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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Boehner Forceful on Bipartisan Budget Deal; Millions Impacted By Wintery Blast; Reporter Files Suit Against Toronto Mayor; Mega Millions Lottery Frenzy; Stabbing After Chargers, Broncos Game

Aired December 13, 2013 - 11:30   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: There were a whole bunch of Republicans, more than 16, who voted against it. They thought that the Republican leadership went too far, Paul Ryan was making too many concessions from their perspective.

But John Boehner was firm. He minced no words. He said enough was enough. He tried it the more-conservative way earlier. They paid a serious price with the two-week government shutdown. He wasn't about to go through that again. And as a result, he was forceful in welcoming this compromise. You don't hear that word often. But this is a real compromise. Both sides aren't thrilled, but they can live with it.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Even before the vote he was being forceful. Let's have a listen and I want to ask you about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: But when groups criticize an agreement that they've never seen, you begin -- you know, when you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So what happened? Did the backlash over the shutdown effectively signal to Boehner that he needed to get tough?

BLITZER: He's referring to the statements released even before Patty Murray and Paul Ryan announced their compromise and bipartisan deal, a two-year budget deal that would make sure that the government does not shut down over two years. They were criticizing it before they knew what was in the deal. That was what was so frustrating to the speaker, the majority leader, Eric Cantor, the chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan, the real leaders in the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. There's a group that's very disappointed. They would have wanted to go further. More than 16 Republicans voted against it. But they lost in the end. And now it goes to the Senate.

BANFIELD: Now, I just need to say really quickly, we had funny audio off the top if anybody is wondering why that sounded odd, it was our part. It had nothing to do with John Boehner.

The far right did not get to scuttle this in the House. What about the far left?

BLITZER: I don't think they're going to do that. I think the Senate Democratic leadership. The president strongly supports this compromise. They're going to need 60 votes in the Senate. I assume it will be filibustered. They'll need 60: The Democrats have a 55-45 majority in the Senate. They need five Republicans, assuming all the Democrats are onboard. And maybe one or two might not be because there's no long-term unemployment benefits. But I think most the Democrats will vote for it, if not at all of them. I suspect it will pass and the president will sign it into law.

BANFIELD: I want to move on to one of the most hard-hitting interviews you've done over the years, and that will be Will Ferrell. I'm not going to suggest it's based on your work, but let's watch a quick clip and I want to ask you about it in a minute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now we did research on a crack unit on you.

WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: You have a unit that smokes crack?

BLITZER: No. We have a crack research unit.

FERRELL: Got you.

BLITZER: Back in 1991, you correct me if I'm wrong, did you try out to be an anchor at a local cable access station called "Around and About Orange County"?

FERRELL: That's correct. I was an anchor. I was also a field reporter. Local cable access show, "Around or About Orange County News." And I did it for about six month.

BLITZER: How did that work out?

FERRELL: I didn't work out.

BLITZER: It was terrible?

FERRELL: I failed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

BANFIELD: It didn't work out. Probably one of the better things that didn't work out for him, right?

BLITZER: He was lucky. Look where he is right now. He's a huge, huge star. This is a really good interview. A funny interview. At one point, we go back and forth a little, Ron Burgundy.

What do you like better, the mustache or the full beard?

BANFIELD: You know what, I like you any way you are. I like you that you decided to wear glasses like mine. I like it that you're intimidating -- I find it very appealing.

BLITZER: My role model, Ron Burgundy. And, Ashleigh, how cool is that?

BANFIELD: Liar. Liar. I love you to pieces.

Thank you, Wolf. Good to see you. Have a great weekend.

BLITZER: By the way, you forgot the most important thing.

BANFIELD: Which one?

BLITZER: The full interview airs 6:00 p.m. in the "The Situation Room."

BANFIELD: Oh, darn.

(LAUGHTER)

That was the whole reason we did the segment, right?

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Correct.

BANFIELD: Say it again. Promote again. Go ahead.

BLITZER: "The Situation Room" starts at 5:00. We're going to run this interview in the 6:00 p.m. eastern hour of the "The Situation Room." I think a lot of folks will have a good laugh.

BANFIELD: Do you know why I forgot?

BLITZER: Why?

BANFIELD: I just assume everyone always watches no matter what.

BLITZER: OK.

BANFIELD: That's a good save.

Wolf, thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: OK. Got out of that one.

So it's feeling a lot like Antarctica in much of the country. And there's another winter blast that's going to blow through. Look at the Milwaukee River. Not quite skating material yet, Milwaukee. But you know your town. You know when it's safe to go on the ice and when it's not. That's blowing right through the middle of downtown. Some of it is, any way.

I want to show you scene in Buffalo. Man, it's cold up there. This is going to stretch for about 1,000 miles of storms. Tens of millions of people in a storm on a weekend when you're trying to get ready forever the holidays.

I want to go to Jennifer Gray in the Weather Center.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. We're on our fifth winter storm of the season. This is going to affect many of you trying to get out there and do shopping on the weekend. If you're in the south, it's going to be in the form of rain. In the north, all the way up into New England, it's going to be in the form of snow and freezing rain. We're going to track this low as it heads up the coast this weekend. It's mainly going to hit the northeast tomorrow afternoon into Sunday morning. Southern sections get rain, as snow-rain mixture and heavy snow up to the north.

We'll take it hour by hour, Saturday morning, not much. You may see snow in portions of Pennsylvania and New York. As we head into the afternoon, we'll see the heavy snow start to hit outside of New York and up into Boston and pushing up into New England for the latest afternoon on Sunday. Eight to 10 inches for portions of New York. And then eight to 10 inches for New England. Boston, New York, Washington, won't see quite as much. One to three inches in New York. And Boston, three to six inches in New York.

BANFIELD: You know what three to six inches of snow can do to New York City.

GRAY: Yes. Not good.

BANFIELD: Quiet time in the apartment and hot cocoa.

Thank you for that. Have a good weekend. I hope you manage to get around OK.

OK. So I know you know this one. You heard of the crack-smoking Toronto mayor as he sounds off. You watch his moves as he goes off. And now his words may be coming back to bite him in the crack pipe. One reporter is filing a lawsuit. Why? What did he say and how could this really be trouble.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So we've gone all week without a little bit of Rob Ford, your favorite mayor and my favorite mayor of Toronto. And I know we're due. So here you go. This comes from a local reporter in Toronto who has been covering the mayor of Toronto since day one. That's his job. But Mayor Ford complained in public about that reporter. The reporter's name is Daniel Dale. He works for the "Toronto Star." The mayor made allegations that Daniel says are lies, flat out. He also made insinuations that Dale says he cannot and will not tolerate. So the reporter served the mayor with a libel notice and a full-blown lawsuit could follow. What could be so bad that the reporter would decide, I've had it?

Our two lawyers are back, Joey Jackson and Heather Hansen. You know something, I wondered the same thing. It had to be pretty bad for a reporter to do this. Apparently, he feels that the mayor insinuated he was a pedophile for having been out near his house. He suggested he was not on public property, but on cinder blocks in his yard --

(CROSSTALK)

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Taking photos of children.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Right. Pretty ugly stuff.

HEATHER HANSEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's weird. If first of all it's backwards.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: The reporter suing the guy he reports on instead of the guy he reports on suing the reporter.

HANSEN: This is definitely weird.

JACKSON: But you're not surprised in this instance.

(CROSSTALK)

HANSEN: Ashleigh, I think what he really wants is the mayor to come out and recant what he said. He said he is not looking for monetary damages at this point. In Canada, it's different. They put out a notice and then they have time in which to file the suit. But he does have a case. In Canada, it's easier to prove libel than it is here.

JACKSON: Much, much easier.

BANFIELD: Why is that?

JACKSON: It's a different jurisdiction. Different jurisdictions are subject to different laws. In Canada, all you have to establish is that it lowers your standing in the community in the minds of average people.

BANFIELD: That's it?

JACKSON: That's what you establish. Does it lower your standing in the community? That will be arguable. You don't have to prove damages nor falsity.

BANFIELD: Wow.

JACKSON: So it's an entirely different standard as it relates to the case.

But, look, it wasn't a direct pedophile statement. He didn't say that. HANSEN: He never used the word.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: In fact, didn't he say, I shouldn't say this word, I'm not --

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: You have to evaluate everything in context. And in the context in which he said it, you could say he was really needling this reporter for invading his orbit, so to speak. And I don't think the average person would construe that as him calling him a pedophile.

BANFIELD: Heather, if he decides to launch the suit or prevails, can a judge compel someone to stand up on television and say "sorry"?

HANSEN: No. They can make his pay money.

BANFIELD: But it's not a monetary suit.

HANSEN: Eventually, that's what he'd have to be suing for. It's not a criminal case. He would have to be suing for money if he decides to go forward with it. He wants the mayor to come forward.

But he also sued the TV station that aired the interview. That could end up being more of a monetary suit. Here, I think, he wants the mayor to come forward and say that is not the case.

BANFIELD: There's so many layers in this story that I can't even get into.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: And you know what, Ashleigh?

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

JACKSON: The one thing that I found that was interesting is it's reverse. It's reverse burden. In Canada, once you say that you defame me, you prime facie have defamed me and you have to disapprove that I haven't.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

HANSEN: We protect our speakers a lot more than they do in Canada.

JACKSON: Yeah.

BANFIELD: And the lawyers make a lot more money.

(LAUGHTER) Thank you, two. Have a great weekend.

JACKSON: And you, Ashleigh, always.

BANFIELD: Oh, thank you.

OK. I'm feeling lucky. And I am in the lottery pool, every week. I hate to say it. I am that person. And you know what? It's getting good. The lottery jackpot is way, way up. But a restructured drawing is going to lessen your chance of winning. What? Seriously? Going to explain when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Nice little holiday surprise from Beyonce. Without any pre-promotion whatsoever, just after midnight on the east coast, this little lady dropped a brand-new album on iTunes just like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEYONCE, SINGER: People only listen to a few segments of a song on their iPods. They don't really invest in a whole album. It's all about the single. And the hype. It's so much that gets between the music and the artist and the fans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Awesome. It has 14 songs. It has 17 videos. There is a duet with her husband Jay-Z and there's even a cameo from her little baby daughter Blue Ivy. So there you go. Happy holidays. From Beyonce.

It's lucky Friday the 13th. Can you feel it? All right. Get a good look at me right now because if I win the Mega Millions $400 million jackpot I might not be here on Monday. That's a lie. I would still work because I love my coworkers so much. Right? I have to say that.

Pamela Brown, another co-worker I adore, is at a store in New York to break the bad news.

Apparently, winning is getting even harder than it used to be.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, a little bit of tough love for those who are hoping to win the jackpot. It is harder than ever because of changes put into place recently. In fact, that's a big reason why this jackpot has rolled over 20 times and climbed to an astounding it $400 million, the fifth-largest jackpot in U.S. history. Even if the odds aren't so much in your favor to win, there's a one in 15 chance you can win something.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): The frenzy for Mega Millions tickets is reaching a fever pitch. $400 million at stake, the second largest jackpot in the game's history has players dreaming what they would do if they win. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to be a millionaire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd be partying like a rock star.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Early retirement.

BROWN: Recent changes to the Mega Millions have inflated jackpots and are attracting more customers to play but the odds of winning are significantly lower after the revamp. October. That's because the five winning numbers increases to a total of 75 white balls instead of 56. And the number of gold mega balls decreased from 46 to only 15, making it that much harder to win the big prize. Chances of winning the jackpot went from one in 175 million to one in 259 million.

KEVIN ALLEXON, MEGA MILLION HOPEFUL: I saw on the news there's a list of things more likely to happen than winning the lottery, being struck by lightning was one of them, but hopefully I can beat the odds.

BROWN: Someone's going to be lucky. I think it's going to be me into if those odds seem impossible, that's because so far they have been. No one has won the big prize since the switch. The last winner a Maryland man who chose to remain anonymous bought a winning ticket at this store October 1st. He matched all the numbers, winning $186 million. Since then 20 drawings and no winner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

BROWN: Now some good news. The minimum second prize, won hitting all numbers except the mega ball, jumping from a quart million dollars to $1 million. Jackpots are growing larger and faster. The minimum jackpot rose to $158 million from $12 million, guaranteed to increase by at least $5 million after each drawing without a winner.

VICTOR MATHESON, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS: Could see maybe in the next several years, maybe an elusive billion dollar jackpot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So, Ashleigh, we'll find out tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern time when the drawing happens if there will be a big winner. But just to put the odds in perspective here, you have a thousand times better chance of being hit by an asteroid or comet than winning the jackpot, are but hey, it could still happen. Even though it is Friday the 13th, it doesn't have to be an unlucky day. One man won $27 million on Friday the 13th. So you never know -- Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: There are asteroids out there.

Pamela Brown reporting for us.

Dull just happen to catch the Broncos, Chargers game last night? You better be lucky then that you weren't in the parking lot after because it's a crime scene, and people were stabbed. Is this really how fans ended the night? Going to take you there and explain what happened next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Denver police are trying to piece together what led to a stabbing following last night's Chargers-Broncos game. It's the latest serious incident to take place following an NFL game.

I want to get the very latest CNN's Ted Rowlands who is live in Chicago.

Did this have anything to do tale with the game? I know the parking lot's connected. Is this game related?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know yet, Ashleigh. Basically, Denver police were called to the parking lot adjacent to the sports authority field or mile high stadium where the Broncos just lost to the Chargers right after the game. One would think there's a good possibility it was game related. Fans coming out of the game saw this, said it was very chaotic. In the end three men were taken to the hospital, one critically injured. All stab victims. They believe a fourth was also stabbed coming on the heels of another incident in Kansas City also involve the Broncos where a 30-year-old, by the name of Kyle van Winkle, died after he accidentally got into the wrong car in the parking lot in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium. He had a 7- month-old son. In this case, police say they're not sure what the game had to do with the incident but they're investigating. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. STEVE WARNEKE, DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Yeah, I'm not sure whether or not this had anything to do with the outcome of the game, whether or not this was something independent of the game. Those things will hopefully come to light once we complete our investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Bottom line, Ashleigh, it is horrible to think that people go to a football game and exposed to this potential danger. It is a disturbing trend.

BANFIELD: Kids are coming out of there. Who knows what they were exposed to in this accident last night.

Appreciate it.

Ted Rowlands, reporting live for us.

That is all the time that I have not only this hour but this week. So have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for watching, everyone.

AROUND THE WORLD starts right now.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: A high-profile execution in North Korea. The leader ordering the death of his own uncle. And stunning allegations about an American missing for six years in Iran. Was Bob Levenson actually spying for the CIA?

And after walking through the snow for more than 200 miles, Britain's Prince Harry and his team reached the South Pole, all in the name of charity.

Welcome to AROUND THE WORLD. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Michael Holmes is off today. It's his birthday.

Happy birthday, Michael.

We begin her with news. World leaders, diplomats asking the question, what on earth is going on with North Korea? The news came out early today North Korea time that the man most believed was the second-most- powerful person in the country was executed by the most powerful. That, of course, being Kim Jung-Un, the young leader who holds all the cards in North Korea. Analysts are puzzled by all this and want to know is he power hungry, is he an afraid? What is going on?