Autistic Person Excels at Tennis
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Twenty- six-year-old Brittany Tagliareni needs help fixing her hair and tying her shows. But give her a tennis racket and she turns into an ace on the court.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm glad that she found something where she can be successful.</s>GUPTA: As a baby, Brittany never learned to crawl or make babbling sounds.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So every time I went to the pediatrician that went, oh, don't worry, don't worry. Some babies are later.</s>GUPTA: Brittany was diagnosed with motor control issues and an auditory processing disorder.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it wasn't until she was nine that we heard the word "autism." Before tennis, she didn't have any friends. She has always loves her brother. So now, A.J. started tennis, Brittany wanted to start tennis.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love it.</s>GUPTA: She picked up the racket and with patient coaching and repetition, she started winning.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she plays Special Olympic competitions they pair her up with men because she's always usually in the top division.</s>BRITTANY TAGLIARENI, COMPETITIVE TENNIS PLAYER: I like competing and the trophies and beating the men.</s>GUPTA: She also competes against people without disabilities.</s>TAGLIARENI: I am very happy about tennis because it is a lot of fun.</s>GUPTA: And it has helped her improve her social skills.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Being out there and being able to be more independent and think for herself, that has changed her life.</s>GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.</s>WHITFIELD: President Trump's firing of James Comey and his tweet seemingly threatening the former FBI director, his phrasing, both those things are raising questions if there is something in the Russia investigation worrying the president. This weekend the president didn't want to elaborate on his suggestion that there may be taped conversations between him and Comey.</s>PIRRO: What about the idea that in a tweet you said that there might be tape recordings?</s>TRUMP: That I can't talk about. I won't talk about that. All I want is for Comey to be honest, and I hope he will be. And I'm sure he will be, I hope.</s>WHITFIELD: House Speaker Paul Ryan wouldn't comment on Trump's tweet about Comey, saying he's focused on other issues.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I'm going to leave it to the president to talk about and defend his tweets. You know what I am focusing on? I'm focused on what is in my control, and that is what is Congress doing to solve people's problems? I am working on healthcare reforms. I'm working on tax reform. Those are the things that I got elected to do. Those are the things that are within our purview in Congress. So I am working on making good that we actually make good on our promises and fix people's problems. That's what's in my control and that's what I'm focused on.</s>WHITFIELD: Let me bring in CNN political commentators Jeffery Lord and Ana Navarro. It is good to see both of you. Jeffery, you first. The D.C. attorney general, among 20 attorney general with a letter demanding a special prosecutor. He says that Republicans are silent about this firing and that it is cowardice. Are Republicans paying a price by their silence?</s>JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Democrats want to make them pay the price. Democrats used to love special prosecutor when they were going after Richard Nixon. And when Nixon fired Archibald Cox, they were agog and made the idea of the special prosecutor into something like a secular saint. Then we got Ken Starr investigating Bill Clinton, and he was sleaze on earth. And then went out there every day with the White House, in the lead, I might add, smearing Ken Starr.</s>WHITFIELD: What now where today there is very little utterance from Republicans about a special prosecutor or about whether the White House is actually right or wrong. So let's talk about the silence and how potentially damaging --</s>LORD: Sure, sure.</s>WHITFIELD: Is it potentially damaging?</s>LORD: No, I don't think it is damaging. I think they ought to take it right to it. There is no there, there, with this investigation. So what is there to say? Democrats keep on pushing this. Where is the proof? There is none. If they want a 9/11 style commission, then do one. But leave the special prosecutor alone. They are the ones who made the idea --</s>WHITFIELD: So nothing should be said about the Republicans even of the firing of James Comey and the manner in which it was done? Jeffery?</s>LORD: Well, the president has the right to do that. And I think he did the right thing. There is a column I believe in "The Washington Post" this morning from former attorney general William Barr, a Republican, who says that no Democrat or Republicans who has held these positions or attorney general or deputy attorney general disagrees.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, so, Ana, I heard you said early the GOP lawmakers are enabling Trump, and you said if you the shoe were on the other foot, if this was the kind of sequence of events and it involved Hillary Clinton if she were in the White House, it would be a very different story and there wouldn't be the silence that is so deafening right now.</s>ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Definitely. Does anybody doubt that if it had been Hillary Clinton who had won the presidency and fired Comey after the things he did in October and July regarding her campaign that Republicans would have investigated her to an inch of her life. If you ask me today what the biggest problems we face in politics and government is and why Congress has gotten an approval rating in the teens and President Trump has got an approval rating of 36 percent, I would tell you it's the combination of polarization -- we live in a polarized world where we see everything as blue or red, and add to that, hypocrisy and inconsistency where is good for the goose ends up not being good for the gander when you are the gander.</s>WHITFIELD: Are you disappointed that Republicans, Republican lawmakers are not saying more about every increment of what we've been seeing this week?</s>NAVARRO: First, there are some lawmakers who are speaking. Certainly John McCain, Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake. Some of them have expressed reservations. They've been disturbed. They've been asking for a select committee. They've been asking for a special prosecutor. They've been asking for an independent commission, some sort of entity that can investigate this is a bipartisan or nonpartisan way. So let's just say there are some honorable exceptions in the Republican Party.</s>WHITFIELD: A handful who have been outspoken.</s>NAVARRO: But by and large, I think a large swath of the country feels like the Republican Party is Nero playing the violin while Rome is burning, in this case while Washington is burning. And I just think it is this level of unbelievable tone deafness towards the feeling by so many Americans that this government is in crisis.</s>WHITFIELD: So Jeffery, Paul Ryan says he is focusing on other things. He says he wants to concentrate on things, quote, in his control, "in my control" in his words. But can anything really get done, is anything is in control right now in terms of him and other leadership on the Hill to be able to carry through an agenda?</s>LORD: Speaker Ryan is exactly right. That's his job, and he did his job here with much criticism, I might add, including some from me.</s>WHITFIELD: But he's the House speaker. He is leadership in the House.</s>LORD: Correct. Correct. And that's his job is to get that healthcare reform bill passed, to get tax reform passed, to get legislation passed. That's his job. Ditto with Senator McConnell over there in the Senate. That is their job. They need to stick to their knitting and get this stuff done.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, Ana, what's your challenge to Republicans?</s>NAVARRO: Look, I hate picking a bone with Paul Ryan. He's a friend of mine. I happen to love the guy. But I think he needs to walk and chew gum at the same time. I think you can applaud President Trump's efforts on healthcare if that's where you lie. I think you can applaud his naming of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. But I think that when he does something like threaten, make a veiled threat against the former FBI director, I think that when he tries to intimidate Sally Yates on the day of her testimony, I think that when he tweets out against judges, I think people expect for leaders to step up and condemn that. That you are a Republican leader does not mean that you are a cult member of the Donald Trump cult. It means that you call him and you see them, and that when he does things that should be applauded you do, when he does things that should be condemned, you have a spine, you have a conscience, and you have loyalty to the country and the Constitution of the United States that you will speak up, you wake up, and you act on it.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it right there. Ana Navarro and Jeffery Lord, good to see both of you. Thank you so much.</s>LORD: Thanks. Thanks, Ana.</s>NAVARRO: Happy mother's day to your mom.</s>WHITFIELD: And happy mother's day to you, too. Thank you so much. And to the mother of your world as well, Jeffery Lord, appreciate it. All right, coming up, a virus locking up thousands of computers around world, holding files for ransom. But one man says he has found a key to disabling it. We'll talk to him live, next.