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More Worried for Rob Ford of Toronto; Princeton University Battles Meningities; Obama vs. Ford's Crisis
Aired November 16, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everyone. Top of the hour, I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us. You know, there are bad weeks, and then there are Rob Ford bad weeks. I'm talking about none other than the Toronto mayor. And yes, as weeks go, this one was about as bad as it gets for Rob Ford.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I can assure you I am not an alcoholic. I am not a drug addict. Have I drunk and done drugs? Yes, I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't hit you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Those reporters are shouting, why should we believe you and how can you do this to your family? Mayor Ford, this week, apologized and apologized and apologized again for smoking crack cocaine, for drinking and driving, for doing things he calls sheer stupidity. He's sending lawyers after people who say he abused them physically and brought hookers into city hall. You can't write this stuff. He watched as the city council took away most of his power.
After all of that, Mayor Rob Ford says he's not going anywhere. The mayor of Toronto could have a worse week coming up, but it's hard to even imagine that.
I want to bring in CNN's Nic Robertson. He is in Toronto right now. Nic, watching all this play out, just, you know, this is one of those stories that you kind of - it's once-in-a-lifetime. You've talked with the mayor's brother, and why does - does he say Rob Ford is refusing to step down to get away from this mess?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what the Fords really think here is that they're going to be proved right, that when the mayor takes the council to court for stripping away these powers, they think they will come out on top and the cost of this will be borne by the taxpayers and therefore public opinion will swing back on their side. That is their view.
But, you know,this is happening in such a public way. All these use of bad language, the allegations that have been coming out this week. I asked the mayor's brother, "isn't this all and having those powers stripped away, isn't this all just very humiliating?"
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUG FORD, TORONTO MAYOR'S BROTHER: Just imagine if you took the CEO out and said every one of you folks had the same power as the CEO. It wouldn't work.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Isn't it going to be humiliating for your brother to be put in that position?
DOUG FORD: You know, this whole issue is humiliating.
ROBERTSON: This is what he's going to be remembered for.
DOUG FORD: Well, he's going to be remembered by doing a great job. He's going to be remembered, if he fails to move in the right direction, and he's going to be remembered as the comeback kid.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: So even the mayor's brother there not entirely sure that Mayor Ford can weather this storm, deal with his demons here. But at the same time, all of this is airing bad publicity for the family. They all respect their father, a politician, popular in his day. I asked him, isn't this just damaging the family's legacy here? This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUG FORD: I think our legacy is going to be pretty solid based on how Rob performs. You're going to look at a family that doesn't need to be doing this, that has actually sacrificed massive amounts of time, money, their business to serve the people.
ROBERTSON: Are you worried about his health with all this additional stress? Not just the public, not just the councilors but the family's name riding here, too.
DOUG FORD: Yes. I'm confident that the people that actually know us understand what we've done for our community.
ROBERTSON: This is your brother's health, are you worried?
DOUG FORD: That's right. The priority obviously is health. Health comes first over anything. You don't have your health, you have nothing. So we're confident that Rob's going the move forward, and only time will tell. If I sit here and tell you 100 percent Rob Ford is going to be perfect, I can't tell you that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Yes, that was the second time in that interview where he just wasn't sure if his brother is going to make it. Don?
LEMON: All right. Nic, thank you. We'll see you next hour with much more on that right here on CNN.
I want to move on now and talk about Princeton University, battling a rare meningitis outbreak. Seven people there have gotten sick from a group B strain of meningitis. No approved vaccine for that strain exists here in the U.S.. And Princeton's board is considering whether to offer students an emergency vaccine used overseas.
Correspondent Alexandra Field has the latest.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, there is no approved meningitis B vaccine available in this country, but there is an approved vaccine that is in use in parts of Europe and Australia. Now it's up to university trustees to decide whether or not to bring that vaccine to Princeton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FIELD (voice-over): Princeton University officials are meeting this weekend to discuss possible vaccinations on campus. It's an effort to combat an ongoing outbreak of meningitis B, which can cause life- threatening illness. The New Jersey Department of Health says the first case developed when a student returned from spring break in March.
After additional cases were reported, an outbreak of the disease was declared in May. A total of six students and one visitor to Princeton are linked to the outbreak. The latest case was diagnosed last week. That student is still hospitalized this morning.
ADAM KROP, STUDENT, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I remember it was pretty instant. She went from feeling almost fine to the next minute 103 fever.
FIELD: Bacterial meningitis is rare, and the strain causing this outbreak is very rare in the United States. It's not included in currently available vaccines. The bacteria can cause infections of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever, vomiting, rashes and stiff neck. Those infected need to be treated right away, and even those who recover can suffer serious complications, such as hearing loss, brain damage and limb amputations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They treat it quickly. So a community that may have other cases has to be aware of the symptoms, because the quicker you put someone on antibiotics, the more likely they are to recover.
FIELD: To combat the disease, the CDC has FDA approval to import the only vaccine for meningitis B as an experimental drug. It's called Bexsero and is approved in Australia and Europe, but not yet in the United States. If university and health officials agree to offer vaccine, it will be available on a voluntary basis, something students will likely consider.
KRISTIE SCHOTT, STUDENT, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I think a lot of people are concerned from the fact it didn't go away over the summer after everybody left.
(END VIDEOTAPE) FIELD: If a decision is made to bring the vaccine to Princeton, it would be available to some 8,000 students. The students here say that the school has kept them up to speed on all developments concerning the outbreaks since the first case was reported back in March. They tell us they've been receiving regular e-mail. Don?
LEMON: All right. Alexandra, thank you very much for that.
A Princeton University spokesman tells CNN the school's final decision on the emergency vaccines, not expected before Monday. I want to bring in now our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth is in Atlanta. You know, we've heard of meningitis outbreaks on other campuses from time to time. What makes this one different.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, what makes this one different is that the strain is B, and not C. That's really pretty unusual these days. As a matter of fact, you don't see cases of B cluster, you sort of see them here and there. So that's got some researchers kind of scratching their heads, wondering what's going on.
Another thing that's a little bit curious about this outbreak, Don, is that it's only affected students. You don't see staff members with meningitis. You don't see faculty members. You don't see people living around the university with this, and they're not quite sure why that is.
LEMON: OK. So you said it's B instead of C, correct?
COHEN: Right.
LEMON: Did I get that right? So OK, what difference does that make, does that make it anymore dangerous, this outbreak for the students at Princeton?
COHEN: B is not necessarily any more dangerous or virilent than the other strains. However, with meningitis in general, you have to be on your toes. We heard a little bit of that from the gentleman that was in the piece just now. So meningitis can look just like the flu, you know if you just think someone just has the flu or some other virus and then within hours that person can be in a coma.
So you have to be aware that meningitis can be sneaky, it may look like it's not a big deal but turn into a very big deal very quickly.
LEMON: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, great information. Always a pleasure to see you. Thank you very much.
Next, bodies in the streets. Millions more homeless, and in a desperate need for food. We're on the ground in the Philippines a week after a devastating typhoon ripped apart that country. And two politicians, two countries, both with really bad week.
President Obama and Toronto's mayor in damage control mode. We're talking about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: In Libya today, a mass funeral for those who died in the last 24 hours in violent clashes. The Libyan government says 43 people were killed and another 460 wounded in what they call the bloodiest day of fighting since the fall of Tripoli in 2011. The fighting broke out yesterday after protesters arrived at the Tripoli headquarters of militias from the coastal city of Misrata. The militia claims the protesters fired first.
More than a week after super typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, aid crews are still picking up bodies off the streets and trying to help the millions without homes. The U.S. military has delivered 623,000 pounds of relief supplies. As of right now, the official death toll is just over 3,600 people, but that number will probably continue to grow. Anna Coren has more on the refugees of the storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Thousands of survivors of super typhoon Haiyan are making their way here to Cebu as part of a massive military effort to get these refugees out of the disaster zone.
While the aid is finally getting into some of these devastated areas, but so many of these desperate people who have lost everything just want to get out.
(voice-over): The Filipino government has come under heavy criticism for its slow, disorganized and small-scale relief operation, with some saying it was never equipped to handle such a disaster, and that it should have asked for help immediately.
Since the international community has arrived, aid is finally being distributed. The United States is spearheading this operation. The USS George Washington aircraft carrier based off the coast of (INAUDIBLE). It has more than 5,000 sailors and 80 aircraft making essential food drops to those devastated and isolated areas.
(on camera): This is very much an international effort, with aid, aircraft and troops coming in from countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea. They're all working around the clock in an effort to try and ease the suffering of millions of Filipinos.
Anna Coren, CNN, Cebu, the Philippines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Coming up at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, CNN's Ivan Watson has a powerful story on the so-called storm babies. Children born during or right after the storm. That's coming up next hour here on CNN. You don't want to miss that.
Tens of thousands of people are homeless, some hungry people surviving on coconut juice alone. If you want to help typhoon survivors, make sure you go to cnn.com/impact for more information. And up next here on CNN, two politicians that need image repair, President Obama for the Obamacare web site fiasco, Toronto's mayor for drug use while on the job. We're talking damage control right after a very quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. You won't find two politicians who have had worse weeks than President Obama and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. They've had a pretty bad week. President Obama saying I'm sorry over and over for his so- called signature achievement Obamacare.
Rob Ford though admitting to being a crack smoker. Two very different crisis, we get that. But we're talking about damage control here. Throwing napalm on the fire over his bad habits, the mayor. Each handled his own crisis in his own style.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am not a perfect man, and I will not be a perfect president.
MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: (INAUDIBLE) it says that I wanted to (INAUDIBLE). I've never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I'm happily married.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So is this going to work? Which is better, Obama's apology tour or Ford's antics, which have appalled people on both sides of the border. Here to talk about it is Don Goldberg. He's from Washington, a damage control specialist in the Clinton White House and partner in Blue Text and then clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere is here with me in New York City.
So, again, Don, we know there are two very different crises, right?. One is really a political crisis, the other one is really a personal crisis, I think. Which is the better approach, humble yourself or come out with both guns blazing?
DON GOLDBERG, DAMAGE CONTROL SPECIALIST: Well, that's a great question. I think you have to humble yourself and take responsibility whether you're President Obama or the mayor of Toronto. I think when you're explaining, you're sort of slip behind, you're losing a little bit. But I think for the president, that's been something he's had to do. He's had too many inconsistencies in what's supposed to happen with the healthcare implementation. I think with the mayor, this guys he's too much fun to watch. He's really become a caricature of himself.
LEMON: Yes. Don, before I get to Jeff, I want to - is it fair though to compare the two crises?
GOLDBERG: No, it's not fair to compare them at all. They're totally different. But it's fun for people like myself.
LEMON: That's not what I meant. Jeff, I'll ask you the same question.
DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Sure.
LEMON: Is it fair to compare the two crises? Because it's really about damage control, not whether the two crises are equal, equivalent.
GARDERE: Exactly. And I think it is fair to make a comparison for the simple fact that both of them are in trouble. With President Obama, certainly it's a little bit different. Because here's a person who is really concerned about what the people have to think. He is the leader of the free world. The leader of the world many would say. Whereas Mayor Ford, this guy is a caricature. He really didn't care what people thought, and he was a person who just felt, "Hey listen, I can say this stuff, I can do whatever until I get caught." And guess what? He got caught.
LEMON: When we're talking about President Obama, which one plays better for people, is it remorse or defiance? I mean his poll numbers really have plummeted.
GARDERE: Well, I would say for President Obama, I thin his approach is a good one. He's saying I'm not a perfect president, and it takes a big man to be able to say that. At the same time, if he capitulates too much, I think it will be seen as weakness, especially by those in the GOP, the Tea Party, who have been after for him for quite a while and will feel they have gotten some sort of win in that way. But nobody wins, everyone is suffering with this really faulty kind of a rollout. Which was a good idea, getting insurance for the masses.
LEMON: OK. So you've been there in the Clinton White House, a damage control specialist, Don. How big a crisis is this though for President Obama? If he fixes Obamacare, does he fix his political problem, too?
GOLDBERG: Yes, I think he does. I think this is a big problem for him because it's overwhelming everything else he wants to do. He can't get to the rest of his governing agenda until this is put on the right track. I think, you know, he had to - his biggest issue right now is the Democrats, it's not the Republicans or the Tea Party. With the Democrats in the votes in the House and Senate coming up, that's really what he's got to be concerned.
He has to apologize, show the path forward, show how it's going to get fixed to keep the Democrats on board.
LEMON: What is it when you become - what do they say, lame duck, the last two years of your presidency, you become a lame duck. He's going into that. Does he have time?
GOLDBERG: I think he's quickly running out of time. I don't think any one thinks this is going to fixed in the next month or two, it's really going to take six months if not longer. If he has to focus exclusively on fixing health care for that time period, by the time you roll into the midterm elections in the middle of next year, his administration is pretty much on the downturn.
LEMON: That's it. OK. I have a question for you guys. Obama's problems are huge. Ford's are personal. Which one are we likely more to forgive, the people that is? We'll ask you after the break. Gentlemen, make sure you stay right there. Because we're going to talk more about these two politicians in crisis, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, we're back now. Joined again by crisis management expert, Don Goldberg and clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere. So Jeff, the president's problems are political, Ford's are personal. Which we should be more likely to forgive.
GARDERE: I think we may look at forgiving President Obama. For one, he is the president and has made many sacrifices with regard to his life but I think the other thing that's most important is President Obama seems to want to be forgiven whereas Ford just doesn't really give a rats behind. His thing is I'm larger than life. No pun intended here. And I'll do want I want to do and they've already given him a radio show with his brother. So he doesn't care. He just keeps moving forward. The bad behavior gets him more reward. Certainly, we're not seeing that for President Obama.
LEMON: Yes, this is almost kind of like comparing Charlie Sheen to -
GARDERE: Right.
LEMON: I don't know to the Prime Minister - very different things.
GARDERE: Exactly.
LEMON: This is all about crisis management.
Don, what's the one thing that the president can do to improve his numbers?
GOLDBERG: Well, first and foremost, he's got to get a handle on what's going on with healthcare.gov website. Because that's the public space and everything about healthcare reform. That maybe beyond his immediate control, but he's got to get his team in place to do that.
I think if he can show some progress there. That will do a lot to rehabilitate his numbers.
LEMON: What's the one weakness, Jeff, you think the president has. What is it?
GARDERE: I think the biggest weakness is that he is quick to make certain statements. HE can, tries to assure us about certain things that he may not have complete control of and I think some information has come out that perhaps he didn't have enough information about the Web site and the people within the White House had it but here's the president of the United States who should be more in control of that. So I think he intends to manage but he's not looking at the micro as much.
LEMON: You know what? I want - I should ask you Don - I didn't let you weigh in on which one are people more likely to forgive. Is it a personal issue or is it an issue when it comes to governance, are they more likely to forgive "I did not have sex with this woman" or "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan?"
GOLDBERG: Well, there's plenty of politicians - Mayor Barry from Washington comes to mind who've had lots of personal issues, but then had a second act. But I think in the long run, the mayor of Toronto will be known for being a buffoon. Where President Obama, whether you love him or hate him, will be known for being a president who is trying to do the right thing.
LEMON: All right, guys. Thank you.
GARDERE: Thank you.
LEMON: Good information. Again, we know that two crises are both very different. But it's about how do you manage this crisis is what we're trying to figure out.
GARDERE: I agree.
LEMON: All right. Other stories that we're following right now.
Jay-Z says he's keeping his partnership with high end retailer, Barney's. The hip hop artist, an entrepreneur had been criticized after Barney's was accused of racially profiling two black customers at its Manhattan flagship store. So Jay-Z says he will sit on a special council set up by Barney's to deal with the issue of racial profiling.
In a statement, he said, "I'm in a unique position to affect change at Barney's." All right.
A big reveal, first seen this morning on CNN's "New Day," automobile magazine taking the wraps off of this 2014 automobile of the year. Look at that. This yellow, gorgeous. Well, that's a Corvette. You like that, Jeff?
GARDERE: I love that.
LEMON: Would you drive that?
GARDERE: Oh, yes.
LEMON: You would just get from red light to red light in Manhattan.
That's not - you wouldn't go very far.
Oh, that's right there on Columbus Circle, too.
GARDERE: Yes.
LEMON: It has chosen the car, the 2014 the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The new Corvette has more power and better fuel economy than last year's model. Prices for the base Stingray start at just under $52,000. Just a mere $52,000.
GARDERE: That's a piece of cake for you, Don.
LEMON: Oh, please. For you.
Donations are pouring in from around the world after a New Jersey waitress vented on Facebook about a homophobic note she got from a customer. The customer wrote that they would not tip because they did not approve of her lifestyle. Her name is Dina Morales. She served in the Marine Corps for over two years, and she says she received more than $2,000 from supporters. You see, the customer wrote that right there on the receipt, "I do not approve of your lifestyle."
(INAUDIBLE) Friday in Florida, on two homes that got swallowed up by a huge sinkhole. Local officials are keeping a close eye on how big the sinkhole is growing. Authorities evacuated several other homes nearby. And inside that sinkhole, obviously the house swallowed up inside the sinkhole.
I want to tell you that next Friday, that will mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with former president Bill Clinton, will visit Kennedy's grave site on Wednesday to honor his legacy.
And a programming note for you here, I want to tell you to make sure to watch CNN tomorrow night 9:00 Eastern. It's for the CNN film. It's called "The Assassination of President Kennedy." "The Assassination of President Kennedy," 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
I'm Don Lemon. The CNN "Newsroom" is back live at the top of the hour. In the meantime, here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
