Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.N.: Supreme Court Holds Hearing on Health Care; 9,000+ Syrians Killed; Almost Buried Alive; JetBlue Flight Diverted To Texas; Questions Over Kagan's Impartiality; Search For Missing Boy

Aired March 27, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hi there. Happy Tuesday to you. I'm Brooke Baldwin. A lot going on today here. We got a lot to catch you up on. We begin with "Rapid Fire" as always.

Mike, roll it.

The U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments today in a case that touches every single one of us. I'm talking about the Affordable Care Act. So at issue here is whether the federal government can require you to have health insurance and penalize you for not buying the products.

So CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin -- he's been all over this, was inside the courthouse, said today's arguments did not go very well for the Obama administration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This was a train wreck for the Obama administration. This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: "A train wreck" -- why does he say that? We're going to ask him. We're going to talk to Toobin outside the Supreme Court live in just a couple of minutes.

Also today, we're watching these fires just absolutely raging through Colorado, just west of the Denver. And CNN has just now learned a second person has died from the flames. In fact, it is so bad, see the smoke, look at this, it is so bad that 450 firefighters are now helping with this rescue effort. The fire has not been contained.

And in less than one hour, the parents of Florida teen Trayvon Martin will be in Washington to attend this roundtable on racial profiling. Also some members of Congress, they have been speaking out about the case on the House floor.

But the story, as you know, it is ever changing. George Zimmerman's friend and former CNN anchor, actually, his name is Joe Oliver, he paints a very different picture of the deadly encounter a month ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE OLIVER, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: It came down to a life-or-death struggle between the two. I can't go into details into how the gun came into play, but it was not a part of this story until it was too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How does he know this? We do have to point out that Oliver, who was not a witness to the shooting that night, he says this is the story George Zimmerman told him himself.

Pope Benedict XVI is in Havana, Cuba. He's going to be celebrating mass there tomorrow. In fact, when he touched down in Santiago yesterday, he was greeted by Cuban president Raoul Castro and members of Cuba's clergy.

The Pope says he plans to emphasize the importance of faith during his three-day visit. Cuba was officially atheist until the early 1990s.

And Al Jazeera says it will not broadcast video of a gunman in France carrying out his killing spree. The network received a copy of this video in the mail, complete with music and religious readings, edited to the images of Mohammed Merah's crimes. Merah was ultimately killed in a showdown with police after those shootings that killed three soldiers, a rabbi and three children.

And a battle over chickens end with an explosion in Roswell, Georgia. Marshals arrived here at the scene. This is the foreclosed home of Andrew Word, known as The Chicken Man. This was yesterday morning. They got there to evict him.

Word says he fell behind on payments while serving time in jail for violating local property codes during his fight over keeping chickens in the city. Moments after, the house exploded. Investigators believe this man poured gasoline throughout the home before lighting it on fire.

And in New York, the alleged accomplice of the quote-unquote "Soccer Mom Madam" is back in court today. She is Jaynie Mae Baker. She's accused of helping run this alleged multimillion-dollar Manhattan escort service that, according to prosecutors, offered prostitutes up to $2,000 per visit. Baker is currently out on $100,000 bond and is due back in court next month.

And New York Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel is paying up now for using a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office.

Rangel has agreed to pay $23,000 to the Federal Election Commission and according to the commission, paying below-market rent for the space was the equivalent of an excessive campaign contribution that the 21-term Democrat failed to disclose in campaign financial forms. And no one is safe from identify theft, not even Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen -- have you heard about this? According to police, Brandon Price conned Citibank employees over the phone into changing the Microsoft mogul's bank account address and sent him Allen's debit card, over the phone. A Pittsburgh man is now charged with wire and bank fraud.

And brothels are now legal under a major ruling today from Ontario, Canada's, highest court. The court ruled that Canadian prostitution laws discriminate against prostitutes and their ability to work in a safe environment. The ruling allows sex workers to work indoors, but not on the streets.

And the Supreme Court's decision on health care will affect every single American, yet most people still have no idea how it directly impacts their insurance, their families, their doctors, their employers. So our doctor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is going to join me live to answer your questions.

Also this.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

The man accused of a massive slaughter visits a neighborhood in Syria in which many were killed in cold blood.

A hateful note is found next to a mother of five, who died of a vicious beating.

FATIMA ALHAMIDI, DAUGHTER OF VICTIM: We're not the terrorists, you are.

BALDWIN: But police won't yet call it a hate crime because of other evidence.

Plus, live during this show, Trayvon Martin's parents are expected on Capitol Hill to talk racial profiling. And this comes as we now hear George Zimmerman's side.

And a guy walks past a construction site. Seconds later, he's buried alive in mud.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BALDWIN: No matter what your age, your gender, religious, the case before the U.S. Supreme Court today, it will impact you. So you have these nine justices, eight and a chief justice. They're taking on the Affordable Care Act which was passed in 2010.

So the crux of this case, really the heart of the matter today, whether the government can make you buy health insurance. And our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, says from what he heard today -- he was sitting in there -- he said it looks like the law is going to be struck down.

Jeff Toobin, let me quote you again -- this is the quote heard around the world today. You called this "a train wreck" potentially for the Obama administration. Why say so, sir?

TOOBIN: Because you need five votes to win and it looks like the Obama administration did not have five votes in that courtroom. There were four Democratic justices, who were clearly fighting very hard to get that law upheld.

But Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote, within five minutes of the argument starting, started asking hostile questions of Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general. He didn't have the answers that Kennedy wanted.

Justice Alito, Justice Scalia and even Chief Justice Roberts, who was, I thought, the most perhaps amenable to the Obama administration's position, all were skeptical. And Clarence Thomas, who didn't say anything, is known to be very skeptical of this position. There just looked to be five votes to strike down this law.

BALDWIN: You mentioned Justice Kennedy. It's always fascinating to hear some of the voices. You were there, you know, living inside and then watching all this go down. For those of us who have to rely on the voice, this is the voice of Justice Kennedy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ANTHONY KENNEDY, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: But the reason this is concerning is because it requires an individual to do an affirmative act. In the law of torts, our tradition, our law has been that you don't have the duty to rescue someone if that person is in danger. The blind man is walking in front of a car and you do not have a duty to stop him, absent some relation between you.

And there's some severe moral criticisms of that rule, but that's generally the rule. And here the government is saying that the federal government has a duty to tell the individual citizen that it must act, and that is different from what we have in previous cases. That changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in a very fundamental way.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So help, as you're listening, I'm sure, because I hear shouting around you, if you can hear that, Jeff Toobin, well, what really --

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Oh, sure, I heard it.

BALDWIN: What was he trying to get at? And also to the point -- I was reading this whole article yesterday on the plane about how, you know, it was supposed to be Justice Kennedy potentially as a wild card, and now it may be, of all people, Chief Justice Roberts.

TOOBIN: That's right. Justice Kennedy was particularly concerned about this distinction that, you know, you can regulate activity. If there is a -- you know, they can set a speed limit for cars that are going, but you can't tell people to do something on their own. That distinction between activity and inactivity was very central to what Justice Kennedy was saying.

Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan were very actively trying to make the point that, look, if you don't buy health insurance yourself, you are active in the health insurance. If you are get hit by a car, you're going to be taken to the hospital. The taxpayers are going to have to cover your health care bills.

So the fact that you don't buy health insurance is an activity even if it is a nonact. Justice Kennedy did not seem persuaded by that argument.

Chief Justice Roberts, who is known to be a key part of the conservative wing, he did seem a little bit more receptive than Kennedy to the argument that, look, this is a national problem, that the absence of health insurance for 40 million people is a problem that the federal government has reason to address.

That was a point he made in some questions, but he, too, seemed skeptical of the Obama administration position at other times, arguing that this was just an excessive governmental grab of power under the Constitution.

BALDWIN: Jeff Toobin, I got to tell you, I'm hanging on your every word, but I've got to ask you to put on your reporter hat and just tell me what -- I hear all this shouting, I mean, can you just set the scene for me for what we're not seeing but what we're hearing? Are these still scores of protesters?

TOOBIN: You know, I think you are hearing more than is here. We live in a country of about 300 million people. I would say there are about 25 people protesting at this point. So I wouldn't draw many conclusions from that one way or the other. They happen to have bullhorns.

BALDWIN: Megaphones. OK.

TOOBIN: Just makes it sound a little louder, the megaphones, yes.

BALDWIN: I had to ask. I had to ask and point it out. And just to the point --

TOOBIN: No, it's true.

BALDWIN: To the point why we're really scrutinizing a lot of these justices' questions today. And the reason is, as you have said before, that most of the time the questions the justices are asking in these oral arguments are indicators, correct, depending upon which way the justice ultimately decides in a case?

TOOBIN: You know, that's true. And that's a change from the way the Supreme Court used to be. In the 1980s, when I first came to Supreme Court arguments, you would see justices play devil's advocate. They would sort of ask questions that they were genuinely puzzled about the answers to.

Very different in the Roberts court. In the Roberts court, what you see is what you get almost all the time with the justices. So if they ask questions like Kennedy asked today, you know 99 times out of 100, that's how they're going to vote when the case, you know, comes down to being decided.

BALDWIN: OK, and I do have one more question, just about this term severability. But I'm going to wait till next hour because I know we're talking to you then.

But a lot of people are wondering, look, you know, if this part of the law, the individual mandate is struck down, what does that do to the rest of the law? So hold your answer; viewers, hold tight, because we're going to get Jeff Toobin back up next hour, hopefully minus the bullhorns.

Thank you, sir, Jeff Toobin.

Meantime, I do want to move along to the family of Trayvon Martin. They are in Washington today, attending this forum, this roundtable on racial profiling sponsored by members of Congress. And coming up next, we're going to hear from a close friend of the shooter here, in this case, George Zimmerman, the man accused of shooting and killing the 17-year-old one month ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The parents of Florida teen Trayvon Martin are taking their case to Capitol Hill. They're going to be at a House hearing on racial profiling and hate crimes. And we still don't know the full circumstances or motivation behind the shooting.

We are hearing two very different stories from neighbors. One says Trayvon Martin was the aggressor. Another witness says it was the shooter, George Zimmerman, who, in fact, attacked Martin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"JOHN", WITNESS: The guy on the bottom, who I believe had a red sweater on, was yelling to me, help, help. I told him to stop, and I was calling 911. And when I got upstairs and looked down, the person that was on top beating up the other guy was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point.

MARY CUTCHER, WITNESS: Within seconds we were out there. And Zimmerman -- she was out first -- Zimmerman was standing over the body, with -- basically straddling the body with his hands on Trayvon's back. I didn't hear any struggle prior to the gunshot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in Martin Savidge. He is live for us in Sanford. And Martin, first, looking ahead to this roundtable that's happening on Capitol Hill in really just about 45 minutes from now, what can you tell me about it?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is going to be where the family of Trayvon Martin is going to be present, his mother and father. His attorney is the only one that's expected to speak. The parents are not anticipated that they will speak, but they will be present inside the room for the hearing.

At the same time, there has been a demonstration outside the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. This was a group of people that were asking, again, that justice be served in the case of Trayvon Martin. They're also talking about other more broader issues, wanting more investigations of hate crimes and tougher laws down the road.

So that's what's taking place in Washington today regarding the case.

BALDWIN: OK. And obviously we have cameras. We're going to be watching that signal and as soon as we potentially see Trayvon Martin's parents, we'll bring that to you live.

Meantime, as you're down there, Martin, when we continue with crews digging into what we know about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, what more do we know from that original Sanford police department report?

SAVIDGE: Well, and of course, the Sanford police will say that's not their report, at least not the one they released. But they do say that that information was accurate. And what we know now is that George Zimmerman apparently was involved in an altercation with Trayvon Martin.

And that report seems to portray Trayvon as being the aggressor, in other words, that he went up, that he punched George Zimmerman in the face, knocking him to the ground and then began beating his head against the ground. It was at that time that George Zimmerman apparently cried out for help.

And it was also during that struggle that the gun goes off. The part we don't know, the part that Joe Oliver talks about, the friend of George Zimmerman, is apparently was there a struggle for control of the weapon? And if so, was the gun purposefully fired or accidentally fired? We don't know that. Of course, it's critical to the investigation.

BALDWIN: As we're -- and I know many people are searching for answers here. I do know that we're hearing, at least, that Trayvon Martin's mother has trademarked a couple of phrases that mention her son. What are the phrases and what's her motivation?

SAVIDGE: Well, you know, it's -- "I am Trayvon Martin," is one of the phrases, I believe; there are a couple of other phrases. And here's the thing. You know, yesterday during the group that showed up here that were demonstrating. There were lots of t-shirts that were being sold. A lot of people have been actually marketing this and some people have actually been profiting from this.

And of course, you're using Trayvon Martin's name. You're using his image. And this family's very concerned about that. They want to make sure that they regain control of their son, so to speak. So that's one of the reasons that they are doing this.

They've -- you know, they've made this request. They hope to get trademark status for his name so they can -- they can have some say as to how his image and how his name is being used, and not just for the purpose of making money making t-shirts.

BALDWIN: Martin Savidge for us in Sanford. Martin, thank you.

Also neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, you know, he hasn't spoken publicly about what happened the night he shot Trayvon Martin. This picture of a smiling George Zimmerman is from "The Orlando Sentinel." It's much more recent than the other images we've been seeing of him.

So his friend -- actually, he was a former CNN anchor, his name is Joe Oliver -- got pretty emotional when talking about Zimmerman.

JOE OLIVER, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: His life will never be the same. He's living in seclusion. I don't know where he's at. I do know how to get in touch with him now, but I have no idea where he's at. He's being treated for post traumatic stress syndrome, depression, insomnia. He can't eat. He cried for days after the shooting. He's extremely remorseful.

And now he's living in hiding because he has become the scapegoat for what ails this country as far as racial relations go.

I'm not here just for George. I'm here for my kids. I'm here for every other young black man. I understand why everybody is upset. If I didn't know George, I would be upset, too. And I would be out there. If I didn't know what I know I would be just as outraged.

But once this is all over, we still have to address the problem that brought us to the point in the first place, and that's the fear that we have of each other, the fear that we have of young black men.

We hear all of the stories about the criminal aspects that have put young black men in the spotlight, but we don't hear enough about all the successful black men that we have out there, the ones who have done it on their own, the ones who pulled themselves up out of poverty. We don't hear enough about that.

I've got an 18-year-old son. My heart goes out to the Martins. I'm a black man. And like my friend, George, I'm just trying to do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joe Oliver there. And now hear him quoting -- you see the quote, "Act like a thug, die like one." A New Orleans police officer is suspended without pay for posting this phrase online. He was referring to Trayvon Martin. The police superintendent, less than pleased with this.

RONAL SERPAS, POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: To say that I'm angry is an understatement. I'm furious. Giroir, by those statements, has embarrassed this department with insensitive, harmful and offensive comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN affiliate WWL says the officer is already under investigation for a shooting incident at a traffic stop.

And coming up next, a possible cease-fire in Syria. This comes the same day that we get reports of more children hurt by violent attacks in the country. We have video of the children for you after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Syria agrees to a cease-fire as the U.N. ups its estimate now to more than 9,000 Syrians dead, 9,000 since the uprising began. Opposition groups, though, they maintain that that figure is closer to 10,000.

Nevertheless, Syria has accepted peace, envoy Kofi Annan's U.N. peace plan. And CNN has just learned that Annan will now brief the U.N. Security Council. That will happen next Monday. He says he just wants to help the people of Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N.-ARAB LEAGUE ENVOY : They deserve better. They are the ones who are caught in the middle. And I think it is important that we work with the government and the opposition to stop the fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, the fighting continues. In fact, I want to share some images with you. This is video, this is from YouTube that shows just how bad. And bad, that doesn't cover it, just how horrendous the situation there is.

But we just have to warn you before this -- we roll this video, the images, you will find them disturbing. But they show wounded little boys that are believed to be from Homs, Syria, taken yesterday. You can hear -- you can hear the cries of these children, these young children in the background.

And we don't normally show children in this kind of condition, but we want to show this to you today just to show you how horrific Syria's indiscriminate shelling is. This is a stark contrast with the regime's portrayal of life is normal there.

And to show you that, here is President Bashar al-Assad in the same city today. Here he is in Baba Amr. This is a neighborhood known for bloodshed. Just to juxtapose those two images for you. I want to bring in CNN's senior international correspondent, Ben Wedemann, for us, who's is in neighboring Beirut, Lebanon.

And so first, I just have to ask you this: we have this headline here that Syria has agreed to these peace talks, the cease-fire. But we're talking about a man, this leader ,who has been slaughtering his own people. We mentioned those dead, 9,000. Why should the world, Ben, believe him?

BEN WEDEMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, his track record isn't very good. In fact, in November, the Syrian government, led by Bashar al-Assad, agreed to an Arab League action plan to stop the fighting and to start a dialogue between the opposition and the government.

The Syrians agreed but then took weeks to quibble over the details. By the time the Arab monitors went to Syria to start the implementation of the plan, the government was already violently cracking down on these demonstrations.

And of course, the opposition is saying, look, it didn't work last time and this new plan, which is very much like the old plan, isn't going to work, either. And certainly on the ground -- and you saw in that video there, the government is pressing ahead with this violent crackdown on the regime. And despite the words, despite his appearance in Homs, it appears that actions speak louder than words.

BALDWIN: You're exactly right. You mentioned this sort of -- that there's not much different between this new plan versus the old. I know this current plan is the six-point plan. Let's just talk about if the, you know, actions happened, how will it specifically help the Syrians?

WEDEMAN: Well, it would involve, for instance, some sort of cessation of violence on both sides. The regime would stop the violent crackdown on the opposition, and the opposition in theory would start -

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: -- specifically help the Syrians?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would involve, for instance, some sort of cessation of the violence on both sides. The regime would stop the violent crackdown on the opposition. The opposition in theory would stop fighting back.

In addition, there would be a two-hour daily humanitarian ceasefire to allow humanitarian organizations to bring in supplies and medical treatment to some of these towns like Homs whereas we know the president may go to one neighborhood where things are sort of fine as far as we know.

But there are other parts of town where the bombardment continues, where the violence continues. So theory, it holds out the promise of cessation or lessening of the violence, but recent history does not bode well when considering Bashar Al-Assad's track record. BALDWIN: And Ben, final question to you, as we've been talking and reporting on these deaths inside Syria, as we mentioned, you are in neighboring Lebanon.

Yet there has been heavy fighting between Syrian troops and rebels there on the border. What have you seen? What can you tell us about that?

WEDEMAN: Well, there was some sort of clash on the border of north eastern Lebanon, really taking place on the main smuggling corridor between Lebanon that supplies Homs and the area around it.

Now one of the worries is that there was an activist who was very heavily involved in maintaining the supply line. He was captured by the Syrian authorities a few days ago.

Worries are they've extracted information from him and now the Syrian government is ripping out that supply route by the roots.

BALDWIN: Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Ben, thank you.

And if this doesn't make your heart skip a beat, nothing will. Look at this. Do you see what's there? A dramatic rescue of a man stuck and covered and sinking in mud. The whole thing caught on video. We're going to show that to you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A man almost buried alive after falling in the mud. We're going to pause the video of him actually because initially we thought, you know, you could kind of see his outline. You can see some of the folks at Atlanta fire department. This is the beginning part of the rescue.

But it's even hard to make out. There is a man in the mud. So this guy was walking near a construction site in Atlanta when he, I don't know, we'll ask the battalion chief, he fell, he got stuck here.

And obviously then he started to sink. So you see the rescue crews, they had to move the mud from his face just so they could open his airways so he could breathe.

They then got him out. He was taken to the hospital. He is expected to recover. But I want to bring in David Rhodes. He is in the phone with me, the battalion chief of the Atlanta Fire Department.

Chief, I mean, from everything I've read, it sounds like your guys saved his life. How in the world did he get stuck?

DAVID RHODES, BATTALION CHIEF, ATLANTA FIRE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Well, we're really not sure. He was not able to talk to us after we got him out, but just from looking at the scene. It looks he just walked in, possibly got stuck and then after being in there for hours, got weak and collapsed. He ended up in the position that you saw in the video, which was actually good for him because it provided a little more surface area and kind of kept him on top. But the mud actually right underneath him is about four feet deep on Saturday.

BALDWIN: I'm still stuck on you said hours. So he was stuck for hours and the first thing I thought when I saw this, it's almost like -- could you equate it to quick sand?

RHODES: It's very similar, very similar and the problem is, there's no surface area to distribute the weight. So as you see, the firefighters, the only equipment we had on initially was just our ground ladder so we tried that to get firefighters in.

And one of our firefighters had already become stuck in the mud himself and was able to get out with assistance from another firefighter. One of the medics also was stuck there by his head.

She actually got to him and kept his airway out of the mud. He regained a little bit of strength and held his head up and as we tried to move him and get some ground boards all in place. It looked like he was going to go back under.

So we were set up to do a technical rescue. We were in the process of setting that up, but like time was running out so we grabbed some plywood that was on site for the construction crew and put it over the mud and made a little bridge to get to him and actually just pulled him out by hand.

BALDWIN: And let me guess, based upon the fact that he was in there for hours. I don't know if anyone saw him. I'm going to guess with this fast-moving red clay in Georgia that his footprints were probably covered over.

RHODES: Yes, that's what's I'm thinking is that he walked in sometime during the night and got stuck and then there was such a wet mud. We'd had rain earlier in the morning that basically they just filled in.

There is some speculation and some reports that he fell, but none of the rails from the construction site were broken. And it would have been about a 30-foot fall and he didn't have any trauma injuries at all.

I think he just walked in there and got overcome with hypothermia and just exhaustion.

BALDWIN: That's right. It was a cool morning in Atlanta in the 50s. So he did suffer hypothermia. Final question, I mean, you don't even know who he is, correct? You don't even know if he's OK?

RHODES: That's right, our medics who went into the hospital with him reported around lunch time on Saturday that he was doing good in the hospital, but we don't who he is, if he's a citizen, a homeless man or what. We just don't know.

BALDWIN: Wow. David Rhodes with the Atlanta Fire Department. Excellent job to you and your crew. Thank you so much for calling in.

Now to a bizarre incident involving the captain of a plane, forces the flight to land early. Details coming into us from the scene and a passenger who was on the flight. Just into us. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, so this just in. A flight from New York to Las Vegas has now had to divert in Amarillo, Texas, because of some sort of incident on the plane.

I've got a passenger on the line. The passenger is Heidi Karg. Heidi, let's start just start from beginning here. Tell me where you were on the plane and what happened, what did you see?

HEIDI KARG, PASSENGER ON JETBLUE FLIGHT (via telephone): Well, it was a very interesting morning for me. I was actually sitting in the eighth row of the plane. We saw some commotion all of a sudden, probably about three hours into the flight.

We saw all of the stewardesses running towards the front of the plane. There was some commotion around the cockpit. We saw at that point a male who looked like a flight attendant, he had a JetBlue uniform on, was pounding on the cockpit door saying I need the code, give me the code.

I need to get in there. At that time, they tried to relax him and the pilot came on saying you need to restrain him, you need to restrain him. We had a punch of male passengers run up to the front, help the flight attendant to get to the ground.

He was shouting different things saying he's going to bomb us. It was very confusing. We weren't really sure what was happening.

BALDWIN: Hang on, let me just --

KARG: We found out later when we exited the plane that he was the captain. I believe he was the captain of the flight.

BALDWIN: Heidi, let me interrupt you. Because I want to just go back. So tell me again what you heard.

KARG: We just heard a lot of commotion that he needed the code. He wanted to get back in the cockpit. They shut the cockpit door and he couldn't get back in and he was shouting things. People heard different things.

We heard the word bomb. We didn't know exactly what was going on. He was shouting different things and then they subdued him and got him to the ground. And there were some male passengers that were helping them, restraining him on the ground.

BALDWIN: My goodness, I'm sure this was so frightening for many of you. As you mentioned three hours into this flight, it was supposed to get you from New York's JFK over to Vegas instead you're now sitting in Amarillo.

Let me just read the statement because we have gotten a statement from JetBlue. As I'm looking at it here, they say, right around 10 a.m. Central, the pilot in command elected to divert to Amarillo, Texas, for a medical situation involving the captain.

We're talking about the captain of this flight here that Heidi you were on. Another captain traveling off-duty entered the flight deck prior to landing at Amarillo and took over the duties of how they describe, as an ill crew member once on the ground.

Heidi, hang on. I understand we also have some video onboard so --

KARG: Yes. There were a lot of people taking videos.

BALDWIN: OK, I'm sure now in this day and age. Many people were doing that. So actually let me bring in Lizzie O'Leary. She's following this with us from Washington. Lizzie, you got some of this video. Tell me what you now know happened and let's take a look.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, listening to Heidi's description is very helpful. We have video that we believe to be of this plane. We should point that out. We believe it's of this JetBlue Flight 191 that did make this emergency diversion to Amarillo.

We know from the air traffic control tapes they did request an emergency landing there. I want to play out a couple of things. Number one, you can see the commotion going on there and the question of who stepped in.

There was a pilot or a captain onboard who was doing what airlines refer to as deadheading, which means he was off-duty, but flying onboard the plane. According to the airline, he stepped in and was in the cockpit when they made that emergency landing and then assumes controls of the plane once they were already on the ground.

I will say the airport authority head in Amarillo told me there were reports of this altercation involving the captain, but they have been sort of unconfirmed by the airline. They did say that he was taken to a medical facility.

They also say they were working with local law enforcement and the FBI, which of course, raises the question because generally, the FBI is not involved if there's a pilot who's just sick. So there are a number of questions still kind of outstanding here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, so Lizzie, stand by. Heidi, standby because we're going to reroll this video, what we're going to do is going to eavesdrop. We're going to listen because I'm told there is some audio on this video. Let's take a listen.

So again, this is a raw video from this flight. It appears to be this flight that we're talking about, this JetBlue flight. It's raw video, so it's tough to hear what's going on.

Heidi, I know you were there eight rows back, perhaps right around here being your perch onboard this plane. You are now again on the ground in Amarillo I'm presuming that they're working to get you a new plane for you all to head on to Las Vegas.

But in the meantime, just to recap what you were describing to me. Suddenly you see multiple people, flight attendants sort of rushing the cockpit door, banging on it, asking, you know, for the code, could you hear the captain at all?

KARG: That's what we believe, it was a male gentleman that I heard say I need the code, I need the code. It was him that was saying that. I didn't know at the time that he was the captain.

I just saw a JetBlue uniform. He was just banging on the door and the other that took over the plane announced that he needed to be restrained.

BALDWIN: So someone in JetBlue capacity gets on the loud speaker and says what?

KARG: He said please restrain him. That's exactly what he said, please restrain him. And we had a couple of male passengers help the flight attendants restrain him during the flight.

BALDWIN: So had the cockpit door opened, had this captain stepped out?

KARG: I'm really not sure what happened. It was really sudden. He couldn't get into the cockpit. I know he wanted to be in there, but they wouldn't let him get in.

BALDWIN: OK, so how much time, Heidi, passed between, you know, this commotion that we're looking at here on these raw pictures and when you all landed in Amarillo?

KARG: It was probably about a total of like 25 minutes, I would say, 30 minutes that they had him on the ground. I can't say for sure. It all happened pretty quickly.

BALDWIN: OK, goodness and so they've given you -- I imagine they've told you hang tight. We apologize. Did they apologize?

KARG: Yes, they did. They said they had everything under control. Had everybody set everyone back down and they had two male individuals holding him down while we landed.

BALDWIN: OK, Heidi Karg, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate that. We appreciate to the person who has shared this video with us.

Lizzie O'Leary, as you get any more information, I know you're working your transportation sources here, talking to JetBlue. We appreciate that.

We're also getting calls from other passengers onboard this plane. We're going to bring them in as they come in. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, we are continuing to follow this JetBlue plane incident story. You're looking at pictures outside the aircraft on the left side. Pictures we've gotten from apparently inside this flight from New York to Vegas had to be diverted to Amarillo, Texas, because of a medical situation onboard the plane.

Again, the video outside -- you can't see the plane. This was the scene outside the plane on the left. What we think is video from inside the plane we should say when that incident happened on board.

You see all the commotion there. We're also hearing from passengers on the plane. Just heard from one. We're going to bring them to you as soon as they come in. Also if you're on that plane, send me a tweet @brookebcnn.

But I do want to return here what many are calling the biggest Supreme Court case of our time, if the government can require you to have health insurance, whether you want to buy it or not.

According to a new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll, half of Americans believe whatever these justices decide. It will be based mostly on their personal political views and not an objective interpretation of the law.

The number is 50 and 46 there. Also that plays into why some critics are calling this newest justice, Elena Kagan to recues herself from the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): If Elena Kagan was still in her previous job, she would be defending the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law instead of deciding that as the newest justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So help me God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.

BALDWIN: It was her high profile role as the Obama administration's solicitor general, the government's top lawyer before the federal court that has wrangled conservatives.

REPRESENTATIVE LAMAR SMITH (R), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: The public has the right to know the extent of Justice Kagan's involvement with the legislation, as well as any previously stated legal opinions.

If Justice Kagan was part of the administration's team that put the health care mandate into play, she should not officiate when it comes before the Supreme Court.

BALDWIN: The health care bill was passed by Congress and signed by the president in March of 2010. Around the time, Kagan was quietly told she was being considered for a possible court vacancy.

Administration officials insist as a result, she was deliberately kept out of the loop over legal strategies surrounding the law.

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I can tell you that with regard to, as I said, the conversations that occurred in my conference room about the health care bill, I do not remember her being --

BALDWIN: Kagan herself during her Senate confirmation hearings admitted attending one meeting where the topic was discussed internally, but nothing involving a, quote, "substantive discussion."

But internal memos later released by the White House showed the 52-year-old Kagan taking at least a personal interest in the pending legislation. Quote, "I hear they have the votes, Larry." Simply amazing she gushes in one e-mail.

Activists on the right say Justice Kagan should now pull out of the health care cases to preserve the integrity of the court.

CARRIE SEVERION, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: The bottom line is you can't play coach and be a referee at the same game.

BALDWIN: The recusal politics plays both ways here. Similar calls from the left insisting Justice Clarence Thomas drop out of the oral arguments for failing to fully disclose his wife's income as a conservative political advocate. Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Now obviously neither Kagan nor Thomas decided to bow out of the oral arguments that are happening this week. Kagan has withdrawn herself from considering at least 20 other cases before the court.

But I want to remind you here at the top of the hour, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be sitting here with me in studios, going to be answering some of your questions. I know you're engaged.

You have questions about on how this could affect you with regard to the health care law. So Rocky, flip around and you can see I was tweeting out, what kind of questions would you have for Sanjay?

Here's one of the questions. That being will the health care act help keep health costs from going up like the president promised? Keep those tweets coming to me or to Sanjay. My Twitter handle @brookbcnn.

So we have that for you in a couple of minutes. Also we've got this story about this 4-year-old disappears without a trace from a campground in Arkansas.

And after days of searching land, searchers are now looking in the water. We're going to talk to one of the searchers after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, just quickly. In case you're just tuning in, we're going to get to this missing 4-year-old boy in a moment. But again, we are following this story. This JetBlue incident that's just recently happened.

This flight was going from New York to Las Vegas, had to divert. These folks are now sit on the ground in Amarillo, Texas, waiting for another plane because of this medical situation, this is how JetBlue is qualifying it to us.

They had to divert this plane for a medical situation involving the captain of this plane. There just so happened to be another captain traveling off-duty onboard who had to hop on the flight deck and help take over control.

We're working on this story. Lizzie O'Leary is working on the story for us in Washington. We're talking to passengers so stay tuned for that.

Meantime, there's a desperate search here for a 4-year-old boy who has been missing ever since Saturday. His name is Calub Lin. He was with his aunt at a campground in Arkansas.

And they were there helping out, clearing storm debris when he asked to go back to the cabin where other kids were playing. Corporal Brian Gaskins is with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He is on the line with me now. Corporal Gaskins, any idea what happened to him?

CORPORAL BRIAN GASKINS, ARKANSAS GAME AND FISH COMMISSION (via telephone): Apparently, the child was given permission to go back to the cabin. He was told to walk the road. After the aunt got to the cabin and was with the other children, it was noticed that he was missing at that time.

So at that point, the search started and then the local authorities were notified and we have been searching land and water since that time. We were on a bridge cleaning debris at the time that the child became missing.

BALDWIN: So hang on sir, let me ask you to go back to your point about the child was given this OK to return to the cabin. Was this 4- year-old alone and given permission to do so?

GASKINS: There were six children with the aunt at the time. The other kids took off ahead.

BALDWIN: OK, and you mentioned the terrain you were searching and I understand the river was very high this weekend.

GASKINS: At the time, yes, the river was up from recent rains we had had and was dropping out. Since Saturday, the water has dropped approximately about 14 inches.

BALDWIN: So you are presumably now searching this river?

GASKINS: I apologize. I have a helicopter above me doing an aerial search and I am not to able to hear you very well.

BALDWIN: Forgive me, let me speak up. As people are searching from the sky right now for this little 4-year-old, are they also searching now this river?

GASKINS: Yes, ma'am. We cleared the area immediately around the bridge about 100 yards. We have canines here that detected things down lower. So we are in the process of trying to clear those areas out that the canines hit on.

BALDWIN: Corporal Brian Gaskins, we wish you best of luck here in your search. Hopefully for finding this little guy A OK. Corporal Gaskins, thank you so much from Arkansas.