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New Day
Defending Obamacare; Sebelius On Hot Seat; Trenton On The Potomac?; Chris Christie Looks Ahead; Report: CIA Paid AT&T For Data; New Video In Teen's Death; Mounting Pressure To Resign; Garden State Plaza Mall 911 Call Released; Video Released of Prisoner Pleading For Medical Attention; Detroit Barbershop Shooting; Should You Buy Twitter Stock?
Aired November 07, 2013 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HHS SECRETARY: I can tell you our early enrollment numbers are going to be very low.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The first casualty. One of the leaders behind the Obamacare website resigns, as Kathleen Sebelius admits the site may pose a security risk as well. Can these problems be fixed?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. Twitter goes public this morning, minting new millionaires and making some wealthy investors even richer. But is it a good buy for you?
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shopping frenzy. Wal-Mart's website accidentally set some of its prices absurdly low. A treadmill worth hundreds of dollars for just 33 bucks. The question now, will Wal-Mart honor those deals?
CUOMO: Your "NEW DAY" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to "NEW DAY." It's Thursday, November 7th, six o'clock in the east.
First up, President Obama insists the patient is getting better. And they're working overtime to help healthcare.gov running smoothly by the end of the month. That would be the headline today except a new problem seem to come up as Kathleen Sebelius returned to Capitol Hill for yet another grilling, this time, a security risk to users. Brianna Keilar is following developments live at the White House this morning. What do we know, Brianna? Good morning.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good morning to you. It was another damaging appearance on the Hill for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as President Obama headed to the Lone Star State, that's right, but not a coincidence that he was in Texas where a Republican governor has blocked the expansion of Medicaid under the Obamacare law.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, it is wonderful to see all of you.
KEILAR (voice-over): Texas, not exactly friendly territory for Obamacare. But that's where President Obama went to criticize Republican opposition to his signature health care reform program and promised its faulty website will soon be up and running.
OBAMA: We are working overtime to get this fixed, and the website is already better than it was at the beginning of October. And by the end of this month, we anticipate it is going to be working the way it is supposed to.
KEILAR: Back in the hot seat again, embattled Health And Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before a Senate committee, conceding not many people have signed up.
SEBELIUS: Our early enrollment numbers are going to be very low.
KEILAR: Republicans question the security of healthcare.gov and the screening of so-called navigators who help people enroll.
SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them.
SEBELIUS: That is possible. We have contracts with the organizations and they have taken the responsibility to screen their individual navigators and make sure that they are sufficiently trained for the job.
KEILAR: But it was this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not shut down and do it right?
KEILAR: Criticism from Chairman Max Baucus who voted for Obamacare that may have stung the most. For congressional Democrats facing re- election next year, Obamacare has become a political liability. President Obama invited 15 of them to the White House Wednesday afternoon to address their concerns. Meanwhile, the fallout from the messy roll-out seeing its first casualty, the chief information officer for the agency running the troubled web site has resigned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And on that meeting of Democrats who came to the White House, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado said that he addressed concerns about security as we heard from Republicans, but also he urged President Obama to delay that requirement that Americans purchase health insurance. Kate, as you can imagine, it is a huge problem for President Obama when he doesn't even have the support of his own Democrats. BOLDUAN: It's very good point. Brianna, thank you so much. Let's talk more though about the fallout from the elections this week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the middle of a victory lap following his overwhelming re-election win in New Jersey. But with that, some big questions looking ahead to 2016, his blunt style, his quick temper, where does Christie stand within his own party? Deborah Feyerick is here with more on that. Good morning, Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, everybody. It is a big question because is he known for being bold, blunt, speaking his mind, pulling no punches. Some people are put off by that, but he has made it his trademark and he thinks it is resonating not only with New Jersey but with the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Of all the races in all the states, there was arguably only one that had political pundits pondering the viability of one possible presidential nominee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chris Christie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chris Christie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris Christie.
FEYERICK: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a leading 2016 Republican contender despite his repeated denials that he's even in the race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's talking about you running for president. The question is how do you keep that from becoming a major distraction over the next couple of years?
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Yes, I don't get distracted very easily. It takes a lot to distract me and I think the way it won't be a distraction is I simply won't let it.
FEYERICK: Yet, coming off his landslide victory in which he won a majority of votes among women, Latinos, Republicans, conservatives and Tea Party voters, the now seasoned governor sound like a man looking to the future.
CHRISTIE: I think every day you do a job like this one makes you a better executive, whether that would apply to me being a better president or not, I just don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir. Good luck.
FEYERICK: Christie's broad appeal earned him praise from outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: The lesson for this whole country, whether it was Christie or McAuliffe, both of them were centralists. They could work across the aisle. FEYERICK: But not everyone is ready to embrace him as the face of the GOP. Tea Party favorite Rand Paul seemed to take a swipe at him on spending federal dollars on the Superstorm Sandy ads.
SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: People running for office put their mug all over these ads while in the middle of a political campaign. That's offensive.
FEYERICK: As if to get ahead of other possible Republican competitors like Senator Marco Rubio, Christie made sure to emphasize his victory in Rubio's crucial voting bloc.
CHRISTIE: We won the Latino vote last night. Find another Republican in America who has won the Latino vote recently.
FEYERICK: Rubio congratulating his fellow Republican, but making clear New Jersey is not the nation.
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: We need to understand that some of these races don't apply to future races. Every race is different. It has a different set of factors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: A little bit of sniping there. Chris Christie heads up the governors association, his job is to get other Republican governors elected. A lot can happen between now and the time he throws his hat into the ring. Right now he plans to simply ignore it, push him hard and he'll ignore you. That's his strategy when it comes to running for the presidency.
BOLDUAN: Sticking true to his brand and style so far.
FEYERICK: Indeed he is.
BOLDUAN: Answer the question or just tell you to shut up.
FEYERICK: That's exactly right.
CUOMO: On the way up, he is bold and blunt, but then when we decide to tear him down, he'll be brash and arrogant.
BOLDUAN: Wait for that tipping point.
FEYERICK: He's used to it.
BOLDUAN: Thanks so much.
FEYERICK: Of course.
BOLDUAN: All right, Michaela.
PEREIRA: Let's take a look at our headlines at this hour. The CIA reportedly has been paying -- AT&T rather, $10 million a year for access to its phone records database and "The New York Times" says the company has participated voluntarily without any sort of court order. This data base includes details of Americans' overseas calls. But officials insist the details of who have made the calls from this country are not available to them.
More questions being raised in the mysterious death of a Florida teenager, Kendrick Johnson. New video obtained by CNN shows Johnson in the gym where he died. Another shows a mysterious person walking towards the mats where Johnson's body was later found. Johnson's family believes the 17-year-old was murdered and someone tried to cover up the evidence. The police insist, however, it was an accident.
A shooting at a Detroit barber shop kills three and wounds seven others. The gunfire broke out Wednesday on the east side of the city on a barber shop that is said to be known for illegal gambling. Police are looking for suspects and two cars they say were following one another and shooting at one another before aiming inside the barber shop.
Pressure is mounting this morning for Toronto's embattled mayor who admitted smoking crack while in a drunken stupor. The pressure is for him to resign and deepening the crisis around Rob Ford. His long-time policy adviser has quit. Ford was met by protests on his first day back on the job after his shocking admission, but still, he refuses to step aside.
One of the worst kept secrets arguably is now confirmed. Two floating barges in San Francisco Bay and in Portland, Maine, do indeed belong to Google. The company says they'll be used as interactive spaces to teach people about technology. That likely includes space to show case those top Google innovations, things like Google glass, et cetera. We were coming up with all sorts of thoughts.
BOLDUAN: I like ours better.
PEREIRA: Ours were better, I think we were. We knew it was some sort of innovation, nothing nefarious.
CUOMO: There's still a reason that they're on a barge that we don't know will come out.
PEREIRA: Yes, that's true. Rent in San Francisco Bay incredibly high.
BOLDUAN: Keep the mystery going.
CUOMO: There's something. We'll find it out. There's more. There's also more for you. Let's get to Karen Maginnis in for Indra Petersons with the forecast. Hi, Karen.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Chris and Kate, and Mich, as we take a look at what's happening in the northeast, a fairly quiet week except for the fact that it was a little cool. But now, let the games begin with the airport delays, LaGuardia and Philadelphia, between 45 minutes and an hour. That's because of this, the frontal system trying to make its way towards the east. We've been talking about this for the last several days as it produced snowfall across the Midwest and into the northern tier, but now it marches towards the east.
As a result, we'll start to see that visibility greatly reduced and not just that, but gusty winds behind this are going to be problematic especially for this afternoon. We might see wind gusts in places from Washington, D.C. to New York to Boston up towards Maine that could be on the order of 25, possibly 35 mile per hour gusts expected there.
Well, the water vapor imagery shows where that frontal system is and this is going to be a fairly swift-moving system so not a lot of rain associated with it. Right along that area of low pressure that's where we'll see the heavier amounts. This moves in, moves out fairly quickly.
But behind it, that's where you see the sticker shock with the much colder air moving in. Temperatures running 5 degrees to 10 degrees below where they should be, but after this, Chris and Kate, looks like a large portion of real estate across the U.S. is going to be very quiet except for the Pacific Northwest -- back to you.
BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Karen.
Coming up next on "NEW DAY", teammates are now coming to the defense of a Miami Dolphins player accused of bullying. They say that Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito were friends and this is overblown. We'll have the latest.
CUOMO: And Twitter sales go on sale for today. The next big thing for your 401(k) or as overblown and as many things written on the site itself, we'll take you through it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Welcome back to "NEW DAY". It's money time, your money. The price of a slice of Twitter is now known, $26 a share. At least that's what the really rich who got in early will pay. You'll probably have to pay a little bit more. The question is should you buy it at all. Alison Kosik is here. It's great to have you. I put that question to you. What do we make of it?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, one thing to keep in mind if you're an average investor, stocks like this when they're hyped so much by yours truly, by the media, they can be volatile. I'd say this probably isn't for you if you're the average investor. This is an exclusive party. Only 20 percent of the shares that are out there are actually out there for normal investors.
The rest as you said were made available to these exclusive investors, these big underwriters last night at $26. One thing to remember is what happened with Facebook. Facebook was the biggest tech IPO ever and it quickly became one of the biggest flops. You see the stock came out at $38 a share. Three months later, you got it for half that price. Today, yes, it's recovered at that $49. But you know, it's been a rocky road. It's a lesson for how we should approach what's happening with Twitter.
CUOMO: Which is what? KOSIK: Which is?
CUOMO: When we look at it, how much of it is the market, how much is what we see in the actual company beyond the hype? You know what should people look at when making the decision because you never judge the market overall.
KOSIK: Right. Something to remember, Twitter has yet to turn a profit. This company started in 2006. It's yet to turn a profit. So, yes, a lot of this is really hype, and you look at the stock, if you bought the stock, you have to really believe in its business model and Twitter relies on ad revenue.
It's doing OK with its ad revenue, but the problem is Twitter is also in the middle of making acquisitions to build its brand so more money is coming out than coming in. So it's not making that profit. Now, once again if you believe in the business model, if you believe in the trajectory of the business, then it could be a good investment, but if you're the average investor, it's risky as all these investments are.
BOLDUAN: Any indication that -- all indications are this is going to go smoothly today in terms of -- in comparison to how the Facebook launch was.
KOSIK: That's what the hope is. The stock is making its debut this morning at the New York Stock Exchange. Everybody compares it to what happened with Facebook. And Facebook was a big flop, in part because the Nasdaq had huge technical issues. That's where Facebook is listed. And even the Nasdaq hasn't recovered from that reputation, sort of black eye.
So the NYSE has been dotting its I's, crossing its T's. It even ran sort of a dry run a couple of weekends ago for how it's going to look when Twitter goes public. But hey, you know what, they're laying out not the red carpet, they're putting out the blue carpet today.
(CROSSTALK)
KOSIK: So they're pulling out all the stops and have been trying to button it up to make sure that what happened to Facebook doesn't happen to Twitter at the New York Stock Exchange.
CUOMO: The best three words in our business, we will see.
(LAUGHTER)
KOSIK: In fact, it is we will see, it really is.
BOLDUAN: At this one it applies.
CUOMO: If they can make money out of snark and hostility, that thing is going to shoot through the roof.
KOSIK: There you go.
BOLDUAN: What's your opinion about Twitter? Tell me, please? CUOMO: Twitter is a scary place.
KOSIK: It is. People hide behind that handle and they say whatever they want.
CUOMO: Hopefully they'll go there because there's enough wattage and amplitude there, and opinion, and they get to read their little ads and make their money.
KOSIK: Exactly.
CUOMO: We'll see.
BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Alison.
KOSIK: You got it.
BOLDUAN: Let's turn now to that bullying scandal we've been watching in the NFL. Miami Dolphins teammates are putting up a new public defense of their lineman, Richie Incognito. This as questions swirl over just what the coaches knew about all of this.
CNN's John Zarrella is in Miami at the stadium this morning with the very latest.
Good morning, John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. This story just gets stranger by the day. You would have thought from everything we heard and what we know that Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin were arch enemies. But other Dolphin players say oh, no, no, no, they were tight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Dolphins head coach, Joe Philbin, surrounded by more media than any 4-4 team usually gets, defended his team.
JOE PHILBIN, HEAD COACH, MIAMI DOLPHINS: I have full faith and confidence that we will stick together as a team.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): But Philbin refused to address whether he or any of his coaches instructed Richie Incognito to toughen up another player, Jonathan Martin. When asked, did Martin need toughening up...
PHILBIN: Jonathan Martin came in here and worked hard every single day.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): The storm swirling around the Dolphins is getting worse by the day. It began over allegations offensive lineman Incognito bullied Martin, another lineman, so badly he left the team.
Now a report that at least one coach told Incognito, the anointed leader of the offensive line, to get Martin toughened up. While Philbin had little to say, his players had plenty and it was startling. Incognito wasn't a bully, they said, but a best friend, like big brother-little brother.
RYAN TANNEHILL, QB, MIAMI DOLPHINS: I think if you would ask Jon Martin a week before who his best friend on the team was, he would have said Richie Incognito. The first guy to stand up for Jonathan when anything went down on the field, any kind of tussle, Richie was the first guy there.
TYSON CLABO, DEFENSIVE TACKLE, MIAMI DOLPHINS: If there was a problem, Jonathan Martin didn't show it. And I've been here long enough to know that -- off the field that those two guys were thick as thieves and that they went out together, they hung out together. They did a lot of stuff together.
So if he had a problem with the way that the guy was treating him, he had a funny way of showing it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they were good friends, best friends.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): The players all insisted they had no idea Martin was about to leave the team and no idea there was any problem between Incognito and Martin.
BRIAN HARTLINE, WIDE RECEIVER, MIAMI DOLPHINS: The people that can hurt you the most are the people that are closest to you. And when you mistake one for the other, that's when you find problems.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, ESPN has been reporting that Martin was briefly hospitalized after he walked out on Dolphins camp over a week ago now. But it is believed that was for emotional distress, believed that he is back now in California with his family -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, John, thanks so much for that update from Miami for us this morning. I'm still torn on this. I don't know. Not that I should know.
CUOMO: Interesting dynamic going on here. One, what are we seeing right now? Football teams are tight. It is a fraternity. They are going to come together, they have to for their season's sake.
BOLDUAN: And maybe we don't have all the information.
CUOMO: Right. We haven't heard from Jonathan Martin. And because it was bullying, it's such a hot button, we want to care so much about it that we attack bullying wherever we see it.
But we have no know why Martin left the team from him, from his family and then you'll start to piece it together. So this is one of those where you listen but take half a step back until we get more.
BOLDUAN: That's a good point.
Coming up next on "NEW DAY," Kathleen Sebelius says the Obamacare website has hundreds of bugs that need to be fixed and now the top tech guy who worked on the website is out. Why? Will more dominoes fall now?
CUOMO: And a story that really demands answers. This 22-year-old turns himself in to police on a minor pot charge. But then he winds up dead in his jail cell. His family claims guards didn't respond to his pleas for help. We'll give you the facts, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Let's give you a check of the headlines this hour.
We're now hearing the frightened 9-1-1 calls from people forced to hide during the shooting at Garden State Plaza Mall. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 9-1-1. Where's your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Garden State Plaza.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I'm at the Garden State Plaza Mall where there's been a shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm in, I work here, I'm inside the store, in the office with a girl by myself. But I'm scared and I want to get out the mall.
PEREIRA (voice-over): Eventually everyone made it out of the mall safely, however, the shooter, 20-year-old Richard Shoop was found dead inside the mall with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: Amid the controversy over the NSA spying program, the White House reportedly considering separate leaders for the spy agency and for cyber command, which conducts military attacks. Retiring General Keith Alexander leads both groups now. This move would limit a concentration of power to one person.
Also being discussed: should a civilian head the NSA?
Less than a decade ago, video rental giant Blockbuster had 9,000 retail locations in the U.S. Now they have just 300. All of those are closing come January. Its DVD by mail operation also shutting down. Blockbuster which is owned by DISH Network will live on a streaming service alone.
Two people who served prison time with Martin MacNeill now say the Utah doctor admitted to killing his wife. Testifying at his murder trial, one said MacNeill told him he gave his wife painkillers and held her head under water. There's also some drama when a television report of the trial started playing on a prosecution laptop. Defense attorneys asked for a mistrial but the judge denied that.
A would-be burglar busted after he tried to shimmy down the chimney of a Florida house. The guy apparently wasn't slender enough. He got stuck in the tight space. His foot left dangling in the fireplace. Took firefighters about half an hour to get him out. They then handed him over to the cops.
BOLDUAN: If Santa can do it, why can't he?
PEREIRA: You've got to measure. (INAUDIBLE) criminal file.
CUOMO: That's why there's only one when it comes to Santa.
That's the message in that story.
All right. Now we want to talk to you now about something that's going on, it's raising a lot of questions.
A Washington State man turns himself in. He needed to serve time for a minor drug offense but somehow he winds up dead in the jail. His family says his pleas for help were ignored by guards and they say they have a smoking gun. "EARLY START" anchor Zoraida Sambolin joins us with the story.
This is one where the family wants answers. It's getting them. But what do we know?
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN HOST: You're watching that video. It's just really tough to watch, very tragic story, the 22-year-old (INAUDIBLE) suffered from severe food allergies, when he died at a Washington County jail. This was over a year ago.
Now his mother's filed a $10 million wrongful death claim against the county with distressing video now released as part of that legal action.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Recently released surveillance video shows the shocking moments 22-year-old Michael Saffioti allegedly pleaded with guards for help as he suffocated from a fatal allergic reaction.
ROSE SAFFIOTI, MICHAEL'S MOTHER: We discovered he had a dairy allergy when he was very young. And I know that he asked for help and I just -- it was awful to see him.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Michael's mother, still fighting for answers a year after her son voluntarily turned himself in to a county jail on a minor pot possession charge. The next morning, Saffioti died from an acute asthma attack after eating a bowl of oatmeal.
CHERYL SNOW, ATTORNEY: We know Michael had a belief that the oatmeal was safe to eat and that he had been told that it did not contain milk.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Around 5:45 am you see Saffioti and fellow inmates line up for breakfast. Saffioti's seen here, holding his tray and questioning the contents of his food with the guard. Minutes later, Saffioti apparently continued to discuss his food while sitting with inmates.
SAFFIOTI: I knew what he was thinking, you know, should I eat this? Should I not?
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Ultimately he took a bite. Moments later, he was back at the guard desk, using his inhaler.
According to a damages claim, Saffiotti said he needed to see a nurse. And a guard told him to get into lockdown in his cell while he called the nurse's station. For the next half hour, you can see inmates checking in on him as he tries to get the guard's attention, jumping up and down.
SNOW: Michael's needs were completely ignored. That his medical distress was completely ignored.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Forty-five minutes later, a guard doing a routine module check found Saffiotti unconscious. Nurses and firefighters performed CPR. Unresponsive, they rushed him to the hospital.
Two hours after that first bite of oatmeal, Saffioti was pronounced dead.
Soon after, Snohomish County Jail asked for a federal review. The National Institute of Corrections found that the jail's health department is seriously understaffed and the crowding poses significant health and personal safety risks.
SAFFIOTI: I look at the video, it's very shocking. It's hard to watch. But I'm determined to watch it because I really want to see where things went wrong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN: All right. The cruel irony here is that four months after Saffioti's death recreational pot was actually legalized in Washington State. Snohomish County Jail told CNN they will not comment on pending litigation.
CUOMO: See, that's where the problem comes in. This is horrible. The whole story is horrible. The video is tough for the family to watch, all of us to watch, it's not easy. But you make the right point. You have to watch it because the crime here is of not coming forward and discussing the situation. That's what fuels all the doubt about officials.
SAMBOLIN: And the anger.
CUOMO: And the anger, is that they -- they're not coming forward pending litigation is a convenient situation here to hide from a discussion they need to have.
