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CNN iReporters Weigh in on Shutdown; Senate Chaplain Prays for End Shutdown; Questions About Capitol Hill Shooting; Republican Corbett Compares Homosexuality to Incest; Boehner Says Shutdown Not a Game; Rand Paul Says Republicans Winning; St. Louis Arch Visitors Complain; Susan Bennett Says She is Siri
Aired October 04, 2013 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So, hello, everyone, bottom of the hour, Don Lemon here.
You've heard the bickering in Congress, but now, a different perspective on the government shutdown from a daughter trying to understand how her dad is not essential to a World War II vet who doesn't recognize the nation he risked his life for.
CNN iReporters have uploaded more than 1,000 submissions to our website about the government shutdown.
Here now, their stories in their own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that many people have certain disdain for federal employees. They believe that they're non-value-added. They believe that they're part of the jobs program, but I assure you that's not true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the Republican Party just there to obstruct everything? It seems that the Republican party is united on one concept, and that's obstructing and opposing everything.
But have they brought up any ideas up to replace the things that they're opposed to?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So why should we pay Congress for a job they have not done? I don't agree at all that Congress should be continuing to be paid during this shutdown. Let them feel the wrath that they've put onto everyone else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the people I work with over the last several years when the military has been at war have gone above and beyond to ensure that the navy has the best war-fighting capability in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enough already.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My pay has been frozen for the last three years while my bills have continued to go up. I purchased my home at the height of the market, and today, it is worth less than what I bought it for.
But I have not defaulted on my mortgage, and my family bills continue to be paid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today was actually the day I was supposed to wake up and start on my road trip to Mount Rushmore, and I can't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've lost my $10,000 income for my family as compared to previous years.
In order to pay the bills, I depleted my savings, approximately $10,000 worth of savings that is now under $1,000.
And now I find myself in a situation where I'm being furloughed again.
My income is the sole income for my family, and I am concerned that I cannot pay the bills moving forward if the shutdown continues and a furlough continues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to affect me because of my business, you know. If I don't have my business, I don't eat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't understand why the government can't work together.
It -- we're a family, pretty much, that should be able to work together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really don't blame either party. I believe that both parties are trying to do what they think is right.
We just want to do our jobs and provide for our families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So you're not powerless. You have a voice here.
You are welcome to upload your thoughts on how the government shutdown impact you. Just head to CNNiReport.com, all one word, CNNiReport.com.
A man of God is prodding Congress to end this shutdown stalemate. Senate Chaplain Barry Black says, quote, "Save us from the madness."
Black gives a prayer at the start of each senate session. Today, he visited the House and Senate to remind lawmakers the same Capitol police who protected them during yesterday's car chase and gunfire are working without a paycheck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BARRY BLACK, SENATE CHAPLAIN: Lord, we're grateful for our law enforcement agents and first-responders, and pray that we may emulate their patriotism and self-sacrifice. Today, give our lawmakers the vision and the willingness, remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism.
Forgive them for the blunders they have committed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So usually, Black's prayers are apolitical, but the Senate chaplain has been prodding lawmakers for a week now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable. Remove the burdens of those who are the collateral damage of this government shutdown.
Dear God, help our lawmakers. They can know the right, but not do it. They can comprehend their duty but not perform it.
During this legislative stalemate, help our lawmakers to test all things by their conscience, so keep us from shackling ourselves with the chains of dysfunction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Black has held a nonpartisan post since 2003. Previously, he was a U.S. Navy rear admiral.
Coming up, you're going to hear from someone questioning how police handled the car chase on Capitol Hill, the one that ended in a woman's death.
The driver who thought President Obama was monitoring her, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The death of a woman who led police on a high-speed chase from the White House, Capitol Hill, with her child in the back seat, has a lot of people wondering, did police do the right thing by opening fire?
Well, the woman was 34-year-old Miriam Carey of Stanford, Connecticut. A law enforcement source says schizophrenia medication and an antidepressant have been found in her apartment.
And her boyfriend once called police reporting Carey thought President Obama had locked down her hometown and that her house was under electronic surveillance.
CNN's Brian Todd, digging into the police tactics during this case, Brian, you know, we're hearing some people question the way police handled this.
I want you to watch what Mark O'Mara, George Zimmerman's defense attorney, said on CNN today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK O'MARA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My only concern is when the car stops and there's those few seconds where we still empower our police officers to use deadly force, if and only if they have to, that it may have been handled in a calmer way that may have avoided shooting a woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So Brian, what are you hearing?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, we have run that comment by the D.C. Metropolitan Police, the Capitol Hill police and the U.S. Secret Service police.
They're not commenting on that remark by Mark O'Mara or others who say or are at least questioning whether police used appropriate force here. They're not commenting on that at all, citing the investigation.
However, we did speak to our two law enforcement analysts, Mike Brooks and Tom Fuentes, both former policemen, both former law enforcement agents as well.
And what they're saying is, look, at that moment when she finally was stopped, that third time, they had no way of knowing that she was really finally stopped, that the last checkpoint or barricade or wherever it was that she actually -- this came to a final conclusion and they shot her, that that was going to be the moment where this was all going to end.
She had previously been stopped twice, once at the White House and once at the foot of the Capitol, by police. Both times she broke away, striking police officers.
They had no way of knowing, Don, whether this was actually coming to an end, whether she was going to end it herself, right then and there, and we still don't know whether she would have.
LEMON: Listen, I got an e-mail. I was having this discussion with a former NYPD detective, and he said -- the e-mail said on the air, and somebody saw that and said, that car is a 1,400-pound weapon.
TODD: Absolutely.
LEMON: So it's not as if she wasn't armed.
TODD: That's right. And everybody we've talked to said, that car, she was using that car as a weapon.
The fact that it appears now that they didn't find any firearm in the vehicle or any kind of explosive or anything like that, really, you know, it's not immaterial, but it just doesn't mean that she didn't have a weapon.
She had a weapon. She was using that car as a weapon. She had used it at least a couple times.
And, again, at the time, Don, they don't know who she is. They don't know whether she's got a bomb in the car when she's giving chase, and they don't know whether she wants to set it off at the Capitol, or the White House, or in a crowd somewhere.
That was another big consideration for why they shot her.
LEMON: Brian Todd, thank you.
Coming up -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN BENNETT, CLAIMS TO BE THE VOICE ACTOR, SIRI: Hello, I am Susan Bennett. You probably know me. I'm the voice actor who provided the voice for Siri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, I don't know you because I can't afford Siri. I don't have an iPhone that has Siri.
Coming up, you want to see this interview that reveals the voice of Siri. She's got a fascinating story and quite a resume.
But first, the governor of Pennsylvania decides to share his opinion on gay marriage, comparing it to incest in an interview with a local news station.
Things got a little awkward.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett does not try to hide his opposition to same-sex marriage. In fact, yesterday, he compared it to sibling incest.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a controversial remark made by a member of your legal team, comparing gay marriage to the union of 12-year- olds, saying both are illegal, which you called inappropriate.
GOVERNOR TOM CORBETT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: It was an inappropriate analogy. You know, I think a much better analogy would be brother and sister, don't you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
CORBETT: Well --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Really?
Later, Corbett's office released an apology. Corbett says, quote, "My words were not intended to offend anyone" -- did he really say that -- "and if they did, I apologize."
Pennsylvania state law defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Coming up, Speaker John Boehner said the shutdown fight isn't a game and rips an Obama administration official who talks about winning.
Well, this -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we're willing to compromise on that, we're -- we, I think, I know we don't want to be here, but we're going to win this, I think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Boehner's own party caught on hot mike talking about winning.
We're going to break this down, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The debt ceiling, government shutdown, the standoff in Congress, it's no damn game. Just ask House Speaker John Boehner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: This isn't some damn game. The American people don't want their government shut down and neither do I.
All we're asking for is to sit down and have a discussion and to bring fairness, reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under ObamaCare. It's as simple as that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It's just as simple as that. Quote, "This isn't some damn game."
Interesting, considering Republican Senator Rand Paul was caught on an open mike saying quote, "We're winning."
Jake Tapper joins me now live from the capitol. So Jake, all this triggered by comments from a senior Obama administration official saying quote, "We are winning this fight."
I doubt that this is going to be the end of this winner/loser rhetoric, is it? JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": Probably it will be the last time you hear these words publicly, but this is, of course, how politicians and political consultants talk about this, because right now, obviously there's a standoff.
And I don't mean to belittle the true and real suffering going on out there from people who have been furloughed, from people who need their paychecks, from people who depend on various social programs that aren't being funded right now.
But to a lot of people in this town and in the building behind me, this is a showdown and one side has to blink, to an extent.
And so that's why you have a senior Obama administration official going on background to say that they think they're winning. They do. They think the polls indicate, which they do overwhelmingly, that the American people do not support this Republican strategy.
Whereas, Rand Paul was reflecting the fact that they thought that they had hit upon a better message because Republicans are now saying they want to negotiate and the White House is refusing to negotiate.
But I don't think -- usually when people talk about winning in a public setting like that, it ends up being a real loser.
LEMON: Yes, absolutely. Jake, we'll be watching. Jake Tapper, "THE LEAD" starts at the top of the hour on CNN.
Many of you have been telling CNN just how you feel about the partial shutdown of the government, the feedback, not pretty.
Folks visiting St. Louis can't even enjoy a trip to the arch, it is closed.
Ted Rowlands talked to some folks there who are absolutely fed up.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, wherever we have gone this week we're hearing basically the same thing. People are absolutely disgusted with the federal government.
We're in St. Louis today, which of course means the Arch. You can still look at the Arch, of course, but it is closed, meaning you cannot ride the trolley inside, and people are not happy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: The sign inside the locked gates at the St. Louis Arch says it all, telling visitors they can't come in because lawmakers can't get along.
An average of 700,000 people come to national parks and federal attractions like the Arch every day. Many of those people are furious.
DOUGLAS BROWER: Well, I think what they ought playing silly games like a bunch of little kids and get this thing done and straightened out.
Otherwise comes November or whenever they're up for re-election, don't worry. We're not voting for you.
ROWLANDS: And this was a trip that you had planned?
BROWER: Yes, this was on my bucket list, and I'm not going to get to do it I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were hoping to go to the top.
It's actually my wife's birthday on Sunday and we got the kids out of school and came here for the weekend and don't get to the do that now, but --
ROWLANDS: What message would you send to the federal government and lawmakers on Capitol Hill?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold hands and get along. Get back to work.
ROWLANDS: About 70 federal park employees have been furloughed at the arch.
Karen Bollinger is with the company that runs the trolley inside the Arch.
Forty-eight if her employees are not getting paid, and unlike federal employees that may get compensated down the road, they'll never get paid.
ROWLANDS: What message would you like to tell lawmakers?
KAREN BOLLINGER, RUNS TROLLEY INSIDE THE ARCH: To please come to your resolution soon.
Every day matters. We wake up every morning hoping that this is the day it will come to an end, and we're ready to get back to work.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: Don, this park underneath the Arch is normally full of people waiting to go into the museum or ride the trolley.
Today, as you can see, just a few people out here. That means businesses around here are suffering. They will not get compensated down the line. They're just out money.
People are absolutely disgusted by what is going on in Washington.
Don?
LEMON: Ted Rowlands, thank you, at the Arch.
Coming up, the moment you have been waiting for, the voice of Siri reveals herself to CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So Apple won't confirm it, but your ears won't lie to you. Just wait until you hear the voice, the voice that literally says -- stays with you, I should say, if you have an iPhone 4S or a new version.
Siri has been unveiled, and the woman behind the mobile phone voice sat down with CNN's "NEW DAY."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENNETT: Of course, my colleagues in Atlanta, family and friends, of course, immediately recognized my voice.
But it's kind of been a mystery, and it's such an unusual thing. It was such a unique, you know, it was a very serendipitous thing that I was chosen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does it feel to pull back the curtain a little and reveal yourself?
BENNETT: I don't know yet. I'll let you know later today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, Bennett says she learned she was the voice of Siri after the iPhone 4s came out. She says she was extremely flattered, but she also says quote, "It was a little creepy."
Go to CNN.com for the full interview. Shouldn't we have done that interview by iPhone? Don't you think? I think so.
Make sure you watch me this weekend. I'll be here all evening. We'll be watching the government shutdown.
In the meantime, you're in the capable hands of Jake Tapper now and "THE LEAD."
