Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Ebola Testing Begins for Dallas Nurse's Dog; 2014 and the $100 Million Midterms; Serial Killer Probe Spans States, Decades

Aired October 21, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

There's been an outpouring of support for one victim of the Ebola crisis -- only he has no idea what's going on. It's for this little guy. His name is Bentley, the adorable cavalier King Charles spaniel belongs to Nina Pham. She was the first Dallas nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola.

Just look at some of these tweets. This one reads "Jasper and Cooper and I hope Bentley and his mama are home and very well soon." Here's another one "If you can please say a prayer for Nina and Bentley and do so daily, thank you."

Let's talk about this. I'm joined now by Dallas Animal Services manager Jody Jones, she's been helping to take care of Bentley. Welcome.

JODY JONES, MANAGER, DALLAS ANIMAL SERVICES: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So I feel kind of silly talking about a dog but people really care about Bentley.

JONES: You know, I really appreciate the opportunity to share Bentley's journey with the public because it's really been such a wonderful one. And we could not be more fortunate in braving new territory like this to have such a wonderful animal going through it with us. You know, it just really speaks to the human/animal bond, the amount of support that we've got for Bentley and ensuring that he gets the best care possible.

COSTELLO: So give me an example. How many tweets have you received?

JONES: The numbers are overwhelming. You know, being directly responsible for coordinating the care with the agencies leaves me little time to stay on top of all of the social media. I'm blessed that we have a great team here in Dallas that is working to provide as much information out to the public as we possibly can.

COSTELLO: So what's going on right now? How much longer does Bentley have to remain quarantined?

JONES: So the quarantine period is expected to be 21 days, just like for the individuals that were being monitored. And that will end up wrapping up around the first of November. And we'll do a final set of testing to make sure everything is clear for Bentley and being able to safely introduce him back into the public.

COSTELLO: So do you take blood tests? Is Bentley showing any signs or symptoms of sickness?

JONES: No. As a matter of fact, Bentley is just having a blast. We were very blessed and we were able to find a home-like environment to isolate him in. And the quarantine process plays out where we have specialized trained veterinarians in hazmat gear that go in and care for Bentley three times a day and Bentley has responded amazingly well to the human contact and really not become distracted with the hazmat gear as some animals may.

He actually gets a little play time and snuggle time during those visits. His ball is his favorite toy and the public, again, has been so wonderful with providing support for toys and different things to keep him occupied longer than his stay.

COSTELLO: So has Nina Pham -- I know she's feeling a little better. Have they communicated in any way?

JONES: Oh, absolutely. Nina's family was very forthcoming and saying next to Nina's care and recovery that Bentley's care was next most important to them. And we've even been blessed enough where Dr. McManus was able to actually speak to Nina on the phone and give her some updates into the direct care of Bentley.

And then also, too, what we do is we take pictures daily and we send those over to the Pham family to make sure Nina is getting daily updates so she can use Bentley's spirits to help speed her recovery along.

COSTELLO: I hope so. Jody Jones, thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

JONES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: With just two weeks until the midterms, Congress has officially entered unchartered territory. I'm not talking about negative ads. I'm talking about money -- big, big money. Try $100 million in the North Carolina Senate race. That's some money. That's pitting Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan against Republican Tom Tillis. It's shaping up to be one of the most expensive races in Senate history.

North Carolina is not alone, mind you. In Kentucky, the battle between Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes is also expected to top the $100 million mark. What does this mean for future candidates and for voters like you and me?

Joining me now to talk about this -- Doug Heye, former deputy chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor; and John Avlon, CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast" -- welcome to you both. DOUG HEYE, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR ERIC CANTOR: Thank you.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much for being here.

Good morning. Doug, you're from North Carolina, you worked on three campaigns there. Is the Senate seat in your state worth $103 million?

HEYE: Well, I think it absolutely is. It goes back to high spending not being anything new in North Carolina politics. 30 years ago, 1984, Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt spent about $26 million on their race 30 years ago. So what we've now seen is that instead of Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt controlling their message, outside groups have really come in, over $100 million will be spent there. What that means practically on the ground is that campaigns aren't as in control of their message as they would be.

The mail my father receives, the phone call he gets aren't necessarily from the campaign and we've really seen a momentum shift and issue shift away from Kay Hagan and move into Tom Tillis' favor in the last couple weeks. Republicans are a lot more bullish about this race than they were, say, a month ago.

COSTELLO: But something that you said and UVA's Larry Sabato agrees with you. Campaign finance is completely out of anybody's control including the candidates and including voters. John, is that really democracy?

AVLON: No, it's not democracy when you get a bunch of sets of millionaires and billionaires who are driving election cycles and consultants chasing them around with their tongues wagging trying to get a little bit of filthy luker (ph) in their pocket.

I mean you're talking about $100 million in this state which has under 10 million people. That's ten bucks per citizen of North Carolina and it's not going to benefit them. It is all -- it's predominantly attack ads. Around $20 million of it is dark money, totally unaccountable making a mockery of Justice Kennedy's promise that Citizens United would create more transparency and accountability.

This is a mess. This is a mockery. And let's not pretend that it's just good old-fashioned free speech with a bunch of mudslinging. It is attempts to buy elections, usually from people out of state.

COSTELLO: Doug, you have to admit, if you look at Congress today, it's not working very well. I mean there's a problem somewhere. Is that a reason why? Because actual voters -- because they're driven away by negative attack ads, right; so only the extremes come out on either side and you get what you get in Washington.

HEYE: Well, you know, we've been complaining about negative politics for centuries now and I'd go back again to that 1984 Jesse Helms/Jim Hunt race was described as the nastiest Senate race in American history. Not coincidentally the one that got me into politics.

COSTELLO: But money is making it worst.

HEYE: Well, I think, look, we spend more money on potato chips, we spend more money advertising Coca-Cola. Senate races are very important. So a lot of money is going to go into that. I think like John, I'd like to see the money channeled differently but we've seen a real effect on the ground in North Carolina and also in Kentucky which you've mentioned where it's much more advantageous you for Republicans now than it was in previous weeks.

COSTELLO: So what's a voter to do, John Avlon?

AVLON: What a voter is to do is to is first of all feel disgust and then get some righteous indignation up and go out and vote as opposed to letting all the extremes on either side disproportionately dominate the debate. Look, I'm a big Doug Heye fan but I have to say, he's spinning a little bit here. He's spinning it a couple of ways.

First of all, you know, due respect, Jesse Helms doesn't look so good in the eyes of history in some of his races and his background. Second of all, the idea that we've always had these fractious debates, that's of course true, but the money is unprecedented. And sometimes people try to cloak themselves up in the legacy of Adams and Jefferson and the first presidential election and say "See, it's always been messy so when I ok a negative attack ad I'm fulfilling the founding fathers' legacy." That's a bunch of self-serving BS and I think Doug knows that.

HEYE: Well, I would say very quickly Carol what voters should do is exactly what my father in Louisville, North Carolina is doing. Go on the campaign's Web sites for both candidates. Look at where they stand on the issues. Figure out where you are on the issues and vote for that candidate.

COSTELLO: It's sad but it's a rare voter that actually does that. But that's great advice, Doug.

HEYE: That's true.

COSTELLO: Ok. So, last thought, the next presidential election over a billion dollars -- easy?

HEYE: Absolutely. We saw how much money Barack Obama raised. It was a staggering amount of money and ultimately made him successful four years ago and eight years ago.

COSTELLO: Ok. We'll see how it goes.

AVLON: The tale of our democracy not who can buy the campaign.

COSTELLO: Well, it is these days -- right? John Avlon, Doug Heye, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

HEYE: Thank you.

AVLON: Thanks. COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, investigators on the case of an alleged serial killer in Indiana. They say he's already led them to the bodies of seven women and there could be more victims. So what goes through the mind of someone who kills over and over again?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Police in Gary, Indiana make a blood-chilling announcement. They may be unraveling the work of a serial killer. Investigators tracked down Darren Deon Vann after a weekend murder inside a motel room in Hammond, Indiana -- the victim, 19-year-old Afrika Hardy. Police say Vann, the suspected, then led them to six more bodies. All appear to have been recently dumped in abandoned homes in nearby Gary, Indiana. All the women were found within a five-mile area of the Rust Belt town. The mother of one of the victims says the killer likely preyed on women who lived on the fringes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORI TOWNSEND, MOTHER OF VICTIM AFRIKA HARDY: They're not forgotten because they're not nobodies. They're somebody. They're somebody's daughter, somebody's mother, somebody's sister.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Dr. Lisa van Susteren is a forensic psychiatrist. She joins us live from Washington. Welcome, Lisa.

DR. LISA VAN SUSTEREN, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: What do you make of this man in Gary, Indiana?

VAN SUSTEREN: Well a minute ago you said what's going on in the mind of a serial killer. A better way to frame it really is what isn't going on in the mind of a serial killer. What obviously most people think of is doesn't he suffer for the victims?

And, in fact, he doesn't. So one of the characteristic features is they don't have any empathy. Another characteristic feature is that within the brain we now know that certain brakes are applied to our aggression and people like Vann don't have those brakes. We also know that there are some genes that are active, we don't know what all of them are, but those are genes that are involved in reducing aggression and bringing a certain reduced sense of impulsivity in a person. So these are all the things that aren't going on in the mind of a serial killer.

COSTELLO: Well, police say he's cooperating. He's telling them where these bodies are. Is that part of his, you know --

VAN SUSTEREN: Psychopathology?

COSTELLO: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Indeed. I haven't spoken with him so it's hard for me to say he's doing this because of that. The police have said that he's eager to cut a deal with enforcement. I doubt that that's the motive. I believe it is part of his psychopathology that, frankly, people like this don't have a lot of remorse. They don't feel the disapproval of society. They don't think to themselves "God, I've really done something bad" and try to hide it.

And then there are other sort of psychological conditions which might predispose him especially to doing something like this -- confessing.

COSTELLO: You mentioned it might be something in the genes. Does that mean that this sort of condition can be somehow treated?

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, yes. You're very spot on. First I have to say that people shouldn't get the idea that there's some kind of a crime gene. There isn't. There's a whole set of variables which just so may tip a person in that direction. But you're right. If we know and now in the last couple of years, we've studied the human genome, we can get real laser-like and see where there are abnormalities not inconceivably at some point we will know where to intervene genetically.

Of course, before that time, there are lots of other upstream things that we can do to prevent events like this from happening.

COSTELLO: Like?

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, for example, anybody who has been arrested for sexual assault is not just somebody who is your average criminal. So putting him in front of a parole officer, checking in, did you do anything bad, are you doing this and all the rest? You got a job? All the rest. That's not enough. People like this need the services and should have -- they must be told that they have to undergo some psychiatric, some psychological treatment, ongoing treatment.

Other upstream issues are that we need to intervene early on, certainly very aggressively ourselves, with children that we think are at risk because it's children who are victims of abuse who almost always are the critical -- that is the critical attribute that we see in the creation of serial killers, which is that they've had some violence or some physical, emotional, sexual abuse themselves.

COSTELLO: Lisa van Susteren, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it.

VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Should Jodi Arias die by lethal injection or should she get life behind bars? Jurors in Arizona will decide as the sentencing retrial begins today. Arias, as you know, was found guilty of first degree murder last year in the brutal killing of her ex-boyfriend. But that jury was unable to reach a unanimous vote needed for the death penalty.

A 12-0 vote will also be needed in this retrial. If all jurors can't vote for death, they will then decide whether Arias gets life without parole or the possibility of release after 25 years. The lone suspect in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham now faces charges in a decade-old case. Jesse Matthew has been indicted for attempted murder, abduction and sexual assault for a crime that happened in 2005. The victim in that case was able to provide a description of Matthew that would later link him to the case of that missing Virginia Tech student.

Forensic tests are being conducted on remains found over the weekend to see if they're from Hannah Graham, the missing UVA student.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good grief, Charlie Brown. The great pumpkin is more like the great powder keg. Students riot, police try to take back the streets and two festival goers go at it over a microphone. Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: What makes live TV fun? Watch the guy taking the selfie -- is that you never know what will happen.

A leash breaks and the weatherman has a 100 percent chance of being showered by doggy affection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be back with more in just a moment.

MOOS: Things really became unleashed at the Keene, New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival. Not only did rowdy students riot a short walk away from where peaceful pumpkin fans were gathered, but there was this. The strange dance as a pumpkin fest organizer tried to block the public access TV host covering the festivities.

JARED GOODELL, REPORTER, CHESHIRE TV: She would not like me to tell you what's going on at Keene State College.

MOOS: Ruth Sterling wanted Jared Goodell to zip it of a drunken rioting nearby.

RUTH STERLING, KEENE PUMPKIN FESTIVAL ORGANIZER: So, if you think that inciting these people is a good idea, I am going to pull the plug on you because you are here as a guest of Keene Pumpkin Festival and I assign you this spot.

MOOS (on camera): She actually went for his mike about five times.

GOODELL: You heard it here first, everybody.

STERLING: Do not alarm our guests. Thank you.

GOODELL: When you report the news, when you report the reality, the people in charge want to shut you down. MOOS (voice-over): So, while pumpkin fest went on relatively undisturbed, the students were busy beaning each other and police with cans and bottles not far away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got hit with a Jack Daniels bottle.

MOOS: The organizer and the public access host lobbed verbal bombshells.

STERLING: And you have no right to self-promote here.

GOODELL: I'm not self-promoting anything.

MOOS: On Monday, Ruth Sterling doubled down, calling Goodell a self- promoting punk who was metaphorically yelling "fire" in a crowded theater endangering festival goers.

Meanwhile, Goodell told us he's been contacted by lawyers who said she was guilty of battery, though he has no plans to sue.

(on camera): Do you have anything you want to say to her directly?

(voice-over): Apologize to residents of Keene, he said.

GOODELL: I wouldn't mind an apology from her either.

STERLING: Do we agree he's self-promoting? I agree.

GOODELL: Yes, everybody, Ruth Sterling.

MOOS: No wonder the Jack O'Lanterns were smiling.

Jeanne Moos, CNN --

GOODELL: You heard it here first, everybody.

STERLING: Do not alarm our guests.

MOOS: -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I've said it before, we live in a pretty darn strange country but we love it.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello everyone. I'm John Berman.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: And I'm Michaela Pereira. Good to have you with us.