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Romney, Bush Meet In Utah; Conservatives And 2016 Hopefuls Gather In Iowa; Argentine President Prosecutor's Death Not Suicide; Measles Making A Comeback?

Aired January 23, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Production of an promising experimental Ebola drug has stalled. ZMapp was tried for the first time on two American aid workers in Liberia who were severely ill with the virus. Both recovered. Federal officials vowed to make more quickly. However, six months later, very little has been produced and no contracts to manufacture the ZMapp have been granted. Government officials say clinical trials to test the drug will begin in Liberia within three weeks.

California health officials are warning people do not visit Disneyland unless you are vaccinated against measles. The contagious and potentially deadly virus, which originated at the theme park, at least this round, has infected at least 70 people in six states and in Mexico. Pediatricians report anxious parents are scrambling to set up appointments if their children have not been vaccinated.

You know, we've said it before -- there's seemingly an app for everything. Case in point, invisible girlfriend or invisible boyfriend. It will send convincing text messages, even voicemails from a virtual fictional partner. The idea is to help singletons dodge those socially awkward situations, practice getting their flirt on, and keep those nosy relatives off their back for $24.99 -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I would have loved this.

PEREIRA: You can get 100 text messages, ten voicemails, and one postcard from your make-believe boo. I think what would seal the deal is some flowers, too.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I love it. What does your imaginary girlfriend think of this?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: My imaginary girlfriend. Do you think the service is going to kind of like -- and you'll start have someone who can call you to cover for you where you were during that time?

CAMEROTA: That exists.

CUOMO: Imaginary excuse friend?

PEREIRA: Totally.

CUOMO: So great playing Parcheesi with you last night until 3:30 in the morning. We should do it again next Friday.

CAMEROTA: Finally an invention I think we can all use.

CUOMO: Parcheesi or Yahtzee.

All right, let's get to "Inside Politics" now on NEW DAY with John King. Yahtzee.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": You just solved it. The imaginary boyfriends and girlfriends deflated the footballs.

CUOMO: It sounds like something your team would say. Yahtzee!

KING: See, I tried to have humor. You want it make it about something. Happy Friday. Back to you guys -- Yahtzee it is. Let's go to "Inside Politics" on a busy Friday here in Washington.

With me to share their reporting and their insight are Ed O'Keeffe of the "Washington Post" and CNN's Chris Moody. Let's start with the peace summit, the Bush/Romney summit in Utah yesterday, at this moment yesterday. It's 24 hours ago, we were talking about how Jeb Bush was at the airport in Washington flying to Utah.

We got pictures of him when he landed, but pretty much silence, they had the meeting. Both sides saying, yes, they had the meeting, but not telling us anything about it.

Today Mitt Romney will meet with his senior political people in Boston. They're going to think about planning a campaign. Jeb Bush has a speech in California.

It will be interesting to see if he gets asked a question. He's at an auto dealers association. If anyone thought one of them was going to say, you go, I'll get out, not happening.

ED O'KEEFE, "WASHINGTON POST": Doesn't sound like it we're told this was a cordial exchange and they -- folks close to both of them acknowledging that they're both after the same thing here.

So what was initially scheduled, as a sort of courtesy visit with the former party nominee, has turned into a meeting between two rivals and you know we all wish we knew more. But both sides being very tight-lipped about what happened.

KING: Not just two rivals, but two very senior Republican establishment figures, and Chris, there are a lot of donors out there who almost wished that one of them would bow out. They're getting phone calls saying give do me, no, give to me. These would be two heavyweights on the establishment side.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The shadow campaign, this is the money part. They're going after the same donors. We're not talking about Tea Party candidate versus establishment candidate. These people are in the same tier and now they are in the same room.

I think the fact that we didn't hear anything about the meeting is very telling. This is going to be a fascinating part of the campaign season even though it's all happening behind closed doors.

You also have Governor Chris Christie probably going after those same donors and, of course, Romney and Jeb Bush are not going to the meeting in Iowa, whereas a lot of the other perhaps more conservative candidates are.

KING: You mentioned the meeting, Christie is going to the meeting, and he's scheduled to. This is Steve king, the Republican congressman who stirs up a lot of controversy sometimes with his views on immigration and other issues. He's hosting a summit tomorrow in Iowa.

Let's show you some of the people coming there. Sarah Palin is going, she says, we don't think she's running in 2016. But she can stir things up, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Ben Carson and Senator Joni Ernst.

That's just a partial list, Steve King is getting quite a group do come to his summit. Just a cattle call or are we looking for news here?

O'KEEFE: It's interesting because I asked him this week, what's this about and what do you want to hear? And what do your supporters want to hear? He's expecting about 1,000 folks. Interestingly, he insisted he really wants to hear them talk about national security.

And he claims, this is an issue he's very concerned about, which is odd, because you don't hear Steve King talk about national security too often. It's usually about immigration. He says I want to hear them talk about this. I think I know at least some of the candidates were planning to discuss that issue.

But we it will be interesting to see if they go into other issues. The most interesting to watch in this crowd is Chris Christie. He's seen on paper as the one least likely to appeal to an Iowa Republican voter given that they are more conservative.

If he does well there, certainly that has to bring great pause to Romney and Bush who have had issues with Iowa in the past. Aren't as engaged right now and may or may not participate in the caucus.

KING: I'm interested, Chris, if the current debate in the House Republican conference comes up at this meeting. Sarah Palin speaks out on life issues quite a bit. Joni Ernst spoke out on life issues in her state of the union response, we know a lot of the Republican candidates, likely candidates, are in the anti-abortion side of the party.

We've had a debate in the House of Representatives in recent days, where some conservatives want to bring forward, Ed, you covered this today, a strict anti-abortion bill and some moderates in the Republican caucus revolted.

And said, number one, we don't like the legislation, maybe. Number two, why are you making us vote on this in the first few weeks of the news in Congress. Listen to Charlie Dent. He said week one, we had a speaker election that didn't go the way we wanted it to.

Week two we're debating deporting children. Week three, we now debating rape and abortion, again an issue that most of us didn't campaign on or really want to engage on at this time. I just can't wait for week four. That's in your story today.

Chris, let me start with you. In the last couple of years, we've watched the conservatives revolt against the speaker. Now we have the moderates pushing back. What does that tell us?

MOODY: For a messaging bill, which because this bill would not get to the president's desk or it may, he certainly would not sign it. They really messed it up to give a little bit of context this is the week for the march for life.

It's one of the largest annual rallies that's been going on for decades, where thousands of pro-life marchers come to Washington. They lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill. And then they try to put forth this bill and have to pull it back.

A really embarrassing start for the Republicans, but you're right, it is fascinating that the moderates here and in other cases, with the new Congress, are doing something that the conservatives were doing in years past.

And I think it just shows that as we saw in the GOP retreat last week in Hershey, that there still is a lot of division and a lot of room to go with between the parties.

O'KEEFE: This has a lot to do with moderates versus conservatives, Tea Party folks versus chamber of commerce Republicans. The interesting element here and why it is slightly more unique is you had there are 22 women in the House Republican caucus, about 15 of them we think had issues with this bill.

This shows you now, that the fact that the size of the female caucus in the House Republican conference has grown, they now feel that they can with their strength of numbers, step up and talk about this a little more and say you know what, we are anti-abortion.

But you can only take it so far before women like ourselves are a little uncomfortable about this and we can suffer the political consequences. There was a fascinating meeting where virtually every woman in the conference was coming out of Steve Scalise's office.

None of them wanted to talk about it, but we know that all of them expressed real concern about this new vote. There are limits on how far Republicans can go on abortion.

KING: Let's close with the president's event yesterday at the White House.

O'KEEFE: Why not?

KING: I just want your perspective. I remember I was covering the Clinton campaign in 1992. Some were aghast that then-Governor Clinton went on Arsenio Hall and played a saxophone saying that's not presidential.

This president yesterday had Glozell Green and two other YouTube posters in. And some people say hey, go with the eyes are. Younger voters don't watch traditional news media. Others say it's not presidential.

I will say in her interview, Glozell used a word in reference to the Castro's that we won't repeat. Look at this exchange at the end where she's having a little fun with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, my momma says whenever you go to somebody's house, you have to give them something, don't come empty handed. I have green lipsticks, one for your first wife --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My first wife? Do you know something I don't?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the first lady and the first children.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: And the first -- I'm just teasing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I love that moment.

KING: You get a little nervous when you interview the president, right? It happens.

CAMEROTA: Look who is horning in on our toss. It's so special, John.

KING: He brought the football, didn't he?

CAMEROTA: Yes, he did.

KING: I will tell you, Mr. Cuomo, you may not think this is true, I want to know the answers, I want to know what happened. If they did this, it's petty and stupid and it demeans the players. I was at that game. They would have won if they were using bricks or Nerf. If somebody on the team is responsible for this, they should be penalized, I'm with you 1,000 percent.

CUOMO: As opposed to the balls simply having deflated themselves, John?

KING: You know, look, I don't know what happened. I want to know what happened. And if there's some scientific reason that happened on its own, somebody needs to show me and prove to me. But there are bigger and better things I wish we were talking about.

CUOMO: Not me. Sorry.

CAMEROTA: Well done, very nicely done.

KING: Stay safe, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Thank you, John. I appreciate your help.

Meanwhile, we are going to talk to that YouTube sensation, Glozell, about her interview with the president. And let's just face it, that's the best full-screen graphic you're going to see all day.

Make sure to watch John King and his "Inside Politics" panel break down the best political news of the week every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Thanks, John.

All right, also an about-face from Argentina's president, she now says a prosecutor gearing up to give damning testimony against her did not kill himself after all. So who's behind his murder?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A major reversal from the president of Argentina. President Christina Kirchner is now saying that the death of a top prosecutor was not a suicide. CNN's Shasta Darlington is live in Buenos Aires in front of the presidential palace. Tell us more.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fate of this state prosecutor has really shocked the country. But I got to say from the very beginning, most Argentines suspected this was not a suicide. And their suspicions focused on the two parties that were being targeted in Nisman's investigation. Those of course were the governments of Argentina and Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARLINGTON (voice-over): Argentine prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, spent the last ten years of his life building a high-profile case that ended up targeting his country's top officials.

On Sunday, just hours before he was set to testify before Congress, he was found dead inside his Buenos Aires home with a bullet wound to his temple. Next to his body is a gun and shell casing initially leading investigators and the president to label his death a suicide.

But now, new details causing Argentina's president to make an about-face, writing on her Facebook page, "The suicide that I'm convinced was not a suicide." Investigators are now revealing no gun powder residue was found on Nisman's hands indicating he may not have pulled the trigger himself.

In a 289-page report citing wiretapped phone conversations, Nisman alleges the president, foreign minister and other argentine officials conspired to cover up Iran's involvement in the country's deadliest terror attack.

The 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, all to help facilitate trade deals between the two nations. It's a charge Argentina's government strenuously denies. This newly released surveillance video shows the prosecutor arriving in the Buenos Aires airport on January 12th meeting with an unidentified person.

This week, accusations of a government conspiracy spread among Argentina's Jewish community, one member calling the prosecutor's death a blow to the investigation. But he says, they will not allow it to be the death of his cause. So far, no arrests have been made in his death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DARLINGTON: Now the official investigation has really just gotten started and the chief investigator herself has refused to rule out either suicide or murder. But Michaela, what the real hope is here is it won't drag out as long as the investigation into that 1994 bombing has.

PEREIRA: All right, Shasta Darlington with the latest from Argentina, thank you so much.

It has been over a decade since the measles was eradicated. Now it appears to be making a comeback, we want to look at what's behind the outbreak. We'll ask our good doctor, Sanjay Gupta, who joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Disneyland not exactly the happiest place on earth for dozens of visitors who took home not just memories, but a case of the measles as well. It's been nearly 15 years since the government deemed the viral disease eliminated, but it is making a comeback, at least 70 cases reported in six states so far and it is spreading.

Joining us to explain why is our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. My goodness, the fact that we even have this conversation is concerning. What is the latest on the outbreak, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, you get an idea of just how contagious this is and how quickly a virus can spread. We're talking about just the end of December when this all started.

Take a look at a map in terms of how this has sort of spread over the last few weeks now. Most of the cases, as you mentioned, Michaela, still in California, but look how it's starting to spread around. And that speaks to the contagious nature of this virus.

It does spread through the air, it does live on surfaces. Remember, we talked about Ebola so much over the summer. This is far more contagious than Ebola. The good news is that there is a vaccine available, so for people who have received the vaccine, they should have protection against this -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: OK. So let's talk about that because right now they're trying to figure out why this happened in Disneyland. You've got a lot of people, a lot of children. Some people, I've heard reports, they're pointing to the anti-vaccination movement as potentially being a cause of this. What are you learning?

GUPTA: I think that -- we're hearing the same thing. I think that definitely plays into this. Let me paint the picture for you like this. Likely somebody -- a single individual at some point with measles was in this area that had a lot of people, Disneyland in this case. Disneyland is only significant in that it clusters a lot of people together.

PEREIRA: Sure.

GUPTA: It could be any place else. This person shows up. If there are groups of people that had not been vaccinated, it can start to spread in that population. They subsequently go home or return to their communities and it can start to spread over there.

So it starts with usually a single individual, but then pockets of unvaccinated people start to allow this to spread and spread more rapidly. That seems to be the scenario here -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: I want to talk about the vaccination debate in a second more, but to the measles. Remind us, how does it start to exhibit symptoms from anybody maybe who's been to Disneyland or has family that's traveled to Disneyland with children. How does it manifest? What are the symptoms you're going to see?

GUPTA: Yes, it's a great question. When it starts, and it can take anywhere from a few days up to three weeks to start after you've been exposed, right, so keep that in mind. It may not come on right away. It often starts with what feels like a typical viral illness.

You get some fever, your muscles hurt, you may have some upper respiratory symptoms even, but what ends up being the characteristic is the rash, the measles rash that people know and doctors are being told to be on the lookout for this, especially in those states that we just showed on that map.

This isn't something to your point, Michaela, that we've thought about seriously. In 2000, it was considered largely eliminated. This may be on record as one of the biggest outbreaks of measles this year. You've already had 70 cases in two weeks.

PEREIRA: I was vaccinated as a child? Safe for me to assume that I'm out of the woods, I don't have to worry about it? I'm not going to Disneyland anytime soon.

GUPTA: If you had the vaccine as a child and you got the booster shot as well at some point, you should be largely protected. If you're unsure about that, there's a blood test to basically be able to tell if you have enough of the antibodies in your blood to say that you are protected.

If you're not, you can get another booster shot now. That is something that adults are being told because there's a certain percentage of people out there, who are getting the measles in this outbreak that say they've been vaccinated. It may be a question of making sure you're up to speed on that. PEREIRA: We have about a minute left. I want to talk about this vaccination debate. We can spend an hour on this. I want to know, there seems to be frustration from parts of the community saying, look, get your child vaccinated, be responsible. People are pushing back on that despite the science, right?

GUPTA: Yes. I think the arguments that people make against getting vaccines, some people say it's too many shots. I'm going to spread them out more. The problem is if you spread them out more, your child's going to be at risk during that time.

There are people who say it's because of the mercury in the vaccines. The biggest one is that our childhood vaccine is related to autism. It dates back to the 1998 paper. It was subsequently discredited.

You know, Michaela, I have three kids. I got them all vaccinated. I got them all vaccinated on schedule. I'm someone who looks at the data. I love my kids, but you know, this was an easy decision for me and I think it's an easy decision for a lot of parents out there.

PEREIRA: A proud papa and a great, great physician. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, it's really great to have you here walk us through all of this important information, thank you so much. Have a great Friday.

GUPTA: You, too.

PEREIRA: Chris.

CUOMO: Trust in Sanjay. I say it all the time, Mich. When we come back we're dealing with the death of a Saudi king, Yemen now under rebel control. The question is what is left of America's influence in the region. We'll take a look at what happened next.

CAMEROTA: Plus, a lot of I don't knows from the coach and the quarterback of the New England Patriots. What does the NFL know about deflate gate?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not good news for both the short term and it maybe for the long term.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will have significant ramifications.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This might be an opportunity for the Saudis to have to disengage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This relationship is absolutely critical for us moving forward.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The deadline to save two Japanese hostages has passed now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Japanese officials are trying to talk to ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're psychotics at best.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A desperate attempt to save these two men.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I fear for the lives of these two Japanese men.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House assembled some top talent to delve into the president's thinking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to empty your brain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your first wife --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Do you know something I don't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, January 23rd. Just before 8:00 in the east. Funeral services for Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah are underway this morning. His death obviously raising concerns about the U.S. influence in the region.