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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  May 15, 2019 9:00pm-10:01pm PDT

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to save 30% on all the medications we carry. so go directly to petmeds.com now. good evening. we begin with breaking news. one signature that could be the first step toward overturning the supreme court landmark roe versus wade decision. alabama's governor signed into law the most restrictive abortion bill in the country. it passed the state senate last night, outlawing abortion at every stage of pregnancy with exemptions for serious health
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risk but not for rape or incest. doctors who perform an abortion could face 99 years in prison. if they attempt it, a doctor could be locked up for ten years. that is significant, but there's the bigger picture of what it could mean for roe vs wade. terry collins makes no bones about it, called it a direct attack on the 1973 u.s. supreme court ruling. she says it is about challenging the decision, protecting lives of the unborn. a message shared by other republicans in the state senate. >> a life is a life and even if it is in very difficult situations, that life is still precious. life is a gift of our creator, and we must do everything that we can to protect life. >> you might imagine, he is one of the people that voted for the bill, one of the men that voted for the bill.
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only men voted to support the bill, it is not sitting well with democrats in the alabama state senate taking issue with the 25 men in all. here is one of the opponents of the bill. >> republicans, y'all, you guys used to say we want the government out of our life. we want them out of our business. we want them out of our bedroom. now you in my womb. i want you out. you don't control this. you don't own this. >> does seem to be heading toward a showdown in the supreme court, if they choose to take it up. worth noting where the public is on this. the most recent polling shows 57% want it to stand, 21% say overturn it, 22% are unsure. joining me, one of the only doctors who performs abortions in alabama. thank you for being with us. can you just explain as a doctor who provides abortions the effect this law will have on the communities that you serve?
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>> well, thank you for having me. this law will have a devastating impact on the patients that i serve. we know that abortion care is health care. it is very necessary in many instances. and with this law, it will limit options for women who are pregnant. it also ties the hands of physicians as we look to take care of women. >> the notion that if a doctor does perform an abortion after the law goes into effect, they could serve more jail time than a rapist or someone that commits incest, does that make sense to you? >> it makes no sense to me. there's no other area of medicine that doctors are restricted in this way or criminalized in this way. it is not right to penalize physicians for performing a service that certain individuals
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find morally objectionable to them. we do know like we said, we want lawmakers to not insert themselves into our personal lives. women and physicians can make these decisions for themselves. we already know that abortion care is very safe and this just shouldn't happen. >> the law does leave an opening for serious health risk to the mother where a doctor could use, quote, reasonable medical judgment and perform an abortion. are you clear about what exactly it means? it doesn't seem like it leaves the door open for someone to question a doctor's judgment after the fact. >> as an obstetrician who also performs abortions, no, i'm not clear about exactly what that means. i already met instances where it is difficult for us to determine those things in the health care setting now, and it has resulted in delays in care. so in the instance where now as a physician i have to contemplate whether someone is
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going to go back and scrutinize care that i rendered to my patients and whether they're going to agree or disagree and whether their opinion could cost me my freedom, it puts me in a difficult position. it also puts me in a position where as a physician i feel like i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. on one hand, i could end up serving jail time. on the other hand, if i don't do what's best for my patient and my patient is harmed, i have to worry about potential litigation from the patient or her family. that should never happen. >> do you plan on continuing to provide this service until the law goes into effect and once it goes into effect, what are you planning to do? >> absolutely. i do intend to continue to provide services until the law goes into effect. until that time we're going to continue to take care of women
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every single day, reassure them we're here to take care of them. we're going to continue to work with women to teach them to advocate for themselves, continue to speak up, speak out. we're going to gain consensus from other people to see if we can keep this law from going into effect. and if we are unsuccessful, then i will do everything that i can within legal means to make sure that women can continue to have access, if that means helping women to find the financial means to get to other areas, if it means me traveling so i can increase access in other areas, i'll do what it takes because i know that this is important. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> a lot to talk about with kirsten powers, former presidential candidate rick santorum. and jeffrey toobin.
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who's best selling book explores the inner workings of the supreme court. kirsten, how do you see the significance of what has just happened in alabama? >> well, i mean, i think it is significant on a lot of different levels. there's obviously a lot of people talking about the political significance of it. i think that republicans have made pretty clear not just with this but i think with the infant born alive act which is something that ben sasse sponsored and all of the republicans voted for, that they're making abortion first of all a political issue in 2020. there's the legal implications of it, which jeffrey can get into more, about the fact that it is not just alabama passing bills like this, there are other states and they're doing it in part because that's what they believe, also because they want to get something to the supreme court because they hope the supreme court will overturn it. then there's just the substantive impact of it, which is incredibly extreme. it is something that's even caused division in the pro-life community, the idea of not even having exceptions for rape and
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incest, something close to 80% of americans support. >> jeff, back in june when kennedy announced his retirement, you said, i want to make sure i get this right, you said abortion would be illegal in 20 states in 18 months. you got a lot of pushback, a lot of trump supporters saying are you a mind reader, how can you say this. >> for better or worse, i think i was right. look, donald trump said in the third debate with hillary clinton if i get two or more appointments to the supreme court, automatically, that's the word he used, automatically roe vs wade will be overturned and i think the president was exactly right. roe vs wade is gone and every woman in alabama that gets pregnant will be forced to give birth soon, and that's going to be true in alabama and in missouri, probably in georgia, and that's what the law is because that's what the presidential election was about in part last time.
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>> would this go into effect if the supreme court hasn't ruled on it? >> i think they are going to rule on it, and i think they're going to uphold it. this is what this fight has been about for years. i think the legislators were very smart. they waited until they got five votes on the supreme court, and now they're going to push this thing through. brett kavanaugh, neil gorsuch will be joined by roberts and clarence thomas and samuel alito, this is a victory rick and others have been fighting for decades and they won and they should celebrate. >> rick, senator santorum, a, i want you to respond to what jeff said. also the idea that a rapist that gets someone pregnant could get less jail time than a doctor performing an abortion. does that make sense? >> yeah, it does make sense. we're ignoring the other person in the situation, and that's the child. the rapist according to the
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supreme court, someone that's convicted of a violent, horrible, whatever, doesn't matter, all rapes are horrible, take the most horrible rape and according to the supreme court, the death sentence is cruel and unusual punishment, but the child who is conceived as a result of that can be killed. and that to me is a house divided. you can't say somebody commits a horrible crime, doesn't receive a death sentence, but a child that's innocent does, and that's why you're seeing, anderson, people don't realize this law, roe vs wade has been in effect for 50 years, yet this country is as divided now as it was 50 years ago. why? because this is wrong. and if this was such -- and all of the prognosticators predicted within 10, 20 years, everybody will be for abortion. it didn't happen, why? because you're killing a human being. it is obvious to anybody because it is a fact.
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some people can convince themselves it is okay to do that, but a lot of americans, even those that are pro-choice are very uncomfortable with this because it is wrong. >> couldn't you also make the argument that it is just a complex issue? i understand you say it's wrong. >> it is a complex issue. >> you say it is wrong, but you can be uncomfortable with it and still believe it should be the law. you know, there's -- there's many nuances. >> but you're taking a human life. >> hold on, can i just say something here? is not true that people are just as divided. anderson put up a poll, a fox news poll, 57% of americans don't think roe vs wade should be overturned. i think that -- >> half the people consider themselves pro-life. >> i know, but people that consider themselves pro-life often don't hold other people to that standard. what you are espousing is your religious views. >> no. >> yes. hold on. let me finish. >> let her finish.
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>> you're catholic. don't tell me these views don't stem from your catholicism. this is -- and that's fine. >> i'll be happy to talk about it if you want to know where it comes from. >> my point is it is not something that all americans agree on. i think people of good faith who thought a lot about this issue have come to a very different conclusion and don't think an embryo has the moral value you're putting on it. i am not debating whether that's right or wrong, i am saying there isn't agreement, and i think a lot of people, even pro-life people recognize that, which is how you end up with 57% of americans saying roe vs wade should be the law of the land. >> you used the term you don't put the moral value. and that's because you're trying to couch this in moral terms. i don't. you never heard me talk about it in moral terms or in terms of my faith.
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i came to being pro-life because my father-in-law was a geneticist, and when i was running for congress, i was conflicted on the issue of abortion when i first ran for office. i had never taken a position. i sat down with him and we had an in depth medical discussion, what is this thing in the womb, is it a unique dna, it is alive, a human being, is there anything different. >> but rick -- >> and the answer is genetically, scientifically, it is a life. for you to say it is not morally significant. that's you imposing your religion. >> no, i didn't say that that's what i thought. i'm not talking about what i think. i'm saying there are other people that have all those facts, reformed jews that don't reach the same conclusion, they have as much good faith and same information and don't come to the same conclusion. that's all i'm saying. >> you say they don't come to the same conclusion, what do you mean by that, say it is not a child, not a human life? >> they say, i think the debate
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is over. nobody is questioning whether it is a life. that's a scientific fact. there's debate whether or not somebody looks at an embryo at three weeks, four weeks, and sees a person. >> so it is what the person can do or look like. >> so that's the debate. it is just interesting that you can't even allow for the possibility that somebody could think differently on this. >> don't put words in my mouth. i do think people can think differently. all i'm saying is that it is not a scientific point of view, they're making a moral judgment about a value of life at a particular point of time in that life, we could do at the end of life, do for people with disabilities, and i'm saying i don't want to make that decision, i don't want to be the person making the decision what life is valuable and worth protecting. >> are you for the death penalty? senator santorum? >> for a long time i was. i'm not a fan of it. and by the way, there's a difference. people of good moral conscience
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can disagree. in this case it is not an innocent human life. this person did something horrible that may deserve punishment as opposed to a child has done nothing to deserve punishment. >> we have to leave it there. more to come on all this. getting reaction from 2020 presidential candidate senator kristin gillibrand. first, white house counsel says no way to house judiciary committee request for documents in the probe of team trump. how the democratic chairman of the committee responded next. what sore muscles? what with advpounding head? .. advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain? with advil. my dream car.
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the white house top lawyer says democrats have no right to a do over of the special counsel investigation of president trump. the white house rejected a request for documents in a sweeping probe of possible obstruction of justice, and abuses of power.
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the judiciary chair, jerry nadler didn't take the decision well and responded this way. >> this is the white house claiming that the president is a king. this is the white house saying that the justice department says they can't hold the president accountable, you can't indict a president, neither can congress. so the president is totally unaccountable, above the law. no president, no person in the united states is above the law. this is preposterous. >> joining me, former nixon white house counsel. john dean. and carrie cordero. you're in a position of someone that was white house counsel and cooperated in a congressional investigation. do you agree trump is acting like a tyrant? like a king? >> he absolutely is, i agree with the chairman. we returned to the imperial presidency. i must say that it started with nixon.
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we had it with bush and cheney, and we're back there again. these people feel that the law doesn't really apply to them, so they march to their own drummer. i hope nadler doesn't let up because there's no reason. he has the full power and authority of the constitution and many supreme court rulings to back him up. >> a lot of people have been dancing around whether this is a constitutional crisis, a number of democrats claim it is, the white house stonewalling, judiciary chairman saying the president wanting to be king. when does it reach that threshold for you, when court rulings are ignored? >> yeah, i think if they were to exhaust their opportunities in court, i think here's what i think the problem is that's going on. first of all, the white house counsel's letter i completely disagree with the way they characterized it in terms of saying that what chairman nadler is doing is a do over for the special counsel's investigation. congress has a legitimate authority to conduct oversight
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and do the investigation, and that's not at all the same thing as conducting a criminal investigation, which is what the special counsel office was doing. it also completely ignores the record that was established in the mueller report, both on the issue of foreign interference and particularly on the issue of obstruction on the part of the president, where i think the democratic strategy is failing and why it would be a long time until we got to what i would consider an actual crisis is that they're not prioritizing things that they're requesting. so what that's doing is it is opening an opportunity for the white house counsel to characterize their demands as unreasonable, and if it did go to court, court would say you need to get together to work it out more. i just don't think what chairman nadler is doing is an effective strategy to get the information that he wants. >> john, the white house is basically saying congress doesn't have oversight of the president, that flies in the face of separation of powers. do you agree that the democrats
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are playing into their hands by having a broad, sweeping request? >> if you look at the record, nadler indeed has tried to negotiate on this issue with the white house, on all these issues. there have been negotiations ongoing. so what they reached the point where they felt they had no option when he didn't show up to issue a subpoena, and request not only his presence but later his documents. so the negotiations fell down. this congress is well aware that the courts will send them back to negotiate if they haven't done so. clearly they'll go in with a record of having negotiated in this instance. >> the idea that the judiciary committee is fining people that don't cooperate with subpoenas, any reason to believe that's actually going to rattle anyone in the trump administration? trump offered to pay legal fees of people that protested his rallies, although he didn't. >> i don't think that's necessarily so effective.
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similarly with threats to potentially use inherent contempt power to jail people. i think politically the visual of that is probably not politically good. i think part of the difficulty is that what the white house counsel office is now arguing is that the president cannot be overseen on certain things that are his executive authority, that congress literally does not have the authority to conduct oversight of his exercise of executive power. and this is where the real crux of what they actually are going to end up arguing about, when they get down to the facts of the president's obstructive behavior, it is whether or not he can actually abuse that executive authority and they're just not getting to that issue yet. >> carrie cordero, john dean, thank you. >> tensions with iran seeming to ramp up.
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it sounds like a confrontation with iran may be in the works. the state department ordered all nonemergency personnel out of iraq because of what they characterize as an imminent threat from iran. inside iran, a revolutionary guard commander said we're at the height of confrontation with an enemy, without saying who the enemy was. listen to what a senior british commander battling the islamic state had to say from where he stood. >> there's been no increased threat from iranian backed forces in iraq and syria, we're aware of their presence clearly and we monitor them along with a whole range of others because that's the environment we're in
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but as i say, we see no -- we have no part of iran in our mission. we are monitoring the shi'a militia groups carefully, and if the threat level proceeds to go up we'll raise protection measures accordingly. >> didn't take long for an american military spokesman to say the general's remarks run counter to what he called identified credible threats available to u.s. intelligence. question then for us is what to make of it all. i spoke before air time to senator tammy duckworth, iraq war veteran on the senate armed services committee. >> how do you square the narrative coming from the administration about iran with comments today from the british deputy command of the coalition saying there's no increased threat right now? >> well, it is very hard to square when i have not received any type of an intelligence analysis or briefing from the administration. you know, i was just in iraq less than three weeks ago and
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certainly i did not get any briefings on the ground there that indicated there was any increased risk from iran, so i would like to see what this intelligence that the administration keeps talking about, they need to share it with members of congress. >> have they shared it with any members of congress? >> they have not shared it with any members of congress and we have been calling for it in a very bipartisan way by the way. i think this is something mr. bolton is pushing us towards, he keeps referring to some sort of intelligence an estimate and analysis, and i have not seen it. i have top secret clearance. share it with the members and let us see what you're talking about. >> you met with patrick shanahan yesterday, what did he say? >> i asked him directly that question. he said he would be willing to share it in classified briefing. hopefully he will follow through and we'll get some sort of briefing. he was very broad in his answers. >> someone said they believe the administration is trying to essentially goad iran into conflict. do you think that's possible.
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do you think that's what they're doing? >> not just the administration, but mr. bolton in particular. he himself said two things that caused the u.s. to be in ton flik -- conflict. one for iran to ramp up its nuclear production, and then the other is for them to attack u.s. forces. seems like he is setting up conditions for that to happen. number one, put us out of the jcpoa, iran nuclear agreement which only incentivizes iran not to adhere to the agreement. and sending as many as 130,000 troops into the region that increases targets for potential attacks. i sort of feel like there's circular logic happening here, and i wonder if this is something driven by mr. bolton. >> you talked about it being bipartisan concern, are republican colleagues in the senate as concerned as you and some of your democratic colleagues are and do you know, are there any plans as of now to hold hearings to get to the bottom of what's going on?
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>> well, i know that in the foreign affairs committee there was certainly bipartisan support, calling for more briefings. armed services where i sit, bipartisan support to get some briefing of this change in the environment that the white house keeps referring to, but they have not yet briefed us. we in congress are the only authority to declare war and so you should share information if you're pushing us into conditions where war may happen, i deserve to know as a co-equal branch of government and do my job so provide the evidence so i can see what you're talking about. >> where does the 120,000 number come from, could it be more than just a contingency plan, the pentagon wanting to be ready for any eventuality? >> that's the size of an army. something on the lines of two or three divisions. when i asked the nominee for secretary of defense and talked with secretary of the navy, i
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asked the same. they said that's the high number and some forces were already going to be in the region. again, i feel like we are ramping up the conditions to head us toward some sort of conflict when even our nato allies in the region are not pulling out their personnel from embassies, doing changes in posture, so either our allies don't have the intelligence that they're referring to or we're not sharing this information with allies, which is deeply concerning to me. >> senator duckworth, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. next, reaction to all of the breaking news at the top of the program from 2020 candidate kirsten gillibrand headed to the front lines of the abortion fight in georgia tomorrow.
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back to breaking news. tonight alabama's governor signed into law the most restrictive abortion bill in the country and near total ban on all abortions. under the new law, doctors that perform abortions could face 99 years in prison. reaction from presidential candidates has been swift and fierce, one of the most vocal
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opponents, new york senator and 2020 candidate kirsten gillibrand saying the greatest threat to reproductive freedom in our lifetime. the senator is heading to georgia tomorrow. first she joins us here on "360." thanks for being with us. >> hi, anderson. >> you want to fight this. what can you do on the congressional level, this is solely a decision for the courts at this point, isn't it? >> i think i can lead a movement and fight across this nation for women's reproductive freedom. this is an all out assault, state after state, over 39 efforts in this country to undermine women's reproductive freedoms. president trump intends on overturning roe vs wade, he made it clear not only in his campaign but as president. and that's what the republican legislatures are doing across this country. this is something women are going to have to fight back on and i will lead that fight.
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>> justice kavanaugh in his confirmation hearing said he would respect the important precedent of roe vs wade. do you believe he will do that if and when this case and cases from other states make their way to the supreme court? a lot of times people who are waiting to get confirmed give a statement that's oblique and could be read in different ways. >> i think his statement was dishonest and disingenuous, but the american people are watching, and if he lied under oath in the hearings, that's going to be problematic, so i hope the american people and american women everywhere will hold this president accountable and will protest these extreme decisions by legislatures and governors being signed into law. they're criminalizing a woman's right to make a decision about her body, her reproductive freedom, how many children she will have, when she will have children. it is literally turning back the clock on settled law. this is not something the american people support.
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over 70% of american people support reproductive freedom and support the precedent of roe vs wade. >> fact of the matter, this is not a surprise. president trump made it clear as a candidate he wanted to overturn this. he won the presidency in part because his supporters wanted him to appoint conservative justices to the supreme court, potentially repealing roe vs wade if it came down to it. i mean, couldn't one argue that this is the will of the people to a certain degree? >> hillary clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes, i wouldn't say that. and if you ask americans today do you believe in the precedent of roe vs wade and giving women basic human rights and civil rights to make decisions about their health, well-being, their bodies, and life or death medical decisions, they believe women should have that right. so we know where the american people stand on this. and that's why we have to lift up voices of people in georgia,
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people in alabama, women who will suffer under new laws and make sure their voices are heard and i will lead this fight across the country. if i am president, i will make sure that there is not a judge or justice appointed by me who will not uphold the precedent of roe vs wade, and the truth is, i will guarantee that no matter where you live in this country, in all 50 states, a woman will have access to safe, legal abortions and other reproductive care services that republican legislators are so intent on denying. >> you would want a litmus test for supreme court justices. and roe vs wade would be one of the litmus tests? >> i do. president trump and senator mcconnell changed all the rules when it comes to appointing justices. when mitch mcconnell decided president obama was not entitled to his supreme court justice, where merrick garland was denied a hearing and a vote, they changed the rules.
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president trump made clear he's had a litmus test. frankly, i believe in precedent, settled law. this is not just some regulatory issue. this is a basic fundamental human right of every female in this country. and you are telling them that men in legislatures across america should get to decide when they have children, how many they have, and what types of health care they may have access to. we are rolling back the clock decades. if they were doing this on any other issue, you would see a ground swell of outrage. i'm telling you, women have been marching against this president since he was inaugurated. global women's marches. for years now. you saw women turn up to the polls in 2018, flipping the house of representatives because bold women ran across this country on issues of passion and rights. so this is just beginning, anderson. if the president wants a fight with the american people and american women, he's got it. >> senator gillibrand, appreciate your time.
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more news ahead, including why attorney general barr asked house speaker nancy pelosi if she brought handcuffs. we'll be back with that. (music throughout) nueven if you try to eat well,. you might fall short in key nutrients. get more by adding one a day. it's the #1 multivitamin uniquely designed for men and women. one serving, once a day. one a day. and done.
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busy wednesday night. let's check in with chris for prime time. >> we're looking at what happened in alabama. it is very interesting that roe vs wade back in '73 was actually overturning a texas law that was just like this alabama law, and it makes you wonder why did they do this because the person who thought up the alabama law is part of an organization that has been trying for years to get back to the supreme court. what we've seen is the idea that roe vs wade is set in stone is not true. you have the webster case, casey. you have seen over time erosions in the protection by allowing the state more qualifications of notice, different determinations of when
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viability needs to be tested, state resources, funding. we're taking you through that tonight, and we're going to look at what the chances this winds up being litigated beyond district court, what the vulnerabilities of roe vs wade, we'll take the audience through that legal seminar. >> want your take on william barr joking with speaker pelosi, asking if she brought her handcuffs, a reference to house democrats calling for barr to be arrested. >> was it? >> you think there was some other subjects going on? >> no, no, no, just in my head.
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so look, i think it was interesting. if true as reported that pelosi without skipping a beat pointed to the sergeant-at-arms and said he's right there in case we need to make an arrest and barr laughed and walked away, from my perspective, i will take the levity. everything is so hyperpartisan, so vicious, so hostile, it is good to know they can joke about something. >> ignoring subpoenas? >> it was a liberal school, i think he was too conservative. who knows. i was a kid then. thanks very much. appreciate it. see you in 11 minutes. dr. sanjay gupta introduces us to a man that jumped off the golden gate bridge, survived, and is using that data to help others. wow, you've outdone yourself this time. hey, what're neighbors for? it's beautiful. run with us. search "john deere x300" for more.
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this is my mom's house this place is home. a lot of firsts happened here... first kiss, first cigarette. never saw it as a problem... but when i was younger... 2 cigarettes, 3 cigarettes it wasn't; it wasn't a habit... my mom - she was always like "you need to do something, you need to get rid of them." that was her thing. as time went on, as smoking started falling out of fashion in society and rules started changing. gave the juul a real chance and... found that i liked it. found that it really works.
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the switch was easy. it was a no brainer really. but now that i look at people who smoke i am like "dude really?! you still doing that?" you know there's an alternative to that right? you don't have to do that. the person that i like to think that i am is because of her. this came from her... really. with peak season berries, uniqcreamy avocado. and a dressing fit for a goddess. come taste what a salad should be. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be.
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all this week we're bringing you stories of some incredible people who are champions for change. tonight you're going to meet a man who made a lasting impact on our doctor sanjay gupta. in 2000, kevin hines tried to end his life by jumping off san francisco's golden gate bridge. not only did kevin survive he is now thriving and is dedicating his life to preventing others from dying by suicide. >> she might like this. >> oh, my brother. this is amazing. >> the thing that you've been fighting for for nearly 20 years.
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there it is. i know -- i know this is emotional, but this is -- this is in large part because of you, man. i think we tend to be very reductionist when we cover stories. it's very binary. here's what happened. here's the outcome. i think what kevin hines and this story did for me was make me realize that the shades of gray in between stories aren't things that you should just dismiss. >> reporter: no detail's too small, especially with a story like the one i'm about to tell you. on september 25th, 2000, is 18 the-year-old kevin hines walked to the middle of the golden gate bridge and jumped. >> so, you know, i'm falling head first and i immediately recognize if i hit head first i will die. i hit the water. and shatter my t-12 l-1 and l-2.
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when you hit from that height at that speed, it's like hitting a solid brick wall. >> and what was going through your mind? >> the very millisecond my legs left the rail, instant regret. instantaneous regret. >> i just wish i could go back into time. >> reporter: kevin and i first met back in 2003. his was one of the first stories i presented at cnn. >> why did you come here? why the golden gate bridge? >> i was under the impression that it was the easiest way to die. >> reporter: over the last two decades, the suicide rate in the united states has gone up 33%. that makes it the number two cause of death in this country for people age 10 to 34. and over that same time period, 537 people have died after jumping from the golden gate bridge. kevin hines has spent the last 16 years trying to change those tragic numbers.
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his singular goal, to get a net placed on this beautiful bridge, a barrier to stop someone from dying, someone like him. >> what aesthetics of a bridge compared to one human life. what if that was your mom or your dad? >> this is the place where you jumped. >> yeah. this is the place where i lived. >> i love that. what surprised me then still surprises me now, is the story kevin tells about the day that he jumped off the golden gate bridge. he made this pact with himself, which was that if anybody basically is kind to me, if
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anybody looks at me and says what's wrong, can i help you, wants to be compassionate in some way, if anybody had done that for him, he wouldn't have jumped. that stuck with me and i think in some ways it has influenced and directed a lot of the other stories that i do. it's never about a single individual, it's always about the circle of individuals, the ecosystem of society as a whole. >> in some ways you look like a totally different person. >> yeah. >> i mean, first of all, just physically. both of us, i mean, in some ways i think look better now, you know? >> i think kevin first got me thinking about this idea that if someone drops all of a sudden in front of you from a cardiac arrest, most people would have some idea of what to do. call 911, you know, start pushing on the chest. but if someone is clearly in trouble from mental illness, somebody who may be clearly suicidal, not only do we often not know what to do, we often turn the other way. >> today is our gift. ♪
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>> kevin hines won't admit this but he has probably saved many, many lives, people who thought nobody cared and then kevin hines shows up and says i love you, i care about you, i understand the pain that you're feeling and there is something we can do about it. >> let's go check this out together. >> yeah, man. let's do it. >> reporter: and today i get to show him that his story, his fight has meant something. that net is finally going up. >> that's the net. that's it. it's going up on the golden gate as of 2021. not one more death by someone's hands off the golden gate bridge. this is one of the most special days of my life. >> let's talk about ways people can reach out. what signs people should look for. >> if you know the person and you see sudden, you know, obvious changes in the behavior,
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either becoming increasingly sad or increasingly withdrawn, changes in sleep, changes in eating, changes in enjoying the things that you previously enjoyed, those are sort of the obvious ones. i think that the idea that the person has now sort of lost hope. there is a hopelessness about them, that's probably the biggest one. kevin, the signs were obvious. he was crying. he was upset as he got to the bus stop, all these people saw him and he said, look, if one person was kind to me. if one person had shown me friendly eyes, as he said it, he wouldn't have jumped. that didn't happen. he's dedicated his life to say it's okay to talk about, it's okay to reach out. if somebody drops of a cardiac arrest, you probably know to pump on his chest. if somebody is suffering from mental illness, not only do we not help, we often turn the other way. kevin wants to change that. >> sanjay, thank you. >> thank you. >> it's a one-hour prime time
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special hosted by sanjay 9:00 p.m. right hon