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Violence Rages in Iraq; Freedom Industries under Federal Investigation; Beyonce: "Gender Equality is a Myth"; Hula Hoop Camera Captures Cheerleaders

Aired January 14, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you know what; he also wasn't all that complimentary of the United States. They say their support for him has been without enough -- I don't know, sort of suspicion about his motives. They say that the U.S. needs to apply more pressure. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYAD ALLAWI, FORMER IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: They should support Maliki. It's up to them. But they should also clarify to Maliki that their support is conditional on inclusivity of the political process and respecting the constitution and respecting human rights. But unfortunately, Americans are not going to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He said that the U.S. needs to put the pressure on, as I said, put the screws on Nouri al-Maliki, to bring Sunnis into the fold more. Because he said the alternative, as he hated to say it, is the potential all-out, sectarian civil war -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Holmes reporting live from Baghdad this morning thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: 200,000 people still without water in West Virginia and the company responsible still shying away from the public spotlight.

Well, we're digging deeper into Freedom Industries next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello, thanks so much for joining me.

West Virginia's water problem could soon be Ohio's. Cincinnati officials are so worried contaminated water could flow into the Ohio River, they've taken action. Two water intake valves that feed Cincinnati's water supply are said to be closed today as the water from West Virginia moves through the Ohio River. And two cities in Kentucky closed their intake valves for a short time yesterday.

Also, over the past 24 hours, water has been restored in West Virginia but only to about a third of those affected. Right now, Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the leak, is under federal investigation. Nearly two dozen lawsuits have been filed. A judge is ordering the company to preserve evidence. And as CNN's Jean Casarez found out, it's been more than 20 years -- 20 years since Freedom Industries had its tanks inspected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These tanks hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemicals. They just sit a mile from Charleston, West Virginia's only water treatment plant. And yet, the state has not inspected these tanks since 1991. That's because it says the tanks are now considered storage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The material that they were storing there is not -- is not a hazardous material.

CASAREZ: And because they are considered not hazardous, they don't have to be fully regulated by the state or federal government. And that means no inspections.

DOUG WOOD, WATER BIOLOGIST: It is a -- of course it's something that doesn't belong in the river.

CASAREZ: Doug Wood, a water biologist who worked for 33 years at the State's Department of Environmental Protection says just because it's considered a pollutant it does not mean it's not dangerous and doesn't mean it shouldn't be regulated.

WOOD: It's one of a class of thousands of chemicals that haven't been studied.

BOOTH GOODWIN, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA: These are tanks that that should much been inspected, I would imagine.

CASAREZ: West Virginia's U.S. attorney, Booth Goodwin, has launched an investigation. And says, regulated or not, hazardous or not, no one is above the law when it comes to keeping the water safe.

GOODWIN: The tanks were in bad shape. There are secondary containment systems were shoddy, if they had a release, saw it and they didn't report it for a while. All of those things are things that we would be looking to.

CASAREZ: Goodwin says it is still too early to know if laws were broken. But the fact that the facility just changed ownership might make it easier to determine who knew what and when.

GOODWIN: If you violate federal environmental laws, you will be prosecuted.

CASAREZ: The mayor of Charleston who calls this the worst disaster in his city welcomes a criminal investigation but does not let the government off the hook.

MAYOR DANNY JONES (R), CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA: I'm not sure what responsibility the state has here but if not them, who? CASAREZ: Jean Casarez, CNN, Charleston, West Virginia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Yes if not them, who? The biggest questions we have right now surround Freedom Industries. And the only time we ever heard from that company was at this brief and strange news conference on Friday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY SOUTHERN, PRESIDENT, FREEDOM INDUSTRIES: It has been an extremely long day. I'm having a hard trouble talking at the moment. I would appreciate it if we could wrap this thing up. I will --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a lot. We actually have a lot of questions. It has been a long day for a lot of people who don't have water.

SOUTHERN: At this moment in time, I think that's all we have time for. Thanks for coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have more questions. Hey, hey, just a minute we are not done.

SOUTHERN: You are done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not done. Now anyone else have any other questions?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I love that moment when he takes a drink of his bottled water right. That man was Gary Southern. He's the President of Freedom Industries.

Right now, I'm joined by David Gutman, he's a reporter for "The Charleston Gazette". Thanks for joining me this morning.

DAVID GUTMAN, REPORTER, THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Were you at that press conference?

GUTMAN: Yes, I was at that press conference. That is -- it was an odd press conference. And that's actually the last we've heard publicly from Freedom Industries.

COSTELLO: This man seems so callous. Is that the right descriptor?

GUTMAN: I'm sorry, say that again, please.

COSTELLO: Did he seem to really understand what a massive problem his company created for the citizens of West Virginia?

GUTMAN: Yes you know, I do think he did understand. I'm not sure -- I think he was totally frenzied and maybe in a little over his head. And actually the funny thing is that, that press conference was set up by a kind of crisis P.R. firm called Charles Ryan that they had I think just hired that day. And two days later on Sunday morning, Charles Ryan dropped Freedom Industries as a client and would give no explanation as to why they would no longer represent Freedom Industries.

COSTELLO: Oh that's fascinating. Why haven't we heard more from this company do you think?

GUTMAN: I'm not entirely sure. I would imagine you know they are -- they are facing right now a minimum of 18 lawsuits, all of which are seeking to be class action lawsuits. I think from what I've heard, they've hired lawyers and I would imagine their lawyers are telling them to stay quiet.

COSTELLO: You wrote a very -- a very great article about this company. And in the article, you say, one of the company's former executives has two felony convictions. Was this public knowledge?

GUTMAN: Well, I mean it was public knowledge in the sense that it was reported in the local newspapers at the time but, you know what, I think, for instance, this man who founded Freedom Industries, Carl Kennedy, in 1987, pled guilty to selling between 10 and 12 ounces of cocaine. In 2005, he pled guilty to tax evasion for withholding -- withholding money from employees' paychecks and not passing that forward to -- to the federal government.

So those were reported on at the time. But I'm not sure that anyone put two and two together and said, oh this guy also owns or part owns a large chemical tank farm a mile and a half upstream from -- from the water intake, partly because nobody really paid attention to this chemical farm.

COSTELLO: Why didn't anyone pay attention? I mean what was this company's track record before this leak?

GUTMAN: That's a good question. I don't think we know a lot about their track record. We do know that they -- they had filed something called Tier 2 forms with -- with local and state governments so which -- which told government officials that they had these hazardous chemicals in tanks that are no more than 20-30 feet from the river bank.

So government officials did know that there were chemicals there. I don't know why, you know, nothing was done.

COSTELLO: Well let me ask you this, David. Because whenever I interview an official from West Virginia, there is no like impassioned anger over this. I'm sure they are concerned. I am, I'm sure they are concerned but there doesn't seem to be a great deal of anger surrounding this accident. Am I getting that wrong?

GUTMAN: I'm not sure. I mean I can certainly tell you, you know from living in Charleston there is anger and frustration from citizens around here. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has had press conferences almost -- well, every day since the leak. Although -- and he has appeared at almost every one of them. In several of them, he's gotten questions about you know coal -- the coal industry. And he has -- he has gone to -- gone to lengths to say, no, this was -- this was a chemical problem. This isn't related to the coal industry. There are no coal mines within you know several miles --

COSTELLO: But this company makes chemicals to clean coal so it is connected to coal industry at least peripherally -- right.

GUTMAN: Absolutely I mean this chemical that leaked MCHN is used in processing coal. But you know coal -- coal is a big industry here in this state, elected officials do not like to say bad things about coal. And the Governor has certainly gone -- gone to lengths to try and distance this incident from the coal industry.

COSTELLO: David Gutman, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

NEWSROOM is back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Is gender equality a myth? Well, Beyonce certainly thinks so and so do a lot of other women, frankly. The pop star wrote an online essay calling out both men and women for failing to do enough to change things.

She writes, "The average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man does. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change."

Joining me now for more CNN entertainment correspondent, Nischelle Turner -- it is interesting she has written an article like this?

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

COSTELLO: I guess feminism is in, in the entertainment industry.

TURNER: Well I think feminism comes in a lot of different forms. And I am actually really anxious to talk to you and dissect this with you, Carol, of all people that I can talk to because I love having these types of conversations with you.

And you know, one of the things that I think Beyonce wanted to do is get people talking. It is interesting to talk about -- for her to talk about how much less women make compared to men when her and her husband are on Forbes list. They are number one on Forbes' list of moneymaking celebrities. They made $95 million last year between the two of them.

But another thing that she said in her essay was, "These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect so as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life." I love that. She also said that "We have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible."

But there are some people who say, what is feminism? Is it, "I am woman, hear me roar" or are there different types where I'm going to embrace my womanism? Is that feminism too because that's not really following the same trend.

COSTELLO: No. Feminism is so simple. Feminism is you want equality. That's all it is. You know, not all feminists are man-hating women that don't wear any makeup. I mean, come on. That's the stereotype out there. That's just wrong.

TURNER: It is a stereotype. But I also think that it is a stereotype that maybe society has now embraced and that some people do embrace, because one of the things that Beyonce has said in the past, she did this interview with "British Vogue". And she said she hesitates calling herself a feminist because she thinks that is extreme.

She says that maybe she is a modern day feminist because she believes in equality. But she says she feels like sometimes we as women have to choose what type of women we are. She wonders why we have to label ourselves anything. She says, "I'm just a woman and I love being a woman.

And I agree with that because a lot of times -- listen, let me just put this out here to you like this. I am a woman of a certain age, and that means over 35, not married. I don't have children. I feel that, that ooh look a lot of times from women. So it's kind of like why do we have to put labels on who we are and what we are? I think feminism comes in so many different forms.

COSTELLO: No, I think feminism has become a dirty word for political reasons and cultural reasons. I mean, I'm a feminist. I love my husband. I just think that feminism has become a stereotype and when that happened down the line, I don't exactly know but it has to come.

I do know that Lena Dunham, right --

TURNER: Yes.

COSTELLO: -- she would probably call herself unabashedly a feminist. I'm just guessing though.

TURNER: Unabashedly.

COSTELLO: Unabashedly. It is becoming vogue again because of her.

TURNER: Absolutely, I think you are right about that. I think there is this new wave that is starting with people like Lena Dunham who have a voice and who speak to a new generation of women who say, I'm really going to be uninhibited and I'm going to say, "Here I am. See me, love me in any form that I come. If you don't like it, that's too darn bad."

COSTELLO: I love that about her.

TURNER: I do too. COSTELLO: I could go on forever about this topic. Nischelle Turner --

TURNER: Me too.

COSTELLO: I know. We'll talk after the show. Nischelle, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

TURNER: Exactly. All right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, steps back into the spotlight today. He will deliver his state of the state address. Usually that means laying out your political agenda. But Christie's state of the state will take on whole new meaning today. Ross Douthat is a CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for the "New York Times"; and Will Cain is also a CNN political commentator and a columnist for the blaze. Welcome to you both.

WILL CAIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Will, I want to start with you. What should Christie say in today's speech?

CAIN: Well, whatever he says, Carol, I'll say this. He has to say it in a style that people can believe. He has to be a straight talker. He's got to fit within the image he cultivated. Whether it is appropriate or not; whether it's earned or not, the image is one of a straight talker. I'm going to give you to it exactly like it is. So therefore he needs to come out and tell us the truth, the ugly truth, assuming he is innocent, by the way, and he didn't know anything about this. That is ultimately, by the way, Carol also what he risks in this entire deal.

The idea that this kind of takes the wind out of his presidential hopes and that kind of thing is absurd. What it does though is it turns him into what everyone expects every other politician to be. It just makes him another -- instead of the straight-talking Jersey truth teller, it turns him into what he can become, just a plain old politician. That's the risk here.

COSTELLO: Interestingly enough, Ross, a pew poll shows 60 percent still support Christie nationally. State poll support shows support slipped just 6 percent. I mean in the end, do people really care?

DOUTHAT: No, not right this moment. I think the issue for Christie is that the audience that he is actually working with at the moment isn't -- certainly isn't a national audience. Most people, for very good reason, are likely to tune out a scandal that involves northern New Jersey at a time when the governor of New Jersey isn't yet actually running for president.

The issue for Christie is that particularly for his presidential hopes, what he needs now is to have insiders on his side, basically, which means at a certain point, he needs the sort of drip, drip, drip of this scandal to come to an end. And so it is actually in a way harder for him to solve his problems with a really good state of the state speech than it would be for say an actual president of the United States to.

I mean if you look back at the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton famously gave a very well-received and successful state of the union during the midst of that scandal. That actually helped him because it helped his poll numbers. He was the President. It mattered that people supported him nationally. It didn't matter to how that scandal played out.

Here, you know, Christie isn't, as Will says, unless something really damaging comes out, he isn't actually going to be impeached or removed from office. He is just fighting a battle for his political viability. There, it is about, what do Republican donors and fund- raisers think of him right now.

COSTELLO: And I actually -- you know, I was just wondering about this, Will. I am just going to throw this up here so we can talk. Which controversy actually hurts Christie the most: is it Bridgegate, (inaudible) gate, claims he misused sandy relief funds or that infamous Obama hug because that hug I think has resonated most with people in the country at least right now.

CAIN: Right. So the first two, Bridgegate and the sandy claims, while they can be serious, I stand by what I said. The threat of those two scandals is to turn Chris Christie into another politician. This builds upon what Ross said.

The Obama hug is the most damaging because in order to stop the drip, drip, drip of this he is going to need supporters, he's going to need fans, not just donors but fans. The left, and I think a good extent of the media are going to stay on this Christie over and over. There is a Hillary Clinton that wants to keep this in the spotlight. There is going to be no counter punch because of the Obama hug. He has no fans. He is not beloved on the right.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Yes but he's He is beloved by many on the left for that very hug. Ross, I'm sorry. We have to wrap this up because I went to long with my feminist segment.

DOUTHAT: It's all right. It happens to me when I talk feminism too.

COSTELLO: I am glad to hear that. I am glad to hear you talk feminism, Ross Douthat. Thanks so much to will Cain too. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Start with a toy you played with as a kid and new technology throwing some eye candy and what do you have, a hula hoop point of view of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Here's Jeanne Moos. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the little camera that makes you feel like you are along for the ride on a surfboard or roller-coaster or inside a dishwasher. Now, the Go-Pro gone where few have gone before, around and around and around the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders on a hula hoop.

CORBIN PERKINS, MULTIMEDIA EDITOR, DALLAS COWBOYS: We are really wanting to show off our girls.

MOOS: So while the Cowboy cheerleaders were down in Mexico shooting their 2014 calendar. They shot a few hoops.

PERKINS: I have got this little camera contraption here. It sits right in there. The girl, of course sits right in there.

MOOS: It weighs about a pound. They had to fill the rest of the hoop led beads to counter balance the camera. The whole hoop ended up weighing about four pounds.

This is a Go-Pro. They cost anywhere between $200 to $400. You can pretty much mount them anywhere, from a trombone to a sword, to a violin bow so why not the hula hoop. In fact, it had already been famously done at the Burning Man Festival in 2012 by a group calling itself Hula Fantastica. There's a Venice beach video with the inspiration for the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. But it was an uphill battle for the cheerleaders.

PERKINS: They hadn't had a lot of experience with the hula hoops. They couldn't get those cool twirls.

MOOS: But Corbin Perkins, the Cowboys' multimedia editor seemed to get the hang of it. He can be seen diving into the beach grass to get out of the shot while the cheerleaders twirl. Nobody seemed to be complaining about the skill level. Instead, there were comments like, "That is one lucky hula hoop." "I want to be that hula hoop."

The next best thing to be the hula hoop handler is like being a fly on the wall with the hula hoop -- dizzying. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.