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Man Claims He Strangled Etan Patz; Stopping Same-Sex Marriages; Fighting a Flesh-Eating Bacteria; Horror Of The "Chernobyl Diaries"; U.S. Presence In Afghanistan; Activity At North Korea Nuke Site; Elton John's "Serious" Illness; FBI Arrests New Jersey Mayor; Romney: U.S. Has Education Crisis; Student Gunman Admits To Killings; Bear Attacks Man In Outhouse; Limbaugh: CNN Trying To Scare Whites; Student Survives Life Changing Moment; Queen Victoria's Diaries Go Online
Aired May 24, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brooke Baldwin. A lot to get to here in the next two hours. Let's hit it first.
In just about an hour from now, a group will makes its case on Capitol Hill about why gay marriage should be banned. But in just a couple of minutes, Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, he's going to join me live on this show before he steps to the microphones and I'm going to ask him some tough questions.
Also happening right now, we're talking hurricanes today. We're talking Hurricane Bud. Take a look. On the move. This storm is intensifying today. Now becoming a category two. We're talking winds up to 125 miles an hour. It is expected to move toward the coast of Mexico, but weaken in the course of the next 48 hours. As of now, we're told Bud will not make landfall. Obviously updates as soon as we get them.
But first, the mystery. The mystery that really struck fear into the hearts of a generation of parents, put those pictures of missing children on those milk cartons and moved a president, President Ronald Reagan, to declare Missing Children's Day, all taking a new turn today. Thirty-three years, almost to the day, after six-year-old Etan Patz vanished while walking to school, to the bus stop, for the very first time. New York Police may finally have a break in the case. Susan Candiotti is on this for us there in New York.
And, Susan, a lot of questions for you. First, police, they're questioning this man who has now apparently confessed to killing Etan Patz many years ago. Who is this guy? And how skeptical are police here really of this confession in the first place?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.
Well, certainly this is a stunning revelation to say the least. According to a source, this man is identified as Pedro Hernandez. And they are saying that he allegedly confessed, claiming that he killed Etan Patz by strangling the boy back in 1979. You'll recall that he disappeared while he was walking to a school bus stop for the first time himself -- by himself that day. Now, some sources are saying that this is a very, very solid lead, this alleged confession. However, other law enforcement agencies that are also involved in the case are saying that they are treating this with a heavy dose of skepticism, though they are not saying precisely why. Remember, this is a man who we are told was -- that police were aware of decades ago because he owned a bodega in that very same neighborhood -- that's another name for a convenience store --
BALDWIN: Sure.
CANDIOTTI: In that same neighborhood where Etan Patz and his family lived years ago.
BALDWIN: Sure. And I'm sure --
CANDIOTTI: And his parents still live there.
BALDWIN: Right. And I'm sure police doing their due diligence 33 years ago talked to everyone in the area and I'm sure they questioned him as well. My question to you, whether the, you know, as you say, some sources say this is a solid lead. Others with a healthy dose of skepticism. What is he saying? Do we have details of this confession?
CANDIOTTI: Well, the detail that I've been giving is that he allegedly said that he strangled the little boy. Now, we will -- you know, it's kind of important to know, too, that in a book written years ago about this case, author Lisa Cohen talks about the day that Etan disappeared and said that that day he told his parents that when he was walking to school he was going to bring with him a dollar that had been given to him the day before by another man in the neighborhood that police also questioned, and that the little boy said that he planned to spend that dollar in a local store -- He said at the bodega -- to buy a soda pop that he could drink at school that day.
BALDWIN: Oh, wow.
CANDIOTTI: Is there a connection here? We don't know yet. That's the bottom line. Although, Brooke, police are telling us that they intend to make a statement about this case, give up more details about this sometime later today.
BALDWIN: Later today. In the meantime, you have these parents, as you mentioned, who are still living on that street, working through the highs and lows. You know, a lot of this turning cold so far.
Susan Candiotti, do we know specifically when we're going to expect police giving any kind of update today?
CANDIOTTI: Not yet. This man is still being questioned.
BALDWIN: OK.
CANDIOTTI: He has not been charged yet. So we are also waiting to find out whether the district attorney's office, which reopened this case back in 2010, will wind up charging him.
BALDWIN: OK. Susan Candiotti, as soon as you find out when they're going to be holding that news conference, we'd love to find out as well, pass that along to our viewers. Susan, I appreciate it.
Got a lot more for you in the next two hours. Watch this.
Live during this show, two men will stand behind microphones trying to persuade America that marriage belongs between a man and a woman. The question is, will Congress agree? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
True life horror becomes a Hollywood flick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there people here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's impossible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And now, just hours before its release, one charity is blasting the "Chernobyl Diaries."
Plus, in just minutes, I'll speak live with one of the victims of this flesh-eating bacteria, as doctors race to fight his infection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Men marrying men. Women marrying women. The very idea makes the people of the Family Research Council recoil. And in less than one hour, the ultra conservative group is holding a news conference with South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, a number of other pastors from all around the country. The point here is sticking up for the Defense of Marriage Act. It's known as DOMA, which defines marriage as one man and one woman. Now, President Obama, not a fan of DOMA, as he told the ladies on "The View" just recently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My Justice Department has said to the courts, we don't think the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional. This is something that historically had been determined at the state level. And, you know, part of my, you know, believing ultimately that civil unions weren't sufficient.
BARBARA WALTERS, "THE VIEW": Will you personally fight to repeal that act?
OBAMA: Well, look, Congress is clearly on notice that I think it's a bad idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council.
Tony, nice to have you on.
TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Good afternoon, Brooke.
BALDWIN: You heard the president right there. You're speaking at the top of the hour. Give me a little preview of what you'll be saying at 3:00 Eastern.
PERKINS: Well, I'm actually joining a large group of pastors from various ethnic and denominational backgrounds who have come to Washington, who are saying that, look, the president has gone one bridge too far. A lot of these African-American pastors saying, look, marriage is very clearly described in the Bible. The president has basically drawn a line in the sand and said, hey, are you going to cross it? And these pastors are going to cross it.
I can tell you this. Based on the polling data, and when you see 32 states that have voted to defend traditional marriage, none voting to redefine it, voters are not going to follow the president down the same-sex marriage aisle. In fact, I don't think they're going to hold their piece. I think they're going to start speaking out. The president is doing too much in trying to redefine our culture by redefining marriage.
BALDWIN: Well, Tony, I know you point to those polls. I do want to show you another poll as well. This is when it comes to opposition of same-sex marriage. It's actually, if you see the numbers, I don't know if you have a monitor there on The Hill, it's a new low here. This is a "Washington Post"/ABC News poll. So you say the question is, should same-sex marriage be legal or illegal? The majority there, 53 percent, say legal. Most people in the country don't agree with you.
PERKINS: Well, it's on -- how you ask the question. You look at the various polls out there. And the real poll that matters is when the voters vote on whether or not marriage should be defined as a union of a man and a woman. And again, 30 states have been trying that definition into their constitution with an average vote of 67 percent. It's not a close issue when it gets to the states.
BALDWIN: OK, well let's then move away from numbers. And I just want to play a little sound. This is from Secretary of State Colin Powell, Republican, spoke with Wolf Blitz on CNN here. Take a listen to what he said. They talked about this, marriage equality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN COLIN POWELL (RET.), FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: In terms of a legal matter, of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country. And so I support the president's decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: This is a man, you know the history as well as I do in the '90s, led, you know, the adoption of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Now he's saying no problem with gay marriage. My question to you, Tony Perkins, why are Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, why are they wrong?
PERKINS: Well, I think if it were to stop at say the marriage alter, just two people who loved each other, and I think if that were all that we were talking about here, more Americans might agree with Colin Powell. But what we're talking about here are the -- is the curriculum in our public schools and what our children are going to be taught. We're already seeing that happening. We're seeing the issue of religious liberty. A clear conflict and a contradiction with what many people believe in the --
BALDWIN: Well, why are we talking about -- forgive me for interrupting. Why are we talking about curriculum in the school when really this is just about -- this is about --
PERKINS: Well, because (INAUDIBLE) --
BALDWIN: Love and the law and the ability to get married or not and having those rights recognized.
PERKINS: Well, no, no, no, no. Listen, Brooke, that's not it. We've already seen in places such as Massachusetts that's legalized same-sex marriage, all of a sudden in the elementary schools it's taught that homosexual relationships are the same as heterosexual and parents are not able to opt their children out of that teaching. We've seen religious institutions that have lost their tax exemption because they refuse to allow their facility to be used for same-sex unions. So this is much more than just whether or not two people love each other.
BALDWIN: Of course.
PERKINS: This is about who we are as a nation.
BALDWIN: It's about rights. I understand.
PERKINS: No, it's about religious freedom. It's about parental rights. It's about public accommodation. There's a lot more here than just two people who might have an affinity for one another.
BALDWIN: You bring up Massachusetts, and we all know, Massachusetts, it was the first state to legalize same sex marriage. That was back in 2004. And the divorce rate actually in that state has only fallen since then.
PERKINS: Well, absolutely. And what you're also seeing is the marriage rates are falling, because as we in our public policy devalue marriage, which we began really in 1969 with no fault divorce, we have devalued the institution and, of course, we have 40 years now of social science research that says this public policy change was a disaster. This could very well be the death nail of marriage.
And, of course, the real losers here are children. We found that children who grow up with a mom and a dad are much better economically, they're better emotionally, they're better in their educational pursuits. So why would we adopt policy that would move us away from the gold standard? We need to promote that which is good for our children and society as a whole, not just one or two people here and there.
BALDWIN: Would you rather have children then grow up without parents? And also, how is a same-sex relationship, how is that less valued?
PERKINS: Well, Brooke, I mean that's a good question. It's not just the issue of two caregivers. If it were just two caregivers, three would be even better. It's an issue of a mom and a dad and the fundamental role. And this is not -- this is not political hyperbole. This is the social science that shows that children need the developmental aspects of both a mom and a dad. And now while we -- obviously we don't get to that in every situation, we should strive for that and our policy should undergird that and promote it. This moves us away from that. And so that's why you see pastors from different ethnic backgrounds, denominational backgrounds saying, we're not going to be silent on this issue.
BALDWIN: Not all, but some. And everyone has the right to opine. But my question is, I guess more on a personal level to you, have you ever been to the home of a married same-sex couple, Tony?
PERKINS: I have not been to the home of a same-sex married couple, no.
BALDWIN: If you were ever to do so and you're sitting across from them over dinner, how would you convince them that their life together -- either two men, two women -- hurts straight couples? What do you tell them?
PERKINS: Well, first, Brooke, we don't make public policy based on what's good for me and my family or you and your family or one couple.
BALDWIN: I'm just asking on a personal level. I'm just asking, personal level.
PERKINS: No, but I'm -- but we're engaged here in a discussion about public policy and what's best for the nation, not anecdotes or what one couple likes or how this --
BALDWIN: But this issue is -- it is personal.
PERKINS: I mean, look, I'm sure -- look --
BALDWIN: It is personal as well.
PERKINS: But that's not how we make public policy. Certainly there are some same-sex couple that are probably great parents, but that's not what the overwhelming amount of social science shows us. And we've got some great single moms that are doing a great jobs. And we applaud them and encourage them. But we still know the best environment for a child is with a mom and a dad. And our policy should encourage --
BALDWIN: But shouldn't public policy in part be dictated by evolving cultures, evolving demographics, reflecting that?
PERKINS: But we're not evolving to a better standard when we look at children growing up without those critical role models. And, again, we've got 40 years of public policy or the research that's come from the public policy that shows that we've not been moving in a better direction by moving away from that standard of marriage being at the center of the family of a mom and a dad. We've actually incurred tremendous costs as a society, both emotionally and financially.
BALDWIN: OK. I know -- I know you don't want to answer the personal questions, but I'm going to try again, Tony. I'm going to try again. And this is really just it for me today. Why do you -- you've never been to a home of a same-sex couple. Why do homosexuals bother you so much? I mean would it be fair to characterize --
PERKINS: They don't bother me. They don't bother me.
BALDWIN: They don't bother you?
PERKINS: No.
BALDWIN: Not at all.
PERKINS: I'm not going to -- I'm not going to be silent while they try to redefine marriage in this country, change policy, what my children are taught in schools and what religious organizations can do. I'm not going to be silent nor are millions of other Christians across this country. It doesn't mean that we have a dislike for homosexuals.
BALDWIN: But if they don't bother you, then why shouldn't they have the same right to get married?
PERKINS: They don't have a right to redefine marriage for the rest of us. They don't have a right to take away any religious freedom. They don't have a right to step between me and what my child is taught. That's what's happening. That's why people are getting involved. And that's why this issue will not be resolved, whether the president says it should be or not. There are many, many Americans, as we've seen in every time -- every time this has gone through the ballot box, Americans understand, the definition of a marriage is what it has been for 5,000 years, it's the union of a man and a woman.
BALDWIN: Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council. We'll look for you at the top of the hour there on Capitol Hill with this group preaching what you just explained to us.
PERKINS: All right. OK, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Tony, thanks.
A Georgia man has now had six surgeries to stop the spread of this flesh-eating bacteria. He's hoping to get out of the hospital very soon. We're going to talk to Bobby Vaughn (ph) about his recovery live from his hospital room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: For the very first time here, we are able to directly hear from someone who now had this bacteria eating away at his body. We've been following these two cases for you so far. Aimee Copeland, she was that college student in Georgia, was on that zip line and it broke. She fell. She has now lost her leg, her feet and her hands to what's called necrotizing fasciitis. Also Lana Kuykendall. She's had seven surgeries after having -- giving birth to just two twins here. Both women have been too sick to speak with reporters. But we now have this third case from Georgia. We've been talking about this recently. He is Bobby Vaughn who says doctors had to remove 2.5 pounds of his flesh, 2.5 pounds. He's about to talk to me actually by phone here from his hospital room in Augusta, Georgia. Also with me to help put this in perspective is senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
So, welcome to you.
And, Bobby, I know I've got you on the phone. Let me just first begin with, how you doing?
BOBBY VAUGHN (via telephone): Well, you know, I'm doing -- I'm doing fairly well considering the situation. How about you all? You all doing OK?
BALDWIN: We're doing all right. I like to hear the laugh given the fact that, Bobby, I hear you had your sixth and hopefully your last surgery yesterday. Physically, how are you feeling?
VAUGHN: Actually, a lot of pain. A whole lot of pain.
BALDWIN: Oh.
VAUGHN: That's about all I feel right now.
BALDWIN: Do you -- we're showing these pictures of you and yards. I know you're a landscaper. Do you have any idea how you got this flesh-eating bacteria? Any clue?
VAUGHN: You know what, after the question was brought to me, I sat there and I tried to think of everything I could think of that would have caused me to have this. And I know there was a rumor about me falling out of a tree at one time, which is funny because if you look at the TV, I'm not exactly the size of a guy who's going to try to climb a tree in the first place.
One of the things I looked at was it could have been, you know, weed eating -- you know, weed eating a lawn or if I get a new lawn or acquire a new lawn that has had any type of work done to it at all and we get in there and start, you know, bush hogging and weed eating and all that stuff like that and these things are flying by me, I'm not paying attention to anything that's hitting me.
BALDWIN: Sure. Sure. You're just doing -- you're doing your job.
VAUGHN: So -- yes.
BALDWIN: Let me -- Bobby, hang on just a second. Hang on the phone.
VAUGHN: Sure.
BALDWIN: My question to you, Elizabeth, is, is this the kind of thing where doctors can ultimately trace it back to that initial moment or place or plant or water where you develop this necrotizing fasciitis?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, I was just on the phone with Dr. Bill Shafner (ph) at Vanderbilt, who's an expert on this. And he said 10 percent of these necrotizing fasciitis cases, the patient has no idea how they got it. They don't know.
BALDWIN: Wow.
COHEN: Now, we don't know a lot of medical details about Bobby Vaughn. He and I were just on the phone. So he and I talked about this. He is not a doctor or a nurse and he's a patient. He's a guy trying to get through this. And we haven't been able -- his doctors don't want to talk to us. So there's a lot that we don't know.
BALDWIN: OK.
COHEN: But one of the things that I find interesting about his case, Bobby, you were explaining that you had this lump that just grew and grew and grew.
VAUGHN: Yes.
COHEN: And it sounds like you felt fine one minute and then felt terrible the next minute.
VAUGHN: Right. I mean -- yes, I mean it was fast. It wasn't even a minute. It was a second. I mean I -- as soon as -- I mean this thing -- I couldn't explain it to you. I was just weed eating and all -- and was just fine and one second -- it's like somebody hit a light switch, boom, I felt like -- I felt like Jell-O, you know. And I wasn't feeling well. So I went back to my truck and sat down for a minute and started dry heaving. I thought it was just thirsty. I was wrong. I started drinking and threw all that up, you know. It was awful. I was just -- it -- I just felt really sick and it wasn't -- like I said, it wasn't something that was minute by minute. It was in a split second I felt that thing hit me.
BALDWIN: So here's my question, Bobby, and you may not have the answer since you don't really know how you got this in the first place, but I'm sitting here thinking, we're getting into the summer months, people are spending time outside wherever are you in the country. I'm thinking, well, is there something I should be avoiding so that I don't get this as well. We've been talking about a number of cases recently. And perhaps the answer -- have your doctors said, hey, don't go here, don't do this, or no? VAUGHN: No, not at all. Actually this thing isn't uncommon at all. I've read that on it. This isn't the West Nile Virus or nothing like that. It's nothing truly, to me, to be afraid of, I mean even though I've gotten it. But it's not uncommon because, as a matter of fact, the facility that I'm in, there's been more cases than what you hear about. And I'm sure there is all around the United States. So it's not like it's uncommon to people, you know, to get this.
BALDWIN: That's -- that is an excellent point. And that was my question to you all along.
COHEN: There are hundreds -- right, hundreds if not thousands of cases of these every year. And most of the time people are doing things that you and I do all the time. I'm sure you've gone hiking in the Georgia woods --
BALDWIN: Of course.
COHEN: Just like Aimee Copeland.
BALDWIN: You don't even think about it.
COHEN: Right. The bacteria that infected Aimee is everywhere and it is just bad luck to have a really bad cut that is gets into. It's bad luck to have this lump in your groin (ph) that grows, which is Bobby Vaughn's situation. So there's nothing that you can avoid doing. The only thing you can do is be an empowered patient and if something weird is happening to you, if all of a sudden you feel terribly ill, like Bobby --
BALDWIN: Go to the doctor.
COHEN: Right. Or if you have a cut that's getting bigger and bigger or if you have a lump that's causing you horrific pain, go to the doctor and insist, and people have had these experiences where they go to the doctor and the emergency room might blow it off as no big deal. If it's a big deal to you, if it feels dramatic to you, press for more care.
VAUGHN: Uh-huh.
BALDWIN: That's a great point.
Bobby, good luck. I love hearing your sense of humor there from the hospital bed. Feel better. Best of luck to you.
And, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
VAUGHN: Thank you so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
BALDWIN: Also here, some news about Aimee Copeland. She, again, was that Georgia graduate student who actually was in the same hospital as Bobby in Augusta, Georgia. She got infected with this flesh-eating bacteria after cutting her leg in the woods after falling off that zip line. Well, her father has posted online that she is breathing now without a ventilator. She is now talking to visitors. She's actually sitting up in her hospital bed.
Here's what her father writes. Quote, "when the doctors put Aimee up in that chair, their expectations were to give her an hour. Five hours later, Aimee decided it was time to lie down. Had she been running an Olympic marathon, I think Aimee would have experienced a record-breaking gold medal moment." Good for Aimee.
The contamination greater than 400 atomic bombs. I'm talking the Chernobyl disaster. But decades later, this horror movie based on that catastrophe in 1986 out late tonight and one charity says this is a slap in the face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not leaving without my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please help us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I was just talking to someone the other day about how I love scary movies. Do you like a good scare? Isn't that how the saying goes, right? Well, it turns out not exactly everyone loves Hollywood's latest scary movie. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not leaving without my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please help us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Yes, you read that right, "Chernobyl Diaries." The guy that came up with the hugely successful "Paranormal Activity," he was behind that. Those movies, he's now behind the "Chernobyl Diaries."
It's drawing criticism though for anyone to actually ever seen it. It doesn't open until tomorrow. But there is already this group boycotting "Chernobyl Diaries."
There is a page on Facebook and A.J. Hammer, the anchor of "Showbiz Tonight" on our sister station HLN. First things first, what is this movie about?
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, HLN'S "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Well, Brooke, the plot doesn't really seem all that complicated, a group of tourists go to the ruins of a town that was evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. They wind up getting trapped over night and then they get picked off by mysterious creatures one by one.
It sounds like your typical kind of horror movie although the studio has been rather coy about just what is killing everyone off whether it is, you know, ghosts or mutants or something else entirely.
While the idea that tourists may want to visit this location may sound crazy, in real life the city that housed workers at the nuclear plant was evacuated and there are companies, Brooke, that have actually run tours of the city.
So obviously it is a fictional film, but not out of the realm of what people are heading out to do apparently.
BALDWIN: Yes, you can go. You can walk through it apparently. Of course, we know the back drop, the horrific event. It was '86. It was the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Killed thousands of people and affected hundreds of thousands. So I am not exactly surprised to see somebody or this group none too thrilled about this particular film, but what exactly is their complaint here, A.J.?
HAMMER: Well, Brooke, the complaint is based precisely on that. It was an awful disaster. It impacted hundreds of thousands of people in countries across Europe and some people are naturally very upset that the whole thing is being sensationalized for a horror film.
And as you mentioned, there are some various online petitions and Facebook pages protesting the film and not a lot of traction there though, not a whole lot of support. A couple hundred people total for the ones I was able to find online.
But the interesting thing to consider here is that you probably need to be at least in your 30s to even remember this disaster and this movie of course is targeting such a young audience, Brooke, that a lot of the people likely to go see it may not even know what happened in Chernobyl.
And I should point out we did reach out to the studio to see if they had a reaction and they haven't gotten back to us yet. But I did take an informal poll of a couple of "Showbiz Tonight's" staffers.
One young woman probably around 25, I said Chernobyl and she said what? And one woman in her late 30s who said, it is terrible, that they're sensationalizing. So obviously it is an age thing.
BALDWIN: It's an age things and I guess if you paid in attention 101. Sorry. A.J. Hammer, thank you so much. We'll see you on TV tonight on showbiz.
Meantime, there is activity at a nuclear site in North Korea and South Korea says a test could happen at any minute.
Plus Elton John cancelling concerts because of a serious illness.
And also the feds arresting a mayor in New Jersey on hacking charges. Wait until you hear who was targeted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: More news unfolding right now. Rapid fire. Roll it.
First up here the commander of American forces in Afghanistan says that country is an important ally and an important region of the world. This all happening in an interview today with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
General John Allen says negotiations with Afghanistan will determine what kind of NATO force and U.S. presence will be in that country after 2014.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERAL JOHN ALLEN, ISAF COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: We are not leaving, and the narrative for the Taliban that they can wait us out is a flawed narrative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: North Korea may be ready to carry out a new nuclear test. The South Korean Defense Ministry says satellite images suggest some kind of activity has been ramped up here at this nuclear test site.
A South Korean spokesman says the only hold up appears to be a political decision on whether to ignore the warnings from other countries or go ahead with the test.
How amazing is he? Elton John fans, sorry, the singer is canceling his next three shows in Vegas because of a serious respiratory illness. We're told he was in the hospital this past week, but is now home recovering.
A New Jersey mayor arrested by the FBI on charges of hacking, Mayor Felix Rocgue of West New York, which is in New Jersey was taken into custody according to the "New Jersey Star Ledger."
He was accused of illegal hacking into the web site of a recall movement against him while attempting to tap into e-mails to find out who might be opposing him here. Rocque is a strong supporter of Republican Governor Chris Christie.
And Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is focusing on America's education system today calling it a national emergency. He attended this town hall meeting at a charter school in Philadelphia today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: From my perspective, our failure to provide kids with the skills they need for the jobs today and tomorrow is a crisis. We have an education -- an American education crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. ROMNEY: We keep talking and doing the same things expecting somehow things to get better and we have to try some new things. We have to be bold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Earlier this week, Romney gave his support to school vouchers allowing poor and disabled children to attend the school of their choice.
An Ohio teen who admits to killing three classmates will be tried as an adult here. A judge made that ruling just today here during the hearing for 17-year-old T.J. Lane who admitted he randomly shot at students at the Chardon High School cafeteria.
Lane said he shot his victims in the head because he didn't want them to suffer. He is charged with three counts of aggravated murder and could face life in prison.
A bear attacks a man while using the outhouse. You can see the bear claws and the injuries on the back. Obviously that looks like it hurt. Gord Shurvell had been at a friend's cabin in Canada and says he didn't have any defense and just toilet paper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORD SHURVELL, BEAR ATTACK SURVIVOR: He grabbed my pants and, gosh, they're around my ankles and that's all the defense I had is a piece of paper in this hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Good thing he can laugh about it now. His best friend rescued him by then shooting the bear.
Rush Limbaugh is accusing CNN of trying to scare white Republicans and it's all over the report that the number of minorities is rising and rising quickly. My next guest says minorities are not looking for payback.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Rush Limbaugh accusing CNN of trying to scare white Americans about the future of their country. You heard that right. Limbaugh objecting to reporting about a shifting racial landscape within this country.
Minorities are definitely growing, certainly here in the United States. In fact here is the current breakdown of the population by race.
Whites are still more than 63 percent, but since this data shows that last year, for the first time in history, more than half the children born in this country are racial and ethnic minorities.
So recently an article on cnn.com addressed the Latino population boom and what it means for the Republican Party and Limbaugh, he called the article an implied threat. Here he was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: It is clear that this and other similar stories like this are meant to serve as a warning to Republicans and conservatives and the warning is you are on the wrong side of history.
You are on the wrong side of demographics. You better do what the majority wants right now or you're going to suffer the consequences. There is an implied threat in this story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: An implied threat he says. I want to bring in CNN contributor, Ruben Navarrette Jr. Ruben, welcome. You wrote this article, this opinion piece on cnn.com. People can read it, slamming Limbaugh's comments and that was just a portion of what he said. What is it that you disagree with so, so strongly?
RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR., CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Great to be with you, Brooke. I disagree with the whole premise, this idea somehow that, one, if you're a news agency, a columnist, a pundit and you bring attention to a very important historic news story.
That somehow you are automatically sort of trying to divide the country or make victims out of people. We're just doing our job and telling the news.
Beyond that this idea somehow, this non-sense that people to want get even and take over is just not factual. I have been writing about this stuff for 20 years.
I have never heard a single member of a minority group ever talk about getting even or paying back past injustices and simply want a seat at the table. That's all they want.
BALDWIN: Want a seat at the table. Let me give our viewers just a little bit more context. So Limbaugh, he was ceasing on this quote specifically in the CNN article about a week ago from a gentleman by the name of David Rositis, a researcher and a think tank that says (inaudible) minorities in politics.
Let me read what this gentleman said. Quote, "The Republicans' problem is their voters are white aging and dying off. There will come a time when they suffer catastrophic losses with the realization of the population changes."
Isn't that, though, really an over generalization of the Republican base? I mean, why can't their makeup, right, evolve as the population and the demographics evolve?
NAVARRETTE: That's a very good point. It is not my quote. I wouldn't have said that. It is inflammatory. It goes too far -- provocative. But beyond that, as you say, what's to stop the Republican Party from getting religion so to speak and bringing in more of these facts into the party, taking the right position from this point on.
So it is not necessarily cast. We're getting close to the point where it is and I think the quote was probably unhelpful, but so was Limbaugh's interpretation of the quote. He just went way too far.
BALDWIN: I don't have Rush Limbaugh sitting next to me so he can't say exactly what he meant, but it seems to me when you hear the whole thing, he wasn't saying that white people ought to be afraid.
He was accusing CNN specifically and the rest of the mainstream media of saying that. Isn't he being a bit more nuance than maybe you're giving him credit for here?
NAVARRETTE: Yes, I listen to Rush every single day. I got to tell you I really like a lot of what he says. I agree on some issues and disagree on other issues.
But really when he talks about race and ethnicity, you know, he tends to go off the rails and he did in this particular case. His message is pretty clear that somehow CNN was trying to warn older white voters.
Listen, you better fall back in line here. You better give them the emerging minorities everything they want including as he called it amnesty for illegal immigrants or believe it or not one day you're going to pay for it because you are going to be in the minority.
And folks are going to do to you what you have done to folks over the last generations. I don't agree with that. It is not realistic. It is not something I ever heard from people. It is just a paranoid fantasy that people like Limbaugh are advancing and not fair and not accurate.
BALDWIN: Bigger picture here. In the United States, there are ideas like black unity, Latino solidarity and those are groups and cultures and ideals that are praised.
But you don't exactly hear a bunch of white people getting together and praising a group of whites. Is there a perception in this country that Caucasians cannot rally and advocate for their own race?
NAVARRETTE: Right. One of the disturbing things that I have had to keep track of is people as you say Caucasians. Whites have typically made the argument. The minorities are too quick to see themselves as victims and they are absolutely right about that.
I agree with them on that, but the first chance they get they turn themselves into victims. They see themselves being victimized the fact there is a black group or Hispanic group or that somehow candidates are pandering to one group or another.
They really can't have it both ways. They can't decry the idea of becoming victims until they get a chance to be one.
BALDWIN: But what about rallying around themselves? Why is that not accepted?
NAVARRETTE: Well, it is not accepted typically because of the history of groups like that in this country and the fact that there was a time where when a bunch of white people got together particularly in the American south it was to the detriment of non- whites.
But that's not what's applicable here. Those groups, those Hispanic groups and Latino and African-American groups, to my mind they are not very effective either. They don't really speak for the people they pretend to speak for.
We are a much more complicated nuance group. The original point is exactly right. Who to say you can't have Hispanics voting Republican if you produce the right kind of Republican for them to vote for.
BALDWIN: Exactly, watch the demographics evolve within perhaps the Republican base as well. Ruben Navarrette, folks can read your article at cnn.com/opinion. Appreciate it. Thank you.
NAVARRETTE: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Words written by Queen Victoria during her reign 43,000 pages of her diary to be precise is now available online. Her secrets revealed.
And a quick note, if you are heading out the door, keep watching. We want to you join us. Grab your mobile phone if you are at work. Pop open that laptop or if you have desktop, just go to cnn.com/tv.
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BALDWIN: In this week's "Human Factor," Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to a young man who came to America to finish his engineering degree. His future looked bright until a vicious act changed his life forever and yet he has never given up even under the most difficult circumstances.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2004, Manoj Rana's family couldn't have been more proud because he was coming to America to Purdue University to complete his degree in computer engineering.
Just a month from graduation, however, his life changed forever. His neighbor two floors below intentionally set a fire with his wife and child still inside.
MANOJ RANA, BURN VICTIM: By the time my roommate and I woke up, the whole apartment was on fire. GUPTA: Rana and his roommate tried to escape, but they couldn't.
RANA: My roommate collapsed in front of me and I started running down the stairs.
GUPTA: Rana only made it down a few steps before he collapsed. A fireman found him still alive and on the way to the hospital, he could hear paramedics talking about how badly he had been burned.
RANA: At that moment, I was thinking about my family, what I had come here for and to get a good education. And now this guy is saying I don't have a chance to survive and I passed out and then I woke up in University of Chicago Burn Unit after four months of induced coma.
GUPTA: Rana had burns over 95 percent of his body. So far he has had 54 operations, but he didn't give up. He credits three people for his survival.
RANA: My father, my mother, and my occupational therapist, Shannon Hendrix.
GUPTA: Rana says his father saved every hard earned penny so he could get an education.
RANA: My mother always kept on telling me have some faith and keep your eyes on the goal.
GUPTA: And then there is Shannon whom he calls his guardian angel. He says she has gone way beyond the duties as an occupational therapist making it her mission to help in any way she could.
RANA: On top of my therapy, she would take me to church every Sunday. I think that was the only thing that kept me from going crazy because as a 22-year-old I was living in a nursing home and it was really, really depressing.
GUPTA: His biggest accomplishment so far getting his MBA. He recently graduated with the highest honors.
RANA: I am still happy that, you know, I can live an independent life and now I have gotten my MBA and hopefully, you know, I'll get a job soon and have a good life.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you. A high ranking Catholic priest faces a jury in the child abuse trial and he takes the stand in his own defense. You're going to hear about the drama that's going down and what it reveals.
Plus a man is in police custody in the Etan Patz case. He is the little boy who disappeared back in the 1970s in New York. We're going to speak with a former New York police detective about this case in a matter of minutes.
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BALDWIN: This is exciting. Today, we get this rare inside look at the diary and life of a queen, the great, great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria in her own words and her life as a teenager and what she said on the day she became the queen.
Max Foster was granted this rare access to the Windsor Castle archives. He has seen and read some of these diary entries for himself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The round tower at Windsor Castle, from the top some of the best views in England, and inside these ancient walls shelves of manuscripts and books, firsthand accounts of the royal family's rich history. In this section, diaries written by Queen Victoria, monarch of a vast, global empire.
(on camera): Let's have a look at three of the journals, then. They're fascinating reading. This is an early one from 1835. In it, Victoria writes, today is my 16th birthday. How very old that sounds, a typical teenager you could say.
This is a later journal and it shows an illustration by Victoria, so she was an illustrator as well and Victoria there next to her husband, Prince Albert and her half brother, Prince Charles there and do note they were dressed in fancy dress there.
This is a particularly poignant entry and what you need to understand about the later journals is they were rewritten by Beatrice, so Beatrice's writing but Victoria's words.
Here you see the words, the Lord Chamberlain that my poor uncle, the king was no more and have expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning and consequently that I am queen.
(voice-over): That was the day in 1837 that Victoria exceeded to the thrown. The diaries were edited by Beatrice who was Victoria's daughter. At her mother's request, she removed trivia and things that may embarrass other royals. You wonder what these diaries don't tell you.
DAVID RYAN, DIRECTOR OF RECORDS, THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD: Because of the length of her reign, she reigned for 63 years and because of the time and the size of the British empire and the relationships also with continental Europe and America, a major figure of that period.
FOSTER (on camera): And we're talking here about not just the Commonwealth, but the British Empire.
RYAN: We are. This includes countries such as India and later her reign and obviously Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and other parts of the empire, which have gone onto become the commonwealth.
FOSTER (voice-over): Over four months, the castle staff have painstakingly scanned 43,000 pages of journals. And now they have gone online for the world to see, once private thoughts finally unlocked from the 850-year-old Round Tower of Windsor.
Max Foster, CNN, Windsor Castle, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A little trivia because I have been doing my homework.
Queen Victoria is the only monarch in the U.K. to be celebrating the diamond jubilee. That is 60 years with the crown. The other queen will be Queen Elizabeth this upcoming week-and-a-half marking 60 years of her reign.
We have got you covered. We're going to be in London for this. So we hope you join us Sunday, June 3. That's when it really begins here. Join me, join me Piers Morgan, a number of others from CNN in London for this extravaganza Sunday, CNN Sunday, June 3, beginning at 11:00 in the morning Eastern time.
