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RNC Tells Akin to Stay Away; Girl, 14, Crosses Lake Ontario; GOP Reaffirms Opposition to Abortion; Paul Ryan Campaigns in Pennsylvania; Hispanics Largest Minority on Campus.

Aired August 21, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "NEWSROOM": Hi, everybody, and thank you, Carol Costello. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's 11:00 on the East Coast. It is 8:00 on the West Coast and let's start with what Carol left off with.

The "legitimate rape" debate is blowing up big, folks. In fact, it's now a countdown, a countdown starting with seven hours. Because seven hours is all that's pretty much left in order for Todd Akin, the person at the heart of this, to pull himself out of the race.

That is, if he wants to do so with ease and not incur a whole bunch of costs. The costs for reprinting ballots and cleaning up a mess of a guy who pulls out of a race before that race is really ready for him to do so.

This is the man at the heart of the debate, six-term U.S. congressman. He's been gunning for the seat of U.S. Senate Democrat Claire McCaskill, but guess what? But Mr. Akin says, forget about it. I'm not going anywhere.

All of this despite some remarkably blunt and very public demands from his own party, in fact, from tea party members, too.

This firestorm, as you may know, erupted when Mr. Akin told an interviewer that pregnancy resulted from, quote, "legitimate rape" and he says that kind of a pregnancy is rare and, largely - and this is the weird part -- preventable by the victim.

Can I remind you that Congressman Akin was on the science committee and he said that pregnancy is preventable by the victim during a possible, quote, "legitimate rape."

He apologized for all of this, folks, and he said he misspoke and he said it over and over and over again. I misspoke, I misspoke, I misspoke.

Didn't say what he misspoke about, but here is what he's saying today and, in one word, forgiveness. Take a look at the brand-new ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD AKIN (R), CONGRESSMAN, MISSOURI: I'm Todd Akin and I approve this message. Rape is an evil act and I used the word wrongs in the wrong way and for that I apologize. As a father of two daughters, I want tough justice for predators, have a compassionate heart for the victims of sexual assault and I pray for them.

The fact is, rape can lead to pregnancy. The truth is rape has many victims.

The mistake I made was in the words I said, not in the heart I hold. I ask for your forgiveness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Now, that's critical. I ask for your forgiveness, because I'm not stepping out of this race, folks.

Working late to actually produce that ad might be kind of critical in this whole debate because that is the reason that Congressman Akin canceled on CNN's Piers Morgan. That's what his people told Piers Morgan's producers because 45 minutes before airtime while his chair was sitting there empty, waiting for him, Akin bowed out, said, no, not going to do the interview.

So, this is what Piers aired, the empty chair. And, while he was airing that empty chair, quite an embarrassment, Piers went further and called Akin a, quote, "gutless little twerp." Painful.

For the record, his opponent, Senator McCaskill was also booked on Piers Morgan. She also cancelled, but she did so a lot earlier in the day.

So, now, you're kind of up to speed on all the mechanics of this mess, but there's a lot more to it.

I want to get to Dana Bash who is in Washington, my colleague. Listen, this is critical here, Dana. While so many people are coming out of the woodwork within the Republican Party, within the tea party, there are a lot of people who are still backing Mr. Akin. They don't want him to quit this race, beginning with, of all things, Claire McCaskill. Explain.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ashleigh, you know the world is turned upside down and inside out when your Democratic opponent is coming to your defense and that's exactly what Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill is doing.

Suddenly, she's defending not only him, but Republican primary voters who elected him to be her opponent. You'll have to see it to believe it.

BANFIELD: Yeah, I guess it makes sense. Is it -- basically, has it come to the point where any of those who were running against Mr. Akin in the primaries didn't have a shot at beating her?

I mean, is she so sure at this point that this is the guy now with all of this mess behind him that she can beat? She does not want to go up against anyone else that might take his place?

BASH: Well, I think that she knows -- let me just take you back in time a little bit. She knew during the Republican primary - it was effectively a three-way primary to run against her.

She knew that he would be the best Republican and the most likely that she could beat, so much so that Democrats put up an ad saying how conservative he is, trying to make him palatable to Republican voters.

Again, I - you know, I was talking about the fact that today she came to his defense. I want our viewers to listen to this sound bite. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), SENATOR, MISSOURI: Congressman Akin and I disagree on some things, but he is sincere. And, while I disagreed with what he said, he is now, just in the last few hours, really apologized for what he said and I think what is startling to me is that these party bigwigs are coming down on him and saying that he needs to kick sand in the face of the Republican primary voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Ashleigh, the phrase "too cute by half" comes to mind. I'm surprised she could say that with a straight face.

But it really does underscore the dynamic and answers your question, that everyone knows if Akin stays in, it only helps McCaskill, but, ultimately, the Democratic Party, in general, because the seat is critical for the Republicans to recapture the majority. And it keeps us talking about this issue ...

BANFIELD: Well, Dana ...

BASH: ... rape and not the issue of the economy.

BANFIELD: Nobody gave that to the head of the tea party caucus because just this morning on "Starting Point," our show with Soledad O'Brien, she was pretty darn critical of the congressman. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY KREMER, CHAIRWOMAN, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: I think what he said is completely indefensible and it changes the narrative of what's going on here.

The fact that Claire McCaskill wants him to stay in the race speaks volumes. We need to take back that U.S. Senate seat and the only way we're going to do it is to have a good, strong candidate in there.

And I think if he looks at the bigger picture, he will do what's best and he will step aside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So, Dana, this is a real conundrum, a Catch-22 for Republicans.

BASH: It is. But I think what you just played is very important because it underscores what I'm hearing from Republicans as sort of a reminder, that it's not just the leadership trying to push him out because they are worried about the Republican Party's message and brand and ultimate victory. It's that it's across the board.

You know, we've seen it over the past two to four years a sort of a split in the Republican Party, that establishment versus the tea party or establishment versus rank and file. That's not happening here.

In fact, a Republican sent me this e-mail. What this is, is a list of all of the various Republican or conservative sources that have called on Akin to get out and it varies from Sean Hannity and other conservative radio hosts to conservative columnists to Ann Coulter.

So, the point is that it's not -- it really is, practically and politically in every way for the Republicans, it is their wish, it is their hope, it is their prayer that he does get out of the race by the end of the day, but I am told that there's a very good chance that he might wait until another deadline, September 25th, to do so, which will really hurt Republicans, politically.

BANFIELD: All right, well, they certainly would probably want this mess to go away in its entirety.

Dana Bash, thank you. Excellent work, as always.

And, you know, for all of the outrage and there's a lot of it being directed towards Mr. Akin by Republican higher-ups, it is also worth pointing out that the official party platform that's being voted on today in Tampa - ready? Sitting down? It backs the position of Mr. Akin, somewhat, parts of it anyway.

It opposes abortion, OK? So, the platform opposes abortion, no exceptions. No exceptions. Not for rape, not for incest, and, believe it or not, not for the life of the mother, as well.

CNN's political director Mark Preston joins me now live with that. Now, listen, as tough as that language seems to be, it ain't like it came out of the blue. We've had platforms like this in 2000, 2004, 2008, so it's not entirely different. Perhaps just the microscope is on it and the timing couldn't be worse.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: The timing couldn't be worse and you're absolutely right, right now, Ashleigh.

In fact, they are discussing it as we speak back at the convention center where they are getting ready, of course, for next week's convention, but they have to get the platform information stuff done quickly. That's what they are trying to do today. They started on it yesterday in earnest. The bottom line is, as you said, it doesn't explicitly state anything other than the sanctity of life. And this wouldn't be a big issue or an issue, at all, necessarily, as you said, historically, it has always been in the platform, but there is a bright light shining on it right now given the Todd Akin controversy.

I can tell you I was talking to somebody who is intricately involved in helping draft the platform language and to try to get it done quickly and what this person told me was that this is nothing more than a distraction and that the Todd Akin controversy is really hurting the Republican Party right now.

BANFIELD: Let me read a little bit from the draft that CNN got its hand on yesterday. And I'm going to do this verbatim, all right?

"Faithful to the self-evident truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed."

Look, to a lot of people, this is very fair language. This is good language. They want this part of the platform.

But, at the same time, the platform, for the most part, was crafted by the very far right wing of the party and then, if you combine that with the timing of all of this ugliness that's going on with Mr. Akin and he admits that this is ugliness.

I'm not taking sides here. He says it was a mistake and the mistake is getting all the headlines. Does this besmirch this platform that so many people agree with?

PRESTON: Well, we should be - we should note, Ashleigh, the fact is that the platform is being written by all corners of the Republican Party and we do see that the more moderate and more centrist Republicans are weighing in on it, as well.

In fact, they just tried to and it just failed, an effort to recognize civil unions for same-sex marriage and that went down.

But we should also note that the platform is really being drafted by "old guard" Republicans and what we're seeing is this transformation right now in the Republican party as the younger Republicans who tend to be more libertarian-minded, some would say, some kind of like Ron Paul, but not entirely like Ron Paul, who don't want to get into social issues.

But right now, the Republican Party, certainly, the party apparatus, the one's who do do the platform tend to be old guard and that's why we are seeing this language in it this year and we'll probably see it four years from now, but it is a major tenant for the Republican Party and for conservatives and, of course, that's the sanctity of life.

BANFIELD: OK, Mark Preston, thank you very much for that. And a big reminder, as well. CNN has massive coverage of the GOP convention. If you're doing the math, that kicks off on Monday in Tampa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So, if you were planning on visiting a war zone in the near future, don't be surprised if you come under direct attack. That's exactly what happened to our top U.S. military commander as he was on a visit to Afghanistan.

Our Joint Chiefs chairman, General Martin Dempsey, was asleep at the main NATO Bagram Air Base when guess what? His plane was hit by shrapnel from not one, but two Taliban rockets.

I'm happy to report that General Dempsey was not hurt, but his plane did sustain some damage. A NATO spokesman is calling this attack - are you ready -- a lucky shot. A lucky shot.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the latest. Why a lucky shot? Sounds to me like if it was the general's plane, it was pretty targeted. Why are they thinking it's just an accidental, lucky thing.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, in Afghanistan, as you know, these rocket attacks are, basically, what they call indirect fire.

What does that mean? It means they're not -- they don't have the targeting, the precision, the Taliban, the insurgents, whoever they are, light off a couple of rockets and they go where they go. It's not like they're actually targeted against anything and, in fact, Bagram Air Base comes under this type of attack several times a month.

Lucky shot, awkward wording, but it's not like the insurgents were able, probably not able to specifically target Dempsey's plane and, thank goodness, he was asleep, as well as were the reporters and the people traveling with him at some distance away.

We should mention two maintenance personnel on the air base were slightly injured in this. Another helicopter was struck.

The C-17 Dempsey was flying, it got hit by shrapnel near the door, along the fuselage and along one of the engines, so it couldn't fly anymore.

But this is why, you know, Afghanistan remains a dangerous place all the time because it may be indirect fire, it may be imprecise, it may be inaccurate, unless, of course, it hits you.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Yeah, that's for sure. That's an understatement, Miss Starr.

So, I know that he was there to talk about some of those random shootings that some people call the "blue-on-the-green," "green-on- blue," but did he cut short his visit? I do know that he got out, but did he get out at the time that he was supposed to get out or did this thing make him leave sooner?

STARR: No, actually, it made him leave a little later because they had to get another plane ready to go and get it all full of the gear and kit that he needs when he travels, the communications gear, and he went on to Iraq.

Very important what you just mentioned. In fact, yes, the whole question of these insider attacks and so many coalition and U.S. troops being killed by Afghans turning their weapons on them was one of the major topics.

And, you know, you'll recall, even President Obama brought it up yesterday and said that he is going to speak to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about all of this. It's getting to be an issue that the U.S. feels could be getting out of hand and they really want it to stop. They're going to try and see what they can do, but it's a tough problem.

BANFIELD: I don't know what happens when a four-star gets onto a C-17 and travels because I know that C-17 is not nice and I know you've done it a lot, too. But that's how he got in and I'm assuming that's how he got out, as well.

Barbara Starr, thank you.

STARR: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Yeah, sure.

Good to see you. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: As Apple's stock surges to make it the most profitable company ever, it happens to find itself in court. It's fighting an epic battle, actually, against Samsung and it's all over the technology that you've probably seen, but not thought a thing about.

In fact, the closing arguments in the case, I think, are supposed to start today.

Our Christine Romans is watching this carefully from New York. First of all, I miss you. Second of all ...

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. You, too.

BANFIELD: What's the deal? What are they fighting over? Like, what kind of patents and what kind of designs seem to be at the issue here?

ROMANS: Well, it's design patents and utility patents and, at issue here, is basically the Samsung Galaxy and the iPhone, the kinds of technologies that are in both of these devices. It's 20 different products, altogether, that Apple is claiming that Samsung is using its patents for and the Samsung is countersuing and saying, oh, no, no, no, Apple has some of its patents in its products, as well.

You're right that it's an epic lawsuit. It is wrapping up. The closing arguments are starting today and, quite frankly, this is technology that we use every day. How it comes out, Ashleigh, may very well change the way, I guess, a lot of our products look.

Because if Apple wins, that means you might see a lot of different looking kinds of tablets and phones out there because no one's going to want to look like they're trying to copy Apple.

And, if Apple loses, everything could be kind of "Applized" in the end, so a lot of people are watching this.

Let's talk about specifically what the lawsuit is about. Apple claims these are the features that have been stolen by Samsung -- the rectangular shape of the iPad, the way the edges are rounded on the iPad.

Also - and those are design things - but then, also, some patents that have to do with utility patents, they call them. It's the scroll-back feature on the iPhone.

BANFIELD: Like when you scroll, it bounces instead of coming to an end?

BANFIELD: Exactly. And other parts of sort of the multi-touch operating system.

Now, Samsung says, no, wait. Apple has stolen from us the e-mail use on a camera phone, the way you can bookmark a photo and, also, the way you can have background music playing at the same time you're multitasking on your device.

So, a big fight here and it's going to be wrapping up soon.

BANFIELD: Since I have you, can I bug you for something about Peter Thiel? If nobody knows who he is, he was the first big investor in Facebook. I think he put $500,000 in.

ROMANS: Yes.

BANFIELD: He's decided to cash out. Look, he's made a ton of money, so no tag (PH) days for Mr. Thiel. I think he's going to pull out about a billion dollars in cash, but what's the significance of him saying, I'm out?

ROMANS: Well, you know, we knew that he was going to. This is a guy who put in half a million dollars, I think back in 2004. I mean, Facebook wouldn't be here without him.

You know, he was an investor, an early-stage investor, sees a good idea, throws his money behind it and then makes an awful lot of money when it pays off.

Presumably, some his investments don't pay off, I'm not sure, but this one really did.

Now, the fact is, when you have insiders pulling their money out, right, the stock falls and we've seen Facebook shares falling pretty considerably, almost cut in half since the initial public offering.

So, now is the point where some people are saying, you've got the early investors out. You've got the people who were chasing after easy money on the IPO. They've been burned. Is now the time that Facebook shares make sense?

Remember, I was always advise be careful on IPOs. Give a company a good year to prove itself.

BANFIELD: How many did you say that?

ROMANS: I know. How many people didn't listen to me? I feel bad they got burned.

BANFIELD: Broken record.

ROMANS: Right, right.

BANFIELD: You're a good broken record, though, Romans. I'll take your advice any day. I've read your book. I've read both of them.

All right, Christine Romans ...

ROMANS: Thanks, bye.

BANFIELD: Thank you, my friend.

Also want to do a quick look at the stock update for the day. So, there you go, big, fat, green arrow. The Dow is up 36.42 for now. Keep an eye, though. Things can change.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Paul Ryan is on the stump this hour. Looking at some live pictures outside of Pittsburgh right now. And any minute, he's going to take to the microphone.

Now, this is a little different. Well, look at that. We did build it. That's a direct reference to President Obama's comment about small businesses -- you didn't build that. Boy, they like that one. That is a great stump moment for them.

By the way, yesterday, when he teamed up with Mitt Romney, it was a tag team. It was a great event. We brought a lot of it to you.

But today, the V.P. pick is solo. He is officially solo. Let me tell you this is Beaver Steel Services outside of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He's expected to speak shortly. We are going to get you there, live, just as soon as he does fire up that crowd.

But right now, somewhere else, in Tampa, Republican movers and shakers are gearing up for a big party, a party convention. It begins on Monday, so we're less than a week away, while in Missouri, the clock is ticking loud. They're almost thudding towards a deadline for any kind of potential exit by a GOP lawmaker who, you could say, has fallen from grace in a big way.

Todd Akin is the congressman and would-be senator that I'm speaking of. His presence is being felt in Tampa, one way or the other.

For his part, the RNC chairman has now weighed in, says he wants Akin to simply go away and stay away. Reince Priebus was a guest on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, HOST, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT ": And, so, the bottom line is you say that Todd - I mean, I understand your point on Todd Akin, that you think that he is not something that anyone would support in the mainstream and I would imagine he's not welcome at the Republican convention where you are right now either?

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, listen, if it was up to me, Erin, I will tell you I would prefer that Todd Akin do the right thing for our party and our candidates and I would prefer him not come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You know, Reince Priebus went a little bit further, too, and there's Wolf Blitzer to talk about it. He said, if I were you, I'd just quit.

Look, Wolf, Mr. Akin does have a lot of support from the far right, but he's losing support where it could really, really matter and that is in the bank. Where's the money problem for this man now?

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, he's not going to get any money from the national Republicans, including some of those Super PACs that had earlier supported him, whether it's Karl Rove's Super PAC or the Republican senatorial campaign committee.

They've basically said they had $5 million ready to go in ads for him. They're going to dump out of that.

He's going to lose a lot of his support and a lot of them are saying to me, basically, in no uncertain terms, he's going to have to go. He's going to have to come to that realization.

He's in a bit of denial but he's going to have to go. He can do it the easy way and they can name another challenger to Claire McCaskill, the endangered incumbent from Missouri. Or he can do it a harder way, another deadline at the end of September but then they have to redo the ballots and court orders have to go into effect. He announces, for the good of the Republicans in Missouri and Republicans nationwide, he decides to stay out of this Senate race and give the Republican Party in Missouri a chance to put another candidate up against Claire McCaskill.

BANFIELD: But if you're a Republican and say, oh, I don't know, like in Tacoma, can you distance yourself geographically, can you do anything about this or do you just stay away?

BLITZER: If you're a Republican candidate running elsewhere around the country?

BANFIELD: Yes.

BLITZER: You want it to go away as quickly as possible because this is -- you know, it's not so much the notion that he opposes abortion, including -- any exceptions, including rape and incest. A lot of Republicans, a lot of people around the country oppose abortion including opposing those exceptions. What he's suggested, though, is that a woman's body potentially can differentiate and she won't get pregnant --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Stop the process, right?

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Let's just be really clear on this. Biologically, he's suggesting that she can somehow, during this legitimate rape, stop the pregnancy from happening. Remind me, sir, he is on the science committee?

BLITZER: You know, the medical community out there thinks that is such junk science, if you will, hogwash.

BANFIELD: So do ninth grade biology students I know.

BLITZER: I read that long document, that paper by someone who is as an M.D. who came up with that notion marks a woman's hormones would take over and she won't get pregnant if it's a violent type of rain or anything like that. And all of the M.D.s, the legitimate scientists and doctors, say, that is pure junk, if you will, but he believes that even though now he says a woman can get pregnant if she is raped in the latest statement that he's makes. That's part of what he said that has caused such an up roar. If he decides to stay in the race, there's a good chance he will lose and in Missouri Claire McCaskill will prevail and the Republicans won't be able to gain the four seats that they need to be the majority.

BANFIELD: I think he needs to talk to about 30,000 rape victims who ended up pregnant ever year.

Wolf Blitzer. I'm sorry for the topic is real and nasty and it's happening, and people need to know about this.

Mr. Blitzer, we want to make sure that everyone knows they can tune into your situation at 4:00 p m., live only on CNN.

Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you, Ashleigh.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad this morning had to abandon her attempt to swim from Havana to Key West without a shark cage. and if you don't think this is about as tough a challenge as the human body can take, well then just take a look at some of the pictures that have resulted. Ow. 62 years old. This woman managed to push through so many jellyfish stings. Look how her face resulted. It wasn't just the jellyfish stings either. Violent storms took over as well. Pushed her -- despite how much she fought against it, it pushed her off of her 103-mile course. Think about swimming a lap at the pool. Now think about swimming 103 miles and look at this underwater imaging. The lightning proved to be too dangerous for the divers swimming along with her. They were swimming so they could fend off the sharks. She also had to rely on electronic shark repellant. It just got to be too dangerous and the Nyad chief operations called her 63-hour swim -- and this is an understatement -- monumental. Congratulations to her any way. She's remarkable in all ways.

But we have another swimmer, a swimmer doing some amazing swimming at the same time and actually did complete the trek. It's the same trek that Diana Nyad made almost 40 years ago. Here's your girl. 14-year-old Annaleise Carr. She just became the first girl to swim across Lake Ontario. Canadian. She finished the trek on Sunday and this was a grueling 27 hours in the water and if that's not enough, Annaleise started this swim to raise $36,000 for a cancer center for children called Camp Trillium. Guess how much she raised? Three times that.

Congratulations on your swim. Look at you, you adorable little thing. I can't believe how terrific you have -- you have really become a lot of inspiration to people. Your parents updated your blog as you were swimming. You were undergoing conditions 10 degrees cooler than Diana Nyad's swim, you had huge swells. How are you doing? Are you OK?

ANNALEISE CARR, SWIMMER: I'm kind of tired and sore but other than that, I'm good.

BANFIELD: And did you have to eat while you were in the water, treading water? What kind of break did you have in this whole thing?

CARR: I couldn't touch the boat or any people but to eat I have a feeding stick and my coach used a lacrosse stick and would put the food in the netting part and hand it to me.

BANFIELD: Wow. I understand that you got out of the water and you were able to call your great grandmother because you are that young, you have a great grandmother and she was so excited that she had seen you on TV. Am I correct that you didn't even know that you had been on TV all this time? CARR: Yes.

BANFIELD: That's unbelievable. You do know how big of a deal this is, what you've just done?

CARR: It's still sinking in.

BANFIELD: Well, you're on CNN. So it's a big deal. By the way, you must have heard the news, right, about Diana Nyad who did this way back in the '70s. Were you upset for her when you heard that it didn't work out?

CARR: Yes. Yes, it's upsetting. I mean, what she's doing, though, that was really crazy.

BANFIELD: Remarkable what she had to go through, right? I can't imagine. You probably saw that she was stung by the jellyfish and lightning storms, et cetera?

CARR: Yes, I could never imagine doing that.

BANFIELD: That is one of my next questions. Could you imagine doing that? Because that's something now that needs to be done, right? And clearly you crossed Lake Ontario. What's next on your agenda, young lady?

CARR: Well, I haven't really thought about what is next. I just wanted to get through this one first.

BANFIELD: How is it that you got to be so good at this? What is it about you at your young age that you could, A, decide to do it and, B, carry it out?

CARR: I've been swimming competitively on a swim team since I was 4 years old and I've always liked long distance swimming an swimming and I did a long-distance swim last summer. Before we did this swim, we had a tour of the camp that we were doing it for and as we were leaving I told my mom that I wanted to do something more to help so I was going to volunteer there but you have to be 18 before you can. So I was thinking of ways to help and I remember one of the guys that did the 10K with me said that I should swim across the lake and so I talked to my sister about it and she was like, oh, yes, you can do it. You can do it.

BANFIELD: Well, you know what? You can do it. You did do it and you're awesome. You're that great.

Thank you for joining us today. And congratulations on raising all of that money for the camp and also just for being you. Thanks.

CARR: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I want to take you live to Tampa, Florida. That's where the platform committee hearing for the Republican Party has been taking place all morning and a critical vote has been taking place in that meeting. The critical vote is all about the human rights amendment and that is, what does it mean to be a human? Are you a human at conception? It's critical, especially with what's going on with Congressman Akin right now and the whole comment about legitimate and illegitimate rape and abortion.

Let me take you to Peter Hamby who has been there all morning to let me know exactly how this is shaping up.

Peter, tell me.

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER (voice-over): This is somewhat of an unfortunate timing for the Republican Party as they are trying to appeal to Independents and moderates and abortion is thrust into the middle of the presidential debate. And it's thrust into the middle of the GOP platform committee just one day two, days after Todd Akin made his comments. What happened was, the platform committee, which is basically gathering in Tampa ahead of the convention, to map out a formal list of positions for the Republican Party. So they are going through things like national security, taxes, et cetera. Abortion came up today and basically what they did -- and this only took a couple minutes, Ashleigh, to pass, they ratified what has been in the parties for decades. It's a four paragraph passage but the passage in question that we're talking about says, quote, we support a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment protection applies to unborn children. Basically, we support a constitutional ban on abortion. Now, again, that's not necessarily surprising. However, in the wake of Todd Akin's comments, Mitt Romney came out and said, under a Mitt Romney presidential administration, there would be an exception for rape. So that sort of runs counter to what is in the platform here because it makes no mention --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Rape, incest, and life of the mother, as I recall, which means the candidate --

(CROSSTALK)

HAMBY: Trying to drive a wedge between the Romney folks and voters.

BANFIELD: Right, Peter. It means that he's got to now bring everyone into line. He's got to bring Paul Ryan's platform which is a little different and now the Republican platform as well, which is somewhat extensively different than his.

Peter Hamby, live for us. Thank you for that update.

Now live to Pennsylvania, specifically, Carnegie, Pennsylvania, Paul Ryan is flying solo today after the tag-team event with his running mate. Today he's at Beaver Steel Services Company. By the way, I want to let you know when he came out on stage, he was wearing something called a terrible towel. A terrible towel. That's something that you take out when you're rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So obviously, he's got a very friendly crowd to start with. Now he's got a friendlier crowd. Let's listen.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R), WISCONSIN & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's not enough. We're offering specific solutions designed to get people back to work. 12 million jobs in four years, grow the economy at 4 percent. 500,000 jobs in Pennsylvania alone if we get this country and this economy rolling again.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: Specific solutions. One of those solutions lies right here in Pennsylvania. Murphy's told me about this a million times. We have energy in this country. Let's use the energy in this country --

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: -- coal, oil, gas, fracking, nuclear, renewables, all of the above. Stop shipping our jobs overseas. Stop sending our money overseas. Create jobs here. Use our own energy. That creates jobs. If we get a good energy policy, we get people off of the unemployment line and back to jobs working on things like the Keystone Pipeline.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: Those are the things that help us create jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: I live in Janesville, Wisconsin. We had a big General Motors plant there and we lost that plant. A lot of guys I grew up with, some buddies of mine from high school lost the job that they thought they were going to have for the rest of their lives, just like their folks did.

BANFIELD: What you're hearing Paul Ryan talk about is a lot the same of what you heard on the stump speech yesterday. It's about the middle class. This is an often refrain on the stump for not only for Mitt Romney but also Paul Ryan. You're going to hear a lot of it.

In the meantime, I have to go to break. I just do. But we're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: There is a big shift on college campuses across America. For the first time ever, Hispanics are the largest minority group on U.S. college campuses. And it is not just colleges either. United States is also seeing a spike in the number of Latino pre-K and elementary school students.

Our senior Latin affairs editor, Rafael Romo, is here.

My question would be sort of the simple cause and effect thing. You have higher immigration, you have more students. Is that essentially what we're seeing here? RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's exactly right. You put both factors together. First of all, big immigration wave in the '90s. Those immigrants for the most part were very, very young, and they married during the '90s and the late '90s and now the children you're seeing in college and high schools and elementary schools are the children of those people. As a matter of fact, most of the growth is of American citizens. They're not immigrants. But you're seeing the reflection of that wave of immigration.

BANFIELD: Can you also add fertility rates into that?

ROMO: The fertility rates for Hispanic women are a bit higher than the population as a whole. Also the birthrates are quite higher. Approaching 100 for every 1,000 births. So it has to do as well.

BANFIELD: So, Rafael, if this trend continues and if the numbers continue on a broad swing, is there any chance at some point sooner rather than later, perhaps, Hispanic students could become the majority, not just the biggest minority?

ROMO: I don't necessarily know about the majority, because what's going to happen sometime in the century is the birthrate of Latino families is going to stabilize. It's going to not grow as fast and it's probably going to reflect a general population, so I don't know if they will become the majority, but what we'll see is they may go to a quarter, maybe a third of the entire population. That's very much a possibility now.

BANFIELD: It's fascinating and it is critical for election campaigning.

Rafael Romo, good to see you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: You might remember the name Chavis Carter, young man in the back of a cruiser handcuffed, apparently shot himself in the head. It's official. Police are ruling it a suicide. That's according to the medical examiner, the medical examiner, who gets their information from the police. Now, it is odd. I mean, we've all tried it. Put your hands behind your back and see if you can do the gymnastics. They've shown it can happen. The autopsy report is actually saying the gun was placed against Carter's right temple when it fired, a contact wound. Carter's family says we're skeptical about this.

Their attorney spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN IRWIN, ATTORNEY FOR CHAVIS CARTER'S FAMILY: What we don't know from the medical examiner's report is who fired that gun. Was that done? There was no gun residue test we've been aware of. Was he tested for gun residue? Were the officers on the scene tested for gun residue? And if so, when?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BANFIELD: Our "In Session's" Jean Casarez joins me now.

Jean, you and I know how this works. We have the autopsy. What we don't have is all those other things that forensics experts bring into the courtroom such as --

JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Such as many things. I was able to get the autopsy report and this conclusion was based on the autopsy report and also investigative reports. First of all, Ashleigh, there were handcuff marks on his hands as per the autopsy report. In other words, there was struggle. He was trying to turn those hands around. That could go either way, right? Because if you're in handcuffs, you normally might want to try to adjust yourself. But here's the gunshot on the right side, Ashleigh, it's four inches below the top of the head, 2 3/4 inches above the ear. So it wasn't as far up as it could be, and there was dense soot all around the wound. It absolutely was a contact shot. And the trajectory was right to left, backwards to downwards, but the question still is, could he have done it? And obviously I'll bet those marks on the hands are what really led them to believe he shot himself.

BANFIELD: Well, that and the old gunshot residue, was there any on his hands, was there any on the police hands, did anybody bother testing? And how about that old, you know, trajectory and blood spatter? Always comes back to bite you.

Jean Casarez, I'm flat out of time, otherwise I would talk to you for hours. But we'll have you back again.

CASAREZ: All right. Thanks, Ashleigh

BANFIELD: Thank you, Jean. Good to see you.

That's it for us. NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL starts right now.