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Brother Owner to Odom: I Want True Story to Come Out; Trump Rakes in Millions in Unsolicited Donations; Clinton Speaks to Democrats in Alabama; Five More Attacks in West Bank; Wage Increase. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 17, 2015 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:14] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Seven o'clock Eastern. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday evening.
And we are hearing tonight from the owner of that Nevada brothel where former NBA start Lamar Odom collapsed earlier this week and lapsed into a coma that he only came out of yesterday. The brothel owner is now at odds with the family of Odom's estranged wife, Khloe Kardashian. They want him to stop talking about Odom's days there. He is defending his decision to speak out.
CNN's Paul Vercammen is live for us in Las Vegas.
You just spoke with the owner of the brothel. What is he saying?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, P, I asked point-blank. He has been accused of being part of a shameless publicity stunt for his brothel. And I pressed him on this and here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS HOF, OWNER, LOVE RANCH: The Kardashians not wanting anybody to talk? These girls are made -- the Kardashians are known for talking to the media and doing things. They just want to control what was said. They're going to say bad things about me and my place. They have already said things out in the media. And so has the father. I just want the true story to come out because we have nothing to hide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: And I also asked about any circumstances surrounding Odom's we'll call it collapse. And he said, again, he thinks that he took up to 10 of these sexual enhancement pills and also that he had been doing cocaine before he arrived at the brothel. That is an important point to Hof because he's got a zero drug tolerance policy, Poppy.
HARLOW: I know he's very insistent that he does not believe Lamar was doing drugs at his brothel. But the thing is that brothel sold those sexual enhancement -- you know, whatever you call them. They are not clearly herbal supplements as I believe they were marketed.
What is he saying -- I know they pulled them from the shelves. So, what does he say about selling is them?
VERCAMMEN: He says it is perfectly legal, that people bought those Reloads pills before. I asked him, and one of the prostitutes at the brothel if they had anybody collapse on these Reload pills. They both said no. And Hof, of course, is adamant saying that he does everything on the up and up. And in fact, with his zero drug tolerance policy in his various brothels, over 23 years, he has gone so far as far as to fire six employees for using drugs. He maintains he runs, whether you like it or not, an extremely clean business.
And I want to add these, Poppy, a lot of people are wondering why is it 80 miles northwest of here? The rule in Nevada, if you have less than 700,000 people in a county, you can run a legal prostitution house. Nye County is just beyond Clark County. So, brothel, after you pass a prison and a bunch of desolation and dirt and rocks, you will arrive at it.
HARLOW: What about the most important thing in all of this, Lamar Odom's condition. We know he has woken up from the coma? Do we know how he is doing? Is he out of the woods?
VERCAMMEN: I don't know if we can go so far as to say out of the woods. But source after source saying Lamar is out of a coma. He has been able to utter very short sentences or words. In fact, one source telling us that he did say hi to his estranged wife Khloe Kardashian.
And if you think about this, Kris Jenner is technically still his mother-in-law. She went on "Access Hollywood" and said he's out of a coma and no longer on a ventilator, that he's on a breathing mask. But the big fear is he has suffered organ damage, Poppy.
HARLOW: Heartbreaking. Paul Vercammen, thank you very much for that.
I do want to take a minute to step back and look at the bigger picture here, because over the years Lamar Odom has endured numerous tragedies. He once told "The L.A. Times", "Death always seems to be around me. I have been burying people for a long time."
Our Rachel Nichols has more.
Hi, Rachel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Poppy, it hasn't been an easy road for Lamar Odom. He grew up in a pretty rough section of New York. His own father was a heroin addict and only marginally in and out of his life.
He had a great mom but she died of cancer when he was just 12. In fact, Lamar was holding her hand at her bedside when she passed. And he's recounted that she told him, "Just be nice to everyone, Lamar."
And you can really see that he took that to heart. All throughout his life, even as he went through tough times, the grandmother who took him in and finished racing him, sadly she would go on to cancer. Then once he became a parent himself, his 6-month-old died of sudden infant death syndrome. He had a close cousins, he had close friends who died.
And he carried all of that with him. He would write all of their names on his shoes sometimes before he took the basketball court. You can just see in talking to him that loss was so heavy, and he did have some struggles with drugs and alcohol when he first came in the league.
[19:05:00] But you can also see that all that loss made him very sensitive, very empathetic to the people around him. He was known as one of the teammates in the NBA, the guy you could just talk to about your problems. And he was so warm. He knew how to appreciate when things were good.
It is the reason there have been so well wishes pouring in for Odom these past couple of days. LeBron James wrote on his Instagram, "No judgment. And that you don't know what someone has gone through unless you have walked in their shoes."
I know a lot of Odom's NBA friends were worried that this kind of thing might eventually happen. Eventually, you know, that they would get one of these kinds of phone calls, especially over the last year. It just became harder to keep in touch with him. He changed his number a lot. Stop answering calls, didn't show up for scheduled get- togethers.
But I can tell you as they worried about him, everyone still talked about how much they loved him. Poppy, there's just no doubt they are all rooting for him right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Yes. We all are. Rachel Nichols, thank you for that.
Coming up next, we're going to speak with Danny Cevallos, criminal defense attorney about what potential liability of this brother might face.
Also, what about the maker of that drug Reload we talk about. That is next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right. To politics we go, as the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has sworn off traditional campaign fundraising. But he is still raking in millions and millions from unsolicited donations. And it has turned he is spending the cash in some unexpected ways. According to brand-new fund-raising reports released this week, we're getting a rare look inside his campaign and the campaigns of his rivals, and where all that money is going.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (voice-over): The huge field of GOP candidates. If single digit poll numbers don't pour out soon, the war chips almost certainly will. Campaign finance disclosures were filed Thursday, tangible evidence of who is up and who is down. Excluding super PACs, Jeb Bush raised $13 million last quarter but spent $11.5 million, forcing him to slash staff salaries and use cheaper hotels.
Others fared far worst. Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal each camp with less than $300,000 cash on hand.
Political outsiders did best. Ben Carson raised the most of any GOP candidate in the quarter, $20 million. Carly Fiorina, at nearly $7 million.
And then there's Donald Trump, proudly self-funding his campaign. He took in $3.9 million from 74,000 of what the campaign calls unsolicited donors.
[19:10:05] Surprisingly, the billionaire front-runner's campaign has little cash in its coffers.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm really rich.
HARLOW: Trump's war chest something he can drop millions into whenever needed had only $254,000 at the end of the quarter. The unorthodox candidate runs an unusual political operation. His second biggest expense, $723,000 to Tag Air, a company he owns that operates his fleet of planes and helicopters.
But his biggest expense is those now famous "Make America Great Again" hats and t-shirts. At $781,000 line item, nearly $400,000 more than Rick Santorum raised all quarter.
Where isn't Trump spending money? Advertising for one. He's a proven master at generating free airtime.
By contrast, Bush spent $415,000 on media in the last quarter. Then there's this.
TRUMP: I don't want pollsters, people that are running against me, they all have pollsters. They pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.
HARLOW: His estimate is a tad low. Hillary Clinton's campaign paid more than $1 million for polling last quarter alone.
Trump is proud of his conservative spending saying in a statement, "To be number one in every poll and to have spent the least amount of dollars of any serious candidate is a testament to what I can do for America."
And the little things count too. For the Trump campaign, they include $1,400 on New York City cabs, $1,302 spent on Home Depot, and 324 bucks at Applebee's.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: All right. Let's talk more about the CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Mary Cardona is with me. Maria, let's start out with this. Look, we know that the Trump campaign is not traditional. The fact that the biggest line was these now famous hats and t-shirts with slogan, whether you like it or not has certainly caught on. What do you make of it?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I actually think it proves that Donald Trump is, as he says, very good at business. Look, I think of all the candidates on the Republican side, he has proven the return on investment primary clearly because he hasn't raised a whole lot of money. At least he hasn't solicited money.
He hasn't spent a whole lot of money. Yet he is still a top the polls by wide margins in the key states. He has been at the top since the moment he jumped into this race. And it doesn't seem like he's going anywhere no matter how outlandish the comments that he makes are. So, it seems to me he is proving that once again in this cycle conventional wisdom is completely out the window.
HARLOW: Yes, we have Tara Setmayer here with me as well. What's really interesting to me is that Trump didn't pay a dollar last quarter for pollsters. Compare that with Hillary Clinton's camp who paid close to a million dollars for pollsters.
And I wonder if you think all that money could be a liability for her, because some of the criticism she faces is where is the authenticity? You look at the polls and the ratings and what everyone wants, and then maybe you come off less like yourself?
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You think?
HARLOW: Is it fair?
SETMAYER: I mean, Hillary Clinton has had an authenticity problem for a long time. The fact that she is so plastic, so manufactured, so focus-grouped, that is why people, just her likability has tanked her numbers. I mean, there is a reason why women who were supposed to be her ace group there, women still support her, she dropped 29 points.
HARLOW: But she is still winning the white margin among women.
SETMAYER: Yes, she lost 29 points in women, women supported her 62 percent in July. It dropped to 47 percent in September.
HARLOW: And now, it's back to 50.
SETMAYER: It's starting to, but that goes to show you, when you talk to different women and different Democrats of women, they say, you know, I just don't trust her. And when you have all of that, what does Donald Trump need pollsters for?
HARLOW: The most extraordinary use of media I have ever seen.
SETMAYER: Absolutely.
HARLOW: Let me bring in Maria again. I know you're a defender of Clinton, so I want you to get a say on that point. But -- all right. Listening to what Tara said, should she be spending money elsewhere?
CARDONA: No. I actually think she is exactly where she should be. Like you said, she is winning by wide margins. Her favorabilities top every other Republican. She is winning women on the Democratic side by wide margins.
She and Bernie Sanders are winning the Democratic vote by three- fourths within the Democratic primary. She is incredibly popular, almost 80 percent with Democrats.
And frankly, after the debate performance this past Tuesday, you know, she is in a position where she is very well on her way to winning the nomination.
[19:15:04] So, you know, it -- from Tara's comments, it clearly makes it look like from the very beginning they have been nervous about Hillary Clinton. They are still very nervous about the fact that she --
HARLOW: And we don't know if Jeb Bush -- we know Jeb Bush is in the race. We don't know if Joe Biden is jumping in the race.
I do want to talk, ladies, about some interesting numbers, though, finally numbers from the camp. Raised $13.4 million in the last quarter, spent $11.5 million of it. This does not include all the money in the super PAC. But he's got about $10 million cash on hand.
What do you make of the speed, Tara, in what she's spending this money?
SETMAYER: Yes, he has about an 86 percent rate burn rate, which means that he's spending 86 percent of the money he's taking in. And he's -- look where he is in the polls. When he is in the lower digits, 6 percent, 7 percent in places. His candidacy is not where a lot of people expected. Donors are nervous and he didn't take in as much money this last quarter as they hoped. You started off as a barnburner there, trying to do kind of a shock and awe, let's get as much money as possible to scare people away, and it hasn't worked for him.
So, you know, I think we're going to see some after the next debate, we're going to see some different things. I mean, there are reports now that the Bush campaign is tightening their belt a little bit. They're not flying on private jets. They are not staying in schmancy hotels.
HARLOW: Schmancy.
SETMAYER: Well, you know, they were. They were staying in five-star hotels. They're not now. So, they are trying to be better steward of their money because they're not getting the same amount of money coming in because there is not the same enthusiasm.
HARLOW: This is going to be a long race, this primary.
(CROSSTALK) HARLOW: I've got to leave it there. I've got to go break in. But you stay with me. You stay with me. Don't go anywhere.
Coming up next, I had a chance to sit down with Fortune 500 female leaders as they watched the Democratic debate. Their comments, their reaction next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:08] HARLOW: In politics, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton focusing her campaign today on the South during a speech right outside Birmingham, Alabama. She slammed the state's strict voter ID law comparing it to the days of Jim Crow. This comes four days after her big performance that certainly energized her supporters.
I had a chance this week in Washington, D.C. to sit down with Fortune 500 female leaders right after the debate. Here's what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (voice-over): It was the moment when Fortune Magazine's most powerful women in business erupted.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Enough of the e-mails. Let's talk about the real issues facing America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was incredibly smooth of Bernie to really take that opportunity to be supportive. He actually took the energy away in a positive way for him.
HARLOW (on camera): Watching this debate has made you maybe not in the Bernie Sanders's camp. But maybe leaning a little bit more to it or more interest than before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm definitely more interested.
RACHEL SCHECHTMAN, FOUNDER, STORY: It was less about what he said and more about just being a real person and kind of speaking up for I think what a lot of people feel which is enough is enough. Let's talk about some other things.
HARLOW (voice-over): We joined the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and sat down with business leaders, most of whom supported Hillary Clinton and "Fortune" editor at large Pattie Sellers for their first debate take.
PATTIE SELLERS, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, FORTUNE: It's usually the woman who is emotional, stereotyped as emotional. And the guys are delivering the data. And it was the opposite tonight.
HARLOW: Anne-Marie Slaughter is the author of the new book "Unfinished Business." She worked with Clinton at the State Department and now calls her a friend.
ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NEW AMERICA: You have to be tough, but you can't be too tough or you are immediately in really unpleasant territory, right? I won't -- the B word. She can stand up. But if she's too hard, there will be a boomerang.
HARLOW: Kat Cole is the group president of the multibillion dollar company, Focus Brands.
(on camera): You ran a company that operates in 60 countries around the world. The work is in the midst of a minimum wage fight and that didn't get a lot of attention.
KAT COLE, GROUP PRESIDENT, FOCUS BRANDS: Yes, the whole discussion around minimum wage in the private sector, creating jobs and enabling economic growth really hasn't gotten the energy that I would have loved to have seen.
HARLOW (voice-over): Though there was excitement surrounding the debate, there was also a feeling among some that something was lacking.
SELLERS: The debate exposed the men's weaknesses even more. And it didn't really make me feel good about the Democratic Party.
HARLOW (on camera): What are you most excited about seeing this election cycle?
SHELLEY DIAMOND, EXECUTIVE V.P. AND CCO, YOUNG & RUBICAM: What I would love to see this election cycle is a true reach across the aisle and have Hillary reach out to Kasich and say, be my running mate.
HARLOW: Hillary Clinton is a former colleague and can I call her a friend of yours?
SLAUGHTER: Yes.
HARLOW: Are there moments watching this campaign that are difficult to watch?
SLAUGHTER: When I watch her walk out on stage for the debate, my stomach flinches. Because I so want her to communicate the smart, warm, funny, relatable woman that I know that sometimes, you know, voters just don't seem to pick up.
HARLOW (voice-over): Julie Smolyansky is CEO of Lifeway Foods, and she says she knows how hard it can be for a powerful woman.
JULIE SMOLYANSKY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LIFEWAY FOODS: The more successful a woman gets, the lower her likability is. And the reverse is true for a man.
HARLOW (on camera): Would you vote for Hillary Clinton or any other woman because they are a woman?
SMOLYANSKY: No. I would vote because she qualified. She is the most qualified candidate. She's, you know, 40 years of experience.
HARLOW: Isn't that sort of anti-feminist to vote for someone because they are a woman or to give any more of a break because they are a woman? SLAUGHTER: No. I don't think so. We have to pass the par. I'm a
Democrat. That's obviously -- I'm not going to vote for a woman if she is a Republican woman and she completely disagrees with me. Obviously not.
But if I've got a woman and a man who are equal and they're both in my party, do I think it's important for women to be represented? Absolutely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: My thanks to those women for sitting down with me.
Let's talk about the impact of the everyday woman, not just Fortune 500 leaders on this election.
Back with me, conservative commentator, formerly work on the Hill, Tara Setmayer, and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. I want you to look at the September polls. Clinton, 50 percent support among registered Democratic women. Sanders, at 20 percent. Vice President Biden who hasn't even jumped in the race, 21 percent.
Tara, to you first, do you think if he gets in, that Biden has more of a -- presents more of a threat to Hillary Clinton in terms of taking away some of those female votes?
SETMAYER: I think he has -- he poses a threat for her all the way around. He has the potential to take female voters, male voters.
[19:25:02] The more people start to see the contrast between Uncle Joe and how relatable he is and how personable he is and listening to his story, his record, people are going to take a good, hard listen to him. And also you see that Bernie Sanders has really crept up on Hillary in ways that one expected. And when it comes to likability, when it comes to trustworthiness, and like I said, before, there was a "Washington Post" polls that shows Hillary is below 50 percent when it comes to women in mid-September, which was a 29 percent drop.
I don't care what Maria says. The campaign knows that is not good for them and not good for Hillary. She's had -- the last couple weeks have been better than September because of the gaffe with McCarthy, and Benghazi and the e-mails. Now, they are trying to neutralize it as a political issue.
HARLOW: And the debate.
SETMAYER: Yes, and the debates, all of those things combined. Will that sustain? We shall see?
HARLOW: So, Maria, to you, the most important issues you think for Democratic voters. You can't -- in the primary, you're going to have every one of the Democrats on the same page when it comes to, you know, abortion.
CARDONA: Most issues, right.
HARLOW: Right. So, what do they differentiate themselves with female voters. What's the key issue there?
CARDONA: Well, I think like every other voter in the country, Poppy, female voters are looking for who is going to offer them the best opportunities to be able to succeed, to be able to succeed for themselves and for their families.
And what I think is so critical about the way that Hillary is running her campaign. And we have talked about this before now, is that she is focused on women's issues but not just because they are women's issues. It's because women's issues have now become family issues, the way that she talks about equal pay for equal work, for example. The way she talks about how women should be given child care. How families should be given family leave to take care of a child whether you're a man or woman, whether you're a dad or mom, or whether you're two moms or two dads.
I think our issues that speak not only women but speak to families that are trying to make a living. And I think that is incredibly important in this campaign. And Republicans are not speaking to that.
HARLOW: Well, actually, Marco Rubio has presented a plan, a different plan but a plan that would provide for paid family leave for parents. However, let's move on.
CAMEROTA: Would love to compare it with Hillary's any day of the week.
SETMAYER: Hillary keeps reminding us that she's a woman. I mean, I think we get it.
HARLOW: Let's move on to the Republican side, I think there are telling numbers. Let's pull this up. Trump remaining strong among registered Republican female voters. Take a look at the poll. He's at 21 percent of support among women, OK? He leads Carly Fiorina, he leads Ben Carson there by women.
Tara, what do you make of that?
SETMAYER: Well, I think because the Republican primary voters, female voters, aren't worrying about what's between the legs of the candidate, OK? Hillary Clinton --
HARLOW: But this is he spite all the comments he made among --
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: I get it. As I finish my sentence, they don't care if you're a man or woman. They want to know who will be the best for their families, like Maria said. Republican voters feel the same way. Who is going to be the best economically for us for women in this country, present the best opportunities.
We have a record number of women who are not in the workforce. I haven't heard Hillary Clinton address that. And when you look at Donald Trump, and I'm not a Donald Trump supporter, but he continues to be popular because he's catering to a group who are frustrated does and who want to hear about strong leadership and his business prowess is resonating.
HARLOW: Maria, you bring up a really interesting point here, and that is the fact Pew did a study and they found more women are staying home more than before. In 1999, 23 percent of American women stayed home instead of work. They work arguably the hardest job being parents. But 29 percent of women in 2012 stayed home. A big part of that is because of the rising costs of child care.
Do you think women are looking at the candidate who can come on and level the playing field a little bit more?
CARDONA: Absolutely. That goes to exactly what I was I talking about before, which is a lot of women don't want to be spoken to about whether they should be staying home or whether they should be going to work full time. The way that women look at their careers and their lives is with a balance. And that balance has got decided by every woman and her family. And what Hillary Clinton is doing, and frankly a lot of the Democrats are doing, they are putting together plans where the woman and the man or the two women and the two men, the families can choose which is best for them.
But when you don't have a candidate that is giving you appropriate health care, that is giving you equal pay for equal work, that is offering child care so you can go back to work if you want to, then that candidate is not offering choices that these families can make in order to be successful in the way that they want to in today's economy and that's the big difference between Democrats and Republicans.
SETMAYER: Free stuff, free stuff. Did you hear that? Give, give. What the government can give you. That's not what the American people want. They want the government to get out of their lives and create opportunity to make for yourself.
[19:30:00] CARDONA: That's right. They want government to get out of their lives. Except when it comes to women's bodies.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: All right. Thank you, ladies. Very much.
I have to get a break in. But it is important that you'll both be back. We'll be right back in a moment.
We do want you though to watch "State of the Union" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Wow. Look at that lineup. Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney (INAUDIBLE) with Jake Tapper. Guess what? Only right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Lamar Odom beginning to show signs of improvement in a Nevada hospital. The family of his estranged wife Khloe Kardashian right now at odds with the owner of the brothel where Odom collapsed this week after allegedly ingesting a mixture of cocaine and sex enhancing supplements. The Kardashians want the brothel owner to stop disclosing details about what happened inside the Love Ranch but the owner said he had nothing to hide and that his workers were on the lookout for drugs during Odom's stay. He said no drugs were consumed there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED MALE: You said that you had reports that he was doing cocaine. Do you guys have a legal obligation, your girls, to stop somebody or get them the help they need or whatever the case may be?
DENNIS HOF, OWNER, LOVE RANCH: Oh, absolutely. What he said was that he had been doing this in Las Vegas previously and that's why he wanted to come out here and wind down and relax. So our obligation was to make sure that he wasn't doing anymore on our property.
You know, my management was told, watch him. If he's not sleeping, I want to know about it. If he's not eating, I want to know about it. If he's just hanging around and having fun, I'm good with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:35:00]
HARLOW: With me now, criminal defense attorney, CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos who is on the phone with me. All right. Danny, we just heard from the brothel owner and he is - you know, obviously trying to protect his business. He's saying no drugs were done on the premises. The Kardashians say they have a right to privacy and he is speaking out. Talk to me about any potential legal liability here for this brothel in terms of the fact that it sounds like allegedly drugs were consumed on the premises?
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, a brothel is not your typical business in America. But the reality is whether or not a business owes any liability to a person who comes on the premises for a business purpose is a very, very common issue in civil cases. As a general rule, if you have a property and people come on that property and give you money for whatever services or products you give them in return, then you have to make the premises safe.
But the owner is correct in that no owner can completely police what everyone does on their property. An example is hotels, and restaurants, and bars. They can make reasonable efforts. But the law could not place upon them the burden to police each and every person and take it to the point. What are they going to do? Strip search everybody who walks into a restaurant on a Friday night to make sure they don't have a dime bag on them? We can't hold business owners to that level. However, we can ask them to make reasonable efforts?
HARLOW: So what about this drug or sexual enhancing supplement known as reload. The FDA said this week after the story broke if you've got it throw it out. It is not safe. It is not FDA approved. It is marketed as a herbal supplement. It was sold there at the Love Ranch. I wonder, A, could they have liability for selling it. B, what about the manufacturer of it?
CEVALLOS: Yes. The FDA has said in so many words that their lab analysis confirmed that this reload contains an active ingredient of the prescription drug Viagra. The main danger with this is it can cause drastic low blood pressure. It can lower your blood pressure to dangerous levels. Any one who's got diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, any problems like and they may be taking nitrates and it can interact in a strange way with those other drugs.
So the bottom line is, and this has been a problem with certain kinds of supplements in this area is that there essentially there's not a lot of regulation the way there is in the actual drug industry. So sometimes there are substances that get into the supplements that you may not know how much you're taking and you may not be taking any at all. You really have no way of knowing especially when it comes from a different country. The FDA is crystal clear. They said if you've got it, throw it away.
HARLOW: Absolutely. Danny Cevallos, thank you. We are glad that Lamar Odom appears to be recovering. Again, he is conscious after being in a coma.
Straight ahead, we turn to Israel and a string of attacks. The Israeli-Palestinian violence continues to escalate.
My best guest Aaron David Miller says the Obama administration is sending all the wrong signals. He is live next to explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:41:10]
HARLOW: After nearly three weeks of deadly violence, a show of solidarity tonight in Jerusalem where hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians marched together calling for peace. Since the beginning of the month, seven Israelis and at least 44 Palestinians have lost their lives in these clashes.
Today alone police say Palestinians carried out five separate stabbing attacks. Another crisis is also weighing heavy on the White House on Thursday. President Obama acknowledged that Afghan security forces are not ready to stand on their own. He announced that nearly 10,000 U.S. troops will remain in that country longer than originally planned.
Joining me now to talk about both of these is Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. He is also the author of "The End of Greatness Why America Can't Have and Doesn't Want Another Great President."
Let's begin. It is great to see tonight Israelis and Palestinians coming together to march for peace. But there has been such an escalation. I was just in Jerusalem a month ago and it could not have been more peaceful. Now, an escalation. You say the Obama administration is sending all the wrong signals. What do you mean specifically by that?
AARON DAVID MILLER, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: When I wrote that in the "Wall Street Journal" three or four days ago, the administration had made three statements, all of which they subsequently retracted. One, implicitly the secretary of state attributed the intensification of violence to an increase in Israeli settlement activity. That is clearly not the origins of this current round.
Number two, State Department spokesman implicitly accused the Israelis of excessive use of force. They walked that back. Finally, the administration had suggested that the Israelis had somehow changed the status quo on the (INAUDIBLE) temple. That's the two of the holiest mosques to Islam sit on top of the remains of both the first and second Jewish temples, literally overlapping sacred space. They walked that back.
Also, several days ago the secretary said that he was going to the Middle East soon. And I think he has wisely decided rather than plunge into the middle of this in the region to see Prime Minster Netanyahy they both are going to be in Germany next week.
HARLOW: Right.
MILLER: So I think part of reality has set in. And they have lowered their expectations.
HARLOW: You also wrote though in that terms of these broader Israeli- Palestinian conflict, we are not at a tipping point yet. And I wonder to you, what does a tipping point look like?
MILLER: I mean, a tipping point would be, I guess, (INAUDIBLE) following the first 1987 to 1992. The second 2000 to 2004. It would have to involve a sustained commitment by both the Palestinian authorities as he committed himself and Hamas. Organized resistance. Popular buy-in and investment. A massive uprising that would have to go well beyond where these attacks are taking place now.
Eighty percent of these attacks are coming from young Palestinians in Jerusalem, fluent in Hebrew with Israeli identity cards from neighborhoods that the Palestinian authority doesn't control but the state of Israel has controlled since 1967. So I think we're not at the point yet where you could describe what's happening. What Hamas called Jerusalem (INAUDIBLE) to be the third.
HARLOW: So looking now to the situation in Afghanistan and the thousands more U.S. troops that are going to stay there until or past President Obama's last day in office, when you look at this president, this is one of the very few U.S. presidents to be a war-time leader from the beginning to the end of his presidency most likely. Do you believe he will leave the White House with the Middle East in worst shape than when he came in. And is that any of his fault?
[19:45:00]
MILLER: I mean, barring a miracle that is to say an angry, broken, dysfunctional region somehow self corrects or external powers, the Russians, the Americans somehow fundamentally change the southward arc that this region is on, the fact is the president will in fact, leave the region worse than he inherited it. Now we can argue all day long whether it was George W. Bush's invasion or Barack Obama's early exit in 2011 from that country that created opportunities for ISIS.
But again I don't believe in this left, right, liberal conservative Republican, Democrat debate on this. The question for American foreign policy is do you want a dumb foreign policy or smart one? You want Americans to be on the smart side. I think the president frankly - he is the extricator in chief. His prime directive, to borrow a Star Trek metaphor, is to basically get America out of unwinnable wars and avoid getting them into new ones. But even the president realized he cannot leave Afghanistan.
Taliban controls one fifth of the country, you got 350,000 Afghan security forces that are not ready for primetime. So he is going to keep - let's keep Iraq in line now. A residual force of, what, just under 10,000 troops. The problem, Poppy is that in 2011 we had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. And we couldn't bring order to this country. How are we going to do that with a tenth of the number. And I think we know the answer to that?
HARLOW: If history is any lesson, it has been exceedingly difficult for any super power to succeed in Afghanistan.
Aaron David Millar, thank you for the perspective.
MILLER: Poppy, always a pleasure. Thanks a lot
HARLOW: Coming up next, we switch gears. It is a big topic on the campaign trail. The battle over minimum wage in America. Next, my conversation with a woman in a very high position in a multimillion dollar food company. Fascinating what she has to say about what she would do about minimum wage in this country. That's next.
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[19:50:09]
HARLOW: In this week's American Opportunity, the growing debate over the minimum wage in this country. Walmart has increased pay for entry level employees to $9 and hour this year and $10 an hour next year.
Well, this week, the mega retailer cut its earnings outlook and says that wage increase will cost the company an extra $1.2 billion this year and $1.5 billion more next year. The stock fell 10 percent Wednesday on that new.
I sat down this week with Kat Cole, Fortune's Powerful Women Summit, Washington D.C.. She is group president of Focus Brand. They're a multi-billion dollar food company. They own everything from Cinnabon to Auntie Anne's pretzels, cAravelle ice cream and we talked about her take on this battle in America over minimum wage and slo about 2016.
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HARLOW: The minimum wage debate in this country is huge. You see the fight for $15 going on among fast food workers across this country.
You see some cities with a $15 minimum wage. Where do you fall on that fight?
KAT COLE, GROUP PRESIDENT, FOCUS BRANDS: Yes, so I have probably three perspectives. One is the perspective of our franchisees, the independent small business owner with low revenue, decreasing margins because of accelerating whether it's real estate cost, food costs and now accelerating labor costs.
And so I very seriously appreciate the economic challenge that that presents, but I do believe that there is also a capitalist argument to be made for higher wages because if you pay better you will attract more talent. You will keep those people longer, but then you have to do the hard work of holding them accountable for good work. So that's one point of view.
The other is from a - call it a national or global enterprise point of view. It is really hard to plan your business when you have no idea what the wages will be in 100 cities in the next year. Just from a pure planning standpoint, it's really difficult to be thoughtful and answer the question, how will you combat wage increases. I don't know. What will it be and when will it come into play? So how high can you raise the price of a cinnamon roll or a pretzel to cover accelerated cost in any category>
What are the other efficiencies in technology and other things you can do in your business that allow you to pay more competitive wages. So the fight for living wages for higher minimum wage is something that I absolutely support but I also believe that there is a very planful, collaborative approach that needs to be taken that has not been taken across the country and what's unfortunate it has become a political issue.
It gets so politicized. The answer is not $15 an hour tomorrow. It's not. The answer is also not keeping it the way that it is. That's not a cop out, that's not a refusal to have a position, it's an acknowledgment of the complexities involved and a deep desire to be part of the conversation.
HARLOW: What about earning profits? We're in Washington, D.C..
COLE: Yes, we're in Washington, D.C., you never know. I get asked a lot will you run for office? My answer used to be, I can impact the public sector more from the private sector. Then I had a mentor of mine say, one, if you keep saying things like that as influential as you are you are going to steer away really great people who want to serve. Two, the right answer is you should go to where your talents provide the greatest impact. So my answer is different now. My answer is not never. It will always be the private sector but my answer is I will always feel the role where I feel I can make the greatest impact.
If that is purely in the private sector it will be purely in the private sector. If it's bridging the world from public to private and really helping elevate social impact businesses then that is where I will do it.
HARLOW: So there are two CEO candidates right now running for office in the Republican side. Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina. Does business acumen, does that resonate that experience lead to potentially better governing right now? Because it seems the electorate and the polls is telling telling us that's what they want.
COLE: I don't think that business experience period can lead to better governing. I know many CEOs that have run their company for a long time and aren't necessarily strong in influence but rather in command and control and the government requires a great deal of influence and being a bridge person and bringing people together. So do I think this experience is needed more today than it ever has been in our government, I absolutely do. But that alone does not a president make.
HARLOW: Is there a candidate you like right now?
COLE: I like a few. I'm probably most in Hillary's camp right now. I truly believe she has the connections and the experience and the influence to get things done. But I do have great concerns around how likable and believable she is to the American public.
HARLOW: Is that because of the e-mails in large part?
[19:55:00]
COLE: I don't think it is because of the e-mails. I'm so tired of the e-mail conversations. Get on with the issues, people but I do understand that it brings in to question trust and that is a core issue. I don't think it is because of the e-mails. I think it is generally because of her style and how she presents herself in large groups, but I have spoken to so many people that have had one on ones with her where the sort of that cool, chill version of Hillary, the approachable version comes out.
I appreciate how difficult that is to balance that approachable, likable, this is really me with having to put on a game face because you are being attacked from all sides, I can't imagine what that is like but can appreciate the challenge. I don't think she's a clear runaway winner. But I certainly would love to see someone in office, maybe they are not the most likable right now but no one cares about their likability if they are able to get things done. It's about their ability to bring people together to come to the best solution.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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HARLOW: We're starting something new tonight. It's called the number. We will end our show with a number that is in the news each night. The number tonight, 62 million.
That is the number of girls around the world who are not in school according to the White House. The right to education is fundamental, it is enshrined in the United Nations convention on the rights of children. It is a right that (INAUDIBLE) nearly lost her life fighting for when she stood up to the Taliban for her right to go to school. USAID says if India enrolled one percent more of its girls in secondary schools, their GDP would rise by $5.5 billion. The White House notes every year of secondary education can boost a girl's future earnings by 18 percent. The World Bank found more educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income, have fewer children and provide better healthcare and education to their children, all of which eventually improve the well-being of all individuals and can lift households out of poverty.
So that's our number tonight, 62 million.
