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Report -- Convicted Criminals May Be Foster Parents in MA; IRS Head Testifies Before Congress; Tapper Interviews John Kerry; Clay Aiken Running for Congress; Shaun White Drops One Event in Olympics; Report -- Bieber and Entourage Smoked Pot, Verbally Abusive to Flight Crew

Aired February 05, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Is there any way whatsoever that Zimmerman could benefit from this?

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Sure.

BALDWIN: How?

GRACE: Taking a cut, having his agent take a cut and it filter down to Zimmerman.

BALDWIN: So, just money?

GRACE: There's a million ways.

Look, you've had the Trayvon Martin shooting. You've had the girlfriend claiming she was beaten up and a gun pointed at her. You've had the wife claim she was beaten up.

Why we would even entertain this, I don't know. Who wants to see George Zimmerman anymore ever again after the misery that he's caused? But I can tell you one thing. I'm sure Trayvon martin's parents would like to get in the ring and have a go at him.

BALDWIN: I'm thinking there are definitely people in this country who would like to see people beating on George Zimmerman. The demand, I imagine, would be there.

GRACE: It's blood money. It's making a profit off of a crime.

BALDWIN: Nancy Grace, watch "NANCY GRACE," HLN, weeknights, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you.

GRACE: Bye, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thanks.

Now to this, people convicted of trafficking cocaine or inducing sex from a minor can be foster parents in the state of Massachusetts.

The state's children and families department has the policy listed right there in their handbook and it was "The Boston Herald" first reported on about 110 crimes that possible prospective -- easy for me to say -- foster parents can have on record and still qualify to take care of at-risk kids.

Here's a partial list of acceptable crimes. Of course, this is subject to review, but take a look at this -- assault by dangerous weapon, induced sex with a minor, motor vehicle homicide, DUI, possession of heroin, prostitution.

Erin Smith, she is an investigative reporter with "The Boston Herald," and, Erin, why? The question is why would this agency do this? Your paper broke this story. Explain that to me.

ERIN SMITH, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "BOSTON HERALD": Yes, this is actually part of a larger series that we've been reporting on.

My colleague, Matt Stout, and I have been looking into policies with the department of children and families and abuse within the foster care system, and we uncovered this policy.

The governor has said he's not worried about, that he trusts the agency to do the proper screening.

The agency has said they only require foster parent or let foster parents' criminal record do this very sparingly, but they have refused to provide us any numbers.

They do track this, according to their own rules and regulations, but they've refused, thus far, to us provide numbers about how many convicted criminals have been foster parents.

BALDWIN: Let me -- Erin, let me read the response here that we got. This is from the Massachusetts Department of Family and Children.

"The department uses factors" -- quoting -- "such as the nature of a crime, circumstances and timeframe to deny an application to become a foster parent if the situation is deemed unsafe.

"DCF looks at the full picture to determine which caregiver or home is in the best interest of a child."

Is the department at all, Erin, under political pressure to change this policy?

SMITH: We haven't heard anything so far yet. There are several investigations going on at our statehouse here, looking into policies.

That really ramped up last month after a Fitchburg boy was determined that he had been missing since about September, and nobody had been checking on him. He had been under the state's watch at the time, so there's been a number of cases.

We've also set up a tip line at the newspaper, and for the past month, tips have been overflowing in to us, and we've been able to tell one story after another of foster-care abuse or missteps by the agency and failures.

One such story we had recently was an 11-year-old autistic boy who claimed he was sexually abused in his foster home by an older youth in that home, and it was brushed off as consensual sex, even though a police report said that he had the mental capacity of a 5- or 6-year- old.

BALDWIN: Erin Smith, keep digging. Erin Smith of "The Boston Herald," to you and your colleague, nice work. Great journalism.

SMITH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, a jail break caught on camera. You won't believe how the inmate was able to escape. We, of course, will show you the video.

Plus, a woman arrested after more than 37 years on the run. How one investigator's hunch helped police finally track her down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is arguably the most feared agency of all of the U.S. government. I'm talking about the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service.

And today, the new man in charge of the IRS testifying before a committee of Congress. This is his first time talking to Capitol Hill since he took over the agency just this past December.

Our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns has been watching that. And, Joe, what came up in the hearing today?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, a couple of headlines out of this, this was testimony from the newly confirmed commissioner, John Koskinen, before the Republican-controlled House ways and means committee, almost never a friendly crowd, but more so because of the issues swirling around the IRS.

The first issue is the agency's decision to reinstate tens of millions of dollars in bonuses that were postponed last year due to the sequester.

The agency made a deal with employees' unions to head off a lawsuit, and John Koskinen took some heat for members of the committee on that.

Then they turned to the main event, the issue of tax exemptions for political groups, including tea partiers, that caused so much controversy last year.

It heated up again after the president's comments in a Super Bowl interview on Fox when he said all of it was a result of boneheaded decisions and there wasn't a smidgeon of corruption involved.

The chairman of the committee said that ways and means had investigated this matter and found otherwise and that the president was ill-informed or being misled by his staff.

And he made it clear the committee is not about to fold on this. They are continuing to demand IRS emails that they think are relevant to the investigation. Koskinen also was invited to disagree on the record with the president's assessment, because six investigations into these issues have not been concluded, but Koskinen conveniently sidestepped that question and said he'd leave the conclusions to others, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Joe Johns with the headlines.

Brian Stelter, let's broaden this out. Brian's our senior media correspondent and host of CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES."

So, you have the conservative media led by Fox News. They're not letting go of the IRS taking this extra-hard look at political groups, the applications for tax-exempt status because of certain words in their names.

It has never been found that the IRS actually did anything wrong. Joe mentioned the investigations. It didn't even deny any conservative group's application.

Why not just give it a rest already?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This is what Jay Carney said yesterday, the White House press secretary, at his briefing.

He said 20 different news organizations have backed up the White House's own assessment that there isn't evidence of corruption here, backing up their own independent investigation, as well.

But in the conservative media bubble, and in this case it is a bubble, this is a severe controversy that will never go away, in part because it is very easy to describe and to convey to viewers.

Whether the facts are entirely there or not, it's the kind of thing that gets people angry and outraged and, of course, it involves the IRS.

Everybody likes to hate the IRS, so it's sort of one of those things that is too good to be true.

BALDWIN: I see, as a story to latch onto and keep running with.

Brian Stelter, we will watch for you on Sunday morning, "RELIABLE SOURCES." Thank you, sir.

And now to this, some of the hottest stories in a flash, we call it "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Here's this video we promised of this jailbreak in Florida. Watch this with me. Take a look. See the suspect running away, right past security.

Willie Hollis escaped from the Orange County jail on Monday. The sheriff's office said he hopped into a waiting car and hasn't been seen since. Just away he goes. And this woman in Hawaii saw an SUV plow into a concrete barrier, pulled over to help. She pulled one of the passengers out, but one of the two men still inside was acting kind of shady.

JENNIFER JONES, GOOD SAMARITAN: He just kind of backed away, looking at me, but backed away this way, and then all the sudden, my brake lights went on and burned rubber and screeched off.

BALDWIN: So, here's why he was being shady. Turns out he was a suspected kidnapper.

One of the men in the SUV stole her car with her phone inside. When she got home, she was able to use an app -- of course we all love the FindThePhone app, right -- and found the car abandoned about a mile away from the scene.

Through all of it, she says she will not hesitate to help someone, though, in the future.

And the woman accused of escaping from a Michigan prison 37 years ago, captured in San Diego. Sixty-year-old Judy Lynn Hayman pleaded guilt to larceny back in 1976.

Prison officials say she escaped after 10 months. An investigator happened to open old fires and sent her fingerprints to the FBI and, voila, they matched those of a woman arrested in San Diego.

Officers went to her home to get her. They say her 32-year-old son seemed a tad surprised. You think?

Coming up next, an exclusive interview with the secretary of state, John Kerry, talks about everything from Iran to Syria to his own political future.

Also ahead, Clay Aiken is trying to make the jump from "American Idol" to Washington.

He announces his plans to run for office today, and I talked to Clay Aiken on this show and he will tell you in his own words why he thinks he is ready to represent Americans and take on -- as he called it -- Washington's dysfunction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is one of President Obama's most controversial programs, the use of drones against suspected terrorists.

And today we are hearing the U.S. will pull back on strikes in Pakistan as the government there talks peace with the Taliban.

That's a major development involving the administration's foreign policy, and speaking of, our U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, just sat down with Jake Tapper for a CNN exclusive.

Jake Tapper joins me now. And I know you asked a lot of questions, but I want to hone in on your question about his future in politics. What did he say?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: See, this is so interesting. I wanted to come -- I came armed with all of these questions about Syria and Iran and Israel and Sochi.

And all these political junkies, and I guess you are one of them, as well, Brooke, wanted to know, is he going to run in 2016?

And I guess it's not such a crazy question.

BALDWIN: No.

TAPPER: We've had pundits out there, talking about how he would run again if Hillary chooses not to. Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made such a prediction.

Anyway, so, I gave in and I did ask. Here's that exchange.

BALDWIN: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, possibly running for president in 2016, is that something you would ever consider doing again?

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: One of the joys of this job is I'm out of politics.

TAPPER: Forever?

KERRY: I'm out of politics. I have no plans whatsoever. This is my last stop. I'm going to serve the country in the extraordinarily privileged position the president has given me, the great challenges I have, and move on.

And I don't have to comment and won't comment on anybody contemplating a run for office anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, there is the key phrase.

Now, it wasn't entirely Sherman-esque, Brooke, as I'm sure you noticed. I have no plans whatsoever.

But he did say this is my last stop, which is fairly declarative and also consistent --

BALDWIN: I would say so, yes.

TAPPER: -- with what he's told people off the record. This is my last stop, yes.

BALDWIN: Forever, forever ever here, so says the secretary of state.

Nice job. The president, secretary of state, who is next? We will wait and see. Jake Tapper, we'll see you at "THE LEAD" in --

TAPPER: I was hoping you, Brooke. I have a lot of questions for you.

BALDWIN: We'll see. We'll see how that goes, Tapper.

We'll see you at the top of the hour. Let's begin there.

Coming up next, a major announcement from one of this country's most successful Olympians, Shaun White, dropping out of an event.

Coming up, we will tell you why he's making that decision and how Olympic officials are responding to the news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In case you missed it, get ready because we talked live, last hour, to Clay Aiken.

Clay Aiken of "American Idol" fame has just released this video this morning, announcing he's running for Congress from his home state of North Carolina.

And if you watch this video here, it recounts some highly personal events from Aiken's childhood. It was shot in a home where Aiken and his mother once sought refuge from Aiken's violent father.

Clay Aiken is running as a Democrat. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Here you are from Raleigh, North Carolina, and watching that video this mornings, Clay, you have an incredibly compelling story.

But my question is, is a compelling personal story a qualification to get elected? Does that suffice?

CLAY AIKEN, RUNNING FOR CONGRESS: No, I don't think it does.

I do think that that story qualifies me in the sense that I understand that we all go through issues, we all go through struggles in life and they make us who we are and we learn from them.

And for that reason, I think empathy and caring for the people who you represent is a really important qualification for Congress.

You know, as a society, we have decided that lawyers and whatnot should be the people in Congress, but we see what that's gotten us so far.

So I think understanding constituents and caring about them and their needs should be the most important qualification.

BALDWIN: Can you give me one example of where, over the course of however many years, President Obama has disappointed you?

AIKEN: You know, I think there is systematically a problem in Washington with people not talking to each other and not working together. And I don't think the president is immune from that criticism.

I think that both parties need to learn to reach across the aisle and I think the president could do a better job of reaching out to congressional leaders to try to come to workable solutions.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about an issue that President Obama I think has evolved on, his stance on same-sex marriage.

2004, you came out to your mom after dropping off your little brother at Camp Lejeune.

I read the article in "People" magazine where you say your mom struggled with it at first.

My question to you, if you win this seat, how would you convince the majority of your Southern conservative state that same-sex marriage should be legal?

AIKEN: You know, I don't think that's an issue in this particular election. It is something that's a settled issue in North Carolina. It's not something that a congressman has anything to do with.

My position on that topic has been pretty clear, but at the same time, when I talk to people around the district, when I talk to people in this area, the things that are on their minds are the economy, jobs, being able to pay and put their kids through college, training for adults so they can actually get new jobs, taking care of veterans, things in this district that take precedent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Clay Aiken there.

By the way, the member of Congress who current holds the seat in that second district that he wants has issued a statement about Aiken.

And she says, quote, "Apparently his performing career is not going so well. He's very bored," she says.

He will have to run first, of course, in a Democratic primary, but Clay Aiken, again, in the news today, running for Congress.

Olympic snowboarder Shaun White is definitely known for pushing the limit with his daring moves, but now he's dialing back a bit, withdrawing from the slope-style even.

The reason? He says he wants to focus on winning his third gold medal in the half-pipe.

However, White did hurt his wrist recently, training, and he said this about the slope-style.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHAUN WHITE, OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDER: Definitely concerns about the course, it's been interesting to see how it's developed and changed over the past few days. And I guess the big question is if it will continue to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And CNN International's Don Riddell joins me.

And so which is it? Do we know? Is it there are safety issues or is it he just really wants to focus on the half-pipe?

DON RIDDELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR, WORLD SPORT: I think it might, Brooke, be just a little bit of both, to be quite honest.

He didn't actually come out and say it was because he thinks it's too dangerous and that's why he's pulling out of it, but there is no doubt that he wants to win a third half-pipe gold.

Of course, he won in Torino and Vancouver four years ago. It would be a fabulous achievement for him to win three golds out of three.

And some of the athletes, some of the snowboarders, have been complaining about the slope-style event.

He himself has seen Norway's Torstein Horgmo taken off with a broken bone while practicing this event, which means he's out of the Olympics.

So, you know, I'm sure he'd rather win three gold medals in one event rather than nothing at all in Sochi.

BALDWIN: Let's take a -- what the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, has to say. We've got a graphic we can pull up and we can read this for you, guys.

RIDDELL: They've been under a lot of pressure, the IOC, given the fact that we've lots of people checking into hotels and finding there's no curtain pulls and orange water coming out of the taps, so they've been dealing with a lot.

But this, of course, has become one of them, given that Shaun White is one of the world stars in snowboarding, one of the biggest stars of the Games.

They say, "A lot of the athletes have said they are very happy and like the venue. When you're in a number of disciplines and want to try and win a particular one, you concentrate on that. And obviously in winter sports there is always the possibility of an injury."

So they're kind of assessing this as, you know, he's made a calculated decision, he's a smart athlete, he's going for the one he knows he can do well in.

But some of the athletes have not been too kind.

BALDWIN: They've been jabbing a little bit.

RIDDELL: Canada's Sebastian Toutant, who's a medal favorite, tweeted, "Mr. White, it's easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can't win."

BALDWIN: Ouch.

Don Riddell, hopefully, he gets three for three. Thank you so much. We'll be watching.

And this big announcement by the NFL today, the league signed a contract with CBS to air some of the "Thursday Night Football" games. They all currently air on the NFL Network.

NFL Network will simulcast the games that air on CBS. The NFL says it's an attempt to build Thursday night into a night for NFL fans.

And now, Evan Perez is on the phone with me. Evan Perez is our justice correspondent.

Evan Perez, we are getting some new information as it pertains to Justin Bieber, the latest chapter, if you will, this one regarding this plane ride.

Tell me what you're learning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Brooke, yes, there was a lot of mystery about this plane ride, this -- on Friday, just before the Super Bowl, Bieber and an entourage came into Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, which is just out of New York City.

And they were held up for several hours while they were being questioned. And there was a lot of mystery as to what exact had happened.

We'd been told by sources that there was a smell of marijuana, which then drew the attention of authorities, customs and border protection agents, as well as local police from the Port Authority, boarded the plane, made a search, did not find any drugs.

But now we're learning some new details. NBC had a report this morning which we've confirmed with some more reporting by Susan Candiotti and Mike Galanos from CNN.

According to investigative sources Bieber and his entourage were abusive, verbally abusive, to some of the flight crew, in particular a flight attendant who took refuge inside the cockpit with the pilots.

And the pilots had told the entourage and Bieber to put away the marijuana, that this was not appropriate. And we were told by sources that they refused.

So when -- this is why, when the plane landed at Teterboro Airport. they called authorities for a further search.

You know, we're told that, you know, the smell of the marijuana was so bad in the cockpit that the pilots were concerned that they could test positive.

BALDWIN: They were oxygen masks.

PEREZ (via telephone): Yeah, they donned oxygen masks because they were that concerned, Brooke.

So that sheds a little more light into this mystery of what exactly went down on Friday when he landed at Teterboro Airport.

BALDWIN: Goodness gracious.

Quickly, when you mention -- I have just 20 seconds with you -- when you mentioned this entourage, his father was part of this entourage, yes?

PEREZ (via telephone): That's right, the father and several other people who were apparently headed to New York for Super Bowl parties, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. The latest news, the latest chapter, if you will, regarding this sounds like marijuana-laced flight, this abusive flight here involving Justin Bieber, his father, and an entourage. That's what we have here on CNN.

Meantime, thank you so much for being with me. I'm back here -- be back here same time tomorrow.

Go check the Brooke Blog for the latest interviews, including Clay Aiken today, CNN.com/Brooke.

Now, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper begins right now.