Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Measles on the Rise: VA Scandal; Interview With Taylor Townsend

Aired May 29, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we roll on, hour two. Thanks for staying with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here.

You know what? The outrage is palpable. A scathing report, just the preliminary one, by the way, by the VA's own general -- inspector general, the I.G., finding at least 1,700 veterans never scheduled for an appointment, rampant mismanagement, claims of sexual harassment and bullying by managers, all of this just coming in, new layers here to the story.

And just last hour, White House spokesman Jay Carney fielded question after question about the president's level of confidence in the man you're looking at here, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

And time and time again, Jay Carney dodged, saying he is waiting for all the investigations to be completed. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The primary objective that the president has with each of them is to ensure that we're doing everything we can to right whatever wrongs have been -- have occurred when it comes to providing timely service and benefits to our veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, now one of those investigations is going nationwide.

And on top of that, it seems like every hour we're getting a new press release from another lawmaker on either side of the aisle calling for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.

Drew Griffin and his team helped bring the story to us, burst it wide open here.

And, Drew, as you well know, the scandal is widening. The pressure on Shinseki is growing. The scandal is growing.

Tell me more, because we got yesterday new numbers as far as VA facilities being investigated, which is higher than we thought. What is the latest on those investigations?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I think the bottom line here, Brooke, is everything is worse than we thought. Phoenix is worse than we thought. System-wide is worse than we thought.

We're up to 42 VA facilities across the country now that are being looked at by the inspector general's office for what the inspector general called a systemic problem and detailing schemes, schemes by VA administration to kind of hide these wait list numbers. And the political crisis is growing. I just feel like I'm in a time warp here, where everything just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and nothing is getting resolved.

BALDWIN: It's like you first started talking with those whistle- blowers and getting those tips months ago. And little did we all know really the depth of what we would be finding.

We played White House spokesman Jay Carney just a while ago really doing his job, choosing his words very carefully when it comes to Shinseki's status and feelings among those at the White House.

Drew, if he does resign, clearly, as you well know, these issues are beyond Shinseki as a leader. It will take quite a while to root this out.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

But should he resign, should he not resign? Would that end a political crisis? Would it begin another management crisis? Here's the facts. Shinseki has been in that office for five years. He has known about those problems almost this entire time. These are not new issues or certainly shouldn't be new issues to the VA's administration.

So, now let's step back. Maybe we have a really, really great general, fought for this country, injured twice in combat in Vietnam. Great guy. Perhaps not a great leader of a bureaucratic administration for the government.

And I think the president needs to step back and say to himself, well, who is going to lead us out? Should I bet on this same old horse that hasn't done it for five years, or is time to really, even though we might to have to step back a week or two or a month even, who is going to lead to the eventual goal, which is to help improve this very, very broken system?

BALDWIN: Drew, could I just ask you? You and your team have been going through this for months and months. With everything that came out just yesterday, what surprised you the most?

GRIFFIN: I think what surprised me the most is the details in the inspector general's report that showed us that the VA administration knew a month ago, a month ago that in Phoenix there were at least 1,100 veterans who thought they were going to get care and were not in line to get any care.

So those are veterans who have delayed care. Now the report comes out yesterday that the number is actually 1,700.

BALDWIN: Seventeen hundred. GRIFFIN: Right?

And the administration is vowing to, by the end of this week, see all 1,700 of them. Why didn't they say that a month ago, when they knew 1,100 were waiting for care? It's this delay in care and delay in response that is just unreal to me.

BALDWIN: Drew Griffin, thank you. Keep digging. Keep pushing. Thank you so much for joining me.

Let me quote one father speaking to another here. This is what he says: "We have not met, but you are now part of our extended family. It is not a family we chose, but a family born from the horrible circumstance of losing a child to gun violence" -- those words written today to Richard Martinez, whose son, Christopher, was one of those six U.C. Santa Barbara students killed in a rampage on Friday.

Those words were written by the father of Daniel Barden, one of those 20 children gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Mark Barden goes on to say this to Richard Martinez -- quoting him -- "You are not alone. It has helped me, and some of the other family members to come together and advocate for commonsense solutions to expanding programs for mental wellness and gun safety solutions."

And I should point out another dad is also reaching out publicly, the dad of the rampage killer, Elliot Rodger. Peter Rodger and his ex- wife, Chin, just released a statement. Their friend spoke to CNN's Chris Cuomo on "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON ASTAIRE, FRIEND OF FAMILY: They have literally cut down in size. They have diminished in standing. They walk slowly. Their conversation is stilted. They are mourning the innocence that didn't come back to their families on Friday night.

They are not mourning their son. He is not part of their conversation.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The family has a statement that they want you to get out also. Is that true?

ASTAIRE: That's true. Thank you.

"We are crying in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our hearts on a level that we didn't think possible. The feeling of knowing that it was our son's actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as hell on earth. It is now our responsibility to do everything to help avoid this happening to any other family."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And Astaire says, when he met Elliot, that Elliot seemed -- quote -- "like the loneliest person in the world."

The Centers for Disease Control announcing today that we have broken a record. And this is not a good thing. This is not the good kind of record. This is a disease we thought was nearly eradicated here in the United States. It's making a comeback with an alarming number of new cases.

Elizabeth Cohen is joining me here with the details.

And we're talking measles. What do we know?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

Thought it was gone and now we have a 20-year high in measles rates, in measles cases, 288 cases so far this year. And it's only May. And what's behind it, Brooke, is people who choose not to vaccinate.

More than half of these cases are people -- are vaccine refusers, people who for religious or philosophical reasons won't get vaccinated. So it's not a lot of mystery here about why this is happening. But this is a big problem. So far, thank goodness, there have been no deaths, but measles does kill. And one out of seven of these people ended up in the hospital.

This is a big deal.

BALDWIN: Where are the majority of these people in the U.S.?

COHEN: The majority of these cases are in Ohio.

There are outbreaks in 18 states total, but the majority are in Ohio.

BALDWIN: Why?

COHEN: And the reason for that is there was a group, an Amish group left Ohio to go to the Philippines to do some volunteer work.

Measles is rampant in the Philippines. So, you have a whole bunch of unvaccinated people.

BALDWIN: And they brought it back.

COHEN: And they brought it back, right. And they brought it back.

So, it's the travel. Unvaccinated people are -- they are a danger enough in this country. But you send them out to a country like the Philippines, where there is rampant measles, it's a terrible combination, unvaccinated people traveling to other places where there's a lot of measles. And guess what? They come back with measles.

BALDWIN: So then what should people be doing, especially if they have kids who haven't been vaccinated? Should they vaccinate?

COHEN: Well, yes, absolutely. Everyone should vaccinate their children.

I say that with the strength of all sorts of studies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and whatever. People should vaccinate their children.

BALDWIN: Yes.

COHEN: The scary thing is, is that even if you do the right thing and you vaccinate your children, you could still have problems, because babies are too young to get vaccinated. Babies don't usually get vaccinated until they're 1-year-old. So, your baby is vulnerable.

So, even if you fully intend to vaccinate your child when you're supposed to at around their first birthday, if your child happens to run into one of these people who has not been vaccinated and has the measles, you could be in trouble.

And you didn't do anything wrong. You just have a baby.

BALDWIN: So...

COHEN: So, you're -- so, you're -- if I were living in one of these communities where there was a lot of this, I would be careful about who my baby was with. And would also -- you can vaccinate before one year. I would talk to the pediatrician about doing that if I lived in one of these communities.

BALDWIN: OK.

COHEN: And also some adults are vulnerable too, because not every adult was fully vaccinated.

BALDWIN: OK. So, a special heads-up if you're in Ohio specifically.

COHEN: Right.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much for that.

COHEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Next, back to square one in the search for Flight 370? What? Investigators have new information about those supposed pings, and they now say it is not in the area they have been searching. So, what is next? We will ask.

Also, "Forbes" has released its list of the most powerful women, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama not on their top five. Hear which women beat them out for the top spots when we come back.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And here we have today another blow for families hoping for any sign of this missing airplane, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Authorities leading the search, they say the plane is not in the patch of this area off of Western Australia where the Bluefin drone had been looking for all those many weeks. You remember that's where authorities said last month that pings were detected from the plane's black boxes. But -- here's the but. Now a U.S. Navy official tells CNN the pings were not from that missing plane.

So, to CNN safety analyst David Soucie we go. He authored the book "Why Planes Crash."

David Soucie, so wrong pings, wrong search area. How did that happen?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, I'll tell you what, Brooke. It's really hard to figure out what happened without knowing -- being on that ship and seeing what happened.

I have some questions as to when they knew. And there's going to be some difficult questioning and answering going on here when the bill comes in for that, because if they knew beforehand, if they knew that this -- pings were not correct, they were not coming from the aircraft, which I have heard from some people on that ship that have told me that that's what they felt, that -- why did they continue that search?

And we have talked about that, that you don't want to be left saying, well, we don't think it is, so we're not going to search anymore. You owe something to the families to continue to search, of course.

BALDWIN: Right.

SOUCIE: But why didn't other things start? Why didn't they say, look, let's get some other equipment out there at that time, instead of waiting until now?

BALDWIN: So there is that, dotting the I's, crossing the T's for families and anyone else.

But then you have back in the day, when we were talking about the northern vs. the southern arc, at least we're hearing that -- from Australia, that authorities there, they still do believe that this plane is somewhere in the southern arc, the Southern Indian Ocean. But why should we believe that?

SOUCIE: Well, you know, I have been looking with -- at the Inmarsat data with some of these experts that are external looking in, Michael Exner, and a few of the others.

And they seem very confident that this -- that the Inmarsat is really pointing in the right direction. They're missing a few pieces of data that separates the north from the south. But there's other things that indicate that, yes, it is indeed in the south.

So, what they're doing in fact right now is hoping to get a little bit more information so that they can help narrow that down as well, which is exactly what they're doing now at AAIB and the Malaysian government and the Australians. They're recalibrating. They're seeing, is there another option? Is there some piece of information that we didn't consider when we first put this all together? But I think they're still looking in the right area. It's just they need to change their strategy right now.

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

As we follow up on that, since I have you, I would love to ask you here about these multiple close calls back here at home with planes in the sky. You had this Alaska Airlines flight and a cargo plane nearly colliding over Anchorage, Alaska. That was Tuesday.

Investigators say air traffic controllers asked that Alaska Airlines flight to perform a go-around just to avoid that collision, right, with the cargo plane, but both planes ended up veering in the same direction coming within a quarter-mile of each other, David Soucie. And this is -- we have been counting -- like incident number five in recent weeks of these close calls. What can the FAA do about that?

SOUCIE: Well, what the FAA can do is start to get more intent about the atrophy of the vigilance of the controllers.

I believe that as -- the more that people rely on automation, which they have done a lot to improve the automation to try to prevent human error -- and they have done this.

BALDWIN: Huh.

SOUCIE: And then they have done this. And then now the controllers have less, less involvement in that.

So, it's harder for them to see anomalous behaviors and things that need to be reacted to by the human hand. So, I attribute it to the fact that an over-reliance on automation and they just don't think as clearly, I think. And I think their training needs to be examined and looked at again.

BALDWIN: Atrophy in their vigilance, how about that?

David Soucie, thank you so much. Makes me nervous. I'm on planes a lot.

Coming up next, here's -- this is something, this will lift your spirits. This young woman, I'm about to talk live with this woman on the cusp of superstardom, Taylor Townsend. You know who she is? You're about to. She's breaking all kinds of stereotypes in the world of tennis. And, tomorrow, she could make history. She's joining me live from Paris coming up. Don't miss her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So excited to talk to this young woman.

She is Taylor Townsend. She's a rising tennis star. She is all of 18 years of age. And she just pulled off this major upset to win her first Grand Slam. Not nothing. Now she advances to the third round of the French open, the youngest American to do so in more than 10 years. But the road for this young woman has at times been a little bumpy, but she has not let that deter her whatsoever.

So, joining me, the one and only Taylor Townsend from Paris.

Hello. Congratulations.

TAYLOR TOWNSEND, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: Hi. Thank you.

BALDWIN: So I was reading a little bit about you today, Taylor, from some other -- those in the -- tennis, names you would recognize.

Adjectives I'm reading, gutsy, adjectives saying that you're the future. Watched you do the Nae Nae pretty well. How are you feeling right now?

TOWNSEND: I like the last one.

(LAUGHTER)

TOWNSEND: I feel great. It's really good to be talking to you and I'm really excited.

I'm glad that you guys are watching and everything. But I have got a big match tomorrow.

BALDWIN: I know and we're going to get to that. But can we back up and talk about this road to greatness? Because those who don't know you, Taylor, when you were all of 16, this top-ranked junior on the cusp of the greatness that you're experiencing today, suddenly the USTA comes to you and what do they say?

TOWNSEND: I'm pretty sure you know what they said.

BALDWIN: Oh, I want to hear it from you. What did they say?

TOWNSEND: Basically that I shouldn't have played the U.S. Open because they thought I was out of shape. But it was actually due to a health condition that we did not know about.

BALDWIN: What did you say to that when you first heard that?

TOWNSEND: I was really upset. And I cried. And I just didn't know what was happening. But I got myself together and I was like, I'm playing. And that's all I said. I was like, I need to find a way to get healthy. I need to go to the doctor as much as I can. And I'm playing. That's all I said.

BALDWIN: So, without getting -- I don't want to get into your personal health, but can you just tell you -- you're obviously A-OK. You're good to go health wise, yes?

TOWNSEND: Mm-hmm. It was just I was really anemic and iron- deficient. So, my hemoglobins were at six and the normal is like 11 or 12. It was pretty bad.

BALDWIN: OK.

TOWNSEND: And I didn't know.

BALDWIN: And you didn't know. And so they said to you, without knowing that, we're not going to pay for your travel. But you ended up going because how -- did your -- your mom paid for your travel?

TOWNSEND: My mom. And we also had a fund-raiser in Chicago with a lot of these people that I grew up playing with, and my coach come out. He helped put that together and I did a clinic with a lot of kids and stuff. So, we found a way.

BALDWIN: Taylor, do you see yourself at all in a sense sort of shattering stereotypes of what the world thinks a tennis player should look like?

TOWNSEND: Yes, I guess.

I mean, Serena's not a small girl either. She has a beautiful figure. Venus is not small. I mean, she's taller. But I'm short and I'm not skinny. So, I think so, but I'm just trying to do the best I can for me.

Everyone is different. And that's really what I have learned out of this whole thing, that I'm not going to be the same as everybody else. And I'm different. And my -- the things that I thought maybe were bad, they are actually turning out to be very good things. So, I'm happy.

BALDWIN: I will tell you. I'm about six feet tall, and not a size four, and I say good for you. I say -- I'm curious if you have talked to Venus and Serena, because they definitely burst on to the scene, and they didn't exactly look like what one would think and they have kind of killed it. Have you had any conversations with them?

TOWNSEND: Yes, I have talked to them quite a bit actually. They're very nice.

And I am really happy that they were able to take time out and talk to me.

BALDWIN: What did they tell you?

TOWNSEND: Well, they kind of have just talked to me a little bit here and there.

We just kind of -- I think over -- the first time that I met them, they were just trying to get to know me. And they knew what I did in the juniors. And they were congratulating me and were asking me what my plans were and stuff like that. I was really scared, because I was like oh, my God, these people are winning Grand Slams and stuff. So, I was kind of nervous.

But after a while, they -- like, Venus, she was like don't push the panic button when you're in the matches. So, I guess she had watched me play and saw what happened. So, it kind of has helped me a lot. Serena has helped me and just really given me some good tips and kind of ideas on how to approach certain things.

BALDWIN: Don't hit the panic button.

So, let's talk to you, Ms. Grand Slam. If you beat this young woman tomorrow, you would become the youngest American to advance to the fourth round of the French Open since your pals Serena and Venus back in 1998.

Taylor, what do you want the world to know about you?

TOWNSEND: I can dance, as you can see.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Can I get a little Nae Nae? Let me get a little Nae Nae right now.

TOWNSEND: You want one right now?

BALDWIN: Bring it.

TOWNSEND: Are you sure? Are you ready?

BALDWIN: I am so ready.

Ladies and gentlemen, live on CNN from Paris, Taylor Townsend about to do the Nae Nae, the victory dance that she's hoping for tomorrow.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

TOWNSEND: Oh my God. OK. Here you go.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: You are phenomenal. You are phenomenal, Taylor Townsend. Good luck. We wish you well. Good luck tomorrow. All right?

TOWNSEND: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thumbs up for you, Taylor. Thank you so much and safe travels home.

TOWNSEND: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Awesome.

Coming up next, speaking of strong women, "Forbes" unveiling its list of the most powerful women in the world. Who topped that list? What exactly goes into those rankings? We will find out.

Also, have you heard this story? This is wild, the scavenger hunt with a twist. This wealthy man is placing envelopes with cold hard cash all over San Francisco, giving people clues to find them on Twitter. You will hear from this person next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)