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Deadly Shooting In California; Man Shot Just Hours After Fulfilling A Dream; New Poll That Reveals That Democrats Are Still Far From Making A Decision On Who To Back In 2020; Nationwide Measles Outbreak Is Forcing Two Of Southern California's Largest Universities To Quarantine Hundreds Of Students And Faculty; At Least Four People Died, Several Others Were Injured In That Fiery Crash Which Involved More Than Two Dozen Cars And Trucks On I-70 Near Denver. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired April 28, 2019 - 14:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:16] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredericka Whitfield.

We begin today with that deadly shooting in California where once again worshippers were attacked in their safe place, this time on the last day of Passover in a synagogue outside of San Diego. One woman is dead and three others, including the rabbi, are injured. And for the first time that rabbi is describing the terrifying moment he locked eyes with the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RABBI YSROEL GOLDSTEIN, CONGREGATION CHABAD: I mean, I met the terrorist face to face, eye to eye. Our eyes locked, and he aimed at me, and -- and miraculously I was able to just survive losing my fingers. But, still a live and safe today. Sadly, my colleague and my longtime mentor Lori Kaye was standing in the lobby be left to die. She was shot point blank. She was the ultimate woman of kindness. And it's unfathomable while this beautiful, beautiful wonderful human being would be shot down.

Her mother just recently died, and she came to services to memorialize her mother. And her daughter drove down from UCLA and she has an only daughter, Hana, and she came down to be able to be with her mother, and she's doing the memorial service. So she was there to witness and to be there as her mother who was laying on the floor dying. It was just unfathomable, indescribable terror, (INAUDIBLE). And this has to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And she is just one account of stories we are now hearing about the terrifying moments inside the synagogue. 60-year-old Lori Kaye is the woman who died by jumping between the shooter and the rabbi.

We now know a 19-year-old man is charged with one count of first- degree murder and three counts of first-degree attempted murder. That man according to police is John Earnest who will be arraigned on Wednesday. And investigators are looking into a note he reportedly left online before the shooting referencing other hate crimes and claiming responsibility for setting a nearby mosque on fire last month.

CNN's Nick Watt now joins us from Poway, that is just north of San Diego.

And we have already heard the powerful words from the rabbi. What else can you tell us, Nick?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, this morning it's tales of tragedy and al tales of heroism. You mentioned Lori Kaye there jumped between the shooter and the rabbi. Another just horrific addition to her story. Her husband was in the congregation that day. He saw that somebody had been shot. He didn't know who. He went to help them. He went to administer CPR. He didn't realize it was his wife until he was over her body, and then he fainted.

We also spoke to another man who was visiting from Israel who was an EMT back home in Israel. He also rushed to try and help Lori Kaye after he had lain over the body of his 4-year-old grandson to try to keep him safe. He told me that his grandchildren didn't really understand what he was doing, why he was doing it, but he just lay over the kids until there was a break in the shooting, and then he made for the exit.

And, of course, Noya Dahan, that 9-year-old girl who was also injured. Now, her family moved her from Sderot in Israel a few years ago. Moved to California for a safer life. They moved to another town just quite near here. They had (INAUDIBLE) on the house. So they moved to Poway to try to live a quiet, peaceful life. And now her father is telling that is his daughters say that they don't want to live here anymore. But let's listen to a little bit more from rabbi Goldstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLDSTEIN: You know, we are so lucky and fortunate to live here in a country that protects our rights to live as proud Jews. You know, we are still recovering from the holocaust, and we found a haven to live as free people, and yet we are being mowed down like animals just like we are Nazi Germany. For us to have this happen to us in 2019 is unfathomable. So the reality is that this has to raise an alarm and concern from the safety of all places of worship. And our government needs to continue to step up and help properly secure them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: And now, you mentioned, Martin, the shooter, a 19-year-old, he is a local college student, a churchgoer, and my colleague (INAUDIBLE) was just over at that church and got a statement from the church the shooter attended, and it reads, this is from Zach Kiel, who is the pastor of the Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It reads we can confirm he is a member here. The shooter is a member here. We completely deplore what he did. It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, our teachings in any way. It just saddens us that this horrible act of evil could come from someone we know. This is a complete surprise. He was quiet, kept to himself, sweet guy. We had no idea - Martin.

[14:05:28] SAVIDGE: Nick Watt, amazing. Thank you very much for that reporting.

Joining me now to discuss this is the rabbi David Saperstein, director of the religious action center for - of Reform Judaism.

Thank you for being with us. And let me ask you first your reaction, excuse me, when you heard the news.

RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN, DIRECTOR, THE RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER OF REFORM JUDAISM: First, I'm the director of Meredith at the Religious Action Center. This is an extraordinary tragedy, that it should happen on a holy day, that it should happen on the day -- one of the four days of the year that Jews go to say memorial prayers for those and their families who have died adds a keenness to this tragedy that is almost unfathomable.

This growing crisis of hate crimes in the United States. We see increased acts of violence, increased hate crimes of all kinds, against African-Americans and Jew is and Muslims, and many other minorities, LBGTQ community, and it's a national crisis that requires a national response.

SAVIDGE: As you know, the shooting was six months to the day from Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue shooting. And as you point out we have seen so many incidents of religiously motivated hate recently. And I'm wondering, you know, you have alluded to the climate here, but why does it seem that now more than ever we are having these deadly attacks?

SAPERSTEIN: It's hard to pin one reason to it because we are seeing these -- an increase all across the globe. In part it has to do with the kind of growing ethno nationalism (ph), a xenophobic sense of anyone who doesn't like people who are different from what they think their country should be like, doesn't like immigrants, doesn't like people of different religions. It's almost minority religions like in Sri Lanka, in New Zealand, who are targeted, and that's one reason.

The second is that we have seen on the internet the pervasive impact of a -- because of its anonymity of the most vile messages of hatred against groups that would never have been permitted in general society before and would have been forcefully and quickly delegitimized. And then we are seeing some of our own leaders who are using speech to demonize groups and to demonize minorities in this country, and that -- that gives a stamp of approval to those who take those comments and see it as a justification for them to use force, even if that was never intended.

SAVIDGE: What needs to change given that long list of grievances there?

SAPERSTEIN: Indeed. It really does, and it requires -- it requires standing up against hate crimes wherever they might be. It requires confronting the right wing or white supremacist presence that targets almost every one of these groups that I'm talking about which the President has moved resources at DHS away from targeting those resources. It has to be a priority for our nation, both in the United States and abroad and requires sensible gun control legislation in where of which is overwhelming consensus across the religious communities of the United States that you can't protect the sacredness of life if we put weapons of enormous destruction in the hands of anyone who wishes to use them for ill purposes.

It is really time for us to have the moral courage to do better than come up with the most anemic political solutions and legal solutions to our bloodiest problems in our schools in, our houses of worship, and we need inspired and courageous leadership to make that happen.

SAVIDGE: Rabbi David Saperstein, thanks so much for joining us today.

Breaking news now. A rescue mission under way to save five men trapped in a cave in Virginia. We will have the details coming up right after this.

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[14:13:15] SAVIDGE: As I said going into break, we are following breaking news. A rescue mission that's under way for a group of people trapped in a cave in Southwest Virginia. Officials say that they entered the cave I guess on Friday, and one them managed to escape, and that's how we know people are trapped underground.

And so Ryan is here to fill us in on what we know about. Is it a rescue mission right now?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a rescue mission. I guess this is one of those things you are going to look back and want to say who made a decision to go down their? The ages are 34 to 59 of the men that are still trapped. The youngest person who was 22 years old was actually to make it out.

And from what we have figured out so far someone had to plan to go on private property. They found the cave there. They descended into it. When you look at the video, you can see how small the hole is. That's actually been giving the rescuers quite a bit of trouble as they get down there because apparently it is very cavernous down there. It is very dark. The temperature is about below 59 at this point. So what they believe, that is actually providing some issues for rescuers because the men have stopped moving down there. They need to try to get them warm sooner than later.

But take a listen to the rescue efforts from one of the rescue captains who was talking about what they are trying to do over the next few hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CHRIMES, SEARCH AND RESCUE COORDINATOR, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: With cave rescue incidents this, has the potential to extend, you know, to eight to 12 hours depending on what all is involved with getting the subjects out, and it may even extend beyond that, just depending on the circumstances. Certainly we are hoping for the best and that we can get them warmed up, get them moving and get them some energy back and get them out on their own power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes. Martin, actually that's really the big point here. Luckily, that 22-year-old was able to get out because their cell phones don't work down there. They are not even able to map the cave all the way. So what they are doing is they are sending teams down there, trying to figure out where the men are. And we are actually told maybe in the next 15 minutes or so, one of the men will be able to be brought out. They are hoping though it would be a lot easier to get them out, like to warm them up, get them some food in them and then be able to move them on their own power out because trying to carry them, especially out in the small spaces would kind of difficult.

[14:15:15] SAVIDGE: And weather was a factor I think initially in this.

YOUNG: Absolutely. It seems like a lot of rain dumped in the areas so it made that exit to get out of there very hard and very slippery.

SAVIDGE: All right. Well, we wish the best to the rescue teams and to those who are trapped, and we will look to you for updates. Thank you, Ryan.

The other breaking news that we are following this hour. A man shot just hours after fulfilling a dream. 23-year-old Corey Ballantine is recovering after he was shot in tone Topeka, Kansas earlier this morning. That is only hours after the New York Giants selected the Washburn University stand out in the sixth round of the NFL draft. His college teammate, 23-year-old Dwayne Simmons was also shot and died.

The Giants have released a statement saying quote we are aware of the tragic situation and continue to gather information. We have spoken to Corey and he is recovering in the hospital. Our thoughts are with Dwayne Simmons' family, friends and teammates and the rest of the Washburn community.

Police are still investigating the shooting and they are not said exactly what happened.

What unfolded in Charlottesville? Thrust back into the national conversation this week when Joe Biden entered the Presidential race. Next, how White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway continues to double down on President's initial response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:24] SAVIDGE: As the nation grieves another apparent hate crime, the debate over how the President response to these tragedies is once again front and center. This week the President's response to Charlottesville was thrust back into the spotlight when Joe Biden used Trump's comments following the deadly rally as a jumping off point for his 2020 campaign. And this morning White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway double down in defending Trump's very fine people on both sides' answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: He was talking about the debate over removing statues.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: So he wasn't talking about the weekend at all? He was just talking about the theoretical discussion.

CONWAY: He was talking about (INAUDIBLE) like he condemned them in no one certain terms unequivocally. Go and pull the full comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Which is exactly what we have done. And here is exactly what the President said in August of 2017.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as American.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said there was hatred and violence.

TRUMP: Well, I do think there's blame. Yes. I think there's blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They showed up in Charlottesville --

TRUMP: Excuse me.

You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group deck, excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of to them a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert e. Lee to another name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Joining me now politics reporter at "USA Today" Eliza Collins and the executive editor of the New Yorker website, David Rohde. Thank you both. Eliza, let me start with you by saying that the rally in

Charlottesville was clearly promoted as a white nationalist event. This was the poster by the way that was tweeted out by Richard Spencer. He is a well-known white supremacist. We saw the chilling video the night before marchers chanted Jews will not replace us. I mean, I can go on and on but pretty much get the point here. And I'm wondering why is the President and Kellyanne Conway apparently now trying to change the narrative that this rally was really only about the removal of a statue?

ELIZA COLLINS, POLITICS REPORTER, USA TODAY: Well, they are not technically trying to change the narrative now because this is what the President has said all along since it first happened. He did say very fine people on both sides. The reason this is back in the news, and you mentioned this earlier, is because former vice President Joe Biden jumped into the 2020 race and he's seeking the Democratic nomination and in his video he talked about Charlottesville and he talked about the President's comment. And he basically made the argument that if you choose Biden the country will return to a time when that was a very bad thing, Charlottesville. So the President was asked about Biden and his video and the President doubled down. And then we saw Kellyanne Conway coming back today.

And that's just the President. He often doubles down on things he has said, even if they are controversial. And this is something Republicans were very uncomfortable with at the time. And this is absolutely not the conversation they want to be having, especially a weekend where there was just a shooting at a synagogue in California. This is not the conversation Republicans want to be having.

SAVIDGE: No, it's not. I still take though some issue with that -- I do believe the President is trying to change the message here, that, yes, he did talk about the statue. It seemed to be kind of a throwaway at the end of a very long diatribe there, and now Kellyanne Conway is saying oh, it was always about the statue to begin with. Everything we saw from that protest was not about that statue, David.

DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, that's correct. I mean, this is the sort of classic Trump politics of counterpunching. You immediately go at the other side. The full segment between Kellyanne Conway and Jake, Kellyanne immediately starts talking about Hillary Clinton and raising her name to distract people from this.

The danger here is that extremists could somehow see the President saying this and equalizing the two sides, and this is sort unprecedented. I mean, these were hate groups that were marching in Charlottesville as you said. Hate groups have been unacceptable in the United States for decades or hopefully many, many years, so it's a shift here. They are trying to shift the narrative, and, you know, this is a - I think this foreshadows what we are going to see in the 2020 campaign.

[14:25:16] SAVIDGE: Eliza, we don't know specifically the motive of the shooter of the synagogue in California as of yesterday, but letter that he purportedly posted online does express any anti-Semitic views and appears to embrace a white nationalist ideology here. I guess the question is and we sort of alluded to it there, David, with the answer that a President who waffles, who doesn't seem to be precise may be in some way indirectly encouraging this kind of thinking and maybe this kind of an attack.

COLLINS: Well, we did see that back to Charlottesville with some of the organizers of the event being supporters of the President and making comments that the President was sort excusing things. And so when we do seat President coming out and saying, you know, there are very fine people on both sides. People were just defending these monuments in, some ways he could be seen as giving an out to many some of these hate groups.

Now the White House is says he is absolutely not doing that. He has condemned it. But I think the point is that it depends what you choose to take from what the President is saying. And if they are looking for it to be OK, the President could be giving them some ammunition.

SAVIDGE: Some of the people, David, as I heard Nick Watt recounting their terrible tales inside the synagogue. Some of them had actually fled other countries, either fleeing persecution or fleeing violence that was occurring. They come to the United States believing it's a safe haven and then, of course, they end up in this horrible tragedy, and I'm wondering, what is this saying about America as our world perception of being a safe haven?

ROHDE: Yes. Look, things are changing. I think it is, you know, we should be fair to the President. I think he has condemned the shootings. He condemned the shooting yesterday at the synagogue. But I do worry about this trafficking in conspiracy they're tis, and that is something that the President engages in. He talks about a deep state and trying to upset him -- sorry, unseat him from power in sort of a coup. That kind of language can get you votes, yes, but it can also unintentionally, I think this is unintentional by the President to encourage extremists or people that are unstable to feel that they have to sort of act to stop some, you know, conspiracy against them.

So, you know, it's tragic. I hope it doesn't continue. And as I said earlier, I just really worry about 2020. I worry about this being an extremely divisive election. I worry about the President trafficking in conspiracy theories to try to win the election, and I do worry about violence. I'm not blaming the President personally for this violence, but this atmosphere in this country, the divisiveness is real concerning to me.

SAVIDGE: Right.

David Rohde and Eliza Collins, thank you both for being with us.

Well, despite having some 20 candidates to choose from, there's a new poll that reveals that Democrats are still far from making a decision on who to back in 2020.

Next, the latest ranking on a wide-open race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:31:55] SAVIDGE: When it comes to the 2020 Democratic Presidential contenders, there's plenty of star power but no clear front-runner. A new "Washington Post"/ABC poll of Democrats and left-leaning independents found that 54 percent remain uncommitted. And Joe Biden who entered the rest -- entered the contest just a few days ago is the only candidate with a double-digit kind of support. But former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton says it's not necessarily a bad thing that many Democrats don't know who they are going to back at this stage of the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, that's what the campaign is for. It's for people to get out there, make their case, be compared, be questioned. But I think what everyone is hoping for is a nominee who will win both the popular poet and the Electoral College.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: This is a perfect time to bring in CNN correspondent Leyla Santiago who is on the campaign trail in San Francisco where Beto O'Rourke who is hosting a town hall.

And Leyla, that poll we just referenced shows only three percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents prefer O'Rourke. So my question to you is how does he plan to raise his status among voters?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I actually asked him yesterday if he was lose begun lose any sort of buzz giving given the excitement for other candidates and he echoed what you heard from Hillary Clinton saying that maybe it is a little too early, that it's the point of campaigning. And I got to say, I as I have been speaking to some of the voters bunch, you see a bunch of them who are just starting to come in as the doors open waiting to see Beto O'Rourke. I sort of heard a lot of the same thing. They are trying to figure out how to say some of the names. And so making up their mind as to where they will be in more than a year away. They are changing quite a bit.

I have spoken to voters who tell me one moment they are team Booker and the next moment they are team Warren and the next moment team Beto. So, it's still very early. Beto O'Rourke is certainly pointing to that. And I'm hearing that from voters as well.

Now here in California we are expecting Beto O'Rouke to speak in just a matter of minutes. This is a rather crowd that is bigger than what we saw when he was in Nevada yesterday. The line was wrapped around the building here as we were coming in, but this is also Senator Kamala Harris' turf. She's from Oakland. We are just half an hour away from where she is. I suspect he is going to hit some of the talking points that he has been talking about that will play well with this crowd. He will talk about immigration, especially sanctuary cities. And he will also talk about climate change, something he's said is an existential crisis and one of his top priorities. How that will play out here we'll have to wait and see. But I think the consensus among many of the voters and Mr. O'Rourke is for now, it's early.

SAVIDGE: It is early, indeed.

Leyla Santiago, thanks very much. Good to see you.

Let's continue with this 2020 kind of conversation with national political reporter for the "New York Times" Astead Herndon.

And Astead, this new polling, we have already point out there, is still some time, but it does show that there's no real candidate that ha separate themselves from the pact, at least in the minds of Democratic voters, and should that be a concern?

[14:35:12] ASTEAD HERNDON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I don't think so much. I think I agree with what you said earlier that this is early. When you are out in some of these states, especially the early voting states, you will realize that we are still in the introduction phase. We are still on the first state phase. These are voters who are looking to candidates to really get an intro and feel about what they are about.

But if you go to places like Iowa, their expectation is that they won't make a decision until they meet a candidate two or three times because they have the luxury of having so many of them come to their counties and regions. And so we are still very early on this. But it is -- it just signals what we know this is for the Democratic Party which is a crossroads. They have not have a primary that -- hasn't a front-runner or clear kind of consensus candidate in a long time. And this provides the party to look at ideology and identity and answer questions that is have been lingering in the background, but now comes to bubble up to the top.

SAVIDGE: The poll that we just mentioned, the top three names are all white men. And last week you wrote is a white man the best face for an increasingly diverse Democratic Party in 2020? And I guess, what's the bigger gamble, to nominate a white man and risk disappointing some of the party's base or nominate a minority candidate or woman who might struggle to carry predominantly swing states like say Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania that both President Obama and President Trump won? In your mind, what is the better strategy to get a Democrat in the White House?

HERNDON: I think there are multiple theories of how to win a general election. There's the community that believes you need to persuade voters that voted for President Trump that drifted away from the Democratic Party, particularly in white rural voters and that the best way to get them might be having a figure who is a known quantity, a figure that doesn't seem too scary or divisive like the Joe Bidens of the world.

But there's another theory about motivating the base and that just as the white suburbs have left the Democrats in the Midwest. So do they have suppressed are turnout in cities? And energizing the party is actually the route.

And I think that there are some people who are trying to thread both of those grounds. They not saying it's a matter of either/or but and, a question of addition and not subtraction. And so I think that's where the party wants to be. And I think that that's going to be where the voters want to be. They want a candidate who is going to be able to speak not only to the white working class but the working class of colors and the issue of identities and questions of racism that Democratic voters have at the top of their list.

So I would say -- I'm kind of ducking your question here, but I think that it won't just be who can motivate the base versus who can persuade Trump voters. The question is who can do both?

SAVIDGE: Let me try and put it a different way then. Does the fact that, you know, there is such a diverse field actually deflate the individual impact of minority candidate messaging and even thereby reduce their chances?

HERNDON: I think there's a risk of that. I know and I have talked to many voters who came out of 2016 worried that a woman or a person of color just frankly faces too many barriers on the national stage to be able to defeat President Trump who has certainly been someone who has been willing to use attacks that have been characterized as racist or sexist against those opponents. But I got to say that we should remember that the two highest popular vote in the American history were a woman and a black man.

And so, there is not - and if we look at 2018 also, there's a lot of candidates that won in those Midwestern states who are especially women and people of color in tough swing districts. So there are examples you can point to that can say that diverse candidates stand just as good of a chance if not better in these places. The question is whether if voters have come out of 2016 so scarred from that front that they are unwilling to take what they think is a risk. That's the challenge for the women in the race. That's the challenge for the people of color is to convince voters that not only they have the best ideas that they don't face an electability problem however bigoted or code word that word might be.

SAVIDGE: Excellent point.

Astead Herndon, thanks very much. We are glad you were object show. Thank you.

HERNDON: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: And now go outside and get some fresh air. That's something our parents used to tell us as kids, and it could be just what the doctor order. Here's this week's staying well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I talked to a woman there. I definitely feel I had an energy boost after going on a walk meeting. I feel better and I think better and I just have a greatest sense of possibilities I think when we are outside.

Walking meetings are great to relieve stress because they give you perspective. And you realize that there's more going on around you than maybe you were assuming, and that's a source of comfort.

[14:40:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit of nature goes farther than we think it does. There are studies that show just 10 or 15 minutes outdoors walking through a park, there is a measurable improvement in mental attitude and psychological health.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he liking it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is.

ALBERTO CABAN-MARTINEZ, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI MEDICAL RESEARCHER: There are some new pilot scientific evidence that says converting some of the time that you are at work into a walking meeting is really beneficial to cardiovascular health and potentially even to productivity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our offices, our little internet wombs, all forms of bubbles and going outside and getting a new perspective really unlocks all kinds of creative ideas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has been helping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we lean. The more we are looking at screens we burn out. So if you want to revive yourself go outside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:45:01] SAVIDGE: A nationwide measles outbreak is forcing two of southern California's largest universities to quarantine hundreds of students and faculty. The mandatory order affects people at UCLA and at Cal State L.A. who may have been exposed to infected students and haven't been vaccinated or they can't show proof that they have been immunized. This is just the latest incident in the measles outbreak that's been sweeping the country.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with the details.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So this isn't something that people expected to have a quarantine around measles given that this was virtually eliminated in the year 2000, this particular infectious disease, but that's what's happening in California, the campus of UCLA as you mentioned.

The way this unfolds is that you have somebody who had measles. They are in a public place in the university campus. Anyone also potentially exposed and then asked are you certain that you were vaccinated? Are you certain that you are immunized? If you are not you can't provide some assurance of this, then you go into guarantee for up to 21 days.

Twenty-one days is a bit of an arbitrary number but you keep in mind that from the time someone is exposed to the time someone develops symptoms many days or weeks can even pass and that's how they choose this 21-day number. Now, one thing I will tell you is that this idea of people potentially

getting booster shots, something to boost their immune system now may be a recommendation that's coming. The reason you might get an additional shot even after you have been exposed is it can actually help you shorten the duration of the illness if you develop it or prevent the illness all together and then it also provides some assurance that in fact you've been vaccinated.

That's what is happening in Los Angeles. And in New York, as you know, there's another emergency declaration that's been filed basically telling people in Rockland County and around Rockland County that if you have measles, if you have been exposed to measles and are unvaccinated you cannot be in a public place. You will be fined $2,000 if you are in a public place. So it's a little bit shorter, had a little bit less of the order that was overturned by the courts last month, but it's still an emergency declaration happening in New York.

Just quickly take a look at the map, 22 states affected. Nearly half the country now has evidence of measles in their state. The big point for a lot of public health officials is to prevent those numbers from getting worse, to prevent measles from becoming endemic, sort of spreading more freely around the United States because if that happens, then we're all going to have to ask ourselves are we truly protected, and if we're not sure it may require getting another shot.

SAVIDGE: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for laying out the framework there.

With me now is Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

And doctor, thanks for joining us.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Good to be with you.

SAVIDGE: So let me ask you a very basic question which is what is behind this nationwide outbreak of measles, a disease that we pretty much thought all had been wiped out, at least in 2000.

FAUCI: And you are absolutely correct. We had eliminated measles from the United States in the year 2000. But what's happened over the last several years has been this hesitancy about vaccination and even a direct anti-vaccination type of an attitude. And what happens with measles, in order to get what we call community protection where you don't get outbreaks, you need about 93 percent to 95 percent of the community to be vaccinated. And we have seen in certain communities, particular the prototype one that we are seeing right now is in New York City, with the enclosed Hasidic Jewish community in which the level of vaccines in the community has gone way below the critical level, removing that veil of protection. And then you have an outbreak now. We have over 300 people having got measles.

So these are entirely avoidable situations that we are dealing with now because if you vaccinate people and you get to that critical level of community vaccination you won't see the outbreaks now because the measles vaccination is one of the most effective vaccines we have. It's about 97 percent effective if you get the two shots, one at around one year, 15 months and the other around four to six years. If we did that the way we should, we wouldn't be seeing any of this right now.

SAVIDGE: Well, and the other way I guess that they are dealing with this, and I'm talking about the medical community, are these quarantines in which we just mentioned in California. How effective is quarantine?

FAUCI: Well, it is effective. And as Sanjay pointed out what, they are really trying to do is they are trying to find out when you have a group of students like in a classroom or wherever they were congregating, when you have an infected student comes in there, the vulnerability of those who are not protected is really quite significant because if you are vulnerable and not immune or not vaccinated and you come into contact with someone with measles, you have a 90 percent chance of getting measles. So what the authorities in California are trying to do is to get the document. Is this person truly vaccinated and protected, and then you're OK. If you're not you may get guaranteed for that incubation period that Sanjay correctly pointed out.

[14:50:18] SAVIDGE: What about this idea of a booster shot? Do you go along with that? My wife and I were having this discussion. Should we go out and get it?

FAUCI: Well, you know, that really is not the total recommendation now. It depends on where you are. If you have had only one shot and you are in an area where there's clearly active measles going on, clearly, you should get another shot. If you have been infected with measles, for example, if you were born before 1957, you assume that you have been infected with measles, you don't have to get another shot. You are protected for life. I was born before 1957 so I did get measles so I'm protected. If you only got one of the two shots, you should probably get a booster to get you the full 97 percent protection.

SAVIDGE: That's what we want.

Anthony Fauci -- Dr. Anthony Fauci, thank you very much for joining us today.

FAUCI: Good to be with you.

SAVIDGE: Coming up, a stunning comment from the driver who was the behind the wheel of a semi that caused that fiery fatal pile-up in Colorado. What he is saying about the moments just before the crash.

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[14:55:04] SAVIDGE: Authorities say that a truck driver claimed that he closed his eyes in fear just moments before his semi slammed into backup traffic in Colorado. At least four people died, several others were injured in that fiery crash which involved more than two dozen cars and trucks on I-70 near Denver. Police say the 22-year-old driver told them that he thought he was going to die when his brakes went out and he was going 85 miles an hour. Authorities say there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the crash. The driver is being held on a $400,000 bond as he faces four counts of vehicular homicide.

And then there's this. Police in Tennessee say that they have now found a sixth body at one of two homes in a rural area about 25 miles northeast of Nashville. Investigators say that they have captured a suspect after an overnight manhunt. The suspect was found hiding in a creek bed about a mile from the initial crime scene.

The investigation began after a 911 call from a family member who found four bodies in one of the homes and then discovered another at a crime scene nearby. Police say they believe all the homicides are linked. The suspect's motive and relationship to the victims still under investments.

The youngest victim of the California synagogue shooting was just nine years old. Next, what her father just told CNN about the gunman who came there and attacked.

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