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World Cup Weather; Waiting on Decision in the Hobby Lobby Case; MH-370 Refined Search Area; Clinton Apologizes for Wealth Gaffe

Aired June 26, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some top stories for you at 32 minutes past the hour.

A bizarre conclusion to a missing person's case in Detroit. Last night, police discovered a 12-year-old missing boy safe, 11 days after he was reported missing. He was apparently hiding in the basement of his family's home. His father, Charles Bothuell, learned of the discovery during a live interview with Nancy Grace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN: We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

CHARLES BOTHUELL, FATHER OF MISSING BOY: What?

GRACE: How could your son be alive in your basement?

BOTHUELL: I have no - I have no idea. I --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I thought we were going to play more of that but apparently not. Following that revelation, Bothuell was confronted by reporters demanding to know exactly how his son came to be in the basement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOTHUELL: It's absurd. Literally, I couldn't find him. You know, if the FBI couldn't find him and the Detroit Police couldn't find him, for anybody to intimate -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, they did find him.

BOTHUELL: They did finally yes. They've been living in my house for the last 10, 11 days. They've been hearing -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had you looked in your basement?

BOTHUELL: We looked in my basement. I looked in my basement and they looked. They went down there with search dogs. My wife looked.

Man, I thought my son was dead, man. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Police say bloody clothing and a PVC pipe have been removed from the home as evidence, and child abuse charges have not been ruled out. We'll talk with Nancy Grace about this case in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Markets looking at a flat open this morning. The Dow trading marginally higher. In the meantime, over at the Nasdaq, Go Pro, which makes those tiny action cameras, begins trading for the first time. The company hoping to raise nearly $430 million during its initial public offering.

All right, let's head out to Brazil where a FIFA news conference is about to get underway. Of course, this comes ahead of the U.S./Germany match at noon today, noon Eastern. We've been telling you the weather is terrible in Brazil. It is raining so hard, the roads have been washed out. The roads are so flooded, some of the players might not even be able to get to the game. And I guess you can't postpone a soccer game in the World Cup, Andy Scholes.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, you can't flat out cancel one, that's for sure.

COSTELLO: You can't. so they have to play no matter what?

SCHOLES: Yes, the game has to play because we've got to see who moves on because their - you know, there's not only two team in play in this, U.S. and Germany, there's four teams. You've got Ghana and Portugal. No one would know who gets to move on to the knockout round of 16 if they don't end up playing this game. So if for some reason they do have to postpone this game because of this.

COSTELLO: Why not postpone it for one day? Surely they can reconnoiter things.

SCHOLES: Well, I'm sure that -

COSTELLO: We (ph) can do that.

SCHOLES: I'm sure that it's kind of like postponing an NFL playoff game. It's kind of the equivalent. I mean it - you know, all the people that are planning on going to the game, travel plans for everyone, and then, you know, the winner of this game, U.S./Germany, they have to play again on Monday. So then, you know, they have a shorter turnaround. It kind of messes up scheduling all the way around.

COSTELLO: I only ask you that because the weird thing about this is if the players do play and the field conditions are nasty, they can sort of like kind of agree not to play very hard -

SCHOLES: Yes.

COSTELLO: Which I find bizarre. SCHOLES: Well - well, and this is actually probably a worst case scenario for Ghana or Portugal, who need Germany to really put it to the U.S. and beat us pretty badly and for them wanting to move on because if the field is bad, you know, in the back of the heads of the players of the German team and Team U.S.A., they're thinking, a 0-0 game, both of us are moving on. So let's - I mean we're not going to go out there and make hard runs into the box, you know, and we could pull our hamstring, really hurt ourselves, because it's all about, you know, the big goal, right, getting far in the World Cup, winning the World Cup for the German team is the highest ranked team left in this year's field. So you could see if this terrible weather and terrible playing conditions, it's not going to be a high scoring, competitive match. You could totally see a 0-0 game coming out of this.

COSTELLO: Now, see, as an NFL fan, I just don't get that because you don't do that in the NFL. I mean if the field conditions are bad and the game is being played, you play to win no matter what.

SCHOLES: But think of it this way, Carol. Say it was an NFL playoff game. Say the NFC championship game. Both - the 49ers and Giants new, if they took a knee every single play, both of them would be going to the Super Bowl.

COSTELLO: I don't think that would happen here. I don't. I actually don't.

SCHOLES: Well -

COSTELLO: I don't. You really think that NFL players would all agree to - let's just tie?

SCHOLES: OK, again, I don't think everyone's just going to not try. I mean there's going to be shots on goal. But, again, I don't think there's going to be - it would be the hard core effort we would see in maybe the first game we saw the United States play when they were playing Ghana. You know, everyone was trying their hardest to win, because, you know, in the back of your head you know, a 0-0 game, we're both moving on.

COSTELLO: I'm just trying to imagine what it would be like to watch that kind of game. Oh, look, they're not scoring. Anyway -

SCHOLES: Well, they may be slipping and sliding all over the place. Maybe it will be funny. I don't know.

COSTELLO: Yes, maybe. Thank you, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right.

COSTELLO: I'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is the Supreme Court ruling that everyone is waiting for. Will Hobby Lobby, a Christian owned company, be forced to provide emergency contraception as part of its health insurance plan? The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down that decision today. Now, if Hobby Lobby prevails, critics say it could result in tomorrow's civil rights disaster. Hobby Lobby already covers birth control for its employees. Its issue is with a requirement in Obamacare to cover emergency contraception as well. The company objects to four drugs, the Morning After Pill, Plan B, Ella, and two forms of IUD's. Hobby Lobby asserts these drugs are potentially life-terminating, although there is no scientific basis for that assertion. But Hobby Lobby is taking no chances. It is lobbying its position on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While the Green family has no objection to providing 16 of the 20 FDA approved drugs and devices under the federal mandate, providing four of the drugs and devices that have the potential to terminate a life conflicts with their faith.

STEVE GREEN, PRESIDENT, HOBBY LOBBY: This is an issue of life that we cannot be a part of taking life. And so to be in a situation where our government is telling us that we have to be is incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now are Gloria Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor and CNN Vatican analyst John Allen.

Good morning.

GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR (via telephone): Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

I -- Gloria was caught in traffic, so she's on the phone with us, but we appreciate your hanging in there, Gloria. We do appreciate that.

So, Gloria, I'll pose the first question to you. Which way do you think the court is leaning?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, we have the (INAUDIBLE) case earlier, another religion case, and the court was divided because it says that the government could exercise some diversity in allowing prayer before governmental services or governmental programs began in the morning. But this is a little different. I think the fact that the science says this is not ending a life and that is the main issue that the Green family has with this, I think that this -- the court's going to say that the exceptions will become the rule if we allow these different companies to take on religious freedom that's well beyond anything that the court has seen so far.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

So, John, Hobby Lobby insists - actually it insists this is not about abortion politics but about religious freedom. Catholic bishops also object to this federal mandate. Is Hobby Lobby the same as the catholic church, though?

ALLEN: Well, no. I mean the Green family that runs Hobby Lobby are evangelical Christians, not Catholics. But on this issue, I think they're basically of one mind. Because you're absolutely right, for them, this isn't even primarily about contraception, but this is primarily about religious freedom. There is a broad cross-section of faith based groups in America that believe that religious freedom is being eroded. And I think that's what makes this case so difficult and why it ended up in the courts rather than being resolved politically because on both sides -- because on the other side, of course, Carol, there are some who would see this case as being about the separation of church and state and public policy not being held hostage to religious dogmas. So both sides (INAUDIBLE) broader agenda.

One of the things we might say, Carol, was that regardless of how the court rules in the Hobby Lobby case, there's a whole nother cluster of cases having to do not with for-profit corporations, but non-profits, such as the University of Notre Dame and the Litter Sisters of the Poor. There are 51 such cases that are also moving their way through the courts. So regardless of what happens with this ruling, we have likely not seen the last of the legal fight over the contraception mandates.

COSTELLO: Well, John, I think critics would say, you know, Hobby Lobby's not a church, like the Catholic Church is a church and there's a priest and -- but Hobby Lobby is just owned by evangelical Christians. They don't -- I mean, so is it different in that sense?

ALLEN: Well, it clearly is different from the court's eyes. I think that's why the case in the courts it's not just Hobby Lobby. There's also another company called Conestoga Woodworks that's owned by a Mennonite family. I think that's why these for-profit cases are being judged separately from the non-for-profit cases, again, such as the University of Notre Dame, the Little Sisters of the Poor, which is what you and I, Carol, would more customarily think of as a religious outfit. So I think the court wants to get out of the way of the question of whether a for-profit corporation can be said to have religious beliefs. That's what's at issue in this case, or at least it's one of the issues, and then it will get around to the more traditionally sort of religiously affiliated actors out there and how these mandates apply to them.

COSTELLO: Gotcha.

So, Gloria, some say if Hobby Lobby prevails, it could open this ugly can of worms. It could mean companies could fire employees because let's say, oh, they're single and pregnant or if the owner is a Christian scientist and owns the -- no one could get health care at all. I mean would that happen if Hobby Lobby prevails in this case?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, we have to look at the practice of religion, because, in a way, if we open the flood gates and we say that this particular company, because the owner's practice religion in a certain way, does that mean that other people, if they don't practice, they don't go to church on a regular basis but they have certain spiritual beliefs, how far are we willing to take what it mean to have a religious practice or a spirituality or a person of certain faith.

But also people are very concerned about these human attributes that are being given to corporations, such as the Citizen United speech rights, all the way to religious practices of a corporation. How far are we going with this? I think that's a major concern when we open that box.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see what happens. Gloria Browne- Marshall, John Allen, thanks so much.

I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: All right. We're getting breaking news out of Brazil. That soccer match will go on. The U.S. will take on Germany. You see FIFA is holding a news conference right now and this official has just announced that despite the rain, and it is raining there, I mean they -- they have inches and inches of rain, roads have flooded out, players are having trouble getting to the field, but the game will go on, on time. It will not be postponed.

So go to your bars and go to your viewing parties, 12:00 noon Eastern. That's when the game is expected to start. It will be interesting to see if it actually does.

In other news this morning, unfolding overnight, new details in the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Search officials now say the airliner was likely on auto pilot for its final hours and the crew, in an unresponsive state. What's more, the search area moves and mushrooms inside.

Keep in mind that small red circle is the most recent focus and it took two months to search. It was the size of Louisville, Kentucky, while the new area grows to about the size of West Virginia.

So let's talk about this, let's bring in CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz. Joining him Mary Schiavo, also a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Transportation Department, and Mary also works for a law firm that sues airlines.

Welcome back to both -- welcome back. I haven't seen you guys for a while.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Peter, let's start with this theory that authorities now believe the plane was on auto pilot and flew for hours and hours. What do you make of that? GOELZ: Well, that is the most important piece of information that

we've gotten today, other than narrowing down or, you know, redefining the search area, that it was on response -- that the pilots could have been unresponsive for five hours, that the plane was on autopilot, at a constant altitude and a constant speed is very intriguing, and it goes back and says now what happened before that? What caused that to happen?

If the pilots were not flying the plane, if somebody was not in the cockpit, manipulating the plane, boy, it raises all sorts of questions, one of which is, hypoxia, lack of oxygen.

COSTELLO: Exactly. But Mary, wouldn't the autopilot have to be preprogrammed? Because the plane, it took that left turn, remember? So how do you explain that?

SCHIAVO: Well, there is a way to explain that, and that is that the -- and there were two clues that were very important. Remember early on there was this garbled transmission, they asked other planes to each 370 and they said they got a garbled transmission back. So they're theorizing that that was most likely the pilots after they struggled to get their oxygen masks on. It's something you learn in training. It's very difficult when you have a rapid decompression, of some kind of emergency, mechanical emergency on board. And that was perhaps the garbled transmission.

And then on Monday, when they said that this previous information that they had voluntarily or someone had manipulated the controls to take it way up above 45,000 feet and then dove it down as an intentional maneuver, and Monday when they said that didn't happen, this is the logical conclusion. So yes, you would have -- the pilots would have about an hour of oxygen and so they could have put it on auto pilot as they struggled to try to get the plane back to Malaysia. And then they just would have run out of oxygen after it was turned on.

COSTELLO: Wow. OK. So --

SCHIAVO: As the passengers would have perished.

COSTELLO: Oh. So Peter, the other finding in this report is the pings that they heard did not come from the black boxes and that's why they've moved the search area south and widened it. So, you know, there's so many different -- I don't know, can we believe this report?

GOELZ: Well, I think a number of us encouraged the investigators to take a new team to bring in new people to look at it some months ago and they've done that. But the issue -- I think the most important issue is, is they've got an area that they are independently clear, that this is where they think the plane went down. They're going to search it in a systematic way. The pings were always questionable.

They didn't make sense, they weren't the right kilohertz. It was a rush job, people were frantic. They're taking their time, they'll start the search in the Australian spring, which will be August or September of this year, and it's going to take time. I think they're going to find it. COSTELLO: I hope you're right.

Peter Goelz and Mary Schiavo, thanks so much for joining me.

I'll be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton is now admitting she screwed up. The former first lady and secretary of state apologizing for implying that she and the former president are not truly well-off. She's in San Francisco promoting her book "Hard Choices."

CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is in Washington with more.

Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Well, you could say that this certainly took a while, but Hillary Clinton finally gave the answer to the wealth question that she probably should have given from the start.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR (voice-over): Hillary Clinton finally nailing the question about her wealth in an interview with PBS' Gwen Ifill.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I shouldn't have said I think five or so words that I said, but, you know, my inartful use of those few words doesn't change who I am, what I've stood for my entire life, what I stand for today.

KEILAR: It took almost three weeks for her to clean up the mess from this comment to ABC's Diane Sawyer during the debut interview for her new book.

H. CLINTON: We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education.

KEILAR: Clinton made another gaffe this weekend, this time in an interview with Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper. She said people, quote, "don't see me as part of the problem because we pay ordinary income tax unlike a lot of people who are truly well-off, not to name names, and we've done it through dint of hard work."

She went on to talk about her record and creating a level playing field, according to a transcript of the full interview obtained and verified by CNN. But the damage was done. Tuesday her husband came to her defense.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: It is factually true that we were several million dollars in debt. She's not out of touch and she advocated and worked as a senator for things that were good for ordinary people and before that all her life.

KEILAR: But Clinton didn't let the former president speak for her.

H. CLINTON: My husband was very sweet today, but I don't need anybody to defend my record. I think my record speaks for itself.

KEILAR: And on the topic of a presidential run in 2016 she made clear, it's not an easy decision.

H. CLINTON: It's a very hard job, and it's a job that, you know, you have to be totally consumed by and that's kind of the definition of being a little bit crazy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: So is she crazy enough, Carol? I guess that's the question. But Hillary Clinton has also said that she wants to be present in her grandchild's life, that she doesn't want to be holding that baby and kind of looking over the baby's shoulder worried about other things. But the consensus among people who know Hillary Clinton that I've spoken with is that that's not really going to stop her. They don't think that's something that would certainly make her decide not to run for president.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Get out, really?

KEILAR: But that she's going to want to take some time certainly, you know, come fall when the baby comes to enjoy that, to enjoy being a grandmother before she would throw her hat in the ring.

COSTELLO: I hope she gets that time.

Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: All right. Good morning, once again. I'm Carol Costello. We do begin with breaking news that Uruguayan striker, you know, whose mouth, you know, sort of fell into the shoulder of an Italian soccer player? Well, he's been suspended.

Andy Scholes is here to tell us more.