[Burnett:] We have breaking news tonight on one of the filmmakers behind Kony 2012. That's the viral video about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. Well the man behind it has been picked up by police and taken to the hospital today. An official familiar with the case confirms that Jason Russell who you see there just on CNN last week was found in his underwear running through the streets of San Diego yesterday screaming and acting irrationally and it appears it went downhill from there.
[Miguel Marquez, Cnn Correspondent:] It's strange and it gets even more disturbing. The Web site TMZ out of Los Angeles came up with some video of a man that they claim was in fact Mr. Russell who was on the streets there in San Diego. This was yesterday morning, Thursday morning. You can see him there. It looks he appears to be fully naked and pounding on the payment. Police will say that at 11:28 Thursday morning, they had several 911-calls, individuals saying that there was a man in his underwear running through the streets, screaming, interrupting traffic. When police showed up, they said that there was one caller who did say that the man was naked and masturbating. Police say when they showed up, they didn't see any of that and that the man was taken to a local medical facility, that he was not arrested, though, just taken to a medical facility. A statement from Ben Keesey of Invisible Children who worked with Russell on that film says that "he was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition that he is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday." And as you know that video went viral like no others.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Marquez:] It brought a lot of focus on Invisible Children, a lot of it negative because of their finances and whether or not they oversimplified the situation in Uganda.
[Burnett:] Right, there was a lot of criticism. Interesting
[Marquez:] It is absolutely unclear.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Marquez:] I mean he's described as a Christian and a family man. He clearly has a family because his son is in that video. This is a guy who by all other measures seems to be a perfectly normal guy who traveled overseas, was not afraid to take risks, who did a lot of things in his life.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Marquez:] It is not very clear why he would react in this way.
[Burnett:] All right, so he
[Marquez:] He is getting taken care of.
[Burnett:] All right, Miguel Marquez thank you very much, just a very strange turn in that tale of Kony 2012 tonight. Well apparently there is a war of women. That is what Democrats say Republicans are waging through legislation and debates over contraception and abortion rights. Take a look at this DNC ad which is now running in Illinois, which of course holds its key primary Tuesday.
[Unidentified Female, Political Ad:] Mitt Romney is coming to Illinois and looking for support from women. But here's what women need to know about Mitt Romney. Romney says he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood, ending federal support for critical health care services like cancer screenings for thousands of women here in Illinois.
[Unidentified Male, Political Ad:] Planned Parenthood, going to get rid of that.
[Burnett:] Well the Romney camp says the governor does not want to get rid of the organization, only that he wants to end government funding for it. But the big question remains, how effective is the argument that Republicans are anti-women? John Avlon joins us, Leslie Sanchez, Republican strategist, and Jamal Simmons, Democratic strategist. OK, good to have all of you with us. Leslie, let me start with you. I mean you are the Republican woman in this conversation, so yes, I am going to I am going to discriminate by going to you first, but do you think that this ad will make people think twice about voting for Mitt Romney that this point that Republicans are waging a war on women will be effective?
[Leslie Sanchez, Republican Strategist:] Not at all. I mean I want to give a tiny bit of kudos to the Obama PR team for trying to think that this you know shift the conversation away from where the real attacks are and that is on Republican women, Independent women, suburban women, Walmart moms who are very much in that contraception debate that we've been having over the last couple of last month any way. This is really a political tactic. The central issue is that the Obama team is losing support among a lot of those Independent voters. They know they need women to be successful. Republicans have just now been competitive in 2010 and it's really going back even onto that contraception issue. It's not the issue what we're finding in focus groups it's like pulling a thread that's unraveling the seam. It's not just the issue of the contraceptive and religious freedom. It's that these are not decisions being made by market forces or ethical reasons. They're made for political reasons and that's the big suspicion that women have.
[Burnett:] And John Avlon, I mean it is interesting this is all coming up now. You've got a contraception law possibly in Arizona, sonogram potential issues in Virginia and Pennsylvania. It is happening in a lot of places right now. I find it hard to believe it's accidental.
[John Avlon, Cnn Contributor:] No, but it's uncoordinated. What you're seeing is the Republican Party
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Avlon:] in different state legislatures they're putting forward these bills, whether it's mandatory or forced ultrasounds, contraception bills, attempts to restrict access to abortion. All these things are happening with conservatives and state legislatures and that's creating a narrative that the Democrats are trying to rip off of saying look the Republicans ran under a lot of libertarian rhetoric last time, talking about small government, but you turn around and they're advancing a social conservative agenda. The question is one of overreach. When you use the phrase war against women, we all know what this is. That's fear mongering and it's no better or based on fact than alleged war on religion that Republicans talked about Obama perpetrating.
[Burnett:] Right.
[Avlon:] The point is though when you start drawing the lines, connecting the dots between these state legislatures, Republicans have a problem, a real problem, not just based on perception, but policy.
[Burnett:] And Jamal, I would imagine the Democrats are going to seize that perception and try to make it a lot stronger, right? I mean why wouldn't they?
[Jamal Simmons, Democratic Strategist:] Oh absolutely. This is a real you know the issues of women in this campaign are going to be front and center. There are major issues. Elections are decided based upon where women vote. I had a Republican strategist friend say to me the other day men decide the Republican nominee and women decide the general election president. And that seems to be sort of true and I think what's really interesting is when you take a look at this, campaigns are not places for nuance, so you end up making statements that might get that might be a little bit overblown and we see in that video, Mitt Romney, if you look at the extended video of his interview he says that he wants to cut Planned Parenthood funding, but if you look at the extended video of the Democratic ad, they talk about Mitt Romney's position on health care reform and a bunch of other things that do also impact women, so again this isn't really a good place for nuance in the middle of a campaign, but it is something that's going to be important.
[Burnett:] In general I just think we all need a whole lot more nuance; I'm just going to say that right now. We need it in campaigns. We need it in cable, 140 characters don't allow for it but that is a separate rant that I will go on at another time. But Leslie, I just want to ask you about something else that's happened because again Leslie, I feel like I'm being discriminatory. Now first it was that you were a woman, now Sanchez, but I want to talk about Puerto Rico and I want to talk about English as an official language. Romney and Santorum seem to be on the same side of this that it's a prerequisite to have English as your formal language to become a state. Is that something that you think is right that will work for them or not?
[Sanchez:] It doesn't work in Puerto Rico.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Sanchez:] I mean the whole argument is really nonsensical.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Sanchez:] Puerto Rico is commonwealth. It has two official languages. For 89 years it had Spanish and in 1991 it embraced English and that was really not the place to make that statement. There was a cry among some Republicans that we had to have English as the official language. There's a lot of different reasons why that particular issue is important in a primary, but the bigger issue is I think it was a misstep on Santorum's part. It's not really an issue. Everybody embraces English as the language of opportunity and it's certainly the language of the United States.
[Simmons:] Erin, when it comes
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Simmons:] Erin, when it comes to this issue, Santorum's wrong with the policy, but I'm going to give him a free piece of political advice. Sometimes when you get yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is just to roll with it and I think if I were him I would make the argument that you know what, I went to Puerto Rico and I said what I believed. And it wasn't popular, but I said what I believed, unlike Mitt Romney who doesn't seem to ever be able to say what he believes. He says what he believes is politically popular and that may help him in other places. It won't help him in Puerto Rico
[Burnett:] Interesting. Right.
[Simmons:] But it may help him in some other places.
[Burnett:] All right, well speaking of Puerto Rico, Rick Santorum I just wanted to show something, you know this is that's Rick Santorum. He found a little bit of time he found a little bit of time to hang out by the pool and I don't begrudge him that. You've got to take some time off the trail, right John Avlon?
[Avlon:] Yes.
[Burnett:] And he took this with a phone. He said look, I guess I need to lose 15 or 20 pounds. He doesn't look that bad.
[Avlon:] You know I give him points for acknowledging there's room for improvement.
[Burnett:] As someone who when I lie by the pool when I go to Puerto Rico, you know when I've been up here for awhile, you know, I look that white.
[Sanchez:] Enjoy the beaches of Puerto Rico.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Sanchez:] I mean that's the point. It's a very innocent thing.
[Simmons:] Good for him.
[Burnett:] Yes, OK, we're all in agreement on that. All right one thing before we go, Illinois. John, must win?
[Avlon:] Look Romney, this really has become his latest firewall state. He's got to show he can do well here. It's a state where he should do well. Polls show him up a little bit. The polls have been underestimating Santorum's strength and it's a Midwestern state as well, so a big battleground coming up on Tuesday.
[Burnett:] All right, well we will see what happens. Thanks very much to all of you. Appreciate it. Well the North Korean government today announced something that could be very important for the U.S. They plan to blast a satellite into orbit they say in the coming weeks in honor of the late President Kim Il-Sung's 100th birthday. Now the international community is condemning the announcement from the untested new leader of the country Kim Jong-Un, who is only in his late 20's and suddenly in charge of one of the largest militaries in the world and of course, a nuclear power. The U.S. said the deal the launch of this satellite would be a deal breaker for the food aid agreement the country struck just weeks ago.
[Victoria Nuland, State Dept. Spokeswoman:] So, frankly, if they were to go forward with this launch, it's very hard to imagine how we would be able to move forward with a regime whose word we have no confidence in and who has egregiously violated its international commitments.
[Burnett:] North Korea has promised to dial back its nuclear weapons program in exchange for food aid, but even at that time, a lot of people didn't take that seriously. North Korea's done that before promised to stop in exchange for food aid and continued anyway. Gordon Chang knows North Korea's politics and military well. He's the author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World" Gordon, good to see you, as always. What do you make of this? And there are some people are saying that when North Korea says it's a satellite, it's really more of a military test.
[Gordon Chang, Author, "nuclear Showdown":] Well a launcher for a satellite and a launcher for a warhead are the same. So clearly, North Korea has shown that it does not really want to talk to the international community with good faith and that's really a problem. We should have known that last month when we came to this deal. But now, we do and I think that means we need new tactics.
[Burnett:] And it well I mean you know it's interesting. A lot of people had said that Kim Jong-Un, the young and untested leader, you were saying he might do something like this, a little bit more dramatic to show he was powerful. Others had hoped it was a real opportunity for diplomacy. This is the first time they've done anything like this I believe since 2009. So does that settle the verdict for what direction he's going to go?
[Chang:] Well you know I think that you know you look at 2006, they tested a long range missile, three years later in 2009, you add three years to that and you get 2012.
[Burnett:] Yes.
[Chang:] So they need to actually launch to test all of the improvements on their missiles.
[Burnett:] Well the way you put that it sort of sounds like whatever they promised to stop, they didn't. They're still on their same regular schedule.
[Chang:] Yes, absolutely and basically North Korea wants a long range missile. It's had this joint missile program with Iran for more than a decade. So, it's not just North Korea that we need to be worried about today. We've got to be worried about the Iranians because a North Korean test is an Iranian test.
[Burnett:] And is it is the coordination really that close? Because I mean obviously the whole part of the Iranian conversation is well you know if they make a decision to formally go ahead with the program, they then have to develop all the missile heads. It sounds like you're saying well if North Korea is doing it that would make their lead time, to get a weapon if they choose to do so much shorter.
[Chang:] Yes, you know people say that Iran's longest range missile is about 1,500 miles, which means it can sort of put a dent in a field in southern Europe, but, you know the North Koreans have missiles that are much longer than that. The Iranians have something called a Shahab 6 according to the intelligence community. And if it does indeed have that missile, it can just about hit Alaska. So this is something that is really important for us.
[Burnett:] All right, it certainly it certainly is. Well thank you very much Gordon. We appreciate it, a man who's been studying the nuclear program in North Korea for a very long time. Well there's a verdict in the Rutgers sex cam suicide trial and it was a real shocker. Paul Callan had said that Dharun Ravi, the man convicted, needed to do one thing. He didn't do it. And comedian Russell Brand turns himself into police today following an altercation and he could be facing felony charges. There are a number of things to talk about