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Report: Women March Worldwide for Gender Equality; Conservative Groups Protest Women Strike; WikiLeaks Claims Cia Hacks TVs, Phones Worldwide, Aured 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 8, 2017 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] DANA BUSH, CNN ANCHOR: Women worldwide are taking the day off to march in rallies on International Women's Day the focus is gender equality, but here in the United States the day is also coming to symbolize empowerment for women and girls, like this on Wall Street, a little girl dressed up as a super hero, and posed in front of the fearless girl statue.

At the white house, the first lady, Melania Trump, also marked the occasion with a luncheon in the state dining room and outside the U.S. Capitol lawmakers joined the chorus of women rallying for change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY PELOSI, (D) MINORITY LEADER: As we try to protect a woman's right to choose, the education of women, the fuller participation and not only politics and government but in every aspect of the life of a country and a society. We know one thing for sure, that when women succeed, America succeeds. We don't want the world to know a day without a woman, but we want people to understand what that day would be like and it would not be a day that takes us to our fullest aspirations for our future, for our children, for the future that we envisioned for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I want to now go to New York where we have some new video of Women's Day marchers being detained by police. Rachel, what happened?

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, it's unclear exactly how many people were in fact detained outside Trump International Hotel but we know four founders of the women's march, the ones who organized the march, and today celebrating International Women's Day as well as a day without women, those founders were detained outside of Trump International Hotel here after sitting in the street. They were put in zip ties and put in the back of an NYPD van, unclear where the van was headed.

[15:35:00] There's no information on the number of people detained or potential charges but as you saw in the video we know that at least the four founders of the women's march were detained. This is one of many rallies to celebrate International Women's Day, and celebrate a day without a woman, and the protests today in Manhattan was very peaceful despite the detainments. BASH: I want to go across the country to Los Angeles, and to CNN

national correspondent Kyung Lah where a rally is underway at city hall.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see the energy of this just from by taking a look at this square, this is just outside city hall there. There are many women dressed in red. A lot of the lunchtime crowd that works in the business district has come out to this area, but a day without women is the intent to show economic power by women not showing up to work. We decide to talk to a couple of people. This Norma Lopez and Sabrina Armitage. They were not politically active but after the election you became politically engaged. Is this the next step for you?

NORMA LOPEZ, PARTICIPANT IN MARCH: Yes, absolutely we feel we need to be out here, active, our voices heard.

SABRINA ARMITAGE, PARTICIPANT IN MARCH: More than ever. More than ever.

LAH: How have you become politically engaged other than showing up to the marches, sending postcards to our Congressmen, sending faxes to our Congressmen and they're becoming more informed for sure and calming on a daily basis to having an action item. Has the input of women over all changed politically?

LOPEZ: I think that's true. I feel we have been complacent a very long time.

LAH: These are just two women we talked to that say they had not been engaged an now it time to. This is an event that really engages the elite. Women who can afford to take the day off or simply don't work and they say though that they are speaking for women who don't have that luxury, Dana.

BASH: On that note it is not a day of solidarity, one conservative group is protesting the protest, encouraging women to share the hashtag #we show up. This as several school districts across the country have closed because many staff and teachers are on strike. That's led some parents saying they're children are the ones who are actually being punished. We have two parents one from Alexandria, Virginia, Amanda Bowman. And also, from Virginia Missy Estabrook, and Missy is the president of the local PTA.

So, Amanda, I want to start with you because your post caught our attention saying that you were upset and you think the school district where you both are in is having a temper tantrum, massive temper tantrum to quote back to you.

AMANDA BOWMAN, MOM OPPOSES SCHOOL CLOSURE BY WOMEN'S STRIKE: I did say that, I am a parent, I am a taxpayer, and also happen to be a woman that doesn't have much to do with it, but what is happening today is that privileged women, the majority of women and teachers that are leaving school today paid by the way by the taxpayers of Alexandria are white women. And they called our school 36 hours before school, so do you know who is going to be punished? It's other women, it's single mothers that need to meet their wages, they don't have the luxury to call of work and here they are scrambling for child care. I actually offered to babysit anybody's children, a woman like that who cannot afford take off those hours. I obviously didn't have takers but I think it's important we don't bring in politics into our school system.

BASH: Missy, what's your response as PTA president who supports this protest?

[15:40:00] MISSY ESTABROOK, PTA PRESIDENT SUPPORTING PROTEST: I wish we could step back and call it what it is, a logistical problem that a very small school system in Alexandria were having when 300 people called in with personal time off leave request were accepted, and realized with only 100 subs, it was a safety issue, I don't think it's something other than a symbolic issue, underpaid, overworked even under the best of circumstances I think people should agree they should be allowed to take the personal leave they have earned and if fact they're using it for this one particular day is their choice.

BASH: But what about Amanda's point that it is leaving a lot of women, mothers high and dry.

ESTABROOK: I take it to heart. They made meals available, lunch and breakfast for students who normally receive free and reduced lunch. Also, opened rec centers, I agree with Amanda that she agreed to babysit and I took a group of my boy's friends to the national archive this morning and we understand the situation isn't ideal but believe our superintendent did what he had to do given the circumstances.

BASH: Do see why critics are calling it a protest of the privileged?

ESTABROOK: I don't agree, I believe the teachers have the right to stand up for themselves. This is coming in the wake of our proposed budget which slashes $72 million for our school system, which would give them a pay cut. The insurance would go up, and I think the two tied together was a way to express themselves they gave us warning, they took to leave requests and it was them a pay cut. The insurance would go up, and I think the two tied together was a way to express themselves they gave us warning, they took to leave requests and it was approved so I think we ever to work within the system and to try to keep it away from politics on a national level and remember it is a local thing.

BASH: But Amanda, as you respond to that, think about this, and that is some historical perspective. Iceland pioneered this notion of women strikes in the 1970s and just last year thousands of Icelandic women left two hours and now top the global gender gap report the U.S. is 28th on that list. There's evidence of this type of protest working for the benefit of greater good.

BOWMAN: We'll see if that happens if that works. The women's march has co-opted the international day of women this year. And as a woman, the woman's march does not represent me and there are millions of women across the country who it does not represent. They are sponsored by some of the most radical left wing groups in the country, sponsored by planned parenthood the largest abortion provider. They did not represent me at all. And to use the taxpayer money I feel like the superintendent and the Alexandria public schools are effectively saying they endorse the women's march.

ESTABROOK: They put out a letter saying this was no political stance whatsoever it was merely a reaction to the situation they were handed.

BOWMAN: Then the question for the superintendent is what are their policies if they have too many leave requests, we live in a notoriously liberal area, Montgomery County, Arlington County, all of these other counties were able to figure it out, why couldn't they bring in substitutes from somewhere else.

ESTABROOK: Maybe they decide to review the process but I think once they have given the situation of 300 teachers that couldn't show up for work.

BASH: We have to leave it there, but I want to say thank you so much to both of you, Amanda you have a child that's going to be in kindergarten and I know you two met in the green room and despite differences you two have made great friends.

Up next a new document dumped from WikiLeaks exposes CIA secrets including how the agency spies on people. I'll be joined by a former CIA officer and current Congressman, Will Hurd to find out what the consequences might be.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: WikiLeaks is laying out some serious spy allegations saying the CIA can and has hacked into people's smartphones, laptops and TVs. The latest document dump t is leaving a lot of people fearful that every day devices they use can be turned into spy traps for their owners. WikiLeaks claims to hide its operations the CIA routinely adapted hacking techniques to appear as if they were hackers inside Russia. That remains to be seen whether or not that's true. The U.S. is not happy about the apparent internal documents, a criminal investigation is being opened to look into it. White House Secretary Sean Spicer respond today ted to the allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Whether or not specifically with respect to the disclosure that you're referring to, but I think the idea that we are having these ongoing disclosures of national security and classified information should be something that everybody is outraged in the country, this kind of disclosure that undermines our security and wellbeing and you have seen over the last two years depending on the leak it depends on the outrage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I want to bring in Republican Congressman from Texas Will Hurd who serves on the house intelligence committee. Congressman, thanks for joining me. You worked at the CIA, you worked at a cybersecurity firm, so you are very well familiar with a lot of the ins and outs that most of us lay people are not. How alarmed are you about this WikiLeaks release?

[15:50:00] WILL HURD, CONGRESSMAN, TEXAS: I'm alarmed because if it is confirmed that this information of national intelligence, how is it getting to an organization like WikiLeaks? What we have to remember is that the CIA is an external intelligence service, their responsibility is to collect intelligence overseas -- they keep bad guys off our shores and we should make sure that the sources and methods they use are protected.

BASH: How much damage do you think that this release will do to the CIA's sources and methods?

HURD: Again, there are a lot of questions that we have confirming this information whether it is indeed from the CIA, how did WikiLeaks ultimately get this information? Was it some type of hack, was it an individual? There's a lot of questions there and how can you prevent this type of thing from happening in the future. And does there need to be a damage assessment that is done.

When it comes to national security and making sure we keep Americans safe, this is something that the men and women in the CIA take seriously and we aim to make sure they have the tools that they need. Also --

BASH: Go ahead.

HURD: When I look, when I put my cyber security hat on, we need to remember that there is no such thing as an impenetrable device, and that we need to be taking cyber security seriously. And when it comes to developing tools, when it comes to protecting our nation's secrets, and these are two competing factors sometimes.

BASH: Before we move on from this subject, I just have to ask, knowing what you know, how concerned should Americans be that their devices are being hacked, not just by people outside the U.S., but perhaps what this is alleging is U.S. agencies?

HURD: Well, the CIA is not involved in collection against Americans. That is something that they take seriously. This is -- the CIA and men and women that makeup the CIA are there to collect intelligence on foreign adversaries coming -- trying to do us harm. The FBI is involved in dealing with criminal issues within the United States.

BASH: Right.

HURD: And they take that division very seriously.

BASH: Sure, no, I know what you're saying and I hear you. I want to turn to Russia and the investigation that your committee on the house side, house intelligence committee is doing as well as the Senate side. The ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee just came back from Langley from the CIA headquarters and told my colleague Manu Raju that he saw evidence during the visit that the Russians released information to help one side over the other. Have you seen information like that? HURD: I haven't seen any indication to lead to that type of

conclusion, but I will tell you this. The house takes this investigation very seriously. I always like to say that the Democratic Congressional campaign committee, one of the organizations that were hacked, spent a lot of money to try to unseat me, but an attack on them is an attack on all of us. And it is important we look at this issue of Russian involvement in trying to manipulate our elections in a bipartisan and thorough fashion. And we should be looking at every issue wherever the leads may take us.

BASH: And, Congressman, real quick before I let you go, have you seen any evidence at all to support President Trump's claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump tower?

HURD: I have not seen anything in, you know, in my positions that would lead to a conclusion in either way.

BASH: Congressman Hurd, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Appreciate it.

[15:55:00] And we're staying on the CIA allegations. Next hour, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee joins CNN live to weigh in, as well as former CIA Director Michael Hayden. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:00] BASH: Two people trying to have a conversation, but they don't speak the same language, it's an age-old problem a New York company is trying to solve with a new smartphone technology. CNN tech correspondent Samuel Burke finds out if internet connected ear buds can help them have a conversation in real time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: I'm trying out Waverly ear buds. They do live translation from one ear to another and I'm here with the CEO and founder of the company. So, I'm going to try it out with you. (translation) What you have seen here in Barcelona.

ANDREW OCHOA, CEO, WAVERLY LABS, (translation): We went to a really great restaurant last night and had paella.

Burke: Almost there. Walk me through what's happening here.

OCHOA: You do need to pair the ear buds to the phone. Once you turn the microphone on it stays on. You can put the phone in your pocket and speak, the ear buds will pick up what you're saying.

BURKE, (translation): When I was young, what is your favorite TV series?

I say when you were young.

(translation) You are married. I said, are you married? So, is this simultaneous translation or

consecutive translation?

OCHOA: Yes, so the first version is actually waiting until you're done speaking before it translates. Again, the whole idea of the ear pieces, the ear buds is to create a more natural experience. I put the phone in my pocket and we're just talking together.

BURKE (translation): You are going to leave all the translators out of work.

OCHOA: It has a long way to go before it's perfect, but maybe one day decades down the road.

Burke: It got it almost right. It's got a long way to go before it's perfect but in a few decades it will be on the freeway. Almost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Very cool indeed. Thank you, Samuel. A quick programming note. You see there on the screen tonight at 9:00 eastern, comedian Trevor Noah will join Van Jones for a town hall. You don't want to miss "The Messy Truth with Van Jones." "The Lead" with Jake Tapper is next.