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White House Meeting; Kids with Cancer Suffer Shutdown Pain; Taxpayers Deserve Money Back; Obamacare Challenge; Charges Dropped in Biker Swarm

Aired October 02, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin, and this is CNN special live coverage of day two of the government shutdown.

Get this -- a possible step forward in the stalemate between the two sides. We now know President Obama has scheduled this meeting, in about three and a half hours from now, with congressional leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner. And we learned Speaker Boehner has spoken today with the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid. Boehner has insisted any bill to fund the government needs to include a provision that would either delay or defund Obamacare.

And minutes ago, as we were listening in to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney giving this preview of what the president plans to say or not say at this meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's approach from the beginning in this is that he's asking for nothing, nothing from Republicans. He is attaching zero demands to the general proposition that Congress should simply open the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But the shutdown won't be the only topic at the White House. Another crisis expected to come in two weeks, whether to raise the debt ceiling. That is also on today's agenda. And you remember, we covered this in 2011, that incredible and frustrating stalemate over the debt ceiling debacle. It cost the U.S. its top level credit rating. So right now, as we check the markets, they are dipping on what really fears of what could be ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: We all are essential!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And you see these pictures? That same fear of a lasting impasse is driving federal workers to demonstrate today. And as these protests build, so does the risk to national security. At least that is what the director of national intelligence said about the shutdown's impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I've been in the intelligence business for about 50 years. I've never seen anything like this. From my view, I think this, on top of the sequestration cuts that we're already taking, that this seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation and its citizens. And the danger here, of course, that this will accumulate over time, the damage will be insidious. So each day that goes by, the jeopardy increases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now from The Hill, our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

And, Dana, let's talk about this meeting ahead. What are you hearing about this meeting at the White House with leaders from both sides from Congress?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There certainly is not a lot of optimism that this is going to produce a breakthrough, I can tell you that. That was pretty clear in listening to Jay Carney and in talking to Republican and Democratic sources. But look, the president has been criticized, chastised by Republicans for picking up the phone and calling the president of Iran and not talking to Republicans. That has sort of been a favorite GOP line. So he has to engage. He is the president of the United States and the government is shut down, but it's clear that both sides are pretty dug in. Maybe we'll be surprised. Miracles happen every day.

But in the meantime, everybody is going about their business here on Capitol Hill. And by that I mean House Republicans are in probably about an hour going to start a series of votes to continue their piecemeal approach, funding just specific parts of the government. One of those parts of the government that they are going to likely pass is going to be funding the NIH, which does lots of things, but it also -- one of the things that it does is funds clinical trials for cancer. And so I asked the question of Senate Democrats a short while ago, why not just support that? Why not just at least approve that bill? Listen to what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you've said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren't you playing the same political games that Republicans are?

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Listen, Senator Durbin explained that very well, and he did it here, he did it on the floor earlier, as did Senator Schumer and Stitz (ph). What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It's obvious what's going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don't know what other word I can use. I don't know what other word I can use. They are obsessed with this Obamacare thing. It's working - it's working now and it will continue to work and people will love it even more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.

BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

REID: Listen -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

REID: What -

SCHUMER: Why pit one against the other?

REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting at home. They have a few problems of their own. This is -- to have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing maybe means you're irresponsible and reckless.

BASH: I'm just asking a question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Reid.

REID: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Brooke, to be clear, I was playing the devil's advocate. This is, I think, a legitimate question, especially because the Senate did pass and the president signed into law a bill earlier this week that does pick and choose. It was a bill that approved military pay so the men and women of the military are going to be paid, even in our -- still getting paid even through this shutdown.

So that's why - that's why I asked that question, but it just definitely goes to show how dug in Democrats are that they simply think that what Republicans are doing by this piecemeal approach, by, you know, deciding to just fund things that maybe are making headlines and are bad optics for Republicans, is not going to work. That they are saying all or nothing and they very much feel that they have the upper hand here.

BALDWIN: We are glad you asked the question, Dana Bash. You're a journalist. It's your job to see both sides and ask about both sides. Dana, thank you.

I want to broaden this out and just bring in Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, because you've been looking into these different medical trials, these clinical trials, because we know for every week that the government, you know, shutdown continues, there are, what, about 10 kids who have cancer who wait for this medical trial to begin. What are these trials? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So a lot of people don't know this, but there's sort of a mini hospital within the NIH. And the people who come there, come there for -- to be part of a clinical trial.

BALDWIN: OK.

COHEN: And they are some of the sickest of the sickest. I mean these are people who, for the most part, have tried everything else and their doctors said, you know what, this is a huge problem and you need to go to the NIH for a clinical trial.

BALDWIN: And they want to give it a shot.

COHEN: And they want to give it a shot because, for many of them, they have no other choice. And so they go to this hospital at the NIH and now they're being told, we can't enroll you. So 200 people, including 10 children with cancer, are being told, because of the shutdown, we can't enroll you in the clinical trial that we thought we could enroll you in.

BALDWIN: So not only then is this shutdown an issue for that finite amount of kids, it's also an issue for their research that's being done, yes?

COHEN: It certainly is. I mean, you know, for example, AZT, the incredible HIV drug that was a game changer and saved so many lives, that came out of the NIH Clinical Center. Or chemotherapy, many decades ago, was developed at the NIH Clinical Center.

BALDWIN: Yes.

COHEN: And so, you know, they do incredible work there. They make incredible discoveries. But when you slow down their research and don't let them enroll new patients, there's a limit to what they can do.

BALDWIN: Just another example of how this shutdown is affecting people far and wide.

COHEN: Right.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: I want to pull away from you and head back to Capitol Hill. We just heard from Harry Reid on the Democratic side here of the Senate. And here is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: And soon and Americans can move on with their lives. And Americans can move on with their lives. We're asking the Republicans in the House of Representatives to take yes for an answer. We believe that if they put their own bill with their own number on the floor, that it will pass. And we will help them pass that legislation. This is a specific proposal that we are making to them, and we are making it in the form of a letter to the speaker. With that, I yield to the distinguished Democratic whip, Mr. Hoyer.

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MINORITY WHIP: Thank you, Leader Pelosi.

BALDWIN: House Whip Steny Hoyer speaking now here.

And we're going to ping-pong back and forth. Listen, we're hearing from Republicans today from The Hill saying their piece. We're hearing from Democrats saying their piece. And once again, the congressional leadership on both sides of the political aisle will be meeting with the president in just about two and a half hours from now at the White House.

And this partial shutdown of the federal government, I know it has a lot of you wondering about one of the certainties of life, taxes. Jay Leno summed it up pretty well last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: You know, here's the part I don't get, OK, the government is shut down, services are cut, and 33 percent of the federal workers were sent home. So if 33 percent of the government is shut down, how come we're still paying 100 percent of our taxes? Huh? Shouldn't we get a 33 percent discount, or at least prorate it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And author Bob Greene agrees with Jay Leno.

I read your op-ed, Mr. Greene, on cnn.com. And, you know, you go through this whole explanation. You liken this to, you know, kind of like buying an airplane ticket, right? So if you have to -- you pay this ticket to fly, you're halfway through the trip and the airline cancels the rest of your trip, you say, you know you, the passenger, should get a refund. Ergo, we, the taxpayer, should get a refund as well, right?

BOB GREENE, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Well, or if you join a health club for a year and you pay the fee and then they tell you they have to go under renovations for three months, you get 25 percent back. You subscribe to a magazine for a year and it's supposed to be 52 issues and they say, we're only going to publish 26 this year, of course they send you a refund.

In a rational world, that's how it works. You would think that - I mean, first of all, no one -- it doesn't matter which side you are on this argument, whether you're Republican, Democrat, conservative, or liberal, the fact is, none of these politicians in the White House, in the Congress, were forced to have these jobs. They wanted them. They ran for them. They won. The Congress has one - and the White House. The government has one duty, which is to open the doors of the government every day. It's not a case of whether you like a particular law or like a particular politician, you have to run the government. That's the one thing they have to do. And you would think if it was a business, you'd start sending those refund checks.

BALDWIN: You know, and you talk about us living in this rational world. But, Bob, on the flipside, you point this out in your own article, and I know some people are thinking this, this is what you write, "Congress and the White House might hear this request and say 'that's preposterous, the government is hurting for funds, it needs the money'." Do they have a point?

GREENE: Well, that's true, the government is hurting for funds and they need the money. But the people who are paying for this, the taxpayers, many of them are really hurting for funds, and many of them really need the money. And it's just -- look, we - I know we're not going to be checking our mailboxes tomorrow morning to see if the refund check is there?

BALDWIN: We're not? Right.

GREENE: Well, I'm not.

BALDWIN: Right.

GREENE: But it would make sense if the people who have shut the government down, whatever side you think's at fault, would think about this. Because if they were running a business where they were accountable to their customers, they would have to give this money back because they're not providing what the customers, the taxpayers, paid for.

BALDWIN: Right. You know, Bob, I have this couple in the back of my head. I talked to this couple just yesterday and they're having to quickly come up with this plan b for their wedding because they were planning on getting married at the Grand Canyon and parks are closed so they're not -- that's not happening. But he said to me, you know, listen, if I don't do my job, I don't get paid, right? So it makes sense that he's saying Congress shouldn't either. But when you look at the, you know, approval ratings for Congress, Bob, it's 10 percent. Do you think they just don't care what we think?

GREENE: I don't know that they don't care. I think they've all painted themselves into a corner now. But what you just said, Brooke, is -- because the comment (ph) obviously is sort of whimsical. We're not going to get refunds.

BALDWIN: Sure.

GREENE: But what you just said is important, because there are people whose lives are just being torn asunder in huge ways or in small ways, all because -- not because there's some law they don't like or some president or a senator they don't like, because the government they paid for has stopped. And someone has got to say, what about the customers? The customers, or the employers, us, the taxpayers, somebody has got to say they're the ones that really matter here. We can work the other stuff out later.

BALDWIN: I won't be checking my mail tomorrow either, but I know a lot of people agree with you, Bob Greene, a lot of people. Thank you so much.

GREENE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: If you want to read Bob's article, cnn.com/opinion.

And coming up, we will take you to Washington to the World War II Memorial where dozens of veterans showed up today hoping to get in. We will show you what happened and show you some of those protest signs, as you see there.

Plus, the Obama administration needs young people to sign up for Obamacare, so some celebrities are helping out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for coming, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No problem, senator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my mistress. She's pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Finally, an actual scandal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me live on whether today's sign-up is still a bit messy.

Also, new twists in the biker gang attack on this family's car. Find out why one of the suspects has now been released and we will talk to someone who knows this gang very well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: They're called the young invincibles and they're a key to the success of Obamacare. Almost 3 million healthy Americans between the ages of 18 to 34 are needed here to balance out the number of sick people expected to sign up. But, there's a hitch, most of them don't know very much about the Affordable Care Act and they are really not an easy group, actually, to reach here. Enter Funny Or Die, the comedy website with millions of followers. It is now recruiting these celebrities for parodies to promote Obamacare. So let me just show you this one clip. This is Jennifer Hudson spoofing the hit TV show "Scandal."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for coming, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No problem, senator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my mistress. She's pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Finally, an actual scandal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn't have health insurance. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The ACA takes about 15 minutes to sign up for. I need you to go to healthcare.gov.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Is that working. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the CNN Express, rolling into Lexington, Kentucky, today.

And, you know, we saw the spoof, Sanjay, but, I mean, I know getting young people signing up, one of the challenges here. We talked glitches yesterday. How's it going today?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's going a little bit better. We're here in Kentucky. We were in South Carolina yesterday. And as a starting point, I think Kentucky had better luck with things as compared to South Carolina.

We got some absolute numbers. Kentucky is one of the few states to release some of those numbers. And we know, for example, about 4,700 people have applied now online successfully. About 1,800 people have actually registered. So that's some forward movement.

Give you a little bit of context, Brooke. Keep in mind, again, open enrollment is six months long, but those numbers are compared to about over 600,000 people who are uninsured. So 1,800 people officially registered, 600,000 uninsured. Obviously over the next six months, more and more people, they think, are going to continue to sign up.

But, you know, still some glitches. But again, Kentucky, I talked to the governor a short time ago, he said there's no glitches today at least in Kentucky.

BALDWIN: Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. STEVE BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: I'd say to them what I think every Kentuckians would say to them and what every American would say to their congressman or their senator is, quit acting like a bunch of nine-year-olds in the cafeteria with a food fight going on. Act like adults.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Sanjay, that was --

GUPTA: No, Brooke, that was -

BALDWIN: Yes, go ahead.

GUPTA: That was actually a question about the - about -- he's a Democratic governor in this state and obviously two very high-profile Republican senators. It's a divided state in that regard. The governor feels very strongly about the Affordable Care Act and these two senators, obviously, are in Washington dealing with this government shutdown. But I asked him what he would say to his colleagues in the Senate about what's happening here and that was his response, very forceful, as you heard there, Brooke. BALDWIN: What about, Sanjay, we were saying here in Kentucky, but issues vary from state to state, correct?

GUPTA: Yes, they certainly vary from state to state. You know there' some 36 states that have essentially said, look, we're going to let the federal government handle our exchange. So they've handed it off to the federal government. We know that two thirds of those states are having significant problems yesterday, South Carolina being one of them. Here in Kentucky, the state has sort of taken on the exchange and they -- again, they did have some glitches yesterday, along with the rest of many states, but they are having better luck today. So it does vary both in terms of problems but also in terms of enrollments.

BALDWIN: All right, we will check back in with you tomorrow, Sanjay Gupta. You're in South Carolina, Kentucky. Next you are headed to Maryland, where I know you'll be talking to people who are asking questions about Obamacare. So we'll see you in Maryland.

Meantime, coming up next, it is video everyone is talking about. These bikers attacking this one family's SUV on this highway here, west side highway of New York, and then into the streets of a city. We have an update for you today as charges are dropped against one biker in this case. And my next guest explains the inner workers of gangs like this one.

Also ahead, the government shutdown putting big-time football games in limbo. You will hear why one former Navy football player is angry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's go to Washington. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor speaking right now outside the Capitol.

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), MAJORITY LEADER: It is a shame that folks in this country who come to Washington to be able to see these memorials can't. They should all be able to enjoy these treasures of our country in peace. That's exactly our message to Harry Reid and the Senate, to our Democratic colleagues and to the president. We ought to be working as hard as we can to open up the government in all the areas that we agree on.

No one disagrees that these memorials should be open. No one disagrees that we shouldn't be funding the NIH. No one -- no one disagrees that we should be helping our veterans and the kinds of services that they need. Those are the kinds of bills that we're going to be bringing to the floor of the House, and we hope that our Democratic colleagues will stop with the games and join us in trying to relieve the pain that is being inflicted on federal employees and on the people of this country due to the shutdown.

And perhaps maybe there is a silver lining, that in all of this, when you're talking about the World War II Memorials and the other kinds of war memorials that we have here, perhaps the American people can look to see the great work that the Honor Fight organization is affording our veterans so that hopefully we, too, can join with them in wanting to see our veterans enjoying these memorials in peace.

REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS (R), REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE CHAIRWOMAN: Every week, thousands of people travel to our nation's capital. Americans sometimes will save for a long time to be able to make this trip. In addition, we have veterans, World War II veterans, that we're losing every day, that the Honor Flight organization specifically has made a commitment to having them come and see this special monument that was built for them. And yet today they will be greeted with a barricade. That is unacceptable. There's no reason that these monuments shouldn't be open. Open to Americans, open to these veterans.

We agree that this is an important bill. This is important legislation that we can pass, Republicans and Democrats. The only reason they're being greeted with barricades is because the Senate right now refuses to negotiation. And it all starts - we've got - we've got to start talking. We've got to come to the table. We've got to start negotiating because all across the country, Americans are being impacted.

There's 800,000 right now who are living without a paycheck, others that are being greeted by closed doors from government offices all across this country, again, because the Senate and the Democrats in the Senate refuse to negotiate. We've got to - we've got to start talking. We've got to come to the table and do what's good and right for America. And it all starts with us, at least opening up a dialogue, an important dialogue, with the Senate that right now is missing.

BALDWIN: House Republican leaders speaking there. We heard moments ago, in the same spot, from House Democratic leaders. Both saying essentially we want to negotiate.

Well, speaking of coming to the table, we can tell you in just about two, three hours from now, leaders from both chambers, both parties, will be meeting with the president at the White House, 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. And you heard House Majority Leader Eric Cantor specifically referencing that World War II Memorial in our nation's capital, as you see the veterans, they moved those barriers out with their own two hands yesterday. And we can report today that more than 100 other vets were able to visit the memorial despite this government shutdown. Several senators accompanied these veterans who were taking part in the Honor Flight program.

The Interior Department tweeted this. Let me read it for you. "The Honor Flights are being granted access to the World War II Memorial to conduct First Amendment activities in accordance with NPS regulations." So they are able to go in there.

We're going to take you back to Washington here in a moment, but first charges dropped against one of the suspects arrested in last Sunday's biker attack in New York City. Allen Edwards (ph) had turned himself in to authorities yesterday and was initially facing a multitude of charges, including reckless endangerment, criminal mischief. But today prosecutors say they are no longer investigating him. Edwards was believed to be among the bikers caught on that videotape chasing down that SUV driver.

I know you've seen this. We played this for you yesterday. You see this swarm of bikers here in this Range Rover, this black Range Rover, all beginning here on the West Side Highway. Minutes after the driver ran over several of those bikers who had surrounded him. He has his wife, his two-year-old in the car. And then you see here, at one point one of the bikers is bashing his helmet into the truck's window. Second biker remains charged in this case. Police say they are looking for other suspects. One of the injured bikers had both legs broken and is now -- his family is calling for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOLANDA SANTIAGO, EDWIN MIESES' MOTHER: All his ribs, fractured. His lungs are so badly bruised that he's still on the ventilator.

DAYANA MIESES, EDWIN MIESES' WIFE: My husband got off his bike to help the guy. And whatever he did, he got scared, he went -- peeled off and he paralyzed my husband on the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: New York authorities say they are still investigating. No charges have been filed, though, against that SUV driver, but that incident is sparking heated debate about these so-called motorcycle gangs, biker clubs. They're popping up all over the country. But how can you tell which ones are just clubs and which ones are not? Let's bring in my next guest, Terry Katz, a former lieutenant in the Maryland State Police.

And I know you have investigated, what, 1,000 or so of these motorcycle gangs with a group that currently oversees and investigates these outlaw motorcycle gangs. So, Terry, this gang in particular in New York, they were called Hollywood Stunts. But in general, who are these bikers?

TERRY KATZ, V.P., INTL. OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANG INVESTIGATIONS ASSN.: In this case, they're not a documented gang that I'm familiar with. But in motorcycle gangs, which we call outlaw motorcycle gangs, it's their behavior. When they're a criminal and do criminal acts, that defines what they are as opposed to what they dress like.

BALDWIN: So when we talk about criminal acts, and from what I've read about this particular group, you know, in the past, it's not -- they're not violent, with this as an exception, that they - that they are a stunt group.

KATZ: Right. They're not necessarily going to engage in violence, except when they view one of their members as being attacked, and then you see a violent response. And that's typical of outlaw motorcycle gangs and organizations that are like that. BALDWIN: Criticism that I have read, Terry, is that New Yorkers are very angry. They say that the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, and police aren't doing enough. I mean, I read that Commissioner Kelly, though, that they were aware, there have been arrests. Do you think that that's a fair criticism? Is it tough to prosecute these bikers?