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Equal Pay Roundtable; Delegate System; Former NFL Player's Death; Zika Virus Risks. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired April 12, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:33:56] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Today marks equal pay day and that means today is how far into the year a woman must work to earn what a man earned last year. Women are typically paid 79 percent of what men are paid and it's something Hillary Clinton is highlighting. She's highlighting that this morning at a round table here in New York.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny is there.
Good morning.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.
Hillary -- Secretary Clinton is pointing this out. Certainly a good issue for her as she tries to win over New York voters and voters everywhere, of course. Interestingly, yesterday, she was asked about how many women she would have in her cabinet if she was elected president. And she said she would have more than usual. But the woman voter for Hillary Clinton has been something of a paradox. Younger women voters have not necessarily gone to her campaign. So that's one of the things she's trying to do here, to emphasize how she is -- would be a strong pronate of a pay equity, pay equality.
But, Carol, this is her only event of the day here. Now she's going to Florida to raise money after this. Still needs money for this primary fight with Bernie Sanders.
[09:35:02] Carol.
COSTELLO: Jeff Zeleny reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Just as his shot went out.
Donald Trump is doubling down, calling the Republican delegate system rigged, disgusting and dirty. One of Trump's supporters jumped on board and burned up his registration card in protest. And he's not the only voter angry. Even the former Colorado state Republican Party chair says Trump may have a point. That's the guy burning up his registration card. Anyway, that former Colorado Republican chair said, when it comes to his state, a state that did not hold a caucus or a primary to choose its nominee, the system night indeed be, well, rigged.
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RYAN CALL, FORMER COLORADO STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN (voice- over): At the very time we should be opening up our doors and being more open and transparent and welcoming people into our party, we've essentially taken decision -- made the decision to close it off and make it more cumbersome and more difficult and to prevent the ability of people to have their voice heard in the process. You're reinforcing all of the very worst stereotypes about the party. And I, frankly, am really concerned about the way the voters are going to feel.
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COSTELLO: Senator Cruz, who got all 34 delegates in the state of Colorado, isn't buying it.
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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now you may have noticed that when Donald loses, he gets very unhappy. He yells and screams and stamps it foot. He curses and yells and insults anyone nearby. Look, as we know in the state of California, wine is something best served with cheese.
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COSTELLO: All right. Let's bring in Larry Sabato. He's the director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.
Hi, Larry.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Hey, Carol.
COSTELLO: Glad you're here. So, Larry, is Mr. Trump wing about nothing? Colorado voters did not cast a single blot for a nominee. The FEC allows individuals to persuade delegates with gifts and money. All that is legal. So how can you say that the system isn't rigged?
SABATO: Well, it's very easy to convince most people that the political system is rigged or corrupt. They're inclined to believe that anyway. And, of course, there are circumstances of it.
I don't think this is an example. I don't think this is corruption. I think the Colorado Republican Party made a very bad decision from a public relations point of view. After all, almost all states in both parties hold either a primary or a caucus open to the general public, or at least their registered voters. So this was an unusual decision and it probably will backfire on that particular party in Colorado.
COSTELLO: So why do you think that Colorado Republicans made that decision? Because some say it was to save money because why hold a primary or a caucus. Other people say it was an attempt to get the best candidate nominated. SABATO: Well, and also it was to preserve power for those at the top.
That's why people in both parties, and the party office holders, often like conventions because they have additional power to determine a nominee or to do other things within the convention's structure. So there are a combination of motives. I'm not denying the other motives. I think it was really a combination of motives that led the Republican Party in Colorado to do this.
COSTELLO: You heard the former Colorado state chair say the system is reinforcing all of the very worst stereotypes about the Republican Party. What does he mean by that?
SABATO: I think he's referring to exclusionary, which is an image that Republicans have managed to acquire in some states because of decisions like this, preferring to keep people out of process, to keep it to the true blue conservative whose can make the right decision. The problem is, often the, quote, "right decision" turns out to be a loser in November, which is something the Republican Party, more than the Democratic Party, has to come to terms with.
COSTELLO: Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted this. You know, after all of the hullabaloo from Donald Trump saying the system was rigged and dirty he said, quote, "the rules were set last year. Nothing mysterious. Nothing new. The rules have not changed. The rules are the same. Nothing different." Should Priebus be more outspoken though because I think voters look at this and they're disturbed by it.
SABATO: It would probably be in his interest and in the Republican Party's interest to recommend that in the future that every state either have an open primary, at least open to their registered voters, or a caucus. I happen to prefer primaries because it gives people from many different places an equal opportunity to participate fully. Caucuses tend to be very low turnout. They also tend to be insiders. So if parties have to make these decisions. They're free to make them. Parties aren't in the Constitution. They are in the legal structure. They have the right to do this. But what they have the right to do and what is wise for them to do in terms of winning elections are often two different things.
[09:40:32] COSTELLO: Interesting. Larry Sabato, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM --
SABATO: Thanks.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new videos bring new twists to the shooting of a former NFL linemen. Why the suspect in the shooting says he was the victim.
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COSTELLO: There are new twists in the apparent road rage shooting of former NFL lineman Will Smith. The man accused of rear-ending Smith and then shooting him to death says he was the victim of a hit and run. This is new surveillance video taken before the shooting. It appears to show Smith's SUV behind the Hummer of 28-year-old Cardell Hayes. Police say, minutes later, Smith was shot and killed by Hayes.
[09:45:13] And now Hayes' attorney is pointing to another video. In this one, an apparent witness says he thinks there was a second gun, but there's only one thing, police found only one gun at the scene.
CNN's Jean Casarez is trying to make sense of all of this. She joins us now live with more.
Good morning.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, yesterday we heard a very basic story, right, road rage, shot and killed. But the defense said, no, there's much, much more to this. And now that's sort of coming to light.
Carol, let's show everybody this video. You just showed it to people. You see, first of all, you see that?
COSTELLO: Yes.
CASAREZ: The vehicle in the rear appears to be the Mercedes SUV driven by Will Smith. Now the Hummer is pulling over. All right, that's Cordell Hayes, now a defendant. The black SUV appears to leave the scene after the -- the hit. So when the attorney talks about hit and run, that's what he's referring to possibly.
Now let's listen to some cell phone video of people who say they were eyewitnesses to what happened. Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He starts freaking out on this guy like, I'm gonna fight you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then he's like, I guess this guy was like, get out. I have a gun. And he goes (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you all, I've got one too. And he grabs his gun and then he shoots him in the back. He's dead.
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CASAREZ: All right, now we want to make it very clear, only one weapon was recovered in all of that and --
COSTELLO: So who was that guy talking about on the -- on the tape?
CASAREZ: Well, it's confusing, right?
COSTELLO: Right.
CASAREZ: He's talking about two people. We don't know who he's -- but what he's alluding to is that there were two guns, one in the possession of either person. One being Will Smith. And we don't know if that's true. Only one weapon was recovered at the scene, that of, police say, the shooter.
COSTELLO: But it took police a long time to get to the scene, right, fifteen minutes?
CASAREZ: It -- it took a while. That -- that is true also.
All right, now let's listen to the attorney for Cordell Hayes, charged with second-degree murder. And now we can put into perspective, I think, what he's talking about.
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JOHN FULLER, CARDELL HAYES' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I can tell you that my client was not the aggressor in terms of the behavior that happened after the accident. Not only did my client call 911, but my client secured a witness who was about to leave the scene. And my client waited for law enforcement to arrive. Now tell me if that's the behavior that's consistent with someone who's an animal out here looking for blood.
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CASAREZ: OK, so the defense is getting right out there saying, look, he did a lot of things right, but he says he was not the aggressor after the accident. Which accident's he talking about? There's two accidents. There's the initial alleged hit and run. And the second time, the Hummer allegedly bumped the Mercedes.
COSTELLO: And Will Smith's wife was also shot.
CASAREZ: She was shot several times, rushed to the hospital.
COSTELLO: So how does that figure into the self-defense kind of thing?
CASAREZ: Right. Right. Exactly. And that is, I'm sure, where the defense is trying to go here, a self-defense claim. But the investigation is difficult. They're going to have to take the weeds out because some are going to be red herrings because it's the state of mind right at the time of the shooting. I'm speaking as an attorney right now. But second-degree murder, I looked it up, in Louisiana, and it is life in prison, day for day, no parole, no chance of getting out at all. So it's a very serious charge and he remains an $1 million bail.
COSTELLO: Wow. Jean Casarez, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, just when you thought the Zika virus could not get any worse, the CDC says it's scarier than it first thought.
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[09:52:59] COSTELLO: The Centers for Disease Control ramping up its warnings about the Zika virus.
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DR. ANNE SCHUCHAT, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CDC: Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought. And so while we absolutely hope we don't see widespread, local transmission in the continental U.S., we need the states to be ready for that.
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COSTELLO: The CDC says the reach of the infected mosquitos may have gone as far as New York and San Francisco. The virus already linked to a birth defect that affects a baby's brain. Now, research teams say the virus could also be responsible for premature births and eye problems and even an auto immune disorder in adults that resembles multiple sclerosis. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta with more on this.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Carol, this is a brand new virus. We really don't know what to expect. And as time has gone on, as we just heard Anne Schuchat at the CDC say, it seems to be getting scarier. These mosquitos are going farther than we thought and there are more complications than we thought. Before we had just been talking about microcephaly. That's where babies are born with heads that are too small and their brains are underdeveloped, but now they're seeing babies that are being born with eye problems, other neurological problems. Babies that are born that are -- that are stillborn. Neurological problems in adults that they hadn't seen before.
Now, how common are these problems? That's what they need to find out and they're doing studies right now to figure that out.
Carol.
COSTELLO: So what advice would you have for women who are pregnant or who plan to get pregnant this summer?
COHEN: Right. It's this summer. I'm glad you said that, Carol, but it's this summer that's more of the concern. Mosquitos are not out in full force. Certainly here in Atlanta it's cold and rainy. I haven't seen a mosquito here in days. But once it gets warmer, mosquitos will be out. And everyone, especially pregnant women, are going to have to be diligent about wearing DEET. You can see in that map, that's were aedes albopictus and the aedes aegypti mosquitos are. Wearing bug repellant religiously, covering up with full length clothing, that's going to be really important.
[09:55:02] Looking outside your house, do you have, you know, little containers that you forgot about that are harboring water? Because if they're harboring water, there's an excellent chance they're harboring mosquito eggs.
COSTELLO: And if those mosquitos could also affect people who are not pregnant, you would have the same advice for them, right?
COHEN: Absolutely. Everyone ought to be wearing mosquito repellant. I was in Puerto Rico just two weeks ago. I actually went to the ultrasound of a woman who was pregnant and had Zika while he was pregnant. So she is, you know, obviously very anxious just to make sure that her little baby is going to be OK. And, you know, when I was there, you know, it was very important. I wore -- I mean I'm not pregnant and I wore mosquito repellant all the time. I wore long sleeves all the time.
COSTELLO: All right, good advice. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.
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[10:00:03] COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the race coming down to two words, got delegates? And the fight for them getting ugly.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a rigged, disgusting, dirty system.
