lots at stake right now. i ll be back later tonight. 9:00 p.m. eastern, i m filling in for piers morgan only here on cnn. thanks very much for watching. i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next the president scores a big political win today. does that put america closer to launching a strike on syria? then the drug nicknames mali being glamorized in songs and pop culture. also being blamed for deaths. tonight we speak to an addict who tells us why that high is unlike any he s ever had. and a judge is ruling on a taboo subject. is there ever a time it would be okay to say the n-word at work? the judge ruled on this. let s go outfront. good evening, everyone, i m erin burnett.
of the united states will turn its back on this moment. if he doesn t get the votes, i know that s not the scenario you want, but if he doesn t get it, will he still strike? i think it will be a little bit of a hypothetical right now to discuss what happens if congress should vote no. he intends to win the passage of the resolution. and on the case that he does not, is the plan that he well, we re not contemplating not because it s too dire. we re not contemplating that. it s a hypothetical. the problem is, it could happen. outfront tonight, former pentagon and white house advisers during the george w. bush administration and matt bennett who worked in the clinton white house. good to have both of you, matt, let me start with you because i talked to congressman peter king last night and i asked him about the possibility of a no vote from congress. a republican, a man who is often very critical of the president on these sorts of things. here s what he said constituti
times. and i protested, you know, i said i don t appreciate it, you know, i m offended that you re calling me such. it was a hurtful experience for me. it was extremely hurtful. i was extremely offended. jury obviously sided with her it was inappropriate $280,000 she s going to get. is this the right outcome? you know, it s tough. and hearing it i have a slightly different opinion than when i just read it, right? there s a different texture and context. language is about context. clearly the boss was inoappropriate and the language was offensive and abusive but i don t think it rises to the level of discriminatory. on the tape she didn t say she was offended because you called her the n-word, she was offended because i m not that. she s actually disputing that she was acting that way as opposed to it itself. i don t think she read it as a racial epithet. i think she was reading it as a
descripter of being bad and lazy. i don t think that he intended a racial epithet. i m floored. go ahead. i m floored and mark and i are friends and we know each other quite well and i always value your opinion, mark, but the bottom line is this word can t be retooled and reshaped. it shouldn t be used by anyone and the court i think and the jury spoke rather firmly that when you find a hostile work environment as this jury did, that this conduct, these terms are offensive, objectively. that means across the board. that means they can t be used by black people. they can t be used by white people. they can t be used by purple people. they can t be used by anyone. and that really is, i think, sort of reflective of where our society is right now. the law s a pendulum, right? swicks in ss in and it swicks inwings in to tel what s appropriate. the n-word needs to be retired and it s not appropriate anywhere in any context. can the courts decide whether a word is usable or right? son
overheat, and the more the body overheats especially in these environments that are so hot to begin with, it can create death, heart attack. the body just fries. reporter: he knows it all too well. he estimates he s taken ecstasy and molly hundreds of times and has seen friends die from molly. he said he s been clean for one year. he was once addicted to cocaine, heroin and alcohol. but it s molly that scares him the most. people don t know how they re going to react to molly. it s the kind of drug that you don t know, i mean, if you ve never taken it, how you are going to react to it and you could be one of those people it s going to kill immediately. absolutely totally. so in that respect it s far more dangerous than other drugs. but it does remain the drug of choice among the young. and that s according to counselors we spoke to here in los angeles specifically in hollywood. as far as the rest of the country, it is very difficult to track, erin. it does behoove you, though, to