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Homesick Hijacker in U.S.; Early Autism Detection; Christie Eyed as Republican Savior

Aired November 06, 2013 - 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: Just in to CNN, new research shows autism can be detected in the first few months of life. We will tell you what this means.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

The homesick hijacker, back in America. Decades after this man hijacked a flight to Cuba, he returns because he wants to.

As her new murder trial gets under way, new tests show a trace of Amanda Knox's DNA on a knife.

Plus -- patriotic or poor taste? A football team's new uniforms showing blood splatter to honor those who fight.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB FORD, MAYOR OF TORONTO: Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How do voters decide which politicians to forgive? Also, what's up with Rob Ford's vintage NFL tie?

Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN on this Wednesday.

We begin with this bizarre homecoming of an American hijacker who has been living in Cuba for years. I'm talking about William Potts. He's seen here on this plane. He has now been in the United States, where he was born, for more than two hours now. And moments after this chartered plane brought him to Miami, federal officers swooped in. They took him away. Here's the backstory. This guy is wanted for hijacking a plane on a flight from Newark to Florida. This was back in 1984. He smuggled a gun onboard, hiding it inside a fake cast he was wearing on his arm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM POTTS, AMERICAN FUGITIVE LIVING IN CUBA: I gave the stewardess a note to pass to the captain. Then I ordered people to stay calm and asked people to stay calm and asked the stewardess to give everybody, you know, free drinks and, you know, compliments of the revolution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Potts then directed the plane to go to Cuba, where he has been ever since then. At the time, a Black Panther, Potts hoped to receive military training to ultimately overthrow the U.S. government. That was his plan. Instead, Cuban authorities tried, convicted, and imprisoned him for 13 years. And now he's hoping that prison time in Cuba will play into his favor as he faces charges here in the United States.

Let me go straight to Patrick Oppmann, who was on that plane with William Potts when he arrived in the U.S. for the first time in 29 years.

Patrick, why did he want to come here?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, he misses family, Brooke. He's tired of life in Cuba. It's been 30 years. Most of that time he spent in Cuban prison. Some of the worst prisons in Cuba. And he said he was just finally spent. That he wanted to come back and see - his two daughters that he had in Cuba have come to live in the U.S., and that he wanted to clear up these charges. He also said, Brooke, that he wanted to come back and apologize to the captain and the crew of the plane that he took, the other passengers that he terrorized basically by saying that he had a bomb, that he had -- showing them his gun and forcing them to go to Cuba all those years ago. But let's hear in his own words, you know, some of the reasons he had for flying back today. He spoke to us exclusively on the short flight from Havana to Miami just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM POTTS: I understand that, you know, I'll be taken into custody. And after, I don't know what to expect. I really don't know what to expect.

OPPMANN: Strange being back on a plane?

POTTS: Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. It's - like I once took, you know, that act of terrorism that I did has come back to haunt me every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPMANN: And we don't know what's next for William Potts because he has been brought here, of course. He was brought here by the U.S. government. They accompanied him from Havana to Miami. Two U.S. diplomats who accompanied him. Then he was met at the gate. We saw federal agents, local police who very quickly took him into custody. We expect him to be in front of a judge very soon on the charges of air piracy. And then will there be some sort of negotiation? Will he get a discount, have a sense (ph) subtracted by those 15 years he served in Cuba. We don't know. William Potts has taken a huge gamble by coming back and it's really going to be up to the prosecutor and judges and the federal government what they will do with this homesick hijacker, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Sure. And, Patrick, let me take you back to your point. You said that he wants to apologize to the captain of this plane. You talked to the captain. What does this captain make of this dramatic return of this man?

OPPMANN: And this is just an incredible individual. Carl Gamble (ph) is his name. He was a captain of Piedmont (ph) Airlines. He was a Vietnam veteran. He was hijacked by William Potts 15 years after he was shot down in Vietnam. So this is somebody who knows tight situations and he really thought William Potts was serious, that he was going to blow up the plane.

BALDWIN: Wow.

OPPMANN: He said, despite that, he doesn't have any grudges. That if William Potts asks for forgiveness, he told me that he would consider it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: How about that.

OPPMANN: He would consider forgiving the hijacker that, you know, really terrorized all these people so many years ago and is now back in the United States.

BALDWIN: We will be following this guy's next movements and what happens to him legally here in the justice system in the United States. Patrick Oppmann, thank you very much.

And Republicans, they opened a new front today in their public campaign against Obamacare. At the latest hearing on Capitol Hill, a leading Republican senator took on the so-called navigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: The president's in Dallas, Texas, today, touting the navigator program, which, as you know, is -- are people who are hired to help people navigate the Affordable Care Act. But I would just like to ask you this question, if you would answer it. Isn't it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive personal - sensitive, personal information from the individuals they help sign up for the Affordable Care Act?

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: That is true. States could add an additional background checks and other features, but it is not part of the federal requirement.

CORNYN: So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive, personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them?

SEBELIUS: That is possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Democrats, while they acknowledge Obamacare's bumpy rollout, continue to accuse Republicans of trying to scare potential customers from signing up for this coverage. And a potentially now huge medical breakthrough in autism research. Scientists have managed to detect signs of this condition way earlier than ever before, in itty-bitty babies. Here now to explain this incredible study is our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

So when we say early in these babies, how early?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Really early. Like they saw signs of autism in babies who were two months old.

BALDWIN: Wow.

COHEN: And that is - that is really, really young. Way younger than what they do now. And they did it in the most interesting way. These are folks at the Marcus Institute here in Atlanta. So babies, you know, love to look at people's eyes. So they put a baby in front of a video. This is an actress kind of playing a mom figure. And they watched the baby's eyes. They watched what the baby did. And you can see the tiny little movements of what this baby's eyes are doing. And they could actually track with real precision whether the baby was making eye contact with the actress in the video. And what they found is that over time most of the babies got better at tracking the actress's eyes, but a small -- some did not. And the ones who did not get better with age, those were the ones who were more likely to develop autism later in life.

BALDWIN: Just perspective wise, what's typical for doctors when they find a child is autistic, how early, typically?

COHEN: It's often not until four years old.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow.

COHEN: And, certainly, no earlier than really 18 months old. I mean 18 months would be considered a young age for a diagnosis these days. So if you can catch it at two months or six months or something like that, you can intervene so much earlier. And so if this all pans out, it really could be very exciting.

BALDWIN: Is there anything parents can do at home?

COHEN: You know what, not with this particular piece of information. You can't -- and I would hate to think if someone's watching this now and is holding their, you know, little baby and saying, oh, are their eyes tracking right? You can't see this with the naked eye. This is something you'd have to use that technology.

But having said that, as a parent, if you feel that your baby or toddler just isn't looking at you the way you think they ought to be or is behaving in some other way that concerns you, mom and dad know best. Go to your pediatrician, say you're worried. And if they say, oh, don't worry about it, say, no, I am worried about it. You know, this is something I want to address.

BALDWIN: Be the empowered patient.

COHEN: Be the empowered patient, absolutely.

BALDWIN: Empowered parents in this case. Elizabeth, thank you very much. It's incredible.

Coming up now, this new twist in the case of the NFL player accusing his teammate of bullying because another player now is coming forward and suggesting it is the apparent victim's fault.

Plus, all right, Chris Christie could lock up a blue state, but can he win a dark red one?

And, jetman over Mt. Fuji. Just awesome video. We'll tell you the story behind this coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here's the update on this whole Miami Dolphins story. So there is a report out today that the Miami Dolphins coaches actually asked Richie Incognito to, and I'm quoting, "toughen up" teammate Jonathan Martin. "The Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel" has multiple sources who say the coached turned to Incognito after Martin skipped an voluntary practice. And if you read this piece in the paper here, the sources believe Incognito took the request, ran with it, and simply went too far.

Meanwhile, we have this video of Richie Incognito talking about the bullying controversy for the very first time since the Dolphins suspended him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richie, how are you?

RICHIE INCOGNITO, SUSPENDED MIAMI DOLPHINS LINEMAN: Doing well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you have to say about the storm you're in?

INCOGNITO: You know what, I'm just -- I'm just trying to weather the storm right now. And this will pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, there's an allegation that you left him voice mails on Jonathan Martin's voice mail. What do you have to say about those?

INCOGNITO: No - no comment right now. We're just going to kind of weather this storm and that's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Weather this storm, he says briefly there with that report.

Now, Incognito made those comments hours after taking possession of a new Ferrari. Does that sound like a man concerned about his job? Let's talk to Dave Zirin. He is a sports editor for the magazine "The Nation."

And, Dave, welcome. Good to see you.

DAVE ZIRIN, SPORTS EDITOR, "THE NATION": It's great to be here.

BALDWIN: You wrote this piece entitled "The NFL's Bully Problem." And with the news, with the coaches and the toughening up language there, are you surprised by that report or no?

ZIRIN: No, I'm not surprised at all.

BALDWIN: No.

ZIRIN: The only thing I'm surprised about, if anything, is the way to which people are falling all over themselves to make this look like a Richie Incognito problem or a Miami Dolphins problem. It's kind of like looking at the Bernie Madoff scandal and saying, well that's just a Bernie Madoff problem and not trying to look at this more systemically.

But make no mistake about it, there is a culture of bullying or hazing or harassment or whatever word you want to use in every single NFL locker room. And if you want proof of that, think about it like this, the NFL has huge turnovers of players, free agency and whatnot. The players in the Miami Dolphins locker room, they're response to this publically has been, what's the problem? This is just the way it is. So it's not just a Miami issue. And the NFL, which has no uniform guidelines about hazing, it doesn't -- the Marine Corps has had them since 1997. The NFL does not have them.

BALDWIN: I hear you.

ZIRIN: I mean this is an issue that the NFL is going to have to address.

BALDWIN: Let me quote you in your piece here, Dave. "In the NFL, for far too long, the ideal man has been a big, nasty bastard who affects a persona of being mean as hell and impervious to pain. Any dent in this armor of projected hyper-masculinist power is to be in violation of the code." But should fans really be surprised? I mean I hear you saying, this is not just a Dolphins problem, this is a league problem. But should fans really be surprised, if the accusations are true in what you're saying, that this stuff happens on the field. It's not like people are going to ballet. It's football.

ZIRIN: I mean, frankly, I don't think a lot of fans will be surprised because I'm guessing many fans out there either had experiences of either being bullied or being the bully in the context of football. I mean when you have a sport -- and I'm a football fan, so I'll say I'm party to this hypocrisy, but --

BALDWIN: Most popular sport in America.

ZIRIN: By a country mile it's the most popular sport. It's also a sport that's highly vertical, highly top down, very violent and hyper- masculinist. I mean look at all the way in which Jonathan Martin, this young man was incredibly brave. He broke a code of silence. He is standing up and saying, wait a minute, this is a work place, this is a union work place, and I don't have to be subjected to this harassment. I'm going to stand up and say something. And yet he is derided as the coward. He is the one who's derided as soft, when in fact I think he's giving the entire NFL a crash course in what adulthood actually looks like.

BALDWIN: Some people are blaming this apparent victim here, Jonathan Martin. I want to play something. This is from one of the New York Giants players. This is what he said on WFAN Radio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was Richie Incognito wrong? Absolutely. But I think the other guy is just more to blame as Richie because he's allowed it to happen. At, you know, at this - at this level, you're a man. You know, you're not a little boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you're not - you're not a freshman in college. You know, you're a man. So I think everything has its limits. So there's no way that another man is going to make me pay for something that I choose not to pay for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow. That was Antrel Rolle (ph).

ZIRIN: Yes. This is what we're -

BALDWIN: Yes, go ahead.

ZIRIN: This is exactly what I'm talking about. I mean we need to radically redefine in the NFL what is meant to be a man. I mean, to me, being a real grownup, being a real man, if you will, is standing up and saying, I'm not going to allow this behavior to happen. Being a real man is not putting up your fist. It's not a schoolyard, it's not a frat house, it's a multibillion dollar business and people have the right to expect workplace safety in the context of the National Football League.

BALDWIN: Dave Zirin, "The Nation." Dave, thank you very much.

ZIRIN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Big victory for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, does this win spell out something bigger and better for his future? And can Christie convince the hard right he's a conservative? Plus, Toronto's embattled mayor, Rob Ford, one day after admitting to smoking crack, what's next for him. Will he face charges? What about that video police say they have of him smoking out of a crack pipe? We're on the case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Big night for marijuana in state and local elections. Voters in Colorado approved two new taxes on the marijuana they legalized last year. So a 10 percent sales tax will pay for pot related law enforcement. And then a 15 percent excise tax will be used to build schools. Also, Portland, Maine, and three cities in Michigan voted yesterday to legalize recreational pot use.

To New Jersey we go, where the incumbent governor there, Chris Christie, doing a victory lap today. Live pictures here of where he is speaking. He's taking some questions from member of the media.

Perhaps the governor spreading his wings as the Republican Party's most charismatic leader. Governor Christie won re-election last night, and much is being made of the fact that his state leans Democratic and that he won the support of certain voting blocs who have fled the Republican Party. The question going forward is this -- can Christie earn the love of his own party's base? Those hard-core conservatives? Deborah Feyerick is following the governor there. She joins me on the phone.

And, Deborah, is Governor Christie basking in his landslide victory today?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Oh, there's no question that he's basking in his victory. He got the vote of Republicans, conservatives, members of the Tea Party. He made significant inroads with women voters. A lot of inroads with Latino voters as well. And he's reminding the crowd of that.

But one thing is certain, every time he was asked whether in fact he's positioning himself for a run for the presidency, he tried to dodge the question, though he said it's not annoying to be asked that. It's flattering to be asked whether he's going to be leader of the free world, but he plans to ignore it.

Still, Brooke, he was speaking as someone who is very well positioned. He listed his credentials. He reminded people that Washington is dysfunctional. That ratings are at an all-time low. And he said that he, however, is focused on governor New Jersey and getting other Republican governors elected. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: And I have no problem with it. But I will be really clear about this. I have a job to do. I was re- elected to do a job last night. That's the job I'm going to do. And I'm not worrying about all this other stuff. And if the time comes where I change my mind and decide I'm going to do something else, I'll tell the people of New Jersey I want to do something else. But this is what I want to do. That's why I ran for re-election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And he was very confident. He was very calm. He was asked whether his blunt style may be off-putting to a national audience. And he said, you know, he's 51 years old. It is what it is and he's not going to be changing it. But he did acknowledge that his role as governor has made him far more prepared as an executive and to do the job as president. But again, he said right now he's focused on running New Jersey and he's going to ignore the question until he makes his ultimate decision.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Gotten pretty good at dodging that one, I think, by now. Deborah Feyerick, thank you very much.

And, you know, the Chris Christie bandwagon, it is filling up fast with a lot of folks anointing him the GOP's possible savior. With us now from New York, John Avlon, CNN political analyst.

And, John, I read your piece this morning first thing. I went to "The Daily Beast" and I said, we've got to talk to you. Let me just read -- this is how you begin your piece. Quote, "Chris Christie's landslide re-election in a state President Obama won by 17 points offers the GOP a memo on how to win 2016, if it wants one." Why, John Avlon, why the qualifier, if?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: If because the Republican Party is still in the midst of a very deep civil war between the folks who really want to play to the base, the Tea Party folks who really believe in ideological purity over necessarily problem solving, let alone winning elections, and then there are the folks who really are interested in those things, winning elections, problem solving, and possibly putting partisan politics aside to that aim. Chris Christie's (INAUDIBLE) and point on the second one.

But this fight is far from over, Brooke, as you know. But you look at the margins Chris Christie won last night, the fact that he won Latino voters, the fact that he won women voters, the fact that he won 30 percent of Democrats. And anyone thinking clearly should say that this is something to look at. This is something to study. The hard core ideologues won't like it. The practical problem solvers will.

BALDWIN: But when you talk about those margins, I mean there are a lot of folks, John, chiefly Democrats, who say Christie's appeal would diminish once voters really start to take a long look at his record. Listen to Van Jones on this special edition of "Crossfire." Here's what Van said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": He runs the score up by dodging Cory Booker, wasting $12 million worth of taxpayer money so that he doesn't have to run against anybody. He's basically running unopposed. Where is he leading New Jersey to? New Jersey has one of the worst credit ratings in the country. The bottom has fallen out. He got downgraded on his own watch. Property taxes up. Jobs down. Poverty up. Where is he leading people to?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Are those legitimate points he's making? Multiple points he's making?

AVLON: You know, when I hear Van make those cases, I'm reminded in 1992 when Republicans kept calling Bill Clinton the failed governor of a small southern state. You know, at some point when you're spending so much energy to diminish the person who just won so big last night, it's because you're nervous about the implications.

BALDWIN: That's a sign. Right.

AVLON: And I'm telling you, you know, Republicans should be looking clearly at what Chris Christie did right, and Democrats shouldn't be too (INAUDIBLE) about dismissing him, because this guy is a real political talent who's shown an ability to bring together broad coalitions and he's one person who could win a national election and really shake up the race. Whether Republicans will have the discipline to actually think pragmatically is a whole nother point. But that win last night is not subtle. It is historic in its margins. And you can't ignore that kind of success at politics of the - politics of addition rather than division, which is where Republicans have been stuck the last couple of years.

BALDWIN: John Avlon, thank you very much. Great piece in the news beast this morning. Appreciate it.

AVLON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, will Toronto's mayor face legal trouble one day after admitting that, yes, indeed, he smoked crack cocaine during a drunken stupor. We look at whether Mayor Rob Ford's job is, in fact, on the line.

Plus, the retrial of Amanda Knox. That American student accused of murdering her roommate in Italy. There is new DNA evidence here. Not good news for Amanda Knox. We're on the case.

You are watching CNN.

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