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Investor: Attacking 1 Percent is Like Nazi's Targeting Jews; Rand Paul: "Women are Winning" the War on Women; Broncos, Seahawks Arrive for Super Bowl; Former Teacher's Final Self-Assignment

Aired January 27, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello in Washington. Thanks so much for joining me.

Are the wealthy among us being persecuted? That's what this man believes. He is Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Tom Perkins, a billionaire. He blasted what he calls a rising tide of hatred against the 1 percent. And in a controversial letter to "The Wall Street Journal", he compared hatred of America's wealthiest citizens to the Nazi's persecution of the Jews.

CNN's Dan Simon has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He is worth an estimated $8 billion, owning one of the world's largest yachts.

TOM PERKINS, VENTURE CAPITALIST: This whole area is just wide open and very airy.

SIMON: Tom Perkins built his wealth as a founder of one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers which made early investments in Google, Amazon and AOL, among many others.

PERKINS: I started back in 1972 with a fund of only $8 million, which believe it or not, was the largest in the world for high-tech venture capital.

SIMON: And the 82-year-old said this recently, when asked what makes a good technology investor.

PERKINS: Judgment, which comes from experience.

SIMON: But now, Perkins' judgment is being questioned after penning a letter to "The Wall Street Journal" in which he compares the criticism of wealthy Americans to the Holocaust. "Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 1 percent, namely the Jews to the progressive war on the American 1 percent, namely the rich." Perkins says there is a demonization of the rich in America singling out events such as Occupy Wall Street -- and also recent protests in San Francisco over the buses that carry technology workers from the city to Silicon Valley. Some say it has caused a surge in the city's home prices. "This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking." He says "Kristallnacht", referring to the Nazi atrocities on Jewish communities was unthinkable in the 1930s. Perkins writes, "Is its descendant, progressive radicalism unthinkable now?" Reaction has been harsh.

"New York Times" writer and author Steven Greenhouse wrote, "As someone who lost numerous relatives to the Nazi gas chambers, I find statements like this revolting and inexplicable." Others accusing Perkins of being insensitive and tone deft for comparing the killing of six million Jews to the criticism of the superrich. And the firm he turned into a powerhouse Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB for years. "We were shocked by his views and do not agree" the company said via Twitter.

PERKINS: The views are just extraordinary.

SIMON: Perkins has always seemed to be open, including giving this tour of his high-rise condo. In his 2008 autobiography, he says, he is not a religious person but mentioned a few instances of going to church.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was CNN's Dan Simon.

And in an e-mail to Dan, Tom Perkins defended his remarks writing, quote, "Dear Dan, I stand by my comments in the letter to 'The Wall Street Journal'. As for criticism of -- of the hate letter, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion."

So let's talk more about Mr. Perkins and class warfare and the larger implications. With me now: Ross Douthat, CNN political commentator and New York Times op-ed columnist and Maria Cardona a political commentator and a Democratic strategist. Welcome to both of you.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So Maria, what is it with the Nazi comparisons? Because Mr. Perkins isn't the only person to have compared Nazism to whatever.

CARDONA: You know they should just stay away from it. You know the same as Republicans should stop talking about women's reproductive systems. People should just stop making comparisons to anything that the Nazis ever did. It just gets them into trouble. And frankly, it takes focus away from what could be a real debate here.

And so his comments were not only offensive but they were absolutely off the mark. If there is a war on the 1 percent Carol, they are winning it because the 1 percent is doing better now than they ever have been. And what this President and the administration is trying to do is to make sure that those same opportunities that are given to the 1 percent are given to middle class families and workers whose pay has actually gone down.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: OK well -- let's wait on that side of the argument for just a second because Ross I want to ask you this why would "The Wall Street Journal" print such a letter?

DOUTHAT: Well, he is a famous and highly successful and extremely wealthy person. And I imagine that someone in the editorial department thought that it was newsworthy in of itself that he would express himself in this fashion. And you know if you're writing a letter to the editor section, I can't think of anything that would make you happier than to have a letter published in your section discussed in a segment on CNN shortly thereafter.

So I think -- I think it's pretty obvious why the -- "The Journal" decided to publish the letter. I don't think you have to look to some idea that you know, "The Journal's" editors all secretly agree with this argument or something. I think it had -- it had a certain kind of news value.

I don't -- you know they are really -- I don't think there is a lot to be said about this except it's an example of a you know a fairly elderly man expressing the kind of sort of inappropriate self -- self- pity and inappropriate --

COSTELLO: You I've heard -- I've heard his charge before, the demonization of the rich, Ross. Is there a demonization of the rich going on in this country?

DOUTHAT: Well, sure in the sense that there is always that sort of, you know, the politics of class warfare are always part of American politics. And I think this is something that frankly, rich people in the age of Obama should have a better handle on.

I think you have a lot of wealthy people who aren't used to being criticized in any way, shape, or form. And you know I don't -- I don't obviously always agree with the things what the President says. I think the campaign that the White House ran against Mitt Romney was somewhat despicable at times in some of the attacks they ran.

But it's nothing remotely like the Jews and Nazi Germany. And what it is like is American politics basically going back 250 years. The rich have a lot of money and a lot of power. And with great wealth and great power comes the reality that people are going to criticize you and you have to learn to deal with it graciously.

COSTELLO: Well and there's -- Mr. Perkins isn't the only wealthy person not dealing with it graciously in San Francisco, Maria. I mean maybe our viewers don't understand what's going on there right now. But middle class Americans and lower middle class Americans in San Francisco are angry at the wealthy techies in San Francisco for pushing them out of the city. And the wealthy people aren't exactly apologizing, right?

CARDONA: Well again I think to Ross's point, I think he is right. This has always been an issue in American politics. But what has been so fantastic about this country is that you could always count on the fact that you could, by working hard and by getting a good education and playing by the rules that you could think to do a lot better than what your parents did.

And the problem is that right now, the way that the infrastructure has been set up and the way that the government has been functioning for the last 20 or 30 years with you know starting with trickle-down economics, is that that infrastructure is going away or that promise of making sure that you could do better if you played by the rules is going away.

And this is what Obama -- the Obama administration has been talking about. It's not class warfare. It's to make sure that there is no deficit of opportunity which has been happening for the last 20 years. And it is not class warfare against the rich. Again like I said yes but the rich are doing better than they ever have been -- Carol.

COSTELLO: But -- but Ross when presidents say things like spreading the wealth and the wealthy have to do their share and those with more have to do more. It kind of --

(CROSSTALK)

DOUTHAT: Well that's just liberalism right. I mean look, you know again, I mean it's not -- look I'm not, again, I would just say that there are aspects of things that liberals and Democrats say, including what things Maria just said about San Francisco and so on that I fairly strongly disagree with but that doesn't justify invoking Nazi analogies that are just ludicrous.

CARDONA: I agree.

DOUTHAT: What's difficult here though is that these are actually more complicated issues than sort of a rich versus poor. If you look at the case of San Francisco, for instance, when people talk about rich people pushing poor people out of San Francisco, what's actually happening is that San Francisco has some of the strictest zoning laws in the United States of America.

It is a heavily regulated city in which it is very difficult to build new housing. What that means, is that it's -- since it's also a city that lots of people want to live in, the price of housing keeps going up.

But the answer there is neither to you know it's neither for the rich to whine about how they are persecuted nor for the poor to demonize the rich, it's to build more housing in San Francisco. I mean some of these policy issues are not actually right versus left. They are just sort of, you know, you need -- you need more housing in a city that people want to live in.

(CROSSTALK) COSTELLO: Maybe the real answer is we all need to just grow up and be more mature about talking about stuff like this right.

CARDONA: And focus on the real issues.

COSTELLO: That's right, Maria Cardona, Ross Douthat, thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thank you Carol.

DOUTHAT: Thank you so much for having me.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM public scandal and private heartbreak -- we'll tell you why Hillary Clinton may face political potshots over her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Yes, that's come up again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Should Hillary Clinton decide to throw her hat into the ring for 2016, it could put a very different spin on the battle between Democrats and Republicans for female voters. Democrats claim their Republican counterparts are actually in a war on women with stances like issues like abortion and birth control. They say Republicans have set women back in these areas.

But at least one prominent Republican and possible 2016 contender, Senator Rand Paul, disagrees wholeheartedly. He says, "The party of Bill Clinton isn't the best one to deliver that message."

CNN's Peter Hamby joins me with the latest. Good morning Peter tell us more.

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Hi Carol good morning. Yes Rand Paul did the Sunday show rounds this weekend on State of the Union here on CNN with Candy Crowley, he said that Republicans are actually winning, the quote, unquote, "war on women" you know because there are more women in the work place these days. Democrats sort of rolled their eyes at those remarks and said he was wrong.

But he actually probably made a little bit more provocative news on "Meet the Press". He was asked about recent comments his wife made in "Vogue" magazine calling Bill Clinton predatory because of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Listen to what he said on "Meet the Press," carol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: And I think really the media seems to have given President Clinton a pass on this. He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office. There is no excuse for that. And that is predatory behavior and it should be -- it should be something we shouldn't want to associate with people who would take advantage of a young girl in --

(END VIDEO CLIP) HAMBY: Those comments are kind of a blast from the past but, look, two takeaways from this real quick, Carol. One, this part of the Clinton biography is, you know, always going to be there. And Rand Paul is doing frankly what the Republican base probably wants at this point, if he does run for president, which he says he is thinking about, which is to be completely pugnacious and go right at the Clintons.

He did make clear, though, Carol, want to make clear, that he wasn't associating Hillary Clinton with this. However, in the same breath he said it is kind of hard to separate the Clintons from each other. So, you know, a little bit of double talk there from Rand Paul -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, I was going to say Bill Clinton wouldn't be the one running for president. Hillary Clinton would be the one running for president.

And number two, when you talk about politicians in inappropriate relationships that cuts across all party lines, doesn't it?

HAMBY: Yes. No, it certainly does. We have had our fair share of Republicans and Democrats from Anthony Weiner to Mark Sanford, to whomever else deals with these issues. But you know, the thing about Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton will be running for president if she runs on her own terms with a frankly really impressive resume.

However, as we saw last time, bill Clinton for good or bad is an inescapable force in politics. He certainly would be in a potential Clinton campaign. So again, I think you are seeing a little bit of a preview of kind of a playbook that Republicans will have if they run against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

COSTELLO: Peter Hamby, many thanks, as usual.

HAMBY: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, sports fans checking weather reports as much as stat sheets. CNN's Laura Baldesarra is at the site of the Super Bowl. Good morning.

LAURA BALDESARRA, CNN SPORTS: Good morning. And the question is will this be what MetLife Stadium looks like on Sunday or will it be blanketed in snow? Contingency plans are in effect as the NFL is gambling on this cold weather Super Bowl.

More to come in just a moment.

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COSTELLO: Hi, fellows. Super Bowl week is underway. Both the Seahawks and Broncos have arrived for the big game. Like every other Super Bowl, there is a lot of talk about before the teams hit the field -- a lot, a lot of talk. Unlike every other Super Bowl, the weather is a huge topic this year.

CNN's Laura Baldesarra is outside MetLife stadium with more. Good morning.

BALDESARRA: Good morning, Carol. And yes, the NFL taking a big risk; this is the first Super Bowl to be held in a cold-weather stadium that is not climate controlled. There's no roof over it. And this is a massive risk because there is the potential for a blizzard to strike which means that the game could be postponed by a day, by a couple of days or even a few hours. It could even be moved up a few days.

You know, just last week, this was blanketed in 13 inches of snow. It needed massive, massive cleanup efforts -- those included a jet-engine powered vaporizer. Now that's just for the actual stadium. Of course, its parking lot would also need to be cleared for all of the fans that are going to be here in attendance. Now the league has a number of front end loaders, it has haul trucks, it has plows, of course on stand by to get rid of all of the snow.

Now other thing is that the field itself, the actual turf, is a big concern. It has actually been covered in tarp for the majority of the time since around Christmas with heaters blowing hot air underneath the tarp to keep the field nice and warm. Now right now, the field is mostly uncovered except for the end zones.

Even if it doesn't snow, it could still be very, very, very cold. The NFL, they are going to be providing fans in attendance with a warm pack. That's going to include earmuffs, that's going to include a scarf, hand warmers, even lip balm.

And NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, he says that he is actually going to be out there braving all of this cold weather as well. He's going to be sitting with the fans. He's not going to be in one of his fancy, heated suite and staying warm in there.

Now, the players, they arrived last week or last night, rather. When Peyton Manning was getting off the plane, you could see he wasn't exactly freezing. All he needed was just one little scarf. I'm sure he didn't really have very far to go. Afterwards, he spoke about how much him and his team are looking forward to Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEYTON MANNING, DENVER BRONCOS: The Super Bowl is a big deal. I know how hard it is to get here. I know how much time and sacrifice our team has made in order to have this opportunity to play in this game. So we were excited getting on that plane. We were excited getting off that plane. We're looking forward to being here all week and hopefully playing a good game next Sunday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDESARRA: Now, Manning has often been criticized for not exactly being a cold weather quarterback or player. It is not exactly completely fair criticism. However he does have a 4-7 record when the kickoff temperature is at freezing or below freezing. That doesn't exactly bode well for him. I'm sure that on Sunday, if him and the Broncos do manage to win this game, that will certainly put some criticism to bed, Carol. COSTELLO: He'll absolutely put it to bed. Laura Baldesarra, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a teacher with an inoperable brain tumor makes an 8,000 mile journey and finds out how much more he has to live for. His story -- next.

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COSTELLO: A former school principle diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor gave himself a special assignment: an 8,000 trek across the country. Tom Foreman has his story in today's "American Journey".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the city that care forgot it's hard to find anyone with fewer worries than David Menasche.

DAVID MENASCHE, AUTHOR, "THE PRIORITY LIST": And at times I have felt a lot like Huck Finn just floating down the river free.

FOREMAN: Odd because for seven years he's had an inoperable brain tumor. So why is he happy? Because his terminal illness has led to the adventure of a lifetime.

MENASCHE: Well, that's one of the perks of being told you're going to die. You don't have a lot left to be afraid of.

FOREMAN: Menasche was a teacher who loved literature, poetry, and shaping young lives. But the illness made him wonder if he had really made any difference. So he set out to visit as many former students as he could through 8,000 miles of buses, planes, trains, hitchhiking.

MENASCHE: Some were amazed. I repeatedly got the question, what are you doing in Seattle? How did you get to San Francisco? Oregon, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama --

FOREMAN: A lot.

MENASCHE: A lot. Ladies and gentlemen, the Pacific.

FOREMAN: The adventure became a book "The Priority List", the friendships became a new reason to live.

MENASCHE: Even in this state, mostly blind and crippled, I'm alive and I'm doing things with my life and I'm very happy about that.

FOREMAN: What did you learn?

MENASCHE: I did make a difference and I'm very proud of that difference and the people that they have become.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no cap to the shampoo bottle.

FOREMAN: Some of his old students now help him get to the doctor, run errands, read books.

JENNIFER BREWER, FORMER STUDENT: To be honest, there was a time in high school where I didn't know if he would be there to see me get into college and graduate and to know that I wanted to be a teacher.

FOREMAN: So this is all then more than you expected?

BREWER: Oh absolutely, absolutely.

MENASCHE: We're all going to die. We both know this. It is an inevitability that if you just spend your time dreading and mourning, then you miss out on the good stuff that happens before then. I am very much about living.

FOREMAN: And still he pushes on. Not to the end, but to whatever comes next.

Tom Foreman, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's incredible.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"LEGAL VIEW with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.