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Erin Burnett Outfront
Facebook Frenzy; GOP Attack Ad; White Minority
Aired May 17, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, HOST: OUTFRONT, breaking news. Facebook, should you buy?
And more breaking news, we've got nearly 200 pages in evidence in the Trayvon Martin case just released. We've been going through them and we have for you some new photos of George Zimmerman the night the event happened.
And the sudden loss of a beloved disco queen. Let's go OUTFRONT.
I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news. The market plunged today to its lowest level since January. The reason, in part, a continuing fear about Greece. So tonight the big question is will the late-breaking news from Facebook be enough to turn the mood of America?
Facebook will begin trading for the first time ever tomorrow morning. So it priced tonight at $38 for a single share. When you add it altogether, it is the biggest IPO in American history. The Facebook obsession in this country reminding us of the 1983 classic movie "Trading Places".
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BURNETT: I remember IPOs like that. All right. There are a few trading floors left. Computers have replaced the conventional pit mostly, but when trading begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for Facebook, and it's going to happen at 11:00, which isn't when the market opens. It's about an hour and a half after the market opens, because well computers aren't like people. It's going to take them longer to figure out the right price.
There will be a frenzy of trading going on though. The stock, as I said, $38 for a single share priced just tonight. It is the biggest IPO in this country's history. Twice the size in fact of the second biggest. It will open with a value of $104 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is sort of the Justin Bieber of the Internet. I mean look at this.
This is for a tech guy doing an IPO. See why we think Justin Bieber. A few weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg was mobbed in his hoodie as he arrived at an event in New York City. I mean look at all this. It's like -- this is like what paparazzi for Angelina Jolie. The 28- year-old Harvard dropout is one of the richest in this country. Tonight worth $19.1 billion according to Bloomberg and that doesn't include a few billion you know whatever in Facebook options.
You say my god, that's a lot of money. Sure, but only good enough to be the 30th richest person in the world and it's pocket change compared to Bill Gates. He's worth $60.4 billion. OK, but what does this mean to you or me or the 900 million people who have Facebook accounts? And I'm going to have more on that crucial number in a moment, but the truth is most of us couldn't get shares even if you try.
About 85 percent of them went to big institutional investors, Fidelity, Vanguard type of companies. As for the rest of us, I called some brokers today who had Facebook shares to allocate to their clients and one said and I'm quoting him here, "demand was overwhelming", huge. It was huge. People were putting in orders until the last second." He said no one actually got as many shares as they really wanted.
They had to effectively ration them. But should you buy tomorrow? So here's how day one could go. This is the day when regular people can start buying, right? Once it starts trading, you could theoretically buy. So you should expect and I'm not sure this will happen, but likely you could get a big pop.
Last year look at Internet IPOs, they jumped 34 percent on average on their first day of trading. This is on purpose. They price it low because they want that pop because that gets more people excited to come in and buy. That number though, that 34 percent jump is skewed because some IPOs jump a heck of a lot more than that. Take a look at Groupon. It opened at $20 a share.
It's now trading at just over 12. OK that could be Facebook. But so could Google be Facebook. It debuted at $85 a share and it's now at $623 a share. Pretty amazing. Peter Kenny and Peter Costa join me now, two traders who have seen this in and out, spent a lot of time on the New York Stock Exchange floor. So, hype, what do you think, Peter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I absolutely think it's over hyped. You know, if you look at it, the company has 900 million subscribers or users on a monthly basis. You know how much more can they grow? I mean they can grow overseas, but as far as reaching saturation point, I think they have reached saturation point in this country. I think you know there's some room overseas but then you have companies like Ren-Ren (ph) which is a huge player in China and you know that would be their biggest market if they were going to go and be involved in another market and Ren-Ren (ph) has got that market, so -- BURNETT: And that 900 million number, which is the number of accounts they have. You know I think I have a few Facebook accounts that people have set up over the years. I don't remember the names on them and I know I don't use them but I know they count in the 900 and I'm not saying that all of them are like that. I know most people are very active, but a lot of these numbers are -- they are bigger than they really are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, they really are bigger and the question is how large are they and how effective are they in terms of being able to monetize the numbers. This is really a story about earnings at the end of the day.
BURNETT: People on their page seeing your ad --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do they click on it?
BURNETT: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How effective is the targeted advertising and how much monetization can take place as a result of that click.
BURNETT: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And 900 million users, monthly users worldwide, to Peter's point, China has effectively blocked Facebook from what I understand.
BURNETT: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there is growth opportunity in the emerging world, but --
BURNETT: People are using Ren-Ren (ph). So, Peter, what do you think will -- what will happen tomorrow?
PETER COSTA, NYSE FLOOR TRADER: All right. Now if I --
BURNETT: Play this out hypothetically.
COSTA: Hypothetically, I think the opening will be -- I would say -- this is a guess, but I would think probably 40 percent over the offering price. So you've got to figure around 52 to $55. This is just a guess.
BURNETT: Yes, yes.
COSTA: And then I think that you know it could go from -- after that with electronic trading, this could go as high as 70, it could down back down to 38. I don't think it will break through 38 if there's an overwhelming you know supply of shares coming onto the market. But I do think that this stock is going to trade above 38 most of the day.
BURNETT: Do you think that's right, it could open as high as 52, 55? And everybody this is what's happening --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a guess.
BURNETT: To give everyone a sense, at 9:30 in the morning when the market opens, Facebook will not. They'll be trying to find out what the right opening price is. It will take them an hour and a half to do that. That's what Peter is saying. When you finally see the first price on the board, it could be as high as $55.
PETER KENNY, FORMER NYSE FLOOR TRADER: That's what Peter's (INAUDIBLE).
BURNETT: Yes.
KENNY: I don't have a position in terms of price.
BURNETT: Yes.
KENNY: It's clearly been well bid. They've established that they're going to put more shares on the market. I know that Knight is going to be -- probably be the number one trader of the name tomorrow.
BURNETT: That's your company.
KENNY: That Knight Capital will be the number one trader of those shares.
BURNETT: Are you guys ready, coming in early?
KENNY: We couldn't be more operationally ready for this day. We couldn't be.
BURNETT: What time are people coming in?
KENNY: Let's just say we're ready to go.
BURNETT: This is sort of all hands on deck?
KENNY: Absolutely.
BURNETT: This is CNN breaking news --
KENNY: We are 100 percent ready to go.
BURNETT: Well, OK. So then what happens then after day one? Because we were talking about this. On day one -- by the way, half of the IPOs everybody last year in the world of tech fell on their first day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BURNETT: I think it's pretty safe to say everybody would be shocked if that happens; it's not going to happen here. It's going to go up. But then what about day two. Say you do go to 55 at the open and then you go to 70 and then I mean is that the -- by the next day and you catch it coming down?
COSTA: Well I'm there will be -- will be people trying to catch any kind of dip in the stock I -- and there will be dips.
BURNETT: Yes.
COSTA: I mean there will be opportunities. I mean for traders, this is an opportunity to trade. As far as an investor you know what, I'm not going to go into like long-term investing on something like this.
BURNETT: Right.
COSTA: But I think as far as the short term you know trading over a period of a couple of days, what's going to end up happening, though, as many happy people that you're going to say made a ton of money on the Facebook deal, there's going to be as many if not more people that are going to be upset about losing money.
BURNETT: Right, people who got in late.
COSTA: Right.
BURNETT: Smaller people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's generally the case on these kinds of stocks.
BURNETT: All right, well thanks very much to both of you. We appreciate it. We'll be talking to you tomorrow. This is going to be just an exciting thing to watch, so everybody you know tweet, let us know. Let's have a little competition. Who's going to get the opening price right?
OK, ahead a Republican plan leaked detailing how to attack President Obama and his ties to a controversial pastor. Sorry I'm reaching, but here it is. The defeat of Barack Hussein Obama, you get the sense of the tone of this just by that.
Plus Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan is going to have to go to Congress to explain the billions of dollars in losses which are rising every day, but will he actually show up?
And breaking news in the Trayvon Martin case. We -- as I said, we have new pictures we're going to be able to show you tonight of George Zimmerman which were just released along with Trayvon Martin's autopsy report, which shows there was something in his system. We're going to tell you what it was.
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BURNETT: A story caught my attention today about asteroids. NASA has given an update on what they call PHAs, potentially hazardous asteroids. Talk about an acronym when you don't need one, OK. In order for an asteroid to be deemed a PHA, though, it has to come within five million miles of earth and have a diameter of 100 meters. And you say oh whatever, five million miles, what are you even talking about this for. Well here's why.
If earth were struck by an asteroid 40 meters across, it would be similar to the impact of a three mega ton nuclear bomb. Now I don't want to make any jokes about current global affairs, but that's much bigger than anything a lot of people are worried about causing a problem in certain regions right now. So how many potentially hazardous asteroids are there? OK, that's our number, 4,700 PHAs. NASA says that this number is plus or minus 1,500.
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BURNETT: I'm sorry. OK, but still, I mean even if it's minus, it's still more than I am comfortable with, OK, 3,200. But they have only found 20 to 30 percent of them so it could be way, way higher. Anyway, the dinosaurs, I know that's controversial, but you know what I'm talking about. Are we living in an unprecedented time period of peace and prosperity?
All right, our second story OUTFRONT, a $10 million ad blitz linking President Obama to his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is being planned by a Republican Super PAC or at least it was until today. According to "The New York Times" the proposal was called "The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama". I have a copy of it here.
It's a lovely 54 pages long. It ends with a page with a chicken on it and it was commissioned by the founder of TD Ameritrade billionaire Joe Ricketts. Now he says he's not going to go forward with it. Now remember Reverend Wright caused problems for President Obama back in 2008 when a clip emerged where he says "GD America". Well John Avlon is with us and Reihan Salam, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons joins us from Washington. You know look, we could get hit by an asteroid and all this would start to look in perspective, guys, but --
REIHAN SALAM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well Ben Affleck would ride to the rescue, Erin.
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JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You can't just depend on Ben Affleck --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk about a PHA, it's a potentially hazardous advertisement --
SALAM: Ben Hussein Affleck (ph) as some of us like to call him --
AVLON: I mean that would put things in perspective.
BURNETT: Yes. AVLON: But this is -- in our current, you know, political reality, this is an unbelievable document. I mean it is -- this really pulls back the curtain on the sleaziness of the Super PAC economy. And for folks at home who hear you know metro sexual black Abe Lincoln and you know, which is one of their strategies and --
BURNETT: Right.
AVLON: You know there's a lot of absurdity in this that makes you think it's just done by total -- some total fringe festival you know person who has no standing in the Republican Party.
BURNETT: Right.
AVLON: The guy who put this together for a fee, a potential fee of $10 million was Fred Davis (ph), who's the nephew of Senator James Inhofe. He's a very successful, very prominent Republican ad man. So this is not just some fly-by-night. This is a 54-page detailed proposal.
BURNETT: Yes.
AVLON: And the more you read it, the more you should be offended if you're paying attention.
BURNETT: Well I mean it is -- it is a pretty amazing document just to take a look at this. You mentioned metro sexual black Abe Lincoln, so let me just give everyone a quote so you can get a feeling for what's in here. They talk about quote "the metro sexual black Abe Lincoln has emerged as a hyper-partisan, hyper-liberal elitist politician with more than a bit of the trimmer in him." I don't even know what a trimmer is, Jamal. I don't if you do but I know that that sentence is offensive.
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, absolutely it is. And I think some people were responding today about the Cubs, whether or not they want to turn back in their Cubs season tickets because of this, canceling their accounts. I mean this has the kind of thing that really has the potential to blow over into a much bigger scandal both for Joe Ricketts and as I said, a PHA, a potentially hazardous advertisement, for Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney does not want this exploding. He does not want to take the cork out of the bottle on having anything to do with religion or in people's friends and their past, any of these kinds of topics because it's going to get dangerous for everybody.
BURNETT: Go ahead, Reihan.
SALAM: One thing that's important to keep in mind is that Matt Rose (ph) and Mitt Romney have repudiated this document and this strategy. They had nothing to do with it.
BURNETT: Fair point --
SALAM: And the other key thing to keep in mind is that you know the Super PACs are freelancers. These guys, you know despite the fact that, yes it's $10 million. It's going to have a lot of rich people getting involved, but it's actually very chaotic and that's the issue with campaign finance regulation. When you regulate the campaign finance system in my view you create a lot of potential for chaos and lack of accountability. And the thing is that you also have a ton of folks on the "D" side as well who are going to go with attacks that are going to be a little reckless and are going to potentially blow back for the Democrats as well --
BURNETT: And blow back --
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BURNETT: It will look like it's coming from --
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AVLON: The story isn't about regulation. You're right to say the Romney camp had nothing to do with this, that's very important.
BURNETT: Yes.
AVLON: But we never would have known who was paying for this ad or who was benefiting from it financially to a tune of you know not only a $10 million ad (INAUDIBLE) but $30,000 a month. That's one of the dangers of the sleazy side of the Super PAC economy and this document which is designed to prey on people's worst fears, their ugliest assumptions and anxieties --
BURNETT: Right.
AVLON: -- as a matter of systemic strategy, that is what is so astounding about this document.
SALAM: Another thing I want to just throw --
SIMMONS: Erin one other thing --
BURNETT: Go ahead, Jamal.
SIMMONS: There's one other thing that Mitt Romney should be -- you know, should look out for. I think the president has to do the same thing. If anybody else gets close to a line like this, not only do you say I repudiate it, but you sort of have to say anybody else who's involved in this, you you're your persona grata around me. You can't do this and still expect to get anything from me. These people who are doing this aren't just doing this for tickles and giggles. They're doing it because they think they're being good soldiers for whatever candidate they're trying to help.
BURNETT: Let me just throw up the numbers because John mentioned this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BURNETT: I mean $10 million it's a lot of money, that's a problem. But it's nothing compared to Super PACs overall. There's a lot of this stuff going on. Five hundred and forty-four Super PACs in this country right now with about $205 million that they have raised this cycle. They have only spent half of it. I mean that's pretty amazing --
SALAM: I've got to say I just don't think the Super PACs are the problem as such. The problem is that the Super PACs emerged because we're trying to actually prevent money from going into campaigns where that money is actually accountable, where the candidate has to take responsibility for how that money is spent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
BURNETT: Right.
SALAM: I think that's a huge problem.
BURNETT: And we do know who donates to Super PACs. It is -- I mean I have to say that in terms of transparency, it's actually improved versus issue-based stuff that nobody really knows.
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SIMMONS: Erin --
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SIMMONS: What we're doing is we're devolving responsibilities -- as Reihan was just saying, we're devolving responsibility from the candidate, who we get to -- we get to have an opinion about them, to these unnamed faces of people who all of a sudden can inject all of this vitriol into the political process.
BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much to all of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
BURNETT: We'll keep talking when -- if you can get a chance, go online and check this out. It is a pretty stunning document. And again, important to say as offended as you may be, the Romney campaign had nothing to do with, so --
OK, OUTFRONT a new majority. Tonight there is a new majority in this nation and sad news because we have lost the disco queen. Donna Summer, who brought us, well, a number of hits.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Our third story OUTFRONT the changing face of this country. A census report today shows that more than half of babies, they count this as children under the age of 1, in this nation are now minorities. This is the first time in American history that racial or ethnic minorities make up more than half of the children born in the U.S. Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT tonight and Tom, I know we've been sort of reaching this tipping point for a while, but what's the main reason this just happened?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know that's a great question, Erin and look at this, an amazing thing came out with the Census Bureau today. Look at this. If you went into Texas and you went right down to Maverick County, you would wind up in the most minority majority county in the country, about 97 percent of the population there for minority groups. And somewhere in a county like this a baby was born in the last year that tipped over that edge and took it from just under 50 percent to just over 50 percent in terms of the minority babies in this country, people under 1 years old, slightly more minorities than white people right now.
Now, look at this, though. Why did that happen? Because of this massive immigration, largely from Mexico for the past 30 years we've all heard about and because those families are producing more babies per family than most people are here, Erin. That's really the fundamental driver of this change in this statistic.
BURNETT: Now obviously with the adult population I would imagine whites are still the majority. I mean how much so?
FOREMAN: Yes well, you can't get confused by this, can you. It is easy to look at this and say oh everything is changing right now. It is changing but it is actually changing the future. This is the overall numbers right now. Whites are about two-to-one, greatly outnumbering minorities in the country, about 197 million, Hispanics about 52 million, blacks about 44 million, Asian about 18 million and there's some eight million who fall into other categories there.
But here's what really matters and why that change in the babies basically matters in this country. Because look at the median age. White people are the oldest ethnic group in the country right now whereas Hispanics are at 27. You know what this means? People who are in their 40's, this group is less likely to be producing more babies in the future as we move forward. This group is very much in a time in which their families are growing. So what we've seen most recent here is likely to continue at least for a while.
BURNETT: That is a pretty stunning -- a pretty stunning number. In fact that screen there says it all.
FOREMAN: And a big difference --
BURNETT: Thanks to Tom Foreman, something to think about.
And ahead in our second half, we do have some breaking news here in the George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin case. I just want to show this to you. We're going to give you more details. This is just one of the many pictures that we have just obtained. We have photos we're going to show you exactly what they show of George Zimmerman and also what we found out in the Trayvon Martin autopsy about what was in his blood when he died.
And Jamie Dimon invited to Capitol Hill, invited is the word they use, huh? Jamie Dimon is going to have to do a perp walk or something like it in Capitol Hill. We're going to find out if he's actually going to show up -- invited?
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BURNETT: Welcome back to the second half of OUTFRONT. We start the second half of our show with stories we care about where we focus on our reporting from the front lines.
Well, it's almost here. Facebook starts trading tomorrow morning under the ticker FB. It's going to open around 11:00 a.m. It will take the NASDAQ almost 90 minutes to actually get an opening price. It was priced tonight at $38.
Traders telling us tonight earlier on the program it could open as high as $55 a share. One of the big stories surrounding the IPO is the citizenship of one of the co-founders. Eduardo Saverin. He now lives in Singapore. He renounced his U.S. citizenship earlier this year. It was part of a year-long process to do so.
Some say he did it to avoid paying taxes on the money he'll make from the IPO. He was actually born in Brazil and grew up there. He's only been a citizen for about 10 years but that hasn't stopped anyone from getting upset. Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey launching legislation that would prevent Saverin from ever coming back to this country.
In a statement to CNN, Saverin said it is not based on the facts and he will pay hundreds of millions in taxes to the U.S. government as a result of the IPO.
Well, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee will invite JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to testify about how his bank lost $3 billion and counting -- I'm hearing now it could be $4 billion or higher -- on a series of complex trades.
Senator Tim Johnson says he wants to hear from Wall Street regulators first and then he's going to ask Mr. Dimon to appear. According to a spokesperson from JPMorgan, if or when Jamie Dimon is invited, he will appear before the committee, saying, "As always, we will continue to be open and transparent with our regulators and Congress."
Well, Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. died after hanging herself. This is according to a medical examiner's report released today. Her body was found yesterday in an outhouse -- out building on the family's property outside New York City, in a town called Bedford.
Mary married RFK Jr. in 1994. He filed for divorce two years ago. He had struggled with prescription drug and alcohol abuse.
Her family put a statement out late today requesting that the media give them some more space and stop with unneeded speculation. Obviously, the country is fascinated by the story. The couple had four children. They were not present when she was found.
Well, we have some good news on housing today. Foreclosure filings for April fell to the lowest level since July of 2007. That's really important because you all may say, well, yes, that's right before the financial crisis. So that's a really important landmark, and it was the third month in a row of declines.
According to the data, there were 54,415 repossessions. That's down about 25 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac reported rates for a 30-year mortgage at 3.79 percent. That is another record low.
All we can say is unless Greece really blows up and causes a problem around the world, it isn't going to get a lot better than that, people. So, if you want to refi, do it.
It's been 287 days since the U.S. lost its top credit rating. What are we doing to get it back?
Well, it helps to have a fully staffed Federal Reserve board. The Senate confirmed two of President Obama's nominees for governor.
I just wanted -- this is a peeve of mine. Do you know the last time the Fed actually was full, had all of its seats filled was April, 2006. Yes, that means we went through the entire financial crisis without anybody bothering to fill the seats on the Federal Reserve. Talk about a super fail.
Well, our fourth story OUTFRONT: we have breaking news in the Trayvon Martin case. I told you we had these pictures and we want to share them with you now. Obviously, we're talking about the death of Trayvon Martin and we have autopsy results.
First for the Florida teen. They show that he had THC in his system. That is the drug found in marijuana.
Now, the autopsy report also shows that Trayvon Martin was shot from an intermediate range in the heart and lung and that he had a quarter-inch abrasion on the ring finger of his left hand. They say that was the only other physical damage on his body.
The autopsy is part of a lot of documents that came out, hundreds of pages. Photos were released as well as part of the discovery.
Among the evidence, the first photos of the neighborhood watchman after the shooting. I showed you one of them. This is him from the front. As you can see, they say this is a swollen nose.
Obviously you've got a scratch on there. Some people might say that doesn't look that swollen. To look at him exactly compared to how he was before. On the back, though, clearly there was some damage as you can see. I'm looking at these pictures up close and they are, you know, some bruising, cuts and blood all over his head.
Now, Zimmerman has said that it was self defense. Prosecutors say it was murder.
OUTFRONT tonight to help us break it down is forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, CNN legal analyst Mark NeJame and Martin family attorney Natalie Jackson.
So, good to have all of you with us.
Natalie, let me start with you and what we learned about Trayvon Martin, that he had THC, marijuana, found in his system. I've looked at certain parts of this. It's possible that he smoked close to the incident. It's possible he smoked many hours before the incident. Is it relevant?
NATALIE JACKSON, TRAYVON MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: We don't believe that it's relevant. Here we have -- there was a trace amount of THC in his system. With that being said, they cannot say when that was found in his system, what time frame. Was it -- you know, what it did clearly say is that it did not cause -- it was not up to the level of impairment. So, you know, how long it had been in his system, he shouldn't have smoked it but we don't think that it's relevant at all.
BURNETT: Mark, what about the pictures on the George Zimmerman side? You look at the back of the head and you see obviously that he's cut up and bloody. When you look at the front with the broken nose, you know, as a layperson I have to say it doesn't look bad.
MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's going to show that there was mutual combat. I think the fact of the matter is, I had heard through the investigation -- we've been going on behalf of CNN on quite a while now that his nose was in fact broken. I think this now somewhat corroborates it and I think we'll get medical testimony to establish it or not establish it.
From what I understand it was broken. I think you see the back of the head which shows obviously he was on the ground and that was consistent with the earlier police reports showing grass stains on the back of his shirt. So I think that clearly there was mutual combat going on.
What none of this shows is what happened about getting out of the vehicle and how the altercation occurred, which led to the sad death of Trayvon.
But the fact of the matter, I'll say one thing about what Natalie said who I respect greatly. But I think the marijuana could be very significant. The reality is we've got one thing that says THC 7.5 nanograms per millimeter and we've got another 1.5. In some states, that's impairment and you're not allowed to drive and considered legally impaired. Now, we don't know the extrapolation as to time and matters such as that. But it could be that he was high. It could be that he wasn't.
JACKSON: In our state, it's not impairment.
NEJAME: Hold on, hold on. If it does establish over time that he was high, that would not be inconsistent with Zimmerman's statement on the 911 call that somebody looked like they were on drugs. Now, we've got more work to do, everybody's got more work to do to find out, do the extrapolation and get the scientific test. Remember, this is just an M.E. report, it's not a toxicology report.
BURNETT: Natalie, respond and then I've got a few questions for Dr. Wecht.
JACKSON: Well, I'll say the states Mark is talking about, any type of smoking marijuana is illegal and it's not for driving. Not illegal -- in those states where it's illegal, it's not for driving.
In our state the medical examiner said it did not reach the level of impairment. And the level could actually -- it depends on the measurements there and the system, how long it stayed in the system.
I don't want to get on the marijuana because we don't think it's important. Obviously, it's there. As far as Mr. Zimmerman's injuries, I think the prosecutor's affidavit addresses that. They said that George Zimmerman got out of his car and he pursued, confronted, had a struggle with, shot and killed Trayvon Martin.
BURNETT: Dr. Wecht --
JACKSON: I think --
BURNETT: Let me just bring Dr. Wecht in and I have another photo that could be important I want to show.
But Dr. Wecht, first this issue of the gun. We're being told that it was shot from intermediate range. What does intermediate range mean?
DR. CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Intermediate range means probably between 6 to 12 inches. There's a two-inch stippling pattern in diameter around the wound as well as some soot and a hemorrhagic abrasion. I would say that the shot was fired from about 6 to 12 inches.
It went in one inch to the left of the midline, a half an inch below the level of the nipple and proceeded inward. It struck the right side of the heart after penetrating the pericardial sac and then it moved slightly to the right, catching the lower lobe of the right lung. It produced a significant amount of hemorrhage, mostly in the right chest cavity but a substantial amount in the left chest cavity also. The bullet did not exit. One fragment was found behind the heart, lead fragment, and two pieces of the copper casing were found below the lower lobe. So you've got a shot fired from that distance with a front-to- backward direction and slightly to the right.
That could fit in with a scenario with Trayvon Martin on top and Zimmerman grabbing the gun as he's lying there and shooting upward or it could fit in with Zimmerman being on top and shooting the gun from that distance. Of course, Zimmerman will be aware of this story and probably his story is going to be consistent --
BURNETT: That he was on bottom.
WECHT: -- with the findings of the M.E.
BURNETT: >> I'm sure. And he'll point to the back of his head as well.
WECHT: I wanted to make a comment --
BURNETT: Yes.
WECHT: I wanted to make a comment on the marijuana. The blood, I read the report, was taken from chest blood. That is not a quantitative determination. Blood that lies free is not blood taken from a blood vessel.
So that 7.5 nanogram level is meaningless. There was a trace in the urine. There is some marijuana in the blood, it means it was taken -- it was used by him in the few hours preceding this tragic event. But the quantity is invalid because, according to the M.E. report, it was taken from free blood in the chest and that is not the way you take blood for a chemical toxicological determination.
BURNETT: It's interesting just from what all of you are saying, that -- you know, we have hundreds of pages here and more pictures and it doesn't seem it's still going to come down to what two people saw and only one of them is alive.
Mark, let me throw up the picture, though. It's a black and white picture. This is the picture of viewers that was taken by a policeman at the scene. He took one picture from the front on his cell phone when he went to the scene and he forgot about it and then downloaded it. So this is taken the day before these photos that I was holding up that are actually in the report.
Mark, does that show anything more to you? I mean, you know, it's black and white. Does his nose look worse? Does this help or hurt?
NEJAME: No, it's grainy from what I can see. I think that the reality is this is just merely the first chapter. There's so much more work that has to be done in order to really figure out what happened.
The doctors, of course, write about where the blood was captured, that's exactly why I was saying more tests and we have to get the toxicology reports and everything else to figure out what was really going on.
This was just the first chapter of a very, very long book that we're going to be going through for the next several months. We have to figure out -- this is one piece of a puzzle.
So to jump to conclusions either way is inappropriate. We have to simply start mounting each upon the other and then figure out what's happened here. These are merely the first pieces to help get us there.
BURNETT: Right. And to people who are hungry for, you know, more and more information, all right, thanks so much to all three of you. We appreciate it.
And next, remembering the disco queen, Donna Summer.
And a problem with the new prime minister of France. Actually there's a very serious problem with his name. And we're going to tell you exactly why. It could be so offensive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: It's time now for our "Outer Circle".
Tonight, we go to Greece. The country' credit rating cut by ratings agency Fitch today. Elections are in three weeks. There is no government. The country could default and abandon the euro. Will it do it?
Elinda Labropolou is in Athens and I asked her how the people in Greece are reacting to the chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELINDA LABROPOLOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, a new caretaker government has been sworn in in Greece today. This will be the government that will see the country through to the next elections in a month from now. It will be a very polarized public that goes to the polls in a month's time. Greeks are debating whether austerity and the bailouts that they have undertaken from the E.U. and the IMF are really the solution for Greece. We have seen a polarized election in the previous time and now, a lot of questions arise as to whether the Greeks will choose to stay in the eurozone or not, Erin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Thanks very much to Elinda.
And now, let's check in with Anderson Cooper with a look at what's on "A.C. 360" -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "A.C. 360": Hey, Erin.
Yes, we've got more on the breaking news tonight. These are the last video images of Trayvon Martin alive at the 7-Eleven wearing a hoodie, buying the Skittles and iced tea. We are sorting through all these legal documents just released. We're going to go over the findings with legal panel and speak to Martin family attorney Daryl Parks.
Also, tonight, keeping them honest. Staying on the story about charitable donations, money that a lot of people have donated that's actually lining the pockets of almost everyone exempt the veterans who need it most. Tonight, CNN's Drew Griffin knocks on the door of the National Veterans Foundation, a charity with a national hotline supposedly to help veterans. We're going to speak with a charity watchdog group on how you can make sure your money actually goes to people who really need the help.
Those stories and tonight's "Ridiculist," a lot about the world politics, all at the top of the hour, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much to you, Anderson.
Our fifth story OUTFRONT now, the death of the disco queen.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BURNETT: Donna Summer died this morning at her home in Florida with her family by her side. She was only 63. Her spokesperson said the cause was cancer.
The five-time Grammy winner was the voice of the disco era. Her music got millions of Americans out on the dance floor in the '70s and early '80s. She had a record 19 number one dance hits, tied only by Madonna.
At the time, the moans and groans of some of her songs were so shocking it got her banned from some radio stations.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BURNETT: It was a different time to be banned for that. Well, Summer was married with three daughters. While the hits slowed after the disco heyday, her popularity didn't wane.
Today, there were tributes pouring in from everywhere, including the White House.
President Obama said, "Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Donna Summer, a five-time Grammy Award winner. Donna truly was the queen of disco. Her voice was unforgettable and the music industry has lost a legend far too soon. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Donna's family and her dedicated fans."
Her duet partner, Barbra Streisand said, I was shocked to hear about donna, she was so vital the last time I saw her a few months ago. I loved doing the duet with her. She had an amazing voice."
And Quincy Jones tweeted, "Rest in peace, dear Donna Summer. Your voice was the heartbeat and soundtrack of a decade." Something about the 140 characters forces you to be incredibly eloquent.
Music producer Jellybean Benitez worked with Donna Summer and he joins me tonight from Plantation, Florida.
Thanks for being with us, Jellybean.
Just hearing those moans and groans, imagining that being banned these days sort of brings a little bit of a smile to my face. But I just wanted to ask you, when was the last time you heard from her and did you even know that she was sick?
JELLYBEAN BENITEZ, EXEC. PROD. SIRIUS/XM'S STUDIO 54 CHANNEL: No, I didn't know she was sick. I saw her recently at the station at Sirius. She seemed fine them, you know? I didn't know.
BURNETT: So she was -- she was vital and living well until the end.
BENITEZ: Yes. Yes. A great, talented artist. Sorry that she's gone now.
BURNETT: Well, tell me a little bit about how you met her.
BENITEZ: I met her when I was a DJ back in the '70s. It was common for artists to visit DJs at big clubs in New York. And she was warm. Her songs were massive and filled dance floors constantly. She had a string of hits.
And she was very accepting of the club culture and very thankful for the air play that DJs gave her early on in her career.
BURNETT: What's your reaction when -- I guess, they talk about the moans and groans as too erotic for the era. She was obviously very religious. So at the time, that would have been a big choice for her to do that. You know, she was a born-again Christian. Was there any trouble for her in reconciling that or proud to be a pioneer?
BENITEZ: She was really a pioneer in that sense. No one had ever done a record that was so sexual at the time. The tempo of it wasn't consistent with other dance records at the time. The synthesizers, everything about it was cutting edge and she was a trailblazer, long with her producer Giorgio Moroder.
I remember playing that song for the first time and the looks on peoples' faces were like, what is this? The lighting guy made the light start and people seemed to get into it.
BURNETT: Yes. Tell me a little more about that. You're DJ-ing. How popular was it? Was it for younger people who go, I know the name. I have heard some of those songs, but they don't know the context.
BENITEZ: Well, you know, it gave people a chance to touch dance. Most people at that time were just dancing free style all together but all alone moving around and lost in the music. When this song came on, it just created a vibe and an energy that was so different and allowed people just to touch and feel each other in a way that other records didn't. And the fact that it was 17 minutes in length. At most of the time, most songs were three or four minutes long. So this was something unique and just sounded incredible, you know?
BURNETT: Seventeen minutes. I didn't even realize. That must have been -- you know. Maybe a lot of marriages were formed as a result of that, right?
BENITEZ: I'm sure. I'm sure.
BURNETT: I just wanted to play something that she said in an interview with CNN a couple years ago and get your reaction to it. Here she is.
BENITEZ: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONNA SUMMER, SINGER: Well, it makes me feel blessed, just completely blessed. I don't have an answer yet it's the favor of God on me. It really is. Because I go away and come back and they are there. It's like, wow, what a remarkable thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What was she like?
BENITEZ: You know, she was warm, very humble. You know, she just embraced life. She was an amazing vocalist. You know, at that time, there was some studio technology that allowed you to change a voice and make it sound good. Now it's prevalent in every release. Then you really had to be able to sing.
And when you take away all the instrumentation and just listen to her voice, it's just really pure and warm and soulful and sensuous. And, you know, the songs just bring, you know, smiling faces to the dance floor. She had songs about love and most of the songs in the disco era really were get up, get down, let's boogie.
Her songs were about falling in love and enjoying life. So, she was very different in that sense. That's why I believe the songs are still played today.
BURNETT: Jellybean, thank you very much for taking the time.
BENITEZ: Thank you.
BURNETT: Nice to se the day before changing voices and making people sound better, before air bruising, when people had to be real.
Well, next, there's somebody a lot of people, 700 million and counting who might have a major problem with the new French prime minister. France may have a huge problem. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: OK. There's a problem with France's new prime minister. More specifically, the Arab world has a serious problem with his name. Two days ago, this man Jean-Marc Ayrault was appointed the new prime minister. Well, it turns out his last name sounds Ayrault like the Arabic word for "a male body part in third-person singular possessive." I think you know what I'm talking about.
The revelation has been pretty embarrassing for France. It's not like you can discuss it on the radio or flash it on TV. Instead the Arab media has find ways around saying or printing the name. The Dubai-based "Al Bayan" newspaper just used his first name in the headline and some started saying the "T" in his name, so it's Ayrault. It's not just in the Arab world, even CNN has had a tough time describing it. Describing Ayrault is very much like a moderately rub Lebanese and Palestinian term that is widely understood in the Arabic world.
I texted the Arabic-speaking to day the word and he said, what? Are you hanging out with a Lebanese? He didn't know what it means.
It's not the first time we have come across things like this either. I remember at a minister named Le Dung (ph). And, of course, there's the Indian billionaire Anurag Dikshit.
Waiting for his picture? No. Yes. It's not spelled Dixit. It's spelled something different. Look it up.
It's not just a one way street either. The French word to passing gas is Peter. And even English to English isn't safe.
So the next time you're in Britain try asking someone if you'd like a fanny pack. They'll probably tell you to stop being such an (INAUDIBLE).
See you tomorrow. Anderson Cooper starts now.
