Return to Transcripts main page
ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT
One Thousand Marines Headed to Persian Gulf; Mystery Deepens Over Boy Found in Basement; Shia Labeouf Arrested at Broadway Show; A Wealth of Controversy for Hillary Clinton
Aired June 27, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next, 1,000 U.S. Marines on their way to the Persian Gulf, armed drones flying over Baghdad. We have breaking news, is it mission creep?
Plus new information about the missing Detroit boy found in his father's basement. How did our Nancy Grace know where the boy was before his father?
And actor, Shia Labeouf arrested outside a Broadway show. What witnesses are saying about this latest public meltdown? Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, more Americans heading to the Persian Gulf. Our Barbara Starr reporting tonight. The U.S. Baton is heading to the region with 1,000 Marines on board and armed American drones are flying over Baghdad and this comes as human rights watch releases an image of what the terrorist group, ISIS, is capable of. Two mass graves believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians killed by militants.
Barbara Starr broke the news about the Marines headed to the Gulf, is now live at the Pentagon tonight. Barbara, what are they being sent to do? We were told a few hundred advisers and now 1,000 Marines.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Erin. It seems like you and I are here every night talking about more and more military fire power headed to the Persian Gulf. Tonight, 1,000 Marines on board an amphibious warship, the "USS Baton" indeed to the Persian Gulf. Now there is no word that the president is ordering air strikes or anything like that. But this just simply puts more fire power and boots in the region if they are needed.
These 1,000 Marines will join 2,000 Marines already in the Persian Gulf area. Seven warships already there. Dozens of war planes and helicopters up and down the Persian Gulf. Things are clearly being put into place if it gets worse. If there was to be an order for air strikes or an order to evacuate hundreds of American civilians out of Iraq. Right now they say everything is on standby, but we do see more and more being assembled.
BURNETT: Barbara, what are you learning about the armed drones and -- I know they are armed, but not actually planning on using them at this time but what are they going to target? STARR: Hopefully they hope not to use them both. Look, what's going on is now that they are 180 U.S. military advisers on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military personnel moving around Baghdad, it's very dangerous and these drones, which have been flying unarmed to conduct reconnaissance are now carrying hellfire missiles on their wings. They will be protection for the U.S. troops on the ground.
If those troops come under fire and get into trouble clearly you have hellfire missiles that can move in and suppress any ISIS enemy fire that U.S. troops might encounter. This is part of what they call force protection. If you've got U.S. troops out there in Iraq, which we now do, you have to provide protection for them against the militant forces -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Barbara, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT right now, CNN military analyst, Col. Rick Francona and Retired U.S. Army Colonel Doug MacGregor, who is the tank commander in the first Gulf War. Great to have both of you with us. Lt. Col. Francona, let me start with you. Once the U.S Baton arrives in the region as Barbara was just reporting, you are going to have 1,000 Marines, 2,000 total in the region. What do you make of this?
LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Is it a contingency force. This is a lot of fire power. That's a big ship with a lot of aircraft on it and Marines on it. It can be used to put forces into Baghdad, into any part of Iraq they want to amphibiously. It is an upgrade in capability. You wonder why does he think he needs this capability, this looks like mission creep again.
BURNETT: It certainly sounds that way, Colonel. The administration says they are making sure the right assets are in place should they need them? Do you buy that?
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): There are two possibilities. One is we put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, this disaster we created when we installed Mr. Malaki and his government. But this could be to enlarge our engagement. One thing to keep in mind is Marine infantry is at risk. They are not going to be able to do more than evacuate Americans.
BURNETT: Lieutenant Colonel, which of those scenarios makes the most sense to you. The president said he wanted out of the war and he got out of the war. The wanting to get back for broader influence in the region doesn't really seem to fit with his policy thus far.
FRANCONA: I think what we're seeing is him putting a contingency force in place to evacuate Americans out of there. This is not a heavy enough force to engage these forces in a meaningful way. They're not going to be able to take territory from ISIS. You need the Iraqi army to stand up and go out into the field, which I don't see happening. They ceded the entire west of the country to ISIS.
BURNETT: In terms of who the U.S. is fighting for. You have the prime minister of Iraq giving an interview with the BBC in which he criticized the Obama administration for not providing U.S. jets. He said, "I'll be frank and say we were deluded when we signed the contract with the United States. If we have air cover we could have prevented what happened in this country. We bought second-hand jet fighters from Russia."
So now you have them buying fighters from Russia. You have Bashar Al Assad's regime helping Al Maliki bomb ISIS targets and you have Iranian drones helping provide them intelligence and we are helping the same side.
MACGREROR: Well, Erin, you just asked the $60 million question. And listen, that's an important question that Americans should be asking the government right now. Last year, Mr. Obama wanted to bomb the Syrian government and army. He wanted to bomb them on behalf of the Sunni Islamists backed by the Saudis, Turks and Emirates.
Today he wants to align with Iran which is also backed by Russia and he wants to bomb the same people that last year he said he wanted to protect. There is no coherence to this. This is not strategy. The flip flop is beyond belief.
BURNETT: Col. Francona, you could say it's not necessarily a flip flop, this is the complexity of the region right now. Even the regional players are on the side of one guy and tomorrow on the side of the guy they were against yesterday.
FRANCONA: Everybody is acting in their own interests and these are changing interests. They react quickly and move their forces to be there. You have the Syrian Air Force bombing in Western Iraq. You got the Iranians moving intelligence ground units into Baghdad. They are flying their drones over there and we have these second-hand Russian aircraft in the area.
BURNETT: Bottom line is again, why should Americans care? And the reason they would care would be if ISIS is a direct and pleasant threat to the United States of America. Is it?
FRANCONA: It could be. This is a future threat. If the Iraqi army is not going to go back out there and retake that territory. If they are going to set up in Baghdad and let the ISIS have the western part we have the de-facto petition of the country. You are going to have the Kurds in the north, the Shia in the south and ISIS out there.
The question is, what does ISIS become? They have already set up the trappings of a government in parts of Syria. They are doing in Mosul. We saw these videos and you're going to have a Jihadi state out there. That's the future problem, but is this a tactical issue or strategic issue?
MACGREGOR: Erin, look, this place called Iraq doesn't exist. It was always artificial. The place is already partitioned and let's keep something in mind, this is not new jockeying. The sides are very clear on one side are the Shiites, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Hezbollah. On the other side, the Turks, the Saudis, the Arabs in the Peninsula, the Sunni versus the Shia.
Both sides are anti-Christian. Both sides kill Jews. Both sides are anti-western. We have no interest in the success of any of these parties. This is good news for the west if they fight with each other to be perfectly blunt.
BURNETT: All right, thanks very much to both of you. A lot to think about there.
OUTFRONT next, new information about a missing Detroit boy found alive in his father's basement. Was he really down there the whole time?
And more than a $100 million, that is what Bill Clinton made in speaking fees alone. So we actually drill down in the numbers. Are the Clintons out of touch?
And President Obama issues a warning to the rest of the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they will get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: The mystery is deepening into how and why a 12-year-old boy vanished for 11 days only to turn up alive barricaded in his father's basement. The father, Charlie Botheull, as you remember first learned the police have found his son during a live interview with HLN's Nancy Grace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": We are getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Botheull.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
GRACE: We have reports that your son has been found alive in your basement?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now police are speaking to that man's son and they are telling CNN they are getting a lot of good information about his ordeal. Alexandra Field is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Charles Botheull tight-lipped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't. I got listen to the attorney.
FIELD: Bombarded by questions about how his son turned up behind a barricade in the family's basement 11 days after he was reported missing.
(on camera): If you are able to speak to your son what would you say to him?
CHARLES BOTHEULL, CHARLIE BOTHEULL'S FATHER: I have to say no comment.
FIELD: But the father's attorney is defending him saying 12-year-old Charlie was a troubled kid becoming particularly upset after he learned he would no longer be home schooled.
(on camera): Troubled how?
MARK MAGIDSON, BOTHEULL FAMILY ATTORNEY: He had been failing in school and kicked out of a couple of schools and he told his son, you have to go to school like everybody else and if you don't go to school and in the public school I have to send you to a military academy.
FIELD (voice-over): Attorney Mark Magidson says he doesn't know where Charlie spent 11 days or how he ended up in the basement. As for the couple at the center of the growing suspicion, Charlie's father and stepmother, he calls them very caring and very loving parents. When Nancy Grace broke the news live on air that his son was alive, this was Botheull's reaction.
GRACE: Your son has been found alive in your basement.
BOTHEULL: What?
FIELD: Police say the 12-year-old could not have constructed the barricade, which included a 55-gallon container on his own. They haven't ruled out child abuse after finding a PVC pipe and blood- stained clothing.
JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: It seems to be more than just a case of a missing boy, but some sort of a family dynamic that may have been taking place.
FIELD: No charges have been filed. But in a bizarre twist, Monique Dillard Botheull was taken into custody for a violation of probation after police say they searched the home and found a firearm. Earlier this year, Charlie's stepmom pleaded guilty to purchasing a pistol without a permit. Charlie disappeared after being scolded for not doing chores and exercises.
MAGIDSON: When he first got there, he was overweight, frankly. My client being an RN was acutely aware with problems of child obesity. He asked him to work out on the elliptical. It was impunitive. No.
FIELD (on camera): Was this little boy ever in danger in his own home?
MAGIDSON: Never in danger in his own home.
(END VIDEOTAPE) FIELD: Mark Magidson maintains that neither of his clients ever hurt or abused the boy. The boy has been checked out by doctors since he was found on Wednesday. He has also met with child psychologists and is speaking to police who will pass on information to prosecutors to determine whether or not we will see charges in the future. The boy is now with his biological mother.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Alexandra. Jean Casarez is OUTFRON now. Jean has covered so many high profile legal cases for CNN. People watch the interaction with Nancy Grace and it seems like -- if that was your child and you didn't know what happened you would end the interview and jump away and the first time she said your son is found and she didn't say alive. And now he won't say anything to the press.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He says his attorneys are telling him not to speak. But we are all saying to ourselves what would we do in that seat? And I learned long ago that everybody reacts differently. You don't know. What may be normal to you may not be normal to him. I would have screamed and we would have thrown off the mic and got out of the chair to see your son. He didn't do that. That is causing questions in a lot of minds, but only the boy knows the truth. Truly, right? That little boy knows what happened.
BURNETT: And now what about the people who are talking about child abuse? There are reports that he had shown up obese when he moved in and the lawyer acknowledged that. The other reports are that he was required to do 4,000 strides on elliptical without a break and there was an abusive environment in the home.
CASAREZ: Child Protective Services is involved. We know that and late today, the attorney that was in Alexandria's piece, Mark Magidson, did an interview with a local Detroit affiliate, he says that he has seen a court petition which says that the stepmother took the little boy and was the one who put him in the basement and told him to stay there and not leave.
Now of course what this demonstrates at the least is you may start to have the stepmother and father have divergent stories because authorities are looking at both of them. We know there is an investigation.
BURNETT: So it's possible then if it were the stepmother was involved the father may not have been.
CASAREZ: It's a good question because there was a shirt, according to HLN and CNN sources, covered in blood and a PVC pipe in the bedroom. That was in plain view to the family, right?
BURNETT: You think they would have seen that.
All right, Jean, thank you very much. A bizarre story. At least that little boy was found and hopefully his life will improve.
Still to come, Shia Labeouf's latest public meltdown.
Plus does it pay to be gay? A former CEO says yes.
Is your baby getting enough exercise?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: After Shia Labeouf has been released from jail today after he was arrested last night at a Broadway show in New York. It has been a strange year for the "Transformer" star. A paper bag over his head, charges of plagiarism and now an arrest. What is behind his bizarre behavior? Nischelle Turner is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A morning walk through a media gauntlet after a night in jail, Shia Labeouf's latest public meltdown has him facing charges of criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment. He is accused of standing up in the middle of the performance of "Cabaret" on Broadway and yelling at the actors on stage. They weren't sure if he was acting or intoxicated?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was quite a mess. He had a torn shirt. He had a cigarette.
TURNER: According to the criminal complaint he refused to leave theatre. As police were escorting him out, he allegedly cursed at the officer and resorted to a classic Hollywood cliche screaming -- do you know my life? Do you know who the "f" I am? Do you know who I am? Officers also say Labeouf spat at them while he was being processed at the precinct.
The concern is he is following in the footsteps of other troubled child stars like Amanda Bines and Lindsay Lohan who have seen their careers derailed by public missteps and brushes with the law.
SETH ABRANOVITCH, SENIOR WRITER, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": It seems like a string of shia's crazy meltdown year. He is already not on anyone's list for kind of movies that made him a household name like the "Transformer" films.
TURNER: His career choice highlighted by his timing of his arrest. The night after the premier of the newest "Transformer" film", a franchise he once starred in. An event down the street from where he was arrested and spent the night in jail. He was supposed to take a role in a Broadway play last year that fell through after he and co- star, Alec Baldwin couldn't get along. He was caught plagiarizing his short film.
And his apologies for the plagiarism included sky writing and blatant copying of other apologies. He followed up by declaring his retirement from public life. He walked the red carpet wearing a paper bag reading I'm not famous. Why he is fleeing the creative community and Hollywood he may find handcuffs and courtrooms make fame tough to escape. Nischelle Turner, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BURNETT: And OUTFRONT next, Bill Clinton earned more than $100 million in speaking fees alone. That doesn't count the books and everything else. So are the Clintons majorly out of touch?
And America's immigration crisis is costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: The latest shot in a wealth of conversation for Hillary Clinton. Student leaders, including the student body president at the University of Las Vegas, are calling on the former secretary of state to return the reported $225,000 speaking fee that she's set to receive for an upcoming speech at the school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIAS BENJELLOUN, UNLV STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT: Hillary Clinton, your stance for education is committed to students and if she truly stands for that, then that $225,000 could go to a scholarship in her name to students instead. And so, our student government asks that Hillary Clinton returns part or all the money back to the university. We've been seeing increases in tuition. We've been asking students and families to come back to the table. And it's time for private entities to come back to the table as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Now, the university says the fee is covered through private sponsorships and a Clinton aide tells CNN that the money is going to go to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
But as you might expect, the Republican Party is seizing on this latest development, to paint the potential 2016 candidate as out of touch. Joining me now is Sunny Hostin and Margaret Hoover, along with David Brock, who is the founder of Correct the Record, a pro-Hillary Clinton group.
OK. Great to have all of you with us.
Sunny, that young manmade an interesting argument which, is it's a quarter million dollars, it's a lot of money, tuition is going up, why not give it to the school to help? Yes, it's going to the foundation but why not the school?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It was a savvy argument. I hadn't heard it. It is very compelling. You know, I think there's something to be said about the fact that getting an honorarium for a speaking engagement is not unusual.
I mean, come on, I don't get $200,000 when I speak, but I do get an honorarium when I speak. So, that's not unusual. I think a lot of people really are jumping on the bandwagon now because we have had this narrative that's been developed about, you know, well, we're not that wealthy and this narrative that she's out of touch. This particular incident doesn't bother me. The fact that her husband made $100 million speaking fees, that doesn't bother me. The fact that she makes 200 grand to speak, that doesn't bother. I think they've earned that.
But what bothers me is her reaction, her inability to discuss the fact that they truly are wealthy. That's what bothers me.
BURNETT: And, David, what about this? I mean, because, you know, you are in the position of defending her. I mean, this all started -- she commented on her and her husband being dead broke when she left the White House, she talked about how there's other truly wealthy people out there when obviously their net worth could be well north of $100 million. I mean, those at least would you acknowledge those were when she used the word "inartful", unfortunate things to say?
DAVID BROCK, CORRECT THE RECORD: Certainly, let's just take -- you and I could probably agree that, you know, talking about money makes everybody uneasy. It's a perfectly natural thing, I think.
But I think really that this is less about gaffes than it is about a game of gotcha. I mean, if you look at the interview in "The Guardian" that you're referencing, the problem there from what I could see is that they didn't publish the full answer. She told the right story which is the Clintons are from everyday America, just like most of us are, nobody gave them anything, and I think it's a little bit of an odd tack for Republicans to take to hold people's success against them.
This is money that is being earned honestly in the free market and I think the bottom line is the Republicans know what we all know is there is not a Republican who is going to survive a debate with Hillary Clinton on the broad issues that are of concern to working people.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: You talk about money, you want to try to turn the conversation.
BROCK: No, no, I'm happy to talk --
BURNETT: A lot of this is about money and she did want to point out. Certainly -- to your point, David, a shame no one wants to talk about it. I'm not truly wealthy. Most truly wealthy people probably think the same thing, right?
But could she get past that?
MARGARET HOOVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I actually think the problem isn't Republicans attacking her. Republicans have no problem with people getting wealthy. She earned it fair and square. We want people to move up to social ladder, we want sort of economic freedom, we want people to benefit from the system. We don't stigmatize success.
That's the Democratic Party that tends to stigmatize success. I think it's continually -- economic success. Seriously, it's the Democratic Party that has more problems with her earning wealth and with her not being in touch.
HOSTIN: I don't think --
HOOVER: It is. Look at Bill de Blasio. Look at Elizabeth Warren. The left flank of the Democratic Party right now is getting increasingly uncomfortable. They talk about inequality. But really, it's excessive wealth, that's their terminology, and they say a solution to inequality is by taxing the super rich.
She is trying to say, I'm not one of those super rich people. I'm not of the people that the far left hates. She is actually trying to shore up the left.
BURNETT: To this point, David, how is going to get around something? You know, Bloomberg did an interesting report lately. I know Margaret talked about this a few times, but an interesting report on their estate planning. They do what anybody who has money and means in this country does. They've done estate planning. They set up life insurance trusts and real estate trusts to protect some of their money.
At the same time, though, she has to put with the fact, that she publicly supported the estate tax applying --
BROCK: She was against the repeal.
BURNETT: So, even if she's against it, saying people should pay the estate tax, she's protecting her own money from paying it.
That's maybe a very rational thing to do but it calls out that perhaps the hypocrisy of the vote.
BROCK: I think so. I think the system is what it is. They are paying their fair share of taxes. And the truth is, she's advocated tax policies, tax cuts for the middle class. But against the Republican policies to benefit the 1 percent.
So, it actually -- and Bill Clinton has talked about it. They would be hurting themselves with the policies they're advocating. So I think she's not going to take a backseat to anybody on these issues. People know her values. Look at the record from rural education in Arkansas to health care for low-income kids.
HOSTIN: I think that's right in the sense that, I look at this not as politician, not as a political pundit, but just as an average voter and a Democrat and sort of a middle class person. I think that people aren't going to be uncomfortable especially with the fact that her husband made a lot of the money, right? And she's following his, I think, diagram. Now she is making money in the same way.
I don't think people are going to be bothered by that. I think people like the sort of I'm still Jenny from the block thing. I'm still Hillary from Arkansas.
HOOVER: That's the problem you have. It's hard to believe that. It doesn't feel authentic or credible.
HOSTIN: She has to convince people. I agree, she has to convince people. She's got to convince other voters that she really is still Hillary from the block.
HOOVER: And she's got to convince you and she's got to convince the Democratic Party and the left wing of the Democratic Party that is increasingly uncomfortable with the super wealthy, and it's really hard to explain how $100 million over 10 years isn't super wealthy. You are splitting hairs at that point. And so, she's got to figure out how to talk about it in a way that's going to be believable.
BURNETT: Change the narrative.
BROCK: Hillary Clinton had been talking about income and equality a long time before these other folks came about. Read her speeches from 2007, 2008, where she talks about the excesses of the market.
HOOVER: They talked about the excesses. But Republicans are talking about the excesses. The question is, how do you solve that? What do you do about it? The Democratic left wing solution is tax the wealthy.
BURNETT: The laws are the laws, right? And people have every right to minimize their tax bill. But the reality is, is when you're saying that wealthy people's taxes should go up, she is not putting her money where her mouth is, right? She's not saying, "I'll write you the extra check, Washington." She is taking advantage of the same loopholes, which again anybody might do --
HOSTIN: Framing this argument about the left of the Democratic Party. That's -- but.
(CROSSTALK)
HOOVER: But there is this trend. Do you think that Bill de Blasio --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Before we go, one other Clinton controversy I want you to weigh in, David, if you could. Bill Clinton versus Dick Cheney. This one is pretty good. Cheney writing in an op-ed about President Obama's approach to Iraq saying rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong at the expense of so many", we talked a little bit about that.
Bill Clinton then was asked about that and responded with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: Mr. Cheney has been incredibly adroit for the last six years or so, attacking the administration for not doing an adequate job of cleaning up the mess that he made. And I think it's unseemly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And now, Dick Cheney has responded. Here you see him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: There's somebody who knows something about unseemly, it's Bill Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, they're in the sand box.
(LAUGHTER)
BROCK: Sure. But that's -- forgive me. That's not funny. I just don't think it's funny what Dick Cheney did. I mean, it's an insult to the men and women whose lives he put at risk all these years. You know, President Clinton was making legitimate point, which was that Cheney was criticizing Obama for not having the right exit strategy in Iraq when it's clear that Cheney had -- his exit strategy was not to have one.
BURNETT: All right. We'll leave it there. Very interesting, that response.
Thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.
Tens of thousands of Central American children are flooding the United States in the southern border. And that has prompted President Obama to issue this warning in an interview with ABC News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our message is don't send your children unaccompanied on trains or through a bunch of smugglers. That is our direct message to the families in Central America. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Meanwhile, a little known immigration law is causing a lot of controversy and questions about whether billions of dollars of taxpayer money is being wasted.
Deborah Feyerick has this OUTFRONT investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Eloy Federal Detention Center in the Arizona desert. Every day, across America, some 34,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally are held at this and similar facilities.
Thirty-four thousand is not a random number. It's a number mandated by Congress as a way to track deportation. Fill the beds at a cost of $2 billion a year to taxpayers.
REP. BILL FOSTER (D), ILLINOIS: It's a misallocation of resources. We're wasting a huge amount of money on a system that's broken.
FEYERICK: Broken says Congressman Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois, because a percentage of immigrants are detained, it appears simply to meet the political bed quota.
(on camera): Had you been in trouble with the law?
NOEMI ROMERO, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: No.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Noemi Romero was working as $142-a-week grocery cashier when deputies raided the store and detained her.
ROMERO: I showed up every day. If they asked me to work overtime, I'd work overtime, holidays. I was there because I needed the money.
FEYERICK: Romero has been in the U.S. illegally since she was three. Local prosecutors charged her with criminal impersonation, for using someone else's Social Security number to get paid. After serving two months in county jail, she was shipped to Eloy, pending removal.
After six weeks, an immigration officer came to her cell.
ROMERON: She was like, you're going home. And I was like Mexico? And she was like no, she's like here. I was like, here in Arizona? She was like, yes.
FEYERICK: Romero was released. No deportation but no legal status either. She says her immigration case is now considered low priority.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're just kind of in that twilight zone. You're in limbo.
FEYERICK: Like Romero, (INAUDIBLE) came to this country illegally with her parents when she was child, more than two decades. She was working as pool attendant at a five-star hotel when she arrested for a broken taillight. She was also detained at Eloy.
(on camera): What was that center like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was really scary. It's really cold in there. It's scary. You don't know how long you are going to stay there.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Like (INAUDIBLE), all the detainees at Eloy entered the U.S. illegally. Often, they spend months fighting to remain. Yet those with violent criminal records for felonies are usually fast tracked for deportation.
(on camera): The men here are level two and level three detainees. The ones in blue have been convicted with more serious crimes, like drug trafficking, sexual assaults and theft.
(voice-over): Eloy is one of the number of privately run facilities the government contracts with, paying about $120 per person per day. Figures show the two largest private detention companies together made about a half billion last year from government contracts. The same day we visited Eloy, we were given access to a transport
plane also operated by a private company. All these men crossed the border illegally, most were at Eloy, half were felons.
(on camera): There are 80 men on this flight. It's a flight that would go from Arizona to Texas where they pick up more people and on to Honduras.
(voice-over): There is no guarantee that some of these men won't try to return to the United States. As for Noemi Romero, she will stay in the U.S. but may no longer qualify for legal status after pleading guilty to using someone else's identity at her job. (INAUDIBLE) on the other hand is currently applying.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Immigration is the focus of our CNN Film this weekend. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tells us his story of living in America illegally. "Documented" airs Sunday night at 9:00 here on CNN.
And still to come, out in America. A former CEO says America's business leaders need to be open about being gay. Our Richard Quest is OUTFRONT and weighs in next.
And a fitness plan for your baby. I mean, isn't it great that they are fat and juicy? Apparently not. They need a plan and Jeanne Moos has it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: And now, let's check in with Anderson Cooper with a look at what's coming up on "AC360."
Hi, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Erin.
Yes. Ahead tonight, accident or murder. That's the question. New details about Justin Harris, the father of 22-month-old Cooper Harris left in the back of an SUV, in a hot Georgia day, left to die. Seven hours in the car, the toddler was. Police say they've got ample evidence that this was not an ordinary accident. Martin Savidge and Nick Valencia have a reporting on that tonight.
Also ahead, the crime that shocked a city and a nation. Five teens sent to jail for raping and beating a jogger in New York Central Park. Five teens convicted. As it turns out, it was a crime they never committed. Tonight on "360", you'll hear from two of the so-called Central Park Five on the just agreed to $40 million settlement and about picking up the pieces and moving on with their lives.
Those stories, also the latest out of Iraq. Armed U.S. drones now flying the skies of Baghdad. It's all at the top of the hour, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Anderson. We'll see you in just a few minutes.
Well, New York City is gearing up to host the nation's oldest and largest gay pride event this weekend. And the former CEO of one of the most successful companies is calling on gay business leaders to come out of the closet.
John Browne was publicly outed by a British tabloid in 2007. It forced him to step down from his position as head of oil giant, BP. Now, he wants to prevent scenes like this from "Six Feet Under", where a gay character, we'll show this guy coming up on the left, we'll show in just one second, felt he had to pretend to be straight at work to fit in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check out that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't have that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could if I wanted to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In your dreams you could.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had finer than that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd definitely tap that. Ass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, Browne has written a new book, "The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good Business".
And he sat down with Richard Quest to talk about it.
I mean, Richard, this is -- you know, that scene with the three guys in the suits sitting around. The guy who is gay feels uncomfortable, feels like he has to play along. Human Rights Campaign, which is the nation's largest advocacy group for the gay community recently did a study. Most workers hide.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.
BURNETT: Even now.
QUEST: And what John Browne says in his book is that there are a variety of reasons why they do it. Obviously it's family. It's cultural. I'm talking about modern society in the west. We're not talking about the countries where it might still be illegal.
And what he says is, he did it for years, he did it for decades, and he regrets it because what he was -- not only was he not being true to himself, but, of course, ultimately, he was not as good a CEO as he might have been. BURNETT: Because he was busy hiding things. And there are still no major openly gay CEOs.
QUEST: Yes. I mean, everybody knows that rumors and I'm not going to do any scuttlebutt tonight and I'm not going to throw any names out there, but everybody knows the rumors and everybody knows who.
Listen to what John Browne actually had to say, though, about the whole question of being gay right at the top of the corporate ladder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BROWNE, FORMER CEO, BP: And to write a letter to all the straight people of the world, that's most of the CEOs, of course, because there is I think no openly gay CEO in the top 700 companies in the S&P index. So, to give them perhaps some advice on how they could make the environments in their companies much better.
QUEST: You've been asked a million times do you think you could have become a CEO of BP if you had been out. I want to turn that slightly differently and ask you, do you think you would have been a better CEO if you had been out?
BROWNE: I think I would have had better relationships with people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You went through this?
QUEST: Yes, absolutely. John Browne is right. I'm with you, I spent an enormous amount of time hiding the fact that I'm gay. You worry about what your family thinks, what your friends think, what will your colleagues think, what will you think. Will you still watch the program if you know that the presenter is gay? You go on about it.
It's exhausting, Erin.
BURNETT: Because you don't realize, probably, until you're in that position, right, how much of life and office conversation is about things like that or what you're doing on your free time or who you're spending it with.
QUEST: What is crucial and what Browne makes the point and I agree completely, is that the CEO down has to make it clear it's OK. Not only that, you need role models, which is why it's important people like myself do speak out on these sort of questions. It's one of those things, you've got to do it.
You don't particularly like it but you do it, and then you got to make it clear. My experience was, it was in big event. When I finally came out, half the people said we know already. The other half said, so what? It makes no difference.
I accept. I'm living in London or New York in a metropolitan environment different from some parts of the world or parts of this country. BURNETT: Right. When it finally happened, did anything change? I
mean, for those out there who are watching, who are CEOs, who say, I'm afraid, I think I will be judged. Did you ever feel any of that, any judgment? Any anything?
QUEST: You know, my biggest fear is I would be spent on a story like a riot or fire or hurricane and there would be one bed in the room we have to share and someone would say, I'm not staying in that room with him because he's gay. That was my fear.
You know what I would say to that camera man or that producer who wouldn't do that? You know what I would say? There is the floor. Make yourself comfortable. Don't mind me.
BURNETT: You should, Richard.
QUEST: I can tell you it's happened. I've been to hurricanes, to floods, to riots, it's no big deal. But I understand that object total, gut-wrenching, toe-curling fear that it's all going to go horribly wrong.
BURNETT: All right. Richard, thank you very much.
And, of course, the book sounds fascinating to read.
OUTFRONT next, baby got biceps. Yes, that little girl. Jeanne Moos is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: What does your baby do to stay in shape? Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So long Richard Simmons.
Fond as we are of the Jane Fonda workout, it's time to inhale this. Even if Lily Ann the instructor --
MICHAEL STANSBURY, LILLY ANN'S FATHER: : Yes, this is hard.
MOOS: She is only 6, going on 7 months.
This Tennessee baby's workout has over half a million reps on YouTube.
STANSBURY: She does it all the time. She's up then down and making those sweet noises and we just love it.
MOOS: Michael Stansbury and his wife have four kids, but it's their youngest who is burning up the Internet with her exercise routine. Call them push ups, flanks or yoga cobras or whatever you call them, Lilly Ann does eight of them.
STANSBURY: Come on, get up. Nice job. Nice job. Yes. The swim.
MOOS: Staring into the iPad that's recording them. So dad can mimic his daughter.
(on camera): Already fans are raving about the results they've gotten from the Lilly Ann workout.
(voice-over): "I lost ten pounds just watching this."
STANSBURY: I cannot verify that.
MOOS: If nothing else this baby inspired work out will strengthen your awww muscles.
STANSBURY: Superman, superman, to the left. To the right. This way. I love you.
MOOS: Followed by a touch and then a tickle.
(on camera): Can we see her biceps? Does she have biceps?
STANSBURY: Yes, you can see her biceps. Look at those things.
MOOS (voice-over): With muscles like those at almost 7 months, next thing you know she will be weight lifting. The Lilly Ann's workout is over in a minute-and-a-half. Never fear.
(on camera): Coming soon the Lily Ann work out two.
STANSBURY: This time, you know, it's going to be a little bit tougher.
MOOS (voice-over): Just think a work out instructor before she's even learned -- she's doing the locomotion with daddy.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: All right. I love that. It was inspired Lily Ann. I tried to get my son Nile to do some pushups. We have his first attempt for you. You know, look, he's good. That's balance for you, people.
Anderson starts now.
