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Erin Burnett Outfront
GOP To Obama: We Told You So; NSA Leaker Working Online In Russia; FAA Caves: Electronics Allowed For Entire Flight; Manhunt On For Two Inmates; Massive Drug Tunnel Found On U.S.-Mexico Border; Cruz's Father: Send Obama "Back to Kenya"
Aired October 31, 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, the truth about Obamacare. Democrats turn on the White House tonight.
Plus, shocking comments made by Senator Ted Cruz's father. Should the son be held accountable for these words?
And dramatic testimony at the Martin MacNeill trial tonight. The former doctor's daughter believes he killed her mother. You'll hear her.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT, tonight, Democrats turn on the White House. Top Obama officials got an earful today from Senate Democrats during a closed door meeting about the Obamacare web site fiasco. The White House is now in damage control mode. Republicans saying we told you so. We begin our coverage with Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Boehner.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): March 2010. Then Minority Leader John Boehner came to the House floor as Democrats were poised to pass Obamacare. He issued this warning.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Look at this bill. Ask yourself, do you really believe that if you like the health plan that you have, that you can keep it? No, you can't.
BASH: It is just one example of a Republican effort before the health care bill became law of the land to push back on this presidential sales pitch.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.
BASH: That was the summer of 2009 during the least health care legislation battle. So was this weekly GOP address.
REPRESENTATIVE TOM PRICE (R), GEORGIA: On the stump, the president regularly tells Americans that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. But if you read the bill, that just isn't so. For starters, within five years, every health care plan will have to meet a new federal definition for coverage, one that your current plan might not match even if you like it.
BASH: Fast forward three years, that's exactly what is happening. Insurance companies are dropping Americans all across the country from their health plans. Many because policies don't have coverage now required under Obamacare. Democrats trying to calm concerned constituents, call it a good thing.
REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN (D), ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER: If we don't enforce this policy, insurance companies can continue offering flimsy coverage that disappears when people actually need it. And no one should want that.
BASH: The HHS secretary struggled to explain. Some current plans are no longer available because they're bad for consumers and no longer legal.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Many women are charged 50 percent more than men. That will be illegal.
BASH: The problem? That's not what people expected when they heard this over and over.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
BASH: While Republicans are eager to say I told you so, privately Democrats are increasingly frustrated and regretful that they left Americans with expectations that didn't pan out. In fact, this week, the number two House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, said that they should have been more precise in explaining that people may not be able to keep their current plans if they don't meet new mandatory coverage. Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: All right, our thanks to Dana, a lot of questions are raised from that.
Now our second story, OUTFRONT, is beware because Edward Snowden is back online. According to his attorney, the former NSA contractor who leaked some of America's most secretive surveillance programs is now working for a major Russian web site. The United States has charged Snowden with espionage as to government property, but hasn't been able to arrest him because the Russians are giving him asylum.
OUTFRONT, tonight, Tim Clemente, a former counter terrorism agent. Tim, let me ask you. There are still a lot of questions and they're saying we cannot tell you exactly what this online job is because of his security, quote/unquote, "But a job working for a major online company in Russia," for real?
TIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI COUNTERTERRORISM AGENT: Well, you know, I think, Erin, the problem with that is that who knows whether this is just a cover for the Russian government or if this is their version of the NSA that's operating through this internet site. I mean, the fact is that whether or not he revealed secrets to the group overtly, he can still reveal a lot of intelligence about our intelligence capabilities.
If you remember the scene from the movie "Argo," where they find the shredded documents and one by one those pieces of paper are literally useless, but when you build that puzzle and put it back together. There are a lot of intelligence. So a guy like Edward Snowden could leach out a lot of intelligence just by working in everybody activities in the I.T. field in Russia. That could be a great threat to our intelligence capabilities.
BURNETT: Which is an interesting point, I also like your point, you know, who knows what the site is. Maybe they sell hats, I don't know, but it could be their version of the NSA, right. You don't always say you are what you are. That brings me to the point because obviously we don't know what the job is. His attorney said they're with holding it for security reasons. But how valuable, Tim, do you think Snowden is at this point as an intelligence asset for the Russians?
CLEMENTE: He is of great value because just his knowledge of how he got hired, the process of his hiring. The type of work he did. The personnel he worked with. All of those things again, you know, there's a reason why when you're in the intelligence community and you have a top secret clearance or an SCI clearance above that, why pillow talk is banned. Everyone you associate with, any foreign national you associate with, all have to be reported.
Because the agencies have to look at that and to see if there is a possible envelope being built around you that could sap information from you. So whether he intentionally gives it out or not is not the question here. The question here is what he knows and what those around him want to know.
BURNETT: Does the fact that Snowden has a job, I mean, what does that mean in terms of his significance? Because obviously the Russians could, you know, just to anger the Americans, I was looking for a polite way of saying it, right, could give him asylum. But giving him a job might mean something else, right.
I mean, you would think if they had exploited him to the fullest. They're not going to have pity on him. They don't care about any individual American that's over there, right. They're like, we're done with you. Wash our hands, go. Get rid of you. We don't care what the Americans do to you. The fact that they're letting him get a job, what does that mean?
CLEMENTE: I think it means and this is just a guess on my part, but I think it means that they're going to juice him for more intelligence and more information until there's nothing left but pulp. Giving him a job in the community that he worked in before even though it is not an intelligence job on the surface, it could be used, his position could be used to drain intelligence from him.
So I think it is significant because whether this company is allied with the Russian government or allied in some way with other foreign intelligence agencies, I don't know. But like Google and Yahoo and other companies here in the United States that the NSA hacked into and was able to get backdoor intelligence and data from them. The same thing obviously would be going out in Russia.
BURNETT: All right, well, thank you very much, Tim Clemente. Obviously, it's a significant development on Edward Snowden tonight.
Still to come, controversial comments made by Ted Cruz's father themselves regularly campaign together. It is not like his father that he never sees says something outrageous. Not like that at all. So does Ted Cruz share his father's beliefs and you will hear exactly what his father has had to say.
Plus major news about electronic devices on planes, you might not have to shut down that, you know, anymore. And for the third time, body parts found at a water treatment plant. Different body parts this time as the mystery gets bigger. We investigate. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our third story, OUTFRONT, is the FAA caves? It's about time, the FAA is announcing, it is allowing you to use your iPad the entire flight and in addition, you are also going to be able to use your cell phone, as long as it is on airplane mode and e-readers. So it is not perfect on the cell phones yet. Obviously they still need to let you talk on the phone.
Chris Lawrence is OUTFRONT. Chris, what's the reaction from passengers? This has been a long time coming. People have been really frustrated and angered by the situation. So what are they saying today?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You said it, Erin. I mean, you're talking about people who have been in the middle of a great novel on their Kindle and then told, shut it down. Meanwhile, they look at the guy next to them and he is still thumbing through his 600-page hard cover and they're going, why? So people, a lot of the folks we talk to say look. This change is long overdue and they had a hard time understanding the ban to begin with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM HUGHES, TRAVELER: It has always seemed very silly to me. It never really made sense. This is a rule that makes sense. That's what you want your rules to do. We welcome it. It is good.
LIZ HUGHES, TRAVELER: I sat on a flight next to a pilot yesterday and he said it is the silliest thing he's heard, an actual airline pilot. He said he doesn't know why the rule was ever in existence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: That's not unanimous. One pilot's union said they still have some concerns especially with the part that if there is some really bad weather and the crew has to tell everybody to power down to leave that in the hands of the passengers to really follow through with that he said could be a dangerous thing.
BURNETT: And, which is an interesting point. Let me ask you this. You know, I've been overseas and able to use my phone, talk on my phone. Hear other people talk on the phone, all the thing that they categorically still don't allow here. When is that going to happen? And also, there have been a lot of companies I know that have been fighting over this.
LAWRENCE: Yes, OK, first of all, when it is going to happen. That's hard to say because the phone calls, the cell calls are governed by a completely different agency. That is the communications regulators and the concern with cell phone calls is not so much with the airplane, but that it could interfere with communication with cell phone towers on the ground so that's separate than the devices that we're talking about here.
As to, you know, sort of what's the next step and with the corporations that have been calling for this, you know, Amazon fill a whole plane full of Kindles to say, look, it won't mess with this. And I think throughout the year, what the FAA has found is the risk is so small, it is time to open it up.
This really surprised me. When I asked the FAA administrator, look what happens if people don't switch off their cell carrier? You know, what if it is on but they don't put in it airplane mode? Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HUERTA, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: The flight attendants' role is to advise them in terms of what the rules are. We want them in airplane mode. There is no safety problem if it is not, but you'll arrive at your destination with a dead phone and I don't think anyone wants that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: So you have a dead phone, but there's no safety problem. That's the thing that caught us all by surprise because we've been told over and over and over again, you have got to put in it airplane mode. These things could interfere with the plane and perhaps bring the plane down. Now we're hearing that may not even be the case -- Erin.
BURNETT: That is a pretty amazing for him to have said. You're right. The opposite of what we've heard. The only reason I can think of to not use cell phones on the plane is I don't want to hear other people's inane conversations and they don't want the hear mine.
LAWRENCE: The annoyance factor. I am with you on that.
BURNETT: All right, Chris Lawrence, thank you very much reporting on that. That's pretty fascinating. No safety problem at all you're hearing from the FAA.
Well, our fourth story OUTFRONT is a manhunt in Oklahoma. You know, we've been covering story and four days after a daring escape through the hatch above the shower at the Caddo County Detention Center, the search continues for two prisoners. Four inmates escaped on Sunday morning. Two were quickly apprehended, but two are still on the loose as I speak.
They are armed and dangerous. Each year hundreds of inmates escaped from facilities around the country and we wanted to know, what happens to most of them? So George Howell investigated OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A manhunt is underway for these two jail escapees. Anthony Mendonca, also known as Thomas Leslie Johnson and Tristan Cheadle, both men considered armed and dangerous after their clever escape Sunday from the Caddo County Detention Center in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
The escape was short-lived for the two other men who broke out of jail with them. Police caught up with Dylan Three Irons and Prime Brown Monday at a convenience store in nearby Chickasha Oklahoma about 20 miles from the jail. The clerk says the men came here to buy ramen noodles.
LINDA HARLEY, "FRISCO STOP" STORE CLERK: They walked outside. The cops about ten of them drove up here. That one just stopped and put them in the car. The other one ran down alley and the cop got him. That was pretty much it.
HOWELL: The inmates escaped from this jail, was either good luck or good planning, official say they manage to bust through a maintenance hatch above the shower in the jail. They crawled through a pipe space beneath the roof. Then they knocked out a cement block to get to another room and that took them directly to an unlocked side door, which they simply pushed open to freedom. The longer the manhunt continues for the other two inmates, still on the run, former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes, says police tend to gain more options to find them.
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The more likely that they're going to run out of money. The more likely that they're going to have to go to people they know to get help, to get money, to be harbor and hidden.
HOWELL: It has happened before. Prisoners getting help from the other side to evade the law. Like this escape caught on camera in Garland County, Arkansas. Inmate Derek Estel jumped over a counter and through a glass window and he had someone waiting outside with the getaway car. Nearly a month went by before authorities tracked Estel down and arrested him in Florida.
More recently, two convicts, serving life sentences were captured in Florida, accidentally released from a prison there after showing forged paperwork. Officials believed they also had help from the outside. So the question now, is someone helping these inmates from Oklahoma? Authorities haven't indicated either way except to say they believe the men could still be in the area. Until they're captured, they urge residents to stay alert and be on the lookout to help police bring these men back behind bars. George Howell, CNN, Chicago.
BURNETT: Still to come, another day of bizarre testimony at the Martin Macneill trial. Another daughter spoke today adds to the list of daughters who believed that he murdered her mother.
Plus, this is being called the most sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel ever. Why? What is in it? It is pretty incredible, kind of a mechanical marvel. We'll take you inside the discovery.
And one of the most intriguing videos of the day, what is this? Kind of looks like a scary Halloween video and it kind of is, but you'll have to wait for the shout out to find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our fifth story, OUTFRONT, a massive drug tunnel bust. Officials say this is one of the most sophisticated tunnel think they've seen equipped with electricity, ventilation and a rail system stretching from San Diego to Tijuana. In the tunnel, police seized more than 325 pounds of cocaine and eight pounds of marijuana. The total net worth of what was in there, $12 million.
Miguel Marquez is OUTFRONT in Otay Mesa, California, just across the Mexican border, Miguel, what happened?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they made a pretty big bust here, Erin, and that is the front office. It is always amazing that these are very nondescript warehouses both on the Mexican side and here in the U.S. side where this tunnel went to and from.
Three people have so far been arrested in this operation. They are not big fish though. They're described as diggers of the tunnel and transportation folks. But this massive press conference that they had on announce this thing, ICE agents say there will be more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEREK BENNER, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: I would offer this to the drug cartels. We are by no means finished here and don't say we didn't warn you. You go underground, you're going down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: A bit of a dirty harry nourish there I think, but look, they are very keen to get on top of this and tell folks that if you dig under the border. There have been 75 tunnels, eight of them these super sized tunnels in the last five or six years or so between California and Arizona. Drug dealers coming in over the border and farther and farther around the U.S. and up the coast into California so they are trying to be as aggressive as possible and tell drug dealers, if they try to get this stuff in, they will bust them -- Erin. BURNETT: Miguel, let me ask you a question because you talk about the sophistication of this tunnel. That they're trying to find the master minds of it, right, the drug lords. But 325 pounds of cocaine. Is not that different? This is the first time that's happened, right? It's something that serious.
MARQUEZ: It is. I think they're still wrestling to figure out how significant that is. They believe it was the cartel responsible for building this tunnel. They zigzagged. They were a little off at times and they had to hit this one warehouse so specifically, the coke. They're trying to figure out what the significance is.
They believe these individuals are desperate for more ways into the U.S. market. That said, the price of coke has come down in recent years and Southern California. The one thing they admit is cocaine, methamphetamine, all coming into the San Diego area in greater and greater amounts -- Erin.
BURNETT: Miguel, thank you very much.
Still to come, very controversial comments by Ted Cruz's father, we'll play them for you. Then I'll ask you this question. Should a son who takes his father on the campaign trail and brags about it regularly be held accountable for those comments?
Plus, for the third time this week, body parts found in a water treatment plant. Why authorities say these cases are linked. One of the most disturbing videos we've seen. A woman violently shoved into a jail cell suffering multiple fractures to her face. You might remember seeing this on the show. Will the office here push this woman learns his fate?
And the shout out tonight, weaving an impressive web, the video is a little different, but it is holiday appropriate. A spider was captured weaving its web over a security camera. The camera caught the whole thing and we're obviously speeding up this process.
A lot of people are scared of spiders, hate spiders, but this is pretty magnificent when you look at this. A shout out goes to the spider for spending nearly two and a half hours to create this work of art, constructing the perfect web, all on camera so we could appreciate it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Welcome back. The second half of OUTFRONT, optimism surrounding nuclear talks with Iran has persuaded the Obama administration to hold off on punishing Iran with a new round of sanctions. Secretary of State John Kerry is making the rounds with lawmakers to try to convince them of the sail. They're going to keep the sanctions there. This is whether to up them another level.
We saw firsthand in Iran this summer that the sanctions that exist are working. They're putting the squeeze on necessities like food for lower and middle income Iranians. That was just tomatoes there. They doubled in price. Seafood is also doubling. Wealthy Iranians, though, as far as we saw, still find shopping at Bulgari, able to buy expensive cars.
Well, a mayor allegedly smoking crack. Today, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford faced journalists and photographers at home. Now, this, that you can see here, just going to work, was happening as Toronto police were preparing to release a slew of documents and make a jarring announcement about a controversial video that is now recovered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF BILL BLAIR, TORONTO POLICE: That file contains video images which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He's referring to the reporters from "The Toronto Star" and Gawker who said they've seen video showing Ford smoking crack.
Also released today, surveillance images of Mayor Ford with an alleged drug trafficker. You can see the circle on the screen. The mayor meanwhile has remained as defiant as ever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I have no reason to resign. I'm going about to return my phone calls. I'm going to be out doing what the people elected me to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Charges have not been brought against Mayor Ford. The video is now evidence in a criminal investigation.
Well, more fallout from the NSA spying revelations. Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, spoke to our Christiane Amanpour about allegations that the U.S. has been bugging German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone for over a decade. He called the spying practice unacceptable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUIDO WESTERWELLE, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I understand that it is necessary to fight against terrorism, but you cannot fight terrorism by taping the chancellor's cell phone.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think your phone has been tapped?
WESTERWELLE: I cannot exclude it. But I'm prepared to everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You know what? If it wasn't he would be upset. You would not want to be the one guy in the government they decided they didn't want tapped, right? All right. Joking aside, Westerwelle says he's optimistic that a meeting with Washington officials in Berlin will help rebuild confidence between two countries.
And an OUTFRONT update on the Chicago area police officer who in this surveillance video that we had showed you before -- we're going to show it again -- shoves that woman violently into a jail cell. That bench is cement.
Michael Hart has pleaded guilty to felony, aggravated battery and official misconduct charges. The 19-year veteran claimed the woman resisted arrest after being taken in for drunken driving. But that push was so hard, the 47-year-old suffered facial fractures that required reconstructive surgery and a titanium plate in her cheek. The officer now faces up to five years in prison.
And now our sixth story OUTFRONT: Like father, line son. Never before seen video surfacing of Ted Cruz's father making some comments about President Barack Obama. Let me let you judge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFAEL CRUZ, SEN. TED CRUZ'S FATHER: We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago. I'd like to send him back to Kenya, back to Indonesia.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: According to "Mother Jones", which uncovered the video, Rafael Cruz made those comments in September of last year at a North Texas Tea Party event as his son was running for Senate.
Now, Ted Cruz calls his father a hero. So, is the younger Cruz on the hook for his father's remarks?
OUTFRONT tonight, political analyst John Avlon and Mediaite's Joe Concha.
Great you have to both with us.
Now, John, Senator Cruz often brought his father on the campaign trail. In fact, you know, he's bragged about how many campaign stops his father has made. Obviously, they're very close.
Here's what he said after won his Senate seat in November about his father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: My father has spent virtually every day past year crisscrossing this state. Telling his story and speaking on his son's behalf. My dad is my hero. He has been my entire life.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Given that, does senator need to denounce those comments by his father?
JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he needs to distance himself from those comments, because a failure to distance himself ends up being association. Look, he's been very clear his father is his hero, and that's a great thing. His father has lived an American dream in many respects.
But it says a lot about the environment from which Ted Cruz spreads. It says a lot about the ideology that has influenced his development. It says a lot about the man that the senator has become.
So, it's not incidental. It can't just be dismissed. It should be condemned.
BURNETT: Joe, what do you think? I mean, you know, this isn't just my father was saying something random on the side. This is a man who is very closely affiliated and politically affiliated with his son.
JOE CONCHA, MEDIAITE: And Ted Cruz in some straw polls is the leading contender for the presidency in 2016 -- not the presidency but at least the Republican nomination.
BURNETT: Right.
CONCHA: Let's look at three presidents, OK, recent presidents, whose fathers might not have been the best example.
For instance, President Obama. When he was young his parents divorced, a very young age. All right. And his father was a deadbeat basically, absentee father. The president talks about it in his book. Let's see, Obama from there goes to Columbia, Harvard, senator, two- term president.
OK, how about fathers that were more active in their sons' lives that were presidents? Well, let's see. President's Clinton father died before he was born. Roger Clinton, his stepfather, was an abusive alcoholic. He used to beat his mother on a consistent basis.
One more example, John.
BURNETT: But he didn't take them on the campaign trail and have them say these things.
CONCHA: Right, these fathers though, even in Ronald Reagan's case, Jack Reagan was also a raging alcoholic as well. The bottom line is these people, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, they didn't follow the examples, didn't embrace the principles necessarily of their fathers because when you become an adult, you're making your decisions.
AVLON: Yes, but --
BURNETT: But isn't Ted Cruz by definition, John, embracing more because he is taking his father on the campaign trail? Or is that taking that too far? AVLON: And I think there is a fundamental difference, right? We're not talking about judging kids by the father's mistakes. We're talking about the context of statements on a campaign trail and statements that ripped directly off some of the most ugliest, most unhinged birther conspiracy theories that so many Tea Party conservatives say, oh, we don't have anything to do with.
And when you actually have been -- when you have grown up ideologically in the shadow of your father, influenced by your father, by all accounts, by your own account and that stuff slips out on a captain trail, it says a lot about the waters from which you have sprung, ideological and otherwise. So, it is a big deal. It is not a character defect. It's a political insult that needs to be own.
CONCHA: However, this is not a Kathleen Gingrich moment. If you recall, Kathleen Gingrich tells Connie Chung, you know what my son thinks about Hillary Clinton. Thinks she's a bitch.
OK, if Ted Cruz' father thinks that Barack Obama should go back to Kenya, well, that's something different altogether, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. So, I want to play you something Senator Cruz has said. This is not in the same category of send him back to Kenya but it does show Senator Cruz' way of programs saying things. So, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. TED CRUZ: I don't want to miss the opportunity within the limited time to do something that is imperative that I do, which is to thank the men and women who have endured this Bataan death march.
Have you all noticed, you know, the Nigerian e-mail scammers? They've been a lot less active lately, because they've all been hired to run the Obamacare Web sites.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BURNETT: He ends up apologizing for those comments which I think we can agree that might be tasteless but it is not in the category of what we're about to hear in a moment from his father. But if he apologizes for those, shouldn't he apologies for send him back to Kenya?
CONCHA: And throw his father under the bus.
You know what, if he were to do that, you would have less respect, because in the end, say your kid gets in trouble in school. You still stand by him. It goes the other way as well. As a son to advance his political career and say, you know what, I denounce my father right now.
BURNETT: Right.
CONCHA: Family in the end, Erin, regardless of the comments, always comes first. BURNETT: All right. So, me play this sound bite. This will get a little tougher for you, Joe. This is Rafael Cruz, again. A blog found this, Colorado Pauls, it's called, obviously a liberal blog. But let me just play it again. This is Ted Cruz's father.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
RAFAEL CRUZ: Barack Obama wrote, "If the winds shift, I will side with the Muslims."
AUDIENCE MEMBER: He is Muslim.
RAFAEL CRUZ: Well, McCain couldn't say that because it wasn't politically correct. It is time to stop being politically correct.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. That's --
CONCHA: If you expect me to defend that statement, I am not saying anything that this isn't right --
BURNETT: I'm not saying defending the substance of the statement but more -- I mean, this is not just one time he said something. It's multiple times.
CONCHA: Until I hear Ted Cruz make those comments, here's the thing. It's 2013. The election is three years away.
If somebody actually goes into a voting booth and says, you know what, I don't really know where this Cruz guy stands. But his father who is 74 years old, who may or may be coherent at this point --
AVLON: This isn't about 2016. This isn't about 2016. What this is about some of the ugliness that tends to seep through our politics at the grassroots level and infuse the most extreme among us.
And someone whose father has parroted that, and I love the fact he's McCain is too politically correct to tell the truth is Obama is secretly going to shift winds with the Muslim. I mean, it's fantasy on fantasy on paranoia. That is what fuels the ugliness in our politics today. And if that is not condemned, no matter who he says it, then you're de facto endorsing it.
CONCHA: And Rafael Cruz is not running for any office anytime soon. He is a pastor. And, therefore, Ted Cruz, while he should distance, I agree with Mr. Avlon. At the same time, you can't ask him to throw his dad under the bus. That's not how family works in the end, regardless of comments.
BURNETT: Maybe not have him in public settings anymore.
CONCHA: That might be --
BURNETT: All right. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Our seventh story OUTFRONT: more human bodies discovered. Officials investigating tonight a left arm now found at a Los Angeles County waste water treatment plant. Now, you know we've been covering this story because this is the third time in one week human remains have surfaced at two different California treatment plants.
And investigators say they could be related.
Stephanie Elam is OUTFRONT with the story.
And, Stephanie, what is the latest on this? I mean, it was bizarre when it started. Now, it is getting even more disturbing.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is disturbing, Erin. And, in fact, authorities say that they were expecting this. The discovery of more bodies national water treatment facility. Workers already found a pelvis and leg at the same plan in Carson, California, on Saturday.
Then, on Monday a female head and torso were uncovered 30 mile north at another plant and now this left arm. Authorities believe the body parts belong to the same woman and that she was likely murdered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. MIKE ROSSON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We're treating this as a homicide right now because of the fact that nobody can fall into the system. So, one of two things, you know, somebody -- it was -- it was a nefarious act where somebody was killed and placed in that system or somebody passed away and somebody panicked and placed them in that system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: Now, officials think the body entered the system intact through a storm drain and then was dismembered as it traveled in the fast moving water unto those plants, Erin.
BURNETT: Stephanie, do police have any idea who this woman is? Where she came from? How this could have happened?
ELAM: Well, they're saying based on the plant and where the parts were found, officials say the body was likely dumped just east of Los Angeles in one of the foothill communities. And police believe she was Hispanic but say there is no one in the missing persons fails that match her description.
And while all this time and water has damaged some of the forensics, there are some tattoos visible on the body parts, so that could help detectives figure out who this woman was, how she tied and who killed her, Erin.
BURNETT: Stephanie, thank you.
Well, still to come, disturbing video of a man viciously beating a migrant worker. The kind of thing you cannot believe was caught on tape. We'll warn you that this video is tough to watch, but an important one. We have that report, next.
Plus, the latest from an increasingly bizarre murder trial. Why a former doctor's believes the doctor killed her mother.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: We're back with tonight's outer circle.
Tonight, we go to Saudi Arabia where a video showing a man viciously beating a worker has gone viral. Now, I want to tell you, CNN can't independently verify the authenticity of this video but it has gone viral and I asked our Mohammed Jamjoom what's going to happen next in the case.
I do want to warn you. We're going to play the video and the footage is very hard to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A horrific video that appears to show a Saudi man beating a migrant worker is causing outrage in Saudi Arabia. Government officials there are telling me in this video, it appears as though a Saudi man is angry with a migrant worker over having contacted the man's wife in the video.
You see the Saudi man repeatedly beating the worker using his belt to flog him, slapping him, and kicking him, asking him if he wants to die. The migrant worker clearly pleading for his life and very much in pain.
The officials are telling me they want to make an example of this man. They want to make sure that the abuser is arrested as quickly as possible and they can then man being abused in the video. Now, nobody who I've spoken to knows what happened to the abuser or the man being abused. They are looking for them. They are investigating with the help of the Saudi security forces.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission in Saudi Arabia says justice needs to be done in this case and needs to be done as quickly as possible -- Erin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Thanks very much, Mohammed Jamjoom.
Of course, Saudi Arabia relies heavily on migrant workers and there have been allegations -- just many, many, many allegations of these kinds of horrible things. Amazing that it is finally caught on today, hopefully, will make some changes.
Our eighth story OUTFRONT: I believe my father kill her. Those devastating words from the daughter of Martin MacNeill, the Utah doctor accused of killing his wife.
But the defense tried to discredit the state's key witness today, trying to show the jury that MacNeill's daughter changed her story and may have had a motive to lie.
Jean Casarez is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ms. Somers, if you will come forward again.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Day two of the hostile cross-examination of Martin MacNeill's daughter Alexis turned downright combative.
RANDY SPENCER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You've made up the story that you told today since this interview, haven't you?
ALEXIS SOMERS, DAUGHTER: No, I have not.
SPENCER: You weren't giving accurate information one time or the other, right?
SOMERS: No, I'm not 100 percent sure on this.
SPENCER: You've never, ever related this before. Have you?
SOMERS: To you?
SPENCER: To me or to anybody.
CASAREZ: An effort by defense attorney Randy Spencer to catch her in lies, impeach her testimony, and prove she wanted revenge against her father for having an affair.
SPENCER: So, it's not as important to get accurate information on informal e-mails back and forth?
SOMERS: Oh, no, that's not what I said.
CASAREZ: The attack on her credibility as the prosecution' star witness against her father was relentless. MacNeill is accused of compelling his wife Michele to have a facelift. Then, during her recovery, giving her a laundry list of medications that prosecutors say left her in a weakened stupor. They said that allowed MacNeill to drown her, so he could marry his long time mistress, Gypsy Willis.
The defense says Michele MacNeill died of heart disease, led by a history of hypertension.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On what day did your mom pass away?
CASAREZ: Under questioning from the prosecution, Alexis explained why she was so intent on investigating her mother's suspicious death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why were you seeking information as to your mother's death?
SOMERS: Because I believe my father killed her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wonder, is something else going on here if there is motive?
CASAREZ: The Utah state medical examiner told the jury he amended the original cause of death attributed to cardiovascular disease to indicate the drugs in her system may have played a role in Michele's death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were to learn the defendant here had drugged up Michele MacNeill and convinced her to get into the tub and held her down for a little bit, and it caused her death, would that scenario be consistent with how Michele MacNeill may have died here?
DR. TODD CAMERON GREY, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Yes, certainly, it's possible.
CASAREZ: But on cross-examination, he admitted he could not justify declaring Michele MacNeill's death a murder.
SPENCER: It was not necessarily a homicide, either, correct?
GREY: No, I couldn't -- I did not feel that I could reach a conclusion of homicide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Obviously, ending there on a big question, Jean. What's next?
CASAREZ: Well, the prosecution is going to have a couple more experts, including Dr. Joshua Porter (ph), a forensic pathologist out of Florida. He will testify he believes the immediate cause of death was drowning.
And then the federal inmates, believe it or not, prosecutors have brought in from federal inmates from Texas, they will testify that they got to know Martin MacNeill. He told them, they will testify, we believe that he killed his wife but he could never be proven because it looks like she took the drugs and accidently died, that Michele was just a burden. That she wanted everything and plied with her drugs, got her into the tub and put her face down in the water just like that hypothetical posed to the medical examiner today. Erin.
BURNETT: Jean, thank you very much. Jean Casarez, covering that trial for us in Utah.
Well, it's time for the OUTFRONT outtake.
Halloween has finally arrived, that's why I'm wearing black. The night when people and their poor, poor pets sadly are denied dignity, dressed up in costumes, wondering the streets looking for tricks and treats.
Now, you probably seen the stores and candy clogging for weeks, but unless there is a ton of last-minute shopping, this Halloween is very scary for retailers. Industry analysts expect Halloween spending to hit $7 billion in the U.S. which frankly sounds like an absurdly huge amount of money but it's actually down a billion dollars from last year.
But it's not about America. Halloween's roots are in a Celtic pagan festival, but it didn't really take off as a holiday until religious America got ahold and shaped it into traditions people paid cold, hard cash for. Now, it's become a monster money making celebration and in American style, it's being exported to everybody else.
Over the past few years, more and more countries have embraced the Americanized Halloween, dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, which by the way are indigenous to America, going door to door for candy, participating in zombie walks. And in addition to Europe and North America, Halloween is now celebrated in Asia, Tokyo, Africa, South America.
So, here is the question I have for you. Are you celebrating with more than a cheetah cat head band? I mean, it's kind of a cute cheetah, it has some pink sparkles.
Send us your picture and tell us what country you're in. We want to know how big Halloween really is. Via Twitter @ErinBurnett or @OutFrontCNN.
Still to come, beer and space, a new idea that's out of this world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Beer and space. Tonight, one man's idea to combine the two for a new brew that's out of this world.
Maggie Lake is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM CALAGIONE, DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY, CEO: Would you say that's awesome? All right. I'm glad you like it.
MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dogfish Head founder and CEO Sam Calagione is proud of the latest creation, American Beauty.
CALAGIONE: You get kind of the sweet earthiness of the honey in the nose.
LAKE: The beer he helped brewed with a legendary counter culture rock band, the Grateful Dead.
CALAGIONE: We asked dead heads and dogfish heads to choose ingredients. You can imagine some of the ingredient suggestions.
LAKE (on camera): I bet.
(voice-over): Dogfish's pint sized and proud of it.
CALAGIONE: If we want to go really fast, we probably have to do an IPO. You'd probably have to bring in venture capital money. We'd probably have to lose control of or company and somebody would not let me put granola in beer and I would not be happy.
LAKE: This is one CEO who loves operating way off the unbeaten president. Case in point: another new Dogfish beer is being brewed with actual moon dust.
CALAGIONE: It's off centered for off centered people. We know inherent in that statement, we're going to be a niche company and not appeal really to the status quo and yet we're able to grow because people are into off centered things.
LAKE: In fact, Dogfish has enjoyed double digit growth every year since it began brewing in 1995 and it's not tapped out yet.
CALAGIONE: Here we are standing in a commercial brewery.
LAKE: Calagione is partnering with famed chef's Mario Batali's franchise and he's mauling new overseas ex passion.
CALAGIONE: I'd say that the countries that we're getting the most requests from are Brazil, we're getting a lot of requests from Scandinavia. We already have a great presence in Italy. We're looking at England as another market.
LAKE: But he'd be the first to say his path to the corner office is unique.
CALAGIONE: I'm one of the few people that graduated from college but not high school. They asked me to go elsewhere March in my senior year. So yes, I had a problem with authority and I'm glad I found a positive way to channel that in my work life.
LAKE: Just like brewing partners, The Grateful Dead -- Sam Calagione keeps on trucking and loving every minute of it.
Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Pretty great story and pretty great that he did it, decided I'm going to do it. This is my life and did it.
All right. Thanks so much for watching. Enjoy yourself and have a wonderful Halloween, however you choose to celebrate it.
"ANDERSON COOPER 360" starts right now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, thanks very much.
Good evening, everyone.
Tonight, breaking news, new word on just how close we came to having Vice President Hillary Clinton today. There's a game change book about to come out and we've got a sneak peek and the dump Joe Biden revelation isn't the only bombshell in it.
Also tonight, iPads, Kindles, Gameboys, iPods, they're all now cleared for takeoff. I'll talk to a computer geek who helped make the FAA change its mind about in flight electronics for the first time in 50 years.
We'll also take you underground, inside a newly discovered tunnel that carries drugs into the United States by the ton.
We begin with breaking news. Kind of inside the room reporting that political correspondents kill for and Hollywood producers pay big money for.
