ESPN Host Makes Racially Insensitive Comment; Tropical Storm Warnings!; Rest Stop Encounter; Chavis Carter Death Ruled a Suicide
O'BRIEN: Welcome back to STARTING POINT, everybody. In just a few moments, we're going to be talking to Olympic hurdler, Lolo Jones. You might recall that she missed out on a medal in London and then got caught up in this really I thought an attack by the media on her personally. She's going to stop by to talk about her critics and the cheers she got when she went to Des Moines. That is straight ahead this morning. Also we're going to talk with former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, the onetime Democrat is now a Republican. He's going to weigh in on the Congressman Akin controversy. First though, I want to get right to John Berman for a look at the day's top stories. Good morning again.</s>BERMAN: Hi, Soledad. We have some tropical storm warnings after new depression forms in the Atlantic overnight, a lot of Republicans watching this wondering if it will affect the convention. Let's get right to meteorologist, Rob Marciano for the latest.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. Yes, that is a possibility, but it's a long way off. First order of business is tropical depression number 9. We also have another system just off the coast of Africa that will likely develop into a depression if not a tropical storm before the next couple of days are done. Tropical depression number 9, if it does strengthen, we think it will, Isaac will be its name. Right now, it's moving to the west at 20 miles an hour. So as you mentioned tropical storm watches and warnings have been posted for parts of the Leeward Islands in anticipation of arriving sometime during the day on Wednesday and then strengthening potentially into Category 1 or 2 storm. The column brings it towards Puerto Rico and Hispaniola and potentially towards Jamaica and Cuba, and of course, the Gulf of Mexico or even the east coast in play as we get towards next week. This system in the Gulf of Mexico, we're watching it, but it is not moving very much and it's near the Mexican Coast as opposed to the U.S. coast at this time, mostly heavy rain. Rain across parts of this southeast with this front everywhere north of there, it looks to be a nice day with comfortable temperatures from Chicago to Detroit to Pittsburgh to New York City. John, back to you.</s>BERMAN: All right, Rob Marciano in Atlanta, thank you very much. A state representative from Minnesota is facing calls to step down after he admits to a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy at a rest stop. Democrat Kerry Gauthier won't face charges in the July incident because the boy was older than the legal age of consent and no money was exchanged. According to the "Duluth News Tribune," police say the teenager responded to Gauthier's ad on Craigslist seeking sex with no strings attached. Still more questions about the apparent suicide of 21-year-old Chavis Carter in Arkansas. The autopsy found Carter shot himself in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police car. Marijuana and meth and depressants were also found in his system. Carter's family believes their son was shot by police. The case is still being reviewed by prosecutors and the police. An "A.M. House Call" now, doctors are more likely to get burnt out by their jobs than the rest of us. A survey found some 7,000 doctors they said four out of 10 were emotionally exhausted by their work. That feeling could lead to depersonalization where physicians treat their patients like objects than human beings. The burnout rate was even higher among emergency room physicians and family practitioners. Doctors say a so-called miracle molecule found in red wine, blueberries and nuts could help improve mobility among older adults. The chemical called resveratrol has been found to improve motor coordination as we age. But scientists recommend the fruit over the booze. It takes a whole bottle of the wine to get the same amount of resveratrol from a handful of cranberries. Now along that same subject matter. What's the ultimate party school? The Princeton Review is out with a list and we have the top five. At five, the University of Georgia. In fourth, the University of Illinois. In third, the Ohio State University. Iowa is runner up and number one party school in America, West Virginia, ladies and gentlemen.</s>O'BRIEN: Just to get the resveratrol. See? Thinking about their future health.</s>BERMAN: Just healthy, West Virginia, they care about this stuff.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, they are confused. All right, thanks, John. Appreciate it. Today, there is a critical deadline to see whether GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin is going to step down from the race. He's the man who used the word legitimate rape in an interview. He was all set to defend himself last night on Piers Morgan and canceled at the very last minute there. According to two people in his campaign, they said he was working on a new ad. And we have a chance to see a little bit of that. I'll play that in just a moment. Congressman Akin has until 6:00 Eastern tonight to drop out of the race before it gets complicated. And in fact, we've heard many Republicans calls suggesting that he does that, including Reince Priebus. He is the chairman of the party. And the National Republican Senatorial Campaign, they pulled $5 million in ad funding from the congressman. Mitt Romney told Akin to take some time to think about what's best for him and the party. But as of yesterday, Akin was declaring he is not a quitter and said, by the grace of God, we are going to win this race. That is the $64,000 question, isn't it? Artur Davis is a former Alabama congressman. He is going to be speaking at the Republican convention after he left the Democratic Party earlier this year. He is joining us this morning in the studio. It's nice to see you, sir.</s>ARTUR DAVIS, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Soledad, good to see you and good to see your panel as well.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank you very much for being with us. So let's talk first with Congressman Akin. He, obviously, is a colleague of yours in the Congress. He says he's not a quitter, lots of pressure to drop out and very blunt pressure from the GOP leadership. Do you think he should drop out? Do you think he will drop out?</s>DAVIS: Well, what a remarkably thoughtless offensive set of comments, first of all. He's wrong on the substance. He was incredibly wrong and foolish in the way he talked about the issue. And look, I'm a former politician, doesn't have the standing to tell anybody to drop out of anything. But he's not going to win this race and it's very possible that he could cost Mitt Romney the state. So all of us feel sympathy for someone who said something dumb, we've all done that. These comments are beyond the pale and incredible offensive to women all over the country.</s>O'BRIEN: So two things. The first is a lot of people who are not elected officials have been saying drop out. So I don't think your calls are out of any sort of range of the spectrum.</s>DAVIS: -- is about the Washington model I fully understand that.</s>O'BRIEN: That is very true, but you just said you think that what -- him staying in the race could cost Mitt Romney the state. Explain that to me.</s>DAVIS: Well, he's such an incredible distraction at this point. That Republicans have a wonderful chance to win Missouri. President Obama I believe won Missouri narrowly four years ago. The Missouri economy is not in good shape. Senator McCaskill has voted in lock step with President Obama and that will hurt her. Well, if the next four months are spent talking about the remarkably dumb comments that Akin made a few days ago, that certainly is going to hurt the prospects for Republicans.</s>O'BRIEN: So hold on one second for me while I check in with both John Berman and Ron Brownstein. John Berman is saying, no, no that he thinks Missouri is actually not in a position --</s>BERMAN: John McCain won it narrowly last time, narrowly --</s>DAVIS: See, people make mistakes.</s>MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Is it a question of misspeaking, or do you think the substance of his comment?</s>DAVIS: I think the substance is wrong and the misspeaking, very clear about this. I don't think there is any state capital in America or any set of politicians in America smart enough to tell a young woman what to do if she's been brutalized and raped. Now that's my opinion. Some people may disagree with that. I think there are many pro-life Americans like the guest you had on earlier --</s>O'BRIEN: Miss Kramer for the Tea Party.</s>DAVIS: There are many prolife Americans who firmly disagree with what Todd Akin said. His position is not reflective of the pro-life community.</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: What he explained yesterday, when he said legitimate, he was reaching for the word forcible, the word forcible is relevant because it was in legislation co-sponsored by a majority of the House. Including Paul Ryan who sought to distinguish between forcible rapes and presumably something else in terms of Medicaid so is that not the party doing exactly what you said Americans should not do?</s>DAVIS: Well, I think it's Todd Akin doing what his spin doctors told him to do to find a pathway. If you're in a situation like his, your crisis management doctors are going to try to tell you how to talk your way out of it. I give Romney a lot of credit for the statement that he made yesterday disowning Akin's comments. And frankly, I don't know of a prominent Republican official in this country who has come to the defense of Akin on the substance or on the way he talked about it.</s>O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, forgive me for interrupting there. But later as you pointed out, he did say when I said legitimate, I meant forcible. Right, that brings that conversation to a conversation around legislation. When I first heard him say legitimate, I was like what does that even mean? We talked about this yesterday morning.</s>DAVIS: It's incredibly dumb comment.</s>O'BRIEN: What I meant by legitimate was I meant forcible rape, which is then distinguishing forcible rape from statutory rape or rape where may have been drugged. So do you see delineations between those different kinds of rape?</s>DAVIS: I don't see any delineations at all because this is what Congressman Akin appeared to be doing to a lot of listeners. He appeared to be saying that there is some scenario in which women can somehow stop this process as he put it --</s>O'BRIEN: The medical part.</s>DAVIS: Seemed to be blaming women, that what made it so offensive.</s>O'BRIEN: That was the second half of the statement.</s>DAVIS: I don't think he speaks for any class of people here. I go back to what the Romney/Ryan campaign has said and what every single Republican senator or leader who has weighed into this has said. His comments don't reflect the pro-life movement. They don't reflect the Republican Party and they don't reflect the Romney/Ryan ticket.</s>O'BRIEN: So you could argue that some of the comments do though. And here's how and you can correct me if you think I'm wrong. I think the back end of that comment about the medical and women's body almost spontaneously abort if they are raped --</s>DAVIS: It's a dumb comment.</s>O'BRIEN: Right. So we'll just move off from that. But the beginning part where he talked about legitimate, there are people would say, well, by legitimate, he himself said by legitimate, I meant forcible. So that brings us into a conversation about the nuance between forcible rape between statutory rape and between some kind of rape where maybe the woman is drugged so it's not considered to be an attack, all these different things. So my question would be when you look at the platform of the GOP now, doesn't make a distinguishment between -- I can read you in fact I think we have it up there. Victims of statutory -- the federal law prevents Medicaid funds and similar programs from paying for abortions and the law also contains an exception for women who are raped. The bill would now the exception for forcible rape, right. So this is part of that conversation. Let me let him answer.</s>DAVIS: I think the rape incest exception in the platform for a very simple set of reasons. If you're a conservative, you can't want government intruding into a decision that a young girl makes when she's been raped. That is a decision for her, her God, her conscience and her doctor and her parents -- parental consent. Absolutely. And given that, if you're a conservative who believes in limited government, I don't think -- even if you're the most ardent pro-life conservative. You ought to want to see government extend its footprint in that way. I don't think that Akin speaks for the pro-life community and I don't think he speaks for the Republican Party.</s>BERMAN: Is the party platform, which CNN has obtained a copy of -- the draft.</s>DAVIS: Should have an exception --</s>BERMAN: You then are in disagreement with the draft for the party platform that CNN has seen, which does not have any exceptions --</s>HOOVER: John Berman, 67 percent of Republicans are in disagreement with the Republican Party platform on this issue.</s>DAVIS: That's a very important point.</s>O'BRIEN: I want you ask you're going to be speaking, you're the guy who really did the introduction of President Obama four years ago.</s>DAVIS: I think more people have seen that speech in the last week or so --</s>O'BRIEN: We have all been looking at it. And now you're going to be speaking at the Republican National Convention. What are you going to say? What's your message?</s>DAVIS: I'm still working on the speech --</s>O'BRIEN: Everyone always tells me that, come on.</s>DAVIS: That's accurate for most of us, but it's going to be two points. President Obama is a wonderful admirable American, wonderful family. But even if you're the most ardent Obama supporter, I don't think you can make the case he has given us the two things he promised four years ago. He promised to bring a new sense of unity and renewal to our country and that was the big selling point for the Obama candidacy in '07 an '08 --</s>O'BRIEN: Hope and change.</s>DAVIS: And promised to turn an economy around. We just finished our 43rd consecutive month of 8 percent unemployment. You're reporting this morning the jobless claims continued to go up. We're almost certainly going to see month 44. We're likely to hit 47 consecutive months by November above 8 percent unemployment and 25 million Americans are out of work or have stopped looking for work. GDP growth was 1.2 percent in the last quarter. We used to know how to create a million jobs a month in this economy, what the Reagan recovery did. Now we have an anemic recovery and for three consecutive years, Washington policies have mismanaged the recovery. Now, some people say you can't blame the president for that. And that's an argument that I get, but when you run on one thing, you're going to be able to turn the country around. You're holding yourself to a pretty high standard.</s>O'BRIEN: It's going to be interesting to hear the speech. We're out of time, Ron Brownstein.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Never created a million jobs a month -- check the stats.</s>DAVIS: No. Seven months in a row we did a million jobs each month, check stats on it.</s>O'BRIEN: We will check the stats and we'll be able to tell everybody on the next commercial break or so. Artur Davis, it's nice to have with you. Thanks for coming. We certainly appreciate it. We have got lots to get to this morning. New developments on Diana Nyad, going to join us on STARTING POINT. We're rooting for her. Her effort to swim from Cuba to Florida is now over. We're just getting word that she is out of the water. We have planned to check in with her team. But it looks like she has ended her -- what she had called her final bid. Her fourth try to swim from Cuba to Florida. We're going to talk about that and what happened and what went wrong right after the short break. Stay with us, everybody, with this breaking news, Diana Nyad.