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President May Order New Screening for Travelers; American Arrested in Chicago for Attempting to Join ISIS; Ebola Arrives in Madrid; Bill Clinton Campaigning for Democrats

Aired October 07, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: He said he wants increased airport screenings at the source and here at U.S. airports. Can you help us understand realistically, what that would look like at U.S. airports?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AN INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NIH: Sure. Right now currently we have what's called exit screening, namely if you or I went to an airport let's say in Monrovia, Liberia, and we wanted to board a plane, we would have our temperatures taken and we would have a questionnaire that would ask certain questions, like have you ever had contact with someone who you felt or knew had Ebola. We don't have much at all what's called entry screening here. What the president was talking about was considering the possibility of giving an extra layer of entry screening upon arrival in the United States. What that would look like is under discussion. But likely retaking the temperature and asking some additional questions so that you have screenings both at the exit and at the entry end. That's the thing that's on the table right now.

CAMEROTA: The temperature is an interesting suggestion because we've been told that if you don't have a temperature you are not contagious. So if you get on the plane without a temperature, theoretically everyone on board should be safe even if you are somehow carrying already the virus. So what would taking the temperature at the tail- end do?

FAUCI: Well, that would close that gap of time that if you were negative or maybe mistaken temperature let's say at the exit level, or even if it was quite correctly not febrile as you got on the plane, let's say you're coming from Liberia, a typical pattern would be you would go from Liberia to Brussels, you would have a layover in Brussels for a few hours, and then you would go from Brussels to whatever airport in the United States, let's say Dulles in Washington, D.C.

What we're say something that if in fact you at that point, that 12, 13, 18 hours, however much it is to go through that trip, you start to develop a fever, you would be picked up. So it just closes that window of the time from getting infected to having the first manifestation with a fever. It just adds an extra slight layer of cover for the asymptomatic period.

CAMEROTA: That makes sense. Then let's say somebody had spiked a fever during that time period. Then everybody else on board is monitored? FAUCI: No. Well -- if the person has fever, they have to have come

into -- that means the person actually is now symptomatic. But if there is not direct contact with bodily fluids of the person, what you would do is that you would likely get the people on the plane and say, this person was on the plane. He had Ebola. They document he had Ebola. What you need to do is just have the contact of those people. So you'll get information for them. You won't quarantine them necessarily at all. But you say, what's your cell phone number, your home phone, where are you going to be for the next couple of days? And then you would let them go.

CAMEROTA: You know, ten international airlines have now banned travel to and from I believe Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ebola-infected places. At some point, would that just be easier?

FAUCI: Banning? No. I mean I've said that many times, and other health officials have said to shut off a country from in and out of passengers would be nothing but counterproductive. I mean obviously you could understand how people think that that increases the safety, but that isolates the countries to the point where it makes it very difficult for them to control the epidemic. And if that happens, it will spread to other African countries, and then you'll magnify the problem and make it even worse than it is. So virtually all health officials feel that essentially closing off a country is not a productive endeavor at all.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's talk about the nurse's assistant in Madrid who has contracted Ebola. So let's assume that she was trained in all of the standard precautions that doctors and nurses are. How would she have contracted it?

FAUCI: Well, obviously there was some breach in protocol, and that happens. When you're taking care of someone in an intensive care setting, not everyone is perfect. There are protocols that if you follow it carefully you diminish greatly the likelihood that you're going to get infected. In fact, if you look where there are so many patients being cared for in West African countries, experienced groups like Doctors without Borders very rarely, if ever, get an infection. But somehow protocol is sometimes inadvertently broken and someone exposes themselves.

CAMEROTA: So if somebody is wearing a facemask, is this what protocol is, a facemask, protective gloves -- is that how people are handling infected patients? Or is it a full suit?

FAUCI: It's a full suit. You've seen the pictures and everyone has seen the pictures of people caring for those who are infected with Ebola and who are actually having body fluids that you could get exposed to. It's more than just goggles and gloves. It's a hood, it's a gown, it's a rubber apron that you put around, it's covering for your shoes. It's everything that can keep any splash of body fluid away from you. It's important to wear it, but it's important also when you take them off, to take them off properly because it's conceivable that you could be protected while you're doing everything you need to do with the patient, and then as you remove the protective material that could also be a point of vulnerability. So we don't know how that nurse got infected, but obviously there had to be some likely inadvertent break in the protocol.

CAMEROTA: Last, Dr. Fauci, do we know the status of the NBC freelance photojournalist who is now being treated in Nebraska, how his condition is this morning?

FAUCI: No, I don't. I don't have knowledge of his condition.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci, thanks so much for taking the time. You gave us a lot of great information, we really appreciate it.

FAUCI: Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: All right, let's go over to Michaela for some more news.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, lots of headlines to get to. Thanks so much, Alisyn.

New developments thank you very much in the Veterans Administration scandal over those long wait times for medical care first exposed by CNN. Four senior executives have now been fired. They include directors of V.A. hospitals in Pennsylvania and Georgia and also a regional hospital director in Alabama. The firings are the first since Congress passed a law making it easier for the V.A. to fire officials suspected of wrongdoing.

Abortion providers in Texas, they are appealing to the Supreme Court to scale back structure new regulations that they claim run constitutional. An appeals court ruling allowed enforcement of a state law requiring clinics meet hospital surgery standards. However, abortion advocates say the law serves no medical purpose and has left nearly one million women hundreds of miles from the nearest clinic.

A former top member of President Obama's cabinet with some harsh words for the president. In a new memoir, Leon Panetta served as CIA chief and secretary of defense lashing out at Obama's handling of the troop withdrawal from Iraq, Syria, and the advance of ISIS. He says the president has, quote, "lost his way." To hear more of what Panetta had to say in a one-on-one interview with CNN's Gloria Borger, we'll have that for you coming up in our next hour.

Oh, the '90s, those of you who were of age to watch "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" will remember all too well the Carleton dance made famous by Alfonso Ribeiro's character Carlton. Apparently, my friend, brother's still got it. Performing last night on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," naturally the video has gone viral. I want to use it as an opportunity here to people -- I think, I thought were you going to bust out. When you are known for something, you might as well embrace it like he has here. I'm not saying you got to bust out on the streets every time somebody sees you, but I appreciate he can laugh at himself and laugh with himself and know that this what people love about him.

CAMEROTA: Look at how great it is. He's only gotten better.

CUOMO: I love the nostalgia of it. But let me ask you, he raises an interesting issue when it comes to "dancing with the stars." PEREIRA: Does he now?

CAMEROTA: A dissertation on this now?

CUOMO: He can obviously dance. Does that skew the competition when someone is actually dance-trained and they get in as --

CAMEROTA: I don't know that he's dance-trained, is he?

CUOMO: I think he knows how to dance. I remember back in the day, they're like, wow, he can really move around well. Does that skew your idea about who should win?

CAMEROTA: It helps when you can dance.

CUOMO: I'm saying, is it different between being a star who is just trying to learn how to dance --

CAMEROTA: Then could you make the argument that skaters have an advantage or a ballerina or a football player who essentially has to kind of -- fast beat --

CUOMO: I don't think a football player has an advantage.

CAMEROTA: Some would do who is the fellow that won?

CUOMO: Jerry Rice won. Emmett Smith won.

CAMEROTA: Come on now.

CUOMO: I think part of the reason they won is they seemed like they were overcoming an obstacle to gracefulness as opposed to maybe --

CAMEROTA: Chris is trying to distract us.

CUOMO: Heaven forbid if you say something they don't agree with or like, it's like they tune you out.

CAMEROTA: Moving on --

PEREIRA: Did you say something?

CAMEROTA: What drove a Chicago-area teenager to allegedly try to join up with ISIS? Authorities say that's say that's where he was headed when they arrested him at O'Hare airport. We are live with all the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. ISIS appears on the verge of a major land grab of Syria. Militants are close to overtaking the key town of Kobani that's near the border with Turkey. And here at home a Chicago-area teenage who allegedly planned to join ISIS is now in federal custody and facing up to 15 years in prison. CNN's Ted Rowlands is live in Bowling Brook, Illinois, with all of the latest details. Ted, what do we know? TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, Mohammed Khan was arrested at O'Hare Airport, as you said. After he was arrested, he did talk to federal officials there, and he said he was planning on staying in the Middle East indefinitely and fighting for ISIS. But most of the information and evidence frankly against him at this point came from this home here out in the Chicago suburbs. That according to a federal complaint filed earlier this week. In this complaint it details a letter found inside the house from Khan allegedly to his parents which basically spells out why he would want to leave his home here in the United States and go to the Middle East to fight for ISIS. He said he couldn't bear the thought of being 19 now and contributing to the U.S. tax system and having his tax money go to kill his, quote, "Muslim brothers and sisters."

He also in that letter invited his parents to come join him. What is unclear, Alisyn, is who paid for his plane ticket and whether or not his parents knew that he had become so radicalized. He's in federal custody. He has a hearing later this week, Thursday, in Chicago.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, the plane ticket. That is a big question. Ted Rowlands, thanks so much for the update. Chris?

CUOMO: Alright, now obviously there's a lot of fascination about who this kid is and why he did it, but equally interesting is going to be how this investigation was approached and what the goal of it was, and what it tells us about the threat here in the United States. So let's get some insight, shall we? Mr. Philip Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst, former CIA counterterrorism official. Good to have you, Professor Mudd. So tell me, how big a risk, how big a threat do you think this 19-year-old kid is?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Well I know, Chris, I'm supposed to be the guy who says this kid is a huge threat. You got to follow cases like this. I don't think he was and this is why. Most of these kids, 19-years-old, at this stage are going over to places like Iraq, Turkey, Syria, because they're very emotionally motivated by joining something bigger, being part of a bigger cause. In cases like this, he's going to go over and want to fight immediately and most likely, he's not coming back because he's going to die. So if he ever showed up back in Chicago, I would be worried about him. But I think most likely, he would have gone over there and taken one in the head, he'd be dead.

CUOMO: And, as you've taught us before, very often when people come from America to join up with the cause, they're put on the front right away. They're put in the most dangerous situations right away. Because even though they may be Muslim, they are not seen as trustworthy for a long time. So point taken. In terms of lone wolves and home-grown terror, is that why this investigation was sensitive? Is that a major source of concern?

MUDD: Well, you could talk about lone wolves, but there are some clues here that we haven't figured out yes. That is, this is a spider in the middle of the spider web. What you want to do in this case is put the kid aside, where did the money come from? Who did he talk to online? You got to talk to the Turkish service. Who was he going to talk to when he got to the airport? He wasn't just going to go there and sort of make his way to the front line. So, there's about 15 questions you got to ask when this guy shows up on the radar and the identification of him and who he is is just the first step in the process. By the way, this is a group at the bureau who took him down that I used to work in, and so I'm sitting here saying, game on, what's going on behind the scenes? Because that's the interesting story here.

CUOMO: Well let me ask you something, then, because my main question is, why didn't they follow this guy? Why did they stop him at the airport? Why didn't they string him along and see where he went to get answers to many of these interesting questions that you raise?

MUDD: You can't do that, Chris, and the reason is pretty simple. First of all, he's already violated a federal law, so he is going to prison. But the more interesting part of this is, you're going to lose him if you let him go. You might be able to follow him for a bit, but you're going to lose him. So the choice is, do I take the money and run, or do I face the risk that he goes out there, maybe gets some false documents and shows up back in the United States and we can't figure out who he is anymore? One of the interesting aspects of this case, by the way, is they got him at the airport. So the question is, why would you wait until the airport? Two reasons, No. 1, if you're a prosecutor, you want to say it wasn't just a kid looking at ISIS, it was a kid who was acting on his intentions, he was at the airport. Second and final is, you want to map the entire spider web as long as you can. Money, radicalizers, other kids he's involved with. So, you want to wait until the last second before you take him down and spook the rest of the spider web.

CUOMO: What insight does it give you into how the process works? We understand that this 19-year-old was given round-trip tickets from Chicago to Vienna to Turkey and back three days later. What's the idea? That he would have been radicalized there quickly and returned immediately? How do they radicalize someone that quickly? Or are they already half in the bag when they make the trip?

MUDD: I don' that that's what's happened here. I think there's a prospect that he was going out for some sort of radicalization. You can you radicalize someone very quickly. I've seen it both in Europe and the United States. I suspect, though, that the story is different. That they chose a return ticket, because a one-way ticket open-ended for a single 19-year-old kid traveling to Turkey looks really suspicious. So somebody who is smarter than this kid said hey, we're going to get you a round-trip ticket, because the chance that you're going to trigger somebody at the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security to say something is wrong here is lower with a round-trip than with a one-way. I don't think he was coming home.

CUOMO: So, you got two competing interests here. The first one is hey, he's not going to come home, he's going to go there, he's going to go there, he's going to catch Ebola, be put in a dangerous situation. But the other side is, somebody thought he was valuable enough to come up with this sophisticated way to get him somewhere else. What does that suggest? MUDD: This is the same kind of model that we've seen in other fights

and places like Somali or Yemen. You find somebody who has got some money. You find somebody who knows, sort of, the radicalization and recruitment networks that will take you through Europe. This looks like one kid, a unique situation at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, it's not. I looked at this and my first reaction is, same stuff I saw in 2006, in 2007, in 2010. Wherever the fight is, there's going to be somebody behind the scenes, who has got the ideological commitment and the money to find some stupid 19-year-old who is easily affected. And that's what happened in this case. It doesn't look much different to what I saw for years at the Bureau.

CUOMO: Now, assuming it is ISIS, you said that the beheadings and all these horrible things that they're doing would actually be a deterrent to recruitment over time. But, this young kid, and maybe as you say, many others are out there still feeling the need to join. Are we too early in the process for all this ugliness to work against ISIS?

MUDD: We're too early in the process. But let me by clear, let me differentiate between a fringe, like this kid, again somebody who is easily influenced by ideology, and the 99.9 percent who are either sitting on the sidelines or starting to get into the fight. What I'm more interested in is not whether ISIS can recruit among a fringe in some place like Germany or the U.K. or Chicago. I'm interested in when the 99.9, the Syrian Kurds, the Iraqi Kurds, the Sunni tribes in Anbar Province start to say, we may not like Baghdad, we may not like the government, but we're tired of these guys and we're going to take the fight to them. We're seeing that already. We're seeing that among Syrian and Iraqi Kurds. The problem is, that that's going to take years to sort itself out because ISIS is pretty well-funded and organized.

CUOMO: And as long as you have disenfranchised populations abroad you're going to have a pool of potentials. Professor Mudd, thank you for the clarification and perspective, as always.

MUDD: Thank you.

CUOMO: He doesn't like me. When we come back we're going to talk to you about this breaking news out of Spain as the first person to contract the virus outside of Africa is identified there. How did this happen? And does it mean that the virus could be changing? We have a live report with those developments and moments.

And then, Bill Clinton back on the hustings in his home state of Arkansas. He's on the campaign trail. He's trying to keep a key Senate seat for the Democrats. Can he do it? John King has the answer on "INSIDE POLITICS."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Alright, we have some breaking news out of Spain. Three more people are now being monitored for Ebola after a nurse assistant was diagnosed with the virus in Madrid. She is the first case of the disease being contracted outside of West Africa and then diagnosed. Spanish medical authorities are now looking at 22 contacts made by that nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola. The head of the hospital said today, that nurse had been treating a priest, two priests in fact. Two of them had died from Ebola. She had been treating them, had been wearing protective gear. There's concerns, of course, as we mentioned from Dr. Fauci as he mentioned earlier on the air, about how the removal of that protective gear goes, in terms of how transmission could possibly, in mistake, occur. But now they're looking at 22 contacts of that woman who went on vacation, We're told she became sickened on that vacation. She is now being treated in hospital. So that is our breaking news from Spain. We'll continue to monitor that as we get more information.

Calls now for tighter security at sporting events after two brutal fan beatings in California on Sunday. A San Francisco 49ers fan hospitalized in serious condition. Following this, an assault in a bathroom at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. Police have now made two arrests. But another incident, authorities are searching for three suspects who brutally beat a former LAPD officer in the parking lot at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, following Friday's playoff game against the Royals. Alex Arredondo has been upgraded from critical to serious, but stable condition. He is expected to survive.

Alright, check out this hard-hitting web video. A pair of kangaroos duking it out, this is for you Alisyn, in the middle of the street. All se to a lovely lush soundtrack. The two kicked and punched one another for the better part of five minutes.

CAMEROTA: Come on, those are people dressed in kangaroo suits.

PEREIRA: One YouTube commenter says he thinks they are just playing around since they have really sharp claws and don't really seem to be using them. But isn't this part of their - the males, don't they do this to vie for attention from the female roo or something? I'm making it up. I know nothing about kangaroos. They've got a pouch. That's it.

CUOMO: They're lucky they've got those big strong legs, because you see the defense is terrible. All they do is just hold their heads back.

CAMEROTA: He's going to criticize the way kangaroos fight.

CUOMO: What kind of defense is that? Look at how he's holding his head back.

PEREIRA: They've got those little t-rex arms, what are they supposed to do?

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. I like how Yahoo classifies - Yahoo said that's the most Australian thing you'll see all day.

PEREIRA: Pretty much. Pretty much the Canadian equivalent is a pair of moose.

CUOMO: The legs are no joke. But up top, the defense is lacking.

PEREIRA: Not a lot. They've got to work the upper body a little bit more.

CUOMO: Let's ask John King what he thinks. We'll take you "INSIDE POLITICS" on NEW DAY. What do you think about that? I mean, the defense up top was lacking, John. You see his only head move.

JOHN KING, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I've got to go home now, you see that was our lead story. We could -- maybe in politics we should settle things like that, I don't know.

CAMEROTA: There's a segway there, I'm sure.

KING: There's a segway. Good morning to you guys. Let's go "INSIDE POLITICS." Four weeks from election day, 28 days from today, you decide who controls the United States Senate. A lot of governors races, some House races, every House race at stake, as well. With me this morning to share the reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of "the Associated Press," Ron Fournier of "National Journal." We're going to go straight to Arkansas. I was joking with Fourneir, I met Fournier back in 1991, when he was the A.P. Guy in Little Rock, I was the A.P. guy covering Bill Clinton. This guy is now back in his home state, trying to save the Democrats. There's a tough governor's race there. There's a tough Senate race there that the Democrats need to hold onto that Senate seat. Listen to Bill Clinton back on the campaign trail telling people to vote and reject the Republican argument.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER PRESIDENT, BILL CLINTON: You cannot afford to do what their opponents want. They want to you make it's a protest vote. All three of these races they're saying, you may like these guys, but hey, you know what you got to do, you got to vote against the president, I promise it's your last shot. It's a pretty good scam, isn't it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Start with you, Ron. Usually I'm a ladies first guy. But, I don't know, does this make you feel young or make you feel old? There's nobody like him. The raspy voice hasn't changed.

RON FOURNIER, NATIONAL JOURNAL: Covering him for as long as I have, it's like I got paid for an advanced degree in politics. He's the best. You see what he did yesterday. He did a typical Clinton. He took the best argument, the best argument that the Republicans have against voting for Democrats and he slowly took it apart. He's -- the master.

KING: The question is, there's no question, let's show some the pictures as we go through this. Here's Bill Clinton on the rope line. He's taking selfies with people as he goes through. He came to age, remember, in the pre-internet days. I don't know what it would have been like to have Twitter and Facebook and all this when Bill Clinton was governor, and then president. I shudder to think about it, actually.