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Romney Decision to be Announced this Morning; Religious Protests Disrupt Day to Celebrate Muslims; The Facts and Fiction of Fertility

Aired January 30, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so we're watching this breaking news. Mitt Romney is expected to announce, in just an hour's time, whether or not he's going to move forward with a third bid for the White House. Here to discuss it all, let's dig in to it with CNN political commentator, host of CNN's "Smerconish" and host of the conveniently named "Michael Smerconish" program on Sirius XM radio.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Catchy.

PEREIRA: The man himself, Michael Smerconish, named after his own show.

So, you've been listening and watching and putting your ear to the ground. What's your sense? What do you think's going to happen at 11?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: My sense is that you don't send out an e-mail blast and you tell everybody, hey, tune in, because I have something to say, if that which you're about to say is, I'm not getting in. So I think he's getting in, otherwise why the fanfare? You don't need to do it this way.

PEREIRA: That's a good point.

CUOMO: The logic of your statement confounds and changes my desire to just bandy about, but this is TV, so I must prevail.

PEREIRA: That's a very interesting statement (ph).

CUOMO: Or -

SMERCONISH: Right.

CUOMO: He's gotten so much pressure for hogging the spotlight and now, captivating this audience with President Obama, that he's getting pressure from those he wants to stay friends with to say, listen, you're either in or you're out but you're hurting everybody else now because you're making it a one man show.

SMERCONISH: You know what's funny, it seemed that the most - it was almost like a prom date. The more that he said no, the people were saying, yes, yes, yes, please do it. And then the minute that he said, you know what, I am thinking about this, then there seemed to be this ambivalence about his candidacy. So it's hard to know exactly what to make of it.

But my inclination is that he gets in. What's interesting is that this time there will be a lot of competition among the so-called establishment types because now you'll have Jeb, you'll have Mitt. The person who will be most stressed at 11:00 this morning, I think, will be Chris Christie. There's just not enough oxygen in that space for all of them. There's not enough money in that space for all of them.

Last time, John Huntsman initially was a candidate against Mitt Romney. But after Huntsman faded post-New Hampshire, he had all that turf to himself and he escaped with the prize. This time, it's not so simplistic because there are a number of competitors in that space.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It's interesting that you say Chris Christie you think would be the most upset because we were thinking maybe Jeb Bush would be - I mean they do occupy some of the same demographic.

SMERCONISH: All three of them do. But I just think that Jeb has a bigger -- because of the name, because of the experience of the family, having set up organizations nationwide, I think that Jeb is in a far better position than is Chris Christie. Hey, something else interesting. Remember that Halperin and Heilemann book. They wrote "Game Change," they wrote "Double Down."

PEREIRA: Uh-huh.

SMERCONISH: One of the tidbits that was in that book was how the Romney campaign was seriously considering Chris Christie and then, you know, they vetted him and they had, I think it was a 30 page dossier that Halperin and Heilemann got a look at they said. So I guess my point is that - that Mitt Romney knows where the bodies are buried with regard to Chris Christie, and he passed on him.

PEREIRA: Yes, you know, I was thinking about all of this and the idea, we've been talking a lot about this rebranding and, of course, his people are pushing back and saying it's not rebranding.

SMERCONISH: Right.

PEREIRA: People can change, et cetera, et cetera. That I - you know, it's one thing inside the beltway and the political people talking about it, but the folks at home, the voters, do we shift our sensibilities and our belief in candidates as quickly as the machine wants us to believe it will?

SMERCONISH: He has -- to your point, he has a hard sell because the one candidate in the, what, two dozen who are potential GOP candidates who I think can ill-afford yet another rebranding is Mitt Romney, because that's what did him in last time. He did not run, Michaela, as the individual who governed in Massachusetts. Frankly, if he had -

PEREIRA: Right.

SMERCONISH: He would have been a much better general election candidate, but he had to play the crazy card in primary season. And you saw last Saturday in Iowa, Steve King put that event together and they all came out and they tried to out, you know, beer-muscle one other. Well, that's great for primary season, but you do yourself in for the general elections.

PEREIRA: Also in that speech, to your point about him - your theory that he's -- wants to be his more authentic self this time around.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that he wants - that he's -- he's annoyed with how handled he was last time.

SMERCONISH: Right.

CAMEROTA: And this time he wants another crack at being his real self.

SMERCONISH: I don't blame him. You know the most - the most stunning moment of the Republican convention four year ago, was it four years ago? Last cycle. Was the chair with Clint, right? What people never got to see, because it didn't air in prime time, were the Mormon testimonials. They were phenomenal. Mitt Romney preparing the will for a teenage boy whose days were numbered and all the good work that he did. But for - for whatever reason they decided they were going to hide, put under the rug that Romney. They weren't sure America was ready to elect a Mormon.

CUOMO: They thought it would be made an issue and it wasn't.

SMERCONISH: It would have been such an attribute for him. So I think it was a huge mistake. They'd have been better off with the testimonials than with the chair.

CUOMO: Right. You say I don't blame him for wanting to be his more authentic self. I will argue, yes, you should, because -

PEREIRA: OK, why?

CUOMO: At the end of the day, you have your machine, you're the man or the woman. It's about you.

PEREIRA: Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: If you want to be a leader, you go first. So you don't let the machine tell you who to be.

PEREIRA: Right.

CUOMO: You are who you are. And that's what this level of politics is about more than anything else. And if we don't know who he is now, then we're never going to know in a way that we'd like. That would be the challenge.

SMERCONISH: And that's Chris Christie's attribute. You know, Chris Christie says, take me for what I am. I'm not putting my finger to the wind. I'm not a blow dried politician. Warts and all, this is what you get. So he's sort of the antithesis of Romney in that regard. And, Jeb, well, we're not so sure because he's a blank slate.

PEREIRA: Wow, you're going to have some things to talk about this weekend on your show.

SMERCONISH: Oh, come on, this is going to be great.

CUOMO: This is going to be smart for the politics, though. It's also a reason to get angry.

PEREIRA: Oh, my goodness. Check it out. There it is on your screen. "Smerconish," Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. Eastern on CNN here weekdays, Sirius XM 9:00 Eastern as well.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Michael. Great to see you.

SMERCONISH: Thank you, guys.

CAMEROTA: A newly elected Texas lawmaker is under fire for asking Muslim visitors to pledge allegiance to the USA. Is she going too far? We'll take you live to Austin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Religious protests in Texas disrupting a day to celebrate Muslims. Muslims who gathered at the state house in Austin say they were harassed by anti-Muslim protesters. Now, the situation getting worse. George Howell has the very latest from Austin.

What do we know, George?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good morning.

As a native Texan, I remember learning about this building and how it's a place that is open for everyone, just as it was yesterday for Texas Muslim Capitol Day. It's an event that's a legislative event. It happens every two years and there's never been any protests like we saw the other day.

Two things happened. Again, a small group of protesters, basically outside chanting anti-Islamic statements to this peaceful group, saying go back to Baghdad, saying down with sharia. Also inside the building, the comments from a freshman representative, Molly White, have also sparked controversy. I want to read these and I've paraphrase in some places, but the first statement that basically goes to say that she says, representatives from the Muslim community are to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. She also indicated in this online statement that she left an Israeli flag in her office. The comment goes on to say, quote, "we'll see how long they stay in my office."

The next comment goes on to say she does not apologize, I do not apologize for my comments. Moving on to the final comment that we saw that she made here, saying that she welcomed all constituent who would like to come to visit our office at the Texas State Capitol.

We reached out to Molly White's office and have not received comment at this point. But, Chris and Michaela, we do know that some people here are calling for an ethics inquiry given what happened here at the state capitol. PEREIRA: All right, George, thanks so much for that.

Time now for your five things to know for your new day.

At number one and breaking news. CNN's Dana Bash has learned that Mitt Romney has made a decision about his presidential future and he will tell his supporters that decision at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Stick with CNN for that.

More breaking news. Economic figures just released show the U.S. economy grew 2.6 percent in the final quarter of 2014. It is considered a disappointment compared to what was expected.

Still no word on the fate of two ISIS hostages. The deadline for a prisoner swap has long passed. Officials in Jordan are demanding proof their captured pilot is still alive.

Day two of testimony at the Aaron Hernandez's trial, the former NFL star charged with first degree murder. His lawyers accused the prosecution of ignoring evidence and conducting a, quote, "sloppy and unprofessional investigation."

The northeast again bracing for storms. Two more rounds of winter. It comes just days after the region was slammed by that gnarly blizzard.

We do update those five things to know, so be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Michaela.

Well, if you or someone you know is struggling with infertility, you need to watch our next segment. CNN's Kyra Philips has a new book chronicling her experience trying to have a baby. She and a fertility doctor will separate fact from fiction. Hi, Kyra. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: If you're trying to have a baby, listen up. CNN anchor Kyra Phillips, now the proud mother of twin 4 year olds, is here to tell us that getting pregnant was not easy. Along her journey, Kyra learned a lot about fertility, and with the help of Dr. Jamie Grifo, director of NYU's fertility center, she has put it all in a new book, "The Whole Life Fertility Plan." Kyra and Dr. Grifo join us now.

Great to see you guys.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-AUTHOR, "THE WHOLE LIFE FERTILITY PLAN": It's great to be here.

CAMEROTA: This is a topic near and dear to my heart.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I read your book with such interest. You were a little late to this game, at 39 you decided it was time to start thinking about having children, and what did you discover?

PHILLIPS: Well, that it's not that easy. And you know what it takes to be in this position in this business, you have to sacrifice a lot, and unfortunately that means love, and family, and children. And I had spent my whole life working on my career, and then all of a sudden, there I was in Iraq covering the war, I was going through a horrible divorce, I came home, my house had flooded because a pipe burst upstairs, I had nothing. And I was sitting on my porch, thinking oh, my God, it's never going to happen. And I had a huge anxiety attack, and so, thank God for Jamie. I like to say I love my husband, but this man got me pregnant.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: And he has changed my life.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

PHILLIPS: So, I was lucky.

CAMEROTA: You were lucky, and I'm glad that you said that, because there's a misconception that well, if I can't get pregnant naturally, I'll just use in vitro fertilization and then I'll have children. No, that is also very tough, Dr. Grifo, not everybody gets pregnant with IVF.

DR. JAMIE GRIFO, NYU FERTILITY CENTER PROGRAM DIRECTOR: No, none of these are guarantees, and there's really only one true test of fertility, and that's getting pregnant, and not everybody can achieve it.

CAMEROTA: You know, one thing that I learned during my struggles with infertility is that - - I used to think you were fertile or infertile. In fact, there's a continuum, and this is what your book is about. And, Kyra, you learned the things that you can do to enhance your fertility and the things that sort of destroy fertility.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely, because I found myself bugging Jamie like crazy, texting him at all hours of the night. You know, what about this? Can I do this? Is this okay? And, so, when we started talking about doing a book, we decided let's do something for every age. So, I want your daughter to read this book. I want her to see what she can do now to preserve her fertility. What she eats, drinks, smokes, her environment, things in the home that can impact your ability to have a child, all the way up to the career woman. What can she do? She could freeze her eggs now. She can put her DNA on ice. We were talking about that's really changing the game up to our age.

CAMEROTA: That's a huge game-changer. I mean, the fact that women who are young can now freeze their eggs so that they don't have to be looking down the barrel of the time gun that we were.

GRIFO: Or, resort to egg donor. They get to be own egg donor using frozen eggs, and that's the advantage because the trend is to delay child bearing, and the more you do, the more likely it is your eggs are going to be too old to work, and that's the problem. CAMEROTA: Kyra, how much of the lifestyle stuff did you change in your life while you were tying to get pregnant?

PHILLIPS: Everything and that's because of Jamie. Jamie told me, Kyra, one cup of coffee a day. Cut out the alcohol. I mean, he actually was really nice. He's like, you know, everything in moderation, but I'm your doctor and your friend, so I cut out the alcohol. Exercise, you don't want to do too much exercise. I had to watch how much I did of that. Things in my home, I mean, the things that I was breathing. I even found out candles, certain candles, emit chemicals that can rival the toxicity of cigarette smoke. I mean, it's amazing what we found out researching this book.

CAMEROTA: I remember, I remember when I was going through it, I, too, was like I guess I can just drink water and eat organic vegetables because everything seems to have an impact on your fertility. But, Dr. Grifo, you're interesting. The fact that you were able to tell Kyra some lifestyle things, a lot of fertility doctors don't tell you about yoga, they don't tell you about acupuncture, they don't tell you to cut out coffee, because you guys - - that seems like hocus pocus to some of you.

GRIFO: Well, I mean, we like to have well designed clinical trials to base our statements on, and you just can't do it, it's too complicated a field. But what is very clear is stress is a factor, and minimizing stress, at least from a quality of life point of view, is very important, and you have to get through this stuff. It's terrible going through fertility treatment. It is really difficult. It's as depressing as going through cancer treatment and patients have to manage and get through it, and the stress of that has to be dealt with. There are things you can do that give you an edge and give you a better chance, and diet, and nutrition, and lifestyle are important pieces to that.

CAMEROTA: You know, another thing that you can do that actually has shown to improve the success of fertility is a support group. Did you get any support while you were going through it?

PHILLIPS: See, I took a different approach. Jamie let me know this was going to be really difficult, and can be depressing, and stressful. I decided to go in with a completely different mind-set. I was going to embrace it, I was going to love it, I was going to get into putting out my shots and empowering myself. I looked at it in more of a positive perspective, which is how we decided to write the book. I actually put a lot of humor in there, I'm very blunt, I'm very open, I'm very direct, because I want this to empower women. I don't want them to be scared. I don't want them to be stressed out. I want them to be relaxed and embrace this, because their chances of it working will be a lot better, right, doc?

GRIFO: It helps. But we don't want to be alarmists, we're not trying to scare women. We're trying to educate them so they make good decisions, and that's really what's important is that you own your fertility and you make good choices. And if you have the right information, and the best information, you're going to make better choices. CAMEROTA: Let's go very quickly through a couple of fact or fiction,

myth versus reality.

PHILLIPS: This is the fun part.

CAMEROTA: Number one, myth or fact, donating your eggs uses up your supply.

GRIFO: No, it doesn't. A woman has 7 million eggs as a fetus, is born with 1 to 2 million, has 600,000 at puberty. Every month she uses 500 up to ovulate one good egg, which usually isn't a good egg. When you go through fertility treatment, you recruit the same 500 eggs, you don't use them up faster.

CAMEROTA: That's good.

GRIFO: And, at age 40, 97% of the 600,000 eggs are gone.

CAMEROTA: Okay, here's an important one. Bacon harms fertility. Take this one, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, believe it or not, processed meats, bacon, sausage, these types of things impact the male sperm. Sorry, guys, have to cut back on the bacon.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, and it's not just for women, either. I cut out all of the bacon, but I did eat a lot more eggs for whatever that's worth.

GRIFO: Moderation. A little bit isn't going to kill you.

PHILLIPS: Avocado, nuts, there's a lot of good fats you can eat.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, nuts are great for you. I drank a lot of wheat grass shots. Those aren't -

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I think we have that in one of the chapters.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

PHILLIPS: Alisyn and her wheat grass.

CAMEROTA: Take a picture. "The Whole Life Fertility Plan," Kyra, Dr. Grifo, great to have you guys on.

PHILLIPS: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for all of the information, so important. Excellent stuff. Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: Bacon babies, bacon babies, bacon babies, bacon babies, could go on all day - All right, here's something that most people - -

PHILLIPS: Obviously Chris does not eat a lot of bacon. (LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I love bacon, I can't explain it.

All right, so how about this? Telemarketers, I blank them.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (voice-over): The blank, usually a potty word. Cha-cha, don't give me any examples. But, I submit, if you watch what is coming up, you'll believe they can also be the Good stuff. Yes. Test it.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO (on camera): Good Stuff. Telemarketers, good people.

What? Yes. Why? I'll show you. Now, it gets serious.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): Just the other day, some telemarketers cold called a lady 900 miles away, as is their want, and they heard a lot more than they expected.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Uh-oh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Americare Health and Nutrition, how are you today?

(YELLING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, are you okay?

CUOMO: What's going on? The woman is being beaten by her ex- boyfriend.

PEREIRA: Oh, my god.

CUOMO: The telemarketers stay on the phone, figure out where she is, and call local authorities. The cops bust in just as the woman is being strangled by this loser. Thanks to their actions, she was saved and that man got what he deserves.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): That's great.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (on camera): And that's why they're the Good Stuff. Still people on the other end of the phone, and they can act like it more than we think.

PEREIRA (on camera): Thank goodness, quick thinking.

CAMEROTA (on camera): Fast thinking. Well, we're going to rethink our take on telemarketers.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: Right, at least those guys. Thank you for what you did, you are the Good Stuff.

A lot of new this morning, let's get you to the "NEWSROOM" with Ms. Carol Costello.

PEREIRA: Happy Friday, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So happy it's Friday.

PEREIRA: Right?

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. You guys have a great weekend. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: You, too.

COSTELLO: NEWSROOM starts now.