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Miami Dolphins Players Defend Incognito; Workers To Begin Removing 1,500 Fuel Rods From Crippled Reactor At Fukushima Plant; From Stay-At-Home Dad To "His Honor"; Was Yasser Arafat Murdered?; Turning A Struggle Into An Opportunity

Aired November 07, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Today, this new twist to the Miami Dolphins bullying scandal, some Dolphins players are coming to the defense of Richie Incognito, suspended after he allegedly bullied Jonathan Martin. Here is quarterback on the team, Ryan Tannehill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN TANNEHILL, QUARTERBACK, MIAMI DOLPHINS: I think if you would have asked Jonathn Martin a week before who his best friend on the team was, he would have said Richie Incognito. The first guy to stand up for Jonathan when anything went down on the field, any kind of tussle, Richie was the first guy there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Pro football talk reports that Martin's agent complained before Martin left the team to the Dolphins general manager about how Richie Incognito had treated Martin. And this web site reports that Ireland's solution was for Martin to quote/unquote, "Punch Incognito." And there's more, there are reports that after martin left the team, he checked into a hospital to be treated for emotional distress and Coach Joe Philbin visited him at the hospital.

I want to bring in former pro-player Joe Ehrmann who spent 13 years in the NFL, mostly with the Baltimore Colts. Welcome, sir. It's nice to see you. Let me begin with these voice mails, the let of death, the texts, the Incognito videos that are coming out of him in a bar, you know, being this big rough and tough guy. You just heard the sound bite. How are these Miami players now coming out and supporting this guy, Incognito?

JOE EHRMANN, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Well, I think it's very conflicted, very confused there. You know, I'll say this. I have been in and around the NFL for 40 years. I do an awful lot of workshops in the NFL. Every team has to have a player conduct session. The thing that moves most players off the sports page to the criminal page has to do with false concepts of masculinity. I think embedded in this --

BALDWIN: How do you mean? EHRMANN: About what does it mean to be a man, I think you have a culture here, and it's very much a microcosm of the American culture, but masculinity is built on dominance, power, and control and when you have someone that doesn't fit that construct that has their own individuality, I think that often creates a lot of tension in the midst of that.

So it seems to me, you know, the incognito kid was kind of keeping with the culture, and martin didn't quite fit that context, and therefore, you had threats and whatever was done. I do know this, the NFL will investigate. And the NFL and the NFL PA won't tolerate this.

BALDWIN: It's interesting you bring that point up. I was talking to someone yesterday, and it really brings up thoughts of really what it does mean to be a man, specifically in this professional football culture. When you hear about these reports of what the general manager said to this agent of Martin's, to just punch him or you know, the reports that these coaches were telling Martin to toughen up. I mean, this is not a normal workplace, Joe.

EHRMANN: Well, it's not, but somehow we got this idea that to be kind, compassionate, and empathic is exclusive to being tough, aggressive, and winning. That Martin kid was a terrific football player and just didn't have the manifest what other people thought he needed to project in order to play on the field.

BALDWIN: Let me quote you because you say this, you say what about the bystanders who knew, watch, and did anything? If this was happening, they all knew, seems there's a lack of courage and clarity by many on the team. You have been around pro football for decades. This isn't just players. This is coaches, possibly general managers. Is this a Miami problem, Joe, or a league problem?

EHRMANN: I think it's an American problem. I think it is part of the entire culture. It's played out wherever you have hypermasculinity. You have homophobia, all kinds of gender violence, misogyny, and bullying and hazing. When men don't understand themselves, when their hearts are disconnected from their heads, which is what most of masculinity tries to do with young boys, you have this lack of empathy. A lack of empathy --

BALDWIN: It's the most popular sport in America. Doesn't seem to matter for fans, does it?

EHRMANN: No, I think fans project it, but I think for many fans, it projects what a man is supposed to be like. What we have to do is dismantle that. I think how you perceive people dictate how you treat them. That man was considered outside of the cultural box, called all kinds of names to try to get him to climb back into that box. As an individual, it appears to me he stood up for his own authenticity, as a man and as a player, and that was not well received.

BALDWIN: Joe, great perspective today. Thank you so much.

In Fukushima, Japan, engineers announced they will begin removing 1,500 spent fuel rods from one of the reactors at that crippled nuclear power plant. Two years ago, that plant was severely damaged by that huge earthquake and tsunami. Removing the fuel rods is an important step in the clean-up process.

Fukushima, Chernobyl, and three-mile island have become synonymous with the dangers of nuclear energy. Tonight at 9:00 Eastern, you have to watch "Pandora's Promise" a film that re-examined the energy's future and why some of nuclear's loudest critics have now become some of its strongest champions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was writing for a national magazine many years ago, writing articles about the dangers of nuclear power and I had the standard point of view that I think many journalists still have. That it must be bad. I came to realize basically they avoided looking at the whole picture. And only looked at the questions that seemed to prove to them that nuclear power was dangerous as I had, too.

The only reason I changed my mind is that I talked to experts, physicists in particular, who were the pioneers of nuclear energy. And who carefully, one by one, explained to me again and again, until it finally got through my head, why it wasn't what the anti-nuclear activists felt it was, believed it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And you can see "Pandora's Promise" tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

He is the new mayor-elect, I should say, in the tiny town of Marvin, North Carolina. His name wasn't even on the ballot. We will talk with stay-at-home dad, Joe Pollino, next.

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BALDWIN: Today, he is just plain Joe. Come next week, they will be calling him, his honor, mayor of Marvin, North Carolina, population 5,500, has just elected a guy named Joe Pollino, a stay-at-home dad whose name wasn't even on the ballot. They seem to like him. He got more than 90 percent of the vote even though he has never held office. Here he is, Joe Pollino.

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MAYOR-ELECT JOE POLLINO, MARVIN, NORTH CAROLINA: Certainly not prepared. This is the first time for me ever dipping my toe in the political world. It's exciting, again, still humbling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mayor-elect Joe Pollino now on the phone with me. Mr. Mayor-elect, congratulations. Are you with me?

POLLINO (via telephone): Thank you very much, Brooke. Thanks for having me on. BALDWIN: You're welcome. So you got 557 votes out of 596 cast. That doesn't sound like an accident. Did you campaign as a write-in? How did you pull this off?

POLLINO: I did. I did campaign as a write-in. Initially, I was, you know, running for council, for the village. And when both mayors dropped out, I chose to run as a write-in candidate. So there was some effort put before to get as a write-in. It was very, very exciting that so many people turned out.

BALDWIN: Joe, you, as I mentioned, you're a stay-at-home dad. Your kids are 6, 7, and 12 years of age. How do you manage this now, becoming mayor?

POLLINO: Well, you know, I mean, kids are great and having a 12-year- old certainly helps. Lauren is a big help with Danielle and Taylor. Danielle is 8 and Taylor is 6. So she's a big help, and obviously, my wife is there, too. It's a busy household, and like anybody else's. And you know, it's just -- I thought. I did a lot of local volunteering with our church. I teach faith formation as well as a soccer coach at the YMCA. I thought this was a way to give back to our community. I kind of decided to get involved on a local level.

BALDWIN: So this is going to be a big family Pollino effort to be able to pull this off at home and have you be mayor of this village. Let me ask you this because obviously, looking at the map, your town straddled the border of North and South Carolina. You're about an hour south of Charlotte.

You're quoted by the "Union County Weekly" as saying, let me quote you, "I'm not sure commercial development in Marvin is necessary. We should be more concerned with preserving what we have than building more stores and creating more traffic issues." Is this a winning message there in the ex-burbs of Charlotte, Joe?

POLLINO: I think so. I think there's a lot of reasons many people move down to our area, is to get out of the, you know, the hustle bustle city life. If you go one way a couple miles, you're into the city. If you go another way a couple miles, you're into a nice rural community with open spaces and places for horses, for bike riding, all those things.

The Wal-Mart's and all those places are quite frankly close enough to us, and I would like to see it -- you know, there is still build-out left. We're about 80 percent built out, but I would prefer more of a boutique-ish type commercial standing going forward.

BALDWIN: Stay at home dad turned Mayor-Elect Joe Pollino. Congrats and good luck, sir.

POLLINO: Thank you so much for having me.

BALDWIN: You got it. He's known as the pope of the people. When you see this photograph, you'll see why. Talk about compassion here. Pope Francis embraces a man with severe skin disease. Coming up next, details on this personal moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Yes, Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned. Yes, a poison used in past assassinations was found in his body, and clothing, but no, this case for murder is not open and shut. So says his team of scientists, independent scientists who examined Arafat's belongings and his body which was exhumed last November, some eight years after he died.

At a news conference this morning, they said they could not reach a conclusion, in part because the samples they tested were small and decomposing. Let me take you back because it was 1994 when Arafat died. He was 75 years of age. He hadn't had previous health problems.

At the time, think about this, he was the president of the Palestinian Authority. He was still a marked man, as he had been for much of his fascinating life. Take a look at this, video we pulled from 1990, the head of the PLO on the move with CNN's Jim Clancy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Arafat's invitation, we joined him aboard his private charter jet for an exclusive and unprecedented look add how he works and lives within a bullet proof blanket of security.

YASSER ARAFAT: You know, it's not an easy life to live every night in a different place and in different beds.

CLANCY: And no one knows where Arafat will be tonight. When we lifted off the rain-soaked runway, only one man knew where the flight would take us.

ARAFAT: Me, me only. In this airplane, even my colleagues don't know where we are going to.

CLANCY: Out of view in the cargo holds are weapons caches. Machine guns, rockets, designed to thwart any attempt to kill or capture the head of the PLO.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Incredible. That was 1990. That was the voice of Jim Clancy on Arafat's private plane somewhere above North Africa. So despite today's inconclusive finding on his death, many Arafat supporters say it confirmed their view that he was poisoned, quite possibly by the Israelis. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said, and I'm quoting, "utter nonsense."

Pope Francis embraces a severely disfigured man and hearts just absolutely melt around the world. There's the man, nesting his head in the pope's chest. He suffers from this painful genetic disorder that can cause thousands of tumors all over the face, all over the body. The Catholic news agency reports the pope took the man's face in his hands, kissed him, and blessed him. The heart warming embrace happened yesterday in St. Peter's Square.

A football coach hit with a debilitating disease, his wife sees his struggles with routine tasks and comes up with a line of clothing to help those with limited mobility. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has her story in today's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON HORTON, SUFFERING FROM PARKINSON'S DISEASE: Right there, good job. Good job right there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than three decades now, Don Horton's life has been mostly football.

HORTON: Vision one, vision two, three, also a high school coach, all very rewarding experiences.

GUPTA: In 2006, Don became one of the 60,000 Americans diagnosed every year with Parkinson's disease. Perhaps the worst day came in 2009. That's when Don found himself unable to button his own shirt. Russell Wilson, who is now a quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks helped Don with his buttons, so their team could get back on the road.

HORTON: It's a humbling experience to be helped. You can see it there. You've done it before, and seemed so easy for everybody else to do.

MAURA HORTON, DON'S WIFE: There were so many challenges he was going through that I couldn't help with, but this was one change I thought I could do.

GUPTA: Calling on her own experience as a children's clothing designer, Don's wife, Maura got to work, creating a line of magnetic clothing, free of buttons and zippers, that would help her husband and others regain their independence.

MAURA HORTON: So it's as simple as lining it up.

HORTON: As it grew, the e-mails she got were incredible, helping so many people across the nation.

GUPTA: The magna ready magnets are strong enough to keep the shirts closed, but not so strong that the shirts are difficult to open.

MAURA HORTON: And you're dressed.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you.

Coming up, another week, another round of violence across this country, and usually the conversation, the debate turns toward gun control. Not this time. We're exposing America's mental health crisis. The problem no one seems to want to talk about, full hour special report with doctors, celebrities, families, who are on the edge. Stay right here. This is CNN.

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