Skip to main content

tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  October 4, 2014 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

3:00 pm
i calling. now every wi-fi connection works like a t-mobile tower. it's wi-fi unleashed. welcome to the program and thank you for joining me. by now you've heard ebola is here. news about ebola consuming the country. but is there a risk of overreaction? i'll ask my expert guests in just a moment. and the secret service. huge misfires and a new director. also this. is race or gender playing a role in how well our president is protected? and the man who got fired for writing a column with this title, "drunk female guests are the gravest threat to pa temperatur temperatures, he's here to defend himself. and a college whose name i refuse to utter.
3:01 pm
let's get started. right now, thomas eric duncan is fighting for his life at a dallas hospital. he is, of course, the first person to be diagnosed with ebola in america. and since this news first broke on wednesday, fear has spread. media coverage has gone round the clock. twitter has been on fire. in fact, look at this tweet from donald trump, suggesting that the united states should simply bar flights from the hot zone, west africa. truth is, there are some real security concerns in airports as well as some degree of uncertainty about what we thought we knew about ebola. but friday afternoon, the white house said a ban on travel from west africa would impede the response to the ebola outbreak. so here are two questions that i want to ask. first, is some of the fear unwarranted, and second, how do we prevent the ebola virus from coming into the country again? joining me now, two experts, good afternoon mcgreggor skinner is the global project's manager for the griffin foundation, a nonprofit, which teaches people how to handle dangerous diseases
3:02 pm
around the world. and a month ago, he led a team in nigeria that trained health care workers to deal with the o-beal outbreak. also with me, elizabeth cohen, cnn's senior medical correspondent who came home one week ago from liberia where she was reporting on ebola. gavin, i'm concerned about panic among some americans who don't have exposure, especially as we're headed into flu season and might regard every sneeze as a potential ebola outbreak and virus. >> that's a good question. there are two issues here. the first, if a person has recently traveled to the u.s. from a west african country, they're at home, wake up one morning, have a fever, don't feel well, do they have to make their own way to the hospital or is there a 1-800 ebola number they can call? at the moment, there is no 1-800 number. and in knee jere, they created a number for people to call in on a regular basis. the other point is, when that person goes to a urgent health
3:03 pm
care center, a health care or clinic, or any other physician in the country, if it that person then -- if that physician or the nurse takes a proper history, and then learns that person just came back from west africa, puts him in a room for isolation, they go through the public health alert system, how do they get to a hospital that's ready to admit ebola patients? and we haven't addressed those gaps. >> elizabeth, is one lesson we have learned thus far that perhaps honesty is not the best policy, or not a sufficient defense in protecting ourselves? and i'm referring to the texas patient who allegedly reportedly misled the liberians and may have misled people at the hospital here in the united states in terms of his history? >> well, i think in the hospital, it appears he was honest when he was asked, did you go to west africa. have you traveled recently. he said yes, apparently, on more than one occasion. so this is really on the hospital. he knew -- the nurse who took him in knew he had traveled recently to west africa. and i heard the lieutenant governor on jake tapper's show
3:04 pm
blaming the electronic medical record that the right screen didn't pop up he at the right time. it's very disheartening to hear those excuses. the hospital should be saying look, we goofed, we're going to figure out how to make this right. they had a liberian man with recent travel history to liberia with a fever in their hospital. i cannot imagine what excuse would explain that away. >> would you, elizabeth, paint the picture for the interaction you had leaving liberia versus gaining entrance to the united states? >> yes. two very different experiences. so when i left liberia last week, they take your temperature three times. they were showing you the -- the car now, that's the first one. and there's two inside the airport. and then there is a team of nurses that looks at you. they know people lie and so they want to look at you and see if you're sick even if you say you're not sick. and then they ask you a questionnaire about symptoms. and then they ask you of also about exposure. they want to know, hey, were you near, were you taking care of a patient with ebola. and that's apparently where it
3:05 pm
seems that mr. duncan lied and said he wasn't when apparently he was. and that's the honor system that you are talking about before. now this is in contrast to what happens when you come back in the u.s. when i came back in the u.s., no one asked me if i had been exposed to a patient with ebola, even though i told them i was a journalist who was there to could have ebola. they didn't ask my two colleagues any questions. they did say to me -- it's kind of funny if it weren't so awful. because the immigration official was about to hand my passport to me and say welcome home. and he goes, oh, you were in liberia. i think i got an e-mail about that. i'm supposed to tell you something. and then he and his colleagues conferred and he came back and he said, oh, i'm supposed to tell you to watch your health for the next 21 days. to watch for symptoms. and i said what symptoms? am i supposed to watch for? and he said i don't know. he couldn't tell me. >> gavin, shy of a travel ban which the white house said on friday, they're not inclined to institute at this point, can we keep it out? >> yes, we can. and again, we've got to be more vigilant at our ports of entry,
3:06 pm
at our airports. again, elizabeth is correct. on my way home, i was -- had my temperature taken and questions and interviewed twice in nigeria, once in germany. but nothing when i came back to washington, d.c. the other thing that i'm really concerned about, when i came back and, again, all my team from the elizabeth r. griffin foundation, we put ourselves under 21 days of observation talking to each other. but i didn't want to have to go into the emergency department and sit next to the child with the broken arm if i had developed a fever and body aches and early signs of ebola. >> i have the same questions. i'm still within my 21 days. i'm only seven days out. and so i do wonder, what if i develop symptoms, what am i supposed to do? where am i supposed to go? i certainly don't want to show up at my family doctor's practice and say hey i just went to liberia and i've got a fever. it's not clear what you're supposed to do. >> i don't want to minimize the risks at stake for some here, but as a layperson, lacking the expertise of either of you, i say to myself, there is one known case. nobody has ever died in the united states as a result of ebola. i'm aware of the fact those two health care workers who returned
3:07 pm
to the united states have apparently made a recovery. and this is not exactly the sierra leone. so does it warrant that which we are placing on it in terms of attention? >> i think people need to understand, and i know it's been said 1 million times, but you can't overcommunicate. this disease is not spread through the air. you get this disease when you come into direct contact with someone's bodily fluids who is infected and actively ill, symptomatic. people need to understand that. >> dr. gregor skinner and elizabeth cohen thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. joining me to talk about the legal aspects of all of this is cnn senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. great to see you. there are so many different facets of it that interest me. let's talk for a moment about the hospital where apparently the patient presented, and instead of admitting him, they sent him home and it was two days that there was then a delay. what kind of exposure might they face? what kind of exposure might he the patient face given what we know so far? >> well, you know, the first
3:08 pm
piece of advice i would give is ignore anything that imbeciles like donald trump say about this situation. the second thing is, you know, this is not a crisis at the moment. and there is no necessity for the hospital to be punished, for this man to be punished. obviously, procedures have to evolve. this is a complicated new threat in the united states. certainly the hospital could face some sort of loss or challenge or fine regarding its accreditation. i can't imagine that the state of texas really needs to prosecute an ebola victim for making a false statement at a hospital, which as far as i'm aware, is not a crime under any circumstances to make a false statement to a hospital. so i think this needs to be dealt with as a public health matter, but not as a legal
3:09 pm
matter to the extent possible. >> how about the airlines? because, you know, some airlines continue to fly into parts of west africa and some have scaled back their service. if you and i were running a carrier, what considerations might we have pertaining to the ebola virus? in other words, might we be saying to ourselves, we don't want to be held accountable if ear transporting individuals who do get sick and then we incur litigation from other passengers on that plane saying it was our fault? >> well, that is certainly a risk. and the appropriate thing to do, i think, is to for the airlines to be in close touch with our government, with the liberian government. and to assess with them the risks and benefits of continuing to provide service. as the white house and the administration has pointed out. there is a lot of public health benefit to keeping these planes going. people are going in to try to help this situation. if approximate you cut off the planes, it becomes more difficult to bring people in who
3:10 pm
have a chance of ameliorating the situation. but it is certainly true that the airlines have to be aware that there is -- there is a risk, but as elizabeth cohen and everyone else has said, this is not an easily communicable disease. so the risks should not be overstated either. >> jeffrey toobin, great to see you. thank you. >> we'll take a quick break. up next, the secret service under fire for lapses of its handling of president obama's protection. are race and gender playing a role in the screw-ups? also ahead, the young man who thought it was cool to violently kick a cat into the air, may end up cooling his heels behind bars for a long time. does the punishment fit the crime? we'll get some answers.
3:11 pm
♪ t-mobile's network has more data capacity than verizon or at&t. it's a network designed differently. a network designed data strong.
3:12 pm
3:13 pm
3:14 pm
so what role, if any, are race and gender playing in the level of protection that the president is receiving from the secret service? this week on "the view," whoopi goldberg wondered if the problems are all about race. >> i'm kind of shocked. i mean, the one thing -- you always see the secret service jumping in front of bullets. but somehow with him, they're like, oh, look, somebody is running on the road. you want to call somebody to get him?
3:15 pm
it's li it's li it's like nobody gets -- yeah, we're just going to watch the whole thing. i mean what are you waiting for? this is the president of the united states. >> whoopi is not alone. a front page article in friday's "new york times" quotes several african-american members of congress who say their constituents are concerned the secret service is not being aggressive in protecting the first black president. so should americans be concerned about mr. obama's safety? i'm joined by congressman emmanuel cleaver, democrat of missouri, quoted in that "times" article and del quinton wilber, national security reporter at bloomberg and author of a book called "raw hide down." what are you hearing from your constituents? >> i think the whole concept of -- or the suspicion that this president is not going to be cared for by the secret service or by the nation as a whole as
3:16 pm
much as previous presidents has been around since the campaign. and so it has just been accelerated as the stories about breeches have occurred. but now it's important to remember that suspicions are feelings. not facts. and i do understand there has been a great deal of paranoia and that factor with this president. but african-americans in particular are concerned and we've got to arrest those, because i don't think their based in reality. >> del, what is apparently based in reality is the fact that threats against this president have spiked as compared to other presidents and he was afforded secret service protection i think prior to sooner than any candidate who has ever sought the office previously. >> that's exactly true. no president going back since the secret service started protecting them back in the late
3:17 pm
1800s has gotten nearly as much protection as president obama has or as many threats. they have to respond to them. it's a very difficult balancing act, the secret service has to weigh. and this president gets out there. he's out in the public. he's, you know, going on walks. the bear is loose and they have to go with him. i'm sure there are a lot of conversations about that when he decides the bear is going to get loose to get a starbucks or something as he did a few weeks ago or few months ago. and i think they have stepped up the protection of him but had these embarrassing episodes. >> congressman, i worry about the tone, i worry about the rhetoric. english the debate in this country has gotten much too hot, and frankly, a lot of folks who earn their living with microphones stir that pot in a way that could send someone off the rails who is not playing with a full deck. >> no question about it. here's the problem. paranoia seems remarkably more logical when it is based on something that was real. and the reality is, not only are
3:18 pm
there many more threats against the president, but there are many more crazy statements. >> right. >> by individuals. people have likened the president to a monkey. somebody -- sub human something from some country in western singer. and every time you do this, you increase the possibility of putting information in the head of a sick person who then goes out and tries to act on what he has heard or said. and that's what is dangerous. the and is frankly, that's what has caused much of the paranoia in the black community. but i think people all over the country are concerned. >> no doubt that's true. del, i want to ask whether there is a gender aspect to what's now playing itself out, meaning with regard to the level of protection that the president is receiving or not receiving in this case. and here's what brings it to my
3:19 pm
mind. last monday, i remember i got an alert on my iphone from the new york times. a story that reported as follows. a man who jumped the white house fence this month made it far deeper into the president's home than previously disclosed, overpowering a female service agent inside the north portico entrance and running into the east room before tackled. that's according to someone familiar with the incident. it wasn't in the print edition the following day. and i should be clear and tell you, i think there are plenty of women who are capable of providing security to the president and i respect anybody who is going to put themselves in harm's way to take a bullet for the commander in chief. but if the stature of someone who is placed in that position renders them incapable of providing the highest level of protection, then that ought to be an issue that we have public conversation about. you're all over this story, del. what do you know of it and what thoughts might you have? >> well, i can't speak to what the "new york times" edited out or published or not. i know that an officer who
3:20 pm
tried -- an officer, not an agent, who tried to stop, you know, mr. omar gonzalez as he went on his tour through the white house that day, did get run over. but i can't say it was run over because the person was small or tall or big or slow. i mean, the guy barrelled in, he could have run over anyone. the problems with this incident, with the fence jumping incident, extend far further than that. they didn't track the guy's background when they had a chance to and knew he was stalking the white house with a hatchet a couple weeks before he did this. said the alarm was muted so the officers and agents weren't even sure what was going on. the door wasn't locked. there are so many other problems here before we even get to that issue. this is an alpha male job. you know, willing to take a bullet for the president. you know, and there's some issues with that. and we just lost the first female secret service director who was brought in to help clean house after they had had the prostitution scandal with all of the male agents down in carta haina in 2012. she just had to resign after these several incidents.
3:21 pm
you know, these security breaches and lapses. so i think it's all part of the conversation. >> congressman, what thoughts do you have on the gender aspect of this, either as it relate to the former now head of the united states secret service or the issue that i have raised. >> well, i think that there will be some, as in almost every situation, who will look at the story about the secret service agent being overpowered, and saying well women should not become secret service agents. and to that i say bunk. there are women who are fully capable of working in that arena, and have been doing so ever single day. and a man could have been overrun. it is important, i think, and i want to make sure i say this, breaches don't -- don't equate to betrayal. and so we have had these breaches. we had a situation where a
3:22 pm
secret service agent was not able to stop someone. >> right. >> but ladies and gentlemen, look, with all of the agents -- i've been to the white house many, many times. there are agents everywhere. the system needs to be reevaluated and i guess that's what's going to happen now. >> don't forget one of the heroes of the reagan assassination attempt was one of the first female agents who joined the service. so there has been a long history of female agents doing solid jobs over the last 30 years. >> good point. congressman cleaver, del quinton wilbur. thank you, gentlemen. >> thanks. lots more ahead on the program. are drunk female guests the gravest threat to fraternities? i'm going to talk to the man who wrote that. it got him fired. could he be right? and i'll speak to the author on the new book that ended gary hart's ambitions. he dispenses of a few myths and argues it turned politics into
3:23 pm
fodder for tabloid journalism. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good.
3:24 pm
3:25 pm
3:26 pm
whole grains... [light instrumental music] ♪
3:27 pm
female announcer: recycle your old fridge and get $50. schedule your free pickup at: just a fascinating new book out, called "all the truth is out." the week politics went tabloid written by journalist matt bye. bye argues the gary hart affair changed political reporting for good. that it's been tabloid ever since. he also dispels several middle about hart's takedown. for example, he writes this. even when insiders and historians recall the hart episode now, they recall it the same way. hart issued his infamous challenge to reporters, telling them to follow him around if they didn't believe him. and then the "miami herald" took
3:28 pm
him up on it. hart set his own trap and allowed himself to become en snared in it. matt bye joins me now. matt, what significance whether hart was issuing a challenge and then the "miami herald" pursued him? >> it's one of the things of many misremembered about this moment in time. almost everything we remember, it turns out is wrong. and in this sense, it matters a lot, because if gary hart was the one who changed the boundaries and the rules around private lives and political careers, then it's him who invited us into the bedroom of politicians and he set the centered std standard. >> the idea was the hell with the guy, he brought it on himself with infidelity and also issued that challenge. he deserved what he got. >> right. the reality turns out to be he did make that statement. it wasn't really a challenge. it was more of a throw-away line. in any event, he made it and it
3:29 pm
remained off limits. in other words, it was in a story that was coming out and had not yet gone public when the "miami herald" decided to undertake surveillance of his townhouse and stake him out. they did not know about thattel that will when they undertook to write those rules. and you come to this moment, michael, as you know, where the hillary clinton of his day, the presumed nominee of the democratic party is literally backed up against a brick wall in the oil-stained alley behind his house, penned in by four reporters of the "miami herald" peppering him with questions, who is the woman in the house, did you have sex with her, have you cheated on your wife. and in that alley, the boundaries between political and personal lives are rewritten forever. and it did not happen because of gary hart's challenge. it happened because reporters decided that the public needed to know. >> okay. one of those reporters, tom fiedler, was my guest last week. i want you to watch just a snippet of what he had to say to me. >> sure. >> to have four reporters staked
3:30 pm
out literally in an alley, yourself included, trying to catch someone for infidelity who was a presidential candidate, that was unprecedented. and that's the point that i've tried to make. >> what we were doing there is actually verifying the tip that he and -- >> but infidelity. >> spending the weekend with donna rice, which we verified. and you can only do that by actually being there. so you somehow make it sound like what we were doing was out of the bounds of journalism. very much inbounds of what journalists do. >> mr. fiedler's point to me, matt, was to say, hey, it was all about the lie. not about infidelity, per se. it was about the fact that this man wanted to be commander in chief and he was lying to the american people. >> the lie in this case had to do with his comment that he had -- he would hold himself to a higher moral standard. and he was talking about iron contra, the reagan administration. the lie is not about him saying he had never cheated on his
3:31 pm
wife. he never said that. so the question is, can moral people do immoral things. is every lie the same as he have other lie. and tom has basically said he believes it is. and i respect him a lot. i'm not looking for a fight with tom or anybody he is. because what i'm trying to do, really, is not -- is to tell the story, this amazing story. and, of course, that, you know -- that particular issue, that lie, is what leads paul taylor from the "washington post" to stand in a ballroom of crowded reporters in new hampshire a couple days after that incident in the alley and says in front of a national audience, senator hart, have you ever committed adultery. that's what they're really trying to get at. >> matt. >> and it's shocking to people, because it's never been asked before. >> matt, a minute left together. what i worry about are those who are on the sidelines who could be competent public servants, who maybe have a skeleton in their closet and look at the circum speck shun that goes on and saying i'm not getting involved in that, not putting my family through that.
3:32 pm
could this pendulum swing back? >> i don't know. i worry about it too, michael. when gary hart got out of the race in 1987, he tore up the speech that had been given to him that was more contrite because he was angry and gave a very angry speech. and he says in that speech, we'll become a spectate tore sport in politics with the hunter and the hunted. and he says i fear for the country, i tremble for my country when i think we get the leaders we deserve. and everybody laughed at him and mocked him because they said he didn't take responsibility for what he has done. i think 27 years later, there are not a lot of americans that would laugh at the sentiment we get the leaders we deserve because of the process we have created. >> and for the record, he is still with his wife of more than 50 years. the book is terrific. thank you for being here. >> thank you. drunk girls at college frat parties. risky business, don't you think? one columnist says it's a huge threat to the fraternity. and that got him fired. he's here to defend himself, next.
3:33 pm
not to be focusing, again, on my moderate my goal was to finally get in shape. to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. so i finally made a decision to talk to my dermatologist about humira. humira works inside my body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to my symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis saw 75% skin clearance on humira.
3:34 pm
and the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. set a new goal today. ask your dermatologist about humira. because with humira clearer skin is possible. before we craft it into a sandwich. the amazingly tender roasted turkey -- always raised without antibiotics, the zesty cranberry mostarda, the freshly baked flatbread... but here's what you don't always see. the care and attention that goes into it. because what matters most is the simple, delicious ingredients
3:35 pm
that make up the whole delicious meal made just for you. and this is our turkey cranberry flatbread sandwich, paired perfectly with our autumn squash soup. only at panera bread. paired perfectly with our autumn squash soup. anncr: now you can merge the physical freedom of the car, with the virtual freedom of wi-fi. chevrolet, the first and only car company to bring built-in 4g lte wi-fi to cars, trucks and crossovers. hi mom. you made it! anncr: it's the new independence. get 4 lines for a hundred bucks.
3:36 pm
with unlimited talk, text and now up to ten gigabytes of 4g lte data. plus hook up the family with the samsung galaxy s5 for zero down you know your dentures can unlike natural teeth. try new fixodent plus truefeel. this smooth formula helps keep dentures in place. it's free of flavors and colorants for a closer feeling to natural teeth. fixodent. and forget it.
3:37 pm
here's a headline that caused an uproar. it was on forbes.com and read drunk female guests are the gravest threat to fraternities. i'm going redefine that headline in a couple minutes and draft it as i think it should have appeared. but here's one provocative quote from the article. as recriminations against fraternities mount and panicked college administrators search for an easy out, one factor doesn't seem to be getting sufficient analysis. drunk female guests. the columnist, who wrote that piece, is with me now. bill freza. bill, that column got you fired. why? >> well, i had intended to write and did write about the two things that concerned me, which is binge drinking and pregaming, extremely dangerous practices. i wrote the column with a male-centric perspective, paternalistic, directed at young men and how they should behave. unfortunately, it was misunderstood, mischaracterized and the ensuing frenzy dragged
3:38 pm
off and pushed the conversation on to a different subject. >> let me give a taste of the criticism from an m.i.t. female student named taylor rose who wrote at the core of his argument meaning yours appears to lie a disdain and disrespect for women. it was apparently's women's fault that m.i.t.'s fraternities are currently under a boston and m.i.t. required party ban. that pregaming is a problem and that rapes are reported and prosecuted on college campuses. he seems to shout, how dare they, while pointing fingers at women across college campuses. why were you singling out females in your analysis of this issue? >> the title was designed to shock and attract attention and get people to really understand what the issue is, which is kids on college campuses are going to hospitals and they are dying from improper drinking. and much has to do with our ill advised laws and regulations regarding the drinking age. that's what i wrote about. i didn't write about broader
3:39 pm
issues. this tone -- i'm sure upset a lot of people. and that's what set off the fren frenzy. as . >> as a guy who lived in a fraternity, if there were men who were visibly intoxicated at our pub nights on thursday night or at our grain parties on a saturday night, men, they got shown the door. they got thrown out. women were -- who were intoxicated, they were permitted to stay. and we didn't take it upon ourselves to try and escort them home. and i read your piece and interpreted as an admonishment the of that kind of behavior on the guys' part. >> if you look at my piece and actually read it, it says, if a female guest becomes too intoxicated, put her in a cab, send her back to her dorm and send me the bill. i also said very clearly, don't let drunk guests into the house, whether they're male or female. the reason i singled out women is because as an adviser to my fraternity, i have a great deal of influence over the men in the house. i have no influence over the women. and i have witnessed
3:40 pm
hundred-pound young ladies standing in line out in front of the house who know they're not going to be served because they're under 21 chug half a bottle of vodka right there on the steps. they appear sober when they arrive at the front door and within half an hour are passed out. >> let me throw a lifeline. i'm going to redefine the headline because i think this is what got you in trouble. "drunk female guests are the gravest threat to fraternities." if had you to rewrite t i'm catching you cold here, but how would you rewrite it today? >> i would probably say, you know, "colleges need a better look at how to manage binge drinking and pregaming." because that's the advice i give when i have written about it before in other articles that didn't raise such a furor and force. >> you regret the headline. i take it you don't regret the content. >> i was shocked by the reaction to the headline. it was not the reaction i was looking for. >> here's my headline for your story. ready? "there is nothing fraternal in
3:41 pm
taking advantage of guests." does that sum it up better? >> that's a very good headline, and it's a very good subject. but that's not what i was admonishing them against. because the boys in that house don't take advantage. i was looking for them to protect the people there and protect themselves. >> well, but if their coed guests are hammered. you get the final word on this. go ahead. >> it's very difficult to discuss these complex subjects in the environment that's been created on campus now having such political correctness. we need to take a look at our drinking laws in this country. we need to consider changing them so that college students can get access to less dangerous forms of alcohol, in particular beer, the way they do it in germany, with a younger drinking age for beer than distilled spirits and encourage people to drink responsibly. if they tell them not to drink at all, they're not going to listen to us. >> bill freza, thank you. we appreciate you being here. >> thank you. i want you to take a look at this young man, because this
3:42 pm
young man could be in big trouble for what he's about to do in this video that went viral. but will the punishment fit the crime? i'll have that story next. often enough, but thank you.s thank you mom for protecting my future. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. yoplait light is now better than ever. it still melts in your mouth. with 90 calories. and is now aspartame free. yoplait light. it is so good; it's better than ever.
3:43 pm
come from all walks of life. if you have high blood sugar, ask your doctor about farxiga. it's a different kind of medicine that works by removing some sugar from your body. along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. with one pill a day, farxiga helps lower your a1c. and, although it's not a weight-loss or blood-pressure drug, farxiga may help you lose weight and may even lower blood pressure when used with certain diabetes medicines. do not take if allergic to farxiga or its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include rash, swelling or difficulty breathing or swallowing. if you have any of these symptoms, stop taking farxiga and seek medical help
3:44 pm
right away. do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis, or have bladder cancer. tell your doctor right away if you have blood or red color in your urine or pain while you urinate. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including dehydration, genital yeast infections in women and men, low blood sugar,kidney problems, and increased bad cholesterol. common side effects include urinary tract infections, changes in urination, and runny nose. ♪do the walk of life ♪yeah, you do the walk of life need to lower your blood sugar? ask your doctor about farxiga and visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free.
3:45 pm
3:46 pm
this guy kicked a cat, and could face a year behind bars. that's the story of andre robinson, a new york city man. the incident was caught on video and it's gone viral. and i want to issue a warning. we're going to show the video. so turn away if you don't want to see it. or you don't want your kids to see it. the video shows robinson reaching down to the cat before violently kicking it. hurling the defenseless animal through the air while robinson's friends, they all howl with laughter. he's charged with animal cruelty. that's a misdemeanor. robinson has stirred up the iyer not only of the brooklyn district attorney who says he takes the case seriously but also animal rights activists from across the country who want the book thrown at him. gary nancy own is a nationally renowned animal rights activist
3:47 pm
and pons upon a time my torts professor at the penn law school. gary, as i think about this, would andre robinson be in so much trouble if he had kicked a person? >> probably not, michael. if he kicked somebody and didn't seriously injure the person, the police probably wouldn't have even responded to it a call. nothing would have happened. >> he probably would have been offered a plea deal and certainly wouldn't be looking at any jail time. so make the argument that in this case -- >> no, actually, i would -- i would actually say the police probably wouldn't have even charged him, let alone had him looking at a plea deal. i don't think anybody would have taken this seriously at all. look, michael, let me be clear. i think what this guy did is wrong. and it's -- you know, there's no doubt about it, it's wrong. but there's a certain amount of lynch mob and hate mongering going on about this guy that actually, quite frankly, makes me uncomfortable. because a lot of it is reflecting some racism. i mean, much the same as michael
3:48 pm
vick situation, where people are really outraged at what they did and there is a lot of really vehement criticism that gets very close to if not, you know, becomes racism. but the problem, michael, is that, you know, we are morally schizophrenic when it comes to animals. we kill probably a trillion sea animals, they're subjectively aware. capable of feeling pain. they value their lives. and we eat them and the best justification we have is that they taste good. >> let me ask you, professor, about another aspect, perhaps of our schizophrenia. what occurs to me about this case is that a cat, and you correct me where i'm wrong, is regarded as chattel, personal property. god forbid if a cat were taken to the vet and there were an incident of malpractice, the person's redress would be whatever they paid for the cat, much like a table lamp. so in at that regard, the law says this is just personal
3:49 pm
property. and yet with regard to mr. robinson, he now perhaps faces significant punishment for having kicked the personal property. it doesn't seem as if the law squares on both those levels. do you follow my question? >> animals have no value except the value that we accord to them. and so, yeah, i mean, i think there is something very, very strange going on here. look, if they put this guy in jail, it makes us feel better. it makes us feel we're humane and he's inhumane. but the reality is, we're all andre robinson. those of us who are consuming animal products and, you know, eating them and wearing them and using them, we're participating in the same sort of direct harm to these animals. >> i get it. the argument is, they have locked him up. we can go back and enjoy our steak now. >> yeah, exactly. look, michael, there are going to be people who are watching this who are eating their animal foods while they're watching this segment shaking their head saying --
3:50 pm
>> outranged. >> yes, exactly, outraged. and michael, you remember from law school that it doesn't really matter whether, you know, you shoot the person or pay somebody else to shoot the person. so the fact that andre robinson did it directly or that michael vick did it directly, and we go to the supermarket and buy our steak or eggs or dairy or whatever, it doesn't make it morally different. it's morally problematic. we've got a problem. we've got a serious problem in terms of how we think about animal ethics. >> professor, good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> you look good. by the way, we called mr. robinson's attorney for a comment and -- did not return our call. the good news is, the cat is healthy and was adopted. up next, the widow of an officer shot and killed in the line of duty is outraged after a little-known college chooses her husband's convicted murderer for a college graduation speaker. i refuse to name the schoand up next, i will cool you why.
3:51 pm
(cheering) yeah!! touchdown! who's ready for half time? ok i'm going to draw something up new... who ate the quarterback? share what you love with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're grrreat! when a pro at any 2014 pga tour event sinks a hole-in-one, quicken loans will pay your mortgage for an entire year. that is how it's done. truly amazing! get in the hole-in-one sweepstakes. enter today at pgatour.com/quickenloans and you could have your mortgage paid for an entire year.
3:52 pm
3:53 pm
3:54 pm
on sunday, a college in new england that you've never heard of is going to celebrate commencement exercises for 20 students. and they have chosen a convicted cop killer as their speaker. he's not going to be there physically. he's serving a life sentence without parole in pennsylvania. instead he's used his telephone access to record a message. jamal is a murderer. for years people over the
3:55 pm
country have taken up this killer's cause and turned him into a hero. these people appear to be completely ignorant of what actually happened in his case. look, in 2008, i wrote a memoir about the widow of this murdered officer, a book called "murdered by mumia," a new york times best seller. i accepted no proceeds from the sale of the book. let me tell you the real story. on december 9, 1981 at about 4:00 a.m., 25-year-old daniel faulkner was executed while making what seemed like a routine traffic stop. faulkner pulled over the brother of jamal, william cook, driving his car the wrong way on a one-way street. jamal saw the police stop from across the street. four eye-witnesses testified at trial as to what happened next. their testimony portrayed a horrific sequence. jamal ran across the street, shot the officer in the back, and then finally between the eyes. before that final fatal shot, officer faulkner himself discharged his gun, hitting
3:56 pm
jamal in the stomach, and with that bullet, you could say he confirmed the identity of his executioner. when police arrived, jamal was still wearing his shoulder holster. the murder weapon was registered to gentlemanel mjamal. he purchased it at a local sporting goods stores. ballistics test verified they were the same type as the fatal bullet removed from the police officer's brain. both men were taken to a local e.r. faulkner was pronounced dead. jamal was heard by multiple witnesses to say shot the m-fer and i hope he dies. so the case had witnesses, a ballistics test and confession. faulkner left behind a young widow, four maureen who has had to stand up to misinformation about the case. and for reasons that have never made sense, jamal has been championed the world over by death penalty opponents. whenever i'm educating someone about the case in addition to
3:57 pm
what i've already told you, i always like to point one fact. abu jamal's brother, william cook, he saw it all. his words to police upon their arrival were "i ain't got nothing to do with it." and he's never testified on his brother's behalf. let me say that again. the brother of the man convicted of killing the cop has himself never taken to the stand to tell a different story, and he was there. in 1982, a multiracial jury heard the case. they convicted abu jamal and sentenced him to death. for a quarter century, an endless cycle of jamal appeals made a mockery of the judicial system. he had a long list of celebrity supporters, ed asner, whoopi goldberg. a straight was renamed for him in france. mpr gave him a radio show and he wrote several books. this all after he was convicted of murdering a cop. now back at home in philadelphia, abu jamal was never able to cultivate community support, except from
3:58 pm
some fringe types. people at home, they know what happened. they don't buy into the hollywood lure. in 2011, abu jamal's death sentence was ultimately overturned on a technicality. he's currently serving life without parole. abu jamal will die in jail, a fate more civilized than that which he offered to danny faulkner. sadly, the idea that he would be a college commencement speaker is not unprecedented. it happened in 1999 in the state of washington, and again in the year 2000 at a school in ohio. i attended the second of those events with maureen faulkner in protest of what was taking place. and what i recall most from that experience 14 years ago was concluding that the students desperately wanted attention. they loved the media spectacle their invitation generated. which is why now i will not identify the vermont college that on sunday will disrespect a police officer murdered in the line of duty. it's bad enough that for 32 years abu jamal has succeeded in
3:59 pm
making it all about him. thank you so much for joining me. don't forget, you can follow me on twitter as long as you can spell smerconish. i'll see you next week. good evening, everyone. thanks for joining us. i'm poppy harlow. you are in the "cnn newsroom." we begin tonight with a huge reality check in the fight against ebola. a flight arriving at newark airport gave health officials a major test of how prepared they are to deal with this lethal virus. in the meantime, the first patient diagnosed with ebola in the u.s. is getting worse. thomas eric duncan, who traveled here from liberia is now in critical condition. in newark, a passenger's illness led the cdc to briefly quarantine a flight coming from brussels. there is no indication the man on that plane, though, has ebola. we are still waiting for answers from the cdc.
4:00 pm
but earlier i spoke with a man who was sitting right next to him on that flight. he described the confusion after his flight arrived on the ground in the u.s. first off, tell me, when did you first notice this man was not feeling well, and what did he tell authorities? >> we had about an hour left in the flight. and he nudged me and said something, and kind of incoherently. i didn't really understand him. so i asked him to repeat it. and he asked for help. asked me to call for a flight attendant. so i pageded a flight attendant. and at this time, he had his head between his hands and kind of bent over in the seat. and had his face covered with like a towel. when the flight attendant came, he said that his eyes felt like they were floating, and they were hurting really bad. and he had never felt that before. the flight attendant asked what would you like me to do, you know, is there something i can get for you or w