A lot of it was believed to get their government checks, to get the money from their checks -- so unbelievable that it happened here, again, more people arrested today. And our Sarah Hoye following that from Philadelphia for us.
In the meantime, right here in the CNN studios is someone you may recognize. You know her, you love her. Brooke Baldwin takes over from here.
Hello, Brooke.