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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Campaign Season Kicks Off; Political Panel; Civil Forfeiture Laws Examined

Aired September 1, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash, in for Jake Tapper. The politics lead. While many Americans are enjoying a well deserved day off, in Washington, Labor Day echoes like a starter pistol's blast, signaling it's election season. And it's kicking into high gear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH (voice-over): And they're off. Politicians are laboring hard today, the unofficial start of campaign season.

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: It's good to be back with the people, who as that old saying goes, brung me to the dance. I appreciate it.

BASH: Vice President Joe Biden laid on the charm in Detroit, making sure labor unions get out the vote for Democrats. The president touched down for more of the same in Milwaukee.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today is a day that belongs to you.

BASH: But nevermind talk from politicians. What's Labor Day without a picnic? Democrat Charlie Crist attended this one today in Florida, where he's running for governor.

FORMER GOV. CHARLIE CRIST, D-FLA.: I'd appreciate your vote.

BASH: And if a parade is more your style, take a look at these photos from New Hampshire's Senate contenders Jeanne Shaheen and Republican challenger Scott Brown, who tweeted momentum is picking up. And these politicians are really only getting started for a sprint towards election day. All told, candidates in House and Senate races have already spent more than half a billion dollars on their campaigns. That's a billion with a b. An additional billion and a half is expected to be poured in before the final ballots are cast.

There are just 63 days until the midterm election, but 799 days until election day 2016, the race for the White House.

GOV. RICK PERRY, R-TEXAS: 29 months left of President Barack Obama.

BASH: But that hasn't stopped many probable GOP presidential hopefuls from kicking off the holiday weekend, politicking at the Americans for Prosperity event in Dallas.

SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS: Just over 1,500 hours, we're going to retake the United States Senate. We're going to retire Harry Reid.

BASH: From Ted Cruz to Rand Paul.

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY.: If the president has no strategy, maybe it's time for a new president.

BASH: But the landscape in the fight for the White House will be set by how things shake out this fall, whether Republicans will gain the six seats needed to take control of the Senate and dominate Congress for President Obama's final two years in office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Let's bring in our panel now.

Our CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Republican strategist Doug Heye and national political correspondent for the New York Times and contributor for CNN's "Inside Politics," Jonathan Martin. Thank you all for coming in on Labor Day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy labor day.

BASH: I wish we had a barbecue in the green room, but I don't want to set off any fire codes.

Let's start with the landscape, and what we're going to be looking at, with the real prize, which is the Senate. Right? Republicans need to pick up six seats, all told, in order to actually take control of the Senate. So what we're talking about, first of all, is we can show some pictures. West Virginia, Montana and South Dakota. Those are three states that are pretty much I think everybody agrees gone. They were Democratic senators, they retired. Republicans are likely to take those. That brings us now to 3 seats, just three seats Republicans are going to need. And they have a huge number of competitive Democratic Senate seats that they have the ability to take. Iowa, Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan and New Hampshire. It's a lot. Now, on the Democratic side, there are really only two Republican seats that they're truly competitive to try to get, Kentucky and Georgia. And even that's going to be an upset if they get those.

So given all of that, Donna, I'm going to put you in the hot seat here, give me a little Louisiana candor.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Let me just say this. Four years ago, I was a lot more nervous then than I am now. Here's why.

BASH: That's Louisiana candor?

(LAUGHTER)

BRAZILE: Well, you know, we're not out there -- we're not throwing in the towel, nor are we going to cook the leftovers until the election day.

On the generic ballot, we're competitive, if not, we are in a better position than Republicans. Two, we understand that we have more seats in play this time than ever before, and that some of these seats are so-called ruby red. I think the Democratic Party has really done a great job in identifying those voters that turn out in presidential years, but often do not turn out in midterm elections. If we're able to mobilize these voters, I think we have a shot not just to retain the Senate but to also pick up seats.

Look, the fact that Kentucky's still in play for the Democrats, Georgia is in play, I was in Georgia two weeks ago, I was in Colorado last week, I've been home more times than I can count, I believe we're going to do a great job. Here's one thing, Dana, that people are not thinking. The Republicans spent well over -- and Doug knows this -- they spent well over $130 million to defeat these so-called Tea Party candidates. You know what? We learned a lot about how to defeat the Republicans who eventually became victorious.

BASH: Doug, I don't want to bring up a sore subject, but you also just recently, until recently worked for a Republican, who -- the leader, Eric Cantor, who was beaten by a Tea Party candidate.

DOUG HEYE, GOP STRATEGIST: How about that? Yeah, I remember that.

BASH: You remember that. But what I want to ask you about is does Donna have a point? In that you, your party, has seen the prize for two straight elections.

HEYE: Yes.

BASH: And you have, you know, that prize has escaped you for various reasons. Is there a problem for Republicans in being overconfident that you could take the Senate?

HEYE: I don't think so yet. I think one of the advantages we have this time, frankly, we don't have some of the clown college candidates we had in the last two cycles.

We left -- I mean, (inaudible) about it. We left points on the board in Delaware, in Nevada, in Indiana, seats that we should have won, seats that should have been no brainers for us, we lost, because we had terrible candidates who couldn't muster any kind of a real campaign. We don't have that in the Senate races this time, and that's something that we've got that's really going to be an advantage for us moving forward.

BASH: Jonathan, how do you see it?

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN INSIDE POLITICS CONTRIBUTOR: I think the math this time around works for the Republicans, the math favors them, as you laid it out, Dana, on that screen.

What gives Democrats some heart though is the fact that here we are on Labor Day, and unlike 2010, there's no race of the ones you showed on the screen that really seems out of hand for an incumbent Democratic senator. Yes, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia are probably gone for Democrats. But in terms of the incumbent Democrats, they're all still in this game right now. All of them are still alive. This really feels like a fluid election. I talked to a lot of strategists on both sides of the aisle. They all said the same thing, this does not feel like 2010 or 2006.

BASH: There's no way.

MARTIN: You don't feel that kind of wave. It's more of a trench warfare kind of year. Both sides, a lot of money, a lot of tough attacks. Probably will come down to if Democrats can get their non- midterm voters out. That's really the issue.

BASH: So let's talk about that. President Obama is not on the ballot, but President Obama, of course, is unofficially on the ballot. We all know that. He is in Milwaukee today spending time with union leaders. But he's essentially flying solo. Here's the irony of all ironies. He was met by the Republican Governor, Scott Walker, but the Democratic candidate for governor in that state, she was nowhere to be found, which is I think Scott Walker did that on purpose to show that. How much of a liability still is the president?

BRAZILE: I wouldn't -- let me just say this. I think I'm in a good position, because I've run a campaign when you had a sitting president of the United States, you use him strategically. This was an official campaign. This was not a rally trip. This was an official trip to Wisconsin. And I'm sure that the president will talk to Ms. Burke, and I'm sure that the Democrats will help her win. He's not going to be on the ballot this fall. These Democrats have to establish their own record with voters because voters need to know what they stand for. They know President Obama, they've made a position. And you know what? President Obama would see the bottom if the congressional Republicans were not standing in the way. They're more unpopular than anybody right now.

BASH: Doug, I was just in Kentucky, and President Obama very much is -- a very much a part of the discussion down there. Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator and candidate, is making him part of the discussion. But for voters, he's part of the discussion. People are very invested in what happens, pro or con, in what happens in his last two years.

HEYE: Keep in mind, in 2012, Barack Obama in Kentucky won 38 percent of the vote. 37 percent of the vote in Arkansas, with two key Senate races.

In Kentucky, Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate, is distancing herself so far that she's saying I haven't even talked to Barack Obama. Which is frankly more than she said about Obamacare. She won't answer questions about whether or not she would vote for it, which is really telling in that race.

BRAZILE: Mitch McConnell is not popular. He still has to fight like hell.

BASH: But Grimes is coming (ph) up (ph) there too, in terms of unpopularity. What's your take?

MARTIN: President Obama is a serious handicap for Democrats in a lot of this country. However, the irony is, Democrats have to have his voters, otherwise, they can't win. The challenge for Democrats is how do they get the Obama voters out, while trying to appeal to swing voters who are soured on Obama. That's the crux of their challenge.

BRAZILE: The Republicans will help us with that, because this notion of suing the president on what I call impeachment lite, that will motivate Democrats to get out and vote.

BASH: Donna Brazile, Doug Heye, Jonathan Martin, thank you especially for coming out on Labor Day. Happy Labor Day to you. Coming up on the money lead, it's like doing the time even if you didn't do the crime. How a law designed to punish criminals by seizing their homes is leaving innocent families out on the street. And later in the pop lead, nude photos of celebrities getting leaked on the Internet. And this hack job may even be terrifying, and it's easy to pull off thanks to a glitch in Apple's software. What you need to know to protect your private data.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to "The Lead." I'm Dana Bash in for Jake Tapper. Time now for the money lead. It's the ultimate symbol of the American dream, a house. Home ownership is still very much the thread that stitches together the hopes of so many people in this country. But as our Pamela Brown reports, some in Philadelphia are losing their homes they worked so hard to build, and it has nothing to do with being able to pay their mortgages.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOS SOUROVELIS, HOME OWNER: I built this house with my own hands. I'm a working guy. I work every day, six days a week, seven days if I have to.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For eight years, Christos Sourovelis, who built his own painting business.

C. SOUROVELIS: I built the oven for pizza and barbecue.

BROWN: Has also been toiling away on his family's dream house in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

C. SOUROVELIS: I was so upset thinking somebody's going to come over and take my house for nothing. That makes me crazy.

BROWN: Without warning, Sourovelis says Philadelphia police and prosecutors seized his house.

C. SOUROVELIS: I was going nuts. I said what do you mean?

BROWN: He and his wife Markela have never been charged with a crime, or even accused of any wrongdoing.

MARKELA SOUROVELIS, WIFE: It was horrible. Horrible.

BROWN: The nightmare began in March when police showed up at the house.

M. SOUROVELIS: By the time I got to the door, they had already opened the door with his hand in, and had a gun to my dog's head.

BROWN: The police arrested their 22-year-old son Yanni (ph) on drug charges, $40 worth of heroin, and claim he was selling drugs out of the home.

C. SOUROVELIS: I didn't know what he was doing. I'm not with him 24 hours a day.

BROWN: A month and a half later.

M. SOUROVELIS: They said that we're going to seize your house.

BROWN: They came back.

M. SOUROVELIS: They had a sledgehammer, we're going to break down your walls, we're going to break your pipes. This house is going to be ours. And as he was explaining to me what was going on, there was people closing the doors with screws, locking them. They had the electric company here to turn off my electric, my gas.

BROWN: Police and prosecutors came armed with a lawsuit against the house itself. It was being forfeited and transferred to the custody of the Philadelphia district attorney. All because of their son's first offense drug charges. Yanni pleaded no contest.

M. SOUROVELIS: It was scary. It was frustrating.

C. SOUROVELIS: I said listen, this house belongs to me. Nothing to do with my son.

BROWN: But that didn't matter. Police and prosecutors kicked them and their children out that day.

C. SOUROVELIS: Where am I going to go? What am I going to do with my two daughters, my wife? The dog, me -- where are we going?

BROWN: The Sourovelis family is not alone. In two years, nearly 500 families in Philadelphia had their homes or cars taken away by city officials, according to Pennsylvania's attorney general. They use a civil forfeiture law that allows them to seize people's property saying they have probable cause that it's somehow connected to illegal drugs.

BRIAN KABATECK, ATTORNEY: The general core of the civil forfeiture law is to capture the cash or ill-gotten gains or contraband that criminals have used to commit a particular crime.

BROWN: But unlike criminal forfeiture, the civil law allows authorities to seize property without the owner ever being convicted or even charged. SCOTT BULLOCK, ATTORNEY: Civil forfeiture is something that's an

assault upon fundamental notions of private property ownership and due process.

BROWN: The City of Brotherly Love is far and away the most aggressive in the state when it comes to seizing people's property. Over a four- year period, the second largest county in Pennsylvania filed about 200 petitions for civil forfeiture. Philadelphia filed nearly 7,000 petitions in one year alone, according to a class action lawsuit just recently filed by citizens there.

DARPANA SHETH, ATTORNEY: Philadelphia has really just turned forfeiture into a machine that devours people's property and takes their rights at the same time.

BROWN: Philadelphia officials over a ten-year period have seized more than 1,000 houses, about 3,300 vehicles, and $44 million in cash in civil forfeitures according to the lawsuits. And a large chunk of that money goes straight to salaries for the Philly DA's office and the police. About $7 million in just three years, according to state records. And look how much they put toward community drug and crime fighting programs? Zero.

SHETH: So they have a very direct financial benefit to seize people's property and bring these forfeiture actions, because the money goes directly into their pockets.

BROWN: Here in Philadelphia, if you had your property taken, you can come here to city hall and go to courtroom 478 and try to get it back. Problem is, the people that are taking the belongings are also the ones calling the shots inside the courtroom.

The Sourovelises showed up to courtroom 478 ready to plead their case to a judge. Instead, they say they faced a prosecutor from the DA's office.

C. SOUROVELIS: It's not a judge, it's nobody, just one guy tells us to sign these papers and fill out these papers. That's it.

BROWN: Back in their home, they had to make a heartbreaking sacrifice and agree to ban their son from the house.

M. SOUROVELIS: We'll do everything we can, and it's a horrible feeling not to be able to have my child home.

BROWN: The Sourovelises are still fighting the city to resolve their case and keep their home.

M. SOUROVELIS: It's a nightmare that just won't go away. It's scary. It's horrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And because of the pending class action lawsuit, the Sourovelises are a part of, the Philadelphia district attorney's office is limited in what it can say, but tells CNN in a statement that it seizes property only as a last resort, saying in most cases it doesn't pursue forfeiture, because the underlying issue with the real estate isn't resolved when a settlement agreement is reached with the property owner in which he or she agrees to take reasonable efforts to prevent future narcotics dealing from the property. It also works it works with citizens, the police, government agencies and community groups to abate or close drug properties, and it strives to follow the civil forfeiture law to protect the rights of everyone involved. And Dana, this isn't a law that is only applied in Philadelphia. It's applied in cities across the nation.

BASH: It is really unbelievable. I had not heard about this, and that report really does shine a light on it. Looks like a way for Philadelphia to get a lot of money. A lot of tax revenue with maybe not a lot of legal remedies. So maybe that's going to change now. Thanks, Pam, so much.

They defied doctors and took their cancer-stricken son out of the country. Now the parents are under arrest. So what happens to the little boy? The latest on this emotional story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back to THE LEAD. A disagreement over treatment for a 5-year-old cancer patient has sparked a cross-country legal battle, and a debate over who gets to decide what's best for a child, doctors or parents. Ashya King (ph) suffers from a rare form of brain cancer. His parents want him to get what's known as a proton beam treatment to fight the cancer, but they say his hospital in the UK wouldn't allow it. So they removed the boy from the hospital without permission and took him to Madrid to seek out the treatment. They were arrested following an international search for Ashya and have been ordered to appear in a Spanish court. A judge wants to review the boy's medical status before deciding whether Ashya's parents broke any laws.

And in the pop lead, it turns out those hackers who leaked nude photos of celebrities on the Internet may have had all the cyber savviness of an 8th grader in his mom's basement. Apple acknowledges there was a security flaw in its iCloud technology that made the photos vulnerable. Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and supermodel Kate Upton were among the celebrities who had their private photos released online. According to the website Engadget, Apple discovered that iCloud accounts could be compromised through the software's "find my iPhone" feature. The company said we take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report.

I have an idea. How about not taking naked photos for people in the public eye? But that's it for THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash. Jake Tapper returns tomorrow, and I turn you over to my friend, Brianna Keilar, who is sitting in for Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."