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Obama Takes Aim at the Media and Congress; Legroom Fight Diverts Another Plane; Halliburton to Pay $1.1B for Gulf Oil Spill

Aired September 02, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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


WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Given that these men have never had contact with each other, yet their answers to my questions were nearly identical, you have to wonder if they also got some sort of talk before sitting down with our cameras, in front of our cameras -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Will. I know you are a pro, but I got to ask you, were you a little nervous?

RIPLEY: Sure. I absolutely was, and our government minders were nervous as well and that's really -- that's really what struck me, is that these are people who the government trains to handle Western media representatives, CNN, other networks that come to North Korea. They have been cool, calm and collected all week. Had no problems trying to tell us what we could shoot, what we shouldn't shoot. We obviously pushed back but they were shaking when they pulled me aside and said that we were going to Pyongyang.

And I didn't know what was going to happen quite frankly. It's part of the reason why I started recording with my cell phone camera because I wanted some sort of documentation of where we were going and what was going to happen; never expected that we would be interviewing not one but all three of the detained Americans.

COSTELLO: All right. Will Ripley, thanks for a great story. We appreciate it. Will Ripley, reporting live from Beijing this morning.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. A check of your top stories at 30 minutes past the hour.

The U.S. military has launched strikes against a terror group in Somalia. The suspected drone attack targeted the senior leaders of the al Shabaab terror network. That's the group that killed more than 60 people in a mall attack in Kenya last year. Pentagon officials acknowledged an operation in Somalia but provided no further details.

Today, jurors begin deciding the fate of four men charged in the Blackwater case. 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were gunned down in Baghdad nearly several years ago when the four former Blackwater security guards opened fire on them, many others were wounded. The defendants say they acted in self-defense but witnesses say that was not the case.

Criticism building for Israel's decision to annex nearly 1,000 acres of West Bank land for settlements. The U.S. State Department termed it counter productive to the peace process. The British Prime Minister David Cameron was even more direct -- he called the Israeli land grab quote, "utterly deplorable".

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, President Obama playing the blame game, slamming Republicans in Congress and another high profile group for getting it wrong on his time in the White House. We'll tell you who after a break.

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COSTELLO: Later today, President Obama heads to Europe for a multi- day trip that's expected to focus heavily on Russia and the escalating crisis in Ukraine. But before leaving the President turned his attention to conditions here at home and the media, which he says isn't giving Americans the full story about his record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You wouldn't always know it from watching the news. By almost every measure, the American economy and American workers are better off than when I took office. Sometimes, if you are watching TV or something, it's just kind of a whole downer. We got struggles. We got work to do, but there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Those remarks came during a Labor Day event in Wisconsin, but it wasn't just the media. The President also took aim at a familiar foe and that would be Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Republicans in Congress love to say no. Those are just facts, the facts of life. They say no to everything. If we had a Congress that cared about policies that actually help working people, I promise you we could get everything done that we talked about doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, critics might say the President is playing the blame game. Let's talk about that.

Ross Douthat is a CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for the "New York Times"; and Donna Brazile is a CNN political commentator and Democratic Strategist -- welcome to both of you.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning -- Carol.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, Ross, is the President right? The media portraying a negative picture of, you know, his accomplishments in office or lack thereof? Is he right?

DOUTHAT: I mean look, this is, you know, making things look somewhat worse than they actually are is pretty much what the media does. This is the life we've chosen, the line of work we're in and we should be willing to own up to it but I think in this particular case, usually when you hear presidents blaming the media, complaining that their economic record isn't getting the credit it deserves, complaining that the media makes things look worse than it is, it's a sign that they aren't doing well. And it's sort of the last refuge of a president with low approval ratings which is pretty much where President Obama is right now.

And look, the reality is August was not a great month in world affairs. You know, you were talking about events in Russia and Ukraine.

COSTELLO: That's an understatement. Obviously, there's some difficulties in the Middle East and so on and that isn't just season the media creating problems where none exist. And I think that the President is trying to turn out his base. The Democrats have a problem where it's the midterm election, they struggle to turn out their base. I don't think attacking the media and Republicans is the worst possible strategy, but it doesn't mean that the President is right, you know, that things are -- that the media is making -- it's been a tough month.

COSTELLO: I will say this. I will say this, Donna, whenever the White House puts out a statement about the state of the economy, let's say a jobs report comes out and it's pretty good, the White House will issue the statement this is a great report but we have a long way to go, so they do it to themselves.

BRAZILE: Well look, I mean, the truth of the matter is that the President is absolutely right. I mean the stock market is up. When you look at the deficit is down, consumer confidence is up. Housing prices has somewhat stabilized.

When the President says in the White House that we is still has a ways to go it's because he never set the bar so low that we just want to get where we were say six, seven, eight years ago. He wants to move the country forward. And the reason why he criticized Republicans is that they have earned the right to be criticized for blocking job growth. The President is trying to raise the minimum wage so every American can have food on their table and to have jobs that they can rely on. He wants to make sure that women are paid the same amount as men, equal pay. He wants to create an infrastructure hub so that our manufacturing sector.

When the President makes these criticisms, he's not trying to fire up the base, he's trying to fire up the people we've come a long ways since the great recession. But we still have a ways to go and we need to do that together.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. And Ross, I will say that 2008 was so horrible for so many people. It's hard to feel hope even when the economy is improving and it is improving, but the wage gap is huge. DOUTHAT: Well, there's a reality here that's been true in both of the

last presidencies where, you know, you have -- you had a weak -- weaker than usual economic recovery under George W. Bush after the stock market crash in 2000-2001. Then you had a very slow limping economic recovery under President Obama and in both cases, I remember back in 2005 or so, you had Republicans saying things a little bit like what Donna just said. They say oh look, stock market is up. They would say the Bush economy is the greatest story never told. And you hear that a bit from Democrats right now. But the reality is the last 15 years, both under Republican and now under a Democratic president have not been great years for the American middle class and it's really hard to tell a story to voters that, you know, that contradicts their own actual experience which is stagnation, basically.

COSTELLO: Absolutely.

BRAZILE: That is true. But, you know, the Great Recession was not like the end of the Clinton-Gore years, when we had record surpluses and we had a strong economy. Look, we can all agree to disagree on just where we are today, but you know the truth is that we need Congress to act on these legislative matters. Congress returns next week. We got budgets that have to be approved so that we don't play this shut down game again.

I think the President is showing leadership, but I have to tell you one thing, Carol, Democrats are fired up and this time they are ready to vote. This is not 2010. This is not 2010.

COSTELLO: We'll see.

BRAZILE: Get your Kool-Aid.

DOUTHAT: We'll see. We'll see. We'll all be here in November to find out, hopefully.

BRAZILE: Fire it up.

COSTELLO: Ross Douthat, Donna Brazile -- thanks so much.

DOUTHAT: Thank you.

DONNA BRAZILE: Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, think of it as road rage much higher up. We've seen three incidents of road rage concerning leg room on planes. Is it time to change the rules? Shouldn't you be able to recline your seats? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Air rage is becoming a real problem. Hundreds of people cramped into a cramped space can really put your nerves on edge and it can have you landing in unintended places. Three flights have been diverted recently because of air rage. Two, late last month and it happened again on a delta light, a woman reclined her seat and that was the spark that forced the pilot to divert the flight to Jacksonville, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman who was sitting next to me, knitting actually, just tried reclining her seat back, the woman behind her started screaming and swearing. And then the flight attendant came over and that just exacerbated what was going on and she demanded that the flight land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: This is the third incident involving air rage and reclining seats. Joining me now to talk about this is CNN aviation analyst and former U.S. Department of Transportation inspector Mary Schiavo. Hi -- Mary.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Hi -- Carol. Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: It's great to have you here. I just find it somewhat ironic that a woman knitting reclined her seat and then sparked an incident of air rage.

SCHIAVO: Well, you know, it's funny because we've had so many recently. This happens to be the peak travel period after Labor Day. Things will calm down because there's less people on the plane but there's so many causes. One is, of course, diminishing leg room. Two is the planes are flying at capacity.

You know, in the olden days, you'd get on a plane and you could always count on the seat next to you being empty because the load (inaudible) were about 75 percents. Now, they're running in the 90s so the planes are almost always full.

And now we have these new devices. There are things that people carry on to prevent the seat in front of you from being reclined and I think it's just a jerk device really because the airlines tell you if your seat isn't going to recline. If you have a restricted (inaudible) you know it and if you paid for extra leg room and a recline it's what you expect.

I think there's a simple answer to, for example, this device that prevents seats from being reclined and that is to ban it. The FAA is as usual asleep at the switch. They said it's up to the airlines. That has caused some of these air rage incidents as well.

COSTELLO: Well, see I'm of the other mind. I don't think you should recline your seats. I just think that's not very thoughtful, but let's get back to legroom getting smaller on airplanes because Americans are getting bigger, leg room is getting smaller. You can see in the year 2000, there were 34 inches between the seats. Now 31 inches on most airplanes, but on some airlines with their planes, the leg room is only -- there's only 28 inches of space in between there and as you can see over time, Americans have gotten bigger from 144 pounds for a woman in the 1970s to 166 pounds today and 196 pounds for men. Is it any wonder people are upset when someone reclines their seat and don't the airlines realize that?

SCHIAVO: They do. And Americans have gotten taller too and there has been much medical evidence also documented on the dangers of deep vein thrombosis, meaning you're reclined, you can't move and you can't get up and walk around now because every seat is full. So the airlines do bear a huge amount of responsibility, particularly since they also as this -- as your report pointed out, they often exacerbate the problem.

People are threatened. People are said I'm going to do this or that and the simple problem is the seats recline. The airlines tell you recline. Most of us pay extra for the extra leg room and the reclining seats because I have to work on the planes. And that's what you expect and if you aren't going to get that or they are going to have no recline seats, the simple answer is the airline just has to tell you and then people know what to expect.

It's the unknown and it's the feeling like you've paid for something and you don't get it that also causes the air rage along with alcohol, number one cause. But the good news is in the United States, the TSA statistics show that air rage is not increasing. It's about the same. Internationally, it is.

COSTELLO: Well, that's good to hear. Mary Schiavo, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM --

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: -- you're welcome.

Still to come, it was the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Now we're learning the price tag for the company that designed and built the oil well that failed.

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COSTELLO: Halliburton just reached a $1.1 billion settlement for its role in the 2010 Gulf oil spill that led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Let us not forget 11 rig workers died in that accident. The company designed and built the well that spilled some 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf over a three-month period. And while $1 billion is a whole lot of money, the agreement (inaudible) the Houston-based company from facing even more costly judgment for the disaster.

Joining me now for more, CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans and HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson -- he's on the phone. Welcome to both of you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So Christine, $ billion does sound like a lot of money.

ROMANS: Well, a billion dollars, but you look at how big this disaster was -- it was millions of gallons, barrels really of fuel going right into the ocean. 11 people killed. Now there are three big players here. There was BP -- that was the group that owned the well. They've settled out $28 billion. Trans Ocean -- they were the rigs owner, the actual oil rig -- $1.4 billion. Now Halliburton coming up the rear with $1.1 billion -- they were accused of doing some faulty cement work around the base of that well -- the Macondo well. And so they have been the last ones to settle here.

This settlement will go for the commercial fishing people who were put out of business or lost business and also any property damage related to this oil spill.

COSTELLO: So Joe, what I'm wondering, 11 people died in this accident and no one is facing criminal charges? I mean they're paying out a whole lot of money -- right -- but no criminal charges.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST (via telephone): Sure. Well, you know -- good morning, Carol and good morning Christine. Well, what happened is that BP, remember, you know, they were the major players here, and Christine got it absolutely right. The lawsuit includes Trans Ocean in addition to Halliburton. But don't forget that BP was held responsibly criminally and in fact they pled guilty to manslaughter charges (inaudible). So that aspect of it was resolved and obviously there's nothing anyone can do to bring anybody back to life. You know, when it comes down to the civil litigation, it's about money and so while $1.1 billion sounds like a lot, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not. And I think another thing that it does is it provides closure to the company. They know now what, you know, by and large is their financial exposure and they could begin planning for the future.

And that's the best thing about settlement is that it provides certainty for all the parties. And I think that's the business step that they took in order to get this resolved.

ROMANS: If you look Carol, at the stock of Halliburton since the BP oil spill, you can see it's up 112 percent. So investors have already been betting on Halliburton getting out of this, literally mess -- there it is. Look at April 2010, the stocks of all the companies related to this fell at that time. Halliburton shares though now investors can start to focus on its new technologies and expansion.

COSTELLO: Great. It can continue to profit.

Christine Romans, Joey Jackson -- thanks so much.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" after a break.

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