Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Google Hit High; Crus Draws Cheers & Jeers; Zombie Attack on Transformers Set; Snowden: No Secret Files in Russia; Melissa McCarthy Covered up in "Elle"
Aired October 18, 2013 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
As trading opens on Wall Street, Google shares can boast a new all- time high. The search giant's stock price jumped 8 percent after the company reported sales and profits exceeded expectations. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us more.
Good morning.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
And my jaw is dropping as I watch this stock continue to go up, up and up higher, trading at $982 a share for one share of Google. This is really stunning, especially considering some analysts say, yes, it was a solid quarter for Google, but it wasn't outstanding. But the stock is performing this well.
Look at the company's ascent. It went public back in 2004 at a price of $85. Now it's pushing $1,000 a share. Now, true, it did take a big hit in 2008, just like everybody else because of the recession. But other than that, it's pretty much been a straight line up for Google. The stock is popping today because Google's quarterly sales, its earnings, beating expectations.
And guess why it's doing so well, Carol? You and me. More people are clicking on the site's advertisements. That's how Google makes money.
COSTELLO: Oh.
KOSIK: From one record high to another, got to tell you about one more record high yesterday. The S&P 500 closing at a record high, continuing that move higher. We're seeing the S&P 500 at a level of 1,738, which is yet another record. We'll see if it will close this high as well.
Carol.
COSTELLO: Awesome. Alison Kosik reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange.
As government operations rumble back to life from that partial shutdown, the man at the center of a two-week stalemate is not ruling out another shutdown. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, is enjoying a big boost from his fellow conservatives and Tea Party loyalists, but other Republicans say he's grandstanding at the expense of his own party. Listen to this from a former adviser to George W. Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MCKINNON, FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH ADVISER: I think the only thing he accomplished was gaining more supporters and fund raising for himself, but did absolutely nothing for the country and did a lot of harm to the Republican Party. I think he's basically burned down the reputation of the Republican Party and stood on -- and is standing on the ashes to just stand a little taller for himself personally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And Cruz is just as likely to inspire passionate debate in his home state of Texas, where bare-knuckled politics can sometimes resemble a blood sport. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more for you.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Ted Cruz just might be arguably the most popular Republican politician in Texas. His influence on state politics here is indisputable. But he is just as polarizing here in his home state as he is around the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Ted Cruz is either a gallant fighter of conservative values or a disruptive political scoundrel. Just depends on your point of view.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honestly, I just think he's an idiot who is not on the side of the voters and definitely not for Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like his stance. And he doesn't care what anybody thinks. And everyone knows where he's coming from. And that's refreshing.
LAVANDERA: Cruz is the most talked about politician in Texas right now. But when the dust settles, the question is, how will the shutdown and debt ceiling standoff affect Ted Cruz's popularity in his home state?
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: People don't know what to do with Ted Cruz, especially those that have been around politics for a long time.
LAVANDERA: Cruz's style and confrontational tactics in the government shutdown fight have alienated some. The "Houston Chronicle" newspaper endorsed Ted Cruz for senator last year. But in a new editorial, the newspaper now says Cruz is "part of the problem" in Washington. The senator, who has been in office less than a year, is unfazed.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: That was a remarkable victory, to see the House engage in a profile in courage.
LAVANDERA: Even that didn't sit well with fellow Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas. REP. JOE BARTON (R), TEXAS: I respect Senator Cruz. He's my junior senator. But I agree with you, this is not a profile in courage.
LAVANDERA: He's controversial, he's brash, and even though Cruz's reputation might be scarred on a national level, veteran political strategists, like Mark McKinnon, say it only seems to help Cruz with Texas voters.
MARK MCKINNON, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Ted Cruz has a lot of support among hard-core, Tea Party Republicans. And there's a lot of them in Texas and so he has strong support in Republican primaries where the really hard-core conservatives come out. So he's likely to be senator for a long time.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Ted Cruz was elected senator by courting right wing Tea Party voters, being the most conservative candidate on the ballot, and the formula worked. Now consider this. Every Texas Republican in Congress voted against the budget deal to reopen the federal government, just like Ted Cruz.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): For many Texas Republican voters like Francisco Gonzalez, Ted Cruz's in your face style makes him popular.
FRANCISCO GONZALEZ, TEXAS REPUBLICAN VOTER (ph): He's awakened the people and whether they agree with him or disagree with him, it's a conversation that needed to be had.
LAVANDERA: Other Republican voters, like Ron Ship (ph) are seething angry at Cruz.
RON SHIP, TEXAS REPUBLICAN VOTER (ph): He's done real damage to the country, the economy, our standing internationally and to the Republican Party.
LAVANDERA: An old Texas politician used to say, there's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos. Ted Cruz doesn't play in the middle of the road.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: So what happens next with Ted Cruz is a question that not only political observers around the country are looking at, but what many people are looking at closely here in Texas. But one thing is certain, in the meantime, Ted Cruz is basking in the limelight.
Carol.
COSTELLO: Ed Lavandera reporting this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, director Michael Bay says he was attacked by a zombie during the filming of his latest "Transformers" movie. Details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be fine. I promise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's over. I'm sorry, but it's over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ooh! Transformers, robots in -- you get it. We can thank Michael Bay for bringing it all to the big screen, but he found himself in some serious trouble while filming the fourth "Transformers" movie in Hong Kong. Bay says a man tried to attack him with an air conditioner on the set and then the guy acted like a zombie and started biting people.
OK, Nischelle Turner, that's weird.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: It is weird. And, you know, the line to that is, more than meets the eye. And that can definitely apply to this, Carol. It does sound like one of the things from his big budget blockbusters, doesn't it, you know?
He's posted his version, though, Michael Bay, we're talking about, of this story on his website. And he says basically they were shooting on location when some men came up and demanded money or else they were going to start disrupting filming by things like playing loud music or throwing bricks. And according to Bay, and this is a quote from his website, he says, "one guy rolled metal carts into some of my actors, trying to shake us down for thousands of dollars. I personally told this man and his friends to forget it, we were not going to let him extort us."
Now, according to the local police, they were demanding 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, which is about 12,000 American dollars. And the director says that the men went away, they came back and he said they were carrying something like a long air conditioning unit which they tried to use as kind of a weapon to hit him in the face with it. And, by the way, he ducked. I know, it gets crazier.
He says that's when security came in and things really started getting out of hand. According to the Hong Kong police report, several officers and at least one of the suspects were injured during this whole scuffle that followed. But Michael Bay has a really dramatic, you know, account of this. He says it took seven security guards, Carol, to bring one of the men down. And during the fight, here's another quote from him, Michael Bay says, "he actually bit into the -- one of the guard's Nike shoes. Insane. Thank God it was an Air Max. The bubble popped, but the toe was saved."
You know, Michael Bay says this was like fighting one of the zombies from "World War Z." It's really crazy. And by the way, the guys were arrested and they're being charged with blackmail and assault. So that's the good news here. But can you imagine this?
COSTELLO: No.
TURNER: I mean, crazy. COSTELLO: No, I cannot - and I hope I never get to even remotely experience something like that. Wow. Well, good for Michael Bay. He fought the good fight. Nischelle Turner, thank you.
TURNER: I wouldn't mess with him.
COSTELLO: I wouldn't either. Thanks, Nischelle.
TURNER: Sure.
COSTELLO: Here's what's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
She's become the face of the Obamacare website and all of its problems. Now she's the main target of Republicans calling for her job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary Sebelius has had three-and-a-half years to launch Obamacare and she has failed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Could the health secretary be the first victim of the Obamacare website's rocky rollout?
Plus, Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks website, the subject of a new big-budget movie called "The Fifth Estate."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. But if you give him a mask -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But Assange hasn't given his blessing. He calls Hollywood's version "toxic" and he wants the world to know why.
That's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The man behind the leak of classified information from the NSA says he did not give that information to the Chinese or Russian intelligence agencies. Edward Snowden has been in Russia for several months now after requesting asylum there. But Snowden told "The New York Times" he gave all the documents to journalists in Hong Kong before he arrived in Moscow. One of those journalists who saw the documents, Glenn Greenwald of "The Guardian" newspaper told CNN's Anderson Cooper he believes Snowden is not helping the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN GREENWALD, COLUMNIST, THE GUARDIAN: Whether he took any to Russia, I obviously can't say for certain. But I know for certain that his intention was to undermine the ability of states to engage in mass surveillance, not to help states do so by giving documents to other governments. So it's certainly credible. There is zero evidence that he ever gave any documents or let any of those documents out of his control, despite the desire of people in the media to simply assert it without evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Phil Black now joins us from Moscow. So, Phil, I mean, if Edward Snowden did give documents to the Russian government, it's not like they would broadcast it to the world, would they?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, very true. You wouldn't expect so. The Russian government has said all along that they haven't been trying to extract information from Edward Snowden.
But still has been a persistent criticism, perhaps an assumption, that Snowden has by coming to Russia effectively betrayed his country that he is now a Russian intelligence asset. That whatever information he arrived with here is now in the hands of Russian security and intelligence services.
But in this interview conducted with "The New York Times" over an encrypted online service, Edward Snowden says that just is impossible because he didn't bring anything with him. He says he left it all in Hong Kong, those classified documents, with journalists that he was working with there. That there are no copies, that there was no logic in bringing copies with him to Russia.
And he is also pretty sure that the Chinese haven't been able to access that information, because he says that he was aware of China's technical abilities and capabilities so he is pretty sure that he's been able to secure that information from them.
And you know, Carol, Edward Snowden's father, Lon Snowden made a similar case to me when he was in Moscow earlier this week. I asked him what contact Edward Snowden was having with Russian intelligence and he insisted none. He said Edward had assured him that he had not been debriefed by any spy agency from any country since he fled the United States -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So -- so ok, so Edward Snowden gets to stay in Russia for one year, if memory serves correct. What happens after that?
BLACK: Well there is the possibility of extending that. There are technicalities and processes that he can follow in order to do that. His father told me that he doesn't know if he's going to do that yet, but he hasn't decided. But his father said his advice to his son was, this is the place for him to be. Because he believes this is where he is safest, where -- where -- and this is the father speaking, does not believe it would be possible for an individual or group affiliated with the United States to come in here, snatch him and whisk him back to the U.S. So the father's advice to his son is stay in Russia as long as you can.
COSTELLO: Phil Black reporting live from Moscow this morning. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Detroit Tigers well they're starting to hit again, but this may not be enough in their quest to return to the World Series. What happened, Miguel Cabrera? We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Joe Carter is such a nice guy. He's trying to comfort me. I had to put on my glasses because I was crying over the Detroit Tigers -- oh Joe.
JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: It's a seven-game series.
COSTELLO: I know.
CARTER: You still got a chance. You still got a chance.
COSTELLO: It's very hard to say. Just take it away.
CARTER: It goes back to Boston now. But you know Detroit still has a chance. I thought the keys of the game last night obviously where it was Boston jumping on Anibal Sanchez early. I mean he's a good pitcher and he only gets better if the innings still on. So for them to score those runs early on and then Detroit to leave so many opportunities on base, I mean that's where they sort of left it empty handed.
But you know the Tigers maybe without their starting catcher, Alex Avila and we've watched him get hurt yesterday early on in the game with this violent collision by David Ross --
COSTELLO: I'm sorry, but was that really necessary?
CARTER: No he's trying to score.
COSTELLO: They're both catchers they both suffered concussion so he runs into Alex Avila like that and knocks off his helmet? Get real.
CARTER: Yes and now he's potentially out for the rest of the series we'll see him day to day. But as I said Boston scored those runs early four runs in three innings. I thought Detroit fought back in this game but left too many people on base. Obviously the Boston Red Sox would go on to win. And now the pressure falls squarely on the Tigers as this series heads back to Boston.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM LEYLAND, DETROIT TIGERS MANAGER: (inaudible) said we've got to win one game. I mean that's obvious. You know we've got to win one game and then take it from there. Then you've got a shot to you know win the next one. We've got to win one game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: Well I like that one game in approach tactic. Later tonight we have more baseball. It's time for NLCS game six between the Cardinals and Dodgers. Of course St. Louis can punch its ticket to the World Series with a win tonight first pitch 8:30 p.m. Eastern on our sister network TBS.
The NFL action as well last night if you're flipping between the two games. Did you know that Marshawn Lynch likes Skittles in games? He's actually been eating Skittles during games since he was 12-year- old. His mom calls them of all things power pellets. She said they make her baby run fast. Well obviously it's working.
And his teammate quarterback Russell Wilson had another good game as well. Three touchdowns for him this guy gets better with each week. Seattle beat the Arizona cardinals by 12 points. They're off to a six and one. Their best start in franchise history. This is an NFC team that is simply dominating but is flying under the radar.
If the Dallas Cowboys were 6-1, if the 49ers were 6-1, if the Giants were 6-1 a lot of people would be talking about them but not many people talking about the Seahawks.
COSTELLO: And they've got the best uniforms.
CARTER: I agree with you there.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
CARTER: Let's talk about college basketball, Kentucky is ranked number one in the first pre-season poll out, the coaches' poll. This is the first time actually since this poll started back in '91 that a team takes the number one spot the year following the year that they were unranked in the season. I hope that makes sense.
The wildcats were ranked number one at the start of the season back in '95. That was the year that they won the national championship. And also was a roster that featured 11 future NBA players. This one is going to be pretty good. They've got six, five-star athletes coming on their team as freshmen. So, a lot of good athletes to be tested.
And leave it to Oregon football to be fashion forward this weekend when they take the field. They're going to be wearing pink helmets and pink cleats. It's all in support of breast cancer awareness month. You know Oregon they like to always make it loud. And they're going to do it this time but they're going to do it for a good cause so instead of the accessories, we're seeing the helmets -- the pink helmets.
COSTELLO: Good for them. Joe Carter, many thanks. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Some people are praising "Elle" magazine for putting a plus-size actress on its cover. We're talking about comedian, Melissa McCarthy. But some fans are also outraged because her body is totally hidden. She's draped in a thick trench coat.
CNN's Stephanie Elam has more. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA BULLOCK, ACTRESS: Close the door on the way out.
MELISSA MCCARTHY, ACTRESS: I'll shut the odor on you.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Scene stealing humor like in "The Heat" has turned Melissa McCarthy into a bona fide box office sensation. That star power is landing her in exclusive company. One of six women honored with her own cover for "Elle" magazine's Women in Hollywood issue.
All over social media, McCarthy's fans are celebrating this glamorous cover photo. Many are also saying McCarthy is too covered.
EMME, FOUNDER EMMENATION: Hopefully it's not a message that full- figured women are not meant to be seen which, you know, I'm not going to take it like that. I'm just happy that Melissa's on the cover and she looks fantastic. I just would have liked to have seen a little bit more of her.
ELAM: And you do see more of the other women featured on the covers of Elle's November issue. Emme, who's a plus-size supermodel and activist for women's causes says McCarthy is a role model.
EMME: We love the whole package of who she is and what she brings to us as entertainment. And to cover her up is just really a missed opportunity for celebration.
ELAM: "Elle" magazine's response to the criticism: "On all of our shoots, our stylists work with the stars to choose pieces they feel good in. And this is no different. Melissa loved this look and is gorgeous on our cover.
McCarthy told "OMG Insider" she was thrilled to be featured.
MCCARTHY: It was really, really fun. It was kind of amazing.
ELAM: McCarthy has yet to comment on the coat controversy specifically. But last summer, when movie posters for "The Heat" got heat for making McCarthy's face and head appear smaller, she laughed it off.
MCCARTHY: Everybody was like, this is an out rage. I'm like, am I the only one that thinks it's the funniest thing? It was clearly, clearly a goof up.
ELAM: To McCarthy, clearly it's her body of work that matters most.
Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
Happening now in the NEWSROOM. She is the face of Obamacare and its Website launch. Now some Republicans are calling for her head.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I'll be the first to tell you that the website launch was rockier than we would have liked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Will Kathleen Sebelius be forced to resign because of all those glitches?
Plus, if you didn't know Ted Cruz before the government shutdown, you sure do now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam, I am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He lost his battle to derail Obamacare but the Tea Party favorite still come out a winner.
And later --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 12 million people have seen that video. You're still going to tell me you think it's just a little Web site.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: "The Fifth Estate" out in theaters today.
