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Election Day Tomorrow; Ebola Stigma Infects Many In U.S.; 43 Students Disappear In Mexico; Security Guard Who Was Carrying Gun While In Elevator With President Obama at CDC Is Fired

Aired November 03, 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: You're watching CNN. Bottom of the Hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

After all of the campaigning, all the speeches in those negative TV ads, Election Day is almost here. We have 36 Senate seats, 435 House seats and 36 governor's offices all up for grabs but control of the Senate with it, really, control of the Capitol Hill could come down to just a half dozen hotly contested races.

So let's talk about how we got here and what happens next with CNN political commentators Van Jones on the left and S.E. Cupp on the right. Welcome to both of you and happy midterm eve.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Easy for you to say.

BALDWIN: Van, let me just begin with you. You know, I was just talking to Michelle Kosinski at the White House. And she was talking about the president's goings-on these final 24-hours and maybe some robo calls and maybe some radio ads. We know the first lady is out, you know, campaigning in Maryland but so far, you know, the president not in the public eye. And I just have to say, you know, that can't look very good for the leader of the Democratic Party to be absent.

JONES: He's not absent. Where he is popular, he is on the ground. He is, I think, at Rhode Island, other place where he is popular. Where he can be helpful, he's helping. Where he can't be helpful, he's not helping. That doesn't look bad. That looks good and looks smart. If you were out there every place, you be saying he is so arrogant. He didn't know that he down in a low 40.

So, I think look, I think this whole thing about how Obama is so toxic is way overblown. He's in the low 40s. Clinton got yank in his 30s. Reagan got down in the 30s. Bush got down to 19. So when you look at other presidents at this point in their journey, his actually at his lows are on the high end of low. So I think it's all a bit overblown.

(CROSSTALK)

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: God. I'm so glad, Van, that you brought up Rhode Island where there is no Senate race crucially and so that's why the president was comfortable going there. And in fact, he went there to stomp for Gino Raimondo who is running for the governor there. She is a Democrat obviously. And on the very day that he showed up in Rhode Island to stomp for her, the cook (ph) political report changed their rating on that race from lean Democrat to tossup. So he is not even being helpful in states where he is as you say popular.

Another extraordinary example in Georgia, Michelle Nunn running for Senate there is talking up her experience working for George H. W. Bush -- Bush.

JONES: In Georgia.

CUPP: But Van, project ten years down the line. Can you imagine a Republican affectionately invoking the name of Barack Obama to win that state? This is extraordinary. It really -- I mean, the toxicity of Obama's brand is not fiction. It's reality for these Democrats.

BALDWIN: Listen. We talk and we throw out these numbers of approval ratings. Van was talking about the presidential approval rating. We know Congress is way, way lower than that. Let's play the "if" game. If you have the Republicans who take control, you know, not just of the House of course, but the Senate, and then you have communication not happening, working across the aisle not happening, it is gumming up, it is gridlock as we've been seeing for the next two years, and S.E. let me stay with you, will that come back to bite your party in 2016?

CUPP: Absolutely. What happens tomorrow is not a predictor for what happens in 2016. We all remember the wave election in 2010 for Republicans. It didn't work out so well in 2012. So if Republicans blow an opportunity over the next two years to show people what it means to effectively govern, then they'll be right back where they were in 2012. And that will all be on them. It's up to Republicans to really embrace whatever games they make tomorrow. Work across the aisle.

Sure, advance a lot of policies. But the good news is whether it's keystone or enforcing the border or any other number of policies, they are already popular with the American public. so that's what they need to focus on.

BALDWIN: So what happens then, Van, with the president if that is the headline that we're all reading come Wednesday morning? I mean, we know that with his team, you know thus far with control of the Senate, we've seen executive orders and executive actions. How does he handle this? How does he lead? How does he embrace the Republicans?

JONES: Well, first of all, we have to figure out which Republican Party is going to show up. Right now, the Republican Party is able to say two things that don't go together. One the one hand, they say to their base we are going to stop Obama. We're against Obama. We're not going to talk about the fact that unemployment is lower than it's been in six years. We're not going to talk that gas prices are down. We are going to say we hate Obama.

And then they charge the rest of the country and say we want to break the gridlock that we're creating. Now, what are they going to do? When they show up, if they're the party that wants to break gridlock, then they can pass some of the bills that they've been holding back that are bipartisan in support and president for and they're against them.

But if they show up and act the way they've been acting when you see them takeover control in places like Kansas and places like North Carolina and pass a bunch of extreme stuff, if they go after women's rights, if they go after contraception, if they go after school teachers, if they go extreme, then they're going to set it up perfectly for Hillary Clinton to run against an extreme Republican congress. So we don't know which Republican Party is going to show up. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth right now.

BALDWIN: OK. All right, Van Jones, S.E. Cupp, thank you both very, very much. We'll look for our electric election coverage tomorrow.

CUPP: Big day tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Tomorrow night you have those two, I'm sure, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer covering every twist and turn in the midterm tomorrow beginning at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN.

Ebola, Ebola stigma has infected a lot of people here in the United States and not just patients with the virus, also people who have family in West Africa who face the consequences after visiting them. My conversation in that community here in New York called little Liberia is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just recently in New York I wanted to go to Staten Island where the stigma of Ebola has followed three refugees living in this community they call little Liberia because there are so many immigrants living in one area. They are more than 4,000 miles away from the country's most hard hit in Africa. But when you hear their stories, they have been bullied; isolated, condemned for a virus they don't have and therefore cannot spread.

I sat down with (INAUDIBLE) a community leader forced on unpaid leave from her job because some six months ago she went to Liberia. A man by the name of Solomon Reeves (ph) who is a social worker helping refugees who are cast away out of fear that they may be carrying the virus a environment and Love (INAUDIBLE), a mother who lost her sister, her niece, and nephew to Ebola afraid to return back home to the country she has left.

Here's more from our dinner conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So many of us can't understand what it's like to be Liberian and living in the United States especially now when everyone is, you know, everyone talking about it right now. How are people treating you differently right now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in Liberia in July. I came back the 23rd. And because of this virus, I'm not working right now. BALDWIN: You weren't around anyone that had Ebola. You were tested.

It came back negative. But your employer, you work in the health sector, your employer said don't come back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, she says for administrative reasons.

BALDWIN: Administrative reason. Are you being paid?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not. Not at all. No penny. My car was repossessed, you know, because of this.

BALDWIN: Because of a virus that you don't have. No one in your family has it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one in my family, not even in Africa family back home are looking to me, you know, for help. I'm getting calls every day. The money in my account is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no job in Liberia. And jobs that they have there is very, very limited. So they depend on us for survival.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you start begging for bread. Most of us here we come here to work. And how can workers (INAUDIBLE). You are eligible for food stamps now. Would that food stamps feed my people in Africa?

BALDWIN: You all have friends and family back home in Liberia. You're worried about them. You're losing family members. Yet you are dealing here with a very different problem, which is people joking about something that is incredibly serious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This affects your country the way it affects my country, you wouldn't have to take it to be a joke. And I don't want for us to take this as a joke.

BALDWIN: How is your family doing in Liberia now that they lost your sister?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE). They got a bucket of water, (INAUDIBLE) and wash hands before they come out and go back in the house and wash their hands. Stay off the streets. Our house where the sister died is abandoned right now. Nobody live there. Everybody left.

BALDWIN: Everybody left after she passed away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lie in the hospital for two days. (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are worried that when you see two or three (INAUDIBLE) from Liberia, your heart starts to pump. It was like you don't know if they're going to tell you that your family, are dead or somebody contracted Ebola virus or you don't know, you know. So we are on edge and Ebola virus is worse than the civil war in Liberia. It's worse than the civil war.

BALDWIN: You all agree? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because with the civil war you know where the

enemies are coming from. You can run from if they are coming from east or from the west but with Ebola you don't know who has it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ebola is not looking for color. Ebola is not looking for riches. Ebola is not looking for Africa. Ebola is looking for a host.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Aretha, Solomon and Love all work with the Staten Island Liberian community association where they have already raised some $11,000 to send back home to West Africa for medical supplies and food.

And thanks to all of you for opening up your homes and sharing a meal and just talking with me. I really appreciate that.

Coming up, hear from one father on the phone with his seconds before he goes missing. The son is one of those 43 students in Mexico who up and disappeared. The case has one mayor on the run, police under suspicion. A live update from Mexico coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It has been more than a month since the 43 students just disappeared in Mexico and the call for answers is growing louder and louder. The young men were students at a rural teachers college abducted while on the way to a protest in a nearby city. Some of them managed to escape but the others haven't been seen since.

Families of the missing blame government corruption. Have staged large and sometimes violent protests and several mass graves have been found in the search but so far none of the bodies belonging to the missing students have been found.

So let's go to Mexico to CNN senior Latin American affairs editor Rafael Romo.

And -- I mean, you know, you have been all over this. You have now, Rafael, talked to the father of one of missing students. What did he say?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, he was describing to me, Brooke, exactly what happened on September 26th. That day, that is when 43 students went missing. And he was giving me details about how he was on the phone with his son as they were being attacked by the Mexican police. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's happening, son? And he said, father, we're being attacked by the police. They already shoved my friend and he's laying on the floor. He said he was hitting in the head and you could hear over the cell phone, you could hear the men screaming. Then I told him, you know what, son, try to escape. Find a way to escape so they don't harm you. Take good care of yourself. And then when the call --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Now, Brooke, it's been exactly 38 days since these students went missing. Fifty six people have been arrested. The Mexican government has deployed thousands of police and military to the state of (INAUDIBLE) where I am and still no clear answers as to where these students might be, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Stay in it. Keep talking to those parents, Rafael Romo, and we will stay with you. Thank you so much. Live in Mexico for us.

And now to this story. This is what Brittany Lauren Maynard wanted. But it's just sad. The terminally ill woman ended her life Saturday, taking a lethal dose of pills. She was 29 years young.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTANY LAUREN MAYNARD, 29-YEARS-OLD: All my dreams came true. I would somehow survive this, so if November 2nd comes along and I've passed, I hope my family is still proud of me and the choices I made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Maynard went public with her decision in early October saying that doctors had told her she had an aggressive brain cancer and just had months to live. She advocated that more states should allow death with dignity laws. In fact, she herself moved from California to Oregon specifically to take her life. And her supporters say recently she had head and neck pain, seizures and other symptoms had just worsened.

Maynard left a final message on her Web site. Let me read it to for you.

She wrote this, the freedom is in the choice, if the option of DWD, that's Death with Dignity, is unappealing to anyone for any reason, they can simply choose not to avail themselves of it. Those very real protections are already in place. She went on to write this, it is people who pause to appreciate life and give thanks who are happiest. If we change our thoughts, we change our world, love and peace to you all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You remember the reports recently the security guard who was carrying a gun when he rode in an elevator with President Obama at the CDC recently? Well, that guard is Kenneth Tate. He's been fired. And now, there is a lot more of the story.

And in an exclusive interview with us here in CNN, Tate is giving his account of what happened behind and outside those elevator doors. So let me bring in Kenneth Tate and also his lawyer, Christopher Chestnut.

Gentlemen, welcome. Mr. Tate, let me just begin with you. I understand, you know, you'd

never met President Obama before. You were excited to work security that day. This is a man you admire.

KENNETH TATE, FORMER CDC SECURITY GUARD: Yes, ma'am.

BALDWIN: Tell me what you admire about him.

TATE: Well, he is the president of the United States. He's from my hometown, Chicago. I was proud, proud to do the detail. I was proud to be in his environment. All was well. It was a great day.

BALDWIN: Until it wasn't. I mean, there were all kinds of reports, right?

TATE: Yes.

BALDWIN: As far as how you acted, what you said, what you did with your cell phone or your camera, you know, in and out of the elevator. Can you just set the record straight for me and tell me what happened?

TATE: OK. That morning, 6:00, I was issued my weapon, a .40 caliber weapon by PSC, the security company I work for. I was informed that I would be escorting the president of the United States. And I got my weapon, my radio and I went over to building 21, which is my area I work and began my day, starting off with escorts, so my roving duties, which consist of breaks and answering calls that's needed in the building.

BALDWIN: Were you ever told that that was against secret service protocol to have that firearm while you were protecting the president or working security with the president?

TATE: No, ma'am. I was issued that weapon that morning.

BALDWIN: OK. So continue on. What was your interaction with the president in the elevator and beyond?

TATE: My instructions were to take him to the directors' floor, which is the 12th floor, also the third floor, which is the emergency operation center in which those tasks I carried out.

BALDWIN: And he interacted with you, did he not?

TATE: Exactly. When he first came on the elevator, when he entered with his entourage and his other office personnel, he asked me what my name was. He extended his hand to me and he shook my hand.

BALDWIN: At one point you did pull out your camera to take some photos. Can you tell me about that?

TATE: No, that didn't take place until after the detail was complete. It was nothing took place on the elevator like they had reported.

BALDWIN: OK. You know, I do need to let our viewers know, we reached out to the CDC for a comment. We haven't -- they are telling us, no official statement at this time. But a federal source with it, with knowledge in the investigation tells us that the CDC asked for you to be reassigned because you were supposed to stay in the elevator but you left your post, violating the post order. And it goes on; you were not also forthcoming about leaving the elevator and taking the pictures. Your response to that?

TATE: That wasn't true. Basically, I was escorting other agents to different various locations. I was also called to escort some of the secret service members to the roof. So at various times, I was doing other things with other agents.

CHRISTOPHER CHESTNUT, KENNETH TATE'S ATTORNEY: Brooke, there was no assigned post. His post was for the entire building. And that's the issue. I mean, this is our first time hearing of these allegations from the CDC. He wasn't assigned a post. He wasn't responsible for the entire building. So when he went outside to take a photo of the motorcade; that was within his purview. It was within his purview. And that is our concern that he was terminated by this private security company even though he was doing what he was assigned to do.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let me be precise because I don't want you to misinterpret my words. This isn't from the CDC. This is from a federal official with knowledge of the investigation with CNN that has been in contact with.

But in the 30 seconds I have left in my show, Christopher, can you tell me, do you all plan on filing suit?

CHESTNUT: We anticipate seeking justice for Mr. Tate. Now, whatever form that may take or require, we're prepared to it and we're prepared to see it to the extent that is necessary.

BALDWIN: What does justice look like?

CHESTNUT: Well, justice first of all -- he was wrongly terminated. He never should allow (INAUDIBLE) for doing exactly he was supposed to do. Two, he was dis-panged (ph) nationally. I mean, he was accused of, you know, a convicted felon. He has never been charged with the felony. He is accused of unauthorized on the elevator with the firearm when they issued the firearm to him and assigned him appointed him to the president that day.

BALDWIN: Forgive me. I have to cut you off. I'm up against a wall. But gentlemen, we are going to stay on top of this and follow up with you. Mr. Tate, Kenneth Tate and Christopher Chesnut, my thanks to you both very, very much from Atlanta.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me. THE LEAD with Jake Tapper starts now.