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New Day

New Senate Targets Obamacare; President Stays on the Immigration Offensive; North Carolina Officer Indicted by Second Grand Jury; Interview with Jonathan Ferrell's Parents; "Videos Gone Viral" Preview

Aired December 09, 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": Let's start with, today at home, if you've ever wondered what it's like to be a pinata, watch the House of Representatives today because Jonathan Gruber, you may not know that name -- if you follow health care policy, maybe you do. He's an economist; he's noted in both camps (ph) for being a relatively brilliant economist when it comes to health are nubmers. But he's going to be in the chair at a House committee hearing today because he had said a number of things that Republicans believe A) prove he's arrogant, and B) that they hope helps them in their efforts, going on for several years now, to repeal Obamacare.

First, a refresher course. Here's Jonathan Gruber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GRUBER, MIT ECONOMIC PROFESSOR: What if we instead just leveraged (ph) 40 percent tax on the insurance companies that sell these terrible, expensive Cadillac plans? Well, he said, well, that's pretty much the same thing. Why does it matter? You'll see. (INAUDIBLE) pass because the American public is too stupid to understand the difference.

Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get anything to pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Don't normally give advice in this segment. One piece of advice to Jonathan Gruber, if you think the American people, voters are stupid? Keep that to yourself. Don't speak out publicly about that because they are anything but the voters.

What's the meaning of this? He'll be before the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee. The Republicans say that this proves that the Obama administration knew some of the things they were publicly saying about the health care law weren't true, kind of a shell game is what the Republicans are trying to argue.

When you call voters stupid, I guess you deserve a hearing like this to get your side of it. But is it going to do anything to change the law? JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I don't think so I think it will be public flogging of Jonathan Gruber. It's one of Issa's last hearings as chairman before he passes the torch over to Jason Chaffetz.

But I don't think what could change the law is the Supreme Court ruling over whether states with federal exchanges, whether that's legal, whether they should be getting those subsidies.

That could change it. I don't think anything that Jonathan Gruber says or does in this hearing really moves the needle there.

KING: And so they hope to just flog him and get him to say sorry?

OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO! NEWS: Whenever you call the American voters stupid on camera, you're going to get yours. It's going to be more interesting to watch the president sitting next to him on a different panel who actually runs the enrollment and the implementation of Obamacare.

We're going to hear a lot more substantive questions coming. Obviously they're looking to tar her with his unfortunate comments. It will be interesting to hear them ask about are these enrollment numbers for real.

KING: And the question for the Republicans is they made another promise in the last campaign to try to repeal Obamacare. So whether you agree with that or disagree, we fully expect them to try to keep that promise.

Mitch McConnell will be the majority leader in the Senate. I want to listen to an interview with CNN where he is talking about his strategy, he believes he can still ultimately find the votes, if not to repeal it, Mitch McConnell says he'll go to plan B, to change some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), INCOMING MAJORITY LEADER: He obviously has doubled down on defending Obamacare. We think it's a terrible piece of legislation. We're going to be voting on that if we can put either repeal or take out pieces of it like, you know, destroying the 40-hour work week, the medical device tax, and the individual mandate.

All of these are highly unpopular with the American people. We'll be voting on things I know he's not going do like. I hope we can put them on his desk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's the last part. I hope we can put them on his desk. There's a story in "Politico" this morning, McConnell aides say it's not so much new, but again they're talking about now that they'll be in the majority.

Can they use the budget rule to get some of this stuff through with majority votes supposed needing 60 votes? But how much of repealing or gutting or taking pieces out, pick your phrase of Obamacare can Mitch McConnell actually get? He'll have 54 seats, not 60. You need 60 votes to do most things. How much of that could they actually send to the president?

KUCINICH: If this was the board game, the end would be go to jail every time. It's going to get vetoed every single time there is a change as long as Obama is in office.

KNOX: There are little pieces that they could probably get to the president's desk with Democratic support that the president might sign. The medical device tax actually is one of those.

There are small pieces of this that could get to the president. That could make changes to Obamacare. But at the end of the day, it always lands on the president's desk and they don't have votes to override his veto.

KING: But the president is going to be on the road today in Tennessee and he is going to be talking publicly about why he decided to take sweeping executive action when it comes to immigration. He's going to say I gave the Republicans a chance.

They didn't act. Here's why I did what I did. Here's why it's good for the economy. Back here in Washington, you have this conservative anger, to the degree that some conservatives say don't fund the government at all.

Don't give the president any money to implement these policies. The president publicly I think proves to me that he thinks politically he's got the upper hand here.

KUCINICH: Nashville is an interesting place where he's doing the speech. It has one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the country. I think there's concern on Capitol Hill that the speech might sort of inflame tensions that are there and it could lead to problems passing a bill.

But I think he's still trying to get the upper hand, but he has the Republican Congress to deal with now so it's hard to think he's going to get a lot done in the next two years.

KING: But to Jackie's point, Olivier, is the president doing this deliberately? He knows when he talks about this publicly. It's a deliberate White House strategy. They are trying to bait the internal Republican civil war. They enjoy it when the Republicans are fighting amongst themselves.

KNOX: Yes, doing it deliberately, absolutely. He's making -- keeping this on the agenda, front and center. He could have let the Republican keep talking about it. Keep squabbling. Trying to find a path town do undo some of what he did instead he is going to a place where the foreign-born population has doubled in the last ten years.

He's going to be a community center, talking and taking questions about his policy. To some degree this reflects how much Washington, D.C. has turned towards 2016 and the political pressures that are going to be in play then including political pressures over immigration.

KING: All right, we'll watch that play out. I think it will play out globally in the 2016 election. Particularly in those Republican debates going to be fun to watch especially if certain candidates who favor almost what the president wants.

Get into the rights on the Republicans side. On the short-term it's one of the flashpoints and we are speaking on Tuesday morning, by Thursday is the deadline to keep the government running.

The Congress, the House and the Senate would have to pass something and as always once you get inside the 48-hour window, they're saying maybe we'll have to do something temporarily for a day or two, as opposed to voting or doing their jobs.

Immigration or other things, sometimes other things get attached to the spending bills because you know it's going to pass and get to the president. If you've got a pet project or idea, some of these things are important.

Some things are important, the government has to fix a hole in this policy or fund this policy. How much will the superfluous stuff or the non-spending related stuff maybe delay this train?

KUCINICH: That's what's so interesting. It's really not about spending this time. It's about some changes the House Republicans are trying to make to Dodd-Frank, the terrorism financial reform bill -- through terrorism insurance.

So I think they're going to work things out. I really think that they're not going to shut down the government. Neither leader wants that to happen right before Christmas. So over the holidays, I think they get it worked out. Maybe it will take a day or two.

KNOX: Watch the Senate, House could be expected to move this along quickly. The Senate is where they'll need to get some kind of an agreement between Democrats and Republicans to move this quickly. They could be forced to pass something short-term in order to make the debate possible.

KING: Olivier, Jackie, thanks for coming in. As we get back to you guys in New York, we just showed the Royals up in New York at the Barclays Center for the Nets game last night. But Prince William was here in the oval office to see President Obama and Conan O'Brien having a little fun here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, TV HOST: This morning, President Obama met with Britain's Prince William in the oval office, big story, yes. They met, yes. It was a meeting between a symbolic ruler with no real power and the future king of England. So --

(END VIDEO CLIP) ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Insightful.

KING: Fun, fun, humor.

CAMEROTA: That's great, John King. We love the motif, the royal motif throughout all Inside Politics, nicely done.

KING: As long as we can do it.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

All right, as protests rage nationwide over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, one family in North Carolina is a step closer to justice. We'll speak with the parents of Jonathan Ferrell, whose killer now faces charges after initially having no indictment returned against him.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We are -- we've shown you plenty of viral videos, but have you ever wondered what happens after the camera goes dark? There's a new CNN documentary that explores exactly that. It is a must-watch. We got a preview for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Outrage continues across the country after two grand juries declined to indict police officers in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. One family, who can relate to the pain are the parents of Jonathan Ferrell.

In 2013, Ferrell was shot ten times by a Charlotte police officer after he crashed his car and knocked on a stranger's door for help. Prosecutors brought the case to a grand jury last year, which declined to indict the officer.

But in this case, the state's attorney general resubmitted the case to a different grand jury, and the officer was charged with voluntarily manslaughter.

Jonathan Ferrell's mother and brother, Georgia and Willie Ferrell join us live this morning from Tallahassee, Florida. It's great to see both of you.

Welcome to NEW DAY. Georgia, I want to start with you. This happened because of a minor car accident that your son got into and he was looking for help. It was the middle of the night and he rang a woman's doorbell. She was home alone with her young child.

She called 9/11 and when the police arrived, they thought that your son was a perpetrator of some kind and shot him ten times. What, what was your experience with the first grand jury when they did not indict the officer?

GEORGIA FERRELL, JONATHAN FERRELL'S MOTHER: Well, my experience was that they are only people and the way I see it, I trust God more than I do what man say. And I don't leave everything to my own understanding. I pray about everything and I know that god that I serve, that I serve, would not let him get away with that. That he would be indicted.

CAMEROTA: And in fact, that's what happened in your case. Because the grand jury recommended that the prosecutor resubmit the case, but for a lower charge, and the prosecutor and the attorney general in the state declined to do that. They got a new grand jury with the same facts and sure enough, you got an indictment. Willie, what was that day like?

WILLIE FERRELL, JONATHAN'S FERRELL'S BROTHER: The same as my mother's, when I first heard about it, it was I guess it wasn't something I was going to worry about because I put my faith and trust in God.

But when he did get indicted, it was something I already knew was going to happen. So I just continued to do what I do, pray and keep the faith and wait on everything to happen.

CAMEROTA: Georgia, have you been watching the case here in New York, of Eric Garner?

GEORGIA FERRELL: Yes, I have, off and on, yes.

CAMEROTA: And what can you say to his family that is feeling so disappointed and frustrated with the grand jury process?

GEORGIA FERRELL: Don't give up. Don't lose faith nor hope because just keep praying, peacefully. I mean just depend on God. It will work out. Stand for what you believe in. We don't want to see anyone's life taken this way.

CAMEROTA: Willie, what has it been like to relive this personal experience through the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases in the media?

WILLIE FERRELL: With the media, it's not something that's really good, but I relive this story every day when I wake up, when I want to text my brother and I see something new that I want to share with him.

Seeing it on ESPN, CNN all the different news channels, with all the other things that's going on, it's not something that is really, really good. And I hope that everybody do come out well and continue to keep the faith and pray and stay strong and learn to forgive. When you forgive, when you forgive somebody, everything turns out a lot better.

CAMEROTA: Georgia, what's happening now with the trial of the officer in your son's case?

GEORGIA FERRELL: Well, it's working. They are currently working on a case. And everything is working out. I'm sure they have set a trial update and things going to work out for the good.

CAMEROTA: You believe that you'll get justice?

GEORGIA FERRELL: I believe I'll get justice, yes, I do. CAMEROTA: Georgia, you also said something touching about the pain that Michael Brown's family was going through. You said things happen for a reason. What does that mean?

GEORGIA FERRELL: It always does. Well, it's time to stop the killing, we all created equal. And we can't just say that just put a person's life in our hands. We don't have life to give. So we need, the world need to see, there need to be a change. There need to be a change. We all are people.

CAMEROTA: Yes, and maybe as a result of all of these cases and your pain, that there will be change somehow in the grand jury system or with this national conversation that we're having. Georgia and Willie Ferrell, best of luck, thank you so much for joining us on NEW DAY.

WILLIE FERRELL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: The case of their brother and son was very compelling. We've been on it from the beginning and we'll stay on it to be sure. We want to talk to you this morning about viral videos, as we know they just dominate the culture now, right.

What makes a clip go viral? And who are the people behind the cameras when this happens? CNN explores those questions and more in a new documentary, we have a preview for you, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. CNN's documentary team is taking you behind the scenes of some of the most popular YouTube dash cam and surveillance videos that hit the worldwide web.

This special is called "VIDEOS GONE VIRAL" premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and pacific on CNN. I want to show you this clip in which the documentary team interviews two Tampa police helicopter pilots about their amazing rescue of a pilot from a burning plane.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an amazing act, the professional with which they reacted in an emergency situation probably saved the life of that pilot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We handle anything that supports patrol, so if it's a vehicle pursuit, if it's a fleeing suspect, those are our average calls that we respond to. I'm Dave Dennison, a pilot with the Tampa Police Department.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Bryan Gentree, a tactical flight officer, city of Tampa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It started off as a routine night. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were on patrol. I heard over the Tampa International control tower a pilot that sounded like he was in distress.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: 800, I'm going to need runway 1-0. I've lost pressure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if I or he said that, we need to get that. We were going 160 miles to get to the call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We located the airplane on our fleer camera system. It's just a small white light as it gets closer you can start to discern more that it's an aircraft.

At first he looked like he'd make it and his speed degraded. You could tell he was going to come up short. He missed the runway. We didn't know he was going to crash into the retention pond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once we were on scene as I told I'm putting you on the ground, that's when Brian exits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the pilot's side, wasn't able to open the door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He almost forcefully removed the door. Pretty neat seeing my partner drag the pilot out of it and getting reports from the hospital he was live and being treated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very rare getting that on video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it allows people who don't necessarily see inside our daily operations what occurs and what we do on a nightly basis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Wow. That's something else. Investigative correspondent, Kyra Phillips, shows us more about the documentary and the video. You learned more about the pilot since then?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Michaela, first of all, we wanted to do this hour because how many times do you wonder what's the rest of the story, like the Paul Harvey hour, right?

What happened to the person? Did that person survive? Did that person become a hero? That's what we did. It's amazing this pilot survived, because the officer had to, Michaela, pull that door off.

It was totally jammed and if you saw video of the plane, we saw it after the crash, I mean, it is amazing that mark love, the pilot, survived. This is actually the plane. It happened to be there at the airport, and I say could you take me inside and show me.

And the dashboard, you can see it's crunched up that seat. When he pulled him out, Michaela, I saw his hand go into Mark Love's mouth. I said what were you doing? He said I was pulling out all his teeth. I didn't want him to choke. It's phenomenal that he's in recovery. Hopefully they'll have a reunion in the next couple of months.

PEREIRA: It's important when we see viral videos they're not just cool videos, they're people and lives that are behind the stories. Speaking of, I understand somebody in your own family might have gone viral. What happened here? Explain to me?

PHILLIPS: You know, I love to brag about my twins. OK, I don't know if it went viral, but it sure got a lot of likes. Meet my 3-year-old son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Keep your eye on the ball, Sweetie pie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Right in the kisser.

PHILLIPS: Here's the best part, Michaela, he's swinging at it four times and I'm thinking he's not going to make contact.

PEREIRA: Nailed it.

PHILLIPS: That's how he's going to pay for college.

PEREIRA: Exactly and didn't break your nose or any of your teeth. WE appreciate that. Kyra, always a delight to have you with us. Thanks for joining us. "Videos Gone Viral" airs tonight 9:00 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. Be sure to tune in -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Michaela, it looks like it is must see.

In three hours, the U.S. will release the CIA's torture report. Army bases and diplomatic facilities now on heightened alert. We have a live report ahead for you.

CUOMO: Plus new details emerging in a deadly Maryland plane crash, the chilling moment when the control tower realizes something is seriously wrong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)