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Third Person in U.S. With MERS; White House Doesn't See Russian Troops Moving from Ukrainian Border; Police Commissioner Who Called Obama "N" Word Resigns; Report Says Obama Knew of V.A. Problems Before Inauguration; NBA Takes First Step to Remove Sterling; Michael Jackson Performs Via Hologram; Titanosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Aired May 19, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

CNN has learned a Florida patient infected with the MERS virus has been released from the hospital. The patient has recovered, now tests negative for MERS, so that's a good thing.

But this comes just days after some frightening developments here in the spread of this virus because for the very first time MERS -- that's Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -- has spread from one person to another right here within the boundaries of the United States.

This case in Illinois is the third one confirmed in the U.S., so let me bring in the director for respiratory diseases at the center for disease controls in Atlanta. Welcome back.

DR. ANNE SCHUCHAT, DIRECTOR FOR RESPIRATORY DISEASES, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Specifically with this latest case of one individual spreading it to another here in the U.S., from what I understand, this was a short business meeting. This was the only physical contact was a handshake.

That, to me, changes things as far as how easily this could be caught.

SCHUCHAT: We don't know everything we'd like to know, but we know respiratory viruses can be spread by coughs and sneezes as well as contact like a handshake.

It's important to say that the individual in Illinois was not ill with the virus, didn't have active detection, but we found evidence of antibodies in a blood specimen. Antibodies signify that an immune response has been made.

We're double-checking, triple-checking that result to make sure that it's really antibodies to this MERS virus. We can't prove that it was based on recent contact.

But based on what we know so far, it is reasonable to believe that during that business meeting the virus was spread. Fortunately, the gentleman didn't become ill and is doing quite well right now.

We're really doing an intensive information of contacts, passengers on airplanes, healthcare workers, household members to try to understand how easy it is for this virus to spread and what it looks like when it does.

BALDWIN: When you mention household and healthcare workers, that really has been the messaging thus far from you at the CDC, that it really is the close, prolonged contact from people at home or maybe in hospitals.

But, again, going -- I know we don't have all the information, but when I'm thinking of a handshake, will the CDC be changing its messaging?

SCHUCHAT: The most important thing to say is that there is not extended risk to the general public. We haven't seen easy spread of this virus in the community with severe disease resulting.

We're just really beginning to learn about the virus. There hasn't been widespread antibody testing of everybody who's been in contact with a person with MERS.

Part of our investigation has been intensive so that we could understand more about the virus. There may be a much broader spectrum of illness -- no symptoms, very mild symptoms, ranging to the severe symptoms and life-threatening disease that's been reported out of the Arabian Peninsula.

Fortunately, here in the U.S., the two patients with confirmed virus infection and disease have both recovered and been discharged from the hospital, so that's good news in the U.S.

BALDWIN: That is wonderful news here in the U.S.

Bottom line when, Dr. Schuchat, when should somebody be concerned?

SCHUCHAT: The most important thing right now is for doctors and nurses seeing people with respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath, to ask about travel.

Have you been traveling in the Arabian Peninsula within the last two weeks?

If you have, we want those doctors and nurses to do special tests to conduct the public health department to protect that person have spreading to anyone else while an investigation is going on.

We don't want this virus to spread in our hospitals. We want doctors and nurses to think about it and test accordingly.

We also want the traveling public to be aware of the signs and symptoms. If you're coming back from southbound or other areas in the Arabian Peninsula, fever, cough, shortness of breath, let your doctor know you made a trip, so that they can take special precautions before you're seen. BALDWIN: OK, Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC, I really appreciate your time with me today. Thank you very much.

SCHUCHAT: Sure. My pleasure.

BALDWIN: And now to this, Russian president Vladimir Putin, he is once again saying his troops are withdrawing from Ukraine's border, but NATO leaders say they don't see any movement.

Now the White House is responding to Putin's inaction. That's next.

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BALDWIN: Once again, it's feared Russia's president is living up to his reputation and not his word. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin said today, right now Russian troops are withdrawing from Ukraine's border.

But as you very well know, there is major turmoil in Ukraine, with fears that Russia wants more of a power grab, trying to invade even more territory there.

NATO's leader says, despite what Russia said today, he's not seeing any evidence of a troop drawdown. The White House is also taking note of this lack of action.

Let's go to the White House. Here's Jim Acosta. Jim, what are White House officials saying about this?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I think their posture over here at the White House is pretty similar to what Ronald Reagan used to say back in the 1980s during the Cold War, "Trust but verify," and maybe not even that much trust at this point.

The White House is saying that they've seen these reports that Vladimir Putin has called these forces on the Ukrainian border to pull back to their bases, but at this point the administration has seen no indication that that is happening.

And so at this point their attitude is that, hey, put up or shut up. Until you move those forces away, and we have the capacity to look at this, and Jay Carney said that during the briefing. I think we would know if they were doing this, that they're indeed doing this, then really they just sort of view this as words at this point.

What Jay Carney said was, quote, "Such a withdrawal would be welcome but we've seen no indication of any movement."

And where they are right now, Brooke, obviously an invasion into eastern Ukraine would bring about more sanctions from this White House, from this country, and Jay Carney has said that, but what the White House is looking towards, a key date, circle it on your calendar, is May 25the.

BALDWIN: Presidential election.

ACOSTA: That's when they have those presidential elections in Ukraine. If they see Russia meddling in those elections then that is going to escalate the crisis, escalate the problems between the U.S. and Russia.

And, you know, you're going to hear some of this, I think, from Vice President Joe Biden. He's heading to the region tonight.

He's heading to Bucharest tonight in Romania, and he'll be talking about eastern European security as it relates to what happens what's happening in Russia with Ukraine.

And the president, we should also mention, Brooke, he's going to be in the region in just a couple of weeks. He goes to Poland to talk about all of this.

So it's something we're certainly going to keep our eyes on, but at this point, trust but verify might even be a little too generous at this point.

BALDWIN: Circle the date on the calendar, as you say, because the world will be watching.

Jim Acosta, thank you so much at the White House.

The King of Pop like you have never seen him before, Michael Jackson in hologram at last night's Billboard Music Awards, we will show you the performance and explain the potential fight over using someone's image, someone who's no longer with us.

That's coming up.

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BALDWIN: CNN has learned a small town police commissioner New Hampshire who said he would not apologize for calling President Obama the "N" word has now resigned.

He is Robert Copeland. He was forced to defend his choice of words last week as a large crowd of angry, angry people called for his resignation during a Wolfeboro town hall meeting.

He acknowledged to fellow police commissioners that he did, in fact, use the racial slur to describe the president and he refused to take it back. Now he is gone.

A new report suggests that President Obama may have known about the problems in the Department of Veterans Affairs even before his inauguration.

This is a report coming in from the "Washington Times." It puts the White House at the center of this growing crisis, and it will add to the pressure for the president to fire the V.A. secretary, General Eric Shinseki.

Chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joins me now, host of "THE LEAD." You've been all over this.

Really the question, Jake, is, what did the president know and when?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": It depends on what you're talking about him knowing.

President Obama, it was said today at the White House press briefing by Jay Carney, learned about the specific scandal in the Phoenix V.A. hospital --

BALDWIN: The false list.

TAPPER: The accusations of a false list and individuals who lost their lives while waiting for care, that he apparently learned that through media reports, I guess, on CNN or follow-ups on CNN's reporting. Drew Griffin broke that story.

In terms of larger problems, systemic problems in the V.A., as you mentioned, the "Washington Times" reported that they had, through the Freedom of Information Act, obtained documents given to the Obama transition team after he won in 2008 in which they described how the inspector general of the Veterans Administration department said there were problems in the V.A.

There has not been, specifically, the president talking about fixing all of those problems, although when Eric Shinseki, the former general, became the secretary of the V.A. department, he did say he was going to work to correct as many of those problems as possible.

So I don't think there's a smoking gun here in the "Washington Times" documents, but surely there have for years -- this is the point I made in my interview with Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, last week -- there have for years been lots of stories about problems at the V.A.

BALDWIN: Yeah. This is not news, necessarily, in a more broader sense.

TAPPER: In the broader sense, that's right. And, in fact, the American Legion has a map right now in which they're making the case that it's not just the Phoenix V.A., and they have a graphic depiction of all the places that they say are examples of an epidemic of Veterans Administration mismanagement.

You can see there on the map North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Missouri, all over the country, and these are all examples from just the last couple years according to the American Legion.

Now Shinseki, when he was asked about this, said that he knows that there are isolated examples, but he would not say there was a systemic problem.

BALDWIN: We know he answered some pretty tough questions on the Hill last week but, again, just talking to Drew Griffin last hour, I said "Drew, have they gotten back to you?"

And, thus far -- obviously he wants to sit down with Shinseki -- he said, "So far, crickets." We'll stay on it. You'll stay on it.

Jake Tapper, thank you. We'll see you at the top of the hour --

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: -- with "THE LEAD."

And now this, just into us here at CNN, the NBA has taken its first official step to kicking Donald Sterling out of the league.

Here's what we now know. A statement says the NBA has, quote, "initiated a charge" seeking to terminate his ownership of the L.A. Clippers.

Two dates now on the calendar -- May 27, that is the deadline for Donald Sterling to respond. He will be able to make a presentation at the NBA board of governors, that's a group of owners.

Then June 3 is the date of the hearing. Sterling's lawyer has already sent a letter to the NBA saying he is fighting the league's effort to remove him from the league.

There you have it, two significant dates on the calendar as far as this whole fight is concerned. We will be reporting on it, of course.

The musical genius of the late Michael Jackson came to life at last night's Billboard Music Awards. The King of Pop performed, a la hologram, a single from his newly released album, "Xscape."

Watch for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER (voice-over): ... rhythm of love. She dances for the man at work who works her overtime. She can't be rude as she says, "Sir, I must be home tonight." She dances to the kitchen stove. Dinner is served by nine. He says --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So this wowed the crowd, maybe wowed you, but there was a little bit of legal drama before this award show over this, because some patent owners of this hologram technology sued.

They didn't want this performance to happen. They said the show designers did not have permission to use some of their products, but judge tossed that lawsuit out, obviously, because we're watching this here.

That hologram, however, raises other questions about Jackson's image, the image of others, and for that, let's bring in CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin to answer this, Sunny Hostin, because I thought it was cool, although I didn't think it quite did his moves justice.

But, you know, my question is, I know Michael Jackson's estate gave the green light for this hologram to happen. And we're not talking, necessarily, about his work here.

We're talking about his (inaudible), because we can never know whether Michael Jackson himself would have been OK can this.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Isn't that something? I really can't look away. I've watched it over and over and over again, Brooke, and I don't know if it was creepy to me or cool, but certainly it was stunning.

And you're right. It's really about his image. But Michael Jackson's estate owns the image, his likeness, his music, just about everything, and they went forward with this, and they agreed to doing it. It was with their blessing.

I think what's so interesting is that it almost didn't happen because of the lawsuit. But the judge found that, you know, the 3-D technology, they weren't sure if there was enough evidence that the patent hadn't been played with and toyed with and so they let it go forward.

But, my goodness, you know, so many people are talking today, was it creepy? But then I thought, Brooke, I mean, we watch old movies of people when they were alive, like we watch Elvis Presley, we watch Marilyn Monroe. Why is this any different?

BALDWIN: I think it's just different because he's surrounded by living, breathing dancers, and then you have this Michael Jackson figure sort of emerging and dancing among them, which I think blows your mind because so much of the story is technology. And that was the center, right, of that lawsuit, not over his estate or anything, but over the technology.

And as it continues to evolve, Sunny Hostin, I mean, we're talking holograms today. Who knows what they're working on for tomorrow? And has the law caught up with that, do you think?

HOSTIN: We talk about this all the time, Brooke. I don't think the law has caught up with it.

Technology just moves day to day, almost hour to hour. The judge in this case was really able to deal with the patent, because patents are something that has been around for a long time, and we're able to deal with it.

But, going forward, I mean, the sky is the limit. If you can watch something like this, Michael Jackson almost appearing alive, you know, people were tweeting and saying, am I really watching Michael Jackson, I don't think there is a chance that the law will catch up anytime soon.

Perhaps, perhaps in the future, but not right now. Not right now.

BALDWIN: Simply wild, what people can do.

Sunny Hostin, thank you so much.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And now to this, did you see the pictures? He's 130-feet long, 180,000 pounds, and by the way, really, really old.

Much more on this amazing, colossal creature, unveiled -- unearthed, we should say -- in Argentina, just over the weekend.

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BALDWIN: So there's big and then there's titanosaur-big, and titanosaurs are what scientists have discovered now in Argentina's Patagonia region. They're the remains of could have been -- could have been -- the largest animals ever to roam the planet.

Mark Norell joins me now from New York. He's the chair and curator in charge of the division of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. So, Mark, nice to have you on.

MARK NORELL, PALEONTOLOGIST, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Yeah, it's good to be here.

BALDWIN: OK, can we talk about this picture? This is what got me, when I see this Argentine paleontologist lying next to, presumably, one of the thigh bones of this creature.

So how massive was this thing?

NORELL: It was a pretty big animal, well in excess of over a hundred feet, would have weighed more than 16 African elephants, so it really is a gigantic animal, probably the largest animal ever to walk on the face of the earth.

BALDWIN: And it wasn't like a group of scientists or paleontologists were looking for these remains. I understand it was a farmer who stumbled upon this.

Can you tell me the back story?

NORELL: Yeah. Sure. A lot of times we hear from local people whenever paleontologists go in the world that they have found some bones.

Certainly this group has been looking for dinosaurs in this area for quite a long time, but this exact place that they discovered this dinosaur graveyard really came on the hint of a local farmer.

BALDWIN: And so how exactly did the farmer -- did he just see something protruding from the ground and then -- how does that happen?

NORELL: Yeah, I mean, you see, farmers, ranchers, everybody else, they're more familiar with bones than we are, because they actually see them.

They just don't go to a butcher shop and buy a pre-cut steak. So they knew that they were bones, so they just told the paleontologists from a local museum that this is what they found.

They went out there on a survey, and they really found these remarkable things.

BALDWIN: And, Mark, I mean, from my reading, you're the expert here, but this creature roamed the earth, roamed the Patagonian forest 95 to 100 million years ago.

And when you look at the pictures of bone, I know, obviously, with the excitement, come already those folks saying, hang on a second. Is this bone in too great a shape? Is this really real?

Do you obviously always have questions over authenticity?

NORELL: Yeah, we certainly do. But at the same time, these are really real. You can see them being excavated out of the ground right here.

This is a laborious process. This doesn't happen in one day. They've been out there for several months now excavating just these couple of animals.

These things can weigh several tons, and they can take weeks to get them out of the ground.

BALDWIN: How did a titanosaur -- how would these kind of creatures have lived?

I understand they had very long, almost serpentine necks, because they were herbivores, right, so they were eating, what, you know --

NORELL: Yeah, they certainly were herbivores, but you have to think of it that, you know, instead of -- for a long time, people thought these animals had long necks because they were like giraffes feeding on the top of trees.

But really what people conceive of now who've done the biomechanics of the skeleton is they're more like lawn mowers.

They just stuck their necks way out in front of them, and they could go back and forth across the surface of the ground without every moving their feet, because that's so energy-intensive, to move such a large body.

But they could feed over a really large area just by waving their necks back and forth along the ground.

BALDWIN: You learn something new every day. I totally had the giraffe image in my head.

Mark Norell, thank you so much, chair and curator in charge of the division of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, a fantastic place. Thank you for joining me.

NORELL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And thank you for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. See you back here, same place, same time tomorrow.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.