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Damage Control Advice for Toronto Mayor; Kayakers Film Rescue of Friend; Jet Pack Man Flies Japan's Fuji; Gary Sinise Helps Vets; Hunter Chooses to End Life Support After Fall From Tree Stand; Bloomberg Talks Election; Rapid Growth Predicted for Pot Industry; Military Vets Enroll in Culinary School
Aired November 06, 2013 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So, let's talk crisis management here with this expert, so-called reputation doctor. This is Mike Paul.
Mike, welcome to you. Nice to see you.
MIKE PAUL, PRESIDENT, MGP & ASSOCIATES PR: Hi, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Let's get to the Marion Barry stuff in just a second here, but just prior to yesterday's admission, I mean, as we have said, this guy's ratings went up. He's now admitted to smoking crack. What is his next step as far as damage control goes? PAUL: Well, if he were my client, the first thing I would ask him is, are you sure this is the only -- there was only one time that you have done this?
Because if there is any proof of any kind that you did it more than once, you're in even bigger trouble, number one.
And, number two, it doesn't pass the smell test to just say that for the taxpayers' purposes. It's time to just get back to work.
The taxpayers also want to have a clean mayor, so you should at least be thinking about rehab.
If he's sticking to this point, though, that he only did it one time, you better be able to back it up, because there's now a currency for others to come forward and say, I have seen him doing this another time, and that would be the death blow to him.
BALDWIN: So those are the questions, first questions, you would be asking. Let's talk Marion Berry, you know, infamous D.C. mayor caught on video smoking crack. This was back in 1990.
He served time, federal prison, made this comeback, ultimately became mayor again. What is it about drugs, mike, do you think, versus, say, lying in office, even I think of the San Diego mayor, the embattled San Diego mayor and the allegations of sexual harassment, that constituents seem to forgive drugs.
PAUL: Yes, but the Marion Berry -- some people are calling ford the white Marion Berry. I think the story's a little bit different here. BALDWIN: How so?
PAUL: Because, well, one thing is Marion Berry had -- eventually had to step down, and said he had a problem, and went to get help, and then he had a comeback.
This is a mayor that's saying, I don't have a problem, I'm going to say here, and that I think I'm going to be able to win a year from now.
In my estimation, that's not going to happen. He's not going to have the opportunity to do that. I think there's going to be more.
In my professional opinion, the allegations will be backed up with more information that is proof that shows that he's done this more than once.
And I think that nobody really thinks he's passing the smell test by saying that he's not seeking any help. He's not saying he's going to rehab part-time. He's not saying he's going into a program tomorrow for a few weeks.
He's saying, I just want to get back to work, and no one believes that he did it just one time and that he needs to be doing that.
BALDWIN: You think most people in Toronto are going to stand by him or no?
PAUL: I think the blip we're seeing right now is before we really see on a continual basis the optics of this tape itself.
If we had this tape on a roll and we're hearing it every hour, showing him smoking, that's something else.
There's another important point, which is his own police chief was doing the investigation of his driver when he found out, the police chief, that his boss, think about this, the mayor of that city, was smoking crack.
He had an opportunity to either turn him in --
BALDWIN: But it didn't happen.
PAUL: -- or try to support him. It's a rule for everyone, which is, if you have a reputation in crisis, you think of your own reputation first.
BALDWIN: OK, Mike Paul, we'll be watching together. Thank you so much for watching what happens with this mayor in Toronto.
Now, this video, this is just dramatic, this scene in New Zealand, kayakers rush to save their friend from drowning.
The man's kayak basically, you know, is vertically, pinned underwater, stuck against this rock.
The current trapped his head under the waterfall, making it impossible to get out, and a helmet-cam caught the whole thing.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get him stabilized first.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up on top.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you jump up on that rope?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got him. Let him go. Yep, I've got him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: They got him. They got him. I love whitewater rafting, but that makes me nervous.
So does this next piece of video. Tell me about this daredevil.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That kayaker was saying, my kayak, my kayak, a jet pack for my kayak, because wouldn't he have loved to blast his way out of this?
BALDWIN: Look at this.
MYERS: A hundred-and-eighty-nine-miles-an-hour, flying around Mount Fuji, first time in Asia, Jet Pack Man, we know his as Yves Rossy. He was there at Oshkosh. He was up there.
He was the guy who flew over the English channel. He's still doing it. He's only in his 50s. I'm not doing this until I'm 94.
BALDWIN: Only until then. Then you'll do it.
Tell me again. How fast, you said? How fast?
MYERS: His average speed is 120, but when he goes down, you know, downhill, when he goes down in elevation and altitude, he can get up to 180-miles-per-hour.
He built the thing himself. It's carbon fiber. It's four jet little packs.
Now he doesn't take off from the ground.
BALDWIN: I was going to ask, how does his flight begin?
MYERS: My son is 8. He's going to build a jet pack. That's his goal.
He's already too late because this guy has done it, although he jumps out of either an airplane or helicopter. That's how he gets elevation.
And when he's down to about 1,500 feet, he pulls the ripcord and he floats down with a parachute. He doesn't try to land that thing.
BALDWIN: No, thank you. Good luck to your little one. Cool pictures, though. Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: See you in 44 years on a jet pack.
BALDWIN: Yeah. Whew. Thank you.
MYERS: Deal.
BALDWIN: Coming up next year, this 32-year-old deer hunter fell from a tree, ended up paralyzed from the neck down. He told the doctors he did not want to live with a breathing tube.
How rare is this kind of situation for a patient to make that call? We're going to talk about that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Monday is Veterans Day, a day to recognize the men and women who have served in our armed forces.
But Emmy-award winning actor Gary Sinise is trying to honor veterans each and every day.
Here's how he and his iconic character Lieutenant Dan are impacting our world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY SINISE, ACTOR, "FORREST GUMP": Thought I'd try out my sea legs.
TOM HANKS, ACTOR, "FORREST GUMP": But you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, "NEW DAY": Long before Gary Sinise played Vietnam veteran Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump," he was a passionate supporter of the military.
SINISE: Well, I have a long history with working with veterans starting with the relationships that I have in my own personal family
My dad was -- served in the Navy. My two uncles were in World War II. My grandfather served in World War I.
CUOMO: With the success of "Forrest Gump," wounded veterans began to identify with Sinise.
SINISE: How many veterans we got here tonight?
CUOMO: He formed the Lieutenant Dan Band and has entertained troops around the world with the USO. The actor says his call to action became very clear after 9/11.
SINISE: When our men and women started deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, they started getting hurt and killed. Having Vietnam veterans in my family, it was very troubling to think that our men and women would come home to a nation that didn't appreciate them.
CUOMO: So he started his own charity dedicated to veterans. The Gary Sinise Foundation helps build customized homes for the severely wounded and helps vets find civilian careers.
SINISE: I have met hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wounded veterans who continue to not let their circumstance get them down.
Countless Lieutenant Dans out there that inspire me every day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: It is one of those questions many people prepare for, but all of us hope never to hear, that being whether to end life support.
Thirty-two-year-old Tim Bowers chose to take himself off life support after falling some 16 feet from a tree from the stand he was on when he was hunting.
Bowers was paralyzed from the neck down, and the Associated Press reports his family brought him out of sedation in order to ask what he wanted to do.
Let me read this for you. "We just asked him, 'Do you want this?' And he shook his head emphatically no, said his sister, Jenny Shultz.
"Doctors asked him the same question and got the same responses. They then removed his breathing tube."
Bowers had just gotten married. His now widow is pregnant.
Joining me now, Arthur Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Arthur, Tim Bowers, we know, died, hours later. It is heartbreaking to think about this, but just from your expertise, how rare is a situation like this?
Can a person who has just learned he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life make this kind of decision?
ARTHUR CAPLAN, DIVISION OF MEDICAL ETHICS, NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Brooke, it's a terrible, tragic case, but there are some lessons here.
So the first is everybody has a right, as a competent adult, to say no to medical treatment, whether it's a Jehovah's Witness who says no to blood transfusion or this gentleman who said no to artificial ventilation. That's clear.
The problem is when you have a terrible accident like this, while they're rare, people often say, having been terribly burned or injured or they know they're paralyzed, that they don't want to live. Some adjust. Some come around after a few days or a week or a couple weeks and say, I've changed my mind. I can deal with this.
This gentleman made a decision under, let's say, relatively quick circumstances. I know there are those who are going to say, did they give him enough time to think about whether he could live as a paralyzed person?
BALDWIN: Isn't that a valid question?
CAPLAN: A very valid question. I'll tell you what makes me feel more comfortable about the case.
You read the A.P. excerpt with his family. His family had had a conversation with him about a month earlier saying, what if you got severely injured? What would you want?
He was adamant, no life in a wheelchair. I don't want to be paralyzed. That makes me far more comfortable with this than if you wake up, last thing you know you're in a tree, now you're here. What do you think?
That's a tougher call, which is a reminder, you have to have that conversation. I know it's hard. Thanksgiving is coming.
Use this case, talk to your friends, talk to your family. Say this is what I would want. I would want everything, or you know, I'm not a person who would want to be wheelchair bound.
BALDWIN: A tough conversation, a great point.
What happens, though, Arthur, in the hours after we have this 32-year- old man, they bring him to consciousness out of sedation to be able to say no, I don't want to live?
What happens in those hours until the point of death? What's discussed? Are there papers that are signed?
CAPLAN: Brooke, it probably doesn't require signatures. His oral statement twice, once to the family, once to the doctors, probably would have done it.
The family will gather. They're going to make sure he doesn't suffer at all. You know, if you stop breathing, that can be difficult and burdensome, so they're going to give him enough oxygen to go peacefully.
The family assembled, talked to him, sang their songs together. He had what many people would consider a reasonably good death.
Just an awful circumstance, again a reminder, you don't have to be an old, old person to sometimes face life-and-death decisions.
BALDWIN: It is a reminder to have that conversation with your loved ones soon. Arthur Caplan, thank you so much.
CAPLAN: My pleasure. BALDWIN: We, of course, wish the family well in such a horrendous time.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Well, he wasn't on the ballot, but no doubt New York's current leader, Michael Bloomberg, had a huge, huge impact on the mayoral election.
His successor, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is known as the anti- Bloomberg, and he won by a landslide, the first Democrat to lead New York in more than two decades.
Joining me now, here he is, let's go to Jake Tapper, shall we, host of the "THE LEAD," chief Washington correspondent, who just talked to Mayor Bloomberg.
What'd he have to say?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": I asked him for his reaction, first and foremost, to the two gubernatorial elections and if he saw any trends that indicate something about what the country is thinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: Well, I think the lesson for this whole country, whether it was Christie or McAuliffe, both of them were centrists.
They could work across the aisle. They understood that democracy is coming together to create something that's great for most and OK for those of the outliers.
And being an obstructionist or being a radical, the voters rejected that in body cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And, Brooke, I also, of course, asked him about his replacement. It's not exactly a secret that Mayor Bloomberg disagrees with his successor, Bill de Blasio, on a number of issues, including, of course, stop-and-frisk and also taxation policies.
They met earlier today and we talked about what that conversation was all about, Brooke.
BALDWIN: We will watch "THE LEAD" to see what the answer with the New York mayor.
Jake Tapper, thank you. We'll see you at the top of the hour.
TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Appreciate you, sir. If you ever wanted to get in on the ground floor of a business that is about to explode, I have a couple of words for you, weed, pot, Mary Jane.
Whatever you want to call it, legal marijuana is the next big thing. Nationally the legal marijuana market is worth almost $1.5 billion with a "B."
It is expected to top $2.3 billion by next year. Folks, that is an increase of 64 percent.
And as "The Huffington Post" points out, the pot business is growing faster than the market for smartphones -- smartphones.
All those big numbers in a report from a research firm that tracks trends in marijuana, edited by Steve Berg of ArtView -- forgive me -- ArcView Market Research in Seattle. So, Steve, good to see you, Steve.
We see all these numbers. Your firm put out the first report on the marijuana market in 2011.
Are you really surprised by how much has changed here?
STEVE BERG, EDITOR, ARCVIEW MARKET RESEARCH: Well, I personally am not surprised to the extent that I've been working in the industry and seeing the tremendous growth that's going on in the space.
And, of course, new regulations in the form of marijuana laws, legal marijuana laws, in new states that are allowing medical marijuana, and in states that have had medical marijuana laws and are now allowing for full legalization, or so-called "adult-use marijuana," specifically in the states of Colorado and Washington, really explain why we're seeing the legal, national, marijuana markets on such a huge growth trajectory.
BALDWIN: Obviously, we know, you talk to critics, as we have. They say legalizing it is a very bad thing and it could lead to much more serious drugs.
And then the tax issue. Colorado just voted a hefty tax on legal marijuana sales.
So do you think maybe taxes could make it so expensive that some pot smokers just go back underground?
BERG: Well, certainly the interaction between tax rates on legal marijuana and what that implies about legal marijuana pricing versus marijuana in the illicit markets is a big issue that regulators face.
Now, both Colorado regulators and Washington state regulators have studied this extensively. They've -- the voters have passed tax systems that have been recommended by these studies and are, hopefully, going to keep those two things in balance.
But it really remains to be seen as to what the effective price of marijuana will be in legal markets versus the illicit markets, and there may have to be adjustments along the way.
BALDWIN: Steve Berg, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: In honor of Veterans Day next week, CNN's photojournalists are turning the lenses on the brave men and women who have served this country.
So today on "Vets in Focus," CNN's Jeremy Harlan has the story of soldiers who got tired of eating bland food during their tours of duty and decided to enroll in culinary school after leaving the military.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL RANDOLPH, JR., CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA STUDENT: A chef's hands are our moneymakers. These hands is what I have going for me.
CYNTHIA KELLER, ASSOCIATE DEAN, CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA: Culinary arts is a natural fit for someone good with their hands, likes to be active, likes to be very involved and engaged.
RANDOLPH: Before I came to the Culinary Institute of America, I literally knew nothing about the culinary field.
I did two tours to Fallujah, Iraq. I was a machine gunner in the Second Battalion, Sixth Marines.
I guess my sidearm now is my slicing knife, my chef knife.
KELLER: As these people return and decide what they want to do, culinary arts seems to be something that they've gravitated towards.
RANDOLPH: The United States Marine Corps is in a way similar to the culinary field in itself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure the potatoes are 100 percent covered with water --
RANDOLPH: In the Marine Corps, I had a company of a first sergeant. I had a platoon sergeant. I was a squad leader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Citric acid keep up the -
RANDOLPH: In the culinary field, you have your chef, you have your sous-chef, then you have your line cooks. You have your prep cooks.
You've got that hierarchy.
Yes, chef.
It's a lot of discipline, it's a lot of focus, just like the Marine Corps.
KELLER: Veterans bring a lot to the kitchen. They tend to be very highly focused, very goal-oriented, very driven for success.
They serve often as role models for our younger students as to what professional looks like.
RANDOLPH: We can be focused and we can be disciplined and we carry that. And we know when it comes time to work, we are in there, we're ready to work.
KELLER: It is such an honor and a privilege to be able to help share with these people and give them the power, the knowledge, the courage to go on and pursue the next phases of their life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: That is awesome. Jeremy Harlan, thank you so much for that.
And thank you for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.
