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CNN TONIGHT

Change at Secret Service; Ebola in America; Israeli P.M.: ISIS and Hamas are the Same; Interview with Mark Regev; Sperm Bank Mixes Up Donors; Latest on Hannah Graham Disappearance

Aired October 1, 2014 - 22:00   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Great to be with you, Don. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

Tonight, a deadly disease hits home. A 42-year-old man flies to Dallas to visit family and comes down with Ebola. But he's not hospitalized until days after he became ill and after having he had contact with at least five schoolchildren. How many people are at risk now? We are going to ask the experts your questions about Ebola.

CAMEROTA: Plus, listen to this story. A mixup at a sperm bank causes a white woman to inadvertently use a black donor. The woman is now suing the sperm bank for the stress of raising her half-black child in an all-white now. That mother joins us tonight exclusively.

LEMON: Can't wait to hear that story.

Also, why does the Secret Service seem to be having so much trouble protecting the president of the United States? Is there another case of race rearing its ugly head? And speaking of race, what about this editorial cartoon in "The Boston Herald"? Do you think it's racist? Look closely at the words.

CAMEROTA: We will read them to you later.

We will also look deeper into the case of missing Hannah Graham. Her high school softball coach is with us tonight. He has an entirely different take on what happened that night that you have not heard before. We will get into all of that tonight, Don.

LEMON: Yes. It's a very busy news night here.

We are going to begin though with Ebola in America. We're learning a lot about the patient being treated in Dallas, the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States. He's identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. A friend tells CNN that Duncan is a 42-year-old Liberian citizen who is in the States visiting family and friends.

Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, she joins us tonight from Dallas.

Good everything, Elizabeth. How is the patient and what can you tell us about how he came here to the United States?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. We are told the patient is doing better than he was before. He went from critical to serious condition. We're told he's able to talk and he's been getting on the phone to talk to family.

But still of course he is not out of the woods yet. As far as how he got here, we know that he arrived in the U.S. on September 20. He told he flew from Monrovia to Brussels, and then Brussels to Dulles Airport outside Washington and then Dulles to Dallas with maybe a stop in between. We don't know.

LEMON: Elizabeth, there are reports tonight that he was very ill. He was vomiting outside his home and en route to the hospital. What can you tell us about that?

COHEN: You know, what we know is he arrived here at this hospital on September 25 and was ill. But then the hospital asked him, have you traveled to an Ebola-stricken country? He said, yes, I just got back from Liberia, but that somehow that piece of information didn't go from the nurse who did the questioning on to the rest of the medical team. They let him go home.

Two days later, he's back in an ambulance vomiting, we're told, in the ambulance and is then admitted and isolated. You know, it's obviously, as one official used the term, this is obviously a screw- up. They obviously shouldn't let someone who's just come back from Liberia who has a fever out of the hospital.

You know, the hospital sort of termed it as sort of a communication issue. It's a big deal. We really hope the hospital figures out what happened so that this doesn't happen again.

LEMON: And also disturbing is that we know that five children have been exposed to Duncan while he was sick with Ebola and those children attend public schools. What can you tell us about them? Are they quarantined right now?

COHEN: You know what? They are not quarantined. The parents have been asked not to send their children to school. And we're told that they have complied with that. Quarantined would mean that they are stuck in their homes and can't go out. That's no that case.

These children, I want to emphasize this, we told that they are not ill. They do not have symptoms. You can only spread Ebola once you are actually sick and have symptoms. If you are infected but you're perfectly healthy, you cannot spread the disease. That's what we have been told over and over again.

I think public health experts would say why would you want to quarantine someone who is incapable of spreading a disease? They have to be monitored. They have to have their temperatures taken at least twice a day. They have to be watchful of symptoms. But right now they are not contagious. They're not technically a threat to anybody. LEMON: All right, Elizabeth Cohen in Dallas, Elizabeth, stand by.

Thank you very much.

We have much, much more to come on Ebola in America. In just a few minutes, our expert team will answer your questions about the risks and what you can do to avoid this deadly disease.

CAMEROTA: But, first, Don, let's turn to today's big story out of Washington. Julia Pierson giving up her attempt to restore faith in the Secret Service and resigning as the director.

It seemed pretty inevitable after incidents like the knife-wielding intruder who ran right in through the front door of the White House and the armed security contractor who shared an elevator with the president.

Let's bring in CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, who has the latest.

Just yesterday, Jim, Pierson was vowing to fight on and then today she resigned. What pushed it over the edge?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, two things really pushed Julia Pierson out the door today. The first was her testimony up on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Talking to sources inside the administration and up on Capitol Hill, Pierson just failed to reassure people about her leadership at the Secret Service. Some lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee thought she was being evasive. Not a good performance.

The other factor, this was a big one, Alisyn, was her failure to tell the White House about another security breach on September 16. The White House told us about this today. We understand that this was when the president visited the CDC back in September. While he was there, a security contractor got on an elevator with the president.

The Secret Service did not know at that time that he was armed until after he started to behave unprofessionally, I'm told. The fact that he had a gun should have been reported immediately to the White House and it wasn't. I talked to Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz earlier this evening. He called that a "deception" -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jim, we understand there's even more video of the Omar Gonzalez incident than we previously thought. What is it?

ACOSTA: That's right.

We understand it to be a White House security video. According to Congressman Chaffetz, who has taken on a lead role on this issue on Capitol Hill, he says he's aware there's extensive footage of White House intruder Omar Gonzalez during this incident on September 19.

Chaffetz said he's not seen the footage, but expect that to be something that will be reviewed by the incoming interim director of the Secret Service, Joseph Clancy. He was named today. Up until today, Clancy was retired, but he's a longtime veteran of the Secret Service, well respected. Today the president called him to thank him for returning to service. But he has a lot to unpack starting with some of that Secret Service footage that was videotaped on the night of the incident -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: He sure does. Jim Acosta, thanks so much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

CAMEROTA: Don, something strange happened in the media coverage of today's top stories. Somehow, the Secret Service scandal and Ebola became racially charged.

LEMON: Let's talk about it

Joining us to talk about all that, Van Jones, the co-host of "CROSSFIRE," and Ben Ferguson, CNN political commentator and the host of "The Ben Ferguson Show."

Van, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned today. Did she jump or was she pushed?

VAN JONES, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": It's hard to know. But I will say this.

I have been in her shoes. I resigned from a White House post. I'm telling you right now, this is probably the worst day of her life. Tough day for her. I think we have to give her some credit. She stood up for herself. But once it became clear she was not going to be able to reassure the public, she was not going to be able to reassure Congress, she did the right thing and she did step down. Whether she jumped or pushed, she need to go. I'm glad she did it honorably.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: If she stayed -- if she went, then the problems would not get fixed. And I'll ask you again, Van. Can the problems get fixed even though she's gone? Because she knows all about the agency.

JONES: Here is the problem.

You had similar problems with the last director. I don't know if playing Whac-A-Mole with who is in charge -- it could be that the actual mandate for the Secret Service is just too broad for the kind of world we live now. They are not just protecting the president. They have a bunch of other stuff on their plate.

We need to have an agency that is 100 percent designed just to focus on the kinds of threats a modern president is going to face. I don't think the Secret Service is designed now to do its job.

CAMEROTA: So, gentlemen, let's talk about whether or not there was some racial element to the Secret Service scandal.

Today, on "The View," Whoopi Goldberg made a suggestion that somehow the Secret Service has a problem protecting this president. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, "THE VIEW": I'm kind of shocked. The one thing, you always see the Secret Service jumping in front of bullets. But, somehow, with him, they are like oh, look, somebody running on the road.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDBERG: So, you want to call somebody to get him?

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDBERG: It's like a Stepin Fetchit kind of thing. It like, nobody gets -- yes, we are going to watch the whole thing. I mean, what are you waiting for? This is the president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: So, Ben, she used that. It was almost subliminal. She used the Stepin Fetchit reference. She said they have a problem protecting him. What do you think she -- she didn't right come out and say it. But how did you interpret...

(CROSSTALK)

BEN FERGUSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, I think this is Whoopi Goldberg doing what she actually was pretty decent at, doing stand-up.

I think though that you don't joke about the Secret Service and them not protecting the president of the United States of America because of the color of his skin. There's as lot of men and women in the Secret Service that I'm sure would be more than willing to take a bullet for the president if it came down to that.

That's their job. They take it very seriously. There's a lot of people that do that job every day, not knowing if they are going to come home. So, I think there's been some serious issues. Yes, there is a lack of leadership. There needs to be a total overhaul of the Secret Service. But to even imply that they are not protecting the way they should be because of the color of skin, I think this is where that joke maybe gets you some laughs, but it's not really appropriate at all.

LEMON: You think it was? You think she implied it? There was an implication there? Or was she just using it as a...

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Sure.

LEMON: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Van, what do you think?

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: No, absolutely. Sorry. You said Van. Go ahead.

JONES: Well, first of all, I thought it was hilarious. And I agree with Ben.

Listen, the people who are part of Secret Service, they risk their lives every day. It's one of the most high-stress jobs you could possibly imagine. Literally, any second, history could be made and not in a positive way when you're there. But do I think that Whoopi was speaking to a lot of people's concern.

I don't think about race, but just about how the heck can somebody just go wandering around the White House with weapons? I thought it was more humor than it was actual accusation of racism.

LEMON: Yes, because Stepin Fetchit would not apply in that way, right?

OK, let's talk more about race then because this is -- I was in Boston today. This ran both in print and online in "The Boston Herald." It shows President Obama brushing his teeth in the White House and Boehner in his bathroom and it says, "Have you tried the new watermelon-flavored toothpaste?"

Now, to many, this is racist because of the reference to watermelon.

JONES: Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: What's your -- hang on, Van.

Go ahead, Van. Go, go, go, go.

JONES: Well, I will just say, listen, I don't understand how that was supposed to be funny. That, I think, is very, very, if it's not racist, it's so racially insensitive, this whole idea that black people eat watermelons and that whole -- now, there you got the true Stepin Fetchit.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes, but "The Herald" said -- "The Herald" apologized, saying: "We sincerely regret if we inadvertently offended anyone. The cartoonist says his son's girlfriend uses watermelon toothpaste. And it was just what came to mind."

Even if they didn't know about it, it's still pretty bad. If it was inadvertently...

JONES: Couldn't an editor -- but wouldn't an editor have noticed that this might be something that's offensive? I would love to hear Ben's comment on this.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Even the syndicate said, can we change the flavor to raspberry? That's when you should say, dude, come on, man. Like, call your editors.

You obviously know you are about to get in trouble. Your syndicate is even saying, can we change it to raspberry? I have never seen raspberry-flavored toothpaste my entire life. That's when you know that you should probably change it. The claim that like it was a total accident, it's 2014.

Seriously? You are a columnist, cartoonist dealing with politics and being funny. You didn't see this coming? I don't buy it.

JONES: For once, I agree with Ben.

CAMEROTA: Oh, all right. Well, there you go.

OK, let's see if you guys both agree on this. Laura Ingraham on her radio show, conservative radio talk show host, talks about how she blames President Obama for Ebola here in the United States because he hasn't stopped flights coming in from Africa because of his familial ties with Africa. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Politics trumps security, safety, health security. I believe with this failure to stop these planes from coming into Sierra Leone, I think there could be politics involved in that, too.

Obama, familial connection with Africa. He has an enormous amount of I think core ties to the African content. He's mindful of his own family history there. And I would say Bush did a lot more for Africa in the end than Obama did. But come on. It doesn't make any sense not to have stopped these flights from coming in.

And now we have a man here who was visiting family members who is infected, being treated in Dallas. Oh, but don't worry. No worries.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Ben, you want to take a crack at this?

JONES: Oh, my gosh.

FERGUSON: Yes. Laura, this is what you call stretching.

When you look at the world, we are talking one person right now in the United States of America, one person out of the millions that fly in and out all the time who have this. If you start having five, six, seven that turn into 30, 40, 50, 100, that turn into a couple hundred, you have a legitimate argument that maybe we should be stopping planes from coming in here. But as of now, we're talking about one human being. And to go off on

this -- would say this one is a little bit extreme to say that it's because there's some sort of connection he's not doing his job.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: I agree with that.

FERGUSON: Obviously, he was a little bit too cocky when he said it's not going to come here.

LEMON: I think -- we all on the set know Laura. This is a stretch for Laura.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: To me, it's worse than a stretch. It's stooping. This is not stretching. This is stooping. This is low.

The World Health Organization, nobody has said that we should be stopping planes from coming here at this point. Ben is right about that. That's not in anybody's mind. But if you think it's a bad policy, that's fine. But what difference does it make where the president's dad is from?

Why do they keep dragging that in? It's this whole smear campaign against the president. He's not really American. I think it's low. We are in a very serious situation in Africa and in the world right now. We should be trying to put forward good information, not bad information.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: All right guys, you agreed a lot tonight. There you go, peace and reconciliation.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: We will try not to let it again happen again in the future. Don't future.

LEMON: Ben the liberal. Thank you.

When we come right back, your questions on Ebola in America. Our expert medical team is here with everything you need to know.

CAMEROTA: Also, an unbelievable story, a white mom sues a sperm bank after they mistakenly gave her sperm from a black donor. She gave birth to a mixed-race daughter. She joins us tonight exclusively.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We have new developments tonight on the case of Ebola in America.

The mayor of Dallas tells CNN that Thomas Eric Duncan had contact with up to 20 people. The school superintendent says five children had contact with Duncan, but have not exhibited any symptoms.

And, understandably, a lot of Americans are worried about the possible spread of Ebola.

So, we have an expert team here to answers the questions that you sent to us at AskCNNTonight.

LEMON: Let's get to it now.

Joining us first, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's CNN chief medical correspondent. Dr. Seema Yasmin, public health professor at University of Texas, Dallas. She's also a staff writer for "The Dallas Morning News" and a former investigator for the CDC, and Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center right here in New York and a contributor to The Daily Beast.

Dr. Gupta, I'm going to start with you.

We now know that at least five children, five children were exposed to the Ebola victim in Texas after he exhibited symptoms. So, talk about the circle of possible exposure. How widespread could the exposure to Ebola be?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They want to identify all the contacts, first of all, for this gentleman who is known to have Ebola. That means anybody he came in direct contact with over the period of time when he was sick.

It's about a four-day period that we understand when he developed symptoms before he got isolated. Don, if none of those people get sick, -- and what they're going to do is they are going to monitor them for 21 days, because that's how long Ebola can stay in your body before it causes any symptoms. If they don't develop any symptoms, then 21 days, they are free and clear and the circle of exposure sort of stops.

But if one of those people subsequently gets sick and is confirmed to have Ebola, they have their own circle, if you will, of exposure. That's how it sort of goes. You can imagine, it's almost like a computer modeling. Each time somebody gets sick, you have to figure out all the contacts that person had. The hope is that none of these 20 or so people, I heard the same number, will develop any symptoms or test positive for Ebola.

LEMON: That's 20 or so people and that for -- 20 or so people, that is the entire total, right, so far?

GUPTA: Well, so far.

Can you imagine, Don, what you have to sort of do, think about your life, the last four days. Tell me all the people you may have had direct contact with. It's not going to be the exact same because he was sick. So, he most likely was going to be at home in bed or, as we know, trying to get into the hospital. Probably not as many contacts as if you are walking around a public place. But you still have to really narrow that down.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Yasmin, we have a question now sent in from a viewer named Jim. He asks: "If it's so hard to contract Ebola, as some espouse, why are caregivers dressed like hazmat workers?"

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, DALLAS: That's a great question.

We know that caregivers and health care workers are those who are most at risk of contracting Ebola. It is very a contagious virus, but you have to have direct contact with bodily fluids. That's things like infected blood, feces, urinal and vomit. It's of course the family caregivers and those health care workers who are most likely to be in touch contaminated bodily fluids like that.

CAMEROTA: OK.

LEMON: And, Dr. Sepkowitz, Asi (ph) asks, "How long does it stay live on surfaces?"

DR. KENT SEPKOWITZ, MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: It stays live on surfaces for several hours, if not a day or two.

But it's not necessarily transmissible from that. So, to be able to cultivate it off a surface is not the same thing as it being transmissible to the next person. I think that that is not an issue at all.

I think the issue only is being in direct contact with blood and contaminated body fluids, like we keep saying, for a protracted period. It is not a casual, glancing exposure at all.

CAMEROTA: OK.

LEMON: Can I add something?

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I'm sorry.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead. Go ahead.

LEMON: If he was vomiting somewhere and someone came into contact with that, does that make a difference, Dr. Sepkowitz?

SEPKOWITZ: If the patient were vomiting, yes.

Vomit, I would absolutely count, because there's saliva in there. It's in the saliva. But as Dr. Gupta was saying I think last hour, the amount of virus per unit of volume in blood is sky-high.

The amount of virus in every other body fluid is nowhere near that. The super contagious body compartment is blood. It's blood and it's blood. And one can concoct all of these what-ifs with spitting and sneezing and coughing, and there is statistical tiny risk. But we have really got to focus on the real thing, which is blood exposure over time to people who are not protected by a barrier, such as a gown or a mask.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I wanted to get that in because we were talking about...

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: That's interesting to know that blood is so much higher in the density of the virus.

Meanwhile, Sanjay, here is another question. This comes from Jessica. "Can we be confident that hospitals won't drop the ball going forward with miscommunication and failure to test, as Texas Presbyterian did?"

GUPTA: Well, that's a good question.

I mean, look, it's a big health system. I would love to be able to say with 100 percent confidence that the ball will never be dropped again. Frankly, I was a bit surprised that the ball was dropped this time. Look, what has happened today, very historic, but not unexpected, I think.

We have been sort of knowing for some time that this was likely to happen, that a patient would show up in the United States and subsequently be diagnosed with Ebola. They have been prepping for this for months. We talk about experimental vaccines and treatments and all these sorts of things.

Asking someone a travel history, and then acting upon that information, that is pretty low-hanging fruit, right? If we can't get that right, that's a real problem. I guess what I would say, Alisyn, is that this -- because this first case we had a couple missteps here, hopefully, that's a very clear message to emergency rooms and public health systems around the country. They have to take this seriously and not make that mistake again.

CAMEROTA: Yes, maybe we have learned from that mistake.

LEMON: I want to ask this next question. But I don't want to -- I think we have a responsibility not to scare people, because as you guys have been saying here, it's really, really tough to get this. You really have to get close to someone. And most likely, it is blood.

With that caveat, Dr. Yasmin, Angela asks this. "What if the worst happens, right? What if the worst happened?"

YASMIN: Sure.

And that's exactly the scenario that public health agencies, local public health workers gear up for. What if there is further spread? Right now, we're told they are doing all that they can do. The two things that you want to do in any outbreak or any case like this, number one, you want to stop the chain of transmission.

You want to isolate that one case. That's happened right now. Secondly, you want to contact anyone that this gentleman had direct contact with while he was infectious. They are working on that right now, but they're gearing up also in case there is actual spread of the disease. CDC says the chances of that are very low.

LEMON: The actual tweet, I neglected to read it, sorry. It says: "Once we have symptoms of Ebola, is it too late? Is there something that we can do to prepare ourselves against Ebola."

The thing is just wash your hands.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Try not to get it, yes, preventative.

LEMON: Yes, that's it. OK.

Thank you, Doctors. We appreciate it.

SEPKOWITZ: Thank you.

LEMON: All right.

GUPTA: Thank you.

LEMON: When we come right back, Israel equates ISIS with Hamas, but the U.S. government says not so fast. We are going to talk about it next with a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Obama met at the White House today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And they discussed the situation in Gaza and the U.S.-led battle against ISIS.

CAMEROTA: In his speech at the United Nations on Monday, Netanyahu equated ISIS with Hamas. So let's talk about that with Mark Regev. He's the spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Mr. Regev, thanks so much for being here.

LEMON: Great to meet you in person. It's been via satellite.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MARK REGEV, SPOKESMAN FOR BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: It's a pleasure.

CAMEROTA: So we understand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said ISIS is Hamas, Hamas is ISIS. But some of the Middle Easterners that we have had on our program here have said that that goes too far. That equating the two to be exactly alike, that first of all, they have different ambitions; they have different goals. How do you answer that?

REGEV: We never said they were identical; we never said that they were twins. We said they were brothers. I think to quote Prime Minister Netanyahu exactly, he said that they were branches from the same poisonous tree.

They're both Islamist, militant, violent movements. They don't -- they both believe in a sort of caliphate that overcomes the modern nation state. They both believe that women are chattel, that gays should be stoned, that human rights shouldn't exist, that we should return to some sort of pre-medieval primitism, a society that throws back and rejects all our concepts of freedom. That's what they have in common.

LEMON: They are both terrorist organizations. But the U.S. seems to have a different opinion than Benjamin Netanyahu has about this. Jen Psaki from the State Department responded. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Obviously, we've designated both as terrorist organizations. But ISIL poses a different threat to western interests and to the United States. And that's just a fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON; Is Israel disappointed that the U.S. doesn't see it the same way that you do?

REGEV: I'm not sure that they have a big difference from us. Ultimately in our fight against ISIS over the summer -- sorry, in our fight against Hamas over the summer, the United States was very supportive, both diplomatically, politically and, of course, in helping us with that Iron Dome system.

I mean, Hamas shot at our civilians, 4,000 rockets. I mean, if those missiles had hit their targets in Israel, we would have had mass casualties on our side. We have that missile defense system, which America helped us put together. And that saved countless lives. And we thank the United States.

LEMON: We keep talking about what Benjamin Netanyahu said. Maybe we should play it and then get you to respond to it. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: And our hopes and the world's hope for peace are in danger, because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march. It's not militants. It's not Islam. It's militant Islam. And typically, it's first victims are other Muslims, but it's fair to no one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And among -- ISIS is included in that. But what do you make of that? It's militant Islam, he said.

REGEV: It's very important to remind people that the first victims of these extremist movements are the Muslims themselves. And that I think all people of good will or people who believe in freedom or democracy -- doesn't matter what their background is, what their ethnic background is -- we should unite in opposing these very extremist organizations.

Look at Hamas in Gaza. They are willing to sacrifice every last civilian, every last child on the altar of their very radical, extremist agenda. We have to -- we have to say what they are. And we have to fight against these extremists.

CAMEROTA: The White House says today the rules put in place by the president last year to reduce civilian deaths from drone strikes do not apply to fighting ISIS. Fighting ISIS, somehow, the rules about civilian deaths, they can go by the wayside, because it's that important to fight ISIS.

LEMON: Because Israel had been criticized so much for the civilian deaths in fighting Hamas. But the president says this is somehow different.

CAMEROTA: Different rules.

LEMON: Do you agree?

REGEV: I think we should say the following. Let's say we have an Israeli pilot over Gaza, and he's going for a Hamas target. He wants to hit that Hamas target; he doesn't want to hit innocent civilians, and he's trying to be as surgical as he can in his combat operation to hit the target, but not to see what the experts see collateral damage.

I'm sure it's exactly the same way with Americans now in operations in Iraq and Syria. That's what we are share, because we're democratic countries.

LEMON: So you don't think there is a difference?

REGEV: Let's be clear. ISIS -- ISIS and Hamas and the other groups, whether it's the Iranian regime or Hezbollah or Boca Haram in Nigeria, they are the opposite. They say every civilian is a legitimate target for their crazy holy war. But that's what separates us from them.

CAMEROTA: Mark Regev, great to see you. Thanks so much.

REGEV: Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: All right. Up next, a white woman is suing a sperm bank for mistakenly giving her sperm from an African-American donor. She says that her bi-racial toddler is already suffering prejudice in their all-white town. We will speak to her exclusively.

LEMON: Beautiful child.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Deciding to get pregnant is always a leap of faith, particularly when using a sperm donor. That's why the woman you're about to meet, Jennifer Cramblett, did so much research on the donor and chose the one that she believed would be just the right fit. Imagine her shock when she learned the sperm bank mixed up the sample, and she was pregnant with a child of a different race.

LEMON: All right. Let's meet her now. Joining her -- us exclusively is Jennifer Cramblett, the mother of a now 2-year-old mixed-race girl, and Jennifer is joined by her attorney, Tim Misny.

OK. Thank you guys for joining us. First to you, Jennifer.

So Jennifer, I want you to explain to us what happened here. You and your partner, Amanda, you decide that you want to start a family. So you opt to use the services of a sperm bank. So how did you learn that the sperm that you were pregnant with was from a black man, not a white man as you had ordered?

JENNIFER CRAMBLETT, MOTHER OF MIXED-RACE GIRL: We actually, five months into the pregnancy, we had called to try to get some more vials for the second pregnancy for Amanda. And when I called to order that sperm and those vials, I asked them for 380, and they came back on the line and said, "I do believe we have sent you donor number 330. Are you sure that's not what you asked for?"

And I obviously said, "No, my donor number is 330 -- or 380."

And they came back on the line and said, "Well, unfortunately, I think we've errored up and sent you 330."

LEMON; Did they tell you then that the sperm you had gotten was from a black man? How did you find out?

CRAMBLETT: Once they did some, and you know, my shock, you know, just it being the different number that I wanted, they said, "Hold on. Let's go into your file. Let's do a little bit more research." Came back on the line and then had asked me if I had requested an African- American donor.

And at that point, I said, "No, 380 was blond haired, blue-eyed, something resembling my partner, Amanda."

And at that point, they said, "Well, I do believe 330 is an African- American donor. And basically, we can no longer talk to you anymore."

LEMON: Wow.

CAMEROTA: Wow. So Jennifer, we're looking at pictures of you and your partner with your beautiful daughter. She seems adorable.

CRAMBLETT: Right.

CAMEROTA: And obviously, your issue is not with your daughter. You love her very much.

CRAMBLETT: Right.

CAMEROTA: Your issue is that you live in eastern Ohio, in a town that you say is 98 percent white and racially insensitive. So -- so what has your daughter's experience been like for these two years of her life? CRAMBLETT: Right. You know, honestly, we haven't had much of any

kind of racial issues in our town. I'm not saying that Uniontown is a racist town by any means. I'm saying that I want my child to be raised around people that maybe look like her, and unfortunately, we're not going to get all of those assets there in Uniontown, Ohio.

So, as of now, we haven't -- we haven't even scratched the surface of things we may see in the future. And we are -- we want to prevent that from happening. We want her to grow up in a community where she feels accepted, feels like it's normal to be who she is, walk down the streets and not have anything, anything skew that view.

CAMEROTA: And you give an example, that even as -- something as simple as a haircut for your daughter is not so simple.

CRAMBLETT: Right. Yes. I mean, we haven't even really dealt with a lot of issues as far as getting a haircut right now. Obviously, we're letting her grow her hair out as much as we possibly can.

But, you know, those are just the small little things that we have to think about that maybe wasn't going to be even a thought. Having a girl, I was going to have to worry about I have short hair, so I have to worry about how to put up a ponytail. Because I can't even remember the last time I had to do that.

But now, I've just added a little bit more complexity to it. And I want her to know how to do it. And those are the things that I don't feel I am -- I have the background to even know. So it's things that we have to go out and research and talk to people and figure out how to do as simple as a daily chore of doing your hair.

LEMON: And listen, I understand that -- that someone has to take responsibility. That was a pretty egregious error. But I mean, you know, kids are born with all sorts of things that parents don't expect to do and to learn about. And that's just -- that's kind of part of parenting. Don't...

CRAMBLETT: Right.

LEMON: Do you disagree? I mean, and kids are picked on for a number of different things. And if she's loved at home, why does it matter -- why does it matter what other people say? And then when she gets older, she may read about this. And how do you think she's going to feel about this later?

CRAMBLETT: Yes, you know, we were always going to have that conversation, if I was here right now with a lawsuit. She's going to know what she is and where she came from and how all this happened. So, that conversation was going to be had no matter what.

She's going to know that we love her unconditionally. Everybody around her loves her. So, I think she's going to know why we did what we did. And the basis of -- of the lawsuit and why we're doing what we're doing is so that somebody is held accountable, and this isn't going to happen to anybody else.

LEMON: And speaking of that, how has -- how has the sperm bank responded? Timothy?

CRAMBLETT: They haven't. I -- when I called, found it out, they said, "We can no longer talk to you. Hang up. That's it. "

A few weeks later, I received a very small letter that said, "We're sorry for the mix up. Here is your refund of just the six vials that we got wrong. Sorry about the mistake." And that was it. Nobody has reached out. Nobody -- and I think if that would have happened, first and foremost, even when that first conversation happened, if I got shown any bit of compassion and ownership of this mistake...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CRAMBLETT: ... then we may not be sitting here. I don't know.

CAMEROTA: You could have taken responsibility.

CRAMBLETT: Right. And it doesn't feel.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I understand. Mr. Tim Minsy, can you explain to us what you're seeking in the lawsuit? How do you put a price tag on a situation like this?

TIM MISNY, ATTORNEY: Right. Well, first of all, good evening and thank you for sharing time with us.

Midwest Sperm Bank committed the one error a sperm bank cannot commit. But moreover, it has been their complete arrogant disdain to do the right thing. What we're asking for very simply are two things: No. 1, that they change policy so this never happens again. That's No. 1. No. 2, to provide the compensation for my client and her family to receive the kind of counseling that they will need going forward and also to relocate to an area that is more demographically in tune with their family. You know, Uniontown is a wonderful town, wonderful people.

LEMON: We are up against a break, Tim.

MISNY: But there are no biracial children, and there are no mixed marriages. So we need to relocate Jennifer and her family to a town that offers that type of diverse culture.

LEMON: I wish we could talk longer. Because there's so much in that I want to respond to. But unfortunately, we're up against a break. Thank you, Tim.

CAMEROTA: Jennifer, thanks for sharing your story with us. Good luck. Let us know what happens.

CRAMBLETT: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

MISNY: Have a nice night. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: One of the things the lawsuit alleges is that the sperm bank takes notes, just handwritten notes. So that was the mix up between 330 and 380. They need to computerize.

LEMON: Yes. People are very polarized about this. Some people say you know what? You have a healthy kid. Be happy. Why are you suing? And then...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

LEMON: ... the sperm bank needs to take responsibility. I think it's probably somewhere in the middle.

CAMEROTA: She's happy with her child.

LEMON: Beautiful child. So there you go. Love her. All right.

CAMEROTA: When we come back, the case of missing Hannah Graham. Breaking news on the suspect and why Hannah's high school softball coach says he has doubts about the story, so far.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news to report to you tonight on the search for missing University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham. CNN has learned that Jesse Matthew, the suspect in Hannah's abduction, was connected to a sexual assault investigation in 2003.

That is according to the P.R. director for Christopher Newport University, where Matthew was a student. Privacy laws limit the information the university can provide. But they say they are cooperating fully with law enforcement agencies.

And meanwhile, authorities are using drones to search for Hannah.

Now we want to bring in a man who knows Hannah Graham well and who has his doubts about some of the story so far. So Craig Maniglia was Hannah's high school football [SIC] coach.

Thank you very much for joining us here. So Craig, describe Hannah to me. What type of girl was she?

CRAIG MANIGLIA, HANNAH'S HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL COACH: Thank you for having us this evening. And well, Hannah Graham was a special girl. She was extremely smart, very witty, very athletic. She was musically inclined. She was No. 1 chair in the saxophone in the state in Virginia. She was co-captain on our softball team, just a dream to be around.

CAMEROTA: And Craig, you know, I was interested in how you described her, because you said she was a band geek. You said that when you -- you know her as a girl who doesn't drink; she doesn't party. So I'm -- we really are curious to know how you reconcile the images that we've now all seen on this surveillance tapes of her where she looks intoxicated.

I know you know the ones we're talking about. The ones, first in the dormitory where she's clearly walking somewhere and then the next ones where she's out in the town of Charlottesville, looking sort of disoriented and confused and police have said intoxicated. How do you make sense of it?

MANIGLIA: Well, I can't make sense of it. It doesn't add up. None of the pictures that we're seeing on television, surveillance video, makes any sense to me whatsoever, based on the child that I know.

Hannah is straight-laced. She -- very smart. She's not going to be disoriented or lost in a town where she's been for a year. So to me, there's foul play. She's not a drinker. She's not a party girl. She's a 4.0 or better, straight "A" student.

CAMEROTA: And so what does foul play mean?

MANIGLIA: Well, foul play to me means that there's something else that intervened, whether it was intentional or unintentional. To me, the alcohol that Hannah could have possibly consumed could never have made her this disoriented. This is an athlete. This is a kid that's run on the football field with saxophones in formation. This is a kid that sprints around bases and slides in and scores runs. There's no amount of alcohol that could make her act like that in a short period of time.

CAMEROTA: I know that you spoke to the parents...

MANIGLIA: I have not spoke to the parents.

CAMEROTA: Not Hannah's parents, but the parents, I believe, of one of the friends that she was with the night that she disappeared. What did they tell you?

MANIGLIA: Well, what they told me was one of the close friends of Hannah, actually, was with her the night at the first party and said they had had a beer. And so that party ended at 11. Hannah at 11:30 said she was going home and that she was tired.

And then the next thing we see is she's running around Charlottesville lost, confused and dazed. So she -- apparently, was coerced in going to a second party, what I've been told. And that doesn't leave a lot of time to be in the condition that we're seeing, if there wasn't some other kind of something going on.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MANIGLIA: Again, this is a -- this is a kid that, when I say band geek, I mean it in the most affectionate ways. This is a child that was going to change the world. I mean, this is a kid that was pre- med. Again, as a junior in high school, she took the SATs and scored so high she never had to take them again, with no practice.

So I mean, this is not the typical child you would think that would even be in the situation that would get her here.

CAMEROTA: Well, Craig, we really appreciate your perspective. Because we haven't heard this about Hannah, yet. And it's so helpful to hear from someone who knows her so well. Craig Maniglia, thanks so much. And obviously, we are praying for a good outcome. LEMON: Let's hope she's still around to change the world. You said,

you know, was going to change the world. Let's hope she still can do it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: That's it for us tonight. We'll be back here tomorrow night.

CAMEROTA: "AC 360" starts right now.