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Chaos In The Nation's Capitol; What We Know About Woman Behind Wheel; Witness To The Car Chase; Radioactive Spill At Fukushima Plant; Finding The Suspect; Hackers Hit Adobe, Access Personal Data; Making Her Run Official; Tropical Storm Karen; Boehner Backing Down?

Aired October 04, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. TGIF. It is Friday, October 4th, six o'clock in the east. And we've been reporting through the night trying to figure out why a 34-year-old woman tried to breach security at the White House and the Capitol. We now know her name, Miriam Carey (ph).

We're learning that her husband had some very real fears about her mental health, even contacting police about it. But as we hear too often these days, there were problems in trying to control her behavior. We're going to have much more on that. Plus, we're going to hear from some of those who witnessed it, even documented the frightening scene.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, today is a huge day for Pope Francis. He's on a very special pilgrimage at this very hour, visiting the home of his name saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. This is a pope who continues to surprise and that is the case yet again with this trip. We'll have a live reporting coming up.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to talk Twitter. Lots of fans have been out there, big brand. Now, you can own a piece of it. The company officially filing to go public. They're saying the company is worth $1 billion with a "B" billion. Get this though, Twitter is still not profitable, #what? We'll discuss coming up.

CUOMO: All right, but let's get right to Washington and the chaotic scene on Capitol Hill. This morning we're finding out more about the woman behind the wheel. Deb Feyerick is here. She is going to have more on what may have triggered the rampage. First let's get to Joe Johns. He's live near Capitol Hill with the latest. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. This morning, authorities are trying to figure out why 34-year-old Miriam Kerry rammed that barricade down at the White House then led police on the crazy chase up here to the United States Capitol just two weeks after the Navy Yard shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): A heart stopping scene unfolding outside the U.S. Capitol. The dramatic moments caught on tape by a camera crew. Watch as 34-year-old Miriam Carey drives away in a luxury car, careening through the streets with police in hot pursuit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Report of gunfire on Capitol Hill.

JOHNS: Officers, politicians, staffers and bystanders sent running.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody this way, now!

JOHNS: Hunkering behind whatever they could find. Secret Service says the incident began at 2:14 after a verbal exchange with one of their uniformed officers, the woman ramming her black Infinity sedan into a security barrier about a block from the White House. After police asked her to get out of the car, she drove away, leading them to a high-speed chase down Pennsylvania Avenue, all the way to the east side of the capitol, Secret Service on her tail.

ED DONOVAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE SPOKESMAN: This unauthorized vehicle approached the check point. Our officers acted appropriately, the vehicle then fled and struck one of our officers as it departed that initial scene.

JOHNS: The suspect drove around Garfield Circle careening toward the capitol east front, one of the most secured areas in the country. Just moments later, her car crashed outside the Hart Senate Office Building. Perceiving a threat, police opened fire. No weapons found inside the Infinity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard five or six rounds. My wife and I, we just dropped to the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was walking towards the capitol building and 30 seconds later, as I hit this point, there was about three or four cop cars that passed me. About another 30 seconds after that I heard a series of loud pops, a gun going off.

JOHNS: Inside the vehicle, a 1-year-old girl believed to be the woman's daughter. An officer pulled her from the car and took her to a hospital. One of the two officers injured was hurt after hitting this barricade during the high-speed pursuit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This does not appear to be in any way an accident. This was a lengthy pursuit. There were multiple vehicles that were rammed, officers were struck and two security perimeters that were attempted to be breached.

JOHNS: Officials say both officers are in good condition and recovering as the city is still reeling from the deadly Navy Yard shooting reliving moments of fear once again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Washington Hospital Center says the U.S. Capitol police officer injured in the chase has now been released, that 1-year-old child in good condition and in protective custody -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Joe, thanks so much. We're now learning more pieces of this puzzle. One big piece of the puzzle, we know the driver's name. What else are we learning about Miriam Carey and what could have led her to do this? Deborah Feyerick has been digging into her past trying to look for some clues as to how this happened and why.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Federal law enforcement authorities had been speaking to anybody they can. What we do know is that according to law enforcement source, Miriam Carey's boyfriend contacted police about 10 months ago. This was in Stamford, Connecticut. He was worried about his baby daughter, just 4 months old at the time.

The boyfriend apparently told police that Carey was acting delusional, claiming that President Obama had placed her city of Stamford under lockdown and that her home was under electronic surveillance. At the time, according to a law enforcement source, she was taken in for a mental health evaluation.

The boyfriend told police that Carey was suffering from postpartum depression, was having difficulty sleeping and may have been taking some sort of medication. The boyfriend was questioned last night and he is cooperating.

BOLDUAN: So they have searched her apartment. That's standard procedure obviously. Did anything come out of that search that would indicate any kind of a motive here?

FEYERICK: Well, it appears that she did leave behind a letter. This is according to several law enforcement sources. She left behind a letter. Hazmat teams went in. They saw a white powdery substance so they immediately sort of deemed the letter suspicious. Hazmat teams removed the letter taking it for testing. A robot was brought into the apartment. They wanted to make sure it wasn't rigged in any way. The neighbors were evacuated, but right now that apartment search went on through the night -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: What about her family? Are they saying anything more?

FEYERICK: Well, they're not. She has a lot of family in Brooklyn. She has a lot of family in New York, four sisters. They were very quiet last night. They hadn't even been told officially that it was she until late into the night. So they're trying to piece it together as well -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So they are dealing with a lot as well at this very moment, which everyone can understand. But Deb, we're all trying to piece these clues that you're doing for us. Thank you so much -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, so Julie Paladino was visiting D.C. with her family when this whole thing happened. She actually took this video of the scene. She's joining us now to talk about what she saw. Julie, thank you for joining us on NEW DAY this morning, I appreciate you being here.

JULIE PALADINO, WITNESS TO CAR CHASE: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Now let me get this right. You're with your mom and sister in D.C., visiting from Arkansas like you do every year to see your grandma, right?

PALADINO: That's correct.

CUOMO: All right, so you're down there, suddenly there's gunfire. What do you see?

PALADINO: What do we see? We see chaos. We see shots fired, we hear them. Everyone immediately ducks down, trying to find a safe place to go. Immediately after that they told us to run, move, move, move and that's exactly what we did. We tried to go to a safe place.

CUOMO: So you're in a panic. This is not something you deal with every day, probably ever in your life. But you have the presence of mind to get the camera going. Why?

PALADINO: Well, initially we were taking photos with the capitol behind us, we were taking pictures of my sister, my grandma and my mother, and the camera was out. I kept it on. Did I know it was on the whole time? No. Not necessarily. I was just in the moment and when you're in the moment, you just, it's a crazy feeling.

CUOMO: You do what comes natural.

PALADINO: Yes.

CUOMO: You're talking about how they told you to run. What is your sense about how the scene was being controlled? We keep describing it as chaos. We're doing it here in the media. Did they seem like they knew what was going on and they were reacting and worried about the people around there as well?

PALADINO: They were worried about everyone. They did a great job. Chaos meaning when you hear shots, you think, goodness, what's going on? But they did a great job telling us which way to go to safety and very thankful that they were there. As many people as there were there. It was very frightening.

CUOMO: Obviously the fear when you're running away is there could be some type of explosives involved. People did hear a boom, obviously. That was probably the car hitting the barrier. You make an interesting point. There weren't as many people around, one of the reasons you decided to visit the capitol area that day because of the shutdown. You had fears there had been more people there. You know, tell me about that.

PALADINO: Well, we -- it was a normal day. We decided to go because it was going to be quiet, there wasn't going to be very much traffic. If there would have been more people around that day, I don't know how the scene would have actually played out. When you're in that moment, what you don't see on the camera is moments before the incident happened.

You see families taking pictures with each other, with the capitol in the background. You see the tourists from all around the country coming to our nation's capitol. And enjoying what we have here. It all changed in a matter of seconds and it was -- when you look around after that happened, you look the people's faces.

They're scared. They're confused. They don't know what's going on. But thankfully the security officers that were there. They made everything a lot more calm and directed us to a safe place.

CUOMO: Well, Julie, thank you for coming on to talk to us about it. Thank you for having your camera out and a presence of mind to capture what was beginning on there. Take care.

PALADINO: Thank you. I appreciate it.

CUOMO: This story we're going to be covering throughout the morning. What we're learning, a lot of other headlines as well so let's get right to Michaela.

PEREIRA: Here is a story that we've been watching for some time now, new developments, another radioactive leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, now this time, this one reportedly caused by human error. Plant operators confirming more than 100 gallons of contaminated water overflowed from the storage tank because workers overfilled it. It's believed most of that contaminated water wound up in the Pacific Ocean.

Police are zeroing in on the biker caught on video bashing in a driver's window with his helmet before beating him. A law enforcement official tells CNN the biker has been identified and is expected to be in custody soon. The incident happened after the driver rear ended a driver on a busy New York and tried to get away after being surrounded by other motorcycles.

Adobe, the company behind Photoshop, another popular software, doing some damage control this morning. Hackers breached the company's computer system, accessing customer credit card info, pass words, even the source code to some of Adobe's products. The company says it doesn't look like those hackers were able to get unencrypted credit card data, but it is resetting customer passwords just to be safe.

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis making it official, kicking off her bid for governor. She made that announcement Thursday on the very same stage where she graduated from high school. Davis catapulted to the national stage back in June. You might recall her one-person filibuster to block legislation restricting abortion rights in Texas. That filibuster managed to delay the bill but not kill it.

On Friday, you always need cuteness. How about this? A furry kitten found in the engine of a car in Florida. The kitty ran around the shopping center looking for another hood to hide ever. A Good Samaritan caught the little one and now the police and apparently local shelter are trying to find this little kitten, a brave kitten, a new home. Not happy right there. Why are you grabbing me? Leave me alone.

CUOMO: All right, we're going to take a break here on NEW DAY. You may have noticed where's Indra Petersons? Well, it has been a quiet hurricane season so far but maybe not anymore. Tropical Storm Karen making its way toward the gulf coast. That's where we're going to find Indra Petersons because it could be a messy weekend from Louisiana to Florida. There she is, already getting hit by the wind down there. Thank you for standing in the weather for us.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It seems like a typical morning here right now. We're talking about maybe some mild wind. We've had rain already this morning. If you didn't know, you wouldn't have known that we actually have a storm hanging out in the gulf. We are currently under a hurricane watch. It looks lake I'll send it back to you guys.

BOLDUAN: Much more on that ahead. Also, this ahead, an open mic moment for two top Republicans pulling back the curtain perhaps on GOP strategy in this government shutdown fight. That's coming up as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The Gulf Coast is taking notice. Tropical Storm Karen is on the way and it could pack quite a punch this weekend. Karen is inching closer to land. It's expected to hit early Sunday morning.

Hurricane watch now in effect for parts of states from Louisiana to Florida. That's where we find our Indra Petersons, this morning tracking the storm from Pensacola, Florida.

Good morning, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

All right. We are back. As I was telling you, definitely mild conditions here in the morning.

You really wouldn't even know there was a huge storm lurking out there. But we know that is not the case. We are currently under a hurricane watch in Pensacola, Florida. We now have Karen about 100 miles off the coast of Louisiana, making residents anywhere along the Gulf very aware that what seemed like a quiet season is now active.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS (voice-over): Tropical Storm Karen is heading for the Gulf Coast this weekend, taking a similar path to that of Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast back in 2005.

Katrina was a powerful category 5 storm, meanwhile Karen will be weaker, likely a low category 1 when it makes landfall late Saturday or early Sunday.

Florida and the Gulf Coast have been pummeled with bad weather and rain all summer long, with some areas breaking rainfall record. Many areas certainly don't need more rain.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been a record-breaking year for rain across the South. Trees are standing in mud. When that wind comes across, 60, 70 miles per hour, those trees are going to fall down.

PETERSONS: Despite the ongoing government shutdown, concerns over the storm are even causing some FEMA employees to return to work.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: FEMA has begun to recall currently furloughed employees necessary to serve functions of the agency that protect life and property as they prepare for potential landfall for Tropical Storm Karen.

PETERSONS: Karen is the 11th named storm of what has been an unusually quiet hurricane season this year, with only Ingrid and Humberto becoming full hurricanes so far.

Last year, superstorm Sandy hit the northeast in late October, forecasters don't know why this year has been so quiet but say another situation like Sandy is extremely unlikely.

MYERS: This is really the peak or at least the end of the peak of hurricane season right now. We are still in it. There will be more storms this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Let's talk about the latest with Karen right now.

The last issue just said it actually weakened. So, now, about 60 mile per hour steady winds. It still has a potential to increase. We're going to be watching that borderline, whether it's a tropical storm or category 1 hurricane. Either way, we're still going to be talking about the same concerns.

Let's talk a look at the path here. We're still talking about anywhere from Louisiana, all the way to the panhandle here of Florida. And one of the big things we'll be watching is lack at the trough that could start to steer it. That's the reason we're still looking at it for turn as it makes potentially landfall anywhere from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning.

As far as rainfall, anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of rain, even isolated amounted up to 12 edges of rain, and that's that big concern you just heard Chad say it. When you have over the amount of rain for the season so far, some places 10, 15 inches over, you're talking about the high winds coming here, uprooting those trees and seeing a lot of damage in that concern.

Other things we're talking about, maybe two to four feet also of storm surge out there. So, really, a lot of things to be concerned about as we continue to watch this system again makes it way again, landfall expected Saturday night, into Sunday morning, guys.

BOLDUAN: All right. We'll continue to watch it. A lot of factors to keep track of. Thank you so much, Indra.

Let's head back to Washington, though, with the government already partially shut down, Americans face a double whammy when the debt ceiling deadline hits in less than two weeks. If not raised, that could send the country spiraling into default. But House Speaker John Boehner now insists that is not going to happen.

Brianna Keilar is live at the White House this morning with more.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning to you.

And a couple new developments this morning, because of the ongoing shutdown, President Obama has entirely scrapped his trip to Asia. You may remember he was going to be heading out tomorrow. And also, there was a sign that House Speaker John Boehner's stance on the debt ceiling is weakening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR (voice-over): With the government partially shut down and the United States careening towards defaulting on its debts in mid- October, House Speaker John Boehner made a key admission about the debt ceiling. A Republican who spoke to CNN after a private meeting with House GOP members said Boehner informed them he will not allow a default to happen even if it means relying on votes from Democrats.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Do you, do you have a second?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: I'm all wired up here.

KEILAR: In a city that lives for an open mike moment to pull back the curtain --

PAUL: I just did CNN. I just go over and over again. "We're willing to compromise. We're willing to negotiate."

KEILAR: -- Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul delivered.

PAUL: I don't think they poll-tested we won't negotiate. I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again.

MCCONNELL: Yes, I do too. And I just came back from that two-hour meeting with him and that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.

PAUL: I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that, now we're willing compromise on this, I think they can't -- we, I think, I know we don't want to be here, but we're going to win this, I think.

KEILAR: But at a campaign style event in Maryland.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.

KEILAR: President Obama pulled a bit of an ace out of his sleeve, sounding the alarm for a key voting bloc: seniors.

OBAMA: In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time.

KEILAR: As he explained why defaulting is worse than a government shutdown.

OBAMA: In an economic shutdown, if we don't raise the debt ceiling, they don't go out on time.

KEILAR: He, again, pressured House Speaker John Boehner to fund the government and drop Obamacare concessions.

OBAMA: Call a vote. Put it on the floor. And let every individual member of Congress make up their own minds. They can show the American people, are you for a shutdown or not?

KEILAR: Even a car chase and shooting on Capitol Hill highlights the impasse in Washington. The two federal officers injured are both working without pay because of the shutdown.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Now, pulling back the curtain a little bit more even, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid in an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash, said that back in September, he agreed with House Speaker John Boehner in a private deal to spending cuts the Democrats didn't like so that the government could be funded. But he said Boehner reneged on that, added the Obamacare language.

Obviously, Chris and Kate, really I think an admission to show that Boehner's leadership has been thwarted by a minority in his party.

BOLDUAN: The fact that there has been such a shift in strategy on how Republicans are going to be handling both of these crises, that is also showing it there.

Brianna, thank you so much.

CUOMO: So important that you stay engaged in this. Tweet us with #newday. When you hear -- first of all, rule number one, to politicians and anybody else -- we will never tell you when you're on mike and talking for exactly this reason. You get candor.

You get politicians talking about strategy. I guess they didn't poll this. This is why we're going to win with this strategy. It just reveals the game that's going on that's so frustrate to so many and not isolated to one party by the way.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

CUOMO: That could have as easily been two Democratic people. Don't kid yourself about that.

But, anyway, let us know what you think.

BOLDUAN: All right. Coming up next on NEW DAY: Pope Francis heading to the home of his name sake, a town named for a saint dedicated to helping the poor. Big changes, though, could be coming to the Catholic Church. And this could be yet again a chance for Francis to separate himself from his predecessors. CUOMO: And it is one of the fastest ways to get out information and often, it is very wrong and nasty. Still, I use Twitter all the time. So do you. Is it, therefore, worth a billion dollars? That's what the company hopes from its big IPO. We're going to tell you all about it and you can tweet us #newday. Keep it nice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

PEREIRA: Welcome back. It's 27 minutes after the hour.

We want to bring you the latest headlines. There are many questions about why a woman led police on a wild car chase in the nation's capitol. The driver now identified by sources as 34-year-old Miriam Carey of Connecticut. She rammed her sedan into the White House barricade and then sped away to Capitol Hill. She was shot and killed after crashing her car with a child in the back seat. Sources say the woman's boyfriend told police Carey had been acting delusional.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering a glimmer of hope over the nation's relationship with Iran. In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, Netanyahu said he's skeptical about the news, more moderate talk coming from Tehran. Still, he suggested he'd be willing to talk to Iran's new leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: If President Rouhani picked the telephone up and called you, would you take that call?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We're not averse to calling. The question is, I'll tell you what I'll tell him -- if you want the sanctions lifted, stop your nuclear program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: The full interview will air tonight on "PIERS MORGAN LIVE", 9:00 Eastern.

Security will be tighter at next month's New York marathon, all bags brought anywhere near the race will be searched. People waiting for the runners at the finish line will have to go through special screening and people marching in the kickoff parade, they will not be allowed to carry bags at all.

Organizers call this our new normal after the Boston marathon.

More than a dozen members of Anonymous, the hacker group, indicted by federal jury. They are being charged for a series of cyber attacks back in 2010 when servers from Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and other companies crashed.

And apparently the walk from the street to the porch too much for a mail carrier. Look at the surveillance camera. Look what it dragged in.

She drives on the lawn over the sidewalk up to the house. And then, here you go, this is adding insult to injury. Watch what she does with the mail. Oh, yes, that was the fragile crystal from grandma that she mailed.

That's probably not the kind of special delivery the post office likes to offer.

She drove on the lawn.

BOLDUAN: Or you could consider it door-to-door service.

PEREIRA: Or door to door service -- OK, glass full, half empty, depending on how you look at it. If you're one of those people that takes great pride in your lawn, you would go ballistic.

CUOMO: And worth pointing out, because in general, they're awesome. I have a great mailman, Fred, comes up, very nice guy. Kids love him. That's not easy with my kids.

Love you postal carriers, just not that one. Don't drive on my lawn. Don't drive on my lawn in America. That's crazy.