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Shooting in Colorado School; Christie Fundraising in Florida; NSA Program Proposed Changes
Aired January 18, 2014 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Martin Savidge. Coming up this hour in the "CNN Newsroom," Daniel Ellsburg, a whistle- blower from the past, once called the most dangerous man in America for his role in the 1971 Pentagon papers leak, and he's got a lot to say about President Obama's reform of our spy program.
And a common vitamin that is credited with saving the life of a teen. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is working on that story.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Martin, a young boy barely survives a horrific car crash. The doctors tell his parents his situation is hopeless, to let him go. They refused, and said they pump him full of fish oil. What happened next is astounding.
SAVIDGE: You know her from the movies "Being John Malkovich," "40- year-old Virgin," and "Captain Phillips." Catherine Keener joins us live to dish on her newest film.
But we begin with Governor Chris Christie. He escaped the cold and the snowy effects of New Jersey and for the weekend now, he is down in sunny Florida. Christie is in Orlando today. He's stumping for re- election, mainly for a fellow Republican governor by the name of Rick Scott there in Florida. He is the star of some fund-raising activities, most of them invitation-only, no news cameras allowed, thank you very much.
But at the same time, back home, a new bombshell, this one from the mayor of a major New Jersey City, naming names, and saying that Chris Christie's office deliberately held back hurricane Sandy relief money just for political reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DAWN ZIMMER, HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY: The lieutenant governor came to Hoboken and she said to me, you know, her words were, "if you tell anyone, I'll deny it." Of course, they're denying it.
And the bottom line is, she said, basically, it's connected. The Sandy funding is being held hostage for the city of Hoboken, is connected to the Rockefeller Group Project. She said that very clearly. And she said, you know, if you don't move ahead, we're not going to be able to help you. Well, we've barely gotten any money. What they want me to do with the governor's pressuring me to do, like, I can't do that. I have no choice but to come forward and share what's happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: CNN's Tori Dunnan is live in Orlando right now. And Tori, Chris Christie is singing to the Republican choir so to speak this weekend there in Florida. What's happening inside this exclusive fund-raising event? And any sign that Christie's troubles back home are chasing him in Florida?
TORI DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Martin, you mentioned, of course, this is in front of a Republican crowd, so, obviously, it might be a friendlier reception, although there are probably some people inside these fund-raisers who do have some questions for Chris Christie.
On the agenda today, three different fund-raisers, two for Florida governor Rick Scott and then one for the Republican Governor's Association, all in different parts of the state. We actually caught up with a woman who was inside the fund-raiser here in Orlando to get her take in what was and wasn't said inside. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DUNNAN (on camera): -- reaction in there to Governor Christie?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excellent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excellent.
DUNNAN: What did he say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He talked about Governor Scott and how good he is.
DUNNAN: Did anything about the scandal come up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think?
DUNNAN: Elaborate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think? Yes or no? What do you think?
DUNNAN: What did he say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said no, nothing, zero. He was all for Scott. Scott's going to win.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DUNNAN: All right. So obviously, she might be saying there that nothing was said about the scandal inside. But we're also able to catch up with Florida Congressman John Mica who was inside the event for a bit, as well. There's a lot of talk here in Florida about really what this trip might mean for his future political ambitions. Let's take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DUNNAN (on camera): Any talk in there about this being an issue for, if Christie decides to run in 2016?
REP. JOHN MICA (R), FLORIDA: None. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DUNNAN: All right. So he said no talk about this being an issue if it were to come to him, wanting to run in 2016. But Martin, basically the bottom line is that this weekend is really going to be a test of Chris Christie's fund-raising abilities as well as a test of where his star power is at this point in time.
SAVIDGE: Tori, let me ask you this. What happens tomorrow? I understand that there is one major event planned with a pretty heavy hitter.
DUNNAN: Oh, yes. All eyes are going to be on this event tomorrow. It's a donor outreach event. And basically what that means in simple terms is that it's an opportunity for Chris Christie to meet potential donors down the line that if he were to decide to run in 2016, these would be people maybe he would rely on.
Now, you mentioned this - where this is going to be. It's going to be at a house in North Palm Beach. That home belongs to Ken Langon, he's a co-founder of Home Depot, a billionaire. He's talked to CNN a little bit about this. He said the interest has gone up since the scandal, because, according to him, people have called and they've said they like the way that Governor Christie has handled everything.
SAVIDGE: All right, very interesting. Tori Dunnan, we'll continue to check in and follow that. Thanks very much.
Turning now to President Obama's big speech which was on dealing the proposed changes to the NSA program, that's the spying program, and how it's going to affect your privacy. Every phone call that every American makes will continue to be logged for the number dialed and the length of the call. The NSA will keep the records for now, but access will be tightened.
And who will store phone records long term? Well, that's still up in the air. Seven months ago, Edward Snowden, you remember, first leaked a classified document on the top-secret NSA spy programs, and that triggered a worldwide debate on mass surveillance. And now Obama aims to rein in those programs. Here's part of the plan, we'll outline it for you.
If the U.S. government wants to check the phone records it collects, it must ask that secret intelligence court, which Obama wants to bolster, with a privacy advocate, and also, Obama wants to eventually move bulk phone records out of NSA storage while making sure that they are still accessible. Plus the president wants to extend certain privacy rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens to people in other countries, and stop monitoring communications of friendly world leaders, unless there is a compelling national security reason.
As far as Edward Snowden, now, a fugitive in Russia, here's what the president had to say -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden's actions or his motivations. I will say that our nation's defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation's secrets. If any individual who objects to government policy can take it into their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Snowden was not the first to disclose classified information. In 1971, an American military analyst named Daniel Ellsberg leaked a classified government history of U.S. decision making in the Vietnam war. The documents became known as the "Pentagon Papers." Ellsberg was the first person prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for releasing classified information. The case was later thrown out. Daniel Ellsberg joins me from Berkeley, California. Thank you very much for being with us, sir.
DANIEL ELLSBERG, RELEASED PENTAGON PAPERS: Thank you for the opportunity.
SAVIDGE: You recently said that you believe the nation has been mired in a constitutional crisis since 9/11, but we just didn't know it until Edward Snowden took action. Do you feel any differently now after the president's speech?
ELLSBERG: The president confirmed my concern very much for the state of our constitutional system. I would say it was in very bad health. It's sick. The checks and balances are broken, and what we heard from the president was not even Band-aids or aspirin for the fourth amendment, which is near death. It was sugar pills, basically placebos. It didn't pretend anything. It didn't, I think, have any effect at all.
The president said that this debate will make us stronger. He's certain of that. Well, he neglected to say thank you, Edward Snowden, because is there anyone who believes that this debate, which is wealthy, which is healthy, healthy, would be happening without Edward Snowden? There's no chance of it at all.
SAVIDGE: Well, I'm going to get to that in a moment. Let me just ask you this. I want to read a quote now from journalist Glen Greenwald whose past stories stemmed from (INAUDIBLE) Edward Snowden leak. It goes like this "U.S. political leaders pretend to validate and even channel public anger by acknowledging that there are serious questions that have been raised and then they set out with their actions to do exactly the opposite, to make the system prettier and more politically palatable with empty cosmetic reforms." Do you think that's what's happened here with the president?
ELLSBERG: I think that's exactly right, he says it very well. As a matter of fact, time after time, the president, whose election I supported on both his elections, and I don't regret that, but I have to speak frankly here, he says very good things from the point of view of what he calls advocates of civil liberties or the fourth amendment critics of his program.
He says the right things, but what he gives in terms of policy is entirely from the point of view of the intelligence community, which has been very largely in violation of the fourth amendment, and, thus, of the first amendment, the freedom of the press. Now, for a number of years.
SAVIDGE: Well, let me ask you what - before we run out of time, I would like to get your thoughts on what you think would be real reform for the NSA.
ELLSBERG: Yes. His own advisors, the review panel that he commissioned and which he basically ignored, most of their 46 recommendations, but above all, their number-one recommendation that we end the bulk mass indiscriminate collection of every e-mail, all of the data on the phones, the mass suspicionless spying on the American people should not be - should not just be limited, which he has pretended to do. It should be ended.
And the only way to get that is for people to do what they did in connection with the war on Syria. They buttonholed their representatives when they could on a congressional recess, and they said to them, "We don't want war." And the representatives heard that. And the president backed off, his threats to go to war in Syria and Iran, which, by the way, is what I hoped from him when I supported his election.
These representatives in Congress have got to hear from the public that they want these abuses ended and they want investigative actual methods, which would call for people embedded in NSA, with full clearance, reporting to Congress and the judiciary, including the judiciary committees, and with full access to what NSA is actually been doing. That might be surprising even to the president if they report to him, as well.
SAVIDGE: I understand that, of course, you're a member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to support public interests in journalism. It was announced this week that Snowden will join you on that board. I've got to ask, how will he do that? Have you spoken to Edward Snowden?
ELLSBERG: You know, we're - he will be communicating to us by encrypted channels here. He will be an active member of the board. I'm very proud of that. I would say when it comes to protecting, defending, supporting the fourth amendment to the constitution and the first amendment, Edward Snowden has done more than any member of Congress, any official in the United States, going up to the president himself.
SAVIDGE: Daniel Ellsberg, coming from you, that's a very powerful statement. Thank you very much, sir, for joining us today.
ELLSBERG: Thank you.
SAVIDGE: Coming up, the price of fruits, vegetables, vegetable juice, and nuts. It could also soon skyrocket. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: A juvenile suspect wanted in a Philadelphia high school shooting has just turned himself in. That suspect accompanied by his attorney was taken into custody this afternoon. He is charged with two counts of aggravated assault. A male and female student were wounded in Friday's shooting inside the gym at the Delaware Valley Charter High School, but they are expected to be fine. Surveillance video captured the incident, while police say the motive is still unknown.
Police and volunteers have been scouring the Longhill, New Jersey, area for Wall Street reporter David Bird. He vanished last Saturday after going for a wall. His family is particularly worried because Bird has a liver condition that requires medicine twice a day.
A few media reports have said that his credit card was used in Mexico last week, but his family isn't confirming that. Bird is an energy markets reporter for the "Wall Street Journal."
Well, it's been a painful vacation for dozens of passengers on board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. The Majesty of the Seas docked in Miami yesterday after a four-night trip to several ports of call, including the Bahamas. The cruise line says that 66 passengers were suffering from various gastrointestinal problems. More than 2,500 people were on the ship. The cruise line suspects the norovirus is probably what might have caused the problems.
Well, if your grocery bill creeps up over the next few weeks, the reason could be California. The state is facing a catastrophic drought, one that is hitting its massive agriculture industry. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray explains why the disaster may get worse before it gets better.
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Just last week, we were roughly 25 percent in the extreme drought in California. Now, about 60 percent of the state under extreme drought, and it looks like this is going to last for the next several, several months.
Above-normal temperatures are forecasted over the next three months, also below-normal rainfall is forecasted for the next three months. And this is the rainy season. This is the window when southern California is supposed to get rain. So how is it impacting cities? Well, the rationing of water. Ranchers are selling cattle. Some food prices may rise due to lower crop yield, and this may lead to an early and long wildfire season. Already have seen the first one, the Colby fire, most recently. Martin? SAVIDGE: All right, thank you very much.
Coming up, we'll take you live to the Sundance Film Festival where actress Catherine Keener will dish about her newest film "War Story." She joins us right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Smack in the middle of award season, Hollywood heads to Park City, Utah, for the annual Sundance Film Festival. That festival is celebrating now its 30th anniversary, and it will showcase 117 feature-length projects, including several performances from Hollywood A-listers.
One movie on the radar, "War Story." It's the tale of an American war photographer who's dealing with the effects of PTSD after being taken hostage during a conflict in Libya.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is live inside the CNN lounge in Park City, Utah, lucky fellow, accompanied by one of the stars of the film, Catherine Keener. Miguel?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Marty. This is the hottest ticket in Sundance here, the CNN Film's lounge. I am here with Catherine Keener, who has this stunning film, this tough film in the next category for Sundance.
CATHERINE KEENER, ACTRESS: Thank you.
MARQUEZ: About a woman who's been through hell, and she's trying to deal with it. What is she going through? What is this film about?
KEENER: Well, you know, war and hell, I guess, that's what it is. But the film's about the character that I play, who's called Lee, is a war photographer who's working in Libya. And something happens, she's - I don't know if it comes through, but she's basically covering the refugee situation there. And something happens that's pretty traumatic, and she's pulled out, and she goes to (INAUDIBLE) - she goes through a port, where a lot of refugees -
MARQUEZ: The Libyan refugees are coming through.
KEENER: Yes, and others, but a lot of Libyan refugees and the passage is quite dangerous for them. And hers wasn't comparatively, but she goes there and ends up not coming back. She's a news - a paper photographer, and her editor tries to get her to come back, and she decides not to right away.
MARQUEZ: But she decides not to - I mean, is it -- it seems to be more than PTSD at this point. Is it her lover, her partner, the reporter, has been killed there? Is it -
KEENER: Yes.
MARQUEZ: She has a very - KEENER: I think it's probably more than PTSD. But honestly, I have no - I mean, that's kind of exponential, don't you think, in terms of how bad that can be? Who knows? What the limits of that are?
MARQUEZ: It is a stunning role. I've been in a few places like this, Iraq, Afghanistan. I was in Libya and Benghazi when the bodies of Tim Heatherington and Chris (INAUDIBLE) were brought into Benghazi, and it reminded me. I had colleagues in Iraq killed - Iraqi colleagues. It's extraordinarily difficult. And you play that character very, very well.
KEENER: Thank you.
MARQUEZ: Was it -
KEENER: I did have the - excuse me.
MARQUEZ: No, please, how tough was it?
KEENER: Well, it was - well, you know, I have a lot of - first of all, a tremendous amount of respect. I feel that is a very noble profession. I can't believe people do that, because they're basically in as much danger as either side. You know, they're there on the front lines. And what they're trying to do is to just show to the rest of the world what's happening to a population that ordinarily wouldn't have any focus on it. And it's not really - it's not a self-aggrandizing profession by any means.
I mean, I know that within it, there are things you want to achieve, but, you know, it's a very - it's as dangerous as anybody else. And I just - it's amazing to me that people actually go and do that willingly. And basically need to keep doing it.
MARQUEZ: And you can get very, very addicted to it.
KEENER: Sure.
MARQUEZ: Which I think your character probably was, in this sort of - this sort of crisis.
KEENER: Yes.
MARQUEZ: This is in the next category of films here at Sundance, we sort of mentioned inspired the next generation of filmmakers.
KEENER: Is that -
MARQUEZ: It is indeed. I did my homework. Made for a shoestring. Ben Kingsley is in it. Labor of love? Why take part in this project?
KEENER: Well, I mean - well, yes, labor of love. And I think it's - like I said, the subject matter is, for me, it's very timely, because I think the focus on PTSD and many surrounding populations and soldiers and war, people around war. I think it's becoming more prominent, we know anyway.
MARQUEZ: This country has been at war for a long time.
KEENER: We're always at war, yes. But we've been at war, this war, how long, how many years now?
MARQUEZ: Well, it's been a decade of war, between Iraq and Afghanistan.
KEENER: Yes. That's right. Because I remember when the bombings started. But I wanted to say, do you know any colleagues at the "L.A. Times"?
MARQUEZ: I do.
KEENER: A lot of those guys - which is where I was lucky enough for a month to hang out with those guys, and Rick Bloomis, I think, was in Benghazi.
MARQUEZ: I know Tony who is based down in San Diego.
KEENER: Tony Dunn.
MARQUEZ: We're done. Thank you very, very much.
KEENER: You're wonderful. All of guys are great.
MARQUEZ: We hope to see it in theaters soon. We'll hope for that.
KEENER: Nice to meet you.
MARQUEZ: Martin, I'm going to send it back to you for now. Thanks very much.
SAVIDGE: Thank you, Miguel. Thank you, Catherine.
Next hour, George Takei will join us live on CNN. The "Star Trek" actor He will talk about his film at Sundance, and his new book, and why he has strong words for the governor of Utah.
Meanwhile, coming up, the first lady turns 50. Michelle Obama is celebrating her birthday. We'll tell you about her big bash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Hollywood is dressing up for one of the biggest nights of the award season. It is the Screen Actors Guild Awards tonight, and in just two hours, our special coverage begins with interviews from the red carpet and a look at all of the fashion.
Well, we're told that the president of the United States advised guests coming to the White House tonight to wear their dancing shoes. It's the birthday party for first lady Michelle Obama. She turned 50 yesterday, but the party is tonight. Don't expect to see any pictures, though. Everyone invited was specifically asked to leave their cameras at home. Oh, well.
We'll have much more at the top of the hour when CNN NEWSROOM continues. "SANJAY GUPTA M.D." begins right now.
