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New Day

Boehner Unloads, Obama Responds; Unauthorized Bio Unseats Autobiography; Court Docs Boy Forced Into Grueling Exercise Twice A Day

Aired July 11, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Continuing my theory that you can explain Washington by saying life is the fifth grade. That's John Boehner. Here's the president firing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sue him, impeach him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah!

OBAMA: Really? Really?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: For what? You're going to sue me for doing my job? OK.

I may think about that. You're going to use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job while you don't do your job. Sometimes I feel like saying to these guys I'm guy doing my job. You must be the other guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He is getting a mix of punchy and funny in recent days in the back and form. Let start with the immediate border crisis. They are talking past each other and it does appear after the Republicans said no way to the president's request for nearly $4 billion, there are at least some conversations about giving the president some of that money as long as the Republicans get what they want which is more border enforcement and a process that more quickly turns these children and others at the border away. Will that be a deal or will they just talk about it?

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE WASHINGTON POST": As far as the border money is concerned I'm still skeptical that this gets past the Republican House. The Senate has been willing to work with the president when it comes to immigration reform, but as we've seen with other things, you have these other provisions, but it seems like when it comes to gracious, then Republicans always want more and then there's -- and then Democrats aren't happy with what the Republicans want and you might have a problem in the House and might not get that through.

KING: Can they work that out because the president said I want comprehensive border, immigration reform. He's not saying that. He's saying give me more border patrol. The president wants the National Guard, I don't think that's a good idea but I'm open to that. Some Republicans want drones and they want more money. The president says he agrees with the Republicans that most of these kids have to go back. Why can't they take yes for an answer?

OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO NEWS: The question is whether this is a magic moment in which they will take yes for an area or whether it's going to reflect the broader question about comprehensive immigration reform where the House changing its mind seemingly every month. Sure we'll do our version of it. Maybe we will. The real question is this debate going to be any different and I share Jackie's general outlook that I'll believe it when I see it.

KING: Lindsey Graham on the Senate side said he thinks this is an opportunity to reconsider immigration reform and I think he may have been in Colorado with the president the other day and sampling some of the baked goods. But there are some other voices outside of politics. Sheldon Adelson, the big Republican donor, Bill Gates, we know who Bill Gates is, and Warren Buffett, three voices.

They write an op-ed today in which they say, look, our politics are very different, some disagreements on immigration and if you put us three in the room, we could write a comprehensive immigration bill. They want more high tech workers so they there should be a guest worker program for agriculture.

Washington won't listen to them, right? You have three corporate business giants saying if you can figure this out, why can't you guys? That's what you got elected to do? But --

KUCINICH: Washington will listen to them, the establishment Republicans will listen to them because they agree with them. It's the base of the Republican Party that still does not -- still doesn't agree with the Chamber of Commerce Republican and that's what you're seeing here. Obviously, they are not all Republicans, but it's the same point of view.

KNOX: The White House was very happy to see that op-ed. Dan Pfeiffer put it on Twitter and said, look, you guys even lost Sheldon Adelson.

KING: I still don't think we'll get that done at least this year and probably next year. Some say they won't even consider it until Obama leaves the White House, which is I believe 29 or 30 months from now. So a little pathetic. Washington can at least I said have votes and see what happens. We've been waiting to see just what John Boehner, he said he will sue the president in court.

Now we know what he will sue about and some conservatives are scratching their heads about this. The House Republicans are going to sue the president because they believe, and some constitutional scholars actually agree with them, that after Obamacare was passed, the president used administrative powers to change things and to delay the employer mandate, for example, and to change some other things.

And the House Republicans are going to sue, Jackie, saying he overstepped his bounds. Again, there are some conservative and some other constitutional scholars who say they might have a case, but conservatives are scratching their head, wait a minute. So we're going to sue him because he delayed the employer mandate and if we win, what happens? They have to more quickly implement Obamacare. I thought conservatives wanted to repeal Obamacare.

KUCINICH: Right. Well, the fact of the matter is this won't even -- let's say this lawsuit is actually successful. This won't even affect Obama. This would be going through so many levels of the court. It wouldn't even affect him. Yes, I mean, it's highly unlikely this goes anywhere and there's also -- the immigration piece that they have been complaining about wasn't in there either.

KNOX: Right. You're talking about fifth grade. These two leaders sometimes sound really co-dependent and that clip proved it. They are both ramping up their rhetoric. Each is very happy to play off the other and for John Boehner, this lawsuit is really necessary steam valve at a time when a lot of the Republicans are pounding the impeachment drum, are saying, you know, that Obama in general is something of a tyrant. This is a very important lawsuit for John Boehner.

KING: We'll watch the lawsuit and over the next 118, 117 days until the election to see how much Obamacare is part of the Republican strategy. We began the year thinking it was plan one and plan two and plan three. But we'll see, I say that because there's a new commonwealth group study that puts out the rate of uninsured, the whole point of Obamacare was to reduce the rate of uninsured.

It says that it's succeeding in that regard, 20 percent uninsured in 2013 down to 15 percent in 2014. So progress there, if you think more people should have health insurance. About 9.5 million people who did not have coverage before now have coverage and it says this, this will be I think the point of political dispute.

It says that 74 percent of newly insured Republicans, meaning Republicans who have new insurance because of the president's health care law are happy. I guess, John Boehner is not one of them.

KUCINICH: I think what they are going to start talking about honestly is how much it costs because we don't know how much all of these people coming into the system are going to cost yet. These could be some of the biggest people and that's always been the contention, there's not enough well people to balance that out.

KING: That's the Republican argument that sometime in the fall we get the new premiums, right? Just before the election.

KNOX: That's about right, yes, and everybody talks about the botched rollout of the Obamacare web site last year. Everyone Republicans were worried and the White House was excited about the idea that the debate was going to change from a fundamental this discussion of government role in health care into a fight over benefit and as it becomes a fight over a benefit, the Republican position gets more difficult.

KUCINICH: And it's harder to take it away. KING: This book sale note has to rub the Clintons in a not so good way. Hillary Clinton's "Hard Choices" was number one in the "New York Times" bestseller for a while. There has been a big controversy about maybe she is not selling as many now being replaced on the book by Edward Klein, unauthorized biography.

I think the Clintons want it on the fiction list, not the nonfiction list by the book by Edward Klein. This is a non-authorized biography. I think the Clintons would argue that it belongs on the fiction list, not the non-fiction list, but whether you believe a word in that book, and there's been past books by Mr. Klein that made some things up. Must not be happy.

KUCINICH: Beach reads tend to sell better than --

KING: Tabloids over --

KNOX: "Hard Choices" for all of its merits is not a really gripping book, you know, this is a beach read. It is more fun, but us a pointed out the Clintons would definitely like to see it shelled with the fiction books.

KING: As we get back to you guys in New York, I'm not going to ask you about your summertime beach reading. I'm just, you know --

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Guilty pleasures over here.

KING: Send me a list. I've got a long weekend coming up next week so send me a list.

BERMAN: We were excited as always to see you, John King.

PEREIRA: Good to have you with us.

Next up on NEW DAY, he was missing for more than a week until authorities found him barricaded in his own family's basement. Now the 12-year-old boy tells of some bizarre abuse that he endured. The shocking allegations ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Hard not to look at that face and smile and then frown when you hear all that this young man has gone through. Court papers are revealing shocking, shocking abuse allegations made by this Detroit boy who went missing before being found in his own family's basement. It is 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell who said he was forced to do Gruelling workouts twice a day, just the latest in a string of revelations since this case began last month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): This morning allegations of abuse suffered by 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell after his mysterious discovery in his father's basement eleven days after disappearing.

CHARLIE BOTHUELL IV, FATHER OF CHARLIE BOTHUELL: We have not done anything wrong to my son.

PEREIRA: According to two court petitions filed in juvenile court, Charlie told investigators he was forced to get up at 5 a.m. by his father and complete 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups and 25 arm curls and thousands of revolutions on the elliptical trainer twice a day seven days a week.

The 12-year-old said he had to complete the Gruelling routine in under an hour and sometimes Charlie said he couldn't finish because he was in too much paper, pain allegedly caused by his father hitting him with a PVC pipe on his feet. Police found Charlie in his own basement two weeks ago crouched down and barricaded behind a stack of boxes with a 55-gallon barrel. The 12-year-old seemed excited to see police who say he was hungry.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Out to the father of the --

PEREIRA: HLN's Nancy Grace broke the news to his father that his son was found live on air.

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

BOTHUELL: What?

PEREIRA: Charlie's father says the basement was checked repeatedly.

BOTHUELL: The FBI searched, the Detroit police searched. We've all searched. God, they brought dogs.

PEREIRA: The boy told investigators his stepmother sent him to the basement on June 14th after accusing him of lying about whether he had finished his workout. He says she stacked boxes in front of him to conceal his presence and called his father and said the boy was missing. According to the petitions, he survived off food he salvaged by sneaking upstairs when his father and stepmother were out of the home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Well, obviously this case is still under investigation and the prosecutor's office will decide whether criminal charges will be filed and had no public statements. CNN has had not been able to reach the attorney for the boy's father and stepmother.

Joining us right now though to discuss this whole situation is pediatrician, Dr. Lisa Thebner. As a pediatrician, thank you so much for joining us, you see all sorts of kids coming into your practice and see all sorts of things they are living through illness, but also things that they have had to endure.

Pretty shocking when we think about the case of Charlie Bothuell found shivering and hungry, felt like he didn't have a choice to get out of that basement. Give us an idea of the long-standing effects this can have on a child, both physically, emotionally and mentally of being in a situation like that. DR. LISA THEBNER, PEDIATRICIAN: The repair from the details of this case, it sounds as if it could be quite prolonged. It depends upon perhaps the social support that he'll have, the psychological and psychiatric help that he'll have. Initially, of course, you want to make sure they are medically stable, issues of dehydration and whether or not they need some replacement of fluids electrolytes.

PEREIRA: The immediate concerns.

THEBNER: The immediate concerns, sure, and then there's also the physical concerns long-standing, if you're having repetitive exercise at such young age, these small bodies really aren't equipped to handle weightlifting, to handle the kind of excessive exercise that's described here.

PEREIRA: And we don't know how long that had been going on for if these allegations are true.

THEBNER: It really could affect the muscles, the bones. At this age now, they can have more injuries with their ligaments, the cartilage, the tendons and if you keep exercising on top of injury, then you can have long-term effects from that because the muscle hasn't been able to be repaired.

PEREIRA: We know how hard it is for children. They are taught to trust adults, and when you have a caregiver accused of keeping a child essentially in his own house and being forced to endure these things that he's alleging, how -- how is it that it works in a child's mind that he doesn't or she doesn't feel that he can ask for help from an outside person?

THEBNER: Well, they do trust and there's also that degree of fear and may also be isolation that could be associated with this. Clearly isolated for 11 days but hard to know what precede it had, but there's the ultimate trust for people that are supposed to lock out for us and care for us and children are vulnerable.

PEREIRA: How do you -- when you're working with children, I'm sure you work with teams of other medical professionals in a situation like this. You have to get them to trust grown-ups and grown-ups have failed them, at least in a situation like this, it would appear.

THEBNER: The process will be long. There has been evidence that there could be anxiety, depression, some behavioral problems, educational difficulties going down, and they may be at greater risk for some other social problems, perhaps difficulties with relationships.

PEREIRA: And then real quick, the parents, I think, it's hard for people to imagine that somebody would abuse their own child. Are there signs to be on the lookout for in your estimation?

THEBNER: In this particular case, I mean, certainly we want to make sure that there haven't been any long standing medical issues and then going forward just being able to go through the process of repair along with them. PEREIRA: Thanks for joining us, Dr. Thebner, appreciate it. It's a tough story, John. As a parent and family member you want to take care of those little ones and it looks like the system failed this guy.

BERMAN: Never like to see anything like that happen to kids. Thanks, Michaela.

Next up for us on NEW DAY, GoPro cameras used to capture all sorts of adventures, this one, well, it takes the cake. A proud father captures a proud moment. The video you have got to see to believe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back, Ladies and Gentlemen, this just in. You are looking at live pictures of a giant inflatable Rubik's cube floating down the Hudson River. Why? It is the 40th anniversary we are told of the Rubik's cube. That is a 20 by 20 foot inflatable cube floating down the Hudson River right now. What says Liberty like a Rubik's cube does?

PEREIRA: Doesn't it make you feel old thinking that it's 40 years old?

BERMAN: It makes me feel old and inadequate all over again because I could never solve the Rubik's cube.

PEREIRA: Nor could the barge captain.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You have solved it?

PEREIRA: By taking the stickers off and rearranging them.

BERMAN: Canadian ingenuity.

All right, welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone, we'll leave the Rubik's cube aside. GoPro cameras usually capture death defying stunts on video, but one man used his GoPro to capture the miracle of life his child brought into the world before his wife could even make it into the hospital. I'm scared. Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You know how some people like to wear GoPro cameras while they ski or while they surf. How about while your wife gives birth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's coming out!

MOOS: When his wife went into labor, Troy Dickerson strapped his camera to his head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, please!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next exit.

MOOS: Doing 95 at 1:30 in the morning, headed for Texas Children's Pavilion for Women. They made it, as far as the curb.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His head is here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to sit down?

MOOS: But Kristin Dickerson says she couldn't move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down so I can catch him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down, sit down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really wanted to appease everyone and sit down because everyone was telling me to sit down, but it just wasn't happening.

MOOS: Kristen actually teaches birth education.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kristin, don't push yet. Don't push.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His head is out. I'm not kidding!

MOOS: So her husband, Troy, sort of knew what to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She actually taught birth classes out of our house after a while. I've seen too many birth videos for one man to see.

MOOS (on camera): You know who did get on the other direction. Did you see that security guards.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His head is come out. We realized he was going to page the emergency response team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get a doctor down here now! When I saw the head that's when it kicks in, he can't stay like that his head half way out for much longer. That's when I said go ahead and push. Push, good, good girl. Good girl. Good girl, good girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't drop him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got him, I got him. He's perfect. He's perfect.

MOOS (on camera): Troy used a little discretion censoring some of the video. He recorded the birth of his two other sons and huge fan of the GoPro.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never dreamed the whole nation would be watching that.

MOOS: Medical staff arrived in time to mop up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did it! That's awesome!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did it!

MOOS: Troy really did earn the retired obstetrician hat someone gave him. As for the parking valet who tried to get Kristin to sit.

(on camera): What do you tip someone for watching your wife give birth?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty bucks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think that really compensated him for the trauma he had to go through.

MOOS (voice-over): Meet Truitt Dickerson.

(on camera): That kid should have to watch this video every Mother's Day to be reminded what have his mom went through for him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's great natural birth control for a teenager. We'll show it to him when he's 16.

MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it on video.

MOOS: New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: I don't know what to make of all of this, because clearly I'm either unfeeling only an auntie ten times over and don't have one of my own children or something else because you should have seen the way both parents of multiple children reacted during that piece. This is John and Christine, you're not much better. You turned eight shades of red. Did it bring you back?

BERMAN: I've been to one of these things in person before. I've been to one of these things in person before, I mean, he said he censored the video. I wonder if he is censored the part where his wife punched him in the throat.

ROMANS: I've been to three of those I don't want to hear it.

PEREIRA: You don't want to relive it.

ROMANS: Buddy, take the time you spent putting the GoPro on and go sooner. She teaches childbirth education. I think it's great, a healthy baby is great. Even if it's videotaped from start to finish.

PEREIRA: She gets a good push present from that one I think. I love the reaction from these two. We'll take a short break on NEW DAY.

President Obama is calling on lawmakers to come together to put an end to the border crisis. He is getting a whole lot of pushback from Republicans who are blaming him for the humanitarian crisis. We're going to bring you the very latest live from the Texas/Mexico border.

BERMAN: And the situation in the Middle East getting worse, getting more tense overnight. Israel coming under fire from Lebanon. We will speak to our man on the ground, Wolf Blitzer, at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)