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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  December 22, 2015 5:00pm-6:01pm PST

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old saying to heart. if you can't beat 'em -- >> oh, geez, looks like i went through time and space again. >> -- join 'em. >> star wars didn't actually change cinema. >> thank you so much for joining us. we begin with new poll numbers showing ted cruz closing in on front-runner donald trump in a new quinnipiac national poll, they're just four points apart, trump at 28, cruz at 4. ben carson at 10, chris christi and jeb bush in single digits. today he spent campaigning in tennessee, six-day swing. the cruz country christmas tour. tonight, his growing momentum and poll numbers are being celebrated inside the cruz camp. there is one place he does not poll well. that is the u.s. senate, where
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he works. in fact, if washington were whoville, many would cast him as the grinch. here is dana bash. >> wow! >> reporter: ted cruz has a new prediction making establishment republicans shutter. >> i think it could easily end up being a two-man race. between donald trump and me. >> reporter: it's no secret that many mainstream republicans recoil at the thought of trump at the top of the ticket. but some republicans also can't stand the idea of cruz as their nominee. mostly because they can't stand cruz in general. >> to me, he's just a guy with a big mouth and no results. >> reporter: many of cruz's own republican congressional colleagues still haven't forgiven him for leading an unwinnable fight to defund obama care which led to a government shutdown. john boehner called him a jackass. he got pummeled by colleagues in private meetings but cruz dntd
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seem to care. >> you are a human being. you are sitting with people around you who, i would think that you have some respect for. fellow senators in your own party. for them to be so mad at you, so mad at you, what's that like? >> oh, listen. you know, what i try to keep an eye on is that i don't work for the party bosses in washington. god bless you! >> reporter: cruz may just be used to it. multiple sources who worked with cruz for george w. bush's 2000 campaign say he was profoundly disliked there, too. bush himself said at a fund-raiser this year he can't stand the guy. >> why am i so optimistic? >> reporter: even now he jokes about needing a food tester while lunching with colleagues. ali alienating people it's such a big topic in our interviews over the years. when you're president of the united states, you have to have at least some measure of likability in order to reach out and get things done. how will you get over that?
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>> there's almost an inverse relationship between being liked and appreciated in washington, d.c. and reviled back home and being reviled in washington and appreciated back home. >> it is true that in his home state of texas in the 2013 government shutdown, cruz was greeted like a hero. republican women at a convention there were thrilled he stood up to washington like he said he would. on the presidential trail now, cruz does connect with republican voters, both with fiery rhetoric and fun moments, like his love for the movie "princess bride." >> do not say that name. what? i can't hear you! >> reporter: and tries to endear himself with humor. when trump called him a maniac, the senator himself responded on twitter with this. ♪ she's a maniac maniac on the floor ♪ >> and who doesn't appreciate flashdance? so, dana, if ted cruz does get the nomination, which is a
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possibility, what does the establishment do? do they fall in behind him? >> look, that is a question that a lot of people here in washington don't even want to think about the answer to. but i think we should note, maybe underscore that the very reason he is disliked in washington is the reason he is so liked among so many conservative grassroots voters. because they're so fed up with washington, he has been able to have this unbelievable feat in that he does have senator before his name but is able to kind of be an outsider while still being an insider, which has not been easy. but, look, i think that it's going to be hard for them not to get behind him. at this point there's kind of the parlor game inside washington is, you know, who would they dislike more or like more in the choice of, from their perspective, two evils, donald trump or ted cruz. they're not sure. is he doing well among the
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people who matter right now. that's the voters. >> dana bash, thank you so much. a 12-term member of congress who represents new york's second district and serves on the homeland security committee. he joins me tonight. congressman king, you've called ted cruz everything from a carnival barker to a big mouth to a sideshow entertainer. it begs the question, how do you really feel? >> i would think he would give a chameleon a bad name. his claim to fame is when he led the government shutdown in 2013, all premised on a lie. if somehow government was shutdown, obama care could be amended or repealed. the house go ahead and shut the government down and all ted cruz could do was go on the senate floor and recite dr. seuss. the fact is, he had 18 days of government shutdown. the economy lost $24 billion. you had all these workers who didn't work for 18 days but
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ended up getting paid anyway when it was all over. the government lost fees. it was a disaster. to me, it was just a -- that's why i use the term carnival barker, reciting dr. seuss while the government is shut down. no purpose. other examples, immigration. i mean, marco rubio had him cold in the last debate. he oaligned himself with the drones, his position on that. he is going to bomb syria, back to the stone age. or you're going to see the sand burn or glow, whatever he said. i don't take him seriously as far as his views. i think he will say whatever he has to say. he's a smart guy, i guess. he went to harvard. but i just don't see the level of seriousness that's required in the commander in chief. >> how do you explain then --
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you said he would give a chameleon a bad name. how do you explain he's leading in the national polls? >> if you ask me to step back and be a political analyst, donald trump has created so much controversy, people want to go toward the more controversial person. and that opens the field. yet they feel maybe donald trump has now gotten too controversial. by comparison, ted cruz seems reasonable. that's all i can say about that. once the focus is on him more, people will realize what he's all about. again, this is a crazy season. i can give you my views on what i think should be done. i would have told you donald trump would have been out of the race back in july, or august or september and he's still riding high. i would say it's based on the anger in the country. that's all it's all about. there is anger. cruz seems more reasonable to some people right now than donald trump. >> congressman, stay with us. i want to bring in amanda carpenter.
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amanda is a former communication s carpenter. you heard what congressman king just said. i know you've heard this before and senator cruz has heard this before. we were at the republican debate. everywhere you go, you could find people in the republican party, people connected with the senate who would bash ted cruz pretty openly. does this bother him? does he care that he's not likable? and couldn't this hurt him eventually? >> well, hey, number one, i respect the congressman's candor. we hear that from and that's certainly his right to voice that opinion. i don't buy that ted cruz isn't likable. he's not liked in washington by powerful people. this is the same phenomenon i saw when i was working for senator jim demint. a lot of powerful people in washington didn't like him because of what he was doing to disrupt the status quo. once he got outside of that beltway, he was treated like a rock star. even right now if you look at
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the des moines register favorable ratings of ted cruz, he is the highest in the republican field. as soon as he gets out that have beltway, people are a lot happier to see him. >> ana, your wing of the party, as it were, jeb bush wing, his top priority is pushing donald trump out of the race. would you be okay if you pushed trump out and ted cruz emerged? >> you know, ted cruz would be a very bitter pill to swallow, frankly. i think he's very an ttagonisti. donald trump is a demagog. but he doesn't know what he's talking about. he's pulling it out of thin air. ted cruz actually does know what he's talking about, does know government and knows how government agencies work. he's willing to say anything. i think he relishes the role of being the skunk in the republican party. he has made, you know, his entire reason for being -- he
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has made his entire persona on being the guy that's the obstructionist, who doesn't mind shaking up washington. it gives him the ability to sell himself as the insider/outsider. he has been in government in decades in different roles but he is an outsider from the establishment. there's a lot of anti-establishment people who vote in republican primaries yi places like iowa, south carolina and some of the southern states where he is concentrating. he is very calculating, very smart. he also has spent an enormous amount of time courting the evangelical vote, which i think is paying off big time for him. i do not underestimate him. likable? i think that's a stretch for many of us. >> amanda, you sat through this with a smile on your face. you heard ted cruz be called a chameleon and a skunk. it does milwaukee you wonder. is this exactly what you want? is this exactly what senator
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cruz wants? "saturday night live" had that guy playing ted cruz. he said doctors say i have what's called a punchable face. is this all playing into your strategy? >> here is the thing. there's a lot of people that want to, i think, say ted cruz is calculating and only doing this for his own purpose. he campaigned on this when he ran for the senate. if anything i think it's about keeping his promises to voters and taxes. that's been number one. the big fights he has been active on, obamacare, immigration, spending. those are the big three concerns on the presidential, national field as well. pretend this is some big strategy, he knew it was going to pay off. he's a brilliant guy. i wouldn't give him that much credit. i think he's being true to himself and what he promised voters in texas. >> amanda carpenter, ana navarro, peter king, thank you very much. >> peace to all. in new hampshire, a state
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where voters say drug abuse is their top concern. dr. sanjay gupta shows us an unconventional effort to stop heroin addiction. just when you may thought you have seen and heard it all in the battle for the white house, donald trump comes under fire for saying this about hillary clinton. >> she was going to -- she was favored to win and she got -- she lost.
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donald trump in first place in the latest polling. aiming his most biting attacks
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not at another republican candidate for the white house. instead he's going after hillary clinton. last night at a rally in michigan, he didn't hold much back. not even a bathroom break at the debate this weekend was off limits. >> i know where she went. it's disgusting. i don't want to talk about it. no. it's too disgusting. don't say it. it's disgusting. >> he didn't stop there. he also brought up the 2008 presidential race and used colorful language that would make grandma blush. >> even in her race to obama, she was going to beat obama. i don't know who would be worse. i don't know. how does it get worse? but she was going to beat -- she was favored to win and she got schlonged. she lost. i mean, she lost. >> today the communications director for the clinton campaign tweeted this. we are not responding to trump. everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. trump versus clinton. you can see it's on full force. but it wasn't always this way.
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looking at how they have gone from seemingly friends to foes. >> reporter: it's the tale of two errors, preand post candidate trump. before declaring he was running for president, donald trump and hillary clinton seemed positively -- well, friendly. he contributed to her new york senate campaigns and gave at least $100,000 to the clinton foundation. as for the clintons, they attended his 2005 wedding. but it would be an understatement to say all that changed after trump entered the race. clinton right shouldered to clarify their relationship. >> i didn't know him that well. i mean, i knew him. i knew him and i happened to be planning to be in florida and i thought it would be fun to go to his wedding because it's always entertaining. now that he's running for president it's a little more troubling. >> i really was very friendly with all politicians. i had to get along with everybody. i got along with the clintons. >> then the gloves came off. >> you look at hillary clinton. and i've said she is the worst
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secretary of state in the history of this country. >> he is great at inewe -- innuendo and defaming people. that's not what i want to do in my campaign and that's not how i'm going to conduct myself. >> days of poking fun like this seemed to be over. >> you're a loser. >> she puts on her pant suit in the morning. she gets up. no. nothing wrong with that. >> finally, a candidate whose hair gets more attention than mine. >> for trump, clinton is now a target at nearly every campaign rally. >> hillary sure as hell is not going to make our country great. not going to. hillary is low energy, okay? she's low energy, in all fairness. i've said about hillary, she doesn't have the strength and she doesn't have the stamina to be president. she doesn't. >> clinton's comments had been mostly defensive until this weekend. now, tangling with trump is a
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clear part of her strategy, calling out the gop front-runner, who she believes is vulnerable in a general election match-up. >> he is become isis' best recruiter. they are going to people, showing videos of donald trump insulting islam and muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists. >> her claim couldn't be verified. there's no evidence isis is using a video of trump to recruit. and trump was quickly on the offense. >> she's terrible. donald trump is on video and isis is using him on the video to recruit! and it turned out to be a lie. she's a liar. and the last person that she wants to run against is me. believe me. >> today in iowa, clinton turie turning trump's words against him. >> you're looking at somebody who has had a lot of things said about me and we shouldn't let
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somebody bully their way into the presidency. >> it's likely to only escalate. >> donald trump supporter jeffrey lorde and democratic strategist donna brazil. so we're all on the same page from the beginning here, occasionally you accuse the media of a donauble standard, treating donald trump differently. these were his own words, unprompted during a speech at length. he brought it up on his own, talking about hillary clinton's bathroom break during the debate and repeatedly called it disgusting. you agree at least on that point, correct? >> i do. >> so, what do you think he meant? >> well, you know, john, i hate to say this. but i got an e-mail from a woman today somewhere out there in america. i won't reveal her name. it's not anyone i know. but she said she roared with laughter when she heard this. i think donald trump is poking
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fun at his opponent. and i have to say, carly fiorina doesn't do this kind of thing. so it isn't about being a woman. this is, i suspect, about being hillary. somebody else in the bathroom with multiple stalls, according to the boston globe, and she refused to go in. this gets to the -- hewitt calls her the queen. this gets to her personality here that is unattractive to americans. just one tiny glimpse here revealed in perhaps an unlikely fashion. donald trump zeroed in on it. >> first of all -- >> go ahead. >> first of all, i was there. i was up in manchester, new hampshire. in fact, i was in line. i was outside the bathroom stall. it was a hell of a walk from the stage area to the bathroom. i'm not saying that, you know some of us can go to the bathroom in three minutes or four minutes. the point of it is that donald trump is the leading
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presidential candidate on the republican side, to even bring up bathroom and disgusting, the republicans took a pause and complained about the bathroom, how far the men's bathroom was. that was one of the complaints when they brought up these so-called new rules for the debate guys. bottom line is, a leading presidential candidate, a grownup should not be talking about women's bathroom behavior before a campaign. that was degrading. that was vulgar. and the words he used, poor choice of words. >> a quote from the republican party autopsy that came out after the 2012 election. again, this is a quote directly from party officials. it says women are the majority of voters. our inability to win their votes is losing us elections. that's a quote from the rnc's so-called autopsy. so, how is donald trump helping the republican party with women? >> well, according to the lady i heard from today, he's helping a great deal. because he identifies with the
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average man and woman blue collar america out there. you know, i find it very interesting that back in american history harry truman, of all people, was known as give 'em hell harry and william buckley said he was vulgar and the american people re-elected him in an upset. there's a bit of history here. they laughed at that time and laughed along with him. >> talk about pompous. have you seen -- donald trump has his name everywhere. trump, trump, trump. i don't think this has anything to do with the insults that people, you know, shower each other with. and the insults donald trump has shown throughout this political season, megyn kelly, rosie owe donald, debbie was serman schulz and his colleague, carly
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fiorina. little girls are watching, little girls who will grow up to run for president. they will vote. and, yes, women's votes matter. >> is there an appropriate way to give people hell? jeb bush says of trump's comment there has to be a level of decorum to win. it's not a sign of strength to insult people with profanity. these lines that you hear, the bathroom line, the disgusting -- the other word that i'm not even supposed to say on cnn that he said during the speech. you know, you're close to your mom. would you say these things in front of your mother without blushing? >> no. i know you won't. >> no, i would not. but i'm not donald trump. >> jeffrey, i can say this, john. i have been with jeffrey for the last six months, talking politics. he has been an honorable, a decent gentleman. i want your mother to hear that. >> thank you. >> you raised him right. >> ditto. >> i don't know why he's with donald trump. that's a whole other conversation. give us more time in the new year, john. >> happy new year. happy holidays. >> merry christmas, jer jeffrey.
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>> merry christmas. you, too, my friend. visa documents and let the female terrorist in san ber bernardino into the u.s. and a deputy marshall should he be fired or celebrated?
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there is news about san bernardino tonight and controversy surrounding how the female terrorist got her visa past homeland security. we're taking a look at what syed
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rizwan farook presented. it did not meet legal requirements for a fiancee visa, they say. >> it is a 21-page application. it is the application that tashfeen malik filed. one of the last pages on that application is something that syed rizwan farook wrote himself. he writes in something called intention to marry statement. quoting from that, quote, my fiancee and i met through an online website. after several weeks of e-mailing we decided to meet each other. he continues to talk about how
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they met in saudi arabia and then writes we intend to marry within the first month of her arriving in the united states. this is an application, document released by the house committee looking into alleged shortfalls. they point to one particular page, the page that shows the visa into saudi arabia by tashfeen malik. it is her visa into saudi arabia and they point out some of these states -- very, very to read but some of these dates -- the passport stamps were not accurately translated and when they were, the dates didn't person.hat they actually met in so the committee saying that all of this continues to raise questions about whether or not this entire process is problematic, john. >> as you say, there is so much scrutiny over this process. particularly the fiance visa application process. is it clear whether there was an actual mistake made here? >> homeland security says no. and they released a one-page document basically rebutting the
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entire contention by the committee. they released a statement. the u.s. citizenship and immigration services releasing this statement, saying that tashfeen malik was subjected e numerous background checks and they did not reveal any derogatory information about malik. they're underscoring that there were no red flags, that the communication that happened between this couple was in private. it did not happen on social media and security experts, john, do say when you have this sort of setup, it is very difficult to catch them. >> all right. kyung lah, thank you so much. san bernardino and paris attacks have many people on edge. maybe too on edge. a mother and son were escorted out of the mall after they supposedly shot video of store entrances. he added he served in the u.s. military and is thinking now of moving his family out of the
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area. another example of muslims under scrutiny, this one from south florida's broward county. local activists have, for months, pushed the sheriff to fire one of his deputies. he's a muslim. activists say he has connections to an organization that supports terror. they even call him deputy hamas. he said he is a crusader against extremism. randi kaye has the story. >> when care inserts itself i know that not every muslim is a jihadist. but all jihadists seem to be muslims. >> reporter: joyce kaufman has been on talk radio in south florida for years. a man named nasr hamsey, a sheriff's deputy of broward county. >> anybody in this country is afraid to have a conversation about islam. >> she says deputy hamsey wasn't properly vetted given his
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convection to c.a.r.e. and wants him gone from the police department. >> i've been called everything from racist, muslimaphobe to one trick pony. and i refuse to back down. >> hamsey has been with the department since 2011, a full-time deputy since 2014. the department considers him an excellent deputy and a loyal american. hamsey travels the state, speaking out against extremisms and trains muslims how to escape an active shooter in mosques. still kaufman wants him investigated and she's not alone. this man calls deputy hamsey deputy hamas. rosenthal even held a rally protesting hamsey. >> whenever we're in an
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electoral year, there's a spike of this islamaphobic rhetoric. when we hear people like trump it's definitely hate speech. >> he supports his idea to ban some muslim. >> do you think you're contributing to the fear when you bring it up on the air? >> i think the fear is there. i don't think i do anything to stoke it. i don't have to. it's there. >> reporter: the fact is, and kaufman knows the numbers, only a very small fraction of the world's 1.6 billion muslims endorse the violence of terror groups like isis and al qaeda. still, she wonders if hamsey would take action. >> as a sheriff's deputy his job is to uphold the law. it sounds like you're concerned that maybe he would turn the other way if he heard some radical conversations taking place in a mosque. am i hearing you correctly? >> that is correct. i don't know. i can't say that that's a fact. i can't say it's not a fact. >> what does joyce kaufman mean when she says she wants the deputy vetted? what does vetted mean here?
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>> she wants to be sure and see proof that he was cleared by the fbi, that he got fbi clearance oochlty asked the lawyer for c.a.r.e. about this. he said deputy hamsey was vetted by the fbi and was cleared and this is normal procedure for law enforcement. they get looked at very closely. you saw that video of the deputy where he was training people how to escape an active shooter in that mosque. his critics were suggesting he was giving weapons training, how to kill, how to shoot others. if you look at that video closely, he's using toy guns. they're fake, plastic guns. if listening to that report he's telling them how to charge the shooter, get out of the building. his critics still suggest there's something not right with this guy. >> randi kaye, thank you so much. up next, the latest on the woman accused of moeing down tourists in las vegas. how she went from being a
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success story to homeless and charged with murder. ady for mys. what's in the trunk? nothing. romance. 18 inch alloys. you remembered. family fun. everybody squeeze in. don't block anyone. and non-stop action. noooooooo! it's the event you don't want to miss. it's the season of audi sales event. get up to a $2,500 bonus for highly qualified lessees on select audi models. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern.
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we were in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. so i just started poking around on ancestry. then, i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. it turns out i'm scottish. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt.
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today, lakeisha hollow ay, injuring 37 and killing one, charged with murder, leaving the scene of the accident and child abuse because her small daughter was in the car. three years ago, in oregon, she was honored for turning her life
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around. she had gone from homeless to college to a job with the forest service. she showed up about three weeks ago in las vegas, homeless again, living in the car with her daughter. stephanie elam has her story. >> multiple people that are not breathing. >> reporter: when lakeisha holloway plowed her car into tourists, she killed 32-year-old jessica valenzuela. one count of child abuse, neglect or endangerment and one scene of leaving the scene of an accident. three people are still in critical condition with life threatening head injuries. according to the police report, holloway would not explain why she drov on to the sidewalk but remembered a body bouncing off her windshield, breaking it. we're learning more about the 24-year-old mother.
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she legally changed her name to paris paradise morton in october and was part of the industrialization center for at-risk youth. in 2012, she was honored for her achievements and even spoke about overcoming the odds. >> today i'm not the same scared i used to be. i'm a mature young woman who has broken many generational cycle that those before me hadn't. being homeless and on my own taught me how to stand on my own two feet. >> reporter: but police believe holloway and her 3-year-old daughter were living out of her car about a week before the hit and run. test for alcohol came back negative but police say she may have been on a stimulant. >> at first we were like she's probably drunk because she was slowly on the curb. when she accelerated it seemed like there was a purpose to her actions. >> stephanie elam is here. when is she expected to appear
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in court? >> reporter: her first court appearance is expected to be 8:00 am local time tomorrow. it's not clear why police have charged her under her former name and not the name she just changed it to. john? >> thank you so much. amber walker has a 360 bulletin. john, al shabaab militants ambushed a packed bus in kenya. a group of mostly muslim women shielded the christian passengers and told the islamist terrorists to leave them alone or they were prepared to die together. it worked. two people died, a christian who tried to run from the bus and the driver of a truck that was behind them. iraqi forces are battling isis fighters and trying to retake the key city of ramadi 70 miles west of the capital. isis took over ramadi in may. a texas grand jury has decided not to indict anyone in connection with the death of sandra bland. officials say she hanged
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herself. her family disagrees. the african-american woman was arrested in july during this controversial traffic stop for allegedly failing to use a traffic signal. three days later she was found dead in her jail cell. take a look at this. a thief just hanging out, quite literally, in siberia. not by choice. he actually got stuck in the ceiling when trying to rob a store. that's humiliating. john? >> at least he's got nice legs. amber, thanks so much. radical response to the heroin epidemic sweeping new england and topping voter concerns there. one town is turning the war on drugs on its head by encouraging addicts to go to police for help and the police delivering on that promise.
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she'll use that educationing to get a job. she'll use that job to buy a home. this is lilly baker. her mom just refinanced their home and is putting an extra $312 a month toward lilly's tuition. lilly is about to take over the world. who's with her? buy in. quickenloans/home buy. refi. power.
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jeb bush, marco rubio, chris christi, focus on the battleground state. primary less than two months away. according to recent university of new hampshire wmur poll, what worries new hampshire voters most isn't isis, the economy or education but heroin use.
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it's become a potent political issue. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta has been investigating. in part two of "primary concern heroin" how one town is turning the war on drugs on its head. >> it is a mystery. why exactly in this tiny fishing community of gloucester, massachusetts, has heroin addiction become an epidemic? the long and lonely winters? it could be the stigma of addiction and lack of resources for treatment. whatever the exact cause is unclear. but one thing gloucester has is pills. lots and lots of pain pills. >> a lot of this addiction came from a very legal and accept ed way of dealing with pain. that's a big problem. >> now, chief of police leonard campanella tells me we could leave the station, walk anywhere, up the north shore, and come back with heroin in just ten minutes. >> we're finding it in
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teenagers. we're finding it all the way up to legislators, judges, police officers, sons, daughters. you know, family members. this has no boundary. >> the chief decided on a radical approach. probably best described as the opposite of a war on drugs. he used facebook to make an offer to the citizens of gloucester. >> if you're a user of heroin or opiat opiates, let us help you. we know you do not want this addiction. we can help you. do not become a statistic. >> we won't arrest you. we will help you. he had no idea if it would work. he had no idea if anyone would listen. he didn't even know if it was legal. >> did you have any concerns about this strategy or putting it out there so boldly? >> i think the worst thing they could do was fire me. >> did you talk to your wife about it or anybody else before you hit send? >> no. this was, you know, plausible deniability for everybody is a
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good thing sometimes. >> i want to give you an idea of how this remarkable program works. we're here at the gloucester police department. if you're someone who is addicted to heroin, you would walk through these doors over here and right away you would notice something is a little different. pick up the phone and tell them that you're here because you're a heroin addict. this would start this whole process of getting an angel assigned to you. take a look over here. your needles, sharps container over here, paparaphernalia, dru go over here. you start to walk through these doors now you're not going into the police station to get arrested by bu to get help. >> when we first started this program it was end of the war on drugs. when started thinking about it, was it really ever a war on drugs or was it a war on addiction? and i think we made a statement, at least for our gloucester residents, that seems to have resonated that we are back to working for people who need help. so, they'll come in here.
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>> and the people are showing up. so far this year almost 300 people have come through the doors and now are in treatment. and the patients aren't just from gloucester. unable to get the help he needed in california, steven lesnoskoski got on a plane and showed up at the chief's door. >> the officers treated me with respect when i showed up at 3:00 in the morning. and with dignity, that i was a human being, not any kind of stigma society has attached to addicts. and i got the help that i needed. >> the story that led him here was all too familiar. pill. >> did you break your ankle? >> i tore my achilles heel. >> pretty painful i imagine. >> i couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. i didn't have a cast but i had to prop my leg up. and that just kind of persistently got worse. i was prescribed vicodin, pain killers for that. >> how long after you first got
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that prescription for vicodin when you hurt your ankle before you were taking heroin? >> 18 months. >> 18 months. >> give or talk a month or two. less than two years. >> i want to make a really important point. these are fda-approved doctor-prescribed pills. this is heroin. they both virtually have the same effect on the brain. the most typical course that someone starts with pills like this, they get cut off. they turn to heroin, which is an illegal drug but works fast. it gets you high and it is very, very cheap. we now know that 80% of heroin users started off with pills like these. >> the question always arises with these sorts of programs, does it enable people to keep doing heroin? >> no. >> they think i'm not going to be criminalized. i have a safety net. i'm going to keep doing this. >> nobody wants to keep doing it. they want to get better. they haven't had the help to get better. this is a chronic relapsing
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condition. people need help lots of times. that if they relapse, they them- failed. we send all the wrong messages. so people don't want to continue to suffer. >> the chief knows this because he lives this. >> you were a plains clothesed narcotics detective for some time. you saw these people up close, people who were addicted to heroin, living that life. >> we had a mom that was a heroin addict for years. she had a 2-year-old son in her care. we would routinely do search warrants if we knew that she was selling out of the house. and we came in one night. and there was a crib. it was the 2-year-old and just walked over to check if that kid was all right. he immediately put his arms up,
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grabbed me around the neck and would not let go. he stayed like that for three hours. and so here is this guy coming in, you know, back in the day when, you know, arm to the teeth, ready to go, ready to sniff out drugs with a team of law enforcement who spent the night cradling a child. and that stuck with me for a very long time in terms of where is that child now, you know? the atmosphere that they grow up in. can something be done to stop this next generation and where do we start? >> it's a battle. it's a battle that never stops. you can't let up. you see it right there. this program in gloucester, this amazing program -- how much of the idea of it has spread? >> it's spreading. you heard from the police chief he didn't know if he was even allowed to do this, if it was legal. 34 police stations now in nine states. having covered these kind of stories for a long time it's sort of the strongest grass
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roots, if you will, statement that the war on drugs is not working, has not worked. is over, essentially. 45 years we've been doing this. it didn't work. the idea of criminalizing addicts is not going to be a successful thing. instead of offering these people help, which is what chief campanella is saying has to be what we're doing now. >> he has tried the other way, too. he was out there as a narcotics cop. >> and he saw his citizens dying. a mom -- you heard the story at the end. a mom of a 2-year-old. everyone who hears heroin addicts tonight hearing this has a conception of who they're thinking about, what that person looks like. a mom of a 2-year-old, they don't want that life. they don't choose that. that's why they need the help. >> what about big steven who hurt his achilles heel, started with vicodin, ended up as a heroin addict. how is he doing? >> doing well. he was in california, moved to
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massachusetts. still in treatment. and that could be a longstanding sort of thing for him. but he's doing well. he will probably be one of these people who does not continue to relapse over time. it's a dangerous addiction. but steven is an example of someone who actually succeeded. >> sanjay gupta, thank you very much. >> you got it, john. >> don't miss part three of sanjay's report, how former users fight addiction for life. we'll be right back. i am totally blind. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. make this holiday extra happy when you buy one get one free
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on our most popular smartphones... like the samsung galaxy s 6. so spread some cheer. and buy one get one free on our most popular smartphones. when i went on to ancestry, i just put in the name yes, we are twins. of my parents and my grandparents. i was getting all these leaves and i was going back generation after generation. you start to see documents and you see signatures of people that you've never met. i mean, you don't know these people, but you feel like you do. you get connected to them. i wish that i could get into a time machine and go back 100 years, 200 years and just meet these people. being on ancestry just made me feel like i belonged somewhere. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com.
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that's all the time we have. the top ten ridiculous stories of 2015. go to ac360.com and vote for the one you like the best. anthony bourdain, parts unknown, starts right now. ♪ we go up this beautiful mountain, incredible town. it goes back to the 12th century.