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Ice Storms Hits Parts of U.S.; College Football Prepares for SEC Championship; South Africa Mourns Nelson Mandela; U.S. Unemployment Rate Decreases to Seven Percent; U.S. Government to Sell Last Shares in Domestic Car Companies; Video of Girl Being Beaten Goes Viral; Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder Released from Prison
Aired December 07, 2013 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It started sliding sideways and got real close to the house, and I thought, well, better stop and get a wrecker out here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: An ice storm freezes the south just as a new storm is preparing to shock the northeast. Cars swerve down street, cities paralyzed and hundreds of thousands of people without power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRILL NEWMAN, DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA: We've very glad to be on my way home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: First thing, what would you like to do?
NEWMAN: Go home and see my wife.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Coming home. New this morning, an American detained in North Korea since October is on a flight back to the United States. His journey, his first words as a free man, and why North Korea let him go.
BLACKWELL: Plus, today's the day all you college football fans, the SEC championship. We are live outside the Georgia dome for the fans, the festivities, and, of course, a whole lot of football.
HARLOW: Good morning, everyone, happy Saturday, I'm Poppy Harlow.
BLACKWELL: And I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 out west. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Thousands of cancellations, widespread power outages, complete chaos on the roads.
HARLOW: Complete.
BLACKWELL: Because this massive ice storm, it's paralyzing the south.
HARLOW: A lot of the country, one person actually we now know killed this morning after their truck slid off of a very icy roadway in the Dallas area, this video coming to us from our affiliate, WFAA short time ago. It shows a tow crane fishing the truck out of a lake right along interstate 35.
BLACKWELL: The storm is also causing headaches for millions of travelers across the country. More than 4,000 flights have been cancelled sense Thursday, and in Texas, the drivers have been stuck on the interstate for more than ten hours.
HARLOW: It's really crippling a lot of the country. So far, the storm moving east is blamed for five deaths, hundreds of injuries.
BLACKWELL: We're tracking the storm from all angles. Let's begin with CNN's Indra Peterson. She joins us from Memphis where there is a state of emergency across the state. Indra?
INDRA PETERSON, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. We had the freezing rain really pick up around noon or so, just west of us, at the west Memphis airport. We got half an inch of ice. Here in Memphis downtown, there is a little bit of ice. It looks like they pretty dodged a bullet in this region.
There's a good 20,000 people that have actually traveled in town, or were expected to, for the marathon. It's supposed to be taking place this morning, so you may actually see a couple of people trying to run by me as they're still running the marathon regardless. One of the concerns is the temperatures. Bone-chilling temperatures with the wind chill in the single digits this morning. They were very concerned about the volunteers and the runners, plus people were trying to commute in during the worst time of the ice storm, and there's a second wave expected tonight. So people are expected to commute out of the area in Memphis, and it looks like the next wave of the ice storm would bend way.
I want to talk about that. Some places here in Memphis did not get half an inch. We talked half an inch of ice, because when you get a half an inch, that's when it becomes crippling to power lines. Those power lines weigh about 500 pounds. But some of them got about a quarter of an inch, and that's key because the second wave that's expected to come in late this afternoon and tonight could add another half an inch, to the half inch that's already there. And so you when you combine those two systems they still have the threat to lose even more power.
Now Memphis alone, about 5,000 people lost power. This morning a much better picture, only about 500 people left without power. But remember it is so cold, so anyone this morning left without power is really struggling in these chilly temperatures, and out towards Dallas, there were 200,000 people without power yesterday, now down to about 100,000. And 4,000 people slept in the terminal thanks to the ice storms, and all of the flight cancellations that occurred and we still the threat with the second wave again today, and just north of us in Arkansas. You talk about places like Little Rock, Ft. Smith, saw from a half inch to over an inch of ice, so crippling to the area. A lot to be concerned with, knowing, yes, we're getting a break, but the second wave is definitely underway.
BLACKWELL: You can certainly buy tires and chains to drive in snow. But in ice --
HARLOW: No, you need to stay off the road.
BLACKWELL: Indra Peterson, thank you.
HARLOW: That ice storm is causing chaos across the Midwest as well in Missouri. Some vehicles got stuck after six inches of snow covered the roads there.
BLACKWELL: In Canton, Ohio, this is what it looked like. This is Friday night. The wintry mix did not stop the high school football players.
HARLOW: Look at them.
BLACKWELL: Students and families still turned out to cheer on the team.
HARLOW: Wow. I'm just, like, amazed by seeing -- it's the first time we've seen those pictures. So we want to know where the storm is heading. Let's bring in meteorologist Jennifer Gray. Are we waning off or is something new coming in?
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're seeing that second wave come on in. There's no way I would have been in those stands watching that football game. That is too cold.
We will see this continue to push to the east. This is looking at the second wave. And this forecast model is for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. And you can see more ice and snow pooling into portions of the east. Looks like this one will be a little bit further to the east. We could see ice and snow in repeat areas that we saw the first system.
But the majority of it is going to be in the east. We could see a half inch of accumulation in places like Washington, D.C. and the ice and snow will work its way up into the northeast. You can expect some slowdowns as we go through Sunday into Monday with half an inch of ice accumulations. So more power outages across portions of Carolinas, into Kentucky, into D.C., and on into the northeast. Guys? HARLOW: Wow. And those frigid temperatures also extending across the northern Midwest, as well. You almost feel guilty being here in Atlanta.
BLACKWELL: Yes, what is it, 67, something like that today?
HARLOW: Yes. But everyone on the roads needs to be careful with the icy roads. It is not good news.
BLACKWELL: Thanks, Jennifer.
HARLOW: Thanks, Jennifer.
BLACKWELL: Let's talk about some money.
HARLOW: Your money, good news, good market.
BLACKWELL: Yes, good news for the jobs report for people looking for jobs -- 203,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month, kicking the unemployment rate down to seven percent, lowest level in five years.
HARLOW: You know, the report also showed the strength in the kind of jobs being added. This is really important. How much are people making? The U.S. saw a big boost in hiring for higher-paying jobs like construction, health care, manufacturing. And our own Alexandra Field tells us how one worker finally was able to get a better job.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF DELORENZO, FLEXLINE EMPLOYEE: It's a big relief, actually getting a paycheck instead of working for minimum wage. I can actually do stuff now.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeff DeLorenzo graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in engineering. He was underemployed for a year serving coffee until he found full time in his field at Flexline, a New Jersey manufacturer.
JEFF SCHEININGER, PRESIDENT, FLEXLINE: We figured there was a great potential there, and an engineering degree, and we grabbed them.
FIELD: Young people like De Lorenzo and the recently unemployed are reaping the benefits of an economy that's adding jobs. The latest jobs report puts the national unemployment rate at a five-year low of seven percent, 203,000 jobs were created in November, and more of them are in higher-paying sectors.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: We saw, you know, the predictable retail jobs and leisure and hospitality, bars and restaurants, because of the holidays, but we also saw things like manufacturing, saw things like business, professional services, again tend to pay a little bit more money. So these were broad-based job gains this months, and that's important.
FIELD: The November jobs report was better than expected. For a third year in a row, more than 2 million jobs have been created. Still, that's not enough to make up for the nine million jobs lost between 2008 and 2009.
Did you think it would be difficult to find a job?
DELORENZO: To be completely honest, no. I thought I was going to be handed a job. I thought people would be asking me to have a job.
FIELD: In the last year, unemployment dropped nearly a full percentage point, but 11 million people are searching for jobs and the long-term unemployed are struggling the most. In some places, people are fighting for work. Wal-Mart opened two stores in Washington D.C. There was 600 job openings and 23,000 job applicants.
ANNALYN KURTZ, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: If you look at that as a rate, that means less than three percent would get hired. Harvard has a higher acceptance rate.
FIELD: Alexandra Field, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Alexandra, thanks for that.
It will be quite a party when Merrill Newman's plane touches down in San Francisco in a few hours. North Korea freed the 85-year-old veteran last night after holding him for more than a month. Authorities pulled him away from his organized tour group on October 26th and accused him of hostile acts. Newman served in the Korean War. North Korean media recently aired what it called Newman's apology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRILL NEWMAN, RELEASED FROM NORTH KOREA: I'm very glad to be on my way home. I appreciate the tolerance that DPRK government has given to me to be on my way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel now?
NEWMAN: Feel good. Feel good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want to do, first thing? First thing, what would you like to do?
NEWMAN: Go home and see my wife.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: I'm sure she's glad to hear that. That was not the apology. That's Newman at an airport in Beijing on his route back to California. Also, another American, Kenneth Bay, he's been held in North Korea for about 13 months. His relatives released a statement this morning. Here's part of it. They say that they're just hoping for a joyous reunion this holiday season.
HARLOW: And saying farewell to a man that many call a moral giant, a figure for the ages. South Africa revealing its plans for a massive state funeral for Nelson Mandela. We'll take you to Johannesburg where thousands have been paying tribute.
BLACKWELL: Plus, the graphic and violent beating of a teenager goes viral online, but here's the question -- should the girl holding the camera -- not the one who threw the punch -- but the girl holding the camera face charges? What about the sites where the video is getting millions of hits? What about people, maybe you, who are boasting it on other sites? Should you face charges, too? We'll have more later this morning on NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, it wasn't that long ago that South Africa was divided by apartheid. Today it is a country united, a country mourning, but also celebrating the life of a very great man, Nelson Mandela.
BLACKWELL: In celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela, who did so much to help end apartheid and bring the country together.
Children dancing in Soweto you see here in tribute to Nelson Mandela. CNN's Robyn Curnow joins us from Johannesburg. There's been a steady stream of visitors. We've seen this, as we're calling it, a wall of flowers and flags and pictures. Robyn, the Mandela family spokesman and his grandson, they're expected to make a statement soon. What do we know about this and why they're making a statement?
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've actually just made the statement as I was coming on air. And essentially, the family wanted to thank everybody -- these people, ordinary South Africans -- who've walked through these suburban streets and come and laid flowers from their gardens, or written a personal message and laid it on that wall over there, which is really just an ordinary police barricade that is now absolutely full of flowers.
They are singing, they are dancing, they're celebrating Nelson Mandela's life. And I think what is very important to the family saying that Nelson Mandela, as everybody knows, treated everybody the same. And he made time for everybody. The family saying, kings and queens, poor and rich, great and small, Nelson Mandela took time to look them in the eye, shake their hand, and say, I see you.
And I think that's -- I watched him over many, many years and I think, for me, that was key, because even the most insignificant person in the room, he would often turn around and go and say hello. And I think for many people here, they each and every one of them feel like he individually, personally touched their lives, and I think that's the extraordinary part of this man, even though he's now gone.
HARLOW: You know what I've noticed a lot of, in just the pictures we're seeing, you're there in person experiencing it, it is the youth, the youth of South Africa that may not have even been born while Nelson Mandela was president that have been told stories of what he did for their country, read the history. What are you seeing in this -- in the youth movement, and the youth response there?
CURNOW: I think there is a real sense that South Africa's youngsters -- of course, remember, Nelson Mandela was absolutely passionate about education, and he had a great affinity with children, because, remember, 27 years in prison, he hardly saw a child. And it was the one thing he said he really missed was the touch of a child. So he paid a lot of attention to the youth.
And as you say, democracy here in South Africa, the anniversary of those first democratic elections is next year, it was 20 years ago. So a lot of people, a lot of these people here didn't know apartheid, didn't know about the feel, the indignities of it, but they still know that Nelson Mandela made sacrifices for them. And the key is -- and he was very, very passionate about it -- he wanted his legacy to live on way after he had gone. And he did that by saying, "You can be like me in a small way. It's not hard to be Nelson Mandela. Just pay attention to the people close to you and keep on trying hard and never give up." And I think that in a way is his legacy.
HARLOW: And they are living his legacy out. Robin, thank you. Appreciate it.
CURNOW: OK.
BLACKWELL: One of the icons of New York honored Nelson Mandela last night. Look at this. The top of the Empire State Building --
HARLOW: Right.
CURNOW: -- lit up green, yellow, blue, red, the color of the South African flag, and nearby at the South African consulate --
HARLOW: There it is.
CURNOW: -- there it is, mourners laid the flowers and tributes to Mandela.
HARLOW: Beautiful sight.
All right, still to come -- huge day in college football as some of the nation's top teams get ready to face off.
BLACKWELL: Yes. And our very own Joe Carter is right outside the Georgia Dome where the big Auburn-Missouri game will kick off.
JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, guys, and I can tell you I'm looking forward it to being inside, because it is definitely cold here in Atlanta. But a huge day for college football. We've got a bunch of match-ups, obviously with national championship implications. We'll get into the scenarios and how it will all break down tonight. We'll do that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: It is a huge Saturday in college football. I'm glad the games aren't on right now because I don't think anyone would be watching us.
BLACKWELL: That's right, it is a big day. We have a few conference championship games today that will determine which schools get to move on to the BCS national championship next month. We've got meteorologist Jennifer Gray here, a big college sports fan with us. Joe Carter, live outside the Georgia dome where the big Auburn- Missouri game kicks off later today. Joe, I'm glad we've got you, and we've got Jennifer here at the same time, because a moment ago you were whining about the temperature. It's 41 degrees, we learned from Jennifer. Minot, North Dakota, 41 below.
GRAY: That's the wind chill.
CHETRY: They're laughing at you right now, Joe Carter. Yes, exactly.
CARTER: My producer affectionately told me to man up.
Today the game between Auburn and Missouri is going to be inside, a nice, cozy 71 when kickoff is at around 4:00 p.m. eastern. But really, we have three games today that have national championship implications. Of course, the first being number three Auburn against number five Missouri. And that game is going to be at 4:00 p.m. eastern. Really, people are looking at Auburn as the team of destiny, they're calling them. You know, they had two last-second wins to end the regular season, one against Georgia, and who could forget the win against Alabama?
And then you have Missouri. They've only lost one game this year, and it was a loss to South Carolina in double overtime. But both of the schools, whoever ends up winning the SEC championship game will be looking to the games tonight, because they're going to need either Florida State to lose or Ohio State to lose in order to get into the national championship game.
And then you have the ACC game, of course, number one Florida State against number 20 Duke. Duke no longer just a basketball school. But FSU comes into this game a 30-point favorite. Obviously, people are looking at FSU as being the most dominant team in college football. If FSU wins, it's simple. They're in the national championship game. If Duke wins, if they somehow pull off the biggest upset of the year, that would mean the SEC champ would slide into the national championship game.
And then you've got at 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight, the same time as the SEC championship, you have the Big Ten championship game. And if number two Ohio State wins, it's simple, they're in the national championship as well. I think this game against Michigan State is the most probable game for an upset here, guys. I'm calling it now, Michigan State potentially upsets Ohio State in this game, and that would open the door wide open for the SEC champ to get in.
But you know, when you talk about the SEC, the conference of college football, think of this -- if Florida State loses somehow tonight, and if Ohio State somehow loses tonight, that opens the door for Alabama to get into the national championship game, to play the SEC champs. So how about that scenario, Alabama after losing, still in the picture for a possible spot in the national championship game, guys?
HARLOW: Wow. I mean, can we go through all of that again?
(LAUGHTER)
HARLOW: That's crazy. The one thing is, Joe, and you know, in college football, anything can happen. It's just like we saw last week with Auburn and Alabama. Who'd of thought?
CARTER: I think, you know, definitely the best game, the best match- up is Auburn and Missouri. I think Missouri comes into the game with a great defense. Auburn, obviously, two emotional wins with them. But watch out for Michigan State. I think they could change the landscape of what happens today. And obviously, this is the last year we're going to have the BCS determine who's going to go to the national championship. So after this year, it will go down to a four- team playoff, something that a lot of college football fans have been very much waiting for, but this is the last year the computer will pick who will be in the big game.
HARLOW: And you know our Nischelle Turner did not like it when we were rooting for Auburn. We got tweets about that. None of them is my team, so I'll jump to your camp.
BLACKWELL: The Twitter trash-talking has begun already, before the game. Joe Carter, thank you.
HARLOW: Thank you, Joe.
BLACKWELL: Here's a message from speaker John Boehner -- be more sensitive. He's talking to his fellow Republicans about certain candidates.
HARLOW: That's right. We're going to explain straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back, everyone, I'm Poppy Harlow.
BLACKWELL: And I'm Victor Blackwell. Here are some stories making headlines this morning.
Number one, a winter storm has claimed another life. CNN affiliate WFAA reports one person was killed after driving a pickup truck off a bridge in Texas. Four other deaths are blamed on the storm that coated the south with ice and snow. Look at these pictures. The storm is also snarling air travel, more than 4,000 cancellations. The governors of Tennessee and Arkansas have declared states of emergency.
HARLOW: Number two, Korean War veteran Merrill Newman will be back soon with his family in California. North Korea freed him, surprisingly, last night after holding him for more than a month for quote/unquote "hostile acts." Newman's release came after North Korean television aired what it called his apology.
BLACKWELL: Number three now, crowds singing in tribute to Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Ten days of mourning are under way following Mandela's death Thursday night. He was 95 years old. Mr. Mandela's body is being prepared now for his lying in state. That will happen late they are week. On Tuesday, there will be an official memorial service. Then there will be a state funeral on Sunday in the village where he grew up.
HARLOW: Number four, Mexican police have recovered stolen radioactive material and are grilling six men who may be connected to the theft. The men tested negative for any poisoning from that material. They're now in police custody. Mexican authorities say they've recovered all of the lost cobalt-60 material, but they've been tight-lipped about whether they've made any arrests in the broader case.
BLACKWELL: Services will be held today in Hawaii to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Lots of veterans and survivors are angry that the traditional missing-man flyover, you saw one there, has been cancelled this year because of military budget constraints.
Blockbuster jobs report for November.
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: And it could not have come at a better time really for President Obama. He's not had a lot of good news lately.
HARLOW: No, not at all. Let's give you the numbers. I was certainly surprised when these came out. The U.S. economy adding 203,000 jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate down pretty significantly to seven percent. That is the lowest unemployment rate we've seen since 2008, the depths of the recession.
BLACKWELL: Let's look at these job number through a political lens, though, with political Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and CNN political commentator. She's joined by conservative host Amy Holmes, "Hot List" anchor at TheBlaze.com. Ladies, good morning, I want to jump into it, because we never have enough time for the segment.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: I want to look at the way people are experiencing the economy, and there's a CNN/ORC poll, 24 percent believe that the economy is improving, 39 percent believe the country is still in a downturn. And then when you break it apart by age, 34 percent of people under 50 say we're still headed in a downturn, 45 percent of people over 50 say we're headed in a downturn.
Let's go with you, Amy. Why are people not feeling these good numbers? And why are older Americans feeling them worse? I mean, why is it a worse experience for them?
AMY HOLMES, HOST, "THE HOT LIST": The generational question is an interesting one when you consider that young people have been having such a tough time finding jobs in an anemic job market for the past five years. But as to why so many Americans feel like the economy is going in the wrong direction is because of five years of experience.
Now, while these numbers should make us cautiously optimistic, GDP growth was 3.6 percent, but that's still very slow. We've had one of the slowest, worst economic recoveries in American history, and I think people are really feeling that. And I think Maria could speak to this as well, the economic uncertainty that if you're 50 and you've been going through this and you're thinking about the retirement, what will you retire on?
HARLOW: And it's a very, very important point, and the data shows us that we're seeing more and more people over 25 years old taking those really entry-level jobs, those minimum wage jobs, those $9 an hour, even over minimum wage jobs, and we're seeing that happen. When you look at the numbers, the headlines are great, the market rebounded yesterday on it. You still have 11 million unemployed Americans, 4.1 million have been out of work six months or longer. And the longer you're out of work, the harder it is to find a job. So, yes, I think this a good headline for the president. But I want you to weigh in on this, Maria, because we have a huge jobs problem. This isn't tackled. It's not over.
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: There's no question about that. And the jobs number is certainly good for the president. What's ironic is his socialist policies have clearly helped the job market and have helped all of the economic indicators.
HOLMES: Hold on, Maria, did you just call the policies socialist?
CROWLEY: I was being ironic.
HOLMES: I appreciate your candor.
CROWLEY: But isn't it ironic that his socialist policies have been so helpful to all of the economic indicators and actually have not helped those who need the most, which are the poorest? And it's interesting, and I say that ironically - and it's interesting, because this is an issue, and I know we're going to talk about this, that the president feels very strongly about, which is income inequality. And I think this is where all of those feelings and all of those polls really come out.
The seniors and the older folks have this huge hangover from the recession that we experienced in 2008, which was the worst since the great depression. And this president did a fantastic job of making sure that we did not spiral into a great depression, and he has slowly been talking us out of it, and we are now seeing the benefits of that.
But the benefits that will actually then go to everyone are slower, and we need to do something about that. Because from 1978 to 2011, CEO pay jumped 726 percent. Worker compensation in that same time jumped 5.7 percent. This is a problem.
HARLOW: I want Amy to jump in quick on this before we get to the final topic. Amy, you also have a Federal Reserve that's been pumping up this economy for years.
HOLMES: Exactly.
HARLOW: And it will have to pull back.
HOLMES: But that's exactly right. And Federal Reserve policy is part of what has been driving the stock market. You have the housing collapse and now you have the fed buying up all of these securities, so that's where you would put your money. You certainly wouldn't put it in the housing market. And we've seen very poor business investment. In fact, that's down, in terms of business reinvesting in themselves.
But I'd like to go back to Maria's point, what do you point to as being the reason for the numbers today? President Obama himself admitted to "The New York Times" that there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs. That's something he discovered and part of why the stimulus was such a failure.
Secondly, you have housing prices that still have not rebounded, and I think that's part of what's affecting seniors. But thirdly, I'd like to point out, that if you are cheering on these numbers, well then, it looks like sequestration, those budget cuts that we were told would be doomsday, that didn't come to pass, and maybe we need more of it.
BLACKWELL: Amy, let me get to you -- I have to get in John Boehner this weekend. His request, or his advice, to some fellow Republicans they should be more, quote, "sensitive" when talking to or about women, and supportive of gay candidates. I mean, is it not indicative -- I mean, if you have to instruct fellow Republicans to be "sensitive to women" and when speaking to women, that there's a disconnect there aside from possibly being a little condescending?
HOLMES: Well, I think we saw in this last election cycle there are a couple of candidates who had some rather exotic ideas about, say, conception, and I think the Republican Party, they really suffered from that, and John Boehner doesn't want to see that happening again.
What I think is really more interesting about his remarks is that it seems that he is trying to move the GOP, I would say, forward in terms of gay rights, and when it comes to gay issues. And I think that this is a good step, a positive step for the GOP, moving into 2014.
BLACKWELL: What about that, Maria?
CARDONA: It's a huge baby step, because it is so much more than just rhetoric that they need to fix. And they certainly need to fix the rhetoric. They need to fix their policies. When you're looking at women, when you're looking at the LGBT community, when you're looking at Latinos, when you're looking at the diverse communities, when you're looking at the poor, the Republican Party has no idea how to talk to this diverse group of people that, frankly, make up the new face of this country. That's why they did such a horrible job in the presidential election, and I think they need to go -- move forward in terms of changing the way they talk, but they also need to change their basic policies. And until they do that, they're not going to connect with this new diverse coalition of voters that they need to get more of if they're ever going to reach the White House.
BLACKWELL: Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator, Amy Holmes, "Hot List" anchor at TheBlaze.com, good to have both of you this morning to talk politics.
HARLOW: That'll wake you up on a Saturday morning. A lively debate. Thank you, ladies. Appreciate it.
Still to come up on the Newsroom, the graphic and violent beating of a teen, this is a very disturbing video that goes viral online.
BLACKWELL: Maybe you've heard the name, Sharkeisha, but should the girl holding the camera get charges? And what about the sites where the video is getting millions of hits? We'll have more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: A blindsided blow to the face, a violent kick to the head, and a smartphone -- apparently, that's the recipe for a viral video. We want you to watch this disturbing attack known as the "Sharkeisha Fight Tape." Listen, I want to tell you, if you have kids in the room, you want to make a decision right now if you want them to see this. But millions and millions of people have watched it since it's been uploaded. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what you did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ooh. Oh, my god. Sharkeisha! Hold on. Sharkeisha, no don't -- don't kick her, Sharkeisha! Don't kick her! No, don't kick her! No. Oh, my god.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Unbelievable. The girl, 17-year-old, she got sucker- punched and then beaten. The girl's face has been blurred -- both of the faces have been blurred to protect their identity. We do want to tell you that although she was injured, the girl, her injuries weren't as bad as you'd imagine they'd be after she was kicked in the face. Defense attorney Tanya Miller joins us with more. We're not releasing -- first, good to have you here.
TANYA MILLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good to be here, Victor.
BLACKWELL: We're not releasing the name of the victim. But the girl's mother believes that in a way she is being victimized every time this video is uploaded, every time the video is watched again. The legal question, should the girl who uploaded it, or the person who uploaded it, face charges, or can she face charges?
MILLER: Yes, that is an interesting question. And I think the answer is going to be very fact-intensive. Investigators are going to have to find out whether or not the girl who uploaded the video can be considered under Texas law a party to the crime or an accessory to the crime. And it's not difficult to be an accessory to the crime. All she has to do is encourage it. So if that young lady who's videotaping it -- there's evidence that she encouraged the assault -- she can be charged for assault, as well.
BLACKWELL: Now, even if she doesn't say, "We're going to make sure this gets online or gets on a Worldstarhiphop.com," if she holds the camera, and that's implicit enough in a way to encourage the girl to punch, that's still worth -- can be charged?
MILLER: I think it's going to go beyond that. If I were investigating this case, I would look at her behavior before. Is there evidence that they talked about this before it actually happened? Are there text messages, e-mails, anything that would show that these girls were in on it together, they planned it together? I mean, did she just so happen to have the video phone out at the moment that this happened? Is that a coincidence, or was she expecting it to happen? And if she encouraged it in any way, she can charged as an accessory.
BLACKWELL: The victim's mother spoke with our affiliate KHOU, and I want to play what she said about the video being uploaded and watched.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in the grocery, and the late girl was checking out my groceries, and the baggers were just laughing and talking about it. And I said, that's my daughter in that video.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Yes, and after that, their facial expressions changed, she says. What about the people who upload this or pass it on to another website? Is there some criminal charge or something for them?
MILLER: Well, that gets to be a little bit more tricky. I mean, I don't think that there's going to be a criminal charge for uploading a video to a website. There's nothing illegal about that per se. The question really will become whether or not there's some civil liability for the person who uploads it. I mean, can that person by doing that be considered to have inflicted emotional distress on the victim in this case? Again, it's going to be fact-intensive, and a lawyer will really have to investigate the facts to see if they would support that.
BLACKWELL: There've been a lot of cases of cyber bullying where, you know, directly one person goes after another online. But even uploading this, could this be considered, even if there aren't criminal charges, a case of cyber bullying?
MILLER: Well, it certainly looks like cyber bullying. But typically when you have a cyber-bullying situation, there are people who are aggressively going after an individual online. It doesn't seem like they went after this victim online. They just uploaded the video for everyone to see. So I think there'll be dicey legal issues in there, but that's really a good question.
BLACKWELL: Some of the websites, the video-sharing websites, YouTube, Twitter, have taken it down, but it's gotten more than almost 20 million views --
MILLER: Right.
BLACKWELL: -- on one website. Is there anything this mother can do to protect her daughter?
MILLER: I think she's doing what she can do at this point. I mean, what she needs to do is go to every website that she could find and ask them to take this video down. I mean, these sites can't be held criminally or civilly responsible for information that people upload to their site.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
MILLER: But once she lets them know and puts them on notice, they do have to take action in conformity with their own policies. So she has to be vigilant, perhaps consider hiring an attorney to assist her in that regard. But it's really, really a sad case for her and this young girl, because once things get out there on the Internet, it is so hard to rein it back in.
BLACKWELL: And an interesting legal ground now, who is actually the bully? Aside from one punch, is she being punched another 18 million times? Defense attorney Tanya Miller, thank you for talking about it.
MILLER: Thanks, Victor.
BLACKWELL: It's like sleek, hip, Poppy?
HARLOW: I'll read it to you. I was so busy listening to your conversation. Very interesting interview there. Thank you for that.
Coming up in the Newsroom, it's sleek and hip like the image automakers want to portray the new Mustang. We'll show it to you, part of the big three's Motown revival, our special guest here in studio. Look at those wheels! We're going to have it all straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, it has been five years, but the federal government is about to exit the auto business altogether. It is planning to sell its last shares in General Motors by the end of the year. You know, that government bailout in 2008 saved GM and Chrysler from nearly going out of business. All three American automakers are profitable now. Sales appear headed for their best years since the recession began. How about that?
So how much of that can be attributed to the quality of the cars coming out of Detroit? Is that what it's all about? And how much of it is because of all of the cuts that they made through bankruptcy and help from the government? Let's bring in a woman who knows a whole lot about this, Jean Jennings, the president and editor in chief of "Automobile" magazine. Thank you for coming in. We appreciate it.
JEAN JENNINGS, PRESIDENT AND EDITOR IN CHIEF, "AUTOMOBILE" MAGAZINE: Nice to be here.
HARLOW: Let's talk first about quality. It was always the Japanese automakers that killed us on quality for a long time, and that's turning around.
JENNINGS: Yes, it's kind of like the secret to living a long life. You have to keep breathing.
HARLOW: Right.
JENNINGS: So, you know, the secret to quality is you can't break. And if you break, it has to be fixed forever, not be a constant problem, which in the past happened all the time, which meant design flaws. So they had been working on this for some time before the bottom fell out of the market.
HARLOW: Right.
JENNINGS: So it sort of got put on hold in people's minds, if you understand what I mean.
HARLOW: I do.
JENNINGS: We have come a long, long, long way.
HARLOW: Let's look at the big three, right? Detroit, General Motors, first of all. I mean, you've got the new -- you know, you've got some amazing quality in terms of cars coming out of General Motors, in places where they couldn't compete before. What stands out to you for GM?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. There's a couple of cool cars. I like the Cruise diesel, the Cruise diesel, because it's really fun. It's fun for a small car. And it seems pretty good. The basic car is maybe having a little -- a few little problems. But at the top of the food chain is always trucks, though, always trucks.
HARLOW: That's the bread and butter.
JENNINGS: Not only the most popular cars for sale in America, vehicles for America, but really built on a good foundation. So in general motors, the Silverado and the sierra, and let me just say GMC and Buick are the only automobile manufacturers from Detroit above the zero average defect mark, all the rest, the Japanese. And Mercedes- Benz is at the zero mark.
HARLOW: Wow.
JENNINGS: You know that something's happening when Buick and GMC --
HARLOW: And Chrysler, under Sergio Marchionne, has had this astounding turnaround as well, waiting for that IPO to happen. Chrysler 300, the new Grand Cherokee?
JENNINGS: I always go to the truck again.
HARLOW: Sure.
JENNINGS: The Dodge 1,500.
HARLOW: Really?
JENNINGS: Absolutely. Fantastic. Just named "Motor Trend's" truck of the year. And the jeep Grand Cherokee, everything has a little problem here and there, and they're typically electronics. So I personally like to drive the jeep Grand Cherokee.
HARLOW: Right.
JENNINGS: But across the board, all manufacturers are having some problems with electronics that keep them back.
HARLOW: Interesting.
JENNINGS: So Mustang.
HARLOW: Ford, yes.
JENNINGS: Mustang. Just released, just released, that car is a solid winner, absolutely fantastic.
HARLOW: I think a lot of people look at these companies and they said, made in Detroit, but Detroit's in bankruptcy. What about the irony there? The fact is the factories aren't in Detroit. They're all over the world. They're headquartered there, but it's not enough to bring that city back.
JENNINGS: Well, you know what will bring the manufacturing back is a complete reliance on quality and absolute dedication to quality, and design, as well. A lot of the resurgence is because of technology that has come on board.
HARLOW: Right.
JENNINGS: Pent-up demand. Americans haven't really been in the market for about a decade. When they get in the market, they can go and find fantastic cars for all -- from all of the Detroit manufacturers.
HARLOW: Sure. Sure. It's a great thing to see for this country and this industry, absolutely.
JENNINGS: It is.
HARLOW: Thank you for coming in.
JENNINGS: Nice to be here.
HARLOW: Nice to have you in the studio. We appreciate it. Jean Jennings president and editor in chief of "Automobile" magazine. Thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: Still to come, Michael Morton spent 25 years behind bars for killing his wife, except he didn't do it, and no one believed him. We'll have his story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: He was convicted of murdering his wife and spent 25 years in a Texas prison for the crime. But Michael Morton was innocent.
HARLOW: It is a story you have to see to believe, and the subject of a new CNN documentary called "Unreal Dream."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MORTON, MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED: I am probably the personification of the old axiom you remember from school, about you can't prove a negative. How do you prove you didn't do something?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: How rough was it inside?
MORTON: I never liked it, but I got used to it.
CUOMO: How long did it take you?
MORTON: Probably 14 or 15 years.
CUOMO: Fourteen or 15 years?
MORTON: To get where I was used to it.
CUOMO: Are the first years the hardest?
MORTON: The first years are hard just because it's a shock and it's new, and it's constant adjustment, constant recalibration.
CUOMO: You say "I always thought that I would get out." What fuelled the hope?
MORTON: It's difficult for me to say whether it was just faith that I knew I was right and I wasn't guilty, that this would work out, or just that I didn't know how deep I was in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Wow. What a story. You can catch "The Unreal Dream, The Michael Morton Story" right here, the premier here on CNN, tomorrow night, 9:00 eastern.
BLACKWELL: Wow. That'll do it for us. Thanks for watching.
HARLOW: And thanks so much for being with us.
BLACKWELL: Keep it right here, because there's much more ahead in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you all. All right, we have a lot ahead. I guess you're passing the baton.
HARLOW: Yes, take it away.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.
