an extraordinary scene on capitol hill today. the chinese activist at the center of the firestorm between the united states and china interrupted a hearing, cried out for help. chen guangcheng, the blind dissident who sought refuge in the american embassy in beijing called into an emergency hearing about his case and pleaded through a translator as you can see the call happening, asking specifically to speak with secretary of state hillary clinton. [ speaking foreign language ] >> i really fear for my other family members' lives. we have installed seven video cameras and even with the electric fence. >> now, all of this comes after a whirlwind day of developments that forced the united states to explain why chen accused this country of pressuring him to leave the embassy. after initially saying he wanted to stay in china, he now says he needs to leave the country for his safety. that put u.s. ambassador to beijing, gary locke, on the defensive. >> this was his decision and he indicated to us what he wanted as conditions before he would leave the embassy. he had the option of staying in the embassy for years, if necessary. >> congressman chris smith spoke to chen today. he was overseeing that committee hearing on human rights. he was on the other end of that line and he is outfront tonight. good to see you, sir. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. >> obviously we just saw some video there as the translator was telling you what chen was saying. how did that call come through? it sounded like he asked for secretary of state hillary clinton. did he basically go through the state department switchboard and ended up with you? how did this happen? >> no, that didn't happen. actually pastor bob fu from china aid set up the phone call. i had been trying to days to get in touch with chen guangcheng and he actually made the contact and then we put it, obviously, to the microphone so all could hear some of his comments. he is very, very concerned about his welfare. but even more so about his family, his wife, his extended family, his nephew as well as people like the woman who actually brought him in her car to the embassy. she has disappeared. she may be under house arrest. nobody knows for sure. but she is in a terrible, terrible situation and we're very concerned about her. >> what else did he say? obviously you're talking about we heard some of what he said on the microphone. what else did he say? >> he's also concerned that even though there seemed to be an agreement, and i am very concerned myself that it was never -- or apparently was not written down as to what safeguards he and his family were given and who enforces it. there was a hurry-up effort, it seems to me, to get him out of the embassy. you know, i heard the ambassador say he might stay there for years. but with hillary clinton and her entourage coming in, to get this all done, signed, sealed and delivered before this big summit. >> right. >> my thought is that this should have been done painstakingly slow to ensure if he wants to come to the united states, if he wants asylum for himself and his family, that we leave no stone unturned in order to do that. >> all right, well, thank you very much, congressman, we appreciate it. this is something i've been hearing from a lot of people, which is the u.s. rushed this through and made some serious mistakes and your diplomats are saying that. we have spent the day today talking to chinese dissidents who found refuge in the united states and canada and spoke firsthand about what it's like to be at the center of this kind of drama. we also wanted to find out what actually went down at the embassy in chen went there. i've been to the u.s. embassy in beijing. it is huge. it's an impressive, new building, our second biggest embassy after baghdad and has the most sophisticated anti-bugging technology in the world. that's part of the reason they built it, it's only a few years old. the security firm lawrence livermore designed its counter surveillance. i couldn't bring my blackberry in, take photos and there really were no exceptions to the rule that we experienced. now, a person with intimate knowledge of the embassy today told me in the center of the compound, which is essentially like a college campus, you've got six or seven big buildings, some of them classified, some unclassified, there's essentially a motel 6 style building. that's where the u.s. marines who live at the embassy stay and that is where chen guangcheng stayed as well. i'm told by sources familiar with u.s. diplomatic relations with china, they say that they have never heard of a situation where a chinese dissident was given refuge in the u.s. embassy and then released back into the chinese streets until now. so what will happen to chen? outfront spoke to a chinese woman who was jailed for 17 years for promoting democracy and criticizing the government. now, the clinton administration negotiated his release in 1997. he was talk to our producer in mandarin today recalling the jail guard approaching him in his cell saying you've got two choices. stay in prison here for the rest of your life or leave immediately for the u.s. it was a quick choice he had to make, out of the blue. he chose the latter. he has lived in this country ever since, but he says he longs to go home. now, he says he's indebted to the united states for his freedom but is critical of how chen was treated by the u.s. this is what he said. we've obviously translated it for you. i think the u.s. government didn't handle this well. they were clearly in a hurry to come to an agreement. when asked whaeng chen's future in china will be he said, quote, it's unimaginable what will happen to chen if he stays in china. the chinese government will find ways to punish him. diplomatic sources seconded that telling me the chinese government will likely deal with chen in a hard-handed way perhaps sending him to a remote location for house arrest. i was told, quote, every day is an embarrassment for senior chinese officials right now. they're ready for the biggest change since 1989. saving face is important. the u.s. didn't get this right either, sending a desperate man to what could be a terrible fate. stan grant and jim frederick have a cover story on this called "the people's republic of scandal" and i've got it right here. it's a great read. let me start with you, stan. i know you talked to gary locke today, the u.s. ambassador. you also had another chance to speak with chen. do you get a sense of what's going to happen here or is this going to be in limbo and chen may just, quote unquote, disappear? >> reporter: i can tell you what is happening right now, erin, and that is that a man who's in fear of his life, in fear of the safety of his family, is right now in a hospital, surrounded by chinese guards who are not even letting u.s. officials in to see him. that's his situation. at the same time he's calling into the u.s. congressional hearing. he's speaking to us and saying over and over again, get me out of here. yesterday when he spoke to us, he appealed directly to president obama saying please, sir, do everything you can to get me and my family out of this country and to safety in the united states. now, this is someone who's heard directly from authorities back in his village saying they are waiting there in his house with weapons if his family is in fact sent back there. so this is a very, very desperate man right now and very, very concerned about how this was rushed through in the embassy. he says he didn't have all the information and he was being urged to leave the embassy. now he regrets doing so, erin. >> jim, this does seem that this was bungled. is that your sense and your reporting? >> reporter: oh, yeah, this was handled very badly. it was a lose-lose situation in which the united states to make sure this diplomatic meeting concluded on schedule on thursday, it seems like they made a lot of quick choices and bad choices. chen is in a very bad spot and this could be very bad for the obama administration. >> and do you think the president is going to be forced to end up speaking out on this? whether he wants or doesn't want to, obviously that is a huge diplomatic question for the president of the united states to speak. >> i don't think he can stay silent on this because this has grown into a much larger issue. i think this will come back to haunt the administration because i think over history, history will judge this as a rush to make sure that something happened, and it turned out it wasn't the right thing. >> stan, what can you tell us chen is talking about? obviously he's in the hospital and senior diplomatic officials have been telling me maybe he'll stay there a little while, while both sides figure out what the heck they're going to do here. we were just hearing from congressman smith about the woman that drove him to the embassy, that she's missing. how many people are currently involved in this, perhaps facing repercussions from chinese authorities right now, from your reporting? >> reporter: this is a really interesting issue, because we actually spoke to the lady that brought him to beijing. we interviewed her late last week. about an hour after we spoke to her, that's when she was taken away and hasn't been heard from since. we spoke to another activist friend of chen's who actually took him to the u.s. embassy. again, a couple of hours later, he was taken away and questioned. later he was released. there was incredible image yesterday of a man standing outside the hospital, demonstrating in favor of chen and in front of television cameras, security there came and dragged him away horse fully. that tells you something. that tells you that despite the talk of the deal between china and the u.s., here is a manholed up in this hospital, surrounded by security who do not even care what the rest of the world seize or thinks. they're prepared to lock people up and drag people away with impunity. >> final word to you, jim. there are serious issues going on in the chinese government. >> yeah. as you said they're looking forward to a smooth transfer of power, but these two scandals have knocked the narrative off course, both internally and around the world. people are wondering if the communist party actually knows what it's doing or has its act together. more than anything else, the communist party is just trying to get through this because they're panicked. >> all right, well, thank you very much. it's an amazing moment in history just to watch all of this happening. thanks very much to both of you. outfront story two is next. still outfront, adult sex slaves. >> this man is getting these women through internet sites and started prostituting them. all this outfront when we come back. for three hours a week, i'm a coach. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. i have to be a tree in the school play. good. you like trees. well, i like climbing them, but i've never been one. good point. 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( announcer ) fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. ahead outfront, new evidence in the trayvon martin shooting. we have details of what happened in those exact moments when george and trayvon met. and a look inside herman cain's head. our second story outfront. tonight the fbi pleading for more women to come forward. it's an extraordinary sex trafficking case out of california that authorities are calling tragic. >> what was so tragic to me is people that are down on their luck, sometimes they turn to the internet, you know, because they want to find a relationship where they think someone is going to take care of them. in this particular instance, we find somebody who is, has -- or allegedly is intentionally luring them in because he's going to prostitute them out for his own personal gain. >> ra shawn kevin porter has indicted under slavery statutes for getting women to fall in love with him before turning them into prostitutes. he found his victims on website which include craigslist and seekingarrangements.com. he wined and dined them for months at a time and then turned them into prostitutes. miguel marquez has been following the story for us outfront and joins us now. miguel, this is pretty incredible, especially these sites that they have used. i know you talked about five victims coming forward. the fbi says there's more. how many more do you think? >> reporter: they believe as many as 12, 13, perhaps 14 women out there that were taken in by this guy. it was absolutely stunning that he was able to take these women for months at a time, sometimes over a year he would groom them and turn them into prostitutes. but the fbi or local police here in california really want to hear from these other women because this trial is set to start in june, erin. >> miguel, what -- how -- how exactly -- we were talking a little bit about how he operated and how he worked, but what more have you found about how it goes from wining and dining to turning someone into a prostitute? >> reporter: he worked hard at it. from all accounts, he was a very charismatic man. he would literally put ads on craigslist or seeking arrangements looking for dates essentially. he would lure them in. he would convince them it was love, that it was a monogamous relationship, that he was the only one for them. that they could trust in him. in some cases it took months. in one case it took a year and a half before he started allowing these women -- or making these women go on nonsexual dates and then it morphed into sexual dates. at one point they were locked into a motel 6 literally days on end for months at a time turning tricks for as little as $100 for 15 minutes. >> thanks very much, miguel. appreciate it. last night mitt romney's senior adviser said his candidate has been consistent on his views on the auto bailout, but does it add up? next. 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[ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. coming up outfront, some developing news in the trayvon martin case, and the unpredictable herman cain, the way i love it, live. in living color. first, our third story outfront. gm reported a billion dollars in earnings today. it was the ninth profitable quarter in a row. mitt romney's position on the bailout is still being debated. so remember this. mitt romney wrote an op-ed titled "let detroit go bankrupt." that was back in 2008. now, newspaper editors write the headlines so he did not choose that one but it still haunts him today, because it implied that while he thought everything barack obama was doing was wrong. if he had a problem with the way his position was characterized in that head line, he didn't say so publicly. but at a debate here on cnn earlier this year, he explained, frankly using the same words that he used in that op-ed, his point of view. >> my view with regards to the bailout was that whether it was by president bush or by president obama, it was the wrong way to go. i said from the very beginning they should go through a managed bankruptcy process, a private bankruptcy process. we have capital markets in bankruptcy. it works in the u.s. >> now, mitt romney's senior adviser is saying that president obama followed mitt romney's advice on the bailout. so is that true or is mitt romney trying to have it both ways? john avlon joins us, reihan salam and michael waldman all with us now. let me ask this question, reihan. obviously mitt romney when he wrote that op-ed used the words managed bankruptcy, and he used in the cnn debate. now that people like the bailout and think it worked, i'm going to say it was my idea. but i was cool having people think that i thought it was terrible. >> well, this is the problem in politics with anything that requires more than three sentences worth of explanation. he backed a managed bankruptcy process and we saw a managed bankruptcy process. we saw a process that many people thought was not managed terribly well, that rewarded some creditors over others and rewarded the uaw in a way that was actually pretty inappropriate. so i think that's the concern. the idea is if you had a clean managed bankruptcy process, you could have had a company on a sounder footing, but also a company that wouldn't have as huge an advantage over ford as gm does now. if the taxpayers had been less generous, you might have had a somewhat different outcome. but i think you're absolutely right to say that, look, this is a problem when you have to explain a complex idea in a complex evolving situation, that's always going to be politically difficult. >> these aren't words most americans are used to but i can boil this down pretty simply. barack obama managed the unions in a very different way mitt romney would have managed the unions. this is a union question. >> it's a union question downstream. when mitt romney wrote that op-ed with the head ryan "let detroit go bankrupt" he was placing a bet on an argument being made at the time. bush started with the bailouts, obama continued, stopping that freefall so they get to that place in managed bankruptcy. there's a clear contrast. he said if the bailouts occurred, kiss the auto industry goodbye. that's far from what happened. in fact it's back. all of a sudden eric says that actually obama followed romney's advice, you've got a fundamental problem in politics perception and this does not pass the smell test. >> i think a lot of people actually perceive mitt romney to basically say let them go under, let all the jobs be gone, which to be honest he did not say. but that nuance is -- it requires a couple of sentences, as ryan said. >> even the experts and people in the auto industry will say that without the federal money there would have been a liquidation if he had gone bankrupt. but this is a big problem for him because when a bapoliticians faced with a position that's unpopular or something they wish they hadn't done, they have to figure out what to do with it. so here he says t