Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Reports: Tony Dorsett has Signs of CTE; Time: Christie's the "Elephant in the Room"; CNN Film Examines Nuclear Power; Twitter Makes Official NYSE Debut; Mayor Admits Smoking Crack

Aired November 07, 2013 - 10:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Former NFL running Jamal Anderson joins me now. You know, I loved Tony Dorsett during his playing days. It just -- it hurt me to see that.

JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER RUNNING BACK, ATLANTA FALCONS: No, there's no question about it, Carol. You couldn't have played my position and made it to the NFL and not adored Tony Dorsett, the way he played the game, his size, his attitude, his toughness and his speed -- I mean he was a fantastic player for the Dallas Cowboys, one of the greatest Cowboys of all time. And that's saying a lot -- one of the most popular franchises in the NFL.

So it's heartbreaking. I played that position, Carol. So you know, when I hear things like that, I have daughters, I have children. And it breaks your heart.

COSTELLO: Well and it must scare you, too. You know Brett Favre recently came out, too and said he's suffering from memory loss and he fears for the future.

ANDERSON: No, it does concern me. It does concern me, moving forward. I feel so fortunate and blessed that I'm able to do what I do. And that I'm able to operate and move in the ways that I am now and I see so many guys going through different things. There are a lot of guys like me who seem fine, but then you go through things every now and then. But as we get older what's going to happen?

COSTELLO: Right Tony Dorsett was now 59 years old? It took a while.

ANDERSON: Right. Yes it did take a while. And I think that's what's one of the things that was so important about that lawsuit. People were like oh, you know for guys who were part of the lawsuit who seemed fine you don't know what guys are going through. And -- and here we go again, talking about tough guys -- a culture, guys that don't really want to talk about the pain and different things that they're going through.

And now there's this realization that that -- that there are circumstances that we're going to go through and you may face because you play football and you play football in this level and where things -- could things have been done earlier.

COSTELLO: Right.

ANDERSON: That we have been implementing safety measures earlier?

COSTELLO: Have you been tested?

ANDERSON: I have not.

COSTELLO: Do you want to be?

ANDERSON: You know, I think for me, if I see that I'm significantly going through signs and changes or -- or not able to do the things that I think I should be capable of doing, it would concern me more and I would go and put myself in a situation where I would do that.

Part of the reason I was in that NFL lawsuit was because I don't know what's going to take place in the future and to bring an awareness to not only guys like this, but how can we make the game that we -- I still love. I still love it, Carol. My son is playing in the championship game this weekend. And he's a little kid. But how can we make the game as safe as we possibly can?

COSTELLO: Well, the NFL says it's working toward that and they have --

ANDERSON: And they are. They are. And they clearly are. And I think the measures that have been -- that are put in place now are certainly helping. I think that they are clearly are having a toll as it moves forward. And the whole conversation about concussions on every level -- the things that they implement in the NFL, I wish they got implemented faster as football trickled down. Because here is the thing, there is -- it's the -- it's not just one blow. There's not one play.

Tony Dorsett played football for a long, long time. All of the damage to his brain did not in effect take place just because he played in the NFL. He played football a long time and football for a long time was a brutal and violent sport that did not have the protections that players currently enjoy now.

COSTELLO: Well sadly, when beloved players come out, like Tony Dorsett and talk about how the game has affected them physically, you know, then it brings us all to the realization that this really is a problem. And at the end of it all we really have to deal with it and we really have to wonder about whether we should allow our kids to play football at a young age.

ANDERSON: Right I mean I'm all about the conversation. And again like I said, my son is playing in a game this weekend. He is in the championship game this weekend. He loves the game but it's not for everybody. And I certainly have concerns.

Look I'm here now. I mean I've talked about this so many times on this platform. And I talked to my coaches, youth coaches. The game is not for everybody. What can we do to -- OK these kids are going to play. Kids are going to ride a dirt bike. Kids are going to go water skiing. Kids are going to get on a snowboard. Yes, those are dangerous things.

Football obviously is a collision sports. I'm not comparing them. I know people are going to treat me like, snowboard --

COSTELLO: Yes.

ANDERSON: I'm not comparing them but I'm saying kids are going to do these things. And I'm glad that we're able to allow kids to do this. But let's do what we can, everything we can to make it as safe as we possibly can. But understanding there are still inherent risks to playing football.

COSTELLO: Yes we do understand. You know, I don't know. Just imagine when I even think people are riding bicycles without helmets, it's like, what are you thinking? Come on.

ANDERSON: I mean I agree with you. I had a motor, I mean I rode a motorcycle for years without a helmet. But I played football, too. And I love it and my kids play so there is a part of me that I had that other chip too but I'm understanding it Carol. What can I do? How can I make this as safe as possible, teaching kids the best way to play this game, to try to avoid harm as best as possible?

COSTELLO: Well we appreciate your efforts. Jamal, thanks for coming in again.

ANDERSON: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

Oh and by the way, Tony Dorsett will be on the "SITUATION ROOM" tonight, will be on 5:00 Eastern edition, do we know? We think so, 5:00 p.m. Eastern with Wolf Blitzer. Tony Dorsett will tell us more about the problems he's experiencing because of concussions he suffered on the field of play.

It's been a good week for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Just two days ago, voters re-elected him in a land slide, a pretty impressive feat, given that he's a Republican in a blue state. But what's raising eyebrows now is this cover from our corporate cousin "Time" magazine. It calls Christie "The Elephant in the Room", it alludes to the GOP's mascot or the fidgeting -- or the fidgeting that's he's causing among some of the party faithful. It also seems to mock his girth.

So let's turn to Zeke Miller a political reporter for "Time" magazine. I even have trouble saying that -- Zeke.

ZEKE MILLER, POLITICAL REPORTER, TIME MAGAZINE: Yes thank you so much for having me. I mean I think the story here and the cover is about you know Christie's role as the de facto party leader right now, the front-runner for 2016. He is bigger than politics right now. He is a cultural icon for the Republican Party. That's why he had such an easy time in this re-election and that's what we're trying the message we're trying to convey with this cover.

COSTELLO: But see when I -- when I look at that, I think of Alfred Hitchcock. MILLER: That certainly -- maybe that was the intent of the art department there. I don't know about that. But I think here with the -- with the Governor, really it's about, you know, he is outspoken. He is you know, he's very openly self-mocking, self-critical, self- aware and you know he makes no apologies for who he is. And a lot of the GOP is uncomfortable with that. And that's sort of, you know, the message and sort of the visual we were trying to convey to our readers.

COSTELLO: But you know, Zeke, that a picture can speak a million different things. I'll just let you know. Destroyed a cliche there. But when you, I mean the headline on the magazine cover could mean so many things. And the first thing honestly, that I though is oh, my God, they're calling Chris Christie an elephant.

MILLER: He is a Republican. And that's the mascot. So it works that way, obviously. But you know it's not -- it's not just about his weight or his physical size. He's obviously had that lap band surgery earlier this year and he's -- and has talked openly about that process. I think he did that with Jake Tapper just a couple of days ago on CNN.

And you know he's talked about -- he has been very open about that process and what that's meant to him. But also he's you know -- we've seen him in town halls, 100 town halls over the past couple of -- couple of years and sort of very willing, almost he enjoys going, you know, to battle with constituents and sort of elongated back and forth you know even at one point telling them to vote for his opponent because they're not going to agree on an issue.

He is not a normal type of politician in that sense. He is very different. And in that sense he stands out from the rest of the pack.

COSTELLO: That's certainly true. Zeke Miller thanks for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

MILLER: Thank you so much for having me.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM it's the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Now operators at the Fukushima plant are taking new steps to clean up the site. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's being called a milestone in the cleanup of Japan's Fukushima power plant. A plant operator just announced they will begin to remove nuclear fuel rods from the site. CNN has obtained these new images from inside Fukushima where the cleanup has been hindered by a variety of problems including the leak of 300 tons of radioactive water. The removal of these rods comes two years after an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant, causing the second worst nuclear disaster in history.

And this disaster at Fukushima has only added to the debate around nuclear energy. Now a new film is tackling the issue called "PANDORA'S PROMISE", and it airs tonight on CNN. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It turns out that the United States has been buying up nuclear warheads from the Russians for over ten years now; 16,000 nuclear warheads and recycling all these nuclear warheads into energy, electricity, nuclear power. And so nuclear power is doing more to de-nuclear weaponized the world more than any other thing that we do.

Poetically it's rather beautiful. The very things that were designed to blow up our cities are now lighting up our cities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Fascinating take, right? Joining me now are two people on very different sides of the conversation. Michael Shellenberger is the former green activist and now supports the use of nuclear power to fight climate change, he's also the president of the Breakthrough Institute in New York. Debbie Sease is the federal campaign director of The Sierra Club. Good morning to you both.

DEBBIE SEASE, FEDERAL CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR, THE SIERRA CLUB: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, PRESIDENT, THE BREAKTHROUGH INSTITUTE: Hi Carol.

COSTELLO: Michael, I want to start with you. You're one of the leading voices in this film and you talk about your experiences. What has ultimately led you to change your mind from opponent to supporter of nuclear power?

SHELLENBERGER: Well, we really got clear about the energy challenge. I mean over the next century the amount of energy we consume even with a lot of energy efficiency is going to triple or quadruple. Now last year in the United States, solar provided about one-tenth of one percent of our electricity. So to put all of our eggs in the solar and wind basket would be betting the planet on technologies that have not proven their ability to replace coal.

By contrast nuclear provides 20 percent of our electricity in the United States, 80 percent in places like France. And you know earlier this year James Hanson the NASA climate scientist came out with a study where he found that nuclear energy, to date, has already saved 1.8 million lives just from reducing air pollution. No other technology can make that claim.

And so when we confronted the facts of it as environmentalists, and there's people that care about climate and the environment there is no way we could continue our opposition to this really important environmental technology.

COSTELLO: OK. So Debbie, I know you care about the environment. But you disagree with using nuclear energy. Tell me your concerns and what the Sierra Club is doing to prevent incidents like Fukushima.

SEASE: The Sierra Club believes that climate change, climate disruption is a real and pressing danger and we believe that we need to do everything we can to reduce our carbon pollution.

So while it might be tempting to say nuclear power is the be-all, end- all answer, the evidence doesn't support that. If you look at nuclear power -- it's slow, it's expensive, it's dangerous.

So, as we invest in a future, compare that to investing in renewable solar and wind -- clean, safe, doesn't contribute to carbon pollution and is growing at a time when nuclear power is stagnating, when investors are not investing. Wind and solar are growing by leaps and bounds. Look to Wall Street. That's where they're investing.

So we say that it's a choice that we can't afford to make wrong. Investing in nuclear, every penny we spend to promote nuclear would be a penny we're not spending to promote wind and solar. So we'll have to combat --

COSTELLO: Is there some middle ground between you two? Because Michael is right, I mean solar energy isn't exactly catching on like wildfire here in the United States because it needs governmental support and that's become a political issue. But nuclear power is already around and we could probably improve that if we wanted to.

(CROSSTALK)

SEASE: Nuclear power is around --

SHELLENBERGER: Yes, and I think the thing to remember is that it's a little -- it's a little disingenuous for Debbie to say that's another mark of the (inaudible) -- the sierra club has spent 40 years fighting every new nuclear plant. They've spent 40 years killing the nuclear R&D program in Washington, something that the movie shows really clearly.

And what you've seen now is that you have the world's top climate scientists, James Hanson and three of the other top climate scientists, who have written an open letter to the Sierra Club and to other environmental groups saying you guys have got to not only stop fighting nuclear, you have to start advocating for a new generation of safer nuclear plants.

So I appreciate -- you know, some of these old myths die hard, but I think that a place for some agreement would be in developing these new technologies. We really stopped doing that and we've been sending people like Bill Gates and Nathan Merville (ph) to places like China to develop their advanced nuclear technology.

So I guess I would ask Debbie, would you support an effort to actually increase the amount we're investing and developing these advanced technologies that are proven much safer and can get even safer and cheaper still?

COSTELLO: Yes. And sadly, I have to leave it there. But the documentary airs tonight. Both sides of the argument are included in that documentary. Thanks to Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute and Debbie Sease of the Sierra Club.

And like I said, you can see "PANDORA'S PROMISE" tonight 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As we've been telling you all morning, it has happened. Actually we were telling you it was about to happen but it has happened. Shares of Twitter have started trading at the New York Stock Exchange. Alison Kosik is there. I see the share price right there. Take it away, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There it is trading at $45 actually $46 right now. We knew that there was a price. We heard the roar on the floor, the roar of a huge cheer. This stock trading right now 76 percent higher than that initial IPO price of $26 -- that $26 price, that was the one that the heavy hitters got last night. Those were the shares that were released to the banks underwriting the IPO like Goldman Sachs its top client; those big banks, the big institutional investors, the mutual funds, the hedge funds.

But the price that you're seeing now, this $46 a share price for Twitter going for the average retail investor, I've been seeing some traders talking to me, telling me it's a little bit high for them. They may stand back and see where it goes. This is certainly much higher than what was expected, especially when you look at where Facebook started trading back in May. A lot of comparisons being made from Twitter, between Twitter and between how Facebook went public.

Clearly, from what we can tell, no glitches, no problems here at the New York Stock Exchange in getting this IPO off the ground -- something very different than what we saw from Facebook, which was considered a flop at the Nasdaq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It was considered a flop. I know, what, they had a big meeting to make sure nothing bad would happen?

KOSIK: Yes. In fact they -- here at the New York Stock Exchange on a weekend, on a Saturday, the exchange brought in a lot of the traders who would be handling the day's events today just to give it a dry run. So they sort of simulated today a few weeks ago just to make sure their i's were dotted and the t's were crossed. Looks like that dry run was worth it as we see the stock even go on higher trading at $47 right now -- up now 81 percent -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll keep an eye on it. I know you'll keep an eye on it, Alison Kosik.

KOSIK: I will.

COSTELLO: live from the New York Stock Exchange.

NEWSROOM will be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: He was drunk. He smoked crack cocaine. That's a story that a lot of you have been talking about this week. Jeanne Moos has her own take on Toronto's mayor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the mayor of a major city rampages around his yard.

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: Get off my property, please. Get off my property.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm leaving.

MOOS: And confesses to this.

FORD: Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.

MOOS: Well, that mayor's story is as addictive as crack to comedians who are themselves lighting up.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Have I ever smoked crack? Yes, but that was in the past.

MOOS: And dressing up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of driveway, partner.

MOOS: At his apologetic press conference, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford got only one laugh at the very end.

FORD: God bless the people of Toronto.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God bless you, too.

MOOS: But comedians don't even need to make an actual joke.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": The mayor of Toronto.

MOOS (on camera): We are hearing things you'd never expect to come out of the mouth of a mayor.

FORD: I shouldn't have gotten hammered. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": His excuse for smoking crack is he was drunk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How to tell if your mayor is smoking crack: blurred vision, loss of balance, denies smoking crack.

FORD: I did not use crack cocaine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admits to smoking crack. FORD: Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.

MOOS (voice-over): Even a dead comedian is getting into the act, as folks wonder what semi-lookalike Chris Farley would have done with Rob Ford.

WILLIE GEIST, CO-HOST, MSNBC'S "MORNING JOE": Can you imagine the SNL sketch?

MOOS (on camera): Mayor Ford is clearly addicted to repetitive word use.

FORD: I sincerely, sincerely, sincerely apologize. Never, ever, ever --

MOOS (voice-over): Mayor Ford is being afforded no mercy, his fall from grace punctuated with falls.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He slipped off the scales.

MOOS: But not quite falling down drunk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a big guy, man.

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": The mayor was charged with being way too exciting for Canada.

MOOS: People are making fun of the vintage NFL logo tie he wore on the worst day of his career. The tie now has its own Twitter account where it says it's stretched pretty thin.

FORD: What don't you understand? Get off the property, partner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move it, partner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Ford, you're smoking crack right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you getting this?

MOOS: Comedians are getting a contact high imitating life.

FORD: I said I can --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you on crack right now?

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I sincerely, sincerely did not laugh at that story. Yes, I did. It's crazy, isn't it?

Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now. ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: The Miami Dolphins hazing scandal getting fishier by the minute. New questions now swirling around what the coaches knew and when the coaches knew it.

And teammates telling us the suspended lineman was like a big brother to the rookie he is accused now of bullying.

Also this hour, would you rather die than live the rest of your life in a wheelchair? The heartbreaking decision of a deer hunter to take himself off life support after a tragic fall.

And say whatever you want about Tom Cruise. Just don't go calling him a bad dad. He is fed up with salacious headlines and is fighting back to the tune of $50 million.

Hello, everyone and welcome. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It is Thursday, November 7th. Good to have you with us on LEGAL VIEW. I want to begin this hour with a story that is real close to many Americans' hearts.