[Anderson Cooper, Cnn Anchor:] Tonight: Christine O'Donnell ducking the tough questions, but threatening to sue the watchdog group that says she committed campaign finance fraud. She's avoiding our questions, but tonight talking to FOX. How do her answers stack up against the facts? We're "Keeping Them Honest." Also tonight, what is Sarah Palin up to? She's released a new ad promoting the Tea Party, but is it really the first signal that she's planning a presidential run? Also tonight: What if you were sick, but no doctor could figure out what was wrong? Tonight, a seriously ill little girl battling an unknown illness, you are going to meet the disease detectives racing the clock to solve her life-and-death medical mystery. We begin, though, tonight, as always, "Keeping Them Honest," with Christine O'Donnell, who increasingly appears to be trying to run a stealth campaign, not answering questions from reporters and today not even telling reporters where her campaign event was taking place. Why would she do that? Well, take a look. This is what happened last night when our reporter Gary Tuchman went to an O'Donnell event and tried to ask her one question about allegations she spent campaign money on personal expenses after a past campaign was over, which would be a violation of federal election law.
[Gary Tuchman, Cnn National Correspondent:] Ms. O'Donnell, I'm going to ask you that one question you promised you would answer.
[Christine O'donnell , Delaware Senatorial Candidate:] I did answer it.
[Tuchman:] No, about the rentals last year. Why were you paying rent money with campaign money?
[Unidentified Female:] Sorry, tonight, not happening.
[Tuchman:] Well, that was the one question I had.
[O'donnell:] I answered it.
[Tuchman:] No, you didn't answer it.
[Cooper:] Didn't answer it. Gary called her campaign to find out where an event was today that was supposed to take place, what time, so he could go, but they wouldn't say, telling him it was closed to reporters. Ms. O'Donnell appears to be closely following the tweeted advice of Sarah Palin. She tweeted this the other day: "C. O'Donnell strategy: Time is limited. Use it to connect with local voters whom you will be serving vs. appeasing national media seeking your destruction." Now, there are plenty of liberal media outlets out there that probably want Christine O'Donnell to fail, but I just want to make it very clear, I'm not one of them. We're not trying to beat up on Christine O'Donnell. We're also focusing tonight on questions that have been raised about her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons. These people are running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. It's their choice. They should be ready and open to answering questions from all quarters. Christine O'Donnell wants to serve the people of Delaware, not just those who agree with her, and it's our job to ask her and all the candidates tough questions to help voters make up their own minds. I'm not making a big deal out of 11-year-old witchcraft comments or the stuff she said about touching yourself years ago. I want to ask her specifics about checks she wrote, serious allegations made by her former aides and employees, people who ran her campaigns. There's one media outlet Sarah Palin told O'Donnell she should use, FOX News, and, tonight, O'Donnell did break her silence on Sean Hannity's program just last in the last hour. Remarkably, though, she was never asked during the 20-minute-or- so interview about any of serious allegations made against her. Instead, it was questions like this. [Begin Video Clip, "hannity"]
[Sean Hannity, Host, "hannity":] Bill Maher...
[Hannity:] ... a friend of yours, obviously. You did his show a lot, apparently.
[O'donnell:] Yes, yes, unfortunately.
[Hannity:] All right. He he comes up with this tape. What was it, 1999? You made an appearance...
[O'donnell:] Yes.
[Hannity:] ... talking, I guess, about a boyfriend when you were a teenager?
[O'donnell:] Right, right, right, right.
[Hannity:] OK, saying that you had dabbled into witchcraft. Why don't you explain for people that may be what was that about?
[O'donnell:] Well, teenage rebellion. Some people dabble in drugs in rebel. That's how I rebelled. You know, but who who didn't do some questionable things in high school? And who doesn't regret the '80s to some extent? I certainly do. And I I most certainly regret bringing it up to Bill Maher.
[Hannity:] What's it like living under you know, being the main focus of every news show? Is it fun? I'm sure you're enjoying it.
[O'donnell:] Two things. It's not fun, because, you know, like, today, there was a news crew filming my father raking leaves. I went to a forum last night.
[Hannity:] We got to buy him a blower. I mean, I don't know if...
[O'donnell:] He likes that. It relieves stress. And he's under a lot of stress right now.
[Hannity:] Right.
[O'donnell:] But it's it's it's interfering with my ability to campaign.
[Hannity:] All the talk about, well, you got to do this national show, that national show...
[O'donnell:] No, it doesn't...
[Hannity:] ... is that off the table for you?
[O'donnell:] It's off the table, because that's not going to help me get votes. I, instead, want to go to as many town hall forums, as many candidate forums, as many church picnics that I can fit into my schedule, so that I can meet the voters.
[Cooper:] Well, that's it, no national news show, except for Sean Hannity tonight on FOX. She says she's going to spend time with Delaware voters and because that's what counts. Well, we got a lot to talk about in this hour ahead as we focus on it. Gary Tuchman has been reporting on the O'Donnell campaign since last week, trying to get her to answer those specific questions. Gary, what jumped out at you in the interview tonight?
[Tuchman:] Well, it is a delicious irony that she went on the national media to say she didn't want to talk to the national media. But we did watch and listen and we didn't hear a lot when it came to her elaborating about the stuff that we have checked out for the past week. For example, when it comes to this question the was asked of her, what about the claim that you have spent $20,000 in campaign funding for personal expenditures, she said she did not. And it was just left at that. But opponents of hers and opponents are mostly Republicans who are talking to us, not Democrats she kept stressing they were Democratic opponents Republicans have been talking to us about this. They stress they believe she's lived on campaign contributions over the past few years, that she's used them for gas, and restaurants, and she's used them for gas stations in her hometown in New Jersey, while she wasn't running for anything in the year 2009. But she then went on. And people have been speculating about what kind of job she has. She talked a little bit about public relations work she does for nonprofit companies. [Begin Video Clip, "hannity"]
[O'donnell:] I take nonprofit clients. I do freelance work.
[Tuchman:] One of the allegations is, how has she survived without making much money, because the records that we have investigated do show that she has not made a regular livable salary for at least five years. She also talked about tax problems she has. She was asked about a lien that the IRS gave to her. They said she owed a lot of money. She made it very clear, at least to the viewers who are listening to her, that perhaps that she did not owe any money, that she had no problem whatsoever, and that there were no more problems with the IRS. Listen. [Begin Video Clip, "hannity"]
[O'donnell:] I have paid my taxes. They're trying to go after an erroneous tax lien that the IRS admitted was a computer error.
[Tuchman:] OK. The IRS admitted it was a computer error, but records that we have show that she did indeed this past spring pay thousands of dollars to the IRS in back taxes, after the IRS said it was not a computer error. She also talked about a panel discussion that was held last night with candidates that her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, did not show up to because it was a mostly conservative audience. She is indeed absolutely right. Chris Coons did not show up at that. And she stressed that she showed up last week before a liberal audience at a Jewish center in Wilmington, Delaware. What we should say is that it was not necessarily a liberal audience. The room was also packed with Tea Party supporters, people wearing T-shirts that said O'Donnell. She got lots of loud applause, very polite applause from other people who were not necessarily in favor of her. It was a very friendly crowd, but it's very fair to say there was loud applause from Tea Party supporters at that particular political panel, which was held last Thursday in Wilmington, Delaware. One final thing we should mention is that, during this program, she said that the media was pushing and shoving at that particular event. I will tell you, I have been covering politics for almost 30 years, and it was nothing out of the ordinary. They were coming up to her. That's what happens with any high-profile political candidate. And she also mentioned that perhaps it would be good if the media was kept out of certain events. And, frankly, I think, for most Americans, that gives you a little chill. When we go to places like Cuba and Iran and North Korea and China, we're often kept out. The media is kept out. There's no free reporting. And it's just something that we really don't like to hear in the United States of America, to keep the media out Anderson.
[Cooper:] Gary, appreciate it tonight. Plenty of "Raw Politics" for our panel tonight. We're also going to be looking into allegations being made against her Democratic opponent, trying to see what is true and what is not about him. But, first, our panel, John Avlon, CNN contributor and senior political writer for The Daily Beast. He's also the author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America." Contributor CNN contributor Erick Erickson is editor in chief of RedState.com. And John Ridley is founding editor of thatminoritything.com and an NPR commentator. Erick, what do you make about this, her saying Christine O'Donnell basically on FOX News saying that everyone's attacking her and that the media is actually getting in the way of her campaigning? Does that does that strike true to you?
[Erick Erickson, Cnn Contributor:] Look, you know, this is a campaign, and she's playing to her base. She's mobilizing the base. The base thinks there's a liberal bias in the media. Some of the questions, some of the answers, some of the attacks, so-called attacks from the media play to the base. They rally them. They make her look very sympathetic, and she can get people out to vote based on this. And, you know, there are a lot of Republicans in Washington patting themselves on the back today because the media is so focused on Christine O'Donnell, they're not looking at other Republican candidates. And they're all thinking, whew, glad it's Christine O'Donnell.
[Cooper:] I get the hatred of the media and stuff, and stuff, but to hear a major candidate for U.S. Senate saying, like, well, you know, they're they're they're hurting my campaign by asking me questions, and they're taking pictures of my dad on the lawn, I'm certainly sympathetic to that. Someone's family shouldn't be bothered and stuff. But if she actually made herself available to the media, rather than run away and refuse to ask questions I mean, it just seems odd.
[Erickson:] You know, Anderson, frankly, that's the issue there. She doesn't care about the national media, and she doesn't really need to. It's kind of the Rand Paul strategy in Kentucky. He's raising a lot of money. He's up on the air in Kentucky. He's now 20 points ahead, although, admittedly, she's behind. But they're focused on local media. And the national media attacks, to to have Gary bring up the point about Christine saying maybe there's some events that the media shouldn't go to, and then jumping into, this is like in China and Korea and Cuba, I mean, when you hear conservatives hear that, they're thinking, obviously, this is biased, whether it is or not. I mean, she's playing to her base, and the media's just helping her.
[Cooper:] John Avlon, what about that? Is the media making it easier for her?
[John Avlon, Cnn Contributor:] Well, she's able to play the victim card, which may play well to certain elements of the base. But, you know, you need to be consistent about the standards. So often, the political debates we have in this country are fundamentally filtered through a partisan prism. If she's trying to play locally, then it's worth asking, how come she only got five in-state donations this year one-quarter of this year? Most of her money, in fact, was national money, activist money that came in and flooded the campaign late in the closed partisan primary that she won. She's trying to win in Delaware, where she's got a huge deficit against Republicans, an electoral advantage towards Democrats and independents. So, you know, she can talk now about trying to connect to her base and play in state, but that hasn't how been how she's conducted her campaigns in the last three times she's run for Senate in the last five years.
[Cooper:] John Ridley, the election's only six weeks away from tonight. Is it fair for voters to be influenced by a group, CREW, which is calling for an investigation, an investigation that that won't be completed by Election Day? I mean, is that that would strike some people as as unfair against her. They're basically making these allegations against her, and no one's going to be able to investigate it in time, really.
[John Ridley, Commentator, National Public Radio:] Well, I don't know whether it's unfair or not to bring up what could be a real issue, and she certainly has an opportunity to answer those. She talked about on the show tonight that she posted some letters from the IRS that addressed these issues. I read them. To me, they're fairly inconclusive. But she does John and Erick both talked about playing to the base. Playing to the base at this point is not going to work. She's got very negative numbers in Delaware. Sixty percent of likely voters think that she's not qualified. And this is a state where the electorate is actually in line with a lot of the Tea Party principles, getting rid of health care, reducing the size of the budget, reducing the government and things like that. So, this, for her, is not even about the issues. This is really about likability. People have got to learn what she's about. So, bringing up these issues, whether they're fair, whether they're not fair, that's politics. It's, can she answer them, and will she answer them for the people who are going to vote for her? And, by the way, not just a closed Republican primary anymore. This is wide-open now.
[Cooper:] You know, John Avlon, Erick brings up an interesting point, you know, something that Gary Tuchman had said, which I thought did seem kind of overboard to me. But he raises an interesting point about about bias. And I think bias is something that certainly I'm obsessed with and try to eradicate it, to the extent that it's possible. Do you think the media or us or anyone in the media is focusing more on her do you think, if if she was a Democrat, would and she just had kind of appeared on the national scene, won a surprise election, do you think she would be getting with the same kind of record she had, that she would be getting the same focus?
[Avlon:] Maybe not. I think both sides do tend to side sort of take a look at the crazies on their own side and say, well, they may be crazy, but they're our crazies, and, really, you need to see it in context. They're quick to give them the benefit of the doubt. And that's why it's so important to be consistent in the standards you apply. I mean, the dabbling-in-witchcraft story wasn't important in and upon itself. It is really just an issue of the larger tip of the iceberg of stories that seem to be coming out consistently about her, because she put herself on television throughout the 1990s as a professional social conservative activist. And now that's all coming back to haunt her, in addition to the very the serious financial questions that are coming into play, which you can't spin your way out of. Those are legal issues.
[Cooper:] Also, Erick, I guess, to some extent, you have former campaign workers doing you had a former campaign worker doing a robocall against her during the campaign.
[Erickson:] Right.
[Cooper:] And you had Karl Rove coming out subsequent to the campaign. That rarely happens. So, that certainly adds to the focus on her, I think.
[Erickson:] Yes, absolutely. You know, I'm willing to bet there's been more national media ink spilled on Christine O'Donnell than there ever was on Alvin Greene, accept for the fact that he may or may not have been a Republican plant. And when it was proven he wasn't, they kind of ditched the story. But, on the Christine O'Donnell issue, the Republicans are the ones who have sabotaged this lady. People like Karl Rove went after her and Sean Hannity a few weeks ago the night she won. They have savaged her. And, you know, I have said along the Republicans aren't going to win the Senate. She's probably not going to win Delaware. That the Republican establishment turned on her so viciously because she dared to beat their precious Mike Castle, I, frankly, find kind of funny. I mean, they're eating their own. But the humor here and the irony is that the media now and even Republicans are so focused on Christine O'Donnell, they're not focusing anymore on Sharron Angle or Ken Buck or Rand Paul or Linda McMahon or any of these other candidates, all of whom are breathing a sigh of relief.
[Avlon:] But I think the Christine O'Donnell story compounds that narrative about Sharron Angle. It adds fuel to that fire. And the issue with the reason that there was a lot of conservative concern about her winning from magazines like "The Weekly Standard," from "Reason," which called her a crackpot of the first order before the primary, was in part because they knew that Mike Castle could win Joe Biden's seat. And that would move them towards winning the Senate.
[Cooper:] Right.
[Avlon:] And they knew this would be a disaster coming down the pike.
[Cooper:] We we have got to take a break. John Avlon, Erick Erickson, John Ridley, I appreciate, guys, you being on. Thank you. Just ahead: The watchdog group that Christine O'Donnell is now threatening to sue, what do they have to say about her claims of libel? You will hear from them in a moment. Let us know what you think. The live chat is now under way, AC360.com. Also ahead tonight: Christine O'Donnell's Democratic challenger, Chris Coons, caught up in a controversy of his own, words he wrote a quarter-century ago about becoming a bearded Marxist. Those two words are being used against him now. We check the record. Also tonight: disease detectives, Sanjay Gupta charting a heart- wrenching medical mystery, this little girl battling an unknown killer. Tonight, Kylie's parents continue their desperate search for a diagnosis.
[Kylie:] ... bad parent, like, why can't I help my kid? So...
[Unidentified Male:] Can't really put it into words, just helpless.