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CNN NEWSROOM

Airline Passenger Allegedly Jokes About Having Deadly Virus; Where Is Kim Jong Un?; Markets Up Slightly After 2014's Worst Day; CEO: Women Not Seeking Raise Is "Good Karma"; Obama: One Of The Best Presidents?

Aired October 10, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Don Lemon in for Carol on this Friday. Thank you so much for joining me.

I'm going to begin with an Ebola scare on board a plane that had just flown from Philadelphia to the Dominican Republic, a scare prompted by what a passenger called a joke.

But believe me when I say no one laughed when the guy reportedly said these records "I've got Ebola, you're all screwed." Passengers and the flight crew on board U.S. Airways Flight 845 did not laugh neither did the hazmat team that escorted them right off that plane.

Coming again now with CNN's Alexandra Fields who joins us now from New York's JFK airports, one of the five U.S. airports increasing screenings for passengers from Ebola-sickened countries.

Alexandra, these are not times to joke about Ebola at airports or on planes or really at all. What are you seeing?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don, you'd think that goes without saying, but if you thought that, you would be wrong. Health officials were forced to take the claim seriously. It comes at the same time when five different airports are trying to step up regulations to protect people against the spread of this virus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's the situation, I need everybody to sit down.

FIELD (voice-over): That was the announcement from a flight attendant just before several health officials in full hazmat suits boarded the U.S. Airways flight in the Dominican Republic. A passenger posted this video and local reports say the man said "I have Ebola, you're all screwed."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please stay out of their way. Let them do their job.

FIELD: The flight from Philadelphia was checked and cleared, but kept passengers stuck on the plane for two hours. It's unclear what happened to the man who made the claim. This incident is only the beginning of a new front in the fight to stop the spread of Ebola. Passengers leaving the hot zone will be checked for symptoms, answering questions, and having their temperatures taken when they arrive stateside at five major U.S. airports, New York City's JKF International, Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta and Chicago O'Hare.

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: We expect to see some patients with fever and that will cause some obvious and understandable concern at the airports.

FIELD: More than 50 million passengers traveled through JFK last year, but the new procedures will impact just a tiny fraction. Exams will be done in special areas designated by Customs and Border Protection, an on-sight CDC health officers will step in to evaluate any potential Ebola case.

Passengers leaving Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea are already screened before boarding planes out of those countries.

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Of course, I'm concerned and I don't think there's anybody in the country who's not concerned about the situation with Ebola. We're not ready at the airports yet, but we will be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: These screenings will start at JFK tomorrow and again they only apply to people who are coming from those three West African countries. That is, of course, unless you get on a plane and say you have Ebola then, Don, you can pretty much guarantee that you will be screened, too.

LEMON: Yes. Alexandra, you have to hear more of what that flight attendant had to say to those passengers. She calls the guy who reportedly yelled out that he had Ebola, she called him an idiot. I can't get enough of hearing her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need your attention, OK? It's going to look worse than it is, OK? I really want you to remember, I've done this for 36 years. I think the man that has said this is an idiot and I'll say that straight out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Experience counts here, Alexandra.

FIELD: Yes, she calls him an idiot. We can't hear what the passengers on the plane are calling him, but they had to sit there for a few hours, Don, so I'm sure that it was not pretty.

LEMON: If you listen to the video and you watch it closely, you kind of hear him saying "I was just joking" but, again, not a joke. Thank you, Alexandra Field at JFK Airport here in New York.

You know, we have these pictures in from Liberia, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. Six military planes arrived outside Monrovia yesterday. They brought 100 Marines and equipment to help fight the epidemic.

The U.S. military is helping build medical centers across Liberia. First order of business, once the Marines hit the tarmac, temperature check.

To North Korea now, the leader there, Kim Jong-Un missing in action on a day where his troops exchanged fire with South Korea and his nation marks a major anniversary.

In fact, Kim has not been seen in more than a month, with speculation about him ranging from illness to an injury to being removed as leader.

I want to bring in CNN's Paula Hancocks in Seoul, South Korea now. Paula, what are you hearing about Kim?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have some fresh information from the South Korean's defense minister over the past couple of hours. He said that he believes Kim Jong-Un is in a hospital in Pyongyang just the northern part of Pyongyang.

Sorry, he says that he believes he's near the hospital in one of his homes very close to that hospital. It's a hospital that only the elite go to. It has very high-tech equipment. It's not your regular hospital that regular people from Pyongyang would be going to.

It's a hospital where his late father, the former leader, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung, his grandfather, were treated in as well. They both suffered many illnesses. He's believed to be there with his wife and his sister.

This is what we're hearing from the defense minister. Of course, everything is wrapped in secrecy in North Korea. No one saying for sure what they think has happened because quite frankly, no one knows for sure what has happened, but the assumption is definitely now that he has health issues.

It's been, what we've been hearing from experts here in South Korea, that these rumors and speculation of a coup, the fact he'd been depose by the military were probably farfetched and probably unrealistic.

They believe head had health issues and we've seen him. He has been limping over July and August. We heard in September that North Korean state media said he was suffering discomfort. So they've effectively admitted that there is a problem -- Don.

LEMON: What can you tell us, Paula, about this exchange of fire between the north and the south?

HANCOCKS: This is quite a significant incident. It's certainly a step up from what we saw Tuesday where there was an exchange of fire at sea. This was on land.

We know that there were activists sending balloons over into North Korea across the border and they had a lot of anti-Pyongyang leaflets in them. DVD showing life in the south, trying to convince the North Korean resident what is the regime is really like.

North Korea is furious with these balloons. It's threatened to shoot them down in the past and today it tried. Some of those shells landed on South Korean soil so South Korea gave a number of warnings and then fired back so machine gun fire on both sides of the border.

We know there are no casualties or damage on this side of the border in South Korea. Of course, it's impossible for us to say what happened in the North -- Don.

LEMON: Paula Hancocks in Seoul. Thank you, Paula. Appreciate that.

I want to check on Wall Street now as the Dow tries to bounce back from its worst day of 2014. You can see the Dow there up some 9 points. A live look at the big board after just 30 minutes of trading.

It's been a wild ride so far this month. The Dow celebrated its best gain of the year Wednesday only to see it erase by the biggest loss of the year just yesterday.

Still to come, will GM help a crash victim clear her name? CNN's Poppy Harlow sits down with company CEO Mary Barra to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Remember the ugly brawl last month involving members of Sarah Palin's family? We're getting a clearer picture now of what actually happened thanks to the Anchorage police report being released. Our Joe Johns has a copy and he has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Palin family reality show on TLC stars the family dog, hunting, sledding, and an all-American family in Alaska.

But the details of a new police report read like an all-out royal rumble involving just people, some of whom apparently had too much to drink. So how did it all get started?

It's not entirely clear, but according to the statements, Willow Palin alleged that an older lady at a house party in Anchorage pushed her and that Bristol said, quote, "She walked up and asked what 40-year- old was pushing her sister."

And that's when some guy walked up and pushes her on the ground and started dragging her on the lawn by her legs calling her the "c" word and a slut. She said people were saying things like "f the Palins."

But the owner of the house, Korey Klingenmeyer, tells a different story. He says Bristol Palin asked him who the "f" are you. He told Bristol it was his house and there should be no fighting. He said she told him she would kick his ass. She hits him in the face. He says he let her hit him about five to six times. After about the sixth punch, he grabbed her fist, pushed her back and she falls down.

Klingenmeyer said at that time three or four guys came after him yelling that they were going to, quote, "beat his ass for beating his sister." A fight broke out and according to Klingenmeyer, quote, "The Palins ended up losing."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: According to Anchorage police, there will be no charges filed in the incident. Governor Palin herself was not involved in any of the unpleasantries according to the report, but did try to calm people down. The Palins have not responded to CNN's request for a statement. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

LEMON: I thought my family had issues. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Microsoft's CEO back-pedaling after his glib comment managed to offend much of the nation's work force. He told a room full of women worried about pay inequities with male counterparts that not asking for a raise will be rewarded with good karma.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SATYA NADELLA, MICROSOFT CEO: It's not really about asking for the raise but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. And that, I think, might be one of the additional superpowers that, quite frankly, women who don't ask for a raise have because that's good karma. It will come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So CNN's -- you get to have good karma. It's not funny, really.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look, he walked it back like crazy. Microsoft is trying to walk it back like crazy and he's now saying I was inarticulate, there is a pay gap and we need to close the pay gap.

He really is trying to walk it back. This is not what Microsoft wants to be talking about, but the fact is here in tech it is predominantly male and it is predominantly white.

And a lot of industries that have been male for a long time men make more than women across the board. Look at these numbers. This is the pay gap last year. This is women -- you cannot -- karma is not going to get you more money.

I want to be clear here. Now, one thing I think, he has friends and mentors at Microsoft, one of whom apparently believes that in the short term human resources is inefficient, in the long term it was efficient.

So he's saying in the long term a woman who is a superstar is going to get her due in the long term. But that's not everyone. And women don't ride the ranks the same way men do. Sometimes you have to take time off in the middle for child rearing, child bearing.

So this is a dumb comment that they know is dumb and that a lot of people today are buzzing about. I'll tell you, in a lot of different industries just about everybody I know women are talking about this story today and talking about their own experiences with asking for a raise.

Do I sound bossy if I ask for a raise? Do I need to ask for a raise every year? Do I need to prove myself first and ask for a raise? So to hear someone saying you don't need to ask for a raise is against everything that women are trying to do.

LEMON: If there is any good to come out of this, it's awareness and I hear women talking about it more. And it's -- scan the morning shows, everybody is like really, this is crazy especially the women on the shows were very forceful about it.

It will embolden women to say listen, I deserve to be paid what my male counterparts are.

ROMANS: Let me tell you an anecdote. There was a woman who was a big international negotiator for her company and she did it. She was very, very good and she finally went into her boss and laid out the reasons to get a raise.

And he looked at her and said "it's a good thing you came in here because my board wants to know why you're not negotiating for yourself and that maybe you're not up to par." You don't think how you're doing on the job is good enough, you have to sell yourself and that's what all of the experts say.

Can I say something that Paula Monica said? She said, "Microsoft down pre-market. Satya Nadella shouldn't worry though, if he has faith in Wall Street, the stock will go back up. It's good karma."

LEMON: And it's not just for women too. It's also for minorities. Do the same thing, right?

ROMANS: Yes. I mean, you have to know your worth and you should talk to people you work with and talk to people you know and you can talk about money and salaries because you shouldn't undervalue yourself. You have to know what your worth is in the workplace.

LEMON: OK. Another story that's buzzing on social media, a Wells Fargo employee e-mailed 200,000 employees asking for a $10,000 bonus for all of them and then, of course, the company says no, we're above the --

ROMANS: At first it sounded like he maybe accidentally e-mailed the whole company, but no, he did it on purpose. He looked at the numbers, looked at the profit, and he said you could afford to give us all a $10,000 raise.

Now reportedly his managers have been telling him don't worry, you won't lose your job. I don't recommend that you e-mail the entire company when you want to lean in and get a raise, probably not a good idea.

But in this case really kind of raising awareness of this idea that the CEO of that company makes 400 times what the typical worker does. That's a big, big wage spread. It just brings back to the whole thing about inequality within companies.

But whether it's Microsoft or Wells Fargo or whatever it is, you've got to know your worth especially this economy, be willing to stand up for it.

LEMON: When the bill comes at lunch today when I go to lunch, I'm going to say "My karma says I shouldn't pay for this. I deserve this lunch." see if they'll go for it. Thanks, Christine, have a great weekend.

Still to come here, from the threat of ISIS to health concerns over Ebola, there are no shortages of challenges being weighed by President Obama on a daily basis. Up next, why one columnist says despite low poll numbers, Mr. Obama is still one of the most successful presidents in American history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: If you've paid attention to the headlines lately, you know President Obama hasn't been getting rave reviews from the American public. A recent Gallup poll shows his job approval rating stands at 44 percent. That's down from the start of his second term.

But that shouldn't be a measure of a president's success according to "New York Times" columnist, Paul Krugman. In the latest issue of "Rolling Stone," Krugman writes this, "Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history."

So let that sink in. He goes on to say this. "No president gets to do everything his supporters expected him to do. I don't care about the fact that Obama hasn't lived up to the golden dreams of 2008 and I care even less about his approval rating. I do care that he has, when all is said and done, achieved a lot."

So let's bring in now our senior political analyst and editorial director for the "National Journal," Ron Brownstein and also editor and blogger for conservativeblackchick.com, and that is Crystal Wright.

First of all, what do you make of his comments, Ron?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think that saying one of the most successful ever is kind of pushing it. I think history will see Obama as a consequential president, both politically and substantively.

I think the main problems with Mr. Krugman's article is not so much what he puts in, enlisting what Obama has been able to do, which is significant in a highly polarized era and it's true it's difficult for the president to ever have the support of more than half the country.

I think the most important problems with the article is what isn't in there, what he omits. Things like the question about his inattention to management that led to the health care.gov launch.

When whether he's been too passive in foreign policy, whether he's been too passive in trying to reach out to the Republican congress, I think those are items on the other side of the ledger that kind of present a more complex picture.

But I think there's no question that Obama will be seen as a consequential president, both substantively and politically.

LEMON: OK, so Crystal, Krugman says when it comes to health care, financial reform, that the economy and the environment and national security that the president is doing OK, that he's achieved in that.

CRYSTAL WRIGHT, EDITOR BLOGGER, CONSERVATIVEBLACKCHICK.COM: I think on both those things I don't know whose record Paul Krugman is looking at, but it can't be Barack Obama. I think the president will go down as one of the most unsuccessful presidents when it comes to foreign policy and Obamacare.

And I guess to attack foreign policy first, what we know is two former secretaries of defense, first we had Robert Gates came out in his book and said Obama seems to show contempt for our military and the use of military force.

Of course, now everyone is talking about Leon Panetta's book where Leon Panetta actually -- who was a former CIA director as well said not only does the president lack leadership, but he missed his opportunity when it comes to foreign policy.

Most notably dealing with Syria, not dealing with Syria has created a vacuum in Iraq that allowed ISIS to grow stronger. And finally Obamacare, Don, what we saw, what we're seeing with Obamacare is that it's not affordable.

It should be called the unaffordable care act. Walmart announced this week that it is dropping insurance for 30,000 of its part time employees and they're going to be dumped into health care exchange, which is people like you, me, and Ron are going to end up subsidizing and our rates are going to go up.

We know already that premiums are going up for hard-working Americans who can't get into the health care exchanges. And I just think that he's not consequential. I think this president will be a very controversial president and I just think -- I don't know what Paul Krugman is -- what he's looking at.

LEMON: Go ahead, Ron. BROWNSTEIN: I think the foreign policy record is going to be tough for him especially the second term. I think both Obama in many ways was a correction to what people saw as the overreach of Bush and I think the debate in history will be whether Obama was too restrained and too passive as a result.

I think he is going to face a tough judgment from history on the rise of ISIS. I think the affordable care act is going to be really the pivot of his legacy.

You know, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton all tried to pass a universal coverage bill, none of it even got as far as the floor of either House. Obama is the first one to get a vote much less passed it in both chambers.