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Kenyan Police Parade Bodies of Gunmen; UN: Foreign Fighters Increased By 71 Percent; Pesticide Suspected in Family's Illness; Menendez Vows To Fight Corruption Charges; "NY Times" Calls on Menendez to Resign; Interview With Warren Buffett. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 4, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:08] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Five o'clock Eastern, you're in the CNN Newsroom, I'm Poppy Harlow. Right now, we are watching the movement aftermath and advances made by terrorists and extremist groups in three parts of the world all made more unstable this weekend by more violence in Syria where a group linked to al Qaeda and ISIS is closing in on the capitol of Damascus in Iraq where ISIS was pushed from the key city only to have a wave of looting and lynchings fall in behind them. And in East Africa, Kenya, where the extremist group al Shabaab murdered 147 people on a university campus this week. Some of the attackers were killed by police, but the group is promising to continue more attacks within Kenya.

We're going to take you live now to Kenya and we want to warn you this report may be very difficult for many of you to watch. Kenyans watching today in horror and then on Thursday in horror as al Shabaab ISIS militants stormed a Christian prayer service at Garissa University College. By the time they were stopped, they had killed 147 people, most of them singled out for being Christian. They also wounded over 100.

Our David Mackenzie joins me now from Garissa, Kenya. When you saw what happened today, another horrifying display playing out on the streets.

DAVID MACKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Poppy, very disturbing scenes on the streets today in Garissa. The government deciding that it wants to show that they killed these alleged gunmen placing them in the back of a pickup truck. Those dead bodies in this heat was just hideous. The stench was overwhelming and driving them through town and then displaying them in front of the town people. So certainly they want to show that they mean business here with this fight against al Shabaab. Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenyan's president has said they are going to do everything they can to strike back, but already al Shabaab says it will bathe the cities of Kenya in blood -- Poppy.

HARLOW: When it comes to what the government can do because the President of Kenya speaking out and saying this is an existential crisis for our nation, we will do everything we can to fight this radicalization, this recruitment. What can they do outside of, you know, putting many more police forces, security measures at their universities, at their malls. What else can they do?

MACKENZIE: Well, there have been complaints already that they should have expected this kind of attack. In fact, there were murmurs in the intelligence circles that even the university might be targeted. So the first point is, yes, to protect students, but it's very hard of course to protect soft targets like this. You can't protect every place where people gather and work and study across the country. And there have been complaints from the Kenyans themselves that they don't have enough support for the intelligence services, security forces, or even enough coordination.

You know, the U.S. military and special operations forces have been involved in this fight particularly in covert drone strikes taking our top leadership of al Shabaab in Somalia. This is a group that is a lot less powerful than it was some years ago when it held a great deal of territory, but now being cornered in seems in some way it's more dangerous, more radical and more likely to strike like this at soft targets like these unfortunate students. Many of them evacuated those who survived, evacuated today to Nairobi to safety -- Poppy.

HARLOW: David Mackenzie live for us in Kenya, thank you very much for that report.

And now to Iraq, the prime minister there making a very grim prediction, saying if ISIS continues to recruit fighters from all over the world then no army in the Middle East will be able to stop or even contain them. On that subject, a new United Nations Security Council report is out on the startling rise of foreign fighters who have joined ISIS. Take a look at these numbers. They are around 22,000 in Syria and Iraq alone. Add to that 6500 in Afghanistan and hundreds in places like Yemen and Somalia. Overall, this is a 71 percent increase in just about a year's time. This report also warning of the risks of these diverse foreign fighters linking up through of course, we've talked a lot about it, social network, social media to exchange ideas, plan future attacks.

Let's talk about it with former Navy SEAL and FBI agent Jonathan Gilliam. Thank you for being here. This was an incredibly important report out of the United Nations looking at just how dire the situation is and how robust the recruitment of ISIS has been. I want to read this quote to you from the U.N. report. It says, quote, "Those who eat together and bond together can bomb together." We have heard a lot about the recruitment efforts many of them, which have been stopped here in the United States, but when you look at those numbers, why do you think clearly the fight against the recruitment has been so ineffective.

[17:05:12] JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: It's a good question. I mean, again, I think we were talking about this earlier that the overall war plan is ineffective because it's not strategically well thought out. You know, here's an important part about this Poppy is that, you know, in Kenya there was less than a dozen people that went in and attacked and killed 150. Right? You're talking 22,000 people that have been recruited. We have to take this more seriously. And I think to answer your question, it just needs to be taken more seriously. I think that a lot of cultures that are westernized and modernized in the world are not taking this seriously enough and this is going to unfurl on everybody if we don't get ahead of it. HARLOW: How? I mean, look, this is a U.N. report. Being a former

Navy SEAL, having been on the ground, how do they make these assessments? How did they know that it is these numbers, this many thousand?

GILLIAM: Well, you know, I'm sure that they have ways of estimate. This is all estimate, they are always an estimate. I think, you know, when we look at the reality of this, it's better to look at the numbers, to look at the overall movement. And the fact that it's been globally, I mean, literally it's been attacks almost in every hemisphere of the country by the same ideology, that's really where we need to start looking. And a coalition is not just a group that goes into a country and fights. A coalition is a like-minded group that has the same war plan. And it should include the internet and recruiting.

HARLOW: What about the recruitment that has clearly worked within our borders? Right? Look what happened in New York this week. Two women in Brooklyn and Queens arrested clearly inspired by ISIS. Luckily, they were caught because of undercover informants.

GILLIAM: They are a part -- okay, so Islam is a closed society. They do invite people in to follow their faith, but overall a mosque, you're not just going to walk into a mosque, they are very close society.

HARLOW: I don't know if that's fair to really generalize all mosques like that.

GILLIAM: I have plenty of Muslim friends that would tell you that, you know, it's not an open society in the way that they are just advertising and broadcasting their daily lives. Okay. So the point is that they are the best to police themselves because we can't put -- you can't put Police Departments as we have seen in NYPD and then the FBI, we started pulling our surveillance units out of there because for political, you know, reasons. The mosques themselves can start policing what's going on. And if they have people that are starting to be radicalized or trying to radicalized, they are the ones who are going to be able to find --

HARLOW: What do you mean by that? That the FBI has been pulling out?

GILLIAM: Different surveillance units, like you take the intelligence unit in NYPD. OK. They are a part of the JTTF. And the relationship that you have with local police departments when they have a surveillance unit that works inside these mosques and then they are pulled out, that's a huge loss of human intelligence. So when they pull out, that creates a vacuum or a void where we can't see. The Islamic community has to then step in and actually police themselves and actually watch if they don't want to have law enforcement in there, then they need to start stepping up to the plate.

HARLOW: And we know a lot of good leaders have been doing that.

GILLIAM: Sure. HARLOW: Look, there's another troubling part of this report from the United Nations out this week that it says an unintended consequence of defeating ISIS in Syria and Iraq would be the dispersal of foreign fighters across the globe. This is, you know, Bob Baer talked a lot about this. This sort of, if you defeat ISIS, then what comes next? Could the next be worse?

GILLIAM: Well, that's why you don't need to concentrate on ISIS, you need to concentrate on a global movement. And you also need to differentiate between what's happening in Tikrit, what is happening in Yemen and what is happening globally. Tikrit is really the Sunni/Shia rift, and that's you're seeing almost like a civil war inside this one town. Yemen is similar, but you also have very dangerous groups that are trying to take ahold of Yemen to so that they can further their movement of global caliphate. Globally, we have this movement, this fundamental Islamic Muhammadism that moving quickly and so we need to look at each one of these separately and here at home, you know, the Muslim community needs to start participating and policing. If they see something for instance in Boston, the mosque where the Boston bombers were at, that was not the first time that that mosque was brought up into something.

HARLOW: The mosque has denied numerous times that it knew of anything.

GILLIAM: Those people existed in that mosque.

HARLOW: I will say, look, this recruitment problem is an issue. It's the big issue in my hometown in Minneapolis. And there are a lot of Muslims there doing very good things, strong word trying to fight this internally in their community.

Thank you so much, Jonathan Gilliam.

GILLIAM: You bet.

[17:10:10] HARLOW: We'll keep the conversation going.

Coming up next, a very disturbing story, a family poisoned on vacation at a luxury resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A toxic chemical could be to blame. One that is banned in the United States. So if it was used, how could that happen? More on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:13:32] HARLOW: A U.S. family from Delaware vacationing at a luxury resort came down with a serious illness. Their condition is being blamed on a possible exposure to a very dangerous and a banned pesticide. The family's two teenage boys were told, remain conscious at this hour.

Our Sara Ganim have been following this story and explains why this has now become a criminal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A trip to paradise turned nightmare. A family of four now fighting for their lives. Authorities are investigating whether they may have been poisoned while staying at this hotel on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Two boys, ages 14 and 16, are in comas in critical condition after traces of methyl bromide, a gas compound commonly used in pesticides were found in their villa at the Sirenusa Resort. The family fell ill after the unit directly below them was fumigated. The EPA banned the use methyl bromide indoors in the U.S. because of its acute toxicity. Sea glass vacations which rent out some of the resort units told CNN the pest control company Terminix had fumigated the lower unit on March 18th right in the middle of the family's stay.

The family's lawyer James Naren (ph) compared the chemical to sarin gas, a deadly substance used in chemical warfare. The U.S. Department of Justice has now opened a criminal investigation. The EPA is monitoring air and environmental samples and working with local authorities to figure out what happened. Terminix told CNN in an e- mail that it is, quote, "Committed to performing all work in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees, the public and the environment. And it is looking into this matter internally and cooperating with authorities. We are thinking about the family and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery."

Methyl bromide is odorless, causes injury to the lung and nervous system and could be fatal if inhaled. After the fumigation, the father Steve Esmond was found in a coma, the boys and their mother were having severe seizures, according to their attorney. The parents' condition improved after the family were air lifted back to the mainland United States. The mom Theresa was released from the hospital, the father Steve is now conscious but unable to talk. An EPA spokeswoman told CNN the agency is actively working to determine how this happened and will make sure steps are taken to prevent this from happening to others at these vacation apartments or elsewhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Incredibly scary. We will bring you the latest as we have it. We wish that family all the best as they recover from this.

Coming up next, former Cuban President Fidel Castro making his first public appearance in more than a year. The new photos, the details, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:05] HARLOW: The U.S. nuclear framework of a deal with Iran has received two very different reactions here in the U.S. and in Iran. In Tehran the mood is jubilant.

That is Iran's foreign minister getting quite a welcome home after striking an agreement with world powers as Iranians celebrate the potential end of those tough economic sanctions. At the White House, a cautious but optimistic response from President Obama and concern from republicans, especially those thinking about a run for the White House. Jeb bush calling the agreement flawed. Marco Rubio dismissing it and Rick Perry also held back a little bit saying, he is wary about this. Ted Cruz calling this a bad deal, period. Lindsey Graham warned of the consequence of a bad deal and said that they could be unimaginable.

Let's talk about it with David Gergen, former White House adviser to four U.S. presidents. David, as we watched this play out, it extended past that Tuesday deadline of March 31st. And then all of a sudden, an agreement, a framework, do you believe what we know of it? This is a good deal. Or do you believe the U.S. gave up too much?

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, Poppy, it could be a very good deal for the United States. And I think we just have to withhold final judgment until we see the details. I mean, God is in the details. And in this case, also in the larger parts of the agreement and there are many pieces of this agreement that have not been resolved. But let's start with the basics. If we were to get an agreement and if it were to work as advertised by the administration, it would be a major step forward. Instead of having an Iran which is very close to be able to develop a nuclear weapon or the breakout time is thought to be two to three months, if this deal were to work as advertised, it would extend that breakout time to a year. That would give the international community especially in the United States and Israel more time to respond and force, and be tough on Iran.

So if it were as advertised, the real issue here is, we don't know if it's going to work. We don't know a lot of the details. There are a lot of things that are not left there. The single most important thing that we don't know is how tough will verification be? We do know you cannot trust the Iranians. We do know they signed something similar to this some years ago and within a very short period of time we're in violation of it. That's what led to a lot of this crisis. Now they are going to sign protocol again promising but unless we have tough verification, and that doesn't mean scheduling once a month verification, it means anytime, anywhere. Snap verification.

HARLOW: Look, David, this is something that the President has been working on since 2008. Clearly important to him. That said, a lot of people have been raising their hands and saying what about those three Americans? Let's pull them up on the screen, three Americans being held in Iran. Should the U.S. have used this as a time to try to leverage everything it could to bring them home or do they have that power now?

GERGEN: In the next three months, I do believe the United States ought to press and I'm glad to see you raising the issue because it's too easy to forget these people have been in there, some far back as 2011. Yes, Poppy, what's important here in the next few months is not just listen to American officials, but to listen and to watch what the Iranians do. If they were to release those three, that would be a gesture of good will that would be well-taken. What are they going to do about their sponsorship of terrorism? Are they going to continue to push for the distraction of Israel or are they going to continue to try to take over a large chunks of Iran to protect the Assad, to promote terrorism?

If that's the case, then we made a deal with the devil. And, you know, we have to be very tough on it. But it's also what they say about this deal. They are making the deal sound different from what the United States government has said is in the deal, or in the framework. And we need to follow that. I think this presses a responsibility now to tell us what's going on in Iran as well as what's going on in the United States and let's see how they match up about what each government is telling its own people.

HARLOW: Right. Absolutely. David Gergen, thank you very much. Stand by. We're going to take a quick break.

Coming up, I want to talk to you about this. It is a political drama that seems ripped from a house of cards episode. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez accused of trading favors for lavish perks were close to a million dollars. Now, federal charges. We'll talk about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:27:34] HARLOW: New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has pleaded not guilty to major corruption charges centering on his dealings with a Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen. Prosecutors say among other things, Menendez helped Melgen get visas for three of his foreign born girlfriends to come to the United States and also intervene when the doctor was investigated for overbilling Medicare by millions of dollars. Also allegedly, Menendez accepted over $750,000 in campaign contributions in return.

Let's talk about it with CNN political analyst David Gergen, you know politics inside and out and Menendez has been fighting this from the time the first story broke. Now these federal charges, he says, these are totally unfounded. "The New York Times" is calling on him to resign. He says he won't. How could this affect U.S. policy and other key issues that he is so intertwined in?

GERGEN: Sorry, we just lost sound.

HARLOW: Can you hear me, David? All right. I don't have David Gergen. We're going to try to get David Gergen back with us. Any luck, guys? All right. I don't have David Gergen. Quick break. We're back with him on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:32:21] HARLOW: We have David Gergen back with us.

We were talking about the federal charges that have come down against Robert Menendez for corruption. A number of different issues at stake that we just discussed. "The New York Times," David, calling on Menendez to resign. He says he won't. This is a key senior leader in the Senate, someone who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. Depending on how this plays out, how could this affect U.S. policy?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it will only have a marginal effect on U.S. policy. It is true that Menendez was a ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in other words, he was the top Democrat in that position. He was often an ear attempt for the Obama administration, especially on Cuba, which he has opposed their policies a lot. But he also has become a voice for a bipartisan bill to force any kind of agreement we get with Iran ultimately to a vote in Congress. Bob Corker, the Senator from Tennessee, has been the co-sponsor of the bill. He's really the one with the influence. I think it's likely to be embraced by the House and the Senate. The White House will eventually accept that. And I don't think Menendez would have been such a serious force one way or the other. I don't think this has major impact. It has dramatic impact on him. It also re-enforces a sense in the country that too many people who serve are up for sale.

HARLOW: I do want to get your take on something that's just come into us. Cuba's state news agency releasing these photos, calling new images of ageing former president, Fidel Castro, out in public for the first time in 14 months. Take a look at those photos. What's your reaction to that? They release this and say he's alive and well. Why come out with that now?

GERGEN: It's like sightings of Elvis. I think it's a valuable thing to show the people a sense of continuity, that Castro, a great hero to many Cubans, remains alive. But the larger issue is not being resolved by him. I think what's striking is how many people in this country and in Cuba are starting to raise questions about how much respect is Cuba going to have for human rights and for a Democratic freedom as the opening comes with the United States. That's going. To be an important indicator of whether this has been a step forward or a step backward for the Cuban people.

HARLOW: David Gergen, good to have you on. Thank you, we appreciate it.

GERGEN: Thank you.

[17:35:04] HARLOW: Now our one-on-one with billionaire businessman, Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the world's third- richest man, giving us his views on the economy, the nation's income gap, and who he is betting on for 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: We're seeing some recent cracks in the U.S. economy, retail and auto sales down, forecasts for first quarter earnings looking lower than has been expected to fall for the first time since 2012. Is this a blip or is this the beginning of a bigger shift?

WARREN BUFFETT, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: I don't see any real weakness in the economy. Home building has been slow and continues to be slow, but the economy has been improving since the fall of 2009. It continues to improve. I don't see it. I have seen the February figures for our companies and there's parts that are stronger than others, but that's been the case. We have been an upward course and people talk about double dips and acceleration. In the end it just keeps moving ahead. I think it's quite a tribute to our policymakers all the way back to the fall of 2008 that we have recovered like we have from what was an incredible panic.

HARLOW: Fed Chair Janet Yellen said if underlying conditions had returned to normal, the economy should be booming. Where's the risk?

BUFFETT: I don't think there's a particular risk in the economy over time. We'll have recessions from time to time. We had a real doozy in the fall of 2008 and early 2009. That has had more consequences than other recessions have had post World War II, but the American economy is a wonderful machine. It really works. It's worked since 1776 and will continue to work. We will continue to have ups and downs.

HARLOW: For some Americans, they listen to that and say it's not working for me. They see stagnant wage growth and they feel like it's getting increasingly hard to get by year by year. So who is winning?

BUFFETT: The extreme rich are clearly winning. If you look at the Forbes 400, aggregate net worth, 25 times as much. The very rich have done exceptionally well in this economy. Other people have done OK, but it's certainly the super rich. You can just look at that figure from $92 billion to $2.3 trillion.

HARLOW: But when it comes to wages, we have seen Walmart, for example, and other companies follow in its footsteps, raising what they will pay their entry level workers up to $10 by 2016. Last year when I asked you if the federal minimum wage should be raised from $7.25 an hour, you say that's the toughest question because I have been thinking about it for 50 years and I don't know the answer.

BUFFETT: Yeah.

HARLOW: Your reason for that is because you don't know if more people will be better off because you lose some employment.

BUFFETT: I'd like to see everybody make $20 an hour, but if you increase to $20 an hour, you'd have millions of people unemployed. I don't know how to calibrate precisely. I personally believe the earned income tax credit is a better way of handling the problem of people who are really not paying enough to live decently. The earned income tax credit for $56 billion in o 2013. I would expand that and do it smarter. But that's more effective in helping the people who are at the lower end than a change in the minimum wage.

HARLOW: Why should people care about income inequality?

BUFFETT: We live in a country that is the richest in the world. A miracle in many ways. Real GDP is six times what it was when I was born, but all kinds of people are left behind. There are some structural reasons for that and I think a rich family takes care of the people that aren't born with a particular wiring that enables them to prosper mightily in a market economy. There are lots of people that they fight in Afghanistan. Through no fault of their own, their skills are not skills that the market values highly. I think a very rich society can figure out ways to have those people do better than they are doing.

HARLOW: What happens to this country if the gap isn't narrowed between the rich and the poor? What happens? BUFFETT: I would like to say something will happen politically, but

it's gone on now for quite awhile, for several decades. We had had occupy Wall Street, but so far there hasn't been that much of a political reaction. You would hope it would happen through the ballot box, but with Citizens United and other decisions that enable the rich to contribute really unlimited amounts that that actually tilts the balance even more toward the ultra-rich. So the ballot box is the ultimate answer for changes in policy, but the unlimited giving to parties and candidates really pushes us more toward -- they say it's free speech, but somebody can speak 20 million or 30 million times and my cleaning lady can't speak at all.

[17:40:42] HARLOW: I want to ask you about politics. Hillary Clinton, you have been a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton.

BUFFETT: I still am.

HARLOW: You still are. You have told me multiple times you want her to be the next president --

BUFFETT: I hope so.

HARLOW: -- of the United States. She's faced some head winds particularly over her e-mails at the State Department. Has it changed your view at all?

BUFFETT: No, no, I'd like to see her e-mails, too, Poppy.

(LAUGHTER)

That's a curiosity factor. But what I care about is what she believes in and her ability to get what she believes in turned into law.

HARLOW: Do you think she's going to be the next president?

BUFFETT: I think so.

HARLOW: Last year, you donated $25,000 to a group supporting Hillary Clinton, is that right?

BUFFETT: Yes.

HARLOW: And you have told me before that you don't like super PACs.

BUFFETT: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

That's a good one because I did not know it was a super PAC. They had a maximum, which was $25,000. I think u of super PACs with hundreds of thousands or millions. I didn't know it was a super PAC. I'm not for super PACs, but it's absolutely true that I contributed $25,000, which I later found out was a super PAC.

HARLOW: But it's an indication of how much you are a supporter of her. BUFFETT: But I would not write a huge check. I would go out and

raise money for her. I would be delighted to do that. I would hope to do it. I did some of that in 2008. But I just don't believe that the election should be decided by the super rich.

HARLOW: What does money in politics do to this democracy? What does it do if everyone in your income bracket wrote big checks?

BUFFETT: A lot of people in Congress would be listening to them. You can't blame anybody. If you pour your heart and soul into running an election and your opponent is out spending, I think it's counter to our ideas of democracy to allow unlimited campaign contributions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Part two of my interview with billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:46:23] HARLOW: Welcome back, part two of my interview with Warren Buffett, his take on U.S. stocks now and why he says too many people are missing out on the American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: U.S. stocks are near record levels. We still have a wage growth problem in this country. We have 2.7 million people long-term unemployed so we have some problems. You said periodically financial markets will become divorced from reality. You can count on that. Are U.S. markets that way right now?

BUFFETT: Not yet, but they have moved a long way up and they could -- we could have overpriced stock markets. They have had them various times in the last 150 plus years and we'll have them again. It's always easier to identify them in retrospect, but they will happen. And you'll have under price the markets too, which gets much more interesting to talk about because that will happen the same way.

HARLOW: Are we close?

BUFFETT: We are closer than we were before, obviously, when the market goes on the S&P from 666 to 2100. That's a big move, but stocks were very cheap then at that time. They went into a range of modest undervaluation, fair valuation, a little on the high side now, but they have not gone into bubble territory.

HARLOW: Not gone into bubble territory. What about a tech bubble? Are we living 1999 all over again? The NASDAQ is near that 5,000 level.

BUFFETT: That's a different composition now. Apple deserves it.

HARLOW: They are a very different company.

BUFFETT: They were eyeballs then and they are profits now. I can't speak to any given industry that well, but I do not regard us as bubble territory. I don't find cheap stocks either. Very few.

HARLOW: Nothing right now.

I want to talk about Greece. Do you think we'll see a Greek exit from the Eurozone?

BUFFETT: I don't know whether we'll see it, I have no notion on that. I do know that the Euro has had certain what I would call structural weaknesses. It doesn't mean they can't be corrected. We have amended our constitution many times, but putting together a group of countries with significantly different fiscal policies, labor laws, cultures, and then trying to tie them all to a single currency can present strains down the road.

HARLOW: As we're seeing.

BUFFETT: As we're seeing. They either have to learn to harmonize or be forced to harmonize some other important economic characteristics or they can't all stay on a common currency. You can't have one thing that moves in lock step and everything scattered.

HARLOW: When you say harmonize, do you think it is realistic even if there are structural changes say in Greece that we will see Greece and Germany singing together?

BUFFETT: That seems farfetched, but whether it will be Greece or not, I don't know. But I do think that the countries have to operate on reasonably harmonious arrangements and fiscal policy and labor laws. We could not hook up with Venezuela and have a common currency.

(CROSSTALK)

BUFFETT: But we could hook up with Canada to have a common currency.

HARLOW: Do you think a Greek exit may be better in the long run?

BUFFETT: It's hard to tell. If it leads to a sounder basis for the resolving Euro, it could be.

[17:55:13] HARLOW: It could be.

Let's move on this. One Twitter user -- we solicited questions from our viewers on social media -- wrote, "In your opinion, what is the best thing that can be done to reduce poverty on a global scale?"

BUFFETT: Well, at the Gates Foundation, we think that health is probably the number-one thing. I mean, if you aren't healthy and you don't have access to vaccines and other aids to better health, you really don't have anything going for you. And so I think that if you talk about global, I think that development and distribution of vaccines -- you know, we're trying to wipe out polio now or whatever it may be, you want a healthier world first.

HARLOW: Is there one thing you think, one piece of technology you think is making and will make the biggest change? Melinda Gates, for example, told me it was Smartphone, for example, completely changing the game.

BUFFETT: I don't know if --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: -- on that front.

BUFFETT: You know, if you're trying to live on a dollar a day or two dollars a day and you have two acres of land to support your family or -- I'm not sure what a Smartphone is necessarily going to do for you. I think -- my son works on increasing agricultural productivity around the world. That could be a tremendous help to people. I mean, they've got small amounts of land and you can make it for productive, they'll live better. Nothing there is going to be accomplished overnight or in a year or five years or --

HARLOW: You've pledged almost all of your wealth to philanthropy.

BUFFETT: Right, 99 percent plus.

HARLOW: A lot of other billionaires have joined in that with you.

BUFFETT: A lot.

HARLOW: What global issues can be solved through philanthropy? Not just relying on, you know, the marketplace or capitalism. What issues can we solve through philanthropy?

BUFFETT: We won't save anything in the ultimate -- we're never going to get seven billion people, have them all educated or as healthy as we'd like, but things can be done in a major way in terms of health and family planning, in terms of education. You try to figure out if you really believe that every life is of equal value, everything in life is of equal value. That means a different thing in some impoverished nation than it means in the United States. And you simply try to improve the lot of humans, wherever they may be. They're just like your own children.

HARLOW: Is the American dream still alive and well?

BUFFETT: Well, it is alive and well but it isn't for a good many people.

HARLOW: Is it hard for you to see that? In your lifetime you've seen stage where is it was very much more alive and well for more people.

BUFFETT: Well, it's been -- it's been alive and well for a lot of people, but there are people that aren't -- the American dream is based in part on a market system and the rule of law, equality of opportunity and all of that. But a market system is going to leave lot of people behind, and then that's where government comes in, why we put in social security and things of that sort. The American dream in the sense that anybody can become -- move them into some top economic class or become president of the United States, whatever it may be -- that is a dream. The social mobility has always been relatively good in this country compared to the rest of the world. But there are limitations to the American dream. I mean, if someone is born with subnormal intelligence, they can have some dreams but they're not going to move into the top economic class in all probability, unless they happen to be the child of some super rich person.

HARLOW: So we will see who the next president will be, if it will be Hillary Clinton as you'd like to see or someone else. Whoever the next president of the United States is, what is the one thing that they and Congress can do to make sure that that American dream is a little bit more alive for more people?

BUFFETT: I think -- I think the earned income tax credit is enormously important. I think another $100 billion devoted to that could change. -- if there's 23 million or 24 million families in the bottom quintile of income with the top being $20,000, I want to reward work. But that's what the tax credit does. You have to be working to get it. But I think that could be expanded significantly, and I think you could improve dramatically the lives of a lot of people who are struggling like hell to improve their own.

HARLOW: In the near term.

BUFFETT: In the near term.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:54:58] HARLOW: Our thanks to Warren Buffett for that.

You can see the full interview anytime at CNNmoney.com/Buffett.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. We want you to meet this week's "CNN's Hero," who helps students choose guitars over guns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

CHAD BERNSTEIN, CNN HERO: As a kid, I struggled a lot with self- esteem and bullying and that desire to fit in.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BERNSTEIN: When I found trombone, the music became the place that I could do that that.

As a professional musician, the disappearance of music in schools concerns me because I would be lost without music.

Guitar over Guns will be meeting today. Please be on time and ready to rock.

Our program offers free after-school programming to at-risk middle schoolers. Music is the most important tool we have in reaching these kids.

Guys, if you could please finish up with the grades and go to the instruments.

In the classroom, we split the program into 30-minute chunks, a mentoring exercise, instrument instructions, and ensemble experience.

(MUSIC)

BERNSTEIN: Our mentors are professional musicians. We build relationships.

How is everything?

We get to know their families and what their lives are like at home.

(CROSSTALK)

BERNSTEIN: A lot of times these kids only see to the end of their block. We like to give them exposure to the rest of the world.

Over there is where we'll be recording vocals.

The best part of our program is watching these kids really transform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before the program, I wouldn't think I would be in a studio.

BERNSTEIN: You're a little bit off timing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But now I could do medicine, I could do music, I probably could even be like a teacher.

BERNSTEIN: You want to punch in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without this program, I'd either be in jail or dead.

(SINGING)

BERNSTEIN: When I see a kid have their moment --

(SINGING)

BERNSTEIN: -- it makes you realize that we're doing work that matters.