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Toxic Tap Water May Last Days; A-Rod Fights Suspension; Another Retailer Reports Hacking; Interview with Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson

Aired January 11, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And Fred, thanks so much. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Coming up, A-Rod may have won a battle against the MLB, but not the war. His suspension reduced. But he's not done fighting to get his bid to get back in the game.

And a massive data breach now spanning far wider than we thought. Hear how scammers may try to trick you into giving them more information.

And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in damage control. Could the bridge scandal impact his future political aspirations? Former Governor Bill Richardson joins me live.

We begin, though, with a state of emergency for some 300,000 people now in West Virginia who have been told not to use their tap water. Officials just wrapped up a news conference saying it could be days before it will be safe to drink the water or even bathe in it. Nine counties are in the middle of a very dangerous situation after more than 7,000 gallons of a toxic chemical leaked out of a storage tank and into the ground water.

But there is some good news. Fresh drinking water is arriving by the truckload. Sixteen tractor trailers sent from the Department of Homeland Security helped to stock distribution centers.

CNN's Erin McPike live in Washington.

So, Erin, first of all, have officials offered any type of timeline as to when this would be completely cleaned up?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, Kyra, there is no end date right now and actually we want to play for you a little bit of the press conference that Jeff McIntyre, who is the president of West Virginia American Water, held just a short time ago. And he explained why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF MCINTYRE, PRESIDENT, WEST VIRGINIA AMERICAN WATER: I would expect that we are talking days. Our teams are out. You know, we have -- we have employees that have worked the system that are extremely knowledgeable with the system are out collecting samples and looking at flushing activities at this time but we are talking days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MCPIKE: And, Kyra, the water company has also explained through statements that they will want to test this water repeatedly and come up with a safe results repeatedly before they deem it usable again. So in other words, it won't just be on the first test that they produce a water level that's safe, that they say OK, go ahead and use it, everyone. So that's why it's going to take days once they finally get a safe result -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So with regard with Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the leak, it's been issued this cease operations order from the State Department of Environmental Protections. So do we know yet if criminal charges are actually going to be brought against the company?

MCPIKE: Well, that is very possible. And just last night, Booth Goodwin, who is one of the U.S. attorneys in West Virginia, said several times that he will launch an investigation and he says that just for negligence there could be criminal charges brought against that company -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Erin McPike, thanks so much.

Well, it may be a long time before anyone sees Alex Rodriguez swing a bat at Yankees Stadium. An arbitrator ruled today that the slugger should sit out the season for his involvement in a performance- enhancing drug scandal. It's strike two for A-rod who's running out of chances now to get back on the field.

CNN's Jason Carroll has more -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this decision is very disappointing for Alex Rodriguez and his team, but it was not entirely unexpected.

Alex Rodriguez releasing a statement a little earlier today saying, "The number of games sadly comes as no surprise as the deck has been stacked against me from day one. I have been clear that I did not use performance-enhancing substances as alleged to the Notice of Discipline or violate the Basic Agreement or the Joint Drug Agreement in any manner, and in order to prove it I will take this fight to federal court.

"I will continue to work hard to get back on the field and help the Yankees achieve the ultimate goal of winning another championship."

I am told that Alex Rodriguez would have actually accepted a 50 or possibly even a 65-game suspension. There would not have been an admission of guilt, but they would have taken their lams and moved on, so to speak, but that did not happen.

Major League Baseball, of course, wanted the entire 211-game suspension to stand. That did not happen. They released a statement as well saying, "While we believe the original 211-game suspension was appropriate, we respect the decision rendered by the panel and will focus on our continuing efforts on eliminating performance-enhancing substances from our game." As you can imagine, a number of sports fans are weighing in about the 162-game suspension. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm from Boston, and I thought the penalty was a little too strong. So I'm good with the 162.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: How do you hand out a 162-game ban to one person and not give anything to all these other people that are doing the same thing? Well, yes, I guess it is, if you talking about just A- Rod, yes, I think it's too harsh.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I think it's ridiculous. I think they should -- if they gave him anything, it should be 50 games at the max.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Whole career should be out. Not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I think he deserves it. I don't think there should be doping in baseball. It's America's past time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: During the entire arbitration process, Alex Rodriguez was allowed to play ball. That may not be the case this time. Representative from Major League Baseball who I spoke to said, this arbitrator's decision is final so he will not be able to play baseball even while he takes his fight to next level. So do not expect him to show up for spring training but Alex Rodriguez says, just one minute, that may not be the case.

He is going to ask his attorney Joe Tacopina to ask a federal judge for an injunction to allow him to keep playing while he keeps fighting.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

PHILLIPS: So the Target store chain says it looks like that credit card security breach is actually worse than originally reported.

Here's the new figure. 70 million customers may have had their personal information hacked. Credit card numbers, phone numbers, mail and e-mail addresses. It's almost the biggest theft of customer data ever in this country. And now another store is saying that it has a security issue as well, Neiman Marcus.

During the height of the holiday shopping season Neiman Marcus officials said that hackers broke into their computer systems and started grabbing private customer information.

How many customers? Well, we don't know yet, but there's a few things that you can do now if you think you might be one of them.

Jennifer Mayerle is following the story for us.

All right. So if we think the hackers got our personal information because I was impacted by the Target situation. What do you do?

JENNIFER MAYERLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first thing I would say is be aware and be wary. Because we know that they've gotten phone numbers, e-mail addresses, you really want to be careful about who is contacting and what kind of information you're giving out past this point.

And there's a couple different things that you can do to protect yourself. Monitor your bank statements. That's the biggest thing because if you see anything on there that seems out of the ordinary, you want to call your bank, you want to call your credit card company. Just make sure and inquire -- make sure that's a legitimate charge that you did.

Don't click on strange links. You know, people could e-mail you looking for other information. Don't click on anything that you don't know where it's coming from. If you have a question, try to contact whoever e-mail you. Be aware of fishing scams. Anyone looking for extra information from you.

And you can contact a credit monitoring service. Now Target is offering this to their customers for free for a year because of the situation there. It's just a good idea to do anyways, potentially if you think you might be a victim of this.

Now let's get into what is going on with Neiman Marcus and the background there.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Yes, what's Neiman Marcus saying?

MAYERLE: Because this is something that they said they were alerted to in mid-December. But it took until January 1st for a forensic team to determine that there in fact was fraud at the department store. They worked or working with the Secret Service now with that forensic team. They seem to be uncovering more information and because they know they are a victim of this cyber security fraud, that means that customers are also victims in this case.

So far they don't know how widespread it is. The other unknown is what was the timeframe that they think this security breach happened. And Neiman Marcus is saying that they will contact those people who they believe their credit cards have already had fraudulent charges. So look out for -- to be contacted from them if you think he might be involved. And that Neiman Marcus is also addressing the problem.

They issued a statement today saying in part, "We have begun to contain the intrusion, has taken significant steps to further enhance information security." And of course that is essential right now given that Target has had this kind of a breach that Neiman Marcus is now the latest one to have this kind of a breach.

PHILLIPS: And what more can you tell us about banks and credit card companies and what they're doing? Because when I was impacted by the Target situation my bank is actually the one that told me don't worry, we're monitoring everything, we'll let you know what you should do. We're going to get you a new debit card. So they were very proactive.

MAYERLE: It's nice to feel that comfort from them.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Definitely.

MAYERLE: Especially if something like this is happening. And that's what they're doing in this case, too, you know. A CNN staffer got this letter in the mail that said, hey, your visa card was a part of this fraud and we're monitoring it. They gave him a new card. And that's happened with more than one bank. And they gave him a new card.

If you have any question about what you're getting in the mail, though, before you use that new card, you might want to go ahead and contact your bank.

PHILLIPS: Then cut a check.

(LAUGHTER)

MAYERLE: Just double check saying, hey, did you send me this card? Always good to double check.

PHILLIPS: Great advice. Jennifer, thanks so much.

Well, President Obama sent condolences to the family of Ariel Sharon today, calling the former prime minister a leader who dedicated his life to the state of Israel. Sharon died today in a hospital just outside of Tel Aviv. He'd been in a coma for eight years since a massive stroke in January 2006.

Ariel Sharon was a general in the Israeli Army before entering politics. He was elected and re-elected prime minister and shocked the world in 2005 when he pulled all Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza.

He was 77 years old at the time of his stroke. Ariel Sharon died today at the age of 85.

Well, coming up, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson joining me live. He's got a lot to say about Chris Christie and also Dennis Rodman.

We'll talk to him right after the break.

Plus a new government report found that your GPS is spying on you, beaming back data that some companies are holding for up to seven years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So Chris Christie is trying to overcome the political crisis of his career. Damage control after 2,000 pages of documents link his aides to a bizarre plot to snarl traffic on the nation's busiest bridge. That plot apparently hashed as political revenge on the Port Lee, New Jersey, mayor who refused to support Christie's reelection bid. There's no indication in the documents that we've seen that Christie played any role, however.

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson joining me live from Washington.

Great to see you, Governor. Appreciate it.

BILL RICHARDSON (D), FORMER NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR: Thank you. Nice to be with you.

PHILLIPS: So how much did governors really know when it comes down to what their aides are doing? I mean, Christie says he had no prior knowledge of aides' apparent plot to snarl the traffic. Do you believe him?

RICHARDSON: Well, I give him the benefit of the doubt. Governors run huge bureaucracies but also in their personal staff, there can be as many as 50 people that are operating on your behalf.

I give him the benefit of the doubt because it seems that some of these aides were in Port Authority Commission positions. You're not watching things every day. The danger that he has is the deputy chief of staff being so involved. Like that's a number two person on your staff. And he claims that he didn't know. But it depends on what happens in the days ahead. Whether anything else dribbles out.

PHILLIPS: But you know what?

RICHARDSON: Any email --

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you there, Governor. And I don't mean to cut you off at all. But, you know, I've been with you, I've been with other governors when the deputy is there. I mean, that's a right-hand person. You're hearing every call, you're holding the BlackBerry. You know, now of course it's the iPhone. I mean, you are checked into everything your governor is doing.

RICHARDSON: That is true, but if this aide didn't inform the governor, as Governor Christie said, it's really hard to keep track.

I had a very good staff. I had a lot of meetings. I mean, what you want to do is be engaged at all times. Some said I micromanage too much. And I -- you know, every presidential candidate, every major political figure, not everyone, has had some kind of a crisis in their life. And I think what happens with Governor Christie is going to depend on, is this over in terms of his connection, but also the personal -- whatever might happen personally through an individual that was a victim of that traffic snarl.

Some sick kid or somebody that passed away that the human side, but I think the advantage of Governor Christie has, is this is like three years away from a presidential run, two and a half years. He's chairman of the Republican governors.

And I must say this has not been a plus for him at all, but of all the Republicans out there, and I'll be supporting the Democratic candidate for president, he's the guy that I think I would think is the most dangerous in terms of being elected president.

PHILLIPS: So is this going to impact that? Will this incident be big enough to impact his chances of becoming the nominee?

RICHARDSON: Well, yes, it will have an impact. It depends on, is it a decisive impact. What I'm saying is it's going to depend on what else dribbles out. Any personal tragedy that occurred because of this incident. But again, this is something that you can't say is going to have -- what is called a disqualifying impact right now.

It will have an impact. I mean, his image of being a take charge, law and order, bipartisan guy, there he is with President Obama in that hurricane. This does take a blow to his image, which he had been cultivating of a can-do governor that is elected in a Democratic state with minority votes. I think he got 65 percent. So there is a dent, quite a bit dent in his image.

PHILLIPS: So do you think this is going to raise questions then about his capabilities as a manager? That the people that he hires could actually do things like this? And then what does that say if he were to be president of the U.S.?

RICHARDSON: Well, I think what he has to do, and I'm not somebody that's giving him advice nor do I enjoy any fellow governor having problems like this, but I think he has to reach out and get a staff that is more independent, that is not so partisan, that is petty. I know this is difficult to do, but I think he needs to search out -- especially he's going to make national run -- for individuals that will say to him, Governor, we can't do that. Governor, this is a gray area. Let's do this. That I think is more acceptable and more transparent.

And I see a lot of his aides in these e-mails, I mean, they wanted political retribution. They wanted to go after this mayor of this very small town because he didn't endorse the governor. These are children that are affected from the Democratic candidate for governor. So --

PHILLIPS: So then -- before we head to break then, just a yes or no because I want to keep you around to talk about Dennis Rodman. Is he going to have to let those aides go? Are we going to see people fired if he wants to pursue a bigger political career?

RICHARDSON: Yes, and he needs to bring in new, more forthcoming, more open, more national aides with frankness that are going to tell him what is right and what is wrong.

PHILLIPS: Governor, stay with me. Right after the break, like I mentioned, I want to talk about Dennis Rodman, his trip to North Korea, and why you say he definitely crossed the line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA STAR: Do you understand what Kenneth Bae did?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Yes?

RODMAN: Can you understand what he did?

CUOMO: What did he do? You tell me.

RODMAN: In this country.

CUOMO: You tell me. What did he do?

RODMAN: And -- no, no, no, you tell me. You tell me. Why is he held captive here in this country?

CUOMO: They haven't released any charges.

RODMAN: Why?

CUOMO: They haven't released any reason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, listen --

RODMAN: Let me do this. Got 10 guys, all these guys here, do anyone understand that?

CUOMO: We do. And we appreciate that and we wish them well with this cultural exchange.

RODMAN: No, no, no. No, I don't give (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. I'm saying to you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Yes, that's Dennis Rodman, eccentric to say the least, and now apologizing for that bizarre outburst that he had on CNN where he now says whoops, sorry, I was drinking.

The former basketball player now self-made diplomat of some sort was actually talking about Kenneth Bae, an American being detained in North Korea. Now Rodman says he was not only boozing it but he was stressed out.

He says, quote, "I want to first apologize to Kenneth Bae's family. At this point I should know better than to make political statements. I'm truly sorry."

Bill Richardson still with us. Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as well.

Governor, did Rodman's alcohol-infused rant there hurt Kenneth Bae's chance for release?

RICHARDSON: Well, my worry is that it gives cover to the North Koreans because what basically Rodman said was that he might be guilty. He didn't quite say it, but -- and that's very far from the truth. But it does give the North Koreans some kind of cover. Kenneth Bae has been there for 14 months. He really isn't guilty. He's a missionary who strayed. He's sick. He needs to come home. Rodman apologized. The family accepted the apologizing but at the same time I think Rodman has caused some damage because, you know, at the very beginning when he first went to North Korea about a year ago, and I was in North Korea, the dear new leader Kim Jong-Un saw Dennis Rodman and he wouldn't see me and Eric Schmidt, the head of Google.

So I was a little dumbfounded by that. But I thought basketball diplomacy would maybe be a channel, but obviously since Dennis went there and he's -- he went after Kenneth Bae, he went to play basketball the day of Kim Jong-Un's birthday, he sang "Happy Birthday," so he's dissolved any goodwill towards basketball diplomacy being a channel. It became a side show. And on the whole, it's not a good episode.

It's not a healthy episode. And potentially an opening of a relationship between the United States and North Korea. And out of the box diplomacy, basketball diplomacy, ping-pong diplomacy it did with China, I think that is kind of pushed aside.

PHILLIPS: OK. You are being very diplomatic in your word choice here. You know, you have been to North Korea plenty of times on diplomatic missions. You know, a lot of people are sitting back looking at Dennis Rodman thinking, what? I mean, this is a train wreck.

What do you think of Dennis Rodman going there?

RICHARDSON: Well, as I said, at first, it was just to play basketball. The only person that Kim Jong-Un has received that's an American or any kind of envoy. I think at first you see what happens. It's probably not protocol conscious, but now it is a disaster. Now it's best that Dennis is home and that hopefully traditional modes of diplomacy.

Here's where I think the Chinese can be helpful. They are very close to Kim Jong-Un. They are very close to the North Koreans. They could help in, you know, releasing Kenneth Bae, letting the poor man come home and finding ways to reassess the American/North Korean relationship, which the only way it's going to improve is if the North Koreans and new leader scraps his nuclear weapon program, and there's no sign that he's ready to do that.

He's too worried about keeping his power. He's obviously being challenged internally. He brutally executes his uncle. He doesn't say he wants to improve a lot of his people and he doesn't say he wants to stop the nuclear ambitions. He detonates nuclear weapons. He shoots off missiles, but he's a big enigma. The problem, though, is that here's a country, he leads a country that has nuclear weapons that has missiles with million and a half men in arms. We've got close to 30,000 Americans on the DMZ in South Korea.

And the place, Northeast Asia, is a tinderbox with a possible conflagration between North and South Korea that could draw us in that affects American security, that affects American troops. PHILLIPS: And just the way you describe, you know, both of those individuals, very egocentric, you know, and you think of someone like Kenneth Bae and all the serious issues that you just mentioned. You know, he's on these freelance diplomatic missions and it's just -- it takes a lot of the serious presence, I guess, out of what we should be talking about. Instead we're covering these crazy episodes with Dennis Rodman.

Bill Richardson, I sure appreciate you weighing in.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: It's always a pleasure to have you.

RICHARDSON: Thank you very much. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, your car may be spying on you. Yes. Your car. Who's watching and what info are they getting from you. We'll have more on that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: There's a question for you. Is your -- your car spying on you? Because a new government report says it is.

Listen to this. The Government Accountability Office found that the GPS systems either built in or that you actually bring into the car beam information right back to the car makers or companies like Garmin and Google. Your speed, where you go, and some of them are storing all that data for up to seven years.

A trade group for auto makers actually told the "Detroit News" that information is disclosed in the privacy policies and sales and service agreements. Well, that's the fine print that no one reads. But the GAO now wants the companies to spell out exactly what they're collecting and for how long.

Soon tracking your driving habits could become law. Not only that, the government would then charge you based on how many miles you drive.

Coming up next hour, we're going to be speaking with the lawmaker who actually wrote this bill and find out more on what it means for you.

I'm Kyra Phillips and I'll see you at the top of the hour. SANJAY GUPTA, M.D begins right now.