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Obama's Approval Rating Takes Nose-dive; Feds Made Thousands of Apple Data Requests Last Year; Colorado Wildfire Ruled Arson; Baseball Safety; Putin Denies Super Bowl Ring Theft; CNN's Zoraida Sambolin Recovering

Aired June 17, 2013 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Awkward. Obama, Putin sit down to talk Syria, but this may be on the table, too.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No one is listening to your telephone lines.

COSTELLO: But fresh from the NSA leaker, American spies hacked top secret Russian communications during the last summit.

Plus, homicide. Colorado's Black Forest fire ruled a crime scene. Two dead, hundreds of others lucky.

BILL MOREAU, LOST HOME IN FIRE: All the other stuff, that means nothing. That is what we bought insurance for. But it's the things that represent our family's heritage.

COSTELLO: And ring row. Patriots' owner Robert Kraft versus Russia President Vladimir Putin. Did Putin steal Kraft's Super Bowl ring? Putin says no and, furthermore, he says, it's weird.

And line drive to the head. Is it time for pitchers to wear helmets? Some say emphatically, no.

JIM LEYLAND, DETROIT TIGERS MANAGER: We're going to look like a bunch of mechanical men going around. We're going to be placing people here and there with all this equipment on. We're going to look like Star Wars before it's all over. I'm not all for that. I think the game is the game and that's just what it is.

COSTELLO: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning, thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello.

We begin with a CNN exclusive. President Obama's approval ratings have dropped bigtime. According to a CNN/ORC poll, President Obama is down eight points from last month, yes. But the most troubling thing about this new poll for the Obama administration iss for the first time most Americans do not believe the president is honest and trustworthy.

Right now, President Obama is in Northern Ireland meeting with leaders of the world's most powerful nations at the G-8 summit. On the agenda, Syria. The United States will arm the rebels there after discovering the Assad regime used chemical weapons on its citizens. Russia is against that move. The president will sit down with Russia's president this afternoon to talk about Syria, and that could be awkward because a funny thing happened on the way to the G-8 summit.

Shocking new revelations from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. "The Guardian" newspaper cites documents from Snowden that say U.S. spies based in Britain reportedly tapped into communications from Russian officials during the G-20 summit in 2009. Yes, U.S. spies spied, allegedly, on the Russians.

Our White House correspondent Jessica Yellin is traveling with the president. Good morning, Jessica.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. President Obama and British Prime Minister Cameron just wrapped up a local field trip. They went to the town of Enniskillen, visiting local school children. But you know they're going to get down to serious business soon and among the topics, no doubt, how to handle allegations of spying that appeared "The Guardian."

So far both countries have refused comment on the report you mentioned, which claims spy agencies for the U.S. and the U.K. spied on foreign leaders, including the President of Russia, the last time the British hosted one of these global summits in 2009. These allegations certain to add tension to the meeting between President Obama and Russian President Putin, which comes up just a few hours from now, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, on a separate note, we have to go back to the new CNN/ORC poll that shows the president's approval rating dropping precipitously. Especially troubling for the president, perhaps, and the the Democrats overall, is part of that drop is from young people. Young people are leaving the Democrats in droves, it seems.

YELLIN: Well, they're leaving -- their approval of the president has collapsed in the last month and it really is an astonishing cratering in the president's core base of support. Not necessarily a move among parties, but for the president, a 17-point plunge among young people under the age of 30.

A bunch of factors contributing to that, Carol. Among them, six in ten Americans say they object to the way the president has handled surveillance. You know online privacy matters a great deal to young people. The president's approval on terrorism, though still high, took a 13-point hit in the last month.

And, listen to this. As you point out, the president's strong suit has long been that people consider him honest and ethical. But now the number who find him trustworthy has fallen by eight points. That since the IRS controversy and the leak investigations hit. Now down to 49 percent. Not a lot of silver lining in this poll.

COSTELLO: Jessica Yellin reporting live for us. And the plummeting in the president's approval rating catching the eye of House majority leader Eric Cantor. In an interview on CNN's NEW DAY, Cantor said the numbers reflect the impact of those recent scandals on the administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), MAJORITY LEADER: Well, certainly, I would think it's troubling for the president in the fact that half the American people now don't think the president is trustworthy and honest. And what they're witnessing is a Washington and a government that has abused its power and, frankly, has lost focus on the issue that most Americans care about, which is getting people back to work. And that's why we as House Republicans are very focused on trying to restore the faith in our government and the trust that people should have in that government, as well as their faith in the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Cantor said he believes the recent hearings on Capitol Hill, many launched by his fellow Republicans, will not only help gain clarity on curtain (ph) controversies but prevent similar controversies in the future.

Big data, big business, and big government. According to Apple, federal, state and local authorities made between 4,000 and 5,000 data requests about Apple users in the last seven months alone.

CNN's Christine Romans is the anchor of "YOUR MONEY". So, do we know how many of these were related to national security?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't know exactly how many were related to national security. What the companies say is they can only tell us all federal, state and local law enforcement is 4,000 to 5,000 requests covering 10,000 accounts or devices. That's what Apple says.

But what we do know, Apple says most of these are related to typical police work. What do we mean by that? We mean missing persons, looking for someone with Alzheimer's, trying to prevent a suicide, and mreesz crime investigations like cyberstalking and the like. So those are what most of these requests are for. Apple very clear to say that they don't always say yes to these requests if they have reason to doubt them.

This is what the government can't see, Apple says -- iMessages is encrypted. So is FaceTime, Carol. Map searches. Siri requests. Those are in a format that they can't turn over to enforcement. Also your location services.

We've heard now from Apple. We've also heard from Facebook and a couple others. One by one, they have been saying, look, we want to tell the public exactly what kind of information we're sharing and how often we are. So Apple 10,000 accounts over those last seven months. Facebook says in the second half of last year, Carol, similar kinds of information for 19,000 accounts and for Microsoft is 32,000.

And, again, Apple says we retrieve and deliver the narrowest set of information possible to the authorities. And you've been hearing from these companies, these tech companies and information companies, they want to tell people sort of what the extent is, their interaction is, with law enforcement because they want people to know that most of these tend to be the typical police investigation-type work. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans reporting live from New York this morning.

Colorado's Black Forest fire is now a crime scene. When investigators find whoever started this fire, they will be charged with murder. The sheriff says the investigation has, quote, "far expanded beyond just my arson investigator. Federal and state investigators will determine the cause of the fire."

CNN's George Howell is live in Colorado Springs. Good morning, George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning. So, we're talking about some 15,000 acres scorched; we're talking about 483 homes destroyed and, as you mentioned, two people who died as a result of this fire. It is all being treated right now as a crime scene.

Now, you see back here, no smoke on the horizon. That is great news. The latest number that we got is that the fire is 65 percent contained and obviously firefighters are still working on that. They're hoping to get more weather, more rain, as we saw over the weekend, to help out with their fight.

But, again, as you mentioned, we have several investigators who will start stepping in as fire suppression passes, as they start looking at the cause of this fire. El Paso County sheriff Terry Maketa explained how they're doing it. Let's listen to what he had to say. We can talk about it here on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TERRY MAKETA, EL PASO COUTNY, COLORADO: We have called in some extra experts and support from ATF and the state. We've assembled, basically, a task force to really dive into this and use the latest technology to try to determine and pinpoint the point of origin, as well as collect any evidence that may be available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And, Carol, the sheriff is very optimistic. He says they're getting much closer to narrowing down the point of origin. That's great news. But again, right now, the focus is fire suppression. This fire is 65 percent contained and we are hoping and even expecting that number to rise, given that we got some rain yesterday.

COSTELLO: That's a good thing. George Howell reporting live from Colorado Springs, Colorado, this morning. What's it going to take for Major League Baseball to protect pitchers? Fans are asking that very question after the Tampa Bay Rays' Alex Cobb was hit on the head by a vicious line drive on Saturday., the second major league pitcher hit this season. Cobb has now been released from the hospital. He says he just has a minor headache, but...

CNN's Rachel Nichols is here with more. The video of this, the moving picture of this line drive to the head, was brutal to watch. It's hard to believe he just has a minor headache.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, people who were there in the stands said that they heard that crack. You know, the thing you usually associate with a great home run crack of the bat. Except that's not what this was. It was the crack of the baseball against Alex Cobb's skull. Very, very disturbing, even just in pictures. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS (voice-over): It is one of the most disturbing sights in baseball. A pitcher, defenseless. Getting hit in the head by a ball traveling more than 100 miles per hour and reaching the mound in about a third of a second.

Tampa Bay pitcher Alex Cobb tweeted that he woke up with, quote, "only a minor headache" the day after being hit by a line drive.

But he's hardly the only victim. Just last month, Toronto's J.A. Happ had to be removed from the field on a stretcher, blood pouring from his ear. Last year, pitcher Brandon McCarthy required emergency brain surgery. He's still struggling with seizures.

BRANDON MCCARTHY, PITCHER: You don't think about it while you're on the mound because that will never have a positive outcome, but when you see it happen and when you see line drives and hard ground balls go up the middle, it definitely does cross your mind.

NICHOLS: And it's not just major leaguers. Gunnar Sandberg was 16 years old when a line drive struck him in the head during a high school scrimmage. Sandberg and his family would now like to see the widespread use of protective pitcher's helmets like this protocol type.

GUNNAR SANDBERG, HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER: I think it'll give everyone who wears it confidence out on the field.

NICHOLS: But while Major League Baseball officials have studied several possibilities, they note such helmets only cover 40 percent of a player's head. Cobb, for example, was hit in the ear, below the calf (ph) line. Anything more protective, like a hockey goalie mask, is too bulky for a player to wear and still pitch properly.

MCCARTHY: Whoever comes up with a solution for this is -- they're never going to have to work again IN their life, and probably for generations of their family won't have to work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS (on camera): Now, that young man that we showed, Gunnar Sandberg, he was saying that, you know, he thought that these kind of helmets would help kids like him. Such life-saving surgery he had, doctors had to remove part of his skull, Carol, to let his brain not swell so much. So, certainly an issue, not just for major leaguers, but for parents out there, too.

COSTELLO: Major leaguers, though, they have - I don't know, to me, they have a strange view about these protective helmets. I was at Detroit Tigers spring training camp. I talked with the pitchers, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, I also talked to manager Jim Leyland, about pitchers wearing the reinforced hats and I was surprised about what Jim Leyland told me, at least. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEYLAND: We're going to look like mechanical men going around. You know, we're going to be placing people here and there with all this equipment on. We're going to look like Star Wars before it is all over, so I'm not for that. The game is the game and that's just what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He's just saying that's the price you pay as a Major League Baseball player. You're going to get hurt. Things like this are going to happen. Justin Verlander told me, yes, he'd try it, he'd try a protective helmet, but if it missed up his pitching style, he wouldn't wear it.

NICHOLS: Yes, these guys don't want to do anything that will interfere with the way they play the game. I've had a lot of pitchers tell me that they think it will take somebody dying on the field for players to want to wear this equipment and for Major League Baseball to put in rules to enforce wearing this kind of equipment.

But, let's be honest, baseball has been slow to embrace these kinds of protective measures, even in tragic circumstances. A batter died, a Cleveland Indians batter, died on the field after being struck with a pitch back in 1920. It took until 1970, 50 years later, for Major League Baseball to require those batting helmets that we just take as a matter of a part of the game. But it took 50 years after someone died for them to require that.

So change is slow to America's pastime, but we'll have to see if it speeds up because it is getting extremely dangerous out there.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding. Rachel Nichols, thanks so much.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, was the ring stolen? controversy surrounding the diamond encrusted Super Bowl ring of the New England Patriots' owner, Robert Kraft. Did President Putin, Vladimir Putin, really steal it? We'll tell you what the Putin camp is saying about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Seven minutes past the hour. Time to check our top stories.

London's metropolitan police are making inquiries to see if an investigation is necessary into allegations that the husband, the celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, put his hands around her throat and choked her. Story first reported in the British tabloid "The Sunday People." Neither Lawson nor her husband are commenting and the restaurant where this all allegedly took place said none of their employees saw a thing.

CNN has not spoken to any witnesses and just a few minutes ago, we learned Lawson and her children, yes, they moved out of the family home.

"The Chicago Tribune" reports seven are dead and 40 others injured in separate shootings in the city this past weekend. The youngest victim a 16-year-old boy was shot to death by a gunman on a bicycle. CNN is trying to independently confirm the number of those killed and wounded. So far this year, Chicago homicides have dropped 34 percent compared to last year.

In Michigan, another search for Teamster chief Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared, as you know, back in 1975. Federal agents in the Detroit area are executing a warrant to begin digging in a field in Oakland Township, this after they received a tip from former mobster Tony Zerilli that Hoffa's body was buried there.

Best Buy has the extra room and Microsoft wants to add a hands-on presence to its products. So, the two companies have announced Microsoft mini stores located inside several hundred best buys in the United States and Canada. The mini stores will begin opening this month.

The Putin camp says it's just weird. Well, we can all agree with that. It is weird.

Either way, the reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin has a Patriots' Super Bowl ring is confusing. Putin got the ring in 2005, following this meeting with the Patriots' owner, Robert Kraft. Now, the Russian president is making a goal line stunner (ph) for suggestions he stole the Super Bowl ring worth more than $25,000.

John Berman is in New York with more on this confusing tale and it is weird.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, it is totally weird but totally a real issue right now between the leader of Russia and the owner the New England Patriots. You know, President Obama is set to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in just a few hours. Some of the world's most important issues on the agenda, Syria, nuclear proliferation.

But, you know, there might not be an issue more contentious than Super Bowl jewelry. You know, Vladimir Putin is an opposing character. But jewel thief? You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice-over): Russian President Vladimir Putin was a KGB agent, marshal arts expert, goes topless and has intercontinental ballistic missiles.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, he has Tom Brady. So, it's pretty much a fair fight. A fight between a nuclear superpower and a football superpower over all things, jewelry. Not just any jewelry. It's a brewing international incident over a ring, a Super Bowl ring.

ROBERT KRAFT, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS OWNER: I'm tremendously humbled by this great honor.

BERMAN: At a gala in New York City last Thursday, Kraft told the crowd that Putin allegedly swiped his Super Bowl ring back in 2005 when they met in St. Petersburg. According to Kraft, Putin admired the ring encrusted with 124 diamonds and said, I can kill someone with this ring.

Kraft went on to explain, "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket and three KGB guys go around him and walked out."

Putin, a thief? A spokesman for the president. Nyet. "I was there when it happened. So what Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird. I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift."

Maybe it's case of lost in translation. Literally, maybe he lost the ring because of translation or maybe bigger, global forces involved.

"The New York Post" which broke the story of Kraft's comments on Thursday quotes Kraft as saying White House officials urged him to say the ring was a gift, in the interest of U.S./soviet relations. And now, Mr. Kraft seemed to be backing off a bit.

The Patriots releasing a statement. It's "a humorous anecdotal story that Robert retells for laughs. He loves that his ring is at the Kremlin and, as he stated back in 2005, he continues to have great respect for Russia and the leadership of President Putin."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So, as of right now, the 4.94 karat ring, which is big, is in the Kremlin's library where all official state gifts are kept. It's worth more than $25,000.

You know what is nice for Robert Kraft, his Patriots have won three Super Bowls. So, he's got some other rings. Though I bet he is careful before he shows them off to any other world leaders.

COSTELLO: My favorite part, Vladimir Putin looked at the ring and said, I could kill with this.

BERMAN: Clearly, you know, he's an interesting guy. That that's the first thing he thought of, Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Interesting way of putting it. John Berman, thanks so much.

BERMAN: Take care.

COSTELLO: Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM, our friend and colleague Zoraida Sambolin is recovering from a double mastectomy. She just went through a pretty uncomfortable procedure last week. We're going to check back in with her, next.

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COSTELLO: Twenty-five minutes past the hour.

We want to check in now with our friend and anchor of CNN's "EARLY START," Zoraida Sambolin.

As you know, she had a double mastectomy after finding out she had breast cancer. She decided to go public with all of this, after Angelina Jolie shared her story with the world.

Last week, Zoraida posted videos of a pretty uncomfortable post-op doctor visit. When I say pretty uncomfortable, I don't mean that Zoraida. I mean, really, really uncomfortable.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (via telephone): Good morning to you, Carol. It was uncomfortable, but it was probably one of the best days I have had so far because I finally got those infamous drains out. And I have to tell you, when you go through this procedure, that is probably one of the hardest parts is those drains that stay inside of you, because they kind of wrap around your breast and taking out all that extra flu would that you need out. It's just, it's very, very uncomfortable.

COSTELLO: I must say that I find you very courageous to show these pictures to people. That must be, I'm assuming that's your doctor.

SAMBOLIN: That is actually my plastic surgeon there. He's doing the reconstruction, also. So, you know, I actually think it's great. At first I was a little reluctant. From the very beginning, I had no idea how I was going to share this, as you know.

But, for me, this had been a wonderful opportunity to help other women that are about to go through the same procedure and what I have for myself, selfishly, is that there are a lot of women who have gone me and giving me some really great advice. They told me the hardest part is going to be the drains and to just hang in there and how to work through the discomfort of it.

But they also warned me, Carol, you know, they do that procedure without giving you any anesthesia. So, I was forewarned to brace myself because that was going to be very uncomfortable. And the first drain that came out, he started with the right side, which was the one bugging me. That was painless.

But when he took the left one out, that was tough. It took my breath away.

COSTELLO: Oh, my goodness. I was reading some of the comments on your Facebook page and, you're right, it is unbelievable how loving people have been and what great advice they're giving you and following your procedures all the way along and that has to make you feel fantastic.

SAMBOLIN: Well, I tell you, it gives me a great deal of satisfaction and, you know, just makes me feel like this was the right decision. Privately, there are some women who are about to go through this procedure, one, in particular, who went into the hospital today and to be able to help them and let them know, you know, what's ahead or at least what my experience was and give them some sense of comfort has been really rewarding.

So, it's been really good. Across the board, it's been really good.

COSTELLO: You sound really good and we'll keep following your progress. Zoraida, thank you so much for taking the time.

SAMBOLIN: I always appreciate you check in, Carol. I appreciate that. Very kind of you. I'll talk to you soon.

COSTELLO: You're awesome. Thanks, Zoraida.

A woman is fired from her job for being the victim of domestic violence. We'll have her story, next in THE NEWSROOM.

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