Interview with VA Attorney General on UVA Rape Case.
BOLDUAN: The story in "Rolling Stone" was shocking. Well, now its retraction is sending out shock waves. The magazine has taken back its story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. An outside investigation found major editorial errors and said this failure of journalism could have been avoided. The author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, has apologized for her mistakes. UVA's president said that the story damaged innocent people, did nothing to combat sexual violence and hurt serious efforts to address what is a very serious issue. Mark Herring is Virginia's Attorney General. He is joining us by phone. Mr. Attorney General, I really appreciate you jumping on. This is a story that everyone paid attention to when it came out and now, as equally interested in the fallout, realizing that it basically was all made up. You issued a strong statement following the release of the review last night, saying this in part, "'Rolling Stone' failures have put survivors in a more difficult position, shaking the university community and injected doubt in a moment when we are building momentum around efforts to end campus sexual violence." I want to get your personal take, if you will. What was your initial reaction when you realized that this was all essentially made up?</s>MARK HERRING, VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL (via telephone): Well, we were working hard on this issue, in Virginia, for months, well before the "Rolling Stone" article came out. We were determined then just as we're determined now to take concrete steps to eliminate sexual violence from college campus, and we're not going to let the shortcomings of the "Rolling Stone" article detract from that mission.</s>BOLDUAN: Do the shortcomings in the "Rolling Stone" article, and when you hear your statement and statement of UVA's president doing nothing to help combat sexual violence, does that hurt your efforts?</s>HERRING: Well, certainly that's a major concern and that's why I want every student in Virginia to know that if I had been a victim, that they should never feel further victimized by a response that is inadequate or suspicious or judgmental. And what we're working on, in Virginia, is to make sure that the students here know that if they report sexual violence or sexual misconduct, they are not going to be pressured. They are not going to be judged. And they will be treated, at all times, with the respect and compassion they deserve.</s>BOLDUAN: Is that your biggest fear at this point? That that message, no matter how many times you say and how forceful you say it, that that message is not going to be heard on that college campus now?</s>HERRING: Well. this issue cannot and will not be pushed back into the shadows. We are moving forward and while the Rolling Stone article might have taken a lot of attention away from that important point, because we were trying to get to the facts and to the bottom of it, it's now time to get back to the issue of how best to have a survivor</s>BOLDUAN: I absolutely appreciate that you are being diplomatic and careful in your language, Mr. Attorney General. The university, they seem outraged. I'm sure you, personally, are outraged, as well, on how all of this went down. The review of this story says, that brought this issue to light, basically said there's institutional failures, from top down, that could have been avoided if basic questions and basic skepticism had been applied. No one, though, connected to the story is seeing any punishment. They think the people involved in this story in writing this story, have already faced punishment enough. Do you agree?</s>HERRING: Well, the degree in which this could have been prevented is really shocking. And Rolling Stone's failure have put survivors in a more difficult position. They have shaken the university community and injected doubt in a moment when, you know, we were really moving forward around efforts to end campus sexual violence, to see systematic and internal failure laid there and to hear that there is no accountability is really hard for me to understand.</s>BOLDUAN: Will you read "Rolling Stone" again?</s>HERRING: I like to take my news from a lot of different sources.</s>BOLDUAN: Mr. Attorney General, Mark Herring, we really appreciate your time. Thank you very much.</s>HERRING: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: And most importantly, good luck on your efforts because it is a huge issue that does continually to need to be discussed, especially in light of this review. Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, clock is ticking against Hillary Clinton. When will she announce her second bid for the White House? We're getting clues about her plans to run. What are those clues? What does it tell us? Oh, were going to look.