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Erin Burnett Outfront

Cleveland Kidnapper Gets Life Plus 1,000 Years; U.S. Embassies Closing To Avoid Attacks; What Was CIA Doing In Benghazi?; Russia To Enforce Anti-Gay Laws During Olympics

Aired August 01, 2013 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: "OUTFRONT" next, you'll want to brace yourself for this one. Ariel Castro explains why he is not to blame for kidnapping and raping three women. One of the women responds. His excuses, sickening.

Then, NSA leaker Edward Snowden has left the airport in Moscow. Where has gone could be a major problem for the United States of America.

And Anthony Weiner explains a big mystery, solved tonight. Where did the name Carlos Danger come from?

Let's go "OUTFRONT."

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, Ariel Castro and Michelle Knight speak. Life behind bars plus 1,000 years with no chance of parole, that is what Castro, the Cleveland kidnapper, was sentenced to today. He abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina Dejesus and held them captive for more than a decade, subjecting them to constant physical and emotional torture. Knight was the only one today who chose to confront her abductor face- to-face, and she didn't hold back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE KNIGHT, KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: Ariel Castro, I remember all the times that you came home talking about what everybody else did wrong and act like you wasn't doing the same thing. You said, at least I didn't kill you. You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back. I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all that you put me through, but you'll be in hell through eternity. I cried every night. I was so alone.

The days never got shorter, days turned into night, night turned into days, years turned into eternity. Eternity will be so much easier. You don't deserve that. You deserve spending life in prison. I could forgive you, but I will never forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Castro pleaded guilty to 937 counts of kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder, but didn't stop him from denying he was monster. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIEL CASTRO, CONVICTED KIDNAPPER: (Inaudible) totally wrong, like I said, I am not a violent person. (Inaudible) -- totally wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT tonight, Martin Savidge, he was in the courtroom and he has with me along with Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere. Martin, let me start with you. You were in the courtroom. You just heard Ariel Castro. You had to hear it again because you heard it today. Most of the sex was consensual that the women had asked him for sex many times. What was the reaction when he said that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I could give you my personal reaction, but first, I'll tell you that the courtroom is pretty much packed with law enforcement, very small courtroom. A lot of them, long time law enforcement, some came out of retirement to be there for this day because they've been searching for these girls for so long. Revulsion, you could hear just comments of disgusts.

You could hear, well, if you could jaws drop, that would be that sound. I mean, it was just -- they were -- many are used to hearing statements where you have a criminal that will make a self serving comment. But the accusations he was making, they're just playing sick depravity of his words, thunderstruck a lot of people and there's a big -- heard a lot in their lives.

BURNETT: Jeff, Ariel Castro then admitted after saying that, try to say, OK, well, I know what I did was wrong, try to say there was -- try to apologize, but then he said there was harming in the house, harming, and I just want to play that clip of him and get your reaction. Here's Ariel Castro again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASTRO: There's a lot of harming going on in that home. (Inaudible) --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The YouTube he's referring to, of course, is when she was at rap concert by the rapper Nelly and she was dancing. Prosecutors said Castro broke out in tears when he had to sign over the property deed a few days ago saying it was wrong to tear it down because he had so many, quote/unquote, "happy memories" in that home. What does that say about this man's brain?

JEFFREY GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: So in essence it tells us how does someone continue to do things that are so monstrous to other human beings? It's the denial. It's being delusional, but certainly, mark my words here, not delusional to the point of being legally insane. He knew the difference between right and wrong, but this is the mind of a psychopath and extreme personality disorder who now blames everyone else, blames society, and even says that what was happening was consensual. That is the delusion that keeps someone like that alive because if he were to face what he actually did, I think he'd probably kill himself.

BURNETT: Martin, the state introduced new evidence today. I mean, we heard things we didn't know before, about how he abducted these women, specifically the stories, and there were a lot of pictures of the chains that he used to restrain them, of a gun. They even brought in a model of a house, exactly where they lived, showing where the women were forced to use the bathroom. What new did you learn today, Martin?

SAVIDGE: Well, I mean, I guess what's interesting is, of course, this is a sentencing hearing so it should have been a rather perfunctory event, but it became a kind of mini trial. The reason the prosecution wanted to do this was to get on the record how bad Ariel Castro was and just the fact that he had pled guilty and that he's got life and 1,000 years, no. They wanted to make sure he would never get out and they wanted to make sure that history new the recording of his depravity.

So that's why you saw these images of the rooms, and they weren't just rooms. They were cells. They had chains in them and these were horrible chains, not that there's any good chain. But to look at them, they weighed over 90 pounds added up, stretched over 90 feet. You saw that this was beyond just someone being held captive. It was torture. It was depravity and it was someone being diminished as a human being to just a sex object, which is another justification he gave. He said that he had a sexual addiction.

BURNETT: And, of course, he has given that excuse, that he was himself abuses and that he had an addiction to porn. Amanda Berry and Gina Dejesus put out a statement. But Michelle Knight who struggled to speak before, she showed up in court. You saw here there. I mean, it makes your eyes tear up. Her nose is running, she is saying what she believes. Why do you think she and only she chose to come today?

GARDERE: They were all tortured, but perhaps she was tortured more than the others if you can use some sort of hierarchy of that. Of course, they were all destroyed by this, but she was the one was beaten over and over again.

BURNETT: She said he had beaten her to --

GARDERE: Exactly the miss -- abortions, miscarriages and so on. So he was the one and who came out in the video if you remember and made the most poignant statements. She had decided she is going to recreate her life and not let that monstrous pain that she has endured change her life for the worse, but actually change it for the better. She has a new mission in life and when she says that I can forgive you. It's not about forgiving him for him. It's for her to be able to move on and she was finally able to look him in the eye and say, I'm not afraid of you now. This is what you deserve. Now you suffer in hell for what we've gone through.

BURNETT: It's just a courageous moment, just to watch her there. Thanks so much to both of you, Dr. Gardere and of course, our Martin Savidge who has been reporting on this.

Still to come, the State Department announces that it is closing U.S. embassies in the Middle East and reason is they say there's a lot of terror chatter. Terrorist chatter has made officials incredibly nervous. The last time that chatter was so busy with Benghazi.

Plus the latest from the Edward Snowden investigation, Russia slaps America in the face today.

And then the latest in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, why there might be a few more Carlos Dangers out there.

And a heart warming image, what this Marine did for a 9-year-old boy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: And a developing story tonight, the State Department has announced it is temporarily closing embassies in the Middle East due to what a senior official tells us as more than the usual chatter about a terrorist threat. The closures include main diplomatic facilities in Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Kuwait. A senior U.S. official says the facilities will close on Sunday, which is ahead of the end of Ramadan in the middle of next week and of course, coming very close to the anniversary of the attack on the American compound in Benghazi.

And that brings me to our second story, OUTFRONT, which is new details that we have just discovered at CNN on the CIA secret presence in Benghazi. A lot of the scrutiny over last year's attack in which four Americans died is focused on the State Department. But we are learning for the first time how heavily involved the CIA was in Benghazi, something the agency has gone to incredible lengths to conceal. Drew Griffin has an OUTFRONT investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agencies Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out. Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's working.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress. It's being described as pure intimidation with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employees who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, "you don't jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well." Another says, "You have no idea the pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Agency employees typically are polygraph every three to four years never more than that.

GRIFFIN: The rate of this kind of polygraphing is rare, according to former CIA operatives including Robert Baer, now a national security analyst for CNN.

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: If somebody is being polygraphed every month or every two month, it's called an issue polygraph and that means the polygraph division suspects something or they're looking for something or they're on a fishing expedition. It's absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly or bimonthly or whatever.

GRIFFIN: In a statement from CIA Public Affairs Director Dean Boyd, the agency asserted its being open with Congress. "The CIA has worked closely with these oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi," the statement reads.

"CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want and that the CIA enabled all officers involved in Benghazi the opportunity to meet with Congress. We are not aware of any CIA employee who has experienced retaliation including any non-routine security procedures or who has been prevented from sharing a concern with Congress about the Benghazi incident.

Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission is just how many Americans were there? The night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed. CNN has now learned that number was 35 with as many seven wounded, some seriously while it's still not known how many of them were CIA. A source tells CNN 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex believed to be run by the agency.

The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to Congressman Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

(on camera): What do you think is going on here? Is this an elaborate attempt to cover this whole thing up and push it under the rug?

REPRESENTATIVE FRANK WOLF (R), VIRGINIA: I think there is a form a cover-up and I think there is an attempt to push it under the rug. I think the American people feel the same way. We should have the people who were on the scene, come in, testify under oath, do it publicly and lay it out. There really isn't national security issue involved with regard to that.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Wolf has repeatedly gone to the House floor asking for a select House committee be set up involving several intelligence committee investigators assigned to get to the bottom of the failures that took place in Benghazi. More than 150 fellow Republican congressmen have signed his request and justice this week eight Republicans including senators and members of Congress sent a letter to the new head of the FBI asking he brief Congress within 30 days. (END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Erin, speculation on Capitol Hill has been that the U.S. agencies involved in Benghazi at the time were actually helping to move arms, specific surface to air missiles from Libyan rebels through Turkey to the rebels fighting in Syria. Now we know of two U.S. agencies operating in Libya at the time, one was the State Department, the other was the CIA.

We did reach out the State Department who told us that they were only helping the new Libyan government destroy weapons that were damned damaged, aged or too unsafe to retain. And that the State Department was not involve in any transfer of weapons to any other countries.

The State Department did not say anything, they could not speak, they said for any other agencies involved. That would be the CIA. And Erin, when you speak about missions to the CIA, they flatly will not discuss it -- Erin.

BURNETT: Drew, thank you very much. And of course, as we all know right before that attack Ambassador Stevens has been meeting with emissaries from Turkey. As you know we have devoted much of our program over the past year to the Benghazi attack and its aftermath. Please join us on Tuesday night, 10:00 Eastern for a special OUTFRONT investigation, "The Truth About Benghazi."

We're going to take you back that night nearly a year ago, talk to a suspect who even the FBI hasn't gotten a hold up and most importantly, we're going to be speaking to the families of those who lost their lives. That's Tuesday night at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

And still to come, Russia declares war on the gay community. What it means for athletes and tourists heading to the Winter Olympics.

Plus President Obama versus the liberal media, it is true. This is a battle going on today.

And the most heart warming photo of the day, a Marine comes to the rescue of a 9-year-old boy. We're going to tell you what happened in tonight's shout out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Our third story OUTFRONT, Russia's crack down on gays. There's been a lot of international pressure on this, but Russia's sports minister said today that the country isn't bowing to it. They will not suspend anti-gay laws during the Olympics and that means gay athletes, coaches, fans, anyone that goes to the Winter Olympics in Sochi could be arrested and deported. Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Visible signs in Sochi as Russia prepares for the 2014 Olympic games. Half a world away, speed skater Blake Skejellerup trains in his event physically and mentally, the only gay athlete known to be planning to compete in the games.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say I'm a little bit worried, not so much afraid.

LAH: Not afraid despite the risk. Speaking via Skype from his training camp in Calgary, Skejellerup is well aware of Russia's intolerance of gays and lesbians. New laws signed by Russia's president jails and fines people who express any support of equal rights for gays. Gay pride rallies banned. The police have the power to arrest anyone who appears to be spreading, quote, "Propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations." Despite the International Olympic Committee's assurances that athletes will be protected, Russia's supports minister and a prominent lawmaker say the new laws against gays and lesbians will be enforced even for visitors like Blake Skejellerup.

(on camera): What kind of statement are you making by attending the games?

BLAKE SKEJELLERUP, 2014 OLYMPIC ATHLETE: I think it's important to stand up for this and I think it's important for something to say something. And that person at the moment is me. I feel there's a small responsibility on my part to voice my concerns.

LAH (voice-over): Russia's laws have already sparked grass roots protests in cities around the world. The LGBT community in Los Angeles pouring out Russian Vodka into the streets, cultural politics and the Olympics have collided before. Black American Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 games in symbolic defiance of post-Hitler's Nazi German regime. In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Americans Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised black salute in support of the black power movement.

For 2014, gay athletes have united under groups like "Athlete Ally" saying power is to show up and not boycott the games. Tennis champion and four-time Olympian Rennae Stubbs is a gay athlete and activist and call Sochi 2014 the LGBT's era of civil rights.

RENNAE STUBBS, ATHLETE ALLY AMBASSADOR: To be there and to say, we're here to compete and equal as everybody else. We want to go there, I think as a gay athlete, you want to go there and compete and go there and compete and show everybody in the world that we're on level pegging with any straight athlete. It doesn't matter to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: And it's not just the athletes we're hearing from. We are hearing from U.S. lawmakers now. U.S. lawmaker, Senator Jeff Merkel from Oregon says, he plans to introduce a resolution in the U.S. Senate that one, opposes Russian laws, but also is demanding protection of visitors as well as spectators and the athletes, Erin, who show up there. We should point out that this is a resolution and it won't have any force of law in Russia. BURNETT: All right, well, thank you very much, Kyung. Of course, as you heard, Kyung say vodka boycotts are going on around the country, but we've looked at the fact, are the boycotts hurting Russia? The facts might surprise. Go to our blog, cnn.com/outfront.

Still to come, Russia punches America in the face today. And what we're learning about how Wiener picked the name Carlos Danger. Plus an incredible story about fashion models.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Welcome back to the second half of OUTFRONT. We start with stories where we focus on our reporting from the front lines.

We're going to start with a good day in America. Automakers with their best sales in July since before the Great Recession. Toyota and GM sales were up 16 percent or more. Ford, all right. It was 11 percent, but that's the best July in seven years for Ford.

Despite high prices, it's Ford pickups that keep delivering. They have been up for 24 months running. The numbers come as Ford says it's going to offer an F-150 on natural gas.

The biggest drawback is there's only about 600 public natural gas stations in the country. But "Edmunds" senior editor John O'Dell tells us he's found natural gas for as little as 92 cents a gallon. So, it can really add up.

Well, Uruguay is about to be the first country in the world to legalize marijuana, that means marijuana would be regulated by the government, which they say could prevent millions of dollars from going into the pockets of drug traffickers. "The Economist" reports that Uruguayans would be allowed to grow up to six plants at home, or buy up to 40 grams a months.

Well, what is that? We asked the Colorado marijuana dispensary, and they say that 40 grams is about 80 joints. That's a lot off marijuana.

All right. We told you a couple of weeks ago about an actual paper version of Schindler's List. It had been put up for auction on eBay for $3 million. Now, the auction is ended, but there weren't any bidders at that amount. You might have seen Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List", that tells the story of Oscar Schindler, who saved more than 1,000 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by hiring them in his factory. The document is a list of 801 of those workers.

The Auction House is trying to sell it. It tells us there are still ongoing discussions. Multiple parties they say are interested in purchasing it.

So, where did Anthony Weiner come up with the name Carlos Danger? Which, yes, "The Washington Post" did confirm it is danger, not danger (ph), his online pseudonym.

The New York mayoral candidate was asked that just today, and I guess he answered the question. He said it was just a joke between him and someone else, but he wouldn't comment on who that person was. Meanwhile an online Carlos Danger name generator by the Web site "Slate" has received more than half a million hits.

I tried it out. My Carlos Danger name would be Santiago Hazard. It's a man's name, but that's all right. I'll take it. If you ever see it on the web, it might be me.

It has 726 days since the U.S. while since the U.S. lost its credit rating. What are we doing to get it back? The Dow and S&P hit new highs today. The S&P closing about 1,700 for the first ever, better than expected economic news and the belief that central banks like the Fed are going to keep pumping money into the markets are the reasons.

And now, our fourth story OUTFRONT: Russia punches the United States in the face.

The Obama administration said it wasn't even given a head's up from Russia before the country granted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden asylum today. This isn't the first major blow the Obama administration has suffered this week.

Chris Lawrence is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Edward Snowden is free to live and work in Russia for now. Even after President Obama asked Moscow officials to hand him over, they gave Snowden asylum.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step.

LAWRENCE: Even the president's own party says this cannot stand.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Russia has stabbed us in the back. And each day that Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist to the knife.

LAWRENCE: Pressure is building on President Obama to cancel a meeting with Russia's president next month and to move September's international G-20 Summit from St. Petersburg.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I wish the president had made the consequences more clear to Putin that may have changed things.

LAWRENCE: Snowden's asylum is the second blow to the Barack Obama administration this week, after a judge acquitted Bradley Manning on charges that he aided the enemy. The army soldier stole U.S. secrets and gave them to WikiLeaks. But he had already pled guilty to crimes that could have sent him to prison for decades.

The government pushed ahead on the more serious charge and came up short.

President Obama claimed he had opened a new era of cooperation with Russia. But on the day of Snowden's asylum, the White House admits it didn't even get a courtesy call from counterparts in Moscow.

CARNEY: We were not certainly given any advance notice by the Russian government.

LAWRENCE: Which prompted this mocking tweet from Senator John McCain, "Snowden stays in the land of transparency and human rights. Time to hit that reset button again."

LAWRENCE: NSA officials say no one has been fired over Snowden's ability to steal huge amounts of classified information from U.S. government computers. And they admit they still don't know how their safeguards failed. With Snowden out of reach for at least the next year, he won't be giving any answers and with that asylum, it means he's free to share even more information -- Erin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: All right. Chris Lawrence, pretty incredible development.

OUTFRONT tonight, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. He sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, good to talk to you.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you.

BURNETT: This feels like a really big slap in the face, doesn't it?

SCHIFF: It does. And it's deeply disappointing, although probably not altogether unexpected. Putin has made a past time out of poking his finger in the eye of the United States, that it enhances his prestige at home.

But it's all the more reason why the president shouldn't give him the benefit of a one on one meeting. That's something that he also looks to boost his credibility at home. And there ought to be consequences, significant consequences to this slap in the face and this really ignoring of international law and precedent.

BURNETT: You know, as you know, as you mentioned, the president is set to meet with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in Moscow before the G-20 gathering in Russia. And today, the White House said it's evaluating the utility of a summit altogether.

Now, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, you heard him there in Chris Lawrence's piece, took it a step further. And I just want to play exactly what Senator Schumer said for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCHUMER: The president should recommend moving the G-20 Summit. What Russia has done is a serious blow to U.S.-Russian relations. And I believe we should carefully consider additional steps to put an end to this fugitive chase.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, when you say we have to do something, I mean, what should the president do? Should he say, look, I'm not going to the G- 20 if it's in Russia? I mean, should we take a stand?

SCHIFF: Well, I think he should certainly cancel the one on one meeting with Putin. I certainly favor moving the G-20 Summit. But that's something the White House has to carefully evaluate because a lot of those members of the G-20 don't like the U.S. surveillance program. They would probably not be inclined to move it for that reason. And you don't want to make that kind of a push unless the answer is going to be yes.

But in addition to canceling the one-on-one meeting, we ought to look for other steps that we can take to express our displeasure with Moscow. There are sometimes that the White House does frankly in an effort not to embarrass Moscow. Sometimes, they don't highlight some of the human righted abuses in Russia because they're wary of offending Russia and harming other U.S. interests. Obviously, that's going to have to be reevaluated --

BURNETT: Like the whole issue that Russia stood up today and said, yes, we're going to go ahead with our law, and if we want to put gay people in jail during the Olympics, we're going to do it.

SCHIFF: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, we need to make our displeasure and our position to those kind of steps in Russia very plainly known, in the Congress and the administration. You know, I'd love to see people throughout those Olympics Games wearing rainbow ribbons on their jackets and making an issue out of it in Russia.

But more broadly than that, I think we ought to take steps to expose, for example, something that I've been working on, which is that journalists in Russia who exposed corruption are routinely murdered.

I got some news for Mr. Snowden, if he doesn't like surveillance, guess what, he just move to big brother's backyard. He's now in a country where there is no right to privacy whatsoever, where journalists get murdered for exposing corruption, where there's no right of religion, the free exercise of region, or assembly or speech.

So, it's a very peculiar choice and he needs to be careful what you wish for.

BURNETT: And I wanted to play, Congressman -- you know, Jay Carney talked about this today, took it pretty seriously, and talked about how the administration was dealing with it. Here's what Jay said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And obviously, Eric Holder, sort of saying, look, I promise we don't torture him, I promise we don't do the death penalty, whatever you want. Please just give him back and they still did this.

But the president, Congressman, has downplayed this. You know, here he was in June when he talked about Snowden and he really seemed to act like I'm not going to lower myself to deal with this. Here's what he said at that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: He referred to him, you know, sort of dismissively as a 29-year-old hacker comment. But, you know, he may not want to have to wheel and deal on other issues, but at a certain point, you've got Russia doing this, you've got the gay ban. You've got -- whatever we do in Syria, they do the opposite. They're doing business with Iran.

I mean, do we start to look like a eunuch?

SCHIFF: No, I think what the president was doing and you see this is what the attorney general was doing, it was an effort not to put Russia's back against the wall, because, frankly, if we wanted Snowden back, that would be counter productive, to the degree that the president would get in Putin's face before a decision was made, that would not help, to the degree that Holder can say, we're not going to torture him, we're not going to execute him. We basically removed any legitimate reason that Putin could claim to his public for holding him.

So, I think tactically, it was the right thing, even though the result was probably the expected result. But, now, the president needs to show there are consequences. And I think it would be a huge mistake to go forward with that Moscow meeting and I think we need to think of other steps that we can take to make sure that Russia understands there are consequences.

They can play against us for domestic consumption at home but they'll pay a price in terms of their relationship with the U.S.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman, it's always a pleasure and I appreciate your time. Still to come: one of President Obama's important nominees has been criticized big time by the Web site "Huffington Post." And the president took the site on. So, he took on the liberal media. Is the liberal media turning against the president? The president's profile in courage is next.

And a very exciting decision by a very boring town. It is tonight's special "Outtake".

And now our shout out: never leaving a man behind. This photo posted on Facebook shows Marine Lance Corporal Miles Kerr (ph) running a race in his home town of Charlevoix, Michigan. According to the post, the boy, 9-year-old Boden Fuchs, got separated from his group, saw Lance Corporal Kerr and said, sir, will you please run with me? The 19-year-old did just that. So, our shout out goes out to Lance Corporal Miles Kerr for doing the right thing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: We're back with our "Outer Circle", where we reach out to or sources around the world.

And, tonight, we're going to Cairo. The country's military- backed government in Egypt is urging supporters of Mohamed Morsy, the ousted president, to disband. They promise there will be safe exit from two public squares in Cairo. A lot of people don't believe them.

The statement is seen by many as a green light for the security forces to come in again and intervene.

Arwa Damon is in Cairo with a rapidly devolving situation.

And, Arwa, what's been the reaction from protesters?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Erin, despite various warnings, pro-Morsy demonstrators have no intention of going even though the government is telling them it will guarantee them safe passage. In fact, they're making preparations already. They were putting together this makeshift gas mask earlier in the day. It's basically a paper cup stuffed with charcoal and gauze. That, of course, helps with the toxins from the tear gas. Plastic water bottle, and it fits to your face.

They're also erecting even more barricades, making medical preparations. The question right now is just how bloody is it going to potentially get -- Erin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Arwa, thank you.

And now our fifth story OUTFRONT: Obama's profile in courage.

So the president appears to be upset over the Web site "Huffington Post's" coverage of Larry Summers. Summers is on the short list of the most important job in this country. By many measures, that would be to replace Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.

"The Huff Po" as it's called has aggressively criticized Summers.

Now, this is the site conservatives consider to be part of the liberal media that they say is essentially part of the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The media have always had this liberal slant, since the earth cooled. But what's happened is that with Obama, it got completely out of hand.

NEAL BOORTZ, RADIO SHOW HOST: It's one month into the Obama administration. The liberal media, there's still just absolutely drooling and slobbering like Bernese mountain dogs.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Obama's honeymoon with the liberal media may still be going strong.

LOU DOBBS, FOX NEWS: Mainstream liberal media isn't likely to start pointing out that President Obama has a women problem.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BURNETT: Oh. Isn't that exactly what some of the so-called mainstream liberal media has just done.

"The New York Times", as we pointed out on this show, was endorsing Janet Yellen to replace Bernanke in part because she is a woman, something we took issue with.

OUTFRONT, syndicated radio host Michael Medved, comedian and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller, and Mediaite's Joe Concha.

Great to have all of you with us.

Michael, a reporter for the Huffington Post tweeted, "Hill source, attacked Huffington Post in Democratic caucus meeting for making Larry Summers progressive whipping boy."

"The Huffington Post" has published some pretty nasty articles. Larry Summers' Fed nomination would bypass steady and right Janet Yellen. And for many reasons, Larry Summers would be a terrible Fed chairman, in case you were not sure where they stood on this issue.

Is the president right to be upset? I mean, "The Huffington Post" is one of his most loyal supporters?

MICHAEL MEDVED, RADIO HOST: Yeah, they are. And this entire spat is bizarre. I mean, as a conservative who is not a big fan of Larry Summers and not a big fan of Janet Yellen and not a big fan of Donald Cohen who is the third possibility. He's the president. He gets to appoint the head of the Federal Reserve. What's a disaster here is all three of these people are very well-qualified. I don't think either testicles or ovaries should have anything to do with who they pick. But the point is, it shouldn't be a political football. The whole idea of the head of the Fed is it's supposed to be beyond politics.

And the administration let it get out who was on their short list. And when you do that in advance of making the pick, the president says he won't make the pick until October, then, of course, you're going to have this kind of back-biting behind the scenes. And I feel sorry for the president on this.

BURNETT: Well, you know, Stephanie, the president, you know, got involved in this. "The Huffington Post" wrote something on Larry Summers who has had some challenges with women, although a lot of women have come forward and talked about what a champion he was of them.

But they wrote that his pick would re-open fresh wounds between Summers and leading women economists who clash with him in the Obama administration.

You know, when we talked about this a couple of days, Stephanie, you said, look, yes, Larry Summers, Janet Yellen, both qualified. But you talked about some male politician fatigue right now.

But I ask you again, why does her gender have anything to do with it?

STEPHANIE MILLER, RADIO HOST: Well, A, we won't see pictures of Janet Yellen's private parts, her lady bits flying about the Internet. But it's interesting, you know --

MEDVED: Or Larry Summers.

MILLER: Michael Medved, we learn not a fan of anybody, but I do agree with him that I think what's been unprecedented in this administration is that this president has not like any other president gotten his picks whether it's because of Republican obstruction, or mainly.

So, I think that he may be a little prickly and I'm not sure he's going to appoint Larry Summers. I think he was defending him. I think he was loyal because I think Larry Summers did help him get out of the mess that George Bush left us in economically.

BURNETT: Yes.

MILLER: You know, believe me, as a liberal, I'm not a fan of him being part of repealing Glass-Steagall, but I think he did help us get out of the mess and I think the president was personally loyal and I think he's a little prickly about not everybody criticizing his picks, when every other president got whoever they want to serve with them.

BURNETT: Well, you know, Joe, we've also heard administration, you know, is little PO'd frankly to say, look, we're not going to be backed in the corner and picked someone because she's a woman. If she's qualified, she's qualified, and we're going to pick her. Why is the media, especially the left wing media, making this about gender?

You think they would be the one saying this person is qualified, isn't it wonderful? We don't have to make the case, do it because they check a diversity box.

JOE CONCHA, MEDIAITE: Erin, because gender is an easy story. It's kind of like with Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, that was turned into white versus black story, or in this case, a white Hispanic in this case.

BURNETT: Right.

CONCHA: Instead of talking about policy, as a lot talk about men versus women, GOP war on women, you know what, Mr. Obama, this is your chance to show you're in a woman's corner. Forget qualifications, forget past policy decisions. It's all about -- let's just appoint her so we can satisfy, as you say, a quota.

BURNETT: All right. Let me just play Nancy Pelosi, why she said Janet Yellen should get the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: I want to see, whoever the president appoints. Let me say that I think it would be great to have a first woman of the chairmen Fed, no question about, Yellen would be talented. It's not just that she's a woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: She's a woman. But even so, why? Why not just that she's a woman?

CONCHA: Well, what I want to know is why is the president talking about and going after a media target.

And, you know, this president, for a guy who's won two terms and seemingly confident as thin skinned as Alec Baldwin? Why is that, Erin? Why is this president continually attacking the media?

MEDVED: It's extraordinary thing because I don't remember --

MILLER: I think --

BURNETT: Final word, Michael.

MILLER: Erin, I think Janet Yellen --

MEDVED: Ladies first.

MILLER: -- is clearly qualified. But you know what? It may be Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein are doing shots after hours going really? Not another man. Please? I can't take one more internet picture. Let's just be safe with someone that's qualified this time. BURNETT: All right. Thanks to all three.

Although, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say I bet Larry Summers would not tweet or send such a thing. If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong, but I would bet my life on it.

Every night we take a look at the top stories for something we called OUTFRONT "Outtake".

Bland Shire is located in New South Wales, Australia. From what we've seen online, it seems like a nice place, it's pretty, right? I feel for the citizens of Bland Shire being known as uninteresting has to be bad -- until now, because the people of bland share decided to join forces with another place called Dull Scotland.

This week, citizens of Bland Shire traveled to Dull to forge ties, their words, between the two uninterestingly named locations. According to reps from the two places, the cooperation was inspired by an earlier deal made between Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon.

Bland, Dull and Boring have formed actually an alliance. We I think it's a great idea because the world is full of places that should ally and looking at some of them today. We kind of hope the idea of corporation and celebration continues. For example, in New Jersey, there is a Brick and Wall, which should merge. Apple Valley, California, say hi to Pie Town, New Mexico, what's more American than that?

And while we're at it, what happens when you combine San Carlos, California, with Castle Danger, New Mexico? Sure looks like a winner to me. Weiner, sorry. Oh, yes.

Of course, there are a lot of places we can't discuss on a family show like this one, for example, there is a really famous place Austria and not so famous place nearby in Switzerland, that if you put them together -- well, we'll let you look it up yourself.

Still to come, Italy's economy still hasn't rebounded but one of the famous names in fashion and some incredible fashion models could solve it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Anna Wintour, the editor and chief of "Vogue Magazine" is universally known as the most important person in fashion. And tonight, she has a big "IDEA".

Alina Cho is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As "Vogue Magazine's" legendary editor in chief, Anna Wintour routinely travels the globe -- London, Paris and Milan. It was in Milan recently that Wintour noticed something that concerned her. ANNA WINTOUR, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CONDE NAST: The Italian economy was suffering. What they believe in, which is quality, and luxury and tradition has really lost a bit of luster to the fact that you can get it quicker and cheaper in places like Eastern Europe and China.

CHO: Italy, the world's ninth largest economy is in its longest recession in 20 years, nearly half of young Italians can't find work.

STEFANO TONCHI, EDITOR, W MAGAZINE: That's why I'm here I would say.

CHO: "W Magazine" editor Stefano Tonchi left Italy some 30 years ago. He's afraid the exodus today will cause Italy to lose out on the next generation of Michelangelos and Miuccia Pradas.

TONCHI: There have been so many cuts that we have many institutions need help.

CHO: So, an idea was born, college scholarships for Italian students funded by Conde Nast.

WINTOUR: Our idea was to look at Conde Nast stands for and in those areas of journalism, art and fashion, we really, really wanted to start these scholarships.

CHO: Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend green-lighted the initiative.

CHARLES TOWNSEND, CEO, CONDE NAST: They are struggling as an economy and this is an ideal moment for us to give a little bit back.

CHO: This fall, the giving back begins. Conde Nast will announce the winners of five full college scholarships for young Italians who show promise in fashion, film, journalism and art.

WINTOUR: Italy has always stood for so many wonderful things. We really wanted to explain to these young people that there is hope, that you can get recognized, that there can be a future.

CHO: For OUTFRONT, I'm Alina Cho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Thanks so much as always for watching. "A.C. 360" starts right now.